Entropy's Servant

Chapter 57 - Souls

Hello everyone, Astaroth here.
Money is powerful, isn't it?
Both directly and indirectly, you can use it to buy people's loyalty, after all.
In a classical, non-fantasy system, it's no exaggeration to say a king's power is his kingdom's wealth.

I returned from the world tree and coincidentally encountered the Elven Council President.

"It was you who sent the children in to calm me down, no?" I asked, eyeing them up and down. "You have my gratitude."

"Any time, Lord Astaroth~," they responded, smiling as they closed their eyes.

I gained an idea in my head and a wry smile on my face. "As a token of that gratitude, I'll tell you something nice. Call the drakonid chief over, too--he should hear it, as well."

"As you have ordered, so it shall be, Lord Astaroth~."

I noted the--probably unconscious--effect of [Aura of the Dark Prince] from the President's speech pattern, and reached the swift conclusion that the four goddess-touched races counted as magical beings.

Both the Elven Council President and the drakonid chief sat in front of me--essentially, we had formed a rudimentary 'circle' of chairs.

"Then," I said, "before I tell you this, there are some things I must confirm with you."

I stood up, circled the chairs, and came to a halt behind the drakonid chief.

"What I am about to tell you," I said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "is between us three, and no one else."

Although my physical hand stopped at his shoulder, a metaphysical part of it didn't, instead reaching much, much deeper. I used it to reach the deepest part of his being--that is, I touched his soul. It didn't look like he noticed.

I toyed a little with the many, many wires that formed it, wrapped tightly into a ball, until I could identify the one I was looking for--the one that represented his distrust towards me.

I snapped it in half and removed my hand, continuing my circle around the chairs.

"In addition," I said, placing a hand on the Elven Council President's shoulder in much the same way as I had with the drakonid chief, "What I'm about to tell you is information directly from the Akashic Records."

The Elven Council President's soul was many times more complicated than the drakonid chief's, comprised of several times more wires, so I decided to buy myself a little more time. "As such," I said, "the things I am about to say are without a sliver of a doubt true."

Finally, I found the appropriate wire and snapped it in half, and quickly, I returned to my chair.

"Do you two understand?"

"Ah... Yes, Lord Astaroth," the drakonid chief said, nodding as he flexed his claw. It seemed he had noticed something, but fortunately, nothing specific.

"Of course, I'll properly keep this a secret~," the Elven Council President said, nodding with closed eyes. I couldn't tell if they'd noticed, but decided it wasn't relevant.

With that pesky distrust out of the way, it was child's play to convince the two of them to ally their nations with mine, using the contents of 'The Truth, first part' as easy leverage.

I was able to relax in my room for not five minutes when a knock sounded from the door. While thinking that it was quite impressive for the door to have been fixed already, I gave permission to the knocker to enter the room.