Volume 6 - CH 1.02

On the other hand, Tare was nothing like Bode. It was just a perfectly normal, ordinary village. Nothing more and nothing less. As you would have expected, the hut that I have emerged from was easily the best looking and upkept one in the entire village, but still, as a meeting place it was still kind of underwhelming, even more so because in such a small village there was no Adventurer’s Guild or Explorer’s Guild.

「Oh, look girls, over there!」

We managed to find an inhabitant of the village rather quickly. Since they are already here, then we might as well ask them about the directions towards the Labyrinth. Well, here goes nothing!

「Excuse me sir, we are terribly sorry to bother you, but could you possibly point us which way would we have to go in order to reach the Labyrinth that is supposed to be around these parts?

「 X  X X X X X X X X X? X  X X  X X X X X,  X X X  X   X X  X X X  X X X X  X X X X X X .」

…. Well, shit. Even if the villager understood what I have just said to him, then I would not know that, because it seems like he does not speak Brahim.

「I am very sorry, master, but I do not understand what he is saying either.」

Whatever language this guy is speaking, it does not look like Roxanne is able to speak it and understand it either, which is somewhat of a problem for us.

「X X X  X X X  X X X X  X  X X X X X X? X  X X  X X X X X  X X  X X X X  X X X X X X X  X X X  X X X  X X X X X  X X X X X.」

As we just simply stood there, thinking about what we should do in this situation, the man whom we could not understand apparently must have gone and called someone else over, because in a few short minutes, another man approached us. I think that this is the village’s mayor, but I can also be wrong about it, because I did not pay all that much attention to him the last time when I was here.

As a curious side note, both the first villager that we met and the village mayor are Elves. They are also pretty good looking guys, but I felt as if they could not hold a candle to the likes of the Duke and Gozer. Then again, maybe my own sense of beauty and handsomeness began to get warped an altered due to how many handsome and beautiful Elves, both males and females alike I have been seeing lately? Anyway, these guys I can accept, because their handsomeness is not on the level that would pose a threat to me, but when it comes to the Duke and Gozer, I still cannot forgive them for how much of an ikemen they both are.

「Are you perhaps an Adventurer who comes here seeking the Labyrinth?」

The village mayor asked me in a way that I could clearly understand, so apparently he can speak Brahim properly.

「Yes, that would be the reason for my visit here today.」

It is nice to see that there is at least one person here with whom we can speak properly without having to worry about the language barrier. And by the way, if I remember correctly, it was more or less the same in Somara, the first village that I have arrived in after being transported to this game’s world. The villagers of Somara did not know Brahim and therefore I could not understand a thing of what they were saying, but I could understand everything that the village’s mayor and the village’s merchant, Picker were saying perfectly.

「If you are truly looking for the Labyrinth, then you are going to find it to the southwest of the village. It is so easily distinguished from the surrounding buildings and the trees that even someone like you, a member of the Human tribe, should not have any problems finding it if only you look hard enough.」

「…I get it. Thanks for telling us the way.」

「No problem. Do your best not to die.」

What was that now? Care to repeat that? Because I do not think that I like what I heard you say all that much.

His words were not openly hostile, but you could definitely feel the disrespect that was contained within them.

I was then reminded of what Sherry and the Duke both told me at one point: that most of the Elves tend to look down on us humans. I did not receive such high-and-mighty treatment from the Duke, Gozer, Cassia or any of the members of the Knight Order of Hartz Duchy, but I should have known that they were nothing more than the exceptions that proved the general rule, because there is no way in hell that an entire race would have felt in exactly the same way as a small group of Elves that thought that it would be better if humans and Elves could just get along without any animosity between our races.

Maybe the fact that we are in the countryside has something to do with the Elves perception of Humans? I have to say, it would be cliched if it turned out that the ones who look down on Humans are mainly country bumpkins while the ones advocating equality and camaraderie would be exclusively the Elves living in the bigger cities, but then again, that would not be too different from how it was back in my old world, where the country folks were much more prone to fall into stereotypes and discrimination based on either race or social standing, but it did not change the fact that these words did end up stinging me just a little bit, even more so since I am the one who delivered the disaster relief supplies to this village during their time of crisis, so I think that the mayor could show me just a little bit of appreciation for what I have done, even if it would be just for show?

But then again, I guess I did kinda come here, delivered what I had to deliver and returned back to the castle in Bode almost immediately, so I did not have that much time to actually talk with anyone here, but still, the way this guy is treating me right now, it almost feels like my efforts in helping them overcome the flood situation did not meet with any kind of appreciation at all.

Oh well, at this point arguing about what is right and what is wrong in this situation would be beyond pointless, so I guess for the time being it would be best for us to leave this village and make our way towards Tare’s Labyrinth as soon as possible. The mayor said that it is supposed to be southwest of the village, right? Then that is where we are going to go next.

「Can you believe how rude that man was just now?!」

Roxanne shouted when we were far enough from the village to make sure that nobody would hear her.

「Let us just not talk about it.」

「But…. But they were looking down on master and even mocking you! They think that you are so weak that you will not survive in the Labyrinths, which is a slanderous accusation!」

「Roxanne, I realize what you are trying to say, but nothing that we could say or do would probably be enough to change the minds of the inhabitants of that village, so the best thing we can do is to ignore such attempts at starting an argument and move on. If they are not going to be the better people, then we will.」

I tried to calm Roxanne down, but I would lie if I said that I did not feel somewhat happy at the fact that she was getting angry at the xenophobic villagers on my behalf. Still, there is no use getting angry at people who we may not even meet again, so instead of wasting our energy thinking about them at all, it is going to be better to direct it towards something more practical, like getting ourselves mentally ready to explore a brand new Labyrinth that we have never visited before.

「As expected of master, you are so tolerant that I would even say you are too tolerant for your own good. If it were up to me, then I would not have hesitated to teach these xenophobes a good lesson or two, and made it especially memorable so that they would never forgot it.」