Chapter 76: Chapter 74 – Culture Shock

—Cole POV—

Setting up temporary operations in the Castle’s Courtyard, I called the rest of my household in to help prepare for the hungry horde of freed hostages. Helping us out the best they could, Eri and Kota ran supplies around all while Eri was followed closely by the Filolials. Watching them follow her around like a mother hen, I wondered how things would turn out in a few weeks when they grew to their full size. Hopefully they wouldn’t continue to think they were small and accidentally trample her.

 

“Cole, they are going to need some help!”, Venom shouted from the ramparts, “There are a lot of injured people with them, and some of them are in pretty bad shape.”

 

Asking my family to start plating food, I teleported myself next to Venom to get a better look. Seeing the students helping to carry the injured up to the castle gates, the adults carried several people on their backs who couldn’t walk. Tiger and All Might in particular were carrying nearly ten people up the pathway doing their best not to further injure them.

 

“Damn this is worse than I thought.”, I said looking at Venom, “Please help the others prepare for their arrival, I will go down and assist the group.”

 

Nodding her head, she climbed down the wall and ran over to help the others. Leaping off the rampart, Assassin’s Creed style, I landed on a rooftop far below and rolled a few feet forwards then jumped onto the pathway in front of them. Seeing me appear out of nowhere, a few of the students almost dropped their injured person out of surprise. Catching them before they hit the ground, I told the students to be careful with a chuckle.

 

“Do I need to run out and pick up more people?”, I asked after doing a quick headcount.

 

“No, the Heroes are bringing the rest in wagons. They had to stay behind to deal with the mob of angry civilians that wanted to stone the hostages.”, Mina replied with an upset look, “I can’t believe how cruel they are, they wanted to even stone me because I looked different! In my entire life, no one ever treated me differently because of the way I look.”

 

“I am glad you haven’t, but unless you look like a human should…they consider you a Demihuman.”, I said making sure the hostages were stable, “Alright, let’s get these people situated then some of you can go back to help.”

 

Leaving their freed hostages with us, All Might and Tiger headed back out to help evacuate the others. Teleporting the group to the courtyard, we got people situated in small groups so I could evaluate their medical situation. Before I could begin, the children we found earlier came running out from behind the kitchen to find their parents. Hearing the children call out for them, their parents tried to get up and meet them, but most weren’t physically able to.

While a few families tearfully reunited with their children, the rest of them looked around hoping to see their own children come running up as well. After a few minutes of waiting, they realized that they weren’t with the other children and began to wail as the worse case scenario played out in their minds. Holding their spouses closely, I recalled my own experiences with loss and the pain I felt being unable to do anything about it.

 

“Can…can we please have their bodies back? We’d like to bury our children with dignity, they don’t deserve to be left alone in the Church’s Holding Cells.”, one of the mothers asked as she wiped her tears away a few minutes later.

 

“Your children aren’t dead, the reason they aren’t here is that the Church took them away a few days ago. We don’t know where exactly where they are right now, but we do know where they are going.”, I told her.

 

“Where are they going, and why did they take the children?”, her husband inquired, “They aren’t capable of hard manual labor, what could they possibly want with our children?”

 

“The Church intends to spark a war, and frame the Melromarc Royal Family for starting it.”, I advised, “They have a powerful magical weapon to start it, but they need a power source for it. From what we have been to gather, they want to sacrifice your children to power the weapon. Before they get a chance though, we will-”

 

Fixated on the word ‘sacrifice’ three of the men lunged at me, and grabbed me by the collar. Forcing themselves to stand on their injured legs, the three of them were too angry to feel the pain. Demanding to know why I allowed this to happen, one of them wanted to know what they did to make me hate them so much. Believing that we saved them only to then resell them, they vented years of anger and frustration on me.

 

Calling me every name under the Sun they could think of, I stood there and took it without saying a word. Under normal circumstances, I would have immediately corrected them and berated them for thinking I was one of those bastards…but I knew they needed to get this off their chests. Waiting for them to calm down enough for me to set the record straight, I caught a metallic glimmer out of the corner of my eye running past a window.

 

Hearing the door to the keep fly open, Naofumi and his party came running out in a panic. Having likely seen the scene unfold while coming to help us, they probably assumed I would cripple the men for laying hands on me. Shouting at the three men that they were making a big mistake, Senko told them I wasn’t their enemy.

 

“Please let him go, he isn’t a Human Supremacist!”, Senko pleaded.

 

“What do you mean!? Those women behind him are his slaves, aren’t they!?”, they shouted back.

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“You can yell and shout at me all you want about the wrongdoings of other humans, but don’t ever call my wives and children slaves!”, I berated them, “They are my precious family, and they mean the world to me damn it! If you had let me finish what I was saying, I’d have told you I am your ally!”

 

“Ch…children…”, they replied noticing a few curious faces pop out from behind my wives, “You…you mean you are married to them?”

 

“I can attest that he is married to them.”, Naofumi supported me showing them his Shield, “I give you my word as the Shield Hero that he isn’t your enemy, he is an ally. He orchestrated your rescues and even secured food and water for you. Right now Kessler is trying to help you and reunite you with your children, please listen to what he has to say before jumping to conclusions.”

 

Realizing they had made an error of judgment, the men let me go and crumpled to the ground as their bodies gave out. Stopping them from hitting the ground with Telekinesis, I sat them back down with their wives and told them that I understood the feeling they were going through.

 

“I know life hasn’t been easy for any of you, the country berates people that settle down with nonhumans. All of you had to work your asses off to make just enough to live, but it was worth it because you had a warm home to come back to where your wife and children were waiting. Having that ripped from your arms…you feel lost and drowning seeing no way to get back what you lost..”, I said placing a hand on their shoulders, “We feel this more because it’s our job to protect our family, and when you come up short…you place all the blame on your shoulders even though you did all you could to stop it.”

 

Choking up, the men nodded their heads as they dug their fingers into the soil. I knew all about that feeling as when I was taken from my family in Alestar for the first few years of my second life I was an emotional wreck. I beat myself up for not being able to do something to stop it from happening even though there was nothing I could have done to stop it. Realizing that their spouses had been shouldering this pain, their wives held them closely and consoled them.

 

“If you understand, then please save our children!”, several of the women pleaded, “They are all we have left in this cruel world. The memories of their smiling faces are all that have been keeping many of us alive. Please don’t let them just be memories forever!”

 

“I give you my word, I will bring your children back to you no matter what.”, I promised them with a firm expression, “When I am done you will have your children back, and all of you can dance on the ashes of that cult! Under my protection, none of you will ever have to fear for your lives again. The only worries you should have are remembering to not upset your wives and making sure your children marry good people.”

 

Casting the spell Divine Sanctuary, the people’s wounds started healing at a slow rate so their bodies wouldn’t exhaust themselves. Handing out food and water to them, I left them alone and went to check on the students first. All of them were shaken up by what they saw, and I wanted them to talk about it so it didn’t turn into PTSD.

 

“Are all of you okay?”, I inquired, “I know this is a lot to take in…it was for me the first time I saw it.”

 

“I…I just don’t understand.”, Izuku remarked, “Why do they have to be so cruel to them? What did these people do to deserve this treatment?”

 

“You have to understand, this is basically medieval times in our world. Most people can’t read or write properly, modern medicine doesn’t exist, and people are desperate to find some sort of anchor to hold on to. The people of this world lean heavily into religion, occultism, and witchcraft to find the answers they seek which ultimately leads to this.”, I told him, “They pin things like famine, plague, severe weather, and natural disasters as Acts of God or angering powerful entities. Instead of holding themselves accountable…it’s always easier to blame someone else, and in this case, those in power chose to blame the nonhumans.”

 

“Can we share some of our world’s knowledge with them?”, Momo suggested, “We can teach them to read and write so they can learn for themselves that the nonhumans aren’t bad people. If we teach them science, they will realize that they are being lied to and manipulated.”

 

Shaking my head, I told her that it wasn’t that simple. Religion, Occultism, and Witchcraft was a way of life here, it had been that way for hundreds of years so just teaching them science and how to read and write wouldn’t solve anything quickly.

 

“Besides which, why would they believe a bunch of strangers they have never met before? As far as they are concerned, we are heretics that are trying to lead them astray.”, I pointed out having done this before, “Let’s say they do listen, but there is a famine this year…they will pin our teachings as the culprit and want to burn you at the stake. There are only two ways to effectively change things…you either start working with the younger generations to make peace in the future, or you force people to accept it by force and sheer will.”

 

“So then what about promising to protect them?”, Mina inquired, “How will you do that?”

 

“I can either take them to the Special Zone or find a good place to set up a Duchy on this world.”, I replied as an idea came to me, “Building a nation isn’t that hard once you have successfully done it once. Anyways that is a talk for another time, right now our priority is getting the children back.”

 

Perking their ears up, the families asked me what I had in mind. Turning to Naofumi, I asked him to have the King find me a map of the Conference Site so I could scope out the situation.

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