A few days ago was when I first encountered it.
On a day when massive flames and magical energy intertwined.
There I was, wielding a red sword, standing in front of Sertia.
Half of my body was burned, and it felt like my insides were twisting from mana-blood.
Extreme pain overwhelmed my entire being. Sertia was a stronger existence than the first one I met in this world.
I couldn’t breach her barrier with my sword, and her attacks were merciless.
At that point, I decided to swallow the Fragment of the Demon King to win against Sertia. My own power couldn’t defeat her, so I decided to borrow the Demon King’s strength.
The moment I swallowed the fragment, everything in this world, except for me, came to a halt.
As I was sucked into the realm of unconsciousness, I faced someone who wasn’t me.
[You’re not someone you can defeat.]
In the frozen world, someone with silver hair enveloped me from behind.
In that place, I couldn’t turn around or move. So, I couldn’t see her face.
But I instinctively knew who she was.
It must be the Demon King Sertia spoke of.
[That woman was the strongest even in that generation.]
[By personal power, yes, she was stronger than the Hero.]
The Demon King said this while pressing her body closer to me. Her alluring voice echoed in my ears.
“······.”
With my current self, I couldn’t shake her off.
A sticky hand wrapped around my neck and held my sword-hand.
[I’ll lend you my power. Kill that woman.]
A vast amount of red magical energy surged.
Thanks to the magic, my hair glowed red.
My mind became hazy, and the memories of the Demon King poured into my head. My reason wavered. If I even let my consciousness slip for a moment, it felt like she would immediately take over my body.
I frowned.
And I moved my body.
–Swoosh!!
Even the Demon King who once ruled the Demon Realm was merely a few fragments now. She couldn’t bind me. I was stronger than her current self.
Breaking free from the bonds, I aimed the red sword not at Sertia, but at the Demon King.
“It won’t go as you wish.”
I tore away the red magic from the Demon King and declared it to her.
I am not a monster.
Not a puppet.
Nor the Demon King’s avatar.
“I’m not your puppet.”
I am just me.
Being treated like the worst villain that swallowed the continent in the past felt gross, no matter what.
I didn’t want to be treated the same as the Demon King, so I thrust my sword towards her.
The Demon King, stepping back, still wore a relaxed smile.
[How long can you keep that up?]
I swung my sword, erasing the illusion in front of me.
That was my resistance to her.
*
Suddenly, it felt like my insides twisted, and I sank to the ground.
My head spun, and my vision blurred. A burning sensation in my throat was agonizing. When I coughed on the floor, red blood spewed out.
“Cough!!”
I spat out the twisted blood from inside me.
The significant amount of blood I coughed out was followed by an extreme thirst. My throat felt like it would crack and tear.
The aftermath of rejecting human blood for so long was finally coming.
[Did you think you wouldn’t need blood just because you ate a fragment?]
In the midst of the pain, it felt like someone was sneering in my mind.
The agony was so great that I thought dying would be better.
[Kill a human.]
[That’s the only way to escape the pain.]
No.
I can’t kill.
“······.”
Isn’t this the middle of the academy?
If I kill someone where everyone can see, the situation will spiral out of control.
That place is irreversible.
I might as well go to the back alley…
To go to…
‘What should I do?’
In the end, I’ll just go and kill someone where no one can see.
It’s the same murder.
‘Then why go to the back alley?’
‘There are humans everywhere here.’
‘······Should I just kill them all?’
It was a sudden thought.
Killing a human here wouldn’t be difficult at all. Was there really anyone who could stop me?
No, not in the Empire where Sertia is dead.
Just drawing my red sword would allow me to kill all the humans in the Empire.
It was way too easy for me.
I just had to accept it. That I am a monster and that blending in with humans is impossible.
If I do that, I can escape this terrible pain.
I have endured enough till now.
“It hurts······.”
Is this the price for resisting my instincts?
I hate those who can’t understand this pain. Even while constantly suppressing my instincts, no one acknowledges that.
Even though I’m enduring pain scarier than death, I’m just a mere extra in this novel’s world.
The protagonists in this world were already predetermined. And they were not me.
Knowing that enduring like this would lead me to a place where no light would reach, only suffering, I knew all too well.
Honestly, I felt like I would waver.
If I said I didn’t listen to the Demon King’s whispers, that would be a lie.
“Ugh······.”
After groaning in pain for a while, I slowly stood up.
As I regained my senses, I noticed that quite a few eyes were focused on me. I didn’t really like being the center of attention.
The surrounding students looked at me with worried expressions and reached out, but I refused.
I couldn’t guarantee what would happen if there was physical contact with them right now.
“Are you okay?! Can you walk alone?!”
Seeing that someone still cared, it seems there are still good people in the academy.
For a moment, I reflected on the thought of killing them.
I slightly nodded my head as a sign that I was okay and took a staggering step.
At least I didn’t want to show this state to the people around me, so I walked as far away from the academy as possible.
Pain came without any warning. After a long time without consuming humans, I thought I could endure a little more.
What I felt in my head and the actual limits of my body were different. The shards of the Demon King were insufficient. In the end, I was a body that couldn’t live without killing humans.
The world is cruel, and life is pain.
But recently, it hadn’t been painful. In fact, I might even say it was quite nice. Ever since I fell into this world, it could have been the closest feeling to happiness.
As I tangled with the protagonists of this world, I felt like I had become a similar existence to them.
“Cough!!”
Yet still, this world is cruel. No, perhaps that’s precisely why it is cruel.
When I dreamt a sweet dream for a moment, it would immediately pull my legs back down into a deep abyss.
It would force me awake from the once sweet dream.
When I raised a ray of hope, what I saw would be trampled in a way more horrific than anything else.
It’s cruel.
Feeling like I was forcibly separated from those on the brighter side of the stage, bathed in light.
And.
“······.”
In the end, it’s miserable.
Just a murderer who killed humans, I couldn’t even receive someone’s cheap sympathy.
But it’s okay.
My feelings are shallow. Now, I don’t feel sadness. Even if I do, it’s an emotion that will cool down soon.
Just as expected, a feeling of something surged within me and then quickly turned cold.
What remains at the end is an endless emptiness.
I walked while feeling emptiness. My steps didn’t have a determined direction.
It was just aimless wandering.
So that no one would recognize me.
Far, far away.
“······Where is this.”
And so I arrived at none other than the back alley.
Had I unconsciously come back to a familiar place?
I didn’t care.
I just wanted to quench the extreme thirst I was feeling right now.
The back alley stank of blood.
I wondered if the criminals had been fighting among themselves in my absence. I didn’t mind.
My stomach was already growling, and the sweet scent made it even harder to resist.
I quickened my pace.
I walked through the back alley streets, which felt different from usual.
This was the Empire’s back alley, a place rumored to be where a monster that eats humans roams, causing people to shy away.
But I walked without a care.
Because I am the monster of the back alley.
So today too, I loiter in the back alley to hunt.
It was then that I arrived at the source of the blood smell. It was a scene more horrific than I had imagined.
In the place I arrived, the bodies of humans lay scattered, and there was a monster killing a human that still had life in it.
With red eyes that proved it wasn’t human and a pair of purple horns. And a face that looked familiar.
I recognized who it was. It was someone I had seen in Seir’s memories. I didn’t know the name, but…
“The Demon King’s army.”
Why here, now?
“······.”
I encountered unpleasant company.
