Chapter 7 Part 7: First Day

We had simply found a new office, but there was no time to rest.

It was useless to have an office if no work came in.

Haran and I wandered around the alleys to announce the opening of the office.

“Do you really think putting up these flyers will help?”

“Uh-huh. These things all help, you know?”

Haran didn’t seem to know much about the promotional effect of flyers, but flyers actually have a pretty big promotional effect. It’s just that most of them are treated as kindling.

Of course, the effect is less than TV or newspapers, but I can’t promote it through TV or newspapers because of what I did.

With no recognition right now, I had no choice but to do this kind of promotion, hoping that at least one person would be caught.

“…Hey, Haran.”

“Yes?”

“Later, when you don’t have to do this job, what will you do?”

While putting up flyers, I asked Haran the question I wanted to ask.

She didn’t want to do this job like me, but started because she got caught up in it.

If those bodyguards didn’t misunderstand that she was a colleague, this wouldn’t have happened.

What if it turns out that it was a misunderstanding? I became curious about that.

“Well. If the misunderstanding is resolved… Will such a thing happen?”

“Think about it. Thinking about the future is more fun than you think.”

“…I don’t know. Why are you asking me that all of a sudden?”

“Well, it’s nothing. I just want to talk about what goal you’re going to move forward with. About the direction.”

“Direction?”

“Yeah, direction. You don’t just want to make money, do you?”

If the guys who are being protected by the country as B-grade are only at that level, it didn’t seem that difficult to settle down in this world in the future.

And, since Haran is also a colleague, I was planning to give her a generous amount of the request fee.

That’s why I was curious.

When she came to hold a lot of money that she thought she would never be able to touch in her life, what would Haran do?

Would she start coveting everything in the world, revealing her increased desires without any hesitation, like those high-ranking people?

Or would she try to become a saint who gives what she has to people?

When they say that money is everything in the world, such stories usually come and go.

A childish dream story that you can’t buy love with money.

But in my experience, thinking that you can’t buy love with money is a childish dream story.

In order to love, you first need money.

What is needed for a person to love a person?

Some say appearance, some say a warm heart, but they’re wrong.

To love a person, you need money.

.
To make someone look more attractive, you need money, and a warm heart comes from sufficient wealth.

How many people can really love a lover who can’t even take a bath for a month because they have no money?

As a prerequisite for loving a person, money is essential.

Because you need money for a person to act like a person.

If you don’t have money, a person’s heart becomes uneasy, their appearance is ruined, and their personality becomes violent.

Money is a prerequisite. A prerequisite for making a person like a person.

No matter how kind and gentle a person is, the moment they become penniless with no money, they turn into a beast no different from the street thugs in the back alley, and it was a truth to me that I had seen too many of them.

Is it said that a person’s true nature comes out when they are poor? No, no.

A person’s true nature appears when they have a lot of money.

Poverty makes anyone sick, but wealth does not. At least I’ve seen that.

So, what kind of nature will she show when she becomes materially peaceful, she who shows a different path from any of the people I have seen?

I was curious about that.

She, who is desperately poor but helps strangers, what will she do when she gets out of poverty?

“…I don’t know. I’ve never seriously thought about the future before.”

Haran couldn’t answer my question. As if she hadn’t thought about such a future.

“Hmm, yeah. You can’t. Not everyone draws the future and lives. Everyone just has vague dreams.”

I’ve seen these human beings a lot too.

No, rather, most people are probably like this.

Those who are too busy to solve the immediate problems and cannot dream of the future.

I’ve seen so many people like that in Neo City that I’m sick of them.

…That’s why I couldn’t understand at all. Those people are not the kind of people who would come to help me at the risk of their own loss.

Why did Haran try to help me? I was interested because I didn’t understand.

“Then, going back to the story from earlier, let me tell you about myself first. I’m going to be someone who is not resented by anyone.”

“Haven’t you already failed? There’s already a guild you’re at odds with. Not just anyone, Hresvelgr…”

“That’s not what I mean. …Um, I misspoke. Yeah, let me say it again. I wanted to become an untouchable being.”

I, too, had been caught up in a chain of revenge and was driven to the point of death.

I was lucky enough to succeed in changing my body to an expensive prosthesis and survive, but every time I acted to make money, I trembled every night, thinking that I would experience a similar incident.

How can I hurt someone without being resented?

What is the way to not be resented by people while doing the job of killing people?

I thought about it for a long time, and then I came to a conclusion.

“Become a system of society.”

“System?”

“Yeah. System. Resentment necessarily requires a target to attack.”

“…?”

For Haran, who didn’t seem to understand what I was saying well, I decided to explain my goal in an easy-to-understand way.

Haran lacks combat ability, so I was planning to have her take on miscellaneous tasks.

She had to know exactly what kind of requests to take.

“Let’s say, your family died. But what if the cause was that they were killed by a murderer?”

“I’d be angry. I’d probably want to take revenge.”

“Yeah. Then let me ask you again. Your family died, but they died because a volcano exploded. But what if the volcano exploded because of the trash your family threw away, what would it be like?”

“…I’d be sad? I think I’d sigh at why they did such a stupid thing.”

“You wouldn’t take revenge? You wouldn’t be angry?”

“Pardon? There’s no way I can take revenge on a volcano. Besides, a volcano exploding is a natural phenomenon and… Wait, could it be.”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

If they were killed by a person, the victims usually move for revenge.

The fact that the person who killed the people precious to them is still alive is unbearable.

But what if they were killed by a system? What if it was an act committed by an existence that was far beyond their control?

The victims give up, saying it’s unavoidable.

And even more so if that system is due to the victims’ karma.

“Th, there’s no way that’s possible…”

“Surprisingly, it’s possible.”

The reason why I thought so came by chance.

It wasn’t a special incident.

As usual, it was an incident where a rich man who was high on drugs was harassing a homeless person.

The only unusual thing was that a young man full of justice shot the rich man in the arm.

Of course, the young man’s gun couldn’t penetrate the expensive subdermal armor, and the young man soon collapsed with holes all over his body.

Idiot. Why did you touch him?

I naturally thought that the citizens would laugh at that stupid young man.

But instead of laughing at the young man, the citizens criticized the rich man. Even when the bodyguards threatened the citizens, they didn’t stop.

It must have been because they were putting themselves in the position of the homeless person.

Suddenly, I thought as I watched the citizens who were defending the young man and criticizing the rich man.

This is it. This was it.

If I kill just anyone, their relationship may come to take revenge on me someday.

But what if I only kill those who have earned great resentment from others?

What if I kill those who are being cursed by people, saying that they deserve to die?

Even if the person I resented tries to kill me, won’t other people cover for me?

The moment I thought so, I immediately killed the rich man and left the place.

It was an incident that happened in broad daylight, and there were many witnesses around, and the dead person was a wealthy person, so I had to deal with all the witnesses, but I didn’t.

I just wanted to confirm whether what I thought was true.

That evening. The smile did not disappear from my mouth as I watched the incident on the news.

Armed robbery committed by an unidentified robber wearing a mask. The rich man and all the bodyguards died.

I didn’t kill the bodyguards, wear a mask, or steal the rich man’s belongings.

“Don’t touch the ashen girl. You’ll see a painful sight.”

“That’s…”

“It’s a story I heard in the place I used to live. How is it, not bad, right?”

Of course, I had no intention of acting as a guardian of justice, aiming for the path I should go.

In the first place, I’m killing people indiscriminately, so what. I didn’t have any moral superiority to the guys who became my target.

They and I are the same.

Today alone, I inadvertently blew off the head of the guy who was bothering me, just like I used to do in Neo City. I just had to handle them in a secluded alleyway….

The only difference between the guys and me is that I was strong and those guys were weak. That’s it.

Even if other guys shouted about double standards, I was eventually accepted into the city.

As a deterrent that prevents the corruption and the gangs that are always dirty from getting out of hand.

And well, what if it’s a double standard?

I had no intention of acting like a good guy at all, and I had no desire to boast about moral standards. I just wanted to survive.

“It’s okay to just think about it now, but it’s good to think about it someday. What kind of being you want to become.”

“…”

In a short period of time, I watched Haran and became convinced.

Even if she didn’t have a specific goal, she wanted to go up to that high place. She had the eyes of such a person.

Then what kind of person will Haran become when she goes up to that high place?

I’ll be able to find out someday if I keep watching her.

“Okay, the story is over, so let’s work again. I’ll put it from here to there, so you put it on the other side.”

“…Yes.”