With that, Eugus had finished writing the conditions and agreement before Lady Krauss signed and stamped it with a seal as the two of us came back inside. After I signed my own name in Padimonian and the fee for the service has been paid on Lady Krauss’ account, Ms. Carmen went right to work on the enslavement process.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a procedure that directly enslaves a person to be the ‘customer’s’ property immediately. The slave merchants would have to enslave them under their own possession first before doing the ownership transfer ritual to pass her along to me.
With that said, we got to see how a slave merchant enslaves someone before our very eyes, which was quite different from what I’ve seen of other skills up to this point. According to Ms. Carmen, there’s apparently what’s called the Enslave skill that can be acquired when one bears the Slave Merchant title, and the person would have to go through some processes to even be qualified for it through the slave merchant’s guild.
If there’s one other method for someone to acquire the Enslave skill, that would be earning it as a reward for clearing a dungeon in Padimon, but when there are numerous things one could win from doing that, the chances of that happening are uncertain. Even if they did somehow get the skill, they can’t do any business without being registered as a legal Slave Merchant first or they’d be committing illegal trafficking. Owners need certifications to let their slaves get into towns alongside them, after all.
As we all watched Ms. Carmen using Enslave before our very eyes, directed at Tyvera who was still bound and kneeling on the floor, something hit me that I almost forgot.
Natural-Born Brawler, one of the first few titles that I started out with since I came to this world. I didn’t know how significant that was at first but going back to my fight with the old drunkard during the White Rapture’s raid, despite how inebriated he was, he realized how much of a threat I could be down the line. I recalled further back and remembered how strange it was for me to learn and cast magic with no experience. The only things I got going during that time was watching how some of the cults cast spells and what I learned about magic through some books I read back on Earth. Then there were skills like Slash and Mow Down I learned after watching Ren and Erizora in battle at the raid. Skills like Shortsword-Wielding and Dagger-Wielding only got integrated into my Slugger Style Brawler skill and leveled it up.
Natural-Born Brawler … can I see what that title entails?
As if my request was heard, a notice screen appears in front of me, the same kind used when I appraised Tyvera’s Night Vision Goggles and Messaging Crystal with the Street Smarts skill earlier. The description read as follows:
[Natural-Born Brawler: This title acknowledges the user for how they’re evaluated in their battles and surviving long enough with the Brawler class to become a capable fighter of his own merits; grants the user a hidden ability that allows him to learn new skills and spells after observing and understanding them before trying them for the first time without spending SP; the level of mastery is dependent on the user’s understanding of the skill or spell; the first time is always free with no cost of HP and MP.]
What the fuck is this broken title?! Hidden ability?! So, I don’t even know the name of the ability because it’s hidden from me or is it whoever that created this chaotic mess was too lazy to even come up with it?! Be consistent with your game mechanics, dammit!
<“Dude? I don’t think that’s the important thing here. Are you getting a good look at Caramel using that skill?”>
My Hyper Thought Processing skill is activated so I’m seeing it all in slower speeds. I watch how after Ms. Carmen chants “Enslave, start,” she takes a wand and draws a hexagram in a circle. It’s my first time seeing it, but even with my sense of time slowing down, I could see she’s still undergoing training to be a capable Slave Merchant, but she’s got some talent in the practice. Once the hexagram and circle are complete, she points the wand at the center, aiming towards the sitting Tyvera who has her eyes closed as if she’s submitting herself to fate.
Ms. Carmen then moves the hexagram circle to above Tyvera’s head before lowering it down. Tyvera flinches a little from the contact, but still resigns herself to Ms. Carmen’s whims as she moves the pattern in a way that the circle would go around her neck while the hexagram is still on top of her head.
Then “Enslave, bind,” comes out of Ms. Carmen’s mouth before the patterns on Tyvera glow. The hexagram sinks into her head while the circle brightens up and closes in to cling itself around her neck before turning into the same blue ring that is on Ren and Erizora. Both of the participants sigh a breath of relief after holding onto it for some time, indicating the end of the enslavement ritual.
<“So, what do you think? You think you can pull it off?”> Nyra asks.
I sigh internally. I’m not too sure what to think. I’m still absorbing how ridiculous that title is. Also, people can write in the air and anywhere with magic if they’re capable of doing it, right? Wouldn’t anyone be able to enslave a person if they just repeated what she did?
<“I’m sure there’s more to this skill than just drawing and moving fancy shapes. What will you do if you succeed?”>
Not abuse it, for one thing. Since I don’t want to break any laws, I would probably resort to it only at the direst of emergencies, and even if I tried, it looks like there may be some difficulty in enslaving the target if they’re unwilling to cooperate like Tyvera is. Sure, it may be easier if I max it out as I have with others but then there’s the question of ‘do I really need to use this if I’m not willing to break the law?’
<“You could register as a Slave Merchant.”>
I’m not really sure if I’d like that kind of occupation.
<“So … it would totally be useless, then.”>
Pretty much.
<“Well, we can at least try it on somebody to see if your Natural-Born Brawler title does as it says.”>
Who would agree to that, though?
<“… There’s Flanks. I’m not sure how keen Scalybutt would be enslaved to her husband, even if it’s only briefly, but Flanks is the only other person in the party who’s not branded yet still displays the same level of servitude as the other two. I’m sure she’ll take any opportunity to be relied on and be of use if you ask her.”>
I glance over to Kalline who was watching the ritual with an observant gaze. She seems to be really evaluating Tyvera for some reason.
… I’ll have to think about it. Also, did you just call Ms. Carmen ‘Caramel?’
<“What? I saw a piece of caramel once in your memories and it looked good. She has that ‘uncertain and square’ feel about her when it comes to business that makes liking her a bit of a challenge, but like the candy that gets softer and sweeter as it settles in the mouth, you get to like her once you get to know her. Plus, her hair kind of resembles the color, too, so, ‘Caramel.’”>
… That’s the most weirdly thought-out reason for a nickname that I’ve ever heard from you.
<“I bet ya she’ll taste just as sweet if you eat her out, though.”>
There’s the perverted Pixie I know and love!
“All right! That went easier than I thought!” Caramel—I mean Ms. Carmen exclaims after raising her hands in victory. “Normally there’s a lot more pain if the target resists and struggles, making aligning the pattern that much more difficult, but this turned out well! Go ahead and untie her.”
“I did feel a slight prick for a brief moment …” Tyvera trails off as I will the bindings from my Darkness Manipulation skill to dissipate. She sighs a breath of relief after finally getting her freedom back as she rubs her bird talon-like wrists and rustles her wings
“Maybe a part of you was still uncertain of going through with this. I know that feeling from experience,” Ren says with a hand to her chest before pumping her fists in a guts pose with determination. “But don’t you worry, you’ll like what comes next, and if you think of completely giving yourself to Master, it will be totally painless.”
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“G-Giving myself … is that what happened with you two?”
“Been happily serving Master ever since!” Erizora answers this time while bouncing a little in her seat cushion, her titanic tits also bounced with the same amount of vigor. I could sense the majority of eyes in the room watched that spectacle in awe.
“A-All right, then … but what do you mean I’ll like what comes next?”
Tyvera reddens when Ms. Carmen explains she has to remove her top and tauten her breasts to draw the ‘transfer symbol’ on her sternum with the ink and blood concoction, followed by me touching it and applying my magic into it.
Eugus, Konjiro, and Julius immediately decide to step out to give her some privacy when they got the gist of what was going to happen, leaving me and Kenaka the only guys in the room full of girls. Gabriella could only look at Tyvera and me with great scorn, but the Harpy doesn’t pay her any mind.
“H-Hey, Mr. Jinma … no, I should start calling you ‘Master’ or something now, right?”
“Tyvera, you can call me whatever you like. Everyone in our party has their own thing for me.”
“W-Whatever I want? Then …” Still reddened, she squirms on the seat cushion I bought from Ms. Carmen for her. “May I call you … Chief?”
“That’s a new one. Is there a significant meaning behind it?” I ask with a quirked brow.
“Well … since we Harpies are all females, there can be some competition on who would get a mate they like, but if they’re on friendly terms and come to an agreement, they can form what we call a flock with our mate as the head. A few have grown to the size of small villages in the past, and so we have named males who start them all as chiefs.
“There’s that, and … whether I would be by myself or with some fellow females, I kind of wanted to grow a large family for some time now, and so the name ‘Chief’ sounded like a good pet name for a mate to me. You’re already getting a good start on it with what you have in your party right now, and then there’s … my feather.”
“You mean this?” I ask while taking her feather out of my pocket.
“How should I put it … humans have rings to symbolize marriage, right? It’s kind of the same deal if we Harpies give a feather of ours to our mate.”
“… Oooooohhh.” That explains why she was so flustered when I showed her the feather the first time.
“Oh! But I couldn’t possibly let you have what you found on the ground as the symbol of that!” Tyvera corrects while frantically waving her hands and even rustling her wings in a fluster. “I would need to get at much better one from my wings that I could make into an accessory for you to wear on your person! N-Not that I would think I would ‘own’ you as a husband by just wearing it since this ownership thing is clearly the other way around! And …” she rambles on while not making eye contact with seemingly no sign of her stopping at some point. She seems to be the kind of person that talks a lot when nervous.
A tap on my shoulder catches my attention and I turn to see it’s Ume lightly smiling while touching her fin-like ear, giving the tell to talk in Telepathy.
What’s up, Ume?
<“I was uncertain about her at first, but I think I can see that she has a genuine interest in you as the opposite sex. I’ll leave whether she stays as a slave or not between the two of you, but not only do I see her as a capable ally in battles, but I think she’ll make a good lover for the harem as well.”>
<“It’s plain to see now but my Psyche Magic can confirm that her feelings for you are legit here, too. She’s really anxious about what you think of her right now, though, which is understandable considering how you two met and all. I think you need to confirm your feelings on the matter so she can be at ease or I don’t think we’ll ever get anywhere if she continues talking up a storm,”> Nyra advises.
“… Above all that, though,” Tyvera continues, “I was spying on your party on the way over here and even before that I didn’t leave my post to help you fight all of those monsters in the clearing when I should’ve! I don’t blame you for not having feelings for me from that, let alone how unattractive I might look to you, but—!”
“…”
“?!!!”
““UOOOOOH~!!!”
“Oh, my goodness~!” [Noire]
“W-W-What the?!” [Beelzebub]
“Tch. Disgusting.” [Gabriella]
To shut Tyvera up, I hold her chin and lock my lips with hers. I don’t see how shocked she is right now with my eyes closed but from the sound of her wings springing up behind her, I think I achieved my goal of hitting the shock and awe factor.
I move back with a peck and moved into her pointy ear, brushing it with my lips while my nostrils, enhanced by my Werewolf smelling ability, are tickled by the unique feminine scent emanating from her light golden-blonde locks. “You know, when I looked at you in your sleeping form, the first thing that came to mind was how much I wanted to eat you up,” I whisper.
“H-Huh?” Tyvera asks in a squeaky pitch. I could tell from the rising heat from her ear touching my lips that it as well as the rest of her head is getting red again.
“‘This one’s way too cute to be called a ‘Terror,’’ is what I thought. Even now, you’re looking more and more adorable for me to spoil into a rotten, melted mess, so if nothing else that convinces you, remember this so that you don’t even think I find you the slightest bit unattractive.”
“…”
“With that said, I want to get to know you more, Tyvera,” I continue in a normal speaking tone after moving away and facing her. “We’ll talk more about what you want to do as part of our group later. For now, I don’t mind you calling me ‘Chief’ and I would love to wear something you want to craft a new feather of yours into, but I’d like to keep the one I found as a sort of memorabilia in our first meeting. Would that be okay with you?”
“Y-Yes … that’s fine.”
“Thank you. Now, let’s finish things off and move on with business here as a party with our new member, okay?”
“Okay …” Tyvera complies with twinkling light green eyes while still blushing as if put under a spell. Even her unfurled feathers rustle a little in delight.
[You have now reached ‘Seduction’ LV 3!]
Whoa whoa wait, what? I honestly forgot I had this skill but did I seriously seduce Tyvera? Is that what this is telling me? When did I get this skill and how has it leveled up to now?
<“Let’s see, you first got it as a benefit from seeing your Innate Status Ranking at the church with your current levels of Charm among all of the different kin, then you leveled it up to 2 after getting the ‘Philanderer’ title after having sex with Ren the first time at the bath, which would normally grant one Seduction LV 1, but it got integrated to what you already had. How it got leveled up to 3 now, while it doesn’t have much effect with those you already have a relationship with, but how you flirted and bonded with your girls that lead to sex can increase the growth of this skill. How you do it with a totally new girl like Tyvera is a whole other story; thus, your level increase,”> Nyra explains.
Wow, did you look through my memories to find all of that out yourself?
<“Nah, there’s a way you can look at the ‘history’ of everything you’ve done up to now through your status. I just checked the history of your Seduction skill through your mind.”>
Huh … anyway, despite how that grew from my bonding with the girls, isn’t the act of seducing itself usually a bad thing?
<“It depends on what you intend to use it for. What I just explained only scratches the surface on ways you can naturally master it. This isn’t the best time and place to talk more about it but if you’re looking to save some SP and learn to pick up girls like a pro, hit me up later.”>
All right, then …
Despite my lingering concerns, we went through the ownership transfer ritual without further interruptions. How Tyvera tried to keep herself decent by covering her breasts while tautening them to the sides, embarrassed of everyone watching yet having a wry smile as she looked at me, Nyra sensed her feelings through Psyche Magic that she didn’t seem totally against the idea of being half-naked in front of me. In fact, she got rather aroused for a while after I whispered in her ear so intimately earlier. According to Nyra, how one brings their ‘target’ to arousal is another way of how one practices Seduction. I think finding their ‘Sweet Spots’ might also be something to exploit while practicing the skill.
As I put my magic into the symbol Ms. Carmen painted on Tyvera’s sternum, I thought about what I wanted to do with the Seduction skill and similar others that may come down the line.
I wasn’t successful with human girls back on Earth so the thought of actually exciting a [demon] girl with my advances brought me similar feelings, especially back then when I whispered to Tyvera, but my conscience reeled me back in by how much would it take for me to easily abuse such a frightening skill. Moreover, there’s one of my Innate Stats that I briefly forgot until Nyra brought it up again.
Charm. Why is it ranked as such between me and the general races/kin of this world? What part of the feelings from the girls in my harem is considered genuine from natural development while not being influenced by that Charm factor? How do I know what they’re feeling isn’t due to the effects of the skills and abilities I have that associate with my Charm?
In short, where does one cross the line of ‘fallen in love’ or ‘fallen under a spell?’ Since abilities, skills, and magic can play a part of how one behaves and functions in society here, I could very well be dragging a line of mind-controlled girls fallen under the pretense of love without me realizing it. While I do want to cherish my new family/harem, I don’t think I want it formed under such notorious, manipulative practices.
Sure, I could just ‘seduce’ a girl to a short-term sex session and I move on after that, but what happens to the girl after the ‘spell’ wears off? If I’m not careful, I could be ruining lives of harmless, innocent girls by stealing away the hopes they have of finding and giving love to the person who truly deserves it. Nyra had it easy as she could make anybody she finds, guy or girl, into a sex friend of hers, so I’m not sure if I could rely on her for the wisdom of what comes after the act of a short-term relationship.
In which case, I need advice from an expert, one that knows all the inner workings of love and lust, the feelings that come before and after the act, and everything in between, and what better advice can I already immediately get on hand than a certain Goddess of Lust?
[Tyvera has now become your slave.
[You have achieved the ‘Experienced Slave Owner’ title!
[You have now learned ‘Slave Raise*’!
[Tyvera’s Affinity is now unlocked. Current level of Affinity: LV 1; Total Affinity Level: 8
[Jinma and Tyvera may now use the Affinity Skill: Harpy’s Feathers. Cost: 4 AP]
With the ownership transfer ritual finished without a hitch or injury, Tyvera’s officially a part of my slave harem as well as our party—it seems Eugus used his authority as a guild master to change her current party registration to ours while Ms. Carmen and I were out. The people in the room applauded, some more awkwardly than others, at the completion as I rustled Tyvera’s locks. She gave a cute giggle at the friendly gesture.
Considering there were some strange twists and turns from the beginning, I have things I need to clear up with Tyvera. For the time being, I mentally vowed myself to take responsibility for having her under my wing—pun not intended—while keeping the plan of talking to Ms. Obina about my Charm and Seduction later in my mind.