Chapter 85: Chapter 81: The Rules of the Gods

“Well, that went about as well as I expected.” Lia said, brushing herself off. “I couldn’t sneak up on him, and he wasn’t receptive in the slightest. How’d it go for you, Amelia?”

“Perfectly.” Amelia said, a satisfied expression on her face. “I swapped out their bags with my own, they won’t notice a thing unless he uses his Blessing on them and really looks for discrepancies.”

“Good.” Rose said. “Do you have the remotes?”

“Right here.” Amelia replied, pulling out a few bricklike objects from a pocket. “Just have whoever’s watching them break one of these, and the traps will go off.”

The traps Amelia was talking about had been one of the main reasons for this excursion in the first place. Amelia had been using scrying to spy on Yamamoto ever since they got the Hero locator, and they had decided that defeating him in a straight fight was unlikely unless they were able to lure him to an area they controlled.

Ironically, things would have been simpler if Amelia was still under the lingering influence of the Urge; as her feelings had become more and more robust, so too had it become harder for her to lie to herself and stretch the definition of “protecting someone”. Most notably, she could no longer manufacture a situation in which a person was in danger, and then use that as a pretext for protection – it had to arise naturally.

So, they had decided to go for a stealthier solution. Lia had used the artifact that would remove her presence, and was going to sneak up and cover Yamamoto in modeling wax in his sleep, but he had, unsurprisingly, been able to see through it. The artifact was strong, yes, but it wasn’t Hero strong.

When that failed, Lia had tried resorting to diplomacy, hoping Yamamoto would fall for one of her careful omissions or half-truths, but he was frustratingly wary, and decidedly not on board with the swarm’s method of expansion.

They had seen this coming, so they had one last trick to play; Lia kept Yamamoto distracted as long as possible, and Amelia switched out their gear with nearly identical tools that had a remotely triggered trap on them.

It was a simple trap, one that allow the swarm to monitor them, and teleport Yamamoto’s companions to the dungeon on trigger. Given the circumstances, it was the best they were able to do; Meg and Neph were citizens of the Glens, so, thanks to the Oath, they could not be kidnapped, and they didn’t have enough time to convert them and remain undetected.

But, if the two happened to find themselves in danger, and the swarm happened to teleport them out of a dangerous situation…that technically wasn’t a breach of the Oath, so long as they intended to return Meg and Neph eventually. And, if Meg and Neph decided to join the swarm of their own free will…that likewise wouldn’t be a violation of the Oath. They probably wouldn’t choose to join the swarm, not now, but once they had Yamamoto under their thumb…perhaps they might.

And now that Yamamoto had been visited by Lia, if his companions were to vanish, he would likely assume that she had taken them, and would come to the dungeon of his own volition. It was a risky option, yes, but nothing else really worked, aside from “puppeteer him through Connie”, but they didn’t have enough Blood Money to make that viable, so it had been ruled out.

So, all that was left was to wait for them to get into a fight so they could snatch Yamamoto’s companions, and build up their defenses so they could withstand Yamamoto’s assault. As things stood now, Lia was confident that, if Yamamoto came to attack them, Rose, Amelia, Ophelia, and herself would be able to subdue him. The issue with was that Yamamoto would have to traverse the Spine to get to the dungeon, something which was sure to skyrocket his level.

Alternatively, they could lure him to Aura. Lia was fairly confident that her Pride boost would work there, as she effectively was the shadow ruler of the kingdom, but that meant potentially tipping their hands with regards to Aura; either agents of Aura kidnapped Yamamoto’s companions, in which case Aura would effectively be declaring war on everyone else, or people were left to wonder why they had chosen Aura as their place to keep hostages when the dungeon worked just as well, which would likely lead at least Brom to conclude that Aura had been compromised.

That being said, that was something Lia was fine with, if they were able to convert Yamamoto. At that point, Lia would feel confident in their odds in a fight against the other kingdoms The problem was simply guaranteeing that he wouldn’t run if he thought he would lose.

Whatever happened, though, Lia couldn’t slack on training. So, they sent the remotes off to to have someone monitor, and Lia, Rose, and Amelia got ready to resume their excursions into the Spine.

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You have some explaining to do, Connie. Ichiro said grumpily. What do you mean she’s a good person? She’s clearly trying to take over the world and brainwash everyone!

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