"Can you tell us what happened?" he asked, and wondered if she’d understand him.
Fortunately, after hundreds of years of amalgamation between cultures, a lingua franca had been formed. There were some local dialects, sure, but it was enough for them to communicate.
The young cat-woman nodded, rubbing her head against his shoulder while she spoke. "Bad men. Took Katnia and brothers. They send us deep human territory, they said."
Durgan’s eyes darkened, looking in a direction where the mercenaries were still fighting monsters.
"They’re selling her as a slave."
"What?" Finn gasped. "Is slavery still legal?" he asked. He remembered the goblins were practically slaves, but in name, they were not.
Then again... with people in power, how can there not be slaves? They just came in different forms and might have different names.
"Well, halfbreeds are quite popular in some circles," Durgan said, eyes darkening as if he had a similar experience before. Finn patted his shoulder but didn’t ask for anything else.
As far as he knew, there were three types of crossbreeds, all with humans. A human and a beastkin child, like the scantily-clad woman next to him, would be called a Halfkin.
A child between a human and an elf, on the other hand, was called a half-elf. An example was Leiah, who had some elven features like pointy ears, but a lot less muted.
And then there were halflings, like Durgan, who were a combination of humans and dwarves.
Humans’ advantage compared to the others was not just the versatility (some humans could awaken physically, while some magic, creating more balanced teams), it was also their fecundity and ability to crossbreed.
With the laws requiring intermarriage for a time right after the armistice, halfbreeds weren’t technically outcasted. Rather, it was illegal to do so in many places.
So how could race-based slavery be a thing?
Well, it seemed like it was something that could not be completely avoided as long as there were intelligent beings.
"Halfkin are the most popular types of slaves," Durgan said, voice filled with pity. "Elves would never allow an elvenblood to be subjected to it in principle, but the rest would have limited power against people of power. It was not limited to humans, but humans were definitely the largest buyers of slaves in the world.
"It is ironic, really. Technically speaking, the humans’ status had been decreasing because their main advantage was gone with the increase in crossbreeding. However, many are overcompensating by making sure they control people from other races, too," he paused, looking at the boss. "I don’t mean any offence. I am not referring to all of you."
"I know," Finn said. "There are good and bad people in all races," he said. "It’s just that powerful humans tend to use that head of theirs in nefarious things a little more often."
The world is so big, and even if slavery was frowned upon, it was not entirely illegal everywhere. What was illegal was ostracising a halfbreed because it was half. The logic was, if every race could be a slave, then it was not discrimination.
It was ridiculous.
In any case, the sounds of fighting outside soon calmed, and Durgan stood up to look at the window.
"Things are calming down now," he said. "They should be heading in soon."
At this, Durgan stood up and headed out to meet with them. At the same time, the cat-woman immediately wrapped her arms around Finn again, tighter this time.
While most normal virile men would react to a scantily clad woman with a good figure—who had a cat tail and ears to boot—embracing them tightly, Finn’s brain always ran a bit differently, and he just felt pity for the cat .
"It’s okay, we wouldn’t give you back to them, okay?" he said, patting her head in comfort. "Don’t worry—we’ll protect you."
Fortunately, the cat woman understood. Her tail, that had been flicking nervously, lowered, becoming relaxed and still. She slowly separated from him, though her arms still held on to his shirt.
She looked up at him with those feline eyes. "Really?"
He nodded, pointing at the lower bunk bed. "You can rest there while we wait for the rest of them to finish," he said, standing up, and gently prying her grip on his shirt.
"So let us do our jobs, okay?"
...
When he left the room, the first thing he heard was: "This is an inn? Then get us a room!"
Then, he could hear Durgan speaking, followed by the yelling of the customers. It seemed like their tiredness, on top of seeing who was in the inn, made these mercenaries arrogant again.
"Get our teammate back inside, right now! How dare you kick any one of us out?"
"I am not at liberty to do that."
"THEN DO SOMETHING!"
"I am not at liberty to do that," Durgan repeated, irking them even more.
He could even hear Pang, though the customers naturally couldn’t understand him. "I kicked him out! You got a problem with that?! Annoy me a bit more and I’ll kick you out, too!"
"What is this thing?" he heard the voices, though some were more curious.
Finn remembered that Pang moved so quickly that the others hadn’t really seen him move before. They had no idea what Pang could do to them.
"It looks like a unique creature, boss!"
"It looks useless," another said. "What can it do?"
"Who cares? This is rare. Those noblewomen would spend hundreds—"
They were talking as if they already owned Pang. It annoyed Finn, let alone Durgan, who stepped forward to speak for him. "This is Pang, one of the most important entities of this Inn. Please do not offend him."
"What did you say, damned dwarf?" he yelled, followed by a pause. "Goblins? Damn! There’re even scraprats here."
Finn’s eyes reddened. They not only cursed at Durgan, but also said derogatory things to the Goblins, who were probably just innocuously doing their jobs when they saw them.
In the end, even if there was an integration between races, there seemed to be a natural hostility in some people. Fortunately, most people he had encountered so far were decent people, but it was inevitable for him to encounter filth in this line of business.
Anyway, these mercenaries probably thought that since they were just dwarves and goblins there, they could be bullied. Finn wondered if they had forgotten they could still get kicked out. Or did they believe they wouldn’t, since they had already paid the entrance fee?
Finn opened the door and looked at the visitors. "It’s amazing how you people could insult people inside their own homes. Do you think you own the place?"
His tone wasn’t gentle or polite. Finn was really annoyed, and he didn’t bother hiding that fact.
"Who are you?" they asked, and they looked at him up and down, knowing that he was a ’weakling’, which ultimately made them feel more offended.
An awakened weakling, looking them eye to eye, and daring to berate them! The audacity!
Finn did not seem to be affected by their intimidating stares. He just kept his chin up, looking stern.
"Me?" he paused. "I am the Innkeeper."