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.