Chapter 182 Questioning
"You seemed to have quite the fruitful journey." The king raised his eyebrow after seeing Yin following behind Shiro.
"Indeed. This is Yin, self-proclaimed daughter of mine." Shiro smiled as she gestured for Yin to say hi.
"I'm not self-proclaimed mum. You hatched me, fed me and looked after me. If you're not my mum, who is?" Yin pouted.
"Daughter? Who's the father?" The king asked curiously. He was also a little concerned since Shiro barely looked legal. Plus, her daughter was almost as big as her!
"Like I said, she's not my blood daughter. You can think of her as adopted." Shiro sighed.
"Then why does she look so much like you?"
"Yeah, if you're not my mum, then why do I look so much like you?" Yin grinned as she hopped around Shiro.
Grabbing Yin's head, Shiro ignored her screams and looked towards the king.
"Anyways, ignoring this dumbass daughter of mine, I got a few questions for you. We should probably talk in private since this is something we don't want others to hear." Shiro said as she gestured to the guards around the place.
"Mn… Very well. Come with me and we shall talk in private." The king nodded after a moment of thought.
Leading her to his study, the king sat down on the main chair behind his desk and gestured for Shiro to sit down.
"Yin, sit by the side for now." Shiro said as she handed Yin a C ranked mana stone lollipop.
"Un." Nodding her head, Yin followed Shiro's instructions obediently.
"Alright, important things first." Shiro sat down as her face was serious.
"Before coming back, we found a fort not too far from the border. There were several C classed demons inside and I can guarantee that they will destroy your forces with ease if you're not prepared.
"As for their preparations for war, I've already tried to delay them as much as possible while also training Lisa but as you can tell, there's a limit to how much I can do. She's managed to reach level 39 after we invaded the fort but that's still a far cry from level 50." Shiro said seriously.
Frowning slightly, the king nodded his head.
"It's as you say. The estimated time for war had been delayed a little so we were able to get more reinforcements from the mainland. The average level of the army had been increased up to level 40+ thanks to the time that you've bought."
"Hmm… how did you even do that? With me and Lisandra spending almost a month in the demon continent, I was only able to raise her level to 39. So how did you manage to get the EXP needed for everyone?" Shiro asked, raising one of her eyebrows.
"That's because we're siphoning their latent potential in order for us to survive the current tide. No need to think about the future if we can't make it to that point." The king shook his head.
"Siphoning their potential? What do you mean?" Shiro frowned.
"Within the batch of supplies provided by the mainland, there was medicine that helped increase a person's power at the cost of potential in their later life."
"Hou~ Do you have one on you now? I want to have a look at this medicine." Shiro narrowed her eyes slightly.
"I do. Here it is." The king nodded and handed her a pill.
[Potential Awakening Pill – Purple]
A pill that will awaken your potential early in exchange for a harder life later on the line.
Examining the pill, Shiro could feel a strand of dark mana.
'F*ck!' She cursed in her mind as she realised what kind of pill it was.
Sighing heavily, she crossed her legs and held her chin while looking at the pill.
Seeing this, Yin realised that something was wrong since Shiro would have this face when she was thinking about something seriously bad.
'This isn't a potential awakening pill, it's demon possession pill. While the effects are similar to your body exploding with potential, your mind would be consumed once the maker activates the command. This kingdom is f*cked.' Shiro frowned deeply.
There was no need to tell the king now since there was nothing he could do. It was better that she didn't tell him anything so that he could keep morale up and make the most of his army before they died.
From her memories, the cure for the demon possession pill was almost non-existent. Unless one made a powder with the body of whoever created the pill, it was impossible to cure.
However, the fact that such a sinister pill made its way into the supplies meant that there was a spy.
'So right now, not only are our movements monitored, even our army is basically gone. Seems like I'll have to take matters into my own hands.' Shiro thought as she looked up from the pill.
"Who has eaten the pill so far?" She asked.
"Just the soldiers in the army. We prioritised on raising the levels of those who were weaker. I'd say more than 70% have eaten the pill now." The king said after checking some doc.u.ments.
"Mn, Well just a warning from me, it's best that you don't eat this pill for sudden power gain." Shiro shrugged.
"Anyways, speaking about medicine, what kind of medicine did you eat to recover? From what I heard from Lisa, it seems like you were injured by your own son."
"…" Hearing her question, the king sighed heavily.
Allowing the king a moment to think about whether or not he wanted to tell her, Shiro sat there patiently.
"I was indeed injured by my own son. I don't know what it was that made him convert to the demon's side but that doesn't matter anymore. As for the medicine, it was the Rebirth Pill. It allowed me to hang onto my life." The king replied.
'Hm… Seems like it was a bit too soon. He hasn't told me any more information about his son. But at least I know the type of medicine he used.'
"Do you have any more Rebirth Pills?" Shiro asked.
"Hmm…. I don't have anymore on me. But I think I can get some in a few days' time. I'll need to put in a request for it thought. Could it be that you want one as well?"
"Yeah. As you guessed before, my body is injured so I was hoping to recover a little before the war so that I could help out." Shiro smiled.
"I see. I'll put in a request for the potion for you."
"Thank you. Oh also, final question from me."
"What is it?" The king asked.
"Fallen God Corpse and the defence nodes. What do you know about them?" Shiro asked as she smiled lightly.
*BOOM!!!!
The king didn't even respond as a heavy aura burst out of him.
"Oi! Horny old b*stard who f*cks first thing in the morning! How dare you raise your aura at my mum." Yin frowned as her eyes gleamed with annoyance. Releasing her own aura, the temperature of the room shot up in an instant as she suppressed the king.
"KU!" Covering his mouth, a trail of blood flowed out from the corner of his lips.
"Darling, don't raise the temperature. You know I hate the heat." Shiro said as she snapped her fingers. A small area around her instantly froze over as it protected her from the heat.
"…Fine." Yin nodded after seeing Shiro's composed look.
Standing behind Shiro, Yin glared at the king and retracted her aura.
"Now then, shall we have a proper talk without you threatening me?" Shiro smiled as she tapped the table and gestured for the king to sit back down.
Looking at Yin with caution, he nodded and sat back down.
"Now then, once again. Tell me what you know about the fallen god corpse and the defence nodes."
"Before that, can you tell me where you got this information?" The king asked.
This information was supposed to be classified information that very few in the mainland knew about.
"I heard it from the three demons when I killed them."
"Why didn't you bring this up before then?"
"You we're f*cking your wife in bed. Do you want me to ask you about a fallen god?" Shiro raised an eyebrow.
"… Fine. What do you want to know?"
"Everything."
"Mn, alright. Where should I start…"
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Leaving the king's study with Yin, Shiro had a small frown on her face.
From what the king had told her, the god was supposed to resurrect itself in the future and they were tasked to protect its corpse. The nodes were part of a bigger formation that unless one knew of its foundations, would be very hard to break open.
But for them to be able to successfully undo the nodes in the other locations meant that someone knew about this formation.
Not only that, but they kept the fallen god's corpse a secret because of the greed of man. Should one know of the power that comes with becoming a god, they would stop at nothing to undo the formation so that they could claim the power for themselves.
The highest level adventurers in the continent were supposed to protect the body without desiring the power behind the god hence why the god had placed seals on all the 'chosen' protectors. They were barred from absorbing the corpse and unless they were also a god, they couldn't undo this seal.
This stopped them from telling others as well since if someone else had the power to become a god, then that spelt big trouble for them.
But the demons had discovered the intel about the corpse and had been sending over waves upon waves of enemies every year in order to claim the corpse for their king.
"Hais, what a pain." Shiro sighed.
"If it's a pain mum, why not just give up?" Yin asked in confusion.
"Because the reward is good. It's a pain but if you look at it from another angle, this is also good since it means I'm working towards something. The system wouldn't give me a follow up quest if I wasn't doing anything." Shiro said as she glanced towards her updated quest.
[Hidden Main Quest – Last Stand]
After learning of the current situation from the king, you realised that there was little to no chance for the kingdom to survive since they have ingested the Demon Possession Pill. Not only that, but the threat of a high ranking spy is looming over your head. All of your actions and movements are observed. What will you do?
(Bonus points are distributed depending on how the quest taker completes the quest.)
Thinking about the soldiers that were basically ticking time bombs that would set off at any moment, Shiro understood that she had to deal with them sooner or later.
"Are you thinking about killing the soldiers?" Yin asked.
"Huh? How do you know?" Shiro asked in surprise.
"How long do you think this baby's been with mum?"
"Not that long."
"Not the point. But I've been looking at mum since the start you know? I know when mum wants to kill someone." Yin replied.
"And is that bad?"
"Not really. But if you kill the soldiers, wouldn't that decrease your progress in the quest? The king and little Lis would probably be mad that you killed the soldiers." Yin asked.
"I know. Which is why I'm going to drain every last use out of them." Shiro nodded. You can call her cold but since they were literally going to die anyways, she was going to make use of them so that she could get a better grade.
The next day, Shiro knocked on Lisandra's door early in the morning.
"Mn, morning teach, what's up?" She asked as she rubbed her eyes after finally having some decent sleep in a normal bed.
"Well since war is imminent, I want you to help give the soldiers a morale boost. If you help distribute drinks and refreshments to the soldiers, I'm sure that their morale will soar." Shiro smiled lightly.
"Oh! That makes sense." Lisandra widened her eyes in understanding.
"Give me a second!" She said as she quickly ran back into her room and got changed.
Opening the door once more, Lisandra was now in some casual wear as she quickly dragged Shiro to the kitchen and started to get all the maids to prepare the refreshments.
"Seems like you're quite eager about this." Shiro asked in surprise.
"Of course. I love this kingdom you know? If there's a chance to boost the chances of victory so that the citizens are safe, I'll gladly do what I can. Especially since it's just a small task of helping out with the task of distributing." Lisandra smiled brightly as Shiro paused for a moment.
Looking at Lisandra who was so eager to help out, Shiro realised how cruel it would be to have her be the 'carrier' that infected the soldiers. Her initial plan was to have Lisandra being the main contributor so that she could get the most amount of EXP from the soldiers' deaths and reach level 50.
'I can't let a young girl like her be mentally traumatised like this.' She thought to herself.
Shaking her head, she decided that she was going to find another way.
'I'll still have Lisandra being the carrier since it would be easier to get a mark on everyone. I need to make a main controller though so that I can change the nanobots from a distance.'
"Lisa, you go help distribute everything. I'm going to quickly do some research for us to have a better chance of winning the war." Shiro smiled softly and patted her hair.
"Un!"
Leaving the kitchen, Shiro kept her eyes forward.
"Yin, if I was ever in trouble, how do you think I would react?"
"…If mum was ever in trouble, I believe that you will find a way to overcome it easily."
"Good answer. Let mum show you how I make a new cure to an almost incurable disease." Shiro said with a grin. She was going to show the spy just how terrifyingly adaptive the Nanomancer class was by curing the disease.