49. How to Be with Lena
Several minutes had already passed since Lorraine left her seat.
I sat silently, sipping my beer little by little, waiting for her to return. However, Lorraine didn’t come back right away. I kept glancing toward the restroom, searching for any sign of her.
(I wonder when she’ll come back… I really wish she’d return soon…)
The reason I was waiting so eagerly for Lorraine wasn’t just because I wanted to talk with her more. There was something else weighing on my mind.
(This is awkward…)
At the bar counter, I sat side by side with Lena—my slave—yet we weren’t speaking to each other, not even looking at one another. We both stared straight ahead. One of us reached for the nearly empty plate of fried potatoes, while the other simply stared blankly at the shelf of liquor bottles in front of us.
Since she was a slave, Lena would never speak to me first. That was simply how it was. A slave only acts when given an order from their master. If they tried to act without permission, they never knew when punishment might come. Therefore, staying silent and motionless was the safest option. If doing something poorly would result in punishment, then the best choice was to do nothing at all. That was why Lena never tried to speak on her own.
(What should I do…)
As I watched Lena sip the orange juice that had just been brought to her, I thought about how I should interact with her going forward.
First, I wanted to remove the whole “slave” pretense.
Of course, since we were bound by a contract that made me her master and her my slave, that formal relationship couldn’t simply disappear. Still, I didn’t want to treat her like an object just because she was a slave. No matter how much I had adapted to this world, I had no desire to unilaterally violate or abuse a young girl who was barely more than a child.
Even if Lena was my slave, I wanted us to be on equal footing. That was my wish.
In that sense, Lena had more than enough potential for such a relationship.
The clearest proof was the fact that she was eating right next to me. From what I knew, slaves almost never ate together with their masters, let alone eat the same food or sit in the same place.
Yet Lena, without me even needing to say anything, had sat down beside me when we arrived and was honestly eating the food I had ordered. Normally, that would be something forbidden for a slave. But for the kind of relationship I wanted, it was absolutely necessary.
Only after abandoning the idea that “slaves aren’t allowed freedom” could the relationship I desired be born. I believed it could work with Lena. With that thought in mind, I called out to her.
“Lena.”
The moment I spoke her name, Lena, who had refused to look my way until now, turned and stared straight at me. Her expression didn’t show any clear emotion, but that wasn’t important right now. We could build that slowly, bit by bit.
What mattered now was the environment we would create going forward.
“If there’s anything you want, you can tell me. If there’s anything you want to do, you can say so too.” “Understood.”
Lena gave a short reply and immediately returned to her meal.
“Also, I’d like us to keep eating together like this from now on. Next time, you can tell me what you want to eat. I can’t promise every time, but I’ll try my best to let you eat what you want.” “Understood.”
Once again, Lena’s replies were dry and mechanical. It didn’t feel like the emotional distance between us had shrunk at all.
Closing the distance between hearts isn’t easy. That was true in my previous world as well. Whether it was when I entered university or started a part-time job, it was always the same. If you truly want to deepen a relationship with someone, you have to understand what’s inside each other’s hearts. Otherwise, you’ll never be able to say the bold things that really matter.