Several months had passed since I showed Rimuru and the others my city, Laputa, and I was now in my office sorting through docunts. After seeing the highly advanced city of Laputa, Rimuru had seed to make up her mind about sothing as she left, and I too was carrying out the duties expected of a ruler.
The place I was in was the office inside the castle at the center of Laputa. Since it was normally used for audiences, it was an enormous hall, and I was working there with only the minimum number of monsters needed to help process the paperwork.
"Vertis, what should we do with this agenda item...?"
"Put that one over there. And throw this one out."
Even in another world, places where people live do not seem all that different. Starting from simple business applications, there were requests for relocation, reviews of new proposals, budget confirmations for each subordinate institution, invoices for construction materials, and reports on experintal results. I was prioritizing the docunts that would not pass unless I personally approved them and handling them one by one.
But looked at another way, paperwork was where my role mostly ended. There might be a lot of docunts, but once they were properly approved, my subordinates took care of everything after that. So in practice, I had little to do beyond reviewing them. Still, paperwork by nature required checking even the smallest print in detail.
"Hmm... what about this one?"
The contents were from the deep-sea area, and the docunt had been treated with a waterproof coating, so it would not get wet.
It concerned village relocation and expansion work. As I said before, Laputa was divided into several areas depending on the environnt. Among them, the deep-sea area was a special place, a region designed to be especially well suited for a certain race that wished to live under my protection, much like the aquatic tribes.
"Hmm... there shouldn't be any problem."
After carefully reviewing it, Vertis stamped the approval seal onto the docunt with a firm thump and set it aside.
About an hour later, roughly half the paperwork was done, and Vertis stretched as he took a short break. There was still a mountain of work left, but since fatigue did not really build up for him, it was not especially difficult.
"Hmm... the streets were damaged again from the aftermath of a fight."
Whenever powerful monsters trained against each other, parts of the city were often damaged by the collateral effects. That was why, if the machine area received the largest budget, the next biggest expense was the cost of repairing the streets.
"...I think I'll stop here for today."
Setting down his quill, Vertis halted his work and headed for Tempest.
When he arrived, Rimuru was standing at the podium in the plaza, dressed up more stylishly than usual and giving a speech to her subordinates.
"I see. Today is the day they're sending a delegation to Eurazania."
For such a historic occasion, Rimuru was wearing clothes quite different from her usual outfit, and the others, including Benimaru, were lined up in attire resembling uniforms.
The saying that clothes make the person really was not wrong.
Since public speaking did not co naturally to Rimuru, she did not try to use difficult words and instead spoke honestly from the heart. It seed that her feelings had co across well.
Then Benimaru and the delegation set out for Eurazania in a carriage pulled by Tempest Wolves, while Rimuru imdiately began preparing to receive the delegation that would be arriving from Eurazania.
Shuna supervised the dishes that would be served to the delegation, while also learning proper etiquette under Vester's guidance, and at the sa ti the streets were being cleaned so thoroughly that not a speck of dust remained.
"You're working pretty hard, aren't you?"
"Of course. This is the first diplomatic relationship we've ford with another country besides Dwargon."
While they waited for the delegation from Eurazania, Yoem and his group arrived in Tempest first. Judging by the brightness of their expressions, the plan to turn Yoem into a hero had gone off beautifully.
And then, a few days later, the delegation from Eurazania arrived.
A carriage pulled by magical beasts called Thunder Tigers slowly approached. In sli form, Rimuru ca out to greet them together with Shuna, Shion, Rigurd, and the elder hobgoblins who helped run Tempest, while Vertis watched the scene from the sky.
Soon, the door of the lavish carriage, decorated with all kinds of gold and valuables, opened and a woman stepped out.
A seductive beauty with long hair streaked gold and black gave Rimuru a polite greeting.
"It is a pleasure to et you, leader of the Great Forest of Jura. I am Albis of the Yellow Serpent Horn, one of Lord Carrion's Three Beastketeers."
I had thought she felt fairly strong, and sure enough, like Phobio, she was one of the Three Beastketeers. But then another beastman appeared, kicking the carriage door open roughly as she stepped out.
She was a woman with glossy white hair worn straight and catlike eyes. The fierce aura rolling off her made it clear she was the sort who loved fighting.
The woman who appeared so abruptly was nad Suphia, and like Albis, she too was one of the Three Beastketeers.
But despite the insults she hurled, there was no real killing intent in her. She might have been doing it on purpose to test Rimuru's reaction.
Rimuru did not rise to that provocation, but when Suphia went so far as to insult Yoem, who was standing nearby, Rimuru put Yoem forward in response. Yet instead of Yoem stepping up to fight, Shion moved first, and while Shion fought Suphia, Yoem ended up battling a beastman nad Grucius.
Beastn were, quite literally, demi-humans capable of turning into beasts.
They were a race born with both human and monster traits, and from birth they were classified as lesser majin. So beastn lived in my city as well, but most of them were the weak who had fallen behind, or half-bloods born of humans and beastn.
Among beastn, who followed the law of the strong devouring the weak, the weak could not survive. In that sense, perhaps it was simply the logic of this world that the weak were cast aside. In the end, though, I took in those wanderers, and they were reborn as warriors.
*
As for the outco of the fights, Shion and Suphia's battle was spectacular, and Yoem's fight with Grucius was worth watching in its own way as well.
Shion and Suphia were both battle maniacs who felt exhilaration in combat, so neither paid any attention to their surroundings, and the area around them was left in ruins from the aftermath.
As I watched the fight, Shion and Suphia were locked in a contest of strength. It seed as though so switch had flipped in both of them, and they were about to start fighting seriously. Seeing that, Albis, who had been observing the battle, stepped between them holding her golden staff and said, "That's enough."
At Albis's words announcing the end of the battle, Suphia grumbled but stopped fighting. On the other side, Grucius and Yoem also halted their fight and turned to look her way.
Apparently satisfied with the result, Suphia declared that they would form friendly relations with Tempest, and she seed to be convincing the beastn as well. Yoem, too, was no longer being looked down on just for being human and was being accepted as a close friend.
But in her excitent from the battle, Shion had created a magic bullet that was in an unstable state, like a bomb that might explode at any mont. Even the Three Beastketeers were badly flustered by the situation, and Albis was quietly edging away from the scene.
Seeing that, Rimuru transford into human form and casually erased Shion's magic bullet with [Hungry One] as if it were nothing at all.
That night, a grand welco banquet was held.
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