A few days later.
Finally, someone came to the house!
Though there’s the minor issue that this person is a harvester.
And a harvester I know very well.
“Looking at your movements, it’s the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique that Martial God used. But there’s no verbal formula, you’re just simply mimicking the actions. You can’t learn the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique that way?”
While I was exercising, Heavenly Demon who had been watching me for several days spoke.
Soo-oh, who was following my movements, hurriedly ran to the kitchen. Why is she running away when there’s no need?
“Hello, Heavenly Demon.”
I dropped the branch from my hand. I’m just exercising to maintain this body anyway. And I’m doing it more to show Soo-oh than for myself.
“Are your busy matters finished?”
When I was in the Future Hope Religion I always waited for answers, but here I act a bit more actively. Acting completely passively is good for catching people off guard, but there are too many things to let go at other moments.
Of course that also requires the right environment, but it seems possible here.
“Yes, it’s all done. Thank you for participating in Jeonyang’s funeral.”
Surprisingly human-like greeting.
I just maintained basic courtesy that one should keep when living in society. Even at a funeral of someone you don’t know well, if you’re there you should be careful with your words and actions.
Heavenly Demon came and stood in front of me.
Really blue skin and black whites of eyes. And yellow pupils shining dark purple in the center. Add purple hair to that and it’s certainly a striking appearance.
Excluding those elements, she’s beautiful.
But since the alien elements are stronger, she might look like a monster to people not used to such people.
Actually, people who lived in closed worlds didn’t treat people with different skin colors as human, calling them demons.
Even so, the bunch of glowing words in the faded man’s memory is quite horrible. What on earth is “Blue-skinned Black-eyed Demon Race TS Beautiful Heavenly Demon”?
“Let me ask one thing. Why did you bestow blessing on someone on the first day of Jeonyang’s funeral?”
After receiving reports and finishing an investigation, now she’s asking me. Because only by asking me can she know with what intention I did it.
Hehe.
Blessing? So that’s how she thinks of becoming a harvester. It means while vaguely seeing what I am with a view invisible to me, she doesn’t know what state she’s in.
And it also means it’s difficult to understand herself through that.
So I choose words to let her keep misunderstanding.
“Before using currency, humanity used barter. I don’t have any currency.”
I only speak facts.
Facts in front, facts behind. But I have separate intentions for making that person a harvester. I just don’t mention them at all.
Misinterpret others’ questions, and keep my answers vague. This is an easy way to deceive people.
Because you connect the two answers and think of the answer yourself, right?
It’s usually difficult to deny conclusions you’ve reached yourself.
Heavenly Demon stares at me.
And asked something else.
“Compared to Martial God’s desperate struggles, you’re living too quietly doing nothing. Why did you come to this world? What are you trying to do from now on?”
Hmm.
Serious questions.
Questions about my essence.
So I decided to answer truthfully.
“I came to this world for warmth. And to the question of what I’ll do from now on, I’ll answer this way. I want to give humanity just a little of what you call blessings. I don’t like doing too much.”
Yes.
Warmth has been the value I pursue from the beginning. Heavenly Demon thinks I get warmth by being with Soo-oh.
So to make it easy to misunderstand that way, I answer that I don’t want to make many harvesters. As if making harvesters is work.
This connects to my actions earlier.
I exchanged making someone a harvester for purchased goods.
How about it?
Doesn’t it look like I paid with labor?
“You’re like an immortal who appeared to grant wishes.”
Immortal. It’s a word that replaces god in this world. They explain transcendent beings as immortals. But I shake my head.
“I’m not something like that. You said it? Purple Mad God of the Four Seasons’ Chaos. But I’m neither great enough to be called a god, nor without rules enough to be called chaos. Just, something like a human who became a monster.”
And at the end I casually throw a bait that must be grabbed.
Heavenly Demon frowned.
“You dare say you’re like a human.”
And asked what’s good.
“Oh, you didn’t know? I was once human. Though I can’t count how long ago that was, yes. That’s right. I was human.”
Heavenly Demon makes a surprised expression. Yes. Though I don’t know what my identity is either, I know how my words will sound. When hearing I was once human, they’d understand it like this.
A monster that progressed a bit from being human.
Right?
“You were human? You? That, thing?”
At the end, Heavenly Demon pointed at me with her index finger. Really pointed at me. She’s looking at me with a view I can’t share.
“Only faded memories remain now. Because I suddenly became a monster one day.”
I was in a cold, dark place until going completely mad. And then I saw light. I was an ocean below the surface.
But it turned out I was a formless monster.
“Thank you for summoning me. This is sincere.”
So I don’t mention that I got a chance to obtain warmth. Heavenly Demon stared at me for a while, seemingly finding it difficult to understand what I’m saying.
“Is there a reason you think of yourself as a monster?”
Oh, she questions that part?
I thought she’d tell me to limit the number of harvesters or not make them recklessly, but she asks such a fundamental question?
“I have no sense of shame, no sense of modesty, no sense of right and wrong, and no sense of compassion. This isn’t human.”
I don’t hate my own wrongs, am not humble and yielding to others, don’t distinguish right from wrong, and don’t feel pity or sympathy for others’ misfortunes.
Rather, I’m happy because it’s an environment where warmth is generated.
Not righteous people, but a society full of immoral people.
The more such a society, the more people kill people.
Happily, that means more opportunities to obtain warmth.
At my words, Heavenly Demon snickered.
“Isn’t your standard for being human too high?”
So I answered like this.
“Yes. That’s why I like this world.”
I’m saying you all will live killing and being killed.
Heavenly Demon stares at me.
Seeing Soo-oh, who’s hiding behind the kitchen pillar watching me, breathing heavily as if suffocating, she must be releasing some kind of invisible force.
Since I can’t feel it, it’s just wastefully using strength but.
“Right. I understand. I think I know a bit about you.”
Ah, Soo-oh is breathing heavily.
She must have withdrawn that force? In other words, it means she asked pressuring questions about me, and when I didn’t waver, she made her own judgment about me.
She’s using techniques that people familiar with force would use.
Also called thuggish.
But being extremely simple, it’s simply effective. Even more so to people who can feel that force.
“Will you stay here from now on?”
Heavenly Demon stepped back once and asked while looking around.
I pondered how to answer that.
Hmm.
Good. Expressing this pondering itself would be human-like.
“I’m thinking about it.”
“Thinking?”
I pointed at Soo-oh behind me. When I looked at Soo-oh, she smiled brightly, but when Heavenly Demon’s gaze followed, she startled and hid behind the pillar again.
“This isn’t really a good environment for Soo-oh to learn, is it?”
Heavenly Demon looked back and forth between me and Soo-oh, then made an expression of understanding.
“You speak as if you’re the child’s parent.”
If I appear too human here, the persuasiveness of my earlier expression about becoming a monster decreases. At least I think I’m not human myself, right?
Depending on how that’s expressed, people receive it differently.
Especially if they think they’ve delved into my essence, like the Heavenly Demon before me.
“She’s an object Heavenly Demon gave me. Since I received her, shouldn’t I raise her to perform best if she grows according to how she’s raised?”
I’m saying I see that child as an object, through and through.
But to Heavenly Demon who’s been observing me from afar these past few days, it must look very funny. Because it would have looked like we were living like family no matter how you look at it.
“I see. That’s how you think. Then I’ll teach you.”
What?
No, what did you say?
What’s with that sudden statement? Heavenly Demon directly? Why? Moreover, didn’t she refer to herself as ‘This Master’? Is she changing character because she became a woman?
When I blinked and looked at Heavenly Demon, she smiled faintly.
“While I’m at it, I’ll also watch over you.”
Ah.
I must have made a mistake somewhere. This is why I don’t want to talk too much with smart people.
I thought I was guiding well until now, but did she catch some contradiction somewhere? Since I only spoke truths, there shouldn’t be any major contradictions but.
Since my intentions were involved, something might not have added up somewhere.
The fortunate thing is that this doesn’t change the sound of the heart.
Since there’s no reason to refuse when thinking of Soo-oh, it would be strange to refuse here.
“Alright. Do as you wish.”
“Good. I’ll come during your training time from now on. See you tomorrow, Choseol.”
After saying that, Heavenly Demon waved to Soo-oh and turned around. First, it seems she has no intention of hiding that she was watching me. She openly says she knows when we usually exercise.
What on earth is Heavenly Demon thinking?
Just then suddenly the word “female corruption” flashes brightly from the faded man’s memories.
Has this memory finally broken from age?