Testing My Luck in the New World

Volume 1 - Chapter 8

"Master... Can you calm your heart down? The sound of it pounding like that is distracting. Just take a seat and catch your breath for now."

My cheeks heated up as I asked, "You-You can hear my heart?"

"If I focus on my ears, I can hear all sorts of things."

"Ah..."

So that's how it works. Good to know...I guess.

Hopefully putting mana into her brain doesn't give her the option to read my mind. That groping incident earlier just made it harder not to think of her in a sexual light and I'd really rather her not know that.

We'd been fighting together for a good hour or so, but in all that time, we hadn't spoken much and whenever we did, it was only to convey the location of an enemy or the way we wanted to approach fighting them. I felt a good portion of this was due to Yua being more than a little apprehensive towards me after said groping incident, but she worked through her anger and discomfort quickly enough. The rest of it was due to my inexperience sharing in casual conversation making it incredibly difficult to think up something to say.

I always had this problem when trying to speak to people, but it was even worse with her now that she'd become my slave. It definitely wasn't the same as her being my girlfriend, or even just a regular friend. Me "owning" her didn't somehow unlock the ability to speak casually to her or share any sort of intimate thoughts. Moreover, due to the negative nature of what little of a relationship we did have, it was still entirely on me to put in the foot work and make something happen.

And I had nothing to show for it.

Between every battle, I spent every second made available to me by none other than Yua's diligent ears thinking of how to progress things both with her on an emotional level and on the task before us, but I couldn't think of anything.

Why does this always happen? At this rate, after trying this much with Yua, I could only imagine how much I would have embarrassed myself if I actually managed to speak with that jogging woman. Even after all the snark and barely hidden insults made at my expense, I still found something that demanded I acknowledge there was more to her. That her treatment of me was born of lingering resentment for her enslavement, not because it was who she was as a person.

I'd noticed as much during our fights against the monsters. After she worked through her initial anger, each time she defeated a wolf, she'd turn back to me with a beautiful smile, as if wanting to be praised for her skill, only to then wipe it off her face the moment she saw that it was me she was looking to for approval. Her strength was truly amazing, enough to make her want to brag about it boisterously, but not to me. But those smiles...

None of these brief smiles were directed at me when I cast my magic on the slimes, though. How could she find any sort of pride in that when all I did was point my hand at the slime and essentially work my imagination to make them die? She was in there fighting through the danger while all I did was raise my hand and fling fire balls at moving puddles of goo. It could hardly be considered a fair division of either skill or work.

But those occasional, bright smiles were more than enough to suggest her rough outer shell just needed a little wearing down. I'd known her for less than half a day so far and yet I found myself wanting almost desperately to see that other side of her. To just experience it once and see who she really was beneath that snarky exterior. Even if that really was just who she was as a person, I wanted to see the sides of her that didn't hate my guts. Even just a glimpse at the truth I didn't deserve to see would be enough to settle my heart, but in all our time in the dungeon so far, she never spent more than a second or two looking my way.