The Outer God Needs Warmth

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Jeber from the Fourth World has gone mad with hatred.

His humanity has vanished, replaced by cruelty and harshness.

While Jeber provides a convenient harvesting machine production time in the Fourth World, the Third World is rather busy.

Today, there are classes until dinner.

Ah. By the way, the boy named Rabo Pasilie never did show up in the classroom until it was over.

Neither Aurora, Kanna, Polaris, nor Victoria took any special actions regarding that boy.

So at least, they aren’t involved.

It seems they didn’t handle it separately. If he had died that way, I would have felt warmth.

He probably just ran home.

There’s a high chance he couldn’t justify his actions until the end and merely fled.

“Class dismissed!”

Victoria, who was sitting next to me, stretches.

The teacher leaves the front, and we wait for the student sitting in the back to leave.

Such is a class society. Ah, of course, high-ranking students also tend to stay longer out of chitchat, and in those cases, the next student has to be perceptive and stand up.

Unspoken rules don’t operate like programmed laws.

They’re not explicitly stated.

People who want to leave just leave, and those who don’t, don’t.

However, there’s a reason such unspoken rules arise.

The door is narrow.

When going out there, the probability of bumping into a student of a different class arises.

So, high-ranking individuals go out first, making it easier to exit in order, and thus, rules are born.

Afterward, rules consume reality. Since it’s convenient, the rules made for safety become tools that oppress people.

This is why customs arise in society.

“I want to hurry back to the dormitory and rest….”

While contemplating the reason for this waiting in my head, Victoria mumbles while burying her face on the desk.

“Is it tough?”

Last year, she went to wind-up knight school for separate classes.

But I never thought she’d say this would be hard.

“Yeah. It’s not really a study I want to do.”

Victoria responded in an incredibly low voice. Ah, that’s right.

Victoria originally wanted to handle mechanical devices. That’s why, after finishing at the Royal Academy last year, she went to wind-up knight school for classes.

However, during the riot incident, most students and teachers at wind-up knight school were murdered by the mob.

The country did capture and punish those who killed them, but even Victoria knows that was only a fraction.

And she’s aware they were easy scapegoats.

“Are you giving up?”

“I don’t understand what I’m supposed to dream about anymore.”

Victoria mutters.

Has her passion for mechanical devices all but cooled? Now, there are no books related to that in her room.

We could no longer see her studying late at night after returning home in winter.

Instead, she worked the fields, following her grandfather. At first, she tagged along with her grandmother, but with just one gesture from Victoria, she could control the water, right?

At some point, she ended up being dragged along as a substitute for heavy machinery.

It’s quite amusing that she was treated like a goddess in that area.

I mean, if she could control water, isn’t she like a goddess in rural society?

She could physically flood fields, not just moving humidity around.

The associations that arise are bright memories of farmers and various occupations. If I could control water like her, I’d shine brightly with what I could do.

In other words, it seems she has given up on mechanical devices.

She has lost her dream.

Well, she was indeed in a situation fit for that. So here’s what I say.

“I’m going to push you.”

“Did you forget the reason we got distant?”

Victoria pokes my side with her finger.

Not only because I forced it, but because of complicated reasons, she found it painful to be with me, and I’ve heard her whine about it to her parents.

But that’s not my concern.

“Well, I’m saying this because it’s you, Victoria. Have you seen me say this to anyone else?”

The reason I don’t say it to others is that I believe they will climb up on their own, only to fall.

And I think it’s natural that they rise with the power they possess, even if I don’t say anything.

As physical functions improve and intelligence increases, people won’t just sit there and wither away.

Because they see the future, they move, and energy overflows their bodies.

Moreover, as living costs increase, they’re pushed to move even more.

But Victoria’s situation is different.

“I haven’t seen it. But Bell, you only talk when someone approaches you, right? So isn’t it natural that I don’t see you?”

Sharp!

So in the dormitory, she often talked to that person. Watching me easily pick up conversations when spoken to led her to believe I was starving for dialogue.

She thought I was just a kid who couldn’t initiate conversation.

Funny enough, after living like that for half a year, I became attached, and she even came to my house.

So, it’s true that I only speak when approached, and it’s also true that Victoria hasn’t seen that.

“That’s true.”

“See?”

Victoria buries her face on the desk again.

“Truthfully, I don’t really know what I still want to do.”

She murmurs like a lost person.

But I know she hasn’t lost her way.

The interruption of Victoria’s dream was not due to a lack of talent. Nor was anyone blocking her path to follow it.

It’s just that a shocking event hovered nearby.

“Is that so?”

“Are you pretending not to know? You know everything.”

“I don’t know everything.”

While I share events from Victoria’s perspective, I still don’t know what she thought or how she felt during them.

That’s my limit.

So, using the theories I know, I twist and turn, trying to guess her thoughts.

I recently realized that even if I understand emotions, it doesn’t mean I truly know them.

For example, if someone pours sauce on sweet and sour pork and feels disgust.

At that point, they might feel disgust simply because they dislike pouring sauce, or just the act of someone doing something to their food could be disgusting.

All I can ascertain is that they felt disgust.

No. Is it a relief that I can even understand emotions?

“Liar.”

“I don’t lie.”

“True. Bell is a lying non-liar, right?”

Let’s keep silent about that.

As I close my mouth, Victoria pokes my cheek and giggles.

“What the heck are you hiding… I ran away after just seeing that shadow. That entity. Are you going to show me?”

She asks playfully, but she seems genuinely serious. I can faintly feel the quiver at the tip of Victoria’s finger.

Still a child, isn’t she?

“No, I ran away after only seeing the shadow, so I’ll hide it until the shadow isn’t visible.”

Victoria pauses slightly.

Huh?

Oh, right. That could mean there’s a fearsome secret one shouldn’t know. But that’s the reality.

Even the Primordial Heavenly Sovereign claimed it was dreadful; taking warmth is certainly not a good act. It’s pure evil exploitation.

And I have witnessed that example.

Creatures stripped of warmth transform into monsters that crave warmth.

As for me, they can die, but they were enviable.

It’s undoubtedly a bad deed. Yet, I’ll believe it’s not bad.

It’s not a sin when carnivores catch and eat small animals, right? I just need warmth to survive.

Staring intently at the motionless Victoria, she carefully brings the hand that was poking me to her chest.

Then, looking surprised, she opens her mouth.

“Then, make sure you hide it all the way through.”

“I’ll try my best.”

Upon hearing my response, Victoria waved her hand as if this conversation ended, then stood up.

“Let’s go back now.”

There are still a few people left in the classroom, but they’re not waiting; they’re just lingering because their chatter hasn’t ended.

I stood up as well.

Together with Victoria, we exited the classroom. We headed to the central stairs, went down to the first floor, and exited through the main gate.

Once outside the main building, we walked along the path leading to the Royal Academy’s gate.

As we hadn’t walked long, Victoria suddenly spoke up.

“Oh, right. Bell, where do you live? I saw you going toward the other way instead of the dormitory last time.”

An obvious question. But it’s also an unexpected one.

“Victoria, haven’t you seen where I go?”

Before crossing the main gate, we part ways. Victoria lives in the dormitory down the right path looking at the main gate.

Victoria raised her finger. And a small droplet formed there.

“I can control water, right? So I can roughly sense the water nearby. It’s just this vicinity, though, but I can feel it when you veer to the left rather than in front of that big building.”

Hmm.

Can she even sense that?

I don’t pick up on anything, including magic power.

Thinking I learned another unknown fact, I raised my head briefly. It was already dark outside as it was still close to winter.

“I moved houses. Want to come see?”

The moment I asked, we arrived at a fork in the road.

Both of us stopped there. Victoria blinked at my question, then promptly shook her head.

“Next time. I’m tired and want to rest today. I have tons of homework too.”

I nodded. We have plenty of time anyway.

We waved goodbye there; Victoria went to the dormitory, and I exited the main gate, promptly walking to the left.