Facing Harvey's question, Yaxiu sat in the sunlight beyond the tree's shade, looking at the necromancer with a peculiar expression.
"You're not the type to badmouth people behind their backs. If you have an issue, you always speak your mind to someone's face—and if you feel that's not forceful enough, you even bring Alice out so you can say it together," Yaxiu said. "Igola hasn't offended you lately, has he?"
"I have no problem with Igola," Harvey replied. "I'm just curious about what you think."
"Why?"
"Yaxiu, you're a good person," the necromancer said. "Regardless of whether you were a cult leader in the past, ever since I got to know you, you've never been an evil person in my eyes. Valkas, Igola, Lisi, Annan... You're no bleeding heart, yet you've never done evil. You're so clean you don't seem like a Blood Moon native at all.
"I think Igola wants to ask this too, only he doesn't dare. When it comes to the two of us, death row inmates steeped in wicked deeds, how do you really see us?"
"I only came up here to bask in the sun; I never expected to answer such a heavy question..." Yaxiu rubbed his temples. "To borrow your phrasing, ever since I got to know you two—"
Harvey cut him off. "In Gospel, we were restrained by Annan and had our hands tied. But after arriving in Senluo... you haven't forgotten why we were kicked out of the food factory town, have you? Silver Lantern framing us was only part of the reason. The primary cause was that we acted far too unrestrained there."
"Yet you still showed restraint about the fallout."
"And that's precisely why we failed to catch Silver Lantern," Harvey said. "Do you think the swindler didn't know the gas station could be a lethal weapon? With his abilities as a mind sorcerer, why did he lure Silver Lantern toward a sparsely populated area instead of turning the crowd into his weapons?"
"Even if we can't catch Silver Lantern, we're sure to find a way to remove the blood seed," Yaxiu said earnestly. "I promise."
"That's not the point. The point is our nature," Harvey said, stroking Alice's head. "Do you think I'm satisfied with having just Alice? There's no Annan to rein us in now, and Senluo doesn't even have a unified government. I have inexhaustible materials at my disposal... If I weren't with you two, then to sustain my research, I'd probably join a cult that wouldn't interfere with my studies, become their enforcer, and unleash a necromantic scourge upon this land.
"The swindler is the same. A world where order and chaos coexist is a paradise beyond compare for him. Here, he could give full rein to his wits, schemes, and methods, playing everyone right into his hands... Had he come here alone, he'd probably already be a minor chieftain in the Four Pillar Cult by now."
Yaxiu said, "Yet neither of you did."
"Yeah, we didn't. But why?"
Alice took Harvey's cigarette butt and swallowed it whole.
"I'm a bit different from the swindler." Harvey pulled out a chocolate bar and took a bite. "I'm like a withered leaf fallen into a river, drifting downstream, indifferent to whether the end is an ocean or a quagmire. But he's a fish swimming against the current—he might even become a bird taking flight... He keeps his life firmly in his own hands, utterly refusing to drift with the tide.
"Yet in one regard, we're identical: we've never regarded other people as humans. Talking corpses, usable tools... nothing more.
"If the day comes when we do something you can't tolerate, how will you treat us?"
Yaxiu replied, "A hypothetical like that is so pointless. It's like a relative asking a child, 'What will you do if your mommy and daddy abandon you?'"
"Have you forgotten we're Blood Moon natives..."
"Come on, you know what I mean."
"Take that food factory town as an example," Harvey said. "If Igola hadn't hesitated to drag the entire town into battle just to catch Silver Lantern, or if I had chosen to transform into a plague-spreading dracolich rather than a Nether Knight to intercept her... what would you have done?"
Yaxiu looked at him calmly, saying nothing.
Harvey ate more than half of the chocolate bar, and then Alice swallowed the remainder in a single bite.
"When you hesitate, your heart has already made its choice," Harvey said. "We're no longer prison-break companions, nor slaves bound by contract, and even less comrades-in-arms you can trust unconditionally."
"No, I wasn't hesitating. I was just amazed that even with you holding back so much, you still nearly killed Silver Lantern." Yaxiu clenched his fists. "Next time we run into her, we're definitely taking her down!"
"Hm?" Harvey blinked.
"I understand what you mean," Yaxiu said. "If you hadn't taken me into consideration, your actions would have been far more ruthless than they are now. I've never doubted the evil in your hearts—how could anyone raised in Blood Moon's environment not carry a vicious cynicism toward the world?
"So, I'm honored to be your restraint." The cult leader grinned. "It feels like I've become your guardian.
"Trust should naturally be entrusted to someone worthy. Since you handed the leash to me, how could I refuse to be your shackle? Even if, just as you said, you end up doing something I can't tolerate...
"I can suppress you both immediately." Yaxiu's eyes shone brightly. "Don't underestimate me, necromancer."
Harvey paused, then couldn't help letting out a laugh. "Then I'll look forward to it."
He reached out to fumble around Alice's body. Just as Yaxiu was wondering whether he ought to turn around, Harvey pulled out a harmonica.
"Where did you get a harmonica?"
"A product from the Transcendent Temple," Harvey said. "Their hot sellers are luxury goods like these that require specialized craftsmanship. Unfortunately, it's a chromatic harmonica; I used to play tremolo harmonicas."
"Oh... Wait, you used to play the harmonica?" Yaxiu frowned. "We know each other too well for that—even if you blow your own horn like this, I'm not going to praise you."
Harvey pressed the slide button with his thumb, and a melodious tune rang out. It sounded somewhat familiar—perhaps a song that had played back in Shattered Lake Prison.
Beneath the tree's shade, the dark-skinned, curly-haired young man played the harmonica, nestled beside a thing that looked very much like a pretty girl. But at the thought that this was a necromancer and his corpse, Yaxiu found it even more absurd—compared to an ordinary necromancer, a necromancer who could play the harmonica was plainly a far more terrifying pervert.
Yet Harvey actually played rather well. Yaxiu reclined leisurely on the lawn, savoring the rare moment of ease. When several pieces finished and the music ceased, Yaxiu yawned and sat up, only to discover that many Transcendent believers had gathered around.
They were roughly under ten years old, dressed in identical blue-and-white uniforms, though with far fewer prosthetic augmentations attached to their bodies—only on their ears and the backs of their necks. They stared curiously at Harvey, their eyes urging, "One more song!" "Encore! Encore!"
"Why are there so many kids?" Yaxiu asked.
"This is the basic education floor," Harvey said. "All children under twelve receive their education in the classrooms on this level. This place is actually their athletic field."
So you came to an elementary school playground to smoke...?
"So what now? One more song, or are we leaving?"
"One more, and then we'll go."
When Harvey began to play, Yaxiu suddenly recognized the melody. It was the theme song from a show he had binged with Freya, etched deeply in his memory because of its catchy, infectious rhythm. He sat there tapping out the beat, his rhythm gradually stringing together, and the surrounding children were quickly swept along by Yaxiu, turning the athletic field into a music class.
When the song ended, Harvey got ready to stand up and leave. Suddenly, a little girl dashed over, wrapped her arms around him, and planted a loud "mwah" kiss on his cheek.
Alice had tensed up all over, ready for combat at any moment, and only now relaxed. Harvey looked quizzically at the little girl, whose face was flushed crimson. After freezing for a long moment, she stammered out two words: "Sounded... pretty!"
With that, she scurried back into her group of friends, exchanging meaningful looks without a single word voiced into the air. They communicated through the intelligent computing hub, having no need whatsoever for speech, that hopelessly inefficient channel of information exchange.
Her long freeze just now was probably because she hadn't even processed what she had done—while the intelligent hub dampened self-awareness, it heightened impulsive reactions. In short, Transcendent believers were a bunch whose bodies moved faster than their conscious minds; before a concrete thought formed, their bodies had already carried out their intent.
Watching the children scatter in a flurry, Yaxiu suddenly sank into contemplation.
"Time to go. What are you thinking about?" Harvey asked as he stowed Alice back into the coffin.
"I'm just wondering: while I pity them for gradually losing their self-awareness in the future, might they also be pitying me for never having the chance in my entire life to evolve into a more intelligent existence?"
"They definitely are," Harvey stated with absolute certainty. "Just as I pity you for refusing to study the necromancy faction and insisting on eating shit instead."
"Yeah, you have your hobby, they have the ideal they pursue, and even I have the light of my life," Yaxiu said. "If reality truly is an illusion..."
"Still, you are the protagonist whom no one else is allowed to deny."
Chapter 551