8 - Extra: Tristan

On that day, I became his dog.

That was no way for a human to live.

A noble who’d come to buy one of the slaves kept in the same cage as me a few days ago visited again, laughing at how quickly the new slave had broken.

The aristocrat inspected the slaves, flashing a cold grin, and although none of the slaves said a word, they were all frightened.

I wondered if I’d be chosen.

If I was going to be bought anyway, I’d like to be bought by someone who’d be a good master, although the likelihood of that was close to miraculous.

But who would want to be bought by a person who destroys a slave in a matter of days?

But the slave he chose was the youngest and smallest of us.

They’d been put in the same cage as me. He was given little enough food to begin with, and still had it stolen by the other slaves, probably because he was so weak.

I can only say that biting the noble’s outstretched hand was a spur-of-the-moment action on my part.

Surely he never imagined he’d be bitten by a slave.

He screamed like a pig, and fell clumsily on his ass. Well, I shouldn’t be so rude to pigs.

Just seeing him splashing around in the neglected filth of the cage was enough to satisfy me.

But I didn’t have time to laugh at him, for the merchant struck me on the back with his whip.

My punishment for raising a hand against a customer lasted three days and three nights.

I was left in the corner of the cage without any treatment for my injuries, breathing my last, quietly thinking to myself that I probably wouldn’t last two or three days like this.

Still, if my life was going to be like this, maybe it was less awful to be dead. Supposedly it was my life, but it had never been my freedom.

Something similar to resignation filled my chest, but the next thing to come to mind was intense anger.

What had I ever done? Why should I have to die? Why should my life be tied to someone else? Was I supposed to just toss everything aside and give up?

I want to live the way I want.

“Father, I’ve decided. Give me that one, please.”

It was a young child’s voice.

I heard the merchant rebuke him, but the child ignored him and continued his conversation with the man who seemed to be his father. The man tossed money at the merchant, who flashed an unpleasant smile and gave an order to the guard.

My cage was opened, and I was lifted up.

Are you kidding?

I’ve been bought?

Did he have a predilection for buying half dead things?

All I managed to catch through the haze of starvation and pain was a cold glint of silver.

I felt a soft cloth wrapped around my body and suddenly regained consciousness.

There was no smell of discharged human waste, no smell of rotten water, no smell of putrefying skin, only a clean scent. I’d never smelled it before, but maybe this was what I’d heard called the smell of soap?

I must have slept a long time, my eyes were terribly dry.

At the edge of my hazy vision, something glittered. The silver I’d seen before I’d lost consciousness.

“Are you awake?”

It said, and I realized for the first time that the silver was someone’s hair.

“You slept for five days. The doctor said not to worry anymore, you’re going to be okay, you just have to put on some weight and build up your strength,” The boy said with a smile. He had a much nicer face than the noble I’d seen in the cage. But I’d never seen such a young– I mean, such a youthful customer before.

Keeping his seat on the edge of the bed, the boy closed the book he was holding with a little thump, and gently reached out a hand. I froze reflexively, but his outstretched hand touched my forehead tenderly.

It was warm.

Maybe it was because my body temperature was too low, but that hand felt so warm. His thin, white fingers had not a scratch on them.

Eyes bordered by lashes the same silver as his hair turned to me, and I felt my heart thump.

I let out a weak cough.

“Your fever hasn’t gone completely down because of your injuries, but you really do seem okay.”

The hand was removed from my forehead, and the boy got up from the bed. Now that his warmth was gone, I felt lonely.

He brought over a smallish pitcher of water that had been sitting on a desk, and brought it close to my mouth.

He was telling me to drink it?

It was made of transparent glass, and I was scared to think of how much it had cost, but it was close enough to my lips to touch, so I obediently opened my mouth.

The water was clear, with no taste or smell. My throat, which had been so dry it was stuck to itself, was dampened, and I sighed in relief.

“This, place, where?”

“The house where I live.”

His overly concise answer only confused me.

But it was probably my fault for asking the question like that. I’d been bought by a boy who seemed to be an aristocrat, I could well imagine this was his house.

“Why, my treatment…”

“What? You would have died if I’d left you like that. I finally got you, it would have been a waste.”

“A waste…”

“Yeah. I wasn’t the one who paid for you, but I bought you, so you’re mine now, right?”

Could a slave like me be valued highly enough that leaving me to die would be considered a waste?

I was so weak that my head was slow, and my body was useless. But a slave like me, just waiting for death…

I’d never had an opportunity to see anyone as good as an actual physician. The cost of medicine was high, even for a fever, so most slaves were left as they were and died.

Just thinking about how much expensive medicine they’d used under this white bandage was terrifying.

“I don’t think, I can really do, any of the things, you’re hoping for…”

“Mmmm…”

His tone said it really was okay either way.

I blinked in confusion, and the boy got an exasperated look on his face. He carelessly tossed his book to the side of the bed and leaned his upper body over me.

We were so close our noses almost touched.

“I didn’t particularly want a slave, you know.”

To hear him say he didn’t want me, my heart made a bad sound.

My wavering eyes were at point-blank range. I couldn’t hide anything.

“A scholar who can solve extremely complicated mathematical formulas, a poet who moves people’s hearts, and a slave who does only what he’s ordered are all equally worthless to me.”

The boy’s smooth hands abruptly wrapped around my cheeks.

“I wanted a dog who would be mine and mine alone, who would live just for me, follow me obediently, never doubt my orders.”

“A dog, yours alone…”

“Yeah. A dog, a pet, an animal to care for. It’s the owner’s job to train the dog, so you can’t get angry if they can’t sit or shake from the start, now can you?”

He was saying that even if the dog can’t do anything now, they’ll be able to do it later, and that was enough.

If I didn’t behave as he wanted, I’d likely be mercilessly abandoned, according to those same words. As what he called a ‘worthless’ being.

I absolutely would not accept that.

“That’s why I’m going to give you an education, but I won’t forgive half-measures. If you can’t be the dog I want, I won’t need you.”

“Let me do it, I’ll be your dog! I’ll absolutely be what you want.”

I wanted my life tied to this young boy. I made the choice myself to devote everything to him.

As far as he was concerned, my words were likely able to satisfy him. He had eyes more beautiful than any gem worn by an aristocrat, and his smile was like a blooming flower.

“Your name is Tristan. From now on, you’ll be my adorable dog.”

Lord Ulysses, the boy who bought me, gave me an education, as he’d declared he would. It started with language and table manners, and moved on to every conceivable area of study, the power of the nobility, how to use a sword, the national religion, and finally how to conduct trade.

Occasionally he’d get an idea in his head, and toss me onto a nearby battlefield, and I thought maybe I really would die. But what was more frightening than being thrown out with only the clothes on my back was the fact that he probably wouldn’t even care if I died there. Maybe he would be a bit troubled by my loss, but fundamentally he was a person who thought, ‘If they can’t do it, that’s the end of it.’

It was the third time around before I finally realized that there was more to Lord Ulysses than his beauty.

I may say it myself, but I was a bit slow to realize it.

Five years had already passed since I’d become Lord Ulysses’ dog.

To begin with, there’s no respectable reason a person should be able to calmly select a slave at the age of about ten or so, and then call that slave a dog.

Even so, anyone rescued from hell by someone with an attractive face and the honesty of a saint would be deluded into thinking that their savior would be as good as their appearance, right down to their very core.

That said, when I think about how I’d been given plenty of food, a place to live, and clean clothing, I couldn’t compare my present to that day when I’d been on the brink of death.

I still don’t know what struck a chord with Lord Ulysses, but I am truly grateful I was bought that day.

For me, Lord Ulysses is a master worthy of my service, the man who saved my life, a god-like person to whom I offer my life.

“What are you doing there?”

“Eep.”

All that is why I will not forgive anyone who tries to harm him.

“Ah! Please, I’m sorry, it was just a little passing fancy!”

This slightly chubby woman was a servant in the Addinson household. She had freckles, and dark brown hair, unusual in this country.

In her hand was the engagement ring given to Lord Ulysses by his fiancé, First Prince Erik. The green gem gave off a sparkle that displayed at a glance how high-class it was.

She wasn’t even supposed to be touching the master’s personal belongings, but her words and actions eloquently said that she’d had designs.

“Stealing the master’s things.”

“No no, please don’t tell His Grace about this, for mercy’s sake!”

She clung to me, her face pale, but of course I had to let Lord Ulysses know.

All the more because what she’d been trying to steal was his engagement ring. Stealing in this country carries with it heavy penalties. This woman had no excuse to be ignorant of the facts either, but she must have lost all reason in the face of those gems.

When she realized I wasn’t going to overlook it, she stopped her clinging to me and ran for the door at a good clip. But before she could reach for the doorknob, the door opened.

The one who opened it was the owner of the room, Lord Ulysses.

“What happened that you’re in such a hurry?”

She let out a high-pitched noise.

“Lord Ulysses.”

The woman screamed, half frantic.

Not wanting her to injure Lord Ulysses in her rampage, I swiftly subdued the woman and put her on her knees with her hands behind her back.

She was so terrified, anyone who looked at the scene without knowing the circumstances would think I was the assailant. If she was going to be this scared, perhaps she shouldn’t have been stealing to begin with.

Was this what they meant when they said give in to temptation?

“You’re back early, Your Grace. I thought you had dinner plans today?”

“I did, or at least I intended to. It seems Prince Erik didn’t care to spare any time for me. We didn’t even talk that much, I just went home.”

Lord Ulysses looked around the room, and his eyes stopped on the ring sitting atop the desk. Apparently that was all it took for him to guess what had happened. “I see,” he muttered quietly, and his gaze turned on the shivering, trembling woman.

“Put her in the dungeon.”

He made a show of thinking it over for a minute, putting his fingertips to his chin – they were carefully manicured, right down to the nail – and then pointed toward the door and gave his short order.

Faster than I could reply, the woman screamed, her volume so loud she would have overpowered whatever answer I could have given anyway.

It wasn’t the sort of fright you get at a boy who hadn’t even become an adult yet.

I dragged the resisting woman down to the dungeon and stuffed her into a cell as ordered.

It hadn’t even been that long since the last time this dungeon had been used. Many of the servants of the Addinson household attempted to steal their master’s personal belongings. Perhaps one reason was that Lord Ulysses’ father had recently died, and he’d taken over the family estate.

Every time a servant stole something, Lord Ulysses personally doled out the punishment. They were probably lighter than was justified for the crime of which the servants were accused.

But still, his deeds seemed terrifying enough for those servants who were beaten and then expelled from the Addinson household. Most of the ones committing the thefts were newcomers. But they must have been warned by the other servants, so this too was them paying for their own mistakes. After all, they were the ones who’d decided to steal.

It was no wonder the servants were afraid of Lord Ulysses. I’d had so many brushes with death thanks to him, I was the one who feared him the most.

Even so, the fact that I didn’t harbor any hatred towards or misgivings about Lord Ulysses must have been because I’d been trained so thoroughly as a dog these past five years.

If we have to discuss problems, I myself had only one.

Down in the dungeon, Lord Ulysses laughed raucously.

Lord Ulysses was incredibly beautiful when he laughed so happily. But unlike his face, the act wasn’t some ephemeral fragment.

The sounds of a whip repeatedly cracking and a woman screaming echoed through the cells. Under normal circumstances, such painful noises would be worthy of sympathy.

But the unignorable heat in my lower regions made known the wretched animal passions I harbored for Lord Ulysses.

I, of all people, was aroused by my master wielding his whip and hurting other people.

I didn’t want to be struck with the whip myself, nor did I wish to strike others, but every time Lord Ulysses doled out punishment to a servant, I got like this. At first, I wondered if I was just imagining things, but this was the third time, I couldn’t deny it.

Even so, I had no desire to tell anyone about this wicked lust, nevermind anything so foolish as to touch Lord Ulysses himself.

— That must never happen, I thought.

Five years on from the day I first realized my own desires, I still didn’t think the day would ever come when I would hold him.

That day Lord Ulysses was abducted and assaulted, blood streaming from his head.

For the first time, I realized how scared I was of losing him.

I had lived till that day doing as ordered, with no regard for the danger. That was exactly why I never imagined Lord Ulysses would die before I would, and that if anything but death did separate us, it would be his own boredom of me.

In that one moment, everything I’d thought was turned on its head.

When I took him home, still unconscious, I was scared he’d never wake up.

I was sure Lord Ulysses didn’t truly understand how relieved I was to be able to see those purple eyes again.

“Hey, Tristan. Is it possible Prince Erik was jealous of you? It complicated everything, and now this is how it ended up?”

“Is that the first thing you have to say? How about you worry about your injuries?”

He wouldn’t have been able to speak so lightly to me otherwise. Although, being Lord Ulysses, he would probably still say the same thing even if he did understand.

Touching Lord Ulysses’ lips, touching the scraped up palm of his hand, touching the interior parts of him that no one else had ever touched, I finally felt that Lord Ulysses was alive.

If he was going to meet with danger in some place I’d never been, I wanted to know everything, be involved in all his affairs. No matter how sinful it was. I would do anything to avoid losing this heat I clasped in my arms.

“I’ll tell you a secret.”

I executed the commands whispered in my ear, and without even a second’s hesitation.

The church was completely silent at night, and I easily walked right in, as I had countless times before. Fortunately, ‘the silver-haired boy’ was patrolling at night, and I struck him from behind, changed his clothes, and then pushed him from the tower while he was still out of his senses.

He was unconscious, he probably didn’t feel any pain. Not even a single shout went up, and only the sounds of the birds echoed through the quiet forest.

After stuffing the spirit stone into a certain gap in the guardrail, I confirmed that the face of the dead body at the base of the tower didn’t have any identifying marks left on it.

I hid the carriage a little distance away, and held my breath beside the tower until that moment.

As the sun climbed high, ‘they’ visited the tower. When I saw Lord Ulysses with his hands restrained behind him, I thought my head was going to boil with anger.

I despised his fiance, Prince Erik, from the beginning. He was born as a prince and living in a blessed environment, and was effortlessly selected as Lord Ulysses’ partner.

He’d had the opportunity to choose Lord Ulysses, but hadn’t.

Even so, when the spirit stone broke, and the person known as Ulysses Addinson died, he became a god only for me.

We drove that carriage the entire day, and by the time we arrived in town, it was completely dark. Thankfully it seemed to be a relatively safe city, where crimes only rarely occurred. All the residents who passed by had calm expressions on their faces as they walked.

We selected the inn with the best reputation in the town, and once we slipped the innkeeper some money, we were led to a room with an attached bath.

“Wow, a room with an attached bath, no wonder it has a good reputation.”

“They were indeed. You must be tired, Lord Ulysses. You should get in before it gets cold.”

“Alright.”

Lord Ulysses suddenly looked like he was thinking about something, and then turned to me with a smile like a child thinking up some mischief. Usually when he gets that look, something indecent happens.

“You get in too.”

“Excuse me?” I said, but he removed his own clothes without any embarrassment, and then reached for the buttons on mine.

“Hold– Please wait! I’m sure you don’t need to take my clothes off! If it’s just scrubbing your back, I can do that clothed.”

“What, you want to try some ‘In-clothes Play’?” 1

“Wait, what does that even mean!?”

I wasn’t familiar with the term, but I knew what he was trying to say.

And also that he had no intention of stopping at just a bath. During the exchange, his hands had undone all my buttons.

He traced my abdominal muscles ever so gently, and a shock ran up my spine.

“Dogs who listen to orders deserve a reward, don’t they?”

If he was going to turn that smile on me, I didn’t have the skill to resist my lust.

That unscrupulous smile suited him so well, I wondered if he wasn’t born to become a villain.

“Mmm, haaa…”

“Ahhh, Lord Ulysses.”

Our sighs echoed around the steam-filled bathroom.

I worked the bar of soap into a light lather in the palm of my hands and washed every nook and cranny of Lord Ulysses’ body. Perhaps the feeling of me sliding against his skin was ticklish, because a tiny laugh spilled from the gap between our lips.

I slid my hand from his abdomen to his chest and gently pinched the tips of his pale but ripening nipples, and he responded with a jump of his thin shoulders. I circled them with my fingertips again and again, and gradually their color grew vivid.

I felt satisfied to see such a chaste and unassuming place become so obscene by my hand. I’d been absorbed in his chest for a while, when I heard a rare discomposed tone of voice.

“Touching me like that, aaah, it’s not going to get you anything!”

He glared at me with tear-damp eyes, and terrible sadistic desires stirred in me. Until a few days ago, I would never have thought I would harbor such feelings for the master I was supposed to protect.

He must have been getting impatient with the fact that I didn’t seem to have any intention of releasing him, because the arms wrapped around my shoulders were suddenly quite strong.

“It’s fine already, slam into me, hurry!”

“You have such a sharp tongue, Lord Ulysses. Where on earth did you learn such words?”

Lord Ulysses’ behavior was always difficult, but normally his speech was aristocratic.

These were all words I’d never heard from Lord Ulysses until a few days ago, like ‘clothes play’ or whatever he’d said a minute ago.

“Hahah, your words are pretty calm but your lower half is very frank.”

He gently traced his fingertip up my thing, and my heat got harder still. I was terribly aroused by that sexually charged smile, and those vulgar words, unsuited to his face.

There was no room for composure.

From the first time we’d met, I’d been sure this person would never become mine. I wondered even now if this warmth I held in my arms wasn’t all some dream.

“Tristan, are you thinking about something useless?”

“What?”

My heart pounded at having the anxiety nesting inside my chest seen right through. Sometimes I wonder if Lord Ulysses can read my mind. This was one of those times.

“That’s why I told you to put it in already. You won’t have any room to think about stuff like that.”

He put both palms against my cheeks and kissed me forcefully. The body temperature I felt on the tip of my tongue was slightly lower than my own.

Thus invited by that kiss, I thrust into Lord Ulysses’ body. The sound of skin slapping against skin reverberated around the room alongside wet noises.

Lord Ulysses shut his eyes tight, maybe to escape the impacts his insides were exposed to.

It was too bad that blue-purple color was hidden, but I repeated the in and out motion gently, and a little sigh of a moan spilled out.

“Lord Ulysses–”

I repeated his name again and again, almost incoherently, and he must have found it amusing, because he let out a puff of laughter.

He turned his glittering, teary eyes on me, and my pulse quickened.

When we held each other, even that probably went in one ear and out the other.

“Tristan, you really like me don’t you.”

“Shit, of course I do, sir! Your rotten character, the way you treat people like dogs, those impertinent thoughts, I love everything about you!”

Why bother asking that now?

Since the day I was bought, my life has been entirely about Lord Ulysses.

It was specifically because you were beautiful, and cruel, and had on no occasion ever been virtuous, that’s why I thought I’d like to give you everything.

“Heheh, my pet loves me. As long as you’re still my dog, I’ll love you too.”

“That, my whole life, isn’t it?”

“That’s true. When we get to the neighboring country, I’ll pick you out a collar. Be prepared to be mine for the rest of your life.”

“Lord Ulysses!”

I was prepared to be yours for the rest of my life from the beginning.

I was about to climax, and tried to pull out, but Lord Ulysses’ legs wrapped around me and I couldn’t. I got flustered that I was going to end up cumming inside him at this rate, but he drew his lips close to my ear.

“It’s okay, cum inside me.”

At his sigh-mixed whisper, I released my heat as ordered.

“Lord Ulysses!”

“Nn–”

Once I’d violated his insides more or less forcefully, and they’d gotten nice and slippery with my semen, a loud cry spilled from Lord Ulysses’ lips. Contractions squeezed against me, and I poured every last drop into him. A white liquid spilled onto his stomach, and I realized Lord Ulysses had reached climax too.

It seemed he’d cum just from being stimulated from the back.

That fact made me happy and I suddenly grinned, but he glared at me with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

“Did you laugh just now?”

“What, no, of course not, nothing of the kind.”

“No, you laughed. You’re awfully brave.”

Lord Ulysses smiled a villainous smile and softly traced his palm up my back.

That alone was enough to start an uncomplicated heat going again in my thing. Lord Ulysses smiled triumphantly at my straightforward reaction, and tickling one ear with his fingertips, invited me to bed.

I had no skill, and no motivation, to resist that temptation.

At his prompting, I carried him sideways, and we laid out on the soft bed, exactly of the type one might find at an inn of this quality.

That was no way for a human to live.

Even so, if I could choose to live my life as your dog, then there is meaning even in a life that no one else thought was worth anything. I can say that now with my whole heart.

Lord Ulysses says, 着衣プレイ (chakui purei), which just means to have sex with your clothes still mostly on, but it uses a Japanese-ified version of the English word “play”, and so poor Tristan has no idea what he’s talking about.