The golems' obsession/control/obedience organ is the cause of this; I'm sure of it now. It forces them to be obsessed with obeying us, but at the same time, it impairs their ability to think. That prevents them from reflecting too deeply upon things, but it also impedes their real feelings from coming out.
Now the issue is that messing with it would be complicated. I risk ruining their personalities forever, and since they aren't actually suffering, there isn't much of an incentive to do it. We've already messed with it once and created the Chuckys, so it's definitely not something to take lightly.
I pop an orb full of water pseudo-elemental mana and hum thoughtfully as my tentacles absorb the millions of magical glass shards. There's not much that I can do now, but I do want to reflect upon it. I desire to make them into a new race that will be subservient to humanoids, so these questions deserve to be thoroughly considered and addressed long before I actually decide to do something.
"Gih," Gify suddenly offers a parable.
"Thank you, Gify, that was very deep," I earnestly answer and pat the white chibi griffin.
Now, back to the matches. Though Brett doesn't want to participate, other knights do, including Palo. They aren't expected to win, as knighthood is about a lot more than just fighting, but it'd be embarrassing if they fell out of the tournament too early, so they're taking this seriously.
Though Palo lost to Montague due to his low "Endurance," here, he can flaunt his high-level melee skills as much as he wants since few can match him. But once he meets someone of comparable strength, it's expected that he'll lose gracefully, though he has a reputation for being sly, as he's caught his opponent off-guard a few times in the past.
It's actually a bit entertaining to watch the matches, so they remain in the background of my mind as the day goes on.
--
For the afternoon, I summon baby Yodas and adult goblins, then compare their soul brains. It's just a bunch of abstract soul "structures," but maybe I can discern a pattern in them? It's not like I have many leads left to pursue, so I might as well continue this path of research.
Then I get a rather… insane idea. One that I need to stop the girls from hearing. What if I shock a summon's brain and observe the effects on the soul? I could even use it to find out what function that part of the brain is responsible for by forcing the summon to perform tests while getting shocked.
I've seen this being done during brain surgeries before, so it's not like it's something cruel or gruesome. It's just… creepy. It shows how much of a "meat puppet" we are by manipulating our brains like that, though that's just something I'll have to learn how to deal with.
Then my mind goes to a certain pair of innocent-looking little dolls.
"We shall perform this task for you, Master," Ted promptly volunteers.
"And we shall categorize every section of the brain," Suzy follows up, as always.
There's just one problem, though. Is a goblin's brain the same as a humanoid's? Do humanoids even share the same brain structure between races? For example, a pixie's brain is extremely small, so how does that compare to a big dragonkin's?
"The dragonkin's is obviously as small as a pixie's," Roxanne immediately jumps in, receiving a glare from our fiery wife.
Very funny.
But this isn't a question that we'll be able to answer any time soon, so I just decide to summon goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs to see if there are any differences between their brains and to prepare us for any unintended "consequences" of this test. If we ever find a way to do it on an actual humanoid, we'll need to be ready to not fuck it up.
And so, the golems begin the tests in a secluded area where nobody's allowed in. It's a fascinating experiment, really. Speech, different types of memories, motor functions, walking, balance, and reasoning ability. The golems quickly find the areas for all these things in the summons' brains.
They have their own staff of other golems to help them organize the experiments, so it's almost like a factory line, but it's all about repeating experiments while "stimulating" each little area of the brain instead of machining and assembling guns. The part where they need to interpret the results of the tests stumps them a bit, but they're just slow, not completely incapable of creative thought, and I can always guide them with just a suggestion.
But there's zero need to micromanage them, so I leave to the Coliseum to watch the matches a bit while I give the golems some pointers through [Bind].
There's already a participant who has managed to quickly rise through the "challenger" ranks and enter the main event, which I find very interesting, but he's also very eye-catching because he's a Dark Elf. As in, his skin is pure black. He's darker than even Hermann; it's almost like he's vantablack.
There are four duels being held in each corner of the arena, and the atmosphere of the battles change once I arrive… except for one. The vanta-elf is so focused on his opponent that he doesn't notice everyone else stopping and bowing, while his opponent is so heavily pressured that he has lost all peripheral vision.
I snort as their referee seems very nervous, unsure if he should interrupt the duel, so I just order out loud, "All rise." And Jarn motions with her arm for those who couldn't hear me over the crowd.
After a few uncertain seconds, everything returns to normal, and I try not to show too much interest in the vantaelf duel to not offend the other warriors. The worst thing ever is being around a butthurt, aggressive bear who didn't get the attention they thought they deserved.
Then a Lordsguard suddenly comes in to give me a message.
"Your Highness, you have a visitor. It's Sir Nero," he calmly relays like a well-trained soldier.
"Send him in," I quietly answer, worried about why Nero is visiting me now of all times.
The soldier bows, then leaves, and a moment later, a tall, muscular, handsome, brown-skinned silver-elf that I don't recognize walks in, but [Sense Soul] insists that he's Nero, our Spymaster and Blood Slave.
"What did you do to yourself?" I blurt out.
"A disguise. It looks great, doesn't it?" he answers with a smirk, then stops, spreads his arms, and does a little spin for me. He looks more slender, like a proper elf, and his previous "rough air" is now completely gone, replaced by the usual elven snobbishness.
He's also wearing traditional High Elven clothing, which is tight shorts and vests, and they've allowed me to, unfortunately, learn that his ass is very "clappable." It's almost like he's wearing nothing at all… nothing at all… nothing at all…!
But what's really horrifying is that this level of radical body change is actually viable. And since magic can be used to heal and "fix" someone's face, it isn't even that radical of a thing to do, especially if your job is espionage. Thankfully, Identification Crystals are ubiquitous in the empire and Maoka due to [Blood Magic].
And Nero makes an exaggerated frown of concern. "You look horrified. If I didn't have an elven face, I'd think that you find me hideous."
He could certainly become a comedian with how expressive he is, but his presence only makes me feel disgust, so I won't be kick-starting his career anytime soon. "I'm scared of face-changing assassins like you, but I'll stop grimacing to not scare the crowd," I calmly confess.
"I'm a spy, not an assassin," he sassily corrects.
I just sigh and get to the point, "What are you here for?"
He glances at the arena. "The Dark Elf? I want him."
"Did you come here only to ask that?" I ask as I frown in annoyance.
"I also want you to see his fighting style; it's very peculiar," he promptly answers, as if he was expecting me to say that.
It's too much effort to remain annoyed at him, so I just flatly reply, "Then, please, take a seat, and do tell."
There's only one throne and a few less lavish chairs, so he takes the nearest one, and I notice an odd quirk in his behavior. He starts walking with heavy steps, but then he freezes for a split second, and his feet suddenly seem to weigh as much as a feather.
"Curious," I hum.
And he seems gently pleased. "Oh, you noticed? You have an impressive amount of 'Perception,' Your Highness."
"Thank you," I politely reply. I won't be that much of a dick to him.
And he strikes a pompous pose as he crosses his arms, then eccentrically gesticulates with his hand as he shares, "I've been practicing acting like an elf so that I could guide my agents into Heretic's Rest, but we aren't ready to infiltrate it yet."
Yunia's the one who deals with him and reads his reports, so I just hum and wait for him to sit down and make himself comfortable.
Then we both turn to the arena, and he eagerly begins, "Now, look at his blade. Don't you see how it subtly bulges near the middle? It's specialized for slicing while the tip is slightly rounded and reinforced to break through chitin."
"Giant insects…" I grumble in disgust.
And he gives me a perfectly fake plastic smile as he hums back, "Lovely, isn't it? They have Ambushers almost as deadly as those in Maoka."
This is a talk that Roxanne would rather not hear about since an Ambusher, a super deadly not-scorpion, is what killed Mithra, her former fiancée.
"'Almost'?" I dreadfully ask.
He nods as he calmly answers, "Of course. The God of the Sun was merciful and didn't want his territory to be as inhospitable as the Death Valley." But his tone still has that jarring, fake quality to it.
And he's nowhere near as cute as Lina, so I'm not interested in hearing his trivia. "But we aren't here to talk about that."
He shakes his head, seemingly purposely making his long elven ears shake. "No. I'm interested in the specifics of his style. He could be a mere mercenary, a spy himself, or even an exile wanting revenge. Any of those would be excellent for me."
But I soberly remark, "Spying on a Gods-Blessed family after swearing loyalty to them sounds like a tremendously bad idea."
And he snorts. "It is, but has that ever stopped anyone from attacking you?" he cheekily questions.
But I hum thoughtfully, then correct his little joke, "It definitely has, but it isn't enough to stop everyone."
"Hm, yes, that's a good point," he replies, seemingly being truly honest for once.
Then we focus on observing the duel, and I notice that the Dark Elf's style definitely has a unique flavor to it.
Antano elves, from the swamp-like area south of the High Forest, fight with a rougher and more aggressive style due to adventuring being more prevalent among them, though they're still elves, so they aren't comparable to a dragonkin, for example. High Elves, those of the High Forest, fight in a more traditional and ceremonial style, as dueling with longswords is something only the nobles do because the environment favors large formations of spearmen. Grassland elves, from Glorampina, which is north of us, have the weakest longsword and dueling styles due to being more rural and the safest of all elven lands in the eastern part of the continent (Elaria is safer, but it's on the west side of the continent).
As for the Dark Elf, his style is similar to an Antano elf (calling them swamp elves is offensive), as it's very aggressive but more in an intimidating/feinting way rather than fully committing to attacks, which is why his duel is taking so long. I believe it's because there are a lot of poisonous monsters in Heretic's Rest while healing with [Light Magic] is less prominent due to understandable "Piety" issues, so he fights very defensively.
But I can't discern whether or not he was trained by royals or commoners just from his style.
Eventually, he tires out his opponent and goes for the (figurative) killing blow.
"So? Is he a spy or not?" I curiously ask the handsome fake elf.
But he just shrugs and smirks. "I can't tell."
I stare at him in disbelief, but his smirk only widens.
Then he attempts to deflect, "I tried, I assure you, but it's easier to just send him to a Truth Seeker."
So I facepalm.
--
Today is the 29th, Nev, day of Spirit. Might as well call it Spirit Chimera Work Day because they go hard, including on my Cock.
And I wake up to Hukarere choking on it as I let out a very thick load inside her wolf mouth, but she has problems keeping her lips closed, so it spills everywhere. It seems one of the girls enlarged my Cock for me so that Hukarere and her long snout could experience what it feels like to deepthroat me, and she's enjoying it very much.
That actually gives me an idea, so I give an order to my loyal sheep, "Alright, get the spirit Chimeras to line up. I want to feel their desperation as they suck me off."
Then I turn to Kaatohe, and my bronze cat doesn't even react. She just lowers her head and starts licking the cum dripping down towards my balls.
--
Tomorrow is the day of Darkness, a very bad day for any kind of fighting, so the final event of the Festival of Glories is being held today.
We don't do our morning training because it's going to be a full-day thing, which gives me plenty of time to cum my brains out as the thirstiest spirit women in the entire region all get a turn with my Cock, and I dare them to speedrun a cumshot. It's rather "draining" to remain at max pleasure for so long, but sometimes, you just wanna get fucked up a bit.
Then I end with Hana because, of course, she'd feel competitive about it, and she's the fastest of them all, but it doesn't count because she's had a lot more practice, and she can also read my mind to readjust her sucking. Hukarere wins the actual competition, and by far. But she's kind enough to give everyone pointers for the next Day of Spirit Cock Suckers.
Now I decide to spend a bit of time with Nono since she's too much of a workaholic to not do any work, even on a Holy Day (quite literally) like this one.
I enter their underground lab, and Petra looks at me like I'm a ghost while Nono's knees start to tremble.
So I greet them with a soothingly husky voice, "Good morning, Ladies. I just wanted to bother Nono a bit with my presence since it's so hard to pry her from this place."
And my white rabbit immediately blushes in embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry…! It's just that I'm so-…"
"Shush," I silence her as I put a claw on her little red lips.
She's already well on her way to being juicy again, so she looks breedable enough to arouse the dragon in me but not enough for me to actually do it. Still, I can enjoy other parts of her, so I grace her with a brief but deep kiss.
Then I gently order, "Tell me what you're doing. I want to know more about your work."
I don't want to take the "Moonlight Tears" yet as it's not necessary, and I'm a bit worried about how my soul might react to the Cycle of Souls, so I can just wait for her to improve the process before I risk myself. But Nono's and Petra's explanation of it makes me believe that they have no idea what's going on or how any of it works.
Well, that's what Nono's researching right now: what the fuck did they do? But they only have vague theories so far. And this is the problem with [Alchemicism] (different from [Alchemy]); it's all about vague "themes" and "symbols" that you combine with mana to get results that are kind of useful for what you want but full of unpredictable side-effects.
They're slowly building up some medical knowledge, but none of it has been useful in improving the process. They had a huge leap forward with Nono's wish, but now they're back to being stuck, though that's fine since it's a long-term project.
It's endearing how eager she is to tell me about her work, and even Ciel and Lina listen for a bit because she's researching religion and history to learn more about the Cycle of Souls. There's also the knight that helped her, who might've been someone important when he was alive, so she's looking for clues about who he was by using her memories of his armor and mount.
Eventually, she runs out of topics to talk to me about, so I leave without breeding my rabbit because she still hasn't recovered enough to survive a proper Ravaging. But soon after, The Four finally arrive.
--
"It looks like we're inside a tree," Lily remarks as she curiously looks around.
"It does smell like one," Thant adds after sniffing the air.
"It's so pretty," Chesa quietly hums, seemingly awed.
"There's a river, too…" Lily points out with an amused snort.
"Nice to see you all. How was your vacation in the capital?" I casually greet as I approach them.
"'Interesting,'" Lily flatly replies with air quotes.
"It's funny that the race that walks around naked covers their bodies more than the people in the capital," Samkelo wryly remarks.
"Oh, so you saw the dancing catgirls," I hum, feeling nostalgic.
And Lily grunts, "Too often, yes."
So I happily smile. "Prepare yourself for dancing elven girls, then. The elves wear even less clothing than the people in the capital."
"Looking forward to it," Samkelo eagerly replies with a filthy grin.
But I dash their hopes, "Today, you'll mostly be seeing almost naked burly men as we're holding a tournament in the Coliseum." Though the two girls perk up at that.
"Hah. Sounds alright," Lily hums, now sensibly interested.
"Sounds cool," Thant tentatively remarks.
"Gayyyyyyy~…!" Samkelo shouts and giggles to himself.
I don't want to spend all day here bantering and joking, so I move things forward, "Well, let's start the tour of the castle. You don't want to accidentally stumble upon our orgy rooms, now, do you?"
"No comment," Lily dryly grumbles.
"That's still a comment," I cheekily retort.
That seems to irritate her a bit. "And I only said it because I knew you were expecting a comment."
So I turn on the smugness. "But why would I expect a comment? Could it be because you can't help but always make a comment?"
She's not feeling like doing this today, so she rolls her eyes and seriously asks, "Please, Your Highness, let's begin this tour."
I glance at the other Earthlings, and they seem pretty content, making me wonder who bit her ass today. But that's for another time, so I snort and hum, "Alright."
--
--
Hall of Fame of Patrons
The patrons who support Rupegia shall have their names sung by the bards for they deserve the glory and honor. Their names are:
Prince PreownedFIN.
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Noble Esteban Naud-Dubé.
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