The Outer God Needs Warmth – Chapter 43

I look around once more.

Tis’s corpse with only the lower body remaining.

A broken window.

People with dark purple spheres for heads.

The silver-haired girl caught in the middle.

And a girl with purple hair.

It’s clearly a disaster scene.

If someone comes in, they’ll probably capture me and Hyunkeshuni and torture us.

What if I point at Hyunkeshuni and say the witch is bad?

Hmm.

They’d probably kill me, asking if that’s my introduction. Even though Hyunkeshuni is the only one who invaded, no one would be foolish enough not to know that I’m the bad person.

Even though my life seems unharmed despite my neck flying off just now, so I probably won’t die easily. But I know that sometimes not dying easily can become a very painful thing.

Moreover, there’s a sense that it might be dangerous if I move carelessly.

It seems like I hear cracking sounds getting bigger every time I try to exert force.

Am I that heavy?

I used the people with dark purple spheres for heads – no, I’ll call them sphere humans because it’s too long – and placed them at the entrance. Because we need to block if someone comes in.

But these people are strange too. When I took Tis’s warmth, I took their warmth too.

I got all their memories too.

But no serious mutation is occurring. The light is black. A black with a faint purple visible.

Huh?

It’s strange. Sacrifices weren’t like this.

The light of sacrifices shrivels and turns black, twisted like dried fruit. This faintly visible purple is the light of people who received blessings.

I can watch through the perspective of people I’ve blessed.

But I couldn’t see Tis’s descendants, not even his direct children.

Honestly, that’s why I didn’t think I could directly touch Tis’s descendants.

I only knew I could touch the descendants when I grasped everything in sight in a moment of rising emotion.

Rather, now that I’ve swallowed them, I can move them.

But aren’t the spheres getting a little smaller?

It gives me a vaguely candle-like feeling.

I don’t know what will happen when they all get small. In the worst case, I might be expelled from this world again.

No.

I need to persuade Hyunkeshuni now.

By any means necessary, to leave a book.

I met Hyunkeshuni’s eyes. She’s been glaring at me silently since fiercely rejecting me earlier.

First, dialogue is necessary.

Originally, I didn’t think I could easily probe Hyunkeshuni, but now I have the upper hand. Hyunkeshuni is captured and very frightened.

If it were an equal situation, my chances of winning would be low, but now I’m in a position where I can shake her. I need to do my best before losing this position.

“Hyunkeshuni. Why won’t you do it?”

There’s no answer even when I ask.

I need to find a way to make her open her mouth.

Hitting her would probably only increase her resistance. Rather, she wouldn’t tell me. Even if she did speak, if she’s upset and doesn’t write down the summoning method, it’s my loss.

So I need to use another method.

If I knew some amazing technique, I’d use it, but I don’t know such conversational skills. Skimming through the knowledge the gray-faded man knows, a few methods come up.

But even though I know the theory of methods like foot-in-the-door, I don’t know how to use them. So I’ll use a method I have experience with.

Yes.

I’ll draw aggro.

When you say something is true that’s clearly not true, and treat others like fools, people get angry.

When you hear pseudoscience like flat earth theory, you feel like you want to tell them the truth somehow.

Hyunkeshuni. The Witch of Joy.

Originally, she had nothing to do with the Future Hope Church. Rather, she’s an older witch. She’s a really ancient witch that the Luminous Theocratic State had designated as an enemy and tried to subjugate even before Yasle became the leader of the Luminous Theocratic State.

When the Luminous Theocratic State was destroyed by the invasion of the Kingdom of Anselus, Yasle, burning with revenge, went to find Hyunkeshuni.

Hyunkeshuni, finding this interesting, decided to help Yasle.

Hyunkeshuni passed on a few secret techniques she knew to Yasle. But the secret techniques she taught weren’t central to Yasle’s plan.

Actually, summoning me was a ritual performed to call a monster that could be used as a force. At first, he was very disappointed.

But it changed after I used blessings and he learned what power those blessings had.

It’s hard to resist randomly drawing three powerful soldiers with special abilities every day.

For the first three months, he was happy on days when there were many special abilities among those who received my blessing, and sad on days when there were few.

When I saw this memory, I felt sorry that I didn’t know.

Anyway, Hyunkeshuni was just affiliated with the Future Hope Church. Strictly speaking, she was in a position similar to Yasle’s advisor.

And when Yasle didn’t listen to her words completely, she immediately left Yasle.

I don’t care whether I’m guilty or not, but what about Hyunkeshuni as a person? First, I’ll check if she has a sense of guilt.

“Why are you refusing? Hyunkeshuni has killed more people than me. She killed them horribly and piled them on altars. She captured innocent Rebecca Rolfe, took out her heart, and used it as material to summon an evil being. An outer god who simply gave power. A witch who exploited people as unpaid workers through a pseudo-religion and killed them as sacrifices in the end. Who do you think is worse?”

While at it, to add pressure, I brought a few idle sphere humans and had them point fingers at Hyunkeshuni. Like a witch hunt, isolating her.

Actually, the only rational people here are me and Hyunkeshuni, but if there are many human-like things, wouldn’t she feel more pressure?

I want to corner Hyunkeshuni as much as possible.

Hyunkeshuni gritted her teeth.

“Who, is worse? You simply gave power? So how many people have died because of those who received your blessing? How many more people will you kill in the future? You said you want warmth. And you said sacrifices were Yasle’s choice. Then you can get warmth from blessings too. Right?”

Wow.

This is why smart people are scary. Did she deduce this far from just one statement that sacrifices were Yasle’s taste?

But she had an outburst. She clearly got angry. It means there’s something that’s bothering her. What could it be? Let’s start by probing what’s bothering her one by one.

“Did I kill them? That was their choice. Did I force them to do evil actions? No. If you need a counterexample, I’ll point to Tis. This man responded to violence not with violence but with mercy. If there’s uprightness and goodness, this person is the embodiment of it. Unlike you who capture people and have them killed horribly in a pseudo-religion.”

Hyunkeshuni was silent at my words. There’s no rebuttal.

Hmm.

Hmm.

She’s not criticizing me for taking people’s warmth as an act of preying on people. At least on this point, she seems to agree with my words. She’s not rebelling against me eating people, and she’s not denying the fact that she herself killed many people indiscriminately.

Then why on earth was she so afraid of me?

I didn’t do anything particularly cruel.

I was just an obedient animal doing what I was told.

Even if she thought I was as strong as a god, I was a beast that stayed still according to the contract. According to Yasle, I was a monster that could be controlled.

There’s another reason.

What is it?

Shall we look from a different angle?

The Witch of Joy, Hyunkeshuni.

Witch of Joy. The “joy” probably comes from her expression. Because she smiles when she’s scared.

Smiling is fear.

Couldn’t we say that if there was danger, she immediately abandoned everything and ran away? Even in Yasle’s memories, when Hyunkeshuni said goodbye and left, he muttered that she ran away again towards Hyunkeshuni.

Running away?

Fear. Terror.

I know something similar.

Cowards are ferocious. Because they’re weak, because they’re cornered, they use that as a reason to cross lines that shouldn’t be crossed. Because I was hit once, the other person must die. It’s the same principle.

It’s a line that can be easily crossed, to the extent that even the Code of Hammurabi from ancient times only recognized one-to-one exchanges.

Because I’m the victim, I’m justice and the other is evil.

Therefore, all my actions are just.

Everyone makes this mistake. That’s why Tis’s value in being able to forgive the other in such situations is great.

No, the flow went off track, but anyway, Hyunkeshuni is a coward. What do cowards fear most?

It’s themselves suffering a loss. They can package it in words in any way, but the fundamental principle is likely to be that.

Hmm.

Then which side could it be? Typically, such people desire to gain power, but I know she finds my blessing unsettling.

Then, shall we present a condition?

“Hyunkeshuni. I have one proposal. I won’t take your warmth no matter what happens. Instead, please write a book that can summon me. How about it?”

Hyunkeshuni looks at me with shaking eyes.

Aha.

I found it.

This was it. In the end, she was afraid of what might happen to herself.

She lowered her eyes. She probably wanted to bow her head. But a sphere human’s hand is stuck to her left cheek, holding her to look straight at me.

So I released that hand.

As I thought, her head dropped down with a thud.

Hehe.

So I approached her. And I gently held her cheeks and lifted them. I can feel her skin goosebumping from being so scared.

She seems to be pondering.

Then, shall we take away her sense of guilt?

“Hyunkeshuni. If I kill you like this, I can take your warmth and memories together. But because I’m not a bad person, I’m asking like this.”

I spoke in a way that could be misunderstood to mean that nothing would change even if she died. Of course, everything I said is true, but I can’t organize memories and write them into a book.

Of course, I’m not a bad person. I’m an outer god.

As far as I know, outer god basically has a negative meaning.

Right? The person who gave me my title.

I smiled brightly.

“Will you grant my request?”

For a long time, Hyunkeshuni was silent.

And in a very small voice, she said:

“Alright.”

I succeeded in persuading her.