Chapter 307
Having left the palace to join the construction work, I floated through the sky toward Iris, who was directing the work. She was riding something that looked like a metal platform. It was probably the magical golem Mikelo had been riding, modified for Iris.
"Ah! Izam! You finally came!"
When Iris spotted me floating in the air, she wriggled her tentacles and beckoned me over. She seemed awfully flustered. Had something happened?
"Ah, Iris? What's wrong? It's unusual for you to make such a fuss..."
"Don't ask me what's wrong! What in the world did you do? Everyone's confused!"
"Everyone...?"
As I stood there, flustered by Iris's vehemence, a Centaur man with the impressive mane and physique I had grown accustomed to approached with heavy steps. It was Regdus-dono, the Centaurs' leader.
Since this wasn't wartime, he wasn't armed. Instead, a slain monster was tied to the back of his lion body. Apparently, he had been out hunting.
A little later, a construction tactical shell carrying a Scar, a Dark Elf, and a Metallica approached us as well. Something clearly wasn't right, and I instinctively tightened my grip on my staff.
"Izam-dono, I have one question. A few minutes ago, all of us acquired the unfamiliar Title 'People of the Undead Evil Lord.' I assume this Undead Evil Lord is you, Izam-dono, but is that correct?"
Ugh!? So it affected them too!? It was obviously my fault. I had expected my companions to be affected, but I hadn't realized that Regdus-dono and the others were already being treated as my people.
Besides the Centaurs and Scars, who were going to live inside this capital, I was surprised that the Dark Elves and Metallicas had that Title as well. I had wondered about it during my evolution, but it seemed that, according to the system, even the Dark Elves' village and the Metallicas' city were considered to be under my influence. I doubted that was really the case, but I should investigate what had become of their original homes, just in case.
"By the way, the same Title appeared for me too."
"Indeed... There is no point in hiding it. I evolved just now and became a Chaos Abyss Dragonbone Undead Evil Lord. So the 'Undead Evil Lord' mentioned in the Title must refer to me. It may be unpleasant for you, but this was beyond my control..."
"At last, an Evil Lord has appeared in this land! And we have already been recognized as his people! What an honor!"
Before I could explain that this hadn't been my intention, Regdus-dono and the others began cheering. Was becoming the people of an Evil Lord really such an honor...? I had no idea why they thought that.
To summarize what they excitedly told me, the four Races shared a common legend: that an Evil Lord who would lead them to prosperity would appear someday. Apparently, they were also told to bow down and swear loyalty when that Evil Lord appeared.
So they mean me? Hmm... To be honest, being told that they would swear loyalty to me felt like a heavy burden. And since I had inadvertently learned the origins of these four Races, I could guess how such an oral tradition had come into existence, which left me with mixed feelings.
"Ah... I understand how you feel. We'd be satisfied if things continued as they have until now."
"If that is what you wish, Izam-dono—no, Izam-sama, then so we shall."
"You don't have to call me Izam-sama... B-But more importantly, how is the construction work progressing?"
The capital's reconstruction was more important than loyalty and all that. I simply wanted to have a productive conversation; it certainly wasn't because being praised so excessively had pushed my embarrassment to its limit.
"You changed the subject, didn't you? Well, about the construction work, we've finished demolishing about half of the unused buildings. We're using the materials to improve the roads. But there is a problem: we need additional stone."
"Stone? There should be more than enough at the riverbank."
"Using only the stone from there would be inconvenient in various ways. So we'd like to procure stone from the 'Spear Rock's Fortune Mine,' but the area around 'Mepe City' only produces ore, doesn't it? We can't use that as it is, and turning everything into metal boxes like 'Mepe City' would be a bit much..."
"Ah, I understand what you mean."
The Metallicas' 'Mepe City' had been an enjoyable place to visit. But if someone asked whether I wanted my own base built in the same style, the answer would be no. It was like how a tourist attraction could be fun to visit without being somewhere one would want to live.
"Then what should we do?"
"That's why I'd like to mine the aboveground section of the 'Spear Rock's Fortune Mine.' I don't know whether there is a suitable mining site, but we could treat it as an investigation as well. Our levels have increased, and I think we could escape as long as we kept an eye out for that wyvern... What do you think?"
"Hmm..."
I remembered my first visit to the 'Spear Rock's Fortune Mine' well. While I was leisurely flying on Cal's back, a huge wyvern shot us down and I nearly died... No, wait, I did die once, didn't I? Never mind that.
In any case, there was no doubt that ferocious creatures lived on that mountain. Mining without being noticed by them would be dangerous. And the wyvern might not be the only threat. The mountain could be crawling with all sorts of other dangerous monsters as well.
Normally, I would have gladly accepted the chance to set out on a new adventure, recruited some members, and headed there. But we were currently scheming with Konrad and the others. They would certainly contact us in advance, but we needed to be ready to leave immediately when they did.
Being late could affect the plan, and more importantly, as a player, I didn't want to repay the favor of their rushing to our aid in our hour of need with ingratitude. A debt of gratitude should be repaid with gratitude.
"All right, let's go to the 'Spear Rock's Fortune Mine.' However, I want this to be nothing more than a preliminary investigation. It would be best to keep the number of people going to a minimum. Iris, as the one who proposed it, choose who will accompany us."
"Understood!"
"Then I'll join the work as well. What can I do?"
However, our clan's primary goal was still rebuilding the capital. If I had to choose which to prioritize, the capital reconstruction should come first. Besides, since we intended to use this continent as our base, it was important to understand where various items could be gathered or mined, and how. That was why we would investigate the 'Spear Rock's Fortune Mine.'
Iris seemed excited as she considered whom to choose. While she wriggled her tentacles, I asked what kind of work I could help with. Iris came to her senses and told me to help Cal. I had no reason to refuse, so I joined Cal and began working.
"Gwooh."
"Oh, Cal. It looks like you've learned to control your strength. Well done."
"Grrrrrr."
We joined the demolition of unused houses. However, destroying them with powerful attacks would apparently make them impossible to reuse, so we had to work carefully.
After demolishing several houses, we salvaged the materials that could be reused. As we quietly and methodically carried out this mundane but important work, I received a message. I assumed Konrad had finished making his preparations, but the sender wasn't him. It was Shiitake.
"So that device can finally be operated. Cal, I'll step away for a little while. I'll be back soon, so keep working until then."
"Gwooh!"
After confirming Cal's nod, I headed to the underground level of the palace. There had originally been a factory there where those Failed Homunculi were made, but it had since become Shiitake's laboratory.
The facility had been expanded, and the equipment stored aboard Shiratsuki had been moved there, so Shiitake now spent most of her time here working on various things. However, Iris had installed one of her locks on the laboratory door and prohibited anyone uninvolved from entering. The reason was that it contained things rarer than the items sleeping in the treasury—and extremely dangerous as well.
"I'm here, Shiitake. You figured out how to use it?"
"Oh, oh, that's right, Evil Lord-sama~"
When I entered the laboratory, Shiitake greeted me with a beaker of chemicals in one hand and an Erlenmeyer flask in the other. I wished she would stop calling me that, but I decided to let it slide for now. There was something more important to worry about.
"What do we have to do?"
"Mmm, allow me to explain. Come over here~"
At the place Shiitake led me to stood a complex machine about three meters tall. A thick central cylinder extended from a base covered in buttons and gauges, while twelve transparent cylinders filled with pale blue liquid were arranged in a circle around it and attached to the central cylinder with circular metal fittings.
If the 【Alchemy】 equipment I had seen so far was the sort used in elementary-school science experiments, this was as far removed from that as equipment used by a major pharmaceutical company to develop new drugs. This was the Ancient Weapon given to me by Felfenil-sama, codenamed 'Chastity.'
"The Ancient Weapon 'Chastity'... a forced Race-mutation drug, huh?"
The weapon called 'Chastity' was not the machine itself, but the liquid inside the cylinders. Consuming it would forcibly mutate one's Race without any accompanying evolution.
The descendants of those mutated with this drug were the people called 'human imitations,' such as the Scars and Centaurs. According to Felfenil-sama, their ancestors had been mutated into combat-oriented forms with this drug and forced to fight on this continent.
Their fighting had apparently been so savage that, after the war ended, Felfenil, the Dragon Emperor, was ordered by Dragon God Almadelkus-sama to seal this machine away. Felfenil-sama proposed destroying it, but Almadelkus-sama did not withdraw his order to seal it. On the contrary, he apparently ordered Felfenil-sama to unseal it under certain circumstances.
The condition for its release was that Felfenil-sama personally confirm that, after a long passage of time, they had become Races with reason and good sense. After seeing them cooperate to face the threat known as Gokuju, he became convinced and entrusted it to us.
"It can already be operated?"
"It can. We need materials, though. So, what are we going to do?"
The reason behind Shiitake's question was that she was considering the impact this drug's existence would have on players. Currently, a player who chose Human could only become a Race with 'High' prefixed to its name even after leveling up and evolving. If they disliked being restricted to a single evolutionary path, their only option was to undergo the reincarnation Mikelo had discovered and change their Race entirely.
The value of this device, created using ancient technology that offered a new option, was immeasurable. If we made its existence public and held an auction, even the drug alone would fetch an astronomical price. And now we had Konrad as a sales channel. If we considered only our immediate profits, selling it would clearly be the obvious choice.
"Of course, we keep it secret. We decided that together, didn't we?"
However, our conclusion had been to conceal it rather than make it public. Selling it would be disloyal to Felfenil-sama, and more than anything, I felt that doing so would allow other people to misuse it. If anyone was going to misuse it, it should be us!
Fortunately, we had a companion like Shiitake, who had no problem devoting herself to research. If we gave her enough time, she would definitely figure it out. It wouldn't be too late to decide how to use it after we had thoroughly studied both the machine and the drug itself. Until then, we would keep it secret among ourselves.
Even so, the codename 'Chastity' bothered me. Chastity was one of the Seven Cardinal Virtues, also called the Seven Virtues—the opposite of the Seven Deadly Sins, which included 'Gluttony,' the name of the sword Usba possessed. It would be difficult to believe that the two were unrelated.
The ancient history of this world might become clear from this angle. With that faint hope in my heart, I left the laboratory to return to the construction work.