Chapter 43

How Do You Know That?

“I’m not sure whether everyone has heard yet, but…”

Anton, the leader of the pro-Daphne faction, spoke after seating the faction’s officers around a round table.

“The officers have apparently been forbidden from participating in the upcoming subjugation battle.”

The officers immediately began murmuring among themselves.

“Could they be trying to exclude us?”

“That doesn’t seem to be the case. We aren’t the only ones. Luna Moon’s watchdogs have also been prohibited from participating.”

When they heard that the officers of the pro-Hayden faction had also been barred from taking part, the pro-Daphne officers exchanged puzzled looks.

“Then all the officers are…?”

“Why exactly have we been forbidden from participating? It’s true that we haven’t been doing much, but it’s not as though we’ve been getting in the way.”

“They say this subjugation battle will be carried out by a small elite force.”

“A small elite force…?”

Anton clicked his tongue.

“Haydam must have had a hand in it. That child has been doing everything possible to draw attention to himself because he wants to participate in the subjugation battle.”

The officers gathered here kept their mouths shut only because they were watching Anton’s reaction, but the story of Haydam defeating Anton’s son, Plato, in a training simulation had already spread beyond the military academy and throughout the entire Cola District.

Haydam was an exceptionally conspicuous child.

They had assumed that he must have some political objective.

But they had never imagined that his goal would be to prevent the officers from participating in the subjugation battle.

“Why would he specifically forbid us from participating? We don’t particularly care whether we go or not, do we?”

“If the pro-Commander officers have also been forbidden from participating, then we don’t have any grounds to protest.”

“That is precisely why the child is so cunning.”

Anton continued in a calm tone.

“As you said, we have no justification for objecting. If we suddenly insist that we absolutely must take part in the subjugation battle, we’ll only make fools of ourselves. It is true that we have always remained in the rear and returned without doing anything.”

“Hmm…”

“But if we accept the ban without protest, we’ll still look ridiculous. That child is truly devious.”

Anton was smiling as he spoke, making it seem as though he was actually enjoying Haydam’s provocation.

One of the officers carefully studied Anton’s expression before asking:

“Then… what do you intend to do?”

“I’m thinking of touching something other than the subjugation battle.”

“Something else?”

“Luna Moon’s grave.”

“What?!”

“Lord Anton?!”

The officers all raised their voices at once in alarm.

Even Anton would surely not be forgiven by Commander Hayden if he tampered with Luna Moon’s grave.

Amused by their reactions, Anton raised one corner of his mouth.

“Surely you don’t think I’m suggesting that we dig up a dead woman’s grave.”

“Th-Then…?”

“I investigated her grave and discovered that it was built quite some time ago. The elderly people in the slums said it had already been there for nearly ten years.”

“Ten years?”

One of the officers sensed something strange and asked:

“How is that possible? Isn’t Lord Haydam ten years old now?”

“Exactly.”

Anton placed both hands on the table and interlaced his fingers.

“Haydam has always claimed that he heard everything from Luna Moon. But if Luna Moon died ten years ago… doesn’t something seem strange?”

“Are you saying Lord Haydam might be an impostor?”

Tension swept through the officers, but one of them spoke with an unconvinced expression.

“No, but… every officer in the pro-Commander faction insists that the child resembles Luna Moon. And… he also resembles His Excellency, at least in my eyes.”

The other officers voiced their concerns as well.

“Even if Lord Haydam is an impostor, can we prove it? We cannot even confirm the exact year the grave was built.”

“More importantly, Lord Haydam has already proven his identity. If we start saying that he seems suspicious now, we’ll be executed by firing squad like Lieutenant General Batum.”

The memory of Lieutenant General Batum being shot dead by Meursault right before their eyes seemed to replay itself, and the officers shuddered.

“What about this?”

Anton spoke as though he had already devised a plan.

“If the child is an impostor, then he won’t know what Luna Moon looked like. Luna Moon has already been reduced to bones after ten years, and no photographs of her remain.”

“That is true. His Excellency was deeply regretful about that.”

“So I intend to show the child a portrait of Luna Moon and observe his reaction.”

The officers looked confused.

“A portrait of Luna Moon? But you just said no photographs remain…”

“You aren’t thinking of asking His Excellency or the other officers, are you? If we step forward and suggest creating a portrait of Luna Moon, it could damage Lady Daphne’s dignity…”

“But Lady Daphne herself is right here.”

“…!”

Daphne would undoubtedly know Luna Moon’s face.

After all, the two women had competed for Commander Hayden.

“But would Lady Daphne truly cooperate with this? Even after that child insulted her so harshly, she told us not to antagonize him. She seems rather fond of him. There’s no way she would allow us to use Luna Moon’s portrait to set a trap.”

“Tsk. In the end, women cannot help but be soft toward children.”

“H-Hey, watch your mouth.”

The officer who had muttered thoughtlessly noticed Anton glaring sharply at him and immediately bowed his head in alarm.

“Judging by the way you speak so carelessly, it seems you’ve gone senile as well.”

“I-I apologize.”

“Still, it is true that Lady Daphne appears favorably disposed toward the child…”

Anton had known Daphne since she was very young.

As the former Commander’s only daughter, Daphne was every bit as ambitious as her father had been.

She was not the sort of person who would favor a child merely because she was a woman.

She must have something to gain from Haydam.

“We can tell Lady Daphne that we wish to present Haydam with a portrait of his mother as a gift. We must also make it appear as though that is our genuine purpose.”

“Oh, I see. If we do that, we won’t offend either His Excellency or Lady Daphne.”

“And if Lady Daphne personally gives him the portrait, her relationship with His Excellency may improve as well.”

Anton gave a brief nod at the officer’s comment.

“Once the portrait is ready, I will summon the child to an officers’ meeting. We will tell him that we have prepared a gift and show it to him. The instant he sees the portrait, everything will be revealed. A child’s eyes when looking at his own mother are not something that can be imitated.”

The Commander would also be present at the officers’ meeting.

He would notice any strangeness in Haydam’s reaction even more quickly than they would.

“If the child is truly Luna Moon’s son, then he should recognize his mother’s face at once…”

Anton’s voice gradually hardened into a sharp murmur.

“And if he fails to recognize her, he will pay the price for pretending to be an illegitimate son.”

***

For reasons I couldn’t understand, the story circulating around the military academy was that I had fought a fur crocodile head-on and won, then concealed the wounds from its bite so that I could participate in the training simulation for the honor of Team A’s cadets.

‘Plato… Didn’t you only tell them that my injuries hadn’t fully healed?’

Apart from the looming threat that a legend might soon arise about how I had beaten a fur crocodile to death with my bare hands at age ten and defeated eight cadets by myself, life at the academy was peaceful.

After that, my days fell into a repetitive routine.

I attended lessons at the military academy during the day and planned the subjugation operation with Meursault at night.

Nothing particularly noteworthy happened.

Before I knew it, another month had passed, and it was time for another meal with the children my age.

It had now been given the grand title of a charity party, so the children who came were dressed in neat suits rather than military uniforms or servant clothing.

Stay-at-home Wifey had swept back his blond hair, making him unnecessarily handsome, and spoke with a deeply dissatisfied expression.

“What’s the point of serving party food when we can’t even taste it? I told you to just give us slop.”

When was this guy ever going to stop being so ill-tempered?

Taejeong, who had grown noticeably taller in the meantime, spoke maturely.

“Efficiency matters more to us than taste. I tested those star candies from last time, and they were extremely effective.”

“Ah, I tested them too.”

Because of the Unicorn player’s intrusion, we had returned without testing the star candy, our new combat ration.

It seemed they had each conducted their own experiments with the pieces I had distributed on the way back.

“I was too scared to inflict a truly severe wound, but… I think it could save someone as long as they weren’t already dead. The wound healed incredibly quickly.”

Hmm.

They would probably object if I suggested receiving a critical injury to test it more thoroughly.

“You’re making that ominous face again.”

“What kind of face?”

“The kind where your dopamine starts surging.”

How rude.

“So… Lord Real Dopamine Addict, what exactly was that guy back then?”

“I don’t know either.”

“What?”

My answer must have sounded utterly absurd, because Stay-at-home Wifey’s face twisted.

“What do you mean, you don’t know?”

“I mean exactly that. All I know is that he’s the player from the Unicorn District and that, unlike the rest of us, he has the body of an adult. I don’t know why he’s pretending to be me or why he came looking for me.”

“Wait… then that lunatic could suddenly show up again at any time?”

Stay-at-home Wifey seemed anxious that the man might return.

Considering that he had said he would look forward to the day I came to his district, I doubted he would come looking for me again first.

Compared to Stay-at-home Wifey, Taejeong gave a more constructive response.

“If he comes again, I’ll train so that I won’t be helpless like last time.”

When I looked at him approvingly, Stay-at-home Wifey grumbled.

“You’ve got a magnetic shield around you. What kind of training are you going to do? Practice dodging bullets?”

“Shouldn’t Little Brother at least do that? You were the one he was targeting.”

“Damn.”

Taejeong might look mild-mannered, but he certainly knew how to say what needed to be said.

“For now, trying to identify him is a waste of time. We have no way to learn anything else.”

“So we’re just supposed to sit here feeling uneasy?”

“We’ll have to go to the Unicorn District ourselves someday and investigate. In any case, the fact that he’s a player hasn’t changed.”

It wasn’t as though I felt no anxiety about his existence.

But it was also true that there was nothing I could do right now.

The only difference between him and us was that he had the body of an adult.

We also had one adult player in our own district.

If I looked at it simply, we weren’t at any disadvantage.

‘Come to think of it, it’s about time I told them about Daphne.’

“Speaking of players, Daphne is one.”

“What?”

“Pardon?”

Both Stay-at-home Wifey and Taejeong stared at me in shock.

“Daphne is a player? Not Luna Moon?”

“Luna Moon was also a player.”

“What? Seriously?”

“So they weren’t ordinary NPCs?”

Hmm.

How should I explain this?

I would first have to tell them that the game those two had been transported through was different from the one we had entered.

“They were NPCs within the version of Safe Zone that we played. But the two of them entered this world through a different game.”

“A different game…?”

“I think there were multiple routes through which people could be transported into this world.”

Stay-at-home Wifey put on his usual expression of someone developing a headache, while Taejeong cautiously asked:

“If it was a different game… what kind of game were they transported from?”

“A dating simulation.”

“A dating simulation…?”

Taejeong’s expression became subtle.

Then Stay-at-home Wifey unexpectedly spoke.

“Don’t tell me it was a middle-aged handsome men dating simulation game?”

What?

How the hell did this bastard know?