Testing My Luck in the New World

Though neither of us had been there before, it was easy to tell when we’d found the northern district of Amoranth. And it wasn’t because there was a large, secondary wall complete with gate and guards protecting it from the rest of the city.

Each and every one of the buildings were several times larger than any others in the city. Where the merchant’s district was packed with dozens and dozens of small shops and houses all closely knit together, here each building stood alone. Each large enough to call them mansions and each gaudier than the last. A few were so opulent and over the top that they could have easily been mistaken for some sort of historical government building. But the number of servants they had tending the grounds as we passed suggested I might need to step up that estimation and call them palaces.

A wealth gap was something I expected to see in a great trading city like this, but the disparity between what I knew and what I saw now was insane.

There were fewer people out and about here as well. Most of those that deigned to travel under the sun rode in horse-drawn carriages, usually with a professional driver behind the reigns to carefully steer the horses. Those being ferried around all looked about as stuck-up and self-important as anyone would assume they’d be. Fancy clothes. Faces caked with makeup. And of course, a haughty disregard for us peasants. We had to step aside to let them pass several times, only to have them scoff at or berate us for slowing them anyways.

It was thanks in part to them ignoring us that we had trouble asking for directions. Aside from them, everyone we asked made a pointed effort to either deny knowing where this Bellenfort woman sold her maps, or they warned us to stay away from her. A few even started to sweat a little under the miniscule pressure of our questioning like we had a gun aimed that their head.

When one of the knights patrolling the area fled after stuttering out that he didn’t know her or where she lived, both statements of which Yua’s ears were fairly certain were barely veiled with lies, a man called out to us.

“Hey! You’re looking for Miss Bellenfort, right?”

He was a salt-and-pepper-haired man, who just so happened to be a level 48 Merchant and was dressed in some clothes so fine that Gideon over in the Threaded Spool might have flush with jealousy. Yet, he greeted us as though we were equals.

To our great benefit, when those around us grimaced at the mention of that name, his face instead brightened into a knowing grin.

“I heard you earlier,” he said, lifting his hat to reveal a pair of rounded ears not unlike a squirrel’s. “You’re looking for the Cartographer, right?”

“Yes. Can you tell us where we can find her?”

“Heh. Another challenger, then. A young man like yourself. I see…”

He laughed and cupped his thickly bearded chin between his thumb and index finger to look me up and down. He prodded my biceps and chest with an inquisitive glint to his eye, like a master blacksmith testing the edge of a newly forged blade.

Getting the same weird vibe I got from Amoranth’s flamboyant armorer when he tried to get me to put on his armor in the middle of his shop, I almost stepped back. He then shot an appraising look to Yua.

“Heh. Greedy, aren’t you. You don’t look half bad, but… I can’t remember the last time someone without a title or heavy purse came knocking at her door. Hells, I tried myself and I practically got thrown out onto the street.”

Confused, I looked to Yua to see if she clear up what he meant, but all I got was a shrug.

“I’m sorry, but what do you mean by challenge?”

“Nothing. Don’t mind me. Miss Bellenfort’s just down the street on the left. Just look for the mansion with the large globe out in the garden.”

“Thank you. Let’s go.”

“Wait.”

Ready to be rid of the man and his prodding, we both turned to leave, but he called out to me again. Reluctantly, I turned back and found him smirking at me. The slow way he shook his head at me almost felt like a father trying to teach his son how pointless it was to try and fly without wings as they stared into the sky together.

“Kid. A bit of advice. Man-to-man. She’s turned down every offer thrown her way. So, don’t get your hopes up.”

“Um, Okay…?”

“We’re not here to fight,” Yua added, though the prospect of the challenge he mentioned did cause a stir in her tail. “We won’t anger her.”

“Haha. See that you don’t, Miss. Good day to you both.”

With that said, he left us with a wave and for some reason, I felt as though the smile he wore as he turned held a great deal of sympathy. Finally, he shook his head and wondered off, shaking his head as though he was sending me to inevitably fail in my endeavors.

Still more confused than anything, but also a little surprised that I wasn’t feeling all that much dread at the thought of meeting with her despite everyone telling us not to, we kept on and eventually found the Cartographer’s place right where the Merchant said it’d be.

Compared to the others in the area, it was a smaller mansion, but was still easily four times the size of a regular four-bedroom house. For what it lacked in size, it more than made up for with how expertly the garden out front had been tended. Several neatly trimmed bushes bordered the red brick wall guarding the place. A robust flower garden added some color to the bright green grass that looked like it had been plucked directly from our backyard. And there in the middle of it all was a mass of marble chiseled perfectly into a ball. Even from a distance, it was easy to see that the only markings on its surface came in the shape of continents. And not a single one of these looked familiar to me.

“This terror of a woman lives here?”

After seeing how the Cartographer lived in such a picturesque mansion, despite knowing that she sold maps and was therefore a merchant, it felt more and more likely that she was a noble. How else could she afford this from just selling maps?

Seeing that they were left open, I led Yua through the black iron gates that fenced off the yard and down the carved stone steps leading straight to the mansion.

Weary of leaving a scratch, we knocked on the finely crafted doors that made me want to try even harder with our cabin’s redesign. But unlike our exceedingly humble abode, behind these doors lay the lap of luxury, a home fit to comfortably hold a dozen people without any of them getting in each other’s way.

Yua looked a little tense, likely because of the idea of this woman being a noble reminded her of those that tried to buy her during her stay in the slave house, but she managed a smile when she caught me looking. It only took around ten seconds before her ears perked up and a woman answered the door.

She took only a single look at us and offered a polite bow. When she lowered her head, the only thing I could see of her were the floppy dog ears resting atop the short black hair that perfectly framed her cute, mostly expressionless face. Clearly, she was a member of the dog-kin, but the sight of her brought back the memory of the first time I ever met one of her people in the Lazy Cat’s outdoor bath.

It was because of that eventful flash of inspiration that I found my eyes dropping down lower to notice that, not only did her bustline rival Yua’s, but that she wore something close to a traditional French maid outfit, but unlike the maids I remember from the auction house, her dress had no sleeves. And the small apron resting on her skirt looked like more for fashion than function.

Wait… Weren’t those maids we ran into earlier wearing this same dress? Mostly, anyways. The tiny apron was a dead giveaway, but the fabric cupping this girl’s breasts was white, not black like theirs. But everything else looked to have been designed by the same person. Right down to the placement of the stitching, the length of her skirt, the apron and to the ribbon they all wore over their chests.

All these points were the same and that was a fact that made me realize my perfect memory really forced me to memorize a lot of useless information.

Still, searching for further similarities, I checked this girl’s info box. Her name was simply Erika. A level 1 Beast-Warrior and she was without a second class. A maid with an under-leveled combat class was nothing special. It was understandable. But my breath caught when I found that she too bore the Slave tag under her name.

Crossing my fingers in hope that, if I was right about their relation to this maid, that Silla and Mary hadn’t made it back yet and to tell their mistress what happened. Starting our business off by mentioning that I was the one that ruined her absurdly expensive booze could only make it harder not to anger her.

Realizing this, I couldn’t escape the thought of Silla and Mary dragging me into a police lineup with a bunch of other seasoned criminals, only to then point their accusing fingers my way. No doubt the relative excess of gold that I handed them would be proof enough of my crime.

“Ahem.”

When Yua cleared her throat to draw my attention off Erika, she had an oddly sympathetic smile plastered to her lips. Erika, however, pursed hers. Her cheeks reddened just a little as she strained herself to feign a polite indifference.

Did I just get caught unintentionally ogling a woman again? Right in front of her?

“Hello, Sir. Miss,” Erika said. “This is the manor of Miss Elane Bellenfort. How may I help you?”

“P-Please excuse my rudeness. We’re actually here to buy a map to Guerraway. And maybe some others.”

Erika looked to me again, scrunching up her brows just a little, but not truly enough to say that she, as both a slave and maid, was disrespecting me. Though, when she glanced at her own chest as if my eyes were still burned into it, I figured there was a lot of disrespect going on inside her head.

At least she was a bit more cautious with her emotions than the fiery Mary was.

“Some maps, eh?” Erika parroted with a hefty sigh.

Or maybe she wasn’t.

“So, it’s this again… Fine. Understood, Sir. Please, come in. You may wait in the drawing room while I fetch Miss Bellenfort for you.”

What’s wrong with asking for a map from a person that makes maps?

Feeling as though Erika’s sudden brusk attitude was a byproduct of my ogling, we followed her into the mansion without comment.

Although, when she closed the door behind us and the afternoon sunlight disappeared from sight, something about this maid drew my attention even more than her appearance had.

There was no hole for her tail sewn into her dress. Instead, I found its fluffy tip dangling beneath the hem of her skirt.

Before I could consider whether or not she was forced to keep her tail uncomfortably pinned beneath her clothes all day, she gestured with an open palm down a hall and we followed her through the mansion.

As we let Erika set the pace, it quickly became clear that the mansion appeared much smaller on the inside than it looked on the outside. Unlike the Mage’s Guild, whose mismatching interior and exterior was made possible by magic, the cramped feeling here came from the copious amount of furniture that filled each room we passed. It even spilled into the hall. All of it looked expensive, even by my modern standards, but it was all left to sit here and there as though nobody cared.

Still, on closer inspection, the odd placement of all the furniture didn’t truly look to show off how small the building was. Rather, there was just too much of it. Couches, chairs, tables, nightstands and for some reason, even a few dressers were scattered about the main hall. There was enough here to properly furnish several houses.

Was this mansion supposed to be part map shop and part furniture store?

“Miss Bellenfort has collected all of what you see from her travels around the world,” Erika said. She must have noticed me looking around. “My mistress prefers to keep these treasured things close at hand… No matter how they get in the way of cleaning.”

“I see. Around the world… That explains why the styles of all the furniture look so different from one another.”

“That is correct, Sir. This way, please. It’s not much further.”

Erika brought us to a much more organized room that contained a small library’s worth of books, all packed tight into the bookshelves lining the wall. A quick glance at their titles and I found that most were all related to Cartography. This, coupled with the large oak desk that was littered with various rolls of parchment, ink quills and several other map-making instruments, made this less of a tea room and more of an office.

“Sir…”

“Oh, sorry. My name is Alex.”

“Then, Sir Alex, please wait here while I fetch Miss Bellenfort for you.”

“I will. Thank you.”

With another short bow, Erika left us.

Left with nothing to do but wait, I thought to make good use of my Memorization ability to read and learn as much as I could from all these books, I held myself back. My want to not be labeled as a Thief for touching what wasn’t mine forced me to keep to myself just in case I didn’t have permission.

Regardless of worldly thieving laws and potential anger I might find coming my way for a bit of light reading, we might be seeking help from again in the future prevented such wants from becoming actions. Best just keep to myself.

As it was, we were already lucky enough to be let in without some kind of appointment. And if Erika’s ears were anywhere near as sensitive as Yua’s, I’d be found out immediately if I did anything I wasn’t supposed to.

“Let’s just sit down,” I said. “They might be a while since they didn’t know we were coming.”

I went ahead and plopped down on one of the lime green sofas surrounding a small glass coffee table sat a few feet from the desk. As I let my weary body sink into the softness of its cushions, a sudden, overwhelming relaxation struck me hard in the ass and back. After a month of sitting only on our hard wood bed and our equally hard chairs, this was enough to say that I desperately needed to up the quality of our furniture back at the cabin.

Despite my contentment, Yua didn’t join me in the cushiony goodness.

“Master, I think it is best if I stand behind you.”

I blinked at the return of her calling me Master without it being accompanied by a playful, or sexy, smile.

“Why? Just sit with me.”

She shook her head. “This is how most masters treat their slaves. We are to stand behind them so that we may carry out any task needed of us the moment we are asked.”

She turned towards the door Erika left closed and flicked her ears before leaning in to whisper.

“Some would see it as rude if their guest’s slave doesn’t act like their supposed to. So, don’t be too nice to me.”

“I see… I guess it’s better to blend in for now. But you don’t need to do that when we’re alone.”

Yua smiled happily at what I felt to be a casual statement of fact. Normally, I would have ignored this ridiculous custom and had her sit with me, but if this Miss Bellenfort was the sort of haughty noble that refuses to treat slaves as anything but trash, then we should just play along for now. And if she proves to actually be this sort of woman, we can just take our future business elsewhere.

Then again, how would she even know Yua was a slave to begin with? It’s not like she wears a collar. Nor is she wearing a nametag that says as much. Maybe the people of this world just somehow know without needing to ask.

Letting my mind wander as we waited patiently, I couldn’t help but focus on the desk and all the drawing implements laid there.

“Still, to think she actually meant that this is where Miss Bellenfort draws her maps. I thought she meant this was going to be something more like a waiting or living room, like how it was back home.”

“Living room? Hmm… Where is Master from, anyway?”

“Where I’m…Oh.”

Right. I never told her any specific answer. We’d spent so much time talking about this world that Earth never came up. But I can’t exactly tell her I was reincarnated into this world only a month ago. She’d think I was lying. At least, I would if in her shoes, anyways.

Besides, I particularly didn’t want her to know that we only met because a Goddess found the life I’d been living so pitiable that she had me killed and reincarnated here. That, more than anything else, would be harder than hell to explain. Plus, even I wasn’t entirely sure of the Goddess’s motivations for doing all this yet.

But with Yua’s face so close and her big emerald eyes curiously searching for an answer, I felt compelled to come up with something.

“Er, well, I’m from very far away. So…”

But before I could vomit the poorly thought out answer I’d come up with to tide her over, I was saved by a pair of rapid knocks sounding against the door.

Erika pushed the door open. Still mostly expressionless, but now with a slight somber twinge to her eyes, she stepped inside. A brief look my way and a small hand gesture to urge me to stand, she politely held the door open as she turned her gaze to the floor in wait.

We heard the heavy footfalls of someone slowly drawing near. The longer they took, the more my imagination and the repeated warning got the better of me. After taking on the dungeon’s challenge and facing off against several fearsome beasts, I felt no need to tuck my tail and run. But the soft footsteps of shoes on hardwood started to sound more like the metallic screeching of some undead knight in the shape of a woman. Clad in thick plate mail and carrying a heavy executioner’s blade, they’d burst through the door to give my neck a good chopping if she found me to be a waste of time.

The fact that this place was so hard to find and that nobody wanted to fess up with her address should have been a warning. The same sort of warning one should feel when accepting a contract that was clearly too good to be true.

I knew this was all in my head, though. I wasn’t about to let the stupid thoughts win out this time around. Had there been a real threat, Yua’s cat ears would have caught on long before I did. So, I instead focused on Erika, as she repeatedly kept looking down the hall with that same somber look about her.

And finally, a figure appeared in the doorway.

The woman that walked, or rather stumbled, into the room before making grab for the doorframe to keep herself from falling, not only shattered the darker workings of my imagination, but she made my heart seize the moment our eyes met. Everything else just melted away.

I was instantaneously at a loss. As her chest heaved from whatever effort it took her to make her way here, all I could think was…

“Is that…”

The Goddess?

No. I firmly clamped my lips shut. This absolute bombshell of a woman did share a few characteristics with the Goddess that reincarnated me, but a second glance confirmed they were not one and the same.

As she drunkenly caught herself on the doorframe, she looked completely out of place in the sheer elegance of this mansion. She wore a blue, pirate-esque long coat, but the thing hung so low on her that her shoulders were left completely bare, save for the long golden hair draped over them. More importantly, more visually striking, more unmissable and utterly breath-taking was the fact that the coat was all she wore to cover her utterly massive breasts.

And it was doing a poor job of it. There was more perfectly soft cleavage visible than there was coat covering her. This state of undress was severe enough to the point that even the undersides of those tightly packed melons strained against the buttons holding it all together. Said buttons had to fight for their lives to keep this woman’s chest from exploding outwards into a guaranteed a wardrobe malfunction from occurring.

I swear, I could almost hear her coat’s threads screaming in agony from the constant effort it took to keep this meeting PG.

Finding it almost impossible to look away, down below, she wore a black pair of what looked like yoga pants due to how tight they fit against her shapely legs. The only reason why I couldn’t assume they were made of a softer type of leather was because of the lax hold they had on her body, since her plump thighs and ass jiggled every time she stumbled through a step.

Running from the right side of her belly button all the way up to the middle of her left breast was a long scar that immediately caught me off guard. Not because it was so strange to see a beautiful woman with such a noticeable blemish to her otherwise perfect skin, but because I knew health potions didn’t leave any traces of the wounds they healed behind.

Was she not able to get a potion in time and had to wait for it to heal on its own?

Her awe-inspiring looks aside, her limp posture made her appear as nothing more than a slovenly noblewoman that couldn’t even handle putting on a shirt on such short notice.

Fascinated beyond words, and dying to know more, I checked her info box. She was indeed a level 50 Cartographer and, surprisingly, that she had the Adventurer class. Not Merchant. Given how famous she was as a map maker and doing well enough at it to afford this place, this surprised me quite a bit. I knew you didn’t have to actually have the Merchant class to open a business, but it sure helped.

But still, how did she get that scar? Maybe her Adventurer class could answer that question for me.

“Sir Alex,” Erika said, giving another polite bow as she gestured to her mistress, who was half-leaning on the door for support and glaring at me past her flushed cheeks. “This is Miss Elane Bellenfort, Cartographer of the Great City of Amoranth.”

Yua discretely prodded my shoulder, urging my brain to restart and to stop staring.

“Ah, um, pleasure to meet you, Miss Bellenfort,” I said, offering a small bow of my own. “I am not a knight, so please feel free to drop the Sir and just call me Alex.”

I tried to act as politely as I could and correct a small error in Erika’s introduction, but the second I clarified that I was essentially a commoner, Miss Bellenfort’s alluringly cobalt-blue eyes locked on me. They, of course, did not share the comforting silver hue of the Goddess’s.

“Uggh… This one’s not even a lower noble,” Miss Bellenfort sneered. “… I guess I’ll give him points for trying, though.”

Miss Bellenfort sighed and ambled over to sit down across from us. She all but fell into the other couch’s cushions and it sent her voluptuous breasts bouncing so wildly that it almost felt like they could have caused an earthquake on the other side of the planet. But coming back to reality, all it did was cause further strain to the coat’s buttons.

“My maid has already introduced me. So, you mind if we skip the formalities?”

“S-Sure.”

“Good. Erika, go fetch me the bottle of rum on my bedstand. Oh, and bring two glasses.”

Without even looking at the maid and with only a snap of her fingers to signal that she was done giving her orders, she sank into the seat. Erika bowed and quietly left the room.

Rum? And those maids dressed. Shit… Silla and Mary really do belong to her, don’t they? I didn’t know much of anything about alcohol, but the glare she skewered me with reminded of how much that one bottle had cost before it broke.

Still, hadn’t she already had too much? She can barely walk.

“Um, thanks for the kind offer, Miss Bellenfort, but I don’t drink.”

“Hoho? What kind of person can call themselves a man if they don’t drink?”

“It’s just a personal choice. I have nothing against it.”

In reality and back on Earth, drinking any kind of alcohol, even a cap full of a cheap boxed wine, would upset my stomach so much that I couldn’t eat for the rest of the day. I had no idea if that held true, but I already went one lifetime without drinking. So, abstaining from it now wasn’t going to be an issue.

Miss Bellenfort rolled her eyes, slouching on the couch.

“Miss Bellenfort, I’m just here to buy…”

“Hold it,” she held up a hand, seemingly unaware of how that quick gesture made her bust jiggle. “Before I hear it, I want a drink.”

My mouth and confidence floundering, I could do nothing but wait for Erika to return.

This wasn’t the first time I’d spoken to someone with an absurd amount of money or power, but her standoffish behavior was bewildering. I’d met plenty of merchants by this point, some kind, some angry, and one that was downright evil. But I’d never met one that needed to get buzzed ion order to complete a deal. And with her already swaying slightly as she sat across from me, I couldn’t’ say that sharing a drink with a customer was a possible custom here.

A few minutes of awkward silence and me trying not to stare at the chest Miss Bellenfort was basically begging me to look at, Erika finally returned holding a tray with two glasses and a crystal decanter filled with a reddish-brown liquid. It wasn’t exactly printed with the same label as the bottle Silla and Mary were carrying, but I furthered my hope that the maids didn’t make it back before we did.

Erika set the tray down in front of Miss Bellenfort, removed the thick glass stopper from the decanter and started pouring. When she started on the second cup, I stopped her.

“Thanks, but as I was telling Miss Bellenfort, I don’t drink.”

“Oh, please,” Miss Bellenfort sighed, taking a generous sip of her glass the second it was readied for her. “You don’t refuse a drink offered by a Captain. Pour it, Erika.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

Her already floppy ears drooping further, Erika filled the second glass, but only halfway, unlike she did for her mistress. She set it down on the table and slid it to me. Her task completed and without another to tide her over, she left to stand back behind her mistress, just like Yua.

Miss Bellenfort drained half her glass before she looked my way again. A bit apprehensively, and wanting to avoid pissing her off by denying her further, I took a tentative sip and found the rum to have an almost smokey-sweet flavor that my untrained tongue found confusing. I was surprised to find my stomach uninjured, but I still wasn’t a fan.

“Alright. I’ve had my drink. Out with it.”

“R-Right. I’m here to buy a map to…”

“Uggh.” Miss Bellenfort sighed gutturally, as if I’d deeply annoyed her. “What? The alcohol hasn’t loosened your lips enough?... Whatever. Erika, go suck his cock to loosen him up.”

Erika’s entire body went rigid in the face of the ridiculous order suddenly thrust upon her, but unable to deny her the demands of her mistress, she reluctantly bowed to her. Clenching her skirt defensively, she actually started walking towards me without so much as a question to give her pause. So, I quickly put a hand up to stop her again.

“That won’t be necessary. I’m not here for…”

“What? My girl’s not enough for you? I happen to think she’s super cute. She even has great tits. Just look at ‘em. Eh, fine, whatever. You, slave girl, suck your master’s cock so we can get this over with.”

With another careless snap of her fingers, she pointed to and ordered Yua around like she was just as much her master as I was. The second I heard the slight shifting of Yua’s clothes, I held up a hand to stop her and met Miss Bellenfort’s annoyed look with a glare of my own.

“Don’t you order Yua around! She’s mine!”

Yua let out a small yelp when my voice boomed that I was sure only I heard it. And Erika froze so hard that her tail actually kicked up the back of her skirt to stand on end. She stiffened so hard as she slowly turned to the woman I just yelled at, that I thought her spine might actually have broken from the force.

Before I could remember that only I viewed Yua as someone other than a slave and before I could apologize for the outburst, Miss Bellenfort tapped her glass against her knee. It’s amber contents sloshing about and her deep blue eyes still glaring.

“Then what is it you really want?”

“I’ve been trying to tell you,” I said, only just managing to keep from blaming her for interrupting. “I would like a map to Guerraway. And maybe some others of the surrounding area.”

Miss Bellenfort squinted at me, as if testing the truth in my words. She then turned to Erika for the first time since entering the room.

“You said he was here for a marriage proposal.”

“I… Um… Mistress… He said he wanted a map and… T-That’s how all the other men… And every time, you…”

Judging by her scared, unending mumbles and half-finished sentences, I worked out that Erika was trying to say that several other men had not only come to try and propose to this admittedly gorgeous woman, but that they all lied about wanting her maps to get their foot in the door. Otherwise, they were sure to be rejected by the maids before they could make their true requests.

Trembling, Erika tried to give her reason for her apparent misunderstanding and Miss Bellenfort only glared at her further. Her already flushed cheeks darkening just a little.

“A map isn’t anywhere close to a marriage proposal. I make maps, you idiot! Why would you assume anyone asking for a map wanted marriage?!”

“S-Sorry, Mistress!”

Erika started bowing over and over, begging for forgiveness, but her admitting her fault only seemed to piss off Miss Bellenfort more, as she shifted in her seat like she was about to reach out and strangle the poor maid girl.

“Excuse me, Miss Bellenfort,” I said, trying to step between them and save the girl from getting hit. “It is my fault for not making an appointment with you beforehand. And I wasn’t very clear with your maid with my specific needs. Please, blame me.”

I forced myself to meet her cobalt gaze directly to get her mind off of Erika. I may be a coward in some, maybe even most respects, but I didn’t want to see this girl get beat over something so ridiculous. Not after seeing how the strong Yua herself had trembled at just the thought of me hurting her when we first met.

Meeting my eyes with her own steely-blue ones, Miss Bellenfort let out another long sigh and finished off her drink before waving off Erika.

“Whatever. Leave us.”

“Yes, Mistress!”

With one last bow, Erika hurried out of the room to save herself another scolding. Miss Bellenfort then poured herself another glass of rum, but stared into it instead of bringing it to her lips.

“Sorry for my slave’s stupidity.”

“It’s fine. Really.”

Miss Bellenfort sat up on the sofa, downed another half glass of rum and sighed when the crystal left her lips. The generous glug calmed her a bit.

“Ever since I settled down in this city, every man I’ve met from noble to merchant to commoner has tried for my hand. Frankly, I’m sick of it.”

Has she really turned down that many men? I mean, any fan of big-breasted women would no doubt be unable to get her out of their head the moment they become aware of her existence. But to be proposed to so many times that she and her maids to outright expect it every time a man walked through the doors?

That’s insane enough for me to say I would have jumped to conclusions too, were I in her place. But the concept of any one person having so many potential suiters was too baffling to say I could easily imagine such a scenario.

“Miss Bellenfort, if I may ask out of curiosity, why did you reject all those men? Has nobody met your standards?”

“Pfft. Standards? As long as they like ass… Well, I suppose that’s not it.”

Even after saying something so dirty, she took another casual swig of rum as if what she’d said was completely safe for the most eloquent of conversations.

“I’ve been all over the world,” she continued. “My crew and I. I’ve fought monsters and demons that would make you and most in this city wet yourselves just to look at them. And I’ve explored and mapped every continent known to man and… There’s just nothing left.”

“Nothing left?”

“Yes,” she said somberly. “My only joys in life is map making and booze. And with every inch of this world already mapped out by yours truly, this is all I have left.”

She held up her glass in a half-toast to herself and threw back the last of its contents.

“If you are so unsatisfied, why don’t you just head out in search of some new lands to explore?”

“Aren’t you listening? I told you. I’ve mapped every known continent in its entirety… Hell, if you actually manage to find me somewhere knew to explore, I’ll let you fuck my ass.”

Despite this incredibly provocative statement, she casually started pouring another glass of rum for herself. I could almost feel Yua tense up behind me, as if the sound of liquid repeatedly refilling the glass cup pained her.

“Th-That won’t be necessary,” I said, feeling my difficulty speaking rear up again. “Maybe you should put the rum down.”

“Oh please,” she said, taking a swig. “A little bit of rum isn’t going to bother me. Besides, I’m serious. Bring me information on some new lands to discover and you can fuck my ass all you want. Hell, I’ll even marry you. No, better yet, I’ll become your slave and we can explore it together.”

Once more, the casualty in her provocative statements were brought up by the alcohol and then washed down with more.

“At this point, as long as I get to have some fun exploring again, I don’t care.”

While her words were certainly alluring, and she was more than beautiful enough to pique my interests, that’s just not what I was here for.

“As… Tempting as that offer is, Miss Bellenfort, I’m only here for a map to the Dumort Forest near Guerraway.”

“Yea? Whyzzat? Izzit because I’m too old?”

The hell? I thought she was against the idea of marriage in the first place. Besides, her info box says she’s only twenty-five years old. She’s hardly considered old, even in a time period like this where life expectancies were much lower.

Wait, she’s supposedly already travelled and mapped the entire world and she’s only twenty-five? How is that even possible? Even with or without teleportation magic to ferry herself from continent to continent, that just sounded absurd.

And just how much did she drink before meeting today if she’s already slurring her words?

“N-No. You’re plenty young and more than beautiful. It’s just…”

“So, then you are here after mine asshole?”

What? Why your asshole specifically?!

Feeling it foolish to argue with a drunk, I took out the quest slip I got from the guild and slapped it on the table.

“T-This is why I’m here. I just want a map to Guerraway!”

Feebly, and with a generous wobble of her massive bust, Miss Bellenfort leaned over the table and snatched up the paper and read it. She let out an admittedly cute hiccup as her eyes ran down the page. When she finished, she slid the paper back over the table to me and poured another drink, unintentionally knocking aside the decanter with her tits when she picked up her glass.

“Collecting herbs in Dumort Forest, ay? Ifzats all, why didn’t you say so?”

“I did…”

“Whatever. If a maps to Guerraway what’s you’re after, then my asshole is safe.”

Again… Why your asshole specifically?

Rum in hand, Miss Bellenfort staggered to her feet and shambled over to one of the many bookshelves lining the room. She set her glass on an expensive-looking box that was most definitely not a coaster and shuffled through a bunch of papers there before suddenly lifting her head with a furrowed brow. She stared at the ceiling for several seconds before moving over to the bookshelves.

After a few minutes of her attempting to read the contents of the dozens of atlases she had and possibly even made herself, she found one and brought it back over and set it on the table.

She pointed towards a small drawing of an octagonal wall encircling the word “Guerraway” to the north of an even larger box labeled “The Great City of Amoranth.” Along with this was an exquisitely detailed map of the surrounding area. From the minute details of the shape of the mountains and coastline Guerraway sat on, to the excess of trees making up the Dumort Forest, which was extended to and pressed up against the city’s western wall.

Miss Bellenfort plopped back down onto the couch with a satisfied smile, her legs spread eagle as if she needed to kick back and relax after an incredibly long walk. It was then that I noticed that, resting above the tight, detailed creases of her pants, existed two thin strips of cloth leading up from her groin up to and around her backside.

Apparently, she was wearing a thong and didn’t mind showing it off any more than she did her massive bustline.

“Howzzat?” she said with a cocky grin.

“T-This is great,” I said. “Exactly what we need. How much for it?”

“Eh… I can’t lets you have my atlas. So, I’ll haveta copy it down fer ya. I’ll only charge you for the paper, though. I like drawing… *hic*… maps.”

She let out another hiccup and I once more realized the limitations of this pre-modern world. She really was going to have to do this by hand. Guess my luck stat wasn’t enough for her to have copies already made.

Then there was another issue that caught my curiosity.

“You’re only charging for the paper? How do you own such a big house if you sell your services so cheaply?”

My Merchant class was tingling again. Both because it sounded like a foolish business practice and because I wanted to know how she managed to live in the lap of luxury when practically giving her services as a map maker away for free.

“Pfft… Idiot. I used to work fer the King’s army. Who do you think funded my espediction around the world? He let me borrow horses and boats and things. He even made me a lower noble, thanks to all my…*hic*… hard work.”

An insult and another swig later, and from my glass since she left hers on the shelf, I had my answer.

To put it simply, the king paid her directly to explore and map out everything she found. Now she’s rich and the king knows more about the world than most if not all the other people currently living on it. Coming from a world where information warfare was the main source of conflict, it sounded like she put the king at a major advantage over his enemies. That alone justified this mansion.

“Alright. I see your point. Sorry for doubting you. But how long will it take to copy the map? We’re in a bit of a hurry.”

I’d already memorized the map’s contents, of course, but for the little test I wanted to try out, I was sure I needed to own the map myself.

“Eh, copy it? I dunno. Gimme like five minutes. Wait, no. Six minutes. I’m a little tispy.”

A little tipsy? Only a little?

“You can copy the whole map in only six minutes?”

“Pfft. Six minutes…? Please, I can do it in five.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“… Can you make it, please? I will pay double the cost of the paper.”

“Eh… If I must.”

Miss Bellenfort clapped her palms down on her knees to force herself back up. She sauntered back over to her desk, stumbling only a couple times, where she picked up the pen and was about to put it to the paper when she suddenly looked up. I thought she might have realized she’d forgotten to take the atlas with her, but then she looked at me.

“Whaddar ya doin? Get over here and tellnme what you want.”

Sighing heavily, I pushed myself off the couch, took up the atlas and brought it over to her. Yua gave me a concerned look, but I didn’t need to know why. The strong stench of alcohol on Miss Bellenfort’s breath the second I was close enough to hand her the book made even my nostrils burn.

Geez, did this woman drink a whole other bottle before we even got here? No wonder why Silla and Mary were so worried about how she was going to react to them breaking one.

“Eh? I dun need that thing,” Miss Bellenfort said, staring at the atlas as though she’d never seen it before. “Just tell me whatdyu want.”

I drew a deep breath to calm myself and pointed back to the page she just showed me and she looked at it, again, as if she had never seen the thing before. With a shrug, she then unraveled a blank piece of parchment and pinned it down on the desk using a large magnifying glass to hold the top and her breasts to hold the bottom.

Gotta make use of your assets, I suppose.

“Okay. Okay. Map to Guerraway. Don’t forget to…*hic*… forgetta add the Dumort Forest. That’s a good place. Heh.”

Before I could protest if she was even capable of doing the task I was asking her to do, she dipped the tip of her feathered quill into a bottle of black ink and then put it to the paper. She held it there for a second or two, letting the excess ink stain the page and I all but expected the map I was paying for to come out looking like a child’s drawing. But then her quill began to move.

Her hand moved so fast across the paper that nobody could have doubted me if I said it caught fire. Her slender hands flew across the paper, leaving little ink trails behind with all the exactitude and precision of a laser printer as she sketched out little trees, roads, mountains and hill formations, only to then label them all before moving onto the next point of interest.

What was more impressive was that, judging from the comparison between her drawing and the picture in the atlas, there were no noticeable differences between the two. As she basically painted a mural of the world, she perfectly scaled the map to fit on the parchment so that it could include all of the lands connecting Amoranth to Guerraway. She even went as far as to add in further details that wasn’t in the atlas, as if the world had changed since the original atlas was made.

And she wasn’t even looking at said atlas as a reference. It was all from memory. And she was using ink from a pot.

Despite my awe at her skill, the next thing, or things, that caught my attention were her breasts. Due to the speed at which her hand moved, her melons shook so wildly that the captain’s coat she wore to hide them started to slip down. Before I knew it, two pink buds started to poke their heads out from beneath the fabric to bounce along with the rest of her bosom.

Before I could fully draw my attention away from her nipples, she threw her quill down onto the desk, splattering the ink still left in it. And she was done.

“There you go. Soons as the ink dries, itzall yours. That’ll be… 5 silvers, right? Gimme 5 silvers.”

I lifted up the paper, weary of the wet ink and used Appraisal. Unsurprisingly after witnessing her skill, it showed the map was not actually worth way more than 5 silvers, but that it was valued at 8 gold coins.

Is this woman just really generous or really stupid? No, probably just really drunk.

Not wanting to look this gift horse in the mouth, I took 5 silvers out of my pocket and the moment she saw them, she snatched them right out of my palm without a second thought. She then looked at me with a smug smile, as if she thought I was a fool she’d just ripped off, even though her nipples were still poking out of her coat.

She then buried those lucky coins between the mountains on her chest, into some sort of pocket dimension that only women had access to and that would have made my item box fly into a jealous rage had she not done this without first noticing her predicament.

She gave me a pat on the shoulder and sauntered back to the couch, where she fell face first into the cushions.

“… Thanks for your help, Miss Bellenfort.”

“…”

I sighed when I heard her snoring.

“Yua… Could you go get Erika please? I don’t think it would be safe to leave her like this.”

“Yes, Master.”

Yua left to search the mansion for the maid. Once she was gone, I sighed and sat back down across from the drunk.

[New Class Acquired: Cartographer]

Of course. Why not?

[New Menu Option Has Been Added]

Wait, what?

Quickly opening my menu, I saw that there was a new tab called “Map.” I focused on it and before my eyes spread an exact copy of the continental formations pictured on the globe in the garden. Only, they were mostly greyed out.

I focused on and zoomed in on the one of only a couple bits of the map that had any color to it. What I found was a diamond-shaped box labeled “The Great City of Amoranth” connected to a large cropping of tree labeled “Amoranth Forest.” This then drew a zig-zagging line all the way to another bulge of color called “Home.” It took only a second to realize that the odd shape of our cabin was pictured there, right where I remembered it.

“So, I had to buy a map to unlock this feature? Or was it because I watched her draw it?”

Either way, zooming in closer on the map, I saw the details of Amoranth and the locations of all the shops and other buildings I had been to or passed by. Seems my terrible sense of direction has been fixed.

This was perfect. I wasn’t expecting a menu option to appear, but what could be better? Most RPG games let you do something called Fast Travel, which would allow the player to instantly travel to any location they had already been to, in order to prevent the player from getting bored walking back and forth across giant in-game maps. This world may only partially work on game logic, but I’d be able to travel even further than I could with Dimensional Step. If it worked.

Grinning to myself, I angled the map so that its window looked to be resting on my lap and zoomed in on the Home icon and focused on it, willing a smaller window to pop up and ask if I wanted to travel there.

It lit up to indicate it had been selected, but nothing else happened. So, I focused on it again and held my focus there for a few seconds longer and got the same result.

What’s the point of being able to select the icon if I can’t travel to it? I tried again and failed again. I turned to the Help menu to see if any additional information about it appeared, but I failed there too.

“Why can’t I get it to pop up?”

Just then, Yua and the maid Erika came through the door and were staring at me with a pair of concerned looks stretched across their faces. Following their gazes to my crotch, where my menu was, and then to Miss Bellenfort, who had at some point flipped onto her back. When I noticed that her nipples were still in plain sight, I suddenly remembered that only I can see my menu.

“Uh… It’s not what you think.”

“Sir Alex…”

“No, no. Master is telling the truth. He can definitely get it up!”

“Yua!”

“Eep!”

The people in this mansion are going to kill me.

Part of me wanted to thank Yua for her loyalty as she clenched her fists and fought, needlessly, for the sake of my manhood, but Erika very clearly forced a smile to hide the flush in her cheeks.

If Miss Bellenfort, drunk or not, was so gun-ho about having Erika suck me off, then I had to question whether or not she made this poor girl do that sort of thing for the other men that visited. But judging by the deep crimson tint to her cheeks, I doubted she had much, if any, experience.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and pointed to Miss Bellenfort.

“I was talking about something else… As you can see, Miss Bellenfort has passed out. I can help you carry her back to her bedroom, if you’d like.”

Erika looked to her mistress and smiled weakly. I got the not-so-strange impression that she was happy the woman was unconscious.

“Thank you, Sir Alex. That would be very helpful.”

While Erika was a beast-kin, her level was still only 1. And, beast-folk or not, I doubted she was all that strong. So, after she fixed Miss Bellenfort’s coat to finally conceal the woman’s nipples, I picked up this classic drunken sailor and Erika guided us upstairs. Despite the entirety of her body fat going straight to her chest, she was almost as light as Yua. But I chalked that up to the points I put into my Strength stat after spending that first night together with Yua leveling up my Sex Master class.

Still had no idea why leveling that class allotted me stat points, but I wasn’t about to complain about the thing making me stronger and my ability to support Yua growing from us having fun.

After a short walk upstairs, we brought the woman into a large bedroom I was surprised to find was just as girly as anyone could expect from a woman. Even one as brash as this one. All of the furniture in the room was either pale white or pink and covered with various feminine objects such as hair brushes, stuff that looked like beauty cream and even some makeup, likely only for when she needed to schmooze it up with the other nobles, since she wasn’t wearing any now.

I set the drunk down on to her fluffy four-post bed and Erika quickly covered her with a blanket. Seeing her properly covered and sleeping with a stupid grin on her face and a matching trail of drool running down her chin, I had to really admit that she was absurdly beautiful.

Not that that fact was up for debate.

“Thank you again, Sir Alex.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll go grab my map and get out of your hair.”

Erika bowed and turned her attention back to her mistress.

Just as I put my hand on the doorknob, I heard the sound of a certain drunk someone sitting up in bed. Her face was flushed with the proof that her brief slumber had not sobered her up. Or so I assumed, as I was sure she hadn’t noticed that her left nipple had popped out again when her blanket fell from her body.

“Hey, wait… If you’re going toozat Dumort Forest, you should vitis the apothecary and buy some Cure Poison… potions. Lots of the animuls there are poisonous….. I’ve been there before…”

After her warning, Miss Bellenfort fell back into her pillow. I thanked her again, but when I opened the door to leave…

“Ohya… Don’t forget, Mr. Adventurer. Ifyu bring me news of some new lands to discover, you get to fuck my ass and all of my slaves will become yoursss...”

I slammed the door shut on the drunken sailor and Yua and I hurried back to the drawing room to grab our map.

This was the woman everyone thought would kill me the second she got even the tiniest bit angry? Beautiful or not, she’s just a drunk.

As I stormed out of the building before my mind could become any more corrupted by her lascivious offer than it already was, Yua had to break into a small jog to keep up.

After we left the mansion and started back down the path to the street, Yua stopped me to ask a heart-stopping question.

“Master, what does fuck my ass mean?”

“…Yua.”

“Yes?”

For some reason, seeing the face of this beautiful girl ask such a lewd question while her tail swished about with a genuine curiosity, made my face grow hot. And not for the reason I was expecting.

“Why were you about to follow that woman’s order?”

“Eh? But you asked me to lick your penis this morning, right? I thought it’d be fine.”

Fine to do it in front of them?

“Was… Was that wrong?”

I pressed my palms to my face. Yua’d been mostly calm throughout the time we’d been in the mansion, but my question caused her to shake. Remembering her trembling that first night together, I let out a long breath to calm myself before another outburst could happen.

“It’s fine. Sorry I got mad. I just don’t like others ordering you around. You’re my girl, not theirs. I don’t want to treat you like a slave, and her ordering you around like that …”

… is a reminder that she was and always will be a slave no matter what I thought or did for her.

“Y-Your girl, Master?”

All at once, her shaking stopped. But before I could take in her smile, I realized again that she was still calling me Master. And, as if on cue, Erika burst through the mansion doors to show Yua had been listening for her.

“Excuse me, Sir Alex. A moment, please.”

Holding up her skirt so she didn’t trip, Erika ran down the steps of Bellenfort manor. She stopped in front of me and bowed much lower than before. Shaking, like she was expecting to get hit for speaking out of turn.

“I’m terribly sorry for my mistake.”

“You mean about the marriage proposal thing? It’s fine. Given the circumstances, I guess I could understand why you thought that way.”

“It’s not just that. Thanks to you, my mistress decided not to punish me. So, I thank you for asking for mercy on my behalf.”

She bowed again.

“Like I said, it’s fine. Would she really have punished you that badly for such a small slip up?”

She raised her head and bit her lip before nodding.

“My mistress is fair, but she insists on equal punishments for her slaves. The punishment for causing pain to someone is to have pain caused to you. Likewise, the punishment for embarrassing her like that would be to embarrass ourselves.”

“Embarrass yourself? What would she have made you do?”

“M-Master…”

Yua tugged on my sleeve lightly, the tone of her voice almost telling me that I was probing too much.

“She… She would have told me go out into the street and flash my b-breasts at the first man I saw.”

“What? Making a woman do that… It’s so cruel!”

Erika looked like she wanted to agree, but shook her head.

“I disagree. Mistress Bellenfort’s punishments are not usually so severe. She just really hates to be embarrassed like she was… Plus, she only says those things when she’s tipsy. She’s never actually followed through on those kinds of threats, since she usually passes out soon after making them.”

“I see. And how often is she like that?”

Erika bit her lip again and fidgeted. Clasping her hands together in front of her skirt, she bowed yet again to avoid the question.

“… That is why I wanted to thank you, Sir Alex.”

“You’re welcome. Anything’s better than you getting punished over something so stupid. Still, that’s a bit much for just embarrassing her. And for a woman that walks around her guests nearly half naked too. How is that alone not embarrassing enough?”

“Well, my mistress has never actually handed down such a punishment,” Erika said, blushing slightly now for some reason. “She usually just threatens us with it. It’s all just mean words.”

“Still, she even tried to make you suck my…”

“…W-While I don’t have any experience with such a thing, I cannot disobey her. As a slave master yourself, I’m sure you understand this. Some of the other maids though… Sometimes the men that come to court my mistress turn out to be a little on the shy side, so she jokes about having us s-suck their c-cocks. To give them a backbone, as she calls it. Again, she has never actually done that and meant it. She normally just laughs it off once the man starts stuttering… until today.”

“It’s probably just because she was drunk, then. Couldn’t separate her joking thoughts from what she actually meant.”

“No, Sir Alex. I’ve seen her when she’s drunk. That was only her being tipsy. I think she really meant for me to suck your…”

“Alright. I got it. You don’t need to say it again.”

Cute as she was, her blushing only made me feel for her. Even if she was right and Miss Bellenfort doesn’t force them in the ways she herself demanded, it was still too much. The emotionless façade she’d greeted us with was all but erased from her being.

“Oh, I shouldn’t be speaking about my mistress this way.”

After taking a moment to compose herself, Erika looked to Yua and gave her a smile that looked one part gracious and one part wishful.

“You have a good master. I pray to the gods that you treat him well.”

“I fully intend to.”

Yua smiled happily at me and her tail brushed up against my legs. Erika too smiled and, though her dress hid her tail, I could see the backside of her skirt thumping about.

“Thank you for your hospitality, but we need to get going.”

“Good day to you both.”

Yua and I gave the maid a wave goodbye and left before the drunk inside could wake up again. Also, I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, since it didn’t look like Silla and Mary made it back yet. If she was drunk enough to make Erika service me to just get me to talk, then I didn’t want to see what she’d do after she found out I ruined her chances of keeping her buzz going once she woke up.