8. Eleanor

《17 Eleanor》

My name is Eleanor, I’m from the dog beastman tribe, and I’m 15 years old now.

I was born in a provincial city called Luzobl in the Fur Milan Kingdom.

As such, I am now a slave.

It seems that my mother died a short time after I was born, so by the time I could remember, I only had my father.

A father who has been drinking all the time, unable to heal from the loss of his wife.

When I was little, they still had money, but by the time I was 10 years old, my father told me, 『We don’t have any more money, so go earn some.』

That life came to an end by the time I was 13 years old.

The reason for this was because my father had died.

My father was in debt, and soon after he died, a slaver came to our house.

And I was made a slave in exchange for that debt.

As a slave, I was educated in various ways, and at the age of 14, when I could do some calculations and read and write, I was purchased by Master Oran, a peddler.

The quality of the food I eat, the amount of food I eat, the amount of sleep I get, and the place I sleep are incomparably worse after I became a slave.

However, as long as I helped with the business, there was no violence, so I thought it was better than the life I had heard about.

About a year has passed since then, but this time, when I was in a village for work, about 100 bandits attacked me.

The peddler with the money was the first target, and the master was killed.

At that moment, I knew what my future would be, and despair overtook me.

I was not killed, but slaves are treated as property, as determined by slave law. If the owner is killed, the ownership is transferred to the person who killed him. If the person who killed them is caught, the ownership of the property will be transferred to the lord of the land.

But even with the village so overrun, no one will show up to capture or kill the bandits, so I’m probably screwed.

Up until now, as long as I do my job, the master has not touched my body, but I already know …… what will happen if I am with the bandits.

I wanted to at least have experienced first love.

I’m still a girl, you know.

「Huh, when I think back on my life like this, I don’t have any good memories. ……」

I muttered to myself subconsciously.

「What was the point of my birth? What was I born to do? Perhaps I was born to be the comfort companion of a bandit?」

I was saying these words even though I knew that no one would answer me anyway.

And so, as I silently watched in despair as my village was being overrun, I noticed that more and more of the bandits were being killed by a silver-haired man.

And in no time at all, the so-called leader of the bandits was also dead.

Seeing this scene, the bandits finally ran away.

I had been in despair just a few minutes ago. …… It was like a lie, and I felt my mind clearing up.

Apparently, the silver-haired man was going to be my next owner, so I decided to say hello.

I’m so nervous.

The man with the silver hair is strong and cool. ……

This is not good! I’ve heard that many beastmen are attracted to strong people, but I guess I was one of them!

I bet my eyes are hearts right now!

I definitely want to remain a slave to this man!

I willed myself to talk to the silver-haired man!

「Ma, ma, master, please take care of me.」

Awawawawa…… I was so nervous, I bit my tongue. …… I did it.

Bu, bu, bu, but it’s not just about looks and strength, it’s also about personality if we’re going to be together forever, so we’re going to be together and see!

And if he has a good personality …… then I want to …… give him my all!

◆ ◆ ◆

It had already been a little over a year and a half since Dan and Sarah had died.

――Sometimes I suddenly remember Dan and Sarah’s smiling faces and their voices calling me 「Louis-chan」 and 「Louis」 with affection.

I can’t say I’m at peace when I think about them like I do now, but I maintain my peace of mind.

That made me realize the fact that my feelings are finally calming down – though the sadness won’t go away.

Maybe it was because I was consciously trying not to remind myself of it, but it took me a while to realize it. I chuckle to myself.

That being said, it’s been ten days since I conquered the Labyrinth of Time’s Lament.

I continued on my way, crunching through the occasional monster that attacked me.

I think about a lot of things along the way.

After experiencing the bullying in my previous life and the actions of Stampede and Alfred here, I have made up my mind to thoroughly resist unreasonable actions in the future.

As I walked along, thinking, “I haven’t seen anyone for a long time. ……,” I saw a village.

The map I saw at the library in Dallas only had the big city on it, so I don’t have any information about this village.

However, I could smell blood on the wind from the village, so I started running at once and entered the village.

Then I saw the scene of bandits attacking the village.

When I used 〈Detection〉, I found out that there were quite a few bandits, maybe a hundred.

Then the bandits attacked me as well.

I’ve never killed anyone before, so just to be safe, I’m going to start by using〈Creation〉to get〈Mental Resistance〉.

【Mental Resistance】
I can reduce the burden on my mind at will.
I can choose which content I want to reduce.
It can also repel mental attacks and charms caused by〈Dark Magic〉.

Having acquired the skill, I mercilessly cut down more and more of the attackers.

The bandits gradually began to flee after I had killed about forty of them.

The original target was probably this village, and it would be too much trouble to go after it. Let’s leave it alone.

As I watched the bandits fleeing with these thoughts in my mind, I heard various voices from the villagers.

「Go after them and take them all down!」
「This is going to save us!」
「Quick, kill more bandits!」
「Save the village!」
「If you’re so strong, why didn’t you come before the damage was done!」

I couldn’t help but wrinkle my brow at this comment. There are too many people saying selfish things.

As expected, I ignore the villagers with such arguments.

Then I saw a girl coming towards me.

She wore tattered clothes and a black collar with dog ears growing out of her head. Is she from the beastman race? I’ve never seen a real one before.

The beastman tribe girl came right up to me, bowing and shouted.

「Ma, ma, master, please take care of me.」

At that moment, my thoughts stopped. There should be〈High-Speed Parallel Thinking〉……

I managed to reboot my thoughts and decided to talk to her.

It seems that this girl was a slave of a peddler, and her master was killed by a bandit by bad luck, and then the bandit was killed by me. So it seems that her ownership was transferred from the peddler to the bandit, and then from the bandit to me.

When I used〈Appraisal〉 on the collar, I found that it was called a servitude collar.

While the villagers are still buzzing and noisy, I tell the beast girl that I don’t want a slave.

But no matter how many times I refused, she would say, 「That’s the way it’s supposed to be under the slave law.」

She was so insistent that I was losing my resolve.

And although I will return unreasonableness with unreasonableness, if I am going to live in this world, do I need to follow the rules that I should follow? I reconsidered.

At any rate, as we were about to introduce ourselves to each other, one of the villagers came near us.

The villagers pushed the beastman girl away, saying, 「Just let me talk to him」, and started talking to me.

「I am Garo, the chief of this village. If you don’t chase the bandits quickly, they’ll escape! You have to destroy the bandits!」

The other villagers, in unison with the village chief, shouted in unison and urged, 「Hurry, hurry」.

What are you talking about? This Garo guy or the villagers ……

It certainly seems that quite a few villagers have been killed and looted, and I guess this village can’t afford it.

But are you ordering me to do something I’ve never done before for people I’ve never met before, almost from the very first word, or are you a …… idiot?

I naturally refused and pulled the hand of the beastman girl who was knocked down to the ground to help her stand up.

Then the yelling and accusations got worse, and I was getting annoyed for good.

I decide to take the beastman girl and leave the village.

Before leaving the village, I realized that I didn’t have any money on hand, so I just collected the money from the bandits I killed.

I wanted to sleep in bed for the first time in a long time. But I don’t want to stay in this village. I guess I don’t have a choice.

After leaving the village and settling in, we sat down to rest.

Then I decided to listen to the story of the beastman girl.

《18 Eleanor and Camping》

While taking a break, I listened to Eleanor, a beastman girl.

At first, I tried to free her from slavery with〈Dark Magic〉, but she really wanted to follow me.

She wanted to repay me for saving her from being enslaved by bandits.

I’m telling you, if she were to be freed from slavery, she would declare, 「I will follow you!」.

I could tell from my 〈Intuition〉 that she wasn’t a bad person, so I couldn’t help but decide to take her with me.

It seems that she used to be a monster hunter and can defeat weaker monsters. Then, if I use 〈Creation〉 well, I can strengthen her.

I don’t really have any future goals for myself, other than the promise to reunite with Airi and Lisa in Midogal.

So, from now on, I am going to travel around the world and see different things.

If I find a place that I like, I can settle down there and live freely.

At any rate, Eleanor’s clothes were so tattered and so bad that I decided to make her some clothes.

The only material I can think of for clothes is monster skin, so I’ll probably tan it and make a leather dress out of it. After thinking about it for a while, I came up with an idea.

Hmmm… clothes, or better yet, ……, make it a one-piece type of armor? I’ll buy her some proper clothes when we get to the new town, and we can make it so that she can wear it as an inner garment.

Until I put on an inner layer, the leather would be stiff and difficult to wear because it would be in direct contact with the skin, but I would have to ask her to be patient. And …… well, if she’s going to use it as armor, she might as well use metal that’s thin enough to not get in the way.

In addition, I’m going to make her a weapon.

By the way, I’ve been wearing something made of leather for a long time too. That’s why I can’t wait to get some clothes.

Also, Eleanor’s status was high in physical abilities and low in magical ones, which was also very typical of the beastman race.

I think she’ll be able to fight without any problems because of the status compensation from the weapons I make.

Name: Eleanor
Gender: Female Race: Beastman Age: 15
Level: 14 Title: Slave of Louis.
ＨＰ：985／985 ＭＰ：230／230
Strength: 275 Resistance: 197 Agility: 237 Dexterity: 99 Magic: 44 Spirit: 46
Skills

【Weapons・Physical Skills】
Dagger Arts Lv4・Archery Lv2

【Others】
Crisis Detection Lv1・Intuition Lv2・Detection Lv1・Dismantling Lv2・Service Lv2・Life Magic

After asking about Eleanor herself, I also asked her about the slave system.

I was only five years old in Dallas, so I don’t know the details of slavery in this world. I wasn’t really interested in it, so I didn’t do much research at the library.

According to her, there is more to slave ownership than what we heard in the village.

It is a rule that if the owner dies for any reason, the item becomes the property of the person who finds it, and this is often the case in dungeons.

If the owner dies of natural causes in his or her lifetime, the rights go to the bereaved family, just like any other item.

If there is no surviving family member, the owner is said to be the lord in charge of the place where he lived.

There also seem to be rules that say one can’t eat meals with their master, or sit with him, or try to disobey him and their body will stop working.

Slaves are still treated as objects and have no human dignity whatsoever.

As someone who doesn’t like unreasonable things, I was disgusted to hear this, but slavery is legal in this world.

And I think there are various businesses that are maintained by slaves, so I don’t think about abolishing slavery itself.

However, when it comes to my own slaves, I will treat them as people. I told Eleanor that her tone of voice could be more relaxed.

I finished making a weapon, a dress, and a magic pouch for Eleanor, and finished listening to her, so I decided to leave.

While I was making it, Eleanor was constantly glancing at my work.

It’s her own armor, and she’s worried about it? Well, it will also serve as clothing for a while. I mean, if we buy clothes in the city, that will be innerwear, and when she goes out, she almost always wears armor, so design is important.

But when it comes to girls’ clothes, I’m embarrassed to admit that I have no sense of style. I’ve tried to make the dress as presentable as possible, though.

When I handed it to her, she accepted it with some trepidation and a grin on her face, so I know she was pleased.

Now that I was with Eleanor, my progress was slower, but I felt much more comfortable than if I had traveled alone.

I knew I was mentally exhausted because of the loss of Dan and the other three.

After walking until late in the evening, we decided to set up camp.

「I’m going to start setting up the campsite now, so Eleanor can wait there.」
「Yes, I understand. But if there’s anything I can do to help, just let me know.」

I nodded at her response.

First, I used 〈Light Magic〉 to create a ward, and then I used 〈Earth Magic〉 to create a stove and chairs for cooking meat.

I made a partition with an earthen wall and created two baths filled with hot water using〈Fire Magic〉,〈Water Magic〉, and〈Earth Magic〉.

Eleanor was watching this with suspicious behaviour.

Feeling a little better, I went on with my work.

「Awawawawa……It’s amazing! I don’t know what it is, but my master is awesome!」

I then took out the shampoo, treatment and body soap from the 【Item Box】 and handed them to Eleanor. After teaching her how to use them, we each took a separate bath, and when we were refreshed, it was time to eat.

Eleanor seemed too surprised and confused.

「Master! I feel so refreshed! This shampoo, treatment, and body wash smells so good!」

I take the orc meat from the【Item Box】 and set up the tent while it is roasting.

I also set up two beds in the tent, which I had made just before I met Eleanor. There was no wood in the dungeon, so I couldn’t make it until I went on a trip like this.

It helped that I had made a spare just in case. For now, I can fit two beds in the tent, but if I have to put more beds in a row, I will have to rebuild the tent.

Well, I don’t see that situation happening.

When the meat is finished cooking, I pour on the various seasonings taken from the【Item Box】and eat.

At first Eleanor was reluctant, but when I insisted that she could eat, she finally complied.

As for seasonings, shampoo and body soap, I’ll just explain that I can order them with my skills.

There were Japanese explanations on those things, so she tilted her head at the words, but didn’t ask anything in particular.

Well, if someone asks, I can just tell them I don’t know because I’m just using my skills to order it. If – someday – I can build enough trust in Eleanor that I feel comfortable telling her about what happened in Japan, I’ll let you know…… then.

Eleanor’s reaction to eating the meat with my secret weapon, yakiniku sauce, was amazing.

「Mogumogu, I’ve never eaten anything like this, mogumogu, I’ve never eaten anything like this, mogumogu, I’ve never eaten anything like this!」

Eleanor’s tail is wagging at mach speed.

Please don’t wag your tail too much or you’ll get dust and dirt flying around. ……

Even though I was thinking about it inwardly, I cooked more and more meat and fed her a lot.

Then I took another look at Eleanor, who was eating.

Earlier, she was wearing tattered clothes, her hair and body were dirty and unflattering.

But now, thanks to my bath, she is clean.

And I was surprised to see that she was quite pretty.

Her hair is a chestnut brown bob cut. She has dog ears and a chestnut-colored tail. She has slightly droopy eyes, and her breasts are normally developed. She was about 155cm tall.

I’m a guy too, and I enjoy traveling with pretty girls, so I thought this would be a good idea.

She doesn’t care if she’s eating too vigorously and ruining her pretty face.

After we finished eating, time passed as we talked about my goals and other trivial things.

Eleanor was so tired that she began to sway like she is on a boat in a daze before midnight. Seeing this, I urged her to sleep in the tent.

After that, I started thinking about the direction of Eleanor’s enhancement.

Considering that we’ll be traveling together in the future, aside from weapons and armor, we’ll need to power up the basics.

After a lot of thinking, I finally came up with a direction, so I decided to use 〈Creation〉 on Eleanor and then go to bed.

There is no need for guards because of the warding. No one can enter the wards without my permission.

As I grow, the strength of the warding is getting higher and higher.

When I entered the tent, Eleanor was already sleeping. After a glance at her sleeping happily, I get into my own bed.

It was a little unsettling to think that the lovely Eleanor was sleeping right next to me, but I couldn’t sleep if I thought about it too much, so I emptied my head and went to sleep.

《19 Beginning Eleanor’s Enhancement》

A week has passed since I started my journey with Eleanor.

While training Eleanor to deal with the weaker monsters that appear along the way, we are heading for the next city.

Thanks to her efforts, I think Eleanor is getting stronger little by little.

Newly acquired skills include ……

【Experience Sharing】
The experience gained can be shared by the party.
She can share the experience she obtains when she performs the finishing blow with other party members.
The amount that can be shared is for skill level × 10%.

【Skill Stock】
The skills created with 〈Creation〉 can be stored.
We can create a skill within the space of this skill.
In this case, the skill level will be 1.
This skill has no level.

【Skill Transfer】
She can transfer her skills to others.
In this case, the skill level will be 1.
It takes ten days for the transferred skills to fully take hold. It can be used on the same person once every ten days.
This skill has no level.

In addition to this, I have also created a 〈Accelerated Status Growth〉, which I have already given to Eleanor.

There are also〈Status Enhancement〉and〈Accelerated Skill Growth〉added to〈Skill Stock〉. These will also be transferred to her in the near future.

For that matter, I tried to create a skill that would take skills and status away from monsters and people through〈Creation〉, but I couldn’t.

When I couldn’t create this skill, I instinctively knew why.

This was because the skills and statuses were tied to the person or monster who possessed them.

The reason why my skills can be transferred is because the skills that were created in the 〈Skill Stock〉 from the beginning have no connection to my soul at all.

However, when we use the〈Skill Transfer〉, it takes 10 days for the skill to take root in the other person. I guess I can’t help that.

Name: Eleanor
Gender: Female Race: Beastman Age: 15
Level: 18 Title: Slave of Louis.
ＨＰ：1225／1225 ＭＰ：450／450
Strength: 335 Resistance: 245 Agility: 288 Dexterity: 153 Magic: 90 Spirit: 90
Skills

【Special Skills】
Accelerated Status Growth Lv1

【Weapons・Physical Skills】
Dagger Arts Lv4・Archery Lv2

【Others】
Crisis Detection Lv1・Intuition Lv2・Detection Lv1・Dismantling Lv2・Service Lv2・Life Magic

Originally, I wanted to transfer “Status Enhancement” to her, but since Eleanor didn’t have enough MP yet, I decided to go with “Accelerated Status Growth” first.