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Volume 7 Chapter 5 Part 1

Chapter 35: Duel

 

『Roxanne』

Current Levels & Equipment:

Beast Warrior Lv.32

 

Equipment:

Rapier

Hardened Leather Jacket

Hardened Leather Helmet

Hardened Leather Gloves

Hardened Leather Boots of Willow

Sacrificial Misanga

  

「Umm… Master, I’m sorry.」

 

When we were about to leave the Labyrinth and go back home after obtaining more Whole Fishes, Roxanne apologized to me all of a sudden. Why did she do that? What is this going to be about?

 

「What is it, Roxanne? What happened?」

 

「It’s nothing major, it’s just that… it’s just that I can smell an acquaintance of mine. It looks like they’re coming this way from the entrance.」

 

「An acquaintance of yours, you say?」

 

Being able to detect the people that she knows with just her sense of smell alone is such a convenient ability she has.

 

「Yes, but I think it might be better for us if we leave this place post-haste, because if I was able to smell them, then that means they must also be in close enough proximity to have smelled me as well. If we run away now only to bump into them later, then there is a possibility that they might get suspicious of me.」

 

「Suspicious of you? And why would that be? Are the two of you not on friendly terms if you call her an acquaintance?」

 

「Well, I… I guess you could say that… sort of.」

 

「Is that so? I see.」

 

Whoever this acquaintance of Roxanne’s is, it is very clear that it is someone whom Roxanne does not want me to meet. We could get away from here immediately right now if we used 「Warp」, but that doesn’t seem like the wisest of decision right now. It is just like Roxanne said: if she could smell her acquaintance from here, then it is more than likely that her acquaintance has also smelled us already, so if we try to run away now, there is no way that they are not going to connect the dots together to realize that we have done this on purpose.

 

In that sense, I guess the ability to detect people by their smell alone can also be pretty inconvenient at times.

 

What I want to know right now is whether such an encounter is going to be only a one-time occurrence, or are we going to be risking running into them again if we continue coming to the twelfth floor of Bode’s Labyrinth, because there is no way in hell that we won’t be coming here again now that Miria knows that this is such a good spot to get her hands on the fish.

 

Not to mention that If that acquaintance of Roxanne’s was able to smell us on the twelfth floor of Bode’s Labyrinth, they we might not even be safe when we relocate ourselves to the higher floors of Haruba’s Labyrinth.

 

「Is there a possibility that she might’ve not smelled you?」

 

「No, I don’t think we can count on that… the smell is getting closer to us. They must know where I am for sure.」

 

「In that case, there is nothing we can do, so let’s just wait for their arrival here.」

 

「Once again, I am so sorry about this, master. My acquaintance might end up satying some strange, or perhaps even rude things to you, but please, I want you to not pay them any mind, okay?」

 

「Is that acquaintance of yours really that despicable of a person?」

 

Whoever that person is, Roxanne seems to really detest them. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that she would hate to meet any of her former acquaintances or friends now that she has become my slave? Or maybe she really hates that particular individual, and meeting them now that she has become a slave would make their already strained relationship even worse, and that’s why she wanted to avoid meeting them altogether?

 

「Roxanne… I don’t want to be pushy… but would you mind telling me about this acquaintance of yours in a bit more detail?」

 

「They… I guess you could say that they are my sworn enemy from way back in the day.」

 

A sworn enemy, huh? Talk  about some big vocabulary.

 

「Well, no matter what’s going to happen, I want you to know that you’re not going to be left alone with this, Roxanne. You have us as your trusted allies now, and we’re here for you.」

 

「Thank you very much, master. You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.」

 

I tried to provide some emotional support to Roxanne by offering some warm words and gently putting my hand around her shoulder. She is my slave after all, and as a good master I don’t want her to think that I don’t care about her personal problems and struggles and that I would leave her alone with them.

 

I put the Rod of Offerings back in my Item Box and wait for this acquaintance of Roxanne’s to appear. And after a short wait….

 

「O~~hohohoho~~!!! (TL Note: insert Ojou-sama laughter) Well, well, well, if it isn’t Roxanne?!」

 

Roxanne’s acquaintance did not come here alone. She has arrived together with five other people, making a full Party of six: four Beast Warriors, one Adventurer and one Monk. Also, it looks like their levels are all pretty high. Let me see… the Beast Warriors are… all Lv.99?!

 

「It’s been a while.」

 

「Yes, it has been quite a long time since we’ve last seen each other indeed, and even so, you still seem to be the same stupid, incompetent hussy like you were back in the day.」

 

The one having conversation with Roxanne is a female Beast Warrior Lv.29, and my 「Identify」showed me that she was a female who’s nineteen years old, which makes her three years older than Roxanne.

 

Is this woman the acquaintance that Roxanne was speaking of?

 

As for her appearance, I don’t really have anything to say or any comments to give, aside from maybe one: that she cannot even begin to start holding a candle to Roxanne, because for me, Roxanne is always going to be the ideal picture of female beauty.

 

「And I see that you haven’t changed  a bit either.」

 

「Oh, quiet, you! Don’t you dare comparing me from right now to the me from the past! I’ll have you know that for the past six months I have been doing nothing but gaining strength!」

 

「Is that so? Well, if you say so…」

 

This woman seems to be of a higher social status then Roxanne currently is, because whenever Roxanne was talking to her, it looked to me like she was lowering herself ever-so slightly. Whoever that woman is, she also seems to have her own family name, and from what I have been told, possessing not only a given name but also a surname, or family name, as it is sometimes called here, is supposed to be a very rare thing in this world.

 

Not only that, but she also seems to have some hellishly inflated ego, because the way she looks around every single one of  us is filled with the sense of boundless pride, almost as if she was deeming us all unfit to even be in her presence or breathe the same air as she does.

 

She has pretty long hair, and its ends have been styled into drills. They are also shiny, like that of a high quality porcelain doll’s, which somehow remind me of the Doolittle Raid, the first-ever air-raid carried by the USA against Japan on the 18^th of April, 1942, but that’s a digression that’s best to not delve into too deep. 

 

Another piece of evidence that she must be of high social position is the fact that she has such a long hair. Like it was told to me before, women of low social status do not have long hair, because they are keeping them short due to hygiene reasons. After all, in this world, only women belonging to nobility can afford to take proper care of their own hair, which in consequence allows them to keep it longer. Without proper ways of protecting their hair, the longer ones would sooner or later become damaged by the sun, becoming hard and stiff instead of soft and fluffy.

 

If she has hers so long, then that means that she has the money to take care of them properly and that she’s not afraid to spend that money on hair care. If there was ever a way of showing and proclaiming 「Look at me! Look at how wealthy I am!」, then she’s utilizing it right now.