Chapter 82 - Elisia (2)

What would happen if we detonated the “rift” that drove the North to the brink of destruction not outside, but inside?

Feeling interest welling up, I asked Siren to cause as large a rift as possible.

"Okay, got it."

At my words, Liana beside me looked at me with a shocked expression, then quickly blocked Siren's path and cried out urgently, "W-wait a moment! You're going to cause a rift here? Why?"

She looked at me with a reaction that seemed to make no sense at all, and I answered her as if it were obvious, "It's fun."

"...?"

Hearing my words, Liana stared at me with a blank expression.

At that reaction that seemed to make no sense at all, I smiled slightly and told her the real reason.

"I'm joking. I think doing this can cause great confusion for the North side."

By the way, I got inspiration for this method from the black mages.

Seeing how they used demon race to cause a 'war', then created a huge shadow city in the port city of Chetica, I realized that when attacking someone using those unrelated to me, the things that happen afterwards tend to be buried for the most part.

And even if it does come to light…

There was a tendency for those who attacked them to be framed, rather than thinking I might be the culprit.

So I decided to use this to gift the North with a rift.

When I told Liana this, she flustered and said to me,

"...B-but isn't this too risky?"

"It's dangerous, but... it's fine."

"What?"

"What does it matter when Loraine is here?"

"Ah."

"And there's one thing I want to confirm."

The Grand Duke of the North who took no action.

That was, Lakerik Wintreaven, the head of the Wintreaven family and Elisia's father.

I became curious whether he would act or not even after seeing a rift occur in his territory.

If he takes no action even after causing a problem...

There was a high chance he was in a situation where he couldn't move, or there was some other problem.

If that were the case, I could do some quite fun things, so I decided to quickly experiment and asked Siren to cause a rift.

***

The North was an extremely closed group due to its harsh environment.

Without mutual bonds, they would often be wiped out by the fierce beasts and monsters of the North.

If they didn't efficiently distribute the woefully insufficient resources, everyone would die.

So in the North, internal bonds were so strong that to others it felt like closedness.

Their unity and connectivity were extremely high compared to other groups, but…

The problem would be when issues arise internally.

Connections break down into suspicion.

Strong bonds become a curse that strangles each other's necks and drives everyone to death.

So when causing a rift like this... quite interesting things were bound to happen.

I watched this from a distance while eating snacks.

Since monsters appearing from inside was an uncommon occurrence, I saw that no one thought to deal with it and just ran away.

Thinking this was quite fun, I was eating snacks when Siren, who was sticking close beside me, was drinking a beverage and looked up at me blankly and asked a question. "So are you going to detonate Elisia now?"

At that question, I pondered for a moment then shook my head.

"Not yet. There are still some things I need to do."

"Like what?"

At Siren's question, I fed Daisy who was making "myeong myeong" sounds some snacks and continued speaking, "First, gathering the church side and black mage guys to the North? I think it would be better to kill as many enemies as possible when detonating."

"Ah."

"And above all, there are still many things I haven't extracted if I detonate right away."

If detonation itself was the goal, I would have already detonated long ago.

The reason I deliberately gave Elisia power and made her crawl into the North was not only to use Elisia to bring down the North, but to extract as much as possible from Elisia.

And now that trajectory has risen.

Deciding to use Elisia to do various actions, I took out the shadow box I had put in the shadows.

Seeing this, Ruen asked me with a voice that seemed to say "surely not",

"Just in case I'm asking... it's not that, is it?"

It seemed she had guessed what this was, so I smiled brightly and said, "It probably is."

"..."

I tapped on the shadow box.

No, to be precise, recalling the woman who tormented Ruen with thumbtacks and knives, I tapped the box.

"I don't know her name, but it's that one I brought last time."

At my words, Ruen stared at me blankly.

Looking at Ruen like that, I briefly continued speaking, "I'm not sure, but I thought it would be good for her to pay for her crimes."

At my words, Ruen looked at me with a somewhat complicated expression.

Seeing Ruen's face, I suddenly felt mischievous and poked her cheek.

"...?!"

Ruen made a very flustered expression at my action.

Then, seeming to think she couldn't lose, she bit my finger.

Though I said bit, it would be more accurate to say she put it in her mouth.

Because she didn't bite with her teeth, but just put it in her mouth and stared at me intently.

"I ween." 

Then she looked at me with a very proud expression.

I was somewhat flustered by Ruen's actions and smiled awkwardly, when Siren, who had been watching this behavior from the side, lowered her eyes and said to Ruen,

"Pervert. Pigsy."

"Myeok?!"

"I wasn't talking about you, ultra-giant fatty Pigsy."

"Myeong? Myaang."

Hearing the conversation from the side, Ruen seemed to belatedly realize what she had done and hurriedly released my finger from her mouth.

As I felt the warmth remaining on my finger and was pondering what to do, Loraine, who had been watching this, said to us with a bright red face,

"Y-Young people these days play so intensely..."

Loraine also fell within the category of young people, but I decided not to mention it and awkwardly turned my gaze, when Liana sighed, shook her head, and said to us, "So what was the plan you were going to do?"

At that question, thinking it would be good to get to the main point now, I nodded and explained the plan I had come up with.

"I want to expand the game."

"The game?"

I nodded and slowly continued speaking. "I didn't know she would do this well, but currently Elisia is absorbing the North's forces faster than expected."

The black magic that had been on Elisia for a long time.

That was, whether it was because the things placed by the eldest son's forces had all disappeared,

Or because she obtained warmth, the key to reversing the situation, I wasn’t sure.

One thing for certain was that she was seizing control of the North faster than expected using the cards she held.

Normally I would have been satisfied with this and detonated, but…

Seeing the enemies I encountered in the port city this time, I had one thought.

If I don't do a large-scale sweep of enemies including black mages, the thought that I could really lose my companions.

Fortunately, we were able to rescue everyone with just some light torture, but...

If the enemies had aimed for our deaths and attempted assassination or kidnapping…

There was an extremely high chance we would have encountered the cold corpses of our companions.

So to prepare for this as well,

To start a full-scale war soon, it seemed good to do work to considerably reduce the enemy forces.

So I decided to mix in other guys while detonating Elisia and detonate them all.

And the one who will be used for that is this guy.

I raised the corners of my mouth, recalling the one I had put in the shadow box.

This guy was going to be given the task of delivering our words from now on, and was going to take on all responsibility and consequences.

I'll have to think about the details more, but...

One thing for certain was that using this guy, we could not only complicate the situation in various ways, but also do some quite fun things.

When I told my companions this, they all looked at me with reluctant reactions.

Or to be precise, should I say the companions excluding Siren?

Siren just nonchalantly answered, "Let's do it" and nodded.

She didn't seem to care at all why I was trying to do this or what repercussions there might be.

When I asked her why she was like that, Siren answered me as if it were obvious, "I want to do everything Damian wants to do. So just tell me anything, I'll do it all."

"Thank you."

"Yeah."

Siren looked at me with sparkling eyes, happy to hear my thanks.

I was smiling awkwardly looking at this when suddenly Liana pulled on my clothes and said, "Lord Damian, Elisia has come over there."

"I guess she came to deal with the rift being created."

"Yes. And... Lord Dale is there too."

Seeing Elisia whose expression had become quite good, I decided to give her one gift.

For now, deciding to throw a surprise party to mean I was glad to meet her, I said to Siren beside me, "Siren, can you stop the power of the artificial sun for a moment?"

Thinking I was curious what her reaction would be if she suddenly couldn't use the artificial sun power she had been using so well, I raised the corners of my mouth.