bookworm

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…”