The Outer God Needs Warmth

I heard about what happened that day from Victoria’s perspective.

She described the events in chronological order, from when she left the school dormitory until she returned to the port.

At first, Beatrice didn’t believe her at all. But as Victoria calmly pointed out that the Sahaquin’s behavior patterns were simple, her skepticism began to shift little by little. It seemed she started to understand that Victoria was recounting her own experiences.

Gradually, her expression twisted in disbelief, and when she heard about Victoria being stabbed in the thigh by the Sahaquin, she interrupted and immediately checked Victoria’s physical condition.

“So, if you were kidnapped by the Sahaquin, you should’ve escaped. Why did your goal suddenly shift to eliminating the culprit?”

“I said that when I touched my side, it felt weird and scales were coming out, right? And the Sahaquin document. I learned a bit about the script of other races in my liberal arts class, and I thought if I messed up what I was doing, it might turn out better.”

So, she really did change her job to a Sahaquin butcher.

When she mentioned she was becoming one, Beatrice was genuinely shocked.

At that moment, Victoria, dressed in a thin tank top with barely any fabric, showed her side, quickly calming down.

Did she deliberately wear such thin clothes?

No, as I recalled, it was summer, so she just wore what she normally did.

Anyway.

Beatrice rubbed her eyes as if she had a headache. From the first time I saw her, the area around her eyes had already turned dark from fatigue, making her look extremely haggard.

Then she pointed at me.

“So those monsters summoned a god, and what was there is called Bell?”

“Yep. But according to themselves, it wasn’t the god that was supposed to be summoned.”

As the gazes of the two shifted to me, I nodded.

At least, in the world Daegon was born in, he was like a sole god.

“So you signed a contract with Bell in a life-threatening moment to survive.”

“Yep. The transformation into fish is gone, and I even gained this ability. I say again, without this ability, it wouldn’t have been strange if I had died back there, right?”

A dark brown liquid floated up from Victoria’s teacup into the air. It then morphed into various symbols before plopping back into the teacup.

And Victoria grabbed the end of her tied hair and waved it towards Beatrice.

“This hair isn’t dyed; it’s from the contract. My skin has become white, right? Even the scar I got when I fell off my bike as a kid has disappeared!”

Victoria smiled as she lifted her left leg up, but then lowered it cautiously under Beatrice’s sharp gaze.

Beatrice looked directly into my eyes and asked in a low voice.

“Why did you sign a contract with this kid?”

As if she wouldn’t allow me to lie.

But what could I do? It was already too late.

The river of no return had already flowed by long ago. Thus, I decided to speak only the straightforward facts.

“I was in front of her.”

There had been only one living creature there.

Thanks to the security measures that Daegon had prepared, everything else was swept away.

Victoria blinked with surprise at my words.

It seems strange to her that I would sign a contract simply because I was there.

“Uh, so you saved me for that reason?”

“The ones who summoned you messed up and lost their lives, leaving only you behind.”

It was all true.

Before I could even do anything, they had managed to die on their own.

“Tell me the content of the contract.”

At that moment, Beatrice asked me sharply.

It wasn’t that hard, so I recited the contract document.

Beatrice frowned upon hearing the contract.

“It means you’re taking everything from my daughter.”

“No, mom. If I hadn’t signed the contract back then, I would have turned into a fish and been swimming in the mist over there!”

It seemed she hadn’t considered that what she had blocked with her abilities was something else entirely. Even if I turned into a fish, I would have died there.

Recalling how the original body was ground like it was in a shredder, she must have known that she wouldn’t have survived.

“Claiming my daughter’s soul, huh? You sound like a demon.”

Yep.

She was glaring at me with that notion, harboring a fierce determination to get it back by any means.

But she couldn’t. The contract was already complete, and the warmth could be taken away at any moment.

So, I needed to reassure her by speaking only the truth.

“I have no interest in souls. If I die, I’ll just go take the last warmth and that’s it. This contract document is simply the original contract I signed, and I’ve been using it since.”

It was true.

If I had changed it to another sentence and it didn’t work out, it would be troublesome, and if I modified the contract and failed to obtain dominion over descendants or some survival rights like last time, that would be problematic.

I understood this was the reason an old system continued to exist but failed to keep up with the times.

But there was no reason to take that risk.

“So, what if I sign a contract too?”

With a gaze fixed on me, full of suspicion, doubt, and a desire to kill, Beatrice asked.

If I said “yes” right away, her gun in hand would likely fire.

I wouldn’t die, but still.

Considering Soo-oh’s last words and the fact that I had already produced five harvests, I decided to take a step back here.

“Let’s postpone that.”

“Postpone?”

Her suspicion deepened. I chose to hold rather than say yes or no. In the long run, it would lean towards yes.

I decided to add an explanation here.

“Contracts can only be made once per organism. When signing, all injuries heal, but after the contract, if you get hurt and start to die, I can only watch like before. So think of it as a spare life.”

Does it sound like a statement full of goodwill?

But as long as I can gain warmth, that’s a success for me. Anything beyond that would be a bonus.

In favorable situations, it’s better to maintain them.

The five who had attacked me fell for a few words of religious pretense and quickly signed a contract, didn’t they?

Even if someone asked about the contract, they would remember me as a good person.

Even if they had power and did dirty things, I could justify myself by saying they were the ones who chose that.

Standing on the border of truth, I don’t lie and instead play with falsehoods.

After my explanation, Beatrice looked at me with a complicated expression before finally organizing her thoughts and asked one question.

“Is there someone you lost whom you couldn’t help?”

I fell silent.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t help them.

I just figured if I courageously moved forward and took the attack from the immortal, I could twist them all away.

“Okay, got it. Bell. Are you a god?”

That was something I could answer clearly.

“No. I’m just a monster.”

I answered like I was saying “meow.” Just that much. I’m not a god who can do anything and gain everything.

Far from perfect, I was more like a beast shivering in the cold, yearning for warmth.

“Fine. Next question. Why did you follow my daughter?”

“Victoria pulled me along.”

“What?”

Beatrice’s head whipped over to Victoria. Though cursing was dripping from her eyes, she was trying her best to hold it back since I was in front.

“But mom. What she said to me was ‘I don’t want to go home.’”

She said that. She truly didn’t want to go back to the bottom.

“Mom! I’ll take care of it properly!”

Should I really say “meow” here?

Beatrice’s expression twisted. The frustrating words kept bubbling up, and she was exuding a feeling of wanting to hit me.

“Are you even sane?”

“She’s not a bad person.”

It seems that when it was translated to “not a bad beast,” I was not the only one thinking that. Beatrice had an expression similar to an adult watching a child bring home a wild animal they want to keep.

“Anyway, our house is big! Just for the vacation, okay?”

The house is quite big, actually. Although it’s not in a posh neighborhood, it looks like a well-off house.

“Alright. Only during the vacation. Sigh, what am I gonna do with this? Okay, Tori. We have a guest room, so Bell can use that. I thought you just brought back a friend from school…”

Beatrice let out a deep sigh, stood up from the table, and walked over to Victoria, giving her a light hit on the head.

“Mom! Thank you!”

But Victoria didn’t seem to feel any pain as she hugged Beatrice.

While Beatrice pushed her away, saying it was disgusting to be hugged, she came back to me.

Looks like the conversation has wrapped up.

I stood up from my seat.

“I have lived as a human for less than three digits in total. My true identity is a monster.”

“That was the earlier question.”

Beatrice, with a bitter smile, reached out her hand, hesitated for a moment, and then offered it again. I took it.

“But why don’t you state your exact age?”

At that moment, Victoria chimed in from the side. I let go of Beatrice’s hand and replied.

“I don’t know which cycle to base it on, since they’re different.”

“Cycle?”

“Orbital cycle. To put it simply, how many days are in a year.”

“Here, it’s 318 days right?”

“One place has 365 days, another 415 days. The last one is 639 days.”

I mentioned the time from faded memories and the sparkling number of days in those two other worlds. I think that the second world might have been as far away as Mars.

Not that it’s a particularly important fact.

“Other worlds have different years?”

“Yes. Each world is different. I’m not smart enough to calculate my exact age, so I can’t explain in detail.”

From Victoria’s memories, she doesn’t seem to know much about the universe yet. Certainly, there must be those who do here too.

People have been looking up at the sky since ancient times.

But that knowledge is not universally spread. At least, that’s true in the level Victoria knows.

“A monster, huh?”

“What do you classify as a monster? I’m a monster, so what? Going back to our conversation, Miss Beatrice.”

I shoved Victoria aside and greeted her again.

“I’ll be under your roof for a while. Please take care of me.”

After hearing my greeting, Beatrice looked at Victoria and said:

“She’s better than my daughter.”

“Mom!”

Victoria shouted angrily, questioning what was wrong with me, and rushed at her.

I thought it was just like when she was with Soo-oh in Choseol’s body.

I took a step back and watched the two bicker.

---