Chapter 12. Their Hidden Motives.
Chapter 12. Their Hidden Motives.
'I should have been suspicious the moment they showed me kindness without reason. Have I gone that soft?'
I snorted to myself at the thought.
'If the people back on Titan knew about this, they'd call me a fucking lunatic.'
I entered the room marked as the club room, which they used for storing supplies.
They had apparently raided a police station—I could see pistols, ammunition, and a modest quantity of food.
'Most of the food has been laced with something. Don't tell me they only feed this to the survivors?'
If they were eating it themselves without knowing, I could have cut them some slack... but as it turned out, that wasn't the case.
After checking the storeroom, I made my way to the faculty office on the fifth floor, where I sensed a number of people gathered.
'So the people in charge are all here. Now, what are they talking about?'
I slipped into the faculty office through a window and concealed my presence, listening in on their conversation. The thought of being caught never even crossed my mind.
'When I put my mind to hiding, even the King of Killers and the Master Assassin couldn't find me. What chance do you lot have?'
"Boss!!! How much longer do we have to live like this? Are we just lab rats to them?!"
"So what if we stopped eating it? What else can we do? Should we just abandon these people and run away?"
"..."
"That's right... you came to me to vent because you can't bring yourself to abandon them either, isn't that right? And the truth is, we're doing this because we'd rather eat that garbage and grovel at their feet if it means surviving, aren't we?"
"If we could just secure enough food on our own..."
"How long do you think that can last..."
The people gathered here knew exactly what kind of food the survivors were being fed. But given the situation, it was clear they weren't eating it by choice.
The reality was that even if everyone here wanted to refuse that food, they had no alternatives. Relying on others to scavenge food was only a temporary solution, at best.
"I hate those bastards even more than you do! If only I had the power, I would have slaughtered every last one of them!!!"
The leader burst out in a fit of rage, so overcome with emotion that blood dripped from his clenched fists.
"Do you have any idea what it feels like? Having innocent people dragged away, staring at me?"
"..."
"I wanted to charge at them right then and there! Do you know how it feels to be powerless, to kneel like a coward and hang your head just to hide the tears?!"
— Bang!!!
Unable to contain himself any longer, he slammed his fist on the desk and tried to catch his breath.
I couldn't bear to listen any longer, so I revealed myself in front of them.
— Shwik!
The man I knew as the squad leader instantly swung his knife at me, reacting to my sudden appearance.
I didn't move an inch from the spot and simply caught the blade between two fingers.
"Everyone calm down. I've heard roughly what's going on, but I'd like to hear the details."
However, thinking their secrets had leaked to me—a spy—none of them lowered their knives or pistols. I bound them all with my aura to force them to calm down.
"Just who... are you... and what is this bizarre ability..."
"Just relax and tell me your story. If I'd intended to kill you, I wouldn't have bothered with all this trouble."
Only then did he begin to speak calmly.
"To tell the truth, at first we were reasonably peaceful... the world had fallen apart, sure, but the Awakened handled the hard labor while the ordinary people took care of the chores. Everyone did their part..."
Then one day, they showed up without warning. Once every two weeks, they would take a few men and women away. When those people were returned, they came back in horrific condition—it was obvious what had been done to them.
"We had our own Awakened, so we resisted them... but as you've probably heard, they crushed us with overwhelming force. They slaughtered our Awakened right in front of everyone, brutally."
Everyone who witnessed that scene lost the will to resist after that.
"At the very least, they provided us with food... and we soon realized that food was dangerous to eat..."
"You must have figured it out. People started acting like they were drugged."
He didn't seem to care that I'd cut him off. He chuckled hollowly and continued with his story.
"And when people's symptoms got worse, we fed them the food we'd scavenged ourselves. Once they got better, we'd give them the drugged food again... and when they got bad again, we'd give them clean food..."
In the end, because they couldn't afford to feed everyone clean food, they were walking a precarious tightrope: they'd give clean food to those whose symptoms worsened, and once they improved, they'd switch them back to the drugged supplies because they had no other choice.
"Those bastards were vicious. They always checked to make sure we'd eaten the food... And you know what they said?"
"...?"
"That we need sound bodies and minds to properly 'raise' these people. Kkhaha... Isn't that ridiculous? Who uses the word 'raise' for human beings? That's the only reason we're still in decent shape ourselves."
Suddenly, I remembered my old days on Titan. The 'Mage Tower,' a trash faction from the West Continent that kidnapped the powerless and used them as test subjects for magic experiments, all under the noble pretext of advancing human prosperity.
'It really makes me sick to my stomach.'
"So, are you planning to take your people and leave now? Or have you come to kill us all?"
"No. To be honest with you, do you know why I brought my group out here?"
I explained it to them. I wanted my people to get real combat experience, and if we happened to run into looters...
"Kehahaha!!! In a situation like this... you really are out of your mind, aren't you?"
"What would you say if I offered to help you?"
He suddenly stopped laughing and stared straight at me.
"I can see that your group is strong, but those men... they're practically devils."
Talking about it a hundred times wouldn't mean a thing. I opened the window and looked at them.
"Then open your eyes wide and watch. Watch closely and see what kind of lifeline has been thrown to you."
- Chaos Sword Technique: Iai
The clouds in the sky split apart, as if something had sliced right through them.
Seeing that sight, they finally understood what I meant by a lifeline.
"If you help us... what should I—no, what should we do for you in return..."
"You don't have to do anything."
Hearing that, they stared at me, utterly baffled.
"Just carry on as you normally do. They come once every two weeks, right? My people and I will get ourselves captured."
From experience, I knew that if you attack rats like that from the outside, they abandon their nest and scurry off to a new hiding place. But if I strike them from the inside, right from the start...
There's a reason the leaders of the past prioritized quelling internal threats over fighting countless external enemies.
When I shared my plan with them, the man called the leader nodded as if he understood.
"A strategy born from overwhelming power... but honestly, with your strength, you wouldn't even need to explain any of this to us..."
"When I first saw the food, I suspected you. And like I said earlier, we need the experience. But I don't want to deal with the cleanup afterward."
"Keukeukeu... you really are a madman."
Once this is over, you'll be in a safe position. You'll absorb the other captives and become an even larger faction.
Some might call it a twisted hobby of mine, but I've seen this play out countless times. Ever heard the saying that a frog forgets its days as a tadpole? The powerless, virtuous king who once championed the nation's prosperity becomes a tyrant. And the number of people who never changed was vanishingly small.
'Will you change, I wonder? Or will you stay as you are?'
"As for the food, I'll remove all the drugs. So don't worry and just act as you normally would."
"Thank you..."
As I finished speaking and left the room, they bowed deeply behind me.
* * * * * * * *
'Now then, what the hell should I do with these bastards?'
Even back on Titan, I was exceptionally brutal toward anyone I'd judged as "trash."
I killed the Martial God by tearing off both his arms. I ripped out the Sage's heart. I tore the Demon God's horns and head from his body. And I killed the Heaven God by shredding every last one of his wings.
That's how I came to be called the 'Calamity' in the process. The Calamity of Calamities. That was me.
First, I approached Mr. Chu, the oldest among us, and filled him in on the situation and our plan going forward.
"Hm... I understand what you're saying... but do we really need to be the ones to go that far?"
Mr. Chu had a point. In the end, these weren't looters directly threatening us, so was there really a reason to go out of our way to attack them and spill blood?
"This might sound very cold-hearted... but the fact that they're suffering because of looters isn't your burden to bear. I don't know every detail of the life you lived back in 'that place,' but from what I've seen, you've been carrying a weight far too heavy—the weight of being a 'hero.' Just because you did it there doesn't mean you have to do it here too."
"I know what you're worried about, old man. But... there or here, I am who I am. I'm not saying I'm going to go out and cleanse the entire world. It's just my nature. If there's trash in front of me, I can't stand not cleaning it up."
"Kehahah! That does sound like you. It was the same in my memory. The things you did without any grand meaning, simply following your own purpose—those very actions became salvation for others."
So this is the wisdom that comes with age. Though if we're counting years alone, I've lived an incomparably longer time than he has.
"I might not be as reliable as that dwarf you mentioned, but I will at least guard your back with all I have."
It felt like the knot in my mind had finally come undone. Why was I moving together with these people? Subconsciously, I must have been looking for a group I could give my heart to.
I spent a little more time chatting with Mr. Chu after that.
"Haha, then Mr. Chu, could you explain the situation to the others? You'd do a better job than me. I'm not exactly known for my way with words."
"Alright. Don't worry about it, just go take a walk or something."
After hearing that, I headed outside.