36 – A moment of reflection

I woke up early the next morning, alone in my bed.

Thankfully, Lia and Sylvia had bonded with Mein late into the night, chatting about various things...

At least, I presumed that was what they were doing.

It was also possible that Lia and Sylvia were threatening Mein with explicit visions of what would happen to her if she tried betraying me now or harming me.

Not that it was possible since her brain had practically been rewired... or rather UNwired.

Although...

I swiped my hand and checked the party menu again. Then I stared at Mein's icon and the [Slave] title floating over her name. After that, I looked at Sylvia and Lia's names, both missing that title.

I'd forgotten exactly when, but I'd changed the settings to free them and converted it into a sort of 'Vassal' system instead. Like proper party members- Or I suppose like NPC familiars?

There was still a bond between us, but it was purely beneficial at this point.

Well, objectively it could be considered parasitic since they grew faster due to my system, but I set it up that way, so it wasn't a problem.

"Hm... I would be a hypocrite for running an emancipation declaration if I kept slaves, right?" I rubbed my chin, staring at Mein's [Slave] title.

I had a clear objective at this point.

Well, I had an overarching objective too. And that one was fucking up whatever god, deity, entity, or organization that created or was influencing this crapsack world.

I didn't have clear steps on how to do that just yet though, so I decided to focus on a simpler action step.

Although I didn't know 'too' much about how this world was currently set up, I DID know that it appeared to rely on slavery a lot.

And what was I?

American, obviously.

And since I was American, it was my privilege- No, my DUTY to spread freedom.

...Pft, who was I kidding?

I just wanted to flip the board over since it pissed me off.

The fact that children could be put in situations like Sylvia and Lia were in. The fact that even royalty wasn't free from that fate judging from Mirellia's implications about what the king of Four Bray wanted with Melty. The fact that this entire godforsaken world thought it was NORMAL that a child could grow up in a week and was fine to pursue like an adult...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness..."

I couldn't help but recite the quote that had been bandied about all throughout school in my American History classes.

Now, I wasn't a DIEHARD patriot. And America definitely had its issues.

In fact, I was involved in dodging quite a few of those issues before I was pulled here...

But that line at least was undeniably true.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were things that should never be taken away from someone.

And this entire world seemed to be thriving on the exact opposites.

Life was traded like currency.

Liberty could be taken at any moment from a haughty noble.

And the pursuit of happiness? Please.

So...

I sighed and then sat up on the edge of my bed. After that, I opened up <Parallel System>. "I might as well not be a hypocrite..."

Using <Parallel System>, I adjusted Mein's slave crest and converted it into the same protective blessing I had on Sylvia and Lia.

"...Done. Now nobody can call me a hypocrite when I roar about revolution and emancipation."

As it was now, objectively, Sylvia, Lia, and Mein could walk away from me any time they wanted.

Some would call me foolish. Especially considering Mein's history.

But I knew something that those people didn't. Something that people who experienced it would agree with.

"Unconditional trust is heavier than any chain could be."

I dared to be cut. I dared to be betrayed. I dared people to try.

I could survive it. I would survive it.

And if I was betrayed, if I was cut by this unconditional trust...

Well.

It wasn't my fault then what happened next.

After all, unconditional trust didn't mean freedom from consequences if you broke that trust. And I would have clear rationale to crash out accordingly. Mmhm.

But either way...

I stood up from my bed and stretched. "Alright. Today's agenda... talk with the Queen, right? We have to sort that out. After that... getting to know Sylvia and Lia properly. Mein too, I guess. Also definitely needed to chat with that Slave Trader guy... and convince him for more profitable business ventures. Like selling out his clients to me... Hm..."

I opened up <Parallel System> again. Then I loaded <Solaris> on top of it.

...It was a bit complicated to explain how it worked, but considering <Parallel System> was clearly running over my soul, it was similar to the low-level machine code. Meanwhile, <Solaris> was like an external hard-drive I plugged into the PC itself that booted over <Parallel System>.

Which meant it was 100% encrypted since it was a functional sandbox.

And with this sandbox...

I opened up a word processor and started making notes.

===

[TO-DO]

1. Talk with Queen about slaves, warring with other countries, etc.

2. Get to know Sylvia and Lia

3. Get to know Mein

4. Meet with Slave Trader and convince him to become intelligence network(?)

5. Add more after first four cleared

===

...It was a bit weird typing in the air, but it worked out.

I'd need to remember to use it more often to keep notes... but that was a later thing.

For now...

Breakfast.

Before I had to deal with the moral dilemma that was Sylvia and Lia who both were ABSOLUTELY crushing hard on me due to teenaged hormones and gratitude...

===

"Oh!" Rishia smiled at me as I walked into the main area of the inn. "Good morning, Sir Naofumi!"

I nodded at her and said, "Just Naofumi's fine, Rishia."

Rishia shook her head and said, "I can't do that!" She smiled and said, "Since you won't let me call you Yuusha-sama, I have to at least call you Sir Naofumi!"

I sat down at a dining table and said, "Is that a common title or something? Yuusha-sama... I would have thought you would just call people by 'Hero' or something. Or maybe 'Brave.'"

I had been under the assumption that everything was being translated, but clearly some linguistic hangovers existed. Probably since past summoned heroes were all strictly Japanese.

Rishia grabbed a fresh loaf of bread from a basket nearby and placed it on a plate for me, along with a knife and some butter. Then she said, "Well, there are the Seven Star Heroes too. But only the Legendary Heroes are Yuusha-sama, you know?"

I paused in the middle of reaching for a loaf of bread. "Seven Star Heroes?"

"Mmhm!" Rishia nodded. "They're legendary too! The King..." She trailed off. "...Well. King Aultcray is the Seven Star Staff Hero." She shifted in place and said, "My parents said as long as he was around Melromarc would never fall. But..." She sighed.

"Yeah." I broke the loaf of bread in half and said, "About that..."

Rishia let out a helpless laugh. "I suppose everyone changes with time, right?"

"Not everyone. But generally, yes." I glanced around and said, "Where's the innkeeper?"

"Oh!" Rishia smiled and said, "He went on a daytrip back to Riyute village. Since you and your companions are staying here as our only guests, Sir Naofumi, he entrusted things to me." She puffed out her chest and smiled. "Don't worry! I'll make sure you and your lovers are perfectly cared for!"

"First of all, they aren't my lovers. And second of all... are you sure you're okay with running things?"

"E-Eh? They aren't your- I-I mean, yes!" Rishia focused and then flexed her arm. "I might not look like much, but I worked super hard to prepare for the day that Yuusha- I mean, that Sir Naofumi returned! Whether it's cooking, drawing up baths, cleaning, or anything like that, Rishia Ivyred is ready and willing!"

I chuckled and took a bite of my bread. "That's cute... You know, you'd make a great maid."

"A m-m-maid?! Me?!" Rishia blushed.

"Mmhm." I nodded and said, "You seem like you'd suit the attire... Do maid cafes exist here? It might be worth looking into if you're low on money."

Rishia paused. "Maid... cafe?" She tilted her head. "Eh?"

"Yeah. A maid cafe." I waved my loaf of bread around and said, "You know. Welcome customers in as Masters. Serve them food. Ask them how their day went, let them rant a bit... basically just let the customer pretend to be important while they're present. Of course, rowdy and perverted customers are a no-go, so you just kick those guys right out."

Rishia blinked. Then she hid her mouth and giggled. "Sir Naofumi has quite a few strange ideas..."

"I think you'd make a killing with it, personally. But eh." I spread some butter on my bread. "Maybe I'll do one myself when I retire from all this craziness."

Rishia smiled. "Already thinking about afterwards, Sir Naofumi? Are you that confident?"

"Well, it's good to have a goal to work towards."

My main objective...

Well, returning to Earth would be nice. My Earth, that is.

But at the same time...

'This is a good opportunity, isn't it?'

If I could secure a foothold here on this world and THEN return to Earth... whether through a dimensional pathway or through physically traversing the stars, life would be great.

And I always did want to try to ACTUALLY conquer Earth. Especially with that stupid World War 3 going on. Might as well end the war myself. I mean, I was already planning to do it before I got here, so-

'Later.'

Can't put the cart before the horse. I'd need to make sure I HAD a foothold here first.

And that required dealing with the fact that this country was going to be invaded by four world powers any day now.

AND that it was festering with slavery and tons of other crimes against humanity...

Mm.

Well, I'd need to do some thinking on that.

Immediate fires first though.

Like this shithole of a country.

No point in preventing it from being invaded if the people were already one bad day from a revolution, after all.

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