This was what chiefly constituted the Composite Division—well-trained otherworlders with a litany of skills. Of course, simply being from another world didn’t guarantee you a top officer rank in the Empire. They became excellent soldiers because they knew how to correctly harness their powers—the unique skills they manifested for themselves. And Shinji had used his own unique skill to establish a firm, secure role in the military.
“Yeah, these three are frontline talents in my Composite Division. I think they’ll be perfect for this new investigation.”
“If you believe so, Sir Yuuki, then I have no complaints. Please, all of you, have a seat.”
The trio meekly took the austere sorcerer’s advice. Gadora looked at them, smiling a bit. Seeing these full-fledged soldiers still act so nervous around him was an amusing sight. But he couldn’t sit there grinning about it forever.
“Now, Sir Yuuki, you’re going to let me borrow this trio for our investigation?”
“Yeah. I wanted to go there myself, but I can’t really show my face around Tempest at the moment, you know? And I’d be anxious about sending just the three of them over, so I was hoping you could oversee them for me, my lord.”
“Mmm. I had a look at the report you sent. If what’s written in there is true, I think we do need to examine this in more detail before launching our full campaign.”
Gadora eyed Yuuki, sizing him up and awaiting his reaction. Yuuki, aware of this, nodded back.
“It’s all true, every word of it. I’ll be briefing all three of you on this in a moment, but this is gonna be kind of a unique mission. Basically, there’s this labyrinth I want you to investigate for us.”
“Whoa, hang on! You called us all here for some kinda obstacle-course thing? Is that how little you trust us? Even if Lord Gadora’s enlisting us, I really don’t think this is something we need to do before a full-scale military invasion!”
Marc, the most short-fused of the group, was the first to flare up. This was common enough to see. Yuuki encouraged them to ask questions on matters until they had an answer they were satisfied with.
“Calm down, Marc. This is important.”
“But…!”
“Wait a sec, Marc. I’m sure Yuuki’s got a good reason for this, so let’s just hear him out, okay?” Shinji said before facing Yuuki. “Would you mind filling us in, then?”
“Of course…and trust me, once you hear it all, you won’t be complaining.”
So Yuuki carefully went over the trio’s assignment.
………
……
…
Gadora had already given his approval beforehand, so he silently listened, making sure there weren’t any discrepancies. Shinji and his friends were shocked.
Across the force, Yuuki had his protégés in place, well trained and blessed with unique skills, and they had laid low in their respective posts up to now. The idea was that, when the time came, they’d bare their fangs and take over their respective squadrons. Yuuki hadn’t filled them in on the details, but everyone thought that the moment was near. Shinji and his friends were part of this, and now that Yuuki had full control of the Composite Division, they figured it was just a matter of time before the order came.
World conquest.
When Yuuki first told them about this childish-sounding dream, nobody thought he could actually do it. But as they polished their skills and learned how this new world worked, they all began to think it wasn’t so impossible after all. Shinji and his team practically adored him at this point. Everyone was eagerly awaiting the moment—and then this “Dungeon” assignment arrived out of nowhere. The trio couldn’t be blamed for their confusion.
But as Yuuki explained matters, they began to reconsider. Out of all the preparation and investigation they had done for this upcoming war, only the Dungeon remained unexplored, and it was likely that some kind of important secret was being hidden in this maze. If word had it that an entire town was hidden deep in its chambers, they weren’t going to take that sitting down.
………
……
…
“I see now… So the Empire can’t ignore this Dungeon in their operations, huh?”
“And there’s a town inside? I’m never gonna believe that until I see it.”
“…And we’re going to go in there?”
Shinji’s team had to accept it.
“So that’s the long and short of things. You see what I mean now, though? If the Empire’s campaign takes it into the Forest of Jura, we’re planning to stage our military coup once the front lines are stretched out far enough. When we do, we’re hoping to attract as much of the army as we can. The demon lord Rimuru and the Storm Dragon aren’t enough to make the Empire deploy the total brunt of their forces. I want a stronger reason for them to do that.”
Maybe the labyrinth could be that reason. Or not. If it didn’t live up to the hype, Yuuki explained, they’d fabricate something else—and with the time that’d buy them, Yuuki and his personal team would seize the imperial capital.
This came as a surprise to Shinji’s trio. They had seen a coup attempt coming, but this was the first time they were let in on the details. Plus, Gadora himself was in the room. Wouldn’t talking about it right in front of him cause a leak?
“Y-Yuuki?!”
Shinji tried to stop him, but Yuuki just smiled and waved it off. “No, no, don’t worry. Lord Gadora knows all about my plans.”
“Huh?”
“Heh-heh-heh! And why wouldn’t I? I have a personal obligation to the emperor, but his Empire? That means nothing to me. My mission is to destroy Luminism. I had no idea the demon lord Luminus led that religion herself; it took me completely by surprise. I have zero interest in Luminism’s followers, but I will never rest until I personally take down those who killed my friend. I’d like to begin by taking care of the demon lord Rimuru; they say he’s close friends with Luminus. That is why I’m planning to join you in this labyrinth conquest.”
Beyond that, Gadora said with a crazed grin, he didn’t much care what happened.
He had, of course, heard the stories about Rimuru. One year earlier, the Kingdom of Farmus was toppled after it attracted the ire of Veldora. A fit of rage drained the Storm Dragon’s energy and allowed Rimuru to recruit him for his own purposes. Gadora didn’t know whether this was a master-servant relationship or more of a cooperative arrangement, but the Storm Dragon had shown no signs of activity since, his massive aura no longer detectable. To Gadora, the rumors seemed plausible to some extent.
There were also moves being made among the other demon lords. Several had dropped out of the Ten Great Demon Lords, the remainder regrouping into the so-called Octagram. They had notified human society of this, and Gadora was positive the demon lord Rimuru played a major role. After all, Rimuru joined their ranks just as Clayman, one of the former Ten Great Demon Lords, disappeared. It proved that, in the end, Rimuru was simply more powerful than him. Clayman was a crafty demon lord, one you underestimated at your own peril, but Rimuru as a demon lord was an even greater threat.
What’s more, Rimuru had opened up diplomatic relations with humanity, strengthening his influence within the Council of the West. Gadora couldn’t say what the Western Nations thought about this, but he knew that riling Rimuru would be a very dangerous act.
But something else was also on his mind. Farmus, he knew, sent an army of some twenty thousand soldiers to attack Tempest—and only three of them survived. One had since been killed, so that left no one but the former king and Razen, his ex-apprentice.
I will need to question Razen about this, Gadora thought, making a mental note. But there still remains far too much that’s unclear with this demon lord Rimuru…
Gadora wasn’t about to let his guard down. Farmus’s forces were wiped out by the Storm Dragon, the reports said, but there was no physical evidence backing this up. That, in itself, was unnerving. In normal wars, a warring faction would generally be considered to fail its objective if it lost thirty percent of its personnel. That’d be the point a commander would issue a surrender, but there was no record Farmus ever attempted one.
One could interpret this as the Storm Dragon refusing to take prisoners, but Gadora saw that as unlikely. He was a survivor from their past campaign, after all, and he knew Veldora’s personality well. As a fighter, he was, in a word, imprecise. He wasn’t the type to pursue fleeing foot soldiers; he’d cause huge amounts of damage, but it’d all happen in one big wave with no follow-up. Considering this fighting style, a force of twenty thousand being 99.9999 percent annihilated was a bit too much to swallow.
So did Rimuru do something? Based on what Gadora knew about his personality, that seemed unlikely, too. In his mind, this was one demon lord who spared the lives of those who gave in to him. This, on the other hand, was a massacre.
I suppose Veldora really did do them all in, then, before they had a chance to surrender.
It was honestly a terrifying thought. The exact reason why a full frontal conflict had to be avoided—and he had a plan for that. Rimuru was another worry for him, but he was about to investigate him, and they could work out a response after that. That was enough to reassure Gadora for now. He had no personal vendetta against Rimuru, but if he was working in tandem with Luminus, he was an enemy.
He had to be defeated…though Gadora had no intention of reckless attempts on his life. Gadora had spent many years honing his plan, and now he’d move the Empire toward invading the Western Nations. They were one step away from all that—he couldn’t afford to rush this part and send everything crashing down. He was careful, very careful, with every move he made.
Gadora and Yuuki shared the same interests, and after conversing about them, they agreed to work in tandem, sharing information with each other and becoming comrades in arms.
But Shinji was still shocked at how casually Yuuki revealed such secrets. He wanted everyone to take a step back, and it was obvious why.
W-wait… If this goes bad, we could all be rubbed out…
Shinji, being no fool, didn’t think his group was being trusted that much—but he didn’t think they were seen as disposable pawns, either. They were being tested, he believed, and Marc and Zhen felt the same way.
“All right! We’ll investigate as best as we can.”
“This’ll be fun, old man! And I promise we won’t drag you down in there.”
“…I’ll do my best.”
This was clearly an important mission. They had to produce results—in fact, as Shinji now realized, producing results was how they’d guarantee their survival.
“Right. Then let me ask you all: Do you know how many demon lords there are?”
“Sure. Eight, right?”
“…Huh? Weren’t there ten? Or did it go up to eleven?”
“The lineup changed a year ago, Marc…”
Gadora sighed. “Shinji,” he said, raising his voice, “you need to make sure that fool receives the right information. Any soldier who can’t gather intelligence is going to wind up on the chopping block first!”
He took a moment to catch his breath.
“There are eight demon lords in an arrangement known as the Octagram. They style themselves as akin to eight stars in the sky, and with at least some of them, it’s not far from reality. I bring this up because your target here is Rimuru, the so-called Newbie of this Octagram. You must never let your guard down around him. Furthermore, there is another demon among this group known as the Labyrinth Master. What do you make of that?”
The trio nervously gulped. Even Yuuki looked at Gadora, surprised.
“Are they involved,” Shinji carefully asked, “with the labyrinth we’re exploring?”
Gadora nodded gravely, then handed them a book. It spoke of a labyrinth, a safe haven for spirits, located in the Republic of Ur-Gracia to the west. The stories told of a vast maze under the ground or in the sky, but this was correct and incorrect in equal measure. What this book revealed was that this haven was home to more than spirits—it also housed a queen who had transformed her body from a spiritual form to that of a fairy.
“That fairy queen is Ramiris the Labyrinth Master—one of the oldest demon lords.”
The facts hit Gadora’s audience like a ton of bricks. But he wasn’t done yet.
“The door to this labyrinth of hers was located in Urgr Nature Park, but now it has vanished. I investigated this myself, so there is no doubting it. Based on what I was told, it disappeared at around the same time Rimuru declared himself a demon lord. Soon after, his nation revealed their own Dungeon…”
“Well,” chimed in Yuuki, “that pretty much settles it, huh? I was wondering how they built a labyrinth like that, but now I’m positive the demon lord Ramiris created it. She and Rimuru must be allies.”
Yuuki was sure of it, and he gave a bracing smile. No one on Shinji’s side had the words to deny it—and that brought them all down. Now it felt like this mission just became far more difficult.
“I’ll be counting on you,” said Gadora.
“Make sure to stay on your guard, okay?” Yuuki reminded the trio.
Then, after another warning about the terrifying craftiness of the demon lord Rimuru, the three of them left.
The day after this meeting, Yuuki’s secretary, Kagali, guided Shinji and his friends to the outskirts of Tempest.
Ten days after that, Gadora set off by himself to another destination. After seeing Yuuki admonish the three of them, he figured he’d let them handle the mission solo to start with. He didn’t think Yuuki really saw them as disposable—it was just a little tough talk to put them in the right mindset.
Sir Yuuki’s not exactly an honest man, either. He thinks he’s so talented, and he expects the same from everyone else.
That much was clear to Gadora—and it was true for himself personally as well.
Gadora had no intention of sending his apprentices out to be killed. If they got in trouble, he could reach out to them. But he never actually voiced this. Instead, he just silently menaced those around him, making people think he was a scary old man.
But Gadora was blissfully unaware of all this as he headed for the former Kingdom of Farmus. He had recalled an old apprentice of his, and he decided to call on him to gather information about Rimuru. Flying over to the old Farmus capital of Maris, he promptly headed for the palace.
Razen, working in his office, practically shot out of his chair when he found out. Long before Gadora even reached the palace, he picked up on the nearby presence of his great master, a man he thought died long ago.
“I…I can’t believe he’s alive,” he muttered—and as he did, he realized this was going to be trouble. Even if he didn’t know Gadora’s intentions, Razen knew Gadora had come here to see him, and it clearly wasn’t just to rekindle an old friendship. And there was another problem: The Farminus palace guards didn’t know Gadora. If something wasn’t done, he’d doubtlessly start a scuffle at the palace gates and kill anyone who defied him. And should Razen himself ever get on Gadora’s bad side…
No, no, no… If that ever happened, I could never hold back Sir Gadora myself.
Quickly reaching that conclusion, Razen sprang into action, making a magical call to one of his new apprentices.
“You can hear me, can’t you?”
“Tch… Don’t call me out of nowhere like this.”
“You must’ve noticed what’s going on, too.”
“Yeah. Grigori hasn’t yet, but I felt this foreign presence out of nowhere. It’s gonna reach the palace gate, you know.”
“Well, if you know all that, join me at the gate now.”
“…All right. I owe you one, after all.”
Razen had recently taken on two new apprentices—Saare and Grigori, former Battlesages and part of the Master Rooks assigned to the Papacy in the Holy Empire of Lubelius. He came to know the two men as he went around the country on inspection runs; they had committed mistakes that made them no longer welcome in the Papacy, so he picked them up as new disciples. This wasn’t because they particularly hit it off. Razen just had a lot of sympathy for them—especially Saare, who had to admit his epic defeat to newspaper reporters from around the world. It was Diablo who handed him that defeat, and to Razen, that struck too close to home.
Saare could be a hothead, but he still accepted Razen as his master. Grigori, for his part, had spells where he’d be struck by terror about something, but over time, his natural fearlessness was coming back. In terms of pure strength, they were attractive talents, so Razen planned to train them as behind-the-scenes agents in the future. Handling potentially dangerous incidents like this was part of that training.
Me, Saare, and Grigori? If I can have Sir Gruecith join us, that should be enough to handle Gadora.
Regular infantry would be useless against such a uniquely powerful sorcerer. The Kingdom of Farminus lacked champion-class talents at the moment, a major weakness. Chief Folgen of the former Farmus Knight Corps and his men were now a thing of the past, and Farminus’s major issue was finding people to replace them.
Being reminded of this made Razen grit his teeth over how late he was to react.
By the time he reached the palace gate, Saare and Grigori were already there—and already in a stare down with Gadora on the other side.
“Hey, man, I don’t know what brings you to this castle, but this is where we live, all right? You know we can’t let strangers inside, okay?”
“He’s right, old man. Take it from us—you’ll wanna be on your way for now. If you’re here to see someone, ask a clerk, and you’ll get a response in two or three days.”
The two of them were rather polite (by their standards) as they blocked Gadora’s way. The sight made Razen feel like years were being taken off his life.
“Stop!” Razen hollered. “Let that man through!”
“Huh? You don’t want us to stop him?” said Saare.
“What’d you call us for, then?” Grigori demanded.
They didn’t appreciate the order much, but Razen didn’t care.
“How nice to see you again, Sir Gadora. I’m afraid I was unaware you were still alive. I apologize I was not worthy enough to call upon you earlier.”
He took a knee in front of Gadora as he spoke reverently.
Razen had a motive for wanting to stay on good terms with Gadora. If push came to shove, he’d put everything he had in stopping him—but it didn’t seem like it’d come to that.
“It has indeed been quite a while, Razen. You look different, but it seems it really is you, eh?”
“Yes, sir. Unlike you, I have survived thanks to taking on a new body—”
“No need to be so formal. I’m not chiding you. I’ve come here today because I need to ask you about some matters. And you, the beastman hiding over there—there’s no need to be so wary of me. If I was hostile to any of you, I wouldn’t have come here by myself.”
Gadora’s words finally eased the tension. But Razen and his apprentices didn’t let their guard down, asking for time to set up a conference space before taking their leave.