Chapter 58 — In which ‘control’ is the key

 

Purplus’ ability to control minds?

Where that came from?

Vern knew that his younger brother’s voice was quite enchanting, but it never fell into the realm of mind control.

And spiritual arts also couldn’t do something like this…

 

On a basic level, a living being was made from three parts.

Body, mind and soul.

Body was a physical manifestation and soul was the spiritual manifestation of one’s being, while mind was the link between the two.

The mind, which was the point of meeting of body and mind, manifested into one’s thoughts and emotions.

The world could also be divided into corresponding layers.

The physical layer, where bodies were placed.

The magic, or otherwise known as ambient mana layer, where minds could interact with the world.

The spiritual layer, where souls and other spiritual entities, which didn’t have a physical form, existed.

 

Those parts existed parallel to each other and were in the constant interaction, but to say that one would control the other was ridiculous.

It was as if a brain was to control a heart.

Both brain and heart could affect each other, and failure of one, would lead to the death of the other, their relationship was unmistakably closely knitted, but they both worked independently.

 

It was impossible to control minds with spiritual arts.

One of the famous stories about Amaranth’s miracles was good example of that.

There was a skeptic dying from the disease that was incurable by the standards of the medicine at that time.

At the request of her family, she visited Amaranth to ask for a miracle.

But Amaranth looked at her and said:

 

— You don’t believe in neither miracles nor gods. Even if you were the king of the world, even if you threaten me with death of all my loved ones and everyone who walks on this land, or even if you were an innocent child, begging me to help, I wouldn’t be able to.

 

Amaranth was the most powerful Saint who walked this land to this very day, but even he wasn’t able to do anything about the disease of someone who believes they couldn’t be healed.

Spiritual Arts worked on the principles of connections between mind and soul.

If one didn’t believe, the connection couldn’t be established and the arts couldn’t be used.

The mind won’t be effected by something it doesn’t believe in…

 

‘Unless you make them believe that they could be controlled…’

 

Vern suddenly felt chills.

The research of the mages into the mind…

The belief that Purplus can control minds…

That newspaper’s article he read, which author eluded that the current’s Saint’s voice seemed to affect people’s mind…

Even Sangria’s words about ‘Powerful beings that brainwash people to worship them’ when Vern asked him about gods, and which he just dismissed as funny and heavily misinformed…

 

‘I let my guard down and overlooked an obvious problem!’

 

Someone was poisoning the river and Vern thought nothing of it!

His body felt cold and his head hurt so much it seemed something split his skull open.

But he made sure not to show trace of it on his face.

When Vern wanted, he could hide his emotions better than Saf and Am.

It was probably the consequences of many hard days, when he had to hide his thoughts and feelings from them, because he thought that if their older brother showed any traces of weakness, they may collapse.

So on the surface, Vern just crossed his arms, closed his eyes and tapped with his fingers.

 

“… Is there any reason why you and Grandmaster Scarlen are investigating mind controlling abilities in Purplus?”

“… That…”

 

Crimo glanced at Scarlen with question in his eyes.

Scarlen simply smiled.

 

“It’s fine. Anyhow, it’s a widely known case.”

 

Widely known case?

Crimo sighed and then asked:

 

“Do you know about Black Forest massacre, which happened about 100 years ago?”

 

Black Forest massacre?

Vern recalled everything he knew, which boiled down to:

The terrorist sent by Purplus entered the headquarters of one of Rubrun’s powerful clans and massacred everyone inside.

No survivors on either side. The terrorist set themselves on fire after completing their ‘mission’.

 

He conveyed that to Crimo.

The Archmage nodded with a grim face.

 

“Yes, that is what is known to most people. But there are some problems that come up in post-mortem investigation… Or rather, the ‘lack’ of something became a problem.”

 

Crimo leaned back, with a frown, as he continued:

 

“According to archival record, the residents didn’t put up a fight. Well, it was already strange that a small group of terrorist was able to easily bypass the defenses, but the fact that the residents didn’t put up a fight. Some records of the scenes from the massacre were recovered. In them, the residents tried to cast spells or physically attack the terrorists, but they always suddenly halted their actions just before they were about to make a hit.”

“… It doesn’t sound like they ‘didn’t put up a fight’.”

 

Crimo shook his head.

 

“It was only in the early stages of the attack. From a certain moment, they ceased all attack attempts. Some of them tried to defend, but they soon also stop doing that. They just let themselves be slaughtered.”

 

‘This…’

 

He remembered something uncannily similar, but that event had nothing to do with mind control…

… Though Vern didn’t know which was better, the mind control or the reason for the event he saw in the past.

 

“I understand that you assumed it was mind control and the origins of this power were in Purplus.”

“Young Master seems to have doubts about this assumption.”

 

Vern glanced at Scarlen, who was observing him with a devil-like grin on his face.

He didn’t reply to Scarlen’s words, and instead asked a question.

 

“What is Grandmaster Scarlen’s relation to this event?”

 

Considering how Crimo looked at him for permission to speak, Scarlen seemed to have some involvement in it.

 

“Ah, the clan that was destroyed was a sister clan of my family’s clan. So you could say that we were family.”

 

Sometimes clans split, because of internal disputes.

But because of the power of family laws in Rubrun, no split could be clean.

So as Scarlen said, though they split, they were still family.

 

Vern looked at Scarlen’s grinning face for a moment.

His expression unreadable.

Then he turned to Crimo.

 

“Actually, if I may ask. How are you investigating Purplus’ mind control?”

 

Vern prayed it didn’t involve assassinating the Saint.

He wasn’t a devotee of any god, but he at least could pray to the power of nature and Universe.

 

“Splendid question, Young Master. We were just talking about it before you entered!”

“No, we weren’t. You were staring at that coffee cup for the last five minutes.”

“...Ah, that because My Lord have such interesting coffee cups. Nothing spills from them.”

 

As if demonstrating, Scarlen turned upside the coffee cup, which was half-way filled.

As he said, nothing spilled.

Though Scarlen seemed to be very disappointed that his words were confirmed.

Crimo just sighed and then turned to Vern.

 

“To answer your question. We sent some spies to interact with people of Purplus and to see if they can witness any ‘mind control’ during the public events.”

“And I was about to report to Our Lord that those spies successfully joined the competition for the main dancer of the upcoming fire play, which is supervised by the saint himself… There should be results by now, but apparently there were ‘schedule problems’…”

 

Scarlen’s face turned thoughtful for a second, as he looked at Crimo.

He then asked:

 

“My Dear Lord, how about you have some schedule problems?”

 

Crimo just gave him ‘a look’.

 

*~*~*

Author's note:

If this chapter is more of a mess than usual, that because I was graced with insomnia for two last days and I'm pouring its power into writing this.

Thank you for reading <3 May you be graced with good sleep.