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Chapter 174: Welcome to the Kingdom: Initialization Phase

He walked through the door and closed it behind him, long gray beard swaying with each of his steps. Slowly, he took a seat. “I am pleased to see you, Asmo.”

“Pleasure to you as well. I want you to make a device that can decapitate someone instantly upon activation.”

He blinked. “Er, okay. Straight to the point, then. Do you mind…elaborating on your desires for how this device will function?”

“I have no specific request in its methodology. In fact, it does not have to be decapitation. I suppose I just prefer it has a more…dramatic flair. My thought was a collar that one would wear—-one which is impossible to remove by any means—-and, upon activation, it severs the wearer\'s head. However, anything that could instantly kill the wearer is fine.”

Winic looked down, stroking his beard. “Hm. Making anything that performs an effect against the user’s will is typically very difficult. As is making something impossible to remove or disable. What is the Health of the target?”

“This would be something mass-produced. Used on both Unclassed and Classed individuals. The highest-Level ones would most likely be in the lower mid-Levels, so around 15 or so. If they’re Melee-Type, that means upwards of around 700 Health. But it also needs to work on those who can use Spells and other protective effects on themselves.”

Winic nodded slowly. “It seems you overestimate the power of Enchantments. When it comes to a damage-dealing trigger, that could be possible for something like an explosive. Difficult, and expensive, but possible. But a precise, single-target attack like that—-one which would be attached to a person and affect them only when triggered—-is bordering on impossibility. And when you ask for it to be unable to be removed or deactivated, and that it be impossible to prevent the damage in any way…It cannot be done.”

“Then what can you do? This is your job, remember. If you can’t do it, figure something else out.”

“To do so, I would need to know your goals. What do you need this device for? What is it to accomplish?”

“I want to be able to press a button and end someone’s life.”

“Would this be a person who has been preselected? Could there be preparation time beforehand?”

“Effectively. We could spend time affixing it to a target, if that is your question.”

“Would they be wearing the device willingly?”

“No. But I might be able to convince them to willingly put it on.”

“Hm.” He looked down and stroked his beard once again, taking a moment to think. Eventually, he looked back up. “Is it completely necessary to kill them? Or could ‘end their life’ be taken in a more…metaphorical sense?”

Asmo walked into the throne room, up to the Succubus that’d taken the place of King Koinkar. It was currently hunched over in its throne, a wooden table dragged up to the seat with papers strewn about on it. It was writing out what seemed to be some sort of budget proposal, redistributing the way the tax income was currently being spent—that is, making the change from the self-destructive practice of spending every last penny on the military to a much more sustainable option of actually spending money on food. About time it got around to doing that.

“Hello,” Asmo said, and the Succubus turned around to roll its eyes at the sight of her. She continued, “I would like to use a Communication Crystal. Do you have one I can borrow?”

“Greeting, Human. Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“Are you too busy to give me an unused Communication Crystal?”

“Yes. Please leave me to my duties. Duties that are more important than yours, I am sure. I gave you those Message Papers for a reason, no? Go use those if you need to speak to someone.”

“It would be easier to speak without the delay. Just tell me where one is and I will get it myself.”

“You know what? No. I don’t want to. If you are so much better than I, then you should be able to get by just fine without me.”

“I would be able to get by without you if you did not actively hide the Communication Crystals from me so that I have to speak to you every time I want to use one.”

It stood and spun around to look fully at Asmo. “We cannot just trust a Human with instant means of speaking with outsiders! You are not a part of the Seventh Circle, and you never will be. We are using you to accomplish a goal. Do not forget that.”

“Succubus. Just tell me where—”

A look of rage flashed across its face. “You do not get to call me by my species! You are inferior to me. Do not speak to me as though you are in charge.”

A moment of silence passed between the two, only broken by the angry breathing of the fake king. Eventually, Asmo sighed. “Okay. I will use the Message Paper.”

“Good. Now be an obedient little Human and get out of my sight while I attend to important matters.”

Asmo turned and walked away, heading back the way she came. That was how many interactions went between her and the fake Koinkar, and at this point, she had learned to live with her circumstances. Well, she learned to work around her circumstances while she made efforts to permanently resolve the problem.

Which was what she was on the way to do right now. After a few turns, she ended up in her ‘control room’ which was really just the closet attached to her bedroom, where she stored the Message Papers attuned to each of the earpieces each of the VIPs were using. She looked around and found the one labeled ‘Keiki Umesai’ and looked down at the paper.

The way they worked, everything the wearer of the earpiece heard would be transferred to the Message Paper here. The volume of the sounds correlated with the size of the text written, that way Asmo could tell what was actually being said to her, and what was just background noise. And whenever she wrote anything on the Message Paper here in the control room, those words would be read out by the earpiece attached to Keiki.

The method had its downsides, which was why Asmo wanted to use the Communication Crystals, but it technically functioned. Really, they’d been primarily made so that Asmo could keep constant tabs on her subordinates and send in reinforcements if anything ever went wrong during their admittedly dangerous missions, but now it seemed like she’d need to use them to conduct remote meetings, as well.

Judging by what was being written on the Message Paper, it seemed like there was nothing important going on, so she sat down and grabbed her pen, writing, “Keiki. I wish to discuss something with you.”

A moment passed as the message transferred and read itself out to the recipient. After a moment, Asmo got a response, “Yes, Commander Asmo.”

“I want you to give me a list of some of your most exceptionally performing subordinates. The very good ones and the very bad ones.”

“Yes. I will stack-rank the members currently working for the assassin guild I have taken over. There are currently fifty-eight members of the guild, however only eighteen of them perform hits. Do you wish to have a list of all members, or just the hitmen? There are also some that do similar violent work.”

“All members that do violent work. Give me your five best and five worst. Do you think there are any currently working for you that are on either of those extremes? If they are all at a similar level of competence, I can ask someone else.”

“There are no issues, miss Asmo. I will get a list together for you within the hour.”

“Good.”

Some time passed as Asmo went over the plan in her head. Winic said he could get something made which would work fine for her purposes, and when he explained it to her, she honestly was not very impressed. But as he elaborated in the ways it could be used, she realized it did, in the end, get the basic job done that she wanted. At least, in a way, it did. It needed some setup, and it wouldn’t work on everyone out there, but once it was ready, there was basically nothing a person could do about it. Enchantment dispelling effects, damage prevention, pretty much nothing could work around the device once it was on someone. And that was the most important part. The problem was just getting it on the person in the first place. But that was what this test was for.

“I have a list, Commander Asmo,” Keiki’s paper wrote out.

“Good. I do not need you to tell me the names yet. Among the five best, what is the individual with the highest Level?”

“That would be…” there was a pause, where Keiki presumably looked over her list, “Weth Lorrn. He is Level 15.”

“And among the five worst, what is the individual with the lowest Level?”

“Lowest would be Thein Zannir, at 11.”

“Perfect. Find them both, and send them to me.”

“You would like me to send them to the capital?”

“Yes, to the royal palace. Tell them both that they have received a promotion opportunity and the leader of this operation would like to speak with them. If they resist, make them come. There is no choice in this matter.”

“Yes, Commander Asmo. May I ask, will I see these individuals again?”

“Perhaps. It depends on how this goes. If you do see either of them, the soldier you receive will be much more effective than the one you sent out.”

“Yes. I will make arrangements to have them travel to the capital. And to potentially replace them if I do not see them back.”

“Good. Do so.”

Once she was finished making arrangements, Asmo went back to the war room, where Winic was still sitting. It was dark in the room by now, the magical illumination having automatically shut itself off when it sensed no motion in the room for long enough. Though there was still a man in the room, he just wasn’t moving enough for it to pick him up. He was currently hunched over a Message Paper of his own, scrawling words to one of his apprentices—a shopping list, it seemed.

He looked up when the light turned itself on at Asmo’s entering. “Ah, it is good to see you, Asmo.”

“Likewise. I see you are already getting started on our project?”

“Yes, yes. Just sending out an errand boy. We should have an initial prototype done within a day.”

“Great. Now that that is settled, what about our first experiments? The ones done with the Message Papers. Have you gotten any results from them?”

“Yes, yes, I have found the most efficient ways to do most of what you asked. There are some Papers that can automatically write out a message tied to a physical button that triggers it, there are some that automatically write their messages based on detection of blinking patterns of the person it is attuned to, and even one that will write its message based on the thoughts of the user. As well as several others, all fully functional.”

“Perfect. What about the ones that are tied to the death of the attuned?”

“Yes, those work as well. Though they were…considerably harder to run tests with.”

“Good. I want you to take me to these prototypes so that I can test them out. And also, I want you to begin work on another personal project of mine. This one, I want to be an item that causes the instant death of the user upon activation.”

“Asmo, I have already told you how such an item is borderline impossible.”

Asmo held out a hand to stop him. “You only said that sort of item is impossible to make when it is against the will of the user, right?”

“Well, yes.”

“Good. So this item will not do that. It will be a completely willful death.”

“You want…a suicide switch?”

“Precisely.”

“Asmo. I suppose I can infer the reasoning behind some of these items, and I do know the general goals of ours, but the Enchantments you need feel…obtuse. May I ask you what the purpose of this is?”

“No. But you will see soon.”