Once, I thought about dying. It was right after I had possessed this body.
Suffering from extreme hunger, I didn’t want to kill, but I decided to try and slay a monster instead.
I gripped a knife in my hand and plunged it into the flesh of a man-eating monster.
Of course, the one stabbing was me, and I was also the one getting stabbed.
I felt the sharp pain when my heart was pierced, thinking I was about to die, so I closed my eyes.
Blood spilled as I felt the pain. It was punishment for murdering a human before taking down the monster.
I bore it, thinking it was my karma. Blood surged up my throat and burst from my mouth as if I was vomiting.
I thought I was going to cool down like this. I believed I could set everything right.
I was just thinking everything was over.
How long had it been since then?
At some point, the sunlight I hated rained down on me.
Morning came without anything changing.
There was no rest called death.
Only tomorrow, which was more frightening than death, awaited me.
I still stood up with my heart pierced by a sword.
“I won’t die even like this.” I thought I had fallen asleep with the sword stuck in my heart.
Such a curious body.
On that day, I was crying.
That was back when I still had the capacity to feel.
*
Iria clutched her forehead, feeling a severe headache. Memories from a time she didn’t want to recall swirled in her mind.
The magical energy inside her twisted. Iria nearly lost her balance and fell.
Her eyes turned red. Her heart raced, and her breaths became heavy. This was a sign that appeared when Iria was in good condition.
It seemed that the fragment of the Demon King she had swallowed triggered her instincts.
Up to this point, it was the expected reaction. She didn’t think there would be no cost to housing the fragment of the Demon King in her body.
She sensed something was wrong next. She felt a bit dazed for a moment; she thought she might lose consciousness.
Her vision was redder than usual, and she barely heard the sounds around her. When she squeezed her eyes shut and reopened them, the face of a pained Leonard came into view.
It was clear to her why he was in pain. Iria was gripping his neck.
Had she instinctively attacked a nearby human? She felt a little sorry for him.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
Iria immediately released her grip.
The headache faded quickly. She just needed a brief adjustment period to absorb the fragment.
As she let go, Leonard, who had fallen to the ground, coughed while holding his neck. Seeing him getting up right away, she figured he wasn’t seriously hurt.
“Ugh, I’m fine, so don’t worry about it. More importantly, how’s your condition?”
“Uh.”
Has anything changed?
Iria checked the mirror. There didn’t seem to be an outward change.
Maybe it was her constitution that had changed?
Standing up, she waved her arms and moved around, but it was hard to find any significant difference.
“Doesn’t seem like much has changed.”
“Really? Then there’s nothing to be done.”
If she had to point out a change, it was that she could now move shadows.
Iria reached out into the air and spread a black shadow. It was a sight she felt she had seen somewhere.
Now that she thought of it, wasn’t the seed of the Demon King she encountered in the cave able to manipulate shadows? It seemed she had absorbed his abilities through the fragment.
Maybe it wasn’t his power from the start but a force originating from the fragment.
“Woah! What is that?!” Leonard yelped as the black shadow enveloped the desk. Was it really such a big deal? His reaction was a bit late.
“I think I’ve gained the ability to do this.”
“No, you should have said that sooner! That’s a massive change!”
“Massive?”
“Ugh… it’s fine, whatever.”
He sighed softly and began to jot something down on a piece of paper. Though Iria wasn’t fond of being recorded in any form, she decided to turn a blind eye since it wasn’t about her identity.
It seemed he was just writing down changes that occurred when a monster consumed a fragment.
No big deal.
For Iria, who was used to dining and absorbing the abilities of her targets, this didn’t really excite her.
If there was a slight difference, it was that she saw her own memories in the process of obtaining abilities instead of the target’s.
Not exactly delightful.
“So, what are you planning to do now? Any fixed goals?”
As Leonard asked that after finishing his notes, Iria pondered.
She did have set goals; her primary goal was to return to her original world, but she still didn’t know how to do that.
For now, she had decided to plan on killing the original novel’s protagonist, but it wasn’t easy considering she didn’t even know where he lived.
So, she decided to try a different approach this time.
“I want to find out more about myself.”
Iria was a strong being. Stronger than the seed of the Demon King and even stronger than the veteran knights.
Someone of that caliber must have had considerable influence in the original story.
Perhaps she was a figure related to the protagonist.
Might she even hold clues to find the protagonist? Personal interest played a part too.
If this world were a story, what role would Iria have had in it?
Would she be the shadowy figure blocking the protagonist’s path? Or a monster being hunted by the protagonist?
No idea.
The one thing she was sure of was that if she couldn’t find the protagonist in time, she would inevitably have to kill herself. She didn’t want to become a monster until the end.
Her desire to learn about herself was like her last bullet in case things didn’t resolve.
Still, she had to know how one could die, or at least learn of a weakness.
“So, you don’t know anything more about me, right?”
Iria asked Leonard. If he didn’t, she thought she’d leave right away.
Leonard nodded. She felt a bit disappointed, but at least it wasn’t a total loss.
She gained new information, like the fact that she was the seed of the Demon King and the nature of the fragment.
Thinking it was worth at least two gold coins, she stood up.
Just as she turned to leave, Leonard added one more thing.
“By the way, I heard there’s a monster that can speak the language like you in the Empire’s underground. Do you know? That monster might know something.”
“You should have mentioned that sooner.”
“Is it important?”
“Yes.”
“Figured you wouldn’t meet it anyway, so I deliberately withheld it.”
“Please tell me.”
Iria sat back down and focused her ears.
There was a monster that attacked the Empire.
For some reason, it turned the entire Empire into its enemy, causing significant damage.
It killed a lot of humans and collapsed buildings, causing property damage that still echoed in infamy. As of now, it was recorded as the monster that inflicted the most harm to humans after the Back Alley Monster.
It was eventually subdued by a skilled mage and was on the verge of death, but astonishingly, the monster could speak the human language.
Thus, the Empire captured the monster for research purposes.
It was imprisoned in a deep underground prison, and what kind of biological experiments it was undergoing remained a mystery.
“Well, at this point, I think you understand why I didn’t mention it, right?”
“…?”
After his brief explanation, Iria made a face that clearly said she had no idea.
Leonard found her expression frustrating and continued the explanation.
“It’s in the deepest part of the Empire.”
“And what’s that to me?”
“Really, you…”
The Empire’s underground was a top-secret space. It was where confidential documents that shouldn’t leak out were gathered and managed.
Because of that, security was tight, and the repercussions were enormous if one were to break in. No matter how strong Iria was, she couldn’t possibly win against the Empire’s elite forces.
“I’ll give you a piece of advice—if you can, it’s best not to make the Empire your enemy. Everyone who turned against the Empire met a grim end. It applies to both humans and monsters alike; no exceptions.
“Is that so.”
“Anyway, you’d be better off giving up; there are ten elite forces above the knight order in the Empire. You must have heard of them. The Sword Saint Freya, for instance, or Albert.”
“Albert?”
Rarely, a name that Iria recognized came up. Wasn’t that the name of an academy professor?
“He’s the mage who subdued the seed of the Demon King on his own. After the Sword Saint pulled out of the frontlines, he’s been labeled the strongest in the Empire.”
“…”
“Well, whatever choice you make is up to you, but just don’t go charging in and end up being captured for biological experiments.”
Coincidentally, Iria was also the seed of the Demon King that could speak the human language.
She might be treated the same way as the previously captured monster.
But telling her not to do something only made her want to do it more.
Iria had already decided her next destination would be the Empire’s underground.
