V1 Working for the Mastermind
“Heh-heh-heh. Finally. I can finally pay those bastards back for what they did to me!”
Oh, dear me.
Someone thinks he’s cool…
“Hey, Sophia! Don’t just stand there! Let’s go!”
“Coming, coming.”
A man decked out in full armor yells at me impatiently as I roll my eyes.
Normally, I wouldn’t stand for this kind of treatment for a second, but it’s hard to get angry when I think about how pathetic this loser is.
The man stomping around in front of me with his shoulders squared is Hugo Baint Renxandt.
He’s the prince of the Renxandt Empire and a student here at the Analeit Kingdom academy.
Not that he actually goes to school all that much.
Apparently, he screwed the pooch about five years ago and got suspended.
I don’t know what he screwed up exactly, because I didn’t care enough to ask. Judging by his ranting about “those bastards,” though, I’m guessing he messed with the wrong crowd and had the tables turned on him somehow?
Then I suppose one of “those bastards” is probably Schlain, the prince of this kingdom, who’s our current target.
Oh brother.
What in the world am I doing here anyway?
This “pulling the strings” business? Is that what you’d call it?
Either way, it really isn’t my thing.
I’d much prefer to just punch the problem square in the face and be done with it.
But I just have to keep telling myself that all this is necessary.
Supporting this idiot Hugo is the role I’ve been given.
He’s a reincarnation, too, but I’m really only helping him because Master decided his grudge would make him a convenient pawn to for our purposes.
…When I think about it that way, it really is pitiful.
And I can still remember the moment he was set up as a pawn with perfect clarity.
“Shit! I won’t let it end like this! This is my world! It exists for me, only for me! Like I’d accept this ending?! Not a chance in hell! It’s not over until everything belongs to me!”
“Damn that elf! I’ll have my revenge! She’s gonna rue the day she messed with me!”
“I’ll take away everything she has someday! Just like she did to me!”
“Just you wait! I’ll destroy everything she holds dear! Then I’ll beat her to a pulp while she screams and cries over their remains!”
“You watch! I’m gonna take this world back for myself!”
Hugo was screaming and throwing a fit.
“Shall I help you out with that?”
Since he completely failed to notice me, I got bored and addressed him myself.
“Who’s there?!”
Hugo whirled around.
Master teleported me directly into Hugo’s room, so from his point of view, it was like I suddenly appeared directly behind him.
I couldn’t blame him for being surprised.
This was the perfect chance to teach the panicking little fool that I was above him.
“I’d be willing to lend you a hand, since we’re fellow reincarnations and all, hmm?”
I put on a meaningful, unconcerned smile.
“…Huh? Reincarnation?”
Hugo’s brow furrowed.
Well, I suppose he wasn’t stupid enough to jump at the chance to work with some suspicious stranger who randomly appeared in his…
“…Whatever. I don’t care who the hell you are. If I can get revenge on those bastards, I’ll even work with a demon or whatever else!”
Ah, he is stupid enough.
“Hell yeah. I’m in!”
“There you have it. What do you think, Master?”
“Hunh?”
A white shadow flitted behind Hugo’s back.
The figure covered Hugo’s mouth with one hand, preventing him from screaming.
Then, once he could no longer move, the other hand lightly touched Hugo’s forehead.
And a tiny white spider small enough to fit on your fingertip crawled down the hand and into Hugo’s ear…
Seconds later, Hugo’s body started convulsing.
Just like that, his eyes rolled back and he passed out.
Yes, it’s quite a disgusting story all right…
Even now, as he saunters along brimming with confidence, that little spider is in his head…
Hugo doesn’t seem to remember that incident, but ever since then, he’s been strangely obedient whenever I tell him to do something.
So that spider must be brainwashing him…
Could there be one of those in my head, too…?
I quickly shake my head to chase out the awful thought.
She did put a weird curse on me, but she would never go so far as to put a spider in my head!
…Probably.
…No, she wouldn’t.
Master will cut down anything in her path without mercy, but she’s actually quite soft on the people she cares about.
Since that technically includes me, I’m sure she wouldn’t do something like that.
Although she does have somewhat different moral standards than most people, which means she sometimes does the most disturbing things without batting an eye.
Seriously, who starts an entire war just to accomplish their goals?
Especially one so huge that both the human and demon sides suffered massive losses.
But the fact she would do that without a moment’s hesitation is what makes her my master, I suppose.
And yet, she’s incredibly overprotective when it comes to her inner circle.
That much is obvious from her attitude toward Ms. Ariel.
Ms. Ariel is quite a bit stronger than me, but Master really shelters her so carefully, making sure to keep her away from the battlefield and any even the remote possibility of danger.
Honestly, I’m a bit jealous.
Something stirs in my chest, but I rein it in through sheer force of will.
That was too close.
Envy almost got out of control there.
The Envy skill I have is highly effective, but it also has serious drawbacks.
It makes it much harder to control my emotions.
My feelings have always been on the intense side, but the Envy skill has made them that much more extreme.
I know I have a bad habit of acting on my emotions without thinking, and I would like to fix that, but it’s easier said than done.
Though I have gained the Heresy Resistance skill to help reduce the effects of Envy.
But it hasn’t become Heresy Nullification yet, so it still can’t completely cancel out the effects.
I have to control myself.
Careful to avoid being noticed, I take a few deep breaths to calm down.
Meanwhile, Hugo has already reached our destination ahead of me.
He slams the door open without so much as a knock.
“…You could at least knock.”
“C’mon, we’re pals, aren’t we? Deal with it.”
The man waiting in the room greets Hugo with a deepening furrow in his brow.
This is the first prince Cylis, who appears to be in a bad mood twenty-four seven.
Like Hugo, he’s one of our pawns.
Pawn Number Two, you might call him.
He’s a dull, pathetic man with nothing of note about him except his pride and the fact that he can’t admit that his younger brothers are superior to him.
He’s the first prince and son of the true queen, yet the second prince Julius was far more famous than him, being the hero and all.
And Julius’s full brother, the fourth prince Schlain, has been a child prodigy all his life.
Meanwhile, the future king Cylis is average at best.
So he’s afraid that one of his younger brothers is going to steal the throne from him, you see.
When we offered to help him chase out his younger brother, he took the bait right away.
Basically, it’s the kind of power struggle you see all the time in legends and such.
“This is going to work, right?”
Cylis puts on a pompous tone to hide his fearfulness.
“Of course it is,” snaps Hugo. “Who the hell do you think I am?”
Honestly. He has a lot of nerve for someone who’s borrowing other people’s power to try and grab the throne instead of relying on himself.
What a pathetic little man.
Although it’s that nature that allows us to use him so easily.
“And no one saw your face?”
“Duh! Look at what I’m wearing!”
Hugo holds up his arms and turns in a circle to show off his armor.
He’s currently decked out in full-body armor and wearing a helmet that covers his face.
Nobody will be able to tell who’s inside.
That much should be obvious at a glance; this so-called prince must be seriously worried to ask such a stupid question.
There’s nothing to worry about, you fool.
Don’t you know who’s backing you up?
Failure is simply not in the realm of possibility.
Ahh, although I suppose technically…that’s as far as our goals are concerned, not necessarily these two.
Cylis paces around the room anxiously.
On the other hand, Hugo flops down in a chair, looking unconcerned.
I lean against the wall with my arms folded, waiting.
It should be any moment now.
Listening carefully, I hear someone knock on the door of the next room over.
“It’s Schlain.”
“Hmm? Come in.”
“Thank you.”
Ah, so it’s begun.
Our target, Schlain, has entered the room next to us.
“What is it?”
That voice belongs to the owner of the room Schlain has entered: his and Cylis’s father, the king of this kingdom.
“You’re the one who called for us, aren’t you, Father? What is it you need?”
“Hmm? I didn’t call for you.”
Well, of course you didn’t.
After all, we’re the ones who summoned him here.
After that, things fall unnaturally silent.
In sharp opposition to that silence, I sense magic filling the room next door.
They’re using Wind Magic to muffle the sound.
And then the caster speaks.
“Aaaaaah! Brother! What are you doing?!”
Pfft.
What an awful actress.
The girl who just delivered that very forced cry is the one who cast the spell.
With that scream as his signal, Cylis runs out of the room, throws the other door open, and charges inside.
Hugo follows behind him.
I walk unhurriedly after the two.
“What’s going on?!”
“Brother Schlain attacked Father!”
“He did what?! Schlain, have you gone mad?!”
Oh? From the sound of things, Cylis actually isn’t half bad at acting.
Maybe he should go into theater instead of seeking the throne?
Well, I guess it’s a little late for that.
“Guards! Schlain has attacked His Majesty!”
Cylis’s voice echoes clearly through the hallway.
That’s actually because I’ve increased its volume with magic.
This way, even people who don’t know anything about what’s going on should be able to hear him.
“Seize him!”
As I casually peer into the room from the hallway, Hugo is just slashing at Schlain with his sword.
The room is in quite a sorry state.
The king has been shot through the forehead and killed, Schlain is clutching his just-opened wound, and a small young woman is standing there expressionless.
“Yo. You don’t look so good, Mr. Hero.”
“You…Hugo…?”
“That’s right.”
Hugo takes off his helmet.
“Hugo. Don’t go giving yourself away like that.”
“C’mon, why not? I wanted him to get a good look at me before he dies.”
Schlain looks utterly confused by the exchange between Cylis and Hugo.
As such, he doesn’t even notice me entering the room.
“You’re curious, right? See, your big brother here wants the throne. I want revenge on you and Oka. So you’re a thorn in both our sides, get it?”
“But…why…? Cylis is already next in line for the throne…”
“Funny you should mention that. See, before he kicked the bucket, that stupid king was planning to make you his heir. He figured if you were declared as the next king before you could be declared as the hero, they wouldn’t wanna send you into battle!”
“As if I would let my throne be stolen away for such a foolish reason!”
It’s true that the king was planning to make Schlain the next king.
We didn’t even have anything to do with that part.
Although the rest of it is mostly our fault.
“Brother. Unfortunately, you must now die here.”
This line comes from Suresia, the princess of this kingdom, who’s been silent all this time.
Since she’s a princess, that means she’s Schlain and Cylis’s sister, of course.
“Sue, why?”
“I have opened my eyes to true love, dear brother. I would do anything for the sake of that love, even if I must kill my own brother.”
This Suresia girl was apparently really attached to Schlain, so he must be extra surprised by this turn of events.
“Hugo! Is this your doing?!”
I suppose it makes sense he would figure that much out, then.
“Oh dear. You noticed, huh? Took you long enough. Yeah, I did it. What do you think? How’s it feel to have something stolen from you? Sucks, right? I should know, since the same thing happened to me! Ga-ha-ha-ha!”
Hugo has a certain skill: Lust.
Like my Envy, it’s from an especially powerful line of skills called the Seven Deadly Sins skills.
Its primary effect is brainwashing.
That’s how he’s controlling Suresia.
“Change her back right now!”
“You think I’m gonna do that just ’cause you asked nicely? What a moron.”
For all the scorn Hugo is throwing at Schlain, he has no idea that the brainwasher is also being brainwashed himself.
How pathetic.
He’s caught up in a temporary sense of superiority.
Although thanks to his arrogance, he’s forgetting that a cornered rat bites back.
“Oof! How do you still have so much strength?!”
Schlain is so furious that he’s thrown a punch at Hugo.
Looks like he’s going to follow up with some Attack Magic, too.
I suppose I’d better help that idiot out.
“Oh? He’s got more fight in him than I expected.”
“?!”
I activate my Divine Scales and Dragon Barrier skills to prevent the casting of magic.
At the same time, I stop hiding my presence and allow my aura to fully permeate the room.
Immediately, Schlain rolls to the side to put distance between us.
Well, well. That’s a half-decent reaction.
As I’m momentarily impressed, Schlain turns to look at me, and a strange sensation assails my body.
This feeling…Appraisal, I’m sure.
Tough luck for him, though.
As the holder of the Envy skill, I’m also a Ruler.
I can use my ruler authority to block Appraisal, you know.
So he won’t be able to read my stats.
“Sophia! This one’s mine! Don’t go stickin’ your nose where it don’t belong!”
“Oh really? Looked like he was beating you up to me.”
Idiot. He would’ve been in trouble if I hadn’t helped out.
“Enough! Stop arguing and finish Schlain off quickly!”
…Would you mind not ordering me around?
Besides, I can’t have anyone killing Schlain.
So we’ll need our next player to show up and help him escape.
“I won’t let you!”
There, see? Help has arrived.
A small-framed figure jumps into the room.
She unleashes some magic immediately, blowing Hugo away.
Although my Dragon Barrier skill reduces its power, so it doesn’t deal much damage.
“Ooookaaaaa!!”
See? Look, he’s perfectly fine.
But I should probably prevent her from attacking him any further.
This tiny intruder is the elf who was our teacher Ms. Oka in our previous lives. I cancel out her next magic spell with my own.
“Y-you?!”
Her eyes widen.
We did just run into each other recently, I suppose.
And it was a rather shocking scene, too.
No wonder she’s surprised to see me here.
“Shun! Run for it!”
Ms. Oka uses magic to break the floor, scattering dust everywhere.
“But!”
“No buts! We have to withdraw for now!”
“Mr. Hyrince?”
“Leston told me you were in danger, so I came running. I’m sure you’re confused, but we just have to get you out of here for now.”
I hear this conversation amid the dust, followed by the sound of running footsteps.
“What are you doing?! After them!”
Cylis shouts, but Hugo and I both ignore him.
“Now, be sure to follow the plan, all right?”
“Yeah, you got it.”
Hugo sneers and steps toward Cylis.
“…What is this?”
Sensing something is off, Cylis backs away.
“Oh, no big deal. Just gonna mess around in your head a little bit.”
“Wha—?!”
Hugo’s hand shoots out and clamps around Cylis’s face.
“What are you doing?!”
“Changing our deal. You’re gonna work as our disposable pawn from here on out.”
“G-gahhhh?!”
Cylis screams in anguish.
I leave the room without waiting around to see it through to the end.
What Hugo is doing to Cylis right now isn’t brainwashing—he’s destroying his spirit.
Why not brainwash him? Because someone else is already doing it.
Cylis was being controlled from the start.
I doubt he was aware of it himself, and it wasn’t total control, just nudging his thoughts in the right direction, or so I’m told.
But that controller can turn him into a completely mindless puppet, as long as they don’t mind damaging his spirit like Hugo is doing right now.
And the only way to overwrite that control is to break his spirit completely.
Basically, we’re erasing everything from his mind, including the other person’s control.
The truth is, there are lots of other people in this kingdom who are already being secretly controlled just like Cylis.
The king was one of them.
That’s why we killed him.
We needed to overthrow the Analeit Kingdom because its top brass were already victims of mind control.
Master even said that the decision to make Schlain the next king was probably the result of their thoughts being manipulated, too. We don’t know for sure what the goal was, though.
According to Master, her best guess is that they wanted to keep Schlain the hero close by and accessible instead of handing him over to the Church.
We had to completely crush the kingdom in order to root out all the corruption.
Which is why we’re currently doing some pest extermination in the castle.
We have Cylis’s soldiers attacking the people we identified as being mind controlled.
And among those soldiers are members of the Tenth Army in disguise.
There’s no way they won’t accomplish their tasks.
Meanwhile, I’m on my way to destroy the mastermind who was trying to control this kingdom from the shadows.
“Good day to you.”
I arrive in one of the guest rooms of the castle.
Waiting for me there is none other than Potimas.
“…I knew it. You lot are responsible for all this commotion, then.”
“Pest control is a big undertaking, you know.”
“Hmph. How irritating.”
Potimas stands and faces me unhurriedly.
“…I cannot defeat you in this body.”
“Oh? How very gracious of you.”
This man can possess replicas of his body and control them from a distance, while his real self is still in the elf village.
So the real one won’t die no matter how many bodies of his we kill.
That’s probably why he’s so calm, but I didn’t expect him to give up without a fight.
“I have a message for White and Ariel.” Potimas’s expression doesn’t change, but there’s a dark flame burning deep in his eyes as he speaks. “I am waiting in the elf village. Come, and I will crush your conceited delusions with all my might.”
“I’ll be sure to let them know.”
Although knowing Master, she’s probably listening in through one of her clones already.
I can’t stand looking at that unpleasant face of his for another second, so I promptly chop it off.
Potimas’s head rolls across the floor.
Honestly, though, Master…
I can’t believe he would put her name before Ariel, who’s been his sworn enemy for so many years. He must have a serious grudge at this point.
Although I’m sure she’s done enough to earn it.
Now, then.
As long as Schlain escapes safely, the plan will be a success.
But that wouldn’t be very entertaining, would it?
I’m feeling a little dissatisfied, especially after Potimas didn’t even fight back.
So…
Perhaps I’ll go have a little fun.
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