Chapter Ten #3
Still, she was a popular character even if she was near the bottom of the rankings for me. And since I wasn’t exactly interested in romancing her, I wouldn’t have to deal with the whole, “Haha, physical abuse is funny and a display of love,” thing with her.
I just wanted to be friends and dungeon buddies with her.
“Here we are,” the attendant said, opening the door to the backroom where only a single cage was occupied.
There she was.
Val—
“This is Lupa,” the attendant said.
… who?
Instead of a fiery dragon girl in a cage, there was a cool beauty type of girl with long, silver hair with a sharp, golden gaze that tracked my every movement… and with the ears and tail of a wolf.
There was supposed to be a dragon girl who shouted, “Hey! You look strong! Let me fight with you!” Instead, there was a wolf girl who looked like she was wary of me and didn’t say a word.
“No dragon girl?” I asked.
“Oh… were you looking for one?” the attendant asked me. “I’m sorry. We had one, but she was purchased a few hours ago.”
Huh.
Well, that made sense…? After all, it was a real world now, so I couldn’t expect Valencia to just sit there behind bars waiting forever for me. But to already get bought…
“Who bought her?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, but sharing that information goes against our policy,” the attendant answered.
That was understandable. “It’s alright.”
“If you would like, I can put you on a waiting list so that you have the first opportunity for purchase next time we acquire a draconid?”
I looked past her at Lupa. “Don’t worry about it. Besides, there’s a girl right there who looks promising.”
“You—you’re still interested in her?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well… as you can see, she is tall, has a very… unflattering body, her face lacks any charm, and she is one of the canids. As I am sure you are aware, canids get incredibly clingy toward men. Once they have decided that they wish to make a man their mate, they stick to him for life, offer him no privacy, and get very possessive. They are a selfish race who cares more about their own desires to the point where most men refuse to go near them. They are especially problematic when they enter states of heat.”
This world had seriously screwed standards.
From what I could see, Lupa was an incredibly beautiful girl.
She couldn’t have been more than 5’8”, so I wouldn’t call her that tall, she had a figure that was once again unrealistically perfect with wide hips, a thin waist, and breasts nearing the size of her head which still left her notably smaller than Rosie, and her face had this cool, charming beauty to it.
It would be fair to say that she was as handsome as she was beautiful when it came to her face.
Also, her fluffy ears and tail were adorable.
Also also, what man would complain about a beautiful girl clinging to them for life?! Most men would die for that kind of loyalty!
… but probably not in this world.
The statement about her going into heat being problematic also had such an obvious counterargument that I wasn’t going to even bother talking about it.
More importantly, I had a theory about why canids were known for being disobedient and selfish, and I was pretty confident in it knowing what kind of world I was in.
“What crime did she commit?” I asked.
“She robbed a bank,” the attendant answered. “For the third time.”
“The… third time?”
For the first time, I saw a hint of emotion from Lupa. There was just the tiniest, proud smile as she looked at me with eyes that said, “Cool, right?”
“Yes,” the attendant answered. “This is her third time coming here. I truly cannot recommend her. Each time she gets arrested, she opts into the slavery program, gets purchased, and then runs off to rob another bank. She is addicted to theft. This is her final chance to behave as she will not be allowed into the slavery program if she breaks the law again.”
Rosie looked at me and asked, “You’ve already made up your mind, haven’t you?”
I smirked as I crouched down in front of Lupa’s cage. “One of those banks was Hero’s Vault, wasn’t it?”
Lupa’s eyes lit up with life when she heard that. “That was… the last one.”
“I always thought it looked super robbable. I mean, gold statues, a bunch of private rooms with vaults—it’s impossible to look at a place like that and not think it’d be fun to rob.”
Lupa looked at me with the kinds of eyes that told me she discovered a comrade she never believed she would find. “The bank is asking for it when it decorates like that.”
“Right? Unfortunately, I can’t promise you that you’ll get to rob any banks if I buy you. I’d rather neither of us get into trouble. But, I really love dungeons.”
Lupa nodded. “Mm. I heard.”
“Yeah?”
She nodded again and pointed up at her ears. “I have… good hearing.”
“That’s even better. Now, while banks are boring and won’t let us rob them without getting into trouble, you know who else is totally asking for it that we won’t get in trouble over?”
“Dungeons.”
“You’ve got it. So, how about it? If you promise you’ll behave, I’ll take you to a dungeon to rob every single day.”
Rosie tapped on my shoulder to get my attention and shook her head once I looked at her. “I’m not going to stop you from going way more than everyone else with a logical brain, but I’m making you take the weekends off.”
“B—but—”
“Take a couple of days off a week or I’m going to die from stress.”
“Fiiiiine.” I looked at Lupa again. “I’ll take you to a dungeon each day Monday through Friday.” Then I leaned in closer to whisper, “And on the weekends, we can plot on how to rob some banks just for fun.”
“That… sounds fun,” Lupa said. “But… you heard her. I’ve never heard of a man who wants anything to do with us before…”
“That’s because most men here have shit taste. I mean, who wouldn’t be interested in a beautiful wolf girl?”
“You think I’m… beautiful?”
“Incredibly so.”
Lupa got onto all fours and crawled toward me.
She got closer so that she could sniff me through the bars, but…
by doing so on all fours, the white cloth she had on to barely cover up her body hung down enough for me to look through the opening at the top, exposing her bare, hanging breasts.
“You don’t smell like a liar. And your body language is honest.” Then she sniffed some more…
before positioning herself right in front of my crotch.
Her tail started wagging even harder once she did that. “It smells… good.”
“As embarrassing as that is, it’s proof I’m not like other guys, right?”
“Mm. Weird guy. But… kind smile… and nice scent.” She switched to sitting on her knees and looked up into my eyes. “Not just down there. Nice, warm scent everywhere.”
I reached forward to hold the back of my hand toward her, right against the cage’s bars, to let her get a closer sniff. “You’ll have to promise me no robbing banks.”
Lupa gently reached between the bars to hold my hand as she brought her nose against it. First, she smelled it, then she rubbed her nose against it. “Mm. Promise.”
I left my hand there and turned to look at the attendant. “Alright, I’ll take her.”
While Rosie already knew the outcome, the attendant still looked shocked about it. “Are… you sure? She—”
“I’m not a fan of repeating myself.”
Rosie narrowed her eyes when she heard that. I knew she was thinking about all the times I repeated the joke about her having the easiest romance route. So, I stuck my tongue out a little at her.
As for the attendant, she sighed and gave up. “Then the price will be three gold. Are you ready to—”
“You think I’ll pay three gold?” I asked.
“That’s—”
“You told me yourself that she has a habit of running away from her owners to commit crime. What if she does that again and hurts my reputation? Not only that, but all you’ve done is talk poorly about her and tell me how bad of a product she is.”
“But—”
“And I haven’t forgotten that even after you apologized for making an assumption of me, you continued making assumptions about me.
Between the risk I’m taking by buying her, the fact that nobody else will want to buy her, and just how rudely you’ve been treating me, I think that I deserve a pretty hefty discount, don’t you?
If anything, you should be happy I’m taking such a problem slave off your hands. ”
“You… you—you’re… terribly right, especially in regard to my behavior and doing us a favor. If—if it would so please you, then… one gold—”
“Also, sorry for not mentioning this sooner, but those glasses look great on you.”
“Thirty silver! That’s—that’s as low as I can go!”
“Deal.”
“Smooth,” Lupa said from behind me.
I turned around and winked at her.
There were more ways to steal than robbing banks.
Unfortunately, I had no idea how much paperwork I was signing up for by choosing to buy Lupa. I had to read through at least thirty pages of text and sign my name on at least a dozen lines.
I also received a sheet telling me everything that Lupa consented to. There were only two types of jobs that she didn’t consent to: housework and cleaning. Everything else was fine… including sexual services since of course that was an option.
Though, since I did inquire about it, apparently “sexual services” meant being used sexually by the owner rather than prostitution. And maybe it was because of that, but the paperwork also included her age which said she was twenty-four.
I also made sure to ask the attendant how many girls consented to that when opting into slavery.
Every single one did.
A hundred percent of them.
I knew they would, but still.
They had their fantasies.
“That’s should be everything,” the attendant said. “You may now go collect your slave.”
“Thanks for showing me to her,” I said.
“Of course. A-also… you—you know, I happen to have a little bit of experience with dun—”
I nodded to Rosie and said, “Let’s go get our new party member.”
Rosie nodded and came with me, leaving the attendant behind near the front of the tent where a desk was set up for us to do the paperwork.