Karma – 06

Chapter 6: Nellie Savan’s Point of View

TL: I’ll be redoing the older chapters over the next week Done

Author: My apologies, though I always felt that I had released this chapter somewhere before the power leveling arc, it never felt like the right time, so here it is. While it’s a bit rushed, the next one will be about power leveling as promised…

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The forest was aflame.
My hometown, the Savan Forest.
I am Nellie, resident of the forest Beastkin village made and founded by my people. Nellie of the Savan Forest, so Nellie Savan.

It all happened one day. Suddenly, my village and the forest were aflame.
The cries and screams of my people rang out from all directions.
Returning from the forest with gathered fruits in hand, I was taken aghast at the the spectacle that unfolded before me; then, the voice of a rugged man came from behind.

“Still a brat… but she’ll suffice.”

Then, something hit my head with a thud, and the world turned black.

It was only later, stuffed into a cage atop a carriage, that I realized that it was the work of those humans, humans on the hunt for slaves.

“That beastkin slave, just what do you think’ll happen to her… There ain’t a soul who’d sleep with the bastard child of a human and a monster.”

“A pawn for war no doubt. Just slap a collar of compliance on her and she’ll come out a loyal and hefty slave that’ll rake in the cash in a flash.”

“Be it a guard or meat shield, demand for her in the capital will be high.”

“Mm… still, we did slaughter an entire village of those vicious beastkin. I’ll make sure we’re rewarded appropriately.”

Without so much as moving a muscle, I strained my ears to the back-and-forth between the men at the driver’s seat. Even in the human world, it seemed slave hunting was illegal, but to cover up their act, they made sure to kill everyone except those captured and set aside to be sold.

Once I learned that, I grasped every chance I could to escape, but due of the collar of compliance, it was all in vain.
“Collar of compliance.” It granted my owner the power to strangle me viciously at just a word and the magic to pinpoint my location.
Its effective range was so strangely large that I never succeeding in escaping even once.

Each time I tried, a new lash wound would appear on my body, and soon the meals they fed me degraded to less than what livestock got. By my third, they branded the words “Slave Whore,” “Pig Mutt,” and “Live Meat” on me.
The pain sheared my body into pieces and weakened my strength with each passing day, constantly sapping away my will to resist as time went on…
It wasn’t long before I began to jump at the sight of any stray scrap that fell to my master’s feet. Without hands, devoured whole—I had grown accustomed to this kind of life, the life of a slave.

Just like any other day, I was driving my master’s wagon through the forest… when, in the blink of an eye, I noticed my arm had been bitten off.
A looming monster that shouldn’t possibly be there. We had ran into a mob of scale vipers.

“Eeeeekkkk!!”

My voice which I hadn’t used in forever gave sound to screams of pain echoing throughout the forest.
But thanks to that, I then met my once-in-a-lifetime, one true master.

“Unreal… A human sliced a scale viper to pieces barehanded…?”

There, rushing out in our time of need, adorned with a glossy black ponytail, and clothed in a baggy black tunic and trousers, stood a dazzlingly gorgeous woman.
With neither weapon in hand nor anything that resembled armor against these scale vipers, she put on a performance that one could hardly believe was work of a human.
My gaze was captivated as each move weaved into the next into a dance of brilliance, and before long, perhaps due to all the blood loss, so too was my consciousness to the darkness.

A storm of change was washed over me upon when I next opened my eyes.
She, the one who had saved us, said that she yearned for me.
I was to be transferred to her ownership as her reward.

“Excellent. With that, we’ve concluded the transfer procedures. You can now use her in whatever way you please.”

“How could you say that? How could one think to do anything but fawn all over her. Such a bewitchingly fluffy tail! And these blissfully cushy ears! How could one not shower her in love!?”

What a strange person.
Labelled the bastard children of trysts with demons, Beastkin were abhorred by humans, or so I had thought…
For such a beastkin like myself… and moreover a single-armed one, she would even say she adored me.
Her praising my ears and tail, the pride of our kin, did kinda make me feel happy.

“Kagura Shino… though perhaps here it’s more accurate to introduce myself as Shino Kagura. Kunoichi. My level is a secret.”

It seemed that my new master’s name is Shino-sama. I had never heard of the Kunoichi class before, but from the earlier battle, her level must be quite high.
Moreover, she seemed to enjoy the act of surprising people.
Having a mere slave take magic pills so expensive they could even recover missing body parts!
My left arm was as good as new as a result. More like every trace from the branding had all but disappeared. Rather, my body felt better than ever.
Also, it felt like something crazy was happening to my MP.
Rather than anything the pills were doing… it seemed to be more due to that strange sense of bliss I felt as she wrapped her hands around me…

I must have been drunk strange on that bliss. If not, I would have never said something as embarrassing as, “Goshujin-sama, I vow to devote my entire life to you! Even if the slave contract is dissolved, this life and body belongs to you…”

Ahhhhh, just end me! I went so far as to kiss her boots!!
From there onwards, I used all my wiles, frantic to get on my new master’s good side.
The depths of my heart must surely have been corrupted, turned slave to the very core. My desperation after witnessing her absolute strength to gain her patronage surely must have been beyond agonizing to watch.
But now I can say I was worrying over nothing.
Her absurdity and soft-heartedness washed all those clouds away.

She paid 500 kuramu for a suite room to allow a slave such as myself into the baths. She even deigned to bathe in the same water and wash my hair for me… Surely something was amiss.
Then… at dinner:
Slaves are to eat scraps on the floor; this is how things work. But as I excused myself from a seat at the table, something unbelievable happened.

Hard square mats, a short-legged table, cushions, and a feast of dishes I had never before laid eyes to galore.
Everything my master—Shino-sama had pulled out of thin air!
She did say she was from another continent, but did they really know how to create things from nothing? Was this not the work of god…?

My doubts but lingered for a moment. Enticed by the delicious feast before me, my hand timidly drew ever closer and, before I knew it, was selfishly shoveling bite after bite down my throat, raw to my desire.

With our meal finished, Shino-sama broke the ice by saying she wanted to free me from slavery.

“I beg of you, please don’t throw me out!” I cried out, as if by reflex. Spouting nonsense like some kind of clingy woman, what on earth was I doing…

I was already a lost cause; Shino-sama, it seems that I already can’t do without you.
Rather than freedom and separating from her, I would choose slavery under her ownership: I was assured.

But it turned out to be just that Shino-sama could not stand the fact that I was a slave, not that she wished me gone. And even once freed from slavery, I would join her by her side as an attendant.

Thereafter, my public social ranking changed from slave to commoner. But when Shino-sama learned that my class registered under the guild was still basic slave, “We’ll have to have you class change to maid…” she said to herself and began cackling maniacally.  “At last, my long-awaited maid with cat ears!” Fussing over something that flew well over my head and yet somehow meant we were to craft a plan on how to raise my level.

It was nothing but surprises when it came to Shino-sama, but the biggest surprise of all today was when we exchanged guild cards.
When I changed my card to revealed to show her my current profile, the difference I saw compared to before was staggering.

*karma*
Name: Nellie Savan
Sex: Female
Age: 14
Total Level: 1
Guild Rank: F
Class Level: Basic Slave – 1

Status
HP
MP
Str
Vit
Dex
Spd
Int
Mid

*karma*
25
800
14
15
12
15
10
9

*karma*
Titles
‘Celestial Maiden of Mana’

Special Skills
Beastkin Body

Type Affinity
Shadow +10%
Light +10%

Blessings
Shino Kagura
*karma*

… What’s the meaning of this 800 MP. Though it was probably due to Shino-sama appearing under the blessings section.

Wait, give blessings… wouldn’t that mean Shino-sama is of that domain!?

“Mhm, aren’t you quite the catch! 800 MP, isn’t that really a lot?”

“A-about that, last I checked, I only had 10 MP… ‘Celestial Maiden of Mana’ title? Shadow affinity +10%… And, isn’t that your name under blessings!?”

“Ah, ahaha… I wonder why…”

Shino-sama, you aren’t very good at lying—your eyes are swimming.

But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when she nonchalantly passed me her card.

*karma*
Name: Shino Kagura
Sex: Female
Age: 21
Total Level: 85
Guild Rank: D
Class Level: Kunoichi – 85

Stats
HP
MP
Str
Vit
Dex
Spd
Int
Mid

*karma*
2500
N/A
17
15
18
18
13
18

*karma*
Titles
‘Equilibrium of the Cosmos’
‘Kunoichi Master’

Special Skills
Character Change
Mana Release
Mana Transfer

Type Affinity
Shadow +50%
Fire +20%
Light −10%

Blessings
World’s Unnamed Overseer
*karma*

“Le-… Level 85…? I thought the limit was 50…  and your MP is N/A!? Under your status… You have three stats maxed at 18, and the rest are all above average… A-a 50% affinity, even heroes from legends didn’t have that!!”

She had not one but three special skills and incredible-sounding titles like the ‘Equilibrium of the Cosmos.’
… She really was some kind of spirit or god, wasn’t she.
As if sensing the suspicion in my gaze, Shino-sama decided to come clean to me.

Of our worlds coming into contact and her coming over to this world.
Of serving as the byway through which mana flows into this world as a result.
Of how she, in a hug born of pure affection, had unwittingly endowed me with her blessing.

Quite frankly, her story by now would have any normal person bearing large doubts regarding her sanity, but rather, it was exactly her tale that I found so persuasive after witnessing that power which defied all common sense with my very own eyes.
Quietly peeking a glance at her, I found the eyes of a child waiting to be scolded by her parents looking at me.
Truly unbecoming of an attendant, but I couldn’t help but think… How adorable.
Trying my best to lift the strange mood, “As expected of the one whom I serve.” Such arrogant words inadvertently left my mouth.

Yet, for some reason, my words had left her overcome with such emotion that she lowered me onto the bed.

I-i-it wasn’t as if I hated it! It wasn’t as if I was the opposite of a sought-after girl of age, but to think my first would be with another woman…

“Hamu…”

“Aun…!”

Ear? My ears?

I could hear my fur rustle as her hands ran through it…

“Hi-u”

My tail too?

A swishing sound began to mingle in with the sounds.

“Ah, ahh! Shino-sama… I-I’m… sensitive there…”

Not both at once!!

She just was, not, addressing the places that really needed it, yet I was already a mess long gone from just the tail and ears.

As expected of the one I named my master, she’s an expert at these matters too…Quite, the professional…
The thoughts flitted through my consciousness, and gently, it all dissolved to darkness.

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