Why are humans so weak?
The first time I realized that was when I was five.
I was playing ball with the nanny, and when I kicked the ball with full force, it smashed one of her ribs.
“Aaaahhh!”
“Lady Nanny, are you okay?!”
“Doctor! Someone call the doctor quickly!”
It was a shock.
My hands and feet trembled.
More than anything, my heart hurt.
I never intended for the ball to hit her like that. It wasn’t my intention for her to bleed from her mouth.
Our nanny is such a kind person.
And yet, she was the one who apologized to me, telling me it was okay even though it was me who had hit her.
From that moment on, I couldn’t help but realize that I was both special and different from others.
“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, Nanny…”
Mom is an amazing person.
A hero admired by everyone in the world.
Strong, cool, and even kind— I wanted to follow in my mom’s footsteps.
But unlike my mother, who shines among the people, I can’t even take care of one person, let alone not hurt them.
Such a state is not what a princess of the Okami family should be like.
Above all, I couldn’t bear being that kind of person.
So, whenever I had the chance, I swung the wooden sword, and kept swinging it over and over.
To control the power that was different from others.
To make sure I wouldn’t accidentally harm those around me again.
“Has the princess been talking less recently?”
“Yeah, I think she’s avoiding us.”
I’m different from others.
So, I should never blend in with them.
Otherwise, I’ll end up hurting them again.
It was almost time to go to ‘school,’ but I definitely didn’t want to go.
I, who could easily break even ordinary adults, would never be able to interact with kids my age.
I was afraid that if I reached out to them thinking we were friends, like I did with the nanny, I might break them too. I feared how they might look at me after that.
So, I thought to myself, come to me.
I’ll give you power.
Hurry and wake me up.
It was the voice, that indistinct, eerie voice that began to whisper as soon as I realized I was different from others.
Was it some kind of fantasy that my weak heart conjured to represent my feelings?
I trained relentlessly.
Every time I was about to faint, I always heard that whisper.
It seemed like it wanted me to release myself.
Then it would offer rewards in exchange.
Sweet offers came constantly, but for the four years I’ve heard that voice, I’ve always lightly shook my head.
“The one who doesn’t try…”
“Don’t even eat it!”
Those were words my mom always said as a habit.
There’s no result without effort.
If you don’t want to be caught by the fool who doesn’t try, become a genius who tries.
Just like that, despite all the delusions and loneliness, I kept going, believing I was born this way.
I’ve endured, and I’ve grown.
One day.
When I was 9, my mom brought a boy who she said would play with me.
“Wow… a boy…”
I had always lived inside the mansion, so I had seen “adult men” sometimes setting the table or doing dishes in an apron.
But a boy my age was someone I had never seen before.
Moreover…
Thump, thump, thump.
The “good smell” that excited my fox-human senses, and the delicacy with which he mimicked all the games girls play.
“Th-This is strange… I shouldn’t play…?”
Hadn’t I promised myself that I would only go to the playroom for one hour a week?
I had sworn to myself, ever since I was young, that I would control my strength and become a great hero like my mom.
But now, to stop playing and return to my usual routine…
“Miss, here you go!”
“Uh-huh!”
Kang Janghoon.
Playing with Janghoon became so fun.
“It’s too much fun to refuse…!”
What if I enjoyed myself so much that I kicked the ball with all my might, and accidentally hurt Janghoon’s body?
What is this?
This “joy”…
My body was burning with excitement.
“…Maybe now, it’s okay to fit in?”
Thinking about it, I had never tried it before.
Every time I tried to get close to someone, that eerie voice in my head would warn me I’d end up hurting them.
So, I unconsciously avoided them, but now, with the courage that came from Janghoon sticking with me, maybe…
It’s fun.
It’s enjoyable.
And I want to be with him.
“Heh, hehe…”
Before I knew it, I was able to have more conversations with the nanny to take care of Janghoon, and it felt like I had returned to the past.
So, I thought, maybe I could rest now?
…But that couldn’t be right.
“Ugh…”
“Just knocked her out, right?” Definitely.
“Of course. How much is this little princess worth? Let’s take her and sell her on the black market.”
The price for trying to become like everyone else, despite being different.
Maybe it was because I reduced my training lately?
Or perhaps it was because I had been caught up in a happy mood and became careless?
The Okami family’s fox bloodline.
When assassins targeting that bloodline attacked, and I collapsed before I could even fight back, lying on the grass…
See? I told you.
You can never be happy like everyone else.
The assassins who tried to pack me in a sack.
And hearing the eerie voice in my head, I thought I might be able to smile again.
But in the end, I thought I’d end up causing trouble for others.
If I leave them alone, they’ll harm the people around you.
Say it. “Set me free.”
Then at least I’ll spare the boy you like.
Even if something happens to me, I don’t care.
I never want to see the people around me getting hurt because of me again.
“Alright…”
Just before losing consciousness.
Hoshino finally tried to reach out to the devil’s curse that had been whispering to her all this time.
?!
Just before it happened, the figure in front of her appeared.
“What… What is that?!”
“Monster… Monster?”
A monster wearing a crimson bone mask, with brilliant golden hair flowing.
It must be a monster.
Sniff.
But instead of feeling disgusted, I felt a pleasant scent from him and relaxed, falling asleep peacefully.
Release my seal…!
“Ugh.”
Hoshino was carelessly thrown into a sack.
The moment he saw that girl, instinctively…
It felt like he could become a monster again.
“Rraaah!”
So, with all his might, he screamed as loud as he could.
Ssssss.
Black smoke really started pouring from his body, and he grew quickly, his black flesh flapping like a cape, becoming a monster of Y city.
He had returned to the state he was in when he had taken down the violent monsters.
“A monster?!”
“A monster appeared in the middle of the city… in the Okami family’s territory?!”
“Could it be a monster contracted with the territory here?”
A monster contracted with the territory…
Well, it’s not entirely incorrect, considering the lord has a 100kg pure gold contract with them.
By the way, I don’t know when it started, but those rats that had been crawling into the Okami family pretending to be servants…
As I looked at those three in front of me, I wondered what I should do with them now.
“At this point, we’ll have to hunt them down.”
“…!”
“Yes, understood.”
Without even a moment to think.
They started charging at me first.
‘Oh, they’re fast.’
Well, they weren’t on the level of the violent monster, but still, this was pretty fast, right?
In the blink of an eye, one of them kicked me in the crown of my head, another in my abdomen, and the last one in my groin, landing behind me in no time.
And now, there was blood starting to flow from my nose.
‘Am I really bleeding from just one attack?’
Well, thinking about it, they were assassins who had come to kidnap the only surviving princess of the Okami family.
In the original story, Hoshino was referred to as a “beastman,” so she had always been a top seller in underground slave markets and research facilities.
Even in the future, after becoming an S-rank hero, such things still happened frequently, so it wasn’t surprising that assassins could approach her now, with the family still backing her.
‘That means they must be confident in their skills.’
Still, I never imagined they could make me bleed.
Even the violent monster couldn’t injure me, yet here I was, bleeding.
Their attack was so precise, I didn’t even feel the pain.
It was as if the blood wasn’t even mine to begin with.
“Ugh…”
“Ugh!”
“Ahhh?!”
Wait…
Let me correct myself.
It wasn’t like I felt as if I were shedding someone else’s blood. It seemed like the blood wasn’t even mine to begin with.
The person who struck me was clearly over there.
When I turned around, the assassins, who had landed gracefully, weren’t there anymore.
Instead, the assassins were writhing on the ground, each one having injured themselves by kicking me in such a way that one of their own legs was severed.
“Groan…”
‘Wow, what a fountain of blood…’
This was kind of awkward.
They didn’t even need to be touched. They ended up self-destructing.
I guess my mind and body were becoming more like a monster too.
If it had been before, I probably would’ve fainted at the sight of all this blood.
But now, seeing the three with severed legs didn’t faze me at all.
Well, I’m not so numb to the point where I’d be indifferent if I were to actually kill someone like a true monster.
“Groan. Groan.”
‘Well, I should probably stop the bleeding first before knocking them out, right?’
Splat.
Splat.
Let’s at least loosen up my hands.
“Eeek?!”
“Oh, they’re coming…!”
“!!”
Maybe it was my first time knocking someone out, but I was a little nervous.
No, before that, I was more focused on how to stop the bleeding from the severed leg first.
“Ugh!”
But what are they doing now?
“We are human!”
“Right!”
“Exactly!”
“…?”
Oh, I know.
The assassins, with resolute eyes, were glaring at me while saying such obvious things.
“We will die honorably as humans!”
“Right!”
“We won’t be sullied by you!”
Then, they continued talking and…
Crack.
“Groan?”
‘Huh?’
I didn’t even plan on killing them from the start.
It was as if they knew my dilemma and solved it for me, biting their own tongues.
Watching them recklessly rush at me and then kill themselves off.
I carefully placed the princess, still in the sack, next to their corpses.
Whoosh.
As I let out white smoke and returned to my human form, I too lay down. In that moment, we created a “perfect crime” where three died and two were knocked out due to the monster’s attack.
“Well, at least I got hit too… So it’s not a lie, right?”