/
Maybe our skinship was already taking effects, because Roxanne initiated another conversation of her own volition. And she chose a wonderful subject to boot! I was so happy that I wanted to start jumping on the bed with joy, but that would probably scare her, or worse, creeped her out.
「Hmm, let’s see
 I think master is perfectly fine, so you can call me that if you want.」
「Understood. I shall do just as you wish, master.」
Oh lord. When she called me 「master」 just now, I felt as if something has awakened inside of me. This is bad, this is really bad. I want to hug her! Keep your cool dude, keep your god damn with about you! Calm your pubescent heart filled with raging hormones!
「Anyway, isn’t it kinda strange that there is only one bed here even though I asked for a room for two people?」
I tried to keep the conversation going while I still played with Roxanne’s ears. No, wait a moment. Is it really okay for me to be starting such a topic?
「Eh? But didn’t you ask the Innkeeper for such a room specifically?」
「
 
 
 Come again?」
Roxanne said something really strange now. Did I really make a request like that? Because I don’t think so.
「Did I, really?」
「Yes, you did, master.」
「Are you sure about that?」
「Yes. Without a shadow of a doubt you have asked for a double room for us.」
「Well of course I
 oh
」
Oh indeed. Holy fuck, she’s right! Now that I think about it, the way I have phrased my request really could have been taken in such a way. I see. So in this world 「double room」 does not mean 「one room with two beds for two people」 but rather 「one room with one bed for two people」. If that’s the case, then this is really my fault for not properly understanding what I was asking the Innkeeper for, but you know what they say: there are no mistakes in life, only happy accidents. Good job, Mr. Innkeeper, omega good job!
「You really had no idea what you were asking for?」
Now Roxanne was looking at me with visible concern. Well, of course I knew that it was going to be a room with one bed, but I cannot tell her that straight to her face! I need to phrase it in such a way that won’t make me look like a total degenerate who knew what he was doing all along and was just feigning ignorance.
「It is exactly as you say, but I have a good reason for it, so let me start with that.」
「Okay, I’m listening, master.」
「I am not from around these parts. I am a traveler who came to this kingdom from a land far, far away to the east that you probably wouldn’t believe it if I tried to calculate the exact distance.」
The best thing I can do right now it to tell her half of the truth. But I’m not going to stop touching her ears while I’m at it. Skinship is important after all. I cannot tell her everything because I have no idea if she’s going to believe me, and even if she did it could just be an unnecessary burden for her, but I also don’t want to lie to her about everything. That’s why I will tell her the most important bits while omitting or changing the ones the are not absolutely necessary for her to know.
「When you say far, far away from here, do you mean even farther away than Cassim?」
「Yes, even farther than that.」
「Is that so? Then your journey here must have taken quite some time indeed.」
Roxanne seemed to be deep in thought as she stroked her chin with her fingers. I don’t know what that Cassim place she was talking about is or where it is, but as long as it is very far away from here then that works fine for me. And on a side note, Roxanne looked very charming when she was thinking.
「Also, I am a bit of a country bumpkin, born and raised outside of any big cities, so I’m afraid I don’t have that much of a common sense and knowledge, so I would like you to educate me in those matters.」
「Okay, I think I understand so far. As I said before, I will try to help you to the best of my abilities, master.」
「I’ll be much obliged, although I have to warn you that my knowledge of what can and cannot be done in this country Is so severely lacking that I’m afraid we’ll have to start from the very basics.」
「It’s alright. I’m sure we’ll be able to figure something out.」
Phew, that’s a dodged bullet right there. It’s good that I managed to convince her, but it doesn’t change the fact that not telling her the entire truth didn’t sit right with me. However, for now half-truths are a necessity if I want to ensure a smooth sailing for us from now on. So now that we have the issue of my background out of the way, let’s start talking some more serious business.
「Also, you might have heard that already, but I am also exploring the Labyrinth. If possible, I’d like you to help me with my future expeditions as well.」
「Of course. I think I’ll be able to be of use to you during battles, so you can leave that to me, master.」
When I mentioned the Labyrinth, Roxanne immediately looks me in the eyes. Is it just me or are her eyes shining with some sort of mysterious light now? And the atmosphere around her has changed drastically. Apparently she must be very confident in her combat abilities. It was reassuring, but also somewhat scary, as if her bestial instincts took her over for just that one brief moment.
I think that’s going to be the best moment to stop petting her ears for now. All things considered, I’m glad that she’s so confident in her own abilities, because that means I will be getting a fine addition to my Party.
「Can I put my clothes into the closet? I don’t want them to get all wrinkled.」
Since our skinship session was over, Roxanne stood up from the bed. For a moment I thought she was going to dash straight to the door to run away.
「Y-Yeah, please, go ahead.」
「Thank you very much.」
Thankfully she just placed the case she brought with herself from the Slave Merchant’s shop on the bed and opened it, and took the maid outfit out of it. Isn’t that the uniform she was wearing during my first visit to Alan-san’s establishment? I wonder is she brought that with her out of sentiment?
Next she took out another maid outfit that we ended up buying on the way here. It was a pretty expensive purchase that cost me 4000 Nar, but I think that it was a good one. Unfortnately, since we were buying only one item, my 30% discount that I obtained by once again resetting my character did not work this time. Also, I think that for it to be effective I have to be the one making the purchase, so I need to keep that in mind in case I’ll ever send Roxanne to do some shopping alone.
The effect of my discount works perfectly on the things from this inn, assuming that I’ll pay for more than one thing at once, so if I’ll take the room for the night coupled with dinner, the overall payment will be cheaper than if I tried to pay for those two things separately. But if I were to get, for example, just a basin of hot water, the discount would not activate. In the same fashion, if Roxanne tried to buy the maid uniform without me around, the discount would not activate as well, even though she’s my slave. Ans speaking of slaves, it was thanks to that Skill that I was able to buy Roxanne at such an affordable price. If I didn’t have it on me at the time of visiting Alan-san’s shop, I would have never been able to assemble the money for her original price, so I guess that was one hell of a lucky coincidence for me. Or maybe I shouldn’t call it coincidence, because I clearly fell for Alan-san’s clever business trap. By showing me Roxanne, he stimulated my young and impressionable ( TL Note: in other words, horny ) heart, imprinting the desire of claiming her for myself in it. In that sense, I am guilty of falling for his clever schemes, but I guess it all turned out all right in the end so I have no real reason to complain about anything anymore.
Anyway, let it be a lesson for all of you kiddos out there: You shouldn’t be greedy; greed is bad and greedy people end up penniless, homeless and dead. So don’t be greedy.