Chapter 45 – Gift

===================

Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

I came to hear an unexpected story from the commander.

“The executives are looking for me because of the ban on participating in the subjugation battle?”

“Yes.”

I asked with a frown.

“What is it? Surely they don’t want to go out to the subjugation battle, do they?”

“There was no one who insisted on going. However, they said they want to hear why their participation was banned.”

If they are told not to go, they won’t, but they still want to know the reason?

That means…

“They seemed to notice that it was something you were involved in.”

“No, why didn’t you just tell them that Father banned it?”

The commander father replied with a faint smile.

“To do so, even Josef and the others were curious.”

Josef and the others?

Josef was the name of the leader of the pro-Hayden faction.

It seemed not only the pro-Daphne executives but also the pro-Hayden executives had complaints.

Indeed, even if the pro-Daphne executives were one thing, the pro-Hayden executives were people who used to be active on the battlefield together with Luna Moon in the past.

It was understandable for them to have complaints that Luna Moon’s son, of all people, banned their participation.

They were not personnel who would be helpful to me during the Second Apocalypse ten years later, so I had been neglecting them.

Thinking conversely, since there were still ten years left, I should care about their complaints for now.

“Well… let’s do that. If they want to know the reason, it’s not a difficult thing to let them know.”

“But is it really alright?”

Is it alright?

It didn’t seem like he was asking if it was alright to let them know the reason.

“About what?”

“About going with a select few elite.”

The commander looked at me with worried eyes.

“Of course, the practicality of the gem position identification method you devised has already been confirmed repeatedly through other soldiers. However, if that guy who attacked you last time appears, you could instantly fall into danger.”

The commander also seemed to care about the existence of the Unicorn Zone player.

Indeed, if it was a guy who crossed over to another’s zone and shot the regressor son, he had no choice but to be cared about.

“That guy… won’t appear.”

Since he said with his own mouth that he would look forward to me coming to his zone, he would be quietly waiting for me on the floating island.

Actually, although it was also strange to readily believe him just because he said that.

Showily appearing on a hoverboard,

the probability that the guy, who disappeared after throwing a cool line like looking forward to me coming to his zone while posing to the fullest, would violate his own words and appear again seemed small.

However, the commander still had a face full of doubt.

“How are you sure?”

“It is my intuition as a regressor.”

“Hum…”

The regressor concept is so convenient at times like this.

“If you say so, then that must be it, but…”

But the commander brought up another unexpected story.

“Meursault will also go to this subjugation battle.”

“Pardon? Meursault?”

“He says he is worried about you.”

“I am worried about Meursault, though…”

As a result of going outside the zone twice with Meursault.

That guy is someone who poured everything into brainpower.

His posture holding firearms was awkward, and his stamina was poor, so he wasn’t a soldier worthy of being taken to a long-term subjugation battle.

That guy, who knew that fact best, said he would participate in the subjugation battle just because he was worried about me?

“His intention is admirable, but… I don’t feel like I will become any safer just because Meursault comes.”

“I also told him that, but he is stubborn. Therefore, as you said, you must be ‘safe.’ Otherwise, we might lose many things.”

It did seem like Daphne wouldn’t forgive me either if something went wrong with Meursault.

I should go to deliver the news of Meursault’s participation as well, while asking Daphne about the dating sim.

“And you no longer need to go to the military academy.”

“Really?”

I was just getting tired of taking theory classes with the cadets, so that was welcome news to hear.

However, for someone who told me to go until I could dodge bullets, his giving up was quick?

“I could tell that you have nothing to learn at that school just by listening to the rumors.”

“Rumors?”

“The rumor that when you shot a Furry Crocodile dead with one bullet and eliminated eight cadets using only one arm, Plato knelt in front of your dormitory and swore an oath of loyalty.”

No, how far is this rumor or birth myth going?

* * *

The executives sat in the meeting hall, waiting for the commander and Haydam to appear.

It was the second time Haydam attended the executive meeting.

The first time was to introduce Haydam.

But now, there was no executive who didn’t know who Haydam was.

On the first day Haydam appeared, one executive was killed.

Not long after, he went hunting outside the zone and brought back a Hippo-pig alone.

He held a charity party for kids his age.

In the training simulations, he wiped out the opposing team twice.

One of those times, he even eliminated eight graduates by himself, and another time, he participated while injured and won.

And it was revealed that that injury was actually sustained while catching a Furry Crocodile, a large-class monster.

‘Extraordinary.’

No, this crossed the level that could be expressed by the word extraordinary.

When they heard the story that he was going in and out of the operations room with Meursault, they thought it was just something the commander made him do to learn.

But when the ban on participating in the subjugation battle was handed down to the executives, everyone felt that this command was different from before.

Neither Commander Hayden nor Major General Meursault had ever given such an order.

Without a doubt, Haydam was involved in the operations of the subjugation battle.

The commander permitted it.

The executives thought, regardless of whether they were pro-Hayden or pro-Daphne.

‘Dangerous.’

Having no respect even for the pro-commander executives, who were his mother Luna Moon’s comrades-in-arms, was a very dangerous thing.

It would have been better if Haydam had acted hostilely toward the pro-Daphne executives and overtly tried to take revenge for Luna Moon.

Because at least what Haydam wanted would be clear.

However, Haydam’s current steps…

‘Unpredictable.’

To say he was doing this to look good to the commander, he was picking only too dangerous acts to do.

Yet to see it as establishing his position in the zone, he didn’t even look at the executives.

Also, to say it was done out of a child’s unique childishness… he seemed strangely urgent.

Like someone chased by something.

What was even stranger was the commander’s attitude in tolerating such a Haydam.

The commander the executives knew was by no means a person who would leave zone affairs to a child.

Was even the man called iron-blooded weak to his own bloodline?

However, to say it was because his bloodline was precious, pushing his only young son into a subjugation battle was also an incomprehensible situation.

Although they couldn’t know the intentions of either the commander or Haydam.

Anton judged that it was time to widen the distance between the commander and Haydam.

In preparation for the chance that Haydam was indeed a fake.

In preparation for when Daphne’s successor would be born in the future.

Because of that, showing the portrait of Luna Moon at today’s executive meeting was an extremely important matter.

As a result of checking repeatedly, even if the exact date of Luna Moon’s grave couldn’t be known, it was certain that it was not one made one or two years ago.

They also confirmed that the slum residents didn’t know about Haydam.

Above all, they also discovered traces that looked like the grave had been dug up not long ago.

Synthesizing all this information, Anton judged that he would be able to plant the suspicion in the commander that Haydam was not Luna Moon’s real son.

‘Since it is too dangerous for me to directly claim that Haydam is a fake.’

First of all, Haydam resembled the commander and Luna Moon too much to be a fake.

The moment he saw the portrait of Luna Moon completed with Daphne’s help, even he himself thought that Haydam was indeed the real son, and wondered if there was some mistake in the testimonies of the slum residents.

Also, the details Haydam rattled off in the first executive meeting were pieces of information that couldn’t be known unless heard from Luna Moon.

He had no idea how the child knew the name of a puppy that was just born back then.

Lastly… that child had proven too many things to be a fake.

Even if that child was a fake, the probability was too high that the commander, who was a meritocrat, would not cast Haydam out.

If the executives stepped forward and claimed Haydam was a fake, that rebel of a commander would wrap around and protect Haydam even more.

‘Therefore… planting suspicion right now is the best.’

In other words, he wanted to slowly guide the commander to think for himself and arrive at the conclusion that Haydam was a fake.

Just like how he didn’t tell Daphne straight out to gift the portrait, but guided her to decide for herself that she must gift the portrait first.

Because humans with strong self-conviction like the commander or Daphne were bound to think more strongly that something was ‘right’ when it was a task they directly chose, rather than another’s opinion.

Since the commander and Haydam happened to appear in the meeting hall with indifferent faces, Anton put away his stiff expression and watched for the timing to bring out the portrait.

“Since everyone also seems to know that I am involved in this operation, I will just speak bluntly.”

Haydam threw a fastball as soon as he entered the meeting hall.

“This operation is a select few elite. In the first place, resources are limited, so waging a subjugation battle while wasting bullets with that many people is inefficient. I’m saying the combat rations you eat and drink when going out to subjugate are all the zone’s property.”

“A select few elite, I don’t know how many people you are thinking of to say such words.”

Josef, the leader of the pro-commander faction who was usually favorable to Haydam, spoke toward Haydam with gritted teeth, as if his pride was quite hurt by this matter.

“Do you know how many soldiers are needed to catch a large-class monster? I heard you brought back a half-dead Furry Crocodile, but surely you aren’t expecting that the monsters we are going to subjugate will all be in that state?”

“Even if it was a half-dead Furry Crocodile, I caught it myself. Let me ask conversely, when was the last time you hunted a monster yourself?”

“Th-that is…”

When Josef was at a loss for words at Haydam’s question, another executive flared up and stepped forward.

“The notion that you exclude us because we do not participate in combat directly is a thought Lord Haydam can have only because you do not know the military yet. We are there as the commanders of each unit. Running directly into battle is not the only thing that makes a soldier. Someone must arrange the ranks. Hunting a large-class monster must be accompanied by high-level strategies and a large amount of supplies.”

“I can distinguish the location of the gems possessed by monsters with the naked eye.”

“So even if you know the location of the gems… No, pardon? What did you just say?”

The executive who was questioning Haydam asked back in embarrassment.

“You can know… the location of the gems with the naked eye?”

The expressions of the other executives listening beside them were similarly astonished faces.

Even Anton, who had dragged Haydam to the executive meeting just to show the portrait, looked at Haydam with a surprised expression.

Haydam said as if it were no big deal even after making such an enormous confession.

“I know the rules for identifying the locations of the gems. It means you don’t have to find them after mindlessly spraying bullets to bring them down.”

“Ah, no… is that really true?”

“Verification is already complete.”

When even the commander stepped forward and said verification was complete, the executives buzzed.

“That is a possible thing?”

“For there to be rules in the locations of the gems…”

“Surely, it wasn’t just a rumor that he caught a Furry Crocodile with a single bullet?”

Anton had also heard the story that Haydam caught a Furry Crocodile with a single bullet from Plato, but he had only considered it as his immature son exaggerating out of excessive respect.

But to think he was really a child who could hunt a large-class monster with a single bullet.

“It is a skill that even I, who have rarely faced large-class monsters, learned quickly… What belief should I have to let those who didn’t know even that one thing despite participating in subjugation battles for decades participate?”

“…”

This time, only silence flowed in the meeting hall without a single executive stepping forward.

At this moment, the old executives were all thinking the same thing.

‘At rate, we will be discarded.’

They were those who were decrepit and couldn’t go out to subjugate directly, but had maintained their executive seats by having their decades of experience and knowledge recognized.

But the appearance of a heterogeneous existence that far exceeded the experience and knowledge of such executives was enough to plant a sense of crisis in them.

Even he had already declared that he would not take the executives to the subjugation battle.

Anton thought now was the timing to show the portrait.

“Understood. We will not participate.”

When Anton stepped forward and accepted the ban on participation, the other executives seemed flustered, but no one stepped forward to object.

Since the pro-Daphne executives knew that Anton would showcase the portrait starting now, they looked at Anton with eyes expecting him to overturn this entire board.

Anton continued to speak.

“We have also grown very old. Insisting on participating here, would that be anything more than proof that we have grown old and even lost our judgment? It is also time to yield our seats to young blood and step back now. Therefore…”

Anton stopped speaking for a moment, then added quietly.

“I intend to retire today, with this meeting as my last.”

“Ah, Lord Anton?!”

“What are you talking about?”

The pro-Daphne executives, who were waiting only for Anton to bring out the portrait, leaped in great embarrassment, but Anton paid no heed and said while looking at Haydam.

“An old man brought a gift on his final road… will you accept it?”

Haydam, who didn’t show a single change in expression even at Anton’s retirement declaration, showed a subtle expression at the words that he brought a gift.

“Surely that huge thing behind you is not my gift, is it?”

The portrait of Luna Moon was painted in a huge frame and had been moved to this meeting hall early this morning.

Even though a white cloth covered it, the silhouette of the frame was revealed over the cloth, showing a shape that allowed one to guess it was indeed a painting.

“I don’t know the value of things like paintings well.”

Watching Haydam speak reluctantly, Anton raised the corners of his mouth and smiled.

“If you look, you will know its value immediately.”

Saying so and sharply pulling off the cloth covering the portrait, Anton observed the change in Haydam’s expression with a fierce gaze.

‘Now, you fake punk. Let’s see if you can slip past like a slick snake this time too.’

If he hesitated even slightly, he planned to immediately press him, asking why he couldn’t even recognize his mother’s face.

But soon, Anton’s complexion became filled with disappointment.

The expression of Haydam looking at the painting was not that of someone who didn’t know the person in the painting.

That gaze containing piercing longing and even a bit of resentment.

That was clearly the gaze itself of a young child who hadn’t seen his mother for a long time.

Subsequently, the feebly trembling voice that flowed from Haydam’s mouth declared failure to Anton’s plan.

“Mother…?”

* * *

Before the executive meeting.

I heard from Daphne that Anton was preparing a gift for me.

“He is working on a portrait of Luna Moon.”

Luna Moon’s portrait.

I was able to immediately realize what that meant.

‘Anton is doubting my identity, huh?’