#011. The Monster is Too Kind (2)

#011. The Monster is Too Kind (2)

Humanoid monsters experience personality shifts depending on the human fluid they ingest.

The creature, bearing my spitting image, naked save for a tail, was a Killer Monkey mutant.

Furthermore, this male child monster was considered an extreme anomaly even among mutants – a truly rare specimen.

“If we can capture just that one, the gold coins are as good as ours. What’s the plan?”

“Difficult.”

Even Mother, who would usually tear into monsters without a second thought, seemed hesitant when faced with a face identical to mine.

“It feels like I’m about to attack my own son. I can’t bring myself to attack.”

“Still, it’s a monster. Could it be dangerous?”

“Normally, humanoid monsters are dangerous to men. Men keep getting drained, then they weaken and starve. Wouldn’t this be the opposite?”

The one having their energy sapped through relations wasn’t the human but the monster.

It was the poor thing’s sad fate, having been born a male.

“It’s already been exposed. A high-ranking adventurer party composed of women could swarm this place any moment. This is our only chance to act.”

Gorgo was right.

This was our sole opportunity.

And I, too, found the monster that resembled me unsettling.

“Can’t catch it.”

But then, an unforeseen problem arose.

Mother, standing before the monster, didn’t attack.

“I really can’t catch it.”

A male child monster, appearing with an even rarer frequency than female child monsters.

The cause was the same – mutation triggered by contact with spilled blood, saliva, and the like – but far fewer men than women wandered the dangerous outdoors.

It was only a moment too late that I realized why Mother was hesitating now, having hit this rare probability of it being *my* son.

[Brainwash Activated]

[Designated Target – Mother]

[Command – Do not strike the child]

The brainwashing I had put in place to prevent my stepfather’s abuse.

My mother, already so vulnerable to mind control, now confronted a monster with my own face, my own gender.

It meant the monster before us might also be a target of the mind control.

‘My ambition… it might have turned Mother into a monster…’

If only the situation were different.

If only it wasn’t so urgent, so life-threatening.

Mother might have been seriously hurt because of my mind control.

A heavy ache settled in my chest.

The self-loathing was unbearable.

“Screech…”

As if the situation wasn’t already wretched enough.

Perhaps the resemblance wasn’t just skin deep.

The monster showed none of the typical aggression.

It cautiously landed on a branch near us, studying me, fascinated by its doppelganger.

If it were out there causing trouble with my face, I’d smash it without a second thought.

But now, even I was disturbed.

“Screech, screech…”

Killer Monkeys – the apes that murdered humans.

A Killer Monkey, possibly a mutation with an unusually long tail, screeched and gestured ahead, glancing back to make sure we were following.

My mother sighed, a weary sound.

“We follow.”

The boy-monster led us to his hideout.

We were startled to discover a dozen Killer Monkeys waiting in a clearing.

A trap?

The apes began to display their menacing side, ready to pounce.

“It’s become a Commander?”

“Better this way, at least we know what we’re dealing with.”

Reacting to their hostility, my mother gripped her sword.

But neither side moved.

The Killer Monkeys, wary of my mother’s power.

Us, mindful of the boy-monster.

A rare standoff between human and monster.

The situation filled me with dread.

That thing was recognized as a leader within its pack.

If it was the one using mind control…

Then it was a monster I had created.

Even with me, a human wielding mind control, I couldn’t trust Mother, couldn’t trust the hearts of people.

What would happen if a monster, devoid of human compassion, commanded the same abilities?

“There are no good monsters. Now that it’s already taken command of its group shortly after its manifestation, there’s no way to know how much further it will expand its influence.”

Even the usually kind Golem strongly advocated for its elimination.

The battle was imminent.

The tension climbed, taut and high.

Mother’s grip on her sword tightened.

But simultaneously, a wash of guilt across her face.

The moment I saw that, instinct took over.

Whatever that thing was, things couldn’t go on like this.

It was me.

I had to step in, right here, right now.

I didn’t know if monsters even *had* human hearts.

Didn’t know if the boy-monster was closer to human, or closer to monster.

All I could do was this.

I am a mind-weaver.

A deceiver, twisting and manipulating the hearts of men.

Using this wicked power, I would…

[Mind-Weave Cast]

[Target – Boy-Monster]

[Command – Remain a good child in front of Mother]

I unleashed the weave, hoping to overturn this headlong rush to ruin.

I held no hope.

It was a monster, after all.

It knew nothing of human feelings.

It consumed humans as prey.

Perhaps this was just a desperate flailing, a pathetic attempt to quiet the unease in my heart at doing nothing.

A shallow charade, even knowing all that.

“Keeek!”

But then, something astonishing happened.

Something even *I*, the one who cast the weave, couldn’t believe.

At the boy-monster’s direction, the killer monkeys descended from the trees, each carrying armfuls of something, and laid them on the clearing floor before us.

Bananas.

Tree fruits.

Pretty stones.

Food and valuables.

Clear tokens of friendship.

The mind-weave had worked.

That monster.

That creature with the form of a human, and the nature of a monster.

Incredibly, it *did not* want to attack Mother, it *did* possess the instinct to remain a good child.

“Keeek.”

The creature looked at Mother.

And at me.

And the expression on its face no longer seemed hostile, or wary.

Something unattainable.

A connection only to be watched from afar.

All that remained was the pitiful sight of longing, the aching heart.

“Ian.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s a scamp who stole your appearance without permission. What do you want to do with it?”

Mother entrusted the judgment to me.

An entity the same age, yet not me.

It was brainwashing triggered for Mother’s sake, not for the creature’s.

Whether the creature’s current demeanor was genuine or a lie born of that brainwashing.

Had I not intervened, I couldn’t know which way the scales of its heart would have tipped.

“…Leave the forest. Disappear somewhere far away. Never show yourself before humans again.”

I wanted it to flee.

Its dark eyes peered into mine.

Within them, the stars of the night sky were reflected.

Starlight that the back-alley humans had long since lost.

The creature departed, following its own compass.

The Killer Monkeys slowly followed, melting into the forest’s darkness.

“Do you think the Guild would believe this story?”

“They wouldn’t.”

“Do you think we really understood it?”

“Humans can’t even understand each other. How could they possibly know the heart of a monster? Even so…”

Mother snorted, turning away.

“Not a bad experience.”

“Indeed. Let’s keep this a secret just for our party, alright? Ian, can you do that for us?”

“Yeah.”

Mother, after her fine words, grabbed Gorgo by the scruff of his neck as he was about to leave.

“What are you doing? Haven’t you packed him in a sack?”

“Ah.”

Gorgo, fulfilling his duty as a porter, filled his sack to the brim with the items the Killer Monkeys had left behind.

“Those wicked monsters. How violently must they have taken over this territory if there’s this much supplies!”

In the face of hardship, even sentimentality crumbles.

Gorgo once again became a monster antagonist.

* * *

One day, as we repeated the cycle of returning to the village, receiving new requests, and heading back to work.

We heard rumors about a monster male child.

“It moved to a deeper habitat.”

“This is a write-off. It’s beyond our reach.”

One, that 4th class adventurers who ventured into the original habitat had found nothing.

“They say the monsters in the deep parts have been acting strangely lately.”

“They say they don’t fight each other anymore?”

Another tale spoke of high-ranking adventurers from different guilds, normally at each other’s throats over monster hunting, now witnessing these same monsters passing each other by with suspicious indifference, like chickens on a rooftop.

“…”

If I said it didn’t send a chill down my spine, I’d be lying.

It could be mere coincidence. Or maybe not.

If it wasn’t coincidence?

Chances were, it was mind control.

He did have mind control abilities, after all.

Maybe he’d even used it on us, to make us send him away.

But a gut feeling, a sense almost primal, told me something else.

That he probably hadn’t used any mind control on us at all.

He understood what kind of existence he was born from, what kind of being his mother was.

He possessed the desire not to sully that relationship with his own hands; someone like me would certainly feel that way.

At least, I wanted to believe it.

“So, where the heck did all the Killer Monkeys in our forest go?”

“Where are we supposed to get monkey paws now?”

The only victims seemed to be the 3rd-tier adventurers who hunted Killer Monkeys and chopped off their hands to sell, thanks to the superstition that monkey paws could grant wishes.

Of course, there were plenty of monsters.

If the Killer Monkeys disappeared, they could just hunt a new type.

The ecosystem’s void was quickly filled by other creatures.

What remained was the mind controller, newly aware of his own wickedness.

‘That encounter back then… I was the only one who used mind control, not even the monster.’

Monsters and humans.

Which were truly more wicked?

A thought that surfaced every time I spotted a sturdy tree, perfect for a monkey to hang from.