bookworm

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 chance Ramiris’s four Dragon Lords could pull that same trick. Then we’d have more staff on hand, and maybe life wouldn’t be so stressful for Beretta.In that case, name away is what I say!”
Ramiris happily nodded her approval. With her consent, it was time to get started.
“Do you have any ideas for good names?”
“Mmmm… You handle it!”
Guess Ramiris isn’t too good at coming up with names. If she was leaving all that to me, then they were probably gonna end up with fantasy game–style names… But maybe that works, actually? They are boss monsters, after all, so maybe it’s not worth sweating over.
So I had Ramiris go fetch the Dragon Lords and bring them to the labyrinth lord’s chambers where Veldora resided. Seeing all four of them lined up before me, it dawned on me that these guys have probably been beaten up by adventuring teams many times over by now. They remained doggedly devoted to their posts, however, so I really wanted some cool names for them. Being a Dragon Lord means having more magicules than even an Arch Demon, but it hadn’t been that long since Milim picked them up, so these guys weren’t quite as good as they could be. If naming them triggers evolutions, that ought to give them a ton more intelligence—and then they can be smarter, and stronger, than ever before.
With something like this, going with your initial gut feeling is always the best bet. The Fire Dragon Lord became Euros the Draconic Flamelord; the ice one became Zephyros the Draconic Frostlord; the wind one became Notos the Draconic Skylord; and the earth one became Boreas the Draconic Terralord. I was borrowing liberally from Greek mythology; these were the names of the Anemoi, the deities assigned to the winds of each cardinal direction, and I thought these would be perfect for the Dragon Lords.
These names were my creation, but Ramiris would be treated as the one who named them all. That seemed to work without a hitch, much to my relief. Thus, Ramiris and the dragons were now connected by their souls, and I hoped they’d continue to serve her faithfully.
So how did it work out? Well, just as I guessed, the Dragon Lords could all transform into forms close to human—not completely so, though, as they still retained some draconic characteristics. Euros, the Brimstone Dragon Lord, was a beautiful woman with red hair, her auburn skin covered in a dress made of dragon scale, and her tail resembled a flaming whip. Zephyros, the Frostkeep Dragon Lord, was a slender, handsome young man; his elegant, gentle appearance, combined with his long green hair, gave him an almost feminine sort of beauty. Notos, the Skythunder Dragon Lord, looked like a little girl, all cute from a distance but bearing jagged teeth and menacing fangs up close; the size and look were a mismatch for her incredible strength. Finally, Boreas, the Earthshaker Dragon Lord, was a large, muscular man covered in dragon scales, spines growing all over his body.
The four of them looked like they headed some legion of super villains, the combination of horror and beauty they presented resulting in a twisted sort of attractiveness. This shift, however, was just for looks only; they hadn’t turned dragonoid like Milim, and their species was still straight-up Dragon Lord. Dragonoids, after all, are spiritual life-forms with a physical body, a sort of mutational offshoot from the True Dragons. Even with all the Dragon Lords’ powers, they were still physical by nature, so they weren’t going to rank up there with the perfection the True Dragons exuded.
Still, despite the remaining Dragon Lords, I’d call this evolution a big success. Even better, they had acquired more magic force than I anticipated. They all had several times more magicules than pre-evolution, and it looked to me like they’d get close to the awakened Clayman on that front. Not quite a true demon lord, but still, a wonderful leap forward for them. Considering how much some simple names boosted them, I shuddered to think what would’ve happened if I consumed my own magicules for this. For all I knew, I could’ve suffered irreparable damage. This whole naming system is really scary, in a way.
All told, I consumed five thousand souls on this job. There’s just nothing at all logical about monsters, I realized all over again. But no point pondering over it. Either way, the evolutions of the Dragon Lords, which served as my thank-you gift to Ramiris, were now complete.
By the way, if you’re looking strictly at magicule counts, the Ten Dungeon Marvels are all about evenly matched with these Dragon Lords. However, it looks like there’s still a major gap in combat power, something you can’t express with numbers. Zegion’s a good enough illustration of that, but even the other Marvels make the evolved Dragon Lords look kind of weak. Yes, they had strong monster bodies and attacks that leveraged them, plus a bunch of magic. They were undoubtedly vicious, powerful forces… But they’d still lose out to their peers with better combat skills.
A lot of that just came down to lack of battle experience; they didn’t really have a firm foundation in combat yet. I’m sure it was frustrating for the Dragon Lords to keep getting whipped all the time during the labyrinth siege. In fact, the moment they evolved and gained language fluency, the first thing they did was ask me for training.
Having a new humanoid form meant they could now master human-style combat, and they now realized that a more refined skill set would get them a lot further than their monster-style techniques. Instead of relying on physical attacks like bites, maulings, and element-driven breath, they’d need to understand their magic better and incorporate it into their fighting. I assumed they wanted to learn how to fight as humans and try working that into their own approaches. They came up with that on their own, and really, that showed some pretty remarkable development already.
“Kwaaaaah-ha-ha-ha! I will gladly take care of them for you!”
Veldora, emboldened after doing such a good job raising Zegion, immediately accepted the trainer role for the Dragon Lords. Thus, their journey began.
In time, some of the Dragon Lords would demonstrate more strength in human form than as dragons. They mastered ways to transform their own claws and scales into weapons and armor—which seemed like kind of a backward way to do it, but oh well—and I assume they liked the results they got from that. I wouldn’t discover this until much later, but…yeah, I guess it’s just as well.
Three days had passed since Caligulio and his staff were resurrected, and by now, they had regained most of their composure. The shock of being brought back to life by a demon lord was hard to put into words, but somehow, they had managed to accept it as the truth.
The question then became: What happens to us, going forward?
For now, they were still living and sleeping in tents. Food was arranged for them, carried in regularly by monsters—skeletons, in fact, but nobody was complaining. These tents were lined up in a barren, hilly area with no real vegetation; the scenery was dreary, but it was neither too hot nor too cold, making it an oddly comfortable space. The death-laden atmosphere of the battlefield and the long rows of graves for the dead weren’t any big deal once you got used to them. The people these graves belonged to were out walking and talking in skeleton form anyway, so it’d be silly to fear them. In short, it wasn’t an arrangement to wail about at all.
According to what they heard, they had been set up on Floor 70 of the labyrinth. This was all explained to them by a wight king named Adalmann, who oversaw things on this level. Some of the people there had actually fought against him, so nobody doubted who he was. Besides, Adalmann was quite caring of them, treating Caligulio and the others pretty well by POW standards.
“My god, Sir Rimuru, has deemed fit to resurrect you all, and thus, I follow his divine will. He is not the type of person who would take away a life previously given. I will suggest you take your time to think about what you want your future to be like.”
Based on that philosophy, Adalmann had let Caligulio and his staff go free. But nobody was suggesting they break their way out of this level. Their lives were already in the hands of the gods, they realized, and so they decided to trust in the demon lord Rimuru. Caligulio agreed with this, and besides, he was confident any escape attempt would end in failure. That’s why, taking Adalmann’s words to heart, he decided to call his staff together for a meeting.
Nearly a hundred officers were now gathered in a large tent used for military conferences. These were senior staffers, some of the Empire’s greatest heroes, but any power they had was well and truly gone now.
“All right, people. First off, allow me to apologize. My incompetence is what put you all in this situation, and for that, I am sincerely sorry.”
Caligulio looked at his assembled audience and bowed his head. Nobody there thought the apology was warranted.
“What are you saying, my lord? We are just as guilty as you for not stopping His Majesty.”
The staff nodded their agreement to the aide’s statement. The senior officers—most notably Krishna—also agreed that Caligulio was far from the only culprit here.
“I am of the same opinion as everyone else. Thanks to our foolishness, we have incurred the wrath of God himself… And by God’s mercy, we’ve been given the opportunity to atone for our sins.”
As he phrased it, the Empire’s whole invasion was a sin, and Caligulio agreed with him. As overconfident of their military might as they were, they didn’t even try to learn much about their enemy. Looking back, Caligulio could hardly believe his own stupidity. The thought that his friends must all be feeling the same way brought an embittered smile to his face.
“Thank you. Hearing that makes me feel a little more at peace with myself. And I swear to God that I will never forget this feeling.”
The moment he said the word God, the image of the demon lord Rimuru flashed through his mind.
Yes… As far as I’m concerned, Lord Rimuru may as well be my god.
There was no place in the Empire for Caligulio to return to. If he did, he’d take the blame for the loss, and they’d skip the court-martial and jump right to his execution. He had no intention of shirking his responsibilities, but he thought it wrong to throw away the life granted by Rimuru for nothing.
Well… I’ll have time to weigh my options there.
It was natural for Caligulio to think about putting his own problems off for later. His face was no longer that of a brute driven solely by self-preservation and greed.
“Now, let’s get to the topic at hand. I’ve gathered you all here today because I want to build consensus on how we should move forward. Sir Adalmann has generously given me the freedom to consult with all of you in this meeting, so let’s try to get some work done so his kindness doesn’t go to waste.”
Once Caligulio said this, the people present exchanged glances and began discussing matters among themselves. That would be unthinkable during a typical military meeting, but Caligulio welcomed it—he wanted honest, unadorned feedback from everyone.
After chatting about it for a while, the group narrowed their thoughts down enough to form two major factions. One thought it best to stay here and retain their current allegiance to their captors; the other argued that they must return to the Empire without delay.
These two sides were deadlocked with each other, and both arguments were wholly understandable. It was only natural that those with families would want to return home, but whether that was possible depended on the intentions of the demon lord Rimuru. Perhaps it’d be doable with further negotiations, but if they made too much of a fuss about it, it could put the demon lord off.
“I would like to believe that he has no interest in executing us for no reason, as Sir Adalmann assures us. But we have to keep in mind that this doesn’t mean we’re forgiven.”
Given the way their lives were saved, their fates were all in the hands of the demon lord. They might’ve been granted a little freedom, but getting too selfish presented unknown risks.
“…I imagine all of us in this tent would be executed if we came back. But even despite that, I want to make sure that the soldiers who fought so bravely for their country can get home safely. I’d like to appeal directly to Lord Rimuru and ask him for his favor here.”
“Perhaps, but keep in mind, we are something akin to hostages right now, and we have no idea whether our nation will pay compensation or not. It’s a thorny issue.”
Then Major General Minitz, who had been silently listening to everyone’s takes so far, spoke up.
“It’s not gonna happen. We’ve never even imagined ourselves as defeated. You know how consistently ruthless we’ve been in our dealings with hostile nations.”
The floor fell silent. The Empire had never accepted anything other than unconditional surrender in the past. It was arrogant of them, but given their constant streak of victories, they had a right to be arrogant. But now that they had suffered a total defeat, they’d have no one to blame for themselves if they were unforgiven. Everybody here understood that—and they knew that even if they could return to the Empire, their future there would look pretty bleak.
Still, some wanted to fulfill their responsibilities to those soldiers with families waiting back home.
“Major General Minitz is right. I wonder what His Majesty the Emperor will think about all this…”
“I hate to say it, but I think our intelligence bureau was far too negligent. How many demon lord–class freaks do they think Tempest even had?!”
For an imperial officer, this remark was wading into taboo territory.
“Hey! Watch your mouth, you! I don’t care what happens to the IIB at this point, but the ones you called freaks are the major leaders of this nation, you know.”
“Sorry. Slip of the tongue…”
Free speech was welcome here, and there were no monsters in the tent. No one had seen Adalmann since yesterday; Caligulio assumed he was off attending to business somewhere. That’s why they were having this conference today… But that didn’t mean they could say anything and everything they wanted. They couldn’t forget their status as prisoners of war.
“Lord Rimuru seems to be a generous leader to me, but I doubt he’ll overlook any bad-mouthing of his staff. Remember that well, everyone, and keep an eye on what you say.”
Despite stating that, Caligulio agreed with his officer’s voiced opinion. At the very least, the fact that somebody under Rimuru’s command could handle magic as intense as Gravity Collapse told volumes about how dangerous this demon lord was. Why didn’t the Imperial Information Bureau know anything about them?
I fully understand why he called the IIB negligent. If anything, I wish I said that myself…
But then one audience member uttered something that threw cold water on Caligulio and his officers.
“Are all of you idiots? Listen to me. The IIB was definitely aware of some intel, at least.”
Bernie, silent until now, suddenly let out that bombshell with a chuckle.
“That’s ridiculous! So why did they withhold accurate intelligence from His Majesty?”
“They didn’t betray us, did they?!”
The whole group was agitated. Only Minitz and Caligulio remained calm, and Minitz was the first to respond.
“Your name was Bernie, right? The man on an undercover mission not even we were told about?”
“Right,” Caligulio added. “Single Digits like you probably would know some top secret information that we weren’t aware of. So what was the IIB thinking, and what did they want us to do?”
All eyes focused on Bernie after that question. Everybody on hand wanted to know. The IIB had sworn absolute loyalty to the emperor. It was hard to believe that they would betray anyone—and that meant Emperor Ludora was in a position to anticipate this happening all along.
Bernie snorted at the crowd as he looked around, giving Caligulio and the others sympathetic looks. Then, without hesitation, he dropped another bomb.
“Well, it’s exactly what you’re all imagining. The emperor knew everything. He was already taking your defeat into consideration.”
“That—that’s madness…”
“What do you mean by that? Are you saying His Majesty knew we’d be defeated but sent the entire army over anyway?!”
“Impossible! That’s far too much of an insult against the emperor!”
The officers were all getting worked up. But someone began to have an inkling of what was going on.
“I see. So we were just throwaway pawns the whole time?”
“No, that’s not quite the right way to put it, Minitz. If I had to guess, His Majesty’s purpose was—”
“Pfft! Keep your mouth shut, Caligulio. If someone needs to take the heat for leaking national-level secrets, let it be me, not you. Listen… All of us right now are dead, me included. And if we are, this won’t count as betraying the emperor anyway.”
Such was Bernie’s resolve. He had lost the powers that promoted him to the Single Digits, even the ultimate force granted to him by the emperor. Now it was time, as a leader, to show a new pathway for everyone.
“Bernie…”
“Sorry, Jiwu. But you know I’m never gonna be that loyal to His Majesty. I only served him for one reason—because I knew I could never beat him.”
That, too, was Bernie telling the truth.
………
……
…
Bernie, born in the United States of America forty-five years ago, was once an average, freedom-loving student. Somehow he wound up in this world instead, where Gadora discovered him. He was then taken in by Damrada, from whom he learned the art of fighting. This gave him confidence, and somewhere along the line, he became vain enough to think he was among the best in the world. But his confidence was shattered by a single woman serving at Emperor Ludora’s side. A beautiful woman—and also a truly monstrous creation. A lofty pinnacle that Bernie would never reach, even if he moved heaven and earth and went through thousands of reincarnations. It was hard to believe such a being even existed, but reality was all too cruel to him.
The woman’s name was Velgrynd—one of the Empire’s most closely guarded secrets, one that must never be spoken of to outsiders.
One day, Bernie was escorted by Damrada to the emperor’s palace, a great honor that fueled his ambitions even further. As a lover of freedom, he detested the idea of an emperor who dominated every aspect of people’s lives. He dreamed, however foolishly, that he could overthrow the emperor if he just had a chance. The price of that foolishness was paid in fear, for when Bernie met Velgrynd for the first time that day, he was immediately seized by it, giving in wholeheartedly to it.
As Bernie was gripped by this fear, Emperor Ludora addressed him from beyond the curtain.
“You have the qualifications… The requirements to serve as a vessel. I will lend you my powers. Please keep up the good work.”
Ludora’s voice sounded entirely free of emotion, as if it was echoing out from some faraway point. The next thing Bernie knew, he was in absolutely no position to defy the emperor any longer.
………
……
…
“His Majesty doesn’t care if a million of his elites are wiped out. In fact, that’s all part of the plan.”
That sentence, by itself, made little sense. But Caligulio knew what it meant.
“…Oh. So he’s willing to sacrifice a million officers and enlisted men if it results in someone like me awakening?”
Hearing Caligulio give the correct answer after so little explanation surprised Bernie slightly. But hearing him say “someone like me awakening” made it clear how he knew.
“Ah, so you’re awakened, too? Then I think you probably understand it all. Yes, you’re right. His Majesty’s goal is to build a collection of awakened people to serve as his pawns. If he can gain even one more of them, that’s easily worth a million casualties to him.”
This was a truth that not even the Empire’s senior officers were aware of. From the very beginning, Emperor Ludora expected nothing from his military. The most important thing to him was how many awakened personnel he could collect.
“Quality over quantity sort of thing? So when we took on Veldora three centuries ago and failed…”
Minitz gave Bernie a sharp gaze as he asked the question. Bernie was aloof as always.
“I don’t know what happened back then, but if you think about it, doesn’t it make sense to you? I can kill every man in this tent by myself… Or I could have, I mean. That’s how vast the power gap was.”
“I see, I see… And that’s why it was a given that we’d be defeated, then? The whole strategy was built on the assumption that we’d take horrific losses. I’d like to call it a brilliant move on His Majesty’s part, but this time, it was just a disaster.”
“Exactly. I’m sure His Majesty didn’t expect us to lose after your awakening.”
Minitz sounded convinced of it, Caligulio bitterly listening on.
“Well… I’m sorry I wasn’t good enough.”
He mumbled it out, his tone self-deriding, but Bernie denied it.
“It’s all right. It’s not that you weren’t up to the challenge. We just matched up poorly against our opponent.”
“Yeah. There was nothing we could do against that.”
Jiwu nodded her agreement. She and Bernie had both lost to Diablo, the same demon who defeated Caligulio. If they couldn’t beat a freak of nature like that, they assumed Caligulio couldn’t, either.
“So you’re saying Tempest’s strength was beyond what the IIB projected?”
“Looks that way, yeah. The plan was to use the demon lord Rimuru as a stepping-stone to gain more pawns for us, but we blew our chances because we misjudged our opponent’s strength.”
Bernie couldn’t help but laugh, as inappropriate as that was considering all the personnel lost. But he still wished he could rub this in the emperor’s face someday.
“…Well, Bernie, you were trying to use us as a diversion so you could stage your sneak attack, I suppose, but it failed. What are you gonna do now?”
“Ha! I told you. I’ll take the heat for it, okay?”
“What do you mean?” Minitz calmly asked. A few moments passed, everyone in the tent silently waiting for Bernie’s answer.
“…Let me get one thing straight with you folks first. Like I just said, you guys are all already dead. I don’t mean that metaphorically; I mean you’re dead as far as His Majesty is concerned.”
“Mm-hmm. Is it trouble for him if we stay alive like this?”
“That’s not quite the way to put it. The emperor has no use for soldiers who’ve been deprived of their powers and have zero chance of awakening. And if he has no use for you, then he has no reason to protect you, either.”
“I suppose not, no.”
“Think of it on that basis, and there’s a real good chance they won’t accept any prisoners if Tempest offers them. And not just that—if the surviving soldiers return home, it’ll spread antiwar sentiment across the Empire. Do you think that’s in line with His Majesty’s will?”
“Doubtful.”
Minitz sighed. Now he understood what Bernie wanted to say.
“And since we’re no longer important to His Majesty, we’re just a third wheel to the IIB?”
“You got it.”
“And they’ll seek out and deal with anyone who tries to return home?”
“Definitely.”
And then they’d pin the blame on Tempest to stir up the anger and vengeance of their people, likely. Bernie was confident that’s what the IIB would do, and that was the story he was giving the tent now.
“…But we’re talking seven hundred thousand people. It’d be impossible.”
“The people who underwent enhancement surgery didn’t lose that much power. If we fight back, we’d be fighting against our own side!”
Minitz raised a hand to quiet the startled officers.
“…Do you have an idea of who might be capable of that?”
Most of the audience thought the idea was ridiculous. But Minitz remained coolheaded. Caligulio, remembering what happened when he was awakened, remained silent. With that kind of power, he concluded, it wasn’t so impossible at all.
“Could the Single Digits do it?”
“If that’s a yes-no question, then the answer is yes. But that’s just armchair theorizing. If a single person has absolute power, that’s good for offense but not for defense. If the enemy swarms you with huge numbers, then inevitably you’ll have areas you can’t fully defend. At the same time, it’s also not a suitable approach if you’re pursuing a fleeing enemy. If they scatter in all directions, you’ll inevitably miss out on some.”
In this case, it’d be necessary for the Empire to take all of them out with no survivors whatsoever. Bernie didn’t know anyone who’d be capable of that…with one exception.
“Now, common sense dictates that this is impossible, right? But it’s not. The Empire’s got an absolute freak of nature who can pull that off.”
Bernie recalled the figure in his mind. It made him shiver. The beauty, and the horror, could only be understood by those who’ve had an encounter. Bernie was one of them, and that fact made him very unhappy.
“…Someone that makes a Single Digit like you quake in their boots? It appears that I’m gravely mistaken here.”
Minitz sat back in his seat and looked up at the ceiling.
“Me too. I joined the military because I dreamed of ruling the world in the name of the Empire. But now…”
Now everything was being decided in a place that had nothing to do with the military. These power struggles were being played by someone else, and there was no room for the non-awakened to butt in.
“Foolish of us, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah. What a farce.”
Caligulio and Minitz exchanged glances, both looking ready to cry. And not just them—all the other officers in the tent looked like they had just woken up from a dream, and they weren’t happy about it. It’s so pathetic, Bernie thought. Everyone would’ve been a lot happier if they didn’t know the truth, but then they wouldn’t have been convinced about their situation. That’s why Bernie laid it all bare for them, leaving nothing behind.
“So do you see now? You understand the situation you’re in? If you go back home, there’ll be nothing but despair waiting for you. You gotta stay here as prisoners and just wait until the war’s over.”
“Sir Bernie, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going back to the Empire. The war’s not gonna end anytime soon at this rate, so Lord Rimuru is probably gonna try negotiating with the Empire… And he’ll need a guide for that, won’t he?”
And that guide would almost certainly be disappeared. The current, powerless Bernie would absolutely be assassinated. But he was determined to do it.
Now everyone was silent. Here and now, they understood all too well that the demon lord Rimuru had an iron grip on all of their fates.