As Leo walked into the store he could suddenly smell the scent of paper and ink, he always felt that it was calming. The scent was stronger in this world than earth, he wasn't sure if it was his heightened senses or the different ways a book was made. He walked up the counter, and asked he person in charge,
"Any books about the non human languages?" The man looked up at Leo and smiled.
"Looking to buy some slaves while the gettins hot huh? Heard that after this purge there's not gonna be anymore non human slaves besides what they breed for us, course that's only if we don't use them all in the brothels or something. Hahaha" Leo tried to laugh hat the mans joke, but felt disgust deep down at him. But as they say, you need to talk the talk.
"Yea, gonna pick some up to do some work around the house. But it bugs me not knowing what those bastards say behind my back when I don't understand." Leo felt self hatred for his words inside. He tried not to think about how many times he might have to say similar things in the near future. The man laughed in understanding, and went to grab books Leo asked for.
"An intro to dwarven, Elven, and Beastman language. I even threw in a general history for each race if you want it, if not I'll just put it back. So six books total, that brings you up to six gold coins apiece." Leo went wide eyed at the price, 'that's daylight robbery!' He thought to himself. And to think, he was so proud of the ten gold coins he made that day and now most of it was gone just like that. He handed over the coins, and walked out of the store grumbling about how correct the name was.
After he returned to Hilda's house, Leo left the books on the table, while he went to wash off any remaining blood on him from killing the bandits. When he returned Iris was already reading the intro to dwarven language. He didn't know if she was really interested in learning the language, or if she wanted to hurry up and learn it to join him on bounty hunts. Leo looked at the books he got, and decided to start the general history. But right before he did, he saw the Beastman language intro book and realized how much of an idiot he was.
"Holy shit, all this time I could've been learning the Beastman language from Felix, yet I haven't even noticed it." Iris looked up from her book and froze as realization hit her too, before face palming at the obvious. Shaking his head at his stupidity, Leo sat down next to Iris with his book and pulled out the bounty he grabbed for them the next day. When she saw the poster iris's eyes lit up while Hilda's who just entered the room was narrowed.
"Is that for both of us?" Leo nodded and explained.
"I did a different one today, but this one was there as well and I figured it would be a good chance for both of us to train a bit." Iris went back to reading her book, but looked as if she had a big smile on her face. Leo couldn't help thinking, 'some guys have to take their wife on dates, others have to buy jewelry, I have to take mine to slaughter some people to make her happy.' He turned to his own book until dinner was ready. Hilda was preparing it while muttering under her breath about how the two of them were insane, and Leo swore to mention the behemoth fight one of these days.
He opened his book, and started reading. The first several paragraphs weren't anything new, but then he got to the reason why the non human races were considered inferior. According to the book, it was because each of the non human races were only able to use one type of magic, while humans could use all three. Dwarves were able to only use energy, elves mana, and beastmen chi. The result of this however, was that they were able to use their respective abilities in ways humans never could, it was one reason why dwarves were considered the best builders and craftsmen.
This is also what led to the oppression from humans on the other three, while they were pros at their own type of magic, humans were able to diversify their attacks. Leo found it extremely ironic that the most "diverse" race, was also the most discriminatory. This was the base argument that Arthur used when he drove a wedge between the races all those years ago. After that, they seemed to forget that by combining their strengths, they would be able to utilize even better capabilities. Well, that was something Leo was planning to teach them anyways.
At this time dinner was done, and Leo and Iris put their books down to eat with everyone else. Iris looked a little awkward sitting at the table with them, and Leo remembered that this was the first time she sat down with her family for dinner. Leo smiled as he looked at her and said,
"Pretty nice, right? We used to sit down like this for dinner every night at my house back on earth." Iris looked embarrassed at Leo's words, because he was he one who talked her into giver Hilda a chance for being her mother. Hilda and the boys who had just arrived, looked confused though. Leo realized he hadn't explained it to them,
"I'm a lost person. I came from a world called earth, and ended up in the forest near the village that Iris was raised in. I would've died out there if she hadn't found me you know. I didn't know what mutants were yet, but the first thing I said when I saw her as I laid on the ground bleeding was "how beautiful"." When they heard Leo's story, all four of them were shocked. They then spent the rest of dinner asking about Leo's past in another world. He answered all his questions to the best of his abilities, and then it was time to clean up. As the triplets were about to walk away though, Leo called out to them.
"Oh yea, how would you guys like to learn how to use chi?"