As the heroes continued to struggle with the pain, their bodies began to be enveloped by a golden glow, the same as those surrounding the inscriptions. Eventually the glow began to fade and all the heroes sighed with relief as the pain started to recede.

“You’ve endured well so far, now all you need to do is summon your weapons. You should instinctively know how to do it.” said the Pope.

Before long the heroes showed eyes of surprise and proceeded to raise their hands, summoning their respective weapons with a flash of golden light: Yuki held in his hand a double-edged sword, a solid golden colour with the same unfamiliar inscriptions on it as what had appeared on the chalices. The same went for Rin and Hina, summoning their respective sceptre and bow, both golden in colour while holding the same inscriptions as their chalices.

“Good. From what I can see, Yuki here is essentially a swordsman, Hina an archer, and Rin a healer.”

A healer? Well I guess that lightens my load in the party quite a bit, but that sure is an unusual way for a hero to go. The Pope looked ecstatic as he looked over to Rin, probably intending to invite her to permanently join the church when the shadow uprising was put down. Now that I think about it, she has great potential; after gaining enough strength, she could continuously heal an army to the point of them being near immortal. It’s quite a terrifying concept really.

Yuki and Hina were pretty standard; many heroes in the past had wielded a sword or a bow. However, both looked pleased as they viewed their weapons, Yuki almost glowing with excitement. His gaze was nearly as focused as when he ogled a woman’s breasts.

I decided that it would be best to go up and congratulate them, and so, I walked up to the three alongside the other companions.

“Great job you three! Although I’m disappointed in myself that I couldn’t do anything for you when you were in pain, all three of you successfully forged your weapons.” I congratulated them.

“You guys look fine now though! And each of you have such cool looking weapons! Don’t you agree Deane?” said Catherine.

*nod*

Deane put a bit more effort in. I’m starting to wonder if instead of playing it cool he’s just too lazy to speak. I get that sometimes.

“Sorry to interrupt but the heroes should be immediately taken to the practice grounds to test their newly found powers. You three companions should also go and make preparations for the coming journey. You’ll all be leaving in a week’s time. The heroes will be briefed on their first destination and will convey the information to you when you next see each other.” Interrupted the Pope.

Oh, I guess no chat then? The heroes were quickly led away by the pope.

I suppose I do have quite a few preparations to make for this next week. First: ensure my new slave is competent in her duties, second: quickly advance to tier 6 spells and third: gather moonlight energy in my glove.

After arriving back in my quarters, I scanned the room for my recent purchase and found her hiding under the covers of my bed… who said you were allowed there? I pulled the covers off in preparation to give her a scolding, but found she was fast asleep, having curled up into a ball, her tail wrapped around her as she tightly clutched onto the bed sheets, nuzzling her face into them.

Damn… Even I don’t feel cruel enough to wake her up. That adorable sleeping posture felt like a direct punch to the heart. I struggled, trying to think of what to do. Before long, Melissa started to show some movement, nuzzling deeper into the bed sheets and started to dig her talon like nails tighter into them. Before long I heard a tiny rip in the fabric… For Sol’s sake! This is what I get when I try to be nice.

The bed sheets were practically ruined. Calm down and smile. Okay, I’d already established myself as a caring and kind person in her eyes. Somehow I need to keep her loyalty to this image and still punish her for causing that tear. As I thought about the situation, I could hear further tearing. A could feel a vein pop out of my forehead.

I walked over to the bed and grabbed hold of the bed sheets, now ruined, violently pulling them off the bed. The tightly attached Melissa also followed, hitting the floor with a loud thunk. She looked up at her surroundings, now groggy and confused. It looked as though she wasn’t even in pain from the fall. As she saw me her eyes brightened, and a happy smile lit up her expression. I knelt down on the floor to reach her level.

“Are you alright? It looks as though you fell from the bed while you were sleeping.” I asked in a concerned voice.

“U-um, I’m alright. Sorry for sleeping in your bed” she replied in a slightly embarrassed tone.

Your damn right you should be sorry. It’s also unfortunate that the fall didn’t cause any damage.

“No, no, it’s okay. I feel ashamed that I didn’t make any sleeping arrangements for you, when you had clearly endured a very stressful and tiring time back at that store.” I replied.

Gratitude seemed to shimmer off of Melissa and tears started to gather in her eyes, after which she started to let out hiccupping sobs, snot once again running down her nose. She pounced forwards, wrapping her arms around my midsection, burying her fluid covered face into my shirt. Sol dammit! You already got snot on me earlier! Suppressing my anger at her unreserved actions, I just patted her back.

“What’s wrong? Is there anything I can do?” I enquired, holding back the profanities that were struggling to leave the orifice that is my mouth.

“N-No, nothing’s wrong. It’s *hic* just b-been such a *sniff* long time since anyone so nice to me. And I’m *sob* just a slave, but your still so kind.”

“Well, you promised me that you’d do your best, didn’t you? And the position you have is more that of an assistant than a slave, and I’ll treat with at least as much dignity as the role deserves.”

“T-thank you”

I let her cling to me for a while more, trying to ignore the snot and tears to the best of my ability. After about 5 minutes of crying, she finally calmed down, and I went over to the bedsheets on the floor, picking them up. I positioned myself so that Melissa could see my expression as I saw the damage that had been done. I let my calm smile tighten, the change visible even to Melissa, but didn’t say a word about it, simply folding up the bedsheets and laying them back onto the bed.

When I looked back at Melissa, I could see that my little punishment had worked. I’m just a nice, caring person who went out of his way to help her get out of a horrible place, and then treats her with dignity, respect and kindness. And there she was destroying my property, the first person who had been kind to her in who knows how long.

She looked distraught at what she’d done, but when I didn’t mention it, her expression turned guiltier and her tail fell limply to the floor. I turned back to her and gave her a kind smile.

“Melissa, I’m going to quickly head out and fetch some bedding for you, okay? I’ll be back in a moment.” I said.

With that, I can leave her to wallow in guilt for a while. Having someone punish themselves is quite a fun method of punishment. I made my way to the nearest store room and retrieved both some bedding for Melissa, and new sheets for myself.

When I re-entered my room, I saw Melissa was still on the floor looking visibly depressed. When she saw that I’d brought new sheets for my own bed, she opened her mouth, but hesitated, not having the courage to apologise as I’d not mentioned it earlier. I walked over to her, and handed her the bedding.

“Here you go. It’s not the most luxurious stuff, but hardly anything at the church is.” I said, keeping my atmosphere light and friendly.

“T-thank you, I’m really grateful.” she replied.

She took a glance at the bedsheets I still held in my over arm, before looking away, ashamed. I pretended not to notice. Asking her what was wrong, would let her apologise and get rid of that guilt I’d worked for.

“It’s getting pretty late. I’ve had quite a long day so I’ll turn in for the night. You should too, I know you slept a while earlier, but you should let yourself recover.” I said.

I then laid out my new bedsheets and got into bed.

“Goodnight” whispered Melissa, her voice extremely soft and tinted with a tad of depression.

“Goodnight” I replied, giving her a fright as she probably hadn’t expected me to have heard her.

With that we both eventually drifted off to sleep.

The following week wasn’t especially eventful. Melissa seemed to have taken to her new job as quickly and dedicatedly as she could, probably to try and get over her guilt. Slowly but surely she grew more competent in her duties as an attendant, and slowly forgot about the situation. I kept up a friendly attitude around her, treating her like an equal instead of a slave, and her loyalty as a result is at an all-time high if I do say so myself. She’s still a bit clingy though, much to my annoyance; one night she had a nightmare and ended up crawling into my bed and latching onto me. Of course, I tolerated it, allowing her to stay when she noticed I was awake and had panicked. Maybe I should have kicked her out; when I allowed her to stay clinging to me, she teared up again, smearing my clothes with her snot and the like. It feels like every time I do something kind, it ends up like that.

Other than dealing with the clingy slave, I also dedicated a lot of my time towards improving my control over magic. It was a lot easier than I recall it being, and after 5 days of continuous practice, developing my control by manipulating and causing variations in low tier spells, I reached the ability to cast tier 6 spells. At least according to the church priests’ assessment. The only tier 6 spell I could learn was Solar Beam, which shot a ray of concentrated heat energy. It was a very basic tier 6 spell, relying on mostly raw power. Unfortunately more advanced tier 6 spells and above are reserved for the higher echelons of the church. Stingy old bastards. But at least I could now get a few more spells from Serenity.

Speaking of Serenity, she had stayed asleep for the entire week and to be honest, I was starting to miss her. Having only myself in my head was getting a bit lonely. A day after I’d successfully managed to learn Solar Beam, I received a message from a palace, stating that I would have to meet the heroes and other companions at the South City Gates in two days’ time. It was at this time that I realised that I’d had no down time for quite a while, and decided that I should go and relax before I headed off to accompany the heroes.

So here I am now.

*crunch*

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! PLEASE STOP! STOP! I’M SORRY! I’VE ALREADY TOLD YOU EVERYTHING!”

*snap*

“WHY ARE YOU STILL DOING THIS TO ME?!”

I looked up to the tear stained face contorted in agony in front of my eyes. He would have been quite the intimidating fellow back in the day, I think he was in for murder. I was currently sat in the Church prison, doing my daily duty as an inspector. Over the past few days I had neglected them, but as I was joining the heroes’ party, nobody really minded.

The other day I just dropped by and said I’d make up for not having done my duties, and so here I am. The prisoner under interrogation was already in quite the state. He was strapped down to a white table in the centre of a white room. Even the prisons were a spotless white around here, personally if I got locked up in a pure white room I’d lose my mind.

I stopped observing the room and turned back to the prisoner. I’d barely even started yet and he was already this far gone. I’d only broken a few fingers (all 10 to be exact), and crushed a few toes (once again, all 10), and here he was blubbering like a child. I let out an audible sigh; no one was around to hear it, so I could just talk to the criminal however I wanted. No being polite, or courteous, or friendly, or happy, or kind, and the list goes on. I’m sure if one were to look at me at this very moment they’d see a sadistic grin on my face.

“H-has it stopped?” whimpered the prisoner.

Technically I have to stop if they’ve already confessed everything they know… I gazed at his twisted fingers, bone shards sticking out of the skin… stopping now would just leave an incomplete feeling; I mean there’s barely any blood yet.

“Hehehe, you know… I think you’re still hiding something. Getting these kinds of things off your chest is good for your health you know. I’m really just helping you out here.” I said, my smile transforming into a grin.

“B-but I don’t have anything else I can tell you!” he shouted with frustration, through the tears.

I could feel the tension leaving my body. That attitude is what I want, that defiance.

“Well how about this, you can tell me your life story while I simply do my duties and I can help you identify your wrong-doings, sounds good right? Trust me you’ll feel better after all this is done. If you listen carefully you can hear the prisoner next door having a great time!” I said.

“W-what are you talking ab-“ began the prisoner.

I put one of my gloved hands over his mouth and gestured for his silence. After a few moments, the faint echoing of laughter could be heard. If one were to hear this laughter, they’d call it the laugh of a madman, but in my opinion laughter is still laughter. I call that prisoner chuckles; he just started to laugh one day after I’d ‘interrogated’ him for a few hours to relieve stress. He’s a much more fun fellow now; listening to his crazy ramblings is quite entertaining.

“If you just let me do my job, you can be just as happy as chuckles over there” I told the prisoner.

He looked at me, wide eyes filled with indescribable fear and panic. These are the good thing in life; I could feel my entire body begin to relax, the pressure of the last few days spent suppressing my emotions falling away. I walked over to the tray holding all the equipment needed for a good job, and picked up a thin razor blade. Testing its sharpness on my finger, I smiled as I saw a drop of blood drip down. Sharp as always, I must make a note to remember to pack these tools into my luggage.

After testing the blade, I made my way back over to the table, humming a happy tune. The tune this time was quite well-known here in the capital, the song’ lyrics telling the tale of a young man’s rise to becoming a hero. It was bright, cheery and fast-paced, a nice change from the usual stuff.

“Alright, shall we begin?” I asked the pale faced prisoner.

He didn’t look capable of speech… Well his consent isn’t really necessary. I then brought my blade down to do my job. Hehehe, happy days.