A hastily built research location stood amidst the barren land, just a few days prior the region was a hellish warzone, with the stench of blood and iron still filling the air as the former no man's land was now used for logistics and research. The recent Russy offensive through this region, despite inflicting many casualties on the Empire, had been successfully stalled and pushed back.

Yet what drew the attention of the Empire was a magical anomaly which was present here. It had been gradually fading over the last few days, however its presence had been messing with magical signals in the region, providing a mild hindrance to mage operations during the counter-offensive. This hindrance was only worsened by the death of the commander of the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion, Tanya von Degurechaff.

What made this anomaly so strange was that nobody knew what caused it, let alone where it came from, or even how to get rid of it. As time went on it seemed it would fade naturally, but many scientists still tried to find the answer, setting up all sorts of advanced equipment around the origin of the anomaly.

The only consistent theory was that it perhaps had been related to the death of Tanya von Degurechaff, or perhaps the powerful magical strike that ultimately killed her. Another theory could be in relation to the sudden disappearance of her adjutant Viktoria Serebryakov. Unlike Degurechaff's death, Serebryakov had no record of her death, other than a sudden disappearance in the same battle as Degurechaff was defeated.

Of course, this was hardly evidence at all as you would be lucky to even have your death documented, soldiers often seemingly just vanishing when they die rather than a body ever being found in the mess of no man's land.

Of all the people sent to inspect the frontline and the anomaly, one of them had grown suspicious, and in truth had conflicting emotions about it all. Brigadier General Erich Von Rerugen stood alongside the various equipment the scientists were using to monitor the anomaly, sighing as he was informed of their lack of progress.

'Just what kind of a mess have you caused here, Degurechaff? Knowing her there's no way this coincidentally happened right around where she died. Did she try to defect and make this anomaly as a coverup?' Rerugen simply shook his head at the thought, 'That devil? No, she wouldn't defect so easily. The Empire would have to be on its absolute last legs for her to abandon it. The child in love with war would never so quickly abandon it.'

Rerugen had conflicting emotions about her disappearance, on one hand she was a devil in the skin of a little girl, an opinion which he gradually began to ignore but never fully got rid of. Her being gone was probably good for his mental sanity, and to an extent the Empire as a whole. On the other hand, as the war waged on she became one of the few voices of reason that he could agree with among the military officers. The viewpoints of the others seemed to only drive the Empire further towards catastrophe, with Degurechaff's opinions aligning much with his own; she was a potentially valuable ally to have, devil or not.

'Now that she's gone, any hope I have at pushing reason into some of those morons in the General Staff is gone too. Perhaps I should try to defect while I still can? I love the Empire but… The way it's heading… It doesn't have long left.'

His main fear was that without Tanya, the 203rd may begin to slowly fall apart, that or General Staff's confidence in it would and the unit would be destroyed, whether by the enemy or the Empire. When that happens, it would be a major loss for the Empire, one Rerugen worried about especially as the Russy Federation finally got its own mage forces into a competent state. 'We need the 203rd now, more than ever. I just hope she trained that Weiss well.'

Rerugen gazed at the crater where the anomaly originated, stepping towards it as he looked down into it. It was likely a result of the blast that had killed Degurechaff, or perhaps the Type 95's destruction caused it. Whatever the cause, it meant a headache of things were to come for him, and Rerugen needed to prepare.

He turned around, walking away from the crater as he closed his eyes and shook his head. As he opened them he suddenly found himself squinting as the sun shone into his eyes.

'The sun? I suppose the clouds are breaking up…'

As he opened his eyes fully, instead of seeing the barren wasteland of no man's land, he instead saw an alleyway that he stood in, two buildings towering above him to his sides.

'What the hell?' He mused, looking around for some sort of answer as he began to increasingly panic. Heading towards the edge of the alleyway he looked onto the street in front of him, seeing people walk the street along with the occasional carriage rolling by.

'It seems like I'm in a city of sorts… But what's with all the medieval stuff? It looks like I've been sent several hundred years into the past!'

He looked around frantically for whatever clues could help him figure out what was going on. A calendar? A clock? A flag? Anything!

After a few more moments of frantically looking he spotted a flag. He gazed at it in shock as he failed to recognize what it was or what nation it was.

Silently he muttered only one word, "Fuck."

He wasn't in the Empire anymore.

---

"Two hundred thousand, huh?" The demon sat at the end of the table took a sip of the coffee in front of her, looking down at the makeshift map they had made of the forest at the center of the table, creating several new pawn pieces with her intrinsic skill to account for their numbers. 'That's more than the commies threw at Tiegenhoff. I doubt any force in this village could muster up enough men to counter that. Even if the Orcs are a weaker race, their armor and equipment, not to mention the potential of an Orc Lord would probably alleviate that.'

Souei nodded from where he sat, leaning forwards to adjust the map, placing all the pawns Tanya had created along the river which led to the lake right in the center of the forest. "They were moving north across the river. I suspect they'll be regrouping around the lake in Lizardmen territory."

Souei was one of many Kijin who sat at the table, all of whom had been recently recruited to aid the village with the Orc Lord. It was a temporary alliance, but given how well they settled themselves into the town, one would be forgiven for assuming it was permanent. Also at the table were numerous Goblins, namely Rigurd and the other elders, as well as Kaijin, a Dwarf recruited from Dwargon.

At the end of the table sat the two leaders of the village, the slime Rimuru, and the demon Tanya, both bearing the Tempest name. Despite Rimuru technically being the most superior of the two, he sat the most casually, much to the mild annoyance of Tanya, who, acting more like they understood the seriousness of the situation, sat much more professionally.

Rimuru wore a dark cloak with white fur lining it with a more basic shirt and pants underneath, looking at him would give the aura of a more casual ruler, one who had yet to properly realize his position, or perhaps simply didn't care. Most at the table had similar outfits, leading to the slime barely standing out among them.

The only one who truly stood out was Tanya who wore a black and red military uniform, though she too had put on a short dark cloak with black fur lining the edges. She mostly wore this to avoid sticking out as much as she did, at least until more conventional clothing could be made for at least the military.

Rimuru seemed to grumble at the fact they were heading towards the lizardmen. It was a relief to be sure, but Rimuru knew what it likely meant, "It seems we'll have to make an alliance with the lizardmen after all… I've had enough of Gabiru for today, I think we should speak directly to the chieftain if we can."

Tanya nods, "Agreed. When this meeting is done I'll go meet with them myself. I think a direct representative of our village's leadership should be the one to go."

"Huh? Well in that case I could go instea-" Rimuru began to say.

Tanya interrupted however, "You're a great leader, Rimuru, you treat your people well, but I can't honestly say you've got the skills to handle diplomacy just yet."

"I could handle diplomacy just fine, I'm sure." Rimuru folded his arms with a slight pout, though he didn't have any real intention of stopping Tanya. In truth he knew very well that Tanya probably had him beat.

"With the way you're sitting… I think you need to understand formalities a bit more before I can trust you to handle diplomacy. Your casual charisma makes you a great ruler for your people, but your lack of seriousness at times could prove detrimental if it happens at the wrong time, specifically when handling foreign leaders or representatives. It's part of the reason Gabiru was a moron, though that's just one thing to a very long list."

Rimuru quickly corrected how he sat, as if nobody had seen how he was sitting before and made a fake cough to move on, "Alright then, I suppose I'll let you handle this then, Tanya. Though the next time we meet a foreign representative I would like to try my hand at it myself. Can't get better without practice after all! Don't worry, I'll let you come too, you can tell me if I do anything stupid."

"More like when you do anything stupid."

"Ey!"

"Calm down, slimeball, I'm just fucking with you." Tanya smirked as there were a few laughs in the room, much at the slight expense of Rimuru, not that he seemed to particularly mind.

"So much for seriousness." Rimuru said, shaking his head.

Tanya turned slightly towards him, silently muttering, "There's a difference between lack of seriousness and lightening the mood. A bit of humor can go a long way."

"I'll keep that in mind." Rimuru said before making another fake cough, "Anyways, we should decide how we're handling this situation. We're not quite ready to make a pre-emptive strike or anything of the sorts. Besides, if a Demon Lord is truly involved we need to put on a show, right Tanya."

Tanya nodded and began to move some of the pieces on the fake map, primarily the ones that represented herself, Rimuru, the Goblin Riders, and the Kijin, "These are the forces I believe we should send."

"That's quite a small force though… Would it be enough?" One of the goblin elders, Rugurd, asked.

"It should be. We'll be fighting in the marshes and the swamps, we don't have the capabilities to send a large fighting force there. Instead, we should focus on firepower, and the Kijin here provide more than enough." Tanya turned her gaze towards the Kijin, specifically Hakurou and Benimaru.

Benimaru nodded politely, "I'm glad you have such faith in us, Miss Tanya. We will do our best to meet your expectations."

"You better. You got some big shoes to fill if you want to match the capabilities of my old subordinates. They weren't nearly as powerful, but strength isn't everything in a fight."

"Hohoho, I would very much like to meet some of these subordinates of yours one of these days, I'm sure they would be worthy foes." Hakurou said with a slight smile showing on his face.

Tanya waved her hand as she shook her head, "I wouldn't anticipate that happening anytime soon. Besides, our focus now is on these Orcs. Going back to what I said, if we can make an alliance with the lizardmen, their forces will be experienced enough in wetland combat to provide a significant contesting force to keep the orc armies at bay while the rest of us inflict massive casualties. The goblin riders, with their speed and agility should prove more than capable of picking off any stragglers or performing hit-and-run tactics."

Turning now to Souei, Tanya asked, "Did you return from that recon mission to your old village?"

Souei nodded, "I couldn't find a single body, Ogre or Orc."

The room was shocked as they tried to contemplate what this meant, after a moment Tanya sighed, "So that's how they feed an army that big."

Rimuru looked slightly disturbed as he turned to Tanya, grumbling "Y-You don't mean…"

"Cannibalism. Or anything else really. It seems they eat everything they kill. Such being the case, it makes sense how they're able to supply such a massive army with food. Though I imagine a few villages aren't enough to keep all 200,000 fed. I imagine they get at least some food from somewhere."

Souei suddenly appeared shocked as he turned to the front of the table, "E-Excuse me, one of my body doubles has had an encounter…"

"With what?" Rimuru asked, tilting his head.

"With a… Dryad."

"A Dryad?!" Rimuru's excitement could be seen on his face, 'Like those tree spirits from those anime and video games?!'

Rimuru phased out of his fantasies to turn to his left and see Tanya staring a hole straight through him with a face that was a mixture of annoyance, concern, and a demonic intimidation.

Rimuru simply coughed and said "A-Alright! Bring her here!"

Suddenly the dryad began to manifest in the center of the meeting room right on the table as many of the Kijin moved to guard Tanya and Rimuru, with Tanya simply applying a magical barrier to soothe their worries as most of them calmed down.

Suddenly a beautiful woman with green hair and an elegant green, blue, and white dress appeared out of the growing cocoon on the table, completely surrounded by vines that seemed to come out of the bottom of her dress which reached to her feet.

Tanya gazed towards rimuru again who had a slight blush on his face. She simply shook her head and mused, 'For a genderless slime his libido goes all over the place. I lived a life as a girl going through puberty and I handled it infinitely better than this slime can.'

The dryad placed a hand on her chest as she spoke, "Rulers of monsters and all who follow them, I am Treyni the Dryad. I apologize for the unannounced visit, it is a pleasure to meet you. Rimuru and Tanya Tempest, I would like to ask you to defeat the Orc Lord."

"You're asking us?" Rimuru asked, looking somewhat confused with Tanya simply rolling her eyes.

"That's quite a selfish request from someone who appeared out of nowh-'' Benimaru began to speak before he was cut off.

Tanya cut him off abruptly, "That's literally what we were about to do!"

Benimaru stammered "W-Well uh yes but…"

Tanya sighed, leaning her head against her hand as she shook it, "I understand what you're saying Benimaru, but it's not necessary right now. Dryads are the caretakers of the forest, right? It not inherently selfish that they request we take down what is likely a threat to the entire forest."

'At least I hope they're the caretakers of the forest, I believe Veldora mentioned that during our discussions about the forest. He only mentioned it in an off comment though so I don't know much about them… That damned dragon, I should've squeezed more info out of him before I left.'

Tanya's thoughts were interrupted by Benimaru, who nodded, "Yes, I apologize."

"Thank you. You did mention the Orc Lord though, right?" Tanya now turned to Treyni who nodded in response.

Treyni nodded, "Yes, among the approaching Orc armies you have heard about is an Orc Lord."

"That confirms our suspicions then. Up until now the Orc Lord was just a theory to us." Rimuru stated, placing his hand on his chin in thought.

"Whatever the case, it seems you have more information than we do, I would like to ask that you join the meeting and tell us what you know before we go in."

Treyni nodded and smiled, "Of course."

After just a few moments a chair had been given for Treyni to sit at, with her sitting right between Rigurd and Kaijin, both nervous about sitting next to what was effectively one of direct servants of their god Veldora.

"Now then, I assume this Orc Lord probably has quite a few skills we should try to find out. Since you know a lot more than we do, I'd like to hear if you know anything about them."

Treyni quickly ate one of the chips we had at the center of the table and answered, "The main skill of the Orc Lord is the Unique Skill [Starved]. The skill reaches out to all who serve under the Orc Lord, making them devour everything in sight, like locusts. At the same time, they consume the victim's strength and abilities, making them their own sustenance. In that way it's quite similar to Rimuru's [Predator] skill."

'It seems the Dryad can also see skills, best not to get on her bad side.' Tanya mused, looking towards Rimuru who looked frankly distraught.

Treyni continued, "Furthermore said strength is distributed among its subordinates while also getting strength back from them. In that aspect it's quite similar to your [Oberst] skill, Tanya. As a result of this skill, though, they feel a constant and insatiable hunger. The orcs move for no other reason than to sate their endless hunger and obtain more power."

"So they're not targeting the Ogres and Lizardmen randomly. They're seeking to obtain their power and grow stronger from them, then. We better be careful not to let any of our own perish in the battle, keeping our amount of forces limited in this fight was the right call." Tanya muttered, now looking back at the map as she processed how to best use this information.

"Can't say we're in the clear either, we got Tempest Wolves, Kijin, Hobgoblins, and a Demon. Flavors aside, they're all meals with powers that the Orcs would kill for." Rimuru said, waving his hand around as he held a chip before bringing it up to his mouth to eat.

"Can't forget the most appealing meal." Benimaru said with a grin on his face.

"Huh?" Rimuru said, eating the chip.

"We have the strongest slime here, remember?"

"Where?" Rimuru asked, chewing as he spoke.

Benimaru laughed as Rimuru looked around confused, "Huh?"

'No way he genuinely meant that…' Both Tanya and Benimaru thought to themselves.

"In addition, we have confirmed that a certain Majin is behind the Orc Lord's appearance. It's not someone I believe you want to overlook, they are subordinate to a Demon Lord, after all."

'Seems they truly know about everything that happens in the forest, huh? Maintaining good relations with them will be essential for the growth of our nation.' Tanya thought, looking up at Treyni as she stood.

"Honored Tempest Family, as the ones who have received the Storm Dragon Veldora's protection, subjugated the Direwolves and Blade Tiger, and became the patrons of the Kijin, you and your forces are surely more than a match for the Orc Lord."

Tanya looked in slight shock, though she hid it well, 'She knows about that?! Surely there's no way she saw us get named by Veldora… Perhaps Veldora's naming actually gives us some sort of protection? I think he mentioned naming things gives them his divine protection or something. I didn't notice anything besides my own strength increase so I didn't bother. Perhaps it's sort of an indication to certain people that we're affiliated? Who knows… Nevertheless I don't see much of a reason to not work with her, she seems respectable regardless. If they're truly the 'caretakers of the forest' then we shouldn't make an enemy of them.'

Rimuru meanwhile contemplated his options, 'Hmm… Great Sage, can I trust her?'

[The Dryads are the caretakers of the Great Forest of Jura. They are said to be the ones who pass divine justice on villains and any who would harm the forest.]

'Divine justice huh? Sounds a bit extreme. But there are 200,000 of them… Actually, looking at Tanya, she seems fairly confident in our victory already. In fact she's staring at me now.' Rimuru gazed awkwardly at Tanya, confused, 'Why the hell is she staring at me?!'

[Notice: Being the actual leader of the village, it is likely she expects you to answer for once.]

'Oh, right.'

[Sigh]

'Don't sigh at me!'

"A-Alright! We'll take down the Orc Lord! I assume we can expect you help, right?" Rimuru exclaimed, now muttering to himself 'We could frankly use all the help we can get… She seems strong enough, she could be useful.'

Treyni smiled and nodded, "Me and my sisters will attempt to apprehend the Majin behind the Orc Lord's appearance, you merely need to focus on taking down the Orc Lord. Considering both of your strengths… I'd argue that even one of you may be a bit overkill against the Orc Lord, let alone both of you."

"That confident, huh? Guess we got own up to your expectations."

"I hope you do, Sir Rimuru Tempest." Treyni concluded with a polite bow before again disappearing in a cocoon of vegetation.

After another moment Treyny appeared again with a bit less spectacle, grabbing the bowl of chips off the table before disappearing again with a smile.

After a few moments Tanya stood up, "Alright then, there's a lot to do. Prepare everyone who will be fighting, I will go meet with the Lizardmen chieftain. As of today, we are at war."

The meeting gradually dispersed as Tanya handled her last few affairs before she planned to head out. It was getting fairly dark outside and as such she intended to meet with the Lizardmen chief before it was too late in the day.

As Tanya walked out into the more open undeveloped portions of the village, she was met with Eiga, the oversized house cat with knives for fangs, claws, and tail. Eiga sat and made a bow to her master before speaking, "Master, I would like to take this opportunity to head out into the forest."

"The forest? What do you need to do there?" Tanya asked, turning to her pet as she began to walk by, Eiga taking the queue and beginning to walk beside her.

"There is some business I wish to attend to real quick. It will not take long, I shall return by sunhigh tomorrow. I can promise you that this will be a great benefit to the village!" Eiga explained proudly.

Tanya sighed, she was able to pick up that Eiga seemingly wanted it to be a surprise since she was so hesitant to tell her what it was. As such Tanya decided not to push her further for details and just trust her judgment, "Alright, go ahead and do what it is you wanted to do. No need to rush it either, we won't be attacking the Orc Lord for at least a few days so you only have to be back before then."

"Understood, master! I will not disappoint!" Eiga quickly ran off into the woods, leaving a confused Tanya behind. Tanya merely shook her head before launching off into the skies.

She hovered in the skies for a few moments, looking down at the village before sending Rimuru a message with [Thought Communication], {"Alright Rimuru, I'm heading out now."}

Rimuru immediately responded, {"Understood, best of luck out there, Tanya! Let's hope the Chieftain isn't as much of a moron as his son!"}

{"If he is, I can't promise that I won't come back with a few barrels of oil."}

{"Even if you don't like them, please don't turn the dinosaurs into fossil fuels."}

{"Alright, fine. I can't make any promises but-"}

{"Tanyaaaaaa…"}

{"Anyways I'm off."}

With that Tanya launched eastward, heading rapidly towards the residence of the Lizardmen as Rimuru simply looked up with a sigh, ('Great Sage, tell me the chances that the Chieftain makes it out alive.')

[If the chieftain is similar to Gabiru, 50%]

('And I'm not the diplomatic one?')

---

The chieftain sat slouched on his throne, his head leaning against his hand as his arm laid on the armrest. His heroic and regal aura broken by his silent anxiety about the coming days. The orc armies were fast approaching, and as it stood now they most likely wouldn't survive a direct attack.

The chieftain's son, Gabiru, had yet to return, with the Chieftain only hoping that he had been successful in recruiting some allies out of the surrounding Goblin tribes. After all, if the Lizardmen fell, the goblins would likely be next. Considering how weak goblins were, they wouldn't stand a chance. Logically their only choice was to join them, however still the Chieftain was worried his son would somehow manage to mess it up.

His son wasn't awful by any means, but he had become increasingly egotistical and frankly incompetent as time went on. All of his success and fame among the younger generation all went to his head. The chieftain knew that if he didn't act upon it soon, his son would likely turn out as an incompetent mess of a ruler.

For now, they waited to hear of the results of his expedition, simply camping out deep within their labyrinth of caves as the first Orcs began to trickle in. Orcs were a fairly weak race, and even armored they weren't too hard to deal with in the small numbers they rushed in with. If there was truly an Orc Lord, then the lack of fear he gave them seemed to work to their detriment in this scenario, with many Orcs rushing right into their trap placed at the entrance of the cave.

After another few minutes of waiting the chieftain heard a loud explosion echo through the caves, seemingly coming from outside. All of the guards in his room were instantly on edge, readying their weapons in the event of an attack. Yet despite that nothing came, no explosions followed the initial one, and after another few minutes of suspenseful waiting a lizardman entered the throne room before kneeling.

The lizardman looked towards the ground as he spoke, "There is someone at the entrance that wishes to meet with you, sir."

"Hm? Who is it?" The chieftain raised his head, resting his hands against the armrests as he looked down at the man.

The lizardman lifted his head, "They claim to come from a growing village deep within the forest. They claim to come with an offer regarding the Orc Lord. At the time of their arrival we were preparing to fend off some approaching Orcs however she blasted them away before we even needed to."

"So that's what that explosion was…" The chieftain muttered to himself, "Bring her in, if they're able to blast away the Orcs so easily she, and perhaps her village, may be a useful ally against the Orcs."

'I wonder why she's coming to me? Surely Gabiru must've found their village by now? Is it possible that it's some new village and we missed it? That's possible, it's also possible they left before Gabiru got there, and are only now arriving.' The chieftain mused as he awaited the supposed representative's arrival.

After just a minute the guard returned, taking post next to the exit of the throne room as the girl approached the throne. The girl was dressed in a black military uniform with red stripes going down it, her hair was as dark as the night and the single stripe down the center was as red as the sunset. Her eyes were black, red, and gold, with no white to be seen aside from the reflection off of it. Despite looking hardly older than 16, if that, the girl's presence radiated authority and power. While she gave off no aura, none of those there needed to see it to tell they were dealing with a powerful individual.

Looking at the girl, just one thought came into the chieftain's head, 'Demon. I don't know much about demons, and I doubt many here could identify her as one, but from what I've heard, some can be rather negotiable. Despite their reputation, 'evil' isn't an inherent nature to all of them. If only I knew more about the demonic families so I can more accurately predict how to handle her.'

The demon girl stood front and center in the room, placing her hand over her chest and offering a polite bow before speaking, "Respectable Chieftain of the Lizardmen, I apologize for the sudden visit, but as you are aware, the sudden appearance of an Orc Lord means I do not have the time to go through the lengthy process of organizing a proper meeting. I hope you understand."

The Chieftain looked on with intrigue at the girl, trying to gauge her thoughts by her eyes, her expressions, the way she spoke, anything, but he could tell nothing. He was no expert in gauging thoughts or feelings, but as a ruler he had picked up on the habit regardless. But this demon gave nothing away, "I perfectly understand, it is certainly an urgent affair. If you don't mind me asking, what may I refer to you as?"

'Judging by the fact she was able to blast away the Orcs so casually she must be of at least some power. Orcs aren't an inherently strong race, sure, but a single blast to take out so many may place them as a Greater Demon, a formidable force to be sure. Though I recall hearing that Greater Demons tended to be more demonic in appearance, for one to look so much like a human with little to no monstrous traits is unusual. It's possible they may be even an Arch Demon, but that's just too unlikely. Nothing in this forest could summon, let alone control, an Arch Demon.'

Briefly lost in his thoughts, the Chieftain quickly returned to reality as the demon spoke again, "Ah forgive me, it was rude of me not to properly introduce myself," the demon once more bowed politely, "My name is Tanya Tempest, I am the secondary ruler as well as the military commander of a growing village of Hobgoblins, Goblinas, Kijin, and Tempest Wolves. I come here as a representative of the highest leader of the village, Rimuru Tempest, in order to offer an alliance to the Lizardmen to fight against the Orc Lord together."

'JUST WHAT KIND OF FREAK TOWN IS THIS DEMON FROM?! Hobgoblins, Goblinas, and Kijin are all rare races, rarely being born out of Goblins and Ogres respectively. So just where the hell did an entire village of them come from?! And this demon is NAMED?! No, I mustn't lose my composure here, it'll leave a bad impression on one of the leaders of such a powerful village. Such an alliance… I have no reason to refuse… However, this Rimuru Tempest… If they truly lead a village of such rare and powerful races… I must meet them directly."

The Chieftain coughed, hiding his shock and confusion before he spoke, "It is a pleasure to meet you Tanya, I have one condition before we establish an alliance. I wish to meet the leader of this village, Rimuru Tempest."

Tanya thought for a moment before nodding, "That can be arranged. How does seven days sound? In seven days an official envoy including Rimuru will arrive here for an official meeting to decide the details. Of course, I doubt there would be much to discuss. I would prepare your forces for a fight in seven days, that should give you enough time to prepare. So long as you do not engage their forces before then, then I can guarantee you that the Orc Lord will fall on that seventh day."

The Chieftain nodded, "I understand. We shall wait here for your envoy"

The demon smiled, "Good. I'm glad to see you're more reasonable than your son."

'Shit! What has that bastard done now! I can only hope he hasn't permanently soured our relations with such a powerful village!'

"I-I would like to apologize for any problems my son may have caused you." The Chieftain stammered out, attempting to salvage their potentially critical relations with the village.

The demon sighed, "I can see it was not your intent for him to act the way he did. Abandoning the official talk, it's my personal recommendation to you that you teach him a bit more discipline, at least when it comes to diplomacy."

The Chieftain sighed, "Yes, I'm aware. The situation has gotten worse since that majin gave him a name."

"That Majin huh? I assume you mean a man named Gelmud?"

"Do you know of him?" The chieftain asked, confused as to how the demon could know who he is. 'Did Gelmud name the demon? Is he the reason the village exists?'

"Yes, we've been piecing together more about him and we believe him to not only be subordinate to a Demon Lord, but also the one behind the Orc Disaster's appearance."

"Huh?! But that would mean!" The chieftain now stood up in shock.

"Gabiru is being manipulated. Originally we thought he was trying to take over the forest by naming people, setting them up as leaders, and having the orcs take out any who opposed him. As I now have knowledge of the Orc Lord's skill [Starved] I believe he's naming monsters to make them stronger for the Orc Lord."

The chieftain sat back into his chair, hand on his head as he processed this revelation.

Without a response, the demon continued, "If Gelmud finds out about this alliance I imagine he'd do anything to stop it." The demon sighs and thinks for a moment, a smirk then appearing on their face as she continued, "If Gelmud would want to sabotage our alliance I fear he may use Gabiru to do so. You seem like a capable warrior, but as you are now you may not be able to beat the named Gabiru and some of his followers. As such I make an offer for you."

The Chieftain lifted his head and nodded, "Go on."

"I would like to offer you a name. Do not think of it as a request of submission, consider it more as a gift to ensure your safety against the Orc Lord and potentially any internal threats you may face. If you wish to help my village forge a nation after the battle, then so be it, but I will not force you to. I would consider offering the name after our alliance, but that may not give you enough time to learn and adjust to your new strengths. I am a powerful demon, I can almost guarantee you an evolution of some kind if you accept my name."

'The offer is… tempting. I was initially suspicious of this demon, but I don't sense any ill will towards us. They could be tricking me, but my instincts suggest that she isn't. While normally I wouldn't suspect that my own son would turn against me but… Considering how much his personality has changed I no longer would put it past him entirely, especially if a Majin is involved that's manipulating him. If protecting my people means I need to accept a name from a demon, then so be it, it's hardly a large price to pay.'

"I will accept your offer, Tanya Tempest. I graciously accept your name."

Tanya nodded with a smile on her face, 'Good, hopefully he'll feel more inclined to join our nation whenever we officially declare its existence. He seems like a competent leader anyways, he'll make a great subordinate if I can twist him to officially becoming mine in the future.'

Speaking once more, Tanya raised her hand to the Chieftain who now knelt respectfully in front of the throne, "From now on your name will be…" 'Shit, what do I name him? I'd say Rimuru's the one who's good at this but he's really not. Half of the elders are some variant of 'Rigurd'... Hmm well…I suppose the Chief does remind me somewhat of that guy…' "...Kurt!" Tanya finally declared, satisfied enough with the name.

The chieftain continued to look down as he knelt, "I graciously accept your name. From now on I shall be known as Kurt! Chieftain of the Lizardmen!" Kurt now stood up, holding his trident and pounding it loudly against the ground, "Let all of the Lizardmen hear and remember it!" He banged the ground again as he began to glow, growing more muscular and slightly larger as his green scales turned a dark gray, and he seemingly aged back roughly twenty years.

After a few moments the evolution concluded as the Chieftain looked upon himself and felt the new strength he had gained, "I thank you, Tanya Tempest for the name. I hope to meet with this Rimuru in seven days to discuss an alliance. Until we meet again."

Tanya nodded and once more made a polite bow, "I will see you again in seven days, Chieftain Kurt."

With that the demon left, followed silently by the guard as he returned to his post outside.

With the demon finally gone, Kurt fell back into his chair with a sigh, his daughter standing to his side as his guard quickly approaching him, "Father-I mean Kurt, you didn't have to do that."

Kurt shook his head, "No, I did what was best for the Lizardmen. As it was, I only had a few years left before I was unfit to rule, with neither you or your brother ready to become Chieftain, I was beginning to grow worried. With this I can rule for a long time. It has been a while since I was last able to fight alongside my men, but thanks to that demon… I will once more be able to join my fellow lizardmen in slaying these Orcs."

"If you believe it was the right choice, Father, I will not complain," the girl said, returning to her station as his guard.

Kurt sighed again, "I feel as if I've felt a ray of hope… And from a demon of all things… What a strange place this forest has become."

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