by Fuse
Hurriedly, I came over to help her up.
“Hey, you all right?”
“Ngh… Gaaah!”
She was coughing up blood. But through the pain, she still brought a hand to her chest, attempting to cast a spell. It failed—as it would, given that she couldn’t speak any longer. Instead she eased herself down, lying limp in my arms. The blood from her began to stain my clothes a bright shade of crimson.
Unless I did something, Hinata was going to die without ever knowing what happened. We could work out the timeline that led to this later. I took a potion out of my Stomach and sprinkled it over her chest. But while this would normally begin the healing process immediately, now—of all times—nothing happened.
Understood. The subject Hinata Sakaguchi possesses high resistance to magic. Her body automatically disassembles magicules, neutralizing their effects.
It cancels out magic?
“M-magic won’t work on Lady Hinata,” her assistant Arnaud said, shaking his head as he ran up to me. “Any recovery magic has to be holy in its alignment, or else it will be neutralized on contact…”
Ah. So holy magic, which didn’t work through magicules, was okay? A lot of good that did me. These potions were useless, then. In that case…
“In that case, don’t just stand there. Cast some holy magic on her!”
We needed something more effective. Hinata was still alive. If we used holy magic to heal her, she ought to be able to recover.
After I shouted at them, Arnaud and the other paladins began to act. But they couldn’t move. Something was blocking them—a ring of light, binding all the paladins. A group of people, each bearing a huge amount of power, had used a high-level teleportation spell to jump into our area, restraining Arnaud and the rest.
The two mystery visitors kneeled before me.
(Demon Lord Rimuru, it is a pleasure to meet you. We are members of the Seven Days Clergy, and we have come here to punish Hinata Sakaguchi for violating our orders…)
It sure was brazen of them.
Hinata was on the ground, barely conscious; Arnaud and the other paladins were all tied up; and then these guys show up. And I had heard of the Seven Days Clergy before. Adalmann didn’t seem to appreciate them too much. Very suspicious. I wanted to learn more from them, but things were kind of urgent right now.
“I don’t know what’s going on with you guys,” I said, trying to sound as annoyed as possible, “but don’t get between Hinata and me. We already settled things between ourselves, so I’m not gonna let her die.”
The Clergy raised their arms up high, making their disagreement clear. (Unfortunately, we must insist. Hinata, the woman there, has ignored the will of the god Luminus. This is blasphemy, and we must issue divine punishment in response.)
The gall of these guys. They teleport right into my backyard and think they can just say anything they want.
“B-but…!”
“Please, forgive Lady Hinata! She had her own motivations for this…”
The Clergy had no interests in the pleadings of the paladins.
“Don’t give me that crap!” one of them suddenly shouted. “You tricked all of us, didn’t you?! You wanted Lady Hinata dead from the start!”
This was the captain of that band of a hundred, the one who’d faced off against Shion. Then, suddenly, things began to get a little hectic…by which I mean, the paladin standing next to him took out his sword and plunged it into that captain’s body.
“Wha—? Garde, y-you…” the captain gasped.
“Such insolence, Renard. I refuse to allow you to speak so ill of the Seven Days. You were conspiring with the rebel Hinata all along, weren’t you? You’re the one who tricked us!”
The shouted accusation created a stir among the rest of the paladins. They had no idea who was telling the truth, I figured. That was how much political power this Clergy must’ve had over them. But that wasn’t true, was it? I mean, that heat beam or whatever came from Garde’s direction. Which meant…
…Well, it meant I had no idea what to do next. Things were so chaotic, there was no hope of putting them back in order. I wanted to take Hinata back from the brink of death, but the Clergy was in my way—and now Renard was betrayed by his own men and in mortal danger himself. And then the Clergy says they want Hinata dead for defying them, although they don’t seem to be hostile to me.
So now what…?
Job one was to save Hinata. Shizue asked me to, for one, but beyond that, I think we were just a few steps away from working everything out with each other. If we could make up, I figured that could lead to friendlier relations with both the Western Holy Church and the nation of Lubelius. Abandoning her was never an option for me.
“Look, I’ll hear all of you guys out later. This is my nation, and you need to follow my laws while you’re here. Um, you’re Arnaud, right? Cast your healing magic on Hinata now.”
My nation didn’t have laws, really, but I still had executive power, and I meant to wield it. But the Seven Days Clergy wasn’t impressed.
(We cannot allow that. The followers of Luminism have sworn absolute allegiance to the god Luminus. Even if the demon lord Rimuru wishes it, no one here will execute your request.)
They were keeping all the paladins from doing anything. It was so annoying. There was no time to try reasoning with them. I thought about forcing the issue—but just as I did, Diablo sent me a Thought Communication.
(Sir Rimuru, I have an emergency report—)
(What is it? Keep it short; I’m kind of busy.)
(Pardon me. I have discovered Reyhiem’s killer. It is a group known as the Seven Days Clergy; they appear to have devised all these events behind the scenes.)
(Hohh…)
(I am faced with three of them right now, and I fear that leaving them alive might cause harm for us later—)
(Can you provide evidence that they’re the killers?)
(We have a press corps full of journalists from around the world here as eyewitnesses, my lord.)
(…All right. Permission granted. Rub ’em out.)
(Yes sir!!)
What impeccable timing! Diablo definitely earned a nomination for Most Valuable Butler with that show. I had no idea how he had engineered this to work out so well, but I guess I had the right man for the job.
This solved a lot of riddles on my end. So the Seven Days Clergy were the bad guys here? Their motives were unclear to me, but I guess they were after Hinata, not me. They wanted her dead, presumably because she’d be trouble for them alive—and since she’d be too formidable a foe for them, they had hatched a scheme to turn the rest of the world against her.
The dude who just stabbed the paladin Renard must have been connected to them, too—or maybe he was a Seven Days member himself—but either way, this Garde guy was the real hit man here. He must’ve wanted a clean kill, but performing the crime right in front of me was a mistake. My Universal Detect was in operation, so doing the deed with me around was like shouting “I’m the killer!” as you pulled the trigger.
I suppose these were the guys who fiddled around with my message for Hinata, and I had to assume they interfered with Diablo’s plans, too. These were the culprits, and no one else—and now that I knew that, I didn’t have to worry about hurting my relationship with Lubelius.
This was my nation.
Originally, I had thought it best to leave them alive, but they had been a thorn in my side as well. I didn’t see much need for that now. If they were going to run on me, let’s just kill ’em off instead.
So leaving Diablo to take care of his own business, I began to take matters into my own hands. Time to let off a little steam.
“Benimaru! Soei!”
““Sir!”” they both shouted.
“Capture those two. If they resist, take any measures you deem necessary.”
“Just what I was waiting for!”
“As you wish, Sir Rimuru.”
Benimaru and Soei came for the Clergy
, who immediately shot me a pair of dirty looks. I didn’t let it bother me.
“Shion!”
“Yes, my lord!”
“You take care of Garde over there for me.”
“…!”
“Watch out. He might be a Seven Days guy in disguise.”
“I see! Then let me show him the deepest pit in hell and expose him for what he is!”
She gleefully readied her massive sword. This time, I didn’t stop her. Hell, I was hoping to see that sucker.
(Heh…heh-heh… Well, look at this!)
(Are you quite sure? It will mean all-out war against us.)
Those two could babble all they wanted. If I let them be, it’d be even more trouble for us later— And if I was gonna take action here, better make it count.
“Sorry, guys, but you went too far. I guess you tried pinning the blame for Archbishop Reyhiem’s murder on me, but I’ve seen right through all that. If you’re picking a fight with me, I assume you know what’s coming for you, yeah?”
The paladins exchanged confused looks. A few of them, at least, seemed to see things my way. Arnaud, meanwhile, with an enraged expression, already had his sword pointed at the Clergy. But the pair didn’t look daunted. In fact, they were laughing in our faces.
(Heh-heh-heh! I didn’t think we would be found out.)
(Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! But the Saint is already dead! Demon Lord Rimuru, you and Hinata both exhausted your strength in that battle, didn’t you?)
(We wouldn’t dream of missing this golden opportunity!)
(And if all of you know the truth as well, you will die with your demon lord!)
At least they weren’t making any more excuses. The Seven Days Clergy fully admitted to it, laughing the whole way. Such a vulgar display. It almost made me sick. There was no value in keeping them alive at all.
Benimaru, Soei, and Shion each sized up their prey. But it turns out the Clergy was craftier than I thought.
(Fools! I commend you for exposing us, but everything has already been accounted for.)
(We planned to kill all of you from the beginning!)
(Heh-heh-heh… Let us begin!)
With that, the two of them leaped back and floated into the air. Garde joined them, revealing his true colors before Shion could reach him. Then, with the three of them grouped together, they constructed a large-scale magic circle on the ground. This was dangerous—certainly beyond what a human of regular intelligence could handle, and certainly something that required advance preparation. Inside this circle was us, two of the Three Lycanthropeers, and the paladins. They intended to kill us all and make sure no evidence ever saw the light of day.
“Hellflare!!”
“Demonwire Slash.”
Dark pyres of flame shot out toward the trio, accompanied by a torrent of Sticky Steel Thread powerful enough to break through sheet metal. But the only sound anyone could hear was high-pitched laughter.
(Ridiculous! You waste your time! This magic circle deflects all non-holy strikes! Any magical attacks from evil creatures like yourselves could never penetrate it!)
(Wah-ha-ha! Such utter fools. Our knowledge has been built and refined over centuries. It will never lose out to the brute force of some arrogant monster horde!)
The laughter echoed above us, but I was too busy keeping Hinata alive. She had a temporary heart, made from my own body, but it took up a ton of magicules. I wasn’t used to pulling this off, and it wasn’t exactly a very compatible donor organ for her, so it wasn’t working as well as what I concocted for Mjurran.
Then Shion charged forward, ready to push all my concerns away.
“Shut up! That means nothing in the face of my Goriki-maru Version 2!!”
She wasn’t making much sense, but she made a mad dash for the Clergy, muscle memory winning out over her brain. It would have struck most people as idiotic. But Shion was on another level today.
(Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You imbecile! What could that sword possibly—?!)
There was an audible ripping sound, out from the air in front of the sneering Clergy.
(N-no!)
(She’s going to break down the magic circle?!)
(So be it! We must release it now!!)
Shion’s nonsensical attack was pure brute force, something that didn’t care much about elements or attributes at all. In addition…
Understood. She appears to be using Guarantee Results, part of her Master Chef skill, to alter the space around her.
This is just crazy. I can only hope she doesn’t start using that stuff on me.
Report. While the possibility is slim, the subject Shion’s attack might be effective against you as well.
Aw, crap, really? Better make sure I never piss her off again.
This had taught me all over again how amazing she was, but sadly, even that couldn’t stop the Seven Days Clergy’s attack.
Report. Attack incoming.
Their broad-range annihilation attack was complete. Crap. What should I—?
Report. It is not a problem. The magic circle has already been analyzed.
The cool, refreshing voice of Raphael calmed my frayed nerves. Okay, uh, great. No problem at all, then. This magic circle looked kind of complex to me…but ah, I guess it was child’s play to the wise master here. I hated to dent the Clergy’s confidence and all, but I guess a riled Raphael could still outwit them.
(((Prepare to meet your doom! Trinity Break!!)))
Three voices chanted in unison to launch the spell. But all that effort was already in vain.
Report. Relaunching the ultimate skill Belzebuth.
Just as the professor reported that to me, Belzebuth swallowed up all the droplets of murderous light raining down from above. In a moment, they were all gone. Yikes. Set this thing to full blast, and it was a real monster. Even the paladins stared wide-eyed at me, shocked at the sight of all those missile blasts disappearing before their eyes.
But…wait a second. Didn’t I “sacrifice” Belzebuth when I fought Hinata just now?
Understood. The ultimate skill Belzebuth, Lord of Gluttony, was indeed sacrificed, but a copy had been backed up, so it was not a problem to reactivate.
Huhhh? Backed up? And why was Raphael using the past tense there? You gotta tell me about this crap, man! I thought I had lost that thing forever. The professor acted like this was all settled history, but I wasn’t sure I was willing to accept that.
Report. Rise in holy force detected. Main attack incoming.
Oops. That last strike wasn’t the main one?
(((Face your ruinous end, demon lord! Trinity Disintegration!!)))
Whoa, crap! Belzebuth ain’t gonna cut it now.
Report. It is not a problem. Invoke Absolute Defense from the ultimate skill Uriel, Lord of Vows?
Yes
No
Hey, hey! There’s the professor I know. That’s another yes, but… Hang on. Again, something didn’t seem right.
But even as I pondered this, the first Absolute Defense wave activated—a single, thin, transparent layer covering my skin. This was all it was—and this was all it took to perfectly disable Trinity Disintegration.
Right. Yeah. That’s the thing. That was definitely the first time I used that move. I had been using Multilayer Barrier up to now, not Absolute Defense.
Taking advantage of my Mind Accelerate speedup, I finally asked Raphael the question on my mind. Hey. Why didn’t you activate that earlier? I could’ve blocked that strike on Hinata with that thing!
The response was enough to push my frustration to the brink.
Understood. This is because the ultimate skill Uriel’s Absolute Defense may still be penetrated by spiritual particles on occasion. As a result, it was determined that invoking it would be meaningless.
Raphael made it sound like common sense. I swear, you don’t have to be such a perfectionist about this stuff…
The behavior of the spiritual particles that magicules were made of was apparently difficult to pre
dict. They ignored time and space as they moved around, cutting straight through well near any barrier. The near-random elements that controlled their movements—the forces of nature that governed over these particles—made it impossible for Absolute Defense to handle them, unless you knew how they worked.
And yet, here I was, perfectly safe after that barrier just trounced Trinity Disintegration. What’s up with that? Did Raphael fully predict things this time?
Understood. In the previous Meltslash attack, Belzebuth both canceled out the strike and invoked Predation on it. This made it possible to gather enough information to successfully recognize the random elements involved. As a result, it became possible to predict and defend against holy attacks. In addition, you have also obtained the holy sword skill Meltslash.
Hmm…
What? Wait. Waaaaaaaaaiiiit. Huh? So you mean you sucked up Hinata’s sword on purpose back there?
……
Dude, don’t clam up on me, you bastard! I can totally picture you reacting like “Oh no, Rimuru got me” just now! Your silence is telling me everything I need to know!
Although… Wait a second. I know Raphael isn’t the type to take dangerous risks, but…could I have, like, survived a Meltslash blow without having to cancel it out with Belzebuth?
Understood. Of course. You lost a great deal of magical energy, but your material body could have been instantly reconstructed with Infinite Regeneration.
…So what were you so freaked out about? You didn’t just want to consume Meltslash so you could analyze it, did you?
……
Oh, more of that, huh? Bastard’s getting better and better at dodging my questions. More…malicious, you could say, or humanlike. You could tell me the guy was a living being, and I think I’d believe you.
But…I dunno, I suppose I would’ve wanted it, yeah. Wanted to withstand that attack, wanted to use it myself… Did it take that moment of desire to act upon it that quickly? What a crazy ability I had. It almost felt like it was going to waste on a bum like me.
