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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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“…You!”
It was a familiar voice.
And yet at the same time, it was a friendly voice.
Where is that voice coming from…?
That thought didn’t last long.
“Luna…!”
“…?”
“Luna, wake up! How long are you going to sleep! The sun has already risen!”
When Luna, still half-asleep, was forced awake while rubbing her eyes.
The person she saw was someone she shouldn’t have seen.
“M-mom…?”
A trembling voice escaped from her lips.
“Huh? What’s wrong?”
Luna was perplexed by the sight of her mother’s warm smile.
Immediately, her pupils began to shake as she looked around.
Walls and a floor made of wood.
A familiar bed in a small room, on which she was sitting.
It was a small, unimpressive room with no signs of wealth, but it was a place with the same warmth that she remembered.
‘…I was sure it was an inn.’
Her last memory was heading to the inn with Luke after finishing the request and sleeping in separate rooms.
But when she opened her eyes, she was in this situation.
While she was bewildered, the beautiful lips of the woman standing in front of her opened again.
“Oh my, look at you? Did you have a scary dream?”
“A dream…?”
Was everything that had happened really a dream…?
“What kind of nightmare would make her face look so pale…”
When the woman’s hand touched Luna’s cheek, her thumb gently caressing it, strangely, even though it was her cheek that was touched, warmth spread throughout her entire body.
Was everything a dream…?
Yeah… this is reality.
There’s no way a future where my whole family dies… is real, right?
It was just a bad dream. A really bad dream.
She believed that all the things that happened until now was a dream, and tears began to flow from her eyes.
The person she wanted to see so much, the person she thought she would never be able to see again.
Was alive and breathing right in front of her.
“Mom…”
Luna embraced the woman in front of her and began to cry, something she never showed anyone else.
“Sniff… Mom…!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay…”
Luna continued to sob in the woman’s embrace, receiving her caresses.
***
Five minutes, which felt like five hours, passed, and the woman wiped away the tears from Luna’s red eyes with her thumb.
“Are you okay now?”
“…Yes.”
“Then hurry and get up and eat. Your father and Damian are already waiting.”
Father. Damian.
That’s right…
In the nightmare, not only her mother, but also her father and younger brother, her entire family, had died.
“If you understand, you should hurry up and get up?”
“Yes…”
The woman went down first, and Luna, who had been sitting on the bed, belatedly got up and quickly changed her clothes.
As she quickly stepped on the creaking wooden stairs and went down to the first floor and entered the living room,.
Her precious family was gathered in the place she had always longed for.
Her mother was filling bowls with soup.
Her father was moving dishes filled with food onto the table.
Her younger brother was putting out spoons and chopsticks.
Luna was just staring blankly at the scene.
Then, Damian’s gaze met Luna’s.
“Ah! Sis, why are you just coming now! It’s too much to slack off alone!”
Her precious younger brother.
He was exactly as she remembered him.
She chuckled and apologized as she approached the table.
“Sorry, I overslept.”
“You’re up?”
“Yes. Father, did you sleep well?”
As she had overslept, Luna moved her feet quickly to help set the table.
Breakfast was the same as always: the meat soup made by her mother, a simple salad made with vegetables, and bread.
““Thank you for the food~””
As she took a spoonful of the steaming soup.
Luna almost burst into tears again without thinking.
It wasn’t gourmet food or exotic food, but.
As she thought that the food was made with care, and that she would never be able to eat them again.
She couldn’t say anything and moved her spoon as if she were possessed.
“Wow… Sis, were you that hungry? Do you want some of mine?”
“No, it’s okay. You eat a lot. So you can grow taller than me.”
“I was just trying to be nice and now you’re teasing me for being short?”
It wasn’t that Damian was short.
Luna was just unusually tall for a woman.
“But it’s the truth, isn’t it?”
“Huh?”
With that bickering so often seen in siblings, the table was filled with laughter, from her mother, father, and younger brother.
After they finished their pleasant meal.
Luna, along with her father and younger brother, got their hunting tools ready, put on their simple armor made of leather, and stood at the entrance.
After the two left, they said goodbye.
“We’re off!”
After the siblings said goodbye together.
“Honey, I’m off.”
“Be careful.”
The couple said their goodbyes, and the siblings left the house.
What she saw was the familiar buildings, and the people she always saw.
A nameless village, far from the Beastkin Kingdom.
It was the place where Luna’s family lived.
It wasn’t crowded with large buildings or many people, but the people were friendly, and Luna herself was fond of this village, so there was nothing she lacked.
“Yo~ Dael. You’re going hunting again today?”
The guy who lived next door.
He was a grateful person who made frequent trips to the Beastkin Kingdom by carriage, providing the village with needed supplies.
He was also a friend of her father’s, with a laid-back personality.
“Hello, sir.””
When the siblings bowed, the man smiled brightly and greeted them.
“Yeah~ Luna, Damian. Good morning~”
The siblings’ father, Dael, had a casual conversation with the man.
“Of course. If I don’t, who’s going to feed my family?”
“I see. Be careful. There are a lot of bad rumors going around lately.”
“Hehe. Who’s worrying about who?”
“That’s right, there’s nothing more funny than a porter worrying about a hunter.”
Besides them, because of the frequent interaction, there were many encounters with other people on the way out of the village as well.
“Are you going hunting again today? Here, take a lunch box in case you get hungry.”
“Dael, take some vegetables when you’re done today. It’s freshly picked vegetables.”
“Be careful. If anything happens, you have to run away. Okay?”
The aunt she had known since childhood, the grandma who lived across the road and farmed, and the uncle who guarded the entrance.
All people she had buried in the past.
They were all alive.
Luna’s smile didn’t stop.
Dael asked Luna, who was smiling brightly, her lips turned up, looking excited.
“What happened? Your smile is so bright today?”
“Hehe… I had a nightmare.”
“Oh, a nightmare…?”
“Yes!”
“Th-then…”
Dael was speechless at Luna’s bright smile after saying she had a nightmare.
He wondered if his daughter had gone strange.
“Father! Over there!”
That was when it happened. Damian’s ears perked up and he quietly pointed to one direction.
In that direction was a large bear, standing on its two feet while grabbing a tree.
“Good job.”
“Hehe…”
“Is it Damian’s turn today?”
“Yes!”
Dael’s job is a hunter.
He was the only hunter in the village, and he made his living by hunting monsters and wild animals from the forest.
Luna and Damian were helping Dael, gradually improving their skills, and they took turns hunting every other day.
Today was Damian’s turn.
Unlike his older sister, Luna, Damian was a warrior using a one-handed sword and buckler.
“Bears are stronger than weak monsters like goblins, so you have to be careful.”
“Yes, sir!”
Damian went behind the bear, hid between the bushes, and then quickly jumped behind the bear using wind magic.
*Whoosh!*
“Kueooooooo!!”
Damian’s preemptive strike landed on the bear’s back, and blood splattered everywhere.
The cutting power of the blade combined with wind magic was greater than she imagined, but a one-handed sword was not enough to cut through the bear in one go.
The wounded bear immediately turned around to retaliate, and Damian quickly evaded by using wind magic again.
“Ugh… I’m so nervous.”
“Me too. I feel like my heart is falling out.”
Damian was not much younger than Luna.
Damian may be stronger due to the nature of the male body, but Luna was always ahead when it came to controlling magic.
Luna and Dael were ready to jump in immediately, but.
Luckily, Damian managed to hunt the bear alone.
However, there was still room for improvement; Damian’s shirt was soaked with sweat, and he had used up a lot of mana by using it indiscriminately because his control of magic was still poor.
“Damian has already finished his share today.”
“How was it? I’m not worse than sis now, right?”
“Still got a long way to go.”
“Tch. Would it kill you to give me a little slack?”
After that, Luna and Damian assisted Dael in hunting, hunting in the forest for several hours.
They hunted wild animals such as boars and the occasional monsters like goblins.
After some time passed.
Dael and his children headed back to the village.
On the way back to the village.
Luna felt something unsettling, but she dismissed it as just her imagination and pushed the feeling away from her mind.
*Thud!!*
As they approached the village, they heard a loud crashing sound.
At that sound, Luna realized the reason for the unpleasant feeling.
The beginning of the incident.
The memory that she had forgotten… or rather, the memory she wanted to forget, resurfaced.
Luna let out a sigh as if possessed.
“Ah… Ah…”
Then, Dael, noticing something was happening in the village, shouted.
“Luna! Damian! I’ll go ahead first, so hide somewhere!”
After saying those words, Dael ran towards the village.
“Ah, no!”
Luna watched him and belatedly tried to follow him, but she failed because her younger brother, Damian, stopped her.
“W-wait, sis! Father told you to hide!”
“Let go! I have to go! If I don’t help, everyone will die!”
If she doesn’t go soon, everyone will die. The same tragedy will happen again.
She had foolishly indulged in a moment of happiness.
Even though she knew, she thought it was a dream and didn’t take any precautions.
She was still just a bystander.
Luna shook off Damian’s arm and ran towards the village with all her might without looking back.
The trees behind her blurred into her vision, and she began to see the village.
As if the peace from a few hours ago was the calm before the storm.
A disaster was upon them like a tidal wave.
The village was burning.
The watchmen were fighting with invaders.
Corpses were scattered everywhere.
The village, which had been covered with green and brown, was now stained red.
And at the end of her sight was a familiar figure.
Luna’s father, Dael.
Dael’s opponent was an intruder holding her mother hostage.
Her mother had a blade at her throat.
Even Dael, who was stronger than Luna, was helpless.
A familiar scene, a scene she wanted to forget but couldn’t, resurfaced again.
The next scene was a series of memories as if they were all part of a play.
“Luna…”
Dael, who had turned around, looked at Luna, his gaze full of love and sadness.
That gaze, which she had seen once before and never wanted to see again.
It was being recreated again.
“Run away…”
That was Dael’s last line on this stage.
Dael, who surrendered to protect his family, was brutally murdered by the invaders’ swords before Luna’s eyes.
Not only that.
Luna’s mother, Runa, was murdered for being too old and unable to be sold as a slave.
‘Why can’t I move!!!! Why!!!!!!!’
Why can’t she move even though she’s watching them die right in front of her?!
Is it because this is a play with a set ending?
Is she one of the puppets on the stage?
Either way, there was nothing Luna could do.
“Sis…”
The voice from behind Luna was the last piece of this stage.
Luna turned around with a creak and saw Damian, his face smashed on the ground, being bound by several men.
“Damian!”
It must have been written in the script that she called out to her younger brother.
And then.
“Oh? She’s pretty. She’ll sell for a lot.”
The man, assumed to be the leader of the invaders, appeared and spoke his lines.
She could fight if she wanted to.
But she couldn’t weigh her brother’s life against those trash’s lives.
In the end, Luna was unable to do anything and could only put on the shackles.
But was that a mistake?
“What about this one?”
“Hm? A male beastkin? Our clients are mostly men, so who would buy him? He’s just baggage, just kill him.”
“Understood.”
The intruder’s sharp blade touched Damian’s neck.
“Sis!”
“Damian!! Damian!!!!!!”
Please don’t do it, I’ll do anything, please just use me as a slave.
She pleaded desperately.
-Slash!
“Ah… Aaaaaaa…”
The ending of this stage would not change.
Why did she have to go through this?
Why did they do this?
She didn’t try to understand.
She was just furious.
“What did we do wrong!!”
Why did they torment us like this when we were living so happily?
They were all kind and good people.
They, who were in the past tense, were no longer in this world.
Because everyone except for her had died.
Now, the play was over.
In the center of the burning town, as if time had stopped, Luna was sitting alone.
An familiar voice echoed in Luna’s ear.
-Why are you just sitting there? Hurry up and get up to take revenge for us…….
-Sis… It hurts… make those people feel the same…
-Luna, avenge your family. Don’t forgive those filthy humans.
Even though she felt like giving up everything.
In an instant, she was filled with disgust and gritted her teeth.
“…Don’t make fun of my family.”
Even through the relentless waves of nausea.
The only clear thought she had was:
Her family wouldn’t say such things.
Who are you to make my family into vengeful beings?
She’s never heard of a nightmare so vivid.
Someone must have deliberately caused this.
Whoever it was, if she woke up from this nightmare, she’d surely kill them.
Luna’s nails dug into her skin as she clenched her fist until it bled.
Then, cracks began to appear in her vision one by one.
Not long after, she heard the sound of something breaking.
***
When Luna opened her eyes, she was on the bed of the inn from her last memory.
The memory was so strong that the memories of her nightmare followed her into reality, tormenting her.
It would have been better if it was just a dream that she couldn’t remember.
“……”
Her listless eyes landed on a pair of daggers on the side table.
Luna, determined to get her revenge as she had wished, picked up the swords and left the room.
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