Before I could react, the monk rubbed his bald head and let out a regretful sigh.
"I thought it was some senior from inside the cave. I let my guard down, I let my guard down. I just jumped to conclusions. There may be no ghosts here, but that doesn't mean there aren't other things. Speaking of which, what exactly are you?"
The monk rubbed his chin, sat cross-legged, and studied me intently.
I realized that this guy could sense my presence, but couldn't see what I looked like. Otherwise, there was no way he would have mistaken me for some monk who had come out of the cave.
But there was no way I could answer his question, either.
Introducing myself to a stranger whose background I knew nothing about seemed like the sort of thing that only happened in anime. Even TV dramas didn't go that far. That kind of exaggerated, blunt behavior was straightforward and cute in anime, and people could accept it. Pull the same thing in real life, though, and you'd just look like an idiot.
I didn't say anything, so the monk muttered to himself for a while, guessing at my identity.
"You're not a ghost, and you're not some senior. Could you be a spirit? But spirits aren't like this. Or maybe you're a thought that hasn't turned into a spirit or a ghost? Hmm... You went out and moved around earlier, then came back. So you have a will of your own, right? In that case..."
He didn't seem to mind that I was standing right beside him. Just like in the cave, he spoke freely, without any reservations.
At that point, I figured he might not be a bad person. Of course, he wasn't exactly a good person, either. The fact