#010. The Monster is Too Kind (1)

#010. The Monster is Too Kind (1)

Several days had passed since the groom lessons, ending in heartache for everyone.

Teresa’s party had resumed operations, sweeping up the lucrative Tier 3 requests.

As if she had never shown weakness, she was tearing and crushing monsters, unleashing her might like a storm, but my heart ached as I watched her retreating figure.

Even thinking about it now, it felt unreal.

Teresa had always been a strong woman.

She was that kind of woman.

The one who knew no fear even before a monster.

The one who knew no fear even before a murderer.

She clung to me, suppressing her sadness like a young Anna.

‘She truly, cherished me.’

Like a mother who treasured her child above all else.

I was glad.

That I hadn’t been abandoned.

At the same time, I was saddened.

That I couldn’t trust the purity of that heart.

How could I trust it?

How could I be certain?

When I was a wicked hypnotist who twisted human minds.

A love and a family that began with hypnosis.

Someone cries to prove their purity.

Tears soon become proof of purity.

Evidence of innocence.

Except, that is, for the brainwasher.

Tears could never be proof of purity.

Never evidence of innocence.

Because even the heart could be twisted and warped.

Every emotion believed to be real might be a lie.

The brainwasher could distort the hearts of men and gain the trust of all, but the brainwasher himself could trust no one.

He had to be prepared.

From the moment the first brainwashing took hold.

If he truly cherished his family, he should never have resorted to brainwashing in the first place.

‘What’s done is done.’

Too late to turn back.

The only thing a wicked brainwasher could do was this:

Play along with his mother’s performance, as if nothing had happened, and indulge the fervent longing of a woman striving to be a mother.

However, drastic measures invariably came with side effects.

The side effect of this incident was his younger sister, Anna, who had become like a barnacle.

“Anna. I’m hot.”

“No. I won’t let go.”

Ian had been with them since the days when their mother was a child abuser.

The fact that he might leave dealt his younger sister, Anna, a tremendous blow.

As if safeguarding a dandelion seed head in danger of scattering in the wind, she held onto Ian with both hands at all times, never taking her eyes off him.

“Anna. How am I supposed to eat?”

“Feed me.”

Ah, Anna opened her mouth like a baby bird.

Even under a gaze heavy with unspoken pleas, Gogo simply chuckled and shook his head.

“Serves you right. You encouraged this separation anxiety, so you have to deal with it.”

Well, he had shown Anna something she shouldn’t have seen.

The brother who had been with her even when the world fell apart was trying to leave the family.

How frightened she must have been, in her young heart.

Furthermore, her father had already abandoned them.

The thought of losing her brother as well must have pained her twice as much.

“Promise me. This clinging is only for today.”

“You’re leaving tomorrow?”

“…You can cling tomorrow too.”

“And the day after tomorrow?”

“We’ll call the day after tomorrow… the day after the day after tomorrow.”

Even calling it a meal was an exaggeration.

Onigiri, rice balls molded in advance to quickly and safely replenish nutrients in the wastelands.

Freeze-dried food, capable of long-term preservation.

Foraged ingredients, fresh from the local earth.

Mostly, we only eat a third of it.

One bite for me.

One bite for Anna.

We repeated, feeding each other, until the fist-sized rice ball I’d been clutching in both hands was gone.

I glared at the pleased-looking Gorgo, who just grinned back, unrepentant.

He gestured toward Theresa with his hand, and when I whipped my head around, I caught Mom mid-stretch, subtly avoiding my gaze.

“Anna. Heavy.”

“Don’t leave Anna behind.”

Anna clung to my leg, hindering every step.

Thankfully, due to the dangers lurking on our journey, Gorgo pried Anna loose.

Anna, seemingly unwilling to burden her mother, let go without a fuss.

Troublesome things came with every break.

I felt the urge to relieve myself, and as I stood, Anna, as if by instinct, fell into step beside me, her little legs moving quickly.

“Anna. I’m going to the restroom. You can’t come.”

“She’s still just a little one. I’ll keep watch for you, so let her come.”

Even so, this was a bit much.

It was intensely embarrassing.

Even the best of siblings don’t follow each other to the toilet.

“Gorgo.”

“Hmm?”

“I’m so ashamed.”

My frank statement seemed to amuse Gorgo immensely; he grinned like he’d just seen a hilarious sight.

“You’re already at the age where you’re self-conscious about girls looking at you? Heh heh. Even so, isn’t your own sister too young to worry about what she thinks?”

“It’s my feelings.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll keep Anna with me.”

Anxious that I might be overheard, I walked some distance away.

The fact that I was using a place other than a designated restroom made me acutely aware of every surrounding bush, tree, and even the passing breeze.

Even with all this caution, my…activities…might still have been audible to the sharp ears of a monster-wary adventurer.

Seeing Gorgo’s knowing smile, I was certain.

They heard everything.

The shame was fleeting.

I tried to adopt a boldly unconcerned attitude.

I’m a guy, so what if they did.

His sly smile and unspoken teasing made me feel even more mortified, but I feigned ignorance, ignoring Gorgo’s jabs.

“That was a good choice.”

“What was?”

“Going to the restroom alone. Anna’s a girl, she can’t keep going everywhere with a boy. And men should be discreet.”

A discreet man?

That was truly a cultural shock.

In the game, seeing it in text was already unbelievable, but hearing it spoken aloud like this, my head aches even more.

“She’s so fond of you, and all the more reason you need to be careful. Nobles, they even marry within their own families, but you two, you aren’t like that.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Surely my mother wasn’t an escaped noblewoman, with a history of child abuse and alcoholism.

I secretly thought Gorgo’s warning was a needless worry.

* * *

“We have noble blood flowing through our veins. I was a lady of a noble house.”

Is this for real…?

My mother drove the point home, ensuring I couldn’t dismiss Gorgo’s words so easily.

“Originally, I wasn’t planning to say anything, but what happened last time changed my mind. You never know what might happen, so it’s best to tell your story beforehand.”

“Mama, high-ranking person?”

“Yes. Anna, you are also a high-ranking person.”

“Gorgo say. Noble marry family.”

“If they can’t find a suitable match, they sometimes marry that way. Of course, that’s a long way off for little ones like you two.”

“Anna will marry Oppa!”

Her separation anxiety manifested in a big brother complex, so strong she wanted to marry me.

“Say that when you’re all grown up.”

“When Anna all grow, will Oppa accept?”

“We’ll talk about it then.”

Brother-sister relationships always sour when adolescence hits anyway.

Thinking I wouldn’t see Anna like this when she grew older saddened me a little, but I chalked it up to the process of growing up and endured.

“There’s a letter I left with the guild leader. If something happens, retrieve it. I’ve told you where to find the family you can go to.”

“…I’ll make sure nothing happens.”

My mother gave a wry smile filled with the mature ease of an adult dealing with a laughable youngster, the way I treated Anna.

“I also wrote about your father. That man is a mage. For now, I’ll only say that much.”

“…!”

“It’s better to know what you’re getting into than to be dragged in without knowing. But… don’t trust that man. Never.”

The way she emphasized it while looking directly at me made it seem like there was no room for misunderstanding.

My mother was convinced I had learned my knowledge from my father.

Because I knew both English and Chinese, languages steeped in magic.

I was overwhelmed, unsure of where to even begin explaining, so I just nodded along.

Even so, I was worried about what might happen.

In the distant future.

What if…

As someone who knew the game’s storyline, I couldn’t ignore the possibilities.

Games are usually filled with incidents and accidents.

The protagonist appears.

The player makes their mark.

Events need them.

Such events existed in this world too.

＜Coin Bank Quests＞ are a prime example.

‘Situations where they hold onto quests, hoping for higher rewards instead of actually doing them, that is.’

If I were a player, I’d become an adventurer’s guild employee and somehow coax, cajole, and brainwash adventurers to complete these Coin Bank Quests.

That way, I’d resolve the crises of the villages, the crises of the regions, and the crises of the nation.

These Coin Bank Quests increase in difficulty and reward over time, but there’s also a chance that the village, region, or even the nation ends up in complete chaos as a side effect.

It’s a fast track to what they call a game over.

That was the reason why an adventurer’s guild employee was needed, and the reason why the protagonist had to complete the main quest within a certain timeframe.

‘Mom’s talk about being prepared for any eventuality. If we don’t want to need that, we have to clear the Coin Bank Quests.’

Thankfully, Mom takes every quest without discrimination, no matter what it is.

If it’s an insect monster specialist, it’s only insect monsters.

If it’s a beast monster specialist, it’s only beast monsters.

Compared to the average adventurer who only takes specialized quests and tries to stick to what’s certain, she wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if she were called an omnivore.

The quest we’d be accepting today was a pretty challenging and special one, even among such quests.

“Oh, it’s Teresa of Motherhood.”

“Will *she* try to take it on, do you think?”

“What is it?”

The people whispering in front of the bulletin board answered Mom’s curt question.

“A girl-type monster has appeared. But it’s also kind of pretty like a boy, so it’s confusing.”

“They say men shouldn’t go into the forest.”

“They say if you get caught, you’ll be squeezed dry until you die, right?”

“Oh dear, how pitiful.”

“But I kind of want to see it…”

The female adventurers drooled.

For some reason, their gazes shifted to me.

Crack.

Mom made a sound from her fist.

The adventurers screamed that they hadn’t looked and scurried away.

The fact that Mom possessed the strength of a Rank 3 was already well-known.

However, girl-type monsters also had a strength that ranked at the very top, even within the same grade.

It was a phenomenon where certain monsters appeared in human form, specifically in the form of a girl, at a certain probability.

The cause was mainly human fluids. It was a mutation that occurred when a monster interpreted human fluids leaked to the outside and merged them with their own appearance data.

“Then shouldn’t you just not spill bodily fluids outside?”

Gorgoth, lacking experience, spoke those words.

Mom said with a sulky face.

“You can’t bleed, spit, or pee outside either, understand?”

“Aghh.”

For that reason, the appearance of girl-type monsters was an unavoidable fate.

The only difference was that, in the game, it would have been an event where the dispatch of male adventurers became impossible just from hearing the news of its appearance, but now I was going to the site as well.

Every Rank 3 adventurer party with a man stayed put in the village, but we were the exception.

Mom, even in the midst of this, was tearing off a ton of quest sheets.

“Uhm, are we really going, Theresa-nim? It’s… awfully scary, you know…”

“It’s a golden chance for bulk earnings. You gotta work when others are resting to make the big bucks. Don’t chicken out. It’ll be alright. You won’t die.”

Mother grabbed Gorgo by the scruff of his neck, who was struggling to get away, and dragged him along.

I followed behind, my face betraying my own doubts about whether this was the right thing to do.

Just who was the halfwit who leaked bodily fluids and created a monster anyway? Utterly pathetic.

* * *

Mother compared my face to the monster’s, then pressed a hand to her forehead with a sigh.

It was a face she’d seen around. My face, it was.

“You. Don’t drink water outside for a while.”

“Okay….”

“Only do your business in the bathroom.”

The pathetic human responsible for this humanoid monster was me.