「……That's a terrible remark.」

Better than garbage…… he wanted to tsukkomi here, but somehow managed to successfully control the impulse.

「So……What is your goal? Do you want to trade something with me by revealing your ident.i.ty?」

「Ah. Let me ask this frankly. Do you know how people from different worlds can return to their world? If you do know, I will bid for you. What I want the most is information regarding the method to return to my home world. Depending on the information you provide, I might release you from slavery.」

「Hmm. That……is a very attractive deal for me.」

Sylphia muttered, with her arms folded under her large chest. In her eyes was a slight glimmer of hope.

「I will get straight to the point. I know about the kind of information that you want.」

Sylphia said with great confidence.

(……It seems that my intuition was correct.)

He had expected that Sylphia who was born to a knight that served the royal family might now something. But it was unexpected that he would obtain a clue to return to j.a.pan so quickly.

「……Is that so? Thank you. Then I will place a bid on my way home.」

「Don't you doubt my words? 」

「Ah. You won't benefit if you lie. After all, I can just get you to spit the information out by force with the slave contract. If I found out that you were lying, I could potentially be rough with you. It is disadvantageous for Sylvia to lie to me and incur my wrath.」

「Hehe. Well, that's certainly one way to think.」

Sylphia smiled while covering her mouth. Coincidentally, that was the first time she had smiled that day.

「Hey, if you don't mind, will you tell me your name? 」

「It's Konoe Yuuto.」

「Konoe……Yuuto……」

Sylphia repeated his name to ensure that she had it right.

「You are a shrewd man. I like your personality. If it were you…… I wouldn't particularly mind working as a slave for you.」

「……Thanks for that.」

Sylphia's words were enough to destroy Yuuto's reason. To be honest, it would be regrettable to let go of a slave after Yuuto paid so much for her. But however, cute or beautiful girl, be gentle to all of them. These were the words that were embedded deep inside Yuuto by his grandfather.

Forcing a girl that was reluctant to become a part of his harem using his position as the master went against Yuuto's beliefs. Still, if he did not bid, Sylphia would spend her life as the s.e.x slave of another man. That was something Yuuto could not permit.

It was not due to a sense of justice. Rather it was the opposite. Yuuto was spending a large amount of money only because of the selfish notion of 『not letting another person do favor such a beautiful girl 』. 

He was self-aware of it. If it was possible to free a beautiful girl and get information about returning to his home world, Yuuto considered the investment to be quite cheap.

〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜

After parting with Sylphia, Yuuto decided to complete the procedure of bidding for her.

「Thank you for your patronage. Your bid is of 710,000 rea. Please sign this doc.u.ment.」

Jill bowed, handing the doc.u.ments to Yuuto. Written on it were the rules of the auction. There seemed to be a strict measure of prohibiting one from the Adventurer's Guild if they failed to pay the required amount before the due date.

710,000 rea is a large amount that he acquired with great effort, but since he decided to bid for Sylphia he didn't want to get attached to it. Promptly, Yuuto finished the procedure for bidding and left the slave trader.

〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜〜

「Welcome back, Master.」

He was welcomed by Spica at the inn.

「You went to pick up money that you received from the auction today, right? How much was it?」

「Ah, It was 710,000 rea.」

「710,000 rea!? The……What did you do with the money?」

「I spent it all.」

「Spent it!?」

「Is that no good?」

「Ah, no. It's not bad…… but master's way of using money is too dynamic, I think.」