The Outer God Needs Warmth-Chapter 202: Beauty and the Beast (12)

Now, it's time to drive the final nail in.

Shouting loudly, the soldiers point their weapons at the leader. I stepped forward toward them.

As I moved forward, people parted left and right, creating a path. Thankfully, no one obstructed me.

So, I arrived directly in front of the leader. Then I said to him:

“If you tell me who gave the orders, you can live.”

Already, due to the Harvesters’ abilities, he is in a state ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) where he cannot use any power. The leader is completely blocked. Though there were some on his side, he couldn’t defeat those who had turned to mine.

Because not only does he have one more life, but he also gained the superpower to neutralize the opponent's strength.

Moreover, there is a justification and a life here.

As the forces grow, the number of defectors joining the winning side also increases.

I especially keep an eye on the corporate spies.

If the leader confesses, at least at this point, he will survive. On the other hand, if the leader confesses, all the blame will shift to the corporation.

I push them little by little.

I hope the corporation loses, so I stand right in front of the leader.

Instead of speaking, I reach out my hand.

The leader looks at me with very shaky eyes. There seems to be some strange emotion mixed in, but given the situation, there’s nothing to be done.

“I, I...”

He stammers and, releasing the staff from his hand, extends it toward me. Very good. Someone is subtly moving behind us.

They’re moving to kill him with a weapon.

Their eyes are filled with the intent to kill.

Perfect. I’ll attract their attention to make the strike easier.

“Take my hand.”

He steps forward. Then, the person who had been waiting for an opportunity rushes out and stabs the man before anything else happens.

Hehe.

Thank you.

The next moment, the assassin, struck by a weapon from behind me, is killed. I approach the leader, who is lying on the ground, a knife embedded in his abdomen, bleeding.

And I recite the contract.

The man agrees, and I gain the information.

But the moment he revives, this time, one of the Harvesters, holding a weapon, rushes forward to stab the leader.

However, that attempt fails.

It was because there were already many people who were very cautious.

The leader, with a horrified expression, looks at the Harvester who tried to kill him. It was because he had been one of his subordinates who had followed his orders.

“Whose orders did you follow?”

“Chairman of Rocketmobil...”

Yes. I know.

But the important thing here is that those around us hear it.

“What was the order?”

“Suppress the protest about the truth of the incident in Vern City by turning it into a riot... He promised to make me Marquis Gaston after two years if I followed through.”

This person is from the Gaston family. He’s the half-brother of the person who was killed yesterday.

“When did he say that?”

“This morning.”

“After Marquis Gaston died, I see.”

A murmur spreads. This means there’s some suspicious intent. This suggests that the one who made Vern City like this is someone here.

Yes.

Most of the soldiers here have families living in Vern City. They had suspicions about why they were attacking the city they were supposed to protect.

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But when the truth starts to flow here, it becomes clear.

It shows that the protesters weren’t wrong. And they realize that there is a real enemy out there.

Since what they’ve done has become an evil act, they will feel even more so.

They will try to erase the true enemy. Because that’s the only way they can escape from their wrongdoing. For them, I start calling out the names of the enemy.

“Pride Industry, Rocketmobil Company, Gun & Rufu Company. What exactly did these three companies do this for?”

“I don’t know. Bro... The head of the family didn’t hear that either.”

Looking at the mention of two years, it doesn’t seem like they were planning to hide it all the way to the end.

But the murmurs grow louder.

At that moment, Victoria walks over. And, aside from the minor titles, she grabs the collar of Richard Gaston, the man whose name can be summarized as Richard Gaston, and lifts him up.

“You’re saying you messed up the village for reasons you don’t even know?”

“That was my only chance to properly become a noble! Who wouldn’t take this opportunity! You too! You seized your chance to become a noble right away!”

Hehe.

He’s talking like a fool. The expression of the soldier looking down at him is slowly growing colder.

Not realizing it, Richard Gaston continues to babble on about how, as a bastard, he couldn’t fit into the noble society, but when the opportunity came, he seized it as his one chance.

It doesn’t matter, so I take Victoria’s hand off Richard Gaston’s collar and release him.

Then, after lowering him, I ask Gaston:

“Do you still have any doubts?”

I have this man’s memory.

He’s not someone who just listens to what they tell him. He knows that once the job is done, they’ll throw him away.

Because he rose the same way, he’s not foolish enough to trust promises. Promises are made between those who can stab each other, not with someone who can unilaterally discard them.

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“There is. The runaway machine incident in Vern City. The clockwork machine had a fundamentally fatal flaw, and it eventually exploded. And the corporation thought they could solve it in two years. They were trying to make it disappear by then.”

The corporation is pure, in a way.

For the sake of profit, they don’t care about others’ losses. They don’t mind if people die. It’s what corporations always do.

They secretly dump toxic substances into rivers, bury waste that requires special treatment in the ground, ignore the people living around factories who get sick, and erase problems that could destroy the human world for profit by using every means at their disposal.

In the faded world from memory, there’s something famous.

It’s gasoline with lead in it. Leaded gasoline. If one person hadn’t fought desperately, the next generation would have died from lead poisoning because the atmosphere would have been polluted with lead.

The corporation that tried to put all of humanity into lead poisoning simply tried to make the problem disappear for profit.

It wasn’t that they particularly wanted to commit mass murder and throw everyone into pain. They just liked money.

Thus, corporations are inevitably evil.

They live in a world where someone must be exploited for them to profit, and they are indifferent to consuming others. Even if it tightens their own neck, they pretend not to care until they die from it.

If they don’t, they’re eliminated, and the more indifferent ones rise to the top.

“So, for that reason? Kill people?”

I grabbed the speechless Victoria and pulled her. As if using her as an excuse to leave this place, I make my way out, blaming her.

Right now, the corporate spy is hard at work.

They’re inputting something into the clockwork machine. And the result immediately shows.

Boom!

Suddenly, the clockwork machine blew off the head of a soldier nearby.

“What the hell is going on!”

“I didn’t do it! Troyon is moving on its own!”

“Stop! Stop it!”

“Cavalus isn’t responding either!”

“Pull the emergency stop lever!”

“I’ve already pulled it! But it’s not listening!”

Troyon and Cavalus are the names of the clockwork machines they’re riding. Troyon is an exoskeleton-like vehicle, and Cavalus is a robot-like vehicle.

They’re all war machines.

The army is completely disorganized.

If someone on a clockwork machine were an enemy, it would be one thing. But the ones on the clockwork machines are victims.

Because of that, while hesitating, the clockwork machine takes advantage of the gap and kills people.

But the army is the army.

The chaos lasts only briefly.

The soldiers are destroying the clockwork machines one by one.

There are people screaming, some asking to be taken out, and some asking to be killed because their limbs are twisted by the machine’s movements.

Even those who are no longer Harvesters attack their comrades with faces stained in despair.

Screams fill the air, and the number of dead increases.

And, at the same time, warmth gathers.

At this point, the cold isn’t chilling; it’s cool.

I hold Victoria and, holding my breath, head toward Polaris, who is hiding below.

I’ve seen everything here.

In truth, it became the truth. Because, ironically, the fact that the clockwork machine moved on its own to cover it shows that this is the truth.

And this isn’t like the usual battle with monsters, or killing villains who started a riot from afar using artillery.

Now, even though a comrade is riding it, it’s difficult to neutralize, and we’re in a situation where we must kill the rider entirely.

This is the time when hearts break.

After that, it’s easy.

The spilled blood will hurt others.

Is it called PTSD?

Of course, if someone cares for them properly, they can recover, but this is the world. It’s an era where even the concept of mental illness is underdeveloped.

Who will care for them?

As always, after the war ends, the soldiers who fought become society’s trash and are ostracized. Only the commander gets the honor of the medal.

Broken soldiers soon fall into social evil.

In other words, Harvesters that can quickly and easily give warmth will emerge.

I’ve achieved my goal, so now I head west.

There’s the Purple Twilight Association from Vern City sneaking up from the east. They’re the enemies I need to deal with, those who see Victoria as an opponent.

Victoria will struggle, but once I meet them and shake things up, the Harvesters will spread far and wide.

They’ll spread and become the cancer of society.

Hehe.

It means warmth production is accelerating. If the Harvesters had only been here, their image would have worsened like the second world, so I wouldn’t have let them spread.

But many Harvesters are already in the capital, and there’s Princess Aurora, loved by the royal family.

Now, there’s no need to worry about the Harvesters’ image.

I’ll keep Victoria with me, and I’ll let her keep her naive image of wanting to save people without understanding the ways of the world, keeping that appearance intact.

I take Victoria and walk the path she came from, reunited with Polaris.

And then, pointing west, I say, "Let’s go back."