Chapter 143

Holding Victoria’s hand, we were walking around the city when we spotted a big restaurant and went in.

We sat in a secluded corner, and after feeding her some sweets and meat, the kid seemed to calm down a bit and regained her energy.

“Our dad… what happened to him…?”

“He was at least a good father. After being worn out from days of working nonstop at the company, his judgment weakened, but he never crossed the line or moved for success at all costs.”

For an entire week after coming home, he didn’t return, struggling under the pressure of performance. Then, right after coming home one day to sleep, he got fired immediately.

You know how it goes.

Yeah.

Last time on the ship, I had this sweet, greasy cake, but here they have a clean one. It has fruit and whipped cream, but just enough to make it delicious.

This kind of thing is always tasty, isn’t it?

“Earlier, didn’t we talk about something only the two of us knew?”

With her sugar rush kicking in, she finally started thinking clearly again, as Victoria stared at me intently and began speaking.

“You mean that if Dad crossed the line, he could’ve succeeded? What does that even mean?”

It’s basically asking why you were telling a story only you knew instead of explaining properly.

“At that moment, there were at least two options.”

So I decided to explain both possibilities to her.

“Two options?”

“One: putting your abilities on trial. Special abilities are great for research. Especially powerful ones even more so. And while we’re at it, I might as well sell myself too.”

After hearing my words, Victoria quietly lowered her head.

She quickly realized that by giving up just one child, they could’ve done many things.

Moreover, Victoria is Morris’s daughter. If a father experiments on his own daughter, he’d likely get priority, wouldn’t he?

“I get that there was that option. So what’s the other one?”

“Do you remember the technology Morris explained where it sucks magic power from the air and converts it into rotational energy?”

“The one that’s inefficient and unusable? Why bring that up?”

I lifted my fork and pointed at the last piece of cake.

“This is a person. This fork is just a slightly modified version of that machine.”

Poke.

I speared the cake and lifted it.

“While this cake lasts, it produces enough efficient power to satisfy them.”

Except for the part where it grinds people into fuel, it’s not a bad way to generate energy.

They say this technology existed in Daegon’s world too. Compared to methods that grind souls, it was far too inefficient and disappeared quickly.

“A monster.”

Victoria looked at me with a deflated expression.

Feeling full from eating, I put down my fork. As I watched Victoria eat, suddenly there was a loud “BOOM!” from outside.

Looking back, through the shop window, I saw a few cars tangled up at a distant intersection. Judging by the smoke rising from above, it looked like a traffic accident.

“Huh? What’s going on? An accident?”

Not just Victoria, but everyone eating in the shop stood up and gathered near the windows, murmuring.

Watching is fun, isn’t it?

Though Victoria wanted to see too, she hesitated because the cake in front of her seemed precious, so she hastily shoved it into her mouth.

If you’re gonna do that, why not take it with you and eat?

Right as I thought that…

KRAAANG!

KWAAAAAAKKKK!

A massive object smashed through the window and charged inside, hitting the people who had gathered by the window. Since this building’s only outward-facing side was packed with people, it was inevitable that some would die from the impact.

Chunks of meat flew everywhere along with glass shards, completely covering the shop in debris and bloody chunks.

The thing that hit the people?

It was a taxi. A mechanical device resembling a centaur with its legs replaced by wheels. The front was totally wrecked, and judging from the thick red liquid oozing from the cracks between the doors, it seems there might have been someone inside.

Interestingly, despite being damaged, the wheels were still spinning furiously.

Then I heard swearing from behind.

It was a familiar voice.

Victoria cursed loudly, checked for survivors where people were hit, confirmed there were none, and then approached me.

“What is this? Why is it still running if this state? The control mechanism seems to have already stopped.”

Suddenly, Victoria stopped talking and grabbed a water bottle from a nearby table and hurled it at the machine. With a CLANG, the bottle shattered, and a stream of water was sucked into the middle of the device.

And after a moment…

SCHIIIICK!

A fiery red lump shot out with the water. According to Victoria’s memory, it’s a device that converts ambient magic power into energy.

Just to clarify, this wasn’t Morris’s invention. While the input and output resemble Morris’s work, it uses a different principle.

If I must compare, it’s like the difference between a steam locomotive and a diesel engine. Morris’s invention would be closer to the diesel engine.

Anyway, the object instantly evaporated all the water surrounding it.

THUD.

It was so hot that the moment it landed on the wooden floor, the wood caught fire.

Thus, Victoria asked the dazed shop owner to turn on the water supply and used her water manipulation skills to douse the flames for quite a while.

When the surroundings were soaked and the bodies lying around were pushed outside, the device finally lost its heat and became a mere lump of machinery.

Incidentally, the wheel that kept spinning even after embedding itself into the wall began losing power the moment the device was removed and is now almost completely stopped.

“Why did it overheat? That’s supposed to happen only when the magic power becomes suffocatingly dense, right?”

While disassembling the machine using something like a crowbar from the shop, Victoria muttered to herself. Every time she dismantled a piece, white smoke rose, but the water barrier in front of her blocked it all.

She handles it as freely as her own body.

While Victoria was taking apart the machine, I stepped outside.

The city was in chaos. Not just the distant intersection I saw earlier, but wherever I looked, black smoke was rising.

It wasn’t targeted.

Most of Bern City experienced accidents.

It wasn’t just the taxis from Cogni Transport Company. Most vehicles seemed to have accelerated suddenly, as evidenced by the numerous cars crashed into buildings or each other wherever I looked.

Perhaps not just vehicles—any device using the same mechanism might have malfunctioned.

From the perspective of five workers near Bern City, nothing unusual was happening.

They were just working at construction sites. In areas without tall buildings, they could see far from their elevated platforms, but all they noticed was faint smoke rising from the center of Bern City.

In other words, this phenomenon is occurring only within the city.

“What is this?”

Victoria came over to me after dismantling the machine and spoke. It didn’t seem like she expected an answer.

“Dad… let’s go see Dad, Bell.”

Such a childish reaction. Where did the girl who was slaughtering Sahaquin earlier go?

Gritting her teeth, Victoria headed toward the office she left earlier in the morning. But before she could reach the building, she stopped.

Because Morris was running toward her.

“Victoria!”

“Dad!”

Father and daughter embraced. It was a touching reunion.

“Kid, first let’s go see Beatrix.”

“Bea,” Victoria’s nickname for Beatrice.

Judging from how he immediately worried about his wife, he’s a wonderful husband.

Thinking that, I followed the two as they crossed the street.

Walking through the disaster-stricken city filled with explosions, burning objects, screams, and cries.

Among the panicked cries of the city dwellers, there were those yelling that magic won’t work.

Looking up slightly from the ground, you can see buildings on fire. Not just one or two, but many buildings are burning.

Clearly, it’s not just vehicle fires spreading upward; higher floors are also ablaze.

The device Victoria mentioned earlier is used not only in vehicles but also in buildings. If this were caused by environmental issues, fires would break out everywhere.

Considering the personalities of the two people ahead, they might discuss the current events, but they held hands tightly and walked silently forward.

That shows how tense they are.

And their earnestness was rewarded.

Among the burning buildings, there was Beatrice, shouting loudly at what seemed to be subordinates, ordering them to evacuate people first.

As soon as Victoria saw her, she ran and hugged Beatrice.

Beatrice, surprised to see Victoria, smiled upon seeing Morris behind her. She must have felt relieved seeing them safe.

“It’s good you’re alright too.”

Beatrice approached me, checking my body thoroughly. Though this body is far tougher than my previous one, no need to worry about such things.

Beatrice glanced around and asked me,

“What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know either, huh… what in the world is happening…”

Beatrice sighed.

Surprisingly, she doesn’t seem suspicious of me. Did she let her guard down after living together for just a week? This woman, who was extremely cautious initially, relaxed surprisingly fast.

It was convenient for me though.

Beatrice then led me back to where Morris and Victoria were and said to Morris,

“Morris, take Tori and go straight home.”

“No. Bea, that’s not the direction. We need to leave the city.”

But Morris shook his head. Looking around, he explained,

“Morris?”

“The air-powered rotary machines are malfunctioning due to residual magic power… simply put, the city is full of bombs ready to explode, and usable magic power has drastically decreased. It’s safer to go outside where magic can still be used.”

Technicians are technicians. At least Morris judged what’s happening here and explained coldly. Watching Beatrice’s confused expression, his simplified explanation was amusing.

Anyway,

Beatrice nodded and immediately went among the people, shouting to head toward some area.

Meanwhile, Victoria was looking up.

Up.

The high places of buildings. A child trying to escape the fire clung to the railing outside a window. But the fire had already heated the railing scorching hot.

Victoria’s gaze was following the child falling. And Victoria swirled her hand. A mass of water appeared from the drying atmosphere and safely caught the child falling toward the ground.

Victoria looked down at her hand and took a step forward.

“Tori?”

Before Morris could grab her, Victoria slipped away and ran toward the fire scene. Streams of water surged from the sewers, rushing ahead of her to extinguish the flames.

As always with those who help others.

Because they can, they do what they can.

Without particularly bolstering their courage, without preparing for death, without any lofty intentions like doing good deeds.

In a space devoid of special powers, the one capable of using special powers acted instinctively to save lives without a second thought.

---