Lily guided us to a place that wasn’t all that far from where she discovered Mizushima Miho’s corpse.
“...What’s going on?”
I scowled in confusion. There was a small hut in the middle of this dangerous forest. It was clearly suspicious. Why was there a hut out here? And why hadn’t the monsters destroyed it yet? It seemed to me like the monsters would have gotten in the way of its construction...
I headed toward the hut even as such doubts passed my mind, when for some reason, Lily and Rose, who were walking in front of me, came to a sudden stop.
“What’s up?”
“We can’t get any closer.”
According to Lily, the two of them were assaulted by an unpleasant feeling when they approached the hut. I did think it was strange for a hut to be here, but it seemed there was some sort of trick which kept monsters at bay.
As such, I ended up going toward the hut on my own. So long as Lily and Rose couldn’t approach it, neither could other monsters. That’s why there weren’t any particular problems for me to be on my own.
As I got closer, I could hear the voices of cackling men and a screaming woman. Their voices were young, meaning they were likely students who were transported to this world with me.
“...So it wasn’t just Mizushima Miho.”
Mysteriously, my heart remained calm. It was like listening to a group of dogs.
I see. So I don’t even see them as the same as me.
Well, that only stood to reason. I may have been nothing more than a monster who thought nothing of humans, but they were utter scum who were even beneath humans.
I felt a slight sense of relief. With this, I could kill them without hesitation. I went on to investigate the place where Lily’s unpleasant feeling was most prominent. The mental path between us was convenient in its own way, but being able to hold a conversation was a major step up. We could share information on an entirely different level like this.
Before long, I discovered a small, transparent stone buried not too far from the hut itself. The stone had some manner of intricate letters engraved on it. My guess was this was some sort of magical item. I had never heard of such items while I was in the Colony, but it made sense if this was a possession of the hut’s original owner.
This fact informed me of a simple yet important truth. There were humans here other than us students. Thinking back on it, it was possible that the first expeditionary force had found such traces of humanity in the forest, which was what triggered their impulse to leave and find a human settlement.
It seemed the humans of this world knew of concepts foreign to us to keep monsters at bay. It was surely a wonderful item. Unfortunately, I had no means of understanding how wonderful it actually was, so I had no idea as to its worth.
That was exactly why I didn’t hesitate in crushing it. It was entirely possible this stone was extremely valuable, but right now it was nothing but a hindrance. A safe zone was an attractive proposition, but it was useless to me as long as I was acting in concert with monsters.
There was no mistaking that these students would be killed in a few days like this. There was no need for me to dirty my own hands. However, even if there wasn’t a need, it would be irresponsible of me not to.
“Slaughter everyone except for the person who’s being attacked.”
I didn’t feel any anguish when I passed my order down to Lily and Rose. I really wanted to use magic to simply blow up the entire hut, but I was unable to do so because of the presence of a victim. I hated humans, but I didn’t plan on killing a girl who had done nothing wrong.
“Oh, hang on.”
I called my companions to a stop right before they stormed into the hut.
“Torment them as much as you can. Also, you finish them off, Lily. As long as you have the leisure to do so, that is.”
“Hm...? Okay.”
There may have been no meaning in doing this. I didn’t know whether the dead Mizushima Miho would have desired it. However, this was the only thing I could do for her now.
“Alright, go!”
The two monsters kicked down the door at my command. There were three schoolboys inside, and all of them turned toward us in shock.
“Do it.”
Rose charged in fiercely and kicked the boy who was pinning down the girl. She probably wasn’t aiming for it or anything, but he screamed in agony from having his jewels crushed. The other boys completely froze up. They surely never thought monsters would attack them here. This was their paradise. But now it was their execution site.
Lily jumped in with her spear at the ready. “Here we go!”
“Gyaaah?!”
The boys were unable to put up any resistance as their arms and legs were crushed, cut to pieces, and torn apart. Bright red blood gushed out like a geyser as agonizing cries filled the air. It was hell on earth. As blood danced in the air, I stepped foot into the hut, took off my blazer, and placed it atop the girl who was being attacked.
“You’re...”
She seemed to be younger than me. She had a pretty face, but right now it was sullied by all manner of things.
“It’s alright. I don’t plan on hurting you.”
She looked up at me, a strange color within her eyes. However, the girl lost consciousness before I could get a read on the meaning behind that. Her dainty body collapsed into my chest. Both her body and mind were surely at their limits. I undid the ropes which bound her arms behind her as Lily was just about to finish the immobilized boys.
“It hurts... It hurts... Why...? How...? How are you alive?! Aaaaah...!” the last boy yelled as Lily brought down her spear.
“Wait. I have something I want to ask him.”
Lily stopped. I took the weapon from her and grasped the boy’s face to make him look up at me.
“Ugh... Please... Save me... I’m begging you... Ow... It hurts...”
“Answer me if you want me to save you.”
He was clearly in severe pain, but I didn’t feel a thing. I was surprised at how cruel my own voice was.
“Is it just you three? Do you have any other friends with you?”
“There’s nobody... It’s just us... Aah! It hurts! It huuurts!”
It seemed they had no other allies. That was good. As a worst-case scenario, I’d thought of the possibility of them having a cheater at hand, but I was apparently just overthinking things.
“I-I answered you! Save me!”
“Hm? Oh, right.”
I did say something like that, didn’t I? I nodded as the boy looked me in the eyes while pleading for his life... and stabbed him in the throat with my spear. He screamed through a fit of choking, coughing, and gagging.
“Well, suffer as much as you can.”
The boy’s eyes shot wide open with disbelief. I gazed at his despair for a short while and then twisted the spear. With that, the light vanished from his eyes.
There was no way I was going to keep my hands clean after ordering Lily to kill them. I intended to kill at least one of them on my own from the very beginning. This was my very first act of murder. From the very moment I resolved myself to survive in this world, I believed this moment would come. And now that I had done it, it felt far too quick. But what came after everything had finished was far more troublesome.
“Lily,” I said with a sigh. “Clean up the bodies. Just throw them out somewhere into the forest.”
Lily looked at me curiously. “Is it okay not to eat them?”
I shook my head. “It feels sickening to think of these guys remaining within you. Don’t do it.”
These boys were surely also cheaters. The abilities they were unable to bring out before death could have been fairly powerful. If Lily were to take in their bodies, it was entirely possible she could obtain such powers.
However, that would be a betrayal to Mizushima Miho. She would surely have hated being inside Lily together with those guys... I also hated the idea. I felt like it would sully Lily. Moreover, I had fears that taking them in would trigger a change in her. Judging from her use of the word “records,” she stored their memories and personalities in a place cut off from her own mind. But I still had fears about this, and such fears needed to be eliminated.
“Rose, take care of this girl. Clean her up and put her in bed.”
Rose kneeled before me and bowed at my command.
“What will you do, Master?” Lily asked as she started her “work.”
“I’ll... have to do something about this mess, I guess.”
The floors, walls, and even the ceiling were stained with blood. Considering how this girl, whose name I didn’t even know, might react to the sight, it would be better to clean it all up. I also disliked the idea of sleeping with the room in such a state. This bloody scene was the location of a tragedy.
“...”
A dull headache suddenly assaulted me, and I grabbed my head. My eyes met those of the boy I killed. His vacant gaze was pointed directly at me... That was, of course, just a hallucination. It was nothing more than an illusion my weak heart was showing me.
No, hang on. Wait a sec. Am I weak?
“Are you alright, Master?”
“...I’m fine.”
That’s right, I’m fine. I’m fine.
I repeated those words to myself over and over. I couldn’t afford to be crushed by guilt here. That was the responsibility I had to bear for taming Lily and Rose, for using Mizushima Miho’s corpse, and for massacring the students here.
I would have been better off dying in that cave if I was unable to take responsibility for such things.
“I’m fine.”
I immersed myself in cleaning up the bloodied hut. Even I could tell I was running away from something by doing so.