What is the feeling of a lamb being led to the slaughterhouse?
We don't know because humans are not sheep. However, the workers at the Alchemy Steel smelter who managed to survive a while ago must have felt the same way.
The smelter's death was like a blade aimed at the neck and approaching slowly. In terms of being slow and easy to understand.
The hook that digs into the arm pulls the human in. When the person accompanying him disappears over the furnace spitting out the crimson heat, a scream mixed with blood rises from the other side and disappears like a bubble bursting. Alchemist Goro, who has swallowed a human, is not satisfied and pulls the hook again and puts the next victim in his mouth.
It was easy to understand, there were many clues, and there was enough time to interpret. Without the need for high-level intellectual activities, most of the laborers noticed that they were approaching death.
Even those who cried out for death rather than suffering in the Alchemy Steel smelter felt an instinctive rejection of this kind of death.
Is it because of his conservative tendency to not accept death other than the way he imagined it? Or was it because he was just talking and not ready to accept death yet?
In any case, the smelter did a great job as a punitive institution by revealing its terrible secret. Because he took them both from a murderer who is rated as having no blood or tears, and an unbeliever who has never prayed for his life put his hands together and repented, and even a person who lost the will to live and committed a sin in desperation gained the will to live.
So, when the laborers were slowly and calmly slaughtered.
As if prayer had reached the sky, someone broke the ceiling and jumped in.
Shay aimed at Goro with a black stick. Ahead of the heat that melted even the steel and the red melted iron, Shay lowered the jizan while protecting herself with qigong.
Lobster, parting the Red Sea.
A black slash creates a red wave. The bright red melted molten iron splits on both sides. Heavy molten iron waves try to fill the gap again, but it's not a real sea, so you can't resist Jizan's repulsive force. The molten iron clings to both walls like a frightened child.
In the sweltering heat, Shay took off her sweat-soaked clothes and looked at the floor. As the officer instructed, there was a huge magic circle on the floor of the furnace.
Heat is the power to change. When heat is removed from molten metal, it becomes a hard metal. That magic circle was the kind that sent that heat away to another place. The heat will be used to melt the alchemical substances.
“To create a magic circle on the floor… . Shit, you made it dirty.”
Shay stuck his tongue out at the vicious design.
The magic circle's weakness is the magic circle itself. The physical durability of the magic circle is also a problem, but if you analyze its structure, it can be easily destroyed as well as have the possibility of being used against it.
However, in order to see the magic circle of the Alchemy Steel Blast Furnace, you have to empty the blast furnace where the molten steel is dull.
However, if the furnace is empty, there is no need to interpret the magic circle. The need to destroy it, of course, because the value of reverse use disappears.
If it was a military state, it was a military-like, very effective method.
“Jizan!”
Still, this is easy for Shay, a regressor who has attacked everything through dozens of regressions. Shay simply broke the magic circle. There is no hole for the heat to escape, and the furnace fluctuates. Shay tried to get her body out before the molten iron hit them again.
At that time, Shay discovered a small magic circle hidden inside the broken magic circle.
Ominous and reluctant to look at… A large circle made of ancient strings, a pattern that breaks and swallows the edges of a small circle.
Taboo, gluttony.
An ancient magic that uses humans as materials. symbol of savagery. Things that are taboo after humans become the lord of all things. The most common, and most terrible, patterns of gluttony were shining ominously.
It is a taboo that ordinary people cannot even come into contact with. However, Shay, who had fought against the threat of destruction several times, encountered the taboo of gluttony so often that he fell in love with it.
“… After all, the military has it, but never used it.”
Each round, the military went through many crises. Due to the knowledge of the regressors and the work of the resistance, the headquarters collapsed and a new government was established, and there were times when a war broke out, but the regressors joined the other side and destroyed it.
Each time, the returner helped the republic with the princess as the leader or the new kingdom with the princess as the king.
But at no point did I hear of the devouring of the workers with the annihilation device. I only came across information that such a device existed.
Even that, I heard it with one ear and shed it like a ghost story.
“… Well, not for good reasons. It would be a reasonable choice.”
The Alchemy Steel smelter is the goose that lays golden eggs. If you cut the ship, a high-cost alchemy steel like cursed blood and iron may come out immediately, but in the long run, the military's ability to carry out war will decrease. If you think rationally, there is no reason to kill and make iron.
So, the question arises here.
“Then why… Did the military make something like an annihilation device?”
The answer did not come easily. As he came out of the furnace and heard the cheers of the surviving laborers, Shay continued his thoughts.
Why the heck did the military create an obliteration device that I would never use?
“Shut up, you bastards! 👌👌 That I have to run myself to save these guys… !”
Captain Toruk approached, pushing the laborer mercilessly. The workers were scattered from side to side, screaming and swearing. Captain Toruk, who approached Shay in an instant, spoke with a very unpleasant look.
“Hey, kid!”
“Who’s the kid?!”
“Then let’s say you’re an adult! anyway! What are you doing now?”
Shay, who had a stabbing corner, hesitated for a moment. It's because she's been smashing the facility a little too hard without the officers' knowledge.
If the Alchemy Steel smelter is removed, the military's ability to conduct war will be greatly reduced. So Captain Toruk and Shay agreed to avoid destruction and focus on rescuing the laborers. Of course, Shay had no intention of keeping it.
Anyway, the person who is best at destroying facilities here is Shay with Jizan. What will they do if she excuses her for a little more power? If she fights anyway, she wins.
Shay decided to go a little more brazen.
“I broke the blast furnace, why? Have you reached an agreement there?”
You won't be able to confirm that the magic circle was also beaten down. Shay answered with such a calculation.
“Not that!”
However, that was not the purpose of Captain Toruk. He groaned and pointed his finger inward.
“Right now, the presence inside the smelter is gradually decreasing. It's not just happening here! The same thing is happening all over the smelter! To save dying humans, their numbers are dwindling! Are you taking them out?”
it's a different thing Shay, who received the inquiry, briefly reflected on his actions.
Is she taking the laborers out? no.
Did you think of that? no.
rehearsal is over. Shay shook her head coolly.
“I don’t know.”
“Then who are you? Letting go of this society’s trash outside!”
Even if you ask, Shay doesn't know. In the first place, it was left to Tirkanzaka to save each dying human being. Because Tyrkanzaka, the progenitor, who uses the Black Knight like hands and feet, is more suitable for saving lives.
It's ironic that she, who is ranked first when choosing the person who killed the most humans, is optimized for saving people. Perhaps life and life are like two sides of a coin.
After thinking about it, Shay waved her hand.
“Speak to Tirkanzaka.”
“… Well!”
However, Captain Toruk expressed his displeasure so clearly that it was revealed to Shay. Shay was puzzled to see him hesitating.
“why? Are you even afraid of Tirkanzaka?”
“… greatness!”
“yes? Really?”
Shay asked with a hopeful feeling. Captain Toruk avoided his gaze without confirming anything.
Captain Toruk had a lot to say. In the days of the kingdom, when temples were built everywhere and everyone worshiped the gods. The progenitor Tirkanjaka was another name for fear.
Kill the knight. one-man country. Queen of night and shadow.
From time immemorial until now, she used to destroy temples with her cursed body. She killed priests who cried out the name of the gods, destroyed temples, cursed faith, and led sinful bodies.
Countless heroes sacrificed their lives to stop her, but their heroic attempts only added one more bloody stroke to the history of the eponymous Tirkanjaka. The ancestors marched with the army of blood, scattering blood and death.
If it weren't for the blessed Plains of Enver. If it weren't for the shadowless land that took three days to cross… Seonghwangcheong may have been overthrown at least once by the sijo's march that was repeated countless times.
The kingdom fell and an army was established, but the people who filled it did not change. The fear of vampires is still… Not as much as before, but it was still firmly engraved in their minds.
Even a while ago, they tried to imprison the ancestors in a trap made of light. For the old man, Captain Toruk, that action was not enough even if he was given a bloodletting type of hanging upside down after punching a hole in a blood vessel.
Of course, not so much for Shay, who was born after the establishment of the military and hadn't learned that kind of fear. Shay asked.
“I mean, don’t you mean that you should look at me and ask for me because you’re scared?”
“Wow!”
“what the. At a busy hour… .”
Shay tends to respond to frank requests first. If there is no particular reason why she shouldn't do it, she will do it for once. Because it's always better to do than not do to change an unanswered future.
In any case, it is necessary to ask about the progress. Shay, who had decided to owe Captain Toruk a debt, took a deep breath and called out his name.
“Tirkanjaka!”
[Did you call?]
From the shadows, darkness answered first. And she showed up later. On the other side of the hallway, Tirkanzaka, appearing as if coming out of the shadow on the wall, slowly approached Shay and Captain Toruk.
The founder Tirkanjaka was expressionless. He didn't seem to have any special feelings for the military, who had thrown him into the trap of light, or for Captain Toh Luke, who was trying to drive them away. She would rather see her as a blood-crazed monster, since she personally came to hear her talk in her still dignified form.
“The workers are disappearing, what do you know?”
[Okay. I don't know. I'm so scared of a terrible tragedy, I'm sure it's hiding somewhere, isn't it?]
It's an obvious quirk. It was clear that he knew something, both in his attitude and in his tone of voice.
But a lie that everyone knows is also an expression of a strong will. Tirkanjaka did not allow the objection, and his will was fully communicated.
Captain Toruk, who was furious, gathered a lot of energy from his body.
“… Let it go!”
said and went back.
Tirkanjaka smirked as he watched Captain Toruk run away from his tail.
[You are a pitiful and pitiful person. How can the back of a person who is conflicted in fear and face look so ridiculous? I like it.]
“Do you like it? why?”
[Unlike you, those who are afraid of me don't bother me, so it's comfortable. They tend to keep them alive for a long time.]
“Ugh. I see… . huh? Then what about me?”
Tirkanjaka continued with a soft smile.
[How could the world be one color? Those who aren't afraid of me don't leave me as an enemy, so they need me too.]
“Oh, thank you… . But why are the workers escaping?”
[Is there any problem?]
“No, there is not. rather good It will take a while for the military to sort this out. It's not that it's bad, it's that I'm curious.”
[that… .]
He had asked for it secretly, but since he's come this far, he can't hide it any longer. It is better not to forcibly hide the secret that will be revealed anyway. Just as Tir Kanjaka opened her mouth to say her moor, the face of her who had just asked her to do it revealed herself.