Rimuru felt his feet hit asphalt, a bit disoriented from the sudden shift in location.
"You really are an otherworlder." He heard Hinata’s voice from behind before he’d gotten his bearings.
Turning, he saw her with her hand on her sword which was already resheathed.
"What finally made you realize?" He asked while rolling his eyes. "It’s not like I’ve been trying to explain that to you forever or whatnot."
Hinata frowned. "Player Vs Player. It’s a video ga term. Not really sothing a lot of people in this world know. Even Shizu hadn’t played video gas during her ti in our world."
"What happened to Shizu?"
Rimuru blinked. ’Seriously? She’s actually cald the hell down?’
"You’re finally willing to hear out?" He asked skeptically.
"Just because you’re an otherworlder doesn’t an that you’re not responsible for the death of the one person in this world who cared about ." Hinata’s voice dropped cold. "Your answer will decide if you die in the next few seconds."
’Sheesh! Talk about an ultimatum.’ Rimuru shook his head. ’But I guess this is a better alternative.’
"Yeah yeah, I hear you loud and clear. I’ll tell you what happened to Shizu." And so he did. He explained how she’d co across his small village of hobgoblins and Tempest wolves.
He explained how she’d spent a night in their village and how she’d clocked that he was an otherworlder.
He explained how Ifritz had gone out of control and taken possession of Shizu’s body. After Ifritz had been defeated, his power was no longer keeping Shizu young anymore and she’d died of old age.
And finally he told her of Shizu’s wish. To be devoured by Rimuru so she wouldn’t be buried in the world that she hated.
By the ti he was done, Hinata didn’t have her hand on her sword handle anymore. "Shizu, hated this world?"
"It’s not really sothing I understand but, yeah." Rimuru looked up at the sky. ’That’s weird, Kanade’s spell sent us to a perfect replica of Jura forest, our version looks little.. ’
The sky was currently a black void of swirling clouds with no light other than purple colourations.
’Huh, neat.’ Rimuru thought. ’I guess I could use this as a secret move of sorts.’
"Rimuru!"
Rimuru flinched as Hinata suddenly called him. "Huh? Whatzit?"
"You still had Ifritz in our fight back then. You summoned him against rember!"
"Yeah I rember. I also rember you trying to steal Ifritz with your [Usurper]"
Hinata rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sorry about that. Ifritz was Shizu’s spirit. A taphysical being, he’s made entirely out of spiritrons."
"What are you insinuating?"
"If you were able to summon Ifritz as a whole being, then you can..." Hinata paused.
Rimuru blinked. "Hinata, that’s not even possible."
’Right, [Great Sage]?’
’So high!’
’Really?’
’Let guess, Kaede has that additional reference?’
’That’s considerably better than 40%.’
"I’m trying to depend less on Maple Tree here!" Rimuru groaned.
"What?" Hinata looked at him confused.
Rimuru sighed. "There is actually a chance. It’s pretty high even, but I have to et with Kaede about it."
"The ruler of Maple Tree? She’s an otherworlder right? She wouldn’t mind right?"
Rimuru looked at her weirdly. "Wellll... There’s sothing you might need to know about Kaede first before we even think of asking her for anything."
Hinata still looked confused. "Well what is it?"
"How do I say this?" Rimuru scratched his head. "Kaede thinks you killed one of her daughters."
"I’m sorry what? Daughters? She has daughters?"
Rimuru shrugged. "It’s weird I know but it makes sense... I guess, in a kinda way. She basically considers all of her citizens as her children. She does have actual adopted daughters though. It’s a whole thing."
Hinata looked thoughtful and almost... Taken back?
Rimuru looked at her. "Did you do it?"
"I... She didn’t give any other choice in the matter. She jumped into my blade before I could even do anything."
Rimuru frowned. "She wants your head Hinata. Pito’s death really took a toll on her, and Kaede isn’t like . There’s a chance she won’t take the peaceful option and go straight for war."
"Just let be the one to ask her. You don’t need to et her yourself Hinata."
"I’ll explain what happened..."
"Stop right there Hinata. I’ll say this because I don’t want you to die, but you should really learn to take a hint. You’re not strong enough to talk to Kaede and explain yourself."
"Is she really that powerful?"
"I watched her play fight with Millim and I can confirm that yes, Kaede is that strong."
Hinata still looked torn on what to do so Rimuru sighed. "Look, let’s just get back and deal with the imdiate problem. The army of humans at my doorstep. We can decide on how to go about this later."
Hinata nodded. "Very well."
Rimuru scratched his cheek looking a bit nervous. "So huh, can you... Forfeit. {PvP} doesn’t end until one of us is declared the winner."
Hinata raised an eyebrow. "Ok?" She sighed. "I forfeit."
At the ntion of those words the sky cracked and the dinsion fell away, to reveal that they were back in the clearing.
Rimuru looked around. "Neat."
"Rimuru?" Rimuru froze when he heard Hinata’s cold voice behind him.
"Yeah?"
"Did you take one of my extra skills?"
Rimuru laughed nervously. "I an, that’s how {PvP} works right. The winner gains sothing while the loser loses sothing."
Suddenly Rimuru blinked. "[Mana Jamming] huh? No wonder I couldn’t beat you in our last fight. You have so many debuff skills."
"You know I can just steal it back right?" Hinata asked.
"It wouldn’t really matter, as I’ve already copied and made my own version. Hehe." Rimuru grinned while giving her a teasing side eye.
"What about my team? You also sent them into the {PvP} dinsion right? What happens now?" Hinata frowned as she looked to the east. "Also Tempest is on fire."
Rimuru shrugged. "Well, I could stop the fight now, but don’t you wanna know who wins?" Then he stilled as if registering Hinata’s words. "Wait, Tempest is on what!!?"
’Benimaru, what’s going on!?’ Instantly Rimuru connected to Benimaru.
’Lord Rimuru, we were finally able to reach you! I’d feared the worst.’
Benimaru’s voice ca back stressed and rageful.
’Why? What happened?’
Benimaru didn’t reply right away although Rimuru could feel his emotions through the link and it was a flood of negativity, from hatred to rage to self loathing to depression.
’Benimaru?’
’Lord Rimuru...’ Benimaru finally spoke. ’It’s Shuna.’
---
The eting room was still icy from Kaede’s raw energy leaking out of her body heavily.
The various Demon Lords each has different to the show of power from Kaede however.
Guy was still grinning as the wave of power washed over him. ’Even with all the information I’ve gathered through my Ultimate Skill ||Lucifer|| I’m still unable to reason how she obtained this much power in such little ti. I was only able to [Analyse] ||Machine God|| partially in the end.’
’Is it possible that she possesses more than one Ultimate Skill? Wouldn’t that be amazing. Just using ||Machine God|| allowed her to get past all of my defences. What other Ultimate Skills must she have?’
Millim remained impassive, looking ahead with dulled eyes. If she was affected by the power emitted from Kaede she didn’t show it.
As for Ramiris, the pixie was currently standing on her own chair and giving Clayman an angry look that ended up being more cute than angry. ’Yeah Clayman, what did you do with Millim. You better speak before I beat you up. This newbie Demon Lord is quite strong though. She might even give trouble in my strongest form.’
As for the giant Daggrul, he simply had his arms folded while remaining unmoved by the power shaking the room. ’She has a significant amount of magicules. The quality isn’t diocre either. She must have an Ultimate Skill it seems.’
Roy Valentine frowned from where he was seating. ’Another new Demon Lord with incredible power. And just like Leon, she was once human.’ He definitely did not believe Raine’s claims that the girl currently shaking this subspace was human in any way. ’I wonder what’s going through your mind my Lady.’
Deeno still had his eye lids droopy as he looked at Kaede. "Damn, what a ridiculous amount of power. Everyone’s just showing off today, even Ramiris was showing off earlier. Should I start working harder."
"Maybe you can start by working at all first!" Ramiris snapped as she’d heard the fallen angel’s ramblings.
Frey allowed herself a small smile. ’I knew Kaede was strong, but to think that her power was this much higher than mine. Her claims about fighting Millim may not be a claim after all. She’s more fitting of the title of Demon Lord than myself. It might actually be ti for to settle down."
As for Clayman himself, he was currently filled with a plethora of emotions. Panic at the situation he’d been forced into so quickly into the eting. Rage at the fact that whatever shred of dignity and authority he had was being questioned by a random human girl who’d just proclaid herself a Demon Lord.
’I wasn’t even going to involve you and your worthless nation yet, at least until Laplace and the others finished their reconnaissance, but they won’t mind if I deal with you right here and now would they? You will rue the day you decided to piss off you little runt.’
Then he he grinned. ’Although this is convenient too,’ he thought, watching the power wash over the room. ’You’ve just shown everyone exactly what you are. A new Demon Lord with no political instincts, no understanding of this room, and enough raw power to make everyone nervous.’ His smile didn’t waver. ’Keep going. I have ti.’
’Such barbarism.’ Those were the thoughts of a certain Demonoid. Leon Cromwell sighed internally as he watched Kaede. ’Just blatant posturing, the both of them. Two weaklings trying to show they’re strong and wasting all of our ti.’
He narrowed his eyes. ’Although, she’s not exactly weak is she?’
Guy let the silence sit for exactly as long as he wanted it to.
Then he unfolded his arms. "Kaede."
Kaede looked at him.
Guy looked back. The grin had settled into sothing quieter. "Let Clayman speak. That’s why we’re here."
Kaede held his gaze for a mont, and then she exhaled once through her nose and sat back in her chair. The temperature of the room climbed back toward normal by degrees.
"Fine." She set the pole across her lap. "I’m listening."
Clayman smoothed the front of his tuxedo with one hand. He straightened at the head of the table, collected the room’s attention with a sweep of his gaze, and smiled.
"Thank you, Guy." He said it warmly, as though the intervention had been a courtesy extended to him rather than a leash pulled. "Now then."
He spread his hands over the map that Raine had placed on the table while the room’s attention had been elsewhere, a detail that several of them noticed and none of them comnted on.
The map showed Jura. All of it, the forest, the borders, the positions of the monster nations that had established themselves there over the past several years. Tempest sat at the centre. Maple Tree sat to its west, larger than it had been the last ti anyone had bothered to draw it.
"I want to draw your attention," Clayman said, "to the current state of Jura forest." He touched the map lightly, fingers moving to the eastern border. "As of this evening, the Kingdom of Falmuth has deployed four hundred and fifty thousand soldiers into the forest. They are currently engaged with the forces of Rimuru Tempest."
"We know." Deeno said, without lifting his head from the table.
"You know that they’re there." Clayman said pleasantly. "I wonder if you know why."
"Enlighten us." Leon said. His voice was flat when he spoke.
"Tempest has been expanding." Clayman moved his fingers across the map. "Rapidly. Aggressively even. Taking in refugees, absorbing populations, establishing trade networks, building infrastructure at a quick rate." He paused. "That expansion has made the western human nations nervous. Falmuth in particular."
"Rimuru didn’t start that war." Ramiris said from her chair, arms crossed, still giving Clayman the look. "Falmuth did."
"Falmuth did." Clayman agreed easily. "I’m not disputing that. What I’m asking this council to consider is what happens after. Regardless of who wins tonight, Jura has been destabilised. The human nations are watching. The church is involved." He let that settle for a mont. "And sitting at the centre of all of it, we have not one but two monster nations under the leadership of otherworlders, neither of whom has any particular investnt in the existing order."
The map’s western section. His fingers moved there now.
Maple Tree.
Kaede watched his hand.
’Ah,’ she thought. ’There it is.’
"Maple Tree declared its ruler a Demon Lord three days ago." Clayman continued. "Without convening this council. Without consulting any of the existing mbers. A unilateral declaration backed by. ." he glanced toward Guy with an expression of precise, diplomatic neutrality... "considerable support."
"She’s here now." Guy said. "The consultation is happening."
"Indeed it is." Clayman smiled. "Which is why I think it’s worth asking, openly and formally, what Maple Tree’s intentions are." He turned to Kaede. "You’ve sent forces to support Tempest in a war against human nations. You’ve declared yourself a Demon Lord without precedent or process. You’ve established a nation in Jura that by all accounts answers to no one."
The room was quiet.
It was, Kaede had to admit, a genuinely good pivot. She could feel the weight of the room’s attention shifting toward her, the various Demon Lords watching to see what she did.
’Slippery.’ She thought. ’He’s actually quite slippery when he’s not panicking.’
’Why aren’t you more worried?’ She thought, watching him across the table. ’What do you know that I don’t?’
She filed it. Sothing to co back to.
She leaned forward, setting her elbows on the table, and looked at him directly.
"Do you know what I imagine when I picture another world?" She said.
Leon raised an eyebrow at the question, while Clayman scowled. "What does that have to do with anything?"
"Quite a lot if I’m being honest here." Kaede sighed. "Back ho, whenever one thinks of going to another world, the only representation of that was New World Online. Now I don’t expect you to know what that ans but to us back then, it was paradise."
"In the real world you are what you are, your body has limits, your circumstances have weight, your choices accumulate into a history you can’t rewrite. New World Online offered a clean slate with different physics. You can build yourself from nothing, choose what kind of person you want to be in that space, and the only ceiling on what you beco is how creatively you engage with the system. Maple was the purest expression of this."
"For people who feel constrained by real life, by social hierarchies, by physical limitations, by the exhausting performance of being what other people need you to be, you have to understand that that’s a deeply appealing fantasy. New World Online basically told us that the rules you’ve been living under were never the only rules. There’s a space where a different version of you is not only possible but celebrated."
Kaede rested her head on her hands. "Of course then I actually went to another world. Summoned by a foolish man inside a foolish nation. I let myself believe that a new world would be all I thought it to be."
"It wasn’t. And I had to pay for that." Kaede stood up. "I built a ho for myself. Case in point, myself. Not for any of you. Why should I care what any of you think? Maybe a much more naive Kaede would have cared, but the only thing I care about right now is my ho and those closest to it."
"As for declaring myself a Demon Lord without process, what process? There’s no application form. There’s no committee. Every person at this table got their title the sa way I got mine."
"By earning it." Guy said, with mild amusent.
"By earning it." Kaede confird.
"You said a lot of words and practically told us nothing." Clayman’s smile hadn’t moved.
"Isn’t that what you were doing?" Kaede replied.
"And the church? You’ve made an enemy of the Holy Church of Luminous by sheltering Tempest’s people and sending forces against Falmuth. That’s not a small thing. The church’s reach extends across every human nation in the west."
"The church can get in line." Kaede said pleasantly. "They’ll get their coupance soon enough."
Deeno made a sound that might have been a laugh, muffled by the table his face was resting on.
"That’s a very confident position for soone whose nation shares a border with those human nations." Clayman said. "Confidence is admirable. But Maple Tree is young. Your soldiers are strong, impressively so, but you have limits. Everyone does." He tilted his head slightly. "What happens when the church decides that Tempest isn’t the only monster nation worth culling? You have no friends here."
And there it was. Still wrapped in the language of concern, still frad as a question rather than a threat, but sitting underneath it, unmistakably, the shape of sothing pointed.
Kaede looked at him.
Sothing was wrong.
’You called this council,’ she thought. ’You set the ti. You controlled the invitation list.’ She glanced at the map, then back at him. ’And right now your only move is to ask questions? I only beca a Demon Lord three days ago, this Walpurgis couldn’t have been about to begin with.’
’Why does he feel like he’s buying ti?’
---
"You know in hindsight Footman, this might not have been the best idea."
"Oh, you think so Tear? What gave you that idea?"
"Oh no reason, just the fact that we’re surrounded by freaking Antaris and all that."
The two owners of these voices were Tear and Footman, mbers of the Harlequin Alliance. Footman was a large man wearing an angry clown mask
Tear was a sowhat petite girl wearing a clown mask that had a single year on the right side.
They were both currently surrounded by dozens of warriors, most of them being Antari, and Tengus.
"I think it’s about ti we took our leave, don’t you think so Tear?" Footman laughed nervously.
"I think so too Footman. Looks like we’ve overstayed our welco." Tear nodded in agreent.
"I’m afraid that won’t be possible." A man stepped forward. He had brown hair and was quite tall. Most of all, he was...
"A human?" Footman tilted his head.
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