I never would have imagined I would have to return to another slave house for another slave so soon. This might seem heartless since it might look like I am replacing Juyu like I think nothing of her death, but I have to realistically think of the future. Hana can't handle the battles herself. I turn to gaze at Hana walking silently beside me.

“...” (Hana)

I know she must be hearing all these thoughts of mine, but I can't control nor hide my real thoughts so easily from my ability. When my thoughts come, they naturally come before I realize it. I don't believe I can control it with mental strength alone. I harden my heart for the future.

Because I am familiar with the procedures now, I arrived at the slave house with ease. I went to the Travelers’ Guild, paid for the information, and arrived at the marked location. It was a… church.

“Mein…” (Meirou)

I unconsciously voice a name under my breath. Kanko peeks out, and looks up at me with a mixture of emotions; bewilderment, sadness, and warmth. Hana had the same expression, an indescribable expression. They must have ended up seeing some old memories of me and Mein together. I am glad they won't delve too much about it right now, since it's memories during my time in my original world.

「Master Meirou, is she one of the friends you are searching for? She matches from the descriptions you shared to us.」 (Hana)

「Y-Yes, she matches.」 (Kanko)

「Ah, yes.」 (Meirou)

I wonder what kind of feelings they are going through right now? We've had a long discussion at a nearby restaurant before I decided to head to a slave house. Discussing to what extent the details of the telepathy is conveyed and shared. It seems us three can hear each other's thoughts, as well as see any memories with the emotions attached to it; but only during that time when it has resurfaced by the consciousness of the individual. We can't see each other's hidden or dormant memories, but if any of us focus on specific memories, the others will end up seeing those memories as well.

I speak and confirm my intentions with one of the workers inside the church, and he leads me to the room of the one in charge.

“I heard you wanted to speak with me?” (???)

I hand him the letter I received from the Travelers’ Guild. The man opens the letter and nods after reading it's contents.

“Follow me.” (???)

I follow him through a series of doors, and head downstairs. The way here was needlessly intricate… we enter a room I recognize all too well, but with slight differences. We move to sit on the red sofas which are on respective sides of the small table in the middle of the room, and face each other. Hana moves to silently stand behind the red sofa near me.

“Let me officially introduce myself. I am the current slave trader in this city. Slave traders change every so often in this city, so call me whatever you wish. What kind of slaves do you want?” (???)

‘A slave with combat experience’ is what I was about to say, but I swallowed my words. I reconsider my answer for a moment.

“Can I take a look through all of them?” (Meirou)

“Well, that's fine. I'll show you the way then.” (Slave Trader)

The slave trader unlocks the metal door, and enters the back room. Compared to the previous slave house, the room here is much larger. As expected, there are much more slaves here. There are probably no less than 80 here from estimating the number of stacked cages. Slaves are more common than I thought… When I first encountered the existence of slaves, I wasn't as surprised as I thought; but to see so many slaves in one place to be sold by the market, I started to really question how deep the existence of slaves are ingrained to this world’s social structure.

I glanced around the room. There are a few humans among various beastkin. Ah- ‘A beastkin of the squirrel tribe. The squirrel tribe is known for their nimbleness and instinctive magic.’ ‘Harpies are one of the four major powers on this land. Known for their superiority over the skies.’ flowed into my head. I took a glance at Kanko and Hana, but see no reaction. It's information that everyone should already know since childhood after all. The harpy catches my eye. There was a harpy near the end of the room. She seems to be the only one left, and her appearance is quite hygienic.

“Ah, harpies sell out rather quickly, but that one is a special case. No one would want to buy a blind slave. They are useless, after all.” (Slave Trader)

“...” (Meirou)

Her eyes were closed, sitting in a fetal position. I approach her, and squat down to her eye level. She seemed to have given a reaction from my presence. I focus and attempt to connect with her mind. Buying her is just asking for more burdens to carry, but I can't stop myself from ignoring her.

I once had a friend from childhood that was also blind, and our teacher wanted the class to look out for her. No one really wanted to do it, so me and two others were assigned to help her during class. One of the two girls assigned weren't bothered to help out, and mostly dumped everything onto me and the second girl. To make matters worse, there was bullying. The bullying was pretty bad to the point that even us two assigned to help her were also bullied.

The turning point was the attempted rape. A pair of girls made some sort of deal with a senior middle school student, and attempted rape onto the blind girl. Me and her were desperately trying to find her around the school grounds, and thankfully we found them before she was raped in the truest sense of the word. She was already forcibly stripped naked, as there were signs of struggling on her arms full of swollen spots. Her mouth appeared to have been played around with from the fluids leaking from her mouth. Nonetheless, she was safe from impregnation. Despite figuring that out, I flew into a rage, and started the fight with the senior middle school student with my first punch. It wasn't exactly one-sided, but I was really getting beat up, but I was saved by a teacher that the girl who searched with me ran to call for.

Since that day, the blind girl moved to a different elementary school. The incident became widespread within the neighborhood. Because of that... my parents worried about my sister's wellbeing, so they decided to move away as well.

「Meirou, I see affinity with your magic in her just like me and Hana.」 (Kanko)

In the first place, I still can't figure out a solid reason how my mind synchronized with Hana and Kanko. Just ‘because of a drastic emotional breakthrough’ is not enough of a reason. I will not in hell plan on experiencing something like that ever again, rather I'd give all my power to avoid such a tragedy again. I unconsciously move to pet Kanko that would usually be on my shoulder, but end up touching air.

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“Ah.” (Meirou)

I forgot, she told me she will hide in my pocket while I'm here. Hana noticed my action and grinned. I scratch the back of my head in embarrassment. Anyway, should I decide on a forth companion as well?

「Ehehe. Meirou. She as well has strong affinity with you.」 (Kanko)

Kanko, holding in her giggles from my unconscious action, slightly pops her head out, and points at a slave on the other side of the room. after confirming my line of sight, she quickly returns to hiding. I stand up and turn to face the slave trader standing near the entrance.

“I'll take the harpy, and… that dogkin over there.” (Meirou)

The slave trader turns to me and nods. He releases the two out of the cage. Taking a closer look the dogkin has a cold demeanor.

“...” (Meirou)

I watch the two as the slave trader returns to the room dragging them along. The harpy shivers in pain as she hugs herself to attempt on containing it with sweatbuds forming, while the dogkin simply twitched a few times. They never spoke a word. As we finish the slave contracts, I twitched at the slave trader casually ‘packing’ the slaves, and handing them over to me. As we leave the neighborhood, I turn to an alleyway, and release them. The both of them are a lot calmer than I thought. The harpy breathes in relief that she is out of the bad.

“Can I ask why did you buy me?...” (Harpy)

The dogkin observes her surroundings, and avoids eye contact with me. We haven't made eye contact ever since we've met at the slave house. I sigh. I look at the harpy. Should I just tell her the truth? The blind girl I knew in my original world, and this harpy aren't the same person after all; they are two different people. Seemingly noticing my silence, she didn’t question further.

“Do the both of you have names?” (Meirou)

“No.” (Harpy)

“I don't remember my name. You can call me whatever you wish, Master.” (Dogkin)

The one point that those who are disabled by blindness have in similarity, tend to be reserved and have mental courage, because they are much more sensitive to their surroundings. They do whatever they can on their own, and don't rely on others unless they truly need it. Basically, pity is uncalled for. The moment I found out she was unnamed; a perfect name came to mind a second later.

“From now on, your name is Hika.” (Meirou)

“Hika?” (Harpy)

I reach out my hand, about to pet her, but she suddenly takes a step back covering herself with her wing-like hands of a bird. I stop myself. She seems to have sensed me approaching her, and started feeling apprehensive from my sudden approach. I lower my hand.

“Hika, I look forward to being together with you from now on.” (Hana)

Hana smiles, as she speaks to Hika in a bright voice.

“Kanko as well! I hope we get along!” (Kanko)

The harpy twitches her ears in surprise.

“Fairy?” (Harpy)

Wow, she guessed it correctly from Kanko’s voice alone. Was it her hearing? has she met fairies before in the past?

“Hika, Master Meirou won't hurt you. We as well. Please believe in us.” (Hana)

The dogkin slightly reacts to Hana’s firm comment.

“Eh? ‘Master’? You're a slave, too?” (Harpy)

“Yes. I was always being saved by Master Meirou.” (Hana)

I start feeling embarrassed from being complimented to that extent. Probably from Hana’s cheery voice, the harpy relaxed a bit.

“Well, I do want you to believe in me, but I won't force you to. At the very least, please understand that I want to work together with you as companions.” (Meirou)

I carefully worded what I wanted to convey to her.

“I understand, thank you… Master. From now on, I will support Master to the best of my ability.” (Harpy)

T-That was a stiff introduction. From her slightly relaxed expression, I could see her slightly smiling. I guess it's fine.

“If possible though, I would like you to just call me by 'Meirou'. I'll be counting on you, Hika.” (Meirou)

“Uhn.” (Hika)

I’m glad. Hika has some self-confidence to an extent. Thinking back to when I first bought Hana and Juyu; and how low their self-esteem was, I welcome this. Well, Juyu was simply scared from the start, so she just needed time to open up. With that, things turned out well. Since Hana was a special case, I guess it couldn’t be helped. I wonder if she was discriminated ever since she was young? I turn to glance at the dogkin as she was looking off into the distance.

“Until you remember your name, can I call you by Tan?” (Meirou)

“Yes, Master.” (Dogkin)

"You can also call me by 'Meirou'. I would prefer it over 'Master'. Let's work together from now on." (Meirou)

I raise my hand in front of the dogkin, but she doesn't take it. W-Well, I guess it's fine for now...

"......" (Dogkin)

…

We make way to return to the castle. If there was one thing I've regret doing, it was killing the guards back at that noble’s house in Centreville unconditionally. They were just following orders, and some of them might've not been aware of the Noble's true face. At the same time, I would've constantly worried over those that are truly loyal among the guards that might crave for revenge, chasing me to the ends of the continent; that would mean I would have to constantly look over my shoulder and worry about being backstabbed. Or there could’ve been spies among them. It couldn’t be helped if my face becomes known, but at the very least I want to hide my abilities. I guess there isn’t a single truly correct choice. In the end, I want to believe what I did was the right choice.

As the sun sets, I look out the window. This scenery doesn't change no matter which world you're in. This ‘room’ has two small bedrooms inside, so Hana decides to sleep with the other slaves today, Kanko remains near me. I lay down onto the bed. Mein, I wonder when we can reunite again. I also wonder if the other two are also doing fine? I hope we can find each other soon. The encounter with Hika also brought about some memories to resurface from my childhood. Before I met Mein and the others. I became really close with the blind girl, and the girl who was assigned to help her alongside me. Us three truly had a tightknit relationship. If not for the incident, I think us three would've remained as very close friends till high school graduation. I guess that would mean I wouldn't have met Mein and the others though. I drift off into sleep with such thoughts.

…

“Me...ir...ou..!” (???)

Hm?

“Meirou!” (???) 

I notice a glint in front of my eyes. Eh!? I quickly move my arms in front of me out of reflex, then something familiarly cold enters my arm.

“Gah!!?” (Meirou)

“Meirou!!” (???)

I kick the hostile presence, but hit nothing but air. At the same time, the sharp foreign object retracts from my arm. M-My bone really saved me, or it would’ve stabbed through my arm straight to my neck. S-Shit, but it really hurts! I turn to find a half-hidden Kanko near my pillow with a frantic expression. I try and get up to get a good at the intruder. It was the dogkin.

“Why…?” (Meirou)

The dogkin runs up to me to make another assault with an unknown dagger from who knows where.

“I order you to stop!” (Meirou)

The dogkin stops in her tracks as the slave crest on her shoulder lights up noticeably from under her clothes.

“Tell me, why are you doing this!?” (Meirou)

“...’Believe in you’, she said.” (Dogkin)

“Huh?” (Meirou)

“All you Masters are the same. Lying bastards that enjoy building up trust, saying things like ‘believe in me.’, or ‘trust me.’, or ‘I won't hurt you.’, only to shatter and abandon our hope and trust in the end, laughing at our stupidity; as if you all are playing a game to see how far you can go. Our loyalty aren't things to play around with! I've decided that if I were to be bought once more, you will be the 7th and last master I'll ever serve.” (Dogkin)

The dogkin calmly replies to me with immeasurable hatred deep within her gaze. I can't keep her like that forever, so I try to convince her otherwise.

“Master Meirou!” (Hana)

Hana opens the door, and rushes into my room, followed by an alarmed Hika not long after. Hika’s ears twitches from my heavy breathing.

“Wouldn't you give me a chance?” (Meirou)

“I’m sorry, Master...” (Dogkin)

A silence follows, as I try to figure out her state of mind from our eye contact. Her eyes are really beautiful. I feel like her hostility is dispersing, so I let my guard down a bit and release the order; as I take the dagger from her hand. The dogkin looks at her hands as she is released from the binding of the slave contract. Suddenly, she appears right in front of me, and grabs my neck.

“I'm sorry, ‘Master’. I've delayed this decision for far long enough.” (Dogkin)

“Wha-!?” (Meirou)

Was that the dogkin’s speed magic!?

“I o-ord...er… y-y- Gah!?” (Meirou)

I felt something breaking in my neck. Hana uses jump magic to leap and kick the dogkin, forcing her to release her grip from my neck.

“*cough cough*” (Meirou)

S-Shit, did she break my vocal cords!? I can't voice any words!

「H-Hana, hold off your attack. Just give me a bit more time! Kanko!」 (Meirou)

「Yes!」 (Kanko)

I still have hope on convincing her. Kanko jumps from the bed to reach my outstretched hand as I run towards her, but the dogkin grabs a random tool, and throws it to obstruct Kanko. Kanko gets hit, and thrown to the other side of the room along with the tool.

「Kanko!!」 (Meirou)

「Master Meirou, I'm sorry. I can't wait any longer.」 (Hana)

The dogkin uses her speed magic and extends her claws, as well as Hana with her jump magic to obstruct the dogkin. A few meters before the dogkin reaches me, her claws clashes with Hana’s magic-strengthened leg.

“Please give Master Meirou a chance!” (Hana)

“You all are being played with! Someday, you'll regret placing so much trust in a master!” (Dogkin)

The dogkin’s claws further extends, and slashes Hana across the face.

“Gagh!!” (Hana)

The dogkin continues her assault to me and speeds over, picking up the dropped dagger on the way. I raise my hand about to use my psychokinetic waves, but I hesitate for a split second. Suddenly, a shadow appears in front of me. The dogkin slashes down the shadow.

「HIKA!!」 (Meirou)

Hana was already behind the dogkin a second later, and stabs her from behind with her sword she picked up from near the spot she was flown to.

…