Ch.293Wearing a Mask, Nurturing Talent.

Shock!

The Third Eye child named Shun, who came to us in prison and shared various shocking information, was neither a boy nor a girl but a quantum mechanical life form!

…That’s just a joke.

According to Shun’s explanation, the Third Eye people are born gender-neutral and transform into either male or female bodies when their “talent” blooms around the age of five.

This is because some of the Third Eye people’s “talents” require a specific gender—for example, “fertility”—making this period essentially their “primary sexual characteristic” phase.

Therefore, Shun, having no talent whatsoever, naturally remains in an undetermined gender state, and because of this undetermined gender, cannot physically grow any further.

Children with this condition are said to be born perhaps once every hundred years and are avoided as “symbols of ill fortune” that bring great adversity and turmoil to the fate of the Third Eye people.

One fortunate aspect amid the misfortune is that since the Third Eye people are such a minority race, they never developed the notion of killing or abandoning such children.

Instead, they simply treat them as “non-existent,” and the only measure taken against Shun is that no one stops him from stealing food or clothes from others’ homes.

“So Shun will just continue living as a child until the end of his lifespan?”

“I don’t know. Whether I can live longer than others because I don’t age, or if I’ll just die looking like this after a normal lifespan… nobody tells me such things.”

“I see. If you’re treated as non-existent from the beginning, naturally conversation and education would…”

“Not happen at all. It’s a wonder I even learned to speak.”

The more I hear about Shun’s story, the more my antipathy toward the Third Eye people grows.

No, to be precise, what I’m feeling isn’t so much antipathy as it is discomfort.

It’s like… the regret of learning information about a strange life form that’s difficult—or perhaps undesirable—to understand by human common sense.

“Anyway, I understand about the Third Eye people now. The question is what we do next…”

While getting information about the Third Eye people from Shun is important, we also need to decide how to overcome our current situation.

If we just sit here listening to stories, we’ll eventually die as the black magic corrupts our bodies.

“Shun, are you certain those guards over there aren’t monitoring us?”

“Yes. They’re just ‘building caretakers’ who protect the structure from damage, so they definitely don’t care what happens to the people inside.”

“That’s quite a difficult mindset to understand…”

“But thanks to that, we can escape.”

“That’s right. It shouldn’t take even 10 minutes to reach the gate by the shore, and once we pass through it, shaking off any pursuers would be simple.”

I’m not sure if we can use the artifact to close the gate again, but worst case, we could block the entrance to the core room or the dungeon’s narrow passages with Diamond Dust and escape. They wouldn’t be able to follow us easily.

“But they won’t just sit still after we escape. They’ll think it’s dangerous to stay here now that their hideout’s location has been exposed.”

“Well, they were treating us like plague carriers who came to destroy their entire race. Seriously, what did we even do…”

“So this might be our last chance to contact the Third Eye people and gather information. The dungeon itself might be demolished by the time we come looking again.”

“Hmm~ I don’t think they could do that! At least not now.”

Shun, who had been listening to our conversation, butted in with his head tilted forward.

“What do you mean they can’t do it now?”

“Moving to a new home is a really big deal, right? But right now, our village doesn’t have any adults who can make such important decisions. No ‘leader’ has appeared in this generation yet. That’s also why they just imprisoned you without deciding what to do next.”

“…But there were plenty of adults, weren’t there? Even that prophet person seemed to have quite a high position.”

“A prophet is just a prophet. Without the talent or mask of a ‘leader,’ they can’t give orders to many people.”

Shun answered as if it was obvious, but for us, it was difficult to understand.

Even if I were to concede that “leader talent” might refer to an innate aptitude for politics or royal bloodline, why is the mask being mentioned here?

It seems I need to hear more about these “masks” to understand this aspect.

“What exactly is the significance of masks to the Third Eye people? What’s their relationship with talents?”

“Hmm~ how should I explain this… I know! For example, people like ‘farmers’ or ‘fishermen’ are always needed in a village, but there might be periods when no one has those talents, right?”

“I suppose so.”

“In those cases, they give farmer or fisherman masks to people with free time so they can do those jobs. That way, the village won’t starve until someone with that talent eventually appears.”

Hearing this finally cleared up my questions about the Third Eye people’s masks.

When there’s no one with farming talent, they give a farmer’s mask to someone with a different talent to make them work in agriculture.

So for the Third Eye people, masks are like appointment letters or licenses that determine one’s “occupation.” But for this to work, one prerequisite must be met.

“So by wearing a mask, Third Eye people can immediately handle the corresponding knowledge or skills.”

“Yes, yes, that’s what I was trying to explain.”

“Fascinating. It’s almost like transferring a ‘skill’ to another person.”

“It might be even more than that. Someone with no education at all can become an expert in a field just by wearing the mask.”

“Ah, I see. So they can skip all education and job training and be immediately deployed at full capacity.”

The Third Eye people instantly acquire knowledge and skills through “masks” and engage in specific occupations.

Meanwhile, they develop their own “talents” and eventually pass them on to future generations by creating new “masks.”

But if that’s the case, there’s one part I still don’t understand.

And this question is probably the source of the uncomfortable feeling I have about the Third Eye people.

“Say, Shun. Is it forbidden for people without talents or masks to farm or fish?”

This is the crux of it.

They called us “harbingers of disaster” and were hostile toward us, yet they left us in a flimsy prison without taking any follow-up measures because there was no “leader.”

The two guards watching the prison don’t care if we escape because they’re “building caretakers.”

The notion that they would starve if there’s no one with “farmer” or “fisherman” talent or mask.

From all this, I can infer one thing:

The Third Eye people “refuse to do anything outside the roles determined by their masks or talents.”

This is different from being afraid to challenge unfamiliar fields or being too reliant on the convenience of masks.

It feels more like “deviating from predetermined roles is simply not allowed.”

And as if to prove my thoughts, Shun’s answer was—

“What do you mean?”

He simply tilted his head with an innocent expression, not understanding the question at all.

“I mean exactly what I said. Anyone can dig the ground and plant seeds, and fishing can be done by non-fishermen if they have pre-made fishing rods and bait. So if someone without the talent or mask does such work—”

“What do you mean?”

Before I could finish my explanation, Shun asked the same question again, his expression slightly more rigid than before.

Noticing his unnatural reaction, Jessica and the other four women swallowed nervously with tense expressions.

“Don’t tell me… you people don’t even have the concept of doing work outside what’s determined by talents or masks, or the concept of ‘not doing’ assigned work?”

“What do you mean?”

“W-Will… something doesn’t feel right. Maybe we should stop this conversation…”

Shun’s expression, as he asked for the third time, was much more unnaturally distorted than before.

His mouth was smiling, but his eyes were wide open with tears forming at the corners.

As the atmosphere suddenly resembled a horror movie, Jessica hastily tried to stop me.

“…I have to go. See you again.”

“Ah, wait—!”

Shun abruptly stood up as if remembering an urgent matter and squeezed back through the iron bars he had entered through.

He didn’t even seem to hear Mina calling after him.

“…He’s gone.”

“His condition seems concerning. I’ll follow him—can you destroy the bars?”

Concerned about Shun’s sudden change, Phyllis expressed her intention to pursue him quickly.

“Will you be alright alone? Wouldn’t it be better if we all moved together?”

“A group would be more noticeable. With the dense vegetation around here, it’s advantageous for me, an elf, to track him alone.”

Phyllis has a point.

Even if the Third Eye people haven’t decided how to deal with us, that doesn’t mean we’d be safe if we escaped prison and ran into them as a group.

In that case, it’s better not to increase our numbers rashly and leave this to Phyllis, the elf.

After all, no race is better at operating in forests than elves.

“Alright, I’ll leave it to you, Phyllis. But if it seems dangerous, come back immediately or, worst case, flee outside the dungeon.”

“Understood.”

“I’ll break the bars. Disintegration!”

“BANG!!”

As Jessica shattered one of the iron bars with destruction magic, Phyllis dashed outside like an arrow.

One of the guards came around the building to check on the noise, but by then Mina had already replaced the broken bar with her crafting tablet.

“…Must have been my imagination.”

Confirming there was no problem with the building, the guard returned to his original position and continued his watch duty.

Not even noticing that the number of prisoners had decreased by one.