The Harem Was A Forced Goal Volume 1 Chapter 13

It's now the third and final day that we'll be spending at Elgora town. As per the deal onee-sama had with me and Lumi, we'll be spending today together. It’s quite strange to me that she agreed so readily to this and I'm vigilant about any schemes she has set up. I refuse to be tricked!

Though I say that, it's not like it'd be easy for me to fight back if she decided just to attack me. The outcome of that is clear from when she was training me… The score is currently 0-6, her way. Hopefully I'll be able to beat her one day; Positive thinking, right?

Well, besides that, I think my status in her mind has gone up for some reason. She's no longer calling me 'weakling' with that voice of utter hatred. It still hurts to hear her say it, but it's not as piercing.

We're currently down from the dragon, ready to go into the town once more. It was originally only me, Lumi and onee-sama that were meant to be going out but onee-sama said it would be appropriate for 'the slave' to come. Even though I'd named him, she didn't refer to him by name.

It was explained to me that it's rare to refer to a slave by their name unless you are their master. If the master had given that person permission however, they could. Hearing this, I gave all my companions permission to call him by name if they felt like it. They seemed slightly off-put but nothing major.

Today's trip has been organised by onee-sama, rather than me or Lumi. She is the oldest so it's understandable. In fact, if she'd left it to us I'd feel there was something wrong. It would be going against her personality, I think.

"You ready?"

Onee-sama is asking both Lumi and me and we nod in response. Yuuki is behind me waiting for us to go. As a slave he's not asked about his feelings. I'm glad I'm not a slave.

Thinking that, we head off.

—–

"…"

"…"

"…"

"What?!"
Presently, we are in a gladiator arena or something. There's a monster fighting a man and it appears as though it's winning. This isn't the first fight we've watched. Onee-sama took us here around two hours ago and probably fifteen to twenty matches have occurred.

We're now all staring at onee-sama as she felt it would be a good idea to spend such a long time at this place. Lumi's at the point of crying seeing some of the injuries that these beasts cause and I'm pleased to get some idea of the fighting styles of this world. On top of that, one of the fights was between a Iron-skin Lion and a team of a female cat-woman and a male master. It was obvious that the cat-woman was a slave but it was the master who was the vanguard. The cat-woman was there as a mage to protect the man.

The fight now is between a human and Golden Alligator. When it was introduced, many people were shocked as Golden Beasts are three times as powerful as Iron-skinned beasts and five times as difficult to tame for fighting. I need to learn about the strengths of beasts in this world or else I'm going to be in for a hard time, so I start watching instead of staring at onee-sama.

The man is using a spear as his weapon, keeping his distance and stabbing at the eyes. The Alligator backs away whenever he stabs and tries to counter-attack by biting. When that's not successful, it begins to spit out golden teeth. Is that really an alligator?! It's of no use though, as the man blocks each tooth with the stick of the spear. Seeing that it's attack failed, the Alligator's eyes began to show signs of fear even with it's low intelligence. It knows that it's going to get injured by this man. It attempts a final attack by charging at the man's legs, but the man uses the spear like a hammer against it's head and it falls unconscious.

"Dui Fo Xin Wins!", an announcer heads into the middle of the arena and shouts so.

A few man behind him began to move the Golden Alligator to prepare for the next round; At the same time, the crowds begin to cheer.

"As expected from a city guard!"

"Good going, man."

"Marry me!"

"Thanks for protecting our city!"

So he's a popular guy around here… I wouldn't have known as the way the arena is set-up, your name isn't called out when you start, only when you finish. It's considered bad manners to cheer before the end, as some people lose. Luckily, they don't lose their lives. The beasts are trained to stop before death. A few people have lost limbs, though those are rare… Well, that's what onee-sama said. She seemed pretty excited to be coming here, so I'm not sure if it's a hundred percent trustworthy.
"Wasn't that fun?"

Onee-sama seems to be pleading with us now, maybe to justify her past time? Ehh, she wouldn't be embarra.s.sed if we didn't find it so, right? Well, I'd better –

"If onee-sama says so."

Ugh! Lumi beat me to speaking and now onee-sama looks a bit angry…

"It was. Thank you, onee-sama."

"…"

Onee-sama looks at me with a different glare than Lumi, but she doesn't look angry anymore. Crisis averted! Now what should –

Huh, a tugging at my sleeve? Oy, Yuuki! You're not meant to do things like that, y'know?

"…I …… Fight…?"

"Fight…?"

"… Easy."

Glancing at onee-sama, she just nods. Is she saying I should let him? But… It's a rule that if a slave fights, the master must as well. Is this really a good idea?

"…"

Yuuki seems to be antic.i.p.ating that I'm about to hit him when I look back at him, as he flinches. Don't you worry, your punishment will be a lot worse than a simple hit once we're back at camp… I'll send you through bootcamp! This'll be fun!!

"Fine."

"I'll get it sorted."

Oh, onee-sama is organising for our fight? Is that why she said it was fine? She's a.s.sessing Yuuki's combat prowess… I wonder what she'd do if he wasn't very good? Would I lose myself a slave? Well, if he isn't very good then he probably wouldn't be appropriate for my purposes anyway. I need someone who can protect me.

If it turns out he isn't a good fighter, what do I do? I a.s.sumed that he was a good fighter from earlier but he did get captured, right?! Maybe I was wrong about him being a good fighter… If that's the case, will I be able to re-sell him or will I have to kill him? I wouldn't want to do that… It would be a waste of my coins. That'd suck.

…
…
…
…

A time period of twenty minutes has pa.s.sed and the crowd has dispersed. All that's left is us… Huh, all that's left is us? Did onee-sama organise it like this? Is it something she'd do? Probably. Well, she's still not back so I can't do anything yet.

——

Staring at this beast before us, I'm completely calm.

I shouldn't be calm. I should be trembling in fear because this thing is much stronger than I. I'm not sure if it's stronger than Yuuki, but almost anything is stronger than me. The beast that onee-sama organised for this fight was a Shadow Beast. These beasts are the easiest to control, but are probably rated 4/10 stars in strength. They aren't the weakest beasts around so it should be scary to face one.

This one is shaped like a giant eagle and it's claws are extremely sharp – one strike from them and I'd be dead. Luckily, the arrangement is that no long term harm can come to us. Slight injuries are fine though, to prevent complacency.

Beforehand, I had time to get some rest in so my energy levels are okay. Resting wasn't difficult considering everyone was gone. It's extremely quiet in this building, something to do with having to soundproof it so those outside don't hear inside. (You have to pay to come in – they're not going to let anyone just listen.)

"FIGHT!"

The words telling us to start the battle resound around the arena.

Yuuki manages to get close to the beast by rus.h.i.+ng in and tries to punch it, but it dodges out of the way and returns his attack by clawing at him. Although he manages to avoid damage, his clothes are slightly ripped… That's going to cost me, y'know!?

He looks at his clothes and a hint of fear can be seen in his eyes, before he looks back at the beast with new determination.

"… Die."

Following his words, his feet begin to glow white and his speed doubles. In quick succession, he punches at points of the shadow eagle beast such as it's chest, it's head and tries to poke its eyes with his fingers. After each punch, shadow fragments can be seen flying off the beast but it avoids its eyes being destroyed at the last minute.

Yuuki is using magic, right? It's not possible to go that fast without the help of magic, and the glowing feet makes it obvious. If it was possible to hide the glow, then this magic could become even more dangerous? Is it perhaps, a low level magic, that he knows?

"…"

Silent again, Yuuki's hands begin to glow a red colour instead of the white glow of his feet and then ran at the beast once more. This time, the chunks coming off the beast are a lot larger than before. Did he increase the strength of his punches using magic? I used to do something similar to that, but because the world had stats it was easy to tell how strong you were compared to others… It's not possible here, I don't think. You need a true warriors disposition. It's something I'll have to develop, I guess. Or, just a.s.sume everyone's stronger than me. That'll work too.

"You win."

The announcer has come to the stage and tells us we win… Wasn't that a little anticlimactic? Surely a beast that wasn't exceptionally weak shouldn't have been defeated so quickly? It was barely ten minutes!

Looking at me, the announcer is quite respectful.

"Having such a strong slave and, at your young age… If you ever need anything, please contact us."

He hands over a stone and I look at it in confusion. How is a stone going to help me contact him?

Onee-sama comes into the arena when the announcer leaves and explains it too me.

"That's a communication stone. Inserting Martial Power into it will allow for you to send short messages over long distances. The longer the distance, the more Martial Power needed; If you were actually planning on contacting him, a weakling like you wouldn't have enough Martial Power to contact him from here."

"…"

Harsh as always, I see. Let's ignore onee-sama for now and ask Yuuki how it was. Looking toward Yuuki who is far in front of me, I call him over here.

"How was it?"

"… Easy… Too easy…"

"Hmmm? You better be prepared for punishment, though."

Yuuki flinches hearing that, as slaves aren't supposed to get their clothes injured or ask things of their masters. He already knows that the only reason he was allowed to fight was because onee-sama wanted to gauge his fighting ability.

"… Sorry…"

Hmph. We'll see what you're sorry about later.

Onee-sama says something to Lumi and me after this.

"Well, this weakling will have to punish his slave later – we still have one place we have to go?

"Huh, where?" x2

"It's a secret."

And so, we end up having to follow onee-sama's plan for the day again… Hopefully it's not as eventful as this arena.

(Author)  Flag Raised:  Something eventful happens.