Let’s take a final look around.
creak
Tisah’s corpse, with only the lower half remaining.
crash
Broken windows.
People with dark purple orbs on their heads.
In the middle of them is a silver-haired girl captured.
And a girl with purple hair.
Clearly, this is a disaster scene.
If someone walks in, they might catch me and Hyungkesuni and proceed to torture us.
What if I point at Hyungkesuni and say the witch is evil?
Hmm.
They would end up killing me in self-introduction. Even though the only intruder is Hyungkesuni, no one is foolish enough not to realize I’m the bad guy.
Even though my head just got chopped off, it seems I’m not so easy to kill. But I know that not being easy to kill can sometimes be a real pain.
Moreover, I have this feeling that moving around recklessly may be dangerous.
Every time I try to exert my strength, it feels like there’s a sound of cracking.
Am I really that heavy?
I’m the one with the dark purple orb on my head. No, that’s too long, let’s just call me the Orb Human. I used it to block the entrance. I needed to stop anyone from coming in.
But these people are strange too. They took Tisah’s warmth, along with their own.
They seemingly gained all his memories too.
But there isn’t any serious mutation happening. The light is black. With a faint purple hue visible in the darkness.
Huh?
This is odd. Offerings don’t look like this.
The light of offerings shrivels up, turning into a twisted black form like dried fruit. A faint purple hue like this is the light of someone blessed.
I can watch those I’ve blessed from their perspective.
But I don’t see Tisah’s descendants, nor my direct children.
Honestly, I never thought I would be able to directly touch Tisah’s descendants.
In a moment of overwhelming emotion, when I grasped everything in sight, I realized I could touch the descendants.
Actually, now that I’ve swallowed them, I can move them.
But isn’t the orb getting smaller bit by bit?
It gives off a strange candle-like vibe.
I wonder what will happen if it completely shrinks. In the worst-case scenario, I might get chased out of this world again.
No way.
I have to persuade Hyungkesuni right now.
By any means, I have to ensure a book remains.
I locked eyes with Hyungkesuni. She’s been silently glaring at me ever since she violently rejected me earlier.
First, I need to talk.
I couldn’t have thought it’d be so simple to test Hyungkesuni, but right now, I have the upper hand. Hyungkesuni is captured and terrified.
In a balanced situation, my chances of winning would be low, but right now, I’m in a position to shake her. I have to do my best before I lose this position.
“Hyungkesuni. Why won’t you help me?”
There’s no answer to my question.
I need to find a way to get her talking.
Hitting her might just raise her defiance. She wouldn’t tell me anything. Even if she did, if she’s upset and doesn’t write down the summoning method, it would be my loss.
So, I need to find another way.
If she knows some extraordinary technique, she’d probably use it, but I don’t know such conversational techniques. If I skim through the knowledge that the gray-colored man possesses, a few methods come up.
However, I don’t know how to use methods like the “foot-in-the-door” technique. So I’ll use methods I have experience with.
Yes.
I’ll draw attention.
When you state something that is clearly untrue, while treating others like fools, people get angry.
If I bring up something like flat earth theory, they will want to correct the facts somehow.
Hyungkesuni. The Witch of Ecstasy.
She’s originally someone with no relation to Future Hope Church. In fact, she’s a much older witch. A witch who was marked as an enemy by Yasle before he became the leader of Yeongyang Church Nation, and who has lived for an incredibly long time.
When Yeongyang Church Nation fell to the invasion of Ansellus Kingdom, she sought her revenge and approached Hyungkesuni.
Hyungkesuni found it amusing and decided to help Yasle.
Hyungkesuni taught Yasle a few of the spells she knew. However, the spells she taught weren’t central to Yasle’s plans.
In actuality, the ritual that summoned me was performed to call forth a monster to be used as a weapon. At first, it was greatly disappointing.
But when I used my blessing and learned what power it held, things changed.
Drawing out random strong soldiers with special abilities every day was hard to resist.
For the first three months, on days when many people blessed by me had special abilities, I would rejoice, and on days when there were few, I would be sad.
Looking back on this memory, I regret not realizing it.
Anyway, Hyungkesuni was just affiliated with Future Hope Church. Strictly speaking, she was in a position similar to Yasle’s advisor.
And when she noticed Yasle wasn’t fully listening to her advice, she left him right away.
I don’t care if I have sins or not, but what about Hyungkesuni? Let’s check if she feels any guilt first.
“Why are you refusing? Hyungkesuni has killed more people than I have, right? Awfully slaughtered them and stacked them on the altar. She took the innocent Rebecca Rolfe hostage and used her heart as a material to summon evil beings. The outsider who simply granted them power. The witch who exploited people into unpaid labor in a cult until they died as offerings. Who’s the real villain here?”
While I’m at it, to apply some pressure, I brought a few of the idle orb humans and had them point fingers at Hyungkesuni. It felt like a witch hunt, isolating her.
In reality, the only intelligent beings here are me and Hyungkesuni, but wouldn’t having many humanoids around make her feel more burdened?
I want to corner Hyungkesuni as much as possible.
Hyungkesuni gritted her teeth.
“Who is evil? You simply granted power? So how many died because of those who received your blessing? How many more people will die because of you? You said you wanted warmth. And the offerings were Yasle’s choice. Then you can also gain warmth through blessings. Isn’t that right?”
Wow.
This is why smart people are scary. Did she deduce all this just from one statement that the offerings were Yasle’s preference?
But she snapped. She was clearly angry. That means there’s something that bothers her. What could it be? I’ll poke at them one by one.
“Did I kill them? That was their choice. Did I force them to do evil? No. If you need a counterexample, I’ll point to Tisah. This man faced violence with kindness, not violence. If righteousness and goodness exist, he embodies them. Unlike you, who captured people to be horrifically killed by a cult.”
Hyungkesuni fell silent at my words. There was no rebuttal.
Hmm.
Mmm.
It seems that taking people’s warmth isn’t viewed as predation, so she doesn’t condemn that. At least in this respect, she agrees with me. She’s not objecting to my consuming beings, nor denying the fact that she has slaughtered many herself.
So why was she so scared of me?
I haven’t acted particularly cruel.
I was just a tamed animal doing the job assigned to me.
Even if she thought I was god-like strong, I was a beast that would stay still according to a contract. Yasle said I was a controllable monster.
There’s something else going on.
What could it be?
Let’s look at it from a different angle.
The Witch of Ecstasy, Hyungkesuni.
Ecstasy. That may likely stem from her expression. When scared, she smiles.
A smile is merely a mask for fear.
If there is danger, she will drop everything and run away immediately, right? In Yasle’s memories, when Hyungkesuni left, she mumbled that she ran away again.
Run away?
Fear. Terror.
I recognize something similar.
Cowards can be brutal. Being weak, under pressure, it’s a reason not to cross certain lines. “I took a hit, so my opponent must die.” It’s the same principle.
The Code of Hammurabi acknowledged only an eye for an eye, yet this is an easily crossable line.
“I’m the victim, so I’m just and the other is evil.”
Therefore, all of my actions are justified.
Everyone makes such mistakes. That’s why Tisah’s value in forgiving others is significant.
No, I’m getting off track, but anyway, Hyungkesuni is a coward. What do cowards fear the most?
Themselves suffering a loss, right? They can dress it up in words, but the fundamental principle is likely this.
Hmm.
So which is it? Typically, someone like this would want to gain power, but she is aware that my blessings are troubling for her.
Then, let’s propose a deal.
“Hyungkesuni. I have a suggestion. I won’t take your warmth for anything. Instead, please write a book that can summon me. How about it?”
Hyungkesuni looks at me with shaky eyes.
Aha.
I found it.
This was it. Ultimately, she was scared of what would happen to her.
She lowered her gaze. She probably wanted to bow her head. But the hands of the orb humans held her left cheek, forcing her to look directly at me.
So I removed that hand.
Just as I anticipated, her head sank down.
Hehe.
Then I approached her. And gently held her cheeks up. I can feel her skin prickling from being utterly terrified.
She must be pondering.
Now, shall I take her guilt away?
“Hyungkesuni. If I kill you as you are, I can take your warmth and your memories. But I’m asking nicely because I’m not a bad person.”
I suggested she could misunderstand that there’s nothing to change even if she dies. Of course, everything I said was true, but I couldn’t write down the memories in a book.
Of course, I’m not a bad person. I’m an outsider.
As far as I know, “outsider” typically carries a negative connotation.
Right? The one who gave me that name.
I smiled broadly.
“Will you grant my request?”
For a long while, Hyungkesuni was silent.
Then she spoke very softly.
“Alright.”
I succeeded in persuading her.
