Chapter 80
Divorce (6)
“I believe you now.”
After witnessing my ability, the player from the Love Zone declared that she no longer doubted me.
Aside from Luna, no one knew that I had gained this supernatural ability by eating the Snow Giant’s gem.
It was a setting that had never appeared in the game, so even a player would never imagine that I had obtained this power through some method other than a special reward.
Naturally, she had no choice but to believe me.
Sure… It’s good that she believes me now, but…
An unexpected problem arose.
“You… Aren’t you going back to your zone?”
“I only arrived today. There’s no way I can leave immediately.”
She declared that she intended to stay in my zone for several more days.
Of course, even though she was a player, the Love Zone was far from here, so she could have accumulated considerable fatigue during the journey.
The Commander and Meursault also believed she was my guest, so even if she had said she was leaving, I probably would have been the first to suggest that she rest for a few days.
Even so, the reason I felt uneasy about her staying in my zone was that she was still afraid of me, but that fear now felt subtly different from before.
For example, when I called her “Shin,” she shook her head and told me not to call her that anymore.
“Then what am I supposed to call you? Shaman?”
“Shin Eun-jo.”
“What’s Shin Eun-jo?”
“My real name.”
“You want me to call you by your real name?”
“It gets confusing when you call me ‘Shin.’”
She wanted me to use her real name because her player name, Shin, could be confused with shin, meaning God?
[It is confusing.]
That’s true, but…
She had never cared about it before, so I had no idea what change of heart had come over her.
“Stop thinking strange things and just go back to your zone.”
“When I leave, I’ll entrust one of the earrings to you. That should be more than enough payment for a few nights’ lodging, shouldn’t it?”
It was far too generous a lodging fee to refuse.
[Let her stay and get both earrings!]
Luna had become quite shameless himself.
Rather than letting Shin Eun-jo stay at the Commander’s residence unattended, I decided to put Taejeong in charge of watching her.
Taejeong had become far more taciturn than when I first met him, and he barely gave off any presence. He now carried an atmosphere similar to the other servants in the Commander’s residence.
The moment she met Taejeong, Shin Eun-jo must have opened Character Inspection, because she muttered his nickname aloud.
“Taejeongtaesebeyoncé?”
A girl he had never seen before had called out his nickname, yet Taejeong didn’t appear particularly surprised.
He had probably heard from the others that a girl around his age had arrived from another zone and guessed that she was a player with the system unlocked.
Unexpectedly, Shin Eun-jo showed interest in him.
“I know you. You’re one of Dopamine Addict’s followers, aren’t you?”
“You know me, but I don’t know who you are, noona.”
You don’t even know who she is, yet you’re already calling her noona?
“I’m Shin Eun-jo. But why are you here? Wasn’t your home zone Chicken?”
Taejeong’s home zone was Chicken?
Now that I thought about it, most of the other players knew about me.
But I knew almost nothing about them.
T-Bastard remained in my memory because he had been doing a counter-strategy against me, which was why I had lied to Stay-at-home Wifey and claimed that I was T-Bastard.
Could Taejeong know something about the Salvation Project too?
As my thoughts reached that point, I remembered a question I had yet to receive an answer to from Shin Eun-jo.
When I sent the long-tailed tit back to the Love Zone, I had asked him one thing.
—Do you know anything about the Salvation Project?
The long-tailed tit had seemed unaware of it, and I hadn’t specifically told him to ask Shin Eun-jo.
Still, since he was in a position where he had to report to her, I assumed the matter would naturally reach her ears.
However, when I suggested that we discuss “something more important,” Shin Eun-jo had brought up the reward for clearing every zone rather than the Salvation Project.
In other words, there was a high chance that Shin Eun-jo knew nothing about the Salvation Project either.
But…
[That girl seems cautious, so we can’t ignore the possibility that she knows something and is hiding it.]
Luna was right.
At the very least, while she remained here, I could subtly probe whether she knew anything about the Salvation Project.
Having decided that, I looked at Taejeong.
“Take care of her while she stays here. I’ll send her back before the entrance exam, so don’t worry.”
“Leave it to me, hyung.”
“Entrance exam?”
Shin Eun-jo looked at me as though she wanted to know what I meant.
Instead of explaining the entrance exam, I deliberately spoke in a warning tone.
“If you want to stay here, it would be best not to take an interest in my zone’s affairs.”
“You possess power like that, yet you’re still wary of an insignificant player like me?”
I hadn’t expected her to diminish herself as “an insignificant player” just because I had shown her one ability.
[Who knows whether she means it.]
Don’t you have some power that lets you detect lies?
[Of course I don’t…]
I was about to warn Shin Eun-jo once more, but she spoke before I could.
“Being cautious is a good thing. Unless you call for me, I won’t leave my room.”
That was exactly the problem.
“The fact that you’re suddenly obeying me so readily is suspicious.”
“But I’m sincere. What good could come from making an enemy of a player with such absurd power? I don’t think there would be any benefit.”
My instincts told me that every word she said was sincere.
So why did it still feel so unsettling?
“Then I’ll stay shut inside my room. If there’s ever anything I can help you with, feel free to call me.”
After saying that, Shin Eun-jo genuinely followed Taejeong to the room assigned to her and didn’t come back out.
She had said I could call her whenever I needed help.
What an amusing thing to say.
When would I ever need the help of a Love Zone player?
***
“Lady Daphne refused to meet Meursault?”
“That’s right.”
The Commander, who had delivered the news, looked at me in confusion.
“Why are you so surprised? Daphne is my wife. It is only natural that she would refuse to meet Meursault privately.”
“……”
“But she did not refuse to meet you. She said you may visit as long as Meursault does not accompany you.”
She would meet me if I didn’t bring Meursault?
What in the world happened to change her mind while we were away on the subjugation campaign?
More importantly, I had promised to take Meursault to tea with Daphne, only for him to be rejected at the door by Daphne herself.
How was I supposed to tell him this?
Unless my memory is wrong, Daphne clearly said she intended to confess her feelings to Meursault.
It had sounded like a death flag, but it definitely hadn’t been something she said impulsively.
And now she was refusing even to meet him?
When I fell into thought with a grave expression, the Commander asked with an incomprehensible look.
“Haydam. Why are you so determined to bring Meursault and Daphne together? Is it connected to the future?”
If I said it was necessary for the future, the Commander would actively help me.
But even if I lied and claimed there was a reason those two had to marry, the Commander would eventually see through it.
It was better not to tell a lie that would quickly be exposed.
“I simply feel sorry for them.”
“For Daphne?”
“No. For all of them.”
It was partly an excuse, but partly sincere.
Daphne, who had married someone she didn’t love.
The Commander, who had married Daphne because the woman he loved wanted him to.
And Meursault, who had to serve the man married to the woman he loved as his superior.
Their fates were so twisted that I now wanted to put everything back where it belonged.
And perhaps make them owe me a favor while I was at it.
I didn’t know what the Commander thought after hearing my answer, but he merely chuckled.
“This is not something for you to agonize over alone. Go see Daphne. She said she wished to meet you if you came alone, so she must have something to say.”
“All right. I have something I need to confirm as well.”
As our conversation appeared to end, Luna, who had been receiving pets on the Commander’s lap, slowly stood and stretched his entire body.
I looked at Luna, then asked the Commander,
“Ah, by the way. She only refused Meursault, correct?”
“That is so… Why do you ask?”
“I have another companion.”
“Another companion?”
The Commander tilted his head slightly, apparently unable to guess whom I meant, before a strange smile appeared on his face.
“Come to think of it, you allowed that girl from the Love Zone to stay in my residence.”
“You can’t throw a guest out after only one day.”
“So, are you not going to tell me what sort of relationship you have with her that made her travel all this way to find you?”
“We have no relationship.”
“She came all the way from another zone and specifically asked for you, despite having no relationship with you?”
“It seems Meursault didn’t report everything to you.”
At the mention of a report, the Commander raised one eyebrow.
“During the last subjugation campaign, I rescued a lost child.”
“Ah… I believe I heard something about that. They said you returned him unharmed, unlike your usual self.”
“The guest who came to see me is that lost child’s older sister.”
“His sister?”
“She merely came to thank me, so I would appreciate it if you didn’t form any strange misunderstandings. Please tell Meursault the same.”
Only then did the Commander nod with an expression of understanding.
“As I have told you repeatedly, I too was saved by Lunamoon after crossing over from another zone—”
I fled the office without even remembering to take Luna with me.
And so—
I came to ask Shin Eun-jo for help.
The first thing I said upon arriving was,
“But are you really a woman? You’re not a guy pretending to be one online, are you?”
“…Do men always ask such pathetic questions?”
She looked as though someone had already asked her the same thing before.
Was it Home Protector?
“Why does it matter whether I’m really a woman?”
“Because I think Daphne will relate to you better as a woman than she would to me.”
“Daphne?”
Shin Eun-jo looked at me with interest.
“So you didn’t only spare the Commander and Meursault. You decided not to kill Daphne either? Are you trying to take a no-kill route?”
“I’m going to make her divorce the Commander.”
“……”
Shin Eun-jo stared at me in disbelief for a moment before asking,
“You’re going to settle for divorcing her instead of killing her?”
“You’ll understand once you meet Daphne, but the divorce is what Daphne wants.”
“I still don’t entirely understand… but what exactly do you want me to find out from Daphne?”
As expected, she was quick-witted.
Shin Eun-jo immediately understood what I wanted.
I wanted Daphne to reveal her true feelings to her.
Daphne was clearly hiding something she couldn’t tell me.
Perhaps it was because I was Lunamoon’s child, because I was close to Meursault, or simply because I was a boy.
What Shin Eun-jo needed to discover was—
“Her feelings toward Meursault.”
“…What?”
Shin Eun-jo furrowed her brow deeply.
In the Safe Zone game, Meursault had appeared as a budding adulterer who one-sidedly lusted after Daphne, so asking Daphne about her feelings for him must have sounded absurd.
Or so I thought.
A moment later, that assumption vanished entirely because of the words that came from Shin Eun-jo’s mouth.
“Meursault isn’t supposed to be a romanceable character.”
“I know that too— Wait, what?”
She knew that Meursault wasn’t a romanceable character?
Perhaps I needed to reconsider my assumption that Shin Eun-jo knew nothing about the Salvation Project.