We climbed out of the Dungeons. The castle knights were astonished at the sight of the revived Isengar but his title and the sight of both Euric and me backing him was more than enough to snap them in place. Leondirac was a nation where the strongest ruled and the words [King] popping up for anyone who cared to {Appraise} the man was enough to tell them who won this round of succession.
While Isengar ordered the knights to secure the castle, I started to bind some souls to my silk dolls. The [King] and some high-level people were forced to volunteer for my future life Exp farm project. After Isengar asserted his authority, he ordered the knights to block all exits and stop any looting attempts that weren’t conducted by me. Not that I were looting the castle right now but I had my sight on some sculptures, tapestries, and paintings. Once the order was reestablished and just a few servants were caught trying to abscond with Royal property, we gathered on a secondary (I demolished the main one) meeting room to plan our next move.
First, he showed me the levels and classes of most mercenaries. A veritable elite army for cheap if they had the morale and cohesion of a regular army but one couldn’t have the perfect army for cheap. Like most warrior bands in the world, the composition of this rag-tag army was mostly male. At first sight, one could think an egalitarian society would have a fifty-fifty male to female ratio out in the field, but that was far from the truth. While the System didn’t discriminate on Class choices, males were naturally more aggressive and combative than females. The men gravitated toward combat Classes, the females into crafting, support, logistics, administrative, and magical Classes.
They were composed of bands of outcast Adventurers, former bandits, and rough people from all venues of life. They were together, for one thing, the promise of easy gold. A lie from the [King]’s lips. There was no gold and they were going against Windemere.
“The mercenaries are here,” Isengar pointed on my illusionary holographic map. “They are two hundred thousand strong, but there are another twenty thousand logistics and service personnel as well as...” He trailed off and sent a sorrowful glance my way.
“Let me guess,” I said acridly. “Town waifs forced into prostitution?”
He flinched under my angry gaze. I wasn’t angry at him but I couldn’t help it. Euric gently held my shoulder.
“It can’t be helped, Haru. You knew already, so don’t destroy more of the palace.”
I shook my head. “Moving on. It means I can’t just sweep in and burn the camp to cinders. This is what I’ll do...”
I couldn’t wall the camp and dump a hundred thousand Kythaurpódi there. The sex workers would all die. Another slight problem was that I couldn’t summon a hundred thousand Kythaurpódi. The MP cost was higher than my maximum pool. Going in and assassinating the mercenaries one by one would stir chaos and scatter some of them. No, the only way I could “win” this scenario was through a subterfuge.
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I left Isengar, Euric, and Rydel Lilac in the castle to stop the capital from rioting and to organize the defense against any stragglers.
Secluded from prying eyes, I used a magical leaf to turn into the late [King]. The sensation was disgusting. What I became was a fat, bearded, lanky woman whose face resembled the [King]. I had to shapeshift several body features to hide the droopy boobs, widen the shoulders, thin the hips. With the [King]’s armor and a lot of padding, I was passable. But my skin crawled at the sight in the mirror. Finally, I set a fake status with the [King] title to finish the charade.
I had a squad of [Knights] loyal to Isengar ordered to help me in my charade. Each received a pendant with an enchantment that would keep them safe from my non-damaging area spells. They could tell the flaws in my disguise but the general opinion was that nobody outside the palace would know. With a resigned non-gormandizing groan, I set on my catoblepish task. We rode to the mercenary camp with all the fanfare of a [King] going to war. After reaching it, I was led to the command tent where the leaders of the mercenary bands gathered. The tent had free-flowing Wine, roasted meat, and scantily-clad scared and scarred women. A bandit lord’s paradise.
I flared my {Royal Aura} in full power as I ducked under the tent flap. After mixing with the {Mana Wellspring} for increased range, Minus seventy-five in all Attributes to all non-Royals within seven hundred meters around me. The whole camp knew the [King] was in the house. The poor girls were driven to the ground from the aura, their Attribute values going down to the negatives.
“Get your men ready to march now. We are invading that beast country today!” I commanded with the weight of a {Royal Order}. They complied but not before I paid the leaders their dues. Platinum and gold coins flowed freely from my item box. As if shackled by heavy leaden fetters, they shambled to bark the order down on their subordinates.
More than one angry glare was sent my way. When one mercenary captain came to complain against my aura, I slapped him. “They have a bloody kitsune that fancies herself a Goddess. If any of your men can’t endure my aura, they aren’t worthy of fighting with me. Of course, I’ll turn it off but you need to learn what you are going to fight against. Now, go.”
Five hours later, the camp was dismantled and on the move. It was past noon. The coerced whores and some weaker support personnel unable to move were left behind. To ease the leaders’ worries about supplies, I gifted them some low-grade storage rings to fill with supplies. The mercenaries were no pushovers if they could march under the effects of my aura. I felt justified in using this subterfuge. Unless I nuked them out of existence, the fight would cause these rats to spill over into Leondirac and neighboring countries, as Euric feared.
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The army was on a forced march. The sun was long gone before we got Leondirac out of our sight. We marched late into the night. The people in the Age of Eclipse had a good dark vision as these Perks were on sale and available to all species regardless of alignment. Roadworn and exhausted, they didn’t erect tents and bivouacked under the stars. I offered the knights to guard the camp and the mercenaries accepted to leave only some sentries after a quick negotiation. Since standing watch was the second-worst job for an army executing forced march aside from digging latrines, these were the lowest ones on the totem pole.
Once most of the mercenaries were soundly asleep, I activated both {Royal Aura} and {Eldtitch Presence} then started a ritual. Marlowe scolded me for being a one-spell-wonder-pony and he was right. I finally learned some spells from the mind-benders.
“Stygian Nightmare!”
Contested Willpower test won.
The knights’ pendant worked and they weren’t afflicted by the dread nightmares my spell evoked. The nightmares distorted their happy memories, transforming them into terrible and soul-ripping events. The change was permanent and after a period of exposure, they would be driven insane. Before that could happen, I {Shadow Stepped} around the camp, attempting a world record on most successful {Assassinate} attempts in less than an hour.
The mercenary camp vanished, leaving only upturned grass under the bonfires’ light. I finally dismissed the disgusting disguise.
“Ride back to the capital upon dawn,” I ordered the knights. “I’m going back now.”
I used {Shadow Step} to a lonely tree, then {Tree Stride} all the way to the palace gardens.
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Daybreak. I stood on a Force platform above the remnants of the mercenary camp. The women and support personnel hadn’t moved away from the site yet.
I let Pandora shine with her calming aura and declared with a melodic and enthralling singing voice. “Gaze upon the Matriarch’s glory and know you are offered deliverance!”
Then I activated {Cosmos Within}, selecting everyone in the camp. It split the five-minute duration to mere fractions of seconds, but it did its job of drawing their attention to me and gave them a very ominous notification. If I recall correctly, it was like this…
* You gaze into the Cosmos. Behold its glory and forget about the world.
Cringey? Maybe but I stopped worrying about cringe lines and cringier pop references when I made the Fulgen High Elves sing My Little Pony. Oh, and don’t forget that their slogan is a Protoss catchphrase for almost two thousand years now. I imagine when another traveler from Earth comes here and finds all these little morsels of pop culture scattered around the world. What will they think?
Spreading my wings as far as they would go, I activated my {Light Elemental} form and descended among the astonished crowd. Several of the unwilling whores were Kin and these ran to get closer to me. I opened my arms and started to sing right when I touched down on the ground.
> Diva’s Presence
>
> Roar of the Crowd
>
> Song of Peace
>
> Song of Enrapture
I had to maintain the image and act like the deity I was emulating. The God business was a very delicate one. I used {Adagio} and {Major Chord}, combining {Area Regeneration}, {Clean}, and {Cure Disease}.
“Come to me, you who suffered a great injustice at the hands of these mercenaries. Know that you were avenged and those that wronged you are no more. Bask in the Matriarch’s divine light and be purified of all taint and sin.”
The women from the other species also approached and they prostrated themselves in rings around my glowing winged form. The support personnel looked at me with fear in their eyes.
“You who abused these poor women, come forward and beg for forgiveness from your victims! Seek atonement or suffer my wrath!”
The last sentence was a wide-area {Royal Geas}. With {Roar of the Crowd} giving me a portion of their Resource regeneration plus the effects of the {Mana Wellspring}, the sinners would be long dead before I ran out of Energy to pay the Geas maintenance cost. Dozens among the support personnel cried and fell to the ground, wracked in terrible pain. The others quickly ran among the women, searching for those they abused.
“Should we forgive them, Matriarch?” One of the girls asked me. She, like most others, had streaks of tears running down her face.
“Do as your heart says, child. But leave your grudges behind in this place. Do not take them into your new life.”
She’d singled herself out. A handful of men from the support corps came running toward her, shouting “Forgive me!” The girl drew a dagger and grimaced. As she rose the weapon, the men froze on their heels and suffered the effects of the Geas. She shouted and cried, a heart-rending wail that shook me down to my core.
The dagger fell on the muddy ground. She dropped to her knees, bawling. “Punish them for me, Matriarch,” she prayed.
“Please, mercy!” One of them shouted. “I vow before you, merciful goddess! I’ll never hurt a woman ever again in my life!”
The girl blinked her tears and looked my way. “I got this,” I whispered to her before I focused on the supplicant sinners. “Do you seek to atone with your life?”
“Mercy, mighty Matriarch! Please let us live!”
“Here is your punishment. You will lose your flesh today. I’ll give you a body of living silk in its place. Our covenant will last for no less than a hundred years. You’ll work under me as a contracted silk golem. The money you earn with your work will be given to my church to support the women you’ve hurt and their descendants until the day I return to end this covenant. I’ll restore your life and your flesh bodies and you’ll be free to live your lives however you want. Choose servitude or death.”
None of them opted to die. I ordained some of the girls into the priesthood and sent them back home. None dared shun them for their plight.
I spent a lot of time, more than a week, mass-producing and enchanting generic silk golem bodies for them. All bore my holy symbol on their chests, palms, and foreheads. That was the birth of Windemere’s Silk Legion. A tireless golem army and workforce. They were absolutely loyal to me and the country as their contracts didn’t allow them to do otherwise. They were highly respected by the people as most considered them my direct agents.
After that, I purged Leondirac’s nobility, offering them the same deal as those from Sadian. Leave with a meager purse, or become honorary relics. Most chose neither and perished. Isengar was appointed governor of the Leondirac region, and I changed my plans for the northern wall. It was a much bigger project now.