TUS Vol. 1 Chapter 1 Part 2

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Chapter 1 Part 2

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☆★☆★☆★

Now, things are getting very complicated.

I left the place hastily after that, but—

“Umm…uhh…err…. Please become my master”

Anyway, the silver-haired man has decided to turn himself in, but the problem is the slave girl he had with him.

For some reason, the slave girl got attached to me….

Well, I understand that she wouldn’t have a place to stay if she stayed in a place like that.

And so she is now on her knees begging me, with her beautiful silky pink blonde hair just barely touching the ground.

“No, even if you call me master…”

“Umm, uhh…”

I mean, this girl looks unsure of herself.

Her eyes are always looking down and her bangs make it difficult to grasp her expression. She also constantly has a nervous and timid look to her.

Well, she did spend time as a slave, so I guess it’s inevitable to some extent.

“A-A-As-Ash I…”

“Ash I?”

The girl’s face flushed a bright red and immediately averted her eyes from my gaze.

Ah, she bit her tongue, huh.

“U-U-Umm, uhh…err…a-as I was trying to say, slaves without owners don’t have human rights. If I continue to go to a place where people are present, I will be captured as a fugitive slave and be taken to a slave trader after they do terrible things to me”

As this child said, slaves and their masters have their souls linked by a magic incantation called the slave crest.

It’s a ‘simple-is-best’ type of system where if you disobey the master, there would be a penalty activated, with the worst penalty being death, so slaves can never oppose their master.

And, if the master dies or becomes a criminal, the engraved black slave crest on the slave becomes gray.

When a person becomes a criminal and is imprisoned, they will have every possible magic formula on their body erased, well, that’s part of it. Therefore, it will be odd if a criminal can own slaves.

Typically when the master dies, their family members would reapply the incantation of the slave crest as their inheritance.

But if there are circumstances where that is not possible, the slave would look for a new master on their own accord.

Those who are cast into slavery will never crawl back up again unless they go through all the necessary formalities in this world.

That’s why, in a sense, being engraved with a slave crest is considered a heavier punishment than the death penalty in this world.

In other words, in her current state, if she doesn’t choose someone from the human race, or even the demi-humans, as her new master…terrible things could happen to her.

“You look kind, rather…at least a million times better than that silver-haired man, that’s for sure. So please be my master…”

“Well, let’s put that aside for now, how did you end up as a slave?”

“I’m a descendant of Demon Royalty, we lost in a war against a human country a long time ago…”

Hmmm, I’ve heard that a lot.

At any rate, that silver-haired man seems to have made a lot of money. A slave of such a rare bloodline would be traded at a horrifying price.

“I may look like this, but I’m a distant relative of Merlin-sama, the headmaster of the Altena Magic Academy, a prestigious magic academy for demons. Although I am of such noble blood…I’m now in this shameful state…”

Hearing that, I froze.

“Err…what’s the matter?”

“………”

“Were you surprised that I’m of noble blood?”

“……no, that’s not the case…not at all”

“Then…what’s wrong?”

“When you say Merlin…you mean Merlin, the mage of the demon race, right? Long ago…she studied magic with one of the Four Emperors, Ephthal…”

“Yes”, nodded Anastasia.

“…Th…that’s right. She was raised by the legendary sage, Ephthal-sama of the Four Emperors—and is now a top class mage who is considered to be the best even among the demon race”

So that’s the case.

Merlin had achieved greatness as a mage and became the headmaster of a prestigious school.

That child has always been a hard worker and is talented as well.

Even after all these years, I am surprised at the long life span of a demon, or rather, a half-demon and half-vampire.

No, but if I think about it logically…then surely she would still be alive if it is just about four hundred years.

I let out one small sigh of relief.

As expected, I can’t just leave Merlin’s relatives here now, could I?

“I guess it can’t be helped”

“Does that mean you will be my master?”

“Ostensibly, we’ll stick with that for the time being. We’ll figure out what we’ll end up doing in the future…but for now, I can’t just leave you alone”

“U-Umm, uhh…thank you very much!”

And so we began to head for the magic academy—though it is a different academy than the one where Merlin is the headmaster.

☆★☆★☆★

Now, we’ve finally reached the city.

At long last, tomorrow is the long-awaited magic academy entrance exam, it’s something to get excited about, isn’t it?

After checking in at the inn, we left our baggage in our rooms and headed out to the main street of the city.

The place we’re heading to is a restaurant famous for their meat dishes that the employee at the inn had told us about.

I’ve always been a big fan of steak since my past life. Whenever I’m in an exciting mood like today, I’d definitely eat a lot of meat.

“Umm? Master?”

“What is it, Anastasia?”

“Umm, uhh…err…isn’t this an expensive restaurant? I…don’t have any money”

I smiled at the anxious Anastasia.

“Don’t worry about it”

Cecilia nee-san has given me a lot of money for my trip.

I’ve exchanged it for jewels to make it easier to carry around and sewed some onto my clothes as well. I guess I don’t have to worry about money, at least for the time being.

“Welcome”. I was greeted as soon as I entered the restaurant.

The waiter led us to our table and I sat down as prompted.

“What’s the matter, Anastasia?”

I asked with my head tilted slightly as she knelt down beside me.

“Eh? Is there something wrong…?”

“Why aren’t you sitting down?”

“But I am sitting down”

Both of us started to tilt our heads in confusion.

“No, Anastasia’s seat is over there, okay?”

Hearing that, Anastasia gasped and responded with, “Oh!”.

“By any chance…you mean it’s okay for me to sit at the table, too?”

“What are you talking about…of course you can”

“But, master? It is common knowledge that slaves should kneel down beside their masters and be ready to move immediately when there’s a need…?”

I sighed deeply.

“In that case, you don’t need that kind of knowledge”

“No, but, uhh…err…I’m afraid that’s too much to ask for…”

With another deep sigh, I snapped.

“Look, as your master, I hereby command you. Sit at the table”

She probably wouldn’t be sitting at the table if I didn’t command her to do so.

I don’t really want to bark out orders, but it can’t be helped in this case.

Anastasia finally took a seat at the table, so I browsed through the menu.

With a snap of my finger, I called the waiter over and pointed to the most expensive items on the menu.

“I’ll have two of these courses, please”

Seeing that, Anastasia blinked in surprise—

“I’m going to eat the same menu as my master!? A-And such an expensive menu, too!? I can’t accept that! I just can’t!”

She is such a troublesome child, I shrugged.

“It’s fine”

“But, but…”

“If I say that it’s fine, then it’s fine”

With those words, Anastasia reluctantly closed her mouth.

Then, the waiter asked me quizzically, “Excuse me, Sir?”.

“Eh? What is it?”

“This is a high-class restaurant for the upper echelons of society. By the looks of it, you’re just a student from the countryside who came to take the academy entrance exam…with all due respect, I’d like to ask for the fee to be paid in advance?”

Even though in a way, I’m still a young master of a Duke’s family. Well, I’ll admit that I’m a bit underdressed for this establishment.

With a bitter smile, I took out the drawstring pouch that I use as my wallet—but thereafter, I gasped.

“Ah…”

“What’s the matter, master?”

The contents of my wallet are a bit disappointing.

I was rich in my previous life, so I now realize that I had forgotten the fact that travelling alone requires one to carry a large amount of money….

“Oh dear. It looks like I’ll have to exchange the jewels for money. At this rate, I can only order one course”

I checked the location of the jewelry shop in the city before checking into an inn, but I’m pretty sure the place is far away from here….

Now, just as I was thinking about what to do, Anastasia walked next to me and knelt down.

“Then I’ll sit here after all”

“Eh? Why?”

“Well, I mean, we can only afford to order one course, right?”

“Yeah. That’s right. Just go back to your seat for now”

Again, Anastasia reluctantly returned to her seat.

“I’ll have the two cheapest courses. That should be enough, right?”, I said to the waiter.

The price is around half of what the most expensive course cost, almost the same amount as what is in my wallet right now, too.

When Anastasia heard those words—

“M-M-Mas…”

“What’s the matter?”

“Is master a God? You’re so willing to go for a cheaper course just so you can afford me a full-course meal…”

From the expression on her face, it seems that she is being serious here.

Well, I was originally living in Japan, so….

I have my own thoughts on slavery.

And that’s when the waiter grinned at me.

“Excuse me, Sir?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“As I’ve said before, this is a high-class restaurant. If you’re taking a slave with you, you’ll have to follow the proper etiquette…”

“……What do you mean?”

“To have slaves sit at the table means that they are treated as customers, which means in short, our restaurant would equate slaves with those of the upper echelons of society”

“Yeah. So, your point being?”

“If you are going to have your slave be seated at the table, you will have to leave”

Well, that does make sense.

Normally, I would leave the restaurant following this reasoning too, however….

“Then what is that?”

I pointed to a group of nouveau riche millionaires who had a harem of slave concubines sitting at a table and were having a debaucherous feast of food and alcohol.

With their revealing clothes, the slave crests also became visible. The waiter wouldn’t be able to refute as well if that is being pointed out.

“We’re receiving a large amount of money as compensation from that side”

I sighed deeply as I heard that.

“So, I only have to pay for it then?”

My words caused a vein to pop out from the waiter’s temples, sensing the impending rage, I stood up.

“Didn’t you just say you only had that much money! It’s already annoying to see you filthy little bastards around! You better behave modestly and not push your luck! Enough of this, you little brat! Just having a slave entering this restaurant is enough to irritate me!”

Suddenly, with one arm, the waiter grabbed me by the collar.

“Mas-Master! I’m good! Let’s return to the inn!”

I smiled at Anastasia—

“I’ll be alright. So be at ease”

The waiter started to raise up his other arm while he had me by the collar—Hey hey, are you going to hit a customer in this restaurant?

“Guess it can’t be helped, huh?”

With both of my hands, I grabbed the waiter’s hand which he used to grab me by the collar.

And immediately, I put my weight into it and twisted it up. Thus, completing the standing joint lock.

The waiter had no idea what it meant to grab a judo practitioner by their collar.

No, well…even Headmaster Mauriat was surprised by it, so it would be frightening if a mere waiter understood it.

“Ugh! Ouch! Ouch!”

I twisted the arm of the teary-eyed screaming man further, then gave him a kick in the butt before finally releasing him.

After that, I rummaged through my clothes and tore off one of the jewels that I had sewn on my clothes.

“If I pay for it, you won’t have any complaints, right? I don’t need any change, so I would like you to bring me a lavishly thick cut of the finest meat that the restaurant can provide. Oh, needless to say, make it a serving for two please”

With that said, I smiled at Anastasia. 

After Anastasia responded with a smile of her own, I snapped at the waiter who was on the verge of tears holding his wrist.

“Also, I don’t think it’s a good idea to be violent with your customers”

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