The man was running down a small alley in River End.
　He was running away as fast as he could, sweating and bleeding tears.

　How could he do this?

　The man doesn't have a legitimate job.
　He's an underworlder who runs the streets of River End.
　He terrorizes the weak, sometimes violently, and sometimes extorts money from them.

　He's been involved in everything from extortion to kidnapping, murder, human trafficking and more.
　Still, the man was never caught.
　Cleverly evading the knight's investigation.
　At times, he had gotten out of trouble by letting them hold the money.

　So the man hadn't thought about this one bit.
　He had never imagined for a minute that he would go from being in a position to be pursued.

　But.........

　Now, the man was being chased.

"What the hell is that monster...!

　It was supposed to be an easy job.
　We paraded around town on our walks and, as usual, abducted the goods of the upper balls.
　River End is a busy place for people to come and go, so he could often find the upper balls.

　Just in case, he had several men with him.
　All of them were skilled and as good as a C-ranked adventurer.
　As long as nothing too much happened, there shouldn't be any problems.

　........The man was reminded of how naive that thinking was.

　A girl appeared out of nowhere and exterminated the men.
　It was a one-sided overrun.
　It was all he could do to escape while his men were being beaten.



　The man stopped and looked back behind him in horror.
　There.........no one there.

''Huh........''

　The man let out a breath from relief.

　To calm his violent palpitations, he ran a hand over his chest....
　Then I just barely bit my back teeth.

"Wherever you are you're going you're going to do some f*cked-up shit. Anyone who challenges me is going to die. Now, the rest of my men...
Hey the rest of the guys are these guys?
What...?

　Nanika fell in front of the man.
　It fell to the ground in a raggedy manner, rolling around and scattering a red liquid.

　It was the raw head of a person.
　All of them had expressions of anguish on their faces, and one could imagine that they had met a horrible end.

''Hee........!

　The man sits up.
　In front of the man, a girl descends from the sky.
　

'Good day to you.'
You're the one who...

　The man's voice quivered.

　This girl is not what she appears to be.
　It was no exaggeration to say that she was a demon on the inside.
　It was Nanika with overwhelming power that could kill all of her powerful subordinates in an instant.

''Why, why are you doing this.......who do you think I am.......''
Hmmm ... that's boring.
What?
'I was hoping to hear a few more words but it's so boring. Just a bunch of cliché words...
What do you mean...
I don't need you anymore. Goodbye.
......................

　The man's body was cut off from his head.
　The man's consciousness vanished, not understanding what had happened.

''Huh...''

　The girl.........Iris sighed boringly in a pool of blood.
　She blurted out as she rolled the man's raw head in her palm like a toy.

'I can hunt humans, so this is fine... but it's still not very crunchy. It's boring to be dealing with this kind of garbage all the time.

　With a plop, he threw away the man's head.

"...let's just clean up for now, shall we?

　Iris' shadow spread unnaturally.
　Larger than their bodies, the shadows stretched out across the alleyway.

　When the men's bodies touched the shadows, they slowly sank into them.
　Nope.
　I heard the sound of munching and chewing.

　They are being eaten.
　They are being eaten.

　The men's flesh, their bones, their blood.
　Iris's shadow eats it all up.

　And.....

　By the time about ten minutes had passed, everything was clean and gone.

''Yes, the cleaning is complete. Hmmm.

　Iris flapped her skirt lightly, as if to clean the dirt off.
　Then she looked ecstatic.

''Hmm.......I can feel the life in these men. I wasn't expecting it to be like this but it's quite nice. It's sweet.

　Flipping, he licks his tongue.

'But...................But still, this is not enough. More quality souls ... more souls ... more souls.

　Iris was eating the souls of the men.
　She was devouring them like a snack.

　It should have been a horrific act, but there was not an ounce of guilt on Iris' face.
　It's natural to do so.
　She had a natural look on her face, as if she was saying so.

''Well........what should I do?''

　Running a hand over her chin, Iris makes a thinking gesture.

　Iris has made a deal with a human.
　He is willing to obey the human's word in return for setting him free.

　She obeyed the human's word and did not kill anyone in the village of Pagos.
　I only killed a third of them.
　After that, I pretended to fight lightly with the humans who came and retreated.

　From then on, we've been waiting for instructions from the humans.
　A promise was made that they would not cause any major incidents while they were waiting.
　Therefore, Iris is only able to make these light nibbles.

　Normally, she would like to devour the human city in one fell swoop.
　I would like to kill every single human being who lives in the city.

　It's a good thing that I have the right to do so.



　After thinking for a while, Iris came to such a conclusion.

　It is after all a promise made to a human being.
　There's no reason for me to keep that promise.

　Besides.....
　This is the person I was going to kill sooner or later anyway.
　I don't care if he broke his promise and accused me of it.

''Yes, let's do that. What a trivial thing I've been doing.''

　Nii........and a vicious smile is made on Iris' face.

''Well, well, well, well. Once we decide that's the case, what do we do after this?

　Shall I devour this River End?
　Or shall we go on a rampage in a larger city?

　How many people could they kill?
　How many souls can be eaten?

　Just thinking about it made Iris even feel ecstatic.

''Well first of all, you shouldn't have leftovers.

　Right now, we're missing 70% of the residents of Pagos.
　We can't just leave them out there.

　We have to eat the other 70%.
　Then the villagers will be reunited with their families in heaven.

''Hmmm.......how kind of me.

　What will it sound like?
　What will they look like?

　While thinking about this, Iris spread her wings.

　........A mass of malice and madness flew away.