Chapter 154 : Chapter 154
Chapter 154: Double the Fun (1)
I had to smuggle myself in.
However, as I mentioned earlier, Shurina had quite rigid security, not just because they were guarding against the potential return of 'Shurine'.
Unlike the cities so far, it wasn't at a level where I could just get checked by one of the guards working that day.
If you were an outsider, it was natural that you would undergo high-intensity inspections that even went as far as background checks.
And just in case that high-intensity inspection was breached, a 'system' was in place.
Simply put, even if you bribed all the soldiers you met at the checkpoint and passed through safely, and even if you were very lucky and that act wasn't caught by their respective superiors, you couldn't roam around the city as you pleased.
Why?
Because eyes of surveillance were paved all over the city.
Shurina was perfectly controlled by the current Governor Kurt.
So that another coup, like the one they committed, could not happen.
And so that 'Shurine', who had a high probability of becoming the focal point of such an event, could never dare to show her face in front of people again.
As an experienced person, I knew it better.
He had essentially created a kind of Panopticon.
So that no matter what happened or how, everything that occurred inside Shurina would eventually be visible to Kurt, who was at its center.
"So, you're saying even with that face of yours, it won't work?"
"Huh? You mean this handsome face that's totally your type?"
Slap, Evie lightly hit my cheek, and I chuckled slyly.
"Who said it won't work?"
"What?"
First of all, as I said before, even if I seduced the soldiers I encountered one by one with my face to get past those moments, penetrating the 'system' was impossible in the end.
Therefore, the only way was to take over that 'system' entirely.
I would hack it.
Of course, I didn't mean there was some giant computer in Shurina and I would raid the server managing it to manipulate this and that.
"I just need to make one person a prisoner of my beauty."
"One person?"
"One person."
Here, that 'system' was a 'person'.
"……Wait."
The one person at the center of the Panopticon, watching everything.
"Are you perhaps… talking about Governor Kurt?"
"There's no other way, is there?"
If no matter what method was used, I would inevitably be noticed by Kurt, then I would just make Kurt look only at me from the start.
Then naturally, the other companions would slip out of his field of view.
"Because he won't be able to take his eyes off me."
As I grinned, raising the corners of my mouth, my companions looked at me with their mouths gaping open blankly.
"No…… but how?"
Among them, Evie, who looked particularly dumbfounded, asked, and Toric added as if to dissuade me, "W-Wait. Hold on. Kurt is… not the type of person you can seduce like that."
I know.
"Since he took power, we… the Kapers have investigated him closely. We looked into what kind of person he is, and if he might be a threat to the continent. Since it involved Mr. Pariah who suddenly quit the Kapers, we had no choice but to be thorough."
"The conclusion?"
"He has… a very serious personality. At least, he is not someone who would be swayed by lust."
"Well, my lust appeal is on a different level."
Toric's words were correct.
Kurt wasn't an opponent I could seduce just because I wanted to.
Not just because of his serious personality, but because his 'Trait' was like that to begin with.
'Charm Immunity'.
Like Rine or Pariah, he also possessed this ability.
Just like those who made Rine the source of their 'power'.
"But I don't just have this face."
My face was just one of the weapons I possessed.
It meant it was only a part of my overwhelming 'Charisma'.
"Forgot? I even seduced a dragon."
A thousand-year-old elf was, well, a piece of cake.
Even an opponent who didn't fall for my face could be seduced if I put my mind to it.
Not with a face, but with 'words' alone.
"What in the world is that confidence…?"
Even if he was a serious soldier who lived for a thousand years without knowing lust, going beyond the level of not being swayed by it.
As I said earlier, my lust appeal was a bit different.
Because it was 'Kingdom-Toppling Beauty'.
So, befitting that trait, it was time to make a country tilt.
***
To do that, first.
"I need to seduce the guy who will take me to Kurt."
Kurt wasn't someone I could meet just because I wanted to.
In the first place, if I didn't get into Shurina, there would be no physical encounter at all.
So.
"──Morgana."
I planned to seduce his confidant, who could be called Kurt's left arm, first.
"She is Kurt's closest aide. She's a figure who has acted as his left arm since his soldier days, before Kurt became Governor."
I added to my companions that I had done various investigations separately in Tiaria from the moment I decided to go to Shurina.
Of course, I hadn't done that, and it was just knowledge I originally knew.
If General Engel, the right arm, took charge of and commanded his army directly, Morgana, the left arm, took on a role like Kurt's staff officer.
"In other words, she is the perfect person to build a bridge to Kurt."
And unlike Kurt, who was always in Shurina, Morgana was usually always outside Shurina.
The reason the elves of Shurina, a city with barren land covered in snow all year round where almost nothing grew, could be self-sufficient without starving to death for this long time was, ironically, thanks to that snow.
It is often said that elves can live on just dew.
Of course, most elves one could encounter on the continent would refute that as soon as they heard it, saying, 'What kind of bullshit is that? We are people too, people!', but in this case, it was true.
At least for the Northern Elves of Shurina.
With just one drop of this dew, also called 'Shurine's Tears', which only formed in Shurina, the Northern Elves living there could sufficiently maintain their lives for a day.
However, obviously, how could they live that long, long life eating only one drop of dew at a time?
It was already boring enough to die.
In fact, there was a record that a long time ago, the citizens of Shurina directly shouted complaints, 'We are people too, people!' to Shurine, who wondered, 'If there is no rice, can't you just eat dew?'.
But as I mentioned earlier, Shurina is a land where barely a blade of grass grows.
It meant they inevitably had to bring in supplies from the outside.
And Morgana was the figure who had been overseeing that commerce for a very long time.
Should I call her the person in charge of negotiations with the outside?
The problem here was.
"They say this person won't deal with anyone at all unless they are at least an elf."
"What? What do you mean?"
"She just won't meet them."
It meant she wouldn't even schedule an appointment for the negotiation itself if the opponent wasn't an elf.
Even if she talked to races with short lifespans, it was obvious they would disappear soon (within 100 years) anyway, and promises would change frequently (about once every 100 years), so there was no time to build trust or whatever, there was no value in forming a 'relationship' or whatever… Anyway, for such reasons, she declared she wouldn't make deals unless the opponent was an elf with a similar lifespan to theirs.
"……Is she a crazy bitch?"
As soon as she heard that, Evie looked disgusted as if she was dumbfounded.
"Are all you elf bastards seriously out of your minds?"
"…Rather than that, it would be better to see it as a peculiarity possessed by Northern Elves."
Then Toric, who had met far more elves than Evie while active in the Kapers, said as if defending(?) them.
"Toric is right. Northern Elves have the most detached concept of time from us."
"No, but those Dark Elves from a while ago…"
"Over there… they usually live shorter than their original lifespan."
"…Ah."
Like the Northern Elves, the Dark Elves also had almost no interaction with other races, but their job was to always fight and beat each other up within that island.
So, among the elves, their sense of time itself was rather on a similar level to other races.
Because things kept changing.
Like the owner of the castle.
However, Northern Elves were geographically isolated and exceptionally detached from other races, so they casually said things that made people like 'us' think, 'What kind of bullshit is that?' as if it were natural common sense.
"Promises changing, what the fck changes? No, do they say they don't know how to read? Is the contract sht?"
"Exactly that."
"What?"
"Just as you pointed out, Evie. Actually, it makes absolutely no sense."
Next time they met, even if the person changed, as long as the evidence of the promise made before remained, it actually didn't matter much.
"It's just all a plausible… no, not even a plausible excuse."
Morgana was just openly discriminating.
To break the opponent's spirit.
Saying that to make a deal, bring someone who matches our 'level' first.
And the reason she could go on such a power trip was that she and the Shurina she represented were actually in an overwhelming position of power.
From the opponents' perspective, they eventually had no choice but to bring elves somehow and match those conditions.
That was how rare and high in demand the 'products' that could only be obtained through trade with Shurina were.
For example, 'Shurine's Tears' mentioned earlier was like that.
After rumors spread that it was the secret to Northern Elves living lives close to eternal life and maintaining beautiful youth, all the famous rich people on the continent started making a fuss to drink even a sip of that dew somehow.
Even though that dew was actually only effective for Northern Elves living in Shurina, and outside, it was practically nothing more than a water droplet formed by melting snow.
──And the point where admiration comes out here is that the one who spread that rumor mentioned above was none other than Morgana.
To sell that one useless water droplet at a higher price than most jewels.
Sure enough, as soon as she heard my story, Evie’s jaw dropped and she couldn't close it.
"……Is she really a crazy bitch?"
This time, it looked like pure admiration.
Anyway, for that reason, Morgana was a person who sniffed out the scent of money extremely well.
"So I plan to approach with that part. I'll let her handle big money."
To target a swindler who smells money well, naturally, I should let out the scent of money first.
She will bite my bait.
She has no choice but to bite.
"How? You said she won't meet anyone unless they are an elf?"
"So, I have to become an elf first."
It just so happens that I have some expertise in deceiving.
I'm a 'Trickster', aren't I?
"What?"
Like Machiavelli's words, 'deceiving the deceiver is double the fun'.
So I plan to deal a proper blow to the guy who won't even look at anyone unless they are an elf.
"──I will become an elf."
An Elf Punch.