After Selina’s speech, we kicked off the merger of the Sahelrn Duchy, Helraig Duchy, and Bertica Kingdom.
First, the nobles Selina had secretly recruited announced their support for her decision right after the speech.
Then, two big trading companies, which she had also influenced, expressed their willingness to comply with the “new order” led by the Vampires.
Moreover, thanks to the newspapers fueling positive public opinion about Vampire governance and planting supporters among the common folk, the sentiment in the Royal Capital quickly tilted in our favor.
“Surely, some people might be unhappy.”
Humans are greedy creatures.
Just because I haven’t taken their lives doesn’t mean they’ll feel grateful, thinking, “Oh, I was supposed to be devoured painfully, but I’m glad it ended like this.”
Not a chance!
Once something is in their pocket, they treat it as their own; that’s human nature.
Unless I put a knife to their neck again, they’ll lock in their survival as a given, continuously comparing their future lives with a more plentiful past and whining about it.
These humans surely won’t be thrilled about offering blood to Vampires.
“But individual feelings don’t matter.”
Even intelligent and principled people can be ignorant as a crowd.
That’s the psychology of the masses. Few can boldly shout “NO” when everyone else is screaming “YES,” even if it’s clearly wrong.
That’s how the humans’ situation was.
Looking around, everyone seemed relieved to be alive and accepting of Vampire rule more than expected.
In such circumstances, how many humans would bravely shout for true freedom at the cost of their lives?
Not even a handful.
If there were that many humans capable of shaking the Vampires’ position, the Royal Capital wouldn’t have fallen into my hands in the first place.
Once we seriously began the merger, the work progressed without a hitch.
The nobles staying in the Royal Capital opened their territories, and the far-off nobles from their factions mostly declared their surrender.
One week after the speech, more than 90% of Bertica Kingdom’s territory effectively fell into my hands.
On the 8th day, I set out to clean up the remaining 10%.
Honestly, the cleanup mostly involved travel time, and there wasn’t a single city where the actual fighting exceeded three hours.
By the 17th day, I received news of victory along with word that the entire Bertica Kingdom was finally under my control, accompanied by unexpected news from the last city conquered.
“Commander Kanak Deivalt? Did he really say that?”
“Yes. A Beastman introducing himself as Kanak Deivalt requested to meet Lady Aria. According to the field commander, he initially refused without a thought, but since he surrendered the city without resistance, and claimed to have a prior acquaintance with Lady Aria, he wanted to request a judgment in this case. Do you have any hints about this?”
I never imagined hearing that name again in a place like this, but I certainly remembered it.
Kanak Deivalt.
He was the warrior leading the Beastman Resistance Army while I was hiding in the Mist Labyrinth with Eleonora.
“He’s alive.”
I heard that while organizing the cities that had not declared surrender through communications, they found a small town in the far southwest that was outside the control of the local lord.
And it turned out the small town was occupied by the Beastman Resistance Army led by Kanak.
I thought the Resistance Army had retreated to the far west when Albresia fell, but it seemed they had rapidly captured a little town that had become relatively defenseless due to the two-pronged attack by Sahelrn Duchy and Helraig Duchy from the east and northwest amidst the chaos.
“Anyway, I know the name. Are they our allies…? I can’t give a definitive answer.”
As Elenora, who experienced the scene with me, nodded, I briefly explained what had happened in the Mist Labyrinth to the rest of the gang, who were clueless.
When I mentioned how Kanak had dared to test the relationship between Eleonora and me, I barely calmed Plona’s eyebrows, which shot up menacingly, and cautiously sought their opinions.
“So, what do you think?”
“Are you asking whether to kill or spare them?”
“Well… that’s up to their answer, but do you think the Resistance Army would choose to come under my command?
For me, the organization of the Beastman Resistance Army isn’t really a threat I need to worry about, no matter what they do.
Kanak was someone I fought and defeated three years ago.
I don’t know if the Resistance Army has grown during this time, but I’m confident I could take on the entire Beastman Resistance Army by myself and finish within an hour at most.
However, my faction already has Beastmen freed from slavery.
Though I declared I’d treat anyone loyal to me fairly, regardless of their race, that statement likely hasn’t reached the individuals involved yet.
If I allow the existence of the Resistance Army to go unchecked, there might be some Beastmen under my command thinking of defecting to them; yet, if I attack them without hesitation, there’s a chance even my own might feel uneasy because they share the same race.
The best scenario would be for the Resistance Army to willingly follow me, but frankly, I don’t know Kanak well enough to be confident about what decision he might make.
“Still, given how they surrendered the city as soon as they saw our army, they don’t seem entirely opposed to following.”
“That’s true, but the issue is how much they know about our situation. The extreme ideology of expanding a exploitation structure with Vampires as the ruling class across the continent isn’t something easily accepted from the perspective of another race.”
I added a little personal opinion to Martini’s words.
The Beastmen under my command were those I personally liberated, so if they didn’t want to die, they had no choice but to swear obedience; however, the Resistance Army, which had retained an independent organizational structure for a long time, is a different story.
“Should we just kill them all, sister?”
Before the subordinate Beastmen could even get confused, Plona raised her hand to ask about roundly executing them, her demeanor looking terrible.
This girl was clearly annoyed at Kanak having dared to provoke me.
“Just hold on for now.”
Maybe I should leave it as an option for emergency situations. After all, they’ve said that unnoticed decisions lead to assassination.
Just then, Eleonora cautiously shared her opinion.
“I have observed the Beastman Resistance Army tends not to engage in unwinnable fights. If they regarded meeting the master as a potential fracture in their relationship, wouldn’t they have retreated and escaped instead of asking to meet in the first place?”
“That makes sense.”
It sounded plausible upon reflection. Given who said it, I couldn’t help but trust it.
Eleonora had worked among the Beastman Resistance Army during the day.
Since she had a lot of contact time, Eleonora probably understood Kanak and the other Beastmen better than I did, meaning she was the most knowledgeable about them in this group gathered here.
“Certainly.”
Kanak was unexpectedly cautious for his size.
As Eleonora said, the fact that they asked for a meeting after calculating their pros and cons implies they found something worth salvaging.
“Okay. Tell them to bring him over.”
“Should we just bring the commander, or the entire Resistance Army?”
“Let them decide how they want to handle it.”
If it were the latter, I wouldn’t be able to hide the fact that I contacted the Resistance Army, making things a bit cumbersome if things went wrong; but then again, so would they.
Having the entire Resistance Army come to my doorstep essentially means volunteering themselves as hostages, so in that case, it could be interpreted as they have no intent of hostility.
*
“Was it really you, Progenitor…?”
With a look mixed with disillusionment and bewilderment, akin to someone who was belligerently claiming the end of the world next year only to face the actual event, Kanak Deivalt finally spoke up after a long silence.
“Yes. Scarlett is just an alias. You managed to recognize me, though.”
“…Considering you disappeared right after the Luminous Church visited the Mist Labyrinth, and shortly after there was an announcement from the Palace of Progenitor’s death, I can’t see how I wouldn’t. You likely made a simple disguise, but with that much information, I couldn’t possibly miss it.”
It was hard to imagine this Beastman using honorifics towards me, but perhaps because he naturally had a military style, there wasn’t much discomfort aside from a slight bow in his first words.
Given that his attitude is distinctly different from when we were in the Mist Labyrinth, I decided to lend some credence to the theory that Kanak had no intention of causing any conflict.
Of course, how many heroes in this continent can boldly say whatever they want while there are countless Vampires like Plona glaring at them?
“So, what was the reason you wanted to meet me?”
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