CH 6

At that moment, I imagined that Victor had bad intentions, but then when I thought about it, there was no reason for him to do so. I had already shown him the difference in skill levels we had, so he would know not to go against me.

”Why did you just lock the door?”

Still, I decided to ask and find out.

“I tried to be careful, but I guess it’s because you are a bunny? You have a nice hearing.”

Victor brought two wooden chairs with an awkward face, set them facing each other, and then sat on one of them.

“Shall we sit and talk?”

“I came here to rest, what do you mean talk?”

My eyes were focused on the bed. With permission, I could fall asleep any moment on that bed.

“Tell me the real reason why you are here.”

I tilted my head at his statement.

“What reason? You guys are the ones who brought me here.”

Victor let out a long sigh.

“I still don’t believe that you caught that boar. But about that move earlier. I have fought in wars, but have never seen such a movement. If you had decided to, you could have killed me right there.”

“Well, that’s a given.”

I always got happy from words that complimented my skills, but I crossed my arms to act as if I didn’t feel anything.

“Your ears are flapping right now.”

Victor let out a senseless laugh.

“Cough cough.”

As Victor had said, my ears were not in accordance with my words. I think I should practice controlling my ears later.

“Enough with jokes. There is no way that a skilled person like you would suddenly come to our village without a plan. Tell me the truth. The people from your village sent you on a mission, right?”

Victor must be thinking that people from Rabbit Hole sent me.

“No?”

It was definitely not the truth, so I shook my head.

“Are you sure? I thought you were here to talk about border issues or to give us a notice.”

Victor made a surprised face.

“I am just venturing out.”

“An adventure?”

“Yes. I am headed towards the city in which people reside.”

“Why there?”

I shrugged my shoulders at his question.

“Well, that’s because human cities are the biggest and the greatest!”

Victor sighed at my response.

“We are here because city life does not suit us, but it’s not as great of a place as you would think.”

Victor looked at me with a serious expression, as if he were giving advice to a woman heading out alone to a no-travel zone.

“Especially for dual specimens like you. There will be too many people with bad intentions out to get you. I think that it is best that you return to your city.”

He was way too serious that I let out a laugh, and I almost fell on the floor from laughing hysterically.

“What’s so funny? I was giving you advice for you to take it seriously.”

Swiping my tears from his complaint, I tried my best to hold onto my laugh.

“Although I really appreciate your concern,”

I slightly pressed on the rapier on my waist to tilt it a little.

“If I were scared of those things in the first place, I would have never become a swordsman!”

These words were all what others said when I first told them that I will become a swordsman. Well, except for the part about dual specimens, but the part on danger. To give up the way of the sword and to get my father’s subsidiary company, blacksmith work. I was used to such words of advice.

Well, as per their warning, I ended up dying…well, I became a character inside a novel without a clue of whether or not I was still alive. People were right, but hearing the same words in this place led me to laugh helplessly.

“Oh well. If you were a bunny who would go back because I told you to, you wouldn’t have gotten out of your village from the start.”

Victor got up from his chair and looked outside the window.

“The festival seems to be almost ready. I’m gonna head out and help them, what would you like to do?”

My task was already decided.

“It’s okay for me to lie down a bit, right?”

I laid right onto the bed that I had been eyeing. I thought the bed would be as stiff as the person Victor was, but it was surprisingly fluffy and pleasant.

“If you like my bed, you can stay there. I will come wake you up when we are done getting ready.”

Victor opened the door, then headed out.

“Hawwwwwww”

I stretched out until my back was arched like a bridge, which let out a big yawn by default.

“Isn’t the human world a pretty good place to live?”

I thought that the world had nothing bad until then.

I was tossing and turning in bed until Victor came.

“Aris!”

Around sunset, Victor rushed inside.

“Is it done? Is the food ready?”

I was so hungry that if I could, my eyes could have lit up.

“Yes. It is ready, at the least.”

Victor did not have a positive expression.

“What’s wrong? Is something wrong with the food?”

When I looked at him with a worried face, Victor shook his head.

“No, but I was wondering if you had the means to stay inside for a while? I will bring the food over.”

Victor asked me not to come to the festival all of a sudden.

“Why?”

“Well, the situation is not that great right now.”

Suddenly? Why not?

It was that moment.

“Victor! What are you doing up here? Come out and have a drink!”

An unfamiliar voice. But the loud ringing was not that of a voice of a person who would reside in this village.

“Why today, out of all the days.”

Victor let out a sigh.

“Keep yourself hidden here. Just act as if you don’t exist, got it?”

I tilted my head in confusion.

“Why?”

“Just, you don’t need to know why. It’s nothing good to find out, anyway.”

I had no idea what was going on, maybe something bad had happened on top of the festival? But since he asked so sternly, I just replied okay.

“Yes, when that guy leaves, let’s have the real festival begin. You just wait here.”

Victor headed out alone.

“What’s going on?”

I checked outside the window out of curiosity. The sun had already set, so there were torches lit around homes, and a large campfire was in the middle of the village.

There should have been a lot of energy of people having a party, but the villagers were standing stiff and still, looking at the people in the middle.

“What’s going on? I thought they were going to celebrate!”

Luckily with my large ears, I could hear the conversation even at a distance.

“Lucky me to have come on a festival day! What’s wrong, everyone? Why are you all so frozen?”

The man standing in the middle had a gruesome scar on his cheek, and was armed with iron armor and wielding a sword like a knight. So, ordinary villagers wouldn’t be able to act recklessly around him.

But the condition of his armor, his diction, expression, face, were all not-so-knightly. He rather appeared as a bandit dressed in a knight’s outfit. That must be right, since a knight would not come into this kind of a village all alone.

“You country people don’t know how to party! Diana! Come here and pour me a drink!”

After drinking alone, he grabbed onto the wrist of the woman next to him.

“Kyahhhhh!”

The young lady with the name Diana screamed. No one was helping her.

“Please stop.”

Only Victor, walked up to them, and grabbed Diana away from the knight.

“Oh, Victor! I was waiting for you! The other guys are not even drinking, or singing. Do you know how bored I was?”

The knight kept laughing, as if he was on a ride.

“Yes, Victor! Why don’t you sing a song for us?”

“No thanks, knight sir. Diana, please bring over some food.”

Victor gave Diana an errand, as if he were helping her escape the situation, and she got out of there as if she were running away.

“Hmph, so no song, no lady. Victor, do you think I’m a joke?”

The knight glared at Victor, but Victor turned his head down without any expression.

“I apologize, sir knight.”

The knight tapped Victor, like he was having fun.

“It’s a joke, Victor! Why so stiff? We are friends!”

Victor did not laugh.

“So, for what reason did you visit today?”

“Yes, take a seat here. I came to collect the protection fees.”

Then the knight mentioned collecting money, which must have been his original intention.

“Didn’t you get them before?”

Victor sat in front of the knight letting out a sigh.

“Last time? When? My subordinates never brought me anything.”

The knight was still fooling around. He was probably lying.

“But…”

“So you are saying that I am pretending to never have gotten it?”

The knight screamed loudly, and Victor shook his head.

“No, you wouldn’t do that, right?”

“Good. You still spoke about it knowing me. I will take three times the original amount since you offended me.”

The villagers murmured. I wasn’t sure of the exact amount, but it must definitely be an amount that the village could not afford.

“We cannot come up with an amount all the sudden.”

Victor was in a tough spot.

“Is that so? Then, how about this?”

The knight let out a sly smile.

“This place has a lot of young women compared to its size. If you can’t pay, I would like the ladies to come over to our hideout and do some work for us.”

The knight had his gaze fixed on Diana, who was bringing over the food. Her hands were shaking. 

“That will never happen. I will pretend to have never heard that.” 

Victor refused, of course. What kind of a sane person would accept that kind of offer?

Crack!

At that instant, Victor fell to the floor, and there were broken glass shards scattered around him. 

“M..mayor!”

“Mayor!”

The villagers around were freaking out, and some angry villagers seemed ready to stand up for him, but Victor shook his hands on the ground to stop them. 

“Victor, all you have been saying since earlier is no after another and another!”

The knight, as if the liquor bottle wasn’t enough, he took out his sword and then pointed towards Victor.

“Decide now! Pay now or supply the women!”

When things were steaming up,

“There is that girl inside Victor’s house, no?”

The middle-aged man who didn’t like me earlier mentioned me.

“Come on, man!”

“Shhhhh!”

The villagers were making upset or frowning faces, but

“Instead of sacrificing innocent villagers, it’s better for that dual specimen to go instead!”

The man was adamant.

“That girl who?”

The knight seemed interested.

“She’s a traveler who is only staying for a little while. She has nothing to do with us!”

Victor, who couldn’t even stand still, tried his best to protect me until the end. He is a good man.

“Is that so? What a pity, to have come to the village at such a time”

The knight looked at Victor, laughing like a hyena.

“So, I heard the word dual specimen?”

“No, you heard wrong!”

Victor took it back right away, but

“A rabbit! A walking rabbit girl!”

The middle aged man again helped to explain to the knight.

“A bunny girl? Not bad, if she’s real? I have only heard of such species.”

“I beg of you, please let her out of this..”

Kick!

The knight kicked Victor.

“You have been bothering me all night. I will take care of you later, just stay like that.”

The knight spit at Victor then looked at the middle aged man.

“You, there. From today, you are the mayor of the village.”

“M..me?”

The middle aged man had a smile from ear to ear. 

“So bring that bunny girl over.”

The knight ordered the man, and 

“Me?!”

He freaked out.

“Yes, you said it yourself. Bring her this instant. I will not let you off easily if you lied to me.”

“Yes, I will do so!”

The man, ignoring the cold glares coming from others, was walking over to the mayor’s house.

“So, this is how the trouble begins.”

This world might be more challenging than what I initially gave credit for.

I stood in front of the door. And waited for the man to enter.

Creak.

“Rabbit lady, the party is at its peak, why don’t you come out and take a look?”

The man, thinking that I had no idea what was going on, approached me with an innocent smile. 

Crush!

“Ahhhhh!”

“Get rid of that disgusting smile of yours.”

I kicked the man in his balls, and his face turned to just the way I like to see it.

“You wait there, holding your broken egg shells, reflecting on what you did wrong. That you don’t deserve those eggs, you pathetic mortal.”

I grabbed my rapier and headed out, putting the man struggling on the floor behind me.