Gotta be careful with him, too, I see. He meekly sat back down for me, but I couldn’t let my guard down yet. Let’s just get this intro over with.
“Yeah, so Mr. Laplace here is our point of contact for Yuuki at the moment.”
“Just Laplace is fine, y’know.”
“Oh, is it? Then, great. Anyway, we’ve set up a meeting with Yuuki for tomorrow. It’s a bit of a rush, I know, but Laplace is apparently gonna transport me over there, so we don’t have to worry about travel time. The main question at hand is: Who’s going with me?”
Finally, I got down to business.
“Mm-hmm. So I can only carry up to six people in all. Assumin’ that you and I are must-haves, d’you mind tellin’ me the other four you’ll bring, Lord Rimuru?”
I wanted to deploy as much force as I possibly could, but even in the best case, I wouldn’t have all my top people on hand. Ranga was still asleep in my shadow, and Geld had yet to wake up as well. The labyrinth gang—Kumara, Zegion, and Adalmann—had reportedly all holed up in their respective domains, showing no sign of stirring. The length of everyone’s evolutionary slumber seemed to vary a lot; I guess that’s just how the cookie crumbles. So I looked over who was available one more time.
“Benimaru, I’d like you to come with me, but how’re you feeling?”
“What, does he have a cold or somethin’?” Laplace asked, a wary look in his eyes. I’m sure he’ll find out soon enough anyway, but I wasn’t feeling nice enough to explain it all for him.
“I’m feeling fine. Best shape of my life, actually.”
Benimaru flashed a heroic smile, retaining his coolness and completely ignoring Laplace. He’s much more capable than I’ll ever be, a fact that occasionally amazes me at times like this.
I gave him a closer look as I internally praised him—only to find that he had changed species while I wasn’t paying attention. He must’ve worked things out with Momiji and Alvis, so to speak, and now the evolution was complete. In fact, according to what I heard later, Benimaru had spent two nights with each of his new wives in turn. I don’t know if I should congratulate him on weathering that…or just sit here, seething in all my jealousy.
Now he had abandoned his physical body, only to reincarnate and become a fully spiritual life-form. The name of his species was Flamesoul Ogre, a type of elemental soul. Like True Dragons, he retained both the holy and evil attributes, making him something like a chaos elemental, a stripped-down version of a True Dragon.
Both True Dragons and chaos elementals could take the form of various attributes, with “flame” being an upgraded version of “fire.”
The natural family of elements consists of earth, water, fire, wind, and space—the five major attributes, as they’re called. The rule of thumb is that fire beats earth, water beats fire, wind beats water, space beats wind, and earth beats space. Picture it as fire scorching earth, water extinguishing fire, wind scattering water, space blockading wind, and earth occupying space, and there you have the conflicts in a nutshell.
In addition to these five major attributes, you also have the two opposing attributes of light and darkness—as well as “time,” which exists over all the other ones and cannot be restrained by any of them.
Elemental spirits like Ifrit are bound by these physical laws… Or to put it another way, they’re the embodiments of the laws governing the world, and apparently there are eight types of these embodiments. The light and dark attributes are somewhat special, with light being derived from angels—and darkness from demons. The angels and demons I know of so far could be called elemental spirits, technically, if you trace their roots. Someone like Diablo could tell me more if I asked, but I’m not that interested, and it’s not like I could do much with the knowledge anyway.
The key takeaway here is that there are eight kinds of elemental souls, each higher up than elemental spirits. The highest ranked among them are the True Dragons, and currently, only four are known to exist. Veldanava, the Star-King Dragon, is probably associated with the space and earth elements, judging by the name, and maybe more as well. Velzard the Ice Dragon is likely water-based; Velgrynd the Flame Dragon is almost certainly fire-based; and our own Veldora rules over not just water and wind, but space as well—a pretty big deal, despite how he acts.
So the True Dragons stand at the pinnacle of all elemental souls, and it’s safe to say that Benimaru had evolved into a similar existence. Flamesoul Ogres are spiritual life-forms, but they also have physical bodies that let them properly interact with the material world. With their infinite life span, calling people like him god-ogres wouldn’t be pushing it at all.
It’s a very special evolution that Benimaru pulled off, and I was impressed. His magicule count received a major boost as well—it was now several times what Carillon boasted, I think. It probably wouldn’t max out quite at Luminus’s level, but I still thought Benimaru was decent competition. At this rate, I was reasonably sure he could fight the Single Digits at an even keel—or maybe better.
“All right! In that case, Benimaru, you’re my first choice. As for person number two…”
Gadora was already on the list, so I had two picks left. I was planning to take Shion and Diablo as well, which brought me very neatly up to four.
“…I’m going to have Gadora serve as our guide, and after that, I’ll bring my secretaries Shion and Diablo.”
So Laplace would be taking me, Gadora, Benimaru, Shion, and Diablo.
“You can count on me, Sir Rimuru! You will be completely safe and sound around me!”
Shion was beaming. I’m not so sure about the “safe and sound” part. I had a lot of concerns, in fact, but Shion’s a bodyguard I knew I could rely on. She defeated a superior opponent in Razul, and when it came to battle, I couldn’t leave her off the list.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… I don’t know what kind of scheme Guy may be hatching, but putting you through all this hardship is simply outrageous. With you by my side, I assure you that I will put an end to all your worries!”
Confident as always. But I saw no reason not to hold him up to that. Diablo’s good at his job, and it’s times like these that I want to rely on him.
We might be an elite team on this mission, but we couldn’t rest on our laurels. The others here would be following soon; I’d have them join us in the Empire later on. But before I could outline all that, one attendee was already expressing her dissatisfaction.
“If you could, Sir Rimuru, I humbly suggest that I would be better suited to serve as a guide. I hope you’ll consider having me accompany you.”
It was Testarossa. She was born in the Empire, I suppose, and she probably knew a lot about its geography. She was proving to be a talented diplomatic officer, gifted in negotiation, and there was certainly no complaining about her fighting strength—hell, she might even have been stronger than me. The only real advantage Gadora had over her is his acquaintance with Yuuki, so if you think about it, I could probably get along without him. Gadora’s pretty strong (especially for his age), but he couldn’t hold a candle to Testarossa—and I still had a slight nagging fear that he wouldn’t think twice about double-crossing us.
With that in mind, I didn’t want to have any regrets no matter what I decided on, but at the same time, I did feel a little bad for her. Maybe I should take the hint.
“All right. In that case, maybe I should replace Gadora with you, then?”
“It would truly be an honor.”
Testarossa gave me a beautiful, almost blinding smile. Gadora didn’t seem to mind either way, fortunately, so let’s go with that.
“Righto,” interjected Laplace. “Looks like you’ve made up your mind, so I’m gonna go prep. Lemme know when you’re all set.”
“Sure, but what are you prepping for?”
Laplace gave me an awkward look.
“Well, um, you know…”
“He’s prepping for a trip to our hot spring. He’s been going between there and our dining hall since yesterday, using our recreational facilities like they belong to him.”
Soei sounded pretty pissed about it. Good thing I was having Laplace surveilled.
“Ha-ha-ha! You got me, I guess. Don’t be such a stick in the mud, Soei!”
As if we’d never notice. He really does have a lot of guts, doesn’t he?
“You were paying the bills for that, right?”
“Hey, I’m a guest here, ya know? I’ll pay you back with the work I’ll be doing for y’all, so how ’bout we treat it as on the house for now?”
“Guts” ain’t the half of it.
“Laplace…”
“Hey, hey, hey, it’s not my fault this country’s such a charmer from start to finish! It’s the most advanced in the world, no two ways about it! Paradise, even. Who wouldn’t wanna kick back and relax while they’re here?!”
Now he was laying it on thick about how great Tempest was. Receiving such effusive praise wasn’t exactly off-putting, no. I figured maybe Laplace wasn’t so bad, after all.
“He’s distracting you, Sir Rimuru!”
“Don’t worry, Benimaru. He might try to put one over on Sir Rimuru, but I’m keeping a careful watch over him at all times.”
Oops.
Benimaru and Shion snapped me out of it. I cleared my throat.
“Well, keep it in moderation, all right?”
“Oh, of course, of course! So yeah, I’ll see you guys in a bit, okay?”
Then Laplace gleefully skipped out of the meeting hall. What a free spirit, I thought as we moved on to the next topic.
“If it’ll be only five of you in enemy territory, don’t you think that’s a little too dangerous?”
“I firmly agree. If anything happens to Sir Rimuru, we would never recover, no matter how many battles we win.”
“Indeed. I certainly understand that a vast army isn’t what we need in this final clash, but if things go awry, someone needs to serve as a shield for Sir Rimuru.”
Soei, Gabil, and Hakuro, in that order, all expressed their opposition to my plans. They discreetly kept quiet about it while Laplace was around, but now they made their grievances clear with me.
“Master Hakuro’s right, y’know. And if push comes to shove, I’m prepared to take the heat for Sir Rimuru, too. I’d kinda be a meat shield, y’know?”
“Gobta.”
“Ah!”
A meat shield? I couldn’t help but imagine that in action. I really wish I didn’t.
“Hakuro, stop teaching stuff like that to Gobta.”
“Of course. I just thought, though, it is quite important to teach him how to prepare for such eventualities.”
I understood what Hakuro was getting at. It was just that my heart didn’t agree with it.
“I mean, I’m glad all of you are concerned for me, but you’re all really important to me, too. I don’t want to kick this off with a strategy that assumes we’ll have to take casualties. If we want to avoid that, I think we should pool all our resources together for this effort.”
“Quite true. Perhaps we are a little ahead of ourselves.”
I’m not sure I was convincing too many people. Even Benimaru and the rest seem to be on Hakuro’s side. If I were them, maybe I’d feel the same way. Still, though… I appreciate the thought, but I still don’t want anyone to die here. Maybe it’s selfish of me, but I want to put my own feelings first.
“Anyway, I’m not gonna run a strategy that demands any loss of life. Let’s stick with that assumption as we discuss the final stages of our war against the Empire.”
Everyone nodded at my words. They seemed ready to participate in this discussion, regardless of their personal feelings.
“If I could begin, Sir Rimuru…”
“Yes, Soei?”
“I have a Replication of mine undercover within the Empire. There’s been a number of obstacles preventing me from reaching the capital just yet. But it does seem that their security network is looser than usual. I was thinking of using Shadow Motion to meet with you once Laplace organizes the transport. Would that be all right?”
I see. That’s reassuring, actually. Soei always serves me well as my shadow, and that really hits home with situations like this. He’s a great fighter, too, and taking a closer look at him, he went and evolved on me as well.
No longer an oni, he was now a species known as Darksoul Ogre; apparently it was a blessing he received in conjunction with Benimaru’s evolution. He was raised as Benimaru’s shadow back in their ogre homelands, the yin to his yang, and while there was a definite hierarchy to their relationship, they were still fast friends. A natural counterpart to Benimaru, in other words, and that was why Benimaru’s awakening affected him so much. The system behind this evolution must’ve seen Soei as his subordinate, but that wasn’t a problem—they still treated each other the same.
Darksoul Ogres are chaos elementals bearing the darkness attribute. Just like Benimaru, Soei was now a spiritual life-form with a physical body. Kind of a servant deity for Benimaru, then? His magicule count was medium-size, not colossally high; it was nothing compared to Benimaru’s but still higher than Clayman’s in his half-awakened state. That’s enough strength for me, and I was sure he could be a good match for ex–demon lords like Carillon or Frey.
Maybe that boost in strength was what allowed him to skirt the Empire’s security so far? Well, either way, fine by me. I was just glad to have Soei along—but that also brought Masayuki’s protection into question.
“That’s a very reassuring offer, Soei. But what about Masayuki?”
“I will have a Replication of mine continue monitoring him. If something happens, I think I can handle it well enough.”
He sounded confident.
“In that case,” added Diablo, “perhaps I could install Venom as a companion for Masayuki? If we keep it a secret from the boy, I think Venom could play the role of a monitor and bodyguard at the same time. That would lighten Soei’s load, and it’d also provide some extra insurance.”
Ooh, good idea. Venom had a very sensible, un-demonlike personality, and he’d been getting along strength-wise, too. I felt like he and Masayuki would get along well—maybe they could even become good friends. It sounded like a real neat idea.
“That means your second-in-command would be unavailable, keep in mind.”
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… That will not be a problem. With Testarossa and the others around, my own work will not be affected at all.”
Sounds great, then.
“Are you good with that, Soei?”
“It would be more certain, perhaps, to provide a visible bodyguard rather than monitor him from the shadows. I would be able to save the energy that Replication consumes as well.”
Excellent. Let’s do it.
“All right, let’s go in that direction, then.”
“Yes, my lord!”
“I’ll get on it right away.”
So Venom would be Masayuki’s escort, and Soei would instead join us on-site. The only thing left to decide is whether to deploy our army—and how.
“Now, as we fight alongside Dwargon, do you think we’d need a show of force for the Empire?”
Our First and Third Army Corps returned home with us once they finished retrieving all the bodies. Their full manpower was stationed here in Rimuru, our capital city. The Second Army Corps, meanwhile, couldn’t be deployed because Geld, their leader, was still taking his evolution nap. Which meant…
“Sir Rimuru, is this where we may come in?”
“Whoa, wait a sec! We’re shipping out first!”
Gabil I expected, but it was rare to see Gobta so enthusiastic about stuff like this. But unlike last time, I felt like relying on strength in numbers was too risky. If we were fighting a massive army, I wouldn’t attempt a large assault that’d get too many of my allies involved, but this time, we were a bit like a SWAT team. They might decide to carpet-bomb us with nuclear magic or expose us to even more drastic measures. Armies waging magic battle tend to rely on the power of their legion magic, with teams of elites slinging attacks before that magic’s broken—but if the opponent’s above a certain level of strength, the soldiers at the end of the line are just dead weight.
“What do you think, Hakuro?”
“Hoh-hoh-hoh! I know exactly what you’re thinking, Sir Rimuru, and I see it as the right thing to think.”
“Okay. No novices, then. And we shouldn’t take any low-ranking soldiers in either?”
“I believe that’s best for minimizing casualties, yes.”
“And so…”
“So it’ll just be the Goblin Riders from my corps?”
“And Team Hiryu from mine will be readied for combat!”
Sounds like it. The Goblin Riders ranked an A for their overall teamwork. They served as excellent decoys in the war so far, and I didn’t think anyone could beat them that easily. When it came to fleeing, they were all but unbeatable, so I didn’t see any issues there. Also, following Gabil’s awakening, every member of Team Hiryu was now past A in rank. I’m a little concerned about the control they had over their powers, but—ah, they oughtta be okay.
“All right. Gobta and Gabil, I want you to start prepping along those lines… Oh, wait a second.”
I was about to set it in stone when I remembered something else important.
“Gobta, can you guys call upon your starwolf partners right now?”
“Huh?”
“Like, Ranga hasn’t finished the awakening process yet, so all the other wolves under him are still sleeping, too, right?”
“Ohhh!”
Guess that’s a no, then.
“Right. You’ll stay here on standby, then.”
“B-but…”
“Don’t tell me you aren’t aware of your limitations, Gobta.”
“…Sorry.”
Gobta was visibly mopey about this, but I couldn’t do much about it, sadly. The Goblin Riders’ main advantages stemmed from the high mobility of their starwolf mounts. Each Rider may have ranked an A-plus no problem, but I still couldn’t afford to take them along on this.
“Hey, it’s not your fault. Hook up with Rigur and focus on security within our own borders, all right?”
“Yes, sir!”
So with some regrets, Gobta’s army had to stay here. Which meant our only other deployable troops were…
“How’s Team Kurenai doing, Benimaru?”
“No problems there. Every one of them’s achieved a rank of A.”
Perfect. They had an excellent commander in Gobwa, and some of them had even evolved into ogre mages during the blessing process. They ought to be reliable enough if we send them out.
“Soei, how about Team Kurayami?”
“They are deployed across the land, gathering intelligence and gauging the enemy. I can call them back if necessary…”
“No, keep them working behind the scenes.”
“Very well.”
No need to demand them back here. The importance of their intelligence ops went without question, so let’s have them keep that up.
“That just leaves Team Reborn…”
“I’d love to deploy them, Sir Rimuru! They’re ready and willing to play a more active role at any moment!”
“Hmm, yeah…”
Shion’s awakening brought about no special changes in her, but Team Reborn’s fighting power had grown a lot, with some members achieving an A rank. They were hard to kill, which was a big advantage, so I figured they’d be okay in this battle—but Team Reborn was at its most effective only when Shion was with them. If nobody was around to command them, they’d be rudderless. It’d be less risky, I thought, to keep them back home like Gobta’s force.
“…Nah, I think we’ll leave them.”
“Oh no!”
“Team Reborn’s more of a bodyguard force than an army, you know? I’d feel safer if you’re with me instead, Shion.”
“Ah, I see!”
Shion readily accepted that.
So now we had our deployment fully worked out. Team Hiryu had a hundred members—Team Kurenai, three hundred. That was four hundred people ranked A or higher in all, making for an excellent little fighting division. They may not have been the largest, but no one would ever doubt their battle skill.
Still, this wasn’t quite enough to reassure me.
“Now, Ultima and Carrera, I have a job for you two.”
“Oh, absolutely! Anything you like!”
“What is it, my lord?”
“Ultima, I want you to continue accompanying Gabil’s force as an intelligence officer. Carrera, I’ll be assigning you support duty for Gobwa this time, not Geld.”
“Oh… The lizards again?”
“Understood. I’ll try to be as discreet as possible in my post.”
Their replies weren’t exactly filling me with confidence. Ultima seemed to have a beef or two with Gabil, and frankly, I didn’t believe Carrera could keep a low profile doing much of anything.
“Heavens, Ultima! Do you have some issues with my force, perhaps?”
“Yes! Lots of them! Like, the way you guys act creeps me out. It’s kind of hard to figure out what makes you tick, from a commonsense perspective.”
“Ha-ha-ha! No need to worry about that! When it comes to battle, we always take things fully seriously!”
“And you call experimenting with the hostile fire of enemies in the middle of war being serious?”
“Don’t be silly! It’s wise to try every possible tactic in order to gain an advantage in battle. Experimentation is part of that, and it’s something all of us should take seriously, I think!”
“No, it’s something you should finish up before battle begins! Why do I even have to lecture you about this?!”
I suppose having a beef or two with him is understandable. From what I was hearing, Ultima seemed to be in the right, too.
“I’m sorry, but do you think you could put up with it this time, at least?”
“If those are your orders, Sir Rimuru, I’ll do my best with them! I was thinking that I’d need to teach them a lot of things anyway, so I’ll try to see this as a good opportunity and stuff.”
Even with that resentful glare, Ultima was as cute as always as she evaluated Gabil. They may not get along well, but I felt like I could leave Gabil in her care.
“And, Carrera, well, you don’t have to worry about keeping a low profile too much.”
“Oh?”
She was bound to start bashing heads in battle anyway, so trying to be “discreet” here seemed pretty absurd to me. Instead, I just wanted Carrera to think a little more about the right time and place for that kinda thing.
“The number one rule I want you to remember is to keep your allies safe from damage. Beyond that, just keep quiet until the fighting starts, all right?”
“Sure! That sounds simple enough!”
Is it?
I wouldn’t make any more demands, I promised her, as long as she absolutely abided by that one. Hopefully this would help everything work out, but…
“Hakuro, could you accompany Gobwa as well?”
“Certainly.”
“Try to rein in Carrera for me, okay?”
Hakuro nodded, sniggering a bit.
We had our deployment all sorted out—or so I thought, before Gadora raised his hand.
“Sir Rimuru, if I may be so bold, I’d like to discuss something else with you.”
“What’s that?”
“I think it might be a good idea to include the Demon Colossus in this war.”
Aha.
Getting it out of the labyrinth is a bit of a problem, but even if it breaks, it won’t lead to any human casualties. With Gadora taking control of it, I was sure he could get out safely if need be. He had both a Resurrection Bracelet and an emergency-return spell in his arsenal, after all. No matter what kind of raging battlefield we threw him into, we wouldn’t need to worry about him, which was a big advantage. But did we really want to reveal the Colossus’s combat capabilities to the world?
“Vester, what do you think?”
I asked Vester for his opinion. He replied with a defiant grin as he pushed his glasses up his nose.
“It might be the perfect occasion for the big unveiling, actually. I’ve already given a detailed report on it to King Gazel, and he’s been eager to see it in action for a while. I’d like to collect data from it in all kinds of conditions, so it’d be interesting for me to see how it performs on an actual battlefield.”
Vester really is a scientist, isn’t he? The value of a weapon is determined by how powerful it is—you gotta fire it off in public sometime, even if it’s just for a show of force. From that standpoint, maybe this battle would be a nice place for a demonstration. That’s what Vester thinks, I presume.
Certainly, the Demon Colossus was best suited for close-up warfare. It wasn’t a weapon of mass destruction that way, but it’d be killer for intimidating opponents, sapping their will to fight. If I was letting the three demonesses out on the battlefield, it’d be morally wrong for me to turn this down.
“But if the enemy seized it from us, wouldn’t that be a serious technology leak?”
“Oh, I promise we won’t make that mistake!”
“Well, if that happens, we’ll just develop an even better golem next time. There’s no single endpoint to technology, after all. Still, just in case, it has been equipped with a self-destruct mechanism, so there’s no need to worry about any leaks.”
Hold on. He was making this out to be a nice, happy story, but there was one part of it I couldn’t ignore.
“A self-destruct mechanism?”
“That’s right. Sir Veldora was quite insistent on having one in there. I thought he was joking at first, but I have to hand it to him—he must have anticipated a situation like that.”
No. He definitely didn’t. I had a feeling Veldora was behind it; it was the kind of harebrained thing either he or Ramiris would come up with, given all the manga I’ve been feeding them. I really wish they’d stop obsessing over useless crap like this. Still, better to have it than not, at least.
“All right. In that case, I don’t care too much if it breaks down or falls into enemy hands, but don’t be reckless with it, all right?”
“So we can bring it out?!”
“Yep, you’re clear to go. And Gadora, we may or may not need you in battle, but I’d still like you on hand in case of emergency.”
“By all means, Sir Rimuru. And personally, I don’t want to be too cruel toward my former colleagues. The way I see it, the Demon Colossus will come into play only if they break out some new weapon we’re not aware of!”
Sounds safe enough to leave to him, then. Gadora’s quick on his feet, so he might decide to switch sides again if defeat starts looking inevitable for us. Maybe he was angling to position himself outside our labyrinth just in case it came to that—that seemed plausible to me, but it wouldn’t be right to voice that yet. We needed to be optimistic for now and keep Gadora away from any second thoughts. In other words, all we needed was an undeniable, overwhelming victory against the Empire, and we were good.
So the final lineup, with Gadora included after all, was now set in place.
It was evening by the time the meeting ended. Once it adjourned, each of us began to prepare for tomorrow… Although for me, that meant relaxing a bit in our dining hall.
Tomorrow I’d be giving a pep talk for my personal entourage in the morning, and then we’d all head off via the transport spell. In the afternoon, I’d confer with Yuuki; Laplace was going to take me to him, so we’d have plenty of time to spare. This would just be a day trip for me, so I didn’t have a whole lot to prep for. I certainly didn’t need to bring a gift for Yuuki or whatnot; I figured we should keep things casual.
“Are you sure you should be so blithe about this?”
“Ahhh, I bet it’s fine. And what about you? You sure you should be leaving Momiji and Alvis alone right now?”
Benimaru was with me in the dining hall. Being a newlywed and all, I wanted him to have as much relaxing home time as possible. That was why I asked about his wives, but Benimaru just chuckled at me.
“They told me they’re taking a cooking lesson from Shuna today. I heard they have an informal agreement not to try to one-up each other, but thanks to that, they’ve shooed me away from the house for now…”
Whoa. Not exactly the happiest, most carefree way to kick off a marriage, is it? I wondered if they could keep things up like that, but it’s not on me to comment on other people’s family lives.
“I—I see,” I said, sagely nodding in agreement as Diablo excitedly brought a meal over to us—like a real butler, for a change. I mean, it still felt weird having a Primal demon serving as my butler, but he seemed to enjoy every minute of it, and I wasn’t about to shoot him down. I was used to this treatment now, besides, and I wasn’t about to change my mind.
“Thank you very much.”
“No, no, this is part of my job as well, so…”
You think so, huh? Well, if you’re happy, I’m happy.
“I have this as well for you, Sir Rimuru.”
Shion was there, pouring me a glass of wine. She didn’t make it herself, of course, so it was perfectly safe and nonlethal to drink, but something about her presence made me really uncomfortable. This was a simple meal of fried pork cutlets and rice, after all, so I really didn’t need this five-star service. Having Diablo and Shion standing behind me just added to my fatigue.
“Here, why don’t you guys sit down and eat with us?”
“What a kind thing to say.”
“Oh, no, I’m already full, so don’t worry about me!”
“Yes, Shion’s been sampling the wares in the kitchen, after all.”
“Damn you, Diablo!”
Eesh. They were at each other’s throats over every little thing. It seemed pointless to give them any more attention, so Benimaru and I let them be and enjoyed our meal.
“So do you intend to fully trust Yuuki, then?”
“Not from the heart, no. That’s kind of asking a lot. But right now, I kind of have to, you know? And I want to, also.”
“Then I will follow your lead, Sir Rimuru. Our entire strategy, after all, assumes that we can trust him.”
“And what if he turns traitor?”
“That would be…trouble. But we can manage, I imagine.”
“Mmm. Well, sorry for the trouble in advance.”
“I’m always ready and willing.”
Something about Benimaru’s smile really encourages me. In war, you always have to trust your allies—your friends. Let any doubt seep into your mind, and that throws your chances of success at any operation into uncertainty. If Yuuki betrays us, we’d pay an enormous toll for that, so it’s certainly a difficult choice I’m being forced to make. But I decided to trust Yuuki, and now that I made that decision, there was no point worrying over it.
“I was wondering, by the way… Do you even need to eat now?”
I posed the question to Benimaru, who was tucking into his meal right alongside me.
“In terms of ‘need,’ the answer is no.”
“Ah. I thought so.”
“But the same applies to you, doesn’t it, Rimuru? I’m just glad I didn’t lose my sense of taste.”
“Oh, I hear you. When I lost the three main desires all human beings have, I thought the world was gonna end, honestly. I went through a lot of hard work to regain my appetite and need to sleep, so I’m really enjoying every day now.”
“I’m sure. I was worried about the possibility as well, but I’m the same as always on that front, so I can’t complain.”
We nodded at each other. Then something occurred to me.
“Oh, so all three of your major needs are still there?”
“Yes, fortunately. All of them.”
“Even sleep?”
“I don’t need to sleep, but meditation puts me in a sleep state. It still helps me recover from fatigue as well.”
Wow. So I had to go through all that work in order to sleep, but he gets to keep that from the start? And it even gives him a lot of benefits I don’t get to enjoy. But what I was even more interested in…
“And your sex drive?”
I lowered my voice as I asked it. Benimaru nodded back, looking a little embarrassed.
“Aw, what the hell? I thought you couldn’t evolve because you won’t be able to have children then.”
“That’s right. But both Momiji and Alvis are pregnant right now.”
“Well, congratulations—but wait, did you keep your sex drive after the evolution?!”
“I assumed it would disappear as well, but whether I’m fertile or not, it’s still there, yes. Looks like I won’t be leaving them lonely, after all.”
I was just too jealous. Keeping functionality I never had in the first place… Talk about a perfect evolution. God dammit, why can’t I have that…?
“Gee, that’s greeeeeeat.”
“Yes… Hey, why are you taking my food?!”
“Shut up, you traitor!”
My jealousy finally ignited as I took Benimaru’s dish away.
All I got left to enjoy is food, but look at you, you bastard!
Could anyone have faulted me for thinking that way?
Anyway, we continued to enjoy ourselves well into the night—the usual scene, kind of. But all that was about to end abruptly.