The Outer God Needs Warmth-Chapter 212: Lost Dream (7)

King Hipion gathered everyone in the room.

Listening carefully to his speech, it seems that those present are people of a similar rank to him.

So, I searched through the memories of Polaris and Kanna. There are people from other nations here. Among them are diplomats, royalty, and even kings.

In other words, this is a gathering of the leadership from various countries.

An international conference?

Is he trying to introduce me?

While I was thinking this, King Hipion called over a soldier, saying he had someone ready for me.

A middle-aged man with numerous medals on his uniform walked in. There are two noteworthy things about him.

First, his right sleeve was fluttering, meaning his arm wasn’t there. And second, his face had a long, jagged scar, and one of his eyes was permanently closed due to an old injury.

When he stood in front of the king to salute, King Hipion left him standing and approached me.

"Bell. Treat him."

"Yes, understood."

So, I approached the man. He looked at me with a face full of suspicion. Judging by his expression, he doesn’t seem to know me well.

Didn’t King Hipion explain about me? Don’t they watch TV?

I must have appeared on it several times, but it seems like he doesn’t recognize me.

There are always people like that. It’s fine as the harvest season continues, so I recite the contract.

"I’ll give myself to you. In exchange, once you’ve finished everything later, I’ll take whatever you have. How does that sound?"

The man looked at King Hipion as if asking whether this was correct, and King Hipion nodded seriously.

But the seriousness in his gaze wasn’t because he trusted me. Instead, it seemed like he was coldly assessing how useful I am.

Mm. Very good.

When buying something, it’s important to examine its performance carefully.

"Alright, understood. Is this how we agree?"

He agreed. I pushed myself into his light.

Hmm? Something’s blocking it.

But it was just a very thin layer of foam, and with a little more force, it popped and disappeared. The light turned a proper shade of purple.

Then his entire body swelled up and hardened.

It cracked, like ceramic breaking, and inside, white skin appeared. His hair turned purple as well, but the people in the room didn’t notice that.

They seemed more focused on his new arms. His eyes, especially, seemed to draw a lot of attention.

But in contrast, he wasn’t looking at his eyes; he was awkwardly rubbing his newly grown arm.

He lost his arm while fighting a dragon that could use curses. Since then, he’d done everything he could to get it back, but the curse remained, so he couldn’t properly heal it.

As for his eye, he had given up on it long ago because it had been injured for too long. Since it’s such a sensitive area, it didn’t recover well with healing magic, so it was reasonable to not expect much.

There are memories of him refusing treatment because he might have died from shock during the regeneration process.

The difference between areas that could be healed and those that couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried, seems quite significant.

But it’s a curse.

Even when I entered the body of the early Daegon, there was something like this. It was a mark Daegon had left, but that was something I could break.

The dragon’s curse was simple. No, whatever I compare it to, Daegon’s curse was far stronger. Yeah.

The man named Haunt stood there with a dumbfounded expression, touching his eyes and arm.

King Hipion pointed at him and made an announcement.

"This is the Dragon Slayer, Baron Filios’s arm, cursed by a dragon. But his strength is such that even this curse can be easily undone and regenerated."

The crowd murmured.

But then, King Hipion shifted the topic.

"But miracles have their limits."

King Hipion explained the changes that occur when a harvester is fully formed and its limits.

Hair turns purple, skin becomes white, or in the case of serious injuries, the skin turns blue.

And once it has regenerated once, it can’t regenerate a second time.

He emphasized that the miracle of regeneration only happens once for a person, but as long as they stay alive, even in a dormant state, they can be regenerated.

It was framed as a miracle, but King Hipion subtly explained that it wasn’t really a miracle.

While explaining that the abilities of humans have limits and that miracles don’t come often, he defined me as a psychic.

He added that any injury or disease can be cured once.

The eyes of the foreigners in the room had already shifted long ago.

Their gaze was entangled with desire and longing.

Indeed, it’s impressive.

There’s no one here who doesn’t know what my abilities mean.

But he missed the most important part.

The royal family already knows.

If I make someone a harvester, even the disease of aging can be cured, at least once.

Of course, when someone becomes a harvester, their lifespan doubles, so their actual lifespan feels similar. However, if we’re talking about an advantage, it’s more common for someone to live longer if they become a harvester after getting older.

But the proportion of time spent in good health is about the same, so honestly, it’s like I said, it’s the same.

In the first world, I was able to reap a lot of experience. Back then, all I had to do was memorize the contract and insert myself into it.

I don’t plan to do that again.

But if I do, I’ll be very cautious.

Just one contradiction and trust would be shattered.

For someone like me, who ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) must steal warmth through contracts, it would be fatal.

I understand why demons are said to keep their contracts. It’s because they know they can’t break them, or else they wouldn’t even bother making them.

Who would make a contract without some kind of guarantee that the demon will fulfill it?

Especially a demon that drags souls to hell—if they don’t even grant wishes, why bother?

If I were a demon, I would make sure to keep what was asked of me, because if not, there’s no point in making any deals.

Therefore, I act as a harvester launcher, following King Hipion’s commands—greeting when told to, staying still when ordered.

It’s all about earning the trust that I’ll grant wishes when asked.

From the outside, I’m just another remarkable healing tool owned by King Hipion.

And it’s clear that King Hipion is using this healing tool to sell his treatments.

From what’s happened so far, I think this promotion is for Aurora. The blue skin is strange.

But if it’s the aftereffect of a powerful treatment, that view would change.

Of course, that’s not the only reason.

If I can be used, I’ll be used. King Hipion seems to have that kind of mind.

So, King Hipion kept me by his side, greeting the people who approached and introducing me to them.

He didn’t explicitly point me out, but anyone with eyes could tell he was subtly encouraging people to come to me if they felt uncomfortable.

After the greetings with the people gathered in the room were done, King Hipion and the foreigners began to dive into the real topic.

Yes.

The promotion of me was just like an advertisement before the movie starts.

I don’t know why I’m here, but the representatives from the various countries gathered here to discuss how to dismantle three major corporations.

It’s really about dismantling them.

They’re bringing in high-ranking officials and relevant researchers, planting the idea of world enemies in the international conference, and even talking about executing them as a spectacle.

Ironically, the country suffering the most from this issue is not the one whose actions are leading to the discussion—it’s the other countries.

Everyone’s furious, saying that a murder command could be hidden within a spring-driven doll that moves through their bedrooms, without exception.

It feels like the assassin is hiding in the most secure place.

In other words, the widespread presence of spring-powered machines across countries means that even the most secure locations are no longer safe.

If the times had advanced like where I live now, with more power in the hands of the people, the corporations would have been untouchable.

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There’s a genre called cyberpunk in the faded memories.

In that world, corporations are stronger than nations. In fact, a whole city might belong to one corporation. It could have happened here too. Since we’re rejecting spring-powered machines, prices have gone up a little, right?

Citizens always scream when prices go up.

And they pour their resentment onto the leaders.

But here, monarchies dominate. The king’s power is stronger than market logic.

Perhaps they thought that even if one country made a move, the other countries would accept the corporation. But the connections between countries were stronger.

They’ve become more than just terrorists; they’re now considered public enemies.

And the meeting didn’t end there.

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Surprisingly, a discussion began on how to improve the spring-powered machine industry. It would be too difficult to pretend it never existed, considering how much has been built on it.

They said the collapse of that industry would bring serious risks, and that its negative impact is already affecting the market. It’s something that needs urgent handling.

Hmm.

Is this really such a serious issue?

But, no one in this room was discussing whether it was a real issue or not.

It seems like they’ve already figured out if it’s true or not.

The people here are only thinking about how to deal with it.

Well, I like the attitude of trying to solve a problem.

But why do it in an international conference?

Why not just advance your own country in the meantime?

As soon as I thought that, the phrase "Isolation leads to extinction" flickered in my mind. It wasn’t just a few people from the ruling class who had mentioned it.

Hmm?

They say that sharing progress by cooperating with others leads to faster development than advancing alone in isolation.

Where there are connections, capital can flow, and by keeping each other in check, balance can be maintained.

Countries that are not part of these connections will be set as virtual enemy nations and crushed as part of the diplomatic agreements being formed here.

Then I wonder, wouldn’t it be the case that the largest countries would just absorb the corporations and become the most advanced technically?

But they say that would make that country the origin of all the events that never even happened. The justification would appear. That country, whose king’s bedroom has assassins who can kill him at any time, would give the justification.

Yeah. I’m starting to see the outline.

The king here isn’t making this agreement out of goodwill.

He’s hiding a knife that could stab him in the most critical places, and if he’s angry, he’ll destroy and kill the corporations—this I can understand.

It’s emotional.

I get it.

Especially those who are deeply immersed in the convenience of spring-powered machines, they’re the ones making proposals to completely crush the corporations. They shout to kill anyone connected to them. I understand because their decisions are based on emotions.

In short, it’s like this.

It’s like the parents of a child who bought baby products and heard news that those products killed a baby from another place—they’re angry.

The meeting continues.

And several hours later.

The meeting finally ended.

But rather than making a decision here, everyone announced what they had prepared, and the meeting was about editing and revising the details, right?

Anyway, so the meeting closed with everyone signing documents and stamping them.

And the people in this room moved on to the next schedule.

It was a banquet.

It seems like this is where Aurora is preparing and waiting eagerly. Seeing that Prince Solindigus is here, it looks like this is a royal family affair.

Thinking there might be actual work, I followed King Hipion as he led me to the banquet hall.