“Being remodeled to the level of an entirely different species... is that supposed to be acceptable?”
“What are you saying!”
The spirit core in my hand and the intact core inside a normal spirit’s center.
As they heard me say that,
I could see the contractors’ pupils violently tremble.
“Spirit of Darkness, huh.”
At least the name still has “spirit” on it.
But.
According to what I saw with [Chef’s Eyes]...
“Ordinary spirit users do not commune with this thing. No, to be exact—”
What you exchange with a Spirit of Darkness is not communion.
It is a contract.
“You cannot do it.”
Even though it bears the name of “spirit,”
a Spirit of Darkness is an existence that cannot commune with spirit users.
The reason was likewise very simple.
“This thing... only barely keeps a shape that can be called a spirit. In truth, it has changed so much that it should not be called a spirit at all.”
“What are you trying to say...!”
“Say hello.”
I had seen all I needed to see, so I no longer needed it.
A twisted spirit core that could not even be used as an ingredient.
Tok.
I tossed it
right in front of the contractors and spoke.
“This is your senior.”
“...!”
“It promised to take in humanity and preserve it, did it?”
Sure, that sounds nice enough.
But.
“Why would that supposedly great demon do that?”
It is not a volunteer.
If humanity is slated to fall anyway, why would it go out of its way to cradle us?
“Not to brag, but humanity does not possess any particularly strong abilities. We are not especially useful for anything either... so what benefit does such a lofty being get by taking humanity in and making that kind of promise?”
“T-that is. He said that he would descend to this land someday. As a reward for doing work in advance that would help him then...!”
“And how much help do you really think your advance cooperation provides?”
To take in and protect a species.
That is by no means easy.
“We are the same right now.”
If I had not been certain there was gain for me,
I would not have taken in the vampires or the Green Manes tribe.
If there is a reason to go out of your way to take in another species,
either that species is useful, or else...
“You plan to make it useful.”
It is one of the two.
“If you are going to take them in anyway, you put them through a bit of remodeling, make them usable, and then make them your subordinates. No matter how I think about it, that is more efficient. Frankly, if I were in that demon’s position, I would do exactly that.”
“...”
“And that over there is the spirit core from it.”
When we fought,
the thing suddenly fled.
Now I understand.
“At the time I wondered why something that looked so grotesque would be so timid.”
The water spirit that Jung Sua employs,
Droplet, likewise,
is timid.
“A timid water spirit that never approaches a place where there is anyone who can perceive it.”
The personality of the Spirit of Darkness that fled from me
resembled that very much.
“They were once similar beings.”
In the end, after undergoing all sorts of remodeling,
even though it lost most of its essence as a spirit,
it just barely maintained the name “spirit.”
That is the Spirit of Darkness.
In that case.
“Humans... could easily end up the same.”
“Take in humanity and protect it.”
The words sound good, but—
“If only the name ‘humanity’ remains, then it does not matter to them.”
Even if we are remodeled until barely a trace of “human” remains,
as long as they leave just enough residue that can narrowly be called “human,”
that would still be an existence that falls within the category of humanity,
and the demon’s promise would not be a lie.
Well...
If I had to give it a name,
“Demonized Human... something like that.”
According to Borjin,
the more the Green Manes accepted demonic power, the larger and more vicious they became.
Their skin color changed.
Fangs jutted out.
They underwent many changes.
Humanity as well,
if it fully goes over to the demons, is highly likely to experience the same.
“T-that is absurd...!”
“There is no way He would do that!”
They are the ones who chose to serve a demon as a substitute for a god.
Since they decided to rely on a demon,
they were now aghast at what their object of reliance had intended to do to them.
“How are we supposed to believe you? Aside from that round object, you have no evidence.”
“I did not say that to force you to believe me, hmm.”
Their leader,
Wonjun, was also giving me a doubtful look.
“Well, then let us look at the next ones.”
The corpses of various minions
that my unit members had brought.
With a single kitchen knife in hand,
I carefully prepped, dismantled, ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) and sorted those ingredients.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Chef’s Eyes]
When you prep them,
meat, bone, hide, organs—
an existence that had been a single individual becomes separated into multiple parts,
and I can examine each of those parts in detail.
Once you get to that point,
there is a bit more you can know.
[A Barghast stomach, hideously contorted and warped]
[Once the stomach of a gentle herbivore, it has now, under the influence of demonic energy, been repurposed into generating its own miasma.]
“This one... was originally a herbivore.”
“Excuse me?”
“You mean this vicious thing?”
“Look.”
The Barghast.
Before I acquired [Soul-Melting Poison], it was a gigantic monster with a brutal natural advantage against me.
Not only was it extremely vicious,
it tried to chew our unit members alive, or it swung claws like greatswords.
What it might once have been,
I could roughly infer by looking at one of the prepped parts.
“Look closely. The stomach is long and complicated, right?”
“That is true.”
“This kind of stomach is a characteristic of herbivores. The plants they eat ferment while passing through this long stomach. By contrast, carnivores who mainly consume protein have short, simple stomachs.”
This was not something [Chef’s Eyes] told me.
It is something I naturally learned after prepping the meat of many monsters over a long time.
“Then this thing is a herbivore, but...”
I set the stomach down in one place,
and lifted one of its massive teeth.
A tooth as sharp and grim as a saw blade.
“Now it has teeth like these set in place.”
“...”
“Heh. And those claws like greatswords too. Not something a herbivore should have, is it?”
Not a herbivore, but a carnivore.
No, rather than carnivore—
“A creature [remodeled] so that everything is focused solely on hunting enemies.”
Those sharp, grim body parts
fit an existence like that.
“W-what is your point!”
“They are monsters to begin with. Even if they have structures different from general common sense, that should not be surprising!”
“Ah, yes.”
But since the contractors still could not believe me,
I kept prepping a few more monsters.
[Fragment of a Hell Knight’s armor]
[The style of the proud knight race, Arantia, faintly remains.]
“Do you see this armor pattern?”
“...It is quite an old-fashioned pattern.”
“Right. The gauntlet and pauldron looked sharp and grotesque like something walking around in hell, but just this pattern is so old-fashioned... does that not feel a bit mismatched?”
“That is...”
“Ah. Maybe it was just the taste of whoever designed the armor? Let us move on.”
[Crushed eyeball of a Hell Hound]
[Among ingredients that are now extinct and cannot be found, there was a lifeform called a Haether.]
[Haether handled sacred flames and, with superior senses, sensed danger and alerted its surroundings, and thus was regarded as a mystical herald.]
[It is said that especially in its eyes were contained sacred power and wisdom.]
“When you look at this eyeball, do you not feel anything?”
“Well... it is crushed in a gruesome way, but how should I put it.”
“You feel a bit of sacred power, do you not?”
“...”
[For some reason, the species called Haether underwent a great mutation.]
[Eyes that should have been sacred were, for some reason, roughly crushed and set ablaze.]
[The sacredness and wisdom that would originally have been contained are entirely lost.]
[Its value as an ingredient is not high, but for those who enjoy grotesque foods, it might be a moderately preferred material—]
“I am a little curious why an eyeball with a random bit of sacred power is set into the eye socket of that monster that exuded nothing but malice... and why it is crushed like this. What about you over there?”
After that,
each time I prepped the corpses of monsters,
these ugly,
ominous,
warped, corrupted minions—
“...”
“My god.”
Traces kept appearing that let us infer
what they had originally been.
“I-is this really true.”
As that prep work repeated,
the contractors who had not believed me
began to show a change among them.
“If what that man says is true...”
“Then we really...”
Demon minions.
It was not hard at all to identify the true nature of these ugly monsters.
“They were the ones who relied on demons before these contractors.”
In other words,
“You are saying... we would have ended up like that.”
Those things—
were their seniors.
****
“...”
“...What is this.”
When my little butchery show ended,
the subdued contractors
could not form words, staring blankly with their mouths open.
A brief silence passed.
Moments later—
“...Son of a... fuck!”
Those who had been in shock—
one of them stood up, spewing curses.
“My giving that thing called a demon my loyalty, even at the cost of my life... was for humanity!”
The destruction that would surely come someday.
They had resolved to sacrifice themselves
so that at least a few more humans could survive that end.
“It was not because I wanted to end up like that!”
They
had not had even the slightest thought of turning humanity into monsters.
“Y-yeah. I, at least, wanted our children’s generation to survive...”
“Those who already sacrificed themselves did not do it because they wanted to turn humanity into that.”
“...Ugh!”
Starting with the first man,
anger spread among the contractors.
“T-this kind of contract is fraud!”
“The system clearly said demons do not lie...”
Hearing them babble in agitation,
I thought to myself.
“They really did not lie.”
What was specified in their contract was only that humanity would be “preserved.”
It did not specify in what form that humanity would remain.
“Most fraud contracts are like this.”
It is rare that there is a lie in what is actually written.
The real aim lies deliberately in what is left unwritten.
“Remodel humanity and obtain a powerful military force.”
The demon’s true purpose in seeking a contract with humanity
would have been exactly that.
“Sergeant Shin?”
“The mood is getting overheated...”
As the atmosphere among the contractors who had realized the truth changed drastically,
a few soldiers approached with concern.
At that, I shrugged as if it were nothing and answered.
“If anyone shows suspicious signs, subdue only those people. Leave the rest as they are.”
“Loyalty.”
The enraged contractors—
“Hic... hrrk...”
“Th-then what does Youngtae’s sacrifice become...”
Some shed tears in shock.
Some could not contain their anger and let out feral howls mixed with curses.
Watching that,
“H-hey.”
The man in front of me,
Wonjun, tried to rise and spoke.
Snap!
“Where do you think you are going.”
“Do not move carelessly.”
At that suspicious movement,
the soldiers moved to restrain him.
“T-that is not it.”
“...?”
“I understood what you are saying. I also know very well what has been done to me... but that is separate.”
Wonjun was not looking at me or the soldiers.
“My compatriots... I have to calm those people!”
He was looking at his own people.
“What are you suddenly talking about?”
“This guy. They say he is something like the leader of these contractors... now that it has come to this, maybe he is doing this because he is afraid the blowback will hit him.”
“Absolutely not!”
Wonjun kept spitting out words that neither I nor the soldiers could understand.
“There is... a clause like that in the contract!”
“What?”
I was just about to approach him, puzzled at what he meant,
when—
“Damn it... soldiers!”
The man who had stood up first and shouted curses,
he looked at us and yelled.
“You know how monsters from the military unit were set loose last time. That was our doing! To be honest, we did a lot of other vile things too! We did it all thinking it was for humanity...”
Step...
The one who had been shouting
began to walk slowly toward me.
“But I can swear this. I, and everyone here! Not once did we commit evil for personal gain! Everyone here was merely deceived by that thing you call a demon!”
“So what? Are you about to say you are innocent or something like that?”
“As if. What we did is not something that can be forgiven. We are not even hoping for forgiveness... But, if it is acceptable.”
The man stood in front of me,
and when he was about to kneel—
“N-no...!”
Seeing that,
Wonjun let out a scream filled with pain.
Regardless,
the man knelt before me
and continued what he had been trying to say.
“I will no longer serve the demon... so if you would even take us as slaves—”
Poooom!
However,
he could not continue.
The man who had knelt before me and was about to bow his head—
his head burst apart with a sudden sound,
and flop...
thud...
“...”
With something like the acrid smell of gunpowder,
the fragments of what had been a person moments ago
covered my face.
As the flesh that covered my face slid off
and I barely managed to open my eyes,
my trait activated toward the existence standing there.
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Primate — Human]
[Freshness — Lowest]
Freshness, Lowest.
What that meant
was very simple.
“Death.”
A person had died.
And
right before my eyes.
“A-ah... Jonghwan...”
With the sudden blast and death,
not only I but all the soldiers froze up,
and even the demon contractors were wide-eyed, speechless.
Wonjun
approached the exploded human corpse with tears streaming down.
“I am sorry... I am sorry...”
The corpse remained in the exact posture,
its head gone,
its body still bowed, trying to lower itself before me.
At it,
Wonjun began to apologize with bloody tears.
“...Ha.”
I did not quite know
what situation this was.
But one thing
was certain.
Right before my eyes,
watching a perfectly fine human become a corpse...
for me,
Grit...
“Hey.”
was extremely
unpleasant.
“How did this happen...”
Very angry now,
with hands trembling hard, I wiped the bits of flesh and blood from my face,
glared at Wonjun, and spoke.
“You are going to explain in detail.”
If you cannot explain properly,
what I might end up doing to you right now...
I am not sure I could stop myself.
