Chapter 199: Descendant
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: imperfectluck
The Mist Alliance. With the birth of this new faction, some things needed to be settled.
And this was designating tactical combat areas and dividing the land of the Mist Alliance into several districts. If this wasn’t drawn up immediately, there would probably be endless internal squabbles about it.
The first to be decided was the location of the headquarters, or perhaps I should call it the capital.
There were quite a few choices. Diffindor and Antuen were both excellent candidates.
The former was the Law God Wumianzhe’s holy ground, the Crimeless Capital. It was also very appropriate for the Law God’s special characteristics, and it could definitely serve as the new capital. At the very least, if it was chosen as the capital, I wouldn’t have to worry about the citizens’ popular support or how to defend the place.
“Just try attacking the Law God’s holy ground. There will be ability users in Law classes awaiting you with powers magnified by several folds, and perhaps even Wumianzhe himself will descend to the mortal plane and deal with you.”
If Diffindor was the capital, it would be almost impossible for others to attack it, which was quite attractive. Especially from a personal standpoint—I also hoped that Diffindor would be able to rapidly rebuild itself with the Mist Alliance’s resources and become the glorious northern city it was in the past, but obviously Diffindor wasn’t the best choice for a capital.
As for the latter choice, Antuen—it was the largest city in the entire Northlands. Business and engineering were both highly developed here, and thanks to a certain person’s surrender, this city was mostly spared from the fires of war. Relatively little investment would help this city flourish again.
With our rise in political status, this long-famed business capital would surely improve, using its already well-oiled merchant and business trade systems. Add the no-tariff policy between the Mist Alliance member countries and Antuen would likely become a business metropolis in the future.
Even though there were many advantages to these two locations, in the end, I could only helplessly abandon both cities as options for becoming the capital of the Mist Alliance. I ended up choosing Red Maple City.
Yep, I chose this ruined city that was nothing but devastated rubbish. This was originally only a second-tier city in the Sleuweir Kingdom to begin with, with its most famous site being the Battle History Museum. After this battle, perhaps the Battle History Museum would vastly improve its collection.
After over two months of fighting plus the cruel guerilla warfare that had taken place within the city itself, with even two Gods descending upon this place, calling this city devastated rubbish was already praising it. Making this location into the capital was basically no different to creating a capital on empty land, but in the end, I still chose Red Maple City.
Why? This was the only appropriate location.
Even though the Mist Alliance would, of course, have the People of the Mist at the center, its final goal was to create a non-aggression alliance involving numerous species and many countries. If I chose Antuen or Diffindor as the capital, which was either the Eastern Mist Communal Country’s or Sleuweir Kingdom’s capital to begin with, it would seem too politically biased.
This would only result in the other countries having reservations about joining the Mist Alliance, and it wouldn’t be helpful for the People of the Mist and the other species to live among each other with equality. And so, I could only abandon these two oh-so-tempting choices as a capital city.
Politically speaking, choosing this main battlefield location in the Northlands, where various races and various countries allied together to resist against the invaders, would at least give those who participated in battle a sense of intimacy about the place.
Perhaps it would even give the other countries the impression that the Mist Alliance would exist as a separate entity, and that there wouldn’t be too much backlash against joining the Mist Alliance. Accomplishing that would be my greatest political victory.
Of course, since Sleuweir Kingdom and Eastern Mist Communal Country with the People of the Mist constituted the foundation of the Mist Alliance, it was, of course, impossible for the other countries to gain a complete independence, but at the very least it had to appear so on the surface.
However, even if I set Red Maple City as the capital, I wouldn’t abandon Antuen and Diffindor. Diffindor, which was almost impossible to attack, may be relatively out of the way and poorer, but it could definitely become a logistical as well as military and technology center. And, its special status as the Crimeless City would help it become the headquarters of the Church of Law as well as act like Sulfur Mountain City in the past and create an example of a place where many races could live together in peace, attracting more believers to the Church of Law.
As for Sleuweir’s Antuen, just letting it continue to develop as a business center was plenty. Of course, I still had a series of plans, but I’ll talk about those some other time.
From the current development of Diffindor in the south, Red Maple City in the center, and Antuen in the north, I could already expect that they would become three major cities of the lifeline of the Mist Alliance. In fact, I was even beginning to consider creating scheduled floating airship transports between each city, since these three locations would be the first to become the People of the Mist’s dreamland. The already destroyed Mist Kingdom was beginning to revive itself in this way.
Of course, ideas were beautiful but reality was always cruel. My plan was for ten years later, and the current Red Maple City before me was nothing but a pile of rubble.
Today, while the entire city was still bathed in the afterglow of joy from victory, in a certain three-story building that remained standing in Red Maple City, there were guards and hidden sentries posted everywhere. They were only three to five steps away from each other, and this building was heavily guarded.
This used to be a place that Red Maple City had given the Eastern Mist People to live, but now, it was given over to Olive, Dimlet, Amelia, and the other skilled technicians as a logistical and research base.
Intermittent explosions and sounds of agony kept sounding out from this place along with even the occasional large fire or mushroom cloud, and this why most citizens treated this place like the plague and didn’t dare approach it, even though it was relatively peaceful now after the battle.
There was a reason for the current heavy guard on this place. An incredibly significant surgery was occurring, and all the characters involved were very important. No accidents would be permitted.
And since Amelia was the surgeon, it wouldn’t be wrong to describe this as an experiment, either.
The large and spacious room was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
There were no unnecessary people in this empty room. Even if this surgery’s difficulty level was rather high, Amelia still trusted her own trained tentacle vine assistants rather than newbie assistants that would make many mistakes.
This was a classic witch’s room, with voodoo dolls, scarecrows, live lizards in glass jars, various strange drawings that made people think of vicious magical curses, and of course, it had a huge medicinal cauldron, which was basically the hallmark of a witch.
Strange magical runes were etched onto that pitch-black cauldron, and the thick black liquid within it emanated a revolting stench that was almost impossible to withstand.
The things floating on top were even more disgusting; there were dead cats, some dark-green herbs, a strange assortment of gems, and living plants that were still shrieking in agony. Perhaps not a single person in this world would want to drink a single sip of this broth.
At the current moment, Amelia, who was all raring to go, wasn’t using her typical tools. She was instead using a precision saw to saw away at some mysterious unidentifiable green creature.
“Hah! I finally finished it.”
Amelia breathed a sigh of relief as she put down the precision saw; she had finally managed to slice off a bloody hunk of light-green flesh. She then immediately proceeded to toss that piece of flesh, which was still bleeding green blood, straight into the cauldron, causing a green mist to arise. A potted plant sitting close by the cauldron instantly withered to death.
“Hey, this isn’t right. Isn’t this clearly some toxic poison? Hey, Amelia, just what are you intending to do? Didn’t I ask you for a surgery—what are you doing here creating a toxic poison?”
As the person currently undergoing this surgery, I felt endlessly regret for my decision. However, I had been injected with a large amount of numbing medicine and had a paralysis spell, with the strength to paralyze even a winter wolf, cast on me. I couldn’t feel anything at all below my neck.
That was why even though I felt that something was off about Amelia’s actions, I could only lie on the bed and not move even an inch. I was only able to shout at the top of my lungs, full of regret.
“I should have gone to find Margaret. Damn it, where did they run off to now? Hey, Amelia, how could these things possibly have anything to do with the surgery I requested? You surely don’t intend to take revenge on me with this opportunity, do you?”
When I saw how the witch was foolishly grinning as she used that saw to stir the contents of the cauldron, my suspicions were stoked even further. After all, I seriously infuriated Amelia and Lily not too long ago.
After the matter, I had immediately apologized as sincerely as I could, and I even wrote a three-hundred-page essay on why that perverted prince’s actions had no connection to me whatsoever, but sometimes women wouldn’t see anything in their rage and would only look at the result they desired. At times like these, talking reason would actually be illogical.
But I was still in a better situation than someone else, since, at the very least, I could move my head after being numbed and paralyzed. The other person to receive this surgery was laying by my side, and she couldn’t even move her head.
Clint (Glina) was chained and tied up tightly. Her always fearless eyes were now filled with terror, and sounds of whining could be heard from her tightly gagged mouth. Even though she was struggling, I knew that she definitely wouldn’t be able to break free. Why did I know? Because I was the one who tied her up…
Cough, I did it at the time just to prevent her from escaping, which was why I used special tying techniques and an especially strong rope. Who knew that I would soon be in the same situation? By the way, even though this method of tying was supposed to be the best way to accentuate the breasts, she was still just as flat as always.
“Uuuu!”
Her face was filled with rage as she seemed to detect the regret and pity in my eyes, but right after that she suddenly began to blink rapidly. Judging from how she pointed her gaze somewhere down on her body, she seemed to want me to look there as well, but just a single look startled me greatly.
“You want me to look below your waist? Hmm? What are you lifting up? A red wire—you actually put explosives there! You’re not afraid of exploding yourself to death?”
As expected of a natural-born explosives maniac. Under her long lace skirt, an array of yellow explosives was actually tied to her snow-white legs. A veritable armory of dangerous explosives lay under her skirt.
As the queen of a country, Glina was rather outlandish in her own way. She still spent most of her energy in her favorite hobby—creating new explosives.
However, the maids and officials in the palace wouldn’t allow the queen to play with explosives every day, but she would never listen to reason as she lacked a feeling of safety without explosives. This was why she decided to simply hide the explosives in an obvious location; nobody would, of course, dare touch her.
“You mean I should pull the wire and activate the small bomb? Explode through the ropes?”
Glina nodded continuously. She was trying her utmost to lift her skirt, and she kept staring at the smallest explosive tied to her body, which was the explosive with only a tiny amount of power—perfect for this situation.
“Three mandrake grasses, two cursed demons, and these precious mushrooms. Hehe! This will be delicious.”
And so, I could only prop myself on my chin and slowly move my head towards Glina’s thigh. Why does this description sound so perverted? Okay, let’s try again. I did my best to put my mouth against a certain place on a little girl’s thigh… fine, this sounds even more perverted. I might as well not say anything.
When her snowy-white thigh appeared right before my eyes, I was dazed for a moment; I felt like I now had an entirely new dark history. But since I had come to this point, this was no time to hesitate.
If the action of me sticking my head up Glina’s skirt just happened to be discovered by someone, and this action that appeared like me licking Glina’s thighs was publicized, my reputation would be ruined.
“Roland! What are you doing!?”
I was instantly shocked to hear this. Wasn’t this Elisa’s voice? I brought my head out of Glina’s skirt, only to see that it was my demon girlfriend indeed, but her countenance was filled with rage.
“I thought something terrible happened to you. I was always wondering why you suddenly took in an adopted daughter! So it turned out you were planning on committing incest with her!”
*Boom!*
Okay, this sound wasn’t caused by someone hitting me. Since Elisa was the one who saw me, I knew that I would at least live, but this was just far too humiliating. I didn’t know how to explain my actions, so I decided to just smash my head against the wall and knock myself unconscious.
When I dazedly woke up from my deep sleep, I heard Elisa and Amelia having a discussion.
“…You think I’m making some magic medicine? Hehehe! Take a look, this is my recipe for magical cooking that I invented myself! See, isn’t it really convenient? You don’t need all sorts of complicated steps; all you have to do is add the ingredients, cook, and eat. This surgery will take a minimum of ten hours, and I can’t stop in the middle, so I need to first prepare my dinner and midnight snacks.”
“What’s that green object? It looks really disgusting.”
“Green dragon meat, of course. Although the meat’s a little tough, it’s still pretty good.”
“…Is it actually delicious?”
“Incredibly so! As long as you cook it a little, its aroma will even overflow. Would you like a taste?”
“Poison Detection!”
Elisa mercilessly used a Poison Detection spell, and to the surprise of nobody, the spell’s color turned pitch-black, indicating the highest, most toxic level of poison.
“Oh my, sorry about that. I forgot that you probably can’t eat poison. To me, eating is just a habit now; only the most poisonous ingredients seem like delicacies to me. Heh heh, I can live just by photosynthesis alone if I want to, and poisons are completely unable to enter my system. This soup is excellent for the skin and complexion, but I temporarily forgot that you’re a fragile living creature, and I almost poisoned you to death. Sorry about that!”
Even though Amelia was apologizing, judging from her expression that seemed to portray that this was all was only natural, she was completely insincere in her apology. Right after this, however, Elisa was unwilling to show weakness as she took a bowl of that pitch-black soup and downed it in one go.
“Ick! Disgusting! With such cooking skills, I think I know why you haven’t been able to get married.”
“Disgusting? You dare insult my cooking skills!? Hmph. It’s obviously so nutritious and delicious; there must be something wrong with your taste buds.”
“How about we find a third party to judge the taste then? What about that bastard lolicon who just poked his head under a little girl’s skirt, or that pervert who obviously woke up but is pretending to be unconscious so he can eavesdrop? What about that bastard pervert who adopted a daughter only so he could molest her?”
If looks could kill, I would have died a thousand times. Judging from Amelia’s expression, which obviously indicated she wanted me to try her soup, I was likely to be forced to chug this “nutritious and delicious” soup that was good for the skin and complexion. I didn’t have the abilities of these two to not fear any poison, and although I would probably survive in the end, who would want to undergo a full intestinal cleaning like that?
*Smack!*
And so, without any hesitation, I whacked myself in the head again, not holding back at all. At the very least, I didn’t intend to wake up again until the surgery was completed.
“Would you like to become my adopted daughter?”
For someone like me who was used to taking action only after making careful plans, how could I possibly say something so casually? To be honest, I really did have some reasons for taking Glina as my adopted daughter.
“I definitely can’t let Glina and Reyne become Karwenz’s vessels anymore. I need to cut off any information leaks from them to Karwenz immediately.”
Even though Karwenz ended up helping us this time, his main goal was to punish Lorci, who had broken too many rules. I had no way of knowing which side he would stand on next time.
And both descendants of the Mist were obviously important. If either of them were drawn into the Chaos Abyss, it would be an irrecoverable loss. Dealing with the problem of them both being demonic descendants was an urgent matter; otherwise, there would be a constant information leakage through them, and the success of any of my plans would then likely depend on Karwenz’s mood.
“Powerful demons view their direct descendants as their personal property, and in a way this description is accurate. The summons of the bloodline is impossible to resist against, and Karwenz has a huge difference in power compared to Reyne and Glina, which can neutralize any efforts of resistance to begin with. But, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a way.”
There were quite a few demonic descendants in the mortal plane, and mages had studied them extensively. There really was a rather clever method that could cancel out an ancestor demon’s control over his own descendants.
“For demonic descendants, there’s a Soul Rope tied to their soul that can’t be untied unless they die. And even if they die, the soul will probably be tugged into hell by this Soul Rope. But, we can change the person holding on to the Soul Rope. As long as we use a source of demonic power that’s equal or greater, then there’s a way to overtake the original individual controlling the Soul Rope.”
“For instance, a Flame Demon’s descendant can be injected with a Demon Lord’s blood, and this blood transfusion can turn this person into a double demonic descendant. After that, the stronger Demon Lord bloodline will naturally suppress the Flame Demon’s bloodline, which is the same thing as canceling out the Flame Demon’s control over his descendant. After that, as long as the Demon Lord is killed off as well, there will be nothing to worry about anymore.”
I had to say, the mage who came up with this idea was a genius. This person perfectly used the nature of demonic blood where the strong would suppress the weak, but there was just a small hitch for us.
“I can’t find any demons higher-ranking than Karwenz as he’s the Abyssal Prince. From a theoretical standpoint, only the Chaos Abyss itself is higher ranked than him. Even if we find a demon stronger than Karwenz, it probably still won’t work. Besides, we can’t deal with demons stronger than Karwenz, either.”
But, in a way, we still managed to discover a method that couldn’t really be called a method.
“If we can’t suppress it by force, then we can try using a roundabout method to trick the Soul Rope.”
Karwenz and I had incredibly similar soul wavelengths. If I transformed into a demon, my demonic blood should be very similar to his, and if you only looked at our ranks, my Original Sin Demon form wouldn’t be lower than the Abyssal Prince at all. And since my demonic blood was the same source as Karwenz’s, it could possibly even fool the Soul Rope into believing I was the master. After locking on to the Soul Rope, I would never let go again, and Glina could be changed to become my descendant. Perhaps this would manage to cut off her connection to Karwenz.
This all sounded rather complicated, and there were many theoretical problems involved, but it was actually quite simple to accomplish. I just had to activate my Original Sin Demon form, transform into a demon of the Chaos side, and then supply my blood for a blood transfusion. If everything was successful, then this special magical ritual would change Glina from Karwenz’s descendant into Roland’s descendant.
Of course, since the two of us were twins, genetically speaking, there was no difference.
In a way, when my blood would be coursing through Glina’s body, it would truly make us have a blood relationship.
This was also why I abandoned all my worries and suggested that Glina become my adopted daughter.
I couldn’t help but faintly smile as I watched Glina, who was in a deep sleep beside me.
“Without realizing it, I suddenly have a descendant. Is this the feeling of family… Wait a moment, this scenario doesn’t seem right. Why am I happy? I’m clearly still single, and I’m suddenly going to have a blood-related daughter out of nowhere, as well as a bunch of naughty children!”
*Pop*
A bottle was suddenly placed right next to me against my ear. The black sticky liquid within it was rather familiar—wasn’t it the ‘good for skin and complexion’ soup from earlier?
“Amelia worked so hard to cook this. Please don’t waste her efforts and drink it while it’s hot.”
*Pop*
There was nothing else after the pop. Before I could even knock myself out, I was already prevented from doing so. It seemed it would no longer be possible to play the same trick three times in a row.
Chef Amelia’s face had already been stained black by the soup as well, but she was all smiles and seemed to be quite proud of her own handiwork.
“Um, no need to hurry. Drink up slowly; there’s plenty more in the cauldron. Um, does it taste good? This thick soup that tastes like a dragon and tiger fighting is something I prepared specially for you.”
Right at this moment, the cauldron happened to begin bubbling. A distorted skull floated up to the surface, and adding the black liquid before me, it created a scene that was disgusting to behold to the extreme.
“Master, the preparations for your intestinal cleaning have already been completed. Please don’t make Miss Amelia wait any longer. Rest assured, after you die, I shall go ask you how it was at the River Styx.”
“…Are you already assuming that I’m going to die? I’m so unlucky!”