by Fuse
“Yeah, Hinata said the same thing. The only thing uniting them, as she put it, was Lu—um, the god Luminus. Their faith, you know; that was the real thing.”
“Humans are inherently weak, after all. They cling to the gods—and their strength.”
“Would you include yourself in that, Fuze?”
“Ha-ha! No, not me. When my strength fails me, I’m prepared to call it a life, so to speak. I’d hope for a miracle, of course, but I can’t pray to a ‘god’ I’ve never even met before.”
Sounded like Fuze leaned toward atheism. Of course, this was a world where a real-life monster with superhuman powers could get worshipped as a god by the locals. They, at least, you could meet up with and see for yourself. That must’ve made them seem more reliable. Even Luminus only offered protection to the people she knew, at first, and she didn’t figure in Fuze’s life at all. He just relied on himself instead—a little self-serving but certainly easier to come to grips with.
“Yeah, well, I can certainly understand why people want to pray to a higher power. But in life, you get what you’re dealt, you know? Anyway, regardless of what Luminus may or may not bless us with, the Church and I are even now, and that’s all I need.”
Knowing Luminus personally taught me just how meaningless praying to her was—but not much point saying that. Sometimes prayer really can give a person strength. It wasn’t for me to comment on.
Fuze smiled. “Very true. It’s a load off my shoulders as well.”
I got the feeling he was depressed about failing to stop the Church after I asked him to put the screws to them a bit. I just appreciated him looking out for me.
We chatted for a while more over past events before I stood up, recalling something.
“Anyway, I better get going soon, but I want you to take this.”
I removed an envelope from my pocket and handed it to Fuze. It contained an invitation to the Founder’s Festival I was planning; we had gotten so caught up in conversation I had almost forgot about it. This was why I came here today, after all.
“What’s that?”
“Well, I’m gonna be holding my demon lord coronation soon, and I figured it’d be a good opportunity to advertise my town to the world. We’re calling it the Founder’s Festival, and the way I picture it, it’s gonna be a huge blast. We’re sending invites to all the royalty and nobility in the region, and I’d love for you to attend, too.”
“Huhhh?! Wait a minute, Sir Rimuru. What would inviting someone like me accomplish—?”
“No, no, it’s no big deal! I have an invite here for the king of Blumund, too. Can you make sure he gets it?”
“Well, couldn’t you give it to him directly—hmm? Maybe not, eh…?”
“Nah. I gave the dwarven king and Archduke Erald their invites personally, but I don’t have many contacts in the other nations.” I smiled. “I’ve met your king once, but I don’t think a demon lord would be invited to his throne room, would he?”
“It’s distressing enough for a demon lord to be in Blumund at all.” Fuze snickered back. “But thank you for this. I’ll be sure this reaches the king.”
My errand was now done, and I was about to depart but was stopped at the door. “Oh, right! I needed to mention that the grand master was concerned about you. Negotiating with the Western Holy Church was a huge headache for him, so I’ll be sure to say you’ve worked things out.”
Yuuki was worried? A lot had happened since we last met. I was starting to miss him.
“Ah yeah. I must have put a lot on his plate.”
“Oh, not really. The Guild has no interest in making an enemy out of the Church, after all. If you were able to settle your differences without a fight, we couldn’t ask for anything more.”
That was nice to hear. But I still felt like I owed the Guild something.
“I know! I think I’ll invite Yuuki, too. You think he’d mind?”
“Hmm, hard to say. Not that I can speak for him, but he is a busy man. I’m not sure if he can make the time for it or not.”
“Well, I can give him an escort to and from the event, so I’m sure he can attend at least one day, you know? If not, I can stop by to see him sometime soon. So give him this for me…”
As Fuze watched, I wrote out a letter to him and included it in the envelope with the invites. Fuze winced at me a little as he accepted it.
“Sir Rimuru, where did you get that paper from…? Actually, on second thought, don’t tell me. Can’t you magically send it to him yourself? I’ll do it, but…”
He looked tired. Maybe I was asking one too many casual favors.
“Ha-ha-ha! Sorry about that. Thanks.”
“Sure thing, Sir Rimuru.”
“Oh, and Milim’s coming, too.”
I felt it best to be just as casual with that bombshell as he took the envelope.
“Milim? Oh no…”
“Okay, see you there!”
With a smile, I half ran out from the office while he shouted after me: “Wait! You don’t mean that Milim, do you? Heeeeey!!”
Let’s just pretend I didn’t hear.
As I escaped from the Guild building, a man leaped out from behind a corner at me, taking a respectful knee.
“I, Gob’emon, am here at your summons, Sir Rimuru!”
This man was one of the hobgoblins I named. Pretty ambitious guy. I think Rigur told me he and Gobta were fighting for the vice captain spot back when he was running our village forces. He had the strength to back that drive, of course…
“Hmm? Hey, weren’t you a lieutenant? You went to another unit after Gobta started captaining the goblin riders, didn’t you?”
A lieutenant, in Tempest’s armies, was an officer who could be assigned a unit to lead if needed. They didn’t necessarily have one to lead, which meant that captains were naturally above them, but it was still a much higher rank than the sergeants leading teams of five to ten people.
“Yes, my lord. I was never one to serve below others, you see, so I thought I would work as an individual for now. Someday soon, I’d like to assemble my own direct command and lead a unit myself.”
Hmm. Sounds like he’s got some real backbone. He gave up his chance at vice captain of the goblin riders because he didn’t want to serve under Gobta, after all, so he must’ve had some pretty high aspirations.
“Do you? Well, keep up the good work. Now listen, Mjöllmile’s someone very important to me. I need you to keep him safe—without letting him notice, if possible. I think you could learn a lot from the way he sways people’s minds. His financial acumen’s enough to move the folks around him, but it’s not just that. Think of it as a case study while you’re guarding him.”
“Yes sir! I will keep that in mind as I execute my duty!”
Gob’emon was up for it. The way Benimaru described him, he tended to rely too much on his own abilities, downplaying the strengths of the people below or alongside him. That’s one reason he failed to reach captain, despite being much more physically gifted than Gobta. If he could learn to be more of a team player, that captain’s job could be his before long. I hoped he could grow into the rank.
“If you can carry this out and learn something from it, report back to me afterward. I’ll give you this katana of mine as a reward.”
Kurobe had contacted me earlier to report that my personal sword was complete. I wouldn’t need this one any longer. It was just a temporary weapon, but it was synced up with my aura well enough that I liked the results I got from it. I brought it in for maintenance after the Hinata battle, but Kurobe was pretty impressed by what he saw. I figured it was a nice enough carrot to dangle.
Gob’emon’s eyes opened wide with excitement. “Y-you will?!”
“Sure. I think you’re gifted enough to make use of this. But stay diligent, all right? Prove to me you deserve it.”
“Yes sir! I will live up to your expectations!”
He immediately went into Mjöllmile guard-duty mode. That was almost too sly
of me, offering that sword to him, but hopefully I got my point across. You had to earn the trust of your subordinates. Like how people used to think about obligation and duty, if you didn’t look out for and provide service to each other, it would wreck the whole master-servant relationship. I know I’m not exactly a stellar example of the ideal boss, but still, I hoped Gob’emon would answer my call in his own way.
I had now distributed all my invitations. Now we just had to prep for the big day. It needed to be a festival like none before. As I thought over everything we needed for it, I could already feel my heart racing.
CHAPTER 3
THE PREPARATIONS
In a hastily prepared meeting room, two suspicious-looking people sat quietly. Or not exactly—upon closer inspection, there was also a third, smaller figure, a foot or so tall, with dragonfly-like wings on her back. The two other people in the room were seated facing her—Ramiris and two of her servants, Beretta and Treyni.
The small pixie bashed a fist against the small desk in front of her.
“This is exactly why I thought none of this was working!” she groused, rubbing her hand. “I told you we needed to move outta here!!”
“Correct as always, Lady Ramiris,” Treyni agreed, watching her affectionately. “Truly, a most brilliant idea!”
“Right? Isn’t it, though?”
Ramiris gave Treyni a satisfied nod.
Beretta was less than convinced. “One moment, please. Brilliant though the idea may be, where do you intend to move to? And could you explain why?”
Why do I have to do this? he thought. Treyni, his colleague, was a thoughtful, detail-oriented, hardworking woman. She had a good reputation among the spirits, allowing her to manage Ramiris’s labyrinth all by herself. That was something Beretta couldn’t do, and there was no doubting her usefulness to Ramiris. But there was an issue: Treyni, ever the loyal servant to Ramiris, spoiled her far too much. She agreed with everything Ramiris said, never doubting it for a moment. Someone needed to stop this before it led to trouble.
The ex-demon Beretta couldn’t help but laugh at himself a little. Oh dear… I am not here serving Lady Ramiris because I want to serve that role…
To someone like him, who did enjoy Ramiris’s company very much, getting bossed around all the time wasn’t a concern. What did concern him—albeit only slightly—was how his lone coworker here was an unabashed yes-man. Unfortunately, it was an ironclad rule of life that the hardest-working people tended to be the ones who lost out in the end. If you blow the whistle and warn about the dangers ahead, it’s usually your job to clean up the mess that results—something Beretta was about to learn the hard way.
“Great question, Beretta! Listen, aren’t you bored being in here at all? There’s nothing to do for fun in this place. The only diversion we have is building golems, and that’s about it. Barely anyone even comes to visit us! But over there, they’ve got all kinds of stuff. So I figure, you know, I’ll just invite myself over!”
Ramiris put forth what she must’ve thought was a convincing case. It just made Beretta sigh inside. He wasn’t dead set against it himself, but he remembered what the demon lord Rimuru was like and suspected getting his permission would be a problem. If she tried moving there now, he could easily envision her getting thrown out on her ear. Treyni must have known that, but all she had to offer was her unequivocal agreement.
“But, Lady Ramiris, didn’t Sir Rimuru already turn you down once?”
Beretta had to say it. She had already tried it. Without a better excuse, all she’d do was incur Rimuru’s wrath. Maybe Ramiris was oblivious to this fact, but to Beretta, that was the biggest problem of all.
“Come now, Beretta,” his unreliable coworker said. “You’re overthinking this! Sir Rimuru is such a nice young man. He’d never be cruel enough to deny the dreams of someone as cute ’n’ lovable as her!”
Treyni was being far too optimistic. If Ramiris wasn’t involved, Treyni was a capable woman of action, but there was no counting on her now. So since the other two people in the room weren’t using their brains, he tried to find a good way to navigate this. After all, he wouldn’t mind living alongside Rimuru, either.
I suppose that’s why I find even a situation as ridiculous as this exciting…
And it was a lucky thing he had a mask on, because under it was a smile almost childish in its glee.
After I saw Gob’emon go, I headed back to Tempest. I had been using Dominate Space to travel as of late, which allowed me to instantly transport myself to anywhere I had visited before. It consumed a nontrivial amount of magicules, but it was fairly trivial for me considering the energy I had to work with. I was free to use it as much as I wanted now, which made travel pretty simple—although I still tried to regulate my use, since I’d look so lame if I abused it and went into sleep mode as a result.
The moment I was back, Ranga sent me a Thought Communication.
(Master, Gobkyuu and the craftsmen have gathered at the western gate. However…)
He didn’t finish the sentence. What happened? Concerned, I headed for the gate, using Dominate Space despite promising myself to lay off a moment ago. Activating Universal Detect to gain a broader vantage point than what my eyes could give me, I spotted Ranga at the site—and if my destination was within sight, Dominate Space made it easy to rush over. Just a matter of changing my coordinates, really. Really convenient, but kind of hard to use in battle, since it takes a little time to set off. I’m always scared of leaving myself open like that. Besides, I’m trying to conserve it, remember?
This, on the other hand, was an emergency, so I reappeared right next to Ranga. We were outside the west gate, and immediately I spotted Gobkyuu arguing with someone. Universal Detect already told me who it was.
“No, you see, like I just said, we’re officially taking over this place!”
Oh no…
I took cover, listening in on the conversation.
“I know what you said, ma’am, but we can’t really accept that, do you understand? I’m going to ask Sir Rimuru now, so if you could just wait here and keep quiet for a little while—”
“No! We’ve already abandoned our previous labyrinth to come here! Are you going to kick out a poor, homeless woman with no place else to go?”
“N-no ma’am, I… This area is officially the territory of the demon lord Rimuru, you see, so you will need to obtain his permission first—”
“Pfft! Can’t sob story my way in, eh? In that case, I’ll have to resort to force. If you keep nitpicking every little thing, you know Beretta here isn’t gonna take that lying down— Ahhh!”
I couldn’t stand any more of it, so I sneaked up to the problem child in front of me and captured her in my hands. Taking a look at her, I confirmed it was Ramiris.
“What are you doing?”
“Um… Hey there, Rimuru! How’s it going?”
She was avoiding eye contact, clearly understanding she was in big trouble. Whatever she was up to, the small hut behind us clearly had to do with it. Ramiris was claiming the structure as her territory—she had to be hiding something inside. But how did she even bring it over here?
“Lady Ramiris! I’ve brought over some new wood!”
The riddle was solved by Treyni, coming over with an armload of wooden beams.
“Um, Treyni, what’re you up to?”
“Ah! Um, Sir Rimuru! I trust all is…well?”
She froze the moment she saw me. Did it not occur to her that building a hut right in front of the town gate might get spotted pretty fast?
“Can I ask what’s going on, Treyni?”
“W-well, this… It’s not what it looks like. L-Lady Ramiris did nothing wrong, um…”
The Treyni I knew always had this air of authority. Serving Ramiris had completely torn that apart. Like master, like servant, I guess. The only person here who could guide me through matters was likely Beretta, who was currently kneeling before me.
“Beretta, explain.”
“It always has to be me, doesn’t it…?”
Resigned to his fate, he relented.
It all began, he said, with something Ramiris told him.
“Beretta, you traitor!!” Ramiris shouted, freed from the prison of my hands, but I ignored her.
According to Beretta, Ramiris absolutely insisted on moving to my town, with Treyni in full agreement. I glanced at Treyni; she was staring into space and looking supremely awkward. Apparently, she spoiled Ramiris at all times, which I could see from the last time we met, so I believed it. Neither she nor Beretta would dare defy this lady, so they were all but forced into this would-be invasion of my land.
“And also, as Lady Ramiris stated, we came here after sealing off the entryway to the labyrinth we called home before.”
“Right! Exactly! So come on! If you kick us out, we’ll be homeless, Rimuruuuuu!”
She tried to sound as forlorn as possible, despite this being entirely her own doing. “Oh, poor, poor Lady Ramiris,” I heard Treyni lament. Please don’t keep encouraging her…
Either way, though, now I knew the situation. This wasn’t Gobkyuu’s fault at all—it was all on Ramiris and her servants.
“Sorry you went through that, Gobkyuu.”
“No, no, we were fine, but the gate guards had the worst of it…”
He eyed a nearby hobgoblin by the gate, sleeping soundly.
“…Um.”
“Yeahhh, uh, sorry. I got a little excited…”
“That wasn’t Lady Ramiris’s fault! That guard was saying terrible things to her, so I used magic to put him to sleep for a little while.”
What had gotten into Treyni’s mind anyway? She really did cast a spell, I presume for Ramiris’s sake. No wonder Beretta looked so guilty at the moment.
I would listen to Ramiris’s and Treyni’s excuses later. I wanted to learn more from Beretta, but he didn’t have much else to offer. They showed up here, Treyni brought in wood, and Beretta fashioned it into the log hut before me. Apparently, they had been interrupted just as he began work on a terrace in front of the door. This hut was meant to be the entrance to a new labyrinth.