"Mm—!"
Kiriko's face reddened slightly.
"There's information at Matchmaking Church to the east. The Full Moon Queen possesses the power to let people be reborn."
"In short, there are two possibilities for these people. One is that they are defective offspring born by the queen. I heard there's a faction called the Children of Platinum; those people all seem to have paralyzed legs, but... they aren't this dull-witted."
"The other possibility is that they are victims addicted to 'rebirth.' The Full Moon Queen can make people be reborn, but this power seems to have flaws. Those reborn suffer a drastic loss of vitality, and if they keep being reborn, even their consciousness and intelligence disappear, leaving them numb and idiotic like this."
Kiriko had investigated this before.
"In any case, these people probably have no self-awareness. They merely act on instinct, so you don't need to worry too much, Mito."
After hearing Kiriko's analysis, Mito, who had been completely numb, finally reacted. "Ah... yeah."
Judging purely by their "appearance," these people looked even more human than many Tarnished.
Yet combined with their vacant expressions, that resemblance gave them the feel of living impostors.
That sense of them being impostors made them extraordinarily terrifying and grotesque, enough to send chills down one's spine.
"Ah, you've come."
At that moment, Full Moon Queen Rennala spoke.
However, when she spoke, her gaze was focused on the golden object in her arms. It was difficult to tell whether she was speaking to the party or to that golden object before her.
But one thing was certain—her health bar had appeared.
After the "entrance cutscene," Rennala's health bar appeared. However, she floated in the air, wrapped in a golden protective barrier that made her impossible to attack.
At that moment, the previously harmless-looking "dimwits" all