Variables
“You… how do you know that?”
RoomCornerHoney knowing about the Middle-Aged Romance Simulation Game.
I eyed him with open suspicion, yet a breezy answer came right back.
“Nah, I played that game before.”
“You played it?!”
Not merely knowing of it—he had actually played it?
…That middle-aged romance sim?
When I stared at him with a thoroughly complicated look, RoomCornerHoney scowled and answered.
“My older sister’s a classic-game otaku, so she made me play it too. That’s how I found out about Safety Zone in the first place—because of that otome game.”
He had an older sister too?
It was unexpected that even among the Safety Zone possessors there was someone who knew that otome game. Yet judging by the fact that neither RoomCornerHoney’s sister nor RoomCornerHoney himself had been possessed into the otome game, it seemed that—unlike Safety Zone, where random people were dropped in—the otome game side didn’t possess just anyone.
“I didn’t know the Safety Zone series even had an otome game.”
At my muttering, RoomCornerHoney shook his head.
“That’s not it.”
“It’s not?”
“They weren’t made by the same company.”
Not the same company?
“The otome game was made by a company called Cthulhu Games. They put out that one title and then tanked, I think.”
“Oh. That’s a pretty shady-sounding game company name.”
Cthulhu was a famous mythical creature, sure… but being told someone had possessed into an otome game made by a studio with that name only made it sound more suspicious.
So Square Soft must have made Safety Zone as an homage to that otome game.
The American game company Square Soft whose logo loomed huge every time you started Online Safety Zone. Square Soft wasn’t some shady outfit no one had ever heard of like Cthulhu Games; it was a solid company that had kept its doors open for decades.
A game company, huh…
That person had started a game company too.
My mother—someone I sometimes forgot even existed after contact was lost. The last company name I’d heard before the line went dead was something like Salvation Project.
I’d avoided games because of her, only to end up chasing dopamine into Safety Zone at the very end… and of all things, to get possessed inside that game.
Well, Mother doesn’t really matter anymore.
“…But why do you look so sour?”
“It’s nothing.”
Thinking useless thoughts had apparently shown straight on my face. There was no point dredging up a relationship that was already over and getting all messy about it.
“So what the hell kind of game is that middle-aged whatever game, anyway?”
“What kind of game? You don’t know what an otome game is?”
“No.”
“What have you been doing all this time without even trying an otome game at your age?”
I went to the military, you bastard.
“An otome game is, simply put, a game whose goal is dating handsome game characters. The reason apocalypse games like Safety Zone have affection meters in the first place is because the original was an otome game.”
Having said that much, RoomCornerHoney suddenly put on a haughty face.
“You don’t even know otome games… You might’ve become the All-Zone Conqueror first, but I guess I became the All-NPC Conqueror first. I’ve got conquering skills tempered by every otome game my sister ever recommended.”
All-NPC Conqueror?
I can’t tell if that’s impressive or not…
Even though I uploaded every strategy guide, he’d just been grinding NPC affection instead of clearing zones. The fact that this guy was running around with an unnecessarily handsome custom avatar probably had something to do with affection farming too.
“Luna Moon and Daphne… the idea that those two NPCs are players who possessed through another game is astonishing.”
Taejeong naturally ignored everything RoomCornerHoney was saying and continued.
“If possessors like that exist in other zones as well, the number of players possessed into this world could be far greater than we thought.”
I found Taejeong’s reasoning sound, but RoomCornerHoney shook his head.
“Probably not.”
“Not?”
“The otome game’s setting is just this one zone. No—even calling it ‘this one zone’ is generous. Classic games are all like that. The world isn’t big. Commander’s residence, training grounds, church, backyard… you just go back and forth between places like that and raise affection with the characters you meet. Even if there are more possessors, they’d only be inside this zone.”
So the otome game’s entire backdrop was just the Cola Area?
If that was true, the players who possessed through the otome game were almost certainly only Daphne and Luna Moon—those two.
I wanted to ask how different the otome game’s status window was from Safety Zone’s, but RoomCornerHoney had no status window, so comparison was impossible.
“Did that otome game have any special features or anything?”
“I played it way too long ago. I don’t remember. Didn’t you ask Daphne?”
“Daphne?”
“If she told you she was a player, she seems pretty well-disposed toward you.”
Having said that, RoomCornerHoney suddenly looked at me with startled eyes, as if something had just occurred to him.
“Come to think of it—so you told Daphne that you’re a player too?”
“No.”
“You didn’t even reveal you’re a player, so how’d you figure out she was an otome-game possessor? You’re good.”
“If I reveal I’m a player, I can’t keep playing the bastard son anymore.”
“Whoa. True.”
Whoa, true?
Maybe it would have been better to just leave this bastard to die at the hands of that Unicorn Area player…
“While we’re on the subject, you guys be careful not to get found out as players either. If you’ve written anything in Hangul, dispose of it the moment you get back. Daphne will recognize it.”
“Makes sense.”
“Yes. I’ll dispose of it immediately.”
Daphne was favorable toward me, but only because she believed I was Luna Moon’s real son. There was no predicting how she would react if she learned I was another player. Daphne was more dangerous than the Commander. The Commander was merely an NPC; Daphne was a true veteran player who had survived ten years inside an apocalypse game while still running on an otome-game system.
“Let’s be careful not to create any variables. The subjugation battle isn’t far off. Assa, practice your healing hard. Taejeong, you’re not deploying this time, but if something happens to us, I’ll leave the aftermath to you.”
“Yes. Though I’m certain you’ll return safely.”
As Taejeong said, nothing major would happen in the first subjugation battle.
If things flowed the way they did in the game, that is.
Unlike the game, there was no barrier between zones, and that Unicorn Area player was still wandering around.
…Hopefully nothing would happen.
After Haydam climbed over the wall into Daphne’s residence, Daphne seemed somehow refreshed. She ended her seclusion and resumed external activities.
She did not refuse Anton’s invitation to share a cup of tea either. While they sat drinking tea in the inner courtyard of Daphne’s residence, Anton watched for an opening and carefully spoke.
“Lady Daphne, how have things been with His Excellency lately?”
A casual answer came back.
“Same as always, I suppose.”
Hearing Daphne speak as if it were someone else’s affair, Anton could not hold back.
“Lady Daphne, do you truly intend to divorce as that child wishes?”
The teacup that had been rising toward Daphne’s lips stopped. She set it back down and looked straight at Anton.
“Does it seem to you that I’m divorcing because that child wants it?”
“……”
In truth, Anton already knew.
That Daphne herself wanted the divorce. One look at the cleared expression she had worn ever since Haydam barged into the residence and declared he would force the divorce was enough to know it. But knowing and understanding were two different things.
In the past, hadn’t Daphne been the one who wanted marriage to Commander Hayden more than anyone? Why had he accepted, as her husband, a man who had even fathered a child with another woman?
“Lady Daphne. I have watched over you since you were very young. I know you are not someone who would go soft over a mere child like that.”
“Watched over since childhood…!”
For some reason Daphne’s voice rose sharply.
“Anton, you don’t know anything about me. You don’t know who I am or what I want at all!”
“What is it that you want, Lady Daphne?”
“I don’t know either!”
After the irritable retort, Daphne’s voice returned to its usual tone.
“…But at least, giving birth to Hayden’s successor is not what I want. That’s what you want, isn’t it, Anton.”
“Lady Daphne.”
Anton took one of her hands and spoke in a low murmur.
“What I want is your happiness. From the day you were born until now, I have spent more time with you than with my own son Platon. I regarded you as no different from my own daughter, and even when you said you wished to marry an unidentified man who had come from another zone, I helped you marry without a word of complaint. Yet now you berate me, claiming that bearing his child is what I desire.”
As Anton spoke gently, Daphne made a slightly sheepish face.
“…Sorry for yelling. Yes. Choosing Hayden was my decision. So I want to choose parting with him as well.”
“I simply grow impatient because once everything passes into that child Haydam’s hands, I can no longer guarantee your happiness.”
“Why would handing everything over to that child mean my happiness can no longer be guaranteed?”
“He is a child who returned after losing his mother. You know he is different from ordinary children. Who can say whether he is thinking of revenge deep inside?”
Anton spoke from genuine worry, but Daphne shook her head with easy confidence, as if such a thing were impossible.
“I know about that. Haydam will not harm me.”
Anton immediately furrowed his brow.
“Why do you place so much trust in that child? He is Luna Moon’s son. He is a child who casually climbs over the walls of your residence.”
“It isn’t that I trust the child.”
“Then?”
“Haydam knows me better than you do, Anton—perhaps better than anyone else in this world. What I trust is the version of me that child knows. As long as he knows I am me, there is no way he would turn hostile toward me.”
“…I have no idea what you mean.”
Sensing that further talk would get them nowhere, Anton spoke in a resigned tone.
“In any case, I understand that you wish to get along well with that child. If that is what you desire, then—just as when you chose the current Excellency—it is only proper that I support you.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that.”
“It isn’t that I hate the child either. Living as a bastard among strangers after losing his mother so young cannot be easy. I often feel pity when I look at him as well. He doesn’t even have a single photograph of his mother left to remember her by…”
Trailing off, Anton gauged Daphne’s reaction and found her staring at him with startled eyes, as if this were news to her.
“What? He doesn’t have a single photo of Luna Moon?”
“You didn’t know. Upon inquiry, when Luna Moon deserted ten years ago she wiped every scrap of her personal information. Not a photograph, not even a single portrait remained, so His Excellency was deeply disappointed. Yet he considered that redrawing Luna Moon’s portrait would be disrespectful toward his marriage partner, Lady Daphne, and so he never commissioned one. In my opinion he simply believed he would see that woman again someday and saw no need to remake the portrait… but she died like that, leaving only the child to be pitied.”
“……”
As Daphne’s face clouded with thought, Anton quietly added,
“Come to think of it… don’t you remember, Lady Daphne? That woman’s face.”