Chapter 4: Intruders
It was a few days since Demon Lord Milim had decided to move into Tempest; they were, to Rimuru at least, pure chaos, as he tried to juggle keeping her from destroying something, running the city and the daily training with Hakuro and the others. Somehow, however, he managed to do it. He certainly though he deserved a pat on his slime back for that.
With Milim at least, he could at least leave her be with Shuna to be her dress up doll; she seemed content enough to just try anything new, even if it was just clothes she didn't need. And so far, even when he wasn't around, she managed to hold herself back well enough to not cause too much trouble...relatively speaking. Rigurd was still twitching from all the doors she had destroyed, but otherwise nothing major. He would buy the old hobgoblin a drink later. To alleviate some of his problems in the form of an overpowered teen girl, he tasked Kurobe and Kijin with making Milim a special pair of gauntlets that would reduce the strength of her punches; it was a daunting task but somehow the two succeeded, and Milim quickly took to the 'Dragon Gauntlets', even wearing them with outfits that just didn't match, and didn't seem to mind at all the real reason he gave them (even if he didn't tell her, he was not foolish enough to think she didn't realize; that Dragon Eye was scary). Today, he left her with Shuna to try on more outfits.
Right now, he was located in Veldora's old cave, having a meeting with Vesta and Gabiru about their potion production. After a quick report on Gabiru's efforts to grow hipoku plants, Vesta brought out a vial and placed in on the table in front of slime Rimuru
-'This is my latest version of the healing potion...' he said proudly, though unlike their time in Dwargo it was absent of arrogance and more genuine. 'What do you think, my lord.' Rimuru gave the potion a quick once over, absorbing part of the liquid to allow Great Sage to analyze its content. After a short pause, he replied
-'Its the same thing that I make..' 'With the help of Great Sage' he added to himself ''Its a full potion; a drought that will restore full health. Well done!' he praised them honestly. Gabiru threw his hands in the air and cheered, while Vesta had a look of disbelief cross his face. Kaijin came behind him and gave him a good, hearty pat on the back, much to Vesta's embarrassment. The two had, over the last few weeks since Vesta arrived here, gotten friendly and Rimuru would have found it hard to believe the two were bitter enemies not long ago if he didn't saw it for himself. In fact, he thought that the two were a little too friendly, chatting away in their difficult to understand technical jargon that just went over his head. After a while, he realized he was basically forgotten and, not finding a good moment to interrupt, decided to just leave silently.
He quickly made his way through the cave lit up by the newly created magicsteel light cables and arrived outside via the teleportation pad set up by Vesta...and just as he was hopping off it, a massive column of flame shot up from one of the main streets ahead of him. 'Oh no...' he though as he quickly took human shape, grew a pair of wings and flew over as quick as possible. As he landed, he saw a large crowd, among which stood Soei.
-'Soei, what the hell is going on?'
-'My apologies sir...' he said as he bowed ''we detected some intruders, but were too slow to respond...' he followed Soei's gaze and landed on a sight that filled him with a dread feeling. Milim was standing over a guy he never saw before, with another pair some distance away shaking in abject fear from her aura. And closer to Rimuru was Rigurd, who was kneeling on the ground with his back to him. As Rimuru moved closer to get a better look, the hobgoblin turned to look at him...'AAAArrrgg!' Rimuru screamed internally at the sight of half of his face literary melted off, one eye socket empty. It made him thankful slime didn't have a nausea reaction, because that would have definitively made him puke otherwise... before he could say anything, Rigurd spoke up
-'Oh, Lord Rimuru, thank goodness...' he stopped when he saw his lord's reaction to his injury and quickly tried to talk it off as if it was nothing 'Ah, no no, please, this is fine! I'm fine!' Rimuru was not convinced
-'What...there's nothing fine about that! Here, have a healing potion, idiot...' he splashed some healing liquid directly on the hobgoblin's face; miraculously, everything was back to normal in a blink, even the eye restored as if nothing happened. As he was investigating to see if anything else was wrong with Rigurd, he heard Milim quickly approaching them
-'Hey, Rimuru! These jackasses were harassing your people, but don't worry! You're bestie took care of em, wahahahaha!' she proclaimed, looking proudly about herself. Rimuru was kinda mad; he was ready to explode at her, and she must have noticed because she quickly started to try and make excuses 'Ah, no, its fine! They're not from you city so it doesn't count, yeah?'. As far as he was concerned, it did count. He was about to say as much when Rigurd hastily interjected
-'Lord Rimuru, wait! It's not Lady Milim's fault at all! In fact, she saved us! Please listen...' until then, Rimuru had never heard Rigurd talk about Milim with anything short of annoyance, so to hear him say that made him pause 'Its true, sir...as much as I hate to admit my failure' he heard Soei speak from behind. Then the two began to recount the earlier events
The city square was busy as always, with various workers moving to and from; it was a peaceful day, with the sun shining brightly and a cool but refreshing autumn air about. Rigurd was making his daily paces through the city, ensuring everything was in working order, when a commotion on the main street caught his attention. The crowd parted to reveal a quadruplet of what he assumed were beastmen from their beastly features, including tails (also called lycanthropes for their ability to turn partially or fully into a beast form). There was a tall one with cat like features sporting dark armor and a haughty smirk on his face, a large ape-like man, a thin one that had goat liken horns and a small, rodent like one. They strode into the city as if they owned the place, stopping when they reached the middle of the square
-'This is a nice town you have here! Perfect for Lord Carrion to rule, don't you think?' he asked no one in particular as he looked around. Hearing the man say that riled Rigurd's ire, but he contained himself; he had to follow Lord Rimuru's rules of not picking fights with strangers, after all. He approached the four calmly and said
-'Welcome to Tempest, may I be of assistance? I am the main administrator of this city, Rigurd.' he said politely, but the tall man did not seemed keen on returning the favor
-'I said, this would be a nice place for my Lord, Demon Lord Carrion to rule over, did you not hear me?' the man retorted with anger; at this, Rigurd had only one thing to say
-'You must be joking...' this angered the tall beast man even further, and with no warning hit Rigurd across the face, sending him flying across the pavement. But he wasn't finished, as when he turned to the gathered crowd he saw they were less scared and more outraged, scowling at him.
-'Know your place, weaklings!' he shouted and created a ball of flames in his right hand. In a flash, he launched it straight at the crowd; the ball created a large amount of flames in its wake. Right before it hit the panicking crowd, however, a blur of pink appeared right in front of them. With a quick motion that even Soei, who had just arrived on the scene, could't discern, Demon Lord Milim deflected the wall of flame into the air, away from the city. The tall beast man was shocked to say the least, but this quickly turned to terror as he saw a dangerous red aura surrounding the girl; that was when the realization of who she was hit him...
-'Demon Lord Milim?!' he screamed, preparing another fireball, but it was too late; before he could even blink, Milim had appeared right in front of him, striking him with a heavy fist straight in the stomach, knocking him unconscious before he even hit the pavement.
As Soei finished the explanation, Rimuru could really only stare in disgust at the sprayed, unconscious body of the beast man in question. Whatever anger he had with Milim for breaking her promise was gone, as he was now fully focused on him. He absentmindedly heard Soei continue
-'There were even children among the crowd. He still didn't hesitate to shoot...'
'Okay, now i'm really pissed. How dare this trash...' Rimuru took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down before he let his anger take over and cause him to take rash decisions. He turned to Milim, who had an unusually serious look on her face as she observed him.
-'Milim, thank you for protecting my people. I don't like that you picked a fight, but thank you for that. Just...let us handle it in the future, okay?' he said softly to her, and was a bit taken aback when she scowled at him
-'I live here too, you know!' she proclaimed, balling a fist 'I can't just stand by and watch, right?' she sounded like she was trying to convince him, so he decided to let her be for now and sighed
-'Yes, you live here but unless it looks like we can't handle it, stay out of it, okay?' she didn't look entirely convinced, but nodded as she crossed her arms. 'She's pouting again...' he thought as she took the now fairly familiar 'pouty face', which he certainly did not find cute. Not at all. In any case, his attention was drawn to Rigurd, who had bowed his head to Milim
-'Thank you very much for the assistance, Lady Milim.' he said with sincerity, followed by several of the citizens from the crowd she had protected. It must have took her seriously off guard because her face flashed a shade of red, but only for a second 'Ah, of course, of course! No problem at all for me, wahahahaha!'
'She must really not have thought much of it, huh?' he thought as he gauged her reaction. He decided that maybe he could thank her too, later, with a special dish of food...until then, however, there was the issue of what to do with the intruders...
-'Want me to take out the trash?' he heard Milim say, pointing at the unconscious beastman. He decided to cancel the dish.
A while later, Rimuru was sitting in the lobby of their new governmental building, with the leader of the beast men, who had regained his consciousness and introduced himself as Phobio, sitting across from him. His councilors were sitting behind him, while Milim was sitting on a sofa a way back, eating lunch as if nothing was wrong. He supposed to her, this was nothing. After the man introduced himself, Rimuru realized he was by far no weakling; Great Sage estimated his magicules to be higher than Benimaru. He really hoped he could salvage the situation, but he made no effort to hide his displeasure at Phobio's actions, allowing his aura to emerge freely. It seemed to work, or at least he thought it did. Having Millim around certainly seemed to knock the haughty idiot a peg or two down.
-'So, let's get straight to the point: why are you here?' Rimuru asked
-'Why the hell would I answer to some lowly slime?' Phobio shot back, earning himself the full and undivided anger of the ogres
-'Hey, stay out of this...' Rimuru ordered them, to which they stepped back down.
-'Ha ha, what a bunch of weaklings. taking orders from some slime!' Phobio laughed; Rimuru's patience was straining thin, but he managed to hold it together.
-'Listen, I'm running out of patience here, so you better start talking...' he warned, increasing his aura by bit to emphasize how serious he was. Though Phobio was likely stronger than Benimaru, Rimuru was confident that he could take the idiot on if need be. The display seemed to have worked as Phobio settled down and scowled at him.
-'Tsk, fine..we're here to investigate this city for Demon Lord Carrion, the Beast King, and...'
-'Pfff, Ha, ha, good one!' Milim rudely interrupted from the sofa; Rimuru turn his attention behind to see her laughing
-'Is there something you wanna say, Milim?' he asked with a hint of annoyance; he had hopped she would stay out of this part, but it didn't seem likely. For her part, Milim seemed to have turned on her more 'serious mode', and continued talking as she stood up
-'Yeah, this guy is full of crap. No way Carrion would send such an idiot over here to make contact with you guys.' she calmly explained as she stepped forward, stopping at Rimuru's right side with her arms crossed 'Also, he knows I'm here; he agreed not to interfere with me, so he definitely would not send such an idiot here. He's here on his own. Aren't ya?' she finished with a mocking grin directed at Phobio, who looked like someone had just caught him with his pants down. He was definitely angry, vein throbbing and everything.
-'We were sent to the forest...' he began, sounding as if he was having trouble piecing together his thoughts through his anger. The guy definitely had some issues, Rimuru concluded.
-'But not to my city, is that correct?' Rimuru interrupted him 'Your Lord send you to investigate the Orc Lord battle...over at Lake Shisu, not here, correct? You certainly were not told to invade my city and attack my citizens, were you?' he concluded. If Demon Lord Carrion did indeed wanted to recruit them, sending this guy was the worse possible choice. 'Maybe he did send him, but the meathead completely misinterpreted the orders? Or maybe Milim overestimates this Carrion guy'. Rimuru thought to himself as he looked between the angry Phobio and calm- if smug- Milim. He decided to try and deescalate the atmosphere a little
-'Hey, Milim, thanks for the input but could you please stay out now?' he kindly asked her
-'Ah, sure! I said what I wanted anyway.' she said and casually strolled back to the sofa, bringing her jar of honey out of her storage space as she plopped down.
Once he was sure the Demon Lord was no longer interested, Rimuru turned his attention back to the beastman, considering his words carefully 'Listen...your actions here today could very well spark a conflict between your Lord and our Alliance, depending on how things go. Is the decision to go to war with the entire Jura Forest yours, or your masters?' with the severity of his actions put forth in such a manner, it seemed that Phobio finally realized exactly what he had done; his eyes widened and his anger seemed to subside for a moment and he considered how his master would react. Seeing this, Rimuru decided to end the conversation. 'You should leave, and tell your master that if he wants something from me, he can send a proper envoy and I'll gladly entertain negotiations. But you...are not welcomed here anymore. Leave.' he ordered sternly, to which Phobio's anger seemed to return. The beastman slammed his fist in the table, got up, and began to walk out. He stopped in the door, however, and glanced at Milim who only smiled and made a little mocking wave. Phobio's vein looked ready to explode as he finally stepped out, his lackeys close behind.
'The guy needs to seriously calm down a bit...' thought Rimuru as he watched him leave, then turned to Milim. 'Now then...' 'Hey, Milim, can I ask you a few things about Carrion?' at this, she again had a serious look on her face.
-'Sorry, but I can't tell you anything. We have an agreement, you see.' she rebutted his request, but she did admit they had an agreement, which gave him an idea. He quickly moved over to the sofa and plopped down beside her, leaning in a bit
-'Is it an agreement with just Carrion? Or all the Demon Lords?' she however didn't look like she was gonna budge on the issue, so he decided to play dirty 'Ah damn, so you can't even tell your best friend, huh? Its a shame...' he said with fake- but surprisingly genuine- disappointment. That seemed to move her, as she quickly began to fidget and panic. 'One more push'...' he thought 'Maybe you don't care what happens to your bestie...' that did it; Milim was now genuinely shocked, looking almost ready to cry; though he felt kinda bad about it, for now he needed information
-'NO! I do care, its just...I...' Milim stuttered for a bit more before shouting 'Ah, fine! But, only what relates to you, okay?' she said, not realizing that was more or less what he wanted; of course, information on the other Demon Lords might be valuable, but for now all he needed was to know about her agreement with Carrion and what their intentions were.
-'Of course, of course...' he answered as he sat back and listened to her story; about how Gelmud approached her, Carrion and Clayman- and how she later dragged Frey- into supporting his plan to create the Orc Lord and ascend him into a Demon Lord they could control. Apparently, to do anything major among the Demon Lords, a voting system was in place that required at least three supporters to pass, so having a Demon Lord under one's control certainly seemed to him like a way to cheat the system. Of course, he and his subordinates had completely ruined Gelmud's plan. Afterwards, the four agreed to investigate the battle to see who came out victorious, though Milim claimed she knew the Orc Lord would lose the moment she saw Rimuru in the crystal ball; she lost all interest in the original plan when she glimpsed his fight against Gelmud and was now only interested in goofing around with him, which he certainly preferred over what the other Demon Lords might have planed. He decided to ask what those plans might be
-'Ah, I really shouldn't tell, but whatever...' she answered with a shrug 'Carrion will probably try to recruit you to join him, but he's a pretty level headed guy so he'll be mostly reasonable about it. Frey...' she crossed her arms and looked up in though 'I doubt she's interested, she looked distracted by something else. I don't think you should worry about her. Then there's Clayman...' at this, she scowled and closed her eyes, silent for a few seconds 'Dunno about that guy...he's always scheming something, though...' she trailed off and threw her hands up in surrender 'well, that's all I got!'
-'Really?' he asked disappointed, but this time it didn't look like it was gonna convince her as she just threw herself across the sofa, unusually silent. 'Well, alright, that's enough for now...HEY!' sometimes in the middle of Milim's explanation, he had turned back into his slime form, and now the Demon Lord grabbed him and began using him as an impromptu pillow. Before he could protest further, though, she was already fast asleep. 'Great...' he thought as she began to droll on him a bit. ''Is this revenge on me for guilt tripping her into talking? Nah, probably not...'
Of course, it was exactly that.
He and his subordinates spent the next few hours discussing the information they had gathered from Milim, and whatever Soei could piece together about the Demon Lords, going back and forth on how to react if they were approached again. As night rolled around, the party began to scatter and eventually he was left alone with Milim, still serving as her pillow well into the morning. If asked if he minded, he would say yes. But that would be a lie.
-'Damn that Milim!' Phobio's screem range out in the forest, followed by a loud crack as his fist made an entire tree fall over. 'How humiliating! Lord Carrion would never have fallen so low...'
-'Sir Phobio, please calm down...' one of his companions tried to interject 'with Demon Lord Milim there even Lord Carrion would have trouble...'
-'Shut up! That's not the only problem. That damn slime was right...even without her there, I messed up...this will only cause trouble for our Lord...' he finished dejectedly; his comrades understood exactly where he was coming from. To the lycanthropes of Eurazania, Beast King Carrion was a legend, a warrior who had risen to the rank of Demon Lord hundreds of years prior and who became a symbol of their strength and hope as he led the defense of their home in the Great War. No one among the beastmen did not greatly respect or even revere the king; to be of use to him was the greatest desire among the warriors of the kingdom, and to cause him trouble the greatest dishonor. His comrades looked on with pity as a voice rang out from somewhere deeper in the forest
-'AH, i understand well your frustration. Keeping it under control is quite difficult, isn't it?'
The four beastmen quickly turned to the source of the voice; from among the darkness of the overgrowth, a large shadow emerged and jumped right in front of them. It was a large, fat man in a jester costume, wearing an angry mask.
-'Who are you?!' Phobio demanded as he prepared his claws
-'I am Footman, the angry clown; a member of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance. Pleasure is all mine, beastmen of Eurazania!' the large clown introduced himself with a light bow. From behind him, a much smaller clown- a small girl- emerged wearing a mask with a crying face
-'And I'm Tear, the teardrop clown.' she said as she waved. The four beastmen were slightly stumped, especially Phobio; despite their looks, they had a certain dangerous aura about them. He exchanged glances with his comrades before focusing on the intruders
-'Moderate Harlequin Alliance? Never heard of it...now what do you want?'
-'We're an odd-jobs mercenary group, you see...' the girl started as she moved in front of the group 'and we have a proposition for you...' thinking carefully, Phobio decided that he had allowed his anger to rule him for quite enough that day; these clowns were not worth it pushing it further, so he just turned around and began leaving
-'Not interested. I want nothing from you fishy looking clowns...' however
-'Demon Lord Milim'' at the mention of that name, he stopped and glanced back at the girl 'needs to be thought a lesson, doesn't she?'
-'How do you...'
-'Do you want power?' the angry clown interrupted, getting right in his face
-'Because we can offer you power. The power to defeat even a Demon Lord!' the girl added
Despite the protests of his companions, Phobio decided to hear the two clowns out, listening intently to their explanation about the coming awakening of the great beast known as Charybdis and how the two clowns knew of a way to take it. Deep inside, Phobio though that the whole thing sounded sketchy...but at the same time, he realized that he could just not face his Lord after the trouble his actions would certainly cause. His shame was too great. And he had an opportunity to wipe away some of it.
-'Tell our Lord I formally quit from the Three Beastketeers. Any action I take from now on is on my own. No fault will fall on anyone but me.' he told his companions before walking off into the darkness with the clowns.