After the outbreak of the incident, the survivors each sought a way to live, taking refuge in all sorts of places.
The types varied, too.
Some settled in parks, others in those famous high-rise apartments…
Unfortunately, however, they all died.
If asked why, one could say they were unlucky.
The park was annihilated by the caterpillars, and the people living in the high-rise apartments vanished without a trace one day.
For all manner of reasons, the humans’ refuges collapsed one by one.
And now, one month later—there was only one refuge left.
A place that possessed five mutants, and whose leader was a former chairman of a major corporation…
“That’s the refuge?”
“…Yes, Angel.”
The grounds of Sookmyung Girls’ High School and Sookmyung Girls’ Middle School.
I rolled my eyes as I looked at the broad plot of land visible in the distance.
How should I put it? The school was really big. It looked several times larger than the one I’d attended.
Of course, it was a site that included not just a high school but a middle school as well… but even taking that into account, it was still huge.
Was it okay for a place to be this big when it wasn’t even a university?
Maybe it was because this was a wealthy neighborhood, but even the school looked rich.
“…Even so, for the only refuge left, the environment doesn’t look all that good.”
Sookmyung Girls’ High had Maebongsan behind it.
That mountain where the giant moth lived.
No matter what, living near that thing would be so unsettling I felt like I’d die.
“…The moth doesn’t come down from the mountain much.”
Kim Soyoung added an explanation.
The only time the moth became active was when the caterpillars died. Apparently, it had almost no interest in humans.
Also, perhaps because of the moth’s diet of eating caterpillars, the caterpillars didn’t dare come anywhere near the mountain, which made it a good place to survive.
‘That makes sense, then.’
Aside from the fact that a giant moth inhabited the mountain behind it, Sookmyung Girls’ High was quite a decent environment to live in.
Since it was a school, it had all sorts of facilities, and to be honest, it was spacious enough to easily accommodate several thousand people.
And yet there were only 200 people on a site that large?
“…Tsk.”
This was a city that had originally housed tens of thousands of people. But now, the number left was only 200.
Even the number of students alone must have exceeded 1,000.
Far too many people had been ground away in just one month.
That fact left me feeling needlessly heavy.
At the same time, however, it was also good news for me.
The fewer people there were, the fewer mimic beasts there would be as well.
Of course, even that fact wasn’t exactly pleasant.
“……”
I looked at Kim Soyoung, who continued to remain silent.
Her expression was deeply sunken. Her characteristic blank face was still there, but even so, an anxiety she couldn’t hide seeped through.
She had been walking after me when she suddenly stopped and said,
“…Are you sure it’s all right? For me to go with you…”
Given that she even had a history of being driven out once, it seemed she felt a heavy burden about accompanying me.
Certainly, just the fact that I had brought her along could provoke resentment from the survivors.
Whatever the truth might be, in the end, she had been driven out because she shot a fellow survivor.
“Even so, it’s not like I can just leave you alone, can I?”
“That’s…”
To be honest, there was no way for her to survive alone if she separated from me.
Food would be an immediate problem, and the moment she left me, even the caterpillars would become a major threat.
Although the caterpillars had poor eyesight and sluggish movements… they moved without making footsteps.
In a situation where one’s vision was blocked, there would be no better assassin.
“And you’ll be plenty helpful.”
“…Will I?”
There were more benefits to bringing her along than drawbacks.
In the operation I had in mind, she would have to play a very important role.
After walking for quite a while again, when Sookmyung Girls’ High was now not far away—
Whoosh!
Someone leaped out from between the alleys.
At the same time, a woman’s voice stopped us.
“…Halt.”
At those words, I raised both hands to show that I had no hostility, then examined the faces blocking our path.
‘Two mutants, huh.’
One was a beastman who looked like a hawk, and the other was a mutant with the appearance of a one-eyed giant.
Was that kind of giant called a cyclops? At a glance, its appearance made it easy to mistake it for a monster rather than a person.
The hawk beastman mutant was better off, at least.
I didn’t know whether it was a man or a woman, but nothing had changed except the head.
It felt like a human torso with only a huge hawk’s head attached. Somehow, it looked like something that would appear in Egyptian mythology.
That, that… what was it again? I felt like there was a god like that.
I couldn’t remember right away.
‘Compared to their appearance, their armament is as shabby as expected.’
The cyclops was holding some long steel pipe, while the hawk beastman held a single pistol.
‘…Was it that hawk beastman who fired the gun?’
Just the fact that he had a gun made it easy to put him on the list of suspects.
Since there wasn’t even a police station in this district, the means of obtaining a gun would be limited as well.
‘Still, the hawk beastman doesn’t look that dangerous.’
His appearance brought an Egyptian god to mind and carried a certain sense of intimidation, but in the end, he only had one pistol.
Even that was a low-risk pistol meant more for suppression than killing, so I doubted it could pierce my veil.
In contrast, the cyclops…
‘…Scary.’
This one truly suited the word giant.
Was it about three meters tall? Its body, slightly larger than old man Owlbear’s, made me tremble a little just by standing in front of it.
To be honest, the steel pipe that giant was holding was scarier than the gun.
It looked about two meters long, and it felt like it would be more powerful than the sledgehammer old man Owlbear swung.
‘Still, I’d win.’
I felt a strange sense of superiority, but it somehow made me embarrassed, so I quickly shook it off.
…It wasn’t as if I had come here to fight anyway, so there was no need to pointlessly decide who was superior.
Just as I finished assessing them, the other side also seemed to have finished sorting out their thoughts to some degree.
The hawk beastman, still not lowering the muzzle, threw a question at me.
“Who… are you? You’re accompanied by a face we’re not exactly pleased to see.”
So it was a man.
Then did that naturally make the cyclops the woman?
For some reason, it reminded me of Shin Ayun, whom I had seen on the first day of the incident.
In any case, returning to the question, my answer was…
“I’ve come to share some good words.”
I said so with a good-natured smile.
Here comes the cult angel.
*
In apocalypse stories, cults are originally inseparable from the genre.
This is easy to understand if you think about how cults do business in the first place.
After all, what is considered the core doctrine of most cults is none other than eschatology.
But then the end of the world really came?
Even people who normally would have dismissed it as bullshit and never believed in a cult were now more likely to believe.
If those words had been true, then the part about salvation might also be…? It was only natural for such thoughts to arise.
There were many other ways for a cult to expand its influence, but…
The point was, in an apocalyptic situation, the influence of a cult could only become stronger.
‘On top of that, the people here aren’t exactly in a good situation.’
A darkness that could not be dispelled by anything, and unidentified monsters roaming outside.
They were trapped by a human wall, unable to escape.
And despite that, their food supply was dwindling day by day…
There were no people more cornered than they were, and no people more desperate for salvation.
‘What if I appear here?’
I am a being who can scatter light and let people who had been as good as blind open their eyes, and perform various miracles including healing.
On top of that, even my appearance is that of an angel, and I’m pretty too.
No one would be able to doubt my existence, and naturally, they would have no choice but to wish for salvation from me.
In other words, I was a talent specialized for apocalyptic cults.
‘…Of course, at this point, I don’t think it really counts as a cult.’
But what I was about to do this time was still nothing more than cult activity.
It wasn’t like I was going to preach some doctrine. In the end, what I was saying amounted to “Believe in me and let’s go to heaven,” or “If God acts up, I’ll go on strike.”
‘Since the doctrine is lacking, what matters in the end is Miss Kim Soyoung.’
The one who had to be most active in this cult operation was, ultimately, her.
She had agreed to take charge of evangelizing in this operation.
I wasn’t exactly good with words, so I would simply remain in a symbolic role.
‘…She said she infiltrated cults a few times while working as a detective, so she should do well.’
To be honest, it was hard to do badly at this.
If anything, I needed to hope she did only moderately well.
‘Because once we escape this place, I’ll have to tear it all down.’
If this religion remained in place even after the escape, that would be an even bigger problem.
I could already see all kinds of damned nonsense unfolding.
That was why it wasn’t exactly an appealing option… but what could I do?
In order to reduce casualties, I had to seize control of the survivor group as quickly as possible.
“…For now, we’ll guide you into the school.”
The cyclops’s gaze was sharp as she said that.
It was a gaze that seemed wary of me, someone who had suddenly appeared.
Perhaps because she was a mutant who could see clearly even in the darkness to begin with, she didn’t seem all that impressed by my light either.
But in the end, mutants were a minority. Among them, mutants related to eyes were even rarer.
The survivors inside the school would want me, so would they dare refuse me?
They also didn’t know of the existence of mimic beasts, so they had no justification to reject me, someone they could even converse with.
“Thank you for the warm welcome.”
I showed them a good-natured smile.
“…Mm, ahem! Don’t mention it.”
The hawk beastman, who had spoken curtly at first perhaps because I was with Kim Soyoung, said that.