Chapter 102: Signs of Discord
I'm having a meeting with Yukime again, but this time it's not in the Don Jon Tower but in my Necromancer secret base. I sat on my throne once again and Yukime kneeled before me excitedly.
"Lord Necromancer. It's good to have you back." Yukime greeted me as she stood back up.
"Indeed. It's been a long time since I sat on this throne."
"Does it feel cold? Would you like me to share my warmth?" Yukime teasingly asked.
"Unnecessary. I am not as weak as back then."
"Even after being torn apart by John Smith?"
"Indeed."
"My. How resilient you are, my lord."
"Spare me the pleasantries. Let us discuss the aftermath of Don Jon's death. Does the transition of power run smoothly?"
"Yes. I made sure everyone in the city obeys their new ruler, which is the Necromancer. It's ironic that they didn't know that you and Don Jon are the same person. Hee hee hee." Yukime remarked while giggling.
"Good. From now on the residents of Lawless City will work more closely with the Cult… or more precisely, with my Reaper Squad. In the future we shall build a Reaper Squad base in the place where Don Jon Tower used to be."
"Speaking of the Cult, how did the Rounds react to your taking over the Lawless City, my lord?"
"They barely said anything but I'm sure they are anxious of my growing power. My former superior, Fenrir, in particular. Heh heh heh." I remarked while chuckling.
"Not even a congratulations? My, what friends you have there, my lord."
"Friends who are scheming behind my back."
"Can you handle them?"
"I've always had rivals inside the Cult. This is no different. And I've gained some allies within the Rounds as well. I'll be fine, Yukime."
"How reassuring, my lord. I hope you'll continue to reign supreme, both as Lord Necromancer and as King Claude."
"Oh I just can't wait to be king. Heh." I chuckled, remembering a certain cartoon about lions.
"You are already a king in my heart." Yukime remarked with a smile.
"Soon I'll be king in everybody's hearts! Heh heh heh."
"What a day that would be, my lord." Yukime remarked while clapping. She eventually stopped as if reminded by something.
"Ah. There's something I'd like to ask, my lord. What of the money that John Smith robbed?"
"He robbed only a portion of the profit we gained from the Ponzer Plan. It is good that I've already moved some of the money to the Necromancer's base before he robbed it. Heh heh heh."
"My. I wonder how disappointed he is when he realized he couldn't get as much money as he expected."
Shiiit! I miscalculated! I was in a hurry to transport the money I robbed from Don Jon that I didn't count or estimate how much money I got! Because I had to repay the girls for robbing their banks, now I end up with less money than I started!
Don Jon's vault should have way more money than that! I helped expand his Ponzi Scheme into Pyramid Scheme so I can get more money in the end! But of course that bastard hid the rest of his money elsewhere! And now that he's dead, I can't even interrogate him! Curse you Don Jon!
At least I got some sick ass handguns from that battle. I sent one of them to Gamma while the other one goes to my collection.
In my rage, I unconsciously unleashed a terrifying aura in the canteen. Luckily I pulled it back before people felt it and start questioning my mobness. Only my two mob friends are affected.
"C-Cid? What's wrong? Y-You look real scary right now!" My lanky mob friend asked.
"Y-Yeah! What happened? You gonna poop again?" My bald headed mob friend said.
"Nothing. It's just that… I've been scammed!" I complained whilst eating my cheap food.
"Ah! Did you put your money into the Ponzer Plan? I understand you, man! I did that too and now I lost all my money because that Don Jon guy is dead and then some guy called John Smith robbed the Snow Fox Bank so they said they can't return our money! Arrghh!" My lanky friend groaned in frustration. We're not on the same page but I appreciate him joining me in hating Don Jon.
"I'm lucky that I didn't have money back then so now I lost nothing." My bald headed friend remarked while smiling. The betrayal!
"Po! Lend me some money! No! Invest some money on me! Also, bring some friends to invest money and I'll double your money in a week!"
"Ha ha ha! No way!"
As expected of my lanky friend. He immediately tried to copy the pyramid scheme shamelessly.
"By the way, did you hear, Skel? Cid? They say that the school's planning to intensify our lessons! Especially the fighting classes!" My bald friend dropped an unfortunate news.
"It's because of that war, right? Other students are also anxious because they thought we're gonna be conscripted to fight! Maybe even on the frontlines where we will be used as disposable pawns!" My lanky friend said something interesting. A war's coming and students are gonna be conscripted!? It's an opportunity to showcase my mob techniques!
"If they do that, we're gonna die before we get laid!" My bald friend exclaimed.
"That would be a great loss to the world! Especially to all women!" My lanky friend joined him.
While my mob friends are lamenting their fates, I started contemplating on how to make more money to replace my losses which is caused by Don Jon. Heard my nemesis, the Necromancer, has taken over Lawless City and I doubt he would share his money with me. He's too stingy! All those treasure chests and mimics but not a single coin! Yes, I'm still mad about it! One day I'm gonna find his base and I totally gonna rob him! I swear it!
But now… where should I get money? I needed money and fast! I can't be a shadowbroker if I'm broke! Should I sell some of my collections? Nay! They are part of my Eminence in Shadow play! I need to rob some bad rich people. Merchants are no go. They just lost their money to Don Jon's scam. But what about nobles? Hmm…
Mordred is in a bad mood. Well, he has been in a bad mood since his humiliating defeat against the vampire king Alucard. He was even forced to swallow his pride and purchased a new weapon from the Necromancer. At least the sword Clarent has been adequate enough to improve his mood. But now his mood worsens when he received a call from a colleague and rival, who disturbed his work when he is busy preparing for the inevitable civil war in Oriana.
"Hey there, Mordred! Heard you purchased a weapon from Necromancer!" Said a muscular white haired man reflected in the mirror Mordred is facing. His muscular body is filled with old runes tattooed on his skin and his long hair is tied in a half ponytail.
"Hmph. And where did you get that idea, Jormungandr?" Denied Mordred, who wanted to hide the humiliating fact that he was forced to ask for help.
"That shiny new sword on your hips gave me that idea. How's your new toy? Pretty fun, isn't it? I had so much fun with my Mjollnir myself!" Jormungandr, a fellow of the Knights of Rounds, remarked on his own new weapon which he purchased from the Necromancer, leading him to have favourable opinion of the sorcerer.
"Did you hear that he took over The Lawless City? Incredible, isn't it?"
"Heh. We've tried to do that a long time ago but that city was as chaotic as its namesake and thus deemed not worth taking over. I wonder if it'll be worth it for him in the end." Mordred remarked with a mocking smile.
"If it's Necromancer, I believe he can keep those thugs under control like that Don Jon guy did before him!"
"Save it. If you're trying to persuade me to side with Necromancer, I will not hear it."
"Aww. Don't be like that! We're now buddies! Brothers in arms!"
"I don't recall ever becoming buddies with you, Jormungandr. If you have nothing important to say then please do not disturb me. I have a war to prepare for." Mordred said in an angry tone.
"How stubborn are you, Mordred! Surely you know that we are on the winning side here!"
"In your dreams, Jormungandr. We outnumber your faction greatly. And even if the reverse is true, Lord First Seat will still not let it slide." Threatened Mordred, using the name of the First Seat of the Rounds, one of the oldest and the most influential member among the Rounds.
"Hoo… So Mr. Excalibur wielder himself has made his move? It's been so long since he last do that. Normally he wouldn't join our bickering unless it's something as dangerous as Alexander himself!" Replied Jormungandr, undeterred by the mention of the First Seat.
"Indeed. No matter how strong Necromancer is, he stand no chance against Lord First Seat."
"We'll see about that!" Jormungandr declared before angrily shutting down the communications mirror.
"Hmph. Pathetic. To think that you're doing Necromancer's work for him. How much of a bootlicker have you become, Jormungandr?" Mordred remarked mockingly at his colleague.
"Fenrir should've leashed him more when he worked for him. Prevent him from becoming too powerful. Now that he has joined the Rounds, his power base is expanding too rapidly, not mention he recruited subordinates whose powers rivalled that of a Rounds member." Remarked Mordred, disappointed at his colleague for giving Necromancer too much freedom just because his faction profited a lot from the sales of Artifacts crafted by Necromancer and for failing to steal his knowledge in order to render his services obsolete, which would allow them to dispose of him early on before he grew into being such a threat.
"Speaking of subordinates, I recall that Oberon's son has joined Necromancer's army. I wonder how that elf king would react once he finds out. Heh heh heh." Mordred remarked to himself, remembering a certain elf king who happens to be a member of the Rounds.
"And Lord First Seat has acknowledged Necromancer as a legitimate threat to the Rounds. That foolish conjurer should be honoured to have attracted his attention, a feat that no other Rounds member has ever accomplished since Alexander." Mordred remarked again.
Then he clutches a device that looked like an oval shaped remote control with a grin.
"But I don't think Lord Vortigern's assistance is necessary to eliminate him. With this Artifact and the Ring of Succession, I'll let him have a taste of despair! Ha ha ha ha!"
After discussing the successful transfer of power of Lawless City from Don Jon to the Necromancer in detail, I returned to Midgar to act as Claude. Due to acting as Don Jon, I've used clone a lot in order to create an alibi for Claude, who is busy with state duties even though I'm not even king yet. I also have to attend school… and hooo boy, the hordes of Sycophants are more annoying than ever before now that I'm the future king. Every child of nobles wants to forge some kind of relation with me, especially the noble daughters, who wanted to be my concubines.
The Thirteen Night Blades haven't made any major move against me besides that one maid who caught me succumbing to the memory overload. The Cult was supposed to send some First Children to assassinate me but they were eliminated secretly. Was it Shadow Garden? Definitely Shadow Garden.
My cute sister's faction was able to thwart many of their political maneuverings meant to damage my reputation, such as attempts to spread rumors of my infidelity with many women despite being betrothed to Iris, incestuous relationship with my sister, or even accusing me of having ties to Don Jon, all of which have no basis in reality (well, except maybe the incest part which started because of my sister's insistence on sleeping in the same room as me before Lutheran's attack on the school).
My sister countered mercilessly, not just by proving the rumors to be false, but also spreading rumors of the Thirteen Night Blades members' crimes, most of which are known secret.
Her efforts are admirable but she's painting such a huge target on her back. The Thirteen Night Blades and the Cult must be dying to kill her, or at least kidnap her so they can control me by using her as a hostage. I must assign Sherry to keep watch on her. If she can't, Yukime is the only other person I can rely on and trust with this task.
For now I can leave Midgar to their hands and to my clone. I only need to check once in awhile. I must turn my attention to my puppet king, Raphael Geerk Oriana, next. It's been awhile since I last visited him and I need to make sure my schemes in Oriana succeeded as well.
Time to visit my warmongering tyrant.
Author's Note:
A bunch of name reveals for the Rounds. Because it'll be too long before we can get more info about the Rounds members in the Light Novel, I decided to fill the members not yet revealed in canon with OCs.
My version of Rounds members currently revealed:
1st Seat: Vortigern
5th Seat: Fenrir
9th Seat: Mordred
10th Seat: Petos
11th Seat: Necromancer
12th Seat: -
Unknown Seat Holders:
- Loki
- Jormungandr
- Hel
- Oberon
Former Members:
- Lutheran Barnett
- Jack Nelson
- Lord Laugus
- Alexander
Also, king Oriana's full name was revealed by Nakanishi, the Eminence in Shadow anime's director. Originally his name is Raphael but when they got to the anime they called him Geerk, and so Daisuke Aizawa, the author and god of the Eminence in Shadow, gave an oracle: "Let there be middle name." So now his full name is Raphael Geerk Oriana. Funny story, isn't it?
Bolvar57: Eta esta cayendo a la maldad, bien. El Necronomicon al fin hace su aparición, me gusta ese libro suena mejor a el libro de los muertos. Eta se volvió muy interesante.
Answer: Glad you find this plot development interesting. I've teased this book since either the vampire arcs or the Don Jon arc. This book will have more influence later on.
A-Yellow-Liz: The german strikes again. I'm betting claude wrote that book to be cool and didn't expect anyone to actually read it.
Ainz, cid, and claude, somehow all japanese chuunis have an obsession with german lol.
Answer: Indeed. That's why he sort of considered it a trash and put it as dungeon clearing rewards, though he did placed some trap on it as you saw in the previous chapter. Also, Deutsch is eine coole Sprache, oder?
GG725: Response to your response:
If she can't say it/convey it directly, maybe she can convey it through writing and stuff because she's definitely a lot more insane here than in canon.
Answer: I suppose that could work.
TheAbyssWatcher: Huh, makes sense that Eta would be the sleeper agent. She's the most vulnerable one of the seven shadows to the allure of Necromancer's knowledge. When she's revealed to be a traitor, will she join team Necro?
Answer: You shall see.
HundredMasks: villain Eta? interesting, I'm getting more hyped for the future chapters, also, I'm here just wondering on how Cid will deal with Eta, whether he'd actually take it badly or if he'll go full protagonista and save her or something, it's also interesting to see the subtlety of the mental attacks, it's hard to spot but when you do it's glaringly obvious, nice work author, very excited for more
Answer: Glad you enjoyed it. I can only say that you shall see how this develops.
DerTrap: I got some interesting ideas for new abilities for Necromancer. They are clearly inspired by Blackbeard from One Piece namely the Yami Yami no Mi (Dark-Dark Fruit). For example what if he developed a move similair to Black Vortex that he could then use to pull his enemies towards him and when he grabs them(by the throat for example) he could rapidly drain/absorb their magic, making them weaker, he could also maybe use it to stop enemies like maybe even Shadow from casting attacks like I am Atomic, because they would then have to fight the gravity effect while casting their attack. Or something like Black Hole where he can just absorb objects, building or even people into his dimension that he used against Shadow effectively trapping enemies(for example Shadow Garden Members inside of it) until he let's them out in prison cells inside his hideout. I mean it would truly fit him and would terrify opponents as it really would be terrifying for opponents by getting sucked into the ground by some strange black mass without a chance of escape. He could maybe even make it look similair to these original moves because it would just look badass.
Answer: I've thought about his new spells but nothing concrete yet. I'll take your suggestion to consideration.
Zero: Since Don Jon is gone it time for Necromancer to give shadow garden a reward of Despair like a Sephiroth,Mahito and Sukuna type of despair that there literal talking plot armor can't bail them out because so far Claude been losing two times and that two times too many it times to show them he is HIM and still has Black Air Force activity.
Answer: The war arc is about to start and the Necromancer will eventually take center stage once again.
Guest: Damn I got chills reading that chapter. Honestly I really wasn't impressed by this story when you first started. I actually dropped it. But after seeing your ridiculous update speed I decided to give it another shot and man am I glad I did. Seeing a new chapter is always a treat. Keep up the good work.
Answer: Welcome back. Glad you came back to read it and glad you enjoyed my improvement in writing.
Guest: I like to imagine Necromancer singing "Only You" to Shadow the same way Joker did to Batman in Arkham City
Answer: Cid is also quite obsessed about Necromancer that he internally thought like a jealous girlfriend at one point lmao.