"What's that thumbs-up supposed to mean?" Spring pinched his thigh until he flinched in response, "Can't you be serious for a moment?"
"I am serious, seriously serious." Iota raised his hands in defeat before he tugged her clothes, bringing her to the window that he opened as carefully as possible, observing it let out mild creaks in response. "Look up and you'll understand."
Spring stared out the window and immediately, Iota had to cover her mouth to prevent her scream from echoing out. "Careful!"
"S-Sorry," Spring collapsed on the floor as she panted in horror, "What the heck was that? Is that the moon?"
She stared at her hand, "Why is it…similar to my family's Stigma?"
"Now you understand?" Iota patted her, "Coming to this world is the only way to remove the Stigma on you. You're growing older, and hence, you're close to maturity. You don't have long before the curse would activate, right?"
"Y-Yes," Spring nodded, "Based on our history, everyone except the eldest in a generation is devoured by the Devil once we turn eighteen."
"I have less than two years before I turn eighteen." She said sullenly. She was silent for a while before thanking Iota, "Honestly, I would have been captured by a damn cult if not for you. Every time I connect the dots and understand the truth, my memories get wiped out by the Stigma."
"Guess it's true that only the one spared by the Devil in my family can avoid that." She let out a solemn sigh.
"But," She then looked up and stared into his eyes, "tell me, Iota. How do you know all this? Unlike me, you're not connected to any cult or families cursed by a Devil's Stigma. So, how are you able to do everything you did?"
"And…" She hesitated before staring out the window, trembling in fear, "Transmigration…I never knew something like this was possible. If this could be done, how has the information remained hidden until now? Shouldn't our greedy politicians have done something to exploit the resources of this place too? It doesn't seem as developed as our world, despite the presence of Devils."
"I mean, only things a nuke can't destroy can be considered a real threat, right?"
"That hasn't happened only for one reason." Iota laughed as he flicked her forehead, "No one knows about a possible transmigration, except me."
"T-Then how?" Spring stared at him in shock, "How do you know it then? Where did you learn it?"
"Stop…staph!" Iota waved his hands, giving up as he clutched his head, acting like he was in pain, "Too many questions. My head's hurting."
He slowly slid into the bed and turned away from her, "The jet lag…I mean, migration lag is horrible. I need to rest now."
"We'll talk about the rest tomorrow. So, get some sleep."
Spring fumed in response to his actions as she picked up his hand and bit it like a feral creature. But other than flinching a little, there was no other reaction from Iota. Frustrated, she could only shut her eye.
Surprisingly, she fell asleep. She had only been having a meal once a day for the past few months due to a lack of money, and hence, she had stuffed herself to the brim just now. That caused her to fall asleep pretty quickly, despite the nervousness of having arrived in a brand-new world.
Iota remained in the sleeping pose for a few minutes before he gently turned around and checked to see Spring deep in sleep. He slowly got up and crept forward, looking around the room as he found a small shelf.
In it were a few, rolled animal skins, containing a recording of some sort. There was also a bottle of ink and a feather of some kind, unrecognisable to him. It seemed to originate from a species native to this world, judging by how the tip of the feather was made from hard bone.
Iota opened the scroll, noticing that its length reached four metres, with its breadth being around half a metre. He activated his syringe tattoo and used it for illumination.
Strange, cryptic symbols were written on the scroll that made zero sense to him. But, that didn't matter at the moment as Iota just scanned past the entire scroll, closed it, and kept it in its original location.
He then looked through the other scrolls before placing them all back in their original spot, removing all traces of his interaction, a habit he had accumulated during his hunts.
He then looked around the house, failing to find any other traces of a written record. His priority was to learn the native language of this region first. With his photographic memory, his learning speed would be accelerated.
Even back on Earth, he had learnt more than ten languages and was proficient in all of them. If not for a lack of opportunity, he would have learnt more.
'I've gone through all the rooms except for the old lady's.' He thought, intending to enter her room when suddenly, he was startled to see her bed vacant. For a moment, sweat dripped from his back as he slowly turned around, gazing with horror at the figure of the old lady standing gently next to the sleeping figure of Spring.
She extended her hand which was old as before but now resembled a dried tree bark. Her nails had grown five times longer, sporting sharp ends as she gently grabbed Spring's hand, using the nail to scratch at the location around her wrist.
'That's where I've stuck the tattoo to hide her Stigma.' Iota acted immediately, sending a syringe flying at the old lady's hand, hearing a sharp clang resound in response as the syringe seemed to have struck metal.
Its needle deformed but somehow, it was still functional, having stabbed partway into her hand. The plunger moved backward as the old lady's blood was rapidly absorbed into the syringe.
The old lady glared at Iota like a banshee as suddenly, a terrifying sense of fear enveloped him, paralysing his body, 'This oppressive pressure is way stronger than the Devil projections I dealt with on Earth.'
The old lady didn't even react towards him beyond that, mesmerised by something as all her attention was focused on Spring's wrist, using her nails to gently scratch the tattoo as she slowly made headway, peeling off a small portion.
It was unknown as to what her motives were, but one thing's for sure. The moment the Stigma gets revealed, Spring would lose her life and everything Iota had worked towards would go up in smoke.