Chapter 14 - Discrimination

Riku denied being a spy from another country. However, the pressing question here was that Arisu knew nothing about Japan. Because it was the first time she had heard of such a place.

She furrowed her brows, her gaze suspiciously fixed on the man in front of him. "Japan? Where exactly is that place?"

Arisu's reaction didn't surprise Riku as he didn't belong in this world. He realized what he had said, but it was too late to change his mind. Because doing that would only make him more suspicious.

'No matter how hard I tried to explain myself to her, she just didn't get it.' As he stepped out of the bed, he said to himself, "I guess I have to admit that I come from another world."

"What are you doing? Stay what you are." Arisu was bothered since she was bothered about what this man could do.

"I apologize for scaring you, but I believe I need to inform you about something."

Riku suddenly knelt to the ground to show how much he respected this woman. Nonetheless, there was another reason for this. According to his observations, this woman held a high position in this place; additionally, he read plenties and discovered that this was the best way to gain the respect of a person in another world.

As expected, Arisu appeared unbothered because the man was not displaying any kind of scheme to her. "What would you like to say, outsider?"

"To be honest, I know you won't believe me no matter what I say, but the truth is, I'm not from this world," he said politely to her.

After a few moments. Riku lifted his head slightly to see how this woman reacted to him. He noticed Arisu was preventing herself from laughing. Still, she couldn't stop it as it was impossible that another world existed.

"HAHAHA! Based on what I could see, you're still not recovered from the torture of the village guards and have lost your memories," she said, clutching her stomach as tears welled in the corners of her eyes.

"Why, I'm just telling the truth—" He came to a halt as his words were difficult to believe. So he gave up on explaining himself and accepted Arisu's theory that he had lost his memories.

There were a few moments. Arisu regained consciousness and began to question him. "Even if you can't remember where you came from, I hope you remember why you came to our village."

"The only thing I remember is waking up in the vast forest and seeing your village; I don't have a plan for your village; I just need a place to rest," he said weakly.

By looking at Arisu, you could tell she believed in this man as she couldn't detect the harmful aura that pervaded his body. "As I can see you're telling the truth, I'm allowing you to stay in our village for the time being, and I apologize for our guard's brutal assault on you."

Riku felt better about his situation in this world after hearing these words. He bowed his head deeply once more and said. "I appreciate your time and consideration."

"But if I notice anything suspicious about you, I'll never hesitate to sentence you to death," Arisu said as she turned to leave the room.

He gulped his saliva, well aware that this village had an ancient civilization as they still used the death penalty to punish criminals.

"I swear, I have no intention with your village," he replied, eager to learn the identity of the person who had saved him. "Would you mind telling me your name, your highness?"

"I'm Arisu Hanz, the daughter of the Arzotoc village's King, but you can call me lady Arisu, as the others used to call me," she swayed her white robe and introduced herself to this man.

"Thank you for saving me, highness Arisu," he said, pushing himself into a standing position, relieved that his life wasn't on the verge of being taken.

Arisu left some words for him as soon as she shut the door. "I'll have someone bring you food here and show you around Arzotoc village tomorrow."

Arisu spit these words and walked away from the man who was deep in thought inside the room.

Because no one wants to believe in him. He must devise a means of returning to the earth.

"Nothing will happen if I keep persuading them; I need to focus on gathering information about this place," he told himself.

Riku was well aware that his plan would be difficult to carry out as none of the humans in this world seemed to know where the path of the other world was.

The night came to an end. The guards served him delicious food that he had missed eating as it's been a month since he had been able to eat this type of food.

"This is what I called food, not the edible monsters that I hunt in the vast forest." He muttered.

__

On the next day. Riku up to his bed one hour ago before the one guard knocked on his door room.

Knock... Knock... Knock...

He opened the door without saying anything, knowing it was the guard assigned to him for the tour of the village. A man in dusty leather armor stands in front of him, a large smile on his face.

"He's not a guard?" Riku could tell just by looking at him that he wasn't a guard.

"Yes, I'm still not a guard of this village, but I'm working hard to become one," the man said as he smiled at Riku again. "Sorry for not introducing myself first; I'm Pan Sik, a peasant who aspires to be a guard someday so that I can earn a lot of money."

"I apologize if I offended you with my words; I just assumed it was the guards of this village who'd show me around." He mildly bowed his head at him to avoid any misunderstanding since he didn't know the consequences if he did.

"No, it's fine, you don't need to bow your head to a peasant boy like me; also, you're correct, the guard should tour you, but my commander delegated this task to me because they didn't want to involve an outsider like you," Pan explained.

It looked like, the guards were avoiding him after the assault they did on him. He slightly lifted his head and said. "Is that so... It doesn't matter, we are still doing the same thing. Where did you plan me to bring?"

"All the important places in this village. Since we will take two days if I introduce the spots here one by one." Pan said, then politely pointed his hand at the corridor.

Pan and Riku walked in the straight corridor and turned to the downstairs. As what he was expecting, he was in the upper portion of this place.

"Pan, can you tell me what you called in the place where was standing?" Riku asked in a deep tone.

"Ohh, this is Guest's building. This is the place where the King Arzo's visitors rest for several days."

Grim knitted his forehead as the room where he rest was not looked suitable for visitors. "And the place, where am I sleeping?"

"Oh, that's for the worker's room. Do you know that you're so lucky?"

"Why I'm being lucky?"

"Since even you have given a chance to rest in that kind of room and sleep smooth bed like that. Because in our home I just sleeping on the ground." Pan said and still had a wide smile on his face.

Click!

The two exited the visitor's hall. And Riku saw a different kind of person in this village. "What the heck is this? Hybrid human?"

It looked like this place wasn't not only for a human, also the half non-human creatures were peacefully living in this world.

However, his admiring expression easily faded away since all of them were glaring for no good reason.

"What are their problems, Pan? Why kind of violation did I commit?" Riku whispered, at the same time terrified. As those eyes were similar to the guards' eyes who tortured him.

Pan shook his head, then shrugged his shoulder. "You didn't commit any crime, but they thought you should not stay in this village."

"I-it still safe to stroll around in this village? Because they look would attack me at any moment." Riku stuttered.

"Don't worry, lady Arisu warned all of them. So you can guarantee no one will attack you." Pan said and moved closer to him. "Sir Riku, you will also get used to this. A tremendous discrimination of this village when they know that you're weak."

What is that cockroach doing here?

Where does that man get his courage to walk in our beloved village?

Back to your country, peasant! Look at yourself!

Outsider, come over here and be my slave!

Pan just smiled at them and didn't say any kind of words out of his mouth.

"The f*ck? This is how they treated each other in this place?!"