What is a Man?

III Insight 1

Summary: A series of somewhat disconnected oneshots that explore the alternate universe life of Hans, formerly known as The White Star of ancient legends. Ancient White Star Hans, Dark!Hans AU.

III. Insight I

Ron Molan

Hans watched the older servant carefully.

Light footsteps and hidden knives that gave away Ron being a trained fighter. Ron's well hidden paranoia. And a million other signs of someone on the run. Hans knew them far too well. After all, he had been on the run for centuries.

It was harder to act as a normal butler and harder to do his job with Ron watching him. Ron, on the other hand, seemed wary of Hans. So Ron avoided him, and he avoided Ron, and everything was fine until Cale Henituse decided to not be trash.

—

On and Hong

Cale came home with two kittens, one red and one white. They were obviously strays and not pets, and yet somehow the young master knew that the two were siblings; he talked to them like they were humans. These oddities were just part of the pile of weird things Cale had been doing recently, but Hans took particular note of Cale's behavior and words towards the kittens.

Hans had been good friends with a member of the Cat Tribe before. Hueh had grey fur, like tarnished silver, but color variations were not uncommon among the mutants of the Cat Tribe.

He washed and fed the two kittens. Honestly, they were adorable and he kept having to resist the urge to pet and play with them. He did confirm from how they acted that the kittens were indeed members of the Cat Tribe; the biggest clue was that they didn't hate him on sight.

He wondered how the kids had gotten all the way over here on the West Continent. Had they gotten lost? Were they on a mission to kill someone?

On and Hong thought the two sets of children's clothes were from Cale. They never realized that Hans was the first person of the estate to identify them as Cat Tribe—even faster than Ron did—because the butler always treated them outwardly as regular cats.

Ron tried to secretly teach the cats some basic assassin skills, which Hans found amusing. Every kitten of the tribe received training since they were young to ensure they would survive and thrive as high-class assassins.

Hans acted properly shocked when he 'found out' officially about the cats. He continued to be in charge of making sure they were taken care of, as they were still young children despite being able to kill a grown man in five seconds flat.

Finding out how On and Hong ended up in Henituse Territory—because of hatred against those with mutations—was. . .concerning. He started gathering more information about the situation. He had no love for the Cat Tribe's new traditions.

—

Choi Han

Choi Han was a strong swordmaster with unusual attributes. He was much better looking now that he had cleaned up and had a few meals.

He was an unknown variable that Hans kept a careful eye on.

Choi Han seemed to be. . .distant. His mind was clouded by thoughts, by the death of the village he had resided in, by revenge against Arm.

Revenge.

That was a dangerous thing to everyone.

Hans got up and sat next to Choi Han, who was the only person on the night watch for the next two hours. "I couldn't sleep." He stared up above at the stars, the only things that hadn't truly changed during his life. "The night sky is very pretty, don't you think?"