Ever since deciding to share the Regressor's Manhan Jeonseok, there have been countless benefits. It costs nothing, the taste is guaranteed, and the menu is incredibly varied. The slight inconvenience of everything coming in single chopstick-sized portions actually feels like a benefit when considering it's the price for tasting such a diverse menu.
However, there is one downside. And that single downside was enough to negate all the good points. What is it, you ask?
"Huez."
"Yes?"
"Do you perhaps know the saying, 'He who does not work, neither shall he eat'?"
It was the Regressor's nagging.
Feeling the refreshing salad dressed with yuzu vinegar land heavily in my stomach like a lump of steel, I gulped down my food. I glanced at the Regressor and made my excuse.
"Everything turned out fine in the end."
"What turned out fine? It was always going to flow this way."
'If I say it like that, it sounds like I know the future too well. Should I rephrase it a bit?'
"Whether you like it or not, we were in a position where we had to fight the King of Wolves. One official muddying the waters doesn't change that."
"If it doesn't matter, then isn't that fine?"
"Something like an official muddying the waters shouldn't have happened in the first place! That's exactly why I called you, to prevent that!"
So this is why grown children refuse to eat with their parents. What's the point of serving a good meal? It doesn't go down the throat.
"The official was openly targeting Aji, and you did nothing! At the very least, you should have taken care of Aji!"
"I did take care of him. I just didn't expect that person to go on a rampage either."
"If it's something you didn't expect, does that mean you can't handle it at all? How am I supposed to trust you with anything?"
"Ugh. Being nagged to death."
"Nagged?"
Unable to bear it any longer, I slammed my cutlery down and stood up. I have something called pride. Even the most carefree beast—no, precisely because I am a beast, I am more sensitive to criticism.
"Always picking on me, always criticizing me! With the daily meal of walking on eggshells, the food won't even go down my throat!"
"No. Head of the household or whatever. I'm the one doing all the work, aren't I?"
"So what if you do the work well! You've been messing up until now, and you get arrogant just because things went a little right!"
"When did I ever mess up?"
"First of all, the biggest thing is that you knew the future like a Holy Maiden but pretended not to! And then you tried to profit from pretending otherwise! Tell me the truth. You saw the future this time too, didn't you?!"
Hit right in the sore spot, the Regressor responded with an almost reflexive defense at the speed of a Cheonbanjing.
"I, I'm not a Holy Maiden. I'm a man."
"Huh?"
'Did I say something unnecessary? But when I was a woman, I was suspected of being a Holy Maiden and it was annoying. Tirkanjaka even turned hostile the moment he found out I was a woman.'
Are you still telling that lie? Didn't Tir figure it out? When we parted ways in the Yeolguk, I was unconscious, but when I read Tir's memories, he clearly thought of you as the Holy Maiden?
'…Huez wasn't there, so she probably doesn't know? That must be it! You haven't shown any signs of being particularly conscious of my gender until now!'
It's not about whether you're conscious of it... Sigh, never mind. If you want, I should just treat you as a man. It's funny to think the King of Humans can't even distinguish human gender.
"I don't know how the future will turn out anymore either. The only certainty is that the King of Sins will appear and the world will be destroyed. Stopping the King of Wolves isn't about having seen the future; it's just a preliminary measure. The King of Wolves is too strong, so I'm trying to draw power from here and there. You were supposed to be a part of that..."
The Regressor, having reestablished his concept, let out a deep sigh as he looked at me.
"I didn't expect you to be this weak and unhelpful, but... well, fine. I'll think of you as a set with Aji."
"Huh? What did you say? A set with Aji?"
Fine. I admit it. I am weak. Even if I've gradually regained my strength through my journey, I'm at a pitiful level compared to the formidable strong ones. The Regressor? Forget the Regressor. Even Welshi, the guard dog of the Ende nobles, is on par with or better than me right now.
But still, this is too much! To be paired up as a set with a dog!
"Aji is nothing more or less than a pet dog! He only eats and sleeps, worse than me!"
"Arf? Me?"
"Aji is at least the King of Dogs, so he draws out the goodwill of the dog beast-kin. He'll even fight the King of Wolves for us. He's a dog anyway, so a little laziness is fine."
"Arf arf? All of a sudden?"
"If it weren't for the Seonghwangcheong, I would have led the humans too! If something hadn't taken my power, the wolves would have been a one-hit deal! Thinking about it the other way, isn't it more noble that the weakened King of Humans is trying to keep a promise? You should be more grateful!"
"Arf arf arf! Thank you!"
"Trying, my foot! Without making any effort at all! What have you even done since you came here?"
"Arf...?"
Aji. Why are you tilting your head? Are you making the expression that says, "I needed you more than anyone, but now that I think about it, you're right"?
These guys, seriously. Do they really see me as a freeloader now? Fine. If that's what they want, I'll work. I chose not to, not because I couldn't!
"Hah. Mr. Shay. Do you want me to do something? Really?"
"Of course. Do something. You're the King of Humans, aren't you?"
"Alright. Wait right there. I'll bring back some results too."
It'll be hard and exhausting, but it's better than living day-to-day begging for a meal of walking on eggshells. I threw on my coat and got ready to leave. When the Regressor saw me trying to leave, he followed and asked.
"It's getting dark."
"If it's dark, there's work to be done in the dark."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'll tell you after I try it."
"Need help?"
"I don't need it. I'll do it on my own."
"Really? Then go ahead. If it goes well, I'll praise you."
"Praise, my foot. You might end up regretting it and begging for forgiveness later."
Throwing on a hood and gathering my remaining cards, I rushed out on impulse. Stepping into the courtyard, the cold wind seemed to sweep across my cheeks. I suddenly didn't want to go, wondering if they might stop me and hold me back.
'I'm curious what he'll do. Should I tail him?'
You think about tailing him instead of stopping him? You're really something.
'No. Even in the Bottomless Pit, he noticed my tailing. Let's not give an excuse to a guy who's already reluctant to work, and just let him do as he pleases.'
Unfortunately, the Regressor didn't try to stop or hold me back. Having stormed out with such vigor, I couldn't turn back now. Leaving the warmly glowing mansion behind, I opened the courtyard gate and plunged into Ende's cold darkness.
Thinking about it now, it's quite a strange thing.
The King of Beasts is powerful, but not invincible. They are conceptual entities possessing just enough power and voice to represent a race, far removed from things like the laws of nature or gods.
Even if Aji is strong, he falls short compared to Yookjangseong, and the Butterfly whined after taking a single hit from Tir. Regardless of combat experience, when those far removed from humans fight, it's just at the level of a single beast trampling through a yard.
Yet the Regressor described the King of Wolves as if he were some kind of disaster. No matter how large the pack, it couldn't possibly compare to human society. For that to happen, every species would have to unite with one heart and mind, but could wolves accomplish what even humans cannot?
I could never really wrap my head around why that was... but today, after reading thoughts in Obeli, I somewhat understood the reason.
"Oink! I punished two bastards who ate pork today! From now on, those guys will suffer from their wobbling front teeth every time they tear into meat!"
It wasn't a wolf problem.
In the lowest part of Ende, where various things mingled together. A space like the city's intestines, where the sewage flowing out of the village was filtered and filtered again to extract what was needed.
In that place where a human would fall ill and die within days, the pig beast-kin gathered around a bonfire, giggling and bragging about their achievements for the day.
"Hey. Is that all? I smeared shit all over the butcher shop. Then the butcher's son turned his shitty face red and screamed his lungs out, didn't he? Said he'd pull out my intestines and smear shit the same way? Pfft! Let him eat shit! If you're going to spread it, spread it inside the aging room!"
"They only move their mouths! They think just talking solves everything! After flipping a restaurant, what was it? They said they wouldn't share a single piece of food with the Piggies anymore!"
"When did they ever share? They only gave out generous curses spat from their mouths!"
"Let's see who wins if we keep fighting in the mud. We who originally lived in the mud have nothing to hold us back!"
"But, isn't the action too petty to call it a mud fight? This isn't even terrorism, it's just a cute prank, isn't it?"
The Piggies, who had been sharing low, sticky pleasure in the darkness, didn't notice my presence right away.
"Even pranks become art when done seriously! We're showing them. To the idiots of this city, just how reckless we can be!"
"If you're going to announce it, you should announce it more widely. Yelling while stuck in the same pit with each other will only produce echoes."
"Who is it? The one who's been nitpicking since earlier?!"
The chatterers looked around, searching for the source of the voice. They didn't need to look for long. I was sitting right next to them, waving my hand.
"Hello?"
"You're...!"
It's the guy who stabbed me.
How could I not recognize him? No matter how stupid a Piggy is, he wouldn't have stabbed so many people that he'd forget the one he stabbed just two days ago.
"You little...!"
When he tried to reach into his clothes to draw a knife, I struck his pocket hard. The Piggy, whose hand was cut from gripping the knife wrongly, rolled on the ground screaming.
"Get him!"
Perhaps intending to overwhelm me with numbers, several Piggies charged in from all directions. The intentions of at least five of them tangled complexly. A chaotic attack from the weak who didn't even know where their own bodies were going.
If it were the old me, it would have been quite difficult to handle, but not anymore. I flicked my sleeve and drew the Demon God's card.
Spade 10, Gaia Ego.
With earth magic, I can't twist the earth or cause earthquakes, but I can at least dig a trench. The ground the Piggies were supposed to step on suddenly twisted and formed ridges. The Piggies who had charged in without checking their footing stumbled or caught their feet in the trenches and fell.
Faces crashed into each other, and another guy crushed the one struggling beneath him. I pushed and pulled the rushing attackers, stacking them up one by one. After slugging the one on top, the last remaining guy charged at me from behind.
"Die!"
He swung a sharp dagger without any hesitation. It's not that he has no qualms about killing people... it's more like he doesn't think that far. He's just in a hurry to spew hostility at me right in front of him.
Even if his head is stupid, a blade is still dangerous. I temporarily stuck a card to my palm and blocked the dagger. The Piggy must have thought the card looked laughable, putting his weight into it as if to tear my hand apart along with the card.
However.
"Ta-da!"
As if the card had swallowed it, the sharp blade, leaving only the hilt, turned into cards and scattered. The Piggy panicked as he watched the cards scatter in pieces.
"W-what? Cards?"
"That's a bit more like magic now."
As expected, having more cards I can use makes fighting easier. Should I call it practical combat magic?
I flattened the nose of the defenseless guy with a punch. Stepping on him as he fell bleeding, I looked around.
They're just back-alley thugs who happen to be a bit sturdier because they're pig beast-kin. Subduing them isn't something to brag about. I looked down at the Piggies whose spirit had been broken and spoke.
"Now, now. Society's trash. If you're trash, you should stay buried in the sewage treatment plant like trash. You go around attacking people just because you ate some pork? Do you really feel a sense of kinship with actual pigs?"
"What?! You little bastard, what did you just say...!"
Someone flared up and tried to shout, but another Piggy clamped his hand over the first one's mouth. One Piggy who seemed to have at least a few working brain cells retorted shamelessly.
"W-what about us! Do you have any proof?!"
"Proof? You were just proudly broadcasting it a moment ago."
"That was a joke among Piggies. Who are you to frame us? Are you an official or something?"
Oho. So that's how you're going to play it? I scratched my chin and answered.
"Well, I'm not."
"You're going to beat us up and frame us without any proof? A human? Oink! Now you're really going too far, aren't you?"
"You guys drew your knives first."
"That was self-defense!"
Right. So this is how you deal with it. The reason people who live without the law survive is, paradoxically, because there is law. Ende is also a land with its own order and system to some extent. Because it's a city of beast-kin, the beast-kin secure quite a lot of rights. The same goes for the pig beast-kin.
If it were truly a lawless zone, it would be resolved by the law of the jungle, but this land was a city of beast-kin. That means you can't just go around trampling on things arbitrarily out of suspicion.
That was also the reason the terrorist organization called Orcma survived.
"It's a fact known to all the gods in heaven and earth that the pig beast-kin have been causing trouble lately."
"There are over thirty thousand Piggies living in Ende. There are even more outside! How can you pin that on us?"
"You're going to punish us without any proof? Even an official would face a backlash if they did that?"
"Do you want to see thirty thousand Piggies rise up at once?"
They say three people can make up a tiger. With seven or eight Piggies grunting, there was no way I could win in terms of momentum. I scrunched up my face as if troubled and said.
"You sure are full of bluster. But the fact that you're outlaws doesn't change."
"Bring some evidence or witnesses! If you can't, we won't stand for it either!"
"Whether it's the temple or Obeli, we'll make it a public issue wherever!"
Evidence, evidence. Honestly, evidence is really hard to find. There's no way the traces of someone doing something would remain that perfectly clear. And even if they did, who would judge it?
They only call themselves Orcma, but they're ordinary pig beast-kin. And ordinary pig beast-kin are common thugs. Unless you carve out the pig beast-kin entirely, there's no way to drive them out. Because there's no way to judge who is Orcma and who is a good pig beast-kin. Setting aside the fact that there are no good pig beast-kin.
"Sigh. Fine. It seems there's no proper evidence, so I'll go ask your mother."
"Mother?"
"Oops. I mean Godmother, was it? Well, it doesn't matter. You call anyone who feeds you mother, don't you?"
But I don't need evidence. Because I have mind-reading.
"The Godmother is j-just someone who occasionally provides us meals!"
"Uh-huh. Sure, sure. I really need to dig into the identity of this old Piggy who surprisingly feeds the terrorist Piggies so well, and whose source of food is completely unknown. That's what evidence is."
There's a joke like this in the world. Piggies cannot gather in groups of more than twenty-one. Because they wouldn't have enough fingers and toes.
Pig beast-kin living hand-to-mouth organized Orcma to commit terrorism? If they had that kind of leeway, they wouldn't be so steeped in victim mentality, and if they had organizational skills, they would have founded a nation during their Orc era.
"W-who... gave you that information..."
"Who else? If I didn't hear information about Piggies from a Piggy, who would I have heard it from?"
To be precise, I read your thoughts. A secret organization? A cell structure? It's all meaningless. Those points will eventually connect from person to person.
I'll have to go through them one by one and reach the deepest part. To the existence trying to cause a rift in the city.
"Piggy...? Don't tell me. The opposition faction?"
"Oops. Did I say too much?"
It seems they're misunderstanding on their own, but whatever. They can figure it out themselves.
Waving my hand broadly, I walked back into the darkness, ruminating on the Piggies' thoughts. It seems I have quite a few places to visit tonight.