The battle with Albert was more dangerous than I had expected.

 

I had rarely been hit like that by a human before. In fact, it was the same for all living creatures.

 

I never imagined a single human could deplete my stamina this much.

 

“……”

 

I used the stamina recovered from sucking Albert’s blood to regenerate my wounds.

 

Broken bones were mended, and burnt skin returned.

 

Of course, I couldn’t fully recover. At the end of the battle, I had forcefully spread my domain while in poor physical condition.

 

It had put a heavy strain on my body.

 

Not only had I used up a lot of my magical energy, but I had even shown Albert a hallucination using what I had left.

 

Perhaps because of that, my eyes hurt and my vision was red.

 

Something was flowing from my eyes, so I wiped it with my hand to check and found blood on it.

 

This was the second time this had happened.

 

Showing dreams to humans wasn’t without its limitations either. When used excessively like this time, I had to pay the price.

 

The Empire was stronger than I had thought. If there had been a few more humans with skills similar to Albert’s, even I couldn’t ensure victory.

 

I endured the pain and moved forward. It was the place Albert had been blocking me from going.

 

I felt magical energy flowing from all directions.

 

Breathing became relatively easier, so I didn’t feel bad.

 

I wiped the blood that had flowed from my eyes and looked around.

 

This is the seventh underground floor of the Empire’s headquarters. Closest to the bottom floor, but not quite the bottom.

 

But even here, I could feel magical energy. Looking around, I saw small monsters trapped in iron cages.

 

Why were they keeping them here? Is this part of the atrocity the Empire was committing behind the scenes?

 

From the point of keeping them alive in iron cages, to my eyes, there wasn’t much difference between slave traders and the Empire.

 

Aren’t humans and monsters the same living beings?

 

Why is it illegal to imprison humans but legal to imprison monsters when they’re the same creatures?

 

It seems the concept of good and evil I feel now is somewhat different from humans.

 

You go to prison for killing humans but are hailed as a hero for killing monsters.

 

Is a human who kills monsters a good being, and a monster who kills humans an evil being?

 

I couldn’t understand their standards of good and evil as I am now. Perhaps it’s because of the different way of thinking.

 

The monsters all looked ferocious, perhaps starving. They growled with glowing red eyes even at me, a fellow monster.

 

Do I become like them when I’m hungry too?

 

Come to think of it, I’ve never felt like I was going to die from hunger.

 

Maybe monsters are a species that can’t starve to death.

 

Of course, that doesn’t mean I plan to starve. I know from experience what state I end up in if I don’t eat anything for a long time.

 

One such disaster was enough.

 

“……”

 

I waved my hand lightly towards the monsters surrounding me.

 

I doubted whether the meaning of the greeting was properly conveyed.

 

They bared their teeth and growled, looking like they would attack me immediately if not for the iron bars.

 

Do monsters attack their own kind when they become ferocious from hunger? Is that why the shadow monster I saw before attacked me?

 

I don’t know.

 

Right now, I have too little information.

 

I knew too little about monsters.

 

That’s why I moved forward.

 

Below was a monster that knew at least more than I did.

 

Maybe it even knew about my existence.

 

***

 

With my eyes closed, passing through the corridor, the howling of the monsters sounded more realistic.

 

Is it because I’m the same kind of being as them that their cries sound so sorrowful? It was a bit difficult to ignore.

 

Can’t humans hear those sounds? The heartrending screams of beings writhing in pain.

 

I briefly considered setting them free but eventually gave up.

 

The monsters now had gone mad from prolonged starvation.

 

I know because I’ve been like that before. It’s best not to provoke them in that state.

 

They might rush at me first.

 

So I ignored them and moved on. My business wasn’t with them anyway.

 

The way down to the bottom floor was harder to find than I thought. At first glance, this building seemed to have the seventh underground floor as its bottom.

 

The eighth floor is hidden.

 

I probably would have had to smash my way down if I hadn’t read Albert’s memories.

 

Knowing the way down, such an unfortunate event didn’t occur.

 

I went down the stairs using the secret path.

 

The bottom floor of the underground was formed like one big room for the entire floor.

 

Instead of corridors leading to other places, there was just one huge space.

 

It was a wide-open area, clearly different in atmosphere from before.

 

It looked like a space existing solely to confine one being.

 

As I finished descending the stairs, a huge iron cage blocking the front stood out.

 

It was much thicker than the ones holding other monsters, and solidly sealed with mana inscriptions.

 

Even I would have a hard time breaking this.

 

When I grabbed and shook it, I could clearly feel how strong it was.

 

Well, the subject to be confined was no ordinary being. I was in the middle of looking around the interior of the bottom floor,

 

“…Who is it?”

 

A woman’s voice was heard from the underground where no one ever visits.

 

I turned my head toward the direction of the voice.

 

“……”

 

As I had somewhat expected, the being that spoke to me wasn’t human.

 

Golden hair slightly resembling Rena’s and red eyes.

 

It resembled human form but was a bit different. Humans usually don’t have horns on their heads.

 

Today, for the first time, I was able to face a monster that could speak.

 

It was quite a difficult process.

 

***

 

She was a bit different from the monsters upstairs.

 

There were several differences, but the biggest was that she didn’t show hostility towards me.

 

To be more precise, she wasn’t in a berserk state. She was looking at me while fully maintaining her reason.

 

When I expressed doubt about this, she answered.

 

“The ones upstairs are disposable test subjects, so they’re not fed properly.”

 

“……”

 

So, the condition for going berserk was indeed extreme hunger.

 

I learned something I didn’t know. I should be careful, too, as I could become like that anytime.

 

It seems she’s receiving special treatment here. For one thing, she had an entire floor to herself.

 

It looked like she was even provided with separate meals.

 

Of course, that doesn’t mean her life looked comfortable.

 

Her body was in a state that couldn’t be described as good, even as a polite lie. It was full of bruises and needle marks all over.

 

Most of her clothes were torn, almost like just a ragged mat covering her body.

 

And above all, you could tell by looking at her eyes.

 

My eyes were too tired today to read deep memories, but overall, her eyes looked dull.

 

She must have been subjected to treatment too harsh to express in words. After all, all the monsters captured here were said to be for live experiments.

 

This is what I read from Albert’s memories:

 

The Empire was conducting research on the power of the Demon King.

 

How could a single being possess such vast power? What was the source of that enormous power?

 

The nameless monster in front of my eyes now seemed to be the subject of that research.

 

“D-Don’t come closer!”

 

She seemed quite wary of me approaching, but I had no intention of harming her.

 

In the end, only after I stepped back and maintained a certain distance was smooth conversation possible.

 

“How did you come here? It’s such a deep place. It shouldn’t be easy to find……”

 

“I came to meet you. Humans won’t come for a while.”

 

“Me?”

 

I nodded.

 

Her wariness toward me strengthened, but I didn’t mind much. I was planning to leave as soon as I got the answers I wanted anyway.

 

This time, I asked her questions. There were more than one or two things I wanted to ask.

 

“Do you know who I am?”

 

“……? How would I know that?”

 

Was my question wrong?

 

I slowly corrected my question.

 

“I’m a monster like you. Do you know what kind of monster I am?”

 

“You’re a monster? You don’t look like one…… Aren’t you human?”

 

She tilted her head and asked back.

 

It would have been nice if I were human as she said, but normally humans don’t eat humans. They can’t handle magical energy either, and they’re not unable to eat food other than blood or human flesh.

 

Therefore, I am not human. Regrettably so.

 

“Humans can’t handle magical energy.”

 

“I guess that’s true… Then what are you?”

 

“……?”

 

“I’m saying this because you seem to be misunderstanding something, but you’re not a monster. Should I say you’re mixed with something? What’s certain is that you’re definitely not a pure monster.”

 

I heard shocking words from the beginning.

 

Her eyes weren’t lying. There was no reason for her to lie in this situation anyway.

 

I listened carefully to her words.