Father, I Am
Commander Hayden was already standing behind us—I had no idea when he had arrived.
Meursault followed him in with his usual blank expression and fixed me with a hard stare.
That look is basically asking what kind of mess I caused this time.
The frozen officers stood speechless until the commander lifted one corner of his mouth in a crooked smile and asked again.
"And if I know?"
"Y-Your Excellency…!"
Only then did the pro-Hayden officers snap back to their senses and snap off salutes as one. The commander waved them off with a casual gesture.
"Just answer the question. I already know my son climbed the wall to go see Daphne. What I find interesting is that there's something even more awkward for me to learn."
His remaining eye, bright with amusement, lingered on me for a moment before locking onto Yosef.
"What could possibly be more troublesome than scaling the wall of your stepmother's residence?"
"Th-that is…"
Yosef's face was a battlefield of indecision—tell the truth or try to lie his way out of it.
He must have realized that even if he smoothed things over with a lie now, Daphne would only make it worse the moment she told the truth.
Well, tormenting the pro-Hayden officers any further wouldn't gain me anything, so I stepped in.
"Your Excellency."
The commander looked at me with wide eyes—probably because I had called him Excellency instead of Father.
I hesitated a beat, then started again.
"…Father. Don't misunderstand. The method was a little rough, but…"
Beside me, Meursault muttered under his breath, "A little?" in pure disbelief. I shot him a sidelong glare and continued.
"All I did was have a short conversation with Lady Daphne."
"You only talked, and yet these men look ready to jump out of their skins. Why is that?"
"Probably because we talked about Mother, so they're worried."
Meursault's expression changed at that, but the commander showed no reaction at all.
"Hmm…"
He seemed to weigh something for a moment, then glanced toward Daphne's mansion and spoke in a flat tone.
"I can hear the details from Daphne herself."
"Yes. No problem."
The commander studied me for a long second.
"…Even if all you did was talk, it isn't entirely without problem. You did climb the wall."
"Entering without Lady Daphne's permission was entirely my fault."
"And yet you say there's no problem?"
"Because Lady Daphne has already forgiven me."
Meursault's brow furrowed. The commander, still expressionless, added a simple clarification as if explaining something elementary.
"Wrong, Haydam. Everything inside this zone requires my authorization. Even climbing the wall of my wife's residence would not be a problem if you had first received my permission. Nod if you understand."
In other words: do whatever you want—just get permission before you cause trouble.
It was also a reminder that even a son was expected to obey him.
He had never said a word when I went hunting with Meursault or toured the research institute. The fact that he was this sensitive now meant Daphne was important to him as well.
Today's lecture was basically a warning that I had crossed a line.
I had never expected to vault someone else's wall without getting an earful, so I simply nodded my agreement.
Then I said,
"In that case… my business here is finished. May I have permission to return to my room?"
Instead of an apology or any show of repentance, I asked for leave. The officers behind us groaned, Meursault pressed a hand to his forehead, but the commander only snorted with quiet laughter.
I used to wonder why he was so lenient with me. Now that I knew Luna Moon had been a player, it made sense.
I was a player too. Every little thing I did was bound to remind him of her.
"Very well. You may go."
Permission granted, I gave a cheerful farewell and turned to leave. Meursault's voice followed me, barely moving his lips like a ventriloquist.
"You will explain this properly later."
I mouthed Anytime and walked away.
Meursault must have been thoroughly rattled by anyone laying a finger on his precious Daphne. The moment he finished cleaning up the situation, he came straight to find me.
I had been waiting for exactly that. I delivered the line I had prepared.
"Lady Daphne and Father are going to divorce."
Meursault's voice shook as he repeated,
"Wh-what… what do you mean by that?"
"Lady Daphne and Father are going to divorce. More precisely, I agreed to help them divorce."
"You… agreed to help Lady Daphne…?"
Meursault simply parroted my words like a broken machine.
No help for it.
"Lady Daphne wants a divorce from the commander, and I want that too. So the two of them will be separating soon."
"Lady Daphne… wants a divorce…"
Is this guy really the smartest person in the zone?
"And this is just between us…"
I let the sentence hang. Meursault swallowed hard and stared at me.
"Lady Daphne is already looking for a second husband. She asked me to find her someone good."
"Th-that is…!"
I smiled brightly without a single drop of shame and watched Meursault's pupils tremble.
"That's right, Meursault. Lady Daphne trusts me completely. So… you're going to become that 'good person' for me now, aren't you?"
"Of course I will…!"
His head bobbed up and down with violent enthusiasm. I smiled in satisfaction.
From the start Daphne had chosen the username Meursault's Wife. She was already head over heels for him. Connecting the two of them would be easy.
I could simply tell him Daphne had feelings for him, but it would be rude to pass along a confession she hadn't made herself.
So I would have to use… no, drop a hint this way instead.
See? I'm such a kind player.
I left the combat-ration development at the institute in the hands of the newly promoted "good person," the capable NPC Meursault.
Taejeong and I decided to go hunting together.
Shut-in Spouse was already getting combat training every day, so he would be fine.
Even if I was the one who had cleared every zone, without real combat experience I would never be able to perform properly in a subjugation.
Taejeong wouldn't be joining this next subjugation, but if he was going to take the tank role later he needed steady practice against monsters.
For him to join a subjugation at all, he still needed to grow bigger.
His marksmanship and healing were only average; his only real selling point was raw physique.
Even so, he already stood a full head taller than Shut-in Spouse and me. By fifteen he would probably tower over most adults.
The problem was…
"It's not allowed?"
The commander had refused to authorize a hunt for Taejeong and me.
"Why not?"
Without even lifting his eyes from the documents, he answered shortly,
"Because it's dangerous."
As if I didn't know it was dangerous when I asked to go hunting.
"Would it be all right if Meursault accompanies us?"
"Haydam."
The commander looked at me with his one remaining eye.
"Last time you went hunting without asking my permission. The results weren't bad, so I let it slide. But I am a soldier, an adult, and your father. I cannot allow a minor who is not a soldier to leave the zone."
"Even though I'm skilled enough with a gun to hunt a hippo-boar by myself?"
"Yes."
"What if we leave Taejeong out and only Meursault and I go?"
"You're not so dense that I need to repeat myself."
A sudden, unpleasant thought struck me. After a stretch of silence I asked,
"Then… what about the next subjugation?"
"Subjugation?"
One eyebrow rose as if he had heard something completely unexpected.
"Why do you ask? That has nothing to do with you."
Nothing to do with me…?
This bastard has no intention of sending me to the subjugation at all.
He had to know that putting me in the subjugation would win the zone residents' support, yet he still called it irrelevant. Clearly the man who had found his son after ten years simply did not want to send that son into danger.
Who would have thought the commander's soft spot for his child would become a problem?
I decided to state my wish clearly.
"I want to participate in the next subjugation."
The commander gave a short laugh.
He clearly wasn't taking me seriously.
"I heard. You went all the way to the institute yourself and asked them to make sure the boy soldiers heading to the subjugation wouldn't go hungry. I understand you worry about those children, but… it's excessive. You're no longer an orphan from the slums."
"But as a citizen of this zone myself—"
"Haydam. You'll be entering the military academy soon. There's no rush; you can join a subjugation after you graduate."
The military academy? The place that takes six years to graduate and no one ever uses for a proper clear route?
The fact that the commander knew nothing about the Second Apocalypse kept becoming an obstacle.
I—no, we—didn't have that kind of time.
If I told him right now that I was a player like Luna Moon and that the Second Apocalypse was coming…
The chance he would believe me was practically zero.
His current leniency existed only because he believed I was Luna Moon's son.
If I confessed to being a player, I would first have to explain why I had been pretending to be a dead woman's child. That would be the exact beheading ending Shut-in Spouse always fretted about.
A way to join the subjugation without losing the commander's trust… a way to avoid the academy…
I still had one of the Three Rewards left, but I needed to save that for forcing the divorce with Daphne.
A problem of this size I ought to solve on my own.
While I was lost in thought, the commander spoke again.
"More importantly, I spoke with Daphne."
"Ah, yes."
"You told her you would help us divorce, I hear?"
"I did. Is there a problem?"
"……"
For a moment the commander seemed at a loss for words. Then he slowly shook his head.
"Even that shameless streak is just like Luna Moon. Her methods of raising a child must have been… unique."
Hmm. Unless I was imagining it, every time I acted cheeky he compared me to Luna Moon.
Apparently that player had been quite a handful herself.
He regarded me quietly for a while, then asked in a low voice,
"Daphne… told you that Luna Moon was a 'player'?"
"Yes."
I answered without hesitation. The commander's brow furrowed.
"How can you accept something like that so easily?"
"Pardon?"
"I… didn't believe her at first. She was always spouting absurd stories, so of course I thought it was a joke. It took a long time before I finally believed her. But you…"
He found it strange that I had accepted the revelation so quickly.
I already had an answer ready.
"I vaguely felt she came from another world. Just by looking at Mother."
"Well… if you were raised by her hands, I suppose that isn't so strange."
She must have been quite the odd one.
"So why did you promise to help us divorce?"
"Is it strange for me, as Mother's son, to want that?"
"Not strange, no. I simply didn't think you were the type to want such a thing."
He was wrong about that.
Even from the standpoint of Luna Moon's son, divorcing Daphne was the better choice.
But for now I needed to say this:
"Because Lady Daphne, Mother's close friend, wants it."
"……"
A flicker of bitterness crossed the commander's face.
So his sensitivity about Daphne really did come from the fact that she had been Luna Moon's friend.
Even so, one thing still felt off.
"There's something I've been curious about. Why haven't you divorced yet?"
If he knew Luna Moon was a player, then he also knew Daphne was one.
It wouldn't have been strange for them to have divorced long ago.
Yet the commander's answer was almost too plain.
"Because I needed an heir."
"For someone who needed an heir, you don't seem to have put much effort into producing one."
"I believed you would appear. Daphne and I are still young; a few years from now we might have had a child of our own. But now that you're here, that letter no longer means anything."
"Letter?"
"Luna Moon's letter."
Luna Moon's letter?
Was she involved in Daphne and the commander's marriage as well?
"I said I would tell you sometime. Why I married Daphne instead of Luna Moon. Daphne still doesn't know this, but…"
He murmured that it should be all right to speak of it now, then continued.
"The one who wanted me to marry Daphne was none other than Luna Moon herself."
"What?"
"Daphne still believes Luna Moon left because I chose marriage with her in order to become commander. The truth is a little different. The moment Luna Moon learned she was pregnant, she left. I never knew why. All she left behind was a letter telling me to marry Daphne and become commander."
"……"
She left a letter telling her own lover to marry Daphne?
Why on earth?
Failing the route meant death…
Could it have been so that Daphne wouldn't die?
No. That can't be it.
From everything the commander and Daphne had said, Luna Moon had never been that tender-hearted.
Nor had she seemed especially altruistic.
Then for what reason…?
I would never know unless I heard it from Luna Moon herself.
My thoughts drifted to the ego dwelling inside Luna Moon's ring.
Perhaps that ego was a message Luna Moon had left for me.
She still didn't seem ready to tell me anything yet.
Still, after hearing all of this, a method finally came to me.
A way to join the subjugation and avoid the academy.
"…Back then, you asked me for something."
"Asked you?"
"You said that if you told me everything, I should be able to tell you everything as well."
He nodded, remembering the request.
"Yes. I did."
"I'm ready to tell you everything now. Father, I am…"
I opened my mouth slowly and finished the sentence.
"a regressor."