[Hajime POV]
As I stood there, looking at the paralyzed tarantula people, I thought about what to do with them.
While I did plan to control them with the bat medallion, they were already attacking me before I could do anything. Though, I wanted to cripple or kill them, I knew leaving them alive was a better choice.
The bat medallion could control them, so if I had it, I would get free labor, whether as warriors or spies.
Before I could knock them out, though-
*smack*
I facepalmed.
I completely forgot that I had assimilated Lelouch.
While the assimilations did grant me the characters' memories, they did not make them part of me.
They were like computer files; they take up space but are usually closed unless I think otherwise.
I'd looked through the memories of all my assimilations for anything important, but once that was done, I didn't tend to pay attention to them.
For non-combatants like Lelouch, I had little reason to focus on their memories except for David Shield's scientific knowledge.
The bat medallion can control the tarantula people, so I became tunnel-visioned about how to deal with them.
Quickly going through each of them, I activated the geass and ordered them to obey my every command before releasing them from my bloodbending.
They rushed at me once I dropped them, so I tested my commands.
"Stop."
They stopped moving, though thankfully not their hearts, which was a minor concern. I knew how powerful the Geass was, able to control the nervous system of whoever it's used on, so there was a good chance their hearts would literally 'stop' beating.
I ordered them to serve me as if I were their king before having them take me to their tribe.
Guiding me through the jungle, I saw a few creatures, several of which were completely supernatural.
On the way, I saw a three-tusked elephant resembling a triceratops. While two of its tusks were where you would expect them to be, the third, positioned on its head like a unicorn horn, was slightly larger. The three tusks resembled large spears that the elephant could use to decimate those hunting it.
There was also a large bug that resembled a turkey/mantis hybrid. Despite having a turkey body, wings, and head, this creature had long legs, mandibles, eyes, and raptorial legs, creating nightmare fuel I wish I could unsee.
Thankfully, the tarantula people knew the safest routes on the dark side of the island, keeping us away from the most dangerous beings on it.
When we arrived at their tribe, I was surprised to see somewhat normal-looking buildings, reminiscent of other tribes from around the world. The buildings themselves were made with wood, dirt, and occasionally stone.
This was somewhat expected but still surprising. The tarantula tribe is never shown; only its members attacking the kings and Kinkow. From the show, you might assume they were nomads since they didn't show a village like other tribes.
Even the other tribes on the island were rather primitive, though most of that seemed to be due to tradition.
Kinkow itself was strange. Although the buildings had modern amenities, they still felt like they were from a past century.
Though it's very easy to dismiss the kings, with most of their actions being foolish, selfish, or both, it's still praiseworthy that they tried to modernize the island by dragging their modern lifestyle with them. Unfortunately, even that has problems since it leads to a large imbalance in the island's technology level.
To state how bad it was, they had the technology for television, but never developed any technology related to hospitals, still relying on rituals and natural remedies.
This could be considered good in some ways, but overall, it led to a higher level of technology than the island was ready for.
They had so much technology, but hardly anyone on the island would understand it.
The fact that the tarantula people could constantly invade the kingdom is proof. Though they could turn into tarantulas, making surveillance equipment useless against them, a gun would easily take out any of them, not to mention the countless other beings on the island.
Though the kings brought modern technology, the kingdom remained largely medieval, similar to Hawaii before Europe and America interacted with it.
Looking around, I could see several dozen tarantula people living their lives, if somewhat brutally.
Most of their daily life seemed related to fighting, at least judging by the current fight I saw.
Though I didn't speak their language, the translator spell I learned allowed me to understand them. The fight was only over food, but the fact that nobody intervened told me a lot, mainly that the tribe respected the strong.
There was also a very noticeable lack of children. Though there were a few scattered around the village, there were far fewer than what would be expected.
Asking one of the tarantulas gave me the answer.
When the tribe split, the good tarantulas took the kids with them, leaving a generational gap in the evil tarantulas.
As soon as we approached the village, the villagers spotted us and quickly moved towards us with weapons ready to attack me.
Sadly for them, it didn't work the first time, and it wouldn't work this time either.
Though much harder to control with the increase in people, I barely managed to stop them before repeating what I did with the first group.
Just like that, in less than an hour, I had taken control of the entire tribe.
I was already the strongest person on the island, but with this tribe, I was unbeatable.
The tarantula people's stealth was so strong that if one of them could sneak by, their tribe could follow, bringing an army into any fortress.
Not that I had an invasion planned, but it was a good backup plan.
Either way, the tribe was practically harmless unless I wanted otherwise.
After gathering all the information I could from them, I learned quite a few things.
First, the tribe was in the middle of a minor famine. Though they were currently surviving on hunting, they were still out of food most days. They had been staving off total collapse by attacking the kings and kingdom.
Using the chaos from their attacks, other tribesmen take food from wherever they can from the kingdom.
Though Kinkow had hundreds of soldiers, they couldn't be everywhere. Unlike in the show, where they were treated as jokes to show the strength of the antagonists, these guys were a highly capable force, even having a few people dedicated to dealing with mystical opponents.
The army was currently spread out to almost complete capacity. Most of them were patrolling the island, specifically the border area of the dark side, to prevent any intrusion by dark creatures into the kingdom. Another small group guarded the castle and the kings, led by Mason.
Finally, the smallest group comprised elite warriors and two shaman-like figures.
This group actively went onto the dark side and dealt with possible threats before they could become a problem, such as eliminating hives of waka waka bugs.
Despite their proactivity, they did have their rules. One of the main rules was to avoid attacking the tarantula people. It wasn't that they would lose any fight, but should any stragglers escape, they could sneak in and do a lot of damage to the kingdom before being captured.
This was also because Kinkow was aware of the famine, and making the tribe more desperate could have them take drastic measures.
They also confirmed that there were currently two kings, Brady and Boomer. The two of them were sworn in a couple of months ago. Even more recently, they defeated the mummy, confirming they had the bat medallion.
That meant my gamble for the kingdom could happen with minimal interference.
It was late in the day, so I decided to stay the night in the tribe. I didn't know how far the walk was, but I didn't want to camp in the jungle with who knows what out there. I also needed to finish taking control over the tribe, using my Geass on the hunting parties.
The next day, once I had the entire tribe under my control, I gave them two orders to follow.
1: Stop attacking Kinkow unless they attack the tribe.
The attacks were unnecessary, and I already planned to take control of the kingdom.
2: Focus on the survival and development of the tribe.
They needed food, so I needed to make sure my orders didn't do anything to prevent them from getting it. I also threw in the development command so they would do something productive, though the command was vague enough that they could choose how they wanted to develop.
After that, I got directions from one of them to the kingdom before heading off.
-----
As I walked onto the light side, I could feel a notable difference in how the island felt.
Funnily enough, when the kings said it tickled, that wasn't an inaccurate description. As Kinkow royalty, they likely had one of the largest affinities for Kinkow's magic, with that 'tickle' being their dormant magic being stimulated. Unfortunately, they never had a reason to use magic. Even in the finale, they relied on the magic in their king rings.
The light side felt much, well, lighter than the dark side, though in this case, I mean lighter in terms of weight.
While the magic here is nice and soft, like walking through mist, the dark side feels like walking through water. The magic is so condensed that it literally creates a special pressure on everything living there.
From what I could tell, magic affected everything on the dark side, even nature itself. This magic pressure forced evolution on the creatures of the dark side. It stimulated the inherent magic of all island inhabitants and, due to its darker nature, evolved them through things such as curses.
I came across a waka waka bug, and from what I could tell, it had many curse-like magics inside it that somehow didn't affect it. These curses likely caused the many symptoms of waka fever, like angry amnesia and pumpkin head.
Eventually reaching a small town, I learned of the current nonsense the kings were up to, which, surprisingly, wasn't an episode.
After recently watching a medieval movie and thinking it was cool, the kings planned to host a Renaissance fair.
Receiving directions to the fairgrounds, it was strange to see how much they could make in such a short time, though it was likely through magic.
They even made a house-sized castle to 'roleplay' as medieval kings.
Walking around the fair, I eventually noticed a sign-up sheet for a tournament of knights, with a long line of guards and civilians signing up for it.
A flyer about the tournament said that the winner could request something from the kings, and I laughed internally.
They were practically asking to take the kingdom from them.
At this point, I feel like I'd be doing everyone a favor.
How do you manage to have two kings, and neither of them thought this could be a bad idea? What's worse is how often they've been told that their ideas aren't good, and then proceed to ignore the advice.
Hopping in the back of the line, I noticed how much the guards towered over everyone else. They were about two feet taller than me, most around six feet tall.
As I waited in line, I noticed a few familiar-looking faces. Brady and Boomer, who had just exited their 'castle,' went to the food area, with Mikayla beside them.
Meanwhile, Lanny had walked up to a few guards in the front of the line, whispered in their ears, and handed them a small bag, likely plotting to use this opportunity to take over Kinkow.
When I finally reached the front of the line, I quickly signed up and headed toward the arena they made, not caring about the rest of the fair. While I wouldn't say I was evil, it felt like this moment was definitely deserving of an evil laugh.
"Mwahahaha!"
Turning my head, I saw Lanny laughing like a villain, which he was in a way.
Anyway, time to win me a tournament and a kingdom.
__________
Author's Note:
Question: What's everyone's favorite verse for stories?
Despite how many DxD stories I have in my library, I'd have to say mine is Douluo Dalu. Despite being translated, most stories are usually entertaining and have several hundred chapters to binge-read.
Thanks for reading; I'll see you next time!