However, willpower alone cannot always change reality.
A pure-blooded human without any beastly strength, a body weakened by poison and wounds, and, above all, bare hands without a sword.
“You’re still the same, truly.”
Thunk.
It was blocked so easily.
Gwyn clasped his outstretched hand as if lacing fingers together and sighed.
“Listen to the end. I’m not trying to defend slavery.”
“Then…”
“I’m talking about practical difficulties.”
Reality — the ever-present high and thick wall that loomed before him.
It was no different now.
No sword, no remaining strength.
What was left between them was the most fundamental truth: human versus beastman.
Hans had been a fighter, while Gwyn was closer to a strategist.
The difference in species, the difference in circumstances — realistically, a human cannot defeat a beastman.
“Slave trading has gone underground. It can’t be struck directly like before. Even when it can, far fewer people are saved.”
“Still, even if it’s just one—”
“Hans. I’m not blaming you, but in the end, even you got captured.”
Strength drained from his clenched hands.
“It’s that difficult. Especially alone.”
“…”
“This was the best I could do — to pull out even one person from that hell.”
Hans, hit with his own words turned back on him, remained silent.
Gwyn let go of his hand and helped his collapsing body.
Now would be the perfect time to strangle her, but he no longer had the strength.
His enemy had dulled.
“Still…”
Repeating himself like a broken doll was all he could do, without any alternatives to suggest.
Even if he couldn’t put it into words, a heavy feeling lodged in his chest like a nail — the unmistakable sense that something was wrong.
“I know what you’re worried about.”
But he couldn’t convince anyone else, not even himself.
So Hans let her gentle touch guide him.
“I haven’t given up the fight. It’s hard now, but when the time comes, and we’re ready…”
“Really?”
“Yes. We’ll fight again.”
For a brief moment, he marveled at how much the once-tiny girl had grown.
But Hans was too tired.
The poison that subdued him still hadn’t left his system entirely.
He had thrashed constantly after being caged.
A body long past its limits held together by sheer will.
“So rest for now — for the battles ahead.”
Her voice, soft as a spring breeze, closed his eyes.
“Big Sister!”
A dream.
A night he could never forget.
The night sky was thick with clouds, hiding the moonlight.
The dark, shadowed carriage looked like a monster from a child’s nightmare.
From that monster’s mouth, a child screamed.
“Liar! No, it’s a lie… Big sister, please open your eyes!”
Hans stood apart from it all.
A sword.
In the dream, he was younger.
Not just in appearance — his actions were clumsy, those of a novice.
Red stains began at his awkwardly held sword tip, flowing along the ground to the weeping child.
More precisely, to the corpse in her arms.
A black-robed figure, its face half-revealed under a slipped hood, lay motionless with unfocused eyes.
Even her own blood relative, whom she had thrown herself to save, could no longer hold her.
“…It.”
The wailing child rasped and raised her head.
In the darkness, her amber eyes burned brightly.
Rabbit ears twitched atop her head, identical to the lifeless ears near her feet.
“You killed her, didn’t you?”
Hans had been a rookie then.
He neither raised nor lowered his sword, couldn’t meet her eyes nor look away, couldn’t be shameless nor apologize.
He simply stared as the child rushed at him, clutching her sister’s dagger.
Hans still remembered how he felt in that moment.
He didn’t want to die. But would he cut down the child he had just freed by breaking her chains?
He did nothing, mind blank.
He should have moved, dodged at least.
The child lunged, her dagger poised to strike.
But she stopped.
Her eyes were fixed on his bloodied hand gripping the sword — torn skin, red and raw.
She remembered.
The sparks that flew from iron striking iron, unseen but flickering through the cracks of the carriage.
“You didn’t know.”
A younger Hans whimpered like a child.
“I didn’t… I didn’t know. I didn’t know it was a slave transport mission, I thought they were just bandits…”
There had been signs, clues.
The high reward, the large guard detail.
It wasn’t ignorance — it was foolishness.
“So?”
“…”
“‘I didn’t know’ is all you have? My sister… my sister is…”
Turning her head, she looked at the others, crouched inside the carriage.
Even with their chains broken, fear held them in place.
Their eyes, gleaming in the dark, watched it all.
The true chains were not metal, but fear.
The rabbit girl was no different — her sister’s death had only ignited her courage.
“I’ll repay blood with blood. A life for a life.”
The dagger clattered at Hans’ feet.
Did she want him to kill himself?
Of course not.
Neither she nor Hans thought that.
“My sister’s name was Niren,”
she whispered.
“And mine is Gwyn. Those kids? Locke, Jen, Mira, Denny…”
In the dark, she named them all.
And that was how they first met — in a forest soaked with blood, under a sky devoid of moonlight.
“I’ll get my revenge,”
she declared.
Hans, unable to refuse, nodded.
“Until then… protect us.”
A life taken.
A burden heavier than he ever knew.
Hans opened his eyes.
He lay on a luxurious bed.
He preferred the earth beneath his back, the sky for a roof.
The children were gone, except one.
The dawn shone brightly, promising a peaceful day.
But peace was a fleeting, hollow thing.
“Really?”
In the empty room, Hans sat alone, a man drenched in sweat and shadows.