Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Nati - Chapter Sixteen

I finally got the ball rolling.

Quite literally. It might not seem much, but the orcs were excited. I pitched a few game ideas yesterday, and they eagerly tried them all out. This was my first contribution to life in another world, but we got a serious bottleneck. We needed more leather and fast since tanning it would take too long.

The hunters worked overtime and brought back a large haul of prey with quality hides. They planned to trade them with the neighboring village, and I escorted them.

The village had no carts. This gave me hope, but sadly, I couldn't reinvent the wheel for them. They simply didn't have a use for it.

"The roads fell into disrepair. Orcs are strong enough to carry this much around, so it's not worth having carts here." Charlotte explained as we set out. "They'd create more issues than solve. Would be difficult to drag them along this trail, and being hard to approach is our best defense."

"Each of the Lesser Races has some advantages over humans," Hana noted with three boars on their shoulders. "Orcs have amazing strength."

"Besides, this is a perfect opportunity for the younger ones to leave the village." Charlotte motioned behind us. A good twenty orcs followed, half of them were children. They begged us to let them come. "The area is too dangerous for them to wander around otherwise."

They sure didn't seem to be burdened. I carried the same weight as they did, and it made me wonder, what set the beastfolk apart from humans. I felt stronger than in my past life but I wasn't exactly a gym rat. I did go on hikes occasionally though.

They said the next village was close, but our little caravan had a three-hour walk ahead. Distances worked differently in a primitive society, no cars or public transportation were available, but everyone got used to it and enjoyed it too.

I can't say I was bored either.

Thankfully we avoided the old capital and walked on narrow trails, running through hills with good views. Even while I carried a lot of stuff it felt like the hikes we used to go with my family. I didn't have much time to think about them lately and missed them, although we no longer lived in the same household for some time anyway. I had no idea how they handled my death and somehow felt guilty every time I remembered.

We reached the beastfolk's village just after noon. They seemed wary of us since this many orcs arriving at once must have looked scary for an outsider, but we carried tradeable goods not weapons, so their leader came to greet us. She was quite the sight.

She wore more sophisticated clothing than the orcs that resembled a kimono, intricately decorated, nice, and clean. Charlotte went ahead to negotiate, and we started quite the picnic in front of their village in the meantime. We entered with a full belly, once they reached an agreement.

It was quite different from the orc's place.

Their houses were much nicer, built of wood and bricks and densely packed alongside well-maintained streets. Compared to that, the orc shacks were just randomly thrown together around a courtyard. The beastfolk had at least three to four times more people living here too, and those people surprised me the most.

My people.

They came in all shapes and sizes but were considered the same race. Sometimes it was hard to tell what kind, but they had animal ears and tails, from cats and dogs and even rabbit and bear types walking around. Mixes were common but all had human-like faces and bodies.

For example, the leader of the village was a fox-girl.

"Her father was a gray wolf-man, and her mother a cat-woman like yourself, but with red hair," Hana explained quietly, once the negotiations started. "So is this your first time, seeing your people?"