Steel and Mana

Chapter 218 – Mind Games

"You shouldn't be so stressed out!" I opened with a laugh as I entered my personal library, patting Merlin's back, who had been leaning over a cluttered desk and had been sitting there since early morning. There were hundreds of crumpled-up papers on the ground, reaching ankle-high while he was trying to come up with something to loosen Clara's tongue. When I first saw him in the morning, he had just started out, but as the day went on, every time I came to check up on him, he was more and more resembling an old man who was doing nothing but licking lemons all day.

"The mind-control side won't work; we don't understand the senses and the brain enough to create a permanent illusion that can't be overcome by will alone." He answered, mumbling, "I can't influence what I don't know... And I bet that others know because they have shipslaves! I went through all the books you wrote about magic, but there are no mentions of the human mind in any of them as if it was either erased by someone or was never studied in the first place!"

"I see." I answered calmly, listening to his rambling as he pulled on his hair.

"I'm stuck! I can't get this working!"

"Naturally. So abandon it!"

"Abandon it...? But..." He gasped, looking at me as if I had insulted his mother or something.

"We have other options." I shrugged, sitting down opposite him, sweeping the table clean, and pushing Clara's notebook before him.

"I already decoded it... Um? Leon? Did I make a mistake?"

"You are panicking because it is the first time you have been stumped, and now your old self also told you to fuck off."

"He didn't say it like that!" He grunted, pouting, making me laugh, leaning back on my chair.

"I know how you feel." I continued, unperturbed, and I wasn't lying. When I got out of my studies and dropped into the army, everything I learned from books and simulations was like isolated, governed situations. On the battlefield, say goodbye to that. What would have been a failing grade was the instant emergency solution when you were being fired at by the enemy. They don't write books about that. "Stop bashing your head against a wall, take a step back, and realize there is a window right open on your left."

"A window?" He asked again, and luckily, he still had his head screwed on right.

"Yes. When one route is blocked, search for another or trace back your steps to a different conjecture. Failing is normal, and they are the building blocks of future successes."

Picking up Clara's notebook and flipping through it, I saw the gears finally begin to turn in his head, overcoming their stuck state. It didn't take long for him to look up at me with a new idea sparkling in his eyes.

"We can replicate her handwriting! Tracing and mimicking it wouldn't be hard, and if we use a little bit of self-hypnosis, we can mirror it perfectly."

"And we can start feeding the enemy false information." I nodded, happy to see he reached the same conclusion as I did. "There are leftover agents in Lothlia that she didn't mobilize. We are keeping them under close surveillance, and now we have their codes and instructions. We must hijack their infrastructure and start misleading our enemy. Fabricate reports that are interesting enough to warrant her staying here but not so much so that it makes her master focus on Avalon."

"Her agents would betray us... We must use natural parties that we can manipulate. Hopefully, they don't have a system in place that would be able to probe their minds and reveal they have been tampered with." He mumbled, already thinking of how to approach the issue.

"That is up to you to figure out!" I chuckled, looking at him and seeing he was already in the zone, having multiple ideas, no longer stuck with the single focus of making Clara spill the beans.

"It can be done! Taking the content of this book into consideration, she was clearly working secretively, and many of her agents had no knowledge of the others. She most likely didn't want them to know and reveal too much if captured. We can exploit that and even use our own people to infiltrate their ranks!"

"See? I told you there is a window on the wall you have been staring at all this time!"

"But... What about Clara?" He asked, stopping his new thoughts and looking at me questioningly.

"Chalk it up to your first failure. She is a damn good spy and was trained well. Her mind is strong; she doesn't give up what she knows, not to mental or physical pain. I actually admire her tenacity! I could go and bring forth some ancient techniques... But I'm not an animal."

"What ancient techniques?"

"Something that Yuri would call exciting, but I am not here to establish the inquisition!" I waved his curiosity away while standing up from my seat, "She will be healed, along with her loyal people, equipped with essential tools and sent on the Walk. Those who refuse will be shot down in the Pass, that's it!"

"Leon!" he said after I was at the door, looking toward me. "I think we should execute them. It could be dangerous letting them go."

"Maybe. But I also want to test something..."

"Test?"

"Yeah." I mumbled, "What would be the reaction if we sent a witch over to the other side?"

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With the spies captured and most of the workers combed through, it was time to deal with those who were innocent. Of course, we couldn't just let them go, so we were looking at accepting a few hundred experienced workers and masons into our city, which I was happy about. I told my Ministers to start working together with Yuri and her Black Ops to gather the workers' families and bring them all to Avalon. It was best not to leave loose ends behind and options to our enemies to blackmail my people.

Now, while that was being prepared and organized, I turned my attention back to the exciting stuff, building the railways. First, I wanted to ensure we finish the first line as soon as possible before laying down the second parallel sequence. As for the future, we could expand it if two are not enough. With how efficiently my factories operate, the train would be ready before the track or our train station. The latter was only starting to be built outside of Avalon, and I shamelessly decided to copy King's Cross for it. The difference was that I called it Sovereign's Cross. I had to build something big because there would be multiple lines heading to the Black and Silver Regions sooner or later. So, instead of constantly expanding on it, we would make it grandiose and awe-inspiring from the start. Even if it wasn't finished in time, the first trains started coming and going; we still had to train proper conductors and mechanics who would help maintain the first locomotive of this world anyway. Oh, and we had to give a name to the train too, so I told my people that after painting it black, they should put 'Avalon Arrow' in bold, gold letters on its side.

As for the lottery, it was being prepared by my ministers, getting just as excited as I was expecting them to be. Of course, they could not purchase or play ahead of others to ensure they would refrain from taking advantage of their position. I forced them to start at the same time as everyone else. They just had to prepare everything for the grand event without being found out beforehand. To ensure their lips were sealed, I told them they would be barred from entering the lottery, along with a hefty fine if anything leaked.

I can't lie; it was more entertaining than I have ever expected it to be. After the previous stressful winter, I really welcomed the change of pace.

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Clara couldn't help but doubt her sanity as she was sitting in her cell, healed and healthy. She expected something worse coming her way, especially after that arrogant witch's words. Yet, instead of intensive tortures, her mind was simply prodded a few times, proving that her enemies were indeed dangerous to have something so guarded as a mind-altering spell. It was the only proof she needed to tie Avalon to the Empress, proving that it was Mirian who backed them; otherwise, they wouldn't have forbidden spells in their repertoire.

She wasn't afraid of it, though. She knew her mind was firm and unbroken, and her loyalty belonged to the true Emperor and her master. No wonder it failed on her.

"Or...?"

She just couldn't shake it off. What if it didn't fail? What if all this was already an illusion? What if she was no longer in a cell but still on a torture pad, her mind being put under a spell? She fainted once, and when she was woken up by her guards, who were bringing her meal, she was already healed. It... it didn't make sense.

"This must not be real..."

By now, she already convinced herself that everything she was experiencing was an illusion. Her mind had been invaded by an enemy mage, evident from her ankle being completely healed. They really thought she would believe they fixed her up? Just like that? She was trained and knew how to bend and twist the human mind without spells; they wouldn't get her in this trap! Healing mages were rare and far between. Why would they waste precious magic on a fugitive?

Then, the strangest thing was she had been left alone for days. Nobody came to ask her questions, and only her silent guards accompanied her. Because there were no windows in her cell, she couldn't tell if it was day or night. How many days had gone past? Was it already weeks? Or months?

"You think you can break me...? Never..." She whispered, chuckling, looking at her bracelets, marveling at their design and function to suppress her magic. "No!" She grunted, shaking her head. Suddenly, she felt shocked; she dared to think about marveling at something the enemy had made! It just further confirmed that she was under a spell! These bastards wanted to turn her to their side...

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"She is doing what?" I asked, looking at Sasha while I was helping her write the announcement for their upcoming show in our room.

"She has been mumbling about not giving into an illusion. The soldiers have been recording her voice, thinking it may have been some kind of code or something. I think she just losing it because of her paranoia." She explained calmly, keeping her eyes on our draft, wanting to make it sound exciting.

"Huh... I didn't expect that..."

"Dad, what is paranoia?" Arthur asked, looking up at us. He was sitting in Mikan's lap and drawing at the table next to us with his sister.

"When you think everyone wants to harm you and can't trust nobody, no matter what." I answered clearly because he would keep pestering me if I didn't. Looking at him, nibbling on his crayon as he memorized it, I wanted to pinch those puffy cheeks. How did we make such a cute heir? It's probably thanks to Sasha's genes ehehe.

"Geez, that hits home..." Yuri joined the conversation, entering the room after changing Lancelot's diaper in the bathroom. "It is not a headspace you want to be in!"

"Paranoia bad!" Leyla agreed, but she wasn't that interested in the topic. Instead, she continued to draw the train, starting to color it carefully and focusing on staying within its lines. She was just as cute as her brother, especially as her little tongue was sticking out from between her lips.

"It is bad." Yuri nodded, sitting down with the kids. "Oh well! Luna should be ready with the dinner soon!" She exclaimed, changing the topic and making me smile at her. "What?"

"Nothing." Sasha whispered, glancing at her with a grin, "It's just that when we are with the kids, you turn into an angel."

"Fuck you." She mouthed without voicing it, making me roll my eyes, keeping my smile up because whatever she said was true. While Yuri was healed... I think Clara was indeed falling into insanity, something that I won't stop. Let's see where it will lead us!