bookworm

Oh, you’re aware of it? How clever of you.”
Velgrynd’s smile was as beautiful as it was terrifying. The more you want to be wrong about something, the more correct you turn out to be, huh?
My unvarnished take on this was: How the hell am I gonna beat that?! No wonder Testarossa was sure she couldn’t pull it off. I was so comfortable with this before because I figured I could call on Veldora here to even the odds. Now, though, I understand that I can’t even count on that.
According to Raphael, Parallel Existence is an extremely dangerous power. To the uninformed, it may not seem much different from Soei’s Replications. In his case, he can control several Replications at the same time. It’s impossible to tell who’s the “real” one, and no matter how many Replications you beat down, that’ll never hurt Soei himself. He could also keep churning them out as long as he had enough magicules, which kind of seemed like cheating to me. That’s because there’s no difference in physical ability between Soei and his Replications, so it really is like having multiple Soeis on the field.
But let’s take a peek behind the curtain.
Controlling multiple Replications at once is actually pretty tricky. The skill doesn’t split his consciousness at all; instead, he uses Thought Communication to operate the copies of himself without a time lag. He also uses Mind Accelerate to adjust his reaction times, so it only looks like they’re all moving independently without any issues. I don’t use Replications too often myself, because this is really an incredibly difficult trick to pull off. Soei, meanwhile, is a true master of his game and one of the most thoughtful people I know; an amateur like me could never handle it as well as him.
And one other thing; the Replications’ physical abilities match the caster’s body, but their magical abilities always lose out by comparison. The copied bodies don’t have full access to the caster’s skills. That’s why Soei’s Replications can only use skills that don’t consume much magic power—and that’s why, if you knew that little secret, it wasn’t too hard to tell which Replication is actually the real thing. If you’re defeated, of course, your Replications instantly disappear as well, so it’s definitely not an invincibility code or anything.
Meanwhile, with the Parallel Existence skill Velgrynd had, she could divide bits of her consciousness into every copy. “Copy” wasn’t even the right term any longer—it was simply like having multiple versions of your “real” self. It meant that even if you killed one of them, as long as there’s at least one other “alternate” of hers left, that could serve as her main one. Plus, she didn’t have to split up her magic force at all. Every “alternate” was connected with the main body, so she could replenish as much magic power as she wanted on any version of herself.
There’s a limit, of course, to how much magic she has overall, so the more bodies she has out, the more that reduces the maximum magic each individual one can tap. Normally, you’d see that as a weakness to leverage, but this was a True Dragon, notorious for having scads of magicules. She could replenish her alternates faster than they could use up magic, so even a modicum of usage wouldn’t mean much.
Frankly, I have no idea how to defeat her. I’m not Testarossa, but I can’t blame her for publicly avowing that she couldn’t win.
I returned Velgrynd’s gaze, giving as arrogant a smile as I could.
“Well, thank you. I’ve got a really talented partner, you know, and when it comes to smarts, he’s tough to beat. So I guess you think you’ve trapped us, but can you tell us what you want?”
In situations like these, bluffing is about all I got left. I had to make them think I knew exactly what they were up to; if it put them off guard enough to fear me, I had it made. But it was clearly not gonna work out that way.
“Aren’t you rather confident? The way you refuse to admit defeat reminds me so much of my brother.”
Meaning Veldora, I imagine. Having a sister like this must’ve been a real pain to him. Do you see now, Rimuru?! I thought I heard him say, but Ludora was talking, so I had to pay attention.
“What I want? Well, if you’re that convinced of your intelligence, I don’t think I need to tell you, do I?”
That’s not really helpful, you know. If they wanted to rub us out, they’d be fighting by now. If they instead set up a roundtable of sorts, that meant there was room for negotiation. I think the answer here might just be that they’re trying to win us over to their side?
Affirmative. This is believed to be correct. However, they may also be stalling for time. In that case, they may be attempting to defeat the subject Veldora Tempest and add him to their fold.
Hey, I did pretty good there, didn’t I? I’m half right, at least.
Certainly, in Kondo’s plans, “Marshal” Velgrynd would be taking control of Veldora. I didn’t pay it much attention because I assumed it was impossible at this juncture—but if she had a Parallel Existence running around, was Velgrynd on her way to storm the labyrinth right this minute?
It was now an urgent question, so I contacted Veldora through our soul corridor.
(Hey, how’s it going?)
(You fool! Now is not the time for casual greetings! Things are, um, rather hectic in here! My sister… My sister is pursuing me! She is outside the labyrinth right now, but at this rate, she is going to storm inside!!)
Yep. Sounds pretty busy.
(You gonna be okay?)
(I will have to come out for her. That would beat her laying waste to the labyrinth to reach me.)
Parallel Existence or not, I really didn’t think Veldora would lose. So I decided to give him permission to exercise his full force.
(All right. I’ll take full responsibility for the fallout, so just do something about Velgrynd for me. Can you do that?)
(Oh-ho? Well, in that case, allow me to handle everything for you! Kwah-ha-ha-ha!!)
(Great!)
I ended the call, now much relieved. Leave it to Veldora, and I’ve got nothing to be concerned about. That—and I now understood what Ludora’s plan was. Time to return to the bargaining table.
“Your mission right now is to try winning us over. And also, you’re trying to buy time with this meeting so we won’t interfere with your fight against Veldora, right?”
I tried to look as smug as possible as I laid it on them. Ludora gave this an elated smile.
“Ahhh, you’re such an entertaining person. It’d be fun to have you match wits with Tatsuya, but there’s no time for more diversions right now. If you already know that much, then I don’t need to explain matters further, do I? I want you to join us and serve under me. Do it, and I’ll guarantee your sovereignty and grant you the title of archduke.”
“Ludora! If you appoint a non–blood relative archduke, you know the nobles will wail over it.”
“I’ll live. That’s how worth it he is to me, if he cooperates.”
So not just a duke, but an archduke? I think you’re supposed to be in the emperor’s bloodline, and the title dies with you, and stuff like that? And Ludora’s promised to let me have that. From the Empire’s perspective, this must be an unprecedented offer. After all this talk about how they never offered surrender to their foes, too! And how they always subjugated and colonized the nations they conquered! This Empire that’s expanded through countless wars of aggression was about to give me one of the best deals possible. Honestly, they were rating me a lot higher than I ever thought they would.
But sadly, I already had my answer.
“Well, I know that’s an excellent offer you’re giving me, but the answer is no. But here’s a proposal for you: How about we just call it quits here? I don’t need reparations or anything, but I’d like us to sign a nonaggression treaty with each other.”
Judging how nobody here gave a second thought to the sacrifices they demanded from those who served them, it’d be nothing short of suicidal for me to give in. If I kidded myself into thinking I’d be the first exception in the Empire’s long history, it’d be my one-way ticket to ruin.
So I firmly refused Ludora’s offer. What’s more, since I had the chance and all, I expressed my own request to him. Personally, we hadn’t suffered any damage, so I wasn’t gonna ask for an apology or anything. As long as they swear not to mess with us any longer, I’m willing to just sweep this invasion under the rug. I’m sure some people would complain about that, but if we can settle this without any more bloodshed, I think that’s the best approach.
I know I was going too easy on them, and I know I couldn’t rely much on promises. If we don’t trust each other, they’re bound to break the treaty at some point. But the most important thing right now is to buy time. By making peace here, we’d have more time to get to know each other. There was hope, I felt, that more time to deepen our mutual understanding could lead to a future where war could be avoided. If we kept fighting like this, we’d have no choice but to take it all the way to the end—and if that’s how it was, I still wanted to take a chance on this possibility, however small.
But Ludora answered with a cold smile.
“Ah, I see you are not so fit to serve as a ruler, after all. You fail to see my mercy for what it is, and you spin a web of nonsense instead.”
“So cocky. Ludora’s made every possible concession for you, and you’ve thrown it all away.”
They reacted like they had the absolute advantage here, despite having just lost an army of one million. They don’t really feel, deep down, that they’ve lost at all. All the soldiers and officers who perished thanks to his orders were no great shakes. Something about that really frightened me.
“I believe that human beings are creatures who can learn to understand each other. That, over time, they will organize themselves into a single will and work together to create a better world. But to achieve that, it is first essential to unify the world through overwhelming military force.”
Ludora’s words might seem like the kind of ideals I go on about. But there was a major gap between us, one that would prove hard to fill. It was so frustrating. We both started at the same point, but he reached the exact opposite conclusion—I now had all the proof I needed of that. I wondered for a moment if he was even more of an idealist than I was. But he wasn’t. He claims that only his own righteousness can bring about true justice; he’s a dictatorial thinker who refuses to accept the ideas of anyone else.
Just as I thought, it’s unlikely that we’d ever be compatible. And if we were this far apart in our arguments, it’d likely be impossible to find a compromise through discussion.
“Humans are creatures with free will, you know. There’s no such thing as unchanging justice in this world—there are so many ways people can think about matters. And don’t you think refusing to acknowledge this will only sow more seeds of conflict?”
“How foolish of you. My way of thinking is supreme—supremely just. If you keep catering to the selfish whims of the idiotic masses, you know you’ll never reach that ideal world of yours.”
“But people make mistakes, don’t they?!”
“That I cannot deny. I do listen to the voices of my most trusted advisers. But I can’t listen to all the voices from the people below me. If I did that, we’d be in constant turmoil.”
Mmph. He might be right about that, yeah…
I feel like I’m gonna be losing the verbal argument soon, too. I hated to admit it, but Ludora had been pursuing his career as a ruler for far longer than I.
“Well, I don’t see the point in further argument. What we want is your loyalty to us. Demon lord Rimuru, abandon your friendship with Guy and come to our side.”
There’s that offer again. No doubt trying to place the pressure on Guy. If I decided to give in to Ludora, I was sure that was gonna tip the scales. That, I suppose, is why we’ve been kept alive up to this point. Still, though, my answer was the same as before.
Now that negotiations have broken down, it seemed like a fight was inevitable. Perhaps reading my thoughts, Velgrynd smiled coldly and gracefully waved her index finger at me—two light wags. Then a video image appeared in empty space, the same kind of principle as my Eye of God. It showed the current state of battle.
What I saw there was shocking. Testarossa, Ultima, and Carrera had all fallen in front of Velgrynd. The three demonesses, the best fighting force our nation enjoyed, had just been defeated by one person.
“No way!” I muttered to myself.
In the video, I could see the three of them standing up again. They hadn’t lost the will to fight yet, but they were struggling against an insurmountable difference in ability. They couldn’t hold out much longer; that much was clear.
“Do you see how your faithful Primals perform before me? I’d suggest you think carefully. Someone as smart as you should understand that I’m still going easy on them.”
She didn’t need to go into detail. This was a threat. If Velgrynd wanted to, she could easily hurt more than just these three. I don’t know what’s motivating them, but Ludora’s team has made every concession they could for my sake.
Now I could see that Gabil’s forces didn’t have any time to help the three demonesses. Airships littered the skies above the battlefield, imperial troops swarming down from them. Kondo’s forces were on the ground as well. Yuuki’s former comrades—with the exception of Kagali, who was continuing on with the ritual—were fighting with them against the Dwarven army.
“Teare?! And Footman, too!”
Laplace’s shout made me notice those masked annoyances fighting for the enemy as well. It was a chaotic scene, and it didn’t look very good for my side.
We had hit rock bottom. I could feel Benimaru’s concern for me. But I just couldn’t give in.
“I know what you’re trying to do. If you could rope me in, that’d be a much easier way to recruit Veldora, after all. He’s a real free spirit, as you know, so no way he’d take orders from higher-ups like you.”
He tends to (mostly) listen to me these days, but still, he loses his temper a lot. Maybe he has trouble dealing with me or something; I dunno.
Anyway, that’s probably why Ludora wants me so bad. After some consideration, I decided to throw the invitation back in his face. Then I tried to find another way out, but:
“I am not interested in negotiation. Give me a yes or a no.”
Now I was confronted with a choice. If I refused, I’d be plunged into a battle I had little chance of winning. But if I accepted, it’d be throwing myself into a fight I didn’t want. I’d be following the will of someone else instead of my own, and it could lead to all kinds of losses later.
“You know, you say that we can all unite into one and create a better world that way, but is that a world where everyone can be happy?”
“What?”
“Whether war and hunger are eradicated or not, if your free will’s taken from you, then what’s the point of living? What you’re trying to do is take away the potential of all the world’s people! Have you ever thought about that?!”
“Their potential? There’s no need for that. Give people freedom, and it could lead them down the path to ruin. It’s not what I want, and it’s far from what Guy wants as well. So it’s only natural that someone must manage them so they don’t stray from the correct path, isn’t it?”
“I understand that to a certain extent. I won’t deny it at all. But are you going to find happiness there?!”
I suppose that, in the big picture, what I’m trying to do is essentially manage humanity. But I still think that, to some extent, you have to leave things to the will of the people. If you’re too overprotective, you’ll rob them of any opportunity to grow. People are stronger than we think, and I really don’t feel we need to control them every step of the way.
“Happiness? What kind of naive nonsense is that? No matter how much sacrifice it takes, it must be made for the sake of everlasting peace. You don’t need the permission of people who fail to understand even that. A little patience is necessary, after all, for the great joy coming for all of us.”
I could see his point, but I still couldn’t agree with it. Ludora was trying to turn his eyes away from the individuals who make up a society. That just didn’t seem right to me at all.
“Well, I can’t abide by that. I feel like what you’re aiming at will just create more misery for everyone, and I can’t accept that.”
“Then you are a fool not to take my hand.”
“Fine with me. Look, what are you even sitting here being a king for? Is it because you want to act all fancy or have a bunch of toys to play with?”
“What are you talking about? It’s for the people, of course.”
“Yeah, right! I like to think I became a demon lord for the sake of all my people, too, but I still want more people than that to have a happy life. There’s gonna be sacrifices, of course, but I’m working myself hard to keep them to as few as possible. I can’t just make myself as cutthroat as you are about it!”
I’d love to make the world a better place without sacrifice, but that’s not possible. Look at all the people who died to make me a demon lord, for one. It’s not that I regret what I did—I still think they had it coming—but I’m not sure the victims’ relatives would be too convinced by my argument. That’s the cross I bear, and at the same time, Ludora has his own crimes he shouldn’t take so lightly.
When he heard my words, he stared at me for a moment, eyes burning. But he immediately regained his composure.
“How young,” he muttered, “and how naive.”
“Ludora?”
“Don’t worry, Velgrynd. It’s just been so long since I’ve been so passionate about anything. I’ve failed to persuade you, perhaps, but you seem far too talented to be destroyed by us.”
“That’s a bad habit you’re developing, Ludora. It was the same with Yuuki over there, wasn’t it? Your odd hoarding habit as of late confuses me.”
Quit treating us like toys, I wanted to shout, but I stopped myself. Negotiation was a nonstarter now, so it was time to prepare for battle. I looked over at my friends; they all looked ready to go. They had been doing their jobs during our conversation, which I was glad to see.
We had to beat Ludora here. I made up my mind. So I opened my mouth. But:
“But it’s too bad we failed to convince the demon lord Rimuru. His friend’s getting stronger than I thought, you know. He just refuses to listen to me, though, so I thought I’d punish him a little. I won’t strike enough of a presence if I leave Parallel Existence on, so how about I break out my full powers for the first time in a while?”
“Oh? He’s not listening either?”
“He never did heed a word I said. That’s exactly like him, but…”
I couldn’t help but turn my attention back toward Velgrynd. Veldora was on my mind. I didn’t think the invincible Storm Dragon could ever be defeated, but this was just an unimaginable monster here. There was no telling what would happen next, and out of nowhere, I was in a state of deep concern.
“Oh, are you worried about him? Then I’d suggest taking Ludora’s hand while you can. Then I won’t have to torment my little brother any further.”
Velgrynd brought up another screen. This showed Veldora in dragon form, wounded and fighting frantically.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you, but how did you ever tame him in the first place?”
“What?”
“I said, how did you get Veldora to listen to you?”
I didn’t, really.
“Veldora and I are friends. That’s all there is to it.”
“Oh? So you won’t tell me, then? That’s too bad.” Velgrynd exhaled, visibly disappointed. “In that case, I’m afraid I can’t go easy on him. In terms of magicules, at least, he’s even above me.”
Then Velgrynd disappeared.
This was surprising and upsetting in equal measures. We knew that Ludora’s goal was to stall long enough to defeat and subdue Veldora. I went along with that, because we were buying time for ourselves as well. Velgrynd’s Parallel Existence might be nearly invincible, but it has one drawback—rapid energy depletion. If you eliminate each individual body, you can also deplete the magicules divided between them. Those can’t be recovered immediately, so keep it up, and you can weaken her on an overall basis. The fewer magicules divvied up, the less often she can use her most powerful moves.
That was why I thought Veldora had an advantage… But looking at the screen, even one of Velgrynd’s Parallel Existences was a bit too much for Veldora to fully defeat. In fact, I could tell through our soul corridor that Veldora was growing flustered.
On that screen floating in midair, I saw the Velgrynd that was engaged with Testarossa’s group disappear. The three demonesses did their best to buy us time, but it was all for nothing. Not good, I thought. Velgrynd’s power was even beyond my expectations. So they had seen through our intentions…and just used them to ridicule us instead?
“Curious, I imagine? Well, I’ll give you one more chance after this battle is over. Perhaps you’ll change your mind once you see the error of your ways.”
Ludora’s voice seemed far away to me. It was awful, but there was nothing I could do. Now that Velgrynd was gone, I really should’ve tried defeating Ludora there, but for some reason, I had a bad feeling it wouldn’t work out. So I decided to watch Veldora fight.
In the second screen Velgrynd left for us, a crimson dragon roared. It was the clash of the century, a bout between two True Dragons—and it was about to get even more extreme.