I ended up spending a night in the royal palace.
I couldn't return to my lodging, but the guest room I'm staying in now is also incredibly luxurious.
The problem is that when giving partial points for how good it is for using people compared to the lodging where I'm staying, it's quite scary that the lodging has the upper hand.
No, just how happy were they about making Aurora a harvester?
Listening to the scattered talk I hear, when Aurora was born and cursed, they tried everything but failed. They tried to reverse it somehow, but all methods failed and she was dying.
Even when the witch appeared, the magic they prepared to kill her ended in failure.
Well, since Maleficent was one of the strongest witches in this world, their best efforts weren't enough preparation.
Maleficent was a witch who erased several countries by herself.
In the midst of that, since I saved Aurora, it seems they want to do everything I want.
I don't understand.
Anyway.
"We have a visitor."
"Ah, you noticed?"
Other people might not have noticed, but since she's one of the few harvesters in the royal palace.
"Hello."
"Yes, hello. You helped us again this time."
Aurora Dormiens.
Various titles are attached in front and that's also used as a name, but if you cut out just the person's name, that's it.
By the time I was called by the king, she had come up from the basement where she hid with the prince.
Currently, King Hyperion and Prince Sorindiges are being torn apart in real-time trying to deal with the aftermath of the incident in the capital.
Aurora came to find me now that she's free.
She has heard various stories from people, so she knows the overall situation in her own way. It means she's not completely ignorant.
Should I get simple goodwill here by saying I helped?
Or should I pretend to be a good child while denying it?
Let's affirm.
Being too good of a person is rather suspicious. Moreover, since the intention really reaches evil, it's useless to use it if it's not real.
"Yes. Maleficent can no longer do bad things by her will."
Even if it's used to do bad things, it's not done by her will, right?
"I see. I came to visit once because I heard you're the person who saved me. You know my name, right?"
"Yes, I know."
Aurora is wearing light and simple clothes with few patterns, but according to Kanna's memory, she's wearing clothes made of very precious materials.
An outfit that people who know would immediately recognize as a princess's.
Aurora knows this.
It's because Aurora fell asleep half a year ago, and until then, she was properly learning what a princess should learn.
Additionally, she knows well what people think.
Since she was a girl who was essentially scheduled to die this year, many people pitied her. And not just her family, but people working in the royal palace did too.
Perhaps because she's sensitive, she grew up constantly feeling those gazes.
As a result, she came to look for the reason, and even found it.
But she pretended not to know such things and went to sleep prepared for death when the fateful day came.
She says she was afraid of death.
But she wasn't foolish enough not to know that the environment surrounding her until then was moving on the premise of her death.
"Can I call you Belle?"
"Call me whatever you like."
It's an expression faintly mixed with resentment. Will she express that resentment towards me? Or will she pass over it like this? I know harvesters well.
Especially if it's a harvester that was made not long ago.
"Belle."
Aurora came in front of me. And she bowed her head in front of me.
"Thank you for helping us."
She conveys her gratitude like that.
That's right.
She's a person who, while knowing that others pity her, didn't use that as a reason to act as she pleased.
Because she's a weak person, and unhappy.
Instead of using that as a reason to do terrible things to others, she rather treated others better during her living time.
She's not an ordinary person.
A very small portion are evil, a very small portion are good, and most people go back and forth between the two. She was a little better than ordinary people.
She's smart.
After contemplating what kind of thoughts it's good to fill oneself with when living life. She's smart enough to have chosen to live loving others.
I thought that pillar had collapsed, and now that the moment had come when she could do anything, she would do as she pleased.
But no.
"Alright. Aurora. If you really feel grateful, please listen to what I want."
So I twist it.
"What you want? What is it?"
Aurora asks me. I don't intend to do anything too strange.
"For the rest of your life. Do what you want to do."
She became a harvester, and now she doesn't have to show only good appearances while receiving affection with death as collateral. Since she now has a future where she can do anything, I encourage her to do what she wants.
And it's even better if she has many children.
This is an investment.
After puberty comes in the future, it's okay to go as desires develop excessively and as desires go. If it's the royal family, it's not bad to live a life of killing each other in power struggles befitting the royal family.
In my expectation, Aurora will remain a good person until the end, but that choice isn't bad either.
Because I've already tasted the fruits of when such a good person spreads widely.
The first world.
The descendants of Tis.
They were really delicious people. Moreover, if their number is sufficient, I can come up to this level without making a separate body.
"That's a bit of a strange thing to say."
"A strange thing to say?"
"Why are you telling me to do what I want and that's what you desire?"
Hmm. Most people interpret plausible stories on their own, but this person asks about it. I like the aspect of not thinking she understands something she doesn't know.
I don't like that it's directed at me though.
Should I make excuses?
No. Here, the more I make excuses, the stranger it becomes. Let's use complex expressions to throw her off.
"That's what people are, right?"
It's like answering "just the right temperature" to the question "What temperature do you like?", but I showed a very helpless appearance.
Even if I give a somewhat foolish answer, there won't be much to point out greatly.
"What do you mean that's what people are? Is doing what you want to do what people are, so Belle wishes for that? Isn't that, wishing for nothing?"
She's poking in sharply.
How scary.
"Why does that become wishing for nothing? People call me because they have wishes. I answered and gave myself. I wish for the person containing me to do what they wish to do."
I grant wishes indiscriminately.
I believe that if you give power indiscriminately, not distinguishing between good people and bad people, most people will walk a bad path.
People who commit crimes don't do it because they dislike good actions, but because they believe they won't be punished even if they gain benefits through bad deeds.
For them, there are only two things: easier things and harder things.
Except for special exceptions, most people are like that. So to increase public safety, rather than how cruelly you punish those who commit crimes, it's more important how well you catch those who commit crimes.
People don't move well unless the probability of getting caught when they do bad things is high.
How much you punish is secondary.
That's public safety to maintain society. Public safety isn't done to maintain justice. The reason high-ranking officials or their children aren't punished even if they commit crimes in various societies isn't because they receive money from them.
It's because letting them go has no correlation with maintaining public safety.
Because public safety is a tool to prevent your livestock from killing each other and lowering their commercial value.
And powerful strength allows you to stand above the law in most worlds. It allows you to cross the line dividing livestock and people.
People who have just become people from livestock lack the know-how to rule livestock.
So they do as they please.
That's when warmth flows into me. The failure of immature ones with only strong power always conveys warmth to me.
I believe in that.
Not good and evil, but that people are imperfect. So I believe they will always fail.
"Belle is a god who grants wishes."
"I'm a monster."
"Then you must be a devil."
The dichotomy of good and evil. It's not a bad method. Digital is simple and clean.
"But you came back to life, right?"
"Yes. I thought I was going to die, but my body completely healed, and the witch who was tormenting our country's people disappeared. If I got that by selling just my soul, it's cheap, isn't it?"
Saying that, she looks at me with a sharp expression. If I answer wrong here, it's dangerous. Aurora has a good personality, but that doesn't mean she's soft.
She has the intelligence to distinguish between conventional good and evil, and the strength of heart to adhere to goodness even while knowing a hopeless future.
So, I properly deny one thing.
"I don't need things like souls. I'm a monster, but just. There's only one thing I need."
"What you need?"
I nodded while looking at Aurora.
"Warmth. I don't want to be alone sinking in darkness anymore, looking up at the night sky and trembling."
I said this with my true feelings.
Even though that warmth isn't the warmth you know.
"I see."
Aurora was about to say something but swallowed it. And she said she was sorry for intruding late at night and left this place.
And she returns to her room through a secret passage.
Aurora.
She would be dangerous if she becomes an enemy.
Since I have time, it might be good to restrain myself a bit until she grows old and dies.