As I'd been buzzing the tree-tops a few meters from the two-lane wide road, I saw the group with the two freight wagons long before they would have noticed me. They were currently stopped by an abandoned wagon that lacked the cloth hoods the merchants' possessed.
I slowed down and settled on a tree-branch across from the side they settled down to take a break, before sharpening my hearing a little.
… Gibberish.
The AI surfaced from the depths of coding for a second. [Westria's Human Language Bundle cached and installed. Ability to understand various local human dialects gained.]
"Se lesz going to be fine, aren't you, Betsy?"
"—subjugated!"
"The militia must have been in a rush."
'Thanks,' I belatedly relayed to the AI, though he was already deep into figuring out the HUD.
I think he was taking it as a challenge to be overcome at this point, considering the surprising amount of difficulty 37 was having. It was a matter of pride as a highly advanced sentient Artificial Intelligence now.
They were definitely a band of merchants and guards.
The wagons filled with their cargo was utilitarian, made from wood. The wheels were rimmed with metal (wrought iron?) while the cover was rough canvas. They were being pulled by giant draft horses, one of which was having its hoof checked.
The local humans were a mixed bag. Skin color varied much like back in the city, though I didn't see any features that showed a hint of Far East Asian.
I am going to stand out, so it was a good thing I never planned to reveal myself to this group. After all, a single person traveling by themselves might be a bit suspicious.
If this group of people was the standard for the region, I'm going to have to keep my hood up until I can find my hands on a history book or some information. Sure, if elves existed it meant that other fantasy races might. But I'm a human; I am more than aware that humanity has a tendency to make war on anything different as long as we remain ignorant.
Humans fear things that are different, not realizing that all they really needed to do was acknowledge similarities and accept that everyone did not have to possess the same beliefs.
(It'd just be my luck if I possessed features from a cultural group or country that has animosity with the humans of this area.)
Glancing at their clothes and weapons of the ones who wore them openly, I decided to move on now that I had an impression of local humans.
It really only reaffirmed I was in a world of magic considering the level of technology and fashion I've seen from humans and elves. If I tried to place it in a historical time period I was familiar with, I just became confused—so many anachronisms my brain just went in circles. Yet, if I put it into the perspective of a High Fantasy setting, everything fit.
Though High Fantasy usually meant epic-level fights against a Great Evil— And I'll just stop there; consider my head buried in the sand for now (all I want is an actual shower). Not my Problem no matter what the AI seemed to think.
Leaving the tree branch I managed to sit on because I never stopped my
It was nearing sunset when I smelled the smoke from dinner being cooked.