Episode 18. What other races think of (2)
A shadow in the Calus estate.
It was an abandoned suburb, to be exact.
Just like the shantytown in Pretium, the situation in the Calus estate was no different. This is where a lot of the poor live, and it was also a place where abandoned tribes or criminals usually went to hide their bodies.
Because of that, it became a place where ethnic conflicts and crimes frequently took place, and the level of danger was indescribable.
But since it is a place like this, it would have been perfect to establish such an ‘organization’.
We continued towards the shanty town.
“Master, the further I go in, the more I feel uneasy. Is it okay if I kill the other person in case of emergency?”
Just before stepping into the slums, Iris gave a serious voice.
“…… Even if the other side uses violence first, it is not allowed to kill. Just do the pressure. Got it?”
No one answers. I sighed.
“I brought you here because it was useful. If you’re thinking of getting into an accident, go back now. If you enter together and have an accident, I will not take you to the Aium Kingdom.”
“Huh. I can’t go.”
Phoenix replied thickly. On the subject of not being able to intervene in the human world anyway.
“Okay, Phoenix. I won’t be making meals for you in the future.”
“W-Where is that?!”
She protests, shaking her red hair vigorously.
“Then follow me quietly, or go to the spirit realm.”
“Cheet… ….”
Finally, Phoenix clicked his tongue and took a step back.
The faces of the party who were watching Phoenix and I scramble relaxed a little, but.
“Go.”
I fixed my bag and moved first. A couple follows.
I looked around while walking through a place where there were so many shacks lined up that it couldn’t be called the inside of the city.
Several men with tattoos are staring at us. At the same time as being wary of the appearance of outsiders, they drew attention to the party with considerable appearance.
I can see the men who have been watching us whispering. It was very annoying, but now was not the time to deal with it.
The deeper we went, the more the smell of medicine and rot started. It was a stench that made me frown. It smelled like a rotting body.
“… ….”
Looking at the wrinkles on the faces of the party, it didn’t seem to be easy to bear. I was just about to move forward, breathing as little as possible.
Gasp.
At first, the clothes were caught. The moment I looked to the side, I couldn’t help but involuntarily startle.
Because the dog’s ears on top of his brown hair had been cut off in half, and he was covered in burn marks from his right cheek to his neck.
“This, human… …. I’m hungry, I’m hungry……. Can you give me something to eat…….”
The hand holding me is shaking. He tried to smile with his mouth raised, but he couldn’t hide the pain hidden in his expression.
“Hey, here.”
When I was still, Iris grabbed her child’s hand and pulled it apart. She then crouches down and hands her jerky to her child. As soon as she received it, she started devouring it.
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“Eat slowly. There is also water.”
Maria pulls out her canteen and hands it to her child.
“…… Teacher.”
“What is it?”
“Are there many children like this living here?”
“Yes.”
“…… Then, is it okay for me to help these children, just as Master helped me?”
Is it because he was abandoned by his parents and lived in a slum?
“Even if you don’t tell me, that’s why I came.”
Her gloomy face brightened. I sat down in front of the beast child who was chewing his food eagerly while mumbling.
“Guide me where you live.”
To meet the person I was looking for, it was better to be as noisy as possible. You can’t go through all the slums.
“But…… If a human comes, it will be dangerous…….”
“Don’t worry. Our master is stronger than anyone else.”
Iris spoke kindly as if soothing.
“There is enough food and water for the beastmen and elves here for several days. I can give it to you if you give me directions.”
“For how many days?”
I didn’t know how long it would take, but sooner or later, the right to survive would be strengthened once the issue of Aium Kingdom was resolved.
If the right to live is strengthened, working slaves will be treated much better than before. You won’t have to sleep in the cold, you’ll have at least two meals a day, and you’ll get a paycheck.
But here, in the slums, this was not the case. The right to live is to be considerate so that the subject of work does not die.
There was no way the state would take care of the insectivores who didn’t work, and it wasn’t that the iron plate was put on their faces to the extent that they demanded that.
Still, if I pave the way, the wise will begin to work to adapt to human society. Right now, that’s all I could do.
“Are you going to refuse?”
“… Oh no!!”
The child shook her head vigorously. Perhaps he thought he would be able to eat a lot of food, a childlike smile came out naturally.
“Yes. Then guide me.”
* * *
Just as there is a class in a slum, the boundary between humans and other races was clear. Most of the slums with light and frequent traffic were occupied by humans.
On the other hand, the other tribes were herded in an area where even the sunlight was not good because the wall was right in front of them.
The deeper I went into the shadows, the more I could see the faces of beastmen or elves rather than human faces, and most of them had physical problems or mental problems. It looked pretty serious, to the point where it looked more abnormal than normal.
And the moment we set foot firmly in their territory, they sneakily approached us.
“What? You are human! Hey, who brought humans?!”
“Human?!”
In the story of human beings, different races begin to gather one by one. Suddenly, I was surrounded and unable to move.
“Oh! Kid! Human bastard! Are you going to threaten me with the child?!”
A male Suin shouted when he saw the puppy Suin standing next to me. At the same time, the people next to me also questioned me. Was she named Ai.
“No clothes! Everyone! This, this person gave me—”
“As expected, humans are as rotten as they are rotten!”
“Ha ha.”
I let out a sigh, and Iris and Maria started to panic.
“Su, Master, that…… Please calm down. They also don’t want to bother Master.”
“Right. I guess I was just scared. It’s because I have a lot of grudges against humans…….”
Two warriors stand up for them and calm me down.
What is it, you guys? Even until they came in, they exuded life as if they were going to fight.
In the first place, I had no intention of fighting.
At this close, I’d get hit before I could draw my sword. What do you mean by choosing? If it hits, it hurts.
“What? Aren’t our people with humans?”
“Are you a slave too?”
“No. Master is the one who freed me from slavery and took me back!”
“What?”
I rummaged through my bag and took out some bread. Then the eyes of the other races who were driving me focused on the bread. When I gently shake it from side to side, it turns its head. And somewhere, a long growling sound rang out.
‘I’m here to give you food and talk.’
“You bastard who wants to take food from me and eat it, shut up. Because I really hate to hear babbling.”
Filtering was working hard today as well.
“Hmph, Ji was thinking of buying more.”
Phoenix’s criticism was a bonus.
* * *
Thanks to my filtering, a fight almost broke out, but thanks to Iris and Maria, I was able to safely enter the shantytown inhabited by other tribes.
We distributed food to other tribes in a park where weeds were not managed and the rides were rusted. Of course, that role was left to Iris and Maria, not me.
I thought it would be much less burdensome for my own people to share than for me.
“Come in order. Enough quantity!”
At Maria’s cry, other races quietly lined up and smacked their lips. I leaned against the tree and watched them carefully.
Among them, there must be people who are related to the person I need to meet. There must be someone who leads this place.
Originally, I wanted to go to their ‘hideout’ right away, but since the road was much more complicated than it looked in the game, I had no choice but to get someone’s guidance.
After watching it for a while, I started to see a few beastmen in the corner talking to us and glancing at us.
Then the moment our eyes meet, they disperse as if trying to gloss over the situation.
“Iris.”
I called Iris who was distributing food.
“Yes! Master!”
Perhaps he was happy to meet his own kind, but his tension was higher than usual.
“Follow me.”
“Yes?”
“Keep the rest here handing out food.”
“Eh! Prause, where are you going?”
“I need to meet someone for a while.”
He was one of the most important people to me. It’s a bit early, but there’s nothing wrong with contacting them in advance.
“I’ll be back soon, just wait a bit. Let’s go, Iris.”
“Oh, yes.”
Iris sets her food down and follows me. I moved my steps along the trail of those who had been scattered a while ago. And when my feet stopped, I was in front of an alleyway where not even a word of light could shine.
“Don’t come any closer.”
The moment I set foot in the alleyway, I heard a horse’s ears with a growl characteristic of a beast.
My eyes see nothing but darkness. He was confident that he would not be able to avoid it if even a knife flew from the darkness.
If I was going to do this, I should have brought Maria instead of Iris. ‘That woman’ is a beast, so she brought Iris.
“I came because I have something to tell you.”
“As expected! Human bastard! Do you intend to take away even these slums now?”
From beyond the darkness, the characteristic growl of a beast gradually grew louder.
“If I had intended to do that, I would have pushed for it by force rather than distributing the food.”
“…… So what do you want to say?”
It’s another man’s voice. It seemed that there were several people in the alley.
“Guide me to the nun who is in charge of you here.”
“What? How dare you call him a b*tch? Kill—”
“Hey, wait.”
Someone next to him must have noticed, and stopped the prisoner who left reason to anger. There were also people who had a lot of brains.
“You…… How do you know he’s a woman?”
“I don’t know about that, I have some business with her.”
“He hates people like you! I can’t meet you—”
“Well, when he is the head of the resistance, it will be difficult to reveal his face. Is not it?”
I cut him off and made a sarcastic remark.
“What—!”
“You bastard! How to do that…… !”
“I don’t say it twice. Either bring the head of the resistance to me, or guide me to the head. Otherwise, I will expose all the information I have to the public.”
As expected, there is no other place where intimidation is more common than in the afterlife.
I looked out into the darkness with a sinister laugh inwardly. As it seems!