Chapter 5: In Which I Hear The Story of Valenz the Coward, And The Tiger Lady Awakens

We stood over the fallen tiger lady… she seemed to still be breathing, at least.

Master stared off into the distance with a slight smile and a sort of vacant expression.

I blinked… I hadn’t seen that look on her since she switched places with me. “...you okay there, Master?”

“Shhh, quiet, trying to think, Master.” From her superior tone, I gathered she hadn’t meant to say ‘Master’… actually, maybe she had said my original name instead, whatever that was. Maybe I should try to read her lips next time… but how would I even know when or if there would be a next time?

For a moment I felt adrift, more disconnected than ever from the world I had came from without even the knowledge of the name my parents had given me. Not that I thought much of them, but still. It was a bit lonely.

I looked down at the sleeping tiger. “Can you please heal her, Master? I know you care about slaves, whatever your... apparent prejudice against cats is.”

She looked over at me distractedly. “There’s nothing wrong with cats, there’s just… when growing up as a dog, you hear a lot of stuff, and it’s easy to come out when you’re angry.”

“Doesn’t that mean you are, on some subconscious level, prejudiced against them?”

“Sure, probably.” She rolled her eyes, and kneeled down next to the former gladiator once know as Valenz. Or currently known as Valenz?

“What’s her name now?”

“Valentine, Princess Asperia renamed her. I suppose I can tell you a highly abbreviated version of the story as I heal her, it’ll take a bit to do well, and she’s kinda famous among slaves.” She pulled a potion from her belt – mana potion maybe, judging from the color – and chugged it before making a face. I could sympathize. It’s not that the sickly sweet taste of mana potions tasted bad, but they always made you feel sick to your stomach a few hours after you drank them.

I sat down on the edge of the bed and watched as she ran her hands over Valentine’s body, but there was none of the lewdness she did to me in her hands, just purely a clinical thing as she tried to efficiently heal every part of the larger woman with the magic emanating from her hands. If anything, she looked a bit distracted. I didn’t know how to even approach feeling about this.

“It was a few years back when Valenz the Gladiator, as she was then known, first appeared in the arena. She had been trained for years, of course– all the gladiators were. Does your world have gladiators? They’re all slaves, live to fight each other… there’s a lot of casualties.” She ran her hand over Valentine’s brow.

“No serious head wound, it seems… that’s good… where was I…” She nods. “So, she first appeared in the arena there. She disarmed her opponent, and defended unarmed attack versus unarmed attack, but didn’t kill him despite it supposed to being a match to the death… now, this wasn’t that unusual in itself, fresh gladiators are sometimes more afraid to kill than die, so she was beaten a bit, and then thrown back into the queue for the arena. Most people, when people continually try to kill them and the crowds are chanting for death, learn to fight back. Not Valenz, though.”

“In match after match, even though the odds were more and more stacked against, her, she didn’t kill a single foe, neither person nor animal. Finally, she was matched up against a dragon, and the two just sat in the arena, neither willing to make an offensive move. She started singing to it, actually, and it sang back. They finished the song, and just… sat there. The arena was silent as the grave– no one knew how to react, although they certainly couldn’t claim it wasn’t a spectacle.”

“It was at this point that Princess Asperia jumped down into the arena, and walked up to her, and cast Amplify– a lot of nobles have learned Amplify, it’s a good way to speak to crowds. Valenz kneeled before her, and the Princess asked why Valenz never fought, despite facing death.

’I decided a long time ago not to kill others to live, your highness.’, stated Valenz nobly.

The Princess was a bit taken aback– one could say many incredible things about royalty, but not that they didn’t kill others to live. ‘You’re incredibly strong. Couldn’t you have fought and escaped, if you fought seriously?’

It was then that Valenz smiled. ‘I decided a long time ago not to kill others to live.”

There was a long silence in the arena on that day. This was completely unprecedented, and some felt a bit uncomfortable as they realized all the entertainment they took from the death of others, and some felt angry that they’d be implicitly accused by a mere slave. Still, they could hardly jeer with the Princess standing there, it could be taken as treason.

‘Would you rather be a sex slave than fight?’ Valenz stared at the Princess in disbelief, then kneeled before her and pressed her forehead against the ground.

‘Please, yes, your highness!’

‘I decree that, beginning next week, any foolish gladiator that wishes to become a sex slave rather than live the life of a gladiator, the most exalted and luxurious occupation a slave has… has that option. I’ll set up the details within the week. As for this girl… she’s named Valentine, now.’”

Master rolled Valentine over gently, and ran her hands along her back.

“By only disobeying one command over and over again, Valenz managed to change her path in life, something normally impossible for a slave… if only because of a literal Royalty Out Of The Sky scenario. Even those who think she’s foolish are impressed with her, especially slaves. There’s other less reliable tales about her, too.”

“...you don’t have the same hero worship?”

“I think she should have organized an escape, and killed as many of those who worked for the arena as possible on the way out. She was certainly strong enough to, but she chose keeping her own hands clean over the good of the many.” She paused in her healing for a moment, stared down at Valentine. “It was the Princess, not her, who opened up the way for others.”

“But… she was my role model, in a way, once upon a time. She showed me that if you keep on trying, there’s some sliver of a chance that you can accomplish the impossible. Even if you’re a slave.”

I was silent for a little while as I watched her heal Valentine, gently running her hands over her body. Perhaps this woman was the inspiration for Master to swap bodies with me… but I could hardly hold it against her. Rather, I felt a little shamed– there was no force pressing me to, since I was once strong beyond measure, and yet I had taken a fair number of lives ‘for the greater good’. Bad people, of course, or people who I had at least thought were bad, but… in a way, perhaps I was closer to Sasha than Valentine.

Finally, Master gently rolled Valentine on her front. “Get in front of her, and put your hand on her head as if you’re healing her, and I’ll remove the sleep spell. Everyone knows you as the healer, not I, and we have other things to focus on.” A thought occurred to me as I got into position.

“...wasn’t Princess Asperia the one summoned me?”

“Yes. Now make your best concerned expression.”

“I am concerned!”

"That's the spirit!"

I shook my head, and looked down at Valentine, letting my worry show on my face. Someone would have to be desperate to break into the Hero’s room halfdead, doubly so a slave.

Valentine’s eyes slowly fluttered open, and she smiled up at me.

“Oh, hey. It’s you again. Sasha, right?” She started to sit up, carefully, but seeing as her wounds were entirely healed, blinked a few times. “Your healing abilities really are top-notch.”

I flushed and nodded a little, receiving the praise for something I hadn’t done.

Master leaned in above us, and Valentine blinked, and quickly moved into a typical sex slave kneeling position with her legs spread and her hands on the floor in front of her, showing off her muscular thighs and arms in a way that I don’t think the pose was really meant to, but I certainly wasn’t about to complain about.

“O one who travels from the furthest reaches, thank you for allowing me in your room.”

Master blinked a few times, and tilted her head to one side.

I tried not to glare at her for playing dumb. “...is that some sort of formal address, Master…?” ...I still played along, though.

“Oh, that’s where I heard it! Um, hi, Valentine... please, be at ease. I’m no good with all that formal talk.” She laughed in a bit of a self-deprecating way, again mimicking me to an extent I was uncomfortable with.

Valentine moved into a more normal kneeling position, and looked up at her with professional submissiveness, like a friendly customer service worker or something I guess, only with a bit more respect and worship thrown.

Master looked down at her, and reached her hand towards her head. “Why did you come to me?” She pulled back her hand a little. “...ah, sorry, is it okay if I pet your head, Valentine?”

The tiger-girl blinked at the novelty of being asked permission for something, but managed to get her head together and respond almost immediately. “Of course,” she responded with a smile, seeming pleased.

Master started petting her head with clear satisfaction. I wanted to pet her head too! But it was hardly something I could ask for, nor could I ask for headpats of my own.

“As for why I came to you, sir…? My current Master believes I am an assassin, and since he could not get me to confess, tried to kill me. I figured I might as well run to someone and try to survive… it’s not like I could continually fend off my master’s attempts to kill me, after all. So I needed help.”

“Miss Sasha here saved my life before, and I have heard the rumors of you being very kind, and helping out slaves with no benefit to yourself at times… truly a hero among heroes… so I thought I’d come here. We were both chosen by Princess Asperia, as well, and I trust her judgement.”

Master furrowed her brow, looking down at Valentine with a mixture of concern and discomfort. “Yeah… I’m more the sort of person who fights, though, so I don’t know what you could do by my side… and more importantly, I don’t really know how to resolve legal problems…? Maybe you’d be better off going on your own, before I mess up and get you in trouble….”

“Why don’t we take her to Princess Asperia, Master?" I said. "It’d be a bit of travel, but we have reasons to speak with her, don’t we?”

Master looked over me, annoyance flickering over her face for just a moment before she nodded. “Yes, that seems like a good idea… if you’re okay with it, Miss Valentine? I want to protect you, but if you think your chances are better on your own….”

Valentine flushed a little and shook her head a little at the more formal address that wasn’t generally applied to slaves, disrupting Master’s continued petting of her head a little. “Ah, you certainly don’t need to call me ‘Miss’, Sir.”

“Oh, my bad… yeah, Sasha tells me that too… just feels weird to be treated with formal language sometimes, I guess.” Master laughed self-deprecatingly. “I’m going to go grab a quick disguise for you, and you figure out if there’s anything you need to do in town before we leave, okay?”

“Thank you, Sir!” Valentine's voice still had that cheerful further-than-customer-service sort of tone.

Master left, leaving the two of us alone in the room.

Valentine’s posture immediately relaxed, and she took my hands in mine, smiling at me. “Thank you so much! I’m glad to be in the hands of two trustworthy people like you.”

I inhaled and looked away… if I told Valentine, she’d be in danger.

Valentine blinked as she looked down at me. “...are you okay?”

My mind searched for some excuse. “Oh, just… you’re stronger than I am, I’m wondering if Master will discard me in favor of you.”

Valentine considered this for a moment. “Even if he decides to claim me, I’ll put in a good word for you and your abilities… but I don’t think he will. I’m not a healer like you, you’re more valuable in every sense than you think. You’re a little cutie, too, I can tell Sir is attracted to you. Me… he’s helping me because you helped me, I think, and because he’s just a helpful sort of guy. I’m not a warrior, and if he wanted a sex slave, he could have one.”

I flushed and studied the ceiling, causing Valentine to giggle a little and pet my head. “...yeah,” I agreed as I enjoyed her hand running over my hair and scritching behind my ear. “He really cares about slaves, in his own way.”

“I’ve heard the same about you. You’re a hero among slaves.”

I laughed awkwardly as I got credit once again for something I had little to do with. Master had always been trying to find better places for abused slaves to live and so forth, back when she was my slave, and I was just kind of pulled along by her enthusiasm. “Ah, well, I never really did much… just what I could, you know?”

“Nonsense. I think stories of you are spoken more of than me.”

“Well, they’re hardly likely to speak your own stories in front of you, are they…? Hard to ascertain the actual truth there….”

She blinked a few times, then nodded. “Yeah! You’re smart, too.”

Perhaps she was implying she had heard otherwise, though I didn’t hear it in her voice.

I smiled awkwardly. “Well, yeah, it’s... not good for a slave to appear too smart.”

“...yeah. I guess it would weaken people’s respect for your Master if it was known he followed your lead on some things.”

“...yeah.” Huh, so Master pretending she was dumb had probably helped me in some way… even if that wasn’t her intention. “...well, given recent events, having followed my advice might make a good excuse."

“...so demoting the Rushen family wasn’t intentional on his part.” Valentine didn't sound surprised.

“Yeah, she didn’t really plan for that.”

“...she?”

I grimaced. “...maybe I am dumb… don’t tell anyone, but I’m pretty sure Master… kinda thinks of herself as a girl. So, like… it slips out sometimes when I get too relaxed.”

Valentine tilted her head to one side, than the other. “Huh. She should see a transmutationist.” A little bit of panic ran through me. This was actually my body we’re talking about.

“Wouldn’t people see her as less of the Hero that way?”

“Nope! There’s been a few heroes who switched sexes. Now, Fallen Hero Azkael, that’s one she shouldn’t mimic.” I stared blankly, and she looked at me in disbelief.

“You know, the one who had himself changed into a wolf-boy. That sort of transmutation is forbidden. Ended up siding with the animalfolk, raising a revolution, and getting executed.” She stared at my face, and gently stroked my cheek. “You seem really worried by the idea of her changing shape even without the story of Fallen Hero Azkael… you know, she'll probably still be attracted to you if she changes....”

“Do I?” I reached up to touch my face.

Master could literally do whatever what she wanted with my body. My former body, too. What would that body that was once mine even look like as a girl…?