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Unknown to Rimuru...

Diablo had the event broadcast solely only to monsters, thus their human guests are ignorant of going-ons in Walpurgis.

The beginning started off easily enough...

That was until Clayman hit Milim...that his suffering in Rimuru's hands began at exactly two seconds, before she pawned him off to Shion, and showed the results of her training.

'Ahhh, as her teacher in hand-to-hand I'm so proud...' the newest member sniffled. 'Still needs more work though, because Milim-sama's holding back...'

'Sad that she cannot use her sword today, it will surely cause a controversy.' Hakurou tut-tutted.

Rimuru absolutely cannot take her sword out...because it evolved with her. And due to how it was done, those who owned swords forged by Kurobee were given instructions to constantly treat their swords to make it evolve.

And they all succeeded.

'Look at the boys' faces...' said Gobta. 'The second Rimuru-sama pulled out Clayman's assets, even they got terrified!'

'We'll get along just fine!' Suphia laughed boisterously. 'She's good at pulling out front tails!' Phobio looked like he was stabbed.

(in their younger days, Suphia did just that, that Phobio got teased occasionally for it)

'What's a 'front tail'?' Alice piped up.

Cue Albis and Phobio bonking Suphia on the head irately for that child-unfriendly question she caused to ask. The adults present sweatdropped and looking awkward.

'It's just an intestinal worm dear.' Albis laughed. 'Its a bad worm that makes people sick if they don't cook food well!'

'Oh, she tore out his guts and fed him said guts...serves him right!' from afar, Phobio hissed at Suphia to shut up about things children should not hear, and he hasn't forgiven her YET for that incident!

(see Tensura Nikki for that, forgot which chapter)

They also saw the culprits through the footage Raphael extracted from the armband Milim has...and how things were decided before the banquet began, thus Diablo ended the footage there.

As the footages played, Chloe was...looking focusedly on Leon. All the way to the end.

'Awww it's over already?' Ryota asked Diablo who shrugged.

'After a meal its usually go home time.' he said. 'Its boring watching them eat. Saa, let's prepare to greet our lady home!'

They predicted where Rimuru will come from.

From the main streets, actually that it's quite a sight to human merchants and tourists that the citizens of Tempest lined up on the streets in waiting, with the Executives in the middle of the road...

...and a gate out of nowhere appeared, out came Rimuru in her beauty followed by Shion and Ranga.

And as one, all knelt before her in one knee, causing the newest Demon Lord to blush stark red, absolutely flustered.

'Welcome Back, Lady Rimuru!'

'D-did you guys plan all thiiiis?!' Rimuru squeaked, utterly embarrassed at the welcoming committee she's got. And since EVERYONE was present, their missions went well...

...but why is Diablo here? Wasn't he supposed to be in Falmuth, helping out Youm and Myuran in takeover?

xxx

'About that milady, for the time being, I had Youm's group take refuge in Marquis Muller's territory for the time being as seeds I planted sprouted the way I wanted it to~' said the cheerful butler. 'Soon, after I er, very-reluctantly fixed King Edmalis and Razen, we left them to the wolves as planned. A Civil War will begin in Falmuth and Heroes will step in to save the day as planned. It helps that they're popular now that they will get national favor. The rest is thus, in Myuran's hands after. So I could go home quicker.'

'Well, the first duty of a monarch is to survive.' said Rimuru. 'The Noble Faction won't take this lying down so easily, as Youm wants Falmuth dead, for it to be reborn for the people this time. Fuze's information came quick enough yet?'

'Not yet, so Myuran will have her hands full protecting Youm. Once we get the information needed, Souei's group can finally proceed.' said Diablo. 'But I did my part in wiping the...forbidden knowledge and killing off those who are more trouble than they're worth in the military within the capital. Shion-san gave me a lot of trouble for her...zealousness.' he sighed, looking troubled, causing Rimuru to laugh dryly.

'Understatement of the year...if even you had trouble fixing her handiwork, it goes to show that she's still the scariest woman in the kitchen.' this caused the man to pout like a child.

Shion's Unique Skill: Cook. She can overwrite the nature of anything she uses it on however way she wanted it.

What she did while Rimuru slept off her Evolution Slumber?

She rendered them into a form too hideous to describe.

Something far too removed from anything that sembled human. 'Meatloaf' was TOO NICE in describing them but the more proper term, was ABOMINATION.

Well, Rimuru DID tell her subordinates to 'enjoy themselves'.

She skinned them one thin layer of skin at a time, but not so much as to kill them; their peeled away layers of flesh exposed the muscle underneath she then decided to slice off their meat piece by piece...Shion has been practicing fish skinning with living people, and she even ensured that the ones getting skinned won't feel any physical pain during the process...

Using her Unique Skill: Cook, she was able to push the captives to the point of psychological breakdown. Once they reached their (physical) limits, she would treat them with healing potion and reverse the process to start over.

To witness their own bodies having been dismembered by another while feeling no pain at all—having suffered such repeated torments, the sanity of the three have been completely obliterated.

So for the Black Primordial who mastered all magic in the world to have TROUBLE fixing her mess to implement their plans, that says it all.

But for the bored fella, he never thought non-magical skills are so fascinating that he cheered up in experimenting on his own way.

'So is Trauma in effect?'

'Very much so~'

'Did you record footages?'

'As you will...' Diablo took out a crystal ball for Rimuru to look at...

xxx

Hours ago...

An unprecedented commotion dawned in the Falmuth Kingdom on this day.

Their ruler King Edmalis has returned, only in a miserable state.

The location is the hall of the king's castle.

The top ministers of the nation all are witnessing the scene with looks of horror on their faces.

A box was carefully placed on the throne.

There were meatloaves in it.

With their king's face buried in the center.

Whatever inside it is still alive. The eyes of the head may seem empty, but they are still conscious.

'Shogo, what in the world happened! How did our king end up this way!?'

'R-Right, what happened to the other two? Where is our nation's army?'

'What has Knight Commander Folgen been up to!? How could this happen with Razen-sama's company?!'

The ministers shrieked, barely able to contain the fear and panic in their voices.

You can't exactly blame them for being this way. Razen, who is now playing the role of Shogo, thinks to himself—

During the days after the regular magic communication was cut, the people remaining in the kingdom have been on their feet the whole time.

Although they believe their army of twenty-thousand men wouldn't be defeated due to its overwhelming numbers, everything may have an exception. Right now, there is more than enough ground to plant the seed of doubt when they couldn't even confirm the life or death of the king.

Then Razen returned to the nation. They showed up in the teleportation room within the castle through the Elemental-based Magic Waypoint Transportation.

The patrolling soldiers were alerted to the situation as they discovered the two lying unconscious at the location, which led to the event that took place this morning.

The two soldiers hurried to confirm their identities.

One of whom is the Otherworlder Shogo Taguchi.

They then discover that the young man has been hugging onto a box as if it's a priceless treasure. Without much mental preparation, one of the soldiers peeked in to examine the content of the box.

This soldier belongs to the high-ranking Imperial Guards that serve within the palace, and normally he would never make such a horrified scream.

But he did just that, and the reason being the content within the box...

There were slimy gravy leaking out the box accompanied by a disgusting odor—The box contained distorted meatloaf made up of chopped up intestines.

This is the abominable sight of what was previously the ruler of this kingdom.

Seeing this, the guard began to scream out of fear, which is considered great disrespect, but no one is condemning him. The people who joined after hearing his scream were also scared to death seeing the same sight.

The servants, the ministers were all in panic upon seeing what their master had become.

Some were screaming, crying, and shouting.

Some began to vomit.

And some even fainted out of fear.

No one wanted to believe this is the king.

But this was the reality.

At first, some tried to confirm whether it is the real king or not.

And, as it turned out, it was indeed the real king.

'What are you all doing! Go and save the king!'

Some minister calls out in panic, finally spurring the crowd into mobilization.

All the mages remaining in the palace have been gathered to try out every available spell.

They even summoned high priests from the Western Saints Church to see if they can heal the king.

The sight alone was enough to invoke the deepest primal fear in people's heart. Confronted with such horrific sight, people still made up their mind to try to restore their king to normal. Even though everyone's face has been distorted due to fear, they still kept on working steadfastly. Yet none of them have been effective.

There is no way they could save the king.

xxx

—The time fast forwards to the present.

Having been informed that Shogo has awakened, the crowds bring their questions to him.

Razen is rather sympathetic seeing his former colleagues.

But nowadays Razen is Diablo's subordinate, so he needs to betray his companions without hesitation. Their own choices will decide their fates. But just for a bit, for a tiny bit, Razen feels sorry for them.

Everything has been according to Diablo's plan.

Faking his coma was also part of the plan.

As Diablo's servant, Razen was told what would happen to this nation and what they should do accordingly. Razen has already come to a realization.

This nation is about to become a toy of the Demon Lord.

If Falmuth Kingdom becomes a stage for them to toy around with human puppets, it would be the end of this kingdom.

But this doesn't seem to be such an unfortunate fate for the citizens.

As Diablo explains the Demon Lord's plan to Razen, a sense of hope sparked within his heart. An image of the land of Falmuth stepping towards a future of prosperity began to emerge in his head.

The ancient institution must be dismantled in order for that future to come true, Razen couldn't help but to think so.

That's why he is acting according to the plan.

'Calm down. I am Razen. I have been protecting the king and was able to escape back to our kingdom with the help of Hero-sama.'

'What? You—No, aren't you Shogo?'

'Shogo, that brat...I see, so that's the case.'

The ministers instantly understood.

Razen has the ability to transfer his soul into a younger body for his use when his old body is too weak for his use. He has thus transferred himself into that arrogant troublemaker to be young again.

'But even with that being said, it is still quite confusing. We couldn't believe that Razen-sama has become that arrogant Shogo.'

At first, no one was in the proper state to believe this, but upon recalling that Razen is a powerful mage, they begin to make sense of the situation. But then they start to question Razen.

'You mentioned that you managed to escape, does that mean the Falmuth army...that our nation's great army has lost to those monsters?'

'What really happened? How dare you all come back after your disgraceful defeat?'

The nobles begin to question out loud.

They are the pillars of this nation, but in reality, many cunning foxes among the nobles only wish to obtain personal gains through the banner of war. To these people, they didn't even consider the possibility of sustaining financial loss as a result of defeat.

'Everyone, please calm down. Let's hear what Razen-sama has to say.'

Someone came out at that moment to bring silence to the crowd—It's Marquis Muller.

This, of course, is also part of the plan. Last night Diablo had taken action to establish contact with him through Fuse, the branch head of the Freedom Association in Blumund Kingdom.

Everything has been going according to Diablo's plan...

First, to have Razen explain that 'The Hero Youm has gone to negotiate the exchange of a cure (healing potion) with the leader of the monsters.'. This will cause an order to be passed on to the gatekeeper to make preparations to welcome Youm's party back into the city without the need of identification.

Next, he will explain the situation with the Falmuth Army... The crowds are shocked as soon as he begins to explain.

Indeed—because of the line 'Storm Dragon Veldora has been revived'.

'H-how could this be...'

'Why was that evil dragon revived at that place?'

'I-impossible...hasn't Veldora been defeated already!?'

'Then we must hurry and report to the Western Saints Church to request the aid of the Holy Knight Order!'

'We are done for now! If what Razen-sama just said is true, we won't be able to do anything about it. All our reserve combat forces in the nation wouldn't at all be sufficient to face such enemy.'

'That's right! We have to get the Knight Order back as soon as possible!'

'Indeed. If Magic Communication won't work, we will have General Folgen to relay the message.'

'There is no time for that! We should all bail now before the people catch wind of this, or else we won't even have time to escape!'

Some have been struck in panic by fear.

Some are pressing to strike first.

Some even suggest evacuating without the citizens.

Everyone has a different reaction. Then, Marquis Muller gave the crowd a shout to shut everyone up.

'Silence! Even if the Knight Order is fine, the result would be the same. By the way, Sita-sama, would it really help if we panic like you? Where would we escape to? That Storm Dragon is a real Rank-Catastrophe monster.'

The ministers begin to regain their composure.

Razen continues his explanation after this momentary silence. He then begins to explain what happened on the battlefield.

He retells the complete defeat of the Falmuth Army—The tragedy(made-up lie) that led to the disappearance of the entire army as a result of the resurrection of Storm Dragon Veldora.

The crowds fall into silence after Razen's explanation.

Everyone is speechless.

The entire thing seems too ridiculous to be true. Everyone thinks that it would be obvious.

It is under such circumstances that some begin to raise doubts about the situation while Razen answers them one by one.

'Razen-sama, is this all true? Is it true that our army has disappeared without a trace?'

'Yes. Our army was fighting those monsters when the dragon of that land was awakened.'

'What nonsense is this, how strange would that be! Even the Western Saints Church has told us that they've eliminated all the dragons, are you suggesting that they've been lying to us?'

'No, that's not the case. Veldora would disappear for a period of time. However, a True Dragon' cannot be eliminated. It will eventually be reborn in some corner of the world. But we simply couldn't have anticipated that the interval was so short, and that it was revived so nearby—'

'Razen-sama, what happened to the other survivors?'

'Y-yeah, what about General Folgen? You mentioned that all of the army has gone missing, but shouldn't there at least be a few persons left?'

Upon being asked so, Razen responded, shaking his head.

In reality, they've all been killed by the fury of Rimuru. But Diablo has discussed this with Razen and ordered him to cover up the matter with the lie that the army has gone missing.

'What do you mean by that?'

'I've already told you; they've gone missing. With Veldora's revival, both the knights and monsters at the scene vanished. We were the only ones who remained—'

'No way—!'

'I'll ask this one more time, there is no survivor who escaped at all...and have they really all gone missing?'

'There were supply corps behind the frontline...are they okay?'

Razen falls silent. His eyes fell to the ground quietly.

Seeing this, everyone has to take his words for it.

—The Knight Order has truly been annihilated.

A minister suddenly breaks into tears.

He was the one that asked about the well-being of the supply corps. Because he had sent his son to fight his first war.

He even pulled some strings to move his son to the rear to distance him from the dangerous frontline. Yet all of his efforts were for nothing.

At the end of the day, he only allowed his son to join this war because he believed there was a fortune to rob from the monsters, and that victory was ensured. In the face of this twisted turn of fate, he broke down in tears.

But in overview of this tragic event, he is just one of the victims.

The total number of people missing in action amount to an astounding twenty thousand.

That is an unprecedented loss of life.

Even though they are labeled as missing-in-action, the hope of them returning is zero.

They are as good as dead.

Everyone now can't help but think that this has to do with Veldora's revival. To be more specific, they think the vanished army was used as a live sacrifice.

Veldora is thus under this false accusation, which works in Rimuru's favor.

Diablo's wise plan has successfully manipulated the beliefs of the top ministers of Falmuth Kingdom through Razen.

'Heh, to be fair no one, not even us can survive Veldora's full magicule blast. We'd be atomized in an instant.' Rimuru snorted as she paused the footage. 'Good work, but still, keep an eye on them alright? Our plan rides on our budding King. We've all done our part. By the way, about War Reparations...?'

'Oh, I charged them 10000 in Stellar Gold Coins.'

Rimuru felt her soul leave her body. This guy's a shark!

'Deadline?'

'One week.' came the cheerful answer. Rimuru gaped at him.

'Hot damn, you'd put Loan Sharks to shame in my old world!' the guy glowed in praise.

A copper coin is around ten yen in Japan, a silver coin to a thousand yen and gold coin to around hundred thousand. Even though this is how one would generally feel, such beliefs would only hold true in urban areas.

The reality is far different.

To be more specific, the average income of an urban laborer is around six silver coins a day. In terms of monthly income, it is around one-hundred-fifty silver coins, roughly fifteen hundred thousand yen.

Whereas in comparison, a countryfolk may make less than a hundred silver coins in a year. The wage gap between the rich and the poor is quite significant with the latter earning less than a hundred thousand yen a year.

However, there aren't that many diversions in this world, so there are fewer places to spend the money, which renders currency to be less necessary. That's why there is no fundamental difference in lifestyle between the two classes even with such a huge wage gap.

In other words, right now this world's economy is still somewhat healthy without the impact of globalization and inflow of financial capital.

Now is the time to build a greater economic body.

Diablo's intelligence is really something else.

When Rimuru revealed her plan of coexistence and growth, he seemed to have understood thoroughly the structure of economic dominance. In order make commodities with different value flow in the market, currency is definitely warranted.

If one can control the flow of currency, one would hold the world economy in his grip.

There are many nations in this world that use national currency produced by the state, but right now only the general currency produced by Dwargon are mainstream in all markets.

In other words, it isn't that difficult to build a global economic network by introducing a special currency to this world.

Diablo would probably do so and may have already planned this out.

But we are getting off track.

A reparation of ten thousand Stellar Gold Coins would be demanding around one trillion yen of war compensation. This world is not as materially abundant as Japan from my last life, so there is no need for any nation to ever prepare such an enormous national budget. It is then only natural that such reparation would be considered a ridiculous price.

'Well, this will spark the Civil War we wanted with Youm playing the good guy route as planned. Lucky Veldora's willing to agree to be part of the plan because he thought it's a funny joke...'

'Speaking, where is he?'

'He's out exploring the town since its been a while since he could walk outside...' Rimuru told him. '300 years of sitting in his prison made him bored...and dragged Ifrit with him. To quote Rommel, the annual income of Falmuth is 50000 Stellars. 10000 is already a huge deal but this will come in handy, considering I have to do my part for Jistav as well as I DID offer training...well, time to put our POWs to work. I do hope our Exterminators spared some people for that...otherwise the Orcs will be overworked again, they just finished their sentence. Go call the Exterminator Team for me!'

xxx

'Oh about that? Yeah, that was a problem.' Benimaru scratched his head. 'Clayman was still alive at the time we attacked...and as fleeing wasn't an option, those guys were forced to twist themselves into some abomination of a berserker monster kind after being made to swallow red jewels!' he said. 'We couldn't take POWs as planned and we had to exterminate as a result or cause ruckus in Milim-sama's territory...it was one heck of a mess.'

'Awww...too bad, sorry about this, Geld.' Rimuru sighed. 'But we need to build facilities for rehabilitation and training. Demon Lords Luminous, Dagruel and Dino will soon pitch camp in Jistav to make it useful for all of us, not to mention prevent invasion attempts from the East.'

'It's OK Rimuru-sama.' Geld told her. 'We've all been had by Clayman that life in Jistav was...difficult.' he said softly. 'We who used to live there...you've already seen my father's memories.' he reminded her as Rimuru nodded solemnly. 'Its a country of slavery to make all resources come to him alone yet almost none for anyone else. While you saved us Orcs, other races there surely starved to death or lost their free will in exchange for a decent life as mindless soldiers.'

'Mm...I guess some of you would want to look at what became of Orbic.' Rimuru smiled in sympathy. 'Just remember the rules or I'll get mad.' she reminded him.

'Of course.' Geld bowed.

Rimuru's hatred of Black Company-style work ethic is known to them indeed. It was why she was so strict with working hours and did not allow Overtime and scolds who tries. This is so everyone can rest enough and have time with family. In stores and hotels, they change shifts to keep the shops and accommodations functional 24/7 as long as working hours are met.

'No rest for the wicked at any rate...the plan is to be in Jistav in a week, so let's use this week to rest before we get busy again. Hoo, boy...'

Suddenly, she got a call from her Demon Lord Ring, an item that's a proof she is a Demon Lord. They can communicate with each other, and open the gates to the Lounge Area where the bored ones hang out.

'Yes?'

/Ehhh Rimuru, come back here./ Guy quipped. /We forgot one important detail.../

'T-that is?' Rimuru croaked out with an owlish look on her face.

/There's eight of us now so we need a proper way to call ourselves, so come over so we can all decide./

Rimuru face-faulted.