Chapter 10: Request


TL: Scaramochi


***


I have been living with Tiana for a month now.


She is still as thin as ever, but as Eilia, the priestess, had said, her skin tone has improved. The scar on her cheek has also faded considerably.


Tiana is a good sleeper, and once she falls asleep, she doesn't wake up even after a slight touch.


When I secretly stroked her calf, it felt moist and absorbent, and I was thrilled.


However, her chest were still flat and her buttocks were hard like an immature apple, and her body was slow to mature for 14 years old woman.


In the public eyes, she was old enough to have a child, so it wasn't impossible for me to have sex with her. However, it was also clear that the result would be less than desirable.


I don't enjoy hurting women. If I forced myself on her now, I might cause her to suffer a severe laceration. So I had endured for a month, but it would be a waste of time if I rushed into this.


Well, there was no need to rush, because we were eventually going to have intercourse. And although it was unexpected that I would come to feel this way, there was a part of me that didn't want to lose Tiana's trust.


In the past month, my position in this town has improved beyond compare. This is because Tiana has been spreading the word everywhere about what a wonderful master I am. I have heard that slaves from other houses are secretly jealous of me.


The other day, I overheard her having this conversation with a slave from another house she met at the store.


"By the way, you're having a terrible time in the house, do you? I won't tell anyone, so just be honest with me."


"No, I'm not."


"Anyway, you're actually being beaten, whipped, and groped in places hidden by your clothes, aren't you?"


"Yes, that's right. He often pats my hand when I finish my needlework. When he sees my hands soaked with blood from the needles, he cares for them."


The conversation is not subtle.


Hearing about how slaves elsewhere are being treated, she is more and more sure of her trust in me. I feared that she might be too much of a blowhard of other places' promiscuity, but she didn't seem at all aware that I was only holding out on her for future enjoyment.


The thief's work cannot be done impatiently. If you're not careful in the dungeon, death will soon be on your fangs. So when I wasn't sure that I had unlocked the trap, I refused to open the lock, no matter how much I was accused of being a coward.


But I have been called a coward's fool by some of my peers, after all.


That's why I am used to waiting patiently and my relationship with Tiana continued to be good without breaking down.


Tiana works hard, and life at home has become much more comfortable, and I have no complaints about that at all.


But I can no longer stay at home forever.


It was an unfortunate oversight that I had not noticed this before, but Tiana's presence had made the cost of living extra.


Perhaps I had spent too much money on food to keep her nourished. But that's because Tiana works hard and eats well, just as she is told.


I had given her a fruit once that I thought was good for her skin, and I bought her the same one from time to time too, which was probably one of the reasons.


When she peeled the thick skin of the pome fruit, she found a mass of small red bumps inside the white, fluff-like fibers. Inside the mash were seeds that were larger than the pulp.


The fruit wasn't very sweet, but rather sour. It was an inedible fruit and not to my taste, but Tiana was happy to eat it.


Without much expectation, I went to the guild to ask if there was any work for me. If not, I was going to dive into the dungeon alone. Just a quick tour of the safe areas should be enough to earn enough coins to last me a couple of days.


Jonathan, the receptionist brother, welcomes me when he sees me.


"Harris! What a nice place!"


"What's up?"


"It's been a whole day since the fledgling party went in. So we decided to send out a search party, but unfortunately, people are out."


The deeper a dungeon goes from shallow to deep, the less capable a person becomes. It's like going into a pond or a lake. If you're knee-deep in shallow water, it's not that different from the ground, but when you're chest-deep in water, it's difficult to even move. When you are completely submerged in water, it is difficult to even swing something you are holding.


While the conditions in the dungeon are not that extreme, the lower you go, the harsher the environment becomes for humans, and the slower they can move.


Just as there are fish that live in shallow water and fish that live in deep water, there are also layers of comfort for monsters.


The strength of the monsters was also proportional to the depth of the layer.


Of course, some monsters are more peculiar than others, so there is a margin of error of plus or minus two layers. It was common sense for newcomers to search in the first layer for a while.


However, there was no end to the number of idiots who, out of overconfidence, tried to challenge the second layer for the first time.


In the case of the dungeon near Norn, it was also not good that there was a stairway to the lower level about 100 steps after entering the dungeon.


One would have to casually descend the levels and say goodbye to this world. Whether it was an encounter with an extraordinarily strong straggler monster or a complicated trap, the mortal coil easily ensnared the adventurer.


It is possible that they are simply lost, but if they don't appear for a whole day, the chances are very small.


I volunteered to join the search party for a modest reward, but after returning home to prepare, the people I met were not so subtle.


There were three vanguards who were a novice, a mage and me. There were no members who could heal or cure.


Well, whatever, we were left with only a little more than enough medicine to heal ourselves, and we're going to face the dungeon.



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