6. People (4)
6. People (4)
I'm exhausted.
As soon as I entered the room, I flopped onto the bed.
So many things happened today.
I woke up as a woman, but it turned out I wasn't just a woman, I was a Queen—and not just any Queen, but the Queen of Creatures.
I killed humans, killed them again, and killed them some more.
Of course, I don't feel much guilt about killing humans. If anything, I felt more joy than guilt about finally feeding the kids something other than their own kind.
I know this isn't a normal way of thinking. But right now, I am clearly not human.
I can tell just by looking at the clothes I'm wearing right now.
This black dress. It's not clothes. To be precise, it's more accurate to call it my skin.
Earrings, necklace, accessories, dress, underwear—everything on my body is just a transformation of my own flesh.
That's the reason why it was so comfortable despite being a form-fitting dress.
Since the clothes are my skin, I can change them however I want. So, I changed into much lighter and more comfortable pajamas.
Not having the hassle of changing clothes and just being able to shift them is really great.
The problem is that while I'm covering my body with clothes, in the end, what's covering me is still my skin.
In a broader sense, even though I'm wearing clothes, it's no different from being naked. It feels a bit like I'm wearing body paint.
Thinking about it that way makes me a little embarrassed.
'I'm hungry.'
The hunger hit me while I was rolling around on the bed.
Is it because the only thing I ate after coming to my senses was Heriis's beef jerky? As soon as the tension faded, a severe sense of hunger washed over me.
The problem is, there's nothing to eat.
I did feed the three humans, including Heriis, to the creatures earlier, but I didn't touch them.
No matter how much I'm not human and am a creature, the revulsion against eating humans is strong enough to suppress all Hive Mind and Queen's Consciousness.
Of course, I don't know when that might flip.
'I need to find a village quickly.'
I realized it while eating the jerky.
Human food can't fill the psychological hunger, but it can fill the physical hunger.
If I fill the physical hunger, maybe I can reduce the psychological hunger a little?
Knock. Knock.
At the sound of knocking echoing in the quiet room, I told them to come in.
Kkii-ik.
The door opened, and a woman slowly revealed herself.
She wasn't wearing the leather armor she used to protect her body, but a soft Victorian-style maid outfit with a skirt that boasted great volume.
Amber, with her elegant appearance that matched her smooth skin, didn't look like a human who had been an adventurer.
Looking at her again, she's as pretty as the first time.
It's an appearance that makes it immediately understandable why a nobleman kept courting Amber.
Amber's expression, however, was very tearful.
I get it.
Right now, a Centipede Creature is lodged in Amber's brain and spinal cord, so she's in a state where her body's control can be taken away at any moment, and the maid outfit Amber is wearing is a creature.
The creature is in a state of Mimicry as a maid outfit.
In short, Amber is currently being monitored and controlled by a creature 24 hours a day.
If you think about having a creature inside your brain and the clothes wrapping your body being a creature, it would be terrifying, but I think it's much better than dying.
"Pretty."
I feel a sense of relief that my standard of beauty is still that of a woman, not a creature.
The problem is that I don't feel a single ounce of sexual desire.
==
I tried to commit suicide.
I thought there would be things more terrible than death if I stayed here.
But the moment I opened my mouth, stuck out my tongue, and tried to bite down, my whole body stopped.
'My body won't move...! Don't tell me it's because of that...!?'
Amber despaired at the fact that she couldn't even decide her own life anymore.
And what was even more desperate was...
[ A delicious-looking human. ]
[ The Queen's toy. ]
[ I know... Dagos. I'm just saying she looks delicious. ]
The voices of the monsters in front of her were echoing in her head.
It was as if it proved that she was no longer human, but a monster like those monsters.
[ Human ]
"!?"
Dagos lowered its body and thrust its head toward Amber.
As all eight red eyes, each the size of her face, glared at her, her whole body froze.
[ Take good care of the Queen. If you try anything foolish, I will rip out your brain and make you live in agony for the rest of your life. ]
Ttak. Ttak. Ttak.
Seu-euk.
"Heok...! Heok...!"
As Dagos moved away from in front of her, Amber clutched her chest and slumped to the floor.
She was trembling with fear, but she quickly got up because she didn't know what kind of pain would come if she just stayed there.
'Is this really a cave? How is there a door like this in a place where there are only monsters to begin with?'
It's so out of place.
There's a huge door, out of nowhere, in a cave teeming with monsters.
The door was something you'd find in a grand mansion, and Amber, knowing she had to enter, knocked on the door to avoid annoying the being inside as much as possible.
With the sound of someone telling her to come in, Amber carefully opened the door and entered.
Inside was, as expected, Lea.
Jet-black hair that seemed to devour all light. Pale skin that you'd only see on a corpse. But her smooth skin, without a single blemish, looked like porcelain.
Her long eyelashes and sharp eyes were filled with charisma. Just making eye contact was enough to make one feel like they had to submit.
'Beautiful. But the problem is that beauty isn't human beauty...'
She stared with glowing red eyes and inverted pupils, just like the spider monster Dagos I saw earlier, and every cell in my body trembled with fear. I could feel something that was on a completely different level from the monsters I saw earlier.
"Pretty."
Lea was saying it because Amber was truly pretty, but to Amber, it sounded like she was pretty enough to eat.
But Amber knows now, too.
That the Lea in front of her cherishes her.
She doesn't know why.
Otherwise, there would have been no reason to keep her alive this long.
However, she doesn't know when or how this goodwill might disappear.
The moment the being in front of her loses interest in her, she might become food for the monsters—no, she might have her brain ripped out and have to live in agony forever without even being able to die.
"For now..."
Amber waited for Lea's words, prepared to do anything.
"I want to take a bath."
==
I know I have a body that doesn't need to bathe.
But I think bathing is an essential task to end the day and compose one's mind.
Especially on a day when my mind is this complicated.
I was amazed by the scenery as soon as I entered the bathroom with Amber.
The bedroom is the same, the kids have excellent aesthetic sense.
The high ceiling and the huge bathtub are barely even worthy of being called a bathtub. It's more accurate to call it a bathhouse.
Steam was rising, and it looked like there would be no problem entering right away.
"I, I will help you."
Amber came close to help me undress, but I told her it was fine and absorbed my clothes, which were also my skin, into my body.
"Huh?"
Leaving the bewildered Amber behind, I put my feet into the bath with hot water.
Fortunately, I could feel the heat.
I slowly lowered my body into the bath.
"Huuah..."
My whole body felt languid, and with the warm water and the cool air of the cave combined, it felt like an outdoor hot spring.
'Oh, my breasts are floating in the water.'
I'd heard about it in stories. Seeing my own breasts actually float in the water was kind of fascinating.
"Huu..."
As I leaned back and lifted my head, Amber came into view.
"Amber. You come in too, Amber."
"Bu, but I can't take off my clothes..."
Ah, right. That outfit isn't just clothes, it's a creature.
I gave an order to the creature wrapping Amber's body through the Hive Mind.
"You should be able to take it off now."
"Tha, thank you."
I stared intently at Amber as she took off her clothes.
Is it because she worked as an adventurer? Her body is quite good.
To think she has such a muscular body with that elegant face.
Amber, who entered while keeping a slight distance from me, had her tense expression relax, but then she looked at me again, startled, and composed her expression.
==
The bath felt quite good.
I didn't know it was this comfortable to have someone help you while bathing.
I guess this is why nobles keep a maid by their side.
She gave me a massage, dried me off, and just did all the annoying tasks, so it couldn't be more comfortable.
On top of that, the person next to me is pretty? I like it very much.
After the bath, I lay down on the bed with a languid body.
I made Amber lie down next to me. I don't know about creatures, but humans need to sleep in a bed.
Anyway, there's a creature in Amber's brain, so she can't do anything to me. I fell asleep hugging Amber, who couldn't even resist, like a pillow.
==
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Amber's smooth nape.
The moment I saw it, the impulse I felt was to bite into it.
I could feel my teeth sharpening into creature-like teeth, not human teeth.
It wasn't a problem of physical hunger like yesterday.
Now, it was a problem of psychological hunger.
I squeezed my eyes shut and suppressed it, thinking of my human self.
Psychological hunger.
It's getting worse.
The consciousness telling me to eat humans is getting stronger.
'I need to find a way to suppress this.'