[Hanako] Chapter 6: Birkensen Trading Company

[Asta]

Requested Economy Roll:

Rolled 1d20+17 : 2 + 17, total 19

[Throndir]

"A-alright..." The soldiers responded as they sheathed their weapons one by one. A couple of them continued to glare at the newcomer however.

Trudy spoke next.

"I'll make sure to let the other soldiers and slaves know... The most easily defended room is the one on the second floor. There are no windows, but... the room is nice!" Trudy said, trying to offer something in return. The demon slave girl nodded slowly, though she continued to keep her head down. She whispered quietly towards you.

"Thank you... A bedroom... A human bedroom..." Her voice was almost in wonderment, and you recognized a bit of excitement in it.

Trudy began leading the way as a couple of soldiers followed behind.

"Taking it off? Won't we need to go back to the slaver to get this removed?" Carol asked, though she did note that many of the slaves there didn't have collars. You can tell she was anxious, and there some confusion in her voice. "A-are you freeing me...?" Carol dared to ask hesitantly.

Trainings
Klein's Signature: 3/4
Minette Japanese: 5/8
Power Attack: 1/8

[Asta]

Hanako nodded her thanks to Trudy as she took off with the girl.

"A-are you freeing me...?"

"Hm? Yeah of course, people aren't property." Hanako replied to Carol. I feel like I have to say that a lot...

"I mean, you should probably stick around the estate so you don't get recaptured or anything but you're free. You don't even really need to show me how the transfer magic works if you don't want to, but it would be nice." she continued, chuckling a little. "Lemme take a look at that." she said, meaning the collar.

I don't know if it was specified that the collar was magical or not but I assume Hanako's powers work regardless and she'll release the collar.

[Throndir]

The collar simply snapped off of the girl. She blinked a couple of times, then pulled the entire thing off.

"H-how did you...?" She shook her head, then rushed to give you a hug.

"But... Thank you!" She said as you noticed her getting emotional. Once she let go she looked at you brightly. "I'll still teach you or anyone else the magic though... It's the least I can do."

Unless a specific NPC is considered a 'genius' on a particular field, training time for them is much longer. The DCs remain the same, but they will need x4 times more Required Successful Training. They can, of course, practice self-teaching once they get their first set of lessons. If you want any of your NPCs to learn new things, just start them on that process.

You spent the next few hours working on Klein's signature.


Location: Herr Klein's Estate - Demon Slave's room
Date: Day 7 - 6 PM

Around dinner time was when you made your way to the demon girl's room. Her room was on these second floor, one of the few rooms in the estate that had no windows. There were two guards posted there, but with the fact that they were guarding a demon, a couple of other soldiers decided to move bedrooms to ones closer to it, in the off-chance that their help would be needed. Trudy had shown the guards the new weapons, specifically the light-magic pistols, and it was these that the guards were using.

The soldiers saluted when you neared, and once you went through the door you saw the demon girl. She was curled up in her bed, seemingly sleeping peacefully, with the collar still on her neck.

[Asta]

"No problem." Hanako replied after Carol had given her thanks. "That's great, I'll probably come see you about it in the next few days, for now you can just do whatever. If you're looking to help out I'm sure someone around here could use a hand."


After entering the room Hanako quietly shut the door behind her. She got comfortable quick. Though I guess I'd be pretty tired too if I spent all day getting shocked repeatedly.

She walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, observing for a few moments. "Are you awake?" she whispered.

[Throndir]

"Mmm..." The demon girl started to stir, but when she realized someone else was in the room with her, she bolted awake, immediately began moving away in alarm, but calmed soon enough after recognizing you.

"You..." The demon girl began. She didn't know what to say though, as she looked timidly at you, but eventually began fidgeting with her fingers and focusing on that.

[Asta]

"Sorry, wasn't trying to scare you." Hanako said, reassuringly. "You seem to have settled in. I'm sorry that you're still in a collar, but for the time being it's probably in everyone's best interest that you wear one. I'll let you know up front that the other people in this house don't trust you and would be... unhappy to see you wandering around without one on. You'll probably be sort of stuck in this room for a while as well, which I apologize for but it is for your safety." She looked around the room. "A gilded cage, but a cage none the less I suppose."

The situation was going to be delicate for a while, she hoped the girl would understand. For now, Hanako would simply focus on making her comfortable and the rest would come in time.

"So, I assume you have a name? Mine is Hanako, nice to meet you under better circumstances."

[Throndir]

"Hanako... Thank you Hanako." The demon girl said as she lowered her head briefly.

"Hanako... Thank you Hanako. My name is umm... Falah Basu al Dashuum." She said continuing to fidget with her fingers, and avoiding staring at you directly.

[Asta]

Hanako scratched the back of her head and chuckled disarmingly. "That's a bit of a mouthful, does Falah work for short?"

One of the bizarre things about her status as hero was the ability to understand and speak to everyone without actually knowing any of the languages. It made everyone look like they were in a foreign film dubbed to Japanese. She wondered what it looked like to everyone she spoke to while she was speaking rapid Japanese. For that matter, did it change the way her voice sounded? Or her pronunciation? Certain letters in a foreign word could be hard to pronounce correctly and for a brief second Hanako had the irrational fear that she was saying all these words in... what did the Americans on the internet call it? Engrish?

[Throndir]

"Yes. Falah is okay. I introduced myself as that to the Birkensen Trading Company... Am I.... going to have a job here?" Though she was speaking to you, she seemed to continue concentrating on fidgeting with her fingers.

"Ummm, not that I mind staying here in this room... It's so much nicer than the small room I had in the Birkensen Trading Company. And... a lot nicer than the cage... I never had a bed as soft as this one before." Falah explained. "As a half-breed, most of the other demons didn't really care for me, and I simply tried to exist along with them. I was testing the bed earlier... and it was just so soft I couldn't help but kinda nap!"

[Asta]

"Yeah I can imagine. The guy who used to live here was pretty well off so the bed's are pretty nice." Hanako drummed her fingers on her knee. "A job huh... well, mostly I just wanted to get you out of the situation you were in. I'm sure we can find something for you to do around here, but this place is less a business and more like uhh... how would I put it... a bunch of runaway slaves?"

Hanako stopped tapping her fingers, and ran them through her hair exhaling as she did so. "What uhh, can you do?"

[Throndir]

She thought for a moment...

"Umm... I am very good at cleaning." Falah said. "I cleaned Lord Maou's castle every day! Then when I came here... I did a lot of cleaning too at the company before they betrayed me..."

"What else... A-ah, umm... My demonic powers aren't as good as the others. So I've been trying to learn how to use the sword too. On my way here, I met a nice person who called herself a samurai and taught me some things. She's the one who told me that humans were nicer than demons, which is why I made my way here to this country where demons can walk the streets..."

You noted that the word Falah used for 'samurai', was in your own language. Her lips moved the same as you would expect, and you didn't feel the strange disconnect for mouth movement to the 'dub' you heard in your head.

[Asta]

"Lord Maou? I can't say I recognize the name, but lets circle back to that in a second. Did you say a samurai?"

Hanako had to double check what she just heard, clearly Falah had said samurai in Japanese. It wasn't a far stretch to assume that she had actually just spoken Isikawan, but it seemed an uncanny coincidence that the language of Isikawa was just Japanese.

"Did this woman look like me? Was she Isikawan or did she say she came from somewhere else?"

[Throndir]

Falah shook her head.

"No... Her hair was golden like everyone else in this country. But she didn't look Isikawan... She did wear clothes that looked similar to theirs though. She told me she was Refedorian... But she was headed for the capital while I made my way here to Estergen, since this was where father was at."

[Asta]

Gaijin samurai huh? Weeaboos even in an alternate world... Hanako mused.

"She was headed to the capital you say? Whatever for? Sorry, it's just the word you said is my native language and I'd not heard anyone speak that since I came here. It was... interesting."

She would have to think about following up on that later.

"Anyway, you said you cleaned at a castle owned by Lord Maou? Who is that exactly?"

Bringing Falah here was already paying off, she had information on the demons that probably was more extensive than anyone else she knew. Though it wasn't like that was the only reason she brought her here.