Chapter 61

The Promise (4)

“Turned into blue particles… and disappeared?”

Only then did I understand why Stay-at-Home Wifey was so deeply shocked and terrified.

Turning into blue particles and vanishing when food was brought to the mouth was a characteristic unique to players.

At least, that had been the case until now.

Unlike players, other NPCs ate normally—that was, by chewing food with their teeth and swallowing it.

So if he had witnessed the same phenomenon while a monster was devouring a person, it was only natural that he would be confused.

“Why do you think that happened?”

Stay-at-Home Wifey asked me anxiously.

“Could those things be players too?”

“How would I know just because you ask me?”

“You’re smarter than I am!”

So this guy was the type who became remarkably self-aware when cornered.

But it wasn’t as though I had any solid guesses either.

By the time I arrived, I hadn’t even seen the monsters eating anyone.

Just trying to figure out why they had run away after seeing me was enough to give me a headache, and now he was saying their “way of eating” was the same as ours?

“For now… I don’t think I can say anything until I see it with my own eyes.”

At my lukewarm answer, Stay-at-Home Wifey sprang to his feet.

“I’m telling you, I saw it clearly!”

“I’m not doubting you. I just think there might be something you can only sense by seeing it firsthand.”

Stay-at-Home Wifey had asked whether those monsters were also players, but just because “something” vanished into blue particles after touching their mouths didn’t mean we could conclude they were players.

Even the fire rabbit I had encountered on my previous hunt had crunched away at the cookie I used as bait.

Perhaps it was simply an ability possessed only by the individuals we had just seen.

“Anyway, these alien monsters already have the ability to heal their wounds with moonlight. Even if they can heal themselves by eating something, it’s hardly all that surpris—”

I stopped speaking abruptly.

Stay-at-Home Wifey looked at me with an expression that said he knew exactly why.

“You noticed something strange while you were talking too, didn’t you?”

I looked down at my body for a moment.

Right after possessing this body, I assumed this was a game world, so I never thought too deeply about it…

As though he had read my mind, Stay-at-Home Wifey asked,

“These bodies we possessed. Have you ever wondered where they came from?”

Now that I thought about it, even the word “possession” seemed strange.

If we had truly possessed someone else’s bodies, there should have been at least one person who knew the original owners.

Hadn’t even Anton begun suspecting my past precisely because he couldn’t find a single person who knew me?

That meant the “bodies” we were currently using must have simply appeared from somewhere on the day we entered this world.

“So that’s why you asked whether those monsters were players.”

I looked at Stay-at-Home Wifey.

“What are you actually trying to say?”

At my question, he answered with an unusually serious expression.

“I think… we might be monsters.”

I stared at him for a moment.

Then I let out a long sigh.

“Haah…”

“Hey! I’m being serious here, and you sigh? Don’t you find your body suspicious? You thought it was strange too! This body’s physical abilities are absurdly high!”

Admittedly, while fighting the large-class monster earlier, I had also thought that my ten-year-old body was producing an impossible amount of power.

I had assumed that both our physical capabilities and our healing abilities were simply privileges granted to players…

But perhaps there really was some other secret behind them.

Even so—

“We’re probably not monsters. For one thing, we don’t have gemstones.”

“Ah…”

Only after hearing that did Stay-at-Home Wifey seem to calm down somewhat.

There were several ways to distinguish monsters from humans, including appearance and healing ability, but the most important distinction was the presence or absence of a gemstone.

Every monster born from a meteorite possessed a gemstone that served as its core.

Even if a rabbit with flames on its head was running around, without a gemstone embedded in its body, it was nothing more than a mutant rabbit.

Since neither of us had gemstones attached to our bodies, assuming we were humanoid monsters was taking things too far.

Stay-at-Home Wifey seemed to mull over my words before whispering,

“Still, those things were strangely intelligent. Could there be players who possessed large-class monsters?”

He seemed convinced that those monsters were connected to players somehow.

This time, however, I took his theory seriously.

“What you’re saying isn’t completely impossible. There seems to be someone like the Unicorn Zone player who possessed an adult body. There could be other exceptions too.”

“Right?!”

“That’s all the more reason I need to see them with my own eyes. If those bastards really are players, I’ll make them regret acting up in my backyard. And if they aren’t…”

Over Stay-at-Home Wifey’s shoulder, I saw the Commander and Meursault emerge from the tent one after the other, so I quickly wrapped up the conversation.

“We’ll think about that when the time comes. Whether we’re human or monsters, the fact that we have to clear this world hasn’t changed.”

Stay-at-Home Wifey didn’t seem entirely convinced by my statement that nothing would change whether we were humans or monsters.

Still, he nodded obediently.

I stared at him for a moment before asking,

“By the way… don’t you find it strange that I chased those monsters away?”

If he thought their method of eating was strange, shouldn’t he also have questioned why they fled the moment I appeared?

But Stay-at-Home Wifey answered with a completely sincere expression, as though there was nothing strange about it at all.

“What’s strange about that? I’d run away too if I saw you.”

Hmm.

What exactly did Meursault and this guy think I was?

After reorganizing our formation, we resumed the search.

Originally, we had only restructured the teams so we could continue searching until the wounded soldiers returned, after which we planned to head back.

But after hearing Stay-at-Home Wifey’s story, I felt we needed to capture at least one of the four fleeing monsters and investigate it.

Could those monsters really turn food into blue particles and use it to heal their wounds?

Why did they move in a pack?

Why had they run away after seeing me?

Unless I found a clear answer to at least one of those questions, this uncomfortable feeling wouldn’t go away.

I glanced at the combat rations hanging from my waist.

I don’t know whether combat rations will even count as food for monsters.

If they didn’t, I might have no choice but to let one of them take a bite out of my arm, injuries be damned.

The problem was figuring out how to lead this team—which included the Commander—from a simple search into actively pursuing those four monsters.

To make matters worse, the snowfall that had begun a little while ago was steadily growing heavier, so it didn’t seem likely that we could continue the search for long.

The signal flare we fired upon discovering a monster was white.

If the snow intensified any further, no one would be able to distinguish it from the falling snow.

“Lord Haydam.”

Second Lieutenant Plato, the former leader of Team Nine who had been reassigned to Team One with me, approached with shining eyes.

It was obvious why he was coming over to speak to me.

The other members who had joined Team One had already been taking turns talking about my earlier exploits.

Even I had no answer when they asked how I had driven away four large-class monsters with nothing but a look, and I was already tired of making up vague excuses.

“Are you curious about how I chased them away too?”

I looked at him with an exhausted expression.

He waved both hands as though protesting his innocence.

“N-No, Lord Haydam.”

“You aren’t?”

“To be honest… I don’t understand why everyone is making such a fuss.”

That was a new perspective.

When I looked at him with interest, Plato continued.

“Driving away three or four large-class monsters is nothing to you, Lord Haydam. Even the monsters realized they were no match for you and fled, yet the soldiers of this zone still fail to understand. I merely find that unfortunate.”

Hmm.

I think you’re making the biggest fuss out of anyone here.

“Anyway, I wanted to ask you about something else.”

“What is it?”

“Identifying the location of a gemstone. Were you the one who taught the military how to do it?”

I had arranged for the newly commissioned officers to be trained in the method of locating gemstones before the subjugation operation.

However, I hadn’t specifically told either the military or the new officers that I was the one who had created it.

It was for the same reason that Meursault, rather than me, was publicly known as the operations officer behind this campaign.

Since this was the first time the identification method was being used in practice, I had wondered whether the soldiers would truly believe in and follow a method devised by a ten-year-old child.

The newly commissioned officers had personally seen and experienced what I was capable of at the military academy.

Ordinary soldiers were different.

Most of them probably didn’t even know my face.

Even during the previous battle, they hadn’t immediately followed my orders. They had only acted after first checking Meursault’s reaction.

That was why the gemstone-identification method had been passed down to the soldiers through headquarters only after the Commander and Meursault had thoroughly verified it.

Plato, however, seemed certain that I had invented it.

“Why do you think I was the one who taught them?”

“We were trained in the method as well, but when several large-class monsters appeared before us, almost none of the soldiers were able to apply it properly. Yet the moment you arrived at the front line, you killed two monsters with only two shots.”

Hmm.

Meursault had helped me with the first one, but everyone seemed to have already forgotten that.

“Let’s say I was the one who taught them. Why are you curious?”

“I just told you that almost none of the soldiers were able to apply the identification method properly… but I saw one soldier hunt a monster with movements almost comparable to yours.”

As he spoke, Plato looked behind us.

His gaze landed on Stay-at-Home Wifey, who was following at a slight distance.

Our team was already short on personnel, but I had told him to keep his distance because if the two of us stayed together, he was certain to let something slip.

Plato looked away from Stay-at-Home Wifey and turned back to me.

“The large-class monster that was killed before you arrived was also taken down by that boy.”

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

He had killed an entire large-class monster, yet when he came to me, all he had talked about was how strange the monsters were.

Had seeing a monster “eat” the same way we did really shocked him that badly?

Apparently, the Commander hadn’t brought Stay-at-Home Wifey into Team One merely because he had run over to help me earlier.

“You seem to know him, Lord Haydam. Is that correct?”

By now, nearly everyone knew that Stay-at-Home Wifey and I were close, so I saw no need to deny it.

“Yeah. I know him.”

“Then…”

Plato hesitated, which was unlike him.

Then, in a quiet voice, he asked me,

“Was that boy perhaps the one my father kidnapped?”

I stopped walking and stared at Plato.

How does this bastard know about that?

Don’t tell me…

Had he started investigating his own father for my sake?