"What differentiates monsters from humanity?"
The intriguing question arose from the scene Lynn and Arezu were watching while leisurely sipping their ginger tea as they sat around the campfire.
Despite the relaxing atmosphere between the two of them, the scene they were watching wasn't exactly appropriate for someone who had just finished their dinner of fried chicken and fries, along with a side of vegetable soup.
After all, that scene involved the dismantling of a dozen kobolds and the two werewolves their party had defeated earlier that day.
The impaled remains of the kobolds were being handled by the four mage students as part of their exam, while Beatrix was in charge of the butchered bodies of the two werewolves.
"Do you have any perspective on this topic, Mr. Arezu?"
With her usual mischievous grin flashing across her face, Lynn directed her question to Arezu, who simply responded with a faint, wistful, and pained smile.
"They're just monsters. Isn't that enough to differentiate them from humanity?"
Though a bit surprised by Arezu's response and reaction, Lynn held back her curiosity and continued with her planned mischief.
"In the eyes of a mouse, a cat is a monster—" Lynn said, pausing briefly for Arezu—and for the four students and Beatrix, who were also listening to their conversation—to grasp her meaning.
That perception is subjective and dependent on one's perspective or situation.
To a prey, its predator is the monster.
"—And perhaps, to the eyes of the kobolds and werewolves we killed, we are the monsters."
Lynn's statement earned a questioning look from Leo, Cliff, and Casey—especially from Senna, who looked ready to debate. But before Senna could voice her opinion, Lynn flashed the student logbook—hinting that if Senna interfered in their conversation, it would earn another failing mark on their record.
Setting aside Lynn's teasing of Senna, Arezu voiced his opinion.
"But a cat only hunts a mouse to survive—not to wipe out their entire race."
"So if humanity finds a way to wipe out all mosquitoes and other irritating insects, then humanity would be considered monsters?" Lynn asked, clearly getting off track due to her annoyance at some random insect flying around the campfire.
Getting back on track, Lynn continued with her usual dramatic flair.
"What differentiates monsters from humanity?... Is it perhaps their uncontrollable hatred toward us? The insatiable lust? The unquenchable hunger? The cruel savagery? Their resurrection as undead? Their lack of faith in the goddess Isleen? The destruction their corruption brings?... Is it really just the Curses corrupting their monster core?"
"Isn't that obvious," Senna muttered, grinning a bit arrogantly as Lynn brought up a basic topic taught at the Magic Academy.
Obviously, Senna's remark earned another failed mark in the student logbook.
"Don't bully them just because you didn't like her answer," said Arezu, grabbing Lynn's hand to stop her from writing in the logbook.
Only for Lynn to respond with a teasing smile the moment Arezu touched her hand, prompting him to quickly pull his hand away.
After marking another failure for the four students—which brought yet another depressed look from Leo, Cliff, and Casey, and a displeased glare from Senna—Lynn promptly gave her reason.
"If it were only the Seven Curses that differentiate monsters from humanity, then we are no different from monsters ourselves—"
The Seven Curses—or, as Arezu had once called them when Lynn first told him their legend—the seven deadly sins of humanity.
"Humanity can't directly corrupt anything, but we are capable of the same destruction. We pray to the goddess Isleen, but we can also lose our faith. And even after death, the results of our mistakes remain in this world like the undead. A person can bear savagery, hunger, lust—and most of all, the same level of hatred and animosity that monsters have toward hum—Ehh?"
Surprised by a sudden hand placed on her head, which brought her back from her unconscious monologue, Lynn bashfully looked toward the person patting her.
"What are... you doing... Mr. Arezu...?"
Lynn's flustered reaction, with her face blushing red all the way to her ears, was a stark contrast from her expression just moments ago.
An expression so terrifying, bearing so much hatred and animosity—even compared to that of the high-level monster, Lycan—that it unleashed a murderous aura which scared Leo, Cliff, Senna, and Casey into trembling, and even alerted Beatrix and the nearby adventurers and soldiers.
Still, regardless of his own fear, as her assigned caretaker for the duration of the Annual Caravan Quest, Arezu tried to calm Lynn down.
His usual method of offering honest attention with words wouldn't work, since Lynn had been so lost in her monologue that she hadn't even noticed her own murderous aura.
Which left Arezu with no choice but to stop her dangerous outburst through physical contact—patting her on the head.
He expected another teasing response from her, but was surprised when Lynn awkwardly distanced herself from him.
A reaction he had never seen from her before—or at least, not one he had noticed until now.
Seeing the mock flirting between the two—or perhaps something unintentionally real—everyone else at least managed to calm down from the sudden fright.
"What I'm saying is that the Seven Curses aren't exactly what differentiate monsters from humanity!" Lynn exclaimed, continuing the conversation to divert everyone's attention—even her own—from her unusually bashful reaction.
—"Then what exactly is it, Ms. Lynn?"—
Said the four mage students in unison, flashing teasing grins to get back at Lynn for her harsh treatment.
Only for Lynn to swiftly return to her usual mischief, threatening the students with more failing marks before continuing.
"It's their monster core—"
To clarify her answer, Lynn gave a brief explanation about mana and the monster core.
Be it humans, elves, dwarves, or beastkin—all of them have a similar mana flow, generated and circulated internally. Monsters, on the other hand, absorb mana from the environment and from everything they devour, storing it in their monster cores.
To put it simply—
"—Humanity doesn't have a monster core inside them, because our bodies can generate and control mana flow to manipulate the elemental forces and cast mystic spells—to invoke magic."
What Lynn said was another basic topic taught at the Magic Academy, which didn't impress any of the four mage students.
However, Lynn wasn't done yet—and her next remark caught Leo, Cliff, Senna, and Casey off guard. None of them could answer. Not even Beatrix. Especially not Arezu.
"What differentiates monsters from humanity is why they have a monster core inside their body—"
She paused, as if urging someone to ask—or, from Lynn's perspective, to beg her to continue. And Arezu, intrigued by her story, humored her dramatic flair.
"So why exactly do monsters have monster cores, Lynn?"
Looking at Arezu with her usual mischievous grin, Lynn proceeded with the highlight of her planned mischief.
"Because monsters aren't originally from this world. They weren't created by the goddess Isleen herself. That's why their bodies can't generate mana like humanity and the other creations of the goddess Isleen. They need monster cores to store the mana they devour and absorb in order to live."
For the four mage students, Lynn's theory was something rarely discussed at the Magic Academy—especially the topic of the origin of monsters and dungeons.
But for Arezu, it was nothing surprising. After all—
"Now, now… how about one final question to end our night? Or a riddle, perhaps."
Cutting short Arezu's grim reminiscence of his past, Lynn leaned closer to him and stared directly into his eyes as she asked her riddle in a serious tone, free of her usual mischief and dramatic flair.
"If a person has a body that can't generate mana internally, but doesn't have a monster core inside him to store mana, yet somehow is capable of maintaining a domain of power entirely within his body… What is he, Mr. Arezu?... Is he a human? A monster? Or maybe something else… perhaps a dungeon in human form—"