Chapter 4
Squeak, whimper, squeak!
The little rabbit, its ears gripped in the man’s rough hands, was struggling desperately to live, blood dripping steadily. When Prina met his gaze—so unnaturally sharp it was almost bizarre—she froze on the spot.
The man was frighteningly beautiful. He was tall and well-built, and even felt somehow detached, as if he didn’t belong to this world.
The first thing that caught her eye was his hair, as black as ebony. The same color as Prina’s. Unlike her, who always kept her hair carefully hidden under a veil, he didn’t seem to care about hiding his at all, not even wearing a hat.
His eyes, dark as unfathomable night, seemed both full of something and completely empty at the same time. The bright yellow irises shone quietly, like those of a beast.
As Prina’s trembling gaze traveled down from his nose to his lips, the corners of his mouth slowly curved.
The man smiled.
…Why is he smiling?
Even looking again, it was unmistakably a smile.
Could a person really smile like that? It was a dangerous smile, one that seemed capable of enchanting you or taking your life right then and there. She needed to get out of here immediately. A strange sense of urgency made her toes tingle.
“…Please let it go.”
But the first words that left her mouth came out as if she was enchanted. Seeing the rabbit’s eyes, wide with fear and pain as it struggled, she simply couldn’t pretend not to notice.
“Why are you tormenting a poor creature like this?”
She hadn’t meant to confront him. The words just burst out, like a protest born from seeing the rabbit’s pitiful eyes.
It’s such a weak animal. And now it’s even injured. To be gripped so roughly by such large hands… Wasn’t that far too cruel? That vague sense of indignation seemed to overpower her fear of the stranger.
“Just because.”
“…What?”
The man’s answer was somehow chilling. She couldn’t believe what she’d heard and asked again, but he remained completely unperturbed.
“This is my job.”
“……”
This is his job? Tormenting a dying, helpless animal?
“Do you really need some grand reason to do something like this?”
He was unashamed.
Seeing the raw, unfiltered hostility in his eyes, Prina’s anxiety only deepened.
If she didn’t do something right away, the fragile life flickering like a candle in the wind… seemed as though it might be snuffed out at any moment. No matter how small and weak, nothing deserves to die by another’s hand before its time.
“…P-Please stop!”
Prina’s voice trembled.
She had never acted like this before. She didn’t know where she’d found the courage, but her voice came out louder than she expected.
“The rabbit is suffering. It’s badly hurt… At this rate, it’ll die soon. Please, let it go.”
“Why should I?”
The man’s gaze was calm as a lake. For someone behaving so ruthlessly, his voice was chillingly indifferent, as if he were simply asking a curious question.
Why should he? That’s… obvious.
It goes without saying that you shouldn’t torment the weak, that you should pity the dying.
Faced with an unexpected question, it was actually Prina who found herself at a loss for words.
Meanwhile, the man continued nonchalantly.
“Everything that breathes dies anyway. Especially things as weak as this. They’re meant to be trampled.”
“……”
It was true, as he said, that all living things eventually die. But even so, no creature is born with the purpose of dying.
Even if everything that breathes will die someday, until that breath ceases, all living things are the same.
Struggling desperately to survive, no matter what. This was the nature of all living things. And helping them was what Prina did every day.
“Still…”
She couldn’t just accept his words as they were. Prina clenched her trembling fists tightly.
“…No one is born just to die.”
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