Testing My Luck in the New World

Volume 2 - Chapter 29

"Quick, Headmaid, show him your tits," June added. "Distract him while the rest of us run... Well, I'm not actually going to run anywhere, but still."

"I'm not going to do that!" Erika shrieked, causing June's muscles to give out. She collapsed to the floor, into a puddle of lethargy that spread until it pushed Mary to step forward yet again.

"Master, please, these girls are too innocent to be devoured."

"..."

Just as I was begining to weigh the pros and cons of asking Yua to use Healing Punch to see if it'd cure the headache that was brewing in me, Mana stomped up to Mary. Puffing up her small chest, she slapped one hand on her hip and with the other, shot an accusatory finger at the maid.

"Stop being mean to Big Bro! He's really nice. If you'd just shut up and listen to him, you'd know that!"

Mary, bewildered, raised a confused brow at the smaller girl who'd yet to be introduced.

"Thank you, Mana. As I was saying..."

"Besides," Mana continued, shifting her pointed finger over to Yua. "The only one here that's done any devouring is Big Sis. Three times. Three times I saw her eat his manho...!"

Before she let out a sentence that would have insured the maids fear me for the rest of their lives, Yua and I moved in unison to cover her mouth. Letting her squirm, I handed her off to Yua and addressed the room.

I wanted to be casual about this, but I clearly needed to put my foot down here, or this would only continue.

"No one is to say any more about anyone being devoured, because it's not going to happen! That's an order!"

As expected, this instantly compelled all present to quiet down. Elane shrugged as though she had nothing to do with this, Erika quickly hung her head, Silla trembled, June remained a puddle on the floor, but only Mary continued to stand tall despite my yelling.

"Look," I continued in a controlled voice. "As I was saying, I do not like slavery. I know I must look like a giant hypocrite in saying that while having so many slaves, but I'm serious. Aside from Yua, Mana here and Elane both willingly chose to become mine. I didn't force it on them, right?"

"Mmhmf!" Mana muffled her agreement proudly into Yua's palm. She even accentuated it with a proud nod.

Elane, though, stepped around the girls to stand beside me. She'd been fooling around so far, but seeing the honest worry in the maids must have compelled her to give it a rest.

But nobody was expecting her to bow her head so deeply to them.

Their former mistress, their master, lowered herself in front of them. And when her golden hair fell to cover her face, she brushed it over her shoulder so they could see her.

"Girls, I'm sorry I was so rough with you. With the yelling, the threats and punishments, I let my drinking get the better of me and took it out on all of you. If it weren't for that, if I wasn't drunk all the time, you'd probably be a little more trusting.

"But trust me when I say I'm positive Alex is different," she continued. "Part of his conditions to take me as his wife was to apologize to you four. So, I know I probably don't deserve your forgiveness, I am truly sorry. I never meant to make my lovely, cute, maids worry so much."

Finally, a chink appeared in Mary's glare and Erika teared up a little, as did Silla. June even managed to sit up and gawk at her former mistress, but all of them were dumfounded by Elane's actions.

While it was true I asked her to apologize to the maids, I figured she would have done it while we were away. Maybe it was her hesitation on that end that led to all the noise, but at least it seemed to have helped them calm down.