I ate a knight.

It couldn’t be helped.
Lately, Iria hadn’t eaten anything due to the knight order’s restrictions.

The longest she could maintain her sanity without feeding on humans was a week.

Yesterday evening marked the seventh day, so the knight’s luck had run out.

“…”

Iria stood still, as if savoring the aftertaste of her meal.

She wiped the blood from her lips and licked it off her hand.
The sensation still felt foreign.

Killing and eating humans brought her body joy.
The taste of human blood sent a thrilling shiver through her.
In this moment, Iria felt alive as a living being.

But soon, she lowered her head.

Guilt gripped her, as if binding her for giving in to her desires and harming an innocent person.

Though she was a monster now, she had once been human.

It had been a year since she fell into this unfamiliar novel.

Now, she was Iria, a monster in this world.

A half-human, half-beast hybrid, she was a being of magic, inheriting human form but beastly traits.

She could only feed on humans; no other food could satisfy her.

So.

‘This one wasn’t the protagonist either.’

If she didn’t want to kill, she had to end this novel.

Even if it meant killing the protagonist, whose face she didn’t know.

*

The Central Empire’s Academy was as lively as ever.

It was a place that taught swordsmanship, magic, and various combat skills to spirited young students, so perhaps that was only natural.

A study from the Magic Tower claimed that training in real combat daily could make even the calmest person belligerent.

The Academy was always like that, training students to fight the growing number of beasts.

“Hey, listen to this! Another knight on patrol disappeared last night!”

“What? A knight?”

Even so, the classroom was unusually noisy today.

Had something shocking happened?
Iria, who had been napping, didn’t want to hear it and turned her head sharply.

“They say it’s causing a huge uproar. The knight order’s already short on manpower.”

“If even knights are disappearing, doesn’t that mean something’s really there?”

“I don’t know… It’s suddenly scary.”

A woman with striking blonde hair, Lena, said with a shiver.

A knight’s strength was far beyond that of an Academy student.

Naturally, joining the knight order required graduating from the Empire’s Academy, a testament to four years at the continent’s top institution.

Even within the Academy, the gap between first- and second-year students was significant due to time and experience.

A knight, trained for four years and seasoned in real combat, was beyond what a mere student could fathom.

“Iria, aren’t you scared?”

Lena nudged Iria, who seemed sluggish, likely tired.

“Huh? Oh… It’s scary…”

“You look exhausted. What were you up to last night?”

“Well… I was busy with some things. I didn’t get much sleep.”

Iria yawned, recalling the previous night.

She had been busy, indeed.
Cleaning up evidence.

By the time she finished, dawn had broken, and she had to head straight to school.

That’s why she was tired.
She hadn’t slept a wink.

Iria rubbed her sleepy eyes and mentally reviewed today’s lectures.

Basic Magic Studies, Applied Elemental Magic, and the rest were all swordsmanship-related.

Despite the mismatched subjects, she had enrolled in them for a reason.

It tied directly to why she had come to the Academy—to find the protagonist of the novel she was trapped in.

The protagonist was likely someone prominent, probably here at the Academy.

She didn’t know their face or name, but that wasn’t a problem.

Iria could read memories by meeting someone’s gaze.

Surely, someone with an extraordinary background was the protagonist, she concluded.

“…”

She didn’t expect to find them quickly, but doing something was better than nothing.

“Lena, could you look into my eyes for a moment?”

“Huh? Sure, but why?”

“Quickly.”

“Like this?”

“Hm…”

Lena wasn’t the protagonist either.
Iria turned away, slightly disappointed.

For students with no resistance to mental magic, meeting Iria’s eyes could cause psychological harm.

“That’s enough.”

“What was that about?”

“Nothing. You just look like you’ve had a tough life.”

“Iria, you don’t have any friends, do you?”

“…”

Their conversation turned mundane.

Iria was terrible at socializing, and Lena’s blunt truths were hard to counter.

But it wasn’t a bad feeling.

Iria was the one being verbally pummeled, but Lena was the only one who talked to her.

“Without me, you’d have no one to talk to.”

“Be quiet.”

Iria, who had been silent, flinched at the sharp jab.

Lena covered her mouth, giggling.
Iria was more fun to tease than expected.

But she stopped, sensing Iria might actually get upset.
Lena changed the subject.

“Anyway, be careful, Iria. They say it targets women walking alone.
You’re pretty, so you’d be an easy target.”

“If I avoid that area, it’s fine, right?”

“Not exactly. The knight order’s short-staffed, and even without the monster, that area’s always had bad crime.
Lately, there’ve been cases of young women being kidnapped and sold as slaves.”

“…”

Iria frowned slightly.

That wasn’t her doing.
Were there other residents in her alley?
It felt like her claimed territory was being invaded.

“Especially young women wandering near the alleys late at night—they should be cautious.
Not that anyone’s that foolish.”

Lena said with a laugh.

With crime so rampant, avoiding the area was the obvious choice.

That’s what Lena, with her normal human mindset, thought.

But Iria was different.

‘That’s me.’

She fit all three criteria: a young woman, out late, lingering near the alleys.

She briefly imagined what would happen if she encountered those criminals.

“Hm.”

Free food.

It seemed like a good deal.
Meeting them on her way home might not be bad news.

But showing excitement in front of Lena felt awkward.
Iria replied flatly,

“The world’s a dangerous place.”

Was she unaware she was the danger’s source?
Or was she just disinterested?

Rumors were just rumors.
They’d flare up and fade, regardless of truth.

Iria didn’t pay them much mind.

But.

“They say the knight order’s taking this seriously.”

“Taking it seriously?”

“With one of their own missing, they’re not dismissing it as rumors anymore.
They’re planning to send a large-scale subjugation force soon.”

“…”

That wasn’t something to brush off.

A large-scale subjugation force.
Iria quickly calculated in her head.

Even after a year in the alleys, that was too much for her to handle.

Her abilities worked best against a single target.
Clashing with the knight order was a hassle with no reward.

‘I’ll sleep somewhere else for a while.’

She chose to avoid them.

Having eaten yesterday, she wasn’t too hungry.

“Thanks for telling me.”

*

On her way home from the Academy, Iria stopped in front of the city’s fountain.

Someone in a familiar uniform blocked her path.

“Sorry, this area’s restricted.”

“…”

That was her way home.

Iria’s gaze shifted beyond.
There were more armed knights than she’d expected.

“Do you have business here?”

“No.”

Iria lost her home today.