Chapter 150 – 32 Ways to Corrupt a Champion
“…The great mage, Kaldrash?”
She had a look that was new to her.
It’s like you don’t know anything about me.
… I said it confidently, but it’s a bit embarrassing to see this kind of reaction back.
I said while scratching my head in embarrassment.
“It’s fine if you don’t know. Mr. Ha, I said it for nothing.”
Looking at this, it seems to be a generation gap.
Well, if it’s the hero himself, it’s rare that he cares about whoever in the hero’s party.
Also, it was already two years ago that I was on active duty.
I put my hand on my waist and looked at Sophia, who was tied to the bed.
“Anyway, since you’re caught by me, you must have been prepared to face a rough fate, right?”
“…What are you planning to do?”
She looked at me with a nervous expression.
He probably thought I was going to torture him because of the bloody scenery in the room.
Well, I’d be willing to torture him if necessary, but for now I’m going to try to convince him with words.
I took a piece of paper out of my pocket.
“Don’t worry too much. Just sign here and I’ll let you go.”
What I took out was a Gears Scroll, a standard contract for wizards.
And the contract divided by the Gears Scroll must be kept.
So it was perfect to use when negotiating like this.
Sophia read each and every article of the Gears scroll I held out in front of her face and asked with a suspicious look.
“What are you thinking?”
I shrugged and answered.
“As you can see, I’m conciliating you. A hero is a high-class manpower that is not easily obtained.”
The current Demon King’s army is weak.
Of course, this was a very relative concept, and it was said that it was weak compared to the elves living beyond the great forest.
Compared to the high-tech engineering dwarves of Nidavellir, the army’s strength and size were equal, and compared to the half-disintegrated kingdom army, it could be said that it was definitely superior.
And now, he was in the middle of rolling a duckbill to completely take over the half-disintegrated kingdom army within this year.
“I was originally on the side of humans. However, being a former hero was so fucking disgusting that I switched to the Demon King’s Army in the middle. That’s why I don’t hate humans recklessly like other demons.”
Among the contents of the standard contract I showed Sofia, the most important thing was this.
‘The warrior Sophia becomes the slave of the wizard Kaldrash.’
‘Instead, Kaldrash gives the position of Chief of Police to the hero Sophia.’
‘The slave Sophia cannot die without the owner’s permission, and he will assist him with all his might until certain conditions are met.’
‘The specific condition is ‘world domination’, and if this is achieved, the above contract will be invalidated.’
There are a few other detailed provisions, but they are omitted because they are not very important anyway.
“How was the situation in the capital that you’ve been watching for two years? Do you really think that Oz will be ruined if demons rule? To be honest, you know. Oz now is a better place to live than before.”
“…”
Tied to the iron bed, Sophia couldn’t dispute my words.
I pondered the circumstances of how she had come to her phantom thief.
She could have been active as a resistance from the beginning.
There was a cause, there was power, and there was a name worthy of being a hero, so there must have been quite a few people who wanted to help.
However, instead of working as a resistance in the shadows for the independence of Oz, she chose to steal money from evil nobles and demons and distribute it to the common people.
If he had the will to do so, he could have cooperated with the nobles and confused the Government General.
At least to her, it was clear that it seemed more reasonable for the demons to rule Oz as they do now, rather than for the old aristocrats like the royalists to seize power again.
And my proposal goes one step further.
“Because you don’t want to do good things for others, you didn’t act like a warrior and instead acted as a thief, right? So, why don’t you change Oz with your own hands at this point? Wouldn’t it be more fun to go around with them?”
Sophia didn’t answer.
That’s why I didn’t stop her suggestions that she might be interested in.
“Oz was an abnormal country in the past. As long as you had the name of nobility and lineage rather than ability, you could live moderately even if you were incompetent. This was possible because it sucked the blood of the people.”
“If you join me, you can join this transformation. Don’t leave everything to others, change it with your own hands.”
“I’ll give you the power to do that.”
Saying that, I held out my hand to Sophia.
Sophia stared at my hand and then said with contempt.
“Liar.”
It was only one word, but I couldn’t keep my poker face until the end because of her gaze that seemed to already know everything.
***
I was briefly out of solitary with Vanessa.
“Why do you think you got caught?”
Then Vanessa said with her serious face.
“Kaldrasch, you make it so obvious when you lie. If you say it in such a soulless voice, anyone, not even a hero, will know it’s a lie.”
… It turned out that it was a problem with my acting skills.
I shyly averted my gaze and looked across the dungeon.
It’s a job to convince the warrior with name, but I thought it was too easy.
“Then what should I do now? Shall I forcefully interfere with the contract?”
“It doesn’t matter, but you won’t be able to use the hero in the form you want, Kaldrash? Probably, among the poison clauses in the contract, you’ll choose the minimum you need to do. You don’t like that either, do you?”
Certainly, as Vanessa said, there was no need for passive subordinates.
It was because he needed an active and competent subordinate.
“Then, that is the only way.”
“If it’s that way?”
I told Vanessa, who tilted her head, that I would go home for a while.
It was because there was an item I had found in Master’s library in advance in preparation for such a case.
***
“…You can do it too, 32 magical hypnotic tricks?”
Vanessa read the cover of the book I brought and looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Do you really believe in hypnotism?”
“Uh.”
I was serious.
In other hypnosis books, I would have snorted, but all the hypnotic techniques written in this book actually touched the brain and memory, so it was designated as a forbidden book a long time ago.
Because it was completely recovered and burned right after publication, there were only a few copies left, but there were three books in Master’s library, in limited edition versions for reading, for collection, and for collection.
And this is what I’ve been borrowing for reading for a while.
“Since persuasion with words failed, shouldn’t we try hypnotism now?”
“…I think it would be quicker to torture them at such a time.”
“Oh, just trust me.”
Saying that, I fed honey chestnuts to Vanessa’s head, who kept thinking in a violent direction, and went back into the solitary cell.
Still tied to the bed, Sofia glares at me.
I didn’t bother avoiding that gaze, but showed the book in my right hand with a confident smile.
“Do you know what this is?”
“No.”
“It’s a spellbook that will corrupt you.”
After I said that, I put the book on the shelf for a moment and then went back to her.
“If you change your mind even now, I will not use that book. Be obediently my companion, Sophia.”
Sophia said with a determined expression.
“Even though my body is held here, I have no intention of submitting even my soul to the demon lord’s master. My answer will not change. So kill me. Patrasche.”
Anyone who sees you will know that you are an independent fighter.
I kicked my tongue and stepped back, feeling that I hadn’t even gotten my money’s worth after talking to him for no reason.
“No regrets.”
After I said that, I opened the hypnotic book on the shelf.
A total of 32 hypnotic spells were written, but the most powerful of these was suggestion in a way that directly involved the brain.
And if you use this, you can manipulate the other person’s cognition at will, so it’s also the most dangerous one.
It was possible to change common sense, increase the sensitivity 3,000 times, or imprint a specific command altogether.
That is, of course, when it comes to success.
I drew a huge magic circle with chalk on the floor of the solitary cell, and placed a bed with a hero tied to it in the center.
It was a fairly full-fledged spell, so even if she had no knowledge, as a great mage like me, she must have sensed the danger.
“Kuk! Release this!”
But if that were the case, wouldn’t adamantium be called the hardest substance in the world for nothing?
I took the hypnotic book and stepped back, then raised my right hand.
“Mnemosyne, bring the memory. Lethe, scoop up oblivion.”
As I started reciting the incantation in earnest, the magic circle beneath my feet shone brightly.
“Circling the four-fold river, memories are forgotten. Memories are lost.”
A magic circle that shines more and more as the magic progresses.
“I, right here, tell you. I will bestow the blessings of memory and oblivion on the living beings in front of me.”
Eventually, a circle of light gradually emerged due to the copied magic power, and the hero who was tied to the bed and ran amok closed his eyes, perhaps because of the tremendous light.
“Two great goddesses, lend me your power!”
The moment the chanting ended, the hero who had just been rampaging became quiet as if he had died.
“…”
Since this was my first time using magic, I cautiously approached the hero and shook his hand.
“Excuse me?”
Even if you say it out loud, it doesn’t react at all.
As if the soul inside the body had escaped, empty eyes.
Apparently, the hypnosis was a success.
