The next day, in the morning. Everyone carried as much as possible, though it wasn't much, as they are required to move, to march until they arrived at the nearest village. It wasn't very far off. A quarter-day of travel on foot was enough to reach it.

Most of the humans came from there, the rest were travellers. Strangely, there were a lot fewer females than males. Only around a fourth were females. Wouldn't Bandits kidnap more females as to make… love? Even under the demi-humans who were double the size of the humans, the proportion was similar.

During the walk to the village, Libertas approached different villagers to investigate the general attitude in the settlement regarding the demi-humans. Judas sighed as he didn't see the fun he had hoped to see. Though he did chuckle from time to time, this wasn't the fun he sought here.

At the first attempt, Libertas approached a friendly-looking young man. He had a good built and toned skin, but pitifully there was a large scar across his eye. His only eye followed the waggling tail of a dog-woman.

"He-"

After the man noticed that His Highness and Saviour spoke to him, he immediately kneeled, and stammered, "You, Your Highness, what ca, can I do f, for Your Magnificent?"

Libertas was stunned, did someone stammer because of him? It was a strange feeling, but he shook it out if his head, and goes ahead to inquire while pointing at the dog-woman, "What do you think about her?"

This time, it was the young man's turn to be stunned. He warily asked, "Did Your Highness notice that I…?"

Libertas nodded, "Indeed."

"Your Highness, I apologize for my rudeness, but I would like to request Your Highness to-"

"Speak no-"

"-kill her-"

Both stopped to speak. One was speechless because he didn't expect the coming request. The other didn't speak, as he was ordered to do so. Together, they created a peculiar awkwardness between them. The one was glancing around, trying to seek for help, the other was gazing with hope and eager at the one.

Suddenly Libertas heard a commotion nearby. His eyes brightened, and rushed away while he told the young man, "We will speak about that next time."

Libertas' hope to escape from the young man broke, once the young man shouted, "Who dares to cause trouble in the presence of His Highness?!" And the young man followed His Highness.

Arriving at the place of the commotion, and after they squeezed through the crowd, they finally saw the happenings.

Mallory stood in front of the groups of elves, both, seething in rage. A little elf girl was hiding behind an elf boy, who was, in turn, hiding behind an elf man. His arms have been protectively raised. In Mallory's hand was a stick which he furiously waved around.

With the stick pointed at them, Mallory threatened, "Ha, ridiculous! Why should I teach her?"

The man's observed Mallory, ready to defend, "Aren't you a Teacher?"

"Aren't you a demi-human? A lowly subspecies of us Humans, dares to question me?"

"Do-"

"Shut up! Don't speak, if don't allow you! You-"

At this time Libertas went between them, clapping his hands, "Stop it!"

"Your Highness, why? They are-"

"Mallory, I understand why you refuse to teach them."

The elves frowned, their faces grimaced, and Mallory was in ecstasy.

"Your Highness, then-"

Libertas gazed severely at Mallory, "But, I can't tolerate you any longer. I believe that a Teacher should spread his knowledge to the common folk. He should teach everyone willing to learn whomever he or she may be. In the end, it won't mean anything. A Teacher's duty must be to give them a path to walk without any discrimination. A Teacher-"

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Mallory broke the speech in the middle rudely off, "Your Highness, you misunderstand! A Teacher's duty is to teach his students, and not some country bumpkin. We don't have the time to teach every country bumpkin we meet!"

"What are you doing now?"

Mallory was stunned by the sudden unexpected question, and as such, he didn't reply. Libertas continued after a short pause, "You are arguing with me. You are raging about something small. It is foolish. This wasted time could have been for something else, for example, teaching them."

Mallory frowned, His Highness pointed his finger at the elves. How could he teach lowly demi-humans? With an obviously irritated voice, he spoke, "Your Highness, you are my student and not some country bumpkin. I won't teach them! Do you understand?"

Igor glared at Mallory, he clearly didn't respect His Highness, "Mallory!"

"Shut Up! A lowly servant, like you, shouldn't dare to interfere!"

"Shut Up! Mallory, I am not your student! Leave, I don't wish to see your face any longer!"

Mallory was shocked by the sudden turn of events, "Your Highness?!"

"Do you dare to defy?!"

Mallory kneeled, his hands clasped above his head together, "N, no, Your Highness."

"Then, fuck off!"

Igor closed his eyes and bit his lips in worry. It was custom at his home to close the eyes to pray, even though he didn't believe in her, in his worry he prayed, "Oh, Goddess of Humility, please protect His Highness. Please stand by his side, for his heart won't succumb to the turmoil under your Divine Light. Please protect him, for the changes won't break him under your Divine Grace. Oh, Goddess of Humility, we shall fight for humility, its call will be our order, forever shall we be under your Grace."

A weak pure white light particle dispersed from Igor. It seemed to flow along a line towards Libertas, but the moment it touched him, a faint lucid blue light flickered. It erased the white light before it could have entered Libertas' Imaginary World.

The elf who protected the children kneeled in front of Libertas. Then he nodded at the other elves, soon after a brief hesitation, they kneeled too in front of Libertas.

With the head lowered, the elf spoke, "Your Highness, we have seen what you have done for us, and you must know we are grateful for that, but I must beg for pardon. We don't wish to continue travelling with Your Highness. Today onward, our paths will part."

The elves didn't await a reply from His Highness. They immediately left, the moment they thought, they had expressed their intention entirely.

After they travelled a bit further, they took a break. Though they did travel together, it was disorganized, there was no unity. The crowd formed into many small groups, in which they eat alone together. At this sight Libertas could only sigh, he didn't know what to do. He was used to be an outcast.

This time he approached a little girl who was nibbling on a piece of loaf. She sat on the edge of a group.

"Hey, what happened?"

"Sniff, Mary said, Mary wouldn't leave. Sniff, sniff, now left."

"Mary is-" The little girl glanced at Libertas, shocked, her loaf fell out of her hands, "You, Your Highness, what are you doing here?"

Seeing her innocence Libertas calmed down from his vexation about Mallory. The world may be evil, but young remained pure, untainted. At least he could protect this innocence a bit longer. As long as he was the Lord, no darkness shall taint them. The evil shall be by his own two hands purged.

Libertas stroked gently through the girl's hair, "Why? Can't I be here?"

"Yeah… No, I mean no! There isn't an issue!"

"Haha, so, who is Mary?"

"Hmm, Mary is Mary..."

"Was she that girl who got scolded by a… bad uncle?"

"Yeah, she was that girl."

Libertas picked up the fallen loaf while he gave his bread to the little girl. With one last pat on the girl's head, he stood, "It was nice to meet you, see you again."

She waved her little hand at His Highness, "Yes, Your Highness!"

Libertas glanced at the loaf. Dirt had covered one side. He wiped it off before he then bit in it. He chewed and swallowed it down his throat. The urge to puke was forcefully suppressed. He wasn't in the world full of luxury any longer. This was a medieval fantasy world. To survive, to succeed, he needed to learn to eat dirt.

Though, not literally as it was just now done. Libertas resolved himself to take his destiny in his own hand, to take action and not only to react.

After the break, the journey naturally resumed. Libertas continued to investigate, as secretly as he could. The results were mostly positive, some neutral, and a few negative. Nevertheless, the knowledge was, in the end, useless.

Libertas would have wasted even more time, had an aged man not noticed this. He had a white beard and a wrinkled face. It was the same man who stepped forward after Libertas' apologize.

This aged man approached Libertas, "Your Highness, if I may be rude, I apologize. As I see it, excuse me if I am wrong, Your Highness was going around, secretly inquiring about our attitude to the demi-humans."

Libertas hesitated a second before he firmly answered, "Yes, you are correct."

"Your Highness, this won't work. The current attitude here isn't the same as in the village. They changed as we lived next to them in captivity. However, Your Highness doesn't need to worry. A settlement doesn't have a distinct attitude towards demi-humans. Villages are unlike a city, we don't often meet one, and as such, don't have a clear opinion about them."

Libertas mouth twitched before he sighed, "Thank you for telling me this."

All the hard work wasted for nothing. Can he really one day succeed purging the evil like this? Libertas doubted that himself but he wished to give it a try.