The situation is getting complicated.
The thought that she might lie had been on my mind all along.
No matter how much she was those two’s older sister, it would be stupid to trust her completely for that reason alone.
That was why I had activated the Eye of Truth in advance as well…
‘…And in the end, she did lie.’
Of course, the direction of that lie was the exact opposite of what I had expected.
‘……Hmm. What should I do about this?’
Still, it isn’t an especially bad situation.
If it was a lie that she had committed a crime, then in the end, it meant she hadn’t committed any crime at all.
The problem is why she would go out of her way to make a false confession…
‘Is she being framed for something?’
There aren’t many possibilities that come to mind right away.
Of them, being framed, the one that had just occurred to me, seemed the most likely… but even so, it was still a problem.
No matter how much she had been framed, shouldn’t she be able to tell me honestly?
That would be more advantageous for her side, too.
With what I’d heard so far, there was nothing I could judge.
I had no choice but to ask further.
“May I ask what wrongdoing you committed?”
“I… shot someone with a gun. Yes, I……”
—Lie.
Though the Eye of Truth had delivered its verdict in an indifferent manner, I didn’t think the whole thing was a lie.
Most likely, the part about someone having shot a person was true, while only the part where she said, “I shot them,” was false.
Of course, that was still just a hypothesis.
To confirm the facts, there were a few more things I needed to ask.
“You don’t appear to have a gun on you.”
“…Because it was taken from me afterward.”
—Truth.
“May I ask why you shot them?”
“…….”
As if my question had left her at a loss for words, she fell silent for a moment.
An awkward current hung in the air for a short while, but the silence did not last long.
“…I thought if I didn’t shoot, I’d be the one to suffer.”
“Why?”
“Because they seemed… like they weren’t human.”
—Truth.
…I think I roughly understand what happened.
To turn my conjecture into certainty, I asked one final question.
“…The reason you thought they weren’t human. Could you tell me that?”
At that, more evidence than I’d expected came spilling from her mouth.
They hadn’t touched water or food.
At times, they had made remarks that didn’t fit the situation, as though they were living an utterly ordinary daily life.
They had an unusually good sense of direction, even in the dark.
When one got close, there was sometimes the smell of blood…
But all those reasons were merely peripheral. They were things she had only noticed after she had begun to suspect them.
Testimony that, depending on how one looked at it, could be called forced.
But the words that followed were certainly plausible enough.
“I remember it clearly. The child I shot with the gun… had already died on the first day of the incident.”
After saying that, she watched my reaction.
Did she think, even to herself, that she was making an absurd claim?
The Eye of Truth judged her testimony.
—Truth.
“Phew……”
Faced with a more troublesome situation than expected, a sigh escaped me on its own.
“I-it must have been my mistake after all, right…? Shooting them for nothing more than that……”
“No.”
Even by the standards of human perception, the blackout zone is an extremely anomalous space.
Here, no matter what happens, no matter what appears, it isn’t strange.
And among such things, “cases where the dead return to life” were exceedingly common in this place.
‘……Of all things.’
Human-skin-clad mimic beasts.
They had infiltrated the survivor group.
*
I exchanged a few more questions and answers with her.
I roughly understood the situation, but I still had far too little information.
After several rounds of questioning, I learned a few important facts.
First, the people of Dogok 2-dong did not know of the existence of mimic beasts at all.
In fact, they didn’t seem to know that there were many different kinds of monsters.
“…Pardon? There weren’t only two kinds of monsters?”
The people here knew of exactly two kinds of monsters.
The pine caterpillars that still roamed outside, and the giant moth that dwelled far away in the mountains.
They didn’t even know their appearances very well.
Well, since they had been living in the dark, it couldn’t be helped.
I gave a rough, brief explanation of the other monsters.
Mimic beasts, head grapes, and even the peculiar individual gatekeepers that existed in each zone.
“…Ugh!”
She, who had been quietly listening to my explanation, gagged.
There really were too many grotesque monsters.
I patted her on the back and calmed her down.
Looking at that reaction alone, she resembled Min Aji to some extent. They’d said they were from the same orphanage, so they probably weren’t biological siblings.
Kim Soyeong continued to gag for a while, then suddenly widened her eyes as though something had occurred to her and asked me,
“Wait, then the child I shot was…?”
“There’s a high chance they were a mimic beast from the very beginning.”
At those words, she lowered her head. From time to time, I could hear her sobbing.
‘Considering how she lied at first too, it seems her guilt was greater than I thought.’
But now, it was half-confirmed that the child she had shot had truly been a monster, just as she had suspected.
It was a chilling story, no doubt, but still, it should lessen her guilt to some degree.
While patting her on the back, I organized the contents of the questions and answers we’d exchanged in my head.
‘The survivors here know less than I expected.’
It was natural to a certain extent, but they didn’t even know concepts like exits or gateways.
At least they had been calling the gatekeepers something like “named individuals” and had even figured out their locations.
They said they had left them alone because they didn’t dare touch them, and since they didn’t know of the exits’ existence, they judged there would be no benefit in doing so.
‘…And the most important information is about the survivor group.’
Since the monsters wandering around were relatively safe, and there had been no mimic beasts, more civilians than expected had survived.
Excluding the mutated, there were supposedly close to two hundred people.
Considering that the original population had been in the tens of thousands, it was only a handful… but given the incident, quite a large number had survived.
Because of that, even a peculiar situation had occurred, and the leader of the survivor group was one such case.
‘Usually, a mutated person often takes the role of leader.’
It isn’t only the extraordinary senses possessed by the mutated that make them special.
Fundamentally, there is an enormous gap in physical class between ordinary people and the mutated.
I’m the exception; just looking at Min Aji or Yu Inha, they possess sufficiently impressive physical abilities.
‘…Sigh, but then why am I……’
In any case, the norm is for the mutated, who can move about somewhat freely in the blackout zone and are also strong, to become leaders.
But they say the leader of the Dogok 2-dong survivor group is some old man.
“Wasn’t there any opposition?”
“…He’s like our spiritual pillar.”
When I heard more details, I was told he had been the chairman of a famous conglomerate before retiring.
After retirement, he had been running a few modest warehouses in the neighborhood, and when the incident broke out, he opened up the food stores.
‘…The scale of that story isn’t modest at all, though.’
Perhaps because this was one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Seoul, there seemed to be many people of considerable means.
From what I heard, that incredibly tall building I’d seen on the way here was the famous Tower Palace.
Thanks to that, he had a great deal in his possession, and had enough supplies to distribute to the other survivors for several months.
They said it was thanks to that overwhelming quantity of resources that he had risen to the position of leader, but…
‘…From my current standpoint, that’s troublesome.’
Now that I don’t know how far the mimic beasts have spread among the survivor group, ordinary people are all potential threats.
The old leader is no exception. Unfortunately, there is a very high chance that he, too, is no longer human.
‘…It would have been easier if a mutated person were the leader, at least.’
At the very least, there would be a guarantee that they weren’t a mimic beast.
But since things turned out this way, there’s no helping it.
The situation has gotten rather twisted, and extremely troublesome, but…
So what can I do about it?
One way or another, I ultimately have to join up with the survivor group.
‘I’m short on supplies, and I have far too little information about the gatekeepers.’
Kim Soyeong didn’t really know anything properly either.
Since she was an ordinary person who couldn’t stand on the front line, the information she possessed was limited as well.
The survivor group would have that kind of information, and though the possibility was low, there might also be someone who knew something about my younger sister.
‘And……’
I’m not going to just leave those people alone, either.
At the very least, I should take along a few people who can be saved.
If they’re under the light, they won’t be able to run rampant like they do now.
At the very least, they won’t be able to use the darkness to switch places with people.
‘I was never really the type with a strong sense of duty, though……’
What can I do?
That was something I had more or less steeled myself for when I accepted that this divine power was a part of me.
I let out a long breath and looked at Kim Soyeong.
“I intend to join up with the survivors.”
“…Pardon?”
At my words, Kim Soyeong became visibly flustered.
“B-but according to what you said, Angel, wouldn’t that be extremely dangerous…?”
“Well… I’m not that weak, either.”
I may not look it, but I am someone who has ascended to an archangel.
Of course, mimic beasts are a bad matchup for me… but that doesn’t mean I can’t deal with them.
On top of that, unlike Hannam Bridge, this place is in the city center, so it will be easy to run away.
Unless something truly extraordinary happens, there shouldn’t be a problem.
“And I told you last time, didn’t I? That I came to save you.”