My dear witch, please turn evil according to the script!

Chapter 356 The Lone Commander
Looking at the unconscious officer in his hand, Roland stretched his slightly sore muscles.

It seems that the combination of timing control and Flash still incurs significant resource consumption.

It cannot be used frequently.

Although the Primal Runestone provides an accelerated recovery effect, it will probably take an hour or so to fully recover.

"It cannot be used continuously, at least for a short period of time."

"The main losses still come from the inherent time control... but the effect of slowing down the flow of time is not a big burden. Once it rises to the level of time standing still, the consumption increases exponentially."

"To maximize combat efficiency, unless you are certain of a fatal blow, or encounter an unavoidable situation and do not want to waste the World Tree's protection, you should not easily allow your inherent time control to reach the point of time stop."

"At least I'm not at the seventh ring level."

"If we utilize the active effects of the Sun Rune and the Holy Sword..."

After a brief period of practical experience, Roland began to summarize his current combat capabilities.

Without a doubt, although his rank is not high, he has many tricks up his sleeve, each one more sinister than the last, and the combat power he can unleash is enough to make him a ninth-ring legendary.

Thinking of this, Roland looked down at the unconscious officer, the guy he had preconceived notions about who could control minds.

However, after a thorough examination and using the power of the World Tree, which can dispel the effects of most spells, no changes occurred to the other party.

Even the power of the World Tree had no effect; instead, it accelerated the officer's awakening.

Left with no other option, Roland punched the officer again, sending him back to a peaceful sleep.

To be honest, this is not good news.

I originally thought it was closer to mind control, but now it seems... at least on the surface, there's absolutely no problem.

Was this officer completely unaffected? Was he simply fulfilling his duty to suppress the rebels out of loyalty to the kingdom and the king?
That makes sense.

After all, the evidence of control provided by the princess lacked sufficient corroborating evidence.

The most compelling and irrefutable evidence came from the Blood Demon Lord, who was the ruler of the royal court.

Although the signs were indeed abnormal, and the presence of the Demon King's court was everywhere... the fact that the Princess had betrayed them was undeniable.

Regardless of her thoughts and purposes, in the eyes of the vast majority of civilians and soldiers in the kingdom who were unaware of the truth, the princess was a traitor who had even divided half of the country.

From this perspective, any loyal soldier unaware of the truth would make a similar decision.

However, a bad idea was indeed surfacing in Roland's mind at that moment.

That is—perhaps the high-ranking officials of the Federation of Nations were not controlled by such a crude and direct method as mind control.

At least, it is not controlled at the tactical level.

Unfortunately, a junior officer on the front lines doesn't prove anything; he probably thought the same thing as Roland.

However, it's best to take it back and have a professional verify it to see for sure.

To verify one's conclusions, one might need to find a truly high-level figure.

At the very least, he must be a powerful figure with the ability to "control".

The Kingdom of Platia, which has repeatedly clashed with the Empire, is among the most powerful in the Federation of Nations.

There were originally four powerful individuals in the country at the ninth-ring legendary level, and none of them were as incompetent as Cassius.

Unfortunately, with the outbreak of civil war, one powerful figure, unwilling to get involved in the conflict, went into hiding, while two others, having seen the truth, followed the princess in rebelling.

As for the one who sided with the king, he wasn't particularly loyal; rather, he was under similar control.

After all, the nine legendary figures that a nation like Pratia can command are not all trusted confidants cultivated by the kingdom itself.

They would also use the method of "hiring" to exchange titles and rewards for the help of a powerful but idle person.

The Nine Rings who ran away was a powerful individual that Platia poached from the Adventurers' Guild.

Those who chose to side with the princess were all her trusted confidants.

Before this incident, the siblings had a very harmonious and trusting relationship, and there had never been any conflicts between them.

That's why this civil war seemed so unbelievable to outsiders, until news of the demons' intervention dispelled their doubts.

Currently, it seems difficult to take action against the kingdom's top leaders.

Because they were all hiding in the royal city, protected by a massive defensive formation that had been passed down for hundreds of years.

It's important to know that even the main cannons of the Demon King's castle couldn't break through this defensive formation. The reason it eventually fell was because the Demon King's army used the simplest method—besieging the city and then dividing their forces to attack other cities, until only the royal city remained in the entire Platia.

It should be noted that the Demon King is a master of spatial magic. Since she was unable to use spatial teleportation to attack the city, it means that the defensive spell was not just a large, hard shield, but a defensive barrier in this sense.

Given Roland's current methods, directly arresting high-ranking officials is clearly unrealistic.

But it's not entirely without a goal—the current frontline commander in Yalan City.

However, this was not his main task for this trip.

Let's deal with the prototype first, then figure out how to catch the people.

Moreover, given the current enemy offensive... who knows, we might just see him on the front lines outside the city one day?

……

After witnessing the bone dragon's breath, the guards on the walls of Heria were so frightened that they stood rooted to the spot and dared not move.

Because the dragon was flying towards them. Compared to the well-trained army on the other side, the Heria defenders, whose troop quality had clearly declined after their previous defeat, couldn't even mount a counterattack in the first instance.

On the other hand, when they saw the terrifying bone dragon flying towards the city wall and smashing through the city's defensive spells, the garrison did not scatter and flee. Instead, they belatedly picked up their weapons, which can be considered commendable.

Of course, it's possible he was scared out of his wits.

In any case, the city's garrison watched as the bone dragon and Roland on its back flew into the city.

This scene left Roland completely bewildered.

What about attacks, provocations, or stronger individuals jumping out to stop them?

Wasn't the princess supposed to be protected by two ninth-ring powerhouses? Why can't we see either of them now?

After flying into the city, Roland did not continue to make a fuss. After having Polycia deactivate her dragon form, he used Time Control and Blink to take her to the conspicuous castle where the Queen was located.

Everything went very smoothly from beginning to end.

There was no obstruction whatsoever.

Not even a single person appeared to ask a question.

If he hadn't been able to sense the familiar magical aura of the princess, as well as the aura of Cardinal Clark right beside her, he would have thought something strange had happened again.

"Your Excellency Roland, I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly. Please come to the third floor; His Highness the Prince seems eager to speak with you."

Clark's voice echoed through the castle, guiding Roland toward the third floor.

Roland didn't hesitate much, but Polycia said she was a little tired and hoped to rest in Roland's ball.

"Ball? What ball?"

"The ferryman told me that using the power of Beibeilong would lead to mental and spiritual exhaustion, and that I would need to rest in the Soul-Nourishing Orb regularly... She said the orb was red and white, and that it was on you, Lord Roland."

Roland: "..."

After a half-second silence, Roland took out a Master Ball... no, a Soul-Nourishing Ball from his storage ring, and examined it carefully.

"...Do you know how to use this thing?"

“I don’t know, she said you do.” Polycia’s face did look tired, and her eyelids were even drooping, blinking frequently.

That's right. Strictly speaking, only two days have passed since Polycia woke up.

Over the course of two days, she used this power to confront the bishops of the Amnesty Council on the first day, and she also flew quite a bit.

Last night, upon hearing that we were going on a long trip, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep all night.

After setting off in the morning, we flew all morning, crossing half of Plataea's borders to reach the city of Heria, and even used a lot of dragon breath.

After all, it's just borrowing strength, so it's normal to feel tired.

But how exactly do you use this ball?

Is it possible...

Partly out of mischievousness and partly out of experimentation, Roland tossed the ball onto Polycia's head, causing the innocent little dragon girl to cry out in pain.

However, Roland's attempt was successful.

As Polycia crouched down to defend herself, the Soul-Gathering Sphere opened, then shot out a beam of white light that enveloped Polycia. A piece of her was then absorbed into the sphere, which wobbled twice after completing its containment before finally settling in place and emitting a faint white light.

Looking at this usage method, which was full of flaws no matter what, Roland didn't know what to say for a moment.

He had a lot of complaints stuck in his throat, but he couldn't get them out for a long time.

After taking a few deep breaths, Roland used his mental power to retrieve the ball and put it back into his storage ring.

I hope the actual use of this thing is different from what I just tried... I must have just stumbled upon it by accident.

Upon reaching the third floor, Roland encountered the princess once again.

Compared to their first meeting in Isfar, the princess now appeared much more haggard and aged.

Cardinal Clark stood beside her, and apart from that, it seemed as if no one else existed in the castle.

"It's been a long time... Lord Roland, you must have seen my letter, right?"

Princess Andreep smiled at Roland and began to explain, "I know you are surprised that there is no one else in this castle, not even the two ninth-ring powerhouses who should be loyal to me."

"They're all dead, and I was going to die anyway."

“A royal court lord, two great demons, and three nine-ring legends infiltrated the city of Herria five days ago.”

"They didn't attack the civilians or the garrison in the city; it seems they were only after me."

"But in the end... I was hidden away by that King of the Royal Court. He faked my corpse, then knocked me unconscious and hid me. I only managed to wake up last night."

"After waking up, I didn't make a fuss about it, but stood here observing... After confirming that the city hadn't fallen, I began to carefully search the castle."

"As expected, everyone in the castle died, and the two legendary experts were left with only tattered clothes and weapons. Their bodies had all disappeared... I can hardly imagine how big the gap between them really was."

"Not only were they completely powerless to resist, but they couldn't even make a sound outside the castle."

"But this method made me realize who the leader of the royal court was that day."

"The Lord of the Blood Demon King's Court, the Blood Demon Grand Monarch Danso."

(End of this chapter)