The Executioner of Fairness, Ectocollon (Eight)

"Very good..."

"My efforts have once again been richly rewarded..."

After Ectocollon reluctantly withdrew his gaze from the countless beings below who were staring at him from afar, their eyes instinctively filled with awe, terror, bewilderment, confusion, incomprehension, and curiosity... he let out a very satisfied sigh.

Although most of those fellows below had no idea what a tremendous contribution he had made to this world, much less what kinds of dangers and hardships the world endured every moment, and merely lived on in ignorance, Ectocollon was still quite satisfied with them.

After all.

The gears inside a car had no need to know what they were for, nor did they need to understand what the car's operation—or lack thereof—represented.

They were merely gears.

Why did they need to know so much?

As gears, they only needed to exist steadily without any problems and keep turning when required.

Likewise.

Whether the gears had feelings, or whether they held reverence, fear, or hatred toward the user of the car... was equally irrelevant.

After all.

It was almost as if having different emotions would somehow bring about a fundamental change...

An angry gear was still just a gear. It would not leap up to hit anyone, much less rebel...

To Ectocollon.

What he needed was for the world to remain whole and broadly stable.

Based on that.

It was best if those useless people below were obedient, but it did not really matter if they were not.

Because merely being part of the world was already enough.

Like the individual pixels in a picture, they only needed to exist.

As for whether they might have a negative impact on the world?

To be honest... whether they benefited the world or destroyed it, both were remote possibilities for the overwhelming majority of the