WORLD OF BEASTS: A Girl For The Beasts

Origins

Chapter 018: Origins

“No wonder your accent is so strange...”

Anindira smiled when she heard that comment. She did not know exactly what the word accent meant, but from Hans's tone and expression, she could guess what he meant.

“Who were you with when you ended up in that forest?” Hans asked again.

“Alone.”

That short answer made Hans straighten his back slightly.

“Were you abandoned?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “Out there, all by yourself?”

“Of course not!” Anindira exclaimed firmly. “I just suddenly found myself there.”

Hans fell silent for a moment. His gaze hardened—not from suspicion, but from genuine confusion.

“Forgive me,” he said more carefully, “but that sounds strange to me. I've never heard of anything like that before...” He shook his head slightly. “How is it possible that there are humans who can't shift forms?! I only know women who can't. But if men can't either...”

He stared at Anindira intently.

“Could it be that you're the only one left from your Clan?”

“Of course not!” Anindira answered quickly, her voice rising. “Only men can shift forms. Women can't. Why?”

“We don't know,” Hans replied honestly. “It's simply always been that way.” He let out a short sigh. “It makes women vulnerable to danger. That's why we protect you so carefully.”

“Ah, I see...” Anindira murmured. “But I'm not the last one. There are still many others.”

“But you just said no one in your world can shift forms?!” Hans exclaimed, genuinely shocked this time.

Halvir, who had remained silent the entire time, had been thinking along the same lines. His gaze never left Anindira, not missing a single movement.

“Yes,” Anindira replied firmly. “That's exactly how it is. But we've survived and lived on until now.”

“What are the men like?” Hans asked, his curiosity growing stronger.

That had always been his nature—never satisfied with half an answer.

“Normal,” Anindira replied. “But of course, generally speaking, men are stronger than women.”

“Doesn't that mean your Clan is extremely weak?!” Hans blurted out, without any intention of insulting her. “How could they possibly have survived until now?”

“Hah?!” Anindira cried out in surprise. Her brows furrowed. Her voice hardened in offense.

Hans immediately noticed the change.

“Listen,” he said quickly, lowering his voice, “when we shift forms, our strength increases as well. So does our body size. It shows how far we've developed.”

He spoke directly, without beating around the bush.

“So in my opinion, if you can't shift forms, that means you're weak. Then how do you deal with dangerous wild animals? Especially if a Clan like ours attacks?”

He paused before adding,

“How many members does your Clan have? Are they close to extinction?”

“Extinction?!” Anindira almost laughed. “We're humans. That's impossible!”

“What do you mean?!”

Hans and Anindira were now actively exchanging words, while Halvir remained silent. Yet his hearing stayed sharp, his mind working hard.

“There are a lot of us,” Anindira continued. “If what you mean by Clan is something like a tribe, then there are many—countless kinds.”

She gave a small shrug.

“Some have disappeared, yes. But I don't think extinction is always the right word. Modernization has caused many people to forget their ancestral origins. Not to mention interethnic marriages.”

She looked directly at Hans.

“But humans going extinct? That's impossible. Dangerous wild animals?”

Her voice was calm and confident.

“We're humans. Far more dangerous.”

Halvir and Hans both frowned.

The statement sounded strange—almost contrary to the laws of their world. Yet there was no lie in it. Anindira's heartbeat remained steady. Her eyes were clear.

“Is that so?” Hans asked quietly.

Anindira nodded.

“But I still have trouble understanding it,” Hans admitted. “How do you even live your daily lives?”

“Just normally,” Anindira replied. “Work, earn money. Parents raise and educate their children.”

She tilted her head.

“What else?”

“You said male strength doesn't exist in your world,” Hans continued, unwilling to give up. “Then how do men work? Without enough strength, surely that would be difficult.”

“Tools.”

“Tools?”

Halvir and Hans spoke at the same time.

“We use tools to make daily activities easier.”

“You rely only on tools? What if they're damaged or lost?”

“Buy new ones. What's difficult about that?”

“What if there's an emergency and the tool breaks?”

“Then you're in trouble, obviously.”

Hans fell silent.

“And... you're comfortable living like that?”

“Is there another option?”

Hans slowly nodded.

“Fair point...”

He studied Anindira more carefully.

“Can women live prosperous lives in a society like that?”

“Most of them can.”

“What about you?” Halvir finally spoke.

His voice was low and flat, but there was an interest he did not bother hiding.

“Would you consider yourself someone who lived well?”

“Of course,” Anindira answered without hesitation. “My mother is a doctor. My father is a university lecturer. We always had enough food—four healthy, five perfect. We had proper clothing and housing. Our education was good too.”

Hans rubbed his chin.

“I'm still confused,” he admitted honestly. “No matter how I listen to you, I still can't understand how your people survive.”

Then he began explaining, as though making a comparison.

“There are six Clans in this village. Around eight hundred people in total. Blue Forest Village is only one among hundreds—perhaps thousands—of villages surrounding the KINGDOM ruled by the Lion King.”

Halvir was no different.

Everything Anindira described contradicted the natural laws of their world.

“How many people are there in the KINGDOM?” Anindira asked quickly.

“Approximately three hundred thousand,” Hans answered.

“I don't know the exact population of every tribe where I come from,” Anindira said, “but we're all under the same government. There are nearly three hundred million of us.”

“Million?!” Hans exclaimed. “What's that?”

“Um...” Anindira thought for a moment. “About eight hundred and thirty-three times three hundred thousand.”

She scratched her cheek.

“And that's only one country. There are more than one hundred and eighty countries in my world. My country ranks fourth in population size. In terms of territory, it's fifteenth.”

She smiled slightly.

“Tribes? There are thousands. Languages too—many different kinds.”

This time, Hans and Halvir truly fell silent.

The numbers were absurd.

Even if the entire KINGDOM and all the surrounding villages were combined, such a figure would still be impossible.

And the most shocking part—it was only one region.

They were astonished—so shocked that they were almost convinced Anindira was making things up.

Yet at the same time, neither of them could detect a lie.

Anindira's eyes were clear.

Her heartbeat remained steady, neither rushed nor deceptive.

For those two men, the body could not lie.

“How many women are there?!”

Halvir and Hans asked at the same time.

Women were the most precious treasure.

Not only to a family, but to a Village—and even to a GREAT KINGDOM.

A woman would be protected even at the cost of someone's life, even if the man did not know her personally. Losing women meant losing the future—losing the next generation.

And that was not a fairy tale.

Many Villages and Clans had already perished after losing their women. A Clan without women would be viewed as weak. Even if they could merge with another Clan, they were rarely chosen—because they had failed to protect and safeguard their women.

“Hah?!” Anindira blurted out reflexively. Her shoulders jerked. “I-I... I don't know...”

Two large men standing there with serious expressions, suddenly asking about women—it was undeniably startling.

“I told you there are eight hundred people in this village, right?” Hans said, stepping forward half a step, enthusiasm unconsciously creeping into his voice. “Do you know how many women there are?”

He raised three fingers, then added another.

“Thirty-three. Including you, that makes thirty-four.”

Anindira fell silent.

“In the Lion Kingdom,” Hans continued, now speaking more slowly but with weight behind every word, “there are around three hundred thousand people. The ratio of women isn't much different.”

He released a short sigh.

“Less than one thousand five hundred. Those were the figures five years ago. I haven't been there in a long time.”

Anindira blinked before unconsciously blurting out,

“Wow... that's so few.”

She lowered her head, thinking for a moment.

“I think I can imagine a few things now.”

Then she lifted her face again.

“In my world, the numbers of women and men are almost equal. Actually... I think there are more women. Some countries have fewer men than women.”

Silence.

Hans and Halvir did not respond.

Not because they hadn't heard her.

They simply had no idea how they were supposed to react.

A people who were weak, who could not shift forms, who possessed none of the savage strength of Beasts—yet had a population that enormous.

And not a single story about such a world had ever reached their ears.

The same question circled through both their minds:

How was that possible?

“Um... how old are you?” Hans finally asked, changing the subject, hoping to learn more from another angle.

“Eighteen.”

“You're still young,” Hans said, observing Anindira more carefully. “Have you reached adulthood yet?”

“Hm?” Anindira frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Your fertility cycle.”

Hans had just opened his mouth to explain—

“Let's go home!”

Halvir's voice cut through sharply.

Without waiting for anyone's reaction, Halvir stepped forward and lifted Anindira into his arms. The movement was quick, decisive, almost instinctively protective.

The conversation—

was ended unilaterally.

“Where's the medicine? You're finished, aren't you?!”

Halvir's tone sounded sharper than usual.

Still carrying Anindira, he cast a brief glance toward Hans. His expression remained flat, but his jaw had tightened.

Hans clicked his tongue softly.

His face clearly showed annoyance at having such an interesting conversation interrupted so abruptly. With a slightly rough motion, he handed over the small bundle of medicine he had prepared.

“Take it twice a day,” he said shortly, without any pleasantries. “After meals.”

Halvir accepted it without comment.

He knew Hans was irritated—and for the first time, he had absolutely no intention of fixing the mood.

Since when had he cared?

Halvir's arm unconsciously tightened around Anindira's body.

A reflexive, protective movement.

He was uncomfortable.

Not because of Hans.

But because of the conversation—and the direction it had almost taken toward something he was not yet ready to face.

Imprint.

That instinct was supposed to be absolute. Clear. Leaving no room for doubt.

Yet Anindira came from another world.

A world he did not understand, with laws that might not submit to the instincts of the Beasts.

The thought bothered him.

Halvir did not like it.

Anindira sensed the change, though she did not fully understand it. She simply remained quiet, allowing herself to be carried while matching her breathing to Halvir's now quicker stride.

They exchanged brief farewells.

Without any further conversation, Halvir immediately carried Anindira out of Hans's house. The wooden stairs creaked softly beneath them as they descended, while the night wind brushed their skin with a sharp chill.

From the elevated house, they walked farther and farther away—

toward Halvir's home.