Elias laughed his heart out when he realized he could not control it. What does he mean? Be kind to yourself? If he is being cruel to others, he should be ruthless to himself, shouldn't he?
The strong eat the weak, thus they are superior to them; it is a simple thought and explains this world so beautifully that Elias had embedded it into his mind.
He knew what was supposed to happen here: they buy a slave and use its heart! It is only fair that the weak and unlucky die by the strong and lucky; after all, luck is merely one's fate, and fate grows stronger with its holder.
Why in this world would he decline to get stronger?
How absurd it was, how laughable.
The only reason he had been holding it back was that the man beside him was stronger and more valuable than him.
Elias respected the respectable duke.
He laughed harder at his own tongue twister.
But he was not stupid; he stopped laughing after some time and looked at the man while panting.
"How can I be kind to myself if I am not kind to others?"
The man stared at him for a while and then chuckled, "I like you, kiddo, after all you are my disciple!"
Soon they were in the slave market district. The respected duke explained that these markets were half owned by the Empire, thus to them buying a slave would be cheaper at specific places.
At least that was what Elias thought, but weirdly enough, trying to buy slaves from places owned or semi owned by the empire was more expensive than the private shops.
Elias was standing in front of an Empire owned slave shop at that time, staring at the slaves in front of him as he muttered, "How… insignificant."
His heart was heavy, as much as he wanted to deny it. Even if the weak were lesser than the strong, they cannot be of that much difference.
How hypocritical, didn't I just laugh at the old man just now?
He knew that strength was everything, but was valuing everything by its strength right?
The duke came back from inside and sighed, "Let's go to a private seller then."
Elias raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why, did you not get a discount or something?"
The duke tilted his head and spoke, "Well, you know how I am a respected duke. Every year there is a tremendous competition to become the duke, and I won and became one. To win the competition, you have to beat the existing duke. Once you beat the existing duke and become the new duke, if you lose you get half of the army by the new duke's choosing and become a respected duke."
Elias stared at the respected duke before nodding slowly.
"So after becoming a respected duke, you act as the opposition and are forced to challenge the duke until the duke becomes a respected duke too."
Elias looked ahead and thought for a moment, "That's clever."
No wonder the Red Tiger Empire is an Empire not a super tribe.
…
Elias and the respected duke were walking down the grassy street. This was the area where private slave sellers reigned. Countless small-scale sellers were shouting descriptive names and properties of their products as the respected duke wandered around trying to find someone similar to Elias.
But is it really fair? Well, nothing is fair, but… I don't want someone else to die because of me.
Soon the respected duke returned, holding a black-haired man with a chain. The man- no slave was covered with some leaves around its waist held up by thick vines. The spikes on the vines were more apparent by the pained but hopeless look on the slave's face.
He was about as tall as Elias and was quite muscular. However not a single cm of fat was under his skin showing how malnourished he was. He was bound by thick chains around his neck and hand along with his legs as the duke walked him like a dog.
Elias had momentarily forgotten that that was the man he was planning to kill to use his heart.
I never knew my heart could feel so… heavy
I can lock the memory of it though.
Getting stronger, the feeling of it getting stronger is ineductible after all
***
"M-my belief?"
Flieday stared at the corpses of the grade one beasts and then at the fire.
What do I believe in?
Then, a body rose from a small dark crack behind her. Noticing the movement Flieday turned back to see a man with mingled limbs and barely attached head.
He was Hadrian of course.
…
The twilight sky stretched across the horizon as two people climb on a four eyed yak.
"Hadrien?"
"Hm?"
"What do you… want to be?"
The man's lips twirled upwards slightly as he looked at the spike like trees and the opaline snow covering the world.
"When I was little, there was an old nobody living right besides us."
Flieday raised an eyebrow with confusion flickering on her face.
"That man was kind, feeding everyone and helping all without taking anything in return. One day I asked him the same thing."
Flieday nodded, understanding what Hadrien was trying to say. Nevertheless, he still continued,
"And the man replied 'I want to be a good person.'... I still wonder what a 'good' person is but I want to be one."
…
[A Chinen of the same grade is required for this ritual. The more similar to you the better, However it does not matter if your belief is strong enough.]
Flieday stared at the living Hadrien as the pale man beside her stepped forward. It stretched it's hand and started clinically separating Hadrien's organs.
All that matters is my goal, my goal, my goal, my… but I don't want to-
Her thought process was interpreted by the pared down voice
[using a grade one Chinen heart, also called a mundane heart, is a tricky process. An abstemious person is needed for the mixing of it into the chinen.]
A hint of fleeting anger surged in Flieday. She had long decided to not care about anything except her path and her goal, but that was not what she was feeling right now.
It was her need, not her want. She needed to think that way to survive the second phase of life, but she did not want to — at least not right now.
She would have objected to this ritual if she could, but her survival instincts suppressed her wants.
The white pastel hand slithered like a snake, leaping towards her. It grabbed her by her blond hair and pulled her up, throwing herself into a pool of water.
[The exact weight is required for stabilising the heart and material first, and then energy is needed to be added gradually.]
Flieday was fully submerged before getting dragged out of the water.
"What the"
[You can use the water displaced when someone is plunged into a pool of water to find out their weight.]
Flieday stared at the corpses as each of their organs was dissected by a pale hand and was weighed by throwing it into water. After a few minutes of trial and error, the compressed ball of fire slowly flowed into the collection of organs.
[The flesh is about ten times the weight of you, but the energy required for the ritual is always constant.]
The fire did not burn the flesh due to the the cloud dust wrapping the fire and acting as a bridge. The flesh glowed until the heart of Hadrien was submerged into it.
[The heart needs to be covered by cloud dust as well; now all you have to do is try to engrave your belief into your body and walk into the fetus.]
Flieday stared at the pale figure.
[...Repeat and imagine your belief getting embedded into your body and spirit.]
Flieday took a deep breath before starting to imagine her whole body. She repeated her beliefs and imagined them being written on her body as she took a step forward.
Only the goal matters, only the goal matters, only the goal matters…
The empty voice in her head was quiet too, her seraphic face was being illuminated by the blue light as her clothes dissolved into the air.
Flieday did not notice it though.
After all, she was going to step in the glowing flesh.