I Reject Quests

"Try to remember." Rewen urged. 'There are two possibilities. One, she really did forget it randomly. Two, she forgot it and it's a plot element. If we go by observations, it could be concluded that she isn't the kind of person who is too clumsy… or maybe, she did forget something randomly. However, how could I dismiss the possibility of it being a plot element?'

It had to be said that he had grown significantly more cautious than he was before. A major part of it has to do with his previous mistake - dragging his cousin Denny into his own mess. It was a mistake he regrets to this day, and it happened because he was careless and overconfident. He had gotten too absorbed in his own little hypothesis where nothing would go wrong. By the time he had finally realized it, it was too late.

Rewen sighed inwardly, then raised his head to look at Michi who was staring at him with a blank expression. "It was… After showering… then I talked with them… um…" She was trying hard to remember but somehow couldn't.

"Okay, stop."

"Hm." Michi stopped recalling her memories.

"What did you do before coming here?" Rewen asked. 'Sometimes, people just forget what they were going to say. I'm no major in psychology but I believe that it happens when a person is too desperate to say something in a conversation but couldn't say it because the person he/she was conversing with gave the person an idea which caused something and made her forget about the thing the person was going to speak about. 

'Michi wanted to say 'A' desperately but I made her forget about it by saying 'B'. So, in order to understand what she was going to say, I can only make her revert back. If lucky, it would take a few seconds. If not, a couple of hours.'

Michi put her index finger on her chin and raised her head. "I have instructions to the chefs after the servants come back from the market."

"Okay. Then you came here directly?"

Michi took a few seconds to answer. "Yes."

"Let's revert back. What were you doing before you gave instructions to the chefs?"

"I woke up, took a shower, and came to the kitchen."

"Nothing happened between the two events?"

"Not really," Michi spoke in a confident voice.

"Good. How much time did it take you to come here from the kitchen?"

Michi looked at her wristwatch."It took… a bit more than a minute. Oh, wait!" She immediately straightened her head. "I remember! You are so smart! How did you do this?"

Rewen rubbed his nose. "I didn't do anything. You did." Even he himself had to admit that he sounded like one of those pseudo-intellectuals. "Anyways, before you again forget, what is the thing you wanted to tell me?"

"Okay!" Michi took a deep breath, then came to him and sat down cross-legged opposite him. Instantly, her face turned solemn. "This is about Reza."

"Oh, her again? What did she do this time? Got into another adulterous affair." Rewen said in a joking tone but he wasn't wrong since the eldest son of the City Lord had a fiance

"Don't joke. This is serious." Michi seriously said.

"Alright. My bad. So, what happened?"

"After giving instructions to the chefs, I remembered that last night, I had left out the list for dishes in the small kitchen so I went to get the list when I saw the eldest son of the City Lord taking Reza to his room."

"Oh well, that day came sooner than I expected." Rewen felt that he was needlessly worried. 

Michi was rather stunned by his reply. "Yeah, but wouldn't you stop her?" 

"Am I someone to her?" Rewen asked rhetorically, shrugging. After he said that, he saw that Michi's face was slowly turning red from anger and felt compelled to continue. "Look, that eldest… what's even his name?"

"Mitsuo."

"Yeah, him. Mitsuo. Since he went after an underage girl older than him by at least six years, he is a sick pedo. There's no question about that. There's also no question that Reza isn't at an age where she is capable enough to make a decision. That's all true. We all know that it's wrong but the real question is - what can we do?"

"Shouldn't we try to talk to her?"

"Are you suggesting that we haven't tried to do so for the past few days?"

"Still… fine. What about Mitsuo then? Can't we do something about him?"

"What can we do? Pray tell. We are going to confront the son of a person who gave us food and shelter. Even if we were to ignore this, what can we even do? Confront him? He will shut us down before we could even get our points across. The only thing we could do is to tell this matter to the City Lord who is out of station currently."

"What about…" Michi was at a loss for words. "B-but I'm worried about Reza."

"No one's not worried about her. Hase approached her several times regarding this but he couldn't get a single word out of her." Rewen was disappointed in Reza. Originally, after she witnessed her family's death, he thought that she would be more mature. She had indeed changed but not in the way he had expected.

"I heard the supervisors came today. Are you nervous?"Michi didn't seem convinced but didn't want to continue pestering him about it so she switched the topic.

"It should go well." Rewen confidently replied.

***

In a private room, two people stood opposite each other shaking hands. One of them was an old man and the other was a black-haired young man with a moderate height and looks.

"I must say, I'm quite surprised by your performance. Did you have a prior experience with slavemastering?" 

"No, Sir. This was my first. All I did was follow the guide." Rewen replied in a humble manner.

"You implemented what was written in the guide? That's beyond impressive." The old man wasn't stingy with praise. He knew what kind of talent the young boy standing in front of him was.

"Thank you, Sir. Can I ask some questions?"

"Hm? Go ahead."

"How does the slave business work? Are the slaves sold in auctions or something like that?"

"No. Selling slaves is illegal."

"What?" Rewen was rather dumbstruck by the reply. 'Having slaves isn't illegal but selling is?'

The old man chuckled when he saw him dumbstruck. "I think you might have a misunderstanding of slaves. They aren't lesser humans. If I have to describe them in two words, it would be - sexual partners. They are usually gifted to other nobles but sometimes, groomed for personal purposes as well. For instance, the slaves you are grooming are groomed for the son of the City Lord. Rover City's City Lord, I mean. But even after gifting, there are a couple of rules the master has to follow. Otherwise, he can be sued under the constitutional rights of slaves."

'Maybe being a slave isn't that b--- no, that's a dangerous train of thought.' Rewen asked a few more questions before both of them walked separate ways.

Rewen had a session with Yukiko, Kaori, and Chinatsu that lasted for about two hours before he went to the fields where Hase trained the rookies.

Since it was late afternoon, the fields were empty. 'Alright. Let's get started.' 

Straight!

Jab!

Kick!

Swirling Kick!

Double-flipping Dodge!

He started practicing his martial arts. Previously, he couldn't make full use of his martial arts because of his body. Although his body still wasn't as tough as his real body, he could at least execute every move with some effort.

'What is martial arts?'

'Is it a way of life, one of the means of self-defense, or both?'

'My martial arts isn't the most effective as it heavily relies on reflex due to the fact that the moves are more stretched and therefore, it leaves out a lot of openings for the opponent to counter after dodging. This is also the reason I have to have at least a three-layered series of moves when I strike which is mentally exhausting.'

'Three-layered series of moves' is a term Rewen invented. It's a tree of possibilities. In a three-layered series, there's a total of six possibilities. To understand it better, let's say that there's an opponent and he is planning for a punch at the opponent's face. In the first layer, there are two possibilities - whether it would hit the face or not.

If it works, then fine. 

If it doesn't, he has to make a counter move. This is the second layer.

If the counter move works, then fine.

If it doesn't, he has to make another counter move. This is the third layer.

Usually, he doesn't need to go beyond the third layer but lately, he has to make up to five layers just so he could escape.