by Fuse
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! Another bumper crop today!”
Behind her, Kabal and Gido were both carrying a huge number of monsters on their backs.
“Boy, that Milim sure is something else! She can spot out monsters in the blink of an eye! She made things so much easier for us.” The empty-handed Elen beamed as she trailed behind the demon lord.
There wasn’t a speck of dirt on Milim at all; I guess she had the men in the party handle all the heavy lifting. She was wearing a new dress from Shuna, and I suppose she didn’t want to splash any blood on it. Not exactly hunting gear, I don’t think…
“Phewww! Finally back!”
“That was a hard day of work, eh? Let’s hit the hot spring and grab a mugful of something.”
“Ooh yeah! The fruit wine here is awesome!”
Kabal and Gido didn’t seem to mind being used and abused, at least, although that probably wasn’t the way they thought about it. The men were spoiling Milim, after all, and it wouldn’t be very nice to gripe about that and stir up conflict. If they had no problem, neither did I.
It did, however, remind me all the more about how, no matter which world you lived in, some men were doomed to have women use them. I, at the very least, could show them a little kindness.
“Hey, good work, guys. Why don’t you get yourselves cleaned up first?”
“Yes, I would hardly want you to remain all dirty like that—”
Shion started to comment, but then—
“Hmm?!”
Suddenly, Milim ran next to me, eyes pointed forward.
“Who’s there?!”
Shion handed me to Milim as she addressed some presence in front of her. I’m not a piece of baggage, you know. I have no idea why they’re ferrying me back and forth, like I’m some fragile work of art.
Benimaru and Soei took position behind Milim as I grumped about this for a moment, Hakuro standing nearby among the trees. I didn’t spot him arriving—he must have been training just now, but his clothing was still in perfect order. Impressive. And with Ranga bursting out from my shadow, we now had the town’s main force gathered together.
Geld was out working on the road project, so he wasn’t here. He had reported to me a few days back about how he sensed something suspicious nearby, but he never actually saw anything, so he chalked it up to his mind playing tricks on him and kept up the road construction. I had a feeling that I was forgetting about someone else, too, but—hey—with all the guys we did have, I didn’t predict any issues.
Besides, the person facing us was familiar to me.
“It has been quite a long time, my leader.”
It was Traya, a dryad and Treyni’s younger sister.
“Sure has. But why are you looking like that? All like you’re about to kill someone?” I said as she kneeled before me.
The seething rage was something you could detect even from far away, sharp enough to make both Milim and Shion react to it. Her semitranslucent body was a bit hazy in places; perhaps she had taken some damage. It was clear that something happened to her.
“…Well, I am afraid it is an emergency. Charybdis, a calamity-class monster, has revived itself. The power wielded by this great spirit is akin to a demon lord’s. My sisters are keeping it immobile for now, but we are hopelessly outclassed. Plus…it appears the great spirit is seeking out this land. Charybdis is a tyrant of the skies; ground-based forces can do little against it. I came here to advise you that you must solidify your defenses and prepare some aerial war power.”
The fatigue was clear on her face as she explained.
Tension quickly filled the air. Surprisingly, Fuze was the first to react—he was stunned to near silence the moment he saw Traya (“A dryad?!” he had shouted), but the mention of Charybdis’s name got his brain in gear again.
The blood drained from his face as he shouted. “Charybdis?! Oh, man, if it’s really revived, that’s a bigger threat than any demon lord. Unlike those guys, you can’t even reason with this thing. It’s classified as a calamity, but I’d say it’s safe to assume it’s a full-on disaster, if anything…”
As he put it, its strength was demon lord–caliber, but instead of leading an army, it just went around by itself wreaking havoc. A sort of unintelligent monster, to put it another way.
However, thanks to its unique Summon Monster skill, it could call out schools of megalodons, a large, shark-type monster, anytime it wanted. The otherworldly creatures dissipated after a period of time, once the magicules giving its body physical form were exhausted, but even so, they were an A-minus force that couldn’t be ignored. What’s more, Charybdis could summon ten or so at once, making even its servant beasts a formidable presence.
If Fuze was right, then I honestly had to agree with him. This was worse than a demon lord.
“I don’t know why we would be targeted, but if we are, this is great for us. We must choose the best fighters we have and prepare to counter this force.”
Benimaru was certainly excited, but we needed people who could fly…
Oh! Wait! I forgot!
“Right. I forgot Gabil. He’s probably doing research in the cave. Can someone get him for me?”
Soei went off to fetch him. In the meantime, I decided to go back to town and hold a prep meeting.
We were back in the now-familiar meeting hall, Traya using Thought Communication to speak with her sisters.
Soei was back with Gabil, with Vester joining him, so we could make contact with King Gazel if need be. On the question of aerial firepower, the first thing that crossed my mind were his Pegasus Knights—each one of them were A-ranked fighters, so if I could gain their support, I couldn’t ask for anyone better to rely on.
Gabil and his fighters could fly as well, but they were no better than B-plus, and taking on someone ranked higher than you was gravely dangerous. I preferred to think of a way we could guarantee victory for ourselves, with minimum damage.
“Things couldn’t be much worse,” Traya began. “For some reason, the summoned megalodons have incarnated themselves in the corpses of some lesser dragons. They’ve manifested to creatures over sixty feet in length, like nothing we have ever seen before, and there are thirteen of them. My sisters estimate that each one is in A-ranked territory.”
“““…”””
Everyone in the room lost their voice at this. A creature as strong as a demon lord, plus thirteen other A-ranked monsters? I wanted to ask if this was some kind of a joke.
“What will we do, Sir Rimuru?” Benimaru asked.
Ugh, that’s what I want to ask…but I’m the leader of this alliance, and it’s my job to make the decisions. Plus, no matter how much I hemmed and hawed about it, there was only one answer to give.
“What’ll we do? Well, we’ll kill it, won’t we?” Reluctant though I was, I presented that conclusion to the others.
The moment I said it, everyone in the room took action.
“Heh. I didn’t need to ask. In that case, I will begin to prepare.”
“Indeed, what else could we do?”
“Exactly! This will be no sweat for Sir Rimuru.”
When it came to this sort of thing, they knew exactly what to do. Nobody voiced any disagreement with me; instead, they sought out their roles and sprang into action. The sight made Fuze lose his head a little.
“Whoa! Is that all? Don’t you understand? This is a demon lord–class enemy…”
“But even if we stalled for time, we can’t expect much support from Blumund, can we, Fuzie?”
“Well, no, but…”
“I’m not fighting to lose this, of course, but if it comes to it, I hope you’ll consider taking in some of our residents.”
“Not fighting to lose…? But even the dryads can’t handle this monster! Now’s no time for this kind of easygoing nonsense. It’s a huge problem! One that requires an international response!”
I wasn’t intending to sound easygoing. I was honestly fairly panicked myself. That’s why
Benimaru and the other ogre mages were so quick to begin preparations—and Gabil himself was running off to gather his troops. Hakuro was in contact with Gobta to get the goblin riders assembled.
Each of them was a B-plus threat alone, but working together as a coherent unit, he declared that they could easily have one or two of the megalodons for dinner. They even looked forward to the chance to experience battle against a higher-ranked enemy. Crazy.
Meanwhile, Rigurd was bringing the town leaders together, explaining the situation and ordering Rigur to lead the evacuation. Calling attention from the air would make you a target, so I imagine he’d take them all into the forest.
All of this was done in orderly fashion, without anyone getting too worked up about it. Sadly, with the frequency of the crises we’ve been asked to tackle, I suppose we’ve gotten use to things like this.
Fuze, being unaware, must’ve thought I wasn’t sensing the danger enough, and I can’t blame him for that.
Milim, meanwhile, was going with Shion to the bath.
Some enemy coming to attack the town wasn’t any concern of hers. Her devotion to the routine was at least helping keep everyone around her calm.
After everyone sprang into action, the only people left in the meeting hall besides me were Fuze and Kabal’s trio. We took the opportunity to talk over a few things.
“All right, I’m not gonna tell you guys not to worry about anything, but I intend to do everything I can for this. I’m having Vester make contact with King Gazel for me, so we should expect some more support, too. After that, well, I’ll do what I can,” I said.
Fuze looked less than optimistic. He had a lot of questions, doubts, and other thoughts in his mind, and I got the impression he was having trouble forming them into words. I was in no hurry, so I wanted him to calm down a bit.
“…You aren’t going to run?” he finally asked after a moment of thought, clearly worried for all of us. He was gravely serious, and I thought he deserved a serious reply.
“What would running accomplish? I’m the strongest dude in this nation. I’ve told my people to take refuge if I ever lose, but you know, just because I lose one fight doesn’t mean I’m giving up on the battle. If there’s absolutely no chance of winning, then sure, I’ll run away and think up another plan. If not, though, then it’s important that I go right in front of our foe and gauge how strong he is with my own eyes, isn’t it?”
I need to do that if I want to formulate any kind of strategy. Plus, since I am the strongest in the Alliance, nobody’s running as long as I don’t lose.
I thought about saying that, but I found it a little too embarrassing.
It just felt so lame, telling people that it was a leader’s job to take the loss sometimes. That’s why I tried not to lose, if I could. Until I actually did lose, I had to play the strongman role to live up to everyone’s expectations.
And even if I was defeated, I didn’t have much to worry about—not after telling everyone so many times to take refuge in that case.
“…Ah. That’s what being a leader of monsters means, I suppose.”
“Yeah, well, this isn’t the kind of nation that would crumble after losing its king anyway, so…”
Fuze nodded at me. He looked convinced enough. “Still, it strikes me, Sir Rimuru, that you think quite a bit like we humans do. You don’t seem like a monster at all. Plus, it’s just so strange, having a slime be the most powerful being in the realm,” he said with a chuckle.
He might be right. It didn’t seem like anything unusual to me, since I was a former human, but to Fuze, having a monster think and act so human must have thrown him. Plus…
I’d actually been hiding something from Kabal and his friends. I still hadn’t told them what had happened with Shizu in the end. It was kind of a tough subject to bring up, so I intended to stay mum about it until asked. But if I was ever going to come out with it, now seemed like a good time.
“Hmm… Maybe so. You might find this hard to believe, actually, but I used to be a human being, too. You know Shizu, right? I think I’m probably an otherworlder, just like she is. Though, really, it was more like I died in my old world and got reborn as a slime in this one. And while I’m at it—”
I used my Universal Shapeshift extra skill to transform into a human.
“What on—?!”
Fuze’s eyes lit up as Kabal’s crew audibly yelped in surprise. It was Elen who noticed first.
“Umm, looking at you… That’s like a smaller version of Shizu, isn’t it?” she timidly asked.
“Oh, no way, Elen.”
“Yeah, Shizu was an old lady! She wasn’t anywhere near as cute looking as this.”
Kabal and Gido were quick to protest, but Elen held her ground.
“No, there’s no doubt about it. I mean, I saw her! Like, what she looked like under the mask…”
Oh, she did? It was just for an instant, so I didn’t think any of them caught a glimpse, but… This works well for me, though. I was going to tell them now anyway.
I removed the mask from my pocket and put it on the table.
“That’s Shizu’s mask, right?”
They eyed it, then me.
“Yeah. I wasn’t really hiding it or anything, but I didn’t take this form around you guys because I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea. Elen’s right—I inherited this form from Shizu.”
“…Inherited?”
“Yeah. When I ate her.”
The four of them looked surprised, but none seemed angry. They retained their cool as they waited for me to continue. They had chosen to believe in me, luckily enough.
“Shizu and I came from the same country. When she died, she asked me to take over her mission…and as proof that I’ve taken on her will, I picked up the form you see here. So…I can’t go around acting like an ass while I look like Shizu, you know?” I said quietly.
About half of that was my real feelings. The other half, really, was just an excuse I was using to deceive myself. Guess there’s no helping it if they’re suspicious of me now, I thought, as I turned my eyes to Fuze.
“…Can you tell us what happened?”
There was not a trace of doubt in his voice. So I spent the next few minutes describing Shizu’s final moments, as well as the circumstances behind my death and rebirth.
“I see… So that’s what it was…,” Fuze whispered.
Perhaps Fuze had been spending so much time in this town because he wanted to ask me about Shizu. Just like me, he had trouble finding the right time to bring it up.
“Well,” Kabal said, “I believe in you, pal.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“And me! And me!” Elen insisted. “But… Wow, Shizu really did everything she could to make her dream come true. And now you’re gonna try to make that happen, Rimuru?”
Elen’s question was more to the point than I had anticipated. But there was no need to tiptoe around answering it.
“I am. I promised her as much. I’m going to free up all the emotions that are binding her heart down. Not that I’ve met the guy or anything yet, but as far as I’m concerned, the demon lord Leon is my prey to catch.”
“Wow… I always knew I could believe in you, Rimuru!”
Elen flashed me a friendly smile. As for the other three men:
“Leon? Huh?!”
“You’ve got a death wish, Rimuru. I mean, Charybdis is practically a pushover compared to that guy…”
“Yes! You can’t go around calling someone like that your prey! Don’t blame me if it leads to your death!”
They were, to say the least, a little unnerved. Well, so be it. Wish they could learn a little from Elen, but our little heart-to-heart seemed to have earned me all their trust. They each offered to join in this battle, but I turned them down. If I blew this, as I explained, it’d be up to them to figure out a new plan immediately. They relented pretty quickly.
Charybdis, though, huh…?
Thinking about the battle up ahea
d was already dampening my spirits.
CHAPTER 5
CHARYBDIS
The fight was about to begin.
We were at the end of the gravel road leading toward the Dwarven Kingdom, near the midway point between the capitals of Dwargon and Tempest. We rendezvoused with Geld and his construction team there, waiting for the moment to come.
It was about time for Charybdis to appear.
Vester had contacted King Gazel to explain the situation. We didn’t even have to mention our pact; Gazel immediately deployed his knights for us.
As he put it: “Hmph. What kind of swordsman would I be if I didn’t help my younger fellow student in a pinch?”
He really loved playing the role of the dojo big bro with me. It made me fear for the Dwarven Kingdom’s future—but if he was helping us, it was all good.
The team of one hundred knights he quickly put together had already gone on ahead. The plan was for them to strike at Charybdis from behind as we advanced from the front, in a classic pincer attack. We’d be relying on them quite a bit this time.
An additional four hundred knights were also preparing to step in, just in case this first attack ended in failure. It’d be nice if this plan of ours worked, but we needed to consider what would happen if it didn’t. Gazel was no fool; I was sure he’d be using this attack to gather intel on the creature for himself. I didn’t mind, since I was planning to defeat it right here and therefore didn’t need to worry about things after that. That’d make life easier for us.
Beyond that, all we had to do was wait for the plan to unfold.
We used the time to have Treyni (who had joined us on-site) tell us more about Charybdis.
I knew it was this super-powerful monster already, but listening to her story, she made it sound even more hazardous than that. It was no exaggeration to say that it was as strong as a demon lord. Being called a calamity monster, one would expect it to be a calamity-level threat, but not necessarily here. Fuze was apparently telling the truth—this is more of a disaster-class menace.
