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 Adventurers Guild or Explorers 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 villages 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.
Maybe the fact that we are actually 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 almost exclusively 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 do ended up stinging me just a little bit, even more so since I was 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 came 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 Tares 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 next best thing that 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 yet to visit 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 have never forget it.