The Outer God Needs Warmth – Chapter 21

44 days have passed since I moved to a room with a good view.

It’s days of receiving warmth from 3 people each day.

Of course, the warmth each person has is different. So there are days when I take all the warmth from 3 people but it’s less than the warmth of 1 person.

But when you have meal service, sometimes the food tastes bad for a day or two, right?

This can be overlooked.

Even a very little is better than nothing at all.

You won’t understand if you haven’t shivered from cold. The cold seeps through the flesh into the bones, and then it seeps even deeper from there.

How happy even a tiny bit of warmth makes me.

So I’m living satisfied now.

Of course, I’m still confined to the room. Except for when I go out to bestow blessings, my job is to sit still in the room.

But I’m not bored.

Because I can observe just over 100 people.

You ask why it’s not 120 people when it’s been over 40 days and I give blessings to 3 people every day?

They died.

Some died fighting among those who received blessings, and some were killed while going out to plunder nearby cities.

You ask if it’s not a loss when those who received blessings die fighting each other?

No.

Even if they die fighting each other, the warmth comes to me. And it’s not like giving myself weakens my power.

So I get warmth every day, and additionally, more warmth comes in. For example, Wide and Isla are killing people on the front lines.

They send me a lot of warmth. I love it so much.

As people increased like that, I could gather information and understand the surrounding environment.

Currently, the Future Hope Church is in a place called the Skard Rocky Desert, which is at the center of three countries.

Based on the Skard Rocky Desert, there’s the Kingdom of Lasve to the west, the Kingdom of Kogni to the northeast, and the Kingdom of Anselus to the southeast. These three countries.

There are more small countries besides these, but currently, these three are the most influential countries in this area, and they’re also the places where the Future Hope Church is actively operating.

Each person enters the Future Hope Church with their own grudges. And those grudges are fermenting and rotting, looking for a place to explode.

First, three countries.

The three countries where the most grudges have accumulated.

Perhaps because of that, the missions of people who receive my blessing and go outside have changed over the course of less than 50 days.

At first, they moved in ways of evangelizing or persuading.

But gradually, people started to be covered in blood.

What was the trigger?

I’m not sure exactly, but is it because countermeasures are coming in as the Future Hope Church’s momentum grows? Or is it because they had power this time when they should have originally bowed their heads and avoided such countermeasures?

It started for self-defense.

And then it was to protect someone in the Future Hope Church.

Once you wield a weapon to protect, the next step is easy.

Once you swing it to protect someone, it becomes a method you can use.

Someone who received my blessing leads the Future Hope Church and attacks the area of some lord who’s committing tyranny.

And when they liberate the people, those people join the Future Hope Church happily. Of course, not everyone is happy.

But there’s no other way.

Because the people who survived there are those who tried to create a better world by overthrowing the lord. Who would want people with such experiences to enter their domain?

From the perspective of those around, they’re enemies.

Enemies with bad ideologies.

So even wise people have no choice but to entrust themselves to the Future Hope Church.

There’s a group similar to the Future Hope Church in a famous novel.

The Yellow Turbans.

Yes, there too, people rose up based on a pseudo-religion. People tired of tyranny and exploitation participated, but far from creating a wonderful world, they became more locally-friendly exploiters.

The only thing that changed was the recipient of the money from the government to gangsters. Is this what Mexico ruled by gangs is like?

But the immediate atmosphere is hopeful.

The people who were tormenting them are dead, and the Future Hope Church has bestowed many things upon them. An environment is created where it’s strange not to like the Future Hope Church.

Those who speak of pseudo-religions or heretics gradually fall silent. Because even if you believe in the original religion, it doesn’t immediately guarantee food and safety.

Religion has a strong mental connection.

So it shows a violent rejection reaction to those who don’t come into their side.

If it were a simple material connection, it would stop becoming a deep relationship if interests don’t align.

But religion is different.

If it doesn’t become a deep relationship, you become an apostate. You could just not enter from the beginning, but that also requires an environment. Can you not enter when there’s nowhere to live if you don’t join the Future Hope Church?

The power grows little by little.

That’s the scene I saw.

It’s especially interesting that they started killing more people to increase their power. Soon, when the Future Hope Church becomes a huge organization like the Yellow Turbans, an era of chaos will begin.

More killing and being killed.

The field to harvest warmth grows.

Then the harvesters will use their power. And those who want power will come to me asking for power.

More harvesters!

Already, harvesters are fighting people who look like soldiers or generals. Superhuman physical abilities beyond human are basic, and there are many people with special abilities.

From easy-to-understand elements like fire, water, ice, electricity, to mental techniques like brainwashing or sleep, it’s diverse.

Though the color is uniformly purple.

There’s a slight difference between individuals, but roughly speaking, it’s one purple.

They send warmth to me.

It would be good to increase harvesters more from here, but I don’t think about receiving more than three a day yet.

Scarcity is important.

I wouldn’t have thought so before, but now there are people in relatively high positions among those receiving blessings.

Especially when old people receive blessings and transform into young adults, the frequency increased particularly.

Hehe.

Everyone wants youth.

But I don’t know if they can really live long. Because the light turned black.

I still don’t know what it means for the light to turn black.

No matter how trashy a life they’ve lived, the light always shines white.

Patricide, cannibalism, mass murder, none can dye the light a different color.

The light that fell into the cold sea gave me warmth and disappeared. The sea is me. So the moment it fell, I could get memories along with warmth if I licked the light.

There was only me below the surface.

There was no bottom, only above.

The light always shone.

Someday the time will come when I need to know this, but it seems not yet.

So I turned my gaze from the place where I was watching numerous people far away and focused on Rebecca Rolfe. Even if I’m immersed in Rebecca Rolfe, it doesn’t mean I can’t watch what other people are doing.

But depending on how intensely I focus, there are some parts I see and miss.

I stood up from my seat.

Maybe because I don’t walk, I feel like Rebecca Rolfe’s body is subtly weakening. It’s probably because I’ve always been sitting in a chair or bed except for the brief movements when going to give blessings.

“What, where are you going?”

Hyunkeshuni, who had made her own space in one corner of the room, raised her head from the sofa she was lying on and asked. A long sofa and table, and one small bookshelf.

At first, Joanna really disliked it, but when Hyunkeshuni gave her this and that, she soon started getting along well.

I don’t know if Hyunkeshuni is cunning or if Joanna is open-minded.

Anyway, I pointed to my body.

“If people don’t move, their bodies weaken.”

So as always, I spoke as if a non-human was speaking from a human perspective. Just the facts.

So now everyone seems to think, ‘I see.’

“Right. If people stay still, they get fat and their bodies weaken. If you’re going to walk, are you thinking of looking around this area?”

“Yes.”

Then Hyunkeshuni looked around. Joanna isn’t here. She went out earlier carrying the blankets and covers from the bed, saying she was going to do laundry.

Then she scratched her grayish-white hair vigorously and stood up.

“Clothes, where did Joanna put the clothes?”

Hyunkeshuni approached my wardrobe on one side of the room.

“Isn’t this clothes okay?”

The clothes I wear are close to pajamas. I know it obviously won’t do, but I asked once.

Concept is important, right?

“No, Rebecca. You’re an important apostle of god in this Future Hope Church, right? For people, clothes are half of it. Since attire is so important that it shows a person’s position, I wear this rag-like thing too. If you go out wearing such clothes, they’ll think some heretic has escaped.”

Heretic.

It’s a word that encompasses all religions other than the Future Hope Church.

From the perspective of other religions, this place would be heretical.

Hyunkeshuni explained with a somewhat understandable reason.

So I pushed myself into my body, and kneaded the dark purple mist that flowed out to produce a snow-white dress I wore before. But with a slightly shorter skirt.

That’s more convenient for moving.

“I changed.”

“You could do that too?”

She asks nonchalantly. But contrary to her words, seeing the faint smile on her lips, she’s still afraid of me.

While living together in this room, I stayed still like a pet. At first, she reacted violently even to small movements, but after exactly 2 weeks, such behavior disappeared.

And now, a little over 4 weeks later, I thought the wary look had completely disappeared, but not yet.

She’s picky.

If possible, I want to give her a blessing and obtain the knowledge she has.

But there’s plenty of time. Rushing things only ruins them. So I plan to become friends slowly. Until she wishes for me to give her a blessing.

“Are you surprised?”

“I’m surprised when clothes suddenly change. Did you do that? How did you do it?”

While looking at Hyunkeshuni asking innocently, I pondered how to answer. If I explain this, the initiative passes to her. So let’s cut it off like this.

“Can’t I?”

Without saying more.

At my question, Hyunkeshuni’s expression slightly frowned.

Ah, I scratched her. Hehe.

“Normal people can’t do that.”

“I’m not a normal person.”

Swallowing the words ‘although I was once human,’ I opened the door and went outside.

It’s my first outing by my own will.