If I Find Out
An apocalyptic middle-aged romance simulation game.
I stared at her, wondering if I had heard right. Daphne’s face flushed scarlet as she mumbled on.
“A handsome middle-aged man appears… apocalypse military setting… I was playing this otome game… and the next thing I knew… I was possessed…….”
“…….”
Was there an otome game in the Safe Zone series…?
It was a ten-year-old game, sure, but I was pretty certain the genre had always been straight apocalypse…….
Then her username flashed through my mind: Meursault’s Wife.
So that was why she went by Meursault’s Wife?
If her username was Meursault’s Wife, why the hell did she end up as Hayden’s wife?
“If Meursault’s Wife meant that, then why my father—”
“Me-Meursault wasn’t a romanceable character! He was an extra! Completely unromanceable!”
So in the game Daphne played, he was just an extra?
In Apocalypse: Safe Zone he had a decent amount of screen time.
Same NPCs, same setting—just a different format of game…….
…No way.
A hypothesis suddenly cut through my thoughts.
We’ve been assuming we were dropped into a game world, but……
Same cast. Same background.
Players who possessed characters through completely different games.
Maybe the games we played were just imitations of this world.
The moment the idea settled, a chill ran down my spine.
If that was true—
Someone deliberately brought us into this world with clear intent.
Whether it was Safe Zone or some otome game, someone out there had released games that copied this world.
I still had no idea why, but it didn’t feel like good intentions.
If the goal had been to stop this world’s end, they wouldn’t have wrapped it in something as ridiculous as an otome game and handed out quests to marry NPCs. They wouldn’t have funneled random players in through convenience stores either.
If they seriously wanted us to save the world…
All I feel is the malice of some degenerate viewer who just wants to watch the juiciest scenes possible.
The bastard who possessed us was the real dopamine addict.
“…Come to think of it, earlier you said you told my mother it was something you had no choice but to do for the sake of the route?”
“That’s right. All I received was a quest: ‘Clear an ending within one year or die.’”
Clear an ending within one year… or die?
Unlike our system, which was basically just a set of tools, hers actually handed out quests?
“The only romanceable characters in this zone were the former commander and Hayden. And since I possessed the former commander’s daughter, Hayden was the only option I had!”
Ah. So that was the situation.
She still looked genuinely wronged. Daphne drained her still-steaming tea in one go, forced her excitement down, and spoke in a carefully calm voice.
“Talking like this as a player… it’s been almost ten years.”
She continued, looking half-relieved and half-unsteady.
“When I heard Luna Moon’s child had come looking for me, I honestly couldn’t believe it.”
“Couldn’t believe it?”
Daphne shot me a sidelong glance and mumbled in a fading voice.
“Well… you know……? Having a child with a game character… it’s something I couldn’t even imagine. Of course I assumed it was an impostor.”
Sharp.
But I understood. Take Daphne herself—she was beautiful, sure, but in my memories she was still more NPC than person. Romance between game characters was one thing. Having an actual child with one was something else entirely.
If Daphne got a one-year time-limit quest, Luna Moon probably did too.
But she didn’t stop at the quest—she went so far as to have a child with a game character. That meant Luna Moon really had loved Hayden.
Even if Daphne ended up taking him from her.
Then maybe Luna Moon didn’t die of plague. Maybe she failed her route and that was the penalty?
It had always been weird that a player died of disease. Our bodies healed just from eating, after all.
I remembered something Daphne had said earlier and asked,
“What exactly did you ask my mother to help with? You said she left you coldly, but I don’t think Mother would have known how to leave this game world either.”
“Ah… I wasn’t asking for a way out of the game.”
“Then what?”
“I married Hayden because of the quest… but I regretted it almost immediately. So I told her that even if I died, I’d rather stay with Meursault, and asked her to help me divorce Hayden. But the next day Luna Moon vanished, and I was left alone in this mansion. Hiding the secret that I was a player. For the entire ten years until you showed up.”
…Huh?
Something about that bothered me.
So she had already asked Luna Moon to help her divorce Hayden?
Then why did Luna Moon go out of her way to leave Hayden and hide in the slums?
If Daphne’s side had no intention of harming her, she could have just stayed here, right?
Of course, Daphne had pro-Daphne faction officers around her, so a third party could have threatened Luna Moon.
Or Daphne could be lying.
Character Inspection only showed Daphne’s player information; it didn’t tell me whether her words were true or false.
Either way… I still didn’t know her true feelings, but I had figured out how to get her cooperation.
“I’ll help you.”
“You’ll… help me?”
“Yes. If you just help me establish myself here a little, I’ll free you from Commander Hayden as soon as possible. I swear it on my mother’s name.”
Daphne blinked rapidly, as if she had heard something completely unexpected.
“…Did you even listen to everything I said? Or did you not understand? Luna Moon died because of me more than anyone. Because she must have received the same quest—”
“I know.”
“You know, so why are you still—”
“Mother forgave you. And you’re the last remaining friend my mother had.”
“…….”
Daphne looked at me with an indescribable expression.
“…You’re just a ten-year-old child, yet talking to you feels exactly like talking to Luna Moon.”
Well, the person inside this body was a player just like Luna Moon.
Naïve, more than I expected.
The fact that Daphne believed me so easily might have been because the game she played was a romance simulation, not an apocalypse title.
If treating Daphne as my mother’s friend and gaining a solid backer meant helping her divorce her dictator husband, I would do it a hundred times over.
Besides, Daphne and Hayden divorcing was good for me too, and it wasn’t even hard to arrange.
Because I was still in the middle of the Three Rewards strategy, and I still had one reward left to claim from the commander.
Hayden himself didn’t particularly love Daphne either, so helping her divorce him wouldn’t be difficult.
The real problem was something else.
Commander Hayden might already know that Luna Moon was a player.
Judging from his reaction when he learned I had healing abilities…
I suddenly felt certain Luna Moon had told him something.
Because the commander had already dropped a heavy hint the other day.
—Haydam. Why I loved Luna Moon yet married another woman. Why, even with the high position of commander, I couldn’t protect you and Luna Moon. There are still so many things a child your age can’t understand. When you grow old enough to understand my words, I’ll tell you everything I know.
That grandiose speech back then might have been because he already knew Luna Moon was a player.
If the commander knows about players, I absolutely cannot let him discover that I’m one…….
Hiding the fact that I was a player from Daphne had been the right call after all.
From now on I had to keep playing the role of the child Luna Moon bore inside the game.
Until I had this entire zone in the palm of my hand.
“Huh?”
After finishing my talk with Daphne and stepping out of the mansion, I found the servants glaring at me like they wanted me dead—and behind them, the officers.
Pro-Daphne faction officers seething with fury, and pro-Hayden faction officers looking panicked and carefully reading the room.
Damn, the effect’s perfect.
Watching these hard-to-see big shots rush over in a swarm just because some kid hopped a lady’s wall made it hard to keep the smile from cracking my face.
“Young Master Haydam! What on earth is the meaning of—”
A pro-Hayden officer called out cautiously, only for Anton, leader of the pro-Daphne faction, to cut him off with a roar.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Climbing over Lady Daphne’s wall and even driving out the servants!”
I wasn’t the one who drove the servants out, though?
I glanced at them; they hurriedly averted their eyes and scurried back into the mansion.
Those bastards had clearly run off and maliciously snitched to the officers.
“I think there’s been a misunderstanding…….”
“Exactly! A misunderstanding, right? There’s no way Young Master Haydam would climb over a wall!”
“No, I did climb over the wall, but it was Lady Daphne who told the servants to leave.”
“…….”
Huh?
Did that pro-Hayden officer just look away like he couldn’t shield me anymore?
“If Lady Daphne dismissed the servants first, then the two of you must have had something important to discuss.”
The one who spoke was Yosef, leader of the pro-Hayden faction.
“Did the conversation go well?”
“Ah, yes.”
“Must have been quite urgent if you had to climb the wall of Lady Daphne’s residence just to have it?”
A pro-Daphne officer couldn’t hold back and sniped. Anton, still livid, added,
“Yes, we need to know what emergency justified this kind of rudeness. That way we won’t go around misunderstanding Young Master Haydam and being disappointed for no reason, don’t you think?”
If they wanted to know that badly…
I smiled brightly and answered them without the slightest concealment.
“I just came out after swearing on my mother’s name that I will absolutely make His Excellency and Lady Daphne divorce.”
“Wh-what…….”
“What did you say?!”
“This crazy little—”
Anton’s face went dead white. A moment later he kicked off the ground and sprinted into the mansion.
Probably worried about Daphne after the verbal thrashing I supposedly gave her.
Since Daphne already agreed to cooperate, I don’t need the pro-Daphne officers anymore.
I watched their backs disappear in a frantic rush after Anton. Then Yosef grabbed my shoulder.
“What are you planning to do with a stunt like this?! If His Excellency finds out……!”
Yosef was still scolding me when a deep, quiet baritone drifted from behind him.
“If I find out?”
“……!”
I lifted my head. Beyond Yosef’s shoulder stood Commander Hayden, ramrod straight, looking down at me with his single remaining eye.