Master and Slaves

[A/N: Added the character of Hiroyuki, Muriel and Tiria, hype them up by adding popularity to it :D]

“Master!”

“Master!”

From beside Helma, Ilma also stuck her face out.

“What were… you doing?”

In the haze of just waking, Helma’s scream concerned me so I asked.

“Um, Helma was…”

“We were trying to heal Master’s injury.”

Helma answered in a loud voice, covering Ilma who had tried to speak reservedly.

Feeling suspicious I peered at Helma’s face, then looked at Ilma.

From Ilma’s right elbow something long like ivy was growing.

“Ilma, that’s… Helma, turn around a little.”

I was about to ask Ilma when something occurred to me, and I had Helma turn around.

Helma timidly turned around.

Helma’s back had several welts running across it as if she had been struck with a whip, and blood was seeping.

Apparently Ilma had been whipping Helma using the demonic insect parasitizing her body.

“What are you doing!”

“…I was taught that if I feel pain, Master’s injury heals faster…”

…Come to think of it, Muriel had said that.

I poured magic into my right hand and applied it to Helma’s back.

“You mustn’t, Master… it will affect your injury… aaaah…”

From where I traced with my hand the wounds disappeared.

When I stroked it all over it became a beautiful back as before.

“Thank you, Helma. Ilma too, I’ll have you use it later.”

After stroking Helma’s head I stroked Ilma’s belly, swollen like a pregnant woman’s.

“Y-yes. Please use it a lot, a lot.”

Blushing, Ilma answered.

“Um, the others are…”

“They are talking in the room across the way.”

When I asked, Helma answered.

“Talking?”

“Yes. Apparently about Lady Rina.”

“Rina…?”

Rina… um, what was it.

I feel like I’m forgetting something… ah!!

“That’s right! Is Rina safe?”

“Ah, yes. Apparently she wasn’t injured either.”

This time Ilma answered.

“I see. Thank goodness.”

I patted my chest.

I see, I see.

It was worth getting injured.

And my side was…

When I touched it there was a slight swelling.

However, to a degree I wouldn’t notice.

When I turned back the covers and looked, there was a wound that had almost disappeared.

“…Hey, how many days was I asleep?”

“Um, you slept for about a full day.”

“Eh? Then this is…”

“Priestess Broich healed you.”

“Priestess Rosina… I ended up owing her again.”

Helma and Ilma answered my questions in turn.

“I don’t like that person.”

Ilma said that puffing out her cheeks.

“Why?”

“Because she sticks all over Master…”

Apparently she had been jealous.

“Then would it be fine if it were the other Dules?”

“…”

She nodded with an expression that said it couldn’t be helped.

“Hahaha, I see.”

I stroked Ilma’s head.

At that moment there was the sound of the door opening.

The ones who entered were Muriel, Sara, Cathy, and Tiria.

“””Master!!”””

Muriel, Sara, and Cathy noticed I was awake and cried out.

Tiria said nothing, ran, and came in front of me.

Then she rested her head against my chest.

“Tiria?”

“Uu…”

I heard a crying voice.

“Tiria…”

“I don’t want it anymore… people I love dying…”

…Tiria’s parents had died, after all.

“Sorry for worrying you.”

I hugged Tiria’s head.

“Everyone too.”

Then I raised my face.

Muriel, Sara, and Cathy had come to my side.

“But this time it was Rina, and if someone else becomes endangered I’ll save them again.”

“Um, we are…”

“Cathy, I know. Dules don’t die, right? But you feel pain, right? Besides, I don’t think and then save them. It’s the kind of thing where I notice I’ve already saved them.”

I explained to Cathy, who looked dissatisfied.

This time was the same.

And I did not think that was a bad thing.

I didn’t want anyone to feel pain.

I looked at my Dules’ faces.

Muriel wore an expression that said it couldn’t be helped.

Sara was surprised.

Cathy still did not seem convinced, and Tiria was still burying her face in my chest.

Helma and Ilma for some reason wore eager expressions.

…Ah, I see.

If I get injured they’ll do their best, that kind of feeling?

And then…

“Muriel, what about Rina?”

“We are giving her punishment in that room.”

“Punishment?”

“Yes. Punishment for not protecting Master.”

“…No, that was because Rina was in danger and I saved her…”

“That is irrelevant. As long as one is a Dule, protecting Master is one’s duty.”

Muriel explained that matter-of-factly.

When it came to this, Muriel was stubborn.

Well, because it was Muriel she wouldn’t do anything unfair, and it was better to leave the Dules to her.

“…Understood. Then when the punishment is over, could you call me?”

“Understood.”

“And what about Sophia?”

“She is talking with Lord Julius and the others.”

“About what?”

“Apparently about passage through the Forest of Wandering, which Master proposed.”

I see.

We did have that kind of talk.

“I see. Then when the talk is over she might come here.”

“…Why is that?”

Cathy asked me looking displeased.

“Hmm, somehow. I have that kind of feeling.”

I answered Cathy, and immediately after there was the sound of the door opening.

The one who entered was Sophia.

“Hiroyuki!”

And the moment she saw my face, without even glancing at the other Dules she ran toward me at full speed.

“Are you all right? Does anything hurt?”

Sophia asked while patting my body.

“No, I’m fine.”

“That’s right. There’s no way I would do something that half-hearted.”

The one who said that was Rosina, standing with her arms folded at the room’s entrance.

Belatedly she knocked on the door that had been thrown open.

“Hiroyuki-kuun. I’m coming in~.”

The cajoling voice only toward me was the same as always.

“How~ is it~?”

Rosina asked with a smile while approaching me.

“Um, well, so-so?”

Even if you suddenly ask how it is…

I ended up saying something even I didn’t understand.

“I see~. Then you’re fine~. Those Te-Dules are here too~.”

But apparently it got through.

“It was hard on my side~. Because of those guys the injured increased~. I was run off my feet~. After that Helene called me too~. I left all the rest to Sheena. Tehe. That’s how hard it was. Hey, hey, comfort me~.”

She explained in a drawn-out voice.

Then she held out her head looking up at me.

This was… stroke me, was that it?

“…G-good girl, good girl.”

While saying that I stroked Rosina’s head.

My face might have been twitching, but fortunately my hand was in the way and Rosina didn’t seem to see it.

“Fufuun, ehe.”

Um, Rosina was older than me… right.

Besides, she was a mother of one.

…And she’s like this?

No good, I’m getting dizzy…

“…Rosina, is it about time?”

Sophia asked Rosina without even trying to hide her irritation.

“What? …Ah, that’s right. …Then, Hiroyuki-kun, thanks~. See you~.”

Rosina also asked Sophia back with a sour expression, but apparently she was convinced; she turned a smile on me again and left the room while waving.

…A typhoon? A storm? A hurricane?

“So, Hiroyuki. I have an important talk.”

As I stared blankly in the direction the storm had left, Sophia started talking to me.

Sophia would normally do what she wanted regardless of any situation.

I didn’t know if that was because everyone around including me was human.

This time she would have started talking without regard for Rosina.

However while Rosina was here she had unusually waited patiently.

Was Rosina that impossible to ignore.

Or did Rosina have something on her.

…Both seemed possible, and it was frightening.

“…Hiroyuki?”

“Nn? Ah, that’s fine. So, what?”

Sophia spoke to me as I was escaping reality.

Coming back to myself I prompted Sophia to talk.

“Actually…”