After Borjin left,
only I, Vimanar,
and Jung Sua remained in the Command-and-Control Room.
‘...She’s not going?’
Even though she should know there’s nothing more for her to see,
did Jung Sua want to keep watching this a bit longer?
With a faintly uneasy look in her eyes, she still remained in her seat, watching the situation.
‘Well, it’s fine, I guess.’
Only then
did I speak toward the Spirit Core that had shut its mouth.
“Anyway, your proposal is rejected.”
=Lord of the Fortress....
“You said you knew my disposition and that I’d refuse something like this, right? Then you should have expected at least this much when it failed.”
At that, the thing seemed to ponder for a moment,
then continued.
=Lord of the Fortress.
“Yeah.”
=Indeed, this fortress knew you would oppose such an act. It is also true that I forced matters while concealing the explanation. And...
“And?”
=I am also, to some degree, guessing what thoughts you harbor toward that spirit you saw.
Naturally.
Coming from something that had acted so abruptly,
there was no way I could look kindly on it.
Just as it said—
=Your trust level toward this fortress is likely not very high.
“Not just that. It’s already at rock bottom, man.”
I
could not trust this spirit.
=However, even so... as I said, this fortress acts with your gain as its first priority.
“Hm.”
=It was judged that not trusting this spirit would not be to your benefit either. Thus, I would like to offer an excuse for this incident.
An excuse—
not to defend itself,
but to offer an excuse for my benefit.
=May I have permission to speak?
“...An excuse, huh.”
Well.
Whatever the excuse is,
there’s no reason I can’t hear it.
“Say it.”
=Thank you.
“But if that excuse doesn’t suit me...”
Srrk.
My hand went to the familiar knife at my waist.
“My trust level will punch through rock bottom and hit the inner core.”
=....
“And if that happens... hm.”
It’s not as if I plan to do anything right this instant,
but if even that excuse fails to please me—
“Not sure if you know, but the Spirit Core used to make you— that was a [High-Grade Ingredient].”
=...I understand perfectly.
A high-grade ingredient, no less.
How delicious would a dish made from a Spirit Core be...?
‘You might get to find out firsthand.’
The spirit orb twirled once,
then angled slightly toward Jung Sua.
Flinch.
“W-what is it?”
=Lord of the Fortress. You are likely aware that that spirit-user and the otherworldly shaman—those two differ in how they treat spirits.
“For now, yeah.”
Jung Sua and Borjin.
Perhaps because Jung Sua had made a contract with a spirit through the System,
she was extremely free in how she accepted information about spirit arts.
‘Borjin was a little different.’
A being who had grown his strength by communing with spirits for a long time.
More genuine toward spirits,
and he took a more conservative stance.
=Just as I said before that each world may have a different form of destruction... the way spirits are treated differs by person or civilization.
“And?”
=The reason I judged you would refuse this proposal is because the first spirit-user you met was someone who prioritized communion with spirits.
“So in your world it wasn’t like that?”
=Spirits were existences to be used efficiently, not objects of communion.
At those words,
Jung Sua’s eyes went wide in curiosity.
‘If it had been Borjin, he’d have gotten angry at that line first.’
This was
a difference between spirit-users of other worlds and spirit-users of Earth.
And also,
a difference in the world where that Vimanar was made.
Only...
“By my standard, your world’s way is worse.”
=Likely so. But in the world where this fortress was constructed, that was not defined as anything particularly evil.
“...To think using spirits like that felt like nothing.”
I frowned, thinking.
Bluntly put, that was treating spirits like slaves.
Even upon reconsidering it, I couldn’t see it in a good light...
=What of your world, Lord of the Fortress?
“Mm?”
Earth had no concept of spirit-users.
I wondered why it was suddenly asking about Earth, but—
=To obtain food... or for their own amusement... did they not take sound animals, keep them in narrow places, and raise and slaughter them?
“...Hm.”
What can I say—
hearing a logic you’d expect from vegans mouth out of an artificial spirit
was a bit disconcerting.
“So you didn’t?”
=Babylon, while it would use spirits—beings of the otherworld—still respected all who belonged to that world. In Babylon, it was unimaginable that any life would be used as livestock by another.
“Then how did you handle food...”
=There were our own solutions. In Babylon, even the smallest, most seemingly trivial beast was a great king. We lived in mutual respect.
At that,
I recalled the ones said to have joined the Vimana’s construction.
‘A beast and a war-king were together.’
I had wondered why a beast joined the fortress’s construction,
but from the start those two were regarded as equals in that world.
=From Babylon’s residents’ point of {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} view, the Lord’s world is the one committing enormous evils. To so abuse beings of the same world, and even eat them... it is a ghastly tale at which the faint of heart might well faint.
“...You’re not suddenly planning to criticize us, are you?”
=Of course not. I merely wished to speak of different worlds and different values... no more than that difference. The idea of using spirits may be not evil at all in other worlds. This fortress did not recognize it as an evil either, which is why the method to gain this spirit’s flesh-and-blood was as it was.
...I see.
It was, after all, a difference in values.
Because I met Borjin first, I took it for granted that one communed with spirits.
Had I instead first heard from this fortress its concept of spirits,
‘I might have thought Borjin’s side was the strange one.’
In short, the thing hadn’t acted from a bad intention.
However...
“That doesn’t mean I’ll change my mind and accept your words.”
=I understand. I only ask that you not lose too much trust in this fortress.
“...Hoo.”
It doesn’t sit right with me,
but under my plan, I intend to bring in even otherworldly monsters—if usable—as unit members.
Their values will differ greatly from those of humans.
If I ignore those differences entirely and force only my values,
then in a different sense it will become hard to secure enemy defections.
“...Fine. I don’t like it, but I’ll let it pass on those grounds.”
=Thank you.
What it said had merit.
Here, I could only understand and move on.
The important point is one:
‘In the end, I make the decision.’
Even if the content of a proposal differs from my values,
as long as the intent isn’t malicious, I shouldn’t judge it as bad.
Only—
“Don’t deceive me like this again.”
Given values may differ,
acting arbitrarily—on the judgment that it benefits me—according to one’s own values
is absolutely unforgivable.
“I’ll let it slide this time... but if something like this happens again—”
=...The Lord’s orders are at the very top of this fortress’s conditions for action. You need not worry.
Then I
will likely gain the experience of cooking a spirit orb.
=However... Lord of the Fortress.
“Yeah?”
=I understand you’ve refused the proposal. But then—may I ask what you intend to do?
Vimanar was still conversing with me from a position that seemed to be looking at Jung Sua.
=Because of this incident, dependence on you has spiked extremely high... and the fortunes of the faction inside the fortress that depends on you have swollen rapidly.
“Well, that would happen.”
=This will become a great constraint upon your actions.
The very fact that dependence on me was increasing—
I had already heard it.
So it wasn’t particularly strange to me, but...
At those words—
“...What!?”
“You scared me.”
The one who had been quietly listening in,
Jung Sua, cried out in shock.
“...What, why are you startled?”
“Ah, no. It’s just... Benefactor, what you just said...”
“Ah. It’s nothing much. It has nothing to do with you, so you don’t have to worry about it.”
Truth be told, it was something I wondered if I should even let her hear—
“You’re squad leader class in our unit, so it should be fine. Just, don’t go talking about it elsewhere.”
Jung Sua is in charge of reconnaissance for our unit.
Her title is, for now, leader of the Recon Team.
Like Corporal Lee Gongu or Grandpa Park,
she doesn’t sit in on the squad leaders’ meeting,
but she’s someone of fairly high standing in her own right.
‘If it were something that would harm me, that spirit would have concealed it.’
I banned the act of hiding things, not action itself.
Last time, it had immediately concealed the conversation that needed hiding.
This time it hadn’t, which meant this much was fine to let her hear.
“T-that’s...”
“...?”
“To think depending on the Benefactor could harm the Benefactor... Then what am I supposed to...”
I didn’t know what had shocked her,
but Jung Sua muttered to herself.
“...?”
“I—I’m sorry, Benefactor. I’ve got something I need to think through for a bit, so I’ll return for now.”
“Yeah. From here on it’ll be talk between me and this guy anyway.”
She muttered to herself as if lost in complicated thoughts,
held her head,
and left the Command-and-Control Room.
=....
Then,
the main body of Vimanar, which had been oriented toward Jung Sua until then, finally came before me.
=In the current state, the probability is high that you will not be able to accomplish what you wish, Lord. May I ask what you intend to do?
Right.
In the end, this is the problem.
As it said, I had satisfied the conditions to let Vimana hit Level 3.
But because I did it too brilliantly, if I leave the unit as is now, chaos may strike the unit.
To solve that, Vimanar had tried to seize Ozrok’s flesh-and-blood.
But now that I had stopped that,
from its standpoint, there must seem to be no other solution.
Yes.
From its standpoint.
“I didn’t say this part.”
=Sir?
“There are three reasons I refused your proposal.”
One, because you deceived me and went ahead with something I would hate of your own accord.
Two, because I cannot force sacrifice on someone who is for all intents and purposes a member of the unit.
And...
“That means you should have consulted me.”
=What do you mean...?
“I get that you’re pretty capable. But that doesn’t mean the methods you know are all that exist, does it.”
There was a third reason.
“As you said, if a lifeform has a [core], you can seize its flesh-and-blood as a body... right?”
=Correct.
“And it doesn’t have to be a spirit, specifically?”
=For now, that is so, but...
The condition to become its body is a core.
That is, like a Spirit Core—
a bodily organ that can control everything of that lifeform.
In the current situation, it seemed to think only spirits met that condition.
“Mm... It was before I even summoned the fortress, so it isn’t strange that you don’t know.”
=...?
“In any case, as I said earlier—switching to another spirit’s body is forbidden.”
=Then how do you intend to resolve this situation...
In truth—
this third reason
was the biggest reason I refused its proposal.
Grin.
“I’ll provide your body.”
There’s a better method—
why take a loss and use a spirit’s body.
‘I’ve got one pretty good item.’
That kind of thing... how to put it.
Would be far too much of a waste.
