My Dungeon Life – Chapter 1737-1739

Chapter 1737

“Do-do they really need to have these windows here?” Terra asked, staring out the window and down at the ground nearly twenty floors below.

“If these quarters won’t be to your liking, we can try to find you a room with no windows. Or would you rather have a closet?” Marina cocked her head.

“The room is fine!” Terra immediately corrected herself.

I felt a bit annoyed though. It seemed like a minor thing, but I was pretty sure the slight was intentional. To the people here, Terra was just a golem. She was a thing, a tool for them to use. I had seen a couple of races among the residents of New Yan, so I had thought that the Jespain would have been a rather welcoming group like Chalm. However, it seemed that even they had their biases. They looked down on the animalkin, Esmere, and dwarves as inferior. Golems were only tools. As for the fairy, I wasn’t sure. She had given Celeste a few odd looks since finding out she was a fairy.

The only ones they treated normally were Shao and I. Faeyna being an elf seemed to garner no attention. Rather, she was a maid, and that probably placed her as unimportant in their eyes. They also seemed to hold the same view of the lioness bodyguards. This dynamic was seen clearest in the rooms they gave us. I was given a large and beautiful room. Nice rooms were also given to the girls of my party. However, those designated as help were shoved into small, plain rooms with no amenities.

I knew that I was the lord and they were the help and that some level of this division was expected. I had already accepted my role as their leader. Yet, I didn’t know what it was, but I felt like it was more than just a division of status. I hadn’t mentioned any of the girls were my slaves, and I decided it was best to keep that secret. I let the girls know not to discuss that either.

Slavery was outlawed in Jespain. That was one of the first things I confirmed with Marina when I got there. It was no wonder the slave guild hadn’t sent Figuro or some other representative on their behalf. I wasn’t worried about them trying to break the slave marks though. Rather, I worried that they would look down on the girls even more.

“Master, you seem lost in thought since you arrived here,” Alysia spoke up.

As the one closest to my soul, she was also the one most entuned with my feelings. She knew when I was worried or upset before anyone, and she was in a place where she could ask secretively.

“Look at the crowds down there.” I looked down at the streets below.

In my world, I wouldn’t have been able to see anything more than little people walking along, but my eyes were much better these days. I could make out the people on the street with at least some detail, even from twenty stories away.

“What about them?” She asked.

“It’s classism,” I responded. “There is a clear social structure here. Humans, demons, elves, piscine, and other human-like species sit at the top. Animalkin are a bit under them. Esmere, Osterians, Dwarves, and those without standard body types are at the bottom. That’s just the race. There is also a stratification between the leaders, merchants, and servants. I bet the poor aren’t treated great at all.”

“Is that so much different than Aberis? You have to be noble to even live in the capital. Most animalkin are seen as slaves whether they are free or not. All other species are merely tolerated if not outright hated. In the Ost Republic, the Osterians regularly put themselves over the humans. The only reason they overlook such things now is that you’re the strongest and are human. The other tribes avoid interacting with each other at all, and could break into a fight at any moment.”

“True… but this was supposed to be a more developed culture. I was expecting… I don’t know.”

The more I learned about this world, the more I realized just how much an abnormality Chalm was.

“Do you wish to get something to eat then?” Marina asked, her nonalarming smile returning to her face.

Chapter 1738

The girls carried just about everything of importance on their ring or in my soul world, so there was no reason to unpack. As for bathing, a single spell from Faeyna was enough to clean anything, and that was for the girls who could even get dirty. Faeyna had used her spells several times on Terra though.

“Still more dirt.” She tsked.

“Do you want to fight?” Terra snapped.

I knew that not all of the girls got along perfectly. Miki didn’t typically like Elaya or Astria. Terra had some rivalry with Celeste. Shao would get into a fight with anyone except Lydia. I also knew that Faeyna wasn’t a fan of Terra. As the maid hero, she seemed to have an aversion to dirty, and Terra who wasn’t just an earth golem, but had spent years of her life living underground, seemed to be a magnet for dirt, often dragging it in. This aggravated Faeyna to no end. It looked like the stress of being nearby during the last day and a half finally got to them and they were about to come to blows.

“Terra, you’ll come with us, won’t you?” Lydia cut in, continuing her role as the glue that held everyone else together.

“Y-yeah… I’ll come.” Terra nodded.

Faeyna and the maids were going to stay behind, so it was a good opportunity to pull them apart from each other. I wasn’t sure what they would do while we were being cared for by Jespain, but Faeyna seemed to have a clear idea of her plans. The other girls decided to dress up into something more casual and come out to eat with us.

I was feeling like the normal travel gear the girls were wearing when we arrived would give the Jespain a bad impression of us. It wasn’t like I was desperate to be on their good side, but it was probably a good idea that they weren’t looking down on us during the trade negotiations, so I encouraged the girls to dress nice. For that, I had many dresses from my world, and I let the girls pick whatever they wanted. Only Terra looked sadly as no dress could fit her.

The last time I was on Earth, I didn’t know Terra was going to end up being a golem. I had even gotten some dresses for Alysia, but they weren’t enough for the broad shoulders of a golem. How could I have predicted I’d need clothing at such a size?

When the girls came out, spinning around excitedly to show me the dresses they were in, Marina’s eyes seemed to lighten up for the first time.

“C-can I see it?” Marina asked.

“Hmm? Sure?” Shao held out an arm, allowing her to touch the material.

“How are you able to produce such works?” She asked excitedly. “This sewing is so fine, and the material is so soft. I’ve never seen something like this before.”

Shao shot me a look, and I shrugged. “Trade secret of Aberis. If you’d like that information, it’ll have to come during the trade discussions.”

The truth was that we couldn’t produce anything like it. That was clothing made in my world. I only had the vaguest idea of how they made clothing. However, I did collect some books on it, so I could show them some of my world’s knowledge to tempt them into making some trade agreements. To secure Chalm’s financial future, and to keep them from looking down on us, I was happy to borrow my world’s technology.

Chapter 1739

“Here is a spread of some of the finest foods that Jespain can provide.” Marina had announced.

We had left the hotel where our floor was and headed out to a nearby restaurant.  We ended up being joined by Mary, Anne, and the Esmere delegation. The servants were left behind, so our group ended up only being about twenty or so. After sitting down at a large table, countless servants came out and brought food after food. When it was all set out before us, I could only say one thing.

“It’s Japanese.”

“Definitely Japanese.” Shao nodded.

The various dishes included a lot of fish, noodles, and stuffed dumplings. They even had sushi. It reminded me a great deal of a Japanese restaurant. Aberis’s culinary arts were one aspect that I would look down on. The food that came from Aberis was extremely plain and tasteless, mostly coming in the form of gruel for all but the nobles. The Ost Republic was slightly better, but they tended to act the exact opposite, over spicing everything. When it came to Dioshin, they preferred a raw diet. A hunk of meat if they were carnivores or a hunk of a plant if they were herbivores. Cooking was optional.

The memories that Shao had unlocked from my world suggested she had come from Japan. This was reinforced by the fact that she had a Japanese appearance. Although Aberis had been reborn and appeared like he came from Aberis, the few other demons I had seen also appeared to have an Asian appearance. I had thought that if any culture had Japanese food, it would be the demon realm in the north. Thus, I was a little surprised to run into it in the west.

“You use these sticks to eat.” Marina declared. “It’s a more elegant way to eat.”

“Uh, huh…” Shao immediately began using the sticks like she was born with them, which seemed to shake the haughty expression on Marina’s face.

I was able to make do with them as well, but not very well. I think every gamer played around with learning chopsticks at one point in their life. I also had another thing that helped me out. The female studies weren’t the only class I had ever taken in college. While I was still finding myself and taking random courses, I had also taken an etiquette course. It was etiquette from another world, but I did have a basic understanding of how to not make a fool of myself.

I had never really needed to use it because Aberis hadn’t had much of a strong etiquette, but I was quickly getting that Jespain did.

While I was able to control my behavior though, I couldn’t say the same for all of my girls. The servants had to teach the girls how to use the chopsticks, and Marina calmed down and her superior look returned as she saw they could only manage so much. Some of the girls even gave up on the sticks and started eating with their bare hands. Mary, Anne, Bernice, and Shao were able to appear dignified, but the rest were rather loud and messy.

It was the first time that I had come to realize that despite the girls being beautiful, kind, and loving… they were mostly commoners from an unrefined land. They were animalkin and monster slaves who had never had a true reason to appear refined in public. Their actions might be normal around a dungeon campfire or a battlefield, but they didn’t fit into such a posh culture.

With a sigh, I discarded the chopsticks and ate with my hands too. If it was good enough for my girls, it was good enough for me.