While the two horned girls were embracing each other, I decided to ask Linardo about how he came to protect them. At first, Linardo and the others were performing their duty of collecting limestone.
They did this with their bare hands. Combining the strength of demons and their skills as warriors, it wasn’t very difficult for them to break the rocks into smaller pieces with their hands. That was how all of us collected the limestone too.
As they were collecting the limestone, they heard sounds of battle coming from further west of their location. If it had been a fight between wild animals, no one would have paid attention to it. But the sounds of human speech, and familiar words at that, changed everything. Linardo hurried to the source of the noise with a few others.
When they arrived at the scene, Linardo and the others saw the two girls fleeing while using spiritual arts; they were pursued by a group of men. At first, Linardo was reluctant to intervene, considering the potential danger to his comrades.
But when he saw the young girl being attacked too, he couldn’t just stand by and watch. They quickly intervened, chasing the men away and rescuing the two girls. By this time, the girls seemed to have lost consciousness, so Linardo’s group had no choice but to take them back.
However, Linardo and the others made a fatal mistake by scaring away the men without completely eliminating them. That night, the men retaliated against Linardo and the others while they were resting.
Although a few of the attackers were somewhat skilled, none were a match for Linardo’s group. However, they were held back by their cattle and horses, which were bigger than them but had little fighting power. There were too many to protect while fighting, so Linardo’s group had to abandon the limestone they had worked so hard to collect and their wagons.
At this point, Apao who was the fastest and had the most stamina went to call for reinforcements. Meanwhile, the wounded Linardo and the others slowly moved south to secure some safety and eventually met up with me.
“This is all my fault. If I had killed them all, this wouldn’t have happened…”
“Are you still saying that? No one could have expected them to go this far. Besides, if you had killed them, any survivors would have sought even greater revenge. Your decision was not wrong.”
I genuinely comforted Linardo who was gnashing his teeth in frustration. I truly believed that not killing them was not a mistake. Killing them is easy, and there would be no witnesses if they were all wiped out.
However, if anyone outside of the demon’s keen senses had been watching the situation, a more extreme retaliation would have awaited them. It would not have happened immediately, but rather they would have gathered their forces and attacked our comrades at a later time. This was just a “might have happened” speculation, but it was pointless to worry excessively since the current situation was not the worst.
[Then… is it about time?]
While comforting Linardo, who had sunk back into depression after briefly recovering, the two green figures regained their composure. So, I tried speaking to them again through telepathy.
The two who were addressed tensed up. The two-horned woman was overly cautious, and the three-horned girl was frightened. Though I thought there was no need for such wariness, I finally understood why they were so scared of me. It was because they had seen my true face.
Following Chris’s advice, I had not worn my iron mask recently. I had grown accustomed to being without it, but for those unfamiliar with the exoskeleton and the small pincers on my cheeks, it was understandably frightening. Silently, I manipulated the sand to create a temporary mask that covered the lower half of my face.
[…. Is this better?]
[…. No, I apologize. This was not the way to treat someone who helped us.]
[I-I’m sorry.]
My consideration seemed to have gotten through, as the two apologized through telepathy. Though their apologies were unnecessary, it was good that we could now talk. Seizing the moment, I decided to ask them about their situation.
[I have many questions for you two. But the two most important are. Who are you, and why were you being chased?]
“●●●●●, ●●●●●?”
“●●●●●●●●●”
When I asked about the matters I was most curious about, the two women consulted each other in a language we couldn’t understand. Our conversation likely sounded the same to their ears. I realized once again how convenient telepathy was for direct communication.
After discussing for a while, the two-horned woman looked up at me as if she had made a decision, and began to explain what had happened to them through telepathy.
[I am Mishu Ki Suonmu. Mishu is my given name, Ki is my horn rank, and Suonmu is my family name. This is my younger sister, Tache Ru Suonmu. Pleased to meet you.]
[I am Antares. Call me whatever you like.]
[Then, Sir Antares, let me answer your first question. We are the Keo race. We lived in a large cavern deep underground beneath that majestic mountain.]
According to the two-horned woman Mishu, her Keo race lived underground beneath the Shumie Mountains. They were underground people. And this was a discovery even more unexpected than the remote possibility I had considered of them being attacked by desert dwellers.
There was an underground cave that ran beneath the Shumie Mountains and emerged in the southern part of the range, but deeper than that layer was a vast space called the Great Cavern. This was their homeland. To think such a place existed… the world was full of unknown stuff.
[Why did you come to the surface?]
[In the Great Cavern, besides our Keo race, there was also a race called the Hasu. Historically, the two races coexisted and prospered together… but due to the new chieftain of the Hasu race and his followers, we…”
Mishu gritted her teeth in frustration and said no more. Her sister Tache had tears in her eyes. That alone made the situation clear enough. Whatever the cause, they had suffered devastating losses at the hands of extremists from another race with which they had coexisted.
Forced to leave the Great Cavern, they fled to the surface, barely hanging on for dear life. This explained why Mishu and her sister were here. Not only had they escaped, but they had been forced into the desert, which was a completely different environment than the underground; this only went to show how much they had suffered. I couldn’t even begin to imagine their hardships.
[I’m sorry to bring back these memories, but I have another question. Why were you being chased?]
[After escaping from the Hasu race, we were forced to live on the surface for the past few days. Though we struggled with the unfamiliar environment, we managed to use our spiritual arts. However…]
[You were attacked by those people. Since you don’t understand their language, you don’t know why?]
[Yes…]
Mishu nodded with her head hanging down in dejection. They had been attacked by their once-friendly neighbors and then by strangers whose language they didn’t understand. It was a case of misfortune upon misfortune. I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for them.
[We Keo are confident in our spiritual arts, but among those who escaped, including myself, there were almost no warriors…]
[I heard a few competent fighters were among you. It’s no wonder you had to flee. Do you know what happened to the others?]
[I don’t know. I was desperately trying to escape with my sister. Everyone was in a panic, so I think we all scattered in different directions.]
[I see.]
After listening to Mishu’s story, I pondered deeply. Those who attacked the Keo race were almost certainly individuals who knew how to travel through the underground passages of the Shumie Mountains to reach the desert. They were likely the ones who took my egg and sold it for profit.
They didn’t know what kind of people they were, but it seemed they had a violent nature. If we had happened to run into them, we would surely have been attacked. Hmm… if left unchecked, they might threaten our way of life.
[Oh, that reminds me…]
[What is it?]
[I didn’t feel much killing intent from the attackers on the surface. There were users of fighting spirit and spiritual arts, but none of them seemed to be serious.]
[I see…]
Listening to Mishu who was tilting her head in puzzlement, I felt my mind cooling down rapidly. While Mishu seemed to consider it a stroke of luck that the attackers didn’t have killing intent, my view was different. Rather, I expected the situation to be extremely unpleasant.
It was true they had no intention of killing them. However, it was not out of mercy. Almost certainly, their goal was to capture them alive.
What would they do after capturing them alive? It was clear they intended to sell them as slaves. I had never heard of the Keo race, but it was certain that even if they existed north of the Shumie Mountains, they were a minority. They would undoubtedly make excellent merchandise… just the thought of it made me feel sick.
Moreover, the fact that slavers were appearing nearby was not just unpleasant; it was dangerous. It was best to eliminate such dangers. I decided to get rid of those who attacked Mishu and the others.
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