Thanks to Philiana’s call, we decided to help the Centaurs.
I immediately asked Yola about the Kinnara.
“They are located to the northeast from here. It would take quite some time to get there on foot, so I will lend you a horse. I’m also sorry, but I won’t be able to accompany you.”
I wished she could have come with me, as we knew each other, but there was no other way given the situation.
“I already have a horse, thank you. Please ride on my back.”
Philiana said that, but I still felt uneasy. It wasn’t about the skill of riding a horse, but I was unaccustomed to being so close to a girl for a long time. However, saying that aloud would have sounded even more vulgar.
I mounted Philiana’s back as she suggested and set off towards the Kinnara settlement. From what I heard briefly, they had the upper body of a human and the lower body of a bird, making them a type of half-beastman more like a Satyr than a Harpy.
I stared at the wilderness flowing by from Philiana’s back. In the distance, I could see a flock of small bipedal animals, like dinosaurs. They alternated between looking up and searching for food on the ground.
As Yola had told me, the settlement wasn’t appearing anytime soon. In this land with few landmarks, I was worried we might have mistaken the location. We ran intermittently, pushing forward relentlessly.
“By the way, are your hooves okay? You’ve been running so much.”
“Yes, it feels a bit strange without horseshoes, but I’ll get used to it quickly. Look over there, there’s something.”
In the direction she pointed, an animal resembling a weasel was digging a hole. One of its front paw’s claws extended sharply like a scythe.
“Wow, I’ve never seen that before.”
“Me neither. What kind of animals were in the world you came from, Hiro?”
“Not much different from this world. Well, most of the creatures are ones I’ve never seen before.”
Suddenly, Philiana stopped. I nearly bumped my nose against my armor from the momentum.
“Isn’t that the settlement Yola was talking about?”
Squinting into the distance, I began to see similar settlements. We immediately changed direction and proceeded towards the settlement.
The scale was slightly larger than the Centaur settlement, and various decorations hung from the tents. Compared to the simple Centaurs, the Kinnara seemed to favor flashy decorations.
The residents there indeed had human upper bodies and bird lower bodies. To put it simply, they looked like human torsos attached to chicken legs. Wings grew from around their waists, and their tails curled upward and hung long.
All the residents stared at us, outsiders, as if wondering what was happening. As I hesitated on what to do, a girl approached us.
