Chapter 66
If the system had cast brainwashing on the Male Leads.
Were the Original Male Leads already brainwashed?
“It probably wasn”t.'
I concluded the answer was “probably not”.
If so, this phenomenon should have been continuously happening before.
Looking at the Grand Duke of the North, he didn’t have any Pink Aura.
Rather, he resurrected even while saying he shouldn’t die, and even his Future Appearance came out in that state.
In other words, it was a sight far from suggesting he was brainwashed.
The same goes for Teo, who is currently working faithfully under me.
“In the first place, the Second Prince and the Grand Duke of the East should have been acting strangely too.”
The things happening right now were, so far, incidents that applied only to Eiloren.
To be exact, it could be seen as “limited to the Late-Introduced Male Lead”.
That was why I worried about the Northern Great Warrior first.
But then again, he had taken the place of the Grand Duke of the North, in the case of the Northern Great Warrior.
Since he had already met Mirne, I judged that the possibility of something like this happening was extremely low.
Then the variables I should worry about the most right now would be the Beastfolk and the Prince of the Eastern Continent, whose Inner Intimacy would even at this moment be building up in real time.
I had a feeling that if I met these two later, they would be enemies unconditionally.
Eiloren at least had the possibility of ending well since we met early.
It was right to view Characters whose Brainwashing Process was already finished as obvious enemies.
“You still have a chance, Eiloren.”
Therefore,
“Hold on and don’t die.”
Right now, Eiloren is a talent I absolutely had to recruit.
The only person who could let me know the entire process of how the brainwashing was done.
He absolutely must not die.
Bang!
I had to focus on Subjugation without killing him.
This was a method of striking with the flat of the blade rather than slashing with the Sword Wreathed in Flames.
To put it simply, it was like swinging a Flaming Club.
On the other hand, Eiloren’s combat style was.
“Spirits!!!”
It was an Overwhelming Firepower Push that made the word 'ignorant' come out automatically.
Normally, he would never fight like this.
He was pulling out every Spirit he had and just pouring them all out.
It was like using a character without knowing how to control them properly.
This was a style of just blindly throwing out strong attacks without any knowledge of combos.
It heavily gave off the feeling that he was undergoing Manipulation rather than acting on his own ego.
'Ha.'
It even used Save & Load when it didn’t like the plot development.
And now it is trying to move the Characters exactly to its liking.
“I can understand why the Crown Prince’s motivation gradually broke every time he regressed.”
If he experienced this phenomenon every time he regressed, it seemed hard to keep a sane mind.
If an entity you couldn’t oppose kept interfering every time you tried to do something, it would be mentally debilitating.
No matter how strong your sense of duty was, your mind would inevitably wear down.
Besides.
“Does it not even cherish him?”
As if the system was trying to kill Eiloren if things went wrong.
It stubbornly continued to fight in Close Combat.
Even though it was right to widen the distance and use Check when handling a Spirit.
Without considering the advantage of combining a Spirit and a bow, the character continued to charge forward.
If it were just this, I would have just let it be.
Clack.
“Draw your sword! Crown Prince! I am trying to kill you! Do you think it’s right to face me with a scabbard?”
Eiloren was trying to snatch my scabbard.
He was inducing me to face him with a real sword so that he could take a fatal wound and die if things went wrong.
“First drive me away because I’m a hindrance, and if that doesn’t work, just die?”
The sequence of events is starting from Hypnosis and brainwashing, now moving on to Manipulation, and even Inducing Death.
It was a course of action reminiscent of some Cthulhu Outer God.
“Is Lovecraft also love, is that it?”
Leaving the funny joke behind.
I immediately focused on the battle.
Smack.
The moment I tried to strike Eiloren’s jaw with the scabbard to knock him out.
I saw Eiloren intentionally thrusting his body so his neck would be hit instead of his jaw.
'Crazy.'
I immediately turned the scabbard horizontally instead of vertically and changed the attack target to Eiloren’s abdomen.
“Keugh!”
To think he was struggling against death even when I was trying to use Subjugation.
It was a good thing the Power Gap was overwhelmingly different.
If we had been evenly matched, I would have had to kill Eiloren just as the system wanted.
“He must have had no choice but to kick away the opportunity to get a bunch of hints right in front of him, simply because he was weak.”
Suddenly, I wondered if this was why the Crown Prince had prepared a sword for the next time.
How many such opportunities must there have been during his countless regressions?
“Is my current power meant for that?”
But if so, why on earth did he act like such a pushover even with this kind of power?
Did a Resting Time exist separately even during the regression process?
Did I possess him during a regression meant to recover his exhausted mind from countless regressions?
“But if he didn”t prepare like that, why did the Emperor disappear?'
How is it that not a single proper question gets resolved, and only the question marks keep increasing?
Muttering like that inwardly, I widened the distance while Eiloren staggered from the hit.
“This is tricky.”
Killing him is easy, but Subjugation is difficult.
Because whenever I try to use Subjugation, he just blindly charges in, wanting to die.
The key was that I had to control my strength while taking even that into consideration.
The problem was that I had never done that before.
The Crown Prince’s power, if compared to a weapon, was simply a nuke.
Can you hit gently with a nuke? It just explodes and that’s it.
“Huu.”
Taking a short breath.
I changed my mind.
If I kept hitting him weakly, I would only waste time and needlessly drain my mental energy.
Rather, I should just.
“I can only pray he doesn’t die.”
I need to relentlessly drive him into a corner.
Grab!
“Ugh!”
While tightly gripping Eiloren’s head, I slammed him straight into the floor.
Crash!
In the current situation, it was hard to expect support from either the World Tree or Pavan.
This was because in a situation forced by the system, the Characters received ridiculous restrictions.
If it were a movie, it would be like the guards showing up only after the incident was completely over.
Ruuuumble.
Holding Eiloren’s head, I continued to dig into the underground.
“R-rather… kill me… kill meeee…!”
Was it the system saying this, or was it the true feelings of Eiloren who was undergoing Manipulation?
“You won’t be able to move rashly now.”
Our current location was somewhere underground.
The only exit was a single tunnel above my head.
The retreat path was completely blocked.
“Huu.”
I let out a short breath.
I had to recall the sensation of slashing the system floating above Mirne.
I can slash it. I’ve already slashed it, and there will be many situations like this in the future.
- Killing a god is not enough.
- Something more than a god…
- We must cut down what we have not known until now.
- Please make a sword for that.
The conversation the Crown Prince once had with Gilbart replayed in my head.
The Crown Prince knew of the system’s existence.
Either he knew and fell into despair, becoming a pushover.
Or this regression really was his Resting Time.
I don’t know exactly.
But what is certain is that he tried to oppose it.
Srrng.
Reviving the memory of when I slashed the system, I beat Eiloren.
“Ugh!”
I literally had to beat him.
There was no time to focus and strike carefully.
I had to either drive it out using the power that slashed the system or use Subjugation.
I prayed and prayed that Eiloren was sturdy.
Right now, this is the only method I can think of.
Craaash!
Using the World Tree Root as a wall, I continued to pummel Eiloren.
[ The system resists. ]
[ It does its best to hold onto Eiloren’s mind. ]
[ It forcibly awakens Eiloren’s mind and makes him look forward. ]
Numerous messages popped up.
And at the same time.
- Someday, the person who will cut it will come.
“…”
The Crown Prince’s unknown words suddenly brushed past my mind.
What did it mean that the person who will cut it will come?
Behind those thoughts.
Thud.
Eiloren’s head drooped.
It wasn’t twisted or anything.
There was a movement that looked like a state of fainting.
The Pink Aura was no longer visible on his body either.
“…For a complicated situation, the process itself was clean.”
I finished it by beating him up.
If it was going to be like this, why did I even wrap my sword in fire?
Fwoosh.
Around the time I was having those thoughts.
“Huh.”
I stared at the flames wrapped around my hand.
I didn’t even know when they had wrapped around it.
“There are too many secrets in this body too.”
Muttering like that, I hoisted Eiloren onto my back.
[ Eiloren has greatly deviated from the Original Plot Development. ]
[ If he does not meet Mirne in the near future, he will lose his “Male Lead Qualification”. ]
Messages appeared as if the situation had perfectly ended.
“He has to meet Mirne to maintain his Male Lead Qualification.”
How is that any different from having to regularly face a brainwashing influence, seriously?
Does that mean I have to periodically bring Eiloren into contact with Mirne from now on in order to extract information?
“What on earth is your true identity, Mirne?”
With those words, I came out of the tunnel and laid Eiloren down on the floor.
At that moment, Pavan, who had regained his senses as if he had been waiting, approached my side.
“I apologize, Your Highness. I… I ended up losing consciousness.”
“No, I understand. It couldn’t be helped, so you don’t need to apologize.”
Anyway, I need to transplant the World Tree too.
Is this something I should do after Eiloren wakes up?
“I’ve put out the Urgent Matter for now.”
I should rest for a moment.
It was the moment I came to that conclusion and sat my butt on a protruding World Tree Root.
Kieeeek!!!
“Pirande?”
How could it pierce through the Barrier?
As if it were a real phoenix, Pirande flew to my side, fluttering flames.
But right now, caring about why it came was more important than how it came.
I immediately pulled out the letter tied to Pirande’s leg and unfolded it.
“Ha.”
I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh at the short and intense sentence.
[ Mirne, currently in the Western Region Conquest War ]
You’re finally revealing your true colors, Mirne.
Are you increasing your weight class to properly go up against the Empire?
“I’ll have to properly show why the Empire is an Empire.”
This is to Mirne, who doesn’t know how I stopped the war through Save & Load.
The time has come to once again show the gap between the Empire and the Maselin Kingdom.
“Things won”t go your way.'
While I’m at it, I should also give her a chance to meet our Gardener #1.