Differences

Differences are like poisonous insects.

The smaller they are, the more deadly.

 

"Ah, I see it. Is that it?"

"Aww, I can't see it yet though! Mentor, your eyesight's too good."

The faint shape of a building could be seen on the horizon. When I called out to her upon seeing it, Rin's grumbling voice came down from above.

"But probably, it's close. The scenery around it was like this… I think."

Her words didn't sound particularly confident. That said, most of the land was still untouched by sentients and still remained natural, let alone there being many villages inhabited by people. It's wasn't very common to see a village of this size from this distance.

A village. Yes, it was a settlement of a large enough size that it could be called a village.

It had been seven centuries since I taught the people of Scarlet how to speak with words.

It was a long period of time, but if you considered that the people of Scarlet had progressed from the primitive age to the ancient age, it was a short period of time. If you were to compare it to the history of Earth, it should have been a matter of tens of thousands of years.

It was a strange thing that there were other areas that had developed such a civilization.

Even if the area around Scarlet was just lagging behind, there was one strange point.

The fact that Rin had been labeled a monster and had been subjected to stones thrown at her.

—It was unmistakably English. In this world, it was refered to as Scarlish.

The possibility that the people of this village were humans who had just happened to wash up here was almost zero. Reason being that this village was located on the other side of the sea from Scarlet.

There had been no major developments in the field of seafaring navigation, so it was impossible to reach this village without flying like Rin or me.

This village's people using Scarlish was too unnatural.

"Alright, let's land here soon."

"Yep."

I started to drop altitude as we approached the village and landed in the forest. If non-humans were being persecuted, I had to approach them in human form. My dragon form was too conspicuous, so I had to walk from a reasonable distance away.

"I suppose we should go?"

Rin, also in her human form, nodded. Her transformation magic was very advanced; advanced to the point that not even Nina could imitate it. It was hard calming her down after she said it would be fine if she just hid her ears with her hair or a hood.

 

＊　＊　＊

 

By the time we'd arrived at the village, half a day had passed. It was at the time when the sky was turning red.

"Oh, miss traveler, you've come back."

Rin waved her hand cheerfully at the villager we met when we entered the village.

"And who is this?"

"Nice to meet you. My name is Ryo, Rin's husband. I came to thank you for taking care of my wife before."

I lowered my head politely, trying to suppress my heart that was beating nervously.

"Oh, so miss traveller had a husband! You didn't say anything like that when you came last time! Mister traveller here's no small catch either, such a beauty!"

I was taken aback by the woman's friendly demeanor. The way she waved her hands about so amicable matched perfectly with the idea of a friendly elder lady. I'd imagined this place would be more barbaric after hearing they persecuted non-humans.

"It's going to be dark soon, how about you two use my house? Maybe you could tell me another fun story."

I heard that I'd be welcomed if I appeared in my human form, but this was more than I expected.

As we were pushed along into the house by the old lady, we were treated to a home-cooked meal and were asked to tell stories about our travels by her husband and children.

At first, I was a little wary of the food thinking that it might have been laced with something, but I was completely relaxed by their simple nature and the hint of alcohol in my body and ended up having a great time talking about the strange animals and plants I'd seen and heard about.

"Sorry that the room is so simple. After all, it's rare for us to have guests."

"Please don't worry about it. We're the ones who suddenly barged in."

The room we were given to stay in after the sun had set was clearly the couple's bedroom.

Their house wasn't very big and it only had a kitchen living room combo and a room for their children in addition to their bedroom.

I was thankful we wouldn't have to sleep in the forest, but I couldn't help but look at Rin. She tilted her head as if asking what was wrong.

The problem was that there was only one bed.

We introduced ourselves as a married couple, so they probably didn't think anything of it.

Me deciding to introduce myself as her husband was simply so that it would be easier to explain and so that they wouldn't think anything of it.

Our appearances were too dissimilar to have been siblings, and our ages were too close to have been master and disciple. It was easier to just say we were a couple than to say we were just traveling companions. It was also easier to come up with a reason to visit the village again if we were a couple.

… Well, it's fine. Rin and I have been friends since we she was a child. It's not like it's a big deal to sleep in the same bed now.

"It's nothing. Let's just sleep for now."

After walking a long distance for the first time in quite a while, I was pretty tired.

When I laid down onto the bed, Rin opened her eyes wide in surprise.

"What's the matter?"

When I asked her what was wrong, she shook her head vigorously. I sat up and slowly took her hand and pulled her close to me.

"Are you embarrassed to sleep next to me?"

Although there was a door closing off the room, I doubted the walls would do much in the way of soundproofing. Rin nodded in response to my whisper.

"Even so, there aren't any other beds, so please bear with it."

The bed was a double, so it wouldn't be cramped for two people sleeping on their sides. It was constructed out of a crude wooden frame, but it was much better than sleeping on the floor.

When I laid back down onto the bed, Rin reluctantly did the same next to me—is what I'd expected, but she laid such that her back was to me.

Hmm… and to think that we used to bathe together. Looking at Rin's back in the dark, I felt like a parent looking over his daughter.

"Good night, Rin."

"Mm…"

Hearing her small moan as a response, I figured she was tired enough to have immediately fallen asleep.

＊　＊　＊

"Thank you for having us."

"No no, it's always a pleasure to hear stories from outside the village."

It was the day after we'd spent the night.

Asking around the village, I decided to have a talk with the village chief.

We told him stories we'd heard during our travels and in return he gave us some food while telling us stories about his village. Following that, I explained to him how we were something like wandering story gatherers.

I honestly wasn't very good at telling funny stories, but I did have a few centuries of experience as a teacher under my belt. I had no small number of hilarious stories and it felt nice to talk about my past students. I didn't even need to prepare a script, my memory as a dragon was a real blessing.

"Really, that was a very interesting story. It's been a while since I've been in such a good mood."

The village chief seemed to have especially liked the stories about Nina. I'd hidden the fact that she was an elf, but I did tell all sorts of stories about her. There were some embarrassing stories in there as well… but it was all for the sake of information gathering. I'm sure she'd be fine with it.

—Not that I'd ever tell her in the first place.

"Still, I'm in a bit of a bind as I don't have any interesting stories to tell you in return."

"Ah, that's fine. I'm sure any story would be fine. For example, how this village was founded or something like that."

"Is that really enough?"

The village chief tilted his head in confusion. Well, I guess it's true that it's not a story that would be that popular in other places.

"Ah, well, that's not really what I had in mind. I'm sure you use the same language as us, right? It's actually a very rare thing. Normally, the language used in a place is different from the language used in another place."

"Ah, yes… those monsters seem to speak words that we can't understand."

The village chief frowned and muttered something under his breath.

By 'those monsters', he was probably meaning elves. So far as I knew, elves and dragons were the only species who had created languages of their own. Lykos, mermaids, lizards, giants, fairies, and humans had all lacked a culture that could be called a language before I taught them.

"We are searching for our homeland… that is, our ancestors. This village doesn't seem to be it, but it doesn't seem to be unrelated either."

"Ah, I see. I'm sure you'll find it soon."

I nodded in response to the village chief's encouragement. Yes, the words of the people of this village were indeed English, but there was a subtle difference between that and the language I used.

The intonation and usage, as well as the common phrases, all had a subtle difference.

The woman whose house we stayed at yesterday said that Rin was 'sharp as a tip', when the actual saying was 'sharp as a corner'. She even called me a beauty, a term not normally used for me, a man.

Although it made sense, it was hard to say it was entirely the same meaning.

"This is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation. I heard it from my father as well."

The village chief began his story.

"Long ago, our ancestors didn't have any words. They didn't have housing, couldn't use tools, and couldn't even make fire. But one day, a magus came and taught us words and magic."

The village chief spoke with a passionate tone, gesturing with his hands.

"That magus… we call the 'Magus of Genesis'."

It was a story I was pretty familiar with.