Why Use a Sword? — 6
"My body feels light."
Jeon Yang clenched his hand, opened it, and moved this way and that through the rather wide space. While he did, I skimmed his memories. Jeon Yang was a man born and raised in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and he had begun from a very low station. He could barely read, but that did not make him a worthless man. His nature ran open and bold; set down in an ordinary neighborhood, he would have lived as the big brother everyone looked up to.
But the place he lived was the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
As a child he drifted along the cult's edges, and once he caught the Heavenly Demon's favor and was trusted to manage the cult's affairs, great and small, he became addicted to power. In a cult where the strong took the most, it must have been a deep pleasure to watch people stronger than himself move exactly as he commanded. His inferiority, though, grew just as large.
The fact that he had no strength. He believed that single lack was why people looked down on him, and to vent that misery he tormented others. Then he used the Heavenly Demon who favored him and obtained a martial art — the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, known only to the cult's most important people. Even after learning it he could not use it, so he searched for another way. I was that other way. And he got his hands on power.
In a world where the strong reign supreme, power really does matter. I mean to give this one the method Eunjae used as well. Truthfully, when I first looked at him, I had no intention of planting Eunjae's memories in him. I will not hand power to the person who wants it most. He would only be compared with the other harvesters, and a life spent being compared is a miserable one.
In an environment like this, can a person keep their sanity for long? From where I stand, no. Driven mad that way, he would burst and send me a great deal of warmth. But after seeing his memories, I changed my mind. With this one, it is better to give him power. He will twist even further that way. No — more precisely, this. A heart already twisted as far as it can twist will explode the moment it gains strength. In other words, he is already past the danger line.
He executed a man who, no matter how you looked at him, could only have been a loyal retainer, and borrowing the Heavenly Demon's authority, he did whatever he pleased. That did not mean he intended to ruin the cult. Within the limits of what he could manage, he worked hard to grasp how the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult actually worked. Of course, he had no talent for either. From the cult's perspective he was a blight, but for me, able to draw information from his memories, it was something to be grateful for. I am especially thankful that he gave me an internal map, together with the way to use the mechanical devices I can actually operate.
"This is my third human body, and they're such a nuisance. Humans have to eat, and they need a place to sleep, don't they? Give me one."
The time I was a faded man, the time I entered Levera Rolf's body, and now. That makes three. I don't lie. And this is the moment. Letting it show that I am not human, I deliberately asked Jeon Yang rather than the Heavenly Demon — now, while he was drunk on the power he had just obtained.
"Oh, yeah? Then I'll set a room aside and assign someone to you. Jeongha. Get it ready."
Power is a pleasant thing. And when you can feel it in your own flesh, it makes you forget what truly matters all the more easily — for instance, the man dressed as a woman, staring at Jeon Yang with a look of surprise. Almost none of it shows on the face, of course, but if there is one thing I trust myself to do, it is reading human emotion. All the more so as time passes and the memories I can draw on keep growing.
"Mm. I'll do that."
The moment Jeon Yang heard the Heavenly Demon's answer, he dropped into a strange posture. A lotus seat. Eunjae had held it briefly at the start as well, but it was a posture he soon abandoned. Watching him, the Heavenly Demon led me outside. We walked a long while down a long, bending corridor, and then he suddenly turned.
"What did you do to Jeon Yang?"
Bewilderment and anger? An easy face to read.
"A general improvement of every bodily function."
That is the truth. Become a harvester, and you grow stronger.
A hard clamp. His hand seized my shoulder and bore down. Not the slightest hesitation, even with a girl's shoulder.
"Do anything strange, and I'll leave you a body that can neither die nor live."
Oh dear. He still doesn't understand?
"You said your name was the Heavenly Demon, didn't you? Didn't you know you aren't supposed to lie about your name?"
At my words the Heavenly Demon seized my throat. The hand was large and thick and padded with callus, and yet it seemed less a man's hand than the hand of a woman who had worked hard all her life.
"Do you not know whose presence you're running your mouth in?"
Answering a question with a question. So I gave it right back. Mirror therapy.
"Humanity. Have you forgotten what it is you're speaking before?"
At that, the hand on my throat tightened. The vessels in my neck closed off, and oxygen stopped reaching my head.
And so? The flesh is nothing but a vessel. I could keep talking back like this, but if the relationship shatters completely, the vessel is as good as gone. There is still so much I have to do, so here I put on a capitalist's smile. I want something, and so I wear a false one.
"But I keep my contracts. I'm not like humanity, which only schemes about how to break them. I don't twist people on purpose."
I am not dangerous. Of course, people breaking when I send them memories is nothing more than a minor slip. Aside from that, I do not send any special will with intent packed into it.
Advertisements? Who actually watches an advertisement properly? An advertisement is only something you send out in the hope that one desperate person gets caught. If I truly meant to lead people, I would have edited and sent only the memories from when I was full of rage. Or I would have shared my cold. So I only give power.
"Look. Once you have power, chasing a still greater desire is just the nature of your humanity, isn't it?"
When I told him that they would ruin themselves on their own even if I did nothing, the Heavenly Demon loosened his grip.
Thud. My feet met the ground.
This person thinks so too. Of course. Anyone seated high would know it — all the more in a world where the strong reign supreme.
"Clinging to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult — what are you trying to do?"
The gaze is sharp. But it's funny. The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult? To the Heavenly Demon, the cult is nothing. If anything, he is standing by and watching Jeon Yang ruin it. If anything, he has made himself Jeon Yang's hands and feet and is actively helping to ruin it. So I know what the question means. He is asking what I intend to do to Jeon Yang.
Hehe. So easy to read.
"I'm staying because I need warmth. Down below is far too cold. There's nothing there — so cold I can't stop looking at the light and longing for warmth."
Knowing how easily the word warmth can be taken, and hoping the Heavenly Demon would misunderstand, I said it that way.
"I'll have a warm room prepared."
The Heavenly Demon turned away again. A manly way of speaking. The habit still remains, but is it fair to say the heart has already leaned toward the woman in him? Then I ought to tell him one more interesting fact.
There is no second time. At my words he walked on without so much as a twitch. He doesn't know the power of a blessing yet, does he? So far he has only seen uninjured people grow stronger. I am looking forward to the moment he learns that wounds are healed, and that special abilities appear. Though before that happens, I may well be flung into a fire pit to the tune of You want warmth?
I followed the Heavenly Demon.
Astonishing. I actually received a proper room. It stood a long way from where Jeon Yang stayed, but they gave me an entire house. More generous than I expected?
It looks like the same sort of cult, and I never imagined they would simply toss me out and tell me to fend for myself. There isn't even anyone watching me. One room, one kitchen — by this world's measure, a house a person can perfectly well live in. Of course, seeing that it has no insulation at all, they seem to have prepared it in part just to make my life difficult.
Happily, he mistook it for ordinary, physical cold. Then I should say I am cold often, to shore the misunderstanding up. Of course it isn't a lie. I am always cold.
Anyway, when I stepped inside, quite a lot of living things were crawling over the floor. Bugs and field mice, once you take their warmth, leap outside on their own. The unfortunate part is that mold has to be scraped away separately. That sort has no light, so it can't be helped. Where there is no light, there is no warmth.
I was spending half the day putting the house in order when a sudden thud sounded. A bit fast for a betrayal, isn't it? Thinking that, I ran outside and found a pile of what I took to be food. Far off, two men were leaving. So they were the ones who had brought it.
"Take care!"
I waved to them in greeting, so that, if it could be managed, they would know someone like me was here.
Why? Harvesters stand out. Conspicuous purple hair, and overwhelming strength. In a world that favors the strong, especially, people waiting on an opening will come. I am letting it be known that I am here for that moment. Laying that groundwork for what comes next, I put the supplies away in the house.
Then, through the eyes of the harvesters, I looked over this world. So long as there are harvesters, I will not be bored.
First, Gapjae. He is carrying on the life he led in his days as a Guardian, and when night falls he trains in secret. The art, of course, is Eunjae's. But he practices outside, so the chance he will be caught someday is high. I am looking forward to that moment.
Next is Eunchun. Eunchun has become hall master of a hall ranked third from the top. Here, a hall is best approached as a kind of lordship. If the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult is a king, each hall master is a noble with a fief, and their chief role is to take charge of a set region and rule it. Of course, ruling does not mean truly ruling. It is no different from a thug holding his own turf. Having climbed high, he is living it up on that power — women on his arms, fine food, pleasure. He cannot come to his senses from the first taste of authority.
And Byeongil. This one is extremely busy just now. Word has it that he reproduced a technique called the Heavenly Demon Dominion Steps, and so old men called elders, along with those who believe in the god called the Heavenly Demon, have been coming by to show their faces.
I hadn't known it either. The people of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult do not believe in the Heavenly Demon without condition. Strictly speaking, they do not believe in the current Heavenly Demon, because he cannot use the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. The one named Jeongha simply seized the Heavenly Demon's seat by force when the previous cult leader vanished. So they take him for a fake, not the real thing.
And the people pouring every sort of talk onto Byeongil are deeply dissatisfied with the current Heavenly Demon's reign. In the midst of it, Jeon Yang is torn apart something fierce. They say the Heavenly Demon's lover is pushing the cult around however he pleases. They say the Heavenly Demon is revolting, and that Jeon Yang is revolting too.
In other words, the current Heavenly Demon sits in a place precarious enough that this many people curse him openly. The scales of power have already tipped far enough toward the side that opposes him. Otherwise, would so many people be badmouthing the Heavenly Demon to Byeongil?
Hehe.
Lastly, Jeon Yang. Even without my telling him, Jeongha already knew the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, and he had taught it to Jeon Yang. But Jeon Yang could not use it. In all likelihood, neither can the Heavenly Demon. My guess is that even if they knew the art, the most important part — the reason it could not be used — was missing.
There is a strong chance the Heavenly Demon knew that, and summoned me because of it. Somewhere he must have seen a record of Eunjae, and he had a plan to make Jeon Yang the next Heavenly Demon. That plan succeeded. The most important part has been filled in.
Jeon Yang can use the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. Right now, in the training ground, he is unfolding it with a bright smile on his face.
In other words.
Now the world begins to turn.