Building A Human Empire By Creating A Clan [EN]: Chapter 7

Construction of the Human Empire by Creating Subordinates 8 (8/185)

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All the jurisdictions of the countries belonging to the Representative Assembly were evenly spread within my palm.

The Oroko Great Plains were vast, befitting the name ‘Great Plains.’

Even when covered by a single palm, it was only a part of the Great Plains.

The respective territories acquired by the participating countries of the Representative Assembly were much larger than my palm.

However, the idea of having to hand over the territories they had managed to acquire, whether large or small, would be like a bolt from the blue.

“Do you think that makes sense?”

Gotava lowered his voice.

“That’s truly arrogant!”

“Are you trying to manipulate us with words that may or may not be true!”

Seven people, fourteen eyes, stared at me as if trying to pierce through me.

Damn it, each one seemed ready to burst my heart with just their gaze, making my chest ache.

The tingling sensation, as if I would collapse if I lost my composure, subsided with the Iron Man trait.

I disguised the peace on my face as boldness.

‘If I show weakness, I’ll die.’

I realized what Raeragon’s ulterior motive was in having me attend the Representative Assembly.

If I was bluffing and deemed weak, they would try to kill me immediately.

If it wasn’t a bluff, they would try to suppress me with the power of the majority.

That guy is also a noble, a prince with succession rights.

I am human, and to him, humans are just monkeys.

The thought of having land taken away by a monkey would be unacceptable to his pride.

‘Trying to use his head, huh?’

How many regressions have I gone through in my previous life?

I’ll take that shabby plan and turn it back on them.

“Didn’t I say to check? If you check, you’ll know the truth.”

“And if it’s not true?”

Vrad glared at me with bloodshot eyes, his pupils red.

Because his self-centered past was exposed, he was frozen like a fool.

Now that he had calmed down, he was glaring at me as if he wanted to kill me.

Sharp fangs gleamed.

“If it’s not true, then it’s up to you to decide what to do. Do you need my opinion until then?”

“······.”

I tapped the map.

“But if it’s true, I’ll take this land.”

“No! That’s too much! You’re asking for too much for something like this!”

The old Orc burst out in anger.

‘Good. It worked.’

I smiled inwardly at the Orc’s tone.

Have you ever seen someone use honorifics with a monkey?

Unconsciously, that Orc was respecting me.

At least, it meant he regarded me as an equal.

My bluff had worked, and I wasn’t seen as inferior.

“Just something like this?”

I glared at the old Orc, emphasizing my voice.

“Didn’t you learn what the Black Dragon Tiamar is? Are you saying the Black Dragon was nothing special?”

Raeragon, Vrad, and Gotava looked at the old Orc.

The look in their eyes was as fierce as the one they had directed at me.

“Ah, no… I mean……”

He was called old, but the Orc’s age was relatively young.

Orcs have short lifespans.

If humans live for a hundred years, Orcs live for half that.

That old-looking appearance would only be about forty in human years.

On the other hand, the absolute powerhouses in this place looked to be middle-aged at most.

Even Raeragon, a mere fledgling in Elven society, was from a generation that had actually seen and experienced the Black Dragon.

The longer-lived races remember those long memories vividly and engrave grudges more clearly.

‘Black Dragon Tiamar. The hidden boss who almost destroyed the civilization of this world once.’

Originally, it was a super-sized hidden boss that appeared after seeing the ending [of the game or story].

The setting was that it was currently sealed to appear as a hidden boss later.

After the ending, madmen who worshiped the Black Dragon would completely break the seal and run rampant.

‘The worst content created for users who continue even after seeing the ending. It was strong, but almost as soon as you caught it, it would fly away… I can’t even remember how many times I died without catching it.’

It’s no wonder that the setting book said that the different races feared it more than evil gods.

‘The really scary thing about Tiamar is that its power makes the surrounding mana flow impure.’

An impure mana flow is like a twisted vein.

A twisted vein means it’s difficult to handle mana.

The more sensitive a race is to mana, the greater the impact.

‘Elves are the most sensitive, followed by dwarves. Humans are the least sensitive race.’

A twisted vein doesn’t kill you.

However, when Tiamar was active, the mana impurity phenomenon made it impossible to use mana at all, and even after the seal, it suppressed the surrounding mana, causing considerable discomfort.

The effect reached about half the world.

The Representative Assembly wanted to avoid getting close to the land where Tiamar was sealed until the seal weakened the Black Dragon and the mana impurity phenomenon subsided.

‘The reason why humanity was relatively safe from invasion and hunting was because it was located in the sealed land. Because they are insensitive to mana, they are weak and get pushed around by other civilizations, but ironically, they benefit from it.’

The neutral zone referred to the area designated by the Representative Assembly where the mana impurity phenomenon occurred.

Recently, the Black Dragon’s power had been rapidly decreasing, and the mana impurity phenomenon had narrowed to the inland areas where humans had settled, and they were being dismantled one by one.

Soon, when Tiamar’s power became extremely weak, the mana impurity phenomenon would disappear even in the land where humans settled, and a full-scale invasion would begin.

‘But if Tiamar wakes up before that, everything goes back to the beginning.’

If Tiamar revived, the risk of destruction would return, and the hopeless situation of having to retreat from the neutral zone they had managed to occupy with their bare hands would be reproduced.

‘I’m giving you valuable information to prevent that.’

I don’t know exactly when the Black Dragon’s seal was damaged.

But I know that it was damaged around this time, and foreshadowing was laid.

‘Damn it, I’m seeing the benefits of repeating many regressions here.’

The anger of the victims of the Black Dragon, who lost their homes, families, or suffered deep wounds, pressed down on the old Orc more intensely than what had pressured me a moment ago.

“H, huh… uh… !”

The old Orc clutched his chest, lowered his head, and trembled.

It was like saying that the damage caused by the Black Dragon was nothing in front of the victims of the disaster.

Even though he was a powerhouse worthy of a king of a country in human terms, he sobbed like a child.

‘Hidden skills are the best of my cards, but having information that others don’t know is just as good.’

Information’s weight changes depending on how you use it.

Knowing the existence of Tiamar.

Knowing what Tiamar is to the different races.

Knowing that Tiamar’s seal has been damaged.

With those three things, I finished taking control of the conference room.

I scanned the faces of everyone in the conference room.

‘I was worried because it was before the start of the main story. I’m glad they’re all familiar faces.’

Is it just Tiamar? I also knew their pasts.

I had attended countless times in my previous life and had been involved a lot to become a civilized person.

I knew very well why the old Orc was making such a fuss and opposing.

Part of the mountain range among the areas in my palm.

In that part, there was a treasure that was worthless to other races but had some value to the pigs [Orcs, in this context, are sometimes referred to as pigs].

So greed took precedence, and he committed a faux pas.

‘At first, I was going to start big and concede little by little. But looking at the atmosphere, there’s no need for that. If the momentum shifts to me, the rest will be easy.’

Knowing their tendencies from my previous life was effective.

What the other party is most interested in, what I can get if I throw that out, who will object and how to stop them—it wasn’t difficult for me, who had experienced countless regressions.

‘Raeragon, who should have thrown a dissenting vote unconditionally, got a hit from Calliope, and the rest who had to test me seem to have been fooled by the bluff. Very good.’

I thought of the subordinate I had created just before revealing Tiamar’s secret.

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Mado Scholar

Grif

Lv. 59

Grade: B

Trait: [Subordinate]

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‘They probably didn’t think that I was hiding my presence, but that I created a subordinate on the spot.’

Their necks must have been quite chilly [meaning they must have felt threatened].

The reason they were listening so obediently was probably not just because of the Black Dragon Tiamar.

It was probably thanks to the added illusion that I could aim for their necks at any time.

‘That’s why illusions are scary. They create enemies that don’t exist on their own.’

What would be the reaction if an existence that prides itself on being an absolute powerhouse faced an unidentified person who couldn’t feel their presence and knew secrets that only a very few knew?

The low level doesn’t matter.

I am the only one in this world who can see levels.

The means of grasping the strength of the other party, whether it’s a subordinate, a human, or a different race, is experience and feeling.

Would the people in this place have had the experience of meeting someone like me, or would they be able to realize that I am bluffing with their feelings?

I thought it was neither.

‘I’m sick and tired of you guys provoking and figuring out the other party with pressure. It worked back then because I had to resist with only levels. But now I have the Iron Man trait.’

In a situation where the means to figure out the other party without fighting are limited, if those means are shattered, all that remains is misjudgment.

That’s when I summoned the subordinate.

It didn’t matter if a powerhouse like Calliope didn’t come out.

They were already in a state of confusion due to me.

My subordinate and I can share thoughts, so it was very easy to exchange information in an instant without opening my mouth.

‘Calm down, don’t be surprised. Tell them that Tiamar’s seal has been damaged,’ was a very easy thing to convey.

“Shouldn’t you Orcs protect what you have instead of expanding your land in the first place?”

I slightly mentioned the prelude to the civil war that the Orcs were experiencing.

The Orc, who had shrunk from the anger of the powerhouses, widened his eyes and began to tremble madly.

“What are you talking about again?”

Raeragon asked with interest.

The gazes that had been focused on the Orc returned to me again, showing suspicion.

A provocation that would have been laughed off if another ambassador had said the same thing.

Because I had already revealed several secrets that others could not know, the weight was different.

The Orc’s eyes, which were losing their center and shaking as if an earthquake had occurred, met mine in the air.

“Everyone seems curious. Do you need an explanation?”

“No, no! Don’t say it!”

Good, one down.

Then I looked at the other ambassadors and shrugged my shoulders.

Each of them must have at least one secret.

Knowing the secrets that the other party is hiding is this good.

I smiled gently.

“I told you before the Black Dragon’s seal was broken. I saved you with this. Isn’t it enough to receive that much reward?”

“You’re not thinking that you touched the seal?”

Raeragon showed suspicion.

“If I did, why would I have said it? If I wanted to break the seal, I wouldn’t have revealed it, and if I wanted to show off my power to you, would I have done it in such a pathetic way?”

He made a sound of ‘hmph’ and raised his head.

He retreated without further ado, as if he was just probing.

“Are you going to hand it over or not?”

I hit the map harder than before.

“Who was the culprit who damaged the seal?”

Gotava asked.

“I don’t know. If I knew, I would have stopped it in the first place.”

Without further objections or questions, silence continued.

After exchanging glances for a while, Raeragon moved his lips as if to say something.

He was about to object that he couldn’t give up the land, but Gotava stepped forward and stepped on his foot first.

When Raeragon flinched and looked down, Gotava tapped his own mouth with his hand.

“…Damn it.”

A small curse that everyone could hear.

That was the end, and Gotava opened his mouth to represent the Representative Assembly.

“Good. I’ll hand it over to you.”

“Thank you.”

Several dissatisfied breaths were heard.

No one in this place has not had their territory taken away.

However, even if they express dissatisfaction, they do not reject the decision of the Representative Assembly.

Raeragon, Vrad, and Gotava have agreed on the content.

Those guys are on a different level from other races, starting with their countries and races.

Elves and dwarves are a given, and vampires have an immortal army.

Even if only one of them is turned into an enemy, human civilization will be destroyed.

It’s no different for the different races that are among the weaker ones in the Representative Assembly.

“However, what we guarantee is only the territory within the Oroko Great Plains.”

‘Does that mean they won’t guarantee other human territories? They’re considering retaliation against Duke Serdret.’

In the eyes of the Representative Assembly, the Serdret Duchy has made contracts with both me and Raeragon.

Originally, that itself wouldn’t be a big problem, originally.

‘If I was weak, Raeragon would have cut off my head on the spot as soon as I claimed ownership of the frontier.’

But my head is still intact, and Raeragon has lost land.

Is it just Raeragon? All the countries that attended the Representative Assembly lost a little bit.

Even if it’s just a frontier where only humans live.

Will they leave Serdret alone for making them be treated like this?

“Also, if it is false that the seal has been damaged, this will be nullified.”

Giving permission before confirming the truth.

Because the bluff worked too well, I smiled instead of speaking to tell them to do as they please.

“We will dissolve the Representative Assembly.”