sampah

“In that case, name away is what I say!”

Ramiris happily nodded her approval. With her consent, it was time to get started.

“Do you have any ideas for good names?”

“Mmmm… You handle it!”

Guess Ramiris isn’t too good at coming up with names. If she was leaving all that to me, then they were probably gonna end up with fantasy game–style names… But maybe that works, actually? They are boss monsters, after all, so maybe it’s not worth sweating over.

So I had Ramiris go fetch the Dragon Lords and bring them to the labyrinth lord’s chambers where Veldora resided. Seeing all four of them lined up before me, it dawned on me that these guys have probably been beaten up by adventuring teams many times over by now. They remained doggedly devoted to their posts, however, so I really wanted some cool names for them. Being a Dragon Lord means having more magicules than even an Arch Demon, but it hadn’t been that long since Milim picked them up, so these guys weren’t quite as good as they could be. If naming them triggers evolutions, that ought to give them a ton more intelligence—and then they can be smarter, and stronger, than ever before.

With something like this, going with your initial gut feeling is always the best bet. The Fire Dragon Lord became Euros the Draconic Flamelord; the ice one became Zephyros the Draconic Frostlord; the wind one became Notos the Draconic Skylord; and the earth one became Boreas the Draconic Terralord. I was borrowing liberally from Greek mythology; these were the names of the Anemoi, the deities assigned to the winds of each cardinal direction, and I thought these would be perfect for the Dragon Lords.

These names were my creation, but Ramiris would be treated as the one who named them all. That seemed to work without a hitch, much to my relief. Thus, Ramiris and the dragons were now connected by their souls, and I hoped they’d continue to serve her faithfully.

So how did it work out? Well, just as I guessed, the Dragon Lords could all transform into forms close to human—not completely so, though, as they still retained some draconic characteristics. Euros, the Brimstone Dragon Lord, was a beautiful woman with red hair, her auburn skin covered in a dress made of dragon scale, and her tail resembled a flaming whip. Zephyros, the Frostkeep Dragon Lord, was a slender, handsome young man; his elegant, gentle appearance, combined with his long green hair, gave him an almost feminine sort of beauty. Notos, the Skythunder Dragon Lord, looked like a little girl, all cute from a distance but bearing jagged teeth and menacing fangs up close; the size and look were a mismatch for her incredible strength. Finally, Boreas, the Earthshaker Dragon Lord, was a large, muscular man covered in dragon scales, spines growing all over his body.

The four of them looked like they headed some legion of super villains, the combination of horror and beauty they presented resulting in a twisted sort of attractiveness. This shift, however, was just for looks only; they hadn’t turned dragonoid like Milim, and their species was still straight-up Dragon Lord. Dragonoids, after all, are spiritual life-forms with a physical body, a sort of mutational offshoot from the True Dragons. Even with all the Dragon Lords’ powers, they were still physical by nature, so they weren’t going to rank up there with the perfection the True Dragons exuded.

Still, despite the remaining Dragon Lords, I’d call this evolution a big success. Even better, they had acquired more magic force than I anticipated. They all had several times more magicules than pre-evolution, and it looked to me like they’d get close to the awakened Clayman on that front. Not quite a true demon lord, but still, a wonderful leap forward for them. Considering how much some simple names boosted them, I shuddered to think what would’ve happened if I consumed my own magicules for this. For all I knew, I could’ve suffered irreparable damage. This whole naming system is really scary, in a way.

All told, I consumed five thousand souls on this job. There’s just nothing at all logical about monsters, I realized all over again. But no point pondering over it. Either way, the evolutions of the Dragon Lords, which served as my thank-you gift to Ramiris, were now complete.

By the way, if you’re looking strictly at magicule counts, the Ten Dungeon Marvels are all about evenly matched with these Dragon Lords. However, it looks like there’s still a major gap in combat power, something you can’t express with numbers. Zegion’s a good enough illustration of that, but even the other Marvels make the evolved Dragon Lords look kind of weak. Yes, they had strong monster bodies and attacks that leveraged them, plus a bunch of magic. They were undoubtedly vicious, powerful forces… But they’d still lose out to their peers with better combat skills.

A lot of that just came down to lack of battle experience; they didn’t really have a firm foundation in combat yet. I’m sure it was frustrating for the Dragon Lords to keep getting whipped all the time during the labyrinth siege. In fact, the moment they evolved and gained language fluency, the first thing they did was ask me for training.

Having a new humanoid form meant they could now master human-style combat, and they now realized that a more refined skill set would get them a lot further than their monster-style techniques. Instead of relying on physical attacks like bites, maulings, and element-driven breath, they’d need to understand their magic better and incorporate it into their fighting. I assumed they wanted to learn how to fight as humans and try working that into their own approaches. They came up with that on their own, and really, that showed some pretty remarkable development already.

“Kwaaaaah-ha-ha-ha! I will gladly take care of them for you!”

Veldora, emboldened after doing such a good job raising Zegion, immediately accepted the trainer role for the Dragon Lords. Thus, their journey began.

In time, some of the Dragon Lords would demonstrate more strength in human form than as dragons. They mastered ways to transform their own claws and scales into weapons and armor—which seemed like kind of a backward way to do it, but oh well—and I assume they liked the results they got from that. I wouldn’t discover this until much later, but…yeah, I guess it’s just as well.

Three days had passed since Caligulio and his staff were resurrected, and by now, they had regained most of their composure. The shock of being brought back to life by a demon lord was hard to put into words, but somehow, they had managed to accept it as the truth.

The question then became: What happens to us, going forward?

For now, they were still living and sleeping in tents. Food was arranged for them, carried in regularly by monsters—skeletons, in fact, but nobody was complaining. These tents were lined up in a barren, hilly area with no real vegetation; the scenery was dreary, but it was neither too hot nor too cold, making it an oddly comfortable space. The death-laden atmosphere of the battlefield and the long rows of graves for the dead weren’t any big deal once you got used to them. The people these graves belonged to were out walking and talking in skeleton form anyway, so it’d be silly to fear them. In short, it wasn’t an arrangement to wail about at all.

According to what they heard, they had been set up on Floor 70 of the labyrinth. This was all explained to them by a wight king named Adalmann, who oversaw things on this level. Some of the people there had actually fought against him, so nobody doubted who he was. Besides, Adalmann was quite caring of them, treating Caligulio and the others pretty well by POW standards.

“My god, Sir Rimuru, has deemed fit to resurrect you all, and thus, I follow his divine will. He is not the type of person who would take away a life previously given. I will suggest you take your time to think about what you want your future to be like.”

Based on that philosophy, Adalmann had let Caligulio and his staff go free. But nobody was suggesting they break their way out of this level. Their lives were already in the hands of the gods, they realized, and so they decided to trust in the demon lord Rimuru. Caligulio agreed with this, and besides, he was confident any escape attempt would end in failure. That’s why, taking Adalmann’s words to heart, he decided to call his staff together for a meeting.

Nearly a hundred officers were now gathered in a large tent used for military conferences. These were senior staffers, some of the Empire’s greatest heroes, but any power they had was well and truly gone now.

“All right, people. First off, allow me to apologize. My incompetence is what put you all in this situation, and for that, I am sincerely sorry.”

Caligulio looked at his assembled audience and bowed his head. Nobody there thought the apology was warranted.

“What are you saying, my lord? We are just as guilty as you for not stopping His Majesty.”

The staff nodded their agreement to the aide’s statement. The senior officers—most notably Krishna—also agreed that Caligulio was far from the only culprit here.

“I am of the same opinion as everyone else. Thanks to our foolishness, we have incurred the wrath of God himself… And by God’s mercy, we’ve been given the opportunity to atone for our sins.”

As he phrased it, the Empire’s whole invasion was a sin, and Caligulio agreed with him. As overconfident of their military might as they were, they didn’t even try to learn much about their enemy. Looking back, Caligulio could hardly believe his own stupidity. The thought that his friends must all be feeling the same way brought an embittered smile to his face.

“Thank you. Hearing that makes me feel a little more at peace with myself. And I swear to God that I will never forget this feeling.”

The moment he said the word God, the image of the demon lord Rimuru flashed through his mind.

Yes… As far as I’m concerned, Lord Rimuru may as well be my god.

There was no place in the Empire for Caligulio to return to. If he did, he’d take the blame for the loss, and they’d skip the court-martial and jump right to his execution. He had no intention of shirking his responsibilities, but he thought it wrong to throw away the life granted by Rimuru for nothing.

Well… I’ll have time to weigh my options there.

It was natural for Caligulio to think about putting his own problems off for later. His face was no longer that of a brute driven solely by self-preservation and greed.

“Now, let’s get to the topic at hand. I’ve gathered you all here today because I want to build consensus on how we should move forward. Sir Adalmann has generously given me the freedom to consult with all of you in this meeting, so let’s try to get some work done so his kindness doesn’t go to waste.”

Once Caligulio said this, the people present exchanged glances and began discussing matters among themselves. That would be unthinkable during a typical military meeting, but Caligulio welcomed it—he wanted honest, unadorned feedback from everyone.

After chatting about it for a while, the group narrowed their thoughts down enough to form two major factions. One thought it best to stay here and retain their current allegiance to their captors; the other argued that they must return to the Empire without delay.

These two sides were deadlocked with each other, and both arguments were wholly understandable. It was only natural that those with families would want to return home, but whether that was possible depended on the intentions of the demon lord Rimuru. Perhaps it’d be doable with further negotiations, but if they made too much of a fuss about it, it could put the demon lord off.

“I would like to believe that he has no interest in executing us for no reason, as Sir Adalmann assures us. But we have to keep in mind that this doesn’t mean we’re forgiven.”

Given the way their lives were saved, their fates were all in the hands of the demon lord. They might’ve been granted a little freedom, but getting too selfish presented unknown risks.

“…I imagine all of us in this tent would be executed if we came back. But even despite that, I want to make sure that the soldiers who fought so bravely for their country can get home safely. I’d like to appeal directly to Lord Rimuru and ask him for his favor here.”

“Perhaps, but keep in mind, we are something akin to hostages right now, and we have no idea whether our nation will pay compensation or not. It’s a thorny issue.”

Then Major General Minitz, who had been silently listening to everyone’s takes so far, spoke up.

“It’s not gonna happen. We’ve never even imagined ourselves as defeated. You know how consistently ruthless we’ve been in our dealings with hostile nations.”

The floor fell silent. The Empire had never accepted anything other than unconditional surrender in the past. It was arrogant of them, but given their constant streak of victories, they had a right to be arrogant. But now that they had suffered a total defeat, they’d have no one to blame for themselves if they were unforgiven. Everybody here understood that—and they knew that even if they could return to the Empire, their future there would look pretty bleak.

Still, some wanted to fulfill their responsibilities to those soldiers with families waiting back home.

“Major General Minitz is right. I wonder what His Majesty the Emperor will think about all this…”

“I hate to say it, but I think our intelligence bureau was far too negligent. How many demon lord–class freaks do they think Tempest even had?!”

For an imperial officer, this remark was wading into taboo territory.

“Hey! Watch your mouth, you! I don’t care what happens to the IIB at this point, but the ones you called freaks are the major leaders of this nation, you know.”

“Sorry. Slip of the tongue…”

Free speech was welcome here, and there were no monsters in the tent. No one had seen Adalmann since yesterday; Caligulio assumed he was off attending to business somewhere. That’s why they were having this conference today… But that didn’t mean they could say anything and everything they wanted. They couldn’t forget their status as prisoners of war.

“Lord Rimuru seems to be a generous leader to me, but I doubt he’ll overlook any bad-mouthing of his staff. Remember that well, everyone, and keep an eye on what you say.”

Despite stating that, Caligulio agreed with his officer’s voiced opinion. At the very least, the fact that somebody under Rimuru’s command could handle magic as intense as Gravity Collapse told volumes about how dangerous this demon lord was. Why didn’t the Imperial Information Bureau know anything about them?

I fully understand why he called the IIB negligent. If anything, I wish I said that myself…

But then one audience member uttered something that threw cold water on Caligulio and his officers.

“Are all of you idiots? Listen to me. The IIB was definitely aware of some intel, at least.”

Bernie, silent until now, suddenly let out that bombshell with a chuckle.

“That’s ridiculous! So why did they withhold accurate intelligence from His Majesty?”

“They didn’t betray us, did they?!”

The whole group was agitated. Only Minitz and Caligulio remained calm, and Minitz was the first to respond.

“Your name was Bernie, right? The man on an undercover mission not even we were told about?”

“Right,” Caligulio added. “Single Digits like you probably would know some top secret information that we weren’t aware of. So what was the IIB thinking, and what did they want us to do?”

All eyes focused on Bernie after that question. Everybody on hand wanted to know. The IIB had sworn absolute loyalty to the emperor. It was hard to believe that they would betray anyone—and that meant Emperor Ludora was in a position to anticipate this happening all along.

Bernie snorted at the crowd as he looked around, giving Caligulio and the others sympathetic looks. Then, without hesitation, he dropped another bomb.

“Well, it’s exactly what you’re all imagining. The emperor knew everything. He was already taking your defeat into consideration.”

“That—that’s madness…”

“What do you mean by that? Are you saying His Majesty knew we’d be defeated but sent the entire army over anyway?!”

“Impossible! That’s far too much of an insult against the emperor!”

The officers were all getting worked up. But someone began to have an inkling of what was going on.

“I see. So we were just throwaway pawns the whole time?”

“No, that’s not quite the right way to put it, Minitz. If I had to guess, His Majesty’s purpose was—”

“Pfft! Keep your mouth shut, Caligulio. If someone needs to take the heat for leaking national-level secrets, let it be me, not you. Listen… All of us right now are dead, me included. And if we are, this won’t count as betraying the emperor anyway.”

Such was Bernie’s resolve. He had lost the powers that promoted him to the Single Digits, even the ultimate force granted to him by the emperor. Now it was time, as a leader, to show a new pathway for everyone.

“Bernie…”

“Sorry, Jiwu. But you know I’m never gonna be that loyal to His Majesty. I only served him for one reason—because I knew I could never beat him.”

That, too, was Bernie telling the truth.

………

……

…

Bernie, born in the United States of America forty-five years ago, was once an average, freedom-loving student. Somehow he wound up in this world instead, where Gadora discovered him. He was then taken in by Damrada, from whom he learned the art of fighting. This gave him confidence, and somewhere along the line, he became vain enough to think he was among the best in the world. But his confidence was shattered by a single woman serving at Emperor Ludora’s side. A beautiful woman—and also a truly monstrous creation. A lofty pinnacle that Bernie would never reach, even if he moved heaven and earth and went through thousands of reincarnations. It was hard to believe such a being even existed, but reality was all too cruel to him.

The woman’s name was Velgrynd—one of the Empire’s most closely guarded secrets, one that must never be spoken of to outsiders.

One day, Bernie was escorted by Damrada to the emperor’s palace, a great honor that fueled his ambitions even further. As a lover of freedom, he detested the idea of an emperor who dominated every aspect of people’s lives. He dreamed, however foolishly, that he could overthrow the emperor if he just had a chance. The price of that foolishness was paid in fear, for when Bernie met Velgrynd for the first time that day, he was immediately seized by it, giving in wholeheartedly to it.

As Bernie was gripped by this fear, Emperor Ludora addressed him from beyond the curtain.

“You have the qualifications… The requirements to serve as a vessel. I will lend you my powers. Please keep up the good work.”

Ludora’s voice sounded entirely free of emotion, as if it was echoing out from some faraway point. The next thing Bernie knew, he was in absolutely no position to defy the emperor any longer.

………

……

…

“His Majesty doesn’t care if a million of his elites are wiped out. In fact, that’s all part of the plan.”

That sentence, by itself, made little sense. But Caligulio knew what it meant.

“…Oh. So he’s willing to sacrifice a million officers and enlisted men if it results in someone like me awakening?”

Hearing Caligulio give the correct answer after so little explanation surprised Bernie slightly. But hearing him say “someone like me awakening” made it clear how he knew.

“Ah, so you’re awakened, too? Then I think you probably understand it all. Yes, you’re right. His Majesty’s goal is to build a collection of awakened people to serve as his pawns. If he can gain even one more of them, that’s easily worth a million casualties to him.”

This was a truth that not even the Empire’s senior officers were aware of. From the very beginning, Emperor Ludora expected nothing from his military. The most important thing to him was how many awakened personnel he could collect.

“Quality over quantity sort of thing? So when we took on Veldora three centuries ago and failed…”

Minitz gave Bernie a sharp gaze as he asked the question. Bernie was aloof as always.

“I don’t know what happened back then, but if you think about it, doesn’t it make sense to you? I can kill every man in this tent by myself… Or I could have, I mean. That’s how vast the power gap was.”

“I see, I see… And that’s why it was a given that we’d be defeated, then? The whole strategy was built on the assumption that we’d take horrific losses. I’d like to call it a brilliant move on His Majesty’s part, but this time, it was just a disaster.”

“Exactly. I’m sure His Majesty didn’t expect us to lose after your awakening.”

Minitz sounded convinced of it, Caligulio bitterly listening on.

“Well… I’m sorry I wasn’t good enough.”

He mumbled it out, his tone self-deriding, but Bernie denied it.

“It’s all right. It’s not that you weren’t up to the challenge. We just matched up poorly against our opponent.”

“Yeah. There was nothing we could do against that.”

Jiwu nodded her agreement. She and Bernie had both lost to Diablo, the same demon who defeated Caligulio. If they couldn’t beat a freak of nature like that, they assumed Caligulio couldn’t, either.

“So you’re saying Tempest’s strength was beyond what the IIB projected?”

“Looks that way, yeah. The plan was to use the demon lord Rimuru as a stepping-stone to gain more pawns for us, but we blew our chances because we misjudged our opponent’s strength.”

Bernie couldn’t help but laugh, as inappropriate as that was considering all the personnel lost. But he still wished he could rub this in the emperor’s face someday.

“…Well, Bernie, you were trying to use us as a diversion so you could stage your sneak attack, I suppose, but it failed. What are you gonna do now?”

“Ha! I told you. I’ll take the heat for it, okay?”

“What do you mean?” Minitz calmly asked. A few moments passed, everyone in the tent silently waiting for Bernie’s answer.

“…Let me get one thing straight with you folks first. Like I just said, you guys are all already dead. I don’t mean that metaphorically; I mean you’re dead as far as His Majesty is concerned.”

“Mm-hmm. Is it trouble for him if we stay alive like this?”

“That’s not quite the way to put it. The emperor has no use for soldiers who’ve been deprived of their powers and have zero chance of awakening. And if he has no use for you, then he has no reason to protect you, either.”

“I suppose not, no.”

“Think of it on that basis, and there’s a real good chance they won’t accept any prisoners if Tempest offers them. And not just that—if the surviving soldiers return home, it’ll spread antiwar sentiment across the Empire. Do you think that’s in line with His Majesty’s will?”

“Doubtful.”

Minitz sighed. Now he understood what Bernie wanted to say.

“And since we’re no longer important to His Majesty, we’re just a third wheel to the IIB?”

“You got it.”

“And they’ll seek out and deal with anyone who tries to return home?”

“Definitely.”

And then they’d pin the blame on Tempest to stir up the anger and vengeance of their people, likely. Bernie was confident that’s what the IIB would do, and that was the story he was giving the tent now.

“…But we’re talking seven hundred thousand people. It’d be impossible.”

“The people who underwent enhancement surgery didn’t lose that much power. If we fight back, we’d be fighting against our own side!”

Minitz raised a hand to quiet the startled officers.

“…Do you have an idea of who might be capable of that?”

Most of the audience thought the idea was ridiculous. But Minitz remained coolheaded. Caligulio, remembering what happened when he was awakened, remained silent. With that kind of power, he concluded, it wasn’t so impossible at all.

“Could the Single Digits do it?”

“If that’s a yes-no question, then the answer is yes. But that’s just armchair theorizing. If a single person has absolute power, that’s good for offense but not for defense. If the enemy swarms you with huge numbers, then inevitably you’ll have areas you can’t fully defend. At the same time, it’s also not a suitable approach if you’re pursuing a fleeing enemy. If they scatter in all directions, you’ll inevitably miss out on some.”

In this case, it’d be necessary for the Empire to take all of them out with no survivors whatsoever. Bernie didn’t know anyone who’d be capable of that…with one exception.

“Now, common sense dictates that this is impossible, right? But it’s not. The Empire’s got an absolute freak of nature who can pull that off.”

Bernie recalled the figure in his mind. It made him shiver. The beauty, and the horror, could only be understood by those who’ve had an encounter. Bernie was one of them, and that fact made him very unhappy.

“…Someone that makes a Single Digit like you quake in their boots? It appears that I’m gravely mistaken here.”

Minitz sat back in his seat and looked up at the ceiling.

“Me too. I joined the military because I dreamed of ruling the world in the name of the Empire. But now…”

Now everything was being decided in a place that had nothing to do with the military. These power struggles were being played by someone else, and there was no room for the non-awakened to butt in.

“Foolish of us, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah. What a farce.”

Caligulio and Minitz exchanged glances, both looking ready to cry. And not just them—all the other officers in the tent looked like they had just woken up from a dream, and they weren’t happy about it. It’s so pathetic, Bernie thought. Everyone would’ve been a lot happier if they didn’t know the truth, but then they wouldn’t have been convinced about their situation. That’s why Bernie laid it all bare for them, leaving nothing behind.

“So do you see now? You understand the situation you’re in? If you go back home, there’ll be nothing but despair waiting for you. You gotta stay here as prisoners and just wait until the war’s over.”

“Sir Bernie, what are you going to do?”

“I’m going back to the Empire. The war’s not gonna end anytime soon at this rate, so Lord Rimuru is probably gonna try negotiating with the Empire… And he’ll need a guide for that, won’t he?”

And that guide would almost certainly be disappeared. The current, powerless Bernie would absolutely be assassinated. But he was determined to do it.

Now everyone was silent. Here and now, they understood all too well that the demon lord Rimuru had an iron grip on all of their fates.

After expressing my gratitude to Veldora and Ramiris, I decided to go to Floor 70 of the labyrinth.

Adalmann, following yesterday’s evolution ritual, had fallen into a deep sleep. His Harvest Festival was underway, but his castle was still fully wrecked, so we dragged him to a guest room up top and had him sleep there. Alberto and Venti were put into their own quarters as well, and I was sure they’d all be waking up soon enough.

But the imperial prisoners of war were a problem for me. Adalmann was taking care of them, and it wouldn’t be good to leave them unattended. Besides, I was hoping they were calm enough by now to give me some more information about the Empire. It was a good opportunity for that anyway, so I decided to go and check on them. I had my two secretaries accompanying me, and I figured that’d be enough to keep me safe through anything.

“You didn’t have to go do this yourself, Sir Rimuru…”

“Oh, you wanna do it for me, then?”

“Yes! Go down there and talk to them!”

“Keh… Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh. Right! Off we go, then!”

Diablo never changes, does he? And maybe that’s true for Shion, too. There’s no way they’d voluntarily go down there. I’d never let Shion do this alone, I thought as she hugged me close to her chest. It was odd that they were both fine the day after the evolution ritual, though. Shion was still unchanged after a full twenty-four hours, and Diablo was completely back to his usual self.

“So did you manage to acquire any new abilities?”

“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh! Well, thanks to you, Sir Rimuru, I’ve finally succeeded in obtaining an ultimate skill! Now I don’t have to sit there and fume while Guy annoys me with his bragging.”

I’m sure Guy found Diablo far more annoying than the other way around. Like, I’m totally confident about that.

“Well, if that was so frustrating for you, you should’ve acquired one on your own. I’m sure you could’ve figured out an ultimate skill without my help, Diablo.”

“No, no, I couldn’t have. If I gained the skill after Guy told me about his, it’d be like I was copying him. It would look terrible.”

I don’t get it. This isn’t about who’s copying whom, you know. If there’s something useful out there, why don’t you just have him teach it to you? Or am I thinking about this all wrong?

“Heh. How narrow-minded of you, Diablo. Better to ask than go astray, as I think they say—and ever since Sir Rimuru taught me that, I’ve always striven to listen to what people have to say. Gobichi has taught me the true essence of cooking as well, and now I’ve acquired full mastery of my craft!”

Shion seemed awfully smug about that, but personally, I think Gobichi just wanted to get away from her. I really wish Gobichi wouldn’t go giving Shion this strange confidence of hers, too. He needs to step up and take care of her to the bitter end, you know?

“Oh, was that the reason why Sir Gobichi was hospitalized a bit ago? If he had to put up with your cooking all the time, no wonder he fell ill.”

Yeahhhh… Maybe I shouldn’t be chiding Gobichi, after all. But Diablo’s gone through some tough times on this front as well, and Shuna doesn’t even dare taste test anything Shion creates. So who’ll deal with Shion’s cooking? It’s gonna have to be Benimaru, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s his responsibility to educate Shion, and I’ll make sure that’s clear with him. And I’m not saying that just because I want to needle the newlywed or anything. Please don’t misunderstand me here.

Shion got us all derailed, but as we chatted on, we reached our destination in no time. Once we were transported over to the hilly area of Floor 70, we were greeted by some people who shot up and saluted the moment they saw us. I’m not sure that’s really the appropriate thing to do with the demon lord of an enemy nation, but Diablo and Shion seemed satisfied with it, so I didn’t quibble.

“Lord Rimuru has graced us with his presence! Summon Lord Caligulio at once!”

And with that, the soldiers started jogging to and fro, forming a column that led directly to a single tent. Caligulio was conducting a military conference in there, according to the people guiding the way for us.

Inside the tent were a hundred or so important-looking people. They all saluted, on their feet and demonstrating impeccable posture. Getting this treatment from the top brass surprised me a little. I mean, I’m the king of their enemy, and I’m in slime form right now, too. But nobody was looking down on me, and I guess Raphael’s suggestion was more successful than expected. It’s only natural, I suppose, if you think about it. If someone kills you and then brings you back to life, it’s probably wise to fully submit to them. If I ran into someone like that, you can bet I wouldn’t defy them.

Convinced of this, I sat down on the seat at the head of the table I was guided to. I needed to be dignified here, so I changed over to human form, with Shion and Diablo behind me. Shion looked a little disappointed to not have me in her arms, but getting preoccupied with that was pointless, so I looked around the room and began to speak.

“All right, folks. Having all the big shots in one place is kinda helpful to me, actually.”

“““Yes, my lord!”””

They all bowed their heads at once. It was gonna be hard to talk with them like this, so I asked them to sit down before I began.

“Relax, guys, okay? I’ve got something I want to discuss.”

I gave them a warm smile. Hopefully this would ease their minds a little and enable us to have a nice, pleasant chitchat.

“Adalmann is busy with other matters at the moment, so he might not be able to come back for a while. So I was wondering if you guys had any requests for me right now.”

“That is too kind of you, my lord. We are always well taken care of here, so please, do not concern yourself about our plights.”

Eesh! So formal! Caligulio provided the answer for the rest of them, but this treatment was just beyond stuffy. Then again, they’ve lost the war, so I suppose this would be normal of them anyway.

“Well, great, then. So regarding our plans for the future…”

“Yes, my lord! There is actually something we would all like you to do on that matter!”

They had a request after all, huh? I was fine with that, as long as it wasn’t anything too unreasonable. Then Caligulio gave me quite a surprise.

“We are hoping that we could be taken care of within this country for the time being, so if possible, we’d like to ask for your continued kindness…”

Um…?

I pressed for more details. According to Caligulio, they were actually discussing their future direction when I stopped in. The conclusion they came to was that, if they returned to the Empire, it was very likely they’d all be killed.

“Whoa, whoa, are you guys crazy? What kinda country kills the soldiers that fought for it just because they lost?”

I couldn’t help but blurt that out.

“But I think that’s exactly what will happen.”

Bernie, of all people, replied first. He was calm and logical now; it was hard to believe this was the same guy who attacked us. As he explained, nobody here could say that this grisly fate wasn’t possible for them.

“Hmm… So they’d sacrifice a million to awaken just one person? You’ve got to be kidding…”

“It’s the truth, my lord.”

“Well, hang on. If that’s true, then isn’t it weird how they held off on a military invasion for so long because they feared that Veldora’s seal was broken? Maybe we had that wrong, and they were actually waiting for his return?”

“I’m afraid that not even I can understand Emperor Ludora’s thoughts on the matter. However, Lord Rimuru, I humbly believe that your observation is correct.”

Is this really Bernie? He was so polite that it seemed like a whole other person.

But that’s the deal here, huh? This guy Ludora’s true objective wasn’t just to win this war. He was going to pit the generals and soldiers of this Empire against an enemy powerful enough to weed out the losers from those who’d be awakened by the experience. The sheer scale of this was too much for regular people to even comprehend.

Report. It is an interesting idea.

Stop that, dumbass! There’s nothing interesting about using human beings as test subjects. Raphael does act up like this sometimes, doesn’t it?

Zegion was a successful example of such experimentation. For all I know, maybe I’m being the guinea pig for some other experiment of Raphael’s.

Negative. There is no confirmation of such a situation.

Oh, really? I mean, I believe you, but…

Anyway, that could wait. The question was whether to accept Caligulio’s request.

“You know, though, it costs money to feed all you guys. When we’re talking seven hundred thousand of you, that means importing food from other nations, too, so…”

If they’re likely going to be killed back home, I’m a little hesitant to just kick them out of Tempest. But honestly speaking, there’s no reason for us to take care of them. I’m only responsible for my own people. These guys—well, I’d like them to make the most of their lives, but I can’t do everything, you know? If we take in an influx of seven hundred thousand trained military personnel, our neighbors to the west aren’t gonna keep quiet about that, Blumund especially. In fact, it could even lead to needless blood being spilled. Still…it’d be kinda cold to just tell them to go home. I already saved their lives once, so I guess I should take responsibility for them right to the end.

No other option, really, besides taking care of them. But I wasn’t gonna do it for free.

“In our nation, you know, we have a credo that only those who put in the work deserve to have food on the table. If we’re gonna feed you, we need you to work for it, but are you okay with that?”

The room had awaited my response with bated breath. Once I finished speaking, they all looked delighted.

“Absolutely, my lord!”

“Order anything you want from us!”

They sure were motivated, even though I didn’t tell them what they’d be doing yet. Either way, I’d allow them to stay here, then. I had assumed that prisoners of war didn’t mean much to the Empire. There were no Geneva Conventions here, no rules that warring states were expected to follow. The way Bernie described it, these POWs wouldn’t be much of a bargaining chip for negotiating a cease-fire. If so, better to just commit and accept them as a labor force.

The length of their stay was still to be determined, but they’ll be working for us until at least the end of the war. They may not be too useful if their stay here’s too short, but we’ll have to wait and see how that pans out. Hopefully they’ll prove useful for something or other anyway. The officers here didn’t seem to have any intention of defying me, at least. Maybe I could just leave them to Geld and have him take advantage… But he’s in an evolutionary sleep right now and unavailable for a little while. So what can they do until he wakes up?

“By the way, are you guys any good at public-works projects?”

It often comes as a surprise that a military would be full of people good at engineering. In my previous life, it was a well-known fact that when a warlord of ye olde Japan wanted to build a castle, his samurai were the ones who oversaw the construction. Even in modern times, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces played a huge role in things like disaster relief; the news would talk about how active they were in overseas aid projects and so on.

Similarly, the engineers over in Dwargon have some pretty high-tech talent. They’re not the most glamorous soldiers, but they’re quite useful. It’s no exaggeration to say that Kaijin, ex-leader of the dwarven Engineering Division, literally laid the foundation for that whole kingdom. So there’s always been that link between the military and civil engineering, but…

“Oh, of course! I’m proud to inform you that the Empire’s technological capabilities are the best in the world!”

Good. In that case, let’s see what they can do.

“All right. Here’s your first task, then—you see that destroyed castle out there? I want you guys to restore it to its former glory for me. I’ll work out the supplies for it, but I want you guys to handle everything else, from design on up. Can you do that?”

Since they destroyed it and all, I thought it’d be nice if they could fix it up as well.

Caligulio eagerly nodded at me. “As you wish,” he said, looking supremely confident. A few men, presumably his staff, immediately got to work with all the swiftness of a well-oiled machine; they looked like people ready to do the job. Once Adalmann wakes up, he could send some skeletons over to help out, and I think we could get this thing rebuilt in the not-too-distant future.

Now the imperial army had a job.

Time for my other objective—intel gathering. I thought we needed to go into some depth today, so I took a few of Caligulio’s staffers familiar with imperial matters and asked them to join me in one of our conference halls. I wanted to hold a meeting with them and the members of my cabinet who were still awake, so we could talk about what we’d do with the Empire next.

At this point, the Empire was presumably still unaware that Caligulio’s force was defeated. Yuuki might’ve received reports from Misha and Laplace, but worrying about leaks from them seemed unwarranted to me.

Besides, we’re already aware of the Empire’s current maneuvers. I told Luminus about the three hundred airships traveling over the sea toward them. “Hmph!” she’d replied. “Watch me turn the tables on them all!” I doubted Luminus herself would take action, but we had a treaty, and she’d promised to guard against the imperial forces coming from the north. The Holy Empire of Lubelius, as the world’s religious headquarters, churns out a ton of paladins, and apparently they had their own standing force as well. Between that and the hidden threat that was the vampires, I felt fine leaving things in their hands. If Luminus got in any danger, the one-hundred-fifty-thousand-strong Western Deployment could step up, too; Testarossa had them standing by, ready to respond at a moment’s notice.

Most of all, though, Hinata was part of the team intercepting the airships. They were truly prepared for anything, but we still can’t let our guard down. I looked at my assembled group and announced the start of the meeting.

The following seventeen people were seated in the hall:

• My secretaries, Shion and Diablo.

• Benimaru, my supreme general, and Rigurd and Kaijin, my assistants in political affairs.

• Gabil and Gobta, my two corps leaders.

• Hakuro, my adviser; Soei, my intelligence officer; and Gadora, too, as a material witness of sorts.

• The three demonesses—Testarossa, Ultima, and Carrera.

• On the imperial side, there were Caligulio himself, Minitz, and Bernie and Jiwu.

Including myself, we had eighteen people in here.

We started with introductions, and of course, the imperials were utterly stunned when they found out the three demonesses were all Primals. Man, were those stares painful to endure. Sorry, guys. It’s Diablo’s fault, not mine. I could already anticipate the complaints coming my way, so I decided to pretend nothing happened and get down to business.

“Um, so if there’s stuff you can’t share with me, that’s cool, okay? Just tell me whatever you can.”

With that, I used Argos, the Eye of God, to put up a display showing the airship squadron in flight. Caligulio would be explaining the current state of the Empire to us, as we agreed upon beforehand. The imperials looked pretty upset about the video on the large surveillance screen, but Caligulio kept his composure and promptly began his briefing.

I already knew a bit about the situation over there from Gadora. That old man didn’t seem to care at all about betraying the Empire, but Caligulio was a soldier. There might be some things he can’t talk about, and we’ll just have to follow up on that later. I told him what I knew in advance, so I’d be having him provide his briefing based on that.

“Very well. In that case, I will begin.”

He was even more brisk and businesslike than I anticipated.

The Armored Division that Caligulio led had a department called the Flying Combat Corps, which boasted four hundred state-of-the-art airships. Three hundred of them were flying to northern Englesia, carrying full troop loads. Each one could carry up to four hundred people, and a crew of fifty was enough to fly one, so that meant a maximum of three hundred and fifty passengers. All this was just as Gadora explained to me.

These ships were transporting the Magical Beast Division led by one General Gradim, a force of thirty thousand in all. However, it was actually more like sixty thousand, since each division member was partnered with a magical beast of their own. They were also joined by support personnel providing logistical services; they had a major general named Zamdo commanding them, but they were probably noncombatants who shouldn’t be counted in military numbers.

“It is a tad embarrassing to talk about this here, but most of the troops sent to Englesia are still novices. They can operate an airship just fine, but in an actual combat situation, their performance is likely going to suffer. Normally they would be conducting R & D for us, so I hope you can show them some mercy…”

As Caligulio explained, the Empire had deployed all its warpower to Tempest, so he gave his rival Gradim nothing but noncombatant personnel. The support staff numbered around thirty thousand in all, but there were hardly wizards or the like; most were sorcerers, a level below. Beyond that, the rest were airship operators and maintenance techs, and Caligulio asked me to take them prisoner instead of killing them, if possible.

“Of all the brazen things to say! You invaded another country, and now that it looks like you’ll lose, you want us to save them without killing anyone?”

Shion was enraged over this. It made Caligulio turn pale as he apologized. I tried to quiet her down a bit, but really, I thought she was right. Caligulio understood that well enough, too, which explained why he was so apologetic about it. But:

“Well, what happens over there isn’t in our jurisdiction. Depending on how things go, I might have to disappoint you there.”

“Yes, I understand that, of course. Please do as you wish, Lord Rimuru.”

I’ll consider his request if I think it’s possible, but I can’t make any promises. My resurrection magic isn’t a cure-all—sometimes it doesn’t work if the conditions aren’t right. And depending on how Luminus reacts to this, I may not be in any position to intervene anyway. I had heard that Gradim’s Magical Beast Division is a pretty considerable threat, and there’s no guarantee that they won’t deal serious damage to Hinata and her troops. If that happens, there won’t be any time for mercy. We’ve got a ton of defensive capability, so I don’t think we’d ever be defeated, but there are never any absolutes in war, so I can’t make guarantees like that lightly.

So that was the end of that. Now we had to talk about Dwargon’s eastern city.

I switched the Eye of God over to a shot of an army some sixty thousand strong. They were deployed and looking pretty relaxed, no tension in the air whatsoever. The imperial officers were shocked all over again, but I pressed on with my briefing.

“At present, Yuuki and I have somewhat reluctantly joined together in an alliance. This might look like a tense standoff, but it’s actually just kind of a big performance.”

Minitz snorted at this. “Well, look at that. If part of our army was compromised from the start, we had practically no chance of winning, did we?”

Caligulio nodded. “Yeah. And the moment my Armored Division and Gradim’s Magical Beast Division are wiped out, they’ll turn their claws toward the imperial capital, and then…checkmate, eh?”

They exchanged embittered looks. Now they knew they were defeated both in strength and in strategy. But not everyone was on the same page.

“I don’t think so. The emperor still has people in the capital who’ll protect him. I know I’ve said this many times before, but an awakened soldier is a literal one-man army. I’m sure they would’ve foreseen the possibility that Yuuki would rebel against them.”

It was kind of weird hearing Bernie talk like this. My image of him as Masayuki’s long-suffering flunky was still too strong in my mind; this seemed like someone totally different.

“Is this the real you I’m seeing here, Bernie?”

“Ah… No, the real me is more how I was when I was traveling with Masayuki.”

I asked the question on reflex, but Bernie was honest enough to provide an answer. So his current attitude is him in “military” mode, but he’s usually a lot more informal, huh? He also informed me that he’s originally from the United States and is forty-five years old; he was originally an average student like any other, so the Bernie I saw before me was all the result of his education in this world. That much probably doesn’t matter to anyone besides himself, although it did make me feel a little affinity for him.

“But you’re probably right. I heard that there’s someone in the Empire who could potentially kill me. And it’s totally expected that a cornered mouse can find a way to turn the tables on the cat.”

The “quality over quantity” dynamic in this world was tough to wrap your head around. No matter how big an army you assembled, they could still be defeated by one single person if they’re unlucky. That’s how we won, too, so we needed to consider being in the opposite position as well.

“In that case, why don’t I travel over there and show this someone a thing or two?!”

Shion’s hand was already on her giant sword. We had zero guarantee that she could win, so I had to turn down that request.

“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… In that case, allow me to—”

“Denied.”

I don’t even want to imagine a scenario where Diablo lost, but still, no. My policy here is to wait and see until we can create a situation where we’re totally sure we can win. That much, as I reminded everyone in the room, I wanted to be thorough with.

Intelligence is really the most important thing, though, isn’t it? I can’t even count the number of failures we’ve had because of lack of information. We gotta keep our ears open right now, so we don’t fall into the same trap again.

“So you guys were sticking with Masayuki because it let you get close to me without attracting suspicion, right? Honestly, I had no idea at all. And the timing of that attack was incredibly dangerous for me.”

I was talking to Bernie and Jiwu. They might’ve been acting on Damrada’s orders, but it really was a perfect strategy, one not even Raphael picked up on. I had to applaud them for that, enemy or not. I’m sure they had opportunities to target me before then, but it couldn’t have been easy for them to keep their maximum fighting skills under wraps until that one critical moment. We had the upper hand this time, maybe, but things could’ve easily gone the other way, and the emperor would’ve gotten exactly what he wanted. Tempest without Benimaru and me would fall into total disarray, and the Empire would’ve instantly overrun it.

“My pride got the best of me there. I was laboring under the assumption that the labyrinth is always safe. I need to remember that, during war, there is always another danger to consider.”

“Me as well. I will be sure to more thoroughly vet anyone who gets close to Sir Rimuru.”

Benimaru and Soei must’ve been hung up about that, but I can’t pin this on them alone. They had always been way more vigilant than I ever was, anticipating every potential eventuality. I just didn’t have my ears up for danger at all, and that was something I needed to improve on.

“Sir Damrada was the one who ordered us to protect Masayuki. He never told me what for, and I don’t think that order could’ve leaked out anywhere.”

“Me neither. We didn’t receive our orders at the same time; it was through different channels so we wouldn’t know each other’s real identities. I didn’t know Bernie was a Single Digit until the assassination order came for you, Lord Rimuru.”

Now Bernie and Jiwu were a full part of the conversation. I made it clear they had a right to remain silent, so I appreciated their willingness to talk for me. But something about these statements bothered me.

“Do you mean you didn’t know or that you didn’t remember until just then?”

“No, I’ve never met another Single Digit besides myself. I only learned Jiwu was one as well when I got that order.”

“Same here. I don’t think any of them know each other’s true identity except for the commander and vice commander.”

That was a surprise. The Empire’s best forces don’t even know each other at all? Why are they leaving them in the dark like that?

Understood. Presumably it is for the purpose of preventing treachery.

Mmm… If they don’t know each other’s identities, they can’t conspire to overthrow their bosses. That’s just beyond thorough. It shows how careful they are to protect the emperor’s safety, I guess.

“I can understand that, I suppose, but it strikes me as pretty wasteful and inefficient. If you two were acquainted, you could’ve been working together against me from the very beginning.”

My statement elicited a chuckle from Gadora. “Sir Rimuru, may I speak frankly and with the utmost of respect for you?”

“Sure, of course. Anything’s welcome.”

“Very well. If I may, Sir Rimuru, you possess a great deal of intelligence, but I fear that you are not very careful at times. I know this man Damrada very well, and I’ll inform you that he’s a cunning fellow. He doesn’t even trust his own subordinates, and for him, caution is his lifelong mantra.”

Sounds like Raphael was right—they arranged it that way to prevent any conspiracies. I knew Damrada was one of the three leaders of Cerberus and a man who trusted money and nothing else, but I guess he was that way with everything in his life, huh? And he was one of the highest-ranking Single Digits as well?

“I’ve never met him before, but he sounds like a pretty bad guy. Given his approach to killing Gadora, I figured he had to be a Single Digit… And if he was in a position to give orders to you two, Bernie and Jiwu, does that mean Damrada’s the head of the group?”

“No,” Gadora replied. “Damrada is likely the vice commander. I am all but certain the commander is Tatsuya Kondo.”

Right. The director of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau and one of the people Gadora had his eye on. Gadora said he didn’t know him very well, but despite the lack of information, he seemed fairly certain about that based on Damrada’s true identity. Having all this exposed left the imperials in the room despondent.

Bernie and Jiwu were giving me all sorts of useful info; they must’ve figured there’s no point hiding it any longer. They said Gadora was right—that Damrada is the vice commander of the Imperial Guardians, ranked Number Two in the whole Empire. We weren’t sure if Kondo was the leader yet, but there’s no doubting that Damrada’s still way up there in the hierarchy.

Good job, Gadora, I thought as I listened to them.

“And to tell the truth, the attack on Lord Rimuru wasn’t a command from Sir Damrada but actually a secret order from Commander Kondo.”

“It was for me, too. It was weird, I thought, because it overrode our orders to guard Masayuki.”

Jiwu explained to me that she had prepared a backstory for herself where her home village was rescued by Masayuki. That way, he’d instantly trust her, and then she’d be “repaying the favor” by guarding him.

“Well, if you were going to blow your covers at the same time, wouldn’t it have been better to work together from the start?”

“…I agree with you, yes. I believe he was using Masayuki to keep from arousing your suspicion, because it certainly was the perfect opportunity to kill you…”

Looking back on it, Bernie realized that he had some questions about the whole thing. Assuming there were no lies in their tale, and considering the overall situation, it might have been that Damrada and the commander had different objectives. Damrada organized this entire undercover operation; it’d be odd for him to order its total abandonment. Maybe it was a sacrifice made to improve their chances of success, but even so, I was sure there could’ve been another way. I thought it was natural for Bernie and Jiwu to wonder about that—and to suspect some underlying reason for it.

“By the way, have any of you Empire guys ever seen Emperor Ludora’s face?”

The question suddenly occurred to me, so I asked it. Only Gadora raised his hand.

“You’re kidding me. You don’t know what the man you serve looks like?”

Benimaru sounded pretty surprised.

“Well, Boss, you don’t act much like any other ruler,” Kaijin said. “You’re social enough to go eating and drinking around town, and you’re always willing to chat with anyone who wants to. That’s just weird!”

“Oh, come on!”

“Hey, no disrespect intended. King Gazel has that side to him, too, although he’s a bit stricter with his behavior than you. But you know, royals and nobles kinda like a little more…prestige in their lives, right? And I think a good number of them prefer keeping their faces away from the little folk.”

“Huh…”

“What Sir Kaijin said makes sense to me,” noted Rigurd, “but I’m still not sure I really understand it. That is to say, hiding your face from the people who’re supposed to be guarding you, even… Isn’t that a little too excessive?”

“Well, yeah, even I thought that was going way too far,” Kaijin agreed.

“It is weird, innit?”

“Not weird,” Hakuro said to Gobta, “so much as abnormal. Um, Bernie, was it? May I ask you a question?”

“What do you want to know?”

“Why is it that the emperor’s own guardians don’t even know what he looks like? How are you meant to guard him, then?”

Being exposed to that sharp gaze of Hakuro’s made Bernie sit back up, attempting to rally himself. “Well, it’s simple. Only people ranked sixth or greater have seen His Majesty in person. Our commander and vice commander are often out on other business, but the remaining four accompany our emperor at all times.”

The members of this quartet were apparently referred to as the Four Knights, and all of them were so formidable that, as far as Bernie and Jiwu knew, none of them had been replaced in many, many years.

“So the two of you weren’t quite as trusted as those four, then? Are you inferior to these Four Knights in ability as well?”

Hakuro certainly wasn’t shying away from the tough questions. It seemed to frustrate Bernie a little.

“You…could take it that way, yes. Trying to defeat any of those four would be an uphill battle for me. Plus, His Majesty is also attended to by the juggernaut we discussed before—the fearsome Imperial Marshal, someone I’d never have a chance against. In fact, I’m not sure the rest of the Single Digits together could even score a victory against this menace.”

There’s that so-called juggernaut again.

So far, we know about Kondo, Damrada, the Four Knights, and this Marshal figure, huh? That makes seven, and if you add Bernie and Jiwu to that, you’ve got nine people—one for each “single digit,” so to speak. But hang on—if the cutoff for access to the emperor was Single Digit Number Six, then the Marshal must not be a ranked member, technically. That means there’s still one more unknown Single Digit out there—in other words, eight people I better stay on my guard for in all. And if Kondo wasn’t actually the commander, that’d be one more figure to add to the mix. Worrying, indeed.

Learning about that was good and all, but I wanted to ascertain something else first.

“You know, I heard from Gadora that Masayuki and Emperor Ludora look exactly alike.”

Gadora nodded. The rest of the meeting hall considered this for a few moments.

“And Damrada ordered you to protect Masayuki, right? And he arranged things so that both of you would be in the dark about each other and nobody would suspect anything. But after all that trouble, you received an order that abandoned the entire setup. Is it me, or are Damrada and the Single Digit commander working against each other here?”

I was pretty sure about this by now, so I went ahead and said it out loud. If I had to guess, it seemed likely Damrada really was trying to keep Masayuki safe. Why? I don’t know, but the fact that he and the emperor are spitting images of each other must have something to do with it.

“But you said you were using Masayuki, right?”

“Right. I had no idea why we were asked to protect him, keep in mind. That’s why I didn’t question the commander’s order at all.”

“Me neither. Sir Damrada never explained his reasoning at all.”

They were using Masayuki to get closer to me. If Damrada ordered them to do so, it would’ve made sense—but then the commander had to stick their neck in. This brought up another question I had to ask.

“So do you think the commander’s aware of Masayuki’s resemblance to the emperor?”

“Hmm… That’s a good question,” Gadora said. “But if the commander is Kondo, as I believe he is, then he most certainly would have known.”

“We do know this man Kondo, although I can’t surmise what his situation was at the time. The stories say he’s a very sly man, who has an iron grip on all the intelligence the Empire has.”

“Yes, in his capacity as head of the IIB, he’s been called a mysterious figure stalking the halls of information. The IIB and military have never been on very friendly terms with each other, and I had a hard time dealing with him, too. We had tried launching hostilities against him several times, but they all ended in failure. That alone is proof that he’s far from ordinary.”

Funny how Caligulio was trying to fudge the details, only to have Minitz reveal everything anyway. It was clear that, to the imperial military, Kondo was seen as a wild card and a threat—and if he could get the better of someone as talented as Minitz, he was a force to be reckoned with.

“I could certainly never beat him anyway.”

Old man Gadora, despite appearances, is no slouch in battle. By my estimation, he might rank up there with a Saint in strength. His magicule count isn’t all that high, but he more than makes up for it with his casting skills. If someone like him claims he can’t win, then Kondo must be at least Saint level, a titan up there with Hinata or King Gazel. Besides, Bernie and Jiwu were Saints as well, and Caligulio went and got himself awakened. Without an ultimate skill to call his own, Gadora probably couldn’t have beaten any of them.

So now I knew that Kondo’s a danger in a fight and a master of spycraft. And he must have known about Masayuki, I imagine.

“But if Kondo was aware of Masayuki,” I said, “perhaps he had different intentions from Damrada, huh? Bernie and Jiwu’s attack was so massive, it’s clear they didn’t really care if Masayuki lived or died. That’s totally at odds with Damrada’s order.”

“Well…”

Bernie had a bit of trouble picking his words.

“…To tell the truth, what the commander told us exactly was to get rid of Masayuki as well, since he’d no longer be useful.”

Such was their orders, but after traveling together and building something of an attachment, they were both hesitant to just kill the guy. Hence they decided to put off discussing his fate until they were finished with me. If they could hide him somewhere, then perfect; if not, the idea they had was to magically erase his memories instead.

Anyway, it was all crystal clear to me now.

“So we know that something’s definitely up with Masayuki. I know he’s not gonna like this, but I think he’ll need to be kept under guard for a little while. Can I have you handle that, Soei?”

“Yes, sir.”

Right. I knew I could count on him.

“Let’s assume that Damrada and the commander have different agendas, then. One of them wants to protect Masayuki; the other one wants him dead. We don’t know why yet, of course, but clearly there’s a conflict here.”

“Yes. And if we can find a way to take advantage of this, it could be a great windfall for us.”

“I don’t think it’ll be that easy… But the fact that our enemy isn’t a monolith is itself good news.”

You think so? I guess. If you’re having trouble distinguishing friend from foe, then you have to assume everybody’s a foe. But let’s get some more information before we decide on matters.

Now that I knew what was going on with Bernie and Jiwu, I wanted to talk about the factions within the Empire. Not the military, exactly, but the other higher-ups with access to ultimate skills.

“All right. Can you tell me more about the Single Digits?”

Bernie obliged. “Sure. There are only nine Single Digits at any given time. For someone stronger to take up a position, it’s quite likely someone else would need to be forcibly kicked out of their rank.”

Hmm. Meaning that there’s not that much difference in strength among the top Single Digits?

“You mean that it’s possible for, say, numbers nine and ten to swap spots?”

“No,” he said with a shake of his head. “Rank number eleven is a sort of auxiliary Single Digit, while number ten is a substitute. If someone drops out of the Single Digits, one of those two can take their place, but only on a temporary basis.”

So there was a pretty insurmountable gap between ninth and tenth, then? Sounds like the clincher is whether you’ve got an ultimate skill. Only if you’re awakened, and that awakening nets you an ultimate, would you be considered for the Single Digits. Bernie, by the way, is ranked seventh, with Jiwu coming in ninth—which means I had to look out for numbers one through six, number eight, and this Marshal guy, too.

Meanwhile, the two of them didn’t know much about Damrada’s faction. They didn’t even know who besides themselves were Single Digits, so I doubted they were lying about that. But I wanted to know more about other people anyway, so hopefully they could give me something useful.

“Number ten, the substitute, is kept on call within Empire territory at all times, so they can spring into action the moment something comes up. Meanwhile, Imperial Knights ranked eleventh or below are assigned to groups of three and tasked with solving Empire-level cases and crises.”

As Bernie put it, Number Ten was a pretty powerful guy as well—no ultimate skill, but still maybe as strong as an awakened demon lord. With the remaining ninety Imperial Knights, you saw a pretty big talent gap between the twenties and the ranks below that, but even so, you had to be at least Enlightened class to become a member. Some of the people up top could rank pretty close to Saint level. If the Eastern Empire wanted to boost the Imperial Guardians’ overall strength, they’d likely have to stage a war pitting them against multiple demon lords at once.

“Are you kidding me?” Minitz countered. “They want to wage war against someone who defeated us without losing a single soldier?”

“Yeah. The fact that a hundred Imperial Guardians are more of a threat than a million-strong army sure gives me pause, though.”

“Well,” Bernie said with a sigh, “that’s how it is. The imperial army serves mostly as a visual threat to people, after all. The Empire needs a visible, public sort of deterrent for the unwitting fools who can’t comprehend what real strength is.”

I could tell he was talking about more than a threat to the nations in the west. It applied to the Empire’s own subjects as well, people who paid taxes in exchange for guaranteed safety. If the Empire told them a hundred people were all they really needed to defend the land, that’d make anyone uneasy. In this case, quantity truly did mean something important—after all, offense is one thing, but when defending, you need numbers. The more bases you have to maintain, the more personnel you need to defend them. In that sense, the Empire’s policy actually seems pretty sound.

“You know, in the past, the main purpose of our standing army was defense. We’d use only our elite forces to attack other nations and sap their will to fight. Once their work was done, we’d send the army over to establish rule in the name of the emperor. At some point, however, we began to dispatch our army first. I’ve always wondered why they did that, actually. It never occurred to me that it was so they could ‘manufacture’ more awakened people…”

Gadora seemed convinced. In fact, this sounded like a pretty important secret to me. Now I think I’m beginning to see Emperor Ludora’s objectives.

“So victory wasn’t the point of this whole invasion in the first place, was it? And Sir Caligulio did become awakened, along with several others whom I think came close. I think Emperor Ludora’s true mission was to add more fighting pawns to his collection.”

Benimaru must’ve reached the same conclusion I did. And Bernie was getting more talkative, too.

“You’re right. There were several people in this invasion deemed likely to awaken—not just General Caligulio, but also Major General Minitz, Colonel Kanzis, and Krishna and a few others, too. My orders specified that I should work with the newly awakened to find an escape route once the dust settled… But really, this is the first time I’ve seen the commander’s plans go this haywire.”

He accompanied that with a little chuckle, but I sure wasn’t laughing. If that many people awakened on us, we would’ve had more than just a tough battle on our hands. Besides, now that we knew the Empire was trying to awaken more of its troops, we had to admit that our assumptions about them were completely wrong. I thought they went to war because they were confident about beating us and the Western Nations, after all. Raphael agreed with me on that, and it certainly seemed logical to me, but…

…Report. Definitive conclusion failed due to a lack of information. This will be redefined later to achieve perfection.

I felt a hint of embarrassment from Raphael there. But asking it to read that deep was far too much to hope for, and I wasn’t about to do that. So no harm, no foul this time, I’d say—just as long as we can use this experience for next time.

Acknowledged. I will review the information so nothing is overlooked.

Great. I’m counting on you, okay? Really.

I’ll need Raphael as a reference on the Empire’s future movements. For now, though, let’s discuss our takes on these new revelations.

“So Ludora was collecting awakened people for his group of elite fighters. I don’t like admitting it much, but it seems like he can grant them ultimate skills, like he did with Bernie and Jiwu. Then you’ve got my group, the Octagram, and the assorted champions of the Western Nations. The emperor’s trying to gather enough people to crush them all at once and conquer the world, isn’t he?”

Benimaru and Diablo both agreed.

“It’s quite a headache, but it sounds right to me. And that’s why any non-awakened soldiers mean next to nothing for him.”

“Mmm, yes. Humans are inherently weak creatures, but possessing even one ultimate skill could put them on more equal footing with the likes of us.”

“Tough to admit, isn’t it?”

“I am not enjoying the thought, no.”

“Hey, it’s fine, right? If those skills are that useful, then we can just learn them, too, and we’re good.”

“It’d make fighting far less interesting, wouldn’t it?”

“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… That’s rather backward thinking, isn’t it, Testarossa? If our foe fails to possess such powers, then there’s no need to use them, is there? That was the thought process behind the ultimate skill I procured for myself, after all.”

“What?”

“Hey, that’s not fair!”

“Quit getting a leg up on us like that!”

“Ah, such delicious jealousy from the have-nots! I used to ignore Guy instead of letting him taste my envy, I’ll have you know.”

Diablo’s a pretty selfish guy, isn’t he? I thought he was backing me up here, but now this conversation’s going in stranger and stranger directions. If we don’t stop this, Testarossa and her friends are gonna start acting real dangerous before long.

“Getting back to the topic,” Rigurd said, “is it safe to assume that you think the Empire’s objective is to weed out the strong from the weak, Sir Rimuru?”

“Yeah, I’m with the boss on that one. This world’s full of people with superhuman force, starting with King Gazel and continuing on with Hinata and Her Excellency, Emperor Elmesia. Keeping these giants protected was what kept the balance of power in the world stable. And if they can build enough numbers to break that balance, well, that’s when the real fun begins, ain’t it?”

Rigurd and Kaijin both got me perfectly.

“Aha. So they pitted strong against strong, surrounding their allies with people who can assist them. That way, the weak wouldn’t get in their way.”

“Wow. Pretty awful. But at least the weak don’t have much work to do.”

“Yes, it’d be a blessing for the weak if it only took the strong to settle wars. But accepting all these sacrifices in order to create more strongmen truly does go against my aesthetic senses…”

Hearing Gabil’s and my other friends’ reactions made Caligulio and Minitz wince a bit. They were both neck-deep in that whole scene, and now the sheer madness of the operation was probably sinking in. Plus, I think Hakuro was right just now. War really should be fought only by people eager to fight. It’s crazy to get weaker people involved… But of course, the world doesn’t always work that way.

“By the way,” Gadora said, “I seem to recall that kid Yuuki saying that the demon lord Guy wasn’t happy to see the Empire gaining strength. They say he’s the strongest demon lord of all, so I found it rather odd that he’d be so concerned.”

Certainly, if they had ultimate skills on hand, maybe they had what it took to hurt Guy. It’s only natural for him to be wary.

“Guy’s objective is to unite the world under the rule of the demon lords, after all. The Empire is directly clashing against that, so it’s far more than just a conflict of interest between them. But…”

“That’s odd, though. How can someone as arrogant as Guy allow the Empire to keep existing?”

“The stronger the opponent, the more engaging the fight, after all. But Guy’s being surprisingly slow to act. If he was able to, I imagine he would have promptly gone out himself to lay waste to all those fools…”

Diablo, Ultima, and Carrera all had their questions. Testarossa had the answer.

“Oh, that’s easy. It’s because Lady Velgrynd lives in their territory, and if he messes with the Empire, he might get on her bad side. That’s why I was similarly on my best behavior in imperial lands.”

Caligulio gave her a surprised look.

“That was your best behavior?” Minitz muttered softly.

I don’t know what Testarossa was up to over there, but it’s none of my business. I don’t want to start being assigned blame for events that happened way before my time, so I let it slide.

The name Velgrynd piqued my curiosity. Could that be—?

“Hmm. Surprising. Blanc—er, Lady Testarossa, showing respect for the Flame Dragon from the Divine Aerie of Fire?”

Minitz was clearly trying to change the subject as rapidly as possible—Testarossa’s “come again?” smile probably unnerved him. But now I was convinced I knew who Velgrynd was. Here we had a True Dragon, one of four in the world; Veldora’s flame-wrangling elder sister. So that was the Empire’s ace in the hole…

“I wouldn’t call it respect, no. The relationship between our kind and the True Dragons was…somewhat complicated. But since our master, Sir Rimuru, and Sir Veldora are both on our side, it’d only be natural to pay our respects to his sister as well, wouldn’t it?”

Um, so if it wasn’t for their current relationship with Veldora and me, the demonesses wouldn’t show any respect at all for True Dragons?

“Hang on, Testarossa. So you stayed on your ‘best behavior’ because you couldn’t beat Velgrynd? Or could even Guy beat her?”

“Strictly speaking, no, I could not. Guy I cannot speak for, but victory would have been impossible for me. It’s not a matter of strength, though. The True Dragons are immortal beings; there’s no overcoming that unfair advantage.”

Testarossa was the epitome of unfairness in battle, I thought, but now she was using that term for this True Dragon. What could Velgrynd be like, even? I just hope none of this talk gets back to Veldora, though. I could already hear his haughty laughter in my mind.

“Sure. So maybe not even a True Dragon’s a threat for Guy, but he still can’t fully destroy them, huh?”

“Hmm… I don’t know. Not with magic, at least.”

If you can’t kill them, it doesn’t count as a win—that seemed to be the standard for demons, and if it was, there was never any beating a True Dragon. And I think Veldora told me before about how his race can always resurrect themselves after death. A demon could be eliminated by crushing their heart core, but in the case of True Dragons, they’d still come back to life anyway, although their personality and part of their memories would be reset, I guess. Maybe some True Dragons can retain those memories, though, like some demons can. If so, that’d render them truly immortal.

“I see. And if the Empire has someone like that for us, we can’t afford to make any ill-advised moves.”

What Velgrynd was to Guy I couldn’t say, but to us, she was absolutely a threat. But when I voiced that concern, Caligulio shot me a confused look—and then he, Minitz, Jiwu, and Bernie spoke up in order.

“If I may, my lord… As far as I know, the Empire has enshrined Lady Velgrynd as its official guardian dragon. If you look back in history as well, this dragon has protected us from attack by the angels. However…”

“However, she stays with the Empire only because they offer her tribute. It’s merely a whim on her part.”

“She is a beautiful, noble dragon of crimson, and she symbolizes the prosperity of the Empire as a whole. We in the Single Digits are granted an audience with her after His Majesty accepts us. There, we have her learn our names and appearances, and we swear that we will never defy her.”

“Yes, I went through the same ceremony. I’d have to be insane to defy her. No one could ever win that battle.”

So the Empire and Velgrynd were connected, but not in such a way that the Empire could ask her for any favors, I guess. Also, something about Bernie’s reaction bothered me a bit. More than a bit, actually. A whole lot.

“Hey, um, you don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but you said that nobody could beat the Marshal, right? But who would win in a fight between that guy and Velgrynd?”

“…Sorry?”

“Let me rephrase that. In your dealings with them both, have you ever gotten, like, a similar vibe from the two of them, or that kind of thing?”

“Are you…?”

Bernie understood what I was getting at. He attempted to laugh it off but failed. I also noticed Jiwu going pale next to him, lost in thought. Now I was sure of it. This Marshal was actually Velgrynd the Flame Dragon… And there was no doubt that she was the reason why the demon lord Guy hadn’t attacked the Empire. That—and the Empire might have had some other threat that rivals this dragon—otherwise, Velgrynd alone seemed like too weak a reason for Guy to sit on his hands.

I turned toward our big screen and let out a sigh.

“Well, great. So if we make any kind of misstep, we’ll incur the wrath of Velgrynd, huh? Send out an army, and she could annihilate the whole thing in one go. In that case, working with Yuuki’s force to invade the Empire would be incredibly reckless.”

Intelligence gathering really is important. Becoming aware of Velgrynd at this point prevented me from stepping on a huge landmine. I wanted to win peace from the Empire, but staging a reverse invasion right now would be a fool’s errand.

“But if Sir Veldora’s sister is our enemy,” Benimaru said, “I’m not sure anyone among us would be capable of defeating her. Perhaps we could have Sir Veldora intervene on our behalf?”

It sounded a bit like a cop-out, but give the question some calm thought, and that’s the logical conclusion. True Dragons are an existence beyond gods, even, and anyone who thinks they could fight and win against one simply isn’t facing reality.

“Ooh, I dunno about that. I hesitate to get Veldora involved in our personal affairs.”

I didn’t want to ask Veldora for this—I’m sure he’d be reluctant to fight his own sister, for one. But that just made our next move more difficult to work out.

“I will need to inform my boy Yuuki about this, I think. He can hardly keep his army deployed out there forever.”

“Good point. We’re gonna have to rework our entire strategy now, so we’ll need to get in touch with Yuuki ASAP.”

Hmm. I pondered over this. But then my problem child Diablo dropped another bombshell.

“This sounds like a problem for Guy as well, so I’ve reached out to him. I think he’ll arrive here shortly, so why don’t we listen to what he has to say?”

Huh?

I couldn’t help but fix Diablo with a cold, sullen stare. He gave me a bashful look back, which almost made me want to kill him. Right when I was troubled the most, this idiot goes way the hell out of line like this…

“You called him?”

“Yes!”

No, not “yes”!

But I couldn’t ignore reality, so I adjourned the meeting and began getting ready for Guy’s visit.

Guy was clearly in a foul mood from the moment he arrived.

“Hey. I’m here. You got a lot of guts callin’ me all this way, you know.”

Yeah, really. But can you say that to Diablo, please, not me?

Guy plopped down roughly on his chair. He had been taken to our more luxurious reception room in the guest house to avoid offending him any further, but maybe that was premature of me. This was a house that we only opened up to the chosen few—royalty, nobility, that sort of thing. If he started taking his frustrations out on our furnishings, we’d be eating a lot of money in damages.

The decor in here was selected by Mjöllmile, who always had a good eye for that kinda thing; he imported fixtures from all over the world, and some of them were as artistic as they were valuable. It all matched with my tastes as well, so most of the pieces were more quietly elegant than “I’m rich”-type fancy. That Japanese sense of wabi-sabi, or quiet, simple refinement. Mjöllmile did a great job sticking to that theme, I think. Rigurd and his kin were still too inexperienced to reach this level of good taste; they never got to interact with artwork before, so understanding the quality of things would take them some more time. But Rigurd also said “It’s so relaxing, being in here” when he paid it a visit, so maybe we have matching tastes, after all.

Regardless, if Guy starts getting violent, I’ll deal with it then. We didn’t have anywhere else suitable enough for entertaining him, so maybe at least a little damage was inevitable. There was no way I’d do something as suicidal as entertain the world’s strongest demon lord in a bare-bones waiting room.

His chair was creaking ominously already. It was another first-rate piece of furniture, carved from fragrant wood. A soft sofa is always nice, but there’s nothing like a good wooden chair that can adjust itself to virtually any body type. It makes you feel like you’re surrounded by lush, inviting force, at peace with nature.

If he broke it, I’d have him pay for it—but now I was doubly glad I dismissed everybody else from the meeting.

The imperial group was back on Floor 70 for the time being, Gabil escorting them down; he’d be watching over them while Adalmann was absent. Soei was busy arranging for Masayuki’s security, while Rigurd was touching base with the relevant authorities to ensure the city was running fine while quarantined in the labyrinth. Kaijin, after conferring with Vester, was having him inform King Gazel of our meeting and its results; I didn’t want to hide anything from him, so we’d be in touch later. Gadora, meanwhile, was reaching out to Yuuki, reasoning that he needed to know about the current situation as they worked out a future course of action. Gobta and Hakuro were on standby in a nearby room, along with the three demonesses, just in case something flared up. It’d be safer to keep them out of Guy’s sight, because who knows what would happen if you mixed them all together, so that was what I decided to do.

So there were four of us in the reception room—Diablo (the original perpetrator), Benimaru, Shion, and me. Guy had brought along three women of his own. One, seated next to him, had a face that reminded me of Milim’s. Her white hair possessed a brilliant sheen, her eyes a deep blue that seemed to absorb anyone who gazed into them. She was surprisingly beautiful, but depending on how you looked at her, she could also be mistaken for a child. It was strange—and given how she casually sat next to Guy, they must have been on equal footing, and I knew only a small number of people like that. If I had to guess…

“This is the first time you met, isn’t it? Lemme introduce you, Rimuru. This is Velzard, Veldora’s elder sister. The Ice Dragon is probably a more suitable name for her, but either way, don’t forget it.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Sir Rimuru. I am Velzard. Perhaps you’ve heard the name Velzard the Ice Dragon before? I knew you were taking care of my brother for me, so I’ve been meaning to say hello to you.”

Well, I was right. She was Veldora’s sister, one of the four all-powerful True Dragons—Velzard the Ice Dragon, in the flesh. That graceful bow to me was so beautiful; just seeing her sit so gracefully on her chair was a sight to behold. She seemed to enjoy the scent of the wood, too… But as elegant as her smile was, it still sent a cold sweat running down my back.

Hanging out with Veldora all the time made me think I was used to handling True Dragons, but this lady was just bad news. The danger was just palpable; it would have been more appropriate to call her a being from another dimension. Veldora had only recently grown capable of controlling his aura with decent precision. I figured he had it down perfectly, but seeing Velzard before me, I understood just how naive I was. This woman made aura control look incredibly natural. I couldn’t sense any of it at all, which showed just how well she could handle it. If she didn’t introduce herself as such, I never would’ve known she was a True Dragon. In fact, I may’ve even thought she was a normal human being. There was no hiding that beauty and dominance, though, so I never would’ve looked down on her.

“Ah, hello. My name is Rimuru, and maybe I don’t look it, but I’m demon-lording it up around here. Your brother’s been a ton of help to me.”

Why do I always sound like such a putz whenever I introduce myself to people? And why does Raphael always clam up at times like these? It was so absurd, I thought, but I still tried to keep smiling.

“Aw, how humble of you! There’s no need to be so protective of him.”

Velzard let out a pleasant, high-pitched laugh. As soon as she did, her mature atmosphere dissipated, and the impression she made resembled a cute little girl’s. Honestly, she looks like she’s high school age and no older—she really is related to Milim. Thankfully, that smile did a lot to ease the heavy atmosphere.

Then we all introduced each other. The other two women in Guy’s entourage were Mizeri the Original Green, whom I met before, and Raine the Original Blue, whom I hadn’t. They were in their “dark maid” uniforms as usual, standing behind Guy with flawless posture. They were the same rank of demon as Diablo, but looking at the prudent step back they took, it sure didn’t seem that way. They were Primals, though, the strongest of demons and nothing a mere Demon Peer could compare to.

Better be careful I don’t exhibit any bad manners around them, I thought as I carefully wrapped up the intros. Benimaru, seated next to me, was the picture of politeness, but I was nervous through Shion’s entire greeting. With Diablo, I felt like someone trying to dismantle a live bomb. I wondered why I decided to take this group in, but it was too late to do anything about it.

Once we were all seated, I asked Shuna, who guided everyone in here, to make some tea for us. She did so without any sign of agitation, a seasoned pro when it came to hospitality. And not just her—all our servants were doing their jobs as usual, as if it didn’t matter who they were serving. Real professionals, all of them, and I’m sure I was watching Vester’s strict training bear fruit here.

After taking a sip of Shuna’s tea, I got down to business.

“So the reason I invited you here is because I wanted to ask you something, Guy.”

“Oh?”

“Um, so the Empire invaded my country, and I defeated them and stuff. I was thinking about staging an invasion of my own, but then I heard the Empire has Velgrynd—er, Velzard’s younger sister, I suppose. And judging from everything else I’ve heard, it sounds like there’s some manner of connection between you and the Empire as well…?”

“Huh. Smart of you to notice.”

Guy flashed me an excited grin. I had the worst feeling about all this. I really wish I didn’t have to delve any deeper, but things weren’t gonna work out that way.

“So you wanted to interfere with the Empire’s attempts at powering up their army, right? That’s why you let Yuuki live, too, I bet. I’m sure you didn’t want the Western Nations to fall, but it wasn’t only that, yes? You called it a game, but who are you playing this game with?”

I pretended that this was just casual curiosity on my part. In reality, though, a lot hinged on this. If the Empire boasted both Velgrynd and some other threat equal to her, I needed to know about it. If we attacked while still oblivious to this, there was an excellent chance some of my friends would’ve died. So I asked him, my eyes staring right into Guy’s.

“Heh-heh-heh… Good, good. If you’ve picked up on that much, why don’t I tell you the whole thing?”

Nice to see Guy wasn’t interested in lording it over me here. Scary, too, in a way. I listened on.

“To tell the truth, I have a bet going with a certain guy I know. This guy has a habit of going on about these crazy ideals of his, and I wanna present him with a little reality check. So we agreed that we’d never directly fight each other, but to use only the pieces we have on hand.”

In other words, they’d be letting other people do the fighting—and whoever defeated all their opponent’s pawns first wins.

“What kind of pieces are these…?”

I already had my hunches about this, actually.

“Heh. They’re you guys.”

Yeah. Thought so. I kinda wish he’d stop treating me as his game piece, but no point complaining about that here. Let’s just work through this and get as much useful information as we can.

“So is the person you’re playing in this game the imperial emperor?”

I was sure of it already but still felt I should check just in case. Guy had Velzard at his side, so it followed that the person with Velgrynd at their side was Guy’s opponent. That may not necessarily have been the emperor, though, so I wanted Guy to confirm it for me.

“You got it. Emperor Ludora is an admitted rival of mine.”

He had no intention of hiding it. In fact, he sounded happy to tell me. And if rival is the word he chose, should I assume Ludora is just as strong as Guy? I really can’t win against him, can I? And there’s nothing I hate more than playing a game where I’ve got no apparent path to victory.

“If I could say something…”

As I held my head in my hands, Benimaru was bold enough to speak up in Guy’s presence.

“Sure.”

“Then, I’d like to ask—what are the conditions for victory in this game? Do we have to defeat Emperor Ludora, or do we just have to subdue all his pieces? I’d like to have more exact guidance.”

Ah yes, that is important. I assumed beating Ludora was my only way out, but if beating his pawns—in other words, neutralizing the Empire’s force—was all that mattered, I liked my chances a lot more. We’d still have a lot of nasty dudes to fight, but that still beat tangling with someone on Guy’s level.

“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… Perhaps eliminating Guy would be another way to win the—”

““Are you that stupid?!””

Guy and I shouted in unison. Honestly, Diablo just exhausts me. He must have exhausted Guy as well, because we wound up giving each other knowing looks. I didn’t expect to establish a rapport with him this way, so thanks, Diablo. I seriously can’t have you offending him right now, so my rating of you just plummeted straight for the basement, but thanks.

“So,” I said after advising Diablo to shut up for a while, “how would you answer Benimaru’s question, Guy?”

Guy, instead of answering, looked straight at me. The moment his lips curled upward into a grin, my sense of danger went into overdrive.

“Rimuruuuu…”

Oh, man. I got the worst premonition right then. In fact, it was beyond a premonition. Now I understood when Mjöllmile looked a little confused the first few times I called him Mollie. I’m sure I’m making the same face right now.

“You know, I have a favor I’d like to ask of you…”

“No.”

“Well, hear me out.”

I wish he’d hear me out first. But this is Guy we’re talking about. It’d never be smart to anger someone with this much potential for violence, so I had no choice but to listen on. Mjöllmile always heeded my requests, no matter how confused he looked about them, but I had absolutely no intention of honoring Guy’s.

“Basically, I want you to stop that bastard Ludora. I’m not saying you have to defeat him, but just do something about all his pieces and help me win this, okay?”

He couldn’t have looked eviler if he tried. Then he stood up and walked behind me, rubbing my shoulders as he continued.

“You’ll do that for me, won’t you?”

He started applying more force.

This is coercion, isn’t it?

“If I say yes, what’s in it for me?”

If this was one of those offers I couldn’t refuse, I at least wanted to negotiate a better deal. Maybe this was suicidal against someone like Guy, but I decided to work him as much as I could.

“You know that the world balance I’ve been maintaining is now thoroughly wrecked because of you, right? What do you think about that?”

“Sorry.”

In an instant, I was completely defeated. I was trying my best to build a new balance right now, but I’m certain that it was me who took most of the power from Guy’s side. To put it more bluntly, bringing Testarossa and the other demonesses under my wing was a bad idea. If I turned down Guy’s requests at this point, I was opening myself up to the risk of being seen as an enemy.

So my hands thoroughly tied, I gave up and accepted the offer.

Just as Guy returned to his seat, there was a knock on the door. It opened to reveal Shuna, the aroma of tea drifting in the air and dispelling the tension. She also had some slices of cake on a tray, so we took a break. I’ve already decided there’s no escape for me, so I promise this isn’t me procrastinating on my problems. Shuna had more tea and cake in the next room over, so my two secretaries and his two maids went over there. I thought they’d gripe about that, but they were surprisingly obedient about it.