CHAPTER 19:

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

Youm and his group had headed back to Falmuth sometime afterwards, though Fuze and the group of adventurers he had tagged along with had stayed. The man seemed to take a lot in his stride, and while there were a number of shocks, like learning that Milim Nava, of all people, had made Tempest her pied-a-terre, he viewed things rather pragmatically. Harry actually found himself liking the grizzled guildmaster, who was basically staying in Tempest as a form of vacation.

"I've encountered more than a few Otherworlders before," Fuze remarked as they had tea in a new café that had been opened, though Milim was just trying out sweets and cakes. "But this just takes the cake. Between you, Rimuru, and one of the most infamous Demon Lords, well, this place is certainly interesting."

Harry shrugged. He and Shuna were babysitting Milim, and Fuze had opted to come with them, if only out of curiosity, said curiosity winning out over his fear of Milim. "Honestly, my life has gotten weirder since meeting Rimuru, but also better."

"Yes, Kabal and his group furnished me with the details after Shizue's demise," Fuze said. "Otherworlders are exploited on this world. It's a sad fact of our lives. But Blumund's stock in trade is information, and misinformation for that matter. Fooling Falmuth into believing your demise should be easy enough, for the most part. Honestly, given what you went through, you deserve a peaceful and happy life."

"Well, the peaceful part is a touch debatable," Shuna said with a smile. "But Harry, you are happy here, aren't you?"

"As much as I can be under the circumstances. It helps that I have a lot of friends here," Harry said. "Still, Fuze, any other word from Falmuth?"

"They are suspicious of whether you are dead or not, but my word carries a lot of weight, even there," Fuze said. "I'd suggest not venturing beyond the Jura Forest, though. Falmuth does have eyes and ears in many of the nations."

"And Yohm? Can we trust him?"

"He hates the king and the current regime. If he ever saw you, he'd keep quiet, if only out of sheer spite," Fuze said. "Rimuru compared him to a figure from your world, Robin Hood, I believe. Still, this is a pretty surreal situation. Here I am, feet away from one of the most powerful Demon Lords in the world, and I'm not dead. If nothing else, it can make a story to tell my family."

Milim snickered. "Hey, you're pretty chill for a human. Those other ones from Blumund looked set to piss themselves at the sight of me, especially that Elf girl."

"…Elf girl?" Harry asked, even as Fuze cringed. Clearly, he knew something was going on.

"Yeah, the blonde girl is an Elf. Oh, she's hiding it, but my eyes see all if I want to. I'm not really a fan of Elves for…reasons, but I'm not going to hurt her as long as she doesn't do anything."

"Why do you hate Elves?" Harry asked, frowning.

Milim stilled, before sighing. "…I don't remember it, not all the time. All I know for sure all the time…is that they're why I became a Demon Lord. But like I said, as long as she doesn't try anything, I won't do anything to her."

Fuze looked relieved. "Elen has her reasons for disguising her race," he said. "That's all I'm willing to say for now. And she wouldn't dare do anything to antagonise you, Milim, at least not deliberately. I promise you, you'd have more reason to trust her and the other two than you'd have reason to trust me."

"And why is that, Fuze?" Shuna asked.

"I'm the head of a guild, Shuna. By default, that means I have to deal with politics, which is a dirty game," the grizzled man said with a grimace of disgust. "I'm not saying you can't trust me, only that my position would make me more suspicious than the average adventurer. Why would the head of the guild come to a place like this town?"

"To skive off," Milim said with an impish smirk. As Fuze spluttered, she shrugged. "What? Why do you think I'm here? It's interesting, and I don't have to deal with any boring leadership crap. Then again, I leave most of that to my subordinates, you know? Guy and Ramiris call it delegation, a key leadership skill."

Fuze eventually harrumphed. "And I'm thoroughly gathering intelligence as to how trustworthy the Jura-Tempest Federation is," he said. "I like to be thorough. Though it's not exactly espionage, as I'm quite overt here. After all, while I know you're relatively peaceful, people tend to get a mite nervous around monsters forming their own country, even if it seems very cosmopolitan."

Shuna merely giggled. "Don't worry, Fuze. Lord Rimuru is welcoming to all who are accepting, regardless of their species. While we are worried about Falmuth or the Holy Rubeiros Empire, we do not intend to wage war on the world. If anything, our greatest worry is about what the other Demon Lords are up to, especially Clayman."

"…Fair enough on those counts," Fuze said. "I can tell why you're worried about Falmuth, given Harry's presence here, and of course, given the attitudes of the Holy Rubeiros Empire, your wariness of them is not unreasonable. And Clayman's infamous for his schemes. Being wary of him or the other Demon Lords is simply common sense…no offence intended." This was directed towards Milim.

"None taken," Milim said cheerfully. "And you're right. I mean, we are pretty powerful. But it's the schemers like Clayman you've got to watch out for, the ones with those truly devious, twisted little minds. Now, I'm not saying smarts and brains don't have their place in a Demon Lord, but schemers like Clayman are never satisfied with what they have. Ambition can be good, but he's a little too ambitious for his own good, never mind anyone else's."

"Oh God, he's the worst kind of Slytherin," Harry muttered.

"Ehhh…well, unlike those Death Eaters you told me about, he's not a racist or anything. He just looks down on almost everyone barring the Moderate Jester Troupe," Milim said with a 'so-so' waggle of her hand. "He even looks down on me when he thinks I'm not looking. Now, that would normally be a stupid thing that would lead to me punchsploding him, but he hasn't made any moves worth me calling him out at a Walpurgis…yet. Of course, he knows I'm probably the biggest obstacle to any ambitions to reach the top, alongside Guy. I'm sure he's trying to figure out a way around that."

"Let us hope, for all our sakes, he does not succeed," Shuna said.

"Nah…let us hope, for all our sakes, he tries," Milim said, with a vicious smirk. "Clayman is millennia too young to have a chance in hell of pulling one over me. The moment he tries, he will fail, and then he will die…"


"Milim seemed confident," Shuna observed as the two teenagers walked back to Shuna's workshop.

"Yeah. I'd say overconfident, but…Milim's not an idiot," Harry said.

"Indeed. I was shocked to see one of the most infamous and powerful Demon Lords acting so childish and casually, at least at first," Shuna confessed. "I am sure I am not the only one to think so. But Milim has shown herself to be quite intelligent. She only seems otherwise because of her immature and impulsive behaviour. Still, if Clayman did manage to subvert her somehow…" She looked around the bustling town being built around them. "I shudder to think what she would do to this place."

"Yeah, it'd make Hiroshima and Nagasaki look tame by comparison."

"…Yes, Lord Rimuru and Mr Lupin told us about the history of your world, and his country in particular, after you brought up nuclear weapons with me before," Shuna said. "Japan went down a dark path, and it took those…nuclear weapons to force them off it. Still, what horrid weapons they are. A city and its people annihilated in an instant, and the survivors suffer from a cursed sickness, radiation poisoning. The thought makes me shudder. Milim attacking would be more merciful. At least if she uses a powerful attack, it should be over in an instant."

"Yeah, nukes were still something of a problem back home, even with the Cold War over. And that's without getting into shit like Chernobyl. At least magical materials can do the jobs where electricity is needed back home," Harry said. "Hopefully, he can bring about a nice country with fewer of the downsides of technology back home."

Shuna nodded, but she looked pensive. As they reached her workshop, he asked, "Is there something wrong, Shuna?"

At this, she began to blush a little. "…I…ummm…do you…do you like me, Harry?"

It took Harry a moment to realise what she meant. Normally, Shuna, unlike Ginny when they first met, was confident talking with Harry. Eventually, he figured out a response. "I…well, we're boyfriend and girlfriend, right?"

"Oh, yes, we are!" Shuna said, waving her hands in a placating manner. "It's just…thanks in part to my status and…well, having a very protective family, I haven't really been courted before. I know our relationship is far more casual than what I'd consider courtship, but…"

Harry blinked. "Umm, are you asking me if I love you or something?"

"Not quite." Shuna's expression fell. "Harry…I know you haven't had the best experience with relationships. Between Ginny being a rather effusive admirer, and Cho Chang's treachery…I'm sure that that, along with your experience in Azkaban and Falmuth, hasn't helped matters. But…I was asking if you were willing to try and take it further. I mean in terms of courting, not in…well you know. I think we're a bit young to take it all the way yet."

Harry nodded, getting her meaning. He felt they were too young for that anyway. But Shuna was no fangirl like Ginny, or a mistake like Cho Chang. He hadn't actually dated the former, while the latter…well, he regretted being smitten with her. The main thing he regretted with Ginny was not being able to help her survive.

But with Shuna…well, he had known her for less long than, say, Hermione, let alone Ginny. And yet, he certainly felt a strong bond of friendship. He honestly went along with her calling him her boyfriend because…well, he was fine with that in a way that others weren't.

There was much to commend Shuna. She was compassionate, intelligent, and even with her horns, she was attractive. Hell, she was attractive even before she evolved from Ogre to Kijin when she was Named. So too was Shion, but there were many aspects of the purple-haired Kijin's personality that left much to be desired, and besides, she was older than he was by several years. Shuna, on the other hand, was about his age.

She was like a human in every way that truly mattered. Honestly, he wasn't sure what she saw in him. But she was very good friends with him, on a par with those he had made at Hogwarts, and while Rimuru played a large role in keeping him sane and stable after all he went through, so too did Shuna. And for that, he was grateful.

So, after some thought, he smiled at her. "Sure. We've just got to be careful of the overprotective big brother and the others," he joked.

"I'll handle them," Shuna said with a giggle. "But…you mean it, Harry?"

"Yeah. I mean, I need to try and sort out my feelings for you, if they will go anywhere. But you're already one of my best friends, Shuna, that will never change, for better or for worse."

"I know. And thank you, Harry…"


The fun didn't last. After a hunting expedition that Milim undertook with the Blumund adventuring trio, Traya, one of the Dryads and Treyni's sister, appeared to Rimuru and the others. She had an announcement: Charybdis, a powerful monster, had revived itself.

Fuze, who was present, paled as he heard the name. "You know of this monster?" Harry asked.

"Know of it? Kid, if that thing has really revived, we're up Shit Creek without a paddle. It's a famous legend and not the good kind," Fuze said. "Imagine something with the power of a Demon Lord, but with none of the intelligence. Demon Lords, you can reason with to a degree, Milim's a case in point."

"Thank you!" the girl in question chirped with a chipper little grin that nonetheless had Fuze on edge.

"But Charybdis is another kettle of fish entirely. It's less a monster and more of a living calamity, a natural disaster given form," Fuze concluded. "According to the legends, though, it could summon flying shark-like monsters called Megalodons."

"Joy. Sounds like something out of a B-Movie," Rimuru snarked.

"Rimuru, with all due respect, and you are due a considerable amount of respect, this is serious," Fuze retorted. "Legend has it that it was born from Magicules that came off Veldora. In many respects, Charybdis is his child, for want of a better term."

"…Okay, I could make some remark about Veldora not paying child support, but I can tell you're freaking out, and with good reason," Rimuru said. "So, I'll try to cut the jokes down to a minimum. Okay, so, we'd better get a strategy meeting held." He looked to Traya. "Traya, if you don't mind, I want to hear everything you know about Charybdis and its revival. I reckon this'll also be the first big test of our treaty with Dwargon. Charybdis is a serious threat not just to our nation, but others too, I wager. We need all the information we can to formulate a strategy."

"Of course, Lord Rimuru," Traya said with a bow.

Harry knew that things had just gotten complicated. Still, he had to wonder, was Charybdis' revival simple happenstance? Or, as with the Orc Lord and the other Named monsters, was there someone else at play? Given Clayman's earlier plots, to say nothing of the hostility of Falmuth and other nations, he couldn't be sure.

But that was for another time. They needed to ready themselves for Charybdis' advent. Otherwise, they risked the destruction of the Jura-Tempest Federation…

CHAPTER 19 ANNOTATIONS:

So…it's been a while. Whoops. Unfortunately, my interest in the franchise has come to a halt, so to speak. And as usual, I dunno when the next chapter will be out.

Admittedly, while I said I was going to begin the battle against Charybdis in this chapter, when I came back to write more of this chapter for the mass update this chapter is part of, I didn't want to begin the battle proper. There didn't seem to be enough words, so I padded out the café scene with Fuze and Milim. I then decided that I needed to work on Harry and Shuna's relationship. I look back on what I've written so far, and, well, there's not much actual development of the pairing. So I felt I needed to elaborate on it somewhat. Harry's character in this doesn't help matters, he's damaged goods more than he usually is in my fics. So he's wary of getting closer to people, even when they're as genuinely kind as Shuna.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Review-answering time! AvidReader2425: I honestly don't know whether the Basilisk Venom actually reacted to Blue Magic. For now, I'm going to go with 'No'. I don't think the Dementors' aura did anything either.

DeafeningEcho: Mweheheheheh…

No numbered annotations this time.