Role-Playing a Dual Personality as a Background Character in a Manga

Chapter 108 : Chapter 108

Chapter 108

S-Rank Danger Zone, Tree Sea Restricted Zone.

The Tree Sea Restricted Zone was one of only two recorded S-Rank Danger Zones within Federation territory, and it was also the S-Rank Danger Zone Red Heart had once revealed to be near the Dawn Society’s Base of Operations. But more than any of that, what concerned Ji Qing was—this was a Lordless S-Rank Danger Zone.

Ji Qing silently turned those words over in his mind as his gaze fell once more upon the mist-shrouded forest wetland not far away. He remembered that the Tree Sea had formed fifteen years before the Dawn Society was established.

And within two years of its formation, the Dawn Society had been officially founded as well.

At first glance, those things seemed to have nothing to do with each other. They could even be explained as the Dawn Society deliberately choosing to settle near the Tree Sea. But once Ji Qing connected that timing with his own Aberrant identity, it all began to feel far too deliberate.

Ji Qing lowered his eyes and glanced at the address displayed on his Terminal.

At this point, the Terminal navigation had almost completely failed. Only the latitude and longitude display was still usable. Standing at the boundary line of the Tree Sea Restricted Zone, Ji Qing turned back and looked distantly at the wilderness behind him.

Behind him was the world of humans.

Before him was the world of the Aberrants.

Humans would never deliberately enter an S-Rank Danger Zone, because the price of entering one was not something they could afford. Even S-rank Ability Users ran the risk of becoming infected.

Aberrants, however, would.

And the place Emerald had chosen for their meeting was inside the Tree Sea.

A gleam of understanding flashed through Ji Qing’s green eyes. It seemed Emerald was testing him as well.

So Ji Qing first opened his Terminal and sent White Night, whom he had not been able to contact for a week, a brief farewell message: 【For the next day, you may not be able to reach me. If anything comes up, send it to me first. I will reply when I see it.】

Dawn Society missions were refreshed about once every two or three weeks.

Ji Qing thought to himself that it had now been two weeks since White Night had last contacted him. If his guess was correct, then there was a chance White Night would come looking for him today. Still, Dawn Society missions were relatively loose and did not strictly demand punctual arrival.

After all, the missions themselves could appear anywhere in the Federation, and travel time had to be factored in as well.

At worst, delaying the mission would only mean dealing with a few more people, or allowing a few more people to die. Ji Qing thought with perfect calm that he could bear those consequences. The meeting before him was clearly more important.

Yet the moment he turned off the Terminal, his fingers paused.

A trace of melancholy surfaced in his eyes. He had not expected himself to change so quickly...

Once one had grown accustomed to life and death, what remained was naturally only indifference.

But Ji Qing quickly suppressed the complicated emotions that had risen in his heart and walked straight toward the depths of the Tree Sea. Since no one voluntarily entered an S-Rank Danger Zone, all the measures that might help explorers keep track of their route—Terminal navigation, physical maps, and the like—were completely useless here.

Ji Qing would have to rely on his own eyes to judge the path.

The forest was silent, and dense white mist drifted among the trees.

The rotting roots and stems of dead vegetation had become “land” floating upon the water’s surface, only to be anchored in place by newly sprouting vegetation that took root in them, grew, and accumulated. Layer upon layer of dead trunks had piled up, and one sapling after another had sprouted and grown, until all of it became the scene before Ji Qing’s eyes.

This had once been the Federation’s largest freshwater lake.

But when the first seed from the Tree Sea crossed mountain peaks, crossed the sea, and arrived here, the freshwater lake humanity had once depended on for survival had naturally become part of the Tree Sea as well. Before the Tree Sea finished forming, the Federation had organized Ability Users to come and clear out the plant Aberrants in the lake.

But as with all grass and trees, once the spring wind returned, so did they. There had never been any possibility of eradicating them completely.

As one clearing operation followed another, the Federation gradually realized just how futile it all was. If they truly wanted to reclaim this freshwater lake, they would have to drain it dry so that vegetation could no longer grow there, but...was a freshwater lake without water still worth saving?

Compared with other Danger Zones that gradually expanded and threatened the Federation’s safety, the Tree Sea’s Aberrants had always been relatively inactive. Plants were inherently less dangerous than animals, and the Tree Sea’s plant Aberrants only grew in a ring around the freshwater lake.

As long as no one entered the vicinity of the Tree Sea, it posed almost no harm to humans.

And so, after multiple rounds of Federation meetings, the Federation formally abandoned the freshwater lake it had once depended on and renamed the area the “Tree Sea Restricted Zone.” Several towns that lay within the minimum safe distance marked by the Federation were therefore forced either to relocate or to dissolve where they stood.

And within a few years of the Federation abandoning the freshwater lake, the Tree Sea Restricted Zone leapt straight into becoming an S-Rank Danger Zone.

Had this happened because of the Federation’s neglect, or because of the Aberrants’ influence?

Thinking calmly all the while, Ji Qing continued deeper into the Tree Sea.

Along the way, he saw no trace of animals. Inside the Tree Sea there was only vegetation, dead vegetation, and fungal colonies that fed on dead vegetation. Although the mist obscured his view, Ji Qing still deliberately avoided stepping on the thick growth around him.

The corpses of the rotting vegetation gave off a strange scent.

Every now and then, Ji Qing’s feet sank into the soft, decayed wetland. The land of the Tree Sea had long since accumulated countless fragments of vegetation, all of which germinated, grew, aged, and died at an abnormally fast rate before finally becoming the soil upon which their descendants stood.

It was a very strange thing, and yet a perfectly natural one.

Only after going deep into the Tree Sea for quite some time did Ji Qing finally sense the conversations of the living beings dwelling there.

A great tree to his left was asking a question. The great tree opposite it was saying it did not know. The senior tree between them was criticizing the two juniors for chatting before they even realized it. Then the little tree behind the senior tree shouted at it, “Let me see too! I want to see too! Stop blocking me!”

Were they talking about him blocking their view?

With a hesitant expression, Ji Qing sidestepped a few paces.

“Wow, I can see him, I can see him!” a larch not far away cried tearfully at once. “This is wonderful. At last, the witnesses to my life are no longer only members of my own family. One day I am definitely going to grow feet and leave this place. I want to see the outside world!”

Oh. So it had been other trees blocking its view of him.

Ji Qing immediately understood the situation after hearing that, but a strange feeling soon rose in his chest. Had they been peeping at him the whole way here?

The larch asked curiously, “Does anyone know this guest?”

A wave of replies immediately rustled out from the surrounding trees like the sound of falling leaves:

“I do not.”

“Should we know him?”

“There should not be any tree here that knows him. I do not know whether he can understand our language. If he can, we could ask him something while we are at it,” the senior tree replied seriously, but then its tone paused. “But it looks like the one coming to receive him has arrived.”

“The one coming to receive me?” Ji Qing murmured in surprise.

He instinctively looked around, but everywhere his eyes could reach was covered in mist, and nothing could be seen clearly. At this moment, however, the grove of trees descended into a strange frenzy. Their signals of communication became denser and denser, and also increasingly obscure and difficult to understand.

This was bad. He could not understand any of it anymore.

Ji Qing pressed a hand to his forehead with a headache. At last, in this moment, he truly realized the difference between the two sides: the trees could not understand the words he spoke at all, while he himself could only roughly grasp a few simple words from them.

Under such circumstances, there was no possibility of smooth communication.

Ji Qing could not speak the language of trees, and the trees could not understand human speech. Thinking helplessly to himself, Ji Qing concluded that he would have to keep searching on his own. But what exactly had they seen?

One moment they called themselves people, the next they called themselves trees. Were they all still school-age saplings?

[There are no trees here capable of communicating with outsiders.]

A voice, unexpectedly gentle in tone, sounded directly in Ji Qing’s mind.

Ji Qing instinctively turned to look back into the mist behind him, and a tall figure gradually took shape from its depths. Before Ji Qing stood a blond young man, tall and graceful, with a splendid beauty like one of the fae from a Western tale.

Ji Qing looked at him calmly, while the other man suddenly propped his chin on one hand and let out a melancholy sigh. [Let me think. Should I introduce myself first, or should I begin by complaining that you forgot me?]

“You can do both,” Ji Qing answered honestly.

Although Ji Qing did indeed feel a little guilty inside, the situation was simply too hard to evaluate. He had not deliberately caused his own amnesia, he...

No, that was wrong. He really had deliberately caused his own amnesia.

But—please do not demand too much from an amnesiac! This was difficult for him too!

[Mm-hm.] The young man immediately put on the disappointed expression of a wife looking at a faithless husband who had come home late. He complained softly, [But there is one thing I can be sure of. You must have complained in your heart that I was mute.]

Ji Qing fell silent. “...”

Ji Qing covered his face. “Well, to be fair, you really have not said a single word.”

So far, every one of Emerald’s words had been conveyed through telepathy.

Emerald himself had not spoken a single sentence aloud.

Although Emerald could understand the human language Ji Qing spoke, he could not clearly speak it himself. In that sense, the situation was quite similar to Ji Qing’s just now: Ji Qing could understand the trees’ simple speech, but he had no way to make the trees hear his own words.

In other words—within human society, Emerald was probably the illiterate type.

Once Ji Qing sorted out the situation, he immediately regretted ever trying to strike up a conversation with Emerald through the Terminal before. Back then, the best possible solution would have been to send a voice message. Unfortunately, the hidden communication software did not have a voice-message option, and so Emerald had ended up becoming “mute.”

Feeling guilty, Ji Qing hurriedly changed the subject. “My dear Emerald, what exactly is my relationship with you?”

[I am your secret lover.]

Ji Qing’s brow immediately twitched. “Please do not mess with me.”

[Very well...] Emerald replied calmly. [It seems that although my king has lost his memory, he still knows basic common sense. What a pity. I had originally thought I might get a chance to move up a rank.]

Was this really still the hot-blooded shounen manga he knew?

Ji Qing raised a brow after hearing that.

But given his current awkward position, Ji Qing did not pursue the subject any further. He quickly followed Emerald, who had already begun to leave, and asked calmly, “When did you realize I had not recovered my memory properly?”

At that, Emerald revealed an expression strikingly similar to Ji Qing’s own and answered softly, [From the day you failed to appear on time.]

[Who was it, back then, who told me to trust that the pressure of high school would absolutely let me recover my memory smoothly?] The blond, green-eyed Aberrant spoke in a tone imitating Ji Qing’s, but soon could not help laughing. [I imagine my king’s high school life must have been quite pleasant, then?]

Ji Qing smiled. “...”

Damn it. He could not even refute him.