Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

THE SOUND OF SOLDIERS’ BOOTS

I returned home the day our musical exchange program came to a close. Venom and the rest of the security detail weren’t hurt. Neither were Baton and his orchestra. In fact, everyone was safe.

So I gave the kids, who were under Diablo’s protection, a week off. They weren’t physically injured, but better safe than sorry. The experience certainly taught them the difference between training and real battle, I’m sure, and it definitely seemed to blunt their usual bubbly personalities. There might’ve been some mental trauma involved, so I told them to take a good rest.

As for Luminus and Leon, we all decided to hold a meeting in due time. We had trouble agreeing on a location, but ultimately we settled upon Rimuru, the capital of Tempest. Luminus’s empire of Lubelius would have its hands full rebuilding for a while, and Leon’s domain of El Dorado was apparently dealing with its own heavy stuff at the moment and wasn’t in much shape to accept foreign VIPs. Tempest, for the time being, was in the clear on that count, and I had no reason not to make the offer. Hell, we already had two demon lords living there anyway.

I recalled the winged Ramiris and the freeloader Deeno as I gave the go-ahead to Luminus and Leon, who wound up arriving in Rimuru the next day, leaving me zero time to relax and unwind. Leon made a stop back home to prepare before coming along. I thought this was needlessly quick, but he and Luminus wanted to compare stories and get working on ideas first thing. I had my own questions for them as well, so I indulged them on that.

We met at my most ornate reception hall—Luminus, Leon, and me. Since it was just us three demon lords, I figured it was only appropriate to show off a bit.

Only those involved with the fracas in Lubelius were invited; I wanted to hear everyone’s story, and then I’d decide just how much I’d divulge about Chloe.

Things being what they were, we had a tacit agreement to keep all this secret from the rank and filers in our respective forces. Thus I was accompanied only by Shion, Diablo, and Veldora. I really wanted to keep Veldora out of there—he’d get bored halfway through, I knew, so I just wanted him to hang in his room for me. But for some reason, he was adamant about coming, bellowing “How could I not participate in this?!” and all. If that’s how far he was willing to go, I had little choice but to reluctantly agree. Shion, meanwhile, should have been recuperating from what were demonstrably serious injuries, but she was right as rain in almost no time. Ultraspeed Regeneration really ain’t no joke. Once again, I was reminded of how downright scary it was.

So I was standing side by side with Diablo, Shion right behind me. Hinata was seated next to Luminus, Louis and Gunther accompanying them at the rear. Behind Leon were two knights—Arlos and Claude—standing bolt upright. After that, there was only Chloe, the star of the show. She was back to her usual young self, but I figured we should treat her as a grown-up.

I had a long, rectangular conference table set up in the chamber and six padded seats put in place for us. Veldora and I sat adjacent, directly facing Hinata and Luminus, and Leon and Chloe scored the end spots.

It was time to kick off this impromptu demon lord summit of sorts.

First, I had Chloe explain things, going over what happened in Lubelius while Hinata added the occasional comment or two. The story was, to put it lightly, unbelievable under normal circumstances—but after the metaphysical experience I’d had, I was completely willing to accept it.

“…And so thanks to Hinata and Rimuru’s aid, I managed to escape from my infinite cycle of death and rebirth.”

Once Chloe wrapped things up, everyone looked ready to respond as they gauged one another. Veldora, never one to read a room, kicked off the debate.

“So the Hero who sealed me away back then was—”

That’s not particularly important, is it? I certainly didn’t think so, but then Hinata replied, “That was me. Now we’re tied one-to-one, aren’t we? Isn’t it nice, getting to taste defeat for a change?”

“Wh-whaaaaaaaat?!”

“Oh, do you have a problem with that? Because I’d be happy to play a tiebreaker right now.”

“Gnnnhh… Very well! If you insist, I shall tap upon my true forces—”

Well, this sure wasn’t getting us anywhere. The normally cool-as-a-cucumber Hinata always turned extra petty around Veldora. Guess I’d have to step in.

“Okay, that’s enough!”

You can tackle that question when you’re alone, guys.

“It’s vital that you show that foolish dragon some discipline, Hinata,” Luminus chided. “Should you challenge him, be sure to inform me. I will gladly provide assistance.”

Quit fanning the flames, Luminus.

“Look,” I said, changing the subject, “all’s well that ends well, okay? But what I’m wondering about right now is, um— I got killed, didn’t I? So was someone from the Empire behind that?”

To me anyway, this was a vital question. The Empire was acting as suspicious as ever at that moment; if that was about to become open hostility, we needed to be on our guard.

“Probably,” Chloe replied. “And I think the same person killed Hinata as well. The Empire had a pretty capable fighter on its side, so maybe you guys all took them on at once or something. I didn’t see the light that cut through Hinata, though.”

Ah. Well, if someone out there managed to kill Hinata, then whacking me before I became a demon lord didn’t seem outrageous.

“I’ve evolved into a demon lord, but that’s no reason to let my guard down.”

It may have been a different axis of time, but if someone’s killed me once, then of course I was gonna be on the lookout for ’em. If we wound up facing off against the Empire, I’d have to watch out.

“That’s a good idea,” said Chloe. “The Empire’s a lot more dangerous than you think, Rimuru. Veldora went berserk after you were killed, but the Empire repelled him, too.”

During this Veldora battle, Hinata was murdered—and then Chloe was sent back in time. The memories of what happened after Hinata’s murder existed within Chronoa’s mind—but only in bits and pieces. Chances were, though, the enraged Veldora and Chronoa clashed with each other, and then the Empire made its move in the midst of all that chaos. We all saw what Chronoa could do, so we knew that simply joining a fight with her involved was pretty amazing already.

It could be—was likely, even—that the Empire’s war power was way beyond what we’d assumed. Luminus and Leon seemed to agree with that; we were all starting to see the Empire as a dangerous threat. But as the reception hall began sinking into a gloom, Veldora went off on another wild tangent.

“I find it hard to believe I’d simply go insane,” he said, sneering.

The reaction across the room was unanimous:

Are you kidding me?

Running his mouth in the midst of this weighty discussion, like a golfer teeing up… Well, it had to be Veldora, I suppose—

“Wait, wait! Why are you looking at me like that?! A gentleman like me would hardly lose his temper so catastrophically!”

Um, if I may—you definitely went on an extended rampage long ago, and it’s easy to imagine you in that state.

But—hey—maybe in this other time line, he killed me after I resurrected him, which then set him off in a violent rage. Because honestly, that scenario gave me some warm fuzzies.

“All right,” I said, smiling a bit as I assuaged Veldora, “let’s leave it at that for now.”

The Empire is dangerous, we concluded, so it was time to move on.

Next came the memories of Chronoa, as far as Chloe could recall them.

After the Empire defeated Veldora, the world plunged into a great war, East pitted against West. It dragged along, the Eastern Empire holding the advantage—and in the midst of this, Milim made her move. My death must have antagonized her against the Empire, and she wasn’t afraid to demonstrate her hostility. That made Guy intervene, and once again, we had Milim vs Guy, the world’s worst possible matchup. Daggrull and Luminus also clashed on the battlefield, apparently, spreading the flames of war further.

At this point, Chronoa fought against someone and lost her life. She had sped into battle, fighting as far as her spirit could take her. All that remained was her Will of Destruction, so she was mowing down the big and powerful left and right. As a result, she didn’t remember who finally bested her.

“And only so many people have what it takes to beat Chronoa, huh?”

“Guy, I’d imagine.”

“It could only be Guy.”

Luminus and Leon immediately replied to my musing, and I agreed with them. We didn’t know how the fight between Guy and Milim panned out, but really, Guy was the only person capable of killing Chronoa. Or maybe not, for all we knew. We had no idea what Guy’s motive could’ve been.

“So what made Chronoa so supportive of me, then?”

Despite what Chloe told us, I still didn’t see how Chronoa and I were connected. She was resurrected after I died; we never would’ve met each other, but clearly she had a thing for me. I may not be too quick on the uptake, but even I would notice that much—and that was true from the very beginning, wasn’t it? She even gave me a big hug and a kiss after I summoned her for Chloe. Why all that the first time? I’d thought, but I suppose Chronoa had her reasons.

“Well—”

“Because you saved me, Rimuru,” Chronoa said, finishing Chloe’s thought. “In the future world, where all I did was rampage, you were the one who saved me. I’m sure of it.”

“Hey! I was about to say that!”

“Oh, let me at least tell him that much. I’m you as well, after all, so it’s the same thing, isn’t it?”

To the outside observer, it looked like Chloe had a particularly flashy multiple personality disorder. Apparently Chronoa butted into conversations whenever Chloe let her guard down. I’m sure they both had a lot to get used to.

The two of them proceeded to take turns talking. According to Chloe’s (or Chronoa’s) memory, I apparently wasn’t so dead in the future after all. The Empire defeated me—we were certain of that—but it looked like I managed to come back to life somehow. Which… Neat, I guess? I can’t speak for myself, but my faithful friend Raphael would never make a mistake. It sounded like Raphael took its damn time, but in the end, it still found a way to keep me alive.

By that point, though, the world had changed profoundly. Veldora was gone; Tempest was in ruins. A massive war had erupted between East and West, and demon lords were waging bloody battles for supremacy over one another. In which case, I could pretty easily imagine my feelings about the whole situation. I’m me, after all, and chances are I’d devote myself to tracking down anyone who survived. Maybe I couldn’t rescue everybody, but I could at least lend a hand to those I was closely connected to. That was just what I did, it turned out, and in the end, I found Chloe/Chronoa.

Chronoa’s recollections were too fragmented to answer the bigger questions, but either way, we had a grasp of the general flow. I ran into Chronoa, fighting her on multiple occasions, and I’m sure I managed to win her over again. But as Chronoa told me, the fate of the world was already sealed by then.

“As you all predicted, I fought against Guy. I don’t remember the events leading up to that, but I’m positive Rimuru wasn’t there. Then, just as I was about to die, Rimuru held me close—and the next thing I knew, I saw Rimuru and Chloe from the past.”

So Guy was there after all; that didn’t surprise me. The question was what exactly happened before Chronoa’s death…but I presumed that was where her journey back through time began. However, that still didn’t adequately explain how she arrived at Chloe’s time line. Maybe there was a chance I did something to engineer that?

“Had I evolved into a demon lord by that point?”

“Yep. And you were even more powerful than you are now.”

Uh, hang on, can she tell that just by looking at me? I liked to think I was pretty strong at this point, but it was hard to believe Chronoa would misjudge someone’s prowess. I suppose losing my closest friends drove me to do some pretty wild stuff. Now, of course, none of this had any bearing on me at the moment, but we did have the Empire to think about. Maybe I should’ve viewed this more optimistically. Like, I still had room to grow—that sort of thing.

Regardless, if I was stronger than I was now, my Great Sage must’ve made the transformation to Raphael by this time. If so, I could totally see it doing something wacky like transmitting the memories from Chronoa’s spirit into the young Chloe.

…

Ha! Can’t deny it, huh?

And now, I felt, I had a handle on what happened in the future. “Hey, all’s well that ends well, right?”

“That’s a pretty casual approach to take,” Hinata snapped.

“Oh, don’t be that way,” I replied, giving the sneering Hinata a gentle smile. “Chloe’s just fine, as you can see, and Veldora’s already been resurrected. All we gotta do is keep an eye on those two, and we won’t have to worry about them going berserk. So the only problem left to deal with is the Empire, isn’t it?”

“Indeed,” said Luminus. “If Daggrull decides to attack me, I will take care of him. You saved Chloe for me—it is the least I can do to repay the favor.”

Luminus and Chloe really did seem to get along. Now my stock with the emperor was skyrocketing. I suppose this meant we could enjoy an even better relationship than before.

Daggrull’s ambitions were one issue to tackle, but Luminus was willing to shoulder that burden without me having to ask, promising me she’d endeavor to keep the West peaceful. The Western Nations were, technically speaking, part of Luminus’s domain—there were some skirmishes with Guy’s forces in certain areas, but that was more a pastime for Guy, nothing serious. Luminus must’ve concluded that it wasn’t worth obsessing over. Instead, Daggrull was the bigger problem, and she had been on the lookout for a while, wondering when hostilities with him might break out.

“If we’ve fought in the future,” Luminus said, “there is a good chance he’ll take advantage of any moves the Empire makes.”

I wasn’t so sure of that. “Yeah, but Daggrull’s sons are living here in Tempest, don’t forget. I doubt he’d resort to force that readily.”

If Daggrull rolled into combat, there had to be a reason for it.

“Huh? Daggrull’s sons? Is that true?” Luminus demanded.

“Sure is. They’re trainin’ hard under Shion at the moment,” I replied.

“That they are,” Shion briskly interjected. “They have much left to learn, but they have started to earn their keep as of late. I’ve occasionally rewarded their efforts with some of my home cooking, and they cried tears of joy over it. I found it quite charming, I’ll add.”

Tears of joy? I dunno about that. I mean, sure, if a girl you have a crush on cooks for you, that’d make anyone happy…but that cooking had to be edible, for one. But—hey—if you could deal with its appearance and texture, Shion’s meals had grown surprisingly consumable. So maybe we were good there? If they weren’t complaining, it was nothing I needed to comment on. Let’s leave it at that.

Hearing that Daggrull’s sons were in this nation made Luminus give me an astonished kinda look, but it was gone in an instant. She recovers fast.

“Then it is true, I suppose. Perhaps Daggrull was being coerced by another…but then, this is the future, so using the past tense is rather silly. He might be coerced by someone.”

A war would take place in the future, but at the moment, things were pretty peaceful. Daggrull must’ve had some reason to harbor dreams of territorial expansion. He didn’t seem like that much of a villain when I met him at Walpurgis. Maybe I’d chat with Daggra and his brothers to see what I could find out. If there was some kind of problem, I’d be happy to talk about it—that’d beat fighting a war over it any day.

“Right. I’ll investigate that on my end,” I assured Luminus.

“I will hold you to that. I have no interest in fighting a futile war, after all.”

So we decided to examine the Daggrull issue and make a decision later. It’d suck to have him working in tandem with the Empire, so just in case, Luminus would keep a close eye on him, too. Louis and Gunther nodded their approval, so I felt the task was safe in their hands.

“That leaves Guy to discuss…”

“I’d like to talk about that, if I could.”

There was no point complaining to Guy about what he would do in the future, but I still had my concerns. It was best, I thought, to explain matters to him as well. How deep I should go with him, of course, was another thorny issue…

But Veldora suddenly jumped in. “Guy is an Arbitrator. He’s nothing to me right now, but long, long ago, I have a vague hunch that he might have annihilated me—or something to that effect. Or not at all, even. It hardly counts if nobody remembers it, right?”

I wasn’t sure where to begin with this little confession. What did he mean, Guy was an Arbitrator? And they fought at some point in the past—and Veldora got “annihilated”? That was news to me. Also, having it not count because you don’t remember it sounded like a dumb excuse even for a young child, but I didn’t want to dog-pile on him, so I kept quiet.

“Hoh,” remarked Luminus. “Guy has his wiser side, I see.”

“An Arbitrator?” Leon paused a moment. “Guy is certainly not allied with humankind, but he’s not hostile to them, either. If he killed Chronoa in the future, it’s easy to surmise that Chronoa was little more than her Will of Destruction at that point, and Guy saw her as a threat to the world’s continued existence.”

“So what’s this Arbitrator stuff about?” It seemed like I was the only one out of the loop.

“An Arbitrator,” Luminus explained, “is part of a separate system from Heroes and demon lords. Their mission is to prevent the destruction of the world. It is said they speak for Veldanava himself, the creator and Star-King Dragon.”

“Indeed. The Star-King, my elder brother, created this world, and he set up this system so nobody would go around ripping it apart.”

Aha. And so Veldora was annihilated after trying to do just that. Now it made sense—it proved that the True Dragon definitely did wake back up at that point in the future. I wasn’t so sure Veldora lost his memory of it, but I was better off not bringing it up.

“So that’s how it is? In that case, I don’t think Guy’s likely to target Chloe right now.”

“Uh-huh. I mean, I remember Chronoa going crazy, and, um, I don’t have any personal thing against the demon lord Guy, so…”

Hinata and Chloe seemed convinced as well, smiling as they chatted about this. As long as nobody went berserk, it seemed like we could avoid conflict with Guy.

“Well, in that case, should we let Leon discuss this with Guy?” I asked.

“Right,” Leon replied. “My and Chloe’s futures are riding on this, after all.”

“Hang on, Leon. You’re not involved in this.” Chloe, with all her innocent, childlike looks, could be downright scary when chiding Leon like that. I felt kind of bad for him.

Leon was this really handsome, cool-looking dude, but I guess he got the villain treatment a lot of the time, as his entire relationship with Shizu attested to. But between his tongue-tied ways and knack for painting himself in a bad light, I felt like maybe he was just really misunderstood. To put it succinctly, he was like Masayuki, except the exact opposite.

Chloe treated him like a friendly neighborhood boy, a big brother–like figure. Nothing romantic, though—apparently Leon had always been popular with the ladies, and perhaps thanks to that, Chloe never picked up on the love he had for her.

Thinking about it, I had to pity him. For once in my life, I decided to try showing him a little more kindness.

So I’d call this summit a success. Both demon lords had pledged to support me. We just needed to stay alert for the Empire, and beyond that, we’d each figure out the next moves to make. But right when I was about to adjourn:

“P-please, just one moment! He has guests! They’re in the middle of an important meeting!”

“Oh? I’m impressed that you spotted me barging in. But since I’m here and all, mind if I say my hellos?”

There was a clamor down the hall. That voice, that pompousness… It had to be Guy, the strongest of all demon lords. He had made it this far in without me noticing, and only a very small number of people could do that.

Report. No signs of hostility.

…Or did it notice all along? Now wasn’t the time to debate about that, though. I hurriedly left my seat, but before I could even lift a finger, Diablo sneered and walked over to the door.

“Yo!”

“Go away.”

He concluded the short exchange by slamming the door in Guy’s face.

“““…”””

This was too much to handle. The rest of us froze on the spot.

“Oh, come now, Diablo! I’ll have none of that!” Guy shouted angrily after opening the door once more.

“Tch! You are meddling in a vital summit. It has only been a day, and our preparations are not yet complete. We would like to take our time discussing matters with you, so please, do not come until you are invited.”

Diablo was trying to be polite, but he was acting damn sure of himself in front of Guy.

…Did they know each other, maybe? I wasn’t the only one who thought so, judging by Luminus’s and Leon’s surprised looks.

“Unbelievable,” Luminus scoffed. “Not surrendering a single step to Guy—although I’d expect nothing less from Noir.”

“What? Noir?!” Leon yelled. “Why is someone so lofty in the service of Rimuru?”

Hmmm…?! The words I’m picking up do not portend good things for my future! Diablo’s someone “lofty”? His head’s in the clouds, yeah, but… And what’s this “Noir” stuff?

As I sat there confused, things grew even more chaotic.

“Sir Rimuru, are you all right?! I just heard from my sister that—”

“My lord, I felt the presence of the Red…!”

“Oh, is this a war? Because if it is, I’m ready to fight!”

First Benimaru rushed in, then Soei. Behind them came Carrera, and at almost the same time, Ultima came barreling in as well. It was nuts.

At this point, I may as well have allowed Guy inside instead of booting him. I had no intention of inviting him anyway! It looked like I’d have to discuss all this in detail with Diablo later. Now, though, I needed to restore order.

“Everyone, calm down! And you step back, too, Diablo.”

That finally made everyone settle down a bit. Once all was quiet, I continued.

“I hadn’t planned this, but, Guy, I actually have something to discuss with you, too. If you’re here and all, I might as well have you join the summit. You okay with that?”

“Sure. Perfect, even. I need to talk to you, too.”

I’d wanted Leon to handle him, but I guess we had a change of plans. With Guy’s permission in hand, I then had to chase everybody else out of the room.

“Okay—there’s nothing to worry about, all right? I’ll call you guys if something comes up, so get back to work for me.”

Everyone looked amply relieved. I heard some unwelcome grumbling, such as “Heh, the Red’s done it again. I don’t stand a chance against him…for now…” and “Pfft! I thought we could start bashing some heads,” but overall, things were under control.

The rest of the rabble were back at their posts. Shuna left to prepare some tea for those of us still in the reception hall. As she did, Leon spoke first.

“Now what is the meaning of this? Why is Jaune here, of all people?!”

Huh?

“I have a question as well,” said Luminus. “I presume the other one was Violet, but were my eyes playing tricks on me? I heard she was rather gloomy and spiteful, so I can’t be entirely certain…”

Huhhh? Jaune, Violet… What are these people talking about?

Oh, wait!

“Did you mean Carrera and Ultima? Diablo over there invited them, but they’re actually a lot more talented than I thought—”

I was trying to explain things, but Leon and Luminus didn’t let me finish.

“Carrera? And Ultima?! Did you give those two names?!”

“Simply unbelievable. So Diablo wasn’t enough for you? You’ve brought even more Primals under your wing…?”

Leon was on his feet and shouting. Luminus looked completely out of sorts. Both of them fixed me with piercing glares.

“Yeah, isn’t it crazy? That’s partly why I’m here, so I can grill him about what he’s up to.”

Even Guy was spouting nonsense at me. And I mean, what was I supposed to say?

As I floundered for a response, Shuna brought in some tea on a cart. We all fell silent, not wanting to get in her way. A pleasant aroma filled the chamber, helping us regain our calm.

My mind thus cleared, I tried considering what everyone was saying. The key word here was Primal, as stated by Luminus. And that meant—

Understood. It is one standard for describing demons.

Right, right, I remember having that explained to me. They were defined as the “first” demons, and all that…

…Wait, the first demons?!

“Diablo, you aren’t one of the first demons or something, are you?”

“Well,” he casually replied, “yes, I am a leader of one of the seven bands of demons, among the first born into this world.”

Oh man. I had no idea the demon I summoned when I transformed into a demon lord was something this huge. I knew he was superpowerful, but this was even crazier than I thought.

“…You…didn’t know that?” Leon asked me.

“Incredible,” Luminus scoffed. “I always thought you had a screw loose, but not to this extent…”

Leon’s and Luminus’s gazes were boring into me. But what could I say? If Diablo answered a summon as off the cuff as mine was, there was no way he could’ve been anyone that amazing.

…

I think I even stunned Raphael into silence. But Diablo’s true identity wasn’t the real shocker; Raphael seemed surprised that I didn’t know about it myself. I suppose Raphael thought I knew all about the Primal Demons, then.

…But hang on. I feel like Elmesia, the Heavenly Emperor of Thalion, mentioned something about Primals as well. So that was why she warned me so much about them! Because she picked up on who Diablo was! And I would have, too, if I had paid a little more attention.

Hey, this happens, you know? You get an idea in your head, and you stick with it. I’m not gonna investigate every little factoid I know, and I’m not gonna bring it up with everybody I see. And as far as Raphael was concerned, there was no special need to tell me.

What a pitfall. Having a dictionary on hand wouldn’t help much if you never used it. Raphael had been giving me a lot of helpful advice lately, but not even it could understand what I did and didn’t know. No matter how brilliant my partner was, it meant nothing if I didn’t utilize him correctly. I sure learned my lesson about that today. Again.

Ignoring my surprise, Diablo began regaling the audience with the story of how he met me. Apparently this extended all the way back to me encountering Shizu. She and Diablo knew each other, it turned out, and Diablo happened to be visiting this land when he picked up on the presence of Shizu in her final moments. The idea of Diablo being aware of me since back then was astounding, although I still had no idea what his motivations were.

“The lower demons in my family accused me of fleeing my post in order to serve Sir Rimuru, an accusation that wounds me deeply. But I took my time! I waited for just the right opportunity, and in the end, I successfully answered Sir Rimuru’s call!”

Diablo flashed a contented smile.

So him coming to that summon wasn’t some fluke after all. It was inevitable because he planned it that way. I could feel a headache coming on from the shock. What’s more—in another wild revelation, Diablo revealed that he was so jealous of Beretta that he tried to “purge” him without alerting me. However—as he dared to put it—since I had created Beretta’s body, he deemed it too much of a waste to damage it at all. “This body was handmade by Sir Rimuru,” Beretta had scolded him, “and if you lay a finger on it, he’ll be quite displeased.”

Truly, this was exhausting me. What a ridiculously long story this was. Someone please stop him, I wanted to beg—but Diablo was talking a mile a minute, and nobody could get a word in edgewise. So I finally spoke up.

“Diablo… Diablo! That’s enough, all right? We need to continue the summit.”

“Satisfied now?” Guy added, backing me up. “Enough about you, Diablo. That bum Deeno’s here, too, isn’t he? Can you call him over for me?”

That was finally enough to shut Diablo up.

“I will bring Sir Deeno over at once,” Shuna said, bowing and taking advantage of her chance at long last to leave. Or escape, I thought, my heart about ready to give out on me.

“But I was getting to the good part…”

Diablo looked eager to continue, but everyone ignored him. If we let him prattle on, there was no telling what he’d say next. Keeping him quiet right then would do wonders for my blood pressure.

Somewhere in the midst of all this, Guy had sat down in a chair. Leon’s attendants had brought a seat over from the adjacent waiting area for him.

“Ah, how thoughtful of you,” he said.

Arlos and Claude nodded their appreciation behind Leon. They must have known Guy from before—otherwise, I’m sure, they’d be too scared of offending him to move at all. I suppose I should’ve arranged something for Guy, but my brain was running on empty. Having this pair of knights around was a godsend. For all I knew, I could’ve pissed Guy off without even realizing it. (Besides, the secretary who should’ve been backing me up was too busy talking his head off, and Shion was frozen by my side in a classic “not my problem” power move.)

“Sorry to make you handle that,” I said to the two knights.

“No need to worry about it!”

“We understand your situation, Lord Rimuru. You’re busy trying to shoo people away from this chamber, aren’t you? Allow us to handle this much for you.”

Arlos and Claude were really nice. Diablo and Shion could learn a lot from them.

“Guys, can you try to be as considerate as those two over there, please?”

“Heh-heh-heh-heh… I had perhaps grown a little too impassioned.”

Diablo seemed ready to pin the blame on Guy’s unexpected appearance—but yeah, maybe this was just an unlucky break for him. Normally, he’d never overlook something like that.

“Duly noted, sir!”

Shion, on the other hand, was the ever-obedient student. Great at saying Yes, teacher! but not at much else. I could only pray the knowledge would stick.

So Guy sat down, acting as pompous as ever. As he did, Shuna came back in with Deeno…and Ramiris, too, for some reason, and before long the summit was back in session.

Our first topic was the Primal Demons.

“So, Deeno, you got an excuse for us?” Guy asked.

“Excuse? For what?”

Deeno’s reply came too naturally. It only riled Guy further.

“Don’t give me that crap, you! Why didn’t you stop him from naming the three of them?!”

Yeah! That was important, right? By him, I suppose Guy meant me—but look, if I’d known these three were such bad news, I would’ve never even thought about assigning them names, okay? It was kinda too late now, but I wished I’d had some warning, at least.

“Look, why in the name of all that’s unholy do you think I sent you here in the first place?”

“Um…sightseeing?”

“No! This is a reconnaissance detail! Reconnaissance, you hear me?!”

Watching this exchange, I realized that even Guy had his own struggles. I’d had a hunch about this, but it turned out Deeno was a spy after all—although I wished Guy didn’t have to say so right in front of him.

“And you! Don’t act like you’re not involved in this!”

Oh, and now Guy was taking it out on me? Great. It didn’t seem fair to be yelled at by the person spying on me, but I supposed I was the cause of this, so to speak. I wanted to plead my case, but a reflexive reaction wasn’t a smart move. This was Guy, after all—inviting his ire upon me was never a smart idea.

“Kwah-ha-ha-ha! Why get so worked up over such trifles, Guy? He’s got quite a long history of naming people willy-nilly, you know!”

Veldora, for a change, actually stepped up to defend me. I gave him a subliminal Attaboy…

“Silence, you child! The adults are talking!”

“…R-right.”

…but a few choice words from Luminus shut him up. He can dish it out, but he sure can’t take it, huh? And now the whole room was aware of that. Still, at least his contribution pointed Guy’s ire away from me momentarily. I seized the opportunity to launch an offensive of my own.

“Okay, okay, so Deeno came here to keep tabs on me, then? I’ll refrain from complaining about that for now, but it’s true that Deeno’s at fault for not stopping me, and the person who trusted him enough to send him on that mission has some responsibility as a supervisor, doesn’t he? Don’t you think so, Guy?”

Spreading the responsibility, in so many words. I wasn’t about to shoulder all the blame here, so I tried to hand some of it back over to Deeno and Guy. The former was clearly at fault, so all that remained was to rope the latter in, too.

“He’s right, Guy. Besides, I told you, I can’t watch over him! I can’t believe you actually thought about making me do work!”

Deeno must’ve been pretty quick on the uptake, because it looked like he immediately picked up on my plan. And on the bandwagon he went.

“I swear, you people…”

Guy was frustrated. I took pains not to rile him further, feeling around for a landing point.

“Besides,” Deeno continued, “I never even had any time to stop him. You know, when I saw Rimuru bringing the Primals over, I was so surprised that I couldn’t even speak. I mean, like, three of them! Diablo was always kind of a weirdo, so I could understand him, but can you even imagine Testarossa working for someone? Nobody could!”

“True enough.”

Oops. Sounded like Deeno was trying to wriggle his way out of this. Guy was about to accept it, too. I didn’t like how this was going.

“Listen, guys, Diablo brought them over because he said they’d be useful, and I believed him, all right? I never thought they were these superpowerful beings, and they were perfectly happy to be serving me. They’re under Diablo’s direct control, so he’s the one responsible for them. And it’ll be on me as well if something happens, but it’s only natural to trust in your employees, isn’t it?”

I tried to strike a more upbeat tone as I pushed the blame on Diablo. He was the one who started this; I thought he deserved that much. I turned my eyes toward him, all but begging him to take on Guy’s anger for me. For reasons only he knew, he eagerly nodded.

“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… Your trust in me is encouraging like nothing else. I must be more diligent than ever to live up to your expectations.”

“…”

Guy took one look at Diablo’s gleaming smile and fell silent. He leaned back in his seat, clearly fatigued.

“So this is Diablo’s fault?” he pompously stated.

“Well, not his fault, exactly…”

“We’re kinda victims here, too, y’know?”

I hemmed and hawed a bit, Deeno faltering as well. Only Diablo retained his sparkling pride, looking as ebullient as ever.

“Well, this guy”—Guy pointed at Diablo—“has been a nutcase for ages now, so I’m not going to whine about that at this point. And, Deeno, if you can’t stop Rimuru…well, circumstances being what they were, I understand that.”

Whoa, whoa, this is getting way out of control…

“But you, Rimuru!”

Oh, here we go! Why am I taking the heat?!

“What about me?”

I couldn’t lose my cool here. I had to be bold with Guy—be bold and act like I did nothing wrong. So to keep him from picking up on my indecision, I had Raphael take over primary control of my body. That’d keep me safe. No matter how much I was panicking on the inside, I’d remain calm and collected on the surface.

“Don’t give me that shit!”

Guy then proceeded to angrily lecture me. Thanks to me, the balance of the world had totally collapsed, blah blah blah, now nobody knew how the world situation would unfold, blah blah blah… It was some pretty heady stuff, and even giving Raphael bodily control didn’t accomplish much. I guess Guy was a lot more calculating than I thought.

“And what’s more, thanks to you, Mizeri’s mission was a big failure, too. I’m gonna hold you at fault for that, you hear me?”

I wasn’t sure how I was at fault for something I wasn’t aware of, but if Guy wanted to pin the blame on me, then so be it. I just nodded, said, “All right,” and let it go.

The lecture was over, but Guy still wasn’t done talking.

Apparently Guy made a deliberate habit of triggering calamities at regular intervals, so the whole of humanity considered him an enemy. His goal was to stoke a unified fear against an all-powerful foe, keeping humankind from wasting its time with needless internal power struggles. When Granville was in power, Guy took no action, refraining from any major moves, but now that Granville attempted an all-out attack on Luminus, the balance of power was totally out of whack.

Thus, Guy had ordered Mizeri to reunite humankind with an event that’d terrorize everyone at once. Her idea was to kill off the Council and all its members, reminding the leaders of the Western Nations just how fearsome a demon lord could be. That, she reasoned, would help unite all the leaders peacefully.

“So Mizeri attacked the Council, and who did she find there but Blanc—or ‘Testarossa’ now, I suppose? I’m so used to her old title that I can’t help but keep using it. But regardless, Mizeri avoided a confrontation with Testarossa, and so her plan was foiled. That’s all well and good. The problem is what comes after that. As long as we can’t rule over those cunning humans with fear, they’re doubtlessly gonna start squabbling among themselves. And with the Rozzos a thing of the past, history tells us that the power struggle’s only gonna get more intense. What do you think will happen if the Eastern Empire makes a move while the Western Nations are carrying on with that nonsense? They’ll lose big, is what. And it’s your fault, Rimuru! So tell me what you’re gonna do about it!”

Well. Didn’t expect that. Guy was trying to prevent the Western Nations from tearing themselves apart? He never seemed to take much interest in the human race, but maybe he was trying to keep doomsday from happening, at least. Guess that was his job as Arbitrator and stuff. He wasn’t at all a friend to humankind, and his means could get pretty violent, but in a way, I think I could understand his motives.

Now I had to question my plans for the Western Nations. I didn’t even realize Testarossa and Mizeri had made contact with each other, but I couldn’t go and reveal that at this point. All I really wanted to do was make humanity recognize us and build friendly relations with them, but…

As I pondered over how to answer him, Diablo stepped up in my place. Ignoring the scowl this elicited from Guy, he said, “Heh. What will he do, you ask? All Sir Rimuru desires is making his ideals reality.”

I was anxious about what he might say, but it wasn’t like I had any concrete ideas. I doubted idealistic arguments would work on Guy, so I counted on Diablo and his supreme confidence to save the day, but I guessed he disappointed me, huh? He went with the whole “lofty ideals” argument I’d already dismissed.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, it’s very simple, Guy. I am merely saying there’s no point in doing something as bland and uninteresting as terrorizing people. Certainly, they’ll be more submissive to you, but it’s not making the most thorough use of their abilities. Terror, you see, is an emotion that dissipates over time. No matter how much tragedy you engineer, it is doomed to fade into oblivion. Once it does, all that remains is bitterness.”

“Hmm. Continue.”

“Bitterness, over time, turns into hatred. It drives people to take revenge upon their abusers. Humanity—lacking in intelligence, as clever as they may be—fails to notice exactly how absolute the difference in power is between them and us. If they are agitated by monsters or the like, they’ll quickly dirty their hands with some quite foolish behavior.”

“Right. And that’s why I purge them. Because I’m not willing to let them get their hands dirty.”

“Keh-heh-heh-heh… And I tell you, it is a pointless errand. The inherent foolishness of man causes their memories to fade. One generation gives way to the next so quickly; there’s nothing to be done about that. However…”

He paused for a moment, eyeing Guy with a serious look.

“Instead of letting the Rozzos corner the market, if you redistribute the wealth, you can have nations rebuild their relationships while retaining some amount of fairness. That, in turn, creates new economic principles.”

“And then?”

“You leave these new principles, these new choices, and you delude them into thinking they’ve chosen their own future. That way, the foolish humans will believe they’ve created it for themselves. This system is something that, unlike human memory, never fades. It allows you to rule the human world semi-permanently. Sir Rimuru is the one managing that, and I see it as my personal job.”

Wow. Diablo was talking sense. So basically, if they build it up themselves, they’ll treat it better? Also, was that really what I had in mind? I felt like I might’ve said something along those lines, but I didn’t think it was anything quite so grandiose… That, and he was talking based on the foregone conclusion that it’d work, which was kinda scary.

“I see. So if you hold on to the economy and guarantee their safety for nothing in return, the weak will come to depend on you? A society where everything’s resolved through bloodless wars. Yeah, maybe that’d be better than life under the Rozzos.”

Guy nodded, seemingly reevaluating Diablo.

“But of course. A world where the masses are left satisfied, not the classes. The supply-and-demand chains that result will come to create new possibilities as well. And that, Guy, is what Sir Rimuru hopes for.”

He wasn’t wrong, I suppose. What I really looked forward to was seeing how culture would advance and evolve. I wanted to see more mass media for everyone to enjoy—movies, music, manga, novels. Creating that kind of art required a foundation that afforded you enough free time in life. I wanted to give people a chance to enjoy prosperity so they could discover these new, previously unknown talents within them. I’ll freely admit that I didn’t think too much beyond that.

“So once they learn how nice peace can be, they’ll be afraid of losing it?” Guy asked Diablo.

“Precisely. In a word, it is the concept of gratitude. People appreciate Sir Rimuru for protecting the peace, and so they contribute to preserving that peace worldwide. I believe that is far more efficient than the terror-driven rule you picture.”

Before I knew it, the two of them seemed to be fully understanding each other. Luminus and Leon, listening to Diablo’s blueprint for the future—as well as their attendants, even—they all looked at me, bemused wonder on their faces. Under that kind of pressure, there was absolutely no way I could tell anyone I wasn’t thinking anything like that at all.

“But if we’re going to do that, it’ll take a long-term perspective and a lot of intricate calculations, won’t it? You have to manage it, or I can easily see there being too many humans around to deal with. They’ll get all carried away. You want me to go through all that trouble?”

Come on, Guy. It’s not like caring for a pet. You’re not gonna wake up one day and find that your hamster had a dozen babies or something.

“Ha! And you think Sir Rimuru is incapable of seeing into the future that far? Perhaps it would be too difficult to manage for you, but for Sir Rimuru, it’s something he could handle in his spare time. I think it’s safe to say there is no need for concern.”

Whoa. Why was Diablo assuming I’d manage this? I mean, I was pretty sure he and I talked about how running the world from behind the scenes was a nice, demon lord–like way to go about matters…but if you said that in front of Guy and the other demon lords, they would meddle with me, wouldn’t they?

I was unnerved, really, but apparently I shouldn’t have been. In fact:

“You think, huh? Well, okay. I’ll leave all that to you. I really doubt it’s gonna go as well as you describe, but it’s no skin off my nose if you fail. ’Cause if you do fail, I’ll just step up and start culling those fools. So let’s see you take responsibility for this, all right?”

Surprisingly enough, Guy was smiling at me. And if that was what it’d come to, I’d just have to accept it. If I said All right a moment ago, I couldn’t really say No way now, without warning.

“I think Diablo was exaggerating things a little, but he’s not wrong, generally speaking. Sure, it’s a bit idealistic, but I feel like it’d be nice if things worked out like that. And regardless of what you have to say about it, I’m gonna try to engineer world peace my own way.”

That was my promise. And so without really understanding what was going on, I was officially appointed by the Octagram to manage the Western Nations.

It would’ve been great if the summit mercifully ended right there, but we still weren’t done with everything.

“Rimuru,” rumbled Leon, “let me give you a word of warning. Carrera, formerly known as Jaune, is the kind of short-tempered demon who’d freely lob nuclear magic around if she’s seized by the impulse. You’d best keep her on a short leash, or else the capital you took great pains to build will become a pile of ash.”

“That’s right,” chimed in Luminus. “And let me just add this. As mentioned earlier, the Violet I know is a malicious, moody individual, the living embodiment of brutality. Unlike the monster races, she doesn’t seek to eradicate the human race—but she is fickle, prone to quickly change her mind on matters. Perhaps she’s pretending to be a nice young lady in front of you, but I’d be very hesitant to let my guard down.”

Their advice didn’t put my mind at ease much. And although they didn’t spell it out, it sounded like Testarossa was even more trouble than Carrera and Ultima.

This was starting to look like bad news. Well, “starting to” isn’t the right way to put it, maybe. More like it was bad news, and I’d finally just noticed. I now knew Testarossa and the others were Primal Demons, and I had just been told by my demon lord peers that they were my problem. If they ever did anything, it’d be my fault…and while they were technically serving under Diablo, blaming him would get me nowhere.

I’d even told Elmesia I’d take care of them, so I couldn’t just rescind my offer. I wanted to go back in time and punch my dull-minded self, but that’s what I get for being so thoughtless, I suppose. It’d be a lot harder to manage these guys than all of human society, and the thought made me let out a surreptitious, depressed sigh.

Then Ramiris, Deeno, and Veldora got to their feet, as if waiting for Guy to wrap up.

“Y’know, we feel kinda in the way here, so we’ll let you all take care of the rest, okay?”

“Yeah. I’ve got some important work to do. Vester’s waiting for me and stuff, so I’ll catch you later, Guy!”

“Indeed. And in that case, I will go back to my Dungeon guardian duties. Ah, a dragon’s work is never done! Kwaaah-ha-ha-ha!”

They worked as a well-practiced, synchronized team, clearly trying their best to get the hell out of Dodge. Deeno, in particular, was so eager to not get yelled at any longer that he brought up his totally nonexistent work ethic.

“Huh? Work? You? That joke’s not even funny.”

Guy didn’t overlook that, either, making the obvious comment. But Ramiris was ready with a retort.

“No, no, he’s tellin’ the truth! Deeno’s my assistant now! I’m serious!”

Guy’s eyebrows arched in surprise. He wasn’t about to believe anything Deeno said, but if Ramiris backed him up, he’d have no choice.

“Deeno is…working? What foul magic did you cast upon him, Rimuru?!”

His amazement was now pointed my way. It was a tough question to answer.

“I don’t know! But in our nation, the rule is that you gotta sing for your supper, and I’m just having him follow that. There’s no spells involved.”

If I had a spell like that, I’d have a lot less trouble. It must’ve come out in my tone of voice, because Guy didn’t push the topic any further.

So Ramiris and her two cohorts scurried out of the chamber. They had just finished the tea and snacks Shuna set out for them, so their timing was impeccable. I’d expect nothing less from them.

“Fine, then,” Guy muttered. “I’ve given my complaints to Deeno. Hopefully, he’ll try to bring me some useful information for a change.”

Again, I really wished he wouldn’t muse like that when I was in the same damn room. Being so blatantly alerted about spies in my midst kinda made things hard to deal with, not that I could tell Guy to knock it off. Might as well look on the bright side, though. It sure beat probing each other out under the table.

So I changed the topic.

“Great. So did you come all the way here just to ask about Testarossa and the other Primal Demons?”

If that was all, Guy would’ve been heading home by now. But he wasn’t, so there must’ve been something else. I really didn’t want yet more problems to deal with, but we wouldn’t be getting anywhere unless I asked.

“That was on my mind, yes, but I have another question.” Guy reclined in his seat, looking at the rest of us before settling upon Leon. “I just had an encounter with a group that called themselves the Moderate Jesters.”

“Oh?”

“That’s the group you had dealings with, isn’t it?” Guy asked Leon.

“It is,” Leon replied with a nod.

Hang on. He just casually confirmed Guy’s suspicions, but that was pretty damn important!

“Wait, so did you see Yuuki, too?” I asked Guy.

“Mm-hmm.”

Not long ago, I ordered Soei to examine the Free Guild headquarters and its regional branches. I was pretty sure our encounter yesterday wasn’t planned by Yuuki, so I figured he’d pop back to his own headquarters. I doubted he’d make much of a public presence, so I had Soei’s forces stake out likely Guild sites, keeping an eye out for disguises or stand-ins. For the time being, I hadn’t heard anything—but I never thought Yuuki would run into Guy instead.

“So are you connected to Yuuki, then?” I pressed.

“Huh? Don’t be silly,” Guy replied. “They were trying to flee to the East, so I spanked ’em a little for it.”

I suspected Guy and Yuuki might be in cahoots, but I guess not. That was a relief, but it still didn’t indicate what Guy was after.

“You didn’t kill him?” Leon asked. I was curious about that myself—but moreover, was he saying that Yuuki abandoned his positions in the West and tried to flee eastward? He never struck me as the type to shy away from making big moves, but this was an incredibly bold decision, even for him. Too bad he was unlucky enough to draw Guy’s ire. If he “spanked” him, I assumed murder wasn’t on the menu, but he sure must’ve put him through the wringer. Not that I felt bad for Yuuki. He deserved it.

“No, I didn’t kill him. At first, I thought I’d capture him and make you owe me a favor, but things changed.”

Guy proceeded to tell me how his encounter with Yuuki turned out. Now we had a clearer, albeit still vague, idea of what he was up to when nobody was looking. He was the main employer and boss of the Moderate Jesters, proving Raphael correct.

So we went over everything, good or bad, Yuuki had been up to:

One, he developed the Society of Adventurers into the Free Guild.

Two, he built connections to the Rozzos, de facto rulers of the Council, and handled their dirty work—including being an intermediary to Leon.

Three, he backed Clayman as a demon lord, even controlling him behind the curtain.

Four, he crushed the Echidna Club, the shady group that presided over the Eastern Empire underground, and created the secret Cerberus society to replace it.

In public society, he created the Free Guild; outside of it, he was an organized crime leader. The Echidna Club was news to me, but it sounded like a pretty gigantic presence in the underworld—and that info came from Leon, so there was no doubting it. (The Orthrus slave market that Masayuki broke up, by the way, was an affiliate of Cerberus, so I’m sure Yuuki had a hand in that, too.)

The pattern seemed to indicate that Yuuki had a knack for crushing existing organizations and taking them over for himself. Sounded easy enough, but it was incredibly difficult to put into practice—and he had done it all in under ten years. “Talented” wasn’t the half of it. Calling him a genius was no exaggeration at all.

Still, I didn’t like how overly self-confident he was. No matter how talented you were, failing to accurately judge your opponent’s strength was a serious mistake. One look at Guy should have taught you how much trouble he was. Yuuki managed to escape this time, though—if I had to say one positive thing about him, it was his incredible good luck.

Learning he was alive left me with mixed feelings. We shared a homeland, after all, and I didn’t actually want him to die or anything. But at the same time, I couldn’t just let everything he did slide. He pretended to be this nice, affable guy, but meanwhile, he was using the Rozzo family and even Leon as his pawns. That, and he sent the Moderate Jesters to drag Hinata and me into battle… Even worse, this was all for the sake of world conquest—a dream too childish for me to laugh at.

So why did Guy let Yuuki go? I decided to ask him point-blank. If he answered me, then hey, win-win.

“All right. So if you let him escape, then what could possibly be your plan?”

“Oh, it’s all just a game,” he deadpanned.

I wasn’t sure what game meant in this context, but he ignored my suspicions.

As he put it, the Eastern Empire was bound to make a move soon, and Yuuki had offered to go in and sabotage things if Guy spared his life.

“Um… So it sounds like you don’t want the Western Nations to fall. But why?” I’d been wondering about that. But Guy’s reply was even more surprising.

“Because it’s my job to manage them so they don’t fall. I mean, I don’t want too many humans around there, but regardless. My final mission, you know, is to put all of humanity under the rule of the demon lords.”

That, I surmised, was the game Guy alluded to. And once his rule was complete, so was his victory.

“Well, I mean, why’d you have Lady Mizeri try to wreck the Council, then?”

If she killed all the councillors just when the East was on the attack, the Western Nations would be at a deadly disadvantage. None of the countries could work with one another. The battle could’ve been over before it began.

Guy chuckled at the question. “Just ‘Mizeri’ is fine,” he casually replied. “I gave Mizeri permission to unite the West into a single entity.”

What was that supposed to mean…?

Understood. He presumably wanted to spread terror across the West, making it easier for you to rule over it.

Um, so is it like this, then? A demon lord massacres the Council, everyone’s panic-stricken, then I lend a hand and they all eagerly agree to my protection? If a few people had to die for it, then oh well?

Understood. Presumably so.

I see. It was pretty extreme—a bit like starting a fire so you could be the hero who put it out—and I felt Guy and Mizeri had different motives, but they did it all for me?

Or not? Maybe he just wanted to take advantage of me, so I could manage the Western Nations for him. What he didn’t know was that I had already made some deep inroads in the West. I didn’t think quite this far ahead, but with Testarossa’s support, I pretty much had the Council in my pocket.

But Guy wasn’t out to destroy humanity. Quite the opposite. He wanted to appropriately manage those fools so they didn’t kill themselves off. And if I took up that job, Guy couldn’t ask for anything better. It was exactly what he wanted, really.

One thing I definitely understood about Guy now: He was way too sketchy with his work. I had to admit—I could probably handle this better than him.

“Okay. So you don’t have any issue with me basically having total control of the West?” I said.

“Not at all. As long as some fool doesn’t get cocky and kick up a fuss, I have no complaints.”

Great, then. This was turning into a much shorter process than I expected, but if that was how the chips fell, then I might as well take over Western Nations management.

“In that case, I’ll be glad to accept. And since I am, I’d appreciate it if you could quit messing around in northern Englesia.”

From what others had told me, one of Guy’s underlings enjoyed causing havoc up north on regular occasions. Razul was the guardian up there, and Shion had just done a fine job killing him, unfortunately. Given the state of emergency, Elmesia of Thalion had sent a team of Magus knights over to keep the peace. It wouldn’t be right of me to thank her for that, exactly, but it’d be incredibly selfish to tap her armies again for the same thing. If I was gonna rule the Western Nations, it was up to me to defend them, and that meant a lot of money I’d have to waste on a defense budget. I really wanted to avoid that. The world’s not exactly crawling with talent like Razul.

“No need to worry about that. We can leave such trivial matters to Testarossa as well.”

Diablo smirked at me, banishing all my concerns. But before I could ask if that was really okay:

“Right, yeah. The guys up there could use a breather anyway, I’m sure. Let ’em all do what they like.”

Even Guy agreed with Diablo. It made me think about just how inscrutable the thoughts of demons were to normies like me.

So as Diablo suggested, I let Testarossa handle all the demon activity in Englesia. I had a pledge from Guy, and I figured that would stave off any conflict before it started.

I was thus now the ruler of the West, but we still had a few loose ends to tie up.

“So, Rimuru, can I leave you responsible for the Eastern Empire?”

Luminus’s question reminded me of that other issue.

“Well, if you’re saying that the Empire’s making a move, do you mean militarily speaking?”

I wanted to ask, just in case. Guy gave me a nod, like this was the dumbest question in the world.

“Lately,” Hinata explained to me, “the Empire’s been conducting a rash of military exercises. It was brought up in the Council, too.”

If she was aware of it, she must’ve already come up with some countermeasures. I didn’t think the Empire was going to stage an army invasion—the three routes they had to choose from were all forbiddingly difficult to conquer, so it didn’t seem like a realistic choice. There was too little merit in the Empire aiming for the West, unless they didn’t care about the casualties.

Staging an invasion, at the end of it, is meant to be a profitable enterprise. You don’t have food, or resources, or a place to live, so you strike at other nations that do—but if you solve your own problems, there’s no longer any need to risk bloodshed. Of course, it’s never that easy to solve problems. There’s no reason for a wealthy nation to bust their hump over a poor one, so if they’re asked to, there’s the seed of a conflict right there. That’s why wealthy nations keep a standing army to defend themselves—it’s important to make would-be invaders think they won’t have an easy victory.

Nobody’s going to dirty their hands with war if the profit isn’t worth shedding blood over. But why else would people want to go into war?

Understood. Because of a firm belief they will win no matter what.

That’s all I can think of.

I controlled the Council, so I couldn’t imagine one of its members betraying me. Maybe, then, the East developed some amazing new military tech or a battle strategy like none before…or some other ace in the hole.

“Hinata?”

“I know. You asked me about the structure of the Dwarven Kingdom earlier? Well, it’s not impossible to march an army through it.”

She wasted no time picking up on my intentions. The Dwarven Kingdom was neutral, and I doubted Gazel would give them permission to pass, but that was the safest route an army could take to invade the West. In fact…

“You know, I dismissed the notion at first, but is there a chance they’d attack Dwargon first?”

“Hee-hee! How shameless. You asked me to investigate that question because you thought so, didn’t you?”

Oh, was Hinata praising me? I’d only thought of that just now, but ah well. Let’s roll with it.

“You knew, huh? Well, if the possibility’s there, let’s tackle it, I say.”

I resolved to contact Gazel and work out a plan. It’d be much more than an annoyance if it happened—a real disaster, in fact—but it wasn’t something we could wish away. With Tempest now holding the Council’s military power, it was our duty to bear the full brunt of combat.

“If you weren’t around, y’know, it would’ve been Granville and Luminus facing off against the Empire.”

Guy sounded like it was none of his business now. But the size of the Empire’s force was a question mark, and in that scenario, it’d be the Rozzos’ combined armies, Hinata’s Crusaders, and the Lubelius standing force fending it off. No matter who won, it didn’t matter to Guy. So why did he take Yuuki’s offer, then? I could only surmise that he had his own motivations. I suppose that strange word—game—was the key to understanding that, but it’s not like he’d give me a straight answer.

“I’ll provide support, too, but don’t expect me to take orders from you, all right?” said Hinata.

I could understand that. Hinata had no reason to oversee the front lines herself.

“I’m still not exactly sure if this’ll turn into war, but we’ll figure out something. Hinata, you guys should prepare in case the Empire completely bamboozles us with their invasion.”

“Roger that. And we’ll take care of any of their agents disguised as merchants.”

Her smile was a little frightening as she accepted. But this was fine. Now I didn’t have to ask for anything.

“Rimuru,” a troubled-sounding Luminus said, “if you are defeated, it will come down to us to fight. I advise you to do whatever it takes for that not to happen.”

I could believe it. Between accounting for casualties and repairing their destroyed cathedral, Luminus was in no shape to focus on a war. I should have been happy I got Hinata’s support, at least.

“My main concern is whether I can get Yuuki’s cooperation…”

Our feud went down to the root. He had the Kingdom of Farmus do his bidding, which led to all sorts of horrors for Shion and her force. He was controlling Clayman, and if you turn back the clock enough, he was even involved with the uprising led by Geld in his orc lord days. If you asked someone to forget it all and let bygones be bygones, well, that wasn’t how people worked.

“Are you worried about us, Sir Rimuru?”

Shion could be sharp like that sometimes—I wouldn’t even say anything, and she could see exactly what conflicted me.

“Well, kind of. I’m not about to start trusting him out of the blue given everything that’s happened so far.”

In fact, I couldn’t trust him at all. And if a war suddenly broke out, there was nothing you could count on less than an ally you couldn’t trust.

“Now that Yuuki’s gone, I’ve got no idea how he’ll move,” Guy carelessly added. “Not that I care, really. If you can handle all that for me, then perfect.”

Hearing that made me decide, finally, that counting Yuuki as part of my force was hard to picture.

“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… Then I will ask Soei to examine his movements—and only examine them,” said Diablo.

“If you could, please.”

That’s enough about Yuuki for now. We’d have to see how things went. At the very least, I wasn’t gonna get all buddy-buddy without an apology. We were running a country here, so depending on what he did, I could imagine us patching things up—but I wasn’t broad-minded enough to forgive him in exchange for nothing.

“Are you good with this, Shion?”

“Of course! I’ll crush him if he opposes you, and if he reconciles with you, I’ll forgive him after I punch him out!”

Just don’t kill him when you do, I said to myself. Although if she did, I’d chalk that up as an accident. Yuuki didn’t want to kill me or Shion, so I could guarantee it wasn’t on purpose.

So we shunted the question of Yuuki to the future.

Guy had one more thing on his mind—the main thing, in fact. It was about the Hero Chloe.

“I know that Granville’s mission was to unlock the thing Luminus here was trying so hard to hide in her domain. I was watching to make sure that thing didn’t go out of control, but Diablo was all ‘Just leave it to Rimuru,’ so…”

So he decided to travel here to see how things were turning out.

When did Diablo say that anyway? Then I remembered—Diablo did run off for a bit during battle, didn’t he? He must’ve been doing a little unauthorized negotiating. I can’t say I liked that, but it turned out to be a masterstroke. If Guy had gotten involved in that fight, there’s no telling what could’ve happened.

“We were talking about that a moment ago, actually, but now that you’re here, why don’t I summarize things for you?”

I decided to take control of the summit and go over everything one more time. I didn’t think Leon and Luminus would say anything I didn’t want them to, but still, just in case. The really important stuff—Chloe’s time travel, the countless loops she’s made—that was all best left hidden. Besides, as long as I didn’t tell Guy, he had no way of knowing.

“…So we defeated the berserk Chronoa, and that settled things for good.”

My story thus wound up pinning most of the blame on Chronoa, but I only did it to protect Chloe. If I started talking about how Chloe was Chronoa, it’d just make things more complicated, so I wanted to keep that a secret from Guy.

“All right. Quite a tough battle, it sounds like. So can I ask you something?”

“Sure. Anything.”

“That girl over there’s clearly a Hero. Mind giving me an explanation?”

Oof. I tried to hide that, but Guy was just too smart to fool.

“Well, in that battle, a hidden force within this girl woke up—” I attempted a believable, if wholly absurd, story.

“You liar.”

So much for that. It certainly made for a classic fantasy, discovering your powers in the heat of battle, but the excuse had no chance of working.

“Um, to tell the truth…”

“Chloe here,” Leon said as I hesitated, “is the exact person I spent years searching for with my targeted summoning. She happened to be there for some reason, and thanks to that, we were all saved.”

I had no idea where Leon was going with this, but if I wanted to slog through it, I had no choice but to follow his lead.

“Indeed,” Luminus said before I could speak up. “I was quite surprised as well, but this Chloe turned out to be the most suitable sealing vessel.”

Now she was adding her own take to the story. So it’s up to me to tie it all together, then?

“Sealing vessel?” a quizzical Guy asked, looking right at me.

That’s what I wanna ask, I thought—but by now, there was no chance we could be honest with him. I had to keep going.

“Yeah. The way Leon described it, she’s got this unique ability to steal any target’s power and seal it within herself. I could hardly believe it, but we’ve got the results right before our eyes, so I kinda have to.”

How was that, huh?! And I even passed it to Leon—it was his turn to take over. But Luminus was quicker.

“You are absolutely correct. Now, I am afraid to say, I have lost my most prized of hidden weapons…but I suppose I can accept that over an uncontrollable death machine on the rampage.”

She seemed embittered. Truly embittered. It was an A-list performance; I almost wanted to applaud her. Now Leon just had to wrap it up.

“…I can see why. Guy, there are many powerful forces in the world, yourself included. I wanted to protect Chloe against these advancing threats, but I never thought she’d use her force right after I met her. I am just as unlucky here.”

Leon sighed. His depression hardly seemed contrived at all. If Luminus won the Best Actress award, he’d be sharing the stage as Best Actor.

Regardless, we now had a coherent story. Chloe sealed Chronoa away, and thus she had obtained the powers of a Hero.

“Hmm. You three aren’t trying to trick me, are you?”

“Not at all,” I retorted.

“You’ve always been too doubtful of others,” Leon agreed.

“Indeed,” said Luminus. “Stop fretting over trivialities.”

We all swarmed upon Guy’s doubt in unison. Such instant teamwork was the result, I suppose, of how much we all cherished Chloe.

“But you see she’s obtained Hero powers, don’t you? Are you just going to leave her be?” Guy asked.

Leon rose from his seat.

“Don’t worry,” Guy added with a laugh, “I’m not going to touch her.”

“Fine, then. If you were ever to threaten her, you’ll have to address me first.”

Leon sat back down. Things were tense in the chamber now, but Guy wasn’t being the least bit hostile. I, too, was worried Leon might try something unadvised, but he was surprisingly calm. That reassured me well enough, but the next moment, I was chilled to the bone.

A sword glinted.

In Guy’s hand was a longsword, produced from parts unknown, and it was now heading straight for the back of Chloe’s neck. The speed of his technique was nothing short of supernatural. My perception speed, enhanced a million times over, told me I’d still never make it in time—and the same was true for Leon and Luminus. Our faces twisted in horror as we tried to turn away from the tragedy about to unfold.

But—the next moment, a clear tone echoed across the chamber.

…?!

The little Chloe had now grown and was wielding a sword nobody saw her unsheathe to take the force of Guy’s blow. Her very clothing had transformed to that of the Hero; she had mastered the use of Holy Spirit Armor as if it came naturally to her.

“Hello to you, demon lord Guy. This is the first time I’ve seen you in the flesh; you’re quite powerful indeed.”

“Ahhh-ha-ha-ha! You ain’t too shabby yourself. Your name’s Chloe, then? There’s only a very few people who can use that power, myself included.”

Guy and Chloe congenially greeted each other, but I found myself unable to remain calm. I simply had no idea what just happened. Even with my super-enhanced perception, I missed it. Clearly this wasn’t some chintzy old hyper-speed move—the air around them wasn’t even vibrating.

It was magic…or something else. And at a time like this, I had the perfect partner to help out. Raphael, your commentary, please!

Report. Unknown. Analysis and assessment of the subject Chloe Aubert’s actions failed.

Really?

It was rare for Raphael to say “I dunno” like that. Whether through prediction or calculation, it’d always provide me with some kind of information. If it had nothing to offer, then what just happened really was beyond the realm of understanding.

In other words, nothing I could handle.

I looked around, surprised, trying to gauge everyone’s reactions. Leon and Luminus seemed just as freaked out as me—not angry about Guy’s behavior so much as trying their hardest to grasp what had just unfolded. Everyone else in the room? Forget it. They didn’t even see the swords move; this was way beyond their comprehension. Diablo, at least, was visibly surprised—maybe something about this encounter was familiar to him.

Resolving to ask him later, I decided to stop Guy and Chloe. The latter was already readying her own attack, all but declaring the next move for herself. They seemed so friendly with each other a moment ago. Why was all this happening…?

They clashed swords several more times. They were single strikes, not part of a combo—it was like watching a photographic sequence of a sword fight, one stance after the next. I think. And really, “I think” was about the best I could do.

“Stop! Stopppp!!”

So I threw myself between them. It was a wager, based on my guess of where the next strike was, and apparently it paid off.

“Whoa, don’t just butt in. I could’ve ripped you apart if we got that wrong.”

“Yeah, Rimuru. Guy wasn’t serious—he was just testing me. But I’m glad you’re concerned for me!”

Chloe then pulled me into a hug and kissed me on the cheek. Again, it was like a jump cut—one frame, then the next. I had no chance of dodging it—let me just say, it was like an act of God. An irresistible force.

Then, the moment she gave that kiss, Chloe shrank down—or really, returned to regular old kid Chloe. “Ugh!” she said, bright red and quivering. “Why’d you have to hug and k-kiss Rimuru like that?”

“Was that Chronoa just now?” I asked.

“Yeah. She switched with me.”

As she explained it, Chloe withstood the first attack, but Chronoa took over after that. They looked exactly the same, so it was a little hard to tell.

“Rimuru, I appreciate you stepping in to help Chloe, but I can’t allow you to get any more…familiar with her.”

Leon waited for Chloe to calm down and then picked her up.

“Oh, come on, Leon! You worry too much about me!”

He put her back in her seat and fixed Guy with an icy glare. “Guy, I thought you weren’t going to touch her.”

“Yeah, sorry. Just wanted to test her out a bit. I wasn’t gonna kill her, of course.”

“Regardless. You may not want to kill someone, but your power’s beyond any measure.”

Leon seemed pretty bent out of shape, uninterested in letting Guy have his way. In another moment, the verbal tirade began. It took Chloe herself intervening to end it—explaining that Guy didn’t intend to hurt her, and that she wanted to test him out as well. It looked like she got a little carried away, too; it wasn’t strictly Guy’s fault.

If I had to guess, I’d say Chloe—or Chronoa—wanted to gauge the strength of Guy, the man who likely caused her death in the future. But what happened just now wasn’t the future she experienced. She had a new power this time—the ultimate skill Yog-Sothoth, Lord of Time, if I recall—and I was sure she wanted to see if it’d work on Guy.

…!! A new possibility has arisen. If the powers of the unique skill Time Travel, when merged with the ultimate skill Yog-Sothoth, allow the subject Chloe Aubert to control time itself…then Analyze and Assess will always fail, since it cannot evaluate phenomena separate from its own time line.

Oh, is that it…? So Chloe’s new ability basically lets her stop time?

Raphael was currently doing assessment work on Time Travel, but reportedly it’d take a while to finish up. It sounded like Chloe just inserted that unique skill straight into Yog-Sothoth.

I’m sure it is hard to understand data you can’t even measure—but regardless, Chloe had made it her own. Astounding as it was, stopping the flow of time felt like such a cheat. No wonder my sped-up senses couldn’t track her. If we’re all letting time flow around us, there’s no way we can observe something frozen in that dimension.

But hang on. Assuming that theory is correct, if someone can’t access a world frozen in time, there’s no way for them to interact with someone who is in that world, right?

Understood. This interpretation seems correct.

Oh man. Part of me wanted to hope that, and it seemed like the only logical answer. I mean, even Chronoa was killed by Guy once—but if she could stop time, she was untouchable. It made perfect sense.

Conversely, did that mean Chloe could fend off Guy? She was just a cute little girl, and really, she was stronger than me, even. When it dawned on me, I broke into a cold sweat that nobody else noticed.

Either way, Leon backed down, and peace prevailed once more.

“You value Ramiris a great deal…and I value Chloe a great deal. I’d advise you to make a note of that.” Leon sat down, making it clear he wouldn’t allow that a second time.

“As would I,” Luminus added. “Guy, I will freely recognize you as the strongest of all, but losing our help would only harm you in the long run, no? If you do intend to antagonize us, that is a different story, but you should know that we will both treat any attack on Chloe as a hostile act.”

Luminus must’ve been pretty pissed herself, rebuking Guy right alongside Leon. In situations like these, it was usually a bad idea to specify what was valuable to you—but with Guy, the opposite was true. If Guy really wanted to be hostile, there was nothing you could do. That was why they both overtly told him to lay off Chloe.

“All right, all right! I’m not here to start trouble, okay? Just stay out of my way, and I’m not gonna touch anything you hold dear, y’know?”

Guy, to his credit, acted sensibly about it, promising he’d keep Chloe safe.

And the fact that this precious little girl was far stronger than all of us was something I decided to keep to myself.

The summit came to a close in the evening. Shuna prepared dinner for us, so we moved over to the banquet hall. I couldn’t help but notice that nobody seemed in a hurry to leave until we’d finished the meal.

The main dish was a stew of cubed pork (or some kinda monster’s meat that resembled pork), accompanied by fried eggplant, tofu with thick ankake sauce, and miso soup. This all came with steamed, fluffy, jet-black rice—the blackspell rice we stumbled upon a while back. It wasn’t a multicourse meal or anything, but considering this whole summit wasn’t even planned for, I didn’t want to hear any complaints.

“Oh? This isn’t tempura.”

By the sound of Luminus’s grumbling, she must’ve liked tempura a lot more than I’d realized.

“No need to worry, Luminus. This should be even tastier. Never underestimate Rimuru’s lust for good food.”

Hinata had my back, although I couldn’t tell why. I wasn’t even sure if I should be happy about it. Honestly, getting complimented for my love of cuisine didn’t mean much if that was the only thing about me she was willing to compliment. But whatever.

So our little dinner event began, and fortunately, all the guests seemed to enjoy themselves.

“Ah… I see. Yeah, your cuisine around here ain’t bad.” Guy sounded genuinely impressed.

“These flavors mystify me…but at this level, I’d say it passes muster.”

Eating everything and not complaining about it was, I supposed, Leon’s way of giving a meal high praise.

“Mmm… You were right after all, Hinata. Another rare and exotic spread, but quite attractive nonetheless.”

“Oooh, this really takes me back. Being able to taste this one more time… It makes me glad to be alive.”

Luminus seemed satisfied…and Hinata was hyping me up way too much. But I supposed this was her first Japanese-style pork stew in, what, two thousand years?

“Would you have preferred white rice?” I asked her.

“I appreciate the thought…but I’m used to this kind of thing by now.”

Oh? Well, good. Two millennia had given her a lot of time to sample all sorts of stuff, I’m sure, so the “wrong” color wasn’t about to make her wrinkle her nose. Besides, unlike Chloe, Hinata apparently hadn’t been able to actually taste anything she ate during those two millennia. All she could see was Chloe’s visual feed, so the mere act of eating was a real thrill. Considering—even imagining—what she went through, I could see why this was such a divine experience.

So the dinner banquet proceeded along to generally good reviews. Once it was over, the demon lords rapidly prepared to head home. They were more than welcome to spend the night, but now that their business was done, they didn’t seem interested in sticking around.

“Chloe, if you ever get sick of this place, don’t be afraid to contact me. I’ll come pick you up at once.”

Leon still hadn’t given up, by the sounds of things. We had actually argued a bit about who would take in Chloe.

“But my friends are here…and I like Rimuru’s place.”

We wound up respecting Chloe’s wishes, but it was safe to assume Leon wasn’t gonna let it rest. He didn’t even try to hide his attachment to her. I had my reservations about his approach, but there was no doubting his fervent desire to keep her safe and protected.

Chloe could feel it, too.

“Leon, I’m really glad to see you worried so much about me. But you don’t need to be all that worried, okay? I’m not a kid anymore!”

She gave Leon a hug. Leon’s face betrayed a gentle smile as he patted Chloe’s head. They were raised virtually as siblings way back when, and Leon definitely cherished her.

Then she separated from him and shifted into her adult form.

“Here, see? With Chronoa’s power, I can go back to my grown-up self. So quit worrying, all right?”

She smiled. I assume she wanted to put Leon’s mind at ease, but that smile packed an incredible punch. It was endearing—fleeting, in a way—but it revealed all the strength in her heart; there was just that kind of charm to it.

“All right,” he said with a chuckle. “You’ve become such a wonderful woman…but I’m always going to cherish you. You can count on me anytime.”

Leon always was a heartthrob like that. He had the composure, you could say, of a grown man—and it suited him well. No way I could even begin to imitate that, I thought as I watched—but then Leon turned around and flashed me a steely glare. The difference was intense.

“She says she’s a grown-up now,” he told me. “Does that mean you’ve gone and—?”

“No! Of course not! I don’t even technically have a gender!”

Talk about a huge misunderstanding. I take back what I said about his maturity and composure because he certainly didn’t treat me with any of that. I worked tirelessly to defend myself, and Chloe yelled at him once she caught wind of it, so I figured Leon was sufficiently convinced…but even now, it was only that way on the surface. If you want more evidence, I present this little tidbit he whispered to me as he left:

“I think you know this, but don’t you dare do anything to put Chloe in harm’s way, you understand me?”

This struck me as overprotective, but then, Leon had expended every method possible to search for Chloe, who’d been summoned from the same world as him. It made sense that he worried about her. He went on his way without further comment, so I was happy. I promised him that Chloe and I would come visit, and thanks to her, I think Tempest would be building formal ties with his domain of El Dorado pretty soon. He kind of irritated me sometimes—like a brother-in-law does, I suppose—but I could deal with it.

After Leon went on his way, it was Luminus’s turn to dote on Chloe.

“I suppose you’ve settled down where you’ve settled down, Chloe…but to me, you are a valued and trusted friend. If you have any difficulty, I will gladly discuss it with you, so do not hesitate to bring it up. Take care!”

And this is the sister-in-law, I’m assuming? Not that I said that out loud, of course. No need to go out of my way to anger people.

With a final farewell, Luminus and her entourage sped off. Hinata was gone, too, so that just left Guy by himself. I turned toward him, wondering if he was gonna leave, and there I saw Diablo picking a fight with him.

“Now, shall I continue my story from before—?” Diablo began.

“Nah, I’ve heard more than enough of it.”

“Keh-heh-heh-heh-heh… No need to be shy.”

“Can you stop trying to seduce me with that garbage, too?!”

What the hell is Diablo doing?!

“Tch! Well, so be it, then. Allow me to change the subject. I would love to discuss Testarossa’s and my other underlings’ work ethic and some amusing anecdotes related to Rimuru. I know you were interested in that—”

I was astounded at just how much he wanted to hear his own voice. Guy seemed to agree with me.

“No, no, I’m sure you’re all busy right now, so I’ll stop by again when things calm down a little.”

Guy wasted no time turning him down and fleeing. I guess even Guy got flustered sometimes—it was kind of odd to see. I couldn’t help but feel he was a lot more approachable than I thought. He still kept you on your toes, but maybe I didn’t have so much to worry about with him anymore. He had accepted Chloe as a Hero, and all the other big issues were out of the way.

That just left Yuuki’s next moves as he fled to the East—and what’s about to happen over there. Whether I’ll trust him again, I dunno…but war, huh? I let out a sigh. It’s just one thing after another these days. And in my dejection, I couldn’t help but wish for peace as soon as I could grab it.

It was only an oral agreement, but gaining the cooperation of two more demon lords was enormous. If war really was to erupt, having allied nations on your side was a comfort in itself. I could expect support from them, and if things got really bad, I could even discuss evacuating my citizens to their nations.

No war at all would be best, of course, although that depended on the other side’s actions. What will be, will be. But whining wouldn’t help with anything, so I decided it was time to take action. First, I needed some firm ground to stand on—something that ensured a battle against the Empire wouldn’t cause any problems. I secretly resolved to prepare for anything and everything possibly headed our way.