Volume 2 - CH 300

Chapter 7-20. Lize’s Past

While Ouren was eating Vadid, Alena and I had some free time.

There was nothing more to do now that the stripping subjugation’s proof were over and the request had been completed, and all they had to do was to go home.

While I was looking at the mountain of Vadids with a sideways glance and thinking about what to do with them, Alena suddenly peeked out from below.

That startled me a little, but I immediately smiled and tilted my head.

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m free until Ouren eats his meal, so I thought we could have a chat.”

It’s been a while since I’ve had a conversation in human form.

Although I was a little nervous about whether or not I would be able to do it well, in the end I nodded at Alena’s suggestion and sat down near her.

But what should we talk about?

Up until now, I had only been listening, so I had rarely been able to initiate conversation.

I was surprised at myself for forgetting how to make conversation, but for now I waited for Alena to speak to me.

And then, as I expected, Alena immediately started the conversation with me.

“Where did you come from, Lize-san?”

“If you ask me, where ……? Umm, someplace far away?”

“What kind of place is that?”

“Well, it’s hard to describe. ……. There are lots of people and …… more advanced science than here ……. ……”

“?”

I thought I was going to be able to explain it to her, so I quickly shut my mouth and decided to tell her the story of how I ended up here.

The first place where my consciousness was ……

“Ah, …… I was in a cave. ……”

“A cave?”

“Yes, a cave. You see, I’m a tiger, aren’t I? There was a white tiger, and my mother was there.”

“He~. So can your mother take on human form too?”

“Ah, I think I might be the only one who can do that. ……”

When I was reincarnated into this world, my consciousness was dwelling in a small tiger.

However, I remember that it was not white in color as it is now, but looked like a black cat.

Apparently, I was reincarnated into an individual that had grown up to a certain degree and outgrown weaning, and the moment I woke up, there was a piece of meat placed in front of me.

In the beginning, I was confused by my current situation and did not eat anything for days, but then I was guided by the voice of the land, and in an attempt to somehow stay alive, I ate raw meat over and over again, even though I did not want to eat it.

The most disgusting thing was when they brought me meat that obviously tasted bad.

My first incarnation as a black cat, Dark Guts, was an omnivore and had the ability to eat meat in any condition.

They could eat anything, even stinky or rotten meat.

When I saw a piece of meat that smelled like rotten, contaminated meat, I fainted.

Being a former human female, the mere thought of putting such a thing in my mouth made me want to vomit.

When I woke up, for some reason it wasn’t there, but I would like to believe that my parents ate it.

Well, there was no way I wanted to stay in a place like that forever, so I left the cave immediately after that and set out on my adventure.

“So you traveled like Ouren?”

“I don’t know what kind of journey that guy took,…… but I guess it was more of a runaway,……. When I grew up to be able to move to a certain degree, I ran away from my parents.”

“B- because the food was that bad……?”

“Ahh …… yeah, I wonder if that would be the case?”

I don’t think the story was about bad taste or anything like that, but to put it simply, that’s probably the case.

Looking back on it now, I’m amazed that I ran away from home with such an immature motive.

But nothing would have changed if I had stayed in that place, and I still wanted to eat good food.

“I heard that Houen also had a lot to deal with regarding the food, right?”

“He is …… come to think of it, I hadn’t heard anything about that ……….. …… I should have asked him where he evolved.”

“I don’t know much either, but I heard he ate bugs of all things.”

‘”Uwaah. ……”

I didn’t think anyone else had a harder diet than I did, so I was just a regular jJoe.

When it comes to eating insects, it’s not about courage or anything like that, it requires a change in one’s values.

Either that or you would have to give up something important.

I was deeply relieved that I didn’t have to be reincarnated into that place.

But I will never forget the feeling of eating that rotten meat.

Someday I’m going to go punch my parents in the face.

“Then, then, what then?” 

“A story about my journey? Mmm,…… I didn’t get any experience from eating rotten meat or anything, so I fought regular living monsters. Then I got to level up and evolve right away. I also learned lightning magic there, so I managed to learn how to cook meat!”

“You can roast meat with lightning magic?”

“It takes quite a bit of time, but it can be done, you know?”

The mastery of lightning magic has quickly stabilized my eating habits.

Roasting meat releases the oil and gives it flavor, and above all, it eliminates all odors and poisons.

And after learning ice magic, I sometimes melted it with lightning magic, brought it to a boil, and made a pot to eat it in.

Since I did not have an iron pot, I made a hole in a large rock and put water and ingredients in it.

I was surprised at how tasty the food turned out.

However, there were no seasonings, so it was impossible to add any flavor to the food.

Since my body was a tiger to begin with, I had no hands to use freely.

It was impossible to make anything complicated.

But one day, that life changed drastically.

And that was ……

“That was when I met Meryl.”

“Meryl?”

“Yes, that’s right. I have a very sensitive nose, and I smelled something I didn’t recognize. It was a human scent. I went right over and found Meryl eating under a tree. It was a picnic.”

There were no monsters in that area, and only mild-mannered creatures lived in the forest.

There were flowers and grasses all around, and there was a spot where there was water.

The place was so beautiful that a young girl would ask her parents to take her there again once she had been there.

“Since it was the first time I met someone, I was so excited that I ran right away.”

“In the form of a monster? Were you okay?”

“Of course I wasn’t okay!”

“Eeeeh ……”

At the time, I was only big enough to be held by an adult.

I would say as big as a medium sized dog.

It was a good memory that Carter, who was escorting me, kicked me out of the way because I was running into him.

“I ran into him without thinking. ……”

“Were you okay?”

“Yes, I was fine. That was because I had the Big Heal.”

“You had it since then! Amazing!”

“I was told again and again never to show it anywhere else. ……”

Meryl, who had seen the whole scene where Lize was kicked to the ground, immediately rushed over to protect me.

Carter seemed to be very reluctant, but in the end he complied and put away his weapon.

If Meryl had not stopped him at that moment, I would have died for sure.

“Hee~, is that so! Then you owe Meryl-san a debt of gratitude, don’t you?”

“I really wondered what would happen then. But even in Meryl’s house, it was very difficult because her father kept opposing it. I was a monster in appearance.”

“Ah, yes, that’s right. How did you come to live in Meryl’s house?”

‘Well, Meryl said that if I was going to leave her, Meryl would run away from home, you know, ……. It was really hard at the time. ……”

But I think there were fewer people who agreed with him.

Even though I am a monster, I was not one of the cutest demons out there at the time.

Because of the small tiger and its hideous color, which was a mixture of black and red, it was often despised.

Even so, thanks to Meryl’s desperate persuasion, I was allowed to live as a pet in her home.

The food served was always high in quality.

Although it was still not as good as the food on earth..

But I gained a lot of experience.

Because the food was high quality, the ingredients were probably of the highest quality.

Thanks to this, it was easy to evolve to the final stage of evolution.

And that’s about all I have to say about myself.

Alena listened to my story with great interest, but I knew nothing about her.

Apparently, she is directly related to Ouren, so I started by asking her about her.　

“How about you, Alena? When did you meet Ouren?”

“That was, you know. When I became a slave.”

“Eh?”

At once, my thoughts stop.

What in the world does she mean by “slave”?

I was very curious about what kind of stormy life she had led at her age, but I felt like I shouldn’t ask her that.

However, Alena had begun to speak.

While I was thinking about how to stop her, Oren came up to me and poked me and Alena with his tail.

Apparently, he had finished his meal.

“Well, then, let’s go home! But I’m going home alone, so take care of the rest!”

I ended the conversation at once and left the cave as if I was running away.