How Did You Know?
"I don't know if you've all heard yet…"
Anton, leader of the pro-Daphne faction, seated his officers around a round table and spoke.
"Apparently, officers are banned from taking part in the upcoming subjugation campaign."
The officers stirred at his words.
"Surely they aren't trying to freeze us out?"
"It isn't only us. Luna Moon's attack dogs have been barred from the campaign as well."
At the news that the pro-Hayden officers had also been forbidden from deploying, the pro-Daphne officers exchanged bewildered looks.
"So every officer, then…?"
"Why ban us at all? It's true we don't accomplish much, but we don't get in the way either."
"I hear this subjugation will be run by a small elite force."
"A small elite force…?"
Anton clicked his tongue.
"Haydam. That child must be behind it. He put on such a spectacle just to secure a place in the campaign."
"……"
None of the officers present dared speak for fear of Anton's reaction, but the story of Haydam defeating Anton's own son Platon in the training simulation had already spread far beyond the military academy—it was famous throughout the entire Cola Area.
A child who drew every eye.
They had assumed he had some political aim in mind.
They had not imagined that aim would be keeping the officers out of the subjugation campaign.
"Why go out of his way to ban us? Whether we go or not makes no difference, does it?"
"If the commander's own officers are under the same ban, we don't even have grounds to protest."
"Which is exactly why the boy is cunning."
Anton continued in a flat tone.
"As you say, we have no grounds for complaint. If we start insisting we must join the campaign now, we only make ourselves look ridiculous. The fact is we've spent this whole time doing nothing in the rear."
"Hmm…"
"But if we accept the ban without a single word of protest, we look ridiculous just the same. For a child, he is remarkably sly."
Anton was smiling as he said it, almost as if he found Haydam's provocation entertaining.
One of the officers, watching Anton's face carefully, asked in a cautious voice,
"Then… what do you intend to do, sir…?"
"I mean to poke at something other than the subjugation campaign."
"Something else?"
"Luna Moon's grave."
"What?!"
"Lord Anton?!"
The officers cried out as one. Even Anton would not be forgiven by Commander Hayden if he disturbed Luna Moon's resting place—that much was certain.
Anton lifted one corner of his mouth, as if their panic amused him.
"Do you really think I would suggest digging up a dead woman's grave?"
"Th-then…?"
"I looked into that woman's grave. It turns out it has been there a long time. The old people in the slums say it has stood in that spot for nearly ten years."
"Ten years?"
One officer, sensing something off, pressed him.
"How is that possible? Lord Haydam is only ten years old."
"Exactly."
Anton set both hands on the table and laced his fingers together.
"Haydam has always claimed he heard stories from Luna Moon. But if Luna Moon died ten years ago… doesn't something feel wrong?"
"Are you saying Lord Haydam may be an impostor?"
Tension rippled through the officers, but one of them spoke as if he could not accept it.
"No—but the pro-commander officers all swear with one voice that the boy resembles Luna Moon. And… even to my eye, he looks like His Excellency."
The others poured out their misgivings.
"Even if Lord Haydam were a fake, could we prove it? We can't even confirm the exact year the grave was made."
"More importantly, Lord Haydam has already finished proving himself. Bring up doubts about him now and you'll be shot like Lieutenant General Bartom."
The memory of the day they had watched Lieutenant General Bartom die under Meursault's gun rose again before their eyes, and the officers shuddered.
"What if we do this."
Anton already seemed to have a plan; he turned to the others.
"If the boy is a fake, he will not know Luna Moon's face. She has been nothing but bones for ten years, and no photographs of her remain."
"True. His Excellency has always regretted that most of all."
"So I intend to show the boy a portrait of Luna Moon and watch his reaction."
The officers' faces grew puzzled.
"A portrait of Luna Moon? You just said no photographs remain…"
"You aren't thinking of asking His Excellency or the other officers, are you? If we step forward proposing to make a portrait of Luna Moon, Lady Daphne's dignity…"
"But we have Lady Daphne, don't we?"
"……!"
Daphne would certainly know Luna Moon's face.
They had competed for Commander Hayden, after all.
"But will Lady Daphne join us in this? After the boy said such vicious things to her, she still told us not to treat him as an enemy. She seems rather fond of him. She would never tolerate us laying a trap with Luna Moon's portrait."
"Tsk. In the end, women can't help being soft on children, can they?"
"H-hey, watch your mouth."
The officer who had muttered without thinking caught Anton's piercing glare and hastily bowed his head.
"Speaking so carelessly—have you gone senile as well?"
"I-I'm sorry."
"Still… it is true that Lady Daphne is well-disposed toward the boy…"
Anton had known Daphne since she was very small.
As the previous commander's only daughter, she had been as ambitious as her father.
She was not the sort of woman who would favor a child simply because she was a woman.
She must expect something from Haydam in return.
"We'll simply tell Lady Daphne that we want to give Lord Haydam a portrait of his mother as a gift. Outwardly, that will be our stated purpose as well."
"Ohh—brilliant. That way we won't offend either His Excellency or Lady Daphne."
"And if Lady Daphne is the one to present the portrait first, her relationship with His Excellency should improve as well."
Anton gave a short nod at the other officer's words.
"Once the portrait is ready, I'll summon the boy to an officers' meeting. We'll say we prepared a gift and show it to him. The moment he looks at that portrait, everything will come to light. The look in a child's eyes when he sees his own mother is not something that can be acted."
The commander would be present at the officers' meeting as well.
He would notice, even more sharply than they would, if Haydam's reaction was strange.
"If the boy is truly Luna Moon's son, he will recognize his mother's face at a glance…"
The voice that followed sharpened into a low murmur.
"And if he does not—then he will pay the price for posing as a bastard."
For reasons I couldn't fathom, the story going around the military academy was that I had faced a furred crocodile head-on and won, then hidden the wounds it had given me so I could join the training simulation for the honor of Team A.
Platon… did you only tell them my injuries hadn't fully healed yet?
Aside from the looming threat that before long a founding legend would spring up about a ten-year-old who beat a furred crocodile bare-handed and defeated eight cadets at once, life at the academy was peaceful.
After that, my days settled into a loop of academy classes by day and planning the subjugation campaign with Meursault by night. Nothing particularly eventful.
Before I knew it a full month had passed, and once again I found myself at a meal with the other kids my age.
The gathering had even acquired the grand name of a charity party, so the children who came this time wore neat formal suits instead of uniforms or servant clothes.
Shut-In Honey, who had swept back his blond hair and become unnecessarily handsome, grumbled with a face full of complaint.
"What's the point of party food when we can't even taste it? Just give us slop already."
When was this guy ever going to improve his attitude?
Taejeong, who had grown a good deal taller in the meantime, spoke more maturely.
"For us, efficiency matters more than flavor. I tested that Star Candy from last time—it's outstanding."
"Yeah, I tested it too."
Because of the Unicorn Area player's intrusion, we had never gotten the chance to properly test the new combat ration, Star Candy, before heading back.
Apparently, once I'd handed some out on the way home, they had run their own tests.
"I was too scared to try a really big wound, but… as long as you don't die, it looks like it can bring you back. The regeneration speed was crazy fast."
Hmm. If I suggested we deliberately take critical injuries just to test it properly, they'd definitely refuse.
"You're making that creepy face again."
"What kind of face is that?"
"The face that says the dopamine is kicking in."
Oh dear.
"So… for real, Dopamine Addict. Who the hell was that guy back then?"
"I don't know."
"What?"
My answer must have been thoroughly absurd, because Shut-In Honey's face twisted hard.
"You don't know?"
"I mean I literally don't know. All I know is that he's a Unicorn Area player, and unlike the others, he looks like an adult. Why he's going around pretending to be me, why he came looking for me—I've got nothing."
"So… that psycho could just show up again whenever he feels like it?"
Shut-In Honey seemed anxious that the guy might come back.
Judging by how he'd said he looked forward to the day I came to his area when we parted, he probably wouldn't come looking for me first anymore.
Compared to Shut-In Honey, Taejeong offered something more productive.
"If he comes again, I'll train so we don't have to just take it like last time."
When I looked at him with an expression of pride, Shut-In Honey grumbled.
"That guy was wearing a magnetic field shield. What training is going to help? You planning bullet-dodging drills or something?"
"Shouldn't little brother be the one doing that kind of training? He was the one that man was after."
"Ugh."
Taejeong… he looks gentle, but he says what needs saying.
"For now, trying to figure out that guy's identity is a waste of time. There's no way to find out at the moment."
"So we just have to sit here feeling this gross about it?"
"Later, when we go to the Unicorn Area ourselves, we can look into it. Whatever else he is, that doesn't change the fact that he's a player."
It wasn't as if I felt easy about the guy's existence either.
But it was also true there was nothing I could do about it right now.
In the end he was just a player like us, the only difference being that he looked like an adult.
Our area had an adult player too, didn't it?
Looked at simply, we had no real disadvantage.
Come to think of it, it's about time I told them about Daphne.
"Speaking of players—Daphne was a player."
"What?"
"Excuse me?"
Both Shut-In Honey and Taejeong looked stunned by my words.
"Daphne was a player? Not Luna Moon?"
"Luna Moon was a player too."
"What? For real?"
"They weren't ordinary NPCs?"
Hmm. How should I explain this?
First I would have to tell them that the game those two had possessed into was different from the one we had.
"Inside the Safety Zone we possessed into, they were NPCs, yes. The two of them came in through a different game than we did."
"A different game…?"
"I think there may have been multiple channels for possessing into this world."
Shut-In Honey made his usual my-head-hurts face, while Taejeong asked carefully,
"If it was a different game… what kind of game did they possess into?"
"A dating sim."
"A dating sim…?"
Taejeong's expression turned complicated—and then an unexpected remark came from Shut-In Honey.
"Don't tell me it was a Handsome Middle-Aged Man Romance Simulation Game?"
What?
How the hell did this bastard know that?