Chapter 21 Convergence of Interests
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
In the end, I felt so bad for her – standing there with her head hanging – that I set up a room for her right away. I made it look brand new, complete with a plush bed and a soft carpet.
Since it was just a small, one-story old house, the three rooms were now completely full. I wondered if I should just rent a larger place, but I gave her the room anyway. Besides, since the three of us always sleep together, we only really use one room. The new room was still empty, but it had to be better than staying in a place where people who’d just met were… getting intimate right in front of her.
While I was at it, I gave her some outdoor clothes, loungewear, and two changes of underwear. Her face turned bright red; apparently, gifting clothes is a big deal here.
While telling Shirley – who was still frozen and blushing – that she was free to do as she pleased, we spent the rest of the day loving each other as we always do.
The next day, I opened the stall as planned. Right on cue, the kid showed up.
”Oh, you’re here. I’m counting on you again today, Kiddo.”
”I told you, I’m not a kid! I’m a girl! No, I’m a grown woman!!”
”Hey, was that last part an argument with yourself?” I asked, teasing her.
Despite the banter, I asked the three of them to handle the shop for the day.
”What do you plan on doing, Ibuki-sama?” Charlotte asked, tilting her head.
”I’m going to level Shirley up. She said she’s a swordsman, and I think we need her to be able to protect you two when I’m not around.”
By my reckoning, the Kingdom of Dole¹ has likely already begun its investigation. Given their means of travel, it would still take time for them to reach a town at the midpoint of the neighboring country, but that’s exactly why preparing now is vital. That was why I’d chosen a Combat Class, even though the cost was steep. There were other candidates, but I’d picked Shirley based on her name and face.
”Um, our levels have gone up a crazy amount too, you know? We can handle ourselves,” Lisha said.
”No, you can never have too much firepower. I want to be perfectly prepared – even if I usually fail at that,” I replied.
I’d been feeling a bit sloppy with my planning lately. But it couldn’t be helped; I was currently in the heat of a very different kind of passion.
”I don’t think that’s true at all…” Lisha added, offering a word of concern.
I thanked her and headed out of town with Shirley. As we walked along the road, she looked at me anxiously.
”Um, regarding that… surely I won’t be fighting barehanded?”
”Oh! Right. You’d be nervous without a weapon. Here, take this.”
I handed her the sword I’d been using.
”I’ll make a custom one for you later. Use this for now.”
”Y-Yes! Thank you very much!”
As she took the sword and tucked it into her belt, her anxious expression vanished, replaced by a sharp, focused look. She clearly felt more at home with a blade. I made a mental note to craft her something high-quality later.
We broke into a light jog until we were clear of the town, then boarded the aircraft to head to the hunting grounds. Shirley didn’t say a word the whole time. Her face was twitching, and she sat there, stiff as a board. It turned out she might be even worse with heights than Lisha.
I decided to let her get used to it on her own and flew toward the area surrounding Lisha’s old village. I had no intention of “helping” the village, but I knew the area was teeming with monsters because the locals had been lazy about culling them. It was the perfect spot for efficient grinding.
We arrived at the wasteland, the most difficult hunting ground in the region. It was a monochromatic expanse of jagged stone with barely any vegetation. According to Lisha, the monsters here were inorganic types that were notoriously hard to kill – roughly equivalent to high-tier lizards. Because they were slow to reproduce, had no confirmed high-tier variants, and dropped worthless materials, they were usually left completely alone.
However, when we actually arrived, my Mana Sensing² told a different story. The place was crawling with them. This was going to be a gold mine for experience.
”Alright. Today, we’re going to hunt monsters using traps!”
”Traps… sir?” Shirley asked, tilting her head.
”That’s right. Traps. Don’t worry, I don’t intend to make you actually fight them.”
”Then… is this not for leveling up?”
”You’ll understand once we start. Just follow my lead!”
”Y-Yes!!”
As I began tapping on the ground and constructing facilities beneath the surface, Shirley watched with a look of pure shock.
”Master… what exactly are you…?” she muttered.
”I’ll tell you, as long as you can keep a secret.”
”Of course. I would never be so foolish as to leak my master’s secrets, but…” Shirley looked at me with an incredibly serious expression. “Are you sure I am permitted to know?”
”It’s fine. You’re going to serve me for a long time, right?”
”!? Yes! If you have a use for me, I will gladly serve you!”
She snapped to attention, hand over her heart. It seemed her upbringing in a warrior family had instilled a very rigid sense of hierarchy. I took the opportunity to explain the situation I was facing.
”So, there’s a chance I’ll be targeted. I’m confident I can win on my own, but I need someone reliable for close-quarters support.”
Based on my tests here, I was confident in this plan. If my attacks worked and the enemies couldn’t fly, I just had to drop them into a fifty-meter pit before they got close and bury them.
Of course, that didn’t make us perfectly safe – snipers or surprise attacks in town were still a threat. Total safety was impossible for now. The best I could do was use Sensing to keep an eye out for anyone with high mana. Since I was likely the only real target, the best move was to stay out of the spotlight and give the girls the means to defend themselves. In that scenario, the enemy would likely try to take hostages rather than kill them outright. If I could ensure they could win a direct confrontation, we’d be in good shape.
Shirley alone wasn’t enough, and I still didn’t know how fast combat abilities would scale, but this was a good start. I’d brought her here to raise her level quickly and see what she was truly capable of.
I wasn’t sure if pitfall traps would work on inorganic monsters, but if they did, the experience would be massive.
When I finished explaining my situation, I noticed Shirley was clenching her teeth, her eyes practically bloodshot.
”W-What’s wrong?”
”No… my apologies. I was simply overcome by the sheer villainy of Dole. So, it is safe to assume the Kingdom of Dole is your enemy, Master?”
”Yeah. Is that a problem for you?”
”No,” she said, her face turning predatory. “It is exactly what I hoped for.”
”O-Oh. Well, just don’t do anything reckless, okay?”
”Yes. I will not act on my own without my master’s orders.”
I was still a bit worried by that look in her eye, so I probed a bit further. “Do you have a grudge against Dole too, Shirley?”
”Yes… a nobility of Dole pinned a crime on my father, who met an honorable death on the battlefield. Because of that, we lost our house, and I fell into the status of a Slave.”
She explained that it had been a “Devil’s Proof” situation – a crime her father would never have committed, backed by falsified evidence that was impossible to disprove.
”I see. That sounds like something they’d do. I guess our interests are aligned, then. I plan to crush them once I’ve prepared enough to win safely.”
”In that case, please! Allow me to accompany you!” she cried out, her voice filled with urgency.
”Sure. But you have to prove to me that we can win safely first. I hate seeing my allies get hurt. If there’s a risk of that, I’d rather just endure their nonsense.”
Even with a “safe” plan, things could go wrong, but I wasn’t going to make a move unless I was certain of victory.
”If I were alone, I could just act on emotion. But I have two people who are precious to me now. No, I guess with you in the family, that makes three…”
Shirley seemed to struggle with that. Then, she smiled with a look of resignation.
”…I understand. If that is your wish, Master.”
She seemed to think I was telling her to give up on her revenge because it was too dangerous. I had to correct her.
”No, you got it wrong. We’re going to win safely. We’re going to prepare until victory is guaranteed. I’m saying that if you don’t have the drive to keep refining yourself until we reach that point, then you should give up. But I am planning on doing it, which is why I brought you here.”
”――――!?”
Shirley froze, her eyes widening. Then, her gaze sharpened with the intensity of a seasoned veteran.
”May I take those words as the absolute truth!?” Shirley said.
”Yeah. I can’t forgive them either. Being unable to go back home means they forced me to throw away my entire life. And then they tried to assassinate me just to manipulate the Hero? No way.”
Shirley lowered her eyes and nodded slowly.
”Yes… I cannot forgive them either. I understand the pain of having everything stolen from you deeply… If that is the case, I swear to become the blade you need, Master.”
She looked incredibly cool standing there with such resolve, but it felt a little off to me.
”Actually, you’re not a blade. You’re an attractive girl. So, I’d rather you serve me as a powerful knight. I know ‘blade’ is a metaphor, but words have power. I want to treat you like a woman, not an object.”
I preferred a relationship built on affection rather than just rigid service, so I tried to phrase it that way.
”Eh… no… wait! What? You think… I’m attractive?”
”Yeah. Very.”
Maybe I was being a bit too aggressive, but she’d said she didn’t dislike it. I lightly squeezed her hand as I said it. She turned bright red and went completely silent.
Even when I called her name or poked her cheek, she didn’t budge. I gave up for the moment and finished the trap while she stood there, dazed.
I used a Cocoon³ to lure the enemies. When I opened the pitfall, a large, black sphere with a single hole in it fell inside – exactly like the descriptions I’d read. It looked like a simple ball, but my Sensing confirmed it had significant mana.
The sphere hit the spikes at the bottom with a series of metallic clangs, but it didn’t die. It was tougher than it looked. I quickly dropped an iron block to crush it, but a few of them survived by wedging themselves into the gaps between the stakes.
The trapped spheres began glowing, firing beams of light from their holes. Even though the steel stakes blocked most of them, the power was impressive. I repeatedly dropped and retracted the iron blocks – Thoom! Thoom! – until the spheres finally shattered and were pulled into my Storage⁴.
Once the first batch was cleared, I swapped out the spikes for a flat floor of iron blocks. This way, I could just drop another block on top of them for a clean, unobstructed press. It made the process much faster.
I waited for more monsters to gather, drawn by the mana of the Cocoon. As long as this worked, we were golden. I checked on Shirley, who was hugging herself. Her body was flushed; the rapid level-ups were clearly having a physical effect.
”Haa, haa… Master, is it really alright for me to be here? I feel like a parasite…”
”What are you talking about? Aren’t you going to use that power for my sake?”
”I am, but… obtaining power so easily…”
”It doesn’t matter how hard you worked to get it. What matters is how you use it. I want everyone to be safe, including you. It’s not flashy, but this is how I protect people.”
Shirley reacted strongly to that. She seemed to be a very sensitive, earnest person despite her stoic exterior.
”I understand. This power… I will use it only for your sake, Master.”
”No, use it for us. And for yourself, too.”
She looked up at me, appearing conflicted. “Then, how can I ever repay you?”
”Hmm. Just do whatever feels right in the moment. As long as it’s something you want to do. I don’t want any ‘repayment’ that makes you miserable.”
Shirley fell into thought. Meanwhile, a massive swarm of monsters had gathered. I opened the hatch, let a bunch of them fall in, and then slammed it shut. Thoom! One-shot kill.
”Alright. I’ve confirmed this works. Let’s pick up the pace.”
I scattered more Cocoons in a wide circle, gradually moving them inward to funnel the monsters into the trap. We repeated the cycle until the entire area was cleared.
”Okay, we should head back before the others start to worry.”
”Eh? Oh… yes!!”
As I filled in the trap, I asked her, “So, do you feel any stronger?”
She drew her sword and took a single step. The movement was a blur – a lightning-fast flash of steel. She looked back at the spot where she’d been standing, her eyes wide with disbelief.
”…My body feels light as a feather.”
”Heh. So you can really feel the difference?”
”Yes… it feels as though I’ve completed ten years of training in an instant.”
”Isn’t that an exaggeration?” I laughed.
”It is not!” she insisted.
”Well, if we keep this up, you’ll be a legendary warrior in no time. Then we can really handle things safely.”
”Yes!! By all means!!”
With Shirley still buzzing from the excitement of her new power, we headed back to town.
—
Summary:
Ibuki takes his new slave Shirley to a high-level wasteland for a power-leveling session using efficient pitfall traps. Along the way, he learns about her tragic past involving the corrupt Kingdom of Dole and manages to win her deep loyalty by treating her as a person rather than a tool. Shirley experiences massive growth in strength, cementing her role as the group’s future vanguard.
—
Trivia:
- Ibuki is actively preparing for an inevitable conflict with the Kingdom of Dole.
- Shirley has a fear of heights, which she suppresses during the flight.
- The monsters in the wasteland are inorganic and usually ignored due to poor drops.
- Ibuki explicitly states he includes Shirley in his ‘precious family’ now.
- The method of ‘leveling’ is passive for Shirley; she gains experience while Ibuki operates the trap
—
Character Insight:
Shirley shifts from a state of resigned slavery to a warrior fueled by hope and loyalty. Ibuki continues to demonstrate a ‘safety-first’ mindset, prioritizing overwhelming tactical advantage over heroic struggle.
—
Behind the Scenes:
The ‘Devil’s Proof’ (Akuma no Shoumei) is a common Japanese legal/philosophical term referring to the impossibility of proving a negative, often used in fiction to describe framing someone.
—
TL Notes:
Notes:
• Shirley – A 14-year-old girl, former daughter of a warrior family and a fencer. Ibuki’s second slave, purchased for her combat class. A newly acquired slave from a warrior family (buke). She is described as having a ‘dignified’ air and ‘cool’ beauty. She wears a tight, glossy white party dress and is initially terrified and confused by the household’s kind treatment.
• Charlotte – Short, skinny late‑teen slave girl with messy brown hair, feline eyes, and a soft, slender body. Was an Ex‑Level 8 farmer, now Level 10 and bound to Ibuki, who she calls “Master” and calls herself his wife. Wears rags at first, then pretty clothes he makes, plus his bat‑wing hairband. Blushy, clingy, protective, and easily emotional, she follows him on runs, fights, and flights while always worrying if she’s useful enough.
• Ibuki – Broke high‑schooler from Earth who got tossed into another world with the “Crafter” class he first thought was useless—turns out it’s totally busted. Black‑haired, germaphobic, and low‑key bitter but sharp as hell. Uses Synthesis, Processing, and Inventory skills to survive, craft gear, and haul loot while exploring. Currently a Level 10 otherworlder, wielding a stone axe, traveling the frontier forest with Charlotte, and just trying to stay alive long enough to find a bit of peace.
• Lisha – Mature‑looking native woman with a soft “big‑sister” vibe, a big, bon‑kyu‑bon chest, and an hourglass figure. Polite, domestic, and secretly shy, she treats being with Ibuki as a blessing and quietly fixes the bedding after they’re done. A skilled cook, hot‑spring lover, and “doer” who melts when others take control. She’s the Guildmaster and receptionist/butcher for the Hasshi Subjugator Guild, good friends with Collet, and lets Ibuki and Charlotte stay at her place, worrying about his safety while torn between duty and her feelings for him. Has a younger sister and family in a nearby town.
• Hero – Ibuki’s upperclassman from Earth—summoned as the naive Hero with emotional, mentally fragile personality. Empathetic yet reluctant and inadequate-feeling, lacking survival instincts and political skills. Currently in despair and terrified by his situation.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply