episode_0075

The horse has returned.

I turned my gaze to the child who was still looking down at his arm with a dumbfounded expression.

My arm, which was so swollen that I couldn’t even bend it properly, shrank by more than half. No, it didn’t shrink, it went back to its original size.

There was no other way to erase the traces left by the daughter of the previous cult leader. Since it was likely that the Heavenly Horse would be able to quickly tell if there were any bugs or not, they blinded her by making her into a harvester.

The daughter of the previous cult leader said that it was natural for people to have bugs in their bodies. As she said that, she immediately took out a medicine to remove the bugs from the body.

It means that it is natural for people inside the Cheonmasingyo to have bugs in their bodies, as she has medicine.

In general, it is something to be condemned.

But implanting something in the body to monitor and punish defectors is a very effective way.

If it becomes a culture that is so natural, like the current Cheonmasingyo, the resistance will decrease. In fact, it can force people who are not doing it to do it.

Obviousness is sometimes more deadly than poison.

In the world of faded men, as the country controls people by assigning serial numbers to every adult and recording their unique characteristics.

We become so accustomed to having our freedoms violated that we forget that we have lost them.

Common sense tells us that we can’t trust government agencies, but it’s ridiculous to allow them to take away our freedoms.

The same goes for the Cheonmasin Church.

If you put a bug in your body and run away, you accept the fact that you will die because of the bug without any problem. And if you die because the bug doesn’t fit your body, there’s nothing you can do about it.

This child was also not suited to the current system and was destined to be killed.

This child was born in a village ruled by the Cheonmasingyo sect.

It is said that it is a tradition for people born in this area to receive education at Cheonmasingyo before leaving.

Of course, it’s a tradition, but it exploits labor.

When you come here, you receive basic writing training and then immediately start working as a maid. After about 15 years, the special ones stay here, and the others return to the village.

The work I do mostly requires a lot of strength.

Doing laundry, cleaning every nook and cranny, and doing other things that are helpful to the above riders.

And then after about two years, they put bugs in your body.

But since it’s a natural thing, no one thinks it’s strange.

Rather, it teaches that you have to put bugs in order to become a proper member of the Heavenly Demon Sect. And that logic changes to the idea that it is right to use someone younger than you who is less than two years old as you wish. Because that is why I have been suffering for two years.

It is human to inflict upon others the same injustices that they have experienced themselves.

I can’t be the only one who gets this.

It’s the same everywhere.

But this child was unfortunate.

I worked for two years and got promoted, but the bugs didn’t suit me. Because of the bugs, my body got swollen and itchy and hurt all over.

But I still have to do it, or I’ll die.

Because one or two of the children who came to the Cheonmasingyo were executed as an example.

They even kill him with their own hands. They stone him to death, saying that he is useless to the Cheonmasin Church.

They make people come out one by one and throw stones so that they can’t be buried in the group. And if they throw weakly, they get dragged along.

It’s so effective at turning people off.

However, it can also be seen as a process of adaptation to survive in the environment of the Cheonmasingyo religion.

The child who adapted there worked desperately. But you can tell just by looking at him that his appearance was terribly ruined, right?

Even though he was still a child, he knew what would become of him.

And I also knew that no matter what I did, I couldn’t avoid death.

Just when I was about to give up on my own death, I was suddenly dragged away by a terrible monster.

That’s what this kid has been through so far.

If the bugs on a person’s body suddenly disappeared, who would you suspect first?

Even though I was attached to this child, is it this easy?

You shouldn’t be proud in front of smart people. It might be too late.

So I sat in front of the child, praying that I wouldn’t get caught.

Now that we know that the child can speak, we need to do what needs to be done.

“My body’s name is Chosul. Please tell me your name.”

Hello.

Sure, I know the child’s name, but doesn’t that make sense when we talk to each other?

“I’m So-o.”

The faded memory of a man sparkles. It’s as if he’s smiling, bringing to mind the name of a work.

You’re making fun of someone else’s name.

I went to the child and grabbed the old and worn-out clothes. Then I changed them into new ones. When I changed the clothes, I could feel a faint crack, but it was not big enough to be visible.

Now, use this power well. There are quite a few conditions, and you can’t change the world as you wish like a reality bender.

Still, this is where it is. It’s better than nothing.

I then got up from my seat. Behind me, the child was hurriedly getting dressed.

“Will you follow?”

“Yes!”

That’s a good answer.

I stood at the entrance and waited. Then, when Soo, fully dressed, came running, we walked together.

To the south of the house I’m currently in is the building of the Cheonmasin Church. And the ruins I visited yesterday are to the northwest.

And to the east there is a long cliff, and in front of it there are countless pillar-like rock mountains.

No, if I had to describe the terrain, I would describe it this way: To the north and west are forests, and to the east and south are pillar-like rock mountains rising above the water.

So, you can’t see far away very well. That’s probably why the Cheonmasingyo building is located in a place like this.

I’m thinking of going down the rock mountain.

I’m concerned that I came out of the place I was summoned and moved around on a boat.

However, you can’t go straight down. The cliff is too steep. If you go up north from here, the slope gets lower and you reach a place where you reach the water.

The only problem is that you have to go through the forest.

Is something wrong?

I walked with Soo.

Maybe because his body changed, he walks faster. He actually jumps around a lot. It’s really funny how just by jumping, So-oh’s eye level becomes the same.

Although Cho-seol is only about 12 years old, she is as tall as an adult woman.

I don’t know if he’s fully grown or if he’ll grow more, but it’s strange for an 8-year-old to jump up to the eye level of an adult woman.

As the harvest season approaches, the body becomes much stronger.

If, as the faded man remembered, this place was like the Immortal Kingdom, there was a high possibility that it was a very low-level place. A world where transcendent beings who could not be reached no matter how hard one ran were installed.

But if you analyze the memories of the five harvesters, it doesn’t seem to be that kind of world. Perhaps the term is just similar to seonhyeop.

At worst, it means they are in a world that is impossible to even recognize.

That’s fine with me.

Can they handle me?

If I pour myself out, will the world be able to sustain me?

Or maybe he’s so strong that I can’t even help him, and he can kill me?

Either one is fine.

If it exists, we will definitely meet.

With that thought in mind, I went into the forest with Soo, who was laughing and running around. The vegetation wasn’t that unique.

It’s strange because they’re so similar.

There is not much difference between the plants I saw in the first world and the plants I saw in the world the faded man knew.

The leaves are green, the stems are brown. Of course, there are some differences, but they are strangely similar.

The faded memory of the man comes back to me faintly.

They say that if the main temperature is similar, there is a high probability that it will be green, but I don’t like words that I don’t understand, so I ignore them.

Knowing a word and being able to understand it are two completely different things.

But I would like to see a world where plants grow in dark, purple colors, or a world where plants grow in bright, yellow colors.

All 92 worlds are similar.

At least in the areas where the harvesters live, there are places where there are no plants at all.

By the way, there were 117 when I came here. But 25 of them gave me warmth and disappeared from that world forever.

Anyway, Soo and I arrived at the water’s edge without much danger.

No, I never thought about it when I came here, but our house.

It’s at a much higher altitude than I thought. It’s like coming down from a mountain, so when do I go up?

I just think my body will become healthier.

I took a look at the house, and then this time, as I had intended, I squatted down on the water’s edge and looked at the water.

It’s transparent.

If you look closely, you can clearly see under the water. There are lots of plants growing underneath, and you can even see fish moving underneath.

Looking at the warmth, there seems to be a fairly large creature nearby.

I lifted my finger, dipped it in water, and licked it, thinking that it would be nice if she came closer.

It’s not salty.

Freshwater lake?

I thought it might be a bay like Halong Bay where the sea eroded the land and came in.

If it’s inland, it’s a very remote place.

As I was gathering geographical information, Soo came up behind me.

She was leaning over and trying to drink water with her hand like I did, so I tried to stop her but stopped.

It’s better to try what you can.

When I look at Soo-oh quietly, he looks at me with an expression asking why I’m tasting something like this.

“If you drink it carelessly, bugs will come inside.”

So when I told him the truth, he backed away with a disgusted expression. But judging by the way he was trembling, wasn’t he incredibly scared?

Oh, right.

A bug came out of his body along with a large amount of blood.

Looking back on my memories from back then, the bug’s name was Samsi. But at the time, they gave me a small pill. I guess it was small when it went in.

I held onto the child because I was afraid that if I shook too much it would break.

After staring at it for a while, I finally stopped shaking. But I was still staggering.

It would be difficult to take a child who can’t walk properly down the cliff and under the Cheonmasin Church building. This is a burden.

But what can I do?

I held the child and put him on my back, but he strangely clung to me.

The weather itself is cool, but it’s hot during the day and chilly at night, so it must be quite hot right now in the middle of the day, right?

That’s understandable, because he’s a child.

I went up again.

I didn’t realize it when I came down earlier, but it’s quite a strain on my body.

It’s not a steep hill, but a gradual downward slope like a flat land. Is that why?

You can train your body.

Oh, I just remembered while training. Can I use martial arts too?

I’ll have to go up and give it a try.

I remember all the methods Eunjae used. And there’s a harvester right next to me where I can experiment with them.

I am lucky.