That afternoon,
Victoria returned to the dormitory and received a letter.
The sender was Beatrice.
With a beaming smile, Victoria grabbed the letter and unfolded it.
The letter was filled with concerns about whether Victoria was living properly.
Tears streamed down her face as she read the letter, but she didn’t realize that, from my perspective, the letter had a major issue.
There was a lack of information about Beatrice and Morris. It only had a brief note saying not to worry about what was happening in Bern City. Shouldn’t they at least write about where they are and what they’re doing?
But aside from that, nothing else was written.
It seemed that was enough for Victoria.
Her face was full of smiles.
Of course, this is just my interpretation through Victoria’s eyes, so it might not be accurate. However, just by the way her facial muscles were pulling and the change in her tone, I could tell she was feeling good.
Phew. That’s a relief.
After all that fighting, she had to return without getting what she wanted. It’s fortunate that she wasn’t too impatient and ended up suffering unnecessarily.
Still, knowing that she is safe is good enough.
By the way, it’s dinner time now; Victoria is in the dormitory, and I’m at my accommodation.
In my place, I regularly observe the world from the perspective of the harvesting machine.
The capital has seen some changes.
First, the ranking of the popular newspapers has shifted, changing what people were reading.
Newspaper stands are scattered around, making it easy to spot the changes in newspapers.
Also, the mechanical puppets that used to carry cargo or passengers have nearly vanished.
Right after the national broadcasting aired the truths that three companies tried to hide, many of those machines were destroyed.
In particular, most of the problematic power sources disappeared, leading many homes to start using wood for heating.
The landscape of the capital has changed.
Now, during meal times, smoke rises from homes across the capital.
So now, in the late afternoon, unlike before, smoke is billowing from every house.
Especially in the Brightshin slum area, a thick haze is rising.
Even the slum dwellers could afford the mechanical puppets to heat water, so previously, there was little smoke there.
But they’ve reverted to burning wood, and with many old buildings in the slum, it was actually possible to do so.
Because just over a decade ago, burning wood was the norm.
Thus, older houses still have places where wood can be burned.
In other words, new buildings don’t even have space for burning wood.
Inside the buildings, there are no spaces for using fire. Boiling water and warming things were done using mechanical puppets.
But now, they no longer use mechanical puppets. They’ve lost trust in them so much that people are seeking makeshift stoves.
After all, it’s all about distrust.
When something is deemed dangerous, such items tend to disappear from prominent places for a while, right?
This world is no different.
However, there’s no necessity to eliminate tools that use magic power. If that were an unsolvable problem, there shouldn’t have been any development in magical civilization in the first place.
If we check the memory, it’s said that with various types of magic power converters, such issues are slightly alleviated.
They change magic power into heat or water, mixing things around, so even depleted magic power tends to return to its original state.
But this place has taken it too far. They tried to handle everything by converting magic power into rotational force. They created light, heat, motion, and drew water using that.
To put it in light terms, it’s like only using green light. So, they emitted light that extracted only the green residue.
Soon enough, the environment is filled with light lacking green. Consequently, when magic power is present, areas that require green can’t react, leading to spell failures, and while there’s an abundance of magic power, the lack of green prevents machines from functioning.
Believing that their surroundings were normal due to the magic power, the machines continued to absorb magic power excessively and overheated, resulting in explosions.
By the way, using magical tools, often considered antiquities rather than modern mechanical puppets, is still acceptable.
However, people who use them tend to be scarce in well-off areas.
That’s why in larger cities, incidents similar to what happened in Bern City can occur.
No, the story is veering off track.
Once information about the issues with mechanical devices spread, countless machines were discarded. Of course, when they were originally designed, they were made in a combined form and had to be left as is, but people tossed whatever they could.
Currently, the era is regressing.
This is not just in the capital.
Nearby cities and even Bern City are experiencing it too.
Additionally, among those captured in Bern City, those who were released quickly returned to Bern. Thus, we can also gauge the situation there.
In both Bern City and the intermediate Nantes Port, people are striving to return to normalcy.
As a result, if we say that the construction industry is booming, it sounds good but…
Surprisingly, it’s not that simple.
The construction companies are entwined with corporations, causing… well…
Of course, even if they are not giant construction firms, there are many who know how to build. The problem is, there aren’t enough large cities where construction firms are present; instead, they’re scattered in the provinces.
Being associated with these construction firms doesn’t mean they can’t build; however, if it gets revealed they belong to a construction company, they could be killed by groups.
Especially in Bern City.
The citizens of Bern City are the ones who read the documents released by the capital so meticulously, to the point of their eyes bursting. Therefore, anyone tied to those three companies is genuinely in danger.
The amusing part is that since Bern City was held by those three companies, a vast number of people were directly or indirectly tied to them.
So do you know what they do?
They create lists of participants and non-participants in the protests. Furthermore, anyone who participated doesn’t qualify to return to Bern without permission.
If they come back freely, they get killed.
From the perspective of the harvesting machine, it seems the situation has ended, but the people who returned from the three companies were burned alive in the town square.
Hatred is genuinely contagious.
The city that was once at the forefront has now become the most filled with hatred and discrimination.
Bravo!
The one leading the charge is the harvesting machine, so I’m gaining my warmth!
Wow, just two weeks ago I was genuinely worried if this world was alright, but humans are indeed human.
They think with their hearts and feel with their heads.
They assess the world based on flowing emotions and need to make judgments based on their perceptions.
Thus, while a petty hate crime and an extremely closed society are being formed, I’m happy because warmth is being supplied to me.
And still, no major problems have arisen. You might ask, isn’t it a big deal that people are dying?
Because of the king, who is above the law, the kingdom’s laws aren’t that rigid. In regular kingdoms, executing criminals is like a circus that many people observe and enjoy.
Thus, even if they are burned alive, if the surrounding citizens agree, those enforcing the law would merely admonish in a manner akin to “Try not to dump rubbish on the street.”
This might be seen as the phenomenon of anomie where societal norms cannot keep up with rapid societal changes, but it’s more reminiscent of PTSD.
Having a morality that states killing people is bad exists, but it hasn’t thrown society into chaos.
However, they might have lost so much that they’re nearing a breaking point.
It’s like a soldier who has experienced war suddenly lapses into behaviors back from their soldier days because they feel they are still amidst it.
This isn’t just one person but the whole Bern City is experiencing this.
It’s distorted and broken.
The harvesting machine is there, widening its injury by tearing it with its own strength. Every time it does so, warmth trickles into me bit by bit.
Hehe.
You all look like you can suffer a bit more.
It’s an injury that should eventually heal, but I hope it drags out for as long as possible.
On the other hand, the capital’s situation is quite clean.
Even though the entire capital was destroyed by a witch attack, it’s recovering, unlike Bern City.
Very few people experienced horrendous trauma, and most survivors merely had pricked thorns while asleep, so there are not many severely injured people.
However, due to the recent royal announcement, items related to mechanical puppets have been discarded.
But the memory is strange.
Why am I being shown terms like economic depression in related searches?
Doesn’t it seem like such a thing wouldn’t occur here? There’s not much mass production, nor is there a huge amount of debt. There shouldn’t be a reason for people to be left homeless.
I guess the memories have intertwined oddly.
It’s like when brainstorming, some terms come to mind that seem entirely unrelated, right?
Maybe it’s something like that.
For several days, I’ve been lying on my bed, enjoying the warmth sent to me from Bern City.
Ah.
It feels good.
Sure, not much has gone as I thought, but still, because warmth is flowing in, everything has turned out alright.
Because I’m humble!
Ah, before it gets too late, I should sleep and pay attention to the harvesting perspective.
Meanwhile, the harvesting machine from the other world got caught by a demon and was dragged off to hell and died. I got the warmth, but I saw that the light was taken by the demon race.
Unfortunately, I can’t see beyond that.
When a rare harvesting machine is caught at the bottom, if one disappears, the entire perspective of that world vanishes, which is sad.
But with Eunjai as an example, if I’m lucky, I might get called over.
I’ll think calmly.
For now, I aim to advance technology here until I hit the tech level needed to cross into other worlds.
It’s like living off a sunless regeneration vending machine.
Since I already have a bit of foundation, I feel at ease.
Even in city construction simulation games, when resources are low, you just leave it on and wait until resources accumulate.
I’m not sure how much longer I can endure, but as the descendants of harvesting machines increase, just like in the first world, I can use descendants as offerings to ascend into reality.
I’ve divided many harvesting machines into quite distant locations.
Soon enough, the harvesting machines will thrive.
They’re good-looking, intelligent, and physically strong.
In fact, there are harvesters who had children after becoming harvesters. A baby was born from a female harvester working at a place that resolves sexual urges.
Birth background is crucial.
What’s important are the dreams. The power to achieve that is already present. The environment is awful, and reality is harsh, but harvesting machines fare better than ordinary humans.
Live a good life ahead and die somewhat happily. If possible, have plenty of children!
The descendants of the harvesting machines continue their contracts, but if I don’t include myself, the light appears white like someone not contracted with me. In other words, it’s light.
This means it won’t collapse like the first world.
Yes. This time, I’ll be cautious with the contracts.
I’ll aim to contract with someone in a higher position as much as possible.
In the third world, I’ll create an automatic warmth harvesting factory just the way I want!
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