"Now then, let us spend today sightseeing. All of you can move around in this capital as you please. But do not cause any trouble."
First thing in the morning, I announced to Haruka and the others that we would be staying here for a while.
I was interested in just what kind of country Hinata had made for herself, and I was concerned about the living conditions of those with colored wings, like myself. I also had the personal objective of confirming whether Hinata was like me or not, so there was no way I could leave this place that quickly.
Given that Juvia was a resident of this world only, I'd half given up. But I did hold a little hope.
The problem was how I would get in contact… Unlike Juvia, Hinata had yet to give up her throne.
This country was only inhabited by the flugels, after all. Their lifespans were different. Unlike Svel, which was also home to many humans, this place was just for the flugels right from its founding. So unless she invited a big revolt or something, there was no way Hinata would step off the throne in a mere thousand years.
In other words, Hinata was even harder to make contact with than Juvia, who had retired.
"Taking separate action… I have concluded this does not pose a problem in combat."
"Sightseeing, huh… Where should I go?"
Penny and Fiona didn't raise any objections in particular and seemed eager to go sightseeing. Actually, I couldn't really tell whether Penny was eager or not. On the other hand, Haruka was very expressive and clearly seemed happy about the idea.
"That sounds great. Then I'll try going over to the white-winged faction's town. I might find something fun over there."
It was much harder for me to go visit that side of the country, so if Haruka went, that would actually help me a lot.
Acting separately divided our power and invited more danger than normal, but that shouldn't have been a problem with these people. Even if one of those Seven Grimms of Purgatory or whatever came knocking, Fiona and Penny had enough power to send them packing.
As for Haruka… I still wasn't sure how much strength she had, but I got the feeling she had enough to at least stay cheekily safe. I wasn't that worried. Not to mention, she had the ability to teleport. If things get dicey, she could just teleport directly to me.
"Well then, let us split up for now. We will meet up at this inn later," I said, leaving the inn.
Haruka went off somewhere right after I did, and Fiona also ran off in a different direction.
Penny… Ah, she's flying off somewhere with her jets again. I already told her to stop that, since it's so loud. What am I going to do with her?
Now then, I should go around this place myself.
Now that I was out of the inn, I started walking around town.
I kind of got the feeling that I was the center of attention, but I'd given up on avoiding it. It was only natural since I was covered head to toe in an orange mantle.
It'd be nice if I had a more, like… nicer way of disguising myself… Maybe I could just dress as a guy?
Hm? Oh crap, isn't this actually a good idea?
Let's try transmuting up a cross-dressing set as soon as I get back to the inn.
"…Hm?"
After walking for a while, I found myself in front of a building that reminded me of a Greek temple and was surrounded by several pillars. But while it looked like a temple, it was colored completely black.
A pitch-black temple? Feels like it's full of ill omens.
But it'd piqued my interest, so I continued on into the temple.
I was weirdly excited, wondering just what kind of evil deity would be enshrined inside. As far as deities of this world went, Haru Heartfilia was the creator and its only god.
Other than that, there were also the five dragons that governed the five elements outside of Metal and Water, which Haru Heartfilia presided over. But that was just fluff and never appeared in the game. The MMO aside, the dragons never even appeared in the TRPG or the console game. They were just phantom characters that only got mentioned in-setting.
Now then, who's being worshiped in here? Is it some sort of independent religion? Or is this not actually a temple?
I went deeper and deeper into the temple, passing by other visitors who seemed to be here to pray, before I finally came upon the statue that was their object of worship.
Long hair stretching down to the hips. Pitch-black wings.
A unique sense of fashion with a mantle worn on top of a dress.
That was unmistakably me, Lunaru Fenris. Strangely enough, I was currently staring at a statue of myself.
"This statue is…"
I was dumbfounded.
A gentle-sounding voice reached out to me. "Oh, how rare. A traveler?" I glanced over at the owner of the voice and saw a young man with red-black wings smiling back at me.
His face was… Not great but not too bad, either? Unlike elves, who were all beautiful, the flugels were normal or average-looking. It did kind of feel like we were better-looking than humans on average, but ugly flugels were pretty normal.
Although, the flugels based their beauty on their wings, so no one really cared as long as someone wasn't extremely ugly. And to be normal even amongst the normal-looking flugels? This red-black-winged guy was… Well, he must have had his share of troubles.
"You must be fairly surprised, seeing this statue."
"Yes, quite surprised. To think that this temple worships the infamous Black Empress," I replied.
The normal-faced young man seemed offended for an instant before his expression went back to normal.
Huh? Did I actually offend him by talking badly about Naru? I was just saying the truth. The fact that he's offended by that is kind of funny.
I had the urge to laugh.
"It's true that to most of the world Naru is an evil invader. However, to us, she is a savior."
"Oh? …We'd like to know more about that."
Apparently this country… rather, this faction had an impression of me that was far removed from the greater world.
I decided to listen to him a little longer. I figured that if I did, I'd get to hear of a side of Naru that I didn't know of before.
"Did you know that the flugels are a race that pride themselves on the whiteness of their wings?"
"Yes, We know that well. They claim to be descendants of angels, and that is why the whiteness of their wings marks them as superior, which is unique to the flugels, correct?"
"Exactly. However, just because one is flugel doesn't mean that they will be born with white wings. Some, like me, are born with different-colored wings."
Standards of beauty for the flugels were mostly concerned with the color of one's wings, with the shape of their wings being next. One's face, body shape, and the like were next after that, so people like him with odd-colored wings got looked on with disgust.
Those with pure-white wings were not very common, though. Most flugels had wings in a dim white that was pretty close to gray. I'd guess that having wings that were at least a light gray would barely be in the safe zone.
On the other hand, the closer to black one got, the more alienated they were. Of course, with my pitch-black wings, I was basically a pariah. And people like him, with wings that were an entirely different color, were immediately out of the running as well.
"With my position, it used to be really bad. Right now, we have our own town, so we're able to live pretty well. But in the past, it really was awful. We weren't even considered the same species. Just by walking down the street we'd be pointed and laughed at. We had no choice but to cling to other people in the same circumstances, living miserably in what were basically slums. Can you believe that? Just by having slightly different-colored wings we can't even get decent jobs. We were constantly starving back then."
The things he was talking about weren't just limited to the flugels.
People discriminated against others over the littlest of things, and mob psychology tended to make them think they were in the right. Once someone thought they were superior, reason no longer held them back, and even good people easily turned into demons or monsters.
In the 'Stanford Prison Experiment' twenty-one subjects flipped a coin which separated them into jailers and prisoners. As a result, the jailers, which were treated as on top, quickly went berserk and far exceeded the calling of their station, oppressing the other students who had just happened to be prisoners.
In the end, the students who played the role of prisoners experienced severe emotional trauma, and the experiment had to be canceled in a mere six days. But the students who were jailers wanted to continue, claiming that wasn't what was planned. Even then, they knew this was all an experiment, and their prisoners were innocent.
In other words, as soon as a human felt like only they should be on top, their sense of goodwill flew out the window and they became demons. Everyone had the capability to do this. So the flugels, who claimed to be the descendants of angels, were no exception. They just thoughtlessly intensified their discrimination based on an easy-to-discern difference like the color of their wings.
Still, they're taking it too far, from what I'm hearing. Descendants of angels? Don't make me laugh.
"Almost every day we lived in fear, hiding from the outside world. It was miserable… Those days were truly wretched. But she was different." He looked up, speaking passionately and longingly. "Her wings were black, but more beautiful than anyone's. She used power to assert her presence and value, unlike us, who simply curled up in fear. And she dominated country after country, forbidding discrimination against flugel who didn't have white wings in each one under her umbrella, allowing us to be treated as people."
Ahh, yeah…
Like, getting buttered up like this to my face makes my back really itch. I didn't hate getting complimented, but this was just too much. It made me uncomfortable.
"It is all thanks to her that we were able to take back our pride. We aren't miserable failures… We are proper flugel who just happen to have different-colored wings. We were able to be proud of that fact."
"You sure put her on a high pedestal. But didn't one of her subordinates, one of the Twelve Zodiac's Guardians, steal your homeland?"
"I did not forget about that. But isn't that just what we deserved? We betrayed her, cast her down. And as a result, we foolishly allowed the resurgence of the grimmfolk. In fact, I consider it a mercy that we weren't killed."
…I see. This is kinda bad.
I felt clear enmity rolling off this man in waves as he talked passionately. He was so worked up he was voicing his complaints to a suspicious traveler from who knew where.
But I still needed to listen to him. To this man… No, to the heartfelt anger of the residents of this town.
"Those words are very close to being in contempt of the queen, Hinata… Just who do you think is your queen?" I asked, and the man stiffened up.
The next expression he showed was cold and sharp like pure, frozen anger. It was frozen because the object of his anger wasn't around. But if Hinata were here, it probably would have easily turned into an all-consuming flame. Just like that, the man unhesitatingly spoke.
"She's the worst fool of a queen… A hero? As if. That title makes me laugh from the bottom of my heart."