bookworm

Now that I knew what was going on with Bernie and Jiwu, I wanted to talk about the factions within the Empire. Not the military, exactly, but the other higher-ups with access to ultimate skills.
“All right. Can you tell me more about the Single Digits?”
Bernie obliged. “Sure. There are only nine Single Digits at any given time. For someone stronger to take up a position, it’s quite likely someone else would need to be forcibly kicked out of their rank.”
Hmm. Meaning that there’s not that much difference in strength among the top Single Digits?
“You mean that it’s possible for, say, numbers nine and ten to swap spots?”
“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Rank number eleven is a sort of auxiliary Single Digit, while number ten is a substitute. If someone drops out of the Single Digits, one of those two can take their place, but only on a temporary basis.”
So there was a pretty insurmountable gap between ninth and tenth, then? Sounds like the clincher is whether you’ve got an ultimate skill. Only if you’re awakened, and that awakening nets you an ultimate, would you be considered for the Single Digits. Bernie, by the way, is ranked seventh, with Jiwu coming in ninth—which means I had to look out for numbers one through six, number eight, and this Marshal guy, too.
Meanwhile, the two of them didn’t know much about Damrada’s faction. They didn’t even know who besides themselves were Single Digits, so I doubted they were lying about that. But I wanted to know more about other people anyway, so hopefully they could give me something useful.
“Number ten, the substitute, is kept on call within Empire territory at all times, so they can spring into action the moment something comes up. Meanwhile, Imperial Knights ranked eleventh or below are assigned to groups of three and tasked with solving Empire-level cases and crises.”
As Bernie put it, Number Ten was a pretty powerful guy as well—no ultimate skill, but still maybe as strong as an awakened demon lord. With the remaining ninety Imperial Knights, you saw a pretty big talent gap between the twenties and the ranks below that, but even so, you had to be at least Enlightened class to become a member. Some of the people up top could rank pretty close to Saint level. If the Eastern Empire wanted to boost the Imperial Guardians’ overall strength, they’d likely have to stage a war pitting them against multiple demon lords at once.
“Are you kidding me?” Minitz countered. “They want to wage war against someone who defeated us without losing a single soldier?”
“Yeah. The fact that a hundred Imperial Guardians are more of a threat than a million-strong army sure gives me pause, though.”
“Well,” Bernie said with a sigh, “that’s how it is. The imperial army serves mostly as a visual threat to people, after all. The Empire needs a visible, public sort of deterrent for the unwitting fools who can’t comprehend what real strength is.”
I could tell he was talking about more than a threat to the nations in the west. It applied to the Empire’s own subjects as well, people who paid taxes in exchange for guaranteed safety. If the Empire told them a hundred people were all they really needed to defend the land, that’d make anyone uneasy. In this case, quantity truly did mean something important—after all, offense is one thing, but when defending, you need numbers. The more bases you have to maintain, the more personnel you need to defend them. In that sense, the Empire’s policy actually seems pretty sound.
“You know, in the past, the main purpose of our standing army was defense. We’d use only our elite forces to attack other nations and sap their will to fight. Once their work was done, we’d send the army over to establish rule in the name of the emperor. At some point, however, we began to dispatch our army first. I’ve always wondered why they did that, actually. It never occurred to me that it was so they could ‘manufacture’ more awakened people…”
Gadora seemed convinced. In fact, this sounded like a pretty important secret to me. Now I think I’m beginning to see Emperor Ludora’s objectives.
“So victory wasn’t the point of this whole invasion in the first place, was it? And Sir Caligulio did become awakened, along with several others whom I think came close. I think Emperor Ludora’s true mission was to add more fighting pawns to his collection.”
Benimaru must’ve reached the same conclusion I did. And Bernie was getting more talkative, too.
“You’re right. There were several people in this invasion deemed likely to awaken—not just General Caligulio, but also Major General Minitz, Colonel Kanzis, and Krishna and a few others, too. My orders specified that I should work with the newly awakened to find an escape route once the dust settled… But really, this is the first time I’ve seen the commander’s plans go this haywire.”
He accompanied that with a little chuckle, but I sure wasn’t laughing. If that many people awakened on us, we would’ve had more than just a tough battle on our hands. Besides, now that we knew the Empire was trying to awaken more of its troops, we had to admit that our assumptions about them were completely wrong. I thought they went to war because they were confident about beating us and the Western Nations, after all. Raphael agreed with me on that, and it certainly seemed logical to me, but…
…Report. Definitive conclusion failed due to a lack of information. This will be redefined later to achieve perfection.
I felt a hint of embarrassment from Raphael there. But asking it to read that deep was far too much to hope for, and I wasn’t about to do that. So no harm, no foul this time, I’d say—just as long as we can use this experience for next time.
Acknowledged. I will review the information so nothing is overlooked.
Great. I’m counting on you, okay? Really.
I’ll need Raphael as a reference on the Empire’s future movements. For now, though, let’s discuss our takes on these new revelations.
“So Ludora was collecting awakened people for his group of elite fighters. I don’t like admitting it much, but it seems like he can grant them ultimate skills, like he did with Bernie and Jiwu. Then you’ve got my group, the Octagram, and the assorted champions of the Western Nations. The emperor’s trying to gather enough people to crush them all at once and conquer the world, isn’t he?”
Benimaru and Diablo both agreed.
“It’s quite a headache, but it sounds right to me. And that’s why any non-awakened soldiers mean next to nothing for him.”
“Mmm, yes. Humans are inherently weak creatures, but possessing even one ultimate skill could put them on more equal footing with the likes of us.”
“Tough to admit, isn’t it?”
“I am not enjoying the thought, no.”
“Hey, it’s fine, right? If those skills are that useful, then we can just learn them, too, and we’re good.”
“It’d make fighting far less interesting, wouldn’t it?”
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… That’s rather backward thinking, isn’t it, Testarossa? If our foe fails to possess such powers, then there’s no need to use them, is there? That was the thought process behind the ultimate skill I procured for myself, after all.”
“What?”
“Hey, that’s not fair!”
“Quit getting a leg up on us like that!”
“Ah, such delicious jealousy from the have-nots! I used to ignore Guy instead of letting him taste my envy, I’ll have you know.”
Diablo’s a pretty selfish guy, isn’t he? I thought he was backing me up here, but now this conversation’s going in stranger and stranger directions. If we don’t stop this, Testarossa and her friends are gonna start acting real dangerous before long.
“Getting back to the topic,” Rigurd said, “is it safe to assume that you think the Empire’s objective is to weed out the strong from the weak, Sir Rimuru?”
“Yeah, I’m with the boss on that one. This world’s full of people with superhuman force, starting with King Gazel and continuing on with Hinata and Her Excellency, Emperor Elmesia. Keeping these giants protected was what kept the balance of power in the world stable. And if they can build enough numbers to break that balance, well, that’s when the real fun begins, ain’t it?”
Rigurd and Kaijin both got me perfectly.
“Aha. So they pitted strong against strong, surrounding their allies with people who can assist them. That way, the weak wouldn’t get in their way.”
“Wow. Pretty awful. But at least the weak don’t have much work to do.”
“Yes, it’d be a blessing for the weak if it only took the strong to settle wars. But accepting all these sacrifices in order to create more strongmen truly does go against my aesthetic senses…”
Hearing Gabil’s and my other friends’ reactions made Caligulio and Minitz wince a bit. They were both neck-deep in that whole scene, and now the sheer madness of the operation was probably sinking in. Plus, I think Hakuro was right just now. War really should be fought only by people eager to fight. It’s crazy to get weaker people involved… But of course, the world doesn’t always work that way.
“By the way,” Gadora said, “I seem to recall that kid Yuuki saying that the demon lord Guy wasn’t happy to see the Empire gaining strength. They say he’s the strongest demon lord of all, so I found it rather odd that he’d be so concerned.”
Certainly, if they had ultimate skills on hand, maybe they had what it took to hurt Guy. It’s only natural for him to be wary.
“Guy’s objective is to unite the world under the rule of the demon lords, after all. The Empire is directly clashing against that, so it’s far more than just a conflict of interest between them. But…”
“That’s odd, though. How can someone as arrogant as Guy allow the Empire to keep existing?”
“The stronger the opponent, the more engaging the fight, after all. But Guy’s being surprisingly slow to act. If he was able to, I imagine he would have promptly gone out himself to lay waste to all those fools…”
Diablo, Ultima, and Carrera all had their questions. Testarossa had the answer.
“Oh, that’s easy. It’s because Lady Velgrynd lives in their territory, and if he messes with the Empire, he might get on her bad side. That’s why I was similarly on my best behavior in imperial lands.”
Caligulio gave her a surprised look.
“That was your best behavior?” Minitz muttered softly.
I don’t know what Testarossa was up to over there, but it’s none of my business. I don’t want to start being assigned blame for events that happened way before my time, so I let it slide.
The name Velgrynd piqued my curiosity. Could that be—?
“Hmm. Surprising. Blanc—er, Lady Testarossa, showing respect for the Flame Dragon from the Divine Aerie of Fire?”
Minitz was clearly trying to change the subject as rapidly as possible—Testarossa’s “come again?” smile probably unnerved him. But now I was convinced I knew who Velgrynd was. Here we had a True Dragon, one of four in the world; Veldora’s flame-wrangling elder sister. So that was the Empire’s ace in the hole…
“I wouldn’t call it respect, no. The relationship between our kind and the True Dragons was…somewhat complicated. But since our master, Sir Rimuru, and Sir Veldora are both on our side, it’d only be natural to pay our respects to his sister as well, wouldn’t it?”
Um, so if it wasn’t for their current relationship with Veldora and me, the demonesses wouldn’t show any respect at all for True Dragons?
“Hang on, Testarossa. So you stayed on your ‘best behavior’ because you couldn’t beat Velgrynd? Or could even Guy beat her?”
“Strictly speaking, no, I could not. Guy I cannot speak for, but victory would have been impossible for me. It’s not a matter of strength, though. The True Dragons are immortal beings; there’s no overcoming that unfair advantage.”
Testarossa was the epitome of unfairness in battle, I thought, but now she was using that term for this True Dragon. What could Velgrynd be like, even? I just hope none of this talk gets back to Veldora, though. I could already hear his haughty laughter in my mind.
“Sure. So maybe not even a True Dragon’s a threat for Guy, but he still can’t fully destroy them, huh?”
“Hmm… I don’t know. Not with magic, at least.”
If you can’t kill them, it doesn’t count as a win—that seemed to be the standard for demons, and if it was, there was never any beating a True Dragon. And I think Veldora told me before about how his race can always resurrect themselves after death. A demon could be eliminated by crushing their heart core, but in the case of True Dragons, they’d still come back to life anyway, although their personality and part of their memories would be reset, I guess. Maybe some True Dragons can retain those memories, though, like some demons can. If so, that’d render them truly immortal.
“I see. And if the Empire has someone like that for us, we can’t afford to make any ill-advised moves.”
What Velgrynd was to Guy I couldn’t say, but to us, she was absolutely a threat. But when I voiced that concern, Caligulio shot me a confused look—and then he, Minitz, Jiwu, and Bernie spoke up in order.
“If I may, my lord… As far as I know, the Empire has enshrined Lady Velgrynd as its official guardian dragon. If you look back in history as well, this dragon has protected us from attack by the angels. However…”
“However, she stays with the Empire only because they offer her tribute. It’s merely a whim on her part.”
“She is a beautiful, noble dragon of crimson, and she symbolizes the prosperity of the Empire as a whole. We in the Single Digits are granted an audience with her after His Majesty accepts us. There, we have her learn our names and appearances, and we swear that we will never defy her.”
“Yes, I went through the same ceremony. I’d have to be insane to defy her. No one could ever win that battle.”
So the Empire and Velgrynd were connected, but not in such a way that the Empire could ask her for any favors, I guess. Also, something about Bernie’s reaction bothered me a bit. More than a bit, actually. A whole lot.
“Hey, um, you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but you said that nobody could beat the Marshal, right? But who would win in a fight between that guy and Velgrynd?”
“…Sorry?”
“Let me rephrase that. In your dealings with them both, have you ever gotten, like, a similar vibe from the two of them, or that kind of thing?”
“Are you…?”
Bernie understood what I was getting at. He attempted to laugh it off but failed. I also noticed Jiwu going pale next to him, lost in thought. Now I was sure of it. This Marshal was actually Velgrynd the Flame Dragon… And there was no doubt that she was the reason why the demon lord Guy hadn’t attacked the Empire. That—and the Empire might have had some other threat that rivals this dragon—otherwise, Velgrynd alone seemed like too weak a reason for Guy to sit on his hands.
I turned toward our big screen and let out a sigh.
“Well, great. So if we make any kind of misstep, we’ll incur the wrath of Velgrynd, huh? Send out an army, and she could annihilate the whole thing in one go. In that case, working with Yuuki’s force to invade the Empire would be incredibly reckless.”
Intelligence gathering really is important. Becoming aware of Velgrynd at this point prevented me from stepping on a huge landmine. I wanted to win peace from the Empire, but staging a reverse invasion right now would be a fool’s errand.
“But if Sir Veldora’s sister is our enemy,” Benimaru said, “I’m not sure anyone among us would be capable of defeating her. Perhaps we could have Sir Veldora intervene on our behalf?”
It sounded a bit like a cop-out, but give the question some calm thought, and that’s the logical conclusion. True Dragons are an existence beyond gods, even, and anyone who thinks they could fight and win against one simply isn’t facing reality.
“Ooh, I dunno about that. I hesitate to get Veldora involved in our personal affairs.”
I didn’t want to ask Veldora for this—I’m sure he’d be reluctant to fight his own sister, for one. But that just made our next move more difficult to work out.
“I will need to inform my boy Yuuki about this, I think. He can hardly keep his army deployed out there forever.”
“Good point. We’re gonna have to rework our entire strategy now, so we’ll need to get in touch with Yuuki ASAP.”
Hmm. I pondered over this. But then my problem child Diablo dropped another bombshell.
“This sounds like a problem for Guy as well, so I’ve reached out to him. I think he’ll arrive here shortly, so why don’t we listen to what he has to say?”
Huh?
I couldn’t help but fix Diablo with a cold, sullen stare. He gave me a bashful look back, which almost made me want to kill him. Right when I was troubled the most, this idiot goes way the hell out of line like this…
“You called him?”
“Yes!”
No, not “yes”!
But I couldn’t ignore reality, so I adjourned the meeting and began getting ready for Guy’s visit.
Guy was clearly in a foul mood from the moment he arrived.
“Hey. I’m here. You got a lot of guts callin’ me all this way, you know.”
Yeah, really. But can you say that to Diablo, please, not me?
Guy plopped down roughly on his chair. He had been taken to our more luxurious reception room in the guest house to avoid offending him any further, but maybe that was premature of me. This was a house that we only opened up to the chosen few—royalty, nobility, that sort of thing. If he started taking his frustrations out on our furnishings, we’d be eating a lot of money in damages.
The decor in here was selected by Mjöllmile, who always had a good eye for that kinda thing; he imported fixtures from all over the world, and some of them were as artistic as they were valuable. It all matched with my tastes as well, so most of the pieces were more quietly elegant than “I’m rich”-type fancy. That Japanese sense of wabi-sabi, or quiet, simple refinement. Mjöllmile did a great job sticking to that theme, I think. Rigurd and his kin were still too inexperienced to reach this level of good taste; they never got to interact with artwork before, so understanding the quality of things would take them some more time. But Rigurd also said “It’s so relaxing, being in here” when he paid it a visit, so maybe we have matching tastes, after all.
Regardless, if Guy starts getting violent, I’ll deal with it then. We didn’t have anywhere else suitable enough for entertaining him, so maybe at least a little damage was inevitable. There was no way I’d do something as suicidal as entertain the world’s strongest demon lord in a bare-bones waiting room.
His chair was creaking ominously already. It was another first-rate piece of furniture, carved from fragrant wood. A soft sofa is always nice, but there’s nothing like a good wooden chair that can adjust itself to virtually any body type. It makes you feel like you’re surrounded by lush, inviting force, at peace with nature.
If he broke it, I’d have him pay for it—but now I was doubly glad I dismissed everybody else from the meeting.
The imperial group was back on Floor 70 for the time being, Gabil escorting them down; he’d be watching over them while Adalmann was absent. Soei was busy arranging for Masayuki’s security, while Rigurd was touching base with the relevant authorities to ensure the city was running fine while quarantined in the labyrinth. Kaijin, after conferring with Vester, was having him inform King Gazel of our meeting and its results; I didn’t want to hide anything from him, so we’d be in touch later. Gadora, meanwhile, was reaching out to Yuuki, reasoning that he needed to know about the current situation as they worked out a future course of action. Gobta and Hakuro were on standby in a nearby room, along with the three demonesses, just in case something flared up. It’d be safer to keep them out of Guy’s sight, because who knows what would happen if you mixed them all together, so that was what I decided to do.
So there were four of us in the reception room—Diablo (the original perpetrator), Benimaru, Shion, and me. Guy had brought along three women of his own. One, seated next to him, had a face that reminded me of Milim’s. Her white hair possessed a brilliant sheen, her eyes a deep blue that seemed to absorb anyone who gazed into them. She was surprisingly beautiful, but depending on how you looked at her, she could also be mistaken for a child. It was strange—and given how she casually sat next to Guy, they must have been on equal footing, and I knew only a small number of people like that. If I had to guess…
“This is the first time you met, isn’t it? Lemme introduce you, Rimuru. This is Velzard, Veldora’s elder sister. The Ice Dragon is probably a more suitable name for her, but either way, don’t forget it.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Sir Rimuru. I am Velzard. Perhaps you’ve heard the name Velzard the Ice Dragon before? I knew you were taking care of my brother for me, so I’ve been meaning to say hello to you.”
Well, I was right. She was Veldora’s sister, one of the four all-powerful True Dragons—Velzard the Ice Dragon, in the flesh. That graceful bow to me was so beautiful; just seeing her sit so gracefully on her chair was a sight to behold. She seemed to enjoy the scent of the wood, too… But as elegant as her smile was, it still sent a cold sweat running down my back.
Hanging out with Veldora all the time made me think I was used to handling True Dragons, but this lady was just bad news. The danger was just palpable; it would have been more appropriate to call her a being from another dimension. Veldora had only recently grown capable of controlling his aura with decent precision. I figured he had it down perfectly, but seeing Velzard before me, I understood just how naive I was. This woman made aura control look incredibly natural. I couldn’t sense any of it at all, which showed just how well she could handle it. If she didn’t introduce herself as such, I never would’ve known she was a True Dragon. In fact, I may’ve even thought she was a normal human being. There was no hiding that beauty and dominance, though, so I never would’ve looked down on her.
“Ah, hello. My name is Rimuru, and maybe I don’t look it, but I’m demon-lording it up around here. Your brother’s been a ton of help to me.”
Why do I always sound like such a putz whenever I introduce myself to people? And why does Raphael always clam up at times like these? It was so absurd, I thought, but I still tried to keep smiling.
“Aw, how humble of you! There’s no need to be so protective of him.”
Velzard let out a pleasant, high-pitched laugh. As soon as she did, her mature atmosphere dissipated, and the impression she made resembled a cute little girl’s. Honestly, she looks like she’s high school age and no older—she really is related to Milim. Thankfully, that smile did a lot to ease the heavy atmosphere.
Then we all introduced each other. The other two women in Guy’s entourage were Mizeri the Original Green, whom I met before, and Raine the Original Blue, whom I hadn’t. They were in their “dark maid” uniforms as usual, standing behind Guy with flawless posture. They were the same rank of demon as Diablo, but looking at the prudent step back they took, it sure didn’t seem that way. They were Primals, though, the strongest of demons and nothing a mere Demon Peer could compare to.
Better be careful I don’t exhibit any bad manners around them, I thought as I carefully wrapped up the intros. Benimaru, seated next to me, was the picture of politeness, but I was nervous through Shion’s entire greeting. With Diablo, I felt like someone trying to dismantle a live bomb. I wondered why I decided to take this group in, but it was too late to do anything about it.