I was small in stature, with thin arms.

 

In contrast, those surrounding me were numerous, large in build, and even armed with weapons.

 

But why?

 

For some reason, they didn’t seem threatening. Surprisingly, not at all.

 

I took a step forward towards them.

 

Then, they took a step back.

 

It was an attitude similar to that of beasts who turned their backs on me instead of charging.

 

“Are you afraid of me?”

 

There was no answer.

 

Their gazes on me were piercing. Their trembling eyes, filled with terror, were as if they were looking at something inhuman.

 

Am I not human?

 

This was the sprout of doubt that had been slowly blooming for a few days.

 

It was gradually turning into certainty.

 

The humans I knew weren’t fine after starving for days.

 

The humans I knew didn’t have the ability to catch and crush a flying axe with one hand, nor did they have their appetite stirred by the sight of blood.

 

And,

 

If I were human, my body wouldn’t have reacted so extremely to the small amount of blood I accidentally drank.

 

“M-monster……”

 

Those were the words that escaped from the mouth of one of those looking at me.

 

His words might be right.

 

The current state of my body was far from human by any measure, so I couldn’t deny his words.

 

My head felt like it was about to split.

 

It seemed to be because I had tasted blood in an extremely starved state.

 

Even though I knew in my head that it shouldn’t be done, my body was craving human blood.

 

It might have been different if I hadn’t tasted it at all, but perhaps because I had tasted too little, I felt even more desperate.

 

My body was heating up regardless of my will.

 

Now, I seemed to know clearly what my body wanted.

 

I wanted to eat humans. Iria, the original owner of this body, was a monster that lived by eating humans.

 

‘One person…… One person should be fine, right…? I was really so hungry, eating just one person should be……’

 

After all, aren’t those people extremely bad people?

 

They were people who routinely cut off people’s wrists. Besides running gambling dens, they were an organization that made money through various evil deeds.

 

Literally, they were humans who deserved to die. They were the ones who tried to cut off my wrist, too.

 

Iria’s body, now fully heated, was craving murder.

 

With my reason half-paralyzed now, I felt like I would go crazy with the desire to kill someone right away.

 

But,

 

“Ugh……”

 

I couldn’t do that.

 

The other party was human. Not some other animal, but the same as–no, what I used to be.

 

For whatever reason, I didn’t want to become a murderer.

 

I wanted to kill humans, but I didn’t want to kill humans.

 

My body wanted it, but the ‘me’ possessing this body didn’t want it.

 

-Crunch!

 

To satisfy the itching canines that wanted to bite into a person, I bit my own arm.

 

Along with a sharp pain, blood flowed. I didn’t drink it. Unlike others’ blood, my own blood really tasted bad.

 

I just thought that feeling pain might bring back my numbed reason somewhat.

 

The effect was somewhat there. This was the first pain I felt since falling into this world.

 

Iria’s canines hurt. More than I had thought.

 

“It’s better if you don’t keep moving there. Unless you want to see this girl’s head cut off.”

 

“Kyaak?!”

 

The man, having figured out that I wouldn’t move for a while, put a knife to the neck of the pink-haired girl he had grabbed from his subordinate and spoke.

 

It was Riana.

 

I had told her not to follow me inside, as the interior of the gambling den could be dangerous, and to wait outside.

 

It seemed one of the man’s subordinates had caught her waiting outside.

 

“Kekek, this is your friend, right? These days, your story is famous in Dusty Lane. One is a gambling fraud, and the other is a petty thief, they say.”

 

“……”

 

“I heard two orphan girls were running around doing all sorts of crazy things just to survive? Sorry, but no one here is on your side. This is a lawless zone, after all! A criminal killing another criminal is a common thing here!”

 

He said with a loud laugh.

 

Every word was true. Although we did it to survive, Riana and I had indeed committed minor crimes.

 

The only difference was that our crimes were slightly less severe than theirs, but in the eyes of ordinary people, we were all the same villains.

 

Then, is it a bad thing for a villain to kill another villain?

 

From the perspective of a good person, it’s just one piece of trash being erased from the world.

 

Rather, if they fought each other and their numbers decreased, it would be a welcome thing.

 

That’s why we couldn’t receive the protection of the law. Even if we were caught and killed by them here, no one would look into it, nor would anyone mourn for us.

 

Maybe I never had the right to criticize him from the beginning.

 

In a neighborhood where law doesn’t exist, there are only the weak and the strong.

 

You can only ponder who is good or bad when you have the luxury to do so.

 

They were strong, and we were weak.

 

I decided to comply with the result that came out like that.

 

“……I’ll go, so please let that child go.”

 

“You should have said that from the beginning.”

 

I raised both hands above my head, indicating surrender. The man tied me up with a leering smile.

 

After that, I was moved somewhere with my whole body tied up.

 

***

 

A bit differently from what was promised, they didn’t release Riana.

 

But I didn’t resist. Because right now, the target of their anger was only me. Riana was just watching me, tied up somewhere else.

 

And I was hanging from the ceiling with both hands chained.

 

Like a human punching bag.

 

-Whack!!

 

A sound like hitting a person with a heavy club rang out.

 

Surprisingly, it was a sound coming from my body. It seems this was the price for biting their organization member with my teeth.

 

I was hanging there, taking the violence coming from all directions.

 

Of course, it hurt.

 

Regardless of the body’s own durability, being hit in a defenseless state fully transmitted the pain to me.

 

I was beaten all over with a wooden club with several nails in it.

 

It hurt even to be hit normally, but when I was occasionally hit with the protruding part of a nail, blood came out of my body.

 

Wounds scratched by nails were engraved, and pierced wounds were also noticeable. Naturally, most of my clothes had been torn for a long time.

 

It was quite a miserable feeling.

 

-Whack!!

 

A dull reverberation spread along with the red blood splattering in all directions.

 

I don’t know how much time has passed. Covered in blood, I just hoped for this time to end quickly.

 

Would it be better to die like this?

 

In fact, my hunger was more painful than the pain of being beaten. The extreme hunger that swallowed the pain was enough to swallow reason.

 

At this point, one of us, him or me, should have died here.

 

But since I couldn’t kill people, I thought it might be better if I died instead.

 

“You’re tougher than I thought. Not screaming even in that state.”

 

That’s because I would get hungry again if I screamed.

 

I didn’t have the strength for that either.

 

From far away, Riana’s scream mixed with crying could be heard. Is she worried about me even though she’s captured too?

 

If I die here, it might be her turn next.

 

My feelings were a bit complicated.

 

I didn’t care much about dying myself, but I didn’t want Riana to die.

 

She was the person who helped me when I was confused after falling into this world not long ago.

 

I don’t know about others, but at least to me, she was a good person.

 

It was enough for me alone to experience this.

 

I didn’t want her to get involved.

 

“……”

 

I had two choices now.

 

The first was to kill those here and escape, and the second was to die here with Riana.

 

It was the most difficult crossroads. Because I hated both sides. Literally, it was a situation where only the worst choices existed.

 

Even after thinking for a long time, I couldn’t choose.

 

At least not as I was now.

 

In the end, since I couldn’t choose, I decided to leave the choice to Iria, the body’s owner.

 

I am tired of enduring.

 

So I closed my eyes and killed my reason.

 

As the reason that had been suppressing instinct disappeared, Iria’s body started moving on its own.

 

For a moment, it felt as if the control of the body had been handed over.

 

If anything I chose would be the worst, I would follow what instinct told me to do.

 

Just before losing consciousness like that, the last thing I heard was the sound of chains breaking.

 

***

 

It was a place covered with red stains everywhere.

 

Human blood and flesh were rolling on the floor, dyeing the surroundings red.

 

It’s a cruel scene.

 

At least, that’s how it looked to me.

 

When I came to my senses, everything was already settled.

 

The hunger that had been strangling me was resolved, and all humans in this area except me and Riana were dead.

 

It took quite a long time to grasp and understand all the situations.

 

It was probably my doing.

 

My figure was faintly reflected in the broken window’s glass fragment.

 

A monster with blood on both hands and around the mouth was standing. The red eyes that had been glowing were a little calmer than before.

 

The lost reason returned.

 

When I came to my senses, I was standing in a field of blood.

 

And,

 

“I-Iria……”

 

Riana was sitting in front of me, her body trembling.

 

It was eyes filled with terror. Only this time, I was the target.

 

She was feeling fear looking at me. Just that alone made me feel sick.

 

I actually wanted to ask.

 

Why are you looking at me with those eyes? What happened while I was unconscious?

 

But I couldn’t. If I had heard the answer, I wouldn’t have been able to turn back anymore.

 

First, I reached out my hand to help her up.

 

“D-don’t come!”

 

But I was rejected.

 

Perhaps it was because my hands were thickly covered with human blood.

 

Terrified, she was looking at me with eyes as if seeing a monster. We couldn’t even communicate.

 

Even though Riana had run away and disappeared somewhere, I couldn’t move from that spot for a while.

 

The first murder I committed was like a dream.

 

Everything felt unreal, and it remained only as a faint memory.

 

I wished it had been a dream.

 

It was a long nightmare.