"These days, since they've been quiet for a while, they probably think the real chaos is over."
Raul clicked his tongue as he glanced over various letters requesting meetings in different ways—whether it be for dinner, asking to visit their posts, or seeking advice about the hunt—each one more insistent than the last.
When Vittorio asked what that meant, Raul sighed, sat the child beside him, and began to explain.
"For the past 10 years, the royal family hasn't been able to do its job properly. The nobles who'd been living like kings in their own territories saw the royal authority starting to regain strength with this latest campaign, so now they're scrambling to suck up."
"Then why the letters…?"
"Because the king has been making advances toward that person for a while now. From the outside, it looks like they're close, so they're being annoying on purpose. They're trying to get him to speak well of them to the king."
Vittorio tilted his head and asked, "Suck up?" What's he even saying to a kid?
When Raul actually tried to explain the literal meaning of "suck up," I was horrified, but just as I was about to stop him, Leonardo quietly called for his subordinate.
"Raul."
"Yes?"
"Go peel some potatoes."
"…Alright."
Raul didn't argue and quietly left. Since the meal prep was almost done, there wouldn't be much for him to do. After giving Leonardo a thumbs-up, I turned my attention back to the pile of letters.
"These are all people who've bet on Godric."
It was a gain I'd earned by becoming a spy, in the end. Just browsing through the information windows wouldn't have been enough to distinguish the nobles' tendencies.
'If we exclude the families that've been brainwashed and turned into loyalists, there aren't that many.'
It could also be because there wasn't an absolute foundation for the king's power. Even though Sub-writer 1 had the ability to make people submit, it was still surprising that not all the nobles were loyal to the king.
Even Godric didn't manage to force all the nobles under his control.
If you look at how he focused on Ferdinand and brainwashed him, it's clear that his ability had limitations. That's why he had to focus and choose carefully.
What's the limitation?
Is it numbers?
If the essence of submission is to bring the target under control, then it might be difficult for Godric to extend his dominion beyond what his mental strength can handle.
In this case, he would have had to choose his subjects for submission carefully. That's why it makes sense that he focused on brainwashing only Ferdinand in El Dante.
But then again, isn't he already overusing it?
I believe the entire capital must have been replaced by it, and it's certain that there are no living humans among the royal attendants or the Imperial Guard who remain by Godric's side.
He's essentially already dominated thousands, possibly tens of thousands.
If there had been a limit on the number of subjects he could subjugate, wouldn't he have chosen to brainwash nobles and knights instead of extras like the attendants or the commoners in the capital?
So, maybe the limit isn't in the number of subjects.
'Now that I think about it…'
At this point, the ones under Godric's control are mostly the dead.
'The ones in a state of submission become simpler.'
Those consumed by it are called the Assimilated. They claim to identify with the human they consumed, asserting continuity, but from the perspective of the Innkeeper's Insight, they are no longer the original individuals and are treated as something else entirely.
Therefore, the Assimilated and the original characters are recognized as different entities under the system's criteria.
'Would submission work better on them?'
In other words—rather than the sequence of brainwashing a human and then feeding them to it, the process would involve having the brainwashed it consume humans, and then controlling the Assimilated born from that act.
If Godric's ability becomes more difficult to apply to living characters, then the reason he used the dragonbone in this plan becomes clearer.
'If submission worked on everyone, there wouldn't have been a need for the complicated process of luring people out with the poison of the dragonbone sword only to feed them to those things.'
He could have simply ordered people to offer themselves up to it.
The fact that the dragonbone sword was a threatening weapon to Leonardo obscured the part I had missed before.
The individuals who were affected by submission without being consumed by it were the late Count Bermont and Ferdinand.
In the case of Count Bermont, there was a flaw where, in the state of submission, he became somewhat simple and easily manipulated by words. With Ferdinand, though there was the involvement of the
'So, it's not all-powerful.'
This might be useful later on.
"I'm going to be busy for a while~"
"Are you thinking of responding to their request?"
Muttering as I flipped through the letters, Leonardo approached and asked.
He didn't exactly oppose, but he hesitated, gently taking hold of the fingertips I had resting on the armrest. At that moment, memories of last night's conversation surfaced, making me feel a little strange.
Is he acting like a puppy with separation anxiety?
Though it's kind of endearing, seeing him hesitate to speak up and nervously fiddling with my fingers instead.
"I'm not planning to meet with all of them, just a few. If we're talking about people as sensitive to Godric—ah, to the king's movements as we are, these would be the ones. Don't they look like they'd enjoy getting some information?"
I'll pick out the most influential ones and get the best out of them.
Smiling wickedly, I joked, but Leonardo and Vittorio both nodded seriously. Neither of them looked like they considered it a joke at all.
"These aren't the refined meetings they're hoping for."
While we were in the middle of battling a horde of monsters, I had ended up straying from my usual area, helping them kill a few monsters and forcefully becoming their saviour. Now, I planned to take advantage of that and casually chat with them.
"You'll need to go too."
Slaying monsters is definitely the role of the strongman.
I playfully tapped Leonardo on the nose and said I had planned to take him along and make use of him, and his face lit up.
Even though I openly declared I was going to use him, his face was so bright. It was so absurd that I couldn't help but laugh.
"If I take the best force with me, then Sir Raul will have to manage things here."
"That's something Raul will handle himself."
Hmm, it's admirable how much trust he has in his subordinate. Though, I wonder if Raul will be happy about that. In fact, when Raul moves alone on a reconnaissance mission, it might actually be more liberating than being with the full strike force.
"I'll keep things secure too."
Vittorio clenched his fist and said not to worry, reassuring me that he'd do fine.
By the time Vittorio's hair had gotten tousled from all the enthusiastic brushing, morning had already passed.
When I mentioned during breakfast that we'd be leaving the ranks to carry out our plan, as expected, Raul wasn't particularly happy. But it wasn't because of responsibility or concern; it was more because of how much it bothered him.
I informed the knights of the Ertinez family that Leonardo would be absent, but they didn't seem at all puzzled or curious about his personal actions.
"Apparently, we're not good enough to keep up with the young master's pace…"
Since the blood-soaked incident with Leonardo yesterday, the knights seemed overwhelmed. It looked like they accepted that Leonardo was shedding unnecessary baggage and charging into the battlefield alone.
Though their drooping demeanour was pitiful, Raul's relentless prodding, "Then put in more effort!" seemed to have reignited their motivation, oddly enough.
When the second strategy door opened, we veered off the path the Ertinez family's hunting party was taking and headed for a different peak.
***
"Block them! They're climbing up!"
The weather began to turn gloomy early in the morning, and snow began to fall lightly, quickly turning into a blizzard that obscured the view. Everywhere he looked, the world was white and black, with no clear line between the earth and sky.
From the battlements, boiling water was poured down to force monsters climbing up the walls to fall back. Arrows rained down like sleet, and in between, he hid, flying like an ambush. Despite the freezing weather, his leather armour was soaked with sweat.
"Damn it! These monsters are acting like they've been possessed by something…"
Unlike the first expedition, the monsters' movements were unusual.
They charged forward as if possessed, slamming their bodies into the walls or attempting to scale the fortifications by any means necessary, even though there was only a path leading south once they crossed this mountain range.
Monsters with wounds on their outer skin were especially more aggressive.
The ones he had missed during the first expedition, whose skins bore scars from human weapons, were easy to identify, but these new monsters were reckless, charging without regard for danger, making them difficult to handle.
Among them, one distinctive monster, marked with a deep scar shaped like an "X," was rampaging across the battlefield, crushing anything in its path.
"Isn't that the one I almost missed?"
The noble observing the battle from the watchtower frowned as he recognized the monster with a wound on its side. It had been caught in a trap, and just as he was about to finish it off with his dragonbone sword, it had broken free, struggling violently and escaping before he could take its life.
The distinctive location of the wound made it easy to identify, and even from this distance, the monster's blood was flowing in spurts, making it visible.
"…It's been more than ten days, and the wound hasn't healed?"
The noble glanced down at his dragonbone sword hanging from his waist. The crude, ugly weapon glittered with a faint sheen as it hung there.
A sudden unease surged within the noble's heart.
'If it's this deadly against monsters… can we really be sure it's safe for humans?'
Although he knew the king intended to change the stagnant noble society over the past decade, concentrating excessive power solely within the royal family like this isn't good.
His survival instinct had briefly alerted him, but at this moment, there was a more immediate threat.
After reluctantly tearing his gaze away from the dragonbone sword, he looked beyond the snowstorm, which was growing hazy.
"…?"
A shadow, too small to be a monster, started moving beyond the ridge.