“Hehehehe, can you repeat that?” Donatello smirked. His delight evident even through his tight mask. Behind him, several girls with collars on their necks were polishing the turtle shell on his back.

“I…. I want to take on Jeanne’s debt.”

A puff of smoke left Donatella’s mouth as he gazed at the fox-girl kneeling below him. “Just that? Haha, and here I am, worried for nothing. Tell me, do you know how long we were in panic?”

“...”

“Four days. Until you came here yourself.” He shrugged tiredly. “Thought you were going to do a crusade with the way my scout talked about it. Yet, it turned out you wanted to help her by being a slave.”

“S-Slave!?”

Seeing her surprise, the boss let out another chuckle. “But I’m merciful. I won’t lie, those days of tension kept my blood pumping. Now’s your last chance to back out.”

The girl stayed silent. She thought about it long and hard before giving her answer. “I won’t change my mind. I have a promise to keep.”

“Khahahaha! Good! Good! I admit, your face is not too bad.”

Suddenly, a chill washed over Donatello’s spine. He blinked. And when he looked at the fox-girl again, he felt unparalleled attractiveness coming from her.

“My bad. You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

“T…Thank you….”

The feeling disappeared. Donatello found it weird but soon forgot about it. “Now, do you have any… sexual experience?”

Everything happened in slow-motion in Donatello’s eyes. From the transformation of the girl’s face into shock to steam billowing out of her head.

After much effort, she stammered out feeble words.

“N-No….”

“Disappointing.” He clicked his tongue and gestured to his goons.

The two guards beside him marched over to the girl and picked her up by her legs.

“I’ll let you gain some experience. Remember to be a good girl.”

The girl was then dragged deeper into the underground base. She arrived at a dark and claustrophobic room with a metal door separating it and the outside world. Upon closer inspection, she found a round hole in the wall.

“Yer better work hard to be da boss’ woman, slave.” One of the guards gave her a slap on the ass.

The girl turned around with a frown. “My name is—”

“Slave. Dat’s what yer are.” He roughly pushed her into the room and locked the metal door.

Now inside, she could faintly hear the guard’s mocking words.

“Don’t bite, or I’ll kil ya.”

***

Wow. That went much smoother than I thought. Even if I lost my cool a bit there, it still worked out in the end.

“Now then….”

I took out Requiem’s hilt I had hidden in my clothes and watched as a tiny shard of the blade crawled its way back.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

As it turned out, I could break Requiem. But it would just regenerate, and the weapon restriction still applied.

Still, that provided me a way to sneak a weapon inside.

And I didn’t sit on my ass and do nothing before now either. I identified all the goons that could enter the secret base and snuck shards of Requiem inside their clothes.

Now, I wait.

Until the sword was at least half-way reformed. It wasn’t as if I would lose—everyone I saw here was trash. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Urghhh, but that smell….”

The smell I hadn’t experienced before but one that I knew, especially considering the stain on the floor and wall. Dammit, I knew I should’ve kept my Ice! And I’m gonna burn all my clothes after this….

Fifteen minutes passed, and Requiem’s blade had now reformed to a little more than stub. Maybe it would take a few hours to be usable.

Urgh, let’s just hope—

A door clanked. And it wasn’t my door. Instead, it was probably the door of the room adjacent to mine.

Fuck— FUCK! Why now!?

I obviously had envisioned myself in this situation, but I didn’t expect anyone to actually come; not with the distraction I had set up!

My panic was even more heightened by the very loud unzipping sound.

“Ahhh, nothing better than relieving my stress.”

“Umm…. Mister? Can we…. Can we at least talk first?” I said with the sweetest voice possible.

The man on the other side stayed silent for a bit. Before long, he let out a long sigh. “Fine. What d’ya want to talk about?”

I hugged my knees as I thought back to my previous life and how my Ihwa let me lie on her lap and ask me questions.

“How’s your day?”

“Could’ve been worse.” He sounded really dejected. “One of our high-ranking members went missing and the boss’ been forcing us lowlifes to look for him.”

Heh, that’s because I interrogated him. How do you think I knew so much about this place?

“But why so much fuss over it? I get that he’s important, but….”

“It’s because if those pesky Adventurers or Mercenaries get hold of him, we’re gonna lose a lot of money in bribery.”

“I… I see.”

The conversation continued, eventually diverging into random and oftentimes serious topics. Forty-five minutes in, the man had already bawled his eyes out.

“Gurghh! Can you believe it!? My wife left me for a guy whose dick’s as long as a horse’s!”

“...I understand your pain.”

“I don’t wanna be horny anymore! I just wanna be happy!”

“Me too….”

It seemed like the session could go on for hours, but a knock on the man’s door interrupted it.

-”Fucking Jonah, why are ya taking so long? She’s that bad at givin’ head?”

-”Nay! Why d’ya fucking care?” He responded angrily. “Book me a slot for tomorrow too.”

-”Yer fuckin’ weird.”

After the other man left, the man in the room sighed. “I guess that’s it. See you tomorrow….”

“Yeah.”

—

Okay, I might’ve messed up.

[A legendary tale, told by the lowlifes of Akvon Port City.

It was of a single fox-girl trapped in a tiny room. Her voice so sweet your heart would melt.

She was so kind you would’ve to be a true monster not to love her.

She was… the therapeutic fox-girl]

“Therapeutic my ass…. I’m the one who needs therapy. Do you know how stressful it is hearing sad stories all day?” I waved the asshole Theodore away and focused on my situation. It’d been two days. Two. Days. And Requiem had just barely become useful.

Oh, yeah, I hadn’t seen any dicks for all of that time, so it was good, I guessed.

The meals that Donatello had his men give to me were no better than hard bread and some grass, but the men seeking “therapy” gave me some proper food once they heard about my usual meals.

Hell, not just food! They even gave me stuff to read and other stuff. Like the milk I was drinking. It tasted a little off and was a little sticky and dense—probably a bit spoiled, but I guessed it was still milk.

Anyways, it was time. I ignored the story the guy on the other side was giving me and stood up. Stretching because I hadn’t moved much for a few days, I focused my Aura on my fist and smashed the wall apart.

As the dust settled, I could see the man. Rugged hair, rugged clothes; a typical lowlife. I brought my sword down to his neck, ending his life in an instant.

It had to be done. He would alert my escape to the others the instant I left the room.

Though, it still left a bitter taste in my mouth.

“Dammit, this is why I don’t let anyone talk before I end their life.”

After all,

“It’s just so much harder to kill them….”