When we arrived home, there were items I hadn’t seen before.
Checking the items, there were clothes, food, and various other tools.
It seems the Heavenly Demon hadn’t figured out that Soo-oh had met the previous cult leader’s daughter. That’s fortunate.
I entered the room with relief and put Soo-oh down.
Soo-oh was startled by the items in the room and started to go get them, but suddenly stopped. Wondering if something was wrong, I looked at Soo-oh.
Soo-oh hesitantly pointed at the clothes.
“Can I touch them?”
So that’s what it was – she was hesitating because she thought they belonged to someone else. I approached Soo-oh, grabbed both her shoulders, and made her look at me.
“Soo-oh. I received you from the Heavenly Demon. Unfortunately, this means you belong to me from now on.”
Though it amounts to kidnapping a child who clearly has parents, what can I do? It’s already too late. Soo-oh looks at me with an expression asking what this person is talking about.
She’s too young to understand talk of ownership, I suppose.
But since she’s become a harvester, it won’t take long for her to understand what this means.
Since not only her body but also her mind has improved, she’ll probably understand quickly.
“Don’t you understand what I mean?”
At my words, Soo-oh lowered her head and answered “yes” in a small voice. Well, there’s no choice then. I’ll have to explain simply.
“Think as you wish, move as you wish, live as you wish.”
It’s not freedom but license. I want people to be this way. Until they can bear the consequences of living however they want.
“However I want?”
I was about to say yes. But the Faded Man’s memories shine. They say I must tell her this. That this knowledge is necessary to provide warmth for longer.
If that’s the case.
“However you want. But don’t forget that you must take responsibility for your own actions. Understand?”
Soo-oh nodded and immediately ran to where the new items were. She opens everything up as if receiving presents.
While I think taking responsibility is about freedom rather than license, a memory surfaces that knowing about responsibility allows one to better commit license.
Just as it’s not ignorant murderers but exploitative corporate presidents who kill more people, mass killing is always done by those above the law rather than those breaking it.
While I think that sounds more like telling someone to stand above the law, by that point license and freedom become the same word.
Since it’s not exactly wrong, I nodded in agreement.
I sat inside the house while Soo-oh was pulling out and examining the new items.
Ah.
The kitchen wall has a faint warmth. Well, it would be strange if it wasn’t warm since there’s an eternal fire.
I think I can let the child sleep here. Though I’m not sure about winter.
Speaking of which, winter is coming, and I’m not sure if Soo-oh will survive.
I’ll think about future matters later.
Well then, shall we try learning martial arts?
I have the memories, at least.
All five except Soo-oh learned martial arts systematically. Especially Eunjae would know best.
I pulled the martial arts knowledge from their memories.
And I laid out the memories, gathering as much of the martial arts portions as possible.
There’s quite a lot of similar content, including Eunjae’s martial arts, suggesting they share the same roots.
The problem is the part about gathering qi – what is qi anyway?
Come to think of it, while I have a magician’s memories, I couldn’t use magic at all. Beyond whether magic was simple or complex, I couldn’t perceive magical power at all.
You can’t do anything with something that doesn’t exist.
So even when I try moving my internal organs like they did, there’s no sign of anything moving. But I’m a bit anxious about changing my noisy heart like I did with Rebecca’s.
Because when Rebecca came back to life, she had neither light nor warmth, making it difficult for me to perceive her. I don’t know what happened to Rebecca when the first world fell into my location.
Of course, I’m still digesting the memories of the first world, but I can sense that Rebecca isn’t in there.
So I should avoid modifying my body as much as possible.
Let’s find a way to use martial arts.
Moving my internal organs around doesn’t show any way to obtain qi.
Should I try using Eunjae’s method?
Since I’m inside here, maybe something will come out if I try the method Eunjae used to extract me from the lower dantian.
Hmm. Hmm. Hmmmm…
No, even though I have the memories and remember all the sensations from that time, something important is missing so it won’t move.
Let’s say there’s a flood in a river and many things are being swept away by the water.
I remember how all the swept-away objects moved. But I don’t know water. The water part is completely empty.
Even if I imitate it, nothing comes out. Even if I can imitate the body’s internal movements, what’s the point without water?
While I remember how to move, I can’t follow along because there’s no force to push the body during movement.
No, maybe I could somehow imitate just the form?
But in that case, it would be better to use techniques that warriors used in other worlds. Like the warriors from the first world.
No, professional fighters like knights from the first world use special techniques like martial arts.
In other words, I can’t use them.
Does this make sense?
I’m quite a powerful monster but can only create harvesters?
Haah.
Well, I was already unfortunate from the moment I was suddenly thrown onto empty ground.
I’m giving pieces of Eunjae’s techniques to the currently living harvesters. Right now, Eunchun is the best at it. Then Jeonyang. Then Byeongil and Gapjae in that order.
Of course, I don’t know who would survive if they fought.
This is about how much of Eunjae’s memories they possess.
Since Soo-oh will also receive Eunjae’s memories today, she’s the youngest.
I’m wondering if I can extract just the martial arts more cleanly from Eunjae’s memories. If I could cleanly extract just the method of summoning me from Yasle’s memories.
Hehe.
Of course, I haven’t given up on attacking this world’s sorcerers and turning them into harvesters.
But we should always assume the worst.
The assumption that we can’t obtain sorcery.
I cut off my thoughts there. Instead, I watched Soo-oh excitedly examining the items while checking how other harvesters were moving.
First, Gapjae.
This person has guard duty as a protector every three days, so while he has a plan, he has little free time.
Moreover, the free time is filled with errands.
The Earth Management Hall Master. The leader of the wealthiest and most powerful hall keeps calling Gapjae for work.
They’re checking if Gapjae can be on their side. And knowing this, Gapjae works hard. Because they know it’s about making connections.
The Bamboo Hall ranked third, Sun Hall ranked fourth, and the Crane Hall ranked eighth and Stream Hall ranked ninth.
A total of five halls are plotting to drive out the current Heavenly Demon.
For reference, Elixir Plant deals with medicine. This includes regular medicine, dan medicine, and drugs.
Bamboo is intelligence, Sun handles the religious aspects of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, Crane handles logistics. Stream manages the overall territory where the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult is located.
The Sun Hall Master has the right to obtain the byproducts from here.
Originally in a religious organization, the Sun should be strongest, but since physical power comes first here, their influence is quite weak.
In short, you can think of them as agencies managing the villages around the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Following Gapjae’s perspective, I’m gathering information about the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult one by one.
They’re truly a good harvester.
Thanks to them, I learned that the Heavenly Demon is more unstable than expected.
For reference, Eunchun holds the second-ranked Turtle Hall, and Byeongil holds the sixth-ranked Mountain Hall.
Since Byeongil has almost been persuaded by the other five, strictly speaking, more than half of the Ten Hall Masters are planning to exclude the Heavenly Demon.
Additionally, Turtle handles ports, and Mountain handles minerals.
While young women come to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s main building to become slaves, men without talent in martial arts are dispatched to various locations. Among them, Mountain is practically an execution ground.
Commonly, criminals are sent to mines, right? It’s like that here too. But they earn a lot of money since they’re the first to profit from selling minerals. That’s why they rank high among the Ten Halls.
Overall, it’s quite a specialized structure, but the governing system is precarious.
While Gapjae provides this much information, what about Eunchun, who’s probably the strongest in terms of pure fighting power?
He’s absorbed in womanizing.
Of course, Eunchun isn’t bad. But when you suddenly rise to a high position and can get whatever you want, you tend to let your guard down, and women have exploited that gap.
The fifth-ranked Deer Hall specializes in brothels, and through Eunchun’s perspective, I watch as a woman introduced by their hall master manipulates him.
Listening in, it’s very cunning.
She erodes his mind by emphasizing how Byeongil, who completed the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique, is admired by the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult people, while saying she’s not like that, manipulating Eunchun’s heart.
She gives him alcohol and drugs until he can’t come to his senses, and they sleep together.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, full of plots and schemes.
A young man with only strength was taken down in an instant.
It seems Eunchun’s future isn’t bright. Honestly, it’s quite disappointing since I thought he would be the most rebellious figure.
Meanwhile, Byeongil.
Work is being done to install him as the next Heavenly Demon.
They whisper that the current Heavenly Demon doesn’t know how to use the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique while promoting Byeongil, talking about how he restored the Heavenly Demon Supremacy Step.
In other words, suggesting the current one isn’t genuine.
So he’s growing rapidly while taking elixirs sent by hall masters planning to betray the Heavenly Demon.
Seeing how they take all the medicine without suspicion, their future isn’t very bright either.
Finally, Jeonyang.
This person is training in the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique under the Heavenly Demon’s one-on-one guidance.
Enough to suppress Byeongil with the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique if they emerge using it as an excuse.
But from anyone’s perspective, the previous cult leader’s daughter’s movements aren’t visible.
While it’s certain that an incident will occur soon, it might take longer than expected.
What will happen?
I turned my gaze back to Soo-oh, who had fallen asleep leaning against me after playing around.
Getting up in the middle of the night is impossible now.
I covered Soo-oh with a blanket.