How
Before the officers' meeting, I went to find Daphne.
Partly to tell her Meursault would be joining the expedition — and partly to ask about the otome game itself.
"Meursault is joining the expedition?"
As expected, Daphne looked genuinely surprised.
"In the past ten years, he never once took part in a suppression campaign in person… Perhaps Hayden's arrival stirred something in him. He's not the kind of man who acts on emotion."
She was startled, but her reaction was calmer than I'd expected.
With a username like Meursault's Wife, I'd figured she would object to her favorite walking into danger.
"Are you all right with this? With Meursault going out on a campaign?"
"If that's what Meursault wants. And if… if seeing Hayden gave him the courage…"
She gripped her teacup tightly in both hands.
"If Meursault comes back from the campaign… I think I might finally confess how I feel."
"…That sounds like a death fla— never mind."
The moment the words "death flag" left my mouth, Daphne's expression hardened, and I hastily changed course.
"I'll do whatever I can for Meursault. Which brings me to something else — as a player, is there any way you could help?"
"As a player?"
"I still don't really know what kind of power you have, Daphne."
She gave a small smile.
"Being a player doesn't mean you get some grand authority. I do have an appearance-buff item, but all it does is raise favorability a little."
"Is that so?"
But Luna Moon…
As if she'd read my mind, Daphne continued.
"Luna Moon was an extraordinary person, so I can see why Hayden might assume otherwise. But it's true. Beyond winning other people's affection, there aren't any special functions you need for an otome game."
Which meant, conversely, that Daphne had survived this long with no other abilities at all.
If she'd had some special power, I might have felt more at ease — but knowing she'd made it this far on her own only made her presence weigh heavier on me.
And if she was lying… that would mean she didn't trust me either.
My expression must have soured, because Daphne looked apologetic.
"I'm sorry. I wish I could be more useful… I do have a healing ability, but it won't be any help to Hayden."
So she had a healing ability, same as Luna Moon.
She hadn't been deliberately hiding it from me — she'd simply decided it wasn't useful enough to mention.
"Ah, if you want to know what it does—"
"I already know."
She had started to explain, so I cut her off.
"I inherited that ability from my mother."
Daphne stared at me in open shock.
"I—it can be inherited?"
Whether sooner or later, she was going to find out I could heal. The moment she noticed my wounds closing unnaturally fast, someone who shared the same ability would put it together at once.
Better to get ahead of it.
Before Daphne could start questioning my powers, I put on a gentle smile and delivered a line thick with pathos.
"Every time I use it, I feel as though Mother is right beside me, watching over me."
Sure enough, Daphne looked deeply moved.
"Ah…! Of course she is. It must be the legacy Luna Moon left behind for Hayden!"
Her trust that I was truly Luna Moon's son seemed to deepen; the way she looked at me grew even more tender.
Honestly, surviving ten years on a single appearance-buff item sounds more impressive to me.
I was just starting to feel a genuine sense of awe for this woman who had lived ten years inside a game without even being able to taste food, when Daphne's expression turned serious.
"You must miss your mother."
"Of course… There's no child who doesn't miss their mother."
At my answer, Daphne looked as though she had made a decision.
"Actually… I've been preparing a gift."
"A gift?"
"Yes. Not long ago, Anton told me that not a single photograph of Luna Moon remains."
Anton?
I doubted Anton had mentioned that to Daphne for no reason.
If Daphne had been preparing this alone, fine — but if Anton was involved in whatever gift had been decided on, I doubted the intention behind it was pure.
"He told me to keep it secret until the officers' meeting… but seeing how much Hayden misses Luna Moon, I couldn't wait to tell you."
He'd told her to keep it secret, and she was telling me anyway?
In moments like this, I was truly grateful Daphne was a player.
Even after ten years together, she seemed more drawn to me — the one person who knew what she really was — than to Anton.
Anton probably never imagined that after a decade at her side, she would look after the son of his rival more carefully than him.
"We've been working on a portrait of Luna Moon. So that whenever Hayden misses her, he can look at her face."
A portrait of Luna Moon?
On the face of it, giving a motherless child a portrait of his mother was a perfectly natural idea.
But the fact that they'd specifically chosen a portrait of Luna Moon…
They're suspicious of me.
Truthfully, anyone who poked around the slums near the grave would immediately find my existence suspicious.
I had quite literally dropped out of the sky.
Anton meant to show me Luna Moon's portrait and confirm whether I was truly her child.
I would have to visit Luna Moon's grave.
When I told Daphne I wanted to visit my mother's grave after a long time, she readily lent me a car and a driver.
I rode Daphne's car to the slums where Luna Moon's grave lay, told the driver to wait outside, and swapped in the title Extra's Mask, which blurred my features.
Then, out of sight, I changed into the clothes I'd stashed in my inventory and stepped into the slums.
The streets that met my eyes were so clean they hardly deserved the name. Compared to the last time I'd come to dig up the grave, the place was far better maintained — the commander must have ordered the surrounding facilities inspected after he started visiting so often.
I walked the slums looking for someone who didn't dress like a slum resident.
If Anton had been here gathering information, someone would have been paid for it — and their household would look better for it.
My guess proved right. I found an old man whose clothes, while not flashy, were cut from a fabric far too fine for anyone living here.
He already had enough food; he barely glanced at the jerky I offered. But when I handed him a fragrant handkerchief I'd been carrying without much thought, he told me everything he knew.
"People from the military came asking if anyone knew a child named Haydam."
"They came looking into the boy?"
"That's right. When I said I didn't know him, they asked whether a black-haired, black-eyed child had ever lived in this village."
The old man's gaze drifted toward me, but he showed no sign of finding my hair or eyes strange.
Good thing I'd come in with the title that blurred my features. To him, my hair probably looked like a slightly dark brown.
"Did a child like that live here?"
"No. A black-haired little one isn't something you'd forget, and I told them I'd never seen one."
"What did they say to that?"
"They asked if I knew anything about the unnamed grave deeper inside."
He clicked his tongue.
"The grave's called the unnamed grave — how would I know who owns it? Some high-and-mighty type has been coming and going lately, but I told them I had no interest in sticking my nose into that sort of business just out of curiosity."
"And they left quietly after that?"
"Not a chance. Stubborn bastards, the lot of them."
The way he patted his pocket suggested he'd only talked after collecting a tidy sum.
"They kept pressing, so I remembered an old man who'd died not long ago — he'd gone around saying the person in that grave was a benefactor who'd cared for people when the plague hit the village years back. I told them that much. Though I also said the man was older than me and not always right in the head, so take it for what it's worth."
"And after that?"
"Then they asked something truly strange."
"Strange?"
"They asked if I knew anything about the signs that the grave had been dug up."
The old man laughed as if he couldn't believe it.
"Who in their right mind answers yes to a question like that? Looks to me like that black-haired brat Haydam dug up some important person's grave, and now they're hunting him down…"
Well. Wrong, but not entirely wrong.
"Ah — and when I told them the unnamed grave had been sitting in that spot for a very long time, the soldiers' eyes changed and they left."
Hmm.
That was everything I needed to hear.
"I see. Thank you for telling me. Keep the jerky."
"Ah. Well, if you're giving it away."
I said goodbye to the old man, whose grin stretched from ear to ear, then deliberately took a roundabout path to a deserted spot, changed back into my original clothes, and headed for Luna Moon's grave.
My real business was done, but I needed witnesses placing me at the grave — otherwise people would wonder why I'd come at all.
Deeper into the village, Luna Moon's resting place was no longer a barren mound of earth.
A few flowers had been laid before it — how anyone had found flowers in this snow-buried apocalypse, I had no idea — and at the sight of them, the ring began to warm again.
Come to think of it, this ring always seemed like an NPC connected to Luna Moon.
I'd been playing the part of her son and still treated the thing far too casually.
I'll visit the grave more often from now on.
I thought it half-unconsciously, the way you might speak to someone — and as if in answer, the moonstone in the ring flickered for an instant.
I smirked at the ring and looked back at the grave.
Even with the commander's care, it was an old burial site, and the patch Safety No. 8 and I had torn open still looked suspiciously soft to anyone who looked closely.
The signs of digging… I'll say Anjeon8yeok dug it up while trying to impersonate me.
The commander had seen that bastard bring Luna Moon's dog tags. He wouldn't doubt my word.
As for it being an old grave… that proves nothing.
In a world already ruined by the First Apocalypse, there was no technology that could precisely date a burial.
Which was why Anton planned to gift me Luna Moon's portrait and watch my reaction instead.
He probably assumed I wouldn't know her face.
In truth, all I knew of Luna Moon was her bones.
But now that I knew the portrait was coming, I could at least put on a decent performance.
Still, the fact that no one in the slums knows a child named Haydam could raise suspicions.
I'd have to say Luna Moon raised me in secret.
And that her death was recent.
There might be other old folks who remembered her dying while treating the plague — but the commander already knew Luna Moon had a healing ability, so my version would actually sound more plausible.
I finished preparing for Anton's trap and walked into the officers' meeting.
But the moment I saw the portrait Anton presented—
I knew something was terribly wrong.
…How?
How was that person's face painted there?
My real mother's face.