Hyungkeshni glared at me.

I had a few things I wanted to say, but there was one question that mattered most.

“Why did you stop me?”

If one person had failed, I might have assumed they had made a mistake. But in Andrew’s Mirae cult, people who had understood Yasle’s knowledge held discussions, refined it, and then performed the ritual.

The chances of error were remarkably low.

And yet, not long after the ritual began, they were killed.

This meant there was a way to detect the ritual. Whenever someone attempted the summoning and failed, they were always the first to be killed.

That’s right.

The opposition had a means of sensing the ritual, knew how to prevent it, and had the power to track and kill the summoners.

Honestly, I never considered Hyungkeshni to be involved, but as soon as I entered this world, she came running.

Now that I know the conclusion, the process makes sense.

Frustrated, I posed the question with a hint of irritation. Hyungkeshni gripped her staff tightly.

“Why? Why, you ask? Look at what you’ve done!”

She gestured around us. All around were figures that had once been people, now with heads replaced by dark purple spheres. They contained neither light nor warmth.

As for what was once Tis-ha, only his lower body remained. His upper body, where it should have been, was now a gaping hole resembling a shattered glass pane with cracks radiating outward.

“Does this look like the death of a person to you?”
“Then why did you stop me before?”

I asked again. This was my first time causing something like this. Really, even I was baffled by what had just happened.

Was it simply because Tis-ha had an unusually large number of descendants, all connected by blood, making it possible to harvest everything at once? Or was it something unique to Tis-ha and his lineage?

I’ll have to investigate later.

But this phenomenon—this was new to me.

In other words, Hyungkeshni hadn’t been trying to stop me because of this.

As I waited for her response, she suddenly swung her staff. The staff was shaped from the upper torso and spine of a person, with fresh red blood splattering onto my face.

The blood came from Hyungkeshni’s palm.

She had driven her hand into the jagged edges of the staff’s spine to draw blood. So that’s why she had gripped it so tightly earlier.

[Executioner’s Guillotine.]

With those strange words, my head flew into the air.

The world spun around me.

But did she forget? This isn’t a physical body. This was a roughly assembled polygonal construct I had created. So, I reached out and caught my head with a hand.

Thud, thud, roll.

Oh.

I dropped it.

Hmm. Something feels strange.

Shouldn’t I be looking at my body from the floor after losing my head? If my nerves were still connected due to some unknown power, I should be seeing through my eyes and moving my body, right?

Instead, I’m just… here.

Yes, my perspective spun when my head was severed, but now it’s as if I’m still in my head, not on the floor.

Wait. No. I just said it.

My body is an amorphous mass, like a polygonal construct.

Was it really severed? Did it even need to be?
Could it even be severed?

As I contemplated, the head on the floor turned into a low-resolution fragment, disappearing like debris in an old video game. At the same time, my head was back on my neck, as if it had never been severed.

So far, those I’ve blessed have died when their heads were severed. That must be the method of killing them.

“It really was you, Hyungkeshni. You killed the people I blessed, didn’t you?”
“You… shouldn’t you need warmth to regenerate?”

A question in response to my question.
But now I see the chances of being expelled back outside are slim.

I’ll answer.

“No. Have I ever once said that I needed warmth to regenerate?”

Come to think of it, the person who experimented with injuries was none other than Hyungkeshni. Her expression twisted into a grimace.

That’s right. She figured it out on her own, without any dialogue. Though I may have acted in ways that encouraged the misunderstanding.

“What about me is so terrifying that you tried to stop my return?”

I asked. I’ve never done anything that could be considered a threat to anyone. At least not until the very last moment.

I’ve always waited patiently, enduring.

“You are the law itself. The law of this world that dictates when intelligent beings feel intense despair and hopelessness, it results in a massive explosion. That’s all you are—a being that consumes people to feed your existence. Isn’t that right? And now you’ve become active, hunting proactively to devour them. How could anyone not fear that? Who wouldn’t fear such a future unless they were too dimwitted to comprehend it?”

I almost nodded in agreement but stopped midway, sensing the need to clear up a misunderstanding.

“I do not consume people.”
“When you consume warmth, people die.”
“No. When I consume warmth, they change. Don’t you remember? When the sacrifices had their warmth taken, the person beside me was always the one who killed them.”

This is why Yasle always ensured sacrifices were presented in a warrior's chamber—because losing their warmth turned them into monsters.

“And if that isn’t death, what do you call it? And those humans you’ve blessed—every single one of them became drunk on power, transforming into monsters! Even that brat! He used his strength to move for revenge!”

That brat must refer to Yasle.

“Hyungkeshni. I granted blessings, but I never altered anyone’s minds. Let me ask you: if I had twisted people, could someone like Tis-ha have ever existed?”

Tis-ha was the most distinct among them—a truly good person at certain points in his life. Not just a kind person, but someone who could act decisively when needed.

“You engineered it all to create someone like him!”

Ah. I see.

That’s one way to interpret it.

I shook my head slowly.

“No. I did nothing of the sort. From the start, I could never influence individuals like Tis-ha, Wyde, or Isula, people with strong convictions. You should remember, Hyungkeshni. The title you gave me—‘The Outsider.’ When you tested that title, people with strong self-awareness didn’t even flinch.”

Hyungkeshni narrowed her eyes, glaring at me with sharp intensity.

“An experiment? So, you consumed Yasle’s memories intentionally, didn’t you? You spread summoning knowledge the same way you tested that title!”

Hyungkeshni screamed, raising her staff to strike again. All her strange spells originated from that staff.

So, I reached out and grabbed it. Or rather, the bodies with heads replaced by dark purple spheres moved to seize Hyungkeshni’s staff. They’re moving? They move like extensions of my own body. Convenient.

Oh, she’s trying to escape.

Capture her.

Countless hands pressed Hyungkeshni to the ground.

“Ugh!”

Hyungkeshni groaned as several figures with dark purple heads pinned her down, forcing her body flat. A sinister dark-blue aura began to stir around her.

Annoyed, I reached out and grabbed the aura.

“Guh!”

Hyungkeshni convulsed as if I had seized her very breath. While my hand had plunged into her chest, it hadn’t physically pierced her flesh.

This body of mine is quite peculiar. I notice something strange only after I’ve done it. Anyway, it’s fine as long as she’s unharmed—I still have tasks for her.

I devoured the dark-blue aura, turning it into dark purple. My fingers tingled briefly before the sensation disappeared.

When I pulled my hand out, there was no wound on her chest.

As my hand fully withdrew, Hyungkeshni gagged and coughed.

I lifted her up and sat her properly. Although, to be precise, she was restrained in a seated position by the doll-like figures holding her down. In a broad sense, I suppose you could call it "sitting."

“Don’t try to escape. I’m irritated with you, Hyungkeshni.”

Half of this irritation isn’t even directed at you, but at the gods. Still, bear with me; we spent half a year together, didn’t we?

“Is this your true nature?”

Hyungkeshni asked, trying to steady her ragged breathing.

“I wouldn’t know what to call a true nature. Haven’t I already told you what I am? I’ve always wondered—why are you so afraid of me? At least until the Mirae Hope Sect collapsed, I never did anything dangerous.”

At this, Hyungkeshni laughed. Not out of fear—it was a mocking laugh.

“I told you before. A monster that feeds on humans will eventually hunt them down actively. And a creature so desperate for something called ‘warmth’ is offering its blessings for free? Sacrifices? As if a mere human life could be equal to such immense blessings? There must have been something more, something hidden. That’s why I decided to uncover it before it became truly dangerous.”

With her palm pressed against one cheek, Hyungkeshni muttered as she glared at me.

“But that brat ignored me and chose revenge against the Ansellus Kingdom.”

That’s odd. Normally, people would listen to Hyungkeshni. Oh, wait. I see now. She must have phrased it poorly.

“Did you perhaps say something like, ‘Let’s stop the blessings for now’? Something along those lines… Oh, yes, you did.”

Before I could even finish speaking, Hyungkeshni glared daggers at me. Of course, I remember what she said to Yasle.

To cut her off before she could unleash her anger, I quickly opened my mouth.

“I really did bestow blessings, Hyungkeshni. I don’t even know why they grow stronger or gain abilities. I just did what Yasle wanted.”
“So you deceived us, pretending to know nothing.”

Yes, I feigned ignorance. I deceived you. Because if I had acted openly, showing my true intentions, my head would have been lopped off long ago.

“I don’t recall lying.”
“Lying and withholding the truth are two different things.”

Heh. She’s right.

“You waited all this time to gain Yasle’s memories. Then you taught those you blessed how to summon you. What kind of world are you trying to create?”

Now, Hyungkeshni spoke with a voice heavy with resignation. I could sense her sinking deeper, consumed by despair and surrender.

She’s talking as if I plan to destroy the world, but I have no such intentions.

From the very beginning.

“I don’t know what the world is. I just want warmth, Hyungkeshni.”

That’s truly all there is to it.

Venturing out into other worlds, creating more harvest opportunities, establishing agents for blessings—it’s all because I want warmth.

Suddenly.

I looked up at the ceiling.

Then, a thought dropped into my mind from a faded gray figure deep inside me.

“I want to smash my fist into the face of the god who made me like this.”

I suppose that’s something a man might say, considering I was once human too. Do I feel that impulse? Well, not really. For me, it’s as trivial as deciding whether to drink barley tea or dandelion tea. Let’s go with barley tea today.

Hyungkeshni’s head shot up, startled. Her wide eyes locked onto me.

“What?”
“You didn’t know? I was once human, a very long time ago. For reasons I still don’t understand, I opened my eyes and found myself deep beneath an empty sea, shivering in the cold until I realized I was the sea itself.”

In those days, when neither sky nor sea could be distinguished, a small light appeared far above. Slowly, it grew, and as it expanded, it formed a night sky.

When others appeared, I became self-aware.

I was the vast ocean below. At first, I thought I might be a planet covered entirely by water, but no—it was just an endless plane.

An infinite plane.

And I existed below a boundary, filling the space beneath. Above me was the surface I could not breach.

At first, I could reach out to the lights near the surface. Now, I’ve climbed this far.

“Hyungkeshni, humans shouldn’t blame me. I fulfilled my contracts. I offered myself and took back what was due when they died. I never expected to claim their descendants, but I never intended to either.”

As I spoke, I pointed to the sky.

“I made the contract first, but they interfered. That’s a breach of contract. When a contract is broken, there must be consequences.”

To be honest, everything that happened was unexpected. I didn’t think it would turn out this way. And frankly, I never imagined I could capture Hyungkeshni so easily. Oh, could this power work for a death beam? But no, the dark purple energy barely stirs at such thoughts.

Since I appeared in this world, all my actions have been improvisational, driven by irritation. This is an opportunity.

“I’m not some cruel law. From now on, instead of detonating those who come near me, I’ll offer blessings. Of course, only with their consent.”

I conveniently left out the part where blessings require a contract.

Hyungkeshni glared at me, her eyes accusing me of lying.

“Think of it as lending money and collecting interest. Sure, if the recipient squanders their life and dies, it’s my loss, but isn’t all investment like that?”

Of course, I omitted that gaining warmth is already profitable from the moment of contracting. And that if the blessed person kills someone, their warmth flows to me.

“A sacrifice is like picking fruit from a tree. Blessings are like planting seeds and waiting for the tree to bear fruit. I chose the method that yields more fruit. I have no intention of harming the tree—on the contrary, I want it to thrive.”

Just like Tis-ha.

That’s why I opted for blessings instead of mindlessly collecting warmth.

Choosing the better method brought unexpected gifts.

“I have no intention of artificially interfering. If someone wants a blessing, I’ll give it to them.”
“How many sacrifices do you intend to devour, you monster?”

Heh. That’s a good question, Hyungkeshni.

“Sacrifices? Those were Yasle’s idea, weren’t they?”

Hyungkeshni’s face turned blank as she pondered, then looked at me with a sudden realization. What did she understand?

“Why are you trying to persuade me?”

Ah.

Well.

I’ve been caught.

But a question was asked, and rules are rules. Even if I made them, I can’t lie.

“I want you to write the summoning method into a book.”

After all, the magic to summon a malevolent being was something Hyungkeshni had taught Yasle. As for reverse summoning, that wasn’t magic—it was a relic of the Yongrang Theocracy, which I couldn’t use.

“Get lost!”

Hyungkeshni glared at me with a look that suggested she’d sooner take her own life than cooperate.

It seems persuading her will be difficult. And resolving this current situation is the bigger issue.

For now, Tis-ha’s family is outside the room, watching over his final moments.

There’s a lot to sort out.