Naturally, Sir Mellen originally intended to finally guide a proper tour across the city, most likely hoping to somehow culture this depraved hero that was me. I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it thought. Now that I had the solution to my problem I only wanted to return to the place and turn the princess into my slave as soon as possible.

Fuck, this sounds even worse than I thought it would…

But let’s be serious, the danger that was coming from the princess was far too grave for me to consider the feelings of the sullen knight. I wanted to be able to relax as soon as possible and that would only be possible once I had Maira under my control.

I quickly convinced the Knight that it would be the best idea to return to the palace as soon as possible by telling him that I would otherwise de-cloth myself and the two newly purchased slaves and have a little fun on the streets. At this point I did not mind tainting my reputation even further.

Amazingly he managed to lead me back in only 20 minutes instead of the hour we took to get to the market.

I got rid of the knight at the entrance and quickly led the Elvae and Beastii Girl towards my chambers. Luckily the maids and servants all stayed away from me while the nobles were too distracted by the looks of the two young woman behind me. Due to this I managed to reach my accommodation without any problems and close the heavy door behind myself.

“I made it.”, I muttered to myself. It was a miracle that I hadn’t been arrested and charged with treason yet!

“Please wait here a moment. If you want to can eat some of the grapes.”, I pointed at the plate with grapes that were placed on a small table in the living area. The two girls simply nodded and proceeded to simply stand around.

I would have to figure out what to do with them later.

Paying no more heed to them I quickly walked to my bedroom and found an tied up, awake and very angry princess on my bed. There were tears in her eyes and her hair was a mess, yet I had to admit that she still looked very charming.

Actually, her current defenseless state was even more alluring… I had to shake my head to get rid of any stupid thoughts.

“I’m sorry princess, but you left me no other choice…”, I said with an ominous voice and came closer.

The already panicked young woman panicked even more and seemed on the brink of a breakdown. I sat down besides her and thought for a moment. Putting the circle on her chest like the merchant did would be a bad idea as someone could notice it. I hesitated for a moment.

Then I suddenly tore the princesses dress open, revealing her flat and pale stomach and a portion of her black lace panties. Maira immediately began to struggle and muffled cries rang out, but the cushion-ropes managed to hold.

“Calm down, I’m not gonna rape you…”, I said with an annoyed, but soothing voice.

Actually, I was going to do something far worse…

I pulled down her panties a little and placed my hand on her lower stomach. I doubted that someone would ever get to see this intimate part of her body.

Then I began to cast the incantation and the princess once again began to struggle, a slight strain of pain visible on her face. I ignored her muffled cries for help and finished the cryptic words that had been saved inside my mind.

Finally, a bright red tattoo in the shape of a circle had branded itself onto Maira’s skin and her struggle ceased.

A mixed expression had overtaken my face. On the one hand I was glad to finally have this troublesome girl under control, on the other hand I felt truly bad for disposing of her personal freedom in such a way.

Well, I had to do what I had to do.

“From now on you are not allowed to speak until I tell you to. Also, you cannot run away, trash around or otherwise attract attention”, I ordered Maira before untying the improvised rope.

A loathing expression was plastered all across Maira’s face as she stared at me with hateful eyes. Despite that she did not speak or do anything that would alarm the guards. I helped her to properly sit on the bed and sighed.

“Don’t blame me. You were the one to attack me and cause this situation!”, my defense was laughable. After all I had been the one to play the hardliner and cause all the distrust between us. My stupid plan to keep myself safe had instead caused even more danger.

“Either way, I apologize but you will understand that I had no other choice.”, I sighed again.

“First off all, I guarantee that I won’t force you to do anything unappropriated or use you against your father if it isn’t for the sake of my personal safety. Also, I can assure you that I will fulfil my duty as hero of this country regardless of my relationship with you royals.

I have been granted this beautiful chance due to the gods that rule this domain and I plan to repay them by playing my role in this game.”, my words didn’t seem to have a big impact on her, but she did calm down a little and the hate in her eyes wasn’t as loathing as before.

“Well, let’s make sure that you won’t get me killed first…”

I spend the next half an hour continuously ordering Maira different things that made sure that she couldn’t harm me in any way or shape. This included the passing on of important information, plotting against me, physical or psychological violence, lying to me and many more things.

After this I felt like I had taken care of anything that could happen and finally allowed her to speak again.

“You hateful bastard.”, were the first words that left her mouth. Tears began to roll down her cheeks and I once again felt like the worst piece of shit that ever walked on earth. I seriously couldn’t blame her.

“You should change your clothes.”, I simply replied and averted my eyes.

“I cannot…”, Maira mumbled with a trembling voice.

“Hm?”, I looked surprise.

“YOU… ordered me to not run away. Apparently, this includes walking or even crawling away. I literally cannot move away.”, she began to shout, but then my order to not attract attention came into effect and she changed her voice to a normal volume.

“Sorry! You are allowed to move freely.”, I felt even more horrible now.

She simply harrumphed and stood up.

“Go out.”, she said quietly. Once again, she couldn’t shout.

I decided that I would be best to just leave her alone for now.

Closing the bedroom door behind me I walked back to the living area and found my other two slaves sitting on the couch and eating the grapes as I had told them. Good, at least they hadn’t been broken by their previous owners!

As soon as they saw me though, they immediately stood up and put away the grapes. Their bodies tensed up and their expressions seemed like they felt guilty for doing something wrong.

“Don’t worry, unless I tell you not to do it you can do whatever you want.

Well, at least in the realm of normal behavior.”, I waved my hand in an easy-going manner.

The two threw me strange looks. They clearly doubted my words.

I sighed for the third time in a short time.

“Come here please.”, I sat down on the couch and signed them to sit down on the other couch in front of me.

They immediately walked over and sat down. Nervous expressions appeared on their cute faces.

I took this chance to finally get a good look at them. At the market, I had been nervous to get my hands on the incantation for slave magic, so I had only briefly looked at them and confirmed their body sizes before choosing them. Now I finally got a good look at them.

My choices were truly good.

The Elvea girl had a tall and slender build with average-sized breasts but a well-shaped butt. She had long blonde, almost white, hair that fell down her shoulders, two eyes that seemed to sparkle with light while nervously eyeing me and a face that seemed like it had been sculpted by a master sculptor to be the most beautiful woman in the world.

Compared to a human girl she looked to be about 16 to 17 years old, though I was pretty sure that she was quite a bit older than that.

The Beastii girl had a similar build to the Elvea girl, after all, I had chosen according to my preferences, but she was almost two heads smaller making her seem like a little kitten in comparison. Jet black hair was tied into a simple braid with two black cat ears resting on the top of her head. She too was beautiful and had striking black eyes that seemed to swallow everything around them.

They were almost polar opposites of another and standing side by side it created an almost surreal pair.

“So how are you called?”, I simply asked them to break the silence.

“My name is Ilea, Master.”, said the Elvea girl while lowering her head.

The Beastii girl followed by doing the same.

“I’m called Riina…., M-master.”, she seemed less comfortable calling me master than the girl called Ilea.

I nodded a few times, simply because I didn’t know what else to do.

“And how old are you?”, hell, I really needed to stop asking these stereotypical questions!

“78 Years old.”

“17”

The answers were very brief and not really surprising. Once again, we returned to total silence.

“M-master… may I ask a question?”, this unbearable silence was broken by Riina who was fumbling around with the seam of her cheap, brown skirt that was standard for female slaves.

“Sure.”, I said with a gentle smile. Her being the one to speak up was a good sign. If possible, I would like to have a good relationship with those two and not have to resolve to order them around all the time. I was no saint and wouldn’t just release the seal (though I doubt that it would have had any positive result in the long term anyway) but I also didn’t want to have to play a devil all the time.

The catgirl hesitated for some time. Finally, she seemed to have gathered her resolve.

“C-can I have something to eat? I wasn’t fed since last evening and the grapes cannot fill my stomach.”, two adorable, pleading eyes looked straight at me and almost made me faint from cuteness overload.

Before I could even respond a sullen female voice came from behind me.

“The banquet to celebrate your arrival will begin soon, I think this should solve the food problem. Unless you intend to starve us out… master.”, Maira came out of the bedroom wearing a new dress. I wondered where it came from though after all this was my room and I was quite sure that no one had brought her new clothes while I was away with Sir Millen. (I would be death otherwise)

Either way, her complexion had gotten better, and she had tidied up her appearance. There was still a lot of loathing within her eyes, but she managed to hide the more obvious open hate in her expression. If I give her one or two days to calm down, I was pretty sure that she would accept the way things had played out.

After all, she truly had some blame in this matter.

I shrugged my shoulders.

“There you hear it. Let’s go to that banquet, though you should change clothes first.”, I threw Maira an expectant look.

She rolled her eyes.

“But of course, master. I will go and get them some clothes.”, she obviously wanted to annoy me by saying master all the time, but honestly I did like the sound of it.