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A week has passed since the day of the international conference.

As the weather has turned colder, I’ve had many delightful experiences!

It’s nothing much, really—I’ve been able to gain warmth more often!

Hehe.

Oh, but that doesn’t mean the Royal Academy has turned into a scene of carnage.

There haven’t been many changes at the Royal Academy.

Unlike schools I know, this academy has no concept of school trips or retreats. It’s quite calm.

At most, there was a duel between two boys and one girl in the dormitory, resulting in both boys being carried off with serious injuries, or someone was caught trying to sneak into the girls’ dorm for a night of fun, causing quite a commotion.

You see, these situations are bound to happen when young folks are cooped up in a dormitory.

In other words, it has been peaceful.

But the Harvesters stuck in poverty are facing a different situation.

The Harvesters are sending me warmth.

Not the weak warmth you get from killing beasts or bugs, but real warmth.

Yes. It means they are killing people without hesitation.

It’s not like a riot has broken out. They are using rightful violence.

They are catching thieves, killing them, and collecting warmth.

Currently, many Harvesters in Brightshin are working in the transport industry. Just seeing their purple hair and white skin, or blue skin, gives a sense of trust.

The need for trust means that losing trust happens often.

Jobs have come up for the Harvesters, but those jobs are a gamble with their lives.

As always, in the world of the living, people are the cheapest disposable items.

The reason for this disposability?

It’s because there are thieves swarming outside the city.

Thieves are usually hard to come by in this world.

Because the wilderness is too dangerous for thieves to survive in.

Villages without a certain number of soldiers and equipment don’t last a year before being devoured by the wild.

That’s only natural. Daegon’s vanguard couldn’t even establish a base properly. It’s a world where such monsters roam.

Yet, the number of thieves has increased.

Even transport workers have been attacked while safely inside villages.

The working Harvesters are new to the transport business and don’t know much, but I recognize the faces of the thieves.

People who became Harvesters after going bankrupt from gambling while running a peddling business and rotting away in the Brightshin slums.

People who got their legs crushed in a mechanical device injury while transporting goods and were left to die in the slums.

Harvesters with such past experiences shine with memories.

Many of those attacking outside now were once ordinary people, and they shine in that way.

Such people have chosen thievery instead of the family business.

That indicates how serious the situation has become.

Harvesters meet such thieves.

And to survive, they kill the thieves.

Then warmth flows into me.

Although it’s still autumn, this is happening.

Winter will be here soon.

The winter in this country isn’t the harsh kind.

Even in mid-winter, it rains often enough that the weather remains mild. It’s a good country where snow is a rare sight, seen only once every few years.

But that doesn’t mean the weather is fit for plants to grow year-round. Like most countries, food production halts in winter, and we live off stored supplies.

Thus, before winter arrives, we need to stockpile food.

If there’s no food, even if there’s a raid the next year, the lack of rice right now makes people raid others.

Harming others to survive is an instinct of living beings. From a biological perspective, thieves aren’t inherently bad.

But from a societal perspective, they’re quite terrible.

Thieves appear in most places.

Surprisingly, the only places that are somewhat safe are fishing villages.

Actually, it’s not surprising.

The sea provides plenty of food. If you can stand consuming somewhat grotesque-looking food, you won’t starve.

In other words, the fact that ordinary citizens are turning into thieves in other villages indicates that food shortages are happening everywhere.

In the memories of the Harvesters or Warmth Carriers, there wasn’t any mention of famine.

So, this likely ties back to the current business implications. I had anticipated that there would be repercussions one day. However, it came much sooner than expected.

No matter how recklessly the mechanical devices were smashed, it would still be possible to gather a harvest. Moreover, the incident happened in mid-autumn.

At the very least, there should have been plenty of food to harvest this year…

But how can food problems arise so quickly? To the point where it drives one to thievery?

I check back in my memory on the subject of food.

Among the Harvesters originally from Brightshin, aside from those actively working hard, there are others who’ve grown increasingly fearful of buying food.

People in the slums gather and tremble with the fear that if things keep going like this, they might not survive the winter.

Prices of food keep rising relentlessly.

Additionally, it’s not just food that’s becoming a problem. Fuel prices are soaring too. This world hasn’t transitioned from wood to coal.

So they rely on firewood to keep warm.

Since the citizens emotionally wrecked the mechanical devices, the price of firewood inside the capital is skyrocketing.

Yet even if the weather is mild, without any heat source, it can get cold enough to kill.

Using the mechanical devices would seem like a solution, but people can’t use them.

The media has exaggerated the dangers too much to ease the fears about using them again.

The devices themselves are fine; however, the ones produced by certain companies have been branded as murder machines, instilling fear.

But in the capital, there are no mechanical devices untouched by the hands of those three companies.

Which means they are essentially unusable.

If anyone does use them, it would be under the condition of extreme cold, fully prepared for death.

But do you know?

Not all mechanical devices commit murders. Accidents caused by power sources only happen when too many power sources are crammed together for a long time, like in Bern City.

As I’ve mentioned, immediate problems don’t occur.

Trust in the media will plummet. Revolts might be on the horizon.

Hunger and cold. In other words, both food and homes have broken down. An accident is bound to happen. That accident will surely cause many deaths.

So much warmth.

Hehe.

I can wait for that day while enjoying the warmth I receive from killing thieves as a Harvester.

Ah.

In the meantime, I discovered one thing.

Cheonma Martial Art.

Yes. That technique has escaped from the hands of the Harvesters.

Compared to the Cheonma Martial Art from the memories of a second-world being, it is insufficient, but indeed, it shines with the essence of Cheonma Martial Art.

A stroke left behind by the Cheonma.

It truly does work.

It’s a short and simple account that can be called a stroke. I find it hard to comprehend how one could even use the Cheonma Martial Art with just this.

Originally, Cheonma and Eunjai had dozens of pages of the Cheonma Martial Art.

And to understand that, you’d need extensive background knowledge worth dozens of volumes.

To put it simply, it’s like needing to know high school math to learn college-level math.

Yet here I am, having read just one page and struggling with college math.

Moreover, it’s not just for the Harvesters from Brightshin.

There are even those who survived from Bern City and are using it now.

They make use of completely different elements.

Yet, both are Cheonma Martial Art.

What on earth did the Cheonma leave me?

I can’t understand.

But if I can use it, I will. With a strong martial art, Harvesters will collect even more warmth!

Hehe.

In that sense, I’m grateful.

As I momentarily thought of the Cheonma and then buried that thought in my memory, I looked out the window from my accommodation.

The scenery has changed so much compared to when I first arrived here.

Now, above the closely packed buildings, the once blue sky has turned dull and gray.

A haze rises from every corner of the city. If this smoke continues to increase, I can clearly envision a future where smog blankets the capital.

No, no. Smog won’t cover the capital. Some shining memories tell me so. Unlike the faded memories of the past, this world has magic.

And anyone can wield it with enough practice.

The maximum output may differ based on talent, but only a handful in this era actually reach that maximum.

In other words, anyone can wield a certain level of magic with just practice. The magic to warm one’s body is quite simple.

No, to be precise, it’s a bit different.

If magic is defined as causing special physical phenomena using magic power, then most living beings in this world are already using magic.

Just as the mitochondria within cells use oxygen to create energy, the body of living beings is a form of magic.

It’s not just the third world; according to Daegon’s memory, this is true in all worlds.

The only exception is the world of faded memories, which I vaguely grasp.

Only there is it an exception.

Yes.

In any case, people in the third world can use magic to keep warm to survive. Temperature can be managed.

But there’s one thing magic cannot solve.

Food.

Today’s prices are no better than yesterday’s; they’re either the same or higher. This trend continues. The prices have gone up to the point where people in the slums can hardly afford food anymore.

Which means there’s food scarcity.

Collapse is near.

As I transform the intense cold into a slight chill with the warmth being steadily sent to me from the suffering Harvesters, I gaze at the red sunset outside the window.

Before long, I can almost see flames rising in place of that red sunset, and I can hardly contain my excitement.