Now, on this topic, I had given a lot of thought about how to reward Ramiris. But how about leveraging this new discovery a little? In other words, I figured she’d be tickled pink if I named the four Dragon Lords for her. They had no real connection to me, but with this soul-based approach, it’d still work just fine. I really gotta hand it to Raphael for pitching the idea to me—and besides, even after all this evolution, I estimated that I’d still have over twenty thousand souls left over.
It’s thanks to Ramiris that I was able to retain so many in the first place. In fact, she didn’t want any from me at all—“Just take ’em! I ain’t got no use for ’em!” I felt kind of bad about that, so I thought this would be a nice, elegant way of paying it forward. Hope she’s up for the idea. I’ll remember to ask her about it later.
That ended the proceedings for the labyrinth gang. Now this celebration was at its climax—and only two problem children remained. Who, you ask? Well, who else but the toughest nuts of all—Shion and Diablo.
Based on what I had seen so far today, I was convinced nobody was going to go out of control on me. But we can’t let our guards down. This is Shion and Diablo, after all, the worst of the worst. If both went on a rampage at the same time, I couldn’t even imagine the extent of the damage—and with our top defenders all busy evolving right now, too.
Anyway, let’s begin with Shion.
“Shion, I hereby grant you the title of War Lord. Please continue to maintain as much calm decorum as you can, please.”
“Of course! You’ll never find a woman as calm and mature as me!”
Um, who’re you talking about again? Because it sounds like you’re talking about yourself there, or something? Now that’s what I call high self-esteem! I have been impressed with her self-control as of late, but Shion’s still got a lot to learn on that front. Best to take a long-term view.
“I’ll not comment on that, but make sure you keep consulting with your comrades, protect our nation and all who dwell in it, and prevent yourself from going out of control for me.”
With that, I granted Shion her souls.
But… Huh? There was an almost shocking lack of change. Shion looked at me, acting slightly put off. We had a staring contest for a while, but still no sign of transformation. Was that a dud, or what? Boy, is this awkward. Now it’s like I haven’t given her anything, huh? I suddenly had a crisis on my hands. I haven’t prepared anything else for her!
As I was panicking over what to do, something truly unexpected happened. Nothing had changed with Shion, but the members of Team Reborn under her fell to the ground one by one, fast asleep. Then I noticed that a few members of her fan club who styled themselves as her elite guard were rapidly dozing off themselves. It varied from person to person, but it looked like all of them had received blessings from her. Shion seemed completely unaffected. What a strange phenomenon. No point thinking about it too much, though. They’re under her direct control, so I guess that’s the kind of thing that’ll happen. Best to leave that to her.
“Right. Well, Shion, let me know if you sense any abnormalities in your own body.”
“Absolutely! By the way, Sir Rimuru, do you have any special rewards prepared like the one you devised for Gobta?”
Shion fidgeted a bit as she asked. Hmm… I had to empathize with her. I’d conducted her ritual like all the others, but to the audience, it must look like I gave her a fancy new title and nothing else. Some people would be glad enough for that… But with Shion, it’s not like she needed new weapons or whatever, so…
Something like what I gave Gobta, huh?
“Very well. In that case, I’m going to teach you how to make a very special dish!”
“What?! Are you admitting, then, that I am a better cook than Shuna—?”
“Absolutely not!”
How could she ever jump to that conclusion? Shuna, listening on next to her, just rolled her eyes in contempt, although my immediate denial quickly restored her sunny disposition. Shion looked less than pleased with me, but when I whispered into her ear that I’d have an expansion installed in the kitchen, she gave me a happy nod and went back to her column.
Team Reborn, meanwhile, was evolving in very interesting ways. They seemed to be turning into spiritual life-forms, in a sense—but with physical bodies, unlike demons by default. Rather close to demons but still primarily physical in nature—and most importantly, they could still breed and produce offspring. It looked like we had a totally new species on our hands. Death-oni, I guess you could say? Shion’s oni foundation seemed to be emerging more strongly on them than before, with some of them acquiring her body-enhancing extra skill Divine Force. No one was sprouting any horns, though.
Their magicule counts weren’t on the level of Team Hiryu, but given their immortality, it was hard to judge which group was stronger, really. You could’ve said they evolved from hobgoblins, and anyone would’ve believed you. The biological processes of these monsters truly baffled me.
And so, despite Shion herself having surprisingly little to show for it, her evolution ritual came to a close.
And now we were at the bottom of the list. Diablo. My biggest headache.
He had been visibly fidgeting for a while now, looking at me with this expectant smile. Honestly, he’d probably cause more damage if I stopped the event now than if he went into an evolutionary frenzy. If anyone got in his way here, they were as good as dead.
Well, let’s do it.
“Yes, Sir Rimuru!”
I had nothing but bad feelings about this.
There’s little doubting that this evolution will make him the most powerful figure in this nation of monsters I’ve constructed. I don’t mean the strongest of my group—I mean stronger than me, no doubt. He claims he can’t beat Zegion, but I’m sure he was giving himself a handicap somewhere. He overpowered Jiwu and Bernie, both formidable foes, at the same time by himself. Zegion’s strength was a surprise to me, but Diablo seemed like he was one step ahead.
In other words, he was already my strongest underling. In fact, if Diablo really put his mind to it, he might even outgun me in his current state. If you compared him to me back just after I awakened, it wasn’t even close. So how was he going to evolve now? I needed to be extremely cautious.
“Diablo, I can think of no title more appropriate for you than Daemon Lord. May you continue to serve as my right-hand man and unite all the demons under our banner!”
Especially those three demonesses.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… I remain as ever at your service, Sir Rimuru!”
Seriously, Diablo. Please. I nodded and performed the ritual.
And so a new fiend was born…
The evolution was over in an instant, it seemed. I suspected another Shion-type dud at first, but I was wrong. He was just exhibiting perfect control over all energy flows and not letting any changes show at all.
Nice one, Diablo. What a masterpiece. Now he had evolved into one of the strongest beings in the entire world. A bit of it was flowing into me through our newly created soul corridor, and man, what a fright. I now had a vague idea of the upper limits of his power—and given how Benimaru’s and Shion’s evolutions were apparently disappointments, Diablo truly had become my most powerful underling. In fact…well, his magicule count was up there with mine, and considering the skills he’d built up, I feared this was no longer someone I could defeat in battle.
Guess that bad feeling I had was pretty accurate. I expected something like this, though, so I wasn’t wrought out over it.
“Impressive evolution there, Diablo.”
“The compliment is most appreciated, Sir Rimuru.”
So we’re good? His personality was still the same. If he decided to overthrow me right now, it would be pretty funny… And don’t tell anyone, but I would try fighting to keep my position.
But despite the evolution completing itself, Diablo looked like he was trying to acquire some new ability.
“What’re you doing?”
“Ah, well, you see, during the previous battle, I realized the usefulness of ultimate skills, you could say. I was ignoring them before since Guy was bragging up and down to me about them, but now I think I may as well gain one if it’s available to me.”
“Oh, huh…”
What kind of idiot is this? It’s funny how stupid smart people like him can be sometimes. Feels like I’m surrounded by a lot of those types, actually.
“So yes, I thought I’d take this opportunity to learn one so I can brag about it the next time I see him, keh-heh-heh-heh-heh…”
“Uh-huh…”
He hates it when Guy brags to him, but it’s okay for him to brag back?
Well, given his attitude up to now, I could easily imagine how much of an ego he copped with everyone besides me. I didn’t need Raphael to spell that out. But this would be aimed at Guy, not me, so I had nothing to worry about. As long as it wouldn’t come back to haunt me, there was no use fretting over the little things.
So it looked like Diablo’s demeanor remained as rock-solid as always, and at this rate, I didn’t think I needed to worry about a sudden mutiny anytime soon. He had full control over his evolution, even, so there was no reason for me to treat him as anything but the faithful, capable staffer I saw him as before.
Incidentally, as I found out later, Diablo’s blessings were passed on to his second-in-command, Venom, along with the hundred demons under Venom’s direct command. However—and this is just a hunch on my part—I think Diablo found a way to siphon as much energy away from those blessings as possible. I wasn’t sure if such a thing was possible, but if Diablo could do it, I wouldn’t be surprised in the least. Strength, after all, is earned, not given—I’m sure that’s Diablo’s line of thought.
Regardless, Venom was showing some real growth. He had undergone an evolution of his own, becoming a full Demon Peer. He still wasn’t nearly on the level of Testarossa and friends, though, and even compared to Moss and Veyron, I wouldn’t call him all that intimidating. There was no way that someone who had reigned as the strongest for so many years could be defeated by an upstart out of nowhere. Even among Demon Peers, there was a clear ranking in place.
“Well, of course,” Venom told me. “I’m still a newcomer, you know; I haven’t even been living for a century. I hardly even deserve to be compared to them.”
I suppose Venom is something of an uncommon case—a Contemporary-era demon with little experience to his name. Given the unique skill he was born with, however, maybe he was a reincarnate with some crazy story behind his history. He had no memory of his past life, he told me, but would sometimes recall words despite not knowing their meanings. Visiting my nation frequently gave him bouts of déjà vu, apparently. If he was a reincarnate, that certainly would make him something special.
But Venom still knew his place in the world. He had evolved to the same level as Testarossa and her friends, but he wasn’t letting it get to his head, and he didn’t look down on his other colleagues. He knew how much he had evolved, and he had picked up on the gap between himself and the next level. For a demon, experience is far more important than magicule counts.
That was real mature of him, I thought. But he also let me in on a little inside scoop.
“To tell the truth, I did actually challenge Lord Diablo once before—and let me tell you, he made disgustingly clear the difference between us!”
He was all smiles as he recalled it, but man. Bad move there, dude. I’d expect nothing less from Diablo’s closest associate, though. Guess there’s a reason why he likes the guy.
Despite the sheer stupidity of that challenge, it sounds like it turned out to be a good thing. Venom learned from the experience, and he never made the same mistake twice. If he ever did get carried away again, I’m sure Diablo would rub him out anyway. He had no mercy for people too big for their britches, no matter how close they were to him.
Learning from your mistakes is a valuable skill to have. I look forward to seeing how Venom develops.
As for the rest of the blessing receivers—well, to tell the truth, they were still having their bodies formed in our incubation capsules. All one hundred of them were now reborn as Diable Chevaliers. They couldn’t quite match up with Arch Demons, but they were now demonic knights, up there with any other high-level magic-born and capable of killing a Great Demon in one hit.
They were way off the charts, really… But Diablo didn’t really care about them at all. So they remained Venom’s servants. Diablo preferred to keep himself free and mobile, retaining his position directly under me, and that convinced me most of all that he hadn’t changed. No matter how much he evolved and surpassed me, Diablo was still Diablo.
So all my top staff had completed their evolution rituals. I’m glad it went over without any major hiccups.
But the victory celebration wasn’t done yet. I continued to call out to people who distinguished themselves in battle, thanking them for their hard work. Then we moved right on from there to a celebratory feast, although one attended only by those still awake. We’d have to wait until next time to assemble the entire gang, but until then, we enjoyed today’s party well enough.
I was disappointed, however, to find that Jaine and the Twin Wings weren’t joining us. They were quite apologetic but said they had urgent matters to attend to, so they took off in a hurry after the coliseum event ended. Hopefully they’ll be able to chill more with us next time they visit.
Right now, however, I’m more concerned about a couple of people getting belligerent under the influence.
“…Sir Benimaru was out of my league anyway. I knew that all along!!”
“No, no, Lady Gobwa, you’re quite attractive; trust me on that. But look at me! Lady Alvis, the girl of my dreams, takes my hand…and then she freakin’ kills me! That’s beastmen for ya, y’know? They like ’em strong. They want a mate who’s at least as powerful as they are… And if you’re strong enough, you can have as many women as you want. But me, ohhh noooo…”
“Goodness, Sir Phobio, you’re more than strong enough. If I were stronger, I could’ve stepped in between those two ladies, but—”
“Hey, you can drop the ‘sir’ stuff with me. You’re plenty strong yourself, Lady Gobwa. You just had some real stiff competition, is all. Not even I could beat them, y’know? It is what it is.”
“Sir Phobio…er, Phobio. Please, call me Gobwa, then.”
“Sure thing, Gobwa.”
“Phobio…”
Whoa, can you not do this in public, please? I’m mature enough to not cause a scene over this, but this isn’t some private candlelit restaurant, all right?!
Then again, though, two jilted lovers starting to kindle something with each other isn’t such a bad thing, is it? Love works in mysterious ways, and so forth. I’ll let it slide…
And the night passed along happily, the party in full swing.
So our nation had a set of new lords governing it.
Regulations forbade them from calling themselves demon lords, but we now had nine among us who were practically equivalent to awakened demon lords. Add our three Primal Demons to this, and barring some really exceptional events, I think we were capable of dealing with anything that came our way.
Since these twelve people now had lord epithets, I decided to refer to them collectively as the Twelve Lordly Guardians. Some of them were also part of groups like the Big Four and the Ten Dungeon Marvels, but the lord term in their titles took precedence. That’s because, unlike those two other groups, I had no plans to replace these twelve anytime soon. Being a lord, in my realm, is a sort of lifelong appointment, since all of them had eternal life in the first place. In the future, I think it’d be ideal if they eventually stepped away from day-to-day duties and only took up their Lordly roles during wars or emergencies.
We had a lot of other great staff on hand, like Rigurd and Rigur and Gobta and Mjöllmile, but they were all mortal. We needed to strike a clear difference between how we handled permanent posts and jobs that would go through generational changes. It didn’t need to be addressed right this minute, but the time would come soon enough.
The one person on my mind is Gobta. He’s a top leader (despite it all), he’s surprisingly resourceful, and he’s more than reasonably strong in a fight. That transformation team-up with Ranga was a real game changer for him. There was no doubting Ranga’s evolution would power him up a lot, but I was sure Gobta could still keep up with him, too.
He really is unique. Despite being named and evolved, his outward appearance didn’t change at all. He blathered on about how he “evolved in terms of talent and stuff,” but now I’m thinking that might’ve been the truth. And now, with today’s reward, Gobta’s position in Tempest has been set in stone. He had been granted a position closer to me than many other top officeholders, and that wasn’t lost on everyone looking Gobta’s way.
In a surprising way, maybe that was the biggest reward I gave out today. It struck me as pretty funny as I watched all my friends enjoy the party.
Word of what happened today must’ve spread fast around the world, because somewhere along the line, I had been given the nickname Rimuru the Chaos Creator. This was fine. I decided to go with it. I was fully aware of all the crap I’d been pulling, after all.