Hana’s Past Revealed.

Returning to the mansion, Vim collapsed onto the living room sofa.

“Vim, there’s something I’d like to talk to you about. Do you have a moment?”

Hana stood there with a serious expression on her face.

“Yeah, of course.”

“If possible, I’d like Misa and Diana to hear it too,” she said to Misa and Diana, who were also in the living room.

“That’s fine with me.”

“I do not mind either.”

Seeing Hana’s earnest look, the two agreed.

“I think it might take a little while, but it’s about my past,” Hana prefaced, sitting on the sofa before beginning to speak bit by bit.

Hana was born in a beastkin town.

Only beastkin lived there, completely isolated from humans and other races.

Beastkin possessed exceptional combat skills, and Hana was no exception.

She lived with her father, mother, and grandparents. While they weren’t wealthy, they were happy.

Eventually, her father’s work was recognized, and he was chosen to become the lord of the beastkin town.

There, Hana was called “Princess.”

However, three years later, the beastkin town was attacked by a human trafficking organization.

Of course, the beastkin didn’t go down without a fight.

They fought back, but overwhelmed by numbers, even the skilled beastkin warriors were defeated.

Before long, the town was engulfed in flames.

Hana could only watch powerlessly as her town burned to the ground.

The women were sold off as slaves, and the men as forced labor.

Non-human races fetched a high price.

“What the… that’s completely illegal…”

A flicker of anger flared in Vim’s eyes.

“Since it was illegal, they must have laundered you through hidden channels to reach the slave traders,” said Diana, who had been listening.

“Most likely.”

“How awful…” Misa said, her expression darkening.

If a slave trader knowingly handled illegally captured slaves, they would face severe punishment.

A legitimate slave trader would never do such a thing.

So they hid the illegal nature of their acquisition and funneled the slaves from the dark market into official channels.

While it shouldn’t be a common occurrence, it was a story heard all too often.

“Hana, do you remember the face of the man who led that organization?”

“It wasn’t a man.”

“Huh?”

“The person at the center of that organization wasn’t a man—it was a woman.”

Vim had assumed out of bias that the perpetrator was a man.

Hearing it was a woman, however, brought a specific person to Vim’s mind.

“Was she wearing a black outfit, with long red hair tied in a ponytail?”

“Yes! Vim, do you know her?!”

“Yeah. I have a history with her too.”

Vim’s eyes burned with a dark intensity.

“Hana, do you want to avenge them?”

“Eh?!”

“With who you are now, you have the strength to do it. You’re not the helpless Hana of the past anymore.”

“Yes! I want to avenge my parents and everyone from my town!”

“Well said.”

Fighting for what is right is no sin.

That was what the master who once taught Vim magic used to say—Vim’s teacher, The Heretical Sage, Ark Sanbel.