She ate a knight.
It was inevitable. Recently, Iria hadn’t been able to eat anything due to the Central Empire’s patrol restrictions.
The last line she could cross without losing her sanity was a week.
And since yesterday’s dinner marked the seventh day, the knight wasn’t lucky at all.
“······.”
Iria stood still, seemingly lost in the reverberation of her meal.
After wiping the blood from her mouth, she licked her hand. It was still an unfamiliar sensation.
When she killed a person and ate, her body felt ecstatic. When human blood touched her tongue, a thrilling jolt surged through her body. At that moment, Iria felt alive as a being.
But then, she lowered her head.
Today too, she succumbed to her desires and harmed an innocent person, and that guilt seemed to bind her tightly.
Even though she was a monster now, she once was human.
It’s been a year since she fell into this story she didn’t even know.
Now, she had descended into this world and become a monster named ‘Iria.’
With a half-human, half-demon body, she inherited the traits of a monster while appearing human.
This meant she could only eat humans and couldn’t fill her belly with other food.
So…
“In the end, this person wasn’t the protagonist either.”
If she didn’t want to kill, she had to finish this story.
Even if it meant killing the protagonist she didn’t even know the face of.
*
The Academy of the Central Empire was bustling as usual.
Given that it was a place teaching various combat techniques like swordsmanship and magic studies, it was no surprise.
Research suggested that after learning combat intensively, even a perfectly fine person could become aggressive.
Anyway, that’s just how the atmosphere was. The Academy was there to train students to combat the increasing number of monsters.
“Hey, hey! You won’t believe it! A knight on patrol went missing again yesterday!”
“What? A knight?”
Nonetheless, despite that, today’s classroom was especially noisy.
Could something shocking have happened? Iria, who was trying to doze off in class, didn’t want to hear it, so she quickly turned her head away.
“I think it’s really serious. The Knights Order’s been short-handed lately.”
“Doesn’t that mean something’s actually going on? It’s not just anyone, a knight has gone missing?”
“I don’t know… It’s getting scary.”
A woman with impressive golden hair, Rena, spoke while trembling.
The knights’ strength couldn’t even compare to that of the Academy’s students.
It was obvious. To join the Knights Order, one had to graduate from the empire’s academy, which meant proving they studied for four years at the continent’s top educational institution.
Just within the academy itself, there’s a noticeable difference between first and second years. The experience and learning time matter.
After four years of learning and gathering real-world combat experience, they could no longer be compared to mere students.
“Iria, aren’t you scared?”
Rena tapped Iria lightly. Seeing her slightly delayed reaction, it seemed she was tired.
“Yes, yes? What… I’m scared…”
“You look exhausted. What were you doing last night?”
“Well… I had some… matters to attend to, so I couldn’t sleep well.”
Iria yawned softly, recalling last night’s memories.
It was indeed busy. Erasing evidence, that is.
After finishing everything, it was already dawn, and she had no choice but to come to school like that.
That’s why she was tired. She hadn’t really slept a wink.
Iria opened her sleepy eyes and began mentally organizing the lectures she had to attend today.
Basic magic studies, elemental magic applications, and the rest were all related to swordsmanship, right?
Despite being completely unrelated subjects, there was a reason she applied for them all.
It was directly connected to why she enrolled in this academy. Iria was here to find the protagonist of the novel she had embodied.
After all, a character with the presence of a protagonist probably had a high chance of being here.
Of course, she didn’t know their face or even their name, but that wasn’t a problem.
Iria could read others’ memories by locking eyes with them.
Surely, a person with an extraordinary background was the protagonist of the story; that’s the conclusion she reached.
“······.”
Though she didn’t think she could find them quickly, she still felt it was better than doing nothing.
“Rena, could you look into my eyes for a moment?”
“Huh? I don’t mind, but why all of a sudden?”
“Hurry.”
“Like this?”
“Hm···.”
As expected, Rena wasn’t the one either. Iria turned her head slightly, a touch disappointed.
A student with no resistance to mental abilities could suffer psychological damage just from locking eyes with Iria.
“That’s enough.”
“Huh? What were you just doing?”
“Oh, nothing. Just thought you looked like you’ve had a tough life.”
“Iria, you have no friends, do you?”
“······.”
After that, the conversation rolled into the usual daily banter.
It was mostly irrefutable truths aimed at the socially awkward Iria.
But honestly, she didn’t feel that bad.
Even though Iria was the one getting hit with words, the reason wasn’t lost on her; if not Rena, no one else would talk to her.
“You wouldn’t talk to anyone if I weren’t around.”
“Please be quiet.”
Iria, who had kept her mouth shut, got an extreme hit. The sting made her body twitch slightly.
Rena covered her mouth with one hand and giggled. It hit Iria harder than she’d expected.
But if she pushed it further, she felt she would genuinely get angry, so she decided to stop. Rena changed the topic.
“Anyway, Iria, you should be careful too. I heard rumors that a monster is targeting women walking alone. Since you’re pretty, you might be an easy target.”
“Isn’t it enough to just avoid those areas?”
“Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s that simple. With the Knights Order facing personnel shortages lately, even if the rumored monster were removed, the area has always had bad security. It seems there’s been crime lately where young women are snatched and sold into slavery.”
“······.”
Iria slightly frowned.
That wasn’t what she was doing. Was there anyone else living in those back alleys besides her? It felt like her domain was being encroached upon.
“Anyway, it’d be wise to be cautious if you’re a young woman wandering around the dark back alleys at late hours. I can’t imagine there’s anyone as foolish as that.”
Regardless of that, Rena said cheerfully.
After all, if there were many incidents due to poor security, it was just a matter of avoiding those areas.
Rena appeared to have a very normal human thought process.
But Iria was a bit different.
“What the heck? That’s me.”
No matter how much she thought about it, she felt she matched all those three conditions.
She was a young woman, wandered around late at night, and frequently lingered near the back alleys.
So Iria briefly pictured what would happen if she got unlucky and ran into those people.
“Hmm.”
Thinking about it, it was free food.
No matter how she looked at it, it was leading to the conclusion of ‘that might be good for me.’ Running into them on her way home today might not be all that bad news.
But Rena was right there, so getting overly excited felt awkward. Iria answered vacantly.
“The world is so rough.”
Perhaps she didn’t realize she was the main culprit of that roughness. Or maybe she just seemed uninterested in her own story.
After all, rumors were just rumors. Regardless of their truth, they would quickly heat up and cool down.
The atmosphere was bound to disappear with time. That’s why Iria didn’t feel the need to pay any attention to it.
However.
“Still, it seems the Knights Order has stated they would respond strongly to this incident.”
“Respond strongly?”
“If a member of the Knights goes missing, the headquarters won’t just brush it off as a rumor. They said they planned to send a large-scale extermination force soon.”
“······.”
What Rena just mentioned wasn’t something to ignore.
A large-scale extermination force. Even Iria, who had been living in the back alleys for about a year, found that daunting.
Iria’s abilities function best when there’s only one target. Meeting the Knights Order would surely be chaos. There’s nothing to gain only annoyance if they crossed paths.
“I’ll just avoid camping out in these areas for a while.”
So she chose to steer clear.
She had just finished her meal yesterday, so she wasn’t that hungry anyway.
“Thanks for letting me know.”
After finishing her time at the Academy and on her way home, Iria stopped in front of the fountain in Central City.
Someone in familiar attire blocked her way.
“I’m sorry. Entry is restricted here.”
“······.”
That’s the way home.
Iria’s gaze shifted towards the armed knights ahead of her. There were more of them than she had thought.
“What’s your business here?”
“None.”
Iria lost her home today.
