Chương 117: The Overlord of Crime (1)

All that effort, all that pain, all to be brought back to the beginning. Back to the Crimson Throne. Simon could feel its contempt at letting his enemies organize into a coalition against him, but to his surprise, it didn't laugh or mock him. If anything, the Crimson Throne's spirit appeared to revel in the hatred it sensed from its Overlord. For a brief time, Simon had been happy and looking forward to the future… yet all those hopes had burned to ashes along with Remedia's throne room. Only spite remained.

This is the seventeenth of your Hundred Reigns. You have earned the Title of Simon the Mageling. The Mageling: You worked hard to cover one of your glorious Class' few limits, and that must be encouraged. The cost of your miasma spells is halved. The fact that the Crimson Throne could provide a Title almost as strong as a core Mage Class Perk was quite the show of dominance, and rather frightening. The fact that it seemed willing to incentivize covering the Overlord's weaknesses, even more so.

Would Simon's successor receive a more finetuned version of his Class than the current one? The Overlord spirit looked determined to evolve and improve over time into an unstoppable symbol of evil and terror. At least it didn't mock him over his affair with Remedia or put more salt on his wounds. The only thing on Simon's mind was the sight of her severed head, and that shadow's final words.

"Make me happy, my Overlord." The Cobweb would burn for this. There was little doubt in Simon's mind that shadow was the Prince of Spiders himself. Could they have stolen Remedia's memories and learned of her final wish? The Rogue Class could steal spells after all, so maybe it could take memories too? That, or they had managed to spy on Simon's coupling with the queen somehow. Either way, that last taunt had sealed their doom.

"He'll die," were the first words that came out of Simon's mouth when he awakened in his bedroom once again.

"I swear to the Light and the Dark. He'll die for that." The Prince of Spiders called himself the Overlord of the criminal world, but he was wrong. He was a bug for the real Overlord to crush underfoot, and Simon would prove it soon enough. For Remedia, for Eole, and for himself. Too often, the Cobweb had betrayed and impaired him. They had directly and indirectly cost him many reigns, and their interest in the Zodiac Fiends made them a threat rather than just a hindrance.

Simon was now convinced he would only find peace of mind once he had learned how to wipe them out like he did with the Oracle's elven conspiracy. First, I need to find out how that disaster happened, Simon thought as he joined his hands. What's the anomaly? The answer seemed clear to him: Casval.

Casval was alive, when his sister usually slew him when Simon named him in the will; either because she hoped to claim the Overlord Class herself, or because the imperial parties' hunt for her brother had made him a liability. She didn't kill him last reign because Louis went straight for her rather than her brother, Simon thought. He must have guessed the will was forged when she failed to use the Overlord Class during their confrontation…

at which point they probably hammered out an alliance that Simon inadvertently strengthened by helping the Church Party push their rivals into a corner. Since he wasn't a walking liability anymore, Vouivre then spared Casval, and not having to deal with the War Party's offensive meant she had more time to build her power base. She likely commissioned the Cobweb to find information on the kish, learned of their Sanctuary or hints of its existence, and then located it.

She and the War Party enslaved the locals, Eole included, and Casval ended up possessed by the Goatfish. Louis guessed Shabram was working for another side, the Cobweb joined their coalition for a chance at revenge against Simon's interferences in Cocagne and an opportunity to recover the Lion crystal, and then those three groups coalesced into a united front that tracked down the Overlord thanks to his spy's Devil Brand.

I can only push things so far until my enemies realize they're being set up by an outside force, Simon guessed. Naming Casval in the will is the best way to ensure Louis and Vouivre come to blows without reaching an understanding. Speaking of Louis… Simon decided to take the opportunity to test one of his new Perks." Lord of the Demon Castle." Simon's body fell into a state of torpor akin to sleep, his flesh numb, his breath slow.

His mind melted away into Frightwall's walls, his soul settling into the entire castle as if it was his flesh and bones. His consciousness was everywhere and nowhere all at once, a disembodied spirit more akin to a tree spreading its roots than an individual. It was such a strange experience.

Simon could feel multiple presences at the edge of his senses, like blood flowing through his corridor-veins and food crushed in his hall-bowels. However, he couldn't perceive all of them at once in this state, no more than any man was completely aware of all their body's natural functions. I need to focus to see, Simon thought. He guessed that made sense. Balzam Magnos would never have been taken unaware if he could survey everything inside Frightwall at all times. Let's see if I can find Louis.

His otherworldly senses focused until he began to 'see' the solarium in Castle Frightwall's western wing, where Louis invited Simon to look at Marthrone with him. Simon's spirit grew aware of the room from all sides. The walls and ceiling were his eyes, the windows his ears, allowing him to observe Louis slouching on a divan with a book in his hand. Simon recognized the title— Commerce Emperor —as belonging to a fantasy novel about a Merchant's adventures in another world.

Louis Magnos was five minutes fresh from murdering his father in his bed alongside an innocent bystander, and yet here he was, serenely reading a fantasy novel as if nothing had happened. There's something deeply wrong with that man, Simon thought. Something about this situation deeply rattled him. Normal people shouldn't react like this. Nobody is that detached or confident. Louis' head snapped up in an instant with a suspicious frown, spooking Simon into ending the scrying attempt then and there.

Had the crown-prince sensed he was being observed? Simon knew from previous reigns that Louis thought his father had survived the assassination attempt, so he might think Balzam was checking on him through divination… I can see him clearly though, Simon thought. All members of House Magnos owned items protecting them from basic divination, yet Simon could see the crown-prince just fine. Lord of the Demon Castle must allow me to physically see through the stone.

Simon decided to check on the other big players after that, starting with Euphemia, whom he found asleep in her enormous bed… for above ten seconds until her eyes suddenly snapped open and he had to cut the connection. Checking on High Confessor Mastemo—whom he found writing letters in an office—or Patriate Malphas—who nervously ran circles in his quarters—yielded the same result.

All these high-level people seemed astute enough to tell that someone was observing them, likely due to a high Perception Stat or from sheer paranoia. By contrast, Simon ended up watching Thalas snoring in his bed for five minutes without being noticed. He could scry on people inside Castle Frightwall, but the strongest power players were perceptive enough to notice him watching. Simon guessed he could monitor at least some conspirators undetected in the future. How far does this sight extend?

Simon melded his consciousness back with Frightwall and explored its confines. He quickly confirmed two things: first of all, he could indeed see anything within the castle's confines, including nearby tunnels and secret passages, so long as he was aware of its existence. Aware was the keyword here. He needed to be at least a little precise on what he wanted to scry, like 'Louis' bedroom' or 'the acid room' to see them.

Second, Shabram's previous assertion that the castle's depths went over eight thousand feet below ground was likely correct. Frightwall was the top of a nail digging deep into the earth below as far as he could tell. Show me the bottom, Simon thought, this castle's deepest pit. His consciousness turned to the castle's lowest depths, below the manatree network and caverns.

He saw through dense clouds of miasma into a dark, silent vault where two serpentine statues loomed over a great set of sinister, towering black gates sealed by a thick lock. Darkness still oozed from its cracks, inviting evil into the world of men. Another gate to the Abyss lurked beneath Frightwall's foundations. Of course the Overlord's residence was built on top of a portal to Hell, Simon thought as a wild idea crossed his mind.

He attempted to reshape Frightwall's layout to move the gate upward, but it failed in the same way he couldn't move the Stone Muse's seal around in the Halls of the Minotaur. I cannot move the gate, and rearranging the layout means I must understand where each room is located. Simon considered how to deal with this. Frightwall may take more than one reign to map, even with the Keeper's help. Even then, it didn't really matter. The gate sat undisturbed eight thousand feet underground.

It was of little use or concern to Simon unless it opened up during the Zodiac Parade, and he would be sure to monitor it during that time. Other matters required his attention in the short term. He had cobwebs to burn. Simon proceeded to settle a few things before his departure from Frightwall. First of all, he named Casval in the will to ensure the War Party and Vouivre would remain enemies.

Second, he claimed a handful of slaves as his inheritance to ensure he could take Belzemine and Eole with him; the former because he needed her for his plan, the latter because… because it would be safer for her. Otherwise, he also ran a small test with Shabram and Belzemine in the spymistress' office; one that took her aback.

"You wish to marry us, Your Majesty?" You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"It is a mere test," Simon replied.

"One of my Overlord Perks lets me transfer any ailment I'm suffering from to anyone I am legally married or betrothed to, and I wish to test if it can apply it to more than one person. I will divorce you right after." Shabram was more amused than anything by the proposal and Belzemine simply went along like she did like last time, with Simon 'legally' marrying them by writing it down on a piece of paper. Belzemine then cast the Anchor status on Simon, who tested the transfer effect. Issues immediately cropped up.

Simon transferred Anchor to Shabram easily enough, but failed to do so with Belzemine.

"It seems my Perk only recognizes one marriage," Simon noted.

"That's odd. Can't I take more than one wife as the Overlord, even on paper?"

"It would likely require an official decree or a considerable shift in marriage institutions," Shabram guessed.

"I'm told Perks can be affected by the people's perception of their Class. Your Majesty's power may be constrained by their subjects' vision of marriage, and the Light's rites are very clear: a man may only have one official wife." Simon grunted in annoyance. She was probably right. Marriage and betrothal were limited to a single couple in most civilized societies, including Endymion.

"But why does my power recognize you as my wife, but not Agnes?"

"Because I am a free woman, I would assume," Shabram replied.

"Your power must treat Lady Firewand as a lesser concubine due to her slave status." A rather displeasing outcome for many reasons. That also meant Simon probably couldn't marry one of his cows unless he officially legalized bestiality. So much for that particular brilliant plan.

"Saddening," Simon complained.

"In that case, I will sign the divorce papers."

"May I suggest that Your Majesty marry one of my operatives instead?" Shabram suggested, easily smiling at being married and then divorced in less than five minutes.

"I can have her be kept in a secure location in the company of healers tasked with dispelling her ailments as soon as they appear." Simon nodded, finding the idea quite good. The idea that he might have potentially caused Belzemine's death by transferring his ailments to her and weakening her against the War Party gnawed at him… alongside another mistake of his.

"There is something I must warn you about, Shabram," Simon said.

"I can brand individuals with marks granting them various powers, such as eternal youth, shapeshifting, and telepathic communications… at the cost of allowing me to kill the branded person at will."

"I do not mind taking those brands on," Shabram replied without hesitation, as she did in many prior reigns.

"I am confident Your Majesty will find me more useful alive than dead."

"I sure shall, but you miss the danger," Simon replied grimly. Having killed her twice, he wanted to ensure she fully understood what she was signing up for.

"I can only remove those brands by killing the wearers, and some of my enemies might strike me through our connection. Should you be captured… I may have no choice but to trigger them." Shabram pondered his words, then shrugged off his warnings without much hesitation.

"I will bear them with pride."

"I do not think you fully understand the seriousness of this particular commitment, Shabram."

"I do. Your Majesty would not inform me of the risks nor offer me the possibility of refusing if they did not value my service." Shabram smiled at him as she sat on her desk.

"I am sure we can work together to ensure I remain free to serve." Crafty and loyal, Simon thought. My father chose her well.

"I promise you that your service will not go unrewarded," he swore.

"For now, I must leave the castle to gather the power to claim the Crimson Throne in the future. I will need you to arrange my transfer to Valne, and to run a few errands in my absence… and buy some cows while you're at it." Simon proceeded to give Shabram her orders. First of all, he would mark her house as a Dungeon to serve as a hideout should he need to teleport to safety in a pinch.

His new 'wife' and cow herd would be kept in separate facilities to ensure no enemy could take out all of Simon's assets in one strike. Second, he shared with her the information he had gathered on the Dark Visionary awakening blood ritual, then ordered her to secretly commission both Justine and Duchar to continue those experimentations through intermediaries.

Providing Lady Eligos with her prior self's advancements should cut down on research time, and sending the notes to Duchar ensured Simon had a second opinion on the matter. The warlock usually stonewalled Simon when he tried to give him commands through telepathy without meeting him in person first due to Balzam's strict guidelines, but surely he would accept a private commission from an anonymous new patron pertaining to his interests…

Third, he told her all about the elf conspiracy and their plot to destroy Frightwall… then ordered them to let them proceed.

"Your Majesty wishes me to let an unprovoked attack on our capital proceed?" Shabram looked slightly shaken by the suggestion.

"Are you certain?

"I am," Simon replied, though he didn't relish it.

"I am not powerful enough at the moment to wipe out all my enemies inside these walls yet. I must ensure they slaughter and weaken each other while I grow my strength in secret. You will evacuate beforehand and then travel to Telluria to assist the War Party in hunting down Vouivre Ashmodai and her followers." Besides keeping Vouivre, Louis, and the White Unicorn at each other's throats, this strategy would serve another objective.

Back when he first met them in Valne, the Cobweb rushed to make a deal with him once the war increased the demand for magical and cursed items. Simon hoped the promise of supplying them with handcrafted magical objects and knowledge on the Zodiac Fiends would increase his value in the Cobweb's eyes, at least more than treachery's rewards for a time. Taking Belzemine away would cause the civil war to start early and in a more violent form, which in turn would increase demand for his Overlord-made goods.

A great many people would die, but there would likely be fewer victims than if the Cobweb ever unleashed one of the archdemons it sought to weaponize. Simon knew infiltrating the organization would require unflinching acts of cruelty like those he had to perform to complete the Seasonal Key, and while he didn't relish the thought, he was ready to dirty his hands again if it meant he could eventually strangle the Prince of Spiders to death with them.

Once he knew the bastard's true identity, it would just be a matter of tracking them down as soon as the reigns began to nip the threat he represented in the bud. Everything would be so much simpler for Simon afterwards, and many innocent lives would be saved.

"Make me happy, my Overlord." He would hold true to that promise, if not in this reign, then in another. After settling most of his affairs in Frightwall, Simon invited Eole to his room. The memory of her head rolling on the floor filled him with anguish. How many times had he failed to protect her from capture, slavery, and death? Five times? More? There are so many unseen dangers threatening you, Simon thought grimly as he faced his friend.

He had considered convincing her to return to her Sanctuary and warn her people to bunker up, but the mere sight of her convinced him otherwise. I can't bear to watch you die again. What could he do then? Having Shabram lock her up in a secure area away from everyone's reach? Besides the fact that Eole would hate it and try to escape, the Cobweb had infiltrated Endymion's power structure deeply enough to learn of Balzam's death and formed ties with the imperial intelligence agency.

If they could sneak agents right under the White Unicorn and the Paladin's nose, Simon couldn't rule out the possibility they had plants in his own administration reporting to the Prince of Spiders. And neither would it prevent the Cobweb and their allies from eventually locating her homeland…

"Eole," he said in the kish language, startling her.

"There is something you must know." This initial discussion had become almost a routine by now. He told her how he was a prophet of the Light with foresight, that the warlord Vouivre sought her to unlock the cursed treasure of the kish people, that she was in league with the Cobweb to traffic shifters… and one new piece of information that shook her to her core.

"Vouivre…" Eole's pristine skin had become paler than chalk.

"Vouivre and the Cobweb know about my people's floating Sanctuary?"

"They suspect its existence, and when they eventually locate it, they will storm it with airships and unleash the archfiend sealed there." A scenario that might have happened more than once without Simon's knowledge. The last reign was the only one where they brought the floating islands down to earth, but they could have been pillaging them for months in earlier reigns for all he knew.

"Can your people defend themselves if forewarned?"

"I… no…" Eole covered her mouth, her fingers trembling.

"My people… my people haven't known war in centuries. Our elves and dryads might hold on, but… they will be no match for an army of slavers with Class levels…" Just as Simon feared. Eole herself was a low-level Songstress and the only one among her people brave enough to venture into the world below. Vouivre and the Cobweb would crush them even without the War Party's collaboration.

"I have taken measures to keep Vouivre distracted for now, if not ensure her demise," Simon tried to reassure her.

"I can at least delay her discovery for months." That dragon had a nasty tendency to come back stronger from crushing defeats, but Louis managed to expel her from Telluria and force her to focus on her civil war campaign in previous reigns. She had spent the year Simon holed up in the Darkwood trying to conquer the Berwick Islands, Scaland, and Uyo without a shapeshifted dragon army at her back, which suggested she hadn't found the Sanctuary nor enslaved the Two-Tail Fish in that reign.

"The Cobweb is another matter," Simon warned her.

"The criminal conspiracy is vast and far-reaching, and its leader's identity is unknown to me. So long as they remain at large, that overmighty thieves' guild will bounce back from any setback. I can only think of one way of smoking out that coward: infiltrating their organization, and this…" He sighed.

"This will take time." Eole anxiously bit her lip.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you have a choice to make, Eole," Simon replied.

"You have a few options. I can grant you the ability to transform into another shifter, which will ensure neither Vouivre nor the Cobweb will realize your true value so long as you keep to yourself. This could let you join the Paladin, or continue your revolutionary work in Telluria, so long as you hide your true nature. I could also ensure arm shipments to your people to prepare themselves for an invasion."

"That… that won't be enough." Eole clenched her fists.

"How… how do you intend to infiltrate this Cobweb?"

"By offering them my services and climbing the ranks until I find the spider-in-chief himself." Eole met his gaze.

"And once you find him?" Simon's tightened as much as his jaw.

"Then I'll kill him," he said, spitting venom with every word, "And I'll wipe them all out from the face of the earth." Silk, the Prince of Spiders, Renal… all of them would pay for their past treachery tenfold. Eole sensed his righteous anger and nodded in assent as she pondered his words.

"I will neither hide nor run," Eole decided.

"The best way to save my people from slavery is to destroy this evil at the root." He had feared she would say that.

"Then you will die, Eole." She flinched at his bluntness, but quickly regained her composure.

"I think I can help you in your quest to destroy this slavers' ring, Lord Simon."

"How so?" Simon asked with a frown.

"What if…" She gulped.

"What if you showed up at their doorstep with a live kish?" Simon saw red.

"You want me to sell you to them?! Haven't you heard a single word of what I just said?!"

"No, no, not sell…" Eole shifted in her seat.

"I simply say… that if you offer them your services, and have a kish in your employ… then you are suddenly a much more valuable asset for them. You will become a person they will want to placate and recruit." Simon struggled to even entertain the idea, considering the risks involved, but Eole had a point. She could act as a tremendously attractive lure…

"So you want me to, what, introduce you as my retainer?" His lips pursed in disdain.

"My slave concubine?"

"That's why I was first brought to this place," Eole pointed out with unease.

"They will think they can eventually buy me, and you will fit in more easily with those ruffians if they think you support slavery." Simon scowled. His heart told him to deny her, to tell her this was too dangerous… but then he recalled a few details from his previous reigns. The very first thing Silk did at the end of their first meeting was to try and buy Eole for a cheap price. The Cobweb had shown interest in Eole the moment they met, yet they never tried to steal her away in the months Simon spent in Valne.

They only acted against him by selling his location to the Paladin, and waited for him to leave the city on top of it. Neither did they try to act against him directly in Magvolia. They tried to steal Asterion from right under his nose, and washed their hands off the entire affair after the attempt failed. They only acted against him in Cocagne when they had the backing of both Zodiac Fiends and the War Party to support them. They fear me, the cowards, Simon realized. They fear the Overlord.

They won't dare fight me without an overwhelming advantage, and they will play nice so long as my value outweighs the benefits of betrayal. Eole's plan could work in that it would encourage the Cobweb to placate him in the hope of accessing the kish Sanctuary, and she would be safe at his side. He could personally protect her. There was only one major issue with this plan.

"Eole…" Simon took a deep breath.

"Do you understand what infiltrating a criminal organization deep enough to earn their leader's trust will entail? The things we'll have to do? The people we'll have to hurt? Do you understand that?" Eole hesitated, her resolve wavering a moment. She likely understood intellectually what this mission would require, but Simon wasn't sure she would fully fathom what she was signing on for until they had to get their hands dirty.

"Will it be worth it, prophet?" she asked, begging for a positive answer.

"Yes," Simon replied, though more to himself than Eole.

"Yes, it will be."