An hour after the auction ended and I brought her home.
Even though only one person had been added, the house felt much more lively.
Well... it still seemed pretty awkward, though.
"Just treat it as your own home and relax."
"Y-Yes!!"
She tried to snap to attention with her reply, but it looked like she bit her tongue—her face scrunched up like she'd just bitten into a lemon.
An expression I'd never see on the Cecilia from the game I knew.
Her utterly human reaction made the corners of my mouth curl up without me realizing it.
"...W-Why are you doing that?"
"No reason. The house just feels a bit nicer now."
Honestly, time alone had been lonely.
From the twenty years I'd spent by myself before possessing this body, to the memories of this one living over fifty years in solitude.
A complex mix of factors might have left me feeling a loneliness I'd never known before.
"By the way, you said you could cook, right?"
"Ah, yes!"
"Dinner... if you wouldn't mind."
Honestly, as someone who'd lived alone, I could handle simple cooking. But the problem was, this wasn't a studio apartment.
The kitchen and utensils here were so different from modern ones that I couldn't do a thing.
"Leave it to me!"
She wore a more vibrant expression than I'd ever seen from her.
'...Now she finally looks like a girl her age.'
Well, as an elf, she'd easily lived over a hundred years, but in human terms, she was just barely an adult.
Even so, she'd been through far too much for her age.
Her village raided, turned into a slave and put up for auction like merchandise.
Despairing events even on their own.
Going through them all at once, it was only natural her heart had shattered into pieces.
'Well, that sort of thing won't happen anymore.'
After all, I was a former Sword Saint.
I had money, power, and connections.
Making one girl happy would be a piece of cake.
"Ah, Master! For now... I made this with just what was in the house..."
While I sat back in the rocking chair with a pleased smile, Cecilia finished dinner. She brought over bread and soup, showing them to me with a faint smile.
"...Oh. Better than I expected."
"Heh... hehe."
Honestly, the game had never once mentioned Cecilia's housekeeping skills.
Still, there'd been a detailed setting note about how domestic she was, so I'd had some expectations.
It blew them away at first glance.
"Well, then. Let's dig in."
I lifted myself from the rocking chair and plopped down at the dining table.
Just as I was about to say a quick grace and pick up my utensils,
I noticed Cecilia fidgeting, not sitting down.
"Not eating?"
"...Ah, well... I'm a slave, after all."
"Ah."
No matter the slave treatment reforms, slaves fundamentally didn't dine with their masters.
They didn't eat the same food, either. The law only guaranteed enough to keep from dying.
"Don't worry about it. Sit and eat."
"Ah, is that really okay...?"
"What, you wanna starve then?"
"Ah... N-No!?"
She jumped in surprise and scrambled into her chair, grabbing her utensils.
Even then, she kept sneaking glances at me—like a tiny little animal.
"You're cute."
"Huh?"
I let out a chuckle and spooned some soup into my mouth.
Perfectly seasoned with just a hint of sweetness—a textbook example of sweet-and-savory balance.
Yeah. Damn, this is food.
Ever since possessing this body, all I'd eaten at taverns was rock-hard bread and watery gruel. Finally, I could savor the joy of a real meal.
Relishing the long-lost flavors, I polished off my bowl in minutes.
"Phew... I'm stuffed."
After wolfing down my food, I finally noticed Cecilia—whom I'd overlooked just moments ago.
She was devouring hers just as ravenously.
Of course. As a slave, she'd never had proper meals.
"Urp...!"
Having eaten too fast, Cecilia gulped down the water glass on the table.
Then she dove right back in with her utensils.
She kept up the cycle of scarfing food and chugging water until her bowl was empty.
"...Good meal?"
"Yup!!"
"Yeah. Thanks to you, I finally had something tasty after ages. Thanks."
I chuckled and gave Cecilia's head a light pat.
Fluffy and soft, like the finest silk.
I couldn't tell if all elf hair felt this good, or if it was just Cecilia's.
"Thank you."
She mumbled her thanks while chewing on some bread from the table as dessert. Her absentminded look forced a smile out of me.
"Well, dinner's done. Anything you wanna do?"
"Something I wanna do...?"
"Yeah. Read a book or go for a walk, whatever."
"Um... I-I'll just stay put...!"
"Well, if that's what you want."
No matter how full I fed her or how well I treated her, we'd only known each other for a day.
She still had some wariness left.
...She could just relax, though.
"Ah. Then, I'm heading out for a quick workout. Go ahead into my study and read a book or something."
No matter that Cecilia was new to the house, I couldn't skip my daily routine.
Besides, if my edge dulled, it'd make clearing the main story inconvenient.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Around the time Yuri stepped into the front yard and began swinging his sword.
Suddenly left alone, Cecilia couldn't hide her bewilderment.
'Uh... um, what should I do?'
She'd just finished the dishes, and it was too late to hang laundry with the moon already up.
In other words, nothing to do.
Before becoming a slave, maybe—but after, Cecilia had only done as ordered.
Eat when told to eat, sleep when told to sleep.
A passive life of strictly following commands.
She'd tried rebelling once or twice, but each time she'd been crushed. Any spark of defiance had died out long ago.
So this rare free time left her at a loss.
She was no different from a pet grown accustomed only to its master's orders.
"He said... to read a book?"
Cecilia had quite enjoyed reading before becoming a slave.
Not once since.
Harboring a bit of anticipation, she scurried off.
Creak.
Slowly opening the wooden door labeled "Grand Library," the scent of paper washed over her in an instant.
"Wow... so many books."
Countless volumes of all sorts greeted her—too many to count.
As a former Sword Saint, Yuri's collection ran the gamut: swordsmanship manuals, magic tomes, works of literature.
Among them all, what caught Cecilia's eye was none other than...
'Former Sword Saint and Elf Slave...?')
An adult novel whose contents were obvious from the title.
"...Eek."
She'd read plenty of books before, but never an adult novel.
Cecilia desperately tried to look away, to make sense of her master's tastes.
'...Just a quick peek?'
At a hundred elf years—twenty in human terms—Cecilia was a perfectly normal woman brimming with desires.
Gulp.
She swallowed without thinking, licked her lips, and turned to the first page.
A bit of dust from long disuse greeted her, but Cecilia ignored it and kept turning pages.
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
What started as just a taste saw its pages flying by without end.
Soon, even she lost count of how many she'd turned.
Cecilia realized she'd unwittingly read the entire book straight through.
'Whoa. Other novels... anything else?'
As that thought crossed her mind, her hand reached for another adult novel by title.
Creak.
The study door swung open, revealing Yuri drenched in sweat.
"...How was it? Good read?"
A question with utterly pure intentions, no malice.
Even so, fresh off devouring Former Sword Saint and Elf Slave, Cecilia flinched involuntarily.
"N-No! I-It was really interesting!"
"Yeah? What book?"
"...Ah, um. Something about historic Sword Saints?"
She despised herself for lying to her master's innocent question on reflex, but Cecilia figured it was better than getting caught a thousand times over.
"Well, it's late. Time for bed."
"Late...?"
"Probably past midnight."
"Ah..."
It was bedtime, for sure.
With that in mind, Cecilia meekly followed Yuri's lead.
'...Will he do to me what happened in that novel?'
Despite Yuri's claim he had no intention of pouncing, Cecilia couldn't shake the thought.
After all, anyone could say the words.
But her fantasies—a mix of faint expectation and fear—faded quickly as the night passed uneventfully.
'He really didn't do anything...?'