"The laws of this world are far simpler than I imagined, it's just about being ruthless. Whoever is ruthless can survive." Having guns everywhere, how is it different from peaceful negotiation and coercion?

The battle that day ended in a brief chaos. Simmon's bullet hit Catherine's brother in the head. The special prism-shaped bullet seemed to have a similar effect as the Russian's spinning bullet. The already small teenage boy's skull became a mess, as if it had been stirred in brine like tofu.

Catherine held her fallen brother, crying.

Wolfrang only allowed her to cry for two seconds before the girl's blonde hair was stained with blood spurting from her neck. When a werewolf goes berserk, they really do eat people. The storybook of the kingdom was right, Wolfrang is a pure werewolf, and Catherine and her brother are disobedient brats.

Simmon eventually died, the pneumothorax being a fatal injury.

The first time I encountered this type of injury was when I was fourteen. I was in eighth grade, and a tall and skinny guy from class 5 was stabbed in the chest near the internet cafe next to our school. I helped carry him to the nearest hospital, but he died before we arrived.

Later, I learned that if there isn't too much bleeding, a pneumothorax can be saved. But the blood Simmon lost that day was obviously not describable as "little."

Nephila and Leya were seriously injured, but the younger sister couldn't help much because just taking care of the severely injured Werte was draining her magical power.

The whole story of the incident slowly unfolded before my eyes. Catherine and her brother were probably failed experiments of the kingdom's inhumane magical experiments, or immature products. A total of nine large gemstones were sewn into their developing bodies, cut open and forcibly stuffed inside!

Human magical power has its limits. In order to pursue the ability to release more powerful magic without relying on gold or gemstones, the kingdom must conduct experiments, such as the foolish experiment of hoping gemstones can be absorbed by the human body.

Catherine and her brother successfully made the gemstones a part of their bodies, but their personalities, like their bodies, were contaminated with too much impurity. The kingdom naturally couldn't bear to waste so many precious gemstones, but they also found that they couldn't manage this pair of siblings, so they imprisoned them. This time, they threw them to me, obviously wanting to use this uncontrollable magical pair to severely damage the coalition forces.

So how did they accurately deliver the uncontrollable Catherine and her brother to me? I really have to admire the vast magical abilities. First, they wrapped them in amethyst, I don't know the specific method, but I can be sure that the amethyst is a crystalline stone mined from the orc mines.

I have previously studied crystalline stones, which have purple elongated crystalline structures that are difficult to separate. However, if they can be liquefied with magic, they can be easily separated. The kingdom's magicians must have used this liquefied purple crystal to wrap the siblings like making amber, and then sealed it with a magic array.

The two magicians sealed the brother and sister separately, brought the wooden box containing the live amber, and deceived Werte by saying it was gold coins. Werte killed the magicians, the magic array failed, the seal was lifted, and the amethyst slowly shattered. The sound of those shards clattering in the wooden box might have been mistaken by Werte for the sound of gold coins colliding.

If it was me, I would definitely be able to distinguish the sound of a pile of glass shards colliding from that of gold coins, but werewolves have never carried a box of gold coins, so how would they know...

The Kingdom's clever plan within a plan is really brilliant.

I felt a sense of defeat, while Sasa felt a sense of powerlessness. It wasn't because we lacked the ability to save Simmon or underestimated the strength of a country with hundreds of thousands of people. It was because we had underestimated the significance of losing someone like Simmon, who had the respect and trust of the entire town of Night Fall Town as its sole leader, a native resident, and someone who was turning fifty in just a year...

At the funeral, which followed the customs of Night Fall Town, I saw unexpected grief in the eyes of the people. Simmon Heter was the only person after Cleforay who had the town's complete trust. He was a true local resident of Night Fall Town. And in just a year, he would have turned fifty...

At the age of fifty, one is supposed to know their destiny. I didn't know the meaning of "knowing one's destiny", but perhaps Simmon had already chosen his "destiny" in advance.

As I listened to Gray giving a eulogy for Simmon in front of everyone, the scene of our first meeting at the bar flashed before my eyes. I remembered how he appeared from behind the partition of a carriage, holding Sasa's hand, wanting to kiss her but being stopped by me…

The funeral customs in the town were simple. The first step was the eulogy, which Gray had already completed. The second step was for each person attending the funeral to hold a piece of floral cloth in their right hand, draping half of it over their right shoulder while holding the other half in their hand. They would follow the four pallbearers, walking a fixed distance. The third step was the burial itself, and if the deceased had a black merchant emblem, it needed to be buried along with them.

Almost all the residents of Night Fall Town were holding floral cloth, forming a long queue. On that day, Simmon's body was carried by Park and Gray, and there was an appropriate amount of sobbing from the crowd. Although Simmon's funeral was grand, his last words were simple - he simply turned his finger around his ear, a gesture he had left for us.

As for the Catherine siblings, I took out nine jewels from their bodies. The whole process was difficult, but I persisted because I wanted them to be buried without any impurities. However, Wolfrang ate Catherine's sister's head and half of her shoulder, so we couldn't leave the entire body...

After the funeral, Park saw us off and sat alone in front of the grave, murmuring the words that Simmon couldn't say before his death. Sasa and I quietly left him there.

When we returned to our room, we didn't see Wolfrang. Her sister Rachel said Wolfrang locked herself in the room and didn't even attend Simmon's funeral. I understood - her frenzied cannibalistic behavior had been witnessed, and this would seriously damage her image.

Sasa sat on the bed, and I sat on the chair.

We just sat there, sitting or still sitting.

Halfway through smoking a cigarette, I felt annoyed and put it out.

After a while, I felt annoyed again and took another one to continue the cycle.

"Wife, where is Xiao Ao?"

"I don't know."

"And where is the big sheep?"

"I don't know."

"And where is Simmon?"

"And where is our child?!"

That day, we started arguing like two stubborn donkeys engaged in a pointless conversation. Where was Xiao Ao? We had long forgotten. He disappeared when we were in Nephila's nest.

"Why? Why did it turn out like this? Why?"

"Did we do something wrong? Do you think we did something wrong?"

My wife made a "rustling" sound, her rhythm chaotic and irritable, indicating her frustration.

"If we hadn't killed those five people, if we hadn't gone on this journey..."

"And then? What's next? What else can we do?"

"Sasa, if we hadn't left your cave, our child would have been born by now!"

"You're blaming me? Who wanted to leave first?"

"Who was the first to kill? If..."

"If you don't kill them, you'll be the one who dies!"

"Why do we have to kill others for each other?"

"Husband, why don't you understand? The humans in the kingdom will always be our enemies!"

We screamed at the top of our lungs, but no one knew why. But I finally understood that in any world, there is no right or wrong, no good or evil, only different perspectives. And in this world, there is no harmony or equality, only brutality. It's a matter of who is more ruthless, who has the right to survive. Just like when I fought the giraffe with my bare hands, starving as I was. If I had let the rabbit go because of my soft heart, I would have died of hunger.

The same applies to what happened in the kingdom. They were ruthless enough to take Simmon's life.

"Sasa, I was just... just thinking. What if... what if we stayed in the cave and didn't travel, quietly living our lives? The kingdom's army wouldn't have found us, right?"

"Raul..."

"Or even... even if I knew the kingdom was going to war, but didn't tell anyone and stayed with you secretly at home, things wouldn't have turned out like this, would they? Right?"

My voice trembled, tears streaming down my face, my nostrils like two steam engines.

"No, it wouldn't, because in the end, I would realize that I only have you."

Sasa's voice choked up too, her hands clutching her chest.

"Isn't that enough for me?"

"But others would die, my sisters, Leya, Wolfrang, Simmon... because the kingdom's soldiers won't die, it will be them who die!"

"Wife, I would rather everyone else die than see you die..."

"Husband, stop lying, stop lying..."

My wife pushed me against the wardrobe, and the wooden door creaked under her strength. She was right, I was lying, I was saying things I didn't believe. How could I simply watch those passionate and kind residents of Night Fall Town, those silly or friendly monsters, die?

Moonlight streamed in through the window, soft and gentle, casting sharp shadows of objects. I asked her, the half-human, half-snake monster who had shared a bed with me for over five hundred days, who had worn the blood ring with me, who had experienced countless life-and-death situations, if she loved me:

"Do you love me?"

She didn't speak, not because she didn't love me, but because she understood the hidden meaning behind the question.

Whether humans and monsters can truly love and be in relationships depends on us. Whether we can break through the twisted, misunderstood, and manipulated barriers, it is up to us.

"I love you, but it's not that simple."

"Yeah, me too, Sasa."

We embraced each other, smiled, and vowed not to cry anymore.

Everything will settle down like smoke, fading away with time.

There are still many things we haven't done as a couple. If we were to list them, it would probably be longer than Sasa's tail. But today, we can cross off one of them.

"With deep love and misty rain, countless towers in the mist."

"Remember the past, we were so affectionate, the car flowed like water, the horses raced like dragons."

"Deep love, misty rain, the world only exists in your eyes."

"It's not too late to meet, why hurry? Mountains and rivers repeat endlessly."

I softly sing a song from my memories, my wife rests her head on my arm and falls asleep peacefully.

Everyone is looking forward, hoping for the smoke to dissipate, hoping to wake up tomorrow and still be able to drink Simmon's cooked oatmeal. Sasa and I are also hoping, but as the song goes, "I hope endlessly, where is the homecoming bird at the end of the world."