What Do You Mean There Are Other Transmigrators In My Harem Fantasy?

"Ok, ok, you can get up first… Why don't you explain to me what is going on first? Or at least what is your role?"

He lifted up his head though he still remained kneeling on the ground to look up at me, "I… I suppose I can just start from the time I was placed under this noble's care… He told me that they were working on securing the border of the Kingdom and my talents would be a big help in doing that. So I could agree to work for him in exchange for a reduced sentence…"

Wait a minute…

"Who is this noble?" I asked.

He shrugged, "He never gave me a name… And he's always wearing a mask to hide his face, saying that his face was scarred from bandits attacking him so he has a vendetta against them."

Ok… I was thinking that it might possibly be that lord who was supposed to be in charge of the border fort that took him here…

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if he was since I already know that this guy wasn't doing his job properly and was constantly outside of the fort doing who knows what.

Maybe he's planning a coup?

I guess I'll have to take this Off-Worlder with me to find out.

I nodded at him to continue.

"He got me summoning and creating the beasts and monsters you see outside… And you already know that I'm an Off-Worlder with the max level in Kalomancy, right? So I could summon a lot of them… The only thing holding me back is the mana needed to summon them which is why you see the box of mana potions here…"

"Yes, I noticed you chugging them down before summoning another of those lizard things earlier," I told him, gesturing at the empty bottles that he had tossed aside earlier.

He winced, "That's right… Every single day all I ever do is just summon more and more of those beasts while someone would come and replace those boxes of empty mana potions with new ones… And because of this stupid collar, I can't even go against him even if I wanted to."

I tilted my head, "What's stopping you? He's not here right? You could technically just run away."

He shook his head, "When he took me, he gave several orders to me that are enforced by the collar. I cannot directly harm him and I cannot command my summons to harm him either. What's worse is that every beast or monster I summon has to be immediately placed under the command of another person that he has assigned in this place. And he worded it in such a way that I have to make the monsters I summon recognise that person as their master instead of me."

"Wait… He can do that?"

"He can command me to do that, yes. Don't you know how slave collars work for criminal slaves?"

"I mean, I don't, no. But I was asking about the fact that he could make your own summons recognise someone else as their master instead. Can't you just take back control? Does that mean that your own summons will attack you if that guy asks them too?"

"Yes, for this case no, and yes. That's one of the downsides to this magic I suppose… Since the creatures that are summoned through this magic isn't necessarily tied to me for their existence once I spirit bind them to something else."

I pointed at him, "They aren't bound to you? I was told that if I killed the Kalomancer, the monsters would cease to exist or something."

"Only if the monsters are spirit bound to the summoner… Which is unfortunately not the case here I'm afraid…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"You can spirit bind them to inanimate objects as well… Like these…"

He reached into another box and pulled out a collar that I thought was a slave collar at first until I realised it was differently coloured from the collar that was around his neck.

While his was a metal band, this one looked like it was made of leather instead.

Then I realised that it was so that it could be adjusted to fit on monsters with different sizes instead.

He gestured at it, "Each of my summons have to be fitted with this collar and binded with it."

Huh… I never actually noticed if each of the monsters had a collar like this… I don't remember seeing one on the Sand Leviathan though? Maybe it was put on the tail?

"You can do that?"

He nodded, "Although one bad thing about it is that this becomes a weak spot for the monster or summoned beast. So even if I were to, let's say… Summon a dragon. The dragon itself might be impervious to most attacks but if you destroy the collar, it will die even if you did no damage to the dragon itself. And if you were to take it off, then the spirit binding will also start to unravel and if the monster doesn't get it back, they will also eventually be unsummoned."

"I don't remember seeing that collar on the necks of most of those monsters earlier though?"

"It doesn't need to be around their necks. As long as it's somewhere on the monster would work."

"Even if the monster were to swallow it?"

"Ah… It has to be outside. I don't know why but making the monster swallow it doesn't work, I already tried before."

"Ok… So they are spirit binded to the collars they are wearing and aren't tied to you?"

He nodded, "I'm only creating them, not controlling them. The collars are individually enchanted as slave collars so that they would serve the owner of the slave collars instead…"

I tilted my head, "Wait… You can do that? So can't Kalomancers basically create their own army if they just do that? If I remember correctly, there's a limit to how many spirit binds a Kalomancer can do right? So does that mean you can circumvent this problem by just binding them to objects?"

He nodded, "Pretty much, yes."

"Isn't that really overpowered? A Kalomancer could literally create their own army!"

"The problem with Kalomancy is that the summoned creatures operate mostly on instincts unless someone is taking control of them. So in the end you still need handlers to take care of them unless you are able to control an entire army of them by yourself. Which is quite impossible because of the mental strain that comes with it. Also, the monsters themselves still need to be fed, either using mana or actual food and monsters eat way more than people do."

Oh… I guess in that case, I can still see why my Shadow Guards are something that people would still fight wars to obtain…

Guess I should still keep my mouth shut about it for now.

"So I guess asking you to set the monsters loose on the bandits is not an option?" I asked.

He shook his head, "I no longer have control over them… So that is not possible."

"Great… That was one of my plans to get rid of this bandit group… They captured some travellers and I was asked to rescue them… If the bandits were to use the monsters against us, things might get messy…"

He scratched his head, "I… I'm sorry… I can't really do anything about that… But please… Could you get me out of here?"

"Does the slave collar prevent you from escaping?"

"I… I can't try to leave this room on my own… If I try to step on the ramp, the collar would activate and I would feel an intense pain all over my body…"

"Hmm… What if I knock you out and then take you along with me?"

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"That… I'm not sure… I don't think that would count? The enchantment was that I had to willfully want to leave this place and step foot on the ramp before it would activate that function… So if I were to accidentally step on the ramp without wanting to leave, it won't activate…"

I feel like that's a really big loophole you could exploit but I guess something else was preventing him from doing that so I didn't say anything.

"Alright then, I guess you're going to have to come with me. You got no problems with how I'm bringing you out as long as I get you out right?"

He looked surprised, "Wait… You're actually going to help me? Even though I was against you when we first met?"

"I mean, you already got punished for it and it's more of a case of you being ignorant right? You're helping me right now so I don't see a reason why I need to make your life even harder than it already is."

He immediately slammed his head to the ground again, "Thank you! Thank you!! I'll follow you for life!!"

Err… No thanks, I'm just doing this so that the bandits can't exploit your skill anymore… And I need you as evidence just in case the lord in charge of the fort really was the mastermind before this.

First things first though… Let's knock him out.