Part 1, Chapter 3: Strange Guests
Rimuru POV
With a bountiful harvest complete, the chill of late autumn is beginning to settle in over our town, so today is just the perfect day to relax on a beanbag by the fire and munch on chips!
People are starting to work a little slower during the colder months anyway, and as the one overseeing that work, that means I have some more time to goof around and be lazy like this.
I’m so comfortable in fact, that I find myself starting to drift off into a slumber, even though it’s something I usually have to force if I want to try it…
…
*BANG*
“Rimuru! What’cha up to?!” Milim yells as she bursts into the room, knocking the door off its hinges; fortunately, someone had the good sense to fit many of the doors in the government building with hinges designed to come loose under great force, so repairing this takes only seconds now.
So much for having a nap…
“Nothing, really. Looking for something to do?”
The Demon Lord nods, and I give a sigh.
“There’s really very little going on today, Lady Milim. You might as well just watch the world go by for a little while.”
“But that’s what I spent lots of time doing before coming to Tempest, I don’t wanna do more of that!”
“Well… Maybe it’ll feel different, being able to relax with the expectation of fun things to come, and friends you can spend time with.”
“Friends…” Milim says quietly, looking suddenly very contemplative.
She plops onto the beanbag, and pulls me onto her lap since the beanbag doesn’t really fit two people. It feels very awkward doing this in human form though, so I shift into my smaller slime form.
“Hey now, don’t steal all my chips,” I say as she starts to munch them.
“You’re my subordinate though, right? I should be able to have all your chips if I want!”
“True… But I think you’ve gotta find a balance between how much your subordinates serve you, and how much you serve your subordinates. If you treat your subordinates well, they treat you well in turn; it’s how I ended up with such a cozy life here in the first place.”
It seems like a bit of a profound thing to be saying in a dispute over a bowl of chips, but if Milim really intends to run our nation, I should use any opportunity I can to teach her.
“Oh… I guess I can share them with you, if it’s that important.”
“Thanks!” I say, taking up a chip in one of my nubby little slime arms and munching it.
…
As I eat, I notice Milim looking at me with a pout.
“What’s up?” I ask her.
“I was just thinking, you look so cute as a slime, but I haven’t seen any other slimes in a while, even though I’m supposed to attract slimes! What’s up with that?!”
“Slimes aren’t active at this time of year. We won’t see any for months, and they won’t appear in large numbers again until summer.”
“The slimes are gone? Hmm… I was curious as to what they taste like, but I would’ve felt bad hurting any of them since they’re so bouncy and cute, so I guess I missed the chance…”
“Just as well, I’m not exactly comfortable about the thought of slimes being eaten… Hang on, why are you looking at me like that?”
Milim lifts me up, and…
Did she just take bite out of me?!
“Ooooh! It’s soft, and a little bit sweet too! I can see why slimes are seen as a delicacy!”
Just as I’m trying to convince myself that she didn’t do what I think she did, she takes another bite out of my poor slime body!
Well, time to panic!
“Wait, I don’t wanna be eaten! I don’t wanna die again!” I loudly protest as I flail in her arms, shifting into human form.
“I was just giving you a nibble, you don’t need to get so worked up over it!” Milim says, letting me go.
I gasp in relief as the terrifying situation ends. “Lady Milim… Such antics are terrible for my nerves, I really wasn’t sure what would happen there!”
“… Sorry.”
This girl… At least she seems to accept what she did was wrong.
“I’m gonna go get some fresh air and walk this off…”
About an hour later, while I’m enjoying some food from a stand, right behind me I hear some kind of commotion in the street.
I figure I can just leave it to Tempest’s security though, getting personally involved would just make things overly-dramatic.
But then hear the sound of someone getting punched really hard, even by monster standards.
That’s not normal…
Running to the scene, I see several odd-looking majin, and Rigurd on the ground with a still-smoking hole in his face. The gory sight makes me flinch, and I quickly splash him with healing potion so I won’t have to look at it anymore.
“I hope you’re prepared to pay for what you did to Rigurd,” I coldly say as I approach the attacker, a leopard-like majin with a cocky expression.
“Oh? You think you can challenge me? I am none other than Phobio the Black Leopard Fang, so feel free to turn tail and-”
I close the remaining distance with Instant Movement, and Phobio is interrupted by my fist flying past his face, grazing his cheek as he barely manages to dodge.
He dodged that? Fistfighting isn’t something I’ve ever bothered practicing when magic and weapons are so much better, but I’m kinda used to being so overpowered that even my weakest attack is enough.
Phobio is quick to strike back, striking and swiping with his claws.
Although Phobio’s attacks seem sluggish compared to Milim’s, I don’t have much practice blocking or deflecting attacks in fistfighting; whenever I try that with Milim, it simply results in whatever body part I block with being blown clean off. So he lands a few hits on me, but even when his claws tear into me, the damage is quickly healed by my Ultraspeed Regeneration.
Seeing that he’s dealing no decisive damage, Phobio puts a huge amount of energy into his next attack.
“Leopard Fang Flaming Palm!” he yells, striking at me.
I manage to block the attack, which causes a devastating firey explosion, but in anticipation of that I’ve already enclosed the two of us in a barrier to avoid damaging the town.
Containing the flames in a barrier greatly intensified the heat, but that harmed Phobio more than myself.
“Those flames weren’t nearly hot enough to scorch me,” I taunt. “But it looks like fire is effective against you, so how about some more?”
Getting more aggressive now, I launch into a volley of punches, black flame covering both of my fists. He’s clearly very skilled in martial arts as he manages to dodge or block most of my attacks, but the black flame means that even dodging or blocking still leaves him hurt.
As my finisher, I launch a flurry of water blades in all directions, and they all converge on Phobio.
He has a look of terror on his face, and a moment later many of the blades cut deep into his body, causing him to immediately collapse.
Ha! That’s a lot of damage for a ‘distraction’, Milim!
I pour just enough potion onto him that he won’t bleed out, because those wounds would likely be fatal otherwise.
“So, what about the rest of you?” I ask the other three majin, who I’m guessing are his attendants based on their weaker auras and panicked looks.
“We won’t mess with you!” one of them quickly says, as the other two pick up Phobio.
“Good.”
Before I can see them off though, Milim arrives, no doubt having heard that explosion.
“Huh? What happened to Phobio?” she asks.
“You know this guy?”
“Mmmhmm! He’s one of Carrion’s strongest warriors!”
Eeek. I just messed up one of the top guys of a Demon Lord! Is Carrion or even Milim gonna be mad with me for this?
I only know who Carrion is because Milim helpfully gave me a rundown of the Demon Lords a while back, since she figured that the subordinate of a Demon Lord shouldn’t be so unaware of who the other Demon Lords are.
“He’s one of Carrion’s?! Um, he punched Rigurd in the face, so I just maimed him a bit…”
“Wa-hahahaha! Serves him right! You’re getting really strong, if you can beat up Phobio!” Milim says encouragingly, slapping my back.
“Hey, hey, are you sure it’s okay for me to be beating up the subordinate of another Demon Lord?”
“Oooh! I could go up to the other Demon Lords and say ‘My subordinate can beat up all of your subordinates’! It’d be so cool!”
“Please don’t…”
“Pardon me…” one of Phobios attendants, a monkey-like fellow, interjects. “But would you happen to be…?”
“Oh? Nice to meet you!” Milim says, offering the attendant a handshake. “I’m the Demon Lord, Milim Nava! Myself and Rimuru here run this town!”
“Seriously?!”
We’re now in the assembly hall, having explained the situation to the now-conscious Phobio and his troupe.
“So, the majin that Carrion sent me looking for built this town, and then you claimed him and the town for yourself?” Phobio asks.
“That’s the gist of it, yeah!” Milim replies.
“I see… I shall have to inform him of this development then. But as for you, Rimuru, what manner of creature are you? You’re clearly not a lycanthrope, but there are extremely few majin who can outperform a beastketeer.”
With a smirk, I melt down into a blob, showing him my real form.
“Tada! I’m a slime!”
Phobio is instantly enraged. “A slime?! I lost to a freakin’ slime?!”
“Hahahahahaha!”
I can’t help but give an evil laugh, I’m having fun knocking this cocky bastard down a few pegs.
“You’d best be off, Phobio!” Milim says. “Say hi to Carrion for me!”
**Two Weeks Later**
“Who are all these people, Rimuru?” Milim asks me, looking at all the human visitors gathered in the assembly hall.
“Uhh…”
I’m pretty stumped as well. Up until now I’ve only seen the occasional human here or there in Tempest, but right here there’s six of them, and nearly thirty others outside.
All I know from Gobta is that he and his patrol found some of them fighting a knight spider.
However, amongst the six at the table, I see three humans that I recognize…
“Rimuru! Did you get taller?” Eren cheerfully asks as she picks me up in a spinning hug.
“Well, of course I put on some weight after eating the Orc Lord, haha!”
Is she treating me like this because I’m small and cute, or because I look like Shizu? Probably both…
I wasn’t planning on greeting these guests in human form since I’m not sure what kind reaction humans might have to me taking on the appearance of a fairly famous champion of theirs, but I felt I had to.
If I took the form of a small blob, I’d probably be ignored by the strangers here if they’re told that a Demon Lord runs this place, even though I do all the work.
“Excuse me, are you Sir Rimuru?” asks a man with a scar across one eye, and a stern but oddly familiar face.
“Yep, that’s me.”
“I was told about it by the adventurers who escorted me here, but that body… Is it really from her?”
“I take it you mean Miss Shizu. This is her form, but be assured that I won’t misuse it, and perhaps out of a sense of kinship I would like to see to it that her final wishes are settled. Though we knew each other only briefly, it was enough for me to understand that there is far more to a champion than just their strength.”
“I see… Sorry, I should have introduced myself first. I am Fuze, the guildmaster of the Kingdom of Blumund. I must thank you for showing proper respects to a beloved champion of the guild. But as for my purpose here…”
Fuze then goes on to explain how Blumund had learned of and was preparing to deal with the threat of the Orc Lord, until Soei delivered my message that the Orc Lord had been dealt with.
“… The Orc Lord may be gone, but it was a powerful monster vanquished by another, more powerful monster. As far as humans are concerned, that doesn’t entirely eliminate the threat.”
That makes sense. Man, he isn’t gonna be happy about us being a Demon Lord territory, then.
“Ah… I hate to break it to you, but the situation is even more extreme than you think, since we ran into some complications…” I say, nervously scratching the back of my head.
“That’s me, I’m complications!” Milim chimes in.
I gesture towards her, still looking at Fuze. “We received an unexpected visitor a couple months back, who promptly conquered us. This is our new ruler, Lady Milim.”
“Milim? What parent would dare to name their child after one of the Demon Lords?” Fuze asks no one in particular, trying to ignore the obvious but terrifying fact being implied here.
A few moments pass in silence, as we give Fuze time to process. We have the full attention of all our visitors now, the words ‘Demon Lord’ must have put them on alert.
“… It’s really her, isn’t it?”
“Yup,” I flatly reply.
“Nice to meet you! I’m the Demon Lord, Milim Nava! I claimed Rimuru as my subordinate, so I rule Tempest now!” Milim boastfully states with her hands on her hips.
“It’s as she says. Though as the town’s governor, I still handle most of the day-to-day stuff.”
Needless to say, everyone is stunned by the revelation.
“Huh?! She’s a Demon Lord?!”
“No way…”
“I’ve heard stories about Milim, but that’s seriously her?!”
Sounds like everyone else is having a hard time coming to terms with the presence of a Demon Lord. But my experience in this world suggests that people thrown into the deep end of absurdity tend to come to terms with it pretty quickly.
Milim POV
After talking with the humans in the assembly hall for a while, I’ve got a picture of who all six of them are.
Kaval, Eren, and Gido are apparently friends of Rimuru, having been adventuring buddies with Shizu right before she died.
Fuze is some guy who’s important in Blumund, the small human nation west of here.
Youm and Rommel are leading a scouting party in response to the Orc Lord, hence the large number of other humans outside. Apparently, the scouting party is comprised entirely of petty criminals from Falmuth; except for Rommel, who is a novice mage that was supposed to use binding magic to force the party to comply with the mission. He removed the spell however, as Youm seems to have won him over.
Content to just listen in, I sit behind Rimuru, fiddling around with his hair. He doesn’t usually wear girly stuff, so this is a rare opportunity for me to see what he looks like with braids and a ribbon in his hair!
Rimuru is talking about pretty boring stuff with Fuze, convincing him that we won’t obliterate Blumund, yadda yadda. It’s not like I’d ever do such a thing without a good reason, but there have been many majin and Demon Lords throughout history who were extremely belligerent towards humanity, seeing them as easy pickings.
Eventually, the topic shifts towards the scouting party, and…
“So, given that the Orc Lord is already gone, what do you plan to do?” Rimuru asks.
“… As a group of convicts, only hardship awaits us back in Falmuth, so we had no intention of returning,” Youm says after some hesitation. “Rommel would have gone back to report that we all died, received his payment for the mission, and then rejoined us.”
“I see. Though you’d still need a nation to go to. I suppose that Blumund is pretty close, and we’ve got one of their highest-ranking officials right here, so this might be the perfect opportunity to negotiate a change in citizenship. But I’m sure that you’ve probably thought a lot about your plans for the future, given how ditching Falmuth was your intention all along.”
Rimuru is trying to find a place for these guys to resettle in? That gives me an idea…
“Hang on…” I interject. “What if you stayed here in Tempest?”
“Hmm… Are you sure that’s a good idea, Lady Milim? I mean, I don’t want to sound harsh, but you did hear that they’re all convicts, right? If they cause trouble, it might give our townsfolk a bad impression of humanity, most of them have very little experience with humans.”
“Eheheheh… It appears I’ve outsmarted you, Rimuru.”
“Uh…”
“You’re always going on about how you want to open up trade with humanity, and all the nice things it would get us, right? But humans live in fear of monsters and majin, so only the boldest humans would stride right into a town where only monsters live. If Youm’s scouting party became our first resident human population, this would be a town where monsters and humans live.”
“Oh, I get it! Even if humans make up less than a hundredth of the population, as long as humans see that it’s safe for other humans to live here, they’ll be more willing to visit and do trade with us, right? Being a Demon Lord territory makes us appear far more menacing, so we should do anything necessary to make us look more welcoming.”
“Right!” I say in confirmation.
He was able to take my idea and run with it… Rimuru really is a dependable subordinate!
“I suppose I can look past their criminal history as well…” Rimuru adds. “It sounds like they all look up to Youm, and Youm seems like a decent person; he even risked himself fighting that knight spider, an action that may have very well saved some of my friends.”
Turning towards Youm and Rommel, Rimuru then asks “So, what do you say to the idea of settling down here?” with a beaming smile. “As long as you don’t cause trouble, we’ll allow it.”
“I’m happy to follow with whatever Youm decides,” Rommel quickly says.
Youm is a bit slower to answer though.
“Hmm… It seems insane to accept the idea of living amongst monsters, when there’s a far more normal nation right across the border. But this isn’t any normal gathering of monsters, is it? I’d just be thinking with my gut instead of my head if I said no purely because you’re all monsters.”
“Indeed, this isn’t any normal gathering of monsters. In fact, from what I can tell, every single monster in this town is a named monster,” Fuze states.
The revelation makes Youm flinch, but he does his best to play it cool.
“Well, given how crazy everything about this is, I think I’d like to take some time to consider. Really, I have no idea what to make of the situation.”
“Take all the time you need! You can be our guest if you like!” I cheerily say.
“You too, Fuze,” Rimuru adds. “You’re looking to see if you can trust us, right? I’m sure the best way for you to get an assessment of us would be to spend some time here.”
“That would be very much appreciated,” Fuze says.
Clayman POV
“Carrion, are you aware of just how far Milim has gotten ahead of us?”
My guest is Carrion, a fellow Demon Lord. Though he has little grace, he is at least amiable, and both himself and his people are famed for their sheer strength and combat prowess.
“She was very quick to race off to meet those powerful majin,” he replies. “I’ve sent Phobio to negotiate with their leader as he sees fit, but Milim must have beaten him there by weeks. But it would be unlike her to claim any subordinates, right?”
Unlike Carrion, I don’t rely on such a primitive method of scouting as sending someone there and back. I’ve had Mjurran scrying from a distance, allowing her to observe key moments and transmit the information back instantly.
Chuffed that I’ve got a clear informational advantage over Carrion, I decide to share what I know anyway, all according to my plan.
“You would have received this information once Phobio returned to you, but since I found out first, I’ll tell it to you now as the sooner you know the better: Milim has claimed the entirety of Jura Forest as her territory.”
“Seriously?! She can’t just do that, that’s completely absurd!” Carrion exclaims, sitting up straight.
“Of course, it truly is a ridiculous claim. You see, this is about the majin who killed the Orc Lord; Rimuru Tempest, I believe his name was. The dryads had the gall to reward the majin for his efforts by declaring him chancellor of the entire forest, as if the territory was theirs to give away. Milim then went and claimed Rimuru as her subordinate, so she believes this means that the entire forest is now her territory.”
“How much of that territory does she actually occupy?”
“Almost none of it. Shortly before Milim claimed him for herself, the majin founded a nation known as the Jura Tempest Federation. While as a federation, it officially comprises all the populations of Jura Forest, as a fledgling nation Tempest’s actual sphere of influence is tiny. Their efforts focus almost entirely around the development of a single town in the far west of the forest, near where Veldora used to be sealed.”
“I see. In other words, the claim that Milim has staked is just for show. I’m sure that as time passes though, she’ll be able to incorporate it into her territory. Which means we need to move quickly if we don’t want to be left out.”
“My thoughts exactly, Carrion. Tempest is indeed spreading its roots even as we speak.”
“I suppose it’s impossible to get a hold of that majin though, he’s the lynchpin of her entire claim and there’s no chance she’ll let him go. By the way, have you find out anything interesting about him?”
“Indeed, take a look at this…”
Mjurran had the good sense to record the commotion started by Phobio on a crystal ball, as well as his subsequent defeat at the hands of Rimuru. As I show it to Carrion, he scowls at the incompetence of his subordinate.
“Damn your foolishness, Phobio… But that majin is powerful indeed, it’s a shame Milim got to him first. He’d be a sure pick for second-in-command for any of us, if he has that level of power on top of being able to found his own nation.”
The recording ends right as Milim arrives on the scene, and looks directly at us, showing that she’s aware of Mjurran’s scrying.
“As you can see, Milim is wary of me, so I wouldn’t dare to make the first move. However, I’ve learned something interesting from Frey: The revival of Charybdis is imminent, which should be the perfect distraction for you to claim some territory unopposed.”
“Charybdis, eh? So that’s what Frey was in a huff about. And should Milim notice her claimed territory being invaded, my invasion is there to distract her from yours? Is that how it is, Clayman?”
“You know me too well. I don’t intend you any ill will though, you should be able to make good progress. How much risk of conflict you endure is down to how much land you grab, and how quickly you can do it.”
“So it’ll be a race against the clock, then? When do you expect Charybdis to revive?”
“Oh, any day now. I’d be ready to mobilize soon, if I were you.”
If I can get Carrion on the move, then I can carry out my own plans without anyone noticing… Leon, I’ll figure out what secrets you’re hiding!
