Chapter 63 – Talkative

"Your best bet is to head to one of the farming villages around Geola and negotiate with one of the farmers there."

"Any recommendation among those villages?"

"It's not my field so I don't know that much but the bunny's village south of here is well-known. Not necessarily all for the right reasons, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know. They're bunnies."

I shook my head.

"Sorry. I come from far away and that species didn't exist there."

"I see. I'll try to explain. It's stuff that everyone knows but it's not something people talk about openly like this. Come closer."

I put myself right next to him and asked in a lower voice.

"Is there a big issue with "bunnies"?"

"You could say that, in a way. Some call their species blessed by sel. Others say they're cursed by sel. Hmm, how to explain this… Let's start with why people say they're blessed. Most of the bunnies are born with an earth affinity. On top of that, they have something special. The crop they grow is always free of diseases. Unless there's some natural disaster, they tend to grow more food on the same area of ground. Plus, whatever they grow is tastier than normal crops."

"That sounds marvelous. It's like they're born for farming."

"Exactly. That's why most bunnies are farmers. But then, as if sel judged that everyone should be equal, their species has one critical flaw. They have high bodily needs."

"High bodily needs. Like, they need to eat more?"

"Yes. They need to eat more, drink more, and sleep more. However, if that was it, it would still be fine, especially because they can grow the food they need. The real problem is that they also have, well…"

As if he couldn't dare to say it out loud, he put his mouth close to my ear and whispered.

"A very high libido."

"…I see. Is that a problem?"

"The issue is that it's so high that it interferes with their lives. To say things straightforwardly, adult bunnies need to relieve themselves every six hours or so. If they don't, they'll start to feel bad."

"Oh… So they need to have sex several times per day? That might be a weird question but aren't they quite suited to working in a brothel?"

"You might think so, right? Unfortunately, that's not the case. One side effect of their high bodily needs and high libido is that they're very… sensitive."

"How so?"

"Basically, they, um, don't last very long during sex, if you know what I mean. Both men and women alike. That's why they perform badly in brothels."

"I see. I understand now."

"All right. And all this also creates another complication. Bunnies are a gentle species and they dislike fighting. They tend to be pacifists. Now imagine. A species that's great at farming, who doesn't defend itself well, and has an obvious weak point of high bodily needs…?"

"…They're being targeted by many people."

"Precisely. Their species is a sad one with a terrible history. I heard they're often enslaved in other countries. Even the village south of here was built by previous slaves who managed to escape or were being rescued. Geola sometimes sends agents to free foreign bunnies. They're safe in Geola's territory. Lady Vejas, may sel bless her name, forbid slavery, and even created a law that punishes anyone to death if they were to force a bunny to do anything against their will. The village is also being constantly guarded by high-ranked fighters since there were incidents where rescued bunnies were kidnapped again."

It wasn't the first time I heard the name Lady Vejas. She was the high-ranked ruler of Geola, the one who made the city what it is today. She was greatly revered by most of the people in the region.

The trader sighed before concluding.

"Anyway, that's the gist of it. That single village produces a good share of the food consumed in the city so it's of critical importance to Geola."

All this information made me realize once more how interesting the outer world and its species were.

"Do you know how far it is?"

"It's about twenty kilometers south from here."

"Okay. Thank you for sharing all this information with me."

"You're welcome, young lad. It was a good way to kill time. Not many customers today, hahaha!"

I left after saying goodbye and thought about what I heard. Even though it was a lot more information than I expected, my main purpose was accomplished.

I had a lot of time before the night market opened so I decided to check the village right away. But before that, I bought some more presents. It was always good to be prepared before going to negotiate with potential future suppliers.

When I was ready, I found a quiet spot and teleported high in the air. It was now time to make good use of how amazingly practical being a spatial mage was. While looking south, I extracted the coordinates of the furthest place I could see with my eyes and teleported there. I then did the same from my new location and repeated this cycle several times. Each teleportation sent me several kilometers in the right direction. Since it only took me a couple of seconds to teleport again, my effective speed was more than a kilometer per second.

I soon noticed the village in question from my high position and teleported to the road, not far from the entrance. Just like that, I crossed twenty kilometers in less than a minute. Even high-ranked air mages couldn't accomplish something like this. Spatial mages truly were peerless in anything related to movement. Well, unless it was night or foggy, of course.

The whole area was surrounded by fields as far as the eyes could see. It was easy to understand how this place could be considered as the city's granary. The talkative pottery merchant hadn't lied either. As I approached the village entrance, I noticed two rank 5 fighters guarding the entrance. One was a mage and the other one was a sorcerer, a standard effective combination.

They put themselves on their guard while I came closer, staying vigilant despite me looking completely harmless. When I was in front of them, the one on the right called out to me.

"Halt! State your name and business!"

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