It wasn't as if every single duke had transformed... or so it seemed.
One duke sat huddled in an isolation room, trembling violently on the floor.
I recognized him from the Peerage Registry, but I couldn't recall his name.
There were simply too many; I couldn't even keep the dukes straight.
Technically, they were relatives of the Imperial Family... but given the sheer number of planets in the Empire's territory, the count reached absurd levels.
Even the Maro Emperor likely hadn't known every duke by name.
In his case, I doubted he even remembered his own wives or daughters.
And soon, I was to be counted among them... I’d been intimidated at first, but looking back, it wasn't that impressive.
If everyone below a Marquis was a village chief, a Duke was about the level of a mayor.
The top two-digit rankings were probably akin to prefectural governors.
The country wouldn't exactly collapse if a few of them bit the dust.
(Note: Ren's father had been one of those top-tier dukes, yet no one seemed particularly bothered when he disappeared. This world was way too overpopulated. I hated that the phrase “there are plenty of people to replace you” was actually true.)
Continuing down the corridor of the isolation block, I found a room with a shattered door.
A wounded soldier was huddled inside.
"What happened?"
"Wheeze... Captain... the duke we were guarding... he suddenly turned into a monster. He hit me... broke my bones... can't move..."
I pulled out a nanomachine syringe and jabbed it into his arm.
I always carried three on me since I tended to find myself on the verge of death pretty often.
He looked young; he’d probably pull through.
"There's another one down here!"
Whoops, two more. I used up the rest of my syringes.
I radioed in. "Lily, I’ve got wounded in here."
"Understood. I'm sending a hoverboat to your position."
In this context, a hoverboat was essentially a drone-controlled stretcher. They had an autonomous AI mode, but they tended to trip over things outdoors. Indoors, they were perfect.
"Alright, let's do this. On three..."
The hoverboat arrived. Sergeant Huma grabbed the shoulders, I took the feet, and we loaded the man on.
People are heavy.
Two more to go.
We loaded them onto the linked units. Once they were secure, I hit the start button and sent them on their way.
"These have been a lifesaver," Huma remarked. "We made them with the shaping printers deployed through the Prince's support."
"Glad to hear they're helping," I replied.
The three of them would likely survive. Still, the enemy's methods were vicious.
I'd already known some people among us carried Zork factors, like Kevin.
The most plausible theory was that the dukes themselves carried the Zork gene.
Or perhaps it was some kind of viral mutation.
Regardless, the goal was clearly our extermination.
It was like releasing sterile female mosquitoes to thin out the population—a pure, clinical purge without a hint of malice.
It was the perspective of a higher lifeform.
Like using Bacillus thuringiensis to kill caterpillars in agriculture.
Except their research on humanity was so shoddy they couldn't even distinguish between the sexes.
From our end, there was no room for negotiation; it was just a matter of “kill or be killed.”
Even if we tried to set a place at the negotiation table, the first impression was far too disastrous for that.
Anyway, if dukes were transforming, the corruption within the Empire had to be at a catastrophic level.
I checked the room. I didn't want the “meat” escaping into the vents again.
I checked the covers. They weren't broken. No sign of escape yet.
"Doesn't look like any meat-blobs are around," I said.
"If we ran into one of those, I’d have been ready to write us all off!" Huma replied.
"True. But then, where's the enemy?"
"Who knows?"
As we tilted our heads in confusion, a heavy bang echoed through the hall.
It came from one of the private rooms. We'd kept the dukes isolated to prevent them from conspiring.
I peeked through the window.
Inside was a middle-aged man with a thin mustache. He didn't look like he was transforming yet, but he was pounding frantically on the door, drenched in sweat.
"I wouldn't recommend opening that right now," I called out.
The man turned and began screaming at me.
"You! Open this door this instant! What was that monster?! No one told me Zork were going to appear here!"
"Well, you see, we actually cleared out the Zork in the vicinity. It's just that the dukes we brought with us are the ones turning into Zork."
"Hashimotoooo! Did he betray us?!"
"Well, Hashimoto is dead, so..."
"...Who are you?"
"Hey there. Name's Leo Kamishiro. I’m a soldier."
Come to think of it, I was a Captain, but was I a full-time employee? I’d forgotten to ask. My salary was getting paid, so I hadn't really cared.
"You?! You're the one who brought us to ruin?!"
"You shouldn't have dragged Big Brother Thomas into this. If you hadn't, I wouldn't have come to help."
"N-Ngh! Save me! I have money!"
"Nah, I’ll be a duke myself after this expedition. I'll probably just get granted Hashimoto's territory and assets by the Empire anyway."
"You dog! You're just the brat of a lowly marquis! Arrogant whelp!"
"Look, if I was such a threat, you should've made a better plan. If you'd just focused on liberating lower-ranking noble planets, this would've been much easier. Though, to be fair, I still almost died a bunch of times."
I paused and reconsidered. Ren's father hadn't been entirely incompetent. He'd fortified his position and evacuated his people. His only mistake was a total lack of trust in the Kamishiro family, leading him to rely on the Linear Blazer instead of ballistic weapons. That was mostly just bad luck because he was our neighbor.
In other words, Hashimoto probably wasn't that stupid either.
So why had he executed such a brain-dead strategy?
History is full of clever leaders making blunders, but still...
"...Did they create a system where the ones who transform are the ones who get promoted?"
"Huh? What do you mean, Captain?" Huma asked.
"Well, Hashimoto and the rest of the Duke Association are all carbon-copy discriminators. They treat anyone below a Marquis like vermin. I thought they were just looking down on us because we're a 'new' Marquis house, but... what if they're being controlled? ...Hey, Fairy, you there?"
"Heeey, I was listening~. I've already sent the recording of this conversation to Veronica-chan. So, Leo-kun, you're suggesting the Duke Association were spies?"
"Exactly. Though they probably aren't conscious of it. They're just acting in the Zork's best interests without realizing it."
There's a type of fungus that infects ants, forcing them into senseless behavior before killing them in a place where other ants congregate. Then it spreads to the next victim.
If the Zork were doing the same thing...
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"
The mustache duke shrieked. His body split open with a sickening crack as he began to transform from within.
The creature smashed through the window and lunged out.
"Big trouble," I muttered.
"You can say that again," Huma replied.
We both drew our cutlasses.