"Woah, what's up, Lulu?"

"Hehe~ I missed you~"

"We were only apart for a few days..."

"So?"

"...Never mind..."

"I hear that plans have changed again. What're we going to be doing now?"

Cecil immediately sat Lucia down on his lap and started explaining the new plan to her. She nodded thoughtfully and approved of the new plan to do things more covertly. At least now, she knew that her husband wouldn't go on a rampage around the city.

"We'll only be targeting the Merkruz Lord directly then? That's good. We won't be causing any more casualties than necessary this way."

"Mhm, we'll also reap more benefits from this nation in the long run. I feel bad for the people, but this is the consequence for attacking us. I'm not about to let go of such a good opportunity."

"Since we're going to an M-Jammer influenced area, wouldn't my magic be useless?" Lucia asked in confusion as to why she's here.

If her only purpose was to come to the city in order to let everyone use her Misty Gate to get back to Central Light quickly, then there was no need for her to even be here.

"Of course you're gonna be useful. Your sword arts are much stronger than any of the elite soldiers and we're going to need you to implant a soul shackling spell on the Merkruz Lord in order to put him under our control."

"Uhh... b-but mother said—"

"Don't worry, it's just this once," Cecil said.

"Hmmm... Okay then. This kind of magic is taboo, but honestly, I don't really mind using it."

"We'll have to naturally deactivate the M-Jammer first before we can proceed with the plan, but that'll be easy once we capture the Merkruz Lord and force the M-Jammer's location out of him."

"Okay...so what should we be doing now?"

"We're waiting until we can get an audience with the lord before the meeting day. Once we get a legitimate reason to head over to the core area to seek audience with the lord, we'll immediately start our plan."

*****

The rumors about the Central Light City being attacked and scouts having confirmed that the walls have indeed been destroyed and occupied by some foreign power immediately alerted Alexander.

There were reports of the other border cities coming in stating that they had been similarly attacked from out of nowhere. 2 of the 5 border cities were razed to the ground while the other 3 were only occupied. 2 of them were occupied for only a few days before the enemy forces had retreated, but the Central Light City had been occupied even until today.

Currently, Kaiser still hadn't departed from the city since he was waiting for Cecil, Fatima, and Lucia.

"Dammit, just who are these people who are attacking us?" Alexander slammed his fist onto the table in front of him after reading the reports. The rumors spreading around about how severe the damages done to the cities had sparked his attention and he immediately had people investigate the situation at the border.

And soon enough, he had received dire news about what had transpired on the border.

"f.u.c.k, is it the Regulus Kingdom? I thought we had a non-aggression pact!"

Alexander was having a major headache and the fact that the border city lords were requesting for audiences with him due to the recent reports about their cities having been attacked by a foreign power also weighed on his mind.

"The monthly meets can't be conducted now because of this recent development... Astor!"

"Yes, milord?"

"Have all the city lords gather in the conference hall and have the Central Light city lord come meet me in private! We have to address the danger of the foreign force that's currently residing in his city!"

"Yes, milord, I'll get right to it!"

"Agh, one problem after another... Just which neutral power caught wind of our loss in the war?"

Alexander grasped his forehead and thought about the nation that had completely decimated his army. He s.h.i.+vered in fear when he remembered about the cold and apathetic eyes that eyed him on the battlefield.

"That was no human... but could the ones attacking us be those from Silvaria? I'm sure their losses in the war were just as great and I've heard news about the other powers in the No-Man's Land so there's no way that they'd come out to attack us when their lands are also in turmoil...right?"

Alexander agonized over the thought since he didn't want to face the monster that had destroyed his kingdom's army once again. He deeply regretted his notion of attacking that nation.

"Yeah, they shouldn't have any manpower for it! There numbers were low to begin with so there's just no way they're the ones attacking us..."

Alexander quickly brewed some tea and slowly drank it to relieve his tensed mind. As he was quietly meditating, the door to the room was knocked.

"Come in," Alexander spoke out.

"My Lord, I've brought the Central Light City Lord as well as a few of his a.s.sociates."

"...Good, have only the city lord come in. Leave the others outside."

"Yes, milord."

After a few moments, Cecil, who was disguised as the city lord, entered the room. The butler, Astor, quickly closed the door behind him and Cecil noticed that there were a few guards inside the room.

Outside, Lucia, Fatima, and a few others were waiting patiently for Cecil to quickly seize control of the room.

"Please, sit down, Belsor. We have much to discuss."

"..."

"I know that you are worried about your city and the people occupying—"

"That's enough," Cecil lazily said.

"Hm?"

"This disguise was getting way too stuffy anyways," Cecil pulled down the veil he was wearing and sent a Ki-infused punch at the door behind him.

The door was immediately smashed open. Fatima, Lucia, and everyone else from Cecil's group quickly rushed into the room and began to quickly take down the guards.

"Belsor, what're you—"

"I'm not Belsor," Cecil said as he walked over to Alexander.

Lucia snapped her fingers and quickly dispelled Cecil's disguise and as his body features s.h.i.+fted to his normal self, Alexander began to slowly pale.

"Remember me?"

"Y-y-y-y-you...y-you're..."

"Hm?" Cecil eyed Alexander apathetically and the man's expression immediately froze in horror. "I'm what?"

"...w-w-what do you want?" Alexander stuttered. He was clearly losing himself to fear over a man much younger than himself.

"Hohoh, are you frightened?"

"..."

"You probably didn't expect that I was a Silvarian, did you?"

"..."

"Aww, what's with that look? It's like you're looking at me as if I was some kind of monster~"

'That's because you are!' Alexander screamed inwardly in his mind however on the outside, he kept his expression as neutral as possible, but he knew that his composure was already compromised.

He felt his arms and legs slowly chilling. The coldness that he was feeling as he stared back at the monster in human form currently standing in front of him pierced straight into his bones. Alexander would never forget the horror and terror he felt when he saw the apathetic monster mercilessly slaughter all of his men right in front of him.

"W-what do you want?!" He nearly shrieked out.

"Tsk, not much. Just...compensation for you attacking my kingdom..." Cecil said before sitting himself down.

Alexander was already standing and backing away from the table, but seeing as how the guards in the room had been quickly subdued and he was the only person left alive, Alexander tried to compose himself and sat back on the chair facing Cecil.

"What kind of compensation?"

"I want your kingdom."

"W-what?"

"Oh don't worry, you can still play house and be the lord of this place. I just want you to pay tribute to my kingdom for not directly razing everything you own to the ground today."

Alexander flinched when he heard Cecil's words and immediately knew what the man was getting at.

"S-so...you want me to be—"

"A puppet leader, that's right. We won't take your life or anyone else's but you have to serve us from now on."

"..."

"Hey, it's not that bad is it? I mean, you get to keep your life and your power. It's just that you won't be serving yourself anymore but instead, you'll be serving us!"

"But..."

"Hey, if you decline, we can just simply raze this entire kingdom to the ground and be done with it. It's your call man," Cecil playfully said.

Alexander inwardly cursed in his mind. He knew for a fact that this man in front of him had the power to directly do what he just stated.

"I'll agree to it, but let me ask..."

"Go ahead."

"W-were you the ones who attacked the border cities?"

"Hah, great deduction! I'm surprised you didn't get this earlier! Did you think that we were too weak to attack you?"

"..."

"Don't worry, we only destroyed a few cities and let the others be. If it wasn't because of the urgent need to change plans, we might have destroyed some more cities while our army made its way towards the capital," Cecil said.

"!"

"You don't need to be alarmed. We're going straight back to our kingdom after the negotiations here have been finished. You agree to it, right?"

"...Yes," Alexander reluctantly said.

"Great! Lucia, come here."

Lucia immediately stepped forward and arrived next to Cecil.

"Ah, by the way, before we continue. I'm going to have to ask you to disable the M-Jammer. Also, don't try anything funny. Before you can invoke any sort of spell, my fist will arrive much faster to your face than a Mag-Cannon's blast will."

"...Yes..."

Alexander stood up and walked over to a cabinet right behind the chair he was sitting on. A few of Fatima's men cautiously watched over him as he started deactivating the M-Jammer. Once Cecil sensed that the M-Jammer was deactivated, he locked his senses onto Alexander and the man immediately felt as if he was being eyed by some wild beast.

'S-s.h.i.+t... i-if I try anything...he'll definitely kill me,' Alexander inwardly thought. He sighed to himself and resigned himself to his fate.

"Done...now what?" Alexander walked back over to his chair and slowly sat down.

"Lulu?"

"Alright, let's get this over with," Lucia said as her hand started glowing in an ominous light purple color.

"W-what're you going to do?" Alexander cautiously asked.

"Don't worry, it's only for insurance~" Cecil replied.

Lucia immediately flashed right in front of Alexander and struck him on the forehead with her palm. The light purple aura on her hand immediately began permeating into Alexander's head and the man started convulsing as if he was having a seizure.

A purple seal immediately formed on Alexander's forehead. Lucia nodded when she saw this and stopped channeling her spell.

"Alright...I'm done," Lucia stepped back and said. She wiped her hand and stepped back next to Cecil.

Cecil stood up from his seat and wrapped his arm around Lucia's waist. He pulled out a doc.u.ment from his spatial ring, sent his mana into it and walked towards the door.

"Big sis, it's done. The doc.u.ment already explains everything to him and what he needs to do from now on. Let's head back."

Fatima nodded and gestured for everyone to get ready.

Lucia immediately created a Misty Gate on the doorway exiting the room and the couple walked through it with everyone else following behind them.

During the process of having his soul shackled, Alexander felt as if his brain and body was being churned inside out. He was losing consciousness but before that, he was able to see Cecil's group walk into the Misty Gate.