I Became the Wrong Race

89 – Predation on Kin (10)

I couldn’t understand. I could understand that they were asking for Isla to be eaten, but the opposite?

“It’s simple. Either you eat me, or I eat you.”

I didn’t understand why they were doing that. So I didn’t even know if I was getting anything.

“Is the reason important?”

It’s important. Not important.

In the end, it is I who live in the world, and it is also my perspective that looks at this world.

Reason, justification, reason.

It was what I needed to convince myself. And it was obvious what would happen if I went down a path I didn’t understand.

It was still like that now. I knew what was going to happen so clearly that I could feel it.

You won’t understand at first. You will regret it. So, we will be looking into various possibilities.

If it had been like this.

What would it have been like if it had been like that?

Wouldn’t it be better?

Now that I think about it, it might have been better. Those thoughts would have eaten away at me from the inside and made my mind sick.

It must have been broken like that.

If you tried to live somehow with a broken spirit, you would have broken.

It was a natural result that you would reach if you tried to somehow use something that was broken.

After that, it changes completely. Accepting reality by distorting it in order to survive even if it is a broken spirit.

I was afraid of that.

“Either way, it’s fine as long as it stays in my mother’s hands. It’s okay if it’s not me.”

In that sense, Selma was a type of person I couldn’t understand.

I found out why. I also knew why. But I couldn’t sympathize.

If I die, everything will end. No matter what happens next, no matter what happens, it’s out of my responsibility and I can’t do anything.

I hated death. It was okay to say it was scary.

But to accept such death so easily.

It was a corner I couldn’t understand.

It’s not even an ordinary death.

“Are you afraid of death?”

Isn’t that true for everyone? It seemed like no one wanted to die.

It was terrible to even be eaten by one’s own flesh and blood.

I was wondering if only a small portion of it would work, or only a small amount of it would work and then move on.

“No. If there is even a little bit left, the transaction is over.”

From what I’m saying, it seems like there is a way to do something even if it’s incapacitated by eating almost all of it and quitting.

I felt dizzy and uncomfortable at the idea of completely eating it.

He didn’t even want to think about whether humans would be completely eaten.

The most painful thing was that I couldn’t say that this was my choice, so to speak.

“It’s one of two things. Eat me, or eat me.”

It sounded like the problem of Isla and Selma. But I couldn’t just ignore it.

How can I feel good about leaving the question of whether I have a choice and urging me to make a choice?

After dawn, my worries did not end easily until morning came.

Selma had retreated into her past, and only the words she left behind were haunting me like her ghost.

I faced Isla.

All of this still felt like Isla and Selma’s problem rather than my problem.

So I spoke frankly to Isla. Everything was delivered.

“… Really?”

It was rare for Isla to speak like this. Although it was a worthy situation.

“Can you tell me?”

Isla asked me.

It was as if he was saying that.

Wouldn’t it be easier if I made my own decisions and didn’t tell you?

I said. Rather, it’s the opposite. If you hadn’t told me, I would have had to keep worrying about it.

To put it in a bad way, I wanted to pass it on.

Isla looked puzzled by my attitude. From that point on, she it was different from Selma.

Selma’s expression was clear. It can be said that it is an expression that makes it clear what he is thinking and what he wants just by looking at it.

On the other hand, if you look closely at Isla, you can see parts of her emotions.

The happy expression he sometimes made had to be really noticeable to be visible, and when he stared sullenly without saying anything, it was difficult to tell whether he was dissatisfied or observing.

But maybe it was because we had known each other for a month, so I could vaguely recognize it.

Isla wanted to believe in me.

However, I was conflicted because the situation did not allow that.

In the end, it was a conflict that would never end.

Even after time passed and she arrived in front of Selma, Isla’s expression she remained the same.

“Have you decided?”

Selma said. The place where the laboratory was once located has become close to ruin.

It was full of signs of reckless use, breaking, and rioting.

When I looked closely, the blood stains were spread out. Was she eaten, or was she just killed?

I couldn’t figure it out. It might be closer to the fact that she didn’t want to know.

“Before I decide… There are things I want to ask.”

“Try it.”

Selma is sitting proud now. She told me a lot last night.

“What happens if Isla doesn’t want to eat?”

There is a lot to be gained if I accept her request

“Unless I want to force Isla. So if you want to let Isla have her way, what happens?”

So all I have to do is close her eyes or convince Isla.

To be honest, it’s easier said than done, but the choice itself was difficult.

Convince Isla to choose whether she is to be eaten or not.

It was nonsense.

It was very absurd in that there were only two options, but Selma’s will not break.

She didn’t seem to want to come up with her third answer.

“Then it would depend on her sister’s wishes.”

Selma’s eyes turn to Isla. Her twin sister, who had been separated for who knows how long, now locked eyes with her.

Above Isla’s expressionless expression, there was anxiety and a faint fear.

On the other hand, beneath Selma’s menacing smile, there was joy, anticipation, and even jealousy.

Even though their emotions were so different, their facial expressions were similar.

There was a history there that I didn’t know about.

A history that the sisters experienced and that separated them forever.

It was something I didn’t know. I just vaguely felt it.

Those who have died by my hands so far have been similar. Everyone had a past that I didn’t know about.

Each person came to that place with a different decision.

I remembered one of them.

“Red Beast Hertol.”

Selma’s eyes turn to me. I said, looking into her blue-gray eyes.

“Why did that person become like that?”

There was no sound of not knowing who it was or what it was saying.

Instead, Selma smiled brightly.

“Even though you knew her mother, you disobeyed her. “I refuse both eating and being eaten.”

Then she closes her mouth and looks at me.

As if the third option would not be tolerated.

I looked into her eyes and then turned her head.

Isla was already looking at me.

“Lu.”

He holds out her hand and takes it. Her expression softened, as if she felt quite comforted by that alone, but the situation did not change.

A difficult choice awaited.

“There is no reason to refuse.”

Selma said as she looked at us. She was sitting with her legs crossed arrogantly on the remains of the laboratory that had literally become the head table.

“I want to live, and I want there to be no crisis. If you like your sister, do it. Choose her sister.”

It was just as Selma said. If you didn’t like Selma and the bond you built with Isla was more important, you could choose Isla.

Or is it really so?

Do I really have to choose between the two?

Does it have to end in a way where one side has to make an inhumane choice?

I raised my head in doubt.

“Isla.”

“… Yes.”

“What do you want to do?”

Isla gaped at my question. She lowered her tail, laid her ears down, and watched me.

It was clear that he was worrying about how to answer so as not to get angry, or thinking about how to help me.

“Don’t think about me. “I want to hear what you want to do.”

Isla and I have been together for only a month.

One month was not enough time to fully understand a person.

But I could tell to some extent.

The Isla I knew was not a cruel person.

She did not kill unless it was necessary. In this terrible dark fantasy, he was no different from a saint.

Would it be right for Isla to eat her younger brother without leaving even a single bone behind her?

I don’t know if she wanted it herself, but Isla didn’t seem like the kind of person who would want that.

“I am…”

Isla hesitated while holding my hand. Her her touch her her her, tightly entwined between her fingers her her her, was affectionate yet fragile.

She was different from Selma.

“I am…”

She can’t continue speaking. She just quietly lowered her gaze, closed her eyes, and lamented with her sighing breath.

Looking at it reminded me of the first time we met.

‘You can call me older sister.’

Isla said so. Only now did she realize that what had crossed that expression was something closer to longing.

‘It’s a shame.’

Isla was really disappointed.

Now I know why. After she left, she missed her sister, and maybe she missed that relationship.

So, that hesitation could be said to be an answer in itself.

It’s such an ambiguous answer that I don’t want to choose either way.

“Selma.”

“… I hope not.”

“I decided.”

Selma is silent. Her eyes met mine.

In the place where the faint madness receded, jealousy appeared clearly. It was too deep a jealousy to be directed at my sister.

That is jealously directed at me.

It was me, not Isla, that Selma was jealous of.

I am next to Isla, trusted by Isla.

“It will all be in vain. Everyone will become an enemy and look for you.”

“It’s okay.”

“There’s no way it’s okay. You won’t find any allies anywhere. It doesn’t stop with three clans and an empire. Everyone wants you…”

“It’ll be okay.”

Isla looks at me as I cut off the words.

I uncrossed my legs and walked down little by little with strong steps.

The piled up debris collapses and the inside is revealed.

It was a corpse. A corpse whose life has been taken away and only a shell remains.

The power to plunder life. Mother’s power.

A monster power that we must continue to face in the future.

I faced it and stood proudly.

There was no armor. Likewise, there are no weapons.

I didn’t have time to take my cloak, so I had no choice. Because I didn’t come here thinking there would be a fight.

But it was okay.

“Roo… ?”

Isla was shocked as if she hadn’t expected it, but I stepped forward to reassure her.

In fact, weren’t you prepared from the beginning?

I am a homunculus. It was a monster.

It’s natural for monsters to be hated and hunted by the world.

Nothing has changed now.

“I ask you one last question.”

“Try it.”

“What does mother want?”

Selma tilts her head. She said with a quick smile.

“Nothing.”

It is a transcendent being that does not want anything and can favor individuals regardless of good or evil.

I laughed and clenched my fists.

“It wasn’t an evil spirit.”

Looking at the blue-grey eyes vaguely looking at me, I decided.

“I’d rather be closer to the devil.”

A being that brings only harm. Joining hands with such a being and choosing the worst and lesser evil was not the path I wanted to take.

I smiled heartily.

[Mourning]

[Time remaining: 60 seconds]

As my vision flickered and the message came to mind, I felt the life I had gained so far in my hands.

“Come at me.”