Chapter 173

Hold up, let me organize my thoughts for a sec.

So, I was heading home after classes ended in the afternoon when I tripped over something—or so I thought. But wait, the time outside matches—it’s still afternoon—but the day of the week is off.

Today’s a weekend.

A day where no one would question me lounging around all day. The person I live with doesn’t care what I do anyway.

It was hard to tell the exact time since none of the harvesters at the Royal Academy were around.

Only two harvesters commute to the Royal Academy: Victoria and Kanna.

But Kanna’s back in her hometown fighting off waves of monsters, and Victoria often heads out right after class ends.

If I got the date wrong, it means someone went through a lot of trouble setting a trap for me.

Here in Bern City, weekdays and weekends don’t exist anymore. Same goes for the harvesters living in Brightshin—they don’t even know what “rest days” are.

This is giving me a headache.

Right now, Bern City is rallying under the Twilight Association to fight against the soldiers coming from outside the city.

Things have escalated. Soldiers aren’t supposed to attack the inside; they’re supposed to guard the perimeter. But that’s exactly what they did—probably to cover up some useless fact.

Good thing we prepped the Brightshin slums with plenty of harvesters. Looks like most of the harvesters in Bern City might not make it through this.

Powerful and conspicuous targets are easily suppressed, especially if they oppose the authorities. Protest or don’t protest—it won’t matter; you’ll be dragged out either way.

And that’s actually a good thing.

Because if there’s someone running away, their hatred will boil just right.

Heheh.

Anyway, since it was afternoon, I finished all my homework from the Royal Academy, ate dinner, and slept.

Tomorrow’s technically a weekday again.

***

Morning came.

I headed to the Royal Academy as usual.

But today, Merriweather looks extremely pale, and there’s fear in her gaze whenever she looks at me.

It’s hard to ask her anything because I already have an idea of what’s going on.

The conflict in Bern City has worsened since yesterday. No matter how strong the citizens are, they’d normally be wiped out by soldiers armed with weapons. But somehow, the citizens managed to fight back. In fact, they drove the soldiers out, escalating the situation dramatically.

First things first:

Even if someone can use powerful magic, they’re essentially powerless without magic power. This world relies on magical civilization, so there’s no such thing as gunpowder-based weapons here.

The protests started because people wanted an investigation into the accident in Bern City. From the second protest onward, they had a reason: Overusing power sources corrupts magic power, causing it to accumulate. When this happens, machines that rely on magic stop working due to this flaw.

Using this knowledge, the protesters turned Bern City into a magic-depleted zone by activating its many power sources. Harvesters’ psychic abilities still work without magic, though.

When heavily armored mechanical knights entered the city, their mechanisms froze up immediately.

No need to kill them with psychic powers—they just became immobile coffins, getting stabbed by protesters before they could escape.

Of course, some soldiers caught on and switched tactics, attacking from afar with magic. However, most spells dissipate mid-air, and projectile attacks can’t penetrate the dense forest of buildings in Bern City to reach its center.

That’s why Bern City is still holding out despite the military intervention.

If Merriweather heard about this, it makes sense she’d be scared of me.

After all, creating harvesters means producing individuals who can cause supernatural phenomena without relying on magic power. Information officers would naturally be terrified of that.

With those thoughts in mind, I entered the classroom. As usual, Victoria sat far away from me.

Compared to before when I suddenly gained friends, having some distance feels okay now.

There’s just one concern: Victoria doesn’t know what’s happening in her hometown of Bern City.

The media isn’t covering the events in Bern City at all, which is suspicious. Still, ignorance might be bliss. Hopefully, once things settle down, Victoria won’t get dragged into trouble for being from Bern City.

By the time I realized it, morning classes were over, and lunchtime arrived.

Until two days ago, Merriweather would’ve been chattering nonstop, but today she’s silent, carefully watching my every move.

For now, I’ll pretend not to notice.

But I don’t plan to keep pretending forever. After today’s classes, I’m going to create a new harvester. That way, I can see how the kingdom intends to handle them. If they don’t want too many harvesters, Merriweather will probably try to stop me. Otherwise, it means they don’t see harvesters as a problem.

If we weaponize what’s happening in Bern City, we could invade other countries with it, right?

In an era where the world isn’t organically connected, wars happen frequently.

People only stop fighting when the losses outweigh the gains—not just for everyone, but specifically for whoever’s in charge.

In a monarchy, it’s the king. In a capitalist society, it’s the capitalists. In a dictatorship, it’s the dictator.

Here in the kingdom, war could start pretty easily.

Thinking about all that, I quietly ate lunch and returned to the classroom for the afternoon lessons.

Once they ended, I immediately left the Royal Academy and headed toward a place filled with potential harvester candidates. It’s located within Brightshin.

As usual, I’ll take a detour to memorize areas I haven’t explored yet.

After walking for a bit, I’ll head straight ahead. Maybe then I’ll realize I’m intentionally circling the capital for some reason.

There are always smarter people than me in any world.

So, one day I go east, another day west.

Even though I’m filling in the map irregularly, someone clever might detect a pattern in my actions and figure out my intentions.

Keeping that in mind, I continue walking today.

I’m passing through a sparsely populated area.

Not as bad as the slums of Brightshin, but it’s still a quiet street lined with run-down buildings.

Merriweather, supposedly my bodyguard, watches me with fear and hostility.

Clearly, she’s not really protecting me.

Instead, a witch attacked.

Maleficent—a witch who somehow reached the submerged district and was driven off. Be careful—I foolishly assumed nothing could affect me because of my unique nature. Didn’t the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign say I was the opposite of magic?

I thought I was immune to magic, but turns out I’m vulnerable to mental attacks.

At some point, I fell victim to a spell. My body stayed in bed while my consciousness experienced daily life as normal.

Considering others perceived time stopping at a certain point in the afternoon, it means my body was under the spell the whole time.

Objectively speaking, I spent the entire day lying in bed until waking up in the afternoon.

Subjectively, from Bell’s perspective, I woke up in the morning, attended classes, and wandered toward a strange location on the way home.

From the viewpoint of other harvesters, time flowed normally until abruptly stopping in the afternoon.

When the physical perception of one body gets distorted, anyone tied to that body shares the altered timeline.

That’s why yesterday, even though it was the weekend and Victoria stayed in her room studying mechanical knights, I didn’t notice anything was off. Inside the illusion, when I saw Victoria, I believed she was seeing me from her own perspective.

I never expected to be so susceptible to this kind of trick.

Laughter echoes faintly in the memories of Daegon and the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign, but I ignore it.

Following the dimly lit alleys, I eventually reached a lower-class neighborhood—not as bad as Brightshin, but close enough.

Upon entering, I immediately spotted someone collapsed on the ground.

They clutched a bottle of alcohol, their face flushed red from drunkenness. One of their fingers was missing, and between the torn shoes, white bone jutted out from their toes.

They’re dying.

Common in places like this.

I sat down in front of him.

Before I could say anything, he shot up, his bloodshot eyes locking onto mine. Without hesitation, he swung the bottle at my head.

*Crash!*

Hmm.

A decisive attack. The bottle shattered, sending glass shards flying everywhere. Along with a bit of my blood and brain matter.

“Huh? What… Why aren’t you dead?”

My vision blurred red from the blood streaming down my forehead.

“Because I don’t die.”

“Haha, what is this? Am I hallucinating? Never seen a girl like you before…”

Intense hatred, resignation, and despair radiated from him. He’s reaching for the light just beyond his grasp.

Too far for me to touch.

Meaning he’s still alive.

I placed my hand on his cheek. He flinched, then grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked.

*Crrack.*

A disturbing sound echoed as chunks of my scalp, complete with glass fragments, tore away. Judging by the sensation, my brain must be exposed now.

“Pulling that hard will break me, you know?”

The man stared blankly at the pieces of me in his hand, then looked back at me.

“Are you some kind of monster?”

“Yeah. You might’ve heard of us. Or maybe here, I should phrase it differently?”

Straightening up, I addressed him.

“I offer myself to you. In return, after you’ve completed everything you set out to do, I’ll take everything you possess. Deal?”

Everyone knows this contract by now.

It’s been on TV, in newspapers—anyone living in the capital would’ve heard of it at least once.

The man examined the pieces of me in his hand, then glanced at my face and wounds before nodding.

I immediately merged with him, distorting reality along the way.

My skin cracked and broke apart, revealing unnaturally blue flesh beneath. A muscular man stood in my place.

A severely injured veteran, ravaged by battles at the border against monsters and plagued by parasitic diseases. An ordinary human on the brink of death.

He looked down at his hands in astonishment, wiggling his previously damaged toes.

His breathing steadied, and the screams of pain from his body ceased. Standing tall like a soldier once more, he turned to me and asked,

“What do you want from me?”

“Do whatever you want. Anything you couldn’t do before, anything you wished to do. That’s all I ask.”

Taking advantage of converting him into a harvester, I regenerated his body.

He gazed at me with complicated eyes, but I lost interest once the transformation was complete.

Meanwhile, I noticed my so-called bodyguard hadn’t done anything to stop the earlier attack. Turning slightly, I saw Merriweather watching me with terror.

Any normal person would’ve died from that blow, but I didn’t because I’m not human. Still, it was an attack, and her failure to act needs reporting—to the king or prince, perhaps.

While I’m at it, I’ll also report the witch’s assault.

Lost in thought, I continued toward my destination when the man we passed earlier caught up.

Merriweather didn’t react as the harvester approached. What’s she thinking?

I led both of them to a house where a child lay dying from illness and malnutrition. I transformed the child into a harvester.

Miracles abounded as the newly healed harvester rejoiced, while another harvester cried tears of gratitude. Meanwhile, Merriweather watched me with a look of near-loathing.

And that’s how the day ended.