There they were.
Three pairs of golden eyes staring straight at me through the bars of strange stone adorned with peculiar symbols.
Two girls and one boy. All had the palest skin I had ever seen on a human.
The oldest, one of the girls, looked barely older than my twelve-year-old niece.
Her pale blonde hair was the same hue as the boy's. The second oldest.
The boy seemed only a couple of years younger than the girl judging from his undeveloped face. But he was about as tall as her.
The last girl looked barely older than five years old. Hair as dark as obsidian.
She sat between the two older children, clutching their hands with her small and frail palms.
They might be young, but each of them looked at me with a stare that made a wolf's pale by comparison.
The oddest thing about them was the clothes they were wearing.
I had never seen such a thing before.
The deep black fabrics of their clothing were so pressed against their body they almost looked like second skin. Covering from the neck all the way to their wrists and ankles. And without any segment, as if the clothing was all in one piece.
Now that I looked closer, their clothing was not made of fabrics. There were patterns glimmering when the light of the lantern shone on them.
Scales. Fish scales.
They were wearing scales!
Wait…
Who cares what they wore?
These were children!
There were children in this weird cage!
Our ship was holding children as captive!
"They are not children."
A composed and dignified voice suddenly spoke from behind me.
I turned around and saw the white-cloaked man sitting in a dark corner of the room.
Had he been there the entire time?
I must had been so preoccupied on seeing what was in the box. The cage.
"What do you mean they are not children?"
I asked the cloaked man.
Now that I looked around, I did not see that man Maran in the room. Probably meeting with the captain in his own cabin.
At any rate, the cloaked man did not seem to be bothered of me sneaking around since he calmly walked up to me with a smile on his face.
He stopped beside me and stared at the three children huddled together in the cage.
"If we were to let them out, these monsters will kill us and everyone on board."
The cloaked man said.
I frowned at his words.
"Monsters? What are you talking about? They're children!"
"They are Tsamudran. Not humans. These little ones are just as vicious as goblins or ogres. Worse, actually."
Upon the cloaked man's comment, the boy let out a strong grunt, revealing a series of teeth made up of only fangs.
"Whoa!"
I could not help but to flinch backward upon the abnormal sight.
The cloaked man simply chuckled at my reaction.
"They dwelled in the greatest depth of the ocean. Constantly living under great water pressure which could kill you and I just by being there. Because of that, their bodies developed to be so firm and strong that not even sword or arrow can penetrate their skin. They could even take a blast of a cannon and only suffered a bump or bruises."
"Really?!"
"Maran and his men did not believe me at first. But once these children killed 30 of them with their bare hands, it was hard to deny anymore. Thankfully we managed to capture them before they could kill Maran and I."
"Is that why we're this way down south? To capture Tsamudran people?"
I asked the cloaked man.
He shook his head.
"Not people. Beasts. They are beasts, young man. You should not see them as humans."
"W-well, they still look a lot like humans to me."
The cloaked man then tapped his finger to the cage's bars.
"If not for this magic artifact, this whole ship and everyone on board would be lying on the bottom of the ocean right now. These children won't hesitate to rip your throat the moment they stepped out of the cage."
I stared back toward the three children.
I believed the man saying they would kill me if they were to be free.
But still, they were just children to me.
It was not right to lock them up like this.
"Wh-what are you planning to do with them?"
I asked the cloaked man.
"I'm going to sell them."
"As slaves?! Who would be able to make the Tsamudran slaves if they could easily kill people as you claimed they would?"
He shook his head again.
"Not slaves. Test subjects."
I frowned once more upon his words.
"Test…subjects?"
"Yes. There are mages who would like to study the Tsamudran. They would pay good money if you could bring them a corpse. Ten-fold if you could bring a fresh live one. And twenty-fold if it's juvenile."
This invited a series of snarls from the Tsamudran children. All of them.
Their rage and bloodlust were directed to the cloaked man. Even so, he simply stared them back with an amused face.
Despite living underwater, apparently they understood our language.
That fact only made it more difficult for me to see them as anything other than humans.
"I'm just a simple village folk. But I've never heard mages of the Tower of Circle doing something like that."
"Oh my client isn't from the Tower of Circle. They belong to a more…sophisticated establishment."
He said. His eyes were still fixed on the Tsamudran.
The man tapped on the cage again and continued.
"This powerful magic artifact was actually loaned to me by my client. For them to possess such priceless object just shows how powerful they are."
"You really are going to sell them, aren't you?"
"Stop seeing them as humans, young man. Just keep your head down and do your work until we arrive to shore once more. Your captain and the entire ship's crew will be very rich by then. You might not need to keep slaving away as deckhand anymore."
He said while escorting me out.
Even after the door closed behind me, I could not help but to turn my face back to the room. Back to the cage.
Ignore those…children?
No. No matter what he said, there was no way I could regard those children as monsters.
They looked just like us. They also understood us.
They were people!
It was not right to keep them locked up like that.
It was not right.