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I did not feel that my steps through the forest were heavy, but even though I thought I had done what needed to be done, anxiety remained, and even taking into account that I was walking on two legs, I was a little slow.

At the very least, I had confirmed the new spirit sword user, who was essential.

That was the result of the sages listening to my request.

I thanked the old men, who had held back the one who had not had even the slightest intention of cooperating and had prepared a situation where I could face the major alone.

As for the result of my negotiation with Number Six, the other party, I could not grasp her presence in the first place, so I did not know how it had gone.

I was the one who had counted on that ability, but since the plan was premised on the equation “if I cannot detect her, then the major will not find her,” I could not help feeling uneasy.

Leaving the elf village alone, I had begged, “Anything is fine, just give me a weapon I can use,” and obtained a greatsword meant for humans, but there was no way it could feel reliable. The expression “better than nothing” fit it perfectly.

I had wrapped cloth around the grip to make it easier to hold, but even then, it was unreliable even as a one-handed weapon.

If this had at least been a giant mace or something, I might have been able to use it, but… there was no point wishing for what I did not have.

I let out a sigh and continued walking through the forest.

If I walked a little farther, I would probably see the river.

If I crossed the river, the major who should be waiting there would probably find me.

The time limit I had set with the major was dawn.

There was not much leeway, but I could still make it with time to spare.

At that moment, my feet suddenly stopped.

There was a part of me asking myself, “Is there really no other way?”

But I shook my head, drove away the distracting thoughts, and began walking again—only for my feet to stop once more.

I knew it was a hallucination.

Before my eyes stood a man with a familiar face, exactly as I remembered seeing him last.

Myself, in the form of a displeased person standing with his arms crossed and his back leaning against a tree, glared at me.

He was saying something, but I could not hear his voice.

Even so, I understood clearly what he was saying.

“You’ll die, you know?”

I knew that without being told.

But I could protect it.

I, who had done nothing, who had been able to do nothing, who had been nothing more than a mediocre fool, could finally accomplish just one thing.

I could protect what my family had left behind.

This time, I would carry through what I had decided in my heart that day.

I would connect it through my own choice, not by coincidence.

“That’s why this is fine,” I said, lowering my face as if fleeing from his gaze.

Originally, this life should have been gone long ago.

By luck, I had survived and struggled all the way here.

I could not say I had lived long enough, but I had found what I ought to do.

In that case, there was only one thing to do.

I simply had to do it.

To begin with, even if I survived here, what did I intend to do afterward?

Through this incident, I had learned that coexistence with the elves was impossible.

In the end, even if I had once been human, I had existed within the framework of an “Imperial.”

““There is nowhere for me to live.””

At the overlapping voices, I raised the face I had lowered.

The hallucination was already gone.

I only felt as if someone had passed beside me and lightly tapped my arm, so I turned around, but no one was there.

“…Let’s go.”

I had already decided not to hesitate.

So now, all that remained was to use this life.

Once I crossed the river, I sensed multiple presences.

Apparently, because I had left the forest, I was able to detect Forshna’s covert unit.

With this, as long as I did not mess up, I could achieve the goal.

I moved forward while searching for the major.

While feeling grateful for the convenience of this body, which could properly recognize its surroundings even in the dark forest, the hand gripping the greatsword unconsciously tightened.

After I continued walking, I sensed a presence ahead.

There was still some distance, but I found a large shadow standing in the dark forest.

I walked toward it.

“What do you think you are doing?”

The major asked as I approached.

“I am sorry. I cannot walk the same path as you, Major.”

“I asked what this means.”

With his weapon still lowered in his hand, the major continued questioning me without paying any mind to my approach.

“Did the long-ears do something to you?”

“No. This is my own will.”

“…Your reason?”

“The Nemesis Code.”

The major let out a sigh, lowered his face, and pressed his temple.

“There is still something I do not know, then?”

Raising his face, the major began grasping the situation. He saw me nod silently as I walked through the dark forest, then let out another sigh.

“Why did you not tell me?”

“I will tell you that as well, starting now.”

I had gotten close enough, so I stopped.

There should have been people hiding around us, but they were members of the Forshna clan.

In that case, she would somehow handle what came afterward.

Believing that, I spoke.

“The reason that the Nemesis Code exists to self-destruct subjects who have gone out of control is only the official explanation. Its original purpose is to make those created through genetic modification, those who became monsters, kill one another.”

“I cannot read the intent,” the major said, placing a hand on his chin and voicing his doubt.

As if answering that, I nodded and replied.

“Genetic modification technology was originally for medical use. I believe Dr. Zeta, who opposed its military use and was pushed away from the research, may have planted it for revenge.”

“That is far too inefficient.”

“Perhaps. The problem lies in the process. The embedded Nemesis Code causes the subject to lose reason, and eventually, they become nothing more than the monster they appear to be.”

I felt as though the major’s eyes on me grew sterner.

Without saying anything, he glared at me as if urging me to continue.

He had probably been able to imagine it.

Perhaps because he had pictured both the damage he would cause if he became a monster and the path I had walked, he could say nothing.

“It takes time for the symptoms to become apparent, but I awakened half a year ago, and I do not know when I will lose my reason and become a monster that does nothing but rampage. My consciousness suddenly cut out as though a switch had flipped, and when I came to, I was staring at my bloodstained hands in a place where slaughter had occurred.”

I also revealed that I was tormented by the fear that the next time my consciousness cut out, I might not return.

I knew it was still too early for that, but it was true that I held that fear, so I was not lying.

“And this is a phenomenon that could happen to you as well.”

“…The solution to the problem?”

“To kill three subjects who possess the Nemesis Code and take their codes.”

The major’s reaction was more subdued than I had expected.

That was probably because, with me standing in his way, he had been considering the reason we had no choice but to become enemies.

What was necessary was not killing, but devouring, but I wanted to avoid the ending where I disclosed everything and failed to achieve my objective.

“The Nemesis Code releases information in stages. However, in the first person, those details are concealed. With the second, everything is revealed. And I predict that with the third, one learns how to disable the Nemesis Code.”

“So I am the third. I see. For you to survive, you need to kill me. In other words, it was inevitable that you would be hostile to me. However.”

“Why did you think you could win?” the major said as he entered a combat stance, and I was overwhelmed.

Even so, I took one step forward.

“It is not a matter of whether I can win or not. There is no other choice.”

I would shift the objective, make it purely a personal matter, and fight the serious major.

He must not question it.

It was a poor plan that could collapse over the slightest trigger.

Since I had to hide something thought up by someone of my level, I had to consider the possibility that doing everything I could still would not be enough.

“The remaining subjects are only us. Either I avoid becoming a monster and survive, or you lose your reason and leave scars upon the world.”

“I have no reason to swallow that whole.”

“Of course. That is why I have no choice but to do this.”

I smiled wryly and pointed the greatsword in my hand at the major.

The major shook his head as if he could not understand, then began walking.

(I know. I know there’s no chance of winning.)

In ability, skill, and even experience, I was no match for him.

The major approached me almost without caution, probably because he accurately understood the difference in strength between us.

He would make it in time even after I moved—I despaired at the fact that I was not even regarded as an enemy, but if that were enough to make me retreat, I would not be standing here now.

The moment he entered my range, I pulled back my right foot and the right hand gripping the greatsword.

The full-power thrust that made the most of the reach of my weapon was smashed by the fist of the major, who stepped largely forward.

As fragments of shattered iron danced through the air, the fist he unleashed after stepping in even farther closed in on my face.

At the instant of impact, I leapt backward, but I was not in time. I was punched away, rolled across the ground, and stopped only when I crashed into a tree.

I had known it, but each blow was heavy.

I threw away the broken greatsword, forced my slightly distorted vision out of my awareness, and took a stance.

I waited for the major as he approached leisurely, and the moment he entered my range, I attacked, but every single move was crushed by a blow that came after mine.

I picked up convenient stones and threw them, but they had no effect. When I lifted a boulder, a fist stabbed into my wide-open stomach.

I understood that a mass weapon might have been effective, but like this, there was nothing I could do.

While scattering vomit, I rolled away disgracefully to create distance, then as the major closed in, I stood and threw dirt at him.

I had intended it as a blind, but it had no effect on the major, who closed his eyes, and his toes gouged into my stomach again.

A crushed-sounding “Gehah!” leaked out of me, but the tail stretching from my lifted body wrapped around the major’s planted leg.

However, the major’s body did not move even slightly, and with the foot he drew back, he stomped down on my extended tail.

Perhaps the lizard’s tail-cutting ability had activated, because the tail he stepped on tore off, and I was able to move freely once more.

“Is that all?”

The major glanced at the torn-off tail and spat those words while looking at me.

I was probably far weaker than the major had expected.

I had known it, but I literally was not a match for him.

“You probably would not understand.”

This much was within my expectations.

Because I had been pressed back the entire time, I now had the river at my back, but this much should be within the acceptable range.

“I do not know the efforts you made. I cannot possibly know what you aimed for, how much time you spent for it, how much training you piled up, or how you reached that place. I only know your achievements, and that they were recognized.”

The major listened to my words, but said nothing.

Though even if he answered something, I would only keep talking, so I was grateful that he stayed silent.

“Even so, your wish was not granted. Major, was that the first time your efforts did not bear fruit?”

Comparing one born and raised to become an elite to myself, who had possessed no talent at all, words of envy came out naturally.

It was late to say this now, but as expected, I did not really like elites or talented people, and my family had been the only exception.

“No matter how hard I worked, no one recognized me. No matter how desperately I struggled, there were times when I resented my family, whom I could only look up to.”

“…What are you talking about?”

The major interrupted me as I spoke alone while gazing at the sky beginning to brighten, but the words I spoke did not change.

“Even so, I was loved. That is why—”

Right after I said that I would no longer choose my means, the major seemed to notice something and shifted his attention beyond the river.

“You… joined hands with the long-ears!?”

I confirmed his roar with silence, without flinching.

(With my ability, I can’t even make him fight seriously. If I’m just brushed aside and it ends, that would be unnatural. That’s why this was all I could do.)

That might have been so, but the pathetic reality remained.

Still, I was used to things not going well.

As for methods to deceive and anger people, I had heard them from the ones called my bad friends.

“To think you would borrow the power of that accursed race, of all things!”

I smiled in response to the major as he revealed his anger and approached.

If I did this, the major would see me as an enemy and eliminate me.

With unknown fighting forces hiding somewhere and reinforcements expected to arrive, that choice would be perfectly natural.

The major had no difficulty catching up to me as I shifted from attack to defense and showed movements meant to buy time.

The arm that blocked the first blow was not broken, but a second time would be difficult.

I somehow avoided and deflected his attacks to prevent a decisive blow, but all I could do was endure and continue watching for a chance.

Just as I was starting to worry that I might be overwhelmed at this rate, my back ended up against a large tree, leaving me with no path of retreat—and then the opportunity came.

“A betrayal unworthy of an Imperial soldier! You are no different from those filthy—”

Seizing that momentary opening, I thrust my outstretched hand into the major’s speaking mouth and silenced him.

With a blow called a so-called “spear-hand,” I succeeded in making the major flinch.

“What a talkative mouth you have in the middle of battle! Maj—”

However, the hand I had shoved into his open mouth was bitten off, and my words were cut short.

Both my feet, as I tried to take distance, and the major’s feet, as he tried to pursue me, stopped.

He covered his mouth as if hiding it and was shocked by his own unintended movement.

“…What did you do?”

“I do feel guilty for hiding the truth. That is… that is the Nemesis Code.”

Just as I had aimed for, the major had eaten my fingers.

With this, the major would be unable to keep himself from eating me.

He would lose reason and try to devour me like a beast.

But there was still time before that happened, and that would be the final battle.