Searching for the 3 headed dog

In the middle of an unknown forest, two humans were seen trekking through the jungle to search for a particular animal: the 3 headed Dog.

It was said that a 3 Headed Dog was terrorizing the nearby villagers and eating away their sheep. A bounty was given to capture the 3 headed Dog either dead or alive. This two human, or rather, only one human accepted the task and the other just simply tagged along on what soon became a 3-day long search in the jungle for the mysterious 3 headed-dog.

"This is frustrating," said Rose who is leading the trail.

"Yes, it is," commented James.

And thus, after 3 days of searching and couldn't find the whereabouts of the 3 headed dog, they decided to turn around and report it to the villagers of their findings.

"I am certain the monster is out there. It must have sensed danger which is why it has hide himself. Please, I beg of you, don't leave us. We are running out of sheep and we are afraid it will start hunting us down as its next meal," begged the chief.

Rose sighed heavily and turned back to look at James.

James just shrugged his shoulder.

"Please. We will pay you extra…"

Rose looked around the village. The houses are made of straws and the clothing of all the villagers were all ragged and piled with dirt. It did not present a luxurious lifestyle at all.

"It's fine. There's nothing else extra you can pay us. Just give us what the original price you have set. I don't want to exploit this place."

"Oh, thank you. We will remember your kind deeds for generations."

"Ya, ya, whatever."

Rose walked towards James and sighed.

"Guess we are staying the night here to catch our target."

James looked at the relief faces of the village as they knew that they were staying.

James had been tagging along Rose's side for almost a month and they had been accepting quests from isolated villages to get rid of monsters that are terrorizing their lands.

Throughout the month, they have no idea of what is happening outside the world at all. The reason for this "expedition" to these isolated places is because of Rose asking her messenger Abri to give her a list of available quest that have been left too long untouched by the other hunters. Abri gave her a long list and starting from there on, they have been crossing off the quest one by one and this quest will be the last one on the list.

Throughout the journey, they have crossed swamps, defeated weird looking abominations, met screwed up individuals with some questionable hobbies, and many more. Throughout the journey, they did not find traces of any demon lords. But James did not complain but Rose felt bad for dragging James along to satisfy her moral obligations.

"So this is what hunters do?" asked James one time after being covered in mud after the monsters they slew exploded.

"Not really. This is how I do my job. You might find the other hunters a bit eccentric and are self-centered assholes. If it was them, they would have demanded a high price just to employ them," said Rose who is marching to get out of the swamp.

"So you are a bit different then." James wiped off the mud off his face.

"You can say so. I am not interested in their weird hobbies and the so called 'thrill of the hunt'. All I care about is to protect the weak from the strong who wants to bully."

"How noble."

"Thank you."

"Kya~" Rose fell face down into the mud.

Night falls and they heard the howling of the wolfs.

"Strange, we didn't hear that when we first came here," commented James. Rose agreed.

"Prepare your weapons, it must have been starving. We did prevent it from his food sources for days"

"We should have done this in the first place."

"Shut up."

Throughout the 3 days they were in the forest, searching for the dog. Rose had set up a barrier around the villages. Rose thought she could hunt down the dog deep in the forest so that the villages can be spared from the battle scene but that is not the case now. They have no choice but to turn the village into her hunting ground.

To prevent unnecessary casualty, Rose instructed the villagers to all gather inside the village town hall which is build out of solid bricks. Hence, the normal houses are all emptied.

It didn't take long before they sent something approaching them from the woods.

"Please don't hurt me!"

"??" Both Rose and James were surprised by the voice.

From the woods walked out a man with ragged clothes.

"Please save-"

Before he can finish his sentence, the man's head was cut off.

"Petty tricks," said Rose.

"Ah… they normally fall for that trick," said a voice.

A line came out from the woods and connected with the severed heads. Then, a four-legged beast with 3 different facial expression of human heads walked out from the woods.

"Hmm, the description is a bit off," commented James. "Which part of it resembles a dog?"

"Be alert James. I felt something is terribly off with this one."

"Greeting fellow humans," his voice was deep and wise. It sounded intelligent. "Are you two perhaps coming for my head?" asked it.

It sat down on its belly and just looked at the two of them. It was pretty big in size as the ground shook when it sits.

"You seem to be well-civilized enough." Rose relaxed her stance. James looked at her curiously.

With folded arms, Rose started to talk with the beast.

"Why are you terrorizing the people of this land?" asked Rose.

"Hmm, that hurts my feeling. I now I am not that pleasant to look at. All I did is take a few of their sheep and did nothing else at all. Besides, they are all weaklings and there is nothing wrong with taking things from the weak. Am I wrong to follow this basic principle? What so different between humans and me after all?'

"Well, you don't look human at all," said James.

"And neither do you." The beast looked deep into James' eye. "My apologies, I should not make that statement. Despite having killed so many, you two still chose to converse with an abomination like me. That is enough to prove to me that you two still have a bit of humanity left inside you and have not turned into a full-fledge monster like those who called themselves hunters or even worse, devolve yourself into those Demons." The beast now looked at Rose.

"Actually, I have prepared to meet my end. All these days I was afraid of actually dying but now I have come into terms with it."

"What do you mean? You want us to kill you?"

"Yes. I am tired of living with this body. As you know, the villagers are all terrified of me and they even called me a monsters. Well, I don't blame them because look at me. Besides, I will return to a savage beast if my hunger is not satisfied. I do not want to live in this world anymore. I am tired of living in his body. So please, just kill me already."

"Is this some sort of trick you are playing?" asked Rose.

"I am serious, little girl. Tried living in this body with a conscience like yours, do you want to continue living? Being alive is a curse for me because I am an unwanted existence to this world. That's why the villagers employed you: to get rid of me, a monster. There's no point of me struggling to find a place in this world anymore because no matter how much you look at it, there is no place for a monster like me in this world. It's either we become the hunted or we become monster that terrorize humans. There's no other role for us in this world."

Rose was showing hesitation.

"A monster is a monster. And monster should be killed." James stepped forward with his blades unsheathes.

The beast closed its eyes and welcomes its end.

"Let's go Rose. The mission is completed," announced James

They reported the death of the beast to the villagers. The villagers cheered at their success and hail them as their savior. But, no matter how hard Rose want to shake the feeling off, she can't help but feel empty from her accomplishment