The First Subordinate

When he was following the group of slavers as they were chasing the chienthrope girl around, Isaac patiently waited for the most opportune moment to jump in and save her. After all, as long as people didn't really feel like they had no way out, no way to escape, they wouldn't truly be grateful and indebted to their saviour.

But as he was waiting for that perfect moment to arrive, he realized that he had to change his planned approach a little. If an individual of the opposite gender ended up saving someone in their time of need, it was quite normal for people to fall for them, to think of them as their hero. Isaac really didn't want this to happen, especially as he planned to recruit this girl as his subordinate. Such feelings would only get in the way and make things awkward.

Therefore, he decided to partially get rid of the mask he wore when interacting with people normally. He wouldn't show any emotion, so as to emphasize that he didn't hold any special feelings towards the dog girl. Additionally, he decided he would offer her a deal for strength and revenge, in return for loyalty. If she didn't take it, he wouldn't mind leaving the girl to her cruel fate and waiting for another promising situation to happen.This way, their roles would be abundantly clear and it was entirely up to her whether she wanted to be saved. Even more than being her saviour, him being her superior would be the most important part that her brain would register.

It was the best plan he was able to come up with in the short time he had, so after the young chienthrope agreed to the deal, he quickly killed the slavers who didn't pose much of a problem. Contrary to the other groups of criminals he had come across on his search, these ones didn't include a Level 2. They were also quite weak even for someone at Level 1, only slightly stronger than the average person. But as they acted smartly and only chose easy targets, their superiority in numbers made up for their lack in strength.

As Isaac had been around humans very similar to the humanoid races of this world for a very long time, his observations as to how the human body could move and its body structure were more than sufficient to be practically invincible amongst humanoid enemies. As long as there wasn't an insurmountable difference in stats. There was literally no other way for him to die against humanoid enemies of the same level of strength except for there being too many of them and tiring him to death with an unceasing assault.

After getting rid of the small fry, a new system notification popped up. But as he hadn't even taken a look at the ones that appeared when the dog girl had sworn her loyalty, he had to check out quite a lot of them now that he had the time.

[ Mina Teagle has sworn her loyalty to you.

Hidden Path 'King' has been unlocked.

Related achievements have been unlocked.

'Subordinates' feature has been unlocked.

1000 AP rewarded. ]

[ Quest 'Have one subordinate.' completed. 100 AP rewarded. ]

While Isaac was slightly surprised about unlocking this new feature so easily, its existence was already expected. After all, how could he have forgotten about a tool to manage his subordinates?

[ Achievement Progress:

Kill 1000 Level 1 monsters. (185/1000) ]

Interestingly enough, the five Level 1 slavers were just counted as Level 1 monsters. While it might seem outrageous, in Isaac's eyes, there wasn't any difference between the two. An enemy would be killed, a friend would be cherished. A simple philosophy. Now that he had made sure that the system did count eradicating scum as progress, he at least wouldn't feel like he was wasting his time if he ever eradicated some more. He was well aware, though, that he wouldn't gain any excelia from doing that. Killing a member of the sentient races didn't award anything at all, that was just one of the laws of this world.

Compared to killing monsters, however, it was apparently a lot more profitable to take out the trash. The slavers had a huge sum of money, 54.638 valis, with them. Isaac most certainly wouldn't complain about such a generous donation.

When he finally turned around to observe the chienthrope girl the system had referred to as Mina, Isaac gave the system a mental prompt to show him her Status, one of the things he thought the subordinates feature should be able to do.

[ Name: Mina Teagle ]

[ Familia: None ]

[ Affiliation: Isaac Blackshaw's Subordinate ]

[ Race: Chienthrope ]

[ Level: 1 ]

[ Age: 16 ]

[ Loyalty: 65/100 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: I-15 ]

[ Endurance: I-27 ]

[ Dexterity: I-18 ]

[ Agility: I-43 ]

[ Magic: I-10 ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ None ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ None ]

There had been quite a few additions to the information the Status displayed previously. Both the 'Affiliation' and 'Age' parts were new, as well as the 'Loyalty' stat. Most likely, this stat showcased how likely it was for her to follow his orders, as the name implied. The lower the stat, the higher the chance of betrayal or refusal of orders. Also, the lower the stat, the easier it would be able to drop further. On the other hand, the higher the stat, the easier it would be for it to rise even higher. After all, a fanatical loyalist would only turn more loyal upon experiencing something positive, something reinforcing their loyalty.

As Mina's loyalty was at 65/100, it could be considered a pretty good start. Most likely, subordinates would only desert him once the stat dropped to zero. Therefore, it would be smart to do his best to raise this stat. Still, Isaac didn't plan to go out of his way to do so. If he did that, he would feel like he was the subordinate in this relationship.

He had originally planned to take a look at his own Status right now as well, as he wanted to check his daily dungeon grind progress and how it had been upgraded thanks to the subordinates feature. But Mina growing more and more confused and worried over the past few seconds he had just spent staring at her made him decide to first get rid of the awkwardness in the air. As she obviously couldn't see the system interface, she could even potentially think of him as a creep if he continued acting like this. Not exactly what one would want their subordinate to think about them, ideally.

Right when Mina had grown more and more uncomfortable under the cold, emotionless gaze directed at her and was about to ask whether there was anything wrong, Isaac walked towards her. This surprised her quite a bit and made her want to retreat a little instinctively. It was too bad, however, that she was already with her back to a wall.

While the fear she had felt just moments before still clouded her mind, she was getting more and more afraid of what this person could do to her. After all, she had sworn her absolute loyalty. Could he possibly want to use that against her? Many scary and embarrassing thoughts filled her mind.

Contrary to her expectations, Isaac had only moved closer to shake her hand and introduce himself. So her delusions were yet again wiped away by his actions.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Isaac Blackshaw."

Mina returned his handshake distractedly. She finally realized that she didn't know anything about this man who called himself Isaac. Her assuming things would only lead to misunderstandings. So, from now on, she decided to trust him a little bit and wouldn't irrationally assume the worst. He was her saviour, after all.

"I'm Mina Teagle.. umm… Milord?"

She wasn't sure how to address him now that she was his subordinate. Calling him by his name may or may not offend him. So the first thing that came to mind was the way knights addressed their kings in the few fairy tales she knew of.

After sparing her a slightly confused glance, Isaac didn't remark on that way of address and chose to just accept it. It made the hierarchy between the two of them clear and wouldn't allow her to grow too close to him. That was exactly what he wanted. Still, it would take some time to get used to it.

"I did tell you that I would give you strength, didn't I? I plan to teach you about ways to get stronger and train you in return for your loyalty."

While Isaac said this to hopefully clear up all the doubts on the chienthrope's mind, he noticed that there was something making Mina nervous. Of course, he instantly figured out what it was. Now that the tense, life-threatening situation was over, the girl obviously had time to think about her parents. Anybody would do the same in her situation. As it had been his plan to do something about that anyway, he wasn't bothered by it.

"Follow me."

With these words, he lead the way back to where the family of three had been ambushed.

Luckily, he could use this time to finally inspect his own Status without attracting attention.

[ Name: Isaac Blackshaw ]

[ Familia: Loki Familia ]

[ Affiliation: None ]

[ Race: Human ]

[ Level: 1 ]

[ Age: Unable to measure ]

[ Charisma: 14 ]

[ Stats ]

[ Strength: I-10 (+ 341) ]

[ Endurance: I-10 (+ 337) ]

[ Dexterity: I-10 (+ 336) ]

[ Agility: I-10 (+ 352) ]

[ Magic: I-10 (+ 365) ]

[ Magic ]

[ None ]

[ Skills ]

[ None ]

[ Development Abilities ]

[ None ]

Just as expected, his own Status had changed as well. The only stark difference to Mina's was that instead of loyalty, he now had a charisma stat. As there was apparently no maximum for this stat, the low number of 14 seemed even more pitiful. But Isaac couldn't disagree with that evaluation, he wasn't very charismatic. Besides that, his age was displayed as 'Unable to measure'. This made sense, as when he had transcended existence itself, time had ceased to have a hold over him. It was no wonder that because of this, his age was now immeasurable.

Still, Isaac couldn't help but frown slightly when he noticed how much his stat growth had slowed down. Only the dungeon lizards and kobolds gave him more than 10 stat points when killed. That would sound like heaven to any normal adventurer, but for Isaac, it was far from enough. In the next few days, he would have to get Loki to update his Status if he didn't want to waste any time, it seemed.

It only took a few minutes to arrive back at the scene of the murders. Even now, there was nobody in the abandoned alleyway. Mina's parents' corpses were lying in the dirt, huge pools of blood blossoming like the petals of a flower beneath them. The slavers had been very thorough with their kills. When Isaac checked for a pulse just to make sure, he couldn't feel anything. They were as dead as they could be.

Of course, Isaac didn't disturb Mina when she had kneeled down next to her parents and cried her heart out. He wasn't a jerk, he knew she needed to let those feelings out if she ever wanted to have a chance at moving on from this tragedy. Surprisingly, it only took a short five minutes until the girl's tears dried up and she leaned over to close her parents' eyes. She was more mature than she looked.

Before she could ask anything of him, he had already stepped next to her.

"Tell nobody about what you're going to see now."

Giving her no time to react, he stored both of her parents' bodies in his inventory. He most certainly didn't want to be carrying two corpses around the city, that would just attract attention.

As soon as he had finished putting them away, he quickly explained what he just did so Mina wouldn't think he had destroyed the corpses, or something along those lines.

"I stored them away safely. Now, follow me. We're going to find a place to bury them."

Wordlessly, Mina could only follow along. She was just a simple farmer girl. Magic was something she didn't understand or know anything about. What happened just now therefore looked just like magic to her. A layman like her couldn't recognize anything extraordinary about it. As for why she shouldn't tell anybody about this, she thought it might be to keep Isaac's capabilities a secret. And she wasn't wrong about that.

During their journey along the south-eastern main street, the two didn't attract much attention. Too many people were walking to and fro. Without any complications, Isaac bought two shovels for 600 valis in one of the many stores facing the street. He made sure to quickly store them only when he had made sure nobody was looking at him.

Even when they had arrived at the gate and left the city, nobody paid the newbie adventurer and farmer girl any attention. There were just too many people just like them constantly streaming through the gates. Even Mina's beauty didn't earn her more than a handful or looks. So without any problems, the two of them quickly headed into the woods surrounding Orario.

Isaac didn't really want to go all the way back to the village he assumed Mina to come from, as that could take quite a lot of time. There were also no cemeteries nearby that he knew of, besides the adventurer graveyard. Which was only for adventurers registered with the guild, not random farmers.

It took the two a while until they found a lonely but quite charming clearing. Deciding that this would be the place, Isaac took out the shovels again and handed one of them to Mina.

"Alright, let's dig a grave."

During the entire hour it took the two of them to finally make a grave large enough for both of her parents, Mina didn't speak or complain. Although it was quite apparent that she had been exhausted from the slavers' previous chase, she didn't let this exhaustion stop her from resolutely relocating more and more earth. Isaac silently approved of this mentality.

When they were finished, Isaac directly placed both of the bodies into the grave, then motioned to Mina to do what she had to do. He didn't know about burial customs in this world and had no clue what he should do in this situation. So although his gesture might have seemed magnanimous to the young chienthrope, it was just a way to disguise his utter lack of knowledge.

Mina didn't do anything extraordinary, she just knelt down in front of the grave, closed her eyes and prayed silently for a while. Isaac had no clue what she was thinking about at all, he wasn't a mind reader. So while standing next to the kneeling dog girl, he just waited until she was finished.

"Dad. Mom. Goodbye."

With a silent whisper, these words left her mouth. She then opened her eyes again and stood back up. Without having been prompted by Isaac, she began to shovel up the grave. Not wanting to lag behind, Isaac followed in her footsteps.

When they had finished, the sun had already set a long time ago. Thankfully, the night wasn't that dark as the moon and stars in the sky weren't obstructed by clouds caused by pollution. To mark the grave, the two had only been able to drag one of the bigger stones nearby over. It wasn't majestic, it wasn't extravagant. But still, it was a heartfelt burial.

At this time, when Mina looked at Isaac, the wariness in her eyes had already disappeared. During the burial, she had made up her mind. While this young man in front of her seemed cold and distant, he wasn't someone to mistreat those following him. Sure, everything she had went through could have just been an act. But she doubted Isaac would go through that much trouble just to deceive her. He just didn't seem like that kind of person. She wouldn't mind following such a man.

"Thank you, Milord."

She directed these words at her saviour with a gentle smile, fully showcasing her natural beauty. She wasn't trying to charm anyone, she was just happy and being herself.

[ Mina Teagle's loyalty has increased by 15. ]

This was the result of all of Isaac's previous actions. Partially as a response to the beautiful smile, but mostly because of the system notification making him pleased, Isaac showed a rare smile of his own before turning around to walk back towards the city gate. He was sure that Mina would follow along without him having to say so.

Little did he know that his first real subordinate was currently awestruck. She hadn't expected her lord to be able to smile. And to smile so beautifully! A slight blush couldn't help but creep on her face, as she hurriedly forced herself to snap out of her distracted state. She couldn't get left behind.

[ Mina Teagle's loyalty has increased by 10. ]

Isaac almost tripped over his own feet when just moments after the first increase, for no discernible reason, Mina's loyalty increased yet again. But after not being able to figure out the exact cause, he just put it aside. It wasn't important why her loyalty increased, he was just glad that it did.

His celebratory mood didn't last long. When the two of them returned to the city gate… it was closed.

At this moment, Isaac couldn't help but feel incredibly stupid. While facepalming, he thought about why it had come to this.

In the novels, it had never been mentioned that Orario's city gates would be closed during the night, at least not in the volumes he had read. So he had just kept his modern day mindset, where it was normal to be able to enter a city at any time one wanted to.

Back when he had forgotten to bring supplies to the dungeon, Isaac already felt bad enough and decided to take all the details into account. It seemed like he failed to do so, however. Subconsciously, he had been influenced by the way his old world had worked. But now that he was in a medieval fantasy setting, of course he had to adapt. In medieval times, which city would have their gates open during the night? Especially in such a dangerous environment. It was obvious that the gates would be closed!

Scolding himself again and again in his mind, Isaac forced his subconscious to separate from his modern way of thinking. For a normal person, this would take them many years of adjustment. For Isaac, however, it only took him a couple of seconds. This time, he was sure he would take into account all of the details in the future. Nothing would be missed.

The one thing to be glad about would be that he hadn't made any horrible mistakes before becoming aware of this problem. That was something, at least.

While Mina was successfully holding back her laughter upon seeing her lord act in such a distraught manner, Isaac contacted Ais via the system. He had already made sure that now, at 9:34 p.m., she had returned to the Twilight Manor a long time ago. She most likely had eaten dinner as well.

Upon hearing about his current predicament, Ais couldn't help but chuckle. As he also informed her about taking in a subordinate and the details of how he had recruited her, Ais felt quite happy. If he had kept it a secret from her, she would have been disappointed instead. Him sharing all of this with her was a sign she very much approved of. Not that she had ever doubted him, but it still felt good to get some confirmation.

"I'll be there right away."

After instructing him to wait outside of a specific section of the wall, she stopped their system communication with these words.

Mina was almost panicking when she finally realized that they were most likely forced to stay outside of the city for the entire night. To calm her down, he told her that someone was going to come and pick them up soon, then motioned her to follow him.

Five minutes after they had arrived at the specified spot, Ais, wearing the same casual clothes from yesterday, almost soundlessly appeared in front of them. She had simply jumped down the city wall, but Mina hadn't noticed it whatsoever. Her sudden arrival felt like teleportation to her inexperienced eyes.

It didn't even take a second for Mina to realize who it was that was standing there, right in front of her. It was the one and only Sword Princess! Even a village girl like her had heard about this valiant warrior. Unparalleled strength and beauty, the fastest adventurer to get to Level 5… stories about her were spread far and wide. They included detailed descriptions of her looks as well. So once she saw that angel-like face and the long golden hair, she exclaimed.

"Sword Princess?!"

In response to the stunned farmer girl, Ais just nodded expressionlessly, before turning to face Isaac. As if spring had just arrived, her face bloomed into a beautiful and wide smile upon seeing him again after a whole day of being apart. Isaac, as well, showed a genuinely happy smile when gazing upon the girl of his dreams yet again. He would never tire of this breathtaking sight.

While the two lovebirds were staring at each other, totally ignoring everyone around them, Mina - also known as everyone - instantly realized that these two had a close connection. Upon seeing the difference in treatment between her and Ais Wallenstein, she didn't get distraught or jealous. No, she grew excited instead. For the lord she followed to be this close to the most popular adventurer, he most likely wasn't a simple person either. He might even be from the Loki Familia.

When he felt Mina's excited gaze, Isaac reluctantly ended his and Ais' little moment. He already knew what the chienthrope girl was thinking. So just like with Kalin earlier in the day, he proceeded to explain which familia he belonged to and that he had a different plan for her. He ensured Mina that she wouldn't lose out.

To Ais, who heard about all of that for the first time, he just said that there was no need to worry and that he would tell her about the result of his plan once it succeeded. As he wasn't entirely sure of how it would turn out, he couldn't really tell anyone more than a few points he was certain of.

After his explanations finished, Mina suddenly got put into a princess carry position by Ais. Before she could even react, she had already been put back on the ground on the other side of the city wall. When she turned around after a bit of confusion, she saw that even her lord had already arrived. But as for why he was blushing a bit now, she had no idea.

Of course, Isaac had only turned this embarrassed because he had found himself yet again in the same position as when he and Ais had met for the first time. He was just glad that this time, nobody else had actually witnessed this sight, as Mina had been too confused to pay attention to it.

Upon deciding to settle down Mina in an inn close to the Twilight Manor for now, as he couldn't let her live anywhere else before his plan bore fruit, the group made their way back to the northern part of Orario. Mina's rent turned out to be a staggeringly high 1000 valis per day - but that also included breakfast and dinner, so there was a good reason for the price. So after paying for five days and instructing her to wait for him in front of the inn at 6 a.m. sharp, he bid her farewell for the day. As she had been a farmer until not long ago, waking up very early in the morning when it was required wasn't something Mina had to feel worried about.

When they returned to the Twilight Manor, Ais and Isaac wished each other a good night and reluctantly separated in the entrance hall.

Once Ais had finally laid down in her bed after taking a quick shower and changing into her sleep wear, she decided that now was the right time.

Earlier in the day, she had already gotten enough Achievement Points to purchase 'Isaac's Past - Episode 1' from the system store. At that time, she had still been in the dungeon, so the system cautioned her. It told her that she should only activate the product once she was in a safe environment where she wouldn't be disturbed.

The dungeon was far from that. Therefore, she had to wait until she was back in her room at the Twilight Manor, during the night where everyone was asleep. She couldn't think of any more fitting place or time than then.

Ais' heartbeat quickened in excitement as she ordered the system to let her experience her earlier purchase. She would finally get to know something about the past of the mysterious man she had fallen for.

Without a warning, everything around her turned into a pitch black void.

Before Ais could even register where she was, this was followed by a blindingly bright light enveloping her, which forced her to shut her eyes tightly.