“Lyo~uta?”

“Ryouta.”

“Wyo-uta.”

“Say it again; it’s Ryou-ta. Ryou-ta.”

“Yooo~ta~”

“…”

Oh, it seems like Ryou~ta gave up?

Fa—Shiro can’t roll her tongue properly yet~ Sorry~

“…Forget it. Shiro, let’s go buy you some clothes first. Then… are you hungry?”

Well~ Shiro isn’t hungry. After all, this place is full of humans, so the spirits don’t dare to come close. Shiro’s food is so abundant nao~

Shiro tilts her head, “Hungwy?”

Seeing the confused expression on her face, Ryouta really felt lost and helpless. This girl, it was almost impossible to converse with her; it was as if she was a newborn baby!

Well, technically, she is one though, if one were to count her age using human years, ha ha ha.

“…Forget it, let’s just go.” In the end, Ryouta gave up trying to speak with this child-like alien, opting to simply take her hand and gently tugged her up. He led her outside of the slave merchant’s tent, silently nodding his farewells to the merchant whom he bought Shiro from.

After seeing off the big customer who paid almost 20 gold coins for a slave; ten times the price he bought the slave for, Dios the merchant happily counted the coins one by one for the n-th time with a hardly repressed smile on his face.

‘Hope we meet again, big fish!’ Dios laughed loudly, rejoicing at the massive profits he had just gained. A high-grade slave he groomed for many years only fetched the price of 1600 large silver coins—the equivalent of 16 gold coins at most, but without doing anything, he had suddenly received such a blessing. He really hoped he could meet such a customer again.

He had a feeling, that they might see each other again in the future.

 .

 .

 .

“Waaaa!”

Shiro twirled around in her new dress.

Although the top part was rather form fitting, due to the lightness and softness of the fabric, she did not really mind the constriction.

“Shiro—hey! Don’t run around!”

Ryouta felt a headache come his way. He wondered if this was what it was like to have a child—constantly having to look out for them in case they got hurt or something. No wonder his parents seldom took him out when he was growing up!

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Ryouta sighed. Currently, they were in a clothing store on the main street of Bluer Port Town. The place was relatively high-end, where most of the clothing was custom-made. He didn’t want Shiro to go around in nothing but rags, as he wished she could live a somewhat normal life.

He did, though, considered setting her free, but he had no idea how to remove the slave collar—which seemed to be some sort of magic item—and he was also worried that she wouldn’t know how to survive on her own, so he made the decision to take her in.

Since he had received so much funds from the king, and had no idea where and how to spend it, so this was truly perfect timing. He had commissioned the tailor for two sets of underwear, three dresses, a cloak, and a pair of shoes for Shiro. Altogether, they costed about two gold coins and three days to make.

“Shiro, please put on your shoes!”

Shiro was twirling in the slightly open area in the store, prancing around in her new clothes. She seemed to like the newly-commissioned dress, but refused to put on the leather shoes that had been custom-made for her.

“No!” Her childish voice rung out defiantly. She ran quickly to hide behind the female store attendant, her cheeks puffing adorably.

“Shiro…” Ryouta sighed in defeat. Fine, if she didn’t want to, then she didn’t want to. He wouldn’t force her to do it.

“Shiro, come here.” Abruptly, he pulled Shiro into his arms, resorting to carry her instead. Since she refused to wear her shoes, it wouldn’t be good if she dirtied her dainty feet or stepped on something sharp, so just like the day he brought her back to his inn, he carried her in his arms.

“Boo—“ Shiro pouted, but since she was used to it now, she did not struggle. Rather, she felt victorious, as she did not need to put on those restrictive things. Shiro vaguely wondered, why do humans like wearing things that were so annoying and constricting?

“Pack these up and deliver it to Full Moon Inn.” Ryouta nodded to the female attendant, tossing a gold coin towards her.

After receiving such a huge tip, the attendant smiled happily, “thank you for your patronage, dear customer. Your items will be delivered immediately.”

After settling Shiro’s clothing matter, he decided to visit the auction house, as he still had a small bulk of gold coins to spare. These past few days, he had been spending money like water, and with the amount of stuff that he had bought, it would be better if he had some kind of dimensional bag to put everything in.

Apparently, dimensional bags were somewhat rare, but it was not impossible to get one. It was just, because of its rarity, these things would usually cost quite a hefty price. However, with the money left over from the king’s generosity, Ryouta was able to spend money like a lord.

Thus, they immediately headed towards the auction house that was said to have a few bags for sale.

“Hey, sell that girl to me.”

Suddenly, a voice rudely called out to Ryouta.

Ryouta turned around, facing the person who had called him out. A luxuriously dressed man, accompanied by rough-looking men, was walking towards him.

The man had taken a liking to the beautiful white-haired girl at first glance, and upon seeing the obvious slave collar on her neck, he had already decided he would possess her. The man thought that with his status and the amount of money he had, the owner of the slave would definitely sell her to him immediately. However…

Ryouta glowered at the rude man, “she’s not for sale.” He held Shiro protectively, making sure to conceal her from the man’s view.

The man frowned, “speak, no matter the amount, I will have it prepared for you, in exchange for the girl.”

“She’s not for sale.”

After being rejected for the second time, the man felt annoyed. “Do you know who I am?! How dare you reject my generous offer!” He harrumphed arrogantly, glaring at the impetuous boy, who was probably some bumpkin who had just reached adulthood.

‘Even if you are a noble or a prince, I definitely won’t sell her to you!”

“Hmph! Fine, I can just take her by force!” The man ordered the rough-looking men behind him to take away Shiro, ignoring the fact that his actions were unreasonable and left a bad impression to the passers-by.

Though Ryouta was powerless in front of the people from the royal castle, it did not mean he was weak. Since he was trained by the captain of the royal guard himself, the sword on his side was definitely not a decoration.

After all, he had been travelling by himself while carrying a bag full of money; so he was rather used to being the target for robbery. Sure enough, he quickly gained battle experience through fighting off bandits.

Against these kinds of third-rate nobles and thugs, it was not impossible for him to defeat them!