Chapter 263: Living Dead and Fate Ceremony

‘Insufficient number of people’ was the common problem for both Lily and Fiona.

It didn’t mean that they had less people for labour work, rather the life of humans was needed.

One side wanted them for human experiments that would be completed who know when. The other side wanted to keep on giving living sacrifice until the whimsical Evil God or Devil God would give out the divine protection.

Those deeds could be said to be inhuman and fiendish, but it was no doubt that this was the shortest and reliable way to ‘gain new power’.

「For the time being, we can’t work in Spada, right?」

Lily said as such while sitting on a wooden chair, while swinging her child legs that didn’t reach the floor.

「Indeed」

Fiona showed agreement while sitting on the bed on which she was indulging in aesthetical plays just before.

Even without saying, these both had already an unspoken rule of not letting Kurono find out their inhumane deeds.

Especially the human experiments of Lily were same as the source of Kurono’s hate for Crusaders, his unpleasant past memories.

Sure enough it wasn’t known if Kurono would show understanding to Lily’s acts that were the same as those white researchers who forced him into a human experiment.

「My Living Dead are——」

Yes, that’s why Lily reached out to her final goal, and called the humans without any ego or memory, whom she could control as she wanted, as『Living Dead』, hence she had already chosen a name that might be misunderstood for『Necromancers』.

The『Necromancer』was a class deemed acceptable by the public, if Kurono also thought it was that class then he wouldn’t find faults in her. Only if he thought that the humans being controlled by Lily were not living human but just corpses.

「——Several tens more needed to testing or else it won’t be helpful. I also have to get『Angel Ring』reformed for my personal use」

「You have shown that ring to Simon-san, right? Is it fine doing that?」

The question was purely due to concern if Kurono heard about it from Simon’s mouth, and it surely wasn’t for being worried about Simon nor was it after considering Simon’s feelings.

Fiona didn’t hate the elf alchemist as much as Liky, but she also didn’t find him likeable. To her, Simon could be said to be just an acquaintance.

Although they were living under the same roof, but there was no necessity to get along with him. Being indifferent to each other was also a way to live a harmonious cohabitation life.

「It’s fine, I have forbidden him to speak, and that boy is also not an idiot」

Although Lily had special feelings for Simon, who seemed to gather Kurono’s attention all the time, but even so she didn’t had a personality so emotional to actually deny Simon’s whole existence.

Even like this, she believed that she was judging Simon’s ability objectively. And the result was, she judged that he had enough intelligent personality to avoid needless troubles.

Probably Simon knew all-to-well about the impending crisis if Lily and Kurono ever broke up.

「Rather than not an idiot, I sure have to recognize that he has great mind. He has already done the analysis on『Angel Ring』」

「It is really a great thing to do the analysis on Republic’s most difficult lump of magic circuit, in less than a week.」

Fiona praised Simon’s achievements, honestly.

At a glance that ring seemed like a simple accessory, but inside it were various sorts of magic to completely dominate a human.

And it wasn’t just formed with one or two magic circles, but upon disassembling it, it would break in countless parts which surely had some sort of magic equation drawing on it. Moreover, the shape of each part and its position in the ring would also have some meaning related to the magic.

「Sure enough he hadn’t elucidated it completely, after all it had some magic equation etched onto it, which aren’t used here」

「Does it mean that decipherable parts have already been sorted out?」

「Yeah, just like that. He even wrote a conjecture of functions for parts undecipherable. *chuckle* He worked way above my expectations」

Apparently Simon was a type of person who would set aside his personal emotion and do his work all-too-seriously.

This work was done by the man who established the legend of getting full scores in enrolment examinations for 3 years straight, an unprecedented record in Royal Sapda Academy. So, it could be said that his work would be perfect.

The main cause was also because the magic knowledge cultivated by Simon was suited more for this sort engineering-work rather than battle-types.

「Thanks to that I learn a lot, for instance, the memories of the wearer are not under deleting system, but rather sealing system」

「I see……so that’s why Kurono-san is still having the memories of that another world called JAPAN, right」

Till now she only had fragmentary memories of Cyprus, but thanks to Simon’s analysis, a lot of its functions and structure formation was revealed, at least to the point where they could conjecture lots of things about the ring.

Even the fact that memories were sealed and not deleted was also discovered.

「Right, thanks to this ring taking on the tiresome and delicate work of sealing, that the current Kurono is present」

「But then, why did they not delete his memories?」

If one wanted to control humans, then their memories were only hindrance and nothing else.

The deletion and sealing of memories were fundamentally different things.

Deletion meant that memories one gone forever gone, however sealing meant that there was chances of it returning.

And, if the memories returned at an unexpected time, they would create hindrance to the experiment, this was something that was proved from Kurono’s escape.

Of course, there was no way the researchers of『The White Sacrament』didn’t thought about this danger.

Lily knew from the fragmented memories that they were a great research institution which captured superior human resources, they were not like research organizations of medium-small scale scattered here in Pandora Continent.

Of course, even without that, anyone could understand that this『Angel Ring』couldn’t be made by any person with ordinary magical energy and technological strength.

「The reason they didn’t got rid of memories was because, they wanted to make a perfect puppet that could work on behalf of humans」

If it was just controlling the body of one person, then there were various magic existing for that like Summon Magic or Necromancy.

However, creating someone who would move like people with full-freedom, wasn’t something easily done.

For that person to do stuff like a normal soldier, like eating, excreting, sleeping, manual labour and fighting, there was a need for a magic caster to beside that person for giving out orders one by one.

Think by themselves, move by themselves, it was possible for those instincts too which could overcome reason, but if they became those below animal grade people, then it would all be for naught.

「For truly create a puppet that could would have its ‘self’, there is a need to seal and process the memories in order, and it would take time. Moreover, there is also a need to reform the personality of that person」

Creating puppets that would do everything based on orders wasn’t something difficult to make, for『The White Sacrament』at least.

There was a need to erase the original memories and personality, and then engrave the new fake personality made by the magic circuit. Like that they would be complete.

It didn’t take enough time if compared to time taken for Kurono to run away, if they were still using that system, then right now the experimental subject number would’ve not only surpassed 100th, but might have even reached 1000th or 10000th.

However, if they were using that mass production system, then it would only create a true puppet, which wouldn’t even twitch its finger unless given a command.

「The experimental subject group『Hundred Numbers』we met on the road were able to have self-conduct much better than compared to their early stages, however comprehensively they would still need a supervisor」

If the experimental subjects were completed in the truest sense, then that leader itself could be changed with a experimental subject.

The reason the researcher Cyprus was there was because he was the supervisor, and because of him the experimental subjects were able to feign as mercenaries while executing a long-term campaign.

Of course it couldn’t be said that they feigned completely, due to their problems of never showing emotions and not talking.

「Those people are trying to create an Artificial Life-form using this——No, maybe I should say reincarnation a human in that very same body」

「Do you mean that the sealed memories were used as the indispensible ‘part’ for the possibility of that subject to do self-conduct, after their fake personality was me?」

「It’s not like they would let them get back all the memory. It is something like just unsealing the important and needed memories. Well, considering all that is also quite difficult」

Lily said as if it was someone’s problem, apparently from her behaviour it could be guessed that the experimental subject’s completion was still far away.

Judging from the current behaviours of experimental subjects it could be surmised that it would take lots of improvements before they were able to ‘act’ like a normal human being. Like reveal joy, anger, pathos, humour, and make merry in a meaningless chat, and also shout out loud at the smallest things.

「But Lily-san, isn’t it impossible to use that advanced magic here?」

「Yeah, don’t worry about it, after all I just need puppets for controlling」

The reason『White Sacrament』was having hard time and was using up their times, was because they wanted to complete the supreme role of creating a puppet that could move on its own without any supervisor.

No matter how much puppets they mass produced, if there was no supervisor to control them, then they were just useless objects that can’t even be used as sculptures.

Moreover, it wasn’t like anyone could become the supervisor, at least it would need a person, on Cyprus’s level, in the sense of being well-versed in magic.

「I’m fine having puppets listening to my every order, I don’t want to do that troublesome thing to making self-conducting puppets」

「I see, so a complete perfect substitution for Necromancer, eh」

Henceforth, Lily had no problem in deleting the memories of the humans she would control.

For Necromancer it starts from preparing the right corpse that would become their servant.

On the other hand, Lily would prepare ‘living’ humans with completely destroyed memory and personality, something really close to corpse.

That’s why, Lily called it as『Living Dead』.

「I don’t have any need for the most delicate and complex work of this『Angel Ring』, like memory sealing and new personality development. It would work if I create a simple Original fake personality magic equation, as for their storage it would work if I use Summon Magic」

There was problem of where did monsters, who were summoned using Summon Magic, lived?

The houseroom for the summoned monsters, that was a problem that had made various Summoners troubled for long time.

It was standard for Summoners of the old to always let the monsters graze, and commonly they put together with Tamers and also called as such.

Otherwise, there were people who could literally『Summon』monsters from meadows by using an advanced magic, however not many could do that.

However, recently an earth-shattering discovery was made, and that was using『Dimension Magic』.

With Tamer’s methods, the monsters that could accompany them, even if they were small monsters, the limit was just couple of monsters. If it were to be a big monster, then taking just one would take lots of labour.

There, by tossing the monsters in Dimension made by Dimension Magic, the expense and labour to take along the monsters becomes zero at once.

Of course, the inside of Dimension was a basic vacuum, based on the attribute of user the inside of Dimension could be altered, but nonetheless it can’t be said to be the perfect place for monsters to live.

At the time of tossing monsters in there, those particular monsters were also casted a magic that would send them into a state called『Cold Sleep State』.

Like this, the problem which troubled Summoners for a long time about summoning the required number of monsters at the required time, was finally resolved.

Of course, it wasn’t like Dimension Magic could create an infinite space, based on the person’s talent and effort, along with Magic Items, the person could store several big-sized monsters, like this there was more than enough capacity guaranteed.

Incidentally Necromancers had already been using Dimension Magic from before, they were using corpses in the first place.

In truth, the most earth-shattering discovery would be this magic called『Cold Sleep』.

「Moreover, if I use my Extra Magic as a substitution for the transmission device, I could simplify the structure of ring even more」

「I see, so you have been thinking a lot」

「If I don’t do this, the ring can’t be mass-produced. If the ring was created as it is, god knows how much capital it would need」

Naturally, no matter how much it was simplified, it was still an Magic Item used for controlling a person, if one thought of mass-producing it, it would need suitable amount of capital to fund it.

However, that ‘suitable amount of capital’ might be within the area that Lily could raise it.

Only if it was a party like『Element Master』, whose true hidden rank was Rank 5.

「Well thanks to simplifying it, I won’t need as many experimental subject as those guys, I think my work would be done with less than a hundred people. And so, what are you doing?」

Lily asked Fiona as though she were saying her explanation was now finished.

「What do you mean by that」

「I mean about how many sacrifices do you need?」

The number of experimental subjects Lily needed was something she could get by herself, but the number of people Fiona needed, if reached thousand, then it wouldn’t be something she could get by herself.

It wouldn’t be completed unless a Heathen Organization was to be established.

「To be honest, I also don’t know about that」

The only she knew was, the sacrifice of 20 people that day wasn’t enough for God to listen to her request.

「So you are performing ceremony without knowing much about it yourself?」

Lily gave her a reproachful gaze seeming fed-up, the eyes of White-Pun robe on her head also seemed to have same gaze.

「The ceremony written in this is a sort of gamble, because no one knows which God would listen to person’s request. So, it can’t be helped」

This, obviously meant the forbidden book『The Guide to Ten Thousand Demon Palace』, which Fiona took out from the Great Library.

Among the numerous abominable ceremonies written in that, the one Fiona chose was,

「Oh, I see, so it’s『Fate Ceremony』」

「You surely know it」

「It is, after all, used in many literary works, although I don’t know about its details」

The system of this『Fate Ceremony』was, in short, the person doing the ceremony themselves didn’t know about the God who would give them Divine Protection.

Generally, the thing called Divine Protection was something that a person got after choosing their preferred God, and completing the trials or ceremonies.

For fairies it was『Fairy Queen Iris』, for Knights it was『Dark Knight Frithier』, and for a demon king-wannabe wanting to control the whole Pandora then it was『Demon King Mia Elrod』.

However in Fate Ceremony, it wasn’t human choosing God, but rather God choosing human.

The people who choose this system might have various reasons for that, such as, the person challenged various Divine Protection but failed, or the chosen God didn’t gave a proper trial to clear, among them there were also who thought it was heathen work to chose Gods while being humans.

In that case, if a God who would give them powerful Divine Protection would choose them, and then it would be because of fate being at work. Lily had read many books, left by that magician in the forest, which were about this dramatic plot.

「But even if it is the same Fate Ceremony, based on the magic equation used in that, doesn’t a vague image of the God is settled? For a type that wants sacrifices, it would be, without a doubt, either Evil God or Devil God」

「Lily-san, did you think that a witch would get Divine Protection from an innately good God?」

If one were to apply the concept of good and evil to Gods, then from Cross Religion’s point of view, other than their『White God』every other was『Evil God』.

But, from the point of polytheism of people of Spada, where many Gods coexist, the good and evil of a God would be decided upon the sort of legend they created when alive.

If it was a hero who defeated a brutal dragon to save a country, then that person would be a Good God, no doubt.

On the contrary, if this dragon was defeated, happen to defeat hero and become God, then it would definitely become an Evil God, who brought calamity to people.

If Fiona called herself a witch while taking on its true meaning, then it didn’t just mean a female who could magic, but become an evil existence, as told in stories, such as, tempting human heart, leading them astray, making them mad, making them commit crime and finally throwing them into their destruction, or an evil person who could use secret evil arts for killing the heroes. That was, what people call, a witch.

And after performing a ceremony needing sacrifices, she had, in the truest sense, set forth on the path of『evil』.

「So that was what you meant by resolve?」

「There was ordinary sense of justice and ethics in me, but——」

Fiona replied while smiling faintly.

「If I can get power by just giving it away, then I throw it without hesitation」

Just for Kurono and no one else.

Even without saying it, the meaning was transmitted to Lily, only Lily.

「So you didn’t have enough composure to keep on choosing the means. *chuckle*, that’s a great mindset」

The Lily praising while laughing merrily, was the biggest understanding person to the current Fiona.

Both of their nature was heading in the same way, all for Kurono, because of that one word they wouldn’t hesitate to commit any sort of evil act; that was pure, yet cruel, resolve.

The reason both Fiona and Lily chose people like bandits ‘that are good to die’, because that way they would get the most advantage in explaining their conduct.

The first reason was that if they killed a common person, Kurono would feel sad. The second reason was they would have Law Guardians at their tail. And the third reason, which should be the first one, was that they felt sad for killing innocent people.

On the contrary if Kurono gave them the permission, and they were prepared to live a life being chased, then these two maniacs would not hesitate to kill even a normal innocent person.

The only wall stopping these two from running on the path of disgusting murder, was always the sense of justice of Kurono.

「But, if you are wanting an Evil God, then be careful about your own body」

「No, that area is fine and won’t have any problems」

Fiona replied in a somewhat confidence-filled voice.

「As long as I’m a witch, the God of Evil or Devil would always accept my request——or so my teacher had said」

Requesting Divine Protection from an Evil God, apparently, was something already in Fiona’s training practice. Lily understood it just now.