Chapter 49
"First, I'll need to confirm a few things. I'd appreciate if you could answer honestly."
Jinseong politely said to the elder. The elder made a gesture as if to say "go ahead," seeming annoyed but willing to endure it for the effect of the 'blessing'.
"First, is the blessing you mentioned the one that increases vigor and pleasure?"
"That's right."
"I see. Then, to cast the blessing, I'll need a strand of hair. Could you pluck one for me?"
"That's not difficult."
He plucked a strand of hair, surprisingly black and glossy for his age, and handed it to Jinseong. Then, as if he'd thought of a funny joke, he smirked.
"Come to think of it, is this 'blessing' done with hair?"
"That's correct."
"Then bald men can't receive blessings! Hahaha! No, they say bald men are virile, so they wouldn't need your blessing anyway!"
"Even if bald men are virile, they can't compare to natural studs. Especially since vigor is one thing, but size is determined from birth, so the elder's 'equipment' must be the real blessing."
"That's right. This equipment of mine is indeed my real blessing. You know your stuff!"
Jinseong appropriately flattered the elder's self-praise and turned the hair he received into ash. Then he applied the ash by dabbing it on the elder's lower abdomen.
"Ho. What an unusual method. Is this the power of the god you serve?"
"Ah, not exactly. This is... well, it's a secret, but."
Jinseong smiled slightly and said quietly.
"There was a book kept at the shrine. It's a method from there."
"Hmm, is that so? Such things do turn up from time to time."
"Is that so?"
Jinseong glanced at the elder at the mention that such things turn up often.
But the elder closed his mouth as if he had no intention of saying more and looked at his lower abdomen.
The ash Jinseong had dabbed had disappeared without a trace as if it had burrowed into the flesh, causing the elder to gently caress where Jinseong's finger had touched.
"Oh?"
The effect of the 'blessing' was immediate.
The elder couldn't hide his joy as he confirmed the overflowing vigor coursing through his body, the vitality spreading through his muscles, and his 'equipment' that seemed much firmer than usual.
He said to Jinseong with satisfaction:
"Excellent! It's truly a 'blessing' as you said!"
The elder briefly praised Jinseong for casting the blessing and then pounced on the women who had been trying to seduce him with all their might since the building talk began. He buried himself among them as if diving into a bed made of flesh and began to make love passionately.
Jinseong quietly watched the scene for a while and then quietly left the room with the politician. He pretended to politely close the door while tampering with the doorknob to prevent it from closing properly, and naturally headed downstairs with the politician.
"He's a great man. And he looks much younger than I expected."
"Hahaha. He's practically a living legend in Japanese politics. Although he looks much younger than me, he's been serving the country since the imperial era. He's a remarkable person."
"Serving the country, you say?"
"That's right. He made a name for himself as a war hero during the Greater East Asia War. Like a true man of Satsuma Domain, he achieved all sorts of merits while sailing the seas."
"A man of the sea? Then has the elder learned water techniques?"
"No. I heard he learned some kind of swordsmanship. I heard it was a swordsmanship highly praised even by Miyamoto Musashi, famous for the Niten Ichi-ryū, but I'm not sure of its name."
"Is that so?"
Jinseong looked at the politician.
The politician's face was slightly flushed as if he couldn't help but boast about the elder, and like a fan spreading their obsession, he continued to lay out information about the elder to Jinseong.
Then, when Jinseong didn't respond, he seemed to sense something was off and turned his head.
"So he didn't learn water techniques, you say?"
He could see Jinseong smiling brightly.
Jinseong smiled and quietly looked at the politician.
The politician's eyes were rotten.
Those eyes were like those of a wild beast accustomed to prey, the eyes of someone floundering in immediate pleasure rather than taking difficult steps towards the future.
Truly fitting eyes for someone who, as a drug addict, was significantly more susceptible to pleasure than ordinary people.
"Listen. Have you ever had this thought?"
"What kind of thought, sir?"
"Hmm. Yes. You've seen Kenji too. What do you think about Kenji?"
The politician thought for a moment and answered.
"I think he's a madman. But at the same time, I don't have any ill feelings towards him because he introduced me to you, the future Shinto priest."
"Yes, a madman. Hahaha. Right. That fellow is mad. Kidnapping drug addicts left and right, feeling ecstasy while watching them wail - what else could he be but a madman!"
Jinseong laughed heartily and continued.
"But you know. Haven't you ever been curious about how it feels to drag others down and make them the same as yourself? I mean, haven't you felt tempted seeing Kenji so happy?"
"That's..."
"Yes. It's not right. But think about it, what's the problem with that? You didn't do drugs because it was right, did you? You just did it because it felt good, and because it felt good, you didn't distinguish between right and wrong, isn't that so?"
"That's right."
"In that sense, I will now give you two choices. This is a privilege that no one else in this room has, and it's a gift and privilege I'm giving because you guided me well to the elder."
Jinseong slowly opened the zipper of the bag he had brought.
"Now. One is, let's say, an extension of the pleasure you've experienced so far. The pleasure obtained from sexual intercourse. If you choose this, you'll be treated the same as others, but I can at least guarantee pleasure. I can assure you of that."
"Pleasure..."
The politician looked at Jinseong with blank eyes, as if tempted by the word pleasure.
"And the other is to experience the 'base pleasure' I just mentioned. You're probably the lowest in rank in this room, excluding the women. Whether it's money or power. There's probably no one here who's less than you. Isn't that right?"
"...That's right."
"If you choose the second option, you'll be able to see all those great people fall to the bottom. You'll see them become more base than when they're high on drugs, show a more unsightly appearance than when they're drunk on pleasure, with their eyes rolling back. For that moment, you'll be a being one step above the great people here."
Pleasure.
Superiority.
The two choices came to the politician as two words.
He pondered.
Pleasure.
He remembered the pleasure he got from methamphetamine. The immersion and amplified pleasure he felt when he injected and had sex excitedly were stored in the deepest part of his hippocampus, and even when he was suffering from the side effects of the drug and considering quitting, he couldn't overcome that pleasure and lived getting high on drugs.
Because of that past, he had become too weak to the word 'pleasure'.
Even now, after receiving the blessing from Jinseong and quitting drugs, he spent every day happily embracing women, relying on the increased vigor and amplified pleasure given in exchange. Just as he was addicted to methamphetamine, his addiction to women had grown so much that he lived with women all day long, to the extent that even his increased vigor couldn't fully cover it, and these days he was even taking zinc or health foods said to be good vigor.
Then what about base pleasure?
What about the pleasure derived from the desire to trample others and stand above them?
Why did I become a politician?
In Japan, being a politician meant being elected by citizens' votes.
But unlike other countries, it was also a power that could be 'inherited'.
For him, being a politician was a power that could be naturally inherited, and it also meant a brilliant job with a guaranteed future.
But at the same time, it was also a class that could naturally stand above ordinary people and look down on them.
The twisted pleasure that came from looking down on and ignoring others was familiar to him, and the sense of superiority that came from it was an element that made him who he was.
That's right.
If pleasure was what he was addicted to.
Superiority was what made him who he was.
The superiority of inheriting the position of a politician.
The superiority of being able to wield power at will and handle the ignorant masses.
The superiority of being in a different class from ordinary people from birth.
The overwhelming power to control others with a single finger and to cover up any misconduct!
"I choose the second option."
The politician answered firmly.
And at the moment he gave that answer, at least in this moment when he was recalling his past self and intoxicated by the sense of superiority, his eyes held a look of sharpness rather than the rotten eyes of a drug addict.
"Good, very good."
Jinseong smiled at those sharp eyes.
It wasn't particularly that he found it admirable.
It was just funny to him, the human nature that found the most joy in tormenting others.
It was amusing how great it was to even overcome the obsession with pleasure deeply seated in the hippocampus.
That was why he smiled.