King Hipion, Prince Solindigus, and even Princess Lunaria came to congratulate Aurora on waking up.
I didn’t see it directly. After Aurora woke up, I was practically chased back to my room.
However, since I can see things from Aurora’s perspective, I wasn’t troubled in understanding the conversation.
I overheard something that Aurora didn’t know. Apparently, she had been weakened due to a witch’s curse.
It’s said that the curse was placed on her the day she was born.
That thin resistance seemed to be a contract with the witch. At least from the point of the contract, it was weaker than Daegon’s curse. Compared to the resistance I felt when the body of Choseol was taken, it was too weak.
If I go through Daegon’s memories, I can see the day when I entered Choseol’s body.
Although the connection with Daegon was severed, Daegon didn’t even notice. He didn’t realize it until much later. Through the secret teachings of the bloodline, he learned that something else had taken the body.
I tried to search for the reason, but I couldn’t find any shining memories.
Shining memories always seem to be reflective. When something matches, it shines as if it says "I know this."
Here, intelligence issues are holding me back.
I can’t deduce new facts based on what I know. If I have the memories of Daegon and the Primordial Immortal, I should be able to explain most phenomena, right?
But all I know is what I already know.
I can’t take the first step and act proactively, I can only react once something has happened.
I wish I were a little smarter.
While I was contemplating that, King Hipion suddenly summoned the harvesters to the capital.
I thought they were going to be sent off for experiments again, but surprisingly, they gathered at the broadcasting station and were interviewed one by one.
It wasn’t about the Vern City incident. It was an interview about me.
From those with white skin to those with blue skin—everyone.
Updat𝓮d from frёewebnoѵēl.com.
Before long, a documentary about me was broadcasted throughout the kingdom. It wasn’t just on TV.
Newspapers with my interview on the front page were also distributed.
Hehe.
I’m really pleased.
Rather than talking about divine miracles or anything like that, it was written clearly that I had revived with special abilities, and that my body and skin color had changed.
Now, I have a stepping stone that will make people less resistant when I create harvesters in this world.
In the second world, harvesters were seen as public enemies, but in this third world, a new image was created—that of someone revived from the brink of death.
Additionally, the image of someone who had been saving people during the Vern City incident helped merge into a very positive image.
I’m happy.
Although I’m pleased, I wondered why they were making this public. I thought it would be more beneficial for those in power to keep abilities like mine hidden.
Monopolies always attract criticism.
I realized the reason by the end of summer.
Princess Aurora publicly stated that her health had been restored through my abilities.
Her beautiful blonde hair turned purple, and her skin became blue, but the royal family announced that she had regained her health. And they also said I was the one who healed her. In other words, Princess Aurora was now considered someone who received abilities from Vern City, just like the others.
That’s when I understood why they had advertised the harvesters.
They weren’t trying to hide the fact that Aurora’s appearance was strange, but instead, they wanted to reveal that she was a result of being revived.
They thoroughly used the harvester, who had been seen helping people in Vern City, to create a positive image, and then broadcasted to the entire kingdom that she had been revived from the brink of death.
It was all for Princess Aurora.
Hmm.
Yes.
At least from the perspective of over 9,000 harvesters, there are various races in this country, but there are no people with blue skin.
Perhaps in other countries, there might be, but at least to what the harvesters know, such people do not exist.
Blue skin is not something you can easily overlook as strange. It’s an ominous color, like a corpse that has begun to decay or someone with argyria, where silver permeates the body, causing the skin to turn blue.
Had Princess Aurora just emerged like this, she would have been met with strange remarks. It would have been like someone who caught smallpox and became scarred, which would have lowered her value.
But now, public opinion has changed.
She is no longer just someone who received a miraculous benefit, but a member of those who were rewarded for their good deeds.
There is no real causal relationship, but isn’t that how groups work?
And then the country held a festival. The king emptied the royal treasury and threw a feast for everyone. It was probably a way to solidify the image. Maybe.
By the time the festival ended, and I was able to enjoy the leftovers, summer in this country had fully ended.
I was then dragged to the Royal Academy.
“Bell!”
“Hello.”
On the day of my transfer.
I was standing absent-mindedly in my classroom when Victoria spotted me and rushed over. She was also forcibly enrolled in the Royal Academy starting today.
“It’s been a while, but you’re cold...”
“Since we formed a contract, you’ve never been apart from me for even a moment.”
Since I’m seeing it from Victoria’s perspective, I’ve never deviated from my subjective view.
At my words, Victoria hugged me.
There were eyes watching us.
Not just one or two, but almost all the students were looking at us.
From their expressions, I could see everything from admiration to disdain.
There are a lot of high-ranking people here. In other words, these are people who are likely to become harvesters.
While I was wondering what kind of attitude to take, a person who looked like a teacher entered. Without any introduction, the class began.
It’s not really a school in the sense of a public facility; it’s structured more like a university, where students don’t seem to be the main focus.
The class lasted two hours, twice a day. Once in the morning, and once again after lunch.
As soon as the afternoon class was over, Victoria grabbed my hand and we went outside.
We walked down the road leading to the main gate, and then turned right near the main gate.
In the distance, I could see the dormitory. So, Victoria seemed to be taking me to the dorm.
Following the stern and silent Victoria, I headed to her room.
As soon as we arrived at the room, Victoria locked the door and let out a big sigh.
“Haahhh... That was scary.”
“Scary?”
I don’t recall seeing any fear in her expression.
“There were so many people I couldn’t even speak to! And it’s full of people from completely different worlds—nobles—so of course, it’s terrifying!”
Even though Victoria has the Sahagin’s instant death tool, I think it’s scarier that she transitioned from a concealed existence to a place where people see her and kill on sight to reach the descent site.
However, more than being scared, she seems to have an expression closer to avoiding a balloon that could burst at any moment.
“If I hadn’t helped people, I wouldn’t have ended up here.”
So, I said it once.
Before any resentment falls on me later, I said it first. Victoria, being a kind person, will probably deny this.
“Right. If I hadn’t moved back then, I’d probably have returned to the automaton knight academy by now. Yeah.”
Victoria looked at me with a clear expression and spoke.
“But I don’t regret it. Even if I go back, I’ll save people.”
Yes. I know.
Victoria is that kind of person. I don’t know how long that will last. If she gets bullied here, she might change her mind.
Even though she’s firm in the face of pain, that doesn’t mean she can withstand it forever. Considering the students' expressions from earlier in class, there’s a high possibility she will be bullied.
So before she breaks, I need to avoid responsibility.
“Are you giving up on becoming an automaton knight?”
“No. I found out that there are classes here too. I’m planning to go there.”
I know that. But what Morris told me is that it’s not really about becoming an automaton knight, but about learning the perspective of someone who will work with automaton knights.
It’s not a technician’s perspective, but a manager’s.
So saying that is pure bluff. And if you bluff, you need to back it up. Victoria would do that.
“I’m glad.”
Victoria smiled awkwardly at my words. She really is a kind person. She said it this way, considering me.
Even if she gets broken, it seems that the blame will fall on someone else.
“So what about you, Bell? They said you healed the princess in the royal family. I kept seeing that on TV for a while. Have you talked to the princess? What kind of person is she?”
Victoria changed the subject.
I was treated as a guest in the royal family, but I was closer to being a tool. But I don’t say that. It’s not because I don’t want to worry Victoria, but because it involves my subjective view.
A subjective view that treats me indifferently.
It’s not time to show my subjectivity yet. Because if I show my subjective view, they’ll start trying to handle me.
If I move like an object with no subjectivity, the person who’s keeping me won’t care about me but will focus on the person trying to use me.
Easy mode is nice. Easy mode.
When others try to deceive me, I don’t have any guarantees that I’ll catch it all. Even when I turn into a harvester, it’s the same.
Even if harvesters have brainwashing abilities, it would be nice if they just gave me affection. But unfortunately, such a function doesn’t exist, so there’s nothing I can do.
So, I’ll move cautiously, one step at a time.
There’s plenty of time.
But I’ll use my experience from the second world, and I’ll make bold moves without shrinking. It’s difficult to keep balance, but I’ll have to try somehow. This is my homework.
“I don’t know. I only met her for a moment, and then I stayed in the royal room.”
Considering that people entering my room only change every three days at most, it’s clear that someone has malicious intent.
Even if there are many people, if no one engages with you, you feel lonely. Solitude can easily break someone.
It creates the perfect conditions for gaslighting.
That’s why cults often force people into crowded places like subway stations to evangelize. Their real goal isn’t to bring people into their cult.
Cults are despised. The evangelists try to preach to many people, but most of them are ignored or ridiculed. With humiliation, they implant the impression that the person is a worthless failure.
Then, when they return empty-handed, they break their self-esteem by asking why they couldn’t evangelize, making them feel mentally exhausted, and they begin to rely on the cult after numbing their reason.
It’s like giving a disease and then a cure.
Isolating them and making them dependent.
It’s a method often used by rulers to turn people into foolish subordinates.
“Well, it makes sense for the royal family. I thought you would have met the prince too, but you didn’t have that experience?”
“I did greet him, but that was all. We didn’t even exchange names.”
“Wow, that’s something.”
Victoria, with a faintly dissatisfied expression, sat down and patted the space beside her. I sat there, and she started to tell me about what had happened in the meantime.
She talked about how many people came and went at the broadcasting station, how she was invited to the royal family but couldn’t meet me, and how strange people started coming afterward.
She left out the part where Morris was fired from his company and the family ended up hugging and crying over it. She also didn’t mention the strange person who broke into their house, and how they ended up moving.
It’s unfortunate. Morris.
If he had just let go of his humanity a bit, he would be a successful person at his company by now.
Additionally, they moved to the outskirts of Vern City. Based on the faded memories, it’s like moving from Seoul to Gyeonggi Province.
That place has a lot of people who were affected by the Vern City incident.
In other words, there are many harvesters.
If you’re alone, it’s easier to focus on your goal, but it’s also a good idea to move to a place where the goal is dispersed. The move was a good decision.
So, while thinking about when I should tell her about this, I spent time with Victoria, who was sharing her story.