The incident was over, but the situation had escalated.
By the time the incident ended, Victoria was completely sprawled on the mud-covered ground, frantically shoving sweet things into her mouth.
When day came and the situation calmed down, the Bete family took Victoria back to her home.
And from that evening, newspaper reporters and broadcast journalists started visiting the Bete household.
Morris refused interviews at the front, but there was no way people would leave just because of that.
When you turn on the news or open a newspaper, along with the disaster that happened in Bern City, there's also information about me, accompanied by the phrase "Miracle of Bern City".
And surprisingly, there wasn't much about Victoria.
This is because out of the 9,000 harvesters, 2% - exactly 181 - manifested superpowers. Of course, only 129 of them used their superpowers in front of people.
The rest hid them.
Anyway, most of the superpower users gained similar abilities. There are roughly three types.
One is the ability to move. It's not teleportation, but they gained the ability to move quickly or take multiple people down from high places like telekinesis.
One is the ability to handle wind, water, and fire. It seems like an ability that emerged to somehow deal with the accident itself.
And the last is survival ability.
The ability to generate protective shields, harden the body, or regenerate instantly even when injured.
A total of 9,190.
It seems like a lot at first glance.
But in the final moment of the first world, there were nearly 100 million harvesters, so this isn't that many in comparison.
Back then, contracts were made immediately just by someone reciting the contract text.
I didn't think about controlling the numbers. I didn't know then that if there were too many, it would collapse.
Once it started spreading, it really increased exponentially.
There's no danger if you limit that. In other words, with this number, we're still far from the deadline.
This time, I want to try creating a sustainable automatic warmth harvesting system.
Anyway.
Tens of thousands of people in Bern City witnessed me giving abilities.
The media asked about that. And they put more effort into covering the miracle that appeared in this incident rather than why this incident occurred.
As a result.
The Bete household is surrounded by reporters.
Of course, soldiers in charge of security have come and surrounded the area, so they haven't invaded the house, but it's quite a troublesome situation with people constantly filming with cameras.
However, Morris and Beatrice don't have the mental capacity to protest about that.
Right now, there's a special envoy from the royal family visiting this house.
"Are you the one they call the apostle of god?"
There's a man dressed in an old-fashioned suit, a man who is said to be the mayor of Bern City, and several people wearing thick exoskeletons standing.
The fortunate thing is that the religious color of the people here isn't strong.
If I search through the memories gained from the third world, there's a reason.
Until about a hundred years ago, there was a group armed with obsessive faith, and they acted as a breakwater protecting inhabited areas from dangerous wilderness.
As a result, their authority grew bloated, and the kingdom improved its constitution based on magic engineering technology to counter them.
Then, as a huge scandal involving several countries and their main religions broke out, faith suddenly declined, and taking advantage of this gap, almost all countries pushed forward with the violence of powerful mechanical devices based on magic engineering technology and the ideology of pure reason.
It was successful, and religion lost its power and collapsed.
So now, many people believe in technology itself. It means it's similar to the era called Belle Époque in faded memories. An era full of hope that science and technology would brighten the future.
In such a world, if it's suddenly said that an apostle of god has appeared, of course they'd be interested.
It's dangerous in many ways.
So I went in front of him and said this:
"I'm not an apostle of god. I have nothing to do with god."
I was going to say organism, but since it's ambiguous to call my identity an organism, I let the words trail off.
At this, the eyes of the man who introduced himself as coming from the royal family sharpened. To him, it would look like a small girl speaking, but he can look at a child with eyes that see a creature that needs to be killed.
"Then do you mean you're a devil?"
"Isn't that what a god says to gods outside their own religion?"
As I made a check, he looks at me with eyes seeing someone whose identity is unknown. I wonder how developed theology is here.
At least the people in this city don't believe much in god.
They just know that such things exist, or know that there are people who go to church in the countryside.
"If I had to say, I'd be an endangered species. Maybe if there are many similar things, there might be one."
I think that if something happens down below while I'm up here, it could be considered that a fellow creature has emerged.
Saying this, a look of understanding appears on the face of the man in front of me. And his face became very relieved.
That's good.
It doesn't look like ghostly occult, but a creature that can be killed, right? And one whose species is on the verge of disappearing.
A fragile and sad creature facing extinction.
He looks at me with a face looking at such a creature.
"Then, what about the people you said you gave blessings to? Can you explain about the blessing that heals any wound and allows the use of special powers like the girl there now?"
His tone has changed.
It's closer to the tone of dealing with a somewhat dangerous person rather than confronting something of unknown identity. The form of address has changed from a respectful "you" to a condescending "you".
It's easy.
"I don't know well either. But I have some guesses. Is that okay?"
"Yes. Tell me."
Every time I ask for opinions, I can see the tension easing and strength entering his shoulders. I, who am in front of him, must now look like someone below him.
"I guess it might be drawing out the best possibilities. Aren't people originally that strong, smart, and capable of having special superpowers? However, perhaps because of that, it's impossible to draw it out again from someone who has already had it drawn out."
I have to add the last part.
It's explaining in advance why there isn't a second time. You did it the first time, why not the second time.
Many people think continued favors are a right. Therefore, to avoid being resented by others, I clearly draw the line.
Since I explained in advance, I'm pushing that all future mistakes should be borne by themselves.
In reality, I'm the bad one, right?
It's a fraudulent contract, so everything related to it is bad.
I pretend not to know and push it to one corner. And since I said I don't know exactly, I set up an escape route so that even if some facts are revealed after research, I can get away with saying I didn't know.
"That's... human ability?"
The surprised man asks me pressingly.
"Yes, that's right. I just push myself in. Rather, I don't even know why it happens that way. Aren't people originally strong?"
I gently push people up.
The man stares at me. And he asked this question:
"Why did you change them?"
This is a question asking with what intention I made people into harvesters. So I decided to tell only the truth.
"People wished for it. If they hadn't wished, I wouldn't have moved."
This question is actually shifting my responsibility to Victoria.
It's making them misunderstand that I'm like a mechanical device that opens up the possibility of having no will of my own.
I'm actually acting that way too.
I act believing that if given power, they will ruin themselves without needing to be pushed onto a dirty path. There's a saying that absolute power corrupts absolutely, right?
"Do you want power?"
I uttered the famous sentence that clearly states that you made the choice.
The man stared at me for a long time and then answered like this:
"I'll answer that question later."
Deferring is not a bad method. If he says he came from the royal family, he would be more familiar with this kind of verbal sparring than me.
And he left me and talked with Beatrice, Morris, and Victoria.
It's said to be a conversation, but strictly speaking, it's closer to pressing or interrogation.
After hearing that Beatrice and Morris don't know much about me, the man approached Victoria.
And he asked where she met me.
Then Victoria looks at me with a restless expression. Since she's asking if it's okay to tell everything, I said this:
"You can tell everything."
She told the story from when she was captured by the fish-people called Sahaggin until her escape. And at the end of that story.
When she said the Sahaggin tried to summon a god, the gazes of the people around turned to me, but I shook my head once and pointed at Victoria.
The story that when they called for a god, a huge monster woke up, but it wasn't the god they wanted. And the adventure story of how she almost became a monster there, but was completely healed by becoming a harvester, and barely survived with the superpower she gained then.
And she told the story of bringing me, who didn't want to go home, with her.
"How have you been living here?"
At the man's question, Victoria explains one by one the daily life I had here.
Beatrice, who had lived together for a week, also agreed with Victoria's words or added to the story.
It's very funny how Morris's gaze, who was listening to those words, gradually changes to "I'm sorry because of our daughter".
* * *
"Did you force the act they call blessing outside?"
"No. Rather, I told them not to think too hastily because there's no second time. That if they get injured in that state, they can't heal again."
At Beatrice's words, the wariness in the man's gaze dropped. It remains, but compared to what he was originally doing, it's as good as gone.
Hehe.
This is it.
This is why I act like a bystander as much as possible. No matter how much I want to steal warmth, I don't want to rush in like a beast and be hunted like an animal.
Consistency between words and actions.
It's important. The action of not lying shines the most at times like this.
After that, he talked a bit more about prying into my private life, and then warned not to talk about what happened now to unauthorized people.
And he left Victoria's house with the people who came with him. I thought we could just stay quietly at home until the heat cooled down, but...
The next morning at dawn.
A paper that's written as an invitation but read as an order flew in.
Various words were written on it in eloquent sentences, but if you remove all the modifiers and summarize the main points, it's this:
Invitation to the royal palace.
Press conference scheduled.
Awarding of commendation and prize money for actions during the Bern City disaster.
Admission to the Royal Academy.
Subjects: Belle & Victoria.
"No, Mom. Then what about my clockwork knight school?"
"They say they'll support everything, so think of it as going to a better place..."
Victoria clutched her head, and Beatrice had an expression saying she knew this would happen.
Additionally, the "invitation to the royal palace" is different for me and Victoria. For Victoria, it's literally an invitation, but for me, my actual address changes from the Bete household to the royal palace.
They're taking me away under the pretext of protecting an innocent person with nowhere to go.
This is good as it's according to my expectations. Rather, I'm so happy it turned out like this when I wanted to do it. Now, how much warmth would I get if I make high-ranking officials into harvesters? This.
But there's one thing that bothers me.
"Academy, you're out of your mind."
Admission to the Royal Academy? You're telling me to go to school? At that moment, Victoria slowly approached me. And with a playful expression full of escapism, she asked me:
"Why, don't you want to go to the Academy?"
"I'm rather stupid compared to normal people..."
This is the problem. That's why I can't apply even though I have memories. Yeah.
"No way, you're a monster but you're stupid?"
"If you don't die, it's okay to be stupid."
Victoria, who had asked teasingly, nodded with a sullen expression.
"I've heard that if your head is bad, your body suffers, but I guess the opposite is also true..."