The cat beasties and Mr. Lan are with me. The child griffons joined us from the middle of the road. The cat beastmen didn't seem to know that the griffons were in this village yet, and they looked surprised. I wondered if the griffons were special to the cat beastmen as well.
What are you doing? I was so cute!
I was nervous about what kind of talk we were going to have. I wonder what kind of difficult topics they will talk about. But Gaius is there, and so are the child griffons. With everyone here, I feel that no matter how heavy the talk may be, I will be able to accept it and do my best.
We arrive at Gaius' house with Mr. Athos. Gaius' mother is gone, and they live together in a big house.
We all go inside that house.
I sit between Gaius and Mr. Lang. The child griffons who were following me are sitting behind us.
And in front of us are the cat beastmen and Mr. Athos.
'How much do you know about human-beastmen relations, Lelunda, and how much do you know about Landino?
I ......, well, I don't know.
I don't know much. I know some things, but I am only aware of the human side, so I don't know about the beastman side.
Unlike me, who doesn't know that much about the relationship between humans and beastmen, Ran-san seems to know to some extent. That's great. I don't know much about what is said on the human side.
Athos-san opened his mouth after hearing Lan-san's words.
He said, "...... how is it told on the human side?"
Mr. Athos says, "Yes, it is. In the past, they used to live together in harmony, but one day, the beastmen exposed their beast nature and began to repeat their barbaric acts. Therefore, humans decided to control them.
That's ......!"
One of the cat beastmen raised his voice at Mr. Lan's words. The beastmen are very kind, and I wonder how they can say such terrible things.
'Please don't raise your voice. There are many of us, including myself, who know that that argument is not right. After interacting with the beastmen here, I know that what some people are saying is convenient for the human side, that beastmen are savages and beasts without reason, and that they are therefore lower than humans. However, there are those who believe that this view is correct. And even if they know that it is not correct, there are still people who enslave non-human species for profit.
Mr. Lan speaks without hesitation. I felt sad, wondering why he would make such judgments about "above" and "below. I love you as a human, everyone as a beastman, and my family, the griffons and the seafoats. I don't understand why they would do such a thing just because we are different species.
I don't know, maybe I am a little different from the beastmen. But if we talked, we could understand each other and like each other. We can communicate and be friends. Why do people think that way just because we are a little different?
I think that's right. That is the argument that is being conveyed to the human side. That is why we beastmen are wary of humans. Some of the humans may even try to trap us when we are getting along well with them.
I'm not sure what to say. I've heard that my grandfather was almost caught in one of these. He rescued a man who had collapsed, and in good faith allowed him to live in his village, where he was connected to the slavers.
Athos' grandfather rescued a human being, let him live, and then he said that the person was a bad person.
How could he do such a terrible thing? How could he do such a terrible thing, selling out someone who had been so kind to him? He was going to put them in a terrible situation. It made me very sad to imagine being sold out by someone I thought was a good friend.
On the beastman's side of the story, the opposite is true. When humans didn't have a country and formed small villages like us beastmen, we used to coexist with each other. However, when humans gained power, they began to capture us beastmen and enslave us. It was not that we did not stand up against it."
...... Did the beastmen ever have a country, or anything?"
"We could have built one. But then we were defeated by human nations. And then we all fell apart. And so they began to live quietly again, village by village.
The country of the beastmen was created, but it was crushed. And they are living apart.
The relationship between humans and beastmen.
I knew that this would lead to the reason why the cat beastmen came to this village at an unscheduled time.
I can only imagine what humans have done to the beastmen, much more than Athos-san is telling me now. How could they do such a thing? My heart aches when I think about it.
I think about the way he said, "Humans build our villages and live in seclusion, but when they learn about a place, they take action. ......"
Athos said this and turned his attention to the cat beastman.
The cat beastman nodded at Athos's gaze and opened his mouth.
...... My village was attacked by humans.
Attacked by humans?
My mind went blank.
---The story of the girl and the beastman.
(The girl, who is probably a godchild, listens again to the relationship between humans and beastmen, and listens to the story of the cat beastman.)