What should I do?
I have to cook with some ingredients someone brought me.
The problem is, I have no idea how to make these edible.
“Can you cook?”
Around dinner time, an old woman who threw a girl at me after saying she would be a maid asked.
The girl shook her head side to side. Her face and hands were puffy, like a bear’s paw. Diseases are common in this world.
Even if you have special powers, it doesn’t extend to everyone. That’s how the world where the Faded Man lives is, even more advanced worlds are the same.
Wait, are you telling me I have to take care of a child too?
This ramshackle cottage about to collapse, the food thrown haphazardly, and the maid, or rather, the girl about to break down.
It’s the petty malice of Cheonma showing.
I can handle myself, but what am I supposed to do with this kid? Steal her warmth?
Becoming a monster would be cold, but at least it wouldn’t cause pain. Or would it?
I could turn her into a harvesting tool, but in the current situation, doing so would only prolong the suffering.
What should I really do with this kid?
Just as I was wondering, the small child was trying to do something with the cooking ingredients. Her hands, swollen like a bear’s paw, could hardly move her fingers.
I just let her do what she wanted.
Tomorrow, Cheonma might suddenly change his mind and try to chop my neck.
“No, kid! Don’t hold the knife like that!”
I’m going insane.
I snatched the knife from her. And no, I can’t let you look at me with those sad eyes; some things are just not allowed.
All the memories related to the kitchen insist on slapping me before teaching not to handle knives recklessly.
I understand, but doing that to this child seems a bit much.
That’s something to say only when it comes to someone’s child, but this girl might understand if I just talk to her, right? And she’d need to handle knives eventually.
For cooking or stabbing someone.
At least in this world, the back side seems easier to live on.
No, would it be better to make her a harvesting tool and make her human?
If I fix her appearance, I could create plenty of harvesting tool offspring.
Hmm.
The memories of the Faded Man are surprisingly quiet. They shine like they’re highlighted whenever I need them.
If I look through the memories of the four harvesters, I’ll see how to use the food ingredients, so I’ll need to cook something.
But there’s no fire.
There are no tools to light a fire in the kitchen, not even wood for fuel.
So I twisted reality a bit, put some water in, looked for a pot to boil, and found one rusty enough to throw out and make a new one.
And I might as well bring some dishes.
Ka-deuk.
Since I made a bit too much, the kitchen cracked a little. Such a fragile world.
But it’s slowly shrinking, so by tomorrow, it should heal back.
Cooking done.
Honestly, it ended up as dog food, but I set the table and took it to my room. As soon as I entered the chilly room, I hurried back to the kitchen because it was warmer with the remaining fire.
First, let’s fill the kid’s stomach and think.
When I scooped a spoonful to taste, it turned out to be thick dog porridge, not dog food.
Failed at adjusting the water. Tomorrow’s me will do better, right?
I just sat there carelessly in the kitchen and ate with the kid.
“What’s your name?”
In response to my question, the kid mumbled something, but I couldn’t hear it. It seems she has vocal cords, but maybe the muscle is the problem?
Looking at her mouth, it’s not that she can’t speak, but she doesn’t seem to be able to communicate.
Seeing the faint light coming from various parts of her body suggests there’s some kind of parasite in her.
But just like I couldn’t steal warmth, I can’t do that to her either. If I steal her warmth, she’ll turn into a monster and tear me apart.
Is it better to take her warmth and let her die? Or should I turn her into a harvesting tool?
I thought while watching the kid with a mouthful of thick porridge.
*
Early in the morning.
It’s really chilly, probably because there’s water nearby. I left the decaying blanket in the room and laid the kid next to the kitchen fire.
I might have brought a strange fire that doesn’t go out even though it shouldn’t burn anything. It’s not something nuclear or dangerous, right?
Well, if it was radiation, I’d be dead by now.
I may not know, but this kid is human.
That aside, something interesting is happening right now.
Gapjae, who returned on duty, is currently on guard duty. Of course, it’s not out in the cold; he’s seated in a much better place than the house I’m living in.
The ones actually on duty are people lower in rank than Gapjae.
Anyway, an amazing person appeared in front of Gapjae.
The daughter of the former church leader, apparently.
She’s ridiculously famous, known by all four harvesters. It seems she left the Cheonma Church for a while but has returned. She’s trying to convince Gapjae she’ll enter quietly for some reason.
The harvesters all think the current Cheonma treated her well, but it seems their relationship is surprisingly bad?
She said she doesn’t want the Cheonma to know she’s come back.
Gapjae nodded in agreement.
Gapjae knows the rumor that the disappearance of the previous Cheonma was caused by the current one. And the three others, including him, think the former Cheonma was a good person.
Well, to be precise, there were four.
Yes.
Jeonyang also thinks the former Cheonma was a good person.
I don’t think he was that good, though.
Why?
Because a person who created a system for inserting bugs into human bodies can’t be considered a good person, right? This system wasn’t created by the current Cheonma.
In fact, it’s a system that has been in place since the previous one, or even earlier.
Anyway, Gapjae allowed the daughter of the former church leader to enter.
He could have set some conditions, but he just let her pass and then sat at his post, chuckling to himself.
Maybe he has some plan too? Once the harvesting period starts, everything will be monitored in real-time, so it’s unfortunate I won’t know what he’s thinking unless he speaks or uses something.
Of course, I can read, but I would have to decipher the countless neural clusters responding in his brain.
Well, what should I do?
I can’t.
So I just watch as Gapjae giggles.
Eunchun and Byeongil are sleeping, while Jeonyang is deeply focused on Cheonma Martial Art in the training area where I saw him yesterday.
It’s pretty funny to see Cheonma waiting in front of the training room, sitting in a very feminine position compared to when he threatened me.
Is gender identity confusion a tragedy? I’m not sure.
Honestly, I don’t really care about Cheonma.
More than that, I’m more interested in the group of magicians that summoned me.
A summoning method unrelated to Yasle’s style.
It would be great if I could get their memories…
To do that, I need to extend the harvesting period a bit, don’t I?
The Cheonma Church reveres strength.
In other words, they are willing to do anything to gain power.
Once they find out that the harvesting period grants immense power, there will be plenty of applicants. Considering the environment of the Cheonma Church, there’s a high possibility that there are magicians among them.
To do this, I’ve let people know I’m here.
The two men who brought food to me will spread the word.
Because they’re people who have no need to keep their mouths shut. Also, they’re the kind of people who can easily talk to anyone.
If someone important had come in looking important, the Cheonma might treat me like a big deal, but thankfully, I’m mostly being neglected.
While at it, I also got some petty revenge.
Hehe.
That’s nice. I was worried that they were too wary of me, but this way I can act pretty freely.
Oh, thinking of revenge, I just remembered who it was that had one of Choseol’s eyes? I smashed it because I could.
Before remaking the body, she was almost like a living corpse. She grew up in such a manner. Thoroughly blocking all five senses, and with drugs keeping her consciousness in a hallucinated state, her bodily functions were really at the lowest.
Chances are, she would die before reaching adulthood.
That means she was meant to be used before adulthood.
Human sacrifices?
But based on the memories I’ve skimmed through, there’s no culture of human sacrifice in the Cheonma Church. The identity of Choseol itself is shrouded in mystery.
Memories gradually come into focus from around age three, and by that time, Choseol was already being raised. However, I don’t see anyone similar to Choseol around.
If there was a purpose, they would have made several, but digging through Choseol’s memories reveals no one in a similar situation.
Moreover, considering when she was raised, it was still before Jeongha ascended to Cheonma’s position.
The Cheonma Church itself is similar to the demonic cult in the memories of the Faded Man, but there’s something much more sinister lurking in between.
A magician group nearly separated from the Cheonma Church.
Something that had one of Choseol’s eyes.
And those excessively large buildings erected on a karst topography.
The relationship between the former leader and the current Cheonma.
So many secrets.
I mean, it means I have to work hard to create an automatic harvesting system so that it doesn’t fall on me like in the first world.
I’ll do my best!
