What Happened When I Gave Everything to the Girl Who Sold Herself as a Prostitute After Losing It All - Chapter 1.2

Chapter 1.2

“Then is it comfort?”

“No.”

“Then what is it?”

When she asked, I smiled just a little.

“A recruitment.”

“…Huh?”

For the first time, Fine’s eyebrows twitched.

“I’ll buy you.”

“Yes.”

“Buy you and take you out of slave status.”

“Huh?”

“Give you money. Prepare a place for you to live. Give you an education. Manners, academics, politics, swordsmanship, magic—whatever you want, all of it.”

“…………Huh?”

Oh.

Nice reaction.

She finally had the face of someone looking at something outside her understanding.

I could see her wariness shooting up all at once.

“There’s only one purpose.”

I puffed out my chest.

“To make someone who can talk to me as an equal.”

“So you’re crazy.”

“Rude.”

“Aren’t you?”

“I’ll admit a little.”

Fine stayed silent for a few seconds, then asked in a low voice.

“…Why would you do that for me?”

“Because you seemed the most normal.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Very much so.”

“In this market?”

“In this market.”

I tapped the iron bars of the cage with my fingertip.

“You don’t flatter. You don’t fear. You haven’t given up. You can calculate your own worth by yourself. Isn’t that the best?”

“It sounds like the worst reason for choosing someone.”

“Does it? I’m pretty serious.”

The girl stared at me for a while.

As if she was peering into the depths of my eyes.

“…Is there a catch?”

“No.”

“Not ‘no,’ but…?”

“No.”

“What do you want?”

“Conversation.”

“Huh?”

“Normal conversation. Someone who’ll actually think about what I say and reply. Someone who won’t get scared of my position or my money and will say no if they need to. That’s what I want.”

Even as I said it myself, I thought it sounded pretty desperate.

But it really was.

Fine narrowed her eyes slightly.

“…You’re lonely, aren’t you?”

“Bff—”

A weird sound came out.

I could sense the merchant behind me swallowing hard.

The killing intent from the guards hiding in the shadows wavered for a moment.

This girl was something else.

She didn’t know who I was, yet she threw that line straight at me on our first meeting.

“I’m not lonely.”

“Then you’re starving.”

“…………”

“It’s pretty much the same thing.”

For a few seconds, I couldn’t say anything.

I tried to talk back but couldn’t.

Because she was exactly right.

Ah, so that’s it.

I wasn’t just bored.

I was starving.

What I wanted wasn’t stimulation.

It was other people’s real feelings.

The will that would clash with mine.

Words directed at plain old me, without the prince or genius stuff.

I see.

She actually hit the mark.

“…I’ve decided.”

I stood up.

“It’s you.”

I turned to the merchant.

“I’ll buy this girl. Name your price.”

“Th-thank you very much!”

“But there are conditions.”

“Conditions?”

“Hand over the slave contract document to me right here. From now on, you and your people are not to have anything to do with this girl or her family.”

“Y-yes, of course—”

“Also, find out where her brother and sister are. Protect them and arrange a place for them to live. Today.”

“T-today!?”

The merchant let out an almost scream.

I pulled out two, three, four bags of gold coins from my pocket and tossed them.

“Not enough?”

“N-no! It’s plenty! More than enough!”

Every time the gold clinked, eyes around us gathered.

The murmur spread.

Only Fine stayed silent, watching me.

“Alright.”

I went back in front of the cage.

“Choose, Fine.”

“…Choose?”

“Yeah. It’s not about whether you get bought or not. It’s about whether you accept my offer.”

The merchant tried to butt in hurriedly, but one look from me shut him up.

“You’re getting out of this cage today. That’s decided.”

“…”

“After that, I’ll give you two paths. One is to take enough money and go back to your family. The other is to come with me, learn, gain strength, and rise to the same place as me.”

“…The same place?”

“That’s right.”

I smiled.

“If you want money, I’ll give it. If you want status, I’ll prepare it. If you want power, I’ll make you strong. If you need a name, I’ll give you one. If necessary, I’ll give you a family register and status, everything.”

“Why go that far?”

“I already told you.”

I said it because I really meant it.

“I want someone I can talk to as an equal.”

The girl stayed quiet for a while.

The noise outside the tent grew distant.

In the dirty air of the market, only she seemed strangely quiet.

Eventually, the merchant brought the key and opened the cage.

Fine stood up.

She was thin, but her steps didn’t waver.

Once she stepped outside, she stood in front of me.

She was a little shorter than me.

Up close, her features were neat.

But rather than looking delicate or fragile, what stood out first was the hardness at her core.

“Can I ask a question?”

“Go ahead.”

“…That way of talking is annoying.”

“You say that on our first meeting?”

“You said you wanted equality.”

I burst out laughing.

“Alright, you pass.”

“I haven’t even asked the question yet.”

“That was already pretty good.”

Fine let out a sigh.

“Then here’s the question. You said you’d give me money, status, and power.”
“I did.”

“What if I end up abandoning you?”

“That’d be fine.”

“…Fine?”

“When that time comes, it’ll just mean my judgment was off.”

It wasn’t a lie.

Of course I’d feel it was a shame, but I had no intention of tying her down.

The moment I tied her down, it wouldn’t be equal anymore.

“What if I betray you?”

“I’ll think about it after I’ve trusted you enough to be betrayed.”

“What if I become stronger than you?”

“That sounds fun.”

“What if I put a blade to your throat?”

“Then I’d reflect that I should’ve gotten along with you better before it came to that.”

For the first time, Fine’s eyes opened wide and clear.

“…Are you an idiot?”

“I get told that a lot.”

“No, I didn’t think it was this bad.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

A short silence.

The next moment, she smoothly knelt.

Ah, no, that’s not it.

That’s not what I meant.

Before I could stop her, she placed one hand on her chest and bowed her head.

“Fine Ele— no, just Fine accepts your offer.”

“Wait, don’t kneel. I said equal, remember?”

“We’re not equal yet.”

“We’re going to be.”

“Then…”

The girl raised her face.

Those ash-silver eyes pierced straight through me.

“If you really give me money, position, power—everything—”

“Yeah.”

“Then I’ll use all of it to answer your wish.”

Her voice sounded strangely soft.

In the noisy market, only those words rang clearly in my ears.

“If you’re starving, I’ll fill you.”

“…O-oh?”

“If you’re bored, I’ll make it so you can never say you’re bored again.”

“Hey, you don’t have to go that far.”

“If you want equality, I’ll understand you more closely and more deeply than anyone else.”
“Isn’t that a bit too intense?”

“Yes. With all I’ve got.”

With that, Fine smiled.

It was the first smile she’d shown in the slave market.

It was faint and beautiful—and yet, somehow a smile with no escape.

“So please take responsibility until the very end.”

“Responsibility?”

“Yes. The responsibility of choosing me.”

A shiver ran down my spine.

It wasn’t fear.

But my instincts were telling me.

Ah, this is a little different from what I thought.

“…Well, yeah. Of course I’ll take it.”

“Good.”

She stood up slowly.

Then, as if it was the most natural thing, she stepped back half a pace behind me.

“First, may I ask your name?”
“Hm? Oh, right, I hadn’t introduced myself yet.”

I hesitated just a little, then shrugged, figuring she’d find out soon anyway.

“Leonhardt.”

“And the family name?”

“Azvorde.”

“…”

She stopped completely.

Her expression froze, and a few seconds later, a very quiet voice fell.

“…Imperial family?”

“Third prince.”

“…”

“By the way, everything I said earlier was completely serious.”

“…”

Fine stayed silent and stared at me once more.

And then.

Deeper than before.

More beautifully.

And far more dangerously.

She smiled.

“I see.”

There was a heat in her voice that hadn’t been there before.

“In that case, even more so.”

“Even more so?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

She said it very quietly.

“I will never leave you alone.”

“…”

What was this feeling?

The market air was still bad, the surroundings were noisy, and the shadow guards were there.

Yet with just that one sentence, I somehow felt like there was no escape anymore.

I still didn’t know.

That the girl I had picked up on a whim, half to kill my boredom,

would, a few years later, start reshaping the world around me so much that the entire empire would tremble.

At that moment, I felt just a little bad premonition,

but I was also a tiny bit excited about finally finding someone I could have a real conversation with.