"Belle, is something wrong?"
As we were about to leave after the last class of the week, Victoria suddenly asked me.
"What do you mean?"
I knew Victoria had been looking at my face several times, but she wasn't focusing on any particular area. So I thought it was just a whim, but Victoria said something unexpected.
"You look upset."
Hmm, is that so?
I touched my face. I didn't think my expression was that obvious.
"Really?"
"You know you're saying yourself that you're in a bad mood, right?"
I nodded. The fact that I'm in a bad mood isn't something I need to hide. Why are you looking at me with surprise that I answered?
"I thought it might take time to explain, but you nodded right away. So what's wrong?"
I can't explain everything, but it's a rule to only state facts when asked a question.
Without that, I wouldn't know where to start or where to end. If I lie, I can't take it back somewhere.
It would be faster for others to figure me out than for me to figure myself out.
It's not that I can't trust myself. I just don't forget that there are people smarter than me.
"I'm cold."
"Huh? Is it that cold today? Or are you sick? You don't seem to have a fever..."
Victoria puts her hand on my head to check for a fever. Victoria's hand is warm. While I'm surprised at how high her body temperature is, Victoria asks several questions with a serious expression. But since neither applies, I shake my head from side to side.
To begin with, I don't even know if this body is capable of being sick.
"It's okay. The time when I could forget the cold has just retreated far away."
Yes. All my expectations have been overturned.
Kanna gave up on killing her family and rising to the top, and in Bern City, people stopped acting selfishly.
And when it rained, as if waking from a dream, the people in Brightshin no longer frantically record knowledge.
Nothing satisfactory has happened.
But it's okay.
I've already done a lot.
Aurora and Kanna. Princess and Duke's daughter. I've made people of high rank into Harvesters.
Even if they themselves can't expect it, who knows what might happen with their children, their descendants.
Even if the people moving in Bern City have become kind themselves, the world could be different.
Of all things, I created a religion.
For now, it's in the form of a primitive religion where they pray to me in gratitude. I'm not a god yet, and they don't think they're believing in a god either.
They just look up to me, like praying with clasped hands to a great person.
But how would people unrelated to religion view this? In a country that has chosen reason and rationality as its main ideology, religion is old and base.
It's perfect for being ostracized.
And in the Brightshin slums. The immediate spread of knowledge like a plague has stopped. If it had continued, I would have been more comfortable. A little more comfortable. Just that much.
Not only does knowledge increase, but the number of people who see it increases. And when people with power and authority see it, the probability of them taking it increases.
But it's okay if it doesn't happen.
I found out that knowledge is properly entering, and the Harvesters will properly draw out the techniques stored in their heads.
No matter how long it takes, if this world is optimistic about science and technology, it can't escape this technology.
It's just that all the fast food that could be eaten immediately has been taken away.
There's a lack of quick and easy warmth.
But it's not to the point where I need to harvest warmth from the Harvesters right now. I'm not that unprincipled.
I'm not stupid enough to crumble and fail to keep my own rules. Patience is my specialty. Now I have to slowly take time to watch the world progress.
The Harvesters have already burrowed into people.
About 25,000 of them.
Harvesters with superior physical abilities and high intelligence are mixed in. Who has the advantage in the survival competition?
Clean skin itself can become beauty.
Among the Harvesters, there are many women who work in the sex industry. After changing, they returned to that profession. They returned with much more beautiful and healthy bodies. It's an era without contraception.
Even their appearances have improved. Who do you think will have a higher reproduction success rate?
I just have to wait.
Wait for the descendants of the Harvesters to cover the world.
Even if all living beings become descendants of Harvesters, the world won't collapse.
I just need to choose those in leadership positions among them and push myself in. Then I can automatically gain warmth.
The descendants of Harvesters don't have me in them until I recognize that descendant and push myself in.
Using contract text to spread widely is easy and fast, but I learned in the first world that doing so breaks the world. So even if it takes time, I'll go safely.
However, it's dangerous if reason and rationality move in a distorted form and events like ethnic cleansing of Harvesters occur.
No, it's not necessarily dangerous.
As long as there are superpowers. Even if that happens, the possibility of Harvesters being defeated is low. In fact, there are already Harvesters in this world who have gained brainwashing abilities.
"Is that your story? The one where you said you were an Outer God?"
At that moment, Victoria casually thrust the blade of truth deep into me. I really felt a sudden chill in my chest.
This is why.
This is why I desperately stick to the rules. How on earth do you reach the truth?
Probably.
I made mistakes, and Victoria pieced together those fragments. There's no guarantee that only Victoria can do this. She's not special, and I'm not a genius.
It means many people will reach the truth. So shouldn't I desperately follow the rules with my foolish mind?
I have to try.
Outer God. Outer God, huh. I'm not a god. Who said it first?
Ah.
"Some witch called me that. But I'm not a god, so it was quite funny."
At my words, Victoria looks up at the empty space. Is she imagining the witch's appearance? It must be ridiculous. Giving such a name to a simple monster that's not even a god.
It's a lifetime mistake, isn't it?
"She must have been terribly afraid of Belle. That's why she gave such an easy-to-understand name."
"Why are you sympathizing with her?"
"Because Belle is very easy to understand?"
Perhaps always telling the truth is the most excellent rule among the rules I've set.
If I didn't have something like that.
I might have already been hanging somewhere.
"I knew I was somewhat easy to understand, but to that extent? No, if it's easy, shouldn't there be nothing to fear?"
At my question, Victoria crossed her arms. Then she tilted her head this way and that for a moment, organizing her thoughts.
In my opinion, someone whose thoughts are clearly visible would seem like easy prey to manipulate, so it's unexpected to hear an opinion that it's scary because of that.
"Belle, you're seeing the aspect of being easy to understand as one thing, right? But there are aspects that you deliberately show to appear easy to understand, and aspects that you reveal without even knowing. The two are different."
I know about the former. I'm doing it on purpose after all. I must take note of the latter. My weakness is coming out so simply.
"Is the hidden aspect scary?"
"No. That part, well. I won't say it yet."
Then Victoria suddenly brought her face close to mine.
"Then, shall you force me to hear it?"
I want to hear it. But.
"No, Victoria. I don't force anyone."
Even though minor accidents happen in the process of inserting memories, I really don't intend to distort consciousness. I need to be clear with myself to be confident.
But.
I have forced someone before.
Yes.
In the second world.
When heading to Mount Kunlun.
I closed my eyes.
At that time, I craved the memories of the Primitive Heavenly Lord so much. The technique to move other worlds. So I rushed to Mount Kunlun and obtained it.
Now I've unleashed it in this world.
So that I can stand in this world and cross over to other worlds.
So that an unhappy future comes to everyone.
So that a happy era where I can gain warmth comes to me.
I made the right choice.
Therefore, I open my eyes again.
"How will Victoria see me now?"
"Now? To me, Belle will always be Belle."
Victoria smiled brightly and moved away again. Then she placed her hand on my head.
"Ahaha! To feel better because of this. Belle, you're incredibly twisted."
In the classroom where people with business have already left, and only people chatting like us remain.
Victoria moves towards the exit. I follow her.
"By the way, what happened to that witch?"
I recalled the small witch who didn't know when to smile. She wasn't a Harvester.
"Well, I wonder what happened to her."
After falling to where I was. She disappeared as if she had never existed from the beginning. I really don't know what happened to her because I didn't do anything.
"You don't know?"
"She disappeared like a bubble, but I don't know if she really died. She didn't make a contract until the end, so I couldn't get warmth from her last moments."
Actually, I could have obtained it since we were in contact, but she disappeared without a trace as if the place where I was was originally cold like a refrigerator.
"Was she a bad witch?"
"She was a witch-like witch who bullied those weaker than her to steal their possessions, and when someone stronger came, she would taunt them while running away."
"Wow, what trash."
Victoria shakes her head.
Rather than her, there was another friend who was always with her...
I shook my head to scatter those thoughts and decided to change the subject. The story of other worlds is not yet necessary for this world.
"Victoria. The person who manages the place where I live says that escorts will come soon, so can we get along well from now on?"
"Isn't that something you should get along with, Belle?"
"I'm very open-minded, Victoria."
"When you say it like that, it makes me sound narrow-minded!"
Chatting like that, we left school.