112. Guidance (1)
112. Guidance (1)
- 1 -
"Please... please don't do this..."
Grace, who moments ago had worn immaculate white vestments and modest ornaments, now crouched in a corner, shielding herself with her arms and weeping, clad in nothing but her undergarments.
Around her lay the tattered remains of her torn garments and shattered accessories.
"Fear not. I have no intention of killing you."
I approached her, slipping a hand under her chin and tilting her head up until our eyes met.
Unrefined holy power still flickered in messy trails around her tear-filled eyes.
It was beautiful to behold—but deeply unpleasant to sense.
"Heeik...!!"
When I frowned at the sensation, Grace flinched convulsively, curling herself into a tighter ball.
"Y-yes, I'll be quiet... just don't hurt me...!"
I placed one hand against her stomach and ran the other through her hair.
"It's all right. Soon you will grow tired and fall asleep, and when you wake, everything about you will have changed."
"Th-that...!"
She really was a remarkably high-maintenance woman.
『Trait - Advanced Specialization: Detection Holy Magic (Praises), Specialization: Defensive Holy Magic (Scripture), Defensive Coward, Avarice』
Just like every coward before the real process begins.
- 2 -
"Save... me... hrmnya..."
To state the conclusion straightaway, the attempt to stain a cleric with demonic power ended in failure.
It was nothing to be disappointed about.
'I didn't expect it to succeed on the first try from the start.'
Before proceeding with Grace, I had deliberately run sufficient experiments.
I had already anticipated that staining a living person would be on an entirely different level of difficulty from staining animals or artifacts saturated with holy power.
'The speed at which holy power recovers is astonishing. And she's merely an early-advanced-rank priestess, too.'
The greatest obstacle I identified during the staining process was the holy power continuously welling up from within her heart.
As I worked, suppressing the mutual repulsion between holy power and demonic energy, that power ceaselessly replenished itself, leaving me no way to counter it.
"Not that there was zero progress."
What my eyes registered was the pure-white light that had once streamed unceasingly across Grace's exterior.
A certain white powder had formed part of her halo as proof of her sanctity—and its brilliance had now somewhat dimmed.
As though her faith had lost its radiance.
It was gradually recovering its original brightness, but the change suggested the possibility was not entirely absent.
'The solution is one of two approaches.'
One: hammer in an overwhelming amount of force.
Even if faith-based holy power surged endlessly from within her, if I kept pouring power in without pause, eventually that single drop of white ink within a cup full of black water would be stained black all the same.
'But that's not to my taste.'
And it was also an impractical method to employ right now.
At the very least, I judged it worth attempting on an advanced-rank target only once my own power reached about two tiers above its current state.
Thus, the next method I conceived was.
'I must corrupt that faith itself first.'
The beginning was something I could attempt even now. But since I was undertaking it without any guide, entirely alone, the path ahead was utterly dark.
It would take a long time, and it was not something to be done in a place still part of human territory.
"Set the cleric aside for now. I'll need to examine her later."
Therefore.
"You've waited long enough, Amelia."
I had to create a proper venue first.
"Release her."
As I turned my gaze toward Amelia Terramor and gestured to the female knight standing beside her, she withdrew the cloth that had been gagging Amelia's mouth.
A glistening thread of transparent saliva stretched and snapped.
"Pahaa... What have you done to her... and to our people?"
Amelia kept her eyes sharp with hostility.
Like a small animal trying to make itself look larger.
She had possessed almost no intimidating presence from the outset, yet showed no sign of yielding or retreating.
If her actual strength had been formidable, I might have thought of her as a honey badger rather than a mere small animal.
"Wait a moment. You're far too impatient."
"What...?"
Before answering her question, I lifted the handkerchief I had received from the maid beside me and wiped the drool trailing from the corner of her lips.
Her face, which had unconsciously flinched at my touch, instantly flushed crimson.
She had been so intent on glaring at me that she failed to notice what was clinging to her own face.
"Daisy..."
"Yes, my lady?"
Then, when she saw the maid who took back the handkerchief, her expression twisted further.
The woman standing at my side was a maid of this fortress—more specifically, the personal maid who, as a matter of course, would have attended to Amelia.
And until just moments ago, she had been giving me certain "accounts."
"Land. Power. People. Military might. You human nobles have shamelessly plundered what belongs to others while believing it naturally your own. But look now. See whose hands it lies in."
"That's because you...!"
The cleric had fallen.
The knight now raised her sword for me.
And her personal maid now attended me.
The "cleric's power," the "noble's authority," and the "trust between people"—every pillar within her heart had lost its efficacy.
Her defiance was no sturdier than a sandcastle.
"You asked what I had done."
"..."
"I showed you how utterly futile that which you believe you naturally possess truly is."
"Ugh...!"
"And I informed you that you, too, are weaklings who can be ruled."
Amelia stared at me, her chin caught in my grip, and her glaring eyes gradually filled with realization.
"You... want this land, and the people upon it."
"How perceptive."
Cold wisdom and courage resided in her pupils.
Her mother had wished for her to live the life of an ordinary noble lady...
But seeing her behavior now, her aptitude was unmistakably that of a lord.
She was a little lacking, but that suited me even better.
"But it's useless. No matter what you do, there's no way I would ever cooperate...!"
"You will not cooperate."
"...?"
"You will simply submit."
"As if...!"
I showed her a smile as I raised a dagger and pointed it at Grace's throat.
"What are you doing?!"
"Even if I did this, it would be easy to make you yield, wouldn't it? She is a life you called here—and a life you caused to die."
"Stop it...!"
"Is that so? Then how about this."
"Daisy...?"
When I shifted the blade to point at the maid's throat, the maid approached me as if she knew no fear and laid her own neck against the dagger.
It was so utterly natural, and although Amelia failed to grasp the situation immediately,
her face swiftly drained of all color.
"Get a hold of yourself, Daisy! What are you doing right now?!"
"Pardon? I am merely performing my duty as a maid, my lady."
"What is your duty?!"
"To provide whatever my master desires, Master."
A thin line of blood trickled from the maid's jaw as she spoke with utter nonchalance.
By the time Amelia realized what that bright crimson blood signified, I had already withdrawn the blade and was wiping the maid's chin with a handkerchief.
Though it could not be helped that her collar was already soaked in blood.
"What if it were your mother here instead? Or your young sibling."
"That...!"
"You would not even have dared to think of defiance. Am I wrong?"
The sharpness faded from Amelia's eyes.
I could vividly feel her heart beginning to surrender.
'The one who holds the people's support.'
From what I had observed over the past several days,
Amelia was a young lady who commanded the loyalty of every servant and knight within the fortress, and even the common folk outside.
'That's no easy feat. For someone accustomed to the position of ruler to receive such support.'
Whether it was innate talent or a skill honed through effort,
to achieve complete control over this region, it was true that I would ultimately need to remove this lord's family, but for immediate stability, the safest course was simply to keep them in the palm of my hand.
Among them, I preferred someone who could maintain the territory to some degree without requiring constant micromanagement.
Where would I find the time and ability to manipulate every single one of those countless puppets one by one?
It was far faster simply to seize the puppeteer who controlled them.
"The fruit vendor who always greets you each morning with an apple. This female knight who once taught you a bit of protective sorcery. This maid who has always been at your side. All of their lives now depend upon you."
Among the lord's family, the one I had chosen was Amelia.
The younger sibling was too inadequate.
The lord himself was too stable.
And his wife was a fool.
"What... what are you planning to do?"
"The one who will do something is not me, but you."
"Pardon...?"
"If you alone enter into a contract with me—then there will be no need to harm their lives, nor their hearts."
If she was too clever and would cause trouble, it sufficed to simply arrange things so that there was no need to worry about her.
"Then... truly...?"
"You mustn't make a contract!"
A sudden voice rang out, and Amelia turned to look.
The speaker was the priestess Grace.
She who had fainted once had regained consciousness at some point and had been listening to our conversation.
"Powerful demonic energy, and a contract... she is not merely a demon follower—she is a Dungeon Lord! If you contract with her, you will become one of them...!"
"Is that true...?"
Her voice was remarkably desperate and persuasive.
For a coward and a mediocrity, that is.
I smiled at Amelia's question.
Grace's logic, based entirely on past precedents, could be refuted outright.
"Bring Sonia and Maria."
I gave the order with my arms crossed, and soon Shue brought the two before the cleric and the noble.
"Observe carefully, Grace. Whether these two appear to be demonic beasts or demons."
"They're... human? You're controlling them through vile means...!"
"Yes. They are human. As for whether I am controlling them... well, that much is correct. Maria."
"...Must I really show them?"
Maria, who instantly grasped my meaning, looked at me with somewhat reluctant eyes.
"Resistance...?"
And that alone seemed to shock Grace.
If Maria were being perfectly controlled by me, displaying such reluctance would not be—could not be—normal.
"If you truly dislike it, you need not do it."
"It wasn't...?"
My show of readily accepting her refusal only reinforced the point.
"Haa. Fine. Master."
After letting out a sigh, Maria approached Grace and Amelia and began unbuttoning her top.
"Wh-what are you doing?!"
"Stay still. You can't escape from our master anyway. Here. Look."
What Maria showed them was a mark engraved on the area from her collarbone to where her breast began.
A purple flower and a black skull.
My crest as a Dungeon Lord.
"If you're a cleric, you'd recognize it. This is a contract mark. I am in a contracted relationship with our master. And as you can see, I am also human."
When a Dungeon Lord and a human entered a contract, the mark was customarily placed where it could not easily be seen, and in her case, that was the location.
As for why I had instructed Maria, rather than Sonia, to show them... I shall refrain from elaborating.
"Done? Master."
"Yes. Come here."
"Yes."
I adjusted the hem of Maria's clothing as she approached me.
One button had been fastened incorrectly, and it had caught my eye.
"Ah... thank you."
"Thank you for your trouble. Rest now."
"...Don't torment them too much."
Maria shot me a faint glare as she finally let out, one by one, the words she had been forcibly holding back.
Considering her original personality, she had held out for quite a while.
I was not the sort who could not tolerate a small complaint like that.
"I am persuading them. As I did with you."
"...Do as you please, then."
"I shall also take my leave, Master. As my sister said... I, too, hope you won't be too harsh on them."
"Very well. Sonia. Don't worry."
After seeing off Maria and Sonia, who left the room grumbling, I looked at Grace. She was now gazing at me with an expression of complete confusion.
For a Dungeon Lord to contract with a human while leaving them human was itself an extremely rare sight, and for that contracted human to express her own will with a degree of freedom must have been an even greater shock.
Because by the common sense spread throughout this world, it was an impossibility.
"It seems I have said all I need to say to you. Decide. Whether you will have them all die, or sacrifice yourself alone. Of course, if you contract with me, I shall not harm your family, either."
"That's... far too cowardly. Setting up an environment where I have no choice but to decide this way..."
Grace ultimately fell silent after leaving only those words.
She must have known that finding any further fault would be no different from telling Amelia, "Sacrifice yourself and your family."
At that, I focused my attention on Amelia, and—
"What is it you seek to gain, going so far as to do this?"
—she asked me her final question.
"Well... there is only one thing I seek to obtain."
As I observed a brief silence, the eyes watching me gradually widened.
They must have been imagining some cataclysmic outcome.
I counted the moments until they had fully formulated my answer in their minds, then opened my mouth to speak it.
"Tranquility."
"...?"
"What did you say...?"
An answer that was probably the polar opposite of what they had been picturing.
'That I might dye this entire world, and in the end, that my people might find peace through me.'
The only commonality between that answer and what they had imagined was that, to achieve it, I might shatter or possess everything in this world.
That was all.
"You... just what..."
"You may not believe it, but it is sincere."
I looked at Amelia.
She was still gazing at me with eyes full of unease and fear.
"Because, for that purpose, I truly can do anything."
They could not laugh off the words I had just spoken, dismissing their feelings about me as a misunderstanding, and even if a contract were made, I could never earn their trust—they were humans who already possessed everything they could have, after all.
"...Fine. I'll do it. The contract."
"Good. To think such an excellent child would fall into my hands."
Thus, I intended to tame her.
The materials for doing so were already in my grasp.