After a few days of working hard on building their new homes in the yet to be named land, the hypnosis effect started to fade away.
But Marco kept on applying it so that once the day where he has to go away for some time, the loyalty that they are now expressing will be imprinted to their minds and carved onto their bones that they will instinctively follow whatever they will say.
"By the way, Anise... what have they been doing while we were away?"
"Well... Sir Leon and Sir Tony were pretty secretive about it that not even Master knew what they were creating. They said it was something that would maintain good relations with the merfolks and may just get them hooked"
"So it is like the wine I told them to create?"
"Yes. And surprisingly, Sir Leon is knowledgeable regarding poison!"
"Ha... haha..."
Marco laughed nervously as he had one more reason to not anger Leon.
"Master, are you sure that they will be able to come back safely?"
"I'm sure they will, Lexi. After all, Charlie is with them. If anything, I am worried that Charlie will die from stress since even now, he is still the one taking care of those two"
Unlike Anise and Lexi who were worried about everyone's well being, Marco was worried about what sort of malicious-aggresive methods Leon and Tony is planning.
While he considers himself and Aldo as evil, while Charlie is someone one would regard as an actual human with actual sane mentality, Tony and Leon would be demon incarnates in the world of humans.
"Besides, Persephone and Veronica are with them. Charlie will have an easier time with dealing with those two... probably"
...
In the western edge of the kingfom of Ghalvhir, the five man party led by Charlie arrived at the scene.
"Leon, you do the talking. Tony, Veronica, and Persephone, you three keep out on lookout. We don't exactly know if there are those who bear hatred to us because we killed the merfolks"
"Okay"
"Yes, Sir Charlie"
After a few minutes later, a merfolk who would come up to the shore every day to see if their reinforment has arrived surfaced.
"The one with his hair slick back must be Sir Leon, I assume"
"That's right. I am Leon"
The merfolk put his webbed left hand on his chest as a sign of respect.
"It is good to see you Sir, as well as your fellow comrades. Please wait here, I will inform my tribe to inform the Yellow stone tribe"
"How do you guys do that?"
"Well, we have our mages do the work. I don't really know how it works as I am not a follower of magic"
The merfolk swam back left to its tribe.
"Just how powerful do you think their Matriarch is?"
"We won't know for sure until we saw her ourselves"
After Marco stated that the mayor of the Vermillion mountain city was someone they could defeat in a one on one battle as long as they had enough time to prepare made them wonder what a powerful tribe in the sea would be like.
After a few hours, the matriarch of the Yellow stone tribe arrived with her trusted aides to meet the individuals who defeated the Blue coral tribe.
"Hmm..."
Her indifferent look showed she was a bit disappointed as she could roughly guess their capabilities.
"Are you sure they are the ones who defeated the Blue coral tribe?"
She whispered.
"Yes, I am, tribe leader"
Skeptical about the situation, she could not help but feel something was off.
"I am the matriarch of the Yellow stone tribe, Lerellya"
"It is a pleasure to meet you, tribe leader of the Yellow stone, I am Charlie, the leader of our group"
"You? Weird. I do not see anything special about you"
Veronica, Tony, Leon, and Persephone's expression hardened as they heard Lerellya indirectly insulting Charlie.
"May I know what makes you say that?"
"The man with the whip on his waist and the man with a weird looking weapon over there, I can feel a murky and dangerous aura from them. The ghoul is someone who exudes an even murkier arua while the beat kin shows talent and strength. You, however... it feels like you are not even here"
"I do get that a lot"
"That is not what I meant. What I mean to say is that I can barely even sense you. A leader who lacks presence and power barely deserve its position"
"....."
"But seeing your comrades, I believe that there is much more to you than what I can 'see' right now. With that, I will be treating you as a proper leader"
Charlie looked back and saw the others were ready to figth.
He was touched. He felt that they cared about him after all his hard work of taking care of them.
"You guys! I-"
"Insulting you is the same thing as insulting us!"
"We wouldn't pick someone incompetent to lead us!"
"....."
Charlie took back everything he thought of just now and decided to forget ever thinking about the two of them ever seeing him as someone they needed.
After talking about how they will attack, it was decided that Charlie and his team will be the bait and take the attention of the kingdom of Ghalvhir's soldiers, mages, and elites.
Meanwhile, the merfolks will be relying on their mages to increase the size of the river that goes downstream to the kingdom to attack the sides.
"Your castle's magician is not here, so I would like to propose for us to enter a blood contract. Will that be fine with you all?"
"That is fine with me. But may I know what this blood contract is about?"
"....? Are you serious right now?"
"Yes, I am. I seriously do not know about it"
"A blood contract is like an oath of mana between two magic practitioners. The different thing is that it is done by using a paper blessed by a powerful magician"
"Then, this paper was made by your tribe's magician?"
"Indeed. Everything written on the paper must be done, if not, the one who breaks their word will suffer the consequences. While I do know of your achievement for defeating the Blue coral tribe, I cannot help myself but be doubtful of your power without the magician"
Once again, the others were offended by her words.
"Fine! Let's sign it then!"
"It's not like we need Aldo here to win anyways!"
"I will sign it. I am the leader after all"
"What? How will you-"
As Leon grabbed Charlie's shoulder, he grabbed Leon's hand and tossed him aside using a shoulder throw.
"Charlie! What is your..."
Seeing his cold demeanor and face filled with pure anger, Leon and Tony were left speechless.
Even the merfolks who were beside the matriarch found his bloodlust to be intense and frigthening.
The main factor why the merfolks were in such state was because Charlie who had his presence suppressed due to his class was temporarily removed due to his anger.
The pent up rage he had was turned into killing intent that sent a chilling sensation down their spine.
"Be quiet and do as I say"
It was their first time seeing the usual smiling Charlie become mad. With nothing to say, Leon slowly got up and watched from the back as Charlie, their leader, sign the contract that Lerellya handed him.
"Done" Charlie said after signing the contract with his blood.
The contract was set ablaze and became an orb.
The orb projected two chains that pierced their heart.
"With this, we are now under the effects of the blood contract"
During the remaining days of preparations, the four were silently doing what Charlie told them to and Lerellya's acknowledgement for Charlie as a leader increased.
...
The kingdom of Ghalvhir who verified their priest's divination after sending spies to the sea had made preparations and stationed troops on the city that was going to be attacked.
"General Degar! I have urgent intel from the reconnaisance department's third squad that was sent to the shores of the kingdom to inspect the movements of the seafolks!"
"Go ahead"
"Yes, Sir! The third team stated that they saw the matriarch of the Yellow stone tribe, the tribe that is assumed to be the one that will lead the merfolks, hired human mercenaries"
"Humans? Are you sure about that? Our kingdom is the kingdom that lie nearest to the center of the world! There are no human territories in the west!"
"They are sure, Sir. They even said that they asked for a priest's divination skill and turned out to be true"
The general was at loss for words. Merfolks who hates humans due to the kingdom's actions for the past decades could not be won over due to desperation to defeat them.
"What are their identities and skills?"
"As far as we know, those individuals managed to defeat the entire Blue coral tribe in the southern sea. And they did it with less than ten people"
The general became even more confuse. After all, why would merfolks side with people who killed their own kind?
Was it a conspiracy? Or perhaps an internal conflict that led them to make another tribe get killed by humans they hired in order to rally up other tribes that are far away from the land?
Whatever it was, the general thought of only one thing as to why the merfolks would resort to receiving help from outsiders, humans no less.
"You may now go back. If someone looks for me, tell them that I went to see the count"
"Yes, Sir!"