Chapter 49. Tilty’s sins part one

The day's end came up quickly though that might have been because I kept going from one girl to the next. The girls had tried to get into a rhythm of resting while the other was trying to tire me out but that hadn't worked out as planned.

Instead they had both called it quits with Zeldi saying it was dinner time while Tarakona scampered off to her room with a slight limp in her walk. She hadn't returned until after breakfast the next day but that had been expected, especially when today was the day she would finally be free. If only temporary.

So after milking Zeldi in the morning I had finally gotten enough points for Tarakona, the Dragon was currently pawing at the edge of my property line in anticipation.

Free roam:

Pick a Livestock that may leave the property for one hour ever day but will be forcefully returned if not back before the duration ends. Livestock outside of the boundary may be harmed but death will result in the destruction of their bodies and it's rebuilding back within the lands boundary.

Tarakona. I thought internally.

Free roam - Livestock Tarakona.

200 Farm Points.

Purchase? Yes / No

Yes.

A message saying I'd bought the upgrade and that my remaining FP was sitting at fourty three appeared.

I hadn't even dismissed the pop up before Tarakona threw herself into the air and jetted off in what looked like a random direction. The land no longer refusing her exit.

"Think she was excited?" I asked Zeldi who was besides me watching Tarakona get smaller and smaller.

"If I had wings like hers I'd be the same." She replied turning around when we could no longer make out Tarakona's form.

"We can save up to give you the same freedom." I offered turning to follow.

"While I appreciate the thought there's nothing out past the boundary I want to see that's within an hour trip. I thought about going shopping at the market but if memory servers it's about half a days travel just to get there."

Instead of going to our new house Zeldi started making her way over to the old one.

"Could be a lot quicker if we rode Tarakona there." I reasoned.

Zeldi flicked her head to the side. "Nope. I am a Centaur mare, I will be ridden by my mate and my nursing children. I will never ride anyone else."

The slight shiver that went through her body gave away her fear of the thought. I noted it but didn't push further.

"Now as much fun as it would be, do you mind giving me a moment Master? I would like to properly say goodbye to this house before we destroy it." Zeldi asked as she stopped beside the front porch.

"Sure." I said with a shrug. "I'll be around somewhere when you're done."

Zeldi nodded then disappeared into the front door.

I ambled my way over to the new house wondering when I'd said anything about destroying the old one. I wasn't opposed to the idea and if Zeldi wanted it to happen I'm sure I could somehow get some explosives to give it a good send off.

My thoughts were interrupted when the door I was about to touch opened from the other side before Tilty tried to sneak away, only to walk straight into my chest. I had forgotten she was slowing thawing out.

"Going somewhere?" I asked a little sarcastically.

Tilty cowardly took a step back.

I let out a sigh and stepped to the side. "Shall just the two of us go for a walk?"

Without much of a choice Tilty nodded coming up beside me as I led the way. She was still naked but by her own doing we didn't have anything to offer her to cover up, so I headed towards the lake to give her some sense of closure.

"I'm sorry." She began but I just held up my hand.

"Tilty let's be honest here. You're not sorry at all, you're only feeling guilty because nothing went your way. If Zeldi had been sold to you either by myself or she'd done it herself you wouldn't care about any of us."

She didn't give me a response so I continued.

"You also have nothing to apologize to me for. This world is like a video game to me and every game has you start off with nothing. The one you need to get the forgiveness from is Zeldi."

"She will never forgive me." The Fawn mumbled as we came to a stop.

"Why?" I asked generally curious. "I've heard parts of what you did from Zeldi herself but I've never pushed because it was not a nice subject. So tell me, in the four years she's been here what exactly have you been doing to her and why will she never forgive you?"

Tilty sighed and fell on her ass. "What have I done to her? The list would be shorter if you asked what I hadn't done."

The fawn scratched under her tit in a nervous fidget. "But if you want to know it starts with her kidnapping itself. When word reached me about a potential livestock I offered a great deal if they were brought to me. My birthday was coming up at the time and I wanted to spoil myself."

"You admit it was kidnapping?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes." Tilty answered. "When she never arrived and the men I had tasked with her kidnapping said I had lied about what she could do I found out she was now a caretaker and thus immune to becoming my livestock without selling herself. Not only that I found her creating a successful business by selling her milk to passing travelers."

Tilty heaved another sigh as I just stayed quiet.

"So to stop that I imposed an eighty percent tax on items brought from her farm with anyone that refused punished by being stripped of everything they owned. Then I introduced myself to Zeldi and told her that if she didn't sell herself to me I would be making her life harder and harder until she did."

"You didn't even try to nicely ask if she could become a livestock at your farm? Maybe offer her some independence if she gave you the majority of her milk?" I interrupted not at all surprised but I had to ask.

"I thought she would cave in really quickly, and that way everything she produced would be mine. Every book of read on Deed owners and livestock said that I would be in charge. I let it go to my head." Tilty admitted.

"I think it went further than that. So what did you do next?" The part about books struck me. All the other deed owners is heard about didn't seem to be doing a good job unless they themselves were Livestock, Tilty excluded of course. But if there were books about this saying you needed to act a certain way it would make more sense.

"Well I gave her a few months, slowly buying everything of hers that was valuable or just nice to have in exchange for food. I was hoping she would sell herself to gain those benefits back but no. When that didn't break her I hired Maletary and Vallitu."

I instantly gained a lot more interest at the mention of Maletary. The last time I'd heard her name was when a kobold attempt to steal Zeldi's milk was rummaging around in the barn. That also reminded me about its cloak and smoke bombs. Where the hell had I put them?

"Someone was still trading with Zeldi and was somehow bypassing the tax collectors but I could never figure out who. I hired Maletary and Vallitu to find out who and get rid of them." Tilty started drawing circles in the dirt besides herself.

"So you hired kobold hit woman?" I clarified.

Tilty raised an eyebrow at me but nodded. "I'm guessing you've run into Maletary?"

"In a round about way." I answered without clarifying.

Tilty didn't care and with a shrug she continued. "Well Maletary turned traitor and killed Vallitu before she started buying Zeldis milk herself."

That doesn't explain the kobold attempting to steal from me.

"That wasn't too big of a problem for me as she was also ordering her minions to stealth-fully break and steal items Zeldi would need to live so that your Centaur would be fully reliant on her. I was planning on removing Maletary once that became the case as Zeldi would have had nothing at that point. Unfortunately Maletary was a bit too elusive for that, though my efforts did slow her down."

And there's my answer. If Zeldi didn't know any of this was happening in the background then Maletary would have been her shinning light in an otherwise shitty situation. If she hadn't been stealing I'd have probably been thanking her for looking after Zeldi all these years.

"Eventually after the first three years I managed to make it difficult enough that Maletary didn't try too much. Mainly by breaking all of Zeldi's bottles so she couldn't sell her milk. Not a lot of incentive for the kobold to keep returning if the milk she prized wasn't there. She still came every now and then but not enough to be a problem."

"Riiiight." I drew out. "A problem in your efforts to enslave Zeldi. Please continue."

Tilty fidgeted. "At the three year point I got my first quest. The one where I would need a livestock to continue being the Deed owner."

I nodded.

"Well I grew a bit desperate knowing I had a time limit and my methods grew a bit more... Extreme."

Oh goodie. More desperate than forcing her to live off scraps while everything she owned was systematically stripped  away.