A child stood up from the center of the group huddled on the ground. A fire farmer speaking in such archaic tones was strange enough to make me look at her face. She was a girl.
"......"
Life gleamed in her pitch-black eyes, dark as obsidian. The vitality her pupils could not fully contain extended outward like invisible branches reaching in every direction.
Unlike the lifeless tick of a clock, music seems to draw out a different kind of time, and a peculiar atmosphere flowed around the girl.
I was caught in the web of those dark eyes and remained motionless for a while. The moment the girl's gaze met mine, she placed her right hand over her chest and bowed neatly at the waist — all while waiting for my response. In truth, the time I spent looking into the girl's eyes was not all that long.
"Daisy!"
The Hero's mother, who until now had not let out a single whimper, let out a low scream. The woman lifted her head and stared at the girl with utter despair. Her face already streaked with tears, she began to cry again, like adding a flood to a river.
The woman's rudeness deserved reprimand, but I felt as though a hammer had cracked my skull open.
Daisy. That is the name of the Hero's younger sister.
The protagonist in the game repeatedly mutters "Mom, Dad, Daisy" in anguish over his lost family. The name Daisy is as familiar to me as it gets. Judging by the woman's reaction just now, the girl was undoubtedly the Hero Luke's younger sister.
If Daisy were simply Luke's younger sister, I would have had no reason to panic. The truly important fact was something else entirely.
'Daisy becomes the Hero when the player selects female as the protagonist's gender!'
Just like in other games, in Dungeon Attack the player chose the protagonist's gender. If you picked male, the younger sister dies when monsters invade the village. If you picked female, the older brother dies instead.
I chose Luke. Picking a female character in a game was never my thing. So naturally, I had assumed the Hero of this world was male too. Looking back now, that was a completely baseless assumption.
But why is this the case?
'The scenario requires at least one of the two to die. Why — how are both Luke and Daisy still alive... Ah.'
I realized it. In this world, the Andromalius attack event had been erased because of me!
Andromalius never led the Goblins to crush the fire farming village. Naturally, neither the brother nor the sister had any reason to die.
No — choosing a gender was not something that happened within the game itself. It was a settings adjustment made before entering the game, like "Please choose a name." The idea that even that setup process had been reflected in this world was... something I had never even imagined.
Chilling.
'If I hadn't visited this place, two Heroes might have been born.'
A Hero is a monster capable of slaying Demon Lords single-handedly. And there would have been two of them. I'd killed Andromalius to prevent a Hero's birth, only to end up doubling the number of threats. Without anyone realizing it, the Demon Lord army had been placed on the razor's edge of annihilation.
Calm.
Calm yourself.
There is nothing you can do here except think. Dantalion, shovel coal into that rotten brain of yours. Think until steam comes out. Figure out how you're supposed to act here — and fast.
"For a child raised in the backwoods, your manners are surprisingly proper."
Her lips parted with difficulty.
"Speaking without being asked is a punishable offense, but..."
The woman kneeling at my feet — the mother of the two Heroes — looked up at me. Her eyes, brimming with tears, pleaded for mercy. She was remarkable in that she never once asked to be forgiven.
"I presume you are blood-related to the boy named Luke. You have every right to protest your family's deaths."
The mother, overcome with emotion, slammed her forehead against the ground. Not once. Five times, six times — the woman kept striking her head against the earth. Since speaking was forbidden, this was the fullest expression of gratitude she could manage. Beside her, the father was prostrating in the same manner, pressing his brow to the ground.
"Heed this well: I am by no means a merciful being who grants opportunities multiple times. The chance to plead on the boy's behalf will be given only once. Child born and raised in the mountains — are you prepared to bear that sole opportunity?"
"Yes, great being."
Daisy answered immediately with her head still bowed. Her voice was not overly confident, nor was it servile. Like a loyal subject delivering counsel before their lord, the girl's voice carried a measure of composure.
It was impossible to believe she was merely ten years old. Surely, she must have been blessed with innate talent.
As expected of someone chosen by the world's destiny. She was a human destined to grow into a Hero. One really shouldn't judge by appearances alone...
Every nerve in my body was on alert. Just as when facing a life-threatening enemy, the smallest nerve cells had opened their eyes, each one fixated on the girl's every movement.
I knew everything there was to know about the male Hero, Luke. But I knew absolutely nothing about the female Hero, Daisy. What was her personality like? What were her habits? I had to find out with unprecedented vigilance.
"Very well. I shall grant you permission to speak. You will be allowed to voice your thoughts freely, beyond merely answering my questions. However — answer my question first."
"Yes."
"Step forward."
When Daisy lifted her foot, the humans naturally parted to make way. The girl walked through the gap and stopped about six paces from me, then knelt on one knee to the ground.
I was somewhat taken aback. Wasn't this girl the daughter of a farming couple? How was she so well-versed in etiquette?
"...You stated that you would speak relying upon my magnanimity. On what basis did you assume I would show such magnanimity? If this turns out to be mere rhetoric and flattery, you will be punished."
"Because Your Majesty has already shown tolerance toward wretches like us on two occasions."
The girl spoke with crisp, measured words.
"Shown tolerance twice already? This is the first I've heard of it."
I deliberately laughed out loud. It was to apply psychological pressure. I didn't think it was despicable to pressure a child. The human before me was, before anything else, a Hero candidate.
"Oh, I'm terribly curious what manner of grand tolerance was shown to the one who killed several villagers here and even the village chief. Do tell."
"Yes. First, Your Majesty heard that Luke was in the town, yet did not dispatch your troops. You could have immediately ordered your forces to seize Luke. That was the first act of tolerance."
I rolled a wooden ball in the palm of my hand.
"...Confess the second act of tolerance."
"Yes. After choosing not to issue that order, Your Majesty then summoned Luke's parents before you. And in front of his parents, you explained the reason why your son had to die. Your Majesty went out of your way to answer the questions of lowly wretches like us."
Daisy spoke.
"Your Majesty could have simply killed us. You possess the power to do so. And yet you held back that power for a moment and resolved our doubts. I have no word for this other than tolerance."
"Truly foolish. The fact that I intend to kill you all remains unchanged regardless. If one or two questions happen to be answered and you call that tolerance, isn't that rather an overstatement?"
Daisy bowed her head even deeper.
"Great being. We are farming folk — lower than slaves, a tribe cursed by the heavens. We do not even possess the right to harbor questions, let alone the right to have them answered. What Your Majesty has shown us is without question tolerance."
"......"
"Your Majesty has shown me yet another act of tolerance beyond granting me the right to speak."
Another one?
It felt as though my thoughts were being read, and the sensation was unpleasant. I composed my emotions and asked.
"And what might that be?"
"You addressed me as 'you' instead of 'it.'"
The girl's voice rang clearly through the air.
"Before you granted me the right to speak, you referred to me as 'that thing,' but afterward, Your Majesty graciously began calling me 'you.'"
Even though she clearly kept her head bowed.
"Great being. Not even a lord addresses his own subjects as 'you,' and I dare say there is not a single noble in this world who would use 'you' when speaking to cursed slash-and-burn farmers. Your Majesty has not merely granted me the right to speak."
And yet, it felt as though those impossibly pure eyes were gazing straight at me.
"Your Majesty has acknowledged me as a human being."
"......"
"Not just me. The two kneeling before You — Your Majesty acknowledged them not merely as slash-and-burn farmers, but as a father and mother of some child. The people kneeling behind me — Your Majesty acknowledged them not merely as slash-and-burn farmers, but as people who have the right to seek answers before death."
It was my mistake.
Without thinking, I had changed the way I addressed them. And that had planted conviction in the girl before me. Damn it. Pathetic. I had resolved never to let my guard down, yet I had slipped so quickly.
But how could slash-and-burn farmers not be human?
I could not deny it. I was not killing livestock or dogs. I was killing humans. Everything I had directly or indirectly slaughtered up until now had been human. Every encounter had been a battle, and then another battle. I had no intention of denying that. That was precisely why I acknowledged that I was the most worthless piece of trash in the world.
Even trash has its own kind of pride.
"Your Majesty is deliberating — whether it would be acceptable to kill us as we are, or not."
A ten-year-old girl had seen right through that.
"O great and mighty being. Therefore, I humbly beseech you, placing my faith in your mercy. If the boy spoken of in the prophecy is none other than Luke alone, then you need not kill all of us. I beg you—spare everyone and take only Luke."
Daisy once again stirred something deep within me. I had expected her to plead for her brother's life, but instead she was asking me to kill him outright.
When I stared at her with a blank expression, Daisy added further.
"However, I humbly implore you to grant me the right to kill Luke with my own hands."
Her parents flinched at her shoulders.
It was an utterly outrageous statement—one that defied all reason. Asking to have her own brother killed was already an abomination against natural order, and now she was volunteering to do it herself, even kneeling to beg for permission.
The villagers stared at Daisy in stunned silence. Their gazes said plainly that this was not the girl they had known until now.
She must have been a child who ordinarily doted on her brother with every fiber of her being. That was how she had been portrayed in *Dungeon Attack* as well. Her words just now were at odds with her usual personality and with every common moral standard in the world.
But I understood exactly why she was saying this.
Not the villagers, not her parents—no one else grasped it. In this place, I alone understood precisely what her words truly meant. Daisy's steady, unwavering voice spoke volumes about it.
I asked with conviction.
"I have one question."
"Anything, O great and mighty being."
"Killing one's own kin is the gravest of sins. Why do you willingly choose to shoulder that sin?"
Daisy let out a soft laugh.
It was a bitterly self-mocking laugh—completely unfitting for a ten-year-old girl.
"Because, O great and mighty being. I need to remember forever that I am the scum who drove my own brother to his death."
——Ah.
The girl before my eyes was of the same kind as me.