After downing the bowl, Heavenly Demon looked down at her sweat-soaked clothes as if just realizing she had been sweating.
It’s interesting how when Soo-oh hesitated and pulled away, her hand strangely circled in the air trying to hold on.
Is human warmth warm?
It hasn’t been long since someone precious to her died.
They say when someone stays by your side in difficult times, that gratitude remains for a long time.
No, of course I didn’t make Soo-oh stick to her with that in mind.
I just interpreted her actions after seeing them.
I don’t look at people like some strategist thinking they’ll move according to my thoughts if I do this. I only know how people generally think, I can’t predict individuals.
I wish I had amazing intelligence.
Or at least some special brainwashing ability.
Since I have neither, I move spontaneously!
“Have you calmed down a bit?”
Heavenly Demon put down the bowl and put her clothes back on. She makes a disgusted expression, probably because the clothes are damp. Well, no one wants to wear clothes soaked in sweat.
But what can we do? Walking around topless would make you a pervert. A pervert.
Heavenly Demon fiddled with her collar then looked at me and opened her mouth.
“Is that why you want warmth?”
Oops.
Hmm, ah yes. It’s similar to the sensation of cold but fundamentally completely different. If she felt even a bit of that, she’ll realize I’ve been playing with the word ‘warmth’!
Excuses, word distortion, changing the subject, getting serious – several methods come to mind.
Since I only spoke truths, I don’t need to consider the before and after of lies. At times like this, I really become certain my choice was right!
Anyway.
“Yes. It’s cold, isn’t it?”
At my question, Heavenly Demon slowly nodded. Beside me, Soo-oh hugs me tight. No, Soo-oh, that’s not the kind of warmth I mean so hugging has no effect.
“Terribly.”
Heavenly Demon’s expression is extremely complex. Among that, I found the part pitying me. Oho, she’s pitying me?
It means she empathized with me. Why? Shouldn’t she just think I’m a monster craving warmth because I feel like I’ll freeze to death?
“How can you stay sane?”
Huh? Perhaps, does she think I’m human? Did she believe when I said I was human, and empathize from there? I vaguely see a breakthrough.
I need to choose my words carefully.
What should I do?
Um…
At times like this, it’s frustrating that my mind can’t produce answers immediately.
Can’t help it.
Let’s talk according to the rule of speaking only truth.
“I already went mad long ago.”
I’ll only tell the truth.
Begging please save me, then please kill me instead, begging, begging, endlessly begging. Having no body, I couldn’t decay and begged eternally.
By the time light appeared in the sky, the faded man’s memories were mere specks.
I don’t know if that much time really passed, or if there were no phenomena to estimate time by so it actually wasn’t that long ago.
Escape from reality? I probably tried to create different personalities too. But my body isn’t human.
Even if I wanted to place myself as another, there was only me besides the cold. No matter how much stress I received, my brain couldn’t break. I had no such brain.
Above all, the cold was too cold to allow escape from reality.
To alleviate that, I became able to do anything.
“But you don’t need to pity me so much.”
Really, thank you. You see me as a victim.
Strictly speaking, I am a victim. But I became a perpetrator. I’ll do anything to get what I want. Anything.
So when opportunities arise, I use them.
“How does it look to Heavenly Demon? Can you tell why I can’t use power?”
Heavenly Demon closed her eyes. Not meaning she doesn’t want to talk with me more, but to organize her thoughts.
And Heavenly Demon opened her eyes. She put her answer into words.
“If it’s the principle of this world that all things in heaven and earth are born from one flow, and return to that flow after declining with time’s passage, you must be on the other side of that principle’s shadow.”
More poetic words came out. It’s hard to interpret. What on earth does that mean?
Can’t you answer a bit less literarily?
I made an expression saying I don’t understand so explain.
She looks at me with contempt as if wondering how someone with such a brain can stay alive. It’s like the expression the man in the faded memories made when someone older than him talked about flat earth theory.
Is this the sorrow of a regular person standing between liberal arts and sciences?
“If internal energy, qi, is the foundation that forms this world, you are the rule that denies its existence.”
In short, she means I can’t use it because I’m me.
“No, but Eunjae and others use it well from me?”
“That’s why it’s so terribly destructive. This isn’t simple power, but a principle that denies all things in the world.”
Heavenly Demon suddenly stopped speaking. And makes an expression of realizing something.
“Ah, so that’s why he said he saw the end of the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique. Back then, I thought it was because he became Martial God and grew arrogant.”
Heavenly Demon raises her hand with a bitter expression and looks down at her palm.
“He was right.”
She clenched her fist and lowered it again.
Judging from her words, it seems she’s figured out that I’m a dangerous being.
I just briefly experimented to understand my power, but how did things roll this way? Isn’t this too unfair? How should I choose my words?
While I was pondering like that, Heavenly Demon approached me.
There’s no killing intent.
Rather, she looks at me with an unnaturally transparent expression.
“Did you come here to destroy this world?”
See? Though I don’t know why she makes such an expression, it ends up like this anyway.
But, I can answer this without lying.
No, rather it’s an opportunity. Let’s saturate with packed information. Pour out truths to make her forget the real questions she should ask.
I put in sincerity.
“I don’t want the world to be destroyed. Rather, the opposite. The world needs to grow bigger. I want people to go where they haven’t gone, reach where they haven’t reached, far away, beyond the sky, advancing into infinite space.”
Only then will people kill more people.
When people exceed a certain number and become figures on paper, numbers on screens, they become numb.
They kill countless people without even feeling that they’re killing people.
Numbers paralyze people.
A murderer killed just one person, but those in power kill hundreds, thousands. They don’t even have the awareness that they’re killing people.
It’s not because those people are psychopaths.
Because it’s not people but numbers that changed, they can’t feel it.
I like such people.
Such people will bring me warmth. Every day, they’ll exploit the have-nots and dry them to death. That way they’ll kill many people and give me warmth.
They’re optimal talent for harvesters.
For that, there need to be more people. Beyond tens of billions, more.
Until you only see numbers, not people.
“The world must not be destroyed. Never.”
Something like the first world must never happen again.
“Yes. You don’t lie. At least not lies.”
After saying that, Heavenly Demon looked up at the sky from the kitchen. The kitchen has no wall at all on the west side, and a small door on the east side.
So stepping out leads right outside.
Heavenly Demon who was looking up at the sky lowered her head.
“I’m tired today so I’ll head back early.”
She started walking then suddenly stopped. And looked back.
“It’s impossible for you to use qi. Well then, goodbye children. See you tomorrow.”
She says one last thing before leaving.
The faded man’s memory brings up the word ‘teabagging’. What’s this image of a kid repeatedly sitting and standing in place?
While there was almost no reaction in the first world, it comes up well in the second world. This memory.
I saw Heavenly Demon off and turned my gaze to Soo-oh.
I wonder what this child is thinking after hearing our conversation.
“What does Soo-oh think about Heavenly Demon’s words?”
The tiny child who barely reaches my waist opened her mouth without much thought at my question.
“Choseol weak. Pitiful.”
Showing excellent warrior qualities.
But Soo-oh came closer to me as if having more to say. And hugged me.
“It’s okay! Soo-oh will become strong and protect you!”
Is that what you say after hearing all the conversation until now?
Isn’t there something else?
Based on watching the conversation with Heavenly Demon, I know you’re smart?
“But why am I just Choseol, while Heavenly Demon is Master?”
“Because Choseol is weak?”
She immediately stabs with facts. Wonder where she learned that.
Well, this world has a culture of respecting those who teach martial arts. So it’s not strange for Soo-oh to follow that.
“Rather, why does Choseol call Master ‘Heavenly Demon’? Name. That’s not it.”
She asks that?
There was a time when Heavenly Demon was teaching the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique and the topic of names came up. Though Soo-oh learned Jeongha’s name then too, we just moved on that day so I didn’t know she had questions.
But this has an answer.
“When exchanging names, she introduced herself as Heavenly Demon. To me, that’s her name.”
I explained what I was, and she who was he called herself Heavenly Demon.
It won’t change in the future.
Why, you ask?
She fulfilled her wish, and I got what I wanted too. So from now on too, she is Heavenly Demon.
Soo-oh stares at me.
“You’re just being petty because she didn’t teach you her real name, right?”
Hehe.
I raised my index finger to my lips.
Soo-oh made an expression saying I’m pathetic.
“If you have no breasts, your heart is small too.”
Indeed, I’m just tall, while Heavenly Demon is both tall and has large breasts. If Choseol’s age were adult it might be different, but estimating the period, it’s around 14 years old.
Being only tall for the age is due to body modification. Probably they raised me tied up near zero gravity conditions so only height increased.
If I had gone out, she would have been unable to walk. Because she didn’t have proper supporting muscles, being only cruelly cultivated.
More than that, seeing Soo-oh speak, there’s one thing I can tell.
Isn’t this child truly a born fighter?