Ch.8Monumental Day (2)

Why are humans so fragile?

I first realized this when I was five years old.

While playing ball with my nanny, I kicked the ball with all my might and shattered one of her ribs.

“AAAAHHHH!”

“Head maid, are you alright?!”

“A doctor! Someone quickly call a doctor!”

It was shocking.

My hands and feet trembled.

Above all, my heart ached.

I certainly didn’t kick the ball with that intention. I never meant to make blood flow from my nanny’s mouth.

My nanny was such a good person.

And yet, even though I was the one who hurt her, she apologized to me, saying she was fine while looking at my startled face.

From that moment, I had no choice but to realize that I was special, and at the same time, different from others.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry, nanny…”

My mother is an extraordinary person.

A hero admired by everyone in the world.

Strong, cool, and even kind—I desperately wanted to follow in her footsteps.

But unlike my mother who shone among people, I couldn’t even take care of a single person close to me.

Instead, I hurt them.

That’s not at all befitting of the Okami family’s princess.

Above all, I couldn’t stand myself.

So whenever I had the chance, I swung my wooden sword again and again and again.

To control my strength that was different from others.

To ensure I would never carelessly harm those around me again.

“Hasn’t the princess become much quieter lately?”

“That’s right… it seems like she’s avoiding us too.”

I am different from others.

That’s why I shouldn’t mingle with them.

If I did, I would only end up hurting them again.

It was about time for me to go to “school,” but I absolutely didn’t want to go.

If I, who could easily break even ordinary adults, were to mingle with ordinary children my age…

I was afraid of what would happen if I thought I had become friends with someone, reached out my hand carelessly, and broke them like I did with my nanny. I was terrified of how that friend would look at me.

Therefore.

Come to me.

I will give you power.

Awaken me now.

Ever since I realized I was different from others, a mysterious, unsettling voice began to reach me.

Was it some kind of fantasy my mind conjured up to represent my weak heart?

I pushed my body to exhaustion through training.

And just before I would pass out, I would always hear these whispers.

As if asking me to release it.

As if promising to give me a reward in return.

Though it kept making sweet offers, for four years I simply shook my head at that voice.

“Those who don’t make an effort…”

“Don’t deserve to eat!”

Words my mother always used to say.

There are no results without effort.

If you don’t want to be overtaken by a hardworking fool, become a hardworking genius.

Following those words, despite all kinds of auditory hallucinations and loneliness, I endured and continued to improve, believing that this was how I had to live because this was how I was born.

One day.

When I turned nine, my mother brought a boy to me, saying he would be my playmate.

‘Wow… a boy…’

Perhaps it’s because I’ve lived in the mansion all this time.

I had seen “adult men” in the mansion occasionally preparing food or wearing aprons while washing dishes.

But this was the first time in my life I had seen a boy my age.

Moreover.

Thump, thump, thump.

The “good smell” that stimulated my fox-person’s nose, and his sensitivity to follow along with all the games girls play despite being a boy.

‘T-this is strange… I shouldn’t be playing…?’

Didn’t I promise myself that I would only come to the playroom for one hour a week?

What happened to the vow I had kept since childhood—to quickly control my power and become a great hero like my mother?

But even if I wanted to stop playing now and return to my usual routine…

“Miss, catch!”

“Okay!”

Kang Jang-hoon.

Playing with Jang-hoon had become too much fun.

‘This joy is too great to refuse…!’

If I get too excited and kick the ball with all my strength, I might burst some part of Jang-hoon’s body.

What is this?

This “joy”?

My body was getting hotter and hotter.

‘…Maybe it’s okay to mingle now?’

Come to think of it, I had never tried it before.

Whenever I thought about mingling with someone, that unsettling voice in my head would approach and tell me I would end up hurting others.

So I had been unconsciously avoiding it, but thanks to this boy who kept following me despite my avoidance, I gained enough courage.

It’s enjoyable.

It’s fun.

And I want to be with him.

“Heh, hehehe…”

Before I knew it, I was able to have more conversations with my nanny to take care of Jang-hoon, and it felt like I had returned to how things used to be.

So, maybe I could finally rest now?

…As if.

“Cough…”

“You just knocked her out, right?”

“Of course, do you know how much this little princess is worth? Let’s take her and sell her on the black market.”

The price paid by someone different who tried to be like everyone else.

Was it because I had reduced my training lately?

Or was it because I was distracted, wrapped up in happy feelings?

The fox bloodline of the Okami family.

When I collapsed onto the grass, unable to properly fight against the assassins who had targeted me…

See, I told you, didn’t I?

You can never be happy like others.

Assassins trying to stuff me into a sack.

Hearing that unsettling voice in my head, just when I thought I might be able to smile again…

The thought that I would once again cause trouble for others.

If you leave them be, they will harm those around you.

Tell me you’ll set me free.

Then I’ll at least spare that boy you like.

No matter what happens to this body.

Because I never want to see the people around me get hurt because of me again.

‘Alright…’

Just before losing consciousness.

Hoshino was finally about to reach for the devil’s curse that had always whispered to her.

“Grrrr…”

?!

The figure before my eyes.

“W-what is that?!”

“A m-monster… a monster?”

A monster wearing a dark red bone mask, with brilliant golden hair fluttering.

It must be a monster.

Sniff, sniff.

Somehow, far from feeling bad, I was reassured by his scent that smelled good, until I fell asleep.

Hurry and release my seal…!

“…Zzz.”

***

Hoshino being carelessly stuffed into a sack.

The moment I saw the young lady, it was instinct, you could say.

I felt like I could become a monster once again.

“RAAAH!”

So I shouted with all my might.

Hissss.

Black smoke really poured out from my body, and in an instant, I grew taller, becoming the monster of Y City with black flesh fluttering like a cape.

I returned to the form I had when I defeated the Monster of Violence.

“Grrrrrr…”

“A monster?!”

“No, a monster appearing in the middle of the city… and within the Okami family’s territory?”

“…Could it be some kind of monster contracted with this territory?”

A monster contracted with the territory.

Well, I did make a 100KG pure gold contract with the head of the family, so it’s not entirely wrong.

Anyway, these rat-like people who had somehow infiltrated the Okami family, pretending to be maids.

I looked at the three people before me, wondering what to do with them.

“In this case, we must eliminate it.”

“…!”

“Yes, understood.”

Without time to think.

They were the ones who started charging toward me first.

‘Oh, they’re fast?’

Well, they couldn’t compare to the Monster of Violence, but still, this was quite fast.

In the blink of an eye, one aimed for the top of my head, another for the center of my abdomen, and the last one for my groin, quickly landing behind me after their kicks.

And now the “blood” starting to flow from my nose.

‘I’m bleeding from just one attack…?’

Well, thinking about it, these were assassins who came to kidnap the only princess of the still-thriving Okami family.

Even in the original story, Hoshino was a “beast-person,” making her highly sought after in the underworld’s slave markets and research facilities.

Such incidents were frequent even in the future when she became an S-class hero, let alone now when her family’s influence was still alive.

‘They must be confident in their skills.’

But still.

To make me bleed when even the Monster of Violence couldn’t wound this body.

Their attacks were so precise that I didn’t even feel the sensation of “pain.”

Yes, as if I was shedding someone else’s blood instead.

“Urgh…”

“Ugh!”

“AAAAARGH?!”

Uh…

Let me correct myself.

It wasn’t like shedding someone else’s blood—it seems it wasn’t my blood to begin with.

Clearly, they were the ones who hit me.

When I turned around, there were no coolly landed assassins.

Instead, the three assassins who had kicked my body were each rolling on the ground in agony, with one of their legs severed.

“Grrrr…”

‘Wow, a blood fountain show…’

This is rather awkward.

I didn’t even touch them, yet they self-destructed on their own.

I wonder if my mind has also become somewhat monstrous along with my body.

In the past, I would have fainted immediately just seeing such a bloody scene.

Now, I felt nothing special even looking at three people with severed legs.

Well, that doesn’t mean I would be unresponsive if I actually killed someone like a real monster.

“Grr. Grr.”

‘Well, I should stop the bleeding first and then knock them out, right?’

Crack.

Crack, crack.

First, let me stretch my hands a bit.

“Eek?!”

“Oh, it’s coming…!”

“!!”

Maybe it’s because it’s my first time trying to knock someone out.

I’m a bit nervous.

No, before that, I was deeply thinking about how to stop the bleeding from those severed legs.

“Urgh!”

But why are they acting like that again?

“W-we are humans!”

“That’s right!”

“Yes!”

“…?”

Uh, I know that.

The three assassins glared at me with determined eyes while saying something very obvious.

“We will die with honor as humans until the end!”

“Yes!”

“We won’t be defiled by you!”

They kept rambling on about something, and then…

Crunch.

“Grr?”

‘Eh?’

I never intended to kill them in the first place?

As if solving my dilemma for me, they bit their own tongues.

Looking at them who had recklessly attacked and then committed suicide for reasons I didn’t understand…

“……”

After carefully placing the princess who had been in the sack away from those corpses…

Whoosh.

I returned to human form amidst white smoke, and during that time, I also lay down, creating a “perfect crime scene” where “3 people died and 2 people fainted” because of the monster.

“Well, I did get hit too… so it’s not a lie, right?”