As soon as Kenshin stepped out of the carriage, a joyful Kasumi threw herself into his arms, and seeing the short-haired young girl who followed, she looked at Kenshin in surprise.
"Those bastards got into selling kids?!" Kasumi asked in a displeased tone, causing Makoto to flinch and, scared, change her mind about approaching her lord and the unknown girl. Considering that this girl was hugging the lord, 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, mistress..." Makoto squeaked and quickly approached.
"What's your name, little one?" Kasumi asked tenderly.
"M-My name is Makoto, mistress," she replied meekly, fearing to do anything that might displease this beautiful and stately kunoichi.
"How old are you, Makoto?" Kasumi asked softly.
"S-Sixteen, mistress..."
"Sixteen?! Kenshin, did you hear? How little do you have to feed a child for her to look twelve at sixteen?! Bastards!" Kasumi growled, furious at the vile slavers.
Kasumi's righteous anger greatly scared Makoto, so she took a step back and hid behind Kenshin's back, who by then had finished helping Noriko.
"Kasumi, stop. You're scaring Makoto," he said with a smile, putting his arm around the girl's shoulder and 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'll be living with us. This is Meyumi, her servant. And her name is Noriko," Kenshin said calmly, listing all the new girls.
All his wives immediately examined the named girls and were surprised to notice Noriko standing by the carriage. Although her missing eye was partially covered by hair falling over her face, focusing on her, they had no trouble noticing the gaping void and the disfigured, multiply broken nose.
"Ah! Poor Noriko, what happened to you?" Aya exclaimed and ran up 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 have.
"Alright, go inside; everything else later," Kenshin commanded, and with telekinesis pulled 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 quietly laughed, and taking Makoto by the hand, Kasumi led her inside. Meyumi silently scurried 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 big "castle," all the new girls began looking around, surprised by the perfect product of medieval European culture from Kenshin's home world.
Despite everything around being extremely interesting and beautiful, the girls weren't overly surprised. But everything changed when they reached a large fork and didn't enter one of the big doors literally dividing different "worlds."
Once inside, Makoto and Meyumi couldn't hold back surprised sighs as they looked around the splendor. Noriko was more reserved, but even she was quite amazed by the unusual beauty of the place.
The first thing everyone noticed was the incredible voluminous light coming from the dazzlingly bright chandeliers on the ceiling. And the splendor of the carpet laid on the floor. Although all the girls were familiar with carpets, none of the ones they had seen before were this beautiful. The color, softness, and even the style—all screamed that they were in the home of an ultra-wealthy person.
Kenshin slowed his pace a bit, allowing the girls to fully admire the previously unseen wonders, but after a minute, the group reached the stairs to the second floor and then proceeded down 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 from the entourage. Aya had wanted to stay too, but Kenshin mentally told her to leave. He was a bit worried for her safety and didn't want her unsupervised around Noriko, at least until he figured out her hot temper.
"Let's pick 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 here will hurt you," Kasumi said softly, feeling a 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 interacting with this unique girl. She saw a little version of herself in her and madly envied the fact that this bright and kind girl had managed to preserve these qualities despite the blows of fate.
"Uh-huh!" Makoto nodded joyfully. She was sensitive to kind treatment, so she quickly lost her wariness toward this mistress. She was very curious about who this incredibly beautiful girl was, but Makoto was too shy to ask.
Choosing the first room she came to, Makoto lightly pushed the richly decorated, exotic door, but it didn't open.
"Here, you press the handle, and it opens," Kasumi said with a smile, stroking her head, charmed by her childlike wonder.
As soon as Makoto entered, she couldn't hold back a sigh of amazement. 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 it was a hallucination.
The room had a huge bed designed for more than two people. One large sofa and several most comfortable armchairs. Besides a huge number of minor details, there was also a small bookshelf and a massive wardrobe.
Meyumi couldn't contain her curiosity and slipped into the room after Kenshin and Kasumi. Seeing all this splendor, enormous envy for the lucky Makoto arose in her soul, who had chosen one of the best rooms in the entire castle. In her opinion, a better room could only be the lord's.
"Don't envy, Meyumi. All these rooms are the same," Kenshin said mentally.
"Ah!" she exclaimed in fright and heard Kenshin's displeased grunt, as well as his icy gaze.
To everyone's surprise, even Noriko couldn't fight her curiosity and entered the room after the others.
"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 be a crime to go further and dirty all this perfect cleanliness.
"You can admire her room later; choose yours. You still need to be washed and fed," Kenshin said, feeling a bit strange. Just a few hours ago, he had behaved like a very influential lord who simply had to have dozens of servants. He felt the girls didn't quite understand why their lord was personally handling such things, but Makoto and Noriko didn't care much, and Meyumi wasn't in a position where her opinion mattered to anyone.