And so, I immediately returned to my room.
"What in the world did you come back for, Master Lloyd?"
"Shouldn't you be out rallying the troops and organizing your unit?"
"Yeah, but there’s something I want to try first."
I felt a certain reluctance toward taking responsibility for human lives and leading them into battle. If that was the case, there would be no problem as long as I provided my own soldiers.
"■■■——"
I finished a high-speed chant using a Spell Bundle. A shadow was born from the Magic Circle drawn on the floor; it rose, taking on a human shape.
"Oho, a Shadow Effigy. That certainly looks like it could serve as a substitute for a soldier."
The Illusion System Magic known as Shadow Effigy was a spell that solidified mana to create a puppet. While other Effigies required physical materials in exchange for a more sophisticated appearance or higher physical performance, for simple soldiers, a Shadow Effigy created solely from mana was more than enough. They could only perform simple movements, but they were overwhelmingly easier to produce than a homunculus.
"But Master Lloyd, shadow puppets won't be able to perform high-level combat like actual soldiers. What do you intend to do about that?"
As Jiriel said, it was difficult to make shadow puppets imitate humans. For example, if given a single command to "charge," a human would grasp the intent and fight accordingly, but shadow puppets would simply end up charging blindly in a literal sense. They wouldn't keep pace, they couldn't use weapons—they would just rush forward. While that might have its own uses, one couldn't really expect them to function as soldiers.
Of course, I had already thought of a solution.
"For example, something like this."
I extended my mana into the shape of a cord, connected it to the shadow puppet's head, and willed it to move. The shadow puppet then straightened its back and began performing deep knee bends exactly as I imagined.
"Woof!"
Shiro, my magical beast, barked. This was the same technique I used to give commands to Shiro. By connecting myself to a familiar via a Magic Cord, I could issue commands exactly as I wished.
"I see, so you can give detailed instructions that way. With your mana, Master Lloyd, you could probably make as many shadow puppets as you want."
"I can't make an infinite amount. The most I can control is about ten thousand."
I had tested how many shadow puppets I could manifest before, but once I exceeded ten thousand, errors became prone to occur in their behavior.
"Y-You can manifest ten thousand...?"
"To produce ten thousand Shadow Effigies—which consume an order of magnitude more mana than other magic—and to maintain such precise control over them... I can only say it is just like you, Master."
That said, since half of these operations were performed automatically, the burden on me wasn't actually that great. I owed these control magics to my previous research into golems. Magic is a field where past experiences often prove quite useful.
"What about weapons? You can't exactly have them go empty-handed."
"That won't be an issue either if I use Holy Magic."
Within Holy Magic, there were several spells that materialized mana into weapons. With those, they should be able to perform just as well as ordinary soldiers.
"However, these shadow puppets stop receiving commands if they get too far away from me. I need to construct a Spell Formula so that people other than me can issue orders as well."
"So that is where the regular soldiers finally come in."
Exactly. The ones actually commanding the shadow puppets would be the soldiers. I couldn't oversee the entire battlefield by myself, after all. This way, they could fight safely.
"Among the Military Magic I heard about during the meeting the other day, there was something called Delegation that entrusts the control of magic to someone other than the caster. If I incorporate that into the Shadow Effigy formula, then anyone will be able to move the puppets using my mana."
I willed the Spell Formula Deployment, and the formula for Shadow Man opened before my eyes. As I read through the code written in Magic Language, I found the target location. I'd just tinker with this part and that part... and there, the rewrite was complete.
But that wasn't the end of it. The modified sections affected other areas as well, so fixing just one spot would create contradictions within the overall Spell Formula. Therefore, I had to review everything.
I scrutinized the formula from the beginning, focusing intently. This part too. Ah, this one as well. That part, and that part over there. Tinkering with formulas was fun, but it was tedious work. Since it was a significant modification, it looked like it was going to take some time.
"Phew, all finished."
In the end, the work continued until nightfall. I had accidentally lost myself in the process. Grimo and Jiriel had completely fallen asleep.
"Mmn... is it done?"
Or so I thought, but Grimo woke up, rubbing his eyes sleepily.
"Yeah. Give it a try, Grimo."
"Understood."
I activated the newly constructed Spell Formula, targeting Grimo. Three shadow puppets armed with Holy Magic—no, I should call them Magic Soldiers—appeared, and Magic Cords extended from each to connect to Grimo's head.
"Whoa! My vision is overlapping. It’s a strange sensation, like my body has multiplied..."
"You should be able to do it once you get used to it. Give it a go."
"Like this... I guess? Hah! Ho!"
Following Grimo's commands, the soldiers swung the weapons in their hands. Hmm, there didn't seem to be any problems with their movements.
"Master Lloyd, please let me try as well."
"Go ahead."
I granted three Magic Soldiers to Jiriel as well, who had woken up at some point.
"Thank you. ...Now then, Majin, how about we settle this with a match?"
"Ha! Sounds interesting. You think a mere angel can keep up with me?"
"That’s my line! Hyaaaaa!"
The two of them began clashing using the Magic Soldiers. As expected, it was easier to evaluate them in a mock combat format. The combat between the Magic Soldiers was almost perfectly balanced, and their movements seemed comparable to those of ordinary soldiers.
"Well? Does it seem usable?"
"This is amazing, Master Lloyd! I can move these soldiers like they're my own limbs!"
"Yes, even someone without any knowledge would be able to manipulate these Magic Soldiers."
Now that I had their seal of approval, I suppose they were complete for the time being. I would deal with the finer adjustments later.
"By the way, Master Lloyd, shouldn't you tell the soldiers about this?"
"Oops. I completely forgot about that."
By now, the soldiers were likely off recruiting mercenaries just as Albert had instructed. If we had the Magic Soldiers, those wouldn't be necessary.
Well, I would go talk to them tomorrow.