Chapter 378: Who Gives Us Our Daily Sustenance?

Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint

The frightened Dholes protested.

“K-Kill us? We only want our rightful payment!”

“We have a contract!”

Ignoring their words, I turned to Peru and spoke.

“Did they help us in any way? Are they even strong? The only thing we could rely on was the Dominarch’s promise. Now that he’s dead, it’s none of our concern whether they get paid or not. That’s their problem, not ours. Why are they following us all the way here and making a scene?”

I ran a hand through my hair in annoyance. At that small gesture, the Dholes flinched and cowered in fear.

Of course, I only possessed ordinary strength.

I had no way to kill them all instantly.

But life was all about leveraging authority.

Putting on an air of arrogance, I looked down at the Dholes with disdain and sneered.

“We haven’t even explained the situation to the Thunderarch yet, but you’re already acting as if your claim is guaranteed. Do you really think the Thunderarch is going to divide the Dominarch’s assets among people like you?”

It was the classic good cop bad cop routine.

By making it seem like I was about to kill them all with Peru being the only one holding me back, they would feel indebted to her.

It’s fine.

Playing the villain is something I’m used to.

Peru caught on to my intentions a little late but played along.

“…It was a contract.”

“Well, if that’s Peru’s stance, then I suppose I have no choice. However, if they interfere and delay our work, we’ll handle it ourselves. I don’t care what happens to the Dominarch’s wealth, but if things get held up… I might just kill them all out of frustration.”

“…Then I’ll handle it.”

“Hah. True, it’d be more effective if you did it instead of me. With your abilities, you wouldn’t even leave a single bone behind.”

All I did was bark threats, but that alone was enough to send the Dholes scrambling away in terror.

It took less than a minute for them all to disappear.

I waited until the last of them vanished from sight before speaking again.

“You owe me one.”

“…Yeah.”

Peru, now free from her predicament, nodded slightly.

Honestly, if it was going to be such a hassle, she shouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place.

“So why did you take on the Dominarch’s last will? You could’ve just ignored it and walked away.”

“…Because it was a contract.”

“If it’s not a contract with you, why not just ignore it? Do you really need to act as the Guardian of Contracts? It’s such a bother.”

Peru cast her gaze towards the golden bell hanging from her waist and murmured.

“…The Golden Lord entrusted it to me. If I don’t protect it, then who will?”

Ah, a patriot.

Now that the Golden Lord had vanished and the Dominarch was dead, the Fallen Dominion would soon plunge into chaos.

Right now, the absence of the Golden Lord wasn’t too noticeable, but that was only because the country, like a liquid, could still flow and adapt.

However, if the cracks widened and the leaks continued, the entire nation would dry up before long.

When that time came, everyone would have no choice but to acknowledge it— that the Fallen Dominion had come to an end.

But it wasn’t over just yet.

The Golden Lord was gone, but his legacy remained.

“…By the way, what exactly does that bell do? It’s a relic of the Golden Lord, yet I have no clue what it’s capable of.”

“…I don’t know. It… fixes broken things.”

Peru fidgeted with the golden bell in her hands.

Fixing broken objects.

A useful ability, to be sure, but compared to the full power of the Golden Lord, who had once created an entire nation with only a wave of his hand, it seems almost insignificant.

I gave her a serious piece of advice.

“You’d better figure it out soon. For the sake of peace.”

“He’s right.”

A flash of lightning struck and before I knew it, the Thunderarch stood beside us, her long hair billowing in the wind.

As she stood with an afterglow of electricity still flickering around her, she looked down at Peru with an imposing presence.

“…Thunderarch.”

“No matter what kind of person the Golden Lord was, his power was capable of reshaping the world. You need to not only draw out the power of his relic, but also grow strong enough to protect it.”

“…Yes.”

“And to do that, you can’t afford to show weakness.”

Peru flinched, shrinking at her sharp reprimand.

But the Thunderarch gave her no respite.

“Those who seek comfort rest under the shade of a great tree, not among swaying reeds. The reason those Dholes dared to threaten you was simple—they didn’t find you reliable. You looked weak, so they tried to shake you down. If you want to overcome that, you must stand firm. If necessary, you should even use force.”

Of course, if she used force, Peru could easily drive them away.

The problem was, her power was one of destruction.

If she lost control, she might not just intimidate them—she might end up crushing parts of their bodies beyond repair.

That was precisely why Peru never considered using her strength against humans.

She muttered weakly.

“…But my ability…”

“It’s the power of Wither, isn’t it? So why are you hesitating? In a land like the Fallen Dominion, where the Golden Lord’s poison runs through every vein, your power is stronger and more terrifying than anyone else’s. Just use it.”

But it seemed the great Thunderarch had a different perspective.

Her casual suggestion to use his ability on humans left Peru visibly shaken.

“…I can’t use the power of Wither on people.”

Peru, unsure if she had misunderstood, said again.

But the Thunderarch simply tilted her head.

“The Golden Lord harvested the people of the Fallen Dominion like crops. Whether that was right or wrong doesn’t matter—the result was that the people revered him. If you intend to take up the mantle of the Golden Lord in his absence, you need to demonstrate that level of power for your authority to be recognized.”

“…Didn’t you despise how the Golden Lord fed on his own people? Why would you say such a thing?”

Peru respected the Thunderarch.

That was why she was questioning her intent.

Claudia was the largest agricultural region in the Fallen Dominion, the city where children were raised using its bounty.

And the one who had created that system was none other than the Thunderarch.

She had cultivated untainted food—free from the Golden Lord’s influence—for the future generations of the Fallen Dominion.

It was well known that she hated the Golden Lord.

Peru had always believed that she created food in defiance of the Golden Lord’s rule.

But the attitude she displayed now contradicted her expectations.

“You’re right. I despised the Golden Lord, but that was because he abused his power without any rules or restraint. It doesn’t mean I reject his strength or his achievements. After all, even my own body was created by the Golden Lord’s power.”

“…Your body?”

“Yes. From the tips of my toes to the ends of my hair, my entire body is made of alchemic material. That’s why I can contain the power of thunder within me without being harmed.”

Well, of course.

A normal human wouldn’t survive a lightning strike unscathed.

So the Thunderarch’s resilience came from the fact that her entire body was composed of alchemic material…

All crops created by the Golden Lord were made of alchemical materials. A body that had fully absorbed and been built from such matter inherited its alchemic properties.

The most notable characteristic of alchemical materials was their high reactivity—they had little resistance to external interference.

That was why homunculi were particularly vulnerable to Tyr and Peru’s abilities, despite their claims of being “perfect.”

But the Thunderarch was no homunculus.

She had been conceived like any other human, born from her mother’s womb, but she had been raised entirely on the Golden Lord’s crops.

Even in the womb, even after birth—her nourishment came exclusively from the purest alchemic materials created by the Golden Lord.

Many in the Fallen Dominion suffered from disabilities because the unstable fusion of alchemic matter within their bodies caused internal conflicts.

But those, whose bodies were composed purely of alchemic matter, became physically flawless.

With no disabilities, no illnesses, even when struck by lightning they could harness its power for themselves—truly bodies of the chosen.

However, that also meant she was extremely vulnerable to Peru and the Golden Lord’s abilities.

Peru flinched and instinctively stepped back from the Thunderarch—not out of fear for her, but afraid her power might unintentionally harm her.

She couldn’t let her ability shatter the Thunderarch, whom she deeply respected.

The moment she sensed her hesitation, the Thunderarch’s eyes flashed like lightning.

｢How dare she worry about me?｣

She was a strange one.

She had let the Regressor steal lightning from her without a care, yet now she was furious just because someone was concerned for her safety?

If one wanted to put it nicely, she was peculiar.

If one wanted to be blunt, she was not normal.

I should probably keep my distance.

“If you’re worrying about me right now, you should reconsider who exactly is standing before you.”

The Thunderarch’s voice was cold.

“I am the Thunderarch. I embody the heavens and the earth. I command the power of thunder. Do you really think you could harm me?”

“…Ah. My apologies.”

“Don’t apologize so easily! Hah, at this rate, how do you expect to accomplish anything? If only you had even a fraction of that boy’s audacity.”

The Thunderarch shook her head in disappointment, making Peru shrink even further.

After a deep breath, she continued.

“If you allow yourself to be looked down upon, you’ll never be able to do anything. Set rules. Show them what is right. Make sure that possibility always lingers in their minds. If they stray from the path, punish them. That is the duty of those who stand above others. For those who are chosen—like you and me—it is not a choice, it’s a necessity.”

“…”

Peru couldn’t respond easily.

Because deep down, she didn’t agree.

The Thunderarch’s power was thunder, a force that had allowed Claudia to flourish.

It was abundant, inexhaustible, and in most cases, beneficial to the city.

But Peru’s power literally obliterates alchemic value*.*

No matter how one tried to frame it, the more she used her ability, the more it eroded the very foundation of the Fallen Dominion.

Perhaps they would never truly understand each other.

Their circumstances were simply too different.

Silence followed.

Feeling that my presence was only making things more awkward, I raised my hand and spoke up.

“So, if you’re all done talking, can I pass through now?”

The Thunderarch turned away from Peru and asked.

“Where do you intend to go?”

“I was thinking of taking a look inside the Lightning Tower.”

“The interior of the Lightning Tower is constantly flowing with the power of thunder. If you wander around without a guide, you will definitely be electrocuted. No exceptions.”

…What a relief.

Originally, I had planned to sneak in alone, explore, and pocket anything worth taking.

If I had done that, I would have ended up pathetically electrocuted in some unseen corner.

As I let out a quiet sigh of relief, the Thunderarch checked her watch and nodded.

“If it’s just for a short while, I have some time. I’ll guide you personally.”

“Huh? You, personally? There’s no need to go that far…”

But the Thunderarch didn’t even bother responding.

She simply turned and strode ahead, fully expecting me to follow.

Tch.

If she was personally watching over me, I wouldn’t be able to take anything.

I’d actually have to just look around.

What a shame.

Suppressing my disappointment, I followed behind her.

“This is the Lightning Tower. It channels the lightning that falls from the Cloud Waterfall and simultaneously utilizes that power. It is Claudia’s unique structure.”

As she manually operated the elevator, the Thunderarch began an explanation that I hadn’t asked for.

“In the early days, Claudia carved out farmland from the mountains. The power of thunder is a blessing from the sky and the land that received its grace would become fertile, capable of growing anything. As the city expanded, however, a problem arose. To create more farmland, they had to push deeper into the mountains, but as you know, tigers dwell in the mountains.”

Ugh.

That beast had to come up, huh?

I tensed reflexively.

Claudia, with its eternal clouds and falling lightning, was an exception—normally, humans couldn’t live in the mountains.

What kind of animal would dare stretch out and sleep in a place where tigers roamed with their piercing eyes?

Unless one had coexisted with nature for a long time and earned their trust, the moment they started chopping trees and plowing fields, they’d become prey.

After all, tigers don’t eat crops.

“So, instead of expanding outward, we built upward.”

The Thunderarch halted the elevator and opened the door.

And the interior of the Lightning Tower was revealed.

There were no walls, no pillars—just a vast expanse of soil.

And within it, crops grew so densely that there was barely any room to step.

Water, condensed from the Cloud Waterfall, flowed through irrigation channels, soaking the earth.

With that nourishment, the bounty of the land sprouted forth.

Grass and trees—the combined blessings of the Sky God and Mother Earth.

The Sanctum often spoke of how humans, in consuming these gifts, should always give thanks for their daily sustenance.

But…

Could this really be called a blessing from the Sky God and Mother Earth?

The soil had been gathered and spread just enough to submerge the roots.

A single layer of Mother Earth’s skin had been stripped and laid across each floor of the Lightning Tower.

The sky was completely obscured by the ceiling.

And yet, in Claudia—where clouds and thunder descended directly onto the earth—even the sky had been captured inside a glass sphere, suspended above as an artificial sun.

Lightning was siphoned off and imprisoned within these spheres, illuminating the crops instead of the sun.

The sky and the earth had both been severed and stacked into artificial farmlands.

If one of the biblical authors were to witness this scene, would they be horrified or impressed?

“This is why Claudia has prospered.”

The Thunderarch spoke with undisguised pride.

***

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