The Overseer pushes his glasses and steps back after staring at me.

“I understand the need for me to open myself, so you’ll do the same. And in your position, it won’t hurt you to tell you this.”

I don’t want to listen to him. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to suffer again.

“Do you know what made the kingdom create a place like this?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll tell you how this started.”

I’m actually curious about it.

“As you know, we have progressed so much in our monster extermination Adventurers became useless. It’s not fair, but it’s a small price to pay for the kingdom’s security. However, the deeper we went into their territory, the more signs of intelligence we found.”

His tone becomes somber as he talks. I’m drawn to his voice and pay full attention.

“Their war tactics became more complex, structures without meaning became powerful ritual buildings, the monsters diversified more. Seeing that only fueled our desire to exterminate them, so we fought with everything we had and pushed to the deepest regions of their territory. Haha.”

I gulp.

“Humans. If you can call them that. They did unspeakable things to themselves and adored the monsters like gods. Rituals for the women to get pregnant with a monster. Monsters feasting on babies. Cannibalism. We destroyed the place, but we didn’t feel victorious.”

He draws his lips with his thumb and index finger. I shiver. I also have a headache. He approaches me and removes the hair from my ear. I feel his breath.

“The monsters created there, we found them as common monsters on our return. Before our crusade, monsters capable of controlling us didn’t exist.”

My chest heaves up and down. I wish I had his power to know if his story is true.

But his behavior tells me it’s true.

“Still, we’re winning, right?”

He stares at me as if I’m an idiot. Then he writes a single word in his notebook and shows it to me. “No.”

“We’re fighting fewer monsters, but their level of danger is incomparable. There’s no comparison in fighting an awful-looking creature to fight your neighbor with no means of defending. We know what they want, to infiltrate us and steal our powers. Knowing that we lost more soldiers during our return should make things clear.”

“But a traitor is easy to spot and kill.”

“True. But we can’t stop the fear and madness. It takes one idiot making a mistake for everything to crumble.”

That’s true. And knowing how awful humans can be, it wouldn’t surprise me if someone took advantage of people’s fear to kill someone they hate. If a monster capable of changing forms, manipulating people, seeing the past, reading minds, and stealing more powers existed; then I can’t imagine what will happen to this kingdom and the people living in it.

“There’s something I don’t understand. How can monsters and humans live together?”

That should be impossible, and I’d think he’s lying if it weren’t for the sadness in his eyes.

“To achieve a greater result, some sacrifices are necessary. Well, what do you think, Uzziye Bakker?”

About sacrifices? Wait. Does he mean I’m a sacrifice? Or is he asking about his story? I probably shouldn’t say this but…

“If monsters become smart enough to communicate with them, can’t we achieve peace?”

“What?”

I close my eyes in fear. His voice is so threatening I can’t stop shaking.

“Do you think that?”

“Y-yes.”

I hear his pen and paper. I open my eyes and relax. Once he’s done, he looks into my eyes.

“There’s something all traitors have in common, they experienced abuse from humans and resent them. They speak nonsense about monsters creating a peaceful and better world, and they always place monsters above humans.”

“No, no, no. I’m not a traitor!”

“Relax. I don’t think you’re one. On the opposite, I think you understand this better than anyone. Won’t you consider helping us discover the truth? I know you’re scared, but one must be brave enough to step into the darkness to get out of the cave.”

There’s no denying that the situation is terrible if he’s telling me the truth. Monsters capable of manipulating the human body thanks to their ethereal forms have existed since I was five. And that’s a common monster. He seems old enough to be in his forties, and I’m eighteen, so his story makes sense. That’s very scary. How many new monsters were born at this time? How can they do that? How much time do we have before they can infiltrate us? What abominations will they make to drive us crazy and distrust each other to the point of killing anyone that looks barely suspicious? How many humans are working with them and hiding them from the security force and the army?

If we do nothing, our defeat is inevitable.

“I don’t know what you expect of me, but I’ll help as much as I can.”