Inverse System

As Rein continued down the dark road, with a snoring man in the back of his carriage, he suddenly stopped, noticing something, or rather, someone strange on the side of the road, sitting down, burying their head into their legs.

He sensed a deep-seated, ingrained hatred coming from them, almost as if their existence was the manifestation of hate. Unphased by the emanating waves of enragement, Rein called out to the person.

"Hey, what are you doing on the side of the road? Are you trying to get runover or something?" Rein asked, to which he suddenly saw a pair of animal ears emerge from the brown hair of the person.

"I'd be fine with that. What's the point in living anymore…" A high-pitched, cutesy voice emerged from them, though one could feel the sheer hateful aura they were exuding. "Ah, you must want to run me over then, since you stopped for me. Here, let me help you with that," the person lifted their head from their legs, revealing their brown eyes and effeminate face, along with hair of medium length flowing down to their shoulders.

They stood up, then flopped down on the ground in front of the carriage, motioning a forward gesture to Rein with their hands, indicating that they were ready to be crushed.

Rein let out an unamused sigh, then jumped down from the carriage and ducked down to the suicidal beast person. He lifted them up by the collar and threw them into the carriage, along with Yusuke who was still fast asleep.

The beast person bumped their head on the floor of the carriage as they impacted from Rein's throw, then rubbed their head as they lifted it in confusion as to what just happened. Without saying a word, Rein re-boarded the carriage, and whipped it into motion.

"Um… What was that?" The beast person asked as they began moving.

"I think I'm the one who should be asking that question. If you want to die, don't rope me into it," Rein retorted, his words somehow startling the beast person, making their ears stand on edge as they recoiled in shock.

"Hold on, are you saying you don't passionately hate me!?" They exclaimed loudly, their high-pitched voice echoing into the sleeping forest they were going through, though Yusuke stayed soundly asleep.

"I'm certainly beginning to," Rein remarked in annoyance.

"..." The beast person continued silently staring at Rein in awe, their eyes fixated on his back as they recollected their thoughts.

Rein took a look back into the carriage, seeing the beast person with tears in their eyes, still staring at him, making his own frown worsen, his eyebrows twitch as he looked back to the front, pretending he didn't see anything. He was too tired to deal with a conversation with a mentally unstable person, yet he for some reason still threw them into the cart.

"That's the first time… Anyone hasn't hated me as soon as they laid eyes on me…" They cried as Yusuke continued rolling around in his sleep, oblivious to what was happening.

"You know, I'm beginning to see why that's the case," Rein whispered under his breath as the beast person suddenly jumped to the front seat of the carriage and sat beside him.

"My name's Chuzea! I'm from Draconica, and I'm a female Ranger!" She began introducing herself enthusiastically as Rein looked forward with a blank expression, trying his hardest to ignore her. "As you can see, I'm a beast-person! There are a lot of us in Draconica!" She continued, as Rein also continued to ignore her.

Chuzea looked at Rein, eagerly anticipating a response from him as she wagged her tail back and forth, though Rein paid her no mind.

"So what's your name?" She finally asked after a few minutes of silence, Rein finally giving in, seeing that ignoring her wasn't working.

"I'm Rein. Male human," he answered minimally, making Chuzea freak out in jubilation, her eyes lighting up that somebody actually answered her question.

"No way!!!!" She reacted, again, her loud, ear-ripping voice echoing through the forest, even piercing through Rein's sound resistance skill slightly, though once again, Yusuke stayed soundly asleep.

"Why are you reacting like that? I just said my name," the thought crossed Rein's mind as he tried his best not to react to her overreaction.

"So where are we going, Rein?! And why did you bring me along!?" She continued enthusiastically asking him.

"I'm seriously thinking of dropping you off if you don't back up a bit," he coldly remarked as she snapped out of her trance of jubilation, then shuffled a few inches away from him before re-entering into the trance. "We're going to Kanirah. As to why I brought you along, how could I ignore a suicidal girl in the middle of the forest? I'll bring you to the city and I'll be on my way, are we clear?" He explained, making the girl put her hand up to her forehead, saluting Rein in affirmation.

"Crystal!"

As that interaction ended, Rein told her to go back to the rear of the carriage and go to sleep, to which she followed promptly. Before she fell asleep, Rein asked her some more questions.

"Why were you trying to kill yourself? Mind explaining that before you sleep?" Rein stopped her as she set her head down.

"Ah… Well, as you may already know, the Ranger guild was annihilated…" She began, Rein's hand twitching as some memories came flowing back, though he didn't let it show. "I was actually on my way to the Hasbin Gulf to find my next job, but once I heard what happened, I couldn't help but want to end it all…" She absurdly remarked, her drastic way of thinking making Rein palm his face in disappointment.

"That's quite a ludicrous thought process, don't you think?" Rein asked, to which she shook her head.

"This is the only thing I can do. This is the only way my Spring can earn me a living, though you don't seem to be particularly affected by it," she thought in wonder, to which Rein realized, he never checked what her Spring was...