De-Bugging Another World

Chapter 9: Battle for Emono no Machi.

It took two hours since their group arrived at the town, to even get permission for the two dark elf sisters to be allowed into the village.

But considering recent events, Kanrish could not say he blamed the village elder.

Apparently about half a year ago, the Mandokan Empire had decided that this village now fell within their borders and so their slavers had free reign to take whomever they wanted from the village.

That explained Amy's scared response when she saw the two dark elves with him.

It had been quite the hassle to even get the goodwill running enough that the cat folk girl, as her race was called, was willing to approach them, let alone give them her name.

She had been petrified with fear of anyone who was not a member of one of the many Beast Folk races since Mandoka dropped their national border on the other side of their village for convenience sake.

But after those two hours had passed, the entire group was welcomed into the village.

Many of the inhabitants were rightfully scared, until they heard the story of how he had become 'the owner' of the two drow girls.

The girls did not mind the slang being used for them, they came from a worse past so this was practically nothing compared to what would have awaited them otherwise.

It turned out that before the Mandokan Empire decided to go free-form with their borders, that Amy had actually been close friends with a dark elf girl who often stayed in a nearby hut.

That was until she was taken as a slave with the first raid on their village.

She had not heard from the girl since, although she for safety reasons also never gave her name to Amy.

This village had been plagued by slavers ever since that dreadful border shift.

It turned out that the Mandokan Empire maintained a slave tax, which literally meant that whenever they came by an amount of villagers had to be given to the slavers at tax payment for the village's safety.

And with that knowledge everyone's frightened initial response to him traveling with two dark elves made a lot more sense.

Even more to their surprise was his willingness to do business with a town as theirs.

Since they were repeatedly raided of their townsfolk, Kanrish could not buy much from them in terms of supplies. They had little in metals and leathers and were almost out of fabric.

When he had almost lost hope of getting three sets of women's clothes for the two dark elves and Hapii a young woman in her mid twenties woman came running up to them.

Her long lupine ears bouncing on top of her head as she ran.

"I'm not sure if it'll all fit, but I have some clothes my daughter left behind when she was taken, or more..."

The woman began sobbing as she handed the clothes to Ayame.

"Those damn slavers, they murdered her when she refused to obey and tried to run... please, if anything I'll know someone who has escaped her fate can make good use of it..."

She was practically begging them to accept it and Kanrish nodded to Ayame who accepted the bundle of clothing, made a small bow and said, "Arigato."

The woman stared confused at the Japanese word of thanks.

"It is something I taught them, a language from where I'm from, it means 'thank you'. Arigato." Kanrish said and made a polite bow, after which the woman made a similar clumsy bow and tried to repeat the word.