"Alright, should we go with a crazed taxidermist, drown family bonding, nosferatu orgy, 'There was a crooked man'..." Stopping what he was saying, Aki noted that despite having been called over to what was supposed to be an interrogatory, there was no one splayed over some metal table, just a guy in manacles cuffed to a table. "He doesn't look nearly broken enough to say anything truthful and we're clearly not torturing him, so what the hell am I doing here?" He asked the unknown officials sitting in front of the prisoner with a black eye.

He had in fact been looking forward to trying his hand at 'the craft', if only due to a repressed sadism and morbid curiosity.

"How dare you?! This is"

"Enough. Spirit, you are to disarm the prisoners' mental defenses and extract any relevant information to his attempt at treason." Commanded the shorter and younger demon kin.

Honestly, he didn't much care to do so, but since he didn't actually know who this was and his contract heavily suggested that he obey, he went forward to do just so.

"This is an order, kgaaaaaaaa…" The prisoner screamed and convulsed as he was suddenly electrocuted by a guard. Despite stopping for a moment due to surprise, Aki was quick to take the chance and infiltrate the man's psyche as he was distracted.

For once, that did not work immediately, the man's defense better than average. Not that it helped him much against his multitude of probes, most not actually feints and rather fluid in deployment. Much like a proper battle of spells, he was quick to change one.

So it did not take long for him to break through and firm a connection with the distressed mind.

In turn, he had an easy time creating a fractal of recurring restaurant booths inside, allowing for an easier time controlling everything in peace.

"What is happening?" Asked the other guy as he frantically looked around, seeming to not perceive Aki despite sitting right in front of him. Then he got up and started searching for something while shouting obscenities.

Picking up some good memories, Aki projected some nuggets for his mental avatar, mana infusing his actions of eating fake junk food with tons of sauce and increasing the connection's effectiveness.

At the same time, despite his suspicions, nothing happened on the physical part of reality, though the attendant was glaring daggers at him and the young lord was glaring daggers at the would-be traitor.

Back to the mind then. Or maybe just a couple more shields before going deeper. Mr traitor wasn't getting any better at getting out of his construct, so he had time.

………………….

"My lord." With Geoffrey's warning, he was quick to straighten himself and hold onto the sigil.

"Spirit, it has been over an hour, can you pass through the traitor's defenses or not." Raising his voice, he was met with an immediate reaction from the summoned spirit, his face going into a form of expression he knew well, but luckily, it was the kind of bootlicking from a man who had succeeded.

"I have long since breached the defenses, your excellency." The spirit replied and he could barely hide his shock, his aid actually making a stupid face at the announcement. He did wonder at the address but… "Congratulations your grace, this has indeed proved to be a worthwhile endeavor, and I am sure you will be rewarded for it. If you will excuse me then I shall immediately escort the traitor to his hidden cell."

'That would be bad.' He immediately thought, holding a frown.

"There is no need, my detail will assist the dungeon guards with escorting the prisoner. I want a bit more time with this bastard." His attempt at playing the 'angry noble about to lash out' was ignored however, his penetrating gaze turning more real as he looked at the fake constipated look in the spirit's face.

"That will be impossible. Your grace…"

"This is an order, leave." Not looking at Geoffrey's confused face or whatever mockery the spirit might be thinking, he turned to look at his rival, for once not acting. He would have this.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"You don't have the authority for that. Your grace." Said a monotone voice he barely recognised as the one from the rather expressive spirit, the noble address clearly being spat with disdain.

There was a moment of silence as for once he allowed himself to slowly turn, giving himself time to think as his mana flow quickened.

This was not what the royal family had explained. Nepotism towards the Demon king's family being given aside, a duke's heir should have been able to command the spirit in front of him for something as simple as this, especially when there were so many examples of his loyalty and competency.

Meaning either the grand duchies had been lied to or someone from the royal family had directly undermined his authority.

"Are you seriously going to try and invoke your regencial rights? Very well, your pettiness and lacking trust have been recorded. Have a good day, your grace." Scoffed the spirit, his nose rising higher as he sneered and covered his face with a hand like some coquettish gossip.

Then he disappeared. Together with Alonsios.

The spirit had purposefully misinterpreted his previous command before he could issue new ones while holding the crest of the Grand duke of Pride, reacting just as the encrusted gold came to his palm.

And just like that, the Heir to Pride had been fooled and ignored. Immediately, the table under him crumbled under his grip.

………………….

The whole attempt at sichuan sauce turned out to not actually end in a gunfight with several black ops agents or anything of the sorts. Rather, the heir to the archduke of wrath turned out to be a traitor indeed. Wasn't even that deep or hidden in his memories.

Rather, it was all actually incredibly easy. So much so that he tried to go and look into the combination for the metrics that would allow one to access both the boy's and his family's hidden treasuries and vaults.

Those were much better protected, and were he not familiar with video games where you were supposed to help someone from inside their mind, then perhaps he'd have to brute force the problem due to lacking formal training as a psionic diver.

Now, he could probably have examined the memories conveniently related to the target of their secret attack on the cult with the suspicion of them being fabricated, but after further examining the boy's early life, he was almost completely convinced he was innocent.

Raised in a military family that considered him a prodigy, feared by his enemies, loyal to his friends, relatively handsome if a bit scary looking, pinning after a beautiful childhood friend who clearly did not see him as a man…

In all honesty, he could see the kid being led to commit mistakes for one reason or the other, but he didn't need to feel the regret in his aura to notice that his recent life had been little more than a spiraling mess after the other.

More importantly though, he wasn't daft enough to not notice what this could be after spending only this much time in xianxia land.

………………..

As a part of his consciousness descended to the material realm, Naran was 'ecstatic', as his sister would say, to hear that his plan was going swimmingly.

It seemed that the spirit was not a pawn either, so for their fight he would need to sketch some kind of complication stopping him from fleeing. Not that he intended to go easy on him, but with the current circumstances…

"NARAN!" Came a thunderous and ethereal voice through the realm barrier. He hesitated for only a moment before inviting his sister in. "What's with this absurd proposal you sent my way!?" Recriminated the divinely beautiful blonde, her icy expression set on murder so obviously that even someone unfamiliar with her could tell she was incredibly displeased.

"My dearest sister, please, I truly believe this is what we need to launch our campaign forward, and this time I have even prepared a proper presentation and explanation." He pleaded, doing his best to act like he was not taller than his big sister.

"...You are being too nice. You want something." She declared, himself barely holding back a curse, having fallen back on his old manners after she raised her voice. "Did another one of those demon tainted harlots pick your interest? Or is it a fight this time?" Her gaze was judgmental, but he could tell she had already started planning.

It was fine, of course, that was just how she was.

"There's this spirit. Some kind of accidental human summon. He's making waves, so I'm sure you've heard of him. Well, I'm not sure you have heard the latest about him." He smiled, knowing that it was too soon for his sister to know what he was talking about

"You want to make some kind of spectacle before the Council of ancients kills him off?" She questioned, clearly observing him as she immediately guessed who he was talking about.

"He already took care of that. Made quite the statement before the 'battle' too. The proper report about it just came in, and I think that after seeing it, you will agree to my requested modification in the agreed upon plan." With an enduring grin, the tall brunette shared the information with his sister, the prayer with it appearing in his hands with a simple command of his will.

Seeing the progressively colder and calculating look in the 'kind' Goddess of Light's face, Naran, The God of War, knew his request would be granted.

Despite his sister being the head of the Pantheon, she nominally did not have absolute authority over everyone. In practice however, most gods simply went wherever she pointed and did as she commanded, as not only were they always the best choices, but they had grown used to following this genius, establishing peace amongst the formerly bickering and fighting gods.

Truly, the war was won beautifully, and the benefits just kept on coming if they took the opportunities.