chapter 37

After renting a carriage and heading to the place the man specified, we decided to investigate in the nearby villages.

“Excuse me. I heard that a village nearby was attacked… have you heard about it?”

“A village? Ah, that’s a shame… the one who did it was an oni, right? Jeez, this is why demihumans are no good…”

From what we’d heard, it seemed like demihumans weren’t held in high regard by humans.

Beastmen like Keith weren’t suspicious because they had human forms, but other demihumans had non-human characteristics alongside their human bodies.

It’s bad to say, but it made them seem shady.

To be frank, I didn’t look down on demihumans.

They lived in this world, same as us, after all…

I held back on calling out the villager’s discrimination, but Eim, having heard it, spoke out.

“Even humans can be bad…”

Eim…!?

Displeased, she glared at the village.

That’s right. She was a doll…

And dolls were normally looked down upon.

The villager rebutted back.

“Bad humans exist too…? Are you putting us on the same level as those filthy beasts!?”

“All of us have hearts all the same. Those who look down on that are the real beasts.”

“This kid… are you underestimating me!? Don’t get cocky!”

The villagers gathered. The man who Eim argued with tried to hit her, but I caught his hand.

“If you’re going to hit her like that, isn’t she justified in calling you filthy?”

I glared harshly at the villagers, and they feared, but they spoke back.

“If you side with the demihumans, the army won’t have any of it!”

The army, huh…

I did hear that the army saw demihumans as slaves…

I see, so these people sided with the army.

“Demihuman or not, we’re all alive, aren’t we? It’s you guys who are crazy.”

I let go of the man’s hand, and began to walk towards the exit of the village.

“Eim, Meryl, let’s go. We’re done here.”

Suppressing our frustration, we left the village.

As we walked through the forest, I noticed that Eim had her face down.

“What’s up, Eim?”

“Sorry… I spoke too much…”

It’s true that we left a sour taste in that village’s mouth…

Maybe she felt guilty about it.

“It’s okay, Eim. You didn’t do anything wrong!”

“It’s not good to say too much, but you spoke straight to the point. That’s a sign you have a good heart. Be proud.”

“Master… Meryl-onee-san…”

Eim smiled, looking up at us.

“Thank you.”

Smiling back at her, I pat her head.

“But if you’re too blunt, you might offend someone, so just be careful of that, okay?”

“Yeah!”

Seeing her nod, I took my hand away from her head, and we walked forward.

“Anyway… what do we do from here?”

“First of all, we’ll need to get information from other villages.”

After I said that, we planned to keep walking, but…

“Heeeeeelp!!”

Suddenly, we heard a girl’s scream. Looking at each other for a moment, we headed towards the source of that sound.

Arriving at the source of the scream, we saw a girl paralyzed by fear, surrounded by multiple wolves.

From the looks of it, her parents weren’t even around…

She was about to get eaten by these wolves!

In order to help the girl out, I pulled Enzetta out from its sheath, but Meryl stopped me.

“Aruto-san, leave this to me! I wanna try out a new skill!”

Meryl stood in front of us and used a skill…

“Shooting Star!”

As she said the skill’s name, countless shooting stars fell from the sky, heading straight for the wolves and killing them.

“I did it!”

“As expected of Meryl-onee-chan.”

Meryl pumped her fist in the air.

Eim did a fist pump as well in response.

But, I…

“You idiot goddess.”

I landed a chop on her head.

Meryl screamed out as my hand connected.

“W-what are you doing!?”

She glared at me with tears in her eyes, pressing her head.

“That girl was nearby, but you used a skill with such a huge area of effect?”

Sighing, I moved closer to the girl.

I knelt to meet her gaze.

“Are you okay? Did you get injured?”

Though frightened by my question, the girl nodded.

“T-thank you…”

In a small voice, she thanked me. I smiled and extended my hand to help her stand up.

“That girl… don’t get involved with her!”

Seeing someone coming to attack me, I carried the girl and ran.

The fist that swung at me cleaved through the ground I was standing at.

Sparks flew from it.

Seeing my assailant, I was shocked.

The man who came at me had short, dark blue hair.

That much was normal, but on his head, I saw two horns.

“Those horns… are you… an oni!?”

He looked just like a human, but the horns on his head would never be on a human.

The oni glared sharply at me, readying his fists…