The Non-Human Society

Chapter Seventy Four - Vim - A Quiet Cost

      She was learning. Fast.

Although a somewhat regrettable outcome... what had just happened was also in the end, positive.

A good lesson for one such as her.

Yet like always... such lessons were painful, and left scars.

We had left the wagon of spice and the four women behind. I was a little surprised to have seen Renn be the one to run away first. She probably had no idea how relieved I was to see her leave on her own accord. I had been rather... worried, on how I was going to get her to leave after the event.

It was now the middle of the night. A sliver of a moon loomed over us, illuminating the thin clouds that flowed quickly above us. There wasn't much wind down here on the ground, but up there seemed to be a windstorm based off the speed of the clouds.

Renn was walking next to me, and oddly... wasn't crying. She had wept for a few minutes directly after the event, but had calmed herself rather quickly.

It made me wonder if maybe she had cried because of something they had said or did. If that was the reason, it would also explain why she had been the first to run away.

Though... there was also a chance she had simply ran in hopes of keeping me from taking their lives.

Honestly no matter the reason... I was glad she was capable of understanding such things. I was glad she had been able to make the decision herself, without me having to force it.

It meant she really could adapt to our society.

It meant she was now a little more trustworthy. A little more valuable.

A frog croaked to my left, and I glanced at the little creek we were walking next to. It was barely as wide as my foot, but it was flowing a little fast. Either there was a larger river nearby, or water was seeping up from the ground somewhere.

"Think they'll be okay?" Renn asked.

"Yes. They'll be taking the same path we are now Renn, and we've only passed two people. Both were merchants themselves," I said.

She nodded, but didn't seem that happy to hear it.

"I feel... defeated. As if I had made a horrible mistake," Renn said.

"What mistake did you make?" I asked her carefully.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. Did I... choose wrongly? Did I not say the right things back then? Did I misunderstand you?" She rambled some questions, but didn't seem to know which one to really ask.

Yet it wasn't my place to tell her which one she needed to ask. Nor did I plan to give answer to any of them either.

"Was giving up the boxes a better choice?" Renn asked, and did so with a glance at me. This was the first time she's actually looked at me in several hours.

Fitting that she did so when she asked the right one.

"I would have preferred that option," I said honestly.

Her face contorted into pain and she looked away. "I see."

"But... at the same time, bending over for scum is never pleasant," I said.

"But it wasn't our choice. It was theirs. We took it from them," Renn said.

"Who said we did? They made their choice Renn. They gave... or were willing to give the boxes. What happened afterward was not a result of their choice," I said. I didn't mention that it was her fault. That knight would not have gotten anywhere near me if she hadn't acted so oddly in front of him.