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To Kill or To Spare
After quickly cutting off its left ear, let’s quickly get out of this cave.
—–thinking that, I moved towards its head right when, from around its stomach area, a small cry could be heard.
“Chris, what happened? Why did you stop!”
“The one we fought is already dead, but there might be another one. Come over here and help me, Esta please create some light for us.”
“Understood! [Fire]”
I called the two were slightly away from us, and tried to move the Snow Panther’s body.
I’m pretty sure I heard a small cry from around its belly area

.
As the two of us moved the snow panther’s body aside, underneath the body’s cover was a small baby snow panther.
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“So small and cute! Is it a baby snow panther?”
“

.Probably.”
“Chris, what are you gonna do with this baby?”
It was around 20cm in length, must have been born very recently, I could tell.
It’s white fur didn’t even have any blue spots yet and had beautiful pure white fur.
I couldn’t even see any sharp fangs or claws, and if left alone, it will probably die within a week.
“

..We have to put it down.”
Even if let it live, it won’t survive more than a week alone.
And in the off chance it did, all it would do is become another dangerous Snow panther that attacks people like its parent.
Then, wouldn’t it better for everyone if I just put it down right here and save everyone the pain and trouble in the future?
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“umm

.can we not let it live?”
“And what then? It can’t hunt on its own, and so will probably die of starvation 99%. Just because its cute, letting it live won’t give it a happy future.”
“Then, maybe we can leave it near the mountain tops! If its there, it won’t get killed by adventures and maybe some other snow panthers might take care of it!”
Both Ralf and Esta desperately pleaded to let this little one live.
Well, we’re the ones that orphaned it in the first place so it’s not like I don’t understand their feelings.


..but, the reality is we can’t do much for it. Not to mention the hypocrisy of the entire idea in the first place.
“Even if we do that, all that awaits it is a painful future and you two know that as well. Especially you two should understand that better than anyone else.”
“



..But still, both me and Ralf did survive without giving up and that’s precisely why, we are now able to enjoy life to its fullest!”
“Exactly! That’s why we should


.Hm? maybe we could just raise it instead no? This baby snow panther!”
Once again, Ralf came up with some insane idea.
What kind of idiot would raise a monster that attacks humans.
“Well we can’t do that, for one. Or did you already forget the appearance of the monster we just fought. That’s what this grows into.”
“Well if it grows up and attacks us, we could just throw it back into the wild then


I mean we did kill its parent. Chris, didn’t you say it yourself? You always payback what you take!”
“But we didn’t really take anything in that sense though.”
“Chris-san, I’m begging you as well! We understand that it’s not right but please let us raise this snow panther!”




.Fucks sake. This sure turned into something problematic.
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The right answer is to kill it right here there’s no question about that but, if I were to ask myself whether I feel guilty like the two are implying—–
As the baby watched me hesitate over what to do, the little snow panther made cute purr as if asking to be spoilt.
After that, it made its way to me with shaky steps and began rubbing its small head on me as if wanting to cuddle.
——Ahh shit.
“







.Fine. But if something bad happens, you both will take responsibility for it understand?”
“All three of us—right! Chris, you agreed in the end after all!”
“How do we take it back? Should we put it inside our bag?”
“——Ha? Take it back? Are we not going to just come here once in awhile to check in on it?”
“Well I’d be worried if something happened, so it’d be better to just take it with us.”
This conversation was going even further in a crazy direction.
If someone found out that we were raising a monster, it’d be all over.
In the first place, you can’t raise pets in an Inn.
“I really don’t care no matter what happens alright. I’m not a part of this at all.”
“Thanks for agreeing to taking it though! Maybe it’ll fit inside my bag? 


..Hey, don’t cause a ruckus alright?”
“Oh, it got in easily. Looks perfect to me.”
From the bag on Ralf’s back, just the baby Snow panther’s head could be seen poking out.
Well yeah I mean it’s obviously cute if you’re really gonna ask me that, but I was also worried that this might turn into a trend if a similar situation happened again.
In the end, we are the ones that killed its parent.
If it ever grew mature enough to understand that, and it tried to kill us

.just thinking about it made me leak a huge sigh.
“One more promise

.This is a an exception among exceptions. If we see a similar situation again, I will kill, no questions asked, I want you to carve that into your brains.”
“


We know. This’ll be the first and the last one.”
“Same here. Just to get rid of these feelings as well, we’ll raise it and only this one and then release it into the wild afterwards.”
After making sure they made their promises, I watched as the two left the cave with the baby snow panther in tow.
Once they were out of the area, I cut off the left ear from the Snow panther we killed, dug a big hole and buried the corpse inside it.