Prologue: Antagonist

It was that time again when the routine life of the frontier was disturbed by its most notorious visitor. It meant vacating their home again, since the visitor didn't like seeing their faces. A sentiment shared by Leon's siblings. Currently, Leon was trying to find his missing younger sister so that they could avoid the unpleasant company. An unsuccessful attempt, as Leon located his sister due to sounds of her sobbing.

"Finley…" Leon approached his upset sister and stood between her, and the new visitors. It didn't look very impressive as he was still physically a child and the visitors were taller teenagers.

"How unsightly. I do detest these countryside bumpkins," a female blonde teenager sneered at the siblings.

A similarly blonde male teenager laughed. "I must agree. It's a miracle they even manage to survive out here in the sticks."

The two blondes were Merce and Rutart, respectively. Older half-siblings of Leon and the 'official heirs' of his father. They lived in the capital instead and was equivalent to living the city-life compared to Leon's more rural home. Their attitude stemmed from their privileged lifestyle provided by the hard work from the barony.

"Everyone looks so dreary and shabby," complained Merce. "Such an ugly sight to see."

Leon held back shouting at them, wanting to point out that it was their fault. The barony was under contract to send an extravagant allowance to the capital for their sake. With the natural disaster that struck earlier this year, compounded by the terrible harvest that followed, obviously the barony had to cut corners everywhere.

"And this weather is horrible," Merce continued her complaint while fanning herself. "Why would anyone choose to live here?"

"Maybe if you didn't wear such heavy clothes in the summer, Merce," Claire joined the gathering, glaring at her older sibling. "Or is that what passes as fashion in the capital? Pointless layers of clothing?" Venom dripping on every word.

Merce gritted her teeth at Claire. "Like a barbarian like you would know what fashion looked like. I suppose even cheap men will settle for a girl caked in dirt."

"Says the person who ate dirt the last time we sparred," Claire bared her own fangs at Merce. "With the amount of times you were knocked down on the ground, people will mistake you for livestock rolling in the mud."

A small laugh escaped Leon which caused Merce to glare at him. He remembered how the last exhibition between Merce and Claire went. Calling it a spar was generous, and was more of a one-sided beatdown. Claire, who hadn't even entered the academy yet, easily trounced the older Merce.

"Just wait till I graduate and join the 'Forest of Ladies'," Merce spat out and Leon was suddenly paying very close attention. "You'll wish you respected your betters properly."

"Forest of Ladies?" Leon slyly tried to press for more information.

"Yes, you dumb brat. They approached mother and promised us more riches and better connections than a backwater baron could ever get!"

"How? By taking you in as a maid?" Claire shot back.

"No!" Merce seethed in anger. "We just have to deliver-"

"Uh, Merce," Rutart tugged on his full blooded-sibling. "We aren't supposed to…"

Despite her anger, Merce realized her almost slip-up and halted her tirade. She still glared at Claire, who returned in kind.

"Let's get away from this riff-raff," Merce eventually turned around and stomped away, followed by Rutart.

"Good one, sis," complimented Leon once the three were alone.

"Hmph." Claire tried to play it cool but Leon saw the smirk. She ruffled his hair as she went to comfort Finley. "We should go before they come back. Merce's especially pissed off today."

"Why?"

"She was bragging about finally getting her personal servant. She didn't," Claire explained as she walked the two out of the house and towards the outdoor cabin. "The mistress is also raging harder than usual. I heard the shouting from dad's study. Someone's been raiding the demi-human archipelagoes so none of them have been offering their usual contracts."

"That why that elf hasn't been with them?"

Claire nodded. "Another reason why they're so pissed. Bunch of servants breaking their contracts to return home. Now get inside," she directed them towards the small shack. "Better to stay inside and let this storm pass."

Another night, another bandit farming time. Cid's drone discovered another group on an island just off the barony mainland. It would seem bandits had gotten smarter and wanted to avoid the mainland, probably due to dark knight's efforts. Prepared for this eventuality, Leon, or rather Cid, had managed to abscond a small one-person airship and refurbished it for their use. It wouldn't get them far, but it was enough to go island hopping when needed.

"Another successful haul tonight," Leon set down a package that contained the programmable matter liberated from the bandits. "Did the surveillance drones get what we needed?"

"Confirmed, Master." Cid's terminal projected a holographic screen which showed an airship hovering above the same island they had previously cleared of bandits. "Similar to previous occasions, an airship supposed to rendezvous with bandits arrived. Recording devices confirm repeated mentions of the 'Forest of Ladies' group."

Cid played a video of the new arrivals discovering the unconscious bandits. Their frustrated conversations played back as they berated each other for their failure. It was through similar incidents like this that Leon was able to piece together their operation.

Bandits, or at least people disguising themselves as bandits, were being brought to the Bartfort Barony with the help of the 'Forest of Ladies'. Their goal seemed to be smuggling goods out of the kingdom, hence another airship supposed to retrieve them. Unfortunately for them, Leon managed to intercept their last few shipments, which fortunately still came with the programmable matter he needed.

"Hand me a printout of the ship."

"At once, Master." A small printer quickly spat out a picture more detailed than any capable by this world's current technology.

Leon took the picture and approached a cork board and pinned it. It joined the ranks of other pictures and notes plastered, which contained most of the information Leon had gathered about the notorious 'Forest of Ladies'.

"I thought they were just a group of corrupt nobles… but this is full on cult-conspiracy!"

Ever since he eavesdropped on that meeting, Leon tried to see how much the Forest of Ladies could actually affect their lives. To his exasperation, a very close danger as apparently, Merce's claim at the invitation was real. Leon's half-sister wasn't a member yet, but his stepmother, very much so.

The cult was responsible for the recent proliferation of bandits and smugglers through the barony. Granted, they were a good supply of the materials Leon needed, but the fact there seemed to be never ending bandit activity was starting to leave a negative image. Someone in the capital had apparently been spinning the high number of bandit reports as an inadequacy of the barony. Especially since the only thing the bandits would divulge was a dark knight attacking them. This meant the local authority, Leon's dad, couldn't claim full responsibility for the bandits' capture.

Frustratingly, the bandits managed to remain tight-lipped about their connection to the Forest of Ladies. Granted, they would complain out loud or discuss their plans around the campfire, but they somehow never confessed their connection to the cult during interrogation. Worse yet, they were starting to leave the impression that they were collaborating with the barony itself, to explain why they were never executed. It was almost impressive.

On a more personal attack to the family, Nicks had almost been a casualty of the cult's 'soldier's compensation scam'. Their stepmother brought up marrying him to a fellow member of the cult, and then sending him to the military instead of enrolling him in the academy. Thankfully, their father had managed to argue that as the second born male, he was the 'spare' in case anything happened to Rutart, the official heir of the barony. That had settled the matter… for now.

Of course, those were the only things that Leon could gather information on. If the airships smuggling bandits were freely using sigils from other aristocrats signified anything, it meant the 'Forest of Ladies' already had a great deal of influence with numerous territories.

The why was something, unfortunately, Leon couldn't put his finger on it. Sure it was obvious the cult wanted to gather funds, but what they were using it for was still unknown. On paper, it looked like they were just spending on luxurious goods and indulging themselves. Obviously a cover for something more sinister.

"This is starting to become a pain," complained Leon. He had just wanted to farm enough materials to get a cheat weapon, and then use it to live a relaxing life. Eavesdropping on his dad's conversation unfortunately opened his eyes to the bandit's connection with the cult. "All I just wanted was a stress-free life. Stupid noble life and their aristocratic scheming. I don't remember this kind of setting in the otome game…"

Granted it was probably because it was years just before the start of the game. This time period wasn't as relevant as say, a previous war.

"Any chance we can finally send reconnaissance outside?" Leon wanted to know if the how well the other noble territories were affected.

"As stated before, to be able to send drones with sufficient intelligence for investigation would require another relay far more complex that what can be created with the current equipment we have. And more material than we can currently procure."

Leon whined in annoyance. It was a constant cycle of gathering resources, then investing those resources on better equipment, to gather more resources. Not to mention trying to save enough to reactivate the spaceship.

"Just a few more years before I can go dungeon diving…" if things kept on track, even the school dungeons would provide more than he could acquire through bandit hunting. Assuming game mechanics worked the same way. "Nothing to do but wait. Anything we missed before I head back home?"

"Nothing of note, Master. But there has been an update regarding the cure for possession."

"About the possessed? Wait, let's head there first."

In another room of their hideout, a makeshift laboratory was built in hopes of analyzing the possessed. It mostly consisted of a computer directly linked to the relay, and a large glass tube housing a body floating in liquid.

"So what's new with the possessed?"

"Currently nothing has changed regarding specimen Alpha since she was placed in suspension."

Leon sighed at the literalism. He swore Cid did it just to annoy him sometimes. "Fine. What's the update regarding the research on the possessed?"

"The final simulations from the main laboratory have determined a potential cure for specimen Alpha's magically induced necrosis."

"Woah, that's a big deal." Leon knew Cid was a cheat item, but he didn't think they would find one that easily. "So what? You make this cure and inject her with it?"

"Not exactly. The cure is not a medication but a procedure." Cid clarified. "While your claims about your otome game logic have yet to be verified, your description of this 'magical overload' and its mechanical behavior provided insight."

"You're saying 'magical overload' and 'possession' are connected?"

In-game, 'magical overload' acted as a mechanic that replaced the usual MP or magical energy needed to cast spells. Instead, every spell generated a magical cost that would fill a bar. Each character had a limit for the cost bar, and a corresponding recovery rate per turn to decrease the bar. Supposedly it was to allow even low level characters to use high level spells to get through the early stages of the game if you really needed them. Obviously, there was a trade-off as if you went over the limit, the character would be overloaded, their game sprite would be tinted black, and would permanently die at the end of the fight.

Maybe in hindsight it did match the description of the possessed, if you stretched out the in-game mechanics to real life. It did support the supposed claims that the Saint's magic could cure the possessed. Once the MC was able to unlock their saint powers, they gained a passive skill that recovered their units magical cost bar at the end of battle. Effectively negating the limit at endgame.

"Connection cannot be proven, but the description was similar in that it provide the framework for research which in turn-"

"You know what," Leon interrupted the AI. "It's probably full of techno-babble and made-up terms I have no idea about. Can we just skip to the curing part?"

"As you wish, Master," if an AI could sigh, Leon was pretty sure he heard Cid just accomplish it. "The procedure will require an ejection of the rampaging magical energies in their bodies. Through injection of foreign magical energy, one should be able to restore proper flow of their system."

"That's it? You would think someone would have tried that already."

"It is simple in concept but harder in execution. Simply injecting a large amount of magical energy will just aggravate the issue. Restoring the proper magical flow of the body requires proper knowledge of the patient's system, as it differs for each individual. Like how your blood has a proper flow of your body, so will it require precise knowledge of what I have dubbed 'magical pathways'."

The computer monitor projected an outline of the body inside the chamber and overlaid a series of lines not too different to a circulatory system as Cid described.

"Okay so I get that part, and I'm guessing that's what you've been using the science tank for?"

"Affirmative, Master. Also, the patient will require an injection of high-grade regenerative stimulant to properly restore her physiological state at the same time."

"Fine, so we just provide the tank with magical energy and stimulants, then you can start on the procedure?"

"Negative, Master. While my research has been able to develop anti-magic weaponry and defenses, delicate manipulation of magical energy is beyond what a mechanical entity such as I can accomplish. Due to how magic works, it would require an actual living organism to administer and control the magical energy. It would also require direct physical contact."

"Who's gonna be dumb enough to do that?"

Cid's terminal just adjusted its lens at Leon.

"Seriously?! I've got to?!" Leon growled at the AI. "This is why you've been teaching me those magical control exercises, isn't it?!"

"Correct." Cid managed to sound smug about it. "The update to the cure was in fact dependent when you displayed enough control to perform the procedure."

"Do I really have to touch them? Can't I just wait till I have more control so that I don't have to?"

"A possibility."

That was a relief for Leon. "Good. How long do you think that will take?" Since it had barely been months since Leon had improved his magical control.

"10 years."

Leon swore very loudly. "What?!"

"That is how long it will require you to refine your magic into thin threads that will still have the potency to direct magical flow without physical contact."

"I can't wait that long! Claire'll be…"

Silence reigned in the lab, except for the humming of the machines.

"Fine, I'll do it." Leon resolved himself.

Cid's drone wobbled in the air as if nodding. "I'll prepare specimen Alpha for the procedure."