There was a time when I thought about dying.

It was shortly after I was possessed.

Suffering from extreme hunger but not wanting to commit murder, I tried to kill the monster.

I held a knife in my hand and stabbed it into the body of the monster that ate humans.

Of course, the one stabbing is me, and the one being stabbed is also me.

When I thought I was about to die after being stabbed accurately in the heart, I closed my eyes.

Bleeding, I felt pain.

It was punishment for killing a person before killing the monster.

I endured it, thinking it was my karma.

Blood that rose up through my esophagus burst out of my mouth as if vomiting.

I thought I was finishing it like this.

I thought I could fix everything with this.

I thought that was the end of everything.

How much time had passed like that?

Before I knew it, the sunlight I hated was shining down.

Morning came without anything changing.

There was no rest called death.

Only tomorrow, which I feared more than death, greeted me.

I got up with my heart still pierced by a sword.

Even like this, I don’t die.

I fell asleep with a sword stuck in my heart.

What a strange body.

I was crying that day.

The me from the time when I still had such emotions left was crying.

***

I grabbed her forehead, feeling a severe headache.

It was because memories of a time I didn’t particularly want to recall were swirling in my head.

The magical energy in my body twisted.

I almost lost my balance and fell for a moment.

My eyes felt like they were burning.

My heart beat fast, and my breathing was rapid.

This phenomenon appeared when my condition was good.

It seemed that the Seed of the Demon King that I swallowed stimulated her instincts in the process of being absorbed.

This was an expected reaction so far.

I didn’t think there would be no price to pay for harboring a fragment of the Demon King in my body.

It was after that I felt something was wrong.

I felt a bit dazed and thought I might lose consciousness for a moment.

My vision was redder than usual, and the surrounding sounds became hard to hear, but when I closed my eyes for a bit longer and opened them, I saw Leonard’s suffering face.

I could immediately understand why he was suffering.

It was because I was grabbing his neck.

Did I instinctively attack the human nearby?

It was a bit sorry for him.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

I immediately let go of my hand.

The headache quickly got better.

It just needed a moment to adapt until the Seed of the Demon King was absorbed into my body.

Leonard, who fell to the floor as I let go of my hand, coughed while grabbing his neck.

Seeing him stand up immediately, it didn’t seem like he was badly hurt.

“Ugh, don’t worry about me, I’m fine. More importantly, how are you feeling?”

“Hmm.”

Is there anything different?

I checked the mirror.

At least there’s no change in appearance.

Then how about my constitution?

I got up from my seat and tried swinging my arms and moving around.

But it was hard to find any big differences from before.

“It doesn’t seem like much has changed.”

“Really? Well, can’t be helped then.”

I could now move shadows if I had to point out something that changed.

I stretched my hand into the air and spread out a black shadow.

It’s a sight I seem to have seen somewhere before.

Come to think of it, didn’t the Seed of the Demon King I encountered in the cave handle something like this?

It seemed I had received his ability through the fragment.

Perhaps it wasn’t an ability he had initially but a power originating from the fragment.

“Whoa! What’s that?!”

Leonard shouted loudly when the black shadow covered the desk.

Is it something to react so strongly to?

Leonard’s reaction was a bit late.

“It seems I can do this now.”

“No, you should have said that earlier! It’s an enormous change!”

“Enormous?”

“Sigh… Never mind.”

He seemed to be recording something on paper while letting out a small sigh.

Although I didn’t like being recorded in any form, I decided to turn a blind eye as there was nothing about my identity.

It just seemed like he was writing down changes that occur when a monster eats a fragment.

What a great change, he says.

It wasn’t very impressive for me, who was used to eating and analyzing the abilities of her targets as a daily routine.

If there was a slight difference, it might be that instead of seeing the target’s memories when she received the ability, she saw her own memories.

It wasn’t particularly pleasant.

“So, what are you going to do now? Do you have any set goals?”

I pondered at the question from Leonard, who had finished taking notes.

A set goal.

It’s not that I don’t have one.

The most crucial goal was to return to the world I was originally in, but I didn’t know how to do that yet.

I had planned to kill the protagonist of the original novel, but it’s easier said than done when I don’t even know who they are or where they live.

So, I decided to try a slightly different approach than before.

“I want to find out about myself.”

I was a strong being.

Stronger than a Seed of the Demon King and stronger than veteran knights of the knighthood.

A being of that level must have had considerable influence in the original novel.

Perhaps I was a being related to the protagonist in the original.

It might be a clue to finding the protagonist.

Personal interest also played a part.

If this world was a novel, what kind of being was Iria?

Was I indeed the villain blocking the protagonist’s path?

Or perhaps a monster that gets subjugated by the protagonist while eating people.

I don’t know.

For now, what’s certain is that if I couldn’t find the protagonist within the time limit, I would have to kill myself inevitably.

Because I didn’t want to become a monster until the end.

Trying to find out about Iria was like a last bullet in preparation for when things don’t work out.

Still, I should know how I can die or my weaknesses, right?

“So you don’t know anything more about me?”

I asked Leonard.

If not, I was planning to leave right away.

Leonard nodded.

It was a bit disappointing, but it wasn’t like there was no harvest at all.

After all, I had obtained information I didn’t know before, like the fact that I was a Seed of the Demon King and the nature of the fragments.

Thinking it was worth the two gold coins, I stood up.

Leonard added one more thing as I was about to turn around and leave.

“Come to think of it, I think I heard there’s a monster that can use language like you in the underground of the Empire. Who knows? That monster might know.”

“You should have said that earlier.”

“Is it important?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t say it on purpose because I thought you couldn’t meet it anyway.”

“Please tell me.”

I sat down again and listened.

***

There was a monster that attacked the Empire.

For some reason, it turned the entire Empire into an enemy and caused great damage.

Its notoriety was still high for killing many humans and destroying buildings, causing property damage.

For now, it’s recorded as the monster that caused the most damage to humans after the back alley monster.

Then, it was subdued by a skilled magician and was about to die, but surprisingly, this monster could use human language.

So, the Empire captured the monster for research purposes.

It was imprisoned in a very deep underground prison, and it was questionable what kind of biological experiments it might be undergoing.

“Anyway, by now you should understand why I didn’t tell you, right?”

“……?”

I expressed a lack of understanding in front of Leonard, who had finished his brief explanation.

Leonard continued his explanation as if he found such an Iria frustrating.

“So, it’s in the deepest underground of the empire, I’m telling you.”

“Why is that?”

“What do you mean ‘why’… you really…”

The underground of the Empire is a top-secret space.

It was a place where confidential documents that shouldn’t leak outside were gathered and managed.

Therefore, security is strict, and the impact is huge if someone breaks in.

He thought that no matter how strong Iria was, she couldn’t possibly win against the elite personnel of the Empire.

“Let me give you a piece of advice. It’s better not to turn the Empire into an enemy if you can help it. Those who turned the Empire into an enemy all had bad ends without exception. No exceptions, whether human or monster.”

“Is that so.”

“Anyway, it’s better for your well-being to give up. The Empire has ten elite personnel above the knighthood. You’ve probably heard their names too. Like Sword Saint Freya or Albert.”

“Albert?”

Surprisingly, a name I knew came up.

Wasn’t that the name of an academy professor?

“That’s the name of the magician who single-handedly subdued that Seed of the Demon King. He’s been called the strongest in the Empire since the Sword Saint left the frontline.”

“……”

“Well, whatever choice you make is your freedom. I’m just saying don’t recklessly break in and get caught to undergo biological experiments.”

Coincidentally, I too am a seed of the Demon King who can use human language.

I’ll probably be treated the same as the previously captured monster.

However, being told not to do something often makes one want to do it more.

I had already set my next destination as the underground of the Empire.