Ch.237The Seventh Entanglement – Variations on a Blind Revolution (7)

“But, Hive Mind. Are you going to proceed as planned? Do you think people will believe you when you tell them it wasn’t you causing all this chaos?”

One industrial mythril steel body detaches from the machinery of the era. Perhaps thinking it better than talking to a wall, the Industrial Spirit King pulled his body down.

A wise being. Perhaps he seemed to know too much for someone staying in this place. Though the Hive Mind didn’t have a clear answer to the question, it had to respond.

“In the end, only the terminals are damaged, and ideologies don’t crumble from bullets. Even if all terminals die, that’s what we’ll say. This wasn’t our revolution. It wasn’t our dance music, nor the dance we wanted to perform. Nevertheless, it happened in our name. And a name means responsibility.”

The Industrial Spirit King looked down at the Hive Mind’s magician terminal standing before him, too small for his body. Multiple lenses of different magnifications overlapped to create an accurate image of his appearance.

The Hive Mind couldn’t feel emotions from that mass of machinery either. Industrial machinery is just industrial machinery. But his voice seemed somewhat impressed.

“Your resolve is strong. The will to resolve matters even at the cost of blood is truly noble. Let me ask you one thing. Do you think the blood spilled in this incident will change people? The people of this city, I mean.”

All people had done was bleed and hide trembling in buildings. Everyone had tried, but it was one iron man who resolved the situation, not them.

Yet the Industrial Spirit King was asking if people would change. The idealist Hive Mind answered proudly.

“Yes. Blood creates change. We believe that a single drop of a martyr’s blood can change the entire world.”

The Industrial Spirit King seemed satisfied, but the Hive Mind added something. It was something the Industrial Spirit King hadn’t considered. It might irritate someone with such thoughts, but the Hive Mind didn’t care.

“But must the path of change always pass by the grave? People can change the world in better ways without insisting on bloodshed. Isn’t our method integration without bloodshed?”

Of course, there were flaws in the idealists’ vision. He willingly employed a detective who made his living from murder, and what that detective had thrown to the idealists was a Blingkerton detective.

But that was something the Industrial Spirit King couldn’t know. The idealists had their glossy ideals and the Hive Mind, a result they achieved themselves rather than just talking about ideals.

The detective might mock him, but the Industrial Spirit King couldn’t. In an age of terrible deception, knowledge was everything.

“Let’s see if things really change. Still, to observe, one needs eyes. Even your integrated mind has no eyes and must borrow those of terminals. Follow me. I can block bullets, but even I can’t do anything about gazes, remember that.”

The mythril steel giant who had been dwelling only in that concrete temple began climbing the stairs on all fours. The Hive Mind followed the Industrial Spirit King up countless stairs while connected to the terminal in front.

They ascend into a building constructed in a temple-like style, built solely to house the heart of the era’s machinery. There wasn’t a single other terminal inside. How did they infiltrate?

The Industrial Spirit King’s body transforms. Instead of becoming a dog that opens doors with its head, he restructures into a human form standing on two legs, with a massive engine beating like a heart in his chest.

The Hive Mind immediately understood what the spirit management officials had in mind when they modified the angels. Even so, the method still wasn’t clear. What ability allowed them to do that?

He flung open the concrete temple’s doors. All the industrial spirits gathered to protect the building bowed their heads at the sight. They silenced their engine sounds and mechanical clicks.

Instead of using flame speech, the Industrial Spirit King used his own voice. It was the voice of creative humanity. The sound of factory workers’ sweat beading, and industrial spirits rejoicing at receiving lubricant.

“The uprising is over. The uprising started by the evil usurper has ended, and the true idealist and true Hive Mind has returned. But people won’t be able to tell them apart. Then we must help. We will lead the way. We will ensure they don’t get shot dead before they can even speak. Will we do that?”

At the Spirit King’s words, the industrial spirits beat their chests high and started their engines. Expressing sincerity through one’s heart was behavior shown by most intelligent beings.

Those who had been crushing terminals until now believed the Industrial Spirit King’s words completely and took positions ahead of the terminals. Standing as if to protect them, they began to advance with the Spirit King’s body, which had returned to four legs.

It was right after that when the Industrial Spirit King spotted the detective coming out of the warehouse. So that’s why the idealist Hive Mind could have ruined the plan. It wasn’t difficult to notice.

The detective also saw the Industrial Spirit King leading the spirits ahead of the Hive Mind. He made a sound as if finding the detective unbelievable.

“Isn’t a detective’s job deduction? Then I must have misunderstood deduction, Michael.”

“A detective’s job is what clients ask them to do. My clients asked for deduction, so I deduced as instructed… and that deduction brought me here. I’m not one to decline an invitation.”

Since he never found the missing persons, the request was essentially a failure. Still, it was obvious he would receive more money than for a successful request. The detective took out a cigarette pack from his pocket and put one in his mouth.

Before lighting it, he spoke. Even the Industrial Spirit King wouldn’t have the talent for lying. If he told the truth, people would be even less likely to believe it.

The detective approached the Industrial Spirit King, putting his cigarette down. Standing before the mythril steel giant, he said:

“You helped the idealists. You discovered the culprits weren’t the idealists, and when I found your contractors hiding in the warehouse, the contract had already ended so I couldn’t process them, so I just got my hands dirty for that part. Blocking blind bullets isn’t help. Telling me this is help.”

The Industrial Spirit King had authority. He also had the indulgence to naturally know things ordinary people wouldn’t. It would be easier than having the detective try to convince people.

“If that’s how to help, I’ll gladly do so, Michael.”

The Spirit King’s voice was hearty, but the detective just stood there holding his cigarette.

“So you’re going to help. Without any reason. I can understand helping the journalist. I don’t know what she told you, but I saw it was helpful. Why help the idealists?”

The Industrial Spirit King called the detective by name, referred to himself as “I,” and had connections with the new Hive Mind and the spirit management officials who had become industrial spirits.

Maybe he hadn’t dug deep enough. And often, the more you dig, the bigger the mass you find. The Industrial Spirit King didn’t try to laugh it off either.

It was a reasonable suspicion. When his contractors were involved, receiving immunity alone wasn’t wisdom but complacency. He believed the detective wasn’t a complacent person.

“We just want to see the world change. We just want to see how people who have shed blood in this incident will change. I thought helping them would let me see that.”

The Industrial Spirit King had said something similar when he met the detective. That people in this city don’t change until they bleed.

This incident was clearly a good opportunity to prove that statement. But it was too good an opportunity. Too good to have just come along, and just good enough to be believable if it was created.

The Industrial Spirit King could understand that much. In these circumstances, such an opportunity coming along, and him stepping forward as if to solve all problems, was enough to justify suspicion.

“It’s natural to still be suspicious. Ah… yes. They didn’t directly borrow my power, but after making a contract, they used the mana I shared with them and the magic I taught them. Isn’t that right?”

It was probably true. Only the Industrial Spirit King could call the Hive Mind’s mental fusion magic a trivial dominance, and ordinary people couldn’t even resist that magic.

In such a situation, to completely take over the Hive Mind’s position would require a gift from the Industrial Spirit King. The detective nodded briefly.

“Then, have you ever seen inside the bodies of the terminals they controlled, Michael?”

Though he had shot and killed quite a few, he hadn’t properly examined their insides. He didn’t have a hobby of examining corpses, so he hadn’t properly seen… No, the detective had seen Inspector Senoy trampling the remains.

The inspector had clearly shaken off small mechanical device fragments stuck to his shoe. If those terminals didn’t have a taste for holding mechanical devices in their mouths, then something had entered through an abnormal path.

Was that abnormal path the Industrial Spirit King’s mana? Mana was a catalyst for change. Magic was a technique that used catalysts to accelerate phenomena. It could be a side effect.

“Are you talking about the machine fragments inside those bodies?”

The Industrial Spirit King wanted to sigh, but he had neither lungs to create exhaled breath nor a throat for that breath to flow through.

“Yes. My mana and magic are strictly industrial. When used on people, they have side effects. If I had played some trick as you suspect, that is, if I had stolen the idealists’ magic and caused this trouble, there would be mechanical devices inside those nine bodies too. Isn’t that right?”

It was quite solid evidence. If turning flesh into machinery was a side effect, it meant there was no ability to turn machinery back into flesh. Then the risk of manipulation was only on the detective’s side.

“Clean. I’ll leave the autopsy to the police. They’ll need it as evidence anyway, and there’s no guarantee for you that I won’t mix something in if I dismantle them here. Is that enough?”

The Industrial Spirit King made a satisfied mechanical sound. The sight and sound of metal parts meshing precisely gave a certain satisfaction.

“More than enough, Michael. Now let’s go. It’s not me who needs help, but this Hive Mind.”

“I’ll leave separately since I’m heading to the factory area where there’s no danger anyway with no terminals left. I don’t want to appear to be doing something for the idealists at a time like this.”

The detective wasn’t one to fight losing battles. The Industrial Spirit King might block the immediate bullets and criticism, but he couldn’t block media coverage and the judgment of public gaze.

He was a typical monster hunter. He could hunt one big monster well enough, but against the gaze and contempt of ordinary people, he had only the same resistance as everyone else.

He disappeared over the factory’s high wall as if it were just a knee-high fence. Neither the Hive Mind nor the Spirit King worried about the detective.

The Industrial Spirit King gathered the Hive Mind, who had lost its most reliable helper, and advanced toward the people. The industrial spirits, emboldened by the Spirit King’s presence, accompanied them.

Though it was just a riot lasting a few hours, the wounds were deep. The scars would be dark too. Now that they were guaranteed life and safety, they began to properly see what had happened while they were in hiding.

There wasn’t much they could do. They could only try to resolve it. They classified all the terminals gathered in the factory area from across New York.

Fortunately, there weren’t as many terminals with shaved heads and work clothes (used to distinguish them from others) as there were terminals made from ordinary people. They weren’t the Hive Mind’s terminals. They needed to be returned.

The edge of the factory area where the detective had entered stealthily came into view. Seeing something marching toward them, angels and people stood in a line with their guns raised, but they stopped when they saw the Industrial Spirit King.

The mythril steel giant with a beautiful blue luster stood before them with his head held high. After making a growling sound as if telling them to lower their guns, he spoke:

“The uprising in the factory area has been suppressed! It was resolved thanks to one capable person and the idealist Hive Mind who worked to reclaim what was theirs. This was not the doing of the idealists. It was my contractors who made you bleed. Will you believe me when I say they were falsely accused?”

The Industrial Spirit King thought he could resolve this through dialogue, but voices from the crowd shouted that this wasn’t something to be resolved through dialogue.

“You’re being deceived, Industrial Spirit King! How many of us saw those commie bastards shouting that the time had come!”

Still, he didn’t abandon the hope that persuasion might work. The Industrial Spirit King laid out his contractors, who had been riddled with large-caliber bullets, on the ground and replied:

“Are you saying that the eyes and ears of those who haven’t even properly set foot in the factory area are accurate, and what I felt on my own body is inaccurate? I felt from these people magic similar to what the idealists use. With mana I had given them! I saw them trying to act as the Hive Mind, supplemented by magic I had given them. Yet you say I am being deceived!”

People always had something to say about unfavorable words. This time was no different. The voice from the crowd gradually became the voice of many people. Shamelessly, they only said what they wanted to say.

“Even so, are you saying those Hive Mind commie bastards are innocent? This happened because they had bodies they couldn’t manage properly, claiming they were terminals!”

The Industrial Spirit King knew better than anyone that the idealist Hive Mind had no involvement in this incident, but he wasn’t angered.

What was happening now wasn’t important. What mattered was the reaction. What mattered was change. The change all these events would bring. The hope that perhaps they could really prevent the end.

But people were so narrow-minded they couldn’t even listen to the Industrial Spirit King’s words. Some shouted as if trying to spew out all the fear and disgust they had felt during those few hours.

“Then! If this, if this isn’t their doing! If those bastards really incite all the terminals across America to rise up, what happens to us? At least we’ve experienced it! Are people in other states just supposed to die?”

“Those commie bastards definitely approached the spirit management officials intentionally! They did something ideological to them! They were persuaded! How else can you explain…”

“Isn’t it strange in the first place that they have so many bodies to use as workers? They might have been planning something, and those officials might have beaten them to it! No, I’m telling you, it would be stranger if they didn’t have some kind of plan!”

The Industrial Spirit King could now see the detective who had somehow slipped into the crowd and was looking at him as if to say “I told you so.”

He could have cursed him as a coward, but the Industrial Spirit King decided not to. Just not being swept away by the current was enough for a person to have done their duty.

For the first time, he was confused about whether he was doing something wise. Each conjecture, conspiracy theory, and blind conviction he was hearing made him wonder if these people were worth the effort. This was too raw for him to swallow.