While my thoughts were still tangled up in everything that had just happened, sothing felt... off. The forest had gone quiet in that strange way that didn’t feel peaceful at all. And then we noticed it.
It wasn’t just one rabbit that had appeared.
Shapes moved between the trees. One, then two, then more—small figures slipping through the undergrowth, their red eyes catching the light as they stared at us. My chest tightened when I realized how many there were. They were surrounding us, slowly but surely, as if they had been waiting for this mont.
"Oh, looks like you’re not the only one who gets to have fun, Sakai," Amakawa-kun said casually, almost like he was comnting on the weather. He reached for his sword, his fingers wrapping around the hilt without hesitation. "Co on, boys. Let’s massacre these rabbits!"
The word massacre echoed unpleasantly in my head.
The way the boys reacted unsettled . There was no hesitation. No pause. No second thought. They moved as if this was just another task, another enemy to cut down. Seeing that lack of hesitation, that eagerness even, made my stomach twist. It honestly sickened .
And yet, despite how awful it felt, my body refused to move. My legs felt heavy, like they were rooted to the ground. My thoughts were scattered, colliding with each other, but none of them ford into anything useful. I couldn’t even think of an alternative. I couldn’t imagine myself stepping forward again.
"Co on, stand up," Kaori said softly beside . She grabbed my arm, her grip firm but gentle, and helped pull to my feet. I was still reeling from everything—the sensation of the blade cutting through flesh, the resistance, the warmth. The undeniable truth that I had killed sothing for the first ti in my life.
My head felt light, my ears ringing faintly. But there was no ti to stop and process it. No ti to breathe. We were under attack.
The girls couldn’t really do anything. All we could do was stand there, helpless, watching as the boys charged forward. Steel clashed, bodies fell, and the forest filled with the sounds of combat. There were so many rabbits—far more than I had expected—but the boys handled them with frightening efficiency. One by one, the rabbits fell, their small bodies hitting the ground with dull thuds.
Eventually, it was over.
The forest grew quiet again, but this ti it wasn’t peaceful. It was heavy. The air felt thick, saturated with the tallic sll of blood.
Before I could fully register what had happened, ti seed to slip by. The sun shifted in the sky, and soon it was afternoon. We were instructed to head back to camp.
As we walked, I couldn’t shake the hollow feeling in my chest. I felt like I hadn’t really done anything. I fought one rabbit—that was it. Just one. After that, the boys took over and handled everything. It was like my role in the whole situation barely mattered.
Later, I heard soone ntion their na.
Demon rabbits.
I almost laughed when I first heard it, but no sound ca out. I couldn’t believe that sothing that looked so harmless, so cute, could actually kill people. That those creatures were man-eating monsters. The realization hit harder than I expected. They looked like sothing you’d see hopping around in a field, not sothing that would tear a person apart.
And yet... they had tried to kill .
I told myself I should rationalize it. That it was just an unfortunate happenstance. That I had no choice. It was either I died, or I killed it. That was the reality of the situation. And I had chosen to live. I had killed it. Without rcy.
Still, knowing that didn’t make it any easier.
The fact that I had taken a life—monster or not—clung to like a weight pressing down on my chest. I had never killed anything before. Not an animal. And now I couldn’t stop replaying it in my head.
The sll of blood was still there. It felt like it was sared across my face, stuck to my skin no matter how much ti passed. I could almost feel its warmth lingering, as if it refused to fade away. My stomach churned violently. My head spun. I felt like I was going to throw up at any mont.
And those rabbits... they were considered weak. Common monsters. Sothing even an ordinary villager could defeat.
Which ant only one thing.
It could get worse.
A lot worse.
What kind of monsters would I see next? What kind of things would I be forced to kill just to survive in this world? Would the next thing I co across be a mutilated corpse? Or worse—would it be one of my classmates lying there, motionless?
Fear crept into my chest, cold and suffocating. I wanted to go ho. I really did. More than anything. But I couldn’t. Not now. At this point, I had no choice but to keep going. If I didn’t, I would just beco a burden. Dead weight. Soone who stood behind while everyone else fought desperately to survive and find a way back.
As if things weren’t already bad enough, I soon learned that the rabbits we killed weren’t going to be wasted.
They were going to be our dinner.
Seeing chunks of at being carved and cooked made my stomach twist even tighter. The sll alone was enough to make my head spin. It filled the camp, rich and heavy with the sll and it was impossible to ignore. My ntal state spiraled further and further downward.
When the food was finally done and served to us by the magic knights, all I could do was stare at it. The at sat there on the plate, steaming softly, looking completely different from the creature it once was—and yet, I couldn’t separate the two in my mind.
And then my body reacted before I could stop it.
"Mmghh...!"
I clamped a hand over my mouth and shot up from my seat, my chair scraping loudly against the ground. I barely made it behind one of the tents before everything ca rushing out.
I vomited until there was nothing left. My stomach was already empty, which only made it worse—nothing but bitter liquid spilling out as my body shook. My head pounded, my vision blurring at the edges.
While I was still hunched over, trying to catch my breath, I felt soone behind .
"Saika-san? Are you okay?" a familiar voice asked.
I turned slightly. It was Hasegawa-sensei.
"I’m fine, sensei," I said, forcing a weak smile. "I just... don’t really have an appetite."
"W-Well, that’s understandable," she replied hesitantly. "I don’t... really feel like eating that either..."
I let out a quiet breath. It was oddly comforting to know I wasn’t the only one feeling this way. Maybe it was strange that we couldn’t bring ourselves to eat it. People in this world lived off at. Hunting and eating monsters was normal for them. But for us, it still felt wrong.
As I was thinking that, a small, unmistakable growl ca from sensei’s stomach.
"Heheh...~" She smiled shyly, rubbing her cheek. "Even if I don’t want to eat it, I don’t really have the option of skipping als for an entire day," she said softly. "I heard Miss Shredica has so fruit stored in her tent. Why don’t we ask her if we can have those instead?"
I nodded slowly. That sounded like the best option right now.
"Alright," I said, smiling at her. "Lead the way, sensei."
And with that, we started walking.
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