by Fuse
Hey, is she really being controlled? Because I’m starting to wonder.
……
Raphael’s reaction made me ponder the idea for a bit, but it was no big deal at the moment. Besides, this would be the first time she’d met Veldora as a person, and it seemed like she was having a blast.
Thus, Clayman gave up on having Milim to rely on. Even in his panicked confusion, he managed to flee to the edge of our isolated battle zone, shouting at the audience outside.
“F-Frey! Frey, what are you doing?! You and I share a common fate! Get in here and lend a hand!”
The pleading fell on cold, dead ears.
“Oh, I’m sorry, Clayman. Nobody can go through this barrier unless Guy lets them. Such a pity.”
He resentfully groaned at this heartless reply, then turned back toward Milim, his eyes twitching and revealing the insanity inside. He must’ve gotten another wild idea in his mind. A crazed laugh crossed his lips as he looked at her once more.
“Kah! Kah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Milim! Milim! Follow my orders and execute a Stampede! Kill everybody you see in here!!”
Well, that sounds awful. Clayman just wanted to survive now, and he didn’t care how bad he looked along the way. This is bad, I have to admit. Now isn’t the time to sit around and watch things unfold. Back into the battle I go.
But just as I started to run, I heard the most unbelievable thing.
“Why do I need to do that? Rimuru and his people are my friends!”
Surprised, I turned around—only to find Milim chilling out there, a wide grin on her face.
“Milim?! Whoa, you—weren’t you being controlled…?”
“Waaah-ha-ha-ha! Thanks a lot for getting tricked by that, Rimuru! You know someone like Clayman would never take over my mind!”
Wh-what?!
……
I can’t articulate why, but I had the strangest feeling Raphael had been angry at me for a while. But back to Milim.
“So Clayman didn’t seize your mind?”
Um, what’s going on here? I felt obliged to check one more time—but Milim just gave me a proud smile. I could hear at least one demon lord in the audience say, “Huh? But she didn’t react at all when he punched her!”
The most surprised of all, of course, was Clayman.
“Y-yes. Yes! I used the Orb of Domination he gave me to put you completely at my beck and call… You killed Carillon under my orders, did you not?!”
Ohhh, Clayman. So shocked by these events that he has no idea what he just said. That oughtta make my video evidence more believable. After all, he just revealed that not only was he the culprit, but there was someone else pulling his strings, too.
“Yes! That! That’s what I wanted to hear,” exclaimed Milim. “Answer me, Clayman. Who’s this he you’re talking about?”
She asked the question casually enough, but she backed it up with sharp, seeking eyes. She had totally ignored Clayman’s question, which was so like her.
Right. So Milim wasn’t being controlled, and she had her doubts about Clayman from the beginning? For what?
Before I could get an answer, another voice butted in.
“Whoa, whoa, who’s been killed here?”
It came from the other end of the battle zone, this low, heavy voice—belonging to the man with the eagle wings that Frey brought along with her.
Wait, no way… Like, with that obvious a costume…?! And if I didn’t pick up on that, does that make me…?
……
Whoa, why does it feel like Raphael’s exasperated with me? And wasn’t it about to say something to me back then? Or maybe not? Ah, maybe I was just hearing things. Let’s forget about it and, um, pay more attention in the future.
The man, Carillon, ripped the mask off his face, his awe-inspiring aura shooting out with it. With a moment’s concentration, he was instantly back to his original appearance. Yep. That’s the Beast Master, all right. No doubt about it.
“Wow, you were all right, Carillon?”
“Yo, Rimuru. ‘All right’ ain’t how I would describe it, but that’s fine. Thank you for taking care of my forces.”
“Oh, not a problem.”
After thanking me, Carillon gave Clayman a knowing grin. Now it was obvious that Milim was under no one’s control.
“Wha—? How…? So it’s true…? But Frey told me… No, Frey, too? You betrayed me as well, didn’t you?!”
Finally getting the whole picture, Clayman gave Frey a half-crazed glare. She responded by pretending he wasn’t there.
By the looks of things, I wouldn’t call this a betrayal, per se…
“Hmm?” Frey nonchalantly replied. “Since when were you laboring under the assumption that I was your ally?”
Yikes. I knew it. Women can be so scary sometimes.
Frey was tricking Clayman from the get-go.
“You, you have to be kidding me! All, all of you… You’ll pay; I’ll make you all pay for this!”
The scream of the pitiful clown echoed across the field, and…
“Shion, do it.”
“You got it!”
Like a hungry dog released from the command to stay, Shion bounded off, using both hands to swing down her blade as quickly as she possibly could. It was a single blow from her sword, a judging strike. Clayman did his best to block it, but his three pairs of arms were all sliced off, his body slashed diagonally down from head to toe. It was unsurvivable—and that one stroke from Shion’s spirit-crushing blade made Clayman fall wordlessly to the ground.
It was over for Clayman. Carillon was alive, and we had all the testimony in order. I’m pretty sure I could avoid being branded the enemy of the demon lords now.
Clayman was barely clinging to life. He was no longer a threat; there was no way left for him to turn the tables. Things were already set in stone, and there would be no more excuses. So, before the demon lords, he had revealed everything. And each of them might take the news differently, but regardless, their trust in him had vanished, none willing to cover for him.
The barrier covering us was removed, and Frey quickly ran up and approached Milim.
“I believed you were still of sound mind, but I truly had my doubts at times, Milim! And you kept our promise anyway. I appreciate that.”
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-sha! Of course I did. We’re friends. But you’ve been taking care of that for me, right? Didja bring it over?”
“Yes, yes, you mean this, right? I have to say, though, withstanding the Orb of Domination was simply amazing…”
As they spoke, Frey took something out of her pocket and handed it to Milim. It was the Dragon Knuckle I gave her as a present. Milim accepted it like a kid on her birthday and immediately put it on, beaming ear to ear.
The rest of the demon lords, seeing this, finally put two and two together, and I could hear whispers all around the room.
“Such a cheap performance.”
“I—I saw through it the whole time!”
“Yes, I assumed as much.”
“Yeah, I figured…”
I don’t think I was the only one Milim tricked, but everyone else found the results just as plausible as I did.
Then I heard a groan from below, like the sound of blood being coughed up.
“…When? Since when were you deceiving me…?”
It was Clayman. He was still breathing, still incapable of grasping the unbelievable reality before him. And it was Milim who revealed the cruel truth.
“Y’know, I had a real hard time doing it! With that promise I made with Frey, I had to pretend you tricked me. Then I put on that pendant and made you think it was working on me.”
“You… You couldn’t… I put my full power into it, with the Orb of Domination… The perfect…ultimate Demon Dominate…?! And you…you…”
“Uh-huh! Most magic like that bounces off me pretty easily, so… First I had to remove all my barriers, then hold back my force so I didn’t passively resist it. I had to convince you that the curse was
working before your own eyes, or else you’d be far too wary to believe me. So I had to work really hard!”
“Wh…? What…? You… You accepted it on purpose?! My most valuable Artifact… My hidden gem, the ability to control demon lords…”
“Oh, was that what it was? Well, too bad you could never control me!”
She stuck her chest out, looking relentlessly proud of herself.
“Yeah, really,” I commented. “I feel stupid for worrying about you. And between that two-fisted sports pose and the smile you had on your face, your acting abilities really suck.”
“What do you want from me? I was just glad to see you were all angry for me, Rimuru.”
Frey just shrugged at this. “Still,” she said, “when Clayman punched you, I thought I was going to lose my composure. If you decided to fight back against him, you would’ve destroyed my home. Great job putting up with him. That, at least, I have to compliment you for.”
An interesting revelation. So that wasn’t the first time Clayman physically abused her? What a nutcase. Was he actively trying to get himself killed?
“Mm-hmm! I’m all grown up now, too, y’know. So I can deal with stuff like that!”
That obsession with being grown up indicated all too well how childish she still was.
“Oh, how?” Frey protested. “…Well, that’s fine, but you couldn’t have dealt with all that just because of our promise, could you? What did you really want?”
“Hmm? Well, you know, I remember Clayman talking to me about some weird stuff before. Like, about making Rimuru into an enemy of mankind and triggering a war between humans and monsters. If he did that, that wouldn’t be too fun for me, so I thought I’d meddle a bit!”
“Heavens. Imagine, you lifting a finger for somebody else.”
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! I told you—I’m all grown up now!”
“Yes, yes, let’s just call it that.”
Well, huh… I suppose Milim was sharp enough to realize Clayman was doing someone else’s bidding. So she pretended to be brainwashed in order to find out who it was? She had some kind of promise or deal with Frey, too. Let’s just ignore the fact that she totally tricked me.
The thing to focus on was: That orb didn’t hypnotize her at all. She didn’t struggle out of it midway; it never worked once. It was all an award-winning performance. As she later explained to me, she had been consuming bell peppers to maintain her poker face. The blank expression that resulted from eating this detested food of hers made everyone think her mind had been erased. It wasn’t enough to trick Veldora, but he played along, enjoying the combat session as a way to get limber in his new body. Maybe he was a lot more adaptable to things than I thought.
Like, seriously, Raphael, you never saw it?
……
Oh, um, okay. Guess you did try to tell me something.
I suppose it telling me “No results” should’ve been pretty bleedingly obvious, looking back. Of course it couldn’t find any curse effects on her. I was just jumping to conclusions. I should really adopt the habit of listening more carefully to people—that and hearing them out until the end.
I wasn’t about to tell anyone about it, but, yes, I had my personal regrets.
“By the way,” Carillon asked as he strode up to Milim, “if I could ask you something?”
She smiled back with the Dragon Knuckle eased into her fingers. “Mm? Sure! Anything!”
“I just wanted to be sure… You weren’t under anyone’s control? So that was all you when you were whipping the life out of me?”
Carillon was smiling, too, but I could see the veins on his forehead bulging. Yeah, I’d be wondering about that, too.
“Huh?! That, um…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. It just means I’m weaker than you. But,” he added, no longer hiding his anger, “you willfully blew up my entire nation, didn’t you?”
Milim was caught off guard for a moment—before immediately raging back at him.
“Oh, come on, Carillon! That’s the kind of small stuff you’re preoccupied with? What’s it matter?!”
Yep, that’s the real Milim, all right.
“It’s not small stuff! You know I could have died back there?!”
“Oh, don’t give me that. Just shut up! I was so passionate about my performance— Um, I mean, passionate about deceiving Clayman that I was trying really, really hard! It’s all Clayman’s fault!!”
“His fault? Ugh… Well, whatever. Not that you’ll ever listen to anyone else’s complaints…”
I was starting to feel a little bad for Carillon. Seeing those tears appear on his rugged, masculine eyes, I wanted to console him as best I could. She tricked me, too, so I thought we had something in common.
“Now, now, Carillon. Your Lycanthropeers and everyone else are safe—and they all put in a hell of an effort, fighting for your revenge. It wasn’t all bad, was it?”
“Ah, Rimuru… Thanks for the thought.”
“Yeah, so don’t worry about it. Besides, you can always build another town. I even had our forces capture Clayman’s magic-born to serve as your labor force.”
“Huh? Whoa, are you serious…?!”
“Yep. I’ll provide any technical expertise you need, and all of us at Tempest will help you out as best we can, too. So let’s make it a better, happier Eurazania than ever before!”
We had time for it. Time—and funds kindly provided by Clayman. Considering our future trade prospects, it’d be strategically beneficial for us to have Carillon owe us a favor. It seemed like a great opportunity to exploit, and I wanted to maybe make friends with more beastmen through the work, too.
“Wahhh-ha-ha-ha! Isn’t that great, Carillon? You have me to thank for that, too!”
Her to thank for what, I wondered. Maybe for completely flattening the land around the capital and thus saving us the trouble of hauling away the rubble?
“I’ll really owe you one,” the surprised yet thankful Carillon replied. “And you know, Rimuru—or maybe Sir Rimuru? I promise to you that the Beast Kingdom will never hesitate to help you out if you need it. We’ll be allied nations forever! …And I wish you would at least pretend to regret this a little more,” he didn’t forget to add, turning to Milim.
To her credit, she was back to her usual self—if Carillon and I were cool, she was cool. That’s Milim for you. Always looking out for number one—and I didn’t mind, if Carillon was feeling better.
It appeared that my promises surprised a lot more people than just Carillon. They were a shock to the demon lords assembled around us, too.
“So that was it!” observed the smiling red-haired Guy. “I thought leaving those magic-born alive was a sign of weakness…but I see you’re a rather creative thinker! Hardly any wonder that Noir’s taken a liking to you.”
Noir? Who’s that? Ah well.
Frey was back to focusing on Clayman, a quiet anger enveloping her. “So, Clayman,” she said. “You always were the sort to domineer over weaker people, or those who couldn’t resist you. I don’t think you have any right to call yourself a demon lord. I didn’t intervene since Milim was trying so hard…but you know what? I was kind of angry at you, too.”
It made it clear that Frey had no interest in rescuing him.
“Yeah, I know it’s survival of the fittest, but you took a step too far, I’d say. You wrecked my country, and I wanna see you pay for that, okay?”
Carillon did have a lot of damage to deal with. Damage technically inflicted by Milim, yes, but he was willing to shift the blame to Clayman here—and make him suffer the consequences.
None of the other demon lords voiced any opposition to this. I suppose Clayman wasn’t too popular a guy in this clique. He was already cornered—and now, the final moment was approaching.
Time to finish him off.
Feeling the life ebb away from him, Clayman’s heart was filled with regret. Regret and the words of his friends and advisers, flashing before his eyes.
�
�Now’s not the time to be too reckless. Whatever ya do, don’t letcher guard down…”
—Ah… You were absolutely right, Laplace…
He thought he was being careful, but he let power drown him. When he beheld Milim’s overwhelming strength, he made the erroneous assumption that it was all his to wield.
It’s just as you felt it. In the end, I was the one being controlled by Milim. I thought I was paying attention…but she tricked me. You trusted in me, left me to rule as your demon lord, but I suppose this is the end for me…
He had ignored his friend’s warning. And that set these results in stone.
“You’re weaker than us, Clayman, all right? So no trying to pull anything weird by yourself, if you could.”
“Hohh-hoh-hoh-hoh! Teare is right. Feel free to depend on us instead.”
Ah, Teare. Ah, Footman. You’re right. I forgot…
He was too focused on himself to feel it right to rely on his friends. He did file the promise in his mind, actually, but he forgot about that when it counted—one of the most inexcusable things he could have done.
I just wanted to get as close as I could to them. Of course I’d take risks to achieve that. Why wouldn’t I? I was part of the Moderate Jesters, too…
It was true. Clayman wanted the respect of his peers. He wanted his powers to be recognized, so he never revealed his Moderate Jesters’ side to the public. Now he realized that was a mistake.
But it was too late…
…He recalled when he first met the mysterious patron that led him to this.
“Hey. You’re Clayman, right?”
“Who are you? Someone in a hurry to die, apparently, if you address me that casually.”
“Whoa, whoa, no need to act so alarmed. We have a common acquaintance who pointed me here.”
“An acquaintance?”
“Yeah. The demon lord Kazalim. Your creator, of sorts.”
“What?”
He had intended to kill this boy with haste, but then he mentioned a name from his distant past. Now Clayman was interested in hearing him out. And when he did, he discovered the truth about him. His ambitions and his power.
