Chapter 380: The Truth, and the Assault.
The agent, who didn't have a single protective talisman or other items to that effect, easily fell under the influence of [Hypnosis].
Though, when I thought about it, if he had a magic-blocking talisman it would clash with his own disguising magic as well. No matter the magic, there are downsides to it.
The details we got out of the hypnotized agent went as follows:
Before the conference began, the Southern Spring Marquis had already been put to sleep, and hidden inside the closet of the room where his body was found later.
That would mean that the Southern Spring Marquis who showed up at the beginning of the conference was an imposter.
When we called for a break, he went to the prime minister and asked for the room to be changed. It's to make it so that the murder case, which would occur later, would look like it targeted the prime minister.
He then entered the room, dragged out the sleeping Southern Spring Marquis from the closet and killed him with poison.
He then escaped out the window, and used a hooked rope to climb to the roof. The wood chips I found under the window fell during this.
And like that, he invaded the Eastern Sea Marquis' room, and strangled him to death with the scarf he stole from the Western Forest Marquis while changing his appearance into his victim's.
On a side note, the magic the agent used was a non-attribute magic, [Mimicry]. As its name suggests, it's a magic used to mimic others.
The amazing thing about this magic is the fact that it can mimic the entire body. It's different from the illusions I used in the past, and others wouldn't be able to recognize it even if they touched him. Since the voice also changes, apparently the vocal cords are included in the mimicry too.
Well, there's disadvantages to this magic too; while it may be obvious, you cannot mimic something that's smaller than your own body mass. Which means you can't mimic children or short-statured people.
Further, to use the magic, the caster must be in contact with the target of mimicry. What's more, the target must be alive.
Also, the magic doesn't last for a long time; the maximum duration is six hours. Once the mimicry is released, to mimic the same target again, the caster must touch that target again; there's a multitude of restrictions in using it.
Even so, it's still a fearsome magic that's a perfect match for infiltration missions.
Using this magic, the agent pretended to be the Eastern Sea Marquis and intentionally fanned the discord between the prime minister faction and the king's younger brother faction. And after he retired to his room, he placed the body of the real Eastern Sea Marquis in the room and then escaped.
And when he stood around while pretending to be an innocent soldier, I came up and apprehended him, and the rest was history. The real soldier who was the target of his mimicry was later found unconscious inside a closet in a corner of the palace.
Even more shocking, however, was the fact that this man had a [Storage Card] with him.
[Storage Card] is the name of a card with storage magic enchanted within, and was used widely in the Reverse World. It cannot do things like stopping the time of the things that were put inside, and was mainly used for things like carrying golems around.
He was using this to carry around the body of the Eastern Sea Marquis. As for why he was holding onto a magic card from the Reverse World, it turned out that Yulong had found a person who drifted over from that side in the past. That person was caught by [Kurau] and killed, and all of his magic tools were taken. The card used here was among that.
There's no doubt that the two murders are done by the agent. The case is solved, and everyone lived happily ever after… Guess the second part is pushing it somewhat.
"That agent had infiltrated Horn Kingdom over a year ago, and had been moving around in order to cause chaos within the country. The conflict between the two of you had also been orchestrated by him."
"What…!"
"That cannot…!"
Prime Minister Schwein and Ganossa were both stumped for words. Dawn was breaking, and the color of fatigue was already showing on their faces; however, they had to stay awake for a reason.
Talking about the agendas of [Kurau], that same agent had disguised himself as the late king, and promised to hand over the succession rights to Ganossa and disinherit the crown prince in a secret meeting.
If the king died afterwards, that would create lasting discord between the crown prince and the king's younger brother, which would lead to civil war with a good possibility.
However, the crown prince had died of accident. It came as a surprise to the agent himself as well. He had considered making revisions to the plan, but since the prime minister began moving to push the king's grandson to the throne, he carried on with the original plan and assassinated the king while making it look like he died of illness.
The scenario had only changed from the crown prince faction VS the king's younger brother faction, to the king's grandson faction VS the king's younger brother faction.
"So, so you're saying I was dancing on the palm of the enemy's hand this entire time…"
With his eyes still wide-opened from shock, Ganossa sat down powerlessly on a nearby chair and trembled slightly. While looking at him from the side, Prime Minister Schwein opened his mouth.
"Just what could their objective be…"
"This is only a hypothetical talk, but. If a civil war actually breaks out, isn't there something the both of you would want to make use of?"
""!""
A shocked expression once again showed itself on their faces; they stared at me for a moment, before turning their eyes to each other.
"The Iron Machine Soldier."
The two men in front of me twitched.
Iron Machine Soldier. Taking parts of a Frame Gear as reference… Or rather, plagiarizing parts of a Frame Gear, it's a mock Frame Gear developed by the Roadmare scientist Bowman with support from the secret organization called [Gordias].
Different from the "Dverg" being developed by the dwarves, the Iron Machine Soldiers are completely weapons of war.
"Aren't they being imported into this country? Those Iron Machine Soldiers. In order to be able to crush your opposition, you had purchased them from some unknown black merchant who you never even investigated. Well, the actual purchase may not have been made yet, though."
""...""
The two of them didn't say anything.
The [Storage Card] I mentioned earlier. The original owner, who drifted over from the Reverse World, was killed, and [Kurau] gained possession of all the things that were kept inside this card. Among them, the thing that they were most interested in… Yes, golems.
Based on the testimony I got out of the agent, I believe that the original owner should've been a high-ranking individual in a [Factory] somewhere. As proof, inside that [Storage Card], there were 3000 units of the standard military-use golem, [Soldat], which were used by countries like the Magicraft Kingdom of Eisengard.
There are no other explanations for how a single person would be holding that many golems. Even if they're Soldats, there's no way a single person would be able to operate all of them at once, after all. My guess is he became victim to a dimensional drift while in the middle of delivering those golems to some place.
And as if that's not enough bad news, in the newly-formed assassination organization [Kurau], there are remnants of [Gordias] present.
Golem technology and the Iron Machine Soldiers. Obviously, [Kurau] had incorporated them into its assets. And it had sold the new-model Iron Machine Soldiers it made to both the king's
grandson faction and the king's younger brother faction in secret, marketing it as a trump card that could decide the outcome of the civil war.
Of course, they didn't do this for money.
Horn Kingdom would become fatigued due to the war, and its military power would fall as well. And with the Iron Machine Soldiers being used in the fighting, the damage would only be worse. Plus, the battle would be around the capital. As the civil war stretches on, the military strength of the country would naturally be drawn towards the capital, leaving the borders unguarded. Specifically, the north, governed by the Northern Mountain Marquis and Ganossa… The region bordering Yulong.
The new Iron Machine Soldiers are Iron Machine Soldiers, yet at the same time, they're not. They're Iron Machine Soldiers that have become golems.
As the civil war rages on, an army of Iron Machine Soldiers would attack from Yulong.
At the same time, all of the Iron Machine Soldiers that are used around the capital in Horn would start moving by themselves and attack from the inside too; with no means of fighting back, Horn would be driven to collapse by [Kurau]…
"The above would be the likely scenario. Well, there are parts that are just my speculations, but I don't think it should be that far off."
It's rude to say this, but Horn Kingdom's recognition of magic and technology is still undeveloped… Or rather, it's stalled. They're using only the tools and techniques that have been passed down within the country, and knows nothing else besides them. And [Kurau] took advantage of that technological gap.
This is only a guess, but I think they were already planning to invade Horn with the abovementioned plan before they got their hands on golem-related tech. They would slowly shave away at Horn form the inside, and increase [Kurau]'s influence within. Like that, they would spend years sending personnel belonging to [Kurau] into the center of the country, and turn Horn into a land effectively ruled by people who used to belong to Yulong.
"Corrosion" should be an apt term to describe it. With no one else being the wiser, the people of Horn would be slowly replaced by the people of Yulong… Such a scene floated up inside my mind as I thought about it.
"His Majesty the King… Is the fact, that elder brother… Was assassinated by them, the truth…?"
With a strained voice, Ganossa asked. I could see his fists shaking in anger on top of his knees.
The Ferzen king and the Ramissh pope, who were sitting down at a sofa in a corner of the room, looked towards me. I suppose it's better to say it clearly here…
"… Without a doubt. Although, it would be hard to produce concrete evidences since it's more than a year ago… Excuse me."
I played a video before Ganossa and Prime Minister Schwein.
It's a clip I created using [Mirage], based on the memories I forcefully extracted from the agent using [Hypnosis] and [Recall].
In front of the two of them, the figure of a servant, who was mixing a minuscule amount of poison into the tea leaves prepared daily for the king, was shown. While it may be obvious at this point, that servant was in fact the agent using his mimicry magic.
The servants who brewed the tea and carried it to the king were different individuals, and they were innocent. Taking advantage of the moments where the one in charge of the tea leaves was negligent, he impersonated that servant and added the poison into the leaves.
Since those tea leaves are probably long gone, there's no way we can confirm this for ourselves.
"There's no other way but to believe in this memory. If you think I'm showing you an illusion, then that's also fine, but…"
[Recall] isn't a widely-known magic by any means, and it's plenty possible to claim that I'm showing them a fabricated vision. Just this alone cannot constitute any solid proof.
All of a sudden, Ganossa stood up with a bang, and headed towards the room next door— where the agent was being held—with fire in his eyes. Wait, this is bad!
Inside the room I chased after Ganossa and ran into, there was the figure of the agent who was bound in ropes and then further paralyzed with a [Paralyze]—due to the concern that he might kill himself by biting his tongue—lying on top of the carpet.
Several soldiers were standing watch inside the room, and Yae and Sakura were on standby there too.
The Horn soldiers guarding the agent were shocked at Ganossa's sudden entry, but the person himself ignored them and went straight to swinging his sword down at the agent.
"Mu…!"
With a *gakin* sound, the sword was deflected by the walls of the [Prison] I casted.
"Why did you stop me!"
"Ah, well, I don't really want to stop you for that. I just thought it isn't wise for you to kill him selfishly like that."
While Ganossa is the king's younger brother, he isn't the king.
It's the question of whether it is fine to kill the criminal who had assassinated the king on a single person's arbitrary decision like this. At the very least, it should require the permission of Prime Minister Schwein. There's also the crimes of killing the Southern Spring Marquis and the Eastern Sea Marquis too. Well, it's their country's problem anyway; I released [Prison] for the time being.
"… True, there's a need to execute this fellow publicly and also to let the citizens know of the truth of the matter, I suppose…"
"Ku…"
Ganossa bit his lips as he listened to the prime minister's muttering.
A foreigner saying this is a bit weird, but in any case, the people and feudal lords of Horn should be holding some distrust towards the central government with the rumours of civil war flying around recently.
That was due to the conspiracies of another… Well, it should be a good enough reason for them to point their anger somewhere else. That's actually the truth, though, so saying it in an excuse-making way feels kinda… N?
Even while under the effect of [Paralyze], the agent was still glaring my way. While his eyes were stained with the same rage and hatred I saw in him before, his mouth felt like it was forming a smirk.
"[Recovery]."
I dispelled his paralysis. It wouldn't be a problem with me here anyway; if he bites his tongue, I can just heal him.
"Is there something you want to say?"
"Kukuku… Horn is already doomed. If I do not contact back as scheduled, [Kurau] will start moving. Right about now, around 3000 Iron Machine Soldiers as well as an equal number of armored Wood Golems should be attacking from the north. This country would fall under the control of the newborn Yulong."
"That cannot be!"
"What did you say!?"
Ganossa and Schwein shouted out simultaneously. There sure are a large number… I see, since they modified those knockoffs with tech based from Soldats, they don't need as many pilots on the Iron Machine Soldiers. And the armored golems don't need pilots to begin with.
For the number, the total is around 6000. The number of pilots would be 1/5 of half of that… Etto, 600? Around there. So 1/10th of the total.
Still, to think those armored golems would show up… They probably made them based on information they got from [Gordias]. [Collar of Subordination] should be necessary to make those, but since it's Yulong, they probably have lots of them left within the region.
"We can't stand around like this! I'll return to the north immediately and strengthen our defenses…!"
As Ganossa, whose fief is in the northern region, tried to leave the room, he almost collided with a Horn soldier who ran into the room.
"Insolence! You, name your—"
"Please forgive my rudeness, as I carry urgent news! Several giant iron knights have appeared around the capital and are rampaging around, destroying things all around them! Please respond immediately!"
"What did you say!?"
Prime Minister Schwein shouted in shock as the soldier gave his report while lowering his head almost as if prostrating.
"Kukuku… Hahahah! Seems like it's already too late. Shouldn't you quickly escape? At this rate, His Highness the Crown Prince's son in the royal palace would depart this world as well, you know?"
"You bastard…!"
Ganossa grabbed the collar of the agent and raised him up from the ground. Even as he was glared at by Ganossa, the agent's sneer never left his face.
"In the first place, without Ferzen's sudden intervention, Horn should've become part of Yulong in the past. This country of fools, who could not understand our heavenly emperor's gracious consideration to guide the lesser inhabitants of Horn, should just perish like this. For you to be living peacefully like this even though we've lost our homeland…"
"What, so in the end it's just jealousy directed at Horn Kingdom?"
When I muttered that, the man turned towards me with an angry expression.
"You bastard dare say that! You're the one who destroyed our country in the first place! What did you think the people of our glorious Yulong had to go through…!"
"I already said it was the Phrase that destroyed Yulong, not me. Please stop it with your misunderstandings."
"Shut up! If you had obediently handed over those giant soldiers to the heavenly emperor, Yulong wouldn't have perished! It was your arrogance that had condemned the people of Yulong to the depth of hell! You demon!"
That's just messed up. What is this guy even saying? This is why I hate idiots and drunkards. There's no way I can talk to them. While I doubt every person in Yulong is like this, there's just way too many of them.
"You're only saying things that are convenient to you, huh. Glorious Yulong? Ha, makes me sick just listening to it. If there's someone from Yulong out there who's earnestly trying to rebuild the country, I wonder how will he feel if he heard that? What you're doing is basically taking things away by force, just like bandits. Bandits talking about glory; what a joke."
"You bastard…!"
"Your [Kurau] or whatever turned out to be nothing more than a group of thieves in the end. And you tout that around with pride too. The ones who are dragging the face of Yulong through the dirt isn't me. It's people like you."
The reason why the Yulong region still existed to this day was because the neighboring countries did not want to become involved with Yulong, and also because, while twisted in spirit, some of the remnants are trying to rebuild their country.
If no one had tried to rebuild Yulong, the land would probably be split up by neighboring countries like Hanock Kingdom, Demon Kingdom Xenoas, Roadmare Union and Ferzen Magic Kingdom.
"Well, I don't really care about the pride of a thief anyway. It's already a foregone conclusion for [Kurau] to be crushed by me, as well. I've not forgotten the fact that you guys tried to kill me and those close to me before, you know. —Search. How many Iron Machine Soldiers are there in the Horn capital?"
A map was projected in front of me, and several pins fell down on top of it.
"Searching finished. 31 in total."
"Something like that, huh. Yae, can I leave this to you?"
"I don't mind-degozaru yo."
When I turned behind to look at Yae, she nodded with a smile. Me and Reginleiv might cause some collateral to the capital if we did it.
Opening the window, Yae jumped out towards the inner courtyard which was shrouded in the morning mist.
She raised her left hand high towards the sky, where the morning sun was slowly rising up.
"Come-degozaru! Schwertleite!"
From within the storage space enchanted on the engagement ring on her left ring finger, a giant purple samurai appeared in the air together with blinding light. With a loud rumble, Yae's Frame Gear, Schwertleite landed in the capital of Horn.