Master ain't bad after all

"Pleasure doing business with you, sir."

"Don't mention it. I'll be going now; you follow me."

The strange man with the fishing rod ordered me to follow him. I thought he was going to beat me, and that made me hesitant, but after I felt his gentle touch for the first time, I knew he meant me no ill.

The man looked angry, yet he held back for my sake. I slowly followed him, and we walked outside. My tummy rumbled because I was hungry.

He noticed and said, "You hungry?"

"No, I, I'm fine."

"sight, you can't fight with an empty stomach; let's have some lunch first."

The man took me to the nearby restaurant, where I very uncomfortably took a seat. I was so dirty and probably a bit smelly, too; it was embarrassing. The server soon came and reluctantly took our order; they were especially weary of me.

Everyone looked at me, and I felt weird; why were they all looking at me? I wanted to ask for my new Master's name but didn't know how to approach the situation.

"Uhm, th-thank you for buying me food, Master Sama."

"Don't mention it; I'm doing it out of interest. You can't fight well if you're considering eating after all."

"What did you mean when you said you wanted me to fight for you?"

"It means exactly how it sounds like. I got this excellent legendary weapon, but it doesn't deal much damage, and what's worse, it only works against high-level boss monsters while totally ignoring the smaller ones, so in other words, I can't level up!"

"So you want me to kill the lower-level monsters?"

"Yes, and the higher levels too. My power only freezes my prey in place, but I got no means of attacking by myself."

I was about to ask who he was, but just then, the server came back with our food. Master ordered the restaurant's cheapest meal while he got me a kids' meal. I was so hungry that I forgot about Master and dug into my food.

My eyes probably sparkled as I ate my first decent meal in such a long time. How long ago was it? How long since I had a meal like this? I couldn't remember; I only knew that I was enjoying it. Master, on the other hand, didn't look so thrilled.

Despite the lack of enjoyment from Master, I let him know that I appreciated him, and that made him slightly smile at me. I was so excited that I forgot about my tail; it was most likely waging from joy.

My new Master wasn't a bad person. I had struck luck, so I would make this work! Once we finished eating, we walked outside once again. Master took me through alleys and streets until we arrived at a weapons shop. The shop owner greeted us with a smile.

"Hey kid, what's up with the child?"

"I need a weapon for her, something she should be able to use."

"Right to the point like always, uh? Fine, I have a few daggers that she might be able to use. What's your budget looking like, kid?"

"Less than five pieces of silver. I'm still broke, remember?"

"Got it. Well, I can only get you a cheap iron dagger for less than five pieces; not the most durable or efficient."

"That will do."

"Alright, here you go, kid. I'll even throw some new clothes for her, those look so worn. I'm sure I have something of her size in the back from other kids losing their stuff in my shop all the time."

"Thank you, Geezer."

"Here you go, uhm ahem. I just remembered that I never asked your name. What was your name?"

"It's Akane; that's what my old Master named me."

"And your name before that?"

"I-I I don't remember."

"Okay, well, I don't like the name Akane, so is it okay if I change your name?"

"Y-yeah." I nodded as he approached me with the iron knife.

"Ukyo, your name shall be Ukyo from now on."

"Uh Uh Uhkyiuu."

"Yeah, that's it."

"What is Master's name?"

"Oh? you can just call me Ryoga."

"Ree-ou-ga," Master padded my head when I said his name."

Soon, the shop owner returned with new clothes from the back. The owner gave the clothes directly to me as he pointed at the changing room in the corner of the store. I understood what I had to do. I went in there to change my clothes.

The new ones didn't fit me well, but they were better than the rags I had before. Maybe not all humans were scum after all. Why did I even think that in the first place? Oh, yeah, that bitch. The past was painful, so I always avoided thinking about it. 

When I finished changing, I walked outside, where Master awaited me. We said goodbye to the shop owner and then walked off. That shop owner was a nice person too. I didn't want to admit it, but everyone had been nice to me so far, which made me happy for the first time in so long.

Master walked, and I followed; I didn't know where he was leading us, but I didn't want to bother, so I kept walking. We were soon outside the city walls and into the city fields. 

The area was full of low-class monsters that looked like little spirit rabbits. Master ordered me to kill as many as I could, so I began killing a lot of them as he watched me from afar.

"You're doing great, Ukyo; keep it up."

His words motivated me even more. I put even more effort into eliminating as many of them as possible! I was getting a strange sense of Deja vu from killing, like I was somehow already familiar with the act of slaughter, but since when?

There was no point in thinking about it; I only knew that I was making Master happy. 

I kept killing a lot of monsters until night arose. Master looked at me and told me we would have to sleep outside for the night as he had run out of money. I didn't make any of it; as long as he didn't hit me or abuse me, I was okay with a little cold night.

Master looked pleased with me and thus let me sleep near the fire he tended for us. I don't know when, but I was soon asleep against a boulder near the campfire.