Having finished persuading Felice and the Wind Cats—an effort that bordered on outright coercion—a reluctant Felice departed for the town of Akinashi alongside Titan.
Naturally, the surrounding area crawled with domain troops, but they were essentially all small fry. As long as she could borrow that evil spirit's power, they wouldn't pose the slightest obstacle to breaking through. Just to be safe, I had already made that evil spirit named Titan into a kin of Girimehkala, so if he ever betrayed us, I would know immediately. If that happened, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to show him a living hell.
And so, with that taken care of, I moved on to the plan to strengthen the residents of the Wind Cats. They were under attack even now. There was no time to teach them martial arts, let alone magic like I had with Zack.
The trial for the residents of the Wind Cats lay in seizing victory with their own hands; it was never about acquiring personal strength in the first place. Therefore, I decided to forcibly empower them using a trick akin to an exploit.
Specifically, I had the entities recorded in the Subjugation Compendium bestow their divine protection upon them.
Apparently, a "divine protection" is an arrangement where a higher-ranking existence permits a lower-ranking existence to utilize a fraction of their power.
Thanks to this, it became possible for them to use a limited portion of the special abilities possessed by those in the Subjugation Compendium. Of course, it was ultimately just permission to borrow a fraction of an ability. It couldn't hold a candle to the original power. Since my companions in the Subjugation Compendium are weaker than I am, they wouldn't stand a chance against true powerhouses.
However, the domain troops in the area were mostly small fry. As long as they devised a solid plan, even if they couldn't outright win, they could put up a decent fight.
In the first place, the clear condition for the Wind Cats' trial this time was strictly to force the domain army to retreat, not to recklessly charge head-on into a clash with them. Lending any more of my own hand to the battle would be overkill and defeat the original purpose.
Instead, I intended to provide maximum support in terms of tactical instruction, supplies, medical treatment, and renovations for base defense.
With all that arranged, I left the defense of the Wind Cats entirely to Girimehkala and headed toward the Akinashi Domain.
The trial I imposed on Felice and the others was the subjugation of an evil dragon. This was another tale regarding Kotetsu Akinashi, the otherworlder of the past, which I had obtained from the information broker Mujina.
Three hundred years ago, the otherworlder Kotetsu Akinashi had the misfortune of wandering into this world. While struggling with an unfamiliar culture, unfamiliar norms, and various inner conflicts, he used his unique powers to save the Holy Amelia Kingdom from numerous crises.
The greatest among those crises was the onslaught of the evil dragon—Deboa. In a sense, Deboa was a visitor from another world, just like Kotetsu. Suddenly appearing near the eastern reaches of the Holy Amelia Kingdom, Deboa burned towns to the ground and demanded an annual tribute of five hundred children and five hundred young women.
After fierce debate, the Holy Amelia Kingdom government of that era refused the demand. A subjugation force was formed.
At the time, Kotetsu had a lover, but he was threatened that she would be offered as a sacrifice if he did not join the subjugation force, compelling him to march into battle alongside his companions.
However, the evil dragon proved too strong. The subjugation force, starting with Kotetsu, was utterly wiped out. Furthermore, as retribution from the evil dragon, Kotetsu's lover ended up dead as well.
Stoking the flames of his hatred, Kotetsu borrowed sealing powers from the Sun God—Skoll—and sealed Deboa away while it slept.
However, in order to maintain this seal, the contract forged at the time dictated that the bloodline of Kotetsu Akinashi must continue to reside in this sealed land.
For that reason, despite the rich mineral resources present over these past three hundred years, the Holy Amelia Kingdom never permitted anyone other than the Akinashi family to rule it.
The current tale about Kotetsu slaying Deboa was merely a false rumor deliberately circulated by the Holy Amelia Kingdom government to prevent mass panic. Well, if people knew that a monster that nearly destroyed the kingdom was sleeping right at the mountain peak, that alone would cause widespread chaos, and the Akinashi territory yielded abundant mineral resources. From the perspective of utilizing the land efficiently, having the Akinashi family govern it was the optimal choice.
For a fabricated story, it was terrifyingly consistent. Thus, when I investigated to confirm the authenticity of this information from Mujina, I easily discovered a seal placed upon a shrine at the summit of the mine in the Akinashi Domain, trapping a giant lizard within that alternate space.
As it happened, among the kin of Fen—that is, Fenrir, a member of the Subjugation Compendium—there was a wolf-type monster adept at this kind of barrier. After ordering it to slip through the barrier, I had Satori, a frail spirit skilled at reading the thoughts of others, read the creature's thoughts from inside. As a result, it became clear that the giant lizard—Deboa—was a man-eating lizard with a vile personality.
Although Deboa is designated as a dragon in the literature of the Holy Amelia Kingdom government, it seemed to be incomparably weaker than the dragons in the Subjugation Compendium from that Easy Dungeon. I say "seemed" because that frail spirit Satori claimed even it could win against it. If I treated a lizard that could lose to the weakest Satori as a dragon, those hot-blooded dragons in the Subjugation Compendium would undoubtedly sulk. If things went poorly, they might start waving strange banners and demanding incomprehensible rights again. They were particularly burning with rivalry toward the recent achievements of the Girimehkala Faction, after all.
Those guys are fundamentally loyal to me and Faf, but their pride is just far too high... In any case, I had already instructed the dragons of the Subjugation Compendium to grant their divine protection to the residents of the Wind Cats, so I figured their pride would be somewhat appeased.
And so, the idea was to make good use of this irredeemable piece of trash, small-fry giant lizard to maximize our own profits.
Right now, we were in the middle of watching the battle between humanity and the giant lizard from within the domain Nemea had created. This stored the town of Akinashi itself into a special space, allowing us to observe the scene outside from various angles in the sky.
Hmm, life-or-death battles are truly worth watching, even between novices.
"So, Felice leading the Three Great Powers to subjugate the evil dragon Deboa was the core of your plan all along, Kai?"
Looking up at Felice and the others who were still putting up a good fight, Rose asked a question that hardly needed an answer, her voice trembling.
"Yeah. That giant lizard is an exceptional toy to maximize our gains. There's no reason not to put it to good use."
"A toy, you say?! That is the evil dragon Deboa, which once drove the kingdom to the brink of ruin!"
"Drove it to ruin, you say? That's an enormous exaggeration. Someone of Arnold's caliber could easily handle that on his own."
It certainly looked menacing, but by my estimate, it was the type of monster where a full-force assault by B-rank hunters or above would yield a nearly flawless victory. It just goes to show that legends are, after all, nothing more than legends.
"Kai, are you saying you could subjugate that thing?"
Judging by Rose's expression, she seemed genuinely terrified of that giant lizard. Well, it was massive, it breathed fire, and it certainly resembled a dragon. For Rose, who was unaccustomed to combat, that was probably natural.
"Pretty much, so don't worry. If things get dicey, I'll end this festival without question. Right, Fen?"
"Yep! I'll slaughter it, so it's totally fine!"
Nestled in the arms of Nine-Tails, the silver-haired beastfolk maiden, the fluffy wolf pup—Fen—yelled as he raised his tiny paw.
Lately, I hadn't been able to play with Fen, so he was a bit restless. That giant lizard would probably make an ideal plaything for him.
"Is that... so? If even little Fen can handle it... then—"
In place of Rose, who tapped her chin in thought, Oliver Akinashi, the lord of this land, closed in on me with an expression twisted in sheer fury.
"Don't screw with me! That is the evil dragon Deboa! The worst dragon imaginable, which even the hero Kotetsu Akinashi couldn't defeat and had no choice but to seal away! And you're telling me you deliberately revived it, of all things?!"
He screamed, slamming his palms against my chest to shove me back.
At Oliver's action, Nemea's brow twitched, and Nine-Tails extended her sharp claws.
(Wait, wait, wait!)
In a frantic rush, I raised my right hand to restrain the two of them.
"That's exactly it. Just as you shout, an extravagant legend surrounds that giant lizard. What do you think happens if Felice and the others subjugate it?"
"You mean using the subjugation of the evil dragon as an amnesty for the banditry the Wind Cats committed in the past?"
Zack chimed in from the side.
"Correct. And to add to that, the Three Great Powers as well. As it stands, those guys have a few too many issues to simply be brought under Rose's command. Unless they achieve an accomplishment on the level of slaying an evil dragon, the public will never accept them."
"Man, Master really is totally unhinged."
"You think so? If you have such convenient pieces at your disposal, I'd say it's an idea anyone would naturally arrive at."
"The fact that you're saying that with a straight face is why you're unhinged."
With an expression mixing exasperation and sheer fatigue, Zack shook his head vigorously from side to side.
"Y-You people are truly... insane..."
As Oliver let out a voice cracking with distress,
"Fear not, for that earthen gnat holds the advantage. If matters proceed without incident, this battle shall conclude with Lady Felice's victory."
Asta declared, letting out a massive, lazy yawn.
I agreed. It looked like that stern reprimand had been quite effective. From start to finish, he had been challenging that giant lizard with all his might, and the battle was currently progressing with Titan holding the upper hand.
In my initial prediction, I expected the giant lizard to have the advantage instead, leading to a hard-fought victory through coordination with the Three Great Powers, but at this rate, he might even be able to defeat it alone if he played his cards right.
The reason was probably that black clay work Titan was creating. He seemed to manifest it by distorting space, and any point pierced by it crumbled away into brittle sand. Darkness and ruin were Girimehkala's specialties, so making Titan his kin likely provided a massive boost in power.
At any rate, unless something unforeseen happened, Felice and the others were bound to win by a landslide.
"Looks like it's really gonna turn out just like Big Sis Asta predicted."
Reflected in the sky overhead was the scene of the Three Great Powers and Snake Blood launching an all-out assault against the giant lizard, which was howling in agony, completely immobilized after being impaled by countless earthen stakes.