"Even without actively using his ability, Dier cannot refuse my commands."
"Surrounded by Dier who only know how to obey orders and mindlessly praise, anyone would find it noisy after a while."
"So I simply erased their self-awareness and turned them into machines."
Dier looked at the staff in the room. Even though three of their companions had suddenly died, they showed no reaction.
The king waved his hand, and the corpses of the three dead began to twist and move, heading toward the door.
Not just their bodies—even the blood and organs inside Dier could be controlled individually.
Soon, the monitoring room was restored to cleanliness, without a single trace of blood left.
"The feeling of controlling others is indeed addictive,"
his voice grew flat:
"But it's too boring."
To him, the Dier around him were not people he could communicate with as equals.
They were mere puppets to be manipulated at will.
"You're different!"
The king picked up a grape and popped it into his mouth, a faint smirk curling at the corner of his lips:
"I noticed you, this unfamiliar Dier, the moment you approached the island's coast."
"I tried to control you with my will, only to find it completely impossible."
"In three hundred years, this is the first time I've encountered such a situation."
"So I began observing you quietly. When you pretended to leave the forest, I had Hunter Dier stay still to gain your trust."
"When you lingered at the hunter's place, I had 9527 and Yellow Hair mention the curse to catch your attention."
"Yet you paid no mind to any of it, focused solely on leaving."
"I had no choice but to have Old Deal No. 7635 reveal the location of the port while continuously issuing mental commands, subtly guiding you to this town."
Cold sweat trickled down Dier's forehead. He hadn't realized he'd been discovered from the very beginning.
Beyond shock, a sliver of doubt arose in his heart:
"If you can control Dier, why not just order them to capture me directly? Why go through all this trouble?"
"When a turtle suddenly appears in a fish tank, of course you'd want to play with it for a while. My daily life is dreadfully dull, after all."
The king spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world, then continued his earlier topic:
"After you arrived in town, I found I still couldn't control you with my will, so I had a soldier deliver a Den Den Mushi to directly command you through speech."
"And yet, I still couldn't fully control you!"
He raised two fingers:
"My control operates on two levels—body and soul."
"Your soul is completely beyond my grasp, and your body can still defy orders to continue Electrification."
"Even after I commanded you not to move, you could still speak."
"Care to tell me why?"
He plucked another grape and tossed it at Dier as if teasing a dog.
Plop—
The grape landed in the water, splashing droplets onto Dier's face, yet his expression remained utterly unchanged:
"I don't know."
In truth, he already had an answer in mind.
His soul came from another world—he wasn't truly a Dier at all.
That was why the king could only control his body, not his soul.
"If you don't know, then so be it."
The king waved a hand, uninterested in delving deeper.
"Later, I'll have your limbs severed. You'll stay here from now on, keeping me company and relieving my boredom."
"That's such a flimsy excuse! Why don't you find someone other than Dier?"
"Because I'm afraid of dying."
Dier: "..."
That was a reason he genuinely couldn't argue with.
"I was once a pirate captain myself."
A trace of nostalgia flickered across the king's face as he pointed to his still-closed eyes:
"Over three hundred years ago, after a major battle left me severely wounded, my first mate suddenly led a mutiny and gouged out these eyes."
"If there hadn't been a Dier by my side at the time, I probably would have died."
"From that moment on, I understood—outsiders can never be trusted!"
"My side can have one and only one existence—Dier!"
Dier: "..."
You couldn't have mentioned you were blind earlier?!
And how the hell can you see if you're blind?!
"Kehaha~ Judging by your furrowed brows, you must be terribly confused!"
The king threw his head back in laughter, then stood and walked toward the massive screen. After a few adjustments, he said:
"Dier's eyes are my eyes. Within a certain range, I can see everything they see."
"Come, let's enjoy this little project I had made to pass the time."
Bzzzt—
The screen lit up, playing an animated slideshow of comic panels.
The story begins.
A boy named Dier eats a strange, patterned fruit and becomes a Controller who can only command Dier.
Years later, Dier sets sail as a pirate.
His performance is far from heroic—he always cowers at the back during battles.
Before long, the cowardly Dier is thrown off the ship.
Refusing to accept this, he turns to business, earns some startup capital, recruits a crew, and forms a new pirate crew, declaring himself captain.
Several more years pass, and he encounters another Dier, finally discovering the true way to use his ability.
But the good times don't last. After a naval battle, he is critically wounded by cannon fire, and his first mate leads a mutiny, blinding him.
With the help of another Dier, he escapes—but grows even more cowardly.
He realizes that no matter how trustworthy his comrades seem, they may still betray him. Only Dier never will.
He begins scouring the world for more Dier, hoping to rebuild his forces and set sail again.
Unfortunately, the world doesn't have enough Dier just lying around for him to find.
After three fruitless months of searching, he changes his approach.
If there aren't enough Dier, then he'll make them!
He adopts a three-year-old child and renames him Dier.
Only after another three years can he finally exert control over the child.
This reveals a limitation of the fruit's power.
The so-called "name" must be the longest-held identity a person has.
If a twenty-year-old man changes his name to Dier, he must wait another twenty years before he can control him.
This restriction drastically extends the payoff period of his adoption plan.
So he revises his creation strategy.
He contacts slave traders and purchases a group of female slaves, commanding them to "hunt" men.
Most of the men are delighted, even leaving money afterward.
Ten months later, the first infant Dier is born.
What follows is a frenzy of childbirth.
Twenty years later, he has countless Dier under his command.
At his order, these Dier begin reproducing wildly, expanding their numbers like a rolling snowball.
Fifty years later, he led the Dier Army to conquer this island and declared himself king.
By then, he was no longer young, his hair had turned white, and he was frail with age.
Though time had stolen his youth, it had also granted him the ability to regain it.
He had developed a new application for the Control Fruit.
Controlling Dier's life force.
He reached out, and one Dier collapsed, a green orb of light floating from their body.
He swallowed the orb in one gulp, and the wrinkles on his face faded slightly.
One by one, the Dier fell, and one by one, he consumed the orbs.
Finally, he was restored to the age of twenty-four.
The island's Dier now had an immortal king.
Human energy is limited, and so is the scope of control.
The farther the distance, the weaker the control.
He couldn't devote his full attention to controlling every Dier at all times, nor could he allow them to leave his range of influence.
Thus, a curse was placed upon the island.
Anyone who ventured beyond a certain distance would explode and die.
Whenever he sensed someone crossing the warning line, he would immediately activate his ability, ensuring their demise.
To avoid the repetitive labor of this task, he severed all connections between the island and the outside world.
Newspapers, books, Den Den Mushi...
Anything that could inform people about life beyond the island was eradicated.
He commissioned books that depicted the outside world as a monster-infested hell.
He established restricted zones at the ports, where outsiders could only move within a limited area upon arrival.
Yet his ambition remained unfulfilled—he wanted everyone in the world to bear only one name.
He sought to rule the world.
But he knew this wasn't something easily achieved; he needed preparation, lots and lots of preparation.
He created a rating competition to identify the most outstanding talents in every profession.
Of course, he had no need for petty thieves and swindlers.
Thus, the atmosphere in the town changed—people lived in peace and contentment, with no need to lock doors at night or worry about lost items being stolen.
Only in the remote villages at the island's edges did minor thefts still occur.
He vigorously promoted fitness for all, nurturing people's physical health from a young age.
Under his leadership, every profession began to compete fiercely, vying for the title of Profession Plus Deer.
And so, he began his long wait.