Slime 12.7

I hurriedly put an end to this. Alberto teaching Arnaud? What was up with that? Arnaud was a squad leader in the Crusaders—I wasn’t sure anyone could teach him much. So why was he the one undergoing training? I just had no idea what Ramiris was talking about.
“Okay, um, well, after Hinata got all angry at Arnaud and the other paladins, they licked their wounds and tried their hand at the Dungeon one more time. The Demon Colossus was still under development back then, so they made it past Floor 70.”
“All right. And then?”
“And then those kids lost again!”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! And what a sight it was!”
Ramiris was clearly enjoying this; Veldora was nodding and laughing with glee. I’m sure it must’ve been hilarious.
Report. A record of battle is available.
Whoa, really?! Nice one, Raphael! I’ll save that for later, but in the meantime, let’s focus on Ramiris.
“So how far did Arnaud’s team make it this time?”
Probably the dragon rooms between Floors 96 and 99, I figured. There’s a bunch of floor effects there as well, so I think they’d give a lot of trouble to human explorers.
“Um, I think it was—”
“They were destroyed by the next boss,” Veldora interrupted. “Seeing them cry their eyes out as they fled was simply a joy to watch!”
Wow. Tacky. But…the next boss?
“Huh? Was the Floor 80 boss that strong?”
“Oh? Why d’you ask?” said Ramiris.
“I mean, Arnaud’s one of the Ten Great Saints. He was as good as Clayman and the ex–demon lords, wasn’t he?”
I spotted the answer to my question as I asked it. If you think about it, even Adalmann or Alberto could probably beat a pre-awakened Clayman. Maybe even post-awakened, actually, if that crazy death dragon was along for the ride.
“U-umm…,” Ramiris mumbled.
If I recalled correctly, I named Zegion the guardian of Floor 80. Did he finally evolve from his pupal form and reach adulthood? Veldora mentioned he was training him, and I didn’t really get what he meant by that, either. How do you train an insect monster? Whatever the Veldora-Style Death Stance was meant to be, I had no idea how Zegion was supposed to harness it. I let Veldora have his way because he seemed to be having fun and all, but maybe I should’ve put some more serious thought into it.
Zegion had used my own cells to heal his wounds and coat his outer shell in magisteel. Perhaps thanks to that, he had high speed and mobility, and he could also apparently summon his family. Treyni had signed off on everything, so I had no complaints…but the whole concept behind that was to fluster challengers with a quick, nimble insectoid boss after all those slow-moving golems.
“Hey, so what’s up with Zegion right now?”
I attempted to further interrogate the panicking Ramiris, but Veldora spoke first.
“Ah, my apprentice Zegion has undergone his complete transformation. Now, with the skills he inherited from me, he is a warrior without compare!”
“…”
“And what’s more, Zegion didn’t even need to lift a feeler against Arnaud’s party! They were trounced by the floor guardian on Floor 79!”
Now the picture was growing clearer. Arnaud met his match against Apito, the queen wasp serving as the boss on Floor 79. Between her hyperspeed and ultimate venom, not even the well-honed swords of Arnaud’s Crusaders could touch her. Then, as they told me, the whole party got stung a zillion times by Apito’s hivemates, and they ran away screaming.
Crazy. Just pile it on, won’t you?
“Tell me this stuff! I got a job to do, you know!!” I said, exasperated.
“I know, but it wasn’t just us! My master was ‘training’ that insect, too!”
“Wh-why you…! Accursed traitor!”
“But it’s not fair, Master! You’re acting like you had no part of it!”
“Nnngh…”
Yeah, I’m sure Veldora got involved. Anyone would, once they realized how much fun this was. Still, though, I felt kind of betrayed. All these people, getting to goof around all day behind my back… Maybe it was a mistake to ever let them handle this stuff.
I felt a twinge of regret now—but something still bothered me.
“Y’know, I’ve been wondering, Veldora—when you say you trained Zegion, what do you mean, exactly?”
He’s a bug, right? By “complete transformation,” Veldora doesn’t mean he went humanoid or something, did he?
It turned out my hunch was absolutely correct.
“Heh-heh-heh… So you finally noticed? You’ve realized just how wrong you are? I was having fun seeing you do that, so I didn’t say anything!”
What did I ever do to deserve this, Veldora…? They sure got me this time.
Delving into the Dungeon records, I had Raphael show me a few images. He was right. Zegion was now humanoid, all slender and chiseled. And…basically, he was Razul, that insectoid Shion beat over in Lubelius. He looked so much like that insanely powerful Razul, and thanks to that, he just exuded powerhouse vibes.
This rather unusual evolution gave him a chance to learn more battle moves—and as it turned out, the same was true of Apito. She had a shapely, feminine form, and looking at her, it dawned on me: I should’ve realized something was up when Hinata started coaching her. I thought it was just some mock warfare, but she really was training her. And thanks to Hinata’s expert battle training, Apito was incredibly refined in her moves. She had been training with Zegion as well, and her technical skills were also just as polished up.
Arnaud’s plastering was ample evidence of that, I suppose.
“So then Arnaud’s party decided to reevaluate themselves a little, they said…”
Going back to square one, they tackled the Dungeon once more, this time from the very first level. But one of the paladins met his end in Floor 60—at the lands of Alberto the Death Paladin, servant of Adalmann the Immortal King and (a few centuries ago) the strongest of all paladin warriors.
“And ever since then, you know, they’ve had their asses thoroughly kicked by Alberto.”
After whipping their asses the first time, Alberto had taunted them, saying “Paladin? More like pala-don’t!” That apparently really set off Arnaud, but even after busting out his Ether Break finisher, nothing worked on Alberto. The combination of a lifetime of sword skills and his new monster-based stats made it impossible for Arnaud’s party to keep up. His undead body never grew tired, and even if whole body parts were sliced off, he could still recover. It was cheating, really; if you didn’t hit the right elemental weaknesses, you just couldn’t beat him. Even worse, Adalmann had that Holy-Evil Inversion skill, which only added to his invincibility.
Really, I thought, Arnaud couldn’t be blamed for this. With all the magicules Adalmann’s team absorbed in the labyrinth, they had simply evolved into upper-level monsters, and Arnaud happened to challenge them right then. Bad timing, really. But think about it the other way—getting to cross swords with the strongest knight of a centuries-old era was an incredibly lucky opportunity to have.
And now, under Alberto’s direction, the Crusaders under Arnaud were rotating in and out of the Dungeon to train.
So Floor 60 had turned into something of a death trap while I wasn’t paying attention, but…
“What about the other floors, then?”
I could see where this was going. Adalmann and Zegion couldn’t have been the only ones transforming like mad down there. And I was right. Now, apparently, there was a new group in the labyrinth, a team consisting of nothing but the ultimate titans. They called themselves the Ten Dungeon Marvels, and really, I think they could give my cabinet a run for their money.
Adalmann was on the team, of course, as was his assistant Alberto. Apito, with her new moniker of Insect Queen, had joined the Marvel ranks, and apparently Zegion was now the highest ranked among them. And then we had Kumara—evidently, by taking the magical beasts in her nine tails and infusing them into her body, she could assume the form of an adult woman.It’s time to make the big announcement!” Ramiris shouted, and then she went over the Dungeon’s current situation and latest news.
Let’s start from the bottom up. Ramiris, keeping her promise to Milim, had carefully raised the four element-infused dragons, all of them successfully evolving into Dragon Lords—the result of being constantly bombarded by Veldora’s magicules. Thus we now had a Fire Dragon Lord, an Ice Dragon Lord, a Wind Dragon Lord, and an Earth Dragon Lord deep down. I can’t say I was too excited about knowing that, but those were the facts.
And that wasn’t all. The full rundown:
Floor 90 guardian: “Nine-Head” Kumara
Floor 80 guardian: “Insect Kaiser” Zegion
Floor 79 boss: “Insect Queen” Apito
Floor 70 guardian: “Immortal King” Adalmann
Floor 70 advance guard: “Death Paladin” Alberto
That, plus a bonus—Bovix and Equix as our Floor 50 guardians. They, sad to say, weren’t really Dungeon Marvels. Instead, they had inducted Beretta, the manager who made all of this work.
“Personally, I would love to palm off—ahem!—I mean, award this great honor to someone else…” Beretta carefully eyed Treyni and Ifrit—now known as Charys.
“Oh dear, I’m afraid I have the extremely important job of taking care of Lady Ramiris,” Treyni replied with a beautiful smile.
“Yes, and I am Sir Veldora’s only confidant. His care occupies all my attention.” Charys was pretty used and abused by Veldora, I felt, but I guess he liked it. Either way, neither were interested in any more work. Reminds me of a certain butler I know, I thought as I sighed.
“Sounds like you got a tough job, Beretta.”
“Oh, you sympathize, Sir Rimuru?!”
I nodded back, reminding myself just how much of a bond we shared.
As I did, I went over a few other things. First off, who exactly did the Ten Dungeon Marvels answer to? The Dungeon was a facility run by all of us, as both a hobby and a moneymaking venture. Much of it ran on Ramiris’s powers, and it’d never function correctly without Veldora’s energy. When considering this, I’d think Ramiris, as general manager, would also assume Ten Marvels leadership, but…
“Well, along those lines, I conducted interviews with everyone and adjusted things to their requests!”
Ramiris laid it all out for me. First, Beretta served Ramiris—no change there. The four Dragon Lords were also under Ramiris’s authority; they had a contract drawn up and everything, and since Dragon Lords are sentient, they were allowed to execute it.
Kumara had become good friends with the children and enjoyed life here a great deal, so I guess her gratitude for me has gone pretty wild. She had publicly declared that she was my pet, leaving Ranga in the dust. Zegion and Apito also took a liking to me, saying they’ll treat me as their lord. Adalmann, well, I was a god to him. This had rubbed off on Alberto, and his loyalty was now with me, through his boss. So those five were mine, so to speak.
Bovix and Equix, I figured, would be better off under Ramiris—they were more hired by the Dungeon than anything else. They appreciated it, I was told, but voiced a desire to serve under me instead. Which… Well, they’re both species who believe in power over anything else, so I bet with Ramiris, they totally judged that book by its cover.
“No, they didn’t! You named those two guys, remember? That’s more valuable to ’em than any salary they get, so they insisted!”
Ah. That kinda thing, huh? That makes me feel happy, actually. I’ll have to drop a few kind words next time I see them.
And so as I was watching those three imperial intruders earlier, I actually had a front-row seat to some pretty startling changes in the Dungeon. “Stunned into silence” is about the right way to put it, but really, it’s great to see our guardians get stronger. Still, all these unanticipated evolutions made me a little anxious—a bad habit for someone as timid as myself.
But enough of that. With the Ten Dungeon Marvels in place, an imperial attack would be nothing to worry about. I did inform them, however, to try to go a little easy on our challengers from the general public. Otherwise, I thought, it’d be pretty much impossible for your average dude to make it anywhere in there. Why would they want to take on a labyrinth with not one but several demon lord–class enemies inside?
I wanted to be sure Floor 100 was never breached, at minimum, but Veldora could see to that himself. As for the other floors? I’d like to let people hack their way down to Floor 80, at least. We took all this time building it, so I’d kinda like people to look at it. But we could think about that during peacetime.
After getting a rundown on the labyrinth’s current status, I went around to each floor guardian. I wanted to get a close look at them all, checking how they’d grown and evolved. The results were beyond my imagination. With this much fighting force, I couldn’t see how we could possibly lose to the Empire in here.
Then, a few days later, I finally got to experiment on our completed forest monitoring system.
We were seated in our Strategic Military Control Battle Command Center, or the Control Center for short. I talked over the name with Veldora and the gang, and we let our imaginations go wild…but now, I kinda regretted making it so long. I probably debated over it with the wrong people. Benimaru strictly called it the Control Center, so not too many people actually knew the entire name.
This was built next to Veldora’s personal chamber on Floor 100, and we set up a passageway to our normal strategy room as well. If we quarantined the surface city inside the labyrinth, this would serve as Tempest’s headquarters. In case of war, we were all set…but of course, I’d prefer if we never had to use it.
The results of our magic monitoring system were quite impressive. We had multiple large screens set up, the same sort we used for the battle tournament, and each one showed a different scene. Whether it was the Forest of Jura, our trade routes with the Dwarven Kingdom, or any other important site, we now had all the visuals we could care to monitor. We could even observe the sea routes in the Kingdom of Farminus, or the peaks of the Canaat Mountains, without any issue.
It operated in a really simple way. Using the physical magic Megiddo that I invented, the system subtly altered and reshaped a large, lens-shaped body of water suspended in the stratosphere, projecting an expanded image of a given target point. Reflecting this image let us transmit its data, like a video. Consulting with Moss, I figured out how to use my own replications, deployed across our territory, as magic invokers. They were connected to me via Dominate Space, producing a data link that was perfectly synced up at all points. These replications were super-tiny in size and had no self-consciousness, so they wouldn’t consume energy unless I turned my attention to them. Transporting them over to a given surveillance point was nontrivial, but Soei, Moss, and the rest of their team put in a great effort.
Overall, it was a great system that operated at a low cost. I named this physical magic Argos, the Eye of God.
The output we were currently seeing on-screen was in high resolution, following some Raphael-provided image processing. This let us keep abreast of things from our nice, warm Control Center. This was some really amazing magic. Everyone else was jazzed about it, too—especially Diablo, but I won’t go into that.
With this monitoring system complete, I now realized that it provided another key perk. It made it possible to position a Megiddo spell at any point in the images we saw in the Control Center. I tried it out myself, and the results were amazing—I didn’t think it’d actually work, so I just lobbed a shot out at Gobta’s feet while he was training in our town’s main square. He leaped straight up in surprise, and I don’t think I’ll forget the face he made for a while to come. (I did yell at him—“You let your guard down, dumbass!”—but I didn’t think he was really at fault.)
My Megiddo spell had also improved. It had already been optimized once by the Great Sage, but it looked like Raphael wasn’t quite satisfied. After some more scrupulous enhancements, it had developed a system where I could keep multiple lens “satellites” in the air at once. Paired with Argos, we could even keep Megiddo activated during the nighttime—it wasn’t quite as powerful, but we could successfully reflect light between satellites to collect images.
Honestly speaking, I was kinda wondering whether we weren’t devoting our efforts to the wrong things. We used a high-level spirit to actually generate these lenses, so they’d stay up as long as I kept their magicule supply intact. Raphael handled all the tricky calculations, so everything was super-easy to control—and since it didn’t consume anything during daytime hours, we could run it even harder, taking in more light and heat energy and launching Megiddo shots like heat rays.
The sheer scope of these improvements blew my mind. At this rate, I could wipe out a human army without even having to lift a finger.
Upon confirming our experiment’s success, I returned to my office. Not long after, showing impeccable timing, Shuna came in and said I had a visitor.
I may not look it, but I entertain a lot of guests—really, that’s the majority of my work. Beyond that, there’s magic development, brainstorming fun new products, and assigning the right people to the right jobs. That and labyrinth administration, helping Mollie out with stuff… A lot. All work needs an aspect of play to it, after all. But anyway, handling visitors is the most important part of my job, and I try to take it seriously.
The reception room Shuna guided me to already contained Shinji’s trio, waiting nervously for me. They were officially going to accept asylum in Tempest, and over the past few days, I’d been grilling them for all their info. This was entirely on a volunteer basis, of course, not an interrogation—they were just being interviewed in different rooms. I let them use their free time however they wanted, so I was sure they’d have time to work out their future plans—and that was what they were there to tell me about that day.
“So have you decided what you’ll be doing?”
Shinji’s band had trouble deciding whether to find an outfit in Tempest to work for or become freelance adventurers instead. If they kept up adventuring, they could tackle the labyrinth and continue being pretty popular, wealthy figures—but on the other hand, now that they knew the limits of their strength down there, there wasn’t much potential for growth. Our Demon Colossus was stationed on Floor 60, but it seemed likely Shinji’s party would have serious trouble against it—and even if they beat that guy, Adalmann’s terrible trio was just ten floors down.
It was a dead end no matter how you sliced it, and I could understand if they didn’t want to bang their heads against that wall the rest of their lives. Seeing that wall for themselves pretty much tanked their motivation for the job. It was good money, for sure, but wouldn’t it turn into a boring rut after a while?
And really, Adalmann and his friends had grown way stronger than I planned for. It wasn’t even funny. I never thought they’d grow—or evolve, I suppose—that much, and there wasn’t much I could do about that. But whatever. Let’s just forget about it—and let’s not worry about what the Dungeon’s other challengers would think, either.
So would they find jobs elsewhere in Tempest? I’d be assigning them a spot based on their talents, and it’d still provide a guaranteed, stable life for them. But with war against the Empire coming up, I was sure they were worried about getting swept up in that somehow. I had no interest in forcing them, but I couldn’t guarantee they’d never get involved, either. Better keep from saying too much. I’d just wait to see their decision.
“Right, so after the three of us discussed it, Sir Rimuru, we decided that we want you to let us work here in Tempest. We heard about how Lord Gadora would be serving you, and so we’re hoping we can live and work here as well.”
Shinji looked nervous. The other two solemnly nodded; I guessed they were all on the same page.
“All right. In that case, welcome home.”
“Thank you very much!”
“We’ll do our best here!”
“…I’ll work hard for you, sir.”
And thus Tempest’s population increased by three.
Next came jobs.
“So I’m gonna have old man Gadora work as a manager on Floor 60,” I explained. “He’ll research the Demon Colossus, and at some point in the future, I plan to have him possess it.”
That old geezer had a serious thirst for knowledge, and he was super-enthusiastic about the idea. The moment he set his eyes upon the Demon Colossus, he almost started doing a dance right on the spot. Right then he was in the hands of Adalmann, but maybe I could let him be the guardian of Floor 60 later on.
“Now, you guys don’t want to join the war, right?” I asked the trio.
“Um, right,” replied Shinji, looking a bit reticent. “We know some people on the other side, so if possible…”
In that case, instead of hiring them on in my government, I felt it was better to assign them research work in the labyrinth. So I decided to introduce them to Ramiris.
Bounding our way through the Dungeon, we reached Ramiris’s laboratory shortly.
“Hey, Ramiris, you think you can find jobs for these guys in your lab?”
“Ah, Rimuru! You mean the kids from before?”
“Right, yeah.”
Ramiris had been looking for personal assistants, but it was hard to find anyone qualified. I couldn’t let researchers from other nations become Ramiris’s playthings, but the less intelligent monsters wouldn’t be able to keep up with her pie-in-the-sky ideas. She had Deeno, yeah, but he wasn’t enough to put my mind at ease. But now we had Shinji’s trio, and I couldn’t think of a better fit.
“Whoo-hoo! My name’s Ramiris. You guys interested in becoming my new assistants?”
“Umm…” Shinji didn’t know how to react. I’m not sure he realized who Ramiris was.
“Oh, fantastic! Look, Shinji! A real fairy!” Marc shouted excitedly. Maybe it was his first time seeing one? I don’t know how much time he had spent in this world, but if a fairy made him this worked up, he must’ve been a pretty purehearted guy.
“So you see, I’m looking for some capable assistants. I’ll pay you for it, too. Whaddaya think? We got some major personnel shortages around here, and Rimuru said that fully educated otherworlders are totally the time-saving solution!”
You didn’t have to say all that, Ramiris. It’s true, though—they’ve got technical skills, flexible minds, and can jump right into the world. I really hoped they’d be interested in taking this on.
“…Well, I’ll do it. Research seems a lot more peaceful.”
Zhen’s certainly honest. And I guess he was the tipping point for Shinji.
“In that case, by all means!”
Ramiris happily flitted around in the air, sticking out her (nonexistent) chest proudly.
“Hmph! Looks like you guys got a lot of potential. Well, all right! Passing grades for all of you! But you’re gonna have to follow all my orders, okay?!”
The way she can change her attitude on a moment’s notice always surprised me. Where was all the awkwardness from before? It was certainly in character for her, at least.
Leaving the dumbfounded Shinji and his friends in the dust, Ramiris quickly began laying out her offer. Their salary would be three gold coins a month, thirty-six per year, along with bonuses. Of course, Ramiris tended to pay her staff based on her own whims—kind of like myself—so I wouldn’t rely too much on that bonus. It sounded like Ramiris was offering them room and board, though. I was sure she expected them to use my own dining hall, but I didn’t mind that.
So Shinji and his group had their immigration arrangements settled in short order.
A few more days passed. The gang quickly got used to their new workplaces; now they were serving as Ramiris’s right hands in the lab.
I saw no problems there, but now Gadora was a concern. I hadn’t had any contact with him since he left for the Empire. He was a stubborn old man, I knew, so I figured he was all right…but I was starting to get worried. I really wished he’d drop me a line.
That thought was lingering as I held a briefing with Benimaru in the Control Center. Video data from my Argos system was on the large monitor. Every viewpoint was clear. I wanted to collect data from within the Empire as well, but for now, I was satisfied with video from our military borders. From those feeds, we could see large numbers of soldiers gathered, keeping a careful watch over the area. Tensions were always high over there.
“No moves today, it looks like.”
“Not at all, no. But isn’t this magic so useful, Sir Rimuru? This must’ve been what you were spending so much time researching lately, isn’t it?”
We were all alone today, so Benimaru was less formal than usual. I preferred keeping it casual like this, actually, but Benimaru was back to his usual stodgy, stuffy self whenever other people showed up. Not around Soei or Diablo, though. We all had a “partners in crime” thing going that I liked, and sometimes we’d all head over to Englesia to go drinking together.
“Exactly! And the most wonderful thing about this magic is the innovation behind the idea. It offers tremendous effects at a low energy cost. Its usefulness speaks for itself, and the complexity of the calculations behind it ensures nothing goes to waste, like a fine work of art. And that’s why—”
“Enooooough!! Once you start bragging, you never stop, so can you do that when I’m not around, maybe?”
This always happens when I let my guard down a little. Diablo immediately starts extolling my praises—it drives me up the wall. Yes, my magic’s really great and all, but it’s really Raphael doing all the hard work. I don’t see it as my own skill set, so I couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward.
“He’s right, Diablo. Restrain yourself a little, or you’ll cause trouble for Sir Rimuru.”
“Nonsense. How can you say that, Benimaru? That’s hardly the case, is it, Sir Rimuru?”
“No, Benimaru’s right. It’s always Rimuru this, Rimuru that with you. You need to tone it down!”
I had to make myself clear with Diablo. It made him collapse on the floor, a shocked look on his face, but that was no big deal.
When I heard Diablo was a Primal Demon or some kinda freaky thing like that, I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do…but if you think about it, he’s always been a weirdo from the start. Even Guy had trouble dealing with him. Try to take him seriously, and you’ll just make a fool of yourself. Now that I knew that, I was done messing around.
“Heh…heh-heh-heh-heh… Yes, Sir Rimuru. Well done. Dealing such emotional damage to me so easily…”
“I’m telling you to stop that!”
You see? He never learns. Going a little hard on him is the perfect way to balance it.
But our wholesome little moment came to an end after a sudden report from Ramiris.
(Rimuru, someone just teleported directly into the labyrinth! Based on its signature, I think it’s that old man you befriended!)
(Got it. I’ll head right over to Floor 70.)
I stood up. That alone made Benimaru and Diablo realize something happened—I appreciated that. So I gave them a quick rundown.
“Well, Gadora’s back, but it sounds like something’s up with him. I’m gonna go check it out.”
“Absolutely,” Benimaru replied. “I will stay on alert here, then.”
“I’ll escort you, Sir Rimuru.”
“Thanks.”
It was times like these when I could rely on Diablo. If only he always acted like that…but no need to dwell on it. Diablo was a talent but subject to just the worst swings in behavior. It saddened me a bit as we headed for Gadora’s personal chamber.We found him in there—in fine shape, as well, despite my concerns.
“Phew! I thought I was a goner for a moment,” he said, not looking like he encountered anything more dangerous than a stubbed toe. Adalmann’s group was there with us; Ramiris and Veldora showed up later but left after they saw Gadora was okay.
“So what happened?”
“Well, I tell you, I went to the Imperial Council and argued against the war there, but I couldn’t tip the trend away, sadly. I expected as much, so I decided to go to Emperor Ludora one last time and see if I couldn’t appeal to him directly.”
He made the request for a meeting, which was accepted and scheduled for today. But inside the imperial palace, he said, he was stabbed by someone. This happened not even ten minutes ago. That definitely wasn’t all right; I felt guilty for asking.
“Oh… Right. I gave you a Resurrection Bracelet.”
“Ha-ha! Lady Ramiris’s powers are truly amazing. They saved my life, in fact. I thought something like this might happen, so I set up a return spell in advance.”
Judging by how healthy and unstabbed he was, I figured it was something like that. Pretty smart idea. If he could instantly teleport himself back to the labyrinth, the Resurrection Bracelet would save his life, no matter how badly he was hurt. Seeing a real-life example like this reminded me all over again just how effective Ramiris’s abilities were.
Still, though, Gadora’s a pretty nimble guy himself. Setting up spells in advance like an alarm… He taught those tricks to Razen as well, apparently, and I’d want to practice that later on. I had Hasten Thought, too, and combining it with this delay thing could produce some even bigger results.
“Who attacked you, then?”
There weren’t too many people in our nation who could kill Gadora. He was always on his guard, keeping up a pretty stiff magic defense, and I didn’t think he’d fail to spot a sneak attack in time, but…
“Well, the assassin managed to avoid my detection before they struck, so I wasn’t able to see exactly who it was. There is a suspect in my mind, but I must admit, it’s a rather hard-to-believe one…”
He showed me his back; there was a straight tear in his robe. His body was completely healed, but his clothing was still in the same condition. The tear was corroded in spots, too, so it clearly wasn’t just a physical attack.
“A single stab to the heart from behind, huh?”
“Your defenses were destroyed by magic, it would seem,” Diablo added. “Quite an interesting skill to use…”
It had piqued Diablo’s interest, and if so, this was no amateur assassin we were dealing with. I was sure the Empire had someone capable of killing me—maybe it was Gadora’s attacker, even, but I ought to have assumed there was more than that.
Gadora himself didn’t seem confident enough about his hunch to name a suspect, but he wanted to do some investigating, so I’d leave that to him. I didn’t think he was lying, and he honestly seemed perplexed about the whole thing. I wasn’t about to trust him immediately, but I figured I’d wait and see what happened.
“Well, I’m glad you’re all right, at least. It certainly shows us that the Empire shouldn’t be trifled with. Let’s all try to be a little more careful.”
“You are exactly right, Sir Rimuru,” Diablo agreed. “No need to risk our necks further with them. I am sure there is little new information to find, regardless.”
Gadora nearly died over the info he got for me, and I had to be satisfied with that. So after a few more kind words, I let him brief me on what he found.
As the old man put it, the Empire was making concrete moves toward war.
Whenever the Empire opened hostilities against another nation, they never bothered issuing a formal declaration of war. The emperor was defined to be the sole, unique presence that mattered, and they didn’t even recognize the existence of other countries. That, of course, was lip service; they had diplomatic relations with the Dwarven Kingdom, for one, and they didn’t meddle in their sovereign territory.
If the Empire decided to invade, it only did so after careful, prudent preparation. They didn’t declare war; they sent a letter advising the other side to surrender, and only once. If you followed it, fine; if not (as the stories went) the war was on, and they’d no longer show any mercy.
You really couldn’t get much haughtier as a nation—or more arrogant. If you’re gonna be such a bother, guys, don’t expect to make any friends in international society, okay? Not that they participated in it anyway. They hadn’t ratified any of the international law enacted by the Council of the West, so once they started a war, all bets were off. Post-defeat agreements? Prisoner handling? Prohibited actions during war? They followed none of those, part of why the Western Nations feared the Empire so much.
Which…yeah, I can see why. At this rate, they might try to justify the mass killing of civilians—and if you lost in war against the Empire, that meant losing everything. I doubted the word reparations was in their vocabulary—everything belonged to the Empire, so the losing nation would lose all their rights. If you wanted to reason with them, you had to at least fight them to a draw. We definitely couldn’t let up right then. We had to go in strong and cut out the root of all this evil.
Now that we knew the Empire’s direction, we switched gears into our own wartime proceedings. Our Control Center would now become a strategic headquarters—just a formality, really, but still an important one. Benimaru and Soei would be on standby there at all times, the latter using his replications to fan across the region for spy ops. That way, we wouldn’t have to rely solely on our Argos network, and with Moss’s assistance, he should be able to get some pretty accurate intel.
At this point in time, we had a pretty decent advantage.
Basically, in this world, war didn’t really begin until one army encountered the other. You could use scouts and long-range magic to try detecting enemy movements in advance, but conventional wisdom called for that only when the two sides were pretty close to bumping into each other anyway. The concept of information warfare was a thing here, but there wasn’t another nation on this planet with an enemy-monitoring program as thorough as ours. That’s what Hinata and Gadora told me, too, so I wasn’t imagining it. It was the golden truth.
“This… Are we seeing this from the air…?” Gadora asked, incredulous.
“Heh-heh-heh-heh…,” Diablo chuckled. “This is a product of Sir Rimuru’s magic. It requires merely a minuscule amount of magicules to trigger magic from beyond the stratosphere. Only a small number of people could ever detect this magic in motion. One would need a danger-prediction ability on the level of Ultra-Instinct.”
“Y-yes… Indeed. I’m fairly confident in my own magic detection skills, but this just seems so natural. I never imagined it was the work of any caster at all…”
“Precisely! Even an Arch Demon well versed in magic would overlook such a low-level spell. Truly wonderful. Don’t you agree?”
“I do, I do! This magic is simply mind-boggling!”
Diablo, for some reason, was now bragging to Gadora with the smuggest of grins. The old sorcerer was getting more and more excited as he concurred with each of Diablo’s boasts.
“Shion?”
“Right away!”
Diablo was going to be nothing but a distraction, so I ordered Shion to isolate him in another room. Now that things were quiet, we got to the business at hand.
This high-altitude monitoring system was just beyond cheating. I mean, think about it. Until this moment, we spent so much time fretting about which route they’d attack from, but now that seemed like a joke. We had a full video feed of not only the most likely routes but our entire border with the Empire, so we’d see everything from the moment they kicked off. It was like playing chess with a blindfolded opponent—they’d only know where their pieces were, and unless you were a real beginner, you wouldn’t even lose to a professional. They weren’t just missing a couple pieces—they were at a near-total disadvantage.
And of course, war has no rules anyway. If you win, you played it right.
Having the other side plot an invasion of our territory was scarier than I thought. It meant you’d have war on your own land, with no previous agreements. But I put up one rule in advance:
“No touching civilians!”
We, of course, would strictly prohibit ourselves from striking first. If we declared an end to hostilities, we’d refrain from attacking any further. I trusted that nobody would go against this and break the rules.
Now I had the cabinet of Tempest here in the Control Center. Benimaru was our commander, Hakuro our chief adviser. Rigurd was there, along with the heads of the three powers of government serving under him—Rugurd, Regurd, and Rogurd. Shuna and Lilina led the female contingent; they were alongside Rigur, our top behind-the-scenes man, as well as Kaijin and Kurobe. I had Vester and Mjöllmile in there as consultants; Gobta and Gabil had reported in as army generals, and Geld had taken time off from his work to show up as well. Finally, I had invited Testarossa and her two demoness friends—and I let Diablo in, too, figuring he had learned his lesson. He was standing amicably in his usual spot alongside Shion.
I also decided to bring Gadora and Shinji’s gang in as witnesses…and a bit later Masayuki, that font of morale for all of humanity, came in.
“Wait a minute. Why am I the ‘font of morale’ for anything?! Can you stop spouting crap about me like that? Ugh!”
Oops. Guess I was airing my thoughts out loud again. Masayuki looked pretty huffy about it…and for some reason, Gadora was staring right at both of us. Maybe something caught his eye, but I’d ask about it afterward.
That left two more people to mention—Veldora and Ramiris, our support staff. Beretta, Treyni, and Charys were also on standby in one corner. That was about all of them.
Giving a few pets to Ranga on the ground next to me, I looked around at my seated audience.
“I don’t need to tell you all why you’re here today. We’re going to hold a conference to work out our opposition to the Empire. Benimaru and I have come up with an outline of our strategy, but I want to hear your feedback on it as well. Don’t be afraid to speak up at any time.”
“““Yes, Sir Rimuru!”””
So the conference began.
Turning toward the screen, I saw it display crowds of imperial forces on the move—these metallic vehicles, whirring along as they ran on treads. They were tanks, and from what the image showed, there were around two thousand of them.
Whoa! I thought when I saw that. What are tanks doing there?!
Flustered, I asked Shinji’s group for some explanation. Through them, we learned that the Empire was using the knowledge—and science—of otherworlders to develop modern weaponry. They had internal combustion engines that ran on magicules instead of oil, charging up their energy through air circulation—allowing for cooling and magicule supply at the same time. A pretty well-thought-out system, in my opinion. These tanks were also pretty versatile; in terms of functionality, I’d say they easily outclassed the best tanks in our old world.
Gadora told us that the Empire analyzed a magical control reactor found in some ancient ruins and reworked them for modern times. They were also building up a supply of magic stones for fuel purposes, relying on the natural magicule

Slime 12.6

THE EMPIRE MAKES ITS MOVE
The Empire had a mystery man among its ranks. His name was Tatsuya Kondo—an otherworlder who knew everything there was to know about the imperial underground. He was the imperial capital’s darkness itself.
Tatsuya kept his black hair short and tidy, his bangs flowing gently down toward his eyes, and he had a relaxed, if well-honed, manner of carrying himself. On the surface, he seemed like a nice young man, still in his early twenties. But on the inside, he was cold and calculating, eyes glinting from his barren face. They seemed sharp enough to see through anyone they looked at—not friendly, but clever and cunning. It was only to be expected…for First Lieutenant Kondo wasn’t at all the age he seemed.
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Here in the imperial capital, otherworlders were not too uncommon a sight. The Empire pledged to safeguard them, and they had been collected from all around the world. Tatsuya was one such person rescued by this plan…and it entirely had to do with the magic that existed in this realm.
Over seventy years ago, Tatsuya risked his life for the sake of his country and served in a special military operation—a kamikaze squadron ordered to strike enemy naval fleets. Tatsuya had no comment on the need for this mission. Looking back on how things were those days, all he thought was, well, there was nothing else he could do. He just looked back at the men who lived and died serving under him and hoped he could find some kind of meaning in their actions.
Even now, he never forgot about them. And to make sure of that—so he could continue living with the memory of his comrades—he retained the same rank of first lieutenant that he held back then.
So Tatsuya had headed off to his death—but with a flash of explosive heat and light, he instead found himself in another world. He felt death at arm’s length, but rather he survived.
It was the emperor himself who saved Tatsuya. Luck was on Tatsuya’s side that day.
He appeared in a garden accessible by only the emperor and a few close associates. The emperor happened to be relaxing there that very moment.
“How interesting,” Tatsuya heard a voice say. “Perhaps this is fate at work.” Then he passed out, and when he woke up, he was completely intact, not a scratch on him. His luck had saved his life—the same life he’d once abandoned, which he now swore to use to repay the emperor’s kindness. All the powers he awoke to after his journey across worlds, and his brush with death, he gave to the emperor. That remained true to this very day.
He never appeared on the public stage. He never aged, looking exactly as he did back then. And there, in the imperial intelligence office nestled in the capital’s shadow, deep in the Empire’s darkness, he could be found.
A mysterious figure stalking the halls of information; a man hidden behind the Empire’s shadow. A human; a wrangler of evil.
Tatsuya Kondo went by many monikers. He was the head of the Imperial Information Bureau, and he was feared as a question mark—one not even the commander of each division could ignore.
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The IIB had picked up information that Gadora sent a team led by Shinji to conquer the Dungeon.
“Ah. I see. Good work.”
First Lieutenant Kondo was a quiet man. He said no more than that. His informant, used to this treatment, saluted and left—Kondo was never one to state his thoughts to others.
The report submitted to him contained detailed information on Yuuki’s men. Over a thousand otherworlders had been collected from around the world. A little under a tenth of them had awoken to zero unique skills; these men and women were set up in the imperial capital and allowed to live their lives in peace. A little over a tenth had battle-oriented unique skills; they numbered over a hundred, and each was assigned to the division that best suited their abilities. The rest were referred to nonmilitary professions based on their skill set, finding useful work in a vast variety of professions.
Right then, the problem was that the otherworlders awakened to battle skills. Yuuki Kagurazaka was the founder of the Free Guild in the Western Nations, serving as grand master until a year ago, and he harnessed that power to rescue otherworlders. That, at least, was how Yuuki described himself, but the IIB already knew that was a lie.
Trends indicated that he had grown friendly with the Rozzo family, taking advantage of their influence. The IIB knew that the West was proceeding with an illicit, forbidden summoning program that had led to large numbers of otherworlders in their lands. There was no other explanation for why they had so many battle-oriented ones in their possession. Through the use of a locking curse, it was also possible to force the summoned into an irreversible oath of loyalty. These summons were the best way to build a team that was guaranteed never to betray you—and now those otherworlders were deployed in a variety of militaries.
Kondo saw this as grave news. An imminent danger. He had consummate perception skills and an intuition that was truly fearsome. And Kondo was right to be concerned. The results were revealed in this report—based on his words and actions since moving to the Empire, the Imperial Information Bureau believed there was a high probability that Yuuki was going to launch a coup attempt.
They also had a list of the people Yuuki had tapped for the effort. Based on his achievements, the Empire had accepted his request for asylum, but he didn’t seem to appreciate it much. Instead, he did his own thing, working hard to expand his power and putting his handpicked associates into each army division. Several of them had even been appointed Imperial Knights, one of the Empire’s highest honors. The army division was one thing, but allowing traitors into the Imperial Guardians—the force built to protect His Majesty the Emperor—simply wasn’t allowable.
Kondo could no longer let this slide. This is dangerous, he decided. Yuuki Kagurazaka, you are clearly someone who deserves to be eliminated.
Now, however, was not the time to act. Lord Gadora, master sorcerer and one of the most powerful people in the Empire, was reportedly connected to Yuuki. They had evidence to back up this report, but it was unclear just how deep this relationship was. Lord Gadora’s importance to the Empire went without saying. Kondo doubted he’d turn traitor on a passing whim—but he also knew that he worked alongside the Empire chiefly because his goals matched the state’s ideals. Perhaps, then, some trigger might put his goals in conflict with the Empire.
If it ever does, that old man is just as dangerous. In which case…
Yuuki…and Gadora.
Yuuki looked like just a boy, but his actions indicated the touch of an experienced man. Like Kondo himself, he was too dangerous a subject to judge on looks alone. Gadora looked like an aged man, but he was much more than that—a living monster, really, having lived for over a thousand years. Anyone who wanted to oppose him couldn’t go in with a halfhearted approach.
So it was time to gather information. They had evidence, but there still wasn’t enough intel. For now, it was too early to move out in the open. He would carefully investigate each of Yuuki’s otherworlders and examine whether any had locking curses upon them.
But if Yuuki or Gadora made any suspicious moves…
“…Don’t expect a public trial.”
First Lieutenant Kondo, the man hidden behind the Empire’s shadow, would never give mercy to traitors.
“Dance on, won’t you, for the sake of the Empire. Both of you are already in my hands.”
There, in the darkness of the Empire, Kondo softly whispered to himself, a cold light in his eyes.
Inside an office with an ornate desk, a one-eyed man was seated in a luxuriant chair. A patch covered his left eye; he was skinny and appeared in his forties. His name was Caligulio, and he was commander of the Armored Division, the most powerful force in the Empire.
On the desk before him were several magic crystals—pure, high-quality examples, known sources of magical energy. With technology provided by Yuuki, these crystals—taken from the cores of monsters—could be refined into magistones, turning them into a reliable, mass-produced magic source.
Monsters would occasionally drop natural magistones, but these could only be collected from those ranked A and above—and having the huge magicule count to prove it. These natural magistones were unparalleled in quality, most often used as decoration or magic catalysts than for their content. Unless one had a steady supply of them, they were useless as an energy source.
Caligulio reached out and grabbed a magic crystal from the desk. The more he observed it, the more he realized just how high-quality it was. He put it back down, already missing the feeling of it in his hand, and picked up the report that came with these specimens.
It was from their research lab. It stated that magic crystals of this quality could each produce a hundred Empire-made magistones. They were pure enough to turn into energy as is, and naturally collecting crystals of this standard would require at least a B-rank monster.
“Damn you, Gadora! Keeping such a moneymaking opportunity under your hat…”
Caligulio was angry. He had paid off the researchers, telling them to inform him of any developments, and this report was the result. Gadora had only just brought in these magic crystals; he didn’t say where they were collected, but based on their number, Caligulio surmised he stumbled across a monster nest. They were first-rate specimens, after all, and testing indicated they all contained around the same amount of energy. You couldn’t see this consistency from harvesting different species at once—some variance would be unavoidable, and you’d have to refine them into magistones for practicality’s sake.
No, these magic crystals were surprisingly similar in quality, indicating they all came from the same species of monster. Caligulio didn’t expect to be able to tame these monsters (whatever they were) and raise them in captivity, but even regularly scheduled culls would help the Empire shore up its energy mix.
However, it appeared things were far more complicated.
Caligulio’s face twisted into a longing grin. The report concluded that securing whatever hunting ground produced these magic crystals would put them a long way toward a steady energy supply. And they had more than a vague idea where these monsters lived. In fact, they had the exact spot—the heavily rumored Dungeon, located within the demon lord Rimuru’s domain.
“That damned old man’s been giving too much attention to that kid Yuuki. I hardly see him any longer. How dare he try to hoard this opportunity for himself!”
This was the origin of Caligulio’s annoyance.
And that wasn’t all. A high-level noble he was on good terms with informed him of a rather interesting story. He, along with many of his kin, didn’t bother hiding their glee when they told him that Gadora had gone off to investigate this Dungeon—and lost three of his apprentices to it.
This would normally elicit little more than a bit of sympathy, but what Gadora brought back was the problem. It turns out he didn’t just come home with magic crystals—he brought treasure, too. Among them was a sword currently decorating Caligulio’s office, a pristine example of magisteel make that clearly required great skill to forge. It was a truly excellent piece, one only the finest artisans of the Dwarven Kingdom were capable of—in fact, considering the metal’s purity, it was even better than that. Nothing circulating within the Empire compared.
Caligulio had purchased this sword from his well-placed noble friend, part of a set of three, one of which he already handed over to this division’s technical department. The noble boasted about how it was “a rare find, perhaps infused with some mysterious power,” and he encouraged Caligulio to invest in them—even though Gadora had presented them to the noble at no charge. Caligulio asked why Gadora gave them away for free, and the noble demurred—“You know I can’t tell you,” he had bragged.
So the commander paid a total of three hundred gold coins, a hundred per blade. Even he was curious about them, and after purchasing the set, the noble finally agreed to give him a few hints.
Caligulio himself was from lower-level nobility, making it up to division commander exclusively through talent. Since the Empire was a pure meritocracy, he technically outranked the upper-crust noble he got the swords from, since his title was based on birthright alone. Normally, he wouldn’t give someone like Caligulio the time of day—but thanks to his rank, he had to at least feign politeness.
I’m sure he’s still turning up his nose at me, but that doesn’t matter. Right now, I need to figure out how to exploit them for all they’ve got.
The upper nobility never took action unless they stood to gain something from it. None of them were soft enough to tell him anything out of the goodness of their hearts. No, there must’ve been some cold number-crunching behind their reaching out and telling him about Gadora’s findings. Essentially, they had put Caligulio and Yuuki on opposite sides of the scale.
“I can’t believe how utterly greedy those nobles are! But look at you, Gadora. How dare you lobby the nobility to send the Composite Division to capture the labyrinth! You could have recommended my division, but noooo… I can’t believe he’s still sore about me taking the Armored Division from him…”
The Armored Division had just completed a major modernization campaign, thanks to Gadora’s support. Its head count had grown tens to hundreds of times over, but Gadora had absolutely no command over it. Caligulio was sure Gadora envied him for that.
“But fine. My noble informants were certainly a stroke of good luck. Now I can give them all the slip and claim this prize for my force.”
Winning over the upper-crust nobility, of course, came at a price. If Caligulio did claim that prize, a decent percentage of it would have to go into their pockets. But he still didn’t think it was a bad deal.
This labyrinth produces more than just magic crystals. This sword is simply excellent—Rare class now, maybe Unique class in a hundred years. Even faster, perhaps, given how much magisteel they used. This alone proves how valuable the labyrinth would be in my hands!
That was why Caligulio went through the effort of winning over the nobles.
Now he was thinking about how he’d continue to fund this effort, going forward—but in the back of his mind, there was one nagging doubt.
…But what could that slot be for anyway?
The well-placed noble mentioned a “mysterious power,” and he was sure that was straight from Gadora’s mouth. Caligulio couldn’t detect anything like that—but the empty slot on the hilt intrigued him. What could it mean? He had no way of telling. That’s why he gave one to his technical department, but their analysis wasn’t done yet.
Of course, unlike in the West, the sword era’s well and truly over in the Empire anyway…
He was right. No matter what kind of value was locked inside this sword, it meant little to his modernized division. Only a well-trained warrior could get much use out of it—one like Caligulio himself or his close advisers. That was why he couldn’t wait to hear the results.
A few days later, Caligulio received an astonishing report.
“Allow me to explain,” said his chief technician, who came over to deliver the analysis in person. Following a scientific examination, they had discovered quite a few things. For one, the slot wasn’t a design touch. It was an energy absorption device, a vehicle for the efficient production of magic. This wasn’t a sword at all—it was really more of a magic launcher.
“This is from the demon lord Rimuru? …Then we sure can’t make light of him, no. What an interesting idea.”
“Absolutely so. I believe it’s meant to confuse opponents into believing it’s a close-range weapon, only to surprise them with magic. And if the right energy supply is inserted into a slot, the caster—or the wielder, I suppose, in this case—can cast magic with no effort at all.”
Yes, the most unique aspect of this weapon was how it let people nonsensitive to magic cast their own spells. It just flew in the face of common sense.
“But,” the chief technician asked, “are you sure this was discovered inside the labyrinth?”
“Yes, we’re sure about that. I sent some of my own men to the scene, and they backed up everything Gadora told us.”
Caligulio had sent a team of his own to the monster city of Rimuru to gather intel on the labyrinth. Their investigation hit a brick wall around the Floor 40 region, but a merchant gave them an interesting bit of info. Apparently these slotted weapons were discovered inside the labyrinth, and while they went at a premium on the market, they were still cheaper than Unique-class arms.
“So what are they for…?”
“Hmph! Think about it a little. We only approve a new weapon after extensive testing, don’t we?”
The chief technician was an intelligent man, but not at all a tactician. Only when Caligulio spelled it out for him did he understand their usefulness.
“Ah, I see… So they’re putting them in the hands of that massive crowd of adventurers and having them examine their performance? That does make logical sense. When we placed a magistone into this slot, the sword immediately went up a rank and became a powerful magic sword, but we don’t think their utility ends there. They’d need to experiment a great deal more to gain a full picture of it. I’m sure it would take them years.”
“Right! So instead, they’re more or less passing ’em out at random and letting the masses test them. And once they have all the data they need, I’m sure they’re planning to take them all back.”
Caligulio had, to some extent, accurately read Rimuru’s motives. Based on his own experience, he knew an experiment like this would take time to conduct. For now, these were strictly test weapons—but it’d still be dangerous to let them buy any more time. Humans were strange and interesting creatures; some of them had a knack for stumbling upon the kernel of something brilliant, especially those who willingly exposed themselves to danger.
“It really is a smart idea,” he mused. “Literally conducting human experiments in a lab where nobody would ever die.”
“We were told this bracelet was required for that, but our analysis hasn’t produced any reportable results yet. If the rumors about that are true, it’d certainly be a boon to military training, wouldn’t it?”
The chief technician took out a carefully sealed box and showed it to Caligulio. Inside was a Resurrection Bracelet, one of the treasures Gadora brought back.
“I’m sure this example’s a fake, of course. Regardless, if our army can capture this labyrinth…”
If it did, and discovered this bracelet system to be the truth, the results for his force would be beyond substantial.
“Hohh… You are an ambitious man, Sir Caligulio. But are you prepared to fight a demon lord over it?”
“Of course I am. It’d be a bad move to challenge him for no reason, but the Forest of Jura is right in the middle of our invasion route, and this labyrinth’s at a spot we can’t possibly ignore. Someone has to capture it.”
“Hee-hee-hee… Well, it’s all in how you frame it, I suppose.”
They exchanged a chuckle over this.
“Think about it, after all. In one fell swoop, we can secure a stable magic crystal supply and an efficient test space—and maybe the enemy’s latest new weapons, if all goes well.”
“In that case, it’s imperative the Armored Division captures it before someone else does, isn’t it, Sir Caligulio?”
“No need to remind me. You can expect big news before long.”
The chief technician gave this a pleased smile. Caligulio returned the favor with a thin smile of his own.
“It’d seem the old man is losing his wits, though,” said the technician.
“‘Seem’? Oh, I’m sure of it. He’s so distracted by the magic crystals, he failed to realize this sword—and the labyrinth itself—is the real prize.”
“One unfortunate side effect of focusing so much on magic, no doubt. After all, a weapon that can change its rank is nothing short of a breakthrough.”
Caligulio believed his technician was right. Gadora was a great man, but the age of pure magic was over. A new wind called science was blowing across the land, and that combined with magic heralded the beginning of a new era.
And that, you see, is why I’m better qualified to lead the Armored Division. That old man could’ve won my respect if he only knew where his place was. But if he’s going to recruit Yuuki for his schemes, I see no need to show him mercy.
As he thought this, Caligulio began formulating a plan. Attempting to take on multiple demon lords would be ill-advised, but Rimuru alone would not be a problem. The Storm Dragon—one of the Empire’s most fervent desires—was targeted for a takedown. They had a new weapon, developed by Caligulio himself, and with it they’d force the Storm Dragon to do their bidding. If they pulled it off, it’d pay huge dividends, even if it required some sacrifice…and yet Lord Gadora remained staunchly against it. That was the last straw, the one thing that made Caligulio and Gadora part ways.
Pfft! Once we tame that evil dragon, the demon lord slime will be a pushover. Then we’ll prove to the masses that we are the strongest force in the Empire!
The time had come, and Caligulio couldn’t be more excited. He’d break the nose of Gadora for all his insolence, and he’d firm his position within the Empire for good. But before he could, he needed to prove himself—he needed the dragon tamed, and the labyrinth captured, by his Armored Division.
And to make that happen…
“It is time to march. I will make the proposal at the next Imperial Council.”
“Ah, the day’s finally here…”
Caligulio nodded. No need to wait for all their demon lord preparations to wrap up. He was ready to shut the mouths of anyone using that as an excuse for hesitation.
You won’t get your head start, Gadora. And Yuuki—I bet you’re ecstatic to have Gadora on your side, aren’t you? Well, I’m about to teach you exactly where you belong.
He sneered at all his foolish colleagues. They had every chance to gain valuable information, and they let it go by without even realizing it. They were all a bunch of imbecilic wannabes anyway—Caligulio was sure of it.
But even as he derided his peers, his mind never stopped working. How could he glean the most profit from this? He thought this over as he began to assemble his full proposal to the emperor.
And with that, the Empire would begin to move.
The Imperial Council was about to begin.
The military officers—and the civil officials, too, seated in a neat row—were all nervous. This was not a peacetime gathering, and nobody else even dared venture near the great conference hall where the Council took place. Things were different with this meeting; everyone could feel it.
Everyone bowed their heads when the emperor’s entry was announced. Behind the blind, they could sense someone—the United Emperor Ludora Nam-ul-Nasca, supreme leader of the Nasca Namrium Ulmeria United Eastern Empire, the world’s greatest military superpower. He never spoke directly to the masses; only through the blind could one be privy to his presence. He was the apex of society, and only his closest associates even laid eyes upon him. Simply being there overwhelmed all nearby. He was the sole commander, the absolute, and just a very small handful of people were permitted to voice their opinions around him.
Nearly two hundred people were assembled in the meeting hall. The commanders of each imperial division were there, along with their aides. So were the elite members of the Imperial Guardians, standing at attention in a clean, well-practiced line. Government ministers, and members of the House of Lords, filled the chamber’s seats—a truly distinguished group of people, all with their heads bowed as one.
Only the rustling of clothes echoed in the silence.
Then all sound disappeared. With that signal, the prime minister motioned toward the chief of protocol.
“His Majestyyyyy the Emmmperorrrrrr!!”
Everyone in the chamber voiced their greeting in unison, breaking the stillness like a mighty choir. So began the Imperial Council—one that would doubtlessly go down in history, for they were scheduled to debate the Empire’s upcoming invasion.
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The meeting solemnly began.
With regards to the large-scale campaign in the works, opinions among the Council were divided into two factions—a cautious, conservative side and the more enthusiastic among those calling for war.
The first topic for discussion: What pretense would they use to launch the war? It was a silly question—the emperor willed it, and so it shall be. But was war possible? That’s where opinions differed. One side called for careful action; the other, an all-out trouncing. Meanwhile, the civil officials argued that they should begin with diplomatic efforts—a call to surrender, for example, or some threats to lay on the pressure.
If the emperor believed the time for war had come, no one had the authority to defy him—but the imperial edict had yet to arrive, and so every side brought their own motivations to this Council. The war was a matter of time; how to wage it was the issue. The demon lords, their domains dotted across the continent, were an annoyance, but none of them would take action unless their borders were violated. The real obstacle was the Storm Dragon, and the debate subsequently turned toward the Forest of Jura.
One Council member voiced his opposition to the war.
“If I may, Your Majesty, I am against this campaign.”
This was Lord Gadora, the Empire’s greatest sorcerer, and he spoke without a hint of fear.
“How shamelessly timid! You bring this up yet again, Sir Gadora?”
He was rebuffed by Commander Caligulio of the Armored Division. This happened every time—they were the leaders of their respective factions, conservative and belligerent.
“If we want to strike the West, that will not be an issue—but Veldora, that evil dragon, lurks in the Forest of Jura. We have only confirmed the dragon’s revival two years ago. How could we not be cautious?”
Some voices agreed. Others derided Gadora for his weakheartedness.
Over three hundred years had now passed since the Veldora massacre; the terror it caused had largely faded from people’s minds. The war hawks formed the majority faction; the situation didn’t look as good for Gadora’s side.
Caligulio, sensing this, decided to fan the flames.
“There is much, my lord, we can learn from your more cautious stance. However, as I’ve said here many times before, we now have foolproof measures against Veldora. With our new weapon, it is now fully possible to make that dragon bow to our commands!”
“That is absurd! This is not a forum to talk about your dreams, Sir Caligulio. Nobody can deny the possibility of it failing, so why would we not be cautious? Especially now, when the entirety of the forest is ruled over by a new demon lord! They say demon lords never form alliances, but there’s no reason to go out of our way to antagonize one. We have word that the dragon is revived and working in a partnership with Rimuru, the new demon lord. And with any demon lord, the proper way to go about things is with a nonaggression pact!”
The Valley of Death that linked the Empire with the former domain of Clayman was large enough to march a large army through. That option, however, was off the table, for it meant making an unauthorized entry into the demon lord Milim’s territory. If these were fertile lands, their army could proceed much faster than if they had to navigate a forest, but the advantage wasn’t worth riling Milim over. Along similar lines, a path through the Forest of Jura would put them within shooting distance of the West—but Veldora the Storm Dragon was back, and right next to him was the demon lord Rimuru.
As Gadora saw it, there was no need to deliberately create more enemies. Several of the Council’s civil officials agreed with this—but Caligulio just snorted at it.
“In that case, Sir Gadora, are you asking the Empire to give up on its dearest of wishes?”
If they can’t traverse the forest, it’d be difficult to deploy a substantial force in the West. Caligulio’s question thus had the full support of the military behind it.
“Sir Caligulio is right, my lord. Before the mighty Empire, a demon lord is no threat at all!”
“How can you be so disrespectful in front of His Majesty?! Dare you defy the will of the emperor, Sir Gadora?!”
“No! Think about it! Instead of taking on a demon lord, it is far wiser to win the cooperation of the dwarven king. We’d suffer no casualties, and it would make seizing the West that much easier!”
Gadora tried to rebuke these opposing viewpoints. But one onlooker laughed at him.
“You are the one being absurd, Sir Gadora. The dwarven king is renowned as the Master of the Sword. His predecessor was a mighty champion, and he is just as powerful. He is surrounded by a legion of other notorious heroes, all capable of putting up more resistance than any demon lord. I would relish the chance of waging battle against them, but that is not our main objective. Instead of fighting a group of champions, we would receive far more public support for slaying a demon lord!”
This shouting came from Gradim, the Beast King and commander of the Magical Beast Division. All he had to do was stand up, and the intimidation he exuded was overwhelming. He had the air of a ruler and the power to tame any magical creature. He was also one of the foremost fighters in the Empire, leader of a proud band of warriors. In terms of strength, the commander was said to be the second best in the Empire—he wasn’t in the Single Digits rankwise, but his powers had quickly earned him a post leading a division. Being in a position untouchable by any ranking duel made him believe he was the strongest, and thus Gradim resented the Empire’s Marshal, the one person higher than him in the military hierarchy.
Some rumors said he had lycanthrope blood in him, but none of these had been confirmed. Whether that was true or not, Gradim was definitely the type to act on gut instincts instead of reason, and Gadora therefore had trouble dealing with him.
“Sir Gradim, I fear you are making an incorrect comparison. I am saying that we should make King Gazel our ally!”
“Fool! If we were going to annex the Dwarven Kingdom as well, your point would make sense. If anyone gets in the way of the Empire’s ambitions, all we have to do is pound them into submission. But what kind of scheme is this? We have all the war power we need, and we still can’t take action because of this tepid nonsense you’re spouting at us!”
“Don’t be ridiculous! The Dwarven Kingdom is a natural fortress. The idea of taking it down by force is simply—”
“Silence!! Why must you continue your pathetic mewling in front of the emperor? This is exactly why you were dismissed from your role as division leader!” Gradim the Beast King shouted at the top of his lungs. He was telling the truth. Until about thirty years ago, the Gadora-led Magic Division was one of the three major ones the Empire boasted. Now, though, all its best talents were reassigned to technical departments, and the others shuffled into other posts.
This was because magic, at the heart of it, depended on the talents of individual casters. First, you needed magic force to cast anything, and that wasn’t something you could acquire in a class—that limited the numbers right there. Second, while magic was an effective tool in battle, the Empire had developed a weapon that all but supplanted it—a portable magical weapon, commonly called a spellgun. These were powered by magistones that activated a magic circle carved inside the gun barrel, allowing anyone control over magic. A single spellgun could generate only one type of magic, which was a disadvantage, but their usefulness still couldn’t be overstated.
Meanwhile, for close-range combat, the Empire had developed magic sabers. These handheld weapons operated on the same principle as spellguns—they were small arms preinstalled with magic. The example they set was part of why imperial military technicians could pinpoint what the Dungeon-made slotted weapons were for.
It was clear now that both sides of this conflict were thinking in similar ways. And now that even those without natural talent could cast magic, the role of the Magic Division was over. It was the end of an era, a melancholy moment for Gadora.
But the scorn for Gadora wasn’t over yet.
“Ha-ha-ha! You are well advanced in years, my lord. Your magic knowledge is the treasure of the Empire. You have given untold assistance to the Armored Division’s development of new magical weapons…but as Sir Gradim stated, you’re speaking out of line. Have you completely lost your nerve?”
Caligulio gave him a mocking laugh. Snickering bubbled up from the seats of the military and the House of Lords.
“Don’t any of you understand? That evil dragon holds control over natural disasters. He is one of the most powerful presences in the entire world.”
“You are the one who fails to understand, my lord. The imperial military is not what it used to be. We have studied the knowledge of many from other worlds; the ‘science’ they have brought with them. We have obtained an entirely new and different technology from what this world knew before, and with this new technology, our army has grown dozens of times more powerful than the last generation. Sorcerers like you are anachronisms, failing to keep up with the march of time. It is time for you to accept His Majesty’s good graces and humbly announce your retirement.”
“Wh-what?!”
Gadora fumed at this…but it was just an act. He had, after all, already capitulated to the demon lord Rimuru. He was trying to guide the Council away from war, but beyond that, he didn’t care much what came next.
I pity every one of these buffoons. Science is a wondrous thing, but the Sorcerous Dynasty of Thalion has its own secret knowledge—sorcerous science, they call it. Sir Rimuru himself is an otherworlder. And the Empire may be kept secure by its military might, but for how long…?
Now that he knew the truth about Tempest—and about Rimuru—victory for the Empire seemed very uncertain to Gadora. He didn’t wish misfortune upon his former colleagues, and he felt a debt of obligation to the emperor. That’s why he made an honest effort to steer the Empire off its course…but if it failed, he wouldn’t dwell on it.
Yuuki had a coup simmering anyway, and once it broke out, Gadora intended to keep the emperor secure. He was sure Yuuki wanted the emperor assassinated—if he planned to conquer the world, then all its leading figures were nothing but obstacles. Before now, he let him do what he wanted—but now that he had no reason at all to wage war, Gadora could no longer allow Yuuki’s schemes to plunge the world into chaos.
I can’t say what’ll happen in the future, but I doubt what I say here will change anything. Now, I suppose, I’ll fulfill Sir Rimuru’s request and build up more excitement for the Dungeon.
With that tacit decision, Gadora turned his eyes toward Yuuki—who, up to now, hadn’t said a word.
Seeing Gadora fall silent, Caligulio assumed victory was his.
Gadora’s Magic Division was dismantled in the military’s last major reshuffling. Since then, Gadora had been treated as a technical adviser for the Armored Division, an honorary post and nothing else. But he was widely known for his champion-level powers, and he may still have had more influence around the Empire than Caligulio himself.
And it was Gadora, and Gadora alone, who recommended Yuuki as a division leader. Simply infuriating.
Caligulio didn’t like it one bit. The great Gadora, lauded as a master sorcerer, was an old man—but his career was filled with meritorious deeds. He knew he couldn’t afford to shed his politeness when dealing with him. But:
Heh… He’s a relic of the past. Now he’s nothing but a crotchety old man, a drain on all of us.
Over time, the Empire had grown into a superpower in war. And as sad as it was, poor old Gadora simply couldn’t keep up with that.
The Empire was in a new era, and its three new military divisions were incomparably stronger than before.
………
……
…
The Armored Division Caligulio led was the largest military division in the Empire, driven by a combination of otherworld science and magical technology. Its force consisted of over two million deployable soldiers, but this included troops garrisoned across imperial territory. Only about a million could engage in maneuvers on a moment’s notice—but this was still an army on a stupefying scale, one unthinkable a hundred years ago.
The Magical Beast Division Gradim led was using DNA analysis technology brought by otherworlders to capture and raise magical beasts. The tamed, powered-up creatures this program produced now formed the core of this division. Nothing like this had ever been attempted before with such beasts, but this division made it happen—and thanks to their effort, the Empire could even train magical beasts as battle mounts.
These were used by the Empire’s greatest champions—those who analyzed the blood of ancient heroes and made it their own. These champions were innately powerful, and awakening the forces within their blood allowed the Magical Beast Division to recruit nothing but these champions. It was a comparatively small division, only around thirty thousand—just one in one hundred thousand had this kind of talent. But their mounts were magical beasts, at least A-minus in quality, and when matched with the right champion, their power was incalculable. It was truly an elite force, worthy of being a full division despite its smaller size.
Finally, the Composite Division Yuuki led was a group of talented individuals with extremely powerful latent abilities. The general public considered this division a hodgepodge of scrappy odds and ends lacking any real cooperative spirit, but that wasn’t the right way to describe them. They didn’t work well with others because they were already pretty omnipotent by themselves. As a band of exceptional, tough-to-control individuals, they had many talented otherworlders, their latent potential anybody’s guess.
It was populated by those with irregular traits, things that couldn’t be reproduced after extensive experimentation—difficult to handle, but packing more of a punch than an A-rank magical beast. They may not have known what their abilities were, exactly, but as weapons, they were too good to dispose of—and this force was where such accomplished people were inserted.
They had barely been supervised up to this point, but with Yuuki as the division’s new leader, it was reborn as a treasured force, one whose powers couldn’t be defined by pure numbers. They totaled some two hundred thousand people, about half of whom were deployable—the rest were commissioned intelligence officers, office staff, and so forth. That, and within the Composite Division was also a specially selected elite force—the foundation of the entire division, one absolutely faithful to Yuuki.
………
……
…
This was the composition of the Empire’s three new military divisions. It was a formidable power, and the moment the emperor gave the edict, 1,130,000 soldiers could likely begin operations at once. According to the Imperial Information Bureau’s latest intelligence, the Western Nations’ total fighting power was under a million troops; in terms of what was deployable right then, they’d likely be happy to gather four hundred thousand. Even more encouraging, the IIB expressed doubts that this could act as a coherent force, due to expected logistical difficulties.
It was thus an unruly mob of four hundred thousand against over a million imperial-trained elites. The numbers were simply overwhelming. And right at the core of this overwhelming imperial force was Caligulio’s Armored Division.
Caligulio intended to bring his own handpicked forces out on the field to handle this war. He planned to deploy a million soldiers, as follows:
• The Restructured Armor Corps, the division’s main force
These soldiers boasted the latest in otherworld technology and magical modifications. As individuals, each one ranked at least a C-plus, and some had even reached A rank.
• The Magitank Force, their most decisive weapons
This was a squadron of three thousand magitanks, the latest new imperial weapon brought into practical use. Each one had a crew of five, and they offered firepower that broke all previous rules. Their main armament, known as a magicannon, could fire bolts that shot out at two thousand yards per second. A magitank could hold fifty of these bolts, firing them up to five times a minute, and they packed a punch—the equivalent of a tactical-level high-speed flame spell.
Although these bolts were launched with magic, fundamentally, the shots themselves were simple metal balls. They could still smash through things like anti-magic barriers and anti-archery defenses, making them a fearsome mass-based offense. Thanks to that, the kind of force you once needed a wizard to unleash (assuming you could find one) was now at the beck and call of a common soldier. These magitanks resulted in a major breakthrough for the army, due to the difficulty of defending against them.
Two hundred thousand soldiers were assigned to this force, including mechanics and other personnel, and the more tanks you added, the more powerful it’d become.
• The Flying Combat Corps, responsible for a set of highly classified weapons
This consisted of four hundred flying airships—the treasure of the Empire and a testament to the grand new knowledge the otherworlders brought with them. Each airship could house up to four hundred people, a staff of fifty piloting them while the rest handled defensive magic or operated the cannons. They were fitted with many magically amplified guns, making them warships bristling with offense and defense, and they were also useful as transportation craft. In this world, the concept of air superiority didn’t really exist; no army paid any attention to antiair defense, so the Empire could transport large forces while the enemy’s guard was down. Airships could also assist in surrounding an enemy on the front and rear, making pincer attacks child’s play—another invention that turned conventional tactics on their head.
A hundred thousand people were assigned to this corps, mostly members taken from the old Magic Division.
With this many soldiers at his beck and call, Caligulio was basking in a feeling of omnipotence.
For example, the average strength of a knight in this world would be around C rank at best, although it varied depending on the size of a nation. Pad that strength with weapons or armor and put them through grueling training, and you might see that brought up to a B. Meanwhile, the Armored Division put its members through assorted magical modifications—after a health evaluation, anyone deemed fit enough for it was half forced into the operation. This successfully lifted the baseline for the entire division, and that was true for the forces stationed elsewhere across the Empire. They were like an insurmountable rock—Caligulio was sure of it.
For this grand campaign, he planned to deploy all the magitanks and airships at his disposal. He had enough soldiers to overwhelm any foreign alliance—in quality and quantity—and he had so many new weapons to unveil. As he saw it, the Armored Division was the best way of showing the full might of the Empire to the world.
Why worry about Veldora? Why worry about a demon lord? My division alone could conquer the whole world!!
It was with that confidence that Caligulio observed Gadora. That was why he noticed the sorcerer’s eyes shifting over to Yuuki—and the next moment, Yuuki spoke up for the first time in this Imperial Council, as if he’d been waiting for the opportunity.
“I agree that old man Gadora’s overly careful. I think he’s just being too wary—and I’m counting the Storm Dragon when I say that, too. Like Commander Caligulio said, the Empire as it stands now wouldn’t have a problem against him, don’t you think?”
The fact that Yuuki seemed to agree with Caligulio put him on alert. That bastard… He’s gonna nominate himself to capture the labyrinth, isn’t he? You may think I’m not on to you, but you’re wrong! You can’t hold a post as lofty as division commander without keeping yourself well-informed!
As Caligulio thought this, he flashed Yuuki a friendly smile. Gradim was an exception to that rule, but really, it was only his scale-breaking strength that put him at the top of his division. Yuuki, meanwhile, was Caligulio’s enemy from the start—the post was far too lofty for him still, he believed.
“Well put, Sir Yuuki,” he said, biting his tongue. “A young, energetic leader knows how to build momentum for himself, I see.”
“Ah, I’m no one that special. But the way I see it, we still have some scout work to do before we can run a war, right? If we want to make it through the Forest of Jura, we’re gonna need to proceed through the demon lord Rimuru’s domain. And along those lines, actually, I have some interesting news—apparently the demon lord’s city can be transported completely inside the labyrinth.”
“The labyrinth?” Caligulio asked, feigning ignorance.
“Yeah,” replied Yuuki, as if expecting this. “The Dungeon, to be precise. I don’t know how it works, but it allows them to make the entire city disappear from the surface, leaving nothing but a large gate.”
Hmph. How absurd. Now I’m sure he’s going to volunteer to go explore the Dungeon himself and steal away all my interests…but it’s so terribly shallow of him!
“Oh?” Caligulio gave Yuuki a gloating smile. “Are you sure about that intelligence?”
“If it’s true,” said another Council member, “we cannot ignore this Dungeon. They may emerge from it to attack us once we march past.”
“Indeed. Assuming the Empire’s no fool, I’m sure they’re shoring up their defense lines as we speak. If the demon lord’s forces cut off our supply lines, we’ll be in trouble.”
“That could make the Forest of Jura route dangerous…”
Everyone who heard Yuuki began giving out a smorgasbord of feedback. Yuuki grinned as if this was exactly what he’d been seeking all along.
“There’s no doubting the credibility of this intelligence, no. Old man Gadora went over there himself and examined it for us!”
He had waited for just the right moment to say that, but he wasn’t done yet.
“Now, the things old man Gadora saw have convinced him that the demon lord Rimuru is a threat. And he also brought back another rumor. It said that the labyrinth goes down a hundred floors, and that the guardian on the deepest floor is none other than Veldora, the Storm Dragon. Now, there’s no evidence backing this rumor at all. Gadora’s investigations ended on the sixtieth floor after his team sadly took some losses. It’s said not even Masayuki the Hero has made it past that floor. In terms of difficulty, we believe it would rank an A-plus equivalent…and no matter what route we take to invade the West, I think this requires further investigation.”
Now Yuuki was sounding serious, doing away with his carefree attitude.
“Losses…?”
“Quite a pity. I can understand Sir Yuuki’s feelings.”
“An investigation certainly wouldn’t be uncalled for. Perhaps we could leave that to the Composite Division?”
The nobles excitedly talked among themselves. It rankled Caligulio. Tchh! You fools were all bought off by him! How dare you try to talk your way into this, Yuuki! You should’ve become a politician, not an army commander!
But the sincerity of Yuuki’s attitude was even starting to turn the minds of the nobles he didn’t bribe. It only further provoked Caligulio.
“One moment, please!” he shouted as he stood up and bowed to the emperor behind the blind. “Your Highness! Lord Gadora and Sir Yuuki seem absolutely petrified of Veldora, but not I—and that goes without saying for the Western Nations as well! It is my fervent hope that I may soothe your mind, Your Majesty, so please—give me, Caligulio, the order to begin our conquest! I promise to you I will stake my body and soul in the ensuing battle!!”
The statement sent a shiver through the chamber. Addressing the emperor directly was far beyond the realms of convention.
“Wha—?! Of all the outrageous things to do…!”
“This will not stand, Sir Caligulio!”
“Trying to get a leg up on the competition, Caligulio? Your Majesty, our Magical Beast Division is ready to deploy on a moment’s notice. Please, grant us your order as well!”
Even Gradim was entering the fray.
“In that case,” a frazzled-looking Yuuki added, “allow the Composite Division to investigate this!”
With him standing up as well, all three commanders were bowing their heads at once. At this point, only the emperor could put an end to this commotion…
…Him—or one other.
This figure stood up behind the blind and smiled sweetly. She was the Imperial Marshal, the supreme commander of the Empire’s forces.
“All right, you idiots, quiet down. You are in the presence of Emperor Ludora.”
Calling the emperor by his given name was an affront no common citizen could dream of. Only someone granted the rank of Marshal could do so without fear of consequences.
In the Empire, being Marshal meant being the strongest.
Only a very few close associates knew who she was. Not even the rank holder’s name was revealed to the public; it was said she was always attending to the emperor, protecting him. A few words from her were all it took to silence the meeting hall.
Now, as everyone in attendance fell to the ground to pay their respects, the Marshal’s voice boomed from high above.
“So what of this Veldora? He may have interfered with our previous campaign, but did that shake the Empire?”
“““No!!”””
“Of course not. And that is because our great emperor has afforded us his divine protection.”
“““Yes, ma’am!!”””
It was beyond overpowering. An air of dominance filled the room, leaving everyone powerless to resist it. And in the midst of it, the Marshal asked:
“Yuuki, was it? You have been in the Empire for not even a year, and I must praise your achievements. However, you are soft—too soft. From the moment Veldora resurrected himself until now, the Empire has not taken any action. Do you know why?”
“Because we were not fully prepared—”
This was already well-trodden territory, but Yuuki gave the answer anyway. But the Marshal answered him with a scornful smile. “No. It’s because the idiots among us were so stricken by fear of the past, they made up this or that excuse to run away. Isn’t that right, Gadora?”
“I-indeed it is!!”
Everyone, deep down, knew that to be true…and not even Gadora had the willpower to say no. It was true—he had argued for avoiding battle instead of debating whether they could beat the Storm Dragon. He had no leg to stand on.
…But what is this? Why is she, of all people, in such a panic?
Gadora was one of the few people who had seen the Marshal’s face. That’s why he could tell, despite her detached air, that she was growing impatient. But he couldn’t bring it up here. Instead, Gadora felt a vague anxiety, one whose reason he couldn’t put into words, as the Marshal continued.
“There’s no way negotiations with King Gazel of Dwargon would go well, is there? I’m sure you understand that, so why be so stubborn about it? Or are all of you more idiotic than I thought? You’re not trying to interfere with the Empire’s dominance, are you?”
The cold voice made Gadora’s spine freeze.
Has she spotted me out…?
He couldn’t believe it. He was a senior member of the Empire, one who served as counsel for the emperor—but even he found himself cringing in the presence of the Marshal.
And come to think of it…I still don’t even know her name…
Gadora was trusted. He was treasured—there was no doubt about that. But maybe that was all just Gadora kidding himself. The thought felt like a shock wave—and then, for the first time, he began to wonder what the Empire—or really, the emperor—actually was.
Turning away from him, the Marshal set his sights on Caligulio.
“So, Caligulio. You like your chances of victory?”
“Y-yes, Marshal!! I absolutely do!!”
“Ah. Then tell us about your strategy.”
“W-well…”
He was in high spirits earlier—but the full brunt of the Marshal’s dominant presence bowled Caligulio over. His plan to bulldoze the enemy with sheer quantity, it made him realize, seemed so childish now.
Caligulio did have his own plan for the fight against the Storm Dragon, an intricate plan he had carefully worked out over the course of many years. He wasn’t afraid of Veldora—he’s just a dragon, he thought. And yes, the dragons of the Canaat Mountains were tough monsters to face—the Lesser Dragons at the foot of the peaks were one thing, but once they had grown into full-fledged adult specimens, they ranked at least an A in strength. Once you got to an element-infused Arch Dragon, that was dangerous enough to upend a small kingdom.
Not so with the Empire. All they’d have to do is deploy a force of five hundred from the Restructured Armor Corps, and they could subdue him. They had undergone repeated military training for just this mission, and as long as they didn’t make any mistakes, they wouldn’t lose too many men.
That, if anything, proved the Empire’s power. It had the strength to raise tens of thousands of these fighters. They could beat a whole flock of dragons—and as far as Caligulio was concerned, Veldora was just another dragon. Why, he concluded, are we so afraid of a single dragon?A monster’s strength was defined by the size of its magicule store. That remained true no matter how powerful one was. Dragons were so strong because their magical energy was as enormous as their physical mass. They had high defense and breath attacks that pummeled a wide range, both requiring a massive amount of magicules. So why fight them from the front in the first place?
No, Caligulio and his force had a secret plan—a new technology, a magicule-disturbing beam known as a magic canceler that had been developed under strict confidentiality.
Magic-based weakening attacks occasionally didn’t work on dragons. Some of them could annul any such attempt with Magic Interference. With this new tech, that didn’t matter. A magic canceler beam interfered with the magicules themselves—not controlling them but scattering them in wild, unpredictable patterns, making them essentially go haywire. Applied to a sorcerer, it’d jam his spell and keep him from invoking the magic. Against a monster, it’d scramble its magicule-based body and impede their movements. It’d not only weaken them, but maybe even neutralize them entirely.
This would be particularly effective against someone like Veldora, essentially a huge blob of magicule energy. It was the source of Caligulio’s unflappable confidence.
What’s more, they had a second card to play—their magitanks. The magicannons attached to them were intensely powerful, capable of dispatching even a large magical beast in one hit. After some experiments conducted with a captured live dragon, they found that a magicannon blast could even kill a full-grown, A-rank specimen instantly.
Finally, there was the wild card—the airships, their secret weapon and the crown jewel of their magical technology. They could travel at will beyond the speed of sound; no living creature could hope to outrun them.
Caligulio’s strategy for Veldora was as follows: First, his quickest forces would lure Veldora within range of a magic canceler set up in the forest. This would bind him in place, and to add to the barrage, they’d irradiate him with another magic canceler installed on an airship put on standby above. Once Veldora was weakened to a state of helplessness, a battalion of two thousand magitanks would launch a simultaneous magicannon volley—and any dragon, no matter how ancient, would surely be vaporized by that.
And should he somehow survive… Well, even a True Dragon wouldn’t emerge unscathed.
In war, a force calculated their chances of victory based on the intelligence they had accumulated. They had killed a large number of dragons by this point, using the data they gathered to fully prepare themselves. It made Caligulio absolutely sure of victory…and yet, as he addressed the Marshal, his tongue suddenly felt heavy in his mouth.
“S-so… We would deploy a tank battalion, and then we’d lure the evil dragon into position, you see…”
Sheer numbers, he thought, would win the day for him, so he planned to work out the more tactical details once they arrived on-site. The tanks could navigate even the worst of roads, and he had word of a highway built between there and the Dwarven Kingdom, one large enough to make tank transportation a breeze. He therefore concluded that tank deployment wouldn’t be an issue, but facing the Marshal, he couldn’t just make up his facts.
I was so focused on building up our war power that I neglected our on-site investigations. This was my failure…
At least he still had enough of his senses left to work that out.
“How worthless. Besides, your entire concept is wrong on its head. Once you destroy Veldora, what next?”
“…What?” Caligulio replied, unable to grasp her meaning.
The Marshal looked down on him coldly. “Why do you think the Empire never made a move while Veldora was sealed away?”
“B-because we were unprepared—”
“Wrong answer, you fool. We were waiting for his revival so we could settle matters with him in his complete state. Now we can expose him to the full glory of His Majesty. So what will we do if we destroy him? Only through defeating and ruling over him will the Empire secure its victory!”
Her words overwhelmed the entire meeting hall. Everyone was dominated by a sense of terror, or doom, as if someone had grabbed their hearts and wouldn’t let go.
Gadora was just as shaken by it. No… Is she serious? After all the time I spent explaining that mentally dominating him was impossible? But…
Somehow, the Marshal’s words were convincing. Something about them made you feel that maybe, just maybe, it was possible. The feeling gave Gadora the taste of an inscrutable sort of horror.
Yes… Looking back, it’s so strange. Who is the Marshal anyway? I’ve met her in real life, but I never even questioned why I don’t know her name. Could…? Could this be…?
A certain truth was beginning to dawn on Gadora, no matter how much he wanted to will it away. Now he wondered if the Marshal was capable of dominating someone’s mind better than anyone else—even he, the greatest sorcerer the Empire ever knew. In fact, he no longer wondered it. He was sure.
Gadora opened his eyes, turning them toward the other side of the blind. She was a graceful silhouette, as seen through the expensive silk-woven curtain, but to Gadora it looked like a monster beyond imagination. In a way, it was like a True Dragon had taken human form—a delusion that Gadora hurriedly wiped from his mind.

Slime 12.5.1

An elderly man was prostrated before me. Behind him, the trio I had been watching on the control room’s big screen were following his lead.
The man’s name was Gadora, the very one who went through Diablo and Razen to request an audience with me. He wasn’t gaudily dressed, but he had an expensive-looking magic robe on, his eyes sharp enough that I doubted his age a little.
Shingee, as I surmised, was actually named Shinji—Shinji Tanimura, to be exact. The other two put their real names on the processing form. All three were apparently assigned to Gadora here, a master sorcerer; they usually worked under Yuuki but were serving as assistants to Gadora in their current investigations.
They had explained all this to me, and after Gadora was done, he took this pose, Shinji and the gang copying him. We weren’t gonna get anywhere like this.
“Yeah, um… That’s about what I figured with you guys, I guess. But we can’t really get comfortable and talk if you’re posing like that, okay? Let’s move somewhere else.”
Shion nodded. “Lift your heads,” she intoned, sounding grumpy for some reason. This is why I hate royal audiences like this—I know I’m gonna mess up my manners somehow. I’d prefer to just skip the whole thing.
“A-as you wish!!”
Given all that exaggerated shouting, I was starting to dread our meeting.
So we relocated to a reception room—a plainer one. I tended to prefer this one; over in the fancier chamber, the furniture and stuff were so high-end that I was afraid I’d break or ruin something. One false move with a full teacup, and it’d be liable to stain the fancy carpet we had in there. In my heart, I was still just another common peon, and I preferred surroundings within my means. It appeared Shinji’s party was the same way; they looked a bit more cheerful than before.
“Which do you like more,” I casually asked, “tea or coffee?”
“Uh, um, coffee, please.”
“Shinjiiiii!!” Gadora shouted. I spent a few moments calming him down.
“And you, Gadora?”
“M-me? Well, um, I’ll have what Shinji’s having.”
Oh? Don’t they have coffee in the Empire? I figured they would, but maybe there’s not that much in circulation. Turning toward Marc and Zhen, they simply nodded back at me—they were okay with the same thing, I supposed.
“Okay, four American blends, Shuna!”
“A-American?!” Gadora yelped.
“Oh, did you want something stronger? Dark roast, maybe? Or you wanna try it Tempest style?”
“N-no, um, I didn’t mean it like that, but… Ah…”
“Oh?”
“S-Sir Rimuru, would you happen to be…an otherworlder?”
“Um, yeah…?”
That’s the question he has? Because if so, he clearly hasn’t done his homework. I sized the four of them up, but only Gadora had an “oh crap” look on his face. I guess the other three knew but forgot to tell him. Ah well.
“Now, how about we get down to business?”
Shuna laid out the coffee cups on the table, along with enough milk and sugar for everyone. Leaving Shinji and his friends to watch in wonder at this, I decided to address Gadora first. He gave Shinji a spiteful look after he exclaimed “Oh, this coffee’s really good!” but I was kind enough to overlook this.
“Well, to tell you the truth, I am something of a veteran reincarnate as well.”
…Hmm. Lord Gadora certainly kicked things off with a bombshell. The other three turned toward him, looking just as surprised.
Apparently Gadora, in his mission to master the magical arts, had reincarnated himself many times over an untold number of years. With every rebirth, he’d read through the secret libraries of this or that royal palace, allowing him to build a vast store of knowledge. He came to know Adalmann in the midst of this clandestine sorcery research, and the two became close friends.
“As I mentioned earlier, I had a personal vendetta against the Western Holy Church—one I kindled after my best friend Adalmann was killed. Thus, over the course of centuries, I crafted my plans and coaxed the Empire into doing my bidding.”
Gadora gave me his personal history. After Adalmann was put into a trap, he swore revenge, headed into the Empire alone, and gradually built up his reputation. He had experienced battle against Veldora as well—certainly, he’d led a far more eventful life than I thought.
“In hindsight, I’m honestly glad I completed my reincarnation ritual before we challenged him. I always wanted to see for myself the ultimate in evil, the worst nature could create…”
Only four True Dragons had ever been born. They sat at the precipice of monster-dom, the most powerful beings on the planet. Based on his experience battling one of them, he didn’t think the imperial army was likely to ever beat Veldora. He was, of course, saying this right in front of the guy, who was already shooting me gleeful sidelong glances. I wish he’d stop. Yeah, it’s amazing and all, but it’s not like I was obliged to keep praising him over it.
“I do think, mind you, that we could have scored a tactical victory against Sir Veldora. But those fools in the Empire insisted on trying to win that beast over to our side. I warned them, time and time again, that it was an impossible waste of time.”
Gadora’s interests were fixed squarely upon the West and his revenge against Luminism, and he didn’t want to waste good soldiers on pointless campaigns. He attempted to prevail upon his superiors how unrealistic their hopes were, but the commanders refused to listen, overvaluing themselves far too much.
Hearing all this, Gadora sounded like a pretty stand-up guy. But Gadora was also the one who fanned the Empire’s lust for expansion, it seemed. I asked him to spare me all the details and skip to more recent trends.
“So for the most part, the Empire’s trying to start a war because of you?”
“That… That’s part of it, you could say…”
No, old man—you can try talking your way around it, but you had to be the cause. He quickly began making excuses, perhaps sensing my displeasure.
“But… But no! The Empire has always had that will to dominate, you see. If I didn’t give that lust for power a direction, they would’ve fanned the flames of war all over the world. All I did was turn their eyes toward the West. Their goals matched with mine, you could say. It was a good arrangement…I thought…”
Oh, like hell it was! And now we’re mixed up in it for no reason?
“And let me tell you, I was against invading the Forest of Jura. It is the domain of Sir Veldora, the Storm Dragon, and I didn’t want to repeat our mistakes from before. I suggested they devote their efforts toward scheming against the Dwarven Kingdom instead, but they can be so stubborn, all of them. They try to use military might to solve all their problems…”
Gadora sounded pained about it. I didn’t care.
“Wait a minute! So the Empire does want to hit the Dwarven Kingdom?!”
I had pretty much discounted it. But did we need to consider a campaign route through Dwargon after all?
“You thought about that, too? Well, it’s nothing as concrete as wanting to ‘hit’ them, exactly. My suggestion was to propose an alliance with King Gazel, so he’d allow us to march through the kingdom. My only grudge was with the Western Holy Church, remember…”
The old sorcerer was already aware that Adalmann was safe. They would be meeting after our talk was done—and that’s why Gadora, realizing just how badly he whiffed on all of this, had switched to an antiwar stance. He was on friendly terms with the emperor, he claimed, but not even he could ask him to withdraw their military plans. Instead, he kept pleading his case against the war in subsequent government-level meetings.
This attitude seemed a little too convenient for my tastes, but if Gadora could help us avoid war, I was willing to bite my tongue. Either way, I wanted to get as much out of him as I could right now. As I did, Benimaru and my other officers were in the next room over, listening in and holding their own strategic conference. My job was to make Gadora as comfortable—and loose-lipped—as possible.
“I imagine King Gazel turned you down, huh?”
“As one would expect, I suppose. Some of our commanders considered an assassination attempt, but I spoke up against that. If we were prepared to do that, I said, we may as well crush them with an all-out assault!”
It didn’t strike me as anything to be proud of. He was more of a warmonger than I thought.
I rolled my eyes a bit but kept extracting more info from him. The Empire’s military structure, the thoughts of their leading officers…even the astonishing news that Yuuki was planning a coup. All this assured me that I was getting pretty much everything Gadora could provide.
Finally, seemingly at ease, Gadora opened up to me.
“Let me assure you, Sir Rimuru, that I bear no particular sense of duty toward the Empire. They broke up the army division I personally built from scratch and took all my men away from me. This group with me—Shinji, Marc, and Zhen—are my personal apprentices, so I’m allowed to turn to them as needed. But in the end, if Adalmann is alive and well…or um, well, at least…then I have no attachment left to the Empire.”
He was an egocentric, self-centered old man, not a shred of loyalty in his heart, and he wasn’t afraid to admit it. I had to hand it to him—I wasn’t about to say it out loud, but I kind of respected that attitude.
“So with that in mind, Sir Rimuru, if I may have the honor of joining your cause, I am ready to exert myself as best as I can!”
Right after admitting his utter lack of loyalty, he was courageous enough to ask for a spot in my administration. I gotta admit, I liked the guy. But Benimaru and some others were in the next room hearing all this. I could already picture them losing their temper over Gadora’s attitude. It was gonna be hard to calm them down later.
Still, that didn’t stop me from bringing Gadora on as a guest adviser, albeit on a probationary basis. If he wanted to join me, I’d make him work for the right. He certainly wasn’t gonna be too loyal to me, but I’d see how he could pitch in.
For now, I was okay with him meeting Adalmann and using a Transport spell to access Floor 70. His knowledge could help us out a lot—maybe he could assist Ramiris. But before he settled down in Tempest, I planned to have him return to the Empire and do a little job for me.
As for Shinji and company, I’d allow them to remain here in Tempest. They told me they’d take it easy for a while as they figured out what they wanted to do. This was their request, made under Gadora’s advice, and I had no reason to turn it down. If they turned traitor, I could always banish them—but I guess they really didn’t want that, because they readily pledged their loyalty to me. However, they also professed a great respect for Yuuki and asked not to be involved in any hostilities against him. I was okay with that.
“Really,” I said, “the relationship between us and Yuuki’s people is so complicated. We kinda have a truce for the moment is the way I’d put it. He’s pissed me off a lot, and I’d like to get back at him, honestly, but I can’t really will myself to hate his guts, either.”
Despite it all, Yuuki was still Shizu’s student. And whenever I recalled how happy Shizu seemed when she talked about him, I couldn’t help but cut the guy some slack. Maybe I was too soft on him, but hey, we’re fellow countrymen. There’d be no more second chances, but for now, I’d put our past history on ice. If you asked me to trust him, however, that was another story. Trusting that bastard at this point was nothing but a death wish.
“And you know, guys, I don’t think you should trust Yuuki too much, either.”
Gadora nodded at this, interestingly enough. Guess he had his own thoughts about Yuuki, too. They were acquaintances and partners at one point, so maybe Gadora could be a good go-between for us. I was starting to think recruiting him was a pretty smart idea. If he didn’t excessively trust Yuuki, either, I could at least believe him on that point.
Later, I reunited Gadora with Adalmann, the two of them fondly reminiscing. Adalmann consented to take him in, so for the time being, I’d let them live together.
But before he did…now that I had all the info I wanted from Gadora, I ordered him to return to the Empire and follow my instructions. First, he’d advocate against the war for me.
“You think you can do that?”
“By all means, Sir Rimuru. I am used to behind-the-scenes maneuvering, trust me.”
I’m sure he was. But normally, it’d be impossible for a single person to stop the will of an entire state. It’s not that I didn’t believe Gadora, but I figured it best to give him a plan B as well.
“If you can stop the war, that’d be best…but from what I’m hearing, that sounds like an uphill battle. You said the Empire’s got an expansionist streak, right? If they’re on the move, we can’t really stop them now.”
“But…”
“So if that winds up not working out, I want you to point ’em at this labyrinth.”
“How do you mean?”
In the labyrinth, we could take all the casualties in the world and still not have a problem. That led me to this idea.
“I see… So you’d use the labyrinth to chip away at the imperial forces and break their morale?”
“Pretty much. And I’m sure Yuuki’s gonna use that opportunity to act as well. If he starts a riot back home, the Empire can’t really keep a war going, can they?”
I wasn’t sure how well it’d all work out—but in the labyrinth, at least, we were guaranteed not to lose anyone. I explained all this to Gadora, giving him some labyrinth equipment and three Resurrection Bracelets. He could use this, I figured, to sell the Dungeon to the commanders for us. No army wanted to be attacked from the rear. I doubted they were going to ignore the labyrinth and march on to the West, but if we could dangle some rewards in front of their eyes…
“Ah, I understand. A very astute way of thinking—and I know a few commanders greedy enough to take the bait. I think you can expect results from this scheme, Sir Rimuru.”
So Gadora accepted it with full confidence. If possible, we’d stop the war. If not, we’d divert them into the labyrinth. The rest was up to him.
Thus I granted Gadora and his three apprentices asylum—and with these new, unexpected allies, the incident came to a close.

12.5

Upon realizing there were intruders in his domain, Adalmann the Immortal King let a smile cross his fleshless lips. His teeth softly scraped together, making a light clattering sound. It might’ve been hard to tell, but this was Adalmann’s take on a villainous grin.
“You seem to be in a good mood, Lord Adalmann.”
This was Alberto speaking, a former paladin and Adalmann’s closest associate, following in his footsteps even after his boss fell into a trap and died. After joining Rimuru’s force, Alberto had been demoted all the way down to skeletal fighter, about as low-level a monster as you could be, but at least he wasn’t rubbed out entirely. He normally wouldn’t be able to speak at all, but he demonstrated perfect fluency. Why? Simple—the Alberto of right now was no longer a plain old skeleton. He wasn’t even a death knight, several rungs up the ladder. No, he was a Death Paladin, far above either of those—and while he was a wight and possessed no material body, he looked just the same as before death. True, he was rather pale, and there were blue will-o’-the-wisps floating around him, so it was clear he wasn’t living and breathing, but regardless.
Adalmann, meanwhile, had no particular attachment to his flesh body—in fact, he rather liked being nothing but a skeleton. But Alberto didn’t share his view, and given how his magical force far surpassed a regular death knight’s, he had the ability to freely construct whatever body he wanted from magicules. And Alberto had both an affinity for and a sense of pride in his old appearance, a fresh and energetic-looking (or as energetic as a ghoul could appear) young man. This body was protected by an ominous-looking set of armor, making it clear at one glance that Alberto wasn’t to be trifled with.
“Yes, Alberto. A very good mood. It seems we have guests.”
Alberto nodded gleefully. “Ah. So our moment is here at last?”
They knew each other so intimately by this point that few words were needed.
“Indeed. The time has finally come—time to serve the demon lord who granted us this peaceful abode. With as much power as we’ve been given, you know that mistakes will not be permitted.”
“Of course not. I, Alberto, am fully aware of that.”
“Hee-hee-hee… Forgive me for repeating myself, then. All this excitement must be loosening my tongue.”
The two looked at each other and smiled. Then another joined in.
“Groorrrrggghh!!”
A bloodcurdling scream echoed across the city of the dead.
“Ah, I see we’re not the only excited ones here. Very well. Today you will have an occasion to fully unfurl your powers. Prove your loyalty to our god!”
Quietly, but thickly, the area was awash in the incoming trio’s ardor. Adalmann’s faith had died once, only to be reconquered by his new god—the demon lord Rimuru. It had been several months since tasting bitter defeat. He hoped fervently that he could help Rimuru, and so in just those few months, Adalmann had regained his powers as a wight king, more powerful than even at the pinnacle of his career. That was how deep his faith extended.To Rimuru, of course, this faith was as excessive as it was stifling. In fact, he had already thought Sorry, guys, but you don’t have a chance and pinned his expectations on the next guardian—but Adalmann didn’t know that, and he was eager to fight.
This time, for sure—and every time after this—defeat was not an option. He had to win—and continue winning. And so Adalmann and his cohorts waited for the foolish intruders who would come at any moment, carefully discussing their strategy as they anticipated what was to come.
An intense battle began…and ended in an instant.
Well, really, I’d like to call it intense, but in fact it was so one-sided that it left my mouth agape. I’d even brought along a deck of cards in case things got boring midway, but I never had to bust them out.
In the end, Adalmann simply dominated. It was a stark, vivid victory, one I could hardly believe I was watching. The challengers were hardly pushovers; they weren’t sick or injured. They were in perfect health and enthusiastic to start fighting…but Adalmann’s team performed above them in every way.
Statistically speaking, this wasn’t a mismatch. I had finished analyzing the challengers’ skills, and they looked stronger than Adalmann. All three of them merited an over-A rank, and each one boasted their own unique skill.
Shingee’s in particular was Restorer, quite a rare one. It granted him control over the structures of tiny viruses, letting him destroy living creatures from the inside. He could even modify the composition of the air around him to create lethal, contagious viral clouds. It was pretty crazy, really. Could any living thing deal with that? Like, unless you could detect these clouds of pathogens you’d need a microscope to see, you had no chance of beating Shingee. That, and he could use this to heal people, too, even more efficiently than medical nanomachines. The all-purpose flexibility Restorer offered was just amazing.
Next, Marc’s power was derived from his unique skill Hurler. It allowed him to throw anything he could hold in his hands like a javelin—really, anything he could lift up, including monsters. Combine it with gravity-control magic, and he’d be more of a threat than nearly any mass-based weapon; I’d say the skill was more suited for effectively taking on entire armies instead of single targets.
Finally, Zhen’s unique skill was a kind of mix of useful tools. The unique skill Observer allowed him to instinctively dodge threats, detect danger and traps, and discover monsters and other presences before they appeared. He could even pick up on Shingee’s viral clouds. All this was combined with Zhen’s own fighting abilities, which made him capable of evading or fleeing just about anything. He was fast, he was nimble, and traps basically didn’t work on him—the mortal enemy of any labyrinth.
That about summed it up. It was a real buffet of sweet-looking skills, and I’d definitely be gaining some inspiration from them. Each one was a huge boon by itself, but they also worked so well with one another—the real key to this trio’s record-making run. I don’t think I could be blamed for assuming they’d steamroll right over Adalmann.
But I was wrong. Turns out Adalmann had spent the past few months getting buff, so to speak.
I mean, normally, a non-sentient monster would never really change in terms of fighting ability from what it’s originally granted. If it could survive several decades or so, you’d see some improvement then, but the process took more than a few years, at least. And then we have Adalmann and Alberto here.
“…Like, what is this? How did these guys get so powerful?!”
And also, what the heck’s up with that dragon?
Peeking into the boss chamber, I spotted Adalmann, Albert…and an evil-looking dragon I had never seen before, nearly forty feet in length and oozing a deadly looking miasma from its mouth. Who the hell dragged that in? Something clearly had been going on while I was out on my international tour.
“Heh-heh-heh! Surprised, aren’tcha? I kinda kept this from you on purpose, but y’know how you gave those guys some new equipment? Well, they really dug that stuff, so they’ve been working extremely hard on their training! And um, you know how high the magicule levels are across the Dungeon, right? Well, they’ve been absorbing some of it, and now Adalmann and Alberto have regained their old powers!”
Ramiris sounded like a guy on a prank video revealing everything to the victim. And—yeah, taking a closer look, Adalmann had evolved from wight to wight king. He was still a skeleton, and his gear was just as gaudy as ever, so I didn’t notice at first, but his magical power was off the charts now. Alberto, meanwhile, had skipped death knight entirely and now was a Death Paladin, a super-high-level monster.
“Wight kings and Death Paladins have magicule levels about even with an Arch Demon, don’t they…?” I said.
“Kwaaah-ha-ha-ha! Look at these meek little underlings, striving so hard to be of aid to us!”
They made evolution sound so easy—and what’s more, they powered up beyond anything I could’ve guessed.
“What about that dragon?”
“Oh, didn’t you know, Rimuru? That’s Adalmann’s pet!” Ramiris announced.
Pet…?
Hmm… Come to think of it, I did remember Adalmann talking about keeping a pet, maybe. I just didn’t expect it to be this wicked-looking dragon. It was, in fact, a death dragon, the alpha predator of the undead-monster hierarchy. Shuna and the rest of the cabinet were familiar with it, apparently, so Ramiris honestly thought I knew as well. That was my fault, I suppose. It’s so important to have everybody on the same page in upper management.
So as for how this battle unfolded… Well, there’s really not much to say. In fact, Adalmann didn’t even move an inch from his throne, and the death dragon stayed ensconced on his left side. Only Alberto stepped forward, and he beat all of them himself. Marc’s Minos Bardiche wasn’t even given the time to strut its stuff—it was stopped in its tracks by the similarly Unique-class Cursed Sword, and Marc was promptly slashed down afterward.
The sight stopped Zhen in his tracks, leaving him open for a moment, and Alberto seized the opportunity. His speed made him almost seem to disappear for a moment as he unleashed upon Zhen, and that by itself spelled the end for him.
This made Shingee mutter “Huh?” in surprise. He scrambled toward Alberto, blasting out a Holy Cannon magic spell. This was a common ability among paladins, but not many civilians had access to it—Shingee didn’t mention any paladin training in his immigration papers, so I imagine it was a hidden last resort for him.
This spell was suited for speed, and it landed a clean, direct hit on Alberto. It seemed like he dodged it for a moment, but maybe Alberto let his guard down—or so I thought. But I had no reason to worry. Alberto simply didn’t move, because he had no need to evade it.
Shingee managed to squeak out an “Oh, come on!” before Alberto swung his sword down upon him. Then it was all over.
But… I mean, Alberto’s still undead, right? Isn’t he weak against the holy attribute? I know I’m not the only one to think that—but Alberto was kept safe, and it was entirely thanks to Adalmann. It turned out to be his previously hidden extra skill, known as Holy-Evil Inversion, at work.
Report. Holy-Evil Inversion is a secret skill crafted by the subject Adalmann. It has the effect of swapping the holy attribute with the evil one and vice versa.
Adalmann used this to change Alberto’s attribute from evil to holy. The effect didn’t extend to his equipment, but since Alberto was undead, there wasn’t any life force for his cursed gear to suck away, so his elemental attribute didn’t matter along those lines. Plus, if an ally applied that skill to him, there was no chance of his body resisting it.
A holy undead? What kind of joke was this? It was unholy, if anything, but Adalmann’s Holy-Evil Inversion made it a reality. And as a spiritual life-form, Adalmann had natural resistances to each kind of elemental attack. Most melee strikes didn’t work on him. As a duo, they had also overcome their weakness against holy attacks. Really, I didn’t see how any normal dungeon-runner team could take them.
So Adalmann won, and without even using any of the magic I taught him. Shingee’s team was defeated in truly anticlimactic fashion, fading into clouds of light before departing the chamber.
“Rimuru, my lord, were you watching us? We dedicate this glorious victory to you!!”
Watching Adalmann shout this dedication at the top of his nonexistent lungs, a thought occurred: Isn’t Adalmann’s gang a little too much force to bust out for Floor 60?
I mean, yeah, I did tell him that if a party approached, he should fight back with a party of his own. He certainly took that advice to heart, and he certainly didn’t try to outnumber his opponent, no. But this is getting pretty close to fraud. Like, come on! If you have a special-A monster, a Calamity-level threat—and three of them at once—you could destroy a lot of the smaller kingdoms out there! And by the looks of things, they still had some other tricks they were hiding, too.
So I decided to interrogate Ramiris about that later. For now, I needed to offer Adalmann my congratulations.
“Well done, Adalmann! Why don’t you come up to the control room? No need to talk through the screen like this.”
“Oh, ohhhh…! Such a joyous honor! I will be by your side posthaste, my lord!”
As stiflingly formal as always. Well, that’s how he is, I suppose.
“And Alberto can talk as well these days, huh? Can you bring him along?”
“Very well. As for my death dragon…?”
“Um, let’s have it keep guard over there, okay?”
“Yes, my lord!”
The death dragon whimpered a bit about that, but I had to stand firm on this. I mean, it’s freakin’ forty feet long. Maybe we could fit him in the special chamber we made for Veldora on Floor 100, but this control room just ain’t that big. I felt kinda bad for the guy, but he’d have to give up on that.
So I ordered Shion to make some tea for Adalmann and Alberto.
“Can he drink it?” she asked. “He’s nothing but bones.”
“…”
Rrrrr…ight. Yeah. Looks like Alberto found a body, kind of, but Adalmann’s still nothing but a skeleton. Maybe he can enjoy the aroma, at least?
“Well, this is… You know. A polite gesture for him.”
“I see. Very well!”
We chatted a bit more as we waited for their arrival.
“We are here, Sir Rimuru!”
“I offer you my sincere gratitude for the honor of personally experiencing your holy visage.”
Adalmann and Alberto both kneeled before me. In person like this instead of through the screen, I realized just how much more powerful they were now—I could hardly believe they were the same people as before.
“Yes. Well done. Alberto was your name, was it? You have proved to be quite an effective fighter. And, Adalmann—you have done an exemplary job as a guardian. Keep up the good work!”
“That’s right! Keep it up!”
Veldora and Ramiris heaped praise on them before I could speak up. If they got to give out all the praise first, I wasn’t too sure what I should follow up with…but let’s just keep it benign.
“Yeah, I tell you… It’s been a while since I’ve seen you guys, so I’m kinda shocked at how much you’ve grown.”
Grown…or I suppose “evolved” is the right term, isn’t it? That trio was pretty strong, so I seriously thought they’d struggle…but no, I better not say that. Sometimes, there are things better thought than stated out loud.
““Yes, my lord!!””
Both of them were visibly moved. I had them sit down, trying to hide my pangs of guilt.
“Truly… Truly a fine aroma,” said Alberto. “If offered by anyone else, I might have taken it as sarcasm, perhaps…”
Oh yeah? Hmm. Shoulda seen that coming. If you can’t drink it, it’s just unfair, isn’t it?
“…but when offered by my lord, I find the scent deeply satisfying for my heart. It has truly rejuvenated my body.”
Well, great, but Shion made it, so…
“…How delicious. Sweet—and fragrant like nectar. I, Alberto, cannot offer enough gratitude for this wondrous moment of bliss.”
Geez, don’t lay it on too much…
I guess Alberto had built a physical body for himself with magicules—a kind of temporary vessel, made possible inside the labyrinth.
“Why don’t you take on a full body as well, Adalmann?” I asked.
“…Pardon me?”
“Well, I mean, then you could enjoy that tea more, so…”
“Y-yes, perhaps, my lord, but in my case… Well, I prefer to project a certain image, you could say…”
Uh-huh. That was kinda over my head, but if it was important to Adalmann, it’s nothing I have a right to comment on.
“Fair. No need to force it, in that case.”
I changed the subject.
“By the way, I was really impressed by how you approached using Holy-Evil Inversion. The fact that you developed it at all shows me how hard you’ve been working.”
“Thank you very much! Sir Beretta provided me with some assistance. And also…”
I asked about Holy-Evil Inversion as a quick way to shift the topic, but this was actually pretty surprising. It turned out that even Luminus lent him a hand.
“Lady Luminus taught me Day-Night Inversion, one of her secret techniques, you see. An ‘apology,’ as she referred to it. Sir Beretta then applied his unique skill Reverser to modify it, and then I was able to master it.”
And there you have it. I suppose Luminus was “apologizing” for letting the Seven Days Clergy act out of line.
Why was Granville trying to kill someone as talented as Adalmann? I had my own reasoning for that. Outside of Granville, the Seven Days Clergy members were all obsessed about keeping their positions safe from threats. They were all trying to eliminate Adalmann, but Granville must’ve reasoned that he’d only be useful if he could overcome the trap they set for him. Instead, Adalmann and that dragon zombie killed each other off—something Granville may not have intended. Maybe his perspective was along the lines of “Well, if you can’t beat an enemy at that level, you’ll never become a guardian of humankind anyway” or the like. Seeing Granville’s final moments—supremely proud but all alone in life—I couldn’t help but think that.
Still, it wouldn’t be right to bring it up with Adalmann. It’s something I’d like him to realize himself someday—but for now, time for another subject change.
“Well, that’s wonderful! I’ll have to send Luminus my thanks later on. But, Adalmann!”
“Yes!”
“At this point, you can beat the guardian of Floor 70, can’t you?”
“…How do you mean, my lord?”
He seemed confused, so I spelled it out for him in detail.
………
……
…
Currently, Floors 61 through 70 were nicknamed the Golem Zone, filled with inorganic, tirelessly working sentries. Some of the specialized area bosses on those floors even wielded test versions of the firearms we were working on. There were also a lot of brutal traps, headed up primarily by land mines—but none of them were particularly lethal. The zone was overall meant as a trial for people playing the healer role in adventuring parties.
The main boss of this zone was a new machine, a modified version of the Elemental Colossus. Vester had finally completed it with the help of Kaijin. It still boasted the high defense magisteel offered, but now it was lighter and more compact, making it mobile while keeping the pilot’s seat fully protected. It wasn’t sentient, but it had room for a pilot inside, although it could also run on the thoughts of a remote pilot.
At the moment, I believed Beretta was operating it remotely. I liked that—it certainly eliminated the threat of viral cloud attacks, and not even a Minos Bardiche could cut through a magisteel body. Its armor also featured a layered structure, the shielding scales from Charybdis granting it the powers of Magic Interference.
It was a completely invincible metal guardian—once the Elemental Colossus, now called the Demon Colossus. And I was fully sure Shingee’s party would never make it past Floor 70.
………
……
…
However, after seeing how Adalmann fought today, I was starting to reconsider matters.
“Veldora, who do you think’s stronger—Adalmann or the Demon Colossus?”
“Hmm… Adalmann, without a doubt.”
“Right? So you see, Adalmann, we’re going to promote you to Floor 70.”
There you go. If Veldora agreed with me, I couldn’t be mistaken.
Understood. The power comparison between the subjects Adalmann and the Demon Colossus is—
Oh, um, I don’t need the numbers, thanks. This is more about image, so…
“Ah, ahhhhhhhh…!! I, Adalmann, promise to expend every effort to live up to your expectations!”
“And I, your humble servant Alberto, promise to support my master, Adalmann, with every fiber of my being.”
They kneeled before me again as they made their pledges. They had changed so much when I’d taken my eyes off them. The Demon Colossus was hardly any slouch, but honestly, it didn’t really have the gravitas a boss needed. That, and if it got broken again, it’d just break our hearts. We have to implant it with a soul, or it wouldn’t be subject to Ramiris’s powers in the Dungeon, so we can’t experiment to see if it’d get resurrected after being smashed up. Maybe with a soul, things would be different—or if there was a pilot inside it, would that work? Oh, but if someone was possessing it, maybe it wouldn’t be treated as an item any longer…
Regardless, we sadly had no plans along those lines yet. I thus saw no reason why we shouldn’t promote Adalmann and his crew.
“All right! Then as of today, I want to have Floors 51 through 60 switched with Floors 61 through 70.”
“Roger! You got it!” said Ramiris.
And so we restructured the labyrinth right then and there.
Following Adalmann’s exemplary performance, the Dungeon had a new hierarchy. That took care of matters for now, so I was about to order Adalmann out of the control room when the previously silent Diablo spoke up.
“We seem to be at the end of the conversation, so I have something I’d like to report to you.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, my servant Razen sent a magical call stating that he has something to urgently discuss with you. It seems his former instructor or the like called upon him, and now this man is asking for an audience with you, Sir Rimuru. His name is Gadora.”
Hmm… Never heard of him.
Report. He is listed as the author of a number of books on sorcery.
Oh, he’s famous, huh? I thought Razen was a pretty well-known and talented sorcerer himself, but his master must be even more so, huh? Kinda interesting. I wouldn’t mind meeting him, but…
“Wouldn’t that be a trap, though? We’re on the eve of duking it out with the Empire, so a meeting at this point seems really suspicious, I think…”
“Exactly! There is no need at all for you to meet with such a dubious person, Sir Rimuru!”
Shion was even more doubtful than I was—and I could see why. Given the times we lived in, if my personal guardian wanted to keep me away from danger—well, she was just doing her job. I wasn’t nearly as wary as her, so I figured it was better to listen to my advisers for matters like these.
“Indeed… I see no need to lend an ear to the opinions of someone on the level of Razen. In fact, I hardly even need to listen to him at all.”
Diablo made this sound like an accepted fact, but I was sure he just wanted to be excused from all this. Regardless, if both of my personal secretaries were advising me against it, I was ready to call this off—but then I noticed Adalmann fidgeting a bit. Yeah, I understood how he felt. Sometimes, just when you’re about to leave your boss’s office, a phone call or unexpected visitor comes along. You don’t want to interfere, but you don’t want to just walk out on the boss, either…so you’re stuck there, helplessly watching the clock tick away. Or is it just me?
Regardless…
“Sorry, Adalmann. That’s all I needed from you, so you guys can leave.”
“N-no, my lord! There is no need to be concerned about us. But apart from that…”
“Hmm?”
“To tell the truth, I…um…”
“Yes?”
“This man, Gadora, that you speak of…”
“Mm-hmm?”
“I believe this may perhaps be a friend of mine.”
“Huh?”
I turned my eyes to Adalmann. He was shifting a bit in his seat, looking flustered. I almost wanted to say No, Adalmann, you’re allowed to have friends. I don’t think you’ve betrayed me…
So I asked Diablo to hold his opinion for now while Adalmann gave me more details. He and Gadora, as he put it, were close friends over a thousand years ago. I figured he’d have to be long dead in that case, but Gadora was a master-level wizard, so it wouldn’t be unheard of if he wove his own magic to extend his life. After all, this was the very man who cast Reincarnation on Adalmann to save him.
Adalmann also recognized the name Razen; as he recalled, he was one of Gadora’s primary apprentices. We kept discussing them for a while, and as we did, it was increasingly clear this Gadora wanting to see me was the exact same guy.
“Diablo?”
“Understood. I will arrange a date and time.”
Such a talented secretary. All I had to do was call his name, and he instantly recognized my intentions. My not-so-talented other secretary had no objections, so I decided to go ahead and give Gadora a tryout.
With their defeat on Floor 60, Shinji’s party got to experience returning from death for the very first time. They woke up to find a large audience thanking them, cheering them, booing them, even reassuring them that they couldn’t have avoided that loss. Their battles in the labyrinth were broadcast live, and Shinji’s conquest was turning into a popular diversion.
Dungeon challengers, of course, had the right to turn down any recording or broadcast of their exploits—it was a purely optional contract to sign. But Shinji had two reasons to go through with it—one, they got a cut of the broadcast fees; and two, they figured becoming famous would help keep them safe. They were in enemy territory, so if they became known names, it’d be that much harder for someone to assassinate them—and since the contract only allowed their boss fights to be broadcast, they didn’t have to be on edge the entire time.
It looked like the contract would be pretty lucrative for them, besides, so Shinji had no reason to turn it down. The same was true for his companions, so Shinji signed on the dotted line…and the result was this huge crowd greeting them now.
“Boy, that was too bad! Hope you train up a little more and try again!”
“Man, those guys never stood a chance. What kind of monsters were those anyway? He swung that sword like it was a twig…and what about that skeleton on the throne? Some kinda legendary monster?”
“It was probably a wight king. The earth-shattering ruler of the dead. Not even an Arch Demon could take him!”
“Whoa. So was that dragon alive or not, though? It didn’t look like a statue or anything, but if it could’ve joined the battle, too, I don’t think any human being had a chance in there.”
The questions came hard and fast from the audience. Shinji’s party just smiled and waved as they found their way out of there.
“Well, I’m gonna keep my eye on you heroes!”
“You’re all gonna be in the record books alongside Sir Masayuki now! If you wanna beat that boss, you better find a way quick while Sir Masayuki’s preparing for the war!”
“Yeah, I got money down on you guys doing it, so keep it up!”
The voices remained just as loud behind their backs as they retired to their inn.
Once they reached their room, the three of them flopped down on their beds.
“So now what’re we gonna do?” Marc asked.
“Who cares?” an utterly exhausted Shinji replied. “Just lemme rest a bit.”
They put everything they had into that boss battle…but it made everything up to Floor 59 look like preschool. On Floor 60, even the non-boss adversaries worked with a clear command structure—the sentient Death Lord they encountered led a team of fighters into battle. They managed to beat him and make it to the boss chamber, but what ensued in there was just wretched.
“…You gonna report back to Yuuki?”
Zhen’s reminder made Shinji get up. He sat down on the bed, sighing, as Marc and Zhen picked themselves up and sat around him.
“I don’t really know what we can report. We had no idea that side-quest zone was gonna be so hard.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad up to Floor 59, but what the hell was up with 60? A Death Lord with a whole platoon of death knights—like, they had a whole army loaded up for us in there! Any normal soldier would’ve had his ass kicked in the blink of an eye!”
“I know.”
“…That was awful. Everything got so well defended on that floor. And those three bosses—not just the knight who beat us, but the skeleton on the throne and the dragon… Those had to be secret bosses, I think.”
Now they were lost in conversation, too excited to worry too much about each other. The easy-breezy atmosphere up to yesterday had disappeared in under twenty-four hours.
“And that boss sittin’ on the throne… That was a wight king, you know. I guess someone with high-level appraisal magic managed to identify it…but it’s so different from how it looks on-screen!”
“One hundred percent,” Marc said in agreement with Shinji. “Having that show up when we were totally unprepared for it… How could we even deal?”
“…Honestly, I never wanna see it again.”
Zhen’s companions were on the same page. And the wight king didn’t even participate in the battle. It didn’t move from the throne—just sat there, exuding royal dignity.
“I mean, that minotaur guy seemed like a ‘regular’ boss, y’know? He was around an A in strength. But wasn’t Floor 60 way too much of a step up?”
“…Yeah. Too much. I’m starting to think everything up to Floor 50 was meant to put us off our guard.”
“But now I’m really sure of it,” avowed Shinji. “If monsters that strong are protecting it, there’s got to be something in that maze.”
“Yeah. That Alberto guy was just way out of our league.”
“Even his equipment! I tried appraising it while Marc engaged him, but it was all Unique from head to toe.”
“Ah, that explains it. I came in figuring my Minos Bardiche could cleave right through all that.”
“I guess weapons you pick up from treasure chests work well on the next boss only in RPGs, huh…?”
“Well, yeah. I think we got too full of ourselves in there.”
“…Yeah.”
They looked at each other and heaved a sigh in unison. Now they were a bit calmer. It was time for some tea and a moment to catch their breath.
“Wanna try again tomorrow?”
“Are you serious?”
“…Not against them. We’d lose every time.”
“Yeah…”
“Also, that ‘hero’ talk… Yuuki mentioned Masayuki to us before, right? Like, that kid who has incredible good luck and nothing else? And he took on Floor 60?”
“I don’t think he has yet, no. His party advanced down pretty easily as well, but they say he’s never died yet in there.”
“Oh. Has any other party tried it?”
“The chatter I heard said the top runners are all tackling Floor 50 at the moment, but none of them signed broadcast deals, so until now, Masayuki had the best public record. Beyond that, there’s a few broadcasting parties stuck on Floor 40.”
Signing a contract didn’t mean you were watched inside the Dungeon at all times. The cameras were only situated in the boss rooms every ten floors, and occasionally camera crews would follow you around for special events and so on. Thus, thanks to being the first team to Floor 60, Shinji’s party became the big celebrities of the moment—and with the way they kept rewriting records, people were starting to place bets on them.
“Y’know, I’m willing to bet Masayuki got tipped off. He probably knows Floor 60’s home to a secret boss.”
“I guess we shoulda expected to lose, then. Like, two guys at that level, plus a dragon? This labyrinth is so unbalanced.”
“…It was pretty well-balanced until Floor 50. I really do think that was meant as a hidden boss. The hidden town’s probably right past that.”
So they continued talking and consoling themselves for a while, before moving on to their future plans.
“You know, guys, if we’ve got crowds cheering for us in this city, I don’t think we can really do any kinda spy work.”
“Nah, nah, that’s not a big problem. Like I said, we’re safer this way.”
“…All we’ve done is go into the labyrinth so far.”
“So should we wait for Lord Gadora to show up? Because I think we hit a pretty big dead end down there. Or,” Marc said with a grin, “you wanna try training or something?”
Shinji chuckled. “Well, there’s definitely something past that chamber, and the guardian’s way stronger than anything else we saw. I think I can report that much to Yuuki.”
“Tell him how big the labyrinth is, too. It must’ve been magically expanded or something, because it’s way too large and deep to be man-made.”
“…And don’t forget, he was far stronger than anything on any other floor.”
Shinji meekly nodded at Marc and Zhen. “Right, right. Okay, once I’m done with my report, you guys wanna tour around some more?”
There was no need to spend any more time talking about it. The three of them mentally flipped the page as they went out into the night.
Their first stop was a secluded spot outside of town, where they made their report as agreed upon. After sending the summary report to Yuuki, they received a magical call from him about ten minutes later.
“Hey. Glad you’re doing okay.”
“Well, we were until last night, but today was awful for us.”
“Ha-ha-ha! Yeah, sounds like you guys got your asses kicked. So what are you up to next?”
“I think it’ll depend on Lord Gadora. We’ve got no way to pass Floor 60 by ourselves, and the labyrinth’s not really set up so we can sneak our way around it.”
“Yeah, I’m sure. All right. Now, lemme ask you something else…”
“Yes?”
“Can you go into more detail on just how strong the Floor 60 boss is? Just, like, anything you felt in there is fine.”
Only Shinji and his friends understood the angle of this question. What Yuuki asked, basically, was how high up in the Imperial Guardians this opponent would be.
Shinji thought it over a moment. The imperial army’s ranking duels held little interest to him. He didn’t care much about working his way up the military ranks, so he had never tried challenging anyone before. He owed Yuuki for picking him up and taking care of him, so he just served him as a way to pay back the debt—in the military, though, since he didn’t like lending a hand to organized crime. The moment Yuuki began leading the Composite Division, he transferred over there from his original assignment in the Armored Division.
He wasn’t the only otherworlder in the East to think along these lines, either. Quite a few of them avoided making shows out of their power, dodging major responsibilities and just living normal lives. That made it harder to accurately gauge their strength, so nobody could really say whether the Imperial Knights were truly the strongest or not. They were by name, at least—and in a way, it was natural that they were ranked on such a detailed basis.
“I’d say he’d at least make it into the top fifty. I don’t think anyone lower than that would stand a chance.”
“Are you talking about Alberto alone?”
“Yes. Oh, and I dunno if this helps, but I was deployed as an army medic for an anti–Arch Demon mission once. I only got a quick look at that fight, but the wight king I saw today had pretty much the same magicule count, I think.”
“Do you mean the Crimson Shore disaster?”
“Oh, um, yeah.”
“Roger. Okay, thanks for the guidance. You guys can go on R & R until you regroup with Lord Gadora.”
With that, the magical call ended.
………
……
…
The Crimson Shore disaster was considered among the most ignoble events to ever occur on imperial soil. It had its origins in a beautiful lakeside province that rebelled against the Empire and declared independence. They were at a military disadvantage, of course, but what their king did to make up the difference wound up triggering a catastrophe. He had tapped into secret demon-summoning arts—an all but forbidden taboo.
His orders were to summon the most powerful demon they could manage, and his court sorcerers did his bidding. The Arch Demon they summoned wound up laying waste to the entire province.
This was a small province, its total population less than ten thousand, and it had no chance of outgunning the Empire. But the king still had good reason to go rogue—his only daughter, the princess of the realm, was being claimed by an imperial noble as his concubine.
With the Empire being as vast as it was, the emperor didn’t waste his time in the nitty-gritty dealings of the tinier provinces. All imperial territory belonged to him, its management left to the nobility, and so nobles had free reign to treat the provinces as they pleased. It was thus common to see a frontier earl use the emperor’s authority to act like a brutal tyrant over the region he ruled.
What the demon wanted, however, was the splinter kingdom’s princess. The king steadfastly denied this request—but once his head sorcerer caught sight of the demon’s full glory, he went mad, his spirit crushed forever, and he agreed to the demand. Thus, with an evil smile, the demon possessed the princess’s body. The king was enraged, but that rage was soon replaced with terror—for once the demon had a body, that was when the massacre began.
When the Empire was informed that the province was leveled, they decided to send out a force to subdue this demon. They were fortunate they did, for if they had acted any later, it could have been the birth of a second Guy Crimson.
This force arrived to find the beautiful lake turned a deep shade of red, dyed by the blood of the province’s citizens. It was a black mark on the history of the Empire, the worst thing to happen to it in centuries.
It was ultimately the Armored Division, its bases located across the Empire, who put an end to the Crimson Shores incident. That’s what the history books said. But the truth—as Shinji was witness to from far away—was that a small group of soldiers defeated the Arch Demon all by themselves.
The whole affair struck Shinji as fishy, really. Clearly, the nobility was oppressing the countryside—but once the demon aimed its terror at the Empire’s own citizens, Shinji began to wonder if the truth was as cut-and-dried as reported. For one, the Empire reacted almost too quickly. In the time it’d take to report the incident to the imperial mainland, debate over countermeasures, and form an expeditionary force, the demon could’ve easily completed its full manifestation. Instead, the Empire stopped this just in the nick of time—thus proving, in Shinji’s mind anyway, that they were tipped off in advance.
He had no intention of telling anyone else about this. When he saw the strength of the demon his deployment was fighting, it taught him that some things were better off left unexplored in his life.
I have to imagine those guys had to be at the top of the Imperial Knights…
No matter what he did, Shinji doubted he’d ever have a chance against them. It truly felt like they belonged to some other world—and that’s when he stopped caring about his army rank.
………
……
…
Shinji breathed a sigh of relief as Marc and Zhen eyed him carefully.
“You done?” asked Marc.
“…Thanks for handling that,” said Zhen.
“Sure. I think that about covers it. Now we get to chill out until Lord Gadora shows.”
“All right. But damn, you survived Crimson Shore?”
“…Good thing you did.”
“Yeah. By playing possum. One of the better decisions I made in my life, I think.”
“Aw, hell, you deserve a medal just for making it out. Didn’t like two-thirds of that force get killed off?”
“That’s right. I never wanna join anything like that again. I mean, I was an army medic, and I couldn’t even do anything.”
“…Oh?”
“Yeah, every attack killed its targets instantly, so healing didn’t matter. That’s why I bugged out real early

Slime 12.4

What a pickle this is. Now that I know all this, I really must reconsider our approach to this Rimuru.”
The demon lord Rimuru was a greater threat than Gadora pictured. What was the correct way to address this? Gadora had his friend betrayed and killed; he wouldn’t stop his crusade against Luminism now. But now everybody in the Seven Days Clergy—the most urgent target of his revenge—was already dead.
Now there was no reason to advocate for the West’s fall so passionately. Gadora and the Empire worked together because they had common goals…and if that was no longer on the table, Gadora had no real obligation to the Empire.
…No. There is still another. The god, the one at the top—the demon lord Luminus remains.
His friend’s belief in their god killed him. There was no way a demon lord borrowing the name of a deity could be allowed to stay alive. The realization made Gadora renew his drive to soldier on.
Or it made him try to.
“Sir Gadora, forgive me if I am out of line, but I feel that stopping this campaign is your best choice.”
“Hohh?”
But the sight of Razen looking concerned for him made Gadora doubt his resolve all over again.
“Even now, my master, I see myself as nothing more than your faithful servant. However, I have now devoted even more of my loyalties to another. And if you are going to wage war against his country, it will force me to become your enemy as well.”
“You don’t mean Rimuru…?”
“No. It is Sir Diablo, one of many serving him, who is my master now.”
This more than surprised Gadora a bit. Razen was his apprentice, one he was quite proud of, and hearing him serve someone who himself served a demon lord was a hard pill to swallow.
“I hate to interject,” Saare said without prompting, “but I’m gonna take this opportunity to say something. Diablo’s the guy…um, I mean, the demon who defeated me.”
The demon who was stronger than me? I have a hard time believing it, but if Razen serves him now, I can’t discount it as a lie…
He still didn’t think he’d lose, but Gadora made sure to keep the name Diablo in his mind.
“And let me tell you this as well, Sir Gadora,” added Razen. “Sir Diablo is one of the old demons.”
“I’d imagine so. If you lost to him, he’d have to be an Ancient. Maybe even a Prehistoric—a rare breed indeed.”
If he was both that and a named creature, his powers could easily surpass a demon lord’s.
“No, nothing of that level,” said Razen. “He is far, far above that—”
“He said he was a Demon Peer,” Saare cut in.
“That…?!”
That’s ridiculous, Gadora almost shouted. Demons could only evolve up to a set level—that was a hard rule, and as far as he knew, only one demon had ever defied it. This Arch Demon found a way to enhance himself up to Demon Peer, and it made him the most powerful, most villainous of all demon lords—Guy Crimson, the Lord of Darkness.
“Sir Gadora, the life span of my master, Sir Diablo, is not a matter up for debate. I trust you understand what I mean by that?”
Razen’s words seemed a planet away to Gadora. He couldn’t believe it; he didn’t want to believe it.
“A—a Primal?” he mumbled.
“Yes.”
The affirmation cruelly reached his ears. He tried to calm his heart as he discerned how truthful this was.
There certainly seemed to be ample reason to doubt Razen. If a Primal Demon had taken physical form anew, it wouldn’t be strange at all to see one reborn as a Demon Peer. If Razen was being truthful, it’d mean a massive rewrite of the Empire’s campaign. Looking at Blanc, the Original White, and the headaches she’d caused the Empire, there was no need to explain just how dreadful a threat this was.
But…wait a moment. If a Primal has acquired a physical body, why hasn’t any tragedy ensued?
Gadora had composed himself now. But even he knew the question wasn’t important.
Now hold on just one minute. Does it even matter whether Diablo’s a Primal? He’s certainly taken Razen as his disciple—that much is obvious—and that could very well mean he’s at least a Demon Peer already…
Then, hearing Yohm and the others chat among themselves, he froze.
“Yeah, but isn’t that Sir Diablo guy the butler to Rimuru or somethin’ like that? Like, when I went to the opening ceremony for our railroad earlier, I heard he didn’t want to deal with Rimuru’s personal stuff on his own any longer, so he scouted some friends and brought ’em on board.”
“Oh yeah, I caught sight of one of ’em! Rimuru made her his special diplomatic envoy, so we met at the Council. She’s got this snow-white hair, these deep-red eyes… Like, crazy hot.”
Gadora sank weakly into his seat.
It—it can’t be! Those are the exact physical traits of Blanc…
It was looking more and more like the truth, but to Gadora, it was nothing but a nightmare. He looked at Razen, currently sagely nodding to himself.
“This is all true?”
“I would never lie to you, my master.”
Then Gadora realized something. Razen and his cohorts were being truthful. And it was purely out of concern for Gadora’s health that they urged him to stop this war.
“It’s that bad?”
Gadora’s question was greeted with silent nods across the room. And when he saw this, a new thought made the blood drain from his face.
Ah! Shinji’s group might already be out on the field!
The Tempestian capital of Rimuru was teeming with people. It was a real metropolis now, experiencing a major boom—and even to otherworlders like Shinji and his friends, there was nothing rustic and unsophisticated about it. The capital in the province of Nasca wasn’t so bad, but the surrounding towns still had a barnyard-animal smell to them. Nothing so unpleasant here. It was an incredible surprise.
“I thought they razed this whole city and left nothing but a gate in place. Guess that was wrong, huh?” said Shinji; Marc and Zhen responded in kind.
“I doubt it, man. Maybe they can flip it on or off, or maybe our agents saw an illusion or something.”
“…We must remain on guard.”
The trio looked at one another and braced themselves once more.
They had been transported here via the elemental magic Warp Portal by Kagali, who had visited Tempest before. She left before very long, but they were due to meet Gadora here later, so his magic would drive their return trip. Until then, they were ordered to investigate as much as they could without exposing themselves to danger—and Shinji’s band, being no fools, intended to stick to that.
“Ms. Kagali sure was pretty, huh?”
“Whoa, Shinji, you wanna get dumped?”
“Dumped? I’d need a girlfriend first. It’d make for a more exciting life if I had one, but…”
“Huh?”
“…Forget it, Marc. He’s too slow on the uptake.”
Marc and Zhen shrugged at the whining Shinji. As they continued entertaining each other, they reached the town entrance and underwent the entry inspection. They had Free Guild ID cards provided by Yuuki, so the process went surprisingly fast—a basic rundown, and they were on their way.
So they procured an inn, then started touring around town on their “intelligence-gathering” mission. It was all quite a surprise.
As otherworlders, they enjoyed great physical strength and generally good treatment wherever they went. This, however, didn’t mean they did whatever they wanted, the way the demon lord Rimuru did, and they probably couldn’t anyway. Yuuki had worked hard to improve their diets and living environments in general, and that was starting to trickle down across the Empire, but this city was well beyond that point.
Shinji knew a fair bit about this already, so he was more amazed than surprised. There was takoyaki, okonomiyaki, yakisoba…even desserts like crepes and cakes. They also found places offering incredibly high-end meals, making them wonder how they ever tracked down the ingredients. From street stalls and cafés to restaurants and fine dining, Tempest had it all. Everyone seemed so passionate about their food, and so much of it re-created the tastes and aromas of their old world. The locals must’ve been flummoxed at first, but now they were used to all the variety. Shinji, for his part, cried literal tears of joy when he saw the curry rice on offer at one eatery.
Even the bathrooms were first-rate. And their inn was nice and comfy, too—complete with an open-air bath, added as entertainment for the masses.
“Hey, you guys mind if I live here?” said Marc. “Like, how about we just don’t go back to the Empire?”
“Whoa!”
“Uh, my bad… I’m just kidding. Don’t get so angry, Shinji!”
“I’m not angry, I’m just…like, seriously ready to consider it and stuff.”
“…I want to live here, too.”
They all exchanged glances, then sighs. Until now, they thought the Empire was the world, running at the bleeding edge of civilization. Now that they knew about Tempest, they realized how wrong they were. The town was alive with energy; there was tons of good stuff to eat. It was comfortable to live in, it seemed like a hub for entertainment and civilization, and new games and diversions were being invented every day. These games were all very familiar from their original world, and after the harsh environment they had been living in, such pleasures left the trio feeling nostalgic. The Empire had culture and entertainment of its own, but that was strictly for the nobility. It wasn’t as free as this town, and it wasn’t priced low enough for common people.
Meanwhile, look at this place.
“No, no, no, we really can’t…”
“Yeah. I’m sure Yuuki would be pissed, and I’d be scared of Lord Gadora, too. There’s about to be a war, besides…”
“…Desertion’s punishable by firing squad.”
They were right. War was fast approaching. This town was a clear target, incapable of avoiding the storm of battle. The three knew all about the Empire’s military might, and thus it hardly seemed worth the time to consider Tempest’s chances against their enemy.
So without anything else to do, Shinji and his friends gave up on the idea—and then, following their orders to the letter, they began challenging the labyrinth.
………
……
…
“Y’know,” Shinji began, “they said the Hero Masayuki just beat Floor 50, but this is actually pretty damn easy, huh?”
“Ha-ha!” Marc laughed. “Of course it is! Remember what Yuuki told us? He said Masayuki wasn’t actually anything that special.”
“…But you can’t play down his skill,” Zhen pointed out.
“Yeah, all the more reason he was super-careful, I bet. It took him over half a year, after all.”
This lively chat between Shinji and his pals took place as they advanced through Floor 40. They began their journey through the Dungeon on high alert for anything in their way, but the intensity was starting to wear off. It was just too easy.
Before going in, they gathered as much intel as they could to avoid needless danger, but as the trio saw it, this was like a game packed with tons and tons of side quests and bonus content. Zhen grew up without much in the way of video games, but Shinji and Marc were hard-core gamers—Shinji was a big fan of RPGs in particular, finding time between research stints in college to play through the big franchise titles.
Pooling their knowledge, the trio concluded that this Dungeon was a huge joke. Whichever sadistic maniac designed it was clearly out to destroy the challengers—but if you were familiar with video game tropes, a lot about it was familiar. This held especially true in one way—Zhen Liuxing was gifted at detecting traps, and with his advice, they could find them all with surprising accuracy. And in this labyrinth, if you could deal with the traps, the monsters just weren’t all that strong.
“I bet a lot of challengers had trouble getting far in this just because it’s too new. Like, nobody’s got the right knowledge for it.”
“Yeah. I called it an obstacle course earlier, but that still sounds pretty right to me. Once you understand how the creator’s twisted, evil mind works, it’s actually pretty doable.”
“…And we don’t die, either.”
They found out about the Resurrection Bracelet in their prior research. The admission desk even gave them one for free. With it on, if you died in the Dungeon, you’d be warped back to the front door safe and sound. When they heard about this, Shinji’s team exchanged quizzical stares. It was really hard to figure out how to take this. Here was this dead-serious world they lived in, and now someone had created this wacky comedy world inside it.
Now the main issue they faced was not knowing just how deep the Dungeon went. They could keep advancing all they wanted, but they could only hold so much food at once. Shinji wasn’t sure how best to prepare for this, but over at admission, the guy at the desk told them about something unexpected.
“Oh yeah, no worries about that. When you reach a stairway, you’ll see an entrance to the inn. It’ll cost you money, but you can stay in there all you want. You actually don’t have to worry about food that much, either. Sir Rimuru said all refreshments are ‘under three hundred yen’—his words, not mine. I dunno what he meant by yen, but I’m sure it’s something important, you know? Oh, and there are merchant traders stationed at the inn, too, and they’ll buy anything you find but don’t need.”
They literally thought of everything. Shinji cared a lot more about buying actual food than just light refreshments, but he didn’t want to shout that out and be accused of insulting the leader of Tempest, so he kept that frustration to himself.
………
……
…
It had now been a week since they began navigating the labyrinth. The three of them were at a room in the inn, relaxing as they gazed at the booty they won.
“…You know, is it me, or are we making a ton of money the past few days? And this inn’s supposed to be a bare-bones joint, but it’s actually pretty nice. Cheap, too. And the money from the equipment we don’t need has to be really adding up now, huh?”
Marc was clearly enjoying himself.
Zhen lifted his head up a bit at this, a little curious. Shinji, in response, took a roll of gold coins out of his bag, their golden shine attracting the eyes of everyone in the room. This wasn’t just the money they earned for selling items from monsters and chests; between that and the reward money for bounty hunts and the like, they had obtained several dozen gold coins and even one stellar. It was a laughably high pay scale.
“Yeah, we’ve saved up quite a bit. And from what I’ve heard since, not even the frontline dungeon runners have made it past Floor 50 yet. Only Masayuki’s party has reached that point, so that makes us number two.”
Even Masayuki and his team were reportedly stalled at Floor 60 right then, and everyone else was getting blocked by the boss monster on Floor 40. Thanks to that, Shinji’s party had won the Dungeon Party of the Month award.
“Oh yeah, that’s where that tempest serpent is, right? He was pretty strong, but still, y’know, nothing we couldn’t handle.”
The tempest serpent was an A-minus foe in rank, one that’d give even seasoned adventurers fits. Its dangerous ranged-breath attack was a menace in cramped quarters. There was nowhere to run, so you had to face up to the monster—but the snake’s body was tough as metal, and if he coiled it around you, it was all over. You’d normally want to be on high guard against it, but Shinji’s team managed to defeat it without too much of a fuss.
What amazed them wasn’t the monster’s strength but what they obtained after defeating him.
“So what’s with this weapon? The one with a slot in it? Because it got appraised for this crazy high price…”
So high, Shinji noted, that he was too afraid to sell it.
These weapons with slots began to appear around Floor 40, and they were like nothing they had seen in the Empire, so Shinji’s party couldn’t understand the premium. They could sell them for a high price, but they honestly weren’t sure whether they should.
“These recessed slots, though… My appraisal magic didn’t turn up anything. Maybe we better keep ’em until Lord Gadora shows up.”
“Yeah, we didn’t find any until Floor 40, so…”
“…Right, yeah. We’ve only seen them in boss chambers and as drops from the stronger monsters around Floor 50.”
“Y’know, though, we saw them around town, too, didn’t we? They were pretty rare, but they’re circulating. People say there’s a tiny chance you’ll find them in chests from Floor 30 on.”
“Yeah. And it’s clearly a good make, but is it really worth those prices?”
“…Is there some secret to them?”
“I’d guess so. The merchants don’t tell us anything, either. They just kinda smile at us.”
“That is so suspicious. We better not pull the trigger until the old man shows up. But hey, look at this thing!”
Marc picked up his Minos Bardiche pole ax and showed it off to his friends. It gleamed a beautiful silver, an exquisite showpiece made of mithril. This put it in the realm of Unique weapons; they’d picked it up from a treasure chest guarded by the Floor 50 guardian.
“This is a Unique, y’know? You don’t even see these in the Empire too much.”
He must’ve liked it a lot. His companions wondered if he’d start hugging the pole ax and bringing it to bed with him. But it was a nice piece. Becoming an Imperial Guardian granted you access to a set of Legend-class gear, but any officers and enlistees below that got normal, sturdy, non-magical equipment. Unique gear was hard to find even for career officers, so Marc could be excused for his excitement.
“Yeah, Yuuki told me the Empire mass-produces its weapons, so… And we hardly even get to see it, but supposedly the Legend-class gear is all identical.”
“…Is that even possible?”
Zhen was asking Shinji, in essence, whether it was possible to manufacture Legend gear on any kind of scale. Logically, it was said to be unthinkable.
“That’s kinda jumping the gun, isn’t it, Shinji? Just because it all looks the same doesn’t mean there’s a factory or something.”
Marc laughed off Shinji’s idea, perhaps a bit miffed the subject was turning away from his new prize. If there was a factory, he thought it’d lower the value of the Unique in his hand.
“Well, you couldn’t manufacture these any normal way. Lord Gadora told us how hard it is to produce a lot of magisteel at once, even. But if you can keep things under the right conditions, it’s not impossible.”
“…The right conditions?”
“Yeah. Basically, you need someplace with a super-high concentration of magicules. Like, enough that it’d instantly kill most people. Even if you’re B rank, it’d kill you given enough time—if you’re above an A rank, all it’ll do is make you really sick. So if you can put a sword or armor in there for a long time—like, hundreds or thousands of years—those are the right conditions to make it evolve. Then, once the equipment finds an owner it accepts, it’ll start doing its own unique evolution.”
“Oh, like you’ll find that kinda place.”
“…Yeah, I doubt you would, either.”
“Right? But Yuuki and Lord Gadora said they exist.”
“…Okay. But so what if it’s just ‘possible’?”
“Well, you know, I’m starting to wonder if this bardiche was mass-produced, too…”
“No way.”
“You wouldn’t think, would you? But there’s a slot in this ax. Have you ever seen one of these out in the wild?”
“No. What’s with that anyway?”
“…It’s a pretty weapon. Kind of eerily shaped, but…”
Shinji wasn’t out to complain. He wasn’t jealous of the overjoyed Marc. Neither he nor Zhen could wield large weapons the size of bardiches anyway. But:
“But the way they’re just giving these weapons away to people… Is it me, or is this nation more insanely powerful than we thought?”
Marc and Zhen fell silent. They were feeling the same way—after he won that Minos Bardiche, Marc was even worried they’d confiscate it at the front counter. They knew the rules dictated that anything you found in the labyrinth belonged to the challenger—but a weapon this strong? Would a nation really allow you to waltz out the door with it?
If Tempest took it away, Marc and his friends were prepared to accept that. They were beholden to Tempest at the moment, and they had to respect the nation’s decisions. That’s something that applied anywhere. Besides, they were technically spies, and no spy would go out of their way to stir up trouble.
But the reception they got was beyond any expectation. All the employees in the front-desk area applauded them, shouting “Congratulations!” in unison. Even more astoundingly, they gave the party another cash bonus. The party didn’t really need any more evidence by this point—Tempest really was a crazy land.
“And even outside of the weapons, this whole nation’s nuts, isn’t it?”
“It’s a shock. I mean, we could earn a ton more money just beating this Dungeon, and it’d be more fun that way, too. Like, do we really stand to lose anything? If you’re a wimp, it’d be hard to make a living off this, but with us…”
“No, Marc. Remember what Zhen said about desertion?”
“…Firing squad.”
“…Right, yeah, there is that. But still, I think it’d be so much more fun to live here.”
Shinji and Zhen nodded at Marc’s words. But reality didn’t work that way. It was certainly an inviting idea, but they couldn’t go pursuing this pipe dream all day.
“And you know the war’s gonna wreck this place anyway.”
“…Yeah. I mean, if Tempest does win, I’ll gladly switch sides. But what kinda nation’s gonna accept a deserter and a traitor, y’know?”
“…I don’t want to lose everything.”
They all sighed, figuratively abandoning their sweet dreams.
It was time to mentally switch gears, and soon, their thoughts shifted to the next day’s dungeon hacking.
“Okay, so we’re gonna head for Floor 51 tomorrow. That point on, people call the Haven of the Dead. Marc’s Minos Bardiche is made from mithril with the holy attribute, so it oughtta perform well against undead and ghosts and stuff.”
“Yeah, that’s the other weird thing, y’know? This whole place really is set up like a video game. Like, having the boss guard the one key thing for tackling the next section…”
“…And the challenge amps up step by step.”
Shinji picked up on this as well. He was the biggest RPG player in the group, so it occurred to him long before anyone brought it up. But he tried to banish the thought. It was just too creepy, because a lot of it was so familiar. And if anything, the boss monsters stationed every tenth level were getting harder way fast.
First was the B-rank black spider, then the B-plus evil centipede. Floor 30 featured a B-plus ogre lord leading a small force of minions working together, making it more than a test of brute strength—this was a choke point for many parties. Floor 40 had an A-minus tempest serpent, and finally, Floor 50 had Bovix, a talking magic-born tauroid. By this point, you were now talking about monsters who maybe showed up once every hundred years—a Hazard, to use the danger level Yuuki devised, which made it an A ranker. Certainly, Bovix was a menace, the kind of magic-born you’d expect to be serving a demon lord…and while Shinji’s team had trouble, they still beat him. If they were really serious, chances were just one of them could’ve done it—besides, since you didn’t die in the labyrinth, you had the freedom to try some pretty reckless tactics.
“Right, if a monster that class is guarding Floor 50, I can only guess that the next one’s gonna be that much stronger.”
“…Might even be the last battle.”
Marc agreed with Shinji, Zhen brooding hard over the future. Things had gone smoothly up to now, but all three agreed that it’d turn into an uphill battle pretty quick.
“I think Marc’s gonna remain the key to our offense. You got a Unique with special buffs, so let’s just see how far it’ll take us.”
“…Yeah.”
“And I don’t think you can collect many more monsters this powerful, either. I think Floor 60 is the bottom of this thing, but if it’s not, that’s just scary.”
“Oh, no way,” said Shinji—but he’d heard ominous rumors. Rumors he had no intention of telling Marc or Zhen. He was sure it’d lower their morale if they heard this labyrinth might actually have a hundred floors.
It’s crazy, he concluded. The next boss was concerning for him, but he wasn’t going to get worked up about it. He figured they would win at the end of it—they couldn’t die, after all—but it was likely to be a long, hard ordeal.
“But hey, we can’t die either way. Let’s just try to keep our guard up.”
Marc and Zhen nodded at this. Their goal was the very bottom—and to find out about the top-secret research facility there. Once they went over everything a final time, they retired for the night.
Three days passed. After conquering a poisonous swamp and a corroded wasteland, Shinji’s team finally discovered the stairs to Floor 59. They were a short trip down to Floor 60 and that much closer to the boss’s chamber. It had taken a week to reach Floor 50, but nearly half that again to get to 60. The size of each floor was shrinking, but the difficulty had ratcheted up to overdrive.
“You guys ready for this?”
“Yep.”
“…Yeah.”
They had rested up the previous night. They were fully prepared, ready to take the challenge.
“So they say the boss here is another guardian type, like on Floor 50. We can expect another sentient monster.”
“Right. A lot more trouble than the Death Lord yesterday.”
“…Gotta go all out from the start.”
As long as they kept their cool, this boss would go down like the others—all three thought so as they quietly nodded. Then, ever so carefully, they opened the door and swarmed inside.
Going back a little bit…
I was in my chamber, debating with myself over our surveillance system.
Right then, Soei’s and Moss’s agents were on standby at important points across the Forest of Jura. We were also covering the entire coastline from Farminus to northern Englesia—and even the mountain peaks in between. But despite that, I was still anxious about our intelligence gathering.
For me, the time lag was the scariest thing. Our agents were spread out in teams of two, but there was every chance they could both be killed at once. If so, all intelligence would cease from that location. I’d hate to lose those people, but the resulting delay in transmission could put the entire nation in danger. I warned Soei about this in no uncertain terms.
Even if our monitors were found, whether they were killed or not, they might be forced into battle. That, again, would cause delays, so I was feeling around for a way they could work while keeping themselves safer. As I did, I stumbled upon the idea of using magic to surveil our lands. Distant-view magic like this existed in the shamanistic family, but it turned out to be kind of tough to wrangle—all you could really do was view a target, and it didn’t give you too much information about them. It could also focus only on a single point, so you had to cast the spell again to watch somewhere else. This took valuable time, and your target could slip away in the meantime—the magic just wasn’t flexible enough for the job. Besides, if the target put up a magical barrier, the distant-view spell would simply bounce off it and dissipate.
Thus, I concluded, the spell was useless since you couldn’t observe foes above a certain level of power with it. But I had another idea—the physical magic Megiddo.
Megiddo uses collected water droplets as a lens to focus sunlight on a single point. Reworking this magic, I thought, could make it work as a kind of surveillance spell. For example, what if we floated up balls of water across the land that reflected the area below it? If we could transcribe that somehow, we could easily check on faraway scenery. If not, perhaps we could project an image through a high-altitude lens, expanding and broadcasting the signal through a monitor. We’d need a combination of a telescopic lens, photograph device, and a system for transmitting the information. Essentially, it was like building a monitoring satellite entirely with magic.
Making all the required core magic work seemed like a hassle, but Raphael stated that with physical magic, spirit magic, and Dominate Space, it’d be possible to implement. After that, I just needed to work out the little details with Raphael—and with that, I had the complete magic I wanted.
Once this monitoring system was finished, it’ll be a lot easier to gather information. It was safe, reliable, collected a massive amount of data at once, and made it a breeze to keep up with enemy movements, no matter what they did. You might be wondering why I was wasting time during such a busy period with this, but this was actually really important. “Those who control information control the world,” as they say, so I was sure I could control a war with it, too.
During the Russo-Japanese War, Admiral Heihachiro Togo commanded his naval forces as it destroyed Russia’s Baltic fleet in the Sea of Japan. In this fight, the key question for Togo was whether he’d have a chance to encounter the enemy fleet. He had to guess at where he’d intercept the enemy and be in position to engage them; if he messed that up, the battle never would’ve been fought, and Japan likely would’ve lost the war.
That, I felt, was similar to my current situation. If I spread my forces too thinly, there was a good chance I’d lose, given how much I was outnumbered to start with. Victory came down to whether I could read the Empire’s moves and concentrate our forces at the most suitable point of land. Meanwhile, if the Empire spread itself too thin, I could work out my plans in further detail and destroy every pocket of resistance. But if I wanted to work the battle to my advantage like that, and (most of all) if I wanted to be sure of victory, I absolutely had to complete this monitoring magic.
…Which, you know, I tried to build up the drama there, but we actually had a test setup already complete. What I was asking Raphael for now was extra frills—the little things that’d make it easier to use.
What? Why don’t I do it myself? Don’t be silly. Raphael is my skill, so by anybody’s definition, I’m putting in all the hard work.
You know what? If you put it that way, I think I’ve been overworking myself a little. I think I’ll take a quick rest to soothe my fatigue.
I had my first cupful of Shuna’s tea in a while, savoring the moment.
As I relaxed, wondering if I should give my completed monitoring magic a shot—
(Sir Rimuru, I have an urgent report for you!!)
—Beretta’s strained voice came in through a Thought Communication.
………
……
…
He had quite a surprise for me. It turned out a second party had made it past Floor 50.
The first one, it goes without saying, was led by Masayuki. They were taking a break from the Dungeon as we prepared for war, but they made it as far as Floor 59—and thanks to them, our labyrinth was running a brisk business. Tons of challengers used our services on a daily basis, filling up our coffers—and they got a lot out of it, too, of course.
Over the past year, our regular customers had really been stepping up their game. Little by little, we had begun to see more people take on levels in the 30s. Some were coming up with strategies that took advantage of the “no death” rule, such as “zombie attacks” (continually dying and coming back to fight the enemy again) and “sacrifice runs” (leaving someone behind to get preyed upon as the rest of the party forged onward).
Once you were into the 30s, though, you had more than just unfamiliar insta-kill traps to deal with. The monsters there began working in teams, and gimmicky tactics weren’t as effective any longer. But some of our dungeon runners really were up to the challenge. Parties taking a strictly conventional approach still struggled to keep up, but they were honing their skills, and their equipment was improving by leaps and bounds, too. That, in turn, helped to strengthen them further. It’s funny what your body can get used to—some runners began to develop instincts for traps, dodging them no matter how vicious they were.
Thanks to all that, the front-running parties had started reaching the boss monster on Floor 40…but as of now, that was the last stop for most. The monster they faced there was a tempest serpent, an A-minus creature. This was the very same black snake I first ran into way back when, packing an effective breath attack that just annihilated parties. Many of them got destroyed, lost all their equipment, and tearfully trudged into the shops to buy more. We’d be kind enough to lend them Tempest-brand equipment and the like—on a “you break it, you bought it” policy, of course, and that turned into another nice income stream.
So yeah—thanks, black snake! That little reptile was great for shaking our challengers down for all the profit they made up to that point. He was such a wonderful, reliable, moneymaking guardian for us…but ohhh, death should not have taken thee, black snake!
That—and even our guardian on Floor 50 got done in. With Masayuki’s party, we were admittedly cheating a little bit, so this new party must have been real legit. We had to award them the bounty as well, but it was more than worth it for all the free advertising. The entire labyrinth lit up again upon the birth of a new set of heroes, and now things seemed busier than ever before.
Floor 50 was defended by a pair of sentient magic-born, Bovix the tauroid and Equix the equinoid, who took turns serving as the boss. I ordered them to the job, and neither was a pushover at all, so seeing someone pull off the upset amazed me. After all, if nobody was around to challenge them, they usually sparred each other, helping add more creativity to their battle approach. I was witnessing some real intelligent strategy in their fights now—they weren’t just big brutes any longer. What’s more, they had become best friends, no longer snapping at each other all the time.
This second party’s success reminded me that I put a frankly pretty awesome prize in place for beating Floor 50. You only got it the first time you beat the boss, but it was a guaranteed drop from the treasure chest—one item, picked at random, from the Unique-class Minos series. I named this after the mythical labyrinth-guarding minotaur, and they were both completely insane-looking and stupidly powerful. In the weapons department, we offered the Minos Bardiche and the Minos Trident. There was no shield, and armor filled out the rest of the list. I figured it’d be a while longer before someone made it this far, so I don’t think I had more than, like, ten complete sets made yet—but this was definitely top-of-the-line gear, a team effort crafted by the best of Kurobe’s apprentices.
Losing one of them was a problem, but what impressed me more was this party’s fighting skill. Bovix and Equix got a lot stronger when I named them, and if they managed to beat one of them, I’d honestly wanna recruit them for our nation. If they said no, well, they might be our enemy someday, and that would kinda suck, so I planned to keep them under surveillance.
That was why I left instructions to inform me immediately if Bovix or Equix ate it, and that’s what I got from Beretta just then.
………
……
…
(Who are they?)
(The winning team is a party of three people, all possessing unique skills.)
Maybe I know them?
It turns out I didn’t.
So here we had a set of just three guys, unique skill users, who beat Bovix…and they were pretty brand-new to the Dungeon, too, not veterans at all. In times of peace, I’d just sit back and marvel, but we were at war’s eve right then, and in my eyes, they were likely spies picking at low-hanging fruit.
We needed more intel on them badly, so I delayed my magic-monitor practice and headed for the command room inside the labyrinth.
I found Ramiris and Veldora already there.
Deeno and Vester had the day off, apparently. Vester really had been looking haggard lately (Deeno, not so much), so I wanted him to get as much rest as he could. Ramiris and Veldora, meanwhile, couldn’t have been better. I’m not sure they even knew how to be tired. They never stopped—like children, if something had their attention, they just kept going.
“Well, look who’s here! Hello, Commander!” chirped Ramiris. “No changes to report yet!”
No changes to what? Ah well. I’m sure she’s just playing navy captain in her mind.
I looked at the large screen set up in the room. It currently showed three young men, the group who had been storming through the labyrinth.
Their fighting style, I have to say, was extremely unique. One of them seemed to be grabbing the air itself, gathering and throwing it with intense force. Maybe some kind of air-compression blast? Definitely not something a normal person could pull off. The man was large, firmly built, with brown hair and a chiseled face, and he had on a tank top and jeans. You read that right: a tank top and jeans. Definitely otherworlder fashion, I thought.
Now for the other two. One was small, skinny, and mostly hidden inside a large black robe. The other was a young man wearing chain mail with a lab coat over it. Yes, a lab coat—the kind you see in labs and hospitals, although not at all in this world. His face suggested he was Asian—and almost certainly Japanese. I couldn’t guess about the dude in the robe, but Lab Coat and Tank Top sure seemed like otherworlders to me.
Regardless, they were still fighting as I watched on-screen. They were facing a pretty tough challenge—a pack of six death wolves, lunging at them faster than a normal person could respond. They must have calculated that remaining far away would leave them open to attack with no way to respond. Once you plunged below Floor 50, even the minion-level foes had real intelligence.
A death wolf, by the way, was a B-plus monster, and that was for a single one of them. Six at once was an extremely dangerous encounter—and being a ghost type, they were impervious to melee attacks outside of holy or magic weapons. Their bodies were made entirely of magicules, so even if you sent them flying, they’d just regenerate themselves and jump right back in. Unless you had a good way to handle them, you couldn’t win—show any weakness for a moment, and you’d be torn apart.
But:
“Don’t mess with us, you stupid mutts! Hraahh!!”
This was Tank Top the air-thrower. Now he took out the ominous-looking battle-ax on his back and started swinging. A single swipe took out three at once, their bodies fading into particles of light.
…Whoa, that ax! I remember that ominous-looking thing. It’s the Minos Bardiche, isn’t it? Once you got into the realm of Uniques, magical force came with the package as a given. That made this a type of magic weapon, easily capable of damaging ghost types; the magic alone could hurt monsters all by itself. We also worked hard on the materials for that bardiche; if I recall, we made them out of mithril, a special mix of magisteel and silver. That instilled the holy attribute, geared for mowing through undead and ghost enemies.
“Man, the Minos Bardiche can take out those death wolves in one hit,” I muttered.
“Yes, I believe Bovix drops that,” Veldora replied with a nod. “And look at how used to that weapon he is, so soon after picking it up. He’s got a good head for battle.”
As I watched the trio fight, I listened to Veldora and Ramiris recap this party’s progress for me. Would’ve been nice to have had some fries to snack on as I did.
From how they put it, Tank Top had been defeating most of the monsters so far, and looking at him, I could believe it. He was strong.
What about the traps, though? The guy in the black robe had a knack for quickly finding them, tipping off his two companions. Our trickier, more ingenious traps began popping up on Floor 51, but as I looked on, Black Robe accurately marked out the positions of each trap they encountered. It must’ve been his unique skill—he was the ideal man to bring with you on a Dungeon run.
Finally, Lab Coat had only taken action once, really, according to my partners, during the battle against Bovix. Veldora’s description of events was too cryptic to understand, so I asked Raphael to read out the labyrinth’s past memories for me. When it brought them up, well, yeah, it was strange. All he really did was take a syringe out from a pocket, inject both of his partners—and then Bovix visibly slowed to a crawl. Was this some kind of status ailment?
Understood. According to an analysis, the attack sustained by the subject Bovix involved a nerve poison. The room was filled with poison gas, preventing the movement of those not resistant to it. It is no longer in effect.
Oh, poison gas? And it looked like they could customize this gas for maximum lethality on the target, too.
Heavily slowed, Bovix was easy pickings for Tank Top—but Lab Coat delivered the final blow, removing a silver scalpel from a shirt pocket and slicing through the jugular vein. Lab Coat was the leader, it seemed, playing a control-tower role instead of getting involved in actual combat much. He was good at it, too, capable of fighting if he needed to, so Tank Top up front was pretty much free to go wherever he wanted. It was a really intelligent, well-balanced party.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. It quietly opened up, revealing Shuna; she had brought along a file with information on these three people.
“Here’s the immigration data we have on this trio.”
With a light bow, she handed me the piece of paper.
Shingee: age twenty-three, magician
Marc: age twenty-six, warrior
Zhen: age seventeen, huntmaster
It contained a brief list of their names and professions. Their profiles listed them as being from a small province of the Empire. When asked what brought them to Tempest, they said a merchant told them about the Dungeon, and they came over to test their skill. Yeah, right. That was such a lie.
Raphael, meanwhile, was giving me its own analysis. As Beretta said, each one of them had their own unique skill. The idea that these three just happened to come together at the same time and form a party sounded pretty farfetched to me.
That, and their listed professions piqued my interest. The term magician was reserved for advanced casters who learned at least two families of magic—in Shingee’s case, this was spirit and elemental magic. Smart young man, for sure. A warrior, meanwhile, had to be a master of both weapons and martial arts—to be exact, one core martial art and at least one weapon. This could be a sword, a bow and arrow, or even throwing weapons like knives or stones; you were free to pick the one that suited you the most, but you then had to master the deepest levels of it. In Marc’s case, he was a brawler with throwing-weapon and pole-arm proficiencies, a real multifaceted talent.
Finally, a huntmaster was the moniker applied to those at the pinnacle of the hunting profession. It required a mastery of bowhunting, as well as Formhide, one of the more difficult Arts to learn. You also had to master the Detect Danger skill, and overall, it took a lot more than raw talent to become a huntmaster. In a hunting guild, they were revered as reliable partners. There just weren’t many people with trap and monster discovery skills, both a vital part of any search mission. Huntmasters pretty much always came from hunting-oriented clans, and it was an extremely difficult job to get into otherwise.
So here we had three people with three esoteric, high-level jobs forming a party. It was all but asking us to suspect them of something.
“These really look like spies who took the bait.”
“Indeed…but would spies so blatantly take center stage like this?”
Diablo, standing unnoticed in the background, picked up on my muttering. He had offered me assistance in magical development, eagerly awaiting my new ventures in monitoring magic, and me canceling our next meeting about it really set him off. His eyes told me he was resenting the on-screen trio for it, but I think he was judging them correctly.
“Oh, I was wondering that, too. I thought it might be a diversionary tactic, but things are calm around town right now.”
It was certainly a very suspicious party, but all the information they gave seemed to be the honest truth. Would they be stupid enough to not cover their tracks at all? Or was this a clever feint, devised to make us start suspecting everything except for them?
“I’m sure you’re overthinking this, Rimuru,” said Veldora. “Aren’t you always telling me that honesty is the best policy?”
“Well, it is. But we need to figure out how we handle these challengers!” replied Ramiris.
Glad you guys don’t have a care in the world. I truly began to envy Veldora and Ramiris for that. But oh well.
No matter who they were, we had to watch out for them. Shingee was the black-haired man in the lab coat—I’m just gonna assume he’s using a fake name, and his real one is actually Shinji.
Marc was the brown-haired tank top guy, and he did more than throw air around. Whether it was a monster corpse or a pebble on the ground, he could throw anything you could grab. I saw him throw a (still-alive) monster at a pack of skeletal warriors, crushing two of them, and it almost made me spit out my tea. He probably wasn’t lying about his warrior job; I could tell by the way he expertly wielded his Minos Bardiche, taking down one ghost after another.
Zhen was the black-robe dude, and I was sure he could use his eyes to detect traps. I thought it was Detect Danger at first, but judging by how he could avoid any dangerous place before it triggered, I figured a unique skill was granting him that. For most parties tackling Floor 50 and below, not even the monsters were as vicious a danger as the traps. The undead didn’t need to breathe, so we adjusted the air in those floors to make sure everything was normal. There were some oxygen-free chambers as well, ensuring a quick death even if you just stumbled in unawares. To this we added poisoned lakes, acid swamps, rooms with corrosive gas, and so on and so forth. They’d damage both you and your equipment, making for a truly atrocious gauntlet for challengers to gnash their teeth about.
These were all ingenious traps that said a great deal about their creator’s personality, and the whole concept of the floors past the fiftieth was to use them to keep people from advancing. But if someone could see through all of them, they were useless. What’s more, Zhen had an excellent sense of direction; he could easily find the shortest route through something, not letting rotating floors or anything else stop him.
This whole labyrinth was meaningless to this trio. If anyone got hurt, Dr. Shingee could heal them. They could even disable poison, so I couldn’t expect that to work too much. They may have only been a trio, but they couldn’t have been better suited for deep dives.
Three days passed. Veldora, Ramiris, and I squealed with glee as we watched Shingee’s party press on. No, we weren’t watching for hints we could use for our own conquest. Really, we weren’t. We were just watching them in awe, is all.
Diablo was sitting in a corner of the room reading while Shion was learning some new baking skills from Shuna, who poured out more tea for us—black tea, with a pleasant apple flavor.
“By the way, Rimuru,” Veldora began, “you mentioned that they ‘took the bait,’ but what did you mean by that?”
Huh? …Oh, wait, you mean our conversation three days ago? Veldora’s brain ran about as quickly as a dinosaur’s sometimes, but then, that made sense for him.
“Ah, don’t worry about that.”
“Oh, don’t be a stick in the mud. Tell me!”
He never usually cared about stuff like this, but today he just wouldn’t get off my back. Whatever.
“Okay, well, to tell the truth…”
I decided to lay it on him. When I said they took the bait, that’s exactly what I meant.
We had added some evacuation training earlier because it had become possible for us to—as nutty as it seemed to me—sequester the entirety of the town inside the Dungeon. Ramiris’s intrinsic skill Mazecraft really was amazing. I knew she could freely reorder and rearrange each floor, but it turned out she could treat the ground level above the Dungeon as another “floor” for her purposes.
Once the town was quarantined inside, it’d remain in there for twenty-four hours, but things like air and water supply weren’t an issue. In fact, we could still see the sun, so I figured this “quarantine” wouldn’t put much stress on our citizens at all. This took a gigantic amount of energy, of course, but so what? We got Veldora.
So essentially, we were crafting our war plans based on the assumption that our town could be stowed away for safekeeping. This was something we tested out several times, and that was the bait meant to catch imperial spies. All we left behind on the surface was the labyrinth’s entrance gate, which had to look incredibly suspect. In my talks with Benimaru and the rest of my cabinet, we concluded that someone from the opposing side was bound to investigate.
“Ah, I see! Boy, my master’s really powered me up, too, huh? Glad to see I’m pitchin’ in a little!” said Ramiris.
“Heh-heh-heh… So this is thanks to me, is it? Heh-heh…”
Veldora looked at me, blatantly fishing for compliments. It drove me up the wall, but it really was thanks to him.
“Yeah, you’ve been a huge help to all of us, Veldora.”
“Kwaahhhh-ha-ha-ha! Yes! Yes, I imagine I have been! So may I have some of that cake?”
No!
I was looking forward to that slice.
“Please, take mine.”
Ahhh, thank you, Diablo!
“Sorry about that.”
“Not at all. If it will aid you, Sir Rimuru, this much is nothing.”
Such a big help, that one. Might as well indulge his graciousness this time.
Savoring my slice of cake, I looked up at the screen. The party was about to take on the guardian at the end of Floor 60.
“Well, if we know they’re spies, shouldn’t we detain them?”
“Nah. I wanna test them out, so I figured we could see how far in they make it. I hate paying out so much money to them, but it’s generating a lot of buzz, so I can live with it.”
If worse came to worst, I could always arrest them and confiscate their winnings. I wanted to look incredibly generous for now, paying what I promised, and then wring whatever I could get from them in exchange.
“A fine plan, Rimuru.”
“It’s so dirty! You’re a true genius, y’know that?!”
Veldora and Ramiris also had kind words for me, although I can’t say they made me feel too happy. Shuna, meanwhile, just rolled her eyes at us.
“I have to say, though, this didn’t turn out like I meant. I didn’t expect him to score a Minos Bardiche on the first try,” I said. “That’s a holy-attribute weapon, and it just rips through ghosts and undead.”
“We shouldn’t have offered that guaranteed drop the first time around…,” Ramiris lamented.
Floor 60 was guarded by Adalmann. I had him go by the moniker the Immortal King in the hopes that he’d drive away challengers like back in his wight king days…but really, his strength lay mostly in commanding armies. He was weaker than Bovix or Equix solo, and I had a suspicion we’d be disappointed once more today. As a wight, too, he was laughably weak against the holy and light elemental attributes. As long as Marc bandied that Minos Bardiche around, I really didn’t like Adalmann’s chances.
I had given Adalmann as much advice as I could, but the traps were supposed to be the main performers in this group of floors. I never expected a blockbuster performance from the boss himself, and that was why I felt okay with giving challengers a weapon that struck at his weak point. Now I felt like I wasn’t fair to Adalmann.
Sad to say, I didn’t see him stopping this trio. I’d like to think I’m just assuming the worst…but yeah, I hope he won’t have a grudge against me for this. So I turned my expectations toward the guardian of Floor 70 instead.

Slime 12.3

Upon learning what Yuuki showed him, Lord Gadora wrenched up his face, deep in thought.
Hmmm. Right when it’s time to put our Empire on the move and defeat the god Luminus, too…
With Veldora resurrected, they had to embark on a major rewrite of their plans. That couldn’t be avoided. The last time they staged a campaign this large, the Storm Dragon crushed the whole thing.
Now, in order to ensure their plan was impenetrable, some wanted to wait until the Storm Dragon fully disappeared from existence. Some wanted to tame him with the power of the new weapons they successfully developed. Others wished to point their armies around the Forest of Jura to avoid riling the Storm Dragon.
Opinions were split evenly among the three factions, delaying the Empire’s movements—and thanks to that, they went and let the Storm Dragon revive itself. This greatly angered the war hawks in the “tame the Storm Dragon” faction, but the more mainstream minds in the other two groups didn’t give them room to speak. If those “new weapons” didn’t work, after all, their hopes were dashed a second time.
In Gadora’s mind, the Storm Dragon didn’t really matter. His mission, the reason he kept living, was to eradicate Luminism from the West and take revenge against the Seven Days Clergy who killed his best friend.
A newspaper he ordered from the West contained an article outlining the Seven Days Clergy’s evil deeds, under the headline THE HEROES’ DECLINE. He also knew, at the same time, about reports that the Seven Days Clergy were slain. But Gadora refused to accept this at face value. At the very least, he was sure Gren, the Sunday Priest, was alive and lurking in the muck somewhere.
Over the past few months, information from the West had grown garbled and entangled, and it was hard to investigate much of it. Thanks to that, he had no way to confirm it—but there were rumors that the Rozzos had been toppled as well.
Ah, but it’s all rumors. I’m sure Gren was what ultimately became of that one Hero. He may have been old, but he was no adversary to sniff at.
What’s more, while the Council seemed to be on sure footing, Gadora had confirmed some serious goings-on behind the scenes. Nothing he heard, however, indicated that the Western Holy Church had weakened at all. That was proof positive, in Gadora’s eyes, that Gren was alive.
It’d be so easy to ignore the Storm Dragon and just invade the West, but noooo…
Gadora’s thoughts were along those lines, but even he knew how difficult that would be.
So the Storm Dragon is teaming up with a demon lord? It would be sheer stupidity to position an army against a monster like that, living outside any sort of reasoned magic. I helped construct the theories behind our new weapon, and it should be possible to stop him in his tracks, at least—but destroy him? That’s another story. And forget about ever taming him…
As a survivor of the Empire’s last campaign, he had personal insight into the threat Veldora posed. The experience taught him that the war hawks were being far too rash.
Those fools completely fail to understand how hard it is to rule over a spiritual life-form with a spirit of your own!
It wasn’t impossible. They had conducted experiments on demons along those lines, and some of the results had been encouraging. Gadora knew that well enough—he came up with the theory for the work, so of course he would. But based on their verified results, he concluded that Veldora was strictly off-limits.
He had submitted a report to the emperor along those lines, but sadly, he was shut down. “If someone wants to try it,” he was told, “let them.”
Regardless, the problem now was Rimuru, a demon lord who built a nation and unified the Forest of Jura at an astonishing pace. If he had teamed up with the Storm Dragon, attacking the forest would have been nothing but foolish. If the entirety of the Empire’s military were deployed for the effort, that would be one thing—but to make the most effective use of such a force, they’d need to lure the enemy into more advantageous terrain, and that was an impossibility.
What, then, if they must fight the enemy on their own turf?
“The Dungeon, eh? And they might be developing otherworld weapons as well? We must investigate this. If we could defeat Veldora and Rimuru while losing less than, say, a third of our force, I’d call it a fine job. Otherwise, we have no chance of winning against the Western Nations, at the end of it.”
The words were mostly directed at Gadora himself. But he was making a mistake. He thought that Luminism, and the Western Nations supporting it, would be where they’d make their stand—not Tempest. And whether he picked up on this error in judgment would be key to deciding his fate, going forward.
Following Yuuki’s orders, three people were put on assignment—selected for their spots in the Composite Division and having an acquaintance with Lord Gadora. They would all be meeting today, and Yuuki had invited Gadora to his personal chamber for the occasion.
The first was Shinji Tanimura, formerly a college student in Japan who spent most of his days holed up in a university research lab. He still retained his beloved white lab coat, which had become his trademark here. The second was Marc Lauren, a muscular, brown-haired man in his midtwenties; he was the oldest of the trio, a buff bodybuilder type who’d go around in a tank top and jeans even in winter. The third was Zhen Liuxing, young and taciturn; it was hard to gauge his thoughts, but he always did what he was told. His long, braided black hair ran down his back, and he preferred comfortable, traditional Chinese-style clothing—under which, it was said, he hid a litany of assassin’s weapons.
Shinji had evolved to become the leader of this group, Marc and Zhen taking orders from him, and now they stood up straight before Yuuki and Gadora.
“It is an honor to see you after so long!” said the dark-haired Shinji, speaking for his group.
“Yes, long it certainly has been,” said Gadora. “And, Marc and Zhen—I trust you two are doing well?”
“Yeah, really well. Glad you’re still okay, too, old man.”
“…I am not feeling that well, my lord.”
Gadora cheerfully smiled at Marc and Zhen. “Good! The same as always, then. I understand you’re working hard in your squadrons as well. It’s quite a relief to hear.”
Shinji and his friends were otherworlders placed under Yuuki’s guidance. He provided care for people like them from all over the world; they were sent to the Empire to live, whether they had skills suited for battle or not. There, they’d be received by the Cerberus secret society, and then Lord Gadora the sorcerer would see to them. His mission was to gain what otherworld information he could, and if the otherworlders had a talent for combat and were interested in pursuing it, Gadora would also train them.This was what chiefly constituted the Composite Division—well-trained otherworlders with a litany of skills. Of course, simply being from another world didn’t guarantee you a top officer rank in the Empire. They became excellent soldiers because they knew how to correctly harness their powers—the unique skills they manifested for themselves. And Shinji had used his own unique skill to establish a firm, secure role in the military.
“Yeah, these three are frontline talents in my Composite Division. I think they’ll be perfect for this new investigation.”
“If you believe so, Sir Yuuki, then I have no complaints. Please, all of you, have a seat.”
The trio meekly took the austere sorcerer’s advice. Gadora looked at them, smiling a bit. Seeing these full-fledged soldiers still act so nervous around him was an amusing sight. But he couldn’t sit there grinning about it forever.
“Now, Sir Yuuki, you’re going to let me borrow this trio for our investigation?”
“Yeah. I wanted to go there myself, but I can’t really show my face around Tempest at the moment, you know? And I’d be anxious about sending just the three of them over, so I was hoping you could oversee them for me, my lord.”
“Mmm. I had a look at the report you sent. If what’s written in there is true, I think we do need to examine this in more detail before launching our full campaign.”
Gadora eyed Yuuki, sizing him up and awaiting his reaction. Yuuki, aware of this, nodded back.
“It’s all true, every word of it. I’ll be briefing all three of you on this in a moment, but this is gonna be kind of a unique mission. Basically, there’s this labyrinth I want you to investigate for us.”
“Whoa, hang on! You called us all here for some kinda obstacle-course thing? Is that how little you trust us? Even if Lord Gadora’s enlisting us, I really don’t think this is something we need to do before a full-scale military invasion!”
Marc, the most short-fused of the group, was the first to flare up. This was common enough to see. Yuuki encouraged them to ask questions on matters until they had an answer they were satisfied with.
“Calm down, Marc. This is important.”
“But…!”
“Wait a sec, Marc. I’m sure Yuuki’s got a good reason for this, so let’s just hear him out, okay?” Shinji said before facing Yuuki. “Would you mind filling us in, then?”
“Of course…and trust me, once you hear it all, you won’t be complaining.”
So Yuuki carefully went over the trio’s assignment.
………
……
…
Gadora had already given his approval beforehand, so he silently listened, making sure there weren’t any discrepancies. Shinji and his friends were shocked.
Across the force, Yuuki had his protégés in place, well trained and blessed with unique skills, and they had laid low in their respective posts up to now. The idea was that, when the time came, they’d bare their fangs and take over their respective squadrons. Yuuki hadn’t filled them in on the details, but everyone thought that the moment was near. Shinji and his friends were part of this, and now that Yuuki had full control of the Composite Division, they figured it was just a matter of time before the order came.
World conquest.
When Yuuki first told them about this childish-sounding dream, nobody thought he could actually do it. But as they polished their skills and learned how this new world worked, they all began to think it wasn’t so impossible after all. Shinji and his team practically adored him at this point. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the moment—and then this “Dungeon” assignment arrived out of nowhere. The trio couldn’t be blamed for their confusion.
But as Yuuki explained matters, they began to reconsider. Out of all the preparation and investigation they had done for this upcoming war, only the Dungeon remained unexplored, and it was likely that some kind of important secret was being hidden in this maze. If word had it that an entire town was hidden deep in its chambers, they weren’t going to take that sitting down.
………
……
…
“I see now… So the Empire can’t ignore this Dungeon in their operations, huh?”
“And there’s a town inside? I’m never gonna believe that until I see it.”
“…And we’re going to go in there?”
Shinji’s team had to accept it.
“So that’s the long and short of things. You see what I mean now, though? If the Empire’s campaign takes it into the Forest of Jura, we’re planning to stage our military coup once the front lines are stretched out far enough. When we do, we’re hoping to attract as much of the army as we can. The demon lord Rimuru and the Storm Dragon aren’t enough to make the Empire deploy the total brunt of their forces. I want a stronger reason for them to do that.”
Maybe the labyrinth could be that reason. Or not. If it didn’t live up to the hype, Yuuki explained, they’d fabricate something else—and with the time that’d buy them, Yuuki and his personal team would seize the imperial capital.
This came as a surprise to Shinji’s trio. They had seen a coup attempt coming, but this was the first time they were let in on the details. Plus, Gadora himself was in the room. Wouldn’t talking about it right in front of him cause a leak?
“Y-Yuuki?!”
Shinji tried to stop him, but Yuuki just smiled and waved it off. “No, no, don’t worry. Lord Gadora knows all about my plans.”
“Huh?”
“Heh-heh-heh! And why wouldn’t I? I have a personal obligation to the emperor, but his Empire? That means nothing to me. My mission is to destroy Luminism. I had no idea the demon lord Luminus led that religion herself; it took me completely by surprise. I have zero interest in Luminism’s followers, but I will never rest until I personally take down those who killed my friend. I’d like to begin by taking care of the demon lord Rimuru; they say he’s close friends with Luminus. That is why I’m planning to join you in this labyrinth conquest.”
Beyond that, Gadora said with a crazed grin, he didn’t much care what happened.
He had, of course, heard the stories about Rimuru. One year earlier, the Kingdom of Farmus was toppled after it attracted the ire of Veldora. A fit of rage drained the Storm Dragon’s energy and allowed Rimuru to recruit him for his own purposes. Gadora didn’t know whether this was a master-servant relationship or more of a cooperative arrangement, but the Storm Dragon had shown no signs of activity since, his massive aura no longer detectable. To Gadora, the rumors seemed plausible to some extent.
There were also moves being made among the other demon lords. Several had dropped out of the Ten Great Demon Lords, the remainder regrouping into the so-called Octagram. They had notified human society of this, and Gadora was positive the demon lord Rimuru played a major role. After all, Rimuru joined their ranks just as Clayman, one of the former Ten Great Demon Lords, disappeared. It proved that, in the end, Rimuru was simply more powerful than him. Clayman was a crafty demon lord, one you underestimated at your own peril, but Rimuru as a demon lord was an even greater threat.
What’s more, Rimuru had opened up diplomatic relations with humanity, strengthening his influence within the Council of the West. Gadora couldn’t say what the Western Nations thought about this, but he knew that riling Rimuru would be a very dangerous act.
But something else was also on his mind. Farmus, he knew, sent an army of some twenty thousand soldiers to attack Tempest—and only three of them survived. One had since been killed, so that left no one but the former king and Razen, his ex-apprentice.
I will need to question Razen about this, Gadora thought, making a mental note. But there still remains far too much that’s unclear with this demon lord Rimuru…
Gadora wasn’t about to let his guard down. Farmus’s forces were wiped out by the Storm Dragon, the reports said, but there was no physical evidence backing this up. That, in itself, was unnerving. In normal wars, a warring faction would generally be considered to fail its objective if it lost thirty percent of its personnel. That’d be the point a commander would issue a surrender, but there was no record Farmus ever attempted one.
One could interpret this as the Storm Dragon refusing to take prisoners, but Gadora saw that as unlikely. He was a survivor from their past campaign, after all, and he knew Veldora’s personality well. As a fighter, he was, in a word, imprecise. He wasn’t the type to pursue fleeing foot soldiers; he’d cause huge amounts of damage, but it’d all happen in one big wave with no follow-up. Considering this fighting style, a force of twenty thousand being 99.9999 percent annihilated was a bit too much to swallow.
So did Rimuru do something? Based on what Gadora knew about his personality, that seemed unlikely, too. In his mind, this was one demon lord who spared the lives of those who gave in to him. This, on the other hand, was a massacre.
I suppose Veldora really did do them all in, then, before they had a chance to surrender.
It was honestly a terrifying thought. The exact reason why a full frontal conflict had to be avoided—and he had a plan for that. Rimuru was another worry for him, but he was about to investigate him, and they could work out a response after that. That was enough to reassure Gadora for now. He had no personal vendetta against Rimuru, but if he was working in tandem with Luminus, he was an enemy.
He had to be defeated…though Gadora had no intention of reckless attempts on his life. Gadora had spent many years honing his plan, and now he’d move the Empire toward invading the Western Nations. They were one step away from all that—he couldn’t afford to rush this part and send everything crashing down. He was careful, very careful, with every move he made.
Gadora and Yuuki shared the same interests, and after conversing about them, they agreed to work in tandem, sharing information with each other and becoming comrades in arms.
But Shinji was still shocked at how casually Yuuki revealed such secrets. He wanted everyone to take a step back, and it was obvious why.
W-wait… If this goes bad, we could all be rubbed out…
Shinji, being no fool, didn’t think his group was being trusted that much—but he didn’t think they were seen as disposable pawns, either. They were being tested, he believed, and Marc and Zhen felt the same way.
“All right! We’ll investigate as best as we can.”
“This’ll be fun, old man! And I promise we won’t drag you down in there.”
“…I’ll do my best.”
This was clearly an important mission. They had to produce results—in fact, as Shinji now realized, producing results was how they’d guarantee their survival.
“Right. Then let me ask you all: Do you know how many demon lords there are?”
“Sure. Eight, right?”
“…Huh? Weren’t there ten? Or did it go up to eleven?”
“The lineup changed a year ago, Marc…”
Gadora sighed. “Shinji,” he said, raising his voice, “you need to make sure that fool receives the right information. Any soldier who can’t gather intelligence is going to wind up on the chopping block first!”
He took a moment to catch his breath.
“There are eight demon lords in an arrangement known as the Octagram. They style themselves as akin to eight stars in the sky, and with at least some of them, it’s not far from reality. I bring this up because your target here is Rimuru, the so-called Newbie of this Octagram. You must never let your guard down around him. Furthermore, there is another demon among this group known as the Labyrinth Master. What do you make of that?”
The trio nervously gulped. Even Yuuki looked at Gadora, surprised.
“Are they involved,” Shinji carefully asked, “with the labyrinth we’re exploring?”
Gadora nodded gravely, then handed them a book. It spoke of a labyrinth, a safe haven for spirits, located in the Republic of Ur-Gracia to the west. The stories told of a vast maze under the ground or in the sky, but this was correct and incorrect in equal measure. What this book revealed was that this haven was home to more than spirits—it also housed a queen who had transformed her body from a spiritual form to that of a fairy.
“That fairy queen is Ramiris the Labyrinth Master—one of the oldest demon lords.”
The facts hit Gadora’s audience like a ton of bricks. But he wasn’t done yet.
“The door to this labyrinth of hers was located in Urgr Nature Park, but now it has vanished. I investigated this myself, so there is no doubting it. Based on what I was told, it disappeared at around the same time Rimuru declared himself a demon lord. Soon after, his nation revealed their own Dungeon…”
“Well,” chimed in Yuuki, “that pretty much settles it, huh? I was wondering how they built a labyrinth like that, but now I’m positive the demon lord Ramiris created it. She and Rimuru must be allies.”
Yuuki was sure of it, and he gave a bracing smile. No one on Shinji’s side had the words to deny it—and that brought them all down. Now it felt like this mission just became far more difficult.
“I’ll be counting on you,” said Gadora.
“Make sure to stay on your guard, okay?” Yuuki reminded the trio.
Then, after another warning about the terrifying craftiness of the demon lord Rimuru, the three of them left.
The day after this meeting, Yuuki’s secretary, Kagali, guided Shinji and his friends to the outskirts of Tempest.
Ten days after that, Gadora set off by himself to another destination. After seeing Yuuki admonish the three of them, he figured he’d let them handle the mission solo to start with. He didn’t think Yuuki really saw them as disposable—it was just a little tough talk to put them in the right mindset.
Sir Yuuki’s not exactly an honest man, either. He thinks he’s so talented, and he expects the same from everyone else.
That much was clear to Gadora—and it was true for himself personally as well.
Gadora had no intention of sending his apprentices out to be killed. If they got in trouble, he could reach out to them. But he never actually voiced this. Instead, he just silently menaced those around him, making people think he was a scary old man.
But Gadora was blissfully unaware of all this as he headed for the former Kingdom of Farmus. He had recalled an old apprentice of his, and he decided to call on him to gather information about Rimuru. Flying over to the old Farmus capital of Maris, he promptly headed for the palace.
Razen, working in his office, practically shot out of his chair when he found out. Long before Gadora even reached the palace, he picked up on the nearby presence of his great master, a man he thought died long ago.
“I…I can’t believe he’s alive,” he muttered—and as he did, he realized this was going to be trouble. Even if he didn’t know Gadora’s intentions, Razen knew Gadora had come here to see him, and it clearly wasn’t just to rekindle an old friendship. And there was another problem: The Farminus palace guards didn’t know Gadora. If something wasn’t done, he’d doubtlessly start a scuffle at the palace gates and kill anyone who defied him. And should Razen himself ever get on Gadora’s bad side…
No, no, no… If that ever happened, I could never hold back Sir Gadora myself.
Quickly reaching that conclusion, Razen sprang into action, making a magical call to one of his new apprentices.
“You can hear me, can’t you?”
“Tch… Don’t call me out of nowhere like this.”
“You must’ve noticed what’s going on, too.”
“Yeah. Grigori hasn’t yet, but I felt this foreign presence out of nowhere. It’s gonna reach the palace gate, you know.”
“Well, if you know all that, join me at the gate now.”
“…All right. I owe you one, after all.”
Razen had recently taken on two new apprentices—Saare and Grigori, former Battlesages and part of the Master Rooks assigned to the Papacy in the Holy Empire of Lubelius. He came to know the two men as he went around the country on inspection runs; they had committed mistakes that made them no longer welcome in the Papacy, so he picked them up as new disciples. This wasn’t because they particularly hit it off. Razen just had a lot of sympathy for them—especially Saare, who had to admit his epic defeat to newspaper reporters from around the world. It was Diablo who handed him that defeat, and to Razen, that struck too close to home.
Saare could be a hothead, but he still accepted Razen as his master. Grigori, for his part, had spells where he’d be struck by terror about something, but over time, his natural fearlessness was coming back. In terms of pure strength, they were attractive talents, so Razen planned to train them as behind-the-scenes agents in the future. Handling potentially dangerous incidents like this was part of that training.
Me, Saare, and Grigori? If I can have Sir Gruecith join us, that should be enough to handle Gadora.
Regular infantry would be useless against such a uniquely powerful sorcerer. The Kingdom of Farminus lacked champion-class talents at the moment, a major weakness. Chief Folgen of the former Farmus Knight Corps and his men were now a thing of the past, and Farminus’s major issue was finding people to replace them.
Being reminded of this made Razen grit his teeth over how late he was to react.
By the time he reached the palace gate, Saare and Grigori were already there—and already in a stare down with Gadora on the other side.
“Hey, man, I don’t know what brings you to this castle, but this is where we live, all right? You know we can’t let strangers inside, okay?”
“He’s right, old man. Take it from us—you’ll wanna be on your way for now. If you’re here to see someone, ask a clerk, and you’ll get a response in two or three days.”
The two of them were rather polite (by their standards) as they blocked Gadora’s way. The sight made Razen feel like years were being taken off his life.
“Stop!” Razen hollered. “Let that man through!”
“Huh? You don’t want us to stop him?” said Saare.
“What’d you call us for, then?” Grigori demanded.
They didn’t appreciate the order much, but Razen didn’t care.
“How nice to see you again, Sir Gadora. I’m afraid I was unaware you were still alive. I apologize I was not worthy enough to call upon you earlier.”
He took a knee in front of Gadora as he spoke reverently.
Razen had a motive for wanting to stay on good terms with Gadora. If push came to shove, he’d put everything he had in stopping him—but it didn’t seem like it’d come to that.
“It has indeed been quite a while, Razen. You look different, but it seems it really is you, eh?”
“Yes, sir. Unlike you, I have survived thanks to taking on a new body—”
“No need to be so formal. I’m not chiding you. I’ve come here today because I need to ask you about some matters. And you, the beastman hiding over there—there’s no need to be so wary of me. If I was hostile to any of you, I wouldn’t have come here by myself.”
Gadora’s words finally eased the tension. But Razen and his apprentices didn’t let their guard down, asking for time to set up a conference space before taking their leave.The next day, their conference began at a room inside the palace. The attendees were Yohm, Gruecith, and Razen, with Saare and Grigori standing nearby as Yohm’s bodyguard detail.
Mjurran wanted to join as well but was turned down—she had only just given birth, and Yohm insisted she stay in bed and rest. Their newborn was a girl named Mieme, cute and resembling Mjurran. Prince Edgar was giving the little one all his doting care.
“So, Master, what did you want to ask me about?” said Razen.
“Mmm… Well, before I broach the subject, I’d like to point out a few things first. You… Saare, was it? You seem decently strong…but magic is a weakness of yours, isn’t it? Casting magic isn’t about memorizing a spell, you know. You must learn how to correctly manage the magic force inside you. And this beastman, Gruecith—as for you…”
Thus Gadora began pointing out the weaknesses of everyone in the room. Gruecith, as he said, needed to learn how to gauge the capabilities of his foes before attacking them. “Transforming in front of your enemy,” as he sternly put it, “is all but ceding the first strike to them.” For Yohm, while he was “more powerful than the average person, by the looks of it,” he suggested focusing more on protecting his own body, as overreliance on his weapons and armor would be his downfall. With Grigori, on the other hand, he struck a bitter tone, simply ordering him to polish his skills more.
Finally, Gadora’s eyes settled upon Razen.
“Razen, I see you’ve been quite diligent. Your magic is possession-based, is it not?”
“Yes, Master. The Secret Art of Possession, based on the theory behind your Mysterious Art of Reincarnation.”
“Mmm. A very interesting experiment. Unlike my spell, it doesn’t require the target to spend time as a weakened, defenseless child.”
“It is an honor to hear—”
“But it is all pointless unless you make the best use of it. You went through all the effort to seize that body, and you’re not extracting everything you can from it.”
“Yes, Master!”
Razen bowed at the advice, breaking into a sweat. This was something he already knew about himself. It forced him to admit that Gadora was probably right about everyone in the room.
Truly a fearsome figure. In the space of a day, he’s perfectly judged every aspect of our abilities…
He fell silent, unable to put anything into words. But Saare and Grigori were less appreciative.
“Whoa, where do you get off lording it over us like that? How can you take one look at me and spout off all that nonsense?”
“Yeah! I owe a great debt to Sir Razen, but I ain’t got no reason to kowtow to his master, too. If you’re that confident about yourself, how about you and I have a little lesson together, huh?”
Now they were ready to duke it out. Razen wanted to scream at them to shut up, but seeing the look in his master’s eyes, he refrained. To Gadora, this much was expected, and he fully anticipated showing off his skills to Saare and Grigori.
If so, Razen thought, perhaps there’s still an amicable end to all this. Let’s play along with my master.
So in a sort of warm-up before the meeting, Gadora fought a battle against Saare and Grigori. This was held in the palace’s training grounds, and Gadora naturally destroyed them.
“N-no way…”
“This old man is crazy… He didn’t even break a sweat whipping both of us…”
Gadora’s overwhelming strength completely smashed their pride as former Battlesages. His intention was to show off his might, then use that to smoothen their negotiations, and Saare and Grigori reacted exactly as he had hoped. What happened after that, however, didn’t follow the script.
“But you’re not as good as that demon,” said Saare.
“That bad, eh? Then again, I’d say that dog I fought is about as strong as you, old man,” Grigori added.
“…Hmm?”
They had just lost big but seemed oddly accepting of it—and despite seeing Gadora’s strength, they didn’t act too surprised.
…As strong as me? And a demon out there is more powerful than me, even…?
The unexpected reaction confused Gadora, but it didn’t seem like Saare and Grigori were being sore losers. They must have really meant it. And Gadora wanted to inquire in more detail…
“We can discuss this later, Sir Gadora. For now, allow me to answer your original questions.”
…but Razen put a quick end to the proceedings.
Returning to the reception room, the meeting was picked up anew.
“Man, you really are Razen’s master,” a jovial Yohm began. “What a monster! I don’t think I could ever beat ya.”
Gruecith nodded excitedly. “Yeah, the magic-born Razen’s made a big name for himself around here, but we never hear many stories about his instructor. Mjurran said you crafted a new system of magic theory, and the way you fought, I believe her.”
Gadora’s magic was stupendous, as expected. He interfered with the magical energy of his opponents, blocking their spells as he launched two of his own simultaneously, both with punishing force. It was a spectacular feat, one designed to serve as a dazzling demonstration. Saare and Grigori were much more powerful than even a charged-up, ready-to-rock Gruecith, and Gadora treated them like playthings. There was no doubting his strength.
Thus, while Yohm and Gruecith enjoyed the spectacle, the losers seemed pretty discouraged as they dutifully returned to guard duty.
“So,” Razen asked, “what is it that brought you here?”
“…I wanted to show you my strength to make sure nobody tried pointlessly resisting me. As I believe Razen knows, my anger is entirely directed at Luminism. I have no interest in anything else, so I cannot bear to have this nation exposed to an imperial invasion and untold casualties.”
It was an ominous statement despite Gadora’s casual tone.
“Imperial—”
“For real? C’mon, man,” said Yohm. “Don’t go barging in here while I’m the king.”
“You said it. We’d never beat you, and I don’t want Mjurran or my baby girl exposed to danger,” added Gruecith.
“She’s not yours, dammit. Get that through your head already. She’s my treasure!”
“Ah, shut up!! She’s not mine by blood, but she’s my daughter. I’ve decided I’m gonna live like a father from now on.”
“That’s not for you to decide!!”
It was a pretty painful argument, waged between Yohm and Gruecith. Razen cleared his throat to shut them up.
“Right. Now I see, Sir Gadora, why you came here. You’d like Farminus to switch sides to the Empire, in exchange for not being touched during the war?”
“Quite so. You know perfectly well how powerful the Empire is, I imagine? I am part of that package, of course, and should Farminus join our forces, capturing Dwargon would be a simple job. That nation is extremely vulnerable to being starved out. Keep anything from entering or leaving, and they’ll quickly throw in the towel.”
Of course, that would only work if something was done about Tempest. Razen was quick to point that out. “I’m afraid, Sir Gadora, that is not possible. A railroad has been built between the Dwarven Kingdom and Tempest that allows for high-speed transport. Even if we halted all food exports today, they can supply themselves well enough via that route.”
“And that’s why I’m asking you to betray them. Tempest itself is not terribly self-sufficient foodwise, either. What you grow here could—”
“Sir Gadora?”
Razen interrupted Gadora, as rude as he knew it was. He had realized Gadora was relying on outdated information—he wasn’t keeping up with the times. World trends were operating much, much faster than they used to. If they turned traitor to the Western Nations at this point, they’d be banned from the world economy, and that would spell doom for their kingdom. Even if the Empire offered them protection and generous support, they couldn’t expect as much luxury as they enjoyed at present. That was how much Farminus was now influenced by the West—or really, by Tempest.
“…I see,” Gadora said after Razen explained all this. “I was aware, although I wanted to hear about it straight from the horse’s mouth. But you truly think the demon lord Rimuru doesn’t fear the imperial force? I suppose, of course, that he could even defeat an army of angels with his power, but it would cause untold damage to everything he has built up. The Empire has been considering a train system of its own, but we’ve taken a wait and see approach for just that reason…”
That was how he responded to the news of a rail network linking the world’s bigger cities.
“Sir Rimuru, I assure you, is not afraid of collateral damage.”
“Nah, not at all. The guy hates losin’ people, but anything else, I don’t think he really cares that much.”
“Yeah. And hell, maybe he likes it. It gives people more work to do.”
Razen, Gruecith, and Yohm all lobbed out their opinions. Yohm’s words, in particular, had real weight behind them. People find happiness in being relied upon; they want to use their skills to help others out. If there’s no work and nothing to do all day, that’d take the wind out of anyone’s sails. Some of them might turn to crime. It was thus the job of a leader—or employer—to find new work for them.
“Once all this construction work is wrapped up in each country, that’ll just leave repair and maintenance. My pal Rimuru’s been frettin’ over what he’s gonna do after that. We were drinkin’ together a while back, and he was all like ‘Ohhh, I wanna do this, I wanna do that, but our technical skills aren’t keeping up…’”
“And if the angels attack at a time like that, it’ll breed a huge demand for rebuilding and recovery. I bet Rimuru’d act pretty pissed off about it, but maybe he’d actually be glad, deep down.”
Even Gruecith was agreeing with Yohm. Saare and Grigori looked exasperated, but they didn’t seem eager to refute them.
“But even if he’s a demon lord, if he starts meddling too much in the human territories of the West, the Rozzos won’t take that sitting down, will they?”
Razen’s story was generally a match with the information Gadora assembled, but some pieces of the puzzle were still missing. Gadora wanted to use this occasion to milk Razen for as much intelligence as he had. The Rozzos wouldn’t wait for things to unfold; they’d take action to protect their investments. If economics get involved, Gadora reasoned, they’d engage in nonmilitary sabotage to get their way.
His question for Razen, of course, was framed so he could learn as much as possible about the Rozzos’ current state. Razen, correctly reading this, gave Gadora what he wanted.
“The Rozzos, my master, are finished. The Kingdom of Doran is still going strong, and the survivors are gathered inside it, but they will never hold sway over the Council at this point. The surrounding nations continue doing business only because Sir Rimuru allows it. King Doran has surrendered to him as well.”
As Razen explained this, he decided to divulge the truth behind why the Farmus military lost so badly. That was the first revelation of the day that truly surprised Gadora.
“…So the demon lord Rimuru laid waste to the Farmus army all by himself? And the Rozzos are no longer…? But hold on one moment! If those are no mere rumors, then what of Gren—of Granville Rozzo?!”
Granville the Hero was, in Gadora’s mind, the most powerful man in the world. He had been so careful in his campaign plans against the West because he knew he led the Seven Days Clergy. But now Razen claimed the Rozzos were gone.
“So the rumors that the Seven Days Clergy were killed…?”
“They are also true, Master. The Seven Days Clergy opposed Sir Rimuru, so they attempted to pit Hinata of the Crusaders against him. But the plot was discovered, and they were destroyed soon after.”
Now even Gadora was stunned into silence. Razen had clearly stated that everyone in the Seven Days Clergy was dead. Even Gren, the Sunday Priest, met his doom at the hand of Cardinal Nicolaus. It made Gadora realize just how feeble his intelligence network was. If Granville was dead, that lent credence to the reported fall of the Rozzo family. If he had learned that sooner, Gadora thought, he could have greatly revised their plan for this campaign.
And also:
“That little sneak… He knew it all along, and he never told me…”
Gadora recalled the face of Yuuki as he bitterly intoned the words. Perhaps the young man thought telling him would damper his lust for revenge; if so, Gadora didn’t like it one bit.
“By ‘little sneak,’ are you referring to Yuuki Kagurazaka?” asked Razen. “That man’s taken advantage of us as well, so I think I understand how you feel.”
Being comforted by his apprentice put Gadora in a mood that was difficult to describe—half frustration, half embarrassment. And the way Razen put it, Yuuki was a thorn in Rimuru’s side, too, although the demon lord chose to see how things unfolded before declaring Yuuki his enemy.
Damn you, Yuuki… Hiding things from me yet again, are you? You know full well I’m here to destroy Luminism, and you give me nothing but the vaguest reports from the Western Holy Church. Is there something that would cause you trouble if I heard about it…?
Now Gadora realized he was being used—and there, in front of Razen and the rest, he found himself unsure how their future would unfold.

Slime 12.2

THE IMPERIAL GUESTS
Three people stood there in the lavishly decorated room, all looking nervous and standing straight-backed as they awaited the chamber’s owner—Yuuki, the man who came to the Empire and immediately shot up to the rank of commander.
To them, the story of Yuuki was not any sort of surprise. After all, Yuuki was their boss, the leader of the Cerberus secret society.
“Hey,” he said when he finally came in, “sorry to keep you waiting! You could’ve sat down, you know.” With him was Kagali, standing politely toward the rear like a secretary.
“Not at all, Sir Yuuki,” one man among the visitors said. “We remain your faithful servants. You hardly need to be considerate of us.”
This man was Damrada the Money, one of Cerberus’s three boss-level officials. He was a hard man to grasp, all greasy and shady-looking. The other two were Misha the Lover—a beautiful woman with a strange air about her, at times looking like both a young girl and a mature woman—and Vega the Power, whose supple, well-balanced, carnivore-like body dominated anyone who laid eyes upon her. This was the trio at the top of Cerberus’s operations.
They all saluted Yuuki before sitting down.
“First, let us congratulate you on reaching the rank of commander.”“Yes. As someone who survived an encounter with the demon lord Guy, I was sure you could do it, Sir Yuuki.”
“Pfft! Let me at that force, and taking over a division would be child’s play.”
Damrada and Misha expressed their good wishes to Yuuki. Vega, at the end, didn’t seem so impressed. But Yuuki didn’t let it bother him.
You’re right, I think, he pondered with an internal sneer. You really could be part of the hundred…but after that, you’d never hold out. No way anyone could ask you to command anything. You wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Well, I have to thank you, Damrada,” he said, changing the subject, “for intervening on my behalf with Lord Gadora.”
“Oh, don’t be silly! It was all in anticipation for this moment, Sir Yuuki. All I did was introduce Lord Gadora to an otherworlder you secured for us, so there’s hardly any need to thank me that much.”
“Ha-ha-ha! You’re always so stiff, Damrada. Why don’t you just accept my gratitude for a change?”
“I am afraid I cannot, sir. I don’t want you to expect more from me than I can provide.”
“Ha-ha! That’s a funny joke.” Yuuki looked at Damrada and grinned. That brought the point across well enough. After many years, they each trusted in the other’s abilities.
After a shared laugh, Yuuki moved to the main topic. “Now, Kagali, brief us on what the demon lord Rimuru is doing.”
“Yes, Sir Yuuki. The demon lord Rimuru is currently—”
With his order, Kagali began her briefing. Her information mainly came from members of the Free Guild who remained in the West. The majority of Yuuki’s agents there had fled, but several had used that as a cover to become underground spies.
Kagali went over everything in her clear voice. Rimuru had total control over the Western Nations and was using it to form an army of fearsome size, preparing for an imperial invasion. She covered all of that and more, alongside some unbelievable phenomena occurring in the capital city of Rimuru.
“Oh… So they’ve designated the lodging town along the Great Ameld River as a military base?” said Yuuki. “Yeah, if they’re going to put defensive lines in their own nation, they’d have to do that, huh?”
“Indeed,” Kagali replied. “There are already nearly twenty thousand troops stationed at that base. They are using something called magitrains for material transport, so they likely stored up enough food resources to survive a siege.”
“That’s Tempest for you. The Empire’s not gonna have an easy win there.”
“I agree. They’re importing food supplies from Farminus, so they’ve got enough to feed a population of several million. The nation as a whole is far more powerful than it was a year ago, and I’d say they could fight off the Empire all by themselves. Plus, the Council of the West is now entirely controlled by the demon lord Rimuru. If they can collate the West’s forces into a cohesive whole, that would be substantial, too.”
“You think so? I’m sure Rimuru tries to be thorough with everything, but he’s pretty naive, as far as I’m concerned. He probably figures that pitting numbers against numbers will just lead to more casualties, so I bet he wants to chase off the Empire with just his elites.”
“That’s ridiculous…”
“I doubt someone like a demon lord would attempt something so foolish…,” Damrada added.
He and Kagali discounted the idea, but that didn’t change Yuuki’s mind.
No, seriously, he really is that naive. But between that and how freakishly strong he is, I feel like he could actually do something…
Despite his thoughts, he asked Kagali to keep going.
“Thank you. Continuing with the briefing… The capital of Rimuru has a force of over fifty thousand on standby, and reinforcements are streaming in from the former Eurazania. Their total fighting power will likely surpass one hundred thousand in the end.”
“That’s pretty amazing, but it still gives the Empire a big advantage.”
“Certainly, the numbers don’t compare. The Empire has over a million, and their foot soldiers have been undergoing some kind of weird modifications, too. I think even the lowest infantry would rank at least a C. And consider all their bizarre armaments as well—honestly, I don’t think they stand a chance.”
Those were Kagali’s honest feelings. Yes, a hundred thousand pairs of boots on the ground was impressive, especially given their expert training and high morale. Normally, Tempest would be worthy of high praise. But compared with the Empire’s full outfit, it simply paled by comparison. Even the defenses Kagali built for her castle back when she was the demon lord Kazalim wouldn’t hold out against the violent charge of the Empire’s numbers. A mere one hundred thousand, faced with that maelstrom, meant nothing.
But Yuuki had different ideas. “I’ll keep your advice in mind. Keep going.”
“Right. Now, moving on to their nation’s technology…”
Kagali continued reporting the facts.
Tempest had suddenly begun offering a variety of curious goods for sale—tools to make life more convenient, for example, and fancy high-end weaponry; they served different purposes, but all were very effective gadgets. A lot of buyers wanted to sign exclusive contracts with the developers of these goods, but try as they might, none of the merchants had figured out where they’re coming from. Their origins remained a mystery.
“…The magitrains I mentioned are another example, but as with the Empire, we’re seeing a wave of technological innovation. Unfortunately, they are doing a thorough job with preventing information leaks. The Free Guild members weren’t able to trace these goods back to their creators.”
They were probably being developed internally. That much was clear, but nobody had any idea where. It frustrated Kagali as well, but they couldn’t send her out to deal with the demon lord Rimuru herself. If she arose suspicion again, it’d be all over, so Yuuki couldn’t push his inner circle like that.
Then Kagali suddenly recalled something.
“If you think about it, they must be developing new kinds of weapons, too. Considering that, perhaps we should be concerned about more than the size of their armies.”
Yuuki gave this a grin. “I thought you’d notice that. You’re right, though. I was surprised to see the Empire developing tanks, but Rimuru’s not far behind with his trains, either. It’s not like the Empire has an exclusive license for scientific weaponry, so it’d be stupid to look to that for an advantage.”
No, the Empire wasn’t the only side of this fight with otherworlder tech. Rimuru retained all his otherworlder memories, so there’s no telling what kind of weapon he might decide to fund.
If the Empire were fighting any normal nation, that opponent would have been shaken to the core by all its mysterious firepower. Even if that opponent had otherworlders, the knowledge they’d learn from them would only add to the despair. The difference in fighting ability would become clear as day, and they’d understand that there was no chance of winning. But what if the other side had the technical skill to develop the same kinds of things? They’d immediately work out countermeasures, and any advantage would be evened out in the blink of an eye. In fact, if one side trusted in their tech too much, they’d have the tables turned and lose terrain on their foe so quickly that it’d make their heads spin.
Yuuki had seen all this, and by his estimate, he thought Rimuru’s chances of victory weren’t at all minor.
“Ridiculous!” interjected Vega. “Just crush them, then! If you’re that worried about that stuff, just tear it all down! Problem solved!”
Whether it was a weapon or an army, the eminently confident Vega thought, all you had to do was trample over everything in your way. His observation demonstrated a critical lack of comprehension across this whole conversation. It made Yuuki rub a hand against his head.
This guy… He’s strong but so stupid. Too stupid, even…
If he had even a bit more brains in his head, he could be useful for so much more.
Yuuki sighed. “Well, if it comes to that,” he said, “you can be sure I’ll ask you for it. But we can’t misread the enemy here.”
That bit of ambivalence ought to have shut Vega up. Besides, he thought, in this world, quality counted for a lot more than quantity. No matter how big an army you assembled, you’d never beat the demon lord Guy—an example that proved you could never deride the power of an individual.
To reach your strategic goal, it was important to master the information war and fully gauge your opponent’s abilities. The easiest way to do that was by throwing someone decently strong against your foe and seeing what happens. In addition, abandoning an unwinnable battle was a proper practice to employ. And no matter how powerful an individual foe might have been, attacking with multiple forces at once could let you overcome them. In other words, looking at a side’s overall war power was meaningless. What mattered was tactical skill—how well they could effectively operate the forces at hand.
Along those lines, Tempest was a troublesome enemy. Rimuru was far from the only threat—that nation had a ridiculous number of powerful magic-born. Even the Big Four—Benimaru, Diablo, Shion, and Gobta—were like four tactical units of their own. Defeating any one of them was a highly difficult mission.
I doubt it’s just a matter of tech. They got a lot of tough people on their side, so sheer numbers aren’t gonna matter with them. Guess it shows how right I was to capitulate to Guy earlier, huh?
As far as Yuuki knew, there were several people stronger than Gobta, which meant at least a few others were as powerful as the Big Four.
“My real concern is the magic-born comparable to Saints or demon lords,” muttered Damrada, apparently in agreement.
“You’re right. Because it’s not just the Big Four with them,” said Yuuki. “There’s magic-born like Geld and Gabil as well. It’s hard to understand why all these demon lord–class people keep coming over there.”
The more Yuuki thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Multiple people, each with strength on the level of Clayman, in the service of Rimuru, a lone demon lord. If you were aware of that, you’d almost wish it were a joke.
“Lucky for us that the demon lord Rimuru isn’t our enemy right now.”
Everyone except for Vega quietly nodded at Yuuki’s statement. Now they had a sort of agreement with Guy that placed them under his affiliation. Anyone who messed with Yuuki and his team would be inviting the wrath of Guy upon them. With Yuuki uninterested in challenging Rimuru, they were at an armistice, more or less—and Yuuki was selfish enough to try using this situation as best as he could. Even if they faced off sometime, it’d only be after he regained his losses in the West.
With that resolved in his mind, he returned to the main topic.
“Does that complete your report?” he asked Kagali.
“We weren’t able to obtain detailed military information, so that’s all the accurate intel we have. But there is one curious topic I’d like to bring up.”
“What’s that?”
“In the capital of Rimuru, there’s been ongoing disaster training taking place, but the local government recently added evacuation drills to the schedule.”
This training involved pretty sensible matters—running into sturdy buildings, putting out fires, that sort of thing. But the evacuation drill this time had citizens practicing fleeing into town from outside the four main gates. It didn’t make much sense.
“Fleeing into town?”
“Yes. Our investigators weren’t sure what it was about, so they decided to split up and take a closer look.”
“One on the outside, one on the inside?”
“Exactly. Then, they said, they saw something—a strange sight that looked like a dream—”
“A strange sight?”
“Yes, Misha. There was an announcement, and exactly ten minutes after that, the entire town vanished without a trace. All that remained was one single gate.”
According to the investigator left outside, there were some security personnel left by the gate, guiding any stragglers into a nearby cave. Once the coast was clear, the investigator braced himself and went through the gate—only to find himself in a mazelike chamber of stone walls. He quickly fled back out the gate in a panic, proving that it had two-way access.
“That might be their Dungeon, I think…,” said Yuuki.
“Do you know what it is, Sir Yuuki?” Damrada asked.
“Yeah. I think Kagali knows, too, but there’s a tourist attraction in town called the Dungeon, right?”
“Correct. A structure with wandering monsters for adventurers to challenge themselves against.”
“It’s probably that. I heard a rumor that there’s a whole city inside that Dungeon, so…”
“A city inside it?”
Damrada didn’t seem ready to believe that, but Yuuki and Kagali were serious. It was hard to explain to someone who didn’t already know, but that was the reality.
“Yeah. It’s a little crazy to think of normally, but… You know, it takes someone like Rimuru to make it possible. The Dungeon goes down a hundred floors, after all, and it’s guarded by Veldora at the bottom.”
“…Is that really true?” Damrada questioned.
“Of course. I heard it from Veldora himself.”
That shut up Damrada pretty quickly. Kagali felt a little bad for him.
“But if you think about it,” she said, “it makes sense. Do you think this Dungeon city might contain vital infrastructure for Tempest—for example, their technological development site?”
“Ah, I see,” replied Yuuki. “I can believe it… In fact, it makes good sense.”
There was no limit to what Rimuru would try. Yuuki didn’t even let it faze him any longer. If anything, it excited him. And while this was only a guess, he doubted he was wrong. If it was Rimuru, he concluded, it had to be true.
“What does this say about the war, then?”
“That I really don’t know. I always thought you couldn’t take those guys with a normal approach, but handling a city defense like that? I’m sure it’s gonna shock the Empire.”
Yuuki had assumed that Rimuru wouldn’t fight the final battle on his own turf—he’d never let his citizens become casualties. But what if he had a surefire method to ensure every single civilian was out of harm’s way? If he did, the enemy would have to rewrite their entire strategy.
“Yeah, so maybe they’re taking a wait-and-see approach with the lodging town—see if they wind up fighting there or not. Maybe they’ll fight the real war around their capital. If the Empire forces miss the gate and pass right on by, there could be a surprise attack from the rear, kinda thing.”
“And then the Western Nations’ army can pin them down from the front.”
“They could send an advance team to examine and analyze the Empire’s fighting power. Then, while the Western Nations and the Empire are fighting a war of attrition, they can take their time crafting a response.”
“What a terrifying approach to think of. He really is a demon lord.”
Once they understood Yuuki’s thoughts, Kagali, Damrada, and Misha all showed visible surprise. They knew conventional warfare wouldn’t be enough to stop the demon lord Rimuru, but they hadn’t thought this far. Just imagining having to fight him gave them all headaches. It’d just be too hard—and now, the fight between Rimuru and the Empire was starting to sound like a lot of fun to watch.So, Sir Yuuki, what’s your next move?”
Misha was waiting for the right time to ask. She and her cohorts knew Yuuki took on the demon lord Guy and lost. They remained loyal to him anyway, but they still weren’t sure what exactly was on his mind.
The Cerberus trio was fine with the Empire giving Rimuru and his friends a hard time, but no matter what, they wanted to avoid playing a role in that. Yuuki promised Guy that he wouldn’t seriously support the Empire—but if he was a commander now, there was every concern he’d get caught in his own trap. For Cerberus, having an imperial commander on their side was extremely attractive, but it also came with the danger of getting involved in military affairs. That was an eat-or-be-eaten world; one wrong move and they’d face annihilation.
Those were the motives behind Misha’s question, and Yuuki was fully aware of them.
“You don’t have to worry. If Rimuru holds out for me, that suits all of us just fine. I mean, if we want to make our ideals a reality, the Empire gets in the way of that, don’t they? I want to send them to their ruin someday, and not just because Guy told me to… And now that I’m a commander, I get to control the timing. Just think of it like that.”
Now that Yuuki was one of the Empire’s three top commanders, he knew all about their internal operations. Getting an inside view of their military strategy even let him read into the common ground he shared with them. Naturally then, when they went on the move, he’d be able to predict the size of their forces—as well as when defenses in imperial territory would be the lightest. If the Western Nations put up a tough fight, the Empire would have to deploy that much more firepower against them. Then, no matter how stout their defenses, Yuuki was sure he’d find an opening.
“And we’ll hit them where they’re open!” Yuuki said, smacking the table for effect. Kagali smiled, still standing up straight, while Damrada and the others grew excited in their seats.
“Are you suggesting a coup…?” Damrada asked.
“Ah, I love it,” Misha gushed. “Now that’s the Sir Yuuki I know.”
“Heh-heh! Sounds like a lot of fun. Empire, demon lord, I’ll crush ’em all!”
Vega was a little too excited, maybe, but Yuuki decided not to worry about it as he got back to the point.
“Well, that’s my final goal anyway. Part of my promise with Guy was to stir up trouble with the Empire, too, and I gotta live up to my end of it. I’m gonna mess around with the West, too, but I don’t think anyone’s gonna complain about that, so…”
He smiled warmly. Guy hadn’t warned him against that, so Yuuki was free to do what he liked.
“Are you talking about having the Empire fight the Western Nations, then taking the Empire’s head in the meantime…?” Damrada inquired.
“Vicious as always, huh?” said Misha.
“Oh, not really,” Yuuki answered. “I think it’s a plan pretty much anyone could come up with.”
They would, maybe, but few would actually go through with it. Or maybe they’d try but not be powerful and talented enough to make it happen. Yuuki was the exception.
“Lord Gadora gave me a lot of information, too. That old man loves anything novel, and he’s got a flexible mind, but for some reason, he just hates the Western Nations. Like, to an obsessive level. It’s a lot of the reason why he’s developed all these weapons and contributed them to the Empire.”
“Ah yes, that’s a famous story,” said Damrada. “Even I was aware of that.”
“Right? ’Cause if he’s looking for things that could crush the Empire’s ambitions, you’d think he’d see the demon lord Rimuru as that. I’m sure it’ll dawn on him once he starts messing with the guy.”
“…And then what will happen?”
“Well, Lord Gadora has a ton of influence with the imperial military, but in terms of actual power, he’s got almost none. That’s because he’s more interested in revenge than anything. So if I can lead him the right way, I think I can pit him against Rimuru himself.”
At the same time, thought Yuuki, he’d like to have Gadora poke around for information about the Dungeon.
“This is your way to hassle Rimuru and weaken the Empire at the same time?”
“You got it!”
Yuuki briskly nodded at Damrada. He wasn’t going to touch Rimuru, but if someone else wanted to challenge him, they were perfectly welcome—hence all his conniving plans.
He took this opportunity to discuss his thoughts in more detail.
“The way I see it, there are three people we need to watch out for in the Empire. One of them is Lord Gadora himself.”
Gadora was a master sorcerer, a magic-born who had lived for many, many years. People saw him as a mystery figure who knew everything that went on behind the scenes in the imperial capital, and he was also a hero in his own right, one of the few survivors of the previous invasion attempt against Veldora.
“Who are the other two?” a curious Kagali asked behind Yuuki. He gave her a frustrated scowl in response.
“Well, I don’t know much about them yet, exactly. That’s why I know they’re so much trouble.”
Even with his extensive intelligence network, Yuuki hadn’t found these two. Just hearing that indicated how slippery they were.
“Are they among the Imperial Guardians’ upper ranks?” Misha asked, perhaps suspecting something.
Yuuki gave this a vague consent. There were rumors around military circles that certain Imperial Knights—referred to as the Single Digits—were even stronger than the three division commanders. In Yuuki’s opinion, this was more than just a rumor. He could feel it. Here he was, a full-fledged commander, but his own numerical ranking was still in the double digits. He could try challenging someone higher up to a ranking duel, but he’d have to figure out who to challenge first. Becoming a Single Digit required winning a battle staged in front of the emperor, and even that fact was revealed only to those very close to earning a shot.
“I’m thinking that I can beat any Single Digit in the group, but I don’t wanna reveal my best moves in front of the enemy, so I haven’t sent a request to the emperor yet.”
Yuuki became a commander despite that, thanks to some lucky connections with Lord Gadora.
“Thing is, though, even if you try taking someone on, maybe the real boss will be someone else the whole time, huh? You can’t be sure about anything. So what I guess I’m saying is: There’s at least nine people you gotta watch out for, sort of.”
Vega had a good point. It surprised Yuuki as he nodded at him.
“Yeah, you’re right. There’s a chance my real nemesis is hidden among those nine. But I can’t watch out for someone I’ve never seen before, you know? So right now, I’m looking closely at someone who’s a more public figure than that.”
“Who?” Damrada asked.
“His name’s Tatsuya Kondo. He runs the Imperial Information Bureau.”
“Ah yes. He is hard to grasp, isn’t he?”
“We know his name and face but nothing else about him,” said Misha. “It’s bizarre.”
Tatsuya Kondo, as the name suggested, was an otherworlder. Any more personal information than that was a complete unknown. Rumors pegged him as a “mysterious figure stalking the halls of information.” His rank was first lieutenant, but none of the unit commanders had the right to give him orders. The Imperial Information Bureau, in other words, was higher up the hierarchy than the military itself.
“Yeah, it’s freaky, isn’t it? My guess is that he’s one of the Single Digits, too,” said Yuuki.
“…I see.”
“Put it that way, and it makes sense.”
Damrada and Kagali deeply nodded. Misha pondered this as well but had no objections.
“So who do you think the other one is?” Vega asked, already sounding disinterested and hoping to hurry Yuuki along.
“Ha-ha-ha! Patience, okay? The first thing is to meet up with this Tatsuya Kondo. I’ll see if I can request a meeting with him. So as for the second person, she’s also kinda a mystery.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Calm down, Vega.”
“Ah… Sorry.”
The tone of Yuuki’s voice as he gave Vega a light warning was warm, almost gentle, but it made Vega break into a nervous sweat. It showed, in that moment, just how wide the chasm was between those two.
“The second person is someone who sits next to the emperor. I don’t know who it is, but she strikes this incredible presence. I can feel her even with the imperial set of blinds between us.”
“““…?”””
Nobody knew who it was—or really, nobody except Yuuki even realized someone like that existed. That made the potential danger crystal clear.
“…So there’s someone like that, always with the emperor?” Damrada asked, speaking for his companions. “I haven’t heard anything about it…”
“I didn’t think so. She felt so present in the room, but nobody notices her at all. That has to be bad news.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
“And you’re sure she was there? I haven’t even heard rumors of such a figure.”
“Well, look at it another way—if we heard that from anyone except Sir Yuuki, we never would’ve believed it, right?”
“…”
Yuuki smiled at his doubtful underlings. “Eh, it’s no big deal. Just remember—if I attempt to stage a coup in the Empire, those three are probably gonna get in our way. I’ll eliminate Lord Gadora first, so…Damrada, can you look into Tatsuya Kondo for me?”
“Absolutely.”
“And, Misha, keep up with your current mission.”
“Understood. I will continue engaging the commander of the Armored Division.”
“What about me?” Vega asked.
“You’re going to go undercover in the Magical Beast Division. With your muscle, you’ll get in the Imperial Guardians in a flash. But whatever you do, don’t kill the division commander, all right?”
“Sure. I’ll try not to.”
Vega flashed a ferocious smile, glad to finally be on duty. Is he really gonna be all right? fretted Yuuki, but he decided to trust him anyway. If the leader did get killed, that’d delay the Empire’s entire military operation, which was a concern… But Yuuki opted not to worry about it unless it happened.
The three heads of Cerberus left the chamber, leaving Yuuki alone with Kagali.
“Sir Yuuki… Do you think they’ll all pull it off?”
“Who knows? I thought I was being pretty careful, and then I caught a tiger named Guy by the tail. I’m not in any position to say this, but I sure hope they can.”
Damrada was off investigating Tatsuya Kondo. Misha was attempting to inveigle herself with the Magical Beast Division commander. And Vega was about to embark on a standout career in the Composite Division. These were dangerous missions, and they were doing them all for Yuuki’s sake. As their leader, he’d have to trust in their success.
“But we’ve finally made it to this point, haven’t we? The battle’s about to begin.”
“It sure is. It’ll be fun to see who wins.”
“As if you can just sit back and watch. Even if you pull off that coup, the hard part comes after that.”
“Yeah. I have Laplace and the gang working on that for me. I got everything covered.”
The two shared a smile.
Their mission wasn’t to have the Empire win. The longer they could drag out this upcoming war, the weaker the Empire would become. That’s what they wanted, and the fate of Yuuki and Kagali’s plans rode on whether the ensuing coup attempt succeeded or failed.
“First, we make the emperor our puppet and establish a new Empire. Then…”
“…Why don’t we forge a peace treaty with the Western Nations?”
“And then…”
“…We’ll have the emperor assassinated!”
If the demon lord Rimuru proved too hard to kill, there was no need to force that. Guy had defeated Yuuki fair and square, and with that, Yuuki gave up on conquering the world in the short-to-midterm time frame. Until he had the kind of absolute power he needed, he now realized, trying to get his way with violence was the height of folly. For now, he thought, adding more winning cards to his hand needed to be his focus.
And if the war kept raging, and more blood could be shed…
“…Then I’ll awaken to a true demon lord once more.”
“That’s what I’m hoping to hear from ya, Kagali. And by then, I oughtta be able to fully use all the new powers I got.”
Yuuki had awoken to an ultimate skill. Already, he could feel his life span extending. And now he knew the truth: There were those greater than him—people like the demon lord Guy, ruling over the world with absolute force. Conquering that world without addressing them would be a fantasy.
For now, best to slip under Guy’s radar and build up force. He’d stir up the Empire, keep the war going, and weaken both the East and the West. Once pessimism set in, and everyone was weary of war, if he could take that moment to assassinate the emperor…the world would face an even more appalling age of chaos. They could ride that chaos, he and Kagali, and awaken yet more within themselves…and that, in essence, was the plan.
“Well, keep being careful, though.”
“Of course, Sir Yuuki. Keep being careful.”
Once more, they looked at each other and smiled.
…Even two intelligent schemers like them didn’t see the Dungeon as a very important factor. They just saw it as a neat way for Tempest to hide their top-secret facilities—even a town, for that matter—and they figured bringing it to Lord Gadora’s attention would be a good way to drive Rimuru nuts. They may be visiting it themselves someday, so they figured it’d be a good idea to have it checked out for clues on how to crack it—but neither of them spent much time thinking about it.
Thanks to that, when their dungeon runners came back with a rather unexpected report, Yuuki paid it no mind.
Upon learning what Yuuki showed him, Lord Gadora wrenched up his face, deep in thought.
Hmmm. Right when it’s time to put our Empire on the move and defeat the god Luminus, too…
With Veldora resurrected, they had to embark on a major rewrite of their plans. That couldn’t be avoided. The last time they staged a campaign this large, the Storm Dragon crushed the whole thing.
Now, in order to ensure their plan was impenetrable, some wanted to wait until the Storm Dragon fully disappeared from existence. Some wanted to tame him with the power of the new weapons they successfully developed. Others wished to point their armies around the Forest of Jura to avoid riling the Storm Dragon.
Opinions were split evenly among the three factions, delaying the Empire’s movements—and thanks to that, they went and let the Storm Dragon revive itself. This greatly angered the war hawks in the “tame the Storm Dragon” faction, but the more mainstream minds in the other two groups didn’t give them room to speak. If those “new weapons” didn’t work, after all, their hopes were dashed a second time.
In Gadora’s mind, the Storm Dragon didn’t really matter. His mission, the reason he kept living, was to eradicate Luminism from the West and take revenge against the Seven Days Clergy who killed his best friend.
A newspaper he ordered from the West contained an article outlining the Seven Days Clergy’s evil deeds, under the headline THE HEROES’ DECLINE. He also knew, at the same time, about reports that the Seven Days Clergy were slain. But Gadora refused to accept this at face value. At the very least, he was sure Gren, the Sunday Priest, was alive and lurking in the muck somewhere.
Over the past few months, information from the West had grown garbled and entangled, and it was hard to investigate much of it. Thanks to that, he had no way to confirm it—but there were rumors that the Rozzos had been toppled as well.
Ah, but it’s all rumors. I’m sure Gren was what ultimately became of that one Hero. He may have been old, but he was no adversary to sniff at.
What’s more, while the Council seemed to be on sure footing, Gadora had confirmed some serious goings-on behind the scenes. Nothing he heard, however, indicated that the Western Holy Church had weakened at all. That was proof positive, in Gadora’s eyes, that Gren was alive.
It’d be so easy to ignore the Storm Dragon and just invade the West, but noooo…
Gadora’s thoughts were along those lines, but even he knew how difficult that would be.
So the Storm Dragon is teaming up with a demon lord? It would be sheer stupidity to position an army against a monster like that, living outside any sort of reasoned magic. I helped construct the theories behind our new weapon, and it should be possible to stop him in his tracks, at least—but destroy him? That’s another story. And forget about ever taming him…
As a survivor of the Empire’s last campaign, he had personal insight into the threat Veldora posed. The experience taught him that the war hawks were being far too rash.
Those fools completely fail to understand how hard it is to rule over a spiritual life-form with a spirit of your own!
It wasn’t impossible. They had conducted experiments on demons along those lines, and some of the results had been encouraging. Gadora knew that well enough—he came up with the theory for the work, so of course he would. But based on their verified results, he concluded that Veldora was strictly off-limits.
He had submitted a report to the emperor along those lines, but sadly, he was shut down. “If someone wants to try it,” he was told, “let them.”
Regardless, the problem now was Rimuru, a demon lord who built a nation and unified the Forest of Jura at an astonishing pace. If he had teamed up with the Storm Dragon, attacking the forest would have been nothing but foolish. If the entirety of the Empire’s military were deployed for the effort, that would be one thing—but to make the most effective use of such a force, they’d need to lure the enemy into more advantageous terrain, and that was an impossibility.
What, then, if they must fight the enemy on their own turf?
“The Dungeon, eh? And they might be developing otherworld weapons as well? We must investigate this. If we could defeat Veldora and Rimuru while losing less than, say, a third of our force, I’d call it a fine job. Otherwise, we have no chance of winning against the Western Nations, at the end of it.”
The words were mostly directed at Gadora himself. But he was making a mistake. He thought that Luminism, and the Western Nations supporting it, would be where they’d make their stand—not Tempest. And whether he picked up on this error in judgment would be key to deciding his fate, going forward.

Slime 12.1

That will not be a problem,” said Diablo. “Moss is capable of managing hundreds of squadrons at once.”
“Yes, that’s what Soei told me as well,” added Benimaru. “Moss was working with him in intelligence gathering, but it sounds like he can also handle inter-squadron contacts on the side.”
He can? What an incredibly useful demon!
“Well, want to name him unit leader, then?” I offered.
“I…would feel bad for him if we did.”
“Indeed. Given Testa’s temperament, it would be a tragic situation for him. It hardly matters to me, of course, but I cannot help but feel a twinge of sympathy.”
“…All right. Let’s make Testarossa the provisional leader for now.”
Not only Benimaru, but even Diablo voiced pity for Moss. I could read between the lines well enough, so I withdrew my nomination.
For now, the Western Deployment would focus on its primary peacekeeping mission. Barring extraordinary circumstances, deploying them elsewhere would only be done as a last resort. Testarossa would lead them, but this was meant to be temporary—I made it clear that we’d replace her once someone suitable came along.
Next, the Magic-Born United. Why don’t I appoint Benimaru for that?
“Personally, I would suggest Sir Rigur,” he said.
Oh, Rigur? True, Rigur had experience leading a security force, and his over-A power was nothing to sniff at. But he was also an assistant to Rigurd, and I wasn’t sure he had time to lead a full army.
If at all possible, I wanted to settle this war with our standing forces alone—but right then, we had no idea how much military strength the Eastern Empire had ready. We had our spies en route but hadn’t gained any intel within imperial borders yet. Still, based on the snippets we learned about their training exercises, current estimates stated that at least three hundred thousand troops were going to be deployed. There was even a chance they’d send out over a million, a truly massive force.
If it came to that, we couldn’t afford to keep the Magic-Born United on ice. Along those lines, I had no issue with Rigur’s command, but I was still anxious. Managing a ragtag army with essentially no rehearsal was a dangerous job for anyone.
“…Hmm. I really do want to leave this to you, Benimaru. And in the future, we can call this mixed force the Red Numbers. I’d like you to select some captains from Team Kurenai to make this force into a coherent unit. We’ll make them into the Fourth Army Corps, and I want you to be their direct commander.”
I’d call them red because they’d stop anyone in their way. Get it? My first dad joke in a while!
…
Right. I’ll just keep that one to myself. Don’t want to kill the mood.
Despite all these ridiculous thoughts, I managed to retain my composure as the briefing hummed along.
“Very well. In that case, I accept the appointment.”
It looked like Benimaru thought I might ask that of him. He seemed ready to agree, not letting it faze him at all. He has the unique skill Born Leader, letting him cover for any lack of refinement among his forces, so he was the perfect person to lead a motley bunch like this.
So in addition to being my supreme commander, Benimaru was just appointed leader of the brand-new Red Numbers. That left the Volunteer Army.
“Now, what do you intend to do with the Volunteer Army?”
Benimaru winced. “Ah, there’s the problem.”
These volunteers included a large number of humans. Employing a monster as commander, Benimaru worried, could lead to unnecessary dissatisfaction among their ranks.
“Good point. If word starts getting around that humans can’t advance in the land of monsters, that’s gonna hurt our image.”
“Anyone with such insipid thoughts is a weakling. A loser,” Shion cut in. “They would never make anything of themselves anyway. You have no need at all to worry about them!”
“Shion, I… Okay, maybe I don’t, but if someone doesn’t know much about us, that’s gonna sound an awful lot like the truth to them.”
“True. Humans can be a fickle bunch to deal with.”
Shion may not appreciate it too much, but a brand image is a precious thing to maintain. It’d be ridiculous if we let this issue make us out to look discriminatory, so I thought it required serious debate.
“But is there really anyone suitable for the role?” Diablo asked. There wasn’t, really. That’s why Benimaru was so troubled.
“I hear you there,” I replied. “These are volunteers, besides. We didn’t even plan for them.”
“But we can’t let them go idle,” said Benimaru.
No, we couldn’t. I appreciated the humans’ ardor to serve us, and I didn’t want to let that go to waste. But if we wanted to make good use of them, we needed a talented commander. This Volunteer Army was even more ragtag than the Magic-Born United—the Red Numbers—and if you asked me who could make them into a united force, Benimaru was about all I could think of.
So now what…?
“How about Girard, in Soei’s force?” Benimaru suggested.
“No way,” I said. “We picked him up as part of a secret arrangement with Englesia. I’m sure he won’t want his face seen in public.”
I didn’t hear what kind of deal Testarossa struck with him, but having Girard bump around where everyone could see him had to be a bad idea. He’d been branded a traitor to all humankind. If we didn’t treat him as dead—at least in public—it’d set a bad example for everyone else. I didn’t have any duty to cover for him, but there was no need for him to take center stage for us, either.
“Strengthwise, I’d have no complaints, but it’s not very realistic, no…”
Benimaru didn’t seem too serious about pushing for him. I suppose he just lobbed the idea out for its own sake before he moved on to the next one. Restricting it to human beings was a pain, though. We went through several names, but none of them seemed to really fit.
Suddenly, Shion spoke up.
“Perhaps we could enlist the Crusaders for a little help?”
Benimaru and I looked at each other, then back at Shion.
“I— I’d hardly think so.”
“No, that wouldn’t be a—”
“Then how about Sir Masayuki?” she countered before I could tell her it wasn’t a good idea.
Masayuki. Hearing the name struck me like lightning.
“That’s it!” I shouted.
“Amazing, Shion!!” Benimaru hollered in tandem.
That was the exact moment we decided to appoint Masayuki to be our Volunteer Army’s leader.
This was decided, of course, without consulting the guy himself, but it was one decision that pretty much anyone would agree with. The only one less than convinced was Masayuki.
“Why me…?”
He brought a hand to his head when I gave him the news. But I didn’t have much to say to him. As sad as it was, this was war. What people wanted didn’t factor into it. I know I was thinking the opposite a moment ago, but I couldn’t worry about Masayuki’s feelings here. After all, things ought to be fine if I leave the Volunteer Army in his hands. In times like these, he was a valuable ally to have.You know, I think I’ve gotten better at using my Chosen One unique skill, too. I’m not getting showered in praise after everything I do, like before. But now I’m not able to use it when I want to, so please don’t expect too much of me, all right?”
He was really being a sore loser about it, trying to weasel out any way he could, but I knew that wasn’t the truth. After all, Masayuki was as popular as ever, and he still wielded massive influence around the world.
“But don’t you want to show off to Kenya and the gang?”
“I, um…”
If he accepted the job, I was willing to let him teach whatever weird stuff he wanted to the kids and bask in their adulation.
“Hey, it’ll be all right! You can do it!”
“But…”
“No buts! I helped you out when you had to face off against Bovix, remember?”
Masayuki’s party had already made it past Floor 50, where Bovix had served as guardian. During that expedition, I used my avatar to put my thumb on the scale a bit, softening up the guy enough so they could defeat him and take all the credit.
“That did save my hide, yes…”
“So do we have a deal?”
“All right.”
Between coaxing him and soothing his ego, I finally got a yes.
“You have been a big help to me, Rimuru. I really did wanna pay you back sometime, so…”
He still didn’t sound too enthusiastic, but he took the job of Volunteer Army general anyway. We received no complaints from those volunteers, either—in fact, the reaction was more like “All right!!” and “Victory is ours!!” and so on. To them, it was like going in with twenty points already on the board. No matter how much of a hangdog expression he gave me, there was no turning back.
“I knew this would happen…”
Masayuki said he had more control over the Chosen One skill these days, but what did he mean by that? Maybe my hunch was right, and he was lying…or maybe some of Masayuki’s real luck was operating on him, skill or not? That’d be even more of a surprise, actually. Leon was the opposite—everything he did tended to make him look as bad as possible. This was apparently the case even back in his Hero days; I guess it can be hard to fight your true nature.
“Now, now… I’m sorry all this got decided without you, but think about it! You’re gonna be a banner who’ll inspire the entire army!”
I tried to commiserate with him as much as I could—but regardless, Masayuki the Hero was now leading our twenty thousand (mostly) human volunteers.
So the corrected organizational chart had fifty-two thousand troops on the right wing and fifty thousand on the left. Benimaru was at the very top, the generals of each army corps below him.
We thus had over a hundred thousand soldiers to work with, but I was still iffy on whether we could take the imperial force with that. No need to panic, though. All our preparations were continuing on apace. We had one hundred and fifty thousand troops in the Western Deployment to back us up. Each of the Western Nations was prepping support units from their respective knight corps. As a final, final defensive line, we’d get the Western Nations’ army set up as well. The total would be over two hundred and fifty thousand, I was told, and if push came to shove, I’d be relying on them.
This was the figure we cobbled together from all the mercenaries and support troops, but it was hard to tell if it was a lot or a little. Testarossa had cajoled and threatened the Council into cooperating with us, not that they had much choice—if we lost, after all, it’d be their turn next. We wouldn’t be tapping into any of these forces unless things looked pretty grim for ourselves.
Regardless, we had the terrain advantage, as well as Veldora and additional support from demon lords like Luminus and Leon. Even Milim agreed to pitch in; the Beast Master’s Warrior Alliance serving Carillon would be ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.
Plus, as my personal trump card, I had the Black Corps under Diablo at the ready. Benimaru had full command over the entire military, so honestly speaking, the hierarchy didn’t give me direct control over any force. In practice, though, the Black Corps took orders from nobody but Diablo and the three demonesses under him. They were a fully independent army, totally out of Benimaru’s control.
That was the sum of our forces. And we hadn’t factored in what moves Yuuki would make.
“A war, huh?” I muttered to myself in my room. Did the Empire really want to conquer the Western Nations? Guy had used the term game to describe his motives. It sounded like there were some connections there—some kind of restless ulterior motive pointed at the Empire. But even so:
“No matter who comes along, if they lay their hands on our little paradise, I’ll crush them.”
Those were my true feelings. I had no intention of making the same mistake twice. I’m a demon lord, and I can’t afford to put the wrong things first.
Meanwhile, as Rimuru and his companions were preparing for war, the Eastern Empire was doing much the same thing…except they spent far more years preparing. Slowly, carefully, step by step, their preparations for a grand offensive took shape. Before long, the Empire would wake from its long, long slumber…and only a small amount of time remained until the storm began.A LOOK INSIDE THE EMPIRE
The Eastern Empire, officially the Nasca Namrium Ulmeria United Eastern Empire, was one of the oldest nations in the world. Its history extended back centuries; as the story goes, it had already laid the foundations for an empire as early as two thousand years ago.
Its roots can be traced back to the small Kingdom of Nasca, a realm that had spent many years absorbing and merging with the Magical Kingdom of Namrius, followed by the Eastern Federation of Ulmeria, to create the current Empire. In the background of this conquest was the massive, overwhelming military Nasca cultivated—and now, under the name of the United Emperor Ludora Nam-ul-Nasca, the Empire had enjoyed a reign of power for the past two millennia, never allowing its annexed nations to rebel. Every member nation was the full and complete vassal of the Empire, subject to its absolute rule.
This was how the Nasca Namrium Ulmeria United Eastern Empire—generally referred to as the Eastern Empire—operated.
It was said that the aim of the Empire’s leader was absolute dominance, and that was reflected in its unbroken imperial bloodline—the current emperor had been granted the name Ludora as well. No matter how things worked in practice, the emperor always preferred absolute power, according to conventional wisdom.
The military, too, adopted this “might makes right” approach, taking a unique stance and guaranteeing promotion for anyone who could prove their power. And even now, as the rumors among the Empire’s subjects went, the only reason the Empire had not plowed through the Forest of Jura yet was because they were still not prepared for it.
Approximately 350 years ago, the Empire attempted, and failed, to subdue Veldora the Storm Dragon, costing it an entire city. Those who managed to rile that fickle dragon were not given the time to regret it as they perished with that city. It was among the largest in the land at the time, boasting a population of a hundred thousand—a fortress city nestled against the Forest of Jura’s east side. The Empire had taken a century to build it up as a beachhead for the invasion of the forest; it was a military base, ready to expand the Empire’s territory once they made it through Jura.
Driven with ambition, the military leaders of the time came up with a plan, one that would take them beyond the forest. It was the fervent desire of the Empire, cultivated over a hundred years, and despite its prosperity, there was only one reason why it had dreams of territorial expansion—because the emperor willed it. There was no other motive, and none of the citizens voiced disagreement.
The plan proceeded smoothly, the Empire’s armies building themselves up in order to prove their might. Then, in the name of the emperor, the order was given to begin the invasion. But thanks to a foolish idea that occurred to one squadron leader, the entire operation was crushed. If we’re going through the Forest of Jura anyway, reasoned this leader, we might as well tame its master. No giant lizard is going to be a threat to us. It was an incredibly ill-advised decision, and it led them all to their destruction.
What he and his troops did, exactly, has never been accurately reported. Anyone who could’ve recorded the incident, or stored those records, was turned into ash. And so the dream of the Empire, the ambition of its emperor, was burned to cinders.
That brought us to the present day. The Empire spent a long time laying low, tending to the wounds Veldora gave them, but the emperor never gave the okay to continue the invasion. Trespassing into the Forest of Jura was never permitted; the power they spent 350 years building up patiently waited for its chance to roar.
Now let’s turn our attention to the Empire’s political structure.
In the Empire, there exists a political administration and a military branch—the two wings supporting the emperor’s rule. The emperor personally serves as both the sovereign of the political administration and the commander in chief of the military—a massive amount of power for one individual to wield.
This administration contained a House of Lords, a legislature populated by the nobility who enjoyed a great deal of power—on the surface. In reality, though, the nobles were given no decision-making rights. They were granted prestige and vested interests, but they played little more than a bureaucratic role, rubber-stamping the will of the emperor.
This House of Lords was a hereditary system, its members becoming lords without any vote required. No matter how lofty their personal ambitions were, it was impossible for them to gain the power to make them a reality. All imperial territory was the property of the emperor, who lent it out to the nobility and let them manage it, but no more.
The nobility was supported by teams of highly educated government officials. These were the bureaucrats who proposed plans and policies, with the full backing of the emperor behind them, and they subsequently all made pledges of loyalty to their leader.
The same was true of the military. Since the emperor himself (and not the state) had authority over them, it was a de facto personal force owned by him alone. Even regional cities annexed by the Empire lived by this rule; all private property was seized, then lent back by the emperor. The defense forces protecting these lands were similarly on loan from this emperor, provided solely out of his personal compassion.
This policy successfully quelled any rebellion out in the Empire’s far reaches. It was made possible by the overwhelming difference in national power. The Empire was willing to accept surrender, but this came at the forfeiture of all other rights. Anyone who objected to this could expect a violent purge—they would be thoroughly eradicated, ensuring no one would harbor similar ideas again.
That was how order was maintained across the Empire. The carrot and the stick—terror against overwhelming military might, and guaranteed safety upon becoming an imperial subject. These two tactics were thoroughly managed in equal measure, preserving peace in the Empire for generations.
Normally, it would be impossible for a single person to rule over a nation this vast. In fact, look over the past two thousand years of history, and you won’t find a single occasion where the emperor’s rule was ever put into question. Power always remained at the top after every transition. No matter how you thought about it, it was strange. If you chalked it up to the great work of the emperor, it essentially meant he was a god, a being beyond the human realm.
We now turn to the Empire’s military force, broadly divided into three main divisions:
The Armored Division:A force of mechanized soldiers, managed by teams of technicians. This was a modern armored force possessing tanks and more, symbolizing the technological might of the Empire.The Magical Beast Division:A collection of beasts taken from around the world, inside and outside Empire territory. Controlling and wielding their powers made this division a symbol of the Empire’s power.The Composite Division:A collection of off-spec mechanized soldiers and crazed magical beasts incapable of group activity. They are too focused on themselves to function as a group, but their powers are a wild card, and together they could become a serious threat. They symbolized the heart of the Empire, still beating young.If the Western Nations relied primarily on swords and sorcery, the Empire’s focus on magic and science made it the pioneers of a new era.
The presence of otherworlders played a mighty role in the Empire’s expanded military. One imperial subject took a particular interest in these visitors, and the cosmic knowledge they held. He was named Gadora, a great sorcerer who served in the imperial palace for many years, and despite his wizened appearance, he was an energetic man. He had a thirst for knowledge, not just magical, either, and he relished chatting with people from other worlds.
Through them, he learned that this other world also consisted of multiple countries—and unlike this one, the inhabitants found ways to overcome differences in opinion and language to live together. There was no magic in that world, causing it to grow and evolve in quite a different direction from this one.
Gadora had lived for a long time. Whenever he approached the end of his natural life span, he used the self-invented Mysterious Arts: Reincarnation to resurrect himself over and over again. It allowed him to observe otherworlders over many years, granting him huge stores of knowledge and even a command of several languages from the other world. Whenever a new otherworlder came along, he’d always have them brought to him, and he’d put them under his protection. The Empire had been collecting more than just magical beasts from around the world, and Gadora advocated for otherworlders in the imperial court, receiving permission to do with them what he wanted.
Otherworlders with special skills or knowledge were welcomed in the Empire, and their population was far beyond that of any other nation in the world. That explained why the Empire’s culture and characteristics were so heavily influenced by them. Many of these people had unique skills as well, and the Empire conducted much research on them. In this aspect as well, their military technology had developed to the point that it was surpassed by no one.
In the Empire, the profession of knight was obsolete. The concept of fighting cavalry had gone away; instead, the military adopted new tactics that took advantage of their modernized weaponry. Soldiers whose very bodies had been mechanized were known as mechaknights, treated as the star players in imperial battle.
These characteristics played out most vividly in the Empire’s Armored Division, but otherworld knowledge also played a role in the Magical Beast Division. The otherworlders had brought with them knowledge of DNA—deoxyribonucleic acid, a macromolecular organic substance that contained the genetic information for living beings. This knowledge made it possible to analyze the powers of magical beasts on a scale like none before—and that further branched out into other research. Finally, the Composite Division was home to a large number of powerful otherworlders, each wielding their own unique skills, and one derided their battle strength at their own peril.
It was the masterful manipulation of factors like unique skills and otherworld technology that let the Empire create such an insurmountable military. It was no exaggeration to say that Gadora’s passion for the subject had expanded the force’s strength all by itself.
In addition to the three main divisions Gadora helped cultivate, there was a paramilitary force charged with guarding the emperor himself: the Imperial Guardians, a small company of only a hundred, and one of the few forces left that called their members knights. The uninformed observer would assume this custom to be a relic carried over from antiquity, but that was not the case. After all, the Imperial Knights who staffed this troop were the best of the best, handpicked from those who stood above the pack in each division. Some were otherworlders, even, proving that the Empire didn’t discriminate based on bloodline or birthplace. To the very end, the motto of the Empire was “might makes right,” and there was no better evidence of that than what was illustrated here. These knights gained their position purely through power alone, not the blood or influence gained over generations.
As a symbol of their superiority, all members of the Imperial Guardians were granted Legend-class weapons and armor. The very best equipment, handled by the very best fighters, created a tremendous synergy effect, giving this team of a hundred more pure fighting power than an entire division. They were also guaranteed the best treatment in the Empire—every one of them was a high-level military officer, and in special missions, they were afforded at the least the authority of an army colonel. They were the pride of the military and the greatest force in the whole Empire.
So the Empire had, in essence, four military divisions. Each of them could only be led by those with a convincing talent for the position—they needed to be recognized as “the strongest” by anyone who saw them. How did they prove this? By rank-based duels within the divisions.
The system allowed lower-ranking members to challenge their superiors, under the arbitration of a third party, and these rankings were thus in a constant state of flux. The duels had to satisfy a few conditions, of course, before they were accepted. They were forbidden during military maneuvers, and witnesses were required for them to be certified. Also, if you challenged someone and lost, you had to wait a year before mounting another challenge. The same was true if you killed your opponent, but the higher-ranked defender was allowed to kill a challenger without penalty, so this contest wasn’t something you embarked on lightly.
In a way, this was the ultimate embodiment of the Empire’s “might makes right” credo—subjugating your opponent with overwhelming force. The fact that the Imperial Guardians saw no end of would-be new members challenging their way in showed that this imperial ideal was etched into the very hearts of its subjects.
Ranks within the military were therefore strictly defined, but Gadora didn’t count in this hierarchy. He held a unique position in the realm, treated as a kind of non-imperial stranger by the Empire.
Appointments to the Imperial Guardians were deliberated over by a panel that Gadora wasn’t a part of, and the commander of each division was picked from the Guardian roster. Whenever one stepped down, a replacement would be picked from this group of a hundred. Anyone who wanted to move up among the Guardians had an equal chance, so those with real ability wouldn’t get buried under the masses. They were free to hone their powers, silently waiting for a chance to emerge into the spotlight.
Appointed to the very top of the Guardians was the Marshal, while the three people under them were the three Generals of the Guardians. You automatically became Marshal if you hit the number one spot in the pecking order, while Generals of the Guardians were named by a committee consisting of the emperor, the current Marshal, and Gadora. It took more than brute strength to run a military force, after all. Still, any General who became a division commander was always going to be the strongest member of their division, since (by definition) everyone serving in one was going to be weaker than an Imperial Knight.
To outside observers, the Marshal and their Generals stood at the peak of the Empire—and if the Imperial Guardians received Legend-class gear, this quartet naturally had to own something even better. These were the Empire’s greatest hidden treasures, the most potent of gear, used to suppress other nations in ancient times—God-class gear, in other words.
Possessing multiple examples of semi-mythological gear quite literally meant you were supporting the very dignity of the Empire. This was the ultimate in weaponry and armor, items an average person wouldn’t even be allowed to touch. It was said one needed to have certain capabilities to so much as pick them up—only when the gear accepted you, it was said, would it unleash its true force.
The greatest of power, supported by the ultimate in gear. Truly they were invincible, the foundational rock the Empire was built upon.
And then—something changed in the Empire.
For the first time in decades, a commander actually lost a ranking challenge—and with that, the colossal responsibility of keeping the disorganized Composite Division a coherent force. He was felled by a man who had made a truly historical rise through the ranks, having enlisted for the first time not even a year ago—mowing down one experienced fighter after the other without a single loss.
Now the young man stood at one of the Empire’s loftiest peaks. His name was Yuuki Kagurazaka, and with his rise, the pace of human events would rocket into high gear.

Slime 11.8

So was Granville really going to do something? And was Yuuki going to take advantage? With those worries in mind, I greeted the second day of our stay in Lubelius.
Today we’d be bringing in and setting up all our equipment in the concert hall. We were guided to a grand cathedral, one of the nation’s main buildings. It was large enough to hold crowds of parishioners while also serving as a defensive post for the road that lay beyond.
I had nothing in particular to do. Best to let the professionals handle their own instruments. Instead, as I planned, I’d be taking the kids out for some on-site social studies instruction.
Of course, after listening to Luminus, I exercised the cards I had in hand. First, I called for Venom, who answered directly to Diablo, and ordered him to go on security duty. I’m sure this sudden invitation confused him.
“Diablo, I want you to watch over Baton and the rest as they prepare—”
“Sir Rimuru,” he interrupted, “one moment, if you please. I thought we may run into some trouble here, so I made some arrangements overnight. The orchestra will be safe.”
Great. Diablo must’ve foreseen and addressed anything that’d make him leave my side. This is exactly why he assembled so many troops, I’m sure, so I didn’t mind that at all. But apparently he told Venom to come here in ten minutes or less. Venom actually did it, which was funny enough, but if that’s the kind of order Diablo gave without a second thought, he really was heartless. Which he was, of course. He’s a demon. I marveled at his talents all the time, but at that moment, I couldn’t imagine how hard it was to work under him.
So the next thing I knew, Venom already had a hundred demons helping the orchestra. These were all above A in rank, and I couldn’t imagine any security issues from Luminus’s side, either. The band was nothing if not very well guarded.
Thus, guided by Hinata, the children and I observed the goings-on around Lubelius. My personal take? It’s the exact opposite of Tempest but not always in a bad way. Here, you were guaranteed a happy society at the expense of personal freedom. There was no competition, really. You just followed your assigned instructions to carry out your work, and then you did it a million more times.
That could break you down mentally, maybe, but you’d never be beleaguered by starvation or pain. Anyone who couldn’t live in this environment left long ago, I’m sure, and besides, if this is all you knew from the day you were born, it wouldn’t occur to you to complain about it. You can’t envy what you don’t know about. If you never felt inferior to anyone else, you’d never be inspired by those feelings to try to improve yourself. That’s all it took to craft a society free of conflict.
“Sounds kinda boring,” whispered Alice.
“Yeah.” Kenya nodded. “I mean, people our age are working and stuff. Is there no school or anything?”
The other children didn’t comment, looking confused at the unfamiliar landscape.
“No, there’s no school here. It’s a nation managed from the top down, with everyone living peacefully as equals under the name of our god.”
Hinata sounded proud of it, but did she really think it was right? She and her forces got to enjoy a luxurious life, but didn’t she feel bad about having a monopoly on that? Of course, it didn’t feel right to tell some hapless commoner about what they were missing out on, but…
“After all, some things you just can’t have, no matter how hard you try. You can’t yearn for something if you don’t even know it exists in the first place.”
“I guess not, but…”
Kenya was no fool, either. He understood what I was getting at.
“…In this managed society,” Hinata continued, “the population enjoys high levels of happiness across the board. That’s all the more reason why we need to go through the Western Holy Church to build relations with other countries.”
Yeah, I’ll bet. You couldn’t expose this oblivious populace to stimuli from other nations without warning.
“Makes them sound kinda sheltered.”
“But if they’re happy, I don’t think it’s really our place to comment.”
“Yeah. Happiness doesn’t come from material possessions, after all. If it’s emotional happiness you’re after, then a society like this works.”
Not that I could ever stomach it. Now that I knew better, I’d always be pursuing more abundance as my mission. Way back in the past, when I spent my afternoons playing tag with my school friends, maybe I could have accepted something like this. Everyone has their own idea of what happiness is, after all; it’s not the sort of idea that you could point at someone and say they’re wrong about it. You had to think for yourself and act accordingly—that’s the best way, I figured. It was food for thought, but…
“…But none of these people can survive on their own, right? They can’t keep this up unless they’ve got someone protecting them.”
Chloe was speaking my thoughts out loud. Never underestimate a child’s knack for observation.
Hinata blinked a little at this. I guess she must’ve picked up on that as well—just how warped this society really was. If everyone was oblivious, they’d be unable to do anything without someone managing them. Having no freedom meant that someone else had life-or-death power over you. It wasn’t much different from being livestock.
“…Yes. And that’s why we’re working to avoid that.”
“Hmm… Well, okay. But I think it’d be better if this was a group effort, Miss Hinata. That way, everyone could pitch in instead of you having to do everything!”
That was one ideal, yes. But someone always had to suffer eventually, because it never really worked out that way. We’re all born with different levels of talent, and everyone produces work at their own pace. Words like equal sound nice, but there’s always going to be a cruel, unequal reality attached. Ideals and reality—a contradiction that could never be fully buried. Prop something up here, and something else has to sag over there. There’s no correct answer. You just have to keep rushing down the path you believe in—and that’s what makes life interesting.
I think today gave the kids a lot to ponder; it’s also reminded me that material possessions aren’t enough to make you happy. I knew that, but I just couldn’t stop. That was the conclusion I made, but I still didn’t think today was a waste for me. My approach was, in a way, just one of many correct answers.
The diversity I enjoyed was the very potential that drove people’s lives, I thought. But I wanted to reconsider my life one more time, carefully. No need to decide what’s correct or not. I was stabbed in my previous life, and then I got reborn as a slime. Nobody could tell you what’s coming next for me…and if that’s how it was, I’d be missing out if I didn’t enjoy the present.
That’s what today made me think. And even now, the gears of fate were turning…
“Jaune has disappeared?”
“Yes. It is hard to believe, but I detected a massive amount of magic force…and then the demons sleeping there seemed to vanish…”
“…Unfathomable.”
Leon thought he misheard Arlos’s report at first.
In Leon’s domain was an area shared with the demon realms, the spiritual world that demons call home. It was a land covered in thick miasma and magicules, one where a demon with untold powers could occasionally manifest itself. Your typical demon, bereft of a physical body, could be handled by Leon’s knight corps, even if they were an Arch Demon. However, they had discovered an older demon in this land, one that’s such an absolute threat that not even Leon could ignore it. This was Jaune, the Original Yellow.
She had yet to obtain a physical body, which limited where she had access to. However, her presence was still enough to keep Leon from moving an inch from where he stood. Anyone else would have been helpless against the carnage she wrought.
“She’s an insane demon, the sort who’d throw nuclear-level magic spells around for fun. She would be impossible to live alongside, and she has no interest in negotiating. Without your backup, Sir Leon, she would even threaten my life. And now you say she’s gone?”
“Yes, Claude. I couldn’t believe it myself, so I went to see…and the region that normally overlaps with the demon realm has been dimensionally repaired. I can only assume that someone has blocked the Gates of Hell.”
“Impossible…”
Claude, the Black Knight widely considered the strongest fighter in all of El Dorado, was snapping at Arlos, the Silver Knight and his comrade-in-arms.
Everyone who lived here, not just Leon, was tormented by the demons. If Jaune, the original source of all their woes, had disappeared, it was such good news that nobody would dare believe it. In fact, the missing Gates of Hell seemed to portend even more ominous events for the future.
The Gates were a kind of door that overlapped between the physical and spiritual worlds. Its presence allowed bodiless demons to appear and interact with “normal” space for a limited time. Many knights had been deployed to close this door, but the demons stopped them. Ever since Leon built his nation here, there had been continual skirmishes on regular occasions. What made this so difficult for the knights was that spiritual life-forms could resurrect themselves as long as you didn’t kill them at the root. Even worse, a demon just killing some time could easily cause massive damage to Leon’s forces.
To Leon, who ruled over an otherwise bountiful realm, only the demons kept him up at night. If he truly wanted to, perhaps he could sweep them all up by himself—but one false move, and it could lead to Jaune awakening. And even then, Leon could probably beat her, although it’d require the fight of both of their respective lives. That’s why he had avoided that so far.
What could have happened? Jaune is just… She’s not like Mizeri and Raine, the way Guy describes them. She just doesn’t listen to reason.
After carefully weighing his interests, Leon decided to maintain the status quo, even if it meant taking some losses. And now, out of nowhere, that threat was gone. He and all his forces agreed about one thing: No way had it just happened to turn out like this.
Now more news was reaching Leon’s nervous ears.
“Report, my lord! There are currently five children being kept under wraps in Tempest. We’ve confirmed our intelligence with their former academy in Englesia, and we’re almost done assessing it. It would appear the demon lord Rimuru is forging a secret pact to sell the children to the demon lord Luminus.”
“What?”
“Lubelius and Tempest have signed a peace treaty; both demon lords are on good terms with each other. Our guess is that Rimuru has deceived Yuuki Kagurazaka and is using the magicule-rich children for his own business dealings!”
They had just received a magic call from a member of the Azure Knights currently investigating Tempest. The news gave Leon pause. The Rimuru he met at the Walpurgis meeting didn’t strike him as the sort to pull a move like that.
“Have them observe this agent of ours closely. He may have a good contact…or he may be under someone’s control.”
“You don’t think…”
“The demon lord Rimuru, perhaps?”
“No. I just don’t see any reason why Rimuru would get rid of the children.”
“So why, then?”
“Someone’s trying to make us fight. Someone who stands to profit from it. There’s a chance the demon lord Luminus is being dragged into this as well. For all we know, Luminus may be behind it all.”
“…?!”
“What in…?”
Leon thought for a moment—gauging the situation in the Western Nations, figuring out who’d be the prime suspect. The conclusion was as obvious as it was unnerving.
“…The Cerberus society?”
Only that shady pack of merchants knew Leon was collecting otherworlder children. Well, not just them. The people he tapped for their knowledge of summoning spells knew, too.
Perhaps the Rozzos have discovered our summoning program…
Yes, maybe those merchants joined forces with them in a real, palpable way. If he started to doubt them, there’d be no end to it for his troubled mind. Besides, that report was suspicious on its face. Leon wouldn’t have any motive to take action over just five children—or so he thought. Normally, demon lords avoided interfering with one another as much as they could. Butting into a conflict between demon lords that he had no personal stake in would be the height of folly; it could give him two enemies where there used to be none.
It was best to ignore these events. Luminus might be scheming at something, but it’d all be pointed at Rimuru, not Leon. There was, by Leon’s reasoning, no point in making a move. This time, however, he could feel his judgment wavering. Perhaps detecting this, Leon’s advisers began debating the matter.
“I see… So there are people out there trying to take advantage of Sir Leon?”
“Should we quash them?”
Leon stopped them. “No. Cerberus has major clout in the Eastern Empire. It’d be unwise to make enemies of them without any evidence. They’re no doubt fanning the flames here, but the Rozzo family might not be so faithful themselves. And besides that…”
He was taking the situation coolly, providing suitable instructions for his forces, but there was still a pang of anxiety in Leon’s mind. That name, Scoey Colbert. Could that be…?
…No, there was no reason to make a move. In fact, any moves would mean falling for the bait. Leon understood that, but he still had trouble resisting the impulse.
If Jaune was alive and well somewhere, he couldn’t do something ill-advised that could affect the very land he stood on. The scales in his mind remained stationary, pointing out the correct choice.
And yet…
Strange. I just feel like I have to act right now…
He had fallen silent, his adviser looking up at him.
“My lord, we are all your faithful knights. We will gladly follow any orders you give us.”
“Yes! No matter how selfish you may be, we will never chide you for it. Grant us your orders, and I promise we will make them come true!”
“You…”
Arlos, Claude, and all the other knights were unquestionably loyal to him.
“…Either Jaune’s disappearance is an extraordinary stroke of luck, or…”Leon closed his eyes. When he opened them again, there was a fearless smile on his lips.
“I accept your loyalty. I must go myself. Guard this land in my stead.”
“““Yes, sir!”””
Here, in the Golden Land of El Dorado, great forces were now in motion. Leon Cromwell, the Platinum Saber, was about to reach for his sword and end his long silence.
“Ah, the demon lord Leon’s on the move, huh? Just as I thought—it’s not just any child he’s looking for. So maybe Chloe really is the one…”
It meant that Leon’s true desire wasn’t the children, but a certain person who came from another world. By the laws of cause and effect, this made it seem quite likely that Chloe was what Leon wanted.
“But, Sir Yuuki, Leon’s not necessarily going to do what we want, will he? He’s probably headed for Lubelius, but I doubt he’s accepted the info we’ve given him at face value. In fact, I’m sure he doubts it.”
“I’m sure he does. But it still let us narrow down his motivations. That’s good enough.”
Yuuki was satisfied, but Kagali and the others didn’t see things his way. They seemed concerned, unsure about his thoughts.
“I agree that Chloe merits attention, but don’t we lack concrete proof that she’s the central figure? Relying on uncertain odds like that strikes me as out of character for you, Sir Yuuki.”
“Yeah, right? And here we are, leakin’ sensitive information to him. It’s all but askin’ him to doubt us, y’know? So what was the purpose of all that?”
“I’d like to know, too, Boss. I don’t think you made a mistake, but now Leon’s gonna have it in for Cerberus, won’t he? It’s basically ended our relationship. I don’t see how we’ve gained anything at all.”
Laplace and Teare weren’t hiding their concerns now. Footman didn’t join them, and the ever-wise Kagali felt it proper to keep her mouth shut.
“I can understand if the clowns here are confused,” Misha said with a bewitching smile. “It’s true—we didn’t stand to gain anything from this. We did it for just one reason, and that’s because the boss has decided we can’t deal with the demon lord Leon any longer.”
That set off a light bulb in Kagali’s mind.
“I see. So that’s how it was? Not that we won’t deal with him, but we can’t…?”
“Huh?”
“Wh-what do you mean, Lady Kagali?”
“Hoh-hoh-hoh! Not like we’d understand her if she told us. All we have to do is follow the orders, and—”
“Quiet one second, Footman. Whether I can understand it or not, I want to hear it!”
Footman scowled a bit at Teare’s interruption. They usually got along well, so it stung a bit. The way he saw it, they didn’t need to get mired in complex reasoning—just do what Yuuki and Kagali and the others said, and everything would work out fine. He truly believed that, but now it seemed he was the only one. The others trusted Yuuki and Kagali, but they wanted to know what they were working for.
Yuuki looked at them and smiled. In terms of being easy to use, Footman sure is a helpful guy…but if you want a better chance at success, people like Laplace are leagues better. Of course, it’s not like we had some grand reasoning behind this…
As he thought over this, he began to venture an explanation.
“Well, the fact that Leon’s taking action now is all the reason we needed. You know how we had you guys deliver one final shipment of classified goods to him? I only did that because we were planning to shut off business with Leon, and I wanted you to have a chance to see your hated nemesis in person once.”
“Huh? So you really wouldn’t have cared if we started kickin’ ass in there?”
“You’re exactly right. Assuming you escaped alive once you were done, that is.”
Yuuki grinned, a smile brimming with confidence as he attempted to calm his minions down.
“Children or not, collecting otherworlders takes a lot of hard work. We know Leon did it to boost his fighting power, but we kept helping him anyway. You know why, right?”
“Yeah, ’cause we wanted to keep that connection with him?”
“Right. So what did we need to keep that relationship going?”
“The classified goods, right? The otherworlder children?”
“Mm-hmm. And now we can’t get any more of them. Why?”
“Well, because the Rozzos we had been countin’ on to summon them for us are… Oh. Ohh.”
“What? What is it?”
“You see, Teare? This way, we can pin the blame for cutting things off on the Rozzos. If we can’t get any new supply in, we certainly can’t keep our business going. We can’t go around looking for kids that just happened to wander into this world, but we can pretend we are and sell them that way. So this way, we’re seizing the initiative. Even if we cut Leon off for now, we can still make contact with him later if we need him.”
“But that’s still no reason to deliberately make him suspect us,” a confused Teare said.
“Nah,” groaned Laplace, the truth dawning on him. “You see, they’re tryin’ to make the Rozzo family out to be the real bad guys. I tell you, Boss, you’re a mean one, that’s for sure.”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Thanks for the compliment. Yes, like you said, Laplace, I’m intending to shunt all the blame on old man Granville.”
“It annoys me to say this,” Kagali added, “but Leon’s a very careful individual. We’re the only ones he’s suspecting right now…but at the same time, I’m sure he thought, There’s no way Cerberus would do something so immature. He’d eliminate Rimuru or Luminus as suspects, and in his eyes, there’s nobody else who could be scheming against him. The Rozzos are probably the least of his worries.”
“Leon’s careful, yeah, but he’s also got a lot of self-confidence. He’s not gonna let himself get hurt by some human he wanted to take advantage of. He didn’t even try to learn about the Rozzos. I don’t think he could even guess that the real threat was lurking among their ranks.”
“I can imagine. The Five Elders were nobody too big, after all, except for those two.”
“Two? But if Maribel’s gone, that just leaves Granville, don’t it?”
“Well, you didn’t know, but there were actually three people in the Rozzo family we needed to be careful with.”
Maribel was dead, but two still remained—such was the information Cerberus gave them.
“Of course, to be exact, it’s not one of the Elders. It’s this one guy who worked for Cidre, that frontier margrave, and he’s apparently real bad news.”
With a grin, Yuuki told the room what he knew.
Cidre was the aristocrat responsible for protecting the peace in northern Englesia. In this region was a family of protectors who guarded the land from generation to generation. The current one, a man decked out in a full mask and armor with no skin visible, had been serving Granville all this time despite nobody knowing where he came from. He wasn’t part of the Five Great Elders, but anyone aware of him knew better than to ignore him. Yuuki heard about him from Damrada.
“And you know, Damrada himself told me ‘I have no idea who’d win between us unless I actually fight him.’ So no way he’s weak. The only other person he’s described in terms like that is Hinata.”
As far as Yuuki knew, Damrada kept a close eye out for only three people in the Western Nations—Hinata, Maribel, and this man. To him, the man was even more of a menace than the head elder, Granville himself. And if Damrada the Money—one of Cerberus’s leaders and a man who enjoyed Yuuki’s full trust—rated him like that, there was no way Yuuki could afford to ignore him.
“So what’s he like?”
“That I don’t know. I’ve never met him. But he pretty much single-handedly keeps the peace up in the north, you know? Damrada said he happened to see him in combat once, and he himself was fightin’ against a bunch of demons from the north.”
This statement was like dropping a bomb in the room. Kagali and Misha were already aware of it, but even they seemed to have trouble accepting it. That’s how much of a revelation it was.
“The man’s name is Razul, apparently. Granville personally named him.”
“Granville…?”
“He named him?”
“Wait, so you mean…?”
“You weren’t aware of that, Lady Kagali?” asked Misha. “Well, it’s true. Damrada told me that Razul isn’t human.”
“Yeah,” Yuuki added. “He doesn’t wear all that armor just to protect himself. It’s also so nobody finds out what he is, according to Damrada.”
To Laplace and the others, however, that was just a small detail.
“Ah, that doesn’t matter. Lemme get this straight. By ‘demons from the north,’ d’you mean from the lands of that demon lord?”
“R-right! If the Lord of Darkness is taking action, the West would’ve been a heap of ash long ago…”
Nobody, not even Yuuki, could smile at the normally composed Laplace and Kagali acting so out of sorts.
“Please, calm down. You guys are pretty scared of the demon lord Guy Crimson, huh? Well, we’re fine for now. Regarding your question, yes, the northern demons were people working under Guy. It looks like Guy’s tolerating it when his forces decide to attack human settlements for fun. It’s just a game for the demons, but the victims sure don’t see it that way, of course. So it was Razul stopping them before they could cross into his territory.”
Just one man, protecting human society from all those demons? The thought stunned everyone except Yuuki into silence.
“I hardly believe it, but I’m convinced. If Guy isn’t serious about this, that explains why the Western Nations are still safe. This Razul person sounds like quite a threat, but…”
“This is just crazy. Not even I could pull a stunt like that.”
“B-but…I know he’s strong and all, but what’s he have to do with Leon? Are we trying to have Leon travel north and fight against him?”
As everyone regained their composure, Yuuki found himself smiling at Teare’s question.
“Right, let’s go back to the main topic. Like I said, the Rozzos have this Razul as kind of a last resort. He’s there to fend off the demons who might attack at any time, so they couldn’t afford to move him away from the north.”
That was why not even Maribel factored Razul into his calculations. Why not? Because as a champion working directly under Granville Rozzo, not even Maribel had the clout to order him around.
Yuuki had been aware of Razul for some time now. He hadn’t used him in his strategizing so far because he simply didn’t have the chance. Any false move with him, and Guy’s forces were capable of laying waste to the West. He didn’t want that, and thus the northern regions were hands-off to him. Now, however, things had changed.
“I’m going to level with all of you. A while back, I had a conference with Granville where we worked out an agreement—an agreement I’ve already briefed you about.”
The smile disappeared from Yuuki’s face. Everyone else nodded.
“Right,” said Kagali. “The god worshipped by the Western Holy Church was exactly who we expected it to be. And out of sadness for losing Maribel, Granville decided to join forces with you, Sir Yuuki.”
“Stupid old man.”
“Silence, Laplace. So along those lines, Granville asked for your help with something. Are the preparations for that going along well, Sir Yuuki?”
Yuuki and Granville’s secret meeting. In the midst of it…
………
……
…
Yuuki was the one who informed Granville of Maribel’s death. She had challenged the demon lord Rimuru to battle and lost. Left with no other option, she set off a magical control reactor, got caught in the resulting explosion, and died. It was the same story Yuuki told Rimuru earlier. Yuuki had considered giving Granville another lie but opted against it—now that Rimuru’s suspicions of him were gone, he didn’t want to be needlessly inconsistent.
Although he couldn’t say how Granville would react, Yuuki wasn’t at all afraid of him alone. Even if he was part of the Seven Days Clergy, those protectors of humankind, Yuuki saw him as just a poor elderly man possessed by a mad, greedy desire for power. He wasn’t about to let his guard down, but he viewed Granville as a beatable opponent.
The old man had several of his guards with him at the conference, including a couple of otherworlders. It’d be a bad idea to make enemies out of all of them, but Yuuki still felt at ease. With Maribel gone, all he really needed to watch out for was this Razul guy. Thus, he faced up against Granville, not bothering to hide his true nature.
“I see… So Maribel is dead…”
“Mm-hmm. And lemme tell you, it was hard for me as well—her controlling me, making me fight against Rimuru… I know the Free Guild’s built under the Council and gets their operating budget from them, but this is really a breach of contract, isn’t it? I had my free will taken from me, and I really think I deserve some compensation.”
“So what happened with the demon lord Rimuru?” Granville asked, pushing Yuuki’s demand aside. Yuuki expected that to some extent, shrugging without showing any real disappointment.
“What happened? Nothing, really. He may have doubted you before, perhaps, but now I think he believes all of this was Maribel’s scheme. That’s the way I framed it with him, besides, and I hope you won’t think ill of me for it.”
“Mmm…”
Granville’s expression hinted at severe exhaustion, something Yuuki didn’t anticipate. He shut his eyes tightly, remaining silent for a moment.
“…I see. So Maribel is gone. Now all hope is lost for the Rozzo family. And if it is, we must use the secret treasure she hid away for our revenge.”
“She? And a secret treasure, you say? I’m not sure what you’re talking about, but I’d like to stay out of it, if you don’t mind.”
“Heh-heh-heh… Ah, don’t say that, Yuuki. You know already, don’t you? You’re no fool.”
“…Know what?”
“Hmph! That the god of Luminism is none other than the demon lord Luminus herself.”
“Oh…”
Yuuki had assumed as much, but it surprised him to hear it from Granville’s own lips. At the same time, he wondered why he’d reveal such a vital secret to him.
“Well, if you’re telling me that, then what are you scheming?”
“Scheming? Oh, don’t call it that. I’ve accepted you, you know. With Maribel gone, you’re the only person I could entrust the future of the Western Nations to—or really, the human race itself.”
Granville rose from his sofa, speaking to Yuuki in exaggerated tones. Yuuki wasn’t obedient enough to believe him.
“Ah, come on. I don’t need to be some savior—Rimuru’s probably gonna step up to do that anyway. He really does want to live alongside humankind, you know.”
Yuuki snickered a little. He assumed all talks were off now. But Granville wasn’t done yet.
“You’re still young, Yuuki, very young. Maribel could see into the future, but it appears that you cannot. That demon lord, Rimuru… We cannot ever permit his continued existence. Lady Luminus had no interest in the human world, and that’s exactly why she and they could coexist. But not Rimuru. He’s going to corrupt humanity and spread chaos worldwide, I’m sure of it. There will be seas of blood.”
“Oh? Wow. What’s your basis for saying that?”
“My sixth sense.”
“Huh? That’s kind of irrational—”
“My sixth sense as a former Hero. It is pleading with me to slay the demon lord Rimuru.”
This made Yuuki pause. He squinted at Granville. He may have called himself a former Hero, but to Yuuki, he looked like a shriveled old man. He had fancy clothes, sharp eyes, and the charisma and drive of a leader and ruler…but Yuuki just couldn’t see the kind of “strength” that would put Granville above Maribel.
“A Hero? You’re joking.”
“Pfft! You can choose to believe me or not. But I want to know whether you’ll assist me in defeating the demon lord Rimuru.”
“Ha-ha! Assist you? Why would I ever agree to something so hazardous? I want to keep my current relationship with him—”
“Enough nonsense, you fool! Maribel is dead! Now’s not the time for us to be playing mind games with each other! We could leave everything to the Empire, but there’s too many question marks in their government. And who knows how much we can trust the merchants you’re connected to?”
“Mmm…”
Who’s talking nonsense now? Yuuki thought, chiding Granville in his mind. Unlike Granville, he didn’t take a humans-first approach to life. No matter what happens to humankind, it was all good to him—as long as he had full control of it in the end. But this talk of a secret treasure still concerned him. By the sound of it, Granville felt this would be enough to defeat Rimuru, and Yuuki wanted to find out what it was.
Granville, meanwhile, paid Yuuki’s thoughts no mind.
“I won’t ask you to believe me. I simply want us to join forces, just once.”
“…Again, how does that benefit me?”
“I will grant you Lady Luminus’s hidden treasure.”
“And that is…?”
“The ultimate weapon—the one that sealed Veldora away.”
“…?!”
This sudden bombshell was impossible for Yuuki to ignore.
“The greatest Hero of all time. I have not met her personally, but Lady Luminus is protecting her in a special ark.”
“A demon lord protecting a Hero? What kind of joke is that…?”
“Ha-ha-ha! None of that, now. I was just as confused at first. But in the great battles that unfold in this world every few hundred years, I have seen this Hero in action. Truly, she is the supreme figure among her kind, capable of annihilating any form of evil.”
“Stronger than you in your prime?”
“I would not even compare.”
Those words sounded honest to Yuuki, and he was pretty confident in his lie-detection skills. Granville was telling the truth. And if he was, Yuuki had an idea why this Hero disappeared and left Shizue Izawa to herself.
…There must be some limit to this Hero’s career. Her life span? Well, regardless of the reason, if we can seize that ark or whatever Luminus is guarding, we can get the strongest pawn of all for ourselves, and then…?
So this “ultimate weapon” was in the custody of Luminus, likely under some sort of spell. If Yuuki and his friends could figure out what kind of spell it was…
“That’s quite fascinating. But I’m not enough of a mark to believe you at face value.”
“I’m sure you’re not. So here’s a suggestion. I will attack and cause a scene at their main cathedral. It’ll no doubt lead to confusion and chaos at Lady Luminus’s castle, and in the midst of that, you can fly in and steal the ark.”
It was an attractive suggestion—so advantageous to Yuuki, in fact, that he doubted it all the more.
“What do you gain from this? Isn’t the demon lord Luminus your master? You’re so bent on getting revenge for Maribel that you’ll defy Luminus herself ?”
Granville greeted this question with disgust. “Of course I am. I was once on good terms with Lady Luminus, but she’s already disposed of me. Our relationship hinged on the promise that she wouldn’t oppose the human race. Now that she’s joined hands with the demon lord Rimuru, Lady Luminus…or rather, the demon lord Luminus is my enemy—and nothing more.”
The malice was clear in his words. Yuuki picked up on it, astonished by its sheer force. Wow… I thought he was a used-up old man, but he can still cut it on the front lines, can’t he? Maybe this isn’t such a bad offer after all…
He began to seriously consider it. On one hand, he’d insist upon Granville rising up first. That reduced the chances of a betrayal and gave him an opportunity to size up his powers before putting his own skin in the game. In the worst case, he could claim Granville tricked him with his lies into joining in—but he could judge how serious he was once battle began. If he couldn’t gauge whether Granville intended to actually fight this out, there was no point joining in.
“Interesting… Very interesting. I still have a few doubts, but considering what I stand to gain from it, maybe giving it a venture isn’t such a bad idea.”
“Ha-ha! I thought you would say that. It will be a temporary alliance for us, but there will be no better way to cap off our friendship. Can I count on you for this?”
“Well, if you’re willing to set the table that much for me, I might as well trust you a little, huh? So how are we gonna make this a success?”
“Yes, well…”
The two of them began going over the finer details—and at the end of it, the mastermind in full control of the Western Nations shook hands over it with the magic-born scheming to conquer the world.
………
……
…
First, the Rozzo family would exercise their full resources in an attack on the cathedral. All the agents from the Selt Foreign Information Bureau would be there, as well as the survivors from Blood Shadow and some otherworlders summoned by the Rozzos. Even Razul himself, guardian of the Western Nation’s northern boundary, would be present.
“I’m curious to see the full measure of the Rozzos’ strength,” muttered Kagali, grinning evilly—and she spoke for everyone in the room.
“So, Sir Yuuki, do you have a read on where this ark is hidden?”
“Granville gave me all the details. We’ll have to proceed carefully, though, just in case he’s tricking me.”
“And that’s my job, eh?” said Laplace. “I’m a little anxious about sneakin’ in by myself, so I’m takin’ Teare and Footman along, okay?”
“I’d like to say yes, but I have another job for Teare.”
“Oh? Well, just Footman, then. But what’re ya gonna do with her?”
“She’s taking the most important job of all. But back to you for a moment. I want you guys to avoid combat as much as you can. Just focus on completing your mission.”
“Always consider the possibility of a trap,” advised Kagali. “If you sense any danger, don’t hesitate to retreat.”
“I ain’t a kid, y’know. You don’t have to remind me.”
Laplace exuded confidence, Footman silently nodding his approval.
“Good,” said Kagali. “Remember that Luminus was the master of Valentine, a demon lord as powerful as I was. I don’t need to remind you how strong she is. She could easily defeat me in my prime. Do I make myself clear, Laplace? Your first priority isn’t to steal the ark. It’s to get as much info as you can without pushing your luck and come back home safely, all right?”
“Fine, fine. I ain’t got no obligation to old man Granville. This ain’t a Moderate Jesters job anyway, so I’ll do my best for you guys, okay?”
“Yeah.” Yuuki nodded. “So for this job, I’m gonna be supporting you. If that ark’s every bit the decisive weapon Granville claims it is…”
“Support? What, don’t you trust me? That hurts…”
“It’s not that. We need to firm up our defense. There’s bound to be a trap or two, so we can’t be too careful.”
Yuuki trusted Laplace and his cohorts well enough. This time, though, not even he could predict what would happen. No matter what, he couldn’t afford to have them go easy and risk messing up the whole thing.
“I’ll be following you all in secret,” he continued. “It’ll be up to you guys to carry out your end of it.”
“Ooh, so we’re gonna be a diversion for ya, huh? That would be smarter.”
“And if things fall apart, use the confusion to bail out safely. I’ll take our prize in the midst of that.”
He grinned. The plan was perfect, and after several rounds of planning with Granville, Yuuki realized he was dead serious about it. This was definitely going to be the best shot he’d get. The chances of another opportunity like this were slim to none. Regardless of how things shook out, Yuuki thought, he absolutely had to get his hands on that ark.
“Okay, but is this ark really everything yer sayin’ it is?”
“It is. He said it houses the Hero who sealed away Veldora himself. Supposedly this Hero answers to Luminus, but my plan’s to undo whatever spell’s been put on her and make her mine instead.”
“Huh?”
“Seriously? Are you kidding me?!”
“Wh-what are you talking about?”
“Hoh-hoh-hoh…”
“Talk about priceless, wouldn’t you agree? The East is ready to accept this ark at any time. We’ll figure out how to gain control of the ultimate Hero; trust me.”
The whole room was surprised to hear Yuuki’s casual revelation. Now the ark was more valuable than any of them could imagine, and it was hard for anyone to hide their excitement. Even Misha, who was ordered to prepare for this ark in advance, couldn’t hide her blushing cheeks. How could she? They were attempting to gain control over the figure who defeated the True Dragon, the most powerful presence in the world. World conquest, as envisioned by Yuuki and Cerberus, was no pipe dream now.
“I can see why yer bein’ so careful, then, Boss.”
“Yes, if that’s how things are, I’d gladly volunteer to join in the research.”
“Ha-ha! Not so fast, Kagali. It’s too dangerous to accept Granville’s story at face value…but I do think it’s pretty plausible. So we can’t mess this up.”
“I’m sure Sir Yuuki’s presence puts all our minds at ease, but we can’t afford to have any of you drag us down

Slime 11.7

Whoa, Mr. Tempest is here?”
Now Kenya and Ryota noticed me, lagging a little behind the girls. They were drowned out by the other children.
“W-wowwww! Mr. Tempest!!”
“It’s really him! Whoaaaa!”
“Wait’ll I tell Dad back home!”
It was a big event, causing such a clamor that now the other teachers were coming in to see what was up.
“M-My lord?! You should have let me know in advance! I would have guided you around!”
“Are you kidding me?! I’m the vice-principal! If anyone’s giving Sir Rimuru a tour, it’s me!”
“Nonsense! Sir Rimuru named me the principal, and this is one responsibility I’ll never palm off on my staff!”
Another big furor.
These teachers were mainly retired adventurers, along with a few merchants Mjöllmile recruited from Blumund; we paid them a monthly salary. Our principal was one of the elders from the goblin villages. He was no good as a teacher, but he was great at settling disputes fast, and I wanted him to keep an eye on the kids and ensure the monster students weren’t being ostracized. The rest of the staff was all human, including a paladin we brought on as a special lecturer, and Hinata stopped in to look after Kenya and the others when she was free.
It all seemed to be going well, really. The paladin looked out of his comfort zone at first, but now he was instructing our monster and human students as equals, with no prejudice involved. That was a huge help.
“Yeah, um, call today a kind of stealth meeting. I had some business with Kenya’s class.”
“Oh, is that the case? Well, I hope you’ll be interested in sitting in on a class next time!”
“Indeed. Just let us know a date and time, and we’ll show you a perfect class!”
The teachers and students all nodded at one another. But hang on. What did he mean, a perfect class? I didn’t need them putting on an act for me. What was the point?
“Whoa, whoa, don’t put Sir Rimuru on the spot!”
This chaos would’ve continued awhile longer were it not for Fritz, the paladin in charge of my class today. Having a captain of the Crusaders preside over a class is pretty amazing in itself, I thought.
“You’re teaching today, Captain Fritz?”
“Aw, Sir Rimuru, no need for that captain stuff. Just Fritz is fine.”
“Oh? Then you can drop the sir stuff with me, Fritz.”
“I could hardly do that. Humor me with that much, if you wouldn’t mind. I might get dirty looks.”
Fritz smiled at me. He struck me as the last person to care about honorifics like that, but not even he could get that informal. And neither could I, really. Calling the heads of other states by their first names would be pretty stupid unless I was a real big shot.
“Ah yeah. If we were alone, sure, but not in a place like this, huh?”
“Thanks for understanding,” Fritz said with a wink and a smile. Getting winked at by a man wasn’t all that gratifying to me, but I did like his approach.
“But anyway, thanks for helping around this school.”
“Oh, stop! Compared with Lady Hinata’s harsh training, it’s like heaven around here. There’s free food; the children respect me… People in our group are fighting for this job, lemme tell you.”
I see. Not sure I really wanted to know about that. I appreciated how Fritz was being upfront with me, but I didn’t want to adopt his knack for creating awkward scenes…especially given that my Magic Sense had just picked up something.
“Oh? Well, that’s good, Fritz. My harsh training, huh? With your talents, I thought I was going easy, but maybe I shouldn’t have bothered.”
The cold voice was pointed straight at Fritz as Hinata appeared. A wave of anxiety coursed across the room, as both the children and the grown-ups stood up straight and froze. Even the faculty did, which I didn’t know whether to laugh at or be concerned about. Fritz, of course, had it the worst.
“G-gehh… L-Lady Hinata?! That, um, you misunderstand me! It was just a figure of speech, you could say…”
He tried to defend himself—in vain, I thought. This is exactly why situational awareness was so important. I prayed for his future happiness as I promptly hightailed it out of there.
We moved into the labyrinth. Hinata was here now, so I also took along the five kids and Kumara. Fritz—well, let’s not talk about him.
“I’ve been expecting you, Sir Rimuru…and you as well, Lady Hinata.”
“Ah, it’s the elder himself! Glad to see you’re well.”
We were greeted by Hakuro, who apparently had kindled a friendship with Hinata at some point. They were both smiling as they greeted each other.
“Sorry to make you take time out of your busy schedule.”
“Oh, it’s perfectly fine. We’ve taken care of all our major problems for the moment.”
“You did? Did you figure out who you’ll send to the Council?”
“Yes, Diablo attracted some new talent to our group. She’s been named Testarossa, and I’ll be glad to introduce you next time.”
“…She’s ‘been named’? There’s a lot I want to say about that, but we don’t have any time to waste, so I’ll hold my tongue.”
“Um… Sorry?”
“It’s fine. I already know how much you’re lacking in common sense. Asking for more details will just give me another headache.”
She may’ve been whining a little, but pretending not to hear what Hakuro just said was probably the best thing for her, yes.
“Anyway, I’m here today because I wanted to show you how these kids were progressing. I’ve been teaching them alongside Sir Hakuro, but I want you to see what they’re capable of, too.”
Hmm… Not sure how I felt about that, but let’s play along.
“If you’re phrasing it like that, I guess they’ve kind of grown?”
“‘Kind of’ is one way to put it. Once you see them in action, you’ll get it. This labyrinth is so useful, isn’t it? You can fight at full blast without worrying about dying.”
Hinata grinned, projecting as scary an image as always. She always had this streak of intimidation that bordered on the sadistic.
“All right. How about I summon some Replicants to take them on?”
With some choice jiggles, I spat a body out of me. This was a human-shaped clone, me remaining in my original slime self.
“All right! It’s been ages since we fought Mr. Tempest!”
“This is so great. Now he can see just how much I’ve grown!”
Kenya and Alice, the two main fighters of the crew, gleefully took positions in the front row. Next to them, the more taciturn Gail was doing a few quick stretches while Ryota, despite his usual reluctance, was looking just as excited—if he wasn’t trying to run away, he must’ve had some confidence, at least.
And as for Chloe and Kumara, the last two:
“I’ll head out front first!”
“Huhhhh? But I wanna fight Mr. Tempest, too!”
They were just as enthusiastic.
“All rarin’ to go, huh? I can take you all on at once, but how about we try some one-on-one battles?”
Everyone smiled at me, excited to battle—and I certainly didn’t mind humoring them now and then. With that ill-advised optimism in mind, we began the mock fight.
………
……
…
One hour later:
“Y-you’ve gotten way too strong, guys!”
My shocked voice echoed across the labyrinth.
Kenya was clearly stronger than a rank-and-file paladin. He formed a perfect combination with the light elemental spirit inside him, unleashing a litany of sword moves from his weird, manga-like stance. Ryota wasn’t as good as Kenya with a blade, but with his mix of water and wind spirit magic, he demonstrated a nimble skill with battle. Gail was a steady presence in the fight, focused on defense and careful movement, and he handled his sword and shield well. He also had good control over earth-based spirit magic, making him a bit like fighting an iron wall.
Thus, the boys were surprising enough, but the girls were even more amazing. Now I could see why Alice was nicknamed the Empress. I don’t know where she was taking them out from, but she now had several dolls of magisteel that resembled Beretta and seemed almost alive as they lunged at me. She was every bit the Golem Master she was, and she wasn’t messing around with toy dolls today. If she faced anyone besides me, they’d be in real trouble.
But in addition to that, Alice had a finisher move where she willed a huge number of swords into the air and doggedly sent them flying my way. That was a surprise. Their paths were irregular and hard to predict; without my Predict Future Attack skill, I might’ve been run through several times. Another few years, and she could probably be an even match for a paladin captain.
As for Kumara:
“Okay, guys, time to show Sir Rimuru what we’re made of!”
With that shout, she released her full force, nine tails shimmering behind her cutesy figure. The next moment, each tail transformed into a magical beast. I kind of anticipated this, but still, having eight beasts to deal with at once was a surprise. Even two of those beasts boasted a lot of strength—I could see why Clayman treated them as a kind of last resort. And now there were eight of them.
The ninth one was apparently associated with Kumara herself, while the other eight were all magical beasts. Each one was over A in rank, so not even your average paladin stood a chance, and they all shared in one another’s battle experience, so they worked well as a team. At this point, I think they could possibly beat Fritz, making Kumara a little girl with the power of one of the Ten Great Saints. It’d be hilarious, except for the fact that it was all true. If those beasts gained any more experience, the strength level would just be incomprehensible. A worthy guardian for Floor 90 of the labyrinth, no doubt about that.
So that brings us to Chloe.
“Heee-yah!!”
It was a cute little shout, coming from her, but there was nothing cute about how she held a sword. She was faster than Kenya—or really, it wasn’t even something worth talking about on that level. I fought against six adversaries today, but Chloe was the only one I had to get real serious about. Or maybe I’m thinking about it the other way around. If I didn’t get serious, then Chloe was now strong enough to be a danger to me. I wouldn’t die if I went easy on her, mind you, but I didn’t want to look uncool in front of all the kids. As a responsible grown-up, I couldn’t embarrass myself around them. So that’s why. Don’t call it immature, all right? I’ll throw all generosity aside if it means protecting what little pride I have.
“I can see why you did that.”
“As can I. It is only with the young Chloe that I get serious in our mock battles, after all.”
Really…? So Chloe was now tough enough to challenge Hinata and Hakuro, both above me in skill? It shocked me to the core. This innocent little girl was now making me shudder.
“No, dude, that was really great!”
“Right? Hearing Mr. Tempest say that gets me all pumped up!”
“Yeah, but Chloe totally stole the show today. I mean, you call me the Empress, but I still can’t beat her in combat.”
“Ah, Chloe’s on another level. She looks all meek at first glance, but rile her and she’s a menace. You’re not scary at all when you’re mad, Alice, but with Chloe, I’m cryin’ uncle pretty much immediately.”
Ryota and Gail nodded next to the indignant Alice. The boys all seemed in agreement.
“Kenya’s real good, too, though. It’s just that his stance doesn’t really match his skill set. If he worked on his stuff a little more, I think he’d be able to string some good combos together.”
It was a very manga-like stance, but it wasn’t inherently a bad one. It was just a poor fit for traditional swordplay, forcing him to take extra steps throughout his approach. If he could get rid of that, I think he could be stronger.
“That’s the thing. No matter how much I instruct him, he’s still sticking with that…”
Hinata must have noticed as well. She dejectedly sighed.
“So what? I learned this stance directly from Masayuki!”
Huh? Did that fool give Kenya a little uninvited advice? I mean, the stance looked cool and was effective in its own way…but as someone who knows just how powerful he really is, it just seemed so wrong for him. No wonder it looked like something from a fighting manga—Masayuki probably lifted it directly from one series or another.
“Well, I suppose just telling him won’t work. Let’s teach him so he gets rid of his bad habits and polishes up his combo strikes some more.”
Unlike Hinata, Hakuro wasn’t hung up about doing things the standard way. He had a few off-book moves of his own, so if Kenya found this approach effective, Hakuro didn’t mind going with that. It wasn’t absolutely the wrong thing for him, either, so I’ll let Hakuro work that out over time.
More importantly:
“Chloe, your sword moves are exactly like Hinata’s, aren’t they? Very pretty. A good example for everyone.”
She smiled brightly at the compliment. “Yeah! It’s the same as what Shizu used, so I tried to copy them!”
“They’re not the easiest things in the world to copy, you know. I’m still reliant on skills for them, but you learned them entirely based on your own talents. I think you should be proud of that.”
“Indeed! I’ve instructed a great many students, but I’ve never seen so much raw talent from one person. It’s nothing short of ominous, in fact!”
Hinata and Hakuro were both tough teachers, and they had nothing but praise for Chloe. I guess it really was talent. She was still young, but I couldn’t even guess what would happen as she matured. I wasn’t sure if I was fearing it or looking forward to it.
It turned out, however, that Hinata had some other business today.
“I called you here in part so you could see how these children were progressing. They all have talent, but they’re still young. I wanted you to have an accurate gauge of how they are right now, to ensure we don’t guide them down the wrong path.”
That was always a consideration for me, of course, but I accepted the word of caution. Shizu had watched these kids, after all, so to Hinata, I suppose they were kind of like her own siblings.
“All right. We have a lot of people in town who can guide them, Hakuro included. Me too, for that matter. We’ll make sure they don’t go down any wayward paths.”
“Hee-hee! I thought you’d say that…but just in case, you know.”
She was such a worrywart. I loved how kind she really was, despite that cold facade she always put up.
“So did you have some other reason to be here today?” I asked her as the kids all play-fought against Hakuro.
“Yes. In fact, it’s the main reason.”
She stopped there, eyes turned toward the children. Even Hakuro had trouble dealing with five of those kids at once. He could keep up with their moves, yes, but if he delayed his reactions for even an instant, he’d suffer a lethal blow. In terms of pure physical talent, someone like Kenya was easily above him. He couldn’t let his guard down for a moment.
Kumara, by the way, wasn’t participating in this. If she really wanted to fight, she’d overwhelm Hakuro with pure numbers. But even without her, Chloe gave the kids a decisive advantage, so I thought this was a good pairing. It was, in a way, a grand demonstration of fighting skills, one boundlessly entertaining to watch.
“Isn’t that amazing?” Hinata softly said. “Especially at her age.”
She was looking at Chloe. The other four—Kenya, Ryota, Gail, and Alice—were all impressive enough in their own right, but Chloe was simply extraordinary. Without her, Hakuro could easily wrap up this battle without breaking a sweat.
The mock battle came to an end, all the children panting as Hakuro started giving them advice. If they were fighting this hard every session, I could see why they were advancing so fast.
Hinata then moved on to the main topic at hand. “Sorry,” she said, focusing on me again. “I just got caught up watching them. But Lady Luminus, you know, she’s pestering me about when we’ll hold the music-exchange program. I figured she was interested in the idea, but she’s even more enthusiastic about it than I thought. So I thought I’d let you know.”
That was unexpected…or to be exact, I had been busy with so many other things that I kind of procrastinated on that proposal.
“Ohhh, right, she really liked our recital, didn’t she? Well, Baton and the orchestra are still practicing regularly. They’ve been expanding their repertoire.”
“Honestly, I’m amazed you remembered all those songs. I can’t read sheet music or anything, so writing down the songs in my head just seems impossible to me.”
Wow, so Hinata actually admits to being bad at something? She didn’t seem too enthused about the concert, either. Maybe she was tone deaf. A feeling of superiority washed over me, even though I was wholly reliant on Raphael for that stuff.
“Well, maybe we ought to stop by soon, then.”
“Yeah. Transporting your musicians might be a pain, though. We could send over a few paladins and transport them via a Warp Portal, a few people at a time.”
“I’d appreciate that, thank you. It’s a big orchestra, and they have a lot of bulky instruments with them. A wagon caravan didn’t seem practical to me.”
Lubelius, if I recall, was protected by a large Barrier that prevented anyone from teleporting directly in. We’d need some other kind of rapid transport. A train system would instantly solve this problem, but that was for the future—no point pining for it right now. Plus, of course, this wasn’t just about transporting the musicians. They all had their own instruments, which really complicated matters. If we used horse-drawn carriages, they’d have to traverse a highway that’s not even completed yet, and traveling down unfinished roads could lead to bumpy patches and broken gear, so I’d like to avoid that if I could.
I was really starting to envy the dragon airships the emperor of Thalion used. A train trip would be fun enough, but if you really wanted to cut down travel times, air was the only way to go. Land and sea were your best bet for transporting goods, but for recreational and other travel, a plane flight was always the fastest and easiest way.
Thus, I appreciated Hinata’s offer. I’d be helping as well, of course, so we began to make plans for the big travel day. As we went over all the details, the resting children gathered around us.
“Are you going somewhere with Miss Hinata, Mr. Tempest?”
I explained to Chloe that we were holding a music concert in Lubelius.
“I wanna go, too!”
“Me too!”
“I’d probably fall asleep during it, but if Chloe and Alice are coming, so am I!”
“And me!”
“Guess I’ll join you, then. If I let them go alone, no telling what they’ll do.”
Chloe led the fray as they all clamored to come along. Hmm… What to do? I supposed it’d help broaden their horizons and all that, but I couldn’t guarantee that it’d be completely safe.
Kumara looked up at me as I pondered this.
“I—I want to go, too…”
Being the guardian of Floor 90, she had a job to attend to, but she just looked so forlorn to me as she asked. Maybe the logical part of her brain told her this wasn’t doable. But it’s totally natural for a kid to want to join her friends on a trip, and I wasn’t in the habit of turning that down.
“Aw, there’s no need to be so hesitant. Don’t be afraid to say what you want. I’ll indulge you at least a little bit.”
I didn’t want her turning out like Milim, but it wouldn’t do for her to lose her childlike charms, either. I patted Kumara on the head as I spoke. It felt just as soft and fuzzy as she was in fox-cub form. I suppose the kind of warmth it gave you was something that transcended boundaries between monsters and people…although Kumara was in human form here, so maybe I’m just thinking nonsense.
“Whoo-hoo! And no school while we’re on the road, too!”
“Why do you want out of school so bad, Ken? You have fun in there.”
“What are you, stupid? School’s fun, yeah, but getting to play around while everyone else is in class… It makes you feel special, y’know?”
“I get what you mean. I don’t want people to think I’m like you, but I’m kinda excited, too.”
“Right? That sort of thing!”
I had yet to say yes to anyone, but the kids were already mentally packing their bags and openly talking about cutting school. I get it. I really do, but I never tried doing that when I was a kid…
“Ah, fine. But you’ll have extra homework to do while you’re out, all right?”
“Huh?! Aw, c’mon, Mr. Tempest!”
I ignored Kenya’s protests. He needed to learn early on that you can’t always get everything you want. Life can often be unfair, so this was my way of toughening him up. Call it a rare parental gesture from me. I wasn’t harassing or punishing them at all, so hopefully they would understand.
“I’m just happy being with you, Mr. Tempest,” said Chloe, the original instigator, with a grin. Well, whatever. It’ll make for some good memories.
“You’re so easy on them.”
“Oh, are you against it, Hinata?” I asked, frowning my disapproval at her.
“Pfft. I didn’t say that.”
She looked peeved but put up no more opposition. We’re good, then. So now we had our basic plan ready—a tandem music concert in Lubelius, a team of musicians headed over there, and a bunch of kids joining the fray.
And here we were—the Holy Empire of Lubelius.
Already, the kids were agape at the exotic sight of Lubelius’s city streets. Baton and the musicians, meanwhile, were tensed up, unable to stay at ease. Diablo was with me as my secretary, as well as Shion—I had her stay home during my last trip, so she got to come along this time. Instead, Veldora was watching over things in Tempest; I reminded him of his vital position as labyrinth master, which kept him from getting any funny ideas. Really, Veldora could go to pretty much any nation besides this one—he and Luminus in the same place was just far too dangerous.
Report. The chances of a problem occurring are one hundred percent.
You couldn’t spell it out more clearly than that. If there’s a big mine in the ground in front of you, you’re not gonna march straight for it.
Hinata was our guide here. “Welcome to Lubelius,” she casually told us. “The Holy Emperor himself will be greeting you shortly.”
She was talking about Louis, and I had insider knowledge, of course, that he was only playing the role of Lubelius’s leader. Baton and the others, however, didn’t—it was classified information, and I told the kids to keep mum about it around the orchestra.
“So tonight there’s going to be a dinner party to formally greet all of you. Tomorrow, we’ll be tuning things at the concert hall, and we’re slated to begin rehearsals the day after that. The show’s scheduled for three days from now. Does all of that sound good to you?”
“What do you think, Baton?”
“Y-yes, Sir Rimuru! I think that will be fine. Everything’s been magically transported here already, and I believe it all made the trip safely. We’ll need to adjust our setup for the concert hall’s size, but I understand they have an orchestra of their own, so I don’t anticipate any issues.”
Sounds good to me.
“You sure, though? You’re only getting one day for rehearsals.”
“Ha-ha-ha! Here in Lubelius, yes, but we’ve never missed a day preparing for an event like this back at home. We’ll all work as one to answer the call!”
Great, then! If he was that confident about this, I was sure their extended efforts would pay off. Talent really can beat hard work sometimes, but then again, hard work is never gonna betray you. It connects to confidence, giving you the internal strength you need to express your full skills in any situation. Keep up a regular effort, and you’ll truly start believing in yourself. I internally gave Baton’s response an A-plus as I nodded at him; if he was that confident, I felt safe expecting big things from them.
That night, his orchestra received the royal treatment from the nobility. For the most part, it made them more nervous and awkward than ever.
“Um, Sir Rimuru, we’re just regular citizens of Tempest, you know. Is it really all right to be afforded rooms like these?”
We were traveling with over a hundred people, and they were all given their own room to stay in, each with a maid on standby in an adjacent chamber so you could call them in at any time. There was even a salon on the level of a four-star hotel spa, available completely for free. Baton and his musicians hardly knew what to do with themselves.
The dinner party was just as swank, featuring a cavalcade of bite-size courses served on top of a small spoon—a feast for the eyes and the palate. Each course was small but carefully seasoned and designed to keep your attention. Everyone loved them. Kenya and the kids acted like it wouldn’t be enough for them at first, but by the end of the banquet, they were all rubbing their full bellies. As a slime, I had a de facto bottomless stomach, but theirs were beholden to the laws of physics. Stack up enough tiny courses like this, and you’d still have trouble eating them all.
Unlike these innocent kids, though, our orchestra had mixed feelings. Tempest was full of culinary delights of its own, but you weren’t going to see intricate masterpieces meant for kings and princes like this. They’ve never had anything like it, and they certainly had not enjoyed this level of service before. I could tell them not to be nervous, but it was an impossible ask.
“Ah, don’t worry about it. It just shows how much they’re looking forward to your performance, I’m sure.”
At times like this, I took solace in the fact that I wasn’t doing the performing. I didn’t need to go up there and sing, as it were, for my supper. If I were in the same position as Baton, I’d probably be too anxious to eat anything—talk about a wasted opportunity. So I encouraged our band to enjoy themselves more as the dinner party went on.
After it ended, everyone retired to their rooms. The kids were already asleep by now, overstimulated and exhausted from the day’s events. With everyone else resting, I was all alone. My newfound ability to take naps helped for such occasions, but it looked like I wouldn’t have to rely on that. There was a knock on the door.
“My apologies for interrupting you late at night. Our leader has invited you to visit her, Sir Rimuru—would you happen to be available?”
I had been silently approached by Luminus’s personal maid, an overcomer. She seemed like quite an elegant talent, unlike the ones who populated our research lab. I had thought Luminus was going to snub us today, but it looked like she wanted to see me after all. There was no need to turn her down, so I roused Shion and Diablo, and we followed the maid down the hall.
“Good to see you again, Rimuru,” Luminus offered me in greeting. “I admire the restraint you show, not bringing that evil dragon along.”
She was talking about Veldora, right? I couldn’t blame her, given what he had done, but it still seemed kind of mean. But that was none of my business.
“Yeah, good to see you, too. And he’s a troublemaker, you know? If I brought him to something like this, it’d be more of a headache for me than anyone.”
“Hee-hee-hee! You know him well, then.”
It was a short exchange, but I felt a real connection to Luminus now. Veldora’s helping me in unexpected ways.
Waiting for us in that ornate chamber were three people, Luminus included. Gunther, her elderly butler, was stationed to her left, and Louis, the man serving as emperor, was standing to her right. With the passing of her stand-in Roy, this meant all the surviving members of Luminus’s Three Servants were on hand.
I wasn’t sure why Hinata was missing, though.
“But you didn’t call for Hinata?”
“No,” Gunther replied. “She may have advanced from Enlightened to Saint, but she’s still a former human being. Whether she no longer requires sleep or not, she has still not shed her human habits.”
“I did reach out to her,” added Louis, “but she told me some nonsense about sleep deprivation being bad for her skin…”
It was indeed past midnight, so they didn’t force Hinata up. That made sense to me, but then Luminus gave me a light smile.
“It’s odd, though. Her body’s structure has transformed to something closer to a spiritual life-form, so skin deterioration should be the least of her worries. But it’s true—Hinata actually does require sleep. Even as a Saint, her body’s still as it was during her human years. It will take many more years for it to undergo the full evolution. A lot of people have the wrong idea about this, but there’s nothing superhuman about Hinata at the moment.”
She had a little laugh at this.
Unlike monsters, humans cannot undergo sudden, explosive physical transformations. That means Hinata still retained some of her human characteristics—which, if looked at from a certain angle, could be seen as a weakness. This was something I subconsciously suspected, but it just showed how ridiculous monster transformations could be.
I, of course, did not require sleep, and neither did Diablo. Shion did, more or less, but three hours per session was enough, and she could stay continually active for seven days or more without rest. Benimaru and Soei were apparently the same way, which showed just how well monsters adapted to their environments.
But regardless, if Hinata wasn’t here, it wasn’t my job as Luminus’s invitee to care.
“Right, well, here’s a souvenir for you. It’s a collaboration between Shuna and Mr. Yoshida—an apple-brandy pound cake.”
I thought Hinata would complain about serving this while she was absent, but late-night snacks are a beauty no-no, I’m sure. She liked this kind of thing, but if she didn’t know about it, she wouldn’t have to agonize over taking a slice or not. It’s an act of kindness, really.
“What a feat! How thoughtful of you.”
Luminus was certainly complimentary. I must thank Shuna for letting me have this. My two self-styled secretaries would never demonstrate that kind of good sense. Diablo was always extremely considerate of me, but that didn’t apply to anyone else. They both have a screw loose, really. But anyway.
“So what did you want to see me for?”
“Yes, well, I wasn’t entirely sure whether to inform you, but I’ve decided I should. It seems that Granville is up to his tricks again. I am very much looking forward to our concert in three days, and I don’t want anything to get in the way of it. So I thought I would ask for your assistance.”
A rather casual way, I thought, to give some unpleasant news. I wanted to tell her that it was no topic to discuss over cake. Shion was nodding at this, but I don’t think she understood the portent of it. Diablo, meanwhile, looked like he couldn’t care less. If an enemy came along, he’d eliminate it—those were his thoughts, no doubt. But this was a pain to me. I was on foreign soil, not my own country. I could summon the demons, as well as the forces Soei deployed across the land, but I didn’t want to go overboard.
Besides…
“If it’s that big of a deal, shouldn’t you really be telling Hinata?”
Yeah, this kind of thing was right up her alley. She was far more qualified to patrol this nation than visitors like us. But Luminus shook her head.
“Hmph! Do not underrate us, please! No matter what kind of rabble attacks us, Lubelius’s defenses are ironclad. We’ve thoroughly enhanced our defensive measures to prepare for that evil dragon, after all. But we are not flawless. There is a possibility they may sneak in undetected through some previously unknown opening.”
The way she was talking, no invading army could manage to shake her steadfast confidence. I mean, if they were planning for war against Veldora, your typical army of ten thousand was no sweat. But that wasn’t Luminus’s concern.
“Some previously unknown opening? Ah, right, Granville Rozzo headed the Seven Days Clergy…”
“Exactly,” chimed in Louis. “Given his secret maneuvering around Lubelius across many years, I am positive he has at least one or two hidden routes he can take advantage of. Humans are gifted at sneaky tricks like that.”
“And as irksome as the thought is,” said a seething Gunther, “he once fought against Lady Luminus as the Hero of Light. With that experience, he could conceal himself entirely, and we’d have no idea he was there.”
That did sound dangerous. Kind of an inside job, then? Nobody would know the terrain better, certainly, and there was no doubting his strength. They say he’s more powerful than the late demon lord Clayman, so you didn’t want to let your guard down here…or so I thought.
“Ridiculous. I wish you wouldn’t disturb Sir Rimuru with such trifling matters.”
Then Diablo suddenly spoke up, sounding as brash as always. And here I thought he’d been behaving rather well—now the bomb was going off. I really wish he’d learn when to keep his mouth shut.
Louis and Gunther looked put off for a moment, but Luminus’s smile kept them in line.
“Hee-hee-hee… Well, Noir, I see Rimuru’s certainly tamed you, hasn’t he? Even seeing it in person, I can hardly believe it.”
I wasn’t sure why Luminus was smiling in a situation like this. But it kept things from getting awkward.
“I wish you wouldn’t call me that. I have a wonderful name granted to me by Sir Rimuru—”
“Enough, Diablo. I’m on friendly terms with Luminus, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
I gave him a warning that, hopefully, worked as an apology.
“My pardons.”
Refraining from addressing her any further, Diablo heeded my request and quieted down. He even bowed his head a little to Luminus and her servants, and while I’m sure he had no remorse whatsoever, I was willing to accept that. Luminus, after all, was asking a favor of her guests, so I didn’t want to aggravate matters.
“No, I’d say Diablo there is correct. Perhaps it is wrong of us to make this request at all. But there is a good reason why I decided to share this with you.”
Very considerate of her, calling Diablo by name…even if it was a nickname. She chose not to sweat the details and quietly began explaining why she’d summoned us here.
“As I mentioned when I discussed how Hinata still needs sleep, humans cannot quickly adapt their bodies after an evolution. It is something they must settle into, through many years…”
An Enlightened figure, one qualified enough to be a demon lord, can evolve into a Saint, equivalent to an awakened demon lord. However, given the time it takes for this evolution to finish, you could say that a newborn Saint is not that much of a threat. They may have swells of energy flowing within them, but if they don’t know how to wrangle them, it’s pointless. Hinata could control her energies down to pretty exacting rates, but that was dependent on her own personal skills. It didn’t come as naturally to her as breathing, so the resulting burden had a physical and mental effect upon her.
But why would Luminus bring this up while she wasn’t there? …Actually, maybe it’s the opposite. She waited for her to be absent before she brought it up. And if human beings took a while to evolve, then…
“Now, going back to Granville for a moment, he is not currently a Saint. He is someone who has hatched out of a Hero’s egg, if you will—grown and flown away from the nest. Not even I can guess how powerful he has become.”
So he’s a true Hero, then?
Of course, this world had many types of Hero—some self-styled, others true Heroes in training as recognized by the world itself. Some were even “real” enough to do things like seal Veldora away for years. Just as seed demon lords could portray themselves as the real thing, those bearing hero eggs could be recognized as fully Heroic, and the difference in strength was roughly proportionate between the two. Heroes and demon lords really were united by fate that way—and in Granville’s case, we were safe in assuming he had the strength of an awakened demon lord.
“…You think he’s stronger than Hinata, maybe?”
“When I first heard Gren was killed by the likes of Nicolaus, I doubted my own ears. A Disintegration spell is among the most powerful magics of all, but Gren wasn’t enough of a fool to leave himself completely exposed to it. But back to your question…”
Luminus looked me straight in the eyes. So this is why she didn’t invite Hinata.
“…Yes. You’re right. I had hoped to tame that man for myself. Having fought him once, I know for a fact he’s stronger than the demon lords of old.”
She sounded completely confident, surprising not just me but her servants Louis and Gunther. They were both silent now, perhaps not realizing how misinformed their judgment of him was.
“Indeed, we never directly fought Gren, so…”
“But you would rate him that highly?”
“I would. I gave Gren free rein because I wanted to keep him in my personal sandbox. We both shared common goals, so I forged an agreement with him because I thought it would be fun. As head of the Seven Days Clergy, he was granted all kinds of political power. In a way, I kept him as my personal ace in the hole.”
That ace wound up betraying her before she could play it, going over to the other side and wrapping his hands around her neck. It was an error in judgment, I suppose, but I felt like I was a part of the cause, a little bit. Not that I was to blame, but…
“Well, Maribel’s dead now, after all. The cherished child of the Rozzo family.”
If the notoriously careful Granville was on the move now, that had to be his motivation.
“Ah yes, the child I caught sight of at your festival. I wasn’t aware at the time, but she was quite a foe, wasn’t she? If Granville treated her with so much respect, she might have been the key to all his ambitions.”
Maribel was a handful. If she stayed away from the spotlight, letting her conspiracies naturally play out, we’d have a maelstrom of evil to deal with. The enemy in front of you is never as potentially lethal as the one seething from far away.
Still, though…
“So what does Granville want? He can’t be taking action at this point out of some twisted desire to avenge Maribel.”
“That is probably… No. Never mind.”
Luminus stopped herself from saying something. She shut her eyes for a few seconds, deep in thought, before quietly continuing.
“Even long ago, his one hope was to spread peace across the world. He fought against countless slavering monsters and vicious magic beasts, defeating them in his quest to protect the human regions of the world. I fought that stubborn old man many times, until he understood that I wanted to live alongside humankind instead of eradicate them. Once we forged an agreement with each other, that was when peace finally spread across the West. Legions banded together to form small nations, which prospered and grew into larger ones over time. And it was Gren himself who appealed to them behind the scenes to create the Council of the West.”
Hearing the story like this, Granville—or the Hero Gren—really did seem like a legendary figure. He was now part of the shady Five Elders, but it was still all in the name of protecting humankind. No matter the motivations behind it, if you looked at the results he put up, Granville basically gave the human race a thousand years of peace, didn’t he…?
“The ancient elves who rule over Thalion have no territorial interests. We in Lubelius serve as a shield against the tyranny of Earthquake Daggrull and the Storm Dragon Veldora. The demons to the north keep attempting to intervene from their ice-shrouded world, but it’s more for entertainment than anything. If Guy were serious about it, he would have brought the world to its knees long ago, after all. That just leaves humankind’s other great outpost on this planet, and Granville has worked alongside the dwarves to combat it and hired merchants to prod its innards. He’s been doing all this by himself for ages.”
Put it that way, and Granville really seemed amazing.
…No. No, now’s not the time to commiserate with him.
“All right. So if he’s done all those noble things, what does he want?”
“Hee-hee… Don’t hurry me, now. I’d like to say that Gren has no reason to confront me, but I can think of one thing. I can think of it, but I have no intention of telling you.”
Oh. I figured as much, given that pause earlier.
“But I did receive some concerning news about his motives. Do you know Yuuki Kagurazaka?”
“Sure. You said he gave off bad vibes or something, didn’t you? He’s the mastermind who incited Farmus to fight and set Clayman against me.”
“Oh, you picked up on that? That saves me some time, then, but you should know that Yuuki has contacts with Gren. There is some kind of business going on between them, and it seems they’ve forged a pact of their own.”
Yuuki again? I’m really getting sick of him playing around with us. Without Raphael, I’m sure he would’ve easily pulled the wool over my eyes. If we kept letting him run around free, I’m sure we’d be constantly encountering the same problems. Maybe it’s about time to settle matters.
“So Yuuki’s motivations are lurking around behind Granville’s moves?”
“That they are. And I think one of his targets is all of you.”
I see. And with me outside of Tempest, now was the best time to attack?
“Interesting. So that child Yuuki wants this Gren character to fight against Sir Rimuru?”
Now it was Shion speaking up out of nowhere. I gave her a surprised look. Knowing her, I assumed she was spacing out on the conversation by now, but she actually had a full grasp of it.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh… Perhaps they think they enjoy an edge now that a few of us have left the country, but they had best think again. We have not one, but two members of the Big Four guarding you. No scheme of theirs could possibly cause any harm.”
Diablo, meanwhile, was the same as always. I really wish he wouldn’t bring up the Big Four right now. It’s so embarrassing.
“Well, remain on your guard. Once three days pass, it will be none of your business anyway. As I said at first, all I care about is enjoying a nice concert.”
Luminus never wavered. She called Gren a threat, but to her, the entertainment came first. And as we concluded this private midnight talk, I began thinking I could learn from the way she compartmentalized things.

Slime 11.6

A DISTURBING PRESENCE
I had a rather unexpected boost to my military, and really, having more friends was something to celebrate. I decided to promptly meet with Diablo to discuss how to put these demons to work, and I’d have Testarossa and the other top demons join us as representatives to get their feedback.
“So there are three posts I’d like to assign as soon as possible. I need a diplomatic attaché to make decisions abroad on my behalf, a chief prosecutor to investigate the evils unfolding within Tempest, and a chief judiciary official to provide fair and balanced judgment over disputes. I just happen to have you three here, so what do you think about taking those jobs?”
I kept my tone casual, knowing full well just how insane this was. None of these jobs were particularly easy, and my cabinet may object to these appointments anyway, although it’d be Diablo’s job to shut them up. Besides, these posts emphasized fairness; I didn’t want people trying to curry favor with them, so I thought naming people as close to me as possible was the best bet. If any of them tried anything rebellious or illegal as part of their posts, I could just call upon Diablo to purge them. It made things easier for me, in a way.
“I would be honored to serve as a diplomatic officer.”
“Wow, evils even bigger than me? That sounds exciting!”
“My judgments are always fair. I will do everything I can to live up to your expectations!”
Whoa. They accepted them without even listening to the job descriptions.
“Are you sure? I think they’re pretty tough jobs…”
“I am eager to begin, my lord.”
“Yeah! I’m good at investigations and stuff!”
“I will provide equal measures of death to all.”
Um, I don’t think that’s how the jobs work, exactly! Now I was even more nervous. I glanced at Diablo. He had a smug smile, telling me all I needed to know about his thoughts. Here was a man thinking Thank god I palmed this trouble off on someone else. Yeah, he’d never agree to being a diplomat.
“Listen to me. Being a diplomatic attaché means speaking for me as a member of the Council of the West. Once we deploy our military across the West, you’ll also be responsible for commanding them all. It’s an important job, you understand.”
“Yes, I do understand.”
Testarossa softly smiled at me.
“Testa is a wise woman, you know. I guarantee you that she’ll never do anything to harm your position.”
No, Diablo, you just don’t wanna do the job, do you? Diablo’s guarantees weren’t worth much in my mind, but maybe Testarossa did have a lot of wisdom.
“Well, with the laws we’re writing for our nation as well, she’ll need to understand and explain them to other nations…”
“Do not fear, Sir Rimuru. I have memorized them all.”
Testarossa then began reciting the in-progress version of the laws of Tempest, stuff we were still trial-and-erroring our way through. She even pointed out some of the flaws in the current version.
“Okay, you’re hired! I got no complaints now, that’s for sure. It’s gonna be easy for you to lose your temper in the Council, but remember—you have our nation’s good name on your shoulders. Whatever you do, do not let anger get the best of you. Okay?”
“I am ready to serve, Sir Rimuru. And should push come to shove, I will leave no evidence of my involvement.”
No, um, that’s not the problem, exactly… But there was no denying Testarossa’s talent. Nobody else was as qualified, and given my antics at the earlier Council meeting, I wasn’t exactly a good role model. Let’s see how this shakes out anyway.
So I had now appointed Testarossa as my councillor, but the other two had their own talents.
“Okay, me next!”
Ultima immediately began rattling off the parts of the legal code we were in the midst of enacting. She was every bit Testarossa’s match in intelligence.
“My lord,” Carrera continued, “we are a race that respects our contracts. We are gifted in finding loopholes in regulations, and I guarantee we will never miss anything a common person could discover. We will also never be swayed by bribes. Anyone who wishes to subjugate us must do so by force, and only a small handful of demon lords stands a chance at that.”
She couldn’t possibly lose to anyone, huh? The fact that she didn’t say that outright indicated that some demon lords really were more powerful than her. I could name one off the top of my head easily—that redhead—but that’s her problem, not mine. What mattered was that Carrera seemed dedicated to judging all criminals fairly.
“Okay, you’re hired. I’ll be expecting big things from all three of you!”
“““Yes, my lord!”””
Thus, I had three Demon Peers assigned to three important posts. Luckily, it was a smart move on my part. Soon, Tempest would become a constitutional state like few others, its systems and procedures providing an example that spread across the land.
These laws apply to me as well, by the way. I’ll have to be careful not to get arrested for giving or taking bribes.
So now we had a constitution, part of the elite club of nations that made one. It was still in the testing stages, but our government was divided into three sections and functioning. Ultima and Carrera were dedicated to their work—and I have to add, they had some talented people working under them as well. They organized their respective departments in the blink of an eye, exercising the full extent of their powers.
Ultima had also taken a shine to Rogurd, calling him Rog and following all his instructions. Rogurd even reciprocated, calling her M’lady and treating her almost as nicely as his own daughter. Rogurd, in fact, had no idea who Ultima really was. He was a bold, courageous man, but if he found out she was such a powerful demon, even he might start acting all sensitive around her. In consideration of that, I only told him that she was “scouted” by Diablo. It’s her work that counts anyway, so I saw this as harmless.
Carrera, our new chief justice, was also doing well. Rugurd, our attorney general, was back in our administrative office; our department of justice was now its own organization, so it’d no longer be affiliated with that branch. That didn’t mean it could do whatever it wanted, though. The administrative, legislative, and judiciary branches of the government all kept an eye on one another now.
Rugurd, in his role, was observing and supporting Carrera, my appointee. From what I heard, despite any eccentricities in her personal behavior, she was a talented worker. She’d never fall to bribery or violence, so I suppose Rugurd accepted her. Good to see. There’s no such thing as a perfect political system, so we just need to solve problems as they come up.
Now we had to provide the Council with draft copies of our relevant legal codes.
“So, Testarossa, are you all ready?”
“Yes, Sir Rimuru. Moss has made all the necessary arrangements.”
Testarossa, that living beauty, was elegantly relaxing in front of me. She poured out some tea, offering it to me. It was good. Shuna’s tea was always first-class and Shion’s was up there as well, but Testarossa’s was surprisingly delightful. The aroma had depth to it, the taste thick and rich. There was no bitterness, and even though I took it without sugar, there was a hint of refreshing sweetness to it.
“I did not know you brewed your own tea, Testa. Color me surprised.”
I felt Diablo’s eyes open wide behind me.
“Hee-hee! Well, this is a special gift for you, Sir Rimuru. None for you, you understand.”
“…That is fine. As long as you understand that my post is above yours, you may live your private life as you like.”
Diablo prepared his own tea as he said this. I wasn’t sure whether they were bitter rivals or just bickering friends. It didn’t seem very strained between them, but I wouldn’t call them good buddies, either.
“It’s interesting, though, isn’t it? The way other nations are reacting to us. Some are trying to curry favor, and some are trying to use us to their advantage. I’d say less than half are openly welcoming us; the majority are still rather suspicious.”
Such was Testarossa’s sudden evaluation of the scene. It was almost like she was there to see it, which was odd.
“Where’d you get that info from?”
“Oh, my pardons, Sir Rimuru. I enlisted Moss to investigate for me, so I may better serve you.”
Moss again, huh? Pretty talented dude. One of the guys who evolved into a Demon Peer; stronger than Veyron and second in power only to the trio of ladies here. He was good at intelligence gathering, too?
“How accurate was the info he got you?”
Was it acquired via magic, or did he ask around more directly? If it was trustworthy, then fine, but if not, it’d just get in the way. I decided to check with Testarossa.
“Well, Moss has a special ability where he can deploy a large number of small, discrete Replicants across a wide range. To Moss, collecting and analyzing information across the world, all at once, is like child’s play.”
That’s…pretty amazing. I gave myself a mental pat on the back. He was a nice pickup.
“Ah. Sounds reassuring, then. I’ll introduce him to Soei sometime soon, and then maybe they can work together on intel. Together, I’m sure they can make up for each other’s deficits, you know? That’d be good to see.”
“My! All those complimentary words… I think I’m going to be jealous of Moss.”
Testarossa smiled.
“Ah, enough joking…”
Now a figure I hadn’t noticed before was standing behind Testarossa, breaking into a cold sweat. He didn’t really stand out much, but this must be Moss. Veyron cut a very gentlemanly figure with his handlebar mustache, but Moss looked like the kind of cute-as-a-button kid you’d see anywhere. By appearances, he’d seem to be in the fifth or sixth grade (?) maybe. Strong would never be how you’d describe him. Was he really that much of a talent?
“Hey, um, about the information you picked up— Can we trust it? I mean, we just got done kicking out a bunch of councillors plotting against us. I can accept it if people are wary, but are there still nations out there seeking to take advantage of us?”
Not to brag or anything, but I think our nation was kind of badass by this point. Trying to hoodwink a nation as badass as ours made me wonder about the mental skills of the leaders running them. Honestly, I’d be far more likely to believe Moss had it wrong here.
“Moss, can you explain the situation to Sir Rimuru?”
Surprisingly, it was Diablo ordering Moss, not Testarossa.
“Y-yes, sir. The region south of Tempest, focused on the Kingdom of Blumund, is generally friendly to us. However, our intelligence does not extend far into the north, and with many of the nobles there, it is unclear just how much we know about them is true. As for the councillors pushed out recently, it seems that even if they told the truth to their benefactors, their stories were not widely believed. This is speculation based on rumors, so I cannot attest to its accuracy very much, but I can state that certain members of royalty from several nations are plotting against us.”
Moss’s power involved being able to listen in on conversations, so it was up to him, and us, to judge how accurate those conversations are. It was still really helpful, though.
“If we can pick up on suspicions before they spread, that can help us take countermeasures fast.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Testarossa, can I leave this matter to you?”
“Of course, Sir Rimuru. Are we in agreement that the relevant nations need to be thrown into ruin?”
No, we are not.
“That’s going too far! Just force their rulers to take responsibility for it.”
“I understand.”
“And try to avoid bloodshed while you’re at it, please?”
“As you wish. I will not do anything that gives Tempest a bad reputation, at least.”
Despite her flowery smile, Testarossa was really giving me the creeps. I worried a little over whether assigning her this was the right idea, but you need to test out these things. Still, if we acted too nice to our rivals, it could send our whole nation crashing down. Being seen as a pushover will just lead to more needless damage in the future.
“All right, then! Proceed so our nation retains its current dignity, but don’t be afraid to show them the full brunt of Tempest’s gravitas!”
And so Testarossa was my new Council representative.
That took care of the biggest problems. Those had been giving me headaches for the past few months, but starting today, my mind would be much more at ease.
Huh? Was I retreating the lab to do a lot of whizbang research? Well, you know, I need to at least look like I’m trying down there, or I’ll come off like a charlatan dropping in for fun.
Being a grown-up is knowing how to balance social responsibilities like that. In a way, you want to avoid making a one hundred percent effort in the workplace, because then that’ll be expected of you every time. A real performer knows how to execute a “full effort” they can provide on a regular basis. Work’s supposed to be fun anyway.
…Of course, I can try to sound like I know it all here, but that’s still just an ideal. And I guess that if I’m satisfied with myself right now and have an environment like that to work in, I must be truly happy.
Anyway, today I decided to check out our new school building, which we recently completed construction on. The children I brought in from Englesia will study here, together with our own. Like I said to Yuuki, the best way to prepare children for adulthood is to get them interacting with one another—and in a school with nothing but monster children, I worried my kids would have trouble adjusting to human society later.
With this school, there’d be no worries. We now had a lot of adventurers and other people coming here for work, many of whom brought their entire families, children included. In many low-income families, children were obliged to work as well, but I prohibited that by law. A child’s job is to play—and to examine and study whatever they were interested in. I wanted to have humans and monsters learning together, in the same classrooms, and in the future I wanted to see this grow into races and species working together. That was the theory behind this setup.
Plus, we didn’t only have children learning in this school. Grown adults were mastering the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic here, too. They were highly motivated, given how these skills were rapidly becoming necessary in Tempestian life. Remaining illiterate would narrow their work options and potentially lead to errors that’d cause trouble for their coworkers—and adults understood that, which is why so many were studying now. One common refrain you hear in the classroom is “Am I ever gonna use this stuff in the future?” Not here, though. The sight of grown-ups studying so hard actually seemed to inspire the children watching them; they didn’t want to get left behind.
Addition and subtraction were one thing, mind you, but literacy is another. Those classes were difficult even for me, and it seemed like Masayuki was in the same boat. We were fluent in conversation and could read just fine, but writing was a challenge. In my case, I could set Raphael to autopilot and cover for that, but without its aid, I wasn’t sure I could pass even a basic literacy exam here. I had been shamelessly putting off addressing this—if I’m good now, why bother?—but for this, at least, I felt like I was cheating a little.
My kids, of course, were doing great. I gave them some manga translated into this world’s language to motivate them, and that wound up being a huge success. They were carrying it around with them all the time, and it was getting popular even with students outside the reading classes. Kenya and the others, being the first kids to possess this manga, were uber-popular in class. Between those comics and his natural talent for winning fights, Kenya was already kind of the boss of the schoolyard.
“Come on, boys! Quit playing around and help me clean the classroom!”
Oops. Now Alice was mad. She had comfortably settled into the class-president role, I see.
“Huh? Why do we have to do that stuff? ”
“Whoa, Ken, you don’t want to make Alice angry!”
“Aw, shut up, Ryota! Today I’m gonna whup Alice and become the real boss around here!”
Eesh. What are you, children? …Oh, I guess you are.
Apparently, Alice was the true boss of this clique—maybe that was why Kenya kept flaring up at her. I suppose it’s like a lovestruck boy wheedling a girl in order to get her attention. It usually has little effect…or typically, the opposite effect. You need to be nice to the people you’re trying to court, and if Kenya doesn’t get that yet, he has a lot to learn. All he’s doing right now, at least, is pissing her off.
“I told you, y’know! I told you I’ll show you just how scary I can be!”
Alice, for her part, was acting less than her supposedly mature self. But she’s only eleven, of course, and I wouldn’t expect anything else from a sixth grader. Plus, everyone was already used to her act.
“Hey, who do you think will win this time?”
“Oh, it’s gotta be the Empress.”
“Yeah. She’s the youngest and the strongest out of us all. Kenya’s pretty good, too, but he’s a bad matchup against the Empress.”
“Like, he’s in love with her! No way he could ever beat her.”
Pretty cruel.
“Hey, Gail! Quit sayin’ all that crap over there!”
“Yeah! No way Kenya has a thing for me. Are you crazy or what?”
Gail had no qualms about revealing Kenya’s secret. But despite Kenya’s objections, Alice just laughed the whole thing off. Hmm… Maybe they were still a little too young for love. Or maybe they were just fine, actually. The children, monster and human alike, all looked on with big smiles; they must’ve understood there was no bad blood involved. Gail, being the oldest, kind of took a leadership role with the others anyway, so I assumed he’d put a stop to matters before they developed into problems.
I could’ve just kept my mouth shut and watched them, but not today. Hinata was due in later. “Okay, kids, that’s enough!” I said as I entered the room. “No horseplay in the classroom, all right?”
“Mr. Tempest!”
Chloe all but tackled me from the side as I entered. I never saw it coming; she must’ve improved her skills as of late. In fact, she must’ve noticed my presence long before I came in.
“M-Mr. Tempest?! No fair, Chloe!”
Alice was almost as quick to respond, hugging me with just as much force as Chloe. Good. They’re still at that “cute” stage.
Then someone else dog-piled on me from the rear.
“It’s great to see you again, Mr. Tempest!”
A charming little girl with a bowl cut leaped in front of me. She wore an elegant kimono and seemed about as young as Alice—but what really made her unique were her fox ears.
Hmm, I don’t remember meeting a girl like this before…but I feel like I ought to know her. Could it be…?
“Are you…Kumara?”
“That’s right!” came her peppy reply.
Oh, right. Kumara was an upper-level monster who evolved after I named her, and I guess transforming into a human was among her new skills. I’m pretty sure I granted custody of her to Hinata, alongside Kenya and the rest. They were attending school regularly now that the building was completed, but I figured Kumara was manning the labyrinth or something in the meantime. In fact, she joined the others at school, and it looked like she had friends as well, so it appeared that things turned out fine.

Slime 11.5

And so Diablo was already beginning his boastful speech. I needed to stop it at once.
“Okay, I’ll pass on that. I’m sure they’re not here to listen to you brag at me, either, so how about we save that for another opportunity?”
An opportunity I was pretty sure would never come, of course.
Diablo froze, giving me a “huh?” look. The three demon girls snickered. I supposed they were worried he’d talk about himself for hours, too.
Satisfied I was in the right, I grinned. “I don’t want to keep everyone else waiting, either. Introduce them to me.”
“…I—I understand. In that case, allow us to relocate…”
He looked disappointed, but I couldn’t spoil him. I’ll admit that Diablo was a talent, but giving him preferential treatment in front of the new staff wasn’t a good idea. I’d never wanna be accused of playing favorites, so he’ll just have to put up with it. (Of course, what I really feared was him talking my ear off all day, but that goes without saying.)
Diablo, of course, recovered quickly. As a spiritual life-form, he had real backbone. You’d think that meant he wouldn’t be swinging between joy and sadness after everything I said, but he did anyway for some reason. Very strange.
“Summoning them in town may cause trouble, so let’s call for them within the labyrinth.”
Regardless, Diablo had now matured enough that he actually cared about people and things around him a little. I was impressed…but I shouldn’t have been.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh… After all, if they appeared within town, they would shatter the barrier over it. You spent a lot of time and trouble on that magic spell, Sir Rimuru, so I must take consideration of that.”
Hearing his slightly askew observation made me realize how wrong I was.
But it reminded me of something else.
Here in Rimuru, the capital of Tempest, we already had a barrier deployed on an experimental basis. This was an enhanced version of the Holy Field, suppressing the magicules that leaked out of monsters. We had a lot of human visitors these days, and this was one measure we took for their safety. It was a bit of a burden for our monster residents, but not enough to affect their daily lives at all. Put up with that, and we could retain the city’s magicule counts to a level humans could easily abide by. The barrier also helped enforce our laws against casting certain magic spells in town, and it also kept magical beasts from entering city limits.
If anyone was big and mean enough to break this barrier, they’d have to be A rank and assigned some kind of disaster level—and even they couldn’t smash it with one hit. If anything happened to the barrier, we’d all know at once, so our sentinels would be able to swing into action. Even an A-ranked beast, of course, was nothing to fear without intelligence. With our well-honed soldiers, we’d be able to calmly take care of matters.
My main concern was whether there were people among these seven hundred who could break down the barrier. It’d be child’s play for the three women behind me, but were there any other menaces among them? Diablo tended to be a harsh critic, so if he described seven demons as useful, they had to be extremely dangerous.
Inside the Dungeon:
“I hereby permit you to show yourselves. Manifest!”
With Diablo’s order, seven demons appeared, seven hundred more kneeling behind them.
I guess…I should have expected this. Six out of the seven were Arch Demons. Magicule flow was regulated within the labyrinth, so it was easier for them to appear here than up on the surface, hence why all of them were their full, ominous selves in here.
These seven demons who earned Diablo’s trust, though… Now these guys looked like actual demons. One among them was just a Greater Demon, but a special one apparently, and no doubt pretty strong, too. Strong enough to pick a fight with Diablo and get smashed up in the process, by the sound of it. He had guts, at least, although clearly he had to be an idiot. Nonetheless, Diablo saw something in this Greater Demon, and if he did, I had no complaint.
But enough about that. My concern was still on the first three. These three Arch Demons each had two Arch Demons of their own, essentially indicating they had some kinda special talent beyond just their magicule count.
Understood. As demons have no life span, the older they are, the more battle experience they build up. In the demon realm, there are classes of nobility they are categorized into based on that. Those in the ruling classes enjoy exclusive levels of authority and power…
Oh?
Raphael told me that demons are limited in how far they can grow, Arch Demon being the very top. However, even under these same conditions, they can polish their battle skills and establish themselves as superior over others. Different demons can have different strengths, even with the same magicule count. That difference can come in knowledge, the drive for victory, the strength of their will… Put it all together, and that’s how a demon built their rep.
Plus:
…Arch Demons are further categorized by the era they were born in.
To be exact:
• Legends whose names have been known for over three thousand years are classified as Prehistoric.
• Arch Demons at least a millennium old are Ancient.
• Beings with over four hundred years of accrued knowledge are Medieval.
• Demons who survived past a hundred years are Pre-Modern.
• Those with more than a human life span’s worth of study are Modern.
• Newborns are called Contemporary.
And at the far end of time, you had the Origin category, the very first of all demons.
The strengths of demons are evaluated based on how long they have lived. The ruling classes of demons, the nobility ranked count or higher, are all Ancients.
Thanks for the detailed rundown, Raphael. I appreciated that bullet-point presentation. Now to use this newfound knowledge to examine the demons before me.
The first three were in the ruling classes, and these six were their subjects. I suppose this meant that the trio—and Diablo as well—were all very old demons, ranked count or higher. I may have been oblivious at the time, but I befriended some pretty notorious characters, didn’t I? It made me shiver a bit as Diablo smiled.
“This group, I feel, boasts some aspects worthy of your attention. When I regaled them with stories of your wondrous deeds, Sir Rimuru, they all broke down and begged for the chance to serve you. Thus, I decided to grant their request and let them join me.”
It sounded like a very moving tale, although I felt like he was making up aspects of it.
I took a closer look at the seven underling demons. Maybe they had wept, but I’m not convinced they were begging to serve under me. My evidence for this was how clearly all of them had been beaten up—with the lower-end Greater Demon in particular, I marveled at how he was even alive. Diablo really was making up that story, I thought. All seven of them looked like they had something to say, but none of them spoke in front of their boss. They were very well trained—or I’m sure, Diablo sternly warned them otherwise.
“From this moment, we shall ever be your faithful servants, Sir Rimuru! Please grant us your orders!”
The seven of them all bowed their heads and swore their fealty, the choir of seven hundred behind them doing the same. Seven hundred demons lying prostrate before you is quite a sight, let me tell you. Diablo observed the spectacle, smiling and nodding. He scares me. The fact that he was my ally made me breathe an internal sigh of relief. I’m so glad he’s on my team.
As spiritual life-forms, demons must acquire physical bodies, or else they have to expend tons of magical force to manifest themselves. I didn’t want to subject them to that forever, so it’s time to get this party started.
The process was really simple. First, I used Belzebuth to consume the demons. Then I called upon Raphael to Combine each one with the pseudo-soul inside each incubation capsule. It worked great. Before long, all the demons had their bodies, customizing them to their liking. They’d be fully used to them in two or three days.
I did run into some problems with the first three, though. I didn’t want to give them the same treatment as all the demons under them. They were apparently longtime friends with Diablo, so I figured they deserved a few perks. Besides, they were beautiful, and I’m nothing if not a patron of fine beauty. If I wanted to have them drop the demon look and appear more human without affecting their appearance, that much was a snap for me. So I offered my services.
“Would you like me to work on your outer appearance?”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure.”
“In that case, by all means.”
The white-haired beauty smiled and accepted the offer, the other two following her lead. With their consent, it was time to get started.
It’s tough to change someone’s appearance without adjusting their internal bone structure. My fingers were more than nimble enough for the effort, and Raphael’s calculations were perfect. Forming and adjusting their looks was a cinch for me—and once their structures were set up, some magicule-flow fine-tuning should perfectly re-create their looks.
I also gave them a little extra, mixing gold into their magisteel skeletons to make them orichalc. If they’re friends of Diablo’s, they deserved that much. In this world, gold was kind of an all-purpose metal, keenly compatible with magicules and providing durability and capabilities that far surpassed magisteel.
They were literally beautiful down to the bone—and very appreciative.
“““Thank you very much, Sir Rimuru!”””
And if they were happy, I was just as happy.
Mission accomplished. Now we just had to wait for everyone to wake up. Oh, and it’ll be an annoyance if they don’t have names…
“Whoa, whoa, what are you doing in here?”
“Hey, hey, Rimuru! Did Diablo bring his underlings back? I wanna say hi to them— Whoa, look at this!”
Deeno, Ramiris, and Veldora had invited themselves in.
“Yep,” I explained to the ignorant Deeno, “Ramiris is right. Diablo’s brought his team over. They’re all demons, so I have a set of bodies for them.”
“No, I knew that, but…”
If he did, why was he acting so surprised?
“Well after all, if he’s gathered this many demons together, Diablo must be quite formidable, indeed.”
Oh, the numbers, huh? Yeah, there’s a lot. Veldora seemed to have a point. If I wasn’t forewarned, I probably would’ve been just as shocked.
“And not just that. I’m a little surprised, too. The three leaders over there… Is it me, or are they really, really old?”
Ramiris looked kind of put off. Deeno nodded his agreement.
“Yeah,” I said, “they’re Ancients in the ruling class, so they’ve supposedly been alive at least a thousand years.”
“Huh…?”
“It’s gotta be more than that, isn’t it?”
Was it? Raphael couldn’t have made a mistake.
…Negative. It is a difference of interpretation. With no way of knowing an exact age, estimates given are strictly estimates. If they have lived over a millennium, then it is not out of the question for them to be over 30,000 years old as well.
I supposed that was true. Being over a thousand could potentially make you three, four, even ten thousand years old. Raphael wasn’t wrong, but it didn’t necessarily have the right estimate, either.
“Yeah, but it’s hard to ask a woman for her age…”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! I have learned that well. It leads to unwanted anger, to be sure.”
“Well, one’s age isn’t all that important anyway. If I’ve got a trio of ruling-class demons on my side, I’m not gonna ask questions.”
“If you’re fine with that, Rimuru, then so am I.”
“Funny way to think about it. I sure couldn’t do that.”
“Heh-heh-heh-heh… Well stated, Sir Rimuru. It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years, am I right?”
Um, maybe?!
Diablo seemed eager to close the book on the subject. As embarrassing as it was for me, I followed his lead.
Deeno and the gang had almost made me forget what I was here for, so I decided to focus on what I’d name these demons. I figured I might as well keep it simple and stick with the exotic-car theme I started with Diablo. It’s not like fighting power should be measured like the price tags of cars, but with the Ancient demons in front of me like this, I think they deserved names like that.
“Okay,” I boastfully stated at the three body frames in the capsules, “from now on, you three can call yourselves Testarossa, Ultima, and Carrera.”
The first among them had beautiful, shimmering white hair, snow-like skin, and—floating amid all that blinding white—elegant, vibrant eyes and soft red lips, which reminded me of the classic Ferrari Testarossa.
Ultima was the perky lady with purple hair and a bubbly personality, and I thought the name perfectly suited her image. Carrera, meanwhile, was every bit a Porsche—blond locks, a cutting stare, a real leader of the pack.
“Wh-whoa! You can’t just name them like it’s nothing…”
Only Deeno voiced any concern. But the warning already came too late, so there was no point panicking about it now. Look at Ramiris and Veldora. They didn’t freak out about every little thing I did.
“Par for the course for him, I’d say.”
“Yeah! As if Rimuru would act any other way!”
There you had it.
As the three Arch Demons listened on, I worked them through the final stages of the body-claiming process. Muscle covered their golden frames, and in an instant, they were naked personifications of beauty. The magicules kept flowing into them, clothing their bodies. The incubation capsules shattered, unable to withstand their mystical auras. I could see why—thanks to me naming them—they had now evolved into Demon Peers, nothing like they were before. Their power was overwhelming, upgraded to a dimension beyond all common sense.
“Wow,” muttered Deeno. “Not even old-era demon lords like Carillon could take those guys. I couldn’t even guess how deep they go down, man. Good thing I’m not on hostile terms with Rimuru.”
Nobody reacted to him. Only Vester, who showed up later than the others, could be found in the corner whispering “I see nothing, ha-ha-ha, nothing. I know nothing; I’m not involved in this…” The way he was slapping himself on the head and talking incoherently made me feel a little sorry for the guy, but let’s just pretend I didn’t see that.
This wrapped up my work for the day. I didn’t want to drain my magicules all at once, so I proceeded with caution, giving names only when I was confident I had the wherewithal for it. Three a day seemed like a good limit.
Thus, the next few days were spent on a naming spree. I gave out the following names, in order of strength:
• Moss
• Veyron
• Agera
• Esprit
• Zonda
• Cien
• Venom
Testarossa’s underlings were Moss and Cien, Ultima had Veyron and Zonda, and Agera and Esprit worked for Carrera. Venom, meanwhile, was Diablo’s wild card favorite. Even with Testarossa and the other two alone, I held command over three Demon Peers, which was an insane amount of force. But that was only the start of it.
All seven evolved immediately after I named them, stepping out of their incubation capsules like everything was normal. Two of them had become Demon Peers; four others remained as Arch Demons but seemed a little different—I can’t explain how too well, but it’s like the blinders had been taken off. Venom also evolved into an Arch Demon, greatly boosting his own fighting power.
To me, it was so much of a surprise that my brain just shut off. I mean, Demon Peers aren’t beings you see just pop up all the time. They were legendary figures, more powerful than your average demon lord, and (counting Diablo) I currently had six of them within my borders. Now they weren’t seeming so rare to me. What was I even gonna do with all this force? I wanted to procure people strong in things like politics and economics. Could they handle that stuff? I sincerely doubted it, but I guessed we’d have to try it out…
As I pondered this, I started thinking up names for the remaining seven hundred. This was my promise to Diablo, and I wanted to see it through to the end. I had, as it turned out, made some miscalculations—Raphael informed me that the magicules that had already built up in the incubation capsules would be enough to name them with. That was good news. Just the motivation I needed, in fact, because I whipped through the whole naming process in just two days.
Now these seven hundred were prostrating themselves before me. Most of them were Lesser Demons to start with, but with a name and a physical body, they had evolved into Greater Demons. As expected, they had all gained enough magicules to be firmly A-ranked territory, and now I had seven hundred of them at my beck and call.
Not that I’m one to talk, but something about this screamed “stat inflation” to me. Some of them even looked for all the world like Arch Demons. Did I just have another oops moment? It was simply astonishing. I mean, the first three alone—Testarossa, Ultima, and Carrera—were more than enough already. But it was too late to turn back now. Let’s pretend that I didn’t notice anything. That was probably the best way to preserve my sanity.
“Sir Rimuru, I cannot contain my joy upon receiving such a wonderful name. And all this force! Please allow me to continue granting you my absolute loyalty!”
Testarossa spoke for everyone there when she addressed me. I nodded my approval. Sure, have a blast, guys.
Thinking about it, this was all Diablo’s fault, wasn’t it? All I did was keep my promise. I’m sure he’ll educate them for me and stuff. As irresponsible as it was, that’s what I wanted to think.
As Rimuru was attempting to escape reality…
“Black— Er, Diablo, I think I understand why you are so enamored of Sir Rimuru.”
“Yes! Amazing, isn’t he?”
“He saw us for what we really were, and he concluded that we were not a threat worth considering. Even that old demon lord Deeno turned white as a sheet when he saw us…”
Testarossa and the other two demon leaders were talking among themselves. Rimuru had no way of knowing, but this group had zero intention at all of swearing loyalty to him when they had first showed up. Their old friend Diablo had only convinced them to lend him their powers for a little while.
………
……
…
They had lived a long time, becoming the strongest their world had to offer—as were the demons who served them. Two of them were even defined as Prehistoric by humankind—and over all those years, neither of those demons had tasted defeat even once.
This was Moss and Veyron. Moss—an archduke in the demon realms, second in power only to the Origin, a spotless battle record for tens of thousands of years. Veyron—an old, crafty marquis-class noble whose life spanned over four thousand years. He had been defeated by Moss several times before, reincarnating himself each time.
The other servants were no pushovers, either. Agera, a viscount and a Pre-Modern demon. Esprit, also a viscount, who boasted a streak of victories dating back over the past five hundred years. Zonda, a baron who’d been undefeated for three hundred years. Cien, another baron with a similarly long record.
Agera was a special case, a demon who’d been undefeated for three centuries after bowing to the force of Carrera. He preferred fighting with a sword over magic, a rarity among demons. Meanwhile, Esprit, Zonda, and Cien had (like Veyron) repeatedly resurrected themselves. They all got their starts long ago, very close to the Origin’s own family tree. Venom was another special case, a demon born with a unique skill; he hadn’t lived very long, but his growth and maturation were noteworthy.
Diablo had rounded up this band of standout demons for his plan—and Rimuru, oblivious to all this, just casually gave them names after a moment’s thought, an incredibly reckless move. As a result, every demon reborn here had obtained power beyond the natural ways of the world. They were now an unimaginable force, a great assemblage of demons feared by all. Despite numbering less than a thousand, they were an army all by themselves.
They would later come to be known as the Black Corps, Tempest’s most powerful military and a horrifying symbol of fear. And the Black Corps was born the moment they were unleashed from their capsules.
………
……
…
There was a slight blush to Testarossa’s lily-white cheeks as she spoke in a low voice.
“Yes, it’s so fascinating. It’s far more exciting to look at him instead of going through this cycle of destroying nations or jostling for territory with both of you.”
Ultima nodded. “Yeah, something tells me it’ll be a lot more entertaining working in this country instead of the old grind of torturing out-of-line demons.”
“You’re right,” said Carrera. “Like you said, Sir Rimuru is an amazing figure. He just brushed away the Coercion I threw at him, like I was a naughty kitten! Accepting him as my lord was a truly tempting proposal—and now that I’ve accepted his name, he’s got every bit of my loyalty.”
“I almost killed you when you tried that, you know.”
Diablo was looking serious but let it slide without major comment, perhaps realizing Carrera wasn’t lying.
“Oh, right,” interjected Testarossa. “Diablo, I need to thank you. When you spoke to me, I really did think about killing you.”
“I’m aware. You always were that type of woman. But why did you accept my request at all? I thought you would keep challenging me until I convinced you…”
The Original White that Diablo knew had an intense personality. She never accepted what anyone said at face value. Battles between demons tended to focus on the knowledge and technical levels of the fighters involved, and even as a Demon Peer, Diablo wasn’t completely sure he could defeat the Original White in battle. That’s why he found her behavior so fascinating.
“Well, we are strong, as you know. Did you think there was anyone in this world stronger than us demons?”
“No,” Diablo replied with a smile. It made Testarossa smile even wider.
“Right? Of course not. And that’s why, Diablo. I’ve taken an interest in this master you cherish so much, someone capable of charming one of my cohorts in strength and power. If he proved a trifle, I would have considered killing him.”
“As would I.”
“Heh. I’m not exactly itching to any longer, but I was planning to pick a fight with him first thing.”
Diablo rolled his eyes, a touch irritated. “I appreciate you not causing an embarrassing scene in front of Sir Rimuru for me, but if you were actually intent on trying that…”
“Don’t worry, Diablo. You take pride in your name, and just like you, I am tremendously proud of the name Testarossa that Sir Rimuru gave me. By that name, I swear my loyalty to him, and I am sure Ultima and Carrera feel the same way.”
“Yeah!”
“Yes, as I said before.”
The three girls nodded in unison. Diablo shook his head, giving them a “What will I do with you?” look.
“Of course, I doubt the other rank and filers besides you three will be of much use to Sir Rimuru…but so be it. I don’t want you to cause me any more trouble, so I will expect you to follow Sir Rimuru’s and my orders.”
“So be it, indeed! I must repay you for introducing me to Sir Rimuru.”
“Oh, uh, I’m in agreement, too!”
“If I can help out Sir Rimuru and dispense of you as well, all the better. Until then, I will allow you to command me.”
Diablo still felt irritated, but if Testarossa and the others promised to heed his orders, he felt no further need to remain. There existed in the world only a small number of people Diablo was willing to put up with, and the girls’ being a part of this list demonstrated just how unique they were.
And so unbeknownst to Rimuru, the chain of command was set in stone.
…This is the sort of conversation Diablo reportedly had, or didn’t have, or whatever, as he gave me his report. I was trying to enjoy a little peace for a change, but ah well.
“…And that is how we worked matters out. They are now under my command, but there’s still no telling what kind of nonsense they might pull. I’m sure you have little to worry about from them, Sir Rimuru, but regardless, stay on your guard!”
“Um, all right…”
What was he going on about? He’s the one who brought them over here! But it was too late to rant and rave about it. I just wanted one day of peace and harmony in my life, and now it looks like I had more problems. And here I thought we had more allies now…
Of course, I didn’t have the slightest idea how true any of this was, and if they’re under Diablo’s command, they’re all his responsibility anyway. What? What about the guy who appointed him? Gee, I dunno, who was that?
So I decided to just toss the problem completely aside.

Slime 11.5

Now for our research results.
I know I promised Diablo and everything, but preparing a thousand physical bodies took a ton of effort. One idea was to craft a magisteel doll like Beretta and then make copies of it with Raphael, but this sounded like a slog to me—at the same time, however, painstakingly crafting each one was out of the question. So I came up with another brilliant idea: a facility that could manufacture mass quantities of these bodies.
For this, I prepared a set of reinforced clear-glass capsules, around three and a half feet wide and almost ten feet tall. I called these incubation capsules, and as the name suggested, they were meant for growing monsters and other organic matter inside. Each one was filled with a liquid solution—water from the Sealed Cave’s underground lake, internalized inside my Stomach. This was magic water, infused with a high concentration of magicules, making it useful for diluting or strengthening all kinds of medicinal effects.
Each incubation capsule included a port for magicule injection, letting people add more at any time. We could freely adjust the concentration of the magic water to best suit the monster we were trying to generate inside. If that concentration dipped down too low, our system would automatically inject magicules, keeping the count at a predefined level.
I had a thousand of these capsules ready. Part of me felt that crafting all these was about as much work as just making the damn bodies myself, but I banished the thought. It’s all about the spectacle. It was a blast designing them anyway, so I had no regrets.
So we now had a chamber lined with incubation capsules. It was quite a sight. We also knew from our research that generating monsters required that certain conditions were met. Just filling a capsule with magicules wouldn’t cut it, no matter how much you had. But if some other element was included—an element that would enhance and manifest itself in the monster who resulted—the story was different.
Let me explain. Assume I put a snake in an incubation capsule. The magicules inside would kill it, but its body would melt, mix with the magicules, and become reborn as a tempest serpent. From a common snake, you now had a creature of A-minus rank, which should show just how dangerous one of these capsules was. The monsters these capsules produced were thus guaranteed to be several levels more advanced than what Mother Nature would create. You’d have these powerful, refined bodies, perhaps because we kept the magicule concentrate at just the right level.
However, some monsters born this way would quickly collapse and die. Body stability, as it were, seemed a matter of luck. We had room for improvement, to be sure, but I still wanted to use these capsules’ features to produce a thousand demon bodies.
“So how have things been going?”
“Perfectly, Rimuru! And you know, my research has been moving along, too!”
“Oh? I look forward to seeing it— Wait, what’s that?”
What I saw floating in the capsule made me laugh. It was amazing, wholly unlike what I expected. Personally, I thought we’d just make skeletons out of magisteel and toss them in the capsules, producing the base for a bone golem. Its artificial frame would minimize the risk of collapse, and it wouldn’t be infused with a soul, either. The magicules in the liquid would just crystallize on the bones, so I thought there was zero chance it’d achieve sentience. There was no need for intricate design work, unlike with Beretta, because the demons occupying them would use their own magicules to customize them to their liking.
…Or so I thought.
Floating inside the thousand capsules here were a thousand bone golem bodies, that much was certain. But each one of them had assorted work done on varying sections. The area around their hearts stood out the most—in the middle, where their hearts would be, a spirit core beat a rhythm instead.
“This…”
“Yeah, it’s my idea! With a strong core like that, I’m sure the monsters usin’ them will be stronger than ever!”
Ramiris, smiling, seemed to see this as no big deal. Preparing a thousand spirit cores had to be a pain in the ass, though. I didn’t need much time for that, but unless you had a real interest and passion for it, it was too rote a process to enjoy very much. That’s why I chose the simplest method for making all these bodies, but that wasn’t good enough for Ramiris. She put in the hours required to produce a thousand of those, and each one had a pseudo-soul inside it as well. It even featured tech we cribbed from the Thalion homunculi.
Beretta had no problem possessing his body, but Treyni’s sisters might have a harder time of it, so adding pseudo-souls was probably a good idea. But that, too, must’ve taken up so much time… No wonder she constantly complained about needing more staff.
“Lady Ramiris’s idea was wonderfully compelling to me,” Vester said, gazing into the distance. “One look, and I really just had to help out.” I could see his point. With this large of a sample run, you could record all the data you ever wanted.
Each fist-size spirit core looked high quality to me when I sized them up. Fusing them with the skeletons I crafted resulted in changes not imagined in my original plan. My frameworks were magically inscribed so the magicules would form muscle groups over them, too, which made it look like we had an up-close perspective on monster development like never before. Now I understood why Vester barely felt the need to sleep.
“What d’you think? Pretty neat, huh?”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Just seeing that face from you makes this project a fine success!”
Ramiris and Veldora seemed happy with themselves.
“It’s pretty interesting, yeah…but was this really your idea, Ramiris?”
“What? Of course it was. What d’you think of that?!”
She was almost shouting as she puffed her chest out at me. Yeah, she deserved to be proud. I was sure impressed. Ramiris might seem like an idiot at first glance, but she was actually pretty smart. Her sense for spirit engineering was perfect, and she was studying sorcerous science and paying frequent visits to Floor 95. As long as she’s lived, she’s had a full grasp of the laws of physics, and although it astounded me to say it, she had all the qualifications you needed for a researcher. You can’t judge her by the externals, I suppose.
“This is really amazing. If this was all handmade, it must’ve been super-difficult, right?”
“Well, kind of. These frameworks are modeled after people’s skeletons—not like with Beretta’s ball joints. But with an artificial heart, they really soak in the magicules and gain a lot of magic energy, I think!”
I nodded at her impassioned theory. She was right—this probably would enhance their bodily strength beyond what I pictured. By a lot, actually.
Watching these bodies in their incubation capsules, I tried picturing what powers they’d have. If I had to guess, in terms of magicule energy, they’d be positioned on the upper end of the A rank. And we had a thousand of them. I still couldn’t believe Ramiris prepared enough spirit cores and pseudo-souls for them all. She really deserved a round of applause.
Several days passed since Deeno’s arrival. Diablo wasn’t back yet, but I had a feeling he would be soon. Today, as well, I headed to the lab to get those bodies wrapped up for him.
Things were busy as always over there, Ramiris and Veldora verbally jousting over something.
“I told you, Master, if you want to encourage growth, we need to inject your magicules directly into them!”
“Yeah, but what if that winds up breaking this thing? Then Rimuru will yell at me, not you.”
They were at it again. It sounded interesting, so I hid myself and watched. I was getting good at concealing my presence lately, so it didn’t look like Veldora noticed my arrival.
“It’s fine! You know how many we have! And I promise I’ll put in a good word when you ask him for your favor. So please?”
Sounded like Ramiris was asking him for some magicule support. But what did Veldora want from me? I couldn’t guess.
“Well, all right. You better live up to your word, though.”
“Yep, yep! Just trust me!”
They had a deal, so Veldora nodded. Considering how haughty he usually acted, he seemed to be enjoying what was to come quite a bit. It looked like Ramiris put him up to it, by and large, but he was receptive from the beginning.
So Veldora brought a hand up to an incubation capsule, and—with an apparently meaningful “Hah!”—infused it with magicules. The capsule was now swirling with an unusually high concentration of them, and considering the pressure, I could see how the capsule might break apart. Was this going to be okay? I was worried but decided to keep watching silently. If it shattered, we could deal with it—I was more curious about what Ramiris was attempting.
Inside the capsule, the crystallized magicules attached to the magisteel skeleton began transforming into what looked like muscle tissue. Raphael had predicted this much; it was part of the plan. But now, with Veldora directly injecting his own magic force, something unexpected was about to happen. Vast numbers of magicules began to pervade the skeleton, transforming the framework itself.
I could hear Ramiris say “Oh? I didn’t expect that.” Which, well, that’s what experiments are for.
The skeleton material could really no longer be called magisteel. Nor was it orichalc or mithril—not without any gold or silver mixed in. But while its strength wasn’t crimson steel yet, it had risen to at least the level of orichalc.
More impressive, however, was how the skeleton seemed to live—literally breathe, even—despite being metal.
Understood. It is a type of adamant or bio-magisteel. It has been transformed by the magical waves of the subject Veldora. Theoretically, one could call it dragontite.
I see.
To me, it looked like Ramiris was groping for a way to finish the bodies faster, and in the process, she’d stumbled upon the discovery of a neat new metal. And it wasn’t over yet.
“Wh-whoa! Master?! Stop! Stoppppp!!”
“Mm? Oooh. There are cracks in the capsule…?!”
Both of them panicked. I couldn’t tell if they were geniuses or dunces right now.
“What are you people doing?”
I decided to finally step in and regain control of the situation.
After repairing the capsule, I called for a coffee and snack break, inviting Vester and Deeno to join. Treyni the dryad was kind enough to serve us.
“Tch. Just when we were at a good part…”
“Oh, you didn’t want any cake? I’ll just let Ramiris have it, then…”
“I’m sorry. I was lying. Well, no, it was true, but um, just a slip of the tongue…”
Deeno was having a snit over his work being interrupted, but he bowed his head and got back in line once I threatened to leave him high and cakeless. Are you sure that’s how you want to act, Deeno? Some Sleeping Ruler you are— But he seemed devoted to his work, at least, which was a relief.
Vester and Deeno were working on experiments together, recording data from the thousand incubation capsules and checking out Kurobe’s completed slot-compatible swords in their spare time. This was mainly thanks to my bragging. Vester was eager to join in on this, hoping it’d help with the impasse in his Elemental Colossus modification work. Deeno was using the sample cores I gave him, and Vester was diligently recording the results.
As I surmised from his attitude when he came in, Deeno really liked this work. It was work, but just a thin line away from play, really. He may’ve whined about how much he hated a decent living, but in this environment, he was doing real work whether he realized it or not. If you find your work fun, you never work a day in your life, I suppose.
After spending a few minutes relaxing, I turned to Ramiris and cut to the chase.
“So, Ramiris, why were you in such a hurry to create a complete body?”
“Oh, ummm…”
She seemed hesitant.
Treyni stepped up to defend her. “Wait a minute, Sir Rimuru. Lady Ramiris is devoting her all to helping my sisters and our friends!”
I didn’t intend to criticize her, but Treyni must’ve thought I was angry, because she was already arguing in Ramiris’s defense. That’s how it always worked. Treyni was just way too lenient with her.
“No, I just want to know the reason. I’m not mad at all. Well, Ramiris?”
I tried to put Treyni’s mind at ease before continuing.
“Hmm…looking back, I was probably moving too fast. You know, I have a lot of adoring fans, so I wanted them to have their own bodies ASAP. That’d make them a lot happier and stuff, and I’d have more personnel, and then everybody’s good, right?”
Awkward as she seemed, Ramiris did have a point. Even without bodies, the dryads could work and operate within the labyrinth. Treants, on the other hand, couldn’t. They could manifest themselves nearby the trees that were their “main” bodies, but they couldn’t venture anywhere that tree wasn’t in view. Without a body, they’d be discharging magicules like mad, a major drag on them. Even dryads faced a drastic cut in power once they were too far from their “real” bodies—and they were on the upper echelon of A rank, a level above high-end magic-born. The lower-level treants couldn’t expect much at all by comparison.
As Ramiris reasoned, the bodies in these incubation capsules would give physical freedom to both the dryads and the treants. Thus, she was surreptitiously completing, and borrowing, a few bodies for herself.
“Well, if that’s all you wanted, why didn’t you ask? Diablo’s not back yet, and I don’t even know exactly how many demons he’s bringing with him. We can always make more if we need to later, so let’s get bodies ready for the dryads first.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am.”
“Thank you, Rimuru!!”
She flitted happily in the air, doing a few laps around me. But this suited my purposes as well. We really didn’t have enough people. Treyni’s sisters and the other dryads were working hard maintaining the labyrinth, which was tough work in itself, so clearly we didn’t have much of a safety net. At this rate, we were all bound to burn out and screw something up. The labyrinth was open day and night, after all, and we needed to set up a proper shift system to deal with that soon.
With these bodies, even the treants could be A-ranked creatures, able to hold their own in the labyrinth. If they managed to wreck their physical bodies somehow, they’d be safe—they were just possessing them, is all. This would likely only apply within Ramiris’s labyrinth, which was as far as their thoughts could travel, but that was good enough.
The dryads, meanwhile…
“So yeah, I figure we could make Traya, Doreth, and Alpha and the others into Dryas Doll Dryads like you, Treyni—”
“…?!”
“Hmm?”
“Are you sure about that?”
Even before I could finish, Treyni latched on to my proposal with astonishing speed.
“You’re sure, Rimuru?”
Ramiris was similarly uneasy, leaving Deeno and the rest in the dark.
“Am I sure about what?”
“Evolving creatures to Dryas Doll Dryads takes a ton of work, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, kind of. But I owe them for all their efforts, and I’d like to have them keep helping with the labyrinth, so…”
“Yes, but we’ve been granted a place to live already… Lady Ramiris has agreed to work with you, Sir Rimuru, and as her servants, we are only carrying out our promise.”
Treyni sounded apologetic, but her help around the labyrinth was a massive boon. To pay for that, I wanted anyone evolved to dryad to have the chance at an independent body. It’d involve handcrafting a body for each one, but in a way, making handsome-looking male and female figures was a hobby of mine—and besides, just reusing the bodies I was making for Diablo seemed trite. Dryad bodies really demanded you make them with wood, I thought.
“No, no, you really do help us a lot. I’d like you to keep up the good work, so please don’t be afraid to accept them. I’ll let each one of them decide whether they’ll use one of the bodies here or evolve into a Dryas Doll Dryad with the bodies I carve for them.”
Treyni eagerly nodded. Ramiris, next to her, was grumbling along the lines of “Why is he kinder to Treyni than me? I don’t like that…,” but I ignored it.
After the break, Vester and the others went back to work.
“This might be beyond my knowledge…but it’s fascinating. I have a job, and it’s time to carry it out. Let’s go, Vester.”
“All right, Sir Deeno.”
Deeno, emphasizing the fact to nobody in particular that he was working, took Vester out of the room. I’m not sure he had ever worked before in his life. He was clearly a worthless grifter, but he was making an effort for me, so whatever.
I guess I’ll go back to my own work—
“Wait. Rimuru, I have a favor to ask. Ramiris, time to fulfill your end of the bargain!”
Great. This was bound to be some insipid, time-consuming favor, so I was trying to flee before he could say it. Veldora was waiting for just after the break to bring it up, wasn’t he?
“Now, to tell you the truth—”
“The master says he wants an assistant! And I’d love to have more people around, so um, if I could be assigned one, too…”
Just as insipid and time-consuming as I thought! Here we go again… We’re already aching for people, so I wasn’t about to give Veldora another playmate.
“No, look, everyone’s busy here, so there’s no time to give you someone to mess around with—”
“Wait, wait! Rimuru, you have the wrong idea. Currently, I am assisting Ramiris, guarding the labyrinth, and performing a number of other important tasks. I don’t see the harm in someone available to help me relax, to soothe me and sing my praises!”
Ramiris was nodding at this heartfelt defense. But considering the conversation I overheard earlier, I think I’d have to disappoint him.
“Well, sad to say—”
“Wait, wait, wait!!”
I was interrupted again. Veldora was hell-bent on getting my approval today, wasn’t he? Guess he wasn’t backing down.
“To be honest with you, ever since I was in your Stomach, I have had someone I feel confident in calling a companion with me. I dearly hope you will deign to grant a body to him as well.”
This came out of nowhere. I had no idea who he meant. What kind of acquaintance was this?
Understood. It is believed to be the high-level magic-born Ifrit.
Huh? Why is Veldora friends with Ifrit?
Report. Due to an intervention from the subject Veldora at the time, Ifrit was subjected to the same Predation into isolation.
According to Raphael, when I took Ifrit from Shizu and consumed it, it was taken to the same space in my Stomach that had been isolating Veldora. Since this presented no obstacle to taking Ifrit’s data, Raphael—the Great Sage at the time—let this pass without comment. It wouldn’t have bothered me, either; in fact, I never even noticed until now. Thus, I guess Veldora and Ifrit had been fostering a friendship while I wasn’t paying attention.
“Oh, so you want to revive Ifrit?”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! How nice of you to understand so quickly, Rimuru!”
Veldora seemed happy about the idea, but me, I had my misgivings. Ifrit did not get along with Shizu, to be sure, and besides, he worked for the demon lord Leon. If I resurrected him, would he even try to cozy up to us? The thought prevented me from just deadpanning “Sure” to that.
“Hmm…”
“Y-you don’t want to?!”
“Please, Rimuru, let me ask you as well! I want you to make my master’s dream come true!”
Veldora was acting all sad, and now Ramiris was joining the fray. Give me a break. I brought a hand to my head—this was turning into a pain in the ass.
Honestly, we really did need extra hands. But to me, releasing Ifrit just made me anxious. At the end of the day, he was still much more powerful than your typical high-level magic-born. Maybe we could beat him in battle, but if he went on a riot, we’d have a lot of trouble to deal with—and he might always flee back to Leon, too. I didn’t want to wake up a sleeping dog here, and I didn’t think I could be blamed for that.
“But didn’t Ifrit swear his loyalty to the demon lord Leon? Do you even know whether he’ll serve you if I revive him?”
“Mm? Hmm… I see, I see. No, that is no concern at all. My passion’s rubbed off on him, so he’s eager and willing to help.”
Um, really? It looked like Veldora was discussing matters with an unseen partner for a moment. That had to be Ifrit, right? So I guess they had some unknown method of speaking to each other.
“Were you talking to him just now?”
“Yes, well, there is nothing I cannot accomplish.”
“The master’s really somethin’, I’ll have you know! Why, he even had Ifrit summon a huge number of flame salamanders for our magic trains! So I really think having him join us would help out a lot, going forward!”
Oh. He did?
Summoning spirits, of course, was easy with Ramiris’s help in the labyrinth. But once we started running magic trains worldwide, we’d likely want a go-to person handling all our salamander needs. Ugghh… In terms of what we stood to gain, I really had no counterargument. And if Veldora was really willing to look after Ifrit and keep him on good behavior… Well, maybe it’d be right to trust in him.
“All right, all right. If you say so, I’ll grant you permission, but you need to take responsibility for this to the end, all right?”
“You got it!”
“Oh, that’s so great, Master!”
I felt like my children were begging me to buy them a puppy.
“In that case…”
“Yes, yes. Rimuru, you still have the empty husk of Charybdis after removing the core from it, right? That is the afterimage of my own magic force, so it will be easy for me to work with. And Ifrit has been exposed to my aura for an extended period of time, so perhaps we could use that as his core?”
As Veldora saw it, this would be better for him than employing a pseudo-soul.
Understood. The subject Veldora’s opinion seems valid.
And if Raphael was agreeing, I had no room to turn him down.
“Okay. So we’ll give this to Ifrit for his body, then?”
I stood in front of the incubation capsule I repaired just before our break. The magisteel skeleton inside had transformed into the unique metal dragontite and was further exposed to Veldora’s excess magicules; your average monster didn’t have a chance of withstanding it. I felt that as a higher-level spirit, Ifrit was up to the challenge.
“Ah, very good. I’m sure he’ll be delighted.”
With Veldora’s agreement, I started the procedure.
Report. Ifrit’s afterimage detected. Transferring to the core of Charybdis… Successful. Creating soul vessel… Now fusing with dragontite body.
The whole process wrapped up in an instant. That’s Raphael for you. We had it down to a literal science.
And with that, right before our eyes, the body infused with Ifrit’s core began to undergo rapid change. The skeleton, now dark silver, seemed to be growing muscles as we watched, blood suddenly flowing through them. The skin protecting them was dark brown, the same as Veldora’s. The eyes were gold, the dragon-like pupils shining a deep crimson red.
…Also, this really looked like a woman. A pretty one, too.
“Ahhh, Ifrit! How’s it feel to come back with a new body?”
So this beautiful girl was Ifrit? Ignoring the question of whether spirits have genders for now, I seemed to recall fighting a muscle-bound, masculine figure. What happened?
“We meet for the first time in the physical realm, Sir Veldora. And Sir Rimuru… I cannot thank you enough for restoring me.”
Ignoring my confusion, Ifrit faced me and fell to one knee. I feared his loyalty to Leon would lead to instant aggression, but that didn’t seem to be a concern any longer.
“S-sure. Glad you’re doing well. I wanted to ask you something…”
“Anything.”
I wanted to ask him a lot, actually. But the first thing:
“The last time I saw you, you were, like…more physically geared for combat? Or you looked like you could, um, move around a bit easier…”
Not to dance around the subject too much, but you didn’t have such big breasts, did you? But I was too timid to say it. I mean, how could I? Ifrit was now dressed in some kind of exotic South Asian–style outfit that left almost nothing to the imagination. Ifrit’s shoulders, navel, and inner thighs were completely visible, and the allure was just blowing my mind.
“Oh, this form…?” Ifrit sighed for some reason. “I think this is Veldora’s faul—er, Veldora’s preferences taking form.”
He was about to call it Veldora’s fault, wasn’t he? He seemed kind of exasperated about it. The vibe I got indicated he had been through a lot. Maybe his time in my Stomach wasn’t all smooth sailing after all. If you think about it, he was alone in there with Veldora the whole time, with no place to run. There must have been some harrowing experiences.
“Mmm. Yes, thanks to me, you have taken on a physical body. I hope you will not forget to appreciate this!”
“…I will not,” Ifrit replied, resigned to his fate.
“What does he mean by your ‘preferences,’ Veldora?”
“Hmm?”
“Ah well, I am a higher-level flame spirit, but I’m now able to exercise my powers over wind as well. My hair would normally be a deep-red color, but it’s taken on a much darker hue. From what I can tell, the impact of Sir Veldora’s force has had a profound effect upon me. I believe the fact that Charybdis was a female type may have caused this change to me.”
Report. This is correct.
Whoa, so even his sex changed? I guess it wasn’t deliberate, though, so I didn’t want to comment on it too much.
“Oh… I see. Well, if you’re not a fan of that…”
“I have no complaints at all,” Ifrit said with a smile. “No matter how it looks, this form is far more powerful than I used to be.”
Glad to see he was so adaptable. I suppose getting browbeaten by Veldora all this time must’ve made him used to things. I kind of liked that—and besides, unlike when I brought Shizu within me, I detected no hostility from him at all.
“You don’t, uh, resent me or anything, do you?”
“No, I don’t. Inside you, I learned about a great deal of things from Sir Veldora. Looking back, I feel that I, and Shizue Izawa as well, perhaps felt our duties and responsibilities too much. We rejected each other and were unable to interact at all. Now I can’t help but think we could’ve found another way to overcome this.”
Sounded like Ifrit wasn’t dragging any baggage from the past along. In fact, he seemed to even regret not working things out with Shizu. The mood was thus unexpectedly somber as we decided to all sit down and work out our future.
Ifrit told me about assorted things as well. Life, as I surmised, had been tough on him. I began sensing an affinity among us. Now I was sure there was no better person to leave in Veldora’s control.
As he put it, while he still had feelings for the demon lord Leon, he couldn’t call those feelings loyalty at all. “Right now,” he said, “I see myself as already defeated and killed once by you, Sir Rimuru. I was lucky enough to have Sir Veldora rescue me and keep my consciousness from fading away, but I feel I am a completely different being from before. I do still believe that Sir Leon is a great demon lord, but right now, I only wish to serve Sir Veldora.”
That seemed believable to me, and Veldora never doubted Ifrit from the start. I saw no need to fret over it.
“All right. Well, consider yourself officially Veldora’s assistant now!”
“Very well. I will stake my life and body on serving him.”
He definitely sounded serious. It’s not that I had put the affair with Shizu totally behind me, but that was true for both sides. We needed to work past that, and in the meantime, I decided to accept Ifrit.
“Now, Rimuru, I have one thing to discuss.”
There’s more?! I really didn’t want to get involved in anything else, but if I didn’t hear him out, I’m sure he’d harangue me about it.
“What is it now, Veldora?”
“Well, I was hoping I could give a name to Ifrit. Ifrit, you see, is not his individual name, but that of his spirit type. All upper-level spirits summoned by the Spirit Summon: Ifrit spell are referred to as Ifrit.”
Hmm. That was actually a decent suggestion. A name, huh? He might need one of those, yeah. But the naming process in situations like this could be fraught with danger. I had personally screwed it up multiple times, so I knew.
“But if you name Ifrit right now, wouldn’t that be kind of dangerous? I know you have a huge magicule store to tap, but get the levels wrong, and you could be in deep trouble.”
Too many magicules would be poison to Ifrit and even potentially damage the namer. I managed to survive all my namings more out of luck than anything.
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! But you can accurately calculate the exact amount required, can you not? If I am pumping in too much energy, I want you to shut off the soul corridor linking us.”
Hmm. That sounded safe enough.
Report. This can be provided for.
Raphael was eager to help, likely because I was in no direct harm.
“All right. I’ll help.”
“Good! I knew you would say yes!”
So we were now naming Ifrit.
“Ifrit, from this day forward, you shall be known as Charys!!”
With a solemn voice, Veldora gave Ifrit his command. Charys was now the name of Ifrit—a name that was more a contraction of Charybdis than anything resembling Ifrit. I thought something like Iris would be more suitable, but better to keep my mouth shut with things like this.
Now, via the soul corridor between them, I could see Veldora being drained of his magicules. Ifrit, right now, was a Special A in rank, with enough magicules to be deemed a Calamity-level threat. He’d lose out to Shion or Benimaru but was about equal with Soei or Geld. So if he was given a name…
“Yes, my lord. Then by my name as Charys, I solemnly swear to serve my master, the great Sir Veldora!!”
The name was accepted—and at that instant, Raphael shut off the soul corridor and sealed up Veldora’s powers. Mission accomplished. Veldora had successfully named Ifrit.
And now Ifrit was evolving.
He had far, far more magical force within him. Now he was demon-lord caliber—a far cry from Treyni and even above people like Carillon or Frey.
Report. The upper-level spirit Ifrit has evolved to Flame Lord.
A Flame Lord? Apparently, this was what happened when spiritual life-forms attain physical bodies and assume something closer to demonic form.
“Kwaaaah-ha-ha-ha! How impressive! I’m glad I relied upon you now, Rimuru!”
Veldora couldn’t be happier. But one look at Ifrit made me squint. He had undergone major changes—or really, he was back to how I remembered. The hair was still the same extremely dark red as before, but now he was male in structure again, exactly as the time we fought each other. There were some small differences in the details, but now I think I was seeing Ifrit more as how he pictured himself.
“Pfft! After I gave you such a fun— Er, after I gave you such wondrous beauty! I was hardly expecting this.”
Veldora was already whining about it. I guess he was playing a trick on him the whole time. Ifrit—or I guess I should start calling him Charys—bowed deeply at him.
“Is that the case? I expected as much…but I am glad my own desires won out, in the end. However, I can always return to female form, so if you insist upon it…”
“No, no, I was just poking fun at you regardless. I have no complaint about whatever form you take!”
Veldora’s jokes weren’t very funny. Things were back to normal now, but there was a decent chance Charys would’ve been stuck that way all his life. I better watch how I act around Veldora, too.
“So how’s your body feel?”
“It feels excellent, my— Wait, what’s this?!”
As he answered my question, he began to notice some kind of change. Carefully, he gauged the powers within himself.
“This much power…?”
He seemed shocked.
“Heh-heh-heh… Well, I should hope so,” Veldora said with a satisfied smile. He had been expecting this, it seemed. “It seems you’ve evolved into a Flame Lord.”
“A—a Flame Lord?! I can hardly believe this power…”
Yeah, if I was just resurrected, and all of a sudden I had demon lord–level power, I’d probably react the same way. But even with all that power, you’re still mainly just a caretaker for Veldora, all right? In fact, with all that strength on tap, Veldora might wind up trying to take even more advantage of you. I was starting to sympathize with Charys a bit—we had gotten chummy pretty fast, after all.
Regardless, we had a new member of the office. Before long, Charys was just another part of the picture, worked to the bone by Veldora and Ramiris—just as I feared, but nobody seemed to mind. Thanks to him, our work was humming along even faster than before.
“Hey, uh, since when did we have someone like this working for us?”
“He joined while you were all occupied with putting cores together.”
“But it’s not like you just hired someone on. This is a spirit lord! He’s got, like, demon-lord powers!”
“No, he’s a Flame Lord, to be exact.”
“It doesn’t matter! That’s not what I’m trying to say!”
Deeno seemed pretty agitated, but everyone else got used to things quickly.
“Well, you know, these things happen, I suppose.”
“They…do, Vester?”
“Deeno, if we’re going to work with Rimuru and the master here, you can’t afford to let things like these throw you.”
“I know, but…”
He looked less than convinced but, with the help of everyone else, grudgingly accepted it. Yes, it’s best to just adapt. Knowing when to give up is key.
So now I was cutting down more trees and creating more dolls. Before long, I had a number of dryads evolved into Dryas Doll Dryads, capable of tapping their full powers no matter how far they were from their trees. Not one of them refused the offer, so now there were nearly ten of them. They didn’t have battle experience and thus weren’t as strong as Treyni, but they had a whole labyrinth to learn the ropes in. Looking ahead, I’m sure they’d be great assistants for Ramiris.
I was also just about done with the bodies—or really, the avatars—I’d be lending to the treants. They’d simply be possessing these bodies, not taking them over entirely, so they didn’t need to be top-of-the-line. I made sure they were fully compatible with the hundred-odd treants who would now be able to explore and work in the labyrinth. That was a lot of new personnel, and now I regretted not doing this sooner.
Many of the dryad bodies were female in shape, while most of the treant bodies were male. They themselves were genderless, and they told me I didn’t need to worry much about this, so I made their bodies with efficiency as the watchword. If they wanted to adjust any details, they could do it themselves once they took possession.
Regardless, I was told they were ready to hop in whenever the bodies were good to go, and before long, my work was complete.
With the new help, we finally had a little free time to work with.
“Thank you very much, Sir Rimuru!”
I jiggled my slime body in response to Treyni’s words of gratitude. This was really no big deal for me. I wanted to repay them for their hard work, and besides, I got a lot out of the bargain.
“Okay, everyone, keep it up! Ramiris, if anything happens, let me know.”
“Roger! I’ll fly right over!”
She’d report back at once if something flared up, I was sure. But we still had work left to do. I was meeting with Rigurd and Mjöllmile daily, and I had a mountain of projects and proposals to approve. My feedback was required for our criminal justice system as well, and I needed to mediate over and resolve any conflicts of opinion in my cabinet. In an ideal world, I’d help all day with this research, but life was getting in the way. What I really wanted was a staff to help me with bureaucratic work—that was my main priority. I had time for my hobbies because I didn’t need to sleep, but even I enjoyed a nap now and again.
I had thought of myself as someone who talked a big show and let everyone else do the actual work, but now I really wasworking hard. I couldn’t help thinking about that as I returned to my office.
“Sir Diablo has returned, along with several unfamiliar individuals. They wanted to see you—what would you like me to do with them, Sir Rimuru?”
That message had been waiting for me for quite a while.
If it were Diablo alone, of course I’d welcome him right in. But he had brought strangers along. It was an annoyance, but with all the people I had around me, we needed to go through this procedure. I decided to get this rolling before Benimaru demanded he sit in on matters.
“We’ll meet in the reception room. Bring them right over!”
The attendant briskly bowed at me and left. She seemed to move kind of awkwardly—I guess she was nervous around me. Exasperated, I asked another attendant in the next room over to prepare some tea.
Shuna was busy elsewhere with her own work in the daytime, although she always allotted time in the evening to prepare dinner and the like. Shion, for her part, was training Team Reborn in the labyrinth. They were apparently testing out just how immortal they were, pushing the far edges of their endurance. I heard they were going down to some pretty deep levels, so I resolved not to call for her unless needed.
In their place right now were two attendants assigned exclusively to me, a pair of evolved goblinas who pretty much looked human, in my opinion. Some Shuna-developed cosmetics had gained popularity as of late, and I felt like all the women around me had been looking prettier. They were first-class attendants, and I’m sure they’d be at ease around the kings and princes of other nations, although I must’ve been a tad intimidating. I couldn’t ask for better.
So I headed to the next reception chamber over—one of the rooms designed for rustic sturdiness. I figured nothing would go wrong, but no need to go in unprepared. I had zero idea what kind of weirdos Diablo would pick for his crew.
The moment I stepped in, the attendant brought our tea. Very organized, I thought. Then I sensed someone outside.
“Sir Rimuru! I have returned!”
With a gregarious smile, Diablo entered the room. Not that I’m one to talk, but a smiling Diablo is about the most evil sight I can think of—and if I thought so, I’m sure he was just as sinister a symbol to everyone else. There was just this wicked atmosphere around him, like he was always planning some nefarious deed.
“Today, as promised, I have brought along some people I’d like you to extend an audience to. If you could meet them for me, nothing could make me happier.”
He greeted me respectfully as ever. It was needlessly polite, really, but I had gotten used to it. He saw me as his sole superior, approaching me almost like a god, after all.
Behind Diablo were three women. He had talked about people to work under him; were these the ones? They looked young, but I suppose age didn’t matter to demons. I had no idea how old Diablo was, but he said he’d be tapping old friends, so they must be decently well aged.
At his behest, the three girls filed in, bowed to me, and sat down on the sofa.
“So these are all your acquaintances?”
They didn’t look that powerful to me…
Negative. These are Arch Demons, among the most powerful of demonkind. They are fully suppressing their magicules in order to pose as human.
Raphael quickly stepped up to correct my mistake. I thought I had an eye for this by now, but I still had room for improvement. I tried ratcheting up my Magic Sense a little, but they still seemed like normal people to me.
…Wait. Arch Demons?!
Even among those who could summon higher-level demons, calling for an Arch Demon was well on impossible. Just one of them provided a whole column of tactical strength for any army. You had to be willing to make colossal sacrifices to even have a chance at summoning one. If the human race tried it, that’d be a national-level project requiring all kinds of large-scale rituals.
Now I had three of them on my sofa. And wasn’t Diablo an Arch Demon as well? If these were his friends, maybe I should’ve expected this.
“Yes. These are the ones I decided were worthy enough to enjoy a personal audience with you, Sir Rimuru.”
“I see. They certainly camouflage themselves well. I can hardly see a difference between them and regular people. I’m not sure even a paladin could tell these were Arch Demons.”
Diablo smiled appreciatively. “Keh-heh-heh-heh… Well spotted, Sir Rimuru. I told them to devote their full force to concealing their race, but you saw through the ruse regardless?”
“Yeah, kinda,” I said, giving Diablo a cool, collected nod. It was all Raphael, to be honest, but still. “So are there more?”
“Yes, I have seven or so others I think would be useful…”
He always had this exaggerated way of talking about his business. I had a thousand bodies ready for him, and now we’ll only need, like, one percent of them? Of course, I did use a hundred of those bodies for the treants already, so that worked for me.
“…Beyond that, I have a number of rank and filers, whom I picture as serving under the people you see before you. I hope you will give them the honor of joining Tempest’s forces, Sir Rimuru.”
Oh, there are more.
“All right. How many of those did you bring?”
“I will allow them to brief you on that.”
“It is good to meet you, Sir Rimuru. I must regretfully say that I lack a name at the moment, but I look forward to hopefully working with you. I understand that Black adores you, which I honestly found hard to believe…but now I see why.”
“Oh?”
I was greeted by a beautiful woman with snowy-white hair. She stood before me like a noble heiress, remarkably elegant. There was a fetching, fleeting element to her smile. She seemed so kind and gentle that I could hardly believe she was a demon.
“Yes. From the moment I laid eyes upon you, I could not stop my heart from racing. I sincerely hope you will add my two hundred followers and me to your force.”
With a cheerful smile, the white-haired lady pledged her oath. Honestly, it embarrassed me to get complimented like this, but Diablo had already accustomed me to it, so I let it slide.
“Me too—um, I mean, and me as well. I want to offer my two hundred servants and myself to you, Sir Rimuru.”
The energetic young lady who spoke next had purple hair and a ponytail on her side that complemented her naturally cute looks. Despite Diablo’s declaration, I almost doubted whether she was a demon at all.
“No complaints here, either! I’ve brought my own army of two hundred along, and I’m ready to let you have ’em all!”
The dazzling, pompous blond spoke up last. Diablo, peeved at her act, was about to stand up before I lifted a hand to stop him. I had the impression she was trying her best to be polite with me. No need to scold her over little things.
That rounded out our greetings. I had three girls here, each arriving with two hundred people. So Diablo wanted to add six hundred people to his personal force? I had to hand it to him—this was scary. He was seriously trying to form his own army.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh… Now, each of these people has two trusted assistants with them. In addition, there is one more whom I thought would make an amusing addition. These seven are accompanied by approximately one hundred servants, making for seven hundred in total. I had hoped to assemble a team of a thousand, but regrettably, I am forced to disappoint you on that front. My mishandling of this affair truly pains me.”
“No, no, no. Don’t worry about it. Let’s go meet them.”
So seven hundred, not six? That was almost too much.
“Ah, thank you very much! But before that, I thought I should debrief you in detail on how I came to invite them to my side—”
“Is that gonna take a while?”
“Well, Sir Rimuru, I wish to keep you updated on my activities…”

Slime 11.4

Now for our research results.
I know I promised Diablo and everything, but preparing a thousand physical bodies took a ton of effort. One idea was to craft a magisteel doll like Beretta and then make copies of it with Raphael, but this sounded like a slog to me—at the same time, however, painstakingly crafting each one was out of the question. So I came up with another brilliant idea: a facility that could manufacture mass quantities of these bodies.
For this, I prepared a set of reinforced clear-glass capsules, around three and a half feet wide and almost ten feet tall. I called these incubation capsules, and as the name suggested, they were meant for growing monsters and other organic matter inside. Each one was filled with a liquid solution—water from the Sealed Cave’s underground lake, internalized inside my Stomach. This was magic water, infused with a high concentration of magicules, making it useful for diluting or strengthening all kinds of medicinal effects.
Each incubation capsule included a port for magicule injection, letting people add more at any time. We could freely adjust the concentration of the magic water to best suit the monster we were trying to generate inside. If that concentration dipped down too low, our system would automatically inject magicules, keeping the count at a predefined level.
I had a thousand of these capsules ready. Part of me felt that crafting all these was about as much work as just making the damn bodies myself, but I banished the thought. It’s all about the spectacle. It was a blast designing them anyway, so I had no regrets.
So we now had a chamber lined with incubation capsules. It was quite a sight. We also knew from our research that generating monsters required that certain conditions were met. Just filling a capsule with magicules wouldn’t cut it, no matter how much you had. But if some other element was included—an element that would enhance and manifest itself in the monster who resulted—the story was different.
Let me explain. Assume I put a snake in an incubation capsule. The magicules inside would kill it, but its body would melt, mix with the magicules, and become reborn as a tempest serpent. From a common snake, you now had a creature of A-minus rank, which should show just how dangerous one of these capsules was. The monsters these capsules produced were thus guaranteed to be several levels more advanced than what Mother Nature would create. You’d have these powerful, refined bodies, perhaps because we kept the magicule concentrate at just the right level.
However, some monsters born this way would quickly collapse and die. Body stability, as it were, seemed a matter of luck. We had room for improvement, to be sure, but I still wanted to use these capsules’ features to produce a thousand demon bodies.
“So how have things been going?”
“Perfectly, Rimuru! And you know, my research has been moving along, too!”
“Oh? I look forward to seeing it— Wait, what’s that?”
What I saw floating in the capsule made me laugh. It was amazing, wholly unlike what I expected. Personally, I thought we’d just make skeletons out of magisteel and toss them in the capsules, producing the base for a bone golem. Its artificial frame would minimize the risk of collapse, and it wouldn’t be infused with a soul, either. The magicules in the liquid would just crystallize on the bones, so I thought there was zero chance it’d achieve sentience. There was no need for intricate design work, unlike with Beretta, because the demons occupying them would use their own magicules to customize them to their liking.
…Or so I thought.
Floating inside the thousand capsules here were a thousand bone golem bodies, that much was certain. But each one of them had assorted work done on varying sections. The area around their hearts stood out the most—in the middle, where their hearts would be, a spirit core beat a rhythm instead.
“This…”
“Yeah, it’s my idea! With a strong core like that, I’m sure the monsters usin’ them will be stronger than ever!”
Ramiris, smiling, seemed to see this as no big deal. Preparing a thousand spirit cores had to be a pain in the ass, though. I didn’t need much time for that, but unless you had a real interest and passion for it, it was too rote a process to enjoy very much. That’s why I chose the simplest method for making all these bodies, but that wasn’t good enough for Ramiris. She put in the hours required to produce a thousand of those, and each one had a pseudo-soul inside it as well. It even featured tech we cribbed from the Thalion homunculi.
Beretta had no problem possessing his body, but Treyni’s sisters might have a harder time of it, so adding pseudo-souls was probably a good idea. But that, too, must’ve taken up so much time… No wonder she constantly complained about needing more staff.
“Lady Ramiris’s idea was wonderfully compelling to me,” Vester said, gazing into the distance. “One look, and I really just had to help out.” I could see his point. With this large of a sample run, you could record all the data you ever wanted.
Each fist-size spirit core looked high quality to me when I sized them up. Fusing them with the skeletons I crafted resulted in changes not imagined in my original plan. My frameworks were magically inscribed so the magicules would form muscle groups over them, too, which made it look like we had an up-close perspective on monster development like never before. Now I understood why Vester barely felt the need to sleep.
“What d’you think? Pretty neat, huh?”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Just seeing that face from you makes this project a fine success!”
Ramiris and Veldora seemed happy with themselves.
“It’s pretty interesting, yeah…but was this really your idea, Ramiris?”
“What? Of course it was. What d’you think of that?!”
She was almost shouting as she puffed her chest out at me. Yeah, she deserved to be proud. I was sure impressed. Ramiris might seem like an idiot at first glance, but she was actually pretty smart. Her sense for spirit engineering was perfect, and she was studying sorcerous science and paying frequent visits to Floor 95. As long as she’s lived, she’s had a full grasp of the laws of physics, and although it astounded me to say it, she had all the qualifications you needed for a researcher. You can’t judge her by the externals, I suppose.
“This is really amazing. If this was all handmade, it must’ve been super-difficult, right?”
“Well, kind of. These frameworks are modeled after people’s skeletons—not like with Beretta’s ball joints. But with an artificial heart, they really soak in the magicules and gain a lot of magic energy, I think!”
I nodded at her impassioned theory. She was right—this probably would enhance their bodily strength beyond what I pictured. By a lot, actually.
Watching these bodies in their incubation capsules, I tried picturing what powers they’d have. If I had to guess, in terms of magicule energy, they’d be positioned on the upper end of the A rank. And we had a thousand of them. I still couldn’t believe Ramiris prepared enough spirit cores and pseudo-souls for them all. She really deserved a round of applause.
Several days passed since Deeno’s arrival. Diablo wasn’t back yet, but I had a feeling he would be soon. Today, as well, I headed to the lab to get those bodies wrapped up for him.
Things were busy as always over there, Ramiris and Veldora verbally jousting over something.
“I told you, Master, if you want to encourage growth, we need to inject your magicules directly into them!”
“Yeah, but what if that winds up breaking this thing? Then Rimuru will yell at me, not you.”
They were at it again. It sounded interesting, so I hid myself and watched. I was getting good at concealing my presence lately, so it didn’t look like Veldora noticed my arrival.
“It’s fine! You know how many we have! And I promise I’ll put in a good word when you ask him for your favor. So please?”
Sounded like Ramiris was asking him for some magicule support. But what did Veldora want from me? I couldn’t guess.
“Well, all right. You better live up to your word, though.”
“Yep, yep! Just trust me!”
They had a deal, so Veldora nodded. Considering how haughty he usually acted, he seemed to be enjoying what was to come quite a bit. It looked like Ramiris put him up to it, by and large, but he was receptive from the beginning.
So Veldora brought a hand up to an incubation capsule, and—with an apparently meaningful “Hah!”—infused it with magicules. The capsule was now swirling with an unusually high concentration of them, and considering the pressure, I could see how the capsule might break apart. Was this going to be okay? I was worried but decided to keep watching silently. If it shattered, we could deal with it—I was more curious about what Ramiris was attempting.
Inside the capsule, the crystallized magicules attached to the magisteel skeleton began transforming into what looked like muscle tissue. Raphael had predicted this much; it was part of the plan. But now, with Veldora directly injecting his own magic force, something unexpected was about to happen. Vast numbers of magicules began to pervade the skeleton, transforming the framework itself.
I could hear Ramiris say “Oh? I didn’t expect that.” Which, well, that’s what experiments are for.
The skeleton material could really no longer be called magisteel. Nor was it orichalc or mithril—not without any gold or silver mixed in. But while its strength wasn’t crimson steel yet, it had risen to at least the level of orichalc.
More impressive, however, was how the skeleton seemed to live—literally breathe, even—despite being metal.
Understood. It is a type of adamant or bio-magisteel. It has been transformed by the magical waves of the subject Veldora. Theoretically, one could call it dragontite.
I see.
To me, it looked like Ramiris was groping for a way to finish the bodies faster, and in the process, she’d stumbled upon the discovery of a neat new metal. And it wasn’t over yet.
“Wh-whoa! Master?! Stop! Stoppppp!!”
“Mm? Oooh. There are cracks in the capsule…?!”
Both of them panicked. I couldn’t tell if they were geniuses or dunces right now.
“What are you people doing?”
I decided to finally step in and regain control of the situation.
After repairing the capsule, I called for a coffee and snack break, inviting Vester and Deeno to join. Treyni the dryad was kind enough to serve us.
“Tch. Just when we were at a good part…”
“Oh, you didn’t want any cake? I’ll just let Ramiris have it, then…”
“I’m sorry. I was lying. Well, no, it was true, but um, just a slip of the tongue…”
Deeno was having a snit over his work being interrupted, but he bowed his head and got back in line once I threatened to leave him high and cakeless. Are you sure that’s how you want to act, Deeno? Some Sleeping Ruler you are— But he seemed devoted to his work, at least, which was a relief.
Vester and Deeno were working on experiments together, recording data from the thousand incubation capsules and checking out Kurobe’s completed slot-compatible swords in their spare time. This was mainly thanks to my bragging. Vester was eager to join in on this, hoping it’d help with the impasse in his Elemental Colossus modification work. Deeno was using the sample cores I gave him, and Vester was diligently recording the results.
As I surmised from his attitude when he came in, Deeno really liked this work. It was work, but just a thin line away from play, really. He may’ve whined about how much he hated a decent living, but in this environment, he was doing real work whether he realized it or not. If you find your work fun, you never work a day in your life, I suppose.
After spending a few minutes relaxing, I turned to Ramiris and cut to the chase.
“So, Ramiris, why were you in such a hurry to create a complete body?”
“Oh, ummm…”
She seemed hesitant.
Treyni stepped up to defend her. “Wait a minute, Sir Rimuru. Lady Ramiris is devoting her all to helping my sisters and our friends!”
I didn’t intend to criticize her, but Treyni must’ve thought I was angry, because she was already arguing in Ramiris’s defense. That’s how it always worked. Treyni was just way too lenient with her.
“No, I just want to know the reason. I’m not mad at all. Well, Ramiris?”
I tried to put Treyni’s mind at ease before continuing.
“Hmm…looking back, I was probably moving too fast. You know, I have a lot of adoring fans, so I wanted them to have their own bodies ASAP. That’d make them a lot happier and stuff, and I’d have more personnel, and then everybody’s good, right?”
Awkward as she seemed, Ramiris did have a point. Even without bodies, the dryads could work and operate within the labyrinth. Treants, on the other hand, couldn’t. They could manifest themselves nearby the trees that were their “main” bodies, but they couldn’t venture anywhere that tree wasn’t in view. Without a body, they’d be discharging magicules like mad, a major drag on them. Even dryads faced a drastic cut in power once they were too far from their “real” bodies—and they were on the upper echelon of A rank, a level above high-end magic-born. The lower-level treants couldn’t expect much at all by comparison.
As Ramiris reasoned, the bodies in these incubation capsules would give physical freedom to both the dryads and the treants. Thus, she was surreptitiously completing, and borrowing, a few bodies for herself.
“Well, if that’s all you wanted, why didn’t you ask? Diablo’s not back yet, and I don’t even know exactly how many demons he’s bringing with him. We can always make more if we need to later, so let’s get bodies ready for the dryads first.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am.”
“Thank you, Rimuru!!”
She flitted happily in the air, doing a few laps around me. But this suited my purposes as well. We really didn’t have enough people. Treyni’s sisters and the other dryads were working hard maintaining the labyrinth, which was tough work in itself, so clearly we didn’t have much of a safety net. At this rate, we were all bound to burn out and screw something up. The labyrinth was open day and night, after all, and we needed to set up a proper shift system to deal with that soon.
With these bodies, even the treants could be A-ranked creatures, able to hold their own in the labyrinth. If they managed to wreck their physical bodies somehow, they’d be safe—they were just possessing them, is all. This would likely only apply within Ramiris’s labyrinth, which was as far as their thoughts could travel, but that was good enough.
The dryads, meanwhile…
“So yeah, I figure we could make Traya, Doreth, and Alpha and the others into Dryas Doll Dryads like you, Treyni—”
“…?!”
“Hmm?”
“Are you sure about that?”
Even before I could finish, Treyni latched on to my proposal with astonishing speed.
“You’re sure, Rimuru?”
Ramiris was similarly uneasy, leaving Deeno and the rest in the dark.
“Am I sure about what?”
“Evolving creatures to Dryas Doll Dryads takes a ton of work, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, kind of. But I owe them for all their efforts, and I’d like to have them keep helping with the labyrinth, so…”
“Yes, but we’ve been granted a place to live already… Lady Ramiris has agreed to work with you, Sir Rimuru, and as her servants, we are only carrying out our promise.”
Treyni sounded apologetic, but her help around the labyrinth was a massive boon. To pay for that, I wanted anyone evolved to dryad to have the chance at an independent body. It’d involve handcrafting a body for each one, but in a way, making handsome-looking male and female figures was a hobby of mine—and besides, just reusing the bodies I was making for Diablo seemed trite. Dryad bodies really demanded you make them with wood, I thought.
“No, no, you really do help us a lot. I’d like you to keep up the good work, so please don’t be afraid to accept them. I’ll let each one of them decide whether they’ll use one of the bodies here or evolve into a Dryas Doll Dryad with the bodies I carve for them.”
Treyni eagerly nodded. Ramiris, next to her, was grumbling along the lines of “Why is he kinder to Treyni than me? I don’t like that…,” but I ignored it.
After the break, Vester and the others went back to work.
“This might be beyond my knowledge…but it’s fascinating. I have a job, and it’s time to carry it out. Let’s go, Vester.”
“All right, Sir Deeno.”
Deeno, emphasizing the fact to nobody in particular that he was working, took Vester out of the room. I’m not sure he had ever worked before in his life. He was clearly a worthless grifter, but he was making an effort for me, so whatever.
I guess I’ll go back to my own work—
“Wait. Rimuru, I have a favor to ask. Ramiris, time to fulfill your end of the bargain!”
Great. This was bound to be some insipid, time-consuming favor, so I was trying to flee before he could say it. Veldora was waiting for just after the break to bring it up, wasn’t he?
“Now, to tell you the truth—”
“The master says he wants an assistant! And I’d love to have more people around, so um, if I could be assigned one, too…”
Just as insipid and time-consuming as I thought! Here we go again… We’re already aching for people, so I wasn’t about to give Veldora another playmate.
“No, look, everyone’s busy here, so there’s no time to give you someone to mess around with—”
“Wait, wait! Rimuru, you have the wrong idea. Currently, I am assisting Ramiris, guarding the labyrinth, and performing a number of other important tasks. I don’t see the harm in someone available to help me relax, to soothe me and sing my praises!”
Ramiris was nodding at this heartfelt defense. But considering the conversation I overheard earlier, I think I’d have to disappoint him.
“Well, sad to say—”
“Wait, wait, wait!!”
I was interrupted again. Veldora was hell-bent on getting my approval today, wasn’t he? Guess he wasn’t backing down.
“To be honest with you, ever since I was in your Stomach, I have had someone I feel confident in calling a companion with me. I dearly hope you will deign to grant a body to him as well.”
This came out of nowhere. I had no idea who he meant. What kind of acquaintance was this?
Understood. It is believed to be the high-level magic-born Ifrit.
Huh? Why is Veldora friends with Ifrit?
Report. Due to an intervention from the subject Veldora at the time, Ifrit was subjected to the same Predation into isolation.
According to Raphael, when I took Ifrit from Shizu and consumed it, it was taken to the same space in my Stomach that had been isolating Veldora. Since this presented no obstacle to taking Ifrit’s data, Raphael—the Great Sage at the time—let this pass without comment. It wouldn’t have bothered me, either; in fact, I never even noticed until now. Thus, I guess Veldora and Ifrit had been fostering a friendship while I wasn’t paying attention.
“Oh, so you want to revive Ifrit?”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! How nice of you to understand so quickly, Rimuru!”
Veldora seemed happy about the idea, but me, I had my misgivings. Ifrit did not get along with Shizu, to be sure, and besides, he worked for the demon lord Leon. If I resurrected him, would he even try to cozy up to us? The thought prevented me from just deadpanning “Sure” to that.
“Hmm…”
“Y-you don’t want to?!”
“Please, Rimuru, let me ask you as well! I want you to make my master’s dream come true!”
Veldora was acting all sad, and now Ramiris was joining the fray. Give me a break. I brought a hand to my head—this was turning into a pain in the ass.
Honestly, we really did need extra hands. But to me, releasing Ifrit just made me anxious. At the end of the day, he was still much more powerful than your typical high-level magic-born. Maybe we could beat him in battle, but if he went on a riot, we’d have a lot of trouble to deal with—and he might always flee back to Leon, too. I didn’t want to wake up a sleeping dog here, and I didn’t think I could be blamed for that.
“But didn’t Ifrit swear his loyalty to the demon lord Leon? Do you even know whether he’ll serve you if I revive him?”
“Mm? Hmm… I see, I see. No, that is no concern at all. My passion’s rubbed off on him, so he’s eager and willing to help.”
Um, really? It looked like Veldora was discussing matters with an unseen partner for a moment. That had to be Ifrit, right? So I guess they had some unknown method of speaking to each other.
“Were you talking to him just now?”
“Yes, well, there is nothing I cannot accomplish.”
“The master’s really somethin’, I’ll have you know! Why, he even had Ifrit summon a huge number of flame salamanders for our magic trains! So I really think having him join us would help out a lot, going forward!”
Oh. He did?
Summoning spirits, of course, was easy with Ramiris’s help in the labyrinth. But once we started running magic trains worldwide, we’d likely want a go-to person handling all our salamander needs. Ugghh… In terms of what we stood to gain, I really had no counterargument. And if Veldora was really willing to look after Ifrit and keep him on good behavior… Well, maybe it’d be right to trust in him.
“All right, all right. If you say so, I’ll grant you permission, but you need to take responsibility for this to the end, all right?”
“You got it!”
“Oh, that’s so great, Master!”
I felt like my children were begging me to buy them a puppy.
“In that case…”
“Yes, yes. Rimuru, you still have the empty husk of Charybdis after removing the core from it, right? That is the afterimage of my own magic force, so it will be easy for me to work with. And Ifrit has been exposed to my aura for an extended period of time, so perhaps we could use that as his core?”
As Veldora saw it, this would be better for him than employing a pseudo-soul.
Understood. The subject Veldora’s opinion seems valid.
And if Raphael was agreeing, I had no room to turn him down.
“Okay. So we’ll give this to Ifrit for his body, then?”
I stood in front of the incubation capsule I repaired just before our break. The magisteel skeleton inside had transformed into the unique metal dragontite and was further exposed to Veldora’s excess magicules; your average monster didn’t have a chance of withstanding it. I felt that as a higher-level spirit, Ifrit was up to the challenge.
“Ah, very good. I’m sure he’ll be delighted.”
With Veldora’s agreement, I started the procedure.
Report. Ifrit’s afterimage detected. Transferring to the core of Charybdis… Successful. Creating soul vessel… Now fusing with dragontite body.
The whole process wrapped up in an instant. That’s Raphael for you. We had it down to a literal science.
And with that, right before our eyes, the body infused with Ifrit’s core began to undergo rapid change. The skeleton, now dark silver, seemed to be growing muscles as we watched, blood suddenly flowing through them. The skin protecting them was dark brown, the same as Veldora’s. The eyes were gold, the dragon-like pupils shining a deep crimson red.
…Also, this really looked like a woman. A pretty one, too.
“Ahhh, Ifrit! How’s it feel to come back with a new body?”
So this beautiful girl was Ifrit? Ignoring the question of whether spirits have genders for now, I seemed to recall fighting a muscle-bound, masculine figure. What happened?
“We meet for the first time in the physical realm, Sir Veldora. And Sir Rimuru… I cannot thank you enough for restoring me.”
Ignoring my confusion, Ifrit faced me and fell to one knee. I feared his loyalty to Leon would lead to instant aggression, but that didn’t seem to be a concern any longer.
“S-sure. Glad you’re doing well. I wanted to ask you something…”
“Anything.”
I wanted to ask him a lot, actually. But the first thing:
“The last time I saw you, you were, like…more physically geared for combat? Or you looked like you could, um, move around a bit easier…”
Not to dance around the subject too much, but you didn’t have such big breasts, did you? But I was too timid to say it. I mean, how could I? Ifrit was now dressed in some kind of exotic South Asian–style outfit that left almost nothing to the imagination. Ifrit’s shoulders, navel, and inner thighs were completely visible, and the allure was just blowing my mind.
“Oh, this form…?” Ifrit sighed for some reason. “I think this is Veldora’s faul—er, Veldora’s preferences taking form.”
He was about to call it Veldora’s fault, wasn’t he? He seemed kind of exasperated about it. The vibe I got indicated he had been through a lot. Maybe his time in my Stomach wasn’t all smooth sailing after all. If you think about it, he was alone in there with Veldora the whole time, with no place to run. There must have been some harrowing experiences.
“Mmm. Yes, thanks to me, you have taken on a physical body. I hope you will not forget to appreciate this!”
“…I will not,” Ifrit replied, resigned to his fate.
“What does he mean by your ‘preferences,’ Veldora?”
“Hmm?”
“Ah well, I am a higher-level flame spirit, but I’m now able to exercise my powers over wind as well. My hair would normally be a deep-red color, but it’s taken on a much darker hue. From what I can tell, the impact of Sir Veldora’s force has had a profound effect upon me. I believe the fact that Charybdis was a female type may have caused this change to me.”
Report. This is correct.
Whoa, so even his sex changed? I guess it wasn’t deliberate, though, so I didn’t want to comment on it too much.
“Oh… I see. Well, if you’re not a fan of that…”
“I have no complaints at all,” Ifrit said with a smile. “No matter how it looks, this form is far more powerful than I used to be.”
Glad to see he was so adaptable. I suppose getting browbeaten by Veldora all this time must’ve made him used to things. I kind of liked that—and besides, unlike when I brought Shizu within me, I detected no hostility from him at all.
“You don’t, uh, resent me or anything, do you?”
“No, I don’t. Inside you, I learned about a great deal of things from Sir Veldora. Looking back, I feel that I, and Shizue Izawa as well, perhaps felt our duties and responsibilities too much. We rejected each other and were unable to interact at all. Now I can’t help but think we could’ve found another way to overcome this.”
Sounded like Ifrit wasn’t dragging any baggage from the past along. In fact, he seemed to even regret not working things out with Shizu. The mood was thus unexpectedly somber as we decided to all sit down and work out our future.
Ifrit told me about assorted things as well. Life, as I surmised, had been tough on him. I began sensing an affinity among us. Now I was sure there was no better person to leave in Veldora’s control.
As he put it, while he still had feelings for the demon lord Leon, he couldn’t call those feelings loyalty at all. “Right now,” he said, “I see myself as already defeated and killed once by you, Sir Rimuru. I was lucky enough to have Sir Veldora rescue me and keep my consciousness from fading away, but I feel I am a completely different being from before. I do still believe that Sir Leon is a great demon lord, but right now, I only wish to serve Sir Veldora.”
That seemed believable to me, and Veldora never doubted Ifrit from the start. I saw no need to fret over it.
“All right. Well, consider yourself officially Veldora’s assistant now!”
“Very well. I will stake my life and body on serving him.”
He definitely sounded serious. It’s not that I had put the affair with Shizu totally behind me, but that was true for both sides. We needed to work past that, and in the meantime, I decided to accept Ifrit.
“Now, Rimuru, I have one thing to discuss.”
There’s more?! I really didn’t want to get involved in anything else, but if I didn’t hear him out, I’m sure he’d harangue me about it.
“What is it now, Veldora?”
“Well, I was hoping I could give a name to Ifrit. Ifrit, you see, is not his individual name, but that of his spirit type. All upper-level spirits summoned by the Spirit Summon: Ifrit spell are referred to as Ifrit.”
Hmm. That was actually a decent suggestion. A name, huh? He might need one of those, yeah. But the naming process in situations like this could be fraught with danger. I had personally screwed it up multiple times, so I knew.
“But if you name Ifrit right now, wouldn’t that be kind of dangerous? I know you have a huge magicule store to tap, but get the levels wrong, and you could be in deep trouble.”
Too many magicules would be poison to Ifrit and even potentially damage the namer. I managed to survive all my namings more out of luck than anything.
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! But you can accurately calculate the exact amount required, can you not? If I am pumping in too much energy, I want you to shut off the soul corridor linking us.”
Hmm. That sounded safe enough.
Report. This can be provided for.
Raphael was eager to help, likely because I was in no direct harm.
“All right. I’ll help.”
“Good! I knew you would say yes!”
So we were now naming Ifrit.
“Ifrit, from this day forward, you shall be known as Charys!!”
With a solemn voice, Veldora gave Ifrit his command. Charys was now the name of Ifrit—a name that was more a contraction of Charybdis than anything resembling Ifrit. I thought something like Iris would be more suitable, but better to keep my mouth shut with things like this.
Now, via the soul corridor between them, I could see Veldora being drained of his magicules. Ifrit, right now, was a Special A in rank, with enough magicules to be deemed a Calamity-level threat. He’d lose out to Shion or Benimaru but was about equal with Soei or Geld. So if he was given a name…
“Yes, my lord. Then by my name as Charys, I solemnly swear to serve my master, the great Sir Veldora!!”
The name was accepted—and at that instant, Raphael shut off the soul corridor and sealed up Veldora’s powers. Mission accomplished. Veldora had successfully named Ifrit.
And now Ifrit was evolving.
He had far, far more magical force within him. Now he was demon-lord caliber—a far cry from Treyni and even above people like Carillon or Frey.
Report. The upper-level spirit Ifrit has evolved to Flame Lord.
A Flame Lord? Apparently, this was what happened when spiritual life-forms attain physical bodies and assume something closer to demonic form.
“Kwaaaah-ha-ha-ha! How impressive! I’m glad I relied upon you now, Rimuru!”
Veldora couldn’t be happier. But one look at Ifrit made me squint. He had undergone major changes—or really, he was back to how I remembered. The hair was still the same extremely dark red as before, but now he was male in structure again, exactly as the time we fought each other. There were some small differences in the details, but now I think I was seeing Ifrit more as how he pictured himself.
“Pfft! After I gave you such a fun— Er, after I gave you such wondrous beauty! I was hardly expecting this.”
Veldora was already whining about it. I guess he was playing a trick on him the whole time. Ifrit—or I guess I should start calling him Charys—bowed deeply at him.
“Is that the case? I expected as much…but I am glad my own desires won out, in the end. However, I can always return to female form, so if you insist upon it…”
“No, no, I was just poking fun at you regardless. I have no complaint about whatever form you take!”
Veldora’s jokes weren’t very funny. Things were back to normal now, but there was a decent chance Charys would’ve been stuck that way all his life. I better watch how I act around Veldora, too.
“So how’s your body feel?”
“It feels excellent, my— Wait, what’s this?!”
As he answered my question, he began to notice some kind of change. Carefully, he gauged the powers within himself.
“This much power…?”
He seemed shocked.
“Heh-heh-heh… Well, I should hope so,” Veldora said with a satisfied smile. He had been expecting this, it seemed. “It seems you’ve evolved into a Flame Lord.”
“A—a Flame Lord?! I can hardly believe this power…”
Yeah, if I was just resurrected, and all of a sudden I had demon lord–level power, I’d probably react the same way. But even with all that power, you’re still mainly just a caretaker for Veldora, all right? In fact, with all that strength on tap, Veldora might wind up trying to take even more advantage of you. I was starting to sympathize with Charys a bit—we had gotten chummy pretty fast, after all.
Regardless, we had a new member of the office. Before long, Charys was just another part of the picture, worked to the bone by Veldora and Ramiris—just as I feared, but nobody seemed to mind. Thanks to him, our work was humming along even faster than before.
“Hey, uh, since when did we have someone like this working for us?”
“He joined while you were all occupied with putting cores together.”
“But it’s not like you just hired someone on. This is a spirit lord! He’s got, like, demon-lord powers!”
“No, he’s a Flame Lord, to be exact.”
“It doesn’t matter! That’s not what I’m trying to say!”
Deeno seemed pretty agitated, but everyone else got used to things quickly.
“Well, you know, these things happen, I suppose.”
“They…do, Vester?”
“Deeno, if we’re going to work with Rimuru and the master here, you can’t afford to let things like these throw you.”
“I know, but…”
He looked less than convinced but, with the help of everyone else, grudgingly accepted it. Yes, it’s best to just adapt. Knowing when to give up is key.
So now I was cutting down more trees and creating more dolls. Before long, I had a number of dryads evolved into Dryas Doll Dryads, capable of tapping their full powers no matter how far they were from their trees. Not one of them refused the offer, so now there were nearly ten of them. They didn’t have battle experience and thus weren’t as strong as Treyni, but they had a whole labyrinth to learn the ropes in. Looking ahead, I’m sure they’d be great assistants for Ramiris.
I was also just about done with the bodies—or really, the avatars—I’d be lending to the treants. They’d simply be possessing these bodies, not taking them over entirely, so they didn’t need to be top-of-the-line. I made sure they were fully compatible with the hundred-odd treants who would now be able to explore and work in the labyrinth. That was a lot of new personnel, and now I regretted not doing this sooner.
Many of the dryad bodies were female in shape, while most of the treant bodies were male. They themselves were genderless, and they told me I didn’t need to worry much about this, so I made their bodies with efficiency as the watchword. If they wanted to adjust any details, they could do it themselves once they took possession.
Regardless, I was told they were ready to hop in whenever the bodies were good to go, and before long, my work was complete.
With the new help, we finally had a little free time to work with.
“Thank you very much, Sir Rimuru!”
I jiggled my slime body in response to Treyni’s words of gratitude. This was really no big deal for me. I wanted to repay them for their hard work, and besides, I got a lot out of the bargain.
“Okay, everyone, keep it up! Ramiris, if anything happens, let me know.”
“Roger! I’ll fly right over!”
She’d report back at once if something flared up, I was sure. But we still had work left to do. I was meeting with Rigurd and Mjöllmile daily, and I had a mountain of projects and proposals to approve. My feedback was required for our criminal justice system as well, and I needed to mediate over and resolve any conflicts of opinion in my cabinet. In an ideal world, I’d help all day with this research, but life was getting in the way. What I really wanted was a staff to help me with bureaucratic work—that was my main priority. I had time for my hobbies because I didn’t need to sleep, but even I enjoyed a nap now and again.
I had thought of myself as someone who talked a big show and let everyone else do the actual work, but now I really wasworking hard. I couldn’t help thinking about that as I returned to my office.
“Sir Diablo has returned, along with several unfamiliar individuals. They wanted to see you—what would you like me to do with them, Sir Rimuru?”
That message had been waiting for me for quite a while.
If it were Diablo alone, of course I’d welcome him right in. But he had brought strangers along. It was an annoyance, but with all the people I had around me, we needed to go through this procedure. I decided to get this rolling before Benimaru demanded he sit in on matters.
“We’ll meet in the reception room. Bring them right over!”
The attendant briskly bowed at me and left. She seemed to move kind of awkwardly—I guess she was nervous around me. Exasperated, I asked another attendant in the next room over to prepare some tea.
Shuna was busy elsewhere with her own work in the daytime, although she always allotted time in the evening to prepare dinner and the like. Shion, for her part, was training Team Reborn in the labyrinth. They were apparently testing out just how immortal they were, pushing the far edges of their endurance. I heard they were going down to some pretty deep levels, so I resolved not to call for her unless needed.
In their place right now were two attendants assigned exclusively to me, a pair of evolved goblinas who pretty much looked human, in my opinion. Some Shuna-developed cosmetics had gained popularity as of late, and I felt like all the women around me had been looking prettier. They were first-class attendants, and I’m sure they’d be at ease around the kings and princes of other nations, although I must’ve been a tad intimidating. I couldn’t ask for better.
So I headed to the next reception chamber over—one of the rooms designed for rustic sturdiness. I figured nothing would go wrong, but no need to go in unprepared. I had zero idea what kind of weirdos Diablo would pick for his crew.
The moment I stepped in, the attendant brought our tea. Very organized, I thought. Then I sensed someone outside.
“Sir Rimuru! I have returned!”
With a gregarious smile, Diablo entered the room. Not that I’m one to talk, but a smiling Diablo is about the most evil sight I can think of—and if I thought so, I’m sure he was just as sinister a symbol to everyone else. There was just this wicked atmosphere around him, like he was always planning some nefarious deed.
“Today, as promised, I have brought along some people I’d like you to extend an audience to. If you could meet them for me, nothing could make me happier.”
He greeted me respectfully as ever. It was needlessly polite, really, but I had gotten used to it. He saw me as his sole superior, approaching me almost like a god, after all.
Behind Diablo were three women. He had talked about people to work under him; were these the ones? They looked young, but I suppose age didn’t matter to demons. I had no idea how old Diablo was, but he said he’d be tapping old friends, so they must be decently well aged.
At his behest, the three girls filed in, bowed to me, and sat down on the sofa.
“So these are all your acquaintances?”
They didn’t look that powerful to me…
Negative. These are Arch Demons, among the most powerful of demonkind. They are fully suppressing their magicules in order to pose as human.
Raphael quickly stepped up to correct my mistake. I thought I had an eye for this by now, but I still had room for improvement. I tried ratcheting up my Magic Sense a little, but they still seemed like normal people to me.
…Wait. Arch Demons?!
Even among those who could summon higher-level demons, calling for an Arch Demon was well on impossible. Just one of them provided a whole column of tactical strength for any army. You had to be willing to make colossal sacrifices to even have a chance at summoning one. If the human race tried it, that’d be a national-level project requiring all kinds of large-scale rituals.
Now I had three of them on my sofa. And wasn’t Diablo an Arch Demon as well? If these were his friends, maybe I should’ve expected this.
“Yes. These are the ones I decided were worthy enough to enjoy a personal audience with you, Sir Rimuru.”
“I see. They certainly camouflage themselves well. I can hardly see a difference between them and regular people. I’m not sure even a paladin could tell these were Arch Demons.”
Diablo smiled appreciatively. “Keh-heh-heh-heh… Well spotted, Sir Rimuru. I told them to devote their full force to concealing their race, but you saw through the ruse regardless?”
“Yeah, kinda,” I said, giving Diablo a cool, collected nod. It was all Raphael, to be honest, but still. “So are there more?”
“Yes, I have seven or so others I think would be useful…”
He always had this exaggerated way of talking about his business. I had a thousand bodies ready for him, and now we’ll only need, like, one percent of them? Of course, I did use a hundred of those bodies for the treants already, so that worked for me.
“…Beyond that, I have a number of rank and filers, whom I picture as serving under the people you see before you. I hope you will give them the honor of joining Tempest’s forces, Sir Rimuru.”
Oh, there are more.
“All right. How many of those did you bring?”
“I will allow them to brief you on that.”
“It is good to meet you, Sir Rimuru. I must regretfully say that I lack a name at the moment, but I look forward to hopefully working with you. I understand that Black adores you, which I honestly found hard to believe…but now I see why.”
“Oh?”
I was greeted by a beautiful woman with snowy-white hair. She stood before me like a noble heiress, remarkably elegant. There was a fetching, fleeting element to her smile. She seemed so kind and gentle that I could hardly believe she was a demon.
“Yes. From the moment I laid eyes upon you, I could not stop my heart from racing. I sincerely hope you will add my two hundred followers and me to your force.”
With a cheerful smile, the white-haired lady pledged her oath. Honestly, it embarrassed me to get complimented like this, but Diablo had already accustomed me to it, so I let it slide.
“Me too—um, I mean, and me as well. I want to offer my two hundred servants and myself to you, Sir Rimuru.”
The energetic young lady who spoke next had purple hair and a ponytail on her side that complemented her naturally cute looks. Despite Diablo’s declaration, I almost doubted whether she was a demon at all.
“No complaints here, either! I’ve brought my own army of two hundred along, and I’m ready to let you have ’em all!”
The dazzling, pompous blond spoke up last. Diablo, peeved at her act, was about to stand up before I lifted a hand to stop him. I had the impression she was trying her best to be polite with me. No need to scold her over little things.
That rounded out our greetings. I had three girls here, each arriving with two hundred people. So Diablo wanted to add six hundred people to his personal force? I had to hand it to him—this was scary. He was seriously trying to form his own army.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh… Now, each of these people has two trusted assistants with them. In addition, there is one more whom I thought would make an amusing addition. These seven are accompanied by approximately one hundred servants, making for seven hundred in total. I had hoped to assemble a team of a thousand, but regrettably, I am forced to disappoint you on that front. My mishandling of this affair truly pains me.”
“No, no, no. Don’t worry about it. Let’s go meet them.”
So seven hundred, not six? That was almost too much.
“Ah, thank you very much! But before that, I thought I should debrief you in detail on how I came to invite them to my side—”
“Is that gonna take a while?”
“Well, Sir Rimuru, I wish to keep you updated on my activities…”

Slime 11.3

People in white coats restlessly beavered away. I passed by them as we came to what looked like a model train.
“Hey, Boss! Surprise!”
It was Kaijin, of all people, in a lab coat that didn’t look at all right on him. He seemed to be running things around here.
The space, the size of a college lecture hall, was lined with rails, to the point that you had to watch where you stepped. There were miniature mountains, valleys, tunnels… Maybe they were doing aerodynamic analysis or something?
“Wow. This entire space is a test facility?”
“Uh-huh. Way to get it on the first guess. But what’s really amazin’ are all the people gathered in Tempest for this. It ain’t easy to build a facility this size.”
Kaijin was right. This only worked because of all these scientists working under the same roof. They had used assorted types of magic to create this massive diorama of sorts, the precision-crafted model riding the rails made by Kaijin himself.
“What’s propelling this train?”
I could have Raphael Assess it, but I made the effort to ask instead.
“Steam,” Kaijin replied with a smile.
I nodded. That made sense. For now, your only option for driving a train would be horses—that was what we had pulling the cargo carriers currently using the highway rails. That allowed only for the same weight you could put in a carriage, of course. Using those rails improved safety and contributed to traffic management, but I can’t say it made things dramatically more efficient.
There were proposals to employ golems or monsters to pull them instead, but that was still just a stopgap. We really needed to develop engines, and steam engines were our top candidate. Not, of course, the type from olden times that burned coal or whatever—we had conceived something that took the best bits from both magic and science. That’s the whole reason why I called it a magitrain.
The concept called for an engine that would apply magic, driven by magicule energy, to the combustive energy created by steam. This was a sort of template for magical cores, and despite its simplicity, it still required some high-level magic tech.
Magic functioned on different principles from natural phenomena. You could use it to create the effect you had in mind, but it was difficult to derive a standard rule set based on that. For example, let’s say you had a candle burning inside a closed glass container. The oxygen would quickly be replaced with carbon dioxide, snuffing out the flames—but if it was magically created flames, it would keep on burning forever. As long as the force and magicules instilled by the caster didn’t run out, the flames will never disappear—although, of course, no caster had infinite power.
Based on this experiment, magical flames clearly ran on different rules from scientific phenomena. It was thus difficult to take one magical procedure and apply it successfully to something else. That, I guess, was why nobody thought about connecting magic to physics in this world before now.
However, the magic in this example is so-called elemental magic. Spirit magic, where one borrows the powers of the spirits, is not affected by the image the caster places into their spell. It’s magic that utilizes the power of a spirit, something that must conform to the laws of nature. As a result, flames driven by spirit magic still consume oxygen and produce carbon dioxide.
When I fought Ifrit, the Great Sage taught me a thing or two about steam explosions, and that trick only worked because Ifrit’s flames worked under similar natural laws. If it was elemental magic instead, using magicules to rewrite those laws, it may’ve been completely ineffectual. (It’s also why I could use spirit magic under that Holy Field.)
Also, in the past, I used inscription magic to heat up metal and illuminate caves, but in the end, that still didn’t produce enough light. Dold did a little innovating to apply the elemental magic Light and change the inscription to transform magicules directly into illumination.
Basically, this world lets you use magic to skip procedure and go straight to the results. That had the adverse effect of delaying scientific investigation into natural phenomena. Science based on physical phenomena was better handled using spirit magic, itself based on nature—and that’s how I hit on the idea of spirit-based engines in the first place.
“We had been using the heat we generate in the forge to do things like warm up baths, you know. But not even I thought you could use steam this way.”
Kaijin gave me an impressed look. Me, I was more impressed that he actually created a steam engine based off my description alone.
“Well, the basic premise can be used for a lot of things—moving pistons, turning turbines, you know. Using steam, or heat energy, can help you do physical work, or you can convert it to electricity. The latter’s something to tackle later, but it looks like you’ve worked out pistons just fine for now.”
“Yeah, as you can see, Boss, you can get a lot of power from electricity if you use it right.”
He turned to the miniature train. I had spoken to him and his team about electricity before. They must’ve kept up with their research, because now he demonstrated a pretty good understanding—even better than mine, maybe.
There were six cars connected to his model locomotive, each filled with little metal balls. If they were real, that was a pretty hefty weight it was pulling.
“We tried to replicate every possible environment in this test room. Right now it’s in a tropical rainforest. In the next space over there’s a desert climate, and next to that is an area with heavy snowfall. We’re getting data from each room so we can make designs for pretty much any environment.”
Treyni was now explaining matters to me, Ramiris taking the opportunity to sit on her shoulder. The vampire in the room, canines sparkling, nodded their approval.
“Yes, yes, glad we could be of service! I just loooove experiments like this!”
The vampire leader was a cheerful kind of guy, but definitely off-kilter. It wasn’t that he “enjoyed” research so much as there was no room in his mind for anything else. But I’m sure they were helping a lot.
I had been provided a carefully kept notebook filled to the margins with writings. This was pulp-based paper. We could’ve imported it from the Eastern Empire if we had any relations, but there was nothing for now, so I was having them research how to create real paper. Gabil’s team was good at this sort of non-headline-grabbing work, and when I left things to them, they quickly started test producing some low-quality paper from tree pulp. I hadn’t given any further instruction since then, but through a trial-and-error process, they had quickly reached this current level of quality. I know they had samples to work with (and documentation from me outlining the whole procedure), but it was still amazing. They deserved praise, and I resolved to give it to them.
But back to the notebook. It was a neat piece of work—a series of questions, hypotheses, experiments, and results. Dynamic force and the magicules needed for an engine to provide it. Consecutive operation times and subsequent engine deterioration. Estimates on maximum load and weight distribution on the freight cars. They even used all that to calculate the stability of each room setup and figure out how fast they could operate the trains. All this data would come in handy when making the full-size locomotives.
I just took a quick read through the notebook, but it seemed to me like the needed theoretical work was already done. We had a working model, after all, so I figured it was time to build a test engine.
Unless…?
“Hey, Veldora, uh, this isn’t the only test vehicle you built so far, is it?”
“Hee-hee-hee… Well spotted. You’re an intelligent slime if you’ve already noticed.”
Veldora grinned at me, Ramiris sneering on his shoulder. I looked around, only to find Kaijin and his team, Treyni, and even Beretta doing the same. They had all filed in at some point, standing in a row by one of the doors.
So this means…?
“It was a lot of hard work, y’know. Summoning a fire spirit within the engine wasn’t enough. You need something for power control, and if it was done manually, you’d need a decently well-trained shaman in the train at all times. We could train enough of those for our whole fleet, maybe, but that’d take too much time. So they put together a magic circuit that automates the whole thing. It’s a control board that combines the fire spirit core and the inscription magic that controls it. Put them together, and this is what you get!”
Kaijin slowly approached the door as he spoke. Normally, summoning spirits is where our attempts started to fall apart. Lower-level spirits don’t have enough power, after all. You at least needed to summon a flame salamander or something mid-level like that. Those were B-plus monsters, and no normal person could summon one and keep them stable for long periods of time.
Was Ramiris involved with this? As the former Spirit Queen, it seemed in her wheelhouse. But containing my surprise, I watched as Kaijin put his hand to the door.
“Whoa… This is it…”
It was waiting beyond. Its body shone a lustrous black, clearly made of magisteel and looking like some ominous monster of iron.
“Here is the result of our combined skills: Magitrain #0!”
Vester’s proud voice rang out as I marveled at it. I thought we were still in the experimental stages, and it was already done. Still a test unit, perhaps, but the very first example of the train I always dreamed of. A huge step forward.
“We’re planning to test the body’s durability and performance. We’re also going to add not just freight cars, but passenger cars, sleepers, and even dining rooms.”
“Completing the steam engine isn’t the end of the story, of course. I still wanna get into the nitty-gritty to try to make this as complete a package as possible.”
Vester and Kaijin were both excited. The other researchers seemed just as impassioned as they looked at #0, but I’m sure there was still room for improvement.
“For example, regarding the electricity you discussed with us, that’s some pretty tricky stuff to handle. We had a wind spirit generate lightning for us, but harnessing that energy as is looks like a nonstarter…”
I’m sure it would be. Electricity can do anything, really, but it took a certain methodology to handle.
“We need to develop capacitors first. Once we do, we can use the heat the steam engine generates to create electricity. It’ll be a lot easier to operate a train then, so I think it’s a worthwhile approach.”
This was all a little over my head, but Raphael was kind enough to translate technical books from Earth into the local language for me. I had already provided these to the lab, and I guess Vester’s team was making ample use of them. It was sort of like recycling magic, and if it made things smoother for us all, then bring it on.
“Oh, and about that. I wasn’t sure whether to say it when it came up, but I thought we could discuss it while looking inside this guy. A picture’s worth a thousand words, as they say. Come on in.”
Wait, were they already using electricity somehow? I began to doubt myself as I followed Kaijin in—only to find a surprise waiting for me. The inside of the locomotive was bathed in a soft, gentle light. I shot Kaijin a questioning stare.
“We readied ourselves for this the moment you gave us all those books, Boss. Right, Vester?”
“Yes. Sir Rimuru, ever since you tasked us with researching ways to use electricity, Kaijin and I have been poring through all the materials. There were still things we hadn’t grasped inside them, but with this many scientists gathered together, I thought we could get some help from them.”
“Right. That sorta thing. So they helped find answers to our questions. Plus, when we looked at that girl over there—Lady Ramiris’s Elemental Colossus, that is—it just blew our minds. After all, it’s basically a completed version of the magic-armor soldier project we had abandoned.”
Certainly, having a real-life sample to work with made things easier to grasp. The new Elemental Colossus currently under construction was already being used as an experimental test bed, it seemed.
“Very much so. Reading those books, and gaining valuable feedback from everyone else, made us realize our great mistake. Back then, we thought that spirit and elemental magic were the same thing during our experiments. That’s where we went wrong.”
“Yeah, so we looked at the sample to verify what we were missing.”
What they found was that different types of magic can run by wholly different sets of rules. Ramiris’s Elemental Colossus ran on spirit magic—or more specifically, it used a summoned spirit. Kaijin’s team was trying to operate a spirit core with elemental magic, but they just couldn’t get it started up.
“Our answer to this, unfortunately, was to up the magic output. This led to magic-generated heat with nowhere to go, and the experiment ended in failure.”
I see. Although, maybe the Colossus was arranged like this only because Ramiris couldn’t use elemental magic. Regardless, that wound up being the key to its success. The Colossus was driven by a primitive sort of spirit core, but with all the scientists on hand here, they were apparently on their way to restoring its full abilities. Once they fully analyze the master core I created for it, it’ll be a full-fledged magic core again.
“I don’t know whether to be happy or sad about this.”
“Me neither. Here’s this theory I gave up on, and we only failed because we had an assumption wrong…”
Here was something that, after all their research, showed no sign of working based on theory alone—but once they solved a little misunderstanding, everything just worked. I’m sure all Kaijin could do was laugh about it.
“Right? So if we have a magic core, we can convert magicules to energy…although this energy comes in several types, too. It’s hard to easily explain.”
“This locomotive converts magicules into heat energy to work a turbine. It can also generate electricity as you said, Sir Rimuru, so that’s why we can light up each car so brightly.”
What a surprise. I mean, seriously. So this car was driven by a completed magic core. Giving magicules to each type of assorted spirit provides you the ability to convert them to useful energy—and you could even circulate this energy around. Electricity created by the turbine can be fed back to the magic core, they said, storing it for later use. I was sure they could generate electricity more directly, but apparently that made things harder to control, so they made it so the system used what the steam engine generated.
When it comes to electricity, high output isn’t necessarily all you want. You need both a power plant and a transformer, not to mention storage batteries to keep that energy—and they were handling all of that just with a magic core. Plus, the magicule fuel was all around you in the air, and if it wasn’t enough, you could just use a handy magic stone to power it. The running time depended on the magicules, but in a rich environment without aggressive operation, it was essentially forever (with maintenance downtimes).
Truly, a miracle power source.
“Well, Rimuru? Surprised?”
“Even we can do stuff like this when we get serious!”
I hated to see Veldora and Ramiris brag, but it really was amazing. Credit where credit is due.
“This is really great. Keep up the good work, guys!”
“Certainly!”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. It’s smooth sailing from here on out!”
They knew they were being complimented. Now I wanted to brag to someone. It wouldn’t be long before our nation had a train system, and after that, our magitrains would start sweeping across the world. It was exciting to imagine.
“So, Boss, there’s something I wanted to discuss…”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“Well, we wanted to hold a friendly icebreaker to celebrate the completion of Magitrain #0, and along those lines, um…”
Ah, a massive, all-out drinking bash and party in the name of a “friendly icebreaker,” huh? And at my favorite nightclub, too, of course. Well, fine.
“Perfect! All right, everyone, let’s drink out the rest of the evening!”
“Aw, thanks, Boss! I know you sponsor that fancy tavern, so I couldn’t go around reserving it just for ourselves.”
Kaijin flashed me a relieved smile. No, it’s not really the kind of place I’d invite busloads of friends to party in. In fact, I don’t think everyone here could even fit inside. Even for Kaijin, money wasn’t necessarily the problem.
“Well, how about I have them set up some outdoor seating? We can close it off to the public for tonight and call it a staff appreciation event.”
Given how well everyone worked with one another already, icebreaker was a misnomer. So I decided to cover the bill for a party to thank them for their efforts. Though, really, to be honest with you, any excuse was fine. There’s no better way to celebrate something than with good drink. Whether it’s a little get-together or a company event, as long as it’s time spent with one another, it’s all the same. And what luck—we happened to be in an elf-run town that was like paradise on earth. Time for everyone to share in the joy and charge our energy for the future.
“Kwaaaah-ha-ha-ha! How understanding of you!”
“““We can’t wait, Sir Rimuru!”””
The staff, just as excited as Veldora, all thanked me in unison, as if they practiced regularly. Even the vampires enjoyed some alcohol—I guess not requiring fresh blood widened their palates a bit.
And in the midst of the celebration:
“This is so great! Now I can drink on someone else’s coin, too!”
“Yes, it’s quite wonderful, isn’t it? But careful you don’t drink too much—”
“None of that, Lady Ramiris! Sir Rimuru told me that underage drinking is strictly prohibited!”
A certain pip-squeak tried seizing the moment to wet her whistle, but she was thankfully stopped in time.NEW COMPANIONS
The demon trampled across the dark realm like a savage beast.
Beyond the Gates of Hell lay a spirit realm one could call the land of the dead, or even hell itself, and there he was annihilating demons, like a living manifestation of violence. The powerless ran screaming, the more powerful banding together to defend themselves, but to that demon, it was just helpless struggling. All foes fell to his might, and his rampage continued.
Demons were a kind of spiritual life-form. If you destroyed the physical body of one, it would self-regenerate over time. Perhaps he knew this, because he held nothing back, showing no mercy to anyone coming his way.
The name of this personification of violence was Diablo.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… It’s been so long since my last visit. Quite a number of chumps have sprung up in the meantime, haven’t they? Assembling a group of these will accomplish nothing. I need to find my old friends.”
His “old friends” were those comparable to him. His mission, during this long journey, was to recruit them.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… I am sure they have what it takes to make Sir Rimuru satisfied!”
With those words, Diablo teleported away and disappeared, leaving nothing but the carcasses of those who failed to correctly gauge his might.
My inspections were complete, and I had a grasp of where we currently stood.
I couldn’t even see the end of rail installation work yet. We were considering three lines for now—from the Dwarven Kingdom to Tempest, from Tempest to the Kingdom of Blumund, and from Blumund to the Kingdom of Farminus. There was also a route that forked south from the line to Dwargon, running past Lake Sisu (stomping grounds of the lizardmen) on its way to Eurazania. In addition, we had to build a highway from the Blumund line to Thalion, which included a tunnel through the Khusha Mountains. A railway along that route would be considered later, but I had to expect it’d come well into the future.
I’d really like to build a railway to the ocean somewhere soon, so we can get seafood for cheaper. Going forward, I also envisioned a trunk line between Blumund and the Kingdom of Englesia—but either way, completing this whole network would take a lot of time, and we still had more trains to develop.
With our test locomotive completed, we were officially over the hump. Now we just had to run that thing to the ground in a trial-and-error test process. We had the exact energy drive I wanted, but development wouldn’t end there. It had to be comfortable to ride in, and we had to eliminate noise concerns for the surrounding areas. These were already quieter than normal steam trains, but the speedier these got, the louder they’d be. A research team led by Kaijin was tackling these smaller details, digging deeper into them and working out theoretical solutions. I wanted his team to record all their proceedings, because I figured it’d help us with future developments. Of course, the magic core was the hardest part, and with that completed, I could let Kaijin handle the rest of the locomotive.
When this project got started, I covered all the expenses with our national budget—even giving them a little more money, as much as it made Mjöllmile’s chins jiggle. I was now an occasional visitor to the project, giving me more chances to befriend the researchers and have in-depth conversations. They were interested in my otherworlder knowledge, apparently, so they’d ask for my opinions on this and that. Anything very tricky, Raphael handled for me—it worked faster than a quantum supercomputer, so any calculation was completed in an instant. No reason not to make use of it.
After work was done, it was time to socialize. Our evening haunts didn’t all have to be high-end nightclubs. If people were encountering walls in their research, we’d hit the city, debating among ourselves and forgetting our problems. I kept up with them late into the night, although I didn’t get paid any overtime, oddly enough. (I should note that our generous budget wasn’t being entirely devoted to the drink tabs. They really were contributing to science and technology, though, so I let it slide a bit.)
By the way, between Veldora, Ramiris, and me, Ramiris was earning the highest salary at the moment. Even subtracting her Dungeon maintenance fees, we were raking in a massive profit from the labyrinth, and she took twenty percent of that. Our initial goal of two gold coins a day now seemed quaint—we were making over twenty on average, the equivalent of at least twenty thousand dollars. Ramiris used her cut to pay Treyni, her sisters, and Beretta, but I reckoned she ended every month up nearly a hundred gold coins.
Veldora and I, meanwhile, were paid equally—one gold coin a day from the national treasury. As master of the labyrinth, Veldora also got an allowance from Ramiris, and since his magicules were a constant boon to us, the treasury sometimes awarded him special payments. Thus, he was definitely making more money than I was. Of course, I had my own hidden revenue streams and business involvements, so I wasn’t exactly destitute, either.
Inspired by everyone’s suddenly impressive work ethic, I resolved to put in more of an effort. First, it was time to get serious about the physical body vessels I promised Diablo. Ramiris was my assistant; we’d also be working on bodies for Treyni’s sisters, and I wanted to get her feedback. She kindly accepted the request, although she was already whining to me about needing more personnel.
“I really need someone to handle all the odd jobs I need, and I have a few other things I wanna ask you for, too. With Treyni and Beretta alone, I can’t quite seem to keep up with all my work…”
I thought she just wanted more people to brag about herself to—but recalling how busy Treyni and the others looked, I reconsidered. Plus, Ramiris wasn’t just my assistant. She had her own mission: craft a new Elemental Colossus.
Its heart, the core of the whole thing, was complete. I had a skeleton and framework in place, as well as a sample Elemental Colossus to work with. I figured we could just proceed based on that, but modifications always take a lot of time. Kaijin’s hands were full with the trains, and Vester was hard at work by himself, picking up his old armored-soldier project again. He was already lending a hand to Ramiris in his spare time, and I worried he was overworking himself a bit. This was going to be built into the completed magic core, so I want to get some test data—and for that, we’d need as many people as possible.
“What about Veldora?”
“Ahhh yes, what about the master, indeed? Whenever I ask him for some detailed piece of work, he disappears…”
I see. Maybe not worth relying upon, then. It makes sense to me. Veldora is Veldora, always busily running from one spot to the next. I thought he’d be a bother to most people, but he actually wasn’t. He was smart, despite his personality, and I suppose he really was helping out a lot. He certainly loved being the center of attention, so instead of asking him to assist Ramiris, I felt it was better to just let him do his own thing.
“All right. I’ll round up someone.”
“Great. Thanks!”
With that promise, I began pondering who to select.
The days then proceeded by, peacefully as ever…until one day, when they came along.
Right in my office, atop my desk, was a huge pile of documents requiring my approval.
I couldn’t guess how long it’d usually take to process all these, but in my case, I left it to Raphael. It nimbly evaluated all the proposals, rearranging them by priority level. It approved or rejected them, and then I applied my stamp, all in a continuous flow. Maybe it wasn’t that taxing, but this kind of rote work was always a pain to me. Silently, I stamped away, wishing Diablo were here to handle this.
Time for a break.
Returning to slime mode, I lazed around on my sofa. This always felt great—the softness of my body and the elasticity of the cushions. Put together, it felt like a ball pit full of feathers. Now that sleeping required a trick or two for me, this was my secret little heaven right here.
Then I heard knocking. I wanted to keep chillaxing for a bit longer, but someone was here. Ah well. Switching to human form, I sat on my chair.
“Come in,” I replied, making sure my pose was just right. The door opened, revealing Shuna. She bowed at me.
“Sir Rimuru, you have a visitor. He gave his name as Deeno, and he says you’d know who he is?”
Just as expected, a visitor was here. But Deeno, though? There was only one Deeno I could possibly know of.
“He’s a demon lord, isn’t he? Part of the Octagram. What’s he here for?”
“A demon lord? Should I ask my brother to assemble our troops, just in case?”
“No, that’s all right. If we come to blows, just get me Benimaru and Shion…but I doubt we will. If I had to guess, he’s come to check things out.”
I reassured the concerned Shuna and stood up. There seemed to be little to worry about. I think Deeno did say he wanted to stop by during the Walpurgis meeting, didn’t he? I kind of ignored it then, but I guess he was serious.
“…Very well. I will make the arrangements.”
With a nod, Shuna guided me to the room where Deeno was waiting. It’s helpful to have a lot of rooms for occasions like this; then you can choose one for the situation. Merchants and the nobility can have ornate parlors; famed monsters or suspicious people can be shown simple but solidly built rooms, if only because they might cause expensive damage otherwise. Thus, Deeno was waiting in a functional, if not very flashy-looking, chamber.
When I came in with Shuna, I found Deeno looking pretty, well, casual. In fact, he was sprawled out on the sofa, taking full advantage despite being a guest. He certainly didn’t care what people thought about him, for better or (likely) worse.
“Hey. Nice to see ya. Doing well?”
He greeted me from the sofa, showing no sign of getting up. Shuna wrinkled her nose but silently bowed and left the room, no doubt to fetch some tea.
“Great, thanks,” I said as I took a seat facing him. “I got a lot of problems to deal with, so things aren’t exactly chill, but…”
I took a closer look at Deeno. He looked just as blasé and unaffected as the last time I met him, but still his attitude suggested I better keep my guard up. No wonder Shuna was wary of him.
“You got problems? That sucks.”
“Yeah, kind of. I’m still pretty new to demon lord-ing, so nothing’s going easy for me yet. But what brings you here?”
“Oh? Me? Well, I said I’d visit you, so here I am.”
His reply was rather brisk—sounded like a lie to me. We both quickly fell into silence, but just then, Shuna came back with some tea and snacks, navigating the quiet chamber like nothing was amiss. Hastily laying everything out, she bowed again and left the room. She really is a professional.
I took a sip of tea and turned my eye toward Deeno. He was the first to relent.
“…Well, to tell you the truth, I got kicked out of Daggrull’s place.”
“Huh?”Yeah, y’know, I’m kind of homeless, so I’d been hangin’ at Daggrull’s joint. I’m also penniless, so…”
Whoa. This is a demon lord? He may be honest, but this guy’s bad news, isn’t he?
“…So I thought about what I oughtta do, and I remembered that Daggrull’s sons had nice things to say about their time in your country. So now I’m lookin’ for a place here!”
I couldn’t show him a single iota of mercy.
“No. You can’t.”
I immediately turned down the request.
“…What?”
“Hmm?”
The room fell to silence again, Deeno reacting like he never pictured me saying no. If he was really that oblivious, that surprised me even more. Yes, I knew him, but I had no obligation to house such a sketchy drifter. Already, I could tell this was the kinda guy who’d never work a day in his life.
“W-wait. I want you to give me a sec, okay? I mean, what do you want me to do? Go die out in the wilderness?”
“No. Get a job.”
“Are you crazy?! To me, staying out of the working class is part of my style. I’ve never earned any of my money the past few hundred years, and I’ve never paid for any of my food or drink!”
Well, there you go. You’re penniless because you don’t work. No wonder you can’t pay at restaurants.
“Wow. Impressive. You can leave after you’re done eating that, okay?”
The sooner someone like this was out of your hair, the better. Ignoring him, I reached out for the snack in front of me, a fluffy cream puff to go with the tea.
Delicious. Doubt I’ll ever grow sick of this.
Deeno looked a bit panicked, but he followed my lead, took a bite—and suddenly, his eyes changed.
“All right. I’ll become a citizen of this country, so let me serve you.”
This nonsense struck me like a lightning bolt.
“What? Look, why are you coming in here, and—?”
“No, I’m serious. If I can eat stuff like this every day, I have no regrets. Rimuru… Um, I mean, let me call you Sir Rimuru. Your wish is my command!”
……
I told him I wasn’t gonna hire him.
“Ughhh… I know we’ve met before and all, but it was just that one time, okay? What do you really want?”
Finishing my cream puff, I gave Deeno a stern look as I sipped my tea. His eyes darted around—a habit he shared with Ramiris, except he wasn’t nearly as cute. But giving up, he shrugged and dropped the couch surfer act.
“Well, the way Guy puts it, I’m probably best off here in this country. He didn’t tell me why, though—he’s selfish like that. It’s a pain in the ass if you defy him, and I really did get kicked out of Daggrull’s place. And I got sick of thinking about it, so I just came over.”
“Guy? That redhead?”
“Yeah. That redhead.”
Hmmm. He didn’t seem to be lying. Guy must’ve actually said that. But why me?
Understood. It is very likely the subject Guy Crimson disliked supporting the subject Deeno and wishes to have you care for him instead.
Dude. Way to be blunt with it. But that did seem likely.
“Oh, right, I got a letter from Guy.”
Deeno took it out and handed it to me. Between the seal and the eerie force oozing from it, I could definitely spot Guy Crimson’s mark. The entire contents of the letter: Take care of Deeno for me.
Guess I wasn’t wrong, then. If Deeno was carrying this around, he must’ve been mooching off Guy for a while. Apparently, I was having the hot potato thrown in my direction now.
“So…we good?”
No, we’re not good!
Irritated, I thought matters over. This was a pain in the ass, but antagonizing Guy was ill-advised. He was on a level of his own among demon lords, and I doubted I could beat him now. It’d be safer, certainly, to accommodate Deeno than tangle with Guy.
So do I just grin and bear it? If I do, I’m not gonna let him screw around. I never invited him as a guest, and I didn’t want to set a bad precedent. Then I remembered: This guy’s subservient to Ramiris, isn’t he? And she said she needed more staff. Maybe this is actually perfect timing. I can’t let my guard down around Deeno, but (whether he meant it or not) he did offer his services, so I may as well reach out and accept them.
Yes. Let’s make him Ramiris’s assistant. I grinned at him.
“All right. But you’re gonna have to work!”
“What did you say?!”
Quit acting so shocked, dude! You told me seconds ago that my wish was your command! Bottling my frustration, I tried to explain the job in question to Deeno.
“Of course, when I say work, it’s really simple, actually. I want you to be an assistant to Ramiris.”
“Ramiris? She’s here, too?”
“She sure is. She’s helping with a lot of my work.”
“Huh? I thought she was like me, just holed up in her labyrinth all day…”
Looks like Deeno thought Ramiris was a kindred soul. I could see why, but these days, she was actually workin’ pretty hard.
“No, she’s pitching in around here now, and between you and me, I think she’s having a lot of fun. I want to focus on development, but I have all these other things keeping me busy, so she’s really a big help to me.”
I’d never tell her that since it’d go to her head, but it was truly how I felt. It stunned Deeno into silence for a bit, but after a few moments, he gingerly spoke up.
“S-so what kinda work would she have me do?”
He sounded really against it. I thought about telling him, but maybe not right now. Better to just put him on the job and teach him whatever he needs to know on-site.
“Well, no need to fret about it. Whatever you’re able to do is welcome. But let me show you to your workplace first.”
“Mmngh… All right. Don’t expect much from me.”
“Hmm? Oh, don’t act that way before you even start. I think you’ll be just fine. Probably you’ll only be following Ramiris’s directions, so…”
With a pang of anxiety still fresh in my brain, I decided to take Deeno to our personal laboratory on Floor 100.
Taking the direct trip there, we proceeded past Veldora’s chambers—the large room he used as his lair for engaging challengers—and his private quarters behind that. He was nowhere to be found, either. I wondered where he went? Probably out goofing around somewhere.
“Dude, why’re there so many magicules around?”
“Oh, that’s Veldora’s room in there. Don’t go in, okay? He’s pretty selfish, so he gets pissy if anyone touches his stuff.”
“Um… Veldora lives here?! I’ve been wondering since the last Walpurgis— How are you two connected, exactly?”
“We’re friends, is all.”
“Friends? You seemed like more than acquaintances to me, yeah, but… Well…”
Deeno was usually a little droopy-eyed, but now they were opened a bit more, out of surprise.
“So that’s why Veldora seemed to disappear from my detection. He was hiding in Ramiris’s labyrinth!”
“Ah, not exactly. He disappeared because he learned how to control his magicules. He used to let his aura pour out of him, so there were tons of magicules all over the place. If I wanted to invite a bunch of visitors in here, I couldn’t really have that, now could I? So I had him practice controlling his aura.”
“Huhhh? Veldora, ruler of the Forest of Jura? And now he’s holding his aura back so well that not even I can detect it? Him?!”
The agitated Deeno must’ve thought I made it sound too easy. But it was the truth.
“Huh? I mean, he was pretty amenable to it. Otherwise, I’d say the majority of people in this city would be having problems right now.”
“Y-yeah, but… I mean, all that magical energy he had… Until the Hero sealed him away, people feared him as this flying disaster, his aura spreading across the world. So why?”
That sounded pretty mean to me, although it was probably the truth. Given his past with Luminus, he must have misbehaved a lot.
“Well, I suppose he’s changed a little. Now, if I ask him to do something, he’ll actually listen to some extent. He’s not that selfish any longer.”
“Didn’t you just say he was selfish a moment ago?”
Oh, did I?
Understood. You did.
Oh.
“Yes, but I mean it’s never that bad. But that aura control, remember…”
In a situation like this, it was best to change the subject as soon as possible. I decided to tell Deeno about what happened when I released Veldora.
“And with his aura, I told him he’d look cooler if he held it back, so he practiced pretty hard. It was tough for me, too, helping him with it.”
It was tough but worth it. Not that we had much choice anyway. As he was, I couldn’t possibly show him around to others.
“R-really? Wow, Rimuru. You definitely live up to my expectations.”
Weren’t you just trying to bum free meals from me? You might try to sound all cool right now, but you can’t trick me.
“I’m amazed you actually managed to tame Veldora,” he continued, still looking impressed. Really, though, Milim’s way more selfish than he ever was, and even she couldn’t mouth off against Frey. Everyone has people they know better than to mess around with.
“Well, Veldora’s hardly the only selfish brat I had to deal with; Milim, too—”
I regaled Deeno with the story of how I met Milim and how intensely unfair she acted toward me. She wasn’t here, so I was free to speak my mind, telling him all about her most recent annoying nonsense. I also told him about some of Veldora’s terrible exploits as well, figuring I could ask him which one he thought was the worst.
There was a lot I had to talk about, and it seemed to put Deeno in a state of shock, unable to even comprehend half of it after a certain point. I never did find out which was the worst in his mind.
In the midst of this, we finally reached my laboratory. Looking inside, I found Veldora himself busily assisting Ramiris—another day of honest work, by the looks of it. Considering how much Ramiris used and abused him, he was proving to be a very loyal dragon.
“V-Veldora…is working?!”
“See? I told you.”
Even with all his complaints, he was still lending Ramiris a hand. He was awfully kind to her—maybe he liked her habit of calling him Master. He always did what I asked him to, in the end, and it was even easier to keep him in line if you buttered him up a little. By dragon standards, he was a pushover.
Vester was there, too, despite his responsibilities modifying the Elemental Colossus on Floor 95. I said we were short on people, so maybe he decided to put my job first? Ramiris and Veldora were having fun, flashing evil grins at each

Slime 11.2

I heard hurried footsteps coming toward us. They didn’t slow down when they reached the door to my office. Instead, the door flew open without a knock.
Only Milim would do this. If anyone besides Milim tried something so rude with me, they’d swiftly face a pummeling at the hands of Rigurd—or in the case of Veldora or Ramiris, no snacks for a week. Today was a special day, however, so I let it slide.
After all…
“R-Rimuru! It’s hatching! It’s about to hatch!”
She had taken to constantly carrying that egg around with her as of late, never letting it go. And she’d been holed up in my nation instead of her own—meaning she wanted easy access to me, in case of complications.
I could tell she was frantic. The avatar core—the egg nestled within the body of Milim’s lifelong friend Gaia—was now beating a rhythm with its faint glow. Clearly, it was a matter of time. Gaia was about to be born as an entirely new sort of monster.
“Kweeeeeeeeeeee!!”
With a few well-placed cracks, a tiny-size dragon burst from the egg. Call it a mini-dragon, if you want—maybe about a foot and a half tall. You’d never guess this was originally a Chaos Dragon.
“…Is that you, Gaia?”
“Kwee, kwee!!”
Girl and dragon hugged each other tight. A tearful reunion.Gaia had wasted no time hatching after Milim burst through the door. Now the greatest danger was past, so presumably she’d be going back home now…or not.
“Right! Time for us to head out on an adventure with Gaia!”
I…was expecting she’d say that, so I had my answer preloaded.
“Isn’t Frey worried about you?”
As Milim’s sort-of guardian, Frey was bound to have a word or two to say about her frolicking around the countryside without her permission. If Gaia was still incubating, that was one thing, but now that the birth went off without a hitch, Milim no doubt had a pile of work waiting for her.
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! No need to worry!”
No need to worry?
Rimuru attacked Milim with Concerned Advice!
But Milim parried the strike!!
I kid, I kid.
But hey, if she says so, I’m not gonna refute her. I had been pretty busy recently cleaning things up post-Maribel. Only now had I regained a little “me” time. Maybe we should all go out and have some fun for a change.
“Besides,” she smugly added, “it’s exactly what she needs. Dragons are apex predators, so she’ll only eat monsters she catches herself, even as a baby. I gotta teach her how to hunt!”
Dragons, she said, didn’t starve that easily. In fact, as long as Gaia had ready access to water and magicules, that was enough to live on. But it wasn’t enough to grow on. If we wanted her to be big and strong, she needed exercise (in the form of battle) and good food (in the form of slain monsters). Hence, Milim explained, the need for a thrilling adventure, right now. To me, it looked like she just wanted to play hooky from Frey again, but in her own way, maybe she was thinking pretty deeply about this.
“All right. In that case, I know the perfect spot.”
“Oh?! The labyrinth, right?”
“You guessed it!”
And in another minute, we kicked off Operation Get Gaia Big & Strong.
But first, we needed some help. I decided to tap Veldora and Ramiris, reassembling the old gang for another labyrinth challenge.
With Gaia among us, we now had a party of five, and even though she was still a newborn, she’d be safe in the Dungeon, or at least much more so than the outside world where God knows what could be waiting for her.
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! We’re all busy right now, but of course we’ll do you a favor! Feel free to tap upon all my powers!”
“Yes, yes, now that we’re here, you’ve got nothing to worry about! Put your mind at ease—Gaia’s in our hands now!”
I was suddenly very concerned.
…No. It’s all right. Just trust them.
Veldora and Ramiris had matured, after all. They could factor people besides themselves into their decisions. And even Milim understood that this was education for Gaia, not playtime; I doubted she’d let herself run too wild.
“All right, let’s go!”
With my shout, we all Possessed our avatars simultaneously, and our adventure began.
Job one was to power-level Gaia. It was Veldora, Ramiris, Milim, and me, with the flight-capable Gaia behind us. As a dragon—in fact, formerly a Chaos Dragon who could’ve destroyed the world—she couldn’t have been a wimp, and she didn’t disappoint. After just a few battles, she had already begun grasping the general idea, spewing wide-range breath attacks at whole groups of foes. Her Chaotic Breath was a thick, concentrated miasma, tinged with a curse that corroded every type of matter. It was close to Rot (part of Belzebuth’s arsenal) in effect, and it was easily strong enough to keep base-level monsters at bay.
Gaia also bore the earth element within her. This ability, writ into her “soul,” made it possible to control gravity. If the Chaos Dragon released from that seal earlier had any sort of intelligence left… I shuddered to think about it. There’d be Chaotic Breath and gravity fields that weighted on you like boulders all over the joint; the fallout would’ve been far, far worse. But that’s in the past. Now Gaia was Milim’s cute li’l pet and our erstwhile companion, nothing to be afraid of.
Then a Blood Boar appeared, a B-ranked monster with powerful kicks who lurked around Floor 30 and below. Its head and shoulders were protected with hard bone and muscle, its outer hide thicker than steel. It was nearly seven feet long, but it could still head-butt you at speeds up to thirty miles an hour. Nothing to trifle with. Run into one in a long, straight corridor, and you’d be up the creek with no easy escape.
But even someone that dangerous was no foe of ours. Gaia promptly broke out her gravitational magic, slowing the Blood Boar’s charge down. Not missing the opportunity, Milim’s single swipe hit at a weak point, felling the beast. The Blood Boar got its name because its mane was dyed red with its foes’ blood, but now it was a kind of staple food for Gaia. It was a pretty good achievement for day one, and I looked forward to her future growth.
We were now a perfect team.
Gaia had a skill called Gravity Field that potentially reduced the effects of physical attacks. Deploying one alongside my Magic Barrier gave us a good debuff for any magic attacks as well. We developed a few team moves like this over the next few days, and before long, Gaia became the keystone to our party battles.
After that, between on-the-field battle practice and Gaia feeding, we had made it down to Floor 49. Awaiting us was Bovix, the boss that gave us so much unexpected trouble last time.
“Kwaaah-ha-ha-ha! Bovix better prepare to be flattened!”
“Yep, yep! I’ll barely even have to lift a finger!”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Now I’m getting pumped up!”
“Kweeeeee!!”
They were all really into it. What? Wasn’t I, too? Don’t be ridiculous. We’re all pitching in for Gaia’s sake, remember. But…you know…maybe a little. Maybe we were having a little fun. But it’s all for Gaia’s education, okay?
It was with that lofty cause in mind that we left the labyrinth after another day of hard work.
“Looks like you’re having fun.”
Waiting at the door was the spine-freezing sight of Frey, with a friendly smile and a couple bulging veins on her forehead.
“Geh…! F-Frey?! W-wait! No! I can explain all this!!”
I didn’t think it was the first time I heard that line. I wonder why? And I had a feeling the rest of this conversation would seem awfully familiar, too.
“You promised me you’d come home after Gaia was born, didn’t you?”
“N-no! Gaia needs me!”
“Yes, I know she does. But is that a good reason to break your promise?”
“But her training…”
“And just like Gaia, you yourself need some training of your own. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“…?!”
She got her.
It was just beyond Milim’s ability to out-debate Frey. No matter how willful and self-indulgent she was, Milim couldn’t beat her. And I had no intention of grabbing that tiger by the tail, either. Who’d ever want to get caught up in that? I mean, all Frey’s giving her is the cold, hard truth.
Milim wound up resorting to whining and carrying on in the end, but it was all fruitless against the iron wall of Frey’s smile as she dragged her away. Which, well, it was Milim’s fault this time, too, so what could I say? If she’d at least let Frey know first, I doubt she would’ve gotten this pent-up about it, but ah well.
“I’ll come back soon!” Milim shouted as she left, but I didn’t think she’d be able to pull that act a third time. She wasn’t being grounded or anything; I’m sure she had Frey’s permission for regular visits, although maybe not for a bit now. Even Frey knew the dangers of not letting Milim take a breather now and then. That’s why she was going easy, but if Milim kept pressing her luck, who knows what’d happen? Not that I should butt into someone else’s family drama, but maybe I should teach Milim the benefits of keeping your coworkers on the same page at all times.
Such were my thoughts as I saw Milim leave. For now, I’d have custody of Gaia. Her unlimited-use Resurrection Bracelet kept her safe in the labyrinth, and she had a ton of food to eat in there. What’s more, I could set my avatar to auto-mode and have it work in tandem with her down there, helping her train. She’s still a bit young for Milim to take over that process, so we planned to transfer her over once she was strong enough.
I thus had a new labyrinth companion.
By the way, I had no way of knowing this, but our party of five wandering the halls was becoming feared as a unique set of bosses. Rumor had it that they’d present themselves with one of two strength levels—the normal one was troublesome enough, but sometimes they’d ratchet it up even further. Essentially, whenever we directly controlled our avatars, we were treated as a nightmare beyond anyone’s ability. I’d only learn about that a little while later.
If we kept playing down there while Milim was gone, we’d never hear the end of it. She’d tell right away from how our avatars grew while we had auto-mode turned off, and even without that, she had a sixth sense for that kinda thing. It’s like playing with fire.
So let’s go over some of the more serious things I’ve been working on.
One urgent piece of business was establishing rules for our dealings with the Western Nations. As demon lord and leader of the Jura-Tempest Federation, I had final say on pretty much anything within my borders. I left some of that to Rigurd and the rest, but the most important matters required my confirmation.
I had a lot of power, really—our judicial system, legislation, and administration ran on my complete discretion. I held sway over all three, giving me supreme authority over all affairs of state. I was also commander-in-chief, running the main keystone of our nation; one order and I could send the whole army on the march, and any officers could only be appointed with my approval. We were a federation in name only—I was a de facto despot.
Of course, in practice, I spread these responsibilities around a bunch. Our administration was entirely Rigurd’s field, and Benimaru, serving as my agent, enjoyed full control of the military. We were in the midst of fielding talented new people to serve as their assistants.
Meanwhile, Rigurd had been studying the concept of a three-branch government. Rugurd, Regurd, and Rogurd, all former goblin elders, each held the top position in our judicial, legislative, and administrative branches, respectively. But there was a problem. The whole idea of a three-branch system was that every branch had checks and balances over the other. The legislative setup of Japan was no exception. But in our case, the border between legislative and administrative was far too vague, and I had no idea what to do about it.
For one thing, we needed to establish an actual legislature. I decided to divide this into an upper and lower house. I’d name the members of the upper house, and we’d vote on the lower house members—that kind of thing. An appointment to the upper house was for life, unless you caused some kind of problem and were unseated, but only votes could get you into the lower house. Elections, of course, aren’t easy things. It would be a trial-and-error process for us.
It’d be the legislative branch’s sole job to enact laws, and the administrative’s to follow them and run the nation. I wanted our administration to be loaded with talent. Looking at the Japanese government, even if the prime minister changed out pretty frequently, the bureaucrats behind the nuts-and-bolts operation of the country were like steadfast mountains (barring recent events). I needed people with the perseverance to doggedly build up long-lasting policies over time, never throwing in the towel. Long-term projects often grew a lot of fat on them, and administrators could always get bought off and do nefarious things, but I hoped that everyone keeping a careful watch over matters would prevent that.
For these administrative positions, I recommended the elders of the assorted species associated with Tempest. Those too advanced in age to serve could name representatives to fill in for them. Going forward, I thought we’d see this evolve into a meritocracy. For now, we still needed to talk about alleviating opposing interests between races, but in the future, I imagined there’d be more of a sense of unity, of a single nation of Tempestians. It’d take time, but I wanted our nation’s policy to be peaceful reconciliation.
That’s fine and all, of course, but there was an issue. A lot of the talent pool for this kind of thing belonged to the weaker species, while the heads of the more warlike races weren’t suited for working with complex written documents. This was kind of a big problem. Should I focus on our strength as monsters or on our intelligence and willingness to cooperate with humans? The question agonized me.
No matter their muscle, I couldn’t give major authority to the lawless. This was public knowledge around Tempest, and the beefier Tempestians were kind enough to be satisfied with military posts for me. But that meant they had no authority to speak about our administration’s direction, and depending on how our policies went, that might sow some discord later.
Our legislative leaders would gather feedback from the people and stamp their seal of approval on it. But if our administration was run by the brainiest of the brainy among our weaker races, the stronger ones could stand to lose their civil rights. Even now, I could see the discontent that’d result. A government administrator had a heavy task. They had to manage the nation’s budget, taking command over the massive amount of riches flowing into Tempest. Mjöllmile was our top man in finances, but he alone wasn’t enough to catch any discrepancies. Our administration also had to oversee how our land was apportioned out. I wanted proper zoning and development, but that whole process looked easy to muck up. To prevent logjams, they needed the authority to send out orders under my name.
Finally, the judicial system. The judiciary’s most important job was to deliver justice for arrested suspects. Policing came under the authority of the administration, but all three branches would have the power of arrest—one of the checks and balances. The judiciary had to judge them in courts, and that meant it had to be the most impartial branch of all, not listening to public feedback and solely protecting the legal order. Judging by the law, and not from your gut, is a lot harder than it looks, and keeping tabs on that was another consideration that gave me a headache.
So Rigurd and I were studying hard in order to flesh out our three-branch system.
The legislature would listen to the people, talk things over, and enact laws. Being consistent with this would help us pursue an open government. For the administration, we were training Rigurd and other talents to serve as bureaucrats. I also wanted to hurry along the establishment of a law enforcement agency, in order to strengthen the authority of our nation’s core organizations. Benimaru’s military, as well as Soei’s Team Kurayami intelligence unit, answered only to me. To keep from duplicating orders and causing confusion, I decreed that they didn’t need to follow the administration’s commands—along those lines, I planned to appoint a fairly big name to lead our public prosecutor’s office.
That left one more thing: a problem with our judiciary. Running an impartial court could easily make our judges into targets. If I wanted to be thorough with this, I needed people with not just intellectual skill but physical strength. Our judges would have bodyguards, of course, but that still left me with concerns. Anyone who did something like attack a judge out of spite would absolutely get the death penalty, but some attackers may just be willing to accept that. Monsters are far stronger than people. No matter how well guarded you were, you could be lunged at in a flash. Thus, I preferred that our judges had some strength of their own to work with.
“Hmm… In that case, I’d be worried about Rugurd by himself.”
“Indeed. He’s my right-hand man in every way, but in terms of muscle, he’d lose out to an army lieutenant. Rogurd would never let your average youth beat him, but…”
Rugurd could be a calculating schemer, but in his decisions, he was completely above the board. The judge’s bench was the perfect position for him, but if push came to shove, he wasn’t strong enough to defend himself. Rogurd definitely could hold his own one-on-one against an army captain, though. Shame he was already exercising his authority over our assorted government organizations right now. Transferring him to the judiciary would be tough.
“Also, you know, I’d really like to establish a public prosecutor’s office in our administration. Gobta and the gang can keep tabs on criminal activity around the nation, but doing the same for our leaders and legislators is asking a little too much, isn’t it?”
“Yes, you’re right. In addition to our diverse array of monsters, we have a number of well-known magic-born visiting our lands. The Founder’s Festival has attracted many powerful fellows to the city as well. They could potentially cause all kinds of strife.”
The Founder’s Festival had a lot of positive impacts for us. It also attracted a bunch of would-be strongmen with a penchant for violence. That was, in a way, what we aimed for, but some of those fools couldn’t keep their brawling inside the labyrinth. Our security team had beefed up its forces since Gobta’s return, but to Rigurd, that didn’t seem like enough.
“You mean magic-born who are A rank or so?”
“Just a few, but yes. They didn’t show any outward signs of violence, but I do think we should stay on our guard.”
He was right. Better to be prepared. There was wide variance between people’s abilities to fight, so if we waited until a magic-born went berserk, it’d be too late.
“So a prosecutor and a judiciary…and we still need to decide who to send as our Council of the West representative. Everybody’s already got enough on their plates, so I hate to make any unwise personnel shifts…”
“It could lead to potential chaos, indeed.”
Mmm… A lot of headaches. Our systems were starting to fall into place, our laws being enacted…but our mechanism for keeping the whole thing running was still weak. And don’t get me started on all the unfilled posts. I know this is one of the harmful side effects of growing so fast, but what I’d give for some more people…
But no point stewing over people who weren’t there. I needed a change of pace, so I decided to make a couple field trips to our worksites.
Geld’s construction of a new capital for the former Beast Kingdom of Eurazania was proceeding smoothly. All the foundational work was already done—the stakes driven into the bedrock, the magically reinforced concrete kept in place by rebar and steel frames—and seeing it was awe-inspiring.
Magic-infused solid rock provided more merits than simply being sturdier. It emitted its own wavelength of magical force, allowing it to repel lower-level magic. You couldn’t transport it with gravity-reduction spells, which was a disadvantage, but that merit still made it worth the trouble. Once that huge, towerlike palace is completed, it’ll be impervious to most magical attacks, whether from the outside or inside.
On the site, I could see gigantic blocks of cut-out and polished magical rock, several hundred times harder than concrete, lined up in rows. In the middle, supported by this foundation, was a support column that thrust into the heavens; blocks were suspended from it to construct the outer walls. The scale was so gigantic that even this column struck a dizzying presence. People darted around like ants; everything looked out of scale, proving just how massive this structure was.
“Well, hello, Sir Rimuru! Thank you so much for coming.”
Geld ran up to me, grinning as he greeted me. I had used Dominate Space to transport myself here, not wanting to get in the way of things, but Geld must’ve noticed me anyway.
“Hey, Geld. Long time no see. I’m glad to see everything’s going well.”
“Ha-ha-ha! Thank you very much. I’m sure everyone will be delighted to hear that from you!”
His cheerful laughter echoed across the site, much to my relief. He wouldn’t be acting that way if things were awry. You can only enjoy your job if you’re working in a bright, happy atmosphere.
“No, I mean it. This is better work than I imagined. It almost feels like you’ll be done early, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, and I can only think it’s because we’ve all opened up to each other.”
As Geld explained, he had been thinking for a while after our previous discussion. He took his thoughts to the POW magic-born, going around and listening to their complaints and grumbling. If someone just doesn’t care, then nothing you can say will reach their heart. Geld wasn’t the type to rule by force; instead, he started by learning everyone else’s thoughts.
“A lot of them feared their future treatment. Given how they openly warred against you, Sir Rimuru, they worried they’d all be done in once construction was completed.”
“Huh? There’s no way I’d do that.”
“Of course not. We all know you’re not that sort of coldhearted demon lord. But they are new to all this, and they didn’t know your nature, so I imagine they still had their concerns. So I told them all about my own experiences…”
To be exact, he told them about my battle against the orc lord and what became of the orcish armies under him. The magic-born seemed only half ready to believe it, but there were many high orcs on the construction team, and they all backed up Geld’s story, helping ease any doubts.
“Some of them said you were being too much of a pushover, Sir Rimuru. So I said to them, so what? If you can’t even defeat me in battle, how are you going to rebel against a demon lord? That quieted them all down.”
Geld grinned.
If this were Shion or Diablo, they might’ve blown their top and brutally murdered any magic-born who said that. Again, it showed me just how broad-minded Geld was.
So he had managed to open the hearts of our former POWs. Once a week, he said, he rewarded their efforts with wine and a tasty spread. Now they were cooperating as one, all smitten by Geld’s sheer manliness. They really felt like they were being useful, which was the biggest thing of all. If they thought their work wasn’t being recognized, it’d kill their self-esteem.
Hard work not only freed them from being prisoners, it also showed them the joy of a job well done. It should be obvious, but this was far more efficient than any kind of forced labor.
So the higher-level magic-born’s cooperation was providing us with a huge boost. With the increased labor force, we no longer had staff shortages. Work started to just hum along, and so construction was going faster than I expected. Compared with a building job in my old world, the pace was kind of frightening. In fact, there really was no comparison. All this with no heavy machinery, driven by elbow grease alone!
It really made you take a step back—but then again, one look at the worksite quelled all questions. Common sense never applied to magic-born. Some could take weights of several tons and just heft them on their shoulders, all by themselves. Any scrap material or rock could be pulverized with a single fist. Flight was a given with these guys, so safety at lofty heights was never a concern. Any regulations drafted with humans in mind simply didn’t apply.
I just had to nod, in awe, and accept it. No wonder this was going so fast.
And this wasn’t the only building site.
In war, deploying in multiple directions at once is usually ill-advised but not with construction. We decided that a multitiered plan that followed a certain order would be more efficient. It’d train our combat engineers as well, so I left teams of crewmen to our commanders, assigning them areas to cover.
To be exact, we now had four distinct construction departments—one in Dwargon, one in Englesia, one in Eurazania, and one in Thalion.
In Dwargon, we already had a complete highway in place. The inns serving it were finished, the roads widened to allow for a dedicated magitrain rail line. We were even hiring adventurers as day laborers—wherever work’s available, people come soon after, so things were pretty busy over there.
Next, Englesia. Things here were about the same as Dwargon. We had built the highway there on the wider side as well, so rails were being laid down. That work would be completed soon.
Construction over on Eurazania came last. We were expanding the highway right now, taking care to preserve the local ecosystem as we did. Any trees cut down during construction were slated for use in the building of the new capital, so we were fine-tuning our transport logistics.
Thalion, meanwhile, was slow going. We had to start by clearing out forest land, so we were experiencing more delays than I thought. I’d assigned high orcs to handle this task as they were capable of carrying things around via their Stomachs. The high orcs were the most skillful group for this, so simply making a road wasn’t a problem. However, they also had to transport the trees they felled, and that required labor. Once things wrapped up in Eurazania, we planned to shuttle the staff over to Thalion to help out. For now, at least, they would open a path in the forest. We could take our time paving the highway later on. Opening the planned tunnel and installing rails were both projects we decided to put off for later.
That was the state of things in the four regions.
Not everyone agreed with a magitrain line between us and the Dwarven Kingdom. Some people feared the possibility that we’d misread the Eastern Empire’s moves and let information on the project leak out. They could potentially steal the magitrain plans and use them against us in a military invasion, a kind of double-edged sword. We could also have the rail lines we spent so much time on get torn up and destroyed.
Others suggested that we should be focusing our building efforts on things like anti-Empire military outposts. The highway’s largest lodging facility was on the site where the road met the Ameld River; they wanted this reworked into more of a fortress city. I gave it some thought but opted against it. It seemed pointless. There was no telling how the Eastern Empire would move yet, so I hesitated to add further needless work to our plates. Even now, with more workers on hand, we still had tons to do—I didn’t want to divert labor to more low-priority projects.
That didn’t mean we weren’t on alert. We didn’t take action because we assumed the Empire would do nothing—instead, if they ever seriously decided to confront us, we’d simply crush them with everything we had. I had no interest in extended mind games here; it’d be stupid to stay on hyperalert for ages on end. Depending on what they did, I was ready to use our full powers to bring any conflict to a very quick resolution. My cabinet and I reasoned that was the cleanest way to go at it.
Yes, we did need to worry about damage to our railways and so on, but if it happens, we can always rebuild. We couldn’t delay development because we were scared of potential future events—the angels’ attack, for one. No matter who’s confronting us, we weren’t about to step down. If the enemy comes riding in, we annihilate them and start building again.
We needed to consider protecting ourselves, but really, our greatest asset wasn’t things. It’s people. If we keep our workers safe, we’re good. And after pursuing that plan, I found that our construction work was going at a shockingly fast clip.
My final stop on this impromptu inspection trip was the Kingdom of Farminus.
As promised, Yohm had recruited a team to handle the preliminary work for a magitrain line. They had picked sites for the rail line, according to the report I read, and surveying had just been completed. I figured they’d get to work on that after the harvest season was over, but Yohm—or Mjurran, really—made this a bigger priority.
“Why wouldn’t I?” she said with a smile. “We know how rich we can get off the foreign currency we receive for our crops. If we should ever have a famine, that’s enough money to easily provide food support. I would absolutely hate to see your magitrains ready to deploy and us without any railways to support them.”
She was more passionate about the project than I was. As the queen of Farminus, she was now taking an active policy making role for her kingdom.
“Ha-ha-ha! Guess I don’t even have to be here, eh? This is more up Rommel’s alley anyway. He’s runnin’ things on-site.”
Yohm grinned as he introduced me to Rommel, a man I had seen a few times before—the sorcerer on Yohm’s team during his adventuring days, if I recall. He looked nervous as he updated me on their current status, unfurling a map detailed enough to be classified material and explaining in detail where the highway would go. It had all been surveyed to the level of detail I requested, and I had promised to make the final checks, so I quickly headed over, examining the whole path before the day was through.
“There’s still a few kinks we need to work out, but overall it makes the grade. You wrote down exactly who’s responsible for each section, right?”
“Yes, Sir Rimuru, we’ve procured everything as you outlined to us.”
“Okay. Then have the people running this section, this section, and also this section investigate these spots for me again.”
It seemed to me personnel training was going well here. They had a complete project map in place, all within permissible levels of accuracy. Some of the teams weren’t quite all there yet, but I could tell they were diligently studying their craft. If they could look things over one more time, I was sure they’d recognize their own mistakes. A bit of tough love, maybe, but I couldn’t get lazy here. Maybe we’d have computer precision if I did everything, but that’d be meaningless. I wanted them to earn the achievement of doing this themselves. It’d help raise the next generation of engineers.
At this rate, I didn’t think the fixes would take much time. We could likely push construction up a bit. I’d probably need to ask Kaijin soon to get our automatic magical generators ready for them. These generators were real impressive, all but guaranteeing the safety of travelers on the highway to Blumund. Since they operated as stone slabs reacting to magicules, they served as guideposts for the highway as well. Tempest’s visitors liked them a lot, as did our soldiers who ran the highway patrol. The magicule count around Farminus wasn’t as high as the Forest of Jura, but we planned to put the generators in regardless.
Yohm and his court gave us a warm welcome that day.
“I gotta love how you’re still swaggerin’ around by yourself everywhere. Doin’ whatever ya want, huh, pal? I’m jealous.”
The drunken Yohm seemed pretty serious about that. But he misread me. I wasn’t alone.
“I’ve got Ranga with me, actually.”
“You called, Master?!”
He popped his face from out behind my shadow.
“Whoa! You were there? You startled me…”
“I’m sure he did. I doubt many people could hope to lay a finger on a demon lord, but it is the duty of any humble servant to be concerned for his master’s safety. It is true for me as well, my liege, and I hope you will consider acting more like the king you are.”
“Yeah, sure, Edgar. You know I’m gonna be free of this job once yer grown enough, right?”
Edgar was the son of Edmaris, the previous king. He seemed intelligent enough, and I certainly couldn’t doubt his lineage. Yohm, apparently, still felt a little like he usurped the throne of his own country, so he was keen on naming someone from the mainline royal family as his crown prince.
“Don’t be silly, Your Majesty! You know Queen Mjur is with child, and it is only natural that they will inherit the throne next! And it is my humble dream to serve this new ruler someday, so please refrain from any statements that could be interpreted as encouraging a succession battle!”
It sounded like Edgar had no interest in being king. But suddenly I wasn’t so concerned about that.
“Whoa, wait a second. Did you just drop some big news on me?”
I was about to give Ranga a big, meaty bone when my hand stopped. Queen Mjur was with child? Yes, it was pretty simple for a human and a high-level magic-born to produce offspring, but…
“Your Majesty,” Edgar began with a roll of the eyes, “after everything Sir Rimuru has done for you, you still haven’t informed him of the pregnancy?”
“Aw, but I was too embarrassed—”
“And it seemed awkward for me to break the news, so…”
Those two really were made for each other. But didn’t monsters and magic-born get weaker upon giving birth? Would Mjurran be okay?
“That won’t be a problem,” she briskly replied. “I was originally human, after all. And I may weaken, yes, but at this point in my life, strength means little. I’ll retain all my magic and knowledge, so it will hardly be much of a hindrance.”
“And by the way, that Gruecith still ain’t recovered from the news. Guess it was too much of a shock for the guy…”
Ah. I was wondering why I hadn’t seen him at all. But hey, there’s plenty of fish in the sea, y’know? Not that it was for me to comment on anyway. There’s never really been a significant other in my life. It’s something Gruecith’s was gonna have to tackle himself.
“Well, um, my condolences to him. Are your knight corps doing okay despite that?”
Diablo had managed to tame the bloodthirsty rebel forces of the past. I didn’t think there was much to worry about, but if their captain was in that state of affairs, it gave me pause.
“Ahhh, it’s going fine. His pals are still around, and I tell ya, Razen’s really pullin’ his weight, too. Livin’ legend is right, I guess. He’s constantly impressin’ me.”
Oh, right. Razen was here. Diablo had made a servant out of him, but it sounded like he was working hard in Farminus. Of course, Diablo’s unique skill Tempter had forged a mortal contract between the two of them, so a betrayal from him was out of the question.
“Yes,” said Edgar, eyes shining like the boy he was, “and Sir Razen’s still got the energy to go around the country, inspecting and observing matters. He contacts us magically on regular occasions, and if the weeds of unrest ever show themselves, he immediately uproots them for us!”
It sounded like Razen was pretty popular in Farminus. To me, who had mostly just heard about him, I thought Razen did some pretty inhumane things—but when it came to protecting his nation, he was absolutely the man to count on.
I saw no need to dredge up past issues, so I listened to Edgar describe him. It was interesting, hearing about things from someone else’s perspective. The winners write the history books, as they say, and the losers come out with nothing. To the citizens of Farminus, though, King Edmaris and Razen were the good guys. If I had lost the battle against the Farmus forces, right now I’d be touted as a fiendish warlord leading an apocalyptic horde of monsters. I didn’t want to look down on anyone, but that’s the kind of freedom winning got you.
Along those lines, the new nation Yohm established could be classified as a pretty big success. The more talented people in office beforehand were still maintaining their roles, keeping the nation well administrated and discontent at a minimum. They were also controlling the media to keep us from gaining a bad reputation, and Tempest was now seen as a friendly partner. At this rate, any prejudice against monsters was bound to dissipate over time. Diablo’s talents really shone here, I think. He gave me pretty much the exact results I wanted. I guess he’s just that good at reading people.
So everything was going according to plan. That gladdened me, and I rounded out the night talking merrily with Yohm and everyone else.
While I was at work, Ramiris and Veldora were apparently tackling something of their own. Once I returned from my inspection run, they were waiting together to greet me. With them, it’d either be a major problem or something they wanted to brag about, and this time it was the latter.
“We’ve done it, Rimuru! We’ve competed our test unit. If the tests end successfully, we can begin mass-producing these with haste!”
“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm! And lemme tell ya, I’m brimming with confidence about this! C’mon, check it out!”
I let them hurry me along.
Tempest currently had several research sites in operation. One was the workshop of Kurobe and his apprentices, open to the public. Much of their R and D was stuff that had no value if stolen, unless you had someone with Kurobe’s talents. The special weapons I enlisted them for were an exception, but for the most part, we revealed all the weapons and armor created in there. A little advertising never hurt, and we had decided to release this stuff with a splash, introducing a spring line and everything. I wanted to mold “Kurobe” and “Garm” into real, established brands someday.
But we were headed elsewhere, to a facility handling a range of research kept classified by the government. We needed an easily guardable site that regular people couldn’t get inside, and so we focused on inside the Dungeon.
On Floor 100 was Tempest’s publicly funded R and D center, led by Gabil, along with individual research spaces for Ramiris, Veldora, and me. We had another large facility on Floor 95, inside the park we established on that level. The beastman refugees were no longer there, and we had a huge amount of space, so I figured we may as well take advantage. We had alchemists from Dwargon, sorcerous researchers from Thalion, and vampire researchers with too much time on their hands from Lubelius assembled in Tempest, and we needed a large-scale facility to house them all.
Each of them brought their own specialized talents. The dwarven alchemists were gifted in spirit engineering, the field that birthed the magic-armor soldier project Kaijin and Vester were once involved with. In this world, natural phenomena were thought of as tied to the spirits—the five base elemen

Slime 11.1

OBSERVATION, RESEARCH, RESULTS
In one corner of an opulent mansion, a shady-looking group was relaxing on sofas surrounding a table. The site was a base used by the Cerberus secret society in the West, run by Misha the Lover, one of the group’s bosses.
The woman attending to Misha provided tea for the guests, bowed, and left the room. That was the signal for the conference to begin.
“Ah, I see. It went well, then?” Listening to the report, Yuuki Kagurazaka smiled broadly.
“He went exactly the way you said he would, Boss! And I thought for sure Laplace messed it up at first…”
“Hoh-hoh-hoh! Laplace is a careful man, but he’s not a born negotiator, after all.”
“Whoa, hang on! I’m better’n any of you guys!”
Teare and Footman only seemed to be on the same page when they were picking on Laplace. He complained loudly about it but wasn’t truly offended. It was just some friendly banter.
“Well, it all worked out, didn’t it? I’m just glad you managed to keep your cool with Leon right in front of you.”
“Yeah. ’Cause honestly, I half expected you’d resort to violence in there.”
If it did, all it meant was cutting off ties with the demon lord Leon. Now that they had decided to lay off the Western Nations for a while, Yuuki laughed the concept off as no great shakes.
“He was a terrible man, I tell ya,” the dejected-looking Laplace said. “But why’d you have me tell him about the kids anyway?”
Yuuki shot him a half grin. “Oh, it’s nothing, really. Leon’s trying to collect ‘incomplete’ kids, and I’m all but certain that’s so he can expand his fighting power…but part of me wondered if there’s something else behind it, you know?”
“Ah. So you wanted to reveal to him that the demon lord Rimuru has five of them?”
“Not just that. We can still only guess at how Leon’s treating these kids, you know? Rimuru saved them by showing them how to handle spiritual force, but Leon doesn’t know about any of that. So I was interested to see how he’d react to these children he thinks are doomed to die pretty soon.”
“I see… That is a curious question, yes. And depending on his reaction, we can try predicting his next move.”
“Right. For now, we’ve got nothin’. We needed to jolt ’im a little, I suppose.”
“Yeah, you see? I mean, it was more out of curiosity than anything, though. That’s just how I am. I sweat the small stuff.”
Kagali and Laplace could appreciate that. As Yuuki said, he was worrying himself too much about this…but if they wanted to peer into Leon’s intentions, that piece of info was a useful way to do it.
What if the demon lord Leon took action? He wasn’t rash enough to take on Rimuru just to gain five more fighters for his side. The risk of riling him far outweighed the potential boost to his forces. Leon was smart enough to see that. Normally, then, he’d let these children be—but what if he didn’t? If he didn’t, it meant Leon had some other goal in mind.
“However,” Kagali said, “I doubt Leon would do anything drastic just for the sake of a few children.”
“You don’t think? ’Cause I leaked info on that war and got nothin’ but funny looks for it. Was I wastin’ my time?”
It would have been pretty interesting if Leon made a move, but the chances of that were low. Kagali and Laplace saw the wit of Yuuki’s idea, but both assumed that it wouldn’t amount to much.
All Yuuki could do in response was grin at them. “Yeah, like I said, I’m sorry. But unless you massaged it like that, it would’ve been weird if you just talked about the kids out of nowhere. If you started with that, then with your acting skills, I dunno…”
He paused. But his intentions came across well enough to the group.
“I hate to say it, but it’s true. Footman’s too tongue-tied and short-tempered, Laplace is shallow and fishy-looking, and I alone could never have pulled it off.”
Teare, acting entirely blameless, made Laplace roll his eyes and Footman sneer at her. This, too, was often how their conversations went. But then Teare seemed to recall something.
“Maybe I’m overthinking it like you said, Boss, but there’s something that bothered me a little, too.”
“Oh? What’s that?”
“Well, when Footman rattled off the list of goods, Leon was all—”
“Leon?”
“He asked about the names again. When Footman said Scoey Colbert, he replied along the lines of ‘Are you sure it’s Scoey and not Chloe?’ If he claimed that the names didn’t matter, I don’t see why he would even care, but…”
“Ah, he’s just high-strung like that, y’know? He fusses over the details.”
“Hoh-hoh-hoh! So irritating, isn’t it? Maybe he was just poking some fun at my pronunciation.”
Laplace and Footman saw no major concern. Yuuki and Kagali, meanwhile, exchanged looks.
“What do you think?”
“I doubt he would’ve reacted if he truly didn’t care.”
“Yeah, but really, there’s no way he… That’s just too much of a coincidence, isn’t it?”
“Well, if it’s fate we’re dealing with, there’s no such thing as never, you know…”
“So you think he really…?”
“It would indicate to me that yes, the demon lord Leon’s primary goal is that girl Chloe.”
“Seriously?”
Yuuki looked stunned. If that possibility was correct, it meant they had just inadvertently tossed away their upper hand against Leon. Kagali, meanwhile, was even more frustrated. The anger was written all over her face. If that was Leon’s goal all along, then her comrade Clayman wouldn’t have had to be killed.
“Um… Huh?”
Teare couldn’t hide her surprise at the unexpected possibilities that sprung from her observation. But it was the cold, heartless truth.
“Are you kidding me?”
“Is that what you really think?”
Yuuki and Kagali were born schemers; that much was true, but not even they had insight into everything. They always thought two or three steps ahead, ensuring they could handle any situation that arose after failure. Laplace knew that well, but even he thought they were overreacting this time—and Footman solemnly nodded his agreement.
“Well, it’s still just a possibility. Not one we can afford to ignore, but nothing’s set in stone yet.”
“So your curiosity didn’t cost us anything after all, huh, Boss?”
“Cost? Hell, it might’ve earned us a hell of a lot!”
“Right. I don’t want to expect too much, but if things turn out that way, wouldn’t it be pretty fun? And if we work things right, we could use this to pit a couple of annoying demon lords against each other. That’s a win-win on our end, I’d say.”
“Yeah. It’s not like it matters to us who wins in that case. Let’s just frame this as more fun in the wings.”
“Hoh-hoh-hoh! I still think we’re overreacting, but it’s no harm done.”
“Well, no need to go overboard on the expectations. It’s not like everything’s gonna go the way we want it, y’know?”
Laplace, sensing everyone relaxing a bit on the issue, attempted to sum matters up. Once the group nodded in understanding, it was time to move on to a different subject.
Misha called for her attendant and got another round of tea going.
“So how ’bout you update us on your stuff, Boss?” Laplace asked after a brief break.
“Yeah… I’m concerned about the Chloe thing, but we can focus more on that later. Let’s move on to the main topic.”
Yuuki nodded at Laplace and took a sip. Then he smiled and went over the fruits of his negotiations.
While Laplace and his cohorts were dealing with Leon, Yuuki’s side was involved in high-level talks of their own—with the shadowy figure that ran the Western Nations. The topic: how to clean up after the whole Maribel affair.
“As you all know, the cover story is that I was under Maribel’s control, so she’s taking the entire blame for this.”
“Ah, and now you’re workin’ to back up that story?”
“Exactly. I mean, if I was under her thrall, I couldn’t really head out to the Eastern Empire, could I?”
“No, you’re right.”
“Yeah.”
“I thought that was kind of off, too.”
“Regarding this Avarice power, it was a toss-up whether I’d be able to grab it from her. More than that, my main aim was just to get Maribel killed—after she was, I’d be free to move around again. So once I firmed up that position for myself, I thought it was time to negotiate with the venerable Granville Rozzo.”
Yuuki’s sights had been aimed squarely at Maribel. He needed to distract her so he didn’t completely lose his position in the West—and eventually, that distraction led to her death. With her out of the picture, Yuuki had his free will back, and anything nefarious he did before could be framed as Maribel’s orders. And it worked. Maribel was gone, and Yuuki had obtained powers far beyond what he expected. The negotiations went similarly well—and what he heard there was the main reason why Yuuki called for this meeting.
“So if you don’t mind me starting at the conclusion, we have one more job to do before we head east.”
He glanced at the surprised faces surrounding him, trying to look serious.
“Got that? Now let me give you all the details, start to finish.”
With that, Yuuki began describing his conference with Granville.
We were at peace. And in Rimuru, the capital of Tempest, every day was packed for me.
Once things calmed down a bit, I sent out another ruins expedition team, but they didn’t find a body or anything. Either Yuuki was telling the truth, and she blew herself up, or he’d done something with her. Regardless, any issues stemming from this incident had already been swept away. Maribel was a princess of the Kingdom of Seltrozzo, but spreading word that she attacked us in the ruins would just aggravate the situation. So I contacted Seltrozzo on the sly and had them chalk it up as an “accident,” something made possible by our mutual desires to keep it from becoming a Big Thing. Once you’re an old-enough royal family, “accidents” are just part of the package, so our arrangements went pretty smoothly.
Still, their king and queen just seemed so emotionless to me. Under those parents, I could see why she relied on her knowledge from her past life so much. Had Maribel gotten to enjoy a normal, innocent childhood in her new life, would things have turned out differently? I couldn’t help but wonder, as much of a what-if thing that was.
And that brings me to the Five Elders. Granville Rozzo—eldest of them all, boss of the Rozzo family—was the real puppet master pulling Maribel’s strings. I’d been steeling myself for some kind of retribution toward us, but there had been nothing. Perhaps they were admitting they were up to some no-good antics and decided not to respond as long as we kept our mouths shut. It’d been over a month, actually, and Granville had kept mum—and that was more than enough time for our needs, too.
Taking advantage of Soei’s information and grasping the goings-on in the Western Nations underground, we were now sure there was no greater threat over there than the Rozzos. We did pick up on a few groups of interest—along the same lines as the Sons of the Veldt, that mercenary team—but it wasn’t clear whether any of them shared in our interests. If they were clearly hostile, that was another matter, but we had no reason to rile them. I didn’t want to go prodding any hornet’s nests I didn’t have to, so I decided to just keep tabs on their movements.
We were on good terms with the Free Guild and enjoyed the backing of the Western Holy Church. Really, I don’t think any organization was big enough by now to pick a fight with us. It was only natural, then, that Tempest was now leading the largest faction in the Council of the West.
At the start of another peaceful afternoon, we were holding our regular cabinet meeting. In what amounted to the blink of an eye, our nation had all but taken the place of the Five Elders…and maybe that’s why we had this pile of new issues to deal with.
The Council of the West, after all, played an enormous rule in establishing consensus among the Western Nations. Councillors voted on measures to enact, which basically meant that the more councillors you sent, the more of a say you had. Now that I had at least some goods on every nation in there, though, the group’s members looked upon our representatives as mediators of sorts. Our rising influence in the West thus meant the number of complaints and petitions sent our way was skyrocketing. Talk is cheap, of course, and apparently a lot of people were taking advantage of the bargain to push their pet projects.
This is exactly why world domination is such a stupid idea. I don’t think you get a single chance to take it easy if you’re in a ruling position. Now I understood why the other demon lords didn’t seem to care much about lands outside their boundaries. If you wind up inadvertently taking over some destitute area or another, you’re obligated to address whatever people are dissatisfied about there. People talk about eliminating disparities like it’s easy, but from the eyes of the one doing it, it never went that way.
The right way, I imagine, is to take that region’s assets—their labor, their resources—cover the expenses, and redistribute the resulting profits. You want to be careful with siphoning in wealth from other regions, because you might start to have real inequality on your hands then. Now that our nation led the largest faction, the other nations were looking for payback. We can shut them out for now, but before very long, we’re bound to have an opposition on our hands.
The question now became who we’d send to the Council as our permanent representative. We needed someone smart, sociable, and possessing a certain amount of charisma. Ideally, someone with the force to talk someone into submission, but…
“Also, sorry, but I’m out.”
With this sort of thing, the first person to speak up wins. I will admit to having the gift of gab, but I had zero intention of taking on more trouble for myself.
“I’m not sure I can, either,” Benimaru said right after me. “The previous Council meeting taught me all too well that I don’t have the stomach for those mind games. In a battlefield with no physical combat allowed, I’m as good as useless.”
I felt he was being a bit modest, but he likely meant most of it. Benimaru certainly would have trouble against all those sly old nobles.
“My mission is intelligence gathering. I cannot afford to leave my position as Rimuru’s ‘eyes.’”
Soei was out, too. That much I expected. I didn’t want to lose him, either.
Geld bowed out as well. He had common sense, and I knew I could rely on him, but I had left a mountain of important work in his hands. Our construction schedule was packed, and he definitely didn’t have the time to take on more. I thought Geld would be a fine councillor, but I would have to eliminate that choice for the time being.
Which left…
“Ah, um, me?!”
I passed a quick glance at Gabil, quietly taking in the proceedings up to now. Gabil, surprisingly enough, was a pretty sensible person, and I could, you know, maybe see him shining in this important post.
…Well, all right, there was a lot to be anxious about with him. But there was really no one else. Hakuro was my military adviser, charged with building up our soldiers. Shuna could be trusted for the job, but if she left for that, it’d impact work around our own nation. Rigurd and the other goblin elders were off the list for similar reasons. We had tons of thorny issues to tackle—a legal system for our new nation, negotiations with other countries, managing our growing population, and much more. They were taking the lead on all those issues, and if Shuna or Rigurd departed, it could grind the whole thing to a halt. We were training a new generation of leaders, yes, but I wanted to see them grow some more first.
“I—I am in the midst of a project to capture and bring back wyverns to train as mounts to improve our air offense. It requires the extensive use of a great number of types of potions, so I would like to continue recording data for this project…”
Ah yes. There was no doubting that Gabil was the right (lizard) man for the job. It seemed better to let him nurture our budding wyvern force than send him off to the Council against his will.
“All right. Gabil, keep up your current work.”
“Yes, sir! Understood, sir!!”
Gabil was visibly relieved. I didn’t want to force him into anything, so this, I thought, was fine.
You know, maybe I’ve wound up expanding our forces in too much of a hurry. It was a poor idea to spread my hand out when I didn’t have enough trained personnel, but the workload just kept on rising. It was a problem, but ah well. Let’s see if there are any other choices.
…And just as I thought that, my eyes settled on Shion. She was staring at me, all asparkle.
“Sir Rimuru, I—”
“Denied!”
I reflexively cut her off. She was volunteering, I assumed, but she was out of the question.
“Wh-why?!” she asked, surprised. The question itself was also a surprise to me.
“Let’s just pretend, for a moment, that you were a councillor. And let’s say there’s some pudgy, leering elderly man in front of you. Another councillor. And now this councillor’s placed his hand on your shoulder, all friendly like. How would you handle that?”
“It’s obvious. I would grab the man’s neck with my left hand, lift him up, and punch and punch and punch!!”
Bzzzzt!!
Hence why she wasn’t in the running. Shion’s grown, I’ll admit. I had no doubt about that, but there were still a lot of situations that made me anxious with her.
Like before, for example…
I found Shion in the dining hall. She gave me a big smile and presented the dish in her hand.
“Sir Rimuru! I’ve been waiting for you. I’ve finally made a cake all by myself! Here you go! It tastes the same as Lady Shuna’s cooking, with several times the quantity. Please, go ahead and try it!!”
I was already regretting this. But Shion was proving to be a capable tea brewer…and that must’ve put me off guard.
“Um… Thanks. Appreciate it.”
Unconsciously, I accepted it. That was a mistake. A large block of something resembling opaque Jell-O was on the plate. My face fell. Uh, this is cake?
Staring at this object, I looked around for assistance, but nobody was there. Did they all escape? No, Gobichi was at his post…sprawled out on the kitchen floor. So there’s one victim.
I now realized I had visited the dining hall at the worst moment possible. But it was too late.
“Hey…um, this is…cake, you say?”
“Yes! I’ve perfectly re-created the taste!”
The taste is perfect? So everything else about it is awful? Shion certainly seemed confident, and watching her only made more butterflies materialize in my stomach.
Regretting my carelessness, I decided to take a single bite. You could predict the results.
I scooped up just a bit with my spoon and brought it ever so slowly to my mouth. I thought I was going to immediately retch. It felt like Jell-O, but the taste was all sugary-sweet cake. It was gray in color, and the feel was decidedly gelatinous. It instantly reminded me how important the look of a cake was to the overall experience. Well, not just cake. With any kind of food, visuals are key. If you just tossed a bunch of ingredients on a plate, nobody would find that appetizing.
“What do you think? It’s good, isn’t it?”
She smirked at me. I know she wanted to say “It’s perfect, isn’t it?” But she just lacked the fundamentals. And by fundamentals, I meant she was tripping over the entire definition of what food is.
“Sit down. Sit down there, please. We need to talk!”
“Huh?! Wh-what’s wrong…?”
Shion’s smirk melted into a pair of teary eyes. Her head was already tilted downward, but I didn’t let that stop me.
The ensuing lecture lasted a very earnest thirty minutes, as I explained to Shion what cooking was. She seemed remorseful, at least, and she promised that next time she’d discuss things with someone else and follow their advice.
…And so forth.
After that lecture, I recalled that when Shion was practicing her tea service, Diablo was guiding her through it. He claimed that a mere taste test of her work upset his stomach, and such sacrifices on his part were what helped Shion grow so well. If I let her practice by herself, she’d never notice where she was going wrong. Leaving her to her own devices, then, was a mistake. No matter what the task was, Shion always relied on her innate special skills to get fast results. It’s hard to grow that way. She needed someone overseeing her.
Thus, there was no possible way I could name Shion as a councillor. If she caused any kind of problem in the Council, it could shatter the relationship I’d taken all this effort to build with humankind. And if I wanted someone there to stop her if she flew off the handle, I had a pretty limited pool to pick from in this nation. If I did have someone like that, it’d be far more effective to just name them councillor.
Like Diablo, maybe.
“I think Diablo could handle it pretty well…”
I kind of let my true feelings fall from my lips. Everyone in the meeting room nodded.
“Yes, Diablo would put us all at ease.”
“It’d be easy for him to cajole those nobles into doing our bidding.”
“And I doubt he’d ever back down against violence or take bribes.”
Rigurd, Benimaru, and Gabil all deeply trusted Diablo. Shuna and Shion joined them.
“With his brains and cleverness, I’m sure he’d make things go your way, Sir Rimuru.”
“I hate to admit it, but my undersecretary is a talented man. Besides, if he can get out of my hair and go to Englesia for me, my job as first secretary will be more important than ever! I’m not sure you’d find anyone more qualified.”
They all seemed in agreement. Shion had less virtuous motives, perhaps, but there was no doubting her appreciation for his ability. Nobody voiced any objections, and there were no other brilliant proposals, so we settled on Diablo as being our top candidate.
But I’m sure he’ll hate it…
“Y’know, I get the feeling he’s going to despise doing odd-job work like that. That’s why he’s gone out to look for minions of his own, and for all I know, maybe he’ll find someone good at negotiating for me. So for now, let’s call Diablo the main candidate, subject to future changes.”
That seemed good for now.
Of course, until we actually pick someone, it’d be me showing up for Council meetings. I wanted someone else in there fast, so hopefully, I thought, Diablo would be kind enough to come back soon.
This was an urgent issue, sure, but for the most part, it was my problem. Fortunately, after deciding to wait on Diablo, the conference ended without any other major hiccups.
Nothing beats peace. It’s a good thing, not having any problems, and it’s even better to have free time to enjoy. So I decided to pay a visit to Kurobe. Why? Because thanks to having some more time on my hands, I had discovered something I wanted to talk about.
I called for him upon entering his workshop.
“Kurobe! You got a moment?”
I waved at the nervous-looking apprentices as I went to the inner room. There, I found Kurobe observing a row of several swords.
“Ah, Sir Rimuru! Just who I wanted to see. There’s something I wanted to report to you about, actually.”
“Oh, to me? What’s up?”
If he had something to report, it was likely some new work of his. He always gave form to my ideas, working with Kaijin to develop all kinds of things, so presumably he had created some other useful item for me. And I was right.
“Well, regarding the thing you asked about earlier, I think I have a complete version!”
Kurobe pointed at the swords in front of him, in all shapes and sizes. Judging by how happy he looked, I assumed they were pretty special. But what did he mean by what I’d asked about earlier? I blather on about all sorts of nonsense on the regular, so I couldn’t recall exactly what he was referring to.
But a quick Assessment took care of that.
Understood. This weapon is a broadsword—level: Unique.
Ooh, it is a Unique! And if Kurobe crafted it, it’s got to be quality. But I didn’t think that’d be enough to make Kurobe act so self-assured around me like this.
With his talents, he could forge several Uniques a month. If he employed his usual methods, he could finish up a blade in one day. These averaged Unique in quality; even if they were “failures,” they were still in the upper echelon of Rares. If he was more thorough with his work, that took two or three days, but it pretty much always resulted in something Unique or better. He was still far away from crafting a Legend-class weapon, it seemed, but I really believed he’d do it someday. Plus, if you had a talented fighter wielding one of his blades, that alone could progress it up to Legend, I thought.
He chose all his materials carefully, using only the purest of magisteel. Weapons made from that took on the will of their owner to evolve further, so I really didn’t think it was long before we’d see our first Kurobe-forged Legend-class blade. Thus, I assumed he wouldn’t go this far out of his way to show off some more Uniques, but…
I took a closer look at the broadsword. The most notable thing on it was the marble-size depressions at its base—three of them. Otherwise, nothing stood out. It was a perfectly capable sword, of course, but I wouldn’t say it stood out of the pack among Kurobe’s creations. (If one of his apprentices was behind it, that was another story.)
This might be a strange thing to say, but it was a completely normal Unique. There was no special inscription magic applied to it, apparently… But hang on. Now I saw something.
“What is this? It’s an impressive Unique but nothing too rare for you, is it?”
Hiding my excitement, I pretended not to spot it.
“Oh, did you forget? Heh-heh-heh-heh… This is special, this is. It looks like a normal weapon at first glance, and no magic’s been applied to it, but you won’t believe what it features.”
At this point in time, not even my—well, Raphael’s—Analyze and Assess skill could find any unusual effects to it. If it was what I thought it was, perhaps I should expect a lot.
As I stood there, heart thumping, Kurobe took out a glowing ball, then casually installed it in the hilt.
“Just stick it in a hole like this, and then…”
Report. The weapon broadsword has transformed into the magical weapon broadsword.
Aha!
What was once a regular weapon was now a magical one. So that crazy idea of mine was finally in production?
“Whoa! You really completed it?”
“Heh-heh! So you have noticed, Sir Rimuru? That’s right. This is the exact mechanism you described to me!”
Right, right. I did discuss this idea with him. I knew Kurobe was always working on his research, but I had no idea he wrapped this up so quickly. It almost scared me. He was a taciturn man, never one to brag about his achievements, but his work explained with perfect eloquence how great he was. Truly, a role model for all artisans.
“Wow! Kurobe! I mean… Kurobe! This is amazing! Seriously, this is the most amazing invention ever!”
I was now audibly excited. Kurobe gave me a satisfied smile and a strong nod.
“Hee-hee-hee… Wonderful.”
Now he was smirking. I had almost never seen a smirk look so natural on someone’s face before. Shion’s smirk mostly irritated me, but here, I just had to hand it to Kurobe.
There were several ways to craft magic weapons. In my case, I could use Raphael’s Combine/Disassemble skill to easily apply magic effects to just about anything. Kurobe could do something similar, but Kaijin and their apprentices didn’t have the ability to cheat like that.
What did they do, then? The most common way was to have an enchanter inscribe something on it. Dold knew how to do that, so he would come around to inscribe what this workshop finished. This “completed” the magic weapon, and then you just had to run some magic power into the inscription to trigger the designated spell. But you could only infuse a weapon with so many different spells—two was usually the limit—and once you inscribed a spell, there was no removing it.
The other method, as I think I’ve mentioned a few times before, has to do with how the weapon evolves. Once it’s exposed to the magic force of the user, weapons will often have certain extra powers applied to them. It’s tough to aim for this, and it takes a lot of time, but sometimes a weapon gains unexpected force. This method was also the subject of ongoing research toward a way to streamline weapon evolution. (By the way, I had donated part of the large cache of Unique weapons we obtained at the Amrita ruins toward this research. I wasn’t expecting it to lead to quick results, of course, but it’s important we kept up a continual effort.)
So what had Kurobe just made? Oh, just something that rendered everything that came before it obsolete.
I first brought up this idea while drinking with Kaijin and Kurobe. First, we’d take a sturdy magisteel weapon, perfect for the transmission of magic. Next, we’d create a set of magic-generating external plug-in “cores.” Then, I theorized, you could have a magic weapon that wasn’t hardwired for just one spell or the other.
For example, what if you placed a magical stone infused with elemental force in a sword? The answer was the blade before me. And it wasn’t just some magic stone in there—it was a high-purity jewel.
“What do you think, Sir Rimuru? Just like you pictured it? So here’s a sword with holes ready for magical expansions. And meanwhile, Kaijin’s succeeded in compressing magicules into these pure, refined magic crystals!”
Kurobe held his nose in the air. So Kaijin was part of this. Generally, it was Kurobe who forged the base weapon and Kaijin who put in the jewels and other final touches. It took the two of them working together to complete something as wonderful as this, I assumed.
“We call these element-infused magic stones ‘element cores.’ We just call ’em cores around the workshop. Gabil’s been out capturing wyverns, so since Vester had some free time, he helped with the research, too. Those two had been working on spirit cores, you know—a kind of power reactor, right? So he said they already had a way to infuse magic stones with the four primary elements of earth, water, fire, and wind.”
I recalled Ramiris lecturing me about how it was key for a spirit core to generate all the elements at the once, or something. If Kaijin’s team was working on that, making stones with just one element must’ve been simple by comparison. Beyond that, it was all about adjusting the core sizes and output levels, and there you had it—an element core composed of one of the four basic elements.
These were, of course, disposable items. Once the magic inside it ran out, it was just another pretty jewel. But Kurobe told me that these could be reused if brought back here.
“So there’s no way to recharge the energy inside?”
“Oh, there is. But it requires an experienced magic user infusing their own force into the core, so it’s not for laypersons.”
“I see. Sounds like it could create some new jobs. Like, workshops you could bring weapons to and have them charge up their magic for you.”
“Yep. I think, on the field, you’ll want to pack some spares with you. That could be a market of its own.”
True, true. I thought that maybe shops dealing in monster drops could mix in some magic-core sales, but now I figured we could have entire dedicated stores for them.
“But you need to be careful. This is still in the experimental stage, but depending on the combinations you try, you may wind up changing the elements.”
“Combinations?”
What did he mean? You can change elements… Wait!
“As you can see here, this sword has three places to insert jewels.”
I knew it!
“So if you insert two opposed elements into the same weapon, you’ll wind up with some element you didn’t expect?”
“You got it!”
Kurobe nodded at my guess. That was big news. This definitely needed some more R and D, then—not the kind of thing we could put on the market that fast.
Negative. All data used within the labyrinth can be collated and organized.
Um, right. Yeah. That’s true. It’d certainly save us some research time, so in terms of safety, the labyrinth would be ideal. In that case, maybe we ought to bring on a few labyrinth challengers and have them generate a bunch of on-the-field inspection data for us. Even if they made some amazing discovery that way, after all, the tech could still only be produced within Tempest. Maybe some of it would leak, but if we were gonna bring this to market, that’d happen sooner or later anyway. Better to have them test these weapons out in an easily controlled environment.
“By the way, what kind of dangers do you anticipate?”
“Well, you can insert as many jewels as there are holes, so if there’s just one hole, no problem there. But if you put in, say, a wind core and a fire one, that results in more force. Water and fire reduced the force, but water plus two fires caused the thing to explode on us. It wasn’t just three times the force—more like several dozen times. So I was just talking with Kaijin about the need for more testing.”
Sounded like there were some pretty dangerous combos. More experimentation was needed, yes, and we’d need to test every result. Just as Raphael suggested, putting them in the hands of labyrinth explorers was our quickest bet.
“Is three holes the maximum?”
“Yep. Three’s the best we ever managed.”
In fact, a three-holed weapon was apparently something they had around a one-in-one-hundred chance of forging—and that was with Kurobe’s full effort. Thus, they still only had this one here. Their apprentices, meanwhile, were still way too green to craft anything like this. Only four of their most advanced students successfully forged weapons with one jewel slot. (Even Kaijin only managed one with two holes, which tells you something about how tricky these are to make.)
“Yeah, so this is the only successful three-slot weapon we have so far. But with the right combination of cores, I think you could easily get Legend-class force from it.”
Kurobe sounded proud. Magic swords are already valuable enough, but if one let you change its element on the fly, that just blew away all common sense. Imagine a magic weapon you could flip a switch on, so to speak, and instantly strike at your enemy’s weak element. It was amazing. I couldn’t even guess at its value, but I don’t think Kurobe was kidding when he hinted it was Legend class—and with the right configuration, it really could be a Legend-class force.
From the bottom of my heart, I had to congratulate Kurobe and his team. It was astounding.
Based on our discussions, we decided that core-compatible weapons should be sent to the labyrinth first. We’d also manufacture a large number of throwaway, non-rechargeable cores and toss ’em into the maze’s treasure chests. And once Kurobe’s apprentices could learn how to craft these weapons in bulk, I planned to make those into labyrinth boss drops ASAP. Three-slot weapons weren’t gonna be easy to make, of course, but the way I heard it, those plans were doable as long as we didn’t strive for top quality—if we cut the durability enough that the weapons dropped down in class, that ought to be doable.
“You see any problems with that?”
“Nah, I think we can make it work. They’d be pretty brittle, so I wouldn’t wanna rely on one in real battle, but…”
Kurobe seemed a little reluctant, but his stuff still oughtta hold up well enough for testing purposes. As long as we could get some data on the assorted core combinations, I was happy, so hopefully we could find a way to make lots of weapons with two or more slots and get them into labyrinth runners’ hands. Besides, serious labyrinth regulars weren’t idiots. You’d have to be a third-rate dungeon hacker to risk your life over some mystery weapon. I figured people could switch between their regular equipment and an experimental kit for this, keeping things clean. These weapons ought to be useful for parties without magic users, too.
Yes. Let’s make test subjects out of our customers.
“Rimuru, why are you grinning evilly?”
“Ha-ha-ha! Oh, just your imagination, Kurobe!”
He promised me that he’d get production of a full lineup underway soon. With his consent, we now had a plan in action. We’d have to use a lot of high-quality magisteel, but it ought to provide more training for the apprentices—and it’d let us test things out and produce market-quality goods suited for on-the-field use.
I was already picturing these blades being part of the standard-issue uniform on anyone ranked lieutenant or above in our army. These, combined with a few cores to cover for the bearer’s weak elements, had the potential to raise the standard for all our forces.
“Okay. Have at it!”
“Yes, sir!”
For now, it was all in Kurobe’s hands.
“So, Sir Rimuru, did some kinda business bring you here today?”
That jogged my memory. The sudden reveal made me forget all about it, but I did need to speak with him.
“Yes, well, it’s about this sword of mine,” I said as I took out my straight sword and presented it to Kurobe.
“Does it have a slot in it now?”
“No, not that. I wouldn’t have been so surprised today otherwise.”
“Right, yeah…”
My blade was infused with my magic force and colored darker than the darkest of nights. But now, when I held it and let my magic flow into it—
“Wha…?! The blade—it’s glowing gold… No, it’s the entire rainbow. A whole array of colors!”
Kurobe stared agape at it, clearly shocked.
“Amazed, huh? Well, so was I, lemme tell you. So that’s why I’m here.”
I was in my chamber, looking at it, when all of a sudden this happened. It’d surprise just about anyone, this dazzling rainbow sword. We didn’t mix gold into it or anything, but now it was shining brighter than orichalc.
So I looked into it, and…
Understood. This is the divine metal Crimson Steel.
…is what I got back. Apparently, it’s this really great metal that performs even better than the orichalc I produced, but I decided to visit Kurobe to find out for sure.
“What…? What could this be? I can’t Assess it at all…”
“It’s called crimson steel, apparently.”
“C… Crimson steel?! That actually exists? That’s a mythical ore said to retain its elemental attribute for eternity. I thought it was just a fairy tale…”
Kurobe was almost too excited for words. I had thought it was a pretty remarkable mutation, but I guess it was even better than I thought.
So the two of us began researching this crimson steel blade.
What we found was that it didn’t react to anything apart from my own magic force. When Kurobe gave it a try, it remained jet-black as usual. Metallically speaking, it just reacted like magisteel at that point, even though it was really crimson steel.
It’s apparently the ultimate metal, one that repels all types of wavelengths. It even fully absorbs light without reflecting it, which is why it was so dark in color. This was also why, amazingly enough, it defied all attempts to Analyze and Assess it.
Only when I ran my magic through it, transforming it into battle mode, did it begin to shine. I was worried it’d stand out too much if I whipped it out in public, but by now I knew that, as long as no magic was in it, it behaved. It was also way more durable than your average weapon—because it could “retain its elemental attribute for eternity,” that meant it was basically unbreakable. If it ever did break for some reason, I could just infuse some magic to repair it. It made me wonder how a fight between two crimson steel blades would turn out, but it’s not like there’s any way to test that out.
One thing I could say right now, however, is that this sword really was suited for me. Compared with anything else in the world, its evolution had made it impossibly durable. Combined with my Absolute Defense, it oughtta stand up to some pretty rough use.
Even better: This sword wasn’t yet complete. I was planning to chisel out some slots on the hilt for cores, so I could change its element at will. Just imagining that put me in a dream state. It’s already an excellent piece, and it’ll get even better? So much to look forward to.
“What a blade that is, though. It hardly looks like I forged it any longer…”
“Oh, not at all, Kurobe! You did great work on this!”
“Thanks, Sir Rimuru. Always glad to hear that from ya!”
It took someone like Kurobe to birth this sword. He was endlessly modest about himself, but there was no doubt in my mind.
“Now I’m wondering if I could’ve beaten Hinata with this.”
A Kurobe masterpiece like this has to be equivalent to Legend class, right? But Kurobe himself surprised me even further.
“Against Moonlight? Her own Legend class? Hmm… Well, maybe even better than that, eh? With this blade, maybe we’re getting into God-class territory. Like what beat Sir Veldora himself.”
God class. The ultimate of lofty peaks. No weapon of that class was known to currently exist, and none were even described in legend or tradition. But here it was.
In fact, Milim’s Temma Sword, similarly magical, was also in this class. She showed it to me once. I couldn’t Assess it back then, but Raphael stated that it was higher quality than Hinata’s Moonlight. And now I had something that came to that point—this amazing culmination of force. Even now, Kurobe thought, it’d rank among the upper echelons of Legend-class weaponry, so I felt safe expecting it’d reach that peak in the end.
We both marveled at the sword for a while.
“Man, swords like this are just so cool, aren’t they?”
“They sure are. I don’t see patterns along the sword this pretty too often at all.”
That Japan-style hamon pattern, the fruits of all of Kurobe’s technical talents, dazzled the eye up and down the permanent, unbending crimson steel. It seemed like a work of art as we gazed at it, sighing in reverie. It was so beautiful that I thought we could’ve stood there staring forever. Truly, the best sword in the world—and it’s still evolving. It seemed safe to say that I had a God-class blade here, and considering how low my expectations had been at first, I couldn’t be any more elated

Slime 11.0

A GOLDEN DEPRESSION
A white manor. A garden lined with colorful blossoms. The young girl’s smile—and a boy watching over her. It was a vivid, unfaded memory of happier times, and he wished to gain that happiness back.
But it was difficult. He built a manor—a city of gold, with a beautiful garden that seemed to re-create the paradise of heaven up above. It was even more splendorous, even more impressive than what his memories told him. But no matter where he looked, he just couldn’t find the final piece of the puzzle. Even with his power—enough force to become one of the great pillars supporting the entire world—he was unable to get his beloved girl back. If she couldn’t be found, the smile would never return to his face. He had, after all, established all of this for the sake of that one young girl.
His name was Leon Cromwell, a demon lord known as the Platinum Saber. And the name of the girl he searched for…
At the throne room of the vast, spiraling palace looming in the center of the Golden Land of El Dorado that he ruled over, Leon exuded as much military might as he could at the three suspicious-looking characters taking a knee before him. They were dressed unusually: all black clothing with large, umbrellalike hats to match the weapons merchant Damrada. It went without saying that it was Laplace and his cohorts.
“…You, then? This is the second time, is it not?”
“Yes, my lord. It remains a great honor and a joy to have made your acquaintance. However, we regret to inform you that we cannot honor the request for the certain classified materials included this order.”
It was Teare who responded, looking suitably composed. They had the lone woman in the group handle negotiations, hoping to give the demon lord the best impression possible.
That, however, would come to an end today. Now they would follow the plan Yuuki devised and halt activity in the Western Nations for the time being. Misha, one of the leaders of Cerberus, would take over as the main contact point with the Rozzo family, continuing regular business, as Yuuki’s team moved operations over to the Eastern Empire.
What’s more, with the loss of Maribel, the power of the Rozzo family itself had taken a major hit. The Kingdom of Seltrozzo was the main point of procurement for the “classified goods” mentioned, and right now, it was unlikely the Rozzos had the force remaining to perform the stable-summoning ceremonies that were required. Plus, Tempest had now joined the Council of the West, which essentially meant the Western Nations were now under the influence of the demon lord Rimuru. There would be more eyes on them than ever before. Everyone agreed that now was the best time to pull out.
“Oh? A rather bold thing to say. I see you’re wasting no time demanding more money, unlike Damrada.”
“No, Lord Leon. It is nothing like that. As you know, the demon lord Rimuru is attaining a prominent position within the Western Nations. He appears to frown on the summoning of otherworlders, and he strictly prohibits it. Thus, we have come to the painful conclusion that it will be difficult to continue defying his will.”
Listening to Teare’s brisk reply, all Leon could think was: I knew it. He had received similar reports from his plants in the Western Nations; he was fully aware this was just a matter of time. Besides, this approach really had too many unknowns to it. In fact, the chances of success were astronomically low. It would’ve been foolhardy to expect success from the start. He was, after all, being far too specific with the type of summons he wanted.
He had sent orders to his team, having them perform summonings on multiple occasions. Over thirty summoners aided in the effort, and it took seven whole days to ensure that every required condition of Leon’s was fulfilled when conducting the ritual. But it still worked less than one percent of the time—and since the same people couldn’t be involved in another summoning immediately afterward, they had only so many tries. Their chances were close to zero from the start.
Leon himself had conducted a few summonings, but every one of them failed. His last success produced Shizue Izawa, and sixty-six years had passed since then. The more you narrowed down the conditions, the longer the interval required between each attempt, and there wasn’t much reason to expect the next summoning to work, either. So he came up with the idea to perform “incomplete” summonings they could attempt with more frequency. The person Leon was looking for was still a young girl, so an incomplete summoning that resulted in a young child would boost their chances, no matter how slimly.
So his project spread across the Western Nations, as he engineered as many attempts as possible to collect as many children as possible…
And now it had all come crashing down. There was no other way, and there was no new great idea to explore. Leon found himself burning with an intense impatience, but still he kept his voice cool as he spoke.
“…Rimuru? We have no treaty signed with the West, and I’ve made no request for cooperation. We were interfered with in the end, but that’s all in the past now. But why are you shutting off business with me? If the West is beyond our grasp, there’s always the East.”
Leon’s penetrating voice echoed across the throne room. The powerful coercion that filled every syllable was like a point-blank attack at Teare, whose body froze. He was simply on another level. Your average magic-born couldn’t even bear standing before a demon lord, and even a strong, high-level one like Teare had trouble dealing with Leon. But Teare wasn’t alone.
“Ah, allow me to explain that matter, my lord. To tell ya the truth, things are starting to get a little suspicious over in the East as well. It looks like they’re tryin’ to prepare for war on the sly over there, so apparently there aren’t any sorcerers free enough to take up the work. It’ll be hard to find the personnel we need.”
Leon squinted at Laplace. Deep down, this annoyed him. He cared very little for what became of the West and East, but a dragged-out war would impact his own mission. He thought it seemed that he would need to reconsider his direction from the bottom up. But he didn’t betray this on his face, his expression as cold as ever as he continued staring at Laplace.
Facing the full brunt of it, Laplace grew uncomfortable.
This sure is bad news. The fake demon lord I killed was nothin’ compared with this guy. Ain’t nothing like the real thing, and all that. Maybe the boss is right. Tryin’ to exact revenge from him directly might not be such a hot idea…
Yuuki had ordered him to refrain from any under-the-table dealings for now. Even with the very man who killed Kazalim right here in front of him, Laplace had no intention of doing anything to Leon. He wanted to live up to Yuuki’s trust, so the only thing on his mind was carrying out his work. Still… If your sworn enemy is in front of you, of course you’re going to gauge your chances a little. And as he evaluated his opponent’s power, seeking out any small weakness he could find, he concluded that the demon lord Leon truly wasa monster. If they got into an actual fight…he couldn’t say what would happen. Maybe he’d win; maybe he’d lose. Even if his cohorts Teare and Footman joined him, there was no guarantee they’d emerge victorious.
So Laplace was treating this visit as strictly work-related. But as he did, he correctly understood why Yuuki had assigned this job to them.
The boss wanted us to see this guy for ourselves, no doubt. Know thy enemy, ’n’ all that. Hell, even the boss said he’d have trouble with Maribel if they went toe to toe. She only messed up ’cause Rimuru was more of a monster than she thought. ’Course, trying to gauge that guy’s strength is a real tall order…
Maribel’s fatal error had been misjudging Rimuru’s strength. The fact that someone like her, a born talent when it came to schemes and strategy, decided to directly engage her target was a blunder in itself. Laplace thought so, and so did Yuuki and Kagali. What could she have been thinking? What did she fear? As a third party, it was hard to imagine what had made Maribel decide this was a war of attrition and to try to end things quickly, no matter how disadvantageous that was.
Besides, it was Yuuki himself, in the end, who had guided Maribel toward that line of thinking. Maribel certainly overestimated her strength—there was no debate over that—but Yuuki was the one who planted the idea in Maribel’s mind that she had a fighting chance against Rimuru. Weaving together a web of false information, he had successfully put all her plans out of order.
Not even Yuuki thought for sure that Maribel would lose, of course. His goal was to pit these two forces against each other and gauge their abilities. It ended up with the demon lord Rimuru winning, Maribel (a thorn in Yuuki’s side as well) dying, and Yuuki himself becoming the new master of her unique skill Avarice.
That was what he really wanted, as much as it stunned Laplace into silence once he heard about it. You couldn’t really aim for someone else’s skills like that—but as Yuuki put it, he had a hunch it would work.
It’s crazy. Just completely mad. Maribel’s luck failed her, to be sure, once it became so clear she was talkin’ up her prowess too much with the boss. Nothin’ can beat the power of information, in the end. And that’s true for Leon, too. I hate to say it, but unless I’m sure I’ve got the upper hand, staying hands-off with ’im’s the wiser choice here.
Such was his conclusion.
So they decided to halt their plans and focus on expanding their influence and gathering intel. Those objectives hadn’t changed, and now that Yuuki’s goal was realized, they had no reason to stick around in the Western Nations. Now they were trying to wriggle out of their dealings with Leon without making him blow his top.
Laplace couldn’t let himself falter against the pressure of Leon’s gaze upon him. He distracted himself by talking some more.
“Now, mind you, this ain’t the end of our dealings forever, my lord. We’ll contact you again once the coast is clear, so to speak, for summonings. We’re just looking for a little more time until then. And remember, we have a network spanning the globe, so if any kids wind up in this world in the meantime, we can scoop ’em right up for you.”
“…Well, our hands are tied on that front. I will leave that matter to you, then. But I do have one question.”
“What would that be, my lord?”
“Why are you so loose-tongued?”
“Um?”
Laplace gave Leon’s question a befuddled stare. He had no idea where or when he might’ve misspoken.
Did I screw something up? Ah well. If he’s willing to continue workin’ with us, then let’s keep this party going!
It didn’t faze him much. In his mind, life had to be enjoyed to be worth living. Even if he made a mistake, as far as he cared, that was then and this was now. Resisting the urge to lunge at Leon, Laplace quickly made up his mind on the matter as Leon spoke.
“Is it really right for merchants, so keenly aware of their self-interests, to speak so loosely of affairs such as war? If Damrada were here, I don’t think he’d do anything quite so foolish.”
“That…”
He had a point. But Laplace still felt in the right. Yuuki had ordered him to make that statement—and he told him about something else, too. Recalling it, Laplace could feel all the pieces falling into place in his mind.
The next thing Leon was likely to say was…
“What are you hiding? You seem to want to point my eyes toward the war, but you will have to try better than that.”
The question was exactly what Yuuki predicted. It put Laplace at ease, even as it exasperated him. There’s just no dealin’ with him, is there? The boss knew full well that the conversation would turn out this way.
Leon, reading Laplace’s words too deeply, surmised that he was hiding something. A demon lord like him, who correctly knew the value of information, mistakenly thought this was a scheme to distract him from some other goal. But it wasn’t. Laplace and his friends were just doing what Yuuki told them to; there wasn’t any deep thinking behind it. It was a simple fact, but one there was no point in telling Leon. He’d just assume that Laplace was making futile excuses.
This was all the work of Yuuki, who wasn’t even in the room, and there had to be some meaning to it. And of course, Laplace had some hints.
“Ah yes, Lord Leon, you’re a shrewd character, indeed. To tell you the truth, this really is the end for the confidential goods for now, but we actually still have five at a certain location. These were the kids that Shizue Izawa intervened with and took care of.”
“…Hmm.”
Yuuki had wanted to leak word of the children in Rimuru’s care to Leon from the start. But if his team simply blurted it out, Leon might assume there was some ulterior motive behind it. That’s why he waited until the end of their chat to instruct them to save the children. His uncanny ability to predict a conversation, something that could potentially flow in any direction, was one reason why Yuuki was such a fearsome presence. It even scared Laplace a bit as he continued following Yuuki’s instructions.
“There are three boys and two girls, you see, all otherworlders. The problem is their location. It’s a spot that we don’t have access to.”
“Shizue Izawa… Shizu, is it? And this place is Tempest, is it not?”
“You got it. I hate to disappoint, lemme tell you, but we’re all merchants here. We don’t wanna expose ourselves to too much danger. By the way, their names are—”
“Ken Mizerre, Ryozeki, Gale Gibbs, Alison, and Scoey Colbert.”
Before Laplace could recall the names, Footman, silent until now, barked them out. Yuuki, picturing Footman as unsuited for negotiation, had only asked him to memorize that name list.
“Yes, those are the ones. Not that you’d have much interest in unavailable goods, my lord…”
Laplace smiled. Leon, meanwhile, frowned peevishly.
“Your diction leaves much to be desired. Are you sure it was Scoey, and not something more like Chloe?”
Footman gave the irritated question no answer. Any further prodding, and Leon’s anger might develop into all-out belligerence. Footman, after all, was in the most danger out of anyone in this room. Normally, it would’ve been smarter to not say anything—but despite riling Leon up, it wasn’t the wrong move to make.
“Excuse him, Lord Leon,” Teare said. “The names of otherworlders are always difficult to transliterate into our languages, so they’re likely not completely accurate. But if I may, I was told that the names aren’t important regardless.”
She bowed, and Laplace and Footman followed suit in vaguely comic fashion.
“Indeed, the names don’t matter. I pin the blame for losing these goods on you, but it’s not enough to count as violating our terms. I will accept your intelligence about an upcoming war as ample apology.”
Swallowing assorted emotions, Leon maintained a cool composure—and with that, the meeting came to a close. Laplace accepted the money for the goods provided, and he and his cohorts put El Dorado behind them.
“Well, what to make of that…?” Leon whispered after they left.
His long hair tied back in a ponytail shone a beautiful gold color, a stark juxtaposition to the gloominess of his long eyes. Standing at attention next to him was Arlos, the Silver Knight, his adviser and one of his closest confidants.
“Should we do away with those three? If they’ve upset you, Lord Leon, I see little value in keeping them alive.”
Leon scrutinized Arlos’s words. Compared with Damrada before, this trio had acted very suspiciously. He wondered how they and Damrada could even share a profession. Leon barely trusted merchant types to begin with, but he also wanted to avoid conflict with the Cerberus organization. He may have had his agents planted across human society, but compared with that massive group—based in the East, expanding its influence in the West—it wasn’t even a competition.
So he coldly decided that he’d use them while they were useful. In particular, he believed that humans were better suited than monsters for rooting out otherworlders. If he wanted to reach his goal, Leon required human help.
“Let them be. I’m more concerned about the information they had for us. If the Eastern Empire is truly about to mobilize, we could very well have a world war on our hands. I don’t know how the other demon lords will react, but I hardly want us pulled into worldwide chaos.”
“Indeed, my lord. All of El Dorado shines under the light of your authority, but I can easily imagine large-scale conflicts across many other lands. We must be prepared for that.”
Arlos nodded at Leon’s reply.
El Dorado, the land Leon ruled over, was on a continent of its own, separated by ocean from the rest of the world. In Earth standards, it was larger than Australia, and every inch of it was Leon’s domain. A gigantic active volcano was perched in the middle, constantly erupting the whole year through, but the ash it spewed was carried away by magically conjured wind, never falling on the beautiful central city. Nearby, the volcano had laid a vast variety of ore deposits, which were worked into assorted types of magical metals. The gold ore veins found there produced so much precious metal that Leon was secretly dealing some of it to human civilization.
The city was the pinnacle of glory, the crown jewel of a kingdom protected by magic. That was how Leon pictured his Golden Land of El Dorado, and not only Arlos, but everyone else who lived on this land would want nothing less than to be dragged into some ugly human war.
“I will have some emergency defensive magic readied for deployment, and I will put our security protocols at their highest level.”
“Yes, if you could, please. But things never work out the way you want, do they?”
“…What do you mean, my lord?”
“I mean war. If enough people die in one, it could awaken some creatures that would trouble all of us terribly. I know Jaune, the Original Yellow, is slumbering in this land somewhere. I doubt she’s taken physical form yet, but…”
Leon groaned. It was all so ridiculous. What was the Eastern Empire thinking? He didn’t know, but any war naturally involved a lot of death. The more blood that was shed, the more the monsters exposed to it would be energized. In the worst case, it could awaken one or more dangerous demons—a true calamity for humankind. Leon, with his unique background as a former Hero, knew exactly how foolish that was.
Of course, as a demon lord, this was just him being sentimental. While it saddened him to see, no matter what sort of misfortune all those unknown faces witnessed, he wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep over it.
No, Leon’s concern was about a far less likely possibility. What if, by some chance, this harms the very girl he’s looking for?
“If that time should arrive, let us show the full force of our powers!”
“Yes. I look forward to seeing that. Also…”
“Allow me to deploy a few Azure Knights to their nation as well.”
Leon and Arlos placidly nodded at each other. No need for detailed orders. Arlos had a gift for reading Leon’s intentions and putting them into action.
“Make it so,” Leon said as he closed his eyes.
Then, in that now-empty chamber, he opened them again and stared into space.
…Scoey Colbert, though? I know I shouldn’t expect too much, but that’s almost too close to her name. Even if it’s a trap, I can’t ignore it.
Whether it was a trap didn’t matter. The demon lord Leon’s ultimate goal was to find her, his childhood friend—and the girl he had to protect.
That girl’s name was Chloe Aubert.

Slime 10.12

My peripheral vision told me that Kagali and the expedition team were attending to Shion. She was awake, but it didn’t look like she could stand up—something she looked pretty pained about, but there was no quick solution to that.
If Yuuki left her in such bad shape, I couldn’t afford to make light of him. But I wasn’t worried at all. As Raphael put it, a unique skill can never work against an ultimate skill. The strength of our relative souls was at the crux of it. If someone awakens to a power that surpasses unique skills in all dimensions, you needed a strong enough heart to go with that. Faced with that kind of spiritual strength, there was no way a unique skill could have any influence.
The only thing that could beat an ultimate skill user was another ultimate skill user. No matter how much power Maribel gave him, Yuuki couldn’t beat me. My victory was as good as assured…but the next moment, my confidence was thoroughly crushed.
“All right. Time to get real.”
With that, Yuuki unleashed a right roundhouse kick. It was just the same as before, and I easily blocked it with my left arm. But the next instant, my entire upper arm shattered, as if it burst open.
“…Huh?”
I backstepped to safety, honestly surprised as I blankly stared at my arm.
Concern. The Universal Barrier of Uriel, Lord of Vows, has been broken. This is believed to be due to the subject Yuuki Kagurazaka’s extra-singular Anti-Skill constitution.
Um, wait a minute. So my Absolute Defense doesn’t work on him?! In fact, is he pretty much nullifying all my attacks right now?
Affirmative. Anti-Skill is a spiritual-body constitution that suppresses magic and skills. It is likely that only holy-blade skills and certain other Arts will be effective against him.
So something like Meltslash could work?
This wasn’t a joke any longer. He seriously managed to break down my ultimate skill. I’d never be able to comprehend all the details behind that, but his “constitution” was terrifying news to me.
“I thought you couldn’t obtain unique skills or special stuff like that!”
“That wasn’t a lie. I did say that my physical abilities have developed beyond normal, didn’t I?”
I wanted to yell at him about that, but he was right. Besides, if his mind was being controlled, there wasn’t much point complaining at him anyway.
But what’ll I do now? Yuuki’s attacks work on me, but mine don’t work on him. I’d just be wasting time as it is, and if this is what it’s come to, I can’t get hung up with trying to keep him alive. I really wanted to, since we shared a homeland and everything. If he was deliberately my rival, that’s one thing, but mind controlled like this? I felt real bad for him.
Facts were facts, though. Yuuki wasn’t someone I could beat while going easy. Steeling my resolve, I drew my sword, sending my aura up and down its jet-black blade.
“Ooh… Nice katana there.”
He took out the knife hanging from his side with his right hand. Then he took out another with his left, a small, single-edged sword. With these two blades, he held his hips down in an unusual stance—nothing I had seen before; maybe it was self-invented.
Seeing him square up, it finally dawned on me. Losing my skills and magic worried me, but Yuuki wasn’t impervious to physical attack. Anti-Skill constitution or not, if I cut him, he’d bleed.
That’s why some Arts will work, huh? And in my case, my skills even affected my punching, which is why that didn’t do much. Would it be more effective if I didn’t enhance them with my aura?
Negative. A correct answer cannot be determined due to lack of information.
Roger that. Let’s just try it, then.
Planting my feet on the ground, I slashed at Yuuki. He blocked it with the sword in his left hand, his physical skill letting him easily match my speed. But I had experience trading blows with Hinata, which helped both my sword skills and my confidence.
Staying calm, I looked ahead two or three strikes. Even if skills didn’t work on Yuuki, Predict Future Attack still worked just fine, since it used Raphael’s computations to discern his behavior.
Yuuki preferred to defend with his left-hand sword and attack with his right-hand knife. It usually went the opposite way, I thought, but everyone has their own preferences. Both of his weapons were made from purified magisteel, metallurgically evolving for vast power gains. Even among Unique weapons, they were in a class of their own—maybe even Legend-class, in fact.
Those were a threat, but then I made an unexpected discovery.
Report. Anti-Skill is not applied to weapons.
Whoa. So using weapons actually weakens Yuuki. That little tidbit doesn’t mean much for anyone besides me, but to Yuuki, that’s a real blind spot. If these were just regular old attacks, Absolute Defense gave me nothing to fear.
I decided to risk Yuuki getting a hit on me.
“Ha-ha! Dropping your guard, Rimuru?”
Pretending to lose my balance after a parried katana strike, I left myself open to him. Yuuki thrust with his knife, as if it was attracted by a magnet; there was some special feature to it that let it expand and contract, which messed with my sense of distance. To Yuuki, it probably felt like a surprise attack, expertly tossed into my single moment of vulnerability—but I planned the whole thing.
The knife was aimed squarely at my heart—but then I stopped it. I touched it to make sure; turned out it contained a special poison that would affect my nervous system. If he really stabbed me with it, even I would’ve taken damage, but that was just pointless theorizing now.
“Well, too bad for you! It hurts more when you punch me, y’know.”
“No way. This is insane…!” Yuuki’s eyes widened. But I had no obligation to listen to his complaints.
Instead, I mercilessly unleashed a new sword strike, one I had just finished developing. It was called Stormbreak, a combination magic-and-Art move inspired by Hinata’s Meltslash. The magic in question was Storm magic, as provided by the skill Veldora, Lord of the Storm. Veldora’s magic was scarier for its secondary damage than its primary—once it opened up a wound, the destruction would begin from there, eventually breaking down your entire body. Stormbreak was the same way, a sure-kill Art that ate into its target’s life force.
Thanks to his unique constitution, however, the strike I landed on him didn’t trigger that effect. There was now a large gash across his chest, but it still wasn’t a lethal blow.
“Ngh…”
With a groan, Yuuki glared at me. I tried to look into his inner thoughts, but a black mist blocked me from seeing anything. Maribel’s desires had fully infected him. If I could clear all that away, I wouldn’t needto finish him off, but…
Understood. Interference is blocked by Anti-Skill.
…but no dice.
Then there was just one thing to do.
“I’ve won this. I wanted to release you from Maribel’s rule, but I guess I can’t do that. I’m gonna go a little strong on you, but no hard feelings, all right?”
I would damage him almost to the point of death, knocking him unconscious. Then, while he was knocked out, I’d go take care of Maribel. If that eliminated her effect on him, then great.
I readied my sword against Yuuki. Sadly, punching him with my bare hands didn’t deal him any damage. The energy that Anti-Skill cancels even included the kinetic energy from my fist. It’s crazy, I know, but Yuuki was a very special case.
Waiting until the best possible moment, I applied power to my sword. I wanted to strike him with the blunt side of my blade—good thing it’s sturdy enough not to break, but if I applied too much, I was liable to cut Yuuki in half. Striking the right balance of power was tough.
But just as I readied my sword, preparing to smash it down on him:
“P-please, wait a minute! I beg you, please reconsider killing Sir Yuuki!!” Kagali started shouting. I turned her way. She was on her feet, attempting to run up to Yuuki.
“Whoa, look out! Yuuki’s under Maribel’s control!”
“No, it’s fine! There’s no way someone as strong-willed as Sir Yuuki could have his heart taken by a little girl like that!” She clung to Yuuki, ignoring my warning. The expedition team was following her lead.
“Yeah! She’s right! The Grand Master’s not that much of a wimp!”
“That’s true! He’s always going by the beat of his own drum! There’s no way anyone could exploit his weaknesses!”
“He’s the kinda guy who’d beat a dragon just to show off to us!”
He was certainly well loved. If they were defending him that much, I was starting to look like a villain. Look, if there was a way to keep from killing him, I’d use it, all right? But I can’t go easy like that right now. I’m just taking the option that’s best for the situation. Can’t you see I’m carrying my katana backward?!
I mentally begged them to take a closer look as I watched Kagali and the rest. They were coming up from behind him, trying to get his attention. If that was all it took to break Maribel’s influence, we wouldn’t be having this problem.
But:
“I’m not trying to kill him, either, okay? So—”
So get out of my way, I tried to say. And at that moment:
“Guys…” Yuuki whispered the word, his face twisted in pain.
Report. Change detected in the subject Yuuki Kagurazaka. The desire-driven spiritual interference appears to have been canceled…
…What?!
Seriously? We’re going with that “happily ever after” ending? I could barely believe it, but my sense told me Yuuki wasn’t after my life any longer.
You gotta be kidding me! I thought, but I had to accept it.
With Yuuki back to normal, the only foes left were Maribel and the Chaos Dragon.
“Looks like I caused you some trouble there, so forgive me for that. But you saved me, Rimuru!”
“Y-yeah. Glad you’re okay,” I replied, trying my best not to look like I was okay with him dying a moment ago.
“Hey! Gobta! Get this done with already!!”
I needed to change the subject, and yelling at Gobta did the job. Soon after, his battle was over.
Shion was safe. Yuuki’s Anti-Skill effect wasn’t permanent, so her Ultraspeed Regeneration sprang back to life after a bit. She glared at Yuuki, still in a rage, as I tried my best to calm her down.
“This is a humiliation. I still haven’t trained enough…”
When the anger left her, the sadness came rushing in. I tried to calm her once more, telling here there’d be another time.
Gobta, meanwhile, looked pretty exhausted. “I told that guy Glenda was alive, but he just wouldn’t listen to me…”
Now that he was used to handling the power of Ranga, Rama wasn’t much of a threat to him. Between Gobta’s sense for battle and Ranga’s hyper-instincts, that wolfman form was a huge upgrade. Ranga stayed conscious for it, too, apparently, keeping a honed eye out for external threats. The way they divvied up responsibilities during battle kinda reminded me of Raphael and me. No wonder they’re such a force.
So why did Gobta have so much trouble in battle? Because he learned that Rama, his opponent, was burning to avenge Glenda’s apparent death. Being a kindhearted goblin, he couldn’t find it in himself to kill him.
I had asked Raphael to undo the spiritual interference in Rama’s mind. He had used the power in his soul a little too much, but it looked like he’d survive. He was perfectly awake as well, and he was believing our description of how Glenda managed to survive.
That should have wrapped things up…but sadly, it didn’t.
Well, we can’t sit around for long. Judging by the intense shaking we’re feeling, Milim still hasn’t managed to seal away the Chaos Dragon. I really wanna go help her.
“Rimuru, I’ll go chase after Maribel.”
Yeah, but Yuuki, you’re… Wait, you’re not wounded? It healed up? “Your wounds are okay?”
“Oh, yeah. Kagali can use healing magic, so…”
Huh? Why is he stating that like it’s an obvious fact? “I thought magic didn’t work on you…”
“Oh, no, it’s fine. I can turn these properties of my body on and off.”
“……”
I was too exasperated to reply. Yuuki was giving me a breezy smile, which was so unfair. Hinata’s body could purify magicules, or something like that, but she didn’t have a flip switch or anything. And Anti-Skill was way more powerful than that. He could control it with that much precision…?
It just seemed so unfair. But ah well. I needed to address his offer.
“You can beat her?”
“It’ll be easy, if I don’t let my guard down. I mean, being controlled like that; I can’t let her go. It’s a matter of pride to me.”
“Sir Rimuru, please,” said Kagali. “I think Maribel is bent on destroying these ruins. In the ruins of Soma that I explored, there was a magical generator that I think was used to run the city. This area looks similar to me, and if the generator goes out of control, it could blow up the entire area around us. And I think I’m the only one who can stop that!”
“…You think Maribel’s gonna blow it up?”
“Supplying too much magical force to one can destabilize it. And if it hasn’t been used for so long, there’s no telling how it’d react…”
We weren’t even sure if there was a generator like that in here, but if she was right, we had trouble on our hands.
“You know how those things work?”
“I thoroughly analyzed the one in Soma. If need be, I know how to stop one!”
A woman with her beauty sure had a lot of impact when she gave you a serious look like that. It wasn’t just because of it that I nodded at her, but I sure did feel overpowered, yeah.
“Okay. You take care of that. Yuuki, get going!”
He was back to his usual breezy, aloof self, brimming with confidence. The two of them were now on Maribel’s trail.
“Shion, Gobta, guide the expedition team up and regroup with the dark elves. Keep them guarded!”
“Yes, sir!”
“What about you, Sir Rimuru?”
“I’m gonna go back up Milim. If I don’t hurry, the Chaos Dragon might start striking all of us soon.”
Milim was doing her best to fight back, but even a stray shot of energy would devastate us. We didn’t have time to waste here, so once we decided on something, we had to move.
“Let me join you!”
“No. Your wound’s healed on the surface, but I’m sure you’re still damaged inside. Just bodyguard the team for me!”
“Hmph. All right…”
Reluctantly, Shion agreed.
Yuuki and Kagali were already on their way into the crypt. Shion and Gobta had their orders. It was time to head out.
Maribel was running. But she hadn’t given up on winning.
She had unleashed the sealed Chaos Dragon, one of the best cards in her deck. Under no circumstances could she let this operation fail.
But there was still one more card to play. Deep inside the crypt—the heart of the ancient elven city—the pinnacle of the old world’s magical technology was still sleeping. She had heard about it, and so she wanted to overload it with magic and bury Rimuru with it.
That’s the only way I’ll ever defeat that monster. My strongest pawn right now is Yuuki, and I’m sure he’ll buy me a little time. In the meantime, I’ll set that magical control reactor on the path to destruction…
Yuuki’s reports to her included information on the ancient ruins of Soma. She knew that Amrita was a city built by a similar ancient culture. If they worked the same way, it’d be easy for Maribel to control them.
Setting off a magical control reactor would cause vast amounts of magic-power destruction. If she triggered it right when Rimuru and Yuuki were locked in battle, she could catch them in the explosion, and they’d be caught powerless. An attack the demon lord Rimuru wasn’t conscious of could absolutely defeat him—Maribel was certain of it.
Now she was in the central part of the crypt…but she couldn’t find the reactor discussed in her report. In fact, there was nothing at all. The sarcophagi were empty, bereft of any accompanying decor or treasure. Yes, there were gold and silver baubles lying around, but no magic weapons—nothing of real value.
“That’s strange,” she reflexively whispered to herself. “So strange. What’s going on…?”
Nobody was there to answer her…or so she thought.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! There’s no magical control reactor in these ruins, you know.”
“…!!”
“And by the way, there wasn’t one in Soma, either.”
“…Is that you, Yuuki?”
“It sure is.”
It was definitely Yuuki who answered her, standing tall where she could see him. Kagali was also there, nestled close to her.
“Aren’t you fighting the demon lord Rimuru…?”
“It’s over. I gave my all against him, but it was pointless. Rimuru had enough strength to go easy on me, but I didn’t stand a chance. If I could have won, I figured I would’ve beaten him right there, but…”
“I was so scared watching you! And I really thought you betrayed us, too.”
“Ha-ha-ha! Sorry, sorry. I figured it’d be more believable if I didn’t let you in on it. Besides, I always believed you’d understand my intentions.”
“Well, all right. Everything worked out fine, at least. If this is what you wanted, I’ve got nothing to complain about.”
Yuuki and Kagali were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Seeing them carry on, Maribel finally realized. Yuuki tricked her.
“That’s a lie. It must be a lie. But… Yuuki, did you break my force?!”
It seemed impossible to her, but it was a reality Maribel had to accept. But when, and how, did Yuuki manage to overcome the desires of her Avarice?
“…How did you do it?”
“Curious?”
“Just tell me!!”
“Heh-heh! All right. I will.”
Yuuki gave Maribel a look of pity, then showed her. As she watched, his brisk, cloudless demeanor suddenly appeared to have a dark pall over it.
“No… That’s a lie! A lie…”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Don’t believe me? But it’s the truth. I was pretending to be under your thrall from the beginning. What do you think? Pretty good performance, huh?”
Yuuki laughed, having a blast down in the crypt.
Maribel, on the other hand, looked ill. “No! My desires… They harness your emotions, to give you power…” Whispering to herself, she tried desperately to understand her situation.
“Yeah, your greed was something else. Sadly, though, my own desires are stronger than yours. This world, you know… It’s like my sandbox. And it’s my dream to become king of it someday. I didn’t even need Anti-Skill to keep your Avarice from working on me.”
The smile stayed on Yuuki’s face. To Maribel, it was like having her death sentence read out.
“Don’t count me out! I’m Maribel! Maribel the Greedy! Someone like you isn’t even a threat to me!”
She drummed up all the energy in her soul, hurling it straight at Yuuki as she screamed. This was Greed Flare, a skill that transformed the power of her iron will into waves of physical destruction. It didn’t work.Forget it already. You can’t beat me.”
Yuuki took her attack unguarded. The black waves dissipated like clouds around him. And at the next moment:
“Grrhh!”
The edge of Yuuki’s hand shot straight into her heart—and that wasn’t even the worst of it. Her force flowed out of her body as Yuuki’s own absorbed it all.
“Nghh…ah… My power… You’re…”
“You got that right.”
“No… You—you can’t…do that…”
The light faded from Maribel’s eyes, the power draining from the arms clutching at Yuuki.
“If you were born into this world even ten years earlier, you might have taken the whole thing over. You just weren’t lucky this time. Your body was too young to fully control your skills, wasn’t it?”
“……”
Maribel didn’t respond. She glared at Yuuki, frustration clouding her face…and then her soul flickered once, twice, before fading away. The one golden rule of this world had been upheld once more—the powerless always lose.
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? You said I had too much ambition. Well, good night, Maribel. I’ll take on that desire of yours…”
His words no longer reached her—and thus, Maribel, who lived in an era of near-constant upheaval, breathed her last.
Leaving everyone else to Shion and my friends, I rushed over to help Milim.
Right this minute, I was looking down on the Chaos Dragon. It was huge. Super-huge. A good three hundred feet or so in length, maybe. It made Charybdis look like a shrimp, and just beholding it drove the viewer to despair. The Chaos Dragon was now consuming the magicules around itself, growing bigger and bigger. I could see it razing entire mountains with a single spout of breath. It was violence personified.
Even I had no chance against a monster like this. But Milim was different. Thanks to her super-dreadnought-level magicule stores, she had stopped the Chaos Dragon’s advance.
“Sorry I’m late, Milim!”
“Rimuru? It’s about time! I’ve got a little problem here. This guy’s actually my friend. I wanted to seal it away, but it’s just not working. I think it’s gonna cause some damage soon…but I can’t bump off my own friend!” She looked ready to cry.
Unlike Charybdis, the Chaos Dragon was bosom buddies with Milim. She must’ve wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt…but it was so huge that not even Milim had enough force to banish it away. Simply beating it would be doable enough, but she couldn’t kill a friend like that.
I could understand that. It reflected well on Milim, in my eyes. So I smiled, trying to reassure her.
“It’s all right now. I’ve got an idea!”
Milim’s eyes sparkled as she watched me. I could tell she trusted me, but man, talk about pressure. I couldn’t let it get to my head, though. Trying to look as confident as possible, I explained my strategy. “Listen. No matter how big this guy is, there has to be a core in it. You can attack him accurately enough to leave that intact, right?”
I figured Milim could preserve the Chaos Dragon’s soul while striking the rest of it—much as I did with Charybdis to save Phobio, its vessel. This soul would be protected by the dragon’s astral and spiritual bodies, but those bodies were already corrupted and breaking apart—or actually, they were broken to start with, hence this hate-driven corruption. It was also smeared head to toe with Maribel’s desire, and I couldn’t extract it out of the guy.
But its soul, though—the “heart” of Milim’s best friend—still seemed to be working hard to me, shining as strong as always.
“B-but… If it’s this big, it’ll take a lot power to stab into it. If I mess it up, I could blow away the whole thing…”
“I taught you how to go easy, didn’t I? Your friend’s trying its very best for you right now. You have to be strong for it!”
I couldn’t let her make excuses. Momentum was key. If she starts thinking What if I mess this up? she’ll fail at something she ought to succeed in.
“And I’ll help you out, okay? Just follow my instructions and release all the magic force you’ve got!”
Yes, I told her I had a plan. I really didn’t. I was just gonna rely on power here—Milim’s power. But this wasn’t the first time for me. I already saw it happen once, and it succeeded then. This was operating on an even huger scale, but the task before us was identical.
“All right. I believe in you, Rimuru!”
“Okay! We got this!”
I faked as much confidence as I could. Really, it was breaking my heart, acting so bold like this. If it failed, I was deathly scared of the consequences…but I had no other bright ideas, and I was the only one who could pull this off.
You’re on, Raphael!
Understood. Yes, my lord!
I might be a pro at palming responsibility off…but for this moment, at least, I needed to perform. No mistakes would be allowed. I repeatedly told myself that this would go fine.
“This’ll be easy, okay? It’s the same thing over again! Do it, Milim!”
“Right! Yeah, you’re right. Here goes, my friend. May the shining of the stars burn into your eyes! Drago Buster!!”
There was a flash, so bright that closing your eyes did nothing.
The enormous swirl of power Milim released reached the Chaos Dragon, smashing against its ominous wall of force. Power struggled against power—and as I watched it, I searched for the source of the Chaos Dragon’s strength, relying on Raphael’s calculations to control Milim’s torrential might.
It was heavy. Incredibly heavy. I could tell it was draining my own magicule stores. But despite all the energy we poured into it, the Chaos Dragon was unscathed. This guy really was crazy.
It was about to break my heart, but if I gave up now, this would all be for nothing. All my previous experience was for this exact moment—I truly believed that as I threw everything I had at it.
Trying desperately to retain my peace of mind, I slowly brushed away the evil force that loomed around the Chaos Dragon’s soul. In terms of time, it was less than a second, but the pressure made it seem like forever.
I saw it! The Chaos Dragon’s spotless heart, blinking there amid it all. But I couldn’t let up yet. Even without the black mist of desire, even without the hateful evil, I still had the dragon’s broken, polluted spiritual force waiting for me.
Carefully, with pinpoint precision, I kept up my work. Then, out of nowhere, the black mist disappeared. Yuuki defeated Maribel!
“Yes! We can do this!” Hoping to seize victory, I set off Belzebuth. “Milim, we’re finishing this now. Can you boost your output?”
“You got it! Raaahhhhh—Drago-Nova!!”
Heeding my instructions, Milim finally got serious.
Feeling it all over again made me realize just how amazing she was. How could she turn the spigot any farther than that? The way she engineered incredible feats of strength like that—I could really tell she was on another level from the rest of us.
But watch out. Now’s no time to stare at her, all amazed.
“Okay, Chaos Dragon. I’m gonna stop the pain for you.”
Now for the final touch.
Timing was going to be key here. Milim’s magic had to pulverize the Chaos Dragon’s exposed spiritual body, breaking down its astral body as well. Not missing my beat for a moment, I waited until just before Milim’s power shattered its heart, then triggered Soul Consume.
Ignoring all rules of time and space, Belzebuth did its work. Within my perception, it was done quicker than Milim’s magic—and just as I planned it out, I had the Chaos Dragon’s shattered heart in hand.
Without the core governing that massive cloud of magicules, the Chaos Dragon was already starting to disintegrate. But that was a problem of its own.
“R-Rimuru! This is bad news! It’s gonna explode!”
Milim had already stopped infusing her magic at my signal. But now there was a massive energy field in the sky, twisting and warping the air inside. Force clashed against force, compressing the energy at eye-popping pressures. The reaction would come soon enough, a huge explosion that not even Milim could neutralize.
She gave me a panicked look. But I was calm. According to Raphael, I could apparently do something about this.
“It’s all right. I’ll figure it out!”
“You can do that?!”
She looked surprised. I appreciated her admiring eyes, but if I messed this up, I was gonna look like such a dumbass—ah, but now’s no time for that.
Are you sure this’ll be okay, Professor?
I couldn’t help but ask.
Affirmative. It is not a problem.
Just as businesslike as ever. That seemed so reckless but kind of reassuring in a way.
With a smile, I looked at what used to be the Chaos Dragon. It was already just a shell at this point. No need to hold back.
“Gobble it up, Belzebuth!!”
Could it really consume such a vast blob of energy? My worries were instantly quelled by the fury of Belzebuth’s appetite, astounding me beyond imagination as it swallowed every bit up like a midnight snack.
“Is…? Is it over?” Milim asked.
“No, not yet. We gotta do something about your friend here.”
“Huh? You will?”
“Sure. I brought this along for times like these!” Not really! But let’s roll with it!
I took out a pseudo-soul.
“…?”
No time to spell it out for the confused Milim. I focused on myself. Theoretically, this was possible. In fact, Raphael guaranteed it. I just had to believe in it.
Boldly, I did my work, trusting it was guaranteed to succeed. I picked up all the pieces of the shattered heart, then absorbed them into the pseudo-soul; Soul Consume patched all the pieces into a single unit for me, so it went easier than I expected.
The issue was what came after that. Can a core like this be housed in a pseudo-soul?
There was no reaction.
I began to sweat. Staying calm on the surface, I frantically tried to brainstorm a solution. What should I do at a time like this?
My brain finally settled on something I saw on TV dramas a lot.
“M-Milim… Did this Chaos Dragon have a name or anything?”
“A name? Nothing like that, no…”
No? Crap. But calm down. There has to be another way…
“…Gaia! I wanted to call it that someday. This creature’s name is Gaia!!”
Oh, it does have one.
I breathed a sigh of relief and softly called Gaia’s name.
What a nice name that is!
So your name’s Gaia, huh?
Hey, shouldn’t you open your eyes before your friend starts crying?
The pseudo-soul began to softly glow. We did it. The heart was in the soul.
Now I wrapped the master core in Gaia’s pseudo-soul. That completed its avatar core, and now my job was done. Time would take care of the rest—and once Gaia’s heart was healed up, it would be revived in the shape of its choice. In Gaia’s case, that shape would be its actual body, not some other vessel. It’d be a new monster, coming to life right before Milim’s eyes.
“It worked, Milim. This is the new Gaia. It hasn’t been born yet, so it’s kind of like an egg right now.” I presented the avatar core to her.
“Right… Right! I just knew leaving everything to you would work out. I trusted you, Rimuru. Thank you. Thank you!”
Glad to be of service. That, and I’m glad I didn’t screw that up. But more than anything, seeing Milim smile really did make me happy.
“Wanna head back? Everyone’s probably worried for us.”
“Mm-hmm! I need to tell ’em all what I did!”
Sure, sure.
Good thing Milim came along, though. I couldn’t have done a thing against that guy alone.
From far away, we saw the palace, along with our friends nervously watching us. They all looked okay, which was reassuring.
That wrapped things up, then. I just wanted to go home and relax. A nice bath, followed by a cold beer. Basking in the joy welling out from me, I joined Milim as we went back down to regroup with our friends.THE ONE WHO LAUGHS LAST
Yuuki had obtained Maribel’s power.
“I really wish you’d talked to me about it first.”
“Ha-ha-ha! I already explained why I didn’t. That’s why I was able to trick Maribel, you know?”
“But do you realize how hard it was not to let my ‘outside’ friends find out the truth?”
As Yuuki fought Rimuru, Kagali was forced to distract the expedition team so the secret behind Yuuki’s powers didn’t come out. Any strange activity on her part ran the risk of attracting Rimuru’s attention. It was an ordeal for her.
Yuuki, meanwhile, didn’t really care if people found out, so he didn’t see it as a problem. Even if everyone knew he could cancel people’s skills, it wasn’t like someone could devise any kind of workaround against it. It was an ace in the hole for Yuuki, yes, but it wasn’t even one of his last resorts.
“Well, you know, I trusted in you. It worked out in the end, so can you maybe let me off the hook this time?”
“You siphoned off Maribel’s power, didn’t you? Was that in your plans, too?”
“Yeah, more or less. They say ‘sinful’ unique skills are the most powerful ones out there, so I did have my sights on it. I heard Avarice was driven by the size of your desires, and I figured it’d be pretty appropriate for me.”
“You really are crazy sometimes. It’s not that easy to take somebody’s skill, you know that?”
“I’m sure it’s not. But Avarice kinda chose me this time. I still couldn’t win against Rimuru, but…”
“…I’m sure you couldn’t. He’s so unfair like that.”
“I know! But now I can pin all the negative stuff on Maribel. I’ve just been fully acquitted! I’m probably gonna have to mind my p’s and q’s for a little while, but now I’ve got something else to look forward to, you could say.”
“Right. No need to hurry things now. And it’s so unnerving, how wary the demon lord is of the people around him. I can’t say I liked everything about your plans, but I think I can appreciate them now.” Kagali’s main complaint was how Yuuki ruined the crypt by blowing it up.
Yuuki told Rimuru that Maribel activated the reactor, then took her own life. The explosion, which razed the deepest section of the crypt but little else, was his way of hiding the evidence. Yuuki had prepared a magical bomb for just this purpose.
“There wasn’t much energy left in reactor,” he’d explained to Rimuru, “so the damage was pretty light, thankfully.” He even had the foresight to scatter the remains of a real reactor around the crypt to back up his story. Now he was prepared to stick to that story, no matter what he was asked.
But Kagali had her concerns.
“You were planning to abandon this place from the start anyway, weren’t you?” Yuuki retorted. “So why worry about it?”
To Kagali, though, this was a familiar city, her home. Once everything was cleaned up, she wanted to restore it to its former bustling glory—but with the crypt now buried, she had a few gripes.
“…Not necessarily, I wasn’t.” She shrugged. “It was kind of my second home, you realize.”
Yuuki gave her a grin. “Yeah. But we earned something from this. My name got cleared, which is huge, but other stuff, too. Maribel deployed her Blood Shadow troops, but did you see how they all cast holy magic? That’s a lethal blow.”
“You’re right. I noticed that, too. It proves that the Council’s connected to the Western Holy Church. That’s why there’s all the secrecy behind the Five Elders’ true identities.”
“Exactly. It showed up in the papers and everything, but after the war in Farmus, the reputation of the champion there took a huge hit. Then, at the same time, the Council started losing clout with the Western Holy Church. That points to only one truth! I’m thinking that Maribel’s grandfather, Granville Rozzo, is actually part of the Seven Days Clergy.”
“I see… That’s a clever deduction, Sir Yuuki.”
Kagali was just as sharp as him—and her reading of the situation matched his to some extent, convincing her it was the truth.
Yuuki looked at Kagali with a sinister smile. “Oh, it’s nothing too impressive. But I’ve stumbled upon another really key possibility. You know what it is?”
He paused, gauging her reaction. Kagali couldn’t think of anything else. She put up her hands in surrender.
“I tried tracing Maribel’s thoughts, based on the actions she took. But she really forced things with this whole operation, you know? If she killed the demon lord Rimuru, there was a chance Veldora would go berserk on us. When she took over the Chaos Dragon, that really did enrage Milim, almost. You were terrified that she’d discover us, weren’t you? So I really think she pushed her luck way too much with a demon lord as dangerous as that…to say nothing of a True Dragon.”
“Putting it that way, you’re right…”
“Maribel had to know the danger she was putting herself in, and I’m sure she worked out some countermeasures. But what were they?” Yuuki looked straight at Kagali. He didn’t have an answer himself, but he figured asking would help organize his own thoughts.
“Hmm… Maybe she believed that she, alone, was safe the whole time?”
“There is that, yeah. But I don’t think that’s all.”
“And maybe she was anticipating at least a little damage? She feared the rise of Rimuru, and if she thought some sacrifice now was worth it in the future…”
Yuuki nodded at this. “Well, me, I’d never do that if I had no idea how much damage there’d be. But if I could predict how much to expect, approximately, I’d definitely weigh the losses against the gains on the scale.”
“…Meaning?”
“I think Maribel had some kind of reason to believe things would work out, even if Veldora and Milim lost control.”
“……”
“And what was that reason?”
“Granville…”
“No.” Yuuki had arrived at an answer. He grinned. “Who did Laplace fight in the sanctuary?”
“Well, the demon lord Valentine—Oh!”
He chuckled, seeing Kagali’s reaction. “Right. The demon lord Valentine is dead…but there’s a demon lord Valentine in the Octagram. The real demon lord’s even stronger than the fake one, I bet.”
“Even at my peak, I was about equal with that Valentine. In that case…”
“In that case, the real one’s even stronger! Now I’m sure of it. The headquarters of Luminism isn’t just a religious site—it’s a demon lord stronghold.”
“You mean Valentine’s really the god Luminus? That’s insane…”
“But it’s true. I really don’t think I’m wrong.” The confidence behind Yuuki’s voice led Kagali to the truth.
“Yes… You’re right. And it wouldn’t be strange if Granville knew that.”
“Not at all. And so did Maribel. That’s why she figured Luminus was protecting the Western Nations.”
It all seemed to make sense. Kagali had to accept it. There wasn’t any room for objection. “Sounds like we’ll need to rethink our strategy.”
“Yeah. But I’m gonna have to move my base of operations to the East for a while anyway.”
“Hee-hee-hee! You are a scary man. You say you’re going to lie low, but it sounds like you’ll be moving around a lot, aren’t you?”
“Well, sure. I’m gonna be king of this world, remember? I promised you I’d get a hold of it!”
“That you did. Hee-hee… Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee. I look forward to it. I really do. And I’m sure Clayman will be delighted, too.”
“Yeah. So keep lending me a hand, okay?”
“Yes, of course. And please don’t betray me, either, Sir Yuuki.”
“Of course I won’t. The world will be mine—and then we can all have a blast together!”
Yuuki and Kagali looked at each other and smiled. The laughs continued on and on; two magic-born aiming to seize the world like it was a game to enjoy. Their aim was childlike, but they were serious about it.
They wanted to conquer the world.
The Chaos Dragon was gone. Milim’s friend was saved. And now that I was back on the ground, I was shocked to find the bottom section of the ruins all caved in.
According to Yuuki (who was safe), the cornered Maribel blew herself up inside. She wanted to take all of us along with her, apparently—she really wanted to take me out that bad? That was just too much, in a way…but she was hostile to me, so I didn’t know what else I could do. No point moping about it.
After discussing matters with Kagali, we decided to restore the ruins back to their pristine condition. It would take time, but we planned to excavate the bottom portion as well. Eventually, we would display the artifacts we dug up and turn this palace into a museum. We wanted to make this into a tourist attraction, complete with a magitrain stop.
That would take who knows how many years, of course, and we had a ton to do before then. Unless we negotiated a peace treaty with the Eastern Empire, at least, this whole area was a front line. Just because it was Milim’s turf didn’t make it a safe zone, necessarily.
For now, at

Slime 10.11

The next morning, Kagali formally opened the door, her fully equipped team lined up behind her. A blue light flickered as the door silently slid away.
“And there we go.”
The team cheered. “Well done,” I said as I took a step inside.
In this middle section, the light wasn’t as bright as above. It was more of a dimmer glow, eternally shining from candlesticks installed in the stone walls. Another impressive piece of magical technology—not real candles, but magic-driven illumination.
As I walked along, astonished by them, Milim came up to me.
“It feels a lot more oppressive all of a sudden, huh?”
“Yeah. The ceiling’s a lot lower, and it feels like these stone walls are closing in on us. Pretty narrow corridor, too. I bet this is set up like kind of a maze.”
The corridor was maybe six and a half feet wide; two people standing next to each other would feel a little cramped. Milim and I were on the small side, so it wasn’t a problem, but the people carrying large packs behind us probably had a rougher time of it.
“Sir Rimuru, who should we have up front?”
If this was a mazelike area, we’d have to figure out a path to take at every fork in the hallways. There might be traps in place, too.
“We can detect traps for you as the leaders. Do you mind if we stay in the front?”
“If you don’t mind handling that for us.”
“Sure thing! With me around, you’re safe no matter what shows up!”
Milim gave a reassuring nod before I could speak up. Nobody had any issue with that, so we were now leading the whole team, Kagali and her assistant behind us. Shion and Gobta took up the rear, serving as bodyguards for the rest of the team; Ranga was in my shadow; and the elder was watching the door for us. I couldn’t wait for dinner from her tonight.
I ambled along, using Magic Sense to survey the path ahead. The corridor was stone, but sometimes we’d pass by murals on the walls—very pretty ones.
“Wow. These murals alone have a lot of artistic value.”
“Do they?”
“Sure. They must be depicting scenes from ancient times, so they’ll be great to research. They’re really worth a lot.”
“Hmm. You know, thinking about it, they do remind me of things I saw way back when.”
Oh, right. To me, it’s the faraway past, but to Milim, this is probably just a nostalgia trip. That’d make anyone a bit emotional, I bet. Better be careful with our expedition here—I wouldn’t want to add any more damage to the wear and tear of time.
Our explorations continued apace, with no booby traps to speak of. We were now taking a break for lunch.
“All right. I’ll begin cooking, then.”
“Oh, wait one minute. The elder made some box lunches for all of us, so let’s go with those.”
I stopped a team member as he was trying to start a campfire, then took out enough lunches for everyone. It must’ve looked like I conjured them up from nothing, but they were in my Stomach, of course. That kept them well-preserved, making it a useful skill for long journeys like this.
“Umm…”
“Is that even possible?”
I could hear people whispering about me. Let them. Despite their confusion, they readily accepted the boxes.
“Oooh, this does look good,” exclaimed Milim when she opened it up. On the menu today were sandwiches with tons of veggies, eggs, and smoked meat. Dark-elf cuisine was all about uniquely heavy sauces; the one used here was a bit like mayonnaise, doing a great job of softening up the rather hard buns. If people still had trouble biting through them, that’s where the vegetable soup came in, poured into large wooden bowls. It used a hearty chicken broth, giving it a nice, tasty body that really worked its way into the veggies for a satisfying treat.
“I have lots more, so don’t be shy!”
The moment I shouted it, I was mobbed by team members, empty bowls in hand. Milim was first in line, so I guess she was a fan.
“We almost never get food this good outdoors. You’re making us a very happy team today.”
I couldn’t help but feel Kagali was needling me a little when she said that. I had just resolved not to butt in too much, after all, so I could read between the lines—but if she thought this was cheating, I hoped she was willing to overlook it.
“Well, you know, I’d like to avoid using fire in this place if we can.”
“Fire?”
“Right. We don’t want a fire to go out of control in here, and besides, we’re underground. I think we’ve got good ventilation so far, but just in case, you know?”
“You were thinking that far ahead, huh…?”
“I wouldn’t worry so much if we were outdoors, though.”
That was the truth. This was a tight corridor, and there was no ready source of water. If something happened, we might not have an escape route. That’s why I felt it prudent to bring along box lunches from the start.
Also, bathroom breaks.
“Um, by the way, if any of you want to go to the bathroom, I’ll set up a transport gate back to the entrance, so take care of that during our lunch break, okay?”
With that, I flipped the figurative switch on a transport gate. Some of them gave me “you’re kidding me” stares, but…you know. I figured they would probably just do their business behind a rock or something otherwise, but I wanted to avoid that. This path eventually leads to a crypt, after all, and I didn’t want to profane it.
“I think you’re worrying too much. And the dead might not care anyway.”
“…No, I think we could learn from that.”
Kagali agreed with me. That was nice to see.
So while everyone’s taking a bathroom break:
“Hey, is it all right if I try out something real quick?” I said to Kagali.
“What’s that? Coming from you, I’d really like to know.”
“Well, in the labyrinth I run, one popular strategy right now is to rely on Elemental Communication. You have to be a shaman or elementalist to access that, but it lets you immediately discover the best path to take.”
“Really? Because that sounds real convenient.”
Oh, Kagali didn’t know about that? I guess you wouldn’t, unless you’re intimately involved in that stuff.
“Hey! Um, I’m a shamaness! Can you tell me more about Elemental Communication?!”
Ooh. Lucky break there. I felt a little self-conscious about casting the spell myself, so perfect. The volunteer who spoke up was a woman versed in spirit magic, so I gave her a quick lecture on Elemental Communication.
“Oh. Okay. Yeah, I get it!”
She was geared toward the wind element, which made conversation between her and the spirits a relatively smooth process.
“Wow… Now we really won’t get lost, huh?” she said. “The path goes into a dead end up ahead, so we’ll want to go back three intersections and turn east. But this is gonna be hard to map out…”
Kind of. If you just listen to the spirits’ voices all the time, you’ll tire out the communicator. So you’ll want to get the path down on paper…but of course, I had Raphael handle that for me, creating maps I could produce on paper with so much accuracy that you’d think I used some mapmaking software package.
But hang on…?
“Isn’t there a magic spell that puts any diagram you can think of on paper…?”
There definitely was, I thought. I saw it in the book 101 Wild & Wacky Spells I found in the library.
Report. Search complete. It is the illusory magic Thoughtography.
That’s the one!
Funny how there were still a lot of useful, important magic spells I didn’t know, but this kind of nonsense stuck in my brain so easily. I got some good slime cells in me, you know, so my memory skills are even better than before—but with stuff like this, it’s like I was back to my old human mind again.
“Hey, anyone here know illusory magic?”
“Oh, I’m a mysticist! Still in training, but…”
“Okay, try learning this spell for me, then. Also…”
My friends and I all used Thought Communication to share ideas with one another. That would’ve made things easier, but if you wanted to teach something like this to a regular person, magic was still your best bet.
I had just the thing for a time like this:
Suggestion. The best option would be the illusory magic Channeling.
Ooh, there’s that, huh?
So I taught Thoughtography and Channeling to the young man who volunteered his mysticist skills. He gave it a quick whirl—and right away, he was drawing up maps with ease.
“Wow! We’ll never get lost now!”
“In fact, if we use this magic, we could draw out the full structure of these ruins…”
“This will make future expeditions so much easier!”
Well, I’m glad everyone likes it.
“A map’s fine and all, but it won’t show us any traps or magic-driven mechanisms! Don’t drop your guard!” Kagali’s order brought the jubilant team back to earth. Impressive of her to notice that danger without me warning her about it.
For today, we decided to go ahead and make our way to the bottom of this section first. We wound up reaching it before dinner.
Day three began in front of the door to the third and final section.
We decided to split up, one team disabling the magic on the door and the other continuing their exploration of the middle section. I had given them an on-the-field tutorial on this yesterday, so today I was just supervising. Milim, Gobta, and Ranga were on the exploration team.
“Not much to do, eh, Sir Rimuru?” Shion said.
“In that case, why don’t you go make some drinks for the workers?”
“Right away!”
Shion was right; we didn’t really have much to do. But the team was still lobbing questions at me now and again, so I was enjoying it.
Cheerfully, Shion set up a table, pouring coffee from a flask into the cups she had lined up. It was an oddly moving sight. Just a little bit ago, letting Shion touch anything that might go into your mouth was verboten.
“All set! Care for a quick break, everyone?”
We all settled down to relax a bit, the team enjoying her coffee as they had a moment of peace. We still had an eye out for potential attacks, of course, but for now, nothing seemed forthcoming. Hopefully, I wasn’t overthinking matters—but now that I was away from Veldora, Maribel and her cohorts might see this as their big chance. If they were going to act, it was now or never. I’d need to stay on my toes as I saw how things went.
That—and I needed to keep Kagali and her team guarded, too. I ran a quick Analyze and Assess, but nobody seemed suspicious among any of them. They all had the abilities they claimed to have, and there was no sign they were under anyone’s control, whether via their desires or not. If they were brainwashed, then my eyes—or Raphael’s eyes, really—must be deceiving me.
I felt safe in dismissing that possibility. But what if they weren’t brainwashed, but following orders they truly believed in? That could happen, too, so I couldn’t rest easy yet, but none of them were a threat to my life.
So I sat back and enjoyed my coffee.
After a while, Milim came back carrying a ton of stuff. “Rimuru! Look at this! I found so much booty!!”
To be accurate, she was riding on Ranga empty-handed, while Gobta and the other team members were loaded down with swag.
“Check it out! They’re all so perfectly infused with magicules. This alone ought to be a huge harvest for us, huh?”
She was right. Most of their booty was battle equipment. And while they were no doubt fine pieces in their heyday, crafted by talented artisans, the magisteel inside them had settled down and vastly upgraded their abilities.
“Ooh, you’re right. There’s not much artistic value, but you could still use a lot of this stuff today.”
“Right? And look! This one has to be a Unique!”
It was. Extremely valuable. Not the sort of thing you’d want to have lying around, I thought. It aroused my suspicions.
“Where did you find this stuff? Because I doubt Clayman left it untouched without a reason…”
“Well, there was actually a trap I set off by accident, and a bunch of these golems came lumbering up to us. They were carrying all this!” she explained.
Um, that sounded like something I shouldn’t ignore, there…
“You set off a trap?”
“Ah! Um, no, no! It went off the moment I stepped into this one corridor! I think even you would’ve had trouble avoiding it!”
“Yeah! We used magic to detect traps with every hallway we went down. We weren’t bein’ careless or anything!” Gobta added.
Milim and Gobta claimed they were being careful, and judging by testimony from the rest of the team, they weren’t lying. Something must’ve been programmed with certain biological life-form patterns, repelling any intruders who didn’t match them. If you didn’t know the acceptable wavelengths beforehand, it was impossible for anyone to deactivate. The only logical way through was by force.
“Sounds like you had no choice, then. Some of these traps are pretty complex, huh?”
“Oh yes! It sure taught me a thing or two. We should set something like that up in our own Dungeon.”
A corridor that only allowed preselected people through? Maybe this whole section of the ruins was designed to ward people away from the crypt.
“Then perhaps we should assume there are lots of other golems bearing Unique weapons. Their weapons must’ve evolved right in their hands while they were on standby over so many years. It’s boggling to think about…”
Kagali was right. Good thing we had Milim and Gobta with us. If this expedition team were by themselves, there was a decent chance the golems would’ve killed them.
“Nothing might’ve happened yesterday, but I bet there are more traps like that in this section of the ruins. But no need to panic. Let’s try to act more carefully from tomorrow forward.”
“Right. It’ll be a while before we have the door analyzed, so tomorrow—”
Just when Kagali was voicing her agreement, the earth began to shake. A gigantic burst of energy shot across the entire region, including these ruins. Fragments of rock fell from the ceiling, adding to the stress and terror.
“…?! What was that…?!”
“We gotta get outta here! It’s gonna cave in!”
Kagali raised her voice to calm her team. “Pipe down! That was just a single jolt—it’s not an earthquake. A structure this solid won’t fall that easily. Just stay calm and start evacuating.”
That was enough to restore order among the team, a testament to how well trained they were.
“So what was that?” the cool-as-a-cucumber Gobta casually asked.
“Hmm… Some kind of shock wave just ran across the surface, I think. A pretty big one, too, so it might’ve affected the palace…”
I had a transport gate handy if we needed it, so I wasn’t panicking as I answered him. Still, though… Like Kagali said, it wasn’t an earthquake, but some kind of localized energy blast, which meant it had to be man-made.
But just as I was thinking about going back up to look over things, my instincts reacted.
Report. Hostile force detected. At this point in time, the ruins’ defense system has activated. A large number of activating golems have been detected. There are also other intruders going into the ruins.
Alarms began to blare, followed by a mechanical-sounding voice.
“Intruders into Amrita detected. Eliminate at once! Intruders into Amrita detected. Eliminate at once!”
The repeating voice made the danger crystal clear. Now things were critical—the surface wasn’t guaranteed to be safe, and we had an emergency inside the ruins.
“You’re kidding! Did these ruins—did Amrita’s defense system just go off by itself?!” Kagali’s cool, unaffected demeanor was gone now.
“There are intruders coming inside,” I said. “Maybe they set off some kind of trap. Too bad the golems won’t listen if we tell ’em we’re not involved.”
And frankly, I was starting to doubt Kagali herself. She was right near the door. Maybe she could’ve set off the defenses while I wasn’t paying attention? And look at the timing. Other people entering the ruins just when the alarm goes off? That had to be deliberate.
“You notice anything, Milim?”
“No, I didn’t hear a thing.”
Milim could pick up all Thought Communications and magical conversations around her. Trying to hide anything from her was pointless, but she didn’t overhear anything unusual. I thought the intruders might’ve been connected to Kagali, but maybe I jumped to conclusions.
So she’s innocent?
Report. Cannot reach a conclusion. If there is a soul-corridor connection, it is possible to engage in a hidden Thought Communication.
So I couldn’t feel safe yet. I really hated having to protect a potential spy while dealing with enemies… If she would’ve been kind enough to reveal herself and ditch me at this point, it’d make things a lot easier. But oh well.
“We’re in a bad situation. I think the intruders must be from the organization coming after me,” I said.
“Ah, it’s really true…”
“So that earthquake, too…?!”
“But what kind of fools would take on a demon lord?”
The team seemed honestly surprised about all this. I didn’t question any of their motives. I supposed I’d have to brace myself and keep them protected as I fended off this adversary.
“Well, don’t worry. I promise I’ll step up to keep you all safe.”
They looked at me, surprised. Well, that’s mean—did they assume I’d abandon them all in here? We were getting along pretty well; I kinda hoped they trusted in me more.
“Just what you wished for, huh, Rimuru?” said Milim.
“Yeah. Though I’m not too sure whether they caught me or I caught them. We’ll have to see right now.”
Just as Raphael predicted, the enemy took the bait. I won’t ask how they managed to get in. With the kind of talent they had to choose from, it’d be a snap to sneak past the dark elves up top.
Well, let’s take this opportunity to end things here. I was anticipating this, and I debated over how to address it. There was nothing to panic about. Quickly, we all moved into our planned intercept positions.
The second tremor came along.
“What’s that? I really don’t like the sounds of that!”
Even Gobta was growing concerned about events outside. But I didn’t have the time to answer him—because now, I could see it. An ominous dragon, advancing upon us from faraway skies.
“Whoa. That’s real bad…”
It was hard, inside the ruins like this, but I used Magic Sense to follow the magicules to the outside. There I could see a dragon, as vicious as they came. It looked like Veldora on the outside but a measure larger overall. Its skin was ragged, festering, almost rotting off, and its massive aura was exploding out of control. One look told me it packed a massive amount of magicule energy, far beyond what an “awakened” demon lord possessed. This was a Catastrophe-level threat.
“That bad?”
“Yeah. Looks like a dragon, but it’s way beyond an Arch Dragon. It’s probably stronger than a Dragon Lord, even. Maybe it’s one of Veldora’s siblings…?”
“S-Sir Veldora?!”
It was outside the whole framework of what defined a dragon. My only guess was that it was a True Dragon—but it didn’t have Veldora’s grandeur or personality at all. Maybe grandeur was the wrong term to describe that doofus, actually, but this dragon just seemed different from him, fundamentally.
“That…!!” Then Milim suddenly opened her eyes wide. “Rimuru! I, um, I think I got some business to take care of. That dragon…”
She squinted into the empty space in front of her, then used Spatial Transport to vanish from the scene.
Judging by her panic, I could see where this was going. If Milim was freaking out over something, it was usually of her own doing—and that meant the enemy found one serious skeleton in her closet.
“I really can’t believe this, but I think that’s Milim’s dragon ‘friend’ she sealed away long ago. It didn’t get resurrected; someone’s unsealed it and is controlling its will now.”
“Wha?! Is that true, Sir Rimuru?”
“Yeah. I’m feeling these intense shock waves. Not even I might be able to beat it.”
I was telling the truth. Charybdis, made from the remains of Veldora’s power, was like an insect compared to this; the sheer hatred and rage was overpowering. I doubted it would ever stop until it destroyed the whole world…and the scary thing was, all of its emotions were painted over black in my mind. Maribel’s emotional takeover skills were controlling that thing.
“…A Chaos Dragon. I never thought I’d see such a tyrant in this day and age…,” Kagali murmured, and I firmly agreed.
Thank heavens Milim was here! I was sure she could beat that guy and put it back to sleep for us. Then I wouldn’t have anything to worry about. For now, we had our own things to take care of.
“Gobta, Shion, we have guests to welcome.”
“Roger that!”
“I’m on it. Those puny little dolls are no match for me!”
I thought about opening a transport gate to evacuate the expedition team to the surface, but I didn’t think I’d have the time. An organized legion of golems was now here for us, bearing down at full speed as we stood in front of the door.
Shion stepped forward, brandishing her large sword. Unfortunately, it caught on the corridor’s low ceiling.
“Dammit! Check your surroundings!”
“S-sorry! Just a little mistake.”
A “little mistake” could cost you your life. It cost her a bit, judging by the spear from one golem that was now stuck inside her. That nonsense left her wide open, and I really wish she’d get it together for a change.
“It’s too cramped to fight in here. I don’t know what’s beyond, but maybe there’s a bigger space in the third section.”
“Then maybe we can have them hurry up with deactivating it—”
“Nah, at this point, I’ll just do it myself.” Sorry, guys, but time’s up. “Ranga, help those two.”
While Gobta, Shion, and Ranga bought time for me, I quickly wrapped up the door for us. The alarms were still blaring; all the traps were activated. I wanted to avoid violence in here to keep the ruins as intact as possible, but luckily, the door opened without much of a challenge.
“Get inside!”
Heeding my words, the expedition team quickly ran down the stairway inside, none of them demonstrating a hint of panic. Kagali followed behind, and I joined her, protecting her back as we all went into the crypt area.
The dead were asleep here, but it didn’t look the part. It was an enormous, brightly lit space, large enough to house a broad, grass-covered plain. I almost forgot everything as I marveled at the landscape—but now was no time for surprises.
Soon Gobta was down the stairs, the golems not far behind, and the battle began anew. Now, however, things were turning around. Shion had full freedom of movement, and now she was pulverizing those golems.
At this point, I didn’t want to let anyone escape. When I strike, I strike hard, and my foes probably think the same way. After all, they were trying to keep me isolated in here, even if it meant risking the wrath of Milim. I didn’t think they’d go that far.
Honestly, I probably underestimated Maribel. But no more.
…Understood. Shifting into full-power battle mode.
Quietly, I finished my preparations. All restrictions I placed on myself were removed, to get myself ready for the enemy to come. Now I just had to wait for the ringleader.
There were a large number of golems, but we had the advantage. Shion was kicking up a huge ruckus, and Ranga was going berserk. In between them, Gobta was destroying each golem with the gun he had, one at a time. He even had enough time to reload at regular intervals. Seeing how in control he was, the expedition team looked pretty reassured.
“Um, I’m surprised there was actually an attack, but what kind of force would attempt to attack a demon lord? Even waking up a Chaos Dragon for it…”
Kagali must’ve been curious about that. She seemed disturbed, the concern clear in her voice. If it was an act, she was good at it, but I still didn’t know what lay in her heart.
“Sorry to drag you into this.”
“Not at all! If there’s a living Chaos Dragon out there, I wouldn’t feel safer with anybody else, Sir Rimuru.”
“Yeah! We need to report this to the Guild HQ and figure something out.”
“But if the demon lord Milim loses, there’s not much we can do, is there…?”
“We need to survive this first! I don’t know who deliberately set off the trap, but that was such an evil thing to do.”
I was seeing some optimistic opinions among the team. They sure knew how to mentally switch gears on a dime.
“I told you I was gonna protect you, right? And if I win, we’re good.”
I tried to keep it casual as I calmed them down. I had Gobta and Ranga here, not to mention Shion. And Milim, strongest among all the demon lords, wasn’t gonna let a Chaos Dragon beat her. It wasn’t a good situation, but it wasn’t a terrible one, either. We had to kill our foes, survive this onslaught, and address our anxieties. Simple.
Kagali must’ve been relieved a little, because she didn’t say anything else for a bit. I turned my eyes toward Gobta’s battle, waiting for the adversaries to come.
“…You have many foes, Sir Rimuru,” she whispered. “Is that because you’re a demon lord?”
I was unoccupied while waiting for my enemy, so I casually replied to her:
“It wasn’t voluntary on my part, but yes.”
“Why is that?”
“The Kingdom of Farmus provoked me. With Clayman, my foe was messing with me, so I had to respond. Hinata the Saint had the wrong idea about me. In every case, it was started by the other side; I just played along. In a way, it was self-defense.”
“It was? So you never start anything, Sir Rimuru?”
“Well, maybe I can’t say that. With this particular enemy, it’s kind of a conflict between motivations. Our philosophies don’t mesh. This would’ve happened sooner or later anyway, I think.”
“You can’t resolve it without fighting…?”
“Sure we can. But that resolution would probably never come until I swallowed up the other side. If they didn’t want that, they were probably right to do this.”
With the twin superpowers of Dwargon and Thalion at their side, Tempest would have no reason to lose in an economic war with the Western Nations. If the enemy did nothing, I’m certain that we would’ve annexed them all, financially speaking. Raphael’s way faster than a quantum computer; I wouldn’t stand for anyone dissing it.
“…Oh? So you think the other side’s justified in this, then?”
Hmm… Are they? Maybe we could’ve accepted the differences in our principles and agreed to some mutual concessions. If we were never gonna get involved with one another again in the future, that might’ve worked. But if they’re justified, then so am I. I had no interest in doing whatever they said, and they didn’t want me ruling over them. And if that’s how it was, confrontation was the only choice.
In a way, economic warfare is even more terrifying than the kind with guns and tanks. There’s no defined surrender in one, and as long as the other side doesn’t fall under your umbrella, it never ends. Thus, you could say that my foes turning to military warfare was a stroke of luck. This way, once they realize they can’t win, they’ll have to admit to defeat. But even if that was their only choice, the question of whether it was “just” or not is another issue entirely.
“Well, justice can mean a ton of different things, depending on your viewpoint. I’m not saying I’m absolutely correct, but if I retreat here, that’s going to worsen my position. The only choice I have is to fight…”
It’s not that I couldn’t have taken a more modest path. But if I bent, all my friends would’ve gone down with me.
“Even so, if you respected the other side’s position and tried talking to one another to search for a better relationship, don’t you think you could’ve avoided hostilities?”
That’s a tough one. How should I answer it?
…I didn’t have to worry about it. A young girl’s voice answered for me.
“It’s impossible. So impossible. People have endless desires; you can’t ask them to be patient. And if the other side bends, the demands get bigger and bigger. That’s part of being human.”
Right.
If I conceded, I’d like to believe the other side would understand. But that’s just not realistic. If I were just another citizen who could believe in fairy tales, maybe I could’ve given you an earful of all that idealistic stuff. But from a politician’s point of view, there’s just no way I can believe in that nonsense.
And I guess my adversary thought the same way.
“You know, I think the exact same thing. I’m the demon lord Rimuru. You are?”
“Good to meet you. My name is Maribel. I’m your enemy.”
Somewhere along the line, all the golems had been defeated. There, I saw a girl I caught sight of at the Founder’s Festival—the enemy I anticipated and one far bolder than I ever imagined. I figured she’d be the sly sort who didn’t venture out herself, but I wasn’t expecting to see her right here in front of me.
And it wasn’t just Maribel. Three others were next to her—Gaiye, looking completely changed; a man in knightly clothing; and Yuuki Kagurazaka.
The sight disturbed Kagali and the team.
“G-Guild Master?! Why are you here?”
“No… Were you after the demon lord’s life?”
“You’re kidding me! Then why did you order us to explore the ruins?!”
Yuuki demonstrated zero response to these questions. Just as Glenda said, he must’ve been under her complete control.
“Sir Yuuki, what is the meaning of this? Are you turning your backs on us?”
Kagali’s voice was full of anger. It sounded like that came from the heart, but that didn’t matter anymore. I really wanted to end this farce soon and go back up Milim, but before that…
“Yeah. You certainly are my enemy. But before we fight, there’s one thing I’d like to ask, if that’s okay,” I said.
I turned my eyes toward the blond-haired girl. The expedition seemed thrown by my choice, but I kept watching silently. By this point, I suppose they’ve thrown their lot in with mine…or maybe they’ve been taken in by this girl’s dark atmosphere. That shiny blond hair; those lips the color of cherry blossoms. Maribel, this girl who may or may not be just ten years old. Deep down, though, she was cold, just too different from anyone else on the planet.
“What is that?”
“Join me. Then we can avoid all this needless conflict.”
“Laughable. So laughable. You should join with me, Demon Lord Rimuru. You’re going to lose right here. If you don’t like it, submit to my rule.”
“Your approach isn’t a match for my policies. The way you do things will lead to unnecessary wars. It’ll make countless innocent people suffer, just to keep the riches of a few safe.”
“Yes. I’ll admit to that. But so what? It’s completely natural for the powerless to be exploited. It’s survival of the fittest with monsters, too, is it not?”
“Oh, it is. But I don’t like that.”
“Well, it’s stupid. It’s so stupid. Do you believe in a bunch of insipid nonsense like ‘We’re all equal’?”
“No, I’m not a total idiot. But everybody needs to be given an opportunity. Some people just can’t manage to do anything, but you can’t cast away people’s values that easily, can you?”
Some people bloom later in life; some have hidden talents. You have people who hate working but have unbelievable artistic talents. With Maribel’s approach, once a gap opens between rich and poor, it’ll be impossible to close again. And I just couldn’t accept that.
From the moment they’re born, people are unequal. That was a given. You could probably count the monetary fortune a set of parents gives to their child as a kind of talent. But a life where you’ve given no opportunity at an education—just constant exploitation—meant ignoring the potential in all of us. In a word, it was a waste.
People have an infinite potential for talent. Throwing all that away is unthinkable. But…
“Ridiculous. So ridiculous. I can’t believe a childish dreamer like you is a demon lord. Your stupidity is simply unbelievable.” My argument didn’t move Maribel.
“Is it? Well, all right. Then let’s determine which one is right. There couldn’t be an easier way.”
“Gladly. Let me teach you how reality works.”
Our arguments would never mesh. Only through a fight would we ever reach a conclusion. I did feel sad about that, but I could accept it. That’s the way it is. The human race will never see a day when everyone truly understands one another. But that just proves how diverse we all are.
Thanks to the process of evolution, we’re a living contradiction. Only the victor can proclaim how just that is. And Maribel and I—two sets of “justice,” opposed in principles—were about to clash against each other.
“Smash him down!”
At Maribel’s signal, Gaiye moved first. Perhaps it was his hatred that made him lunge at me, eyes bloodshot. He had been taken away by the magical inquisitors, but maybe he escaped or something?
“Pfft! The likes of you challenging Sir Rimuru—” Shion shouted as she attempted to get in Gaiye’s way.
But Yuuki stopped her. “I’ll take you.”
“Oh! How interesting. No one weak enough to let that girl rule over them can defeat me!” Her eyes shone red—that’s a sign Shion was dead serious. With a tremendous aura, she readied her giant sword. The battle was underway.
Leaving her to work things out, I looked at the other man in the group. He seemed stronger than a paladin, but Gobta was engaging him now. Ranga was with him, but honestly, I had my concerns.
“Gobta,” Shion shouted, “time to show us what the Big Four can do!”
Oh. I totally forgot. I did kinda put that in place, didn’t I?
“You got it! Okay, now lemme show you something really good! …Transform!!”
With that callout, Gobta and Ranga merged together, turning into a cool, werewolf-style figure that didn’t have a hint of Gobta to it. Right. That could probably work. And unlike the last time I saw it a month ago, Gobta’s apparently learned how to control himself better. Now he was conducting himself perfectly, no longer battered around by Ranga’s strength. He was facing a foe who could most likely beat the Ten Great Saints, but I figured Gobta could probably manage.
Trusting in that, I focused on my own enemy.
…Oops, but before that. Gathering my aura into my left hand, I casually hurled it at Gaiye.
That was all it took to render him into dust and erase him from this world. Stained by Maribel’s desire, he had obtained powers beyond his own, it looked like—but to me, he was just a distraction.
“You wanted to fight me, huh? Well, glad you got the chance before you died.” It was sort of a blunt way to address the dead, but hopefully he’d be satisfied with it.
“No…?! What was that? What was that? That power…?!”
“What was it? That’s me taking this seriously. And now it’s your turn. You don’t need to understand who you made your enemy. I’m going to gobble you down until you can never get resurrected again, so have fun nourishing me.” I offered that little speech out of politeness before our battle.
Now that I was serious, I didn’t want anyone to expect kindness from me. To me, Maribel was now my enemy. I was going to kill her. It couldn’t have been more obvious.
Let’s end this fast and go help out Milim, I said to myself as I took a step toward Maribel.
Maribel now realized it—just who she was up against. This was a member of the Octagram—and one of the strongest people in the world.
“Hey, is it me, or is Sir Rimuru lookin’ kinda scary now?”
“Shut up! That’s no way for part of the Big Four to talk! Listen, Gobta; that is the true form of the Demon Lord Rimuru. Ah, look how gallant and imposing he is! I, Shion, am truly happy to bear witness to this!”
“Oh, uh, really? I think his ‘true form’ is, y’know, how he usually goes around, and stuff…”
“Yes, and that is quite fetching, too, I will admit. Hee-hee! But I’m sure Diablo so regrets not being able to see this right now. Hee-hee-hee! I will be sure to tell him all about it. For an extended period of time.”
Maribel could hear that conversation, but to her, it just sounded like mockery. Her mind was on other things. She needed to focus on Rimuru.
This is no joke. Not a joke at all. The demon lord Rimuru must’ve found his experience at the Council to be incredibly humiliating, but he didn’t seem that angry about it. That’s why people called him gentle, but that’s so inaccurate.
Yes—to Maribel, a riled demon lord was not a foe to trifle with.
She had powered up Gaiye as best she could. He had taken on more power than your average magic-born, well beyond any human standard. Some of the older-guard demon lords, like Frey or Carillon, might’ve had a difficult time against him. After all, Gaiye had sacrificed the rest of his natural life span, burning up all the energy in his soul to borrow this outrageous force.
And yet Rimuru had defeated him with a single passing blow, as if burning a pile of trash. That was how outclassed Gaiye had been. Not just a child against a grown man; not just an elephant against an ant.
Maribel’s soul held a stronger force than Gaiye’s did. She had been resurrected, traveling to and surviving in another world, and presently, her mind was in a realm beyond human comprehension. But even so, she sensed that the demon lord Rimuru was now a threat.
Thus, she immediately broke out her final option—Holy Field, the most lethal of barriers and a killer move against any monster. Ever well prepared, she had already stationed her Blood Shadow troops around the outer rim of the castle grounds for this.
“You can threaten me all you want, but now it’s time. Time to see just how much more intelligent we are than monsters!”
As she bragged to Rimuru, she used her magical communication skills to send an order.
“Whoa! I feel all heavy…”
“I remember this. And it’s even stronger than it was then. This must be its true force.”
The Big Four werewolf stopped, confused, as his compatriot the ogre grinned defiantly.
How annoying, Maribel thought, gritting her teeth. As the name Big Four suggested, they both possessed unusual strength. Gobta, the werewolf, was the kind of champion to earn second place in battle tournaments—and the ogre he was with was just as formidable. They were joined by other magic-born, people Rimuru brought with him to the Council.
Their sheer power is ridiculous. If I tried a frontal attack, I’d have no chance, even if Veldora never showed up. But…
But now things were different. The demon lord overestimated his skills, and now he exposed his defenseless underbelly. Maribel chuckled to herself. That mistake will be their doom.
But her conviction was wishful thinking.
“Ah, I thought so. I anticipated you making this move. Did you think I wouldn’t prepare for it?” The demon lord Rimuru grinned at her—and the next moment, the Holy Field disappeared as quickly as it deployed.
“Wha?! What did you do?”
“Well, I’m walking around here all but asking to be attacked, so of course I had my people keep watch around the castle for me, right? Maybe you thought you had me in a trap, but I was just using myself as bait to trap you. I figured, after all, that if you wanted to enslave me with greed, you needed to be on-site.”
That was his response to Maribel—and at that point, Maribel understood everything. The missing Glenda hadn’t been rubbed out at all. She’d betrayed her.
Yes… Yes. The only one overestimating their skills is me…
And with her last resort exhausted, she was at a major disadvantage.
Gaiye was dead. Yuuki had the advantage but still wasn’t overpowering the ogre. The other one—Rama, the Battlesage burning to avenge Glenda—was struggling against Gobta the werewolf. Both of them had been powered up by Maribel’s greed, but the reality of it—the fact that neither could emerge victorious—showed just how strong the enemy was.
Maribel would have to step up herself to change matters. The petite, doll-like girl was about to expose her true nature.
Combusting her own soul, Maribel went beyond her limits. All she hoped for was victory. She couldn’t make up for falling in that trap, but this was exactly what she wanted the whole time.
A chance like this wouldn’t come again. She knew that. And thus, she had no regrets. “Time to get serious. I’m going to wager it all to kill you!”
“Right. And I’ll reply with my full force.”
Following that signal, Maribel started running.
With a bound, she unleashed a kick on Rimuru, her physical skill far from childlike. The attack was fiercer and heavier than a tank round, forceful enough to bend an iron beam—but it gave Rimuru no distress. He lightly parried it, then used his momentum to throw her body down.
Maribel reached out to the ground, leveraging her rebound to spin out of harm’s way. Dodging Rimuru’s follow-up attack, she launched Avarice as a sort of return gift.
“Die! …You will thirst for death!!”
Waves of darkness attacked Rimuru. This was Maribel’s finishing move, a strike that took the living’s instinctual lust for life and flipped it on its head. That was Maribel Rozzo—a girl who used her own will to perfect her unique skills. This one, too, was a sinful one, harnessing the most primordial emotions in the human body. No one could resist the enhanced siren song of greed it played, and there was no longer any doubting Maribel’s victory.
Yes… This couldn’t happen any other way. I am reluctant to kill him, but it’s not the worst outcome. It’d be far more foolish of me to leave such a dangerous man unchecked…
If she had her way, she’d rule over Rimuru instead. But he wasn’t the kind of foe who’d ever accept that. So Maribel opted to grasp complete victory for herself instead.
Surrounded by the black surge, the demon lord Rimuru stood there, seemingly not attempting to resist.
“It just wasn’t enough. No one, no matter how strong, can do away with their thirst for life. And that’s what makes me invincible.”
It was true. She was all-powerful. Against Frey, Carillon, or an awakened Clayman, she probably would have won. Even Hinata the Saint would have faltered in the face of her skills. That’s how strong the unique skill Avarice was.
But…
“Sorry, but my Analysis just finished up. Now it won’t work on me.”
Rimuru had triggered his ultimate skill—and at that moment, Maribel’s chances of victory were zero…
…for while she was all-powerful, she was all-powerful within the dimension of that ultimate skill.
Raphael was right after all. Maribel had a Holy Field prepared. Granville was the boss of the Western Nations, so I was right to assume she had adopted it.
She was such a master at it that it scared me. But it also played right into my hand.
Now, the ever-eager Gabil, as well as Hakuro, Soka, and all her fellow troops, had something to do. It had been a pain keeping them calm over the past few days of no action. I certainly was glad I didn’t disappoint them.
But…man, look at this girl Maribel. She was strong. Definitely strong. I felt that for myself when we were tussling earlier—and when she exposed me to those dark waves, that really made my spine tingle. I wasn’t worried at all about the possibility of dying, but if she fired that at one of my other officials… Well, the thought scared me. Anyone besides me would’ve died for sure. If I had to guess, maybe Diablo would be the only one to survive. Well, maybe Shion, too, but anyone else from Benimaru on down wouldn’t have a chance.
Maybe it was time to train their spirits—their souls—a little more, I thought.
Completing my Analyze and Assess like Raphael requested, I gave Maribel her final warning.
“Sorry, but my Analysis just finished up. Now it won’t work on me.”
I wasn’t going to let her control other people, but if she was willing to retire to a quiet life and not bother anyone…
Yes, even I knew I was going easy on her, but she looked like a ten-year-old girl. If I had to kill her, the guilt could’ve been gargantuan. So, you know, it’d be nice if she could surrender for me. (Of course, I guess I can coldly reason like this because I’m no longer human myself, but…)
“…Don’t give me that. More. Give me more. Even if I consume everything I have, I’m going to seize victory!”
Unfortunately, my words failed to reach her.
Our principles were never gonna mesh anyway; I was preparing for an ending like this. But now that it was really happening, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness.
Maribel flew into a crazed flurry of physical strikes. Regrettably, none of them affected me. Well, if we can’t understand each other, so be it.
“All right. I’m going to make this painless for you. Feel free to stew on your loss inside of me…”
With that, I set off Belzebuth’s Soul Consume. Or tried to. But just then, with a loud boooom!! I saw Shion get sent flying from the corner of my eye. Turning toward her, I realized that Yuuki had just drilled a kick into her—and despite her Ultraspeed Regeneration, she couldn’t get back up to her feet. This was very unusual.
“Shion?!”
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!”
Maniacal laughter drowned out my shouting. It came from both Maribel…and Yuuki, as if harmonizing with her.
“Well done. Well done, indeed. I underrated you, Demon Lord Rimuru. I underestimated you. I had no idea you were this kind of monster…”
“That’s true. I didn’t think you could win against Maribel. But I can’t have you forgetting that I’m right here, okay?”
Yuuki, fresh from besting Shion, stood before me. The black waves from Maribel were now crashing upon him, stronger than ever before.
Understood. The subject Yuuki Kagurazaka’s power has just skyrocketed. The subject Maribel Rozzo is apparently using the unique skill Avarice to transfer her power to him.
How many cards does she have in her hand anyway? Now I gotta deal with Yuuki, too? I knew he was only under the influence of her Avarice, so I wanted to subdue him if I could, not kill him.
“Tch! Don’t hate me if I kill you.”
“I’d say the same to you!”
With that exchange, he and I moved in sync.
There was a flurry of kicks, sending both of us hurtling through the air. Something like this had happened before to me, but this time, we were both serious—and now we had these two rivaling powers clashed against each other. Yuuki was stronger than I thought, certainly more of a physical specimen than Maribel. He fought Shion and pretty soundly beat her, so he had to be a phenom. I had no intention of going easy on him, but maybe it’d be tough to resolve this fight quickly.
I thought over my options as I faced down Yuuki…then I spotted Maribel moving around a bit, trying to catch me unawares. Uh-oh. That’s bad, but I got my hands full with Yuuki right now.
Turning her back to us, Maribel began fleeing toward the middle of the crypt. I wanted to pursue her, but Yuuki stopped me. Ah well. Not like Maribel can escape. Now that I fully grasped the wavelengths of her soul, I could find her no matter where she hid.
For now, Yuuki had to come first. I turned my eyes back toward him.

Slime 10.10

Before leaving Glenda to Soei’s management, we decided to have Glenda tell us everything she was aware of. It was no longer an interrogation, so we decided to talk over dinner.
“In the dining hall, you pick up these boards with menu items on them and take them to the window over there. There’s a selection of three items each day, plus a regular special. If you get promoted to management, you’ll get to order one item of your own, too.”
“Oh, really? Because my meals always get picked for me.”
They were always good, I felt, but I never went through that board trade-in thing. The managerial dining hall brought food over to you without having to say or do anything. That—and Shion and Gobichi would occasionally rent kitchen space so they could develop special new meals of their own, but that was another story.
“Today’s special is our most popular menu item,” Shuna explained with a smile. “Normally, you’d either reserve it with merit points or get in line early for a chance at it.”
Ah. I always thought the desserts were really fancy here. I guess I wasn’t alone.
“We always get this, don’t we?”
“Yeah. I make sure I get my share.”
Benimaru and Soei order the special, too? I wondered what Soei meant by that. Did he have one of his spies stand in line for him? I hope he’s not resorting to silly cafeteria antics like that.
With the dishes on our table, dinner began.
“Right, so let’s begin with—”
I was trying to talk to Glenda…but she was completely focused on her food, a woman possessed. It was good, I’ll admit—definitely worth being called a special. So I decided to wait. It’s nice to have more pleasant conversation during a meal anyway.
After we were done:
“Up until now, I always thought money was the most important thing in life. But today, I’ve changed my mind. From now on, I live for nothing but merit points!!”
If she meant it, she was way easier to take down than I thought. But whatever. If that’s what motivates her, then hey, knock yourself out.
“All right. So what do you know? Give me the unembellished truth,” Soei pressed.
And Glenda finally started to talk.
First, about the Council. This organization was under the control of five senior councillors, known as the Five Elders. These were headed by Granville, whom we had discussed earlier. As for the other four? Amazingly, one of them was Count Gaban, the mastermind behind today’s events. Prince Johann of Rostia, one of the councillors relatively supportive of me, was another.
“How come there are so many differing opinions among the Five Elders?”
“That’s how Maribel likes it. She pits the Council against one another so they can keep the mainstream faction the strongest. It’s kind of fixed, you could say, but to the people involved, it’s a serious battle for survival.”
Hmm. A way to encourage activity within the group? It’d be more efficient if they all worked together, but that’d open it up more to stagnation and corruption. You often hear about family-run companies getting ruined by whoever was at the top. Besides, if Johann successfully earned my trust, it’d be easier for him to learn more about our inner workings. If they had booted us out today, then fine; if they didn’t, now Johann was no doubt ready to extend his feelers toward us.
“It’s all kind of malicious, isn’t it?”
“I wish we could just burn it all up instead of deal with it.”
Just hearing about all this made my eyes water. You had to know who your friends and enemies were, or else you’d quickly be ruined. That’s how they did things in the nobility—and if I didn’t know that, I would’ve been on the cusp of trusting in Johann. Maybe taking Glenda in was the right thing after all.
The other two elders were Margrave Cidre, tasked with protecting the northern regions of Englesia, and King Doran, leader of a small military kingdom also called Doran. This meant two out of the five elders were Englesian, which showed how much Granville valued that nation—close to the Holy Empire of Lubelius, far from the Forest of Jura, and one of the safest countries in the world. He must’ve marked it as the nation most worthy of serving as his political and economic center.
“So why do they see me as the enemy? I’m so harmless! I wouldn’t hurt a fly.” I kind of let that slip out. It seemed to surprise the group.
“Huh? If you keep picking the kind of fights you pick, of course people are gonna be hostile.”
Pardon?
“Yeah, I thought you were picking fights with people, too. Diablo told me all about how Sir Rimuru was going to have the world economy in his grip before long, so I thought you wanted to take over the Council.”
What?! And hang on, Diablo’s saying stuff like that?
“That was my intention as well. My information gathering was part of that effort, I thought.”
Well, no, I’ll admit that was what it’s for, but…
“…Don’t tell me you didn’t even realize you were doing it?”
Not you too, Hinata! Why’s everyone looking at me like that? “N-no, um… I’m not gonna say I didn’t mean it, but I didn’t intend to hurry things along that quickly. So for now, I just wanna keep things to peaceful negotiation…”
Hinata sighed and rolled her eyes. “If some new merchant comes along and ruins your marketplace, you won’t find a lot of merchants softhearted enough to forgive that, either.”
Oof. Maybe not.
“Well, all right, all right. We were gonna clash in the future anyway, so let’s just treat ourselves to the main support of economic activity in the Western Nations, all right?”
“That was my intention all along. My job’s to shore up their defenses, but…”
“And I will investigate the Rozzo family and the Five Elders.”
In a way, it was good that we knew our enemies now. Befriending Glenda was an unexpected windfall, and thanks to that, we had a direction to go.
“Okay. Be careful on that. I don’t want to wage a two-front war against Yuuki and the Rozzos.”
“I’m aware,” Benimaru said with a nod, while Soei gave his own agreement.
I was taking a wait-and-see approach with Yuuki as we waged information and economic warfare with the Rozzos. There were no real bullets flying around, at least, which made things easier on me.
So I was about to wrap things up, wondering if I was worrying too much about this, when Hinata stopped me.
“Wait a minute. Yuuki and the Rozzos? Why are you suspicious of Yuuki?”
I was thrown for a moment, but then I realized Hinata might be oblivious to all that.
“Well, thinking about it, if you look at the list of people who know I’m a reincarnate involved with Shizu—and who could’ve leaked that info to the Eastern merchants…”
“Yuuki’s about it, isn’t he?”
“Pretty much. And while I’m at it, I think that Roy, the guy who played the role of a demon lord, was killed by this guy Laplace, member of something called the Moderate Jesters. Sorry if I’m wrong about that.”
“No, I appreciate it. I don’t have any stake in that, but if he’s working against us, I can’t stand for that.”
She was willing to accept Laplace and his cohorts as our foes. She gave a cold, cold smile, one that froze my spine in place. Man, that’s scary. I definitely better make sure I don’t rile her.
After that exchange, Hinata stood up, preparing to head home.
“Ummm, actually, about that…,” Glenda timidly spoke up. Guess she still had something to say.
“What is it? If you wanna say something, don’t hold back. Did you remember something else?”
Then she dropped the biggest bombshell of the day.
“By Yuuki, you mean the grand master of the Guild, right? He’s connected to Johann of the Five Elders, but I’d say he’s pretty much under Maribel’s complete control.”
Huh? Yuuki’s being manipulated?!
“Are you serious?”
“I’m not shameless enough to joke at a time like this.”
No, I bet not. “…Well, why didn’t you tell us sooner? That’s important!”
“Um… You know, I answered directly to Granville for the most part, so…”
Essentially, two people had the right to give Glenda orders: Granville and Maribel, although it was Granville nine times out of ten. As a result, Glenda didn’t get to talk with Maribel often or get much of an insight into her mind.
I picked her brain a little more, seeing if I could get anything else. We learned about more of her underlings, as well as the Blood Shadow, a group that handled the Rozzo family’s dirty work.
“That is a problem,” said Shuna after a moment of reflection. “It might be that whoever’s controlling Yuuki drove him to leak your secret for some reason.”
Hinata was lost in thought as well. It looked like we’d need to reconsider matters from the ground up.
……
Even Raphael was thinking in silence for once. That’s a rarity, but if it couldn’t come up with an answer, worrying about it might be a waste of time.
What we needed here was a clear solution. If thinking won’t solve a problem, we can think later. When taking an exam, it’s always smarter to leave the tougher questions for later—wasting valuable time was never a good idea.
“Well, either way, Yuuki’s still suspicious, so let’s keep an eye on him… Actually, wait a minute.”
As wary as Yuuki was, I couldn’t imagine him trying to spring something on me. But if he was under someone’s thrall, that was another story—and since that someone’s the clearly hostile Maribel, maybe the assumptions I’ve been working with were wrong all this time, huh?
“Hey, if Yuuki can’t defy Maribel’s orders, you think he might be scheming something no matter what his position is?”
Yeah. That’s the thing. Maribel wanted us out of the picture, and she might be willing to use Yuuki for that goal, keeping her own hands clean. Trying to avoid a “two-front war” was the least of our worries.
“That doesn’t sound too good, does it?”
“Given that we’re in the info-gathering stage, the Rozzos can’t make any flashy moves, I imagine. But…”
“Soei and my brother are right. You’re about to venture into the ruins with Yuuki’s assistant, the Guild vice-master Lady Kagali, yes? They might be planning something in there…”
Mmm. Looks like everyone’s reached the same conclusion. Maybe the wait-and-see approach was too optimistic.
“I can’t lie and claim that’s not a worry of mine. Maribel and the Rozzos can always say they didn’t know what Yuuki was doing, too. They can pin all the blame on the Free Guild and cause a rift between us…”
“…And that would ruin your plans, Sir Rimuru.”
“If we stay on the sidelines like this, they might strike first.”
Mmmmmm.
But I felt we were already on guard enough. Security was stepped up across town. They could try to rile up our townspeople, but it wouldn’t go that easy.
So…
Suggestion. You could deliberately open a soft spot to lure them in.
That’s it!
“Perhaps we could cancel the expedition?”
I shook my head at Benimaru. “No. Actually, let’s take advantage of it. Milim will scream at me if we cancel it, so let’s go through with it. Let’s go in as prepared as we can for anything that could pop up—and when it does, let’s engage it!”
Milim was looking forward to exploring the ruins. It was like a field trip to her, something to take her mind off homework, and she’d fly into a rage if I told her it was off. I didn’t want to create yet more problems for myself, so I really wanted to avoid that.
“But wouldn’t that be dangerous?”
“With Milim there? And I was going to take Shion to guard me anyway.”
“Ah, that should work, then. I’m sure she’ll be glad to hear that, given how she was on home duty.”
Benimaru had no complaints, so Shion it was.
“And I’ll take Gobta and Ranga along, too. That should be more than enough of a fighting force, shouldn’t it?”
“Understood. We’ll make sure nothing happens in town in the meantime!”
“And I’ll help my brother strengthen the barrier around it.”
“I’ll keep a steady watch for any unusual movements between countries—especially the Five Elders Glenda mentioned.”
“Thanks. And we have Veldora in the Dungeon, so if things get really bad, turn to him.” I gave each of them my approval.
“Well, I need to bring all this discussion back to Lady Luminus,” said Hinata. “Be careful, all right? Because you have a tendency to get careless sometimes.”
“Quit reminding me!”
So she magically willed herself back home. She’s usually cold to me, but sometimes, in her own way, she can demonstrate legitimate concern, too.
Was this her idea of flirting?
Understood. No.
No dice, huh? I was hoping I’d get to dream a little, but reality isn’t so kind, is it?
Anyway, we had our walking papers. Now we just had to prepare for the big day.THE TRAP OF GREED
Once I’d rounded up all my officials together, I shared everything I learned with them, introducing Glenda and ensuring they accepted her. This, of course, meant exposing Glenda to their surveillance; she’d need to earn her trust with all of them.
I also introduced her to Kaijin and Kurobe, so they could get a chance to examine her handgun. She oughtta be able to restock her ammo here, too. Maybe we can even mass-produce those things? Honestly, I’d like one, too. I wasn’t gonna put them on sale, but maybe I could give them out to important people on some kind of licensing system. They’d be cool to have, too, I wickedly thought as the days passed by.
Soon, the day of our ruins expedition came. We were all set to go. Our expedition outfits were perfect, and I even had a prototype gun on my side.
It had piqued Kaijin’s interest enough that he produced a mold during the off-hours of his research. Dold then carved a seal into them that used magical power to trigger a small explosion inside the chamber—no gunpowder needed and no ejected cartridges. All you needed were some elliptical bullets, and off you went. It was sized at a third of an inch and could hold sixteen bullets. It used a blowback system that made the bolt retract with each shot, in order to load the next bullet and eliminate the impact of the explosive charge.
The construction was more like a toy than anything, but even this had the power of a .44 Magnum. That was thanks to the gun’s magisteel make, which improved its shock resistance, and the inscription-driven explosive charge also delivered the maximum amount of power possible.
By the way, the force of this gun depended on the type of bullets used. Normally, it’d use plain old lead bullets, but for monsters, we also had magic-infused mithril shots. The force could differ depending on how much magic you put in, so you could say this weapon needed the right person using it to excel.
In terms of classification, it was a Rare, albeit one that could hit as hard as a Unique. A really interesting weapon to have around, one that even surprised Kaijin’s team as they made it. With the capability it had, I’d really like to make it standard-issue with our new troops, but as mentioned, that was up for discussion.
Frankly, this was something we’d normally never do. In a way, I made it to play out the classic tropes more than anything; I was reluctant to formally adopt it. We’d have to see how things went, perhaps lending it out only if we determined it to be truly necessary.
Such as today, for example. Carrying this around definitely completed my look. Any man’s got to have a little classic adventure in his life.
“Ooh, this is really cool! The way it kind of recoils in my hands feels so awesome!” Gobta cried.
See? Gobta and I share the same good taste. Typically, these were for lending out only, but let’s give Gobta one as a present.
“You see what I mean, Gobta? But don’t go pointing it at people, all right? It’s dangerous.”
“Of course not! I’ll be real careful!”
He was overjoyed, while Ranga looked on jealously. Ranga, you can’t use that thing. I’ll give you a fancy scarf, though, so make do with that.
“Hee-hee… I have Goriki-maru V2 with me, thank you. Not to mention the clothing you chose for me, Sir Rimuru…”“Shion, no going on an expedition in that, all right? Safety’s our top consideration here!”
She must’ve really liked the clothing I gifted to her, because Shion wore it every chance she got. But it was meant for fashion, not exploration.
“A pity…”
Her head drooped down as she changed to her normal suit. That wasn’t exactly a great improvement, but it was her de facto battle gear, so ah well.
“Rimuru, what do you think of me?”
Milim was practically jumping up and down with excitement.
“Ah… Looks good on you. Definitely worth getting for today.”
Like Gobta and me, she was in expedition gear we obtained for this day.
“You bet! It feels good—and talk about easy to move in! Can you believe how many pockets it has? So cool!”
She was in shorts, which I wasn’t sure was such a great idea, but they suited her, so we’d go with it.
“That it is. Be sure to thank Shuna, okay?”
“Okay!”
“That’s right!”
Thus, we were all in high spirits as we headed for our meeting point—the Free Guild headquarters in the Englesia capital. The plan was to head to the Puppet Nation of Dhistav from there.
Kagali was waiting for us at the front entrance.
“Good to see you again. We have a lot to do today!”
“I guess this is the first time? I’m Milim. Good to meetcha!”
“My name is Kagali. It’s a pleasure to meet you as well.”
They all smiled at one another before Kagali guided us forward.
“Milim?”
“Mmm… I don’t think there’s any problem. But it’s a little…um…”
“…?”
Kagali gave our conversation an odd look. She worked for Yuuki, so we eyed her with suspicion, just in case. I was having Milim check her out with Dragon’s Eye just now, and it sounded like something caught Milim’s attention—but nothing especially problematic. It still bothered me, though, so I resolved to keep my guard up.
“Our team’s all here, so let me introduce everyone.”
Rolling her eyes a bit, Kagali began introducing the expedition team to us. They were lined up in a row, waiting for us in an open area near the HQ. It was a team trained by Kagali herself, and the more talented and experienced among them would be joining us today. They all volunteered for the job, around ten men and women in all, even after being told we could be attacked. Some of the passers-by were giving them curious looks, but nobody minded. They seemed well trained enough.
Their equipment, meanwhile, was the full, complete deal. Not the make-believe stuff we had on, but a lot of heavy stuff—thick upper and lower clothing, with large backpacks. Each of them carried tools for the role they played in the expedition—walking sticks, pickaxes, shovels, you name it.
“We’ll carry your equipment for you, Sir Rimuru, but where did you put it?”
We didn’t have any. Just these cool new outfits.
“No, um, we didn’t prepare anything, so it’s just this.”
“Huh? That’s an amusing joke.”
Yeah, I know, but…
“Look, you really shouldn’t have any of your skin exposed. You might get stung, and it’s easier to get hurt that way, right?”
Work clothing did its job best if it covered all your skin. Plus, Milim’s outfit was just downright slovenly.
“Hmm, you think so? But my skin’s protected by an aura at all times, so I’ll be okay!”
“Yeah, but you wanna have Kagali get mad at you?”
“You’re just the same as her! From my perspective, you’re both far too lightly equipped! You’re treating this expedition like a walk in the park!”
Oof. Harsh. What was so bad about this, really?
“All right, all right, all right. We’ll be fine, okay? I may not look it, but I’ve got a lot of adventuring experience!”
To be more exact, I had gone light since I didn’t really need to camp outside anyway. That was better demonstrated in person than explained at length right now.
“Well, if you insist…but if you have any trouble, please let us know at once.”
I doubted we’d have that much trouble. We were treating this like a fun outing, but we did have an eye out for danger. I made sure Gobta, Ranga, and Shion were all aware of that.
Time to head out, then.
“Right. I have a wagon prepared for us…”
“Huh? We don’t need a wagon, do we?”
Kagali stared blankly at me. I stared blankly back at her. What? I mean, it’d take, like, two months to reach Dhistav by wagon. That was never an option.
“What do you mean?”
I invited the quizzical Kagali to just take us out of town for now. Once we found ourselves in a deserted area, I used Dominate Space to open a transport gate straight to Dhistav. This process was familiar to me by now; if I’ve been somewhere before, it was easy to open a gate there.
“All right, come on in. It won’t disappear on you or anything, so don’t panic.”
The dazed expedition party began talking all at once.
“You’re kidding me! How far away do you think we are…?”
“Truly…a demon lord is an amazing thing…”
“Impossible. Now the majority of our preparation has gone to waste…”
I felt a little bad about that, but—hey—at least I looked cool.
So we were at the Puppet Nation of Dhistav.
The first people to greet us were the dark elves, lined up at the castle entrance and bowing deeply.
“Welcome to Dhistav! You must be exhausted from your journey!”
The elder among the group stepped up to me. I say elder, but she looked maybe in her twenties, a woman with blond hair and dark-brown skin.
“Oh, no, not really. But do you have rooms for us?”
“Of course. We could provide individual rooms for each of you, but if necessary, we have larger group rooms as well.”
I gave them advance notice, so they were entirely set up for us. For now, I figured we could drop all our stuff in the larger group room.
“Okay, let’s head to the group room first. We can keep our luggage in there, so maybe we can get a tour around the castle today?”
“Very well. I’d be happy to guide you.”
The elder guided us into the room. I told the team to drop their stuff there, and they did so, walking like out-of-sync robots.
“Um, what is going on here?! It hasn’t even been an hour since we came together, and we’re already at our destination?!”
“This is insanity! I must be going insane!”
“What? Individual rooms? They’re treating us like guests in this castle?!”
I guess the robotic walking was because their brains were still catching up to all this. It was a departure from the usual sort of expedition, and I suppose it confused them.
“Sir Rimuru has directed us to look after all of you. If you run into any issues during your stay, please don’t hesitate to inform us.”
The elder flashed a soft smile at the dazed team as she spoke. That was enough to make them face reality. I watched them all, warm fuzzies running over me.
Then we took the team on a tour of the castle, the former residence of the demon lord Clayman and a place that brought the word opulence to new heights. The dark elves were fully maintaining the palace, and everywhere I looked, it was spotless.
“This is gonna be yours once the expedition is over, Milim, but I think all these people still want to live here.”
“Mmm. Yes, I see that. Let’s have them provided with regular food and supplies.”
“Thank you very much, Lady Milim.”
“Don’t worry about it! You’re my people, too, so if you carry out your roles, that’s great.”
Wow, Milim’s really getting smarter. Frey’s efforts must be paying off.
Impressed, I asked her some more about the castle and whether she had any issues with it. It’s a big palace, enough so that it had space for all the dark elves. There was no surrounding castle town—dwellings for magic-born existed, but they were all out working under Geld right now. The elves were tending to them as well, for when they eventually came back.
“And this is the entrance into the ruins. It’s divided into three sections, with the deepest one serving as a crypt. Only the higher officials among us are allowed to enter, and only the demon lord Clayman himself knows what lies in the middle section and beyond.”
Hakuro mentioned this in his own report, but the ruin entrance was right inside the castle.
“So you know how the topmost section is structured?”
“Yes. All the treasure in the top section has already been recovered, so we are currently using the area for our residences.”
There were so many empty rooms inside that it could easily house over a thousand beds.
We opened the door and went in. It was supposed to be underground, but the space was filled with a soft light.
“What’s this light…?”
“Ah yes, this is a perpetual magic-driven effect. It is synchronized with the passage of the sun, so it gets dark at nighttime.”
“Heavens! Magic from the distant past is still in operation today?!”
“This… This alone is a huge discovery. It’s being treated as the most normal of things in here, but I’d like to thoroughly investigate it…”
“Is this magic active in the other sections?”
“Yes. I had a glance deeper in when I accompanied Lord Clayman, but the central section was just as bright.”
The elder patiently answered all our questions, a back-and-forth that continued for a while to come. I could see how excited the team was, and that energy was starting to rub off on us.
“Better stay out of their way, Gobta.”
“Right! Gettin’ kinda nervous, huh?”
We whispered at each other as we looked around the first section. It looked pretty lived in, so I could believe the dark elves called it home.
“So if you live in here, you don’t see any monsters come up from below? ’Cause if there’s a crypt, I’d expect ghosts ’n’ stuff…”
The elder snickered at Gobta’s query. “No, no need to worry about that. There is only one door leading to the underground, and only Lord Clayman could open it.”
“Hmm?” Milim raised an eyebrow. “Well, if it won’t open, let’s just break it down.”
“Certainly. One swing of my blade, and all shall be pulverized!”
“No! We need to examine it first! Please, no breaking anything!”
I rushed in to keep the extremists from having their way.
“R-right. Good point. Better be more careful than that, Shion!”
“Yes, that was close. If I didn’t hear that, I would have lost hold of myself.”
That’s just what I was anxious about, but at least they were open to guidance.
So we made our way through the rather extensive ruins, past the dark elves’ settlement and up to a single, very large door, the same size as the first but with a very apparent magical seal on it.
“…Ah. This appears to be part of a defense mechanism powered by ancient magic. It might wake up the entire city defense system if we touch it.”
“Defense system?! Is it still active?”
“We’ll need to be careful. If we trip it, the expedition might have to be called off very quickly.”
Kagali stiffened as she gave the warning, and her team’s faces all tightened up, too. I wonder how Clayman got this thing open.
“Was Clayman involved with running these ruins or something?”
“No, he came to the forefront only just recently. I doubt he was involved with them before that point.”
“I think he managed to undo this magical seal. Follow the correct procedure, and I think it should open without complaint.”
Mmm, yes, yes. Even Clayman could tackle this one, if he had enough time. Didn’t he have some unique skill along those lines?
Affirmative. Manipulator, the power to convert information into encrypted messages that can be sent and received.
Right, that one. He could probably use it to decrypt whatever data he saw, which was a good way to analyze and break open magic seals like this one.
By the way, have I obtained that skill yet?
Understood. The skill was an inferior version of the powers my master already has, so it was dismantled and absorbed as energy. As a formality, Control Terrain has been added to Control Laws.
Ah. No wonder I didn’t hear about it. If it’s not worth reporting, Raphael doesn’t tell me about it. But if Clayman could do it, so can I. It’s really Raphael doing it, but whatever.
“This could be a long battle.”
“Quite a challenge to start out with. But this is still a good environment compared to what we’ve dealt with before. Let’s settle down and start deciphering this!”
The team was enthusiastic about getting to work, for sure. Meanwhile, I laid a hand on the door. The energy flowing through the veins in the earth, I could tell, was spreading out across the wall as it went through the magic seal.
“I see. If we break down this door, that’ll knock out all the light in this section. All this energy would be diverted toward eliminating the intruders, and then it’d heal itself once everything was safe again, perhaps. Staying in operation like this for over a thousand years… This is the work of a highly advanced civilization of magic.”
It was Greek to me if I was alone, but thanks to all the support I had here, this was pretty easy to follow. It was even kind of fun, like a puzzle.
Working my way through the magic seal like a worksheet full of mathematical problems, I managed to figure out how to open it.
“Oh, here we go. Run some magic power through here, and that’ll open up an input window for an encrypted spell.”
I turned back toward everyone…only to find the team staring at me, jaw down on the floor. Oops. In an instant, I knew I had gone too far. It was so much fun analyzing it, you know, but this was their job, wasn’t it?
“Sorry, kinda got carried away…”
“N-no, not a problem at all.”
Kagali offered me some comfort, but I really felt like I was stepping on some toes here. Butting in too much would be regrettable, so I decided to sit back and fluff up Ranga’s mane for a while…
…but with the kind of gang I brought along, that wasn’t gonna happen.
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! I just solved it, too!” Milim was already bounding around the door.
“Oh? I’m pretty stumped, I guess.” Meanwhile, Gobta was bringing a quizzical hand to his head.
Several of the team members were debating among themselves, voices and eyes bright.
This all happened thanks to a question from Kagali.
“Sir Rimuru, would you mind explaining how you deciphered this?”
I was deep into giving Ranga a grooming session, but if she was asking, I had to answer her. So in front of an eager-to-learn audience, I went over the steps I took to decipher the magic seal.
“First, before you examine the complete shape, you need to examine what kind of magical formula has been added to it. Then you divided that formula into individual sections.”
“So you look for the newest spell first?”
“Right. You’re figuring out which formula will keep the complete shape from working right if you take it out, and then you repeat that as you try to grasp the core features of the spell. After that, it’s just a matter of taking all the correct answers and stacking them atop one another.”
“I see…”
“So get rid of the false data and keep the spells that work correctly?”
I had heard this was a team of elite explorers, and they certainly were quick learners. Just a little advice from me, and their understanding grew deeper and deeper.
“So with trap spells, they’re usually complete packages in and of themselves, right? They’re kind of like leaves and branches coming out from the main tree, separate from the flow at the foundation. That’s assuming the main purpose of the spell isn’t to activate the trap, of course, but…”
“…Hmm. So they’re in the main flow of the seal, but we can’t afford to ignore them, huh?”
I guess my experience educating children was paying off. The team found my teaching style really easy to grasp. Having so much success lifted my spirits, so I kept on demonstrating my approach to magic seal analysis.
In the midst of this, Milim went and got the door completely unsealed. A few others followed quickly after her, but it was then that the dark-elf elder spoke up again.
“Everybody, we’ve prepared dinner for you. I’m sure you’re tired from your long journey, so why don’t we finish up work for today?”
Only now did I realize we were into the evening hours. Yeah, the real expedition could begin tomorrow. Let’s wrap things up for now—we can get the door open for good soon enough.
“Okay, wanna stop here?”
“Sounds good. It feels strange describing it as a long journey, but we can get down to business starting tomorrow.”
With Kagali’s agreement, our work ended for the day.

Slime 10.9

After that long, long session was over, we all regrouped back at the café. I was relaxing in my seat, the tie on my business suit loosened. I could’ve used Spatial Motion to come home now, but Soei still hadn’t caught our culprit, and there might be some unforeseen snags, so I decided to stick around for a bit.
But…man. That conference was so exhausting. Prince Elrick of Englesia’s intrusion, that guy Gaban pulling the strings behind him, all the councillors whose support they enjoyed…but it all ended with their mouths agape.
Gaban was a high-level noble, I guess, but even he got taken away by those scary-looking “magical inquisitors.” The other councillors in on the conspiracy were saved from that by diplomatic immunity, but thanks to the ledgers I submitted to the authorities, I think their home nations will be investigating them shortly. They’ll lose their posts, no doubt, and a lot of them looked pretty alarmed about that, but they had it coming.
Even a lot of the councillors who weren’t involved at all treated me with, shall we say, “noble” indifference. I let the innocent ones go, but judging by my ledgers, a lot of them were criminals indeed. So I planned to alert their home nations about my evidence as well. The more the merrier, and all that. That ought to shake up things a bit among those fools, a lot of whom used their posts to fatten up their own coffers. The sooner they were gone, the easier things would be for me later.
I sipped my coffee as I thought all this over. “Well, a lot happened today, but now I’m glad Hinata and Shuna got angry before I did. I am the demon lord here, so I figured it wouldn’t look too good if I started bashin’ heads in first thing.”
“Oh, I didn’t ‘get angry.’ Some of the councillors were being discourteous in their diplomacy, and I just offered them some etiquette lessons.”
“Neither did I, Sir Rimuru. I just helped a few rude gentlemen see the errors of their ways. If I was truly angry, there wouldn’t have even been a pile of ashes where they once stood.”
Hinata and Shuna smiled at the same time. Perfectly in sync. It was a little frightening. Against that sheer impact, all I could do was nod and say “Uh, yeah” back.
“But it was a good experience for me,” interjected Benimaru.
“Hmm?”
“I mean, I got too angry up there. My mind became a total blank, and I didn’t know what I should do about it. If Shuna had waited any longer to act, I might’ve torched every human in that room.”
I nearly did a spit take with my coffee. Yeah, I sure thought Benimaru was coolly eyeing the proceedings. I was glad to see him act all mature for a change—but he was actually so enraged that he lost hold of himself. Guess I shouldn’t have been so impressed. But man, was that close. If I oversaw a bloody massacre in there, the entire human race would have it in for me.
“Look, whatever you do, don’t do that, all right?”
“Ha-ha-ha! I was just kidding!” Benimaru tried to laugh it off with a breezy smile, but he couldn’t fool me. He was serious. I’d need to pick a representative to send to the Council before the next meeting, and I better choose damn carefully.
We were still talking, me finishing my coffee, when Soei’s report came in.
“Sir Rimuru, I have captured the assassin.”
I figured he’d manage the job fine, and I was right. What a talent—always doing a perfect job with the work I assigned him.
“She was an able fighter, to be sure. She didn’t give her name or any other information about herself…but she referred to you as that devil bastard’s boss.”
Hmm. A crack professional assassin, no doubt, one who wouldn’t divulge her identity that easily. But “devil bastard”…?
“Did she mean Diablo?”
“I couldn’t imagine anyone else.”
Made sense.
I didn’t receive any report along those lines from Diablo—at least, I don’t think I did—but he’s the kinda guy who treated even Razen like a snot-nosed kid. If he and this assassin ever fought, chances are the girl didn’t even register in his mind. It reminded me once again just how sky-high Diablo’s standards were.Razen himself, after all, was a human strong enough to be worthy of a magic-born title. The way Hinata described it to me, there was almost no person stronger than him in the Western Nations—and if he called him a wimp, then Diablo’s sense of judgment must’ve been completely out of whack. I should probably teach him more about what passes for “strong” in this world.
I ordered another cup of coffee as I considered this. Shuna, Hinata, and Benimaru were going with tea instead, as well as some cake for dessert… Whoa, you too, Benimaru?! Guess I might as well join in, then. I’ll never say no to a good shortcake; that’s my favorite.
So I had the waitress deliver coffee to us both when Soei arrived. The waitress was clearly blushing, which Soei prudently ignored as he drank it black. Coffee really completes the picture with him, although I personally sided more with Benimaru and his sweet tooth.
Thus, we enjoyed our drinks as I asked Soei, this perfect specimen of a man, for his full report.
“…And that’s everything for now.”
He wrapped things up by the time I got to the end of my second cup, using Thought Communication to replay the memory of what he saw to everyone. Based on that, it looked like Soei managed to make this assailant throw every type of offense she had at him. She was pretty beautiful, too, but Soei showed her no mercy. It was kind of like cheating in an old-school online game, taking advantage of some bug to get infinite energy. Letting your opponent think they had a chance to win—and just laughing in the shadows the whole time. If you can get your foe thinking they’ve almost won, that’s when you can get truly malicious, forcing them to use all their items and so forth. That’s the strategy Soei must’ve used to get information from the assassin.
Of course, this wasn’t a game—and in an intelligence operation like this, you had to know how to read the story behind your target. Soei didn’t mess that up at all; I think he deserved praise for a fine job.
“Good work. You always impress me, Soei.”
“I tested out the strategy you described to me, Sir Rimuru, and it proved surprisingly effective. The key is to show yourself struggling a bit first, isn’t it?”
Um…?
Oh. Right. I think we did talk along those lines. I definitely recall talking to him about spy movies, but maybe we discussed online games, too? It was such an inconsequential conversation that I forgot all about it. I internally apologized to Soei—didn’t mean to implant any “malicious” ideas in him.
“Ha…ha-ha-ha. Glad to be of service.”
“No, I still have so much to learn. She eliminated three of my Replications.”
“Oh, did she? Well, at least we can get some clues about our enemy now.”
“Yes. I will handle the interrogation.”
Interrogation, huh? Hmm… Should I say something about that?
As I considered whether to, Hinata interrupted us.
“You know, I wasn’t sure whether to speak up about this, but I’m sure you already know anyway, so… The assassin Sir Soei encountered used to serve under me. I didn’t know what kind of powers she was hiding, but it sounds like she was more trouble than I thought. Now I see how she managed to beat Rama. If a bullet appeared two feet away from you, you probably couldn’t react in time, either.”
“Who’s Rama?”
“Oh, sorry. He was a man in my force, one of the Three Battlesages. Glenda beat him, and later he started working for her.”
Maybe Hinata could dodge a bullet that close to her, but most people couldn’t. There was no doubting the danger Glenda’s skill posed.
But this Rama guy was a Battlesage-level fighter, huh? That made him potential demon lord material. Serious strength. And—
“Soei talked about one of his Replications getting blown off its feet. That was probably a hand grenade, wasn’t it?”
“Oh, you mean that exploding ball of hers?”
“Yeah, that. It doesn’t sound like magic, and I think it’s a weapon from my old world.”
Understood. It is believed to be magically generated by the subject Glenda. It is a force somewhat similar to Materialize Weapon, allowing her to bring things in her memory into reality.
M-Materialize Weapon?! So she’s not only a born sniper, but she’s got that, too?
According to Raphael, the full-on Materialize Weapon let you fully regenerate any weapon in your memory. With Glenda, the skill wasn’t quite as well-defined, so she could only create imitations with similar effects to what she pictured. Even that, however, was enough of a threat.
“I agree with you. I haven’t seen a real one, but it sounds like the ones in movies and stuff. Should we assume Glenda’s an otherworlder, too?”
“I don’t think there’s any doubt about that. Especially if she’s using her memories to create Earth weapons.” I sneered triumphantly at Hinata.
She leered back at me. “Why do you know that?”
Oops. She’s sharp. I was still keeping Raphael a secret. Better talk my way out of this. That’s what I get for being a know-it-all, I thought. “Oh, just a hunch. When you get to my level, you start to get hunches like that.”
Benimaru looked over to me, wonder in his eyes. It comforted me a bit as I gauged Hinata’s reply.
“All right. But do you think I could help interrogate her? There are a few things I’ve been meaning to ask Glenda if I had the chance. Saare and Grigori never returned, either, and I think she might know something about them.”
Good. She let it pass. And if she wanted to talk to Glenda, I had no reason to deny her the chance. There was no need to hide our prisoner, and I definitely didn’t want Glenda exposed to whatever awful things Shion did to hers.
It sounded like Glenda had an encounter with Diablo, one she fled from immediately. The whole Prince Elrick thing was nothing to do with us, really; so as long as she gave us her information, I wouldn’t get rough with her. I guess Soei gave her quite a fright already—not physically, but in the “break your heart” kinda way.
Whether we’d let her go, on the other hand, was a tough question. She was a tougher foe than we thought; she might be dangerous if set free. But I wasn’t sure handing her over to Englesia was such a great idea, either. Let’s save that question for later.
“Okay. Wanna join me?”
“Please,” Hinata said, nodding.
For now, we’d need to go meet Glenda first, gauge her demeanor, and figure things out from there. We decided to get going.
By the way, I covered our tab at the café, just like I did yesterday. I didn’t exactly appreciate Hinata’s check making its way over to me, but should I have forgiven it like the generous man I am, or should I have said something? I’d hate to be called cheap.
Then again, worrying about little things like this would probably get me pegged as a member of the lower class. The question weighed on my mind as we put Englesia behind us.
“Ughh, Chief?!”
We were all back home, meeting up with one of Soei’s Replications there. There we saw the captured Glenda open her eyes, only to find Hinata right in front of her. And she screamed in response.
This was in a plain old reception area, not an interrogation room. Benimaru and Soei were guarding me on both sides, and Hinata was there as well. We were all having tea from Shuna as the interrogation began.
“It’s been a long time, Glenda. Glad you’re doing well.”
Hinata went first, coldly looking down on her. She never did go easy on her opponents, and while Glenda was thrown at first, she regained her composure quickly.
“Hah! I guess this is it for me, then,” she brazenly said. “If you’re gonna kill me, go ahead. The fates of captured spies never change much in history.”
“Silence. All you need to do is answer Sir Rimuru’s questions.”
Soei was being just as merciless with his follow-ups. “Sir Rimuru, should we amputate her limbs to train her to be a little more complacent?”
Um, no thank you. And if Soei said he’d do it, he really would, so…
“No, no, just because we’ve got healing potions…”
“Ah, meaning we can give her that painful experience time and time again?” Shuna interjected. “That does make sense—”
“No! I mean, just because we have healing potions, it’s not nice to go so far with this!”
Seriously, stop. Shuna was smiling and nodding her agreement, but Hinata’s eyes were killing me. Not even I would go that far against a woman. And Glenda didn’t seem completely disinterested in talking—I felt like we could negotiate something.
“All right, Glenda. We haven’t met before, have we? I’m the demon lord Rimuru.”
“…Hello. I’m Glenda. One of Lady Hinata’s old troops and part of the Three Battlesages.”
For her part, she understood that jokes and bargaining wouldn’t work against Soei. She provided her name, at least, perhaps figuring I was better worth giving answers to.
She certainly knew Diablo, and I could see it if she ran after realizing she couldn’t win. Very few people who shout out “kill me” actually want to die. I felt safe assuming she was attached to her life. But I was also interested in why she betrayed Hinata. Even if she didn’t reveal her client for this murder attempt, maybe she’d be more willing to discuss other matters.
Well, regardless of how open she is, I’ll just have to ask whatever I can.
I began with a calm approach.
“So you were definitely aiming for Prince Elrick. Is that right?”
“Yeah.”
“And was that in order to frame me for it and get me kicked out of the Western Nations?”
“Probably. I didn’t hear any reason. I was just told to do it.”
All right. That didn’t seem to be a lie.
“Can I ask the next question?” Hinata asked, eliciting a nervous shiver from Glenda.
“What is it?”
“I assigned you to a commercial hub city so you could have more freedom of movement. I told you not to listen to what the merchants there told you, but had they already won you over by then?”
“No comment there.”
“Were you ready to betray me from the beginning? Because you were ordered to?”
“…No comment.”
“I’m thinking your backers are the group controlling the Council. Who are they?”
“……”
“I always thought it was strange. The Council would sometimes make these moves to indicate they had an eye out for the Western Holy Church. I figured there had to be a spy, and you were my prime suspect. I was waiting for a chance to expel you, but if you tell me your employer’s name, I’m willing to subtract from your sentence.”
“I told you, no comment!”
“No? All right. One more question. Did you believe in Luminus?”
“Tch! There’s no god out there. If you want me to believe in that, pay me—”
The next instant, Hinata had her rapier out. With a pure, melodious clang, I stopped it with my own sword.
“Whoa, Hinata! Not the head! You interrogating her or killing her?!”
“…I didn’t intend to.”
“You liar! You had every intention of it just now!”
Eesh. Gonna have to keep a constant vigil, I see. Hinata absolutely would’ve decapitated her. I managed to react because I had an eye out, but we came this close to losing a valuable information source.
“It’s all right, Sir Rimuru. I can use her as a test subject for my resurrection magic.”
Shuna was there smiling, like always.
“That’s true. And I can use divine miracle resurrection as well. There was hardly any problem with it.”
I wasn’t sure how much of this was an act. Both Hinata and Shuna were griping at me now, but I didn’t really think it was okay to kill someone just because you could resurrect them later. I didn’t think so, but there was a certain type of persuasive logic to it. It’s strange.
“Look, can you just shut up for a second, Hinata?”
Time to tag back in. This was going downhill really fast, so I better have Hinata cool off for a bit.
So. My turn again.
Raphael, do your stuff!
…Understood.
Raphael eagerly accepted the challenge. I simply voiced what it told me.
“I’m assuming a professional like you isn’t gonna just tell me everything because I asked nicely. So you can just listen to me instead, okay?”
Hmm. Interesting. Prod her and gauge what she knows from her reactions, then?
“Try not to lose your poker face, then.”
“Hah! You better not look down on me. I don’t need you to remind me!” Glenda’s up to the challenge, huh? So who’s gonna win this? I wondered, as if I were part of the audience.
“Unique skills often take root in people’s souls. You’re a good example of that. Yours is bound fast to your soul with a powerful force.”
“Huh. Didn’t know that. So?”
“So in that conference I attended, a lot of the councillors were tarnished by their vast, greedy desires.”
“Uh-huh…”
“These desires were forcibly planted into them. There’s a force involved that can directly impact people’s souls, and I think that’s what guided their moves.”
“……”
“And you’re under that same influence, Glenda.”
“What?”
“In your case, though, your unique skill is providing protection to your soul, so this influence hasn’t fully clouded you yet.”
“Ngh…” Glenda wordlessly scowled. Maybe she couldn’t find a way to deny it—it was kinda news to me as well, but still.
“But as amazing as your unique skill is, there are people out there who can see it for what it is.”
“…You mean with Appraiser’s Eye?”
“Certainly. Dragon’s Eye, from the demon lord Milim, is more famous. Not that I’m up on this stuff, but there’s an old story about how Milim can see everything, right? Apparently, that’s really true. One glance at someone, and Milim has a general idea of what kinds of skills they have.”
That was true, although she couldn’t guess someone’s internally manifested skills and couldn’t give you details unless the subject invoked them. She could gauge their strengths, as well as whether a given skill was “extra” or “unique” in nature. It was just harder to give you finer details—for example, if someone had two or more unique skills, she’d have trouble telling whether it was two skills or one really powerful skill.
I was actually the same way, too. My Analyze and Assess was now accurate enough that I got a hazy insight into the skills of other people, and I also learned how I could conceal mine from others, the way Guy Crimson had hidden his own magicule count. When I first met Guy, I assumed your skills stayed hidden unless you showed them off to people. I was wrong—like I said, an Analyze and Assess skill forged well enough can detect them, with the one being assessed none the wiser.
Looking back, I was pretty lucky, actually. Thanks to having four different ultimate skills, Guy must’ve taken one look at me and assumed I couldn’t be toyed with. Raphael was the one skill I absolutely had to keep under my hat, so that was the watchword for my future moves from that point forward.
So I switched my way of thinking and assumed there was no way to hide skills, but that was actually pretty possible. If you’ve built up a skill to the point that it’s completely your own, you can actually defend Analysis skills from picking up on it. It wasn’t perfect yet, but that was the result of the experiments I had been doing.
“What are you trying to say? Yes, I have a unique skill. But even if it’s protected me from the desires, so what?”
My little pause there must’ve irritated Glenda. Hearing about these outside influences inspired her to play along with me. I wanted to give her an answer, but Raphael’s roundabout descriptions were getting a bit hard to grasp. Parsing it into something I could reasonably explain took some time.
Suggestion. Use Hasten Thought?
Yes
No
Oh, yeah, there was that. I thought Yes, cursing myself for not doing that in the first place. Now let’s hurry this up and get Glenda on my side already.
“Whether your mind’s clouded by greed or not is none of my business. But one thing’s for sure: Your employer’s got a pretty powerful unique skill running. That’s true, isn’t it?”
“No comment…but I guess there’s no denying it, either.”
“Thank you. So, building on that, there was a man at the Founder’s Festival whose desires were being harnessed like that. His name is Gaiye, and Shuna took care of him at the Council this afternoon. The other festival visitors weren’t subjected to interference that way, but some of the merchants were. And if a large number of people are brought under a skill’s influence at once, chances are that the skill user is physically nearby. That’s what I thought.”
“……”
Gaiye was completely hooked by it, but the farther away you got from the skill user, generally, the weaker the skill got. Masayuki’s skill was another monster, but the rumors that spread around about him only added to its synergy. That foundation is why the skill propagates so much further than he means it to.
Influencing people’s desires, meanwhile, was purely dependent on the skill’s power itself. Beyond that, the user could utilize their strength or some other element to enhance the effect if they wanted. Basically, though, if you told me our skill user attended the Founder’s Festival, I’d certainly believe it.
Along those lines, I had a suspect in mind. Someone I speculated about enough that I had Soei look into her. “Have you ever heard the name Maribel Rozzo?”
Raphael sure was cutting to the chase. The name came straight from the dossier Soei prepared for me.
“…!!”
She might’ve been trying to hide it, but Glenda gave me an ever-so-slight response. So that was a yes.
“My Analyze and Assess skill is pretty good, y’know. Not only can it detect what skills a person has, but it can also tell if someone’s hiding one of them. I was sensing the latter all throughout the Founder’s Festival, and one of the people I got that vibe from was that girl Maribel.”
I could see Glenda grow paler as I continued. I couldn’t tell if she was getting hot or if it was a cold sweat running down her cheek. Either way, she was getting nervous.
“Y-you—”
“Maribel Rozzo, you said? The Rozzo family… Hmm. I see.”
“Ah…?!”
Hinata interrupted Glenda just when she was about to say something. I should’ve been annoyed, but looking at Hinata, I didn’t need to be. She had a delighted expression, like she had just found the answer. Glenda, meanwhile, made it clear that something had gone awry with her plans.
“Granville Rozzo. The founder of the Rozzo family and a former Hero. I’m sure you know him, too, don’t you, Glenda? That—and he was the real person behind Gren, the Sunday Priest and head of the Seven Days Clergy…”
Just as I thought—Hinata was at the truth now. I could see her mentally connecting the dots on the people she knew.
“Seven Days, huh? Those guys we met before? I heard they had all died, but Granville’s still alive?”
“Nicolaus said he landed the final blow, but we’re talking about someone who ruled over the Western Holy Church for centuries. I wouldn’t be surprised if he survived it.”
So Maribel was the skill user behind all this greed manipulation. And Granville Rozzo—Gren from the Seven Days—was the head of her family. Mm-hmm. And if Gren’s the kind of monster who can survive for hundreds of years, he’s likely got the Council in his pocket.
“So should we assume Gren’s our mastermind here?”
“No doubt about it. He’s using Maribel’s powerful skill for some kind of scheme of his.”
Hinata and I were now comparing notes, ignoring Glenda entirely. We basically had our answer, and Glenda had just lost her value to us.
“Goddamn it! Why do you know so much? I didn’t even tell you anything! This is basically the same damn thing as me revealing it all!”
Mmm, yeah, sorry about that. You picked the wrong team to mess with, is all I can say. Raphael’s too much of a talent to compete against.
“I suppose they might think you did, wouldn’t they?” I said.
“Well, that’s what you get, Glenda,” said Hinata. “A fitting end for a traitor.”
“Dammit. I… I… They’re going to kill me…” Seeing Glenda whisper to herself, face drained of color, I felt a little bad for her.
I had no intention of killing her; now that I had my info, I was ready to hand her over to Englesia. But…yeah. Wherever she went, she probably wasn’t gonna be alive much longer. I figured she had the talent to flee to safety, but judging by how unnerved she was, she was dealing with some pretty ominous odds.
“Is this Maribel girl that powerful?” I decided to ask.
“…She’s not that big an issue. But summoned people like me are bound by spells that we can’t resist. The moment they decide I’ve fled from them, they’ll crush my soul, and that will be the end for me.”
Gee, that doesn’t sound nice…
“So you didn’t betray Luminus out of your own free will? It was because you didn’t have any other choice?”
“Well…it’s complicated. I wanted to throw myself upon the mercy of my god, but Granville’s eyes were on me. Really, there was nothing I could’ve done about it.”
Maybe I was right to sympathize with her a little. Hinata was still giving her a cold look, but I think she wasn’t so angry now. She wanted to murder her less, at least.
“No, you’re right about that. If your soul’s shattered, not even Resurrection can help you then.”
Wow. Guess even Hinata can be gentle sometimes. She was still stern, but now she was looking for a way to help Glenda. But could I undo that spell?
Understood. It is not a problem. Remove the spell?
Yes
No
That was easy.
And so it was off.
“It’s over now,” lamented Glenda. “Maribel… She’s reading my emotions. I may not have intended to betray her, but she’s gonna judge me now…”
So I let her in on what I just did.
“…What?”
“Yeah, no need to worry. We’re all done with you, so go live whatever life you want. I’m pretty sure she thinks you’re dead now.”
“N-no, um, I wasn’t talking about that. You mean to say you undid the curse ruling over me?!”
“Yeah, pretty much. But lemme just remind you: You get hostile with me, and I’ll show you no mercy.”
“Yes, I suppose I’ll look the other way,” Hinata said. “If I kill someone Rimuru let go, he’ll never let me hear the end of it. But keep this in mind: You have betrayed Luminus herself. The Western Holy Church will never forgive you for that.”
Glenda was a strong girl. A threat. But now that she was free from the rule of Maribel or whatever, we didn’t have much reason to remain hostile. If she started trouble with us again, we could always do her in then. Personally, I didn’t think she caused that much of a headache, so I was ready to forgive her. Hinata seemed willing to do the same; I guess she felt she couldn’t be so narrow-minded about someone I let go free.
Besides, in a way, Glenda really was just following orders—not with her brain, exactly, but with the influence of the curse forced upon her. This time, I was willing to give her a slap on the wrist.
“So right, you’re free to go. If you want to stay in my nation for a while, you’re welcome to, but if you cause any trouble—”
“W-wait a… I mean, wait a second! You’re really letting me go?”
“Uh-huh. I don’t really feel like killing you anyway.”
“If Sir Rimuru has forgiven you, we have no reason to defy his will,” said Soei.
“Not that you’re much of a threat anyway,” Benimaru added.
They were willing to go with me, too. I didn’t much appreciate the way they phrased it, but they didn’t seem to have any complaints. They didn’t see her as a threat, I imagine—which I wasn’t too sure about, but to them, it was the truth. She’d never beat Benimaru’s full effort, much less Soei’s. Glenda struck me as the kind of woman who took a profit-and-loss approach to living, so she’d never do something stupid like challenge an unbeatable foe. Letting her go didn’t seem like that big of a problem.
As I convinced myself to take an optimistic approach, Glenda turned to me, kneeled, and said something extraordinary.
“I—I have a request! I’ll tell you everything I know, so could you please give me some employment? I’ll do anything you want, even dirty work, so please!”
Benimaru and I looked at each other, passing messages with our eyes:
Now what?
Do whatever you want.
But “employment”? What about the money? I had more to work with, but we were still sorting out salaries for my top officials. Working for free was still the norm around here.
“Hmm… I appreciate the sentiment, but we’re still busy developing ourselves. We’re pretty far behind in terms of organization, so we’re not paying anyone a salary yet…”
Times like this, you gotta just be honest. No point trying to smooth over things.
“…Huh?” Glenda froze. But the next thing she said surprised me instead. “Well, I’m used to that. I was stationed with the Master Rooks in the Holy Empire of Lubelius, but they didn’t pay us there either…”
Dang.
Even the Three Battlesages, the best Lubelius had to offer, didn’t get any money. They were paid in goods—and any money they needed, they were expected to scrounge themselves. They had an illustrious name to leverage, though, and I’m sure they got treated like kings wherever they went. Sometimes they’d receive payments for resolving crimes, too, so they led pretty decent lifestyles.
“Wait, so you get nothing, either, Hinata?”
She sure racked up a hell of a bill at the festival…
“Tch… No. Lubelius is an advocate for equality, so there’s no public salary at all. We all get paid in goods.”
That was a surprise…but also a relief. Lubelius has a long, storied history, and it made it this far without salaries. Maybe we shouldn’t be in any hurry to enact them, either.
By the way, thanks to running the Crusaders and the Imperial Guard, Hinata wasgiven access to some of the government budget. Between that and monster-hunting rewards, her income was actually pretty upper-class.
“And yet you made me pay for you?”
“Quit sweating the small stuff! I’m just saving money.”
She brought the kids all kinds of stuff, but with me, it’s all “Ooh, gotta save money.” And actually, did Mjöllmile pay her the labyrinth reward fees yet? The thought just occurred to me, but I didn’t want to prod that hornet’s nest. I was too scared to ask, so I didn’t.
“But I’m pretty well-known around the Western Nations. Even if I’m free, I don’t have any work waiting for me. No nation’s gonna hire me now, and I’m not cut out for adventuring work. Besides, you’re on the cutting edge in culture here, so if you can guarantee me meals and a roof over my head, I’m good!”
Judging by how desperate Glenda was sounding, I doubted she was trying to deceive me.
And I had reason to believe her. If Lubelius was in pursuit of the Three Battlesages, everyone would have to assume a betrayal was the cause. She’d never find a nation willing to employ someone as politically touchy as her. Even if she became an adventurer under an assumed name, I could get it if everyone kept a prudent distance. If her cover got blown, she might have Lubelius and Granville come after her, too. Any kind of stable life was impossible.
“Yeah, I guess you’ll have a hard time of it without support from somewhere.”
“Right? So please, Sir Demon Lord! I know you don’t believe a word of this, but I swear I’ll stay faithful to you!”
There’s no way I could believe it. But somehow, I just couldn’t find it in myself to hate her. She was the classic spy-film femme fatale, and I couldn’t just abandon her.
“Can I leave her to you, Soei?”
“As you wish, Sir Rimuru. I have no objection.”
“Great. Thanks. And I can’t have her turning traitor, so deal with that if it happens, okay?”
“Absolutely. In terms of battle strength alone, I would rate her above Soka, so perhaps I could establish a special-ops team for her that answers to me.”
“Oh, kinda like a team all the problem kids get thrown into?”
“Something like that, Sir Rimuru. I’d like to scout out members locally and elsewhere.”
Soei’s got some ideas brewing, doesn’t he? Diablo was still off searching for an army, so it wouldn’t be fair to turn Soei down. Let him do what he wants.
“Right! I’ll leave all that up to you! You can work out a budget with Mjöllmile later.”
“Yes, Sir Rimuru!”
We wrapped that up fast.
“Can you not call me a problem child in front of my face?”
Glenda was whining about something, but if she had an issue, she oughtta try to win my trust first. Either way, she was now part of our team.

Slime 10.8

Soei, capture the assassin.”
“I have a Replication on its way.”
As we waited for the councillors to calm down, I carried out the tasks demanded of me. Already, there was an investigation happening nearby.
“You could kill a person with this?”
“Yes, it’s called a bullet. You need a special tool to fire it, but there’s not one near us at the moment.”
“So the assassin was targeting Prince Elrick? But what for?”
“To frame the demon lord Rimuru, of course.”
“Indeed, indeed. If Prince Elrick was killed at this point in time, suspicions would naturally turn to Lord Rimuru. It’d certainly complicate our efforts to admit Tempest into the Council.”
“Yes, that was probably the real motive. These fools were likely set up as disposable pawns the whole time.”
The security chief, Sons of the Veldt leader, Chairman Leicester, and Hinata were discussing matters here. I was certainly glad to be cleared of doubt.
Elrick was safe now, although he’d need to face up to the commotion he caused in the chamber later.
“Am—am I being targeted even now?” he asked, his face haggard. He might’ve been a fool, but I didn’t want him dead or anything.
“I think it’s all right now, Elrick—sorry, Prince Elrick. When the assassin missed you, that put an end to the ambitions of whoever wanted you dead. At this point, there’s no reason for them to try again.”
By now, it was no longer possible to frame me for murder. Elrick was no longer of use to them, you could say, and therefore he had no need to fear for his life.
“B-but I’m the prince of a superpower nation. People could exploit me in so many ways…”
Ummm, you think so?
Maybe he was vulnerable, as someone in line for the throne, before he pulled all that nonsense today. But he wasn’t officially crown prince, and there were other people in the line of succession, so at this point…
If Elrick had actually succeeded today, he would have been a hero, I suppose—but Englesia wasn’t easy enough on its royalty that an idiot prince doing dumb things would be allowed on the throne. Maybe the people would sympathize with his motives, but they’d never forgive him for screwing up. After today, Elrick’s chances of being King Elrick someday were as good as gone.
“But hey, life’s not all about becoming king, is it? You’ll probably need to atone for today somehow, but after that, why don’t you try reconsidering your future a little? I mean, I became a demon lord just by sort of drifting along, but I never really wanted to be one or anything. But there’s no going back on it now, so I figure I may as well take advantage.”
“Heh-heh! A demon lord offering me comfort? I thought you’d be scarier… More vengeful.”
“I’m not trying to comfort you. But generally, I’m a pacifist.”
Elrick’s shoulders slumped down as he resigned himself to his fate. “I was a fool to be tricked like that, Gaban. It’s time for you to take responsibility.”
“P-Prince?!”
“You were the one who approached me. I fell for your cajoling, and I must atone for that…but you had best prepare to do the same, Count Gaban.”
Elrick had now fully given himself up to the security team.
It was pretty obvious that Gaban was the main person behind all this, rounding up Reiner and Elrick and convincing them to cause this wild scene. I’m sure someone’s using Gaban, too—that mystery organization, perhaps. I can’t write it off as a conspiracy theory. It’s probably best to conduct a full investigation, but not even Soei’s found any clues yet.If we can capture the sniper, though, maybe that’ll lead to something. Let’s hold out hope for that—and meanwhile, there’s someone else I need to consult about.
“So, Gaban, there’s something I wanted to ask…” I turned my eyes to Gaban in custody.
“Wh-what? What does a demon lord want from me?”
Even now, his attitude still had problems.
“I want you to tell me what you were scheming when you enticed Prince Elrick to join you.”
“Hmm? I’m not sure what you mean. I don’t know anything.”
“Wh-what?! Are you abandoning me?!”
“And where’s your evidence? Yes, I was asked by the prince to invite you here, but I certainly had no idea he would try something like that.”
“You will not talk your way out of this, Sir Gaban. Both the other councillors and I in this chamber will speak against your case.” Johann was having none of it, and neither were the assorted representatives nodding along with him—including a few being forced to keep standing. No problem finding witnesses, then.“Behh… But it’s true! I didn’t know. The prince designed all of this! All I did was follow his orders!”
“Nonsense! You’re the very one who procured the orb and brought the plan to me!”
“I can’t say I know what you’re talking about. Again, you will need to find some proof—”
Gaban was sticking to his story. And as sly as I’m sure he was, he must’ve been convinced that no evidence was left. Would it be hard to pin anything on him, then? It’d probably damage his reputation for a period of time, but at this rate, I could see him returning to the scene after a while. That’s the nobility for you—you can’t take your eyes off them for a moment, and they’ll never go down too easily. A more direct approach—with weapons—would be quickest, but that was a last resort.
As I thought about this, the door suddenly opened.
“His Majesty the King Aegil is here!”
The attendant’s shout was audible across the chamber, and those responding to it immediately stood at attention. I was about to join them before Shuna and Benimaru stopped me. Yeah, me kneeling or whatever would’ve presented an awkward picture. Apart from Hinata and me, however, everyone was focused entirely on the new royal visitor. Even the chairman was bowing his head. That’s the kind of respect the king of a nation like Englesia deserved.
King Aegil glanced at the councillors Soei had restrained. He didn’t linger on them long before turning to me, his bushy blond hair going well with his curly mustache.
“I see my son’s caused you some trouble.”
“You could say that. But I think we’ve cleared up our misunderstandings?” I had no intention of exaggerating things. If human society could accept us, better to let a little rudeness now and then slide.
“…Ah. Very good. Then as his father, not as a king, I give you my apology and my appreciation.” He lightly bowed his head at me—the king himself.
I was willing to accept that. “Consider it forgiven. But I don’t want to see a repeat.”
“Yes, that I am certainly aware of. I hope to build a good relationship with you.”
King Aegil looked straight at me, providing me with what I felt were his honest feelings. I figured I should trust him on that. If he reneged, I could consider my options at that time.
“It’ll be good to work with you, then.”
“And with you.”
We shook hands. He was also kind enough to forgive the busted-up desk, so as far as I was concerned, our reconciliation was complete.
“All rise!”
Everyone raised their faces. They had all overheard our exchange, but I supposed this formality indicated that it wasn’t meant to be on the record. A king wasn’t supposed to bow to a foreign power that readily, and I supposed King Aegil saw it as a last resort.
“F-Father…”
“Enough. You need some remedial education, I see.”
“…Yes, Father.”
“Mm.”
With a nod, King Aegil turned to Gaban. “Count Gaban?”
“Your Majesty!!”
“You were talking about evidence. Were you expecting a quick escape because you thought I wouldn’t intervene?”
“N-no, Your Majesty, not at all…”
“I have called for magical inquisitors. I will let them decide your treatment.”
“Gehh?!” Now Gaban seemed concerned. He clung to the king. “P-please, forgive me! I will tell you everything, so please, Your Majesty, have mercy!”
His desperation might’ve evoked sympathy among some people, but King Aegil’s reaction was merciless. “Take him away.”
“““Sir!!”””
One glance at his attendants, and his royal guard sprang into action.
“Now, Sir Reiner, Sir Gaiye… You’ll come with us as well.”
The guard began to haul them off.
“Stop! Let me go!”
“Who do you think I am?!”
They tried to resist but were stopped in their tracks by a group of hooded men that appeared—those magical inquisitors, I supposed. Reiner and Gaiye tried to resist as well, but the men had them subdued in short order, treating those admittedly powerful men like little children. I could tell these weren’t your average prison guards, no.
Englesia really is a superpower, huh? And they got some pretty tough hombres working for them.
Report. It is likely a show of force, to prove to my master that they have powerful fighters at their disposal.
Ah. One of those “don’t mess with us” things? This must’ve been their way of demonstrating that Reiner wasn’t the best Englesia could produce, an attempt to preserve their dignity. It’s hard being a king. I guess he had to stay on his toes to keep a demon lord like me from taking advantage of him. As if Aegil wouldn’t have used my power to make Englesia the world’s dominant force if Elrick had actually succeeded…
…Well, if you wanted to keep a legion of sly, cunning nobility under your finger, I supposed you needed that type of malice in you.
“Excuse me, then. And please allow us to handle this affair.”
With that, the king’s entourage left. They confiscated the Orb of Domination, too, by the looks of it, but I didn’t mind. I had already disabled it while no one was looking—it wouldn’t do to see it used for evil purposes. It also wouldn’t do for me to carry on about it any longer, so I let it go without comment.
Following an afternoon break, we continued with the legislative session. The councillors seemed a lot less energetic than they were in the morning hours, somehow. That was lucky for me, because I didn’t need to cajole them into passing all the day’s important business.
The following three resolutions were enacted today:
• Tempest is recognized as a nation.
• Tempest will officially join the Council.
• The Council’s military rights will be assigned to Tempest.
These were accepted without protest and passed, barring any issues, by unanimous vote. It was a long road to get there, but everything I wrote up for the Council was accepted in the end.
I’m really not good at this level of brinkmanship with a room full of hungry sharks. People can scoff at my ideas all they want, but having to feel out my opponent’s mind and objectives just tires me out. I think I’ll let Raphael handle that for me from now on.
…Understood.
Today it was brute strength that let me take control of my problems. But I didn’t lash out first—it was Hinata and that charming young Shuna. In fact, I was the guy who saved Elrick’s life. This amply demonstrated the broadness of my heart, I think, so I was pretty satisfied with myself. What’s more, I had taught them all a valuable lesson: Attempting physical force against a demon lord was meaningless.
The session behind us, we left the chamber. It was a stormy day, but now, it was finally over.BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Glenda Attley, the beautiful ex-mercenary, pulled the trigger with every intent to kill.
The gun she had kept since she was summoned to this world didn’t betray her. It was already a part of her body, to the point that it no longer even required maintenance. Combine that with her Sniper unique skill, and there was nobody who could stop her.
Sniper, as a skill, provided three abilities. One was Magic Sense, tuned to a perception level far beyond the norm; one was Compute Prediction, letting her read and understand the results of people’s actions; and the other was called Control Space. This third ability, in particular, made Glenda practically superhuman, allowing her to connect any two points in space that she could picture in her mind.
Anything she had physical sight of was within gunshot range for her. She could shoot from directly above the heads of her targets, and she was free to ignore any obstacles in her way as she landed a bullet home. She could also ignore all gravity and air resistance, making long-range shots possible without a sniper rifle.
Put this all together, and Glenda had never failed a mission. But after her last blunder, she came to realize that there was always someone better out there.
That was doomed. A monster like that’s too much for me.
The moment she saw him, Glenda realized how dangerous this opponent was. That man, Diablo, was impervious to her handgun. It wasn’t a matter of physical attacks not working. Glenda had two types of bullets, a normal one and a magic-infused set. The first type was for when she couldn’t leave any magical traces behind, but for monsters with physical resistance, Glenda concentrated her own magical force into bullet form, an original magic skill of hers.
She treasured the ability to handle anything that came her way, and so Glenda truly had no blind spots. But Diablo didn’t work that way. Her instincts warned her to run from him, her Compute Prediction skill foreseeing nothing but her death. Even with her standard-breaking strengths, she could see no possible path to victory—a hard lesson in reality for her to take that day.
And now Glenda had stretched her Magic Sense skills to their limits to carry out an assassination.
The bullet she fired appeared just a foot or so away from her target. Now, in the blink of an eye, it’d demolish his head—or it should have.
That eighteen-inch (or so) gap was very carefully selected. When connecting two points in space, the connection would fail if the destination point overlapped with a certain amount of mass. In other words, if the target unexpectedly moved, the connection Glenda built might cut out. That’s why she settled on eighteen inches. Even someone with godly reflexes couldn’t respond quickly enough to something that close, especially a bullet traveling at the speed of sound.
That monster is one thing, but the prince of a kingdom is no sweat. Well, no point crying about it. I’ll have to come up with a strategy for the next time I see him.
She was much more confident about today’s mission—but at the next moment, her face filled with surprise and foreboding. The bullet that was supposed to shatter the prince’s head had vanished.
“No! What just happened?!”
The unthinkable had occurred, something impossible under any normal circumstances. She didn’t know why it took place, but if someone had done something, it had to be that demon lord.
“Him! That devil bastard’s boss! Did I underestimate him, too?!”
That was Glenda’s initial reaction.
For a moment, she thought about firing again. Her perfect ambush had just failed, so any further attempt had even less of a chance. She knew that, but it meant that she’d fail her mission. Her bosses—Maribel and the elder Granville—would never allow that. It made her hesitate, and thus she failed to escape soon enough.
“Heh. I would say so. You did underestimate Sir Rimuru. And I have no interest in forgiving you for that.”
“Tch! Who’re you?”
“My name is Soei, faithful Covert Agent of the demon lord Rimuru.”
Glenda was shocked. But quickly, she resigned herself. The man didn’t ask her name in return—not because he didn’t care about her, she thought, but because that could wait until he captured and interrogated her. If she could just get away, she could keep what she knew concealed.
The assassination failed. And being captured afterward would be an even worse fate. Any further mistakes, and she’d be disposed of as useless. Glenda had seen many of her compatriots walk that road, and to her, getting away was job number one right now.
She squared up against her foe.
“…So you were expecting an attack?”
“Yes. Everything was worked out in Sir Rimuru’s mind. If you want to resist, go right ahead. I have no interest in killing you, but the more you resist, the more painful this will be for you.”
“Hah! How kind of you. In that case, I’ll do what I want here, thank you.”
Without hesitation, Glenda fired instead of waiting for a response. This was a single, regular bullet; she had sixteen left, but she doubted they’d work against the magic-born who called himself Soei. A magic bullet would, probably…but instead, Glenda took out her military knife, slashing at Soei with a refined, well-honed motion.
Soei dodged it with the minimum movement required. Glenda smiled at this. The knife was infused with her magical force, making it both a physical and magical weapon. She did this when facing foes where physical attack wouldn’t be enough, and Soei just revealed that he saw it as a threat.
Plus, Glenda had noticed another habit of Soei’s.
This guy’s the type who hates extraneous motion. He may be more susceptible to simpler methods. Let’s see how comfortable he’ll be in a moment…
She unleashed another attack—knife in her right hand, gun in her left. Unhesitant, she repeatedly pulled the trigger, gauging Soei’s response. As she predicted, there was no reaction. He must’ve known they’d have no effect on him—but he kept his guard up, staying on the alert for her knife.
Not bad. Maybe the strongest opponent I’ve ever had.
Diablo didn’t count in Glenda’s mind. Foes she never had a chance against weren’t tabulated in her records.
Soei’s left pointer finger moved. Glenda didn’t miss it, sensing the danger and instantly performing a backward somersault to dodge. There was now a sizable distance between them, and that was the right move for her to make, because in the next instant, an ultra-thin wire advanced upon her original position.
“Hohh. You have good instincts.”
“Well, thank you. You’re not so bad, either.”
The light exchange was punctuated by a gunshot from Glenda. It wasn’t a threat to Soei. He went straight at her, not bothering to evade.
So simple. I’m glad to have opponents like these. They’re so easy to deal with.
Magic bullets didn’t require any firing. They could be shot without a sound, so if she mixed one in with her regular bullets…
Now that her attack pattern was established, she’d strike with her real attack while his guard was down. That was Glenda’s standard strategy—take a seemingly wasted shot and turn it into an instant kill. Even if you were expecting it, it’d be tricky to dodge it out of the blue.
And Soei demonstrated the same reactions all the other titans she defeated before did. He took the bullet in the right shoulder and was sent flying back.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! So much for you, handsome man. Rama fell for the same trick. The more confident you are, the more effective a simple move like that becomes.”
Glenda laughed loudly—but her eyes were still alert, surveying the damage to Soei. Going easy after felling your prey was out of the question. That was the ironclad rule of the battlefield, and Glenda would never relax without checking her foe for a pulse. Besides, she didn’t think she killed him with a single shot anyway.
“…I see. More of a handful than I thought.”
“Being a sore loser now? Well, sorry. If you’ve seen my face, my only choice is to take you out.”
Soei, back on his feet, had lost his right arm. The fight seemed to be Glenda’s to win. That’s why she was more careful than ever as she pointed her gun forward.
Magic bullets work on him. And now, with my next move, I’ll blow his brains out.
Launching her Sniper unique skill, Glenda cautiously steadied her aim.
“Heh. Don’t worry. I’ve been asked to capture you. I imagine Sir Rimuru wants information from you, but he’s a gentle person. Cooperate with him, and you won’t be killed.”
“Don’t lecture me like that now!!”
With a shout, Glenda fired—three bullets toward his head, two toward his heart. Five magic bullets, whizzing straight to their targets. Then the first three made the leap in space, reappearing in front, above, and to the right side of his head. The other two quickly followed, materializing before his heart and at an angle behind it.
All five bullets hit home, shattering Soei’s body.
These Warp Shots were Glenda’s pièce de résistance. Magically created bullets, unlike their regular counterparts, could disrupt and scatter magicules. Even if he could regenerate his body, those shots made it impossible.
No matter what your skills were with a sword or spear, being targeted by supersonic bullets from all directions would be impossible for even the greatest of masters to handle. Based on her past experiences, Glenda knew full well what she was capable of. That was the secret to her continued survival—and that was why she now checked to be sure Soei was dead.
His body was, in fact, collapsing into black smoke in front of her eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief. Since the moment she caught sight of him, a dark anxiety had been smoldering in her heart. It wasn’t as vivid as it was with Diablo, but her instincts told her this was a dangerous foe.
“It’s over. You were a tough one. I didn’t have any capacity to go easy on you.”
Glenda was so relieved that the words just fell out of her. But that relief came just a bit too early. Suddenly, behind her, she heard a voice that couldn’t possibly be there.
“Oh, really? In that case, why not give up and let me capture you?”
She reflexively leaped out of the way. Turning around in a panic, she saw Soei himself standing there.
“Th-that’s crazy! Didn’t you die just now…?!”
“Heh. You’re the crazy one. You think that was enough to kill me? I have no reason to lose to you anyway.”
“Then I’ll just do it one more time—Whoaaa?!”
Glenda froze. Anyone would. Unbelievably to her, she now sensed Soei’s presence on all sides of her. She immediately activated Magic Sense, but it just revealed the very truth she didn’t want to know.
“It—it can’t be! Wh-why are all of these physical bodies?! That’s ridiculous! What kind of joke is this?!”
“It’s simple. I have a skill known as Replication. That is all. And while my Replications aren’t as powerful as my true self, you should be proud that you defeated at least one of them.”
Soei—or at least, one of the four Soeis in the room—offered Glenda his sincere compliments. But now, escape was possible.
“Goddamn it…!!”
With a barbaric scream, Glenda lunged at Soei—and at that moment, her desperate last stand began.
On a balcony overlooking a garden blooming with flowers, a girl, a boy, and an old man sat at a round table facing one another. It was Maribel, Yuuki, and Johann.
“We messed up. We botched it,” Maribel said quietly. Despite that, she didn’t seem too affected. She had predicted this, and in a way, it was part of the plan.
“What a disaster for Gaban, though. After all the devotion he had for you.”
Johann, seated in front of Maribel, was holding a glass of wine as he lamented the count’s fate. He may not have felt that strongly for him, but even he had just a twinge of sympathy for the man. Gaban, after all, was one of the Five Elders, just like Johann—or maybe was, by now. His fall was already in progress.
“Gaban was incompetent. All that time he spent living in Englesia—did he develop a love for its king, perhaps? He would certainly have brought them under his control faster otherwise…”
“Don’t be silly. Not even we in the Rozzos have reached into the central core of Englesia yet. Gaban couldn’t—”
“No. No, you’re wrong. It’s easy to seize the core. Just kill them all and leave a single infant remaining. And if that infant shares a blood lineage with Gaban, all the better.”
“Well, yes, if you put it that way, but…”
To Maribel, and all the bloodstained history she knew, this wasn’t that radical an approach. In fact, she thought it was the peaceful way. It kept the body count low. But Johann wanted to explain to her that Englesia’s security wasn’t about to just let that happen. It was an easy thing to envision—less so to act upon.
“But I’m interested in those magical inquisitors.”
“…Those unusual-looking people who served the king?”
“Yes. Impudent, aren’t they? So impudent. They must’ve built up their military to oppose the Rozzos.”
“What do you think of them?”
“Mmm, they’re strong, I suppose. Gaban told me as much after he experienced them for himself.”
Maribel was able to share information with those under her Avarice rule, to a certain extent. Anything her target learned, Maribel could tap into as well. Thus, she now used Gaban as a throwaway pawn. She wanted to learn about those inquisitors, so she had him engineer a crime so heinous they’d have to step up. All that foolishness aimed at the demon lord Rimuru was perfect for that, and considering Count Gaban was Englesian nobility, the magic inquisitors were bound to come knocking.
She saw all of that. And just as she hoped for, she now knew the secrets behind the inquisitors. In fact, they weren’t anything too deep—just people infused with enough monster force to become magic-born. They hadn’t worked and trained themselves to perfection, like the magic-born Razen of old Farmus.
To Maribel, these inquisitors—bereft even of sentience, a side effect of their bodies rejecting the monster elements injected into them—were just uninteresting toys. But they regained that sentience when not in magic-born form, so depending on what you implanted in them, they could work in a variety of environments. Their strength, each an over-A by themselves, was nothing to sniff at, either. As she saw it, they could be useful enough.
“How fearsome. So you approved of Gaban’s scheme, even though you knew it would fail, just so you could learn that?”
“No. My goal was to help build up your trust. Now the demon lord Rimuru sees you as trustworthy.”
“Do you mean…?”
No, he didn’t need to ask. He understood it well enough. Her goal from the start was to eliminate Rimuru; the magical inquisitors were just a nice bonus. Maribel just wanted Johann to tell her about Rimuru’s internal dealings.
And if I don’t give that to her, I’ll be snuffed out as quickly as Gaban was…?
He didn’t think he was as incompetent as Gaban. But nonetheless, Johann felt an inscrutable sort of fear toward Maribel.
You—you must be kidding. Here I am, one of the Five Elders, and this little girl is bossing me around…
He may have thought that, but he would never daresay it. So he decided to return to their main subject.
“What do you think about pitting these inquisitors against the demon lord? Pin some manner of crime on Rimuru—”
“We can’t. We just can’t. All it’d do is anger the demon lord. Yes, the magical inquisitors are strong, but that’s it. Nothing at all that could hold its own against a demon lord. It’s silly even to consider it.”
“That much so…? So wouldn’t teaming up with the demon lord be our best bet, then?”
Maribel shook her head. “That won’t work. It won’t work at all. Besides, apart from Grandfather, every single one of you are suffering under a serious misunderstanding.”
“Misunderstanding?”
“Yes. Yes, exactly. The misunderstanding that humans are equal to monsters. Do you understand why I proposed to Grandfather that we eliminate the demon lord?”
“Because he’s building a new economic bloc that will eventually become a financial threat to us?”
“Right. But that’s just our cover story. The real reason is because, in time, we’ll be helpless against him.”
Maribel, this little girl, struck fear in Johann’s heart—and now this girl was looking fearful herself as she spoke.
“How do you mean by that?” Johann asked, pressing her to continue.
“The demon lord Rimuru possesses a staggering amount of war power. With that backing him up, what do you think would happen if he decided to negotiate with someone?”
“That…?!”
Only then did Johann stumble upon the true danger. In this world, wars between nations almost never took place—they needed to save their fighting ability for the monsters who threatened them. The Council stepped in to handle cross-border issues, and that inevitably meant those with the most economic strength were able to speak the loudest. Even the largest of states, such as Englesia and the former Farmus, didn’t have enough of a military to make enemies out of every Council member.
“And you realize that their military’s not their only asset, either, right? Being bound by rules is the same thing as losing your freedom…but if you can create the rules yourself, you don’t have to lose anything, do you see?”
Tempest might follow the Council’s rules at first, but after that, nobody could say. And if Tempest decided to spread its own values to the Western Nations, soon the entire region would have to take orders from them. The demon lord’s rule would be complete—a totally peaceful coup. He could threaten them with warfare, he could apply economic pressure—but either way, the stronger nation always gained the power to punish others.
“It’s funny. So very funny. And as time passes, there will come an era where everything will need to go through the demon lord.”
“And—and if…”
If that happened, even Johann know where it led.
“But doesn’t the demon lord seek to coexist with…”
Maribel stopped Johann with her cold eyes. “It’s stupid. So stupid. Not just you, but the entire Council. They’re all idiots.”
Then she took pains to explain matters in a way Johann could understand. Essentially, things may be fine now, but the future was an unknown. If humankind, after forgetting about the threat of the Storm Dragon, ever did anything to cross Rimuru…
“I don’t know what the life span of a demon lord is, but humans are such short-lived animals. If we don’t stop the demon lord’s ambitions right here, the Rozzos’ one fervent desire is as good as scuttled.”
A demon lord could always change his stripes. And while humans may come and go, Maribel absolutely refused to expect human values from such long-lived rulers.
“You see? So that’s why ideas like partnering with a demon lord, or taking advantage of a demon lord—they’re all wrong, down to the very roots. None of them would ever work.”
Johann was silenced. Then, like the final nail on the coffin, one of her Blood Shadow troops chose that moment to make a magical call to her.
He was reporting on Glenda’s defeat.
“No… They captured Glenda?!”
Johann looked shocked. “…Is that true?”
Not even Maribel could hide her surprise. Glenda’s wariness was always commendable; no matter the danger involved, she always made it home alive. Maribel trusted her—not her personality, but that animal-like craving for life.
“I can’t believe it. That clever, conniving vixen…”
Glenda was one of the standout results from the Rozzo family’s secret summoning program, an otherworlder forced by their spell to remain faithful to them. Her strength was well-known by now, and the family treated her like a full-fledged tactical weapon.
The idea of her being defeated and captured was beyond belief for Johann. Elder or not, he was a normal human, and unlike Granville or Maribel, he could only think about things in standard human terms.
Maribel ignored his awestruck muttering as she pondered her options. Defeating him is out of the question. But if we can take rule over him, all our problems are gone. We’ll have to do it.
“…We’ll set a trap,” Maribel said.
“A trap? What are you intending to do?” Yuuki asked, breaking his silence.
She turned to him. “Right. A trap. Your people are going on a ruins expedition trip with the demon lord Rimuru, aren’t you? We’ll set a trap there.”
She wasn’t asking for his opinion. This was a finalized plan, and it was set in stone.
“Right, Kagali’s headed there…but I don’t think that’s such a good idea, y’know?”
“Why is that?”
“Because the demon lord Milim’s joining them,” Yuuki warned. “It’ll be too dangerous to hatch anything.”
In his opinion, they needed to win Rimuru’s confidence first, then work out more of a long-term plan with him. But Maribel’s mind was already made up.
“No. No, I can’t have that. The more time we give him, the more trouble that demon lord will be. That’s what my instincts are telling me. Yuuki, is there a way you can keep Milim from coming along?”
“That’s even less possible. He’s already eyeing me. If I try putting a stop to it, it’s basically admitting that I’m tricking them.”
“Fair enough. Then let’s bring down the demon lord Milim as well.”
“Huh?” Yuuki asked, dazed.
“That’s ridiculous! Maribel, that’s not just beyond reckless; it’s beyond the realm of possibility!” Johann stood up out of his seat.
Their reactions were perfectly understandable. Even crushing one demon lord required a careful, foolproof plan. But two at the same time? It was deliberately giving yourself no chance.
But Maribel still smiled. “I will put everything I have into it. Everything, do you understand?”
“It’s still impossible!” Yuuki cried. “You say ‘everything,’ but my Moderate Jesters are all busy with their own work right now. And—”
“I don’t know how useful they are, but if they’re not available, we’ll proceed without them.”
Maribel shuttered Yuuki’s objections before he could finish stating them. To her, the Jesters weren’t worthy of consideration—or, to be more accurate, she already knew a better force, a large one, that could take on demon lords for her.
“…But you know, Yuuki, I had you supply a certain something from the Dragon’s Nest for me before. I think it’s high time we use it.”
“You mean that? That’s such a bad idea! Not even I can control it!”
“Not a problem. It belonged to the demon lord Milim anyway—we’re just returning it for her. Maybe we could say that Clayman was saving it as his last resort, and his surviving loyal troops set it off? Then Milim’s rage won’t be directed at us.”
“If something goes wrong, it could cause untold damage to human areas…”
“And?”
“N-no, um…”
Johann attempted to talk Maribel out of this but was completely shut out. She might’ve been theoretically open to alternatives, but flat rejections would never grab her interest. And since Johann had no other suggestions, Maribel’s strategy won the day.
As Johann struggled against her, Yuuki kept talking, trying to figure out her thought process. It made him realize this operation had a better chance of success than he thought. “…All right. In that case, Milim’s likely to take it on herself. She’d stop Rimuru from doing so, for sure, and it’d be the perfect way to separate them, maybe.”
“Hee-hee! Very good. Very, very good. And while the demon lord Milim’s playing around with it…”
“We go in and take over Rimuru’s mind?”
“Yes, precisely.”
“But I’ve still got one worry…”
“The Storm Dragon?”
“…Yep, you guessed it. If we fail to take over Rimuru, and Veldora goes on a rampage, what’re we gonna do then?”
That—or their target might fight back more than they expected, giving them no time to take over his mind. If it came to that, Yuuki would have no choice but to kill Rimuru. He attempted to voice his concerns about that, in a roundabout away, but apparently that was an acceptable consequence of her plans.
“No need to worry about that. No need at all, Yuuki. Don’t worry about a thing. Just focus on defeating the demon lord Rimuru.”
Yuuki didn’t defy her. In the end, he did what he was told. “…All right. If you say so, I’ll believe in you.”
Maribel gave him a nod.
Thanks to what her grandfather Granville told her about demon lords, Maribel saw much deeper into the world than most.
If Rimuru should fall, and Veldora the Storm Dragon flew into a rage, the demon lord Luminus would likely step in to handle it. Paradoxically, that would actually be better for her than Rimuru keeping up his current rule.
He and Luminus had already joined forces—which essentially meant that Luminus left management of the Western Nations to him. The Queen of Nightmares herself, someone who saw humankind as little more than vampire food, had let the Seven Days Clergy do that before, but—as shown in Granville’s own fall—they were no more. He had lost Luminus’s protection, and with that, the authority he had to influence the Western Nations.
From now on, Hinata the Saint would doubtlessly gain more political clout…and considering their relationship, the rising rule of the demon lord Rimuru would grow even firmer with her.
No matter what, I’ve got to stop that.
And as she secretly thought this, it didn’t matter if she needed to expose the world to the threat of Veldora to do it.
Maribel and Yuuki spent the next little while fleshing out the details of their plan. By this point, there was no room left for Johann—all he could do was pray they succeeded. Thus, these magic-born, packing as much malice as they could into their intricate plans, began to devise a way to suppress Rimuru for good.

Slime 10.7

As for Milim herself:
“Gehh!! F-Frey?! N-no, um, I can explain everything…!!”
The moment their eyes met, Milim grew intensely nervous.
Welp. Guess the party’s over for her. And lemme just make it clear: We’ve got nothing to do with this. Okay?
“Ha, ha-ha-ha… Milim, if you had work to do, you should have let me know, all right? I really shouldn’t keep you here then, huh? Better head on back and get that work done!”
“Mmm,” rumbled Veldora, “Rimuru is right. Our apologies for occupying you so long with our research. You should have told us you had work to do. Sorry to drag you along with us!”
“Y-yeah, yeah, that’s right! Boy, Milim, coulda said something before we took you across kingdom come!”
Ramiris got the picture for me, too. Great job. See? That’s the teamwork we’ve been building.
Now we’ve hopefully demonstrated that we knew nothing and aren’t involved in any way. There were tears in Milim’s eyes as she looked at me, but…well, sorry. I don’t think I can save you here. Also, please don’t drag us into this.
“N-no! F-Frey, listen to me!”
Milim tried to protest one final time, but Frey’s iron smile sunk the effort. Resistance was futile. Milim was now hers.
Picking her up by the scruff of her neck with her talons, Frey fully neutralized her. With that, she dragged her all the way back to her homeland.
Phew. That was scary. I thought we were all going downtown there, but we made it through scot-free.
But just as I breathed a sigh of relief:
“By the way, Sir Rimuru, what have you been doing all this time?” Shuna had appeared behind me without warning, and she had a sharp question ready for me.
Sweat that I knew I physically couldn’t sweat seemed to bead up on my forehead. No. I’m fine. This is fine. I wasn’t playing this whole time. It was research! Yes! Research!
My resolve firmed, I decided to make excuses. But before I could give it a shot, Veldora spoke.
“Hmm, I think we might be getting in your way here. Allow me to continue my sorcery research back in my own chambers. There is much deep knowledge even I may still glean from it…”
He kept up his muttering as he took a volume of manga out and turned around.
He’s running out on me?!
By the time that thought crossed my mind, it was already too late.
“Oh, yeah, um, I think I’ll join him down there…”
Now even Ramiris was stabbing me in the back. They both walked briskly out of the room, leaving me to rot. I can’t believe them! Only at times like these did they operate like a practiced team.
But I couldn’t dwell on my heartless friends. I had to give a reason fast, or else Shuna’s rage would scare me to death. A bad excuse would destroy me here—calling it studying or research seemed a little weak to me.
As I watched Veldora and Ramiris leave, my brain cells went into full operation, desperately seeking the best response. Dammit. I couldn’t think of anything. But I didn’t need to panic yet. If it’d come to this, I had one last resort.
It’s time to shine, Raphael!!
Nope. No need to fear. I had Raphael, a font of wisdom, on my side. C’mon, I begged my friend. Give me a shining excuse that’ll get me out of this.
And the result:
Understood. There is no need to make excuses. Just stand your ground, and the problem will be resolved.
Huh? No need to make excuses?! What do you mean, just stand my ground—?
“Oh, there you are, Sir Rimuru! I’ve been looking for you!”
Just as I had that thought, my beloved Mjöllmile burst inside, looking harried as usual. So that’s what it meant. Talk about deus ex machina. Mollie, you’re a savior!
“Ah, hello, Mollie. I was expecting you here soon.”
Following Raphael’s advice, I stood my ground and acted like I planned for all this. Mjöllmile gave me an odd look, but then began nodding, seeing the wisdom of playing along.
“Ah, glad to hear, Sir Rimuru. We’ve received a letter from the Council, but have you had a chance to read it? It was in a very tightly sealed envelope, so I’m wondering if it’s a request to visit them so they can deliberate over our admission…”
Huh? A letter from the Council? They wanted to hold a conference to decide whether to let Tempest join them or not?
So the moment had come at last. Really gotta hand it to Professor Raphael, though. Did it realize the Council would get to work right this moment for me? Ah, no way. Not even it could—
Understood. Green Fury was hired by the Kingdom of Englesia. Based on the timing involved, their primary goal was clearly to investigate matters inside Tempest. Also, according to a report from the subject Soei, agents from multiple intelligence organizations were sending reports back to their home nations at the same time. Putting this together, it is very likely that moves were made over the past several days.
Okay, maybe it could do it. It was just as the professor calculated! But I didn’t remember hearing about any report from Soei…
Understood. It is believed that my lord was too preoccupied with his games to pay attention.
Don’t call it a game!
They say there’s no kidding yourself, but I guess there’s no kidding Raphael, either. But it had a point. I was pretty serious about matters up until we defeated Team Green Fury, but after that, yeah, we were just having fun.
But Raphael definitely got me out of a jam there. Patting myself on the back for not trying to come up with some convoluted excuse, I tried to frame it like I knew everything all along.
“Yes, I definitely think you’re right. Their investigation teams were in the labyrinth as well, so I played along with them for a bit. They all came hurrying back to their homelands after a while, though, so I figured we’d see some movements soon.”
“Oh! Are you talking about Green Fury, perhaps?”
“You got it, Mollie. They were a little too strong in my mind, so I did some looking into them.”
That was a huge lie. I was just riffing on what Raphael said. But that’s all right.
“I see, I see. Some secret investigations, eh? Very impressive, Sir Rimuru!”
Shuna gave me a broad smile and a nod. Thanks to standing my ground, I managed to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes.
Now that the danger was past, I accepted the letter from Mjöllmile and looked through it. It definitely was an invitation from the Council. Raphael was proven right, and I had just saved a ton of face.
But…man, that was close. Getting too caught up in games always trips you up in the end. That was a valuable lesson for me, and I’ll try to temper my Dungeon time going forward. I’ll need to be more careful—all good things in moderation, and so on.
The Council of the West is a league of nations dotted around the Forest of Jura. Representatives from each of its member nations gathered in Englesia every month for a conference, the aim being to work things out for each other’s mutual benefit in areas outside the jurisdiction of any single country.
Each member nation, no matter how small, had an equal say as they all deliberated together. The ideal here was to protect the greater good for all humankind—the greater good, in this case, meaning preservation of the human-populated parts of the world.
The Council’s top priority was conducting anti-monster measures, but they also dealt with droughts, pandemics, typhoons, earthquakes, and other disasters. When it came to the distribution of extra food and other goods between nations, deliberations could often get mired in intergovernmental differences, so for essential goods and services, the Council stepped in to debate and organize things instead. If famine broke out, they worked to provide relief; if a large number of monsters appeared somewhere, they could send extra soldiers to deal with them. This, of course, was never easy—all sorts of problems cropped up on a constant basis.
Funding for the Council was provided by its member nations, each of which paid a different percentage of the budget. Even though each nation paid differing dues to the Council, they all had equal representation in the conference itself. This created some dissatisfaction among the members, so to address that, nations were allowed to send more selected representatives to the Council based on their share of the funding.
Of course, that opened up the possibility of throwing the Council off-balance, so regulations stipulated that member nations had to contribute a much larger percentage for each extra councillor they added. Despite that, a country sending more members inevitably meant they got to have a larger say in matters. With that in mind, the larger nations often paid several times the usual budget contribution so they could send several councillors over.
As discussed, the Council’s activities had no direct bearing on the interests of its member governments. Despite that, it was still a good place for larger nations to show off to the world. The more of a say they had in the Council’s agenda, the better chance they ran of getting favorable treatment when everything shook out. If danger came along, they could apply pressure to make sure their country was looked after first.
The funding received was used to conduct the Council’s business, which was always decided by majority vote among its representatives. For example, let’s say a dangerous monster appeared somewhere. The Free Guild, a lower branch of the Council, was tasked with dealing with it, so the Council would send a formal request to deploy adventurers to the area.
But of course, there might be more than one monster, and they could be threatening more than one country. The more powerful nations would likely act to procure stronger adventurers for their own country first—that was a given. Sending more funding to the Council indicated that you were a more valuable presence among the Western Nations. There was no point diverting limited resources to protecting something useless. Countries with excess capacity could help, but otherwise, they’d be shut out. That was the reality of it—the weak were given the cold shoulder on an equal basis from everyone, in a very cruel game of numbers.
This was why being late with your share of contributions was never allowed. The minimum contributions were always collected, and anyone who couldn’t make the payments was booted out of the Council. To the weaker nations, that was a matter of life and death—it meant nobody would help them if things went south. It was the Council’s job to make those decisions as well, so it was a given that countries with more councillors had a lot more power in the group.
These contributions, of course, weren’t cheap. They piled up based on the number of representatives you sent, so even a superpower like Farmus could only send around five, at most. The fall of Farmus was thus a huge event, nothing the Council could afford to ignore. Between figuring out how to handle the new Kingdom of Farminus and addressing the rise of the troublesome Jura-Tempest Federation, tensions were understandably high around the Council right now.
After the Tempest Founder’s Festival, the Council held a special session that quickly erupted into chaos, with representatives yelling at one another until they were hoarse. Hinata Sakaguchi attended as a guest of honor, given her close relationship with the demon lord Rimuru.
She could have turned down the invite—unlike the Free Guild, the Western Holy Church wasn’t a subgroup of the Council. They were on friendly terms but existed as completely different structures. As a leading figure in that organization, Hinata had every right to ignore the summons. But when she heard the Council’s subject matter, she decided to join in. They were set to discuss Tempest’s admission into the Council, a resolution that could greatly affect the future direction of the Western Nations, and considering that, Hinata couldn’t stay away.
The current chaotic disorder in the Council made her wince a little.
When you collect a bunch of fools together, it’s not surprising how little work gets done…
Hinata led all of her own meetings, keeping decision-making as quick as possible without things falling too far out of hand. A serious enough disagreement, after all, could always be decided with battle—such was her philosophy. And in the conferences in Tempest she attended, they always managed to decide on vast, pondering matters, even with all the big names that constantly seemed to join in. It was hard for Hinata to comprehend—like something out of a fairy tale.
But even if that’s a notable exception, she mused, couldn’t this Council be a little more constructive?
To someone like Hinata, who mostly attended active, useful meetings, the debate unfolding before her seemed like nothing short of a farce.
“We can trust that nation! I feel we should exert all efforts to welcome them as our friends.”
“You say that, but we are talking about a demon lord here. Allegedly, he can negotiate with the Storm Dragon, but if we anger him, what if he sets that menace on us?”
“No need to worry about that. I doubt this demon lord has much power himself. He’s just leaning on his buddy to posture against his foes.”
“Ridiculous! Then how do you explain the draw that he and Lady Hinata here fought to? Because I think we should appreciate this demon lord for the strength he’s clearly shown!”
It was a never-ending torrent of unintelligent opinions thrown against one another.
This is so stupid. How can they even keep this going in my presence? Their thoughtlessness is astounding.
Hinata was right about that, and yet they were arguing over whether the demon lord was a juggernaut or a pushover. It certainly left an impression on her.
“Look. The demon lord Rimuru has declared that the lands of the Forest of Jura are his territory. At the same time, however, he stated at the Founder’s Festival that he has no intention of sending monsters out to the forest’s borders. This means a lot. Councillors, we need to consider that as we work toward a conclusion!”
“Indeed. Our nation is home to a people living in constant fear of monsters. The demon lord’s statement provides salvation to them, and it is backed by fact as well. Ever since the founding of Tempest, monster-related incidents have been on a steady decline.”
“Nonsense! Has the demon lord deceived you?!”
The Forest of Jura’s monsters were managed by the demon lord Rimuru. The nations nestled along its vast border were already reaping the benefits. But whether a nation bordered Tempest, was exposed to other threats, or was located relatively safely inland, they all had different motives driving them.
The border nations here were the most welcoming to Rimuru’s reign. They had all participated in the Founder’s Festival, getting a taste of Tempest’s prosperity for themselves. Whether it was a nation of monsters or not, they reasoned, if it could directly connect to their own national interests, then bring it on.
Countries facing other threats, meanwhile, had trouble deciding how to approach this. They had the Free Guild and the Crusaders to protect them and deal with monster damage; none of these nations were large in scale, and none could afford to act carelessly here. They were all in the same boat, largely, and they had their hands full staying afloat as it was. The more quick-witted among their leaders were already scheming to see how they could take advantage of Tempest, but some of them skipped the Founder’s Festival entirely and had no inherent trust of monsters. The debate over Rimuru raged among these nations, and no matter which side they went with, their position was a pretty weak one.
Finally, the larger, safer nations (and the countries dependent on them) were, as a rule, approving. They, of course, had the luxury of tackling this question based on how they stood to profit from it—security was not a concern of theirs. They were countered by councillors who were more skeptical about Rimuru’s policies. If something were to happen, the demon lord might decide to place the full brunt of his powers upon them—such was their blind belief, and they were thus virulently opposed to him. Some were already loudly accusing the Tempest border nations of turning traitor and letting Rimuru brainwash them.
With all these clashing interests, it was a given that the meeting would be a rowdy one. From the perspective of a higher power, it was all the work of fools—but most of the representatives were just looking out for number one. Hinata knew that, which was why she could stay silent.
“All right. Why don’t we accept their argument? If they say Tempest will be our friend, then let’s welcome them in. But they’ll need to bring some gifts with them.”
“I firmly agree. Try to fight them, and we’ll just have another Farmus on our hands.”
“They’ll need to learn their place, though. Do we even know if they have any interest in respecting the international laws we’ve put in place?”
“I don’t think we need to worry about that. You’ve heard the rumors about Duke Meusé’s folly, I trust?”
“How could anyone not have?”
The real bottleneck was due to the representatives from the rich nations. They were well-informed to start with, and they were deliberately trying to stir the pot here, encouraging the chaos. Their objective was clear—they already made their conclusion, and now they wanted to guide everyone else toward it without seeming too unnatural.
I feel for the smaller nations’ representatives. They were oblivious when they came here, and now they’re faced with a choice. They may as well throw their vote down the drain…
Ignorance really is a sin. Without the correct information, you stood to lose a vast amount. And now the weak were being hounded into letting their precious vote go to waste.
Still…
But I suppose this is all leading up to Tempest getting accepted. Which is fine by me, but…
The larger nations shared the same motives as Hinata. It was a pity about the citizens of the weaker countries, but as she saw it, better to keep her mouth shut about this. She did need to resist the urge to speak up, though.
“The demon lord Rimuru’s motives here don’t really matter. The question is whether we can make good use of him or not.”
“Precisely. Given our present concern about the East’s movements, there’s no reason to turn down a demon lord’s power if he allies with us.”
Prince Johann Rostia, one of the senior representatives in the Council, was now bringing up the Eastern Empire.
“The East, you say? Meaning the Empire?!”
“There are movements? But Veldora is right next to us, in the Forest of Jura…”
Johann’s statement caused a stir among the Council. Now, Hinata thought, we’re getting down to business. The preamble went on far too long, but that’s nobles for you. They were feeling one another out, gauging how much information each side had on them. Once they were sure their side had the upper hand, that’s when they bared their fangs. That was their style, just as Johann showed when he so expertly seized the initiative.
“As I’m sure you’re all aware, the military of the Eastern Empire—namely, the Nasca Namrium Ulmeria United Eastern Empire—has begun making certain maneuvers. According to reports from passing merchants, they’ve been conducting military exercises at a higher rate than before.”
The Council fell silent at Johann’s words.
Hinata was aware of that, as were Gazel Dwargo and the heads of the other nations bordering the Empire. They probably kept tabs on the Empire through the sales of their healing potions and equipment. Since the Dwarven Kingdom was officially neutral, Gazel was no doubt following his obligations to keep what he knew confidential.
Plus, Rimuru undoubtedly knew as well. The proof was in the tech announcements he made at the Founder’s Festival. Rimuru insisted that “no, no, that was really all Gabil’s and Vester’s own work” and so on, but that was a barefaced lie. He had to be involved, too, and he meant his statement as a threat against Gazel… Not a threat exactly, perhaps, but it was Rimuru’s way of saying Hey, Tempest is making the potions now.
You can never underestimate him. He knows what’s going on in the East, and he’s needling Gazel about keeping quiet. How far ahead is he looking? It’s just amazing to me…
Thus, whether he knew it or not, Rimuru was being vastly misunderstood by Hinata here in Englesia.
Now, while all of this might’ve been known information to Hinata, it was shocking news to the majority of councillors here. Everyone sat on the edge of their seats, waiting for more from Johann; they needed as much information as they could as they debated how to protect themselves. Nations rich enough to have regular armies were one thing, but the smaller ones didn’t even have the free budget to retain one of those. Small-scale was the watchword with their militaries; they preferred to hire mercenaries at times of war, but if the whole region was building up their firepower, they’d be facing pretty slim pickings.
“Everyone,” Johann said in a voice that carried well across the chamber, “calm down. I’m not saying the Empire will make their move at once. Let us keep our heads cool and debate how to respond!”
Just as Hinata thought, this was the real topic of the day.
“And what will we do?” one representative asked, followed by many others.
“How to respond?! What measures do we even have against them?!”
“The Kingdom of Farmus is gone! Even if we wanted to build a defensive line, we can’t do that with just us smaller nations!”
“Order, please! The Empire isn’t on the move because of you-know-who in the Forest of Jura. I wouldn’t be as assured if he was still sealed away, but now he’s alive and active for us!”
“Wait one moment! You want us to pin our hopes on that evil dragon…?”
“Please, I’m telling you, calm down! Right now, if the news is to be trusted, Veldora has been tamed by Sir Rimuru, the demon lord. The very same demon lord who seeks admission to our Council, am I right? Then I think the answer is clear.”
The man calling for order was Count Gaban, a representative from Englesia.
“Councillor Gaban is right,” Johann continued. “As we face this threat from the East, now is no time to wage a war of words against each other. If the demon lord Rimuru will join the Council, I am sure their military might will aid us.”
“Ah…”
“Certainly, yes…”
Cheers of agreement rang out. Johann smiled approvingly.
“In my humble opinion, I think we should recognize Tempest as a full-fledged member.”
His voice was solemn, as if gauging the reaction around him. That alone changed the atmosphere in the chamber. Even those who feared the demon lord as a complete unknown now recalled the very real and recognized threat from the East. Tempest was a land of monsters but also a nation that responded to common sense. The Empire, on the other hand, was a ravenous foe bent on gobbling up everything in its path. They were a human enemy, and as such, if they lost to the Empire, everyone could see that they’d be next at the dinner table.
The ruling class, all of them, would undoubtedly be killed.
The Empire was a massive military state, with a history of growth powered by the nations they swallowed up. They were always thorough with their enemy, and to the Western Nations, they were a presence to be feared.
“Hmm. I think Councillor Rostia is making a valid point. A point I agree with, I should add.”
“I’m very glad you understand, Councillor Gaban! And I think you won’t be alone in this chamber. I think it’s time to take a vote on Tempest’s admission first, but what do you think?”
“Seconded. The West needs to put up a united front before anything else.”
“Quite true. Now’s no time for infighting!”
Several representatives voiced their approval of Johann. It led to a general commotion that forced the chairman to shout for quiet once more.
At the chairman’s lead, the vote began. First Johann fanned everyone’s fears; then he put on the pressure to conform. A very impressive performance, indeed, in the classic style of nobility.
I suppose this is all part of the script, too? Even without the preamble, that took forever…
Clearly Johann and Gaban were colluding on this, with a supporting cast voicing their agreement in the audience. As a nonvoting attendee, Hinata could tell that much from her seat. It was all just a scripted performance, and the ending was coming up shortly, much to her relief. Eight hours had passed since the session was brought to order, and despite the regular breaks, the exhaustion was palpable. Not physical exhaustion, of course, but the mental kind, making it all the more painful to Hinata.
I can’t believe all the stupid questions I got asked, though. They could’ve just asked me to watch Rimuru to make sure he doesn’t go crazy, but no…
That was the main reason Hinata was there. Whether the Council knew him or not, they were about to ask a demon lord to join their ranks. They just wanted to cover their asses in case he decided to get violent—and considering she (reportedly) fought him to a draw, Hinata helped the councillors feel far safer. That’s basically what the nobles wanted, although they asked her in the most roundabout way possible.
The talk about an Empire on the move was just an idle threat as well. Those military maneuvers probably were happening, but they were just an empty show of force. If they were really about to invade the West, they had mountains of obstacles to deal with first—the Forest of Jura and the Armed Nation of Dwargon, to name but two. And maybe things would’ve been different before Tempest and Dwargon forged an alliance, but now, the Empire didn’t have much to work with.
They really should’ve made their move before Rimuru became a demon lord. Then Veldora wouldn’t be back in the picture, and the Empire really could’ve had a chance at world domination…
Now the Empire was pinned down, too afraid of a vengeful, unmuzzled Veldora to act. They were too careful for their own good back when there was no sign of Veldora, and now they probably knew full well the golden opportunity they missed. Rimuru and Gazel were still on the lookout for them, of course, but the way Hinata saw it, any move the Empire could make was nothing for anyone to worry about.
She was pretty sure Johann and Gaban agreed with her on that point. Here they were, keeping the smaller nations’ eyes fixated on outside threats while they firmed up their own footing. It was so noble-like of them. Hinata had had enough of it long ago.
And after the ballots were tabulated, the ayes had it—the majority of the counted had voted to admit Tempest.
“The Jura-Tempest Federation is now officially our ally. We will hereby send a formal invitation to the Jura-Tempest Federation, and after confirming the intentions of their leader, the demon lord Rimuru, to join the Council, we will reconvene to enact the relevant procedures. Adjourned!”
With the chairman’s stentorian declaration, the meeting drew to a close. All in all, it was enough to make Hinata swear off dealing with the nobility again.
The exhausting Council session was over, and Hinata was on her way back to the Church. But her suffering wasn’t over yet.
“Hinata, could I have a moment of your time?”
She was stopped by a young man guarded by a posse of nearly ten bodyguards. He had shiny blond hair and a refreshing smile; a handsome man, although not much Hinata’s type. After eight hours of that torture session, her tolerance for anything else today was gone. She just wanted to get home, and the smile of a man she had no interest in was worthless to her.
Unfortunately, the man’s social position posed some difficulties for Hinata’s escape. This was Elrick, the first prince of Englesia, where the Council’s headquarters was located. Being rude to him could trigger an international incident, so Hinata was in no position to ignore him.
“Yes? Can I help you?”
She summoned as much social courtesy as she could muster for Prince Elrick. He smugly smiled back at her.
“Well, Hinata, I wanted to ask you a favor.”
Elrick did not know Hinata well enough to address her this casually. Given her position, she knew his name and face, but little else. This was their first conversation, and Elrick’s overfamiliarity annoyed her.
“And what would that be?” she asked as they moved over to a reception room.
“I’m thinking about testing the demon lord Rimuru at the next Council meeting. Only the upper echelons are aware of the news as of yet, but if a demon lord is joining the Council, I think that would greatly unnerve many of our people. We will need this demon lord to live up to his duties, and we need to see whether he will deign to listen to us. That’s where you come in!”
He flashed her another gleaming smile. Hinata wanted to jump out a window.
“How do I come in?” she asked, dying for him to get to the point.
“…?!”
Elrick, perhaps expecting Hinata to be a bit more cooperative, seemed daunted by her lack of interest. Still, he tried to look unaffected as he continued.
“W-well, let me explain. I describe it as a test, but the one in question is still a demon lord. If he decides to cause a scene, we’ll all be in trouble. So I’d like to ask you to provide security duties for us.”
As prince, Elrick no doubt expected the entire world to serve him at all times. He knew he had good looks, and he was convinced no woman could ever turn him down. Hinata, he was sure, would be no different. Even his bodyguards looked on like this was common knowledge.
But Hinata had her doubts. For one thing, she had every right to turn him down.
Did he think I’d say yes with that attitude?
“Why, if I may ask?”
“Why? Because I know you are a strong woman. The most powerful leader of the paladins, confidant to the Luminian god, the chief knight of the Imperial Guard itself! Among the Western Nations, you truly have no equal, and I even hear that you fought the demon lord Rimuru to a draw. With your support, I’m sure we can reveal the true nature of this demon lord!”
His sheer arrogance was clear for Hinata to see as he heaped extensive praise upon her.
What is he talking about?
Rimuru was generally kind to her, but he was a true-blue demon lord. Deliberately trying to rile him was beyond stupid. And that “fought to the draw” thing was a rumor they deliberately spread around; she couldn’t beat him at all. If Rimuru ever got really angry, it’d take a fellow demon lord like Luminus to stop him.
“I think that idea may be ill-advised. He is truly a powerful demon lord. If we were to fight again, there is no guarantee I could beat him.”
“Oh, come now! No need for modesty. Just because you’re talking to me doesn’t mean you have to act like a meek, gentle woman.”
The smile was now gone from Hinata’s face. Elrick’s self-absorbed protest deeply peeved her.
The oblivious prince was interrupted by one of his bodyguards stepping in. This large, important-looking man was Reiner, head general of Englesia’s royal knight corps—and Reiner was about to rankle Hinata even further.
“Ha-ha-ha! Lady Hinata, I can understand if you’re smitten with Prince Elrick, but now is no time for such dalliances. There’s no need to worry about matters if I’m around, but with your additional muscle, we will have that much extra insurance. So if you could—”
The chiding tone to his voice robbed Hinata of any desire to hear the rest.
“I’m afraid I cannot. The Western Holy Church and the Holy Empire of Lubelius have signed a nonaggression pact with Tempest. And a word of warning as well… Please refrain from angering the demon lord Rimuru.”
“…Pardon me?”
“Are—are you ordering me around?!”
The bodyguard, along with Elrick, seemed flummoxed by the idea that she’d actually say no to them.
Hinata had absolutely no intention of playing along. If this was an official request made through the proper channels, not even Hinata would’ve had the right to refuse. If the Council was making the request themselves, after all, it’d only be logical to call for an anti-monster specialist like her. Given the Council’s vital role in world affairs, there could very well have been an official request along those lines, once it passed through the local Western Holy Church post. And considering their future relationship with the Western Nations, Hinata wouldn’t have had the final right to turn that down.
What a pain it would have been, though…
Still, if that happened, there would’ve been a lot of intricate conditions to decide on, and given how their nonaggression pact forbade clearly hostile acts, Hinata probably could’ve found a way out of it. Elrick and his goons must’ve tried approaching her directly to skip all that…and now they were paying for it.
“You will regret this, Lady Hinata! Do you wish to make an enemy out of Sir Reiner, head general of the Englesia royal knight corps?”
“Exactly! The human race cannot allow a demon lord to do whatever he wants among us. Don’t tell me the Western Holy Church is fine with someone like him going on a rampage inside the Council!”
The other bodyguards were starting to whine at her, too—but that actually relieved Hinata. From them, she could tell this was all just a few people stepping way out of line.
“Unfortunately for you, I’m afraid the demon lord Rimuru enjoys my full trust. Now if you’ll excuse me…”
So she left, thanking her lucky stars that this entourage lacked intelligence. In her eyes, she had exhibited the barest minimum of decorum needed, so this shouldn’t become any sort of diplomatic controversy. Making this unscheduled approach to a Council invitee was a much ruder thing to do anyway. Even if a prince was involved, Hinata handled it passably well, if not exactly with perfect poise.
But—
They’re not really going to try to anger Rimuru, are they?
The anxiety bounced around her mind. The moment she swore off nobles forever, this had to happen.
Well, I turned down any involvement in it. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail among them…
If you wanted to take on a demon lord, you’d better have had the national army backing you up. If a small group of them tried to pick a fight, it really would take a party of champions to save your ass—and they wouldn’t have the time to prepare like that. A demon lord on the Council floor was probably an opportunity too good for them to pass up, but having an unexpected event to take advantage of didn’t automatically up your success rate.
But what if this entire encounter was planned from the start?
That…seems pretty unlikely. But I better keep my guard up next time…
The thought was depressing her already.

Slime 10.6

THE COUNCIL
Here in Seltrozzo, a small northern kingdom, a conversation was underway between a boy and an old man. The boy was Yuuki Kagurazaka, grand master of the Free Guild, and the man was named Johann Rostia—Council mainstay, generous benefactor to the Guild, and prince of the Kingdom of Rostia.
As his last name suggested, he was the elder brother of Rostia’s current king, but he was also one of the Five Elders who controlled the Council. He always held his confidential meetings here, in Seltrozzo, a small, rural nation perfect for avoiding the eyes of the Western Nations.
This was because Seltrozzo was home to a safe house run by the Selt Foreign Information Bureau, the leading intelligence agency in all the Western Nations. The SFIB was established as a risk-management group, surveilling the lands outside human control and preparing for any upcoming monster threats. It had a group of talented agents, all of them ranked B or above, and its small number made it truly a team of elites. Any location under their protection would be impossible for foreign agents to infiltrate, and that was why Johann used this house for all of his most delicate meetings.
“Well, can I hear your report, then?”
“Right. It’s pretty clear that the demon lord Rimuru’s fully on to me. I went out of my way not to leave any evidence, using merchants from the East and so on, but regardless…”
“Then can’t you talk your way out of any suspicion?”
“Yes, my own staff suggested the same thing, but there’s no guarantee ‘talking my way out of it’ would keep me safe, you know? He is a demon lord, keep in mind. Rile him the wrong the way, and it’d be like stepping on a tiger’s tail.”
Yuuki didn’t hide the fact that Rimuru was suspecting him. He had no reason to. After all, Johann—this Five Elders member—was essentially Yuuki’s boss.
Boss was the right term, because this was strictly a business relationship between the two, one that existed because they both profited from it. The Council funded the Free Guild, and in exchange, the Guild carried out work for the Council. It was a simple, give-and-take sort of agreement—on the surface.
From the Guild’s point of view, they couldn’t survive without support like this from the world’s nations, the funding and preferential access it received for its organization’s work. The Guild had more influence now than back in its Society of Adventurers days, but in terms of power, it still wasn’t above the Council. It was the behind-the-scenes support from Johann the Elder that helped Yuuki develop the Free Guild as much as he had these past few years; that was another reason Yuuki had to mind his manners around him.
“And you can’t defeat this demon lord?”
“Are you kidding me? The way I see it, you could assemble a hundred A rankers, and it still wouldn’t be possible.”
“You’d go that far? Perhaps it’s smarter not to make him our enemy, then. But…”
Johann paused, his sharpened eyes glaring at Yuuki, before continuing.
“…it is the elders’ opinion that the demon lord Rimuru is a hindrance. And your missteps are the cause, Yuuki.”
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“Your little conspiracy with the demon lord Clayman. If that had succeeded, we wouldn’t have had to deal with those sniveling Eastern merchants to open trade routes with the Empire. Once we had secured that, all we’d have to is wait for Veldora to fade into oblivion a few centuries from now, and the Forest of Jura would no longer be a threat. In fact, demon lords like Carillon and Frey could’ve served as protective walls for us. And now look.”
“Well, I don’t see what I could’ve done, you know? You really can’t plan for someone like him.”
Johann was one of the people aware of the plans Yuuki’s group was working on. They were applying their own spin to the games played among the demon lords, trying to work them to their own advantage. And the whole reason that was possible…
“Yes. Yes, you’re right. You couldn’t have done anything. We never could’ve imagined a monster like that in our way. But couldn’t you have bested him?”
It was the young girl who entered the room now, silently closing the door behind her. Maribel Rozzo, the very person who’d formulated this whole plan. She slipped into an ornate chair, joining the other two.
“Oh… M-Maribel. And is the venerable Granville with you?”
“No, I’ve come by myself today. But I’d still like to hear the answer to that question.”
Maribel turned to Yuuki, paying Johann little mind.
“…It’s just not possible,” he replied, as if captured by her gaze. “Rimuru alone would be a challenge, but he’s got the Storm Dragon with him, too, you know? Forget it. There’s nothing anyone can do about him.”
“You saw Veldora?”
“Yeah. He was going around in human form, but he introduced himself as Veldora and everything.” Yuuki meekly answered the question.
Maribel expected nothing less from him. “Right. The demon lord Rimuru is the key to sealing Veldora away. If we let that evil dragon free, he’ll spread ruin across the whole world. Grandfather told me himself.”
“Indeed,” Johann said. “Your grandfather personally witnessed the darkest days of that dragon’s rampage. He’s always quick to remind me of why our god is so fearful of him.”
“Yes, and now Rimuru has tamed him. Meddling with them is dangerous…but if we want my Rozzo family to prosper, we need to crush the rise of Tempest.”
“What a headache this is. Yuuki, couldn’t you defeat Rimuru if you truly put your mind to it?”
Johann was now repeating himself. Combined with Maribel, they had now asked the same question three times. Didn’t Yuuki have what it takes to beat Rimuru? But this time, Yuuki had a different answer.
“We’re talking about someone not even Hinata could beat, you know? It’s gonna be really hard for me to win if I fight him. My chances could go way up under the right conditions, but…”
What it sounded like he meant was: If it was just the demon lord Rimuru by himself, maybe they could make it happen.
“…So what’s your next move?” Maribel asked.
“My general strategy will be to avoid direct confrontation with Rimuru. Even if I did beat him, I just don’t see it earning us much. We’d have to pay far too much of a price for it.”
Yuuki went on to discuss their future plans, including Kagali’s upcoming ruins expedition. As Maribel had ordered, he was leaking out the info he gained from Clayman, and Maribel and Johann were now acting on it.
Maribel thought for a moment.
Eliminating Rimuru, or at least rendering him harmless, was something she wanted to achieve at any cost. The greatest wish of the Rozzo family would have to go unfulfilled otherwise. Maybe it’d be easier to seize the world if they worked with the demon lord, but Maribel had already deemed that a poor choice.
The problem was their differences in thinking. With this world as well, Maribel intended to take it from a single, gold-based standard currency to a paper-based economy spearheaded by each individual country. She wouldn’t eliminate the current money system; she’d just implement new currencies in each nation. It didn’t have to be paper either; silver or copper or whatever was fine, too. Basically, if she could build a world where currency markets went up or down depending on the power of all nations involved, then perfect.
That’s how foreign exchange worked, and it’d be the Council—and the will of the Five Elders—that set it up. That was the one absolute must to victory here—they needed to be the people deciding the value of things. Against the weaker nations, they’d even levy punishing taxes or conscript their populations into military service in the name of monster hunting. It was a perfectly legal way to subjugate one nation under the rule of a stronger one.
All the conditions were in place. There were no outstanding issues to deal with. Maribel’s plan to economically rule over the nations in the Council of the West was proceeding along fine—even Granville was happy with it. They had spent the past few years completing the groundwork for it. And now, with the rise of Rimuru and his nation of monsters, it was all going haywire.
Maybe things weren’t in crisis mode yet, but Maribel could see what was in store. The demon lord Rimuru would likely offer the Western Nations their defensive support, in a bid to win their trust. With all that military power in the backdrop, he’d have them open up an economic relationship, to a certain extent, using Blumund, a small kingdom, as a foothold into the West. He’d run all the logistics, give his people the joy of working, and guarantee their safety.
I wish he wouldn’t mess with me, Maribel thought. Other large nations, like Dwargon and Thalion, were already complete, permanent packages—she may not have liked them, but she could accept them. But right now, Tempest was riding straight into Maribel and her companions’ home turf. If they expressed a desire to join the Council of the West, it’d be like torching their personal hunting grounds. A declaration of war.
She refused to accept that. She was sure that she and the demon lord Rimuru were incompatible with each other at the core. There could only be just one ruler—a single, overwhelming force. You had to be the one calling the shots, or else you were never promised a sure victory. And as long as the Rozzo family was attempting to rule all of humanity, Rimuru would always be an obstacle. Even if they could work in harmony at first, it was clear to her that they’d grow apart over their respective interests.
That was why Maribel saw the demon lord Rimuru as such a threat.
It was easy to say she’d eliminate Rimuru, but actually doing it was much harder.
She had participated in the Founder’s Festival, so she could have a chance to observe him. It took some convincing with Granville, but he gave his okay after she promised not to do anything to Rimuru. The visit convinced her that she was right all along. Tempest was just too attractive of a city, brimming with desires, and in time it’d become the cutting edge of trends, building a new age for the whole world. The more they opened up and forged deeper relations with other nations, the more valuable it’d become—and before long, the Rozzos would no longer be able to make unilateral decisions.
Yes… Yes. Everything’s going the way the demon lord Rimuru wants it…
The mere thought made Maribel want to fly into a rage. She resisted the urge as she pondered how to respond.
Defeating him was out of the question. Even if they succeeded, they had no idea how Veldora would respond. Letting a monster capable of wiping out a force of twenty thousand elites single-handedly go around unfettered was the height of folly.
So that left rendering him harmless—either through coercion or persuasion.
If they opted for coercion, Duke Meusé’s failures offered some important lessons. Maribel had perfectly set the table, hoping to indebt Rimuru in a way that followed every rule. Instead, Rimuru followed the rules to take revenge. The duke was a fool for misreading the opportunity, but what really deserved praise was the personal connections Rimuru enjoyed.
Yes. If there’s a snake in the grass, you’d have to be a fool to prod at it…
And now the demon lord wanted to join the Council. It was easy to oppose that.
Maribel had cornered the market for grain, in anticipation of upcoming wars. Now, thanks to Farmus’s civil war, the marketplace was having to turn to private stores to keep their shelves full.
Maybe we should disguise people as night bandits and have them torch the villages around the big cities. That way…
They could keep raising the prices of staple foods, as well as restrict the amount of bread that entered the market. With the smaller nations, just a little bit of tightening could lead to major food distress. When people lacked food, they got angry, and that anger was directed at the people who started the war. There was nothing easier than riling up the unintelligent masses, and pinning all the blame on Rimuru would be a straightforward task.
And then—voilà. The representatives from those smaller nations would oppose Rimuru’s Council bid. It’d be perfectly simple for Maribel to engineer.
But…
No… No. It used to be a given that you couldn’t magically transport food, but I guess that demon lord’s made it happen. Judging by the sheer variety on offer in their dinner banquets, I think it’s safe to assume that. And given his connections to people as big as King Gazel and Elmesia of Thalion, accepting him would probably lead to fewer problems…
Engineering food shortages in the smaller nations could just give Rimuru a chance to provide them with support. If they scoffed at that plan and tried to coerce him out of it, they’d just be repeating Duke Meusé’s error. As Maribel concluded, trying something that already failed once could very easily come back to bite them.
She wasn’t self-absorbed enough to think she could carry everything out flawlessly. All she needed to do was proceed slowly, methodically, and carefully. With that in mind, winning Rimuru over to her side seemed more doable.
If we want to sway him, we should try meeting with him and offering a chance to join a united front. If I’m willing to compromise a little—No, I can’t do that. No need to be timid. I’m Maribel the Greedy. Whether he’s a demon lord or not, I swear I can rule over him!
There’s no other option, she thought.
The unique skill Avarice could freely control its target, ruling over their desires and making them do their bidding. Just as she had done with Yuuki, Maribel could easily bring him under her rule, with him none the wiser.
She had not one, but two ways of doing this.
The first was to overwrite the target’s desires with Maribel’s own, making them into a cooperative partner with the same goals. This approach had a weakness—she needed to be within conversational distance of the target to trigger it. Plus, like a slow-acting poison, it took a certain amount of time to take full effect. If she didn’t want to arouse the target’s suspicion, she’d have to make several contacts with them to make it seem more natural—and since the conversation would need a reason to take place, there was only so much desire she could inject at once. It required a major time commitment.
The second approach, meanwhile, went much faster—it involved using Avarice to force the target to accept her rule. A quick injection of greed could even destroy the target’s self-awareness, turning them into a living puppet.
This, of course, was much more dangerous. Depending on the size of the target’s desire, this approach could also take some time—and even if it only took a few seconds, that’d be more than enough for someone as powerful as the demon lord Rimuru to kill Maribel. Taking this tactic required very careful preparation, which was why Maribel immediately gave up on it against Granville.
Those were the two ways Avarice could take over a person. And given the way that it worked on people’s primordial desires, there wasn’t a soul in this world that could resist it. The main drawback was its dependency on time, not to mention the size of the target’s desire.
No matter which approach she took, Maribel couldn’t take over a target unless they had a certain amount of desire inside them. The larger that desire, the firmer the grip Maribel could have over them. But what if the desire wasn’t big enough? Given that Avarice controlled people’s desires, if there wasn’t much to work with, the skill couldn’t influence them enough to be successful. She could prod that desire, inflating it enough so she could take hold, but again, that took time and opened her up to suspicion.
That was why she couldn’t take over the mind of Hinata the Saint. Maybe she could if they met more often, but Hinata would’ve questioned her motives if she kept popping in for no reason. Maribel couldn’t risk that much danger, so she gave up on the effort. On the other hand, she held regular secret meetings with Yuuki through Johann the Elder. Seizing his mind was easy.
Now her main question was Rimuru.
I saw him up close, but he didn’t seem to have much desire despite all his outrageous behavior. It’s not fair…
At the dinner banquet, she had a direct view of Rimuru. With that insight, she felt what might be just barely enough to rule over his desires. With a desire that small, she could take it over quickly with just a few sessions, but it wouldn’t give her much overall influence on his behavior. Of course, once she got that foothold, the rest would come falling down after it, she figured.
If worse came to worst, she could use her final option. If that worked, the demon lord would be Maribel’s to use as she pleased—and since Rimuru had tamed Veldora, the Storm Dragon would essentially be hers to control as well. A dragon even the supreme being Lubelius feared. An attractive prize, to be certain.
Best to keep up my observations for now. Then I can consider my options and come up with the safest approach to subdue him!
Her mind made up, it was time to concoct a strategy.
Yuuki advised against direct confrontation with Rimuru. That’s why the demon lord Kazalim, under the guise of Kagali, would be guiding him through the ruins. Those ruins had their dangers, but apparently Kagali had no intention of putting Rimuru in harm’s way inside them. She could use that as part of her game plan.
“Let’s send him a letter. We can invite Rimuru to the Council and see how he reacts.”
“You think the demon lord would agree to it?”
“No worries there. Joining the Council of the West is one of his burning desires.”
“How curious.”
“Well, Rimuru wants to work hand in hand with humans. He wants to prove that the monsters under him are harmless as long as we stick to his rules.”
Yuuki’s explanation made sense to Maribel, as dumb as it sounded to her. Being bound by rules meant losing your freedom. Doing away with your demon lord military force? Staying on the same tier as the human race? It seemed supremely stupid to her.
“So why don’t we make that dream come true? Then I can inject him with my poison,” said Maribel.
“Ooh, scary. Isn’t Yuuki Kagurazaka just as strong as Hinata the Saint? If he and Rimuru fought for real, he has good prospects to win, I think. But now that you have him, you want a demon lord as well?”
“Yuuki’s ambition is too strong. He doesn’t even realize I’m controlling him. He thinks he’s making these negotiations out of his own free will.”
As Maribel explained right in front of Yuuki himself, this was a happy thing for him. Her rule over him meant that he wouldn’t be pushed down by any excessive greed. Yuuki ignored it all, not responding to it—that was how perfect her domination was of him.
“…And I’m sure the demon lord Rimuru is like a child before you, Maribel. And you’ll have full control of him?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I’m just worried that your rule could be broken, somehow.”
She flashed a cold look at the flustered Johann. “There’s no need to worry about that. Once I cloud someone’s desires, they’ll never return to normal. Not unless you overwrite the desires I implant in them.”
Maribel was greed personified, enough so to cultivate the unique skill Avarice within her. There was nobody in the world who could desire something more. She was fully convinced of that, and it made her laugh off Johann’s concern.
“Y-yes, I imagine not. I trust in you on that, Maribel.”
Johann the Elder tried not to invite Maribel’s wrath upon him. She was the de facto number two after Granville, and not even an elder was safe around her. If he got on her bad side, she might try to control his mind next. He had made a blood oath with Granville to avoid that, but once Maribel took over, he didn’t think he could rely on that oath too much. Thus, he never dared to lift a finger against her.
“Everything we say in here is a secret, all right?”
“Of course, Maribel. I’m not in any hurry to die.”
“Smart decision. Now, Johann, I want you to send a letter to Rimuru, leader of Tempest, for me. I’ll write it out for you right now, so make sure it reaches him before the next Council meeting, please.”
Without waiting for a response, Maribel began writing the letter. The sight of her scribbling away on the fancy, expensive paper struck terror in Johann’s heart. It was the kind of terror you’d feel if a girl like Maribel, hardly even ten, treated bossing people around like it was her God-given right. She had the air of a ruler, and not one of the Five Elders was a match for her.
“All right, Maribel. You can leave that to me.”
He left the room quietly with Yuuki, not wanting to bother her.
Even after Yuuki and Johann left, Maribel continued to weigh her options. She had all the time in the world. She would draw up plans, lay out the framework, and see this through. She had more than enough pawns at her disposal. And once again…
This’ll be fun. This’ll be so much fun.
…Maribel, the girl who trusted not a soul in the world, got lost in her own reverie.
The man fell to the ground, a flood of red, bloodlike particles shooting out in front of him. His eyes had burst open in surprise; he probably never saw it coming.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You left yourself open, you fool!”
Milim’s excited voice thundered across the hall as the man’s five remaining companions grew tense and nervous. They banded together, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings—but they could do nothing.
“Blowing wind, grow into a tornado and slice into my enemies! Time to rage—Tornado Blade!!”
Bunching up like that was a mistake, and I all but sneered as my Tornado Blade slashed into them. This was kind of a ranged version of Windcutter, one that cost a lot of magicules but caused slashing damage to multiple enemies within a given space. This made it great for battles against groups of foes.
Milim had acted first, sneaking up on one person as he went ahead to check for traps. After killing him, she quickly shot out of the area to avoid getting caught in my magic. The group had no idea what happened; the moment they huddled up for safety, Milim was out of the way, and they were cut to ribbons by my Windcutter.
“Look out, it’s Scarlet! Be careful!”
“Shit! That magic got Marja and Nadja. And Gene’s not breathing either?!”
“Damn you! All of you!!”
The surviving enemies, beginning to appreciate their situation, started ranting at us. By enemies, of course, I meant the labyrinth challengers.
We were dealing with a group of adventurers this time, by the looks of it, and a pretty well-balanced one at that. But our party had the power and experience to outclass them. That first surprise attack took out the enemy’s main search specialist, and before they even knew we were near, my opening magic landed the first strike. Even before we noticed them, we had an invisibility magic deployed, allowing us to discover the enemy first. This magic was canceled once we began to attack, but by then, our foes had already lost one or two people—the magic attacker and healer in the back row, to boot. That decided the battle right there.
Now that they could see us, the enraged front-row adventurers were making a beeline for us.
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Tough luck!!”
“Ohhhhh-hoh-hoh-hoh! You’re not getting past us!”
Veldora and Ramiris were certainly enjoying themselves as they withstood their charge. By now, I had nothing left to do—just take up a supporting role and make sure those two had enough space to move in.
I used my Analysis magic to examine the fighters running toward us. Above them, I could see bright-red bars that were less than half full.
“They got less than half of their HP left. You guys can take care of them yourselves, right?”
There was no self-aggrandizing there.
Yes, the red bars above the fighters’ heads showed their remaining stamina. That was what I configured my personal Analysis magic to display; I tried to set it up like a video game for instant comprehension. If other people used the same magic, they’d probably see something different—regardless, it was pretty convenient for me. The familiar readouts let me quickly confirm the situation and give out the most suitable instructions to my team.
By this point, we were pretty much guaranteed to win. A front-row set of fighters with no rear support was no match for Veldora and Ramiris. With no one buffing or magically healing them, we’d continually whittle down their stamina until it was over. A more careful party would’ve kept a barrier over them at all times…but not this one, apparently.
It didn’t take long for my two companions to prove me right, smiling insidiously as they slashed the remaining three adventurers into a bloody mess. It was an easy win.
Using Milim’s surprise attacks and my magic to dispatch the scouts and back row first was proving to be a sure-win tactic for us. Of course, we’d been kind of overfishing the pond, so to speak, so our efficiency was starting to suffer. It wasn’t perfect yet, but more and more parties were learning how to counter us. These challengers weren’t fools, after all, and they were clearly making a dedicated effort each day. I was glad to see that, but we needed new strategies to deal with them.
…As I thought about this, the final survivor disappeared into a flurry of light particles. The battle was over—another sight I was getting used to.
“We did it! These punks were no challenge at all!!”
“Heh-heh-heh… You’re right! We’re invincible, the strongest there is!”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! All these little ants! They leave me a tad unsatisfied, but…”
My companions were getting thoroughly carried away now.
…What were we doing, you ask? Well, researching new battle techniques against the labyrinth’s challengers, of course. We were eager to learn, so we’d been putting in a lot of hours down here.
………
……
…
I mean, you heard of Team Green Fury, right? We were able to beat them last time, but we can’t rest on our laurels. They got called back to their “home country” or whatever, and they may never come back—but maybe they just had some trouble procuring new equipment. We didn’t know if they’d pay a return visit sometime, and we wanted to be ready to fend them off if it happened.
Thus, even after Green Fury was behind us, we kept diving into the labyrinth, sliding into a familiar pattern of fighting off challengers. It kept the labyrinth lively, too.
A few days after our pitched battle with Green Fury, Masayuki’s party made it past Floor 40.
Masayuki really was born under a lucky star. Apparently, acquiring the entire Ogre Series of equipment was pretty simple for them. It was only natural, then, that they stomped all over the tempest serpent. Now their focus was conquering Floor 50.
The news of Masayuki breaching the forties energized the rest of the challengers. That was just what we hoped for, and now the more talented parties were aiming for Floor 40 as well.
Our experiments with releasing some videos of the boss battle gave us a huge response, too. The recording of Masayuki’s team fighting the tempest serpent, as shown on our projector, created buzz all over town; people wanted us to play it again and again.
As Mjöllmile and I saw it, this was a business opportunity. In a TV-free world like this one, battle footage from the labyrinth was as good as entertainment got. We may need to edit out some of the gorier content—but then again, maybe there’d be demand for the uncut version, for the right price. We could work on that. Of course, there’d also be broadcasting rights, likeness rights, all those other little details…but I could let Mjöllmile work on that for me.
In fact, I bet Masayuki’s smile could sell a lot of different products. The endorsement contracts alone might make him rich. He’d be happy; Mjöllmile would be happy; we’d all be happy. It’d be a trial-and-error process, but I’d like to see how that worked out.
And video content wasn’t restricted to the footage recorded by magical items. In fact, we had a lot more saved up. Raphael was reading a massive amount of data from the labyrinth and running Analyze and Assess on it made it possible to replay entire fights in visual form. We used that, for example, to create highlight reels for challengers—and this, too, was a huge hit when we broadcast it. It really riled up the more attention hungry of the challengers; one of them reportedly claimed his video footage helped him find a girlfriend.
Even people who didn’t really take the Dungeon seriously were starting to get into it, thanks to our shows. And I understood it. Maybe it was a little self-serving, but if it whipped up enthusiasm, then great. But it was our job to give them a dose of reality, too. Tough love was in order here—we couldn’t let them get soft—and so we continued to hop inside our avatars and torment the challengers.
Nowadays, people were calling us the Dungeon Dominators, fearing and respecting us. Our appearance had dramatically changed as well.
The ghost I controlled now had a Fear Aura, a bluish-white, flame-like shimmer that burned around its body. I liked it; it really added to the atmosphere. Veldora’s skeleton, meanwhile, had all of its bones refurbished—after seeing Ramiris change her armor out, he started whining about his own upgrades. “A golden skull would suit me well,” he said when I asked. Eesh.
I thought about ignoring him, but considering my project for Diablo, I figured Veldora may as well join my experimentation with temporary bodies. I could, for example, replace his skeleton with a framework made of whatever metal I wanted to test out. Pure gold has durability issues, so I decided to go with the strongest material I had, although it was still in the experimental stage. It happened to be golden in color, too, so it worked well.
This material is known as orichalc, a special alloy made by adding gold to magisteel and refining it with a denser dose of magicules than usual. Focusing on the “everlasting” element of gold and other precious metals, I was hoping to add that element to magisteel as well. The results were a grand success—this orichalc was better than magisteel in all aspects, not just strength. It was crazy. The only problem was that I couldn’t produce much of it—gold itself is both rare and unavailable for mass production—but hey, Veldora asked nicely, so I prepared an orichalc skeleton for him.
Just like with Ramiris, the bones could be made of anything as long as he hung on to his master core. The conversion was a total snap, and now he was a gold-colored skeleton fighter. The durability far outclassed his original bones; it was excellent, almost needlessly so. As he moved around in it, I kept a careful watch, seeing how much punishment it could take and whether any problems cropped up.
Milim, meanwhile, was now a celebrity—a terrorizing sight that people had named Scarlet. Her unbelievable speed made her look like a crimson shooting star, they said. Her battle style, abandoning everything except speed and relying on quickness and critical hits, had made her a legend…one spoken of in hushed, fearful tones.
Even Ramiris had changed a little. Like the proactive fighter she was, she had taken on a more eerie presence, a purple Death Aura shimmering around her heavy living knight’s frame. One swing of her Death Axe overwhelmed her foes, and her unrelenting battle style made her well-known as a suit of armor who fought like a berserker. That knight might even be stronger than the real Ramiris… Actually, I take that back. Wouldn’t want to damage her reputation.
So we had become famous in just a few days. The reaction from the challengers was just as great. They feared us, keeping a keen lookout for our presence. That made sense. We were stronger than some of the weaker bosses, and in terms of sheer malice, far above them.
As I mentioned, our main goal was to research fighting techniques in the labyrinth. This wasn’t playtime for us—I can’t emphasize this enough. Day in and day out, we gave our all to the research, and I was sure this persistent effort would come in handy for us someday.
And it did. Challengers would occasionally use rare extra skills against us—or even original magics that I presume they invented themselves. I learned a lot from that, and now that Raphael could obtain information directly from the labyrinth, everything anyone did in there could be examined in my research. Raphael ran Analyze and Assess on all of it, so the Dungeon was turning into a treasure trove of data for us.
Even better, just as our personal battle experience was reflected in our avatars, the things we learned in avatar form were retained in our original bodies. This was an unexpected side effect, and I was considering how we could use it on things like new types of training.
Our research was continuing on a daily basis, so I suppose it’s only natural that we learned a lot.
One time—just one time, I promise—we got a little carried away and decided to try conquering our own labyrinth. The result: utter defeat.
With our current abilities, Bovix, boss of Floor 50, was like crashing into a brick wall. The frontal approach we preferred was useless against an over-A opponent like him. The effectiveness of our surprise strikes would need to be evaluated, but more than that, Bovix was just too much for us. I was glad we could rely on him, but now we felt like we had to beat him.
So we decided to get serious about building up our characters. Again, strictly for research purposes. Research—and training for ourselves, too. Definitely not for fun. Make sure you don’t get the wrong idea here.
………
……
…
We watched as the fleeing challengers faded into the distance. “That was an easy one,” I muttered. The other three nodded.
We were on Floor 38 or so of the labyrinth, and given how close we were to the tempest serpent, there were a lot of strong fighters around—people who could give us a tough fight if we didn’t pay attention. For our current state, it was the perfect hunting ground.
Just as we were about to keep going, the Replication of myself I kept in my office for emergency purposes contacted me. What could that be? I thought as the message EMERGENCY VISITOR flashed before my eyes.
I guess playtime was over. Wait, no—we weren’t playing. This was research. Very important stuff. I reminded myself of that as I returned to my office.
There I found Shuna and Rigurd waiting for me, as well as someone else—a woman I knew well. It was the ex–demon lord Frey, lounging in one of my chairs. I guess this was my emergency visitor.
Seeing me enter the room, Frey walked right past Veldora and rested her eyes upon Milim behind me. She gave her a friendly smile.
“Ah, Milim! So you were here, were you? By the way, have you finished up the assignment I gave you yet? I found my watchmen bound and unconscious on the ground, but you’ll tell me what happened to them, won’t you?”
The smile stayed on her face the whole time. This was more an interrogation than a friendly question, I felt. Frankly, it scared me. It wasn’t even directed at me, and I still wanted to be anywhere but here. In fact, it was exactly like when my school friend came over to play after finishing his homework, only to have his mom find out he hadn’t finished it at all, so she stormed over to drag him back by the ear. Ah, nostalgia.

Slime 10.5.1

MARIBEL
Maribel had been resurrected as an otherworlder. She had memories of being a ruler in Europe. In her previous life, she had all the finances she wanted; to her, war was just another pawn for her to use.
Her glory was built on misfortune. A battlefield, bullets flying. Kill or be killed; a vivid hellscape bathed in blood. Burnt homes, lost families, wailing people. And she never held any remorse about it. Maribel’s life was a happy one, all the way to the end of her natural life span.
And now she was here, born as a princess in the small Kingdom of Seltrozzo.
Her family was in the ruling class, the people calling the shots in the Western Nations. In this world filled with monsters and chaos, nations couldn’t afford to squabble with one another; it was natural that something like the Council of the West would be formed. That council was built hundreds of years ago by Granville Rozzo, the great founder of the Rozzo family and a mysterious, seemingly ageless figure.
He was the oldest among the Five Elders who held actual power in the Council, while still serving as head of the Rozzos, who had taken root in the Western Nations. Even a princess directly related to Granville wouldn’t have so much as a chance to see him. Maribel’s own brothers, in fact, had never even met the Five Elders before. But Maribel was different. Her memories, and her will, were things Granville couldn’t afford to ignore.
The advance of civilization would have been impossible without the existence of money. People advanced from using crops like rice and wheat as currency to a money-based economy, pushing society forward by leaps and bounds thanks to the scale money allows.
The value of money could also change. Gold and silver coins were made of metals with intrinsic value, guaranteeing that the money itself would have similar value. But now we were in an era where things like receipts and bonds in business transactions could serve as substitutes for money—the start of a paper-based economy. This would lead to the creation of banks, outposts indispensable to free exchange. You gave banks money; they gave you receipts as they diverted the money to other things, lending it to those without cash and earning interest from them.
That was the business model people eventually came up with, and it was a kind of magic more insidious than alchemy. Money, in the form of interest, seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Comparing the amount of cash circulating in the world and the total amount of receipts generated, there was clearly going to be a substantial amount of irrecoverable funds—as well as people in deep trouble after not being able to pay up.
If you lent money and charged interest, you would always have that problem. The shift from coinage to paper currency only sped up the process.
People collected money from the rich, dangling interest payments as bait. They invested it to create even more money. Business exchanges began to take place on a worldwide scale, beyond national borders. Limits on the production of paper money were removed, under the pat promise that the nation would be good for it all. Combine that with exchange controls caused by power differences between nations, and the scale of the economy blew up to dozens of times its original size—and Maribel was even factoring the amount of currency produced into her calculations as she controlled the market.
Much of it was a fiction, far removed from the actual economy. A bubble that was bound to pop sooner or later.
In her past life as well, Maribel blew the bubble up as much as she could. Any debts she couldn’t recover, she shunted off on the weaker nations and disposed of—in other words, waging wars to balance her accounts. The weaker nations thus fell, and the rich got richer. The parties being harvested for everything they had went from individuals to whole nations, but the basic process was the same.
Maribel was a seasoned master at this. She was a golden child of finance in her previous life, and she had both her memories from that and the intensely powerful greed of a ruler. This manifested itself in her unique skill Avarice, a sinful skill based on one of humankind’s core vices. If a unique skill was a set of emotions and desires that took corporeal form, those based on a cardinal sin like greed were treated as special cases among uniques.
In the case of Maribel, the strongest member of the Rozzo family since the day she was born, that truth was obvious. The Avarice skill let her hold sway over people’s desires—she could literally see them, and the bigger the desire, the easier she found it to rule over them. Everyone had desires, of course, and stoking those desires let Maribel control them any way she wanted. And, little by little, she used that to slowly build her audience of sympathizers.
There was no urgent need to act. Observing the people around her, she could tell that the standards of civilization in this world were pretty low. There was a money-driven economy but still a single currency that circulated across the whole of it. There were no language barriers; everything was different from the last world, but in a way, the environment was perfect for her to take advantage of. To Maribel, the whole world seemed like a sandbox, ready for her to play in.
Yes… Yes. I am destined to descend upon this world as its rightful ruler.
Ruling this world, to Maribel, was a natural goal to have. Once she was older and had the right to speak up, the world was hers for the taking—but until then, she thought, the fewer people who knew about her ambitions, the better.
Ever so carefully, she made sure no one could guess her true nature from her behavior. And when she was three years old, she had her first audience with Granville.
“So you’re Maribel?”
“Yes, Grandfather. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
It wasn’t a three-year-old’s usual way to greet someone, but Maribel had accounted for that in her calculations. Granville wasn’t like the other rabble skulking around the palace; to her, even her father, the king, was just another pawn. Her brothers, her wet nurse, her servants, and everyone else—as she read their desires, she methodically brought them under her rule.
But Granville was different. He was above all that.
“Why didn’t you try to control me?” Granville asked, seeing that Maribel had promptly dropped the act. There was no familial kindness to it. All that existed was the relationship between the ruler and the ruled. It was then that Maribel learned her instincts were correct. If she had tried to deceive Granville, she likely would’ve been killed on the spot. Not even Maribel’s Avarice skill was omnipotent. It could be resisted. After repeated, gradual attempts, it might’ve been possible to bring Granville under her rule, but he wasn’t the kind of man to allow that.
Maribel was confident of that, so she decided to be honest. No matter how things played out, she would need partners—and along those lines, Granville could potentially be the greatest partner she’d ever have.
“I can see people’s desires. I mean literally see them. And prodding them allows me to make them do my bidding. But you’re not like the others, Grandfather. You have a greater ambition than anyone else, but you’ve also got a will strong enough to bottle it up. So…”
“Hmm. So you’ve seen that far, little girl—or should I call you Maribel? Who are you anyway?”
“Me? I’m Maribel. Maribel the Greedy.”
“Heh-heh… Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I like it. Declaring your very presence before me, are you?!”
The head of the Rozzo family liked Maribel. In time, they opened up to each other, sharing in the secrets they knew. Granville knew about the politics surrounding the Western Nations, as well as the demon lords who ruled the world. Maribel knew about her previous world, as well as the Avarice skill she acquired in this one. To her, this was the gamble of a lifetime.
Her brain was one thing, but her body was still that of a three-year-old. As she saw it, it’d be difficult to survive all on her own.
No matter what it takes—no matter what—I need to firm up my position. And to do that…
To do that, she needed to prove to Granville Rozzo, the local kingpin, that she was useful. Instinctively, she understood that was the best thing she could do right now to set herself up as ruler.
And the gamble paid off.
“Maribel, if something happens to me, I want you to inherit my ambitions. What I seek in this world is peace. We must reach a world of universal equality, under the rule of the Rozzo family.”
“Yes. Yes, Grandfather, I understand. I promise I will provide you with my full cooperation.”
Thus, this unlikely pair forged a bond that none other could enjoy. The family founder and the little girl—the alliance between a former Hero and one whose avarice knew no bounds.
Granville spent the next several years guiding Maribel, instructing her on the full array of Rozzo holdings and coconspirators. He also revealed the true identity of the god Luminus, as well as his own secrets—the underground dealings he engaged in to protect his seat in the Seven Days Clergy, as well as how the demon lord Luminus’s power was what truly kept the Western Nations safe.
He told her everything. And now, at the age of ten, Maribel was second only to Granville in power, using her skills to the fullest to take action against Rimuru.

Slime 10.5

So what kind of stuff d’you need?”
In his personal chamber, Kurobe got straight down to business.
“Well…”
We all went over the hopes we had.
“I’m intending to have Garm build the armor, so I think it’d be neat if you could collaborate again.”
“Yeahhh, true. All right. Let’s go bother Garm about it.”
So as we talked, we decided to take Kurobe over to Garm’s workshop. I wound up causing a similar commotion over there, but I’ll skip describing it.
“Equipment for monsters?! Wow. You always have the craziest projects for me, don’t you?”
As Garm groused about this, the four of us all Possessed our avatars to demonstrate for him.
“All right. We’ll make you exactly what you want—no, even better!”
“Yes, we’re on the case. I love a nice, creative project like this, and I’ll try to craft some stuff that’d never work on a human!”
Kurobe and Garm both readily agreed to the project. And really, I couldn’t wait to see what they came up with.
They said the work would be done in several days, so in the meantime, we trained ourselves to get more used to our avatars. Nothing too complex—fighting monsters in the labyrinth’s upper levels, attacking obvious newbie adventurers.
Over the past few days, we had grown adept at dividing up our roles. Reaching that point, though, was a slog. At first, we even lost to beginner parties up top.
We’d also get wiped out by traps, which would probably be funny to us later but definitely wasn’t at the time, and do other stupid things. We tried using magic items to keep traps from deploying and stuff, even. It was Ramiris who kept setting them off, with Veldora usually suffering as the hapless victim. I floated, meanwhile, and Milim could stick to the ceiling—pitfalls weren’t a concern for us two, so we forgot to warn the others about them.
That was a mistake, I’ll admit, but Ramiris… Seriously? Why are you setting off traps? We made sure to give her an earful about it, and I think she deserved it.
Through all the pain, we skipped out on sleeping to keep on training. In battle, teamwork was the most important thing. Normal parties would talk to one another or give signals with their eyes, but we had pretty much none of those skills at all. We had Veldora and Milim with us, after all, two people who were the strongest in the world all by themselves.
What we did have, however, was one cheat-level skill—Thought Communication, letting us stay in touch and give orders with pinpoint accuracy. I was the party’s command post, Veldora, Milim, and Ramiris serving as my hands and feet. Thanks to that, we began to rapidly build ourselves, eventually gaining some decent experience and abilities.
Once we had a good footing, we patiently waited for our equipment as we fine-tuned our teamwork. As we did, we heard the news that Team Green Fury had beaten Floor 40.
“Hoo boy,” said Ramiris. “Now they’ve beaten the tempest serpent, huh?”
“They took a pretty careful approach. The first team was all about gathering intelligence, the second whittled down its energy, and then the A team killed it,” said Veldora.
Bosses were resurrected regularly, of course. But if a boss successfully beat a party, that didn’t erase its current damage or state of exhaustion. If a group of people had the right teamwork, this gave them a clear advantage.
“That was a mistake. Bosses really need a way to heal…”
“Yeah, but those monsters work strictly on instinct, so…”
As Veldora saw it, they lacked the intelligence to use healing items anyway, making it a moot point. He was right, but we weren’t out of options.
“Why don’t we bring it up with Treyni?” I suggested. “The labyrinth managers can heal monsters, can’t they?”
“Oh, right. I’ll do that!”
So we decided to have Treyni’s sisters heal bosses if they were involved in a consecutive streak of battles all at once.
Little by little, we were addressing and solving the labyrinth’s issues. And then:
“They’re about ready to hit Floor 49. What’ll we do, Rimuru?” Milim was on the verge of panic. But she was right. Green Fury would reach their most climactic battle yet as soon as tomorrow.
“Well, we may not have our equipment at the moment, but I’d say our teamwork is golden,” said Veldora. “Shall we try taking them on now?”
“I’m game! Time to use my arms of steel to beat them to a pulp!” Ramiris crowed.
Those two were always out for blood. Honestly, though, I don’t think we stood much of a chance in a clean fight. For now, Floor 49, packed with the most devious traps I ever devised, was our only real chance at messing with them.
“Well, so be it. Maybe we can scrounge up some weapons…”
Even if Kurobe and Garm provided us the best gear possible, we probably wouldn’t take a frontal approach with them. It’d certainly up our chances a lot, but we could probably hold our own anyway. But just when I was about to commit, I heard a knock on the conference-room door.
“Sir Rimuru,” came Shion’s refreshing voice, “Kurobe said he’s ready.”
Our party looked at one another and grinned.
Our specialized avatar equipment was complete.
I was given a Death Scythe and Hell Garment, two magic items that even ghosts could wear. Veldora got the Death Blade and Hell Mail, along with a Hellgate Shield to complete the picture.
As a slime, Milim could only equip simple objects, swallowing up a Death Stiletto and covering her body with a Crimson Cape. The moment she did, her body grew a pair of bloodred wings—quite a transformation. “See?” she gleefully shouted. “It’s really true! You need to equip your items, or else they won’t work!”
Yeah, great. If she was happy, I was happy.
Finally, Ramiris. She had ordered Heavy Fullplate armor, which looked like a work of art, but we weren’t sure if she could even equip it. Nervous, she Possessed her living armor and tried to take it up—and at that very moment, she switched armor. With a clatter, her old tin suit crashed to the ground, turning to dust and vanishing in the wind. She had upgraded from living armor to heavy living armor—not an evolution, but more like a total replacement.
“Wh-whoa! This is so much easier to move in!”
She was right. Her old, creaky gait was now smooth and ninja-like. It’d help her teamwork a lot, I was sure. Funny to think a suit of armor’s feature set could affect the way you moved, though. Kind of an unexpected discovery.
Elated, Ramiris now had to select a weapon and shield.
“Ha-ha! I don’t need no stupid shield!”
…was her opinion, so she opted for a large two-handed weapon instead—the Death Axe. The power it packed made it the ultimate in weapons—wielding it was tricky, but oh well; not my problem. She got picked on all the time for being a wimp, so maybe this’ll assuage her ego a little. Funny how her personality kept coming out like that.
So we were all decked out in brand-new equipment. These weapons and armor were all on the level of a Unique item, but since they were heavily modified for use by monsters, they were more novelty items than anything. For beginners like us, however, they were crazily overpowered. What’s more, they had a type of curse applied that registered our names to them—thus, they could never get stolen.
It was the best equipment we could’ve possibly asked for right now, and it gave us a new perspective on everything. It was almost time to rumble, and we couldn’t have been more excited.
Time for a quick check of our avatars. My ghost dropped physical offense in favor of magical and spiritual attacks. It was classed as a sorcerer, and in time, I’d like to maybe teach it spiritual and illusory magic so it could make the upgrade to full-fledged wizard. Holy magic would be a nice addition, too—what would happen if I placed faith in myself to drive that? That’d be a fun experiment.
Veldora’s skeleton was an all-rounder, capable of various kinds of attacks. It was a fighter class, and I think he wanted to teach it magic so it could become a magic knight later.
Milim’s slime, meanwhile, was geared entirely for speed—and for landing telling blows in a single strike. Wish fulfillment for her, I suppose. Her class was assassin, and maybe I could have Soei give her some training, but I didn’t want to occupy his time with our dumb little make-believe fun here. Her basic strategy involved lunging down on foes from the ceiling—a powerful strike if it worked, but what did she intend to do if it didn’t? Run, I suppose; she certainly was fast enough for it. In a way, she was the ideal slime fighter.
Finally, as you’d expect, Ramiris’s heavy living armor was an attacker with more than ample defense, giving it a lot more stability than I originally gave her credit for. The class was berserker, and while she was no crazed warrior, defending herself was never really a priority in Ramiris’s approach. As a dangerous, attack-oriented creature, that was the name she was given. Once she got used to things, I could picture her as a tank, providing a twin wall of defense with Veldora.
We were all set to go. Given that we never got hungry, long, dragged-out battles were our lone major advantage. Let’s do the best job we can to get in Green Fury’s way.Such was our thoughts as we set off, but…well…we sent them running so fast, the actual battle was a total letdown.
If you threw away all emotion and ran a completely impartial, third-party Analyze and Assess on our avatars, you’d realize that we were probably already pushing an A in rank. Our equipment was more than half the reason for that, but even without it, as long as we made good use of our powers, nothing could stop us.
The main oversight we made was that our own personal battle experience was reflected in our avatars. We couldn’t use all our skills, but things like Thought Communication and Hasten Thought were themselves enough to give us a decisive edge. Plus, we could cast magic so quickly that it was really unfair. Our restricted magicules blocked us from using much of it, but we had the knowledge for it, and thus we could handle magic better than even your average royal court sorcerer. This came with no casting time, so we could engineer tandem magic strikes with practically zero time lag—our foes had no chance to react.
Veldora, meanwhile, was such a genius with his sword, it was like he had eyes in the back of his head.
“Kwaah-ha-ha-ha! My Veldora-Style Death Stance gives me instant access to an infinite number of sword skills! …Oh, wait, this doesn’t work…”
He was trying to imitate the moves he saw in the manga he read. I thought he was just screwing around, but some of his moves were actually kind of plausible. His power was off the charts to start with, of course, so I should’ve expected anything and everything from him. Treating this whole thing seriously at all now seemed silly.
Milim was exactly as blazing fast as she set out to be. Even speeds that nobody else had a chance at controlling were no problem with her reflexes. I really had no idea slimes could move that fast if they tried—sliding frictionless across the ground, with enough elasticity to bounce off walls and lunge at foes. That worked just as well off the ceiling, too. Your average person would have trouble even following her with their eyes. As a slime myself, these new discoveries were a huge shock.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Slow! Too slow! Face my wrath, you chump!”
She was getting exceedingly carried away as she dropped down on her foes’ backs, stabbing with her Death Stiletto. That was enough to end most battles. Her body was largely impervious to physical attack, and if you want to cast magic against her, you needed to capture her in your sights first. Think about it, and you’ll realize that Milim’s slime was a pretty scary enemy to face.
But what let Veldora and Milim truly shrine was Ramiris, the unsung hero of the pack.
“Hraahhh! Time to be crushed!!”
Ramiris’s battle strategy was pretty simple—find an enemy, run straight at it, and stage a full-frontal attack. This would be a bad idea for most, an imbecilic strategy, but in our case, it was the way to go. She never listened to any of my advice anyway, so I figured we might as well take advantage of her—she’d be our tank, our diversion, and the remainder of the party could get on the attack then.
Normally, that wouldn’t work too well, but Ramiris ran around like a daredevil, never bothering to defend herself, this big suit of armor sprinting for you and spinning a Death Axe in its hands. Anyone who saw it would be forced to deal with it—and since she didn’t care about defense, her attacks tended to find their target. (She also had Cancel Pain, which helped a lot.)
Plus, the armor itself was pretty sturdy. A Heavy Fullplate used what seemed like a cartload of magisteel; weight concerns were tossed out the window with it. It came with a Self-Repair function as well, so most damage wasn’t an issue. If a regular person put it on, they probably wouldn’t be able to move at all. Having such a hefty chunk of magisteel come your way—well, I wouldn’t want to be her enemy.
What’s more, I had Recovery Magic.
I had been experimenting with holy magic as part of my work, and it was surprisingly easy to deploy. It wasn’t a matter of “having faith in myself” so much as offering prayers in exchange for control over spiritual particles, a skill usually shut away from me. In my case, my magical power as a ghost was sent over to the “real” me along with the words of prayer. I was, in essence, borrowing force from my main body to cast magic.
These “words of prayer” were mainly about building up an image. When working with spiritual particles, you’d never get anywhere if you kept asking what your disciples wanted and going with that—it’d take too much calculation. All that processing work is instead applied to the people who placed their faith in you. The more disciples you had like that, the more magic force you got—to put it another way, you got higher up as a god. You were also connected to your believers, and you could use those believers’ minds to expand your calculation capacity—kind of a substitution cheat that saved you magic force and time.
Now I saw why Luminus sought to build more believers for herself. With a massive enough number of practitioners, she could whip up large-scale magic on a passing whim. The “secret skills of faith and favor,” indeed. That’s some scary stuff she taught me.
But enough about that. The point is, I had holy magic, and as a party, we boasted a pretty formidable force—and right now, like evil personified, we had just wiped out Team Green Fury on the forty-ninth floor.
You should never be afraid to try something new, I guess. Our frontal attack failed, so we polished our teamwork and took advantage of the traps.
I set the Slime Doll on them, damaging their weapons. I used the Slime Rain to break their focus and exhaust them—and then we attacked, throwing them into the Slime Pool. While Ramiris’s bellowing grabbed their attention, Milim sneaked up on them, breaking down their teamwork as Veldora split them apart and isolated their rear support. Our giant slime crushed their powerless magicians and thieves, while Veldora and Ramiris bear-hugged the remaining core members straight into the Slime Pool, sinking them down. Our aim was to destroy their weapons in the acidic goop, and once Green Fury’s main weapons had corroded into useless fragments, that’d be a huge damper on their dungeon-conquering speed.
“Ugghh! After all that swag we earned!!”
It turns out the leader of the Sons of the Veldt, the one currently whining about the equipment dissolving in her hands, was female. That surprised me—but not as much as what her companions said next.
“Well, maybe this timing’s for the best. It was about the right moment to pack up.”
“Yeah, our home country’s calling for us anyway.”
I definitely heard one of the survivors from the team say that to the leader. I thought the Sons of the Veldt was an independent mercenary corps, unaffiliated with any other nation. My reports stated they were being funded by someone in Englesia, but maybe it was more like a long-term gig? The term home country indicated that they might’ve had more loyalty to Englesia than a simple employer-employee relationship. I’d need to keep an eye on them.
As long as we were encouraging people to use the Dungeon, we’d naturally see visitors with murky origins. I was expecting that from the beginning, but we should probably give everyone another heads-up about that. The whole Green Fury thing reminded me of it all over again.
Besides:
“We did it.”
“Yes. Victory is ours!”
“Why wouldn’t it be? We are the strongest in the world!!”
If I didn’t keep these idiots in line, they’d immediately get distracted by the next victory ahead. The thought was in my mind, but—right now, at least—I didn’t let it get in the way of my joy. Mission accomplished.

Slime 10.4.1

I really don’t think that’s a necessary experience—but this time, I definitely needed to thank him. Shion looked really happy, after all.
She’s really grown, huh? Once upon a time, her home-cooked cuisine was more hazardous to your health than the deadliest of poisons, but now here she is getting tea just right. No magic or skills or anything! Her violin performance during the festival was another surprise—I’m being wowed all the time lately. It truly felt like an emotional moment to me.
“Diablo…thank you.”
“No, no…”
“And Shion? Well done. You did great!”
“Y-yes! Thank you very much!!”
Next time, I think I’ll have Shion pour my refills. It was a little overly bitter, but I was happy.
Then I recalled that I had never delivered Diablo his promised reward.
“By the way, I still owe you a reward, don’t I? You did an excellent job with the Farmus invasion, and here I’ve been giving you menial labor ever since you got back.”
“No, no, it’s my hope to be of service of you, Sir Rimuru…”
“Well, yeah, but…”
I had given Hakuro some vacation time. He was off happily training somewhere with his daughter Momiji. Gobta, I took to our special elf-run club down on Floor 95. He didn’t quite deserve a membership card yet, but I intended to dangle that as a carrot for his future endeavors. (Of course, he was still off god knows where with Milim at the moment. Veldora grumbled a bit about wanting to toughen him up, too, but I hope he doesn’t. That’s just being cruel by that point.) For Gabil, I had a new research facility built, beyond the door that Veldora guarded on Floor 100. He’d be the head of this laboratory, with Vester as his second-in-command. Gabil would be overseeing what had grown into a pretty large research team, so it was a fairly big promotion.
So along those lines, I had given what I thought were appropriate rewards to everyone. Not doing anything for Diablo, someone who worked so hard by my side, was out of the question.
“In that case,” Diablo said as I thought this over, “there is something I would like your permission for.”
He always had the greatest knack for reading a room like that.
“Go ahead. Say it.”
“Very well. I was thinking that I would like someone working under me to handle my more miscellaneous duties.”
“Oh, like making tea?”
I knew he wasn’t a fan of that. I couldn’t blame him. Why would a demon as powerful as Diablo willingly brew tea for a slime? Even I thought that was a bit bonkers.
“Ah, no, not that, Sir Rimuru! Taking care of your personal affairs is one of my most vital responsibilities! I am talking about miscellaneous tasks like razing nations to the ground—someone I could perhaps send in my place to handle that. I, personally, will always be by your side, Sir Rimuru.”
He smiled as he said it.
……Come on. That’s real work, not “miscellaneous tasks.” But to Diablo, I guess taking care of me was more important than waging wars. I really don’t get what’s in his mind sometimes.
“Ah. I see. But I can’t have someone with that kind of power working under you…”
Someone with the intelligence and muscle to take down an entire country? It’d have to be someone like Benimaru or Soei. I wanted to make Diablo’s wish come true, but this was asking a little too much. However, it turns out I was jumping to conclusions.
“No, no, I have no intention at all of standing above Sir Benimaru or anything of the sort. There are some old acquaintances of mine I am considering, so I thought I would invite him.”
So he wanted to hire some people? I didn’t have any problem with that.
“That sounds fine by me, but will you need some money?”
I imagined he would, which is why I asked, but Diablo smiled and shook his head. “No, I doubt they would be interested in money. In place of that, however, they will need some manner of vessel to serve as their physical bodies.”
Ahhh, now I get it. If this is an acquaintance of Diablo’s, it’s probably gonna be another demon.
“All right. Is it okay if it’s something like what I gave to Beretta?”
If Diablo insisted on a human corpse, we were gonna have problems. Things were a bit different now from when I first summoned him.
“Yes, I’ll ensure they don’t complain.”
Then fine.
Ramiris was just bugging me, in fact, about providing physical bodies for Treyni’s sisters as well. I said yes, since they could help us run the labyrinth. Maybe I should craft a few extra bodies while I’m at it, just in case.
“That’s fine by me, then, but is that the only payment they’ll want?”
“That is not a problem. But I think that the protégés I am considering each have a staff of their own as well. I was thinking about bringing them on, too. Is that all right?”
As breathlessly confident as always, I see. It’s like he never once considered the thought of being turned down.
“I can’t pay them, but would they care?”
“If you can provide them with physical bodies, they will gladly serve you, Sir Rimuru!”
He was so sure of it. And if he was, I had nothing to say. But there is one thing I better ask.
“So how many people are you expecting to serve you?”
By his manner of speech, I was picturing a small handful, but I needed to know how many bodies I should prepare to make.
“Well, I was thinking perhaps several hundred; a thousand at most.”
“That’s a lot!!”
A thousand at most? And they’re all demons? What kind of doomsday army was he tryin’ to build?!
“What, are you trying to have a war by yourself?!”
“No, no, I’d hardly expect them to battle me. Even if they did, I doubt it would be a hard fight for me.”
And so deadpan about it, too. Where does all that confidence of his come from?
“Are you…gonna be okay, though?”
“Yes, perhaps there is no need for such a large number. Very well. I will carefully choose among them and dispose of the unnecessary—”
“No, I didn’t mean that! I’m asking if you’re gonna be okay!”
Diablo gave me one of his happy smiles. “There will not be a problem,” he declared.
Well, now it just seemed ridiculous to worry about him. For all I knew, Diablo may very well be stronger than me. If he says it’s not a problem, there was no point in me protesting.
“All right. I’ll prepare a thousand vessels for you.”
“You will, Sir Rimuru?”
“Sure. I need to reward you anyway. So try not to get yourself hurt doing this, all right?” I didn’t think I needed to worry, but I went ahead and said it anyway.
Diablo bowed at me, overcome with emotion. “Very well, then. It pains me to say this, Sir Rimuru, but I hope you will forgive my absence for a period of time as I prepare.”
Part of me just wanted to say “yeah, yeah, yeah” to him. “You can leave things to me for now. Get going.”
Shion sounded like she was showing someone she disliked the door. I could kind of empathize with her. She must’ve been feeling the same way I did.
Wasting no time to strike while the iron was hot, Diablo decided to head right out on his journey. To be honest, I was a little anxious about having Shion be my only secretary, but—hell—Shuna was there for emergencies, and I doubted anything too hairy would happen. Such were my thoughts as I saw Diablo off with a smile.

Slime 10.4.1

I really don’t think that’s a necessary experience—but this time, I definitely needed to thank him. Shion looked really happy, after all.
She’s really grown, huh? Once upon a time, her home-cooked cuisine was more hazardous to your health than the deadliest of poisons, but now here she is getting tea just right. No magic or skills or anything! Her violin performance during the festival was another surprise—I’m being wowed all the time lately. It truly felt like an emotional moment to me.
“Diablo…thank you.”
“No, no…”
“And Shion? Well done. You did great!”
“Y-yes! Thank you very much!!”
Next time, I think I’ll have Shion pour my refills. It was a little overly bitter, but I was happy.
Then I recalled that I had never delivered Diablo his promised reward.
“By the way, I still owe you a reward, don’t I? You did an excellent job with the Farmus invasion, and here I’ve been giving you menial labor ever since you got back.”
“No, no, it’s my hope to be of service of you, Sir Rimuru…”
“Well, yeah, but…”
I had given Hakuro some vacation time. He was off happily training somewhere with his daughter Momiji. Gobta, I took to our special elf-run club down on Floor 95. He didn’t quite deserve a membership card yet, but I intended to dangle that as a carrot for his future endeavors. (Of course, he was still off god knows where with Milim at the moment. Veldora grumbled a bit about wanting to toughen him up, too, but I hope he doesn’t. That’s just being cruel by that point.) For Gabil, I had a new research facility built, beyond the door that Veldora guarded on Floor 100. He’d be the head of this laboratory, with Vester as his second-in-command. Gabil would be overseeing what had grown into a pretty large research team, so it was a fairly big promotion.
So along those lines, I had given what I thought were appropriate rewards to everyone. Not doing anything for Diablo, someone who worked so hard by my side, was out of the question.
“In that case,” Diablo said as I thought this over, “there is something I would like your permission for.”
He always had the greatest knack for reading a room like that.
“Go ahead. Say it.”
“Very well. I was thinking that I would like someone working under me to handle my more miscellaneous duties.”
“Oh, like making tea?”
I knew he wasn’t a fan of that. I couldn’t blame him. Why would a demon as powerful as Diablo willingly brew tea for a slime? Even I thought that was a bit bonkers.
“Ah, no, not that, Sir Rimuru! Taking care of your personal affairs is one of my most vital responsibilities! I am talking about miscellaneous tasks like razing nations to the ground—someone I could perhaps send in my place to handle that. I, personally, will always be by your side, Sir Rimuru.”
He smiled as he said it.
……Come on. That’s real work, not “miscellaneous tasks.” But to Diablo, I guess taking care of me was more important than waging wars. I really don’t get what’s in his mind sometimes.
“Ah. I see. But I can’t have someone with that kind of power working under you…”
Someone with the intelligence and muscle to take down an entire country? It’d have to be someone like Benimaru or Soei. I wanted to make Diablo’s wish come true, but this was asking a little too much. However, it turns out I was jumping to conclusions.
“No, no, I have no intention at all of standing above Sir Benimaru or anything of the sort. There are some old acquaintances of mine I am considering, so I thought I would invite him.”
So he wanted to hire some people? I didn’t have any problem with that.
“That sounds fine by me, but will you need some money?”
I imagined he would, which is why I asked, but Diablo smiled and shook his head. “No, I doubt they would be interested in money. In place of that, however, they will need some manner of vessel to serve as their physical bodies.”
Ahhh, now I get it. If this is an acquaintance of Diablo’s, it’s probably gonna be another demon.
“All right. Is it okay if it’s something like what I gave to Beretta?”
If Diablo insisted on a human corpse, we were gonna have problems. Things were a bit different now from when I first summoned him.
“Yes, I’ll ensure they don’t complain.”
Then fine.
Ramiris was just bugging me, in fact, about providing physical bodies for Treyni’s sisters as well. I said yes, since they could help us run the labyrinth. Maybe I should craft a few extra bodies while I’m at it, just in case.
“That’s fine by me, then, but is that the only payment they’ll want?”
“That is not a problem. But I think that the protégés I am considering each have a staff of their own as well. I was thinking about bringing them on, too. Is that all right?”
As breathlessly confident as always, I see. It’s like he never once considered the thought of being turned down.
“I can’t pay them, but would they care?”
“If you can provide them with physical bodies, they will gladly serve you, Sir Rimuru!”
He was so sure of it. And if he was, I had nothing to say. But there is one thing I better ask.
“So how many people are you expecting to serve you?”
By his manner of speech, I was picturing a small handful, but I needed to know how many bodies I should prepare to make.
“Well, I was thinking perhaps several hundred; a thousand at most.”
“That’s a lot!!”
A thousand at most? And they’re all demons? What kind of doomsday army was he tryin’ to build?!
“What, are you trying to have a war by yourself?!”
“No, no, I’d hardly expect them to battle me. Even if they did, I doubt it would be a hard fight for me.”
And so deadpan about it, too. Where does all that confidence of his come from?
“Are you…gonna be okay, though?”
“Yes, perhaps there is no need for such a large number. Very well. I will carefully choose among them and dispose of the unnecessary—”
“No, I didn’t mean that! I’m asking if you’re gonna be okay!”
Diablo gave me one of his happy smiles. “There will not be a problem,” he declared.
Well, now it just seemed ridiculous to worry about him. For all I knew, Diablo may very well be stronger than me. If he says it’s not a problem, there was no point in me protesting.
“All right. I’ll prepare a thousand vessels for you.”
“You will, Sir Rimuru?”
“Sure. I need to reward you anyway. So try not to get yourself hurt doing this, all right?” I didn’t think I needed to worry, but I went ahead and said it anyway.
Diablo bowed at me, overcome with emotion. “Very well, then. It pains me to say this, Sir Rimuru, but I hope you will forgive my absence for a period of time as I prepare.”
Part of me just wanted to say “yeah, yeah, yeah” to him. “You can leave things to me for now. Get going.”
Shion sounded like she was showing someone she disliked the door. I could kind of empathize with her. She must’ve been feeling the same way I did.
Wasting no time to strike while the iron was hot, Diablo decided to head right out on his journey. To be honest, I was a little anxious about having Shion be my only secretary, but—hell—Shuna was there for emergencies, and I doubted anything too hairy would happen. Such were my thoughts as I saw Diablo off with a smile.

Slime 10.4

They say ignorance is a sin, but sometimes it’s your greatest asset. Masayuki had been accepted by a dragon and demon lord, and he never even realized it. Once again, I couldn’t help but marvel at his luck.
It was Mjöllmile who finally threw Masayuki a life preserver.
“Lady Ramiris, please, none of that. Why, Sir Masayuki would hardly even know how to respond, would he?”
Since he was such a fan of Masayuki, I suppose Mjöllmile assumed that conversation was a joke—Ramiris making unreasonable demands, and the kind Hero unsure how to react. I figured Masayuki’s response would’ve disillusioned him, but I guess that’s the Hero’s skill at work.
…Or maybe not. Somehow, it seemed like Mjöllmile really believed in Masayuki from the heart. Seeing it, or maybe even feeling it, Masayuki smiled.
“This is Mjöllmile, my trusted adviser and the head of Tempest’s financial department. Kind of our minister of finance, I suppose.”
“A pleasure to meet you again, Sir Masayuki.”
“Ha-ha-ha! That’s kind of you, Mjöllmile.”
“Oh, no, I’m just an upstart from the underground…”
“Well, as you said, I’m afraid I can’t join with you right now, Ramiris. I’ve already promised Mikami—um, I mean, Rimuru that I’d give him my support.”
Masayuki lightly bowed at Ramiris.
“I’ll bet,” Mjöllmile said. “Sir Rimuru does have a way of taking advantage of people!”
What had I ever done? And Ramiris was ready to join him.
“Well, if that’s how it is, so be it! You’re so cunning, you know that, Rimuru?”
“Hey,” I nonchalantly replied, “first come, first served.”
Then Veldora started bragging for some reason.
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! You won’t find many people as dependable as Rimuru. Ramiris, I think you’ll have to give up on ever getting ahead of him. But let’s hear from Masayuki now! We need to proceed!”
I had my qualms about what everyone here thought about me, but—ah yes—we were still making introductions. It seemed kind of moot, though. Everyone already knew his name.
“All right. Masayuki, you go ahead.”
“Okay,” he said with a nod. “I think some of you are aware by now, but my name is Masayuki. I come from the same world as Rimuru, and now we’re working together. People call me a Hero, but please don’t let that cloud your judgment.”
He gave his introduction facing all the others, back straight. I felt like he wanted to tell them he called himself a Hero just as a joke, but with Mjöllmile looking straight at him, I suppose he opted against that.
Highly adaptable as always, he was already back to his usual composed self. Defiant, you could say. They may have met last time, but he was capable of being all smiles with Veldora and Ramiris, which took guts. He really was someone special. Maybe it wasn’t his unique skill Chosen One having its effect on the people around him—maybe a lot of it was just his own personality. I didn’t think there was any way he could wield this much influence with a unique skill alone.
That, I thought as we wrapped up the introductions, we could try verifying later on.
We were all seated. Our last meeting was something of an emergency confab, but this time, things were less urgent. We were all at ease.
“I have to say, Masayuki, you sure are something. We owe all our success to you!” Ramiris started excitedly shouting the moment she was seated.
“Let’s not forget,” Veldora added, “Mjöllmile has done much for us, too. As you said, perhaps we were right not to simplify the Dungeon too much!”
I agreed with them both. Putting our minds together like this was what provided success, no doubt about it.
“Oh, I’m just glad I could help.”
“Yes, and I hardly did anything myself. None of this would be possible without all of your powers!”
After that round of pleasantries, we discussed the state of the labyrinth.
Sales were going great—really great. It made Mjöllmile laugh, although all the work made him cry. Plus, the people visiting town were staying in our inns, enabling the innkeepers and the nearby taverns to run a booming business.
“Here is my report,” Mjöllmile said as he took out some papers. Veldora and Ramiris seemed interested as well, so I made some copies and passed them around. I figured I’d quickly skim over it to see if there were any problems at hand, leaving the detailed number crunching to Raphael.
Right. Let’s see what we have here. It’s times like these that I’m glad I can go into human form. I could read through papers as a slime, of course, but for office work, being human was far more convenient.
According to the data on the report, things had gone smoothly with our labyrinth since our adjustments.
“Looks like our advertising worked well.”
“Oh yes! We’re astonishingly busy every day,” he said, eagerly nodding.
Veldora and Ramiris looked at the report, whether they could understand it or not. For the most part, it was a ledger of our most recent statistics, but there were a few special topics covered as well.
One of these was the Adventurer Cards—the Guild membership IDs that could be used as admission into the labyrinth now that Mjöllmile had received Yuuki’s approval to do so. These cards were magic in nature, keeping track of the bearer’s vital signs and retaining that data in a record, which was quite convenient. They allowed for seamless labyrinth entry, just like how you’d use it at your Free Guild post, so it was easy for adventurers to get to grips with. Hardly any bodyguards or mercenaries weren’t Guild members, either, so the implementation went pretty smoothly.
For the moment, the labyrinth’s admission fee was three silver coins a go. The cards were manufactured by the Free Guild, saving us from production hassles. Our own nation provided basic cards as well, at the cost of ten silver—and while most challengers were Guild members, we occasionally sold these cards to people, too. Between all of that, we were raking in a lot of money just from admission alone.
The report also contained details on the three Ramiris-produced items in the labyrinth. Your first Resurrection Bracelet cost nothing—a freebie so you could see how useful they were. After that, you had to pay for them; but at just two silver coins, they were quite reasonable—especially considering they not only resurrected you but also healed any of the wounds you incurred that led to your death. After debating it for a while, we decided to keep the price low as a service to our audience. (By the way, we had a warning announcement play if you reentered the labyrinth without wearing your Resurrection Bracelet. If you got yourself killed in there, that’s none of my business, but it’d still leave a bad aftertaste in my mouth if that happened.)
To make them easier to buy, the bracelets were sold right next to the front desk, where we had the dead resurrected. Between that and being a pretty indispensable item, they were selling like hotcakes, definitely the most popular out of the Dungeon’s three items.
Return whistles, meanwhile, allowed a single person to instantly zoom back to the surface, a godsend if you got lost. This was insurance for a lot of parties, so it was priced on the high side—thirty silver per whistle. People tried to cheap out on these and just rely on Resurrection Bracelets instead, but I wouldn’t exactly call that smart. Yes, you would be whisked back to the entrance that way, but you could lose your equipment and stuff as well. You’d keep whatever armor you had on, but anything that slipped out of your hands at the time of death was gone for good. Nobody’s literally carrying booty while in a fight, of course; you’d probably drop it in the corridor for the time being. Losing that stuff could make for a pretty hefty penalty. Few people would take that risk just to get back to the entrance, so there was a pretty decent demand for whistles.
Finally, Recording Crystals weren’t selling as well as we hoped, but we did see some clients purchase them in large quantities. At one gold coin a pop—close to a thousand dollars—they were luxury goods, no doubt. And why not? They let you basically turn back time whenever, and wherever, you wanted. And since a lot of people would be focusing strictly on the bosses, letting them go for cheap seemed kind of dangerous for us, so we priced them sky-high instead.
Still, I thought there was a demand for them. In the deeper levels, the difficulty really ramped up from floor to floor; the save points on every tenth floor could very well seem like a trip across the continent. Thus, I figured it’d be a while before we profited from them, but even in these shallower levels, some people were still using them.
We were also experimenting with renting weapons and armor out to people, but that hadn’t turned a profit yet. These were Kurobe-crafted goods, pretty decent quality, and since many people rented them after dying and losing their main weapon, the feedback from them was excellent. With the right word of mouth, I think we could see demand rise soon.
So by and large, things were going well—but just because we were succeeding now didn’t mean we could let our guard down. Right now, we needed to be more prudent than ever before.
The party at the forefront of the Dungeon was continuing to do well, going deeper and deeper without anyone dropping out. They were drumming up enthusiasm among the other challengers, too, people who kept coming back after messing up. That improved our sales, a cycle we needed to keep going. If we can convince people that it’s worth coming back again and again, then even our initial goal of at least a thousand admissions per day seemed surprisingly attainable.
“So, looking at Mollie’s report, I’d say we’re a pretty resounding success right now. But we can’t rest on our laurels. If you’ve noticed anything, don’t be afraid to speak up.”
I wanted everyone to be at attention as I got the ball rolling. Ramiris was the first to react.
“Me!”
“All right. Ramiris?”
“You know the elementalist using Elemental Communication? Boy, I sure never thought about relying on the spirits for info like that! But I can interfere with that, if you want. What do you think?”
“Interfere, huh…?”
I did want to put some obstacles in their way, but it seemed kind of like a coward move to me. The approach this party took was completely orthodox, so getting all evil with them felt like we’d be going against the spirit of the rules. This isn’t a war, or a competition or the like.
“But it’s not like the spirits are being forced into it, are they?”
“No. If they’re providing that much support, clearly the elementalist must have a great relationship with them.”
“Better not interfere, then. I’m not into that kind of thing.”
“Roger! I figured you’d say that, Rimuru.”
Ramiris was quick to back down. I suppose she wasn’t much for it but thought it best to bring it up anyway.
“No, it is not good to lie. But, Ramiris, why not create an elemental-free zone? That Elemental Communication; it works by listening to the smaller spirits that’ve taken root in the area, no? And it can’t work if the spirits aren’t there, yes?”
Oops. That’s some surprising stuff coming from Veldora. He’s normally so useless to me, but sometimes even he says something intelligent.
“Rimuru, why do you look so surprised?”
And he’s sharp, too.
“Oh, no, I’m just impressed as always with you, Veldora,” I said, a little shaken. “That’s a really good opinion!”
“Yes, is it not? My vast expertise has saved the day once more! Kwaaaah-ha-ha-ha!”
Good thing he’s so gullible.
“Well, Ramiris?”
“Sure, I can do that! I’ll just ask the spirits to relocate for me. Without any conscious spirits in the vicinity, Elemental Communication can’t do anything at all!”
I guess that could work. Maybe, thanks to Veldora’s proposal, we could do something about elementalists after all.
“Great. Let’s do that. See, this is exactly why I think brainstorming like this is a great idea.”
“Yes, quite so. You see, my vast wisdom is—”
“Okay, next. Anyone have any other observations?”
I couldn’t let Veldora get further carried away. Time to move on. It wound up being Masayuki who spoke next.
“Do you think defeated monsters could drop items for the explorers?”
Monsters leaving items behind—common in video games but kind of enigmatic from a real-life perspective. And our monsters already left crafting material and magic crystals. Wasn’t that enough?
“Why do we need to do that?” Veldora asked.
Masayuki’s answer was simple. “Huh? Well, I mean, healing potions are, like, surprisingly expensive. High-ranked adventurers use ’em all the time because they can afford to shell out for them, but most people would rather run away from a battle than risk getting hurt. That, and if you die in the labyrinth, you’re resurrected without any of your injuries, so a lot of people just ‘nope’ out of there instead of using any of their potions. So I’m just thinking, why not have monsters drop Low Potions or something when killed, so that everybody has access to them?”
Hmm… It was a valid point. Our nation’s potions served as advertising, and their usefulness to us was starting to expand—but they didn’t come very cheap, no. In fact, sales were starting to stagnate a bit because of the price. Within Tempest, Low Potions cost four silver coins; High Potions were thirty-five, and Full Potions, while not offered for direct sale, would probably need to be priced at over five hundred silver, or five gold coins, if we did offer them. Meanwhile, the cheapest inn in our city cost three silver a night without meals and five with a bath and dinner. A nicer room, used by passing merchants and the like, averaged around ten silver plus meals.
On the other hand, a D-ranked adventurer earned, on average, about fifteen silver coins after a day of work in the labyrinth—maybe twenty, if they worked in a party for more efficiency. That was good, for now; enough to live day by day on, but not enough to prepare for any kind of emergency. The treatment they’d need if they were sick or badly hurt—or any kind of social safety net, really—would be out of the question. Plus, they needed to maintain their weapons, buying new ones if they broke and saving up for better-quality goods.
In short, low-ranked monster hunters lived a hardscrabble life. If they wanted a better one, their only choice was to polish their skills. And in a life like that, four silver coins was a painful investment to make. They need to put money aside for admission, of course, and I sure get it if a potion just isn’t in the budget for them…and yeah, I know they’re gunning for a treasure chest with a major find inside, but it’s not like whatever they discover will make them filthy rich.
“That’s common in games, yeah. I understand what you mean, Masayuki, but…the monsters are naturally generated within the labyrinth, so I think it’ll be hard to have them carry items…”
It’d be a mistake to excessively spoil our visitors, giving them something they didn’t ask for in the first place. I’d like to do something to help, but I think they need to be able to support themselves first. That’s what the Free Guild is there to assist with. From our nation’s perspective, we can’t really provide welfare to people who don’t even live here. It’s not exactly pretty, but you need to be strong to survive—
“I think we can do that,” Ramiris casually commented, just as I was mentally throwing in the towel.
“Really?”
“Sure. Just have them swallow the item right after they’re born!”
If that was possible, it opened up a few possibilities. Maybe we could populate the treasure chests with more useful items and let the monsters drop the junkier stuff for explorers. Junk or not, it’d still be a source of income for the lower ranks—and going forward, I’d like those lower ranks to have something to live on. In a perfect world, people are rewarded for their efforts, and I wanted to make that happen as much as possible.
“Well, no problem, then. If it’ll help people gain more of an income beating monsters, I bet it’ll make them try even harder for us.”
And it’d have the side effect of boosting the trade-in monster-derived materials, as well as providing another attraction for our nation. And once we have some more money to work with, we can divert some of that into welfare programs. I don’t know how much we can do about illness, but serious injury? We could assist with it. If Japan can have universal health care, it’s not a dream for Tempest to have something like it. A system like this is something we’ll want to implement at an early stage in our nation’s development, lest people call it unfair. If possible, I’d like to see that happen sooner than later.
The problem is to figure out who, exactly, we’ll call citizens of Tempest. Labyrinth runners, passing merchants, and people like that aren’t, naturally. Maybe now is the time to register all our citizens and make the ownership of rights clearer to everyone. Tempest is a developing country right now, so we welcome any and all immigrants, but once our nation matures, there might be movements to ostracize noncitizens from our borders. A nation is, in a way, a large cooperative entity—nobody can live alone, so we form communities to help one another survive. We don’t need parasites latching on to our nation, and I didn’t want to embrace anyone who didn’t have a sense of belonging here. It’s hard, after all, for people with different thoughts and principles to coexist in the same community.
Basically, if a citizen belongs to a nation, they have a duty to work for the sake of it. In turn, they can receive certain services from that nation. That being said, people have the right to not belong to any nation, free of civic duty and retaining full, unfettered freedom. If you want to be part of Tempest, come on in; if not, you’re still a welcome guest, but I can’t provide you all the services a citizen would receive. We’ll need to define the difference soon, and I think Rigurd and I need to have some detailed discussions about this.
…See? I can think about serious stuff sometimes, too.
“You think so? In that case, maybe we could mix in some unfamiliar potions—or weapons and armor whose capabilities are unknown? Like, so you won’t be able to determine if they’re high value when you find them?”
Oh, right. We were still in a conference. I hurriedly considered Masayuki’s suggestion. Hmm. I think I see what he’s getting at.
“Ah, like, un-appraised tools and equipment that you can’t use until you get them appraised at the entrance?”
“Yeah, yeah! I mean, I guess you can’t really drink a potion if you don’t know its effect.”
“Oh, maybe some people would. And if we mix in some poison flasks, that’d be another labyrinth trap for us. It’d help warn people about making item appraisal a habit, too. Let’s go with that.”
“Cursed equipment might be tough, but magic weaponry would be pretty neat. Like, you think something is a piece of junk but appraise it to reveal its true colors.
“That’s good! You can’t throw away junk then, and you’ll also need to exit the labyrinth to have it appraised.”
Masayuki and I, with our video game knowledge, were getting excited over this. The idea of actually implementing it was thrilling, and Ramiris and Veldora, overhearing us, seemed to be getting into it.
“If you want to hide the true nature of something, my illusory magic ought to come in handy!”
“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Ah, how lovely it is to see challengers jump for joy, only to be agonized by doom later. Now things will be even more exciting!”
Yep. Definitely into it.
“Hmm… Yes, and since junk equipment will take up valuable space, people will want to sell it in town in short order. That ought to boost return whistle sales!”
And now here’s Mjöllmile with some more reality-based feedback. And he was right. Anyone would hesitate to toss out un-appraised weapons and armor. Planting that thought in people’s minds would make those people camping out in the labyrinth in search of big finds reconsider their strategy. And since we’re charging admission, the more people going out and in, the more profit we make.
Plus, we wouldn’t be the only ones having fun here. There’s something attractive about the term un-appraised. Your heart can’t help but race as you wait for the appraisal results—real pulse-pounding excitement. Something you thought was junk transforms into treasure before your eyes…and even if it turns out to be junk after all, you’ll still treat it as your own. We don’t need to have a ton of “jackpot” items like that, but along those lines, I think we could certainly mix in some more Low Potions and the like. That’ll help support the lower-ranked customers, although we’ll have to fine-tune the ratios of trash to treasure.
“All right. Well, it’s about time we get to work.”
“Time to push a system update, huh?” Masayuki replied.
Given that we came up with all that only just now, “it’s about time” wasn’t too appropriate. But our last “system update” went just fine.
“Sounds good to me!” Ramiris nodded, as if she knew what we were talking about. I flashed her a quizzical look, and she quickly averted her eyes. I suppose that little sneak was just trying to ride along on the wave. Mjöllmile looked confused, and Veldora was back to his usual shrill laughing, but I didn’t mind. Masayuki and I looked at each other and nodded.
The following evening arrived.
My days were now full of serious work. They were usually spent inspecting projects around town—no, it wasn’t just a leisurely walk, I promise—and each night, I’d receive reports in my personal office. Rigurd was handling a lot of my affairs, but a fair number of them still required my personal approval, so I had an office set up in our government building for that.
“Sir Rimuru,” Shion said as she handed me a sheaf of papers, “here’s your report from Sir Mjöllmile.” She was a hard worker—almost like a real secretary. Kind of surprising.
“Yes, thank you,” I said, trying to sound all haughty as I accepted the report. Mjöllmile was already getting started on what we discussed at yesterday’s meeting.
“Everything’s going well,” I muttered.
“I am delighted to hear,” Diablo said, nodding.
“In hardly any time flat, our tavern sales are up ten percent. I guess it benefits all our citizens if the low-ranked adventurers have more money to work with.”
“Indeed. It’s just as you read it, Sir Rimuru.”
Diablo nodded again as he gently poured some tea for me. It’s not at all like I had read it, actually, but it was pretty much what I hoped for. I couldn’t be happier. Diablo was overvaluing me, like he always did, but it didn’t bother me this time.
I took a sip. “Huh? This tastes different. Did you change the leaves?”
“Did you not like it?”
“N-no, it’s good, but…”
It wasn’t displeasing at all—maybe just a tad stronger on the bitterness than usual.
“I-I’ll replace it at once!” an apparently panic-stricken Diablo said. But he really didn’t need to. It was just fine; no problems to speak of.
It’s just that Shuna always brings her A game when it comes to preparing tea—Wait a minute…
“Hey, is this…?”
“Yes, your chief secretary insisted on preparing it herself. I tasted it to ensure it wasn’t poisonous.”
Um, okay?
That’s a surprise, seeing Shion prepare tea this good. The even greater surprise, though, was Diablo actually cooperating with her.
“I never thought you’d go with Shion on that.”
Poison doesn’t work on me anyway, so I assume Diablo was simply taste testing it, but that made it even more of a surprise.
“I had no other choice,” he replied with a smile. “Sir Benimaru was balking at being her taster every day. It was my first experience ever feeling ill, a chance I’m glad to have had.”