#086. The Brainwashing Legion is Too Kind (4)

#086. The Brainwashing Legion is Too Kind (4)

The Imperial diplomat was speechless at the upheaval that had occurred in the Northern Independent Kingdom.

“You have integrated the beastkin and mobilized them to the North? Are you telling me the truth, truly? Think carefully before you answer. If there is any mistake, you must report it now. This is information that could lead to the deaths of tens of millions!”

The spies, summoned by the diplomat, solemnly informed him that the information was accurate.

“It is the truth. We have confirmed that Chairman Dracozaar and the council members of the Beastkin Revival Society are personally persuading their kin and heading for the Northern Front.”

“Evidence has been obtained of the Royal Family securing additional supplies for the beastkin.”

“Furthermore, the route towards the North has been opened, utilizing the capital’s infrastructure and passing through Westwood and the Bloodwood Forest. Consequently, nobles bribed by the Empire could do nothing but open the way.”

The kingdom had defied the Empire.

Even deploying troops for a show of force at the border couldn’t halt them.

The next step was inevitable.

“So, war it will be.”

A kingdom, seeking to vanquish the Demon Lord.

An empire, striving to thwart that quest.

The most unjust and unrighteous war the world had ever known had begun.

For the sake of the twelve billion souls within the Empire, the destruction of the thirty million within the Northern Independent Kingdom was decreed.

The Emperor would not hesitate to plunge the Northern Independent Kingdom into misery, to cast their people’s livelihood into the abyss, all for the safety of his Imperial subjects.

“His Majesty has received your intelligence, diplomat. Withdraw at once.”

“…Understood.”

The Empire’s fury knew no bounds.

The enraged Emperor’s sword, the Imperial army, began to stir.

* * *

Heading north with the expeditionary force, Ian’s expression darkened upon receiving the urgent message from the capital.

“The Empire has moved, as expected.”

The adventurers’ combined strength was crucially needed to defeat the Fourth Floor Boss, the Demon Lord.

This was due to the Empire’s existence, an entity that would initiate a terrifying diplomatic squeeze the moment the Kingdom began mobilizing its own army.

A bit of time could be bought by brainwashing local diplomats.

But the spies planted within the Kingdom were too numerous.

News would reach the Empire by one route or another; it was only a matter of time before their movements were discovered.

“Driving the southern nobles north, telling them they need to earn back their lands, that was a miscalculation. Can we even defend the vulnerable south now?”

Ian shook his head, his face grim, at Drakoszar’s observation.

“It’s a race against time now.”

Would Teresa and Ian’s assembled forces vanquish the Demon Lord more quickly?

Or would the Empire sweep through the Kingdom’s south and march on the capital faster?

The odds were stacked against them.

But the news brought by the next messenger to arrive offered Ian a glimmer of hope.

The Kingdom, which they thought had exhausted all its resources, still surprisingly had some reserves left.

“Good news, then?”

“Yes. Two pieces, in fact.”

“Two?”

“First, the Royal Family has hastily organized the nobles’ private armies to bolster the Southern Front’s numbers. And following behind them is an elite legion to provide support.”

“If there’s a force in the Kingdom that could be called ‘elite’ right now… could it be the family from the East?”

Drakoszar, sensitive to human desires, understood.

Who were those who could act even in these times, willing to throw away their lives for the single-minded madness of loyalty, those who displayed an infinitely greedy desire?

“Correct. Countess Teresa’s homeland, the Margrave of Starscepia, has mobilized.”

Drakoszar was astonished by their madness, but Ian’s surprise lay elsewhere.

The mobilization of the Kingdom’s nobles’ private armies…

The nobles who had hoarded their private soldiers until now, were traitors who lacked faith in the Kingdom’s future and had taken bribes from the Empire.

How could the kingdom’s boy-king have possibly put their private armies on the front lines?

* * *

The capital of the Northern Independent Kingdom was thrown into an uproar in an instant.

The Imperial Army was coming.

The strongest army on earth, humanity’s strongest.

To punish them, no less!

The central nobles blamed Theresa, and the king.

“Didn’t we repeatedly say it? One must never defy the Empire’s will!”

“Isn’t this the result of rushing the subjugation of the Demon King!”

“It is not too late, even now. Declare Theresa a traitor and subdue the Northern Expeditionary Force, the Holy Army, and the Beastman Legion!”

“The reason for the Imperial Army’s slow advance is to give the kingdom a chance to cleanse itself.”

“Show the Empire that our allegiance lies with them. Only that can avert utter ruin.”

Countless nobles participated in the royal court, pleading.

“Your Majesty. This humble servant knows that the kingdom’s roots lie in the compassionate spirit to save the Northern people from the Empire’s tyranny. But if the royal family collapses while chanting of compassion, who will seize the empty throne? Now is the time to yield!”

Rudolph III, the boy-king of the North, looked down at his vassals.

Behind their desperation, he saw fatigue, annoyance, contempt, and loathing.

He sensed their true intent, sneering that a powerless king wielding Theresa as his blade, recklessly wielding power, had brought this about.

In the past, he would have felt humiliated.

Rudolph III felt not a flicker of anger.

Was it because the nobles who had eroded royal authority had run aground on Theresa, losing their momentum one after another in the western and southern regions?

Because the Vampire Lord line of the financial faction and the Revolutionary Order line of the administrative faction had been completely severed?

Because even the remaining martial-arts nobles were now being compared unfavourably to Theresa, who single-handedly completed the conquest of the Southern Front and had even begun to set her sights on the Northern Front?

That was certainly gratifying.

But it wasn’t just that.

“You no longer have a choice. Do you still not understand? There is no way for you to survive except by defying the Empire.”

“Your Majesty?!”

“Abandon your futile dreams. The kingdom will never retreat. We will never again yield to the Empire.”

Because the nobles, too, had run out of escape routes.

“I spent my entire life believing that I could never escape the Empire’s chains. I thought that the demon king, the bomb the kingdom had to bear in return for independence from the Empire, was a burden and a necessary evil. But an unparalleled hero appeared, uniting the western forces of the kingdom against that evil.”

Theresa and Ian had created that opportunity.

The opportunity to finally wash away the infamy of being a foolish, incompetent king who couldn’t overcome the Empire’s tyranny.

A great upheaval had come to the political landscape where the king’s authority had plummeted to the bottom.

Now was the only chance.

If not now, they would never be able to stand against the Empire again.

Now, when the corrupt officials bribed by the Empire cannot rise up, when they need not worry about the extreme racial discrimination between humans and beastmen, when they need not fear the nobles’ internal strife – now is the final opportunity that has come to the kingdom.

“Therefore, I have specially invited someone. To prevent you from hindering Theresa, to prevent you from becoming traitors who fall for the Empire’s bribes, another hero of the West to help.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Ian. The man known to the world as the ‘Brainwashing Master,’ the brainwashing saint called the founder of the ‘Brainwashing Legion.'”

At the king’s summons, a young boy in neat attire entered the royal court.

The nobles were aghast.

“The Mindweaver Ian. Can it truly be as the rumors say?”

“Your Majesty, what is it you intend to inflict upon us!”

“Many reinforcements have been dispatched to the North, but it will take more time to truly stave off the Empire’s advance. The Kingdom needs a force capable of halting the Imperial legions.”

“And what does that have to do with us!”

“Everything, in fact. An exceptionally close relationship. You still possess them, do you not? The ‘private armies’ secreted away within your ancestral estates!”

“…!!”

Only then did the nobles comprehend.

The true reason the King had summoned them, nobles who would never willingly bend to his will, to this royal assembly.

He had been aiming for this from the start.

“As of today, you shall be reborn as ‘loyal subjects’, showing mercy to the people of this Kingdom and unstintingly mobilizing even your private armies. Through Ian’s mindweaving, here in this very room!”

Yet the mindweaving they so feared did not unfold.

The boy merely smiled, remaining steadfast in his place.

The nobles understood.

“You intend to confine us to this chamber, holding us hostage as you coerce our vassals to mobilize their soldiers?”

“…No, perhaps we are not the true target. It is our contacts beyond this hall, and our Houses themselves. For if it is believed we entered this chamber alongside a Mindweaver capable of bending even the subjugated demi-humans, and emerged compliant to the Crown, our Houses cannot refuse its will. Not knowing when we, completely enthralled by the mindweaving, might return to punish those who defy its commands!”

“Such a foul trick! You plan to forge us into counterfeit patriots!!”

The picture began to form in the minds of the nobles.

The recklessness of the young King’s daring scheme was matched only by the immense time it could buy should it succeed.

The movements of noble Houses would align with the King’s designs, fearing the infamous Mindweaver and the return of their mindwoven patriarchs, while their heads were held captive by the Crown.

“Did I not make it clear? You have but one choice before you. The future that awaits you is that of loyal subjects and patriots. Beyond the chamber’s doors await the people and soldiers, celebrating your courageous decision. That is the only way you shall leave here alive.”

Before the King’s laughter, laced with what felt like utter glee, the heads of the noble houses could only feel humiliation.

And so, another mindwoven army was born into the Kingdom. An army of private soldiers, belonging to patriotic nobles who had poured their fortunes into their cause, all for the sake of defending the Southern Front.

It was Ian’s ardent will, with the King and the entire nation joining hands, that had created this last bastion.

* * *

Laones, the Grand General of the Imperial Army, could not help but be impressed.

“We believed the North to be a land riddled with treacherous officials, bought and paid for by our agents, a nation on the verge of collapse. But even that was a deception. That banner, those uniforms. They all belong to the private armies of nobles who had accepted our bribes.”

“What are your orders, General?”

“We shall postpone the offensive. To advance, ignoring that number of defending troops, would leave our rear exposed. To lay siege would take an unacceptable amount of time. The wisest course is to await the arrival of the airships.”

“But it is remarkable, is it not? That the Kingdom could deceive us for so long, employing double agents so skillfully.”

Laones agreed with his adjutant’s assessment.

“We were thoroughly misled by their movements, the seemingly concrete plans to reserve passage on merchant ships, the procurement of carriages, all suggesting an imminent escape. The nobles of this Kingdom were, in truth, patriots.”

“Then shall we seal off all escape routes?”

“Indeed. Those who belatedly seek to deceive us must be put to the sword. No mercy shall be shown to these double agents, these false traitors who dared to betray the Empire.”

It was the reason even noble family members from traitor houses, not just the heads, would have to forcefully participate in patriotism.