I couldn’t bear to stay around that room any longer.

  While I felt sorry for leaving so abruptly, I made one or two vague excuses to the kuma (bearkin) and then promptly rushed for the door. I felt nauseous to my stomach, and I felt like I would throw up if spent any more time learning about the kind of horrible life that the sves had been living in the background.

  I was afraid to hear any more.

  And to be totally honest, I didn’t want to know.

  It was a really ugly and shameful thing about my innermost thoughts. Hanamarie had lived in this society for four years, but I had never gone and looked underneath the bed where the worst skeletons and spiderwebs id. And it wasn’t like I didn’t know that it was bad— I always knew (from a rational perspective) that the sves did not have a good life — but I never spoke about it and I actively avoided thinking about it because it never affected me directly.

  It was much like how people on Earth might wave fgs on social media in support of Ukraine or Palestine, but there were equally as many people who who dismissed it entirely because it wasn’t happening in front of them.

  Separated by distance, people had the luxury to forget about something horrible, or apply the mental gymnastics that they weren’t at fault even though their action (or inaction), tax dolrs, and votes (or non-votes) were directly contributing and funding an engine of suffering that was hurting an unfathomable number of people. It was a form of structural and systemic oppression. We liked to bme the system, but very few people acknowledged that they were part of it, that we benefited from it, or that our tacit acceptance continued to perpetuate it.

  Hana never considered herself to be a radical abolitionist.

  At best, she would say that she thought ‘svery is pretty bad’, but then do nothing else about it.

  Weren’t there too many problems in life to worry about others before yourself?

  + + +

  My vision was hot and blurry, and I didn’t know exactly where I was going.

  I wanted to escape from everything, but I didn’t even know where I could possibly go.

  At one point, I crossed paths with Stel in the hallway, but I didn’t stop. She called after me, saying that she needed to talk with me, but I ran away. I couldn’t have a conversation with her right now. I didn’t have the excess emotional bandwidth to process anything else, and my old friends were the st people I wanted to see right now.

  I couldn’t look into their eyes without breaking down.

  I just wanted to keep going… somewhere.

  Anywhere.

  I felt like if I stopped, reality would catch up with me again.

  Fortunately, there weren’t any locks on any of the doors that I passed through.

  Based on the little that I knew, the Obedience Crest was theoretically sufficient to keep sves out of pces they weren’t supposed to be. That being said, Kang Jiesu evidently had not configured mine yet, so I could still pass through a majority of the corridors in the Royal Pace. On the default settings, I’d surely hit the limit on the maximum distance I was allowed to be away from my owner eventually… although I didn’t know exactly how far I could go.

  If I ran too far away, the cursed symbol on my abdomen would burn and hurt like a firebrand until I crumbled helplessly to the ground in excruciating pain.

  Ultimately, escape wouldn’t be possible.

  Maybe I could get lost instead? Perhaps I could hide?

  Kang Jiesu would surely finish his meeting with the King soon, and it was a complete gamble to say whether my situation would get better or… much… much… worse.

  I was too scared to find out the result.

  + + +

  “Hana.”

  A voice that I hated came from behind me.

  He was slightly out of breath, almost panting, as if he had been running for some amount of time.

  I immediately knew who it was, and I couldn’t stop the immediate lurch in my stomach that was filled with revulsion and disgust. At this point, I was self-aware enough to recognize that this was definitely the effect of Hong Baiye’s mental magic, but this didn’t change the fact that it made my pre-existing nausea significantly worse.

  I wanted to run, but my shaking legs were frozen to the ground.

  Perhaps it was the product of two conflicting magical spells.

  “Your name is Hanamarie, but you prefer Hana, correct?” Kang Jiesu said in Galuterican.

  …

  I had never told him my name.

  If he knew it now, it was only because he learned it during his audience with the King.

  “My name is Kang Jiesu. Please call me Kang.”

  I didn’t respond to him.

  Thus far, he had spoken three full sentences in Galuterican.

  It was shaky, but self-introductions were literally the first lesson in any basic nguage course. However, I felt skeptical about Kang Jiesu’s stubborn desire to continue with the nguage. Had learned nothing? Did he really expect to communicate with me using rudimentary Galuterican after less than two days of studying the dialect? He did not have an interpreter with him, and there wasn’t anyone else around in this isoted hallway. Surely he must have learned from the st time that good intentions pave the road to hell…

  He reached out and grabbed my arm with his filthy(*) hands.

  “I want to be friends,” Kang Jiesu said.

  There was a serious expression in his eyes.

  “But I also want to say… I am very sorry for everything.”

  + + +

  He exhaled deeply, and his back slid down the pster wall until he was sitting directly on the wooden floor. He wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead and adjusted the outer yer of his clothes. It seemed like there was a lot that he wanted to discuss, but there wasn’t anywhere else to sit down in this pce.

  We were literally in a random corridor.

  Meanwhile, he tugged on my hands lightly, as if inviting me to join him.

  “You run fast,” he joked, trying to lighten the atmosphere. “I am tired now. Should we sit down?”

  “…”

  I didn’t react to his attempts to break the ice.

  I genuinely did not have a very good opinion of him.

  “不过，如果你恨我，我也理解” (Although, if you hate me, I can understand that too).

  Kang Jiesu muttered in Mandarin briefly, although he must have known I wouldn’t understand it.

  I pretended that I didn’t understand.

  He switched back to Galuterican shortly thereafter:

  “Can you read this?” He inquired.

  My childhood friend produced a wrinkled sheet of paper out of his pocket and passed it over to me.

  It had been folded and creased multiple times over. Thick bck smudges were visible from the opposite side, which was indicative of fresh ink that hadn’t quite dried fully. It had clearly been written recently, although Kang Jiesu had been too impatient to wait for it to set.

  I realized at this point that this had been his pn all along. Without a live transtor, the best that he could do was to get someone to write a letter on his behalf. It was the most reliable way to convey his sincere feelings on this subject given that he wasn’t fluent enough to communicate in Galuterican. He must have gotten one of the government officials to write it for him while he was meeting with the King.

  I took the paper from him.

  And then I opened it.

  + + +

  Dear Hana,

  This is Kang Jiesu. I am writing this letter to you both as an apology and a promise.

  I grew up in another world known as Earth. The country that we came from has many different customs and traditions, so I apologize if I offended you at any point. It was not my intention, and I have only ever wanted to be your ally. I don’t have any complicated motives, and my only goal is to live a peaceful life together with the people I care about. I was very grateful for your assistance on the first night, but afterwards I was worried that something terrible had happened to you.

  I tried my best to help, but it seems like I only made the situation much worse.

  I am deeply sorry.

  I was told that you were made into a sve and that the change could not be reversed.

  The details are not completely clear to me, but I made it very clear to the King and his advisors that my wish is for you to continue living your life as a free person as you did before. While they have insisted the legal status cannot be changed, I will do everything in my power to give you as much freedom as possible. The Archbishop has offered to help with modifying the magical tattoo, but we will need to go to him on a separate date to configure the spell.

  Simirly, I have granted broad legal authorizations to you. It appears that your finances have merged with mine and you are unable to give consent to anything on your own. Therefore, I have given you access my bank account and the right to sign documents on my behalf as my proxy. I hope you realize how significant this is, so I would appreciate it if you do not abuse my trust. It seems that we are stuck together for the foreseeable future, so I hope we can share a respectful mutual retionship together.

  Lastly, I want you to know that I see you as my equal.

  Svery is illegal in my home country, and I find it very unpleasant. Consequently, I would like to us to behave as if the svery part did not exist. I order you to always speak freely with me, act as you wish, and disobey and disregard anything that I say all as you see fit.

  Regards,

  Kang

  ?