“… Yes…” She replies reluctantly.
“Then please let him know that I’ve come to speak with him.”
“I understand. Please follow me to one of our conference rooms.”
We arrive and get seated quickly. Well, I do. Ayame remains standing a good distance away from me, as if we wanted to have nothing to do with each other.
In a few minutes the door opens and a rather pale Marcus walks with shaky steps. He pauses and surveys the room, or rather, the two of us.
“Mother, have mercy on me.” He says a barely audible prayer and then dejectedly slumps down onto the sofa sitting opposite of me.
“… Has the kind sir come to pay the weekly three silver coins this early? It’s only the fourth day…” He winces.
“Does it look like I’ve come for that?” I inquire with a little aggression in my tone.
“Then…?”
“Do you really not know? Stop stalling.”
“Are you here to return her?”
“It was in our contract, no? For the first seven days I’m free to return the slave if she is not up to my standards.”
“Sir…” He whines, eyes full of panic. “She is a strong and young warrior with many years to grow, I’m sure she is the best you could acquire in this price range far and wide.”
“That might be the case but I don’t like her attitude. She is always bitching like she is a noble’s daughter or something. Every hour she tells me how weak I am. I only have money to pay for a single room and she refuses to sleep on the ground, or in the same bed with me, thus I am forced to rest on the cold wooden floor.
Even if she is technically a great warrior, I’m struggling on the first few floors of the labyrinth where she is not much of a help because she one shots the enemies, leaving me no XP, she is rather just an annoyance.”
I pummel Marcus with a barrage of complaints, then I continue “with her attitude I’m not confident I can save enough silver to pay her price every week, and frankly I’m fed up with her too. I will just solo climb from now on until I find some nice teammates.”
His pale face turns from white to red with anger replacing the previous emotion. He turns towards Ayame who seems similarly annoyed at me as I’m at her.
“What?! A slave like you dares! I simply don’t believe you! You declined prospective buyers more than a hundred times just to choose this one, and then you act like he is your servant?! Make some sense, please!” He shouts furiously.
Ayame snorts in response, unimpressed by the admonishment she received. She replies with a haughty, princess-like attitude; “well, I guess I’ve made the wrong choice. I’m sure I will get it right in a hundred more.”
“A hundred more?!” Marcus nearly faints from the utter nonsense he is hearing. “Do you know how much I’ve spent on you in the past year?! You’re the single blemish on my pristine purchase history. My biggest blunder… Damn it…”
Ayame, with a completely uncaring, nonchalant attitude replies, “sounds tough.”
“Grrr! Ah, I can’t do this. I will have a nervous breakdown at any moment.” He stands and begins walking around the room.
“So, can we get on with it, or…?” I ask.
“Yeah, I’m hungry, I want to have a nice meal, Marcus. Stop dallying.”
“You want a nice meal?! You?!” He spits.
“Sir, is there anything I can do to change your mind?” He turns to me with a complete 180 shift in attitude.
“You tell me. What can you do? I’m not into men, just so we are clear.”
“Ha-ha! Sir has a very refined sense of humor…” He coughs into his palm and stares at Ayame with pain and frustration evident in his eyes. “I can waive the first week of payment.”
“Not interested.”
“I will mark the first month of payments as fulfilled.”
“No, thanks.”
“The total payment will only amount to seventy silver instead of the original hundred.”
“Nice try, but no.”
“… Fuck!” He bangs his hand on the arm rest. “… I will waive the entire payment, just keep this stupid fucking bitch away from me and my home, please.”
I raise my finger to my chin and enter a deep thinking posture. I stare at Ayame, evaluating if she is worth the trouble even for free.
“You drive a hard bargain, Marcus. Alright, I will bite.”
His expression brightens considerably. “Ah, thank the Goddess. And you, young sir, of course. You don’t know how much of a headache this woman is.”
“How wouldn’t I know? She has been bitching straight into my ear for the past four days. Actually, I’m having second thoughts now…”
“No! She is a nice young woman, just give her some time to open her heart up!” He backtracks on his previous statement shamelessly.
Hehe. Hook, line and sinker. “I will listen to your multiple decades of experience then. Please prepare the papers.”
He nods multiple times and rushes out of the room.
Ayame and I exchange glances and we can’t help from grinning ear to ear, though we remain silent in case someone is listening in on us.
We quickly write a new contract up between me and the establishment and then leave. Once we are out of ear- and eyeshot I hear a giggle next to me, which soon erupts into full-blown laughter and I turn to see Ayame clutching her stomach as it heaves up and down. “Hahaha! Watching that scum squirm in the palm of our hands felt incredible. What a liberating experience…”
I chuckle as well. “I’m glad you had fun, then.”
“Fun doesn’t even begin to describe it. It was simply a soul-healing experience. I didn’t know getting sold, or rather given away for free would ever feel good but here we are I suppose. Thanks, Quinlan. I didn’t know I needed this but I feel incredible right now.”
To my utter shock she leans in and gives me a kiss on the cheeks after pulling me down by my shirt due to the height difference. She quickly disengages herself and looks at me with grateful but also embarrassed eyes.
“Really… Thank you. I hope this is a nice little reward for being such a good master to me…” Though I can see her cheeks reddening, Ayame doesn’t avert her gaze, waiting for my reaction.
“Now this is something I didn’t expect, from my adorable yet awfully stubborn samurai. I absolutely loved it, thank you for the warm gift. Maybe you are not a bad girl after all…”
I state playfully to which she just giggles softly. We then return our focus to the reason we’ve actually come here for.