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Days off passed busily, and now the weekdays have returned.

The sky is clear, but it’s particularly cold in the morning, so many students dressed warmly.

Half of the students showed up to class with faces that screamed exhaustion. Most of those who looked tired had been at the palace yesterday.

It ended really late, so it can’t be helped.

“Why is Bell perfectly fine?”

During lunchtime, Polaris poked me in dissatisfaction.

“Wasn’t it hard at all?”

“It was actually easier to cross the city with you.”

That means it’s better to physically exert oneself than to sit in an uncomfortable spot.

“What happened yesterday?”

Victoria asked me and Polaris with a confused expression.

“We went to work at the royal palace.”

“Dragged by our parents.”

Victoria’s expression changed, as if she had heard something difficult to mention.

“That means both of you went to the royal castle?”

“Yep. Can’t you see the tired kids in our class? They all got dragged there.”

Polaris pointed out some kids left in the classroom.

Several students with very gloomy expressions are present.

They looked as though they had aged several years, sitting there crushed by fatigue.

“What on earth happened?”

Victoria hesitated to ask. She seems to wonder if it’s okay to ask questions like this. Since it was something held at the royal palace, she might be worried about whether it’s fine to inquire carelessly.

But since the banquet happened after the meeting, wouldn’t it be alright?

Not knowing well, I turned my gaze to someone who might know more. Polaris shook his head at Victoria’s words.

“It’s just the usual stuff that happens at gatherings. You should cherish this person compared to someone else, get close with another, see how you can move to marry someone— it’s basically what you hear from your parents.”

“Wow, um, wait? Is there more?”

Even if it’s called a banquet, it isn’t truly time for fun; that time is work too. Polaris continued speaking.

“You see kids of the same age gathering together, right? Don’t touch anyone. Think you’re that amazing? I’m someone’s son, do you want to try me? Who do you think you are to flirt with my guy? You name it. Just… ugh.”

“It’s like Animal Kingdom…”

“It’s even worse than that. Tori.”

At Victoria’s mumbling, Polaris shook his head and added his impressions.

While there are boys and girls bowing their heads asking to be taken care of, he doesn’t mention that at all.

The essence of that action seems to be flattery; it’s not true admiration or anything, just deceit to pull in benefits with sweet talk.

Polaris isn’t foolish enough to fall for that.

“Did you go to such a gathering too, Bell?”

Victoria asked me.

“Didn’t you cause any trouble?”

“Doesn’t the nuance of worry sound strange?”

When I asked Victoria, she subtly avoided my gaze.

“No, it’s not like I’d worry about you after seeing that.”

“Is that so?”

Did I cause any significant trouble? Making gold, perhaps?

“Marley.”

“Ah, that thing.”

When I said that, Victoria looked at me with a shuddering expression. It actually gave me goosebumps. I was just referring to it as an item; is it something to be so scared about?

“I wonder if this guy won’t go die somewhere. But standing still in the same spot for hours looked tough. Some people whispered if I was a doll, considering how still I was.”

From the side, Polaris said what he had been thinking while looking at me.

It’s pitying that you can’t know thoughts without expressing them verbally or in writing, even during harvesting season.

“Humans have strong arms and legs.”

“Even so, just standing still in the same posture is torture, Bell.”

“Bell? No, yeah, that’s true. When at home, I was constantly moving around doing something like my mom, but it felt like I just stood still so much that one would wonder if there was a problem.”

Imagining that action from Polaris’s words, Victoria soon brought up an old memory. Now that I think of it, when cleaning Victoria’s room with Beatrice, she grumbled to me about how I resembled my father in not organizing anything.

The way I acted like my mom was really because Victoria lives in a disaster zone.

“Even some kids who were jealous of the young man known as the next commander of the guards seemed inhumane enough to lose interest.”

Polaris spat out with a bored expression.

The next commander of the guards?

Ah. That person is a good young man.

Now that I think about it, there were quite a few girls throwing jealous glances at the beginning, but by the end, no one was looking at him like that.

Victoria looked at me as if to ask if such a person existed.

“Someone guarding? He was nice and did his job well.”

“Oh, what? Are you interested?”

At that moment, Polaris looked at me with an excited expression as if he had just heard something intriguing.

“Interest means are you thinking about marriage, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I have none. The body I entered was initially a Fishman, and I was supposed to lay eggs, but since there’s no sign of that, I probably can’t have kids. Oh, not hard eggs, but membrane ones. Originally, Fishmen do external fertilization, so humans likely can’t feel sexual pleasure; thus, there’s no way I’d be useful as a wife. Not being able to work at night would be grounds for divorce.”

Polaris’s expression is a mess like a broken machine. He failed to understand what I was saying and looked at Victoria with a face full of questions.

“Ah, right. It’s just I’m so used to the way I look now, but Bell. Initially, you were a huge Fishman.”

Victoria seemed to recall the memory of when we first met, while Polaris ignored her troubled expression.

“Moreover, according to the gender of the body I entered, it’s male. Originally, there was supposed to be a male named Daegon occupying this body. So, it could also be that I can’t lay eggs.”

“What the heck am I listening to?”

Polaris raised a hand in response.

“Concepts of reproduction in my body.”

“That’s too explicit, so let’s not say it like that, Bell.”

Victoria cautioned. Is it really that way? Aren’t I somewhat resistant to all that sexual talk?

Looking at Polaris’s pale expression, it doesn’t seem so.

Polaris grips his head with both hands. Then he mutters, sorting through what I’ve said so far.

“So, Bell is not originally Bell but rather inside someone else?”

“It’s similar. More accurately, it’s like I’m inside an artificially created meat doll. There wasn’t a sacrifice this time.”

Polaris looked at me with a strange expression. Victoria stared with a more horrified look as she asked.

“That means there have been sacrifices before.”

“There are plenty of susceptible offerings among young girls.”

Even if it hadn’t been me summoning, digging through Yasle’s memories often revealed young girls as the primary sacrifices.

It was used simply for death offerings, but also for summoning something.

Even in faded memories, there are priestesses and shamans, so perhaps this isn’t just one world but a universal principle.

No, memories of Daegon and the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign shine brightly.

Apparently, that’s true. Especially Daegon’s detailed memories feel uncomfortable.

In any case, depending on the species, those could also become males. It’s easy to understand when thinking of seahorses.

If being exploited unilaterally by one’s own kind is included in the life system, it turns out you can easily embody something else conceptually.

The easiest to inhabit would be a colony, but in that case, it’s easy for the main controlling entity to catch on, and any slight oddity immediately leads to disposal, making it difficult to properly transform into a god.

Considering the cost-effectiveness of time and effort, ultimately using beings with human-like intelligence seems to shine in memories as the easiest option. It’s said they are easy to deceive because they have just enough intelligence.

“I’ve been a girl twice, and now it’s this meat doll.”

“You’re not a person, huh?”

Polaris stuttered as he said that. It’s impossible to consider a creature that can regenerate even if only a head or an arm remains as a person.

No, maybe Tisah could have managed. I’m not sure since he wasn’t that injured.

Anyway, I’m not a person.

“I’m a very dark and cold sea.”

“Then, does that mean I use water?”

Victoria lifted water into the air at my words.

“Nope. It doesn’t matter. Among those who passed me on, there were those who used fire and others who manipulated wind too.”

“Ah… yeah, right.”

Victoria had seen types of harvesting before. Maybe that’s why she understood right away.

“I don’t target or aim my abilities. To begin with, when you receive me, you don’t even know why people get healed. I just do it and use it because it works. It’s just like your abilities, Victoria.”

“Abilities, huh.”

Polaris stared at Victoria intently. More precisely, he was watching the tiny droplets floating near her.

“Can I not use stuff like that?”

Polaris asked, pointing at the water droplets.

That’s a really good question. I’ve been curious about it but couldn’t ask carelessly until now. I pushed in my delight and asked Victoria as naturally as possible.

“What was it like when you got your psychic powers, Victoria?”

“Me?”

Victoria pointed at herself, then crossed her arms, plunging into thought. She’s likely recalling the time we first met.

“It just happened naturally.”

“What does that mean?”

Polaris grumbled, but Victoria paid no heed to his words, closing her eyes as if reflecting on the past and speaking slowly.

“Literally, it just happened naturally. No, more accurately, it was so natural that I couldn’t tell you why I hadn’t been able to until then. It was as easy as moving my arms, so I just did it.”

As expected.

When you gain psychic powers, it feels like you know how to use them from the moment you get them. Personally, I guessed that some usage method would be installed in my mind, but it turns out I felt it naturally as if I’d always used it.

A third arm grew, and I immediately used it.

The perception has been rewritten. This is something new.

So, when Tisah, who has a passive ability for regeneration, got out of there and tested his abilities.

His actions were so bold that I had predicted he would know before testing his abilities, and it turned out to be true.

If there was someone with superhuman patience or someone hesitant about using this power and decided not to, he might not have used it even though he had psychic powers.

Well.

If anyone used it even once, I would know.

I should keep that tucked away in the back of my mind.

“So, it means if you don’t feel that sense, you can’t use it.”

Polaris lowered his head in disappointment.

“Do you need power?”

“It’s not the kind of power I saw back in Bern City. Just that girl. She’s using her psychic powers so conveniently.”

Then Victoria moved the droplets here and there, showing off to Polaris. Polaris looked at me with a face full of displeasure.

“I wish I had such a convenient power.”

“The opportunity flew by.”

“Nooo! I want one too-”

Polaris whined, and Victoria chuckled as she teased him.

Thus, the short time before lunch ended and classes started passed by.