Chapter 13 - A Calm Day That May Soon End
"This dress is too tight in the chest area-nya. ...... I think I'll go with the previous dress-nya."
"It-It's too tight ...... my clothes is ......!? ――It's as if I don't have any boobs! And You can't wear your old clothes because they're tattered!"
"Didn't you have any breasts at all-nya? Hazuki-nyan a kid, not me-nya."
"I'm still a big sister! I-I have boobs, too! They're plump, and when you touch them, they're puffy."
After getting out of the bath, Nem was dressed in Hazuki's clothes and complained, wagging her tail from side to side.
The clothes were tailor-made in Hazuki's size, so Nem's chest was too tight.
It was a sad reality that apart from Lilia, Hazuki was the oldest.
Nem was wearing a shirt with a puffy chest and shorts that exposed her white thighs. She didn't wear any underwear because she couldn't find anything that fit.
Her style is both cute and energetic, but overall she is a bit dumpy.
This is because she is smaller than Hazuki.
"My underwear is also tight because they're wearing something over it-nya! And my body smell-nya! They put some kind of slimy stuff on me-nya!"
"Th-that's why, that's a fashionable item! Doesn't it smell good!? It was expensive, you know!? The smell is shocking, though!."
Kyaa, kyaa, Mars chuckled as he watched the two of them fussing.
When they first met, Nem had even seemed to dislike Hazuki, but now they seemed to be completely at ease with each other.
Hazuki had groomed Nem's hair, and there was a world of difference in how beautiful she looked compared to when they first met.
The fact that Nem seemed to be concerned about her neck was probably due to the fact that she no longer had the collar that she had used for so many years.
"That pervert women are shy, but she show her sociability in the strangest places. She can't even order herself well enough at the store without turning red in the face. If there's one thing that ...... Master and Nem have in common, it's that they're ...... younger."
"Is she the type of person who can be bossy with younger people. ...... Sounds bad, huh?"
"Or is it motherhood? If you have a high sex drive, that means you have a high desire to reproduce, and I wonder if there is any motherhood associated with that."
"Then I guess Lilia is maternal too?"
"Wh-What do you mean by that!?"
After confirming that Nem's nervousness had dissipated, Mars took Lilia, who was blushing and pouting, and the two of them to the living room.
He had already prepared the meal with Lilia, who had come out of the bath earlier.
"Anyway, why don't we talk over a meal? You're probably hungry after using all that magic, aren't you, Hazuki-chan? We haven't even had lunch yet."
"Dinner-nya!? I'm hungry for the yellow lumps-nya! They're so good-nya!"
Her ears perked up and Nem said something she didn't quite understand as she happily walked around Mars.
She had a good nose and showed a swooping sniffing motion.
"I don't know about those yellow lumps, but I've prepared a lot of things. I'm confident in the taste of my food. I mean, what's the yellow stuff?"
Mars smiled at her.
He had learned how to cook after meeting Lilia, so he was proud of his ability to produce a reasonable taste.
"What are the yellow lumps ......? Are they eggs or something? O-Or maybe it's a insect or something ......?"
"I used to live in a stable with a horse, you know-nya? There were days when I worked hard but didn't get any food, so I would eat the horse's food-nya. I used to eat the horse's food, and there were yellow lumps in it, and they were sweet and tasty-nyaa!"
"Maybe it's corn? I don't see many of them in this area.……――Or rather, you can't eat horse food!? In many ways!"
"Be-because, they're my henchmen, but they've eaten more delicious food than I have-nya! And they left out the yellow ones-nya! What a luxury-nyaa!"
Imagining Nem living in a stable and scavenging for food for the horses, the three of them learned, albeit only in fragments, how Nem had been treated as a domestic animal or worse.
The reason why they didn't feel any sadness from her seemed to be because they didn't know or couldn't imagine any other life.
Lilia silently put her hand on Nem's shoulder and pushed her with a complicated expression to the living room where the dining table was.
"Nyaaa……!? I wonder if I'm allowed to eat all this-nya!?"
"Y-you can't take them all, you know!? It's for all of us!"
Looking at the pile of food that Mars and Lilia had laid out on the dining table, Nem jumped up and down and drooled with a look of utter joy on her face.
Her tail was pointing straight up and she was in a good mood.
It was easy to see it in her facial expressions, but her tail showed Nem's emotions more than that.
Even Hazuki, who was not a slave, had never eaten such a gorgeous meal before she came to stay with Mars.
There was no way Nem, who had been competing with the horses for food, had ever seen anything like it.
"There's plenty, and if there's not enough, I'll make more, so you can eat as you like. You can eat until you're full."
"Are you sure-nya!? I've never eaten a full meal from anything but river water-nya! But drinking a lot of water gives me a stomachache!. And I'm scared of the strong ones in the river-nya."
――River water...... I thought we weren't supposed to drink fresh water?
What's the strongest thing about a river ......?
Mars sits Nem down beside Lilia, thinking that he must make sure that she doesn't feel that way from now on.
"It's so delicious, it's so delicious-nyaa! I'm so happy-nya! I'm so glad I was born-nya!"
"I know how you feel, but you don't have to be in such a hurry to eat it, it won't disappear. It's improper, you know? See, your hands and mouth are all sticky, and even your hair is covered with it even though I washed it off ....... Really, Geez!"
As I had expected, Nem's way of eating was not neat, and Lilia next to me sighed as she took care of Nem.
The way she ate was to hold a fork in each hand, and with her other hand, she stab what she saw and chew it.
Every time she put something in her mouth, her golden eyes would light up with joy, and she would swallow it without chewing.
Lilia was like a mother to her, wiping her mouth, handing her a plate of food she was interested in, and giving her a drink when she choked.
――I still think she's more maternal, Lilia is.
She complains, but she also looks at Hazuki-chan a lot.
She seems a little gentler than the way she had initially treated Hazuki-chan.
Mars doesn't know if this is because of their sense of kinship as slaves of a different species, or if it is because of the difference in knowledge and age between Hazuki and Nem.
I've heard from Lilia who interviewed her in the bathroom that Nem had no education at all and seemed to have grown up in a segregated environment.
"You have a huge appetite. ......! Even though, you are tiny, where is the food goes?"
"You can't have it-nya!? This is the food I got-nya!"
Nem covered up the plate in front of her so that Hazuki couldn't see it.
It seemed like she was letting her in, but not so much for the food, so Nem gave a threatening "Grrrr" to Hazuki with a voice that I don't know where it was coming from, and took a slightly harsher approach.
Although not as severe as Lilia was when they first met, Nem also seems to have a certain amount of avoidance towards humans.
"I-I'm not taking it! Do I look like such a glutton!? No, I'm definitely a glutton, but...!"
"Hazuki-nyan is, You got this look in your eyes that says if I don't eat it, she'll eat it all-nya.........!"
Mars recalled that the day after they first met, Hazuki had eaten as much as she wanted without reservation.
It's easy to see why Lilia says that Hazuki is the incarnation of the three great desires,s he is so honest about her needs.
"Nem-chan, Can I ask you something while you eat?"
Mars called out as gently as he could to Nem, who curled her mouth and chewed.
"Nyaa?"
"First of all, the basic premise is that you are free, Nem. You don't have to be my slave. In that case, I'll ask for information about your former masters and give you some money to free you."
It was what I had been thinking from the beginning.
Even though I knew it would be useful to have her as a companion, we were heading for a dungeon where no one had ever come back alive.
Unlike Mars, Hazuki and Lilia, who had their own goals, Nem had no reason to risk her life.
Neither Lilia nor Hazuki said a word.
Hazuki seemed to be upset because she thought that Nem was going to be one of them, but Lilia understood what Mars was thinking and listened quietly.
"What is freedom-nya ......? I don't mind being a slave-nya. I don't care if I didn't get paid, I don't understand numbers, and I don't care where I eat as long as I get to eat meal-nya, and if it's good food, so much the better-nya!"
"You can think about it more, okay?"
"It's the same even if I think about it-nyaa. I'm being hated, and I don't have anywhere to go or anything to do-nya. I've never had anyone do so much for me before, and all the humans get mad at me for being a demon when I approach them-nya. ...... If I can stay with you, I might want to stay with you-nya."
Flattening her ears to the side, Nem spoke sadly, as if remembering something.
Lilia had once told him that just being a slave of a different race was enough to have your life taken away.
In any case, slaves of different races, such as elves, are kept alive only to make an example of them for defying humans.
And in fact, Nem had been nearly killed in front of Mars and the others.
Both Hazuki and Nem's thinking was short sighted.
As a Japanese, this was a little strange for Mars, but by the standards of this world, it was not so unusual.
After all, this world is full of dangers, and death is very close at hand.
The average life expectancy of the common people, except for the privileged class such as the nobility, is around fifty years old.
Each person's life is not that expensive, and it is sad but not uncommon for a child to go into the mountains and never come back.
The short-sighted thinking of living happily from day to day is rather rational in the general population of this world.
"We're going to the Seven Great Dungeons. Will you still follow us? ――You could die."
"I'm going-nya. Because that's where I was originally brought to-nya. I'm small, but I'm strong-nyaa! Gaa, slice, slice! I can kill most demons by doing that-nya!"
――Are the different species still stronger than humans on average?
Lilia also has great at magic and her bow skills is amazing.
I don't know what Nem is talking about, it's a little too abstract for me, but .......
I can imagine that they are marginalized by humans because they are strong.
And even more so because there are so few of them.
"If I'm a slave to Mars-nyan, can I eat all the food I want?"
"Of course. It's like this every day. My hobby is cooking, you know? I also like to buy clothes for Lilia and Hazuki-chan. I'll buy clothes for Nem-chan, too."
At Mars' words, Nem's golden eyes took on an even brighter glow, and she opened her mouth wide to laugh, showing off her long double teeth.
"Then, I want to become your slave-nya! I'm Nem Nair, nice to meet you-nya! Ah, I want a collar that's light-nyaa. The last one was so heavy that it made my head sway whenever I walked-nya."
"She's so easy…Hazuki-chan is also amazing. Are the kids these days okay with ...... human rights and stuff?"
As I watched with a half-amused face as Nem continued to gobble down her meal, Lilia looked at Mars and smiled.
It was as if she could see into his heart.
"I don't know, ...... We're starting to feel a little like a family."
"Yeah."
"Lilia-san is the mother, right? I'd prefer to be the wife if I could. ......"
"I'm the wife, though. I'm sure that's the order in which we met, right?"
Lilia narrowed her eyes and intimidated Hazuki.
Lilia was his wife, and Hazuki and Nem were his daughters.
Considering the combined age of Mars' two lives, it was not surprising that they had a daughter of that age.
"Family........You mean like a big horse and a little horse-nya?"
"That's right. Do you have a family, Nem-chan?"
"I used to live with horses, so horses are my family-nya."
"Where's your mother and father?"
I thought it was an insensitive question, but I want to ask it.
If you have a family, you can't be a slave, he thought.
If that was the case, Mars thought, I would like to return her to her family as a free man.
"I don't have them-nya. Maybe I'm like this..............I think I grew out of the soil-nya. That's why I look different from everyone else-nya."
Nem said with a mixture of gestures.
She didn't seem to be joking, but she seemed to be serious either.
"Biologically, this is not possible. I'm sure your parents are out there somewhere. One of them is probably human. Nem's physical characteristics are not purely interspecies ――She is not a beast. Her body hair is human-like or less, and her limbs are very different."
In Lilia's estimation, Nem was at least half-human, and in some cases, had been interbreeding with humans for several generations.
The original beastmen, both male and female, were larger than humans in terms of size, covered in strong body hair similar to armor, and had claws on their hands and feet that could tear apart a human in armor.
Nem has the appearance of a human with cat ears and a tail, and her fur is a light blue, almost white, color that would stand out in nature.
"Nyaa!? I wonder if I'm human, too-nya!?"
"For this reason――Y-yes, you are human like. I don't know, I haven't looked into it in detail. ......"
――That Lilia has given up on explaining!
Lilia, who has lived a long time and has a strong desire for knowledge, is very fond of explaining things, but she easily abandons it when it comes to Nem.
I could predict that this was because there was too much of a difference in the prerequisite knowledge.
It's obvious that explanations need to be explained.
"But I'm not really interested in my family-nyaa. I don't really understand it-nya."
"Well, I guess we're your family for a while. Maybe we should all go look for them sometime."
If I can get through the dungeon and lose the time constraint, I can manage that much.
Even considering the possibility of failure, Mars is basically working on the assumption that his wishes will come true.
――The [Forbidden Magic Book] that extends your life span.
It may seem ridiculous, but I've been reincarnated into this world.
Obviously, I've transcended physics and such.
I can even use magic. There are even elves whose default lifespan is almost ten times longer than humans.
So I can't see why I can't do something to extend my lifespan.
"The Seven Great Dungeons, home of Hazuki-chan. Let's do our best to trample through it. Break the curse, too, and extend our lifespan. I hope I can get them all."
"I don't understand what you're saying-nyaa, but it'll be easy with me-nyaa!"
With one arm outstretched, Nem declared, moving her ears.
Then Hazuki stretched out her arm from the face-to-face and brushed Nem's head around.
"All right, all right, you're strong, aren't you, Nem-chan!?"
"Don't touch my head-nya! I don't want you to touch my head, Hazuki-nyan! I'm not like a cat-nya! All they do is sleep-nya! But I work hard-nya!"
She showed an unexpected reaction.
Apparently she didn't like to be treated like a cat.
Nevertheless, the large cat ears and the movement of the tail were completely that of a cat.
"Perver――Hazuki. Different species, especially beastmen, have different sensory ranges from humans. Do not touch their sensitive sensory organs, such as their ears. You wouldn't like it if someone touched your sensitive parts out of the blue, would you?"
Lilia also touched her own long ears.
Compared to a human's, she has better hearing, but it is more sensitive.
"Eh!?, I-I'm excited, though.……? When Mars-san touches your butt, you're already ...... soaked, right? Aaahhh, You're going to have to mate and get your pregnant, isn't that right, Lilia-san!?"
"――You pervert! I'm not that far off! W, well? It can be a bit degrading at times……――Ah!, Master, no, this is…I've been using Hazuki word as example! I-I'm going to come into heat, you know! When you whispered to me from behind and licked my ear, my whole body relaxed, and my genitals became slippery from the heat.――……Aaahhh, geez! How dare you make me say that! Hazuki, it's your fault, you know!?"
Lilia, who was only embarrassed at first, realized that denying everything that Hazuki said was like saying that Mars doesn't cause her horny, so she stood up with her hands on the desk and hurriedly corrected Hazuki.
But perhaps too upset at the thought of offending him, Lilia said something embarrassing at the same time.
In the end, she squatted down and covered her face with her hands.
The situation was too embarrassing for the prideful Lilia.
But even with her face covered, both Mars and Hazuki could see that her long ears had turned bright red.
"Does Hazuki-nyan want to be touched on the butt-nya? What's a horny-nya? Does Lilia have a stomach ache-nya? Do you want me to pat your tummy-nya?"
With a look of pure doubt on her face, Nem was worried about Lilia, who was crouching down.
"D-don't ask Nem-chan. There is not the slightest need to remember what this woman said or did. and I'm fine."
"Y-you're awful!"
Mars laughed at the exchange, not knowing whether they were close or not.
It was another calm day, even though he might die soon.
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