The Reincarnated Lizardman Wants a Hamburger

Finally, the meal came to an end this time.

Despite some minor incidents, like Daria tearfully offering her own pudding as a bribe to the girl out of guilt for what she had done earlier, or Liche screaming upon seeing the girl, mistaking her for a demon, the meal eventually concluded.

After finishing the meal, the group tidied up and checked on Liche’s condition, the atmosphere somewhat scattered.

In that atmosphere, the demon girl, after checking Liche’s condition, turned to Kurt and asked, “You. When are you leaving?”

“Huh? Oh, well. I need to check on Liche’s condition, but… the healing artifact is more effective than I thought. If things continue like this, we should be able to leave tomorrow morning.”

At Kurt’s words, the girl’s eyes widened slightly before she adopted a calm, lonely expression.

“…Tomorrow? Is that so?”

She had lived alone since opening her eyes but had never felt loneliness.

Though she knew the definition of loneliness from her vague memories of a past life, she believed it didn’t apply to her.

For someone who had always been alone, solitude was the norm, unlike those who had once lived with others and then found themselves alone.

Thus, even upon hearing that Kurt’s group would leave the next day, she felt no regret.

“You’re leaving earlier than expected. Aren’t you rushing too much?”

“I’d prefer to stay a few more days to prioritize Liche’s recovery, but there’s a reason we need to hurry.”

“…I see. If you’re busy, there’s nothing to be done.”

The girl muttered with a gloomy expression at Kurt’s words.

As she turned her head to look at the ruins, they seemed oddly vast, even though they were the same as always.

“…Then I should say goodbye in advance.”

“By the way, why don’t you come with us tomorrow?”

“What?”

“Come with us. Leave these ruins. Since the ruins’ door has opened, you don’t plan to live here forever, do you?”

“Th-that’s…”

The girl stammered, unable to respond easily to Kurt’s words.

His proposal was unexpected, and she hadn’t even considered leaving the ruins.

The ruins had been her prison for her entire life, but they were also her world.

Having lived only within the ruins since opening her eyes, she couldn’t even imagine leaving and living freely.

Thus, upon hearing that Kurt’s group would leave the next day, she immediately gave up.

Deep down, she believed that she, who had been trapped in the ruins her whole life, was entirely different from Kurt’s group, who traveled freely outside.

“Since you’re leaving anyway, wouldn’t it be better for you to come with us rather than venture out alone without any knowledge of the outside world?”

“C-can I really go?”

“Of course.”

“I know nothing about the outside world.”

“We’ll teach you.”

“Even though I can’t repay you?”

“Do you think we asked you to come with us without knowing that?”

“…Perhaps, no, surely I’ll just hold you back?”

“That’s a relief. I happen to be someone who doesn’t mind having someone cling to my leg.”

Finally, the girl asked in a trembling voice, “Really, truly, is it okay for me to go outside?”

“Yes. Anywhere you want to go.”

In truth, her claim of not knowing loneliness was a lie.

She was lonely.

Ever since she opened her eyes alone in these empty ruins, thrown into this silent world, she had always been lonely.

Surviving alone in the ruins with the body of a young girl, relying on her vague memories of a past life, wasn’t difficult.

But that was merely surviving, not truly living.

She always wondered, “Why am I left alone in this place? Why must I be trapped here alone? What did I do wrong?”

But the girl desperately turned her gaze away from these thoughts.

She had always been alone, so it was natural not to know loneliness.

She had never been interested in living with others.

Knowing that any answer at the end of such thoughts would only bring her pain, she consciously avoided thinking about it and lived within the ruins.

Not living, but merely surviving.

But in truth, she was so lonely and tired.

Every day, she dreamed of the ruins’ door opening and people entering.

One day, the door opened, and people came in, approaching her as she crouched in a corner of the ruins, speaking warmly to her.

“You’ve suffered alone for so long. You must have been very lonely.”

Kurt gently stroked the head of the now-crying girl.

“Sniff… Sob…”

The girl realized that the emotions she had suppressed since becoming accustomed to surviving in the ruins were overflowing.

Sadness, loneliness, resentment, pain.

The emotions she had kept hidden, too painful to even look at, were now uncontrollably bursting forth.

It must have been because Kurt’s cooking was so delicious that she overate.

Her stomach was so full of Kurt’s cooking that the emotions she had hidden in her heart were forced out, overflowing.

Thus, the demon girl, for the first time since opening her eyes, let out the emotions she had been holding back.

“Waaaaah! Waaaaah!”

Crying out loud, like a newborn baby.

It was the day before the girl, now named ‘Shu,’ would leave the ruins for the first time.

—

This is a story from a time before the ruins became ruins, when the place was called a refuge or shelter.

Before the great demon lord arrived, before the dragon race was born.

A story unrelated to the demon girl who would be given the new name ‘Shu.’

“…Are you really sure about this?”

“About what?”

In front of the tightly closed shelter door, a burly Lizardman leading a group of his kind asked a smaller, pink-scaled female Lizardman with a worried voice.

“Well, unlike us, you don’t need to leave this place.”

“Hmph. It’s fine. I was the one in charge of the Lizardmen here anyway. If all the Lizardmen in the facility disappear, I’ll be the first suspect. Well, I am the actual culprit. Or do you want to stay in the shelter?”

“That’s not it… But for you to flee like this because of us…”

“I’m actually more at ease now. I can no longer stay with them. Not because I helped you escape, but because my heart can’t bear it anymore.”

The pink-scaled Lizardman said with a pained expression.

“But you’re a Wizard. There’s no need for you to leave with slaves like us…”

At the burly Lizardman’s words, the pink-scaled Lizardman reached out and covered his mouth.

“No. There’s no difference. Look at my hand. It’s covered in scales, just like yours. In the end, Lizardmen, Wizards, and even humans are no different.”

In truth, the pink-scaled female Lizardman was not a pure-blooded Lizardman but a Wizard whose body had been modified by fusing Lizardman genes.

She was a researcher from a clan that had conducted biological experiments using Lizardman slaves brought to the shelter for labor, aiming to save the Wizards whose bodies were weakening day by day.

Lizards are creatures that can regrow their tails.

The unstable genes of the chimeric Lizardmen, created using lizard genes, combined with the fragile genes of Wizards, regenerated their bodies faster than they deteriorated. Over time, the Wizards in the shelter overcame the issue of their weakening bodies.

But perhaps because they had absorbed too much Lizardman DNA.

Scales covered their skin, tails grew from their lower bodies.

Their pupils split vertically, and due to side effects of the genetic experiments, they even developed the taste disorders inherent to Lizardmen.

The Wizards, after extensive body modifications, looked just like Lizardmen.

No.

What was the difference between Lizardmen and Wizards in the first place?

In the end, the difference between the Lizardmen and Wizards in the shelter was merely whether they had an innate limiter on magic or not.

Realizing this, the pink-scaled researcher could no longer see Lizardmen as mere experimental animals.

No, in truth, Lizardmen had never been just experimental animals, and she had only just realized it.

In truth, both Lizardmen and Wizards were people.

Thus, the pink-scaled woman betrayed the Wizards, disabling all the shelter’s security measures in the early hours, and freed all the Lizardmen inside.

The burly Lizardman looked at the pink-scaled Lizardman—no, Wizard—with a complex expression.

Gratitude, debt, loyalty towards her for freeing him and his kin, but also hatred for her, a Wizard who had conducted experiments on his comrades, and even affection that had grown beyond that.

Seeing his expression, the pink-scaled researcher slapped his shoulder and laughed brightly.

“Don’t make that face. Let’s go. The cowards in the shelter probably won’t chase us outside, but just in case, let’s get as far away from the shelter as possible.”

“…Understood. But where are we going?”

“Well, it’s my first time outside the shelter too… How about we head towards the old imperial capital? We’ll keep moving and settle down when we find a suitable place!”

“With such a vague plan…”

At the pink-scaled woman’s words, the burly Lizardman sighed, then began walking with her, leading his kin.

“Oh, right. To celebrate our escape from the shelter, I’ll make a special imperial noble-style steak and salad for dinner tonight!”

“…Miss, honestly, I’m no expert in cooking, but the dish you make doesn’t seem like imperial noble cuisine. No matter how you look at it, meat dripping with blood and grass hastily thrown into a bowl can’t be imperial noble cuisine…”

“What? Are you doubting me?”

“N-no, but…!”

—

By now, the morning sun had risen in the sky, its light illuminating the path they walked.

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