Chapter 27: Brainstorming

I can't help but laugh at their stupidity. "Ayame, please erase such useless thoughts from your mind. If I get killed because you are afraid of hurting my ego then I will cry in the afterlife and come back to haunt you. Instead of feeling ashamed, I'm proud to have such an awesome teammate. You want to be the strongest sword user in the world, right? You can't accomplish such a lofty goal if you worry about nonsensical stuff."

A happy smile creeps up onto her face. "Okay."

"Furthermore, I want all my wives to be strong. Don't you think it's extremely romantic to fight shoulder to shoulder with your lover? Who needs housewives when I can create a harem of powerful women who shine brilliantly on the battlefield? Maybe there's something wrong with my head, but to me that sounds extremely hot."

My Samurai girl shakes her head disappointedly, "yes, there must be something wrong with your head… Most men who create a battle harem want to outshine all of them, often being the only frontliner with the women taking up supportive roles."

She then glances away and whispers under her breath, "though I can see the appeal of fighting shoulder to shoulder with one's beloved…"

I grin victoriously. "I knew you would understand. It's certainly very manly to protect your women behind your broad shoulders but how much sexier is it if a strong woman fights her own battles and emerges victorious? To be honest I don't really care for pretty little princesses that cheer me on from the sidelines but I do for strong and independent ladies."

"Well, I'm glad to hear I don't have to worry about you getting jealous of my prowess, but I hope you didn't misunderstand my earlier actions of hugging you. They were just a momentary lapse of judgment due to my sudden emotional weakness."

"Naturally. Sorry if I've been talking too much recently. I find it very easy to converse with you. Let's get out of here before I bore you to death."

I bend down to pick up the boss monster's dropped loot- another carapace item, this one larger than the rest. We begin walking back toward the entrance of the labyrinth, chatting along the way.

"How much do you think our haul will fetch?" I ask.

"I honestly have no idea. Prices vary from city to city, and as a future duchess I didn't really bother remembering the prices of these low-value items. I hope we at least break even with the labyrinth entrance fees; otherwise, we'll have to look into different avenues for earning coins." She glances at me worriedly.

I can already tell what she's thinking. When I bought her, she agreed to something that was a part of my demands. "Don't worry, I have no plans to start thieving just yet. Maybe later down the line, when we have a fat target ready to be squeezed dry and only after thorough investigation. We won't become trashy pickpockets stealing 20 bronze coins from construction workers and farmers. You're a warrior with no stealth skills, so that would be a quick recipe for getting our hands chopped off. High risk for very little reward."

Ayame releases a happy sigh and her body visibly relaxes.

"I don't know how to tell you this gently, but I have a way for us to earn some silver coins without doing anything overly illegal, and it's only a day's worth of work." That catches her attention.

"Yesterday, before I came to Aldoria, I saw a merchant carriage get pillaged by a dozen or so goblins. The merchants lost, which resulted in the males getting killed and the females getting hauled off. I took this opportunity to liberate the carriage from its now ownerless crates."

Her eyes widen with disbelief. "And you just let them get taken away?"

I examine her for a few seconds before nodding nonchalantly. "Yeah, of course I did. I was a level one nobody against a dozen armed goblins. What do you expect from me? I didn't even have weapons back then; I picked up the guards', which is where yours came from, by the way."

She grits her teeth and looks at her iron sword with a hint of sadness. I'm happy to see that she doesn't throw it away at least.

"Ayame, I have no savior complex. I am an opportunistic hedonist. I have no wish to hide this facet of me from you. I believe that while heroes burn amazingly bright, inspiring the masses all over the world, their flames fade and extinguish just as swiftly as they ignite. I want to lead a consistent, happy and pleasurable life where I live for a long time as the one on top of the pyramid."

I pause for a second before looking deep into her eyes. "I want to be a the strongest existence that no one even dares think of opposing. That is my end goal."

Her body freezes completely, except for her eyelids that open and close a few times in a rapid fashion. Is it that big of a shock? Maybe coming from a level one's mouth it sounds like a madman's ramblings. She soon confirms my thoughts, "Despite you being a complete beginner with little resources to your name, wanting a harem of powerful and beautiful women is a lofty but understandable dream that a lot of humans can understand, me included. But you also want to be God? The Goddess is on top of the 'pyramid' as you prefer to call it, so do you wish to usurp her position?"

I wait for a few seconds before shaking my head. "It's waaay too early to say such things. For now, let's just leave it at the fact that I will never stop looking for ways to grow stronger, and neither should you, even if it means going against the currently established and accepted rules."

I take a breath and then continue, "If you no longer wish to debate the morality of my actions regarding the goblin attack, we should start to think about what to do with the crates. I hid them in the forest, so there's a good chance no one found them. I did a brief market research, and their value should be more than 20 silver coins, but we can't sell them in Aldoria because the merchant only sold them here, so we'd get busted. Unless you have a better idea, we'll have to rent a mule and a carriage and take the wares to a different town a small distance away."

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