Chapter 230

But it’s too late to stop my story now.

Look, the expressions on the faces of the people here right now aren’t exactly pleasant, are they?

Honestly, what one person has to endure in this tale is just cruel.

Still, what can you do?

It’s already happened, and I’ve already told the story.

I saw the doomed futures of Maurice and Victoria, and Beatrice standing at the crossroads between them.

And then there’s Gain and Rebecca. Maurice hadn’t seen his parents for such a long time that he remembers them aging drastically when he returned home—likely as long as Victoria’s lifetime or even longer.

The reason is simple: Maurice left after fighting with his parents over continuing the family business because he didn’t want to live in the countryside.

Fortunately, Maurice succeeded, but if you think about how he looks now returning here, it wouldn’t be strange to think he failed.

Actually, maybe he did fail. Times have changed, and he got pushed out.

Even so, his parents must already be uneasy, while Beatrice is completely a city person now.

If his parents still view the city negatively, then Beatrice might as well be its living embodiment.

I speculate that the awkwardness between Beatrice and her grandparents stems from this.

Everyone lives their own life for their own reasons.

I said this to Victoria, who was glaring at me:

“Dream. Keep moving forward.”

Half of me believes this, but the other half thinks otherwise. I’ve done enough already. The warmth I’ve gained through Victoria, the Harvesting System, has been immense.

Just imagine—I once floated an ocean in the sky and drowned countless people with it. Even more went insane from the fear of falling skies and died. Way over a thousand.

You get the picture.

I’ve already paid my dues.

Even if I were to openly say I’d rest here for a while, it won’t take long before I start killing people again.

There aren’t many proper humans in this world, and when conflicts arise, solving them with violence is far too easy.

Of course, if you go around doing it recklessly, society will intervene, but if you rise above the law or disguise it as an accident, you’re fine.

“Did you come all this way just to say that?”

Yeah, sharp response.

I distanced myself from Victoria. I’ve told everything I needed to tell the people here. Now, what Victoria needs is time to heal her wounds.

“I’m done speaking.”

Then I looked around at the family gathered here. Gain stared at me uneasily, Rebecca looked pitifully at both me and Victoria, Maurice wore an extremely awkward expression, and Beatrice gazed at me like I was spouting nonsense.

Victoria was furious.

Well, since I tossed her aside like we’d never meet again, I guess it would be annoying if I showed up trailing behind her like a lost puppy.

A terrible memory surfaced in my faded recollections. There was a dog abandoned twice. Once, it found its owner thanks to a tracking chip embedded in its body, only for the chip to be painfully cut out with a knife, the wound left untreated, and the dog dumped again.

Maybe it’s something like that.

As I headed toward the door, Beatrice flinched and took a few steps back. I slipped past her, turned to the people watching me, and said goodbye casually:

“See you.”

With that ordinary farewell, I walked out of the house.

By the time I finished talking, it seemed quite a bit of time had passed—the sky had already grown dark.

I continued walking along the road.

At least I feel like I’ve done enough for Soo-oh. I helped her dream as much as possible and even provided some decent aftercare until the end.

This is also a reward for being the world’s most prolific human killer via the Harvesting System.

Walking down this pitch-black night road without a single light, I see the world through the eyes of a harvester.

The capital is managing the chaos fairly well for now.

Though police patrols have been replaced by soldiers, there’s no indiscriminate killing like last time.

They’re also rationing food now, and when crimes occur, they gather the perpetrator and bystanders together for public trials and immediate punishments.

An orphan stealing food out of hunger gets their wrist chopped off during the trial. An elderly woman who stole clothes to stay warm was stoned to death.

It’s not a proper judicial system.

But in terms of preventing societal collapse, it works pretty effectively.

Petty theft escalates into robbery, which can spark riots like last time. It’s better to nip it in the bud, even if it seems harsh.

Although residents’ mental states are severely deteriorating as a result, it hasn’t reached riot levels yet.

And in this kind of society, harvesters thrive.

Anyway, someone’s needed to transport goods across these dangerous areas. If transportation stops because of bad conditions, things don’t improve—they get worse.

Also, despite starting with just one person, somehow the number of users of the Heavenly Horse Technique has increased.

One strike of the Heavenly Horse Technique.

That means using me to fight.

They extract me from within them and throw me at their opponents. That alone kills them instantly, regardless of armor or skills.

I don’t know why it works, but they keep doing it.

And if you ask whether using me depletes the vessel, it doesn’t. If I were a light and the sea were me, throwing a small glass of light into the sea wouldn’t empty the cup.

Otherwise, I’d have reclaimed warmth long ago.

But since it’s not, warmth keeps flowing into me, and I happily allow it.

In any case, the majority of the capital’s harvesters, mostly originating from Brightshin Slums, are doing well. Of course, there are those struggling, and not all harvesters avoid starvation, but that’s unavoidable.

Not everyone can thrive, right?

What’s disappointing, though, is that among the many harvesters moving around the capital, very few use the technique I introduced.

Thankfully, it’s not nonexistent.

Some harvesters have developed a device that absorbs others’ vitality as fuel—it operates quietly in the shadows.

Traditional power sources emit detectable traces of magic, making it easy for others to find out.

So when they use coil-powered devices, groups often come to beat them up.

But this new device leaves no such trace.

Among those who can’t survive without it due to cold or lack of coils, a quiet practice of using lives as fuel is spreading.

How do they use it?

They kidnap orphans without parents, dying elders, or vulnerable women from the slums and use them as fuel.

They grow warmer, and I gain warmth as a bonus.

The bodies are simply discarded in alleys.

Animals devour them almost instantly, leaving no bones behind, making it look like they froze to death.

Even though this winter is unusually mild with water barely freezing at dawn, there are still plenty of reported deaths from the cold.

Especially now, with limited fuel supplies.

Still, most harvesters in the capital manage to survive by working in transportation.

Meanwhile…

Bern City is secluded, developing new technology. It’s neither the current method of drawing magic from the air nor the capital’s technique of using life force.

It’s the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign’s technology.

Meaning, the way things work in Kunlun.

Instead of forcibly siphoning magic from nature or living beings, they create pathways for magic to flow and place turbines along them to generate energy from the flow.

It’s inefficient compared to modern power sources. To produce the same amount of power as a fist-sized coil, you’d need a building the size of a small house.

But it doesn’t pollute with corrupted magic.

In fact, it even works properly in areas saturated with polluted magic.

By this world’s standards, cities scarred by modern technology are now developing ways to counteract it.

Beside Bern City, in the village near Nantes Port, Richard Gaston is working hard to maintain his noble status.

Sadly, given his lack of ability, it’s almost certain he’ll lose it.

As a bastard son of the Gaston family, he received minimal noble education and instead joined the military, becoming a soldier.

Some people just can’t keep up with the times.

People unable to adapt are left behind as the world moves forward.

Especially now, as harvesters equipped with alien tech begin to shift the balance.

I wonder how this will all turn out.

I’ll quietly observe the future while existing semi-anonymously in this world.

Unlike the first world where I had to constantly guard against suspicion, or the second world where I stayed idle in a void, this feels really peaceful.

Yeah, super comfy.

This third world could serve as a testing ground to explore how far the knowledge gained from the second world can be applied.

And in the meantime, I’m raking in warmth.

Hehe.

Lost in thought, I realized I’d arrived at a small, run-down train station.

The place where Victoria disembarked earlier today.

The ticket booth appears closed; no one’s around to sell tickets.

It’s a dim, lightless station.

Calling it a station, it’s more like a tiny ticket booth that fits only a handful of people, a stone platform, and a few wooden chairs—that’s all.

I sat down on one of the chairs.

Surrounded by darkness, the sky above is filled with stars.

But these aren’t the stars I usually gaze upon. This isn’t the night sky I know.

It’s not just a difference in constellations.

The night sky I observed from below the surface was scattered with the light of life.

I idly stare at this completely unfamiliar night sky.

If the sun rises and morning comes, I’ll board a train and return to the capital…

“There you are.”

Suddenly, a voice rang out. Turning my head, I faintly saw a woman through the starlight.

“Oh, Beatrice. Did you come for the contract?”

On second thought, going back to the capital would make contracting difficult.

Surprisingly, however, Beatrice shook her head.

“It’s my mother-in-law’s wish not to let guests leave like this.”

Then she grabbed my arm.

“I agree.”

She pulled me back toward the house.

Truly, heartbreakingly…

This family makes poor choices.

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