"Huh, lets take a break."
I sat down on a handy rock along the road.
People were walking down the road carrying large bags, kept glancing at me as I took a break.
Once we crossed the junction with the mining town, the flow of people on the road suddenly decreased. I don't have the strength, and other people are going further and further ahead, so I guess it feels like there are even fewer people. I wanted to take a ride on a horse-drawn carriage, but children, the elderly, and pregnant women are given priority, followed by piles of luggage.
I heard something from down the road.
As I went around the hill along the road, I saw a dog and a cat wearing clothes, calling out to people passing by in a way that was making them look suspicious.
It's quite a fantasy for dogs and cats to talk.
According to the AR display, those kids seem to be from the dog people and cat people.
" help me, Anyone, save the lizard, nodesu."
" please help~"
Parsing words that are a little difficult to comprehend in your head. [TR: those two are non-native speakers and he needs to adjust to their word order and pronunciation]
"Someone needs to help the lizard , nodesu."
"Please~, the lizard is going to die~?"
I wonder if their pet lizard got hurt?
"Shut up, you beastmen!" "Don't talk to me!"
"--Ah!"
The dog-man kid, who was hanging on to a man walking in front of it, was kicked off with all his might and rolled on the grassy field on the shoulder of the road.
Hey, what are you doing to such a small child?
"Dog~"
In a panic, the cat-kin girl runs up to her dog-man friend.
I also left the road and headed towards the two of them.
"...C-, cat."
"Nyu"
The dog-kin child noticed me approaching and looked frightened, and the cat-kin girl spread her arms out as if to protect the dogkin.
"I don't mean any harm. Are you hurt?"
I asked, and the dog kin child stood up and declared cheerfully, "I'm not hurt, nodesu!
I'd better check to see if there are any broken bones.
Where is it?
Over here!
I asked, and the dog girl pulled me by the hand and ran out.
The cat girl, who had been left behind, hurriedly followed me, saying, "Dog, wait!
--way?
I thought she had started running toward the meadow, but there was a narrow path like a beast trail hidden by weeds.
The narrow path led to a rocky area, and what looked like a house could be seen between the rocks.
There was no sign of anyone.
It looked like an abandoned village that had probably been deserted for quite some time.
The dog-kin heads for one of the houses.
"--Who are you!"
When we enter the abandoned house, we are confronted with a pointed stick.
The stick was held by a scale-kin with orange hair and scales.
It is hard to tell from her appearance, but she seems to be a 16-year-old female.
Every time she speaks, it is difficult to hear her because of the rasping sound mixed in, but I complemented her words in my brain just as I had done with the two people I saw earlier.
"This person is nice~?"
The dogkin and a catkin intervene between us.
"Dog? Cat? Did you two just go to the road by yourselves?
The skale-kin youth asks the two of them breathlessly.
I just noticed that the cloth wrapped around her body is dyed red. It's too dim to see clearly, but the ground where she is also seems to be blackish wet. If that was indeed blood, she must have lost a lot of it.
"--ck!"
Lizard!"
The skalekin girl kneels on the ground.
She seems to be so weak that she can no longer even stand.
--Hurry and get a doctor.
I was about to say that when I remembered that this is not Japan.
--Yes, it is!
Here."
I offered her a potion that I had taken out of storage via my bag.
"Oh, magic potion?"
The skalekin youth just looked at me wide-eyed and didn't reach for the potion.
Is she suspecting poison?
"It's not poison."
I open the bottle of the potion and take a small sip.
"Bitter."
The bitterness was so great that I almost cried my eyes out, but I held back and swallowed the potion in my mouth.
"Just drink it."
I push the bottle of the potion to Skalekin, who still does not reach for it.
"Can I really drink it?"
The skalekin hesitated for a long time and then asked me that, so I nodded my head.
"Drink it quickly!"
The cat and dog children urged the skalekin one to drink, and the skalekin, too, gave up and drank the bitter potion in one gulp.
--Oh!
The cuts on the face and arms are quickly closing up.
"How do you feel?"
"Thank you very much. Thanks to your help, the wounds were closed."
According to the AR display, the skalekin girl's physical strength value has not been fully recovered, and her condition is still "internal organ damage".
"It looks like you haven't fully healed yet. Take another bottle."
"Umm, but I'm a slave and I can't afford something this expensive ...."
--Slave?
Is there even such a thing?
I thought so, and when I checked, more information was displayed on the AR display.
All three of them were listed as "slave: no master".
"I don't mind. They were given to me, so don't worry about it."
I continued, "One bottle or two bottles, all the same," I added, and she took the second bottle without hesitation.
The potion took effect immediately, the internal damage abnormality disappeared, and her strength value was fully restored.
She seemed to be doing all right.
"How's your stomach?"
"Yes, the pain and the lethargy are gone."
The skalekin put the stick on the ground, which she had been clutching throughout the treatment, and knelled down in front of me.
"I will never forget this debt of gratitude. I will never forget this favor."
Thank you,nanodesu!
Thank you~!
The skalekin teen prostrated herself and bowed, and the two yonger children followed her example.
"You're welcome, I just happened to have it with me, so don't worry about it."
I then had the three of them raise their heads.
In real life, I don't enjoy getting involved in troublesome matters, but because this world is somewhat like a video game, I couldn't help but listen in.
I'm the type of person who dig into side quests while ignoring the main quest.
"I'm sorry if it is boring, but..."
The skalekin girl told me the story of how she came to be in this state.
The previous master of the girls was the head of a crime guild called "Rats".
The day that the senior demon tribe appeared in the city of Sebiro," she said. Master Urs's body was split open, and the demon appeared, covered in blood, and went around slaughtering the people in their hideout.
Perhaps remembering that time, the children of the dogkin and the catkin hugged each other and trembled.
The skalekin teen tenderly embraced them and gently patted their heads.
"We escaped with the other fellow slaves, but there were other demons roaming outside the hideout as well, going around hurting and toying with the people of the city."
It was like a hellscape, she says.
"While we were running around in the narrow alleys, it was just the three of us, and that's when I realized that we were 'slaves without masters.'
"Is that something you can tell?"
I was not going to interrupt her until the story was over, but I just had to ask.
'Yes, we slaves are not allowed to leave the East City, where our hideout is located, without the permission of Master Urs. I disobeyed that order, and yet the intense pain of 'punishment' did not come."
Perhaps, she said, the order was lifted because her former master was killed by the demon kin.
'Was the wound you just received from that?
'No.'
The skalekin child shakes her head.
'I escaped from the demon kin with Dog and Cat, and came to this neighborhood with a stream of evacuees. ...
There, they were found by members of the "Rats" and got into trouble.
"They told us they were going to make me their slave, which I didn't mind, but they didn't want any extras, so they tried to kill Dog and Cat, and when I resisted, we got into a fight."
She managed to eliminate the other party, but she was also seriously injured.
That's pretty hard.
◇ ◇
--Kururuuruuru.
When their hard story came to an end, the stomachs of the dogkin and the catkin's children rumbled.
"I'm going to get some water, nodesu."
"I'm going with you~."
It seems that the drinking water is not from a well, but from rainwater collected in an abandoned bucket.
"Lizard drink water, too. Nanodesu"
"A Drink, here~!"
A dog-kin carries water to a skalekin child, and a cat-kin holds out a glass of water to me, looking frightened.
"Thank you."
I accept the chipped cup from the catgirl.
They must be scared of me, but they are good kids.
"Do you have any food with you?"
Yes, we've managed to survive on wild plants and insects along the road so far.
The answer was wilder than I had expected.
Not too many insects here?
There aren't many weeds growing here, either.
The two young children, one a dog and the other a cat, were drinking water.
It seemed that they were not thirsty, but were just using the water to cover up their hunger.
"Do you want some of this?"
I pulls out a package of dried meat from my shoulder bag, which the merchant gave me.
"It's a little tough, so it might be hard to eat..."
As soon as I opened the package, the eyes of the three people locked onto the dried meat.
The eyes were glazed over and drool was pouring out of their mouths.
The three of you can eat this together.
"Are you sure?"
"Please feel free to do so."
The three of them were still reluctant to take the dried meat, so I put three equal pieces in each of their hands.
The dog child looked at the other two and then at me, so I nodded at her.
The other two, perhaps caught in the moment, also took a bite of the dried meat.
The two small ones chewed frantically, and the skalekin one tasted the dried meat as if she was savoring it.
After finishing the dried meat, the two little ones were still munching and chewing, ruminating on the taste of the dried meat.
"Do you want to eat some more?"
They don't seem to have eaten enough, so I offer them the rest of my food.
We should be able to reach the next settlement, the town of Sabile, by the end of the day, even if we walk slowly.
"We can still eat a lot of food, nanodesu!"
"Myarvelous~!" [tr: she did mispronounce ]
The young scale kin were surprised and her eyes widened, but the two little ones answered in high spirits, crunching on chunks of hard black bread and cheese.
"I was so hungry, I have not eaten for three days, desu."
"My stomach is full!"
The two little ones were lying on the ground in a heap of satisfaction.
"Um, I am sorry. Young master's precious food!"
Perhaps coming back to herself with a full stomach, the skalekin child bowed her head frantically and pleaded with me expecting to be punished.
Seeing this, the two also bowed their heads alongside the skalekin child with an anxious look on their faces.
'You don't need to be punished. Raise your head. I told you to eat it, so don't worry about it."
I managed to persuade her to raise her head.
I told them to eat.
"So, do you guys have someplace to go?"
I asked the skalekin girl when we were about to go to leave.
"It's ...."
The skalekin was mumbling and the two little ones were looking at each other anxiously.
"Do you want to come with me?"
I had enough money for the time being, and they seemed a little sad to be spending their days alone.
"Are you sure?
I nodded my head to the skalekin who asked, "Yes!
The two little ones jumped with joyous expressions.
"This one named Lizard is pledging her life-long loyalty to her master."
What an exaggeration!
AN: This time it was Satou's encounter with the beast girls.
What will happen next?
Please note that the races of the beast girls in the web version are different from those in the book version (the book version has orange scales, dog ears, and cat ears).
I will write the rest of the story when I have more time. I'm not sure what to do about the proprietress of the Gate side Inn or Martha-chan...