There was a fairly spacious restaurant inside the ship.
Of course, it’s not as luxurious as a high-end passenger ship,
but it’s a clean-looking place. If there’s anything unusual, it’s that all the tables and chairs are fixed. It’s natural since we’re on a ship, but it’s unfortunate that when I sit down, the distance between the chair and table is a bit far.
There wasn’t much of a menu at the restaurant, so when we ordered a meal, we got food made by mixing meat and flour, bread, and fresh vegetables.
The first two are understandable, but vegetables?
I picked up a vegetable with my fork and lifted it.
“Isn’t it difficult to store?”
“Didn’t the place you lived have warehouses with storage devices?”
Storage devices?
Searching Victoria’s memories with that keyword, something comes up.
There’s a mechanism where by applying a special field to magic to suppress flow, various reactions inside are suppressed, and there’s a technology that preserves all kinds of substances by combining this with refrigeration devices.
But I don’t understand what it means.
However, seeing that the word ‘refrigeration’ is attached, it must be a refrigerator.
“There was something similar.”
“Don’t leave anything.”
What’s with the sudden remark?
Confused by Victoria’s suddenly twisted words, I followed her gaze to see she was looking at the vegetable on my fork, a mix of broccoli and asparagus.
Ah.
Come to think of it, there was such a thing as picky eating. Soo-oh ate well, so I never thought about it.
In the first place, we weren’t in a position to be picky about food there.
Thinking that, I brought it to my mouth.
Nom.
“What, you eat well.”
“You shouldn’t waste food.”
“You really talk like a mom.”
Is that so?
Strictly speaking, Soo-oh wasn’t someone I raised, just someone I lived with. Although it feels like family, I have no intention of taking away her real family.
“It’s because I lived with a human child for a little less than 2 years.”
“That’s a headache-inducing statement. A small child like you raised a child?”
“I didn’t raise them? We just lived together. And at that time, I was about two heads taller than my current height.”
Choseol’s body was about that tall.
Being raised in an abnormal situation, she was taller than her age. Even if I hadn’t entered her and she hadn’t become a sacrifice, Choseol wouldn’t have lived long.
So after I entered, I quietly replaced it with something better.
Victoria shoved food into her mouth as if possessed. Then she said:
“You really aren’t human, are you.”
“I told you I’m a monster.”
“You don’t look like it at all.”
Victoria quickly emptied her plate and ordered cake and tea.
Thinking it had been a while since I had something sweet, I waited for the cake, and out came a cake full of cream and chocolate mousse, so packed with sugar that you could immediately recognize it as American-style in faded man’s memories.
Judging from Victoria’s expression, this is normal food.
I cut a little with the special utensil that came with it, and I can feel a sticky, gooey texture through the utensil.
It feels like my blood vessels might burst even if I eat just a little of this.
When I brought it to my mouth, sweetness exploded inside.
I feel sick after just one bite.
I put it down not wanting to eat anymore, but Victoria is eating it well, saying it’s delicious.
“Are you a picky eater?”
“No. Eat a lot. You’re tired from using your ability, right?”
“I’m incredibly hungry.”
Victoria nodded and immediately started eating.
She’s gulping down the tea just to wash down what she ate.
I’m not particularly interested in either the tea or the cake.
Looking at the past in faded man’s memories, I liked them in my own way, but I don’t want to eat them with this body. For me, physical pleasure, pain, and doing nothing are all the same.
Just like how a person playing a game doesn’t fall into panic when their character gets a panic status effect, right?
Seeing that she’s eating more than her average meal amount, she must be really hungry due to her superpower.
In other words, you lose weight just by using superpowers.
This seems like it would sell well if marketed properly. However, it’s unknown whether superpowers would pop up or not if someone wished for weight loss.
It seems like it would only change at a pathological level, but that’s unknown until experimented with.
After waiting for Victoria to finish eating, we return to the room together.
No, I thought we were returning.
“Let’s look around the ship a bit.”
Bwoooong.
At that moment, the ship’s horn sounds as it departs again.
On the way back, hearing that sound, Victoria suggested to me as if she remembered something.
Since there’s nothing particular to do if we go back to the room, I nodded.
“Alright.”
“Let’s go!”
When you say “look around the ship”, you might think of seeing the night view visible from the windows now or beautifully decorated places like the main hall…
Victoria climbs up to the deck and examines the huge water wheel behind the deck.
To be precise, she’s examining the engine that turns the water wheel.
She examines the machinery with sparkling eyes.
By the way, it seems they don’t use screws here.
Is there some kind of restriction? Given the technology level, it doesn’t seem like there wouldn’t be screws, but strangely, there’s a wheel-type mechanism attached.
Thinking that, I watch Victoria who’s standing on her tiptoes in front of a place marked “No Entry for Unauthorized Personnel”, eagerly looking around.
That’s when it happened.
Suddenly, a thick hand covered my mouth and grabbed me tightly.
Turning my gaze, I see three men standing there. They dragged me down below the deck.
Whether it’s a relatively cheap space corresponding to third-class, as soon as we go inside, stale air rushes towards me.
At a fork in the narrow corridor, they dragged me to the part corresponding to the stern.
It’s a quite dark place where the engine noise is loud. Glancing around, it seems to be a place where things like lifeboats are stored.
A place where people don’t come often, and it’s so noisy that it’s hard for others to hear any sounds.
There, two more burly men were waiting for the three men who brought me.
“Oh, you brought her?”
“Is this really okay?”
“Yeah. She’s a stowaway, just a stowaway. On a ship like this, even if a stowaway has an unfortunate accident, it’s treated like nothing happened, right?”
“Besides, the person she was with was just a girl. What could someone like that do? Other than whining?”
When one man imitated a girl sobbing with a ridiculous action, the other men laughed with giggles.
Listening to their conversation, this person… at least one of the people who brought me here must have been watching when Victoria and I boarded this ship.
They know quite a lot of details.
“Wow, look how fair-skinned she is. She’s not really the daughter of someone important, is she?”
“Look at her clothes. The clothes. They’re all stained, wearing clothes like rags? Would a rich person wear clothes like this?”
They undressed me. The clothes they called rags are the clothes I wore in the second world. It’s understandable to think they’re strange clothes since the fashion is different.
“Hey, let go of her hands for a bit. Why is she so still?”
The man’s hands came off.
“Hello?”
“Is this bitch out of her mind?”
Slap.
When I greeted them, suddenly one of them slapped my cheek. Then, grabbing my hair and pulling my head close, he tells me what he’s going to do.
Well, you know.
It’s healthy. As living beings.
In a social sense, they’re crossing the line, but they’re healthy in the sense that they chose victims who can’t hurt them.
“Tough bitch. Not shedding a single tear? Or are you too young to know what’s going on?”
Five men looking down at me from the side, saying to stop only with words. In the middle, one little girl who can be done anything to.
I’m not stupid enough to not understand this situation.
So, I say this:
“Don’t you want to live a better life than now?”
“What?”
“Hey, Mr. Smith. Shut her up and do it quickly. Or I’ll go first.”
“No, let’s see what nonsense she’s spouting.”
I experiment with the five diverse men – one giggling, one lowering his pants.
“For example, that man over there. You limp when you walk. It’s impossible to run, right? Judging from your twisted pelvis and the strange direction of your feet, you’ve had a major injury.”
“What, are you trying to play detective, little girl?”
I pointed out the first victim that caught my eye. He’s the easiest target to recognize when healed.
“If you contract with me, I can heal your wounds right now. If the wounds don’t heal, I’ll move actively no matter what you tell me to do.”
I cast out the fishing line of desire and watch the man take the bait.
“Hey, go ahead.”
“Ooh, proactive! That’s awesome, right? We’ve got nothing to lose!”
“Where else would you get an opportunity like this? Do it.”
Encouraged by others, the man scratched his head and came forward. Although hidden in shadows, there’s a large scar on his face that seems to have been punctured and not healed properly.
“What do I need to do?”
“I’ll give myself to you. In exchange, I’ll take everything you have when you finish everything later. How about it?”
“Alright.”
At that moment, cracks appeared on the man’s face. Then, with a pitter-patter, his skin fell off like pottery, revealing snow-white skin underneath.
Skin without a single scar. And his gait moves straight without awkwardness.
Anyone can see he moves smoothly, and when he jumped up from where he was sitting, he hit the ceiling, jumping so high.
“Huh. What’s this.”
“Eh?”
“Mr. Brutal?”
The man, whose hair had turned purple, looks down at his body with a dumbfounded expression.
I smiled at them and said:
Once more.
“Don’t you want to live a better life than now?”
Now, they all hesitate and back away from me.
It’s a shocking event. In a world where it’s difficult to easily treat disabilities without powerful magic or at least upper-class status.
“All wounds heal.”
I went to the side of the man named Reason Brutal and tapped his leg.
“You become stronger. And smarter.”
I don’t know to what extent, but it’s true that it really happens.
“You all have an opportunity to live a better life.”
An opportunity to commit more atrocities, live more according to desires, and harm many people.
“I’ll ask just one thing of those who contract with me.”
And I stepped into the middle of them and stood.
“To live like a human, doing what you want to do.”
I’m glad evil people have gathered. Those who move to fulfill their biological impulses when given the opportunity.
Those who can easily trample on others.
They’re very good harvesters.
“If you can keep my request, contract with me.”
And so.
Today, I made a total of 5 harvesters.
It’s very easy.