Chapter 16: Spoils and Wolf
Paul had to work hard to not break into a beaming smile and hug the baron at this proposal. Sure, the girl had been through a lot, but having a loyal permanent party member would be amazing, and a sexy animal girl on top of that was more than he could have wished for.
In fact, it was really more than he could have wished for. Paul was sure there were a bunch of strings attached.
“Sir Rosenheim, I really appreciate your offer, but aren’t beast-kin servants incredibly rare? Are you sure you just want to give your precious servant away to a stranger?”
“Mr Paul, please do not worry about this. The fact that they are rare does not make them better servants. They are loyal if they are bound to a master, but in the wild they are little more than feral beasts. This dog’s only value to my family has been as a guard for my daughter, but as you can see it has utterly failed at the job. In fact, selling the beast now would only tarnish my reputation”
Paul was hesitating on the outside, but was thinking on how to properly accept the “gift”. The baron was clearly furious at the poor girl, so Paul felt like leaving her with them would make him a bad person.
“If it is your wish, I will accept your reward with gratitude. I will treat her with utmost care”
“I feel like leaving the beast with an honourable person like you might be too good for it. Dog, stand.” Kana stood up, then looked towards the direction of Paul with a worried expression. He smiled at her, making sure to express a warm, gentle feeling instead of a lewd or perverted one.
The baron opened her robe, exposing her front. Kana looked down, and the Baron looked unimpressed by the numerous bruises and wounds she had been inflicted with. He then placed his hand on the tattoo on Kana’s belly.
“I, Sir Hubert Rosenheim, hereby transfer ownership of this creature to the honourable Mr Paul. I do so voluntarily and as the rightful representative of the House of Rosenheim.”
He then signalled Paul to step closer. “Place your hand on the seal to finish the transfer of ownership.” When the baron removed his hand, Paul saw that the tattoo was emitting a faint glow. He then placed his right hand on the seal.
Paul felt a hot sensation for a second, then removed his hand when Kana looked up. He took a closer look at the tattoo and saw that the word “Rosenheim” had changed to “Paul”. The nobles’ name definitely had a more impressive ring to it.
While he was looking at the tattoo, a message popped up [New options are available. Please refer to the Main Menu for further information.] Before Paul could check it out, the baron spoke up.
“Now, please do me a favour and get your new servant out of my sight for tonight. Feel free to properly train her to your liking.” The baron was stepping away and sat down on the bed, next to his daughter. It seemed like the whole matter with his servant was now settled for him.
“Yes, thank you again for your generous gift. Kana, please come with me.”
The baron just waved his hand, without looking up from his daughter.
Paul then fetched two bedrolls from the barracks and went to the storeroom with his new wolf girl.
“Feel free to rest for a bit. There should also be food around in this room, so take whatever you like.”
“Yes, Master. I would like something to eat”
While Kana was looking over the shelves, Paul opened up the [Menu].
[You have unlocked the Party Tab. Followers can be registered under certain conditions: they must be loyal to the party leader, they must be present and willing to follow the leader’s commands. Followers with a much higher level than the leader can only be registered if bound with appropriate magic.]
He then opened the new [Party] tab.
[Do you want to register Kana as a party member?]
Paul chose [Yes]. A bar showed up, displaying Kana’s name first, followed by her health, mana and stamina values. It also showed an experience bar. What made Paul smile was the fact that there was a button called [Summon], although it was greyed out right now. She was probably too close to him right now, or perhaps there was a cooldown or something like that. She also showed up as a green dot on his minimap now.
Paul didn’t regret his decision to attack the bandits by himself for one second. He got a bunch of experience, a lot of money, some books that perhaps allowed him to learn magic and his own wolf girl slave. He couldn’t stop smiling.
“Master has a strange look on his face” when he closed the Menu and opened his eyes, Kana’s face was right in front of his. It looked a bit scary, because of the injuries, but at the same time Paul was thinking that she looked incredibly adorable. He held in the urge to pat her on the head.
“I found food, Master. Is it OK to eat now?” Kana held up a large lump of raw meat from an indiscernible source.
“Sure, you must be hungry. I don’t know where those bandits did their cooking, but we can go outside and make a fire to roast the meat”
“No need, it smells fresh. If Master allows, I want to eat it.”
“…sure. And no need to address me so formally. I’m fine with the whole Master thing, but you can also just address me in the first person.”
Kana tilted her head to the side. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand what Master means.”
“It’s OK, don’t worry about it. We can sort that out later. Just go ahead and eat your… food”
Kana nodded and dug her fangs into the meat, ripping out a large chunk with her teeth. Watching her was not really pleasant. She didn’t bite off the meat, she rather was tearing it apart.
Paul went over to the leather bag he had stashed the book in and took the first one out.
[A used book
Wrapped in leather and without a title.]
He was hoping to get more useful information. Paul would probably have to actually read them to find out about their contents.
He sat down on a bedroll close to Kana and put the lamp on a shelf nearby. It wasn’t bright, but coupled with [Night Vision] he was able to read the contents of the book.
He skimmed through the contents. There were several descriptions of magic materials like gemstones, metals, monster parts and rare plants and their uses. There was also a section describing different magic seals and spells that could be coupled with materials. After looking over most of the pages, it seemed to be a book to determine the effects of magic equipment and items. It didn’t contain any information how to cast the described spells or methods to create items on your own.
He started getting a headache from mana depletion and cancelled [Night Vision]. When he looked at Kana, she had finished eating and was licking her bloodied fingers clean.
“Kana, please stop that. It is unhealthy and it honestly looks disgusting. I’ll fetch a bowl of water and a towel.” There was a barrel with water in a corner of the room. The bandits probably had to bring water in from outside, so they stored some in the store room. After Kana told him that it smelled OK, he put some of it in a bucket and placed it on the floor. There were some clean clothes in a wooden closet, and he took out a linen shirt because he didn’t find a towel. When he came back to Kana, she was drinking out of the barrel.
Paul decided to just ignore it. Her behaviour was definitely not suited for a noble’s court, but to Paul it seemed charming. That’s exactly how animal girls should behave. He sent a silent prayer to Helena for creating this wonderful world.
After washing her face and hands, Paul wanted to tell Kana to show him her wounds so he could bandage and clean them, but he had no hot water and it was too dark for a correct assessment of her health. She had in fact recovered a point of health after eating, and she didn’t look troubled or in pain, so telling her to undress would just be sexual harassment at this point.
“Kana, let’s sleep for a bit.”
“Yes, Master.” Kana laid obediently laid down on the bedroll. Paul wanted to rub her belly but didn’t.
While looking at the adorable wolf girl, Paul wondered how the baron could have just given her away. If he had a change of heart tomorrow, Paul would never give her back. He would rather get himself killed and then summon Kana to Marcus’ village than transfer the magic ownership again.
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Paul and Kana were woken by the servant with the bandage over his head while he was looking for water early in the morning. They had just slept a few hours, but Paul wanted to get back to the village, and the sooner he brought the baron there the less likely it was that he would try to get Kana back from Paul.
Paul told Kana select the clothes and equipment she liked the most from the storeroom, and went to see the baron. Sir Rosenheim had already gotten up and was outside, near the entrance of the mine.
Considering that he was locked in a room smelling like a really, really dirty toilet for several days at least, it felt natural that he was catching some fresh air.
Paul didn’t bring up the topic of the wolf servant and instead suggested to leave for Prozor soon. Paul would scout the area first to make sure that it was safe, then come back and lead them to town. Of course Paul’s intention of leaving alone first was to stash the books at the dead tree near the forest. He took his backpack with him on the way. He had wanted to loot the place, but the bulky equipment was pretty much worthless compared to the coins he had found. He rather let the guard carry it back to town and was hoping for a share.
After returning, he met with Kana and the others. Kana had changed into a pair of rather tight brown leather pants that ended a bit below the knee and had only little defensive value and a plain leather cuirass. That was all. Paul didn’t scold her, but he was close. He took her back to the store room and decided on the equipment for her.
Not only were the two pieces revealing to the point that one could read Paul’s name underneath her belly button, it was also a wasted opportunity to grab some extra gear.
He had her change into a light brown linen shirt that covered her stomach and shoulders, slightly baggy leather pants that went down to the ankles and picked out plain but sturdy looking shoes, that were basically cut furs with straps. He also found some leather bracers. He let Kana use the cuirass she chose earlier, one reason was that he didn’t want to dismiss her choices entirely, the other was that there actually were no better armours. Paul also gave her his woollen cape to wear.
He also gave her the wooden shield and a short sword. Kana rapidly swung the sword up and down, cutting the air. To Paul it looked like the sword had no weight at all.
“Master, I don’t prefer this weapon. It is not suited for people of my age.” She basically said it was a toy in her eyes.
“Please just hold on to it for now. I will get you a real sword later” Paul felt a bit down because the short sword he was wearing was even lighter.
He also quietly stashed away the tight leather pants, because he secretly thought they looked good on Kana.
They went back to the others afterwards. The plan was to leave the wounded servants at the mine, while Paul would bring the baron and his daughter to Prozor. Kana wanted to come with them, but Paul insisted that she was to stay behind to watch over the wounded and the prisoners. He mostly wanted to keep her away from Baron Rosenheim. She accepted and sat in front of the prison door.
Paul gave her a quick and gentle head-patting and promised to come back as soon as possible.
Charlotte could in fact walk on her own, at least for a while, but Paul offered to carry her on his back and the baron agreed. After everyone ate a bit, they headed off.
The girl was still wearing the robe Paul gave her last night. Paul could not help but notice that the legs he was holding while carrying her were bare. He tried not to think about whether or not Charlotte was wearing anything underneath the robe and ended up thinking about it all the way back to Prozor.
When they arrived at the bridge, he briefly greeted Frank and gave him a quick explanation of what happened.
Frank insisted on informing the guard captain, and escorted them to the town guard headquarter.
“So, you are saying you stumbled over the bandit hideout by chance that we haven’t been able to locate for months and singlehandedly wiped them all out?” The guard captain didn’t seem to buy the story, even though it was not entirely false.
“Ahh, it is a bit more complicated. I met a group of foreign hunters while out in the field to the east. They told me that they were attacked by a group of people in the woods, but defeated them.
They left towards the east, but told me where the fight had happened. I just went to look for it, and must have gone into the forest too far when I found the mine. I was able to overwhelm two of the bandits, so I am sure they can tell you more about what went on there if you interrogate them.”
The guard captain seemed to be reluctant to buy Paul’s lie, but didn’t say anything. Paul once again regretted not having learned the [Deception] skill.
The baron butted in and told the captain that he was sure Paul was an honourable man. He also suggested that the town guard should be thankful that their work is already done and they would just have to investigate the place. Paul was not sure if that was really helpful to him. The baron also made sure to confirm that the punishment of the captured bandits was not to be decided on before he had consulted over the matter with the lord.
“There are still the baron’s wounded servants who need support to get to Prozor. So I would kindly ask for you to send some men. I will gladly lead them to the place.”
The captain then sent a squad of 6 men with Paul to investigate the place and help bring back the baron’s men, the captives and whatever evidence they could find. They were basically told to loot the place of everything valuable.
Paul was to report to the headquarters again the next day. He was hoping that he would get a reward and not be arrested.
Paul led the guards to the mine, gave them a quick tour through the complex and also told them to look for a secret stash of coins. He did not really want to go back and look for it himself any time soon.
Paul took Kana, said goodbye to the baron’s men and left the place. On the way they picked the books and his backpack and Paul had Kana switch the short sword with a regular one. She looked more satisfied with the weight and reach. Paul also had her change into a better piece of armour, but had already decided to buy her a nice piece of new armour back in town.
Paul had Kana wear the hood, to draw less attention to her while going into town. After a brief talk to the innkeeper, he agreed to let them stay in room with two beds for another ten days for 4 small silver coins. It was not the best deal, considering that he had about half of the days of his initial rent left, but after gaining a large amount of money in a short time, Paul didn’t want to haggle over a few copper coins.
He moved all of his stuff to the new room, then went to see Vincent while telling Kana to wait in his room.
He didn’t want the two to meet. While he thought that Vin was not a really bad guy inside, he just wanted him to leave as soon as possible. Without Vin’s help things would have been harder. If he chose to go to Marcus’ settlement that would be good, if not, Paul would not miss him either.
Paul informed Vin that the bandits were gone, and advised him to leave the village soon. He told him that Elizabeth and Brian were brought in as prisoners, so he might be identified by them or one of the secret contacts if he was careless.
Vin was sceptical at first, but after hearing the details he thanked Paul until he got annoyed by it. When Paul mentioned that he had brought the wolf girl with him Vin looked genuinely happy, so Paul decided not to think too hard about it anymore.
Afterwards he went out for lunch with Kana, who drew some unwanted attention with her savage way of eating and they spend some time strolling the market square until afternoon.