The figure I saw collapsed near the treeline was reminiscent of the cliché species in fantasy animes I have seen back in my homeworld, and if that wasn’t enough, it was a girl.

Her black as night hair covered in grime reached her knees. Two pointy cat ears rested at the top of her head, twitching ever so slightly. Her eyes were closed, preventing me from catching even a glimpse of the color of her irises, and her mouth was slightly open, a trickle of blood seeping out of it.

"Wh-wha…?" In the presence of such a surreal situation, my mind grinded to a halt, my body freezing as if stranded on a tundra mountain naked.

‘I… I need to help her… Quickly…!’ Snapping out of my funk, I rushed towards the downed figure of the unconscious catgirl. The closer I got to her, the more I noticed the state of her body.

‘H-holy…’ I gasped. This girl has been through hell. Her body was incredibly thin, a rag barely covering the private parts of her body, as well as protecting her from the cold. There were countless of bruises lining across her skin, with dry and warm blood occasionally matting her frail body.

"C-crap… Hey, are you alright!?" No response… ‘… I’m a goddamn idiot…’

I was an idiot for asking that in the first place. Of course, she ain’t alright! Hell, she was probably nearing death with the current state of her body.

‘I- I need to do something… Anything…’ My breathing was getting erratic, old memories flooding my vision. The unconscious catgirl in front of me was causing my brain to draw paralleles between her situation and my old life.

A bruised body…

Frail limbs…

Bloodied lips…

Torn clothes…

I punched myself…

"Ow…" My body hit the ground with a thud, a trickle of blood pouring from my lips due to a cut. I wiped the blood from my face and focused my gaze on the unconscious catgirl.

‘No time to panic! This girl needs help, and every second counts!’ I quickly approached the downed girl and slowly brought her up into a carry. It was the famed princess carry a bunch of romance anime and fiction overglorified to the point that the princess carry was most commonly used on lovers and mates.

May I remind you that the firemen also do the same! Not that they exist here anyway, but you get the point!

‘Shit… My mind’s going haywire…’ Due to the stressful situation, my mind was coming up with a bunch of topics to shift my attention elsewhere, to cope with the stress of the situation.

I ran through the maintained forest, my footfalls leaving indentions on the soil. Pushing my body to its limits, I maneuvered around the foliage and obstacles.

This place was my backyard, I know every pathway here from training in this place for over a year. Speeding through the place like it was a highway without traffic, I finally reached the gates of the mansion.

"Oh, Young Lord Drismond. Back from your-" The guard who was manning the gate got a good look at the figure I was carrying and went rigid. "Call the maids! And get a healer!"

The guard shouted at his colleague, who saluted and ran for the mansion. The guard who saw me with the catgirl ran towards me and carefully took the catgirl from my grasp.

"Where did you find her…?"

"In the… Hah… Forest… Hah… Where I trained…" I collapsed on one knee, sweat dripping from my skin and onto the flat ground below. I may be training like a madman, but sprinting non-stop for a few hundred meters while carrying another human… partial human being took a toll on my still developing body.

The guard nodded and ran for the mansion, the unconscious catgirl in his hands. Getting up from my position, I followed after the guard, who sprinted like a madman in his light armor.

‘I need to train my stamina more…’ If I get tired from just a few minutes of sprinting, then I don’t want to know what will happen in the future when I’m up against literal walking catastrophes like Mother.

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~ Catgirl Third Person POV ~

Where was she…? The last thing she remembered was running from the scary men in white and bumping into cupboard.

The next thing she knew, she was outside in a forest somewhere, her feet feeling the green grass below her soles and a thick tree trunk behind her back. Her wounds from the daily ‘sessions’ had been worse than the previous ‘sessions’, and when the only friend she had in that depressing place died while helping her escape, she had nothing left.

Deciding to let luck decide her fate, she trudged along the grass, thick leaves and branches shielding her body from the sun shining above.

When was the last time she saw the sun? She didn’t know, and frankly, without her friend, didn’t care.

She continued onward, not minding the scrapes she got from some sharp leaves, or the breeze cascading onto her frail body, the rags she wore barely shielding her from the cold.

‘M-Mana…’ She recalled the friend who had sacrificed her life for her escape. The time when they shared their bread, the time when they shared their warmth from the cold in that dark place…

‘Please… Live…’

The time… When she uttered her last words towards her…

She bit her lip, blood trickling down from the tiny cut. She couldn’t die now, not when Mana sacrificed everything for her!

She bumped into a tree, her body leaning on the trunk in an attempt to not collapse on the ground.

‘Live… Must… live…’ Her eyes were getting blurry. Her body was getting weak, but still, she must not stop.

Her will was strong, but it wasn’t enough to create a miracle.

She collapsed on the ground, her eyes slowly losing their gleam as she tried her best to keep them open.

"M-Mana… S-sorry…"

She could’ve sworn she heard someone approaching her, but by that time, she was already losing her grip on herself.

‘I… Want… To… Live…’