The Outer God Needs Warmth

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I got back home all drenched because the rain didn’t stop after the Royal Academy ended.

As I opened the door and stepped inside, I saw Rabo, the fluffy doll at the entrance.

He’s laughing happily again today. Since Rabo is just a bowl full of joy, he can’t do anything other than be cheerful, but hey, at least he’s joyful, right?

“Hehehehe!”

I squeezed him once and took off my shoes before stepping further in.

I tossed my wet clothes into the basket and headed for a wash. The bathroom isn’t that different from the one I know.

After washing up, I came out and put on some fresh clothes.

Then I looked at the clothes I took off.

Among the chores, laundry is the one that requires the most effort.

It’s not that we don’t have a washing machine, but since the laundry technology isn’t that great yet, more than half the clothes need to be hand-washed.

But on days like this, even if they dry, they might still smell musty, so I’ll just wait until the weather clears.

I headed to the kitchen. The fridge has some ingredients. It might be a bit too little for many people, but with this rain?

It seems no guests will come today, so it’s enough for me to eat alone.

I prepared dinner.

And that’s how the day went.

It’s the weekend.

I woke up at the same time as on weekdays and did the usual things: washed up, had breakfast, stuff like that.

Then I found I had free time that was originally meant for classes.

So I went outside during that time.

As I stepped out the front door, there are three steps going down, and below that, there’s a stone path leading to the fence’s gate.

On both sides, there’s a little garden with bare tree branches growing haphazardly.

Today, I’m going to tidy this up.

Coincidentally, there are gardening scissors and sickles in the storage.

I found them while cleaning after entering this house.

I’ve got a whole day’s worth of work ahead of me.

***

In the Third World, Bell is tending the garden.

In the Fourth World, harvesting machines are being produced.

It takes about 10 seconds to talk. Until the preliminary harvesting machine accepts it, it’s about 30 seconds. It takes about 5 minutes for the body to change. The conveyor belt moves for about a minute until the next preliminary harvesting machine comes.

If I manage to take some downtime, one harvesting machine comes out every 6 to 10 minutes.

I was even busier while fighting the former royal family.

When the preliminary harvesting machine was set to become a full harvesting machine, I immediately brought the next one over for production without waiting for the body to change.

But now, I’ve got some breathing room.

After making about 30 harvesting machines a day, I zoom over to the lab.

Then the artificial human working there comes to maintain me.

It requires quite a bit of specialized knowledge, but roughly speaking, they seem to be maintaining me frequently to make sure I last longer.

During the war, I was churning out harvesting machines without even enough time to sleep, which must have really strained my body.

According to the data compiled by the artificial humans working in the lab, too much of the same stimuli damaged certain areas of the nervous system a lot. Plus, the intestines, which were forcibly fed nutrients, aren’t in great shape either.

In short, it seems they’re making time to reduce my workload and heal my body because they fear I might die.

Well, I don’t mind. Even if my body dies, I’m fine as long as the bowl remains, but Jeber tends to see me as a living being.

In summary, I’m getting some care now.

To be fair, it wasn’t like this from the start.

A lot has happened in between.

After they won the war, Jeber was ready to create my next generation right away. They tried to extract eggs from my body, or even cut open the abdomen and forcibly fertilize them, or insert the fertilized eggs, and so on.

But it all failed.

Like monsters mimicking forms, the internal structure just resembled a person without functioning properly.

As long as they were attached to my body, they could maintain some form, but if they detached, they would start consuming all organic matter around them, like Erisichthon from Greco-Roman mythology, who ended up devouring himself if nothing else was available.

In short, it means I can’t produce a successor.

After that, my workload decreased, and the time spent being cared for increased.

Even if they say they’re caring for me, it’s still in a strange liquid, with me managed through a transparent tube.

Complaints?

Sure, I’ve got some.

I’d like to be pushed around a bit more.

Even if my body completely decays, I’m confident I could still make harvesting machines, so I’d like them to let me churn them out.

After all, the body is just for use and discard.

If there are more descendants of the harvesting machines, I can swap them out, whether it’s thousands or tens of thousands, and come back up, so please, let’s increase the harvesting machines.

Actually, in that sense, I’ve surprisingly few complaints.

Why, you ask?

Because Jeber distributed the artificial humans he made to his loyal subordinates.

Before, there was only one type modeled after Bardrol, but now there are various types of beauties emerging.

And then there’s one more thing.

The average ruling structure in this world is like this.

There are ordinary people, and above them, those associated with wizard families. And above that are the wizard families themselves.

But they say wizards are like gods, right?

Ordinary people, priests, and then gods.

That’s the order. But what does it mean that wizards gave artificial humans to their followers?

It’s like a god granting a wife to a priest. They serve the god, but they’re also in a similar position themselves. Excluding that, they’re beautiful, youthful, and obedient women who last quite a long time.

Since they serve the gods, you could interpret it as receiving angels.

Of course, they work hard to make babies.

Unlike the body I entered, harvesting machines can actually produce children properly.

In fact, among those who served Jeber for a long time, some have already had children with artificial humans who are now teenagers.

That artificial human isn’t a harvesting machine, but an artificial human made from one, so they don’t share perspectives, but it’s clear that the contract continues.

They’re freely distributing harvesting machines to the upper class.

So it’s a bit disappointing that the production volume of harvesting machines has decreased, but I can manage to wait.

Moreover, Jeber sends harvesting machines not only to the humans managing his domain but also to farther places.

Surprisingly, it’s not for selling artificial humans.

It’s because Jeber has consumed the royal family.

Moreover, he officially married the princess.

Not just physically modified, but altered on a soul level. They say the princess and he are in love, so who’s going to complain?

Besides, the existing nobles are quite pleased.

The former king, while I felt it wasn’t quite right to refer to him as king; I figured he was strong enough, so whatever.

But then it became clear that he was picking out the wizard families one by one, only keeping the ones he liked.

Of course, there were some nobles who criticized Jeber for taking down the royal family.

Some felt disillusioned after the previous nobles had repeated excessively immoral research, while others criticized him for simply forming alliances with the royal family.

The former turned traitor. The latter were quietly dealt with.

It wasn’t Jeber’s doing.

Rather, a giant family that found such behavior distasteful came to personally acknowledge Jeber ibn Haideka as the new royal family.

Jeber is fundamentally a researcher type, so he’s not that interested in conquest. At least, not right now.

So, contrary to expectations, he gave many rights and gifts to the wizards who came seeking him.

When this news spread, the balance of power shifted in an instant.

It’s all speculation, but it’s like this.

The immoral yet powerful nobles used Jeber as a figurehead to deal with problems themselves instead of pointing fingers like the former royal family.

Jeber, in his own way, handled the annoying enemies without getting in the way of his own desires, so he didn’t need them that much, but they got what they wanted.

It’s a reasonable trade.

You ask if there’s no one strong who properly adheres to humanity?

There was.

That was the royal family.

If you sift through the warmth I gained along with the fragments of memory when a few royal magicians died, you’ll find such memories.

If I hadn’t been there, they would have expelled the wizards gaining power and maintaining authority through inhumane methods, planning to take strides from a mythological age to a modern state.

If we must clarify, they were on the side of justice.

Since justice lost, evil is now rampant.

Humans are too efficient a resource compared to that value, so the wizards that grind people down will inevitably end up being stronger.

Hence, Jeber ascended to the throne remarkably without facing much resistance.

In fact, other wizard families eager to ally with him are publicly preparing a wedding with the princess.

They seemed to find it amusing.

The princess was exactly the ideal the royal family had pursued.

She knew how to treat people as people, valued ethics, and emphasized humanity. The wizards enjoyed watching her display affection like a lustful beast.

They flock together.

This is a world where wizards can stand in power while laughing at that sight.

And truly happily, Jeber gifted them artificial humans.

When they got damaged, he’d send a new one, and if there was a wizard they didn’t like, he’d mention that could be made for them as well.

It turned out none of the wizards had any dislikes.

On the contrary, some with grievances went so far as to specifically order objects to vent their anger.

It’s clear what will happen in the future.

The Fourth World is steadily moving in the direction I desire.

Perhaps a world will emerge where warmth can be harvested automatically, much more simply than in the Third World.

And the fun part about all this is that it happens separately from the world where ordinary people live.

Even though a civil war broke out, hardly any ordinary people died.

Even though the city that was once the capital changed hands, it was just like, “Oh, the lord has changed? I see. We just need to pray to him from now on,” level of understanding.

I’m now genuinely intrigued by the Fourth World itself.

I wonder how things will unfold here?