Nine Heaven:…
Nine Heaven:……
Nine Heaven: How about someone explain what’s going on here?
The next morning, within an inn of a forested county, sat me and two others in a corner tucked away in the dining hall.
To be exact, Nine Heaven and Lotus, the girl who shouldn’t be here at all.
Lotus was still dressed in those filthy rags as always but unlike yesterday, there were traces of bruises on her battered countenance.
Speaking of countenance, mine probably wasn’t any better either.
Because of her actions last night, memories of Poppy were inadvertently dredged up. Because I thought of Poppy, I naturally thought of Coagan as well. The moment I recalled that b*stard, it seemed like there was nothing that could rein in my fury.
I ended up strangling her by accident till she lost consciousness; she remained like that for a long while after.
Seeing as I still wasn’t capable of tossing a butt naked girl into the wilderness in the middle of the night, I had no choice but to let her spend the night on my bed.
As for me, I ended up expending a great deal of effort before finally reining in my desire to murder someone.
Even in her unconscious state, I could clearly see the suffering she went through. The fact that she hadn’t died from asphyxiation was a miracle in of itself.
However, if she ended up scramming from my sight after realizing how dangerous it was for her to be around me, I would definitely give my thanks to the heavens then…
Nine Heaven: The looks on your faces, don’t tell me you two “duked it out” for the entire night?
Di Qi Ju: No, it ended in an instant.
Nine Heaven: Oh, an early shooter I see.
Di Qi Ju:—I’ll shoot your face in! It’s called fainting, fainting!
Sigh, looks like I had to spend some time explaining the situation after all.
Nine Heaven: I swear you’re such a…you won’t even kill those bandits personally and yet you act so violently towards a girl.
Lotus: No, it’s alright, if Master truly enjoys that kind of play, I…don’t mind it as well.
Di Qi Ju:That’s not some kind of “play”! And don’t call me Master…
Lotus: Wait Master! Don’t chase me off! Really…I just want to stay by your side…
I nudged away the hand she extended towards me and threw a look at Nine Heaven, asking him to handle this.
Clearly, this girl wasn’t going to listen to me at all. Perhaps Nine Heaven might have better luck chasing her away.
The person in question however, threw me an irritatingly disdainful look before letting out a sigh of helplessness.
Nine Heaven: My lady, may I know what’s your name?
Lotus: Master, is it alright for me to tell him my name?
Di Qi Ju:……
Nine Heaven:……
Somehow, it seemed like there was something wrong with this start.
Di Qi Ju: Just, go ahead.
Lotus: Understood. I’m ‘Lotus’.
Nine Heaven: What about your surname?
Lotus: Master, is it alright for me tell him my surname?
Di Qi Ju:……
Nine Heaven:……
Nine Heaven: Exactly how do you expect me to talk to her, Di Qi Ju?
Di Qi Ju:Ahhhh, don’t ask for my permission for every d*mned question, just answer them!
Lotus: Got it, got it, Master, I understand.
Lotus: I’m known as Lotus Ironcast
Nine Heaven: “Ironcast”…
Ironcast huh…that reminded me of what I saw last night on that map.
Within the country of Cold Iron, north of the Burning Mountain, there was a land known as Black Ironcast.
Nine Heaven: You’re a subject of that territory, I see.
From that moment on, the volume of our conversation grew significantly softer. After all, should certain snippets of inappropriate content be overheard by others, we might just end up with a ton of unnecessary trouble.
Nine Heaven: Go on then, tell me what happened.
Nine Heaven: Given our situation, there’s no way we can accept a person of unknown origins sitting down around the same table as us.
Lotus: …alright then.
Lotus: Errr…before that, can I confirm one thing?
Nine Heaven:What?
Lotus: Just now, the name you used to address the Master was ‘Di Qi Ju’, wasn’t it?
Nine Heaven: Ah…that’s right.
Lotus: Di Qi Ju…Di Qi Ju…
Lotus folded her arms around her chest and closed her eyes. She then nodded her head multiple times.
Di Qi Ju: There’s no need to remember such unnecessary details.
Lotus: You’re too late, Master. I’ve already remembered it.
Di Qi Ju:……
Di Qi Ju:That fellow over there is called Nine Heaven.
Nine Heaven:Hey, there’s no need to take revenge on me like that by leaking information, I admit that was a mistake on my part…
Lotus: It’s alright, it’s not like I intend to remember any name other than the Master’s.
Nine Heaven:…
Di Qi Ju:That’s great, your information wasn’t leaked.
Nine Heaven:…enough fooling around, hurry up and tell us about yourself.
Nine Heaven: I’m not some kind of soft-hearted chump who can’t bear to kill a girl. If you really force my hand, even that master of yours can’t save you.
Lotus: Master?!
Di Qi Ju:It’s true so you’d better fess up.
Lotus: Understood…
Lotus carefully bent over and began recounting her story in a low voice devoid of emotion.
Lotus: My parents passed away when I was really young so I grew up with my relatives instead.
Lotus: From the time I could remember, I wasn’t a well-liked person, neither was I given a chance to learn much, thus I was a klutz…
Lotus: When I turned eighteen, my foster parents said that I couldn’t stay in their home anymore, leeching off them. They said I had to work. However, I didn’t know how to work at all.
Lotus:It was then that someone told there was work to be had in the south and that the pay was good. That was how I ended up in Skills, following a merchant’s caravan.
Lotus: It was only when I arrived in the National Fragrances that I discovered that I was to be a flower girl…by that time, there was no turning back. The favor showed to me by that man wasn’t one to be squandered so easily after all.
Lotus: However…I wasn’t able to perform well in that job either.
Lotus: After practising on a mannequin for half a year, I started taking in customers. However, none of them seemed to desire anything from me. All I managed to do was pull them in.
Lotus: I wasn’t able to utilize the skills I practised. Even after gaining a chance to learn something, I failed at it…
Lotus: That day, the store owner told me that if I wasn’t able to earn my keep, I would have to scram back to my hometown. That frightened me terribly.
Lotus: I had no choice but to put forth my best then. If I remained a virgin after being chased out by a brothel, that would undoubtedly be a stain on me.
Nine Heaven: —hold on a second, you’re still a virgin?
Lotus:…
Lotus: That’s right…
Nine Heaven: …go on.
Di Qi Ju:……
Lotus: …on the night of my deadline, I still wasn’t able to bring in a customer. Yet just as I thought that I would definitely fail, Master suddenly appeared before my very eyes.
As she said that, she unknowingly raised her head in excitement. By then, she wasn’t facing Nine Heaven anymore and instead her attention was focused entirely on me.
Lotus: After so many days in the flower district, he was the only who quietly listened to my words of seduction.
Lotus: That flustered and shy look on his face was a complete 180 from the disdain all the other customers showed, to me that was the greatest confirmation ever.
Lotus: At the end, he even gave me a fortune as a downpayment, I had never heard of a customer handing over so much money to a flower girl on their first encounter!
Nine Heaven: How much?
Lotus: That fortune was probably enough to book the most prominent flower girls in the district for an entire day and night, perhaps it might even be enough to purchase me.
Nine Heaven:…well weren’t you an energetic one.
Di Qi Ju:Please don’t take her hyperbole as fact.
Lotus: After paying, Master left right away. Clearly, he intended to use that sum as a downpayment for purchasing me. Thus, I returned to the store and awaited the Master.
Ah? Flower districts even had such a setting? Was that the reason why she went on about “Master” this, and “Master” that?
Lotus: But then…
Now that the parts worth getting excited over were done, she lowered her head once more, at the same time, her voice lowered as well.
Lotus: A few days, all I received was bad news from my home.
Lotus: My foster father sent a letter stating that my foster mother had fallen gravely ill. With not much longer to live, he wished that I return home to see her one last time.
Lotus: Even though they didn’t teach me much, they were, after all, my kin who raised me. Thus, I left behind a portion of Master’s downpayment as a deposit and left for home.
Lotus: I took the same route I took southward, travelling up to the Burning Mountain where I was captured by someone from Molten Steel.
Lotus: They recognized me as someone from Cold Iron and decided to sell me off as a slave.
Lotus: They took everything from me, including my personal belongings, Master’s money, all of it.
Lotus: Roughly two days ago, I was transferred here to be sold off for cash…
Lotus: Then yesterday happened…
Lotus:……
Nine Heaven: Is that it?
Lotus: That’s it, every word is true.
Nine Heaven: Doesn’t seem to me that you’re lying either, especially the part about Di Qi Ju.
Di Qi Ju: Your desire to throw me under the bus seems rather high today, Nine Heaven…
Nine Heaven: By the way, is there anything else you wish to ask?
Di Qi Ju:There is, a ton in fact. So much so that I don’t dare to keep her by our side.
Lotus: Please go ahead and ask, Master.
Di Qi Ju: First off, the fact that you are still a virgin after working there for such a long time is rather inexplicable. In fact, does being a virgin lower your value as a flower girl?
Lotus: That…
Nine Heaven: That’s easy to explain. The standard of the flower district in National Fragrances is really high. Given her qualities, she simply wasn’t worthy of those wealthy patrons.
Di Qi Ju: —well then, that brings us to the second question, Nine Heaven, in your eyes, is her standard really bad?
Nine Heaven: What’s the matter? Was that even in question?
Di Qi Ju:How bad is it really?
Nine Heaven: Didn’t I say so yesterday? If she was a slave I wanted to purchase, a couple thousand Wish would be my maximum offer.
Lotus:……
I swept my eyes around the dining hall and found quite a number of patrons dragging along a female slave of their own, sporting an iron collar. Naturally, there were male slaves as well who wore the same type of collar.
Briefly comparing them, I pointed at the female slave whose qualities looked almost similar to Lotus.
Di Qi Ju:Well then, what’s your opinion of that girl?
Nine Heaven: That one? That’s the one who fetched the highest price last night, right? If I’m not mistaken, the final price was 30 000 Wish? Even though that’s a little pricey, she’s roughly worth that much.
Di Qi Ju:Is that so…
I glanced at Lotus. She was currently holding onto a bowl, eyeing the liquid inside.
That faint expression I saw on her face, it was somewhat nostalgic.
During class, my teacher once compared my answers to another classmate’s. He had that very same expression I saw on Lotus right now.
That look of wanting not to care, of not really caring, even though deep down they really found it uncomfortable.
Di Qi Ju: In that case, in my eyes at least, Lotus should be worth over 100 000 Wish.
Lotus:…!!
Nine Heaven: …AH???
Nine Heaven: That taste of yours, I really don’t wish to understand it.
Di Qi Ju: This isn’t an issue of tastes. Just based on appearance alone, she has to be most beautiful girl I’ve seen so far.
Even though I had no use of that right now.
Lotus: Master…
Di Qi Ju:I suspect the problem lies in that the appearance I see is not in line with what you see.
Lotus: —Master!
Di Qi Ju: Don’t stick to me like that! Don’t lick my face! And don’t press your breasts against me!!
I lightly grabbed her by the neck and shoved her back into her seat. Perhaps that motion ended up triggering memories of last night, but the moment I did that, she immediately calmed down.
Lotus: Oh oh…got it. Then, we’ll continue at night then.
Even if I praised you a little, that didn’t mean I planned on keeping you till night…
Nine Heaven:……
Nine Heaven: I actually don’t have any way to refute that theory.
Di Qi Ju:…looks like you know something about this as well, right?
Nine Heaven: The country known as Cold Iron is one that holds a great many secret, so many that even the locals don’t know all of them.
Nine Heaven: They don’t even know the root cause of their frigid climate. Even today, there hasn’t been a theory put forth that most agreed with.
Nine Heaven: It is said that within each territory, festered a different kind of “Bloodline Curse”.
Nine Heaven: Currently, only the bloodline curse of the Blutgerinn clan, whom had undergone a genocide not too long ago, has been thoroughly understood.
Nine Heaven: The thicker one’s bloodline was, the more pronounced the effects of the bloodline curse was. Conversely, thinning the bloodlines through marriage would weaken the effects of the curse as well.
Di Qi Ju: Even though it’s called a curse, the reality is that it’s probably some kind of hereditary wish ability, isn’t it? Like that plaguing the bloodline of Faith.
Nine Heaven:Probably. I’m not entirely certain what the bloodline curse of the Ironclast clan is. Saying that it affects another’s view of their appearance isn’t that far fetched either…
Nine Heaven: Truth be told, my time in the Cold Iron army was spent under the command of the Ironcast clan.
Nine Heaven: They will never take the initiative to bring up the matter of their bloodline curse on their own and I’ve never seen any other case similar to Lotus’s.
Nine Heaven: Based on her hair color, her bloodlines should be on the purer side, in other words, the effects of her bloodline curse should be a lot stronger…
Nine Heaven: —do you know anything about your bloodline curse?
Lotus: …I don’t know, my relatives never told me about it. However, that’s no longer important…
Di Qi Ju:?
Lotus: —as long as Master recognizes me, and allows me to service him, what any others think of me doesn’t matter at all!
Di Qi Ju:—I dare you to leap at me again, I swear I’ll strangle you to death!
Di Qi Ju: It’s better we don’t keep such a bizarre fellow around us. Just take the money and leave, we don’t owe each other anything from that point on!
Lotus: Master…
‘Even if you show me those pitiful, pleading eyes, they won’t work at all. The smarter, and more thorough Nine Heaven would definitely be able to pick up on my thoughts and deliver the final blow.’
‘This woman ended up sticking to us because of the cover story you made up, it only made sense that you cleaned up after your own mess. You get what I’m saying, right Nine Heaven?’
Nine Heaven: —Di Qi Ju, it’s not entirely impossible for you to keep her.
Di Qi Ju:……
Lotus: Master! See, even Mister Nine Heaven says I can stay!
Nine Heaven: I thought you said you won’t bother remembering my name…
Lotus: Well now I do, now I do.
Di Qi Ju:……
Di Qi Ju:—Nine Heaven, are you messing with me here?
Nine Heaven: Since you care about her so much, and since she’s willing to follow your every whim, what’s wrong with bringing her along with us
Di Qi Ju:Hey hey hey, now’s not the time for personal wants…
Nine Heaven: Back when I came up with that cover story yesterday, I already considered the possibility that having her with us might actually bring us benefits.
Di Qi Ju: …are you sure you didn’t just think of that?
Nine Heaven: While in Molten Steel, treating her like a slave would endear us to the locals.
Nine Heaven: Once we reach Cold Iron, we treat her as our master instead. We can pose as her attendants and escape any sort of suspicion.
Nine Heaven: The Ironcast clan is the most accommodating clan amongst all the large clans in Cold Iron. The only neutral city in the Burning River region so happens to border the territory of Ironcast.
Nine Heaven: Don’t you think that having her with us would allow us to have a peaceful time in Cold Iron? At least till the day we leave.
Di Qi Ju:…
Di Qi Ju:When you put it in such a logical fashion, I actually can’t think of any reason to refuse you. But why does it irritate me so?
Lotus: In what way is the Master unsatisfied? I’ll satisfy you right away!
Di Qi Ju: You’re the one I’m not satisfied with, ahhhh—
Nine Heaven: Alright, alright, boy, what’s got you so riled up?
Di Qi Ju: What’s got me so riled up is your betrayal…
Nine Heaven: If you really dislike her that much, you can always abandon her later.
Nine Heaven: Just leave the task of watching her to me. Lotus, if you don’t want to get thrown away in the future, you’d better work hard, got it?
Lotus: Mhm! Yes! I’ll do my best and employ all my techniques and knowledge to make the Master retain me forever!
Di Qi Ju:…
Di Qi Ju:……
What knowledge?
What techniques?
How did things end up like this in the first place? I know…it must’ve been when I decided to let Nine Heaven handle the owner!!
—from now on, I should be the one doing the talking!!
