Now it’s time to drive the final nail home.
The soldiers pointed their weapons at the leader, shouting at the top of their lungs. I stepped forward towards them.
As I walked ahead, people parted left and right to make way for me. Thank goodness they didn’t block my path.
I quickly reached the front of the leader and said to him, “If you just tell me who ordered this, you can live.”
Due to the harvesting machine’s abilities, he was already in a state where he couldn’t use any power. The leader was completely blocked. Although there were still some people standing by his side, the ones who turned to join my side were too many for him to overcome.
That’s because not only did he have one life to lose, but he also gained psychic abilities that could neutralize his opponents’ strengths.
Moreover, there was a cause, and a life was at stake.
As the forces grew, more defections happened, with people leaving the losing side to join the winning one.
I specifically kept an eye on the corporate spies.
If the leader confessed, at least at this point, he would survive. Conversely, if he confessed, all the blame would fall on the corporation.
I gradually pushed them into a corner.
Thinking that the corporate side should lose if possible, I stood right in front of the leader.
Instead of speaking, I reached out my hand.
The leader looked at me with trembling eyes. Though there seemed to be something odd mixed in his emotion, given the circumstances, it couldn’t be helped.
“I, I…”
He stammered as he let go of his staff and reached out toward me. Very good. There was someone stealthily moving from behind.
They moved with a weapon, ready to kill him.
Those were the eyes of an executor.
Perfect. I’ll distract him to make for a nice stab.
“Take my hand.”
He took a step forward. Then, the person who had been waiting for the opportunity jumped out and stabbed the leader before he could do anything.
Hehehe.
Thank you.
In the next moment, the assassin who had come from behind was killed by a weapon that flew at him. I approached the leader, who was lying there bleeding with a knife stuck in his abdomen.
And I recited the contract document.
The man agreed, and I obtained the information.
But at the moment he resurrected, another harvesting machine ran forward with a weapon, trying to stab the leader.
However, that attempt failed.
It was because there were already many people on high alert.
The leader looked at the harvesting machine that tried to kill him with a horrified expression. After all, it was someone he had trusted, a subordinate who had listened to him fairly well.
“Whose orders did you follow?”
“Chairman of Rocketmobile…”
Yes. I know.
But what’s crucial is whether the people present hear this.
“What order did he give?”
“To turn the investigation protest in Bern City into a riot and suppress it… For two years, he promised to make me Marquis Gaston if I upheld my end.”
This guy is from the Marquesa Gaston family. The half-brother of the person who was killed yesterday.
“When did he say that?”
“This morning.”
“After Marquis Gaston was killed.”
A murmur spread among the crowd. It implied that there was some nefarious intent at play. It means there is a culprit behind the havoc that has befallen Bern City.
Yes.
Most of the soldiers here have families living in Bern City. So they had suspicions about why they were attacking a city they were supposed to protect.
But when the truth pours in, conviction begins to take hold.
It means the protesters aren’t the bad guys. And they realize there’s a true enemy apart from that.
Since what they did has become wrong.
They will want to erase the true enemy. Because only then can they try to escape their wrongdoings. For them, I’ll call out the names of the enemy one by one.
“Pride Industry, Rocket Mobile Company, Gun and Rufu Company. What on earth did these three companies do this for?”
“I don’t know. My brother… the head of the family didn’t know that either.”
Well, seeing as it’s been two years, it doesn’t seem like he intended to keep it hidden until the end.
However, this makes the murmurs even louder.
At that moment, Victoria walked over here. She grabbed the collar of the man who could be summarized with the name Richard Gaston, minus the minor titles, and lifted him up.
“Is that why you messed up the village without knowing anything?”
“That was my only chance to become a true noble! Who wouldn’t seize that opportunity? You too! You leaped at the chance as soon as it came along!”
Hehehe.
He’s talking like a fool. The expressions of the soldiers looking down at him are getting colder.
Still clueless, Richard Gaston droned on about how he’s a bastard and could never be part of the noble society and how this was a rare opportunity that came his way.
I couldn’t care less about that, so I took hold of Victoria’s hand and released her hold on Richard Gaston.
And once I set him down, I asked Gaston, “Still, you must have some doubt, right?”
I have this guy’s memories.
He’s not the type to blindly follow orders given to him. He knows that if he’s reduced merely to obeying, he’ll end up discarded once it’s all over.
That’s because he clawed his way up to where he is now, so he doesn’t trust promises like a fool. Promises are made between those who can stab each other, not with those who can just dispose of someone unilaterally.
“Sure. The clockwork puppet rampage that happened in Bern City. The clockwork puppets had a fundamental problem from the get-go, and that finally blew up. And the corporation thought that in two years, they could solve it. Until then, they wanted to brush it under the rug.”
The corporation is pure if anything.
For their profit, they don’t care about others’ losses. They don’t give a damn if people die. That’s just what corporations do.
They sneak toxic waste into rivers, bury waste that needs special disposal in the ground, and ignore when people living nearby get sick from factories, claiming it’s not their responsibility, using every means available to sweep problems that can end humanity under the rug for profit.
There’s something infamous from a faded memory of the world.
Lead in gasoline. Ethyl gasoline. If one person hadn’t fought desperately, the next generation would have suffocated under lead-laden air, and all life would have perished from lead poisoning.
The corporation that tried to drive all humanity to lead poisoning was merely attempting to make this problem disappear for profit.
They didn’t have any particular desire to commit mass murder or push everyone into suffering. They just liked money.
Thus, corporations inevitably become evil.
In a world where someone must be exploited to gain benefits, they remain indifferent to consuming others. Even if it comes back to strangle them, they will turn a blind eye until the moment of death.
If not, they’ll get eliminated, and someone more indifferent will climb over them.
“Just for that? To kill people?”
I pulled Victoria, who had lost her words, close. As if it was because of her that I was escaping this location, I used her as an excuse to get out.
Because corporate spies are busy working right now.
They’re inputting something into the clockwork puppet. And the results came instantly.
Bam!
Suddenly, the clockwork puppet blew the head off of a soldier beside it.
“What the hell!”
“I didn’t do anything! Troion is moving on its own!”
“Stop! I said Stop!”
“Caballus isn’t listening either!”
“Pull the emergency stop lever!”
“I already pulled it! But it’s not responding at all!”
Troion and Caballus are the names of the clockwork puppets they are riding. Troion resembles an armored exoskeleton, while Caballus resembles a robot.
They’re all war machines.
The army was completely scattered.
If the person on the clockwork puppet is an enemy, that’s one thing. But the person on it is a victim.
As hesitation set in because of that fact, the clockwork puppet took the chance to kill people.
But an army is an army.
The confusion was momentary.
The soldiers began to destroy the clockwork puppets one by one.
There were people inside crying out that they didn’t want to die, asking to be let out. And there were those whose bodies were twisted from the puppet’s reckless movements, begging to be killed instead.
The harvesting machines, as well as those who weren’t even harvesting machines but were now smeared in despair, turned on their former comrades.
Screams rang out, and the death toll rose.
At the same time, warmth began to gather.
At this moment, the cold isn’t just chilly; it’s refreshing. I held onto Victoria and headed straight to Polaris, who was hiding below, holding her breath.
I had seen everything I needed to see here.
The truth had become the truth. Because the very fact the clockwork puppet was moving on its own to hide that truth paradoxically proved it as the truth.
Furthermore, this wasn’t about fighting monsters as usual or remotely killing villains causing riots.
Right now, despite being a comrade, the situation was such that the passengers needed to be killed because it was too difficult to neutralize the puppets.
It was a time when hearts would break.
After that, it would be easy.
The spilled blood would injure others.
Did they call it PTSD?
Of course, if there are those who adequately care for them, recovery is possible, but this is such a world. An era where even the concept of mental illness is still lacking.
Who would bother with them?
As always, when the war is over, the soldiers who fought turn into society’s trash and get cast out. Only the commander receives the honors and medals of merit.
The broken soldiers will soon fall into social evil.
In essence, this means that harvesting machines capable of providing warmth easily and quickly will emerge.
Since my objectives were achieved, it was time to head west.
There was the Twilight Association of Bern City sneaking in from the east. Those whom I see as enemies that I must defeat Victoria to confront.
Victoria will suffer, but I have to meet them and stir them up once for the harvesting machines to spread everywhere.
They’ll spread and become the cancer of society.
Hehehe.
It means the production of warmth will speed up. Had there only been the harvesting machine here, they wouldn’t have let it be so the second world could tarnish its image.
However, there are already many harvesting machines in the capital, and the royal family’s beloved princess, Aurora, is there.
The image of harvesting machines doesn’t need to be cared about anymore.
I just have to remain a simpleton who, despite having good intentions, doesn’t understand the world and pretends to save people as I make myself a harvesting machine.
Taking Victoria with me, I went down the path she came from and reunited with Polaris.
And pointing west, I said it was time to go back.
