One of the great advantages of the Imperial Academy is that students receive good welfare benefits.

Although the entrance is difficult, once admitted, you can receive high-level education for free.

And that’s not all.

With a student ID, you could use most campus facilities, including medical institutions like the church.

The practical exams are conducted in the form of duels, so many students get injured.

Usually, it is conducted under the supervision of teachers so students don’t get hurt enough to be hospitalized. However, Rena’s case was a little different.

Most of her wounds were not from others but from herself.

If she was injured by her opponent as the duel intensified, that’s one thing, but in Rena’s case, her own flames harmed herself, so there was no room for intervention.

As a result, her injuries were particularly severe compared to others.

It was not severe enough that the best medical institution in the Empire couldn’t treat it, but still,

She opened her eyes in an unfamiliar hospital room.

It seemed like she had been having a long dream.

“…”

Through half-open eyes, she saw someone’s face.

A face she knew.

A cold-looking impression and an expressionless, curt face.

“Celine?”

“…?”

No, it wasn’t.

Although the face and atmosphere were similar, it was clearly a different person.

Long, hanging silver hair and reddish eyes.

Not green, but silver.

Seeing that difference, she had to correct herself.

She misspoke because she had just woken up from sleep.

She unknowingly called the name of a dead person.

After rubbing her eyes once and clearly confirming the face, she changed it to the name of a living person.

“Iria.”

I was the one who brought her here.

After all the exams were over, there was no special schedule for the day.

There was no particular reason for me to help Rena.

I just did it because she looked pitiful.

It seemed that Iria also had some share in Rena’s misfortune.

Looking at Rena, who had lifted her upper body, I said.

“Don’t worry, a doctor will come soon.”

I also had mixed feelings about Rena.

While she was lying down, I peeked into her dream.

I did it because she was bored waiting alone in the quiet hospital room.

In the I Iria peeked into, there was myself.

It was hazy, but it was me.

Rena didn’t seem to know that fact.

“I had something I wanted to say to you.”

Rena said, looking at me.

Judging by her slightly heavy expression, it didn’t seem to be a light topic.

I quietly sat next to her.

A silent signal that if she spoke, I would listen.

Some time passed like that.

It took a little more time to hear everything she had to say.

***

Rena opened up about her past.

It seemed she was quite conscious of what she had heard from Wendy in the waiting room.

The words that she would stick to Iria and make her unhappy.

So she revealed it.

She thought she was hiding a lot.

Starting from the fact that her past was not honorable to others, to the fact that she lost her friend because she couldn’t stop her.

She thought Iria would be disappointed.

Her past was filthy, unlike others, and she tried to hide it.

But unexpectedly, Iria didn’t have much of a reaction.

Rather than listening to the story, she showed a reaction that anyone can have something to hide.

There was no such thing as being disappointed by learning about such a trivial past and ending a friendship.

“I have things I’m hiding from Rena too.”

That’s because what I was hiding was worse than Rena’s.

Unlike Rena’s, which was within an understandable range, mine was a bit more serious.

If found out, it wouldn’t end with simply ending a friendship.

If that happened, one of the two would have to die.

The one who killed Celine was Iria.

It was a long time ago, but I remembered.

After causing a catastrophe, she was the first human I ate.

Everyone can have secrets they can’t tell anyone.

But if Rena finds out that I am the one who killed Celine, how will she react?

It was also an old question.

***

The test results came out faster than expected.

I wasn’t interested in the middle and lower ranks, so I only read the names of the top ranks on the grade board in the central hallway.

As expected, I was in first place, and Lucia was second.

I messed up the written exam and did nothing in the practical exam, but I’m first.

Getting first place at the Imperial Academy may not be as difficult as I thought.

Except for the addition of Lucia’s name among the top students, it wasn’t much different from the entrance exam. Still, Rena’s grades had risen compared to before.

Perhaps it was because she defeated Wendy, who ranked fourth in the last duel.

Rena rose to fifth place, and Wendy dropped to sixth below her.

After that, Wendy couldn’t hold her head high like before.

Still, she seems to have become nicer than before.

There are two ways to make a nasty person nice.

The first is to beat them up with physical attacks, and the second is to beat them up with magical attacks.

Among them, Wendy was the latter.

While Lucia, who was as nasty as her, received physical therapy to become nice, Wendy received magical therapy.

She must have been quite embarrassed to be defeated in a duel in front of many people.

“…Tsk.”

When Wendy passed by and our eyes met, she avoided my gaze.

What.

Wasn’t it actually the first time seeing each other?

The influence of magical therapy seems to have reached this far.

I had no interest in weak people, so I ignored her equally.

If she appears in front of me again, I’ll take it as a sign that she wants to receive physical therapy as well.

As I stood still in front of the grade board, Lucia passed in front of me.

Of course, she couldn’t meet my eyes either.

As usual, she was leading her faction, but I didn’t see the arrogant expression she had when I first saw her.

She was watching my mood.

“Wh-what, what. I-I didn’t do anything this time, you know?”

“I didn’t say anything either.”

“D-don’t look at me with those eyes…”

“…”

Were my eyes that fierce?

I didn’t mean to glare at her.

This is also the effect of physical therapy.

Once a person becomes nice, they don’t pick fights anymore.

After checking the results and leaving the academy building, I walked towards the back alleys.

It was time to slowly return home.

After the exams, there were no classes for a few days.

In addition, the original holidays overlapped, so I didn’t have to go to the academy for quite a long time.

As a result, I had a lot of free time, but it’s not like I didn’t have plans.

It’s already been about two weeks since I last ate a person.

I guess there was a limit to surviving on the energy I got from the Demon King’s fragment.

I was starting to get hungry.

But I didn’t really want to kill humans.

Even now, I wasn’t killing because I liked it.

Rather than that, wouldn’t it be better to meet the monsters said to be in the underground of the Empire and ask them to hand over their Seed of Demon King?

It’s not like it assimilates with me and becomes inseparable.

The monster I saw in the practical lesson that day was like that, and I, who ate the fragment, was like that too.

I won’t die if I remove the fragment from my body.

So, if I’m lucky, I can buy time without killing anyone.

Maybe I can even find out information about myself.

According to Leonard, the monsters trapped in the underground of the Empire seem to have intelligence similar to humans.

I hoped I could communicate with them.

I had a lot of things I wanted to ask a senior who had lived longer as a monster than me.

For example, my constitution.

Or how to live without being discovered by humans.

Being the only one of a different race, dropped into an unknown world, and living alone was a very cruel thing.

For survival, I had to follow my instincts and move.

And by following my instincts, I had to kill people.

It was also lonely being the only one of a different race.

As a result, I think I wanted to meet someone of the same kind in a similar situation to me.

My idle thoughts were long.

“…”

Arriving home, I immediately lay down on the bed.

I was tired because I didn’t sleep yesterday.

I had to move busily when I woke up tomorrow.

To do that, it was right to fall asleep early like now.

And,

Just before falling asleep like that, Rena’s past came to mind.

The timing was a bit off, though.

It wasn’t anything grand.

That day.

The day I killed Celine, I met Rena.

She had the perspective of the victim who came to the back alley, and I was from the perspective of the perpetrator who killed her friend, gathered at the same place on the same day.

I don’t remember clearly, but I think I grabbed the human who came close to me with my hand.

And the distance between Celine and Rena wasn’t that far.

Then, if Rena had been one step ahead of Celine that day, would I have killed Rena instead of Celine?

If she had come one step closer and confirmed my face, would I have killed Rena along with Celine as a witness?

Today’s concerns were long, too.

Translator’s Corner

I’m finally back after my long trip abroad, so I can finally do consistent chapters. Yippie.

-Ruminas