ã€ŠThe Rabbit And His Loverã€‹


 [ Arc 01 ][ 01 ] Tragedy

    ¡°Say ah!¡±

    A girl said, holding a carrot out for me to eat.

    ¡°No! I won¡¯t eat it! I won¡¯t eat it! I swear I won¡¯t!¡±

    That¡¯s what I thought and resolutely turned my head away.

    ¡°Oh! Don¡¯t be like that!¡± The girl said cheerfully. ¡°Here!¡±

    She moved her hand forward and struck the carrot against my nose. Because of the vegetable being so close to me, I couldn¡¯t help but automatically sniff it. The moment I did, I instantly regretted it because I felt an unbelievable urge to eat it.

    ¡°No!¡± I thought firmly. ¡°I must not eat! I must not eat! I must not¡ª! No! No! No! Dammit!¡±

    Disobeying my command, my body formed to open my mouth and made me bite into the carrot.

    ¡°Oh! Look at you eat! You¡¯re so cute!¡±

    That¡¯s what the girl said, seemingly enjoying me nibbling away at the carrot. Suddenly, she pulled the carrot away, and I almost chased after it.

    ¡°Come on! Resist it!¡± I thought to myself as fiercely as I possibly could. ¡°Mind over body! Mind over body! Stay in control!¡±

    That¡¯s what I thought, but when she grinned and shoved the carrot at my nose again, I ended up smelling it. As soon as I caught the whiff of smell the vegetable gave off, I was fighting against my body to stay in control while it wanted to eat it.

    ¡°I will not be humiliated a second time! I will not be humiliated a second time!¡± I kept repeating to myself.

    My body, on the other hand, refused to listen to me and fought hard to nibble at it.

    ¡°No! No! No! No! No!¡±

    I shouted in my head five times, but it was too late. My body moved on its own and began nibbling at the carrot once more.

    ¡°For crying out loud!¡±

    I cursed at my body for being so stupid for being driven to eat to the point of ignoring me, its owner.

    ¡°Aww!¡± The girl squealed, looking happily at me. ¡°You are so cute, darling!¡±

    ¡°I am not your darling!¡± I thundered.

    Sadly, I ended up making whining sounds with my mouth and whimpered irritably. Unfortunately, this woman misunderstood the sounds and thought I wanted more. So, she did the unthinkable and pulled back and carrot, smiled evilly at me, and shoved it at me again.

    ¡°You can have as much as you like, darling!¡±

    That what she said with a gleeful smile on her face.

    Goddammit! How did I get myself into this when I, a human, died and got revived as a rabbit? All I could do was sigh at this unacceptable reality and thought back at the events that led me to being here.

    [ ====== ]

    My name is Lark, and I was born into a poor family. My father worked as a construction worker while my mother knit clothes and other stuff as her job. They did whatever they could to sustain the family with the minimal wage they got.

    Our society was run by a ruthless corrupt empire that dealt a harsh hand to its citizens by reaping all of our rewards for themselves. In exchange, they only granted minimal wage for hard labour, and never cared enough the people to increase the wages at all.

    It was a time of poverty, with the rich becoming richer, and the poor becoming poorer. Many people tried to stand up to them, only that they were quickly dealt with by means of assassinations and public execution by labelling them with false charges. Those who feared for their life, accepted their life standard and went on with their own business.

    I understood the struggle that my family was going through for my sake, and I didn¡¯t request them about anything. It was a difficult time that we lived in, so we had to make difficult choices to continue living peacefully.

    However, our peace was shattered when several groups of men and women initiated a revolutionary against the empire. They spoke words that ignited the flames of hated that everyone had been suppressing for a long time, and spurred them on into rebelling against the empire.

    In order to squash this rebellion that could pose a threat to their rulership, the empire initiated an all-out raid during one night when everyone was asleep and would not be expecting this to happen.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    They targeted the slums that were the main supporters of this revolution, locking the doors from outside and setting the homes on fire. People banged on their doors desperately and screamed for help, but no one was there to save them. Everyone was too busy trying to save themselves from the night raid.

    My parents, and I lived a little away from the slumps, and so we escaped from being burnt, but we were still in danger. The night raid had completed its first operation of burning down the activists, and moved onto its next mission; capturing innocent victims to act scapegoats.

    ¡°Quickly, Lark! In here!¡± My mother told me urgently.

    She led me away by my hand into the deeper part of our house, where there was a hidden side door. Being a construction worker, my dad had the experience of building things and had created this hidden part of the house in case we needed to hide.

    That¡¯s what I thought when she opened it, but when I went in, I found out that it only had room for one person. I was confused and looked worriedly at my parents, who were smiling to reassure me.

    ¡°It¡¯ll be fine,¡± my dad told me with a smile.

    ¡°We¡¯ll be back soon,¡± my mum told me, and she rubbed my head before shutting the door on me.

    For probably ten minutes I stood before I crouched down and sat in waiting for their return. Everything was silent, and I couldn¡¯t hear anything that was happening outside. I didn¡¯t even know what was going on, except that something was wrong and it had my parents worried.

    I picked up and pebble and started playing with it since I had nothing to do. Like that, I waited, and waited, and waited for their return. Yet, even after several hours had gone by, there was no sign of them returning at all.

    As the hours went by, I started to worry, but I was told to stay in here and wait for them. I¡¯m obedient to my parents, and I did whatever they told me to without questioning them because I trusted their judgement. But, with them not returning at all, for the first time I decided to go against their wishes.

    I placed my hands on the door and tried to slide it open, but it was much too heavy for me. Since I was just a twelve-year-old kid and skinny, I didn¡¯t have the strength in me to move the door. That¡¯s when I looked at the pebble I was playing with and decided to use it to make a hole in the door.

    For several minutes, I banged away at the door while the pebble kept chipping away with each impact. But I didn¡¯t care and kept at it until I finally made a hole that I could fit my hand through. With a firm grip on it and pushing with the other, I managed to slide the door open.

    When I got out, I found that nothing in the house had been touched. Everything was like it was before I entered to hide in there. No signs of a struggle, and no signs of a battle; everything looked normal.

    At first, I thought, ¡°Yay! My parents probably escaped to safety, but a difficult situation must¡¯ve come up and that¡¯s causing them to be late in order to come and get me.¡±

    While that thought made me feel reassured, something in my chest told me that I was misleading myself. So, I carefully walked through the house without touching anything and saw that the door was fully open.

    ¡°They must¡¯ve left it open when they escaped in a hurry,¡± I thought to convince myself.

    I peered out cautiously to see if anyone was there, anyone dangerous from the government. My parents had told me to always be cautious of officers from the government and don¡¯t let them carry me away even if they appear to be friendly.

    Since I couldn¡¯t see anyone, I walked out and instantly clamped a hand over my nose. That was because I started smelling a foul stench that made me think of burnt flesh. However, the smell was so strong that it made me think a hundred or so chicken were burnt or something. Well, I had no idea at that time that it was the smell of the dead people that were burnt alive by the night raid.

    With my hand clamped over my nose, I moved through the deserted slump, which did not resemble like it anymore. So many buildings destroyed and reduced to rubble, I felt sorry for the owners. Then I quickened my pace and got out of there to go and find where everyone was.

    It took me a few minutes after leaving the slumps to hear murmuring sounds of people. I smiled and hurried my footsteps to reach them, only to find a large crowd had gathered in the town square facing the front.

    ¡°How awful!¡±

    ¡°How crude!¡±

    ¡°Bastards!¡±

    ¡°Shush! Don¡¯t let them hear you, or else we¡¯re next!¡±

    ¡°Sorry!¡±

    I kept hearing people murmuring to each other, but what they said did not make any sense. So, I struggled myself to weave through the crowd to reach the front only to find a shocking scene. In front of me was a platform with rows of sticks that had the heads of decapitated heads stuck to them.

    Shocked filled my insides, and I gulped in shock. Then I began scanning from left to right at the decapitated heads of the people. Some of them I did not recognise, while others I recognised as the neighbours that lived close to us and maintained a good relationship with us.

    And then, as I neared the end of the row, my eyes widened in horror when I spotted them, the heads of my parents. I saw that the both of them had a still expression mixed with shock, grief, terror, and horror at what was happening to them before they met their end.

    I continued to stare at them in shock before I felt something rising from within my stomach. For a second, I tried to clamp my hands over my mouth, but the wave couldn¡¯t be contained, and I threw up on the street.

    Some people noticed me, but they just ignored me and turned their attention back to the stage. No one gave me a second glance as they were listening intently to the public speaker announcing the details of the executions. Once the wave died down, I looked up out of breath and listened to the speaker say things that shocked me.

    ¡°These are the people that had sparked the ignition of tonight¡¯s attack in destroying your homes, your neighbourhood, and tried to kill you as well,¡± the speaker said in a loud powerful voice, which got carried to all sides in a clear wave. ¡°We immediately dispatched our most elite of members to capture the culprits and executed them before they could cause anymore harm to you and our empire!¡±

    ¡°No! My parents aren¡¯t the culprits! They did nothing wrong!¡±

    Those were the words I wanted to shout at that time, but my words got stuck in my mouth. I was fearful of drawing attention to myself, I feared the retribution that I would have to face if I spoke up, and I realised the full impact of the advice my mother gave me about staying clear of the authorities.

    ¡°They are not to be trusted.¡±

    I heard her voice echoing inside my mind, and glanced at their heads. I wanted to cry, but I felt afraid to do so. I wanted to call out to them, but I was scared for my life. Thus, I ended up staying in the crowd and acted like the person next to me; appearing to look like I was not related to them.

    That¡¯s how I lost my parents and ended up becoming an orphan with no place to call home.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 02 ] Alone

    The speech went on and on for some time before they finally wrapped it up and left. The people also began leaving, but I stood there gazing at the decapitated heads of my parents. I would never be able to see, talk, or hear them every again. The very thought made me feel like crying again.

    Unable to be there any longer, I turned around and walked quickly away. As I walked, I never once glanced over my shoulders again at the heads attached on spears in a row on the platform.

    From there, I kept walking continuously for I don¡¯t know how long. Finally, my feet starting aching, and I realised that I had walked all the way to the dump yard. I briefly searched for a soft spot to sit on and, after finding one, I lowered myself and sat there surrounded by complete silence.

    I was alone, and I felt empty inside as if a bright light in me had been extinguished. All my life, I lived happily with my parents. We were poor, but we lived day by day with minimal expenditure and saving money as much as possible because, without that money, there would be no food on our plates.

    My head was blank, and I didn¡¯t know what to do. So, I sat there silently for a long time. I didn¡¯t even react when my stomach starting growling, indicating that it¡¯s hungry. It was not until that I started feeling pain in my belly that I realised that I was feeling hungry.

    ¡°Food,¡± I muttered, the item that I needed to satisfy my appetite. ¡°I need food.¡±

    So, with my tummy rumbling, I rose to my feet and walked towards the market.

    [ ======= ]

    There was a large crowd of people on the streets buying things and going about their daily business. They were smiling happily, cheerfully talk to one another, showing no sign of shock or the horror they had felt about the night raid.

    I didn¡¯t understand why the people were behaving like that, but I was hungry and didn''t mind them. I headed to a nearby store selling bread.

    ¡°Two bread, please,¡± I asked the store owner.

    ¡°That¡¯s two silver,¡± the man on the other side of the counter told me.

    I quickly rummaged through my pockets to find the small change my mother gave me yesterday. It was my pocket money to buy something I liked to eat, and she said she''s giving it to me because I¡¯ve been a good boy.

    I took out the two silver coins and held them in front of me, feeling as though I was looking at the last reminder of my parents. These were the last objects that I have to remember them by.

    In that instant, I felt a great surge of feelings, making me think that cannot just give them away for food. But my stomach did not seem to care as it growled and again caused me a slight pain from the hunger.

    ¡°You want to buy or not?¡± The owner asked, looking a little irritated at my indecision.

    To give away and eat, or to not eat and keep the coins but starve in the end. I was split between the two choices, with both seemingly difficult choices to make.

    Finally, my instincts told me that I must live, and that¡¯s what my parents would have wanted me to do. So, I gave the coins to the shop owner in exchange for the two bread.

    Clutching them in my hand, I smiled happily and began to walk away when I suddenly felt something obstruct my legs. In an instant, I tripped and fell, releasing my hold over the bread and falling face down on the ground.

    ¡°Ow!¡±

    I cried out in pain from falling on the hard road. Tilting sideways, I saw that the bread was situated a few centimetres away from me. As I tried to reach out with my hand, someone suddenly stopped down and picked up both loafs of bread. Shocked, I looked up to see who it was and a kid, around the same age as me, holding onto my bread and shown me a glowing smile before he began running away with it.

    ¡°Stop!¡± I shouted, quickly pushed myself to my feet and chasing after him.

    I felt my heart beat faster as my food was taken away from me as I chased after him through the crowd.

    ¡°Thief! Thief!¡± I shouted as loudly as I could.

    I was hoping that someone would stop that thief from making away with my food, but no one came. Everyone simple watched him run by and then glance at me without the least bit of looking shocked. Instead, they gave me looks as if I was stupid for crying for help. I couldn¡¯t understand why they were giving me such looks, but I didn¡¯t care as I chased after the thief.

    The thief ran for several meters in a straight line and then took a sharp right into an alleyway. Without hesitation, I ran after him, my speed increasing as I was desperately trying to get him.

    He ran intersection in the alleyway, and as I reached it, someone stuck their foot out and made me trip over it. Once again, I flew through the air and fell flat on my face, with the wind knocked out of me.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    As I was struggling to get back to my feet, a few people suddenly appeared out of nowhere from their hiding spots and rushed at me. From there, all I could experience was a world of pain as they kicked my sides from all around me. I kept crying in pain and tried to move while I was beaten to a pulp by their legs.

    ¡°Alright! Alright!¡± Said one of them, stopping the group of people from kicking me. ¡°I think that should do.¡±

    The unknown people stepped away while he walked around me and knelt where my head lay. I was out of breath, wheezing and whimpering from the pain while tears streamed down my face.

    Suddenly, I felt my face being gripped by someone with a strong hand, and they forcefully lifted me up. My vision was clouded because of my tears, but from what I could make out of the man, I could guess that he was a little older than me, bald head and looked very mean.

    ¡°Man. You sure are a mess,¡± he commented about my face, which must look terrible from his perspective. Then he leaned closer to my face and asked, ¡°Do you have anything to say in this situation?¡±

    I was out of breath and weakened from all the beating, but I still managed to mutter, ¡°Give me back my bread.¡±

    The mean looking person simply laughed at my words as he found them funny. Suddenly, there was a loud slapping sound followed by a dull thud. The reason to that was because he slapped me across the face, and my head hit the ground with a thud.

    ¡°Agh!¡± I groaned in pain while having breathing weakly.

    ¡°It¡¯s not yours, fool. It¡¯s ours! Finders keepers!¡± He growled. ¡°You dropped it, we picked it up, making it ours. You¡¯re weak to get it back and that makes it ours! Get it straight, fool!¡±

    He stood up and placed his foot on top of my head, attempting to push my head into the ground. I winced while gasping for breath while it lasted for several seconds before he finally lifted his foot off my head, and I could breathe again.

    ¡°See you around, kid, if you survive long enough.¡±

    After saying that, he and the others began laughing as they withdrew from that place, leaving only me there. I remained lying there, coughing and groaning from the pain I felt all over my body.

    I was hoping somebody would come and help me, hoping somebody would come and rescue me, even wishing that all of this was just a bad dream, and that when I wake up, I¡¯ll find that it was just a nightmare, and I can see my parents again.

    The next time I opened my eyes, I found that it was already dark, and I was still the only person there. My body still hurt from all the injuries I sustained because of their sudden attack, but now I was able to move.

    Slowly pushing myself up and then even more slowly to my feet, I staggered away from that place. I wasn¡¯t headed for the market or the main street, I was going back to the dump yard with the hope that I wouldn¡¯t run into anyone.

    While going through the different alleyways, I saw a group of men surrounding a small guy, who was probably the same as me. The group of men were demanding money from him, but when he refused, they used violence on him by punching and kicking. When I saw that scene, I wanted to help the guy fight the bullies.

    However, instead of going forward, my body turned the next corner and began heading in that direction. I was shocked at my own self, why I had instinctively turned away as if to avoid any confrontation against those bullies. In that instant, I finally understood why no one helped me.

    ¡°No one wanted to be the target of bullying.¡±

    That was the thought I had and it perfectly made sense with what I had experienced on that day. During the thievery, I cried for help, but all the people did was stare at me like I was crazy. Now it made sense, and now I finally understood now that I instinctively wanted to avoid getting involved in things like that.

    ¡°Who wants to help a bullied person when the same thing could happen to them?¡±

    I concluded my thoughts in that fashion and chuckled, not because I found it funny, but because of how crazy it seemed. No one will support you, no one will help you, no one will rescue you, no one you can trust, meaning that you are alone to the very end.

    With thoughts like that, I continued walking until I reached my destination several minutes later. I was able to find the spot I sat on earlier and sat down while letting out a sight contentedly. There was nothing to be pleased about in my life, but I felt relief from the fact that I could quietly sit down there without any disturbance.

    Something was shining its light from the sky, and I looked up to see the moon hovering high above. It was pretty to look at, but it made me what the moon thinks as it looked down at us fighting amongst each other, hurting one another, and eventually killing one another.

    As I continued to stare up at the moon, tears began to form in my eyes as I was reminded of my childhood with my parents. During the nights, I would sit in between my parents as we enjoy the beautiful night created by the moon hovering in the background. My mum often fed me under the moonlit night and told me great many stories that were both fun and interesting to listen to.

    Now, I can no longer listen to her stories again, and now, I am looking at the moon all alone.

    ¡°Why?¡± I muttered, turning down to look at my shaking hands with tears in my eyes. ¡°Why did things become like this? Why were my parents killed? What did we do to deserve this? Why us?!¡±

    I suddenly got very angry, and I took a deep breath before yelling, ¡°Tell me!¡±

    My voice echoed in the darkness for a few seconds before it dimmed and was no longer heard. I remained sitting there, feeling angrier than I had ever been in my entire life.

    ¡°All of this happened because of them!¡±

    I spoke in a voice filled with a deep-seated anger. At first, I was confused at whom I was referring to, but when my thoughts caught up, I understood who it was; the government.

    ¡°They are the reason this happened to me! They are the reason mum and dad are dead! They are the reason the people are like this! It¡¯s all because of the¡­ The¡­ The Empire! It¡¯s all their fault!¡±

    I roared the words as loudly as I possibly could, letting out all the anguish I felt inside.

    My mother always told me to be gentle, humble to others, and be respectful. However, in this case, I could no longer keep up my attitude that she had raised me with because of what had happened to me. My humble spirit was no longer here, and was replaced by a spirit seeking vengeance against my attackers.

    ¡°I won¡¯t forgive you for this! I won¡¯t forget what you¡¯ve done to me! I will destroy you! I will destroy all of you until there¡¯s nothing left! Yes! No matter what it takes, I will destroy you!¡±

    And I took a deep breath before screaming into the moonlit night, which contained all the sadness I felt, all the anger I had towards them, and the hatred that was boiling inside me.

    On that day, I swore to get revenge against all the people who did this to me and destroy the empire completely.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 03 ] Survive

    I swore I will have my revenge on The Empire, but I didn¡¯t know how to go about it. The system is a vast untouchable wall that can¡¯t be climbed, or so that¡¯s what I thought. But now, fuelled by revenge, I started thinking of what I should do for the first step.

    ¡°I have to live,¡± I muttered.

    It was an obvious answer, but it also made sense. If I don¡¯t survive, I can¡¯t get my revenge. Plain and simple. Problem was that I had no idea where to begin talking about my problems.

    I had no money, no home, and I''m all alone. The biggest problem I¡¯m facing right now was the people in these parts of the city. They travel in groups, extorting others for money and using violence if they disobeyed.

    ¡°I need a place to stay and hide from others.¡±

    I closed my eyes and thought about all the places that I visited with my parents, whether they were good to stay at or not. Maybe, but someone might recognize me, and notify the authorities in order to catch me. No. It''s unsafe to even think of living there.

    So, when I opened my eyes, I only had one place at which to stay; the dump yard.

    The place smelled horrible, and hardly anyone comes by except to throw away their trash. For someone like me, it was the best place to stay and avoid making contact with other people.

    While that''s good and all, it didn¡¯t solve my other problem of money. I need to do something about it.

    ¡°I could work?¡± I thought aloud to myself while pondering my options.

    There was that, but I instantly saw the flaw in it. By work, it basically meant that I¡¯d have to do hard labour for fifteen hours a day and get paid a very minimum wage. Maybe two silver coins by the end of the day? At most five silver coins. I could great bread and have food to eat, but I wouldn¡¯t be able to save anything from that.

    The other drawback in doing hard labour was that they don¡¯t like children. Dad sometimes told me how the boss at his workplace would make the children work like slaves and only feed them two times a day, once in the morning and once in the evening and that''s without giving them money. Apparently, if a kid were to complain, his boss would have the kid whipped fifty times to teach him a lesson.

    ¡°That¡¯s why I¡¯m working as hard as I can so you don¡¯t end up like that.¡±

    Those were the words my dad told me at that time, and I could only feel happy for his dedication towards me. Thinking about the situation that I¡¯m in now, I feel as though his worst fears had come true. I¡¯m now a nobody, an orphan with nothing of significance about me that makes me special.

    ¡°Working is a no go,¡± I muttered with finality.

    If I did not work, what else could I do? How would I make money and eat food? Money doesn¡¯t grow from trees, and food aren¡¯t handed out freely.

    I thought back to the people that attacked me and imagined seeing their gloating faces. They felt triumph at beating me up, taking my food and leaving with success in hand. If I must live, I have to do something like that, but I¡¯m alone. I don¡¯t have many friends, and I didn¡¯t feel like I could trust anyone at the moment. Well, maybe I could trust other thieves, just not the not Al citizens.

    There must be something that only I can do, something that doesn¡¯t require me to rely on anyone else. That¡¯s when the thought struck me, and I felt a chill go down the back of my spine.

    ¡°I have to become a thief.¡±

    Robbery. If I have to live, I have to steal from others. That was the very last thing that I ever thought of becoming because my mum always told me strictly to never steal from others. Now, however, I must do the very thing I was taught not to do.

    But what choice do I have? What options am I left with other than begging on the streets? Even if I do beg, I would be found as a nuisance and taken away only to be tortured and thrown out on the streets again as a broken man.

    ¡°There is no choice,¡± I muttered, coming to the conclusion that I must do whatever I can to live.

    Just then, my stomach rumbled, and I felt a slight pain in my belly. I feared that I might starve to death, so I immediately began searching the dump yard for any food that I could eat.

    People throw out their trash every day, and this included unfinished food that they no longer felt like eating. As such, there would be a regular bag full of food thrown out, a waste that no one considers after all the money they spent getting it in the first place.

    ¡°Scum.¡±

    I cursed them with that single word, summing up what all of them were in my eyes. There were so many others struggling to make money and eat properly, but these people with good income waste so much food. They are the worst kind of people ever, a different kind of being worst compared to The Empire obviously.

    After searching around the dumps, I found a bang full of meat, rice, and some other supplements. Luckily, they wrapped the packages neatly so none of the food got split. I quickly unwrapped them and took a bite at the meat, which made me immediately cough and spit it out.

    ¡°Disgusting!¡±

    It had a bad taste, so bad that only dogs or rats would eat it. This was probably left outside for a few days and then thrown out, by which time the taste had gone bad.

    I didn¡¯t like the thought of eating it, but I didn¡¯t have any other alternatives, and frankly speaking, if it was edible, then I don¡¯t mind the taste. The only thing that did bother me was about hygiene, but when you have limited options, you have to do whatever necessary to live.

    So, I sat down and ate through the disgusting meal and threw the bag away once I was done. Then I yawned and found a decent spot to sleep for the night. I wasn¡¯t sure for how long I slept, but I woke up to find the sun high in the sky, meaning that it was probably well past breakfast time.

    ¡°Oh well,¡± I muttered and shrugged my shoulders indifferently.

    I didn''t feel remotely hungry, so I decided to move on.

    ¡°Time to go hunting.¡±

    This was going to be my first day as a thief. I was resolved to do what I can to steal from others and live. So, I washed my face at a nearby water well and headed out to perform my first robbery.

    Once I arrived at the main street, I was amazed. There were so many people going around, chatting to one another happily. I didn¡¯t care for their chatter and started looking around for a good target to steal from. I was mainly aiming for purses because they contain all the money.

    Slowly, I walked with the masses looking around for anyone that I could steal from without appearing as though I''m a suspicious person. A few minutes later, I found a guy at a nearby stall with his purse out and rummaging through it. Judging from the time he spent looking through it meant that there must be a lot of money.

    With my eyes focused only on my target, I moved while trying to keep a low profile. That was what I remembered from yesterday¡¯s encounter with those people, who stole the bread from me. They came at me when I dropped my guard and made me trip before stealing the bread.

    I was trying to use that as an experience for my first-time robbery when, to my surprise, someone snatched the purse and began sprinting away before I could reach the man.

    ¡°What?!¡± I exclaimed, shocked by what I just witnessed.

    ¡°Oh no! Thief!¡± The purse owner began shouting, hoping someone would stop that person.

    Gritting my teeth, I began chasing after the thief as fast as my legs could carry. I didn¡¯t do it because I felt sorry for the purse owner, but because he was my first target, and I wasn¡¯t going to let some random punk steal my catch.

    So, he and I weaved through the crowd and entered the alleyway. Turning a few corners later, I realised where we were headed, and I was able to figure out what was going to happen. After all, this had happened to me yesterday as well.

    Thus, I glanced around at the alleyway for something that I could use to stop him. That''s when I found a rock. I quickly stooped down, picked it up while running and threw it at him. It through the air quickly and smashed into the back of the thief¡¯s head.

    ¡°Ah!¡± He screamed, stumbled and fell flat on his face.

    I ran up to him while breathing a little quickly and saw that blood was oozing out of his skull and forming a puddle around him. It shocked at first, but I quickly ignored it and turned my gaze towards the purse that landed a few centimetres from his hands when he let it go during his fall.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    I stepped over his body and picked up the purse before looking back at him.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± I apologised as sincerely as I could, ¡°but that man was my target, so I¡¯m taking this.¡±

    The person did not respond or move at all while blood gathered around him. I wondered what was wrong with him when I heard footsteps coming towards me from behind and swirled around to see the men from yesterday appear.

    ¡°Morty¡¯s taking time.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯ll come soon.¡±

    They spoke to one another casually when one of them noticed me and made everyone stop. I also became cautious of them from the worry that they might attack.

    ¡°Oh? What do we have here? It¡¯s the guy from yesterday,¡± one of them said, seeming to recognise me and give me an eerie smile.

    Their eyes focused on me for a moment before shifting to the person lying while being surrounded by his own blood. In an instant, their smiles vanished and was replaced by shock at what they were witnessing.

    ¡°Morty!¡±

    The one that recognised me shouted, which was probably the unconscious person¡¯s name. They instantly moved towards me, their smiles replaced by anger with the clear intentions of attacking me.

    I widened my eyes and leapt over the person¡¯s body while maintaining a good distance between me and them. As I landed, they stood over their friend while one of them knelt down to check on their friend.

    As if finding something shocking, he looked up at his friends and said in a hushed voice, ¡°He¡¯s dead.¡±

    His friends exclaimed in shock, and the one who recognised me, shouted, ¡°You bastard! You killed Morty!¡±

    At his claim, I was horrified and widened my eyes in shock. I could not believe what I was hearing. Only moments before I was chasing after this person and hit him with a rock to make him stop, but I suppose the impact was stronger than I realized and it instantly killed him.

    I was horrified with my act of taking someone¡¯s life for the first time without meaning to. My revenge towards the empire was because they ruined my life, but I had nothing against them.

    Yes, they did attack and rob me yesterday, but it was so that they could survive, and since I am in the same position as them, I could understand and forgive them for their actions. That was all. I had no ill intention towards them. I just did what I had to do to survive.

    At that moment, their leader appeared, and I instantly recognised him as the mean looking man that slapped me yesterday. He presently had a cool expression on his face, however, his expression changed to seriousness when he saw his people around their dead comrade¡¯s body.

    ¡°What happened?¡±

    ¡°Morty¡¯s dead and it¡¯s because of him!¡± One of them replied and pointed his finger at me.

    That¡¯s when the guy looked at me and narrowed his eyes to form a serious look.

    ¡°It¡¯s you,¡± he said in an ominous voice filled with animosity. ¡°I should¡¯ve known you¡¯d come after us.¡±

    I finally found my voice and managed to stutter, ¡°I¡­ I didn¡¯t mean this to happen. Honest. I was just¡­ taking this from him¡­ That¡¯s all,¡± and I held up the purse for them to see.

    It looked like none of my words made it through his ears because he suddenly growled, ¡°I should¡¯ve known letting you live was a big mistake.¡± Then he ordered his people, ¡°Get him!¡±

    ¡°Yeah!¡±

    His companions said in unison and began running towards me with eyes filled with anger and rage. I was momentarily stunned from their action, but then I found myself turning around and running at full speed back the way I came. But instead of going into the main street, I turned left at the next corner and went in a different direction with them chasing after me.

    I didn¡¯t know what they were going to do to me once they catch up, but I had one thing running through my mind.

    ¡°Run like your life depended on it.¡±

    So, I ran away from them as fast my legs could go, desperately trying to escape from them. Unfortunately, they were fast and kept up with me as I turned random corners with hopes of losing them. Finally, I ended up reaching a stockyard where all the hay for the animals were stored at, with the men right on my tail.

    ¡°You can¡¯t escape now!¡± The mean looking man said, glaring menacingly at me.

    I turned around to face him and said while out of breath, ¡°Please¡­! I didn¡¯t mean to¡­ do it!¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t care whether you did it knowing or not; because of you, our friend is dead. You will have to pay the penalty with your life.¡±

    That¡¯s when I finally comprehended that they were indeed trying to kill me. I mean, I had the thought while I was running away from them, but I really didn¡¯t think they would have that much hatred for me. It wasn¡¯t my intention of murdering their friend, but they aren¡¯t in the mood to listen anymore and it was na?ve of me to even think I could trust these kinds of people.

    As the mean looking man slowly stepped towards me, I held the purse out to them and said, ¡°Please wait. You can take this back. This was the reason your friend died. Please, I had no intentions of causing him to die.¡±

    I wanted to do a fair trade for the goods that brought this unfortunate incident upon us. After all, we¡¯re all thieves, and we must do what we can to live. Besides, I was confident that he would take the money and leave, thinking that between thieves, these things shouldn''t matter.

    There was a moment of pause in the man¡¯s footsteps, and he looked curiously at me. Them he smiled as if being understanding and nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Alright. I suppose if you hand that over, we¡¯ll forget about everything.¡±

    We both smiled, and he walked forward to take the purse from me. When nothing happened, I sighed in relief and looking.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry for your friend,¡± I said to him apologetically.

    ¡°You should be.¡±

    The moment he said that, the man pulled me forward by my shift front and kneed me in the gut. I gasped for breath and groaned from the pain. Without pause, he hit me on the side of my face with his clenched fist and sent me staggering away before I fell to the ground coughing and spluttering.

    ¡°You¡¯re a fool, you know that?¡± He said, pocketing the purse and glaring at me. ¡°Even after what I told you yesterday, you still stupidly trusted me.¡±

    I coughed and groaned from the pain to my head and stomach as I turned over to look at him.

    ¡°But¡­ I thought thieves valued money¡­ above anything else,¡± I said to him.

    He nodded at that and replied, ¡°You¡¯re right. Normally that is the case, but these are my friends, and you just killed one of them. How did you think I would just let it go with just a shrug of the shoulders? I¡¯ll make you pay for the life he lost by robbing yours!¡±

    When he said those words, I finally understood my life was in danger, and how stupid I was to believe in him. I should¡¯ve known that thieves are scumbags and would do anything for a living. Except, in this case he actually cared for his comrades and took it very seriously when something harms them.

    Was he wrong in what he was doing? Of course not. He was fully right in attacking me because I killed his friend, close friend judging from how much he was affected by it.

    But, did I care? No. I didn¡¯t care. I didn¡¯t care about any of that! For all I cared, I wanted to live, and I wanted to keep on living and avenge my parents by taking my revenge against The Empire! And, right now, the biggest obstacle I have is this man threatening to take my life.

    ¡°I have to kill him.¡±

    A cold murderous thought formed in my mind, and I knew it was the right decision. I couldn¡¯t allow myself to be killed by a bastard like him when I have so much to do. That¡¯s right. I have to do whatever I must to keep on living, even if it means dirtying my own hands.

    So, with my mind clear and focused, I noticed a shard of glass lying next to me. It was as big as my hand. I didn¡¯t know how it got there, but I knew it was what I needed in that situation. So, I slowly moved my body in a way that masked me grabbing the shard and get into a kneeling position while facing him.

    He slowly approached me, pulling out a knife from his pocket with the clear intention of taking my life. However, I was in waiting and the moment I judged that he was within my reach, I moved forward while leaping to my feet with all the leg strength I could muster.

    As I went up, I brought the glass shard forward while he reacted in surprise by taking a single step backward. Big mistake because it gave me all the chance I needed to move forward and stab the shard into his stomach.

    In an instant, the man widened his eyes while spluttering from the shock and pain while the stabbed sprayed my face with his blood. But I didn¡¯t stop there. I pulled the shard out and forcefully stabbed him again. Feeling this was not enough, I pulled the shard out and stabbed him once more. Like this, I continued to pull it out and stab him repeatedly in quick successions.

    Suddenly, I felt a strong glow to my back, and I immediately reeled back from the pain followed by a kick in my gut that sent me staggering back before I slipped and fell on the hay. The guy had been shocked from the continuous stabbing, but he still had strength left and managed to use it by hitting my back and kicking me away.

    I coughed and rubbed my stomach where it hurt and glared at him. He was strong, as proven by his ability to endure and fight back. I needed something that would surely kill him, something that would end this all in an instant.

    Realising that I didn¡¯t have the glass shard with me anymore, I began quickly searching for it with my hands. If I don¡¯t have at least that, there¡¯s no way I was going to get out of this alive.

    As my hands moved around in the hay, I felt something, and I glanced sideways to see what it was. The moment I recognised it, I widened my eyes before instantly appearing to look normal as I turned back to face him

    He spat blood out of his mouth and said, ¡°You certainly are feisty little brat! Too bad you couldn¡¯t finish the job!¡± Then he raised his knife in the air and said, ¡°Blame yourself for being a weakling!¡±

    A moment later, he took one step forward and held his knife behind him as he was preparing to charge at me. That was when I grabbed the weapon firmly with my hands and leaped to my feet while moving forward at the same time.

    Due to the multiple stab wounds in his stomach, the man was in pain and slow to react. So, he wasn¡¯t able to bring his knife at me as fast as he wanted to and it gave me the chance to move forward and bring the hay knife in my hand swinging at his face. In an instant, it pierced through right from under his jaw and through his head before the tip popped out at the top. At the same time, blood got sprayed all over my face.

    The man stared at me in shock, and tried to say something, but his mouth was stuck, and he could not say anything. I did, however, see the fear in his eyes at what had happened before their light vanished. His grip on his knife slackened, causing it to slip and fall to the ground. I stared at his lifeless eyes while breathing quickly from the fear I felt at the thought of losing my life.

    There was a moment of stunned silence in the stockyard, where his friends stared at what happened in shock. I moved from the side and shoved the dead body aside, causing him to topple and fall with a dull thud. Then I picked up the knife he dropped and stood facing his men.

    ¡°Who¡¯s next?¡± I asked with a bloodied face, giving them a deadly look that I could muster with my face.

    They were clearly terrified off me after watching the death of their leader, leaving them with no one to depend on. With fear guiding them, they took a few tentative steps back before turning around and hurrying away from there while making small whimpering sounds.

    I made sure they were gone before I breathed a deep sigh in relief. Then I glanced at the motionless figure of the man whom I just killed while feeling nothing inside.

    ¡°What a waste,¡± I muttered wearily.

    He brought this on himself, not me. I was going to die, and I did what I could to survive. This might label me as being selfish, but all humans are the same in this regard and that makes me the same.

    I walked over to his dead body and looked at his lifeless eyes before muttering, ¡°I need this,¡± and pulled out the hay knife from his face, which leaked more blood onto the ground that formed a pool around him. Then I rummaged through his pockets and pulled out the purse before pocketing it.

    I used the man''s own clothing to wipe away the blood on the weapons and left with both weapons in hand, with my face and my clothes smeared with blood. I decided the best thing to get rid of the stains was to quickly go to the well and wash it off before it becomes permanent

    And so, that was how my first job in being a thief began, with me killing two people that got in my way, and since then, I''ve been doing good as a thief by robbing people whenever I was running low on money. I continued doing this for the next ten years until I had the fateful encounter with a certain woman, a woman that I wished that I hadn''t ran into because my encounter changed my life forever.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 04 ] 10 Years Later

    It¡¯s been ten years since I lost my parents, and since then, I¡¯ve begun to live off the streets without ever returning to my home in the slums. In the capital, there were four different slums, one in the north, one in the south, one in the east, and one in the west. I used to live in the east slums that was attacked by the night raid that resulted in me losing my parents and becoming homeless.

    My main reason was that I didn¡¯t think about it. I just walked away without a single thought of returning to my home. Later, I felt happy with my thoughtless decision because it appeared that the houses were burnt down the next night. So, if I had stayed there, I would¡¯ve been reduced to ashes and then begun construction for some kind of industry.

    So, what have I been doing for the last ten years? Stealing. Robbing. Killing. Well, I normally don¡¯t intend to kill, but when people come after me, I do what I got to do. Right now, I live in a predatory world where those with strong teeth and sharp claws survive while the weak perish. I did what I could to live so that I may, one day, carry out my revenge against The Empire and destroy them for ruining my life.

    At first, I tried to pickpocket from random people on the street, but I ended up failing miserably and ended up having to run for my life. For the rest of that day, I kept a low profile because I saw them searching for me after having seen my face.

    ¡°I¡¯m an idiot for not hiding my face,¡± I thought.

    It was the fundamental thing to do when doing something bad, but I just didn¡¯t think about it. That was my very first attempt at stealing, and I didn¡¯t expect it to go so badly. I always imagined stealing to be easy, but apparently not as I realised, I¡¯ve got to train hard and acquire certain skills in order to make a successful steal.

    So, I lived off the eating trash from the dump yard and attempted my steal the next day. This time, I careful crept up to him and covered my face with a bandanna before snatching at his purse. After that, I ran as fast as I could away from everyone so that I didn¡¯t get captured.

    ¡°Thief!¡±

    I heard the owner of the purse shouting and crying out for help, but I didn¡¯t care. If there was one thing that I learnt about these people was that they would not help nor care about thievery. After all, they don¡¯t want to get involved in anything dangerous.

    The authorities patrolled the cities that day in search of a person wearing a bandanna. Since they didn¡¯t see my face, I was able to easily stroll back into the street and finally have a good meal. Like that, I continued to steal each and every day, giving me a good amount of money to live off.

    However, it wasn¡¯t a smooth process. I had to face obstacles sooner or later, and I met some soon in the form of other thieves living in the city. They too are praying on unsuspecting people and stealing their purses just like me, and since I am taking their game away and making the authorities become alert, they were angry at me.

    One group even tried to corner me while I was making my way after conducting a successful robbery. They all had knives in hand and looked as if they would be willing to take my life.

    ¡°Because of you, we¡¯ve been having a tough time stealing!¡±

    ¡°Yeah! You¡¯re getting in our way!¡±

    Then complained about how I was ruining their chances of success and survival. Did I care? No. Not one bit. I did what I could to live, and I was successful in what I did. As for these morons, I¡¯m actually surprised that they were able to live this long with that kind of attitude. It¡¯s a shame, really.

    So, I pulled out my hay knife from my side and said to them coldly, ¡°Get lost.¡±

    ¡°Not going to listen, are you?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a waste speaking to this guy.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s just take what we came for and get rid of him!¡±

    ¡°Yeah! I don¡¯t like him one bit!¡±

    At the last man¡¯s words, I actually chuckled and startled them.

    ¡°Well, isn¡¯t that funny? The feeling¡¯s mutual,¡± I replied and smiled evilly at them.

    Obviously, I was taunting them to make the first move and run into a blunder to give me the chance to take them out. It was successful, and one of them charged forward and swung his knife at me. If It was me from two days ago, I would have been nervous and run away, but I am more confident in myself now and it¡¯s all thanks to that mean looking guy being one of the two people I first killed.

    ¡°Rest in peace wherever you are,¡± I thought, giving him a small prayer for the help he provided with his death.

    I easily dodged him and slashed at his throat, causing him to instantly get shocked and try to stop the blood. But it was too late, and he collapsed on the ground with blood forming around him.

    ¡°Next,¡± I said coldly, ready for the kill.

    The death of their comrade shocked them, but it must¡¯ve made them resolve themselves because two people charged at me at the same time. I merely took one step back and tilted my head slightly to avoid one knife while using the hay knife to block the other. Then I used my free hand to pull the second knife I got from my second kill and slit the left guy¡¯s arm. While he was distracted, I contended with the person on the right with my hay knife and eventually slashed at his throat.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

    ¡°Dammit!¡± The left man yelled, ignoring the pain in his wrist and moved forward while swinging his knife.

    I ducked and used my knife to stab into the side of his neck, instantly killing him. As he collapsed, I stood back up and began moving forward towards the rest of the group, who began to back away with fear after seeing three of their comrades get killed right before their eyes. They hesitated for a moment before turning around and running away as fast as their legs could carry deeper into the alley.

    Once they disappeared, I sighed and used their own clothing to wipe the blood off my weapons and stowed them into my pockets. Then I put my hands together and prayed for them to have a peaceful afterlife. It was not my intention to kill them, but I lived in a world with only one rule; survival of the fittest. For me, I was going to do anything to keep on living and get my revenge on The Empire.

    Like that, I spent my days stealing, escaping, eating, reading newspapers, and sleeping. I did that continuously for the last ten years, and I had earned quite the fame in the city. My skills had improved greatly, so great that I stopped needing to cover my face as I stole from people in broad daylight, without them even noticing it.

    It was simple, I simply walk up to the person and gently bumped into them. As I did, I would quickly take his purse from his pocket, apologise for not waiting my step and keep going. It wasn¡¯t much later that victim realised he had lost his purse and was searching around in a panic while I made off with it. It was a quick and simpler approach compared to having to wear bandanna and run for my life each and every day.

    The authorities soon understood that there was a master thief in the city, doing most of the plundering. I found about this while I was reading my daily newspaper of the events happening around the city. It wasn¡¯t something I gave myself, it was something they gave me, and I didn¡¯t really care for the fame or glory it might come with it; I did it to survive.

    That was one thing that I kept doing no matter what; reading news. The reason that I did read it was because I wanted to have a good vocabulary and good reading abilities. You never know when such a skill might come in handy in the world of thieves or in the normal society.

    I always read the newspaper in the tea shop because they always had the best tea possible. Maybe, I should¡¯ve been interested in drinking bear or smoking to forget about the past and all, but I have a target, a goal to reach, and I wasn¡¯t going to let stupid things divert my attention away. Besides, I¡¯d be wasting my money on that jump when I could have this lovely tea that I¡¯ve come to really like.

    ¡°Great tea as always, owner,¡± I said, speaking politely to the shop owner.

    ¡°Glad you liked it, lad!¡± He replied cheerfully at my praise.

    The reason I call him master was because, when I was thirsty, his shop was the first place I came to have my first tea. That was five-years-ago, and since then having tea was a daily thing to me, once in the morning and once in the evening. It was just that good!

    ¡°The master thief sure is plundering around,¡± the owner said while making tea for the customers. ¡°I wonder how much money he stockpiled over the years?¡±

    ¡°I wonder,¡± I replied and chuckled.

    Yes. I do wonder about how much I made over these ten-years. If anyone asked me directly, I wouldn¡¯t say much because it seemed that somehow each time I stole, I would find only change in there. It was like these people were very cautious of their purses being stolen and decided to not bring much money out.

    While that was in a way good for them, it wasn¡¯t great for me because that means I had fewer earnings that I envisioned. As such, I was only able to save up on so much silver and lived a less than average lifestyle. At least, I was able to build my own shack at the dump yard away from prying eyes and lived there in peace that no one disturbed.

    As I pondered about how slowly my earnings were, a group of men came in and sat down a couple of tables away from me. They looked very important with the professional clothing they were wearing, but I didn¡¯t care. They were just customers at this shop, and the owner busied himself by serving them tea.

    The reason I didn¡¯t bother to steal from the owner was because I came to like him. He seemed like a wonderful guy doing an honest man¡¯s job of living his life to the fullest serving tea to his customers. This didn¡¯t mean that I trusted him or anything. No way. I would never do that again, but I liked him as a fellow human being. He was kind, caring, and well-mannered to his customers and had a good income, so I didn¡¯t want to ruin his chances of survival by putting mine at the top of the list.

    ¡°I¡¯m not a cold-blooded killer or some kind of heartless monster,¡± I thought and smiled wryly.

    So, I sat there in silence, reading through the newspaper while enjoying my tea. As for the important looking people, I completely ignored them, that was until I heard them whispering something and two words caught my attention.

    ¡°¡­night raid¡­¡±

    I widened my eyes in shock, and I wanted to put down my paper to listen in on their conversation. However, I instantly knew that would be bad for me, so I kept the paper up to hide me. To any person, I looked like I was reading the newspaper, but I was instead listening on their conversation.

    ¡°Yeah. They¡¯re thinking about it.¡±

    ¡°There was a rumour circulating of a revolutionary start up at the west slums. Maybe the survivors from the east slums went there?¡±

    ¡°Maybe, but it¡¯s still a scary thought. Imagine what the emperor would say if he finds out?¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right, and that¡¯s why the higher ups are deciding to deal with it in a few days from now.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s a piece of cake, guys. Relax. The plan to take out the east slums went successfully, and so will the west slums. I mean, who cares about those people when our city and the empire can prosper?¡±

    ¡°Harsh.¡±

    ¡°As expected from the mastermind.¡±

    A man suddenly laughed and replied, ¡°Don¡¯t start calling me that. I just gave them the suggestion of the night raid and everyone approved it.¡±

    ¡°I see. Is that why they¡¯re going to do another night raid? To get rid of the problem?¡±

    ¡°Well, when you¡¯re faced with a thorn in plain sight, you can¡¯t just ignore it, right? You have to pluck it out with force. Same thing here.¡±

    ¡°But the people¡­? So many would be killed,¡± a man said, sounding worried.

    ¡°Like I said, who cares so long as we, the city, and the empire prospers?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. You said it!¡±

    ¡°Nicely done.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Whatever,¡± the man with the reasonable voice said with a sigh.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got all the documents with you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. Right here,¡± and I heard a hand tapping on what sounded like a briefcase. ¡°Everything¡¯s still in the drafting stage for now, but I¡¯ll get it done by tonight and submit it in the morning.¡±

    ¡°Great.¡±

    ¡°Sounds like a plan to me.¡±

    Then they went silent as the owner came and asked if they wanted anything more, to which they declined. After some time, I heard the sound of scrapping chairs as they rose to their feet and left the shop after paying the owner.

    ¡°They sure are some important people,¡± the owner said, looking amazed.

    ¡°Yes. They are,¡± I replied in a quiet voice, watching them leave.

    I focused my attention on the man carrying the briefcase since I heard him tapping it just now. Nodding once in assent, I bid the tea shop owner farewell and slowly began to tail those men, especially with the briefcase.

    ¡°It looks like I got a different hunt to do today,¡± I muttered as I followed them out of the shop.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 05 ] Plan

    I followed the men in the professional clothing quietly through the crowded streets and managed to easily avoid making contact with them. It was evening, and streets were full of people on their way home after having done with their work for the day. So, it was easy for me to blend in and follow them from a distance.

    They travelled together, looking like they were making light conversation with one another. It didn¡¯t appear to me like they were friends, but I could be wrong. Still, I was following people I know next to nothing about except that the guy with the briefcase got something that¡¯s going to put the lives of many people at risk.

    ¡°Bastards,¡± I cursed, and I glared angrily at him.

    If I sound like I¡¯m composed, it¡¯s because I¡¯m fighting hard to restrain the anger that was searing inside of me. From the conversation I heard them engage in, it was obvious the guy with the briefcase was the one responsible for the night raid that had cost me all of my happiness and set me down this path of vengeance.

    ¡°I must not let others suffer like me.¡±

    That¡¯s what I thought because there were many poor people trying their hardest to lead low, but decent lives. If something like the night raid happened, many children would be sold into slavery while many others would run away and become thieves. I, now, understood why my dad built that secret door inside our home; it¡¯s so that I would be safe in case something bad happened to them.

    ¡°Mum. Dad. I miss you.¡±

    Yes. I miss my parents very much, and we didn¡¯t even have a photograph of each other because we couldn¡¯t afford it. All I have are these memories of the lovely time I spent with them, and my rage towards that person and all the people that accepted his idea increased dramatically.

    Still, I maintained my cool and followed them at a distance that they wouldn¡¯t notice me immediately. Besides, I don¡¯t think they even saw me while I was hiding behind the newspaper. Maybe one of them glanced at me? I wasn¡¯t sure, but I have to keep my distance just to be safe.

    Soon, the men began bidding each other goodbye and went their separate directions to their respective homes. When they parted ways, I hid myself near a shopping centre and watched covertly to see whether any of them would be returning or not. I waited a few seconds to check, and when all of them went their separate ways, I quickly went after the man with the briefcase.

    The guy was walking casually, without a care in the world in a lofty attitude that pissed me off greatly. I could feel my anger reaching a boiling point and was hoping the bastard would hurry up and get to wherever he was staying at.

    Luckily for me, I found him stop outside a luxurious looking hotel and walk into it. Unfortunately, by the time I walked up to the front and saw him through the see-through glass doors, I caught sight of his disappearing coat as he climbed up the stairs.

    ¡°Man!¡± I complained, looking annoyed at the situation.

    I had come this far, and I was so close to him, and yet, I lost him entirely. At least, I know where he lives, but what good does it do me when I don¡¯t know which floor and which room he lives in? It¡¯s just a step up from square on. Maybe a second square? I¡¯m not sure.

    There I was, torn between whether I should just walk in and ask the receptionist about him, or wait and see what happens. I decided it was best that I waited and saw what happened because I would appear very suspicious if I suddenly appeared before the receptionist and asked about him.

    So, I walked a little away stood out of sight while having a clear view of the hotel. I sat down on the pavement and waited patiently for him to appear. For probably twenty minutes, I sat there staring at the hotel when I saw the swishing of curtain on the second floor. And then, when the curtains got pulled back, I saw the man I was after as he looked out of the windows at the street down below.

    ¡°Must be checking to see if someone followed him,¡± I thought, smiling wryly as I thought that maybe he got suspicious of someone, probably me, following him. ¡°Too bad, he doesn¡¯t know it¡¯s actually me. That gives me the element of surprise, and with his stupid decision of poking his head out, I now know which floor he was in.¡±

    The only thing that I didn¡¯t know was which room he was in, but I thought it didn¡¯t matter as I just had to enter the room that he lived in. Well, it shouldn¡¯t matter since it was the room facing the street below.

    ¡°Now, how do I get into that place?¡± I muttered quietly to myself.

    Going in from the front was out of the question, so that left the other option of going in from outside. Basically, I¡¯d be climbing up the building and breaking myself into the room he¡¯s in. Shouldn¡¯t be too difficult considering I could see ledges that I could grab onto to climb up.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    The real problem here was that this would be my first time attempting at breaking and entering. I¡¯ve never once attempted to break into someone¡¯s home and steal their belongings because I believed performing such a high scale robbery was risky because you never know how well secured the family were, and I could find myself being knocked out and arrested even before I realised what happened.

    In those cases, I had the choice of simply stealing from others on the street without getting discovered. But now, faced with this tricky situation, I have to wonder whether I have the capability to pull it off successfully. I mean, can I even climb up to that floor without losing my grip, making some sort of silly mistake and falling down?

    My biggest fear was that falling from that height could break my bones, leaving me unable to do my daily thievery without issue. On the other hand, this was an important mission as many lives were riding on the line if I didn¡¯t act soon. But was I doing this for those people? No. I was doing this so I could get my first revenge against The Empire by making this bastard pay for what he¡¯s done!

    So, while being guided by my feelings, I accepted the risk of climbing up the hotel to reach his floor. And then, I waited in the shadows of the street corner while he kept peering out through his room window. He remained there for a few minutes before closing the curtains and disappearing.

    I waited for a few more minutes, anticipating that he might reappear quickly and pull back the curtains to spot me. After all, he seemed like the cautious type judging by how he was glancing around down on the street.

    Sure enough, it hadn¡¯t even been a minute before the curtains got pulled back, and he looked out at the street. As I saw him reappear, I smiled wryly and felt triumph at being able to anticipate his movements so well that I managed to avoid him altogether. Finally, he closed the curtains and disappeared behind them.

    I was ready to go out and inspect the hotel walls when I suddenly thought of something and hung back. The reason for this was because I thought that maybe I was fooling myself into thinking that he disappeared, when in fact he wanted me to think that way so that I would expose myself when he suddenly appears again.

    So, I waited patiently for a few more minutes to see if he came, but it looked like he gave up. I sighed in relief, and while I did feel like I wasted time standing there doing nothing, I knew it¡¯s better to be safe than sorry.

    Once I was sure, I walked out of my hiding spot and began checking out the hotel, thinking of ways that I could break into his room without causing too much disturbance. I figured that I had two ways to go about this; one was to climb up the building next to it and leap onto the railings placed in front of the hotel to prevent people from falling. The other was to go in through the front or the back entrance.

    ¡°Well, climbing the building looks risky and dangerous,¡± I muttered, realising the great difficulty I had in my hands to do that.

    There was a small gap between the railings and the neighbour¡¯s veranda, but if I, by bad luck missed, I¡¯d be plummeting to the ground and possibly breaking my bones. No. It was too risky, and it¡¯s not feasible even if I were to wear gloves and attach myself to some kind of rope. Not to mention, this would be the first time I¡¯d be attempting to scale a building, so I¡¯d probably be very nervous try this.

    ¡°Yup. Not a good idea,¡± I said, declining the thought and looking at the alternative.

    The other option I had was to go in from the front. Well, not literally from the front, but somehow make it into the hotel by breaking in somehow. Perhaps, if I pretended to be a worker there, maybe I could get in? If so, I¡¯d need some kind of uniform, or some kind of job post that I could play off so that I wouldn¡¯t cause unneeded suspicion about my backstory.

    ¡°Maybe a cleaner¡¯s job?¡± I thought, slowly walking back to my hiding spot form before. ¡°If I get ahold of a cleaner¡¯s uniform and their id, I could slip in easily. Maybe, that¡¯s the best way of getting into there without causing too much attention.¡±

    That¡¯s what I thought, and it made sense. Plus, it was safer and less risky than putting my life on the line and scaling a building for the first time in my life. I hadn¡¯t even bothered to break into people¡¯s homes and robbing their belongings because that¡¯s way too risky and dangerous. Even if I did manage to get into the house, there¡¯s no guarantee that I could steal anything without waking up the owners.

    ¡°Right,¡± I muttered, and observed the going ons at the hotel so that I could better understand what went on there and what I should do later to match that behaviour.

    I sat down and watched from my vantage point, and I witnessed a lot of boring things happen, with regular people coming in and out frequently. At one point, I even felt like dozing off where I sat when I noticed a few people in a different uniform to the receptionists appear around the corner and then I heard them talking to each other.

    ¡°Man, why¡¯d we have to come now to clean it?¡±

    ¡°Some guy got sick and threw up on the floor, so they called us to clean it,¡± another replied, sounding not too happy about their job.

    ¡°Yeah. Couldn¡¯t they just clean it up and wait till tonight for the clean-up job?¡±

    ¡°Who knows? Whatever¡¯s the case, we got a job and we¡¯re getting paid good for it, so let¡¯s get on with it.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re certainly in the positive mood.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to get scolded by the boss for not doing my job properly.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. That certainly is true.¡±

    I watched them come to the hotel and enter through the swinging doors before disappearing inside. From what I heard from their conversation, I gathered that they were scheduled to conduct cleaning in the night. Meaning, it was a perfect opportunity for me to knock one of them out, take his clothes, dress up as them and infiltrate the hotel.

    ¡°Perfect,¡± I muttered and smiled to myself, thinking how solid my plan was. Then a slight worry crept over me, and I muttered, ¡°I just hope everything goes according to plan.¡±

    There were too many uncertainties in this job, but then again, the same applied to being a thief. Since I succeeded in that field, I was feeling confident in my chances of performing well in this infiltration.

    ¡°Alright,¡± I said, feeling I was done being there.

    I quietly walked onto the street and left as quickly as possible to not draw attention to myself. From then on, it was a matter of waiting till it was dark before I finally made my move.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 06 ] Seeking

    When it became dark, and the street lights turned on, I decided to make my move. I had purchased a small bag that I stuff the things that I thought might be needed, such as gloves, knives, rope, my usual weapons, a club, and several newspapers. Then I wore a coat over myself and pulled the cover over my face to hide it from plain view. Once I felt sure of the time, I left the dump yard.

    It took me several minutes to reach the luxury hotel, and by then, I could see the lights streaming brightly from the entrance and onto the street. There was also a wagon stationed a little in front of it, where a person stood wearing a certain outfit that I saw earlier that day.

    ¡°They¡¯re here,¡± I thought, confirming the cleaning service were there.

    My plan was to infiltrate into the hotel by dressing myself as one of the cleaning crew. Currently, I don¡¯t have the uniform like the ones they were wearing, so I decided to find an unsuspecting person, knock him out and take his uniform.

    As there was only one person stationed at the wagon, I thanked my luck and decided to attack him. So, I slowly sneaked up to him and slammed my fist against the back of his neck, causing him to instantly lose consciousness. But before he fell, I caught him and glanced around before dragging him away to the hiding spot I used earlier that day to spy on the hotel.

    I undressed him and quickly put his clothes on before I tied both of his hands and feet with the rope I brought and cut the ends with a knife. His clothes felt a little lose to me because of how skinny I was, but I didn¡¯t care as this discomfort was only temporary. Then I checked his pockets and found an identification card for them to let me enter as part of the cleaning crew.

    ¡°Well, this guy¡¯s new to the job,¡± I muttered when I looked at the date of issue for when he started his employment. ¡°Been only two days. This¡¯ll work for me.¡±

    This made me think of playing out a story if anyone stopped and asked about me, telling them that my previous job went bad, and that I wanted to get the cleaning done so we can go home sooner. I was confident they wouldn¡¯t be suspicious because I expected a lot of workers behave this way due to the low paid salary for all the hard work they do.

    Once I was sure, I walked out onto the street, turning to look back to make sure he really was hidden behind the wall and would not be spotted easily. Once I was sure, I made my way towards the hotel and took the side path towards the rear.

    As I came to the rear and was about to enter through the back door when someone suddenly opened the door and came out. He looked a little surprised, probably because he didn¡¯t expect to find me standing on the other end.

    ¡°Who¡±

    ¡°What¡¯re you doing here?¡± He asked in an irritated voice. Then he looked quizzically at my face and asked, ¡°and who¡¯re you? I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen you around?¡±

    ¡°Um,¡± I muttered nervously, trying to think fast on what to reply. ¡°I-I recently joined the cleaning after my last job went bad and I was wondering if it¡¯s my turn to clean.¡±

    I rummaged through my left breast pocket and pulled out a card and showed it to him. After

    ¡°Ah. You¡¯re the newbie, eh?¡± The man responded, looking at me from top to bottom and back. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not your turn to clean, but why are you so eager to work?¡±

    ¡°Crap!¡± I thought, realising my silly mistake in sounding eager about the work.

    So, I tried winging it by replying, ¡°Well, I want to get the work done and go home sooner.¡±

    I was feeling nervous whether he would believe me or not, but thankfully, he did. The unknown man nodded and seemed to look as though he understood.

    ¡°Yeah. I hear you, and I feel the same way,¡± he replied in an understanding voice.

    I nodded, and as I turned around to leave to look as if I was going to wait for my turn, he called out to me.

    ¡°Hey, newbie,¡± he said, and I turned around to face him while looking curious. ¡°If you are keen on getting the work done, why don¡¯t you take over for me while I keep watch outside?¡±

    ¡°Oh!¡± I said, feeling happy at how lucky I was. ¡°Sure! I¡¯ll do it!¡±

    ¡°Good,¡± he said appreciatively with a slight nod of the head. ¡°I¡¯m in charge of cleaning the second floor from rooms 202 to 206.¡±

    As he was leaving, he paused and turned to give me advice on what I should do to request for cleaning.

    ¡°Just knock on their door until they open and check with them if they want cleaning or not. If they want, make sure to clean every spec of the floor and whatever else they want you to clean, like taking out the trash and anything else that needs cleaning. Make sure to wait patiently for them to open their door for you because it¡¯s considered rude to knock too often.¡±

    ¡°Okay! I¡¯ll keep that in mind, sir!¡± I said, and smiled at him.

    He nodded at me and told me that the cleaning utensils were placed right next to the back entrance and left to wait near the wagon. So, when I walked through the back door, I found a bucket, a broom, and a mop that were meant for cleaning floors.

    Taking them with each hand, I left for the stairs that were to my right which had the label, ¡°Staff Only.¡±

    ¡°Guess, only staff are the ones allowed to use these stairs,¡± I muttered as I went up them.

    It took me a few seconds to reach the first floor, and then a few more seconds to reach the second floor. As I reached the landing, I breathed a sigh and quickly got the hang of my breathing rhythm back to normal.

    ¡°Slack,¡± I muttered in a disgruntled voice.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    Not a single person was around to ask about me, not even a guard to look after the people living in their hotel. On the outset, it looked like a luxury hotel that took itself very seriously, but when it came to security, this place had very poor standards. I wasn¡¯t complaining though because it¡¯s been pretty easy sneaking in here.

    Anyway, I walked to the side and passed the staircase that was normally used by the tenants staying at the hotel. Once I reached the corridor that had a window facing the street, I knew along this was where the man I was after stayed in. But, finding him amongst all these doors would take time.

    Still, I had time on my hand, so I arrived at 202 and knocked twice on the door. Then I patiently waited for the door to open, and when it did, I felt my heart skip a beat with joy.

    ¡°Here he is,¡± I muttered with a small smile on my face as I stared at the person that I was after.

    ¡°What is it?¡± He asked me curtly, clearly looking annoyed by the disturbance.

    ¡°Cleaning service, sir,¡± I said, holding up the bucket and mop for him to see.

    ¡°Oh. Yeah. Clean the floor,¡± he said, giving me instructions on what to do without me needing to ask.

    That saved me quite a bit of trouble, and I quickly went into the room with my bucket, broom and mop with each hand. I was amazed by the luxurious appearance of the room, with the cool lights, the pictures on the walls, and a large bed with a side table attached to it.

    The man closed the door and walked over to retake his seat at the table facing the wall. As I went about trying to appear as though I was cleaning the room, I noticed that there were a lot of documents set on the table, and he seemed to be writing down on a separate sheet of paper.

    ¡°Those must be it,¡± I thought to myself when I caught sight of them.

    After noticing them, I moved into the bathroom and filled up the bucket with water and brought it out. Then I jiggled my mop in the water before I began cleaning, from one corner of the room and slowly moving over to the other side of the room. This was my strategy to slowly catch the enemy off guard without causing too much suspicious behaviour.

    So, it took me around three minutes to clean one side of the room and I reached the other side. I continued to mop the floor, and the man continued to ignore me while he kept writing something on a piece of paper while he kept taking a new page after reaching the end of the previous one.

    As I gradually got closer to him, I glanced at him sideways to make sure he wasn¡¯t looking at me. The bastard continued to ignore me even though I was right behind him and still cleaning with the mop. So, I took this as an opportunity to swing the mop in a vertical angle before bring it down hard on his head.

    ¡°Gah!¡±

    He yelped in pain, and his eyes momentarily widened before his eyes closed, and he slumped in his chair. I quickly got around him and put my hand near his nose to check whether he was still breathing or not. When I found him breathing, I sighed in relief and quickly walked over to lock the door.

    ¡°Don¡¯t need unnecessary disturbances,¡± I muttered and smiled wryly.

    I set the bucket and the mop aside before letting down the bag, that I was still carrying, down on the ground. It still had a leftover rope, and I pulled it out as well as a bunch of newspaper. Then I walked over to the unconscious guy and began wrapping several layers of paper around his mouth before tying the whole thing with the rope I pulled out moments before.

    Once that was done, I raised him off the chair and dragged his limp body over before laying him down on the ground. I laid him down gently, and once I did that, I headed back to the table to check out what he had written down on the bunch of pieces of paper that he appeared to have been writing for a while.

    What I found out was a shocking piece of evidence that suggested the cruel, unorthodox methods he was going to request the government to conduct. Due to the recent rumours of an uprising about to get started in the west slums because of some surviving revolutionists, he proposed to send in a battalion in the middle of the night, set fires to all of their homes and burn the place down. Then, capture people at random and use them as scapegoats to put the blame entirely on them and make it seem like The Empire was doing a great job of protecting its people.

    I was horrified by the details, but the worst part about it all was he had suggested that killing the adults and capturing the children and selling them into slavery or making them do work for them was the best course of saving money and resources The Empire had to spend from its own pocket.

    ¡°They are not our families, and as such, there should not be a problem in using them to work for us.¡±

    That was one of the lines written in his documents, and I flared up so much that I instantly crumpled the paper up without hesitation. I knew that if these were to get into the hands of the government, then many people would lose their lives, and a lot of children would be sold into slavery and used as disposable pawns for the government.

    ¡°Scumbags,¡± I muttered, glaring fiercely at the papers before I tore them and crumbled all of them into balls. ¡°How could they be so heartless to do this? It¡¯s insane!¡±

    That¡¯s what I said, but then I reasoned that the society was run by maniacs in power, and they would do anything to get what they want. Even if it meant dirtying their own hands, they would do it without a second thought or any regret of doing it.

    Fuelled by my anger for The Empire, I continued ripping the papers apart and stuffing them into my bag. I didn¡¯t want to leave any kind of evidence, or some left over document that could help further the ambition of these people.

    It took me several seconds to tear them down and stuff them into the bag until it was nearly full. After making sure there were no other papers left to destroy, I turned my attention to the unconscious guy, the man who was like the mastermind behind all of this nasty business.

    I wanted to kill him. I wanted to kill him in cold blood without a second thought. But would that be the best thing to do? Would it be really advisable of me to take his life when he toyed around with the lives of others? No! This man deserved to be punished! This man deserved to be tortured, and endure the pain that others, such as me, felt for everything that¡¯s happened!

    ¡°Yes! I have to torture this monster living in the shell of a human being!¡± I muttered fiercely.

    With my decision made, I briefly searched around the room to find something solid that I could lay his hands on so that he was in a siting position. A few seconds later, I discovered a small bed table stowed away in one of the shelves, and I laid it out before making the unconscious man sit down. Then I untied his hands and laid them down on the table.

    My intention was to wake him up and play around with for a little bit and relieve some of the hatred I held for The Empire on him. After all, this guy didn¡¯t deserve any shred of mercy because of all the cruel things he had done in the past! But I didn¡¯t want to wake him up gently and face my retribution; I wanted to wake him up with one hell of a painful way.

    I brought my bag and sat down facing him before I ruffled through all the paper to delve into the contents to pull out two knives. Then I raised the knives in the air and stabbed them as forcefully as I could into the upright position of his hands.

    The moment the knives pierced his hands, blood seeped through the opened wounds and started spilling onto the bed table. At the same time, the bastard woke up and opened his eyes wide as he screamed his lungs out from the intense pain he felt in his hands. However, only small muffling sounds came from his mouth that was wrapped around by several layers of newspaper and tied tightly by rope to keep him completely silent.

    Sitting there in front of him, I watched him shake violently in pain and try to wrench his hands away from the table. However, because I had stabbed them with all of my strength, they were pinned to the bed table and made it impossible for him to break free. In fact, he only caused himself more pain by moving his hands as they rubbed against the knives and caused him to feel more pain.

    ¡°Hello,¡± I said, and he turned to look at me with wide eyes. ¡°Looks like I have your attention now, so let¡¯s enjoy a little bit of the time you have left in this world, shall we?¡±

    Then I smiled, and I was sure I was showing him a truly twisted smile filled with evil and madness.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 07 ] Hospitality

    The man began to try and let out screams, but with the thick layers of paper in the way, all I heard were strange muffles coming from him. He tried to move his hands, only to experience more pain as the blade cut into his flesh and caused more bleeding. As such, he quickly realised he was at the mercy of me, a complete stranger he had never knew or met before.

    So, he glared at me fiercely, but the look in his eyes made me chuckle. Gone were the days when I feared to be looked on by such cold mirthless eyes filled with hatred. Right now, this guy¡¯s life is in my hands, and I was going to do whatever means to relieve the stress that I¡¯ve felt for the last ten years since I lost my family to his evil scheming.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯re confused as to who I am,¡± I said, speaking casually to him while restraining my hatred. ¡°I¡¯m even sure you¡¯re trying to figure out whether I¡¯m an enemy sent by the revolutionists, right?¡±

    When I asked him that question, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously as if I had correctly guessed what he was thinking. I smiled sweetly, but I immediately grabbed his head and brought it closer to mine so that we were inches away from each other.

    ¡°Let me tell you right now that no one set me up for this! Rather, I¡¯m here to carry out a vengeance that I¡¯ve held in me for the last ten years!¡±

    I shoved him away, and instantly he moaned as the knife points on his hand dug a little into his hands as he tried to move them. Tears began swelling in that man¡¯s face as he sat straighter and glared at me again.

    ¡°I suppose you¡¯d want to know who I am, and guess what?¡± I asked and swore at his face. ¡°Why should I bother revealing my identity to a loser that¡¯s going to die in probably ten minutes? Well, ten minutes if you survive my torture that is.¡±

    He instantly reacted violently to that and attempted to get up, but his hands stung him, and he sat down heavily while moaning in pain.

    ¡°However,¡± I began and leaned closer to him ¡°you brought this on yourself.¡± When he looked confused, I chuckled and said, ¡°Remember the time ten-years-ago when the local government conducted a night raid?¡±

    There was an instantaneous recognition from those words, and his eyes shot up as wide as he could muster from the immense shock he felt. He would remember that day considering it was his plan that the government carried out and probably granted him a high status of job, wealth and much more undisclosed to the public.

    ¡°Many people died that day, and many more were sacrificed by your people! It was a cruel, cold blooded crime to make yourselves look good in front of the masses and make them fear The Empire! But guess what? There was one thing you couldn¡¯t escape from. Care to take a guess?¡±

    I asked him slowly in a soft voice, almost in a whisper while I glared menacingly at him. It looked like he was confused, and I smiled wryly before I grabbed the knives and revealed the reason.

    ¡°It¡¯s for the murder of my parents!¡± I said, and began to move the knives stabbed into his hands back and forth.

    In an instant, he screamed out from the agony of his hand being cut and blood seeping out, but all that came out was muffling sounds with the thick papers covering his mouth. I glared at him menacingly while continuously moving the knives back and forth on the bed table.

    ¡°You know how I felt when I saw my parent¡¯s heads lined up beside so many others? Do you have any idea of the pain I experienced after losing the only people I had left in this world to care about? Do you even understand what I went through, the transformation from an innocent kid to being a cold blooded murdered that I¡¯ve become?! It¡¯s all because of you!¡±

    With my temper flaring, I pulled out my hay knife and slashed it down on right hand, specifically aiming for his thumb. The moment it got sliced apart and blood sprang out, he wailed helplessly like a wounded dog from the immense agony from losing a finger.

    ¡°Do you understand how sad I was at the thought of losing them?!¡±

    I exclaimed, and slammed the hay knife down on his forefinger. Once again, he let out a scream that was muffled by the papers covering his mouth.

    ¡°Do you even know the pain I went through to live!?¡±

    I slammed the hay knife down onto the middle finger, next to the forefinger I sliced off moments before.

    ¡°Do you even know how many people I killed just to live, huh?! How many people I had to steal from?! How many lives that I probably destroyed just to keep on living?! Do you?!¡±

    With that exclaim, I sliced off his middle finger. By that point, he was crying great bucket loads of tears from his eyes while he continued to scream from the pain of losing three fingers.

    I glared at him crying and demanded, ¡°Why¡¯re you crying? Why are you crying?! Why the hell are you crying?!¡±

    And I sliced off the ring finger, next to his middle finger that I took out a few seconds ago. Then I raised the knife and pointed it at him, giving him a fierce look that showed the hatred that was surging within me.

    ¡°You have no right to cry, not after everything you¡¯ve done to me and so many others!¡±

    With that, I slammed the knife down and sliced off his pinkie, leaving him with no fingers on his right hand.

    The man didn¡¯t appear to be listening as he was gasping and wheezing for breath. It looked like the pain of losing his limbs was much harder for him to handle, but I didn¡¯t want him to sleep. No. I wanted him to be wide awake as I proceed with torturing him.

    I rose to my feet and headed into the bathroom to fetch a mug, and then I returned to the bucket filled with water. After scooping it up and filling the mug with water, I walked over to the guy losing consciousness and smashed the cold water right into his face.

    In an instant, he reeled back from the shock and fell flat on his back against the floor. As he did, he screamed as his hands dug up to the handle of the knives holding his hands down on the bed table. A moment later, the table got lifted off its feet and it fell heavily on him, making him groan in pain.

    It took him a moment to recover, and he blinked rapidly while his face contorted with anger, rage, hatred, and whatever else he was feeling at that time. I laid the mug down and walked over to kneel beside where he lay, giving him a deadly cold look.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to let you doze off, fool! You have to stay awake as long as possible and face the retribution that comes with what you¡¯ve done to me and anyone else!¡±

    I held the hay knife out, and he turned to face with a tear-stricken face, his eyes filled with fear. When I saw the fear in his eyes, I smiled and showed how much I enjoyed seeing him fearful for his life.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

    ¡°You¡¯ve got some nerve trying to doze off when here I am trying to share my pain with you!¡±

    As I shouted, I raised my hay knife in the air above my head. He began shaking his head vigorously, clearly disliking what I was about to do. Still, I didn¡¯t care and swung it down on his leg. The blade dug deep into his flesh and caused blood to seep out, sending the man into a world of pain and agony.

    I wasn¡¯t done though because I wanted to completely slice off his leg. So, while speaking in a voice filled with rage, I raised the knife, sliced it down, raised it back up and repeated the process.

    ¡°Do you even realise how much pain I felt when I saw the heads of my dead parents on those stakes?! It felt like I lost a part of me, a limb that cannot be found or replaced! It tore me apart!¡±

    Blood kept getting sprayed onto my face with each slicing strike I made on his leg, which had been the case for everything I¡¯ve done up until now. But I didn¡¯t care and kept mercilessly attacking him away. Finally, at the end of my dialogue, I completely severed his leg from his body and sent him writhing into a great agony.

    ¡°But was that the end of that? No! I had to endure even more pain after that!¡±

    I shouted as I nudged closer to his other leg and began hacking away as it as if I was a lumberjack hacking away at a tree, but while tree did not feel pain, this guy experienced a whirl of emotions and pain that he was probably wishing he would die sooner than experience all of this. But I didn¡¯t let up, and I repeatedly slashed down at the leg until it was sliced off while continuing to speak to him.

    ¡°The food I bought with the remaining change got stolen, and then I got beaten up by those thugs for trying to get it back! Then the next time I met them, it was after I accidentally killed one of their comrades because he stole from someone that I marked as my target! After that, I ended up killing their leader because he was trying to kill me! What a fool, trying to claim about comradeship when only survival matters in this world!¡±

    Once again, by the end of my speech, I successfully severed his leg from his body and watched him with a satisfied smile as he writhed in pain. I could almost hear him thinking he wished I would just end this suffering sooner than make him go through all of this. Frankly, I didn¡¯t once think about his feelings because I was the victim in this bastard¡¯s schemes, and he was the reason I¡¯ve become this twisted.

    I watched him breathing deeply and groaning while attempting to nudge the bed table off his body. It looked like the weight of the table falling on his stomach with the added pain from his hands that were still pierced through by my knives was causing him a lot of pain. That¡¯s when I came to the realisation that all of this came about because he wrote documents to provide the support for the government to conduct their night raid.

    ¡°This is the hand that you used to write the documents that caused the night raid to happen, did¡®t you?¡± I asked, and seized his hand while he looked at me in shock.

    Gripping the knife placed over his right hand, I pulled it out and he jerked from the shock of his hand getting freed from the blade. However, the pain was far from over because I gripped his hand by the wrist and held it up with my left hand while I firmly gripped the hay knife with my right hand.

    ¡°Let¡¯s make sure you never have a hand to write with anymore!¡±

    As I said that, I swung the knife and sliced off his arm in an instant. He jerked violently at that and twisted his body while I held his dangling limb before I chucked it aside and smiled down at him.

    ¡°And didn¡¯t you use the other hand to support the document as you wrote?¡±

    When I said that, he began shaking his head and tried to twist away only to experience pain from the blade digging into his hand as it remained wedged on the table. Once again, I removed the knife and held his left arm with my left while holding my knife with my right hand.

    ¡°Such a supporting hand must not exist!¡± I said, and sliced off his left arm without any hesitation.

    I chucked his arm aside and took the bed table away while he writhed in pain from the pain of losing both of his arms. For a moment, I paused as I stepped back to observe this man with no arms and no legs writhing around in pain.

    Did I feel satisfied with just this much? Did I feel I had done everything to carry out my vengeance? No. This wasn¡¯t enough. There needed to be more done, something that would forever be etched in this guy¡¯s mind as he died a painful death that would scare any other man into wetting themselves.

    That¡¯s when I remembered a saying that my mother always used to tell me as a kid. Though I don¡¯t follow it anymore, I realised I could apply the meaning of her words as the final punishment for this guy. So, I walked over and knelt beside him as he wheezed and groaned from the agony his body was experiencing.

    ¡°Hey. Do you know of a certain saying?¡± I asked, and he tilted his head towards me.

    Due to the loss of blood and the extreme pain he experienced, I could feel him slipping away. Despite that, I still didn¡¯t feel any sort of remorse for him and only wished to carry out this one final act of vengeance to put a satisfying touch to this man¡¯s filthy existence.

    ¡°Do not see evil, not hear evil, and do not speak evil. My mother always told me when I was younger, and frankly speaking, I feel that those words perfectly apply to you.¡±

    He understood the meaning very quickly and began shaking his head vigorously. Before he could writhe around to avoid me, I placed my knee on his stomach and made sure he remained facing up so I can see what I was doing. Then I brought both of my knives and slowly moved from the man¡¯s mouth, to his ears, and then to his eyes, which flinched, were widened to the fullest extent in fear.

    ¡°Which should I begin with?¡± I muttered, audible enough for him to hear. ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ If I remember correctly, mum always began with ¡®see no evil¡¯ so let¡¯s go with that.¡±

    With my words said, I held the knife over his eyes, and he instantly shut them while shaking his head with hopes that I would not be able to get a good mark. However, he was destined to failure when I grabbed his head with my hand and held it firmly in place, but he still managed to closed his eyelids.

    I smirked and said, ¡°It¡¯s only going to hurt a lot worse,¡± and plunged the knife into his left eye. As he let out a muffled scream because of the papers, I immediately took the knife out and plunged it into the remaining eye socket, permanently blinding him for life.

    ¡°Not that he will live long enough to the fullest extent of his life,¡± I thought wryly.

    His screams would have been able to shatter the windows if only he could manage to make sound, but the papers kept any of that from slipping out. He was in a lot of pain, but I kept going regardless of how he felt because this was the end of his suffering, and I could finally feel satisfaction from watching him die.

    ¡°Next was ¡®hear no evil¡¯¡± I said, and I promptly plunged my knife his ears, going from one after another.

    This guy must have experienced a pain far more devastating than anything he had felt from the last few minutes that I had been slicing off his limbs piece by piece. Now, he was blind and deaf, so he couldn¡¯t hear me anymore, but it didn¡¯t matter. I was already smiling as I held the knife over his sealed mouth with a vengeful expression on my face as he shifted his head with a pained face.

    ¡°Finally, ¡®speak no evil¡¯¡± I muttered, glaring down at him.

    He could neither see nor hear what was happening, but the man guessed what was coming. My opinion on this matter was that people were indeed able to sense when death was approaching them. Thus, he began trying to desperately move his body as much as possible to throw me off but what good would that do?

    ¡°If you¡¯re going to blame someone for your death, blame the hotel for not providing adequate security!¡± I said to him though I knew he could not hear me anymore. ¡°Now, pay for your crimes with your death,¡± I shouted and plunged the knife into his throat.

    He let out a soft gasp of breath, maybe from the shock of having a knife pierce into his throat, or from the thought of dying, I wasn¡¯t sure. But once I did it, I let out a huge sigh of relief. All the pent-up anger I felt toward The Empire, all the anger I felt towards the people responsible for the death of my parents; I finally achieved it on that day. It was a small victory, but a victory nonetheless.

    As I got up, I realised that I was covered with his blood and sighed wearily. Then I looked down and saw him still twitching as he still clung for dear life. It was then I felt a tiny tweeny twinge of sadness for him; all the achievements he made, and he ends up dying a dog¡¯s death. It¡¯s a real shame of how sad a talented man¡¯s life could end if they choose to make the wrong decisions in life.

    ¡°Anyway, I better wash myself, pack my things, and leave before I raise suspicion,¡± I muttered.

    I immediately tore a large piece from the man¡¯s clothing and used it to rub off any handprints from the handle of the knife that was pierced into his throat. I didn¡¯t want to take the knife because it would immediately kill him, so I left it there while he desperately clung to dear life and die eventually.

    Once I wiped the handle clean, I quickly washed the blood off my weapons in the bathroom and packed all of my things into the bag I brought with me before I entered the bathroom to have a shower and freshen up.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 08 ] Disaster

    It took me several minutes to wash and dry myself before I came out. When I did, I came to check on him and found that he was no longer twitching and that he finally died.

    ¡°About time,¡± I muttered, ¡°because I didn¡¯t want to get dirty right after having a good old bath.¡±

    Considering that I had baths near the water tank, where the water was mercifully free, I filled up a bucket of water and quickly left the place. Well, it¡¯s free because it¡¯s not a drinking water, but I didn¡¯t care; if it I was able to wash myself down and freshen up, such a water is good enough for me.

    I quickly walked over to my bag, unzipped it and pulled out the pair of gloves I brought along.

    ¡°Right,¡± I said after putting them and flexing them experimentally. ¡°Time to get rich.¡±

    Surely this guy must hold a lot of money for working for the government, but I had to admit; the security in this hotel sucked. Even the cleaning crew people weren¡¯t pleased to work here because they were called for at unreasonable times, so maybe the security was lax because of the pressure?

    ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter to me, so long as I get my hands on some money,¡± I muttered happily.

    I began searching the room for all the valuables he might be keeping or hoarded from his years of working for the government. He must have received a fine amount as payment for helping them exterminate an entire slum, or so I hoped while I searched here and there.

    It took me a few minutes, but my search was a success when I opened a shelf and found a large bag. When I took it out and peered inside, I smiled wickedly at how many coins were inside. They were mostly silver, but there were a few gold coins too, making me feel pretty pleased with myself.

    ¡°Still, does this guy not use the bank or something for him to store this much in his room?¡± I pondered aloud.

    I was more or less asking a dead man here, and I wasn¡¯t expecting an answer from him any time soon. After all, if a dead person started speaking, it¡¯d be scary as hell.

    ¡°Or maybe, these are illegal funds that he¡¯s secretly hiding from other people. Man¡­!¡± When I drew to that conclusion, I chuckled and muttered, ¡°Well, suits me just fine since I accept all kinds of funds. Now, can¡¯t stay long since I got what I aimed for,¡± I muttered in a triumphant voice.

    I turned and saw the clothes that I dropped on the floor, noticing the blood slowly dripping from them. That¡¯s when I remembered about all the blood that had been splattered onto the uniform the cleaning clew wore and it left me in a bit of a pickle. At that moment, I had a towel wrapped around my waist as I didn¡¯t think about this.

    ¡°I could wash them, but then the clothes would still be wet and will take time to dry off¡­¡± I muttered, thinking quickly about what to do. ¡°But I can¡¯t go out wearing those. Mmm. What if¡­ What if I dress in the uniform and wear the cloak on top to cover it up? That guy that I¡¯m covering for did see me wearing my bag, and so he should probably think I was just wearing the cloak for the night. I could just make an excuse that I¡¯m feeling a little bit chilly after doing the cleaning.¡±

    As I drew to that conclusion, I nodded with satisfaction with that plan and quickly got dressed. Then I pocketed the gold into my bag, which stretched and felt tight because of all the things packed into it. Then, with nothing to keep me there anymore, I slung the bag over my shoulders and left while carrying the cleaning utensils of the workers.

    It took me several seconds to get back downstairs, put the stuff away and walk out the of back door with my bag slung over my shoulders. I arrived at the wagon to find the man that had given me his duty, smoking cigarette and looking like a slob.

    ¡°I¡¯ve done my best, sir,¡± I said to him as I came to a stop in front of him.

    ¡°Oh? Done already?¡± He asked me curiously. Then he looked at me up and down and asked, ¡°What¡¯s up with that getup?¡±

    ¡°Well, sir, I¡¯m feeling a bit cold from all the cleaning,¡± I replied, doing my best to look innocent and feeling cold.

    ¡°Oh. No worries,¡± the guy replied, shrugging it off carelessly, and I inwardly sighed in relief. ¡°How were the tenants? Did they treat you alright?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s the thing, sir. Some of them aren¡¯t opening their doors,¡± I replied, appearing to look baffled.

    ¡°Ah. Some of those people are downright annoying,¡± the man replied, seeming to understand what I meant. He threw the cigarette down and stamped it out on the ground before telling me, ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯ll go up and deal with them.¡±

    ¡°Thanks, sir,¡± I said, and he tilted his head at me before walking to the rear of the hotel.

    Once I was sure he was gone, I checked my surroundings once more. It was dark and no one was there, so I opened my bag and pulled out the coat from inside before putting it on. With the premise of blending into the shadows of the night, I quickly walked away from there and away from the crime scene feeling triumphant at my small achievement.

    ¡°I¡¯ll do the same to the rest of you,¡± I muttered, indicating the others that had a hand in causing the tragedy that occurred ten-years-ago. ¡°Just like I did today, I swear I¡¯ll destroy you all!¡±

    With that muttering, I blended into the shadows and escaped into the night.

    [ ====== ]

    I had a good night sleep, and after I woke up, washed my face, and headed to my usual tea shop, I found a news article depicting the face of the man I had killed just last night.

    The caption read, ¡°Government employee dead, killed in a brutal manner!¡±

    ¡°Of course, it was brutal,¡± I thought sarcastically. ¡°You wouldn¡¯t call it ¡®Government employee dead, killed because he slipped and fell down the stairs.¡±

    I chortled at the news, and the owner of the shop became curious with my unusual behaviour. After all, I was feeling a lot happier than I had ever been throughout these past ten years. I even felt like smiling more often now, which was quite strange considering I believed I always put on a serious face.

    ¡°Did something good happen?¡± He asked me curiously.

    ¡°You could say that, yes,¡± I replied cheerfully.

    ¡°Oh¡­?¡± He asked, and looked keenly at me. Then he asked, ¡°Who¡¯s the girl?¡±The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°Who?¡±

    ¡°The girl. You know, the one that made you this happy?¡±

    I looked at him and saw him looking at me with a small smile in a strange way. That¡¯s when I realised what he meant by his previous question.

    ¡°Does he think I¡¯m happy right now because I found myself a girlfriend?¡± I thought and chuckled. ¡°Well, better this way than the truth. Besides, I can¡¯t tell anyone that I¡¯m feeling happy because I was able to seek out vengeance against the perpetrator behind the night raid ten-years-ago.¡±

    ¡°Well, it only just recently started, so I¡¯ll see how it goes, okay?¡± I said, raising a finger to my mouth in a gesture to keep this between us only.

    ¡°Oh? Still at the starting stage?¡± He asked and laughed. ¡°You better make sure to treat her well.¡±

    ¡°I will, master!¡± I replied, looking jokingly at him. Then I became curious and asked, ¡°So, master, have you ever had a love interest before?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­! Quite a few times, lad,¡± he stated with a small smile.

    I was amazed because I thought he probably had feelings for people but didn¡¯t express them, but it seems I was wrong in thinking like that.

    ¡°Really?¡± I asked keenly. ¡°Can you tell me? You know, for experience sake?¡±

    Well, it¡¯s not like I plan on being a permanent bachelor for the rest of my life. Who knows? Maybe I¡¯ll find a partner that shares my desire to have revenge against The Empire. That would be wonderful.

    ¡°Well,¡± he pondered for a moment, seeming to think about where he should begin. ¡°There are three different types of women from my experience. One, where they want you to spend lots of money on them and shower them with gifts. Two, where they want to spend time with you by going to places and having a good time. And Three, where they are very loyal and devoted to you, wanting nothing more than being with you, sharing your emotions, and wish that they could spend the rest of their lives with you.¡±

    ¡°Wow. That¡¯s amazing.¡±

    I honestly was amazed by the three types of women he described, and I especially liked about the third type. Devoted, always loving, and only interesting in enjoying life to the fullest by just being at my side. Now, that¡¯s a girl I¡¯d give anything to have, but I know my chances of finding such a woman to be very slim.

    As I sighed, the master of the shop asked me, ¡°So, what type is the girl you¡¯re after?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± I shrugged, and he chuckled.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. I¡¯m sure you two will get to know each other better,¡± he told me reassuringly.

    ¡°He has such great confidence in me even though I was lying about everything,¡± I thought sadly.

    ¡°So, mind telling me the clothes she wears?¡±

    ¡°Sorry?¡± I asked and looked up, feeling confused. ¡°The clothes she wears? Does it matter?¡±

    ¡°Oh yes!¡± He replied immediately. ¡°You can tell what kind of woman she is judging by her clothes alone. Well, if you have a keen eye for things and experienced the joys and sadness of love, then you¡¯d understand what I mean.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ Okay,¡± I said and nodded, feeling confused a little clueless.

    ¡°What kind of clothes does my imaginary girlfriend wear¡­?¡±

    That¡¯s what I asked myself as I thought about what I visioned my girlfriend wearing as her daily wear. Feeling clueless, I glanced around at my surroundings to get some kind of inspiration or something. That¡¯s when I caught sight of a woman wearing a red top that was well past her waist and wore black socks that were somewhat see through, revealing the smooth skin she had.

    The woman in question appeared to be in her mid-twenties and was walking down the street casually, glancing around while carrying a small purse in her hands. Obviously, she was out shopping and came down here searching for whatever it is she wanted to find.

    ¡°Wow,¡± I muttered, staring at her in amazement.

    She had dark hair and had a beautiful face that seemed to radiate in the sunlight for some reason. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me? I wasn¡¯t sure, but I sure as well felt my heart beating a little faster as I gazed at her from the tea shop.

    ¡°Mmm?¡±

    The master of the shop noticed me seeing something, and turned his head in the direction I was looking at. As soon as his eyes fell on her, he quietly whistled as he too was drawn in by her beauty.

    ¡°So, that¡¯s girl you¡¯re dating?¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± I responded without thinking, gazing at her with amazement.

    ¡°I see. Well, she certainly is beautiful,¡± he commented and grinned at me. ¡°She does seem like a strong and a fierce person. Still, congrats, lad,¡± and he patted me on my shoulder.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked, finally tearing my eyes off her and turning to look at him. ¡°For what?¡±

    ¡°You know, having that kind of beautiful girl as your girlfriend. It¡¯s every man¡¯s wish come true, don¡¯t you think?¡± the man asked me with a grinning face.

    I stared at him in shock, and I went quiet because I wasn¡¯t sure how to respond to that. Then I remembered his question from earlier and quietly cursed myself for replying without thinking. Now he thinks that girl, and I are dating, and it couldn¡¯t have been possible if I wasn¡¯t so stupidly gazing at her like that.

    ¡°Well, what can you do when you¡¯re drawn in by such beauty?¡± I asked myself wearily.

    Anyway, in order to not raise suspicion on me going quiet and looking confused, I quickly said, ¡°Yeah. She¡¯s the one, although, I got surprised because she said she¡¯s got work today.¡±

    ¡°Well, she certainly looks professional and all,¡± the master of the shop said in understanding. ¡°Any idea where she works at?¡±

    ¡°No,¡± I replied and shook my head.

    ¡°Ah well,¡± he said and shrugged his shoulders. ¡°I was just wondering about her background because she looks to be rich.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­! She does¡­!¡± I muttered, my mind beginning to race.

    His words made me realise something; she must have a lot of money in that purse. I was no longer concerned about her beauty and became very interested in the amount she was probably carrying inside that purse. If I stole it now, it would add to my finances that greatly increased thanks to my yesterday¡¯s adventures.

    ¡°I¡¯ve got something to take care of, master,¡± I said and rose to my feet.

    ¡°Make sure to bring her along the next time you visit,¡± he told me and smiled.

    I grinned back and waved at him before paying the amount and leaving quickly to blend into the street. There I was, not concerned about doing any kind of robbery that day, but this girl just had to show up and cause the master to make me become aware of the goods she was carrying. Not the goods on her chest, but the goods inside of her purse.

    So, I quietly moved along the crowd and appeared as though I was just strolling along the street while glancing around at store fronts with interest. Gradually, I drew closer to her while she stood outside a stall bargaining to a guy about a toy she was trying to purchase.

    She seemed to be shopping for rabbit toys judging from the toys stuffed into a bag she was carrying. I was a little amazed by the amount of interest she showed in buying such items, but I didn¡¯t care. My eyes were fixed on the target and as I was about to get nearer, I pulled out a cap that hung around my waist and put it on my head, keeping it a little low so that it covered my face a little bit.

    The moment I reached her, I snatched at the purse and took off as fast as I possibly could. I could feel the shock she felt right at the moment I snatched the purse right from from her hand, but I didn¡¯t look back. Funnily, I couldn¡¯t hear her crying out for any sort of help, or even alerting that there was a thief running away with her purse.

    ¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡­ there¡¯s practically nothing useful in here?!¡± I thought in shock.

    Still, I couldn¡¯t just suddenly stop and check, so I kept running as fast as I could into the nearest alleyway and disappeared before anyone could stop me. I kept running as fast as possible, away from the main street and towards the dump yard because I felt I wasn¡¯t safe in that place.

    It took me nearly a minute to finally reach the dump yard, and when I finally stopped running, I was breathing very quickly from how fast I had to run to get there. I looked back to check that I really wasn¡¯t being followed and sighed in relief while my breathing slowly returned to normal.

    I looked down at the purse in my hand and pulled off the click to open it. There was indeed money in there, and a lot of it too. Clearly, she was carrying quite a lot of money, so it made me wonder why she never cried out for help or pointed out that there was a thief? Was it because she didn¡¯t care? Or was it because she gave up knowing that I far gone to be caught?

    ¡°Whatever the case, this now adds on to my growing assets,¡± I muttered triumphantly.

    With a smile on my face, I turned and headed towards the shack I built there. Suddenly, the air around me changed and it sent chills down my spine as I sensed something bad. At the same time, I saw a strange glowing light occur before it expanded and became a circular shape. It looked mysterious and magical, something completely out of this world.

    ¡°What in the¡­ world¡­?¡± I asked slowly, looking cautiously at it.

    At that moment, something erupted from the spinning magical circle and flew right towards me and hit me even before I realised what had happened. I grunted in pain and stepped a few steps back from the impact it had on me. That¡¯s when I felt something strange in me, I slowly looked down and widened my eyes when I saw a huge hole in my chest.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 09 ] Change

    There was a hole in my chest. There was a big hole in my chest. There was a frigging big hole in my chest! I couldn¡¯t believe what just happened to me, or what that magical circle thing was but that earlier hit, most likely an attack, put a hole in my chest.

    ¡°There¡¯s a hole in my chest,¡± I thought weakly.

    As soon as I had that thought, my legs gave way under me, and I fell to my knees facing the magical spinning circle. Then I slowly fell forward and lay there, with my blood slowly pooling around me. I felt numb and empty, but strangely, I didn¡¯t feel any pain like I was supposed to with having such a hole in my chest.

    ¡°Am I going to die?¡±

    A moment late, I heard the sound of footsteps as if someone had arrived at the scene and sighed for some reason. I understood the reason why when the person, who was a girl, spoke in a bored voice.

    ¡°What a stupid lowlife, trying to steal from me and ending up dead at my feet without me even trying?¡±

    She sighed again, and I understand that she felt bored because she managed to find me and kill me with relative ease. Judging by her words, it seemed like she had expected some kind of fight to entertain her, sadly though, I was just a normal thief with no extradentary skills that I could boast about.

    I wanted to see who she was, but I felt weak, very weak to budge my body, let alone move a single muscle. Still, I wanted to at least catch a glimpse of who the girl was, but was so weakened that I managed to move a little and groan from the struggle.

    At that time, she had moved forward to get her purse when she heard my movements and looked curiously at me.

    ¡°Oh? You aren¡¯t dead? That¡¯s surprising.¡±

    Her words told me everything I needed to know and made me think, ¡°I see. I¡¯m going to die.¡±

    It was a very simple thing to think about, and since I didn¡¯t feel any sort of pain, I could call this a bliss. But I wasn¡¯t happy with this kind of ending; I wanted to achieve more, I wanted to live and get married, and most of all, I wanted to have my revenge on The Empire. Now, I would never get the chance to fulfil any of those because I¡¯m going to die.

    ¡°D-Dammit!¡± I muttered weakly and gritted my teeth with great anger.

    ¡°What?¡± She asked, sounding confused. ¡°Are you feeling pain? You shouldn¡¯t be since my magic negates all pain sensors of the person that I killed.¡±

    ¡°I see. That explains why I¡¯m not feeling any kind of pain,¡± I thought weakly.

    But I still groaned and moved a little, angry that my life was going to end like that without having achieved anything. I tried desperately to move, but my body no longer listened as I lay limp as a sock. My mouth couldn¡¯t even move anymore as I wanted to complain and yell at this stranger for robbing me off my life when I had so many things that I wanted to do.

    ¡°What is it? If you move around, you might start feeling pain.¡±

    I heard the girl¡¯s voice say that to me and heard her footsteps get closer to me. There was a momentary silence before I felt soft hands touch the bottom side of my face and felt myself being lifted by the head for her to see while, at the same time, heard her speaking again.

    ¡°Seriously. You should just lie there and accept your fate already. Stealing from me, is basically wishing to die. Don¡¯t you¡­ understand¡­?¡±

    As she raised my head high enough for her to see my face, she faltered in her speaking and looked surprised. At the same time, I received an immense shock of finally finding out who my killer was; it a girl dressed in red top longer than her waist with dark hair and a cute face, which was much cuter when I see her face up close.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe this,¡± I thought sickeningly.

    She was the girl that I and the owner of the tea shop had been talking about happily a while before I stole her purse from her. He had assumed that she was my girlfriend because I was mesmerised by her cuteness. Even now, she still had that cute face, but I no longer felt the same way about her. Instead, a violent surge of anger was born inside of me as I glared menacingly at her.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ¡°I¡¯ll¡­ kill you¡­!¡± I said weakly.

    I have no idea how, but probably because I was so angry and all, I managed to move my right hand slowly upward and placed it around her neck.

    ¡°I swear¡­ I¡¯ll¡­ kill you¡­!¡±

    If I had the strength in my hands, I would¡¯ve probably squashed her neck right there and then remorselessly. Instead, I felt utterly weak to the point and helplessly to do anything, let alone kill my killer.

    I saw her widen her eyes in shock, obviously not expecting me to say that I would kill her. Even I was amazed at myself even though I knew that I probably wouldn¡¯t get the chance to do it and simply go on to some other place.

    ¡°Oh¡­!¡± She said, and I was amazed when I saw her blush while looking embarrassed.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I thought, not comprehending her reaction.

    Her reaction puzzled me, like it did not make any sense. I wanted to ask her why was she blushing and all, but it looked like I had run out of time. In that instant, I felt my vision go blurry and my breath stop before everything went dark.

    [ ====== ]

    The next time I opened my eyes, I saw that I was lying down on an unfamiliar floor facing forward and towards a pair of chair legs and a white wall. No longer was I at the dump yard, instead I was lying on the floor in an unfamiliar room.

    At first, I was confused about my whereabouts and thought that maybe I was having some kind of dream. Nothing was familiar to me, and for some strange reason, I felt as though it was a little different than before. I wasn¡¯t sure what, but something made me think differently about myself.

    I tried to move to the left, but nothing happened. I willed my body to move forward, but I just lay there motionlessly as before. I even tried move my hands and feet to get to my feet, but I experienced something strange. Instead of feeling a firm sensation of my hands and feet, I felt they were fluffy and scrapped the floor uselessly.

    ¡°What in the world?¡± I muttered out loud in confusion.

    This time, I was shocked when, instead of words coming out, I heard my mouth produce strange sounds that sounded nothing like a human being. The sound was a combination of whining and whimpering almost like what an animal would normally make, but I¡¯m an animal; I¡¯m a human being.

    When I understood that something was wrong, I started to panic and exclaim, ¡°What¡¯s going on?! What the hell is going on here?! What the hell happened to me?!¡±

    With each exclaim, my mouth made whining and whimpering sounds as if it could not articulate any of my words in an understandable manner. None of this made no sense, and I thought that I was perhaps having some kind of nightmare because of how I was killed.

    ¡°This can¡¯t be real¡­!¡± I thought desperately.

    Just then, the door opened from somewhere nearby, and I heard someone enter into the room that I was in. Instantly feeling fear, I tried to move, budge, or do whatever I could to move myself away from the floor. None worked, and I lay there like a sack of meat and waited for whatever was going to happen.

    ¡°Oh! You¡¯re awake!¡± I heard the shriek of a girl, and I felt a strange dreadful feeling when I felt as though I recognised her voice.

    The owner of voice walked over to where I lay and, as if handling a baby, she placed her hands gently beneath me and lifted me up into the air with ease. Then, when she turned my body to face her, I felt the utmost shock when I immediately recognised her as the girl that killed me.

    ¡°What the hell?!¡± I exclaimed, but my mouth instead made more whining sounds. ¡°What¡¯re you doing here?! How could this be happening?! What the hell is going on here?!¡±

    I lost a little of my control and began exclaiming feverishly at all the strangeness that I was experiencing. The girl was clearly taken by surprise by me whining and whimpering while trashing around in her arms. No one could blame me of how I felt when I had no clue what happened to me after I was killed, and this didn¡¯t feel like a bad nightmare that she¡¯d appear in it too.

    ¡°Woah! Woah!¡± She said, trying to control me by holding me tightly. ¡°Calm down. Uh¡­¡±

    The girl seemed to be lost on what to do to calm me down. Suddenly, she got an idea, and she exclaimed, ¡°Oh! I get it! You¡¯re confused, aren¡¯t you? Well, here you go.¡±

    Then, while holding me really tightly, she walked over to what looked like a mirror and stood in front of it while me towards the front. I momentarily stopped moving around and exclaiming to see for myself what had become of me. To my horror, I saw her holding, not onto me, but onto a rabbit.

    ¡°What?!¡± I exclaimed out loud, my mouth making whimpering sounds as usual. ¡°No¡­! It can¡¯t be¡­!¡±

    I began to shake my head, denying what I was staring at as it didn¡¯t seem real. I, a human being, had been turned into a rabbit. I, a proud human being, was now a rabbit. I no longer held a human form and instead had been transformed into this¡­ this¡­ freak of nature!

    ¡°NNNOOOOOOO!!!!¡±

    I screamed and began trashing around wildly again, losing all control of myself as I seriously lost it.

    ¡°No! This can¡¯t be happening! This isn¡¯t real! No way is this real! I can¡¯t be a rabbit! I¡¯m a human, dammit! I¡¯m a frigging human being; not some goddamn rabbit! I won¡¯t accept this! No way! No! Nooo!! Noooooooo!!!¡±

    My body, that of a rabbit, moved uncontrollably in her arms while making loud whimpering and whining sounds with its mouth. The girl that was responsible for all this, looked troubled as she struggled to hold me steady, but she soon realised it was going to be a tough challenge.

    ¡°Dang it! Sleep!¡±

    The moment she said those words, I felt a strange soothing sensation running through me, and I felt a pleasant feeling of wanting to sleep. I stopped fighting, and stopped shouting. Then I closed my eyes and instantly drifted off into a pleasant sleep with nothing to worry me anymore.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 10 ] Situation

    I don¡¯t know how long it¡¯s been, but the next time I woke up, I found myself lying on a comfortable bed. That¡¯s what I thought at first when I groggily opened my eyes and glanced around. When I finally woke up and saw what looked like a wall of straw around me, I realised I was lying inside a basket with warm comfortable bedding.

    ¡°So¡­ it really wasn¡¯t a nightmare¡­¡± I muttered, making whining sounds with my mouth. ¡°I¡¯m now a rabbit; not a human anymore.¡±

    I sighed and thought back to the events that lead me to transforming into a rabbit. It was right after stealing the purse of that cute looking woman that she somehow tracked me down and attacked me with this magical thing, killing me. Well, it was supposed to have killed me, but then again, here I am; alive and well.

    ¡°Well¡­¡± I muttered wearily. ¡°I can¡¯t really say I¡¯m doing well in my current state.¡±

    It¡¯s still troubling me to think that I had become a rabbit, but it made me conjure up a lot of questions. Like, how am I still alive, why did I become a rabbit, and what is my fate from here on? Do I have the lead the life of a rabbit like all those wild rabbits that people kill and eat for dinner?

    I shudder at the thought of me becoming food, but then I relaxed as I felt that I wasn¡¯t in any imminent danger. If I had been in danger, I would¡¯ve been killed again, and my meat would¡¯ve been cooked and eaten by now. Well, maybe not many hours had passed since I was put to sleep.

    ¡°That¡¯s right! The woman!¡± I exclaimed.

    My thoughts finally shifted to the young woman that killed me, who probably is also the one that revived me as a rabbit and most likely put me to sleep when I went mental earlier. Still, why did she revive me? Is she going to do something to me? Humiliate me? Torture me? Make me suffer far more than being killed without even being looked at?

    I could still remember how I was killed without her even looking at me. The moment that magical circle appeared, she just shot me without hesitation. Then she walked out of it and seemed to disinterested in me that it made me become very angry. Still, here I am, revived and possibly in a comfortable position than I previous was in.

    Sighing to myself, I glanced around the room. It was a well-lit room, with the sunlight streaming through the windows. It felt a little warm even though it was supposed to be winter, but maybe that¡¯s due to my fur providing the warmness. Kind of convenient if I actually think about it.

    ¡°Dammit! I¡¯m already getting accustomed to my new life!¡± I complained, making whining sounds.

    ¡°Mmm?¡±

    It was then that I heard a voice moan softly from the side. I turned my attention and saw a bed positioned there, making me think that I was possibly in someone¡¯s bedroom. From the familiarity I heard in the voice, I guessed it was probably the woman¡¯s room and that she was the one sleeping on the bed.

    I tried to move from my position, but I realised that, as a rabbit, my hands and feet work differently to that of a human. My first problem was to move, and it took me a few seconds to figure out the movement in my legs before I leaped out of the basket.

    ¡°Yes! I did it!¡± I said and whined happily.

    Then I instantly groaned as I realised how stupid I was to feel happy from something so silly. Well, if anyone was in my position, they¡¯d have understood how difficult it was to be a rabbit. I mean, the sensation in my hands, my feet, and my head feels so different. My body feels more agile, but I feel as though that if I jumped too much, I might shoot upwards and smash into the ceiling.

    ¡°I don¡¯t need to embarrass myself any more than I already have,¡± I thought, realising how losing my mind over me discovering my rebirth in the body of a rabbit turned out as.

    Anyway, I focused on the bed, leapt into the air and moved forward. Like that, I kept moving towards the bed gradually while being careful not to jump too high. As a human, I knew rabbits can jump high and are very agile, but as a rabbit, I have absolutely no idea what my upper limit was. So, I solely moved towards the bed and reached right at the edge.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    I looked up at the tall bed that I now have to leap at. If I was still a human, I would casually walk and sit down on it, but as a rabbit, I¡¯m finding the difficulty of what it means to be an animal. Damn. What has my life become?

    Groaning, I posited myself in a ready position to jump into the air. I closed my eyes and versioned myself jumping into the air like I normally did in my human form. Then I opened my eyes and looked up at the spot that I was aiming at and leaped into the air.

    ¡°Woah crap!¡± I shouted in shock as I shock up at an incredible speed.

    I was taken by surprise when I jumped into the air and soared straight up to the ceiling. With nothing to stop me, I smashed head first into the ceiling and subsequently got stuck there. At the same time, the sound of the crash woke the woman, causing her to sit upright and look up at the ceiling in shock.

    ¡°Oh no!¡± I heard her exclaim.

    I could feel myself being unable to breathe as my body was wedged into the ceiling. While I did struggle and desperate tried to scrape at the wall with my fluffy hands, it made no difference. I was suffocating, and I realised that I was going to die.

    ¡°Dammit! Not again!¡± I thought, desperately trying to somehow get myself out of that jam.

    Luckily, I felt a strange sensation around my body before I somehow appeared hovering in front of the woman. Then I fell, and she caught me easily in her hands and lowered her face to look worriedly at me.

    ¡°Are you okay? Are you hurt? Let me heal you just in case!¡±

    That¡¯s what she said, and I blinked at her in confusion as I was riddled with more questions like why was she worried about me, and what was this healing she was talking about?

    I soon found out when my body began to glow in a strange green light, and I felt a strange sensation running throughout my body. The pain I felt when I was stuck in the wall was slowly subsiding, which surprised me because I had never felt this kind of thing before. I looked up at her and saw that she was looking at me with a sincere worried look on her face.

    Well, that¡¯s what I thought, but then again, I reasoned that maybe this was all a trick to confuse me, and then lure me into a false sense of security and spring a trap on me. Okay. That is perhaps farfetched, but It goes without saying that I don¡¯t trust this woman. At the same time, I wondered what her agenda was in reviving me and keeping me alive like this.

    ¡°There,¡± she finally said nearly a minute later. ¡°You should be feeling better now. Are you?¡±

    She asked curiously at the thought that she might¡¯ve forgotten to fully heal me. So, I nodded at her, and the woman became very happy to see my response.

    ¡°I¡¯m so glad!¡± She exclaimed, and grabbed me and pressed me into her chest.

    With my face pressed at chest, I began to suffocate and felt like I was going to die. I struggled for a moment before managing to squeeze my neck upward and took great lungful of air. Then I gave the woman an annoyed look because I nearly died a second time on that day.

    ¡°Do be careful, woman!¡± I complained in an annoyed voice.

    Naturally, my words didn¡¯t make it through and instead, I made whimpering and whining sounds. She became curious by my sounds and held me away to tilt her head and look curiously at me. When she did that, I had to admit that she appeared cute again.

    ¡°What is it? Are you perhaps hungry?¡± She asked me curiously.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked, blinking in surprised.

    She probably took my sounds to mean that I agreed to her, because she suddenly smiled and said, ¡°Alright! Let¡¯s eat!¡±

    ¡°Wait. I¡¯m not hungry!¡± I tried to say, but I only made whining sounds instead.

    ¡°Alright. Alright. I¡¯m going,¡± she said cheerfully, assuming that I probably pestered her, making me feel complicated about the whole situation.

    The woman, whose name I have yet to find out, pulled away the covers and revealed that she had been sleeping with nothing but her underwear. I was shocked, and I tired to struggle away, but her grip was firm, and she kept smiling at me.

    ¡°Dammit, woman! Hide your assets!¡± I complained, closing my eyes and looking away.

    Unfortunately, communication was one thing I truly sucked at because I had no idea how to overcome that barrier. Can rabbits even have the ability to speak? I assumed they¡¯d need some special vocal cords that only humans have, which made me feeling hopeless at my situation.

    As I tried to avoid looking at her naked body while she carried me away, I glanced up at the ceiling and saw the hole I made in it. I was amazed by it and wondered whether all rabbits had that kind of jumping power, or was I just a special case? Well, with no way to communicate, I won¡¯t figure anything out on my own.

    So, I remained silent as the woman put me down on the bed and walked over to a wardrobe to pull out a robe that she wrapped around herself and tied in the middle. I swear I was looking away with all my might from the sight of her naked body, but if I had to honestly admit, I did take peaks at her before turning away.

    ¡°I may have turned into a rabbit, but I¡¯m still a healthy male on the inside!¡± I thought firmly.

    ¡°Okay,¡± she said, and I turned to see her beautiful frame covered by the white robe.

    She walked over and picked me up in her arms and walked out of the room towards the dining room. While going between the rooms, I found out that it was a spacious house or wherever she stayed at and automatically assumed that she was probably rich. I mean, the floor was clean, the furniture looked extravagant, and the displays had a rich look to them, so it¡¯s easy to make such an assumption.

    That¡¯s how we arrived at the dining room, and she began force feeding me carrots much to my distaste.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 11 ] Communication

    ¡°Here, here,¡± the girl said, holding the carrot out for me with her hand.

    ¡°Goddammit!¡± I cursed inwardly at my uncontrollable desire to eat the damn thing.

    I, a once proud human, am now a furry and it was all thanks to this same girl that killed me. And the reason for my death? I don¡¯t actually recall. For some reason, my memories at that time of my death seem a little hazy. Not sure why.

    Anyway, right now I had turned into a rabbit and am being force fed by my killer! The humiliation! Argh! The humiliation! It¡¯s so damn unbearable!

    ¡°If you don¡¯t eat your carrots, I¡¯ll starve you to death,¡± the girl suddenly threatened when she noticed me fighting to not eat it.

    I flinched as the loving expression on her face changed to that of a cold ruthless killer, giving by furry body goose bumps that I never knew an animal could have. As if reacting automatically, my body reacted before my brain did and began bitting down on the carrot at super speed.

    ¡°Very good,¡± she said with a smile, returning to her loving expression from before.

    ¡°Goddammit! This is so humiliating!¡± I vailed inwardly as I ate the fruit.

    Well, admittedly the carrots actually tasted pretty good although a bit salty. They are so yummy that I just want to keep eating this and eat nothing else.

    ¡°Wait, wait, wait! I¡¯m losing myself like this! Get a grip, stupid body! Get a grip!¡±

    I start fighting for control over my body and began refusing her. For a few seconds, I maintained control but this stupid body¡¯s instinctive need to eat or something caused me to begin eating.

    ¡°Dammit! I am the master of this body, you stupid rabbit!¡± I cursed the body although I forgot the fact that its my body now so I was pretty much cursing myself.

    Like this, the girl continued to feed me carrot and then another carrot once that was over and then another when that one was over. I really wished she would stop feeding me like this! I will grow fat!

    ¡°Hey! Girl!¡± I tried shouting but my shouts came out as cute squeaks.

    It was humiliating but nonetheless, I continued to try and gain her attention.

    ¡°Hey! Girl! Stop feeding me! You¡¯ve been feeding me too many carrots! Feed me some chicken if you will! Hello! I¡¯m talking to you!¡±

    While shouting, I also flailed my hands in the air and moved my body without actually jumping. From the earlier fiasco of jumping too high and smashing into the ceiling, I didn¡¯t dare to jump again since I had absolutely no clue how strong my jumps are without fully testing them.

    ¡°Oh, how cute~! You love me so much that you¡¯re giving me a performance?¡± The girl asked cutely with a lovable expression on her face.

    ¡°Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!¡± I yelled angrily but only more cute sounds came out of my mouth.

    Not only did she not understand anything I tried to convey, she got the total opposite impression of what I was doing. She thinks that I¡¯m giving her a performance, but I am not! I¡¯m trying to communicate with you, you stupid girl!

    Unable to comprehend what I wished for; the girl continued to feed me carrots. It made me wonder why and how she had such an endless supply of carrots around her. I gave up and let my body do what it wanted to instinctively and eat the carrots without fuss.

    Finally, it seemed that she had reached the end of her carrot supplies because she stopped giving me carrots.

    ¡°I think that¡¯s enough for lunch. You¡¯ll be able to eat more in the afternoon and then some more in the night, okay?¡± She asked me with a cute expression.

    ¡°Sure. Whatever. I don¡¯t care,¡± I replied without care though I made cute sounds instead.

    She beamed at me and took the empty plate that was littered with carrots from earlier and rose to her feet. Then she headed off through the side entrance into what I assumed was the kitchen.

    When she was finally gone, I began glancing around at my surroundings. It was indeed a spacious home that she lived in, a luxurious one at that compared to some of the more comfortable places located in the city.

    ¡°How did I become a rabbit and why? I don¡¯t get it,¡± I muttered to myself, making small cute sounds outwardly, ¡°but first I¡¯ve got to figure out how to communicate with her.¡±

    She¡¯s my only source to find out what had happened to me because she was my killer and I somehow became her pet. This is humiliating but I¡¯ve got no choice. I¡¯ve got to communicate with her but how? Anything I say becomes a cute sound and anything I do becomes cute. It¡¯s really humiliating.

    I began dragging my feet forward on the table while looking around for something. That was when I saw a rack of shelves filled with books.

    ¡°Yes! Books! I can use those to communicate with her,¡± I muttered excitedly, ¡°but¡­!¡±

    My excitement was short lived when I realised that I was a few meters away from the bookshelf from where I sat on the table.

    From my vantage point, I can see two options for me to get to the bookshelf. Option one is that I jump from here and try to reach the bookshelf. Option two would be to land on the floor, go over to the bookshelf and then leap at it to hopefully make a book fall. In both cases, I would need to leap. That¡¯s for sure.

    ¡°Damn. I wish I can get there without having to jump and get myself into an embarrassing situation,¡± I thought but I also knew I was asking too much from my new body.

    So, I slide myself using my fluffy feet to the edge of the table and looked down. It was a drop alright, not a large one, but still a drop that might hurt me. I tilted my head to look at the bookshelf and wondered if I could jump straight at it although if I miss, I might end up elsewhere.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

    ¡°I guess down it is.¡±

    With the decision made, I gulped nervously and looked down carefully at the floor. I hesitated to jump from the fear of the pain I might receive and what else might happen. After all, I don¡¯t know anything else about this body other than that it was an unnaturally strong rabbit¡¯s body.

    ¡°Well, here goes,¡± I muttered and leaned over the edge.

    Like that, I fell from the edge of the table, and I tried my best to land on my feet. However, gravity is not to be underestimated, and I found myself unable to control my fall. And so, I fell flat on my bottom with my head facing towards the bookshelf.

    ¡°Ouch! Ah¡­ crap. That hurt a little,¡± I admitted wearily.

    I pushed myself using my nimble fingers and sat up and was amazed that the injuries I sustained weren¡¯t severe. In fact, I feel just fine other than my belly aching from the fall.

    ¡°It must¡¯ve been all the carrot that I ate,¡± I grumbled.

    Regardless, I slid myself towards the bookshelf and looked up. They were stacked neatly in rows but none of them had titles that I could read. My family were poor and couldn¡¯t afford any education, but my mother managed to give me some home schooling that helped me a little bit in basic reading and writing so the fact that I couldn¡¯t read the text on the book side confused me.

    ¡°I guess I¡¯m going to ruin this arrangement but¡­ it¡¯s for a good cause,¡± I muttered to give myself some confidence.

    I took the best stance a rabbit could take and leaped towards the bookshelf. I shot forward so fast that in the blink of an eye, I smashed head long into the bookshelf. Fortunately, I was headed at my target but unfortunately, I did not aim right because I flew straight forward and smashed my head against the middle section supporting the bookshelf.

    In my dim state of shock, I heard the sound of splintering wood before the bookshelf broke away and all the books tumbled down on me.

    ¡°Argh!¡± I cried out in shock and pain as I got submerged by the heavy books.

    ¡°W-What?! What happened?!¡± The girl cried out in alarm as she raced out of the kitchen to witness the damage I had caused. ¡°Oh no! The bookshelf! But more importantly, where¡¯s the rabbit?! Where are you rabbit?!¡±

    ¡°Over here!¡± I tried to shout but I only managed to make feeble whimpering sounds.

    ¡°Oh no!¡± She exclaimed, hurrying over and shoving the books aside to find me lying underneath them. ¡°What happened, my cute pet? Why¡¯d you go knock yourself against the bookshelf like that? Don¡¯t you realise you could¡¯ve gotten crushed underneath them?¡±

    As she berated me out of concern, I felt a strange twinge in my chest that I did not know what it was. I finally got her attention so I shrugged away the pain and did my best to flail my fluffy hands to point towards the books while doing an imitation of reading it.

    ¡°You¡¯re telling me that you¡­ wanted to read the books?¡± She asked in confusion.

    ¡°No! I wanted to communicate with you!¡± I shouted but made cute sounds instead. ¡°I thought that if I got your attention with books, you might get the underlining meaning!¡±

    ¡°If you wanted to read them, you should¡¯ve asked. I¡¯m right here, aren¡¯t I?¡± She asked softly with a caring look on her face.

    It was the first time in a really long time that I was showered with such affection that I was lost for words. She was my killer and yet, here she was, worrying about me. It was so convincing that I began doubting whether she was the same person that had killed me.

    Well, I doubt she knows that I was her killer but whatever. I must not get swayed by this woman¡¯s strange behaviour and focus on what I must do.

    ¡°I¡¯m trying to communicate with you, girl!¡± I tried saying while making cute sounds outwardly.

    ¡°Yes, yes. I¡¯ll read them to you now,¡± she said to me gently.

    The girl knelt down, scooped me into her arms and rose up before moving over to lay me down gently on the table. Then she walked over to the mess I made and picked up a book at random before coming back to sit down on the table in front of me.

    ¡°Okay, so what do you want to read?¡± She asked me, laying the book down for me to look at.

    The side text of the book was unreadable, but I was able to read the text on the front of the book. It had the title ¡°Communication Skills between Wizard and Animal¡± which I never heard of before. Still, I took this was my golden chance to use my fluffy fingers to tap the world ¡°Communicate¡± repeatedly.

    She leaned forward and looked at what I was tapping and asked, ¡°Communicate? You like that word?¡±

    ¡°Yes! I¡¯ve like to communicate with you!¡± I told her firmly by making cute sounds.

    She blinked at me at first and then looked back at the word I was tapping. Then she seemed to have realised what I was after and smiled at me.

    ¡°Ah! I get it! You want to communicate with me. Is that right?¡±

    I immediately nodded my head vigorously and said, ¡°About goddamn time you understood!¡±

    It looked like my response convinced her as she nodded her head twice and said, ¡°Alright. I can easily arrange that.¡±

    ¡°You can? With what?¡± I asked curiously but she did not respond.

    Instead, she held her hand out and twirled it in mid-air while chanting something in a strange tongue. I didn¡¯t recognise what language it was although I only knew one language and that was the common tongue used in the city so perhaps it was a language from another country perhaps.

    ¡°What did you do?¡± I asked, but instead of making a cute sound, my actual voice leaked out instead.

    ¡°There! You can communicate with me now,¡± she told me with a smile.

    ¡°I can speak again¡­! I can really speak again!¡± I said quietly in a silent excitement rose up within me.

    ¡°Yes. Isn¡¯t that great?¡± She asked with a wonderous smile. ¡°So, what did you want to talk to me about?¡±

    I looked at her and, in that instant, my excitement was quickly replaced with rage as my hatred for her boiled to the surface and made me shout at her in a furious voice.

    ¡°What have you done to me, you stupid girl?! Why am I in the body of a rabbit and what happened to my real body?! What did you do to me?! Tell me!¡±

    By the time I finished raging, I was out of breath and took a moment to catch my breath. I looked at her and saw that she was still smiling at me with that pleasant expression on her face. It lasted for a few seconds before she slowly closed her eyes with the same smile etched on her face. However, when the smile soon began to fade away and was replaced with a grim expression as she reopened her eyes to give me a deadly glare.

    ¡°Who are you calling stupid, you stupid little rodent?!¡±

    Her voice was cold to the point that I thought one could turn into ice sculpture if it were magical. But for me, none of it happened but just from her voice, her expression and the deadly look she was giving me, I knew I made a grave mistake.

    While I was paralysed with shock, she held her right hand out and clicked. In an instant, a long butcher knife appeared out of thin air, and she caught it. That action made me snap back to reality and realise what was happening.

    ¡°I have to escape¡ª!¡± I began and turned my body to leap away.

    ¡°Die,¡± she uttered that simple word and swung the butcher knife at me.

    For a moment, I felt a strange sensation run through me and had this strange sensation that I was flying through the air before I landed with a light thud on the floor. I lay there, unmoving as I felt that I no longer had any control over my body.

    I moved my eyes towards where she was and saw my headless body in a leaping position on the table from before. Then it flopped down on the table and the blood began pouring out of it. There was so much blood that it began trickling off the edge of the table and onto the floor.

    ¡°So, this is how I die for the second time?¡± I questioned blankly as I accepted my fate more readily than the last time.

    In that brief moment that I was conscious, I turned my eyes a little towards her and saw a bloody expression on her face. Blood from my body covering her face as she held a bloodstained butcher knife in her hand as she glared down at me with a cold mirthless expression on her face.

    For some reason, I hated her even more and before losing consciousness, I uttered my words of hate towards her.

    ¡°Curse you¡­ girl!¡±

    Then everything began to fade to black. As I began to fade to black, I hoped that when I wake up next time, all of this would¡¯ve been a bad dream. A very bad dream.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 12 ] Introduction

    I don¡¯t know how long it had been, but I felt I was floating in a thin space with no wind or pressure. It was like I was floating in the void full of nothingness. It was lonely and yet peaceful at the same time. No kind of disturbance happened, and I felt I could let go of all the weight off my shoulders and drift into oblivion. But it seems fate had other things planned for me because I suddenly felt my consciousness being pulled to the surface.

    The first thing I felt was that I was floating somewhere while being held by something gently. So, I proceeded to pen my eyes slowly and saw that everywhere was a blur. Looks like my sight had not adjusted just yet, so I blinked a few times and my vision finally normalised.

    It was then that I saw that I was resting on someone¡¯s arms judging by the skin I saw beneath me. This made me wonder what was going on, and I raised my right hand to check only to see that it was the fluffy paw of a small animal.

    ¡°W-What¡¯s this¡­?¡± I asked aloud as confusion settled in my chest.

    Upon hearing my voice, a familiar feminine voice said, ¡°Ah! You¡¯re awake!¡±

    A moment later, I was shifted around in the arms of the owner to let me see their face. It was a beautiful female girl with dark hair and a soft expression on her face.

    ¡°I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re awake! I was so worried!¡± She said, and raised me up to her before rubbing her cheek against mine.

    ¡°Huh?¡± I reacted with surprise because I was confused by what was happening.

    However, it did not take long as my mind came together, and I remembered the events that happened, my life as an orphan by being a thief on the streets before being killed by this woman and then transformed into a rabbit only to be killed again by this very same woman.

    ¡°You! You killed me!¡± I snapped at her, using my fluffy paws to push myself away to stare angrily at her.

    She blinked in surprise before looking apologetic and saying, ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that. I just lost my cool when you name called me, and I accidentally killed you without thinking,¡± and she stuck her tongue with a ¡°oops¡± expression on her face.

    This irritated me immensely, so I forcefully pushed myself out of her arms and landed gently on the ground. I checked myself for a moment to be sure that nothing was wrong with me before I turned back to face her with what I thought I was making a serious face.

    ¡°How did I become like this?! You killed me¡­ and yet¡­ I¡¯m still alive! More than that, I¡¯m now a rabbit! I¡¯m a fragging rabbit! How?! How did I become a rabbit?! I demand answers, woman!¡± I demanded her with as serious of a voice that I can must.

    The unknown woman nodded in agreement and said, ¡°Yes. You have the right to know since you¡¯ll soon be my hubby.¡±

    ¡°What? Hubby? What?!¡± I exclaimed, blinking at her in shock. ¡°What do you mean?!¡±

    She smiled and waved her hand at me to cool down before saying, ¡°Well, you stole my purse from me. A bold move, I tell you, a very bold one because I detest being touched by humans, especially if they try to take my things.

    So, I found you, and killed you on the spot because you weren¡¯t worth much. But¡­ as you died, that look you gave me¡­ and those words¡­ ah¡­!¡±

    The woman finished and placed a hand on her check while looking as if she was reminiscing something exciting. I could not clearly remember what I did before dying in front of her, but I could vividly remember that I will kill her if I got the chance.

    ¡°Is this woman crazy?¡±

    The sudden thought came to me, and I wondered what kind of woman she is, especially for me to be alive in front of her as an animal.

    I waited for her to continue, but seeing that she was fixed on whatever happened then, I coughed and asked, ¡°So? What happened next? How did I come back to life and in the body of a rabbit no less?¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± she said, coming to her senses and smiling at me. ¡°It¡¯s simple, silly. I resurrected you.¡±

    It took me a moment to realise what she just said because that¡¯s how unbelievable her words were. Yet, it was slowly making sense despite how crazy this whole thing was. The fact that I have memories of my deaths and my current predicament as a fluffy rabbit, I felt like believing her words.

    ¡°You¡­ resurrected me¡­? Does this mean¡­ that you are a¡­?¡± I asked hesitantly.

    ¡°A necromancer,¡± She finished the sentence for me while nodding in assent.

    I widened my rabbit eyes in shock at the revelation that I was brought back to life by a necromancer. My mother used to tell me stories since I was a kid, and in each of them, the necromancer is depicted as a villain that raises an army of the dead and wreaks havoc and chaos around the world. They usually work for the so-called Demon Lord with the sole purpose of destroying the world and making it anew.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ¡°I¡­ see¡­¡± I said slowly as I finally came to terms with what was going on. ¡°I¡­ became an undead¡­¡±

    This seemed to surprise the woman as she reacted in surprise with, ¡°Huh? An undead? When did you become an undead?¡±

    I looked up at her as if it was obvious and said, ¡°You, a necromancer, resurrected me from the dead. That automatically makes me an undead.¡±

    ¡°You are right that I¡¯m a necromancer, but how does that make you an undead just by resurrecting you?¡± She asked, looking quizzical.

    Her words made me feel something was off, and so I admitted, ¡°My mother always told me stories when I was younger, and in those stories, the necromancers raised the dead which are known as the undead.¡±

    ¡°Oh~!¡± She said, finally understanding my point of view and letting out a chuckle.

    ¡°What? What¡¯s so funny about becoming an undead?¡± I shot at her heatedly.

    ¡°Aww~! You are so cute~!¡± She said, suddenly getting off her feet and scooping me into her arms before I could resist. ¡°So cute~!¡±

    ¡°Unhand me, woman! Let me go! Now!¡± I demanded as I struggled against her, who began rubbing her cheek against mine affectionately for some reason.

    We were like this for a few seconds before she breathed a sigh and explained, ¡°Actually, what you learnt from those stories is not wrong. Normally, a necromancer would resurrect an undead, but in your case it¡¯s different.¡±

    ¡°Different? How?¡±

    ¡°For starters, you still retain your memories and personality,¡± she said, and I was surprised by it, ¡°unlike an undead, which is just a disposable tool without a will of its own.¡±

    ¡°That¡­ makes sense,¡± I admitted at her explanation. Then I got another question and asked her, ¡°but why resurrect me like this? What¡¯s so special about me that had you do this to me?¡±

    At my question, she moved my body around to face her and said with a smile, ¡°I¡¯ve come to like you.¡±

    I blinked in surprise at the unexpected words and asked, ¡°Huh? You¡­ like me?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Oh wait. Was it love?¡± She asked, suddenly doing a double take as she was not sure herself, which left me feeling confused. Then she shrugged her shoulders and said, ¡°Whatever it is, I just came to like you so much as you died giving me a fierce deadly look and saying that you¡¯d kill me. I swear, I got goosebumps from it, and I instantly fell head over heels for you.¡±

    ¡°Huh?!¡± I exclaimed incredulously. ¡°You¡¯re saying you came to love me as I stared you down and threatened to kill you as I died in front of you? Huh?! How can that equate to you loving that person so much?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡± She replied by shaking her head. ¡°I¡¯ve killed lots of humans that got in my way but¡­ this was the first time I got this¡­ chill! It was¡­ frightening! Yes! I was scared for the first time in my life by the words of a dying man and¡­ I just came to love that person and longed for him!¡±

    ¡°And that¡¯s how you resurrected me because you¡¯ve taken a deep liking to me,¡± I said, and she nodded with a wide smile on her face. I shook my head and sighed before asking, ¡°But why in the body of a rabbit specifically?¡±

    ¡°Because I like rabbits,¡± she replied straightforwardly.

    I was taken aback by this simply reply and asked, ¡°Wait? That¡¯s it? You put me in this body because of your liking to animals?¡±

    She shook her head this time and corrected me with, ¡°Not just any animal. A rabbit. It has to be a rabbit because rabbits are cute, cuddly, and just so adorable!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s official. This necromancer girl is whacked,¡± I thought after seeing her making cute expression, which was a contrast to the scary expression I remembered her make as she killed me.

    It was then that I noticed my anger subsiding with her as I found her odd actions to be cute and adorable. I should not be really feeling like this towards my killer, but for some reason, she just gave off a very friendly feeling, and I felt I could trust her. It had been a very long time since I trusted anyone, so this made me feel very out of place with her.

    Still, I shook my head because of her silliness and asked, ¡°You said you liked me, so wouldn¡¯t it have been better to put me back in my original body?¡±

    ¡°I did think of that,¡± she admitted to my question, ¡°but I also thought that I might kill you on the spot because of my hatred towards humans in general.¡±

    ¡°Oh. I see,¡± I replied, heaving a sigh and saying, ¡°but you still killed me just before.¡±

    ¡°Ah! T-T-That was m-my mistake!¡± She stuttered with an apparent embarrassment of her actions. ¡°I lost my cool and I¡­ I accidentally killed you, b-b-b-but¡­! You¡¯re also partially at fault! If you didn¡¯t say such mean things to me, I¡­ I wouldn¡¯t have lost my cool!¡±

    ¡°Can you blame me when I suddenly woke up thinking that I died only to find myself in the body of a rabbit with my killer trying to feed me carrots?!¡± I exclaimed furiously.

    To this, she made an embarrassed expression and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that. Really. I¡¯m really sorry.¡±

    I sniffed and looked away with irritation, and she began pleading with me in a desperate attempt for me to turn and look at her. While she did her attempts, I came to slowly like her and enjoy this feeling of being cared. If she wanted to do something bad to me, it was easy for her since I¡¯m now a helpless rabbit, but the fact that she keeps trying to win me over instead of using force goes a long way to show her caring towards me.

    ¡°I guess I can¡¯t remain angry at her forever after seeing this side of her,¡± I thought and inwardly sighed.

    ¡°Fine. You win,¡± I relented and turned to her.

    ¡°Ah! Yay~!¡± She exclaimed and pulled me into a hug that felt like I would get crushed.

    After desperately trying to breathe, I pushed her away and asked for her name.

    ¡°So, necro-girl? What¡¯s your actual name?¡±

    ¡°Necro-girl?¡± She asked with a chuckle. ¡°Is that my nickname?¡± After laughing for a moment, she smiled and told me her real name.

    ¡°My name is Irene Tunison. What¡¯s your name, My Lovey-Dovey Rabbit?¡±

    I paused for a moment in shock upon hearing such a horrid nickname and expressed, ¡°That¡¯s a stupid nickname,¡± in rejection, but she merely chuckled. Still, I smiled as I found her expression rather cute and said, ¡°I¡¯m Lark.¡±

    ¡°Lark¡­¡± she repeated with a thoughtful look on her face as if she was thinking about the name. Then she smiled and said, ¡°Great! It¡¯s a pleasure meeting you, Lark,¡± and held her hand out to me.

    I looked at the outstretched hand in bewilderment and then looked up at her, where she quickly looked like she was going to cry if I did not shake it. Leaving me with no choice, I sighed and extended my fluffy hand out, and she gripped my paw gently and shook it.

    This was how I, a resurrected human now the form of a rabbit and a necromancer who was smitten by me, began our lives together.

 [ Arc 01 ][ 13 ] Tower

    ¡°So, where are we? What is this place?¡± I asked her curiously while glancing around.

    To me, it felt like a rich place or a building in which was owned by a high official. It goes well with what she told me about her helping the empire to reap benefits from them in return. So, it makes sense that she would choose to live in a really cosy and comfortable place in the city.

    ¡°I live in a magic tower,¡± she replied with a smile while rubbing her face against my fluffy body.

    ¡°Huh?!¡± I exclaimed, feeling shocked by the unexpected words. ¡°This¡­ is a magic tower? What?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t believe me? Let me show you.¡±

    She said so and rose to her feet while carrying me in her arms. I must admit, she was gentle in holding me like one would hold their beloved pet.

    ¡°Wait! Did I just think of myself as a pet?! No! I am not a per!¡± I screamed inside my mind in shock.

    I¡¯m not a pet. I¡¯m just a human that was brought back as a rabbit because my killer seems to have taken a liking to me, but she hated humans and stuffed me into a rabbit¡¯s body instead. Seriously, I wish I can call this a dream but everything I felt so far is so real, even getting killed just earlier isn¡¯t something I can overlook.

    ¡°But I am not a pet! I am not, and she¡¯s not my owner! She¡¯s not!¡± I thought to myself desperately to try and keep my sanity.

    Just then, she said, ¡°There we go.¡±

    That¡¯s when I realised, she had come into the bedroom and stood next to the window looking out of the window. I looked through the window as well and saw a weaving path leading to the house that seemed to start from a large clump of trees.

    ¡°Is that a forest?¡± I asked her in doubt.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she verified.

    ¡°Oh okay. This is nice. Your house is located somewhere outside the forest then,¡± I praised her choice of living. ¡°A very good place to be away from all the disturbances, and we can even see when intruders come on us. A nice view.¡±

    ¡°Oh~! That¡¯s so sweet of you to say~!¡± She said happily and hugged me happily.

    I rolled my eyes at her constantly snuggling her head into my fluffy body, but I found her actions cute so I didn¡¯t mind.

    While at the window, I paid attention to the front of the house where I saw a path leading to the house. It was weaving back and forth in a slightly disorderly fashion with vases with flowers growing out of them, although they seemed to be somewhat overgrown. Still, it did not dither the nice view it gave from the window. I followed the path and saw it leading into the clump of trees. Looking left and right, I only saw trees, meaning that it probably was a forest and the house was located outside it.

    ¡°Is that a forest?¡± I asked her curiously.

    ¡°Yes,¡± she replied. ¡°The whole area in front is a heavily forested area that no amount of light gets through.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­ oddly specific,¡± I said in surprise.

    ¡°That¡¯s because the trees grow very close to each other and their tops block out the light entirely,¡± she explained while rubbing my body, which I began to like for some reason. ¡°It¡¯s a natural phenomenon around here, but I like it very because it doesn¡¯t give any intruders a way to get here.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Is that so,¡± I said while continuing to observe the place. Just then, something caught my eye to the right and asked, ¡°Hey, what¡¯s that?¡±

    ¡°Mmm? What is what?¡± She asked while leaning out of the window.

    ¡°That. Over there,¡± I said, and I pointed with my paw.

    She looked down at the direction my paw was pointing to and turned in that direction before saying, ¡°Ah. That.¡±

    ¡°Is that the ocean? It¡¯s so blue,¡± I said to her while leaning out of the window to see as well while she held me tightly so I did not fall over.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    To the right of the forest stretched an entire area covered in blue colour as if it was the ocean. Of course, I¡¯ve never been to the ocean, but I¡¯ve seen illustrations of such from the books I came across around the street. That was how I identified that large area of blueness as the ocean.

    It did not make sense though because a heavily forested area was right next to it. I presumed that there would be some kind of beach before any land is there. Yet, here is an ocean that seemed to be right next to the forest.

    ¡°Wait. Hold on a second,¡± I thought suddenly as I noticed a small detail. ¡°Is that ocean¡­ beneath the forest?¡±

    ¡°Hey¡­ Um¡­ Irene,¡± I began as I called her name for the first time.

    ¡°Kyaa~!¡± She suddenly let out a squeal and hugged me while saying, ¡°You called my name! You called my name!¡±

    She hugged me tightly and leaned back in the room to swirl around while hugging me tightly. This seemed to be her way of celebrating in happiness because of how joyous she felt just from me calling her name.

    ¡°Ah. Yeah. I did¡­!¡± I said while being swayed back and forth by her prancing around the room. Suddenly, I felt like I might lurch from the sudden movement and said quickly, ¡°S-Stop! I might get¡­ sick¡­!¡±

    ¡°Oh! Sorry!¡± She said and quickly came to a stop.

    Irene switched her hold on me and laid me on her arms while I took deep breaths as I felt my head spin a little. It took me a few minutes, I think, before the dizziness receded, and I heaved a deep sigh of relief once I felt better.

    ¡°How are you feeling?¡± She asked me with concern.

    She stood there without making a single move and held me while gently rubbing me on my tummy. It seemed that she really cared for me because I know how tiring it was to stand like a statue while holding something. So, I felt very moved by her caring and began wondering about her as a person instead of seeing her as my killer.

    ¡°I¡¯m feeling good now, thanks,¡± I told her, and she breathed a sigh in relief.

    ¡°Thank goodness,¡± she said, and brought me up to her to give me a warm hug. ¡°I¡¯m sorry for distressing you. I¡¯ll be careful in the future.¡±

    I could see the pain her face and felt her trembling slightly, which was very different to the evil aura she had let out earlier. It made me want to know her more as I began to stroke her gently with my paw.

    ¡°It¡¯s okay. We live and learn, right?¡± I asked her, and she nodded in agreement.

    A few seconds later, I got to ask my question of why the ocean seemed to be beneath the forest. It¡¯s not that just the ocean, but the forest seems to stop at a certain point to the right and all I could see was the sky.

    ¡°This is so weird,¡± I thought as none of this made sense with what I imagined the general geographic area to be like.

    ¡°Oh. You noticed that,¡± she said, looking impressed and pressed her finger to my nose.

    The pressure on my nose suddenly made me wiggle my nose, which made her make a cute sound. I felt very embarrassed at being witnessed at doing something so ridiculous, but what can I do when I¡¯m a rabbit? I just did what a human would do with their nose except with a rabbit nose for mine.

    ¡°Anyway,¡± I said as I tried to bring her back onto the subject, ¡°why is it like that?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­¡± she began and seemed to ponder on how to explain it. I remained silent and waited patiently for her to give me a proper reply, but instead she merely smiled and said, ¡°I think it¡¯s better to show you instead so you get the idea yourself.¡±

    ¡°Um¡­ Okay?¡± I said, clearly puzzled by her decision.

    She put into her arms and left the bedroom as she headed towards another entranceway. When we got there, I saw two pairs of stairs; one leading downward and another leading to the top of the house.

    We began climbing up the spiralling staircases in what seemed to be a tower. I was amazed this house had such a thing and remarked about it to Irene, but she just laughed.

    ¡°I told you, this is a magic tower.¡±

    ¡°A magic tower wouldn¡¯t be this spacious and be luxurious.¡±

    ¡°Maybe, but it¡¯s definitely a magic tower.¡±

    Irene was adamant that this was a magic tower while I clearly saw it as a house.

    We continued to debate whether this was a house or a magic tower given with what I¡¯ve seen so far for a few minutes. Along the way, there were some window holes that showed the outside. I glanced at them as we passed and saw a scenery that was unbelievable, but I assumed my perspective was wrong because of becoming an animal.

    Once we arrived at the top landing, I looked around to find that we were indeed in a tower like structure overlooking a large area. She carried me to the nearest window, and I looked out to see something that took my breath away.

    There were clouds floating way above with swarms of birds flying around, but there was nothing in the immediate vicinity. Instead, the blue ocean that I saw earlier was somewhere far, far below us. Down there, I saw the small islands scattered with large gaps of ocean as what seemed like fog drifted to obscure the view. Despite this, I could see the island and saw large mountain, but all of them felt like they did not reach us at all.

    It was as if the house was located somewhere high up and far away from the land everyone lived on. This suddenly reminded me of a story that my mother told me as a child. It was a story of a sorceress that was disliked, hated, and hunted, and the only place she could dwell in was a atop a floating castle. She lived in isolation to distance herself from all kinds of contact to live a miserable life alone.

    I glanced up at Irene and saw her looking out of the window with a lonely expression on her face. In that instant, I felt as though the story my mother read to me almost applied to her, and it made me incredibly sad.

    As a kid, I always felt saddened by the fate of the sorceress to die alone, and it felt the same could apply to Irene. Yet, judging by her expression, it felt like she was accustomed to this despite looking so young. This raised a question about her age, but I decided to ask that later and instead questioned her on our whereabouts.

    ¡°What is this place, Irene? Where exactly are we?¡±

    She looked down at me and made a sad smile before closing her eyes and saying, ¡°My prison.¡±

 [ Arc 01 ][ 14 ] Prison

    ¡°Huh?¡± I asked in surprise.

    I was being serious about being surprised when she said this place was her prison. There was no way I could take her words so lightly because of how simply she said them.

    ¡°This place is¡­ your prison?¡± I asked uncertainly.

    There was, without a shred of a doubt in my mind, that this was nothing like a prison. A beautiful house set in a secluded beautiful location outlooking a beautiful scenery. There is nothing but beauty build all over this place and yet, she called it her prison.

    I was confused to say the least. So, I waited for her give me a response.

    She took a moment before saying, ¡°Yes. You heard me correctly. This is my prison.¡±

    Again, with that prison thing when this place is nothing but! I mean, there was this news articles of some remote places located far away that were being advertised in the newspaper at the caf¨¦ that I always sit at. After getting curious about it, I asked the owner what that was about because they used some words that I simply didn¡¯t understand.

    ¡°A getaway? What¡¯s that, owner?¡±

    I threw this when he was nearby and showed him the picture on the newspaper. He took one glance at it and smiled before resuming in cleaning the benches while he answered me.

    ¡°A getaway is like place to stay for relaxation and to enjoy. Such places are usually far away from their home, which is why they¡¯re usually labelled as ¡®getaway¡¯ like in that article.¡±

    ¡°Oh. So, like a holiday place for people to visit, stay, enjoy and then return?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    His explanation made me curious, and as I read the article further, I noticed how much the so called ¡°getaway¡± would cost. I was alarmed when I saw triple digits that made me feel that I mistakenly read the wrong number. When I cleared my eyes and checked again, the number was the same.

    Feeling as though something was wrong, I asked the owner, ¡°Owner, these numbers look wrong.¡±

    ¡°No, they aren¡¯t,¡± he replied without even turning to take a glance. ¡°Those are the exact amounts that people pay to go to those places.¡±

    I was shocked at his response and glancing down, I checked the amount once more and then calculated how much that was worth if I tried to pay for it. The calculation amounted to me doing my best in thieving and saving by avoiding two meals a day.

    This instantly made me feel as though the amount shown was a rip off, and I made my opinion to the owner. I didn¡¯t fear about being honest with the owner since he was a nice guy that always answered my curiosity with his wisdom.

    ¡°They aren¡¯t being advertised for the likes of us,¡± he explained as he set the cleaning towel down and looked at me, ¡°they are aimed towards the rich, the wealthy, and those that sit above us.¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± I said shortly, realising what he meant and feeling irritated at the sight of this getaway thing.

    ¡°So, a lot of regular folks do their hardest to save money just so they could go on one of those trips and possibly hang out with the rich people. Although, I heard a rumour that none of that happens and the people just go, stay and come back very quickly since there¡¯s nothing to grab their attention.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± I exclaimed in disbelief. ¡°Isn¡¯t that a clear rip off from what¡¯s advertised?!¡±

    ¡°Yes, but what can the people do when it¡¯s the government they¡¯re up against?¡± The old man asked, and I had no reply. ¡°These advertisements are meant to draw in those with money and rob them while they focus on providing the more accurate version of the trip to the wealthy people. So, to say, the government is robbing people in the disguise of a luxury trip.¡±

    ¡°That is so cruel¡­!¡± I muttered darkly through gritted teeth and with my fists clenched tightly with frustration.

    ¡°It is what it is,¡± said the owner sadly. ¡°We are nothing but pawns to them, and the people are blind to reality because of the empire feeds them this poison called hope.¡±

    When the owner said that, he looked very sad. It made me wonder just what kind of experiences did he go through in life to make such a sad face. Still, it was a question I never posed to him because I thought it might make him remember something that he didn¡¯t want to remember.

    ¡°What is it?¡± Irene asked me suddenly while I was deep in my thoughts

    ¡°Ah?¡± I reacted with surprise since I was distracted from my thoughts. ¡°Just thinking about something similar to what I¡¯ve seen that looks a little like this place.¡±

    She blinked in surprise and asked, ¡°Oh really? What is that place?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s written as a getaway in the news articles.¡±

    ¡°Oh. Those places,¡± she said after understanding. ¡°Yes. They are designed to entrap the normal people and take their money while providing little or less than average services and facilities while providing the best to the wealthy people.¡±

    ¡°Ah. As I suspected,¡± I said as the owner¡¯s words from back then proved correct.

    Then she asked me, ¡°Are you interested in going to such places?¡±

    Her question left me feeling a little strange since I was pretty much in a place similar to those places.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t we already in such a place even though you keep calling this your prison?¡± I asked out of curiosity.

    ¡°But it is my prison,¡± she said flatly, but she smiled and said, ¡°but it makes me feel happy that you think this is a spot for vacation.¡±

    ¡°Well, it is,¡± I replied bluntly to her vehement denial of reality. That¡¯s when I got a question and asked, ¡°Why do you keep calling this your prison in the first place anyway?¡±

    As I asked, I glanced up at her and saw her blink a few times in surprise and suddenly look nervous. I didn¡¯t know what to make of her reaction, but I knew whatever it was, I knew she was unwilling to tell me about it.

    Just then, we heard a voice from behind that said, ¡°Madam.¡±

    ¡°Ah!¡± I cried out in surprise as the voice seemed to come out of the blue.

    Irene turned around while holding me and it¡¯s then that I saw a girl standing there wearing what looked like a maid uniform. I recognised the uniform because I often saw a couple of them wearing those and roaming the streets, often times carrying luggage behind what appeared to be their master.

    ¡°What is it, Dolly?¡±

    ¡°The master has arrived and is waiting for you in the hall,¡± the maid named Dolly replied politely.

    Upon hearing her words, I felt Irene suddenly become stiff for some reason. Glancing up at her face, I noticed her looking very nervous as a dark shadow was cast over her eyes. She looked down at me, and I was surprised to see the fear in her eyes for the first time since meeting her.

    ¡°Okay. I¡¯m coming,¡± replied Irene in a quiet voice.

    The maid bowed and departed by going down the stairs we used to come up. I watched her go and wondered why she was not making any sounds as she went down, which had me questioning how she had snuck up on them in the first place. But they had to wait because Irene was clearly scared because she suddenly began to hug me tightly.

    ¡°Irene?¡± I asked, feeling a little concern for this girl that appeared strong but was actually weak.

    ¡°Lark,¡± she began saying in a quiet voice, ¡°whatever happens, do nothing. Okay? Whatever happens after I enter the hall, please don¡¯t do anything. Promise?¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    ¡°What?¡± I asked in confusion. ¡°What do you mean? Promise? Why? I don¡¯t understand.¡±

    Instead of answering my question, she shook her head and asked, ¡°I¡¯ll explain later, but promise me right now that you won¡¯t do anything. Please promise me right now!¡±

    ¡°Uh¡­!¡±

    I was feeling conflicted about what to do; one part of me feels that I should help her although what help I can provide her in my rabbit body, I don¡¯t know, but the other part of me wants to do exactly what she tells me for her sake at least. I looked into her eyes and seeing her pleading expression, I grudgingly accepted and placed my paw in her hand.

    ¡°Alright. I promise.¡±

    She smiled to this and said, ¡°Thank you, Lark. Thank you so much,¡± and hugged me warmly.

    So, we descended down the stairs but instead of going straight down to where the hall was located, she placed me on a table near the entrance to her floor.

    ¡°Stay here until they are gone, okay?¡± She asked me softly.

    ¡°Uh¡­ Okay,¡± I replied meekly as I felt I didn¡¯t have much of a choice on the matter.

    Irene smiled and left the room to descend down the stairs to the hall where this ¡°master¡± was waiting for her. I waited for her, but my burning curiosity to find out who it was, made me leap off the table and land gently on the floor. Then I hopped my way to the edge of the stairway but not descent as I didn¡¯t want to break my promise to her.

    From my position, I began to hear movement as Irene seemed to have arrived at the bottom floor. I wondered at first what they were going to talk about when a loud slapping sound rang out from the bottom floor following by a dull thud as if someone fell to the floor.

    ¡°You really like to cause trouble for all of us, don¡¯t you?¡± A man¡¯s cold voice asked.

    In an instant, I knew the person that got slapped was Irene, and she fell from getting hit. It made me instantly angry at that person even before I even met him. I don¡¯t know why I felt such anger towards him, but I just did at imagining the pain she must be feeling from being hit and fallen to the floor.

    ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t understand,¡± she replied while sounding as if she was choking on her tears.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know what you did?!¡± The man demanded, rounding on her in an angry voice. ¡°I allowed you to go shopping today, but you went out wearing a dress that made you stand out and what¡¯s worse? Someone robbed you and this caused you to drew a lot of attention to yourself!¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I didn¡¯t mean for that to happen,¡± she pleaded with the man. ¡°Argh!¡±

    She cried out in pain as a scuffle occurred before there was another slapping sound before another thud sound came as she clearly fell to the floor again.

    ¡°You don¡¯t mean anything to happen, don¡¯t you?! Just like you did back then!¡± He yelled at her, his voice rising in tune with his anger. ¡°You didn¡¯t mean it when your knight got killed, you didn¡¯t mean it when your maid got raped, and you didn¡¯t mean it when your pet got butchered! Everything that happened, you didn¡¯t mean any of it!¡±

    ¡°I¡­ I really didn¡¯t mean¡ª!¡± Irene tried to plead with this unreasonable man.

    ¡°Shut up!¡± He shouted at her, and she instantly fell silent. ¡°If it weren¡¯t for you, our family wouldn¡¯t be in so much trouble and having to deal with your troubles every single day! You should¡¯ve died back then! You should¡¯ve been the one to die instead of¡­!¡±

    He left the sentence hanging as if unwilling to complete it, but he quickly seemed to recover as he said curtly, ¡°Whatever the case, I have to deal with your mess and dispose of that body that you killed. However, you are hereby banned from setting foot out of this place until I say so! Do you understand?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I understand,¡± she replied feebly.

    ¡°Hmph!¡± He breathed in a huff, and I heard sounds as if he was patting himself as if to clear the dust off of his clothes.

    I heard footsteps of him walking away before the sound of the main door opening, but before he left, he unleashed some vicious parting words at her.

    ¡°Why were you born in the first place?¡±

    With that, the door closed and there was only silence downstairs. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of someone getting to their feet before that person began to walk closer to start climbing the stairs upward. I remained in my position and watched as Irene¡¯s face emerged from around the corner as she climbed up the stairs while holding one side of her face with her hand.

    She was not looking forward but downward and didn¡¯t see me there, so I called out to her.

    ¡°Irene.¡±

    Upon me calling her name, she looked up and after seeing me there, she showed a really sad smile and asked, ¡°Lark. You promised you wouldn¡¯t do anything no matter what happened downstairs?¡±

    ¡°Yes, and like I promised, I didn¡¯t do anything,¡± I replied firmly, ¡°but you never told me that I wasn¡¯t allowed to hear what was happening, right?¡±

    My words surprised her for a brief moment before she let out a light chuckle and said, ¡°Ah. I messed up.¡± Then her smile crumbled as she asked, ¡°So, you heard everything?¡±

    As she reached my floor and knelt down to me, I extended my hand out and lightly touched my paw on the cheek that was slapped.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± I asked with concern.

    In an instant, her expression changed from being smiling to complete depression. My words acted like a trigger that opened the gates to a water fall as tears began streaming down her eyes at an unbelievable rate.

    ¡°Irene!¡± I cried out in alarm as I panicked by seeing her suddenly crying.

    A moment later, she wrapped her arms around me and brought me into a tight hug as she continued to sob into me. I didn¡¯t know what to say, so just patted her lamely on the shoulder while she continued to cry. It felt the right thing to do by letting her cry her sorrow out before she could return to normal.

    She continued to cry for a several seconds before her tears slowed until she began wiping them away. Every now and then, she sniffed to block the tears and the effect it would have in her voice as she spoke softly to me.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry that you saw witnessed such an embarrassing side of me, Lark,¡± she said finally.

    ¡°What¡¯s so embarrassing?! You were cute when you were crying!¡± I replied by giving her my honest opinion. Then I realised what I just said and quickly tried correcting myself by saying, ¡°No! I didn¡¯t mean that! I mean, you did look cute as you cried, but I didn¡¯t mean to say that you crying was good! Not at all!¡±

    As I flustered about in trying to ensure that she didn¡¯t misunderstand, she showed me a glowing smile for the first time since I met her. It was so beautiful that it was mesmerising and breathtaking, that I had to seriously ponder whether this was the person that killed me and put my soul into a rabbit.

    ¡°Have you calmed down?¡± I asked her cautiously.

    ¡°Yes. You calmed me down,¡± she replied sweetly.

    ¡°Huh? How?¡± I asked, but she simply snickered and poked my small nose with her finger.

    I quickly realised that she was playing with me, so I shook my head and asked, ¡°Since I kept my promise, would you mind answering some of my questions?¡±

    ¡°Sure, but so long as I can answer them,¡± she replied with a smile. ¡°So, what are they?¡±

    ¡°Who was that person just now?¡±

    She looked troubled for a moment before replying slowly, ¡°That¡­ was my father.¡±

    My mind was blown by the honest answer, and I exclaimed, ¡°What?! That man is your father?! Are you kidding me?!¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s the truth. He is my biological father true and true,¡± she replied after shaking her head to deny her joking about it.

    I stared at her in disbelief at this unbelievable fact and asked, ¡°I can¡¯t believe this. That guy¡­ is your father. God! He¡¯s the worst father! How could he hit you like that?!¡±

    Irene did not say anything, but she smiled softly as I expressed my concern for her. I continued to berate him by calling him whatever I could think of and even compared him to dog dung because that¡¯s how horrible he was to his daughter. Throughout it all, Irene remained calm and stroked my soft fur gently with a smile on her face.

    ¡°Honestly, what a horrible personality he has!¡± I finished by heaving a sigh. Then I looked at her and said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry for being so rude about your father, Irene, but¡­ seriously! He¡¯s the worst kind of father to have! Honest!¡±

    She didn¡¯t say anything except let out a light chuckle and continue smiling at me while stroking my fur.

    Then I asked my next question of, ¡°What did he mean by you dying instead of someone else? What was that about?¡±

    ¡°Oh,¡± she said shortly and instantly stopped stroking my fur.

    I knew I ventured into a topic that could be dangerous for me, but I was so worried about her. This girl did kill me and put my soul in this rabbit body, but she showed me great kindness afterwards and though she did kill me by accident because I made her angry, she still showed great affection for me and was very considerate towards me. That was why it made me want to help her if I could somehow.

    My question seemed to have put her in a tight spot because she was making a troubled expression on her face.

    This made her ask her, ¡°Is it something that I shouldn¡¯t know about?¡±

    ¡°No. It¡¯s not that,¡± she replied hesitantly.

    ¡°So, is it that you don¡¯t want to tell me?¡±

    ¡°Well, yes,¡± she admitted grudgingly.

    Her hesitation made me feel frustrated for a moment before I thought about something and decided to make her answer me by applying pressure to her feelings instead.

    ¡°Irene, I thought you said you loved me,¡± I said by applying to her feelings. ¡°I thought there shouldn¡¯t be any secrets between lovers.¡±

    My words made her freeze and blink a few times as if she could not believe what she just heard.

    ¡°We¡¯re¡­ lovers?¡± She asked me questioningly with a hesitant look on her face.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t we?¡± I replied instantly.

    Honestly, the feelings I have for her right now are not what I would consider love. I don¡¯t even know what love truly is, and I had long forgotten the love that I once had for my parents since its been a long time since they died. But I can safely say that I do feel inclined to be close to her and help her out through her troubles. In fact, she is very beautiful with no fault to her appearance at all to not love her, so I was not lying when I said that we¡¯re lovers from a certain perspective.

    Irene continued to stare at me as if she could not believe my words before a huge smile broke over her face. Then she hugged me tightly as if she was extremely happy to hear me say that.

    ¡°I am so happy to hear that!¡± She said happily while hugging me tightly. A moment later, she let me go and said, ¡°We need to celebrate! We need a cake! We need decoration! We need¡ª!¡±

    Her mind was racing with excitement at the prospect of her first lover, and I found it very amusing. However, I wanted my question answered and so I probed her about it.

    ¡°Okay, okay, Irene. Let¡¯s do that after you answer my question, okay?¡±

    At that, she hesitated and looked very troubled. She glanced at me, and I instantly made a dejected expression to further apply pressure to her feelings. This made her give up all resistance and plead with me to not appear so sad.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you, okay? Please don¡¯t look so sad,¡± she told me with concern, and I inwardly grinned triumphantly. She hesitated for a few more seconds before saying, ¡°This happened long ago, right after I was born.¡±

    ¡°Huh? Right after you were born?¡± I asked, surprised by this unexpected information. ¡°What happened?¡±

    She looked a little sad as she explained, ¡°On the day that I was born, the person that my father loved dearly died and I¡­ was the one responsible for it happening.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± I exclaimed in disbelief. ¡°You¡­ killed someone right after being born?! How?! How is that possible, and just who was it that died?!¡±

    At my demands, she began to fidget and say weakly, ¡°It was a curse that got trigged on my birth and the person that died¡­ was his wife¡­ who was also¡­ my dear mother.¡±