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“Always say that and take a step forward.”

I called her a monster, but I got a strange response.

Victoria bowed her head again to hide her face. No matter how much she tried, hiding her expression from me was impossible.

I pushed her outstretched hand aside one last time.

It was about time to cry.

However, contrary to my thoughts, Victoria didn’t cry.

“Every time, that’s how it is. You call yourself a monster and move forward. So, if you step back like this, does it mean you’re less than a monster?”

Huh?

No. That’s not what I meant.

I just meant that since I’m a monster, she should do what she wants instead of following me, you know? Hello? Even if I acted like a nice person, it doesn’t mean that’s the real me?

But Victoria raised her head with an expression I recognized.

She wore the same face as when we first met.

The expression she had when I was a giant fishman, covered in blood, holding tools in my hands.

“You’re really going to be a cruel mother to your child.”

And then she stood up.

Probably a curse, right?

Thinking back to Rebecca giving birth, I could become part of the offering that can give birth. I really don’t know what would happen now.

There’s a high chance it would be impossible to be born at all.

Even if I entered a female, I wouldn’t be able to create a child.

If I could, it would probably be treated as my body… Wait? So, would it be good to be a man?

If that really happened, I could make several spare bodies. I don’t know how children would be judged, but it’s just a possibility.

Even so, I have no intention of doing that.

Thinking of Rebecca, my consciousness lingered even when I went inside, and someone would give me the chance to dig into my memories?

Are you crazy?

I have no idea where the information might leak from, you know?

Even without light, Rebecca moved on her own. The body I used as a vessel became something strange and started moving.

Because there’s no light, I can’t say she’s dead, and yet Rebecca gave birth normally. And she lived for an unnaturally long time.

Rebecca, with her unfortunate past, lived by my side. If she hated me, she would have revealed all my weaknesses to the world.

Looking back now, it was a really dangerous moment.

Anyway.

After saying that, Victoria walked towards the exit, leaving the corpse behind. She seems to be leaving this place.

Is she thinking of going home now?

So I followed her.

But Victoria took a strange direction. Even if I went forward like this, at least within the range I knew, there was no place Victoria would go.

Could it be that she’s going for revenge?

But she wasn’t walking toward a place with flames. Where on earth is she going?

I followed Victoria, whose expression had hardened. We crossed a wide road and passed through a narrow alley. She even walked past a spot that had already been messed up by rioters.

Though I took a slight detour, I was walking straight ahead.

Where on earth is she going?

After walking for a while, Victoria finally stopped.

There was a river.

Compared to the Han River, which mainly appears in my faded memories, it’s a small river that’s only one-sixth the size. Of course, it’s not purified water like that, but instead dirty, smelly wastewater.

That water rose into the air. The sludge was left on the bottom, and only the clear stream flowed up to the sky.

Ah, I see! This is revenge.

Right—

I’ve already tried it in Bern City. Bringing water and crushing someone with it.

Very good. I wonder how many casualties there will be now?

At the bottom of the population pyramid. They’ve become rioters. Even if they aim blindly with attacks of the same kind, they’ll die in droves.

Warmth party!

Moreover, the rioters still included harvesting machines now crossing over to the upper-class areas, killing people and looting without restraint.

In between.

They occasionally fought with what seemed like peacekeepers, but they didn’t confront them directly.

Throwing weapons from a distance and retreating, they went to loot where they were absent. All the while, did the purpose of killing the social evils using mechanical devices vanish?

I watched as citizens ran rampant through their eyes. At the same time, I saw through Belle’s eyes that Victoria was doing something.

The water flowing from the river continued to rise into the sky.

The river was now not just revealing its bottom but also completely losing all moisture and crumbling like the sands of a desert.

That’s right.

No matter how filthy it is, when moisture disappears, it turns to powder.

Thus, even the waterway itself rises to the sky.

Like a giant snake soaring into the heavens, it climbs into the air, following the river that crosses the capital.

The air was so dry that it could be called parched. It wasn’t just me; even the harvesting machines quite a distance away could feel it.

But no one noticed it.

Instead, they were just overjoyed that it burned very well during arson.

Boom!

No.

As the river shot into the sky, dark clouds filled the heavens, and thunder rumbled.

Huh? I thought they were trying to flood the place again like last time, but it seems they’re not doing that?

Instead, the more water is supplied, the bigger the dark clouds grow.

And after a short time, dark clouds covered the night sky.

The water that rose is now falling.

Plick.

Plick.

Pitter-patter.

Rain began to fall from the sky.

At that moment, those looting cried out, running toward a place to escape the rain. Even if they screamed, they weren’t attacked or anything.

No matter how cold it might be, not enough to freeze ice, on a cold dawn, it’s cold enough to coat the ground with a thin layer of ice.

The icy-cold rain started pouring down.

Whoosh!

With that cold rain, the wrath that had engulfed the capital cooled down.

The fervor that had driven people into a frenzy disappeared, leaving only those trembling in the rain.

A winter night with the sun already set.

The flames that had brilliantly illuminated each other’s faces faded away.

Once the rain stops, the flames that would ignite again gradually extinguish. The sound of the rain has become so loud that now the voices of distant people are buried and lost under the sound.

The void left by the absence of festive fervor.

There, the cold reality seeps in just as much as the falling rain.

The harvesting machines scattered throughout the capital could hear this sound.

What should we do now?

With faces pale as if waking up from a drunken stupor doused in cold water, they looked at each other. The icy rain trickling down their faces brought despair and fear.

Meanwhile, Polaris, who returned to the mansion in the capital, grumbled that there’s never a day when the weather forecast is accurate.

While Victoria was taking care of the corpse at the Mechanical Knight School, the protesting groups blocking the Royal Academy had also dispersed.

It wasn’t forcibly dispersed.

When Kanna, who had been waiting until Sorindiges got out of school, heard from her subordinates that flames and black smoke rose up from various places in the capital, they dispersed on their own.

Ah, right. That’s true.

There were no harvesting machines among the protestors in front of the Royal Academy. At least, whether it was people of the middle class and higher who had gathered there, or just a coincidence that there was no one, I don’t know.

If those who were there were of the middle class or higher, they would return home to an utterly empty house.

Even so, the riot that seemed to continue unless something special happened has vanished.

Just one person creating the rain must certainly be something special.

I approached Victoria, who was gazing up at the sky all night until the moon tilted.

“It’s not like Bern City, is it?”

“Then I thought I wouldn’t be able to face anyone straight ever again.”

Hmm.

A very high compliment. But it’s a misjudgment.

I know that Victoria mistook me for someone very good, so she said that.

But let’s keep the misunderstanding going.

Outwardly and inwardly.

I actually hope the humanity of this country spreads out in all directions.

I just wish that the harvesting machines and their offspring could squeeze in between. The larger society becomes, and the more the harvesting machines rise to the top of that society, the more warmth I gain.

Of course, events like massacres during riots are welcome. In such extreme conditions, harvesting machines exhibit strong powers.

Whether bad or good. Everything leads me to ways to gain warmth.

No, to explain precisely, it goes like this.

As long as humanity thrives, I will gain warmth.

Great depressions and world wars are fine. I know one day humanity will overcome that and fill the planet with people.

The earth overheating is a little scary, but I believe it will one day be overcome and soar into space. In fact, there are worlds like that in this universe.

It’s a problem that harvesting machines lived extremely briefly before being killed. Anyway.

I said to Victoria,

“A harsher tomorrow is waiting, so let’s go to bed.”

Victoria lowered her head. Her already pale skin looked even more so.

“I wish you would tell me about a hopeful future at a time like this.”

And approaching me as if not too angry, she murmured,

“Decades from now, I’ll tell my grandchild there was such a thing.”

“That’s way too far in the future!”

She huffed that it wasn’t affectionate. She has a lot of wishes. But she doesn’t give me the answer she wants.

That’s what makes it fun!

I returned to the accommodation with Victoria, who was whimpering that I was too cold-hearted.

The rain continued to pour until the moon settled and dawn arrived.