Death March — Fixed

“Tek here, a friend of mine, who was at his wit’s end when it came for job hunting got tricked into attending a suspicious seminar; he ended up supporting it until he was on the verge of financial disaster. The history of brainwashing is very long--it apparently also happens in a fantasy world, but the method is a bit different.”

Thanks to Pochi, we have actually managed to get closer to the Baron’s family, and with Toruma’s help, I’m checking various things with the Baron, but--

“Then, you didn’t issue the order to collect congratulatory gifts from the people?”

“Of course. I’ve heard from the Consul that this year we have had a bad harvest. If we were to do such things, the people would all starve,”

“Do you know that every village is selling their people, to the extent that merchants even avoid them?”

“Hmm, I can’t say that every village is prosperous--but we aren’t collecting so much tax to the point that they would starve; and in this year, following the Consul’s suggestion, we should have had shared food with them though?”

Well, all the villagers that I’ve met are all thin, from serf to the village head--I don’t think that the village head is embezzling food.

“There was a girl who jumped out in front of our carriage today. The coachman said that carriages were not to be stopped, even if it would end up in the death of the civilian who got run over, is that true?”

“Unfortunately, that’s the truth.”

Oh, he affirms it?

However, the Baron’s expression becomes gloomy. It totally doesn’t look like an attitude of, “Commoners are garbage.”

“Tek, there’s a reason for that. The year before last, the carriage that my sister and I were on crashed into a child. We immediately got out of the carriage and went to help the child, but we were surrounded in an instant and almost got kidnapped.” Soruna answered in her Father’s place.

“Are you talking about the time we met? Weren’t the children, and the people who surrounded you, part of a group of thieves called ‘The Muno Rebels’? It was the Consul who told me about it later, though.”

“You were wonderful at that time.”

I’m ignoring Soruna and the fake her, who start to flirt--moreover, according to the Baron, the same situation repeated five times. His daughters had only been directly involved in the same type of incident twice, the others happened to the maids and some high-ranking officials. Particularly the last incident involved a high-ranking official, his carriage was deliberately toppled by an attack from the side.

That’s strange, although they might have already been exterminated, there isn’t anyone in the city who belongs to a group called The Muno Rebels.

Of course, since there are people who are associated with the underworld here, it’s hard to judge if they’re thieves by just looking at their Rewards&Punishments, but there isn’t anyone who has ‘Thief’ in there.

“Is the immigration tax a suggestion from the Consul too?”

“Actually there were incidents where children and women from villages got abducted and forced to become slaves in other territories. The Consul suggested that we should put a heavy tax on people who aren’t legal slave trades, or don’t have a permit from the village head, to prevent the crime.”

So it was out of goodwill, huh?

No noble would want their population to decrease.

“Come to think of it, I didn’t see any soldiers or knights at the gate that lead into this bailey.”

“Well, we’ve received appeals from the villagers and merchants about the increasing number of victims caused by thieves, so we’ve sortied the whole army to subjugate them. Since the Consul has said that there’d be no problem, even if the thieves attack, if the gate is closed; I approved the plan.”

Okay, I doubt that.

Didn’t he just say that thieves had attacked carriages inside the city earlier. Right now, there aren’t even 10 soldiers inside the city, there is only a single person who is a knight.

“Is it fine, since there are thieves hiding in the city?”

There aren’t.

“It’s fine, since the Consul said that it’s fine.”

“Moreover, no matter how many thieves are attacking, I’ll exterminate them with this Holy Sword!” The fake hero follows up on the Baron’s words--after which, he begins flirting with Soruna again.

The Consul, huh--he’s quite trusted.

Hmm?

Now that you mention it, the one who everyone calls ‘The Consul’, could only mean that.

I set my map to search for Consul in not only the city, but the whole map as well.

“If possible, I’d like to meet the Consul in person.”

“But of course, he’s just a bit busy now. He’s working in a separate building next to this one; after he finishes the job, he will probably come over here.”

The separate building, huh--There’s no Consul there. This confirms it, the one that they call Consul is most likely the Demon.

I’ll ask his name, to check if he’s in jail or not.

“Everyone has been calling him the Consul since a while ago, but I’m wondering what his name it?”

“Hmm, what was it I wonder? I’m sorry, I always call him Consul, so I forget his name.”

I try asking Soruna.

“I should have called him by name during my childhood, but I often call him Consul these days, so I don’t remember is.”

The maids don’t know either.

A situation like this is normally impossible. It might be understandable if the person they’re forgetting is a person who blends into the background, but it’s unnatural that no one knows the name of a top-level administrator.

The strangest thing is--

When I look at the people who have answered my questions.

--no one seems to be no one who thinks that it’s at all unnatural.

***

“Hmm? What’s that?” The fake hero asks as he looks out an open door and out the balcony.

There are a lot of doors, which are as tall as a person, leading out to the balcony that protrudes from the side of the mansion; and they are all open. Since the room is at the top floor of a building, which stands on elevated ground, it should have been cold--but it seems that the airflow between the outside and this room is blocked by a Spell called Air Curtain.

The view from the balcony shows the entire central street, from the gate leading into the bailey all the way to the main gate, without obstructions.

What the fake hero wanted to point out, is probably the black shadow that looks like people as small as grains of rice all rushing out along the central street.

One of the maids glances out the door, and says, “I will ask about it.”--before darting out of the room.

Looking at my map, I can see that both graveyards in this city have each spawned 10 Skeletons each.

Since all of the Demon’s split bodies are in the forest, beside the one in the separate building, so I searched the map and found the culprits. There are people who can use ‘Necromancy’, standing in the graveyards.

Since those Necromancers don’t have any abnormal statuses, they have probably been recruited by the Demon, whether as the Consul or in its true form.

It seems that the Skeletons are being strictly controlled, they seem to just be playing with the citizens, they seem to be attacking the people, but they stop before they kill anyone.

A lot of people have noticed the Skeletons and are now running either towards the Main Gate or the Bailey Gate.

Of course, this can’t be helped, considering the history of this city.

The others in the room start joining the fake hero, who had walked out onto the balcony, as if they were lured by his words.

As I began to follow along, Arisa pulled my sleeve and leaned in, “Hey, don’t you think that the Consul is the one behind this?”

“I do. Incidentally, that guy is a Demon.”

“De-Demon? Your source?”

Damn, I was lost in thought and instinctively answered without filtering the information.

Well, it’s fine.

“There is no Consul in this castle--instead, there’s a level 1 Split Body of the Demon.”

“Level 1? That’s impossible, the main body must be close by.”

I might as well tell her the entire situation.

“The main body is in the forest near the city.”

“Wha--”

“The 1,000-strong army belonging to the Baron was in battle with 3,000 Goblinkin there, but they were annihilated due to them killing each other because of the Demon’s Mind Magic--the other 10 Split Bodies are in the forest creating Zombies. There are around 100 Zombies marching towards Muno City in a group; furthermore, the ones hiding in the forest are turning the thieves and beasts into Zombies.”

“Seriously?”

“Seriously serious.”

It’s been quite a long time since I last used that phrase.

I’ve told Arisa about the map and search--but maybe she thought that it’s only effective for hundreds of meters?

I tell her all of the details about the Demon.

“Th-Then, were you going to face a level 30 Demon with powerful Mind Magic alone?” She raises her eyebrow at me--I can see that I accidentally made her angry, “You succumbed to my Mind Magic when I was almost a 1/15 of that Level--”

“Yeah, well--I did get the Resistance Skill, so it should be fine--I have a Holy Sword, and there is also the fake hero and his friends.”

“If you’re depending on people like that, you should have brought Liza and the others along too, we could do something even if we’re attacked.”

“The Demon is very good at Mind Magic, so I’m worried that Liza and the others would get manipulated.”

“Argh, didn’t I say that other than us Slaves, you should prioritize yourself!” Arisa stressed the word ‘slaves’.

I gently stroke her hair, trying to calm her down, “I don’t think of you girls as my slaves--you are my companions, or--” I struggled to say the end, but I have never been able to express myself well.

Arisa seemed to get the message, she leaned into my hand and I could see her eyes were a little teary, but she seemed to be happy.

After a second, I reluctantly break the mood, “Arisa, even if the Demon is the mastermind, don’t you think that everyone is acting a little strange?”

“About that, it’s obviously caused by the Demon’s Mind Magic.”

“But, no one is suffering from any Abnormal Statuses.”

“That’s the thing, that’s one of the reasons why Mind Magic is forbidden,” She closes her eyes for a moment, before opening them again, “If you repeatedly use Mind Magic like Trust, a cognitive inhibition (Jamming), and common sense manipulation (Lurk) for a long time, it’s possible to brainwash people.”

Rather than fantasy, it’s more like one of the old religions, before the Discovery.

“Is there any way to undo it?”

“That would be difficult, it could be done if we are willing to patiently spend a lot of time--it’s impossible to remove it with Magic in one go.”

It seems that there is Magic that can cancel out consciousness manipulation, but for Magic that distorts your senses over time--it needs time to be undone.