“How dare you assume my gender?”
Hiso stood in the center of the Queen's chambers, repeating the words in all seriousness.
He held a deep red wooden box in his hands. The lid was already open, revealing the soft red velvet lining inside, completely empty.
Sitting before her silver mirror, the Queen's expression froze bit by bit.
She had waited from dawn to dusk, changing her necklace three times, drinking two cups of warm honeyed drinks, and summoning the maid responsible for gathering information to ask for updates four times.
She had finally waited out the return of the kingdom's best hunter, yet he had neither brought back a blood-stained white cloak nor presented the heart that would put her mind at ease.
He had only brought back an empty box.
And a sentence she could not understand.
“What did you say?”
The Queen's fingers gripped the edge of the dressing table.
“That is exactly what she said.” Hiso proffered the empty wooden box forward slightly. “I asked her why the Queen wanted to kill her. Then I told her it was because you believe she is the most beautiful woman in the world. She then asked me how I dared assume her gender.”
“And so?”
“So I let her go.”
The firewood in the fireplace popped with a sharp crack, sending a spark flying from a charred crevice into the ashes.
The guards standing by the door lowered their heads in unison, as if by not looking at the Queen's face, they could pretend they hadn't heard the kingdom's best hunter's answer.
The Queen slowly turned her face.
“Why on earth did you just let her go?”
She managed to maintain her composure at first, but her voice rose sharply on the last few words.
“I told you to take her to the northern forest, kill her, cut open her chest, and bring her heart back to me in this box!”
“Yes, you did.”
“Then where is she now?”
“She left.”
“And the heart?”
“Still in her body.”
“Why?!”
“Because she said she has been transgender since childhood. Although her body is female, she identifies as male. At the same time, because she is a transvestite, she wears female clothing. And because she is gay, her sexual orientation is also toward men,” Hiso said. “This made me feel sympathetic.”
The Queen opened her mouth.
For a moment, she didn't know whether to first demand what these words meant, or to ask how someone who claimed to be transgender, gay, and a transvestite could possibly meet all three conditions at once.
But she saw Hiso's expression.
Calm, composed, and radiating the self-righteousness of someone who had done a good deed.
He actually believed her?
No, whether he believed it or not probably didn't matter.
The important thing was that this hunter had actually thrown her orders to the wind over those few sentences.
“I do not care whether she likes men or women, nor do I care what she likes to wear!” The Queen stood up from her chair, her black skirt sweeping across the carpet. “I want her heart!”
“That is exactly the issue.” Hiso nodded. “You want to know who the most beautiful woman in the world is, but she does not even consider herself a woman. Since that is the case, she naturally poses no threat to you. You are still the most beautiful woman in the world. The target of the quest has fundamentally ceased to exist, so there was obviously no need to continue trying to kill her.”
The Queen's chest heaved heavily.
She turned around and looked at the magic mirror surrounded by silver roses.
The glass quietly reflected the chambers.
The Queen in the mirror was still beautiful, but her face was frighteningly grim.
As for the magic mirror itself, it seemed to have turned into an ordinary mirror, without making a single sound.
This thing, which dared to say “but” in front of her every single day, had actually learned how to play dead now.
“Then did you confirm her gender?” The Queen looked back at Hiso.
“Not really.”
The corner of the Queen's eye twitched.
“You did not confirm it?”
“No. Men and women shouldn't touch each other inappropriately, after all.”
The Queen: “?”
“So she just said a few words to you, and you believed she wasn't a woman?”
“There was no need to confirm,” Hiso said. “It was merely out of sympathy for a fellow comrade, coming from a young male whose gender is a Walmart shopping bag.”
The Queen fell silent once more.
She found she couldn't understand what “Walmart” was at all, nor did she know how someone could claim their gender was a plastic bag while simultaneously emphasizing that they were a young male.
But she understood the last word.
“A fellow comrade?”
“Yes.”
“You and the Black Snow Princess?”
“We are both marginalized groups whose genders are assumed by others without our consent.”
“You literally just said you were a male!”
“Young male is a lifestyle; Walmart shopping bag is my gender.”
“Then what is a Walmart shopping bag?”
“An existence that can hold many things, yet is often discarded at will by others.”
“It is thin, light, and cheap, with no direction of its own in the wind. The world only remembers it when they need it, and after using it, they complain that it pollutes the environment. Your Majesty, you do not have to understand, but you should at least respect it.”
A young guard by the door clenched his teeth, his cheek twitching slightly.
Fortunately, he had undergone professional training, preventing him from laughing out loud on the spot.
The Queen did not laugh.
She reached out, grabbed the ruby necklace on the dressing table, and hurled it violently to the floor.
“Bastard!”
The necklace struck the stone floor, its golden clasp snapping as bright red rubies scattered across the carpet. One happened to stop right in front of Hiso's boot, and he looked down at it.
Hiso thought about it, then raised his foot to step on it.
Jewelry could be sold for money in the system shop; there was no reason to let it go to waste.
The Queen's hand trembled as she pointed at him.
“You took my gold and accepted my command, yet you let her go with such a ridiculous excuse. Men, seize this treacherous hunter!”
The guards by the door looked up in unison.
The sound of scraping metal rang out one after another.
Six longswords were drawn from their sheaths, their cold blades forming a ring in the firelight of the fireplace, surrounding Hiso.
“Don't be in such a hurry.”
“Afraid now?” the Queen sneered.
“No.” Hiso closed the wooden box and placed it on a nearby low table. “Actually, the Black Snow Princess's commission to me was to bring her your heart.”
The Queen's sneer froze on her face.
Hiso's hand dropped to his waist.
“Since you want to fast-forward to the battle, I have no choice but to oblige.”
The hunting knife was unsheathed.
The first guard only saw Hiso's shoulder blur before a sudden chill struck his wrist.
He instinctively gripped his longsword tighter, but the hilt, along with half the crossguard, clattered to the floor.
Immediately after, the pommel of the knife slammed into his chin.
The guard was lifted off his feet, the back of his head slamming hard against the wall. He slumped down before he could even make a sound.
“Kill him!” the Queen shrieked.
The remaining five lunged forward at once.
The chambers were not spacious to begin with, and the heavy gowns, jewelry cabinets, low tables, and high-backed chairs occupied most of the room.
Five longswords thrust forward together, their blades intersecting to seal off almost all of Hiso's avenues of retreat.
Hiso did not retreat.
He took a step forward.
In the next instant, all five guards collapsed to the floor.
“Your turn.” Hiso kicked aside a guard blocking his way and walked up to the Queen.
The Queen slowly backed up against the magic mirror.
The cold glass was right behind her, and her right hand was hidden among the folds of her skirt, seemingly gripping something. Her face was somewhat pale, but the crown atop her head remained perfectly straight, with not a single black hair out of place.
“You dare kill me in the palace?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“There are three hundred palace guards outside.”
“Is that enough to max out my hunter experience?”
“You won't make it out of the royal city.”
“That's a problem for after the quest is complete.”
Hiso walked toward her casually.
The Queen's hand hidden in her skirt suddenly whipped upward.
A dagger only the length of a palm thrust toward Hiso's eyes.
The movement was very fast.
At least faster than the guards on the floor.
But it still wasn't fast enough.
Hiso tilted his head, and the dagger grazed past his cheek. He grabbed the Queen's wrist and twisted it inward, forcing her to release her grip.
The dagger clattered to the floor.
The Queen knit her brows in pain but did not scream. She raised her other hand, aiming the sharp face of her ring to slash at Hiso's face.
Hiso dodged once more.
He grabbed both of her wrists and pinned her against the magic mirror.
The silver roses on the frame trembled slightly.
The Queen's back slammed into the glass, and her crown finally tilted slightly. She tried to raise her knee to counterattack, but the hunting knife was already pressed against her chest.
The tip of the blade stopped right over her heart, separated only by her black gown.
“You want to kill me because you sympathize with the Black Snow Princess?” the Queen asked.
Hiso nodded.
“Maybe a little, but not much.”
Mainly, the Black Snow Princess was a bit of a troll; it would be a shame to kill her.
“Then why not sympathize with me?”
The advancing hunting knife stopped.
The Queen noticed the knife pause for a fraction of a second.
She stared into Hiso's eyes, and her face, which had been filled with rage and arrogance just a moment ago, transformed instantly.
The tight corners of her mouth relaxed, her dark eyes welled with tears, and even her voice became soft and trembling.
“You are willing to sympathize with a princess you've only known for a day, but you refuse to sympathize with a Queen who is misunderstood by everyone.”
“Are you transgender too?” Hiso asked.
“I am not.”
“Gay?”
“Nor that.”
“A crossdresser?”
The Queen looked down at her gown.
“This is the Queen's ceremonial gown.”
“Then I can't help you.”
Hiso tightened his grip on the hilt once more.
“But I am an animal rights activist, an environmentalist, a victim of depression, and a vegetarian.”
The tip of the blade stopped again.
The Queen knew she had gambled correctly.
“Animal rights?” Hiso frowned.
“I never hurt small animals.”
“You ordered a hunter to kill a person.”
“Humans aren't animals.”
Hiso stared at her.
“No, what I mean is, humans shouldn't be treated like animals,” the Queen corrected herself immediately. “I oppose any acts of cruelty toward animals. The palace's winter clothes never use freshly skinned furs, and live poultry is forbidden at banquets. I always have the birds that freeze to death in the gardens properly buried.”
“The Black Snow Princess saved an injured bird in the mirror.”
“I was inspired by her.”
“But you wanted to kill her this morning.”
“And that is why I am in agony over my mistake.”
Tears rolled down the Queen's cheeks.
A tear fell onto the hunting knife, slowly sliding down the polished blade toward the tip.
“I have been depressed over this for an entire day.”
Hiso fell silent.
The Queen continued, “And the environment. Why do you think I only light this single fireplace in my chambers? Because every piece of firewood comes from the forest. For every tree burned, countless birds lose their homes. No matter how cold the winter gets, I only allow it to burn until sunset.”
Hiso glanced back at the fireplace.
He wasn't from the Middle Ages and had no idea how many fireplaces these people had or how they burned them, but if the Queen said so, then so be it.
“What about the trees in the royal city?” he asked.
“I ordered them all to be planted.”
“And the northern forest too?”
“Those grew on their own, but I have never ordered them to be clear-cut.”
That made a lot of sense.
Hiso tilted his head.
“You are also a vegetarian?”
“Yes.”
“I saw roasted venison on your banquet menu yesterday.”
“That was for the guests.”
“You didn't eat it?”
“I only ate the apple next to it.”
The Queen's tears fell even faster.
“You have no idea what a cruel torture it is for a vegetarian to watch others eat meat every single day. They slice through the perfectly roasted, crispy skin, letting the fat pool onto the plate, sprinkling it with salt and spices, and then they sit right in front of me, taking bite after bite.”
Her voice cracked with a sob.
“And I can only eat apples.”
As Hiso listened, he actually found it a bit pitiful.
Probably a side effect of long-term vegetarianism.
“From childhood to adulthood, no one has ever asked me what I wanted to eat.” The Queen closed her eyes. “They would only tell me how a princess should sit, how she should smile, how long her strides should be when she walks, and where her hemline should fall. Later, when I became the Queen, they started telling me that a Queen cannot grow old, cannot become ugly, cannot be jealous, and cannot lose her temper.”
“Every day, countless people stand before me and praise me. But the more they praise me, the more terrified I become. Because I know they lie.”
She opened her eyes and looked at the magic mirror right in front of her.
The mirror reflected her tear-filled eyes, as well as the knife pressed against her chest.
“Only this mirror does not lie.”
“Yet every day, it must first comfort me with a long string of praises, only to then tell me 'but'.
“Do you know how terrifying 'but' is?”
The Queen's voice grew softer and softer.
“Before the 'but' appears, all the praise feels real. But the moment it says 'but', all those flowers, poems, jewels, and banquets turn into a joke. Everyone is just waiting to watch me grow old, waiting for a new girl to appear, waiting for me to fall from the throne.”
“I am just afraid.”
“I just want to know that at least one thing will belong to me forever.”
“Yet now, even you want to kill me out of sympathy for someone else.”
She looked at Hiso.
Tears fell one after another.
“Do the lives of animal rights activists not matter?”
“Do environmentalists deserve to have their hearts cut out?”
“Victims of depression are already in so much pain, so why must they face a hunter's blade?”
“Or is it that just because I am a vegetarian, I don't even deserve to be pitied?”
Hiso stroked his chin.
He held it together.
Fortunately, he had mastered the art of holding a straight face, allowing him to think calmly even when faced with such a bizarre scene.
The Black Snow Princess was transgender, gay, and a crossdresser.
The Queen was an animal rights activist, an environmentalist, a depression sufferer, and a vegetarian.
One side commissioned him to kill the Queen.
The other side commissioned him to kill the princess.
Both sides were marginalized groups.
Both sides were very pitiful.
Hiso let out a long sigh. “When will this cycle of mutual vengeance ever end?”
We are all wanderers at the end of the world; why must we push each other so hard?
It made even someone like him, whose gender was a Tiger tank, find it hard to go through with it.
“Since that is the case, I have decided to no longer interfere in this dispute,” Hiso said with great compassion. “And I plan to take away the root of all evil that caused this dispute between you in the first place.”
“What?”
...
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