"Alright, let's get those collars off."

After finishing the dinner that had been brought to the room and taking a breather, I spoke to Ivan and Phonia.

"Huh?"

The two of them stared at me, mouths agape.

"It's part of the request, after all. With this, neither of you will have to worry about being pursued anymore."

"O-Oh…"

"Yeah…"

Ivan still looked dumbfounded, but Phonia had lowered her head, her expression turning somber. She had been happily eating her dinner just moments ago—what could have caused this sudden change?

"What's wrong, Phonia?"

Now that I thought about it, she hadn't seemed very energetic before dinner either.

"No… it's nothing."

"Really?"

Ivan tilted his head in confusion, while Phonia only glanced between him and us, seemingly unsure. Was she worried that we had discovered she was a Youko?

"Even if the collar is off, it’s not like you can walk around this city openly…"

If the Lagroi Marquisate, who had ordered their disposal, found them, there was no telling what might happen. However—

"But at least you're no longer slaves. If you go to another city, you won't have to worry about prying eyes anymore. Look at Nir—he's a magical beast, but he walks around freely."

I called Nir over and ruffled the fur around his neck.

"Wafu~"

He let out a pleased sound and snuggled up to me.

Seeing this, Phonia’s eyes widened as she stared intently at Nir.

"So, you really don’t need to worry about anything."

I tried to subtly reassure her that even magical beings weren’t an issue.

"Haha, yeah, compared to magical beasts, being a former slave doesn’t seem like much of a problem."

Ivan laughed, patting Phonia on the head. She gave a small nod in response.

"Oh yeah, I've been wondering about something…"

Ivan turned his gaze to Phonia’s back. Of course, he’d notice.

"Didn’t Phonia only have three tails…?"

Wait, so she originally had three? Does that mean two more appeared? Do tails even grow like that?

"Huh?"

Phonia seemed confused at first, but as she swayed her tails, her eyes widened. Hesitantly, she reached behind her, counting them.

"…They multiplied."

"You didn't even notice?"

"Tails can multiply?"

I muttered in disbelief. Thinking back to what my appraisal had shown about Youko tails, wasn't this supposed to be a huge deal?

"I wonder if Nir’s tail can multiply too."

Curious, I started fluffing his tails one by one.

"Wafuuu~"

He relaxed completely, flopping onto the floor with a blissful sigh.

"Haha, looks like Nir's tails don’t multiply."

Hearing Nir’s sounds, Phonia, who had been downcast, let out an awkward laugh.

"Wait, Phonia… can you understand what Nir is saying?"

"Uh, well… kind of…"

"What? I can’t understand him at all."

Ivan scratched his cheek, staring at Nir. Was it not because she was a beastkin, but because she was a magical being?

Realizing she had said something unusual, Phonia's expression darkened again.

"Wow, that’s amazing, Phonia. You can understand Nir? I can kind of get what he means, but not in detail."

As a tamer, I had a general sense of Nir’s intentions, but not exact words.

"Really…?"

She lifted her face slightly, looking at me. Her eyes, which had been filled with hesitation, gradually focused and met mine directly.

As I slowly approached and crouched to meet her gaze, I patted her head. A small, shy smile formed on her face.

Taking advantage of the moment, I removed the collar and stored it in my dimensional storage.

"Ah!"

She quickly reached for her neck, realizing it was gone. Nothing was left to bind her anymore.

"It's really… off…"

I also removed Ivan’s collar. He, too, touched his neck in disbelief.

"Now, once we return the collars to the marquisate, they’ll consider you both dead."

"That’s right. You might have already decided, but take some time to think about what you’ll do next."

"Got it."

Ivan nodded seriously, and I gave him a firm nod in return.

"We still have things to do in the imperial capital. You two should take it easy here for a while."

"Huh?"

Though I was just telling them to rest, Ivan looked strangely confused.

"Wait, but staying here costs money. We could go back to the forest hideout—"

"Don’t worry about it. We have plenty of money… Besides, I don’t think it’s safe to use the hideout anymore."

"Yeah. I didn’t expect adventurers to be able to enter that deep so easily. Someone’s probably using it by now."

I had thought it was a well-made hideout, so it wouldn’t be surprising if someone took advantage of it.

"I see… You guys have really done so much for us…"

As Ivan slumped his shoulders, Phonia gently patted his back in encouragement.