The next morning dawned.

 

The hunger that had been slowly tightening around me since about two days ago began to intensify.

 

It was natural. I really hadn’t eaten anything since falling into this world.

 

It was impressive that I had endured until now. This body seemed to have a longer hunger cycle than other people.

 

It was a body that could go without eating for a few days without any problems. By my estimation, once every three days.

 

No, it seemed like I could eat even less than that.

 

The problem was that I didn’t know what kind of food would satisfy my hunger. Ordinary food didn’t agree with my body.

 

At first, I thought all the foods in this world tasted disgusting, but seeing Riana eating so deliciously, that didn’t seem to be the case.

 

Even the appearance looked fine.

 

Then, with high probability, the problem wasn’t the food but my constitution.

 

I approached Riana, who was having breakfast.

 

I felt like I would start having problems with daily life if I didn’t eat soon.

 

Even though I knew I couldn’t eat, I tried to at least smell it. It seemed to have a strangely sweet scent.

 

“Hm? Iria, are you hungry? I bought two, thinking you might be hungry, so have one.”

 

What she gave me was a hard-looking bread.

 

Of course, it didn’t look delicious. Being the cheapest option, it probably wasn’t very tasty even disregarding my constitution.

 

But there was a sweet smell coming from the bread. Maybe I could eat it.

 

“……”

 

I received the hard bread with both hands. As I brought it closer, I felt my appetite drop.

 

Before I even put the bread in my mouth, my body had a rejection reaction. As I had somewhat expected, this bread wasn’t food I could eat either.

 

Then where did that sweet scent that brushed my nose come from? I looked around for a moment.

 

And not long after, I was able to find what seemed to be the source.

 

“Riana, you’re hurt.”

 

“Hm? Oh, this? I fell while being chased by a guard earlier. It’s just a little scratch, so it’s fine.”

 

Red blood was flowing from Riana’s arm.

 

For some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. My gaze was captured by the small amount of blood flowing from the wound.

 

I swallowed the saliva pooled in my mouth. I seemed to have been out of it for a while.

 

“Um… Iria?”

 

“Yes, yes?”

 

“Are you really okay? Your eyes looked a bit scary just now.”

 

“No, that’s not… it’s……”

 

I hurriedly turned my head away.

 

The appetite that had been fine in front of human food seemed to boil at the sight of blood.

 

It was probably the source of the sweet scent. I wanted to put it in my mouth. Now that I looked, Riana’s skin also looked soft, and the thought of biting it once with my teeth crossed my mind.

 

My teeth itched with the desire to immediately put that passing thought into action.

 

My vision was dizzy, and my heart was beating fast. My breathing was rapid.

 

“Iria?”

 

So, I stepped back and distanced myself from Riana.

 

I didn’t want to admit that I had felt hungry at the sight of her blood for a moment.

 

“I, I’m fine. I’ll go ahead first. See you in the evening.”

 

It must have been just my imagination.

 

I wasn’t a monster that got excited at the sight of blood.

 

“……”

 

I shouldn’t be.

 

I suppressed the rising hunger.

 

It was a body that had no problems even after not eating for 4 days. I didn’t think I would die if I starved a little longer like this.

 

***

 

On the 6th day since falling into this world, I could see myself somewhat accustomed to life here.

 

I had learned the basic rules necessary for living.

 

Things like how it’s more efficient to hit it big once at a gambling den than stealing things or which places to sleep to avoid dangerous people.

 

Of course, cheating at a gambling den was also a life-risking act.

 

The underground gambling den in the back alley was operated by a fairly famous organization in this area.

 

I heard that if you’re caught cheating in any form, they cut off your wrist.

 

So I couldn’t carelessly use my power either.

 

Even if they couldn’t catch definitive evidence, if I won money consecutively, they were the type to cut off wrists just on suspicion.

 

I had to be careful.

 

It was a place anyone could enter, but it was virtually no different from a lawless zone.

 

I heard that the deepest part of Dusty Lane wasn’t even within the patrol radius of the knights. It felt like a secret place known only to those in the know.

 

But I had to go to make money. Stealing things had a high risk of getting caught compared to the small amount you could earn.

 

In the end, there was a limit to making money with the ability to read memories.

 

“……”

 

But even considering that, today’s gambling was a bit strange.

 

It might have been understandable once or twice, but it was a day where I kept losing hands.

 

The cards I got weren’t bad, but I kept losing games by a hair’s breadth.

 

Even when I occasionally got a winning game, the opponent, somehow knowing, didn’t raise the stakes much.

 

So, I became impatient. I was noticeably losing. Even though I was using my ability.

 

The man sitting across from me said with a sneer.

 

“Kuku, you usually win well, but I guess you’re unlucky today?”

 

“……”

 

This man is using trickery.

 

I had been suspicious for a while, but it didn’t take long for that suspicion to turn into certainty.

 

I saw the gambling den staff around, subtly giving him signals.

 

It seems they remembered my face after I won money a few times.

 

It wasn’t a good sign, so I thought I should win just once more and leave quickly.

 

This turn, I got a winning game that hadn’t come up for a while, and the stakes were quite high.

 

Let’s just take this and run away. And never come here again after this.

 

“I’ll go all in.”

 

But it was a mistake.

 

It was a trap I could have recognized if I had thought more calmly.

 

But I was impatient. Composure comes from having money in your wallet. The fact that my head wasn’t working properly due to prolonged starvation also played a part.

 

Seeing my money gradually decrease, I made a mistake in my nervousness. I was in front of a criminal organization that could do anything.

 

“How curious. You’re betting all your money with that hand? Where does that confidence come from?”

 

“…It’s a bluff. I got lucky.”

 

“Really? You look pretty certain for a bluff.”

 

Sensing that something had gone wrong, I tried to leave immediately.

 

Safety was more important than money after all.

 

But I couldn’t. Large men blocked my way as I tried to leave.

 

Then they grabbed me tightly so I couldn’t escape. My whole body was restrained, and I couldn’t move.

 

“Bring the axe.”

 

The man who had been watching the whole scene from the beginning said. He looked like the leader of the organization.

 

He took the axe handed to him by his subordinate and slowly approached.

 

My arm was held by the men, fixed in place.

 

“Ugh, ungh……”

 

With my whole body pressed down by my hands, my chin was lifted. Thus, I made eye contact with the sharp-looking man.

 

“I hate bitches like you the most in this world. We let you win a few times, and you come back here not knowing your place? Did I look that easy to you?”

 

The sharp axe blade traced my neck.

 

It was clear killing intent. I knew from seeing what had happened to those caught in the gambling den before.

 

That’s why I was more scared. Because I knew what the next scene would be like.

 

“You know what happens when you cheat here, right?”

 

My hand would be cut off. Brutally chopped off with an axe.

 

My body trembled with the extreme fear that was coming over me. I resisted with all my might, but I still couldn’t escape from the enormous weight pressing down on me.

 

Several men, much bigger than me, were holding me down.

 

They were holding me loosely now, but they were probably controlling their strength.

 

Still, I didn’t want my wrist to be cut off, so I resisted more violently.

 

“Ugh, how can a woman be this strong? Help me hold her down!”

 

“The legs, grab her legs first!”

 

They were big but not as strong as I had thought.

 

I could barely shake them off, but their expressions looked strained.

 

Maybe Iria’s body that I had possessed was stronger than it looked.

 

“Let me go!”

 

Thinking I needed to escape before more people came, I bit the arm of the man holding me with my teeth.

 

It was a half-instinctive action.

 

“Ugh! You bitch-!”

 

Iria’s tooth structure was slightly different from that of other people. Her canine teeth were sharply protruding, so they easily pierced human skin.

 

The strength holding me loosened as I bit down with all my might. I tried to escape from the gambling den right away, but I couldn’t because my vision was dizzy.

 

My heart was beating faster than ever, and my eyes were hot.

 

If someone else were looking at me now, light would be coming from my eyes. Because the light slightly leaking from my eyes was reflecting off objects.

 

Red eyes flickered.

 

The man whose arm I had bitten swung an axe at me.

 

It was an attack filled with heavy killing intent.

 

Normally, I would have ducked my head immediately in terror, but it was different now.

 

The axe flying towards me looked so slow. It was coming slowly, like in slow motion.

 

I could have dodged, but I caught it midway.

 

I thought I could catch such a slowly flying axe with my hand.

 

I grabbed it and then broke it.

 

It wasn’t intentional, but it just broke when I gripped it tightly.

 

“……I told you to let go.”

 

Was it because I had eaten a small amount of blood?

 

I don’t think I was in my right mind today.