The answer was close to the worst. The Doldran house of Margrave was a large and powerful noble family that rivalled even the Marquises. They were the largest faction in Tullius' faction. They could be said to be pivotal. As the head of the faction, he would want to maintain peace. Tullius would definitely not allow the possibility of his son replacing him, whom he had brainwashed.
In other words, his son will soon be under the clutches of Tullius’ brainwashing, or be purged.
"—Fear not. I declare."
Suddenly, a voice came from behind him, and Margrave Doldran recognised it immediately. The voice of that which had even less emotion than M-22's.
Opus 05, Fem. A messenger from the devil that was supposed to be waiting for him in his office. Before he knew it, she had slipped out of the mansion and appeared behind him.
"As it stands, I have no intention of letting Master deal with your son. He's too busy with his research and dealing with the Centralist Faction. Rather, it would be more efficient to rely on His Excellency's abilities and leave it to you."
"Because I've already got the tools for it, huh?"
As he said this, he looked at the S-series, which remained silently in line. At first glance, the group appeared to be splendidly armed warriors, but their vacant eyes were fixed on their commander.
"So you want me to use these guys to achieve military success and thus erase any words of complaints from the house?"
"That is correct. I affirm. If we do this, the bad publicity will turn into positive publicity and their introduction will be seen as a wise decision."
"I see."
They were fighters who could kick the crap out of a top-tier knight. The extent of their ability were comparable to that of B-ranked adventurer vanguards. It was a big deal to have 20 of them. It made up for the loss of the Scarlet Shield, and was a force under his direct control, unlike adventurers who may be difficult to control.
The name of the Doldran Margrave would be ruined if he led this many troops without success.
"However, there is a caveat. I warn. They are all warriors, and are not good at magic. To a certain extent, their enchanted swords will compensate for it, but they would only be placeholders for the real deal. If you need magic, please remember that you will need to bring a mage along separately." Fem reminded him.
"With all due respects, I should be of some use then. I have some knowledge in magic." M-22 lowered her head to the Margrave.
"Exactly what I was planning to do. I'm the one who's getting a direct assignment. You'll be following me, won't you?"
M-22 immediately replied in the affirmative. "Yes. As long as his Excellency is in line with master, I will give my all to you."
"......Lucie, you can lie there and leave out the first half. Men are the kind that would be more happy that way."
"I am sorry, but that, I cannot. I know it is essential to maintain trust between allies."
"I see...... you're a well-disciplined kid."
Margrave Doldran closed his eyes as he let out another deep sigh.
For the past few days, I have been forced to become well acquainted with sighing. I wondered how long this would last, and quickly realised that it would never end for the time being, and became depressed all over again.
※ ※ ※
“—Collection of data from the S-series has gone without a hitch, I report. It is the product of the M-series and B-series, so there might be issues in their lack of independence and flexibility, but a capable commander should be sufficient to compensate for that.”
"Mmm-hmm. Well, it's as expected. It's well in line with our expectations. Not too bad, isn’t it?"
In my usual private atelier in the underground lab of Marlan, I was receiving a report from Fem over the transmission. One of the abilities that I had installed in Fem was a virtual space storage. It was a useful ability that allowed her to store numerous armaments in a space that overlapped with her coordinates. This time, a large communication equipment was placed inside. Thanks to it, it was possible to communicate between Marlan in the southeast and Doldran in the west. Well, M-22 also has a communication unit, but that would be a different story. Basically, the idea is to let Fem do her duties independently and from the shadows. It would be awkward to have her share communication gear with M-22, who had to follow the Margrave in the public setting.
"Currently, there are no losses in the test units. I report. There were some that had been seriously injured, but with early treatment, the injuries were not fatal. However, we have not encountered any A-ranked targets that are beyond their capabilities at present."
"Well, I'd be worried about his Excellency, the Margrave’s physical body…... if that happens, you know what to do right?"
"Of course, Master. I reply. I should join and support the battle. Protect the Margrave and defeat the enemies, yes? …...As for the other escorts, for the ones that have not been brainwashed by master—"
"—Let them be feed for the monsters. Yeah, seems like you know how to deal with it."
In the event that Fem did enter the fray, the witnesses would be thoroughly silenced. That has been a definite rule right from the start. Now was not the time to reveal her. The reason we sent her to the west was because my pawn, Margrave Doldran, had territory there.
After all, subjugation efforts against A-ranked monsters were like that. It would be unnatural if there were no casualties from such encounters.
“Also, the authority of the Margrave has been strengthened by the results of the operational tests. It seems that everyone in the house is once again yielding to the Margrave. However, M-22 may have already reported on this.”
"Yeah, I've heard that from her."
I heard that they were even planning to change the head of the family because of the sudden presence of slaves in the house. It was a troublesome situation. Still, the Margrave was not simply a nobody. I heard that he went out personally with the S-series and brought back heroic accomplishments, enough to regain control of his retainers and the support of his people. Though the whole problem began because I sent slaves to him.
"But that Margrave is soft-hearted, isn't he? He didn't disinherit the son who tried to oust him and just forgave him. Even if he is the only heir, there’s no excusing it, isn’t there?"
"Not only that, but he was not particularly enthusiastic about being brainwashed. I add."
"I know he can't disobey me if I order him to, but it's tricky. He's very skillful, but he's also very wilful and that can be a handful."
I said, folding my arms.
Margrave Doldran and other nobles who have been forcibly incorporated into the faction were brainwashed using the same method used on Uni and Due to prevent any overt personality changes. This was also the method used for the final adjustment of Seis. The advantage of this method was that it enforce obedience while minimising the impact on their mentality, but of course it had its own set of drawbacks. The enthusiasm or motivation to follow orders was completely dependent on the personality pre-modification.
In the case of Uni and Seis, the result was good. The former has been trained and educated to show only goodwill towards me, and the latter has had her personality mixed directly into her brain from the incubation stage. Due was a bit of a problem. He often had objections, and was clearly uncomfortable with commands he didn’t like. Well, he could be left as he is for the to balance out the cons from groupthink.
And the Margrave was in the latter category. This wasn’t a favourable situation. If forced to carry out orders, he would probably do it, but it seemed that meddling with his kins caused him great stress. The precedent being M-03, when her estranged brother became a bandit and tried to kill me, so he was taken ‘care’ of. I don't know if it would be the same with mass-produced slaves, because there was a difference in the surgical method and there was a world of difference between brainwashing and murdering, but the risk from not knowing was troubling. If we knew in advance what was going to happen, we could take countermeasures, but in this case, we didn't know anything.
So we decided to shelve it.
"Well, fine. I can wait until I myself can hold the faction together. So long as the Margrave can maintain his influence until the problems with the Centralist faction are resolved, we're good. After that, I don’t really care what happens. Whether he stays active or retires, whether his son takes over or passes it on to his future child with M-22, it doesn't matter as long as it's later."
