'Heh!' No matter how much he tried to restrain himself, Virala failed to control his lips from curling up in smugness as he stared at Inala, relishing his sense of superiority.
Inala noticed the change in his expression, wondering what was the reason behind Virala's sudden smugness, 'Did he finally go senile? No, he was senile from the beginning. Maybe he embraced his true nature, which is to be a senile geezer.'
He didn't care too much about that and continued to enjoy eating his watermelon-like fruit. His legs continued to dangle, happy for multiple reasons. First of all, Inala had fully adapted to his new life as a Spirit Stage cultivator with limited strength.
Secondly, he had sharpened his mind to a decent extent, which was enough to handle stuff at the Noikatol Kingdom. And third, Virala had no idea what was about to hit him next.
"Sir Binala, are you excited about meeting the envoy from the Varahan Empire?" A middle-aged man whose strength had plateaued at the Spirit Stage, unable to cross thirty units of Prana approached Inala and expressed his curiosity.
"Excited? Why would I be excited?" Inala asked the question nonchalantly, as if it was natural to ask one.
"That…" The middle-aged man was unable to find an answer as he looked around in a fluster. Soon, he seemed to have an idea as he said, "We'll be able to live in an actual house!"
"We can build a house on our own." Inala said and stared at the carriages, "Didn't we build these in the past two years? We are living in homes that can move about without limitations."
"You're right…" The middle-aged man nodded with a confused expression before asking, "Then, why are we joining the Varahan Empire?"
"Because they need us," Inala said in confidence.
"They…need us?" The middle-aged man was confused, staring at a group of middle-aged women who had joined the conversation, "Does anyone have an idea about this?"
"No…" The women shook their heads one after another before uniformly gazing at Inala.
"Try to think," Inala simply let out a smile and patiently urged them to use their brain cells.
"They need food," The middle-aged man said first.
"How far away do you think the Varahan Empire is?" Inala stared at the middle-aged man.
"What does distance do with food?" The middle-aged man scratched his head.
"Go and gather a patch of Peucra Grass from that hill." Inala said and pointed at a hill situated ten kilometres away, "And eat it."
"Eh?" The middle-aged man's confusion increased as he stared in the direction of his carriage, "I have loads of Peucra Grass in my carriage. Why would I go so far…"
"Exactly," Inala grinned, "You think food will be lacking at the Varahan Empire? And even if they lacked food, do you think it is realistic to come here every time they want food?"
"You're right!" The middle-aged man nodded in realisation, slapping his forehead, "I was a fool to have suggested that."
"Don't worry about something as insignificant as being labelled a fool." Inala said with a mild, admonishing tone, "The more you think, the smarter your deductions and decisions can get, even if you are not smart enough."
He then stared at the group of women, "So, what do you think is the reason? Why is an all-powerful Varahan Empire inviting us to be a part of their fold?"
"They need our…power?" One of the women commented before shutting up, remembering who was the Varahan Empire's Emperor and Empress.
"They need us!" Finally, after multiple wrong attempts, one of the women shouted in excitement, "They need us!"
"Yes, that's the answer." Inala nodded, waiting patiently as the crowd that had gathered around him clapped to praise the woman. Once the cheers died down, he asked, "Now, why do you think they need us?"
"Sir…!" The group of women groaned in protest, feeling as if their heads were about to burst, having not focused on thinking for such an extended duration of time.
"Go on, keep trying. I believe everyone here can arrive at the answer on their own." He said before glancing in the direction of Virala, "If none of you can guess, I'll send Teacher to some other place."
"No! Not teacher! We'll try!" Contrastingly to their age, the crowd behaved worse than children, protesting with drawn-out voices.
"They need our cultivation technique?" One of them asked, laughing sheepishly when Inala shook his head.
"Our food?" The middle-aged man from before said in reflex before realising that he was an idiot. He hurriedly changed his answer, acting as if it was a slip of the tongue and corrected himself, "Cooking! I mean our food products and cooking!"
"That's part of the answer." Inala nodded before getting multiple answers similar to the middle-aged man's. After multiple minutes passed in such a fashion, he revealed the answer, "They need our labour."
"Labour! It makes sense!"
"Ooh! So, that's why!"
"Sir Binala is smart!"
"Probably smarter than Teacher!"
"Now, onto the real question," Inala grinned upon seeing the expressions of dread on the faces of every one part of the crowd. "How much does the Varahan Empire value our labour?"
"A lot?"
"Very much!"
"That much?"
"Ultra much!"
"Whether to cook food, gather ingredients for cooking, farming the products, guarding the Empire, constructing houses, etc. you need labour." Inala continued with a slow pace, ensuring even the dumbest of the lot could catch drift of his thought process, "Without enough people, the Varahan Empire's society cannot function."
There were pretty much vague answers, following which Inala shook his head, 'Seems they haven't reached this level yet. But it's fine, I'll guide them for the time being.'
"Can the Noikatol Kingdom exist without everyone?" Inala asked, chuckling upon seeing everyone shake their head in response, "That's exactly it."
"Whether to cook food, gather ingredients for cooking, farming the products, guarding the Empire, constructing houses, etc. you need labour." Inala continued with a slow pace, ensuring even the dumbest of the lot could catch drift of his thought process, "Without enough people, the Varahan Empire's society cannot function."
He pointed at each individual among the crowd, "You, you, you, you, and you, even you…"
"We're all here to make up numbers and populate the Varahan Empire." Inala announced as he spread his arms wide, "That's why they are spending Parute Fruits like water to bring the railway to us."
He then pointed at one of the people in the crowd, "What's a railway?"
"You explained it only two days ago," The man nodded in confidence.
"For the seventy-sixth time," Inala said and urged gently, "Tell me about it then."
"Uh…" The man looked around in confusion before shouting, "It's a carriage!"
'Might as well roll with it!' Inala sighed a little and said, "This carriage will bring us straight to the Varahan Empire. So, what do we do once we arrive there?"
"Boast about Teacher!" One of the kids in the crowd shouted, followed by cheerful laughter from the people around him.
"After that?" Inala asked, watching with patience.
"Paint teacher's face everywhere!" Another kid announced while giggling. She had received painting lessons from Inala and had reached a level where she could perform rough graffiti.
"What else?" Inala raised his voice mildly.
"Greet our neighbours!"
"What else?"
"Charm the neighbours!"
"What else?"
"Consume the neighbours!" There was a sudden avarice displayed in the eyes of the people in the crowd.
"And how will you do that?" Inala raised his voice another notch higher.
"By inviting them home for dinner!" The crowd answered in unison.
"When will you do that?" Inala's voice was decently loud now.
"During the fortieth joint dinner!" The crowd answered.
"And why the fortieth?" His voice was no longer conservative.
"Because they'll consider us friends by then!" The crowd echoed.
"How will you consume them?"
"Their minds!" The crowd reverberated, infecting the rest of the populace with the fervour.
"Explain! What minds?" He bellowed.
"In times of hunger, pigs are edible!" The crowd said as if brainwashed.
"Again! Repeat after me!" Inala shouted.
"In times of hunger, pigs are edible!" The crowd began to chant.
"I can't hear you!" Inala roared, hearing the chant from the crowd reach new heights.
"And," His voice became its loudest, taking on a sudden sense of confusion, "What if they aren't hungry?"
"Eh?" The crowd became baffled, reverting to their original, perplexed faces.
"Sir Binala, what do you mean by that?"
"Are you hungry all the time?" Inala stared at the person who questioned him, "No, right?"
"It'll be the same everywhere!" He raised a finger and shushed the crowd into silence, "So, you need to make them hungry."
He then pointed at the Balghat harnessed to the closest carriage, "And how exactly will you cause hunger?"
"By eating?" The crowd replied in a trance.
"By eating what?" Inala asked.
"Food!"
"What?"
"FOOD!"
'That should be enough for today!' Inala said and snapped his finger, using the sound to break everyone free from the effects of the subtle brainwashing he had been performing on them. He neither used a Nature or Skill, but simply relied on repeated learning of the same information.
This way, even if the people didn't fully understand it, the concept became no different from a folk song to the people, which was what he had been steadily gearing it towards. Adding onto a tune and the Noikatol Kingdom's slang, the discussion they had earlier was almost like a song.
It wasn't perfected yet, as it had only been two years. Inala needed time to study their culture, generic disposition, cultural habits, etc. and as he learnt them, he was steadily tweaking them, little by little, using knowledge as a weapon to add in foreign bits while stealthily removing the original bits.
He was subtle with the actions to the extent even the Noikatol King didn't notice anything amiss. Even the fiasco he pulled currently escaped Tssrah Noikatol's radar.
"So, what do we do when we're hungry?" Someone from the crowd asked when Inala pointed at a Balghat as if it was common sense.
Inala then walked away, noticing Virala glare at him in confusion, "What's with that ugly face you're making?"
"I was just staring at you…" Virala grumbled before asking, "What are you making them sing?"
"Oh, just a nursery rhyme." Inala shrugged.
"You know Yarsha Zahara has most probably learnt the language, slang, culture, and customs of this place. Whatever you're attempting here won't work on her." Virala said.
"What do you think I'm attempting here?" Inala stared at Virala and raised an eyebrow.
"Fuck if I know," Virala snorted, "It just seems like you're trying to instigate them into killing Empyrean Boars."
"If that's what you take from it, then I'm not worried." Inala laughed, "How will you stop something when you have no idea what I'm attempting?"
He stared at Virala and chuckled, "It'll be the same for Yarsha."
"She's not finding anything suspicious other than a somewhat offensive song."
"Are you playing around?" Virala's eyes almost popped out in frustration, "Don't tell me you wasted two years just to troll around a bit?"
"You're right!" Inala waved his hand and walked away.
"What the fuck is going on in that mind of his?" Virala barely suppressed his urge to pluck his hair in frustration, pausing to realise he had already pulled out a few strands. He then stared at Inala's back and at the strands of hair in his palm, "I feel like I'm missing something extremely simple here."