Chapter 12

Who Are You?

As I turned toward Taejeong Taese, a message appeared before my eyes.

[You have received a friend request from Home Protector.]
[Would you like to accept?]

That shameless bastard had actually sent me a friend request.

I closed the system window without accepting it.

I’ll deal with you later.

Taejeong Taese approached me wearing children’s clothes, though they looked like something the mansion’s servants would wear.

“They said you weren’t in your room, Brother, so I came to escort you back.”

After saying he had come to “escort” me, Taejeong Taese explained that one of the servants had told him he could continue staying here if he wished.

“In exchange, they said I’d have to assist you by your side. They also said I might receive an allowance every month if I do a good job. It seems they’re trying to employ me as your attendant.”

“Hmm.”

From the commander’s perspective, it would have been easier to silence Taejeong Taese and throw him out of the mansion.

Perhaps because I had asked to share meals with other children yesterday, he had decided to keep Taejeong Taese, who was my age, inside the residence.

That works out well for me.

No matter how experienced I was at clearing every zone, this body was still only ten years old.

I needed an assistant within the mansion.

The servants would likely feel uncomfortable around me because I was the commander’s son, but Taejeong Taese was an orphan. He would be able to befriend them much faster than I could.

I had not expected the commander to assign him as my personal attendant, though…

Someone like him must have realized there was something between me, Taejeong Taese, and SafeZone8.

He had seen the three of us speaking in a language he did not understand, so it would have been easy for him to deduce that we knew one another.

And Taejeong Taese’s attitude toward me was less like that of a friend his own age and more like a subordinate constantly calling me “Brother.”

The commander must have realized immediately that Taejeong Taese was not a child who would harm me.

Even so, leaving him as one of my closest attendants suggested that the commander intended to provide me with discreet support without making it too obvious.

“But why were you in the backyard?”

“Meursault summoned me.”

“Ah. He did the same thing yesterday…”

It seemed he had been summoned alongside SafeZone8 yesterday morning.

“That unpleasant bastard. You’re going to poison him, right? You killed him in every route.”

When I did not answer, Taejeong Taese looked startled.

“D-Don’t tell me you intend to keep him alive?”

“We’re short on capable people. Reality is different from a game. The only reason we could rule a zone in the game was because it was a game. Understanding the zone’s condition and actually managing an army are completely different matters.”

“That’s true, but… he’s still after your stepmother.”

“Children shouldn’t interfere in adults’ affairs.”

“That’s incredibly cold.”

I knew what Taejeong Taese was worried about.

But Daphne was hardly a helpless woman.

She was the former commander’s daughter and Hayden’s wife, after all.

At least, the Daphne I had seen in the game was not the type to be manipulated by someone like Meursault.

If Taejeong Taese had always followed my guides and poisoned both Meursault and Daphne early on, then it was only natural that he knew little about what kind of woman Daphne really was.

“By the way, you need to choose a name too.”

“Ah, just call me Taejeong. My late brother used to call me Mr. Taejeong too.”

I wished he would stop calling SafeZone8 his late brother.

It was a little disappointing to keep only Taejeong from the username TaejeongTaeseBeyoncé, rather than Beyoncé, but the name itself was not important.

“In any case, my conversation with Meursault ended well. He’ll probably act favorably toward me for a while. So you don’t need to antagonize him either. Of course, you’re also one of my people, so there’s no need to grovel before him.”

“Understood.”

“Not just Meursault. At the very least, I don’t want anyone inside the mansion to reject me as the commander’s son. We also need to identify which servants belong to Meursault’s faction and which belong to Daphne’s.”

“I’ll look into it. The servants seem more comfortable around me, since I ended up staying here by chance. They even asked me to bring you back this morning.”

He understood exactly what position he needed to maintain.

Playing multiplayer with another veteran was not bad at all.

“Ah, and the commander made me a promise.”

“A promise?”

“Once a month, I’ll hold a meal gathering for children my age.”

“Ah, then…”

“Right. Starting around the beginning of next month, we’ll meet any other players who might be in this zone. You can also introduce yourself to Stay-at-home wifey, who’s currently cooperating with me.”

“Yes! I hope Brother Stay-at-home wifey likes me.”

Brother Stay-at-home wifey?

What exactly were Taejeong’s standards for calling someone Brother?

Judging by his username, Taejeong did not seem particularly young himself…

***

That afternoon, I received word that the commander had decided to officially announce me as his son.

Since I had to appear at an official gathering the very next day, Meursault gave me an intensive lesson in etiquette and essential knowledge.

It was tedious work that required memorizing over a century of Goodman family history, along with the military’s complicated organizational structure.

Of course, none of that was difficult for a veteran player like me.

“…You memorized all of it? After seeing it once?”

I had not memorized it.

I knew it from experience.

Meursault must have suffered greatly because of the pitiful intelligence of the Cola Zone’s NPCs, because he looked genuinely moved.

Was this why everyone wanted new hires with prior experience?

“I already knew you were no ordinary child, but you are far more exceptional than I expected.”

Once Meursault realized I exceeded his expectations, he began teaching me other things with the time we had left.

Most of it was useless trivia about Daphne.

Still, one part was useful.

He took me to the commander’s shooting range—the same place where he had summoned me that morning—and gave me firearms training.

Handling a gun was not particularly difficult for someone who had completed mandatory military service in South Korea.

And while shooting, I equipped the title ‘Magic Bullet Shooter’ to increase my accuracy, so not a single bullet missed its target.

Meursault could not stop expressing his amazement.

“I cannot believe my eyes… You truly have never held a gun before?”

“No.”

I lied without the slightest hesitation.

Technically, this body had never held one before, so it was not entirely a lie.

“This can only be described as natural talent.”

Even after the lesson ended, Meursault remained staring at my target sheet, muttering in shock.

Apparently, he reported the news to the commander immediately.

That night, when the commander came to see me, the first thing he brought up was my shooting.

That was understandable.

Shooting ability was extremely important in this world.

To kill an alien monster, one had to destroy the small gemstone embedded somewhere in its body.

“Did you truly hit every target?”

“Yes…”

“Have you ever handled a firearm before?”

“No.”

That was a blatant lie, Father.

To leave an even stronger impression on the commander, I decided to show off a little more.

“But is that really so impressive? Can’t everyone do that much? It seemed easy…”

“……”

Father stared at me, seemingly lost in serious thought.

He must be wondering whether to let me participate in a subjugation.

The commander of the Cola Zone might have been a dictator, but he always stood at the forefront during subjugation campaigns.

Failure meant the end of the entire zone.

Children my age were already participating as child soldiers.

For the sake of military morale and unity, I, the commander’s son, would eventually have to participate as well.

Even so, the commander must have been hesitant.

No ruler in the world would want to send the biological child he had only just found onto a battlefield.

But now that he knew I had talent with firearms, he might take me along on the next subjugation.

Just imagine how moved the soldiers would be if he brought his son to battle immediately after publicly acknowledging him.

That was precisely why I had deliberately pretended to possess extraordinary shooting talent.

I need to participate in a subjugation as soon as possible.

There was something I could obtain through the subjugation event.

“Um, Dad.”

“Yes?”

This guy’s tone changed the moment I called him Dad…

“I heard that I have a stepmother. Lady Daphne.”

“It seems Meursault told you.”

“Yes. Rather than letting her learn about me from someone else, I thought it would be proper for me to visit her first and introduce myself.”

When I brought up the subject myself, the commander looked at me with both pride and bitterness.

“Yes… Your mother is Lunamoon, but from now on, you’ll also have to live alongside Daphne. However, you won’t be able to meet her immediately. I already asked whether she wished to see you, but she said she has been unwell recently and would rather avoid meeting a young child. You can meet her once she recovers.”

Daphne was unwell?

That can’t be right…

She was an extremely cautious woman.

She probably intended to investigate exactly what kind of child I was before agreeing to meet me.

The commander likely understood that too.

Although he seemed reluctant to discuss Daphne rather than Lunamoon in front of me, he did not appear to doubt the claim that she was ill.

Strange…

Hayden had entered a loveless marriage with Daphne because of the previous commander’s orders and his own desire for power.

At least, based on what I had seen while playing the game, the two did not hate each other, but they were indifferent toward one another.

Even when I poisoned Daphne, the commander had not mourned her death.

Yet when the commander before me spoke about Daphne, there was something in his tone…

It was not marital affection, exactly.

It felt more like the bond between comrades.

Between Lunamoon’s ring and this… this world doesn’t seem completely identical to the game. Why?

In fact, when the commander visited me today, I had noticed that there was some sort of secret hidden within Lunamoon’s ring.

The moment the commander appeared, the ring had become faintly warm.

I had been too overwhelmed to notice it last night, but the ring was clearly reacting to him.

Even now, the moment the commander finished speaking and left, the warmth rapidly drained from it.

Strangely, it felt almost as though the ring regretted that it could not remain with him longer.

This was the same ring that had previously been affected by the title ‘Lunamoon’s Friend.’

Titles could influence many things, including items.

However, ‘Lunamoon’s Friend’ was strictly a title that affected NPCs.

The only items that could be influenced by that type of title were those containing a will of their own, like ego swords.

That left only one possible hypothesis.

This ring contains the ego of an NPC.

Someone who knew both Lunamoon and Hayden.