The slave in question looked up at me and started to tear up again, snot dribbling down from her nose. She had just stopped crying, but it looked like my wanting to sell her back to the slaver initiated a second waterfall. She buried her face into my leg and started to wipe the snot and tears away as they continued to trickle from her… don’t do that. At this point I was about as unhappy as I could be with how my purchase had turned out.

“P-please don’t put me back in there! I’ll do anything! I’ll be obedient and follow any order you give. S-so please.” She started whimpering, face still buried in my leg.

I ignored her as she continued to whimper and tighten her grip, and focused my attention on the shopkeeper.

“Sorry, no refunds.” He said.

… Why me? At this moment in time I’d found myself stuck in quite the situation; I’d spent a whole 5 gold on the damn slave, so I can’t just throw it away! I looked down to the slave latched onto my leg. She was still whimpering; she probably didn’t hear what the store owner said. Maybe this can work out; I always heard that a grateful slave was far more productive than a resentful one, so let’s use this opportunity to make her indebted to me.

I gently placed my hand on her head. She froze at the unexpected contact and looked up, face still unsightly from all the crying. I smiled at her and crouched down to her level, a difficult feat when she was still attached. She had frozen completely still at this point, eyes opened wide in shock at the unexpectedly gentle treatment.

“Listen carefully. I’m not a bad man, but I need someone who can follow my orders in the future. I don’t want to get rid of you, really I don’t.” I began.

I let my expression flash with guilt and broke eye contact for a moment before returning to her wide-eyed faced.

“If you can guarantee me that you’ll obey me regardless of what I ask, then this isn’t necessary. I don’t want it to be necessary, so would you make a promise with me?”

She slowly nodded.

“Good. Repeat after me: I hereby pledge to follow the orders of Cyne Wight, and to carry them out to the best of my abilities; to act as his attendant in the days to come until he assigns another role to me and to avoid the taking of any actions that would cause him distress. In the name of Sol, this I pledge.”

She was still quite stunned by the situation and began to panic when she realised she hadn’t been listening to the words I had told her to repeat. Of course this was the opportunity I wanted. As she started to show signs of distress, I took hold of one of her lightly scaled hands in both of mine (carefully avoiding the talon like nails). I lifted it from its previous position clutching onto my leg and held it between the two of us. The surprise at having her hand held made it easy to lead the once irremovable hand away from my leg.

“Calm down” I said.

She just gazed at her hand, dumbfounded by my actions. She regained her senses for a moment, after which she looked up to my face, to see the most reassuring face I could muster. Her face flushed slightly, hardly visible on the red-tinged scaly skin on her cheeks. Sorry, a girl with a scales is a big no-no; if any other devotees caught wind of a mixed race relationship, I’d be branded a heretic (Sol only advocates same race relationships). She’s also still pretty young, although now that I viewed her up close, she wasn’t bad in the looks department.

“Listen again” I said.

She nodded and I repeated what she had to say. After hearing it the second time she promptly parroted it back to me flawlessly. All the while I used the skin contact to bind her with the tier 4 spell, A Pledge to Sol. Hehehe.

This way if she goes against what she pledged in the name of Sol… well let’s just say she won’t get away with anything below severe third degree burns. The plan worked perfectly. The spell isn’t that useful in most cases as it requires skin contact throughout the entire pledge and for the one saying the pledge to have the intent to follow it (at the time anyway). Plus if she wasn’t so brain addled by my actions, she would have noticed the faint glow that began to wrap her body as she made the oath. This way I won’t always have to be on guard around her!

“That will do” I said.

She looked at me, eyes swimming with happiness. I then stood up, helping her do so as well, lifting her by the hand. She followed whatever my actions indicated without the slightest bit of resistance, her eyes still glued on my face… You can stop now.

“Well, from now on you’ll be my attendant/slave. Since we’ll be together for the foreseeable future I’d like to know your name.”

Honestly I didn’t care, but making her think I valued her more than I did would be beneficial to productivity… in theory at least.

“I-its Melissa.” She said.

“I’m Cyne. Well then Melissa, let’s get you out of those rags and into some more appropriate clothing.” I said.

She meekly nodded and followed me out of the store. The shopkeeper looked as though he was going to pass out from holding in his laughter at my performance in the store. I took the high ground and ignored the fellow, turning my mind to the things that still had to be done.

After exiting the store, I led Melissa to the closest stall for clothing I could find. The products on display at the little stall were hardly high-quality, but they were sturdy enough. After paying a number of copper coins for some simple clothing typically seen on the average citizen in Sol City, I handed the clothing to Melissa.

She accepted it, a slightly happy expression on her face, clutching the clothes into her chest before thanking me.

The entire ordeal of purchasing a slave had taken up quite a bit of time, and the revealing ceremony was fast approaching. In order to prepare, I quickly made my way back to the church and to my quarters.

Melissa seemed confused as to why we were rushing, so on the way I explained that I was one of the heroes’ companions to which she looked at me in admiration. Once at my quarters, I gave her some space to get changed. I of course also changed clothing, ridding myself of the items contaminated with both the spittle of the rude man and the snot and tears of my slave.

I must say, she looked significantly better in the new clothing than the old sack like article she was wearing when I first purchased her. Seeing approval in my expression, Melissa shyly smiled as her tail began to slowly sway side to side… are you a dog? Wait… she actually might be part dog demi-human, I don’t know what her other lineage is.

After everything was settled I told her to wait here while I went to the ceremony. Despite looking panicked at the prospect of being separated from me, she accepted the order without any complaint, she really is quite obedient. As I exited my quarters, I noticed the newly bought slave becoming more and more anxious. Are slaves supposed to get separation anxiety? I know pets can get it, but seriously… a slave? I decided that now wasn’t the time to address the issue; if I took any more time, I would be late to the ceremony, and that would make quite a poor impression.

After a brisk walk to the palace entrance, I was identified by the guards and taken to where the revealing would be held. As I walked through the rather boring corridors of the palace again, I couldn’t help but wonder about the entire ceremony. How did they reveal the heroes’ powers? From what I knew, the heroes always had a very specific set of skills and strengths that would increase, as they killed more magical beasts.

Unlike the residents of this world, the heroes had no limits. The established theories are that each time they kill a magical beast, they would permanently absorb a portion of the beast’s energy, expanding their own magical store each time. Heroes didn’t adhere to the concept of soul purity; it didn’t limit the degree to which their magical store and vessels could grow. Also, they wouldn’t need to practice their magic or skills; they immediately understand how to perform a skill as soon as they become strong enough to use it.

Isn’t that a bit unfair? They get more powerful without any effort. In order to expand my arsenal of magic spells, I had to carve that bloody seal into my hand for Sol’s sake! Not to mention the agonising process of having Serenity enter my body through it.

Although I don’t know how they do it, essentially the revealing is the forging of their souls into weapons which dictate their strengths and skills. This same process is probably what removes their limits. If only I could go through the revealing ceremony. In the end the companions aren’t much help at the later stages and are basically just glorified bodyguards while the heroes gain experience fighting and strengthening themselves by killing magical beasts.

A hero who’s gone through the revealing ceremony is widely acknowledged as a force to be reckoned with, and even those who declined to help the kingdom would end up developing unnatural strength and speed, without having gone through the revealing ceremony.

Once the guards led me to the room in which the revealing was held in, I was surprised to see everyone else had already gathered, including the Pope who was leading the ceremony. The room was a bit small and only held a simple stone basin of water in the centre, around which the three heroes had gathered themselves.

Hina grimaced as I walked into the room, turning her nose as if she had gotten a whiff of a bad odour. Rin’s expression however, brightened as she saw me. Yuki didn’t even notice me; the idiot was ogling Catherine’s assets yet again and was completely oblivious to his surroundings. I didn’t really mind about Yuki, but Hina’s obvious distain was uncalled for. What’s with that attitude? Mary’s gone, get over it.

The Pope noticed my entry and decided to start the ceremony. He gave each hero a small stone chalice, with a plain design. The chalices held no patterns, consisting of only smooth, grey stone. He then explained how the ceremony would work.

“You young heroes listen well. First take the knives I gave you earlier and use them to cut your hand, dripping your blood into the chalice thereafter.” said the Pope.

Yuki followed the instructions with a surprising lack of hesitation, I was expecting him to wimp out. He grimaced as he cut across his hand, letting a few drops of blood hit the chalice in front of him. As they touched, inscriptions started to engrave themselves into the chalice by some invisible force. Before long the peculiar inscriptions formed the shape of a sword on the side of the chalice. Seeing the change in Yuki’s chalice, both Rin and Hina followed his example, getting over their own hesitation. After they’d let their blood hit the chalice, the shape of a sceptre of some sort and a bow made themselves evident on Rin and Hina’s chalices respectively.

“Good, now fill your chalice with the water blessed by Sol and drink it.” said the Pope, once he’d seen them complete the first stage.

This time, there was no hesitation. All three immediately filled their chalices from the basin of water at the centre of the room, and drank the contents. When the chalices were first filled with water, the inscriptions began to glow a golden colour, something the heroes would have noticed if they didn’t immediately go to drink the water. They would also have been a tad more hesitant if they had seen that the glowing inscriptions had also started to squirm unnaturally.

When each took their first sip, the inscriptions rushed off of the chalice and onto their skin, quickly travelling down their face and neck to who knows where. Oh… it looks like it hurt quite a bit; all three heroes were beginning tear up and started to let out painful gasps as they scratched at where the inscriptions travelled. If their frenzied attempts to pull off the inscriptions with their nails could be used as any indication, then all of their inscriptions had ended up on their chests, on the upper part of their sternums to be exact.

This kind of reminds me of my contract with Serenity, except I had to carve the damn symbol into my skin myself. Also I think Serenity entering my body was probably way more painful than whatever the heroes were experiencing right now. Heroes really do have it easy.