While I was doing my after-school Harvester creation activities.
Bern City eventually became a battlefield.
At first.
People gathered in front of the city hall where the mayor works, holding pickets and protesting. There's justification because people have already died. They protested while throwing objects like stones or beer bottles.
It was an extremely peaceful protest.
In a country from the world in faded memories, it might be called a violent protest, but that's what's strange. Ordinary protests are not that different from riots.
Because humans are creatures that find it difficult to change without shedding blood, it's rather strange that it's peaceful.
But one person from the protest group demanded a fact-finding investigation.
Not simply asking why the accident in Bern City happened, but why they couldn't deal with the problems in the clockwork machines in Bern City that had been warned about for ten years.
When the person asking this question died, the survivors asked in a public place.
Instead of an answer to that question, fire came flying.
The police massacred the protesters.
Not only the men and women participating, but also people passing by nearby. Even children got involved and died.
People who were fleeing in panic after someone died instantly from their head being blown off started fighting in anger.
And there were many Harvesters in that protest group.
From those who could control water similar to Victoria, or conversely control fire, to those with superhuman strength impossible for normal humans, there were various superhumans.
Police armed with clockwork machines and protesters with superpower users.
At first, the police took the upper hand with powerful clockwork machines at the forefront. However, in this world, most people who have received secondary education can use magic.
It's not that there aren't powerful magicians in the police force, but the protesters had greater numbers. Plus, there are superpower users.
Rather, the protesters had more power.
So the police were gradually pushed back by the enraged protesters, and eventually were driven to a defensive position and set up camp inside the city hall.
And then a problem arose.
Not the police's clockwork machines, but the industrial clockwork machines that had been supporting the world outside started killing people.
As if someone had ordered it, people died from being hit by machines all over Bern City. Moreover, this time it's not like last time where they went berserk. Simple clockwork machines were fine, but the problem was with clockwork machines that had some level of intelligence, like the taxis from the Cogni Transportation Company.
Unlike last time when they went berserk, they targeted and attacked people.
Clockwork machines are killing people here and there. In faded memories, there are works where machines rebel, but this is more like people ordering machines to kill people.
Several taxis ignore people nearby and crash into specific houses, then explode, or houses become covered in blood.
They were clearly moving with a purpose.
To say it again, when you prohibit certain knowledge, it spreads widely.
This is what they want to hide.
The power devices used in current clockwork machines are defective. They use magic to create kinetic energy, but there's a problem with the structure itself.
It sucks in 100 units of magic power, uses 80, and discharges 20. The problem is this 20. It's clearly magic power, and it shows up as magic power on detectors. But if you gather this 20 to make 100 and put it into a machine, the machine doesn't work.
In the documents seen by Harvesters, it's called non-homogeneous magic power, and it's magic power that neither machines nor people can use.
Of course, if left alone, it naturally returns to original magic power, but in a place like Bern City with many power devices, it accumulates faster than it can naturally return.
It has reached a critical point.
At least according to the documents confirmed through Harvesters, that's how it is.
There's something similar in faded memories too. The Great Smog of London. In terms of being a man-made disaster, it's similar to this incident.
Looking through Harvesters' memories, it seems there hasn't been an incident like this before, so Bern City is the first case.
The most developed city. Bern City.
As such, there were more power devices than nature could handle, and an accident that was bound to happen occurred. And I could vaguely guess why clockwork machines were attacking people.
Clockwork machines are spreading throughout the world with convenience and earning enormous wealth. The power devices that go into almost all clockwork machines are organs that are almost impossible to replace.
There's a similar group in faded memories too. Oil companies. They desperately denied global warming. Because they might lose the money they earned.
It will be the same.
To keep their foundation from shaking, they'll do anything with the money they have.
So Bern City burned again.
If the first incident was a disaster where people rolled up their sleeves for each other and worked together, the second incident is a situation where they're killing each other.
Meanwhile, Harvesters are using their abilities to kill people, so warmth is pouring in.
Chaos feels really good.
It's just a bit strange that no one is talking about Bern City.
Even for controlled broadcasts, I wonder if it can be controlled to this extent. It must be either that the royal family is involved, or that the communication company is on the side of the clockwork machines.
Or both.
While watching one side of this country through the eyes of others like that, I went out again today with my escort to draw out the witch.
I walk aimlessly towards roads I've never been to before, illuminating the map, and appropriately go to crying people near Harvesters to make them into Harvesters.
Today, I made a man who had his jaw and chest torn in a work accident and was prepared for death into a Harvester.
When will the witch come?
I walk along the road thinking it would be nice if she had various knowledge like Yasle.
But I can't return to the lodging.
The road is strange.
Late afternoon.
The sun has just started to set. Even though tomorrow is a holiday, there's not a single person around, and streetlights that have just started to turn on are flickering on the empty road.
Not only is it a road with no one around, but the path I was walking on has completely changed at some point. Even Merriwather, who was beside me until just now, has disappeared from my side.
The witch?
But there's no one around.
The buildings I see around are not the buildings from my memory. Moreover, the entrances and windows are boarded up, making it difficult to enter.
And the building interiors visible in the darkness are in a mess.
Cobwebs and dust, shattered furniture. It looks like it's been abandoned for a long time.
When I raise my gaze to look at the sky, gloomy black clouds are writhing. It's not a proper sky.
If I turn my memory back a little, there weren't that many clouds in the sky.
If I'm not sure, I should try to complete the map.
Thinking that, I walk forward.
That's when I see a human shadow ahead. But it wasn't a person. It wasn't a living creature to begin with.
There's no light inside.
But it walked towards where I am. There's a clock and brass parts haphazardly stuck in half of its head, and blood vessels writhe between them. The outfit is that of an ordinary gentleman, but Kanna's memory says it's a fashion that's 80 years out of date.
A half-cut eyeball moves to look down at me.
And I look up at it.
The half-cut cross-section is covered with glass, and clock hands move inside. Following a long tube, yellow fat lumps writhe over an iron bar protruding above the head. Two of them pierce through the gentleman's hat.
Since it wasn't alive to begin with, there's nothing strange about it.
"Late. Late. Laaaaaate."
It opened its mouth. The last word is stretched out with an unpleasant crackling sound.
And it stretched out its hand to point somewhere.
"Find it. Faster. Hop hop."
After spitting out strange sentences as if run through a translator, it immediately turned its body and ran forward.
Its legs are strange. As if they weren't legs of flesh but compressed springs, they stretched out and flew far away.
Boing boing.
With an exaggerated and ridiculous sound, it disappeared from my sight in an instant. And as if telling me to follow, fragments like screws or springs are scattered along the path it went.
A strange space.
I moved my steps as it told me to follow.
Rumble!
No, I tried to move.
But the ground collapsed. The scattered bricks are fine. Past the bricks, brass drainage pipes are visible, and bone-dry soil is visible. As if there was originally a hole here, it's dry.
Usually, soil is moist when you dig it up.
And I fall down.
Down. Down. Down. Surprisingly, the walls have turned into bookshelves. Countless books are either inserted or full of bug-eaten books. Sometimes there are wet or burning books too.
Thud.
And I fell onto a sandy floor with surprising lightness.
When I jumped above the water surface at the Demon Cult, my lower body was shattered. But here I'm fine. It's as if I'm in a dream.
It's strange.
I haven't slept since becoming a monster. The bodies I use often fall asleep, but my mind is always awake.
I don't know if this is a dream or reality. Or if I'm in a fantasy.
I don't even know if I can distinguish between them in the first place.
I raised my head. I can see the hole I fell through up there, and rocks are surrounding it. When I lower my gaze, I see a cave full of darkness. When I lower my gaze further, there's one corpse of a dried-up rat.
Boing!
At that moment, I heard the sound I heard earlier from above.
I took my gaze off the rat's corpse and raised my head, and something with a clock diagonally stuck in its head came down to the floor. In its hand is a child that wasn't there earlier.
A broken bottle is stuck in the head, and it's even on fire. The hands are tattered and the legs are limp. There are characteristics visible between them.
White skin. Purple hair.
It's the child I revived not long ago. And it was a child who died today.
Dying is no big deal. Unfortunately, the child who became able to walk excitedly ran around and bumped into a drawer. And unfortunately, the jam jar on top of it fell right onto the head.
It was unfortunate that the house where a child who couldn't walk lived didn't have the opportunity to learn how dangerous it is for a child to move around.
And in the clock-head's hand is a child with jam instead of a brain in the head. The child waves at me. But before I could speak to the child, the clock-head stretched its legs like springs again and ran forward making a ridiculous sound.
Hmm.
Since I can't see through the child's eyes, that's not a Harvester.
It can't recreate that far.
Anyway, since there's no other way to get out of this world than to follow that, I moved my steps towards where the clock-head went.