Ankoku Kishi Monogatari (WN)

◆Black Haired Sage; Chiyuki

Sead Inlet interposed right in between three-continents: the west, south, and central continent.

Thanks to that fact, the waves were relatively calm, it was also because of this that it was harder for rain to fall in this area, making it dryer. Especially the western part of the continent and the north of the southern part of the continent, since they were composed mostly of desert.

Sanukira desert, which is located in the northeast of the southern part of the continent, was where the Gypseal region was located. Isis Kingdom was a kingdom located in the estuary of Nyar river in the northern part of it. Its total population was around 15,000 people.

But, most of its citizens were by no means normal humans. Most of them were beastmen with cat, dog, sheep, bird, or other kinds of animal heads.

The Gypseal region was the capital for all kinds of beastmen to live together, helping each other in peace. That fact was pretty much clear by seeing murals of numerous beastmen on the walls of Ishtar's temple.

This was a rare spectacle, even for this world.

Normally, many conflicts were bound to happen when many different races gathered in one place. In fact, the beastmen outside of Gypseal often clashed with other beastmen or humans. Yet, they coexist in Gypseal.

That might be thanks to the ability of the Sphinx race, their kins, and all the Gods who reside in Gypseal. Gypseal has always been in peace thanks to them ruling over the beastmen.

Reiji and I had just arrived at Isis kingdom. I was currently on the second floor of Ishtar’s temple, and was looking at the scenery outside of one of the windows. I could see Nyar river flowing outside, and also the scorching heat.

It felt like a lie that we were in Eld Kingdom just a few hours ago. We had moved immediately from the east of the middle part of the continent toward another continent. It was truly a convenient sort of magic.

When I looked down, I saw many beastmen entering and leaving the temple.

By the way, this wasn't my first time seeing beastmen. Though many of them lived in Gypseal, some of them had left this region. I even had a chance of coming across a caravan formed by beastmen who had left Gypseal in the past. The members of the caravan were a mix of various races such as dwarves, humans, and beastmen. They were living the life of a wanderer, coming from one place to another one in a carriage.

But, since beastmen were an existence that were excluded in the teachings of the Faeria and Oudith faiths, which excluded all other creatures except for the Elios kin, they would become targets of persecution once they left Gypseal.

Nevertheless, the humans who lived in the outer city didn't persecute beastmen and were willing to communicate with them. The members of the caravan could get funds from selling their craft, dance, song, or divination.

The song about a love story between a human youth and catgirl of Gypseal was especially famous.

But of course, some of them were stealing from the others by making the full use of their nimble hands. For them, they could steal from anyone who wasn't their comrade. That particular habit was one of the reasons behind their persecution.

「There you are, Chiyuki.」

Reiji came to the second floor and called out to me.

「Have you finished the preparation to go to Arnak, Reiji-kun?」

Arnak was the land where the Gods reside and which was located at the center of Gypseal. From this temple, we needed to follow the Nyar river up. I would be grateful if we could go there with teleportation magic but that magic was banned for security reasons.

Thus, we could only teleport to Isis Kingdom and then to go to Arnak by normal means.

It was really troublesome indeed.

「Gypseal turned out to be an interesting place.」

Said Reiji while looking at the scenery below.

It had a completely different feel compared to the east of the center part of the continent, our base of operation.

「Yes. This kind of scenery doesn't exist in other places. Let's come again to this place with everyone once Shirone-san is cured.」

「Yes, let's do that.」

We were gazing at the outside scenery.

Suddenly, I felt someone’s gaze on me.

「Uhm, is something the matter, Reiji-kun?」

Reiji's gaze was fixed on me.

「It looks good on you.」

「Ah, that… Thank you.」

I replied curtly.

Currently, I was wearing a Gypseal styled garment. It was a white sheath dress with various gems on its belt, which was made from gold and silver threads. Blue eye shade was applied on my upper eyelids and my lips were covered with a magenta coloured lipstick made from a native plant in Gypseal. There were also gold and silver ornaments on my limbs.

It was an extremely elegant dress.

I borrowed this dress from Ishtar. I really enjoyed the experience of wearing such exotic clothing.

If I had to name the con of this dress, it was the fact that there was a slit that went from my feet till my hips, which was dangerously close to revealing my rear. It was a slightly embarrassing outfit. But, when I came to Gypseal, I stopped being embarrassed by this kind of exposure. It was too hot to care.

As I was pondering about that, I realized that someone had followed Reiji to the second floor. The one who came was a cat folk who acted as Ishtar's attendant.

Yes, I wasn't embarrassed since Ishtar, who wore an even more suggestive outfit than me, was there.

「Here you are, you two are really getting along with each others eh?」

Ishtar spoke in a teasing manner.

Ishtar wore Gypseal's traditional attire just like me. Her skin exposure was even more than me. Her humongous sized breasts were almost exposed for all to see, the slit on her attire went up to the point in which I could see her ass with just a light movement. And though her slit went up so high, I failed to see her underwear wire, she might be commando right now.

She really was the embodiment of eroticism.

Feeling embarrassed in front of this huge breasted Goddess, who was the literal embodiment of eroticism with this degree of skin exposure, was absurd.

100% of men on the street would look at Ishtar for sure.

Maybe only Goddess Rena could rival Goddess Ishtar in terms of charm, not to mention that the former was single.

That's why I snorted coldly when Reiji praised my attire.

「We finished the preparations. Let's go.」

Ishtar spoke with a charming smile on her face, completely oblivious of my feelings.

We followed Ishtar to descend from the second floor.

And then we went to the harbor.

「We're ready to depart, Goddess-sama.」

A cat folk, with a body wrapped in gorgeous attire, stood in front of a palanquin, bowing respectfully to Ishtar with her arms crossed in front of her ch*st. I couldn't help but think that this gesture was the ojigi version of this country.

The name of this cat folk was Batshept. She was the Pharaoh (God's representative) of this Isis country. APharaoh was a position similar to a king. Nevertheless, the distance between king and God was surprisingly close.

The Elios' Gods had a policy to not interfere with humans, Gypseal's Gods on the other hand seemed to interfere when they felt the need for it.

We hopped on the palanquin prepared by Batshept. This felt kind of redundant since the distance between the harbor and the palace wasn’t that far. Thus, using this palanquin felt like a waste of time.

Could it be that there was a tradition in this country which stated that a God shouldn't walk in the same road as plebeians?

Moreover, the security seemed to be extremely strict on top of that. There were many guards with heads of hounds, otherwise known as the Jackal.

But, this wasn't our country. We could only follow its traditions.

The palanquin started to move, carried by slaves. Humans are a minority in Gypseal, the majority of the population were beastmen. That's why a human’s status was lower than a beastmen and some of them became slaves.

As someone who was born and raised with modern education in Japan, I felt some antipathy toward slavery. [TL: Yet many of your idols become s*x s*aves of big shots.]

But, I don't think I could force my opinion here. Now I had to focus on saving Shirone, that’s why I obediently got on the palanquin.

The men with dark skin peculiar to this region carried the palanquin towards the road. The palanquin was huge, even with me, Reiji, Ishtar, Batshept, and two other attendants, there was still room for additional people.

Ishtar was sitting right in front of us.

I ended up seeing something that I shouldn't have seen since she crossed her legs.

「What do you think about this kingdom, Reiji?」

Ishtar asked with a smile on her face.

That was natural since just like the Holy Republic of Lenaria, Isis Kingdom was built for Ishtar. The reason why it wasn't named Ishtar’s Kingdom was because the Goddess herself changed the kingdom's name. And Batshept had been managing this kingdom as Ishtar's representative.

「It's a really interesting place. I never expected to see so many beastmen from all kind of tribes in one place.」

Reiji replied while looking at the scenery outside of the window. I could see from the gap between the thin curtains of the window that the citizens of Isis Kingdom were prostrating toward the palanquin. If this spectacle was normal, now I understand why a mere stroll had so many cumbersome procedures.

「Sure enough, this is the first time I see so many different kinds of beastmen…」

I also looked outside of the window like Reiji.

「Uhm, what's that?」

I saw something moving behind the people who prostrated toward the palanquin. The shadow's pace was the same as the palanquin. I felt something was amiss when I saw that.

「Oh, you noticed that too huh, Chiyuki. They've been aiming for us since a while ago.」

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