Chapter 167

Victoria made a new friend. It was Polaris, whom she met the other time. Since she’s a good person, when Victoria became isolated, Polaris came to help. Thanks to that, I got a chance to hear what Victoria was thinking, which was pretty great.

But me? I’m not all that keen on diving headfirst into solving things.

Rather, I intended to go along with Merriweather’s tune while observing what this person truly aimed to do. I planned to slowly infiltrate over a few years, but people grow up fast and fade away just as quickly—just like those faded memories.

I really had no clue about anything, waking up in the cold without any context. That was when my human days ended. People die suddenly, you know.

So, our time with Victoria is limited.

Alright then, how should we get rid of this surveillance?

As long as the king gives orders, even if this guard changes, someone else will take their place. And it might be someone harder for me to figure out.

If this person messed up and got exposed to me, well, that’s one thing.

Still, there’s a chance I can ask them to loosen the guard. You know, through the prince or the king, saying it feels suffocating and asking to be let loose.

But to do that, I need to achieve my early objectives.

Right now, I know the royal family’s biggest goal.

Aurora’s safety.

Currently, Aurora is rehabilitating at the palace to return to her daily life, aiming to attend the Royal Academy next year.

Considering Prince Solindiges’ age, they’ll meet for a year starting next year.

That means for one year, both the prince and princess will be at the academy. Wouldn’t that make them vulnerable to terrorism?

Come to think of it, not all members of the royal family will die. The eldest princess is studying abroad, so there’d still be survivors in case of an emergency.

No, what matters is ensuring Princess Aurora’s safety—that’s the royal family’s main objective.

And the cause of all this trouble? Some unknown witch.

The witch cursed Aurora, putting her into an unbreakable sleep.

Yeah, I know that much.

Anything else? Nope.

Since no one mentions the witch around Aurora, I have no idea of her exact name.

And Prince Solindiges plans to use me as bait to catch the witch.

The conditions are perfect because the newspapers and broadcasts have glorified me as the one who healed Aurora using special psychic abilities.

Even though Aurora woke up fine despite being cursed, if the witch learns the princess is awake, wouldn’t she come after me?

Guess what? To catch the witch once she takes the bait, the royal family assigned guards to me.

In short, here’s the plan:

The guards will ensure the witch can be caught if she attacks me.

For that to happen, the witch has to take the bait.

And guess who the bait is? Yours truly.

So far, my routine has been too predictable: back and forth between the Royal Academy and the dormitory near the main gate. Just two places, basically.

If I were an attacker, I’d want me to move around more. Attack me in an unsafe location, right?

Conveniently, I’ve already prepared an excuse.

When I was summoned to the palace for visiting the slums of Brightshin,

I hinted that someone called me there. At the time, I thought it’d be useful someday, but now it serves as a good excuse.

On top of that, I’ve got another reason to reinforce this excuse:

My relationship with Victoria.

Special incidents are easy to notice.

Even if I don’t explain much, people will naturally imagine connections when unusual events occur before or after something happens. Humans love making connections, even when there’s none.

Right now, class is in session.

After class ends, I’ll head outside and wander around.

No specific destination in mind.

At least until dinner, I’ll roam around the capital. While exploring areas the harvester hasn’t visited yet, I’ll fill in the map and walk around openly unprotected—to lure the witch into attacking.

With only Merriweather guarding me, we can assume the witch will appear and this guard will somehow manage to handle the situation.

While we’re at it, if Merriweather gets seriously injured or their life is in danger…

I might turn them into a harvester to peek into the information department.

How many of these plans will actually work?

***

Class ended, and I immediately headed outside.

I met Victoria’s worried gaze but merely nodded and left the Royal Academy.

“Hey? Where are you going? Aren’t you going back to the dorm?”

Since I wasn’t taking my usual route but walking straight along the road, Merriweather asked curiously.

I gazed into the air and said,

“Someone might be calling me.”

Not entirely true, not entirely false. I kept walking aimlessly. Of course, I’ll loop around a bit and then head toward a slum house the harvester knows.

That day, not everyone in Brightshin shoved me into their home.

It was the day Victoria and I drifted apart.

There are plenty of people lurking in shadowy alleys, missing opportunities, just like sunlight never reaches those dark corners.

“Hmm? Really? Then I should follow you.”

This was unexpected. I thought they’d ask me to stay in a safer area since they’re my guard, but they simply agreed to let me go.

Maybe they’ve grown bored of guarding me. They haven’t gathered much intel, and even after being isolated for quite some time, I’ve shown no signs of dependency.

Perhaps they’re looking for a different approach since nothing’s panning out.

If I don’t need to persuade them, that’s great for me.

Still, this person seems busy.

Handling me while preparing for the witch’s attack? Juggling two tasks simultaneously suggests they might be highly capable.

Which means they likely hold a high position and have access to a lot of information.

If something happens, I’ll need to use this guard as a shield. If they’re severely injured and bleed out, they’ll grab onto me.

Unaware that the rope they’re holding onto is already rotten.

Tap tap.

Walking along the road, I realized something.

Being small like this is inconvenient. My height is barely half that of an average adult, so my stride is also halved.

Back when I used Choseol’s body, I was taller than most men and could cover much more ground in the same amount of time.

That said, I have no intention of running around. The concept is this:

I hear something faintly, but I’m not sure where it’s coming from. Is this the right place?

Perfect excuse for wandering. Even if I don’t explicitly say it, the sound is audible. I’ll mumble something vague in response.

Though secretly, I’ll use the harvester’s enhanced hearing to pinpoint the source!

Tap tap.

From here on, the harvester hasn’t been before. After leaving the main road and walking a while on a smaller road,

this is an upper-class neighborhood. A place the slum dwellers of Brightshin would never dare to enter.

To fully map out the capital, I’ll need to explore these areas beforehand.

Reminds me of mapping out the underground temple in the first world. That one was quick since I gained the harvester’s memories.

“Is someone seeking help in a place like this?”

“There’s a sound.”

Because I was blatantly wandering around, Merriweather questioned me, and I responded with a vague murmur.

Concept is key.

We turned off the main road into an alleyway. But it was a dead end. So we turned back. Claiming the sound was this way, I pointed toward today’s final destination.

There, a woman who became a harvester raised her child before transforming. Despite regaining health as a harvester, feeding the child with only thin oatmeal isn’t providing enough nutrients.

She works in a morally questionable job, and her husband was a thug. Their marriage was more like an animalistic arrangement, and she lives unhappily.

Moreover, her husband, being a thug, died a typical death for someone in such a violent profession—ground into mincemeat by someone stronger.

In this world, bodies of such deaths are discarded like food waste the next day.

The wealth gap exists in every world, and this one is no exception.

If only purely good people lived in a world, it wouldn’t develop this far. Desire drives humanity forward.

That’s also why I haven’t given up on this world.

If it were too evil, everyone would kill each other until only savages remained, leading to total annihilation.

If it were too good, humanity would remain primitive, moving around, caring for the injured endlessly, mourning the dead, and continuing their nomadic lifestyle.

Without desire, there’s no progress.

Developed worlds are nice. As far as I know, utopias don’t exist, nor do completely destroyed, insane, selfish worlds.

Though! Worlds where electrodes are drilled into people’s heads, making them groan like vegetables hooked up to machines, or where everyone lives happily ever after—they’re the same world.

People who woke up from that dream world cried endlessly, wanting to return, until they reached me.

But the problem is… when I harvest them, all wounds heal, including the electrode connectors being ripped out. Not only can they not return, but the monitoring devices vanish, and the machines treat them as dead meat, tearing them apart.

And having their reproductive organs forcibly removed at the last moment to produce fluid was rather pitiful.

Thinking about that distant world, I wandered aimlessly, pretending to be lost while slowly approaching my destination.

And that day,

at an old house bathed in twilight, a child unable to walk despite reaching the walking stage became a harvester.

Unfortunately.

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