Right now in Bern City, there are three factions.
First, there’s the so-called Bern City Defense Force, but everyone thinks they’re just Marquis Gaston’s private soldiers.
Then we have the Twilight Association, who are residents of Bern City but have forgotten their original protest goals.
And lastly, there’s Victoria.
It’s a bit funny that Victoria is standing alone as a faction.
She’s actually strong, but if we look at Maleficent’s memory, it’s hard for Victoria to become invincible with this power.
Since Victoria doesn’t use magic power, she’s rather weak compared to her strength.
In this world, magic has developed a lot in physical aspects, but curses exist. If projectiles don’t exist, she’d have to protect herself with her own magic power homeostasis if she can’t counter them—just easy to understand, right?
Curses aren’t Maleficent’s specialty; they’re surprisingly quite ordinary skills. Even referencing soldiers’ memories reveals similar data. In fact, there are many monsters that use curses among those that use magic power.
Because of that, defense mechanisms have developed considerably, and people have come to use curses less often.
The army at Nantes Port was massacred without resistance because no one knew exactly who was controlling the sea.
And when they realized their enemy, it was already too late.
If they had known a little earlier that Victoria was the enemy, they could’ve countered, even if it meant stabbing each other to death.
It’s kind of a ridiculous excuse that makes me laugh.
And ultimately, four factions will gather here.
The Kingdom Army is on the move.
Just as they arrived at the capital, I was treating soldiers waiting for death at the military base hospital. They returned to their army properly.
That means I can find out when the Kingdom Army moves.
I wonder if they’ve started moving after realizing something was happening in Bern City, especially since the airship that should’ve returned a while ago hasn’t come back.
The third world isn’t quick in the movement of information like the faded memories of the reconnection era. Of course, there are ways to communicate using magic power.
However, the difficulty increases dramatically the farther apart they are, so the basic means of contact in this era is letters.
No, you might wonder why it’s so slow when there’s TV, but surprisingly, they say that TV is easier. It’s not two-way communication but one-way, so I don’t get it, but since it’s what the memories say, I’ll just go with it.
Because of that, they are preparing to set out for Bern City.
No one is high enough to hear all the information during harvesting, but there are those who can roughly sense the direction.
From looking into them, they already suspected that something was wrong in Bern City. They were already conducting reconnaissance.
Information is scattered everywhere, so even if they gather it, it’s still all very confusing. Shouldn’t they deal with it quickly if they know?
However, some memories shining brightly indicate that the kingdom believes it should be done this way.
Rather than rushing out and missing everyone while being frantic before things happen, they insist on swinging their drawn swords heavily to cut down all enemies, even if the situation gets worse.
Daegon’s memories are still glowing that it’s cheaper that way. It’s a method used when society is more connected, and it’s easier and cheaper to deal with things in advance than later.
Things like nationalism and socialism brightly shining might suggest that culture needs to catch up.
There are also memories suggesting they are waiting for things to escalate to create justification.
Especially if a city needs to be completely wiped out, there’s no way it should be less than crystal clear that the king is right, according to anyone.
Isn’t the king someone who can create such a thing?
Ah. Right.
Tisah’s memory shines. They say doing that will cause a gap and eventually the kingdom will collapse because of it.
Thus, the moment someone sees a righteous blade of justice, they must strike the enemy for them to follow.
Another king’s memory shines. They say it’s quite a challenge to erase the truth once it’s born.
So rather than eliminating the truth, one should scatter countless false truths to make others stop searching for what is real.
Therefore, when the function that judges the truth breaks down, that will be the real opportunity to do whatever one wants.
No, my thoughts are drifting into strange places.
Anyway.
Currently, the Kingdom Army seems to be waiting for just the right amount of death, until it’s perfectly cooked for them.
In fact, since people have died, they can use that as an excuse.
In other words, they will emerge after the protestors and the army of Bern City clash. I wonder if the kingdom knows that Marquis Gaston has three major companies backing him.
Even if they know, it seems that knowledge doesn’t extend to the level known by harvesting…
I really don’t know how much they truly know.
But they are always ready to move.
Meanwhile, the protestors are advancing east, and so are Victoria and Polaris.
And here, I can’t tell what’s happening. Right now, my only remaining sense is touch, so I can’t know.
At least I have a sense that I’m trapped somewhere.
But I won’t regenerate right away.
I’m waiting until the frenzy created by the man who labeled me as a witch and beat me subsides.
If I try to regenerate now, I’d probably be restricted even more.
People need time to digest the information.
At least one or two.
After hearing my words that cry out for the royal family until the end, they should be suspicious. If not, then I have to find another way.
Thinking that way, I waited for a while.
Suddenly, something touched my body. Feeling the familiar cold steel fingers, I realized I was captured by a Mechanical Puppet.
Clank-clank.
As I walk, the vibrations seem to continue endlessly, indicating they’re taking me somewhere.
If even a single harvesting machine had been there, I would have been able to grasp the surrounding situation.
It’s a pity, but it’s unreasonable to hope for something that doesn’t exist.
Of course, it would be nice if I could at least regenerate my ear, but how do you even do that?
I can’t set up something that detailed.
However, I can’t help but speculate on the reason.
Right now Victoria is coming this way.
We’re on the mountainside.
And above Victoria, the vast sea looms.
If Victoria reaches the mountain like this, the chance of drowning is high.
It wouldn’t be strange to relocate the base either.
Feeling the cold steel touch and the shaking tremor, I waited for quite a while.
If I check the time through the harvesting machine’s perspective, it’s still dusk. But due to the sea floating upside down in the sky, all of Bern City is already darker than night.
In the meantime, the cold steel disappeared, and I was placed on a stiff waterproof cover. My body screams since it’s in a state not so different from a hunk of meat.
My body cries out that it feels like it might die, but even if my body dies, it’s fine.
As long as I don’t evaporate, I can easily recover.
Maybe if even a part of the internal cells is alive, it might count as me being alive.
The army is taking me somewhere.
Victoria and Polaris are moving according to the traces of the army left on the ground.
The Twilight Association, which was further behind, has also discovered those traces and is following closely.
Since there were clear traces from the defense line to the mountains, there’s no way they would get lost.
And as time passes, finally.
Victoria and Polaris spot the army walking diligently in the distance.
“It’s the enemy!”
In other words, they’ve gotten close enough that the other side can identify both of them. Sure, they would leave the rear guard.
But the one who shouted upon seeing Victoria and Polaris died immediately after.
Because Polaris had yanked a tree and threw it that way, and the person who was hit was crushed with a terrifying sound.
Wow.
It seems Polaris is stronger than the memory I have of her.
I know that the harvesting machine increases her physical performance, but isn’t there a limit to that? Where did the action-reaction go?
How can she withstand that shock with such a small body?
Now they recognize each other as enemies.
A battle should erupt.
But that didn’t happen.
As they came here, the sky began to lower gradually as planned by Victoria and Polaris.
The plan is simple.
Lower the water level, and while Polaris causes a ruckus, Victoria will burrow in to search for me.
Once she finds me, the plan was to pressure the surroundings with water while escaping.
The effect was excellent.
As the upside-down sea slowly lowered, everything truly screamed. The mountains cracked apart and shattered with a sound as they sank, and the cries of various creatures spread in panic.
Birds that had flown into the sky plunged right into the surface, offering little warmth the size of a grain of rice before disappearing.
The army was thrown into chaos, and the Twilight Association behind them also sat flat on the ground, screaming.
It wasn’t a natural disaster; it was a nightmare.
However, once the water had lowered sufficiently close to the ground, it stopped descending.
With a lid made high above to look down from, Victoria cautiously sneaked through the brush and crawled toward the direction where the army was.
Instead of moving alongside her, Polaris randomly pulled up rocks and tree branches to hurl them toward a spot somewhat away from where Victoria was.
Perhaps because there was an instant death field overhead, the army was in disarray and panicking.
And amidst that chaos, Victoria, who created this deliberately, finally spotted me.
Wow.
Seeing it in real life makes it all the more horrific.
My body is swollen like a balloon, and a fluid that looks like pus is dripping off of me. Because my skin is white, the punch marks left on my swollen skin are distinct.
Plus, I’m dangling like an object in the Mechanical Puppet’s hand, dripping blood and unknown body fluids.
“Bell, are you alright?”
Victoria murmured softly. But it’s not like she’s casually stating something; it’s a question she seems confident I’d hear.
While I was pondering whether to ignore it since it might be out of earshot, the pain in my body disappeared, and suddenly, pleasure substances surged from my head only to come to a sudden stop.
Ah, I think I’m dead.
My sense of touch is fading too.
But since the star has arrived, it’s about time to move.
I pressed reality down to revert to my original body.
Crack-crack-crack!
The Mechanical Puppet that had been gripping me bent at the opposite side, and I returned to the exact state I was in when I came out that morning.
In an instant, hundreds of gazes turned toward me.
This is the moment.
When I check the seeds I’ve sown.
“Hello, humanity. Who is the one that chose to rebel against the country?”
I’m not lying. Contextually, it’s clear I’m not asking if you’re the rebels, but stripping away the context makes it nothing more than a question from a third party.
While deceiving them like that, I scanned the confused crowd and waved my hand at Victoria, who was approaching me.
