Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 74

Nonmagical people have always existed. Throughout their short history, society treated them as either handicapped or sick. And as a result, the number of these people started to decrease drastically.

About 100 years ago, the 30 or so nonmagical people left in existence, realizing the difficulty of their situation, left to create their own city. That city became Wonderland.

The government welcomed this news because they had been unable to kill them for fear of the media or to leave them within their cities when they were so useless. And so, the government restored the capital and gave them Wonderland. And after many years, Wonderland became a refuge for outlaws. It had gained a strength that could very well become a threat to the government.

Afterward, magic in humans slowly started to disappear to a point where, even in Outhouse, although it was kept hushed, many of the residents had no magical powers. Whether you had magical powers or not became irrelevant.

Because the residents of Wonderland were able to create a world that didn’t require magical powers and were successful in becoming powerful in their own right, this city’s figures were a definite threat to the government.

The residents of Outhouse believed that Wonderland and the government had no relationship with each other whatsoever. In most respects, that was true.

From Heart’s perspective, however, things were different. To the government, Wonderland was just a trash can in which to throw their fugitives. Heart was the head of those fugitives.

And this was the reason invaders had come to find Heart. Unfortunately, these invaders had chosen the worst time to mess with Heart as he was in the foulest of moods. Of course, they had no idea of this, but sometimes stupidity can be seen as a sin. Heart’s men shrank nervously and gasped in fear the moment they saw Heart’s crooked smile.

With his elbow propped against the armchair and his head lying on his hand, he stared at the unwelcome visitors with a tilted head. As his eyes burned with a mix of explosiveness and seduction, the mood became a bit erotic. The only woman who had followed them to catch a glimpse of an actual nonmagical being watched him with unfocused eyes.

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Heart glanced at the woman, who looked lazy but had a glimmer of violence in her eyes. Although he had already been smiling, he looked at the woman like he was interested in her. When the woman blushed red, an old man coughed next to her.

“Eh hem! Our business is this. This matter has been taken up to the government, so we hope you will be accommodating.”

Heart’s men frowned as they heard them talk down to Heart. Heart didn’t pay much attention to them and instead started to count the days in his head again. Today had been exactly seven days.

That’s enough. I’ll have to get her. Right now. As he thought this, he heard someone cough. Heart looked up and stared at the man.

That man had hurt Whitey. No, to be more exact, all of them had hurt her, he thought. He laughed.

“What did you come here to get?”

He mocked them as if he hadn’t heard a single thing they’d said. Heart’s men who stood guard started to feel slightly sorry for the government researchers. Of all the people, they had come to Heart, and of all the people, they had come for that girl. None the wiser, the man yelled at him with a vein popping out his neck.

“The white-haired, brown-eyed girl. Our experiment! We already know she is here, so don’t go pretending you don’t know!”

“Even if you say it like that, I still don’t...”

“If you make this more troublesome than it has to be, we will have no choice but to tell those on top! This one is important to the government as well!”

SoYoon was special even among the experiments. The other nonmagical subjects and even the other dimension jumpers had all died, unable to handle the experiments. Not only had she survived, but now she had become a monstrously powerful entity because of it. Her usefulness and her lack of resistance made them think that it would be safe to name her as an agent, but when she broke away from her leash and ran away, it put the government and the researchers in a tough spot.

There were three reasons the research facility and the government had an interest in her: first, her usefulness as a weapon; second, the danger of an unleashed animal; third, her mysterious ability to block the signal of the brand.

The most powerful magicians of their day had created the brand on her shoulder. The wizards of today only knew how to use it but didn’t know how it actually worked. But if that signal could somehow be blocked, the implications were huge. It would lead the way for a new generation of more powerful magicians, and they wanted to be the ones to harness that power.

Heart had no interest in any of this. Truthfully, Heart wanted nothing more than for all the magic in the world to collapse in on itself, and he would be the first to stand on the sidelines cheering about its demise.

“Hm, a threat?”

He placed his hands behind his back. He grasped the handle of the ax he’d hid under his jacket.

***

A few moments later, the drawing-room door opened. At the same time, the smell of blood filtered through the hallway.

“Get rid of the ones inside. The rest of you are dismissed.”

At Heart’s command, a couple of his guards ran inside the drawing room while the rest of them dispersed. Heart didn’t spare them another glance and stomped over to the front door.

The guard near him asked, “Are you going somewhere, sir?”

“To bring back what is mine.”

He answered curtly and stepped outside. With the sun shining blindingly, it was a beautiful day.

***

Twins’ house was quite far from Heart’s house. Heart walked many times faster than normal and so arrived there earlier than expected. When he got to the front of Twins’ house, he ran into another person. The two men’s faces frowned simultaneously.

“Mad Hatter.”

“Oh, it’s you, Heart.”

Even the violently purple bonnet on Mad Hatter’s head couldn’t block his good looks. Heart glared at him as if he was chewing on bugs. Mad Hatter had the same expression. Heart had a more masculine type of handsomeness than Mad Hatter, and he wrinkled his brow grumpily at him.

The two men were able to call a truce because they had the same motive for coming here. The enemy they had to fight against now was not each other. They headed to the door together, where they heard quiet voices in conversation. Mad Hatter concentrated hard to catch her voice. Wondering how he had survived this long without the sound of it, his body reacted to the evidence of her presence.

A different voice, one that he had phased out, never wanting to hear again, was now uttering words he could not tolerate.

“...you, I like you!”

The two men swallowed hard, then heard SoYoon respond with a sigh.

“All right.”

At that moment, the two men, no longer able to contain themselves, broke down the door.

***

SoYoon woke up early in the morning. She turned her head and saw Twins asleep. They looked extremely uncomfortable lying on the sofa with their long legs draped over the armrest, but they insisted on sleeping there even with the bed available.

Through the misty morning sunlight, their dark-blond hair glistened, and she saw their sculpted profile and strong jawline. SoYoon stared at their face until they flipped over, muttering in their sleep.

They had told her they liked her. Those words were enough to shake off the curtains that covered her eyes. Watching them without that barrier made her comprehend her reality. There was no escaping now.

Exactly one week had passed today from the time she had arrived at this house. As time passed, she could sense Twins’ anxiety growing.

She rubbed her neck. The place where they had bitten her previously bore a peach-colored teeth mark. If they were to see this, what would they say? She imagined the pitiful face of Twins forcefully smiling as they tried to suppress their anger.

Then, Twins started to stir and got up. They yawned and rubbed their eyes roughly. It must be Dee. He smiled when his eyes met SoYoon’s. Not yet fully awake, his smile was like a small child’s.

“I’m sleepy...” Dee mumbled as she approached the sofa where he was lying. His long arms wrapped around her.

“Get off,” she said, but he either didn’t hear her or pretended not to, because he yawned again and closed his eyes. Soon, his breathing changed to a rhythmic calm.

Unable to escape his long arms, she relaxed her arms and ended up falling asleep. The sweet and sour smell of lime soap floated around them.