Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 140

Unfortunately, I’m Not A Hero: 140

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Commissioned by Shaderic

Wordcount: 2500

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Mindcontrol.

For some reason, I didn’t expect that tag to show up in this hentai-based reality, but just to be sure…

“Oi, Kurama, how would a Kindred feel about losing control of their body and being used by a man like a toy and then discarded?”

“My dear, many would give up their entire fortunes for the opportunity.”

… Yeah, in hindsight, I’m a moron for thinking that sort of thing didn’t exist in this world.

“Henri how susceptible are Kindred to mind-control?”

“Unfortunately, not very much. Your proposal sounds incredible, but even the meekest of Slimes have bodies and minds filled with innate magic. Humans are susceptible to it, because they must train and cultivate power within themselves from the environment.” Henri commented while taking Reiser’s report from my hands. She gingerly read over it, while I thought about the situation that Reiser stumbled into behind my desk. My worries about it must’ve been audience, because Henri addressed the issue easily. “Your difficulty in using magic offers you protection against it, but I will prepare a form of mental protection for you. It is a relatively common artifact used by most nobility, so I will have it finished by the day.”

“Thanks.” I grunted before turning to Ur about the situation. I’d recalled her and most of the Amazons after hearing about the situation. “You’ve told your Amazons about this threat?”

“Yes, my chieftain, we will be wary about this possible threat.” They were resistant to magic and were covered in trinkets and armor meant to prevent it. However, I still wanted to make sure that they didn’t fall for it. “We will make sure not to consume anything from the enemy, and hunt down any individuals dressed as Reiser described.”

I gave her a nod, which she took as a sign to go do as she just said, before turning to Kurama.

“Have the Kunoichi prioritize killing these people.”

“May I have one or two captured for interrogation?”

“Because you want to find where they all are, or because you want to start making a legendary artifact that lets Kindred get mind controlled?”

“Yes.”

“Figures. Fine. Capture a few for the details, but don’t waste time on sex toys until after we’ve won.” Kurama nodded gracefully at my words, but was pretty quick while walking out of my office. Her tails were wagging as she left. Yeah, by the end of this war, I’m pretty sure that I’m going to find myself equipped with something that I didn’t want courtesy of my wife. “Alright, then, how did the test flight go?”

Henri cleared her throat and stopped looking at my wife with admiration and respect.

C’mon, can you at least pretend for a bit longer that you’re not that into the idea?

I was literally a slave for years, but now I have to confront the fact that a lot of the women interested in me wants me to play as a mindcontrolling villain while they’re helpless.

Healing from my mental issues doesn’t need to involve being on the opposite end of the whip!

“The Phantoms have surveyed the site and stated that the test rocket landed within five meters of its expected landing location. They destroyed the evidence and retreated shortly after.” Five meters was better than I expected. I thought that the delivery vehicle would be far more inaccurate. Unlike the existing guided-missile analogues we had our disposal, this one was three times the size, went twice as fast, and was designed to deliver far more powerful payloads across entire continents. It was honestly a miracle that the technology scaled up as well as it did. “However, they noted that in order to correct its path, the missile slowed down considerably to the point where they could’ve shot it down with magic.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” The entire construct was imbued with the spirit of a Familiar that did what it was told as well as it could. Being able to program a consciousness to act as a missile’s brain circumvented the need for computers, but the consciousness was a consciousness instead of a computer. “Can you make it try to dodge and fly better?”

“Perhaps, with improvements to the wings and the chassis to be less of an immense pillar… yes, it’s possible, but it would require vast improvements to the whole system.” Henri explained and I nodded. I thought about it for a second, before coming to a decision. “We will have to retool the manufacturing facility.”

“Then, we’re staying with the current model. Give it a ten-meter deviation and orders to not slow down.” I wrote my orders down and signed it, before giving it to Henri. My Lich gracefully took it away and gave a prim bow. “I’d rather not have my Eldritch abomination unleashed so high up that I just deliver free reagents to the Empire.”

Delivering a rampaging monster right on top of the enemy was great.

Delivering a flailing pile of meat and bones wasn’t.

Unless it was tough enough and sent in from high enough, I suppose.

With that, I took a look at Reiser’s report again and looked over at Henri.

“Send some of your witches their way and give them some aid. Find the ones who you can train up and offer them the opportunity for some vengeance.” I considered impressing the Academy students into service, but disregarded it. They surrendered and committed atrocities against their will under the Empire after being plucked out of their villages. It was somewhat like what happened to me, so I didn’t feel my usual revulsion for anything related to the Empire for them. “Make it clear that they can choose to just be relocated and treated like people recovered from the Empire, though.”

Henri bowed at my words.

“Your will shall be done, my Lord.”

My Lich raised her head and waited, but before long she excused herself from the situation, and I enjoyed a few moments of peace and quiet… before A’Bel appeared before me through a tear in the fabric of reality with a smile that told me she’d been up to no good.

I didn’t even get a chance to ask her where she’d been, before she spoke and sent a chill up my spine.

“I instigated the Empire’s Church to send their finest over her to get slaughtered, my dear summoner!”

“YOU WHAT!?”

“Their Popess is coming as well, and her life is yours to take!”

At those words, I did the only thing that I could in the face of my smiling Demon’s face.

I groaned and let myself fall onto my desk face-first.

Somehow, I missed leading from the front.

Being behind a desk and being safe seemed to just increase the amount of bullshit that I had to deal with.

“I told you to disrupt the enemy! Not bring them over here!”

“My dear master, by killing the people I’ve brought here, you’ll be decapitating their entire Church and disrupting the entire Empire!”

I hated the fact that I couldn’t disagree.

…

I sent A’Bel over to disrupt the enemy by actually attacking the ones trying to encompass Ylstu, before refocusing on the situation at hand.

The Popess was someone who I was vaguely aware of. She was there when I was summoned and thrown aside, therefore she was on my personal shit list. Still, while being the head of the organization that took me from my world made her one of my targets, I couldn’t say I knew much about the woman. The fact that their faith decried those from other worlds as scum to be used by true humanity certainly earned her and her organization my ire, but I didn’t know about the Popess herself.

Probably for the best, because I was going out of my way to make sure that she and her closest supporters died.

Honestly, I gave some thought towards doing something particular to ensure that she and her followers died, but with everything else happening in mind… it would’ve been irresponsible to do that. My skirmishers and air-based raid teams were doing their jobs perfectly and subduing the enemy. My vanguards were taking on the weakened enemy forces and destroying them. Fire support that came from Ylstu was ravaging the enemy wholesale.

Everything was working incredibly well and I had no reason to believe that the Empire’s holy organization needed something special, so that they wouldn’t get absolutely murdered like everything else. It was better to let things ride as they were, and have the enemy walk into the wood chipper that I’d created, then pull troops out of specific zones and weaken my forces, to kill them off.

Was it going to be a boring way to kill the enemy?

Yeah.

But the result was going to be the same.

The enemy reinforcements were going to die, while my own military took as little casualties as possible.

Therefore, I had no specific plan to kill the Popess.

With that settled, I focused on the present, where I was going to launch the world’s first missile-based WMD.

The normal missile was about two-to-three stories in height, which allowed them to be carried in the hold of my ship and launched vertically. Their range was about twenty-five or so kilometers, which was insane in a medieval fantasy. Being able to attack the enemy from a few fiefs away was usually reserved for divinity or especially powerful mages with years of preparation. My missiles changed the face of warfare and aggravated Roseanne to no end, even though I provided her with the means to detect and defend against them.

The new missile, however, was a different beast.

The missile could hit anywhere on the continent from Ylstu. It was twice the size and length of the normal missile and that was thanks to the massive tanks of mana-based fuel that the artificial, undead creature needed just to exist for its singular flight. Instead of just using a large bird and killing it, we had to make a Chimera of sorts, which nearly bordered on creating a sentient creature in this world, so we even toed the Kindred’s lines of ethics when creating it. However, in the end, the artificial creature was snuffed out before it could transform into a sentient creature and we turned the corpse into an Undead Familiar under Henri’s control.

According to the Lich, if not for the fact that it fed from the immense stores of mana in its fuel tanks, she’d only be capable of keeping it “alive” for a few minutes before letting it fall apart. Also, according to my Lich, our advancements in creating Chimera, Familiars, and Undead would take most covens months to discuss before creating smaller experiments. Not only that, but our achievements were apparently historical milestones and would elevate Henri to the highest echelons of arcane academia.

They were nice tidbits to consider, but in the end, I was focused on the fact that I could now deliver problems right onto my enemy’s doorstep.

“My lord, all is done.” Henri addressed me and uncharacteristically knelt as she did. I stood on a viewing platform at her platform’s walls. The massive undead construct at the center of the castle was drawing more than a few idle glances. A few of the guards seemed to shiver just looking at it, and the whole atmosphere of the castle was more muted that usual. Telling everyone what it was and what it was meant to do was supposed to ease worries, but the opposite occurred. They feared it. “You need only give the command.”

A paper was presented to me by my advisor, while another Kindred came forward with heated wax at the ready.

I’d informed Roseanne of the situation and what I was about to unleash.

Given the dire straits of the situation, she couldn’t stop me from using the weapon, because I was simply doing my duty as Ylstu’s lord.

However, given the possible ramifications of the weapon and the fact that everyone else in the world was going to find out about it, clarity needed to be shone upon the situation.

Clarity that I, Hikigaya Hachiman, created a weapon unlike any other in the world and used it to protect myself and my people.

To protect, not to harm, despite everything that I was going to unleash.

Roseanne was trying to keep my ass out of the fire, which I appreciated, but I doubted anyone was going to believe it.

Still, I moved forward and nodded at the Kindred with the wax and touched the seal on my hand. In Katakana, my name was engraved on the ring, and I pressed it against the wax after signing my name with ink on the order.

That should be it, but as I looked at the weapon, I felt the urge to say something.

Given the fact that I was changing warfare forever and possibly launching the world into an arms race that could possibly lead into something like nuclear proliferation… I should’ve had a speech ready, but instead I just spoke my mind.

“Well, as far as weapons go, this is pretty good on paper.” I looked at the long-range delivery system for every single terrible thing that I could come up with… and gave the thing a nod. It was an artificial creature bred for speed and strength, then killed to be turned Undead for the sake of durability, and then made a Familiar so it couldn’t do anything besides crash into a target and unleash a weapon. I was sure that no matter what I did in the future, no matter how much good I gave to the world, I’ll be remembered for this weapon and these words. “But, let’s go ahead and be afraid of it AFTER we see what it does, alright?”

My words go a light snort and a shake of the head from Henri, just before she gestured at the massive weapon in the court.

Spectral wings unfurled and a flame born of magic enshrouded the weapon, before shooting up in the sky. With white wings, the spectral creature took flight towards my enemies, to unleash devastation.

For such a horrifying weapon, it was beautiful to look at.

So, at the very least, if the world ends with those weapons launched everywhere… people’ll get something nice to look at before everything goes to shit.

Always look at the silver-linings, right?