As soon as Kenshin stepped out of the carriage, joyful Kasumi immediately threw herself into his arms, and seeing the short-haired young girl who followed, she looked at Kenshin in surprise.
"Those bastards started selling children?!" Kasumi asked in a displeased tone, making Makoto flinch and, frightened, change her mind about approaching her master and the unknown girl. Given that this girl was hugging the master, Makoto guessed her high status.
Kenshin was focused on helping Noriko out of the carriage, so Kasumi turned her attention to Makoto and said with a smile: "No need to be afraid, come here."
"Y-yes, madam…" Makoto squeaked and quickly approached.
"What's your name, little one?" Kasumi asked gently.
"M-my name is Makoto, madam," she replied meekly, afraid to do anything that might displease this beautiful and stately kunoichi.
"How old are you, Makoto?" Kasumi asked softly.
"S-sixteen, madam…"
"Sixteen?! Kenshin, did you hear? How little you have to feed a child for her to look twelve at sixteen?! Bastards!" Kasumi growled, furious at the vile slave traders.
Kasumi's righteous anger greatly frightened Makoto, causing her to take a step and hide behind Kenshin's back, who by then had finished helping Noriko.
"Kasumi, stop. You're scaring Makoto," he said with a smile and put his arm around the girl's shoulder, pulling her close.
At that moment, Natsumi, Aya, and Hitomi approached, so Kenshin decided to introduce them to the new girls.
"Since everyone's gathered, allow me to introduce you all. This is Makoto; she will live with us. This is Meyumi, her maid. And this is Noriko," Kenshin said calmly, listing all the new girls.
All his wives immediately examined the named girls and looked in surprise at Noriko standing by the carriage. Although her missing eye was slightly covered by hair falling over her face, focusing their gaze on her made it easy to notice the gaping emptiness and the disfigured, repeatedly broken nose.
"Ah! Poor Noriko, what happened to you?" Aya exclaimed and ran to her.
Noriko didn't know how to react to this pampered girl's behavior. To her own surprise, she found that this situation irritated her much less than it should.
"Alright, go inside the house; everything else later," Kenshin commanded and used telekinesis to pull Noriko into his arms.
"Let go, old man! Even without a leg, I'm not helpless and can walk myself!" she snapped, displeased with such a humiliating position.
Hearing her call Kenshin "old man," all his wives giggled quietly, and taking Makoto by the hand, Kasumi led her inside. Meyumi silently trotted after them, deciding to stay quiet for the first time and observe all the inhabitants of this huge "castle."
As soon as they entered the large "castle," all the new girls began looking around in surprise, examining the perfect product of medieval European culture from Kenshin's home world.
Despite everything around being extremely interesting and beautiful, the girls were not particularly surprised. But everything changed when they reached a large fork and entered one of the large doors, literally separating different "worlds."
Once inside, Makoto and Meyumi couldn't hold back surprised sighs, looking at the surrounding splendor. Noriko was more restrained, but even she was quite impressed by the unusual beauty of this place.
The first thing everyone noticed was the incredible volumetric light coming from dazzlingly bright chandeliers on the ceiling, as well as the splendor of the carpet on the floor. Although all the girls were familiar with carpets, none they had seen before were so beautiful. The color, softness, and even style—all literally screamed that they were in the home of a super-rich person.
Kenshin slowed his pace a little, allowing the girls to admire the previously unseen wonders, but after a minute, the group reached the stairs to the second floor and then moved into one of the corridors.
"Each of these rooms is free. You can choose the one you like best," Kenshin said.
By this time, only Kasumi remained of the entire escort. Aya also wanted to stay, but Kenshin mentally told her to leave. He was a little worried about her safety and didn't want her to interact with Noriko without supervision, at least until he figured out her temper.
"Let's choose this room, Makoto," Meyumi whispered, lightly tugging her sleeve.
"Each of you will have your own room. Makoto, choose where you want to live," Kenshin said with a smile.
"Come on, little one, don't be shy. No one will hurt you here," Kasumi said gently, feeling the need to protect this beautiful flower.
Meekness, shyness, and kindness were extremely rare among the inhabitants of this world, and Kasumi felt no less satisfaction than Kenshin from communicating with this unique girl. She saw in her a little version of herself and was madly envious that this bright and kind girl had managed to preserve these qualities despite the blows of fate.
"Yes!" Makoto nodded happily. She was sensitive to affectionate treatment, so she quickly lost her wariness toward this madam. She was very curious who this incredibly beautiful girl was, but Makoto was too shy to ask.
Choosing the first room that caught her eye, Makoto lightly pushed the richly decorated and unusual door, but it didn't open.
"Here, you press the handle, and it opens," Kasumi said with a smile, stroking her head and admiring her childlike surprise.
As soon as Makoto entered, she couldn't hold back a sigh of surprise. The room before her eyes was the richest and most luxurious she had ever seen in her life, and the young girl blinked several times in disbelief, thinking she was imagining it.
The room had a huge bed designed for more than two people, one large sofa, and several very comfortable armchairs. In addition to a huge number of minor details, the room also had a small bookshelf and a huge wardrobe.
Meyumi couldn't restrain her curiosity and slipped into the room after Kenshin and Kasumi. Seeing all this splendor, enormous envy for the lucky Makoto, who had chosen one of the best rooms in the entire castle, arose in her soul. In her opinion, only the master's room could be better than this one.
"Don't envy her, Meyumi. All these rooms are identical," Kenshin said mentally.
"Ah!" she cried out in fear and heard Kenshin's displeased hum and his icy gaze.
To everyone's surprise, even Noriko couldn't fight her curiosity and entered the room after everyone.
"Wow, skinny. Looks like you've become a little princess now!" she said with a laugh, examining the unusual beauty of the room, but even for her it would have been blasphemy to go further and soil all this perfect cleanliness.
"You'll admire her room later; choose your own. You still need to wash and eat," Kenshin said, feeling a little strange. Just hours ago he had behaved like a very influential lord who simply couldn't not have several dozen servants. He felt that the girls didn't quite understand why their master personally handled such things, but Makoto and Noriko weren't very concerned, and Meyumi was in no position for her opinion to matter to anyone.