The words echoed in my study, cold and chilling: "Something living. Something within the core of Rimuru City itself." Kael's grim face, illuminated by the mana-glow lamp, seemed to confirm my deepest, unspoken fear. My blood ran cold, then pulsed with a frantic energy. That hazy memory from my reincarnation, the sense of an ancient power humming beneath Kutsilyo, the God of Earth's words about a "truly unique ability"—it all crashed together. Was my power, Divine Blueprint, inherently linked to this land, to this living signature? Was I, in some terrifying way, the source of the very energy these nobles coveted? The thought sent a shiver down my spine, tightening the knot of dread in my gut. The war for Rimuru City had just taken a far more personal, and terrifying, turn.
"Kael," I managed, my voice steady despite the tremor in my hands. "Confirm this intelligence. Double-source it. I need to know what they mean by 'living,' and what House Volkov intends to do."
He nodded, his eyes as sharp as ever. "My agents are already pursuing it, Your Majesty. This came from a deep cover asset; it's highly reliable, but we will seek further verification."
I dismissed Kael, my mind a maelstrom of thoughts. This was no longer just about strategic location or mana stone. This was about something fundamental, something almost sacred, that lay beneath Rimuru City. And the noble houses, particularly Volkov, were closing in.
The quiet cold war intensified. We weren't just reacting anymore. I shifted our intelligence strategy from purely defensive to mutually aggressive. If King Leo and the nobles sent their spies, we would send ours right back.
"Steve, Marlow," I ordered, calling them to my newly established war room within the inner wall's command center. The mana-glow maps, updated daily by Lindsy's team, showed the volatile borders of Delgado and the movements of noble legions. "Your covert trade networks… they will now serve a dual purpose. You will continue to acquire vital resources, but you will also become the backbone of our counter-espionage. Kael will provide the targets. Your contacts in distant markets, in noble households, even within the King's own court… they will now gather specific intelligence. We need to know their weaknesses, their internal conflicts, their true intentions."
Steve's shrewd eyes gleamed. "A two-way street, Your Majesty. I like it. Information is currency, after all."
Marlow, ever observant, added, "It's riskier, Your Majesty. Our agents will be in hostile territory. The consequences for capture are… severe."
"I understand the risks, Marlow," I replied, a grim knot forming in my stomach. I remembered the reports from Kael, detailing the fate of a captured King's spy—a broken man, interrogated for weeks, before being quietly executed. What if one of our agents faced that fate? My ideals for Rimuru City were enlightenment and justice, but intelligence work was a brutal, unforgiving world. "But this is a war for survival. We cannot fight it blind. Kael, you will ensure our agents are the best trained, the most resourceful. And we will have protocols for their protection, for their families, should the worst happen." The words felt heavy, a moral burden that came with the crown. I was asking people to risk everything for a cause they barely understood beyond their loyalty to me.
One evening, a week later, Kael slipped into my study. "Your Majesty," he whispered, his face unusually stern. "Agent Thorne reports from within House Volkov. We have confirmation. They are indeed researching a 'living energy signature.' And they believe it to be linked to a powerful, ancient magical entity, dormant beneath Kutsilyo. They refer to it as the 'Heart of the Earth.' Their texts speak of its awakening potentially granting unimaginable power to its master."
The phrase "Heart of the Earth" resonated deeply, triggering a vague, almost forgotten sense of something vast and ancient. I recalled subtle oddities from my first days in this world: the unusual vibrancy of the plants around the mana stone quarries, the way some wild animals seemed strangely drawn to certain pockets of the southern forest, the faint, almost imperceptible hum I sometimes felt beneath my feet when traversing the deepest parts of the city, especially during moments when I used my Divine Blueprint. I had dismissed them as mere features of a magical world, or simply my imagination. Now, they were pieces of a terrifying puzzle. And the "living signature"… it felt almost like an echo of myself, a source of power directly tied to the land, just as my ability to conjure blueprints was tied to my thoughts.
Meanwhile, Johnson and Johny pressed forward with their research into mana-dampening fields. "Your Majesty," Johnson explained, gesturing to a complex array of mana crystals connected by intricate copper wiring. "The dampening field, in theory, works by creating an anti-resonant frequency to raw mana flow. We can create zones where magic is suppressed, or even nullified."
"But it's not a shield for the whole city, is it?" I pressed, remembering my concerns about its limitations.
Johny shook his head. "No, Your Majesty. Not yet. The power requirements would be immense. For now, it's best suited for fixed zones: key defensive points on the walls, strategic choke points in the city, perhaps around vital resource extraction sites. And it's not infallible. A powerful, concentrated magical assault, or a spell operating on a different mana frequency, could potentially bypass it or overload the field."
"And magical sabotage?" I asked. "Could they turn our own mana against us?"
Johnson grimaced. "A possibility, Your Majesty. If they understand its principles, they could attempt to disrupt the field, or even redirect its energy. It makes these zones critical, but also vulnerable."
This was crucial. Our magical defense was powerful, but not absolute. It meant we couldn't simply rely on our technology. We needed strategy. We needed to predict where they would strike, and focus our limited mana-dampening resources there.
The tactical implications were immense. Asuna and Feron adjusted their training again, focusing on defending against precise magical strikes, on disabling mage units before they could establish their concentration. They trained our soldiers to bypass mana-dampening fields, or to trigger them on the enemy.
The cold war outside continued, a silent, deadly game of chess. Kael's network was our eyes and ears, constantly feeding us information. We learned of King Leo's growing impatience, his quiet consultations with Grand Sorcerer Eldrin. We learned of House Blackwood's continued efforts to stir unrest in distant provinces, diverting the King's attention. We even learned of House Thorne's new, aggressive mining ventures in their own territories, as if they sought to outpace our mana stone production.
One night, a new, unsettling report arrived. Kael stood before me, his usual composure fractured by a hint of raw emotion. "Your Majesty," he began, his voice tight. "A direct attack. Not on our walls. On our agents. Agent Lysander, our primary asset within the King's Royal Court… captured. And not by the King's own guard. By a specialized unit, bearing the crest of House Volkov."
My blood ran cold. They weren't just searching for the source anymore. They were taking direct action. The revelation about the "living signature" must have accelerated their plans. Agent Lysander, a good man, was now in the hands of House Volkov, known for their ruthless arcane interrogations. What would they extract from him? What secrets would they uncover? And what would they do with the "living signature" once they found it? The battle for Rimuru City had just escalated from a cold war of espionage to a direct, brutal confrontation for its very soul.