by Fuse
Mjurran apparently wasn’t a fan of boring men. Her words pushed Yohm forward.
“I’ll help out, too, Yohm.”
“Uh, weren’t you busy waiting for me to die a moment ago, Gruecith?”
“Ha-ha! What’re you talkin’ about? Like I said, just outlive me and you’ll be fine.”
“Pfft. All right. You got me. I’m signin’ on to this thing!”
He nodded firmly at me as we shook hands over it. Something told me we were gonna get along just fine.
We could work out the details once this was all over. First, I had to become a demon lord. I had to get Shion and the others back alive. When a life’s lost, it never comes back, but they weren’t lost yet. There was a chance.
I’m an atheist. I don’t think there’s a God, or a god, out there. Right now, though, I was willing to pray. Pray to the figure that controlled all miracles. Before, I’d probably laugh at senseless stuff like that. And maybe it was senseless. But, you know, while I’m praying, I feel like I can believe in it. I can believe that Shion is all right.
That glint of moonlight illuminated me, flickering faintly in seeming approval of my prayer.
CHAPTER 4
THE BIRTH OF A DEMON LORD
I headed for the meeting hall, Yohm in tow, once I heard that all my people had quickly gathered there.
As I stepped inside, the entire Tempest government currently in town was waiting for me, strained looks on their faces. Gabil and Soei were still on standby in the cave, but Soei was connected to me via the Sticky Steel Thread trick, and I figured he was monitoring the audio.
“Sorry I left you guys in the lurch for so long. We’re here to convene a meeting over resurrecting Shion, Gobzo, and everybody else!”
The declaration made the hall stir. They were happy to see me back to my old charismatic self, and now they had hope that there was something to be done. It kindled a flame in each of their eyes. Not one of them expressed a single doubt. Shion and Gobzo were coming back, and it was time to move.
“Now, before I give you my own ideas, I would like to hear your opinions about the Kingdom of Farmus and about humans in general.”
I received a great deal of feedback very quickly. The majority of them were in agreement with me on one key point: There would be no forgiveness for the humans who had played that cowardly trick on us. They were right to feel that way, no doubt about it. Some of them, however, also said not to treat all humans the same, that there were a lot of good ones out there as well. I was happy to hear that. All this anger, fear, and hatred threatened to drive us away from the goal we needed to seek.
Even after all of this, they still faithfully adhered to the advice I had for them. These monsters considered very seriously the idea of living alongside mankind. I had to love these guys for it. They were precious to me, like family. I never really loved anyone before, so putting it that way sounds kind of fakey to me still, but…
I waited for everyone to settle back down before I continued.
“Right. Listen to me, all of you.”
I felt all eyes upon me as I began.
“I myself am a former human being. I was reincarnated, as it were.”
This caused a little commotion, but nobody spoke up. Shuna, Ranga, and probably Shion already knew, I believed. I didn’t take great pains to hide it, and I think I might’ve even mentioned it offhand to them at some point. Judging by the looks of surprise on many of my audience’s faces, though, word must not have gotten around.
“I lived as a human in the same world that the so-called otherworlders come from. I died over there, and then I was reborn here as a slime. It was pretty lonely at first and desolate, but even someone like me managed to make friends here. By ‘friends,’ I mean you. It’s possible that all of you became closer to human with your evolutions because of my own hopes, for all I know.”
I paused to gauge the response. Everyone was intently listening to me, nobody expressing any doubts. I kept going.
“I created that rule not to attack humans for that reason. I said I liked humans because I used to be one. And let me assure you, it was not my hope that my rule would cause any of you injury. I’m a monster, but I thought that my heart was still human. I wanted to interact with them, and I wound up spending a really long time in human towns and settlements. If only I could have saved those children and come back here sooner…”
Then, out of nowhere, I ran out of words. I felt like anything I could say would just sound like a trite excuse.
“No, you’re wrong. We were too dependent upon you, Sir Rimuru, assuming you would always be there to protect us. That’s what led to this tragedy,” said Shuna, her beautiful eyes fixed on me.
“It pains me,” Benimaru added, “to have my sister say it before I could. This has been an excruciating lesson for all of us, Sir Rimuru. When we lost our Thought Communication with you, that feeling of invincibility we had crumbled. It made us all feel helpless, deep in our hearts. We were forced to realize that this state of affairs was brought about by our…well, really, my dropping the ball.”
“Wait a moment, Benimaru,” Rigur replied. “If you put it that way, then I am responsible for the town’s security. I am the one most at fault!”
It sounded like both Rigur and the rest of them felt an intense responsibility for this. They all insisted it was their fault, refusing to budge. I quickly put a stop to it.
“Hang on, people. I was chilling out, I let my guard down, and that’s what led to this. Plus, as an ex-human, I put too much priority on my own thoughts. I was careless about my standing in this world, and then this happened. I think it’s all my fault. I’m sorry.”
Everyone fell silent, each of them taking my words in their own way. There was a moment’s pause before Hakuro finally responded.
“You may have put your own thoughts first, Sir Rimuru, but that is not a problem at all. As Sir Benimaru and Lady Shuna stated, all of us dropped the ball. It was our own weaknesses that caused this. We accepted this nation from you, and we let those brutes pillage it because of our negligence. Am I wrong, everyone?”
A streak of tension crossed the room. All of them immediately nodded their agreement to this. Um. Hmm. Wasn’t expecting that. I was worried that people would brand me a traitor, in the worst case, but they were all ignoring my whole coming out as an ex-human. Like, I seemed to be the only one to care at all. I couldn’t help but ask:
“Well, no, I mean… You don’t mind having an ex-human as your leader?”
“Huh? You are still you, aren’t you, Sir Rimuru?”
“Sir Rimuru, you are my only master. What you were in your past life seems not to matter much.”
“Yeah. What we know for sure is that you’re here for us, is all.”
I guess it wasn’t anything like a concern from the start.
“Sir Rimuru,” Rigurd boldly stated, “we all feel the same way about this. None of us cares a bit, so please, do whatever you like. We will follow you all the way!”
I nodded. This really was my home. I felt happy. As long as you were all of one heart, one mind, you could overcome any wall—even the one separating human from monster. That much was crystal clear now.
Kaijin, tearing up a bit as he watched this, steered the topic back to our main issue.
“So let me ask, then: How is Tempest going to deal with humans from now on?”
The room fell silent, eyes focused upon me again. Yeah. That was the problem, wasn’t it? The monsters were one thing, but to Kaijin, the other dwarves, Yohm, and Kabal and gang, this was the biggest issue on the table. If I declared myself to be the enemy of all mankind, that’d be a threat to them. I didn’t want that, of course.
“First,” I said, “before I give you my conclusion, let me give you a quick outline of my thoughts. In my old world, there are a couple of different beliefs. There’s one that says humans are inherently ‘good’ by nature and learn how to perform evil deeds as they grow older. Then there’s another that says
humans are selfish and evil by default and learn how to do good over time. Basically, people can be good or bad, and humans tend to pick the easier of two options when they have the chance, so if that option leads to evil, they can become bad that way. Just like Farmus did, abandoning all negotiation and throwing around their power.”
I figured I was in the right here. After all, people could be good individually but lean more toward evil when they assembled together as a nation.
“…However, it would be a mistake to judge all of mankind as evil. It takes a human to do something as contradictory as working hard to make things easier for themselves. I was the same way, really. And I think that as long as you don’t mess up where you’re aiming your efforts at, you can make your existence a lot better for yourself. That’s why it’s so vital to have an environment you can learn in—and I want to create that environment. We can educate those who’ll befriend us, and we’ll do away with the barriers between people and monsters. That makes for better neighbors, after all, when you understand and help out one another. Doesn’t it? That’s the potential I want to believe in…”
That was what I thought about humanity. It wasn’t that I wanted to make mankind my enemy; I wanted us working hand in hand as a result. But:
“…But that’s just my hope for the future. If we trust in them unconditionally and run into this kind of situation again, we’re wasting our time. That’s why I’ve concluded that, for the time being, it’s too early to shake hands with humanity. The most important thing right now is to put on a show of force and make them recognize our presence. We need to build a position where they can no longer afford to ignore us. As it is, we’re probably being downplayed, treated as something they can use and exploit. We had been dealing with nations like Blumund and the Dwarven Kingdom, decent kingdoms that looked out for us, so we forgot about the darker side of being a nation. Even if individual people are good, the moment they form a nation, that’s when they expose their cruel fangs to us. Any nation is basically a bunch of weak people grouping together to become stronger, so I guess you can’t avoid that if you want to keep all the decent ones protected. That’s exactly why we need a show of force for people like that. My ruling this land as a demon lord will make them realize that trying to coerce us with military might will accomplish nothing for them. I can keep the other demon lords in check, too, serving as a shield for the other human nations. If we can make them think it’s better to be with us than against us, that’s all I could ask for.”
I took a breath and gauged the reaction. Even the normally clownish Gobta was listening intently instead of napping like he usually did. It was nice to see what I wanted to say get across to them.
“…If the Western Holy Church has judged us to be evil, then we must be firm in fighting against that. Not just with force but with words and economic policies. I want us to act like a mirror for these people—those who bare their fangs against us will themselves be punished; those who extend a hand will be amply rewarded for it. And then, over a very long time, we’ll try to build friendly relationships. That’s how I think about this.”
And with that, I wrapped it up.
Kaijin was the first to react. “I think that’s just too idealistic.” He sighed. “Like, what kind of guy trying to become a demon lord talks like that? Come on. Gotta admit, though, I kinda like it.”
Shuna snickered. “Nothing wrong with being idealistic. I think Sir Rimuru has what it takes to build that kind of ideal.”
“Indeed,” Geld said, “there is no need to lose ourselves in thought. We have decided to follow in Sir Rimuru’s footsteps, and thus we can only believe in him.”
I wasn’t sure I liked that lack of critical thought on his part, but he meant it with the utmost sincerity.
“If you do manage to become a demon lord”—Benimaru laughed—“I hope there is a role for us in it all.”
“I am your faithful shadow, Sir Rimuru,” Soei said—I guess he was listening in. “There is no need to confirm our relationship. I will move according to your orders.”
“And I, my master,” Ranga added from my shadow, “am your faithful fangs. The one who will tear apart any foe who stands in your path.”
They all voiced their agreement in their own ways—Rigurd, Rigur, Gobta, Hakuro, and everyone else. Yohm, too. “Damn, pal,” he said, scratching his head. “And you want my crew to build a new nation and turn everyone there to your side? Well, you don’t need to lay it out for us. I know how your mind ticks. You’re a real slave driver to all of us, y’know that?”
“I’m so glad we have an understanding, Yohm.”
“Ah, shove it,” he pouted, his lips smiling. Mjurran was on his right, Gruecith on his left, and the rest of his followers behind him. I saw Kazhil, his aide, and Rommel, his main staff officer, among them. They were all humans, and they, too, voiced their agreement in a variety of ways.
“Hee-hee-hee! So let’s keep things friendly between us, okay, Rimuru?”
Everyone nodded at Elen. Her words had weight in my mind. I was pushing a lot of stupid ideals upon them; I didn’t have any excuse for that. I lived life the way I wanted to, and I had to take responsibility for my actions.
“Thanks, guys. Hope you’ll still put up with my selfishness in the future!”
They all shouted their agreement, harmonizing like a choir.
With that out of the way, it was time to switch gears and figure out a strategy against this invasion.
“Um, do we have any details on the enemy force?”
Soei quoted a figure of at least ten thousand men, but I didn’t hear about what types they were yet. We needed to let the rest of this meeting’s attendees know, too.
“Yes,” Benimaru stepped up to state. “According to Soei’s investigations…”
…We were being invaded by a tandem force, with soldiers from both Farmus and the Western Holy Church. The Church force were the Temple Knights, the minor leaguers—about three thousand of them, which consisted of the garrison that was already stationed in Farmus. In addition to that, essentially there were ten thousand Farmus knights, six thousand mercenary troops, and around a thousand magic-users.
So, around twenty thousand in all. Pretty big force. Larger than our country’s entire population. But if the Church’s Crusader groups and their legendary strength in battle weren’t part of the equation, I didn’t see any major problem. The sheer numbers were more than expected, but the only implication this had was that I’d have a larger sacrifice to snack on. I had no intention of offering any of them mercy, after all. The real question on my mind was how many otherworlders were among them.
“How should we allot our own forces?” Geld gingerly asked.
“I think,” Benimaru replied, “my force should address the main enemy presence.”
He was ready to go, definitely—apparently, he had formed a group of hobgoblin warriors on the sly, trained by Hakuro and pretty well honed. Rigur and Gobta were commanding the goblin rider teams, too, and ready to kick up one hell of a lot of dust. I wasn’t the only one to be enraged by what happened.
But:
“I’m sorry, guys, but I’m gonna be the one to take down these forces. Or, I mean, I hope you’ll let me.”
“…How do you mean?” Benimaru asked for the crowd.
My explanation was simple. “It turns out ten thousand sacrifices are all I really need to become a demon lord. Presumably, I’ll be evolving into a so-called ‘true demon lord,’ and that’s how the process works. Luckily, we have double that on our doorstep, so I got more than enough. After that, I just need to show off my force a bit. It’s part of the whole ceremony, or process, toward reaching demon lord–hood. I need to annihilate all the invaders by myself.”
I wasn’t being entirely honest here. There wasn’t any need to go it alone, according to the Great Sage—as long as the souls were connected to me, no worries. My own will needed to align with theirs, and that’s all it took. The exact conditions, however, were allege
dly a little hard to engineer—it wasn’t just a matter of killing ten thousand and Bob’s your uncle. But I didn’t care.
A passing thought struck me that maybe Clayman had been aiming for this all along—to start a war for the express purpose of collecting ten thousand human beings together for reaping. Attacking villages singly only got you so far—maybe he aimed for a war that’d let him efficiently harvest those souls and become a true demon lord himself. He just didn’t know the exact conditions needed, so he had to satisfy himself with spreading evil around his domain instead. It almost seemed to me that he was taking advantage of the other demon lords so he could become a true one, even.
He would’ve been eliminated from the fray sooner or later, I suppose… But right now, the demon lord Clayman was my clear enemy. Once I took care of things with Farmus, he was coming up next.
So really, I had just one reason for handling this solo. It was because I had this well of intense anger deep in my chest, and I wanted to release all of it. I didn’t want to give people the impression that I’d kill at the drop of a hat. I wanted them to know I was pissed. And if it meant I’d make a mistake and get killed, then that’s just all I was capable of, really.
Plus…you know, I felt like I had to take responsibility for all this. I couldn’t allow myself to take it easy any longer. Even if Hinata was among the invaders, I intended to kill all of them by myself. I’d already seen her skills once. The same skill never worked twice on me, because the Great Sage always had the perfect remedy for it.
……
It felt like the Sage wanted to say something about that, but that assumption had never let me down before. Knowledge provides me the biggest advantage there is. If you use a skill meant to pick someone off on the first view, then you have to kill with it—otherwise, the survivors will pull their knowledge together and come up with countermeasures.
It didn’t matter who my foe was—I wouldn’t lose. I’d never be allowed to. And, perhaps sensing my resolve, Benimaru grudgingly accepted it with a nod.