"These damn humans!” He suddenly cursed. “Only they would dare spit on Esmore like this! Giving us a cursed house! How dare they!”

“M-master! Maybe they didn’t know!” A small ten-year-old girl with tears in her eyes and similarly pointed ears wearing a maid outfit also appeared.

At this point, the paired seemed to notice me standing in front of them. Immediately, an angry expression formed on the guy’s face.

“You… punk! Are you the cause of this? I knew the humans were up to something! I’ve caught you red-handed. Don’t even think you can run away!”

“Eh? I just came here because I heard someone scream and I was worried.” I admitted. “Um… are your parent’s home?”

“This bastard is looking to die!” The little boy screamed. “How dare you look down on the Esmere! You shitty humans should all die! I came here as an ambassador in good faith. Not only do you hand me the smallest property, but you also gave me a cursed home!”

“I’m sorry!” The maid girl bowed. “Master is just angry right now. We’re not children. We’re Esmere from Esmore. We’re your neighbors!”

“You’re not a child!”

“I’m actually 22. And Master is in his sixties!”

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“So, you’re like an elf? The Keebler kind?”

“Oi… don’t be comparing us to those extinct creatures!” The boy snapped.

“Some say the Esmere descended from elves, but the elves were all wiped out.”

I scratched my head. It looked like I really should have been looking at history and culture books as opposed to maps. I hadn’t even heard of the Esmere before now. They looked like children with slightly pointy ears. That was all I could say about this. Although, that did explain why their home was the smallest.

“Since you guys are small, you probably didn’t need a bigger mansion, right?”

The Esmere boy stomped on my foot. “You bastard! Tall with those bulbous noses and those round ears!”

He continued to curse, but he didn’t seem to be trying to get me in trouble. Meanwhile, the maid next to him was continuing to bow and apologize. Considering they both had the appearance of children, it was a pretty strange and uncomfortable scene. Just as I was deciding to bail out of this conversation and go talk with someone else, I saw some kind of movement behind them. A dark mass seemed to form in midair, and then a form started to emerge from it. It had some nasty looking claws, and it looked like it was reaching for the maid.

Before I could stop myself, I reached out and grabbed the maid, pulling her to me. She let out a cry as I pulled her into my arms protectively. I instantly held out my hand towards the form. At this moment, the other guy noticed the black thing too and stumbled back fearfully. It had finally removed itself from the dark bubble. It was long and willowy, composed only of fluctuating dark fog. It lunged in our direction.

“Holy Circle!” The circle erupted from my fingertips and surrounded all of us.

The pure holy energy surrounded the shadow too. It was clear it couldn’t handle it because a moment later it melted apart into nothing.