Fwah~! Slavery is great! I love slavery!

Sitting alone in my cage, I stretch myself out across the dirt floor and stare out happily into the black of the night, illuminated by nothing but the gentle blue glow of the moon, and the occasional lantern of a passing slaver making the rounds on their patrol.

I think it’s been a little over a week now since I became a slave. Every day since then has been filled with nothing but bliss. Strutting and posing down the runway, barging in on the slaver’s feasts, having all the cute slaves lick the salt from my greasy fingers, and paying occasional visits to Mistress Thea—the boss of the slavers—who seems to enjoy watching me strip and work out in front of her.

All in all, being a slave has been a lot of fun so far!

Ah, in all my fun, I forgot to find out where Mei-Mei and the others ended up. I was meant to look around for them, but I keep forgetting to. I hope they’re having fun too...

On that thought, I’m suddenly alerted to a soft and stuttery voice from outside my cage.

“B-big sis Pepper. Is that you...?”

“Hm?” Looking towards the voice, I notice the large, yellow eyes staring at me from outside the bars. Immediately, I recognize who it is as the missing memories all flood back at once. “Fwah! Biscuit!”

The adorable white-haired wolfgirl wags her tail happily as I turn towards her.

“Ah, I finally found you!” she exclaims, before nervously looking around behind her. “Ah, s-sorry. We have to be quiet or they’ll hear us...”

“Ah, right. My bad...”

Of course, moving around the camp would be a breeze for Biscuit. With her Curse of being forgotten, nobody would be able to detect her, meaning she could easily go from cage to cage as she pleased. Kind of like how I’ve been doing. Except a lot more stealthily.

“So, how is everyone?” I ask. “I’ve been meaning to find you guys but I keep forgetting... Did you all become slaves too? Are you having fun? Did you not get one of these cute chokers as well?”

As an added bonus of becoming a slave, we all get to wear these super cute metal collars. It’s a little tight around the neck, but that’s the price you have to pay if you wanna look ultra fashionable, I guess. It feels like something my eldest sister, Koffy, would wear. She’s been really into this kind of aesthetic lately.

“W-well... Because of my C-Curse, I didn’t become a slave. They just left me at the shore by myself. I had to follow the slavers here to find you all...”

Oh, right. If Biscuit was unconscious out there, the only way to find her would be to accidentally stumble over her body. With her Curse, it makes sense that she wasn’t plucked up like the rest of us. They must’ve just completely overlooked her...

“And what about the others?”

“Big sis Mei-Mei is f-fine. The slavers are treating her well because she’s a dwarf and that makes her rare. She tried to p-play dead at first but they eventually found her out and now they just have her treat the sick and injured.”

"I see..." Mei-Mei's good at all that smart, doctory stuff, so I'm sure she's happy enough with that. "And Bran?"

“B-Bran is... The slavers said that he was complaining too much so they threw him in with the m-monsters instead...”

“... Fweh? Is that... Is that okay? Is he still alive? Should I go help him or something?”

“N-no, Bran is fine... The monsters seem to be keeping away from him too. I think he’s p-probably safer there than he is with the slavers...”

Well, Bran does like to complain a lot. I guess neither the slavers or the monsters wanted to deal with that...

“What about the tree?”

“I... I haven’t found it yet. Sorry...”

Well, I’m sure it’s fine. It is just a tree after all.

Catching up with Biscuit for a while with our fun and idle conversation, I occasionally notice her eyes clouding over as her attention drifts away from me.

“Biscuit? You okay?”

“A-ah! S-sorry...” she says, zoning back in. “I was just... I was just thinking about Lust.”

“Fweh? Lust? What for?”

The last time we saw Lust was back at the Spire before she collapsed beneath the floor and into the bowels of the prison. Between her fight with Wrath, the collapse of the Spire, and Mom showing up, I wonder if Lust managed to make it out of there in one piece...

“Ah, n-no reason... I just hope she’s okay...”

“Mm! Me too!”

I don’t know why Biscuit would be overly concerned about that woman, but I hope Lust is okay too! I like Lust! I hope I can get to fight her again one day!

As our idle talk continues, we eventually wrap things up and she gets ready to leave once again.

“W-well, I should p-probably go now... I’ll make sure to visit again though...”

“Mm! Please do!”

“Ah, I almost forgot...” she says from over her shoulder as she scampers away into the night. “B-big sis Mei-Mei said to tell you she was impressed that you set up a rebellion so quickly. She said she’ll be ready when you are.”

“... Fweh? Wait, what do you mean rebell—?”

—And suddenly, I find myself staring out of my cage at nothing in particular.

What was I doing? Who was I talking to?

I can’t remember, but I feel like it might have been important...

Oh well! No point straining my brain over it, so I might as well get some sleep! Tomorrow’s gonna be another day full of fun after all!

...

As the fun-filled days tick by in much the same fashion—eating, feeding, stripping, and working out—I finally find myself face-to-face with a situation I’ve always dreamt of.

“I-it’s a date then,” Mistress Thea says, blushing as she fidgets with the door to my cage. “I’ll see you in my tent this evening. There’s a lot of things I want to tell you...”

And then she walks off, occasionally glancing over her shoulder at me as I wave goodbye from behind bars.

Fwah~! A date! A date with a cute girl! My very first! Finally!

“To think the Mistress would fall in love with a slave...” Mash comments, scratching his sweaty forehead from the other side of the bars. “And one of my slaves too... Maybe it really is my lucky break...”

Tearing open the cage door and stepping out into the afternoon sun, I gleefully skip my way along with pleasant thoughts of all the mouth-kissing I’ll get to do with my cute, leather-clad, future girlfriend.

“Fwahahaha—! Hm?”

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

Laughing happily to myself, my attention is suddenly caught by a slave in a passing cell waving me over and I stop in my tracks.

Moving up to the bars of the cage, they lean in close and whisper quietly in my ear.

“We’re ready when you are, Leader. This evening will be the time for action.”

“It sure will be!” I tell them, and continue on my way.

That was weird! I don’t know who that guy is or why they called me ‘Leader’, but tonight will be the time for action. Lots of steamy, mouth-kissing action, I'm sure!

Recently, I’ve noticed a lot of people calling me ‘Leader’ for some reason. It started a few days ago and I don’t really know why. I just figured they were like the guys from the Spire who ended up calling me ‘Boss’. It’s kinda nice being called ‘Leader’ or ‘Boss’ though. It makes me feel important! So I’ve been letting it slide without question.

Stealing some steaks from the slavers again, I make my way to the section full of cute slave girls and break into their cage. I’ve noticed they’re all looking a lot more lively lately, and the dead, hollow look in their eyes has completely disappeared. Instead, replaced by a more determined look that’s a lot harder to read.

“Fwah! Pepper’s here! Time for your lunch!”

Hand-feeding them all, as is my daily routine, they lean in close and murmur in my ear.

“Tonight will be the night...”

“Thank you for everything, Leader...”

“It’s because of you, Leader, we’ll finally be free...”

“Sure, don’t worry about it!” I tell them, continuing to feed them strips of meat from between my fingers.

I don’t know what they’re talking about, but the feeling of their rough yet delicate lips against my fingertips feels nice so I don’t really care either way.

Finishing up, I wave them goodbye as I move to exit their cage, licking the greasy residue from my hands. Before I step out, however, a centaur girl I’ve got to know over my time here—Buttercup—stops me with an embrace from behind.

“Whatever happens to us, Leader, please don’t look back,” the tall, half-woman, half-horse slave tells me, leaning down to bury her face into my shirt. “As long as we have you to carry our hopes and dreams, we’ll live on forever. Thanks to you...”

“S-sure thing!”

Ruffling her hair and giving her rough, horsey hide a little pat, I wave the woman a confused goodbye as I continue on my way.

Fweh? Was that a confession?! It sounded kind of ominous somehow, but that has to be some kind of confession of love, right?! What’s up with all these women being interested in me lately? Has Pepper Black finally entered her popular phase?! Fwah~! It’s about time! My goal to kiss one thousand girls on the mouth should be a breeze from now on!

Looking beyond the makeshift walls of the camp and into the horizon, I watch as the sun slowly dips below my view, casting the entire area in a gentle orange glow. Nodding to myself, I make my way to the biggest, grandest tent in the whole camp. Mistress Thea’s tent.

It’s finally time.

Nervously straightening out my cute sailor uniform, I walk past the guards and make my way into the entrance of her tent. When I arrive, I already find her waiting for me, a table for two set up in the centre of the room, lit by a single candle. Instead of the tight, black leather she usually wears, she’s instead chosen to wear a white summery dress.

“You’re early,” she says, gesturing for me to sit across from her. “Eager, are we?”

“Fweh? Am I?” I ask, taking a seat at the table. “But you’ve already set everything up for us...”

Giggling, she gives me a bashful smile. "It seems I was the eager one then.”

This woman has really mellowed out since I met her! Her eyes have become a lot softer and so has her voice and the way she speaks. Looking at the person in front of me now is almost completely different to the one I first met all those days ago! She’s still super cute though!

“Fwah! That dress looks really nice on you, Mistress!” I tell her, digging into the food she prepared for us—some kind of weird vegetable dish that’s not really my thing but whatever. “It’s really cute!”

"Th-thank you, Pepper. I've never worn something like this before. I wore it just for you..." She blushes, averting her eyes as she toys with the food on her plate. "You know, you don't have to call me Mistress anymore. P-please, call me by my name..."

“Hm? Just Thea then?” Taking a sip from the glass in front of me, I immediately spit the red liquid back out again. Not really my thing either...

“Thea is my last name. Please call me Cinnamon...”

"Oh! That's a cute name! Ah, do you mind passing the bread sticks this way, Cinnamon? Thanks!"

At the mention of her name, Cinnamon glances away bashfully, attempting to hide her blushing face by taking a sip from her own glass.

I hope she doesn’t drink too much... If I’m gonna be kissing that mouth later, I don’t really want it to taste like dead fruit after all...

“You know, I’ve been thinking, Pepper...”

“Mm? Fin’ing a’out wha’?” I ask, a mouth full of bread.

“I’ve been thinking about giving up this whole slave trainer thing... All these years, I’ve grown used to everybody glaring back at me with nothing but disdain. I thought I was content with that. I thought those looks of hatred brought me some kind of satisfaction. But, the day I met you... It was the first time someone had looked back at me with genuine affection. Because of you, I found a side of myself I've been missing my whole life..."

"Fwah... Because of you, I got to strip in front of a cute girl without being arrested for sexual harassment! It was a first for me too!”

“C-cute girl... There you go again. Stirring up my feelings...”

As I snack on my bread, I can’t help but wonder which part of the date is the part where we’re supposed to kiss our mouths together.

“A-anyway...” she continues. “I was thinking, why don’t we leave all of this slave business behind? Let’s run away together and find a small town to settle down in. I could open up a restaurant and you could stay at home and look after the kids. O-only if you want kids, of course! We’d have to adopt, but I’ve always wanted to raise some daughters as my own...”

Looking down at the weird, half-eaten vegetable thing on my plate, I’m not so confident about the whole restaurant thing, to be honest. But...

“That sounds fun!” I say. “Sure, let’s do that!”

“R-really? You’d do that...? With me?”

“Sure! Why not? I’d have to tell Mom first though. She’d probably wanna visit or something.”

“Y-your Mom? You mean you already want me to meet your parents...”

Cinnamon’s face becomes redder and redder as she smiles at me dreamily with tears in her eyes. I don’t really get it, but her idea of setting up some kind of harem house for me, her, and a bunch of random little girls sounds fun so I don’t mind going along with it.

Suddenly, she reaches across the table and takes my hand in hers.

“Pepper...” she says, standing out of her seat and pulling me up towards her. “Thank you. For everything...”

Fweh? I-is this it? Is this finally the time?! My first of a thousand?!

As she moves her body close to mine, my heart rate skyrockets as my breathing becomes heavy and blood starts to spurt wildly from my nose in excitement.

Smiling sweetly, she takes a napkin from the table and wipes away the blood streaming down my face, before wrapping her arms around me.

“Please be gentle with me...” she says, before leaning her flushed face close to mine with eyes closed.

Fwah~! This is it! Pepper Black will finally take her first step into womanhood! My first kiss!

Leaning my face forward, I bring my waggling tongue towards her puckered lips and—

An explosion from outside rings out, followed by a lot of shouting and screaming.

“... Fweh?”

“W-what was that?” Cinnamon immediately tears herself away from me, leaving me to waggle my lonely tongue over nothing but empty air.

Bursting in through the entrance of the tent, a bloodied guard stumbles in and falls across our romantic table for two.

“M-Mistress Thea...” he gurgles through laboured breaths. “The slaves... They’re rebelling...”

“They’re what? But...” Wide-eyed with shock, Cinnamon turns to me with her mouth agasp. “Pepper, did you...?”

Suddenly, another guard bursts through the entrance with a panicked look. “Mistress Thea, the slaves are—!”

Before he can finish, an elven man in ragged clothes pounces in from behind, running a small knife across the slaver’s neck and pushing him to the floor. The guard clutches at his slit throat with pleading eyes as the blood violently gushes out across the tent and pools beneath our feet.

“... Fweh?”

“Leader!” The ragged man shouts, a triumphant, fiery look in his eyes as he raises his knife toward me with respect. “This one is for you! For everything you’ve done for us! It’s time to finally take the fight to these disgusting slavers!”

—And then he runs back out of the tent towards all the screaming and shouting, leaving me standing there, completely confused, my tongue still hanging outside my mouth.

Cinnamon stands there trembling, her pretty white dress stained red by the slaver’s blood. Tears stream down her face as she glares at me with disgust.

"All this time... All this time..." she chokes out her words. "You were using me all this time... to stage a rebellion..."

“... Fweh?”

“I can’t believe you! I never want to see you again!” she screams, storming off into the back of her tent, leaving me alone—both kissless and confused—with two dead and bleeding guards splayed across the floor at my feet.

...

With my tongue still hanging expectantly over my lips, all I can do in response is squeak out a single question with a weak and cracked voice.

“... Fweh?”