Peer Pressure

After a long, long 10 day delay of our siege, some back up arrived. No, I guess some would be an understatement.

About 3 armies, each having over 20,000 men arrived at the rendezvous point in case we had trouble with the siege. With those armies came some other heroes.

Ha-neul and Aya were some of them. And well...their arrival wasn't very good for me; especially since Aya should be about 12 years old mentally if she grew at the pace she was when she was with me.

Yesterday...

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As Dunham was expecting, some backup arrived to help out with the this particular siege ever since we were caught in this stupid moat. The moat isn't even the problem here, it's the lack of equipment.

This damned moat can easily be bypassed using flying magic on troop carriers, flying siege machines and other flying equipment but we didn't take any, even though we were offered it multiple times.

And guess who'd declined them all? I think you already know without me saying who declined these supplies.

The only reason Dunham declined this was probably to lessen the army spending so he can pocket more for himself, the greedy pig.

Yes, he may have giving the reason that "it wasn't needed" and "flying machines are not used too often" but really. Not even a single flying machine? It's very narrow-minded to think he did this for our good.

The other armies, with competent generals, already had and have used the expensive flying machines to enter into tough cookies. This, obviously, worked.

One of the more competent and beloved generals, General Aros, used his own funded to pay for the flying machines; a great man for sure.

When the other three generals arrived, I can't help but wryly smile. My plan to overthrow Dunham just got a bit harder but it isn't anything my miracle drug can't solve. And solve it did.

I first started a trial run to test how receptive of this drug would be when marketed tot hem as a "miracle substance that, when smoked, can relive you of your stress and problems for a while". They were at first apprehensive about the smoking bit but it soon worked out.

I was able to make it sound like some sort of incense that you burn in your mouth and when you inhale, the soul and the heart get slightly purified with mana, making that relaxing feeling.

As usual with these types of things, it's a full on scam. The only truth is that it will relive them of their pains for a while.

Right now, I'm trying to sell it to another group of men. A group is usually 10-20, a company is 100-150 men and a centurion is 1000-1300 men. A battalion, the largest, is 10000 men and above.

I have already started out by stalling talking with them, lessening the physical gap between us as soldier and hero, making it bro and bro. After a few tries and conversations, I slowly got integrated into their conversations.

The first step is to show that the product is reliable. The only way I can do this is by using it myself, a very fun step of the plan.

As I pull out the stylish cigarette, some of the men are confused but continue talking about their wives and such. Lighting it up using the fyr crystal, I take a deep breath and exhale it, making sure they can smell the fumes.

"Huh? What's that?"

"Dude, it seems pretty weird. Is that a mage's item?"

Hearing their conversation abruptly switch to my cigarette, I take it out of my mouth her forehead explaining it to them.

"Huh? Oh, no. This is just something I made to get rid of stress temporarily; wanna give it a go?"

"Ehhhh, why not?"

As the soldier shrugs, he takes it from me before asking how to handle it. Smiling gently, I teach him and the moment he takes in a puff, his lungs fill with gray smoke, his blood absorbs the immense mana from the smoke and his nerves send signals to the brain, saying that this is a good thing.

"So? How is it?"

"...uhhh, huh? Oh, yeah! It's fukin' great! You got some more?"

Hearing his question stuns the 12 other men. Can something really feel that good? Even buzz isn't that good, so what good is a little incense type item?

As I hand them their own cigarettes, I light them all up and instruct them on how to properly smoke. After a few tries, they finally get it right. As with all of the other groups I infiltrated, I made sure to give them a blend of Barked Woof and Poltergeist's Joy.

Unable to handle the sudden burst of pleasure, their brains start going into overdrive and this is when I can strike. Usually, equipment contracts have a body seal but 5ey can be done using parchment or paper.

I pull out my pre-written agreements and ask them to sign here for more rolls of moss. In their overdrive state and while their brain is begging for more, I easily get their signatures and names on the dotted line, though it is a bit messy.

Leaving their group, I reach another group of soldiers and start the same thing over again. After my constant hustling, I now have over 500 men who are my equipment.

This means I can tell them to kill their families and then themselves and they won't be able to rebel against me; the mana infused contract doesn't allow it.

All the while I'm doing this, Anna and Hana are still workin their asses off to get more people from Dunham's army to hate him. All of the soldiers and even the generals dislike Dunham; calling him cowardly his behind his back.

This is good for me since that means they are unlikely to intervene with a little bribery. No matter how righteous, everyone has a price.

Apparently however, some of these generals are more tough than I thought. Well, I say some but I mean one; the rest have all agreed to let me roam free as long as I don't harm their reputation. This was all at the combined cost of 6 gold, totally worth it.

This one General, General Fulcrum,seems very determined to protect Dunham at even his army's cost. Right now, I'm in a meeting room with him, discussing why.

"As I said hero Min-chul, the moment you try anything funny, I will mobilize my men"

"Why are you trying to suck up to Dunham's supporter's ass so much? Got your wife or something?"

In negotiations, there are various tactics and provocation is one of them. This usually doesn't work but in this case, of one of the most prideful existences, the general, it just might work.

After hearing me insult his integrity and his wife's faithfulness, his face visibly pales and his hand held in a fist shape, trying his hardest to not break something or even my face.

"That isn't the point, hero Min-chul. My point is that mutiny is bad"

"And I'm giving you a chance to be on the correct side of it. Choose wisely or you go down with him. If you don't know, Aria and I go waaayyyy back; trust me"

I know I know, that bluff was insanely outrageous. No sane person would think of lying about their possible power without there means to back it up, much less lie about their relationship with the queen of Destinasia but that's the best part about it.

It's so outrageous that you can't help but believe it; it's reverse psychology. When someone lies about their friends, you can easily ask that person to see if they are really friend. This is something like that.

As a general of Restinasia, he has a massive VIP status in Destinasia and has actually met the queen a couple times. He knows that hero Min-chul knows this and is starting to doubt himself.

'I mean, Min-chul did stay at the palace for a while and he does resemble her dead husband...'

".....haaahhh...if this fails?"

Smirking, I can tell he caught the bait. I guess my bluff worked huh? As if Aria would actually risk political ties with Restinasia just to satisfy my needs, how ridiculous and insane.

"Then we have a deal. I assume you and your family were planning a 3 gold trip to Gwanya Uptown, no? I guess your expenses can be paid for"

Hearing the bribery money makes him dejectedly smile. After asking the "if it fails" question, he saw the slight grin of Min-chul and knew he was screwed. I mean, what else could he do but allow it to happen.

Peer pressure is a strength that I currently have.

As I walk out of the final General's tent, I take a deep breath of the cold air and walk back to my camp. Tommorow is the start of the siege and the start of Dunham's downfall. Anna and Hana have about 3-4,000 men willing to revolt, nearly 5,000 thinking about it while I have nearly 600 devout followers.

This will be interesting to say the least.

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(A.N) yo! Another chapter for you readers and as always, I hope you enjoyed 5is one and I hope you had or are having a great day! As always, please do support with reviewing, commenting, adding to library and voting with powerstones! Thank you and peace ✌️ !