Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken (LN) - Volume 14 - Chapter 1.1

Interlude: The Outrageous Celebration 

The celebration that Jaine attended was a truly astonishing event to witness. One after the other, the demon lord Rimuru was evolving all of his closest staff…into de facto true demon lords.

This… This is impossible! I must be dreaming, aren’t I?!

She was too shocked to even speak. She was well aware of how much trouble the demon lord Rimuru could be, but this scene was so ridiculous, so beyond reality, that it surpassed the worst of her premonitions.

Jaine’s objective in coming here was to ask Rimuru how he intended to handle the Primals. She trusted Rimuru personally, but it took more than personal trust to quell her fears about something as menacing as the Primals. Once they were unleashed, after all, they could easily destroy the entire balance of power worldwide. That much, in fact, was just proven by this war. Nine hundred and forty thousand of the Empire’s best were helplessly annihilated. It was quite a stroke of good fortune that Rimuru was allies with them, but there was no guarantee that they’d be able to maintain that relationship forever.

So Jaine came here as an ambassador to scout things out and see how Rimuru was doing. When she greeted him, she found him acting perfectly natural, unchanged from when last they met. So she lodged her complaint with him in somewhat harsh terms, hoping to gauge his thoughts based on his reaction. The results, sadly, were disappointing. He just said “I’m sorry,” acting all remorseful as Jaine admonished him. And once the whole story was revealed to her, through Rimuru’s assorted excuses and explanations, she realized that Diablo had engineered this demon deluge all by himself.

“So you’re certain that Diablo is Noir, the Original Black?”

“Mmm, looks that way, yeah. I didn’t know either at first, but for whatever reason, he’s been really friendly with me…”

He trailed off, shrugging. It didn’t seem to be a lie—apparently he truly did become the overlord of a small army of demons without really realizing it. Jaine had enough life experience to know he wasn’t pulling an act—and she knew that further griping wouldn’t make Rimuru any more capable of doing anything about it. It wasn’t even his fault, really. She worried that all this new power would make him more arrogant, but—much to her relief—that turned out to be a nonissue.

But maybe she shouldn’t have been so relieved. Maybe she should have warned him more harshly, when she had the chance.

Even if the Primals were a force majeure, as he put it, mass-producing true demon lords like that? The work of true malice—and nothing less!

…No. She was sure Rimuru meant no malice at all. She understood that. This was probably Rimuru hoping he could handle whatever came by himself, instead of causing further trouble for Jaine and her kingdom. Normally she would consider this a hostile act of intimidation, but she was also sure he didn’t mean to have it seen that way.

In fact, after the whole Primal thing, maybe he decided there’d be no more keeping secrets from the dwarves. This was just an act of open disclosure, based on sincerity and trust—and if so, Jaine was undeniably partly to blame, too. Maybe if she had instilled some common sense into Rimuru before now, it wouldn’t have come to this. Maybe that could’ve been possible, maybe not—but either way, it was too late now.

The—the whole balance of warpower in the world…

Jaine felt about ready to have a stroke, but she fought through it, musing over what might come next.

The event continued without a hitch, Rimuru’s agents gaining new powers one by one—and with them, the armies of monsters who served under them as well. In just a few short hours, Tempest had just massively expanded its capacity for waging war; there was no doubting that fact. Nestled within the Forest of Jura now was a gigantic military state, a threat that the Eastern Empire couldn’t even compare against.

Realizing this, Jaine once again rued the fact that she didn’t take action earlier. But…

No, it wouldn’t have mattered. The last time we deliberated over this issue, our conclusion was “nothing we can do; no point thinking about it.” King Gazel put any further debate on hold, but I don’t think we’ll find some magical solution anytime in the near future. And if not…

Their war with the Empire was far from over. The enemy’s armies were still deployed, but Rimuru said he was colluding with them, and soon they’d conspire to storm the imperial capital. Jaine traveled here in the first place because they were supposed to discuss all this at a meeting. But now…

I’ve never been so confused in my life. This is no longer just about the Empire. I’ve got to tell King Gazel about the new true demon lords Rimuru has created…

For a moment, Jaine considered pretending that she didn’t notice anything. It was little more than trying to escape reality, but it didn’t seem like such a bad idea, either. But she had just confronted Gazel a bit ago over keeping quiet about the Primals. She had no right to remain silent about this.

“Dolph, I’m leaving now.”

“Oh? Why is that? We have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, I believe.”

“You could save face by attending for me. I’ll return via magic. No need for a bodyguard or escort.”

“Um, very well…”

Dolph, unable to pick up on flows of magic, had no real idea what was occurring before him. Jaine, jealous of him for that, sighed and fell into a funk as she considered the future.

Despite their unshaken facial expressions, the Twin Wings—Lucia the blonde, Claire the silver-haired—were both intensely distressed.

Here in Tempest, the monster nation, lived a great number of powerful magic-born. They knew that, and they even grew acquainted with a few of them, Geld in particular. They saw them as a threat at first, but now they were united in an alliance. They no longer needed to be so cautious now, no matter how many of their high-level magic-born matched them in skill.

Until now, that is.

They were here on orders to ascertain Tempest’s current strength. Now that they were engaged in full-frontal war with the Nasca Namrium Ulmeria United Eastern Empire, the mightiest of human-led nations, Rimuru’s army was bound to suffer some casualties. If so, it’d doubtlessly interfere with the construction of the sky city that Frey was so looking forward to. So they were asked to survey the damage and formulate predictions for Tempest’s future, organizing reinforcements if need be. That need, it seemed, was wholly nonexistent.

“Zero damage, then?”

“It’s hard to believe… But judging by how cheerful everyone is, it must be the truth.”

It was the most unexpected of reports.

Gladdened to hear that, they decided to attend the victory celebration they were informed of. They didn’t expect, however, to bear witness to events that would make their eyes pop out of their skulls.

(This is unthinkable. We take our eyes off him for a moment, and now part of his head staff is as powerful as Lady Frey…?)

(No, look over there. The demon lord Rimuru is about to say something.)

Claire snapped Lucia out of her panicked state just in time for the start of a “ritual” that was as unimaginable as it was appalling. Beyond appalling, even. It was so detached from reality that their minds went completely blank. Clearly, this was no longer a situation only the two of them could debate over.

(We must report back to Lady Frey immediately.)

(Yes, you’re right. Let us return home at once.)

With a brief telepathic conversation, they quickly came to a decision. Then they flew back home, immediately telling Frey what had happened.

………

……

…

In a corner of the unfinished keep at the top level of their temporary castle, Frey let out a long, deep sigh.

“What could that slime possibly be thinking?”

“What’s the matter with you?” replied a man in the room. “You look beautiful when you’re all melancholy like that, but I don’t think sighing suits you very much.”

This was Carillon, and now that both he and Frey were serving as Milim’s assistants, they had come to grow deeply acquainted.

“That’s the last thing I need to hear right now.”

“But really, what happened? Is he struggling against the imperials?”

Carillon looked concerned. Frey just seemed depressed.

“Would that it were the case. Then I’d just obediently send off reinforcements, not a care in the world.”

“So what is it? Don’t tell me that bum Rimuru pulled off another bout of crazy nonsense.”

“…Precisely,” Frey declared after a few silent moments. Carillon remained quiet.

“…May I make a suggestion, Carillon?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s probably inadvisable to call Milim’s best friend a bum.”

“Kind of late for that, isn’t it? You’re the one who just called him ‘that slime.’”

“Are you even listening to me? No need to be so nasty. Don’t worry; I don’t talk that way to my own staff.”

“That’s fine, but let’s not go off on this tangent forever, shall we? Tell me what’s going on.”

Frey let out another dejected sigh, her fragrant breath tickling Carillon’s nostrils. It made him feel a little better, but he kept his eyes on Frey, not letting himself be distracted.

“All right. You won’t regret asking, will you?”

“Depends on what it is.”

“Look…”

“I won’t regret it, okay? So quit shouldering it all by yourself. Give me some of it to handle.”

“Right. Good. I like that part of you.”

Frey smiled, feeling her blues clear up a bit. Then she told Carillon part of the story she heard from her Twin Wings.

“Seriously?”

“I’m always serious. Those two girls would never lie to me.”

“So…what, Rimuru now has seven more demon lord–class people serving him?!”

“That’s right.”

“And they’re all stronger than me?”

“I couldn’t tell you… But those three ladies felt stronger than me, at least.”

Even before their evolution, their powers put them on equal footing with Frey, according to what she knew. But after Rimuru did…something to them, the Twin Wings felt an overwhelming strength boost from them all. Some of them were still in the midst of evolving, according to the report, but their full powers were expected to take hold before long. Frey had to accept that report at face value, but that didn’t mean she was fully convinced.

Carillon, after hearing it all, was stunned into silence. “…You’re kidding me, right?” he eventually asked.

“Do I look like the sort of person to lie about this?”

“No.”

“Well, there you go, then.”

Neither Carillon nor Frey had ever exercised the full extent of their strength in front of their own people. But the Twin Wings had served Frey closely for years, and they had at least an idea of their master’s true strength. Even if it were mere estimates they were reporting to Frey, this was intelligence ignored at her peril. What’s more, nobody serving Frey would dare to offend their master with jokes or lies. Carillon knew that, and he thus had no choice but to accept this story.

What the hell are Phobio and Alvis doing…?

But despite that internal complaint, Carillon knew Phobio was never any good at gauging his opponents’ strengths. All kinds of extraordinary things could happen around him, and he’d be totally oblivious.

…But surely Alvis could have noticed? Why haven’t I heard anything from her?!

As Carillon stewed over this, Frey spoke up again, as if suddenly recalling something.

“Oh, right. Your understudy Alvis also got engaged to Sir Benimaru, the general overseeing Sir Rimuru’s armies. If this marriage goes well, maybe it’ll be to our nations’ benefit. Sir Rimuru approves, it sounds like, so that’s good.”

“That bastard actually did it?!”

Alvis had consulted Carillon about it. He advised her to seize Benimaru by force, and at the end of it, Alvis scored a resounding victory. He couldn’t help but grin to himself over it.

“It sounds like she’ll be his second wife, though…”

“Tch. Not the first, huh? Well, as long as she has a kid, it’s all good.”

“That’s rather vulgar of you.”

“Hey, don’t worry, Frey. To me, you’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

“Quit playing games with me. In our society, women take multiple husbands. It’s the exact opposite of you guys. How do you think it’d ever work out?”

The harpy race is almost exclusively female, with procreation reliant on one of the few males or a powerful magic-born for genetic diversity. A queen-type harpy like Frey is capable of expanding her armies through parthenogenesis, or virgin birth—no partner required. With beastmen, on the other hand, it was common for stronger men to maintain relationships with multiple women at once. This weeds out the weak and leads to a stronger race over the years. Both species have the same ultimate goal in mind, but no matter how you looked at it, they were inherently incompatible with each other.

Carillon and Frey, however, fully recognized each other’s strength. Thus, although their relationship was very much a tightrope walk, they still managed not to step over that one final line in the sand.

“Well, since I doubt I’ll receive a good reply from you right now, I’ll just keep on trying to chip away at you, okay? So the question is, what the hell did that Rimuru bastard do?”

He could celebrate Alvis later. For now, Carillon was all business, and Frey was fine with that. They were on friendly terms with Rimuru’s nation, and they wanted to keep it that way, but they needed a good grasp of what happened. Then, if possible, they wanted to take things between themselves to the next level, too.

“It reminds me of Clayman’s final moments. He was throwing out some crazy powers right then.”

“Yeah, the ‘awakening’ thing Rimuru talked about?”

“What do you think caused it?”

“Pfft! He didn’t look like he was hiding any power. Clayman must’ve gained it right at that moment.”

“And how did that work?”

“Well…”

“Via souls.”

“Huh?”

“Clayman said that gathering souls was how he’d awaken to his ‘true demon lord’ self. If that’s really true, there’s no way he wasn’t actively collecting them.”

“Ah. So that’s how he tried awakening himself?”

“Probably. Honestly, I’ve never killed a human being, so I’ve never even seen a soul before.”

“Me neither. I’ve only fought against my own kind, magic-born, or angels. And we never wanted for much in my nation, so I never took interest in humans.”

“Right. But I think that answers the question. It looks like Sir Rimuru found a way to acquire a huge number of souls during the war. Now he’s passed them out to the magic-born under him to trigger awakenings.”

“That’s ridiculous. It’s bad enough that would-be demon lords like us are serving someone else, but now all those other guys are getting ahead of us? Damn. So how many souls did Rimuru use for this?”

Carillon scratched his head, and Frey turned her eyes toward the city being built beneath them.

“Hey.”

“Come to think of it, I didn’t tell you how the war turned out, did I? Well, amazingly enough, Tempest’s army suffered zero casualties. The Empire, on the other hand, had an army of nine hundred and forty thousand soldiers completely wiped out.”

“…Huh?’

“You think I’m lying?”

“N-no…”

“I only wish this report was a mistake.”

So the demon lord Rimuru had obtained a total of nine hundred and forty thousand souls, and with that kind of number, it’d likely be child’s play to elevate seven of your faithful servants to “awakened” status.

And maybe it was more than seven, even. According to the report, head general Benimaru exhibited no change during the ceremony; all he had done was agree to marry Momiji and Alvis. But there was no way Rimuru wouldn’t reward his closest associate with some souls. It was more likely that his evolution was delayed for some reason, coming along at a later date instead.

“Wow. So one side totally bustin’ up the other, huh? That’s hardly even a war any longer. I woulda put up the white flag by now, but what do you think the Empire’s gonna do?”

“Who cares about the Empire? They don’t matter anymore. The problem is what we’re going to do.”

“Yeah… Well, I’ve already surrendered myself to Milim. I already thought seeking out power for myself would be seen as treason, so I avoided it… But I guess I never had anything to worry about.”

“How so?”

“Rimuru’s raised up his staff to his own level now, right? Talk about generous. And looking back, I realized that Milim’s probably the same as him.”

“True. Us getting awakened probably wouldn’t cause her to lose much sleep.”

“Right? So why don’t we just do what we want a little, huh? I think we’ve maybe been relaxing a little too much lately, but it’s hardly too late. We’ve still got a chance to aim higher.”

“We do. I always did like that about you.”

Frey and Carillon looked at each other. But just when things started to warm between them—

“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Well said, you two! I can’t go awakening people willy-nilly like Rimuru, but I can give you guys my special brand of training! And you don’t have to worry about death if you’re inside the labyrinth, so we can go all out, too!”

—Milim barged in, timing impeccable as always.

“Dammit! You were here, Milim?! You just had to show up when it was gettin’ good, too…”

“If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times—stop sneaking up on us whenever you show up. And I have no interest in training with— Listen to me, Milim!”

Carillon and Frey were already whining at her, but Milim paid them no mind. Her ears were equipped with a top-of-the-line feature that shut out anything she didn’t want to hear.

“Right! I’ll go ask Ramiris to help us out!”

“Wait, wait, wait! I never asked you for training help either!”

“Hold it, Milim! If you won’t listen to us, then I’ve got an idea of my own. How about we have Sir Middray handle all the cooking from now on? Are you okay with that?”

This statement from Frey triggered Milim’s sense of danger. It was more than enough to stop her cold. Nice one, Frey, Carillon thought as he observed them.

“Uh… All right. But if you wanna train, ask me anytime!”

“Sure. By the way, have you finished up your homework?”

“Ummm… Well, I heard this really neat story I had to check out, so…”

“You haven’t, have you?”

Frey smiled at her.

“I… Um, my break’s over now, so I’m just gonna head right back.”

“That’s the spirit. Good girl.”

So Milim returned to her homework, Frey and Carillon successfully surviving the crisis. But both of them still had a drive to evolve burning within their hearts. Would that ambition ever be fulfilled? That remained to be seen.