She wasn’t feeling too great.
Even though she had a home, she couldn’t go back. Iria, who hadn’t stepped out of the alley since she possessed the body, had nowhere else to go.
‘Shouldn’t have eaten that knight after all.’
Last night, had it been the cause of poking the knights’ order? She never expected things to get this intense.
As Iria walked down the street, she thought.
‘…No.’
At that time, there was no choice.
She wasn’t in her right mind, and she knew from experience what happened when she lost her rationality while possessing this body.
If Iria lost her sanity, it would lead to disaster.
Hadn’t that happened just a year ago?
She was a monster who couldn’t maintain her sanity without eating humans.
If she hadn’t eaten the knight that day, a worse catastrophe would have occurred.
And this wasn’t the first time the knights’ order got involved in such incidents.
As the saying goes, “A long tail gets stepped on,” Iria had been constantly pursued by them for the past year.
It was something that was going to happen eventually. It just got pushed forward because the person she harmed yesterday happened to be a knight.
The alley had formed a certain attachment to her, but it didn’t matter if she was gone for a few days.
It would be a little inconvenient, but today, she had money. The knight’s wallet she stole yesterday was thicker than expected.
Late in the evening, Iria wandered into a tavern with its lights on near the alley.
She didn’t know the way around anywhere else but the alley. It seemed like she was pretending to order a drink while looking for an inn to stay for a few days.
“One of your best drinks, please.”
She ordered any beverage as she sat down.
The waiter handed her the menu, but she wasn’t familiar with the letters in this world yet.
She had been studying for a year, but that meant there were still many things she couldn’t read.
However, the waiter didn’t readily serve her alcohol.
Did they think she had no money? Iria shook her thick wallet, but nothing changed.
The young female waitress with a friendly demeanor forced a smile and said.
“Um, excuse me? I’m sorry, but could you please show me your ID?”
“Oh.”
Iria understood and reached into her pocket.
Not for the knight’s wallet she had stolen, but to pull out her original wallet.
Rummage, rummage.
“Um…”
Where had she put it?
“Just a moment.”
Iria denied reality, insistently rummaging through both pockets.
But it seemed impossible to grab something that didn’t exist.
It was nowhere.
Though she searched the small pockets here and there, nothing changed.
“…”
A brief silence. And then.
“I’m an adult. Look at my academy uniform.”
Iria pointed at the white uniform she was wearing.
Generally, students entering the academy were adults. So sometimes, the uniform could serve as a means of identification.
But as always, there were exceptions. The waitress showed an expression of mild distress.
“I’m really sorry, but we occasionally receive reports of underage students coming in. So, I can’t serve you alcohol just because you’re an academy student.”
It was a day she wanted to drown her sorrow of being homeless in alcohol.
Spring, still slightly touched by winter, was cold. She thought she might have to get drunk to endure a not-so-cold night if she ended up homeless.
Too bad, but it couldn’t be helped. With a slight frown, Iria ordered something else.
“Then, I’ll take lemonade.”
The drink she ordered came out surprisingly quickly.
A wooden cup filled with light yellow non-alcoholic drink was in front of her.
Sipping lemonade while surrounded by drunkards in a bar didn’t feel great.
The surrounding gazes were a bit piercing. Not overwhelmingly so, but it was enough to notice.
After taking a sip of the drink, Iria turned her eyes back to the waitress. She wanted to get to the main point.
“Is there an inn nearby where I could stay for a few days? I have money.”
“If you go out and walk east, there should be an inn called ‘Red Moon.’ I can’t guarantee if they have a vacant room, though.”
“Are there that many people?”
“Um… Well, currently, a mercenary group that came from the neighboring town is staying there. So, honestly, I can’t assure you if there will be a vacant room.”
Nothing was going her way today.
She was thrown out of her home, lost her wallet, and now the inn was fully booked.
In despair, Iria poured the lemonade into her mouth. The refreshing lemon flavor filled her mouth instead of the bitter alcohol.
So, is it gonna be sleeping outside?
After finishing her drink, Iria breathed out a refreshing sigh. It was already concerning where she would stay, given the poor safety of the area.
Then someone spoke to her.
“Need a place to stay?”
Iria turned her head toward the direction of the voice. It was the guy who had been giving her a slippery gaze for a while.
With a grim face and a huge muscular build. And a bald head that made it easy to remember his face.
He sat down next to Iria and grabbed her shoulder with his scarred hands.
“You’re pretty cute… running away from home? Want Uncle to let you stay?”
She heard chuckles from the guys who seemed to be his underlings. Were they from the mercenary group the waitress mentioned?
Iria read the memory of the man who met her gaze and gathered information.
The man sitting next to her was a level 3 mercenary. The two behind him were each level 4.
Even if mercenaries all looked fierce, they weren’t that bad of people.
Unlike outright criminals who commit crimes from sheer malice, they were formally hired to do jobs.
But that didn’t mean they were good. The fact that they acted for money meant they would do anything as long as they were paid.
They’d probably even kill someone if the pay was right.
In fact, among the mercenaries, there were quite a few who had been kicked out of the knights’ order for causing trouble.
So what could these people want with her? Iria was genuinely curious and asked.
“What do you want with me?”
Though they offered to shelter her, she knew better that there’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. They must have been wanting something from her too.
To identify that, Iria tried to read his memory a bit longer, but unfortunately, he no longer met her gaze.
He was focused on her thighs under the skirt and her chest instead of her face.
The bald man lewdly massaged Iria’s shoulder. It seemed like he wasn’t new to this kind of behavior.
“Ah, you know, it’s nothing special. You already know without me saying it. Let’s just have a good night together in our room. You get a place to stay, we have a good time. It’s a win-win, right?”
The laughter of the underlings followed. I thought for a moment to understand their reasoning.
But it didn’t take long to decide.
“…”
Is that so.
So they want a little fun too. Men are such pitiful creatures.
Not that Iria didn’t understand them; she was once a man in her past life before coming to this world.
However, this time, it was just a matter of the opponent being wrong.
Even though she wore a human form, Iria wasn’t human. The foolish mercenary did not recognize the monster approaching him.
Iria nodded.
“Alright.”
She had nothing to lose in any form.
*
She followed them thinking they’d let her stay, but a pretty big problem arose.
“What are you looking at?! Do you want to die?!”
First of all, the inn they entered with the bald man was a place rented entirely by the mercenary group he belonged to.
“Edwin, you bastard, you brought another woman again? Think of the others sharing the space, will you?!”
“So what? I see there’s more than just me bringing a woman. Look at this! A grade-A girl!”
Hence, the atmosphere inside was quite hostile.
Many fierce gazes were directed at her. Not particularly scary, but no one looked easy to deal with.
Originally, she planned to eat the bald man and his crew, but she suddenly felt she could be turning an entire group of people against herself.
‘If I kill him, they’ll find out right away.’
Killing a person is not as easy as it sounds.
There’s the issue of covering up the traces and manipulating the memories of those around them.
It didn’t stop there; hiding the body and escaping unnoticed would also be difficult. It wasn’t just a simple matter of killing a few people.
So she decided against eating the bald man.
Besides, she wasn’t that hungry. She was content having found a warm spot with a roof over her head.
“Alright, follow me.”
The bald man and his underlings led her to an empty room in the inn.
It was cleaner and more spacious than she imagined. At least the facilities were better than where she had been living.
She immediately tried lying down on the bed, and that alone felt really good already.
If she fell asleep in a place like this, sleep would come easily.
As she made herself comfortable, the bald man seemed quite surprised.
“Hey, aren’t you getting a bit too comfortable?”
“This is my room from now on! You all leave now.”
“What do you mean… Ugh!”
I grabbed the bald man by the collar and met his gaze.
In the tavern, she had to control her power because there were so many eyes watching. But here, cut off from outside, the situation changed.
Sure enough, being a mercenary meant having a bit more mental fortitude. She relaxed and increased the level of her hallucination.
The fierce look in the bald man’s eyes began to soften. Soon, his body would relax, and he’d lose strength.
“Hey! What are you doing?!”
“…Shut up. You’ll attract attention.”
Having easily subdued the bald man, she turned her gaze to his underlings.
It was perfectly okay if the noise attracted attention. The burly mercenary guys were in the middle of their banquet outside.
Any considerable sound would be drowned out by their loud toasts.
Therefore, overpowering the remaining two was also easy. She slowly locked eyes with each of them, bringing them under her control.
Now they would have a deeper night than ever before. They sank into a strong hallucination they couldn’t escape from.
Pointing at the firmly closed door with her finger, she instructed them.
“If you’re lonely, go to the next room and bond with your comrades.”
Just not in front of me.
