[…’s Pov]

 “Y-you monster!! Get away from me!” A weird bipedal screamed as I absorbed the soul of another bipedal. I suppose I should explain the situation a bit.

I had been hunting creatures for 4 days now, when I found a technologically retarded car with horses pulling it being attacked by a group of humans. They were fighting with other humans, and I could sense two presences inside the car.

I attacked the humans and began to kill them. For some reason, the ones defending the cart thought I was going to help them when I showed myself, and they shouted at me to help them. I simply stabbed two people using my mech-arms and absorbed their souls. After killing everyone and taking their souls, I knocked on the carriage and first a person wearing a gold-filled dress came down and then another one came down, this one had only rags for their dress. They looked around and the gold-wearing one asked me “Uh… Where did everyone go? Also… thanks for saving us!” She says and tries to touch me with her mouth. I open my mouth and fire a gatling barrage at her from the gun on the back of my head. The girl is ripped apart in a mere second, and only gore remained. The other girl fell on her back, shrieking. I take out a mechs-arm and stab it into the girl’s remains, absorbing the soul in them. Satisfied at the quality, I stab the other girl as well and absorb her too. It feels quite nice to absorb healthier and alive beings, as their souls as often stronger and tastier. 

I walk away from the scene. I finally finished my protocol, so my next objective is to find civilization and learn their ways. I heard from a human I killed afterwards that the city should be to the north, just following the road. How convenient…

I follow said road for a couple hours before some strange humans approach me. They were wearing ragged clothing, and looked quite the violent kind.

“Hello girlie, would you mind coming along with us?” I look at the weirdos for a second before saying “… What’s a girlie?” The guys had their mouths open, but one of them says “Hehe, let me show you~.” And walks up to me and tries to grab at my chest.

I immediately fill him with bullets from the gatling gun in my mouth. My program says to do this to people who forcefully attempt at grabbing me, and I just follow it since it never let me down before.

The guy quickly becomes mincemeat under my rapid fire, and all the other men had their eyes open wide and took a step back. I take out my mech-arms and stab the 6 of them and absorb their souls too. They’re quite tasty…

I continue down my path and after a couple hours I arrive at what I think is a city. It looks... Undeveloped, to say the least. The walls have cracks going through them, the roads are merely flattened ground and they look quite dirty. 

I try to walk through the big door in the walls, but I'm stopped by a strange human wearing armor. "Hey, kid, what happened to you? I'm sorry to ask but where are your parents?" I look at the strange human and answer "My parent is dead. Nothing happened to me."

The weird human had an even weirder expression on his face, and said "Uh, okay. I just wanted to warn you to be careful in the city. People generally dislike non-humans, so I thought to tell you." I look at him but don't answer. After a bit of staring, he started getting a bit unconfortable.

I stopped looking into his eyes and entered the city. The human was indeed right, as I could feel disgust coming from the humans around me. Well, for as much as I'd like to return my disgust due to them destroying my race, I can't. They were only defending themselves, just as we were only attacking because we wanted a home. I know this due to my codes, so there's no doubt it's true.

So I ignored those gazes and kept walking through the streets. I kept walking around, memorizing the layout of the city, as I intend to establish a base here. After perhaps 8 hours of speed-walking, I had completely memorized every nook and cranny of the city. It was night by now, so I sat on the corner of a remote street and waited there for the sun to come out.

I focused my attention inside of my inner self in order to improve my system, but I was interrupted when I felt something poking me. I looked up and found a human with bulges on their chest. She was looking at me strangely, and for some reason she was wearing a robe. 

"Hello! Uh, I'm Lilly! What's your name?" She asked, her eyes were attached to my ears for some reason. I looked at her curiously and said "... What's a name?" She looked shocked at my answer, and said "U-uh, a name is a thing your parents give you when you're born. Where are your parents..." She trails off for some reason, but I answer "He's dead. Never met him in person."

Stolen novel; please report.

The strange girl had her mouth in an 'o' shape. Water droplets came from her eyes for some reason, and she hugged me and said "Ah! Don't worry, I can help you! Dad is very nice, and I'm sure he could employ you to work for us!" What a strange girl. She suddently appeared, asked me my name and parents, and now she wants to employ me? It'd be nice though to have someone giving me resources in exchange for my work. I could really use some Xenomium and Soulstone. 

She suddently grabbed me by my arm, which almost cost her life had I not forcefully shut down my auto-responde system. I don't think she means harm, but to suddently grab me is still not proper. 

"Come on! Follow me! I'll bring you to dad and mom and I'm sure they'll help!" She pulls me away from my corner and begins to run, dragging me along with her. I allow her to do as she wishes, as she seems like a nice human since she said she'd help me.

She keeps dragging me for 10 minutes, until we arrive in front of a big stone building. The armor-wearing humans look at us for a second, but when Lilly screams out "Hi! It's me!" Their eyes open wide and they look confused. As they were about to say something, Lilly also asked "Can you let us in? I need to see dad right away."

The armor-humans nod and open the doors that lead into the stone building. Me and Lilly enter, with her constantly asking me random questions like my favourite color, what 'clothes' I like... As we arrive at a door from whom I can hear voices inside of, the girl turns to me with a serious look and says "Okay, this is the most important question." I just keep staring at her, so she says "What gender are you?"

I keep looking at her for a couple seconds, trying to understand the meaning. I thus ask "... What's 'gender'?"

The strange human somersaults and almost screams "How do you not know what gender is?? I mean, are you a boy or a girl?" It takes me a bit to digest her answer, so I ask again "... What's a boy and what's a girl?" The girl had her mouth hanging, but said "Uh, if you're a girl you have a... hole here, and if you're a boy you have a thing that... you put in a girl's hole." She said blushing, whilst pointing at her lower abdomen. Really? I don't have anything there. 

"... And if I have neither?" Her mouth was hanging open, so she took a deep breath in and said "Whatever. You're a girl since you're face looks like a girl's one. Yes, you're a girl." Oh really? That's nice. Didn't those weird humans say something about me being a girlie? Is it related to 'girl'? So many questions...

The girl pulls me again and we finally enter the big room. In said room were 14 people standing in front of 3 people sitting on a high chair. They were all discussing something, but I don't know what. When we arrived, they all turned to look at us. 

"Dad! Mom! This girl here had her parents killed! Can I keep her here as a maid!" I look at the two she's talking to. They were sitting on high chair made of gold, which sounds like a terribly uncomfortable material to use for a chair.

"Lilly! How many times do I have to tell you not to interrupt our meetings!? Also, why would you employ a nonhuman as a maid!? They're filthy and disgusting." He says and then looks at me with sharp eyes. I simply continue to stare at the weird human who considers me disgusting. Yeah, I haven't cleaned myself with oil in a while, but I don't think I'm disgusting, I mean, my engines all work perfectly and they're not too dirty.

"Dad! Hero-san says most non-humans are respectable and nice people. It's because we treat them like this they're so aggressive." Lilly says with a pleading voice. The 'girl', since Lilly said they usually have bulges on their chest, says to the aggressive man "John, that's enough. I know how much you dislike non-humans, but at least let our daughter keep one as a slave. Lilly, where did you buy her from? She looks quite expensive." 

"Mom! I didn't buy her! She was sitting on a street, just standing there! And there were shady men near her!" There were? I didn't see them...

They continue discussing for quite a while. The 14 other people were staying silent with their heads lowered for some reason. Why do they lower their heads? Is it a sign of disgust? Is it a challange?

Finally, the man who's name is John I think says "Fine! Keep her, I don't care. Maybe you'll make that retarded 'Hero' happy as well. Leave!" He shouts and Lilly swiftly takes my arm and leaves the room. As we walk away she begins to grumble "Huff, my father is such a short-sighted moron. He doesn't care about the kingdom and only cares about his own power. How is he even my father!? He never talks to me and only stays on his bed with mom and her maids by his side. What a lazy-ass! I mean, can you believe it?! That man is actually the king and my father!!! Arghhh, I hate him!!" 

She continues to complain for the 5 minutes of our speed-walk. Finally, we exit the building from a different door then the one we entered from. I look around and find a courtyard-like space filled with what I think is training equipment, swords, bows, lances, spears, axes and a running area. In it were 5 people. Four had flat chests, and one had slight bulges on it, so I assume it's 4 boys and a girl. 

Lilly drags me over to them and shouts out "Hello, 'heroes'. Look! Father allowed me to keep a non-human maid! Isn't that awesome!" One of the five humans answers "Yeah, Lilly. That's awesome, but did you get her to agree with you?" 

Lilly had what I think is a look of realization on her face, then a saddened look. She turned to me and slowly said "U-uh, d-do you want to w-work for me?" She said and began fidgeting. I simply continued to stare at her and said "If you're willing to pay the proper price for my services, then I will serve." She smiled and said "Sure! What do you want to be paid?"

"Your soul. I will collect it at the end of the designated contract." All the human's faces were in an 'o' shape for some reason. What? I want her soul, and I'm even willing to work for her if she gives it to me. I don't think it's such a bad deal...