Winter Rabbit in Wonderland

Chapter 38

Clang! Clang! The sharp yet light sound echoed around the hideout.

“Evil,” SoYoon mumbled as she pulled out her knife. She wanted to remain discreet, so she thought her giant sword would not be worthwhile in this moment.

As Heart and Jack battled, the men from both sides were running at each other. They were all in suits, and it was pure chaos.

She wasn’t sure if it was pride or cockiness, but Heart had brought exactly 22 men with him. Including herself and Alice, each side had the same number of people.

It must have already been planned before they got here because one of Heart’s men was avoiding the battle and heading toward the nearest closet. “Don’t get involved,” Heart had told her.

She heard Jack’s yells. As if enjoying it, he slashed his sword at Heart and screamed.

“What! You were so full of it, but this is it? I didn’t even need to bring that girl!”

SoYoon glanced over at them. Jack’s sword was hovering over Heart. She was just about to run to Heart when she met eyes with someone through the battlefield. “Worry?” he asked. SoYoon clenched her jaw.

“Are you kidding me...?”

The space between the two grew farther apart. There were so many people between them that their sounds drowned out her voice. But as if he had heard her reply, he smiled with his eyes. It was a smile that made her forget this blood- and dust-filled chaos.

The sword was already right at his nose.

“Heart!”

SoYoon screamed. At that moment, Heart moved.

His ax broke the sword. Jack fell into a chair as Heart kicked him. Buried in the wrecked throne, he gasped for air.

“Ack! Cough, cough...”

The ax was a heavy weapon. Even if Heart could withstand it with his brute strength, it would be hard to maintain for long.

Heart forced his way forward toward Jack. Even as Jack swayed, he got up, placed his feet on the armrest of the chair, and started to taunt Heart.

“Even this isn’t fun with you.”

“You’re a cheat...Did you trick me?”

“Cheat or not, if I didn’t do this, it would get so boring. At least pretend that it was fun when you thought my sword was broken.”

Heart broke the chair that Jack had over his head. Splinters and dust fell on Jack’s auburn hair. Heart taunted him.

“Now it looks red.”

Heart’s hair was naturally red. Jack, who had a complex about not being a full redhead, stood fuming. SoYoon stepped toward Heart.

“Hello, my Whitey.”

Heart raised his hand and greeted her. She kicked Heart in the thigh. Her white footprint was stamped onto his leg, and he whined.

“That hurt a little. Does this mean that you were worried even though you knew the result?”

SoYoon stepped on his foot instead of answering. She knew it wouldn’t hurt much through his thick dress shoes, but she wanted to make a point.

Heart laughed heartily and looked behind him. Many eyes were watching them. Heart said quietly, “Avert your eyes.” His murderous tone made his men instantly turn away.

In the short time that Heart’s attention was diverted, Jack fled and yelled, pointing.

“Bring me that girl!”

Alice! Heart turned toward SoYoon. When their eyes met, she nodded, and she ran to where Jack pointed.

“No!”

Heart yelled, but she was concentrating on the door, so she didn’t hear him. Jack’s men were retreating, but she was unable to register that this was a trap.

SoYoon arrived at the door quickly. She felt the presence of two people beyond the door, and she turned the knob.

Upon seeing Alice lying on the floor, a familiar sound came from above the door. It was quiet, and no one could hear it other than the heightened version of herself.

She knew something was wrong. Where did I hear that before? It wasn’t Wonderland. It was not the research facility. Then where—

“Ah.”

She gasped. It was the magic trap that was sometimes triggered when she went out as an agent. She looked up. There was a small cage hanging above her.

“Get out of there!”

Heart screamed. Alice was in front of her, and Heart was fast approaching behind her. SoYoon tried to break open the trap with her hands. It must have been a fire trap because heat engulfed her fingers.

She still held on and pushed outward. Her aim was for the small window.

Inside the closet, Jack called in his men. I can’t get rid of both of them.

Then...the moment she moved her arm, a quarrel (quarrel, a shorter and thicker version of an arrow) shot out. The magic trap left her hands. The metal part of the quarrel filled with poison shot toward her.

Clang! The magic trap flew out the window with the sound of breaking glass and soared into the night sky. The quarrel had broken through her skin, right under her navel, barely missing her liver. She didn’t have time to catch her breath. She moved toward Alice, who had fainted in the corner of the room.

There was little hope of the possibility, but it was the only hope she had left. She was able to forget her pain, and half instinctively, she covered Alice’s back. The movement caused the quarrel to penetrate deeper into her stomach, but the pain that was hitting her arms and legs from all sides made her unable to register it.

Her blood was dripping over Alice’s ceramic cheeks. SoYoon, with trembling hands, wiped it off. She couldn’t have blood on the girl who was to save the twisted men of this world.

Seeing her cheek return to white, she smiled as she fought the oncoming darkness.

Heart’s scream, Jack’s laughter, men’s movements—and the voice of someone she didn’t even think could be here.

***

It had all happened so fast. Heart reached out his hand toward the place where Jack had pointed and toward where SoYoon was running. Neither her white hair nor the end of her dust-filled clothes made it into his grasp, however. Having grabbed nothing but air, he ran after her.

Jack and his men had retreated from the spot, and Heart felt apprehensive. But neither his strength nor speed matched hers, and he quickly fell behind.

Please, no. The fact that Jack had something up his sleeve and that this could all be a trap was your idea. But SoYoon opened the door without any hesitation.

“Get away from there!” Heart screamed.

He screamed the loudest he ever had in his life, but he could not realize his hope. She looked to turn slightly around, but she had a small contraption in her hand. From inside, glass broke, and from far away there was an explosion. He could hear the sound of something sharp flying through the wind.

Please, Whitey.

It doesn’t matter who. Please, anyone! He finally reached the door, and the first thing he saw was was a bloody SoYoon, stabbed with countless quarrels. It filled all his senses, and this was the only thing he could see. He was unaware that a pool of blood was forming around her body, or that Alice was also lying in that pool, or that there were other people besides him and SoYoon, or that someone was approaching her.

“Up,” a sly voice commanded. SoYoon’s body flew up without a single hair fluttering out of place. The voice spoke again.

“Break.”

At his words, the quarrel that had penetrated her skin disintegrated into dust. Heart, anticipating blood flowing out of her wounds, stepped toward her. Again the voice echoed behind him.

“Fill.”

The gouged skin began to repair itself.

“It’s lucky that she protected her head. The metal pieces are all we have to worry about.”

Someone suppressed his anger somewhere in the background. Heart turned to face the person who had given him this miracle.

A familiar man wearing a hat stood there. Truthfully, there was nothing to confirm. There was only one wizard in Wonderland who had this much power.

“Mad Hatter.”

Heart said his name almost like a gasp. However, Mad Hatter didn’t once look at Heart. All his attention was on SoYoon. After all her wounds healed, he commanded once more.

“Come here.”

SoYoon’s body floated through the air to Mad Hatter. He opened his arms wide and caught her. He couldn’t resist hugging her small, childlike body.

Even with this tight hug, SoYoon did not open her eyes. He tried to wake her by using his magic again.

It was then that Heart took her from his arms. Mad Hatter glared sharply at Heart.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“If you say it like that, it makes it sound like I did something I shouldn’t have.”

“Didn’t you? Whose fault is it that this all happened?”

“Whose? It’s that girl’s fault,” Heart said, pointing to the fallen Alice. His eyes looked like he was ready to rip her apart. Mad Hatter didn’t feel any different.

The two men’s eyes shifted to the corner of the room. There, one man was sitting in a small barrier. In one hand, he held a crossbow and in the other, the trap that SoYoon had triggered and a magic storage unit.

The barrier he was in was a result of the magic storage unit. He had used it to protect himself from the explosion of the magic trap.

“I guess he was planning to blow the place up when me and my men all ran in here. Which means this man brought this along as insurance. Mad Hatter, can you get rid of the barrier?”

“Are you kidding me? I don’t like listening to you, but this time I politely agree.”

Mad Hatter focused his interior magic onto the exterior source. After going through the three steps to summon magic, he focused on his last step.

“Move.”

Chanting was magic’s last step.