ã€ŠI Became a Member of my Friend&#x27;s Yandere Harem?!ã€‹


 Prologue

    "Nnrg... Ah!"

    I accidently rolled off the bed again... this bed is really high off the ground, which is I suppose is good because it wakes me up. Anyways, I need to hurry and make breakfast before Hise wakes up. Hise really outdid me with his giant stack of pancakes last time, so I need to do something even more extravagant.

    It''s only 4 AM, so I probably have time to run down to the market. I''ll go turn off Hise''s alarm just in case. I tiptoe into his room. His hair is a mess, like always, and there''s drool coming out of his mouth. Oops, I¡¯m staring too much. I barely keep myself from laughing when I think about how he''ll react when he wakes up.

    By the time I get everything I need, it''s only 5. I can do this! During the parts when I need to wait for something to cook I go and start doing the laundry. Even though I like to mess with him, I actually owe a lot to Hise. He took me in 3 years ago when the shelter kicked me out. For that, I''ll always be grateful. I wanted to work and split the rent with him, but he adamantly refused, so ever since then, I''ve been doing all the chores around the house. Of course, he has a problem with that too, which is why I make it a habit to wake up before him. Recently it seems we''ve been having a strange competition to see who can wake up and make breakfast first.

    The other reason that I do some of the the chores is, well, it''s weird to have someone else do your laundry. Though it might just be a result of me growing up in a shelter. I''ve never taken baths with others, shared laundry with them, or anything like that. I had to do everything myself at the shelter. Actually, it would be better if it¡¯s just me, otherwise that would mean Hise finds it weird that I handle his clothes everyday.

    Oh, there he is now. He woke up a little later than I expected, so the food is somewhat cold, but the shock of my breakfast is in the presentation, not necessarily in the taste. Hise shambles into the kitchen and rubs his eyes, looks at the table, then rubs his eyes again. On the table is a large cooked crab covered in butter, resting on top of a plate of salad, complete with a side of pasta.

    "Kukukuh! What do you think, Hise?"

    "H-holy shit... wait, you did the laundry already too?! What the hell, when did you even wake up?!"

    "3 hours ago."

    "Haaaaaa, it''s really not necessary for you to go that far you know? How many times do I have to tell you it''s fine if you don''t do all of the chores."

    "Nevermind that. We''re going to be late! You woke up really late today!"

    "Ah, is that so? My bad, Saya."

    "I thought you said you would stop calling me that today since we''re entering high school. It''s because of that girly nickname that I got bullied so much in middle school, you know."

    "Ah, is that so? My bad, Saya."

    "Are you even awake?!"

    "Haha. Yes, I''m awake. I''m jush meshing wif rou."

    "Don''t talk with your mouth full."

    "Yes, Sayane-san."

    "Uhm... you can drop the honorific. Also, I suppose it would be fine for you to call me Saya if it''s just us..."

    For some reason, Hise laughed really hard when I said that.

    The two of us have to walk to school since we''re too poor to pay for the bus. I''m a jobless failure of society, and the money Hise''s parents send him only covers food and rent. It''s not too bad of a walk though.

    The entrance ceremony is being held in the gym. This is our first time at the school, but since the track is visible from the entrance, we don''t have a hard time finding it. I''m finding the entrance ceremony extremely dull and boring. I notice Hise doesn''t share the sentiment though. His eyes are glued to the girl giving the speech. This fucking playboy¡­ does

    he want to rebuild his harem already? I¡¯m pretty sure some of the girls from his middle school harem still visit him too...

    After the ceremony, we start heading to class. The classrooms are on the other side of school, so we need to pass by the front gate again. Unfortunately, we aren''t in the same class this year. At least they''re close by so we can still walk together.

    Now, let me clear something up. Hise is a playboy who doesn''t take school seriously and only ever tries to pick up girls, but he''s still the only person who ever stood up for me. I don''t know why, but he stood up to those bullies in middle school, and even took me in shortly after. I''ll forever be grateful to him for that. Besides, it''s not like I can be picky with my friends at this point.

    My thoughts must be showing own my face.

    "Hey, Sayane-san, that''s a pretty deep expression. What are you thinking about?"

    This bastard is still attaching the ¡®-san¡¯ for now reason.

    "Well, I was just wondering... why did you save me, all that time ago?"

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    "Hn? To be honest, that was just because I thought you were a girl,... I was really disappointed after I found out. By the way, what do you think that student reps sizes were? I was thinking 12-34-56, but with that vest, it could even be..."

    [Author¡¯s Note: I¡¯m making up sizes because it¡¯s too hard to come up with realistic ones. Feel free to use your imagination.]

    I stop listening. What the hell? This guy was planning on inviting a ¡®girl¡¯ he barely knew to live with him?

    "...out..."

    Earlier, I was thinking that I can''t be picky with my friends, but at this point, it might be that homeless and friendless would be better than hanging out with this guy. Seeing his harem all the time makes me super jealous too... Is he still going on about that girl?

    "...LOOK OUT!"

    I turn in surprise and see a truck coming down the sidewalk. The driver''s eyes... he must be wasted. The truck is extraordinarily close. The entire world starts slowing down. I try moving out of the way, but it looks like I''m not going to make it.

    I get ready to accept my fate, but then I feel a force on my shoulders. It''s Hise. His face is contorted in desparation, and he''s crying too. Haha, he looks so pitiful. At this rate, the one going to be hit by the car is Hise, not me. I feel like screaming, but my world is still stuck in slow motion.

    Please, God, you have the wrong one. If anyone should die, it should be me. Rather than someone who has their whole life ahead of them, kill an unwanted failure like me instead! My life, no, my soul, I''ll offer it to you, so please, just save Hise!

    The truck rushes past my face and crashes into the school wall. Finally, a scream escapes from my lungs. I rush over to the car, and there''s blood all over the windshield. I look inside the car, and the source of the blood is the driver. His face is smashed in and spraying blood everywhere. All the blood is on the windshield of the car. Hise''s body is nowhere to be found. I''m really glad

    I break into a large grin, and gradually, my screams turn to laughter. Eventually, I become aware of my surroundings again, and I notice I¡¯ve been surrounded by policemen. Huh, why? I turn towards one of the policemen and try to open my mouth to ask questions, but I can¡¯t. Oops, my mouth is stuck in a huge grin. I¡¯m just so happy that God heard my wish! What, why is that nice policeman coming over here? I feel a large

    When I open my eyes, I need to use my hands and feel my face to confirm that I did open them, because I can''t see anything. My sense of gravity is really off too. To call this sensation floating would be somewhat off, because rather than feeling like I¡¯m suspended in the air, it¡¯s more like I don¡¯t feel anything at all. I hear multiple high-pitched voices start talking in perfect unison, from all directions, interrupting my thoughts.

    "Interesting. You''re a very interesting person."

    "W-what have you done with Hise?"

    The voice(es) giggle at my question. The laughter is extremely loud and distorted. I''m beginning to get scared, but I won''t stop until I find what happened to Hise.

    "Don''t worry, human. We have fulfilled our end of the bargain. That person is also really interesting, so we sent him to another world. We''ll be sending you there too, so continue to show us interesting things, okay?"

    The laugher/giggling started up again, but this time it only got louder, and louder. I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears with my hands. I don''t know how long I stayed like that, but eventually I noticed the sound stopped. I also felt that my ears were gone, and I was only gripping my skull where I should''ve been covering my ears.

    Was that entity some kind of evil genie? Maybe I accidentally wished for the sound to stop so it took my ears away.

    Wait, I can still hear things though. I open my eyes, and see that I''m in a forest. I can hear the sounds of many footsteps, as well as some voices. They''re speaking in some language I don''t know... I see, this really is another world. But, why can I still hear without ears? Don''t tell me, I turned into a skeleton or something... I''ll be really pissed if that''s the case.

    I continue to feel around my head. My hair is longer now? It¡¯s scarlet red and reaches all the way to the middle of my back. Well, better more hair than no hair. At least I¡¯m not a skeleton. When My hands reach the top of my head, I feel a large pair of ears. More specifically, cat ears. I look down at myself to check for a tail too, and sure enough, there''s a cat tail to go along with my ears. Moreover, there are two mounds on my chest that weren''t there previously. They¡¯re small, but they¡¯re definitely there. Mmmm...

    ¡°FUCK!"

 Chapter 1

    Why is this happening to me? I know I offered my soul to that evil genie, but this a bit too much. Ouch! I tripped on a rock again. No good, I have to hurry up and get away!

    Earlier, when I was still in shock over the fact that I had become a girl, the 5 people whose footsteps I heard earlier saw me. They were pointing at me and saying something. At first, I thought they might be friendly, but the various people in chains behind them told me otherwise.

    And so, here I am now, running for my life. The tone of one of my pursuers changes to be slightly lower and more monotone. After a few moments, a hand shoots out of the ground and trips me. Those people catch up to me without a problem now that that earth hand is holding me down. They''re all blonde and have pointy ears. Hmm, these must be elves. The slaves behind them were all what I presume to be human and beast-people like me.

    Those guys are shouting something at me while chaining me up.

    "Vin arle sernheide tyn imir!"

    "I''m sorry, I don''t know what you''re saying..."

    Well, I don''t think it''ll make a difference no matter what I say at this point. As expected, they chain me up and add me to the line of captives. There are 2 beast-people, a middle aged guy and an old woman, as well as a young human man. Let me see if I can speak to these guys. Maybe I''ve been speaking in the beast-person or human language the whole time and these guys can understand me, even if the elves can''t!

    "Hey, can any of you guys understand what I''m saying?"

    The beast-woman glares at me, the human ignores me, and the beast-man just smiles at me and winks. Ooooh! Is he telling me to keep this language a secret from our captors or something so we can talk safely? However, his follow up hand-gestures proved me wrong. Damn that genie, did it give me a super sexy face or something? Because I don¡¯t think my body is anything extraordinary. I''ll kill it if I ever see it again! Though, I never saw it in the first place...

    Our captors just march us silently through the forest. After my failed attempt at conversation, all of us stayed quiet, even the elves. We marched for a few hours before reaching a small spire in a clearing. It''s diameter is a little bit more than a tiny cottage, but it''s exceedingly tall and tapers off at the top. It''s made out of some kind of brilliant white stone.

    One of the elves knocks on the door, and a slit in the door opens. The elf holds up some papers, then the door promptly opens. Inside is a large magic circle etched onto the ground, taking up the entire floor of the tower. We are escorted to the center, and one of the elves stands there with us while chanting something.

    I''m a little bit scared. What if I''m a human-... beast-person sacrifice or something? The other guys don''t look too worried, so maybe I can relax? There''s still the possibility that they just accepted their fate. Should I take my chances and try to run?

    Before I can decide, a bright light blocks my vision, and when I can see again, I''m at a different spire, but one similar to the other one. I can tell this is a different spire because all of the elves, except for the one that was chanting, are gone. Also, the humidity, air density, temperature, etc. here are all different. It seems that my senses are really sharp now. I guess that''s one good thing I got out of this¡­ change.

    We''re lead out of the spire and into a cave. I can tell the cave is dark, but at the same time, I can still see perfectly fine. My new senses are strange, I''m really not accustomed to this yet. We walk for a few hours more before reaching a wider section of the cave where a sort of camp has been set up. There''s a table here with some tools on it, some lanterns, and a small tent in the corner.

    The elf hands us some pickaxes and a single lantern. Damn, I was hoping the work would be easier. Oh, maybe I also have amazing beast strength! I take the pickaxe and start hacking away at the place the elf directed along with the other slaves. For now, I''m being obedient because I have absolutely no fighting experience except getting one-sidedly beaten up in middle school, and because I don''t know the extent of this guy¡¯s magic. Even if it was with the aid of a magic circle thing, this guy is capable of teleportation, and he probably knows the earth magic from earlier as well. Plus, the other 3 slaves all seem like they know what they''re doing, and they haven''t retaliated even though it''s a 4 versus 1 and we''re now armed with pickaxes. I''ll follow their example since I don''t want to die.

    Our work is to excavate a tunnel, not to mine for ores or anything like that. It''s truly boring work. Also, I have the same strength as a I did before coming to this world, which was nothing out of the ordinary, so I didn''t get super beast strength after all. In fact, even that middle-aged beast lady is mining faster than I am.

    "Vin arle grif vetuun nes!"

    This is a phrase I''ve gotten used to hearing over the past couple of weeks. It means ''You there, work faster!" or something. I usually get beaten shortly after hearing this. This time however, the elf is saying something else too.

    "Arle suun ret al torm!"

    As always, I have no idea what he''s saying. The beast-man nudges me with his elbow then points slightly above and towards where the elf is. Ah, I''m probably supposed to follow him. I do as I''m told, since, again, don''t have a death wish. After all, this is where my last death wish got me.

    We stop at the camp area, and the elf starts saying a bunch of stuff that I can''t understand, as usual. He''s smirking like he''s saying something funny. The more he says the more my head tilts to the side. Seeing my confusion, he sighs and makes gestures with his hands similar to the ones that beast-guy made not long ago¡­ WHAT?!

    The shock must be showing on my face, because that smirk is back on his face and he''s even laughing a bit now. He puts a collar on my neck and chains me to the ground, near where the other slaves'' bedrolls are. Shit. I start thinking of ways to get out of my predicament, but before I know it, the other slaves are already entering the camp section.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    The two beast people are laughing at my predicament, and the human guy is expressionless as usual. The elf is somewhere else right now. He frequently leaves via the spire, presumably for work.

    The beast-guy is approaching me now, and with an extremely lustful look in his eyes. I have a plan though. This guy has more strength than me, more speed, and more experience. There''s no way I''ll be able to fight him normally. That¡¯s why I wait until our bodies are close. Extremely close. Without warning, I knee him in his special place with as much strength as I can muster. Even I feel the pain from that. Sorry, random beast-guy.

    Before he has a chance to recover, I wrap my chain around his neck and don''t let go. This entire plan hinges on the fact that I can kill him before he recovers from the cheap shot. This guy is flailing his legs and still trying to lift my chain off himself, but it''s not enough. He''s already lost too much oxygen to put up a good fight. I kill him easily. Shouldn''t killing people be harder than this? Surprisingly, I might have the capacity to be a serial killer. Neat.

    Wait a minute, what happened to the other 2 slaves? I look over the corpse¡¯s shoulder and take a look. The beast-woman is lying on the floor and her head is twisted at an unnatural angle. The human is standing over her corpse, still expressionless. Without a word, he tosses me a necklace with a green stone on it. He motions for me to put it on.

    Again, I do as I''m told. This guy snapped that beast-lady''s neck so hard that it became deformed, and without me noticing either. This guy is dangerous.

    (Heeeey! You put on the necklace like I told you!!! Look, we have matching necklaces now~!)

    An exceedingly annoying voice is echoing through my head. It seems this necklace enables telepathy or something.

    (Also, this guy is super annoying in his mind, huh...)

    (That''s mean, you know!!)

    Oops. I need to get used to using it. For now, let''s just ask this guy what he wants with me. I hope he doesn''t brutally murder me like he did to that beast-lady. Or like I did to this beast-man, for that matter.

    (Uhm... what do you want with me, exactly?)

    (I want to be friends with you, silly~!)

    Creepy! So freaking creepy in various ways. This guy still has no expression. What the hell?! Is there someone else on the other end of this telepath-phone pranking me? Again, my survival instinct tells me this isn¡¯t someone I can refuse.

    (H-haha. Sure, I''ll be friends with you...)

    I stand up and extend my hand to him, and he shakes it for a short moment before retracting his hand. Still no emotion, at least not on the outside.

    (Yay!!! But, to tell you the truth, there''s another reason I came here. All of my previous friends in the Slave Liberation Army died, so I infiltrated this mine to recruit more!)

    Somehow, I feel like his definition of friend and my definition of friend are different. I''m starting to regret becoming ''friends'' with this person.

    (Then, why did you kill that beast-lady there?)

    (Isn''t that obvious? She didn''t want to be my friend~.)

    For the first time since I''ve seen this guy, he breaks into a smile. That was when I knew, I was fucked. C-calm down. Just act natural. Natural.

    (HAHA. Ok, friend, how are we going to get out of here friend of mine? Are we going to escape using that teleportation circle, my friend?)

    (No, I''m a human, so I can''t use magic you silly. Unless you think that friendship is magic~!)

    (...)

    (We''re just going to wait by the circle for that guy to come back, dispose of him, then make our way back to the surface manually. It''ll give us some time for bonding too!)

    (A most wise plan my friend!)

    (Right~?)

    We made our way over to the spire, and both of us were silent the entire time. I think I like it better when he''s silent. It''s somewhat comforting, and most importantly not super creepy.

    The elf showed up a few hours later, and the creep immediately jumped him. The elf seems to have some moves, so the creep can''t snap his neck like he did before with that beast-lady. He does succeed in pinning the elf down though. The elf starts to chant something, so the creep stomps on his throat. I guess it didn''t have that much power to it, because the elf starts letting out a blood curdling scream. The creep starts repeatedly kicking him in the ribs, but the screams won''t stop, so he starts strangling him instead. I feel a bit bad for him, but it''s his prey, so I don''t intervene. Eventually, the strangling does the trick.

    Both of us are wearing rags, so only one of us can take his clothes. The creep offered them to me, but they were covered in blood, so I declined. He ended up taking them instead, and I must say, bloodstained clothes really suit the creepy bastard.

    (Now that that''s out of the way, let''s take this opportunity to become better friends! My name is Nyros, and my favorite hobby is strangling people!)

    What the hell?! If that¡¯s your favorite, why didn¡¯t you just start with that instead! Ugh, whatever. It¡¯s not good to get too arrogant. I can sense that this guy is better than me anyways, he¡¯s probably just having a bad day.

    (My name is Sayane. My favorite hobby is...)

    Huh? Did I ever do anything besides chores? Damn, my previous life was pretty lame... I guess if I¡¯m just going by the thing I did the most it would be cooking.

    (...cooking?)

    (What a worthless hobby! It''s too bad, but we might not be able to be friends anymore...)

    N-no!!! My life is in danger! What does he consider a ''useful'' hobby? Things related to combat? He seems to be using ''friend'' as ''comrade'' or something, so I need to prove I''m useful to him! What did I do before I started living with Hise...?

    (Stealing! My favorite hobby is actually stealing!)

    (Oh, how wonderful! Why didn''t you say so earlier? If it''s like that, then we''ll be able to become great friends!)

    Haaaa, I can live for a bit longer now...

 Chapter 2

    I''m so soooooooore! Last night, Nyros and I walked for hours through the caves. We got lost and had to circle back a bunch of times too! Even after we got out of the cave, we had to walk for a few more hours to reach Nyros''s base. By base, I mean a log cabin in the middle of the woods. Honestly, with a setting like that, I thought I was going to be murdered in my sleep, but I was too tired to care. I just flopped down in one of the beds immediately after going inside.

    I sit up and rub my eyes. Lying next to me is a middle-aged human. His short hair is starting to grey. He¡¯s not wearing a shirt, so I can see how tan and well-built he is. Currently he''s propping his head up with his elbow and looking at me quizzically.

    "KYAAAAA!"

    "A-arle siim rae epitem. Cynfer ine jernil!"

    He seems to be explaining something to me in a hurry. Oh, I probably didn''t sleep with this guy then. That''s good. I thought I was having a nightmare there for a second. Also, I made an extremely embarrassing sound. Damn, I want to go crawl in a hole and die.

    "Nyros! Blyne ver suun kasten!"

    Nyros enters the room, and takes off his necklace. The guy I was in bed with snatches it out of his hands, then puts it on.

    (Sorry about that. Normally I would never give Nyros a telepathic necklace, but there was no other choice. He''s the only soldier I have left.)

    (Ahh, a normal person that calls soldiers soldiers!)

    (Ahh, A normal person that isn''t creepily cheerful!)

    We look into each other¡¯s eyes with newfound mutual understanding and our hands meet in a firm handshake. Oops, I still have to apologize.

    (Sorry for making that weird scream earlier. I''m glad we didn''t sleep together though...)

    (You understood what I was saying?!)

    (Haha, no, I just figured based on your tone and inflections.)

    (Is that so...)

    He eyes me curiously before talking again.

    (...Well, you seem to have accidentally slept in my bed last night. Honestly, I was just as surprised as you were when I woke up, and I also made a strange sound at that time, so

    don''t worry about it.)

    (Thanks, that''s reassuring. By the way, that cr-... Nyros mentioned something about a Slave Liberation Army?)

    (That''s right. We go around freeing sla, stealing from nobles, you know, that sort of thing. Most of the slaves we free decide to join us, since they have nowhere else to go. Because of that, our numbers grew large enough for the Alterrian central army to take notice come attack us directly. Sadly, Nyros is the only one left...)

    Damn, why did Nyros have to be the one that lived? I guess it''s fine as long as he doesn''t have a telepathic necklace though. There''s a lot of names I''m not familiar with though...

    (I don''t have anywhere to go either, so is it fine if I join the Slave Liberation Army?)

    (OF COURSE!)

    Right, this guy is probably glad for any company besides Nyros. I feel the same way.

    (Can you use weapons of any kind?)

    (No, not really. I''m good at stealing though. I can pick locks okay enough too.)

    (Hmm, those are useful skills for freeing slaves. Good, we''ll be able to increase our numbers quickly with someone like you. As always, Nyros has good taste in ''friends'')

    (By the way, you mentioned an ''Alterria'' earlier?)

    (Hm? That''s the name of the empire we''re in right now, you know. Even if you don''t know the language, not knowing that is kind of...)

    Should I tell this guy about being from another world? Well, let''s try. If he doesn''t believe me I can just pretend I was joking or something.

    (To tell you the truth... I''m from another world.)

    (I figured that was the case.)

    (Really? Just like that? Does this sort of thing happen often?)

    (Yeah, well, it happens every hundred years or so. Though, usually only the elves summon otherworlders. There have been a few exceptions though. Supposedly, a hero was summoned here in response to a human tribe''s prayers a few weeks ago but...)

    A few weeks ago? That could be Hise!

    (Really! Where was he summoned?)

    (I don''t know, it was somewhere in the Grand Wilds though. It''s full of monsters and savages, so I don''t think you can meet him anytime soon even if it''s not fake.)

    Damn. Then, I just need to get stronger!

    (Mister-)

    (-my name is Girida, feel free to call me G-san though.)

    So he''s aware of how old he is? I''m starting to respect him a bit more.

    (Ah, sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Sayane. Uhm, Jii-san, how do I go about raising my stat points or learning magic?)

    (I''ve never heard of ''stat points'', and as for magic, only elves can use it.)

    I had a sneaking suspicion that was the case when Nyros mentioned something like that earlier, but still, this is really disappointing. I can''t level up either?

    (Anyway, the main reasons I''m not surprised that you said something like that are because of that strange language you speak, and because I''ve never met a beast-kin as intelligent as you.)

    (So I''m called a beast-kin, huh? But, I don''t think I said anything particularly intelligent...)

    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    (I don''t need to tell you this, but beast-kin have an extremely critical period of mental growth when they''re a few months old. If they aren''t raised properly during this time, then their mental growth becomes stunted. Since most beast-kin in this world are either slaves or runaways, it''s very rare to encounter one smarter than a 10 year old.)

    (I see, so that''s how it is... then, please continue to tell me more about this world.)

    (Hmm, let''s see... there are two major powers on this continent. The Dwarven Military-State Vristill occupies the west, and the Alterria Republic, where we are right now, occupies the east. In the center of the continent is a large forest home to monsters and human savages, the Grand Wilds, like I mentioned earlier.)

    (What is the Alterria Republic like?)

    (Well, they''re very prosperous due to their overseas trade, they have a fair and democratic government, a strong military, and are overall good to it''s citizens. For it''s non-citizens though, this place is a living hell.)

    (Non-citizens?)

    (Slaves, girl, I''m talking about slaves. That would be humans and half-humans like you. We have no rights at all. Most slaves end up being used for hard labor or ''pleasure''. I''m sure you''re very familiar with that.)

    What is he implying? Surely he¡¯s saying I¡¯m familiar with the hardships of slavery, and not with ¡®pleasure¡¯, right? Damn, I had only been somewhat entertaining murdering him in the back of my mind in case he turned out to be hostile, but now I¡¯m starting to think about it a little more. Learning more about this world takes priority over my pride though.

    (Only humans and half-humans are enslaved? And, what do you mean by half-human?)

    (You don''t know you''re half-human?! Are there only beast-kin in your world or something?)

    (To tell you the truth, there were only humans in my world. I''ve inexplicably become a beast-kin though.)

    Of course, I''m not going to tell him I used to be a guy. I''m taking that one with me to the grave.

    (Heee? This is getting stranger and stranger... In that case, let me tell you about the races that live here.

    There are the dwarves, who inhabit Vristill. They have a lifespan of 200 years and an average birthrate. They are excellent at inventing things and make use of automatons for their military and daily needs.

    The elves have a life-span of 1000 years, and have a somewhat lower birthrate than that of the dwarves. They are capable of casting magic and like the dwarves, use it for both their military and daily needs. They live in the various territories that comprise the Alterria Republic.

    The beast-men, which are different from beast-kin, by the way, have a small kingdom to the east of the elves. They have a lifespan similar to the dwarves but have a higher average birthrate due to their large litters. Their kingdom is highly xenophobic and not much is known about it. There are also some nomadic beast-men to the south. However, the vast majority of beast-men are in Alterria, which has about a 3:5 ration of beast-men to elves.

    Does that answer all your questions?)

    Well, that is quite a bit of information, but I do still have more I want to ask.

    (Wait, what about humans and beast-kin?)

    (Ah, that''s right. Then first, let me explain how humans got to their current state...)

    Jii-san and I, or more like just Jii-san, talked a lot so let me summarize what I learned today.

    [Read: I''m giving up all pretense of trying to disguise these info dumps.]

    The dwarves have machines, the elves have magic, and the beast-men have speed, strength, and enhanced senses. The humans have nothing but a short lifespan and a fast birthrate. It seems they are considered monsters, and there are even elven adventurers that go and subjugate them every now and then. They are also popularly used as slaves in Alterria. The dwarves don''t have slaves because of all their machines, but they still consider humans vermin nonetheless.

    A hundred years ago, Alterria wanted to combine the beast-men''s speed and strength with the high birthrate of the humans, and they succeeded in acquiring a few hybrids, the beast-kin. After all, the beast-men saw them as abominations, so they happily gave them up to the government. The beast-kin only inherited the enhanced senses from the beast-men, but the beast-men''s large litters and the humans'' fast rate of birth were combined. Therefore, they were considered a success.

    There are a few reasons why they haven''t totally supplanted humans as the main slave though. The first is their critical growth period. While dumb slaves are usually a good thing for slave owners, there are still some complex tasks to be done, and it''s cheaper to use a human rather than nurture a beast-kin through the critical phase. Also, it seems beast-men find owning beast-kin slaves distasteful, so that''s already a large portion of the market gone.

    Also, the place I''m in right now is on the western border of the Alterria Republic, not far from the Grand Wilds. I¡¯ve already resolved myself to go find Hise. If I can''t learn magic, then I''ll just train in martial arts and weapons to become stronger!

 Chapter 3

    I dodged the sword that was coming down on me with a roll, but it puts me into a bad position. Sensei notices it of course and follows up with a diagonal swing. It''s difficult, but I manage to jump back and contort my body to avoid it. While I''m in the air, I take out a dagger and throw it at Sensei. He uses his inhuman speed to dodge it, but I''m finally able to go on the offensive.

    I run towards him, keeping low to the ground, and start attacking him with one dagger in each of my hands. He''s fast enough to match my attacks even though he only has a single sword. Really, that speed is unfair.

    Even if we''re matching blows, he far surpasses me in strength with his sword. I step back again and decide to try something else. Instead of trying to engage him directly, I take 4 daggers out of the strap on my thigh and hold them between each of my fingers. Let''s see you dodge this!

    Sensei notices what I''m doing, but he''s too late. All four of my daggers are  already loose in the air. There''s no way he can avoid this attack. He blocks the dagger aimed at his head and the rest bury themselves in his body. He rips them out of his fur and laughs.

    "Haha, excellent! I''d never think you would be able to land a hit on me!"

    "Nnnrgh! Even my finishing move didn''t have any effect though..."

    "That''s not true. If this were real combat, there would''ve been poison on those daggers, right? So, you can hold your head up high and say you''ve beaten old man Skariv here!"

    Skariv-sensei says he''s old, but really he''s only 45, which is actually quite young for beast-man. He''s been teaching me how to fight the last few months. As a beast-kin, the only advantage I have over him is my dexterity. Beast-men were originally a race of magical beasts that took human form, so they still have some incompatibilities with a bipedal form. For example, their thumbs aren''t fully developed, they''re covered in fur, and sometimes have claws, so they can''t handle weapons precisely. Their knees also bend the other way, which is perfect for power, but not so for delicate control. That''s why I use daggers against Skariv-sensei, so I can make use of my good aim and control.

    Sensei is a beast-man that resembles a panther. He''s a wandering mercenary from the south, so he has no problems with humans or even beast-kin like me. Actually, he''s a really good guy. I''m glad this world isn''t full of weirdos like Nyros.

    Nyros is my partner for most missions, but luckily he never has a telepathic stone. Telepathic stones can only link to one other person at a time, so it''s better to link one of us to the base rather than link the two of us together.

    While Sensei has been teaching me the blade, Jii-san has been teaching me how to speak elven. Normally it would take more than just 6 months to learn a language, but hearing him speak with the proper translation at the same time via a telepathic stone made it really easy. I still have some troubles with pronunciation though.

    Every morning, I spar with Sensei, and every night Nyros and I steal food, money, and sometimes slaves from the nearby city, Irilyn. Later tonight though, we have a slightly different mission. There are some rumors that the Alterrian central army is coming just like last time, so we''re being sent to confirm the validity of those rumors. The plan is to break into the mayor''s office in the town hall, and examine the letters and documents there. Hopefully nothing turns up.

    Nyros and I are climbing up the side of the town hall. Earlier, I was bragging about how amazing my dexterity and finesse were and things like that, but Nyros is still keeping up with me. As always, this guy is strangely capable.

    I look at the office through the window, and confirm nobody is there. Good. It doesn''t take more than a few seconds for me to get the lock on the window open. The locks in this world are slightly different, but once you get used to them, they''re actually really easy to pick. The manufacturing in this world, or at least Alterria is at a very low level, so the locks are all low quality. I think magic is used to lock extremely important buildings, but I''ve never encountered anything like that.

    Nyros and I silently enter the room. I place my ear to the door to listen for intruders while Nyros sifts through the documents. I still can''t read very well, so I need to leave the searching to Nyros.

    (Sayane-chan, how is it going on your end?)

    I look towards Nyros and he only nods his head from side to side.

    (Still no luck. Nyros is only about half-way through though.)

    (I see. Well, it''ll be good if there''s no army coming.)

    (Yeah.)

    I hear some footsteps approaching. They''re not walking, they''re running. They''ll probably reach here in less than a minute.

    "Nyros, it can''t be helped. Leave everything as it is, we''re getting out of here."

    Nyros is already leaving through the window. It''s unfortunate, but they''ll know we''ve been here. I follow after Nyros and we leave. When we reach the ground, Nyros stares at me intensely.

    "What, you found something?"

    He gives a small nod as affirmation.

    "You''ve confirmed the central army is coming?"

    Another nod.

    (Jii-san! Nyros says he''s confirmed the army is moving! I''m passing the necklace to him.)

    (Damn, I really hate talking to that guy...)

    When Nyros and I get back, Jii-san starts briefing everyone.

    "Listen up! As you know, there were rumors that central Alterrian army is coming. According to our two best Slayers, this rumor is true and they''ll be here in less than a week. This time, we''re not going to stand around and let ourselves get wiped out. However, we do not have the strength to fight them either. I have decided that we will retreat to the Grand Wilds to wait out the army. Are there any objections?"

    As expected, everyone trusts Jii-san''s judgement. His leadership ability is really high, and he''s able to effectively lead the 200 people here. We had to build temporary homes out of wood and cloth to accommodate the large influx of people. Of course, it''s all thanks to my efforts that we were able to gain this many people.

    By the way, ''Slayers'' are just what they call the elite soldiers here, because it''s Slave Liberation Army Y E R. I think it''s lame, but it''s Jii-san that''s coming up with the names, so everyone loves it. There''s only about 10 Slayers anyways, so it doesn''t even come up that often.

    Wait, did he say we''re going to the Grand Wilds?! Yes! Finally, I might be able to meet up with Hise again. To be honest, my company has really only been Jii-san, Sensei, and Nyros. Sensei and Jii-san are nice enough, but they both treat me like a child, so I haven''t really had anyone to mess around with since I came to this world.

    Jii-san''s evacuation plan is to travel as lightly as possible and just hunt for our food and water so that we can leave as quickly as possible. The Alterrian army will probably pull out all the stops and start using a bunch of magic to pursue us once they confirm our location. That''s why we need to gain as much distance as possible, so that they get discouraged and hopefully give up.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    As a favor to me, Jii-san is taking us towards the village where the hero was rumored to be summoned. We need to reach a village anyways, since the army will probably stick around for a few weeks.

    The area we''ll be going through has a lot of Griffins in it. I''ve prepared some paralytic poison which should knock them out of the sky if it goes well. In my free time, I''ve been messing around with the plants from the edge of the Great Wilds. My sense of smell is really good now, so after a lot of trial and error on some prisoners and local wildlife, I''ve become more or less able to determine the effects of plants and poisons by smell alone. Of course, I don''t know much about Griffin physiology, but Jii-san told me they''re not magic beasts, so if I make the poison strong enough it should do the job.

    It''s the first day of the journey, and a few Griffins have already come to attack. It''s hard to see at this distance, but they look like winged black tigers covered in short feathers. I was expecting something else when I heard ''Griffin'' but that was just a telepathic translation of ''Kyrtil'' anyways, so I shouldn''t be surprised.

    I don''t have the strength to effectively launch daggers while they''re still so far away, instead I need to wait until they engage someone. Most of the soldiers are using spears because they''re simple and effective, especially against monsters, where you can''t afford to get hit.

    The trees here are really large, probably larger than the redwoods of my old world, but they''re spaced far enough apart that it doesn''t feel suffocating and sunlight can easily pass through. Unfortunately, so can the Griffins.

    One of the Griffins swoops down and picks up one of the soldiers, but I land a dagger on it while it''s still ascending. It seems unaffected by it for about 20 seconds, before dropping out of the sky. Both the Griffin and soldier most likely died from the fall. Oops.

    The next Griffin hovers above the soldiers and tries to claw them from that position. This time, I throw 3 daggers instead of 1, and the effect is instant. The remaining Griffins retreat once they see the second one being stabbed from all directions. Some people carry the bodies for dinner later, but otherwise, everyone resumes walking immediately like the attack never happened. Their discipline is shockingly high for a ragtag group of former slaves. I''m sure it''s due to Jii-san''s leadership ability.

    We travel until the sun sets, and everybody is exhausted from fighting and carrying their stuff. Jii-san made the right choice when he decided we should travel light. I''m also no exception and I flop into my sleeping roll as soon as we finish setting up all the tents.

    I can only rest for a bit though since I''m the only person here with any real experience cooking. It''s to be expected since these guys were all slaves for most if not all of their lives. I need Sensei''s help to cut the meat since the Griffin hide is really tough. It''s quite the sight seeing him prepare the meat with his sword.

    The pot is beginning to smell really good, but as soon as I take a bite to test the flavor, I fall to the ground. Ah, there was still the poison huh...

    That day, we had nuts and berries for dinner.

    It''s now the second day of the journey. The paralysis really hurt since I had minor muscle spasms all throughout the night, but I''m fine now, unless you count the sleep deprivation. Again, Griffins have come to attack, but unlike yesterday there are only two. The morning light provides more visibility than yesterday too. It doesn''t matter to me or Sensei but it should help out the SLA soldiers.

    I can''t use poison again, so instead I''ll try to cut the tendon connecting their wings to their bodies. To do that, I need for them to be facing me head on, so right now I''m running behind the soldiers engaged in combat and trying to throw daggers over their shoulders. This is considerably harder to do than last time, but I succeed in disabling it''s wings, and a large dust cloud can be seen rising from where it impacted the ground. When the dust clears, the Griffin''s body is no longer recognizable. As for the other Griffin, it was bisected with a single swing of Sensei''s sword.

    This time, the soldiers had experience in dodging the Griffins'' attacks, so no one died.

    I can properly cook the Griffin meat tonight now that it isn''t poisoned. Some soldiers carry one of the bodies while Sensei carries the other. The walk today isn''t too bad, but there are tons of bugs. I see caterpillars the length of my arm and mosquitoes the size of my head. Honestly, it''s really disgusting. By the time we stopped for camp, my appetite was gone, but I still had to cook for everyone.

    In the other world, I was alright as far as cooking went, but with my enhanced taste, I''ve improved significantly. I can proudly say that I''m now an excellent chef! At least, the former slaves think so. I don''t know if they''re qualified critics, but Sensei also likes my food, so it should be pretty good.

    Obviously, I can''t cook for 200 people, so there are indeed other chefs, and they also like my food. Well, in any case, my food is something others enjoy, and that''s good enough for me.

    "Ooooh! Saya-chan''s cooking!"

    """Hooray!"""

    "Shut up you bastards! Also, which one of you called me ''Saya-chan''?"

    Would anyone notice if I slit someone''s throat in the middle of the night? Probably. Maybe I can drag his sleeping bag out into the woods and hope the Griffins get him.

    "That''s right! My cute little Sayane-chan is too good for you lot!"

    Jii-san comes to my defense, but somehow, it doesn''t make me feel any better.

    Day 8 of the journey. We''re finally here at the village Jii-san heard about. The village seems to be undergoing some construction. The parts not undergoing reconstruction are extremely primitive, with wood walls and thatch roofs, but the parts that have already been finished have advanced architecture comparable to the ones in Irilyn. That''s saying something too, because the elven geomancers are capable of making some impressive stuff.

    The village is still far away, but with my eyes I can easily see distinct faces from the people near the front gate. Most of the people there are just working on the construction though. If I know that guy, he wouldn''t be helping out the community like that, he would be with a bunch of girls.

    I scan the people around the buildings that are being worked on, searching for any young girls. Sure enough, there''s a group of them surrounding something. I said it half as a joke, he wouldn''t really be in there would he...?

    A hand shoots out of the center of girls and starts waving at me.

    "Ah, Saya!"

    This guy is the same as always. Still, I can''t help but feel overjoyed. It''s been more than half a year after all.

    <hr />

    The next 4 chapters are from Hise¡¯s PoV, but I want to emphasize that Saya is the MC. The main reason is that it¡¯s really hard to write a smart character, because you have to be, you know, smart. At most he¡¯ll get a few special chapters here and there, so don¡¯t expect too much after this upcoming part.

 Chapter 4

    Now, some of you might be asking yourselves "Why is the release speed so fast? Can I expect it to keep up? It this the Chappening?" And I would have to say: No. The speed I''ve been uploading chapters is the speed I''ve been editing at. I have a rough draft up until chapter 9, and the first arc ends at chapter 8, so I''ll probably stop there and take a few weeks to finish writing the next ark. After finals are over though it could be faster.

    <hr />

    "Oi. Look out."

    A truck is veering onto the sidewalk towards Saya. Why isn''t he paying attention?

    "LOOK OUT!"

    Ah, he noticed, but it''s already too late. Shit, is this guy really going to die? His family situation went to shit, but he still diligently did his work and studied hard. Why? Why is this guy about to die instead of some slacker like me?

    No. I won''t allow it. Come on legs, move! Move! I gather enough force to propel myself forward and also push Saya away. He has a somewhat regretful smile on his cute face. Damn, I really wish he was a girl. Then I could do this and that... wait, now isn''t the time. I''m about to die, aren''t I? Shit, I''m still a virgin too. Ah, whatever, I don''t regret my actions at all. I''m glad Saya will be safe.

    As the truck nears me, my world surprisingly turns dark. Now, what''s surprising isn''t the fact that everything went dark, it''s the fact that it''s not completely dark. I can still make out some shapes through the darkness. I''m in some sort of wooden hut. I look down and see I''m on top of a stone pedestal, and there are people prostrating before me. They''re wearing extremely primitive tunics. The material resembles that of a potato sack.

    Is this what I think it is? If it is, then before I take any action in this world, I need to confirm something.

    "You there!"

    I point at some random person on the floor, and they look up in surprise.

    "Y-yes esteemed hero?"

    Good, it seems I really am a summoned hero. In that case, that ''something'' is most likely true as well. Strangely, this guy isn''t speaking Japanese. I can understand the words perfectly, but when I pay attention for a bit, the vowels and such are extremely different. The words coming out of my own mouth are also different and my throat feels a bit weird forming sounds I''m unaccustomed to.

    That means that I have an auto-translation cheat or something, doesn''t it? It likely means magic exists in this world too, though I suppose it''s possible I''m the only one who has it. These guys don''t seem too surprised that I just appeared here, so I doubt it. Good, all the factors are coming into place. If there''s magic, and there''s summoned heroes, then there must be...

    "Are there races other than humans?"

    "Yes, that is indeed the case, esteemed hero."

    "Then, are there cat-girls, elf girls, and the like?"

    "Cat beast-men and elves certainly exist, but why girls in particular...?"

    Yes! It''s heeeere~! My otherworld OP harem story! The harem is basically confirmed already, I just need to figure out how to get OP! Luckily, I''ve read a ton of LN, so this is a piece of cake.

    (Status.)

    Nothing happens.

    (Fireball!)

    Nothing happens. Shit, I feel like an idiot. Well, there goes my OP cheat story. I''m not too sad though, I''ll be fine as long as there''s a ton of cute girls.

    Damn, I said I''ll be fine as long as there''s girls, but this is a bit too much. I''ve been exploring this shitty village a bit, and right now, I''m in some kind of gigantic forest filled with monsters Most humans in this world live in scattered tribal villages here. The one I''m in is known as Tikral Village. The conditions here are really poor; there''s a wooden fence made around the perimeter of the village but other than that it''s just shacks and tents.

    From what I''ve learned talking with the people here, the state of humanity is really abysmal. Most humans not living in these primitive villages are enslaved by the elves. It seems like humans are basically a monster sub-race looked down on by this world. At this rate, my multi-racial harem will never come to fruition. For now, I''ll try and improve the situation by creating a human nation. After all, nation-building is also part of the otherworld romance you know? If I''m king, I''ll have tons of concubines and be able to laze around all day... And uphold justice and freedom and stuff. Kukukuh, I''m truly a benevolent person.

    The village leader here happens to be a young woman, on account of her having tamed the rare demon bear. It''s called a demon bear, but to me it just looks like a slightly larger brown bear with black fur and red eyes. I was expecting bones jutting out everywhere and maybe a little fire-breathing with a name like ''demon bear''. It can still easily kill me though, so I can''t say too much.

    Her name is Vesra, by the way, and her measurements are 43-32-21. Her age should be between 15 and 17. Her hair is black, like most of the people here, but it''s a little too unruly for my tastes. Still, she''s definitely in my strike zone! It seems that the first step to building my nation will be improving ''relations'' with the village head here. Right, she and I are talking about the surrounding area and villages.

    "Vesra-chan, do you know of any other settlements nearby?"

    "Of course, esteemed hero. There-"

    "-no, don''t call me that. Instead, call me ''Hisenaga'', okay?"

    "Very well, Hisenaga-sama."

    "No, no, no, without the honorific."

    "I apologize, Hisenaga-sama is the best this worthless servant can do."

    Eh, that''s good enough for now.

    "As I was saying, there are neighboring villages not far from here, but we hardly interact with them because we speak different languages. Most villages can speak elven to some extent, so a basic level of trade is possible, but anything more than that is..."

    "That''s enough. I understand the situation."

    The language varies even between neighboring settlements? I guess it makes sense though since even a short journey in a monster forest is dangerous, so the effective distance between each village is larger.

    "Vesra-chan, how long would it take us to reach the nearest village?"

    "The closest one is Rukerford, and we can reach it in less than an hour by griffin."

    OOOOHH! There are griffins and shit too?! This is getting better and better!

    "What''s Rukerford like?"

    "Again, we don''t know much aside from from it''s basic size and population, which is a little bit over twice our own. To find out anymore, we would have to travel there ourselves."

    "Then, let us depart immediately."

    It may seem weird that I''m taking decisive action so quickly, so let me spell it out for you. First of all, this village isn''t much bigger than a single block of the neighborhood I used to live in, so what am I going to do, explore? The people here are also dull and most have never met anyone outside the village, so they have nothing interesting to say. Also, I''m a bit excited at the prospect of riding a griffin with Vesra-chan. I hope it''s a small griffin.

    "I understand. I will call my griffin over right away."

    She''s personally tamed a griffin too? I don''t know how easy it is to tame monsters, but it sure as hell sounds impressive. Maybe all of the humans here are really high-spec since they''re living in a monster forest.

    Not just Rukerford, hardly anything is known of the other villages, since the villagers mostly live and hunt in one area. That''s to be expected, since my objective is improving relations as the foundation for my nation anyways. My plan is to start with building roads between each of the villages and setting up regular patrols for each of them. After that, culture and technology will spread naturally, so all I have to do is tell them about the hoe and stuff like that, and the rest will fall into place.

    Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Ahhh~. Now /this/ is what a fantasy world should be like. Riding high above on a badass griffin, having a cute girl hold you tightly from behind... though actually, I''m the one holding onto Vesra-chan. Obviously, I don''t know how to fly a griffin. But, I won''t complain when I get to hold onto her small waist like this!

    The trees here are really strange. The canopy resembles a rain forest with how dense the canopy is, but the tree trunks are straight, tall, and wide, extremely uncharacteristic of a rain forest. Do the normal trends of evolution not apply in this world? There are a bunch of factors that could have changed the path of evolution like magic, but still, it''s hard to think that great trees such as this would be influenced to the point that they''re unscientific. Perhaps this world has gods shaping the life here. I hope not. Omnipotent beings are scary~!

    Oh, I can see Rukerford! It actually looks like a proper medieval town, albeit very small, with only 30 buildings in total. Still, they have a well in the center, and the buildings are also made out of stone, wood, and plaster. I see people wearing actual clothes, rather than rags, but they seem to be cowering in fear when we land in the town. We''re in the center of the town, near the well, so there''s a large number of people here.

    "Hey, Vesra-chan, why are they all scared like that?"

    "While the methods on how to deal with or avoid monsters are well known to the people of the Grand Wilds, actually taming a monster, as far as I know, is very rare."

    I detected a faint hint of pride in her voice when she said that. I already expected something like this since taming a demon bear was enough to give a young girl the leadership of the village.

    For now, I need to say something to quell the fears of these people. It''s not like I''m here to conquer them, after all. In order to create a untied country where people, culture, and most importantly technology can diffuse quickly, the citizens must have good relations with each other. Starting today, I hope to create the first bridge between Rukerford and Tikral.

    "Uhmmm, how should I say it... I come in peace, take me to your leader?"

    Upon hearing my voice, many of the villagers snapped out of their shock, and went from being afraid, to being hostile. It looks like they do not take kindly to strangers here. None of them actually did anything though, and just chose to glare at us periodically while they continued about their day. After half a minute, the door to one of the largest buildings adjacent to the town square slams open, and some guy with spiky blonde hair approaches us. A large battleaxe is resting over his shoulder, and he looks fucking pissed.

    "I''m the lord of this place, Saril. What the hell do you guys want?"

    What the hell, is this guy a gangster or something? I''m getting a little bit scared. I whisper to Vesra-chan.

    "H-hey, maybe we should just leave and come back another time..."

    "Don''t worry, Hisenaga-sama, a man of that caliber is no match for me."

    I don''t think she''s lying but... just where is that confidence coming from? I can''t leave without Vesra-chan though, since she''s the only one that can control the griffin. I look behind me. Good, there''s no gate, so if things go bad I can still make a run for it. Even if that guy is super ripped I should be able to outrun him while he''s carrying that axe...

    "Haha, Saril-san, there''s no need to be on guard. I''ve just come to propose a simple plan to build a road between Rukerford and our own Tikral..."

    "Huh?! Why the hell would I wanna do that, runt?!"

    Next to me, Vesra-chan expression suddenly turns dark. Is it because her village has been insulted?

    "You insolent garbage! How dare you insult Hisenaga-sama when-"

    Oh, so it was because of me in the end. That makes me feel good, but I don''t want to die yet, so I cover her mouth with my hand.

    "P-please excuse this one''s behavior. But, you know, we''re planning on creating the network of roads, so surely it would only be beneficial for your people if-"

    "-I know what''s beneficial for my people and what''s not! Who are you to tell me, hah?! Get lost, kid!"

    Wh-! This guy''s like, 2 years older than me, tops. I won''t let it slide. Vesra-chan, I choose you!

    "You have my permission to attack this guy."

    Vesra-chan smiles once she hears my words, and it''s kind of scary. Let''s just hope she wasn''t lying when she said she could take him, otherwise I''m screwed.

    Vesra-chan whistles, and the griffin behind us lifts off the ground and starts moving towards Saril. She doesn''t plan on playing fair, huh? I don''t mind though, as long as we complete our objective or at least get out alive.

    The griffin is harassing Saril with it''s talons, but not actually injuring him of course. Murdering the leader of this place won''t get us anywhere, and Vesra-chan understands that as well as I do. At least, I hope she does.

    Vesra-chan herself is landing in some solid blows from the side while Saril is distracted with the griffin. Her stance is really good as far as I can tell, and I can hear the impact of her blows from here. I''ve never done any kind of martial arts though, so I can''t give a good analysis.

    The villagers are looking at the fight, but seem hesitant to actually rush in there, so instead they all turn towards me. Huh?

    All of the villagers start running at me at once, like zombies. Contrary to their civilized appearance, they''re all just as savage as the people from Tikral. Damn, I shouldn''t have let my guard down. They''re approaching me from all sides, so I know that I can''t run and have to stand my ground here. It seems it''s time for my special move. I curl up into a ball and close my eyes while praying that it will be quick and painless.

    Hm? I open my eyes and see that instead of beating the living shit out of me, all of the villagers are now bowing to us, or more specifically, Vesra-chan. Saril is lying on the ground unconscious. Ah, this is one of those things where they obey the strongest person. Vesra-chan returns to my side and lowers her head.

    "Forgive me, it took me much longer than I expected. Hisenaga-sama''s life was even in danger."

    Damn, she saw me in that pathetic state.

    "D-don''t worry about it. I had a secret move I was prepared to use anyways! I just didn''t want to harm potential subordinates."

    Her eyes widen and she looks up a bit before she goes back to her deferential posture.

    "Of course. Hisenaga-sama is a hero, after all. It was impudent of me to question your ability."

    "Haha, don''t worry about it... More importantly, the people here are now following you, correct?"

    "No, not quite. Though they will listen to my commands, their master is you, Hisenaga-sama, since I am your subordinate."

    "Are all villages like this?"

    "Of course. What other way could it possibly be?"

    Haa, so it was like that after all. The humans of this world are really simple. I wanted to continue sharing my plans for the roads, but Vesra-chan spoke up before I could say anything.

    "You worthless worms! You dared to try and assault the hero earlier? You''re lucky he didn''t burn you all to ashes!"

    It took some time since Vesra-chan was speaking in broken elven, but the villagers paled once they realized they could''ve been killed. There''s no way I could''ve done anything, but I guess the rumors of Tikral Village''s hero summoning spread even through the shitty trade routes here.

    """W-we apologize, esteemed hero!"""

    They''re now looking at me with respect and fear. Heeeee? If it''s like this, then it might be easier to create a nation that I thought.

 Chapter 5

    I didn''t do a good job describing the characters in this novel, so I feel like I need them. Maybe I''ll do a shittty sketch tommorow and hopefully one of you guys can improve upon it. That would be fantastic.

    <hr />

    Over the past month, Vesra-chan and I have been going to villages and ''negotiating'' like we did in Rukerford. By now, the tale of the griffin riding hero is known throughout almost the entirety of the Grand Wilds. Most of the small villages willingly submit their rule to us once they see me or the griffin though. While it might seem strange that people living in a monster forest are scared of a single griffin, there are reasons for it.

    The people of the Great Wilds survive through knowledge and preparation. Rather than having strong warriors to defeat any and all threats, the use scents to ward off monsters, keep mindful of their territorial habits, hide in underground shelters during attacks, kill them during their inactive periods, etc. If humans had the strength to defeat monsters, well, they wouldn''t be stuck in this shithole forest. /We/ wouldn''t be stuck in this shithole village. The griffin is a rare monster only found in the area around Tikral Village, so others have probably never seen one in their lives. For the people whose lives depend on  such things, having an unknown monster swoop into the middle of your village can be a big shock.

    With my auto-translation cheat, I''ve been discussing the plans for the construction of roads among each village. The roads we''re building are paved with stone, though not many villages can actually mine and cut stone. Hopefully, things will change once some of the roads are in place. Really, the technology here is abysmal. For now, a total of 22 villages within a 100 mile radius of Tikral are building roads between each other. The main problem is the monsters. Like I said before, most villages are experienced in dealing with the local monsters, but that only goes as far as avoiding them. There''s no good way to defend road workers from the monsters in the area.

    Right now, Vesra-chan and I are traveling to an elf city to try and steal some slaves that can fight so that we can get our roads going. Once we have enough roads built we might be able to create a central army to further defend the construction of roads.

    I also want to see the situation of humans for myself. To be honest, I''m also excited about going to a real fantasy town. Obviously, we can''t appear to be humans, so both of us are wearing decent clothing with hoods in the hopes of disguising ourselves until we complete our objective. We got the clothing from a village specializing in cloths, and we also dyed our hair blonde from a village specializing in dyes. The plan is to travel by griffin most of the way and walk the last 2 miles so we don''t seems suspicious.

    "Oi, you two, where did you come from? You came to a frontier settlement like this by foot?"

    Shit, we look suspicious after all!

    "We rode here most of way, but we lost our horses in a monster attack."

    "Hmmmmmm, is that right? How long do you two plan on staying?"

    That''s a good question. If possible, I want to get a job and buy the slaves to avoid attracting attention, but there''s no telling how long that might take, and it also depends on if I can find a decent job in the first place. In these types of settings, what''s the easiest way to make money?

    "Mister, is there anything like an Adventurer Guild or Mercenary Guild here?"

    He narrows his eyes at my question.

    "Of course there''s an Adventurer Guild here. There''s one in every city in Alterria. Just where on Ysir are you from?"

    Damn. Think, what do I know about that continent? Can''t say I''m from Alterria anymore. These guys hate Vristill, and Corax hates elves. Nnn, there are nomadic Beastman mercenaries, but would it be believable for a pair of elves to have been living among them? Only one way to find out, I guess.

    "To tell you the truth, the two of us were traveling with beast-men mercenaries in the south. We were picked up as babies while they were on a job and took pity on us. The two of us recently decided to see the land of the elves for ourselves."

    The guard''s eyes softened.

    "I understand. Please enjoy your stay in Irilyn."

    This city really looks like a proper fantasy one. I could already tell from the huge stone wall surrounding it, but this place is amazing. There''s taverns, merchant''s stalls, large crowds, and I think I even see a castle in the center of the city. They said this was just some frontier town too, so I''m having a hard imagining what the capital would look like.

    The first order of business is to check prices for slaves, then drop by the Adventurer''s Guild to see if making enough money to buy them legally is doable. The problem is, neither Vesra-chan nor I can read any of the signs. I think that building over there is the Adventurer''s Guild based on it''s size and the types of people going in and out, but I don''t think the slave market will be as overt...

    Let''s try asking one of the merchants here.

    "Excuse me. Do you know where one might purchase some slaves?"

    "Hah? Slavery huh... how distasteful. People like you should just disappear."

    With a grunt, the merchant at the stall turns his head away. Ahh, this is really ironic. At least no one suspects me of being a human.

    After a few tries, I manage to find the store that sell slaves. It''s a small shop bordering an alley, so it looks really shady. That might just be my bias though. The person at the counter is an attractive young woman, probably younger than me. Her long golden hair is really eye-catching, especially because she''s somewhat flat. I don''t discriminate though. I decide to greet her strongly.

    "Hey there~!"

    She flashes me a smile in response.

    "Oh my, are you sure you''re in the right place? My slaves are really high quality, you know, so I don''t think someone like you can afford them."

    She emphasized ''someone like you''. Ouch. Still, I won''t back down! I lean sideways on the counter and bring my face closer to hers.

    "It''s as you say. However, I''m actually a great adventurer, so I''ll shortly return after completing some requests. I just came here to see just how cheap your slaves were."

    Both of us are smiling right now, but I feel like neither of us mean it.

    "Is that so? Very well, what sort of slave are you looking for?"

    Hm? She''s actually going to be helpful now?

    "I need slaves that can fight!"

    "The cheapest slave that be considered to fight competently is 25 gold, so until that time comes, don''t come back, kay?"

    I see. From that derogatory tone, she wanted to break my spirit by telling me about the high prices here. Jokes on her, I have no sense of value for the currency in this world! Haha... fuck. I''m going to have to go around and investigate prices before I buy anything in this world. It wouldn''t do to get scammed.

    "Then, look forward to my visit~!"

    Once we leave the store, Vesra-chan starts talking to herself.

    "Damn that woman, who does she think she is? Why was Hisenaga-sama paying so much attention to her? Maybe I should kill her, then surely..."

    "Nn? Vesra-chan, did you say something?"

    "Nothing at all, Hisenaga-sama."

    The inside of the Adventurer''s Guild is mostly how I imagined it. There''s a reception desk and a bulletin board full of requests. There''s tables full of people, but most of them are elves or beast-men. I''m really disappointed because the Beastmen of this world are just anthropomorphic animals, there are no cat-girls or anything, as far as Vesra-chan knows.

    I walk up to the reception desk and ask the lady there if she can tell me about the Guild system. So far, it''s very generic. There are 7 ranks with 3 sub-ranks each. From lowest to highest: D-, D, D+, C-, C, C+... A (+/-), S (+/-), SS (+/-), SSS(+/-). The difference between a C+ and a B is apparently much higher than say, the difference between an A and an A+. The receptionist was just as surprised as the guard was when I told her to explain all this to me, but to her credit she did it without complaint.

    Each rank is defined as being approximately 10x more powerful than the previous one, with the D rank being 10x stronger than the average person. Strength is defined as effectiveness in battle. Monsters are also ranked according to this system. The strongest adventurer right now is B+ ranked, in other words, more than 1000x more powerful than the average person. The legendary monsters in this world are S ranked, but it seems far in the past there were even stronger ones.

    Anyone can take any request, and your rank is an average of the 10 highest rank requests they have successfully completed. The ranking system itself is only used for reference  by the guild and prestige, so it doesn''t matter too much. There are also F ranked herb collection requests too, but they don''t help your rank at all.

    I walk over to the bulletin board, and that''s when I remember. I can''t read. Damn. Maybe if I ask that reception lady she can have someone read to me. Before I can though, a big-breasted onee-san type elf with short hair approaches me. She''s probably in her early twenties, and she''s taller than me, so she''s a bit intimidating. I can''t be picky about something like this though. Is it finally time to add an elf to my harem?!

    "Hoh? It looks like you''re having trouble, could it be that you can''t read?"

    "Y-yes Onee-chan, that''s right."

    I look down and pretend to look sad. To lure in older women, this is the best method!

    "Heee, if you''d like, Myra Onee-chan here can read some of the requests for you."

    "Really?"

    I put on a big smile with some puppy eyes for added effect. Heh, everyone is looking at Myra and whispering. They must be super jealous.

    "Of course! Here, if this is your first request, then I suggest something simple like human subjugation. This one is 50 coppers for every human ear you bring in."

    Damn, humans really are like goblins here. By the way, I actually did end up investigating the prices earlier. A hundred copper is one silver, and a hundred silver is one gold. The cost of a standard meal is 10 coppers, and the total cost of living for most is a silver per day, not including extra expenses like entertainment or travel. Therefore, people spend an average of 40 gold per year. Since those slaves cost 25 gold, there''s no way I can do human subjugation, besides the obvious reason.

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    "Uhmm, I''m actually a fairly experienced Adventurer, and I''m looking for something that has a reward in the tens of golds."

    "Is that so? What''s your name, boy?"

    "Hisenaga."

    "The only requests that would get you something like that are C+ ranked, you know?"

    Obviously, I''m not even qualified to be a D- ranked adventurer, but I''m confident that between Vesra-chan and her monsters, I can make do.

    "Don''t worry about me, Onee-chan, I have a secret weapon!"

    She looks at me with an expression that says, ''Aww, how cute.''

    "You''ll make Onee-chan worried otherwise, so I''ll go with you. It seems like you''re in a really tight spot with money, so it can''t be helped. Here, there''s a subjugation request here for Sand Snakes, 30 gold each. Will that do?"

    "Wahh~ that''s perfect! Thank you, Onee-chan!"

    It''s really degrading, but it''s for the sake of increasing my harem /and/ getting work done, so give me a break, okay?

    "By the way, what rank is Onee-chan?"

    "Huhuhu, I''m B+ ranked!"

    Eh? Myra was the legendary B+ ranked Adventurer? That''s nice I guess, since it means Vesra-chan and I don''t need to risk exposing ourselves. Only humans tame monsters, so fighting with the bear and the griffin for all to see is actually really risky. On the other hand, if it''s discovered we''re human, we''re as good as dead with a B+ Adventurer here...

    "Wow~! Onee-chan is really amazing! By the way, this is Vesra-chan, my..."

    "...sister."

    Vesra-chan filled in for me. It''s not the worse lie, but considering we look nothing alike and the fact that I want to hit on her all the time makes it kind of...

    "Oh my, I''m sorry I didn''t notice you before. You can also call me Onee-chan, okay?"

    Vesra-chan didn''t move from her spot and just glared at Myra.

    "Don''t touch Hisenaga-sama, you dirty woman."

    "Hooooh?"

    She gave a wry smile but didn''t say anything more. Does she think I''m a siscon now or something?

    The Balbolge Wastes. A small desert region situated between the Great Wilds and Irilyn, it is a popular trade route despite the fact that many powerful monsters make their homes here. The huge profits from using this route exceed the cost to hire mercenaries.

    Normally, if you want to earn money by subjugating monsters there, you would take an escort request at the same time. However, Myra ensured us that that wasn''t necessary, and an escort mission would only make it harder to earn money.

    Myra leads us to a place a deep inside the wastes before stopping, but it doesn''t look any different from normal. I''m really tired since we had to travel here on foot, but neither Myra nor Vesra-chan have broken a sweat, so if I ask for a break I''ll appear weak. Right now I can''t do that since Vesra-chan thinks I''m a powerful hero and Myra already has doubts about me being a strong Adventurer.

    Myra raises her hand up before slamming it down onto the sand. At that moment, large tremors, comparable to the upper ends of the Richter scale, radiate from Myra. It probably isn''t as strong as I think since I''m near the epicenter, but it''s still incredible.

    Once the tremors stop, I can feel a different type of vibration going through the ground. Then, they abruptly stop. Now I understand why an escort mission would have been inconvenient. She''s using magic to deliberately bait the Sand Snakes to our location!

    Suddenly, 10 Sand Snakes burst out of the ground, surrounding us. Myra seems to have reinforced the nearby sand somehow so that no Sand Snakes would appear directly below us. The fact that she''s able to reinforce sand against 10 of these creatures is already very impressive. So this is magic, huh?

    I was expecting Sand Snakes to be maybe 8 feet in length, but this is some Dune level stuff. They look like gigantic dust colored king cobras. God damn. Vesra-chan assured me that her bear was at least B-ranked, and her Griffin was C-ranked, but seeing these gigantic monsters surround me makes me doubt that we could''ve done it by ourselves. Or rather, that Vesra-chan could''ve done it by herself, because it''s not like I would''ve done anything, lol.

    Again, Myra raises her hand without any chants. I don''t know how common that is, but since this world is so similar to light novels I''m already impressed because of how chantless magic is portrayed in them. This is my first time seeing magic though, so it might be that chants aren''t required for magic in this world.

    The spell this time summoned a rain of meteors down and crushed the head of each and every Sand Snake. That''s what I assume, because one moment each of the Sand Snakes had heads, then there were giant rocks where their head should be the next. I thought that that was the last of the Sand Snakes, but Myra lets out a surprised yelp.

    "Oh no!"

    "W-what is it?! Did something happen?"

    "What if I used too much force and melted the teeth that are the proof of subjugation?"

    What? It was something like that. Geez, don''t scare me like that.

    "Anyways, boy, what ever happened to that ''secret power'' of yours?"

    She still calls me boy even after I told her my name? Technically I''m not using hers but still...

    "Hee? You think I would reveal my power for something as trivial as this? Plus, it was a good opportunity to see your strength for myself. I will admit your skill is somewhat impressive, you might be able to even beat me in some situations. You have my recognition."

    I flash her the cockiest smile I can muster. Hehe, don''t underestimate my bluffing skills! If I wasn''t able to pretend to be better than I actually am, I would''ve never landed a date in my entire life, you know~! I had to drop my innocent act, but I''m pretty sure she already saw through it. I wasn''t seriously planning on keeping that up, anyways.

    Myra seems to have bought it since she''s looking at me with a serious expression, like she''s trying to determine my strength. Sorry~. There''s nothing to determine, I''m actually really weak! Haha! Ha. Haaa...

    Vesra-chan takes it upon herself to rip out the fangs of each and every Sand Snake for us. Considering each fang is almost a foot long, the fact that she can rip them out and carry them is also impressive. Maybe she really would have been fine on her own.

    Myra uses wind magic to transport us back to the city. She''s manipulating the wind in order to continually create a vacuum in front of us and lift us through the air. I think she''s trying really hard to impress me after my last comment. Yup, she has a really arrogant and satisfied expression on her face. Please stop, I already think of you as a monster...

    When we get back to the city, Myra cashes the Sand Snake teeth in for 300 gold. It seems many of the teeth were damaged, but since Myra is widely recognized around here, they took her word for it. Does she pull that kind of stunt often? I swear, I was going to have a heart attack when I saw 10 Sand Snakes appear at once.

    This is the hard part. I need to keep projecting a sense of superiority while convincing her to give me 200 gold, even though she did all of the work. But I''m confident that I, the Great Hisenaga, can do it without a problem. Unlike light novels, it''s actually really hard to maintain a ''more than friends but less than lovers'' relationship with many girls at once, so thanks to my experience with harems social maneuvering and lying is really easy for me now.

    "So, about that gold..."

    "Don''t worry, Onee-chan will give it to you."

    "Really?"

    "Yes, of course. You just need to give me..."

    Myra leans in and whispers in my ear.

    ".../something/ in return, okay?"

    She then licks her lips while looking at me. Vesra-chan looks really angry. Myra''s words both scared and excited me a little bit, but for the sake of my harem, I need to turn her down here. It''s a future investment.

    "S-sorry Onee-chan, but I''m not sure what you mean..."

    "Ohhhh? Are you doing some kind of roleplay now? How did you know that that innocent act is my favorite?! Haa! Haa!"

    Myra grips me by the shoulders strongly, so strong it feels like my bones are going to break. As expected from a B+ ranked Adventurer. Vesra-chan is watching from the side, but she isn''t doing anything. She doesn''t even look mad anymore. What the hell, Vesra-chan?! Help me out here!

    Myra rips off my shirt, even though we''re still inside the Guild Hall. I''m beginning to draw a lot of stares. Ah, I''m really fucking pissed now. Vesra-chan has a really silly grin for a moment, but quickly wipes it off her face once I make eye contact with her. I also direct my gaze to Myra, and she recoils in fear for a second.

    "You bastard, just what are you doing to Hisenaga-sama?!"

    Vesra-chan is already back to the usual.

    "S-sorry. It''s because this boy here kept playing around with that defenseless act, so I couldn''t help myself. Boy, next time, you shouldn''t tease Onee-chan so much, okay?"

    What the hell is with these people, it''s really tiring me out...

    <hr />

    I forgot to clarify. By ''them'' I mean character drawings. I really need character drawings.

 Charactar Illustrations

    This shit</a> took me like 4 hours

    From top to bottom: Hise, Saya, Saya

    Somehow the boy version of Saya turned out prettier than the girl one lol. Anyways, now that you guys actually know what the characters look like, I would greatly appreciate it if anyone could do a cover and/or better character drawings. Please.

 Chapter 6

    My shirt is in shreds, so I need to do the walk of shame out the Guild and down the street to a clothing store. This world is really generic and rpg-like so there''s probably stores that sell things ready to go rather than tailor stores. My hair is long enough to cover my ears, but it''s still risky. I should hurry.

    Vesra-chan''s face is really red, presumably because my shirt is missing, but it isn''t out of innocence. From the look in her eyes, it''s probably the opposite, so I can''t enjoy her cute expression at all. In the first place, I''m not the type of person to get off on taking my shirt off to make girls blush.

    Vesra-chan seems to be a huge pervert, but since she''s so loyal I don''t think I need to worry about her. The main threat to me right now is that sexual predator of an Onee-chan. If she gets in close contact with me she''ll discover I''m a human. That is not information I want one of the strongest people alive to have. I need to get out of town before she comes looking for me again.

    How nostalgic. I remember skipping town a lot when some angry girls or their boyfriends came to beat the shit out of me. Saya hated it when I did that, because he had to deal with those people in my place. At least Saya will have it easy now that I''m gone. Now that I''m gone... I wonder how they''re doing, Saya and my family. Ah, shit, I''m getting depressed, so let''s stop thinking about that.

    I got a shirt in short order, a really nice one this time too, since Myra gave me all of the gold, so I have extra to spend. I bought something that resembled a dress shirt for 30 silver. It''s not a waste, okay. It''s not like I''m going to spend the gold on anything else besides slaves, so it''s fine. Me buying a nice shirt has nothing to do with picking up girls. I also got a hat resembling something like a beanie. It doesn''t suit me, but I''m going to take it off as soon as I leave town anyways so whatever covers my ears the most is best.

    I can''t wait to see the reaction on that slaver''s face when I walk in with 300 gold. She better have a lot of slaves ready! Good, she''s the only one in the store right now. I swagger in and slam the huge pile of gold on the counter.

    "I''m baaaaack! Did you miss me~?"

    "Oh, it''s you, esteemed customer. Welcome."

    Huh? Is this her twin or something? Or is she just so impressed by the gold that she''s treating me like a real customer now? Whatever, as long as I get her num-... slaves.

    "Right this way."

    She leads us down the hall. It''s really dark, which I guess is normal for a medieval society, but I can barely even see. Can elves see in the dark or something? Vesra-chan seems fine, so maybe it''s just a result of me living in modern day Japan that I can''t see well in the dark.

    "Please take a look, esteemed customers."

    I hear the sound of iron creaking, and realize we must be in some sort of prison-type complex, with cells lining the hall. Now that I know what I''m looking at, the indistinct shapes gradually take form as my eyes adjust. I walk over to the cell that the slaver opened, but there''s nothing inside. Am I seeing wrong?

    "URGH!"

    Someone kicked me in the back really hard. Oi, this body is a national treasure, be more careful! Vesra-chan is on the ground next to me, so she must have gotten the same treatment.

    The slaver walks inside the cell and closes the door behind her. She has a gigantic grin on her face. Vesra-chan stands up and lunges at her, but she abruptly stops as if hitting an invisible wall.

    "Tsk tsk, that won''t do."

    The slaver raises her arm and Vesra-chan is launched against the wall and pinned there by something. She walks towards me and reaches her hand to my face before stroking my ear under the cap.

    "Ah~! I knew it! It really is strange to be covering your head all the time, especially indoors. The smell of a human is so distinctive too."

    "What do you want with us?!"

    "Haaaah? What else would a slaver want with two humans? Hey, if you''re lucky, then maybe you can be my personal play thing, you know? I want to hear what sort of screams you make!"

    Yeah. She''s probably not talking about screams of pleasure, right? Still, this is a problem. Humans are no match for elves with their magic. Vesra-chan''s state just proves that. If I want to get out of here, I need to convince her.

    "Hey, could you release us? If you do, I can offer you something good."

    "...I''m listening."

    "See, I''m in the middle of building a country right now. If you release us, I can guarantee you a position of power. You would stand above thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of other people. How about it?"

    "Hmm, I can''t say I''m not intrigued, but I''m actually quite content here you know?"

    Looks like that''s not going to work. Maybe if I mix in a bit of lies it''ll convince her.

    "My country will be the most powerful one day. Are you sure you don''t want to join us?"

    "Nice try, but I have lie-detecting magic. As if a worthless human like you could possibly be capable of something like that."

    Lie-detecting magic? Something like that exists? If so, then that makes things stupidly easy. Funny, even. I put my hand up to my forehead and start laughing.

    "Hahahahaha!"

    "What''s so funny?"

    "No, nothing. It''s just, I really feel bad for you, you know? You have no idea what I am or what I¡¯m capable of.¡±

    ¡°And  just what would you be other than a human worm?¡±

    ¡°I''m an otherworlder. You guys have those right? Surely you know of our power."

    The slaver narrows her eyes. It looks like it passed the lie-detecting magic. Good, for a second there I thought she was just bullshitting about the magic and my bluff would be seen through. The lie-detecting magic makes things easier for me since it essentially turns things that are technically true into things that are actually true.

    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

    "Oi, slaver. You had no idea what I¡¯ll do to you if you don¡¯t release us."

    That''s true, she''s shaken right now, so she has no clue what I would do, which would be to do nothing.

    "I''ve possessed magic since the moment I set foot in this world."

    Also true. If auto-translation isn''t magic, then I don''t know what is.

    "Vesra. Tell this trash just how powerful I am."

    "Of course! Hey, you disgusting elf, Hisenaga-sama''s power is at least S-rank, alright?! Even I don''t know the extent of his power!"

    This isn''t true, but Vesra-chan sincerely believes it, so it should pass through. If the lie-detector was based on actual truth, it might as well be a divination magic since you could just say statements like "The king is hiding in Irilyn." and see if the magic returns it as true or false.

    "S-rank, huh..."

    The grin on the slaver''s face is long gone by now. She looks to be deep in thought.

    "Interesting. I accept your offer. My slaves and I are at your service, master."

    Her crazy grin returns to her face.

    "You should watch your back, because if I find an opening, I won''t hesitate to ''play'' with you, okay~?"

    Shit, why does my yandere harem keep growing? Is this a curse?

    The evil slaver, whose name I learned was Aoi, took 10 human slaves with her and then followed us back to Tikral Village. She transported us there on some kind of forcefield that slid along the ground. She said she was proficient in healing and barrier magic, but the way she uses it, isn''t it more like telekinesis? Seriously, elves are OP.

    I wanted to deploy Aoi''s slaves to guard the roads as soon as we returned, but I refrained. While Aoi''s barrier magic would have certainly been useful for building the roads, I had her train new soldiers instead. It¡¯s more efficient to have a future army than a single mage guard roads. Even if Aoi is powerful, she can only be in one place at a time. The reason I entrusted the training to her is because, apparently, she trained all of the slaves herself, and from what I¡¯ve seen, she did a very good job. I feel sorry for the people who will be training under her, but it''s necessary for the advancement of society.

    It''s already been a few weeks since Aoi started training people in the various villages. I wonder if any of them resent her for being an elf. Or her personality. That would be a problem. She and her group of recruits been traveling from village to village like a bandit gang, picking up new recruits in each village and training on the monsters in between. There have been no deaths yet thanks to Aoi¡¯s magic. They number around 100 right now, which is good considering it''s only been a short time. Once more roads are built and we further expand our network, Aoi will be able to recruit from even the farthest reaching villages.

    Since the growing band of soldiers are all from different villages, they''ve taken to speaking elven with each other and in the towns they visit. A nice side effect from this is that the villages are gradually becoming more and more fluent in elven. Sooner or later, I''ll need to implement a universal writing system, but for now, this is more than enough. Even better, the band of soldiers is also serving to increase the feeling of unity between the villages.

    Today, I''m going to check on how they''re doing, since they''ve stopped in Rukerford. I announced I was going to check on the quality of the soldiers, since they''re our future army, but really I want to check on Aoi to make sure she isn''t abusing anyone too much.

    When I finally reach the village and see her, the scene before me is downright terrifying. She¡¯s sitting in the town hall''s dining room. Her soldiers are waiting on her every command, bringing her all manner of food and drinks. Many of the townsfolk are also obeying her, even that Saril guy.

    However, they aren''t obeying her out of fear or anything like that. Oh no, this is something much more sinister. When Aoi sees me, she smirks for a bit before letting her face return to the demure expression she had on when I first entered. Saril is kneeling next to her like a dog.

    "Ojou-sama, please let me know if there''s anything I can help you with!"

    Aoi bites her lip and appears to look hesitant.

    "Well... no, there''s nothing."

    "What is it, Ojou-sama? It''s fine, anything is fine!"

    Some of the other slaves are nodding vigorously in agreement with what Saril said. I say slaves, but they aren''t the 10 slaves Aoi brought with her. It''s just that, in such a situation, how could I call them anything else? My mouth is wide agape, but Aoi is the paying attention to me, giving the occasional glance. None of the other people so much as bother to even acknowledge my existence.

    "Uhm, the truth is, my foot hurts. Only a little bit though!"

    "Why didn''t you say so earlier, Ojou-sama?!"

    Saril is already massaging her foot even as he¡¯s saying that.

    "It''s just that, I didn''t want to trouble you! I''m sorry, I should have said so sooner."

    Aoi has tears in her eyes, and her lip is trembling. It looks incredibly fake to me since I¡¯m used to such acts. To these cattle though, she must look like a delicate flower.

    In the end, I couldn¡¯t take it anymore and left quickly but quietly, carefully closing the door behind me. That was the first and last time I visited the Aoi and her soldiers.

 Chapter 7

    I''m going to stop here and take my time writing the next several chapters, because the next arc is really the main part of the story. I don''t think it''ll be more than 2 weeks before I startposting again, but we''ll see.

    <hr />

    It''s been several months since Aoi started building our army. I think their number is somewhere in the thousands now, though I''m not completely sure. They''ve grown so large that they had to split up, with one of Aoi''s slaves leading each division. Our network of roads has been completed in about half of the Great Wilds, which makes us the size of a large European nation, or maybe one of the States. I think it''s very impressive.

    Even if we have an army, they still have the potential to be wiped out by a single group of mages, so I''m mostly going to be using them for defense against monsters. In the future, I hope to equip them with guns and stuff. I heard the dwarves have steam guns, so it would be nice if I could get a few of them to help me develop sniper rifles or something in order to combat mages.

    I''ve been swamped with work, since I need to go between all of the villages and get them to agree to trade, mutual defense, things like that. Elven is gradually becoming the predominant language, but there''s still no unified writing system, so I need to explain everything to each village personally. It''s really tiring. The whole thing is starting to look like a proper nation though. The resources are being traded between the villages with differing specialties, and the overall technology is almost at the level of the elves, though not every village is fully renovated yet. The various villages no longer feel competitive towards each other. I might have to implement a proper government and market system soon.

    Today, I''m going back to Irilyn as a sort of vacation. The monster food here has a nice salty taste, but it really sucks eating that all the time. Some of the villages grow crops, but they''re extremely bitter. Therefore, I''m going to go to Irilyn for a few days. I saved a bunch of parts from some of the monsters that were hunted by Aoi, so I should be good on money if I turn those into the Guild.  Aoi gave me a magic bracelet that can disguise me as an elf. I was afraid of the answer, so I didn''t ask where she got it, but it¡¯s really convenient since I don¡¯t have to dye my hair again or risk getting exposed.

    Vesra-chan is going to fly me there, but she''s not going to come with me since there''s only one bracelet and we don''t want a repeat of last time. Plus, being with Vesra-chan is really creepy. For example, she took the scraps of my shirt from that time and made it into panties, though I didn''t notice for a while. I mean, it was a little endearing, but more than that, it was disturbing. I burned them as soon as I found out.

    Another time, I went to go see the new town hall that Vesra-chan was building for herself, and there were taxidermies of monsters everywhere. That''s not the weird part though. When I complimented her on the taxidermies, she said something like ''Yes! I''ll be sure to make Hisenaga-sama''s just as wonderful!'' That''s strange, right? I''m not going crazy right? They''re the strange ones, right?!

    Anyways, I arrived at the Guild without any problems. The actual trip was very uneventful since it was just Vesra-chan panting really heavily while I held onto her on the back of the Griffin. The guard was different from last time, but I had a guild card, so there was no questioning like before.

    When I enter the Guild, a lot of people start pointing and laughing, presumably because of the incident last time. But when I dump the contents of my sack onto the reception counter, no one is laughing. The receptionist has her eyes wide open but keeps smiling. It looks really strange.

    The various creature parts total up to 500 gold. The gold even filled up the sack that I just emptied.

    "Sir, if you had properly taken the requests for all of these, you could be ranked B- ! I''m sure if you talk to the Guildmaster, she can make an exception this one time."

    "Ahh, it sounds troublesome for some monsters I just hunted on the side, but for you, I''ll do it."

    I give the receptionist a wink and smile at her. She blushes a little bit and breaks eye contact.

    "I-I understand. I''ll bring the Guildmaster over right away!"

    A few moments later, she comes back with Myra. What the hell, she¡¯s the Guildmaster? Uugghh, I''m starting to get nervous. I won''t let it show on my face though.

    "Ah, Onee-chan~, how have you been? Are you impressed? Though this much is nothing to Onee-chan, huh?"

    "Don''t tell me this is what you''ve been doing for the past few months, boy."

    "Of course not! This is just some trash I picked up during my travels. Hey, can you hurry and rank me up? I''m really busy."

    That''s a complete lie, but I want to get out of here as soon as possible.

    "It''s unfortunate you''re in a rush boy, but if you want me to make an exception for your rank-up, then you''ll need to have a match against me."

    Shit!

    "Hoh? If it''s like that, then I''ll make some time. I also want to try playing with Onee-chan!"

    I lean forward a bit when I say that with a childish vigor. Myra even flinches.

    "You know what, that won''t be necessary. Here, give me your guild card."

    "Aww, too bad. Maybe another time then, O-NE-E-chan~!"

    I leave the Guild slowly, with confidence in my step. As soon as I get out the door though, I heave a big sigh. I want to leave this place as soon as possible, but I can''t until Vesra-chan comes to pick me up in 3 days. Well, I might as well enjoy the hotels and food here.

    Ahhh, this place is heaven! Compared to those human villages, no, compared to my old world, the food here is god-like! It''s almost as good as Saya''s food, to be honest. Damn, now I don''t want to leave. Maybe I should just stay here for another week. Vesra-chan will probably just leave after a while right? I can just walk back to the village when I feel like going back.

    It''s been 5 hours since the scheduled time for Vesra-chan to meet me outside the town. I''m going to stay inside my room for the whole day, then start go explore some more restaurants, and maybe a brothel. Kukukuh, Vesra-chan must have given up by-... huh? Who the hell is knocking on my door at this hour?

    I open the door just a crack and see Vesra-chan standing there. Her face brightens up a bit when she sees me. I close the door slowly, and lock it.

    "Wait, Hisenaga-sama! Why did you close the door? Are you abandoning me? Hisenaga-sama?¡±

    ¡°H-haha. I decided to stay here for a bit longer, so just head back by yourself, Vesra-chan.¡±

    ¡°I WON''T LET YOU DO THAT, HISENAGA-SAMA! WE''LL BE TOGETHER FOREVER!"

    The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    I walk over to the the window. This room is three stories up. If I survive, I can make a nice getaway, and if I die, it''s still better than the present situation. The only problem is if I become a cripple, and remain under Vesra-chan''s ''care'' for the rest of my life. There''s no foliage, but it''s still dirt. I can''t tell if it¡¯s loose dirt or packed dirt from this distance.

    Vesra-chan¡¯s banging is getting louder. Shit, I don''t have much time. At this rate, would it be better to dive headfirst and just go for death? There''s still a small chance of becoming a cripple though...

    Damn, I''m too late! Vesra-chan is standing in the doorway with a manic expression on her face. I decide to jump as is and hope I survive. I jump immediately, but Besra-chan manages to catch my waist mid-air and pull me back in.

    "Oh no Hisenaga-sama! Were you so lonely that you tried to commit suicide? Don''t worry, I''ll make sure that I NEVER LEAVE YOUR SIDE AGAIN!"

    Vesra-chan is petting my head, and I feel like crying. What did I do to deserve this shit? Vesra-chan takes my hand and guides me out the town towards where the Griffin is waiting. At this point, I''ve already given up, and I lifelessly let her lead me around. She didn''t dye her hair, so she has to rely on her hood and the night to conceal her as we walk through the streets and out the gate. Not that it matters. Nothing matters...

    Oh look, it''s Myra, another potential yandere harem member. I don''t know if yandere is the right word for her though. She''s more like a molester than anything else. Ah, she''s saying something.

    "I knew it!"

    Nn? Did she realize that we''re human?

    "Vesra is a human, and what''s more, boy, you..."

    Here it comes.

    "You''re a slave magician, aren''t you? I knew Vesra was acting abnormally, and you have a Griffin too? No wonder you got so many monster drops so easily, when you''re using a blacklisted magic!"

    Slave magic is banned? Then are slaves just kept in line the normal way? Wait, that''s not important right now. I just realized something. Right now, Vesra-chan is calm, but I remember before she got angry at Myra quite easily.

    I dive into Myra''s arms and bury my head in her chest. This is just acting, okay? I''m not enjoying it, not one bit. Her breasts aren''t soft at all. It doesn''t feel like heaven either.

    "Onee-chan! I reawwy missed you!"

    Something wet drips onto my head. Blood is coming out of Myra''s nose like a faucet, and her breathing is becoming labored. She swipes her arms trying to hug me, but I''m already out of the way, back by Vesra-chan''s side.

    "C-come here boy! Onee-chan wants to play with you, so just stay still!"

    "You dirty woman! How dare you defile the innocent Hisenaga-sama with your sinister charms!"

    "Defile? If you think this is defiling, then just wait until you see what I''ll do later!"

    A shiver involuntarily runs through my body, but I''m pleased that my plan worked. That''s right, I''ve always been trying to maintain good relations between harem members, but by comparison, it¡¯s far easier to get them to turn on each other! Like this, I can get these sick fucks to leave me alone!

    Did I make a miscalculation again? Right now, Myra is using wind magic to follow us back to Rukerford, which is becoming something of the capital of my budding nation. Why did she join our group? Maybe my roleplay earlier was too much for her, so now she''s going to follow me around? She still thinks I''m a powerful elf with slave magic though. No doubt, the moment that she finds out that''s a lie, my body will be in danger. It looks like I''m going to be an elf around her from now on...

    I''m sitting in front of Vesra-chan in order to give the illusion that I''m the one controlling the Griffin. Vesra-chan is holding onto me so that I don''t fall off. I can enjoy it since I can''t see her face, which I''m sure is really scary right now.

    When we land in the town square, Aoi is waiting for us there. She looked really pissed, but once she sees Myra, she reverts to her demure act. Does she do this around all strangers? Why did she taunt me the first time we met then?

    "Hisenaga-san, my soldiers have reported some humans and a few beast-kin traveling towards Tikral Village. They''ll reach there in a few hours."

    Aoi bows toward me while she speaks. Urgh, I''m not used to her demure act yet. She''s at an angle where I can see her tits... no, that''s not what I wanted to say. She''s at an angle where I can see her wicked smile, while others can''t. Vesra-chan is glaring at Aoi like always, and Myra just looks curios.

    "L-let''s go over there to meet them when they arrive. Please have your army on standby just in case."

    "Of, course, Hisenaga-sama."

    Since there are several of us, we travel by Aoi''s moving barrier again. Myra looks impressed. It takes us a bit more time than usual since we''re going by land, a little less than 3 hours. I hope we''re not too late to greet the people coming. The fact they they came to Tikral directly without passing through any of the surrounding villages means they must have cut through the Griffin infested lands, which means they must be quite powerful. I hope they don''t have any ill intentions.

    "Hey, Aoi, what''s a beast-kin?"

    "You don''t know? They¡¯re half-beastman half-human. Their appearance mostly human except for their ears and tail."

    Yes!!! It''s here! my harem will have a catgirl! My harem... Ah, it''ll be another yandere right? I still want to see one though! Myra is saying something, but I''m in my own world right now, thinking about catgirls.

    "Boy, is this your retainer?"

    Aoi responds in my place, which snaps me out of it.

    "I guess you could say I''m his... ¡®personal ''servant''?"

    Who''s my closest servant, you shitty woman?! Myra looks even more intrigued than before.

    "Heee, as expected from a B- ranked adventurer, you really know how to pick them, huh boy?"

    Aoi seems to have realized that Myra thinks I¡¯m an elf based on what was said and the fact that I haven''t taken the disguise bracelet off yet. This is bad. She¡¯s most likely going to use this as leverage against me.

    "Aoi wait, it''s not what you¡­¡±

    I let my voice trail off because Vesra-chan, Myra, and Aoi all look towards the forest at the same time. A few moments later, a large group of people emerge from the forest. Near the front group is a catgirl with beautiful mid-length red hair, and her sizes are... Wait a minute! I''d recognize those sizes anywhere! The bust might be a little different, but without a doubt, those are Saya''s sizes. Sure enough, once they¡¯re closer, I can make out the girl''s face, and it¡¯s exactly the same.

    I raise my arm and call out to her.

 Announcement

    I''ve finally given into my weaboo urges and started learning Japanese. I''m spending around 5-6 hours a day on this, so the speed at which I release things is going to slow down considerably. However, I''m still actively working on this every few days or so, and I have a rough draft of 2 chapters already, so it''s not technically on hiatus. You might have noticed that I said I had a rough drafts of 9 chapters a while ago, and I''ve only released 7. It''s not that I haven''t done any work; I completely scrapped those 2 chapters and rewrote them since the story had diverged considerably once I started the first round of edits. That''s why I''m hesitant to release even a single chapter before I''ve finished writing an arc. It''s so that I can make sure the arc flows well. If I just release as I write, the story will get messy, so I hope you can understand. Also, I think you guys will appreciate the things I translate, so consider my slowed release time a prior investment lol.