“Found her, in the pavilion above!”
Before the Moon Rabbit Rebels even reached the mountain, the Blue Cavalier had already spotted the invisible Clara from a distance. Perhaps seeking credit, she had even outpaced the “Moon Rabbit Rebels.”
However, as soon as she reached the pavilion, she was pinned down in front of Clara once again by a Moon Rabbit Rebel.
This time, her face was slammed onto the stone path, looking quite painful.
“Why…”
Pressed firmly against the ground, she couldn’t even speak clearly.
Why was this child, who looked so much like her mother, together with the enemy?
The disbelief and confusion in her eyes were impossible to hide. Even as the former Blue Cavalier, she could not untangle the relationships between the people before her in such a chaotic and information-starved situation.
Clara deactivated her Invisibility and crouched down in front of her.
She spoke mockingly, showing no mercy.
“Can’t figure it out? I’m not even sure of her identity myself. But before you were reincarnated, you were at least a brainy Soul. How can you not even tell friend from foe?”
A Moon Rabbit Combat Unit crawled out from the hair of the Moon Rabbit Rebel and hopped onto Clara’s shoulder. Its appearance, to some extent, indicated where this group of Moon Rabbits stood.
They were traitors among the Moon Rabbits.
Despite being pinned to the ground, the Blue Cavalier stubbornly raised her head to glare at Clara.
“You…”
Just as she was about to speak, a Syringe the size of an arm was pressed against the center of her brow.
“Sorry, I don’t have time to listen to your threats right now. If I don’t get back soon, someone important to me will be in danger.”
**[Extraction in progress… Completed.]**
“Once I have that guy’s data, I’ll come back to undo your brainwashing. Until then, think about who you really are…”
“Wait… what are you… do… ing…?!”
While talking to the Blue Cavalier, Clara stripped off the other’s clothes and tore them into strips. She then used these strips to bind the latter, who was left in only her underwear, from head to toe like a rice dumpling. She even gagged her with the fabric.
After finishing, Clara tossed her into the pavilion, right next to Sista.
The Blue Cavalier flopped around like a fish out of water, but Clara had tied dead knots. Without any sharp tools, she lacked the strength to break free.
Faced with such humiliation, her cheeks naturally flushed red.
“Hey! You’re a big guy, and you’re still blushing?”
While Clara teased the Blue Cavalier, Nyx teased Clara.
**[Hey, haven’t you blushed plenty of times yourself?]**
Unable to argue, Clara decided to change the subject.
“Do you feel like Labi abandoned you? Well, let me tell you, your worries are unnecessary. That woman never saw you as one of her own from the start. Your very existence is an insult to the Hero.”
Brainwashing a Hero into a puppet—that alone was enough to end a career.
For the Fourth Calamity, this was the simplest way to destroy the Sigma Series.
“…Hero.”
The Blue Cavalier squeezed out two words through the cloth in her mouth.
“That’s right. You are a Hero. We only spread rumors that you were an insider just to salvage the Sigma Series’ reputation.”
Despite saying she didn’t want to waste words, Clara leaned against the pavilion, using her broom as a staff while she rambled.
“All your current emotions are the result of that woman’s manipulation. They were part of a setting, no different from any other Moon Rabbit… Oh, but this one is different.”
Clara pointed to the Moon Rabbit Rebel beside her.
“She is an individual born from the Moon Rabbit population to resist Labi—to resist your so-called ‘mother’.”
“Ruler… defeat… want… freedom.”
The Moon Rabbit Rebel looked very serious with her stoic face. Clara continued:
“See? Even a Moon Rabbit can resist. What about you, a former Hero? The so-called ‘Character Setting’ can absolutely be broken…”
Who was she, really?
This was a question the Blue Cavalier had not found an answer to since her birth.
“Besides, so what if you don’t have a mother? Don’t you already have family?”
Clara pointed to the quietly lying Sista.
“She is your Sister, you know?”
—
Miss Clara left.
It seemed she went to deal with Miss Labi.
Although her body could not move, Sista’s consciousness had remained “awake.”
If one were to ask when it started…
It was likely around the time her Soul was poured into the large rabbit.
From then on, Sista could perceive the sounds outside. It wasn’t through eyes or ears; it was as if she were a guardian spirit, standing behind this body from a perspective one head taller, observing everything that happened.
Perhaps it was because the Soul and the body did not perfectly align.
From witnessing the Moon Rabbits’ defiant suicides to Miss Clara risking herself to save her, and then fleeing here under Invisibility, until finally even her second brother was captured.
Although it felt like much had happened, not a lot of time had actually passed.
Miss Clara once said there was no need to choose the path arranged by others, and no need to keep pretending to be a man. At the time, she didn’t quite understand what she meant.
After all, she wasn’t pretending to be a man.
Since her birth, she had existed as a “pretty boy hero.” Whether it was the training, the knowledge, or the information drilled into her, it was all to maintain that Character Setting.
If the “pretty boy hero” was just a mask, then there was only a void beneath it.
There was no girl there.
Sista did not understand the so-called lifestyle of a woman.
She wasn’t even as familiar with it as the current Clara.
To jump out of the designated track was something difficult for her to understand and even harder to achieve.
…
However, those Moon Rabbits had done it.
They defied the “mother” they were naturally incapable of disobeying. They refused to harm Miss Clara’s rabbit clone, even at the cost of their “irreplaceable lives.”
Though the scene was cruel, Sista found herself moved by it.
What about her?
As a man-made Hero, she couldn’t escape her predetermined Character Setting. Even after being turned into a Moon Rabbit, she remained suspended in this state of limbo.
Although the brainwashing was forcefully interrupted by Miss Clara, the reason she couldn’t wake up was that her Soul had never fully merged with this Moon Rabbit body.
Sista knew in her heart that she might just be running from reality.
“……… (Stare)”
An itchy sensation of being watched.
Sista noticed that her second brother was looking at her.
She was lying on a bench at the edge of the pavilion. The Blue Cavalier, bound by a large amount of cloth and wearing only underwear, had been tossed onto the ground.
At this moment, her effort to wriggle her body closer looked like a living piece of shrimp tempura.
“A sister?”
Unaware that Sista was actually awake, the Blue Cavalier sat up by leaning her head against a pavilion pillar. She looked at her “sister’s” face and whispered softly through the gag.
“But, betraying mother, betraying the tribe… such a thing is not allowed.”
Her brother was struggling.
….
….
Sista forced her eyes open.
Perhaps it was time for her to wake up too.
“That is a suggestion Miss Labi left for you.”
Sista’s sudden voice startled the Blue Cavalier so much that the back of her head hit the pillar.
“After understanding the sequence of events, even without memories, what needs to be done is obvious… Brother, you are so smart; it’s impossible for you not to understand.”
Sista sat up on the bench.
“Stop running from reality.”
She grabbed the Blue Cavalier’s rabbit ears.
“We have to do something, too.”
Im really hoping for the series to continue to eb translated.