The people of the city have gathered and started collecting the bodies of the monsters. It would have been rude for us to leave the corpses of the monsters lying and leaving there to rot. Thankfully, these monsters sell a lot in markets when sold due to most of their body parts being useful for creating weapons, armor, accessories, and other stuff for adventurers while the meat is useful food for the carnivore pets some people own.
So after we have gathered all the items we needed, we let all the people gather up the corpses. We also apologized that they are now going to be in a clean-up process but they only smiled and said that they are grateful for exterminating the monsters present in the near forest as they were always a threat. With the monsters killed, they can sell the materials, and make some new items and the route around the forest will be safe for a few while. We also don't need to worry too much about overkilling the monsters as they will just respawn again and they don't just die off that easily.
As a result, the whole city celebrated a well "harvest" but I don't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. Anyways, for us, we have to go back and rest for a bit. As usual, the skeletons were the ones tasked with guarding the large slab of ice that seals the Jorogumo as we returned to the inn to rest.
There, we discussed the result we got from getting the memories Saya the Jorogumo possess before she succumbed to her spider form.
"I consider this as one of the hardest sh*t I have done in my entire life. The amount of struggle just to remove her mind's inhibitions is too great that I don't understand too much why she didn't get to resist the corruption when she was strong enough to resist it. If not for me trying to push all that I can do, I couldn't break through her inhibitions normally and I have to brute force it," Queen Tanya shook her head.
"She was that resilient?" Queen Tori asked.
"Yes. If it was that easy, I wouldn't take too many hours to just do that."
Queen Tanya then materializes the memory she gathered from the Jorogumo, forming a sphere that is as big as a ball of a basketball. It is like looking at a glowing globe.
"That's quite big. Did you just take all the memories she had?" Queen Tori asked.
"Hey, I might be extracting memories but I don't rob them of their memories. That's kinda bad and disrespectful even if the owner is already dead, or has turned into a monster," Queen Tanya frowned.
"[Mind Extraction] was actually a skill that does not extract memories, but copies them and creates one that can be viewed by everyone. Because it was usually used on the dead, it was believed at first that the one extracting memories rob the one who owned the memories and take those memories for themselves, leaving the latter as an empty husk but nope, it was revealed that they don't get robbed by it, it was just copied and not erased."
"Is that so? How come you know this much, Bladeheart?" Queen Tori asked.
"It's part of the collective research done by many scholars who think [Mind Extraction] is something of a memory robbery and tries to see whether it was real or not. They asked one person who knows [Mind Extraction] and used convicts who have a death sentence to perform this matter. It was recorded in a book and I read it before in one of the libraries in the Capital."
Although I sounded like I was lying there to excuse my knowledge of Queen Tanya's skill, I actually did read a book with the contents I said before in the past timeline in the library of the Capital. It was a real deal and I am not just gonna start lying and covering up for Queen Tanya.
"Eh? That was actually a real deal? I didn't know that was the thing."
"Well, enough of that. We should check out the memories alright? I only caught a glimpse of the contents but I made sure to get all of the necessary memories we needed. I narrowed it down to her time as a soldier until the time she became a spider. There shouldn't be any messed up job I did over there."
Queen Tanya manipulated the ball of memories as she is the only one who can manipulate it. She can pause, forward, and rewind the scene if needed.
She played out most of the memories that Saya had during her time as a soldier.
"It's a bit slow. Can you forward for a bit, Sis?" Queen Tori asked.
"Sure. Although I won't speed it up too much as we might miss vital info."
Queen Tori nodded and Queen Tanya advanced the video and increased the speed for a bit. Queen Tanya also cut off the times that Saya was mostly doing her private matters like taking a bath, eating, dressing up, or any other private things as that wasn't even what we needed to see.
We saw the Shogun a few times and based on the behavior he gave on the memory, he was a normal man and a loving husband to his wife as seen mostly on the time Saya attends to the shogun's wife and saw both of them flirting with each other. Of course, the peaceful days have died as all of us know it.
After advancing it for quite some time, we soon arrived at the point where the Shogun has finally changed and has become the violent bastard he was today. One of the main turning points that made me saw something caused me to ask Queen Tanya to pause it.
"Wait, your Majesty, please rewind for a bit during the time the Shogun is giving a speech."
Queen Tanya nodded and rewind the scene. She let it play again and I timed it out before I immediately ordered for the scene to be paused.
"Ah, your Majesty! Pause on that scene!"
Queen Tanya immediately pause the scene and Queen Tori frowned. "Is there something wrong with that scene?"
"Yeah. Look at the side of the Shogun. Here, on the left. See that shadowy figure there? I spotted him a few times before after the Shogun became a madman. That person or whatever was just standing there a few times but I find it a bit weird seeing someone who does not belong there."
Queen Tanya zoomed into the place where I pointed it out and although it wasn't clear because it was from the perspective of Saya, there was indeed the shadowy figure over there and Queen Tori also spotted it.
"Oh, I see it. So? Maybe that guy was just some of the men that the Shogun has? Like special ops or something?"
"I thought so too at first but please watch the time when Saya and the others have been inflicted by the debuffs and she is hearing voices. There, pause that scene, Your Majesty."
As the scene was paused, the shadowy figure this time is now in full view and although it's getting blurry in the memory of Saya, the figure was clear at first and shows the shadowy figure holds a flute and seems to be currently playing it as the soldiers start to get crazy or are holding their heads in pain.
"A flute?" Queen Tori frowned.
"Huh. That guy started playing the flute and everyone started groaning in pain. Perhaps this was the person who caused all of this?" Queen Tanya frowned.
"From the looks of it, it is indeed the one who dealt the debuff to all of the soldiers present. Seeing how the moment he played the flute, everyone started to feel pain, he might have played a piece of music that can cause some bad things to those who can hear the melody," Queen Tori took a closer look at the shadowy figure.
"If that was the case, then the one who made every single soldier turn into a monster was a bard then? Only Bards have the capable abilities to manipulate music and sounds and weaponize them against their enemies and targets.
Oh, that makes sense. Since Bards are part of the Kamikaze Continent update, it makes sense that a bard has used an ability to make the soldiers lose all their humanity and become a monster in the process. However, there is one thing that I found a bit troublesome.
No one in the Kamikaze Continent, especially the enemies are bard as their main class except for one person. I am quite sure of it since it would be a big deal if we fought against an enemy who uses sounds as a weapon but we never faced off against one. And although I said no bard was part of the enemy faction, doesn't mean no one is a bard. However, this bard is someone who I treated to be someone important that I like to recruit.
Yes, that bard was the wife of the shogun. A skilled Bard who uses the flute.
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