Egging on the Crowd

Yuna couldn't help but smirk at the person who asked that question.

"You jealous?"

At first, the first was dumbfounded by Yuna's retort, but they erupted in anger moments later.

"Shit! That wasn't the question! I'm not jealous! Not at all!"

Yuna chuckled in amusement due to the person's anger and casually waved his words away.

"Anyway, you misinterpreted my words. I'm not condemning the lifestyle itself. I'm condemning people who live like that without earning it with various notable achievements. If a wise king that allowed his country to prosper, lives a lavish life surrounded by women, who am I to complain about that?

Noblesse oblige. Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly. Everything that happened outside of that, I honestly don't care."

Although the person who previously complained clearly wasn't happy yet, they didn't argue further. Yuna let her gaze wander over the crowd and noticed that the moral was pretty much in the gutter, causing her to smirk.

'Guess it's time to finish this up.'

"Anyway, we have gotten rather off-topic. My initial question was: Why do we fight wars. I answered that with "greed".

However, this war is different. We are not fighting because a power-hungry noble wants more power. Nor are we fighting because one Daimyo insulted another. There will be no grudges after this war; after all, the victory for one side means total annihilation for the other.

The real question is, what are we even fighting? Well, let me show you."

As soon as Yuna finished speaking, a bound, white creature appeared on the stage, making quite a few people gasp in surprise. Yuna lifted the creature by one of the ropes tying it, and displayed it to the crowd.

"I present to you, White Zetsu.

A humanoid beast created explicitly for this war. A mindless monstrosity."

As if White Zetsu wanted to drive Yuna's point home, a beastly screech escaped its mouth, making the people in the front row flinch due to the loud noise.

"Disgusting creatures that try to imitate humans to garner sympathy without the necessary intelligence."

"H-Help... n-no kill... f-family."

[Oi, aren't you putting it on a little thick here? Won't they notice that you were lying when they fight White Zetsu for the first time.]

'At that point, it will no longer matter. Besides, I'm not done yet.'

While Yuna and Kurama were having a quick conversation, the crowd was shocked when the screeching thing Yuna was holding suddenly started speaking in a pitiful, fear-filled voice, making them realize that it was trying to invoke their pity.

Yuna noticed that the opinion she wanted the crowd to have about White Zetsu was slowly settling in, making her smile.

"However, that isn't even the best part of this war. No matter how cold-blooded and battle-hardened you are, there will always be a smidgen of guilt after killing a fellow human. Something along the lines of occasionally feeling another human's blood on your hands."

[I don't think you ever had that feeling.]

'Kurama, have you forgotten? I'm insane.'

[Right, that slipped my mind for a second.]

Yuna noticed that quite a few people became uncomfortable due to her words. She did not doubt that quite a few people present here might occasionally have bad dreams about the people they killed. That was simply something that came with the profession, and there is nothing that could be done about it. So, she swiftly continued talking.

"This time, there is no need to worry about this. After all, these monstrosities can be killed without the slightest feeling of guilt. Their life is worth less that an animal killed for its meat since the animal can at least feed a family after its death. Additionally.."

Yuna changed the way she was holding White Zetsu and grabbed its head. After exerting a bit of strength, it popped like a water balloon, splashing white liquid everywhere.

"... the is not even a need to worry about blood."

Quite a lot of people felt disgusted when Yuna popped the creature's head, but when they saw that only some weird white substance came out and not brain matter and blood, they couldn't help but feel the creature to be quite surreal. After all, how could it even live without a brain? No matter how they looked at it, White Zetsu could barely be considered a living being.

Yuna casually wiped away the white gooey substance as she noticed that change in mood. This was precisely where she wanted the people present to be, causing her to smile viciously, immediately silencing everyone's discussions.

"Have you ever bragged how many people you killed on a mission to your loved ones?"

An awkward silence followed Yuna's words. The answer to that was rather obvious. Of course, they haven't.

[Pretty sure you have done that before.]

'Kurama, again, insane.'

[Right.]

"This time, the situation is different. What if you killed 100 of these things by yourself? Good, you just did something objectively good. Be proud of it. Yell your achievements out to the world."

At first, everyone was somewhat surprised by these words, but they realized what Yuna was implying moments later. Since these things were just a bunch of freaking monsters, isn't killing them something good? Couldn't they fight in this war with a clear consciousness as all they did was kill a bunch of monstrosities?

'Hehe, rule one to start a genocide, convince your people that the other party is an inhuman monster. This will turn the slaughter into a good deed in their minds.'

[Yes, yes, you are the main villain. We got it.]

'Hahaha... Kuhahahaha... KUHAHAHAHA!!!'

Yuna's expression turned even more vicious when she felt the mood switch further and further towards where she wanted it.

"That's right, these aren't humans. Hell, they are not even animals! Just a bunch of disgusting monstrosities! Killing them is no sin! SLAUGHTER THEM!!! THESE MONSTERS WANT TO DEFEAT HUMANITY; STAND FIRM ON THE SIDE OF YOUR FELLOW HUMANS, AND ERADICATE THEM!!! TOTALY GENOCIDE!!! LEAVE NONE ALIVE!!!" SLAUGHTER!!!"

Everyone was taken aback by Yuna's explosive shift in mood, but they had already reached the point where they looked at White Zetsu as nothing more than a monster that needed to be killed, so they quickly got swept up in the mood as well.

"That's right, aren't they the aggressors? We will defend humanity!"

"Yes, we will kill them all."

"Slaughter them!"

"Because of those bastards, I missed Teuchi's special ramen offer, you know!"

"""""SLAUGHTER THEM, YOU KNOW!!!"""""

And with that, the crowd turned into a frenzied mob seething so much anger and hatred that Yuna could practically taste it.

'Delicious~'

[Is it really fine to fight this war when everyone is like that?]

'Mah, it will be fine.'

""""""""""SLAUGHTER!!! SLAUGHTER!!! SLAUGHTER!!!"""""""""

'Probably.'

And just like that, Yuna finished her speech with everyone chanting the word "slaughter" with hate-filled eyes.