Diablo, Shion, and Carrera (who had just flown in through the doorway) were all making a huge fuss about going out there to fight.
“You three…”
Even Benimaru was taken aback. Geld was laughing about it, too.
“All right, all right. I’ll stay here, so you guys can handle the final battle for us.”
In the end, Benimaru agreed to let Diablo and the others go to war.
With that question settled, now we needed a workable strategy.
“Let’s take a look at our numbers. Our main force is my Red Numbers, totaling thirty thousand, along with seventeen thousand elites from Geld’s Yellow Numbers and Orange Numbers. In terms of quality, they’re probably all on par with the remaining imperial troops, and I’m connected via Thought Communication with their commanders and captains. They’ll be able to take flexible tactical action out there, so if we restrict their zone of activity, that should let us fight evenly with them or better. How many people are among your ‘treasured troops,’ then?”
So forty-seven thousand in all? And they averaged a B-plus in rank, which was more than sufficient. But they’d be going up against an Empire force almost four times as large. No matter how much of an operational advantage we had, defeat seemed pretty likely to me…
“Ten thousand. And by the way, only those who kept up with my training remain on the team, so you can treat all of them as ranking at least a B-plus.”
This was Shion’s elite guard—or her fan club, as we usually called it. It was something of an enigma, an entity set apart from Team Reborn that was captained by Daggrull’s sons. Apparently, it was bigger than I thought.
“There’s really that many of them?”
Like, man, it sure grew while I wasn’t paying attention. I knew that Gobzo was a member, but I could only imagine what kind of other clowns were in there.
“There are, Sir Rimuru! I’ve been secretly training them to serve as a worthy elite guard for you!”
Hmm… They’re your fan club, aren’t they? Not mine. But whatever. The more reliable allies we had, the merrier.
“But even this leaves us at a dire numerical disadvantage, so I’ll be expecting a lot out of all my close officers here. First, we should confuse them with a large-scale skill, then strike them when they’re open. They won’t just sit back and watch, of course. Assuming they advance upon us, the first question is who should tackle them first…”
Usually, Benimaru would have been taking that role, as far as I knew. A wide-ranging attack like Hellflare would be perfect for the job, but unfortunately, Benimaru had to stay here and guard me. So who else, then?
“Isn’t this where I come in, my lord?” Carrera asked.
Hmm. Yeah. She did seem qualified. I glanced at Benimaru. Our eyes met, he gave me a small nod, and with that, I decided to give Carrera her wish.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh! I think I can—”
“Right, Carrera, it’s up to you. Use some of that flashy magic of yours to teach the imperial force a lesson they’ll never forget!”
“Absolutely, my lord! You can count on me!”
Oh, was Diablo about to say something?
“Sorry, Diablo, what were you saying?”
“N-no… Keh…heh-heh… Keh-heh… It was nothing of importance. But good for you, Carrera.”
“Oooh, I’m sooo happy!”
I could almost see the sparks flying between Diablo and Carrera. Was he about to nominate himself or something? If so, then my apologies—but did Diablo have that kind of large-scale magic at his fingertips? Surely he had to. I guess being around me all the time like this was driving him to show off as much as possible. Now I felt just a little bad for him.
Hopping out of my chair, I transformed from slime to human form and stood before Diablo. Placing a hand on his shoulder, I tried to sound as persuasive as I could.
“Sorry about that, Diablo. You know, I was actually hoping you might volunteer to kill off the enemy commander for me!”
“Huh?!”
Diablo’s lips curled into a grin. He looked happy—really happy. Great, then.
“Like, there still might be unknown menaces in their army, right? It looks like the Krishna guy from before managed to resurrect himself, for example, but it oughtta be easy for you to trace him.”
Given his stalker-ish behavior from time to time, I bet Diablo was good at that kind of thing. “Of course, Sir Rimuru!” he replied happily. Aha. I knew it all along.
“Yes, it is still possible that powerful fighters lurk within the Empire. If we want them to come out of the woodwork, we’ll need to show off our full powers right here, on this battlefield. Carrera, Diablo, I’m counting on you!”
“I swear I’ll do my best, my lord!”
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… A direct edict from you, Sir Rimuru, makes my heart soar with excitement!”
Well, super. Carrera was glad to be playing a part, and now Diablo was all motivated again. That oughtta make it easier for Geld and the rest to do their jobs.
“Now, make sure you keep the other troops intimidated enough so nobody interferes with Carrera’s magic. If someone does try to mess with her, Shion, have your troops deal with them.”
Benimaru, taking over for me, began rattling off his orders. I was sure I could safely leave the rest to him now.
“As for the formation, I’d like Geld up front and Shion using hit-and-run tactics, as we discussed. We’ll count on the Red Numbers to provide pursuit duty, but as for who’ll be in charge…”
They needed someone who could connect via Thought Communication to Benimaru and immediately execute his will as needed. Thought Communication could also be used to relay orders to every ally on the field, but any mistaken action out there could end our life. A commander who could make little corrections as needed was absolutely vital. I think Gobwa could handle that job nimbly enough, but maybe him giving orders to Shion and Geld was asking a bit much?”
“I think that Gob—”
“One moment!”
The door to the Control Center burst open, interrupting Benimaru. There we saw Momiji, representative of the chief of the tengu. She was also Hakuro’s daughter, so she was pretty close with everyone in the room. But giving her such easy access to the Control Center, after we tightened up security so much…
“Um, Lady Shuna was gracious enough to let me in.”
Aha.
Shuna had been handling lots of small details for us this whole time, bringing us meals and preparing tea, and I guess Momiji had been helping her out. Fair enough, then. Let’s hear her out.
“As Benimaru’s wife, I think it is time for me step up and take his position on the field!!”
“What are you…?!”
We couldn’t just have anyone take Benimaru’s place here…but Momiji would be fine, wouldn’t she? She had the power, for sure, and her temperament was such that she wouldn’t let Shion or Geld give her cold feet.
“Well, why not?”
I opted to accept the offer.
“Indeed, I would gladly welcome Lady Momiji as a worthy ally!”
Shion didn’t seem to mind, either. She knew that Momiji was Hakuro’s daughter, so she must have been treating her with a soft touch.
“I’m for it as well. The Red Numbers are a meritocracy of worthy magic-born. Instead of Team Kurenai going it alone, I would much rather ask for help from our tengu friend.”
Geld was on board, too, and nobody else seemed to be voicing any disagreement.
“Well, unless there are any concerns, you mind if I let your fiancée take this job, Benimaru?”
“N-no, but…”
Oh, is he against it? Yeah, maybe he doesn’t want his future wife out fighting in wars.
“Ah, worried for your wife?”
“Well, yes… Wait, no!”
Darn. I almost got him to admit it. But he wasn’t off the hook yet.
“Benimaru!”
With a loud bang, the door flew open to reveal Shuna, standing up straight and admonishing her brother.
“Lady Momiji has been preparing your meals for the past few days, I’ll have you know! All she wanted was for you to have a good meal, so she asked me to teach her how to cook. That’s such a gallant thing to do, and I don’t want that to go to waste!”
“She… She has?”
“Yes.”
Momiji nodded. I had actually noticed this. Compared to Shuna, the meal quality wasn’t quite up to the usual standard. That’s why I felt it was perfectly fine to give Momiji her wish.
“But kitchen work and battle command are two very different—”
“Benimaru!”
“Ugh…”
Benimaru can’t resist his little sister, either, huh?
“This is your fault for being so indecisive in the first place, you know. No wonder Lady Momiji is so anxious. If you’re a man, you need to make it clear who you love already!”
Yes. He did. I was curious which one Benimaru would choose—Alvis or Momiji—but then again, was now really the time for that? I honestly began to sympathize with him. If I were him, I probably wouldn’t want this talked about in front of everyone, either.
“No, Lady Shuna. Victory is something I must seize with my own hands!”
Now it was Momiji making the emotional declarations. Yow. Now Alvis had a huge disadvantage. Momiji was clearly doing a better job laying the groundwork. Was this battle over?
But just then:
“You won’t get away with this.”
Alvis, of all people, showed up, slipping right out from behind Shuna.
“I have just arrived now with reinforcements from Eurazania.”
I didn’t ask for any, and I’d heard nothing about any…but in Alvis’s hand was a letter from Milim. It contained a single sentence: Do your best! Hmm. Who was it meant for? Pretty open-ended message there.
But hang on. How did Alvis get inside the labyrinth?
“Lady Milim provided the magic. You developed it for her, didn’t you, Sir Rimuru?”
Ohhh, right. Milim had gotten telepathic permission from Ramiris to send military forces directly into the labyrinth, huh? That was a pretty reckless decision on Milim’s part, but then, anything was possible with her.
So now we had a force of twenty thousand led by Alvis—not just lycanthropes but also a bunch of harpies, reportedly. A few choice representatives from the Beast Master’s Warrior Alliance were even along for the ride.
Even Benimaru had to give this a resigned grin. As long as Milim’s will was involved, there was absolutely no way we could send Alvis’s troops back home. Besides, if I did, Momiji would never, ever give Benimaru a moment of peace.
“All right, all right. Momiji, I’m giving you my force. Take care of it for me.”
“With pleasure!”
She looked happy—and with that, the battle between the two women began.
“I hope you don’t drag me down at all.”
“Hee-hee-hee! What kind of talk is that, hmm?”
I was already picturing the sparks flying between them. Was this really okay? I was a little concerned about that.
So despite all the interruptions, we had a general idea of who we were going to deploy. I should note that Alvis’s reinforcements were completely dependable fighters. We were still at a numerical disadvantage, but I think this gave us a lot more wiggle room. Geld would be in the front row, Momiji taking up the rear. The cavalry, so to speak, was on the wings—Shion on the right and Alvis on the left.
This all helped me relax a little, but we still had a battle to fight. Pulling myself together, I sent the orders for each division to head out.
Shion and Geld, waiting for this moment all week, immediately sprang into action. Momiji followed suit, and suddenly the Control Center was busier than ever.
On Floor 95, currently serving as Floor 100, there was a vast open space—not enough of one for military training, but if we were just housing troops, it would suffice. With that in mind, the members of Geld’s Second Army Corps and Benimaru’s Fourth Corps were put on standby in and around Floor 100. They’d be coming down in about an hour, so I decided to go out and give them a little morale boost—that, and they needed my teleportation magic to get them down here anyway.
“Sir Rimuru, do you have a moment?” Soei whispered into my ear as I prepared to set off.
“What’s up?”
“I’ve just received word from Moss that signs of battle were detected in the direction of Blumund. After an investigation, we found that Lady Treyni is engaged in battle with someone.”
“What?!”
Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Treyni for the past ten or so days. She mentioned going out to “greet” someone, and she hadn’t been back since. Was she fighting this whole time, then?
“I’m sorry, Soei, but can you go and help her out a bit?”
Soei seemed to hesitate for a moment. Maybe he worried that this kept me too unguarded. Everyone really worries too damn much around here. They didn’t have to be so touchy all the time, you know? Benimaru was still here, and if something came up, we could always tap the Ten Dungeon Marvels. I was a lot more worried about Treyni than myself at the moment.
After exchanging glances with Benimaru, Soei nodded. If Benimaru was here with me, Soei must’ve been willing to accept my orders. I was glad but also a little irritated. Was he that concerned about me? Like, I know I was killed once, according to Chloe, but I’m evolved now. I’m a demon lord.
…But that’s the equivalent of “I’m retiring in a week,” isn’t it?
Still, there was no point being all anxious. If something popped up, I was sure Raphael would let me know anyway.
“Very well. I will leave at once.”
“Thanks.”
Soei promptly disappeared. His Instantmove skill was as brilliant as usual.
If Treyni had been fighting all this time, her opponent must have been at about her level. Once Soei joined in, I was sure victory would come soon after. It did bother me, and I’d have loved to know who she was fighting, but my hands were tied at the moment. I had to finish the fight in front of me first.
One hour later, a massive number of magic-born were crowded together on Floor 100’s vacant space. As soon as I showed up, everyone stood still and quieted down. It was a little scary, frankly, how under control they were. Morale was high, and motivation definitely wasn’t a problem.
“Um… Right! Soldiers, this one battle is all it will take to drive the imperial army out of our federation. Our goal here is total victory, and I want every single one of you to come out alive and share the glory with us. That is all!”
Not to sound modest or whatever, but I really suck at speeches. It’d be nice if Raphael could just write ’em and read ’em out for me, but that’s the exact kind of time that it starts pretending not to hear me. I tried my best to convey my message in my own words, and surprisingly, the magic-born seemed to accept it. From what I heard later, it received praise from both the old guard and newer magic-born in their army.
“Y-yeaaaahhh! Sir Rimuru’s speech was amazing!”
“I can die now. I’ve got no regrets left in life!!”
“You idiot! Dying means you’ve been killed!!”
They told me this was the talk around the army later, but I wasn’t aware at the time, so I just took all those silent rows of troops and teleported them to the ground floor.
Well, things were pretty darn lonely down here again. Shion and Diablo were out fighting this time, so it was only Benimaru and me now.
“We can win, right?”
“No problems there, no. I didn’t see any movements from the imperial soldiers, but there’s a flurry of activity among the leadership, it looks like. That straggler Krishna must’ve reported on events in the labyrinth. If I were them, and he told me he was the only survivor, I’d be out of there in a hurry… Well, I wouldn’t put us in this situation in the first place, but you understand what I mean.”
His classic fearless smile was on his face. I had to agree with him. Being out of contact with my people gets me nervous enough as it is, so I probably wouldn’t let it happen unless we came up with some countermeasures. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting this plan of ours to be nearly as successful as it turned out to be.
“No matter what it is, it never pays to be greedy, huh?”
“Indeed. War and looting go hand in hand, but it’s forbidden in our military, at least.”
Excellent. In war, the side to lose their composure first usually loses, but once your desires get stoked a little bit, it’s easy to get too heated up. We took advantage of that habit in this campaign, and it worked scarily well. It’s a good lesson for us, too—better not fall in the same trap they did.
We were on our way back to the Control Center, discussing this, when a possibility occurred to me.
“Hey, you and I are the only ones here, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, if—if—there happen to be any enemies still hiding in the labyrinth, they’d never let an opportunity like this go to waste, would they? What do you think of that?”
“Oh, come now. There’s no way anyone could time a move so precisely like that.”
Yeah. I was getting too suspicious. Even Raphael had signed off on the labyrinth’s current safety. Being paranoid all day would accomplish nothing, so I decided to leave the thought at that. Continually dredging up the same thoughts in your mind is a great way to make yourself anxious, after all. But I just had a bad feeling for a little while…
…?
Like, you know. It’s not that I doubt Raphael. I just couldn’t help but wonder if it overlooked something.
Understood. All potentially suspicious subjects have been identified.
Yeah, that I trust in. But what if it’s someone I know really well? Like Elen’s gang, for example. I trust all of them, so if they ever betrayed me, I’d suffer a whole lot for it.
But these were still all just what-ifs. There was absolutely no reason for Elen and her friends to turn traitor; we’d built up a lot of trust in each other by then. I could firmly say that they were perfectly fine.
But how could we assume that the same’s true for everybody else, too?
…
I knew my staff officers were fine. Folks like Mjöllmile were cutting out sleep to give their all for me. There was no way I could start doubting him.
Apart from them, I supposed there were the people I’d gotten to know outside my own government—the assorted visitors who’d come to stay with us since the Founder’s Festival. For example…
“Rimuruuu!”
I saw a group of people coming from Labyrinth City. Oh, no way.
The guy waving up front was Masayuki, someone I knew well, and he had two others with him—a warrior and a wizard. Jinrai and Bernie, right? I think those were their names. Those two still kinda held a grudge against me, so we hadn’t talked much.
“I sincerely doubt it, but you don’t think Masayuki might start targeting me, do you?”
“Oh, no. That’s really worrying too much, I would say.”
“Yeah.”
Benimaru dismissed the concern. I sure didn’t wanna start suspecting Masayuki. And by the way, hadn’t Gadora mentioned that Masayuki was the spitting image of Emperor Ludora or something? …Nah. It had to just be a goofy coincidence.
Understood. After careful examination of the Empire’s history and other assorted elements, the chances of the subject Masayuki and Emperor Ludora being the same person are zero percent.
Right. Of course.
Feeling a bit relieved, I called out to the guy, “Hey, Masayuki. Something up?”
“Something up? Kind of a lot, man! You naming me an army leader out of nowhere has given me a ton of trouble! Even the vampires were asking me if they could temporarily join in—I don’t even know what to do with them. And there’s just been a huge amount of activity down here, you know? Everyone in the city’s starting to ask what’s going on.”
Having so many volunteers at once, Masayuki explained, made it hard to deal with them in any organized fashion. And us sending out an army like I just did must’ve made all those volunteers clamor for some action of their own. I didn’t think he was exaggerating at all—the disheartened look on his face told me that much. Plus, if Masayuki was trying to trick me, Raphael would’ve warned me about it long ago. So nah, no point doubting him.
“Well, most of the volunteers are still staying in the towns they live in, right?”
“Yes, but…”
The city of Rimuru, formerly on the surface, was now evacuated to the Dungeon’s provisionary Floor 101. The sun and stars were as visible as always down there, so a lot of people were surprisingly oblivious to current events. The war was already underway, but some citizens must’ve thought we were still in a standoff at some distant vista.
The twenty thousand members of the Volunteer Army were entrusted with maintaining security in the city during this state of emergency, but thanks to the pervading calm across Floor 101, they didn’t have much to do. Masayuki himself, however, was still real busy, it looked like.
His main problem at the moment had to do with the researchers living in Labyrinth City. They were primarily meant to be office staff, but most of the people Luminus sent were Calamity-grade threats in a fight. Overcomers was the term for them, apparently, but they all had a lot of free time on their hands. Many had come to directly speak with Masayuki to see if they could get a little action in this war, like it was some kind of fun carnival. Bacchus, sent in from the Crusaders, and Jiwu, one of Masayuki’s old party companions, were currently soothing them over, he said—but they couldn’t keep them under control forever, so he was begging me to do something about it.
Maybe, the paranoid part of my mind told me, they were trying to instigate Masayuki into starting some big commotion so they could come after me. It was possible, but if so, I really thought they would’ve taken action earlier. That possibility didn’t seem too likely, either. I really am thinking too much. Deep breath.
“That sure does sound rough…”
“Yeah, doesn’t it? So please, lend us a hand here!”
“Don’t worry. This war’s gonna be over real soon, so just keep giving ’em the runaround until then, okay?”
“No, no, you can’t just make it sound easy like that, Rimuru…”
Masayuki kept complaining, a hangdog look on his face. But nobody should underestimate my ability to ignore serious problems tossed in my lap. This sounded like a lot of trouble, and I just didn’t have the time to get involved. All this paranoid doubting had tired me out, and I really wanted to get back to my Control Center. Then Shuna could pour me some tea, maybe prepare a slice of delicious cake, and all would be well.
“You’re trying to run from me, aren’t you, Rimuru?!”
“Ha-ha-ha!”
“Don’t ‘ha-ha-ha’ me!”
Okay, maybe this was a pointless argument—but I was demonstrating a master class on giving people the runaround. Masayuki should really learn from this so he can reach my own lofty heights. That was what I was hoping for, and that was why I was currently shoving him away from me.
“If that’s your only business, I need to get back, all right?”
“You’re positive the war’s going to end soon?”
“I’m hoping to wrap it up today, actually.”
“Well, we haven’t done anything, so it hardly even seems real at all, but now you’re really fighting…?”
I could empathize with that. That’s kind of my ideal, not letting the general public know at all.
“Pretty much, yeah. So take it easy, okay?”
With a grin, I did my best to convince Masayuki to see things my way. That oughtta solve the problem. Now to duck back inside and enjoy some strawberry shortcake—
“Whoa, whoa, wait a sec! Masayuki’s lookin’ out for you, so I’ve been holding back, but we haven’t given up on defeating you, all right? And now you’re forgetting all about that and trying to take advantage of him? What kind of a joke is this?”
Just when I thought the problem was solved, a new one arose. Jinrai, a man I assumed was just along for the ride with Masayuki, chose this moment to pipe up.
“Aw, c’mon, that was just a misunderstanding. Take advantage of you? There’s no need to make it sound so disgraceful…”
I attempted to make excuses but wasn’t doing a good job at it. I was trying to take advantage of him, after all. But then I received some unexpected backup.
“Jinrai! That’s out of order. Rimuru’s working so hard for everybody in town right now!”
Now Masayuki was trying to appease Jinrai. Thanks, man. I’ll let you have some cake later! And as I flashed him a grateful smile, Jinrai immediately stopped complaining. I’m sure he wasn’t happy about it, but at least he was tolerant enough to bottle it up. He was a lot more mature than his face suggested.
So that was the end of it. Or so I thought. But life’s never that easy.
“No, Jinrai’s right, Masayuki! Heroes and demon lords are fated to clash with each other. So quit holding back forever, and let’s just take this guy down as soon as we can!”
Bernie, usually observing from a step behind, chose this moment to get all worked up. With a sigh, I pondered how I’d calm him down.
“If you won’t do it,” Bernie continued as he began casting a spell, “then I will!”
Cut me a break, I thought. Then things got serious.
“Holy Field!”
You’re kidding me, I almost caught myself yelling. That spell was extremely tough to handle, much less solo. I knew Bernie was an otherworlder and probably decent at magic, but I didn’t think he held sway over that kind of advanced holy stuff. Like, was he even serious—?!
Murderous intent detected. The subject Bernie is an enemy!!
Then I finally realized what was going on.
I thought it was impossible; I kept trying to believe that I was worrying too much about it. But the enemy was right here, in front of me, the whole time.
And then someone moved even faster than I did. There was a clear, high-pitched tiiiing. It was caused by the collision between Benimaru’s sword and Bernie’s blade of light.
“Bernie, what are…? You can fight with a sword?!”
Jinrai was evidently surprised. It must have been the first time Bernie wielded a sword in front of Jinrai and the others, which meant he had been hiding it from his supposed friends for who knows how long.
“Pfft! I’m not stupid enough to reveal my hand that easily!”
The look on his face said it all to me. If he was gonna do this, he wanted to throw every skill he had toward the effort.
“Dammit! So you tricked both me and Masayuki?!”
“Tricked? Stop making it sound so mean. I just used you to get closer to the demon lord.”
“Y-you used us?”
“Yeah. Masayuki was a helpful connection. Thanks to him, I’ve been granted a golden opportunity. Much appreciated!”
He was crossing swords with Benimaru, but Bernie was chatting with Jinrai like they were chilling at the bar. I was listening in as well, so maybe I shouldn’t talk, but it looked like he was hiding one hell of a lot of skill.
“Benimaru, let me help you—”
“No, I’ll take care of him. Keep a close eye on our surroundings, Sir Rimuru.”
I was about to join the fray, but Benimaru stopped me. Trusting him to his word, I stepped up my vigilance.
Even in the midst of this, Bernie and Jinrai kept talking.
“Masayuki was just a ‘connection’ to you?! D-don’t give me that crap!”
“Come on, like you never thought of it that way. You know he’s really not strong at all, right? He’s just bluffing his way through life.”
That made the blood drain from Masayuki’s face. Oops. Busted! But I probably shouldn’t joke, because this was a life-or-death situation for him.
Then Jinrai surprised me all over again.
“Well, so what? I don’t care if he’s bluffing or not—Masayuki’s an incredible man! He’s never failed us—not even once!”
Oh, he knew? I guess he saw the guy for what he was after all… A bluffer, yeah, but definitely a lot more than that. I should probably rethink my opinion of Jinrai, although Masayuki was giving him a hurt-puppy-dog look now.
Bernie, it seemed, wasn’t a fan of this reaction.
“Pshhh! So you knew, and you still stuck with him? And you actually respect this total loser? Don’t make me laugh!”
The irritation was glaring in his raised voice. But I was the really annoyed one here.
“What’s so bad about bluffing? I’m bluffing my way through my life, too!”
“R-Rimuru…!”
“Well, aren’t I? I used to be an anonymous face at the office. I wasn’t living in some world full of Heroes and demon lords, but I still tried my best every day, because I had no other choice! And I wouldn’t want oblivious idiots like you to laugh at me about it!”
Masayuki silently nodded.
“Y-you…” Jinrai glanced at me. Even he was looking a little confused now. I kept going.
“I mean, isn’t it obvious? If I don’t keep telling myself that what I’m doing is right, I’d never be able to be king of this realm or whatever!”
Fired up from shouting, I walked over to Masayuki’s side—slowly, so I didn’t alarm Bernie while he was crossing swords with Benimaru.
“Everybody’s doing their best just to keep living, you know. That’s why I’m doing what I can to create a world where we can all live happily together. Masayuki’s done a lot to help out with that. He’s done so much for me! And I’m not gonna sit here and allow you to make fun of him!”
I stood in front of Masayuki as I admonished Bernie. Hearing that, Jinrai deeply nodded. So did Masayuki.
“Bernie, were you planning to use me like this from the beginning?”
He spoke directly to Bernie, his past panic now vanished without a trace.
“That’s what I said, didn’t I?” Bernie replied, keeping his distance from Benimaru—who, in turn, was in front of me, sizing him up. Under the effects of the Holy Field, Benimaru wasn’t able to tap his full powers, so instead of trying to finish Bernie off in one fell swoop, he was taking more of a wait-and-see approach.
“Did Yuuki order you to?”
“Huh? …Oh. Right. Heh… Well, I could explain all that to you, but what’s in it for me?”
He was still lording it over us, but at least he was still talking. Maybe, with the Holy Field in place, he had no doubts about his superior position?
Negative. He has some sort of aim in mind… Data confirmed. There is another subject who is a member of Masayuki’s party. After searching for data on this subject, her presence was not found in the labyrinth. However, there is no record of her ever leaving it. This is…
Raphael was spitting out data with frightening speed. Judging by how it wasn’t bothering to organize any of it for me in advance, it must’ve thought this was a pretty major emergency.
If I recall, there was one more member of Masayuki’s gang—Jiwu. She was helping Bacchus smooth things over with the overcomers…
Confirmed. A mass murder has occurred in the laboratory on Floor 100. The subject Bacchus and several overcomers have been slaughtered. Their souls have been put in protective custody as an emergency measure—
That’s serious news!
I wouldn’t know about Bacchus, but each overcomer down there was supposed to be an over-A monster. It was really hard to believe she could kill so many of them in the tiny sliver of time since she left Masayuki’s side. Defeating an overcomer taking pains to defend himself was an extremely difficult task for anyone—they all had Ultraspeed Regeneration and an artist’s palette of other special skills. With Benimaru’s firepower or Zegion’s incredible evolution, I could see it…but no way any of the other Dungeon Marvels, Kumara included, could pull that off.
And that wasn’t the only issue. If we weren’t receiving any response from Jiwu at the moment, that couldn’t be ignored. I mean, Raphael was keeping tabs on every single thing going on in the labyrinth, wasn’t he? If he couldn’t find her inside the labyrinth, that meant Jiwu was—
(Mr. Tempest!!)
That voice reached my mind a split second before the Thought Communication came along. The next moment, I used Mind Accelerate to slow down time for me. Did I respond first, or was it Raphael? Either way, it wound up saving my life.
“Die!”
A black flash of light closed in on my chest.
Someone, probably Jiwu, had taken a shot at me from what seemed to be a perfectly concealed hiding place. I had fallen on the spot and rolled away, putting aside all dignity and royal personage, and that helped me escape that deadly blade.
It was all thanks to that warning—one issued by Chloe, the little girl, who was wearing a mask. She was back to her old habits with that “Mr. Tempest” stuff, but there was no time to poke fun at her about it.
Really, this was a pretty bad situation. I had been doing my best to keep a watchful eye on the surroundings, and Raphael was staying vigilant as well. If she had managed to get through that security net, there could’ve been only one way. The assassin must’ve had an ultimate skill, too.
I had finally gotten my eyes on the assassin just now, and it was definitely Jiwu. Her face was expressionless as always, but the atmosphere she presented was a total one-eighty from before. She was cold—and sharpened. It wasn’t an exaggeration to call her a whole other person.
“What a surprise. You’ve been tailing me in secret?” Jiwu said to Chloe.
Her assassination attempt had failed, but Jiwu wasn’t upset about it. She pointed the black blade extending from the pendant in her hand at Chloe.
“If you’re all going to fight out in the open like this, of course we’re going to notice.”
“You’re a talented little girl, aren’t you?”
“I don’t need you telling me that. And I’m not a little girl!”
With that, Chloe transformed into an adult woman. She took out Moonlight, the God-class rapier, and focused it straight at Jiwu. Now we were graced with the presence of Chloe the Hero, in all her masked glory.
“Pshhh! We had the perfect chance served up, and you just had to ruin it. Way to blow everything, Jiwu!”
Bernie clicked his tongue at Jiwu.
“I’m sorry,” she calmly replied. “I was trying to make sure nobody interfered with us, but I didn’t realize there was this ambush going on.”
These two are definitely acquainted. They must both be assassins, quite skilled ones, sent by someone who wanted me dead. Both an even match for each other, too—which meant Bernie might very well have an ultimate skill of his own.
He glared at Benimaru as Jiwu and Chloe raised their swords against each other. I was standing in front of Masayuki and Jinrai, protecting them as I saw what unfolded.
“Well, no helping it now. If we’ve blown our cover, there’s no reason to hide our full abilities, either.”
“I agree with you on that. We need to rub these enemies out as soon as we can.”
Bernie and Jiwu focused their strength into the pendants that were the sources of their weapons. They reacted by shining even brighter than before. It looked familiar to me.
“Ah… So you’re both Imperial Guardians?” I said.
Once he was fully equipped, Bernie nodded his assent, rolling his eyes as he did.
“Guess you’ve already started fighting my compatriots, huh? But you better not shuffle me in with the other Imperial Knights.”
He wasn’t kidding, either. In fact, he seemed to be hiding some pretty extraordinary abilities.
“Enough chitchat. Let’s just kill them already.”
Jiwu had a unique set of armor on as well—its design was similar to what I saw before, but this set was jet-black, with a sheen like lonely stars floating in the darkness.
Legend-class armor, I assumed, and probably just a hair’s width away from God-class.
Bernie had the same gear. His armor was yellow in hue, but performancewise, it was on par with Jiwu. And I was sure the skills of the wearers were similar to the specs of their armor.
“Jiwu… You feel that way about me, too…?”
The forlorn question from Masayuki was greeted with a cold stare. “Of course. I only protected you because that was my mission,” Jiwu replied.
It was a frank, direct statement, nothing more to it than that. And if I could recognize it as such, I couldn’t imagine how much it hurt Masayuki. I really wanted to offer him some condolences, but now wasn’t the time.
“Benimaru, watch out! She’s super strong. I’m positive she’s hiding an ultimate skill.”
“An ultimate? You mean beyond a unique? Will it take more than hard work and perseverance for me to survive, then?”
“Yeah, honestly, I don’t think you can win.”
“Goodness. If you put it that way, Sir Rimuru, it’s all the more depressing.”
That was my pure, impartial evaluation, but Benimaru just gave it a wry grin. He still seemed pretty chill about this—maybe he had some ideas of his own? Ultimate skills could only be defended with other ultimate skills. That was the absolute law of it, and I didn’t think there was a way to get around that—but then again, this was the labyrinth. Even if worse came to worst, neither of us was going to die, so I decided to let Benimaru handle his own affairs.
The same applied to Chloe. I mean, she’s basically the most powerful Hero in the world. She totally overwhelmed Veldora, even, and that was without an ultimate skill. Admittedly, that was more the out-of-control Chronoa than Chloe, but either way, she’s got tremendous skill in a fight. Plus, now she does have an ultimate skill—Yog-Sothoth, Lord of Time.