"...So something crazy is happening in Teltorte." Night said in the middle of our meal.

"I read in father's documents that that's where mom and [grandmother] was [sold] to. It was fortunate that that [bastard] of a [king] got caught."

Sun's tone of voice is rather un-Sun-like...

"Indeed. Assuming that everything goes well, we may not even need to present Master's evidence to the [court]."

"No. Regardless if the filthy pig got caught or not, we'll still deliver it to the [court]."

There's a bunch of things I don't understand in their conversation but it isn't really the right time to ask.

And their talk involves Sun's mother and 'grandmother' as well. They never fully explained to me what a mother is and especially what grandmother is but from what they told me, it's simply a person that cares for you.

Sun would often ask me to call her mom whenever she's hugging me but whenever I do call her that, she would immediately blush and her scent would grow stronger as well. When she or Night blushes, I feel an itch from my fangs to suck their blood so I never called her that again.

But it's true that Sun would be like my mother then and Night as well. Regarding what she said, her mother and grandmother getting sold seem to be a bad thing.

"Ah! I'm sorry Snow. We shouldn't really be talking about that in front of you."

Now Sun's tone became Sun-like again.

Although, I don't see the reason why they shouldn't talk about that in front of me.

Now that the gentle Sun is back, I could ask about the strange things they're talking about.

And so I asked.

To summarise, Sun said that the King is a person the rules a place called a kingdom. A kingdom is a country ruled by a king. It's many more times larger than this village, she described.

Then she said that the King of Teltorte did something bad to his people which caused those people to get angry.

She obviously toned down some parts but from what I heard from the village chief, this country is having a civil war or an event where people get really mad due to the things that the King had done.

But...

"What's a slave?"

The village chief mentioned the slave trade. I understand that it's an exchange using slaves but I don't know what slave is.

Before answering, Night and Sun looked at each other before turning towards me.

Sun answered.

"You're too attentive Snow... Slaves are people that serve other people. But it's different from the sense of someone working for someone. Slaves simply don't have a choice but to obey the person that owns them. It's something horrible like that."

Then Night continued.

"They're often mistreated and forced to do manual labor every single day without rest or they're experimented on by some wicked people. For female slaves, they're often... Actually, nevermind that."

Slaves are unfortunate, huh? Human culture is really strange. To even treat their own kind like an object... I don't see how they can even come to that conclusion.

I know that there are mean humans as well. If it's exclusive with the sex of the human, I'm not too sure. All the mean humans that I've met have been male.

There are also male humans that are nice as well. As the males in this village, they didn't attack us and the village chief, he even gave us a house to stay in. But I digress.

Some humans are mean and some are not. And the especially mean ones would be the ones that mistreat humans and the ones that try to kill humans.

The humans seem to have a disparity between them. It isn't really a disparity between physical features, I'm sure, but rather how they see each other.

The slaves simply are the lowest ones in that view.

And this King, the leader of the humans, is involved in this.

I'd say he's worse than a goblin.

And Sun's mother and grandmother are sold as slaves as well... Someone that cares for Sun destined to be mistreated by other humans, just hearing that makes me feel some nasty feelings.

Anger? Or do I simply find the whole thing unpleasant, even worse than burned meat?

Whatever the feeling is, I don't like it. It makes me think of dangerous stuff. Like killing the King.

Before that goes any further, I asked the next one.

Regarding the documents, which I assume to be the one that Sun always look at in her free time, and what this 'court' thing is.

"These documents are the very reason why we're traveling to Ronoa. The documents contain something that would expose someone in the place that we grew up in his involvement in the slaves as well."

Night explained.

And to expose this certain person, they needed to give the documents to the court thing.

The court thing is somewhere where people can file a complaint to a person, or a group of people. Night also mentioned that whatever the person or group did must be a violation of the law. In other words, an 'illegal' deed.

This person is also the one responsible for the enslavement of Sun's mother and grandmother.

That must be why Sun called that person a filthy pig.

"It's what my father requested of me to do. His last request..."

Sun's father? I think that'll be the male version for a mother.

I could tell that Sun is troubled by telling me this. I bet she's recalling some sad memories in the past.

I still haven't made any sad memories myself and I hope that I won't make any in the near future.

Although the concept of sadness and happiness is still rather vague to me, I know that sad is bad and happy is good.

For Sun's still expression, her eyes definitely tell something on the contrary.

What sort of phrase should one tell in this sort of situation...?

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

I guess this can do.

"It's okay."

Would this be fine? I even added a smile to go with it.

"Yeah. I shouldn't let it get to me. sorry Snow, I just recalled something unpleasant." Her strained voice gone now.

She then reached out her hand and rubbed my head.

I guess Sun is back.

I should be careful about what I ask in the future as well. Sun wouldn't have to recall those memories if I didn't ask about it.

Or maybe it was simply inevitable that she'll recall these memories in the first place? They were talking about a rather complicated subject after all.

After we're done with our meal, Night and Sun cleaned up and I watched the whole process yet again while sitting on a chair...

"It's still a bit early. Why don't you two go out and explore the village? I'm sure Snow would like that."

Is what Night proposed after their done cleaning up.

"What about you?"

"Just to remind you, I'm a maid. It's my job to clean up the house while the masters are out."

Sun's cheeks puffed up from that.

"I don't think that that's important in our situation."

"And I think it is. Don't worry about me, you two have fun."

"I'm not a child you know."

"I didn't say that. Think of it as accompanying Snow then."

Sun looked at me for a second with faintly red cheeks before turning towards Night again.

"... That's not the problem here. Alright, we'll go out for a bit."

With that, we went outside.

This is pretty exciting.

Compared to the time where we went towards the house and the time where we went to the well, this time we'll be going around the village with the intention to explore.

"What do you want to do, Snow?" Sun asked me as she placed the cloth from before over me.

"Meet people?"

"Sure, let's do that."

With Sun's reply, we head off.

Firstly, we head towards the place where most of the humans are located.

It's a fairly large area with a lot of little humans running around in with a couple of normal-sized humans standing around, talking to each other and other activities. There's also a bigger well in the very center.

When the little humans saw us, they began to murmur to each other and for some reason, distanced themselves away from us.

Although it could be assumed that they're afraid of us, but it wasn't actually the case.

More like they're curious? Or rather just interested in us.

On a side note, the smell of blood from these little humans aren't as tasty smelling as Sun, but I could tell that theirs are fairly smooth and easy to drink.

"What are they?" I asked Sun for the identity of those small humans.

"They're children like you."

I don't see the resemblance... Aren't I taller than them? Clearly, there's a big difference between me and them.

"Are you shy? I'll introduce you to them then."

Sun seems to have misinterpreted my silence for being shy, which is definitely not true.

Sun dragged me then to the human children. When she did, they didn't move away from us like what I expected them to.

"Hello everyone," Sun said to them.

The children didn't react much from this. Seeing that, she continued.

"We're going to stay in your village for a little while. I hope you treat us well. And this is Snow, can you all play with her?"

The human children looked at each other for a bit, then one of them stepped in and replied.

"Alright."

The one who stepped in is a male human. Black hair like mine and grey eyes that seems to be drooping down at the ends. He gives off an aura similar to the village chief. He must be the leader of these little humans.

"My name's Chris. Nice to meet you, Snow."

The child named Chris told me and presented me his palm for some reason.

This seems like a kind of gesture that humans do to each other but I don't know how to respond to this.

Seeking some answers, I turned towards Sun.

As expected of Sun, she understood what I want to ask. She then leaned close to my ear and whispered what I have to do.

She told me to 'shake his hand' by grabbing it and moving it up and down.

And so I did.

I shook his hand up and down as I was told.

"Um, Snow that's too much. That's enough..."

"Ah... Okay."

These human gestures are so strange. I don't see the symbolism in shaking another person's hand. I'll have to ask Sun about it later.

"P-pleased to make your acquaintance." The boy said wryly.

For some reason, his face turned faintly red. Or did I just imagine it?

"... Yes."

I think the only one who is smiling genuinely here is Sun. I'm sure she noticed the uncomfortable atmosphere surrounding us.

"Well then, I'll be heading off for a bit. I'll leave her to you. Snow, please behave yourself."

What does she mean by that?

After whispering to me, "Have fun~", she then head off somewhere.

Didn't Night say that she should be accompanying me? Well, whatever.

Now that Sun is gone, the other children then came closer and stared at me with appraising eyes.

There are three children in total. The one who introduced himself earlier is named Chris, he's also the tallest one among them.

"Wow! Your skin is so pale!"

The one who said that on astonishment is a female human child. She's also the second tallest child among them.

Her brown eyes seemed to sparkle as she stared at me and her short brown hair looks bouncy.

"You're even taller than big brother!"

A miniature version of Chris was the last one to talk. Like his big brother, he too has black hair and grey eyes. Although his eyes seem to droop off the side. It makes me think of him as a small wolf.

"H-hey guys, introduce yourselves."

"Sorry about that. The name's Trish by the way."

"I'm Leo!"

Ho ho, I like this smaller child. Not only does his blood smells like a purer form of Sun's and Night's blood but he also incites a desire in me to want to cuddle him up.

Is this what Sun always feel? Then this little child must be what they call cute then.

"Was that your mother, Snow?" Chris asked.

"... Yes."

Sun always wants me to treat her like a mother anyway. Night doesn't really say anything to the matter but I guess I also think of her the same.

"She seems nice," Trish commented.

"She's really pretty." Leo then said.

They then asked me about where I came from and why are we visiting their village.

I honestly wish that Sun was here so she would handle all these questions. So I ended up making up a bunch of stuff to answer all of their questions.

I ended up saying the same story that night had told the village chief before we entered the village. That we're from the south, the fact that I was found in the forest, and regarding the cloth covering my body, I said that my skin is really sensitive to the sun.

Regarding how I survived in the forest, I told them that I stayed in a nearby abandoned house and go out at night to look for food. As for how I ended up in the forest in the first place, I just told them I don't remember.

Also, while I was telling them about those things, we ended up sitting on the ground.

"You're pretty weird, Snow. And also really amazing." Trish said.

"Yeah. For a girl like you to be living in the forest is a bit... I mean, I couldn't do that. And looking for food at night, you're really brave." Chris commented.

"Were there a lot of wolves in the forest?" Leo then asked.

"Un. There's a lot of wolves there."

Also, regarding my story, I didn't say anything about being attacked by the animals there or those goblins. Or the fact that I saw Night and Sun getting attacked by humans when I met them, and the fact that it happened twice.

I feel that these children would be scared by that.

There's also the fact that they didn't seem to have minded my pale skin as much as I would've expected. Did my story regarding my sensitivity to skin was responsible for that?

"That's right! Snow, want to see something amazing!?"

As if remembering something incredibly, Chris suddenly stood up and hit the palm of his hand with his fist.

"You mean that shabby place?" Trish followed, disinterested.

"I think it's cool."

"See Trish? You're the only one here who thinks that it sucks so it doesn't count."

"Whatever."

Something amazing huh? If he said it's amazing then I'm sure it is.

Whether or not it's amazing doesn't really matter though. I still want to see it because I'm interested.

I nodded at his proposal and Chris looked at Trish with triumph.

Chris then led the way towards this amazing place he's talking about. He lead us to the outskirts of the village and inside the forest. The place he lead us wasn't that far off from the village so very little animals where there.

I could smell that the scent of goblins, wolves, boars and other dangerous creatures like that are far away enough that it should be safe for us to enter.

We navigated through the forest until we reached a place with cloth covering a section of the place.

The cloths were tied to the branches of the trees and when they didn't reach, a string was used instead.

"Impressive right?"

"Is this a camp?"

Sometimes, Sun and Night would tie a cloth on the branches of the trees in the forest as shade for the sun when we're taking a break.

"Pfft! Hahaha! You look so proud of it when Snow didn't even get it!"

"Shut up! It just needs a bit more fixing..."

"Did I guess wrong?"

"W-well, yeah... This is actually my hideout. Normally girls aren't invited by you're an exception, Snow."

"Hey! That's discrimination!"

"Who said that my hideout is shabby!?"

The two bantered like that for quite a while.

For the time being, I turned my attention towards Leo who was looking at a trail of ants marching their way towards a small hill.

He noticed me looking at him so i decided to talk to him for a bit.

"Ants are interesting."

"Yeah. Do you want to be an ant, big sister?"

"No. I'll die quickly."

I proceeded to give him a demonstration of the fragile body of an ant by squeezing one of them on the ground.

"I don't want to be an ant either."

"Un."

A couple of minutes later, the two have finally stopped arguing. From their faces, it was pretty obvious who won that argument.

"Sorry for leaving you like that Snow... Ahahaha. Shall we go see the inside of the hideout then?"

I nodded in reply.

A moment ago, Chris had said that females aren't allowed.

But this time, Trish is coming along with us.

He's quite easily swayed, huh?