Meow~
Inside the shabby building.
A cat lazily meowed as warm sunlight streamed in through the window.
“Come here, kitty.”
At the girl’s call, the cat gently jumped down from the window and walked towards her.
The girl softly embraced the cat that came into her arms.
“Are you hungry?”
Meow~
As if to answer the girl’s words, the cat weakly meowed.
“It’s okay. Just wait a little bit and unnie will bring dinner.”
The girl said soothingly while petting the cat.
“I really want to see unnie soon…”
The girl, with ash-colored hair, Lily, waits for her sister again today.
…
Grrr
“Ah, I’m doomed.”
Ignoring the protest of my empty stomach, I lay on the floor staring at the sky.
I didn’t realize when it became night, but the softly glowing moon was gazing back at me.
“Is there a trigger condition or something?”
I tried punching the wall to use my ability, but the only thing that changed was a bruise forming on my hand.
It seems I couldn’t just use the ability freely.
‘I was planning to refine my abilities to work as a mercenary…’
There were various tasks that mercenaries did in this world.
Night watch, guarding, escort duties, monster hunting.
There were various requests, and the more difficult the task, the richer the compensation that could be pocketed.
Although it might seem like a dangerous job, the story is different for skilled mercenaries.
Skilled mercenaries were trusted enough to get additional fees, and they could take on a wider range of requests.
Using a unique ability would allow one to take on requests worth gold coins, but for me, that was impossible.
‘In other novels, a status window helps out…’
But it didn’t show up.
It seems the author didn’t want to give me such a convenient feature.
I shouted at the air, “Status window!”, but all that came back was my own embarrassment.
‘A status window or something? I don’t need it.’
It was something I could handle on my own.
I recall the moment I took that guy’s head off.
‘What was different?’
The man had grabbed my wrist.
Fueled by a disgusting feeling, I punched him in the face with the intent to kill.
‘Is it only activated against someone with murderous intent?’
That seems plausible.
When I resolved to kill that man, I felt a heat rising in my body.
But that was just a guess; it could have been my delusion.
To confirm, I would need a target…
“How am I supposed to find someone I want to kill…?”
Grrr
It hadn’t been long since I possessed this body, but unlike me, it seemed this body had been starving for quite some time.
Unable to ignore the signals from my stomach any longer, I glanced at the food lying on the floor.
‘I’ve seen it before, but I really can’t eat this.’
It looked like some bizarre object I found when I scanned the area after possessing this body.
At a glance, it seemed like just food waste.
Did the original owner of this body eat stuff like this regularly?
‘But I’m hungry…’
After all, once it’s in my stomach, isn’t the nutrition the same?
Perhaps if I plug my nose and swallow it, it might be okay.
I was deep in thought, debating whether it was a battle against hunger or my stomach.
…
“Still alive, huh?”
A man’s voice rang out in the alley where only I was present.
I turned my head to find a boy about my age standing there.
“It’s been a while since I saw you, so won’t you say hello?”
The boy approached me with a light smile.
“Don’t come any closer.”
I warned him.
“Why are you being so scary?”
The boy ignored my warning and continued to approach.
I tightened my right fist, ready to throw a punch at any moment.
As he came closer, I prepared to actually hit him if he came within reach.
Finally, the boy closed the distance.
Just as I decided to throw my punch…
“I thought of you and brought you something, but it’s upsetting.”
I looked at the boy’s outstretched hand.
In his hand was a loaf of bread as long as my arm.
Grrr
Uh…
Could I call you ‘hyung’ since you seem like you’re struggling?
*
What? “What are the Koreans doing with bread?”
When I lived in South Korea, I didn’t particularly like bread.
I preferred having another bowl of rice that would fill me up rather than eating bread.
Of course, I didn’t hate it, so I would occasionally have a little when I felt like it.
But I still thought bread couldn’t be a staple food.
…
I was wrong.
I felt like I could happily live my whole life eating nothing but bread.
‘It’s so damn good…’
While eating the bread the boy brought, I reflected on my narrow-minded thoughts from the past.
“… Have you been hungry for a long time?”
The boy looked at me with pity.
‘Did I eat too hastily?’
Before I knew it, the long loaf of bread I had was completely gone without a trace.
“Uh… uh…”
Feeling a bit embarrassed, I hurriedly shook off the bread crumbs on my hand and held it out to the boy.
“Thanks. You’ve filled my stomach.”
“The Hera I knew didn’t know how to say thanks…”
The boy looked at me with a surprised expression.
It seems he knew the original owner of this body.
What luck.
I didn’t know who the original owner was or where this place was.
I had planned to gather information from people as I wandered the streets, but…
‘Now that’s unnecessary.’
Someone who seems to know me has come to me.
I wasn’t this boy’s acquaintance.
Behaving differently from the original owner of the body might raise suspicion in him.
But don’t worry.
To me, who has conquered almost all kinds of fantasy novels, that’s not a big deal.
It’s better to act shamelessly than to awkwardly show a gap.
I was determined to use one of the possession genre’s secret techniques.
Noticing my silence, the boy worriedly asked again.
“Are you… okay?”
I looked at the boy and answered.
“But… who are you?”
…
Amnesia.
Amnesia in possession stories is a convenient plot device that lets protagonists behave awkwardly without being questioned.
In most possession stories I’ve read, the new consciousness entered a body that had lost consciousness due to an accident, and because of that, it was often easily passed off as a side effect of the accident.
What could possibly be done when one says they have no memory?
Honestly, it seemed like a method that could easily deflect suspicion with almost cheat-level convenience.
Moreover, the street I was in was a slum where it wouldn’t be unusual for someone to die.
Even if I claimed to have amnesia, it wouldn’t sound too strange.
…
“What? You don’t remember?!”
The boy exclaimed in surprise.
“Yeah. I have no memories.”
Hehe. What will you do now, boy?
“Really?! You really don’t remember anything?!”
“Uh… yeah…”
“What the hell?!”
The boy seemed more agitated than I expected. Did we know each other more closely than I thought?
I felt slightly guilty, but I couldn’t help it…
“Hey! You’re not saying you’re gonna ignore the money you borrowed from me and not pay it back, are you?!”
“Huh?!”
Suddenly, he started shaking me by my shoulders as if he were having a fit.
“You promised to pay it back! If you’re going to pretend you don’t know, be prepared.”
“Huh… wha…?”
…
It was late, but the atmosphere was lively at a certain bar.
Drax’s Place was a ruined city, but it wasn’t completely shut down.
Although there weren’t many, there were inns where people could sleep, and there were restaurants selling food, albeit not delicious.
Various buildings existed, but most of them were bars.
And here, a woman entered the bar where people flocked the most.
In Drax’s Place, women were hard to come by.
Most women were out of their minds, and decent ones were routinely kidnapped to face horrific fates.
In such a city, the woman drew everyone’s attention.
“What the… she’s quite pretty, isn’t she?”
“It’s been a while since I tasted a woman. What a fortunate day.”
“Is she in her right mind to come here alone…?”
Ignoring the lewd gazes of the men, the woman walked straight to the back of the bar.
“Hey, barkeeper.”
“What? A girl-… oh snap!!!”
As soon as the barkeeper saw her face, he immediately bowed his head.
“J-J-I’m sorry, Dania-nim!!”
The bar began to buzz.
“Dania? I think I’ve heard that name before.”
“Hey, you idiot! She’s Bram’s right hand!”
“Look out!! If you don’t want to die.”
…
“Hah…”
Dania, seemingly uninterested in the commotion, directly got to the point with the barkeeper.
“I need information about the corpse found nearby.”
The barkeeper maintained a respectful demeanor as he answered her.
“If it’s about a corpse, there have been many stories going around… which corpse are you referring to?”
“The headless corpse.”
The barkeeper recalled.
“Hmm… Ah, it’s quite ridiculous, but I heard a related story.”
Dania nodded for him to continue.
“I heard that someone saw a man’s head fly off in a single punch from a woman-.”
Seeing the expression on Dania’s face, the barkeeper hastily added.
“That’s just crazy! Haha… maybe people have gone mad and are seeing illusions.”
“What about that woman?”
“Uh…? Well… they said she had a youthful face that captivates people and had long black hair… like a witch…”
Having completed her business, Dania left the bar and recalled the corpse of Rick she had seen earlier in the day.
‘It wasn’t an illusion after all.’
The punch mark left on the corpse’s head was unmistakably too small to belong to a man.
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