Negotiations

Due to the completely incongruous atmosphere with the threatening presence the young man had before, without realizing it, I relaxed a little.

As I remained a spectator, a scene from a romantic comedy of an S&M hentai was unfolding before me. These two completely opposite situations happening consecutively left me speechless.

For a moment, it seemed like everything that was happening was the product of my imagination. Unfortunately, after having had a similar sensation when I came to this world, I knew that everything was real.

*Rip*

As I pondered whether I should try to escape or not, a sound different from the girl's screams penetrated my ears. The girl's climb had finally stopped when she tore the young man's patchy cloak almost in half.

Keeping silent, I just observed the reaction of the two. The young man seemed unhappy with another tear in his cloak, while the girl was momentarily stunned.

It was at this moment that he lifted her up by the short horns on her head, making her face him directly. I felt a pang of fear run through my body again as I saw the anger in the young man's eyes.

"You better fix that before we go back, otherwise," he narrowed his eyes and continued, "I'll make you have a training session with Ayze."

I didn't know who Ayze was, but his tone of voice made me imagine that it wasn't a good idea to train with her.

"Don't do that, master!" Unlike her calm appearance before, the girl seemed agitated. "I'll fix it right now!"

Plunging her hands into the pouch on her waist, she took out a needle and thread and began to sew.

After a few seconds of silence, the girl said, "Master, you're still too violent and have difficulty socializing."

"That's none of your business," he replied.

"Of course it is," she responded firmly.

"As a slave, your only function is to obey me."

"I refuse to accept that."

"In that case, I'll dissolve our master-slave contract."

While I was surprised by the existence of something like a master-slave contract, the girl shouted.

"No! I want to continue as I am."

"Then shut your mouth and sew faster, otherwise, I'll set you free."

"Ehhh! But I'm already doing my best!"

At the end of her words, her sewing speed practically doubled.

Although some of my initial fear had dissipated due to the interaction between the two, I was still speechless...

So, again, what's going on here...?

I don't know if I should be scared anymore...

"Master, I'll have a normal conversation with this boy, so pay attention."

Saying these words to the young man, she turned to me.

"Hello, my name is Milka, as you've already heard, I'm the master's slave."

She maintained a charming smile on her face as she seemed to wait for me to introduce myself.

"Uh-er, m-my name?" Due to not talking to people for some time, I was nervous. But the main reason was the fact that she was someone who received a powerful blow strong enough to turn me into minced meat and acted as if nothing had happened.

Given the strangeness of the situation and the intense look the young man was giving me, I felt like I was walking on eggshells.

Appearing to have understood my concerns, Milka said, "Don't worry, master won't harm you, we're just here to get salt."

"S-salt?" I asked.

She pointed to the cave and continued, "This mountain contains a lot of salt, so we come here once or twice a year to get salt."

"T-those white rocks, were they salt?"

"That's right," she replied and pointed to Usagi's horn, "Her horn is also salt, which is why master wants it."

"B-but why her when there's a mountain right there?" I asked cautiously.

"After being ground up, the horn of this rabbit is a first-class salt," Milka added, "it's extremely delicious."

"Extremely delicious?"

"Uh-huh," she affirmed, "Horned rabbits are creatures that live near places where salt mines exist. The salts they absorb end up becoming their horn and because it passes through their bloodstream, it gains a pinkish-red hue."

"She's a precious companion to me..." I tried to argue. "There were those that the wolves killed just a moment ago."

"I already took care of it," the young man said.

When I tried to look at the rabbit not far from the entrance of the cave, although the rabbit was still there, it was already without its horn.

How did he do that?!

"We searched the area around the mine, but the rabbit population has decreased quite a bit, so we didn't get as much as we wanted," the girl explained.

Being the culprit of this, I inadvertently swallowed.

"Tsk," clicking his tongue, the young man said, "Why argue when I can just take it?"

"Because it's wrong, master," Milka rebuked the young man. "You should only use violence when they refuse to cooperate."

Although in a somewhat twisted way, this seems more like a mother educating a child than a master and slave. In addition, when not in her masochistic mode, Milka seems quite reliable.

Feeling a little more comfortable, I bowed to the two.

"I'm sorry," I said. "To be honest, I've been living here in the forest for some time. The rabbit population has decreased because of me."

Despite the risk, I think it's better to tell the truth, so if I give the horns from my inventory, I can get away with it.

"You?" With the young man's gaze on me, I shrunk.

"T-that's right," I said, looking away from his gaze.

"To come so deep into the forest, are you on a training journey by any chance?" Milka asked.

"That's precisely it," I replied.

"It's a good way to think. You only get stronger when you face challenges that put your life in danger."

For a brief moment, the young man seemed to approve of my choice by nodding his head, however, he didn't stop there.

"But hunting defenseless rabbits until they are extinct cannot be considered training."

Getting nervous again, I stretched out my hand and some horns appeared on it.

"I didn't throw the horns away," I said hastily.

I know I shouldn't show my inventory in public, but right now the most important thing is to use all available resources to keep myself safe.

While neither of them was surprised by what I did, my eyes almost popped out of my sockets when the horns disappeared from my hand.

What the hell was that? It was Milka's master?

Not even my inventory can do something like that. When I take something out, I can make it appear a few meters away from me, but to store things, I need to touch them. The only exceptions are my weapon and armor, which I don't even know why it's like that.

If I could do something like this guy did, I would have huge potential as a thief. Not that I want to be one, but that would be extremely convenient.

"Give me everything you have," the young man said in a commanding tone.

While I was ready to take everything without thinking twice, Milka intervened.

"Master, you look like a common highwayman. Let me take care of this."

Stopping her sewing, she left the needle stuck in the cloak. Putting her hands to her waist pouch, she took out a bucket from it and placed it on the ground.

When she took out the needle, it didn't seem strange, but seeing her take out a large bucket surprised me.

"Is that a magic bag?" I asked.

"That's right," she said, "now put the horns you have inside here so I can give you a fair price."

I'm glad I didn't throw anything away.

Approaching the bucket, I made approximately three hundred horns appear inside it, which filled it to the brim. Although it wasn't everything I had, judging by the reactions of the young man and Milka, it seemed to have been enough.

"How do you want to receive it, in money or goods?" Milka asked.

For obvious reasons, money is not useful to me at the moment, so I only have the last option.

There's something I really want, and even though I don't know if I'll get it, it doesn't hurt to try.

"Do you have anything that can help me control magic?" I asked.

"You're in luck." Puffing out her chest proudly, she continued, "Master is a prodigy in magic."

Sticking her hand into her waist pouch, she took out a book with a red leather cover that looked to have no more than a hundred pages.

When I received the book from her hands, she took out something else from her pouch and handed it to me.

"Take this too." She handed me a brown leather bag with a long strap. "It's just a flawed product of master, so the space isn't big. Accept it as a gift."

Although I had a small suspicion of what this bag was, I asked, "What is this?"

"A magic bag," she replied.

Ignoring us, with a wave of the young man's hand, all the horns disappeared and he started walking away.

"Wait, master, I'm not done yet," Milka said as she stopped her master and went back to sewing the cloak.

"If I had to say, she was terrible at doing that. Probably the other holes were patched up by her as well.

Wait, I shouldn't think badly of someone who is helping me.

"Why did you give me a magic bag?" I asked.

Not that I'm ungrateful, but since she must have seen that I have a skill with a similar effect, there must be a reason for her to do so.

"It's for you to use as camouflage when using your divine skill in public, otherwise you could attract the attention of the church."

"Divine skill and church?" I was confused.

Divine skill was something I had no knowledge of, even trying to search for information that Shadow-san gave me. Fortunately, Milka cleared up my doubts.

Apparently, in this world, there are people who are born with skills given by the gods. However, if these people do not have the support of a strong family, they are taken by the church and then forced to join.

"As you live so deep in the forest, of course they won't find you so easily, but still, it's better to be careful," she warned me.

It seems she confused my inventory with a divine skill. Well, since I was sent here by the gods, I guess I won't have any problems with the church, but still, it's better to be careful.

"Thank you for your concern," I bowed.

At this moment, Milka had just sewn up the tear she had made and without saying a word, the young woman shot up into the sky.

"I have to go, goodbye."

Leaving those hurried words behind, Milka turned around and began to run.

"Masteeerrr, wait for me~~~"

Unable to react to say goodbye, I sighed.

"That was close."

This was an experience I will never forget, and I hope I never have to go through something like this again.

"What a strange duo."

Come to think of it, Milka is the first monster girl I've seen, more precisely, a beastkin.

"She's quite pretty," I murmured.

If I ever build a harem, Milka is the ideal type of girl I would like to have in it. In my opinion, every harem needs a masochist, of course, along with that type comes the tsundere, preferably non-violent ones, and then there's the airhead, the muscle-brain-

Wait a minute, muscle-brain...

I looked at Rin who was next to me and at the same time she also stared at me.

Well, she's totally the muscle-brain, come to think of it, she's also the airhead...

Is this some kind of sign?

Joining my hands, I prayed for the first time since I arrived in this world.

"Goddess Zyris, please grant me several beautiful companions like Milka," I murmured.

Finishing my prayers, I sighed, not knowing if my wish will be granted, but it doesn't hurt to try.

In this world, there is nothing like an all-powerful god, but rather seven main gods and several minor ones. Goddess Zyris is the goddess of life. Like her, each of the gods here is the god of something.

Strangely, I have very detailed information about them in my mind, things like why they are revered, stories, and such. Honestly, I would have preferred if Shadow-san had provided more useful information.

Now that we were alone again, it was time to get back to work.

After collecting the wolf corpses, I explored inside the cave. As Milka and her master had said, there were many salt stones inside. Taking advantage that some of them were loose, I stored them in my inventory.

As it was spacious, this cave seemed like a good place to be our new camp, but due to the salty smell combined with the smell of the wolves, it was very uncomfortable. Due to its size, it was also not easy to wash as easily as the other one, so I quickly gave up on the idea.

With everything done, we returned to the camp.