Chapter 65 (2/2)

Still, there was no point in just killing them. Even garbage had its use.

☆

We began stuffing all the stuff we needed for tomorrow into one of our Round Pouches after buying all the medicinal and poisonous plants that we thought might come in handy.

I grabbed the 【Sword of the Eight Eye’s Transparent Tome]off my waist and poured a bit of magical energy inside in order to pull up a list of the stuff I’d used it to appraise thus far.

To be more specific, I pulled up all Barkas’ stats, alongside his companions’.

They have a swordsman as their vanguard, a scout for reconnaissance, and a mage taking up the rear.」

「Their party seems quite balanced.」

I vaguely remember them claiming to be a C ranked party back when I first met them. I’ve no idea as to whether or not they were bluffing, but if I were to guess, I’d say that the party’s leader was most likely a C rank at the time, whereas its members were probably both D ranks.

That, however, was how they’d end up turning out 3 years from now. As of right now, their stats seemed to belay the fact that they were all at least a whole rank’s worth weaker than they would ultimately end up being. In other words, they were about as strong as E ranked adventurers, and their party was probably a D ranked party at best.

I couldn’t immediately tell what Barkas’ innate ability did, so I appraised it, only to find that it granted him the ability to intuitively identify that of which was of significant monetary value.

The skill’s phrasing left me in doubt. The skill didn’t seem to grant knowledge, function like appraisal, or even have the ability to examine an object’s composition.

It seemed that it was capable of identifying specifically when something was worth cash — which would make it fairly accurate, seeing as how it was impossible for anyone to use my Spirit Blades without my permission. That is, neither the 【Sword of the Eight Eye’s Transparent Tome]nor the 【Round Squirrel’s Pouch Blade]could actually be sold for cash, and hence, his skill failed to react to them despite the extent of their abilities.

「Now, how exactly should we go about doing things this time around?」

I muttered under my breath whilst getting rid of the displays that displayed Barkas’ and his goon’s stats.

「There are still a few things we’ve yet to try out on monsters…」

Minaris offered a suggestion.

「Nah, let’s not. Those methods are good, and using them on monsters does help me brainstorm, but most of them are primitive and are centered around inflicting pain.」

We weren’t able to communicate with them, and they didn’t really seem capable of any sort of deep thought. Hence, we weren’t able to get much out of testing anything that had even the slightest bit of complexity to it.

「It’d be wasteful for us not to try out something a bit more complicated seeing as how we’ve finally got ourselves some humans to test things on. I think we’d probably benefit more from doing something that invokes a sense of fear. That’s why we should *^&$ and %^$^%$&^% before we kill them.」

I let Minaris in on my idea.

「That does sound pretty interesting, but is it actually possible?」

「I think so? Why don’t we go try it out on a goblin or something after lunch, just to be sure?」

Minaris agreed and joined me as I stood up and got ready to leave.

「The only problem is that they wouldn’t really be able to feel any pain if we just did that. Wouldn’t it be better for us to hurt them a bit first?」

「Sure, but do hold back a bit. Try not to make them want to kill themselves or wish for death right off the bat. I want a good piece of torture for myself.」

「Oh come on, Goshujin-sama! You’re not the one that got stuck having to put up with their disgusting gazes. You had so little of an impression on them that I was only barely made aware of them when we shared our thirsts for vengeance, so I can tell you for sure that they bother me more than they bother you. Shouldn’t you be the one pulling your punches here?」

「Ugh, fine, I guess you do have a point. We’ll each have an even split. I won’t yield anything more than that. I do still hate them quite a bit, you know?」

The two of us chatted away as we descended the inn’s stairs.

「Are you two head out again already? I could swear you only just got back.」

The lady that owned the inn called out to us right before we headed out the door.

「Yup. Goshujin-sama’s taking me out on a date.」

「W-What? M-Minaris?」

Minaris spoke whilst retaining her poker face.

「（Goshujin-sama, you do know that people can transfer the rights to their slaves to another, right? People might try buying me off of you if we don’t seem too intimate. People typically won’t sell off any slaves they’re fond of, so you need to act like you’re really attached to me if you want to keep all the bugs away.）」

Minaris brought herself closer to me and whispered so that only I’d hear her.

「（I mean, you do have a point, but…）」

The innkeeper glanced over at Minaris and take note of her lack of an expression.

I know I literally just said it, but, to emphasize and reiterate, Minaris had a complete and utter lack of an expression.

Didn’t her deadpan expression make her actions have an effect opposite of the ones she’d been expecting? I’m pretty sure she just made me look like some prick forcing a slave to act as his lover.

「（Hey Minaris, could you do me a favour and smile? At least put on a fake one since you’re acting anyway, okay? If pretending to be intimate embarasses you to the point where you need to use a skill to cover it up, then you might as well not do it in the first place. Okay? So can you just smile already? Right now? Please? ）」

The innkeeper looked at me. Her eyes were not only filled with pity, but also like those of a dead fish. They seemed to burn their way into my soul.

Hey, Minaris? Could you not like, just stare blankly? Come on…

We’d been planning to leave in the first place, so I ended up deciding to just hurry the hell out of the inn.

I never thought I’d be met with that kind of ambush. I’m pretty sure that the innkeeper is still misunderstanding the relationship between Minaris and I. The very consideration of the fact that she might look at me like that again later made me kind of want to cry and even shit myself. Luckily, I didn’t do either.

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[1] “Master” in the slavery sense of the word. Also used by maids and the like. See the note on the blog post associated for this chapter if you’d like to know why I started weebing stuff up a bit more.