bookworm

Now, on this topic, I had given a lot of thought about how to reward Ramiris. But how about leveraging this new discovery a little? In other words, I figured she’d be tickled pink if I named the four Dragon Lords for her. They had no real connection to me, but with this soul-based approach, it’d still work just fine. I really gotta hand it to Raphael for pitching the idea to me—and besides, even after all this evolution, I estimated that I’d still have over twenty thousand souls left over.
It’s thanks to Ramiris that I was able to retain so many in the first place. In fact, she didn’t want any from me at all—“Just take ’em! I ain’t got no use for ’em!” I felt kind of bad about that, so I thought this would be a nice, elegant way of paying it forward. Hope she’s up for the idea. I’ll remember to ask her about it later.
That ended the proceedings for the labyrinth gang. Now this celebration was at its climax—and only two problem children remained. Who, you ask? Well, who else but the toughest nuts of all—Shion and Diablo.
Based on what I had seen so far today, I was convinced nobody was going to go out of control on me. But we can’t let our guards down. This is Shion and Diablo, after all, the worst of the worst. If both went on a rampage at the same time, I couldn’t even imagine the extent of the damage—and with our top defenders all busy evolving right now, too.
Anyway, let’s begin with Shion.
“Shion, I hereby grant you the title of War Lord. Please continue to maintain as much calm decorum as you can, please.”
“Of course! You’ll never find a woman as calm and mature as me!”
Um, who’re you talking about again? Because it sounds like you’re talking about yourself there, or something? Now that’s what I call high self-esteem! I have been impressed with her self-control as of late, but Shion’s still got a lot to learn on that front. Best to take a long-term view.
“I’ll not comment on that, but make sure you keep consulting with your comrades, protect our nation and all who dwell in it, and prevent yourself from going out of control for me.”
With that, I granted Shion her souls.
But… Huh? There was an almost shocking lack of change. Shion looked at me, acting slightly put off. We had a staring contest for a while, but still no sign of transformation. Was that a dud, or what? Boy, is this awkward. Now it’s like I haven’t given her anything, huh? I suddenly had a crisis on my hands. I haven’t prepared anything else for her!
As I was panicking over what to do, something truly unexpected happened. Nothing had changed with Shion, but the members of Team Reborn under her fell to the ground one by one, fast asleep. Then I noticed that a few members of her fan club who styled themselves as her elite guard were rapidly dozing off themselves. It varied from person to person, but it looked like all of them had received blessings from her. Shion seemed completely unaffected. What a strange phenomenon. No point thinking about it too much, though. They’re under her direct control, so I guess that’s the kind of thing that’ll happen. Best to leave that to her.
“Right. Well, Shion, let me know if you sense any abnormalities in your own body.”
“Absolutely! By the way, Sir Rimuru, do you have any special rewards prepared like the one you devised for Gobta?”
Shion fidgeted a bit as she asked. Hmm… I had to empathize with her. I’d conducted her ritual like all the others, but to the audience, it must look like I gave her a fancy new title and nothing else. Some people would be glad enough for that… But with Shion, it’s not like she needed new weapons or whatever, so…
Something like what I gave Gobta, huh?
“Very well. In that case, I’m going to teach you how to make a very special dish!”
“What?! Are you admitting, then, that I am a better cook than Shuna—?”
“Absolutely not!”
How could she ever jump to that conclusion? Shuna, listening on next to her, just rolled her eyes in contempt, although my immediate denial quickly restored her sunny disposition. Shion looked less than pleased with me, but when I whispered into her ear that I’d have an expansion installed in the kitchen, she gave me a happy nod and went back to her column.
Team Reborn, meanwhile, was evolving in very interesting ways. They seemed to be turning into spiritual life-forms, in a sense—but with physical bodies, unlike demons by default. Rather close to demons but still primarily physical in nature—and most importantly, they could still breed and produce offspring. It looked like we had a totally new species on our hands. Death-oni, I guess you could say? Shion’s oni foundation seemed to be emerging more strongly on them than before, with some of them acquiring her body-enhancing extra skill Divine Force. No one was sprouting any horns, though.
Their magicule counts weren’t on the level of Team Hiryu, but given their immortality, it was hard to judge which group was stronger, really. You could’ve said they evolved from hobgoblins, and anyone would’ve believed you. The biological processes of these monsters truly baffled me.
And so, despite Shion herself having surprisingly little to show for it, her evolution ritual came to a close.
And now we were at the bottom of the list. Diablo. My biggest headache.
He had been visibly fidgeting for a while now, looking at me with this expectant smile. Honestly, he’d probably cause more damage if I stopped the event now than if he went into an evolutionary frenzy. If anyone got in his way here, they were as good as dead.
Well, let’s do it.
“Diablo.”
“Yes, Sir Rimuru!”
I had nothing but bad feelings about this.
There’s little doubting that this evolution will make him the most powerful figure in this nation of monsters I’ve constructed. I don’t mean the strongest of my group—I mean stronger than me, no doubt. He claims he can’t beat Zegion, but I’m sure he was giving himself a handicap somewhere. He overpowered Jiwu and Bernie, both formidable foes, at the same time by himself. Zegion’s strength was a surprise to me, but Diablo seemed like he was one step ahead.
In other words, he was already my strongest underling. In fact, if Diablo really put his mind to it, he might even outgun me in his current state. If you compared him to me back just after I awakened, it wasn’t even close. So how was he going to evolve now? I needed to be extremely cautious.
“Diablo, I can think of no title more appropriate for you than Daemon Lord. May you continue to serve as my right-hand man and unite all the demons under our banner!”
Especially those three demonesses.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… I remain as ever at your service, Sir Rimuru!”
Seriously, Diablo. Please. I nodded and performed the ritual.
And so a new fiend was born…
The evolution was over in an instant, it seemed. I suspected another Shion-type dud at first, but I was wrong. He was just exhibiting perfect control over all energy flows and not letting any changes show at all.
Nice one, Diablo. What a masterpiece. Now he had evolved into one of the strongest beings in the entire world. A bit of it was flowing into me through our newly created soul corridor, and man, what a fright. I now had a vague idea of the upper limits of his power—and given how Benimaru’s and Shion’s evolutions were apparently disappointments, Diablo truly had become my most powerful underling. In fact…well, his magicule count was up there with mine, and considering the skills he’d built up, I feared this was no longer someone I could defeat in battle.
Guess that bad feeling I had was pretty accurate. I expected something like this, though, so I wasn’t wrought out over it.
“Impressive evolution there, Diablo.”
“The compliment is most appreciated, Sir Rimuru.”
So we’re good? His personality was still the same. If he decided to overthrow me right now, it would be pretty funny… And don’t tell anyone, but I would try fighting to keep my position.
But despite the evolution completing itself, Diablo looked like he was trying to acquire some new ability.
“What’re you doing?”
“Ah, well, you see, during the previous battle, I realized the usefulness of ultimate skills, you could say. I was ignoring them before since Guy was bragging up and down to me about them, but now I think I may as well gain one if it’s available to me.”
“Oh, huh…”
What kind of idiot is this? It’s funny how stupid smart people like him can be sometimes. Feels like I’m surrounded by a lot of those types, actually.
“So yes, I thought I’d take this opportunity to learn one so I can brag about it the next time I see him, keh-heh-heh-heh-heh…”
“Uh-huh…”
He hates it when Guy brags to him, but it’s okay for him to brag back?
Well, given his attitude up to now, I could easily imagine how much of an ego he copped with everyone besides me. I didn’t need Raphael to spell that out. But this would be aimed at Guy, not me, so I had nothing to worry about. As long as it wouldn’t come back to haunt me, there was no use fretting over the little things.
So it looked like Diablo’s demeanor remained as rock-solid as always, and at this rate, I didn’t think I needed to worry about a sudden mutiny anytime soon. He had full control over his evolution, even, so there was no reason for me to treat him as anything but the faithful, capable staffer I saw him as before.
Incidentally, as I found out later, Diablo’s blessings were passed on to his second-in-command, Venom, along with the hundred demons under Venom’s direct command. However—and this is just a hunch on my part—I think Diablo found a way to siphon as much energy away from those blessings as possible. I wasn’t sure if such a thing was possible, but if Diablo could do it, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least. Strength, after all, is earned, not given—I’m sure that’s Diablo’s line of thought.
Regardless, Venom was showing some real growth. He had undergone an evolution of his own, becoming a full Demon Peer. He still wasn’t nearly on the level of Testarossa and friends, though, and even compared to Moss and Veyron, I wouldn’t call him all that intimidating. There was no way that someone who had reigned as the strongest for so many years could be defeated by an upstart out of nowhere. Even among Demon Peers, there was a clear ranking in place.
“Well, of course,” Venom told me. “I’m still a newcomer, you know; I haven’t even been living for a century. I hardly even deserve to be compared to them.”
I suppose Venom is something of an uncommon case—a Contemporary-era demon with little experience to his name. Given the unique skill he was born with, however, maybe he was a reincarnate with some crazy story behind his history. He had no memory of his past life, he told me, but would sometimes recall words despite not knowing their meanings. Visiting my nation frequently gave him bouts of déjà vu, apparently. If he was a reincarnate, that certainly would make him something special.
But Venom still knew his place in the world. He had evolved to the same level as Testarossa and her friends, but he wasn’t letting it get to his head, and he didn’t look down on his other colleagues. He knew how much he had evolved, and he had picked up on the gap between himself and the next level. For a demon, experience is far more important than magicule counts.
That was real mature of him, I thought. But he also let me in on a little inside scoop.
“To tell the truth, I did actually challenge Lord Diablo once before—and let me tell you, he made disgustingly clear the difference between us!”
He was all smiles as he recalled it, but man. Bad move there, dude. I’d expect nothing less from Diablo’s closest associate, though. Guess there’s a reason why he likes the guy.
Despite the sheer stupidity of that challenge, it sounds like it turned out to be a good thing. Venom learned from the experience, and he never made the same mistake twice. If he ever did get carried away again, I’m sure Diablo would rub him out anyway. He had no mercy for people too big for their britches, no matter how close they were to him.
Learning from your mistakes is a valuable skill to have. I look forward to seeing how Venom develops.
As for the rest of the blessing receivers—well, to tell the truth, they were still having their bodies formed in our incubation capsules. All one hundred of them were now reborn as Diable Chevaliers. They couldn’t quite match up with Arch Demons, but they were now demonic knights, up there with any other high-level magic-born and capable of killing a Great Demon in one hit.
They were way off the charts, really… But Diablo didn’t really care about them at all. So they remained Venom’s servants. Diablo preferred to keep himself free and mobile, retaining his position directly under me, and that convinced me most of all that he hadn’t changed. No matter how much he evolved and surpassed me, Diablo was still Diablo.
So all my top staff had completed their evolution rituals. I’m glad it went over without any major hiccups.
But the victory celebration wasn’t done yet. I continued to call out to people who distinguished themselves in battle, thanking them for their hard work. Then we moved right on from there to a celebratory feast, although one attended only by those still awake. We’d have to wait until next time to assemble the entire gang, but until then, we enjoyed today’s party well enough.
I was disappointed, however, to find that Jaine and the Twin Wings weren’t joining us. They were quite apologetic but said they had urgent matters to attend to, so they took off in a hurry after the coliseum event ended. Hopefully they’ll be able to chill more with us next time they visit.
Right now, however, I’m more concerned about a couple of people getting belligerent under the influence.
“…Sir Benimaru was out of my league anyway. I knew that all along!!”
“No, no, Lady Gobwa, you’re quite attractive; trust me on that. But look at me! Lady Alvis, the girl of my dreams, takes my hand…and then she freakin’ kills me! That’s beastmen for ya, y’know? They like ’em strong. They want a mate who’s at least as powerful as they are… And if you’re strong enough, you can have as many women as you want. But me, ohhh noooo…”
“Goodness, Sir Phobio, you’re more than strong enough. If I were stronger, I could’ve stepped in between those two ladies, but—”
“Hey, you can drop the ‘sir’ stuff with me. You’re plenty strong yourself, Lady Gobwa. You just had some real stiff competition, is all. Not even I could beat them, y’know? It is what it is.”
“Sir Phobio…er, Phobio. Please, call me Gobwa, then.”
“Sure thing, Gobwa.”
“Phobio…”
Whoa, can you not do this in public, please? I’m mature enough to not cause a scene over this, but this isn’t some private candlelit restaurant, all right?!
Then again, though, two jilted lovers starting to kindle something with each other isn’t such a bad thing, is it? Love works in mysterious ways, and so forth. I’ll let it slide…
And the night passed along happily, the party in full swing.
So our nation had a set of new lords governing it.
Regulations forbade them from calling themselves demon lords, but we now had nine among us who were practically equivalent to awakened demon lords. Add our three Primal Demons to this, and barring some really exceptional events, I think we were capable of dealing with anything that came our way.
Since these twelve people now had lord epithets, I decided to refer to them collectively as the Twelve Lordly Guardians. Some of them were also part of groups like the Big Four and the Ten Dungeon Marvels, but the lord term in their titles took precedence. That’s because, unlike those two other groups, I had no plans to replace these twelve anytime soon. Being a lord, in my realm, is a sort of lifelong appointment, since all of them had eternal life in the first place. In the future, I think it’d be ideal if they eventually stepped away from day-to-day duties and only took up their Lordly roles during wars or emergencies.
We had a lot of other great staff on hand, like Rigurd and Rigur and Gobta and Mjöllmile, but they were all mortal. We needed to strike a clear difference between how we handled permanent posts and jobs that would go through generational changes. It didn’t need to be addressed right this minute, but the time would come soon enough.
The one person on my mind is Gobta. He’s a top leader (despite it all), he’s surprisingly resourceful, and he’s more than reasonably strong in a fight. That transformation team-up with Ranga was a real game changer for him. There was no doubting Ranga’s evolution would power him up a lot, but I was sure Gobta could still keep up with him, too.
He really is unique. Despite being named and evolved, his outward appearance didn’t change at all. He blathered on about how he “evolved in terms of talent and stuff,” but now I’m thinking that might’ve been the truth. And now, with today’s reward, Gobta’s position in Tempest has been set in stone. He had been granted a position closer to me than many other top officeholders, and that wasn’t lost on everyone looking Gobta’s way.
In a surprising way, maybe that was the biggest reward I gave out today. It struck me as pretty funny as I watched all my friends enjoy the party.
And one more thing:
Word of what happened today must’ve spread fast around the world, because somewhere along the line, I had been given the nickname Rimuru the Chaos Creator. This was fine. I decided to go with it. I was fully aware of all the crap I’d been pulling, after all.THE OUTRAGEOUS CELEBRATION
The celebration that Jaine attended was a truly astonishing event to witness. One after the other, the demon lord Rimuru was evolving all of his closest staff…into de facto true demon lords.
This… This is impossible! I must be dreaming, aren’t I?!
She was too shocked to even speak. She was well aware of how much trouble the demon lord Rimuru could be, but this scene was so ridiculous, so beyond reality, that it surpassed the worst of her premonitions.
Jaine’s objective in coming here was to ask Rimuru how he intended to handle the Primals. She trusted Rimuru personally, but it took more than personal trust to quell her fears about something as menacing as the Primals. Once they were unleashed, after all, they could easily destroy the entire balance of power worldwide. That much, in fact, was just proven by this war. Nine hundred and forty thousand of the Empire’s best were helplessly annihilated. It was quite a stroke of good fortune that Rimuru was allies with them, but there was no guarantee that they’d be able to maintain that relationship forever.
So Jaine came here as an ambassador to scout things out and see how Rimuru was doing. When she greeted him, she found him acting perfectly natural, unchanged from when last they met. So she lodged her complaint with him in somewhat harsh terms, hoping to gauge his thoughts based on his reaction. The results, sadly, were disappointing. He just said “I’m sorry,” acting all remorseful as Jaine admonished him. And once the whole story was revealed to her, through Rimuru’s assorted excuses and explanations, she realized that Diablo had engineered this demon deluge all by himself.
“So you’re certain that Diablo is Noir, the Original Black?”
“Mmm, looks that way, yeah. I didn’t know either at first, but for whatever reason, he’s been really friendly with me…”
He trailed off, shrugging. It didn’t seem to be a lie—apparently he truly did become the overlord of a small army of demons without really realizing it. Jaine had enough life experience to know he wasn’t pulling an act—and she knew that further griping wouldn’t make Rimuru any more capable of doing anything about it. It wasn’t even his fault, really. She worried that all this new power would make him more arrogant, but—much to her relief—that turned out to be a nonissue.
But maybe she shouldn’t have been so relieved. Maybe she should have warned him more harshly, when she had the chance.
Even if the Primals were a force majeure, as he put it, mass-producing true demon lords like that? The work of true malice—and nothing less!
…No. She was sure Rimuru meant no malice at all. She understood that. This was probably Rimuru hoping he could handle whatever came by himself, instead of causing further trouble for Jaine and her kingdom. Normally she would consider this a hostile act of intimidation, but she was also sure he didn’t mean to have it seen that way.
In fact, after the whole Primal thing, maybe he decided there’d be no more keeping secrets from the dwarves. This was just an act of open disclosure, based on sincerity and trust—and if so, Jaine was undeniably partly to blame, too. Maybe if she had instilled some common sense into Rimuru before now, it wouldn’t have come to this. Maybe that could’ve been possible, maybe not—but either way, it was too late now.
The—the whole balance of warpower in the world…
Jaine felt about ready to have a stroke, but she fought through it, musing over what might come next.
The event continued without a hitch, Rimuru’s agents gaining new powers one by one—and with them, the armies of monsters who served under them as well. In just a few short hours, Tempest had just massively expanded its capacity for waging war; there was no doubting that fact. Nestled within the Forest of Jura now was a gigantic military state, a threat that the Eastern Empire couldn’t even compare against.
Realizing this, Jaine once again rued the fact that she didn’t take action earlier. But…
No, it wouldn’t have mattered. The last time we deliberated over this issue, our conclusion was “nothing we can do; no point thinking about it.” King Gazel put any further debate on hold, but I don’t think we’ll find some magical solution anytime in the near future. And if not…
Their war with the Empire was far from over. The enemy’s armies were still deployed, but Rimuru said he was colluding with them, and soon they’d conspire to storm the imperial capital. Jaine traveled here in the first place because they were supposed to discuss all this at a meeting. But now…
I’ve never been so confused in my life. This is no longer just about the Empire. I’ve got to tell King Gazel about the new true demon lords Rimuru has created…
For a moment, Jaine considered pretending that she didn’t notice anything. It was little more than trying to escape reality, but it didn’t seem like such a bad idea, either. But she had just confronted Gazel a bit ago over keeping quiet about the Primals. She had no right to remain silent about this.
“Dolph, I’m leaving now.”
“Oh? Why is that? We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, I believe.”
“You could save face by attending for me. I’ll return via magic. No need for a bodyguard or escort.”
“Um, very well…”
Dolph, unable to pick up on flows of magic, had no real idea what was occurring before him. Jaine, jealous of him for that, sighed and fell into a funk as she considered the future.
Despite their unshaken facial expressions, the Twin Wings—Lucia the blonde, Claire the silver-haired—were both intensely distressed.
Here in Tempest, the monster nation, lived a great number of powerful magic-born. They knew that, and they even grew acquainted with a few of them, Geld in particular. They saw them as a threat at first, but now they were united in an alliance. They no longer needed to be so cautious now, no matter how many of their high-level magic-born matched them in skill.
Until now, that is.
They were here on orders to ascertain Tempest’s current strength. Now that they were engaged in full-frontal war with the Nasca Namrium Ulmeria United Eastern Empire, the mightiest of human-led nations, Rimuru’s army was bound to suffer some casualties. If so, it’d doubtlessly interfere with the construction of the sky city that Frey was so looking forward to. So they were asked to survey the damage and formulate predictions for Tempest’s future, organizing reinforcements if need be. That need, it seemed, was wholly nonexistent.
“Zero damage, then?”
“It’s hard to believe… But judging by how cheerful everyone is, it must be the truth.”
It was the most unexpected of reports.
Gladdened to hear that, they decided to attend the victory celebration they were informed of. They didn’t expect, however, to bear witness to events that would make their eyes pop out of their skulls.
(This is unthinkable. We take our eyes off him for a moment, and now part of his head staff is as powerful as Lady Frey…?)
(No, look over there. The demon lord Rimuru is about to say something.)
Claire snapped Lucia out of her panicked state just in time for the start of a “ritual” that was as unimaginable as it was appalling. Beyond appalling, even. It was so detached from reality that their minds went completely blank. Clearly, this was no longer a situation only the two of them could debate over.
(We must report back to Lady Frey immediately.)
(Yes, you’re right. Let us return home at once.)
With a brief telepathic conversation, they quickly came to a decision. Then they flew back home, immediately telling Frey what had happened.
………
……
…
In a corner of the unfinished keep at the top level of their temporary castle, Frey let out a long, deep sigh.
“What could that slime possibly be thinking?”
“What’s the matter with you?” replied a man in the room. “You look beautiful when you’re all melancholy like that, but I don’t think sighing suits you very much.”
This was Carillon, and now that both he and Frey were serving as Milim’s assistants, they had come to grow deeply acquainted.
“That’s the last thing I need to hear right now.”
“But really, what happened? Is he struggling against the imperials?”
Carillon looked concerned. Frey just seemed depressed.
“Would that it were the case. Then I’d just obediently send off reinforcements, not a care in the world.”
“So what is it? Don’t tell me that bum Rimuru pulled off another bout of crazy nonsense.”
“…Precisely,” Frey declared after a few silent moments. Carillon remained quiet.
“…May I make a suggestion, Carillon?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s probably inadvisable to call Milim’s best friend a bum.”
“Kind of late for that, isn’t it? You’re the one who just called him ‘that slime.’”
“Are you even listening to me? No need to be so nasty. Don’t worry; I don’t talk that way to my own staff.”
“That’s fine, but let’s not go off on this tangent forever, shall we? Tell me what’s going on.”
Frey let out another dejected sigh, her fragrant breath tickling Carillon’s nostrils. It made him feel a little better, but he kept his eyes on Frey, not letting himself be distracted.
“All right. You won’t regret asking, will you?”
“Depends on what it is.”
“Look…”
“I won’t regret it, okay? So quit shouldering it all by yourself. Give me some of it to handle.”
“Right. Good. I like that part of you.”
Frey smiled, feeling her blues clear up a bit. Then she told Carillon part of the story she heard from her Twin Wings.
“Seriously?”
“I’m always serious. Those two girls would never lie to me.”
“So…what, Rimuru now has seven more demon lord–class people serving him?!”
“That’s right.”
“And they’re all stronger than me?”
“I couldn’t tell you… But those three ladies felt stronger than me, at least.”
Even before their evolution, their powers put them on equal footing with Frey, according to what she knew. But after Rimuru did…something to them, the Twin Wings felt an overwhelming strength boost from them all. Some of them were still in the midst of evolving, according to the report, but their full powers were expected to take hold before long. Frey had to accept that report at face value, but that didn’t mean she was fully convinced.
Carillon, after hearing it all, was stunned into silence. “…You’re kidding me, right?” he eventually asked.
“Do I look like the sort of person to lie about this?”
“No.”
“Well, there you go, then.”
Neither Carillon nor Frey had ever exercised the full extent of their strength in front of their own people. But the Twin Wings had served Frey closely for years, and they had at least an idea of their master’s true strength. Even if it were mere estimates they were reporting to Frey, this was intelligence ignored at her peril. What’s more, nobody serving Frey would dare to offend their master with jokes or lies. Carillon knew that, and he thus had no choice but to accept this story.
What the hell are Phobio and Alvis doing…?
But despite that internal complaint, Carillon knew Phobio was never any good at gauging his opponents’ strengths. All kinds of extraordinary things could happen around him, and he’d be totally oblivious.
…But surely Alvis could have noticed? Why haven’t I heard anything from her?!
As Carillon stewed over this, Frey spoke up again, as if suddenly recalling something.
“Oh, right. Your understudy Alvis also got engaged to Sir Benimaru, the general overseeing Sir Rimuru’s armies. If this marriage goes well, maybe it’ll be to our nations’ benefit. Sir Rimuru approves, it sounds like, so that’s good.”
“That bastard actually did it?!”
Alvis had consulted Carillon about it. He advised her to seize Benimaru by force, and at the end of it, Alvis scored a resounding victory. He couldn’t help but grin to himself over it.
“It sounds like she’ll be his second wife, though…”
“Tch. Not the first, huh? Well, as long as she has a kid, it’s all good.”
“That’s rather vulgar of you.”
“Hey, don’t worry, Frey. To me, you’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”
“Quit playing games with me. In our society, women take multiple husbands. It’s the exact opposite of you guys. How do you think it’d ever work out?”
The harpy race is almost exclusively female, with procreation reliant on one of the few males or a powerful magic-born for genetic diversity. A queen-type harpy like Frey is capable of expanding her armies through parthenogenesis, or virgin birth—no partner required. With beastmen, on the other hand, it was common for stronger men to maintain relationships with multiple women at once. This weeds out the weak and leads to a stronger race over the years. Both species have the same ultimate goal in mind, but no matter how you looked at it, they were inherently incompatible with each other.
Carillon and Frey, however, fully recognized each other’s strength. Thus, although their relationship was very much a tightrope walk, they still managed not to step over that one final line in the sand.
“Well, since I doubt I’ll receive a good reply from you right now, I’ll just keep on trying to chip away at you, okay? So the question is, what the hell did that Rimuru bastard do?”
He could celebrate Alvis later. For now, Carillon was all business, and Frey was fine with that. They were on friendly terms with Rimuru’s nation, and they wanted to keep it that way, but they needed a good grasp of what happened. Then, if possible, they wanted to take things between themselves to the next level, too.
“It reminds me of Clayman’s final moments. He was throwing out some crazy powers right then.”
“Yeah, the ‘awakening’ thing Rimuru talked about?”
“What do you think caused it?”
“Pfft! He didn’t look like he was hiding any power. Clayman must’ve gained it right at that moment.”
“And how did that work?”
“Well…”
“Via souls.”
“Huh?”
“Clayman said that gathering souls was how he’d awaken to his ‘true demon lord’ self. If that’s really true, there’s no way he wasn’t actively collecting them.”
“Ah. So that’s how he tried awakening himself?”
“Probably. Honestly, I’ve never killed a human being, so I’ve never even seen a soul before.”
“Me neither. I’ve only fought against my own kind, magic-born, or angels. And we never wanted for much in my nation, so I never took interest in humans.”
“Right. But I think that answers the question. It looks like Sir Rimuru found a way to acquire a huge number of souls during the war. Now he’s passed them out to the magic-born under him to trigger awakenings.”
“That’s ridiculous. It’s bad enough that would-be demon lords like us are serving someone else, but now all those other guys are getting ahead of us? Damn. So how many souls did Rimuru use for this?”
Carillon scratched his head, and Frey turned her eyes toward the city being built beneath them.
“Hey.”
“Come to think of it, I didn’t tell you how the war turned out, did I? Well, amazingly enough, Tempest’s army suffered zero casualties. The Empire, on the other hand, had an army of nine hundred and forty thousand soldiers completely wiped out.”
“…Huh?’
“You think I’m lying?”
“N-no…”
“I only wish this report was a mistake.”
So the demon lord Rimuru had obtained a total of nine hundred and forty thousand souls, and with that kind of number, it’d likely be child’s play to elevate seven of your faithful servants to “awakened” status.
And maybe it was more than seven, even. According to the report, head general Benimaru exhibited no change during the ceremony; all he had done was agree to marry Momiji and Alvis. But there was no way Rimuru wouldn’t reward his closest associate with some souls. It was more likely that his evolution was delayed for some reason, coming along at a later date instead.
“Wow. So one side totally bustin’ up the other, huh? That’s hardly even a war any longer. I woulda put up the white flag by now, but what do you think the Empire’s gonna do?”
“Who cares about the Empire? They don’t matter anymore. The problem is what we’re going to do.”
“Yeah… Well, I’ve already surrendered myself to Milim. I already thought seeking out power for myself would be seen as treason, so I avoided it… But I guess I never had anything to worry about.”
“How so?”
“Rimuru’s raised up his staff to his own level now, right? Talk about generous. And looking back, I realized that Milim’s probably the same as him.”
“True. Us getting awakened probably wouldn’t cause her to lose much sleep.”
“Right? So why don’t we just do what we want a little, huh? I think we’ve maybe been relaxing a little too much lately, but it’s hardly too late. We’ve still got a chance to aim higher.”
“We do. I always did like that about you.”
Frey and Carillon looked at each other. But just when things started to warm between them—
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Well said, you two! I can’t go awakening people willy-nilly like Rimuru, but I can give you guys my special brand of training! And you don’t have to worry about death if you’re inside the labyrinth, so we can go all out, too!”
—Milim barged in, timing impeccable as always.
“Dammit! You were here, Milim?! You just had to show up when it was gettin’ good, too…”
“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times—stop sneaking up on us whenever you show up. And I have no interest in training with— Listen to me, Milim!”
Carillon and Frey were already whining at her, but Milim paid them no mind. Her ears were equipped with a top-of-the-line feature that shut out anything she didn’t want to hear.
“Right! I’ll go ask Ramiris to help us out!”
“Wait, wait, wait! I never asked you for training help either!”
“Hold it, Milim! If you won’t listen to us, then I’ve got an idea of my own. How about we have Sir Middray handle all the cooking from now on? Are you okay with that?”
This statement from Frey triggered Milim’s sense of danger. It was more than enough to stop her cold. Nice one, Frey, Carillon thought as he observed them.
“Uh… All right. But if you wanna train, ask me anytime!”
“Sure. By the way, have you finished up your homework?”
“Ummm… Well, I heard this really neat story I had to check out, so…”
“You haven’t, have you?”
Frey smiled at her.
“I… Um, my break’s over now, so I’m just gonna head right back.”FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Before I forgot, I decided to go thank Veldora and Ramiris.
For Veldora, I had some new clothing. He always went around topless with a cape, and I saw that as kind of a problem. He didn’t seem to mind it much— maybe he thought it was a good look for him—but I thought now was a good time to offer him an alternative in gift form.
“Ohhh, Rimuru! My heartfelt friend and ally! At long last, you have finally grasped how I feel, yes? I’ve always wanted to wear cooler clothes!”
“Uh, you know you could’ve asked Shuna anytime, and she would’ve set you up, right? Like, just go in the wardrobe room, and there’s a few outfits you can magically adjust the sizes of.”
“Fool! Only a custom-made outfit would be worthy of my time. And if my most trustworthy ally prepared it for me, I’m sure it would be the finest outfit in all the land, would it not?”
Um, I have, like, zero fashion sense, just so you know…
Veldora seemed to be giving way too much credit. I mean, I’m only wearing what the people around here tell me to wear. Looking back, I was horrible with my clothing choices in my previous life as well. I basically got by with business suits outdoors and sweats indoors. Lots of sweats. Comfy, no biggie if you get a stain on them… Perfect.
That was what I based my choices on with Veldora, and surprisingly, it was a bigger hit with him than I had guessed. He was rapidly throwing on every piece of the outfit, right in front of me.
“…Well, I’m glad you’re happy with it. Keep up the good work now, all right?”
“Mmm, yes, leave it all to me! Kwah-ha-ha-ha!”
Considering everything I get from him, this was ridiculously cheap compensation. I mean, yes, it’s a custom job made from top-of-the-line fabric, but still, you know… Next time I’m free, I’ll try thinking of some other way to thank him. But that can wait.
Next up was Ramiris.
“Ramiris, you really saved our necks. Thank you for that.”
“Aw, quit actin’ like we’re strangers or something! I owe you a whole heck of a lot, too, so you scratch my back, I scratch yours, y’know?”
Ramiris looked a little bashful. I wasn’t much good at expressing gratitude, either, but it’s important to do it when you need to.
“Right, so I thought I’d give you a reward as well.”
“Oh, what’s that? Did you make me a dress or something, like with my master?”
“If you want something like that, go ask Shuna. She’ll set you up. But as for me…”
There was no way I’d ever be caught designing women’s clothing. Shuna can tackle that for me. Myself, I had things to name.
“Oh, um, so you’re gonna name my cute li’l Dragon Lords?”
“Pretty much, yeah.”
“And I’ll basically be their mom?”
“Exactly.”
“Wow! That’s really incredible!”
I was kinda surprised by that, too, actually, but it really did work.
“At the event yesterday, I gave Adalmann’s pet the name of Venti. Once I did, she evolved, and now she can turn into a human anytime she wants and speak to us fluently. So I thought maybe you’d like the same for your own Dragon Lords, y’know?”
Those transformation skills threw me for a loop—but if you think about it, dragons taking human form is a pretty common trope in fantasy fiction, isn’t it? It’s not completely unexpected. Thus, I figured there was a chanc