Just as I had suspected, the red-haired girl was a sheep cat. What was more, she was the village chief's daughter, apparently serving as a maiden who performed special rituals, much like a shrine maiden among humans.
As a member of the human race, I was naturally thrown into a dungeon. If I hadn't been executed yet, it was almost certainly because I had saved her life. No, even that probably wasn't entirely accurate. The mere fact that I had saved her wouldn't normally be enough reason to spare someone of the human race. After all, that was just how terrible the deeds we humans had committed were.
The only reason I was still breathing was that they had some circumstance preventing them from killing me right now. Though, of course, it wouldn't be surprising in the least if the situation shifted and I was executed tomorrow.
A stone door swung open, and the sound of footsteps echoing down the stairs broke the quiet of the dim dungeon. The steps drew steadily closer to my cell.
"Gil, I brought food~!"
As always, the red-haired girl stood before the iron bars of my stone cell with a cheerful smile.
By the way, Gil was me. Inside the pocket of my trousers was a battered old pendant, engraved with the faded letters "Gil." When I told the red-haired girl about it, Gil became my name.
"Charme, thank you as always."
For the past week, this red-haired girl, Charme, had brought me my meals every day. And without fail, each time she came, she shared all sorts of stories with me. For someone with nothing else to do, it was fast becoming my greatest source of entertainment.
"You know, Gil, the way you talk feels a lot more natural than when we first met."
"Do you think so...?"
It had become more natural because I had grown far more capable of speaking my thoughts frankly. Words of gratitude had felt thoroughly alien to me at first, but repeating them day after day turned them into a routine. Now, they slipped from my mouth as casual pleasantries without the slightest resistance.
"Yeah. At first, you were kind of hard to approach."
"In what way?"
"Hmm, you were a little scary."
Scary, was I? Well, that made sense. An ordinary person who had lost their memories was found wandering near a remote monster village. There was no way I had simply gotten lost on a pleasant stroll. I clearly had a complicated past.
"I suppose so. That might be the right way to look at it. For all I know, I could be a cold-blooded monster of a man."
Otherwise, why else would I have been wandering deep in the mountains where no human ever set foot, stripped of my memories? Honestly, the person I trusted least right now was myself.
"Gil, a villain? Hehe! Ahaha!"
Charme blinked in mild surprise for a second, then burst into uncontrollable laughter as if a dam had broken.
"Is that really something to laugh at?"
"I mean, if you were really such a bad person, Gil, there's no way you would've risked your life to save me in the first place, right?"
"No, that was probably just a fluke."
Even I didn't understand why I had tried to save Charme back then. The instant I saw her being attacked, my vision had flashed red, and my body moved entirely on its own.
However, of this much I was certain. I hadn't saved Charme out of some noble sense of justice like she believed. It was something far more self-righteous and selfish. In all likelihood, I was—
"Even so, to me, you're the person who saved my life, Gil. That will never change."
Charme told me that with a bashful smile, her voice firm with unwavering conviction.
Hoping to gloss over the awkwardness, I changed the subject.
"Where did you get that?"
I pointed to the pendant hanging from Charme's neck, which had piqued my curiosity for a while now. Just like mine, it was worn, battered, and clearly carried a great deal of history.
"I got this from a certain someone."
Charme puffed out her chest with pride as she tilted the pendant toward me.
"A certain someone?"
"Yeah. When I was little and got lost in the forest, a woman from the human race saved me."
I see. Now I understood why Charme wasn't on guard against a human like me. Because she had been rescued in the past, she had somehow convinced herself that humans were beings who offered help unconditionally.
Yet, even with my memories gone, I knew one thing for certain. The human race wasn't such a clean, noble existence. They were far dirtier—pure, concentrated egoism. Given that I couldn't bring myself to believe in human goodness even a fraction of a percent, I had almost certainly been a complete bastard myself.
That was obvious enough from the fact that, even now, I was scheming to use this girl to make a safe escape. But—
Ha! Escape to where?
It was laughable. Even if I somehow managed to reach human civilization, if I turned out to be a wanted criminal, I might just end up executed there instead. No, judging by how I had ended up wandering unarmed in such a remote wasteland, there was little doubt I had lived a life lurking in the shadows. As long as they weren't going to execute me immediately, this cell might actually be the safest place in the world for me. At least as long as her opinion of me didn't change.
The truth was, since I had been right on the verge of losing consciousness, Charme was the one who had saved me. Yet without ever correcting her, I was ready to exploit my savior's goodwill just to ensure my own survival. Just as I thought. Deep down, I was an irredeemable piece of trash who cared about nothing but himself.
Curling the corners of my mouth into a self-deprecating smirk, I spoke.
"Tell me more about when you were little."
I forced out the plea in the gentlest, sweetest voice I could muster. Thoroughly disgusted with myself, I clenched my right fist until my nails dug painfully into my palm, all while listening to Charme happily chatter about her past.