Vega instinctively braced himself for combat.
“Ah, Lord Gadora! You are well now?”
Gabil was happy to see him, if a little surprised.
“So you were all right, eh, old man?”
Laplace wasn’t surprised at all, as if he had expected this.
“But of course. I did lose consciousness for a moment, but I was fully prepared with my emergency measures. I was just pretending to be down because then I could catch him off guard and hit him with one of my best spells.”
The ultimate gift Grimoire was equipped with Mind Accelerate and Parallel Computation, almost as if that was a given. With it in hand, even when he was knocked out, a parallel line of thought would take over after that.
“I see, I see. It fooled me as well!”
“Man oh man. What a guy, huh?”
“Yes, well, I didn’t spend all these years wasting my time, y’see. But shouldn’t we be concerned about Vega instead?”
Laplace tried to change the subject, but Gadora wasn’t done pursuing Vega yet.
“Me?”
“Yes, you. I’m afraid I can’t trust you very much.”
“Why not?!”
Vega acted like he had no idea. It exasperated Laplace.
“To be honest,” he said with a shrug, “I don’t trust ’im, either. But he’s still one of mine, y’know? And I get it if you want him rubbed out, but I really wanna trust him here. Besides, I can’t do anything without my boss’s permission anyways. He’ll listen to reason as long as he doesn’t get carried away, so how about we cut him some slack just this once?”
What a headache, he bitterly thought.
The main problem with Vega was his astonishing lack of intelligence. He was too loyal to his own desires, and he never seemed to care about other people’s feelings. But he wasn’t all bad. He never really did well in a group, but give him an order, and you’d be assured he would carry it out, at least to some extent. Between that and his undeniable strength, it’d be a pity to do away with him right now. His occasional problematic outbursts might tax his patience one too many times, Laplace feared, but for now, he’d stick to his side and keep a careful eye on him.
He had caught him just in time today, but Vega was one step away from causing serious problems. If he had laid so much as a finger on Carillon or Frey, Laplace wouldn’t have defended him one bit—in fact, he would’ve disposed of him right there. The mere fact that he attempted what he did was bad enough, but…
“Well, I don’t have the authority to make the call, but I can certainly understand your line of thought. I’m familiar with Vega myself, and as long as he causes no trouble for Sir Rimuru, I don’t see any issue with that.”
Gadora was familiar with Vega as well. And while it didn’t feel right for him to speak on his behalf, he still wanted to give some muted feedback.
“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about…”
Laplace seemed just as anxious as he gave that vague warning. Only Gabil among them could find it in himself to laugh it off.
“Gwah-ha-ha-ha! We are all men here—we learn from our mistakes. Very well; I will trust in him, too! Vega, was it? Listen to Sir Laplace and try to become the best warrior you can be!”
He clapped Vega on the back as he spoke.
Despite everyone’s apprehension, now was not the moment to stand around worrying. Laplace wasted no time taking Vega away from the scene.
“Do you think that was the right thing to do?”
“I wouldn’t expect any problems. If this helps Vega grow a little, it’ll benefit all of us. If not, I’m sure Laplace will do what needs to be done.”
“…A rather sinister line of thought there.”
“Gwah-ha-ha-ha! Flattery will get you nowhere with me, I’ll have you know!”
Gadora hadn’t meant that as a compliment, but he held his tongue. No need to stir up yet more trouble. It was starting to feel a little more relaxed around here, but the battle was still ongoing. Remembering this, the two of them mentally switched gears and prepared to reenter the fray. Then some good news arrived.
“My brother, I have word from Sir Moss that Sir Rimuru has defeated Lady Velgrynd! Our main forces have stormed the enemy’s main airship and are now engaged in a final battle with their top brass. We need to keep up the fight over here!”
The voice of Soka, back to the front after some rest, rang high as she gave the news. It was a massive morale boost for everyone on Rimuru’s side and a major demotivator for the Empire.
The Chimera Knights, the keystone of the imperial forces—the ones who weren’t on an insane berserker rush, that is—now realized how bad their situation was. They were without a commander, and they couldn’t expect any more reinforcements, even as their enemies seemed to continually grow in number. Taking out the enemy commander also seemed hopeless to them. Trying to kill the former demon lords who were now sitting ducks on the battlefield would simply make them surrounded and annihilated. If they had a functional military chain of command, things might have been different—but there was simply nobody in charge.
A number of them were already fleeing, having seen the writing on the wall. Meanwhile, Rimuru’s forces were overjoyed.
“Wowwww! His Majesty has done it!”
“H-he beat Lady Velgrynd? I can’t believe it…but maybe I should’ve expected that from him!”
“We’ve won. This is nothing more than a rout now!”
Gabil and Gadora were no exception, of course.
“Ah, wonderful! I always knew Sir Rimuru was cut from a different cloth!”
“I suppose so, yes. I had grown much stronger out of nowhere, so I thought something like that had happened. That voice must be connected to Sir Rimuru, just like Sir Diablo presumed…”
“What did you say, Lord Gadora?”
“Ah, never mind. We still have a job to carry out here. Let’s go!”
There was such a thing as having too much curiosity. Gadora knew that well, and so he decided not to pursue this any further—that, and he wasn’t sure getting Gabil involved in the question was such a good idea.
Gabil nodded back at him, his thoughts turning toward the battlefield. And with his loudest shout of the day, he gave the order to charge.
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