bookworm

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