Three angels on Earth... no, in another world

Amber eyes and blonde hair.

The first thing Ryu laid his eyes upon was a pristine beauty fit of the word goddess, at least for this otaku who never really met any real life beauty.

No, even when comparing those celebrities on TV, wasn't this angel still more beautiful?

Maybe it was because of his current dreadful circumstance that he felt like she was the most lovely being to ever walk among those lands, but even objectively speaking this girl's appearance was top-grade. And the same was true for the other two girls appearing from the sides.

"Are you ok?" the blonde angel asked while helping him sit up "Did you get robbed?" she added up afterwards, obviously noticing the lack of anything aside from the clothes on his back.

Ryu didn't know how and what to answer, still dazed by his faint spell and her beautiful appearance, but when she asked again he reluctantly shook his head.

"No? You mean, you weren't robbed? Then why are you here, in the middle of nowhere, with no food or even a weapon on you? You're too old to get lost..." so she kept going on and on, till the silver haired... elf? Those long ears surely meant this girl was an elf? Wait, then this wasn't heaven and he wasn't dead? No, maybe there are elves in heaven "Wait Lia, let him calm down and explain, no good will come if you keep hounding him like that, you know?"

The interjection seemed to calm down the angel, Lia, which in turn gave Ryu the time to ask "Am i... dead? Is this heaven?"

The question prompted a laugh from all but the red-haired knight-looking lady, though the cool beauty's lips kept twitching on the side.

"No lass, you're nowhere near dead... though i may say you're a little starved, if not for this large tummy of yours. Overheating is no good, you know?" Like so the elf interjected again, letting then Lia take the lead again "Seriously, what are you doing here? This road only connects Brushire to Brohole Post, four days on foot. You'd need some supplies for the trip, and yet you got nothing on you. Did you escape... wait, are you a criminal?"

Reaching such conclusion Lia almost stumbled back, looking warily at Ryu while the red-haired knight's expression got serious as she grabbed her halberd. Only the elf didn't seem very fazed, instead giggling as she got closer "Would a criminal be so fat? Only some ring-leader may gain enough to eat so much without the chance to easily digest it down, you know?"

This view had loopholes as there was no lack of burly thugs as fat as bears, but the elf covered that flaw soon after "And low-ranked fatties all have either some scars or a really mean face. He looks like a pig instead, you know?"

Getting called a pig would usually hurt Ryu, but there was obviously no bad intention behind the elf's words and it was still better than behind branded a criminal.

Moreover... if it came from an human, being called a pig would be a great offence. But from an elf? For many of them, general humans were comparable to monkeys whereas fat ones were pigs. Rather than calling it an insult, it was the arrogance and superiority of a race whose beauty was inborn. It felt like for them, it was natural to consider humans on the same level as animals.

In this world, many conflicts arose from such an attitude. Humans lusting after the beautiful elves, and elves disdaining humans as boorish animals. Later on, after centuries of mixing together, such racial concepts weren't as ingrained as before but also not completely eradicated.

Ryu didn't know all the history beyond it but not feeling any kind of disdain when being referred to as a pig, he silently let it go. After all it seemed like those three beauties did save him, so he didn't care about such trifles. If he knew "our piggy" would become his pet-name in the group because this time he let it go without a fuss, he would have surely reacted in a different manner.

"Well, should i call you Mr. Piggy, or Mr. Criminal?"