Chapter 14: First Comrades?
“So, what’s your name?”
“Huh? Come again?”
“Just kidding.”
“I’m Hiiro Okamura. An adventurer and… bookworm.”
“Fufufu”
“Oh, Muir’s cute when laughing after all.”
“……..Are you pervert into little girls?”
“Uhh…. I’m not… a little girl.”
“Right! She might not look like it, but she’s twelve already! She can even give birth!”
“D- Don’t say such embarrassing things!”
“So different from before.”
“Mh? You mean Muir? Well, duh, anyone would shrink back when a crude villainous guy with an evil look appears, not just my cute Muir.”
Hiiro emitted a bloodlust with his glasses glittering.
“……You fail as a human being.”
“Pah! She’s just that important! By the way, I got a question for you, Hiiro.”
“Grr…”
“But I never saw a magic that stretches a sword before.”
“A katana? Now that you mention it. So that’s a katana? Looks pretty well-made.”
“Mhm~ So regarding the—”
“Why! What’s the harm! I shared my meat with you!”
“Ugg…”
“Anyway, I’m surprised you can chit-chat with a total stranger.”
“What makes you think that? I’m human after all. I might attack that ‘Gabranth’ shorty.”
In an instant, Muir turned pale and Arnold seized his broadsword. His expression was full of hostility. But Hiiro calmly looked at them.
“Your reaction tells me more than enough.”
“Kuh…. How did you know?”
He pointed his finger at a certain place. It was Muir’s bottom.
As he seemed to have a huge misunderstanding, Hiiro reluctantly spelled it out for him.
“Eh?”
“H- Hey, Muir…”
“S- Sorry!”
“The tail is a trait of the ‘Gabranth’, right? And that hat is hiding the other trait, the animal ears, right?”
“…..Indeed, she’s a ‘Gabranth’. But Muir… we have done nothing wrong! So don’t tell anyone!”
“Tell anyone? Why would I? I don’t care at all if you’re human or a beastman.”
The two had their mouths gaping wide-open.
“Y- You…”
Hiiro too asked earnestly with a frown. Seeing that, Arnold burst out in a laughter.
“Don’t laugh at me. I’ll stab ya.”
Saying so, Arnold turned his bottom to him.
Hiiro grimaced from suddenly having an ass shoved into his face. He seriously considered stabbing him once.
There a tail appeared from above the trousers. Hiiro widened his eyes a bit.
“Yeah. I- we are ‘Gabranth’.”
People were more understanding towards them than with the “Evila’ and didn’t kill them on the spot, but they undeniable attracted attention. Not to forget the radicals. Arnold had seen more than enough of these.
Hiiro glanced at Arnold’s head in search for a certain something when faced with a beastman. Noticing his gaze, Arnold laughed shorty and asked.
Yes, Arnold wore no headgear. Yet no animal ears could be seen.
“Not really.”
“Didn’t you hear me?”
After these words, Arnold started talking before Hiiro could reply.
“Lost them?”
“Yeah, because I’m a former slave.”
Long ago, when the beastman had no own country, no status or authority, many of them were turned into slaves by humans as domestic animals.
Arnold was a victim to that and the human, who bought him as a slave, had his animals ears ripped out. His ears, the pride of a beastman, had been taken away eternally just because the human had happened to be in a bad mood.
It was related to Hiiro, since he was a human too. One of the ‘Humas’, who persecuted the beastmen, not just Arnold.
“Can it be removed that easily?”
“Then you…”
With the death of his master, Arnold officially became free. Hearing this story, Muir too became despondent and looked saddened.
“The sparkling aside, you sure had a tough life. Normally it wouldn’t be strange to have a trauma about humans.”
“Let bygones be bygones. Not to forget, the one, who helped me, was a ‘Humas’ as well.”
“Y- You’re scaring me… Pooh! Anyway, I’m happy right now and that’s all that matters.”
“Reminds me, what’re you doing in this area, Hiiro? A quest?”
“answer me. Yeah, yeah, enough of that. What’s the harm in telling me at least that?”
“…….Haah. I intend to…”
“cross the border.”
“Yeah, just like you two.”
“Huh? Obviously because I wanna see it.”
“I don’t give a damn about politics. I do what I want and stop at nothing, not even killing, if someone stands in my way.”
Arnold burst out in laughter again.
“Hey, is that title a given now!?”
Arnold suddenly said with a serious look.
“Fine by me. I’ll turn the tables on them!”
“Naturally. I’ve no reason to run away.”
“But I’m stronger.”
“You don’t say now. I’m getting more and more interested in you.”
“Neither do I, damn it!”
“Anyway, our meeting must be some kind of fate. And we’re heading in the same direction too. Wanna go together?”
Saying so, he suddenly made a somewhat musing face and fell silent, so Arnold asked him.
“You meant to say: Please come with us. Right?”
He glared at him while grinding his teeth, but sighed right afterwards.
“Do want you want.”
“Ah, before I forget it.”
“What?”
“Tell me.”
“I’m normal, you pervert.”
“Mh? That’s a first. I certainly don’t have an interest in little girls, but I was sure you had?”
“We’re already outside, Mr. Paedophile.”
Muir wearily shrugged her shoulders on their never-changing exchange and whispered with a voice so quiet that it couldn’t be heard by anyone.
Her utterance was gone with the wind.