“Is there a reason you picked Blumund for the base of your plans, Miss Degurechaff?” Mia, a girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes followed behind Tanya, adjusting her glasses as she did so. Her eyesight was perfect, but these weren’t normal glasses, they were a magical artifact Tanya had acquired for her, allowing her to use her recently acquired skill with much better efficiency.

In signing a contract with Tanya, she gained a number of her skills, or rather she was able to utilize a fraction of their skills. The only skill she had full use of was ‘Sage’, meanwhile she had limited access to ‘Transcending Eye’ and ‘Illusion Master’. She, like all other contract holders with Tanya, had also acquired ‘Mental Influence Resistance’ as a result of the contract.

This was done mostly through a loophole Tanya found within her own skill, ‘Oberst’. Through Oberst, she found that she could grant some of her skills to anyone serving directly under her. Normally this would only apply while in combat or another scenario, however, she found that through a contract, individuals could technically always be directly serving under her. While this indirect method limited how many skills she could give out and how effective they would be, it did allow her to at the very least give Mental Resistance to everyone she made a contract with as well as give a few stronger skills to a chosen few. Mia was among the lucky ones.

The glasses that Tanya had given her enhanced her eyesight beyond what was already considered perfect. It also had the useful side effect of amplifying the effectiveness of Transcending Eye. While this was unfortunately useless for Tanya due to her already having full access to the skill, it worked well for Mia.

Tanya walked into a large manor she had purchased as the base of her operations as she responded, “It’s simple. Blumund is small. It's a nation that must tread carefully lest it find itself brushed aside by its neighbors. If we gain enough power here, we’ll not only be too big and threatening for them to risk removing, but our presence would add a deterrence against other nations attacking Blumund, making it much more profitable to keep us here.”

“I see, so you basically want to take over Blumund?” Mia asked in response, following Tanya inside as she was led upstairs.

“Not exactly. Of course, I want to keep Blumund well under my influence, but I feel it would be better to keep them friendly out of willingness than out of force. If we mess up and end up agitating them, it could see them turn to some bigger force for stabilization. Best case scenario, they become a vassal of a nearby larger power like Ingrassia or Falmuth. Worst case scenario, they become a closely aligned state to the Church. Frankly, I’d rather not have a bunch of theocratic commies on my border.”

“What's a… commie?”

“Don’t worry about it. Be lucky they don’t really exist outside of that damned ‘Holy Empire’. I don’t even understand how you can combine the two concepts, but if their god is anything like Being X, I can’t say I’m really surprised.”

“Being X? I'm confused…”

“Sorry about that, I went on a bit of a ramble. Onto the matters at hand, if we tried to create a centralized bank in Falmuth, we may have some success, but we’d have just as much opposition too. Blumund is small and has only a limited number of nobles. From what I’ve heard, the Guild or perhaps just the Guild Master has about as much power as the actual nobility, that is, not much at all.”

“I see, so not much to oppose us, after all.” Mia replied as Tanya led her into a room as she stared at what she saw in confusion, “What is that?”

Before her was what seemed to be a sleeping elvish girl with blonde hair in a ponytail and in many ways looked like Tanya when she wasn’t showing off her demonic appearance.

“It’s convenient, that’s what it is.” Tanya said with a smirk as she approached it, “It’s a homunculus. They’re made in the Sorcerer Dynasty of Sarion. It was quite hard acquiring one, but with enough wealth and connections, it's a lot easier than one might expect. It’s damn expensive, though.”

“I see… but what’s it supposed to do?”

“I can transfer my soul into it in a way and use it instead of my normal body. For most people like politicians, diplomats, or country leaders it's meant as a failsafe should they be attacked while visiting somewhere. For me, it's mostly just so I don’t have to fly halfway across the continent every time I want to get from here to Tempest.”

“Can you even transfer your soul that far?” Mia asked, confused.

“Not easily, but with the amount of magicules I have, I can pull it off. What I’ve really been trying to do was make it so that I can use both this body and my actual one at once. If I can be in two places at the same time, it would make my life a lot easier. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem possible for now.” Tanya made sure everything was in order before she turned back towards Mia, “I’m returning to Tempest. I’ve already set up everything so all you should need to do is keep it running while I’m gone. I’ll try to return frequently enough. With my homunculus, it shouldn’t be a problem anymore.”

“Understood, I’ll do my best Miss Degurechaff!”

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

Tanya finally allowed her 203rd to take a break from their several hour long training. She had been given permission by Gazel to allow her forces to utilize some of the high mountain ranges for intensive training. That was, of course, under the condition that she helps out Dwargon with the creation of its own mage force.

The main problem with creating a Dwargon mage force was that they lacked something that Tanya and the Dragonewts had: Flight. Flight could be attained, but replicating Imperial technology was easier said than done, especially if you didn’t have anything to base it on. Tanya had tinkered with her jewel and rifle enough to understand its basic principles and work out a design, but the flight boots were another piece of technology entirely.

While the Dragonewts wings allowed flight, thereby negating the need for such equipment, Tanya still set her ever-growing team of researchers and engineers on a mission to rebuild it from scratch. While the Lizardmen could fly without mage gear, the propulsion provided by it would not only help increase stability and flexibility in movement but would allow faster speeds and better acceleration.

While the first models had been made, and were of significant speed, they couldn’t be funneled into a single boot, or even into a dual-boot system similar to Legadonian Ski technology. The bulkier tech was more reminiscent of Republican mage technology, one that was more limited in speed and agility, but made up for it with ease of use, better control, and generally cheaper materials.

This design actually seemed to work well with Dwargon’s already existent, albeit secretive, Pegasus Knights. By simply creating mage gear shaped like a horse similar to the Republican equipment, all the Pegasus knights needed to learn was how to actually use it. Maneuvering, formations, and other tactical experience had already been learned by the knights, and while some differences would need compensation and new training, it gave them a significant head start to fly using a mount rather than an Imperial-based boot design.

Of course, Dwargon’s mage corps were still getting off the ground. A dual-core system was about all the Pegasus Knights could reliably handle, however, a small handful were granted a Tri-Core system, with Gazel himself being given a Quad-Core one like Gabiru.

As for the design of the outer metallic holding of the jewels themselves, they stuck with the winged design but had a few changes. In particular, rather than two straight wings with a triangular jewel, they stuck with a circular model and had two wings curved upwards. The Tri-Core models had a sword planted through the center, similar to the design on their flag, while Gazel’s Quad-Core had two more swords forming a crossing ‘X’ shape as well.

Dwargon’s mage corps were not attending the training, though she had planned to host a few with them alone in the near future. Once they were skilled enough, Tanya had numerous joint training operations planned for the unit. Gazel, though having a computation Jewel, only sought basic training in flight and maneuvering. Combat with a rifle, he said, wasn’t his forte.

Tanya allowed them to take a break within Dwargon’s capital city, though most had assumed human appearances in order to not attract too much unwanted and potentially hostile attention. While Tempest had entered a treaty with Dwargon, not everyone was too eager to accept monsters just yet.

Before Gabiru could go off and be a moron without Tanya’s supervision, Tanya approached him from the side, visibly startling him as she appeared behind him, nearly causing him to jump in shock. His fellow dragonewts, fearful of being dragged into whatever Tanya might have Gabiru do, quickly fled inside the safety of the Dwargon capital as Tanya went to speak to Gabiru.

“I got something I need you to do for me.”

“Y-Yes Miss Tanya?” Gabiru asked, clearly worried that she would force him into more training, which she had already done to many.

“I have ventures beyond Tempest within some human nations. While I can easily defend myself, someone who is smart and rich is respected, someone who is strong and powerful is honored, someone who is both is feared. In an optimal situation, I’d rather not force myself to fight. As such I want you to work as my bodyguard whenever I myself head out to work. Since I have a homunculus, I won’t be needing you too often, but when I go out, I may drag you with me.”

“I understand ma’am! I, Gabiru, will be a perfect bodyguard!” Gabiru proudly exclaimed with a hand on his chest.

“You got a human form right? Change into it, I had Shuna make some clothes for you to wear. I would’ve had you in heavy armor, but a spell-sword fighter would fit you better I feel, so I had her make you some lighter outfits. Magically enhanced, of course.” Tanya reached into the troop’s storage they brought with them to training, pulling out a fairly basic white and gray shirt, dark gray pants, and brown boots. A short greet cape also came with the outfit along with a short, but expertly forged magisteel katana with it.

Gabiru turned into his human appearance, one which he rarely ever used due to preferring his Dragonewt form, and proudly struck a pose with his new outfit. His human form had green eyes and messy brown hair. As he struck numerous poses Tanya nodded and muttered, “You’ll need an alias when you’re serving as my bodyguard… Kazuma will do fine, I believe.”

Gabiru lifted his chin proudly, “Then when I am in this form, I shall serve you proudly as Kazuma!”

Tanya nodded with a smile, “Good, go have some free time in Dwargon. Make sure to gather the battalion and begin heading back before the sun sets. I’ll be back in Tempest, I best not hear anything from Gazel about any lizards misbehaving.”

Gabiru nervously and stiffly gave her a salute, “Y-You have nothing to worry about, Ma’am!”

Tanya rolled her eyes and blasted off back to Tempest. On her way, she utilized a magical art she called ‘Magical Radar’ to look for monsters. Magic Sense could naturally look fairly efficiently for monsters, but the range was limited. By sending out a specialized burst of one’s aura, they could effectively send out a magical ping over a far distance if they had enough magicules. 

This art allowed her to easily detect the location of monsters, gauge their power, and ultimately determine if they’re a threat. Most monsters aren't intimidating enough to require her attention. Some may cause the goblin forces to struggle a bit, but that was all in their training.

The Blade Lions under Eiga had been taking over monster subjugation over the past few months with units like the Goblin Riders taking more of a police and military role. Eiga’s pack had also expanded, so much to the point that Tanya believed every Blade Tiger west of the river had evolved and been recruited into the pride.

Numerous more intelligent races had been forced into submission. In particular, several packs of direwolves had been incorporated into Tanya’s command. While some were delegated towards an expansion of the Goblin Riders, others were utilized for their shadow-step ability and their stealth potential. These wolves would be attached as a supporting force to individual units to serve as recon.

While Souei and his squad were brilliant at stealth and recon as well, in the case of individual units, having to contact upper commanders just for them to contact Souei would be inefficient. While allowing them contact Souei directly was an option, doing so would flood communications and provide too many missions for Souei. Ultimately, in Tanya’s eyes, and as was agreed upon by Rimuru, Souei and his Dragonewts were much better suited for grander or larger-scale recon and stealth rather than the small-scale recon usually needed by smaller units.

The most peculiar of the monsters the lions had managed to get to submit was a Dragon, though one which, according to Eiga, was either on the stronger end of Lesser Dragons or the weaker end of an Arch Dragon. Ultimately, its strength required Eiga herself to come down to subdue it, even then still needing coordination with multiple other lions.

Tanya now descended on where Eiga had requested her presence. Standing in an open, and mostly burnt field in the middle of the forest was a towering dragon with red and orange scales. In front of and surrounding the dragon was Eiga and her pride of lions. Eiga stood in her human form with her hands behind her back while the lions stood poised to pounce if the dragon so much as moved without permission.

Eiga made a salute as Tanya landed, a satisfied grin on her face as she expected head pats for a job well done. Tanya, sensing this, reluctantly placed her hand on her head and gave her a few pats. “This is the dragon?” she asked, quickly changing topics before the head pats could be brought up.

“Yep, big ol’ dragon! There aren’t usually too many who come into the forest. Veldora’s presence used to be a deterrent to anything but the weaker lesser dragons. As Veldora’s been gone for longer and longer, dragons seem to be getting more and more emboldened to move into the Jura Forest.” Eiga replied, turning now to look at the dragon who quickly ducked her head below her hands.

“I suppose the Jura Forest is safer. There’s only a few areas where a dragon could reasonably camp out without being attacked by humans trying to get rid of em’.” Tanya replied, using her Transcending Eye skill to analyze the Dragon’s race, confirming that it was ultimately an Arch Dragon, albeit a younger and weaker one.

“We believe she came up north from the Dwargon mountains. They have a few dragons up there, and while they don’t tend to intentionally attack humans, they do tend to fight amongst themselves for the limited territory. Since there’s nowhere else that isn’t riddled with humans who would call upon some adventurers or the church to take them out, most dragons are willing to fight and die for a home in Dwargon’s mountains.”

“I think I understand. They probably got chased off of their home in Dwargon, fled here, and thought you guys would be an easy snack?”

“Most likely.”

Tanya sighed. Ultimately, this dragon wasn’t enough to pose a reasonable threat to Tempest. In fact, she was confident that a handful of her own subordinates, or if nothing else Rimuru himself, could probably take down this dragon on their own. The problem, however, was that this may become more and more of a common occurrence. With Veldora gone, the dragons have no reason not to flee to the Jura Forest which, to their knowledge, lacks any settlements whatsoever.

Tanya, however, also spotted a vital opportunity. It was a bit ballsy, and probably more of a headache than she wanted, but if it worked, it could nearly double the Federation’s firepower.

Tanya turned from Eiga and approached the Dragon who visibly got more and more nervous the closer Tanya got to it. “Alright dragon, you have three options here. Option one, you leave the forest and don’t come back. Option two, we kill you and I turn your skin into a purse for Eiga. Or, option three, you submit yourself to me, I give you a name, and you serve the Jura Tempest Federation.”

The dragon spoke up in a loud female voice, “Huh? You think a proud dragon like me wou-” The dragon stopped herself as she looked behind Tanya to see Eiga manifesting glowing claws on her hands while the Lions surrounding her all seemed even more eager to pounce, “I-I mean I would be very interested in working for you…” The dragon raised its head a bit, taking a more casual sitting position. The lions tensed up, however, a gesture from Tanya saw them calming down as well.

The dragon, seeing this, continued speaking, “I do have one condition. I am not to be your slave. I will serve under you, but I am still an honorable dragon. We may fight amongst each other as you say, but we still have some honor to uphold. At least, some of us do.”

“I understand completely. I had no intention of treating you harshly. If you serve me well, you’ll be treated as one of the aces of the Federation. I do have a place for you to live. It’ll take some refurbishing, but I’m sure we can set up a room for you in Veldora’s ca-”

“YOU WANT ME TO LIVE IN THERE?! WITH THE STORM DRAGON?!”

“The Dragonewts already live there, I’m sure you’ll get along. Veldora’s been gone for a long time anyways.” Tanya muttered, annoyed that every time she tried to put someone in Veldora’s cave they had the same reaction.

“I see… Well in that case I shall do my best to get along with my Dragonewt Colleagues… Wait did you say Dragonewts? Where the hell did you get those? Just what sort of behemoth of a nation do you have in this forest?!”

“One that now has a dragon,” Tanya replied.

The dragon looked over at Eiga as if for confirmation, Eiga simply shrugged “You’ll get used to it.”

“Now then, if there’s nothing else I’ll give you a name.” The dragon nodded as Tanya thought for a moment, ultimately deciding on unoriginally using a latin word, “Stella!”

The dragon, now named ‘Stella’ began to glow and evolve, her body becoming engulfed entirely in flames as Tanya finally felt the magicule drain ‘Ah, there it is. Jeez, that took a lot of magicules. Luckily whatever the hell is inside me has been recovering my magicules every time I drop below my base levels. I need to find a better way to investigate it, all of my current methods aren’t working.’

Tanya watched as out of the swirling tower of flame appeared a well-endowed woman with crimson hair that turned amber towards the tips. Atop her head were two black horns which, while similar to the Oni horns, extended outwards rather than forwards. From her back was also a long reptilian tail, colored much the same as her hair. As the flames subsided the girl made a smile before promptly having clothes launched at her face, created quickly by Tanya’s own creation skill.

While Tanya was limited with how complex more expensive materials could be, in the case of cloth she was easily able to make clothing if needed. Such was now vital as the dragon had somehow turned human but unlike Eiga, wasn’t so generous as to transform with clothes on. 

The dragon put on the basic white button-up shirt and black skirt, her red and orange tail swaying from below it. Looking at her, Tanya was somewhat annoyed that now the village had someone to rival Shion in terms of chest size, however, simply decided to leave it at that.

Inspecting her with Transcending Eye, Tanya quickly realized that she had evolved from a normal ArchDragon to an Element Dragon of fire. As the dragon swayed closer to Tanya, she asked, “Why do all of my subordinates keep turning into humans…”

“Oh! I simply thought this form would make it easier to make a room for me. I never liked cramped spaces, I preferred to live on top of a mountain rather than in it, but with a human form I can sleep on a bed! Those things look a lot more comfortable than a pile of rocks. Either way, I can turn back if you want.”

“I see… Well so long as you can turn back into a dragon, we might need that dragon form.” Tanya responded.

“What for?”

“Now that you’re stronger, how do you think you’d fare against the other Dragons in Dwargon?”

“Say for a small group, I’d argue that I could take down most of them. I was already among the stronger half of all dragons there, I was only forced out by a rival of greater strength.” She explained as Tanya nodded with a smile.

“In the event that another dragon enters Tempest airspace, it will be your job to subdue and recruit them if you can. If you can’t, either force them out of Tempest or kill them. I’ll have the Orcs build you a home within the cave soon.”

“I can do that!” Stella began to punch the air with a smug grin on their face, “I’ll kick their ass!”

‘Now how am I going to explain this to Rimuru…’

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

“You mean to tell me THAT’S a dragon?” Rimuru looked with crossed arms at the crimson-haired woman completely devouring what was the equivalent of a buffet in front of her. She may be in a human form, but her appetite remained just about the same.

Tanya sighed and nodded, “Apparently… If it weren’t for your immunity to fire, I’d argue that she could probably put up a good fight with you. Heck, even I might not be able to completely trample over them if it weren’t for how much firepower I can use with so few magicules.”

“It seems knowledge of physics makes magic a lot more powerful. I was planning on developing an in-depth physics class for our education system whenever I get around to making that.”

“I can handle i-” Tanya tried to reply.

Rimuru interrupted, “Nope.”

“Huh?”

“I’m not letting you touch the education system. I don’t need our schools turned into glorified boot camps for the military.”

“Whatever you say, oh glorious leader,” Tanya muttered, rolling her eyes.

Rimuru shook her head, “Says the one who probably built a nuclear bomb in their basement.”

“Three.”

“Huh?”

“I built three,” Tanya replied blankly, Rimuru staring at her in shock at how casually she admitted she had built nuclear weapons.

“Why the hell did you build a nuke!” Rimuru barely managed to suppress his voice as he yelled that as if anyone around would even know what a nuke was.

“Rimuru, we live in a nation where half of our strongest people can level a town in seconds. Both you and I can probably launch several nuclear detonations in milliseconds. A nuclear bomb is nothing to those. I mostly had it built for testing anyways.”

“Testing for what?!” Rimuru shouted, at this point exhausted from hearing of Tanya’s antics behind his back.

“The future, Rimuru.”

“I don’t like it when you say that.” Rimuru grumbled, ultimately giving up on the topic, “Just don’t go nuking foreign countries. Or rather, just don’t go nuking anything.”

“If I wanted to nuke something, I would’ve done so a long time ago.”

“I suppose so.” Rimuru stared back now at the dragon as it tore through all the meat she was given. She seemed more interested in meat than anything else which, for a meat-eating dragon, Rimuru just assumed was normal. “What do you plan to do with her though?”

“Send her out to deal with any other dragons that fly too close to the sun.”

“Was that a pun?”

Tanya sighed, “Not intentionally.”

“And what do you intend to do with these dragons, Tanya?” Rimuru’s gaze slowly turned back to look at Tanya, half anticipating what she was going to say.

“If they submit, use them to bolster our forces, if they don’t, then Stella will chase them off or kill them. Simple.”

Rimuru sank down into slime form as he looked up at Tanya, “Look just… don’t destroy the forest. I get that you’re helping defend the Federation, but don’t you think you’re getting a little carried away?”

“I’d argue I haven’t gone far enough,” Tanya replied, causing Rimuru to sink down further.

Rimuru sighed, “Alright… I’m going to bed.”

“You don’t need sleep. Also it's noon.”

Rimuru began to slide away, looking back at Tanya as he mumbled, “After this interaction I think I do…”

«Notice: Individual with a high density of magicules approaching at rapid speed»

‘Huh?!’ Rimuru shouted towards his skill. He looked to Tanya to see if she had noticed anything only to see her launching off at rapid speeds towards the source of the warning.

‘Should I go help her? Can I help her? If it comes down to a fight it's probably best that I’m nearby, but for now I think I should let her interact with whatever this ‘individual’ is one on one. I should make sure the town is ready to defend itself in the meantime.’

Quickly rushing off to organize a potential defense of the Town, Tanya meanwhile continued her approach to meet the approaching entity head-on. Tanya’s magical radar only reached so far with so much effectiveness, but such a large amount of magicules would’ve been near impossible to miss for miles by anyone with a similar art or skill.

As she stops a bit in front of the approaching beam of pink light, whoever it was stopped as well. As its momentum came to a halt it once more became possible to see who it was. Hovering there was a girl with pink hair in twin tails, bright blue eyes, and wearing what was obviously overly revealing clothing for someone who looked between the ages of twelve to fifteen.

Despite her childish appearance, Tanya could instantly tell this person’s magicules far exceeded her own. Her Transcending Eye skill told her nothing aside from the sheer amount of magical power the individual was showing, one enough to probably wipe Tempest off the map if she tried.

Calculating the trajectory that the girl came in, having traveled from the south-west of Tempest, Tanya was easily able to figure out what was going on; this was a visit, or an attack by a Demon Lord or a strong subordinate of one. The only territories to the south of Tempest were those controlled by Demon Lords, and assuming she was a Demon Lord, there was really only one candidate Tanya could assume she was.

A few seconds after stopping, the girl placed her hands at her hips and proudly proclaimed in a confident, albeit still young-sounding voice, “I am the one and only Dragonoid also known as the Destroyer, the Demon Lord Milim Nava! I heard you and the silver-haired one were the strongest in this town so I came to introduce myself!”

‘Yep, Demon Lord Milim. There’s only two demon lords to the southeast and call it a hunch but she didn’t strike me off as a ‘clayman’. I was worried for a second that she may have been a subordinate to a Demon Lord. If Demon Lords had someone with her power as a mere subordinate, it would’ve been a miracle humans were still alive.’

“I am Tanya Tempest, Chancellor of the Jura Tempest Federation. You would be correct about me and Rimuru being the strongest, but did you truly just come to introduce yourself?” Tanya gave a formal greeting, knowing better than to piss off a Demon Lord. Frankly, in hindsight she knew she should’ve let Rimuru handle this instead of risking herself, but she didn’t trust Rimuru’s diplomatic skills yet to deal with whatever mess is the politics of the Demon Lords.

Still, one question lingered in her mind, ‘Just what is she here for? Surely she’s not just introducing herself. Or perhaps she is? Maybe she recognizes the rising power in the forest and wants to befriend it?’

“Yep. Just thought I’d introduce myself. Where’s the other one? You know the one who took down the Orc Disaster?” Milim asked rather casually, much to Tanya’s confusion.

‘She seems so casual about this! Did she really have no plans at all?! Was this even a play to befriend us or was she just trying to say ‘hi’?! Is she actually a child?! No. There’s no way someone of that power is a mere child. It must be a ruse of some kind, even if she is childish there’s no way someone could survive the politics of being a Demon Lord with the mind of a child. Are Demon Lord politics really that simple? Or does she just have the sheer force to ignore them?’

“Rimuru is probably still down in the city, he is its King after all so he’s probably managing something. Last I saw him he said he was going to take a nap.” 

“Does a slime like him even need sleep?” Milim asked.

“No.”

“I see… You know, with all that power you have you could proclaim yourself a Demon Lord,” Milim said, tilting her head to the side.

“I’m surprised you can tell how much power I have,” Tanya replied, probing her to see how much the girl would give away.

“That’s because of my Unique Skill, Milim Eye! It tells me everything I want!” Milim proclaimed proudly.

In order to test this, Tanya raised up two fingers and used her skill to make it look like she held up three and asked, “How many fingers am I holding up?”

“Two!” Milim answered with pride.

‘Thanks for telling me my illusions won’t work on you. Probably smarter to keep your skill hidden, but perhaps it's already common knowledge to the other Demon Lords’ 

“I see, well is there even much benefit to becoming a Demon Lord? Are people really just able to call themselves a Demon Lord?”

“Well you get to fight a bunch of strong people and boss strong Majin around! Anyone can become a Demon Lord if they’re strong enough. You’re already stronger than a few of em’”

“I already do that plenty. Surely there’s something else to it?”

“Uhm well…” Milim scratched her head in thought.

Tanya raised an eyebrow and sighed, “If that’s all you do, it just sounds boring. Chancellor’s enough of a title already, I don’t need to add a fancy ‘demon lord’ title onto that.”

Milim pouted, “You’re doing something more fun than me aren’t you! Let me come to your village!”

Tanya was startled and taken aback, staring for a few seconds as she realized her mistake, ‘Fuck! Now I have to deal with a Demon Lord in our village!’ Without a choice in the matter, however, she replied, “Fine, but you have to promise not to destroy anything or kill anyone.”

“I promise!” Milim proclaimed with a wide smile as she seemed to remember something, “Oh yeah sorry about the whole Orc Lord thing, that was mostly Clayman’s idea anyways, I just wanted another strong Demon Lord to have fun with, it was fun to watch, though!”

Tanya decided not to question what she meant by ‘have fun with’ and simply began to lead her towards the village, “If becoming a Demon Lord means it stops the other Demon Lords from fucking with the forest then I’d consider it.”

“Oh yeah, most Demon Lords don’t like to mess with people like that. Most take their issues head on in Walpurgis!”

“Isn’t that the meeting the Demon Lords have before a big war?” Tanya asked, going off what she had read in human records.

“Oh it's nothing that crazy! It’s a banquet where we all meet to discuss things! Most issues between Demon Lords are settled there, fighting amongst Demon Lords isn’t too common. Most of them are isolative anyways.”

‘The Demon Lords are a lot more civil than I thought… Still I’m not sure if I want to dip my toes into Demon Lord politics but… It’s inevitable isn’t it… Our nation is not only a growing power both economically, which would be of interest to human nations, but also in terms of powerful majin, which would be of interest to the Demon Lords. Tempest is stationed right between these two, acting as a buffer between the humans and the Demon Lords. If we’re going to have to delve into the politics of the Demon Lords eventually, it may be best to do so on my own terms as a Demon Lord rather than as an outsider. I’ll talk with Rimuru about it later.’

{“Rimuru.”} Tanya sent a thought communication as she began to descend into the city.

{“How’d it go?”} Rimuru replied nervously.

{“Well the Demon Lord isn’t going to destroy us so that’s good…”}

Rimuru practically shouted through Thought Communication, {“Demon Lord?!”}

{“Demon Lord Milim Nava. She’s visiting as a guest, making sure everyone’s on their best behavior.”}

{“I’ll relay the message to all the Kijin and others.”}

As they land, Milim began to look around in awe at the city that was built here. As they began walking down the street, they attracted a bit of attention but eventually they met up with Gabiru who looked at the girl and said “And who’s this-” Gabiru stopped himself as his instincts made him rephrase that sentence. He had made a similar mistake in the past with Tanya, but now he knew that looks can be deceiving and little girls were possibly the most terrifying beasts in this world. “W-Whos this young lady…?”

“I am the Demon Lord Milim Nava! I will be staying in this town as of today!”

“STAYING?!” Tanya shouted in a panic. She had accounted for the Demon Lord visiting, already coordinating with her subordinates for backup plans in case things went south, but staying here wasn’t something she had imagined.

“What? Can’t I stay? Please, Tanya, please!” Milim gave puppy-dog-eyes to Tanya who, while not persuaded in the slightest by her expression, knew better than to oppose a Demon Lord.

“A-Alright! Alright! You can stay, but my rules still apply.”

A crowd had formed since they landed, now cheering as they heard that the Demon Lord would be staying with them. Tanya was confused but carried on following the girl as she happily moved from place to place, taking food off of food stands as Tanya had to place money on the table to compensate those she practically stole from.

At the end of a long day of chasing the Demon Lord around the village, Tanya allowed Rimuru to take over and guide Milim to where she would be living while she stayed here. A more permanent house could be built later if needed, but for now the rooms made for foreign diplomats would serve well enough.

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

Tanya walked into the lab carrying a box in her hands, Vesta quickly approached her as she placed it on the table and opened it, “Here you go, found that bakery you were talking about and ordered all that stuff you wanted. Consider it a reward for working hard.”

To Tanya, keeping her subordinates motivated was always in her best interests. For Vesta, while she respected him as a scientist and even a friend, she still needed to make sure he was in high morale and wasn’t overworked.

Vesta nodded, “Thank you, Tanya. It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to eat at that bakery, I used to frequent it quite often. Perhaps I’m just a little homesick.”

“Think nothing of it, I’ve been training the Dragonewts in Dwargon so I’ve had plenty of time to get some. If we ever have an official diplomatic meeting with Dwargon, I can see about bringing you along to present some of our research to Gazel. After which you’ll have some time in Dwargon to yourself.”

“I would greatly appreciate that, Tanya. Oh right, I almost forgot, the first model is complete! Here, follow me.”

Tanya and Vesta had gotten along well in the last few weeks since his ‘employment’ into the TRI, Tanya has seen him as both a valuable resource and a close friend for his intelligence, rationality and relatively calm demeanor compared to the more energetic Gabiru, Eiga, and now Stella.

Vesta respected Tanya as his superior, but had grown to respect her as much as Gazel due to her brilliant innovations and ideas in the fields of Magical Technology. While her own knowledge on science and engineering limited how in-depth her ideas were, over time she seemed to be picking up and learning from the many scientists around to the point where she would, even if minimally, contribute to designing the mechanics of various projects.

It was her commitment to not only creating these projects but even going so far as to learn engineering in order to help make them that earned her much respect among the scientists and engineers, including Vesta himself.

The current project Tanya wanted complete was, for all intents and purposes, the first ‘Magi-Weapon’ as Tanya called it. In a way, it was in part a successor to the Magi-Soldier project, even if only in spirit.

Walking deeper into the lab, Vesta lifted up a door similar to a garage door as behind it lay a beast of magisteel on treads, red paint glistening in the light as its turret pointed forwards, ready to fire at an enemy. The tank was a modified Panzer IV, equipped with magical technology from shielding to even the ability to magically enhance rounds if the power was there for it.

The gun worked on a similar system to the rifles, using a magical railgun system to fire the bullets faster and further, with magical enchantments allowing for even further damage when the shots hit. The main advantage of the tank was that it only needed one, albeit very skilled driver. The mechanics of the tank could be taken over entirely by simply funneling magicules into it.

For those without magicules, the first version of a magicule battery had been created, although it was still far from its most efficient form. It was through these magicules that things like reloading could be automatically handled, mostly since the ammo was created by the tank through runes and magic rather than having a vulnerable ammunition storage.

All of this cost a good amount of Magicules to run consistently, and unless managed by a powerful majin, of which Tempest had too few to spare, it was still limited in how long it could run for. In an average situation it was generally argued to be capable of running without magical input for about an hour before a recharge would be needed.

Such inefficiencies would need to be filtered out over time, and eventually models of a non-magical Panzer IV could be created, but for now this new tank. Named the ‘Magier I’ was a brilliant feat of engineering for the TRI.

Just one question filled Tanya’s mind, however, “Why is it red?”

Turning to Vesta, he simply shrugged as Otto walked over from the edge of the room. Otto had, at least recently, begun investing himself into learning to help engineer such projects like the Magier I and later planned projects, mostly as to be a help to both his fellow Dark Orcs and Tanya as well.

Otto approached, looked at the tank and nodded, “Well you see, we were going to paint it green to blend in more with the forest, but then Rimuru came in and said that red makes it go faster. We weren’t ones to question Great Rimuru’s intelligence so we assumed there was something to it.”

Otto and Vesta looked down at Tanya having her face in her hands, letting out a long sigh as she shook her head. “Just… Paint it back green later. I don’t know what Rimuru was trying to tell you, but the color of the paint doesn’t change the speed of the tank.”

“I see. Understood miss Tanya!” Otto gave a firm salute before returning to his project on a table at the edge of the room.

As Tanya continued to look at the tank she heard the door practically slam open behind her. Letting out a long sigh, she accepted her fate as she turned around to see Milim looking around at all the items in the lab.

“What do you need, Milim?” She asked, though she fully expected the answer that followed.

“I heard you were doing cool things and I wanted to see! Ooh what's that?!” Milim’s attention quickly latched onto the Tank behind Tanya. Milim rushed over there, looking all over at the tank and realizing it was a vehicle of some kind, “Can I drive? Let me drive!”

Tanya face planted as she let out another long sigh, “Milim this is an advanced project that’s still in its early stages and I can’t jus-”

Tanya was interrupted by Milim’s pleading puppy-dog eyes returning again. Still Tanya didn’t care for them however. “Please! Just once! We’re besties right? We can be besties if you let me drive the big wagon!”

“It’s technically a Magierkamphwagen, but fine. Just don’t fire the turret at anyone, don’t want to kill people. On that note, don’t drive it into anything either!” Tanya replied, knowing there was probably no use arguing with the Demon Lord.

She could, to an extent, wrangle her around with treats and threaten to not give her dinner or something, but when she set her eyes on something like this, there wasn’t much one could do to stop her.

Milim quickly hopped into the Tank as Tanya noticed it turning on. ‘She’s quick to figure out how it looks. Confirms my suspicions that she’s smarter than she looks. The tank isn’t losing any magicules either, seems she can run this thing solely on her own magicules as I expected. Letting Milim drive the tank is probably a bad idea, but damn if it isn’t a good test drive.’

Tanya and Vesta quickly moved out the tables to make a clear path for the tank to leave the lab. Tanya realized that the door to the lab was only big enough for a single person too little too late as Milim rammed through it, tearing a hole into the wall.

Tanya sighed, “we probably needed to replace it anyways in the future. Otto, if you don’t mind, put someone on that. Make sure the door’s actually big enough for tanks this time.”

Otto saluted, “Will do, Kanzlerin!”

With that Tanya followed Milim on her rampage of likely destruction.

As Milim drove out into the cave, she had plenty of space to move around and drive the tank at full speeds. The tank, for what it was worth, was quite fast compared to just about every other means of non-magical transportation in this world. As Milim continued to drive around, Gabiru returned into the cave only to see a giant beast of steel chasing him.

Gabiru screamed as he ran in the opposite direction, however rather than turning he simply ran forwards as if trying to outrun the tank. It took only a few moments for the tank to catch up, knocking Gabiru under it and breaking several of his bones.

Tanya rubbed the bridge of her nose in annoyance, holding out her hand as Vesta placed a potion on it. Throwing the potion half-way across the cave, it crashed onto Gabiru, healing him completely.

As Milim continued moving through the cave, the other Dragonewts had the common sense to move out of the way as it came. Eventually milim drove out of the open entrance to the cave and into the forest. Tanya looked out from the entrance as she drove off towards the town and sighed again.

She held up her fingers, lowering them one by one as she mentally counted down, ‘Five… Four… Three… Two… Aaaand one.’

Right on queue, she got a message from Rimuru {“TANYA HOW DID MILIM GET A TANK?!”}

{“She asked to drive it, and I let her.”}

{“WHY?!”}

{“I don’t think I had a choice.”}

Rimuru didn’t have time to argue with Tanya as he spent the next hour making sure the damage was kept to a minimum.

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

It was now near midnight in Tempest, and with Tanya and Rimuru lacking sleep it was often that they were among the few still active at such late hours. Some guards could still be seen patrolling and plenty of Blade Lions still hunted in the forest, but still this was usually the best time for the two of them to discuss plans or relax casually.

The tone was a bit more serious than the more chaotic nature of the past few days since Milim arrived. However it was her arrival that seemed to reveal a potentially interesting possibility.

“Are you sure this is the best idea?” Rimuru asked, leaning in the black of the couch sitting across from Tanya.

Tanya shrugged, “No clue. We’re going to have to deal with Demon Lords regardless, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it's inevitable for one of us to do this anyways.”

“Don’t you think this might make it harder to get diplomatic relations with other countries?” Rimuru asked, looking confused.

“I think a nation of monsters with a slime as a king and a demon as chancellor already makes that as hard as it can be. I don’t think adding ‘demon lord’ onto that will change anything. The main benefit I see is it being a deterrence. Neither Demon Lords nor human nations will pull something like the Orc Lord again, at least not on that scale.”

“Are you sure you want to do it, though? That sounds like a lot of work you’re putting on yourself.”

“It’s fine. It's a small price to secure stability. This country will be the birthing grounds of a modern era of democracy and industrialization. I'm willing to handle the politics of being a Demon Lord if it means adding another layer of protection onto that.”

Rimuru nodded, “If you think it's the best decision, I’ll go along with it.” Rimuru then pulled out a small stack of papers from his stomach, placing them on the table as he slid it to Tanya. “I know I assigned you to organizing the constitution, but since you’ve been a bit busy recently, I’ve taken it upon myself to make it. In that document is a bit of reorganization, and while not every role needs to be filled yet, it does map out the details.”

Tanya took the paper and analyzed it thoroughly, already knowing it was Great Sage who made it, but understanding that the basic ideas were likely Rimuru’s, simply put into legal mumbo-jumbo by his skill. 

“Within those documents are three main things of note. First is your proclamation of becoming a Demon Lord. Second is the creation of the royal family of ‘Tempest’ by ‘divine right’ of the Storm Dragon, and lastly the official declaration of the Imperial Tempest Federation.”

As Rimuru had explained, the documents were all there. The proclamation of a Demon Lord was mostly a bunch of ramblings about protecting the country from foreign influence, similar in structure to a speech a politician would give.

The royal family of ‘Tempest’ was quite elaborate planned out, namely it created two family lines, the ‘Draconic’ line under Rimuru and the ‘Demonic’ line under Tanya. Technically speaking nobody quite fell under either family besides them, however Eiga and Ranga were considered to technically be part of it under their respective owners. 

The last part was the proclamation of the Imperial Tempest Federation, a name and flag change to go along with the new constitution. The flag seemed to be a mimicry of the Japanese Rising Sun Flag with blue instead of red and with a golden symbol of Veldora outlined in blue where the lines converge rather than the red ‘sun’ of the flag.

The constitution didn’t change much about how governing would be other than the fact many people now had official roles and others would be given new ones. Three branches would be created and Tanya, while still Chancellor, would technically also become an ArchDuchess, once more returning the ‘von’ to her name. 

The constitution also centralized both sections of the Federation, those being Tempestia and Eidechi. Both regions had numerous autonomous regions where various isolated tribes existed. Now that most had been incorporated fully, the constitution sought to remove those autonomous regions in favor of just two main states of Eidechia and Tempestia. 

Tanya, satisfied with the constitution, placed it back down on the table with a nod, “I have no complaints. Anything else you wanted to comment on, Rimuru?”

Rimuru shook her head.

Tanya nodded once more, “If that’s the case then from now on I, Tanya von Tempest, am a Demon Lord.”

[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]-[]

Thanks to various editors and helpers on the Discord who helped with things like plot decisions, grammatical errors, and other aspects of the chapter:

Terraman60

To join the discord for chatting, discussion, updates, or to apply to be one of the credited helpers, join the link below:

https://discord.gg/xcCvpSxmA7

I have recently also created a second Discord to function as a hub for all Isekai Fanfics. If you wish to join to look for more fanfics about isekai anime/manga, feel free to join. Fellow writers of isekai fanfics are also encouraged to join.

https://discord.gg/s4EmmvcYzE