InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Love of her Master ❯ The Castle ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: `Inuyasha' belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. While this plot and any additional characters belong to me, everything else is hers. I make no profit off this story, and am writing it only for my own enjoyment.

 

Warning: Implied rape in chapter.

 

CHAPTER 4 - THE CASTLE

 

Kagome hurried back to Lord Inuyasha's room, his now clean laundry in her arms. She had now been living here at Lord Inutaisho's castle for three weeks, and in that time had found that she was settling in surprisingly well. Aside from a few problems she had been having, she found much to her amazement that she was almost… happy.

 

The trip to the castle itself had been far from pleasant for the young woman. It wasn't the fact that the travelling party, which was mostly made up of youkai and human warriors, moved at a brisk pace and didn't stop for breaks very often. She had been forced to walk for much longer and much faster when she was being transported to the market and found she could keep up with her new master and his party with a minimum of trouble. It wasn't that they slept outside under the stars on both nights of the trip. That was also something she had had to get used to while travelling with the slavers and at least now, she wasn't burdened by the chains on her wrists that would jingle every time she moved. And it certainly wasn't the food. Even if it was just travel rations it was still a vast improvement over the slop she had had to endure for the last several weeks prior.

 

No, what made the trip so horrible for Kagome was the looks and suggestive comments repeatedly thrown her way. Not by her master, who had been keeping his word to treat her well, much more than she had even dared to hope he would. Not from his friends Miroku and Sango either, who were being unbelievably kind and caring to a slave such as her. No, it was the other men in the travelling party, who she had learnt served Lord Inuyasha's father, Lord Inutaisho. The worst was the wolf demon Captain Koga, who was the apparent leader of the party, or at least the second in command after Lord Inuyasha. More than once the wolf had come up to her and whispered in her ear about how she shouldn't `save it all' for her master, and how he could no doubt show her a much better time. He had even groped her at one point, causing her to have a horrible flashback to the morning before the auction. However, he had thankfully never done any more than that, and she happily hadn't seen the wolf since they had arrived at the castle. Looking back on it now, she realised that Koga and the other men in the party had never made a move towards her when Lord Inuyasha was around, nor Miroku or Sango. She wondered what that meant, and if Inuyasha would have stepped in had he realised what the men were doing. She suspected that he would have, and wished that she had had the courage to speak up at the time, but she was still so nervous around her new master and unsure of herself that she hadn't dared. Truthfully, she wasn't sure if she would have the courage to do so even now.

 

Once she had arrived at the palace however, things had improved dramatically for Kagome. She wouldn't say that everything was wonderful or anything. Many of the servants and her fellow slaves that worked in the noble section of the palace had been giving her the cold shoulder or worse. She was after all Lord Inuyasha's `personnel slave' and the stigma that went along with that - aka, the belief that she was also his personnel whore - made her in the eyes of most of many of the castle help something akin to a leper social-wise, even amongst the other slaves. However, not all of the staff seemed to feel that way. There were certain members of the staff, mostly in the older generation, who rightly believed that Lord Inuyasha would never do that to a young woman such as Kagome. As a result, they at least had been treating Kagome with as much respect as she guessed a slave of any kind could expect. In peculiar, old Kaede who served as head of the staff in the noble wing and doubled as healer for the Royal Family, had taken a shine to Kagome. The older woman had become a pillar of support for Kagome, helping her adjust to life at the castle and defending her from the other staff members. On one occasion the older woman had actually bopped one of the other staff members of the head with a mop when the man had made a distasteful comment about Kagome in the Keade's hearing.

 

Problems with the other staff members aside, life as Lord Inuyasha's slave was turning out much better than Kagome had hoped it would. She was given her own room next to her Master's, which while very small, was done up extremely comfortably with furniture and decoration far more expensive than anything her family had ever owned. She had been given serval more clothes since arriving at the palace, which were of even better quality than the ones Sango had acquired for her at the market. And as for the food she had been feed since arriving, well, she truly believed mere words couldn't describe how good some of it was, even if she privately thought that her mother`s oden was better than the one the castle cooks had made that one time. While Kagome had never really been anyone who was overly concerned with material possessions, she still couldn't help but admire everything she had been given since she had come here.

 

And much to her amazement, Kagome was actually finding that she enjoyed spending time with her master. Lord Inuyasha was very different than anyone she had ever met before, and he intrigued her in many ways. He would often talk to her about various topics, many of which she couldn't help but be interested in. What was even better, in these talk he wouldn't treat her as if she was his slave, but instead almost as if she was his equal. He had been faithfully keeping his promise to treat her well, and had been much kinder to her than she had ever dared to hope a master would be to a mere slave. That's not to say that Lord Inuyasha didn't have his flaws. He had a vicious temper, which she had discovered on her first week at the castle in what was truly a heart-stopping occasion for the young woman. However, even then Lord Inuyasha had never raised a hand to her, and had restrained himself to simply yelling. He also calmed down surprisingly quickly too, and didn't seem to hold much in the way of a grudge once his initial anger had subsided. While Kagome decided after that day that she would try not to make Lord Inuyasha ever too angry at her, in all she still felt that that if she had to be a slave that she was lucky to have him as her master.

 

In all, Kagome was more or less content with the life she had been living here at the castle these last three weeks, and felt that as long as things didn't change too much, that she would be able to handle living as Lord Inuyasha's slave for however long the gods willed her to.

 

Kagome was almost back to her master's room, having only been gone long enough to pick up the clothes she had left with the laundry maids earlier that morning, when a pair of strong, clawed hands grabbed her - albeit almost gently - and trapped her with her back pressed up against the wall.

 

Kagome couldn't help but cry out in fear at the sudden, unexpected contact, and when she looked up to see who had grabbed her she didn't feel the least bit better. Standing over her with the same leering expression Kagome remembered all too well, was Captain Koga.

 

“Well, beautiful, it's so nice to see you again.” Koga said, leaning much closer than Kagome was comfortable with and leaving Kagome eternally grateful for the laundry basket between them. “You smell as wonderful as ever. And you look even better than you did before, you were much too skinny last time I saw you. Looks like the mutt's been feeding you right at least, guess he's good for something after all.”

 

Kagome found herself becoming angry at Koga's insolent words about her master. Koga had no right to speak of her master like that, not only was Lord Inuyasha his superior, from what she had seen he was a far better man than Koga could or would ever be. Before she could work up the courage to say anything to express her opinion in that regard however, Koga said something else that buried her anger under an almost overwhelming fear.

 

“So, have you given any more thought to what I told you on the trip here?” Koga asked, leaning even closer so that his nose was buried in her hair. “I can show you so much more than the mutt ever could. You shouldn't waste your time saving it all for him. He doesn't even seem to appreciate you the way such a beauty should be.”

 

“Captain Koga, I… I can't… I don't… I've got to go, I've got to get this laundry back to my master's room.” Kagome babbled in fear, trying to escape the cage formed by Koga's arms. Before she could get away however, Koga grabbed her arms again, this time gripping her so hard it almost hurt.

 

“Now, now beautiful, don't you worry about that.” Koga said, leering at her again. “We'll just find some other slave to take that over to the mutt's room, and then we'll go to my rooms and I'll show you just what you've been missing out of. It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours, the mutt won't even realise your gone. Who knows, if you're even half as good in the sack as I think you are, maybe I'll even buy you from the mutt, and we can play together everyday when I'm not out on missions for the old Dog Lord. Come on now.”

 

“Captain Koga, please!” Kagome begged as the wolf demon started to pull her down the corridor in the direction of his own apartments in the castle. She was so upset that tears were starting to form and run down her cheeks. “I don't want this, and I have to get back to my duties.”

 

“Now, now, you don't know what you want.” Koga said, not the least bit deterred by Kagome's struggles nor her tears. “Give me an hour or two and I'll change your mind.”

 

“What is going on here?” A new, and rather angry voice asked suddenly, as Kaede suddenly appeared from somewhere behind Kagome. “Captain Koga, unless you have business in this section of the castle I suggest you leave now, and let Miss Kagome get back to her duties. Kagome, his Lordship, Inuyasha is looking for you. You best get back to his quarters right away.”

 

“Yes Kaede, I'll be right there.” Kagome said, so relieved to see the old woman she almost kissed her. Koga had released her arms at Kaede's appearance. Servant or not, Kaede held a great deal of power around the castle, as she was something of a confidant to several members of the royal family, and had the power to make life miserable for many people if she choose to. Koga was one of Lord Inutaisho's more powerful Captains, but even he knew better than to mess with Kaede.

 

“Fine then, I'll see you another time beautiful. My offer still stands.” He said, before turning and walking away. However, he didn't head back to his apartment straight away, deciding instead to take a roundabout trip through the servant's quarters to see if there were any young maidens hanging around back there who were free of duties for the moments. He had been looking forward to showing Kagome all he had to offer, and had quite a bulge in his pants to prove it, which needed to be taken care off. Maybe he would run into that wench Ayami again, she had seemed more than willing last time and wasn't too bad a fuck. She wasn't nearly as enticing as Kagome, but right now she would do.

 

Back in the corridor, Kaede frowned worriedly as she turned her eyes to Kagome. “What is this `offer' he speaks of, Kagome? Has Koga hurt you in any way.”

 

Kagome shook her head, too ashamed that she was in this mess to tell Kaede what Koga had said. The old woman was the basically the only friend she had within the castle staff, and she couldn't bear to see that friendship destroyed nor for Kaede to look at her the way other castle workers did, and she was sure that both would happen if Kaede ever discovered what Koga wanted from her.

 

“It's nothing Kaede, really. Is Lord Inuyasha really looking for me?”

 

While Kaede didn't quite believe Kagome about Koga, she decided to put that out of her mind for the moment. “Yes he is, or at least he was when I saw him a few minutes ago. Said something about needing a second opinion. He seemed quite flustered actually.” While Kagome couldn't even begin to guess about what it was her master could possibly want her opinion on, she nevertheless nodded thanks to Kaede and hurried down the corridor once again.

 

Kaede watched her go with a worried frown on her face. No, she didn't believe Kagome one little bit when she said nothing was wrong. She had seen the fear on the young woman's face, and the way Koga was manhandling her. She also knew from castle gossip all about Captain Koga's habit of bedding the castle servants, and if you believed the rumours not always with the woman's consent. However, as none of the women in question had been willing to come forward in fear of the wolf demon nothing had been done about it, despite Lord Inutaisho's well known abhorrence of mistreating women.

 

To say Kaede was concerned about Kagome would be an understatement, but as the girl was not willing to say anything there was little Kaede could do. As much sway as she might hold over Lord Inutaisho after so many years of valued service, she couldn't ask him to do anything against one of his most trusted captains without proof. However, she could and would keep a much closer eye on Kagome and Captain Koga both, and see if she saw anything. She considered telling Lord Inuyasha for a moment, before deciding against it. Inuyasha and Koga already had enough problems with each other, Inuyasha didn't need another excuse to beat the wolf up. His father would not be pleased.

 

For now, all Kaede would do was watch and wait… and pray to the gods that she was wrong.

 

 

Author's Note

 

Sorry that it's been so long since I last updated this. I got distracted by first my other stories, and then by a personnel matter that I would rather not discuss. Anyway, just so people know, I have no plans to abandon this story though updates might come out slower than I'm sure most people would like. While I really like this story, I am however finding it a rather difficult story to write.