King Highpion gathered everyone in the room into one spot.
If you listen closely to Highpion’s way of speaking, it seems everyone here is of a similar caliber.
So I rummaged through the memories of Polaris and Kanna and confirmed it. I saw the attire of other countries. Among them were diplomats, royalty, and even kings.
In other words, this place is packed with leaders from other nations.
An international conference?
Are they trying to introduce me?
While thinking that, Highpion called over a soldier, saying he had someone prepared.
Then, an older middle-aged man entered, dressed in a uniform adorned with medals. There were two notable aspects.
First, his right sleeve was flapping, meaning he had no arm inside. And he had a long scar across his face, with one eye completely covered by an old injury.
As he stood before the king to greet him, Highpion left him standing there and approached me.
“Bell. Heal him.”
“Understood.”
So, I approached the man. He looked at me with a face full of questions. Judging by his expression, he seemed to not know me very well.
Even if Highpion hadn’t explained who I was, didn’t he watch any TV?
I must have been on numerous times, but he doesn’t seem to recognize me at all.
I suppose there are people like that. As the harvesting machines increase, it makes sense to recite my contract.
“I will dedicate myself to you. In return, once you finish everything, I’ll take everything you possess. How does that sound?”
The man looked at Highpion with a face that questioned whether this was correct, and Highpion nodded seriously.
However, the seriousness there didn’t stem from firmly trusting me. It felt colder and more calculating, assessing how useful I might be.
Hmm. Pretty good.
When buying something, you must carefully inspect its performance.
“Alright, I understand. So agreeing like this is fine, right?”
He agreed. I pushed my energy into him.
Hmm? Something’s stuck.
But it was really a thin bubble, and when I applied a little force, it popped. The light turned a proper shade of purple.
Then his entire body puffed up and solidified.
And like pottery cracking, his skin revealed itself to be pure white. His hair also turned purple, but the people here weren’t looking at that.
They were fixated on his newly grown eyes.
The new harvesting machine’s pupils were particularly eye-catching.
But conversely, he was awkwardly fidgeting with his newly formed arm instead of looking at his own eyes.
He had lost his arm while fighting a dragon that could use curses. After that, he did everything possible to regain it, but the curse remained, making proper healing impossible.
By the way, it seems he had given up on his eye since it had been injured for too long. It makes sense he wouldn’t expect much recovery since it’s a sensitive area not easily healed by magical treatment.
I also remember he refused treatment due to the possibility of shock during regeneration.
There’s a big difference between areas that can be healed but weren’t done, and areas that couldn’t be healed no matter the effort.
But curses.
There was something similar when I entered Choseol’s body. That was a trace left by Daegon, but that much can be broken.
The dragon’s curse was simple. No, whatever I compare it to, Daegon’s was far more powerful. Yep.
The man named Hount stood there with a bewildered expression, touching his own eyes and arms.
Highpion pointed to him and announced.
“This is the Dragon Slayer, Baron Philius. His arm was under the curse of a dragon. But this person can simply eliminate such a curse and regenerate.”
The audience murmured.
But Highpion twisted the story there.
“However, miracles have limits.”
Highpion explained the changes that happen when one becomes a harvesting machine, and its limitations.
Hair turns purple, skin becomes white, and if severely injured, the skin turns blue.
And if regeneration happened once, a second time is impossible.
Emphasizing that a miracle of regeneration can only occur once for a person, he stated that if you’re alive, even in a dormant state, you can still regenerate.
While he spoke of miracles, in reality, he spun it to explain it’s not truly miraculous.
Meanwhile, he accurately defined me as a psychic rather than merely referring to the limits of human capabilities, stating that I could cure any wound or disease at least once.
The eyes of the foreign representatives had long since changed.
Their gazes intertwined with hopes and desires.
Truly, impressive.
No one here would be ignorant of what my abilities imply.
But, I forgot to mention the most important part.
The royal family already knows.
If I make him a harvesting machine, the ailment of aging can be cured once.
Of course, once he becomes a harvesting machine, his lifespan feels twice as long, so it practically feels similar. However, if one were to choose an advantage, it would be more common for someone to live longer after aging.
But the ratio of enjoying healthy periods feels similar, so I honestly think it’s all the same.
In the first world, I was able to earn quite a few experienced individuals. Back then, I only had to recite the contract to fill myself in.
I don’t plan to do that in the future.
Nevertheless, I will be extremely cautious.
Once a contradiction occurs, trust is shattered in that instant.
For someone like me, who must siphon warmth through contracts, that’s fatal.
Since I’m selling trust that doesn’t exist to make contracts, I understand why demons say they fulfill them…
Without an unidentifiable guarantee that they will keep the contract no matter what, who would ever contract with themselves?
Let alone a demon that drags souls to hell; if they wouldn’t even grant wishes, what’s the point?
If I were a demon, I would definitely uphold obtaining what I want from other demons. Otherwise, I simply wouldn’t enter into the contract at all.
So, I would become the launching pad for harvesting machines, greeting when Highpion welcomes me and remaining silent when he says to.
To gain that trust that says I’ll fulfill wishes, I do my best.
To anyone watching, it’s like an astonishing healing tool owned by King Highpion.
And it should be visibly known that the king is selling healing by utilizing that healing tool.
Looking at the steps taken so far, I think this promotion seems to be for Aurora’s sake. The blue skin looks unusual.
However, if it’s a side effect from an extraordinary treatment, that gaze would change.
Of course, that’s not the only aspect.
If it can be used, I’ll utilize it. Highpion seems to have that kind of mind.
Thus, Highpion stood beside me, greeting those who approached and introduced me to them.
He didn’t directly point it out, but it was clear he was inviting anyone with discomfort to come over.
After finishing greetings with everyone gathered here, King Highpion and the foreign representatives went into serious topics.
Yes.
Advertising me was just a promotion before the movie started.
I’m not quite sure why I’m here, but the representatives gathered from various countries came together to discuss how to dismantle three corporations.
Not just dismantle.
It was precisely rearranging the high officials and involved researchers while instilling the justification of being the world’s enemy in an international conference, all the way to executing them as a spectacle.
Ironically, it was the other countries that seemed angrier than the one being genuinely affected.
Claiming that the mechanical puppets in their bedrooms could be given a kill order at any time, everyone was furious.
They felt it was like having an assassin hidden within their bedroom.
In other words, it illustrates how widely spread these mechanical puppets are across nations.
Furthermore, if the times progressed to a world similar to where I live, where the people’s strength increases, no one would have been able to touch those three corporations.
There’s a faded genre in my memory called cyberpunk.
In that world, corporations are more powerful than nations. It’s a world where an entire city can belong to a corporation. Something similar could have happened here. Now that they’re rejecting the mechanical puppets, the prices at the water’s edge have risen a bit, haven’t they?
Originally, citizens scream when prices go up.
And they lash out their resentment towards the leaders.
However, here, it’s mostly a monarchy. The king’s authority is stronger than market logic.
Perhaps even if a crime happens in one country, the others would think they’d receive that corporation just fine. However, connections between nations were even sturdier.
They’ve moved past merely being terrorists, becoming outright public enemies.
And the meeting didn’t end there.
Amazingly, a discussion opened about how to improve the mechanical puppet industry. Because there’s too much built upon it that can’t simply be ignored.
If that collapses, it’s dangerous; they’re saying the adverse effects are already impacting the market, and it’s an urgent issue that must be addressed.
Hmm.
Is that such a serious problem?
However, not one of the people gathered here discussed the fact that there indeed was such a problem.
It seems they’ve already completed their investigations on the matter.
Everyone present here was contemplating how to deal with it rather than discussing whether there was a problem or not.
Well, it’s good that they’re willing to take action for the existing issues.
But why hold it in an international conference?
Can’t they solely advance their own countries’ agendas at this right moment?
The moment I thought that, the phrase “Isolation leads to extinction” lit up. Not just one or two, but it resonated from most of those in the ruling classes.
Hmm?
They say that progressing towards a single direction while cooperating and sharing development is faster than moving in a closed-off manner alone.
Connected places can facilitate the flow of capital, and by keeping each other in check, they can maintain a balance.
And the nations that aren’t part of that will be set as virtual enemy nations for stomping out.
Then, a question arises: wouldn’t major nations simply absorb the corporations, advancing technologically the furthest?
However, that’s become the root cause of all incidents that haven’t even occurred yet in that nation. It provides justification. Justifications like how that nation stuffed assassins capable of killing kings into the king’s bedroom anytime.
Huh. I can see a shape emerging now.
The kings present here aren’t entering agreements out of goodwill.
If they’re angry enough to stomp enterprises into the ground because they’ve hidden knives in the most critical locations, that makes sense.
It’s an emotion.
This, I can understand.
Especially those deeply immersed in the convenience of mechanical puppets, they suggest thoroughly crushing the corporations. They even shout to kill anyone peripherally linked. Knowing this comes from emotion makes it clear.
In short, it’s like this.
It’s as if parents, having bought baby products, received news that a baby died from that product at another location; their fury would be massive.
The meeting proceeds.
And after several hours.
Finally, the meeting concluded.
But rather than deciding anything here, it’s about presenting what each person prepared, editing it, and making amendments; is that what a meeting is?
Anyway, each of them signed documents and stamped them to close things out, which is quite interesting.
Then, they moved on to the next schedule.
The banquet.
Right now, Aurora is diligently preparing and waiting. Seeing Solindiges beside her, it seems this is the royal family’s work.
Thinking it’s surprisingly active, I followed Highpion to the banquet hall as he instructed.
