I took a sip of Shuna’s tea. It had a soft, gentle flavor. Testarossa’s tea was all but complete perfection, but this was rather tasty as well, in a comforting way.
“Huh. This is pretty good, isn’t it?”
I was glad to hear Guy was satisfied.
“Oh, you’re right. And this cake is more than just a bunch of sugar—there’s so many layers of depth to it. The tea has a lovely, full-bodied aroma, but the bitterness only serves to enhance the sweetness.”
Velzard seemed to like it, too. That’s a relief.
“Yeah. This room’s got some nice decoration, too, doesn’t it? I really dig furnishings like these.”
I wasn’t expecting to hear that from Guy. A tyrant like him would’ve been the last person in the world, I thought, to understand stuff like wabi-sabi. Guess I really need to stop judging people on preconceived notions like that. They say that the warlord Oda Nobunaga was into this sort of look as well. He liked to spend time in tea rooms where he didn’t have to worry about his social status; maybe he valued the ability to reflect on matters over some tea that way. I’m just making all that up, but still, I guess showing Guy in here was the right move, after all.
Feeling a little more at ease, I decided to elicit some more feedback.
“Oh, yeah? I’m glad you like it. You’re actually the first people I’ve entertained in here. It’s the most extravagant reception room we have, so I only show it off to people I wanna impress.”
“Yeah? Trying to make yourself look good around me?”
“I sure am. Can’t really be a demon lord if I didn’t, y’know? If I was willing to abandon all my pride, I’d just spend my life sneaking around in the shadows instead. Which would’ve been fun, maybe, but…”
Right. So a quick jab to start. Show him that I wasn’t at his total mercy before I heard him out. Depending on his reaction, I’d adjust how I dealt with him. But Guy just laughed at how much I was overcompensating.
“Ah-ha-ha! Trying to feel out the likes of me, eh? Hilarious!”
It wasn’t, but at least I knew I was still wrapped around his finger now.
“Yeah, thanks.”
“But no, no worries. What I want from you, you know, it’ll help you guys as well, all right? I just want you to keep the war going and destroy the Empire.”
Guy paused to take a graceful sip of his tea. He’s totally in his element here, like some kind of fairy-tale king. I mean, demon lords pretty much are kings (or queens) in this world, but regardless. But how Guy-like to throw me a fastball straight down the middle like that, huh?
“In other words, you want me to reduce Ludora’s pawns to zero without killing him? Given your apparent reluctance to answer Benimaru’s question, I’m assuming it’s something like that.”
“Wellll, you know, there aren’t any real strict rules for determining a winner in this game. The only actual rule we have is that players can’t meddle with each other directly.”
“So if the opponent admits defeat, or dies, or it’s impossible to continue the game itself—any of those conditions will count as a win?”
“I suppose so.” Guy nodded, taking another sip.
As he put it, he and the emperor had been duking it out for over two thousand years. Not directly fighting, mind you—they had a few scrapes before then, but once Milim was born, and Veldanava the Star-King Dragon perished, they began exercising a little more restraint. Whenever they had a battle, the impact on the world was just too great—they could no longer throw everything they had into the conflict. It was a wild story, but one look at Guy in front of me, and I knew he wasn’t fibbing.
So the game continued to the present day, Guy building up his pawn count while maintaining the world’s balance. A lot of his monsters enjoyed incredibly long life spans, and he was patiently waiting for them to evolve over time. But nobody, not even his fellow Octagram members, knew Guy’s true intentions. Not even Milim, he claimed, was aware of the game between him and Ludora.
“Then why’re you telling me?!”
“Mmm? Why do you think? You’re the first person in all these years to push Ludora this far.”
Guy didn’t need me to inform him that the imperial army had been annihilated. With all the gigantic magic spells we were tossing around, I’d be shocked if he didn’t notice, but…
“Killing them all was absolutely the correct answer, though. You kept Ludora from earning any more pieces for himself.”
Sounds like Guy knew Ludora’s objective here, too. Thanks to him, I now had a fully accurate version of the story. The emperor, in so many words, was giving his elite soldiers a trial to endure—a crushing defeat, where the survivors would (hopefully) evolve for him. The basic idea was to gin up an excuse for war the citizenry would accept, expose his army to a lethal threat, and get as many survivors evolved as he could. He had proof it’d work, too, because the failed imperial expedition against Veldora long ago produced a certain number of Enlightened.
Guy had taken a similar approach. Non-awakened, to him, were useless as pawns, and so he tacitly accepted conflicts between demon lords. The more true demon lords that got awakened, the more of an upper hand he’d have in the game. That was the whole basis for his strategy, and after that, it was just a matter of timing. Once he was absolutely certain he was above his opponent, that’s when he’d stake it all. It had proven to be surprisingly difficult, however, what with all the obstacles in the way… So they had kept on playing up to now, with no winner decided.
For both Guy and Ludora, it was a grandiose operation, one that seemed to stretch across countless generations. For most life on this world, it was nothing but an annoyance, but for the two of them, it was probably just a way to fill their free time.
“And this time, too, if even a few dozen people could’ve survived an encounter with Veldora, some of them were bound to be awakened. I’m sure that’s what Ludora assumed.”
So I didn’t even register in Ludora’s mind, then? That must’ve made me one hell of a game piece for Guy. It’s a little frustrating, but that’s the reality here.
“And you want me to use this current opening to attack the Empire?”
“Well, I’ll leave the method up to you. And I know this goes without saying, but merely posing as a superpower is pointless.”
I’m sure he’s right. A show of force was no threat to these guys. It’d just lead to more casualties without offering any strategic advantage. So forget about me sending a massive army or anything.
“If you happen to know this, is there anyone in Ludora’s forces we should be particularly on guard for?”
“Ah, I dunno. My focus has always been on how well I can train my own hand in this game. If I’m the strongest, after all, then it doesn’t matter how weak or strong the other guy is, right?”
Just the kind of arrogance I’d expect from a tyrant like him. This is the type of guy who never bothers looking at his opponent’s discards in a poker game—then, just when you think you beat him, away he goes with a full house like it was nothing. Masayuki, too, was the sort of guy who could draw a royal flush straight off the deck; I wouldn’t want to sit at a card table with either of them. But all this “game” talk’s getting me sidetracked.
“Well, either way, I think we need to get things crystal clear with the Empire—and soon. That’s based on my own credo, though, not because you asked me to.”
We couldn’t put this problem off any longer. We needed to open dialogue with Emperor Ludora at once… And if we did, it’d be smarter to come in with as much of an advantage as we could.
“You’re not planning to travel there yourself, are you, Sir Rimuru?”
Benimaru looked a bit put off. But I wasn’t bending.
“What else can I do? I can’t leave Yuuki out to dry. I want to join up with him instead, and then we can hopefully work out peace on our terms.”
“Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”
“It’s gonna be dangerous no matter what I do. Let’s say that someone else goes out there and signs a peace treaty. Would you trust in that at all?”
I sure couldn’t. It’d clearly be a conspiracy to catch me off guard—and then, while I’m out walking in the woods or whatever, they’d send out their assassins to get me. I’d have to be on guard at all times, and that’s gonna majorly crimp the life of leisure I’m tryin’ to build here. I certainly don’t want that to happen, so I needed to settle this matter for good.
“That’s a fair point. Who will guard you?”
“You, of course.”
Benimaru gave this a half grin.
“That is fine by me.”
He certainly seemed confident. I knew I could rely on him.
Seeing this exchange made Guy chuckle. “Ah-ha-ha! You’re a funny guy, but so’s your associate over there. I sense something a bit odd about him, too. Maybe he’s still got some room to evolve, hmm?”
“He might, yeah. Benimaru’s already the most trusted of my inner circle.”
“Oh? What—and not Diablo?”
“Yeah, he’s strong, but…you know, kind of a handful…”
“I hear you.”
This felt like heartfelt sympathy from Guy. That—and also him treating me as a friend. I could tell from his reaction that he’s got a lot of problems of his own.
“Now, there’s one thing I wanna confirm with you…”
“What is it?”
“Ludora’s got the ability to confer ultimate skills on other people, right?”
Guy gave me a thoughtful look, eyes squinting. “Well spotted. Yes, Ludora’s got quite the remarkable little trick there, lending his powers to others like that.”
Thought so.
“And do you know how this ‘lending’ works, exactly?”
This was important. If Guy knew the terms of this deal, it’d help us narrow down the list of people in the Empire we had to watch out for. Right now, that list couldn’t have been more than ten people by my estimation, but I didn’t want to work entirely on assumptions.
“Ahhh, don’t worry. That power’s not omnipotent or anything. He can only hand out powers for a limited time, and they’re degraded versions, too. As for who qualifies… Well, I know you have to be awakened to receive the power, at least. That—and there’s some other restrictions, too, that I’m not fully aware of. It’s really not as much of a threat as it sounds like.”
It was a real Hail Mary of a question, but he gave a remarkably quick, succinct answer. That’s just about all the intel I need, I think.
But…like, it’d really take someone like Guy to say that passing out ultimate skills “isn’t a threat,” you know? I was starting to think Milim and Guy were cut from the same cloth. These differences in perception were needlessly complicating my job.
Watching Guy as he tucked into his slice of cake, I couldn’t help but resent him a little. Seeing him talk about world-altering battle while enjoying a fancy-pants teatime snack annoyed me, and the way he treated me like yesterday’s news once I accepted his request was similarly irritating.
…But wait a second. We’re supposed to be talking about some important stuff here… Or so I think, at least. But despite that, our little private chat seemed to be at its end, somehow. Disgusted, I stabbed my fork into my cake. Nothing like a little sugar to get the brain going. Time to sort out everything I’ve learned without letting Guy get under my skin too much.
It was quiet, the air calm and peaceful. But despite our business being over, there was no sign that Guy was leaving.
Skillfully, Shuna poured a refill into Guy’s empty teacup. She had a separate pot on hand for serving, so the remaining tea leaves wouldn’t get used up too quickly.
“Man, you’re good, you know that? None of the chuckleheads working for me could do any of this.”
“I’m flattered, my lord.”
Benimaru looked a little worried, but Shuna was unfazed, retaining her wits and not letting Guy bowl her over.
“Hey, you think I could have Mizeri and Raine train under you for a little while?”
“Train?”
“Yeah. I want you to teach ’em how to bake cakes like this.”
They cooked for us at the Walpurgis council, actually, and I thought it was a pretty nice spread—but when it came to desserts, Shuna had a clear edge. She was neck and neck with Mr. Yoshida in the race to invent new taste-tempting offerings, so she was polishing up her skills by leaps and bounds.
I accepted this as normal, but Guy’s reaction reminded me of how much of a luxury this was. Like, ever since I came to this world, I’d been doing pretty much whatever I wanted—something that only hit home with me now. Re-creating the things I used to love, striving to make all my favorite foods available over here… But no matter how much passion and skill you had, some recipes just couldn’t be re-created without the right ingredients. Even a chef as outstanding as Mr. Yoshida couldn’t have made this cake we’re enjoying without the high-quality liqueurs we’re producing in Tempest. Better remember to be grateful for that.
Anyway, what answer should I give Guy? I thought about just telling him to come over here and buy from us, but no need to be that stingy. So I decided to teach them only the recipes we’ve developed ourselves, keeping Mr. Yoshida’s inventions a guarded secret.
“Shuna, could you teach this recipe to the two women in the adjacent room later?”
“I would be glad to!”
“You’ll need our quality ingredients to make it, keep in mind, but maybe we can cut you a deal on them later.”
We refined our sugar to keep any impurities from mixing in. We had a machine for that and everything—my sweet tooth, combined with the technical skills of Kaijin and his team, was producing quality that didn’t suffer at all from what I knew in Japan. We weren’t cranking out enough to put on the market, but it allowed us to indulge, at least. Maybe we could add a couple sacks to our production quotas and pass them on to Guy.
“You’re okay with that?”
And I meant that. I wasn’t giving away our tech, but if we had buyers for our product, I wasn’t going to hoard it. Having Guy invite himself into our nation whenever he wanted might cause some grief, I feared… But aides like Mizeri knew how to activate and run transport gates, so I was sure we could just send our goods through there once we finished making them.
That—and I had some other thoughts, too. If Guy found us useful, keep in mind, that all but guaranteed our security as a country. The deeper our ties with foreign nations, the more it connected to our own safety. Two countries needing each other meant that they couldn’t rattle the saber too casually. A regional economic zone is as good as a strong military alliance in my book; that was my pet theory.
I also didn’t want any trouble with Guy, so the more cards in our hand, the better. This was, after all, the first time I had ever paid so much attention to a potential opponent. (Or maybe the second time after my initial encounter with Veldora?) Putting aside the question of whether I could beat him, fighting would lead to more than just needless hassle. There’d be real harm done, and barring some unforeseen emergency, I intended to respect Guy’s intentions. Maybe he’d use and abuse me sometimes (like today), but I’d just have to put up with it. I have my limits, but…
Now that I had “enjoyed” several conversations with Guy, I was starting to realize that he wasn’t quite the blockheaded despot I thought he was. He was surprisingly rational and understanding, too, and his dealings with Diablo demonstrated that he wasn’t afraid of getting his hands dirty. I’d like to hope he saw us as useful enough that he wouldn’t make any unreasonable demands.
So um, you mind going home soon?
But my tiny little wish was soon crushed.
“Hold on. Before I leave, there’s one thing I need to ask.”
What? Is there something we haven’t covered yet?
“Yes?”
“Why did Diablo evolve?”
Da-dummm!!
I thought he didn’t notice, but I guess I was kidding myself. I hate dealing with people as perceptive as he is.
“Well, um…”
Now what? What kind of response would Guy be willing to accept, even?!
“And not just Diablo, either, huh? It took a while to scope out what was happening over in your labyrinth, but how come you got all those guys down there at ‘true demon lord’ strength, hmm?”
Guy’s lips were smiling, but his eyes sure as hell weren’t. I guess cheap excuses weren’t going to work…
Understood. You could frame it as experimentation with your Belzebuth skill, and that should be acceptable.
God is good!
Right, let’s do that. That’s the Raphael I know. I can always count on the dude at times like these.
“So you know, I’ve been experimenting with my powers a little bit lately, to see if I can beef up our forces for the battle against the Empire. As I did, I discovered that one of my skills has a pretty interesting side effect I can take advantage of.”
“Oh? What kind of side effect?”
I dunno.
Tell me, Raphael!!
Understood. The effect of reverting souls into pure energy and granting them to those capable of awakening. Call it forced evolution, and that should be enough explanation for the subject Guy Crimson.
Oh. That is what I did, isn’t it? That whole evolution ritual harnessed the power of Belzebuth, not Raphael. This was the unvarnished truth, even; I wouldn’t be lying or hiding anything from Guy. This might just be the way to go, actually.
“Belzebuth, you see, can take people’s souls and convert them back into energy. Then I can grant that ‘soul energy’ to other people, you see. If they’re not qualified for it, it won’t do anything at all, but—”
“Uh-huh. So if someone has the seed for it, they can get awakened that way? Wow.”
Guy seemed convinced. I suppose he could tell I wasn’t lying to him anyway. Raphael saved my bacon once again.
“Yeah, well, with wars in this world, individual strength is a lot more important than vast numbers, right? So it’s a given that I’ll want to enhance my team’s individual skills.”
“Yes, that makes perfect sense. By the way, I’ve been thinking this for a while… But you’re pretty abnormal, aren’t you?”
“Huh? No I’m not.”
“No, I mean…slimes don’t usually talk, you know? And I’ve been letting that slide, but then you won over Veldora somehow; you built up this whole town… It’s just not normal, by any stretch of the imagination. Are you a reincarnate, maybe? You are, aren’tcha?”
“Hmm? Oh, you didn’t know? Yeah, I died in a different world from here, and then I got reborn as a slime with my mind intact.”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
We stared at each other. No, really, he didn’t know? I thought we had broken this down ages ago. I’d been pretty public with this fact, and it was a famous story over in the Western Nations, too. I thought for sure that Guy would’ve heard it somewhere or other. Maybe it’s not always a good idea to assume the other party knows everything you think they do—not that I misspoke or anything, but it was something to watch out for. Don’t want to give out too much information just because I want to keep the conversation going.
“It’s really true?”
“Yes, it certainly is.”
“Sir Rimuru never lies.”
Why is he so doubtful about this? Now he’s turning to Benimaru and Shuna for confirmation, the bastard.
“Ahhh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Wowww! I always assumed you were a pretty screwy monster, but that’s the story behind you, huh? Simply being reincarnated between worlds is a rarity in itself, but you got reborn as a monster? Man, talk about a bad break.”
Guy let out another belly laugh. I didn’t see it as all that funny.
“But now it all makes sense. If you traveled between worlds in soul form and still managed to keep your mind intact, well, no wonder you’ve got such a toughened heart core to ya. It explains why you’re picky about retaining a human form, too…and maybe why you evolved so insanely fast and got those ultimate skills.”
So in short, I’m a stubborn old ass, huh? Well, maybe. I like to think I’m pretty thick-skinned, not to brag. Never give up, never lose heart, always think positive—that’s what I live by.
“It’s that convincing to you, huh?”
“Yep. You always struck me as a shady guy, but now I think I can really trust you, after all.”
That’s just rude, isn’t it? But I’ll forgive it. I can’t beat him in battle anyway… And I certainly don’t want him all suspicious and hostile around me. Again, the power of positive thinking.
“Well, I’m glad we got that cleared up, and I think I’ve asked you about everything I need to. So I imagine you’ll be heading—”
“Oh, can I get some more of this?”
“Certainly.”
I was about to push Guy back home when he interrupted me and brazenly demanded a second slice of cake. Shuna immediately sprang into action, and it’d be weird if only he was eating, so I asked for another slice, too. Stress eating isn’t a good habit to acquire, but I just wanted some sugar to perk me up. But Guy got in my way yet again.
“So, Rimuru, let’s go back to what I was asking.”
I had a gut feeling that this was going to be painful.
“Huh? Asking about what?”
“You awakening your team members here. Because it sounded to me like you could share some of your power with my servants, too, but what do you think? Sound possible, or what?”
Dammit… This dude’s just like me, isn’t he? Incredibly shrewd, trying to take advantage of anything useful… Making me think the conversation is over, only to pull the “just one more thing” killer blow. Not that I’m this blatant about it… Or maybe I am?
No point pondering that, though. Guy needs an answer, and for that—
Understood. It is possible.
Oh. The guy answered me before I even thought of the question. That made me feel a little sad, somehow. I could almost feel it thinking I’m getting sick of dealing with you.
Understood. There is no such intention.
Something about this exchange made me think it’s incredibly angry at me. Better not prod it any further. Raphael’s all I have to rely on, so if it gave up on me, I’d be at the end of my rope.
Right. Now for a more serious question. If I built a soul corridor between myself and Guy’s “servants” (whoever they are), would that still work?
Affirmative. Forced intervention is now possible even if you do not share a common soul lineage with the monster in question. The target must not resist the connection, but as long as it is qualified to awaken, an infusion of energy is capable of inciting evolution.
Roger that.
This just leaves one problem—how many of my souls it’d consume. I don’t know how many people he wanted me to awaken, but if I don’t have the goods, we’re getting nowhere here.
“I don’t think it’ll be a problem, no. Can’t be sure unless I try, but I’m reasonably sure it’ll be fine. But I don’t have enough energy left to pass out to other people, though.”
This was my attempt at nimbly turning Guy down without angering him. I actually had just over one hundred thousand souls left, but Guy couldn’t have any way of knowing that. Surely he’d give up now.
“Right. So as long as you have souls to provide, you can do it, then?”
“Uhhh…”
“Because you know, I once gave Mizeri about ten thousand of my own souls. It didn’t trigger anything at all, though. No sign of her awakening or anything. So I thought I was just wasting my time with that approach.”
He can just pass on souls as is like that? These demons are pretty clever, aren’t they? But that wouldn’t cause an awakening?
Understood. In order to incite an evolution, the requisite souls must be converted into the required form to be compatible with the target. Simply giving away souls is unlikely to have the desired effect. Furthermore, granting souls to other people is a highly inefficient use of energy, producing only about 10 percent of the anticipated value.
Aha.
So in order to make a would-be demon lord take root, you needed to give it the right sun and water and stuff? And of course, knowing how to do that is different from actually pulling it off. So would it be better to wait for his servants to spontaneously evolve, then?
Negative. A monster named by a higher-level being has its very nature altered. Even if it has souls it acquired on its own, that is unlikely to cause an awakening.
So once they’re named, that’s the end of the evolution process. It’s hard enough for someone to qualify for an awakening, but that sounds like quite the unexpected pitfall to me. The vast majority of monsters never qualify at all; naming is a much more likely method of powering up, so maybe it’s the same thing in the end.
Anyway, being named changes the nature of a monster to the point that it’s no longer able to extract the appropriate energy from the souls they acquire. Guy seems to be unaware of this, so I guess Raphael strikes again. Truly, it’s the smartest teacher I ever had in my life.
…
Oops. I was sincere with that praise, but maybe Raphael took it as me making fun of it. But I had my answer, so let’s just move on.
“Mizeri, huh? Did you try it with Raine or anyone else? And actually, you were the one who named them, right?”
“That’s right. Again, well spotted.”
“Well, there’s your problem right there.”
“Oh?”
“When they’re named by a higher-level life-form, that changes their nature enough that it won’t work, it looks like.”
“…Mmm. That sort of thing, huh? So it’s a waste of time no matter how many souls I give them. But you’ve got a way to adapt the soul energy so it’ll work on the target?”
I had to take a crash course from Raphael to figure all this out, but Guy was picking up on it super rapidly. Everything he said was right on the money, too.
“My approach ought to, yeah.”
“Okay. I wanna ask you a favor.”
Here we go. Now I was really starting to understand Guy’s personality. When he starts to use that wheedling voice of his, he must think there’s no way I’ll say no. I’d really like to slap a denial on him, but I’d be too afraid to try it. I value my life too much for that these days, so I’ll just play along for now.
“Um, just so you know, all the souls in the world won’t evolve someone if they don’t qualify for the right.”
“No problem there. Both of them meet the requirements just fine. You think you can awaken them for me?”
The way Guy was talking, his two maids were total garbage, useless in their current states. His evaluation standards are so weird. Based on what I heard, Mizeri and Raine are Primals on the same level as Testarossa and her gang. But he’s just slamming them like this instead? And considering one of my own secretaries made a sport out of egging Guy on, I was getting more and more nervous by the moment.
Ah, well. Now it boils down to whether I have the souls I need.
“Okay, so it’s only Mizeri and Raine you’d like to have awakened?”
“Yeah. How many souls is that gonna take?”
For a self-awakening, it was ten thousand; for a servant of mine in my soul lineage, it was a cool one hundred thousand, ten times as much. If I was working with unrelated third parties this time, I’m sure it’d be even more inefficient. So as for the number—
Understood. Five hundred thousand souls.
Five hundred thousand? So a quarter million each?! Twenty-five times more than usual—and over twice as many as a “soul lineage” job… It seemed like a ton, but if that’s Raphael’s quote, it has to be true.
“I think five hundred thousand would be enough for the two of them.”
“Huh? That’s all? Well, shoot, I got enough in me right now, then. I won’t even have to kill any more humans.”
He has them? And like, what was he gonna do if he didn’t?!
“Oh, you do? That’s, um, good.”
A dry chuckle was about all I could let out. I might’ve been begging Guy to stop right now if the numbers didn’t work out. I’m glad I didn’t have to, but considering all the casualties lately, I kinda had mixed feelings about this. The difference in how we value souls—and all that. I secretly prayed we didn’t have any more conflicts of interest going forward.
Benimaru and Shuna listened in on all this, worried looks on their faces. I decided there was no reason to hide my conversation with Guy from them.
“Well, if you could grab our guests for me, then…”
I had Shion and Diablo join us as well.
Guy was in an elated mood as he enjoyed his cake. Slice number three. Glad he likes it.
As soon as he handed me his half-million souls, he started acting like his work was done here. I already confirmed with Raphael that everything was set to go, but was it petty of me to be less than overjoyed about all this?
I pondered this a little as Shuna brought the two maids back in for me.
“You amaze me again, Sir Rimuru. That cake was excellent.”
“Yes, and we’re thrilled that you’re willing to share the recipe so freely with us.”
Mizeri was gushing; Raine was meekly appreciative. They must’ve gotten the message, and they were behaving perfectly kindly around Shuna. If this was enough to satisfy them, I really wished we didn’t have to play these dumb world-war games. The world was so full of surprises to explore! And besides, these two seemed like perfect maids to me. They didn’t have the world-destroying sense of taste that Shion did, and I was sure they’d hone their skills in no time.
Before that, though, I had an evolution ritual to perform.
“I am glad to hear that… And if we can continue to work in tandem, nothing would make me happier.”
Cooperation is so key, in my opinion. I’d like them to understand that cooperation isn’t a one-way street, but…
“Rimuru’s about to give both of you more power, girls. You need to be more thankful to him.”
So should you, man.
Swallowing the thought before I said it out loud, I smiled at the two girls.
“Now, a word of caution about this. Once I complete the evolution, you might suddenly get extremely sleepy. This is called the Harvest Festival, and it’s perfectly normal, but you might be too catatonic to travel much for up to a few days. In the meantime, you can feel free to stay with us.”
Guy and his entourage had traveled via Mizeri’s transport gate to a spot just outside the labyrinth. I then obtained Ramiris’s permission to let them inside, but once the evolution was complete, I didn’t think either of them were gonna be on their feet for a while. I doubted Guy was the type of boss who was thoughtful enough to bring them back home with him, so I intended to set them up with some lodging.
And besides…
“Of course. So perhaps you two could send Guy and Velzard back home while you’re still awake?”
That was my aim. Our negotiations were over, and I really wished Guy would leave already.
“Huh? Ahhh, I don’t wanna impugn on you that much. We’ll take the two of them back with us, so just go ahead and start infusing, could you?”
Wha?!
Guy’s unexpected reply almost made me audibly yelp. And not just me—Mizeri and Raine themselves looked just as astonished. Their reaction told me what I already assumed: Guy actually lifting a finger to do something for them was unprecedented.
Clearly, he had an agenda of some kind. An agenda that, quite frankly, I found incredibly annoying. I didn’t want Guy to see my power in action; I wanted him the hell out of here. Then it occurred to me. It always struck me that Guy and I had a lot of similarities, but maybe we were even more identical than I thought. I mean, if I were him, of course I’d want to observe what went on and see if I could copy it. Even if I couldn’t, I still wanted as much info as I could get, so I could counteract it if need be. Based on that, it was very like Guy was thinking the same thing—and in that case, I was all the more motivated not to reveal my hand to him.
Or has he already spotted me out?
Understood. There is not a problem. As instructed, only Belzebuth will be brought to the forefront, so the rest will be kept fully hidden.
Sweet. Just leave it to Raphael, and I could even pull the wool over Guy’s eyes. Not that I can let my guard down yet. I just didn’t want him learning any more about me, you know?
“No, no, there’s no need to be shy! We’ve got tons of extra rooms, so you just get going on your way, okay?”
I wasn’t gonna negotiate. Guy was absolutely trying to stick around so he could observe my powers. I wasn’t about to expose my hand for no good reason. I’ve got to do whatever it takes to get Guy out of this place…
We exchanged polite smiles, even as intense psychological warfare erupted below the surface. Just as it did, the door to the room was almost blown off its hinges.
“Rimuru! I was looking for you! The surveillance feed’s gone silent over in the Control Center. I want you to restore it for us.”
“Yeah! I’m pitchin’ in to help monitor the world, too, y’know!”
Veldora and Ramiris certainly seemed to be enjoying themselves. But we were in the middle of a very important conversation, so I wished they’d pick up on that a bit. Besides, the Control Center’s meant for waging wars, all right? It’s not your personal playroom. And yes, we are still at war, but I think you guys are just using that screen to search for neat new spots to visit.
…I had a lot I wanted to say, but I had no right to complain. It was all my doing, besides. “Once the war’s over,” I blurted out the other day, “why don’t we go out and have some fun?” They had been arguing over where to go ever since.
They’ve never traveled much around the world, despite how ponderously long they’ve lived, and I guess they caught the travel bug thanks to me. That’s why they made a routine out of using my Eye of God to bump around the world and take in the scenery when they had free time. This surveillance magic never used much energy, so we could keep it constantly active—and what’s more, changing the viewpoint was something anyone could do without much training. The Eye couldn’t cover every spot in the world, but it still had a wide range. Abuse it too much, though, and the magic effect would temporarily wear off.
“I’ll head down there later, okay? Just sit tight and wait a second.”
Guess I’ll have to lecture them later about keeping quiet when I’m entertaining guests. As their guardian, that’s my job. I mean, I wanted to do some travel research, too—or I mean, it was important that I gave them a good education about the world. But anyway, I was busy negotiating with Guy, so I tried to kick them out. However:
“Oh, hello there, Guy. Got some business with Rimuru, huh?”
Ramiris noticed Guy in the room. Veldora’s eyes were elsewhere.
“Looks like you’re having fun, Veldora.”
“Gahhh?! Wha-wha—?! Why are you here, my sister…?!”
“Here I thought you’ve matured a bit, but you’re as boisterous as ever, aren’t you? Great job taking human form, though. Looking pretty good for someone who just broke out of their seal, too.”
“I… I’m glad you are well…”
The fun was apparently over for Veldora. Now he was stiff as a board. Velzard was being perfectly nice to him, but for my friend, it must’ve looked different.
“But I’d love to spend some time talking with you. It’s been so long!”
“I, er… Well, I’m sure you’re a busy person, my sister, and I have work of my own to attend to. I’m afraid I do not have much free time…”
“Oh, no need to worry about that. I think Guy and Sir Rimuru have a lot to talk about still, so why don’t we have a nice, extended chat?”
Velzard’s emphasis was clearly on the word extended. She completely ignored Veldora’s claim of work obligations, and now he was looking to me for assistance. I gave him a brisk nod back. Good luck, man.
“Could we borrow a nearby room, Sir Rimuru?”
She flashed me a beautiful smile, and how I was going to say no to that? I can’t!
“Of course. I’m sure you’ve got a lot of catching up to do, so take your time!”
I had no choice. Farewell, Veldora. We’ll never forget your gallantry!
He looked pretty bent out of shape over not getting any help from me. Then, with a quick hand movement, he grabbed hold of Ramiris.
“Wh-whoa, Master! This isn’t any of my business!”
“Please! Don’t leave me alone!”
The pathetic display convinced me. Veldora must be ill at ease around his sister Velzard. Or maybe more terrified of her…?
In my previous life, I had a friend who didn’t like his big sister too much, either. “She’s such a dictator,” he’d complain to me, eyes glowing with enlightenment—and I guess that applies to True Dragons, too. (I also had friends who’d whine at each other about how annoying their little sisters were, but I only had one elder brother, so I couldn’t join in. I’m sure it was the same kinda deal with both sister types, and Veldora was starting to remind me of them.)
Then something occurred to me. A while back, Veldora and I were arguing over where we should go for a trip, and he was dead set against traveling north, like I suggested. He said it was too cold for him and so forth, but that seemed unnatural to me. There couldn’t be any way the cold would affect him. Looking back, though, maybe he knew Velzard was there?
As I watched Veldora, begging not to go as he held the door in a death grip, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Maybe I had it all wrong. I fully intended to abandon him since I didn’t want to get burned, but let’s lend him a bit of a hand. If it didn’t work out, I thought, I’d just relent and that’d be that.
“Hey, Guy… You live north of Englesia, right?”
“Mm? Ah yes, you call it the Tundral Waste down here. Pretty cold.”
“Yes,” Velzard said, standing up and turning to me as she kept a firm grasp on Veldora’s shoulders. “I don’t suppress my magical force up there, so no life can survive in the region. Guy doesn’t like the weak, so I did that to keep everyone else from blundering near him.”
Good, good. Let’s keep it going.
“So if I had to guess, Velzard, your power involves cold and ice?”
“…Not exactly, no. But in terms of the effects it produces, I can see if people think so.”
Perfect. No doubt about it, then. It’s funny to think that Veldora, as boundlessly confident and fearless as he was, still had a weakness like this.
“You have trouble dealing with Velzard, don’t you, Veldora?”
“D-do not say such ridiculous things! There is nothing I have trouble dealing with!”
What a time to act like a tough guy. It’s only causing you more damage, you know.
“Right? Of course not. After all, I took care of you for a long time, didn’t I?”
There was not the slightest cloudiness to Velzard’s warm smile. Not once did she ever suspect her brother might dislike her.
“When Veldora was just born, you know, whenever he went on a rampage, I promptly destroyed and rehabilitated him. Then, when he did it again after being reborn, I’d stop him, calm him down, maybe give him a gentle lecture or two. He had a few developmental problems—he couldn’t turn human, that kind of thing—so he’d always cause far too much damage. If I didn’t clean up after him, he would have grown even more out of control.”
Velzard told me about all the things she did in the past, framing them as sisterly acts of kindness. I dare anyone to listen to it all without bursting into tears.
“Veldora… You’ve been through so much…”
“You see that, Rimuru? Do you see that?!”
No wonder he preferred being away from her. What she did was devious—and the worst part was that she meant no malice at all. If we didn’t unravel this misunderstanding or assumption on Velzard’s part, Veldora might spend his entire life fearing her. But Veldora wasn’t helping his case much, either—that tough act made it impossible for him to defy her. He needs to drop that false courage, or he’ll never get along with people…or True Dragons, I guess. Whatever.
“Velzard, I don’t mean to meddle too much, but I feel that Veldora might have a few hang-ups when it comes to you.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“Well, long story short, you’re overdoing it. Instead of just forcibly lecturing him without listening to his side of the story, if you gave him more guidance about what’s right and wrong, he’ll learn it more naturally that way. Veldora’s capable of listening to reason, after all. So instead of resorting to violence, can you just tell him how you really feel instead? If you want, we can even put you up here for the night.”
Velzard considered this for a few moments, then sighed and nodded. Whew. Glad she accepted it.
“Aw, isn’t that great, Master? Can you let go of me now?”
“Very well. Looking back, I’m not sure I ever really considered Veldora’s thoughts. Perhaps we can take this opportunity to have a nice, long talk?”
So she was gonna talk his ear off regardless. Uh-huh.
“All… All right. Go easy on me, please.”
Veldora regained his composure, too, in a resigned sort of way. Hopefully this can help alleviate the rift a little bit. He exited the room (voluntarily this time), but he was still clutching Ramiris in his hand. I’ll pretend I didn’t see that.
“H-hey! Wait! This is none of my business!”
I think I maybe heard that plea from somewhere, but it disappeared once the door shut. I must’ve been hearing things. Time to focus on Guy again.
Veldora’s exit made the room suddenly feel very quiet.
“Right,” Guy muttered. I nervously swallowed as I anticipated his next words.
“Well, it sounds like Velzard will be staying here for a bit, so I think I’ll stay overnight as well.”
“Sure. I’ll have a room ready for the three of them, so don’t worry about that.”
“Huh? The three of who?”
“Oh, aren’t you leaving?”
I sure wish he was. But I’d be left disappointed.
“What are you, stupid? We’re pals, aren’t we? So let’s hang out today. Get these two evolved for me already.”
Grrr. He certainly was a persuasive speaker, but I hated letting him have his way like this.
“No, no, I’ll be glad to give you the royal treatment when things are less urgent, so for today—”
“Didn’t you say a moment ago that you have lots of extra rooms? I don’t need the ‘royal treatment’ today, so just set me up with whatever’s free right now. I wanted to try that ‘tempura’ thing you were talking about earlier, so you mind hooking me up?”
Welp, I lost. After all this, I had no possible pretense for saying no. It meant revealing what I considered to be one of my most powerful moves, but it beat refusing and stoking his anger.
“…All right. I’ll get you the best room we have out of what’s available… And I’ll arrange for a tempura dinner tonight.”
I nodded briefly at Shuna.
“Absolutely. I will start preparing at once.”
With a sweet smile and a perfectly polite bow, she left. Haruna silently took her place, standing by in one corner of the room. Her sheer unobtrusiveness demonstrated how skilled she was as a maid. Mizeri and Raine looked impressed as well, so I had to assume she was top-notch by international standards, too.
Guy, meanwhile, looked extremely satisfied with himself over beating me. It sucked, but I’d just have to admit defeat for now—but the moment I had that thought, the previously silent Diablo finally opened his mouth.
“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… I see. You’ll be staying over tonight, Guy?”
“Hmm? Yeah, but—”
“Ah-ha. Then you’ll have plenty of free time on your hands?”
“What are you…?”
“No, no, I just thought this would be a lovely opportunity for us.”
“An opportunity? For what?”
“I needed to finish the story I was telling you earlier, you know. And you bragged about your ultimate ability to me a long time ago, didn’t you? Well, I wanted to ask you about that in more detail today, so…”
Whoaaa! Nice one, Diablo. Now the tables were turned—Guy was on the ropes! I can’t let this chance pass me by!
“Well, in that case, Diablo, why don’t you take Guy here over to the inner chamber? You guys can chat your heads off the whole rest of the day!”
“Thank you very much, Sir Rimuru. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your kindness.”
As soon as he said it, Diablo put his hand around Guy’s shoulder.
“Huh? Ah! Wait!”
“No, I cannot wait to sit down with you. Let’s go.”
Guy was kind of like a house of cards if you poked him the right way, huh? All it took was Diablo’s quiet insistence to ferry him right out of the room. He can be so unexpectedly useful sometimes.
Now that Guy was gone, I could finally use my powers at peace. I didn’t know when they’d come back, so let’s get this ritual over with fast. I wasted no time pouring my souls into Mizeri and Raine, inciting the evolution.
Report. The prescribed amount of one hundred thousand souls has been reached. The subject Mizeri’s evolution has begun.
Um? That’s odd. Guy gave me half a million souls—
Moving on to the incitement of the subject Raine’s evolution… Successful.
I was down only two hundred thousand souls.
Huh?
So as long as they’re qualified to evolve, they can do it even if we’re not linked soul to soul?
…Hey, wait a minute! That’s not even the issue. You got three hundred thousand souls you didn’t use here! Don’t tell me…?!
Report. I have mastered the knack behind this, so the necessary number turned out lower than expected.
Oh, you got the knack down, huh?
…Wait, what? No! That’s no excuse! I received a zillion more souls than that! He’s never gonna buy that!
Understood. The subjects Testarossa, Ultima, and Carrera were included in the required amount.
What the hell’re you doing to me?! Raphael’s gone crazy on me! How fearless can you even get? Are you seriously trying to get one up on the demon lord Guy Crimson?!
…Wait. Dude. If he finds out, I’m the one who’s gonna pay for it, man!!
Understood. It is not a problem.
No, it is. It’s a lot of problems. Seriously, I’m kind of afraid of you right now. Acting all fearless like this is so frightening.
Negative. This is simply the result of my information particle–handling skills performing better than expected. Any surplus can be considered extra remuneration.
You think so, huh? Because I think you’re reeeeeally stretching it, but…
Seriously, this is scaring me more than trying to run a scam against the yakuza. If Guy ever found out, he could disassemble me into a pile of broken atoms, and I’d have no reason to complain. I don’t sweat, so I wasn’t betraying any of my agitation on my face, but inside me I had cold sweat falling like a rainstorm. For the first time in a while, I’m actually glad I’m a slime.
So we partied it up that night.
Guy looked a little miffed with me, but he never did complain. In fact, he thanked me.
“There’s a lot I could say about today’s events, but I’m tired out for now. It looks like the evolution took place without a hitch, and for that, I thank you.”
He really did look exhausted. I wonder why? Diablo, meanwhile, was a stark contrast in how energetic he was. Weird.
“No, no, you’re quite welcome.”
Not getting involved was the smart bet here. I pretended not to notice anything as I left that sleeping dog to himself.
The food seemed to be to his liking, and the hot spring bath gave him what looked like a sorely needed recharge. Velzard was in a good mood after chatting with Veldora, and for an unplanned social evening like this, I thought we did pretty darn well.
“I’ll be back.”
“We’ll do our best to entertain you then.”
“I do look forward to that. We live in a very cold place, so that hot spring was so soothing to me.”
“Well, I’m glad you liked it, too. We can’t wait to have you back.”
“How polite of you! I’d love to see Veldora again before long, so we’ll be sure to take a few days next time.”
Speaking of Veldora, he wasn’t currently with us. That’s because he was prone on his bed, thoroughly battered and unable to move after going a couple rounds with Velzard.
“Hee-hee-hee… Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Tell him I went a bit easy on him this time, but don’t expect any mercy when I return.”
“You sure you want me to tell him that?”
“…Sorry.”
She seemed to be apologizing in an ever-so-wispy voice, but I’m a kind slime, so I pretended not to hear. Hey, I’m sure Velzard didn’t mean to kick his ass, and I’m sure Veldora will be good as new in a few days. Really, I hadn’t seen him take any wounds since that whole Chronoa incident, so it was a helpful reminder of just how strong True Dragons really were.
Veldora had another big sister over in the Empire. We have to figure out how to deal with her, so I think I’ll have Raphael give me the rundown on how True Dragons fight each other later on.
After giving me some valuable information to work with, Guy and his crew finally left. I’ll be using that info as a reference as I resume our deliberations on the next course of action.
As I resolved to do this, I saw someone jogging up to me in a tizzy. It was Mjöllmile.
“Ah, Sir Rimuru! I was wondering where you were. I’ve been looking all over!”
“Why the urgency?”
“You’ll know when you hear this: Big Mama’s here, and she wants to see you.”
“Big Mama?!”
I promptly rushed over to a certain inn in a prime spot of town. Big Mama always stayed there on her visits.
This was a nickname, of course, one shared only between Mollie and me. We gave it to her because bandying her real name around was bound to cause us trouble. It was Elmesia El-Ru Thalion, the Heavenly Emperor of the Sorcerous Dynasty of Thalion.
Among the Three Pranksters—the name we three gave ourselves—she was known as El. I was Rim, Mollie was Gar, and she was El. She led the group, I was second-in-command, and Gar was our minion henchman. We had a lot of fun with this, you could say.
If El wanted to see me this urgently, I had to drop everything for her. I’m pretty sure she’s aware we’re fighting a war right now, though…
“We told El that we’re at war, didn’t we?”
“Oh, of course. In fact, she told me herself that she’d save her next visit for when things settled down.”
Mollie here has actually known Elmesia longer than I have, sitting in for me when I’m busy and negotiating over this and that—both in public and private.
“Public” here meant official diplomatic relations with Thalion, and I was pretty much hands-off with that stuff, leaving it wholly to Mollie and Rigurd’s circle. They oversaw construction progress, established trade regulations, set up tariffs and other logistical matters, discussed security for merchants and visitors from both our nations… Anything and everything had to be looked over with a fine-tooth comb until they were mutually acceptable to us all. It was a daunting task, but they did their best at it without complaint.
“Private,” meanwhile, was more about the fun debauchery we got up to as the Three Pranksters. “Debauchery” might sound a little shady, and indeed, our little side hustles weren’t the kind of things your mother would approve of.
What were they, exactly? Well, basically we were attempting to take full control of our newborn (and gigantic) economic trade zone.
………
……
…
At first, the three of us were simply drinking buddies. We were discussing business matters at the bar before long, however, and the next thing I knew, this had ballooned into sensitive matters concerning the management of our nations. It’s on me for having such a big mouth, but Mollie’s equally as guilty for not stopping me. Besides, it’s not like us two were the only ones blabbering away; Elmesia leaked out a lot of secrets to us as well.
It’s little wonder we all let our guard down. All three of us were blaming it on the alcohol, essentially. Benders can be real scary.
This relationship was, of course, totally confidential—just a secret between the three of us. It’d have to be, because if word got out about these talks, we’d be subjected to a whole lot of vitriol. I’m sure my staff would be silently applying pressure on me to stop, and Mollie would probably develop an ulcer from all the criticism. I bet even Elmesia would become the target of some sarcastic remarks from Erald.
So we were a tight-knit secret society, the Three Pranksters, and by this point, our friendship had transcended our positions in society.
This arrangement began in earnest, if I recall, around when we won the battle against the Rossos.
Right when that clan was on the decline, the Western Nations’ criminal underground circles were all but decimated. Nobody was providing any cohesion, and things were starting to break down into factional warfare. I wasn’t about to abide by this, so I asked Testarossa to help keep the peace over there; that prevented things from getting out of hand, but we couldn’t keep things as is for long.
Only when the local police—or military, really—couldn’t handle matters did we provide some secret assistance to them. That, however, brought up the issue of how to deal with the criminals we caught. The reason local militias couldn’t handle these cases was because of the inevitable reprisals they would trigger. In some cases, local or regional government leaders were the ones committing the crimes, and the authorities would be hesitant to act in situations like that. They couldn’t let crimes go unchecked, of course, but if they pursued them too much, it could potentially lead to insurrection, even. In a lot of cases, the local state had no choice but to keep silent and not intervene.
It was all pretty troubling, so one night I was whining about it to Elmesia during one of her stops at our inn.
“I was rather hoping we could discuss something more fun than that,” she said at first, clearly reluctant… But as she listened on, she gradually opened up to me, leaning forward and asking for more details. Essentially, the way I painted things, it could be beneficial to not just me, but her, too. In other words, I was telling another what-if fairy tale to hold her interest.
Crime and the economy are inexorably linked. If the gap between rich and poor widens, that leads to resentment and could even affect national order. It’s why organized crime grows so huge; they serve as a receptacle for the poor, and after a certain point, they could wreck the entire power balance of the nation. Mollie, it should be said, was originally one of those underworld bosses, and I suppose his familiarity with matters let him grasp my point immediately.
What poor people need is a place to belong. We had to provide jobs available to anyone so they won’t turn to crime, no matter how far they’ve fallen. Oftentimes, this would be where the military comes in—they’ve got tons of positions to fill, and they’re always looking for people to fill them. But if the country itself is poor, sometimes not even that functions properly. So we wanted to provide a little under-the-table help to them.
“First off, we’ll create our own crime outfit. We’ve already laid the groundwork for this by absorbing all the groups we’ve crushed in each nation… And I’m thinking about taking out all the ones we’ve let survive for now, too.”
It might’ve been a bunch of drunken nonsense, but it did succeed in grabbing Elmesia’s attention.
“I see… No, there’s no group in the Western Nations that can complete with Cerberus. And I think a lot of people would swear their loyalties to this new group as long as they’re guaranteed food, clothing, and shelter.”
Elmesia hadn’t been too enthusiastic so far. But what I said next proved to be the deciding factor.
“Right? So we could take care of the poor that way. Next we’ll tackle the wealthy.”
“Hmm?”
“Now that Granville is dead, the Rossos are going to fall—and fall fast. They might still have a lot of power, but you know they’re going to do nothing but weaken over time. So I’m trying to move another project along to serve as a replacement.”
“A project? Let me hear more about it.”
“Well, you know it. The idea you mentioned before, about having Blumund function as a concentrated industrial hub. Sir Fuze is making preparations for me along those lines, and he’s already secured the necessary personnel, I understand.”
Mjöllmile and I had already consulted with each other on this grand concept. It’s important that we coordinate our interests with our neighboring countries, after all, if we want to spread friendship and prosperity.
“We could combine the Dwarven Kingdom’s industry, Farminus’s agricultural output, and Thalion’s industry as well. We’ll need to fine-tune things so we’re not competing against each other, but we could have all this industry flow right into Blumund—and then they could serve as a window into all that Western Nations territory.”
“Ah yes, Erald did report to me about that. So you were actually planning to go through with it?”
“Of course. Why not?”
“All right. But, Rim, how will you profit from it?”
“Profit’s secondary here.”
“Hmm?”
“Just kidding! But that’s what we’re trying to do. Taking control of core technology, releasing it to the world, you know. And I’m thinking we could build a really big educational institution and attract talented students from all over the world. Establish ourselves as a major tourist destination, then skim off the top behind the scenes!”
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! And don’t forget about your patents concept! This wonderful system where money keeps flowing in without having to do any work! I understand it well enough, but it could take time to get other people to use it.”
“…Mmm, I see. So your idea is to create new products that require this core technology, then secure the intellectual property rights?”
“You’re so quick on the uptake, El! I’m glad for that. But don’t go copying the idea off me, okay?”
“First come, first served, is it? But no, no—I won’t copy it, but let me in on some of the action instead!”
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Pitch in for us, El, and this project is already as good as done!”
“Oh, Gar, you give me far too much credit! You’re right, of course, but…”
And so we laughed into our beer mugs all night.
The next day, we gave each other bleary looks, everyone wondering if we said too much.
“Hey, so about yesterday’s chat…”
“Yes, I recall it. You said some things you probably shouldn’t have, didn’t you?”
“Yeah…”
“If—if you could find it in you to keep it a secret… We can’t afford to have the project shudder to a halt at this point…”
“Oh, stop worrying, Gar. Maybe the drinks were talking for me, but I’m a woman who keeps her promises.”
And so through a failed attempt at fraternization through getting blasted, we were now all on the same wavelength.
We pushed on with plans at a steady clip from that point forward. When you had the leaders of two superpowers on the same page, things went fast.
Our inroads into the Western Nations criminal underground were progressing at a pace that would’ve easily surprised the outside observer. In just a few months, we had finished unifying all the region’s crime groups. Thus, a brand-new secret society was born, one we called REG—the Three Wise Drunks. The group’s members had no idea about the origins of that name, but that was certainly not our problem.
What’s more important is how the project’s moving along. The poor people facing oppression in their local regions were quickly taken in by the mysterious “REG” outfit, and after a month or two of examination, the right people were selected for the right jobs. Any outstanding talents, we decided, would be invited to my nation for further study.
All the little details behind this were being overseen by Glenda Attley, one of the former Three Battlesages who was still serving under Soei. She said she’d gladly take any job, dirty or not, and now she was acting every bit like a mob boss. Working beneath her were Girard, ex-leader of the Sons of the Veldt mercenary group, and Ayn, the elementalist who once worked for him. These were two pretty notorious names around the Western Nations, with the type of leadership skills that naturally attracted the seedier elements of the local population. This underworld fame served them well as they carried out Glenda’s orders.
Most people seemed to assume this trio was the Three Wise Drunks being referred to. We really were just three drunken idiots, but people were misinterpreting it as being “drunk on dreams” or other fancy stuff like that, so I’d keep the truth to myself.
So that’s what we had cooking underground. Now let’s examine our activities as public figures. For this effort, we decided it was better to create two organizations that would compete against each other, instead of a single monolith that’d be too vulnerable to corruption.
The first one is a new company founded by Mollie, mostly comprised of educated staff from Blumund and engaging in commercial business in tandem with the Council. This we named the Four Nations Trade Alliance, chaired by a representative from Tempest with a board of executives from Blumund, Farminus, and Dwargon as well. Mollie was installed as CEO, ensuring I’d always have a hand in its affairs.
The second group was a coalition of Western Nations trade groups that Elmesia would work behind the scenes to form. Doran, monarch of the kingdom that bears his name, would be lent money to establish the firm under his banner, which would allow it to absorb the surviving members of the Rosso family. Essentially, we were setting up a playing field for everyone who’s particularly hostile to us, but it attracted a lot more people than expected.
The firm was named the Western General Trade Company, with one of Doran’s sons serving as president—Prince Figaro Ros Doran, a descendant of the Rossos, who possessed all the intelligence and talent that name conferred. The prince and his father were the only people who knew about Elmesia’s involvement; they agreed to play along in exchange for her protection. “In the Rosso family,” Doran reportedly said upon hearing of the plan, “you need a flexible mind to survive. If the world’s most powerful demon lord and someone with as much influence on the world as the Heavenly Emperor are forming a team, deciding not to take part would surely spell our doom.”
If you’re gonna credit the Rossos for anything, praise them for how seriously they took their contracts. As long as we both fulfilled our side of the contract, we could trust this relationship to stay unchanged for the foreseeable future.
It’s also worth adding that between Elmesia’s shares and mine, we controlled 61 percent of the Western General Trade Company. Elmesia was the top shareholder, so if Figaro decided to betray us, the firm would collapse right then and there. “Not that someone as talented as him would do something that stupid,” Elmesia told me, and I was apt to agree with her. So Figaro was accepted as our trusted president for the time being.
Thus, we had two different companies kicking off at the same time. These two firms were ostensibly competitors in the same field, conducting price wars and scrambling to secure exclusive distributors. But this was all legal, healthy competition, with no use of force involved.
Some of the staff occasionally took the cowardly approach and tried tapping organized crime to lend them a hand, although for some reason, it always backfired on them. The REG group informed me of some pretty wild stories related to this. I deliberately didn’t try to stop any would-be criminals, but I hoped it was clear to people that if they went too far, they’d be the ones to pay for it. It was a shame that some ne’er-do-wells would resort to extreme measures, but at least both companies were bursting with motivation.
They were also growing much faster than expected. In just a few months, they had developed into stable organizations, with positions established in a multitude of specific fields and a firm hierarchy in place. Right now, when we were under imperial attack, I heard they were enjoying quite a bit of war-based demand for their goods. I wondered if this was a bit too opportunistic of them, but since I was taking in their profits as a shareholder, I decided to call it a necessary evil and leave it at that. It wouldn’t do to regulate everything, after all, and that goes double when it’s my own interests at stake.
And so in relatively short time, we were on our way to seizing the local trade community for ourselves.
………
……
…
If Elmesia had stopped by here without advance notice, there must’ve been some kind of emergency. Maybe Prince Figaro skipped town on us after all? We had countermeasures in place for that scenario, but it’d mean I’d have to give up some of my shares, so it’d make sense if Elmesia wanted to come over to discuss that.
At the inn, I was taken to a detached townhome Elmesia was occupying.
“Thanks for waiting for me. How’s it going, El?”
No point speculating any further. Time to ask what she wanted to talk about. She did look pretty miffed about something, not even trying to hide her depression as she stared right at me.
“Oh, um, something upsetting you?”
“‘Upsetting’ would be the kindest way of putting it! Do you have any idea what you have done?!”
Um, what? Oh, man, she sounds legit pissed. And this didn’t seem to be any “Wise Drunk” business after all…
“How do you mean?”
“Sit down.”
“Uh, sure.”
Not wanting to anger the sharp-eyed Elmesia any further, I meekly kneeled down on the tatami-mat floor. Mollie was doing the same next to me, and this seating position was clearly making his legs cramp up.
“Rim, is it true that you’ve been evolving some of your people?”
H-how does she know that?! I gave Mollie a quick side glance; he shook his head back to indicate he didn’t know, either. So where did the leak come from?
“My boy Gazel gave me an urgent message. He said he wasn’t sure whether to tell me but decided to in the end. Honest of him, isn’t it?”
To Elmesia, even a sly old fox like Gazel was still her “boy.” But that’s what happened? I wasn’t really hiding what I did, so I shouldn’t be that shocked, but the sheer speed was pretty unexpected.
“Well, the Eastern Empire’s a lot more dangerous than I thought, so I wanted to get ourselves powered up as best I could. I didn’t think hiding it was a good idea, so I invited Jaine to witness it.”
“Oh… So it’s true…?”
She stood up, turned her back to me, and looked out a window. There was something sad—sorrowful, in a way—about the sight.
“…Why are you talking like it’s somebody else’s business?!”
Then she whacked me on the head with the folding fan she took out from her pocket.
“N-no, I didn’t mean it like that…”
I was just trying to lighten the mood here a little. Sheesh.
“What do you even want to do with an army that powerful?”
“Huh? It’s not that I wanna do anything, really. I’m trying to build a country that’s fun to live in.”
“And Gazel tells me you have more Primals serving you than just Diablo now?”
“Yeah. Sorry, I thought I told you. I wasn’t aware of it myself until a little while ago. You know Testarossa, don’t you, El? I always thought she was really talented, but it turns out she’s a Primal, too, I guess. So there’s her and two more, Carrera and Ultima, and they’re serving as heads of our supreme court and chief prosecutor, respectively.”
When I finished explaining matters, Elmesia began to visibly shake.
“And that is the truth as well?” She groaned. Then she sat down in front of me, gazing straight into my eyes as she asked me directly, “Are you trying to destroy the world?”
“Huh? No way.”
“Because from my viewpoint, that’s the only thing this could be!”
Now she was shouting. I hurriedly began making excuses, Mollie joining my side, as we verbally sparred for the next half hour or so.
“So you’re telling me that Guy and Ludora are playing a game, using their respective pieces to decide on a winner?”
“Right, exactly!”
“Is that true, Gar?”
“I, um, I can’t say I am that well-informed on the situation, either… But really, I’m not entirely certain this is something I should be listening in on, is it?”
“Well, no, it’s not, but too late for that, right?”
“If I may, I’m not entirely sure ‘too late for that’ is much comfort for me…”
Yeah. Guess I totally dragged him into this, didn’t I? Sorry about that. But given the relationship we have, I’m sure Mollie will forgive me soon enough.
“Haaah… I think I understand now. If Guy was cajoling you, you were certainly in no position to turn him down, were you…?”
Yes! Precisely! Guy was threatening me—let’s phrase it like that.
“Indeed. It’s painful for me to accept as well.”
I was beginning to take on Mollie’s manner of speech, but either way, we were finally starting to appease her.
Elmesia sighed again; either her anger was gone or she was scrambling to regain her composure.
“So what are you going to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not going to resign yourself to being a pawn in Guy’s game, are you?”
“I think I am, actually.”
“Why?”
“Well, I’ve been thinking…”
She seemed to have no idea what I was thinking. So I tried to give her more insight.
It seemed a given that the Empire still had some powerhouses—people of unknown ability—in store for us. Trying to avoid a fight was one potential option, but I thought it’d only postpone the problem. I’d have to live in hiding all the time, on constant lookout for imperial assassins. There’d no doubt be a few skirmishes with them, and no matter how well I defended myself, there were bound to be casualties.
To prevent that from happening, I wanted to keep the initiative on my side. To the Empire, war is something of a ritual devised to create awakened people—and if so, I’d have to keep fending them off for ages to come. Ignoring them would just give them more time to build their army up.
“So that’s the decision I’ve made. There’s no point in padding my numbers, so I’m just gonna march right over with my main force and negotiate a peace deal. If we can get rid of Ludora’s pawns while we’re there, hopefully Guy will take care of the rest for us.”
I really couldn’t rely on Guy at all, so I wasn’t expecting that much from him. But then the question became who to take with me.
“Are you going to be all right, Sir Rimuru?”
“Whoa, Mollie, who do you think I am? I may not look it, but I’m part of the Octagram, you know. Whether it’s an emperor or his personal guard, I ain’t losing sleep over any of their guys!”
“Ah, yes indeed! Truly, you are like a goddess to—”
“Hmm? Goddess?”
This guy’s still looking at me that way? One glare from me made him rethink his words.
“—I mean, truly you are a demon lord we can all trust in!”
“Yes, well…um…just leave it all to me, then! Ha-ha-ha!”
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha!”
We both laughed our heads off.
I knew this wasn’t what he wanted to hear after this, but if things really went south over there, I was planning to turn tail and run back home. I’d have to pretty much become a shut-in, and I was prepared for that, so I didn’t bother dwelling on the idea much.
“Hmmm. So can you specify to me whether you planned to simply defeat Emperor Ludora’s guard or kill them all outright?”
I wasn’t a fan of any questions that assumed I’d be victorious, but I already had an answer to this one.
“I’ll avoid killing as much as I can. Based on the game’s rules for victory, Guy wins once I neutralize everybody except for Ludora, after all. Once I reach that point, I don’t think it’s a matter for me any longer.”
Elmesia gave that a satisfied nod.
“All right. Do your best not to disappoint me, then. If worse comes to worst, I will take care of matters in your nation.”
Please don’t say such ominous things to me!
“No need to worry! I’m not into sacrificing myself nobly for the greater good, y’know! My motto’s for everybody to have fun together, so no way am I gonna get killed over this.”
“Good,” she replied with a breezy smile. “But remember this as well: If you die, it will put this world fully in ruins. You are the only one who can tame monsters like Diablo and his Primals. The other creatures you evolved to demon lord level may not all agree with each other. If a conflict arises, it will inevitably erupt into war. Do you understand that? You can’t just cast off what you’re trying to do when you’re not even done yet. Never forget that.”
That was Elmesia’s heartfelt advice to me.
“I know. I get you. I really do.”
I swore it to her, my face dead serious.
The game was now in its final stages. Just a few more turns, and our victory would be set in stone. One wrong move, though, and the entire board would be flipped upside down.
We need to be calm—and careful. The first thing’s to contact Yuuki and discuss how we’ll deal with Emperor Ludora. Then, the day after that, we’ll set off for the Empire.