The Pseudo-Ninja from Another World (EP 6): Nellie’s Perspective

Savan Forest is burning, as is my home.

My name is Nellie, one of the Beast-men living in a small village in these woods. We take our “family names” from wherever we call home, so I am also called Savan.

I was out gathering fruit that day and by the time I returned, the village and the trees were on fire. All around me, I heard the terrified and angry screams of my friends and the other villagers. Stunned by it all, a man managed to creep up right behind me.

“She’s still a monster, but ah well,” I heard his gruff voice say.

I felt a sharp blow to my head and everything turned dark.

I woke up packed in a cage, being carried along in the back of a carriage. It quickly became obvious to me that this was the work of humans hunting for slaves.

“Why would anyone want a Beast-man for a slave?” one of them said as drove the carriage. “No one wants to bed the bastard children of monsters.”

 “We’ll turn her into a combat slave,” the other replies, “slap a Slavery Collar on her and we’ll make her obedient and strong.”

“And after that, we can sell her as an escort or a meat-shield,” the first says. “Lots of demand at the royal capital for those.”

“Well, we did go through all that trouble slaughtering that Beast-man village, we may as well get something out of it.”

I listened carefully to the men going on about their work, learned how slave-hunting was illegal here in the human territories and that to cover up their tracks, they killed everyone they didn’t cage. After hearing all that, I tried to escape time and time again but all attempts failed due to that Slavery Collar.

With a word, it would tighten around my neck and strangle me or pinpoint where I was with magic. Its range was so large it seemed impossible to get out of it.

Every time I tried another escape, I’d gain more scars from being whipped, my diet would grow worse and worse, lower than what they’d feed livestock. From the third attempt onward, they started branding me, “Sex Slave”, “Pig Beast”, and “For Meat”, the pain searing through my body and sapping my strength day by day… 

In the end, I accepted my life as a slave, hungrily gobbling up anything that fell at my master’s feet without my hands.

Then the day came that I was driving a wagon through the woods… then suddenly found my right arm ripped off in an instant. We were attacked out of nowhere by a group of powerful monsters: scale vipers. My long-unused voice let out a scream that echoed throughout the forest. 

And that’s when I met my true master.

“This feels like a joke…” one of the guards said, “how is a human using their bare hands to cut through scale viper scales?” 

Our saviour was an extremely beautiful woman with shiny black hair in a ponytail, clothed in a loose black tunic and pants. She didn’t have any weapons and it seemed like she didn’t have a single piece of armour on. And with how effortlessly she handled the scale vipers, she didn’t seem to even be human.

I was entranced by her fluid, dance-like movements but soon lost consciousness from blood loss.

When I came to, everything changed so quickly. Our saviour wanted to have me. I was to be given to her as a reward.

“Then that concludes the transfer procedure,” my old master said. “You could cook her alive for all I care.”

“How could you say something like that?” she said as she reached out and touched me. “How can you not love her?! This fluffy tail? Even her ears are so soft?! How could you not love any of this?!”

She was such a strange human. Beast-men were often called the bastard children of monsters and I thought all humans hated us… but she loved me regardless. And I was a little happy she was complimenting my ears and tail.

“Shinka Kagura… or just Shino Kagura, I suppose,” she said as an introduction. “I’m a Ninja. Forgive me if I don’t tell you my level.”

My new mistress was Lady Shino. I’d never heard of a “Ninja” class before but it seemed to be very high level from that battle.

But then again, my new master made it a habit to surprise people.

She used super-expensive drugs that can regenerate lost limbs on a lowly slave like me! My arm was healed in an instant and looked like it’d never been crippled. There were no marks or traces of my scars and brands, either— I was even better than I was before the attack. 

But more than anything, I felt the outrageous amount of mana swelling up within me.

It wasn’t the side-effects of the medicine; I knew it was that mysterious warm, fuzzy feeling I felt when my new mistress hugged me.

My mind must have been muddled by all of it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have said something so embarrassing: “I will do my best for you for the rest of my life! Even when my contract expires, I will be your slave till the end of my days…”

I feel like dying just thinking about it! And I kissed her shoes, too!

From then on, I did everything I could for my new mistress. I must have become a slave to my very soul. I must have looked so desperate, trying not to lose her patronage. But, it turned out I was worrying for nothing. 

My mistress’ ridiculousness and good looks became increasingly clear.

She spent 500 kram to get a bath for her slave, took it together with me, and then brushed my hair afterward. And again, during meals, when I refused to sit at the table with her, said I would eat the food leftover on the floor as was appropriate, she performed a miracle:

Tough square matting, a short table, cushions, and foods I’d never seen before, all pulled out of thin air! What kind of continent did Lady Shino come from to be able to do this? Was I just dreaming at that moment?

My doubts didn’t last long. With a trembling hand, I tasted the food and was soon eating to my heart’s content.

After dinner, Lady Shino said she was releasing me from slavery. Surprised, I begged her: “Don’t throw me away!”

But it was useless: Lady Shino had already decided and removed my collar that night. But by that time, I only wanted to be with her, not be free from her.

She later explained that said she didn’t like my position as a slave and how people looked down on me for it. She said she didn’t want me to leave, either, and now that I was free, I could become her servant instead. 

 I was a commoner by citizenship now but still a Basic Slave under the guild. So Lady Shino started talking about changing my class, mysterious plans involving leveling me up, and something about a “cat-girl maid”.

 Lady Shino was already full of surprises, but our guild cards topped it all. The first shock was when I showed my card to her, everything on it far different than I remembered. 

 Why is my MP 800? I was only supposed to have 10. What was that title, “Celestial Maiden of Mana”? How did my Dark element increase by 10? And why was Lady Shino’s name in the blessing column, how could she have blessed me in the first place?

 She laughed and said, “What’s what doing there?”

“Lady Shino doesn’t seem to be a very good liar,” I think as I roll my eyes. But then Lady Shino’s card was even more outrageous.

“Le… level 85?” I said. “The max should be 50… MP ‘N/A’?! And these stats… three at the max limit of 18, the others above-average… and +50% element resistance is legendary. None of this should be possible!”

 And as if that wasn’t enough, she had three unique skills, and that title “Mediator of Worlds”. I thought she was some kind of goddess or a messenger of one. Then Lady Shino revealed her secret, whether or not she’d noticed my doubts:

She was a visitor from another world due to an accident between this one and her own. Right now, she was stuck in this world as a “flow control valve” for mana. Her blessing was because she had hugged me with affection.

To be honest, I would have called it crazy if any other person told me, but I needed no convincing of Lady Shino’s outlandish abilities. 

I looked at Lady Shino, she seemed like a child waiting for her parents to get angry at her. To be honest, even if it’s a serious transgression for servants, I thought she looked quite cute. To try to break this silence, I said, 

“As expected of my mistress.”

I slapped my hand over my mouth. However Lady Shino was so moved by my words that she pulled me into her bed. I didn’t hate it, though! I wasn’t shy about others’ affections, but to think my first would be another woman…

Then she bit my ears.

“Ahhh…!” I squealed.

Ears? Why my ears?

Now she was stroking my tail.

 “Hii…”

Why my tail?

“Ah, aaah…!” Nellie gasped. “Lady Shino, please… I’m sensitive there.”

Now she’s doing both at the same time!

I mean, she didn’t touch any of the important places, but I was still so excited just from my ears and tail. “As expected of my mistress, she’s a master at this, too… a true professional,” I thought as I slowly drifted off to peaceful sleep.