by Fuse
Brimming with confidence, I continued my briefing, going over what we decided on at Walpurgis.
“Ah, right. I didn’t mention this, but it’s been decided that I’m the official ruler of the entire Forest of Jura region. I don’t think this really changes much, since it’s already been that way for a while. It just means that, you know, if someone invades the forest—not that they would—we’d be fighting back under my own name. Also, should we formally declare our rights to this territory, do you think? Or are we safe just leaving it be for now?”
As I spoke, the looks on my leadership grew more nervous. Some of them appeared downright terrified. What? Did I say something bad?
“Um… The whole forest? Truly?”
“Uh, yeah?” I replied to Rigurd.
“Are you serious?” Benimaru gasped. “Including everything on the other side of the river?”
“Errr, probably?”
He was referring to the Great Ameld River that flowed across the forest, dividing it in two. The other side bordered lands under the influence of the Eastern Empire, a place we still had little to no connection with.
“Is that a problem?” I asked.
“Not a problem for us,” Benimaru replied after some thought, “but I don’t believe the area past the river counts as the dryads’ domain. So far, Sir Rimuru, you are recognized as overseer only of the lands that the dryads themselves have built up. To the denizens beyond the river, the advent of a new demon lord would likely prove to be quite a headache.”
He smiled the whole time—savoring the thought of mowing down any rebellious factions over there, no doubt. That was…um…no. Bad idea.
“If you asked me,” Kaijin rebutted, “this is an astounding development. The demon lords have formally agreed that you have rights to all the forest’s natural resources, if I’m understanding this correctly. This includes anything that anybody takes from it, over on the other side. That’s big news, pal!”
It’s like he was reading my mind. He was right. It didn’t strike me as anything big at first, but it had the potential to explode. As Kaijin explained to me, people had been harvesting the forest’s resources on the sly for a while now. The dryads were willing to let it slide to some extent, but given the general state of lawlessness past the Great Ameld, it was common for people to take wood or produce or whatnot from Jura to the Dwarven Kingdom, making a living off the sales. There was no regional authority to seek permission from, nothing stopping them—but now, if they wanted to do that or live in the forest, they needed my approval, and they’d have to march over here to get it.
“Um… Oh crap, does this mean we’re gonna get more people here?”
“I think it does,” Shuna said, a serene smile on her face. “Now that you’re an approved demon lord, anyone who fails to come here and pledge allegiance to you could be legally branded a rebel.”
Her opinion had to be shared by much of Tempest, I figured. But why require permission after who knows how many years of living here? That sounded like needless bureaucracy.
“Well, why worry about that now? I mean, if they’re already residents of the forest…”
“No, no,” countered Rigurd, “a demon lord is, in a way, a projection of pure power. It is something to be proud of. To a goblin, you understand, a high-level magic-born is something of a divine presence.”
“Exactly,” Gabil added. “Some of these uncontacted residents may seek the protection of the demon lord; others may go on with their lives without recognizing your authority. They have the right to make that decision for themselves. But even among the lizardmen I used to be with, the protection of a demon lord would have been a literal gift from the gods. Defying one was unthinkable; ignoring one, the height of folly. Compared with the risk of angering the local demon lord, it would be wholly typical for them to come and greet you instead.”
And as Shuna put it, failing to acknowledge me could even put you under suspicion. If you got attacked for it, you had no right to complain. Not that I’d want that, though. And besides, what if you’re a monster who’s never heard of me before? How would you even know?
“At the very least,” Gabil said, “the lizardmen are coming to see you, I assure you. My father has already been told of your ascension!”
Wait. When did they decide to do that?
“You mean Abil? He’s coming?”
“He is! He told Lady Shion about it as well. Ah, he is counting the days before he can see you in all your demonic glory for himself!”
This was starting to sound big. Really big. The lizardmen were one of the larger-size races in the whole Forest of Jura. If they took the pilgrimage to see me as a given, I assumed that went without saying for any species weaker than them. And I’m sure the process would be pretty casual for anyone familiar with me, but if not, they might be showing up on my doorstep trembling with fear. I’d just look like the latest local despot to them; they might freak out over making one false step and being annihilated or whatever. Maybe there’s something we could do to make this whole process a lot more…chill?
Still, though…
“Ha-ha! I’m sure Sir Rimuru would expect nothing less!”
I peered down at the triumphant-looking Shion. If she knew Gabil’s father was going to show up, why didn’t she bother telling me? And I really didn’t appreciate that grin on her face. She didn’t care about this visitor at all. I swear, she looks like the perfect executive secretary on the outside, but if you want her to actually do the job, forget it.
Ugh. Just leave her be. I mean, I’m glad she enjoyed hearing praise for me (even more than I did), but I knew she’d take any criticism from me the wrong way, so…
To sum up, once word got around about my demon lord-dom, I’d have a parade of visitors beating a path to this town, most monsters preferring to request my protection instead of risk my wrath. We’d have a hell of a lot of visitors to deal with soon, in other words.
We would have to conduct a cross-forest survey shortly, seeking out the intelligent races. This wouldn’t be a problem in areas where I was already the acknowledged leader, but anywhere else would be an uphill climb.
But if we were gonna be busy with that anyway…
“Hey, I was just thinking—we gotta spread the word around the forest about my ascension anyway, right? So why don’t we turn it into some really big ad campaign and use it to unveil this town to the whole world? It’d be easier to make everyone come over here than go reach out to all of them, I think.”
“…How do you mean?” a confused-looking Rigurd asked me, so I went into some more detail on the idea I just came up with.
Really, it wasn’t anything difficult. This town, the capital of Tempest, was starting to become more well-known among the monsters in Jura. Koby, and the kobold merchant caravans he led, were doing a great job spreading the rumors wherever they went. At least a few people must’ve been interested in visiting, and I was just thinking now was a good time to expand our population a little. The beastmen hanging out here would complete their education and return home soon enough; we’d need to make up for those losses, and if we were gonna keep up the teaching effort, then the more students, the merrier. Our food situation was steadily improving, and we definitely had the room for more people.
If anything, we were starting to face a shortage of workers. There were all these ideas, all these projects to explore, but not enough people to throw at them. A big, lavish unveiling could be just the thing to attract more of them. They’d come to pledge their fealty or whatever, they’d learn about the town along the way, and at least some of them would consider a permanent move.
Two birds with one stone. In fact…
“Plus… You know, we’ve all been on pins and needles the past little while. Why don’t we kick back a little bit? Let’s hold a big festival to start this off!”
We’d set up a specific time for the meet and greets with me, and we’d stage a city-wide festival around these to fete them with. That way, I wouldn�
��t have to spread the meetings out over weeks and weeks. There’d be a huge feast, too—I still had Milim’s request filed in the back of my mind. It’d be a chance for all of us to take a breather, show off what we’ve done, and get everything wrapped up in one fell swoop.
“A festival…?”
“Wonderful! Truly a wonderful idea!”
“Let’s do it! It will be a magnificent event!”
My associates were up for it, at least. The town was getting experienced with this, what with the monthly feasts we already held for ourselves, and our developments in the realm of food and drink were growing more complex and large-scale by the day. Expanding on that, and allowing everyone to join in, sounded like a lot of fun.
“This will kind of be my public debut as well, so let’s make it the biggest one we can!”
“““Yes, my lord!”””
There were no objections. The budget? Ah, no need to worry about that. Rigurd would figure out something. We were flush for the moment, and a little indulgence wouldn’t put a dent in that.
Things proceeded quickly after that; I guess those words held a lot of sway with people. Suggestions and feedback filled the hall, much to my silent surprise, and before I knew it, we were extending invitations to dignitaries the entire world over. Was this a little hasty? Monsters were one thing, but were we okay inviting human heads of state as well?
We had a hot spring. We had ample accommodations, including a state guest house worthy of handling the highest of nobility. Haruna and her crew had already impressed super-celebrities like Archduke Erald and King Gazel. I think we ought to be fine. Even if it took shuffling the dates and locations around, or at least stepping up our security, this could be a great chance for the world’s leaders to get to know me.
The overseer of all these people (i.e., me) had just officially become a demon lord. I could see why people wanted to celebrate that. I used to be Japanese, and Japanese people love their festivals. I figured I needed to really go all out with this and teach everyone what a real party is about—that and show them what a friendly demon lord I was.
With a promise to hammer out the festival details later, I concluded my report. We followed this up with reports from the rest of my main staff. I had a grip on everything, but not everyone on the team knew what everyone else was up to—and maybe I’d learn something new myself.
Diablo, in particular, had a completely different view of the world from me. It was like he didn’t know what common sense was. Small trifles to me could be huge, world-changing matters to him, it felt like, and if something like that came up, it’d be difficult for me to handle that alone. That was why I set up these regular info-sharing reports.
Rigurd kicked off his briefing by stating that our merchant partners had begun returning to town. Our numbers were trending upward again, likely because Fuze was spreading the word that things were safe now.
Beyond that, none of the other nations were making any particularly noteworthy moves. My ascension seemed to alarm many of them, but for now, they were likely waiting to see how Blumund and the Dwarven Kingdom would respond.
We also had word that Elmesia El-Ru Thalion, Her Excellency the Emperor of the Sorcerous Dynasty of Thalion, had expressed a personal desire to open formal relations with Tempest. I could practically hear her whisper “so build a highway linking us already” underneath those words, but there’s no doubting what a useful support they’d be to us. Her statement, propagated by magic to all world leaders, had apparently led to much consternation.
“It can be said,” Rigurd happily closed, “that all our relations are fulfilling their sworn duty and working hard on our behalf across the world!”
Next came Soei. I had left him to investigate a lot of things, so I figured he’d have the floor for a while.
This included the preliminary setup for the highway between here and Thalion, the advance surveying and so on before we put shovel to dirt. I had already worked out the general route from my bird’s-eye view over the forest, so Soei was sent out to check for nearby monster villages or other construction obstacles.
This was something I had him do for the roads to Dwargon and Blumund as well; it was pretty important work. You didn’t want to omit that stuff, unless you wanted trouble later. So far, the monsters impacted by the roads had been cooperative with us, so there were no major problems to speak of, but you never knew when we’d have to eminent domain someone out of their ancestral homes or whatnot.
Very few of them would defy my will, me being demon lord and all, but I didn’t want to act that much like a tyrant, so I had to be careful. It’d be easy to just push them away by force, but I wanted to avoid that if I could. Coexistence was my creed, and that applied equally to humans and monsters. Hopefully I wouldn’t run into any issues this time, either.
I wasn’t in this to demand anything from the monsters I ruled over. Anyone who wanted my protection got it, but otherwise, I didn’t want to interfere—well, unless they lived right in the middle of my projected road. But I wanted to avoid pointless conflict, so if they were willing to negotiate, so was I. I’d be happy to make all the moving arrangements for anyone displaced, should I need to. After all, any village near this road was bound to become a resting stop, a lively place filled with inns and taverns and travelers going to and fro.
It wasn’t all going to be smooth sailing, but it’d make for a better life for the natives. That’s how it worked for the previous two highways, and hopefully it would once more.
“I did not find any hostile monsters present on or near the projected route,” Soei began. “When I explained Sir Rimuru’s plans to them, they all provided their ready agreement to me.”
Ah, good. I’m glad he made it clear we weren’t kicking anyone out of their homes.
“That’s great. In that case, make sure you wrap up the surveying and other work by the time Geld’s free again.”
The rough on-site investigation work was already complete. If we didn’t find any more safety concerns after this, it’d be time to send our engineers over.
“Well, one moment. I did discover one issue. The Forest of Jura is in your jurisdiction, Sir Rimuru, but the Khusha Mountains lie on one of its borders. The area is filled with high peaks and treacherous canyons, and at the higher altitudes, there is said to be settlements populated by a long-nosed tribe known as the tengu. That is information from the local populace, so I found it difficult to dismiss entirely.”
In the lands southwest of Rimuru, the capital and central city of Tempest, there was a mountain range that spread out across the shores of Lake Sisu. These were the Khushas, an area that high orcs had migrated to in the past; a southern branch of this range was also home to the former demon lord Frey’s castle. It was noted for its beautiful, extended rows of towering peaks, many of which were treacherous and all but untouched by living creatures.
The current plan called for a highway to be built right up to the border with Thalion. There was a midsize town there situated between the mountains that would serve as the terminus. We wouldn’t need to go through the Khushas themselves. So what was Soei worried about?
“What’s the big deal about that?”
“The tengu are said to be friendly, but at their core, they are a warmongering race. Even the demon lord Frey avoided direct conflict with them. I would suggest seeking her advice about this…”
Technically speaking, Soei advised me, the Khusha Mountains were outside the Forest of Jura and thus not our territory. It wasn’t Frey’s, either, making it independent, unclaimed land. I could’ve just used my demon lord powers to beat them into submission, but maybe it’d be better to zip over and explain matters to avoid future trouble. In their eyes, they might see me as a greedy demon lord trying to expand his territory.
Soei sounded disappointed at having to leave the decision about this to me, but I actually thought better of him for it. I was so proud of him for not forcing the issue and trying to work with the tengu himself. He was care
ful like that, and that made him endlessly helpful for missions like these.
“All right. So should I go and—?”
“Ah, one moment. If that’s the issue, let me head over.”
Just as I hoped to get this wrapped up quickly, Benimaru stopped me. Whenever he casually volunteered for something like this, it always alarmed me a bit—but he was right. I left the matter to him.
“You’ve seemed rather friendly with Lady Alvis as of late, my brother. I would hope you are not volunteering merely for the chance of a tryst with her?” Shuna commented.
Huh? Benimaru and Alvis were that into each other?!
“What does she mean, Benimaru?”
If Shuna was telling the truth, this was serious.
“You misunderstand her, Sir Rimuru. Shuna, enough of your nonsense.”
He acted unperturbed enough. It didn’t seem like he was lying to me. But let’s face it. Benimaru was a good catch for any woman able to capture his attention. Anyone could see that.
“Don’t worry, Sir Rimuru. Whether Benimaru is here or not, you will always have me!”
Oh, great, more of Shion’s nonsense.
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Heh! Falling for Alvis’s trap and ready to abandon our nation, are you?” Shion continued. “Well, go! Do whatever you like!”
“Shion, how on earth are you interpreting things that way?”
I could see veins throbbing on Benimaru’s head. I mean, yeah, I was kind of jealous of him, too—two years, and I still didn’t have a girlfriend to speak of—but I didn’t think he was gonna go elope or whatever. Shion’s imagination was a fearsome thing, indeed.
“Yeah, I really doubt that, Shion.”
“You heard him, Shion. Sir Rimuru, you do trust in me, yes?”
“It’s not a matter of trust by now. You’re one of my closest partners.”
There wasn’t a cell in my body that questioned Benimaru. He couldn’t be less like my old coworker Tamura, except in how they’d both found a steady date before I ever did. But I could deal with that later.