Chapter Ten #2
“I do. I’m not complaining about it. I’m not nice enough of a guy to reject the blessing of a setting I have been granted.”
“You say that, but you’re still the nicest guy I’ve ever met. Other than my dad.”
I placed my hand on Rosie’s shoulder. “Remember what I said about the women of this world needing higher standards? Back on Earth, there are probably a ton of guys who would come here, try to solo every dungeon so nobody would ever be in danger, abolish slavery, encourage women to cover up more, teach them about feminism and encourage them not to be so obsessed with men, and—”
“They sound annoying. Plus I like you, so I don’t care what other guys from some other world might be like.”
I was a little surprised by that. “What makes you think they sound annoying?”
“I mean, isn’t it annoying when somebody comes to your home and tries to change the way things are?
You know, like, you love this world and are happy to act like you’ve always been part of it.
If you were some guy who came here thinking we need your protection or that our culture is inferior to yours or whatever… that’d be annoying.”
“You’re right. That reminds me of all the annoying people who complained about Custom Dungeon World and tried getting the developers to change it. There were even people who complained about your design being too sexual, not safe for children, and pandering to the male gaze. Those damn tourists.”
“I—I’m too sexual?! But this is just a normal way of dressing!”
“Don’t worry, I love the way you look.”
“G-good. Besides… if it means pandering to your gaze… I don’t see the problem.”
I placed my hand on top of Rosie’s head to pet her since I couldn’t resist.
And it was in that moment that I remembered where we were.
“Why her?!” shouted one of the slaves.
“It should have been me!” shouted another.
“Please! Pat mine too! I’ll do anything!” cried yet another.
Those were just some of the shouts and cries I heard.
As for Rosie… she would normally be a little embarrassed from suddenly getting petted, but not this time. Instead, she had this smug look of superiority on her as she looked around at all the women jealous of her.
While looking at the scene of a bunch of women rapidly raising the humidity in the slave market, I remembered one of the reviews left on Custom Dungeon World.
An amazing RPG tainted by unnecessary, gross perversion that subtracts from the otherwise incredible gameplay.
If you can get past the fact that this is clearly a game made by lonely men, for lonely men, who view women as objects and tropes rather than people, you will enjoy it.
But if you’re like me, you’ll become even more radicalized against the patriarchy.
At least the reviewer said it was an amazing RPG. Really, the review could have ended in the first three words.
But now that I was actually in the world, I was really starting to understand why the rest of the review existed.
…
Not that I was complaining.
“Rosie,” I said, “am I a good person?”
Rosie paused nuzzling up against my hand to answer, “Obviously.”
“Alright, that’s all the validation I needed. Let’s buy a slave.”
“Now that I’m here…” Rosie looked around at all the women. “Is this… what you’re into? Desperate girls who will throw themselves at you? I thought men hated desperate girls who only think about sex?”
“To the women of this world, a guy who actually loves sex and can’t get enough of it is probably an extremely rare catch, huh?”
“More like a legendary 0.0001%-drop-rate catch. Just to give you an idea, I was watching this video the other month—an interview with one of the top male adventurers, and the interviewer asked him how much he does it with his harem. He said once a week if they behave and don’t annoy him about it, and everyone thought that was like… insane.”
“I have a feeling they thought it was insane for the wrong reason.”
“Even I thought it was kind of crazy. I mean, a guy who’s willing to have sex once a week? I always thought you’re lucky if you get a guy who’ll have it once every month or two.”
“What about your mom and dad? I mean, there’s no way that your dad doesn’t—”
“My dad is a certified absolute weirdo. You’ve seen him. You know what he’s like. No other guy would even look my mom’s way, but she’s all he wants, and he can’t stop touching her. He’s like an alien who you can’t compare other men to.”
I looked up and imagined Frolin looking down at me from atop a mountain peak with a smile.
“You’re right,” I said. “Your dad—no, our dad is a true man amongst men.”
“Stop trying to steal my parents from me!” Rosie whined.
“I’m not stealing them, I’m just making you share them with me. Besides.” I leaned closer to Rosie whispered, “Isn’t it like we’re already married if I call them my parents?”
Rosie turned red and the atmosphere went from humid to murderous.
I might have made all the other girls watching and listening too jealous.
There was only one slave I was interested in buying, and I knew we would find her inside the tent at the middle of the market. So, that was where we went.
“Ooh, a man!” said the attendant in the tent as soon as she spotted us. “We rarely—” she cut herself off as she looked down at herself. Her blouse was open to show off her cleavage. She turned red as soon as she saw that. “O—one moment, please!” She ran off to behind a curtain after that.
She wasn’t gone for long, though.
It was strange.
Back on Earth, the stereotype would be a woman stepping away to pretty herself up, maybe undo a couple of buttons on her blouse to show off more cleavage, and then return while looking overall more sexy than before.
But here?
The attendant returned with her dress buttoned up more than before, she had glasses on, and she overall looked a lot more… friendly? Safe?
Was that how women tried to seduce male customers in this world?
“Sorry about the wait, dear customer,” the attendant said. “Are you interested in purchasing a slave with us today?”
“It’s alright,” I said. “And that’s what I’m here for.”
“Wonderful. I’m sure that you have very high standards, so I’ll show you only our highest quality slaves available for purchase. First, what sort of role would you like to purchase them for? Cooking? Cleaning? An errand runner? Bodyguard?”
“Combat. She’ll be going into the dungeon with me.”
She took a step back and looked pretty surprised. “A man with looks like yours goes into dungeons? That feels like such a waste!”
Hearing that annoyed me a little. “And why is it a waste?”
“Well, a handsome man such as yourself shouldn’t be dirtying your hands with such work, not to mention that you’re putting your life in danger. Wouldn’t you rather stay home, relax, and play video games while you let some women go into the dungeon for you instead?”
“And be a mooch?”
“Any woman would be happy to support a man with your looks!”
I was tired of being taken care of.
All my life, all I could do was depend on others just do the bare minimum of survive. I couldn’t even go to the bathroom on my own. I couldn’t work. I couldn’t do anything other than rot in bed.
I opened my mouth to speak, but Rosie spoke up first, stepping between me and the attendant to say, “Sev isn’t like other guys.
Nobody is more passionate about dungeons than him, so I’m not going to let you imply that he doesn’t belong in the dungeon.
If you saw just how happy he is when he’s in there…
how he rambles about forbidden knowledge to himself even when he thinks I can’t hear him or he when he doesn’t realize he’s thinking out loud—”
I had no idea I was doing that. Oops.
“—then you would never think of saying something like that.”
For the first time that I could remember, someone defended my character. Even if it was something as little and nonserious as this… Rosie defended me.
I was ready to defend myself and to defuse the situation since I thought that was the only possibility, but I was stupid. There was no world where Rosie wouldn’t defend someone in a situation like that.
That was why I grabbed Rosie by her waist, pulled her close, and kissed her forehead, causing her to turn red in an instant. “Thanks, Rosie.”
Sudden displays of affection from men, especially in public, were probably something else women were shocked to see since the attendant looked even more surprised by that. Then she bowed and said, “I’m sorry. Clearly, you are not like most men, and I should not have assumed you are.”
I almost replied telling her that it was alright and not to worry about it but, instead, I said, “It’s all good as long as it doesn’t happen again.
Like my Rosie here said,” Rosie’s ears flapped and her tail swished at the “my” there, “I love dungeons more than anyone else. So, if you’ve got any slaves here who you think will be a good match, I’d love to see them. ”
“Thank you for still being willing to use our services. As for your request… I am sorry to admit that we do not have many slaves willing to go into dungeons, but… well… there is one. But she… well, not to be mean, but she is not very… appealing to men.”
“What was that about not making assumptions?”
“I know, I’m sorry, but you’ll understand what I mean when you see her. Please, this way.” The attendant gestured for us to follow her, so we did.
I already knew exactly who she was going to take us to.
In the game, there were a few different slaves available for purchase at different points with the first one being Valencia, a dragon girl brawler with as much speed as she had strength.
I actually wasn’t that big a fan of her character since she seemed far too rough for my tastes, plus she was the kind of girl who relied on the trope of “physical abuse is funny,” but she was a dungeon-loving maniac who would be invaluable to progression.
I also wanted a dungeon nerd to talk to.