“Wait, broken glass, noise from the pub … Mistress, were you in the middle of a battle?!” the surprisingly cute Orc girl exclaims before stepping in front of the motorcycle girl while reaching back to grab her battle axe. Her eyes turn fierce as she glares at us. “Just say the word, Mistress, and I’ll have these people chopped!”

“Hold on, we’re not—”

Before I could say any further, the motorcycle girl puts a hand on her Orc slave’s (?) shoulder. She then moves in and whispers something … at least that’s what it looks like from how close their faces are and one of the Orc girl’s pig ears perk up.

“Um … Mistress asks if any of you got hurt?” the Orc girl asks in confusion.

“We are fine, thank you,” Julius answers. “We managed to stop right before getting caught in the crash.”

“So … these guys aren’t our enemies?”

The motorcycle girl shakes her head and whispers more. The Orc girl’s face suddenly reddens as both of her ears perk up.

“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry for jumping to the wrong conclusion!” the Orc girl exclaims before getting down into dogeza, being careful of the broken glass below her. “Please, do with me what you must, but I beg you to not think of my Mistress with an ill will!”

“It’s quite all right since no one has gotten hurt … though I can’t quite say the same for that girl’s real enemies that flew off. Isn’t that right, Jinma?” Julius asks me.

“Huh? Oh, yeah, right …”

The motorcycle girl then crouches down next to the Orc girl and pulls her back up before whispering into her ear more.

“Mistress wishes to compensate you all for the inconvenience and asks if you have a place to stay,” the Orc girl relays to us.

“We were just on our way to the inn close to here to reserve some rooms,” Julius answers.

“The Moonshine, right? That’s where we’re staying.”

“That it is, indeed.”

The motorcycle girl whispers more into the Orc girl’s ear. “Mistress would like to check back in the pub here and pay for the damages before leading you all there. We can talk more then.”

“That would be wonderful!”

“Yeah, sure …” Julius and I say. She seems to be reasonable but I wonder why she has to relay those messages to her Orc slave for delivery?

Nyra advises.

~~

We took a couple of minutes for motorcycle girl to settle business with the pub before she and her Orc girl slave lead us to the inn further down the street. The place that’s called ‘The Moonshine’ is about as big as the one me and my party stayed in Dondegarm, only these guys don’t have the Japanese-inspired ‘mixed room’ and has just more rooms available, big and small for different clientele.

Before we had a chance to check ourselves in, the human-Orc pair orders some food for us at the counter before we were directed to seats made up of a few tables quickly put together for our large group. I sat near the end with Ume and Sue at both of my sides while the two new girls were across from us. Julius was at one end and Eugus on the other, with everyone else settling in their own seats accordingly. My familiars are sitting on the floor next to us as they wait for their food like the rest of us.

“Please allow me to be the first to apologize once more and start the introductions,” the Orc girl says as she and her owner stands before everyone. “This is my human owner who goes by Kisaki. She’s not good with speaking up to strangers so please excuse her for using me to relay any and all of her messages for now. I am Roll, her one and only slave companion of the Orcs. Mistress and I are a green-ranked adventurer party who like to go by the Skull Bashers. We hope we could get along.” Roll and Kisaki then bow before everyone, ending their introduction.

Aaaaand just like that, my Intuition skill kicks in and warning flags are flipping up at the wazoo in my mind.

The name, ‘Kisaki,’ not only just screams Japanese, but it’s completely contradictory to her behavior if she’s actually ‘not good with strangers.’ If anything, how Roll’s speaking for her already speaks levels of how high in the ground she sees herself as that goes along with the name’s vibe. [AN: kisaki (后) is a translation for ‘queen’ in Japanese.]

If that weren’t strange enough, there’s the party’s name that was also likely Kisaki’s doing. ‘Skull Bashers?’ Doesn’t that sound like a rock or metal group? Anyway, that aside, Roll lied just then, which means her ‘Confession’ setting as a slave is completely off at 0. From the sounds of the timing, it seems it was her ‘difficulty to speak to strangers’ that set off my Intuition skill. Which means she’s not speaking up for an entirely different reason that Roll’s aware of or she wouldn’t have to lie to do it. She seems to be telling the truth about the name, though … question is, is that also a lie, and is she keeping her real name hidden from her slave partner? For what reason?

“Very nice, very nice,” Julius says while applauding. “I am Julius, the guild master for Bomira’s adventurer’s guild in the Human-Kin’s Territory. I arrived here in Palocaesy today doing business.”

“And I am Eugus, guild master for Dondegarm’s adventurer’s guild that is the next town over. I came with Jinma’s party also as part of business,” Eugus joins in.

“Uuu … I really messed up this time if I raised a blade against two guild masters,” Roll says while shuddering in her seat.

“Now, now, it’s okay. That’s all in the past now. Jinma, would you like to go first for your group?”

“Right … sure,” I say before standing up.

I may not know what this ‘Kisaki’s’ deal is, but even if she has more experience in this world than I do, I can’t let myself be seen as someone to take lightly, yet see me as a big enough threat to take out first thing. I guess I’ll just introduce myself normally.

“I’m Jinma Kotori, human, and leader of the ‘Twilight Sky’ adventurer’s party. Nice to meet ‘cha. This is my wife and a ‘second-in-command’ of sorts in the party, Umeiyon, a Lizardman.”

“It’s a pleasure,” Ume greets.

“Buhii?! Wife?!”

“Yeah, I was rather shocked, too,” Julius comments to Roll’s surprise. Kisaki, on the other hand, claps her gloved hands together with glee.

Nyra comments.

Well, with one guy surrounded by girls, would it be strange if he wasn’t in a relationship of some sort with any of them? I imagine she made some guesses about me on our way here.

After that, Sue along with the rest introduced themselves accordingly.

“Wow, so many different people … it’s not often I see an Ogre or a Lizardman around these parts, but for the latter to be the wife that heads her husband’s harem … just being a wife is already so amazing, but to even go that far …” Roll trails off as she spaces out in a dream-like state.

“If you don’t mind me mentioning, Roll, but you’re really … different from what I’ve seen of other Orcs so far here,” I point out.

“You don’t have to sugarcoat it, Mr. Kotori, I know … I’m hideous from the other Orcs, aren’t I?”

Everyone at that table is stunned silent at her statement.

“… What?” I ask to break the silence.

“The moment I was born my parents said things like ‘why, why were we given such a hideous child?’ They wanted nothing more than to get rid of me. My siblings who came after teased and ganged up on me, their oldest, for my hideous face, made messes for me to clean up after as part of our parents’ ‘discipline’ towards me, said I should be put to some use despite my looks. They wouldn’t even let me out of their home in public because they were that ashamed of having such an ugly daughter.

“It wasn’t until I got old enough that they sold me as a slave. I developed a good Housekeeping skill while I knew how to swing an axe from all of the wood I chopped, I guess the Slave Merchant who bought me saw value in those, at least. From there, I was put through more rigorous labor as a slave, improving my Housekeeping and Axe-Wielding skills, among others, until I met Mistress much, much later.

“She was so nice to me, kind as she is strong with her special chain whip. She was the first to ever tell me I actually looked pretty, especially after she helped cleaned me up some and bought cute clothes for casual wear. Mistress may be stern with me at times and can get a little overboard with my training while battling monsters, but I could tell, compared to my parents, her form of ‘discipline’ is out of consideration for my safety and the kindness of her heart.

“I’ve only served Mistress as her slave for a little over a month now, but I owe a lot to her for saving me that day. That’s why that even if I’ll get bad stares from others for my hideous looks, I won’t get discouraged. As long as I could serve a wonderful person like Mistress, I’m happy as I am right now.”

“We totally get it!” Ren exclaims, leaning over the table while her tail wagged to and fro. Erizora also looks on with serious eyes. “We’ve only been with Master for a few days, but despite how different we are from him, he treats us as equal individuals! He cares so much for our health and gives us such special treatment, I feel like we’d never repay all of the wonderful things he’s given us!”

“I feel the same way for Mistress!”

“Uh, I just started with this whole slavery thing, so I don’t know much about this yet to even relate,” Tyvera interjects with a talon-hand up.

“If I could also say something, Roll,” I intervene. “I don’t know how the standards of beauty for Orcs work and it may not mean much from me, being a human, but I agree with Kisaki here. Speaking as a guy, I think you’re really cute as well.”

“… Eh? Ehhhhh?! No! You can’t be serious!” Roll exclaims as her face flushes.

“Dead serious. I’m interested to see how you look in casual clothes, and honestly, if I were in Kisaki’s shoes at that time you two first met, I’d redeem you in a heartbeat. You not only have cute looks but your personality also seems to have the same level of attractiveness. You’re a legit cinnamon roll, Roll.”

“I don’t know what that is but I agree with Jinma, too,” Julius adds. “Out of all the Orcs I’ve seen in my days, I find you quite charming, Roll.”

“N-No, really, I’m not …” Steam seems to be blowing out of Roll’s ears from how hot and red her face is getting. Kisaki nudges her side, probably saying something like ‘See? What’d I tell ya?’ with her actions. “No, not you, too, Mistress. Please, don’t look at me …” Roll then covers her face, hiding her embarrassment.

Ah~, she looks so cute it makes me want to eat her up.

<“Yeah~, you might want to get that taken care of soon. I can tell from here that you’re getting really backed up from all the rises of arousal today.”>

Right, maybe I’ll do that as soon as we figure out our rooms, but really, this Kisaki … she may be hiding some big things, but she’s a really nice girl deep down, huh? Strong, kind, stern and tend to go overboard, even the way she’s teasing Roll right now …

“Jinma? Are you okay?” Sue suddenly asks me.

“I am, why?”

“You’re smiling, but your eyes were looking a little sad and lonely for a moment there.”

“… Ah, did it really look like that? I really am fine, I just got nostalgic for a bit from watching those two. It just reminded me of the good times I shared with some good people of mine back home.”

“With your family?”

“Yeah. Have you ever felt like that?”

“… From time to time, yes.” Sue looks down and smiles sadly to herself while placing a hand on her chest, specifically over her necklaces that are tucked between her cleavage.

Maybe they’re memorabilia of some sort to remember someone in the family dear to her? While I can relate to that, I wonder what hers is? Who does she have in Korangar right now if she’s this far on her own? I kind of hope I’ll get to learn more about her, soon.

~~

Off on Jinma’s other side, without his knowledge, the Dragon girl in disguise, Umeiyon, also has a similar expression on her face as she thinks back to her previous time at her old home, to the people of her own kind that were closest to her.

… Despite my disappearance, I hope you’re doing well over there. If only you all can see how happy I am to have fallen in love with Jin right now.