#085. The Brainwashed Legion is Too Kind (3)

#085. The Brainwashed Legion is Too Kind (3)

The captured prisoners, the former members of the subjugated legion, had recently caught wind of troubling rumors.

“I hear that Great Lord Theresa refused the Empire’s proposal?”

“There’s also talk that she’s forcing nobles who want to gain effective control of the Southern Dominions to serve in the North.”

“Foolish woman. Not only does she refuse to work with the nobles, but she also provokes the Empire. And on top of all that, she prepares for the next war against the Demon Lord in the North.”

Theresa had refused the Empire’s proposal.

The mana waste disposal facility, a facility the resource-starved and manpower-depleted North desperately needed to survive.

A necessary evil that they would have to accept to live.

Sodom was already accustomed to such facilities.

Had they not received generous subsidies in exchange for processing the kingdom’s mana waste?

Only now, the scope was simply larger.

From the kingdom to the Empire.

And furthermore, it wasn’t even them who would be sacrificed.

The residents of the South.

Whether they reclaimed or controlled the land they lived on.

“Outsiders” who weren’t even from their hometowns.

Whether they suffered or not.

If they just closed their eyes and looked away, they could annihilate all the chaotic monsters of the South – monsters uncontrolled by the Demon Lord – as soon as they returned from the Northern Front.

Yet, Theresa had firmly drawn a line against the establishment of a large-scale mana waste disposal facility in the Southern part of the kingdom.

“Arrogance, perhaps?”

“They called her the Holy Mother, and now she truly believes she is someone special.”

“In the end, law and morality are just shackles for those too weak to protect their own rights. Humans bound by them are destined to repeat foolish choices.”

The beastfolk sneered at Theresa’s decision.

“Isn’t that right, Chairman Drakosar?”

“…”

“Chairman?”

Every beastfolk mocked Theresa, except for one – Chairman Drakosar.

“Don’t be insolent. Not when you’re weak.”

“Chairman…?”

“Shut your filthy mouths. She is not a woman for the likes of you to laugh at.”

Dragon Fear.

Before the dragonkin’s wrath, the beastfolk convulsed and collapsed.

Drakosar didn’t even spare a glance for the beastfolk, dragging their weakened legs as they scrambled to flee.

As the chairman leading the beastfolk, he, too, understood.

How difficult it was to lead an organization.

How, amidst countless conflicting interests and diplomacy with stronger organizations, there were moments when one was forced to bow one’s head.

Humans were adept at using desire as a weapon, forcing even those stronger than them to yield.

‘The position of responsibility for a group comes with immense burdens. And humans exploit that sense of responsibility.’

When the clan starved, unable to find sustenance.

When even going out on hunts – hunts they shouldn’t have to embark on – to feed his subordinates reached its limit.

When there was no game left to hunt, and despair loomed.

In moments of utter crisis, humans appeared like devils.

And they tempted.

Offering to buy the useless, good-for-nothing beastfolk.

Offering to purchase them as slaves and provide food for the rest to gorge themselves on.

If not the beastfolk, then their labor.

If not their labor, then manufactured goods.

Gradually, freedom was suppressed, and slavery became reality.

In whatever form, at the end of human desire waited the yearning for more desire, and the tragedy of selling out one’s own kind for that desire.

Only one was different.

Ian was the exception.

In his desires, beastfolk and humans were not different beings.

They were comrades, fighting together as one.

It was fundamentally different from the empty promises of the Noble Council.

“Regardless of species, they deserve respect. Leaders who sacrifice themselves to guide their people toward the future deserve commensurate honor.”

It was a matter of capacity, as they say.

Ian, who embraced even the beastfolk as his own, and Theresa, who possessed the ambition to feed them all, were greater, grander than he, Drakosar, leading the Beastfolk Alliance. They were leaders of a vast horde with immense avarice.

If respect was not shown to such a person, then there was no one worthy of respect in the world.

Even Chairman Drakosar, who did not acknowledge Ian and saw him as an enemy, honestly admitted this aspect of Ian.

“But time is not on their side. The Empire has realized that you are genuinely trying to eliminate the Demon Lord. The world will not leave them alone.”

The Demon Lord, master of all demons.

However, the Demon King of this era could only control the demons around him, a Demon King imprisoned in even the most barren of lands.

The Empire did not desire a future where the Demon King was defeated only to be reborn in an even more dangerous location.

It would be no different than a massive mana disposal facility.

This was why a heretical national faith like the Revolutionary Order could exist in the Kingdom.

This was why an independent kingdom could be born from the Empire’s northern territories.

All because the independent kingdom was now bearing the burden of the Demon King’s existence, a burden the Empire once shouldered.

“Word is, the Empire is blocking trade ships headed to the Kingdom.”

“We’ve also heard reports that passage through the national highway connecting to the Empire has been sealed.”

“Just as the Chairman predicted.”

“Indeed, the foresight of a dragon is ever unwavering.”

“The Empire has begun to obstruct the subjugation of the Demon King.”

Despite Teresa and Ian’s noble resolve, the Empire’s diplomatic pressure, unwilling to see the Demon King defeated, grew increasingly intense.

This was akin to a lone adventurer party facing the colossal enemy that was the Bloodwood Forest, no, it was even more reckless.

One of only seven great lords of the northern independent kingdom.

Facing a massive Empire comprised of over two hundred such lords.

The Beastfolk Restoration Council members felt their hearts plummet.

Could they, themselves, throw themselves into such a foolhardy battle?

Absolutely not.

A beastfolk of a hierarchical pack, would likely have bowed their heads long ago.

“How are Ian and Teresa doing?”

“Surely, they’d give up by now, no?”

A Beastfolk Restoration Council member, who had been observing Ian’s indoctrination of the beastfolk, shook his head.

“Unchanged. He still plans to brainwash all the beastfolk and send them to the Northern Front.”

“Foolish fellow!”

“With his looks, what more could he possibly want that he throws his life away so lightly!”

“And his mother is just as bad. What’s wrong with her that she doesn’t stop her son from walking a path to his death, but instead helps him?”

Teresa, through sparring, was subjugating strong beastfolk and assisting them in going to the front lines.

An attempt to diminish, even slightly, the number of strong individuals who could resist Ian’s indoctrination.

“They say Imperial troops have begun to gather at the Empire’s border.”

“The purpose of the military exercises is, of course, a warning?”

“Now it’s truly dangerous.”

“What’s the final ultimatum they sent?”

“Hand over the beastfolk. If we simply hand over custody of the beastfolk who can be mobilized for the Northern Front, they’ll withdraw their forces.”

The Beastfolk Restoration Council members, for reasons entirely different from the beginning, strongly opposed Ian’s brainwashing.

“You crazy b*stard. You’ll all be killed by the Imperial army!”

“Do you want to be annihilated by the Empire’s new weapons before the Demon King even gets to you?”

“Their airships will devastate the ground from the sky!”

“That’s not even a fight. It’s a one-sided massacre!”

“Please, stop. You’re all going to die!”

Ian, despite everyone’s entreaties, only wore a serene smile.

“A genuine worry, it seems. Has the notion that humans and beastkin cannot stand together finally shifted?”

“Aye, at least we can trust you lot. Seeing the true madness that doesn’t even pause before the Empire, how could we doubt your sincerity?”

“Why not seize the chance to flee? You are more than capable, surely.”

“No matter how proudly a predator-type beastkin lives, they still have blood kin bound to them. What can a predator, abandoning their pack to wander alone, do but grow old and die?”

“Standing against the Empire means death all the same.”

“A predator does not abandon their kin when facing disaster.”

Ian knew they possessed the ability to flee with their families, but he didn’t bother to ask the true reason they wouldn’t.

He understood that his sincerity had already reached them.

“I am the same as you. I cannot retreat because there are people I must protect.”

“Even to embrace beastkin who are neither from your lands nor part of your own?”

The Empire had already offered its terms.

Hand over the beastkin, and they would turn a blind eye to what had transpired.

They had judged the subjugation of the Demon King to be impossible.

A bargain with no losses.

Yet, Ian had rejected the offer.

Teresa stood by Ian’s stubbornness, supporting him.

“Do you not see? To me, everyone in this kingdom, regardless of origin, race, or status, is kin to be protected.”

It was the profound kindness of a player who loved a world deeply.

The beastkin, not knowing this, interpreted it as proof that Ian was, as they said, a saint.

“We’ve lost.”

“Such obstinacy.”

“Just how naive can one be?”

“We can’t let such a simpleton suffer hardship because of us.”

“Cease with the manipulation. We will convince our own kin, even if you don’t.”

Ian’s leadership, acknowledged even by the selfish beastkin.

Dracozaar, chairman and, in essence, King of the Beastkin, reached his conclusion as well.

“From this day forth, all beastkin will be allied forces, standing shoulder to shoulder with the Westwood Defense Force and the Holy Army of the Revolutionary Order. Your Empire-defying avarice has earned you this victory.”

The pacification of the Southern Region.

A new legion joined the Brainwashing Legion.

The legion’s name: The Beastkin Legion.

Once enemies, now new allies.