Chapter 124: Mayari and Apolaki
I looked at the corpse that is still in that womb-like membrane in the wall of Arachne's lab, honestly, I did not expect myself to feel nostalgic when seeing a dead body, I relished in the good old times when I was still a weak baby, my intentional staring on the pink bat queen's corpse was soon discovered by Arachne who immediately coughed to gather mine and Bakunawa's attention.
"Ahem, anyway, like what I said earlier, I would like you to know that if you have any idea how to solve this problem without the spiders going retarded and start spitting webs at random, I am all ears, here are the failed experiments."
Arachne took out a box from the back of her spider lower half, the box was made out of glass, and it showed different spiders, well, retarded is not an accurate term, they look like they were drunk as they were spitting red, blue, white, yellow and many more silk colors that are all falling to the floor of the box and then melting into a mini puddle.
_Wait a minute, these spiders are not genetic failures anymore, they are pathetic excuses for spiders._
Arachne was looking at me who was furrowing my brows, oh man, good thing I am here and good thing I got all the basic elements down, if not, we will not be able to simulate the natural selection and can only release spiders into our forests and then wait for many for them to be lucky and adapt pigmented webs.
"Well, Lady Sophia, do you have any idea how to fix this? Though the only thing I can think of is natural selection, that will take too long."
I smiled at such a statement, as expected of one of the three smartest individuals in my country.
"Yes, that is the only way as the genes of independent spiders are delicate, also the genes will collapse immediately if you modify them before releasing them, so we will create a very tiny version of natural selection."
[3rd Person POV]
As Sophia started to mend the problem that arose on her future state-owned business, the spies of several countries that are stationed in Gjallarhorn were being hunted down by the assassin force of the said Kingdom, yet because of the sudden change in the chain of command due to Noir dying and Roselle, someone who is used to commanding in the light and is totally unfamiliar with how assassins are supposed to be deployed is the one taking the commander post, the quality of the blanket search plummeted to an all-time low, all of the spies in different countries were ordered to retreat as they will be replaced by new ones once the blinded eyes of Gjallarhorn are not looking at them anymore.
In the room, Roselle looked at the deputy commander who had a frown on his face, the deputy knew that he was not yet qualified to take the post of the late prince, yet, he also knew that his King was not used to operating a whole organization that moves in the dark, too much for being familiar with the night because he would look cool.
Roselle did not speak but his grave expression did not diminish that has hints of anger in it, not only was he shit-tier in terms of commanding assassins, but his arms dealing business was also halted because his largest smithy was destroyed because of the security measure of Sophia's coins, and what angers him the most is the fact that if he took up arms and declared war, the mother-in-law of Sophia will surely clog their advance, a civil war will ensue if that is to happen.
Naturally, no country wants to face the world's strongest Duchy nor do they want to anger Sophia who has almost killed a seasoned hero, so alliances are useless too.
_The only thing I can do is to spread rumors that Sophia stole the money in the coffers while we show her the greatest hospitality and I can hear some spies who are snickering while talking about my order... but I can't really do anything... that white-haired bitch made my Kingdom into a very volatile explosive that will explode if I do anything, and implode if I do nothing!_
"My Lord?"
The deputy suddenly noticed his King who was huffing, even though his very first direct order as the commander of the assassins is complete bullshit, he was still his King, a capable one at that, he immediately approached Roselle, but Roselle stopped him by putting his palm up.
"It seems like the spies have been scared during the fight between the two invaders and decided to dig their hiding hole deeper or escape, continue the search for a week and stop, we cannot waste our time for such matters."
All the leaders in the room were wearing their poker faces, but all of them had the same thought.
_The report says some of our assassins encountered spies... 100 kilometers away... using our main roads as an escape route... This is not just a waste of time, but us slapping ourselves in the face..._
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Gjallarhorn, who face the brunt of two surgical sucker punches from Sophia continued their futile search to re-establish their King's shattered pride, and a week later, all of the spies entered the borders of their Kingdoms and Empires and were called by their respective monarchs to report their findings.
And as one would expect, every single one of them was shocked! They had just stopped hyper-ventilating when the news spread by Sophia that Gjallarhorn recognized Kamatayan's currency by buying 1,000 Kamatayan magic coins for 4,000 Gjallarhorn gold coins reached their ears when they heard the sorry state of Gjallarhorn.
"Noir Gjallarhorn is dead and the weapon dealing industry of Gjallarhorn was crippled due to the "innovative security measure" of Sophia's coins! And Roselle's response was reduced to defaming Sophia!"
All of the people, who somehow, someway read the reports at the same time started to grit their teeth in unison, soon however, some of them shook their heads in disappointment, one would realize that some of these people are old enough to be able to see the glorious monarchs of Gjallarhorn who did not yield to any challenges, even if that challenge is Urduja herself.
Of course, they understood the situation, Urduja was given a big piece of land without having any individual that can neutralize her, and now all Gjallarhorn can do is to get her away from all political decisions except when they are discussing going to war, the pantheon of the god of the sun, that is once favored Gjallarhorn's Royal Family is now sucking the metaphorical dick of Urduja and giving almost all her children the hero prospect status, leaving the next generation of Kings after the generation of Urduja to be in a decline until they were reduced to a King who can't lead assassins and a prince who got manipulated to fuck his brother's wife.
And then Sophia exploited all of this when the other countries did not dare to do so because of obvious reasons.
Their disappointment was not directed to Roselle but instead to the whole Gjallarhorn herself. It is really pitiful that the once glorious country that could go against Valentine's Army of the Kingdom of Heaven is no more.
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Emperial capital, Mayari Empire.
"Defaming the person who, in the public eyes sacrificed her life to drive away Hebi Tsukaiza? He's just going to turn the public eye against him while already dealing with his strongest export being crippled because he focused 60 percent of his production in a mega smithy inside his capital instead of creating a specialized city for such a job and all his allies doubting his protective abilities because of letting an invader inside his Kingdom to drive another invader away... I expected a better response from you Roselle."
The Emperor, together with his council shook his head in disappointment towards their ally, though he could not really suggest anything that could mitigate the situation other than waiting for the weapon dealing industry to be fully functional again, he did expect better public sympathy gathering move than defaming a public hero.
"Well, even if we want to help Gjallarhorn, it's impossible to reclaim glory after being embarrassed by two frontal slaps in the face if we don't go to war, but we are already at war with Apolaki."
One of the advisers said and everyone, even the emperor openly or silently agreed, suddenly the eyes of their emperor squinted and looked at a corner of a room, his gaze seemed to pierce through the wall, and the distance in which mortal can describe as their limit.
"Kamatayan Queendom..."
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Imperial Capital, Apolaki Empire.
In the council hall of the sworn enemy of Mayari, the elders were shaking to their very core as if they were facing a monster instead of papers, that is because their emperor, who is known for his temper is looking at the report while gnashing his teeth, everyone hoped that they will not be injured too heavily.
"Sophia Demiurge... So that's the person who has delayed my order of daggers and now delayed all of my weapon orders... Because of this, we have to make do with recycled weapons to equip the new recruits..."
Suddenly, all the shaking in the whole council members disappeared as dread appeared in their eyes. Their emperor might be always angry, but if he's not, it only means one thing!
"Send a messenger to Valentine and tell them that I will personally participate in any revenge attempt they will make against Kamatayan."
Everyone in the room looked at the emperor, one of the eldest and most respected raised his hand, for his life, he had to be as humble as possible.
"My Lord, I think that is a bad idea, remember that the two monarchs of Valentine can take revenge on Sophia by themselves, with you offering help, we will risk offending them."
All the council members were silent and did not dare to nod, but every one of them agreed, though, through experience, they knew that this attempt to placate the situation and get themselves out of the trouble that they already had plenty of was futile.
"Why would they be offended? I'm a hero too, it's not like I am too far off them in terms of strength... As long as it's not Urduja, I am confident in defeating anyone."
All of the council members resigned their arguments in their hearts. Their emperor was right. Well, normally, he would be right.
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Even Tydings and Stardust heard this news, however, they did not pay attention to it, after all, they are already embroiled in an intense civil war against Indio and Kamatayan's military alliance, so they cannot afford to even be shocked by such news and just decided to consider it as a matter of course.
Instead, one person became shocked in their steed.
"Defame Sophia? Has King Roselle become crazy because his arms dealing business was frozen?"
Midori Seiyoku looked at the actress in front of her, the woman almost has the same three sizes as her and is a riveting beauty too, the only difference was that the woman's hair was black, so she had to wear a wig to impersonate Midori. While thinking of things like that, Midori suddenly heard two people mockingly say:
"We don't even need to move to mitigate such a lousy defamation. How impudent is he to think that he is worthy of My Lady's brain cells."
Flou said as he looked at Khearsenbelle who seemed to not even be slightly offended by someone mocking her ex-husband. She would have been embarrassed if she was still his spouse too.
"Indeed, the size of his brain was sacrificed for the size of his dick."
Midori immediately frowned.
_Who the hell replies to conversations like that?_
However, she knew that she is not the one to talk as a former dick rider herself, so she ignored it and fiddled with the report.
_Honesty, I am disappointed in myself to have been cornered by someone who can't properly manipulate public opinions._
Midori does not want to become arrogant or something, but by how poor Roselle is working against pressure, then Midori would be able to lead the country better than him, of course, as someone who is only intelligent and doesn't have enough brawn, she would only be disqualified.
Midori suddenly smiled.
_Even though we were threatened to become her double spy, having a patron like Sophia will give us astronomical benefits, I just have to do my best to stop my family from doing something stupid and ruining our second chance at retaining the remaining dignity Shiro's bullshit has given us._
Midori's eyes burned with determination as she was prepared to do anything to make her surname great again. She looked at her actress and asked.
"So? Have you found a suitable noble?"
The actress nodded and then put out a stack of paper.
"I have Lady Midori, but I have a lot of them and I can't choose one, I filtered it to the point that all of them have a 60 percent chance of agreeing, but please consolidate the list and point out the most fitting one."