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After making their way through the roads at night, the group arrived at the Onigawara residence. Near the front door were several empire soldiers bound with belt-shaped magic formations lying limp on the ground. Everyone goggled at the sight, but Shouzou did not spare them even a glance as he invited Sharlo and the rest into his house.
Upon stepping through the front door, Yuliana and Sharlo and everyone else found themselves astonished again and again. The interior being as bright as day despite it being nighttime was indeed surprising, but what they found most shocking was the TV. The sight of people moving around inside a thin box gave all of them the shivers.
“Wh-What on earth is this......” murmured Yuliana.
“Please just think of this as a kind of magic that records everything that you see so that you can look back at it as many times as you like afterwards.”
“I’ve never heard of magic like that......” marveled Yuliana and the rest.
While Shouzou was setting things up, Silvia tended to Lorelei. When she came to, she was also astonished at the room, so much so that she forgot her animosity toward Sharlo.
When all the preparation was done, Shouzou then played the footage that Emalia had secretly taken of the magic beasts being trained. First was the one that showed the hellhounds. Yuliana leaned forward as if sucked in by the sight. The others were also silent, their attention fixated on the footage of magic beasts moving in perfect synchronized unison. Though everyone did laugh a bit at his daughters’ and Emalia’s comical exchanges.
After that, Shouzou also played the other training videos that Emalia had supplemented afterward. These ones showed giant-type magic beasts such as ogres and cyclopes.
When he had finished playing all the footage he had, Shouzou turned to Yuliana for comment.
“Well, let me see...... it seemed like all of the magic beasts were young ones. In that case, then most likely they have adopted traditional anti-magic beast countermeasures as the basis of whatever technique they’re using.”
By capturing a newly born magic beast and sowing the fear of humans into it before releasing it again, that magic beast would learn to avoid human settlements, and the group that the magic beast joins, as well as its offspring, would also have a chance of doing the same.
However, the effect was quite limited, and there were some cases where doing so only further triggered the magic beast’s hatred toward humans, making it even more brutal and ferocious.
“Most likely, they are breeding them somewhere. Then they put all the newborns under training so they learn to not resist, after which they cast hypnotic magic on them. Although magic beasts normally don’t understand human language, a certain degree of understanding could be made possible through training. Though I can’t imagine how difficult that would be.”
“There was previously a water dragon that was attacking merchant ships within the kingdom’s territorial waters who turned out to be under some form of hypnosis. It had enough self-consciousness to ask for help, but apparently could not break out of it on its own.”
“You managed to communicate with a water dragon?”
“It wasn’t us that did the talking, it was our blue dragon...... no, let’s leave the details of that story for another time. In any case, it was in a state of being forced to obey commands, against its own will. The man who was controlling it was mentally ill, so he couldn’t tell us anything specific.”
It was clear that some form of hypnosis was being cast on the magic beasts through magic, but the specific details of the hypnosis were not clear. Shouzou had been too occupied with confirming whether the empire was truly the one pulling the strings in the back and thus had not done enough investigating on this front.
Yuliana brought a hand to her chin and contemplated deeply. “Perhaps they might be planting the idea inside the magic beasts that their controller is their parent.”
“Parent?”
“With only a small exception, most magic beasts form societies with very strict hierarchies. Even while growing up, the word of the ‘parent’ is absolute law. By nature, they would never oppose their ‘parent.’ At least, that’s a theory that I had heard before.”
Shouzou made no effort to hide his disgust. To think that these people were even taking advantage of the bonds between parent and child for their military aspirations.
“I cannot say for certain that that is what the empire is doing. However, logically, this is highly probable.”
In actual fact, there was a blue dragon living together with the Onigawara family. Puru was living off of magic from Hina, so maybe it had grown attached from recognizing Hina as its parent.
“Either way, it is very likely that some form of hypnosis is being utilized. By dispelling that hypnosis and making a clean sweep of all the controllers, then the magic beast unit should fall apart.” Seeing a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel, Yuliana’s breathing was erratic.
Shouzou too, despite the feelings of aversion inside his heart, was glad that one of the conditions had been cleared. That left only one other condition. “Hmm. All right, let’s leave that aside for now.”
“I’m sorry? I don’t think we are in a position to put that off though.”
“Princess Yuliana, what is it that you plan on doing after this?”
“As we just discussed, the empire’s magic beast unit—”
Shouzou raised a hand to indicate that that was not what he was asking. “Have you properly explained everything to Sharlo-kun yet?”
Yuliana came to a start. Sharlo was nodding off, but upon hearing his own name, he also came to a start.
“We have a general idea of what it is that you wanted to do. From the looks of things, it seems that Sharlo-kun already knows your real identity. But have you properly explained to him everything beyond that?”
Yuliana shook her head feebly. She stood up, walked over to stand in front of Sharlo, then kneeled on the ground and bowed her head deeply. “Prince Sharlo. I have taken on a false identity, and deceived your personage without being honest about my own intentions. Here I offer my earnest apology. I am truly sorry.”
“Hold o—wh-what is with you, suddenly getting all formal...... it’s not like explaining anything at this time would change anything, right?”
“That cannot be so. I have an obligation to provide you with an explanation. I have been inspecting this country with the intention of using you, and by extension, this entire country. If you proved worthy as an ally, I planned on using you to stop the tyrannical rule of my Father Emperor.”
“......In that case, then I still have only one thing to say: ‘too bad for you.’ Even if you get together with me, there’s no way you can use the kingdo—”
“That’s not it!” Yuliana lifted her head to look at Sharlo with sincerity. “My resolve still remains the same. Even if I have to fight alone, even if I have to give up my life while delivering the final thrust of the dagger, I will stop my Father Emperor. But, that’s...... the path is long and precipitous, so...... my heart was about to... snap......” Her voice gradually dwindled into a mumble, but then she took a deep breath as if to gather up her resolve. “Even so! If you’re with me, I think I can continue to give my all!”
That shout accompanied by a reddened face was truly—