That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime, Vol. 5

by Fuse

  Report. The individual Diablo was an Arch Demon. When his master evolved, he experienced a massive upgrade in magicule stores. As a result, making a comparison strictly on percentage of magicules consumed will not provide an accurate picture.

  Um, all right?

  But really, Raphael here seems a hell of a lot more informal with me than the Sage ever was…

  Incorrect. It is your imagination.

  Oh yeah? You seem awfully free with the advice you’re offering, considering that.

  But the Lord of Wisdom just said something I didn’t want to ignore. My energy had gone up that much, and Diablo still took half of it? Like, how much of a boost are we talking here?

  Understood. For reference’s sake, the figure is over ten times what it previously was.

  Holy crap.

  What the hell did I just walk into? I’ve turned into some kinda monster.

  Diablo, the demon before me, remained motionless on one knee. A sort of dark cocoon enveloped his body as he prepared for his own evolution. I am so careless sometimes. I guess there’s no cure for stupidity, even after death, so I’ll just have to grin and bear it.

  No more casual naming for me! I mean it this time!

  I swore it to myself, but something told me I wouldn’t stick to it for very long.

  The evolution completed itself as I mused over this. Within the dark form I was greeted with, I could see streaks of red and gold amid his black hair. His eyes were just as golden as before, his pupils shining just as eerie a shade of crimson. The areas that’d normally be white were instead a shade of jet-black, which made them stand out all the more. As he rose to his full slender height, I realized he was dressed in the very peak of classy domestic clothing, like a perfect butler. It was a new image for him, compared to the high-born prince he’d looked like before.

  He used to be a ruler; now he served one. But, if anything, that arrogant aura that surrounded him had grown, not shrunk.

  “Diablo. That is my name. My heart is filled with deep emotion, Sir Rimuru. From this day forward, I promise to serve you with all my heart.”

  He gave me a respectful salute.

  This transformation apparently reflected his desire to be my ever-loyal servant. Demons could use the intrinsic skill Create Material to whip up any kind of clothing they wanted, it turned out, so there was no need for a wardrobe. Pretty useful. I’m kinda jealous.

  Almost immediately, he said, “Sir Rimuru, you appear to be fretting about something. What is it that troubles you? Because I would hope you can discuss it with me.”

  It must’ve been obvious to him. I decided to explain the whole situation, since it’d help me arrange my own thoughts as well. Even if it didn’t lead to an answer, it’d help keep my mind calm.

  “It’s nothing big… Well, it is, I guess. I’m thinking about the future.”

  “The future?”

  “Right now, we’ve got too many problems to deal with at the same time. I think we’re already over capacity with all the plans we need to carry out.”

  “Ah…”

  I reviewed the circumstances for him.

  My main concern was the demon lord Carillon and how Milim was involved with him. But the most pressing matter was how we’d clean up the Kingdom of Farmus and check the Western Holy Church’s movements—both issues that could greatly affect our future relationship with mankind. If we made any misstep with the Church in particular, we’d wind up being the nemesis of every human being in the world. I wanted to do whatever I could to prevent that.

  It would be ridiculous, though, to attempt to address all these problems at once. I needed to line up our enemies, our problems, one by one and secure victory against them.

  “I see. All of that makes sense to me now. Allow me, in that case, to shoulder some of the burden! I will be happy to fine-tune matters so multiple problems never occur at the same time for you. Your orders, Sir Rimuru!”

  Ahhh, ever the sly demon, isn’t he? He understood my worries in a flash and was ready to take action against them. But I wanted to discuss matters with everyone else before deciding on anything.

  “Well, hang on. There’s no big rush. We’ll decide on a direction at a conference tomorrow, so why don’t you join us?”

  If Diablo’s that eager to pitch in, let him. He seems pretty shrewd, and it’d be a waste to let his powers go unflexed.

  Report. I believe we do not need to worry about the Western Holy Church. The Analysis and Assessment of the Unlimited Imprisonment that has shut away the individual Veldora will be completed shortly. Releasing this individual is believed to provide a suitable restraint on the Holy Church’s actions.

  Ooooh. Neat. Yeah, if we could release Veldora, that’d sure keep the Church from pulling any funny moves.

  …Uh, wait, whaaaat?! You’re being way too engaging with me, Raphael!

  Incorrect. It is your imagination.

  Yeah, yeah, my imagination. Knock it off, man.

  Let’s get back to Veldora. We can actually release him?

  Analysis is slated to finish by tomorrow afternoon.

  Wow, Raphael. I guess you’ve gotten a lot more useful than I thought.

  Well, that certainly opened up a few paths to a solution. As long as we could keep the Western Holy Church in check, that’d give us all the time we wanted to negotiate with the Western Nations. I was scared the Church was agitating them to believe we were evil, and if we kept that from happening, we already knew there were nations there willing to work with us.

  Farmus, meanwhile, was no longer a threat. We had crushed the core of their military, and we held their king hostage. We’d help pave the way for Yohm to establish a new nation and focus the attention on him, and nobody there would even have the free time to meddle with us then.

  So what problems did that leave?

  “Right! I think something’s gonna come together after all!”

  I would focus exclusively on striking the demon lord Clayman. Milim told me that anyone who declared themselves a demon lord would quickly face retribution from the others. Why not turn it into a big debutante ball—get my name out there with a bang and go onstage as the sassiest, brassiest demon lord out there?

  “Ah, has an idea come to mind?”

  “It sure has. I’ve decided to become a demon lord—in name and deed.”

  “Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee. That’s the spirit, Sir Rimuru. And I, Diablo, shall be faithful to you for all the days of—”

  “Hmph! And I, Ranga, am his most faithful of servants!”

  I gave Ranga a pat on the head for that. The unexpected declaration was kind of endearing, I thought.

  It seemed like we had a good playbook to work with tomorrow. And under a sky full of stars, atop Ranga’s back as he squinted in bliss, my own mind felt just as clear and glittery.

  The next day, I informed everyone of my plan.

  The following people were in attendance:

  Shuna, my temporary secretary.

  Shion, my official secretary. The temporary one was far better-suited to the job, but never mind that.

  Rigurd and the other hobgoblin elders in government.

  Rigur and Gobta from our security team.

  Benimaru and Hakuro, representing our military.

  Kaijin and Kurobe from the manufacturing department, along with Garm and Dold.

  Geld and Mildo from construction.

  Lilina from management.

  Soei, Soka, and the other three members of our espionage team.

  Ranga in my shadow as kind of an emotional support animal, I guess?

  I also invited Gabil to join in, as well as Diablo, serving as a second secretary of mine. It’d be a good opportunity to introduce him, I figured.

  Outside of native Tempestians, there was Yohm; his assistant, Kazhil; and Rommel the staff officer. Mjurran and Gruecith were there, of course, along with the Three Lycanthropeers of Eurazania. There were over thirty people in our meeting hall, all told.

  “T
hank you all for gathering here, ladies and gentlemen!”

  “Why this sudden meeting, Sir Rimuru?”

  I was trying to act all cool here, given that I was about to announce my presence as a demon lord, but Benimaru just cut me off. Guess I’ll keep it normal after all.

  “First, I have someone to introduce to you all. This is Diablo, who helped me out of a rough spot just a bit ago. He’s pretty strong, and we can all rely on him, so make nice, all right?”

  “Hmm? He certainly seems well guarded… I imagine he is just as experienced as you say, Sir Rimuru.”

  With Hakuro’s stamp of approval, everyone else safely assumed that Diablo wasn’t some also-ran strength-wise. Without any further complaint, he immediately became one of the gang. Moving on:

  “Now—Gabil!”

  “Y-yes?”

  The dragonewt looked ill at ease in this gathering of top brass. He nervously shot to his feet upon hearing his name.

  “Effective today, I’m going to name you head of our development department. That’s a provisional title, but it means you’re now in Tempest leadership. Make me proud, all right?”

  “Y-yes! Yes, sir! I promise you that I, Gabil, will eternally put my nose to the grindstone for you!!”

  He choked up midway as he accepted the offer. Research and development seemed to suit Gabil a lot more than I would’ve guessed. I was sure he’d do a great job.

  Now it was time to visit the main topic.

  “So I’ve decided on our direction going forward, and I wanted to relay it to all of you. This has everything to do with Yohm and the Three Lycanthropeers as well, so I want you to listen carefully.”

  “Whatever you want, pal.”

  “Does this have to do with rescuing Lord Carillon?”

  All eyes were upon me. Without further delay, I turned into human form and faced them.

  “I’ve decided to become a demon lord.”

  “Right.”

  …Huh? Kind of a tepid response.

  “Um… Meaning that I’m taking the role…”

  “You already have, haven’t you?”

  Shion gave me an odd look. I guess she figured that was the whole reason she was alive now. And yeah, I was a true demon lord in terms of my rank or whatever, but…

  “I don’t mean that. I mean, I’m going to declare to the world that I’m a demon lord, too!”

  “Oh? Meaning that you’re going to challenge the other demon lords at their own game, Sir Rimuru?”

  Hakuro was kind enough to say it for me.

  “Right! Exactly! And not ‘the other demon lords’ exactly. I’m gunning straight for Clayman.”

  Yohm, Mjurran, Gruecith, and the Three Lycanthropeers nodded their earnest approval.

  “I see,” said Benimaru, boldly smiling. “Seizing a seat at the demon lords’ table for yourself, then? Interesting.”

  Nobody else had any objection.

  “Right. Behind the scenes, as Farmus attacked us, it was Clayman controlling Mjurran and all the rest. I can’t let that stand. There’s a pretty good chance he’s the one who sicced Milim and Frey on Eurazania, too. That’s all the reason I need, isn’t it?”

  My audience nodded back.

  I then discussed my thoughts further with them—about our future relations with the Western Nations, about the postwar cleanup with Farmus, about the need to keep the Holy Church from interfering with us, and about rescuing Carillon, as I promised the Beast Kingdom’s denizens. I also passed out work assignments along the way.

  “Rigurd! I’m leaving negotiations with the Western Nations to you. Evacuating all those merchants back to Blumund should be a pretty good bargaining chip to work with. Keep in mind the trust we’ve built so far and proceed carefully.”

  “Yes, Sir Rimuru! You can count on me!”

  He sounded ready for the job. The other elders looked just as enthusiastic about it, practically bursting with confidence. I guess they were on pretty good terms with the merchants.

  “Benimaru! I want you to tabulate exactly what happened to everyone who evolved in town. We’re going to use every weapon at our disposal to crush Clayman, and to do that, I need to know what kind of powers I have to work with.”

  “Yes, Sir Rimuru.”

  He, too, was brimming with confidence. It was the expression of a true general, one worthy of being entrusted with all military matters. He sucked at keeping an eye on Shion, but when it came to this job, here was a man you could rely on.

  “Shion! I’ll have you interrogate our prisoners. Yohm and Mjurran, you’ll help Shion out with that. Make them talk as much as you can about the state of things inside Farmus, and help us seize their country. Before we do that, we’ll have to finish all the postwar cleanup work, too. There’s going to be a new nation set in place, one with Yohm as its king and leader, and we need all the intel we can to make it work. Don’t kill any of them, all right? They might be useful to us later.”

  “I happily accept the task, Sir Rimuru!”

  “Sure thing, pal.”

  “I will do what I can. Hopefully it will help me repay the favor a little.”

  Shion was ready. I made doubly sure to instruct her not to kill anyone, because I easily imagined her doing so otherwise. We should be fine now, hopefully, even as I sensed a sort of restless turbulence deep within her eyes that concerned me. Hopefully I was just imagining it. She was always quick to fly into a rage, so I figured this would be a good way to let her get back at ’em, but maybe I was being a bit too rash.

  Ah well. She wouldn’t be alone, ever, so I figured it’d be fine. I had future work for Yohm and Mjurran, so it’d be best if they helped her for now. I made sure to have them contact me should Shion begin to act unstable. That ought to be enough caution to cover my ass.

  “Soei!”

  “I will gather information on Clayman as quickly as I can.”

  Ah. Right. Good. Soei’s certainly a man who can work. He guessed at my motives before I could even give him his orders, and Clayman was the only prey in his eyes right now. Scary dude. Glad I could rely on him—and before I could finish the thought, all five members of our espionage team had disappeared, already carrying out their duties. Once he was back, I was sure we’d have another strategic conference to carry out.

  As for the others:

  “Now, as I’ve said, I’m going to crush Clayman. I’d like the Three Lycanthropeers to help me with this if possible?”

  “I would expect nothing else, O great leader of Jura.”

  “Just say the word! We’re running on your orders for now!”

  “We are all of the same mind. We lycanthropes reward trust with trust—we repay our favors with our lives. We trust you, and you have given us a favor we could never repay. Now allow us to stake our lives on paying you back!”

  “All right. Well, here’s the order. I want you to rest up, recharge yourselves, and prepare for the decisive duel!”

  “““Yes, Sir Rimuru!”””

  All three of them kneeled and acknowledged that they were under my orders. That’d be a huge boost to our war power, not to mention some extra provisions to use against Clayman. That was a relief.

  “Good. So, I want everyone else to evaluate the damage to our town and repair it. We also need some living quarters set up for the lycanthropes—help them maintain a decent quality of life while they’re here. And keep up your security patrols to make sure we don’t have any fights or trouble!”

  Everyone nodded their agreement. That marked the end of this salvo of orders.

  “Excellent. Now we’ll just wait for Soei’s report before we hold another conference. Until then, I want all of you to figure out the main issues with the work you’re assigned and put together a plan we can execute against them!”

  “““Yes, sir!”””

  The audience stood up and saluted me. I nodded and gave them a little smile, putting on my mask as I sat down.

  “Get to it!”

  Every one of the
m immediately sprang into action.

  The only ones left in the room were Diablo, Shuna, and me. Shion griped a bit about being the “real” secretary and all that, but (luckily for me) she put the orders I gave her first. She lectured Diablo a bit on what the job of secretary entailed, but he was perfectly safe in ignoring all of that. Already he was eagerly nodding and giving thoughtful looks at what I said, so maybe that made Shion get all stuck-up with him. If I hadn’t stopped her, she might still be yapping at him now.

  I had given her three prisoners to interrogate. She had to take that job seriously or else it’d be pointless. It wasn’t an interrogation so much as torture at Shion’s hands, truthfully speaking. I had given permission for her to deal any kind of mental anguish she could think of, as long as physical pain wasn’t involved. The victims I resurrected were allowed to join in, too, and I was sure they’d be more than eager to make them sing like canaries.

  The anger swirling within me had largely calmed now that they were all back. It meant I had no real drive to kill that seedy-looking old man and the guy from the Western Holy Church. The main perpetrator already had his heart broken by Diablo, besides. I couldn’t forgive them, but I no longer had much interest in laying my hands on them.

  Depending on how things went, it might be better to let the king of Farmus and the archbishop live so we could more effectively use them. As long as Shion didn’t kill them, then, I was prepared to give tacit approval to whatever she did. If someone hits you, you gotta hit back. Hit back, put the fear of God in them, and make sure they never make the same mistake again. Shion was the perfect person to handle this, and once she extracted the info we needed, I was sure she’d give them a hearty meal—using Master Chef to make sure it tasted just the way she wanted.

  While Shion played the role of interrogator, I had other business to take care of.

  First, I had to study how this world handled postwar cleanup. I wanted to at least consider things like what they did with POWs, as well as the other conventional wisdom surrounding warfare around here. If all of mankind considered us to be monsters, then I could just operate by my own rules—but if there was a chance we could build cooperative relationships, like we had now, I wanted to nudge things in that direction as much as I could.