Chapter 57: The Answer
While Fisher was simmering soup and pondering how to deal with the little lamb before her, she and Raphael had just noticed the bushes where the sheepkin had been stirring again. Moments later, a female sheepkin with fluffy white fur emerged, her frantic eyes first darting to Fisher before finally landing on the child voraciously eating from a bowl.
“Child!”
She exclaimed in panic, rushing to the sheepkin child lying on the ground and pulling him close. The fluffy fur covered most of her body, leaving only her face bare, which revealed her dirt-covered visage.
It was clear she hadn’t eaten in a long time, her attire scant, and she exuded a strong scent of milk. After confirming the child’s safety, she glanced at the bowl in his hands, her throat occasionally convulsing.
Fisher’s gaze fell on the trembling sheepkin on the ground, then turned to Raphael, whose brows were also furrowed.
Before Fisher could speak, Raphael leaped from her spot and dashed toward the nearby forest.
The mother and child immediately became terrified at Raphael’s movement, their bodies shaking uncontrollably. The sheepkin mother tightened her grip around the boy, seemingly thinking that Fisher had discovered something and was about to take action against them.
But Fisher simply continued scooping soup and tasting it herself.
“Thud!”
“Ah! No!”
“Buzz!”
Not long after Raphael left, several roars and gunshots came from the distant forest, followed by the sounds of trees crashing down, startling the birds into flight, and then silence fell over that area.
Soon, Raphael returned slowly from the direction the mother and child came, her complexion somewhat pale as she carried several firearms, her burlap clothing stained with blood. She exhaled a long breath filled with steam and dropped the firearms to the ground.
“Who was it?”
Watching as Raphael sat back down beside her, Fisher scooped her a bowl of soup, but she wrinkled her nose and showed no interest.
Raphael looked at the blood-stained firearms with a complex expression, took a sip, and then said, “It was sheepkin. I’ve dealt with them all.”
“You’ve improved quickly. This time, you didn’t act impulsively, and your observational skills have enhanced. How did you figure it out?”
Raphael looked at the two trembling sheepkin and scanned their emaciated bodies due to hunger.
“Even during a famine, sheepkin couldn’t possibly starve to this extent. They can find vegetation to eat in the forest; normally, they wouldn’t be this thin. There’s only one situation: they’ve been imprisoned and forced not to eat.”
Raphael then looked at the pale-faced sheepkin mother.
“That sheepkin has the scent of having mated with someone. Usually, humans wouldn’t violate female subhumans, but she shows signs of it, which indicates that those forcing them must also be subhumans, likely of the same kin. It’s probable that the subhumans on the front lines faced defeat, and others in the tribe took the opportunity to raid women and children and plunder wealth.”
“They must have wanted to rob their own kind or passing travelers, so they sent this mother and child to lower their guard.”
At this point, Raphael looked sadly at the pair, unsure of what to say.
This was the plight of subhumans; they were not only oppressed by humans but also unable to see the bigger picture among their own short-sightedness, bullying the weaker for their gain.
After speaking for a while without receiving a response from Fisher, she turned to look at him, only to find his typically stern face breaking into a faint smile. Under his rare gentle gaze, Raphael’s face flushed, and she instinctively averted her eyes.
“Good analysis; this time you get full marks.”
“…”
Raphael’s tail swayed, and even the unappetizing soup seemed sweeter as she took several more sips, as if it had suddenly become delightful.
“Fisher! I heard the gunshots; did you hunt some prey? Ral wants to eat meat; ah, it’s sheep!”
Ral rubbed her eyes and rushed out from the carriage door, immediately noticing the situation outside. Still half-asleep, she stumbled toward Fisher, only to be intercepted halfway by Raphael and ended up being hugged tightly by her.
“Ral, come drink some soup.”
“What is this? No, Ral hates green food the most!”
“It’s good for your health.”
Like a demon, Raphael forced several mouthfuls of soup down the dazed Ral. After confirming she swallowed it, she let her go, and Ral immediately ran to the riverbank to wash out her mouth with creek water, as if something unclean had gone inside.
“I’m going to tell Sister Mill! Lord Raphael bullied me and even covered me with worn clothing! Ral is angry! Wuwuwu!”
Watching Ral run back into the carriage while shouting, Raphael crossed her arms, looking unconcerned.
As a joke, even her parents in the tribe couldn’t manage her, let alone this little Ral.
Seeing that Fisher had not spoken, Raphael scooped some soup for the mother and child first, then showed no intention of taking them along, merely pointing in a direction for them to leave quickly.
“Thank you, thank you!”
Seeing that Raphael was really going to let them go, the sheepkin mother could no longer hold back her tears as she hugged her child. Comforted by the child in her arms, she took the firearm Raphael had given them and headed south.
As night fell, Raphael sat atop the tallest tree, watching the mother and child grow farther away, only retracting her gaze once they entered the wilderness. With her keen sight, she noticed that direction seemed to have a group of sheepkin tribes migrating south. It seemed just right for both of them to set off at that moment.
For now, that was all she could do.
The location was quite close to the northern shore; sometimes, Raphael could hear the sound of waves crashing against the coast, and she could see seagulls soaring freely in the sky. At night, she could hear thunderous roars from the sea, resembling that of a colossal primordial beast. When they were eating earlier, Fisher had said that was the sound of the ships the humans made.
Thus, in Raphael’s mind, those ships morphed into a massive creature that emitted a great roaring sound, laden with humans and crossing the ocean with them in its mouth. She just didn’t know what those things ate to grow to such sizes; any creature capable of holding so many people and making such loud noises must consume a lot of meat.
The sound of the steam whistle grew fainter, causing the wilderness of the Southern Continent to fall into silence, serving as a reminder to Raphael that they were nearing the destination Fisher mentioned. When she thought about it, her heart was filled with a peculiar mix of curiosity and fear.
She wanted to understand the place Fisher lived, to know about his past and family, to live alongside him. But rationality told her that this thought was indeed quite absurd, at least at the moment.
Fisher resided on the other continent filled with humans, and as Mill said, there were humans everywhere who looked down on subhumans. Even if he was different, he could not accept such a reality.
Raphael had things she needed to accomplish, just as she had witnessed along the way.
She needed to bring her companions back to their homeland and reunite them with their families; she wanted to save those subhumans who were continuously losing their lives, allowing them to return home as well; she aimed to attain an equal status with Fisher, so they could stand side by side without being ridiculed.
Yet, all of this could not be achieved if Fisher returned to his hometown.
Raphael looked down into the distant sky, her emerald eyes sometimes clouded with confusion, but eventually replaced with determination.
She had found the answer she sought.
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(End of Chapter)
