Chapter 378: Who Gives Us Our Daily Bread?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 378: Who Gives Us Our Daily Bread?
The terrified Dholes protested.
“Ki-kill us! We’re demanding what’s rightfully ours!”
“It was a contract!”
I ignored them and spoke to Peru.
“Were they helpful? Are they even strong? The only thing they have to rely on is the Dominarch’s promise, but the Dominarch is dead. Whether they get paid or not is their problem, not ours. Why are they following us all the way here and causing a scene?”
I swept my hair back in annoyance. At my small gesture, the Dholes flinched in unison, cowering in fear.
Of course, my own strength was merely average. I had no way of killing them all in one fell swoop. But in life, you ride on the coattails of the powerful. Standing beside the Regressor and Tyr, I was, in their minds, a monster on the same level.
Putting on a grand bluff, I looked down on the Dholes with contempt.
“They’re acting like it’s a done deal when we haven’t even told the Thunderarch the full story yet. Are you still going to divide the Dominarch’s assets among people like them? You haven’t changed your mind?”
This was the good cop, bad cop routine. I would act as the villain, pretending I was about to kill them all while Peru held me back, making her feel indebted to me. It was fine. I was used to playing the bad guy.
Peru, belatedly realizing my true intentions, played along.
“…It’s a contract.”
“Well, if that’s what you want, Peru, I can’t stop you. But if they cause any trouble for us, we’ll handle it ourselves. I don’t care what happens to the Dominarch’s fortune, but if things get delayed, I might just feel like killing them all.”
“…Then, I’ll handle it.”
“Right. It would be more effective if you did it instead of me. With your power, you could crush them without leaving a single bone behind.”
As I spewed threats that sounded like I could kill all of creation, the frightened Dholes scrambled to flee. It took less than a minute for them all to run away. I waited until the very last one had vanished from sight before speaking.
“You’re welcome, right?”
“…Yeah.”
Freed from her predicament, Peru gave a small nod. Seriously. If she didn’t want to deal with the trouble, she shouldn’t have taken it on in the first place.
“So why did you agree to carry out the Dominarch’s last will? You could have just pretended you didn’t know and left.”
“…Because it’s a contract.”
“It’s not a contract with me, so you could just ignore it. Do you really have to appoint yourself the guardian of contracts? What a pain.”
Peru’s gaze fell to the golden bell hanging from her waist.
“…The Golden Lord entrusted this to me. If I don’t protect it, then no one will.”
Well, look at the patriot.
With the Golden Lord gone and the Dominarch dead, the Fallen Dominion would now be plunged into tremendous chaos. The Golden Lord’s absence wasn’t keenly felt yet, as the nation was fluid like a liquid. But when water starts leaking through a hole, the entire country eventually runs dry. When that time comes, everyone will know, whether they like it or not, that the Fallen Dominion is finished.
However, it wasn’t completely over yet. The Golden Lord was gone, but his legacy remained.
“By the way, what exactly does that bell do? It’s a relic of the Golden Lord, but I have no idea what its power is.”
“…I don’t know. It fixes broken things, though.”
Peru fiddled with the golden bell. The ability to fix broken things. It was certainly a useful power, but compared to the might of the Golden Lord, who had created a nation, it was infinitely weak. I gave her some serious advice.
“You should figure it out quickly. For the sake of peace, if nothing else.”
“He’s right.”
Just then, a flash of lightning struck, and in the next moment, the Thunderarch was standing beside us, her long hair fluttering. Coming to a stop with a flicker of residual light, she looked down at Peru imperiously.
“…Thunderarch.”
“Whatever the Golden Lord’s character may have been, his power was that of a god who could change the world. You must not only draw out the power of his relic but also build your own strength to protect it.”
“…Yes.”
“And to do that, you cannot show the weakness you are showing now.”
At the Thunderarch’s sharp critique, Peru, who had been bowing her head, flinched. The Thunderarch pressed on without giving her a moment’s rest.
“A person seeking rest lies in the shade of a great tree, they do not throw themselves into a field of reeds. The reason those men were able to intimidate you just now is because you are not dependable. They tried to push you around because you seemed like you would waver. To overcome that, you must show unshakeable will. By using force, if necessary.”
Of course, if she used her power, Peru could easily drive the Dholes away. The problem was that her power was solely related to destruction. A single misstep could result in her crushing parts of their bodies to dust.
That was why Peru never even considered using her power against humans. She mumbled helplessly.
“…But, my ability is…”
“The power of Wither, is it not? Why are you so timid with it? In this Fallen Dominion, where the Golden Lord’s poison has spread throughout everyone’s bodies, your ability is more powerful and fearsome than anyone else’s. Why don’t you just use it?”
But it seemed the great Thunderarch had other ideas. The suggestion that she should crush even humans if necessary left Peru deeply shocked.
“…I can’t use the power of Wither on people.”
Peru asked again, wondering if she had misunderstood the Thunderarch’s true meaning, but the woman simply tilted her head.
“The Golden Lord used the people of the Fallen Dominion as ingredients, as if harvesting crops. Whether that was right or wrong, it made them hold him in awe. If you intend to act as the Goldenarch of the Fallen Dominion in his absence, you must display that level of power for your authority to be recognized.”
“…Thunderarch, didn’t you dislike filling your body with the Golden Lord’s crops? Why would you say such a thing?”
Peru respected the Thunderarch, and so she doubted her true intentions.
Claudia was the largest agricultural area in the Fallen Dominion, a city that raised the children born there on that foundation. The person who created that system was none other than the Thunderarch herself. For the sake of the children of the Fallen Dominion who had to live on, she had created ‘normal’ food, untainted by the Golden Lord’s alchemy.
Furthermore, it was a well-known fact that the Thunderarch hated the Golden Lord. Peru had believed she was producing food to escape his dominion.
But the Thunderarch’s attitude was different from what Peru had expected.
“That’s right. I do hate the Golden Lord. However, that is because he abused his power without any rules or laws, not because I deny his power and achievements. After all, my own body was made with his power.”
“…Your body, Thunderarch?”
“Yes. From the tips of my toes to the ends of my hair. My entire body is composed of alchemic materials. That is why I am unharmed even when I hold the power of thunder within me.”
True, a normal human couldn’t possibly be fine after being struck by lightning. So the Thunderarch’s durability came from her entire body being made of alchemic materials.
The crops created by the Golden Lord were all alchemic materials, and a body formed by digesting them would take on alchemic properties. The greatest characteristic of alchemic materials was their high reactivity. They had little resistance to external interference. That was why the homunculi were so vulnerable to Tyr’s and Peru’s abilities, even though they called themselves ‘perfect’.
But the Thunderarch was no homunculus. She was conceived in her mother’s womb like any other human, but she was raised on the Golden Lord’s crops. In the womb, and after birth. What was supplied to her were pure crops from the Golden Lord.
The reason there were so many disabilities in the Fallen Dominion was because the highly reactive alchemic materials mixed into their bodies caused adverse reactions. But a human filled with pure alchemic materials would possess a perfect body. A chosen body with no disabilities, no minor illnesses, one that could even absorb a lightning strike as its own power.
However, that also meant she was extremely vulnerable to Peru’s or the Golden Lord’s abilities.
Startled, Peru put some distance between herself and the Thunderarch. It wasn’t because she feared her. It was because she was afraid she might unintentionally hurt the Thunderarch with her power. She couldn’t bear the thought of crushing the woman she respected with the power of Wither.
The Thunderarch’s eyes, reading her intent in an instant, flashed with lightning.
How dare you worry about me?
What a strange person. She was perfectly calm after her lightning was stolen, but now she’s angry because someone was concerned for her safety?
‘Strange’ was the nice way to put it. The not-so-nice way was ‘abnormal’. I should probably keep some distance.
“If you are worried about me right now, then you need to be reminded of who stands before you. I am the Thunderarch. Do you truly believe you can harm me, who commands Heaven and Earth and wields the power of thunder?”
“…Ah. I’m sorry.”
“Do not apologize so easily! Hmph, how do you plan to do anything with such a lack of confidence? If only you had half, no, a quarter of that boy’s nerve, it would have been better.”
The Thunderarch shook her head, and her attitude made Peru shrink even further. The Thunderarch took a deep breath and continued.
“If you let them look down on you, you won’t be able to do anything. Set rules and demonstrate what is right. Make them always remember that possibility in their minds. If they stray onto the wrong path, deliver punishment. That is the duty of one who stands above others. For those chosen like you and me, it is necessary.”
“…”
Peru couldn’t answer easily. She couldn’t agree with it in her heart.
The Thunderarch’s power was the power of thunder that allowed Claudia to prosper. It was an inexhaustible resource that, in most cases, benefited the city.
But Peru’s power destroyed alchemic value. No matter how you spun it, the more she used her ability, the more the value of the Fallen Dominion would inevitably decline.
Perhaps the day they understood each other would never come. Their positions were just too different.
Silence fell. Feeling like my presence would only make things more awkward, I raised my hand.
“Anyway, if you’re all done talking, may I pass?”
The Thunderarch tore her gaze from Peru and asked me.
“Where are you going?”
“I was hoping to take a look inside the Lightning Tower.”
“The power of thunder constantly flows within the Lightning Tower. Anyone who wanders around without a guide will, one hundred percent of the time, be electrocuted.”
…That’s a relief. My original plan was to sneak in alone, look around, and grab anything worth taking. I could have been pathetically electrocuted where no one would ever find me.
As I let out a sigh of relief, the Thunderarch glanced at her watch and nodded.
“I suppose I have a moment. I will guide you myself.”
“What? You, Thunderarch? You don’t have to go that far.”
The Thunderarch didn’t even reply, simply striding ahead, not doubting for a second that I would follow.
Tch. If the Thunderarch herself is watching, I can’t take anything. I’ll have to just purely sightsee. This is a failure.
Swallowing my bitter disappointment, I followed behind the Thunderarch.
“This is the Lightning Tower. It is a structure unique to Claudia that channels the lightning falling from the Cloud Waterfall and simultaneously harnesses its power.”
Operating the elevator herself, the Thunderarch began an unprompted explanation.
“In its early days, Claudia carved out mountains to create farmland. The power of thunder comes from the sky. The land that received its grace was fertile, and anything would grow well. However… as the city grew, a problem arose. To expand the farmland, we had to go deeper into the mountains, and as you know, tigers reside there.”
Ugh. Of all the beasts to mention. I couldn’t help but shrink back.
This city of Claudia, where clouds and lightning flowed year-round, was an anomaly; humans normally couldn’t live in the mountains. What creature could live with its feet up when a tiger was watching with its eyes wide open? It might be different if you’d lived alongside nature for a long time and built a rapport, but the moment you tried to cut down trees and till the fields, you’d become prey. After all, tigers don’t eat crops.
“So instead of expanding the fields, we built them upwards.”
The Thunderarch stopped the elevator and threw open the doors. The interior of the Lightning Tower was revealed in a single glance.
Inside the Lightning Tower, there were no walls or pillars to be seen. All that was visible was a wide, thick layer of soil. On top of it, crops grew so densely there was no room to step.
Water from the Cloud Waterfall flowed through channels, moistening the soil. The blessings of the earth raised their heads from the damp ground. Grass and trees are the fruit of the union between the Sky God and Mother Earth. Humans who put that grace in their mouths must always be thankful for their daily bread… or so the scriptures say.
But could this, too, truly be called the grace of the Sky God and Mother Earth?
They had brought in soil and filled it just enough to cover the roots. They had peeled off a layer of Mother Earth’s skin and laid it on each floor of the towering structure.
The sky was hidden by the ceiling. But Claudia, where clouds and thunder descended directly to the ground, had captured even the sky in a glass sphere and hung it from the ceiling. They extracted only the light of the lightning, trapped it in the glass sphere, and made it shine on the crops in place of the sun.
An artificial field, built by taking pieces of the sky and the earth and stacking them layer by layer. If the author of the scriptures saw this sight, would they be appalled, or would they be proud?
“This is the reason for Claudia’s prosperity.”
The Thunderarch spoke, making no effort to hide her pride.