Back on the road with Hakama, Jin remarked on how they had run into someone interesting the other day. He wondered whether all the Holy Knights were as strong as the one they had met.
Hakama clarified that Argus was exceptional. Even within the knight order, only the best of the best were hailed as Holy Knights and made leaders, and Argus stood at the top of their league. She gestured to show how fast his spirit art activation had been the other day, a term Jin was unfamiliar with.
Apparently, in the current era, borrowing the powers of the spirits was called divine power, and the techniques used to cultivate such power were the spirit method, or spirit arts. In other words, Kagura and Jin's nanomachines were being treated as spirits beyond anyone's comprehension. He knew they must look like a badly written fantasy to the current age, but he could not help remembering Karina's furious feelings regarding lesser beings.
Jin's interest sparked at the term, and he learned that the current era held several different races of people. There were those resembling insects, and fish, too. Based on her grandmother's words, a certain race could even live in water, or in specific regions alone. Over time that had changed, as the creatures evolved to survive in their surroundings.
The line fascinated Jin, who immediately reflected that it meant some survivors of humanity must have been the cause that kick-started an evolution cycle a hundred million years later.
He did not want to overthink such a grand assumption. Instead, Jin figured that the people who did not change and adapt to the environment had simply become a laughingstock. They were called the inferior species. Since they could not adapt, they were seen as bottom feeders and weak. Their society treated them like nobodies, even selling them as slaves, and the concept of slavery existing in this era bothered him.
Hakama stood resolute in her own opinion. She brightly asserted that there was hardly any difference between them and the inferior beings, and that she did not understand why people treated others with disregard just because someone was different. Every person was weird in their own way. Hearing her talk like that, Jin was impressed by the little girl's character.
While they were talking, someone appeared on the road ahead of them, looking rugged and beaten down. The child collapsed and begged for their help.
As Hakama rushed to her side, Jin observed the child closely, realizing that this one did not possess any animal features about the ears, which meant she was some kind of human. She was covered from neck to toe with bruises, and the injuries were not the kind that came from any casual accident.
Hakama did her best to lift the girl up while Jin activated his powers to help heal her.
Instead of being grateful, the girl immediately dropped the act and pulled out a blade, holding it against Hakama's neck and threatening to kill her if Jin moved so much as an inch from where he stood.
The situation had turned out far differently from what Jin had imagined. Now he knew for certain that he had been set up from the start. He scanned his environment to check for the others nearby.
A man materialized out of thin air, praising Poire for doing the work exactly as instructed. This ability was called stealth camouflage. It functioned thanks to the nanomachines absorbing the visuals of the surroundings and using them to create a cloak of invisibility. Its only weakness was that the invisibility ceased to function upon movement, but these men used it well.
The captain of the group bullied Jin, calling him an inferior species and mocking him for possessing such neat clothes. He asked the same question about where Jin came from, but Jin was stone cold and did not respond at all.
Hakama shouted for him worriedly while the captain threatened to kill the girl if he dared to move even a bit. Hakama acted on her own again by activating her ability, but Jin roared at her to stop at once. He did not want her using that kind of power against people, and implied that it was dangerous. The young girl had no idea how she should respond.
The bandit captain, meanwhile, was having the time of his life realizing that the girl had divine power as well. They asked Jin whether he could wield such strength too, but he was in the mood to mess around, so he acted like a mystery to be solved. Annoyed, the man kicked him down, reminding the inferior species to stay in his lane.
The captain took issue with his subordinate for trying to damage their goods. Then again, they did not have high hopes of the two of them selling at a good price. They did not even entertain the idea of Jin possessing divine power, since he looked like an inferior being at best.
At the same time, Hakama was starting to realize that these were the bandits and slave traders Argus had warned them about. The bandit leader activated a spell of his own to take care of the girl first, while Hakama feared for her life and for the prospect of being taken and sold as a slave.
When Hakama came to, Jin was there waking her up. He had no shirt on, because the bandits had taken every scrap of clothing he owned and left him nothing but his underwear.
Hakama seemed to be all right, but she was genuinely curious about where they even were. It looked like some kind of containment facility where other slaves were kept. Jin explained that it was the hideout of the bandits, and pointed to the ones who had been captured before them. All of them looked to be in rough shape. Most were inferior species.
It was a grim scene, but Hakama was more curious about why this man had his chest bare in the open like that. Jin explained that they had taken everything away from him for looking strange, and she was simply amazed by how confident he was without his clothes. Apparently, this look suited him best in terms of comfort.
Aside from that, what she was most curious about was why he had not fought back then and there. With his godlike power, he could have wiped them out in a single go.
Before he could answer, Poire was sent into the room with breakfast. Finding them awake, she offered them a meal. Hakama was furious with her, but Poire did not really care whether they hated her or not, as she had never had any expectation of being forgiven.
The pure-hearted girl was annoyed by that, but Jin stunned the blue-haired girl by actually calling her kind. It came as a shock to their pretend victim. In reality, Jin said, bad people did not care about the concept of whether somebody hated them in the first place, or whether they deserved forgiveness. The fact that Poire thought about these things at all was enough to conclude she was kind.