“Instructor, may I examine that girl’s injuries?” Lynne asked. “I believe I saw you heal her, but just to be certain...”
“Yeah, I was just about to ask,” I said. “I gave her an emergency patch-up, but I’d appreciate a second look from someone who knows what she’s doing.”
“Of course.” Lynne tenderly led the girl, who was still clearly shaken, to the side of the street, where she began treating the last of her scrapes and bruises. “Come, now. It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
I looked around, watching other pedestrians stream by. The crowd that had gathered was nowhere to be found, and people carried on with their days as if nothing had happened at all. How strange.
“You should be all better now,” Lynne said. It seemed her treatment of the girl was complete. “Can you stand?”
Rather than respond, the girl merely froze up again, letting out a high-pitched squeak. “I... I’m s-sorry.” Her face was clean of any blood or dirt, thanks to Lynne, but the terror in her eyes remained.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Lynne assured her. “The scary man’s gone, okay? You can rest easy.”
“H-Huh? M-Master’s...gone?”
“He’s not your master anymore. The bad people who hurt you all ran away, so you don’t need to worry about them any longer, all right?”
Lynne’s soothing smile and gentle voice gradually eased the girl’s confusion. As she calmed down, clarity seemed to dawn on her.
“U-Um, does that mean you’re my new master?”
“No, I’m not. If anyone would fit that description, I suppose it would be Instructor Noor over there.”
No sooner had the girl’s gaze shifted from Lynne to me than she scrambled to her feet and hurriedly bowed her head. “I-It’s nice to meet you, new master! I... I’ll do whatever you ask, so...so...” She let out a whimper. “I... I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked, looking at her curiously. “You didn’t do anything.”
“Noor.”
I turned to see that Rolo had come up behind me.
“She’s afraid of you,” he said. “Well, of all adult men, really.”
“Afraid?”
“Mm-hmm. She fears being hit whenever one gets close to her. I used to be the same.”
“Right... I...think I get it?”
“If you spend more time together, she should come to realize that you’d never lay a hand on her. It might take a while, though.”
“Ah... I’ll give her some space, then.”
I suspected that Rolo was right, and seeing the girl tremble as I got closer made me all the more certain. Hoping to be more considerate, I moved a few steps away and practically hid behind Ines, letting Lynne do the rest.
“It’s okay. None of us are going to hurt you,” she said. “I’ll start by introducing myself, okay? My name is Lynneburg Clays. It’s a little long, I know, so feel free to call me ‘Lynne.’”
“Ly... Clay... M-Mistress Lynne?”
“There’s no need for the ‘mistress’ part. I’m an apprentice to Instructor Noor, the same as you.”
“Th-Then, does that mean...you’re a slave too?”
“Not at all. I’m what you would call a page, someone who serves another in order to learn from them. Though, strictly speaking, it was I who forced the relationship upon him...”
“A p-page...?”
“Basically, we’re in pretty much the same position. If you don’t mind, could you tell me your name?”
The girl still appeared fearful, but Lynne’s smile must have assuaged her; she raised her head, looked around at us, and said, “M-My name is Mina. My mom gave it to me.”
“Mina? That’s wonderful.”
“B-But...everyone says it’s a dumb name, for dumb beastfolk.”
“That’s not true. Here, there’s someone you should meet. This is Sirene. She’s beastfolk, as you are.”
“Y-You’re beastfolk too, miss?” The girl stared at Sirene, wide-eyed. “D-Does that mean you’re that person’s—master’s—slave too?”
Sirene looked in my direction at the very mention of the word “slave,” equally as wide-eyed. “No, I’m not,” she said. “I serve Lady Lynneburg, but not as a slave. She’s more my employer. That means, um... How do I even begin to explain this? Anyway, I’m not a slave, just an...employee. Does that make sense?”
“You’re not a slave? But you’re beastfolk,” the girl muttered. There was a slight pause before she echoed, “An em...em-ploy-yee...?”
“That’s right.”
Sirene crouched down to the girl’s eye level. They looked at each other, not saying a word, ears twitching all the while. I didn’t have a clue what they were doing, but it seemed to help the girl accept that Sirene wasn’t a slave, if nothing else.
“O-Okay. I think I get it,” she said at last. “You’re Lynne’s slave...but not a slave. You’re a new kind of slave. An em...employ-yee.”
“Not quite, but I suppose that’s fine for now.”
There still seemed to be some communication issues, but speaking with a fellow beastfolk had put the girl’s mind at ease. As I stayed behind Ines, trying not to cause a stir, Rashid approached me with a smile.
“So then, Noor... It’s all well and good that you’ve purchased her contract, but what now? Do you have a plan for taking care of her?”
“I don’t, no. Truth is, I haven’t considered it at all.”
“That’s fine—you can simply start now,” Rashid said with a shrug. “When it comes to taking servants of your own, teaching them skills, and raising them to work for your sake, the calls are yours to make. She’s tougher than she looks, to boot.”
“Thanks for the advice, I guess...?”
For some strange reason, Rashid seemed to assume I planned to take the girl in as a slave. My first idea had been to give her some coin and tell her to live as she pleased, but after what we’d all witnessed, that was most likely out of the question. I doubted she’d make it very far in this city on her own.
“By the way...” I said, keeping half an eye on Lynne’s seemingly successful efforts to keep the girl in high spirits. “That whole mess with the locals—is that common in this city?”
“More or less,” he agreed. “Rare is the fool who commits such acts of violence in public, but behind closed doors? It’s an everyday occurrence. Beastfolk slaves stand on precarious ground in this society, with no one to advocate for them. Generally speaking, they can’t protest the way they’re treated—not even when it threatens their lives.”
“How did things get so bad?”
“To put it simply, it’s how the city wants them to be.”
“The whole city?”
Rashid spread his arms wide, gesturing to the passersby. “You saw it with your own eyes, didn’t you? The looks on their faces as they watched that girl be beaten? That man’s compatriots weren’t the only ones complicit. They were violent and tyrannical, true, but only because they exist in a society that endorses it. The foundation of their cruelty is the amusement of the onlookers who act as though it doesn’t involve them. They care about their close circle, but anyone else might as well be refuse on the side of the street to them. In fact, when it’s to their benefit—or even when it just adds a little excitement to their otherwise mundane lives—they’ll wish misfortune unto others without a second thought.”