Volume 2 Chapter 8: Part 2: It’s Rena Valentine

"Rebecca, stop moping around in the corner and come help me carry these plates!" Mary screams out to her daughter as she carries two plates in her hands. Right now, it's rush time for their inn. All employees are working hard.

And yet, Rebecca is staring into space without a care in the world.

"Ggghhh! What is he doing right now!" Rebecca rubs her head roughly, making her hair scruffle up. He's been gone for the entire day now!

"Can you not focus so much on Onyx? He's not even your boyfriend." Mary shakes her head, seeing how her daughter acted. She's acting like a clingy lover who hasn't seen her husband for ages.

"Oh! Is Lil Rebecca finally having a crush this time!"

"So, who's the lucky person?"

"Isn't it that kid who wore that fancy suit today? You were staring at him like there was no tomorrow."

"Oh, that kid. You have some high-quality taste there."

The customers chime into what Mary said. Some of them knew about what happened in the morning. Rebecca's face turns red hearing all of these words!

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"That's what I just said." Mary sighs.

"I don't have a crush on him! I'm just worried that he might've been tricked by somebody!"

"..." Say that without a beet-red face. That red face of hers is saying something else entirely. But some customers are surprised by her embarrassment,

"Is this really Rebecca, the girl who rejected all of those guys?"

"That lucky bastard! I wish I was him!"

"I've seen the guy. To be honest, if you saw his face, anybody would want to be like him."

Rebecca is the star of the inn. Guys would come over just to see her. Yet all of them would be rejected without a thought. So to see her like this made them jealous and envious of the person who did it.

"Didn't Onyx say he's on a date today?" Mary remembers what Onyx said. The way he was dressed and acted showed that he was on a date.

"No! He didn't say anything like that! He just says he's going to be out!" Rebecca shakes her head, denying what she said. But that denial is thrown out the window when,

"I'm back." Onyx opens the door. Hearing his voice, Rebecca quickly greets him,

"Welcome back, On-" The cheerful greeting slowly becomes a stale voice as she stares at Onyx. More specifically, Rena in his arms.

"..." Oh boy! That's what everybody thought as they stared at the three. They knew this might turn into a bloodbath.

"..." Rebecca continues to stare at Rena, who's in his arms. Who is that? And why is she in Onyx's arms? A tint of jealousy showed on her face.

"Ahh, yeah. I'm back." Feeling something was wrong, Onyx responded back wryly.

"..." And after that, the three just stand there in silence. The silence continued with the three until Mary broke the silence.

"Onyx, who is that with you?" Mary's the same as Rebecca, shocked. She said he was on a date as a joke. Never did she expect Onyx to actually bring somebody here this quickly.

"A friend. She'll be staying with me for the time being." Onyx can't just say he bought Rena at an auction. What would happen if he said something like that to everybody here?

"I see." Mary didn't buy it at all. Seeing how Rena was dressed, that doesn't look like a friend. But she isn't going to pry, "Have you guys eaten anything yet?"

"I haven't. Can you bring me dinner upstairs today? And make it two, please."

"Sure. But it'll take some time."

"Thanks." Onyx doesn't say anything else as he walks up the stairs with Rena in his arms.

Seeing him leave like that,

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"So that kid got himself a girlfriend."

"What's going to happen to Rebecca?"

"Oof."

Rebecca's face twitches as she glares at the customers. The moment she did this, all the customers turned away, not wanting to face her wrath!

...

Onyx opens the door to his room, "I've been staying here for the past few days. It's a nice and cozy room." He places Rena on the bed.

"I see, master." Rena looks around the room. She doesn't say anything as she continues to look around.

"I'm going to go ask for something and get our dinner. For now, you should clean yourself off. The bath's on the other side of the room." Onyx points at the door on the opposite end.

One thing good about this inn is there's a bath. It's rare for an inn to have a bath. Most of them would have a small well to allow people to wipe their sweat off with their towel.

Even in his village, the only thing they would use is a well too. So to have a bath is a luxury.

"Understood, master." Rena nods her head.

Onyx smiles and doesn't say anything else as he leaves the room.

I wonder if Mary has some spare clothes I could borrow.

...

What am I doing here? Rena is in the tub right now. Never did she expect to be washing like this. She couldn't believe the man who bought her would treat her like this.

Does he not know what I am? Why did he buy me in the first place? A ton of thoughts came into Rena's head, thinking about why Onyx bought her in the first place.

Rena looks at her arm, specifically the crest on her hand.

The crest will only show on her hand, not Onyx.

Proof that she's a slave.

As she looks at it, she thinks about what he's going to do with her. She couldn't go against his will with this on her hand.

Who is he? But the most important thing is what's his identity? Rena slides her head deeper into the baths. The hot water calms her head down. But then;

Why is he treating me so well?! She couldn't understand that! Even while they were leaving, he would princess carry her!

Princess carry. Just remembering what he did made her blush, and she could feel steam coming up from her head. No! No! No! He has to have a motive for doing all of this.

Looking at the bubbles in her hands. A thought came into her mind. That's it!

That has to be the reason!

Rena's mind finally understands the reason. But then her face turns red, thinking that's the case.

...

These should be good enough. Onyx smiles. In his hands are some spare clothes Mary gave him. She gave him some of Rebecca's old clothes. And on the other hand is their dinner.

She's probably hungry after all this time. Remembering how thin she was, Rena must not have been eating for a few days.

"I've got our-ehh." When Onyx opened the door, what he saw made his eyes go wide. His mouth stuttered, trying to make heads of what was going on. They almost burst out from his mask by how shocked he was.

"Why are you naked?!" Onyx screams out. Yes, what he's looking at is a naked Rena. Well, she's semi-naked.

Rena did wear a towel in front of him.

"What do you mean, master?"

What do I mean? Onyx loses his cool, "Why are you out of the bathtub and in a towel?!" His voice cracks as he asks this. He had never experienced something like this.

Not even from Irene.

"Didn't you want me like this?" Ain't that why you want me to be cleaned? That can be the only reason why Onyx had bought her. It's the obvious choice.

After all, those who bought women usually use them like this.

Onyx puts the food down on the table and waves his hands around, "No! I did not buy you something like that! Who do you think of me as?!" He understood what Rena was thinking of right now.

And his head almost exploded out of embarrassment.

"Here! Please wear this first! Then we'll talk!" Onyx hands the clothing to her and quickly gets out of the room!

"..." It's Rena's turn to be stunned into silence. Am I wrong? But then she looks down in embarrassment.

It only took a few seconds for her to finish dressing.

"Master, you can come back into the room now." Onyx walks back into the room. Phew, thank goodness.

Rena's wearing a dress now.

"You look better now." Compared to before, she looked much cleaner and softer. If anybody saw her right now to before: they would be surprised it's the same person.

"..." Rena doesn't say anything as she looks down.

"Oh, here's the food. I thought you were hungry." Onyx calmly says as he hands the plate to her.

Rena takes the plate from her. But she still doesn't say anything and continues to look down.

Hmm? "What's wrong?" Onyx tilts his head, wondering why Rena was acting like this.

"Master, if it isn't any trouble, may you answer one of my questions?"

"Hmm? What's the question? Also, give me your arms."

"Ok." Rena shows her arms to him. And Onyx takes out a potion, "This will sting a bit."

Saying this, he starts rubbing the potion onto her wrists. He notices her wrist to have scratch marks left from the cuffs.

"Tsss." Rena sucks wind. It stung.

"Sorry, I'll be gentler." He rubs the wounds more gently. With that, Rena didn't make any sounds,

"So, what's the question you have for me?"

"Why did you buy me in the first place?" Rena can't understand why Onyx would buy her. If it isn't for her body, then what is it?

"Ahh. That." Onyx scratches his head and explains, "I bought you because I want to."

"..." Because you want to? Do you think I'm a 5-year-old? A child would believe his excuse. But not for her. No way was that reasoning going to fly for her.

Noticing the look too, Onyx sighs, "Alright, alright, I'll tell you the reason." He takes off his mask. And when he did, Rena gasps,

"Remember me?"

"You're the one from that time!" Of course, she remembers him. She locked eyes with Onyx, and she did the same.

"Mmmhmm. I didn't buy you for your body or do anything like that. I bought you because I didn't want to see you in that cage."

"Didn't want to see me in the cage?"

Onyx nods, "Yep. From the moment I saw you in the cage, I decided I wanted to save you. That's the reason why I did it."

"..." Hearing all of this, Rena doesn't know how to make out all this. You wasted 18 platinum coins on somebody who just made eye contact with you.

"All done!" Onyx bandages her wrist up, "Now, show me your legs. Those cuffs really caused a lot of scratches." Not only was Rena cuffed on the wrist, but her legs too.

"Ahh, it's ok, master. I can do that myself." But Onyx denies it,

"It's ok. Also, you should start eating. You haven't eaten for days, have you?"

"How can I eat before you, master?" How can she eat before her master? But,

GRRRRRRRRRRR

Rena's stomach has something else to say to that. Her face turns red in embarrassment again, not believing that to happen.

Onyx chuckles a bit, "Just eat. I'm not that hungry right now." He hasn't eaten anything the whole day, and he can manage it.

"...Understood. Thank you for the food, master." Rena nods her head. She couldn't stop her hunger no matter how she tried.

"No problem. And I'm not the one who made it anyways." She should be thanking Mary instead of him.

"Also, you don't have to call me, master. My name is Onyx Silver." Onyx scratches his face as he says this. He felt his hand cringe whenever he heard Rena call him master.

"Then master Onyx?"

".....Good enough." Realizing she isn't going to drop it, Onyx will have to make do with that.

"Also, what's your full name?" He never got Rena's full name.

Rena smiles, "It's Rena Valentine."