by Fuse
Let’s get a thing or two straight before we go any further.
“I understand your suggestion, Duke Erald. We would be willing to accept your request for a highway. However…”
“However?” Erald nervously swallowed as he looked at me. Don’t worry, man. I’m not gonna ask for much.
“However, I want you to let us handle the highway’s security and lodging facilities. Of course, we would take payment for this, in the form of a small transport tax on top of operating expenses for those services.”
It would be like running a toll road. We’d set up stops at decently sized regular intervals where people would have to pay fees to advance. That would provide us with permanent funding. We might start in the red, but over the long term, it’d probably lead to profit. Our special interests at work, you could say. On top of all that, we’d keep the highway maintained for them. A bargain, really.
“…I see. Impressive. And only natural to demand that much. However, I would like to have the right to negotiate this transport tax, perhaps once every few years.”
Hohh? Erald’s pretty impressive himself. He immediately saw what I was trying to accomplish. Of course, none of this would happen without both sides coming to an agreement. No point setting that tax too high. I’ll take the offer.
“All right. Let’s go with that!”
“That’s it?!”
Fuze seemed flabbergasted, but I let it slide. In diplomacy, the power to make a decision trumps all else.
“Geld! We got a new job for you!”
“Yes sir! It gladdens me to hear. We have the teamwork to handle every step of the operation, the supply lines to transport the needed materials, and people with skills that knead and control the earth. The work you provide us is our very nourishment, Sir Rimuru, the best military training ground we could ever hope for!”
Huh?! Oh, uh, yeah… That’s the motivation they go with, huh? And here I thought Geld had some common sense. Maybe not so much? It was so surprising, I didn’t know how to react for a moment.
“Um, yeah. Well, in that case, we better get this war finished up so you can get to work.”
“Indeed. Soon you will enjoy the results of our daily training regimen!”
Geld was really up for a fight. I’m sure he’ll be an asset in the one against Clayman.
That was the last of the feedback I received—and thus, after several twists and turns, our summit was finally over.
A wealth of nations came to the bargaining table today, each with their own motivations, duking it out with words in search of a world where man and monster live hand in hand. It might have come out of nowhere, but this so-called Monster-and-Man Summit would later wind up becoming a turning point in history.
I had once again taken a major step toward my ideal.
With our talks between national leaders complete, it was finally time for our anti-Clayman strategy conference. I figured we all needed to hear Soei’s report first, so I ordered the meeting hall to be set up once more.
As I did, I had the nagging feeling I was forgetting something. And it just so happened that I was. Ramiris. What was that noisy little pixie going on about? Was she still unconscious?
Worried, I headed over to Veldora, only to find… Well, take a guess. It was Ramiris, entranced by the manga she was reading! I was concerned she’d start bawling unless I gave her some attention, but I had nothing to worry about.
“…Hey. Hey, what’re you doing?”
“Shut up a second. I’m just getting to the good part.”
She didn’t even look up at me. Why was she here again? That manga had her full attention right now, but she had something important to do here, right?!
I suppose she must’ve woken up, set off to yell at me again, and then noticed the manga volumes strewn all over the sofa. They must’ve captured her imagination so thoroughly she didn’t even realize the summit was over. She must’ve made amends with Veldora as well, because now he was happily being served by Beretta, as if that whole fainting spell never took place. Eesh.
I turned toward Beretta.
“Congratulations on your evolution to demon lord,” it said with a polite bow. “Allow me to thank you, grand master, for letting me share in the benefits of said evolution. Thanks to you, I have transformed from an arch-golem into a chaos golem.”
This evolution had imparted elements of both holy and demonic force into it. That was mainly thanks to the skill Reverser, which allowed the user to obtain two diametrically opposed essences at once—in Beretta’s case, aspects of both demonic and angelic power, I suppose. A new spirit core was born inside it, fusing with its older, demonic one to create a new chaos core. This let it handle holy-element attacks, something it was weaker against before.
I couldn’t have been the only one who saw that as incredibly unfair. That rock-solid magisteel body, already impervious to most physical attacks and magic, and now it was even covered for what few weaknesses it had. You couldn’t ask for a better upgrade than that.
This unique skill Reverser was something involved with me, it seemed. A lot of the panic I felt at the time must’ve come across to Beretta. When I was encased in that Holy Field, my emotions when I was left powerless by the sealed-off magicules must’ve affected how this power manifested itself, I think. Given that an arch-golem runs on magicules, it must’ve feared that it, too, would stop in its tracks. So it came up with this countermeasure.
Between Reverser and that chaos chore, Beretta was turning into one extremely interesting research subject.
Report. The unique skill Reverser is already integrated into the ultimate skill Uriel, Lord of Vows. Its effect can be re-created by applying Control Laws to metallic elements. Creating a new chaos core requires providing the correct conditions and materials to…
What?!
Raphael just chucked that out offhand, but I couldn’t believe how useful he was. That’s it—Food Chain! I have Food Chain as part of the ultimate skill Belzebuth, Lord of Gluttony, so I can obtain the original model for any skills owned by my friends.
Beretta had it, too, so we talked about it for a little bit. It seemed rather satisfied with the skill and the fun it had experimenting in the labyrinth. Following its evolution, it figured something similar must’ve happened to me as well, too.
“In any case,” I said, “I’m glad you’re still doing well. Once this is all settled down, we should talk a little more in-depth.”
“Ha-ha! I appreciate you saying that. Now I have something to look forward to.”
“Yeah. I’m also glad you’re still listening to Ramiris. Keep that up, unless she gives you any orders that’re too crazy.”
“I will be happy to. I promise I will not betray your expectations!”
“Great. Hang in there. By the way, what’re you guys here for?”
I shot a glance at Ramiris, still enthralled by her manga.
“We…”
Beretta must’ve forgotten, too. It made a beeline for Ramiris, bringing her out of her trancelike state.
“Lady Ramiris, now is not the time for this. We must inform Sir Rimuru of the news…”
“Shut up! I’m really busy right now!”
“Please, my lady, recall your goals traveling here.”
“I told you! Fate has brought me and this wonderful thing they call manga together! Oh, which suitor will she choose in the end…?”
You can’t argue with that impassioned logic. Literally, you can’t. Oh, the pains Beretta must go through. I couldn’t let this go on. I had a general idea of what she was reading, so—with a sigh—I decided to threaten her a little. If I didn’t, we’d all be forced to wait until she was done with the series, and that one was an epic running over forty volumes, so even someone as calm and Buddha-like in his patience as I couldn’t hold out that long.
“Hey, Ramiris? If you don’t want me to spoil it for you on who she goes with, then tell me why you’re here already!”
The threat produced immediate
results. “Right!” she shouted, saluting to me and hurriedly flying into the air, not a care in the world. It couldn’t have been anything serious—just her overreacting and carrying on as always. The rest of our visitors had stopped their chatting as they prepared to leave, also remembering that Ramiris was still there. I guess they all wanted to satisfy their curiosities before going.
The fairy noticed the attention and proudly puffed out her chest (or lack thereof), crossed her arms, and gave me the boldest nod she could.
“I’ll say it one more time! Tempest shall fall to ruin!!”
“Wh-what did you say?!” I replied without enthusiasm, following the script. She took the bait.
“Hmph! You know,” she said patronizingly, “that isn’t something I want to happen, of course. So I came all the way over here to tell you. You better thank me!”
I tried my best to avoid all her little jabs at me. Giving them attention would just prolong the conversation.
“So why’re we falling to ruin?”
“Well, before I tell you…” She stopped, turning serious as she looked around to size up the dignitaries around her. Then she nodded to herself. “Ah, I suppose this has a lot to do with you humans, too. All right—listen up, all of you. Clayman’s just proposed that we launch a Walpurgis Council!”
“A Walpurgis what?”
“Right, a Walpurgis Council. A special meeting of all the demon lords!”
Oh. She said “launch,” so I thought it was some kinda huge magic spell at first. I was planning to storm Clayman’s domain, so if she told me that Clayman was attacking first, I would’ve freaked out.
Pressing her for more details, Ramiris stated that staging Walpurgis required the consent of at least three demon lords, and once convened, attendance was very much mandatory. Absence was never forgiven. It was one of the very few things the capricious, self-serving demon lords had agreed to on paper (although this still didn’t prevent some extremely lazy demon lords from sending a representative with full rights to the Council instead).
“…I think I have read about this,” Erald said. “Once, all the demon lords came together to wage an epic battle, one that the Western Holy Church named Walpurgis, or the feast of demons.”
This was something he had apparently read in some records dating back a thousand years ago. The war was a costly one, causing serious damage and disasters across the land. Walpurgis, the term coined by the Holy Church for it, had the connotation of not just a demonic feast but one attended by those who spread chaos and destruction worldwide. These were worldwide affairs, I supposed.
So if demon lords gathered together like this, did it mean war among themselves, or them teaming up against some other enemy?
“So are the demon lords about to declare war on something?”
“No! I’m a busy woman! I don’t have time for wars and other annoying stuff like that!”
Ramiris looked like she had a lot of free time, but never mind. She was a demon lord, one who had been around for a long time to boot. Maybe she was part of those conferences of a millennium ago; it wasn’t out of the question.
Erald nodded at her. “I believe the demon lord Ramiris is telling the truth. The war in the records I read was officially called the Temma War, the War Between Heaven and Demon. It was fought by multiple factions, all vying for power. Of course…”
As he put it, these Temma Wars (or Great Wars) were triggered every five hundred years. There was a reason for that. It was because the forces of heaven—in other words, the angels—came down to earth at around that cycle. These angels were kind of natural enemies to demons, I suppose, but oddly enough, they would attack pretty much everyone indiscriminately. Developed cities and towns, for some reason, were a particularly favored target. Nobody knew why, but there you go.
“That is the reason why we never left the underground,” Gazel said—and maybe they had the right idea. As advanced as they were, they’d stick out like a sore thumb. The Sorcerous Dynasty of Thalion took the same tactic, building a city in the hollow of a gigantic divine tree—that “fancy tree city,” as Gazel had mockingly called it. As superpowers, both nations spared no expense in keeping their lands safe.
So what about the Western Nations? The Council of the West was established to protect themselves against monsters, but also so they could survive an upcoming Great War. Member nations worked together, while Dwargon and Thalion basically hunkered down.
But the angels weren’t the only enemy to worry about. As if responding to their descent, the monsters on the ground would suddenly explode into action—in this case, the magic-born, knowledge-bearing monsters. Some demon lords would use Temma Wars to stage invasions of human nations as well. The Great War of a millennium ago saw that happen, which led to a lot of tragedy for everyone involved.
The humans, to their credit, weren’t anyone to be trifled with. That could be seen in what was likely to be the largest antagonist of the next war—the Nasca Namrium Ulmeria United Eastern Empire. The Empire’s thirst for power could strike anytime, anyplace. If the Western Nations showed any sign of weakness, the eastern power could bare their fangs at a moment’s notice.
Thus, you would have these wild, frantic world wars, with angel and demon and human brutally slaughtering one another. That was your typical Temma War.
So I guess it was kind of slander to accuse the demon lords of triggering them. Not that I wanted one of those, either. And what’s with angels setting their sights on the bigger cities? I wanted my city to be the richest one in the land, incomparable to anything else—but maybe I ought to wait a bit. Maybe it’s smarter not to develop the most important facilities we needed until we had the resources to defend them. But this was all in the future anyway. Let’s just put it in the file for now.
Back to this Walpurgis.
“So what is Walpurgis, though? What do all the demon lords assemble for?”
If it didn’t have anything to do with a Great War, there had to be some other motivation.
Wait. Is it that, maybe? Like, what Milim was talking about, how they punished anyone else who declared themselves to be a demon king? Are they gonna decide who’ll do me in?
“Um, well, first, I think you have kinda the wrong idea, so lemme start with this.”
What Ramiris had to say hadn’t occurred to me at all.
“These Walpurgis Councils, y’know; we hold a lot of them. All you need is three demon lords to agree to one, which is pretty darn easy. Back in the day, it’d just be this informal chat over tea with me, Guy, and Milim… But Walpurgis is just a place where demon lords come together, catch up on news, and talk about whatever’s happened lately. It’s really not a huge deal; it’s just that humans don’t know about it.”
This sounded like quite a revelation. Maybe she saw it as nothing, but it was almost scary how lightly she treated the demon lord job sometimes. Maybe I should take what she said with a grain of salt. If I accepted it as the unvarnished truth, it might come back to bite me in the ass sometime.
“Okay, then, stupid, if it’s just high tea with your friends, then why’s this nation gonna fall to ruin?!”
Even someone as kind as I am felt the need to yell at her a little. This kid just has no idea what’s going on.
“Look, no, all right?!” She waved her arms up and down. “The problem isn’t that they’re holding Walpurgis; it’s what they’re gonna talk about!”
What they’ll talk about? If they’re all meeting together, it’s gonna be about killing me, isn’t it…?
As Ramiris put it, two people agreed to Clayman’s initial Walpurgis request—the demon lords Frey and Milim. That triggered it—and the topic of discussion: “The new force born in the Forest of Jura and their leader assuming the title of demon lord.” So me, then.
“So you… You declared yourself a demon lord?”
I nodded. “Yep. And I don’t regret it one bit.”
“Mm, well, that’s not so weird coming from you. You might have to deal with
a few tricky spots, but with all the power you’ve got, it oughtta work out, huh?”
Ramiris made it all sound like it wasn’t her problem at all. Which I guess it wasn’t. I mean, I was prepared for this, but still.
“You think they wanna punish me for it?”
“That’s how they’re phrasing it,” she replied, “but one of the unwritten rules in our line of work is that if you wanna punish someone, go do it yourself, if you care that much. They’re holding Walpurgis this time because they were betrayed by the demon lord Carillon. Plus, Clayman was going on and on about how Mjurran, one of his underlings, was killed.”
“What kind of ‘line of work’ is demon lord anyway?”
She ignored the question.
But apparently Clayman had already fingered “Rimuru, so-called new demon lord” as Mjurran’s killer. Which meant his goal was—
Report. It is believed to be the takeover of the demon lord Carillon’s territory and the suppression of the Forest of Jura.
Yeah. I think so, too. So that’s why his army’s en route. I guess he made the first move before we even realized it. Shrewder than I thought, I guess…
“Hey! Are you listening to me?” Now Ramiris was giving me an uncharacteristically stern look. “You’re acting like this no big deal, but it’s huge! Milim’s already taken down Carillon, I heard, and Clayman’s ready to send an entire army of magic-born someone’s way. Punishment, heck—this is war! Clayman’s come up with an excuse to take each and every one of you down, all right?!”
The summit attendees began to stir. Having one of the demon lords “taken down” was serious news to the superpower nations. I suppose it would be. It could totally disrupt the balance of power between them. And while it had already happened, the news was a total bolt from the blue for everyone else. Pretty heady stuff.
That, and:
“Lord Carillon, a betrayer? How dare that brute accuse him!”
“Clayman will pay for this. I’ll crush that upstart with my own two hands!”