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Mogrei Laksha.

I didn’t talk for too long, but as I guessed, she was indeed a first-year student.

For now, it seemed she was satisfied just exchanging names because she didn’t engage in any deep conversations.

We just had light chat during lunch and went our separate ways.

After that, I returned quietly to the classroom, and soon, Victoria and Polaris came back from lunch.

They both said nothing happened.

In the meantime, Kanna continued to sigh deeply. They had a similar situation here, but instead of dormitory issues, it was about an altercation with a foreign student that required mediation.

Bubbles of tension were starting to rise from the bottom of the cauldron that is the Royal Academy.

It could either boil over or open up to let out steam before it’s too late. One of those two is bound to happen.

During that time, I hoped some warmth would fall upon me.

And so, days passed, revealing ominous signs.

Then, the day before the weekend.

Finally, a major incident broke out.

The foreign royalty group collided with the faction that Aurora was gathering. The trigger was truly a trivial argument, but it escalated into a matter of pride.

Moreover, once a場所 was found to unleash the pent-up frustrations built up until now, everything erupted all at once. The heat that would’ve usually died down flared up like it was doused with oil.

Emotional fights are frightening.

Because logic goes out the window.

There’s no reaching an agreement.

Once ignited, emotions don’t easily fade away.

I had high harvesters on both sides, so I was enjoying the show. It wasn’t my mess.

Am I worried about getting caught up in it?

The Royal Academy’s atmosphere is a mess, but frankly, I’m fine. The unease about that vibe is because one expects trouble to hit eventually.

But if I’m completely detached from such troubles, I don’t feel anxious at all.

In fact, I’m just waiting for them to injure each other so I can use that as an excuse to start creating harvesters.

It’s still at the level of a declaration of war, but I really hope they’ll get to the bloodshed soon.

***

As days passed in the Third World, the Fourth World had already jumped past the middle of the rainy season.

In the meantime, a lot happened.

First off, Jeber got married.

To Princess Aliura Rempinion.

However, it wasn’t the kind of wedding one usually envisions. It was a festival that involved wizards, who had a good relationship with Jeber, insulting Aliura Rempinion and the Rempinion family.

There were no screams, just artificial inhabitants of the Rempinion family watching the event in a state where they couldn’t even take their own lives, while the Rempinion family members were treated like sexual playthings in a completely messed-up state. And all the while, wizards from various families delighted in their humiliation.

It was literally a frenzied party fueled by lust and contempt.

And whether the people involved knew or not, most of the Rempinion family members who became playthings were artificial humans.

Well, technically, “cloned humans” would be more accurate. They were cloned purely for play and then discarded without any modifications.

The main attraction of the wedding was the princess and those who had magical abilities that were barely sufficient to qualify as materials. So, it’s accurate to say they were treated as cloned humans.

As for the decent material? That was in the form of cubic boxes.

They were taken out for use whenever needed.

So, they died being shot at like targets or sandbags or were sexually tortured, or used as magical materials, leading to the majority of those from the Rempinion family and their fakes who were present dying.

What was called a wedding ended up being a festival of disgrace.

Then, Jeber made a shocking declaration.

He astonishingly shattered the kingdom. He transformed the nation into a noble republic.

Jeber had finished his revenge, and now he wanted to return to his research life. To do that, ruling the country as a king is too much of a hassle, so he just got rid of it.

Of course, it wasn’t that easy.

Other wizards forcibly sat him in a ceremonial seat.

At least on the surface, there was some legitimacy to it, so no one could complain. Marrying Aliura Rempinion meant officially continuing the previous nation, right?

It seems the other wizard families realized that returning to a single nation, even nominally, is much more beneficial than being divided into city-states.

Moreover, unlike the Rempinion royal family, they had no thoughts of controlling other families; they were just content with keeping what they had in their hands.

In other words, they had little power greed, so they were easier to manipulate.

Originally, they should keep a different responsible party while just sucking out the benefits, right?

So, Jeber ended up sitting in a position similar to the head of the republic.

And nothing happened.

Truly, incredibly mundane; his only new task was getting called to meetings to sort out opinions. The rest of the work, he delegated to those who aren’t wizards anyway, right?

Apart from the fact that he lost just a bit of personal time, he returned to his original life.

Of course, not all wizards were like Jeber. Some among them wanted to expand their influence or wanted to stand above others.

And these individuals actually held strong power.

However, the noble republic eliminated the once exalted position above all.

They wanted to process the highest-ranking individual like Jeber did and become king, but they’re now equal among wizards, right?

In reality, there are still inequalities based on their actual power, but nominally, they are equal.

A time has come where politics is needed, not victory.

If this was part of Jeber’s intent, then not only is he smart in terms of biopolitics using magic, but he’s also astute in this aspect.

Well.

Seeing him spend days researching or happily enjoying himself with those from the Rempinion royal family, including the princess, it doesn’t seem he thought this far.

In a way, he’s diligently balancing work and revenge. This guy.

As the world of wizards stabilized, the world of ordinary people stabilized too.

Yes. Surprisingly enough.

Through the artificial humans Jeber provided to those who followed him or the ordinary people who had become harvesters through the rejuvenation event, you can see the world more clearly.

The cities viewed through their eyes have become more livable.

Why? Because inter-city exchanges have become more active.

No matter what the reality is, it appears as though their leader is avenging his precious ones, conquering places, and marrying the princess.

And the fact that he stepped down from a position he could’ve taken up in becoming king is also noteworthy!

From a distance, he doesn’t look like a reformist king at all.

Just because the high-ups are living well, it doesn’t mean the lives of everyone changed. Yet, they mistakenly believe they are living well too.

Moreover, the fact that the standards of other large cities have dropped relatively also had an impact.

Why did they decline, you ask?

Because the Rempinion’s former royal family, which held up morals and human rights, has loosened its restrictions.

Those who couldn’t act freely due to keeping an eye on the royal family could now do whatever they wanted.

Since they added people into their labor force, the production capacity of different cities increased. And only the wizard families grew wealthy. And these families bought all sorts of things with the profits they gained.

The citizens of those cities faced worsening situations, but money flowed to this side, right?

In fact, praises for Jeber could be heard rather frequently in the cities.

Especially from harvesters who rejuvenated because of Jeber’s influence.

While everything seems to be going smoothly, Jeber is still busy in the laboratory conducting experiments. For him, research isn’t work; it’s a hobby.

Until nearly the end of the rainy season, he remained busy with his experiments.

One of those experiments was watching the progress of hastily created artificial humans.

They were rapidly grown and sent to me as meat blocks to be made into harvesters, right? In the end, a normal artificial human popped out.

So, I checked if there were any issues, and thankfully, there weren’t.

Or maybe the problems just hadn’t been discovered yet.

In any case, there was one more thing I found out.

None of the hastily created artificial humans had gained psychic abilities.

So, Jeber initiated a fresh recruitment.

Yes.

He carried out another rejuvenation event.

Like last time, he made a limited number again and monitored them for a certain period.

And if anyone possesses abilities, they get kidnapped for dissection.

This isn’t just about physically probing; it also involves messing with their souls.

Well, or so I assume.

Why do I say assume?

Because to me, the light seems the same.

Didn’t Aliura also twist her soul? So, she maxed out her likeability as if in a computer game for fulfilling sexual desires, but from my perspective, light is just light.

However, seeing her fawning over the person she hated, it’s clear her soul has indeed been twisted.

The warmth is gradually dwindling, but if my speculation about warmth being the possibility of the future holds, then it’s not strange that it’s decreasing over time.

The color of the light is still white, and its size hasn’t changed much.

It hasn’t changed completely, but the difference isn’t significant compared to how an ordinary person’s light changes while living outside.

Just as I perceive it, Jeber seems to think his soul hasn’t changed from becoming a harvester.

Hmm.

Could it be that what I consider light isn’t actually the soul?

Until now, I used to think light was a vessel containing warmth, and I could be contained within it.

But when talking about the soul, there’s never been a mention of it turning purple.

No.

I don’t know for sure; I observed him mumbling or took a look at him writing in research notes.

If transforming into purple is something so obvious for him, it may not have been written down.

But given how meticulously he writes, I don’t think he left anything obvious unmentioned.

I truly don’t know.

I thought my perspective would broaden, but for some reason, the more knowledge I gain, the more I realize I don’t know.

What exactly is light?