The tiger lay on the cold, damp earth, its breath getting shallower by the minute. His once-majestic body was streaked with deep cuts, dyed with his own blood. The battle had been intense, but he was only one against multiple other beast men, each one more powerful than the last, and in no time, he had been defeated.
The tiger's amber eyes flickered weakly toward the edge of the forest, where movement caught his fading attention. A tall and graceful woman, dressed in white, walked into the clearing. She looked out of place in the bloodstained battlefield, like she was there by accident. She stopped beside him, her eyes cold. "Finally got rid of that trash," he whispered, voice smooth as silk.
Her gaze swept over the battlefield, taking in the fallen beast men from their side without a hint of pity in her eyes. She knelt and embraced the leader of the beast men, a half-transformed wolf.
"Thank you, Cassian," she murmured, pressing her lips to his cheek in full view of the gathered fighters.
The tiger tried to rise, a guttural growl escaping his throat, but his strength had long since abandoned him. Blood dripped from the corners of his mouth. He still wanted to fight. But he couldn't move.
The woman, Valeria, gave a faint, dismissive laugh before kicking the tiger aside. "A treat for you all," she said, her voice carrying over the clearing.
The fighters surrounding them didn't hesitate. They immediately dug in, eating the tiger with relish, not minding that this was one of their own or that he was still alive. They didn't look like regular beastmen with their reddened eyes, but maybe it was because of the many battles they had fought.
After a while, another beast man entered the clearing, leading a group of people on chains. They were basically women and children. "What should we do with them, my lord?"
The wolf man turned to the woman by his side. "Valeria?"
"Keep the weak ones as slaves, as for the ones with potential," her gaze drifted over the children. "Let them be–"
Her words were interrupted by one of the children breaking free and transforming mid-flight. The tiger cub lunged at her, desperation and fury burning in his eyes. He was kicked away by Cassian, striking a tree with a sickening thud.
The cub didn't give up. Though almost all his ribs were broken, he stood shakily, ready to pounce, but a beatman threw a spear, pinning him to the tree, and ending his struggle.
Cries and wails erupted among the crowd as they saw their clan member die. They wanted to fight, some already transforming, but were immediately surrounded by beastmen.
"I changed my mind," Valeria said, her voice cold and final. "Kill them all."
****************************************************************************************
Thalia slammed the book shut so hard the spine cracked. What had she just read? A mixture of disbelief and fury rose up her chest.
That evening, when she got home from the clinic, she found a book lying on her coffee table and picked it up. It was titled 'The wolfman's precious healer.'
She couldn't remember if she had bought it or someone had gifted it to her, but since she didn't have anything planned over the long weekend, she started to read it.
In the beginning, a simple enough story, a talented healer from a small, unremarkable clan in the beast world, Valeria, ran away under the cover of night to escape an arranged marriage to a savage beastman, Ashaer. It looked like it was one of those sweet coming-of-age romantic adventure stories.
On her journey, Valeria meets the male lead, Cassian, and they go on adventures, leveling up, with more and more beast men falling in love with her. But the story started to take a dark turn. Everyone who offended Valeria died horribly.
And the male and female leads lived happily ever after. At least until the darkness from thousands of years ago came again, bringing with it more undead attacks and famine.
Cassian and Valeria started on the path of uniting the land. The other beast men that loved Valeria were nothing but pawns who sacrificed themselves for her one way or another.
Along their journey, a hungry, desperate cub had wandered into their camp and stolen the chicken Valeria had wanted to eat. Before he could make it out, she ordered that he be brutally tortured and killed, and they left his body behind as the camp moved on.
The cub's uncle, Ashaer, later attacked the camp to get revenge but was outnumbered and defeated.
"The heroine killed a child, and the uncle seeking justice is the villain?? Is the writer crazy? This is moral insanity." Thalia spat the words out loud, pacing in the confines of her living room.
This was supposed to be a casual read for her to while away time, but each chapter just made her angrier. Even though the leads of the story didn't have to be perfect heroes, this amount of casual cruelty, just because they were the darlings of the heavens, was too much.
Minor tribes were treated as worthless. If they surrendered, they were taken as slaves. If they didn't, they were tortured, taken as slaves, or even killed. The most pitiful character was Ashaer.
Valeria was supposed to be his bride. A bride he had paid a high price for, but she had run off with another man and then killed his nephew.
He didn't even get a dignified death! Eaten by his own kind, all thanks to that cold-hearted Valeria!
But according to the book, justice had been served.
She picked up the book again, wanting to know how it ended, clinging to the slim hope that the author would deliver some kind of comeuppance or moral lesson in the final chapter..
Cassian and Valeria lived happily ever after, ruling the land as king and queen. The darkness continued to ravage the land, but they were fine in the capital, safe in their stone houses, with their subjects giving them more than enough tributes. The vast majority of the beast world suffered while the 'heroes' thrived.
This time, Thalia threw the book across the room. It struck the wall with a dull thud.
No justice. No redemption. Nothing.
They were even worse than the darkness and the undead.
At least those ones were non-living things without a thought.
"There's something really wrong with the author's worldview," she muttered, turning away from the mess. She needed air. Something to clear the trashy book from her memory.