“You’ve already seen a bit of what we can uncover at the first debate,” Phon reminded the campaign team. “But if we kept going with such violent methods then they’d surely call off the election. Punishing these mawhgers disguised as politicians will have to come from the general populace and the justice system instead of us.”
“Obviously, the hard part is uncovering their zjikkery and then finding the evidence to back it up. But you can leave that to me. That said, it is a long and tedious process, each person taking a few days minimum to properly investigate their crimes even with Phontext’s help. I spent a good chunk of our incarceration time looking up those at the first debate, you included, Callum. Be thankful for your righteous ways or you would have ended up just like the others.”
“The few days leading up to it, though, was a mad dash to find the evidence. We had to be a bit more frantic and careless than I would have liked, but it worked out, and fortunately we weren’t caught ahead of time. Moving forward I’d like to take it slowly, without them having any idea of what we’re up to. And we’ll never present the evidence ourselves again.”
“That is why, Callum, I’d ask that you help narrow down who our targets should be for investigation, since you have the most experience with them and politics in general. And as for distribution of the information, we’ll be using Victori’s Curse. However, it will only happen once all evidence is verified and irrefutable. We’ll either plant it somewhere online that people can find while digging, or if it’s big enough, leak it to Gedring for her to report.”
“Again, Callum, we’ll ask for your help with some of the phrasing,” Phon gave him another glance who looked stunned. “You’re definitely our only expert on political etiquette. I know we’re putting a lot of the burden on you, so let us know if it’s too much.”
“Oh, no it’s not that!” the boy panicked, realizing the weird face he’d been making. “I’ve just, uhh, never been seen as the expert on anything before. It’s strange to be relied on to this degree, and I’ll certainly do my best. However, I can’t say I’ve had much experience with Ms. Darquees’ Curse. How does it work exactly? So that I can give the best feedback.”
Victori jumped to attention when Phon stared her way, putting the onus on her. “Err, uhh, the simple way to explain it is that I can spread rumors, or rather, plant an idea in someone’s head. I can target anyone within a specific group or who meets the laid out conditions.”
“Very interesting,” Callum thought on that for a moment. “Do the people you influence know that it’s you, like the lady who tells us about Fiend ascensions? Because if that’s true, the lack of anonymity could certainly defeat the point of your strategy.”
“Well, it’s complicated,” Victori worked out how best to explain it. “We performed experiments with it in real time, having the person afflicted describe what was happening to them as it occurred while answering questions. Apparently, they hear my voice at first, but it vanishes quickly.”
“It’s then rewritten in their minds as their own thought, like they suddenly came up with it on a whim. They’re really not sure where they got the idea, feeling like they maybe heard it somewhere and are compelled to think about it further or follow up on it. And after not much longer, they have absolutely no memory that an idea was even planted. Some of our test subjects would then ask when the experiment was going to begin and that their mind had been wandering while waiting for it to start.”
“That’s… terrifying,” Callum was blunt. “I mean it’s amazing, but the idea gives me chills. That means you all could have been manipulating the entire world from the start, could have been manipulating me… No, Victori was only made a Fiend after I was already well invested into the group, and I don’t believe my thought process has changed since then. Or would I even know?”
Drim then finally added input for the first time in the meeting, holding up his tablet to display a message. 『Don’t worry, we take Victori’s Curse very seriously.』 He then pulled it back to change the text. 『We only use it when absolutely necessary.』
“Well…” Phon shrugged conspicuously off to his side. “I can’t say we haven’t used it other times. Occasionally to make some of our members realize that their grudge with each other is stupid, but mostly for pranks.”
『Have you ever used it on me?』 Drim glared at her, placing the blame on Phon rather than Victori.
“Only to make you crave food that I’m already cooking,” his sister didn’t show an ounce of remorse.
“Well, maybe a demonstration would help Callum out the most,” Victori tried to move things along. “Callum hasn’t been announced as your VP yet, right? Would it be fine to reveal that?”
Drim gave an affirming nod, so their campaign manager pulled out her phone. “Okay, let’s do a direct comparison. I have a trending feed for the biggest forum sites and search engines. If you look at this graph, you can see that Callum’s numbers are pretty low. Seems he had a bit of a spike when he was first made Vice-Rep, and after that it has been pretty consistent up until the recent debate where there was a bigger spike, but it’s already tapering off.”
“So pay attention to the numbers and it’ll also show a feed of the top forum posts. I’ll start now.”
“To all of those following the current political election or have a vested interest in the Fiends For Hire, did you hear that Callum Briz will be running as Drim Drazah’s vice-president? Just who is he? I’m guessing you haven’t really heard of him either, but doesn’t he sort of seem like a really good fit? Maybe we should dig deeper and see.”
Everyone in the room pulled out their phones for a second to do a search on Callum, but one-by-one shook their heads back to consciousness when they realized what they were doing. “Give it a minute for the results to come in, compiling so much data can take a bit,” Victori informed them
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But there was an immediate result. Callum’s phone started to buzz. “Oh, Gauld is texting me, but she already knew. Huh, my parents too. I hadn’t told them yet. Oh, now it’s some old colleagues from college and…” his phone started buzzing nonstop to the point it seemed like it might break.
“Now it’s media outlets asking if it’s true, and others wanting to set up an interview, and… wow that’s a lot and it’s not stopping. How’d they even get my info? I’ll uhh, set it to silent.”
“Oh, the spike is starting,” everyone’s attention returned to Victori’s phone. A few topics popped up on forums like, ‘Callum Briz is Drim Drazah’s VP?’, ‘Callum Briz’s Political Career’, and ‘Who the mawhg is Callum Briz?!’. After that, the forum posts kept refreshing at such an alarming rate that it became impossible to read.
On the graph, the number steadily started to climb up from its low numbers, quickly doubling, tripling, increasing by a factor of ten, and then from there, it was practically a sheer cliff straight up. In seconds, it went from thousands to millions where it finally started to slow down but still kept on creeping higher.
A text then popped up Victori’s phone from Chorus. 『Just leaked a confirmation to Gedring along with a picture of Callum and Drim together.』 And moments later, a broadcast notification popped up that Gedring had started an impromptu news report titled, ‘Introducing The Fiendish King’s Running Mate’.
“Congratulations, Callum, you’re famous,” Phon snickered at the boy. “There’s no getting out of it now.”
“Yes, not that I had any plan to,” the boy sounded confident, but his words were a bit more reserved, trying to accept the consequences of what had just happened. “That was a great demonstration, thank you.”
“And I agree that her Curse is an extremely powerful tool that we’ll need to be careful with. If used incorrectly, it could not only ruin the lives of their targets, but also destroy our own campaign if it’s believed that we’re abusing it. In that regard, I think we should keep the fine details underwraps as much as possible, and I’ll do my best to ensure that everything is worded properly to prevent any horrible outcomes.”
“And I do think you’re right, Phon, we should spend most of our time and effort focusing on those who would be larger threats. I’ve done a bit of preliminary research in the past few days, and I’m confident that I’ve narrowed down who will win each quadrant. Obviously the unexpected could happen, and we can do a bit of research on who I think might overtake them, but we can adjust as needed.”
“For the northeastern quadrant, Drim will obviously win the primary election. If for no other reason then he’ll likely be unopposed. Guzrinn’s Treasurer and Segrevide’s Secretary of Defense have already dropped out of the race, and I’ll be rescinding today as well since I was holding off until this announcement was made.”
“However, Tooshifont’s Representative, Porcerer Putt, still hasn’t withdrawn. Apparently, he wants to hold a one-on-one debate with Drim, a battle of two mutes, thinking he could out-swagger you on the stage or some sort of theatrical nonsense. However, his supporters are drying up quickly, and most of his donors have already backed out, so he’ll likely not survive much longer.”
“Of course, there is still a chance someone new may join the fray. Write-in candidates and official nominees are allowed up to a week before the primary elections when the ballots finalize. I doubt anything will come of it, but we’ll certainly keep an eye open and adjust our plans as needed.”
“For the southeastern quadrant, I expect Nairen Dschuen to win. Apparently, Rishaki popularized the idea of the wives of Merchant Kings killing their husbands and taking over the thrones, because she is the fourth Merchant Queen to hold power since. And now she’s running on a platform of free-trade and fair economics, something very popular in the south-east due to the citizens being sick of the merchants’ abusive power.”
“The southwest is a bit of a tricky one, because my pick to win isn’t currently ahead in the polls, and is sitting third at the moment. But I would absolutely bet my money on Trycen Hasper, deputy mayor of Cotagerie. He is running on a strong Anti-Fiend rhetoric, and while he’s certainly not the most popular at present, with Humanity’s inevitable dissolution, Fiend-haters will flock to him and make him their spokesperson—their last chance in their minds to be saved from the Fiend threat.”
“Apparently his major claim is that he was assaulted by Phon, kicked off a building for no reason and ended up with an injury that damaged his leg for life, giving him a permanent limp. He has no form of definitive evidence, but he swears by it, even going so far as to submit himself to a lie-detector test. While they’re notoriously finicky, he’s using that as his main proof.”
“Hmm, I have absolutely no memory of such a thing,” Phon pondered. “Now don’t get me wrong, it certainly sounds like a thing I would do but… yeah nope… don’t remember him at all.”
『Yes, you did it.』 Drim ratted her out on his tablet. 『The night we robbed the Museum.』 『You kicked him off the roof because you found him annoying.』
“Okay, that does sound more familiar,” Phon really stretched her memory. “I think I’m picturing it now. Oh, huh, Phontext even has me listed as a known acquaintance on his profile, marked as assailant. So yeah, I did that, and I still don’t feel bad. His self-entitlement was raging. Guess I kind of created a villain, though. Hmm, maybe I should apologize? No, accepting guilt would just make things worse for us.”
“Oh, I know! I’ll teleport to his home with Ahvra one night while he’s sleeping and have her cure his injury. That way, when he starts walking normally, everyone will think he just made it up.”
“Well, that’s a start I suppose,” Callum decided to ignore the issue at present. “And last but not least, the northwest. Without a doubt, Gort Hower, Representative of Horage, will win. No other candidate comes close, and none of them are expecting to win the primary. They’re all just participating as a form to advance their political standing, to say that they tried to go up against him.”
“And he really is the titan, the one I’m certain Drim will end up against in the final election. He’s undeniably our main opponent. But I don’t know what sort of things you can dig up on him. The man is practically considered a god in the political world, the silver standard, everyone’s idol. He’s never been involved in any known scandals, always trying to bridge the gap between the guiding lines. There’s a reason he’s the speaker in charge of all the Central Peace Representative Sessions.”
Phon’s chair suddenly scooted backwards as she leapt from her seat, scrambling like she’d seen a ghost. Everyone’s eyes turned to her as she recomposed herself. “Sorry, I just remembered something urgent, so I’ll need to excuse myself. Carry on without me. And Drim, come find me when this meeting’s done.” The Vixen then popped out of the room, teleporting to who-knows-where.
Confused glances were exchanged around the room, even Drim who seemed taken aback but the spontaneous event. But then he pulled up his tablet, 『Let’s continue.』