True Identity (2)

There was a movie from a very long time ago. Two priests performing an exorcism on a girl possessed by a demon, their method as simple as it was strange: learn the demon's true name, call it aloud, and drive the spirit from her body.

How could merely knowing a name make an expulsion so easy? The question had always lingered—until a certain post made the logic snap into place.

What Ho-jin felt in that moment was much the same. A girl he had never met in the real world—a girl he could not possibly have met—had just spoken his name aloud. Of course his composure shattered. Of course he was thrown.

"What the hell are you?"

"Is it not precisely as your eyes tell you? A beastkin—or perhaps a rather curious monster merely pretending to be a player."

She said it with such unshakable composure that Ho-jin could only stare at Choco, his face gone briefly blank. She was just going to come out and say that? Even if her cover had been blown, that was a little too direct.

Or is she actually a player with a hidden class?

For a fleeting second the thought actually crossed his mind, so thoroughly unbothered did Choco look—as if she had nothing whatsoever to hide. He shook his head and discarded it. No matter how you sliced it, a player taming another player was simply impossible. The mere fact of having been tamed put her squarely in NPC territory. She could not be a player. Not a chance.

Which still left the problem of how she knew his name.

Ho-jin made a low, pained sound, squeezed his eyes shut, gathered what remained of his composure, and tried again.

"...And where exactly did you hear my name?"

"Hear it? The person in question is standing right here."

"You're saying you heard it from me?"

He had given his real name to a handful of people, yes. But none of them was anything like Choco. They had all been players, and she was not a player, so there was no earthly way she ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠could have overheard it from them.

Which meant someone had told her—and that, frankly, was absurd. The people Ho-jin had trusted with his name could be counted on one hand, and none of them had the kind of loose tongue that would go blurting it to strangers. They were a little unhinged, sure, but they knew how to keep a secret. Besides, he had only ever given his name while on his main account. Recognizing him in his current form and connecting that to his real name should not have been easy.

...Of course, he was the one who had revealed that main account to Choco in the first place. Ho-jin followed the thought to its end and let out a long breath. He had dumped his main identity to earn her trust, and now it had come back around like this.

If she had only said "Ho-jin," he could have written it off as a username. But Choco had attached his surname with perfect accuracy. She had not been taking a shot in the dark. She knew his name. Properly.

...Maybe it wasn't Choco who found out. Maybe it was someone else.

Ho-jin flicked a glance at Yeon, who was fidgeting anxiously behind them. The most plausible explanation, if he was being honest, was that Yeon had heard it from someone and passed it straight along to Choco. But that only raised another question.

Heard it from whom? He ran through the faces of everyone who knew his real name. Two of them had younger siblings. Only one of those siblings was a younger sister—and that younger sister would be in university by now. Yeon, who looked like she had only just started high school, did not fit.

Back to square one. Ho-jin stopped thinking, exhaled hard, and asked again.

"Who did you hear it from, exactly?"

"I already told you. I heard it from the person standing right here."

"And I already told you that doesn't make any sense. We met for the first time today."

The objection was fair. On this particular point, Choco was the only one who knew the truth.

She did not answer the question. She made a different offer instead.

"Promise to look the other way, and I shall consider telling you."

"Not even that you'll tell me—just that you'll consider telling me? What kind of—"

"This side has circumstances of its own, you understand."

She would have liked nothing more than to come clean. It was simply not the time. And this guy had a mean playful streak; if he ever found out what she had become, he would never let her hear the end of it. Day in, day out, without mercy.

If I have to sit through that, I'll die of rage long before I ever become a Gumiho.

With that cheerful thought, Choco pressed him.

"Well? Will you pretend you saw nothing, or won't you?"

"Hah... Fine. I'll pretend I saw nothing. I won't post it on the boards, I won't tell anyone else, so could you maybe let go of me already?"

Choco had grown, yes—but she was still holding a man who stood close to six feet by the head, clamped against her side, and the posture was uncomfortable from every conceivable angle. To Choco, it had simply been the familiar thing to do.

"Mm. I do apologize for this."

"Oh, so you do know it's something to apologize for."

Ho-jin muttered it in disbelief. Given the difference in their Strength stats, a posture like that should not have been possible in the first place—but it had happened so suddenly, and the whole scene had been strangely familiar, and he had just... let it happen.

He rubbed his aching neck and tried once more.

"So. You're really not going to tell me who you heard it from?"

"I already told you. You are the one who refused to believe it."

"Right. Of course. In that case, I'll just settle my own accounts."

"Settle accounts?"

She did not even have time to ask what that was supposed to mean. A fist dropped onto the crown of her head like a thunderbolt.

Pain lanced down from her scalp in a bright, electric rush, and her ears and tails shot bolt upright. She had not seen it coming at all. She clutched her head and bounced in place.

"Y-you...!"

"Whew. That is so much better."

Choco glared at him with tears standing in her eyes, but Ho-jin was already smoothing a hand over his chest, looking like a man who had just put down a grudge ten years in the making. He went around wearing that easy, good-natured smile, but he was not made of air. The feelings that had been stacking up, layer by careful layer, had finally punched through their limit the moment she put him in that headlock—and they had come out in the form of a knuckle to the skull.

He had pulled the blow, in his own estimation. Given her pitiful durability, the shock that actually reached Choco was considerably worse.

Watching her hop and thrash in pain, Ho-jin allowed himself a small, satisfied smile.

"Does it sting? Yeah. I know the feeling."

"Kkhh...!"

Fox-fire flared up in answer to Choco's fury, but it could not so much as scorch him. That was the difference between a player and an NPC. She could have dealt damage if she dissolved the party, of course—but making him feel what she was feeling was out of the question.

Just wait until I get my original body back...!

"Does it hurt a lot?"

Yeon edged closer, her voice careful, as Choco stood there huffing with her face twisted in outrage.

"...I am perfectly fine!"

"You are not fine. The sheer injustice of it is dripping out of your eyes."

"If you have quite finished, vanish back into your orb!"

"Hmph. I was leaving anyway. Crybaby successor."

Tara needled her to the last possible second and vanished. Choco stamped her foot, thoroughly done.

"This wretch and that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠wench, I swear...!"

"C-calm down..."

In the end, soothing Choco fell to Yeon, as it always did.

Cute.

Se-jin quietly turned the screenshot function on the two of them.

It took a considerable stretch of time before Choco finally settled, and when she did, her question came out clipped and sullen.

"So. What became of the rewards from the boss battle?"

"We haven't even checked yet, actually. Thanks to a certain someone."

"You would be wise to log out before I dissolve this party."

"Would you both just stop..."

Yeon sighed as the two of them squared off all over again. Now that Ho-jin had dropped the polite act and started swinging back, they were going to clash at every available opportunity. They would go their separate ways once they returned to the fortress, but that did not make the stretch between now ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and then any less exhausting.

While the other three made noise, Se-jin—who had been quiet through all of it—spoke up.

"I already checked the contribution split. Yeon and Choco at thirty, Ho-jin at eighteen, and me at twenty-two."

"Hmph. A good-for-nothing who was no help at all."

Choco had been waiting for the opening. Ho-jin snorted and fired back.

"Are you not even aware that a tank's contribution is supposed to have ten points added on principle?"

"That still only makes twenty-eight, does it not? Utterly useless."

"You little pipsqueak—"

"Haa... Can we just check what we actually got and go our separate ways?"

"She's right. It's late. Let's confirm our rewards and log out."

Yeon physically put some distance between the two of them as they growled at each other, and Se-jin added her agreement. She was not wrong. In real time, the sun had already been up for hours. Nearly half a day had passed since the sudden event had begun. They had been force-logged-out in the middle and eaten a login penalty for it, but even accounting for that, they had been inside the game for well over ten hours. Both Se-jin and Ho-jin were, mentally, running on fumes.

Ho-jin seemed to feel the same. He stopped glaring at Choco, opened his inventory, and checked what had come in. A small sound of appreciation escaped him.

"Oh. The Spiked Cudgel came to me."

With a contribution of only eighteen percent, he had fully expected it to go to someone else. Luck had been on his side. A shield would have suited him better than a weapon, but kobolds did not drop shields, so there was nothing to be done about it.

"Kobold King's Fang, and... Kobold King's Hide."

Se-jin checked the loot list and made a faintly complicated face, which was fair enough. Every last piece of it was a byproduct of the Kobold King. Still, it was not a bad haul. The fang could be turned in on a quest for experience, and a blacksmith would turn the hide into a decent set of leather armor.

Of course, as Ho-jin helpfully pointed out, there was no longer a blacksmith left at the Yelloy Barrier Fortress, so anyone who wanted that armor made would have to travel to another region. Se-jin's already complicated expression grew more complicated still.

"A spiked cudgel, a fang, and a hide... that's more or less everything the Kobold King could reasonably drop. I wonder what Yeon ended up with?"

"Mm... honestly, mine's all a little underwhelming too."

Yeon's contribution was thirty, but Choco could not use an inventory, so her rewards had funneled straight into Yeon's. In practice, it was no different from taking a sixty-percent share. And that inventory was packed with odds and ends.

"A bunch of Kobold Fangs, a bunch of Worn Swords, four Royal Guard Insignias, and a few Worn Bows..."

"Well... at least you'll be able to scrape together some gold."

Yeon smiled, a little awkwardly, at Ho-jin's attempt to look on the bright side. She had never thought of gold as particularly important, so she could not quite bring herself to be glad.

"Nothing but such scraps and sundries?"

Choco, listening, tilted her head.

"Huh? Yeah. Nothing that looks especially good..."

"Look more carefully. Something else is bound to turn up."

"Heh. As if anything's left. Everything that was going to drop already dr— gkk."

"Do you really need to pick on someone younger than you?"

"Nnngh..."

Se-jin drove an elbow into his side and delivered the line like she was looking at something pathetic. Ho-jin scratched his head. Given how rudely Choco had been talking to him, he felt he had earned a little more teasing—but with Se-jin saying it like that, he was thoroughly embarrassed. Objectively speaking, it had been an ugly look.

"Haha... wait, huh?"

"There, you see? I knew something remained."

Yeon, still digging through her inventory while the other two bickered, made a puzzled sound—and Choco answered in a bright, I-told-you-so voice. Just as she had said, tucked in a corner of the inventory, there was a staff set with jewels.