“Why?!”

“Why? You know why! Because I hate that kind of stuff! Plus, Raphtalia hates it, too!”

“Raphtalia does?!”

“What?!”

Now even Raphtalia was reacting for some reason. Ah . . . She didn’t want me bringing her up. Fine, I get it.

“I’m here to fight the waves, and I plan on taking any of you that are willing to come to fight them with me.”

“What?! You mean the waves of destruction?!”

“That’s right. I was summoned here to put an end to the same waves that stole your families from you. If you’re willing, I’ll take you to fight, too.”

I planned on getting more slaves, and I wanted to form several different divisions.

“But first we’ll have to face a monster called the Phoenix.”

After that had been taken care of, I would form a combat division consisting solely of those that wanted to fight, ideally. Not everyone was meant for battle, after all.

Keel grew quiet for a moment and then finally responded in a sulky manner.

“Well, apparently I’m a girl, so I guess that rules me out, doesn’t it?”

“Huh? Not even close. Take a look at the company I keep, why don’t you?”

I pointed to Raphtalia, Filo, and Rishia.

“Huh . . . Now that I think about it, they’re all girls! That whole thing about hating relationships was a lie, wasn’t it?!” Keel snapped.

What was she so upset about?

“Seriously . . . Do you want to participate, or don’t you? Which is it?”

“Relationships are forbidden?! How can you say that when you’ve surrounded yourself with girls?!”

“It wouldn’t bother me a bit if Raphtalia were a guy.”

“Huh?!”

“What?!”

“What about meeee?”

“A male filolial would be just fine.”

“Boo!”

What were they getting upset about? I guess it was time this group of knuckleheads had a lecture.

“Gender equality means that you’re treated the same whether you’re a boy or a girl. If you can be of use, I’ll use you equally, regardless of which you are.”

“I get it. Bubba Shield swings both ways. Ultimately, you don’t even need to be human,” one of the slaves muttered quietly.

Where did they learn this stuff?

“Umm, no . . .”

“Huuuh? What does ‘swing both ways’ mean?”

So Filo didn’t know that one, eh? Maybe the whole genetic memory thing was possible, after all. Wait a second . . . you don’t need to be human? Was that supposed to mean Raph-chan and Filo?

“Umm . . . It’s something I heard when I was being sold.”

“We don’t need an explanation! In any case, I can’t have any of you starting relationships and ending up unable to fight. So relationships are forbidden!”

Aside from Keel, the slaves all nodded hesitantly, as if they weren’t quite convinced.

“Wait, so if I work hard then I can fight, too?”

“Yeah. But thinking about it down the road, after the fighting has ended . . . Actually, you’d probably be a hit with all the creeps that go for that kind of thing, so we’ll have you learn to peddle goods.”