On this day, Iria’s condition was at its worst.
In fact, it wasn’t the first time her body had broken down after eating human food.
Once, shortly after being possessed, before she even realized she was a monster.
Another time, when she desperately wanted to deny being a monster.
And now.
“Iria, you look really pale. Are you okay?”
“······.”
Rena supported the noticeably pale Iria.
To be honest, I thought she’d be fine with just a bite.
Last time, she went through hell after having a proper meal, so I figured a tiny bit would be manageable.
But nope, that was a big fat nope.
Her stomach twisted, and her throat felt like it was burning; she craved human blood. Right next to her were two fresh-looking meals.
“Don’t come near me······.”
“Huh? Oh, got it.”
Iria pushed Rena away. Being so close made her smell something delicious she wanted to nom on!
She knew she shouldn’t be thinking like that, but Lucia kept looking at her, and her skin looked so soft!
Nom nom—that’d feel good.
“Kek!”
Iria spat blood.
Being surrounded by humans on an empty stomach was pure agony.
How strange. Hadn’t she just eaten a human two days ago? Maybe it was all the upchuck earlier that emptied her stomach.
“Iria?! Are you okay?! Pull yourself together! Do you want to head back?!”
Rena asked, genuinely worried. It was the first time she’d seen Iria in this weakened state.
Iria reached out to stop Rena, who was trying to come closer in shock after seeing her vomit blood.
“I’m fine, just go. I’m totally okay.”
Suppressing her rising desires wasn’t new. It was just something she always did. This time, her head ached a little more.
She was used to holding it in. She could bear it again.
Iria walked alone without anyone’s support. The journey outside the Empire toward her destination felt longer than expected.
*
Despite Iria’s terrible condition, the external practicum was surprisingly smooth.
After all, the other two were performing well since she was excluded from combat.
“······Aster Style.”
To start, Lucia wielding a real sword was a hundred times stronger than in the Dueling Arena.
Aster’s swordsmanship was all about sharpening the blade. When she held a real sword, her true power shone.
Monsters in the cave were sliced up by Lucia’s sword. Blood splattered against the walls and floor.
In the center of the place filled with monster corpses and foul guts stood Lucia. She brushed the blood off her sword.
It wasn’t a pleasant feeling. Even if they were monsters, taking a life was a serious matter.
Watching life become death, and corpses turn into a stench was disgusting. Maybe it felt worse because she was just a first-year student with no real experience.
“Bloom.”
And then Rena followed Lucia. Flames bloomed like red flowers, creating a fireball.
Rena burned the remaining monsters that Lucia cut down. She boldly skipped the incantation to bolster her spell with mana.
In the narrow path of the cave, Rena’s flames soared. Just as they had cleared the rushing monsters.
“Hah······.”
Lucia stood there, wiping her sweaty hair, and Rena let out a big sigh.
There were more monsters than expected. It’s common for monsters to seek refuge in caves, but this seemed a bit odd.
With spring beginning and winter just ending, it was strange to find this many monsters holed up inside the cave.
Could there be something deeper that attracted the monsters? Either way, they needed to investigate further.
“Not as few as I thought, right?”
“Yeah.”
This was the first time Rena raised a question, and Iria, in charge of recording the practicum details, nodded.
“Make a note of this.”
“Am I writing this right?”
“Nope. Spelling’s wrong.”
“······.”
The external practicum was generally smooth sailing, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
First of all, Iria was bad with languages. She looked sick, so they exempted her from combat and told her to write the exploration journal, but that wasn’t smooth either.
Lucia couldn’t help but complain, asking if that was really the top student’s work.
But it couldn’t be helped.
Iria struggled with reading but was even worse at writing.
She’d jotted down some findings during the practice, but it was all unreadable, prompting Rena to rewrite from scratch.
“······Should I just do the recording?”
“Go ahead.”
“Can you move now?”
“Yes.”
Still, Iria looked better than before. The pallor in her face had faded, and her stumbles had turned back into steadiness.
Eventually, roles switched between Iria and Rena. After Rena took a step back, Iria walked next to Lucia.
According to their professor Eve, this area didn’t seem dangerous after all.
Even with the number of monsters, none were above the level a student could take down. It was a three-person party, but realistically, they could handle it with just two.
Iria walked close by Lucia, who frowned.
“Don’t stick to me.”
“······.”
“I said don’t stick to me.”
“Do you still dislike me?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
How could she like her? She’d just been humiliated not long ago.
Of course, Lucia had started the fight first.
It was her fault for underestimating Iria and challenging her to a ranking match, which was essentially an insult.
But after losing in the duel, she’d had a moment to reflect on herself in her dreams.
Lucia had recognized her mistakes and planned to formally apologize to Iria once everything had settled.
[Bow down and lick your own feet. I’ll let it slide this time.]
After being humiliated, she completely forgot about apologizing and instead avoided Iria.
“Ugh.”
She didn’t even want to think about that day.
Despite acknowledging her mistake, she wanted to forget all about it.
“Oh? That? I just said back to Lucia exactly what she’d said. About licking her feet.”
“UAAAH!! Stop! I get it, so stop!”
As Iria brought back that memory, Lucia had a meltdown.
She couldn’t even refute it since it was her own words. All she could do was silently hope Iria would just zip it.
“······Sorry.”
“······?”
“I’m sorry. About what happened back then.”
Ultimately, Lucia offered a late apology to Iria.
She’d never lost to anyone her age before, and that had made her arrogant, resulting in that mistake.
Now that she thought about it, this might’ve been her first apology to Iria in the real world.
When it came to past events, she had no words no matter how many mouths she had. She should have done it on the day, but it ended up being a bit late.
Today’s apology was a necessary step for Lucia to grow into a better person later. She chose to let go of her pride little by little.
Continuing to push the same narrative would only make things uglier and get her stalled. Thus, Lucia chose to let go and move forward.
“······.”
Iria kept silent as she listened to everything Lucia said.
To be precise, she had nothing to say. No matter how Lucia thought of her, the past had long been forgotten.
Besides, hadn’t she tortured Lucia enough herself? She remembered it was torture both in dreams and reality.
If anything, shouldn’t Iria be the one apologizing? Well, if she said so first, whatever, it didn’t really matter.
“Why? Did something happen between you two?”
And then Rena, the only one clueless about that day, innocently asked.
Iria was about to summarize, saying nothing had happened, but…
“Lucia told me to lick her feet and I—. Mmph!”
Lucia’s hand covered Iria’s mouth, stopping her from finishing.
*
Caves were damp and musty—much less pleasant than expected.
And with magical energy thick in the air, it was even worse.
Though, for Iria, who was a monster, this environment resembled a back alley, making it actually quite comfortable.
That was why her condition had improved. She absorbed the surrounding magical energy, recovering a bit of her stamina.
It couldn’t fix the emptiness in her stomach though.
The nameless cave connected quite deeply, branching out in different ways, and eventually, all paths seemed to lead underground.
Iria stood still in front of one of the forks in the path.
“······.”
From the darkness beyond, an unpleasant smell wafted through.
