Kindergarten
They'd said they would educate us to help us adapt to modern civilization. It didn't seem like it would be a packed schedule the way school or cram-academy classes were, though.
The little girl who had dismissed the handlers — telling them she'd take the class herself, so they should go take a two-hour break — started off with introductions and a round of questions and answers.
"It looks like you've already introduced yourselves to Nyangnyangbeam. Nice to meet you. I'm Miso Cheonsa, the instructor dispatched to help you adapt. Let's have a good time together, shall we?"
After hearing the introduction from the little girl beaming with that unshakable smile, I tilted my head.
Names were usually proper nouns you just... gave people. Of course they weren't completely unique — most names had duplicates, so you distinguished by surname, and if even the surnames matched, well, they looked different anyway. Still, that was a pretty bizarre name.
How was her name Miso Cheonsa? Smiling Angel?
Was it because she was an actual angel with a smiling face? But that was the kind of name that belonged on a nickname. It was no different from calling someone Blackie because they were dark and cute.
Come to think of it, was Nyangnyangbeam named that because she fired a Nyang-Nyang Beam?
As I pondered that, a realization hit me.
"Ah, I get it now. Those aren't your real names, are they?"
How could those even be people's names? That was when Agent Park came to mind — the way she hadn't wanted to tell us her name. Maybe the names they'd introduced themselves with were an extension of that same thing. They were worried that saying their real names might trigger some occult something-or-other. Which would mean Yegyeong's name might be an alias too.
Hmm. That was a pretty decent deduction, if I did say so myself.
And thinking about it from their perspective, it was entirely possible. All kinds of strange things coming over from other worlds? It wasn't just ordinary gunslingers like Helena, or people like me who granted other people's wishes. There might well be people who could curse you with a name.
You didn't even need another world — it was the same here. There were myths about names carrying magical power, weren't there? In the old days that would have stayed at the level of occult trivia. But now cat-eared cute girls walked around, cars got summoned from phones, and talk of magic spilled casually from ordinary people's mouths. A psychopomp who dragged you to the afterlife if someone said Yeonmin, Yeonmin, Yeonmin three times wouldn't even be surprising.
"That's the name I used in the other world, nyang. Magical girls forget their original names and are reborn as new magical girls, nyang! So I just kept using it, nyang."
"Well, mine is a game ID, but doesn't it suit me?"
"A game ID?"
"Yes. One day I woke up and found myself inside a game world. So I had a fun time playing, and then I came back."
"Uh..."
People who'd been to another world, so they were Returnees. People who'd lived in another world entirely and were trying to settle here, so they were Naturalized Immigrants. I'd thought people in that situation were receiving education to get used to modern civilization.
And then, out of nowhere — a game.
Hearing that, all the wonder I'd been feeling about this world suddenly went cold.
"When you say a world inside a game, do you mean something like a card game? A world like that actually existing... it really does sound like a fairy tale."
Helena, who had no concept of computer games, showed interest in what Miso Cheonsa was saying. Hearing that made my heart ache a little. At an age when she should have been playing with dolls and reading picture books, Helena had been forced to star in a revenge drama — because of me.
"That's right, it really is like a fairy tale. Ah, a game is a kind of doll play. You make a doll to play with yourself, or you play with dolls other people made, following the rules. In some games you can be a gunslinger, in others a mage or a swordsman. Or even a chef."
Miso Cheonsa, who knew nothing of Helena's circumstances, just explained it to her with a bright, innocent smile.
I should have been the one to tell her that. Now I was getting jealous for no reason.
"Wow... so it's something that lets you try out different occupations. Is it a world where people find what they're suited for and decide their career path that way?"
On top of that, Helena — who was always so curt when talking to me — had gone completely innocent-faced and was enjoying herself at Miso Cheonsa's words.
...This really hurt.
But it was understandable. The reason she'd lived that kind of life was because of me. Of course that was a bit of a results-oriented way of looking at it. If I'd left her alone entirely, Helena would just be a pile of bones by now. But I couldn't just skip past it with well, I saved her, so it's fine. The memory of Helena suffering for more than a decade wasn't the kind of thing that faded easily.
So even if I was the only person she could rely on in this strange world, she couldn't possibly have nothing but good feelings toward me. Which meant Helena needed to make friends with the people here. It would be even better if she became friends with Miso Cheonsa and Nyangnyangbeam.
"Well. Unfortunately, being good with a sword in a game doesn't mean you'll be good with one in real life. Though there are people who discover new aptitudes — driving, among other things."
"That's right, nyang. There used to be Chair Riders, nyang. Didn't someone practice driving that way and become an F1 racing driver, nyang?"
"Hehe, that's right. So Nyangnyangbeam watches the news too, I see?"
"I saw it on the Hunter community, nyang."
So I didn't insert myself into their conversation. I just watched quietly.
I was going to leave anyway. Well — I wasn't even a person, strictly speaking. Originally, I would have given Helena's story a happy ending and then left in search of another interesting tale. But with the way I felt now, I was going to need some time. Time to think about whether I even had the right to keep other people's lives going.
"Well, there's even a conspiracy theory that it might have been Earth's vast will, you know. That the worlds serving as the settings for games — and all kinds of other creative works — actually existed. People say they crossed over in their sleep, or after dying, and lived in their respective worlds. Some came back in the bodies they'd used over there. Others woke up with the memories and abilities from that place. And the powers they gained that way are being used to hold back the monsters coming over from other worlds."
"Ah... so you think of it as a kind of vast will that created antibodies in preparation for intervention from other worlds?"
"Hehe, I'm just saying such a hypothesis exists. It might be true, or it might not."
Whether I kept my mouth shut or not, the conversation continued thanks to Helena's curiosity. Well, thanks to that I also got to understand why this world had changed so much. I thought I'd heard a bit of it from Agent Park in the interrogation room too — people going back and forth between other worlds often enough that they were working to prepare for cases like mine and Helena's.
I could understand them being afraid of me, but I'd wondered why they were so flustered around me. If they were talking about holding back monsters, there must have been some pretty dangerous people and incidents among them.
Not that I had any desire to study that far. In an atmosphere like this, it would be enough if Helena made a few friends and adapted to this world. There was no place for me in that. And once that happened, Helena wouldn't need to depend on me anymore.
The cultural education that had started with light questions and answers continued in that same atmosphere. Miso Cheonsa would present a simple situation, and we'd answer how we should handle it.
It did feel quite a bit like kindergarten. But that was probably why they taught this way in kindergarten — because it was a simple educational method that even worked well on little kids. And there wasn't a set correct answer, either. We were just learning how to treat people, what kind of attitude to take.
For example, something like this.
"A supermarket... ah, that is, a place where you can buy things. They gave you a lot of extra change. What would you do?"
"You'd go back and return it, wouldn't you, nyang?"
"It's a hassle... couldn't you just return it next time you go?"
"That's their mistake, isn't it? Do you really have to give it back...?"
Nyangnyangbeam and I, already thinking by modern civilized standards, could answer easily. Helena, on the other hand — who'd been too busy surviving in that wretched other world — was a bit shaky on moral concepts.
"Helena's right. Since it was the clerk's mistake, you could just pocket the extra change and no one would ever know. But I'm saying that giving it back would make living in the world a little easier. Kindness, once given, might come back to you someday."
"Hmm. Come to think of it, if they recovered their memory and realized they'd given me extra change, I could end up facing retaliation later."
"Hehe, something that bloodthirsty might happen, yes."
But with Miso Cheonsa's gentle explanations, Helena was quickly able to grasp the direction of the lesson.
The direction was a little different, actually. Miso Cheonsa seemed to operate on the idea that if you showed kindness, it came back someday. Helena, maybe because of how she'd lived, held the value that it was better not to give anyone something to hold against you.
Well, either way was fine, as long as they could live well together. Helena might look like that, but she was a good person. She'd put a bullet in a dying old man's head to ease his suffering. She'd left a baby who'd lost its parents on a sheriff's doorstep. Our Helena, who knew how to show mercy — at least to ordinary people.
"Though Nyangnyangbeam and Yeonmin are a surprise. From the documents I received, I thought both of you were constantly trying to turn people into cute girls or cat-eared cute girls."
"Just what do you take me for, nyang?"
"Ahaha. I only grant the wishes of people who actually want them. I'd love it if everyone in the world were a cute girl, if possible. But if they don't want it, well, what can you do?"
And on top of everything, Miso Cheonsa was even cracking jokes. With people this sociable around, Helena would make friends in no time.
That put my mind at ease, quite a bit.