“What the hell is that appearance...?”
A human I’d never seen before.
A bastard that spoke to us while wearing the face of a middle-aged man.
{How is it. At this level, I can blend in with native species too, right?}
It looked human.
But as if it still hadn’t learned human language,
its mouth didn’t move—yet its intent flowed straight from that body into our minds.
{To be honest, when the Legion Commander brought up my appearance problem, I had a lot to think about.}
It continued in a cheerful tone.
{In fact, even before I met the Legion Commander, I’d been vaguely sensing that my exchanges with native species weren’t going smoothly. I just hadn’t been able to identify the reason... but I never imagined it would be something like this.}
“......”
{From my position—wanting to interact with native species—this was a fairly serious problem. The more serious problem was... that solving it wouldn’t be easy either.}
All I could do was stare blankly
at its face as it kept talking.
{Because I’m a doctor, not an artist.}
“......”
{I’m not particularly talented in aesthetic sensibility. And even if I were, it’s questionable whether my sensibilities would match those of native species.}
CLAP!
The middle-aged man clapped his hands.
{So I thought of it.}
“...Of what?”
{A method of winning the favor of native species with appearance is actually simple, isn’t it?}
It pointed to its own face.
{You take on the form of a native species!}
“......”
And it was right.
If you want to blend with humans, taking a human form is the best method there is.
Even the Matron and Mirinae—
when they spoke to me, they took forms close to human.
Even existences that powerful must think that, when speaking with humans, taking a human form is correct.
“Th—!”
But.
“That monster bastard—!”
“Wait.”
At that sight,
soldiers who couldn’t hold back their rage and tried to rush it—
“But Legion Commander!”
“Are you telling us to endure that after seeing it?!”
“Yeah!”
I reached out and stopped them.
“I understand your feelings. No—”
If it were only that it took a human form,
“...I’d be worse than you.”
“......”
I wouldn’t be this shaken.
“Hey.”
{Hm, what is it?}
“There’s a lot I want to ask—where that body came from, why you suddenly showed up with it—but put it all aside. I’ll ask just one thing.”
I took a breath,
then pointed at its face.
“That expression.”
After meeting us,
this bastard had been talking in a bright, happy voice the whole time.
As if it wanted praise,
like its answer was impressive.
“You even know what that expression means?”
{Ah, of course I know. As I said, I want friendly relations with native species. I at least learned what expressions correspond to what emotions.}
But.
That expression and that tone didn’t match at all.
{It’s a smiling expression, isn’t it!}
“...Wrong.”
{Hm?}
I forced myself to calm down,
and pointed it out in the most controlled voice I could manage.
“That isn’t a smile.”
Because the face that human wore was—
“A face twisted in pain.”
{...Hm?}
Twisted and contorted to the point of being grotesque....
A face drenched in pain.
*****
{Pain, you say.}
When I talked to this bastard,
it had shown me that “smiling expression” more than once.
{You mean this expression?}
“...Yeah.”
A grotesquely wide-split, warped expression.
From my perspective it wasn’t exactly pleasant to look at,
but I’d brushed it off, thinking, Maybe that’s what a smile looks like where it’s from.
{No, but that can’t be right.}
But.
It wasn’t like that.
{When I asked another native species.}
The reason it made that expression
wasn’t because its species or homeland “smiled” like that.
{They clearly said... this was a smile.}
“......”
It—
it thought that face was what a human smile looked like.
So whenever it tried to smile at humans like us, it kept making that expression.
“Another human.”
CLINK.
Quietly,
I brought my hand to my lower back as I spoke.
“You mean the humans you said you traded with?”
Even as I asked,
I refused to let go of the what if.
It said it returned the humans it traded with unharmed.
And by the sensation caught by my [Taste Bud Enhancement], that wasn’t a lie.
{No. I don’t mean them. I received the price I demanded from them, provided treatment equal to that price, and we parted ways.}
“Then who?”
{As I said, among the humans who requested treatment, those who had information or items worth trading—I treated them after receiving payment. But....}
So.
I desperately wanted this bastard
to still be someone I could trust.
Someone I could keep alongside us.
But—
{Sometimes there were those who didn’t possess a price worth trading.}
“......”
At that,
I looked at the body it was wearing.
A middle-aged man who looked fairly old.
He wore a worn white coat over tattered clothes.
And on that coat, an old name tag was pinned.
[Kang Ilhwan]
A name that felt familiar.
I tried to drag the memory up as I continued.
“What happened in those cases?”
{If you can trade, that’s fortunate. But if they aren’t even worth trading with....}
It shrugged lightly.
{It would be a waste to just send them away, so I decided to collect them as research specimens.}
“......”
{Like I said, I have many things I’m curious about regarding native species. The more specimens, the better. Native species are precious materials to begin with—I couldn’t just let them go.}
It answered like it was nothing.
But—
“So that ‘smile,’ then—”
{Mm. I once asked those I collected as specimens to make an expression for me.}
“...How did you ‘ask’?”
{If they’d listened right away, it would’ve ended with words. But as you said, my appearance didn’t seem to win the favor of native species, so....}
As I listened—
{They refused to cooperate... so I inflicted pain.}
Something important inside my chest
felt like it was collapsing.
{After I inflicted pain, only then did they make an expression.}
“......”
{When I asked whether it was a smile, they definitely nodded vigorously.}
Only then
did I realize a single truth.
{Hmm... I understood nodding as a native species expression of affirmation, but I don’t know whether I misunderstood... or whether that person lied.}
“......”
{I hope it wasn’t a lie.}
This bastard—
it doesn’t lie.
{Lying... is not a good thing.}
It had answered every question I asked faithfully.
Even that answer just now—
came out because I asked.
But—
It never volunteered what I didn’t ask.
It was enough to make me laugh at my own stupidity.
Last time,
when it said it had researched the system—
I should have asked then how it conducted that research.
The reason I didn’t was simple.
Because nothing about it tasted off.
If it had a shred of “normal human common sense,”
the moment it used humans for research, it would’ve either revealed that fact—
or it would’ve tried to hide it deliberately.
And if it did, I would’ve noticed.
Because [Taste Bud Enhancement] could taste even that kind of suspiciousness.
But.
This bastard didn’t even try to hide it.
If I’d asked then, it would’ve answered without hesitation.
I just hadn’t asked.
So it hadn’t spoken.
A cultural difference....
It had said that several times—
but never had I /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ felt it this violently.
“Your body.”
CRUNCH....
“The owner of that body you’re occupying—was he also a case where a trade didn’t go through?”
{That’s right. As you said, it seems rumors about me have spread among native species to some extent. This person also came to me requesting a trade.}
“What was the trade?”
{Hmm, I don’t know why you’re curious about that... but it’s not something I can’t answer.}
As I asked with my teeth clenched,
it looked like it didn’t understand why I cared—
but it still answered readily.
{The request this person brought was somewhat unusual.}
“...?”
{Because they wanted me to treat a colleague of theirs rather than themselves.}
A colleague....
They wanted me to treat their colleague.
{Their precious colleague was severely injured and couldn’t come here. They asked whether I could go with them to their base and treat him there.}
Only after hearing that
did I remember where I’d heard the name Kang Ilhwan—
and why it stuck.
-We had to bring food back from outside. But... I was excluded from that search. With an injury like this, I couldn’t move around.
It was because I’d heard the reason only recently.
-That was the last time. Ms. Heeseon, Mr. Baeman, and Professor Kang Ilhwan—after that, we lost contact.
Names I’d heard
from the mouth of a man
who fought to the very end in Seoul.
“Why is a man like that... like this here?”
{Hmm. It was good that he came to trade, but... his demand was excessive.}
That man survived in this hellish Seoul with a small group of colleagues,
yet in the end, even those colleagues were lost to him—
{Seoul has many dangers. To cut through all of them and make a house call to their base... it wasn’t a demand I could grant for an ordinary price.}
“...So?”
{I demanded a price appropriate to that, but... naturally, they were not in a position to pay such a price.}
In that dark underground bunker
where not a speck of light entered....
{So the trade fell through.}
“......”
{And I collected them in advance because they seemed like fairly usable research materials.}
Unable to do anything,
chewing only on regret,
they’d been dying slowly like that.
{...Hm? Legion Commander.}
After finishing,
it looked at me with a puzzled expression.
{I’ve examined the Legion Commander’s body several times, so I can tell—but it seems a minor abnormality has occurred in your body right now.}
The last survivor of Seoul.
The reason Jang Youngwoong had been forced into such a lonely, agonizing end—
{It seems you’re secreting more adrenaline than usual. Oxygen demand is increasing, blood vessels are dilating... blood pressure is rising rapidly, and your complexion is reddening.}
The reason he had been forced to lose even his last companions—
was—
“You.”
It was this bastard.
{Hm. This is, as expected....}
From inside my body,
a heat so extreme it could only be felt as pain—
a savage spiciness.
{It appears to be an abnormal symptom caused by... extreme rage.}
Rage
surged up.
