The silhouettes of a town were greeting me from afar. I saw stone walls tall enough to completely hide small buildings behind them, towers that were guarded by bowmen and houses that came in countless sizes and shapes. It was a town you would expect in medieval Europe, though it was lacking any signs of the magic you would expect to see in a fantasy world.

The towers and especially the massive and colorful buildings in the center of the town should have grasped my attention for minutes and hours, but there was something else that rendered me unable to even lift my head for once: strangers, far too many strangers, a few of which were already staring at me intensely.

We had left the forest only hours ago and part of me already wished I could live in its shadows for the remainder of my life. Despite the goddess’ never-ending attempts of giving me confidence with lines like ‘You are a fox, so be proud!’ she had no chance of convincing me, thanks to quite a few piercing eyes telling me otherwise.

Some of the humans seemed to hate me, others looked interested and some even spoke up to Ofris to inquire about me, but all of them saw me as a slave. It was due to this that not a single one of them spoke to me, instead choosing to contact my ‘owner’ Ofris.

It was hardly a surprise. Ofris had told me that beastkin were a race of slaves to begin with, which by itself was enough to explain this treatment, but he had decided to make it even worse by putting a rope around my arms so I wouldn’t try to run away. Given how fast he was compared to me, this obviously was a useless endeavor.

I was still thinking about the countless strangers I had met today when I saw yet another wagon approaching. Three men sat on it, two humans and a dwarf, with each of them looking like merchants thanks to their well-kept appearance, the warm fur coats they wore and the large boxes of goods stacked up behind them.

With two muscular horses pulling their vehicle, it was obvious they weren’t transporting something light. It rather looked as if they had stone, ore or metal of some sort with them. Thanks to this we were moving relatively slow, at least compared to our own walking speed, and thus had all the time in the world to stare at me.

“Look,” one of them alerted his mates who were promtly looking in my direction.
“That beastkin has red hair,” the second one commented on his find.
“Isn’t it more of an orange-brown?”
“She looks beautiful,” the dwarf decided with a satisfied nod.
“Do you think he will sell her? He would make a fortune!”
“She doesn’t look like she is for sale. She looks like a runaway.”

I heard one of the men laugh as they disappeared behind my back. Thanks to my far too good ears I could still hear them discuss for a while longer until, finally, there was silence again. The town, however, was still growing bigger and bigger with each step I took.

“How many of them are living in this town?! It is the middle of the day! They will see me! All of them will see me like this!”
「You look cute, Rika,」 a joyful voice echoed in my mind. 「Don’t worry!」
“He is leading me around like a dog!”
「Tell them you are a fox.」
“How will that change anything?”
「They won’t think of you as a dog anymore!」
“Will that make the leash magically disappear!?”
「No, but they won’t think you were a filthy dog.」
“Who cares about dogs!”
「Right!? Nobody does! You said it, Rika!」
“I should start barking ...” I heard myself mumble.

The very second this line slipped my lips, Ofris steady steps came to a sudden hold, making me almost run into him. He stood in front of me, not moving a single muscle, as if he was too shocked to answer. It was only when he started shaking, that I realized he was trying to keep his composure. He didn’t need to turn around for me to know that he was laughing.

“It- it is not what you think!”

“How could I tell him that I speak to a goddess? He would think I was a lunatic!”

Ofris hadn’t heard any of the goddess’ nonsense. Even when she was laughing or became loud enough to drown everything surrounding me nothing in his expression changed. It was as if this girl was only in my head, which couldn’t possibly be true as she had not only revived me but also sent me to this weird world.

Whenever I talked to her it looked as if I was talking to myself instead or, even worse, an imaginary friend. Most of the time I managed to not let a word slip my mouth when discussing with the goddess, but that wasn’t making it much better, as I would still end up staring holes into the air regardless.

How could I even be mad at Ofris for treating me like someone missing a few screws? I would think the same! Despite knowing this, it still felt as if something deep inside of me was dying whenever he did so.

Ofris alone was already far too much for me to handle, but all of these strangers? I could almost feel myself become smaller and smaller whenever they looked at me!

Even though some of them seemed interested in me or the situation I was in, many of the humans of this world didn’t seem to think well about demi-humans. At least those living in this town were pretty unwelcoming towards foxes or whatever subrace they thought I was belonging to. There were even some who flat out spoke ill about me, thinking I wouldn’t understand or hear them, though it was unlikely that it would be any different if they knew better.

“Where are you taking me?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“To the town hall.”
“Yes. You told me that, but what will they do to me?”
“They will search for your master and examine you.”
“Examine me?”
“I still don’t know if you are healthy... especially...” He fell silent.
「Stupid!」 A cheerful voice cut in.
“Aren’t you a little bit too honest!? Both of you?”

Ofris turned around to stare at me. He looked exhausted and a little sad.

“That voice in your head again?” He asked gently.

I could only nod. Naturally, I had told Ofris of the goddess' voice and how she would talk to me and taunt me. He hadn't believed me at first, and he probably still wasn't sure, but after spying on me praying there was little he could say against my story. For now he took the diplomatic approach of being nice to me whenever I talked about her.

“I will talk with someone later,” he promised, “she will do everything she can to help you.”

After saying this much, Ofris once again turned around and began walking towards the town gates that had become far too big by now. By now it wouldn’t take us more than minutes to reach it, which wasn’t nearly enough time for me to prepare myself. I could only pray for those villagers to be busy working, at least busy enough so they wouldn’t waste their time harassing me.