39. Philosophy for a Dignified Master
Cream suddenly appeared in the world one day without any ointment.
Her It was her baskin that picked her up, but it was her coffee that took care of her. Although the girl who lost her memory is very clumsy, it was the devoted care of the old slave that allowed her to pretend to be human.
Because of the clear relationship between slave and master, emotions did not develop beyond a certain level. Despite being cared for and taught a lot, Cream did not consider Coffey like her father.
Nevertheless, one thing is certain.
“Why?”
Cream loved coffee.
Even in the midst of his anger, Cream remembered that the coffee was crushed by his momentum. That’s why, this time instead of unleashing her own power, she saved it.
But she felt vividly in her, and in me who was closest to her, the rage in her expressionless face, the seething power in her. This may also be due to our souls being too closely intertwined.
“I left the management of the store to you.”
“·······.”
“In the first place, if I hadn’t hidden it, I wouldn’t have been interested in it.”
Well, that’s right. Wasn’t Cream’s decision to visit the Chamber the result of accidentally encountering a member of the Ice Merchant?
It’s true that I came here to discipline myself, but in the end, I disciplined myself in the most catastrophic way.
“My lady. How many times have I told you how to deal with slaves?”
When the silent coffee opened its mouth again, its unique elegance was back. The dignity of a person who serves, not a person who is served, who humbles himself infinitely but does not bow down.
“You, too, are slaves, disciplined, right?”
“I am a slave, but I am also a tutor for the young lady.”
“Well, good.”
Anyway, insist on both. Coffee only said so, but instead of giving explanations or excuses for her own motives, she stuck to her silence.
It was the greatest sin a slave could commit. It’s not enough that he dared to deceive his master, and he didn’t confess his mistakes even in front of his master.
“Raise your arms.”
Cream ordered like a master.
Stigma is restraint. In other words, the stigma has the power to prevent you from doing something, but it does not have the power to force you to do something.
Therefore, knowing what was going to happen in the future, but quietly raising his arm, was coffee’s own will. Cream pulled me out.
“······Yes. There is no person who, with, the object, has a conversation with.”
Unlike his own words, however, Cream finished his words and was silent for a moment. He seemed to be waiting for an answer.
Of course, there was no reply. Cream’s eyes softened.
“The sin of cheating the master, the arm, one.”
The sword fell.
[Sleep!]
From noble mtl dot com
But just as my blade was about to cut through the old man’s skinny arm, I screamed my throat out. The point of the sword came to a standstill with a short gap, disregarding the speed of the moment before.
Just that anticipation created a small incontinence in Coffee’s arm. It is an old saying that I have become blunt, and recently I have recovered my condition to some extent because there have been many things to devour my soul.
“Why?”
Even though the knife stopped right in front of her, the coffee didn’t even budge. Cream stopped in the same posture as he lowered the knife, and only turned his head to look at me.
[No, the method is too extreme!]
“Rather, you’re good, aren’t you? I eat blood.”
But your eyes are scary! I had a strong feeling that if I left it like this, something big would happen.
Actually, it doesn’t matter if the old man’s arm is cut off or he dies, but the problem is cream. It’s not very noticeable because it solves everything with such strong power, but Cream’s personality is pure.
Ignorance rather than innocence, like a child who doesn’t understand the concept of good and evil. Anyway, I hoped that Cream would not know about good and evil in the future.
[If that’s the case, you’ll never hear why. I have a better way.]
And it was clear that the act of leaving indelible scars on one’s closest kin would have a profound impact on Cream’s values.
“What?”
[Let me hold you.]
“······ Again?”
In a way, showing disapproval even in the middle of this is really great. However, Cream understood the meaning behind my words without difficulty.
I have the ability to read other people’s memories. Originally, it is a function that comes with erosion, but there is nothing that you cannot use the two separately if you wish.
[Stay still, Grandpa.]
“Ah, no way…”
Coffee protested and tried to stand up. However, a frail common man could not dare to match the warrior’s muscular strength, so he soon grabbed me once more.
[Is it okay? We are imperfect souls that parasitize things. You can’t accept someone else’s life not once, but hundreds of thousands of times…]
It seemed like the holy sword was saying something, but I didn’t listen and penetrated the coffee’s mind. Unlike last time, this time to the deepest part.
My senile body convulsed at the reluctance that something terrible had penetrated my brain. The warrior’s divine power quickly restored the bloody body that shuddered and did not cover its eyes, nose and mouth.
If I had used it as a host and engulfed my body, I would have been able to control that recoil, but I can’t help it. I need to escape quickly before the divine power affects me.
“Heo Eok!”
Soon, Coffee, who woke up and regained consciousness, took a deep breath. I fell to the floor with a clatter in his hand.
“Are you okay?”
[Um, maybe? Even if it’s a burden, you’ll get better.]
I was held in Cream’s hand again and put my thoughts together. But while I was sorting out Coffee’s life and even the motive for the crime, Cream didn’t say anything.
Okay, this makes it clear. Cream can read my thoughts. However, I cannot read the souls I sucked in and the unconscious where the memories I extort from others accumulate.
“······Quickly.”
[Ah, okay.]
Oops, I can’t read these thoughts. I brought up some memories of coffee neatly organized from my unconscious. At the same time, he began to explain in a relaxed tone.
[Well, it would be a long story. That grandfather, Coffee, seems to have come from a fairly well-to-do family before he became a slave.]
“·······!”
Coffee raised his eyes in amazement. Watching that funny scene, I slowly continued talking.
[That was also the second son, who was promising as the heir to the family on behalf of the incompetent eldest son.]
“Stop, stop.”
[But it seems that you weren’t as competent as you thought. I was ambitious and rebelled, but in the end…]
“Stop!”
Coffee yelled in an uncharacteristic, loud voice. I laughed at the sight of him completely losing his composure.
“If you really read my memory, you know that it has nothing to do with this!”
[You know. I’m giving you a chance to speak directly with your mouth.]
Coffee was speechless. Soon he sighed and pulled a nearby chair with a completely exhausted attitude and sat down.
“I will tell you everything, young lady.”
It was an attitude that was neither slavish nor aristocratic. Coffee, whose teeth were forcibly pulled up from decades ago, looked older than usual.
“Yes, I was once a nobleman. Although that was decades ago. My older brother asked me about the failure of the rebellion. Will he die in glory, or will he live in disgrace?”
Even now, if you look at the stigma on Coffee’s forehead, you don’t have to worry about what kind of answer he gave.
“After that, I was sold into slavery. I lost my family name, I lost my noble name, and I lived like that for decades as a humble slave.”
“So, is that so?”
“No. Maybe that’s right. But it may not be in the direction you think.”
Coffee put on a faint smile for a while. But that mirage-like smile faded faster than it appeared.
“I accepted my situation a long time ago. Now that I have come, I have no desire to return to being a free man. Only.”
I waited with bated breath for the next words. Anyway, I felt it from the last time I peeked into my memory, and that old man was crazy enough.
“······I just couldn’t stand the arrogance of the owners who lack dignity.”
“What?”
Cream asked with a rare expression of bewilderment. Unable to read her master’s puzzled expression, Coffee spoke in a heated voice.
“Originally, a person who reigns above must have a dignity worthy of him. But, what about in practice? I have served countless masters.”
It was the desperate struggle of an old man who accepted the stigma engraved on himself, but at the same time could not throw away his pride as a nobleman (Noblesse Oblige).
“My master, my lady. You are noble It is beautiful and sublime. But what about the others? Even if you wash your eyes, you can’t find any dignity, and the only thing you can trust is greedy bastards who only own wealth and titles!”
However, even the owner, who was not up to my standard, served coffee without saying anything. This is because in order to demand virtue from those who are served, those who serve also had to fulfill their virtues.
It’s a way of thinking that a normal demonic sword like me can neither understand nor want to understand. It’s a bit sad though.
“But if I interfere with the one I serve, it would be disloyal. So I just wanted to do it my way, to help people like me.”
No matter what you think, coffee was eventually bound by a stigma and could only operate within the category of slaves. No matter how high and grand the ideal is, what does it mean if the reality is narrow and shabby?
But if I were given to him. So what if he could break the stigma that binds him and make a slash at a reality he doesn’t like? How fun those times were.
[······What does that have to do with this incident? If you really cared about the slaves, why did you put them in the bargain?]
“Because that was the best I could do without stigma. Instead of putting them under those who don’t deserve to be at the top, find a new master with at least some dignity.”
It was a pity. It was really insanely sad.
“Rather than ending their lives as ignorant people who have not learned anything from their point of view, it would be better to meet a master who can emulate them and learn at least a bit of their dignity.”
While claiming to be the most faithful servant of all, he despises other slaves just as he did when he was an aristocrat. The gap between the ideal and reality gives rise to insanity, which in turn creates contradiction.
Coffee, who can control the wealth of the merchant, stole some of it and set up another slave store. The Mocha Merchant, where the merchant merchant was an anonymous sponsor.
If illegal slaves were supplied from outside through him, it was not difficult to change the transaction afterwards. He was the one who oversaw all the transactions and wrote the records in the first place.
“・・・・・・I don’t understand.”
It’s only that Cream noticed now, but this kind of slave-swapping had already been going on for several years.
However, the guilt and nervousness of cheating on the young lady tightened the old man’s neck. In that state, when Cream asked about the ‘Duke’ at the right time, Coffee unwittingly spilled a fragment of the truth.
It’s very complicated. Cream wouldn’t have cared what Coffee was doing if it hadn’t been hidden in the first place.
But at the bottom of the action was the hatred and contempt for the masters, so the coffee had to be hidden, and the slave dared to deceive the master’s eyes, which angered Cream.
“But, one thing, I get it.”
Cream grabbed me with both hands and held me high.
I can’t help it. He tried to get over it with a touching self-confession and a water ride, but Cream isn’t quite so formidable. The principled fact that he cheated on his master has not changed.
Coffee was rather relieved. Seemingly pouring out all his emotions, he moves his empty body and is mechanically polite.
“Punish the ignorant slave who dares to deceive his master.”
The holy sword fell silent again, and no matter how much I was, I couldn’t stop Cream’s actions any longer. Closing his eyes, Crim swung his sword at his kneeling slave.
The blade went right through his head. Took, something fell.
[······· Huh?]
The shadow of the old man was still in his kneeling position. A step later, his blood spurted from the highest point of his body.
Cream cut only the outer skin of the coffee with frighteningly sophisticated swordsmanship. No, it would be better to call this slashed rather than cut.
His forehead. Only the flesh where the slave’s brand was engraved was cut off.
“·······What?”
Coffee, whose eyes were closed, slowly opened them. His expression, stained with pain and doubt, was full of confusion that he could not get out of.
Cream approached slowly and stroked the wound she had made herself. When she removed her hand again, her skin was smooth and unmarked, as if her cut had been a lie.
“Prove it.”
Of course, the disappearance of the stigma does not mean freedom from the slavery contract. However, if the stigma is damaged, the binding power is also weakened.
“Yes?”
“······I, well, don’t know. The thing you are talking about is dignity.”
Cream did not understand the story of Coffee, the philosophy and madness that stained his life. However, in her appearance of raising coffee naturally.
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“But, as I, you, said.”
Coffee had the dignity of a superior.
Even if you stutter, even if the conversation is interrupted. It was the clumsiness of those who are not familiar with it, not the lack of those who do not have it.
“If there was virtue, self-righteousness, being served.”
“My lady.”
“You too, prove it. Yes, virtue.”
There was no immediate change in Cream. However, I was sure that this was the cornerstone of that ‘some change’.
“Do, do, do whatever you want. Prove yourself that you are a faithful slave.”
I can only hope it’s a good sign. As if contemplating what to say, Cream, which lingered for a while, soon spat out blandly.
“I believe.”
Crude words like a child.
But that was enough.