Slave Harem in the Labyrinth of the Other World (LN)
Volume 1 - Ch 3.7

The first one, who was smiling cheerfully just a few moments ago now looked straight ahead of herself with tired, unmotivated eyes, as if she was about to fall asleep on the spot. Looks like she totally lost any semblance interest in me.

The second one glared at me with a smug smirk on her face, as if she wanted to openly ridicule me. She even glanced at my crotch for a brief second and snickered in a mocking manner! If we werent in a Slave Shop I would have probably delivered a nice haymaker right to her face, but since I cant do that I decided it would be best to stay my pimping hand for now. Let it go Michio, youre better than that. No need to stoop so low just because a slave tried to act like a smartass around you. Actually, it makes things much easier for me, because now I am certain which one of them I wont buy even If she was the last girl on the planet.

Michio-sama, I hope youll forgive them for displaying something of an attitude towards you? I assure you, their intention is not to mock you, its just that

Yeah yeah, whatever you say youre probably right.

Look pal, whatever their reason for such impudent behavior might be, I dont want to hear about it. Im not here to play psychiatrist to their troubles after all. Im looking for a reliable companion, not the one who will be nothing but a burden to me since day 1. The way I see it, instead of allowing girls like that one over here to do a lot of negative PR for you youd be better off selling her to do manual labor, like maybe working at the mines or something along those lines. That way youd still have the profits from selling her and had one less headache in your shop. But you now, that is just my opinion. Anyway

The next slave girl had much livelier eyes than the first one, but on the flipside her face was nothing to write home about. The one next to her was pretty nicely-looking but nope, shes a no-go for me. Identify showed me that she was a Villager at the age of 27. And thats much too old for my strike zone.

Next one was cute as well, but had no breasts at all; an absolute cutting board, the kind that a chef of a restaurant would want to borrow when they ran out of their own. The last one, the one who was after Little Miss Cutting Board was still a kid, but she was pretty cute, all things considered. And no, I didnt mean it in a lolicon sort of way, all right? I am certainly no child molester, I prefer the girls who are of my own age, maybe a year older.

My ideal girl, huh?

Now that Ive seen every last one of them, I have to say that they are all pretty cute. The fact that there is some age diversity between them was definitely a plus, because I am sure that I will be able to replace the one who will be just up my alley.

That is what I would have said if I hadnt seen Roxanne first.

To me, she was so beautiful that all those other female slaves looked so inferior to her that I probably couldnt see them as truly attractive even if I tried. Ugh, I fell for the merchants trick completely. Even though I realized that he showed her to me first as a bait for buying the uglier ones (no offense ladies, except for the smugly smirking one, you can just go eat shit for all I care), but I cant do anything about it! Im a young, healthy, impressionable guy, so what other reaction would you expect when a hot chick was placed right in front of my raging hormone-driven eyes? In light of that, there could be only one solution to my current situation: I left the room without deciding to buy any of the female slaves presented to me. Probably knowing that thats how it was going to end, the merchant left after me.

When we got out of the room, the older lady from before waited for us along with Roxanne. Did she finish all of her duties and come here to see us? Aww, now thats just precious! I knew it, shes an absolute angel!

She bowed her head to us respectfully, and it was at this moment that I saw a pair of ears adorning the top of her head.

Dog ears. They were the FUCKING. DOG EARS! OH MY SWEET JESUS, HOW CAN SHE BE SO CUUUUUTE?!!!!!!

She didnt have the maid hat-thingy on anymore, so her ears were clearly visible for all to see. They were the big, hanging fluffy ones, like those of a Golden Retriever. They also look like they could be easily hid underneath her hair if she didnt want anybody to stare at them.

So I guess theres no use asking how it was, right?

Right. Im sorry, but it looks like were back to square one.

That does seem to be the case indeed. You hear that, dear Roxanne? Looks like this customer took quite a liking to you.

The Slave Merchant outright told that to Roxanne. What the fuck dude?! Youre not supposed to blurt it out like that, have some compassion for your fellow man!

Roxanne just looked at me without saying a single word. When our eyes met, all I could do was to look away from her shyly. I was never good at interacting with the opposite sex and I dont suppose that will change anytime soon, but the stares were always the worst for me. Every time a girl looked at me, it was almost certain that her face would twist in uncontrollable disgust, as if I was some kinda bug that needed to be squashed under the heel of their shoe, so I guess its only natural of me to expect Roxanne to do the same now.

However, much to my astonishment, she didnt do anything like that. She she smiled. Its true, Im not bullshitting you! Faintly, just faintly, but she really did smile! I I didnt expect that at all, but Ill gladly take it.

It was a nice gesture, but it doesnt change the fact that impossible is still just as impossible as it always was. I wont be satisfied if its not Roxanne, but I dont have enough money to buy her. I guess I should just forget about buying slaves and move on as a solo Adventurer.

Master, if I may

Yes darling, I know what you are going to say. Michio-sama, while I cant lower Roxannes price more than I already did, I am willing to wait for a few more days.

Huh?

Lets see here you said this was your first visit to Veil so you are probably not well versed with the terrain around the city, and theres also the matter of the Labyrinth so how about five more days to get the necessary amount of money?

The merchant continues with his onslaught of words without giving me a single moment to wrap my head around whats happening here right now.

Is this another one of his tricks? First he showed me his finest product to then bait me into buying the cheaper ones, so now he probably wants to firmly have me in his clutches by offering me such a kindness. Was I too careless? Have I let my guard down too much because Roxannes beauty blinded me to everything else?

Ah, n-no, I

Trust me, youre not the only one annoyed at the fact that you dont have enough funds to finish the transaction. But as long as you can procure the rest of the money in a few days, I will be more than willing to wait. Youre fine with that as well, right, Roxanne?

Yes, thank you very much, master.

And she bowed her head to him again.

What is this? Why is he suddenly getting so cooperative? What is going on here?