{ Gabiru }

 

Had someone told me months ago that I would be serving under a demon and a slime while living in the Storm Dragon’s cave with a bunch of researchers creating tech beyond my understanding I would’ve laughed them off, probably thrown them into a cell for their own sanity at that. Yet that’s exactly where I was.

 

After my mistaken judgment on Gelmud, I was lucky to even be allowed anywhere within the forest, let alone in such a prestigious position. While that position had been quickly sidelined once Weiss arrived, I could easily understand why. Weiss had far more experience than just about any other mage here, aside from Tanya herself.

 

When you take in the knowledge that he had apparently served under her before she came to Tempest, it all made sense. However, it does beg the question of where Tanya actually came from. There were a few speculative rumors amongst the residents of Veldoria, the ‘Fortress City in the Great Cave’ as it had become known.

 

The main theory was that she was summoned long ago to help a nation in a war, and rather than using sheer force used her strategic mind to minimize the direct help she needed. Most believed that the mage gear that Tanya had begun to integrate after the Orc Lord originated from her time in whatever nation she formerly served under, likely someone’s invention made so that the human mages could keep up with her.

 

When she came to Tempest she lacked this technology to the same degree she had before, but apparently with Weiss’ arrival, this tech had once more come into her hands and it took the TRI less than a week to reverse engineer it. Of course, it certainly helped that they had been already striving to make such technology for months at that point.

 

The result of all that meant that the Mage Corps had gone from just a unit of elite Dragonewts under my direct command to several full-sized battalions of numerous races under the general command of Weiss himself. I was eventually restored as the head of the ‘203rd’ as it was reorganized a few weeks after Charybdis to comprise all the elites in Tempest’s mage corps. Despite that, for a while at least, it was almost entirely Dragonewts.

 

With time, more elites began to show as the boot-based flight tech allowed Tempest’s mages to fly with the same agility and flexibility as a Dragonewt. Of course as Dragonewts flying came much more naturally to us, and while we now had our own boots for the sake of acceleration, in the event that our tech was damaged our flight would not be. As such, despite new elites comprising the now renamed ‘203rd Aerial Mage Battalion’, it was still roughly 60% Dragonewts.

 

I am, however, proud to say that the 203rd is the most elite in the Federation! There are some who would disagree, but I believe that my excellent leadership and the brilliant teachings of Tanya and Weiss have refined us into an elite fighting force to be reckoned with!

 

If what Tanya says comes to pass, then soon enough Mages would be the main fighting force with ground units mostly delegated to seizing and holding land while us mages do much of the main fighting. With how quick and powerful mages are, it's no wonder that such might be an inevitability.

 

Apparently where Tanya and Weiss came from, mages were rare among humanity, thus limiting their numbers and restricting them to a mostly supportive role. With the sheer number of mages Tempest is able to recruit, they could easily match the amount of units on the ground.

 

Speaking of units on the ground, I had heard of a new potential ground unit being designed by the TRI utilizing mage tech as a basis. The project was mostly headed and accelerated by Tanya, using her own supposed ‘experiment’ as a base for the design.

 

The idea was, rather than a unit that was lightweight and could fly in the air and provide assistance in powerful spells and formulas, the unit would be on the ground, heavily armored and with powerful shields. Apparently the magi-tech and computation jewel would be built into the armor itself with weapons attached in some way to it.

 

Where exactly the weapons were put was apparently a brief point of debate amongst the designers before a compromise was made in creating multiple models for various purposes. Similarly to Panzers, they had been divided into ‘Heavy’, ‘Medium’, and ‘Light’ designs.

 

The Light design had armor that was really no different than normal full plate, though more mechanical in nature. It was meant to be more easily replaceable and the units that wore it were more akin to normal sword fighters than the more complex Medium and Heavy units. The armor had all the normal shield and magical benefits of the other sets without the bulkiness needed for heavier weaponry.

The Light designs didn’t tend to have weaponry, but apparently some would be equipped with automatic Mana Blades extending at the wrists to be used as weapons. Others would have to use weapons separate from the suit, primarily a big gun or a big weapon, mostly since the suit itself was also designed to assist in strength.

 

The Medium designs had heavier and bulkier armor, though generally retained the same size as the other soldiers, only appearing a bit bigger due to the thickness of the machinery and metal.

 

These were equipped with powerful machine guns. Either at the shoulders or the arms, sometimes both. When the guns were equipped at the shoulders, then at least one of the wrists would be equipped with a mana blade as well, though not all units with guns at the wrists were equipped with them.

 

The Heavy designs were far more bulkier, being comparable in size to individuals like Rigurd, though it only took someone of normal or above-average height to operate. These units were the best protected, but also had the most firepower.

 

Similarly, heavy designs had guns at their shoulders or wrists, however in these cases the weapons there were heavy in nature, in theory even being able to damage an unshielded panzer, perhaps even damaging a shielded one in the right circumstances. Mana blades were also often equipped on these, though modules existed for these ones to create a massive forward barrier for protection of others as well, a feat not usually possible on the others.

 

The heavier models usually needed someone with a bit more magicules to operate, but when operated well the plan was for the armor and the strength enhancers it provided to be able to reasonably rival a more powerful Majin.

 

All of this was told to me through discussions I had with some of the engineers at the food court. The food court was located in an easily accessible area in Veldoria, roughly near the center of the cave. It was actually quite a massive yet amazing place. The white pillars stretched high into the roof above where what looked to be a skylight–but was actually an artificial electrical light–was. It was a nice place and the food was great, mostly cooked by the wives, relatives, or friends of some of the researchers or military officers who lived here. In fact the entire economy of this cave-bound city was mostly built around those who were connected to the researchers and military soldiers that made up most of Veldoria’s population.

 

Tanya had referred to Veldoria as her own ‘Los Alamos’, but nobody seems quite sure of what that means. Nevertheless the city had grown into a massive complex of cave tunnels turned into streets as numerous complexes of research and military institutions made up the better half of the entire city. Veldoria was also the only place in Tempest, hell, the only place in the entire world that ran on entirely electrical power.

 

The reason Tempest didn’t have anything besides electrical street lights yet was that they weren’t quite finished on their electrical research and didn’t want to put up any network of electrical systems before finding out that there was a better way to do that and rebuilding it all. Of course, that was going to happen inevitably, but it was best to have a system they were confident that they couldn’t improve much for a while before moving on to integrating it.

 

Veldoria, for now, served as a testing grounds for both the military and civilian side of technology. The weapons and military tech would be tested by those here for the military, and the civilian tech would be tested by the basic residents here for other reasons. It was for this reason that various types of technology ranging from electrical stoves to even the most recent creation of elevators could be found in use in Veldoria, but not yet in the rest of Tempest.

 

The elevators in particular, while certainly fascinating in their concept… weren’t actually all there yet. I had learned to stop using them fairly quickly after the third time it broke down and got stuck halfway. Luckily it's easily solved by Rimuru simply teleporting us away, but the point stands. Apparently Tanya’s said she might consider using a more magical means for elevators using spatial magic rather than the more mechanical and malfunction-prone elevators.

 

In regards to said magic, the TRI had recently expanded into spellcraft, which as the name implied, created new spells to use. Most spells were the hard work of single mages, who along with whatever other duties they attended to also would craft spells for a specific need or desire.

 

In this case however, while most of the Spellcraft Department consisted of mages, there were some people there who hadn’t done so much as cast half the spells they were working with. However all you really needed to know was how the spells worked and the structure behind them and apparently you could start working with theoreticals.

 

According to the researchers, there are several types of magics, though there are four main ones; Elemental, Holy, Spirit, and Formulaic Magic. There was also Summoning, Dark, Engraving, Illusion, and Physics Magic.

 

Summoning magic has no real uses in Tempest, and even if it did refining summoning magic more than it already was had no real point. Tanya had apparently created a spell specifically for summoning her, however that was as far as that went.

 

Dark magic was deemed too chaotic and difficult to control. Tanya had stated that she believed it to use a substance called ‘Antimatter’, though she had no real way to confirm this. Nevertheless, due to the fact she only knew it to be used by high ranking demons she said it wasn’t worth the time or effort.

 

Illusion Magic and many types of Physics Magic were already integrated into Formulaic Magic or other types of magical engineering. Similarly, Engraving magic had already been delved into deeply with its own department working closely with the entire TRI.

 

This left the main four; Elemental, Holy, Spirit, and Formulaic. Of these, only two were really considered, those being Elemental and Formulaic. Formerly Formulaic was the dominant one, however with the Spellcraft department formed, Elemental magic would see more conventional use. Spirit magic required a personal contract with a spirit, though Tanya had apparently mentioned it was–in theory–possible. Holy magic was completely out of the question, especially due to Tanya’s own personal distaste in it which she made abundantly clear.

 

In summary, it's a bunch of stuff that I don’t really understand. My only participation within the TRI has been in its plants department, primarily around the Hipokute Herbs and their properties. In particular, we discovered that Hipokute Herbs are quite literally just grass with magicules in them.

 

Upon hearing this, Tanya wanted to try to replicate it in an enclosed environment, allowing them to freely convert grass to herbs at will. If successful, she says, she wanted us to try it with other plants, namely curious how it would impact a plant like Cocoa. If I had to guess, she just really wanted to see what a magically-enhanced chocolate would do. The concept has certainly grabbed my attention.

 

Fortunately for me, Vesta has been able to assist in progress a lot more recently. Formerly he was juggling around the entire TRI, however after his position as head of the TRI was split into three, he was just the head of the ‘Biology Division’.

 

The other two departments became the ‘Engineering Division’ and the ‘Magic Division’. There are also some that don’t fit into any one category, and many projects which tend to overlap between divisions. As such the divisions are generally loose and merely a way to make sure proper leaders are left in charge.

 

As for who the leaders are, Kaijin was placed in charge of the Engineering Division not long after he effectively retired from public blacksmithing in favor of the job, handing that role over to Kurobe. As for the Magic division, the head of that became effectively Tanya herself despite her also taking on the role of Head of the TRI. It seems Tanya’s had some plan to craft one hell of a spell.

 

With the spell she blasted Charybdis with already being so powerful, it's no wonder that she’s an expert Spellcraft. I am curious as to what she’s planning to make though.

 

Regardless, I believe Tempest has a bright future ahead of it. This city that I live in now is a glimpse of that future, and while I might not believe that this ‘modern world’ Tanya talks about is the sort of spiritual ‘Valhalla’ the Orcs seem to think it is, I can certainly agree that it will bring a brighter future for all.

 

I do hope that my father, Kurt, is proud of how far I’ve come.

 

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{ Rigurd }

 

Being Governor of Tempestia was not a role I ever expected to take, but it was one I took with pride when it was suggested I run for the governorship. In the early days of what would become the Imperial Tempest Federation, I had ruled as the unelected mayor of the village. Eventually it was given the name ‘Tempestia’ which was then shared with the state as a whole.

 

When the new constitution was drafted and a governor was needed for Tempestia, it was suggested that I take on the role. After a landslide election I took on the position and have managed it uncontested since. There has been a single election more recently, not long before Charybdis arrived, but even that was won by yet another landslide.

 

I do feel partially bad, after all there were numerous aspiring men, much younger than myself, striving to obtain my position. While I have contemplated retirement once or twice, I’ve still got a lot of strength left to serve this country for years to come! Who am I to turn down all the residents who continue to vote for me? Clearly it means I’m doing a good job, and I shall continue to do so!

Needless to say though, the region which I govern has only grown and grown in almost all fields! What was once a small town with a few goblins cowering within it was now a bustling metropolis that was rapidly growing and expanding.

 

In particular, it was surprising to see just how large the human population had become. Tanya and Rimuru had agreed to enacting a nation-wide ‘census’ of every major city, documenting the demographics of the entire Federation. What had surprised me about the human population was that it had recently risen to being nearly 10% of the population of Tempestia, with almost all of them residing within the city itself.

 

The first wave of human immigration came not long after the treaty with Dwargon, though this was initially a short trickle. The recent completion of the road to the Kingdom of Blumund provided a path that many in the western nations took to immigrate here to Tempest. That initial wave has begun to slow down as of recent, but at my best guess the human population could reach 15% of Tempestia before it stabilizes.

 

While I was initially confused at why so many humans were flocking to Tempest, a bit of conversing with some of them gave a pretty open reason why: Liberty.

 

It was a word that both Rimuru and Tanya threw around quite a lot. The phrasing was even used in the constitution a few times. ‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’ was their goal as they said, though I believe one of them mentioned having taken the phrase from somewhere.

 

Tempest was far from a freely democratic system, and as Tanya put it, it was effectively a ‘pseudo-democracy’. That was mostly in the fact that individuals like Kurt in Ediechia and myself in Tempestia were both elected time and time again. Sure we were elected in free and fair elections, but the major politics rarely changed. Furthermore, the existence of the King and Chancellor, both unelected positions which held a ton of power, meant that it would never be a ‘true’ democracy.

 

Despite that, it was by far several times more ‘free’ than most nations that seemed to exist. Sure it was ruled by a King and a Demon Lord who could easily change just about anything they wanted with the sway they had, but they were benevolent and took a more hands-off approach where they could. And while sure there were leaders like myself and Kurt who were elected over and over, but the fact remained that not only were we elected, but the other positions such as in Congress were still fully elected and were far more frequent to change.

 

Tempest was in effect, an Absolute Monarchy on paper, but a Constitutional one in reality, something few nations had, and when they did it was far more restrictive. Most nations placed a limit on who could vote, limiting it to male land-owners primarily, in particular human male land-owners. Elves and Dwarves which were tolerated by the human nations also made up many of the immigrants, though the former tended to move further east and the latter tended to reside in Veldoria.

 

Here in Tempest everyone above a certain age could vote. Specifically this was the ‘age of maturity’, though it varied based on one's race and specific circumstances. The standard was usually 18, and if a race didn’t have a designated age specifically for their kind, that was the age that was used. There was also a brief topic on what defined a monster as a ‘citizen’, though this was quickly defined as any monster deemed ‘sentient’, thus including Ranga’s Direwolves and Eiga’s Blade Tigers in there.

 

A currency had also been fully introduced, thus allowing for taxes to be paid in currency and not in food or livestock. The system put in place made it so that the central ‘Federal’ government didn’t collect any taxes directly from its citizens, only on import tariffs and other affairs. Instead, the individual states were able to tax how they see fit, though owed a set amount to the Federal Government. This amount was surprisingly low, and couldn’t be changed without approval from both the Chancellor and the King.

 

The reason the amount was so low was that it ultimately didn’t account for the costs of the Tempest Research Initiative and the Tempestian Armed Forces, both of which were directly funded by the Chancellor herself. How exactly she had the funds to single handedly fund Tempest’s rapidly expanding army, I don’t quite understand, but she seemed to have quite a bit of connections in the human nations, hence why so many humans knew of Tempest in the first place, so it likely came from there.

 

Though as for the TRI, many nations now part of the Central Powers had begun to contribute monetarily to it as well, alleviating over half the financial burden Tanya had to take on herself. From what I have heard, Tanya now funded about 40% of the TRI directly, Dwargon close behind at roughly 30%, and other sources like Blumund, Eurazania, and other individuals in support of the TRI providing the other 30%.

 

In terms of where the money goes, Tanya herself is effectively the sole funder of Military research, with much of her 40% going straight towards those fields. Dwargon has some investments in the mage equipment in particular, but is otherwise focused on a mixture of other fields. Blumund has a bit of funding in the military research, mostly just so Tempest would provide it with some, but similarly is more focused on things like potions and biology.

 

In truth I don’t really know much more than that. As the Governor of Tempestia, I just happen to learn of these things through discussions and meetings with the leaders of the Federation. Tanya and Rimuru seem to have a pretty good grasp on how those things work, so it's best if I leave it to them, the two certainly make an interesting duo after all.

 

If one were to analyze them separately, it would be pretty easy to see them as conflicting forces, but when they work together for the sake of a common goal–that being the betterment of Tempest–their contradictions turn into strengths.

 

There’s no better example of this than how they rule. There was a specific reason that Rimuru was made King and not any other role. The role of King is a public one, when someone thinks of the ruler of a nation, they think of the King. Rimuru’s entire position was built around being the public face of the Federation as a whole. Meanwhile Tanya was made Chancellor, a role which, especially with a King, is a much less public and more bureaucratic role, something Tanya excels at.

 

Both Rimuru and Tanya have their own type of charisma, but they’re hardly comparable. Rimuru gives off a caring charisma with a desire to bond with his friends and subordinates. Rimuru seeks personal bonds through direct and personal interaction. Tanya, meanwhile, has the charisma that one would expect from the military leader she is. Her charisma makes others rally around her even through the hardest trials, not because they see her as a friend, but because they know she’ll pull them through to victory.

 

Rimuru inspires kindness, generosity, harmony, and kinship. Tanya inspires nationalism, pride, confidence, and determination. The two, while not mutually exclusive, had their own parts in the nation, a fact that transcended merely how they inspired their subordinates.

 

If Tempest had an agricultural project, you could expect to see Rimuru out in the fields, working with his citizens and subordinates to help get it done while Tanya would most likely be working in an office or far above it organizing the logistics and paperwork of it all. 

 

In short, the two knew their strengths and weaknesses. Tanya played the foreign political game while Rimuru played the domestic one, and how they showed themselves to other nations was nothing short of genius.

 

To the western nations, Tempest is a country led by a benevolent slime who has tamed a Demon Lord for their nation’s protection. To them, Tempest is a kind, benevolent, and welcoming nation with a Demon Lord kept on a tight leash for protection. Enough for the Demon Lord to be seen as a threat to any invaders while still not deterring any trade or diplomacy.

 

To the Demon Lords, Tempest is a nation truly ruled by a powerful up and coming Demon Lord of the Storm Dragon’s direct choosing. To them, Rimuru is a mere figurehead to the true leader that is Tanya.

 

Both of these, while right in their own way, are wrong when looking at the whole picture. Our allies are the few who see the full truth, that is that the Demon Lord is not tamed, nor is the Slime a figurehead. The two work in harmony as equals, one creating a strong deterrent from the shadows while the other creates a friendly environment in the light.

 

Rimuru once mentioned that ‘ideals without power are nonsense, and power without ideals are empty’. If this is the case, then there is no doubt in my mind that Rimuru stands confidently as the ideals of the Federation, and Tanya stands proud as its power. Both are the lifeblood of the Federation. Remove one and the whole thing starts to crumble.

 

Besides, while Rimuru may deny it and while Tanya may not even realize it, the two are like brothers, which is a strange comparison for two genderless races with female-leaning appearances, yet one that oddly fits.

 

Even when the two bicker it is like how my sons used to back so long ago. Back then this proud city was a tiny village. Back then neither of my sons had names. Nowadays that feels foreign to me, but back then it was the norm. The two would bicker all the time, but when it came down to it the two shared a bond that was unmistakable. While my first son, Rigur passed away informing us of the impending Direwolf attack, his brother, also later named Rigur, continues on his legacy.

 

I do hope he gets to see how far we’ve come. It is all thanks to him that we sought out Rimuru’s help in the first place, after all. 

 

But as for Rimuru and Tanya… It is certainly fun to watch them interact. Brings me a bit of nostalgia to see it. Seeing them act like that has made me consider potentially seeking to have some more children with someone, but now that I’m Governor you could say that all the residents of Tempestia are my children. As such, I shall do my duty as their elected father to lead them well!

 

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{ Rimuru Tempest }

 

Being the King of Tempest has only gotten more complicated since Charybdis when Tanya pulled that whole ‘reforming the Central Powers’ stunt. Of course, it was Gazel who created the name, but I swear everything that demon child does loops back around to being German.

 

Hell some of her Orcs have even learned German! Tanya didn’t even teach them German! If it weren’t for Magic Sense, I’d have no idea what the hell they’re talking about half the time. Not that I do anyways, a lot of it is gibberish about engineering and magic and ‘geometric vs numerical computation’ and stuff like that. I’ll give Tanya one thing, she certainly has the smartest subordinates. Sometimes I wonder if I should give Shion over to Tanya in hopes that she magically would become a good chef.

 

Of course even I can accept that there are some things that not even Tanya could do…

 

But hey, she created a food court! She even recreated fast food! With the Hipokute Herbs they’ve started to experiment with, fast food has apparently gone from something incredibly unhealthy to something that wouldn’t gradually poison you if you ate too much. Of course, it's far from being healthy, but it’s no longer unhealthy either.

 

Shuna doesn’t really like it when I go to the food court to eat, much preferring to cook for me herself. But when Shion takes over cooking duties every once in a while, I notice her complaints go silent if I invite her to go ‘examine progress’ with the TRI. That’s what I tell Shion, at least.

 

While the food in the food court in Veldoria lacks the same ‘character’ that the street food in Tempestia has, it’s certainly nostalgic to eat fast food after so long in this world without it.

 

I was initially concerned when Tanya had converted Veldora’s cave to a city for all the members of the TRI and the Military, mostly since I was worried she’d start working them to death in there. But from what I can see the working and living standards are quite high. A lot of time off, plenty of amenities, and if you’re a decent enough researcher even your housing costs are covered. 

 

It amazes me how Tanya is able to shoulder the financial burden of both the TRI and Tempest’s military. I knew she had some affairs in human countries, but I didn’t know she was making enough money from that to operate such a massive military.

 

Of course she has talked to me about having the Federal Government take on some of the financial burden regardless to make it seem less like her personal army. While I don’t believe doing that will change the fact that it basically is her personal army, I’m fine with it so long as it doesn’t upset the rest of the Federation.

 

For now I’ll leave that affair up with Tanya. I have my own plan to set out to. My goal is the Kingdom of Ingrassia, there I’ll find Shizu’s students and… Well I’m not quite sure what’s next, but they were Shizu’s lingering regrets, so I’ll find out why and go from there. My plan was to leave pretty much immediately after Charybdis’ defeat, but as it turns out it's not so easy for the King of a nation to leave with no notice.

 

Tanya’s been shouldering a lot of work to make my temporary departure seamless, but with how much work I’m now putting on her shoulders I hope she learns to take some time off.

 

Mental note to myself to drag her off to one of our hotsprings one of these days. She really needs a chance to destress. She’s more of a workaholic than me, and when she’s not working she’s drinking coffee–which she went out of her way to recreate–or otherwise working with the military.

 

Of course, from my discussions with Tanya about her past life, it starts to make sense. She didn’t talk too much about her first life, though from the passing details she mentions infrequently I can tell that her, or at the time, his parents seemed to slave away at some company, he was quite good with athletics and won a few awards, and he spent much of his life working his way up to reach the easier life of an executive.

 

I do feel a bit sorry for her, though she sometimes makes it hard with how insane she is when it comes to the military. If I had to guess from my own knowledge of Japanese society, his parents probably weren’t around to give her attention. He probably went into sports to try and get that attention but when that failed just went into business to try and do what his parents couldn’t and reach an easier life.

 

Of course, that’s jumping to a lot of conclusions, and I was fortunate enough to not be in a similar situation. I know many people who were, and a few of them turned out surprisingly similar to Tanya, though perhaps a bit less chaotic. A lot of them were stout businessmen who fairly quickly faded away from any personal friendships or bonds they may have had, attaching themselves to people solely for the sake of their own advancement.

 

If that’s the case with Tanya, then it’s only made worse by the fact that her second chance at life was ruined and distorted by this ‘Being X’ who reincarnated her as an orphan in a poor orphanage, once again ripping away her childhood before throwing her into a war. All of it sounds rather sad when you think of it this way.

 

But then again, this is the same person who has earned the nickname the ‘Mithril Chancellor’ and recreated the Nuclear Bomb at the first given opportunity. So it becomes hard to really see her in the same way.

 

Nevertheless, I do hope I can sway them to take a break from constantly working. There is no need to be working so much, there is nothing she needs to prove and there is no enemy that she is at war with. If she continues like this nothing will change, so I’ve taken it upon myself to force it to. Or rather, I’ll probably have some others do it for me while I’m away, but still. Tanya needs to take a break from working and enjoy the nation she’s helped to build.

 

Okay but seriously, did she really need to make a nuclear missile?

 

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{ Veldora Tempest }

 

“I will say, Master Veldora, you certainly picked some powerful individuals to look after the forest for you.”

 

I looked down at the spirit sitting on his knees below me as he said that. Nodding, I moved my queen down the board, placing his King in check.

 

“Kyahaha! Of course I did! I am an excellent judge of character!” I boasted as the spirit, Ifrit, made his turn.

 

I looked down again at the board, contemplating my next move, but ultimately decided on moving my rook in preparations for a trap.

“I’m mostly amazed that they were able to find a consistent way to communicate with you. Miss Tanya was the one who told you about this game, right?”

 

I looked down at my hand where a giant ring was placed around one of my fingers. How Rimuru had managed to slip it into my Unlimited Imprisonment was beyond me, but apparently it had been made using Tanya’s Demon Lord Ring as a basis and somehow had the ability to allow direct communication even through my imprisonment.

 

It’s nice to have someone to talk to, but they’re so busy all the time. Just once in a while I wish they’d take a break from all this ‘nation ruling’ business. I mean Rimuru seems to be heading out from Tempest, but even still he’s focusing on a goal in mind.

 

Nevertheless I nodded in response to Ifrit’s question. He was correct, this game, ‘Chess’ as it was called, was a similar game to Shogi, but seemingly more popular in the west. 

 

Of course despite its origins I am of course a master at it regardless. I dare anyone to challenge the mighty storm dragon in chess! I shall wipe the floor with them! They shall cower at my feet and beg for merc-!

 

“Checkmate.”

 

I looked down as I was broken from my mental ramblings, gazing at the board as, true to his word, my King was in checkmate. I looked for possible ways of breaking it, but quickly determined that it was probably impossible.

 

“Hmph. It seems you have bested me in Chess. No matter! The game was dumb anyways! We shall play another! I shall contact Rimuru and ask-”

 

{ No, I’m busy. } A response came in through the communication ring as Rimuru turned down my request before I even made it.

 

That damned Great Sage skill of his can be annoying at times. No matter! I shall ask Tanya instead!

 

Funneling some magic into the ring, I sent Tanya a message { Hey, Tanya! I was wondering if you might have any more games that I could play with Ifrit! }

 

I heard an audible sigh come from the other end of the communication, { I’m busy right now. I should be able to project memories through the ring. I added a sort of magical data storage in there thanks to the help of Great Sage, so I’ll just upload my memories of my second life there. Scroll through the downtime a bit, there were a few games my unit played between deployments. Play one of those. }

 

{ Thank you, Tanya-Chan }

 

{ Call me that again and Unlimited Imprisonment will not save you. }

 

Cutting off communication, I quickly began to look into the data of Tanya’s memories in her second life. Due to her business, she had basically just hastily uploaded everything rather than the parts that were useful to me.

 

On one hand that meant I would have to filter through all of her memories like I did with Rimuru’s to find Shogi. On the other hand…

 

Well I had always wondered what Tanya’s life was like. I’ve been able to freely look through Rimuru’s life since I was stuck here, so it could be fun to look through Tanya’s life.

 

“Change of plans Ifrit. How would you like a movie night?”

 

“A movie night?” the spirit asked.

 

“Yes! I have acquired all of Tanya’s memories! At least in her second life, so together we shall watch it!”

 

“What was Tanya’s life even like again? From seeing Rimuru’s memories, a lot of it was just video games and por-”

 

“I’m certain it was glorious! She was apparently a commander of some unit in a Great War like I saw in Rimuru’s history books. Rimuru wasn’t the greatest in that subject so I’m not sure what we’re getting into, but let’s begin!”

 

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{ Erich von Rerugen }

 

Something has changed about the Kingdom of Falmuth. It’s not something that you can spot easily, but it's as if there has been a gradual, yet sudden, shift in how the rulership of this Kingdom thinks and acts. What was once an additional otherworlder summoning turned to two, then three, then ten. It’s come to a point where it's happening every few days now.

 

From my current understanding, attempting it even once was something only doable every few years. Yet now they’re doing it left, right, and center. All these summons seem to come from my world which is apparently not the norm with the summonings. Nevertheless I’ve ‘fortunately’ been put in charge of these otherworldly forces due to my knowledge of them.

 

My question that still remains is how are they summoning so many?

 

If this was not normal, then there must be something, or someone interfering. At first I thought this to be mere speculation, but then Falmuth splintered from the Luminous Faith. I had no real attachment to the religion myself, being from another world will do that to you, but the fact remained that a scism like this was completely unheard of in this world. And over what? The gender of the god Luminous?! That’s absurd!

 

At least it is until you consider the possibility of it being some powerful entity pretending to be a god. Heck, even the supposed ‘female luminous’ which the rest of the western nations continue to worship is a living being themselves. With Demon Lords existing and holding absurd magical abilities able to wipe out a country, it only makes sense that it's possible.

 

Whatever being is pretending to be God clearly wants the Kingdom of Falmuth for… something. What exactly it gains by controlling Falmuth I’m not too sure. From what I can tell the Kingdom has gradually been falling into disarray. Trade has slowed down with a new path going through Tempest, a new faction of anti-royalists is supposedly forming, and the Kingdom is overall far from its prime. While it’s not an awful target, there are certainly far better ones for such a powerful entity.

 

Of course then there’s what the Kingdom is currently pushing for: War with Tempest.

 

You know… The one nation on our border that has a Demon Lord as its co-leader.

 

The one nation that has an alliance with the strongest nation on our border, Dwargon.

 

The one nation entrenched in a sea of forests formerly protected by a dragon known to enact rampages.

 

That Tempest.

 

Yes lets fuck with them, great idea! Piss of the Demon Lord AND the Storm Dragon while we’re at it!

 

With poor decision-making like this, it sometimes makes me forget that I’m not in the Empire anymore.

 

Nevertheless the supposed reason for this is to enact a ‘Holy War’ under the ‘True Luminous’ to ‘Exterminate the Monster and Demon Lord Threat’. How exactly they hope to achieve this, I’m not sure.

 

I know little of this Demon Lord nor the armies of Tempest, but I can’t necessarily say Falmuth is short on firepower. While they lost one of their summons, they’ve been rapidly summoning more and more. Most are Imperial Mages, though I have seen some outliers. Things like a scientist or an American have appeared, but the vast majority consists of Imperial Mages, not that I’ve had much chance to interact with them personally yet.

 

Whatever comes next… Well it's bound to be a headache, that’s for sure.

 

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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, Ultra

 

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