by Fuse
In a way, what I had done…I suppose…was summon not one, but nine different magical beasts at the same time.
“My deepest thanks, Sir Rimuru!! I shall do all I can!!”
Ah well. No point dwelling on the past. I managed to avoid slipping into unconsciousness, so I guess Raphael’s calculations were close enough, even if it wasn’t quite as expected. Not much surprise in its voice anyway. It must’ve assumed it’d hand over this level of magicules to the little fox from the get-go. Otherwise, Kumara wouldn’t have grown exactly nine tails like that.
......
C’mon, don’t play dumb with me! I can see through you well enough.
Thus, I decided to leave Floors 81 through 90 to the overjoyed, scampering Kumara. It’s not like this zone would see a swell of adventurers from day one; I bet Kumara solo would make a fine boss.
That wrapped up Ramiris’s and Veldora’s issues.
I was glad to see the rest of my staff was pretty excited about the Dungeon, too. Its success was really important to me; I wanted to be sure its operation started on the right track. I gave Kumara a pat on the head.
With all the reporting on the Founder’s Festival done, I wanted to listen to Soei’s recent findings.
“All right, Soei, the stage is yours.”
“Yes sir…”
What he had for me was quite a surprise. It turned out that a Hero had taken down the entire Orthrus Slave Market organization. Its exposure and downfall had already led to severe consequences for certain nobility around the world—including that Viscount Cazac guy, who was now in the custody of the Blumund authorities.
“Even Englesia is alive with rumors of the affair. Orthrus had connections with virtually every nation in the world; it was an armed group who held possession of a great number of battle slaves, including magic-born and magical beasts. Their military power was equivalent to that of a small country, but it’s said a Hero’s band was all it took to destroy it…”
Soei smiled a little. This Hero—Lightspeed Masayuki, a name familiar to me—was now being lauded as the strongest man in the Western Nations, a reputation no doubt buoyed by the news of my victory over Hinata. Did this mean anyone who lost to a demon lord wasn’t worth pinning the hopes of humankind to? I felt like I did something bad to her now. Hope she doesn’t take it personally.
But back to Masayuki. There wasn’t a lot of hard intel on this guy, so we didn’t know much about him. However, he was confirmed to have destroyed Orthrus—and freed the elven slaves they were holding.
“Several elves were among the slaves, and it seems Masayuki is now accompanying them back toward our nation.”
Sounds like I owe him a word or two of gratitude.
…But there was a problem.
“What should we do, Sir Rimuru? If you like, I could dispatch him before he causes any trouble for us…”
“…No, better not. Let’s try talking with him first.”
“All right. Anyone who professes to slay a demon lord needs to be taught a lesson, in my personal opinion, but…”
…Yes, as could be surmised from this conversation, there were rumors in the Western Nations that Masayuki intended to topple me. Soei already had an inhumane-looking smile—just imagining what he’d do with the guy, no doubt—but he still followed my orders.
But…man, I really didn’t wanna have to face a Hero right in the middle of the Founder’s Festival, one of the most important events in the history of Tempest. I was worried the battle-obsessed members of my staff—Shion and Diablo, to say nothing of Soei—would defy orders, run off, and do something terribly unwise.
“Let me take care of Masayuki. Absolutely no touching him, you got it?”
“““Yes sir!”””
Well, at least they knew how to say “yes sir” in unison.
But with three days to go until the Founder’s Festival, I now had a thorny problem at hand. It was like rain on my parade, and it made me feel a lot gloomier about the future.
But not long from now—a massive, intense party was about to kick off and throw all my trivial worries to the wind.
AFTERWORD
Thanks for your patience. Volume 8 is finally here.
I think at least some of you have already read the web-series version of this content—it’s actually part of the Demon Capital Opens arc. Why did the title of this volume change? Well, there’s a good story behind that…
“Don’t worry! I promise I’ll keep it nice and compact this time!”
“I’ve heard that one before. I don’t bother worrying much about the length by this point.”
That’s how I kicked off this volume, and then when the deadline drew closer…
“Um, we need to talk.”
“Yeah, yeah, what is it?”
“Well, it’s starting to get a little long, actually…”
“It is, huh? I figured as much.”
My editor, Mr. I, was wholly unmoved. But my turn wasn’t over yet!
“Could we make this a two-volume story arc?”
“Huhhh?!”
“Because I could write a hundred more pages, and it’ll still end in kind of a half-assed position. How about we shake things up and go with a two-parter?”
“No! Why’d it come down to this?!”
It was a very heartwarming conversation, one that ended with Mr. I’s eyes rolling all the way back inside his head.
So yeah. I have some regrets.
Not even I am entirely sure why it turned out like this, but lately I’ve started to think it’s a little impossible to condense this story. Thus, I’m working hard to finish up the Demon Capital Opens arc in Volume 9. I’m trying to make sure this doesn’t turn into a trilogy, so I hope you’ll come along for the ride.
See you in the next volume!
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