WALPURGIS
It was over for
Clayman. Carillon was alive, and we had all the testimony in order. I’m pretty
sure I could avoid being branded the enemy of the demon lords now.
Clayman was barely clinging to life. He was no
longer a threat; there was no way left for him to turn the tables. Things were
already set in stone, and there would be no more excuses. So, before the demon
lords, he had revealed everything. And each of them might take the news
differently, but regardless, their trust in him had vanished, none willing to
cover for him.
The barrier covering us
was removed, and Frey quickly ran up and approached Milim.
“I believed you were still of sound mind, but
I truly had my doubts at times, Milim! And you kept our promise anyway. I
appreciate that.”
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-sha! Of course I did. We’re
friends. But you’ve been taking care of that for me, right? Didja bring it
over?”
“Yes, yes, you mean this, right? I have to
say, though, withstanding the Orb of Domination was simply amazing…”
As they spoke, Frey took something out of her
pocket and handed it to Milim. It was the Dragon Knuckle I gave her as a
present. Milim accepted it like a kid on her birthday and immediately put it
on, beaming ear to ear.
The rest of the demon lords, seeing this,
finally put two and two together, and I could hear whispers all around the
room.
“Such a cheap performance.”
“I—I saw through it the whole time!”
“Yes, I assumed as much.”
“Yeah, I figured…”
I don’t think I was the only one Milim
tricked, but everyone else found the results just as plausible as I did.
Then I heard a groan from below, like the
sound of blood being coughed up.
“…When? Since when were you deceiving me…?”
It was Clayman. He was still breathing, still
incapable of grasping the unbelievable reality before him. And it was Milim who
revealed the cruel truth.
“Y’know, I had a real hard time doing it! With
that promise I made with Frey, I had to pretend you tricked me. Then I put on
that pendant and made you think it was working on me.”
“You… You couldn’t… I put my full power into
it, with the Orb of Domination… The perfect…ultimate Demon Dominate…?! And
you…you…”
“Uh-huh! Most magic like that bounces off me
pretty easily, so… First I had to remove all my barriers, then hold back my
force so I didn’t passively resist it. I had to convince you that the curse was
working before your own eyes, or else you’d be far too wary to believe me. So I
had to work really hard!”
“Wh…? What…? You… You accepted it on purpose?!
My most valuable Artifact… My hidden gem, the ability to control demon lords…”
“Oh, was that what it was? Well, too bad you
could never control me!”
She stuck her chest out, looking relentlessly
proud of herself.
“Yeah, really,” I commented. “I feel stupid
for worrying about you. And between that two-fisted sports pose and the smile
you had on your face, your acting abilities really suck.”
“What do you want from me? I was just glad to
see you were all angry for me, Rimuru.”
Frey just shrugged at this. “Still,” she said,
“when Clayman punched you, I thought I was going to lose my composure. If you
decided to fight back against him, you would’ve destroyed my home. Great job
putting up with him. That, at least, I have to compliment you for.”
An interesting revelation. So that wasn’t the
first time Clayman physically abused her? What a nutcase. Was he actively
trying to get himself killed?
“Mm-hmm! I’m all grown up now, too, y’know. So
I can deal with stuff like that!”
That obsession with being grown up indicated
all too well how childish she still was.
“Oh, how?” Frey
protested. “…Well, that’s fine, but you couldn’t have dealt with all that just
because of our promise, could you? What did you really want?”
“Hmm? Well, you know, I remember Clayman
talking to me about some weird stuff before. Like, about making Rimuru into an
enemy of mankind and triggering a war between humans and monsters. If he did
that, that wouldn’t be too fun for me, so I thought I’d meddle a bit!”
“Heavens. Imagine, you lifting a finger for
somebody else.”
“Wah-ha-ha-ha-ha! I told you—I’m all grown up
now!”
“Yes, yes, let’s just call it that.”
Well, huh… I suppose Milim was sharp enough to
realize Clayman was doing someone else’s bidding. So she pretended to be
brainwashed in order to find out who it was? She had some kind of promise or
deal with Frey, too. Let’s just ignore the fact that she totally tricked me.
The thing to focus on was: That orb didn’t
hypnotize her at all. She didn’t struggle out of it midway; it never worked
once. It was all an award-winning performance. As she later explained to me,
she had been consuming bell peppers to maintain her poker face. The blank expression
that resulted from eating this detested food of hers made everyone think her
mind had been erased. It wasn’t enough to trick Veldora, but he played along,
enjoying the combat session as a way to get limber in his new body. Maybe he
was a lot more adaptable to things than I thought.
Like, seriously, Raphael, you never saw it?
……
Oh, um, okay. Guess you
did try to tell me something.
I suppose it telling me “No results” should’ve
been pretty bleedingly obvious, looking back. Of course it couldn’t find any
curse effects on her. I was just jumping to conclusions. I should really adopt
the habit of listening more carefully to people—that and hearing them out until
the end.
I wasn’t about to tell anyone about it, but,
yes, I had my personal regrets.
“By the way,” Carillon
asked as he strode up to Milim, “if I could ask you something?”
She smiled back with the Dragon Knuckle eased
into her fingers. “Mm? Sure! Anything!”
“I just wanted to be sure… You weren’t under
anyone’s control? So that was all you when you were
whipping the life out of me?”
Carillon was smiling, too, but I could see the
veins on his forehead bulging. Yeah, I’d be wondering about that, too.
“Huh?! That, um…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. It just means I’m
weaker than you. But,” he added, no longer hiding his anger, “you willfully
blew up my entire nation, didn’t you?”
Milim was caught off guard for a moment—before
immediately raging back at him.
“Oh, come on, Carillon! That’s the kind of
small stuff you’re preoccupied with? What’s it matter?!”
Yep, that’s the real Milim, all right.
“It’s not small
stuff! You know I could have died back there?!”
“Oh, don’t give me that. Just shut up! I was
so passionate about my performance— Um, I mean, passionate about deceiving
Clayman that I was trying really, really hard! It’s all Clayman’s
fault!!”
“His fault? Ugh…
Well, whatever. Not that you’ll ever listen to anyone else’s complaints…”
I was starting to feel a little bad for
Carillon. Seeing those tears appear on his rugged, masculine eyes, I wanted to
console him as best I could. She tricked me, too, so I
thought we had something in common.
“Now, now, Carillon. Your Lycanthropeers and
everyone else are safe—and they all put in a hell of an effort, fighting for
your revenge. It wasn’t all bad, was it?”
“Ah, Rimuru… Thanks for the thought.”
“Yeah, so don’t worry about it. Besides, you
can always build another town. I even had our forces capture Clayman’s
magic-born to serve as your labor force.”
“Huh? Whoa, are you serious…?!”
“Yep. I’ll provide any technical expertise you
need, and all of us at Tempest will help you out as best we can, too. So let’s
make it a better, happier Eurazania than ever before!”
We had time for it. Time—and funds kindly
provided by Clayman. Considering our future trade prospects, it’d be strategically
beneficial for us to have Carillon owe us a favor. It seemed like a great
opportunity to exploit, and I wanted to maybe make friends with more beastmen
through the work, too.
“Wahhh-ha-ha-ha! Isn’t that great, Carillon?
You have me to thank for that, too!”
Her to thank for what,
I wondered. Maybe for completely flattening the land around the capital and
thus saving us the trouble of hauling away the rubble?
“I’ll really owe you one,” the surprised yet
thankful Carillon replied. “And you know, Rimuru—or maybe Sir Rimuru? I promise
to you that the Beast Kingdom will never hesitate to help you out if you need
it. We’ll be allied nations forever! …And I wish you
would at least pretend to regret this a little more,” he didn’t forget to add,
turning to Milim.
To her credit, she was back to her usual
self—if Carillon and I were cool, she was cool. That’s Milim for you. Always
looking out for number one—and I didn’t mind, if Carillon was feeling better.
It appeared that my promises surprised a lot
more people than just Carillon. They were a shock to the demon lords assembled
around us, too.
“So that was it!”
observed the smiling red-haired Guy. “I thought leaving those magic-born alive
was a sign of weakness…but I see you’re a rather creative thinker! Hardly any
wonder that Noir’s taken a liking to you.”
Noir? Who’s that? Ah well.
Frey was back to focusing on Clayman, a quiet
anger enveloping her. “So, Clayman,” she said. “You always were the sort to
domineer over weaker people, or those who couldn’t resist you. I don’t think
you have any right to call yourself a demon lord. I didn’t intervene since
Milim was trying so hard…but you know what? I was kind of angry at you, too.”
It made it clear that Frey had no interest in
rescuing him.
“Yeah, I know it’s survival of the fittest,
but you took a step too far, I’d say. You wrecked my country, and I wanna see
you pay for that, okay?”
Carillon did have a
lot of damage to deal with. Damage technically inflicted by Milim, yes, but he
was willing to shift the blame to Clayman here—and make him suffer the
consequences.
None of the other demon lords voiced any
opposition to this. I suppose Clayman wasn’t too popular a guy in this clique.
He was already cornered—and now, the final moment was approaching.
Time to finish him off.
Feeling the life ebb
away from him, Clayman’s heart was filled with regret. Regret and the words of
his friends and advisers, flashing before his eyes.
“Now’s not the time to
be too reckless. Whatever ya do, don’t letcher guard down…”
—Ah… You were absolutely right, Laplace…
He thought he was being careful, but he let
power drown him. When he beheld Milim’s overwhelming strength, he made the
erroneous assumption that it was all his to wield.
It’s just as you felt it. In the end, I was the
one being controlled by Milim. I thought I was paying attention…but she tricked
me. You trusted in me, left me to rule as your demon lord, but I suppose this
is the end for me…
He had ignored his friend’s warning. And that
set these results in stone.
“You’re weaker than us,
Clayman, all right? So no trying to pull anything weird by yourself, if you
could.”
“Hohh-hoh-hoh-hoh! Teare is right. Feel free to
depend on us instead.”
Ah, Teare. Ah, Footman. You’re right. I forgot…
He was too focused on himself to feel it right
to rely on his friends. He did file the promise in his
mind, actually, but he forgot about that when it counted—one of the most
inexcusable things he could have done.
I just wanted to get as close as I could to them.
Of course I’d take risks to achieve that. Why wouldn’t I? I was part of the
Moderate Jesters, too…
It was true. Clayman wanted the respect of his
peers. He wanted his powers to be recognized, so he never revealed his Moderate
Jesters’ side to the public. Now he realized that was a mistake.
But it was too late…
…He recalled when he
first met the mysterious patron that led him to this.
“Hey. You’re Clayman, right?”
“Who are you? Someone in a hurry to die,
apparently, if you address me that casually.”
“Whoa, whoa, no need to act so alarmed. We have a
common acquaintance who pointed me here.”
“An acquaintance?”
“Yeah. The demon lord Kazalim. Your creator, of
sorts.”
“What?”
He had intended to kill this boy with haste,
but then he mentioned a name from his distant past. Now Clayman was interested
in hearing him out. And when he did, he discovered the truth about him. His
ambitions and his power.
“I’m going to take over this world, Clayman, and
I want you to help me.”
“Heh… Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! I like it. So that’s your
request?”
“Yes. A job for the Moderate Jesters.”
“And what are your terms?”
“How does resurrecting Kazalim sound to you?”
It was beyond all expectations. There was no
reason to refuse. The powers the boy displayed to him made it clear beyond
doubt. He immediately accepted the job.
“I thought you’d agree to it. Now the world can
be ours together. It’s gonna be one crazy place for us to live in!”
Seeing this boy, living life as if it was all
some kind of wonderful game, Clayman honestly thought he could pull it off.
There were obstacles in their way, massive ones, but that made it seem all the
more fun. It seemed that way, but now, his mistakes
had crumbled the foundation of their whole strategy. And after the boy had
fulfilled his part of the bargain and revived Kazalim…
My thoughtlessness led to this. There is no
defending me to him now…
Kazalim was alive and well, and he had no way
to congratulate him. More just deserts for him. He had been ordered to sit
tight and watch how things unfolded, and he ignored those orders for his own
petty reasons.
The last thing he
recalled were the words of the man himself—the advice his beloved demon lord
Kazalim gave him.
“…Clayman. I see much of myself in you. And you
may imitate me if you like, but do not imitate my negative aspects.”
It was wise, all too wise, and something he
should have recalled quicker.
Ah… Sir Kazalim… I apologize. I forgot your
advice, and I committed the gravest mistake possible…
Yes, it was Clayman’s mistake, made in the
worst possible fashion. And just like Kazalim, he was defeated in the most
shameful way—by a freshly born demon lord. Karma in action, one could say—but
to Clayman, it hurt more than anything else.
And I even lost the army you granted me through
my mistakes… I cannot die. No, I cannot die yet. If I die here without atoning
for this at all, I’ll never be able to forgive myself…
If it had come to this, he at least wanted to
pass on what he knew. The thought kindled the light of life in Clayman before
he could completely resign himself to his fate.
“You are a walking dead, created by me from a
dead body, but I have placed special weight upon your brainpower. You are not
geared for combat, unlike Footman and Teare, but no one can use strategy and
artifice to command armies the way that you can. That, Clayman, is why you shall
become a demon lord…”
Kazalim had high hopes for him, and he
betrayed them all. But if it was power he lacked, all he needed was to obtain
some. Then he could stand tall with Footman and Teare—surpass them, even. If
only Clayman had some power to back up his intelligence, he could’ve sprung
past them all with ease.
Yes… Yes, indeed. There was no need to awaken to
a “true” demon lord at all. So give it to me. Give me power… Give me the
overwhelming power I need!!
Confirmed. Converting
the soul into magical energy… Successful. Disassembling and reconstructing the
receptacle body…
Clayman wasn’t
expecting the internally shouted wish to come true. But the World Language had
other plans for him. Right here, at the last moment, his wish had been granted.
So heaven hasn’t forsaken me yet!
In which case, Clayman’s answer was obvious.
Heh…heh-heh-heh… So you treat me like a fool?
Well, I’ll repay you for all that. For now, though, I’ve got to get out of
here…
He was weak, too weak to even use his voice,
but Clayman’s soul was burning bright—his life was a raging flame. And now,
with a coolness that was quite the opposite of what was in his heart, Clayman
resolved to retreat. The older demon lords—Guy, Milim, and Daggrull, in
particular—were too much to handle. Simply awakening wouldn’t give him the
winning edge against them, and now was no time for recklessness.
First, he would report back to the boy. That
took precedence over everything. The despicable slime he looked down upon was
still a question mark, but even the magic-born that served him were stronger
than Clayman—and he was on good terms with a revived Veldora, a point he
couldn’t afford to ignore. Anyone who survived a confrontation with Hinata
couldn’t have done so out of sheer luck.
He needed to abandon his rose-colored glasses
and analyze things for what they were. And that was why he had to take the
information he learned here and bring it back.
Quickly, he assembled a plan. His idea: to
release a massive ball of magical force, as much as he could manage, and slip
out of this chamber in the chaos.
I will need to watch out for Guy…
Guy had no time to deal with weaklings. He
probably wasn’t even paying attention to Clayman any longer.
…It’s all right. I’ll get out of here, I promise.
And if he could take out a few demon lords
along the way, he thought as he scrambled to his feet, all the better.
Among the demon lords
watching, I was probably the first one to notice. I had my eyes on Clayman the
entire time, never giving up the watch.
“Shion, get back!”
Quickly heeding my command, Shion fell back to
my side. Immediately after she did, the area around Clayman—including the spot
she stood on—was swept over by a huge quantity of magicules. The storm gathered
even more energy from the chamber, focusing itself squarely upon Clayman. If I
had yelled out a moment later, Shion would’ve been caught up in it.
“Looks like it’s really happening.”
“Sir Rimuru? What is…?”
The sight of me keeping my cool appeared to
relieve Shion. There was no reason to panic. And I wasn’t panicking, buuuut…
“Clayman’s awakened. Just as planned.”
“Just as planned? Well, great!”
I was
glad to earn Shion’s full trust, but I wasn’t quite so assured myself. This is all according to Raphael’s plan, but are we really okay with
this? ’Cause if we lose, it’s gonna stop being funny real fast…
When I first laid eyes on Clayman earlier, I
could see a large number of rifts in the air around him, as if they were
attached to his soul. It was malice personified, the remains of the souls from
the people he had killed up to now. But I couldn’t just take them from him.
They couldn’t go on to the afterlife, and they couldn’t dissolve into the air.
If I killed Clayman, they’d go down with him.
As I thought over what I could do about this,
Raphael suggested a plan of action: force Clayman into a corner and make him
awaken to a “true” demon lord.
Suggestion. If you use
Belzebuth to consume the energy Clayman releases upon awakening, it will be
possible to restore your magicules.
It was easy for Raphael
to say, but there was a litany of problems with that. I didn’t know if Clayman
would awaken, and if he did, he’d undoubtedly be powered up. But hey, um,
wouldn’t he just fall asleep, like with my Harvest Festival?
Understood. Since
Clayman’s evolution did not follow the standard procedure, the process will not
be fully complete. As a result, it is believed that he will not require sleep.
So sort of a limited power-up, then. I guess I’ll just have to defeat an awakened Clayman, then.
According to Raphael’s predictive calculations,
defeating him would be a breeze no matter how much he was enhanced. That was
based on everything from his core strength to the power he could earn and the
skills he was likely to acquire. Even at the maximum threat level, its answers
indicated I was still on top of him.
No point worrying about it, then. Just gotta
do it.
Besides, it was kind of true that my magical
energy was just about ready to bottom out. I could replenish it really fast, so
it’d bounce right back after deploying a large-scale spell, but restoring it to
full actually took a while. Although I had more energy than my awakening took,
I was also using Veldora this whole time as a fuel tank to restore it. With him
no longer part of me, it was natural to want to keep my own magicules topped
off.
It’d also earn me some street cred with the
other demon lords. As the new recruit, I needed to seize a seat at the round
table with my own power. Showing off my battlefield skill was the best way to
earn their acceptance without stirring up trouble in the future. If I didn’t
want ’em wheedling me later, I wanted them to think that I
shouldn’t be messed with.
Let’s use this awakened Clayman to show off my
power. It’ll save everyone a lot of trouble as time goes on. And the power to
show off? The ultimate skill Belzebuth, Lord of Gluttony, of course.
“Hey! Rimuru! Clayman’s awakened? I can’t
believe it, but look at all that force! Let me help with—”
“You’re fine, Carillon. I’ll take him on. I’m
calling myself a demon lord, and I want to earn my way into the club. I’m gonna
dispatch him and make them all accept me!”
Carillon shrugged and stepped aside. “Well,
don’t blow it,” he said, and I definitely didn’t intend to. The enemy had to be
crushed—that was the only reason I needed. I was more pissed off at Clayman
than anyone else. It was time to settle this.
So I walked toward
Clayman, now fully on his feet. The other demon lords were content with
watching, seemingly all right with me fighting alone. I was sure they wanted to
gauge what I had, so I assumed they wouldn’t complain. Milim was brightly
smiling at me, and Ramiris was happily humming to herself. Nobody was doubting
my chances—which I took as them believing in me.
“Shion, Ranga, step back.”
“But…!”
“I’ve got this.”
“Y-yes sir!”
“Good luck, Sir Rimuru.”
The other lords gave them enough distance to
retreat away so that I wouldn’t unwittingly hurt anyone else.
Now I was alone, and Clayman gave me his
sickly little laugh. “Heh-heh-heh, ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaah! Look at me! I’ve
obtained the power! You thought I was finished, you
worm! Now prepare to be crushed!!”
The laughter grew louder as he looked down at
me. But it was all an act. It was sad, how well Raphael had predicted all his
moves.
As it described matters, there were two
potential strategies Clayman could take. One was a desperate bull rush to kill
me; the other was to sneer at me, make me lose my cool, and search for a path
of escape. Evidently, he chose the latter, and that meant I knew what he’d do
next.
I grimaced at him, keeping my eyes firmly on
every move he made. Clayman was looking for an opening. So I played along with
his performance.
“I told you, you’re cornered. I’m stronger
than you. Give it up and tell me whose bidding you’re doing.”
Of course, in my case, it wasn’t a
performance—it was what I really wanted from him. Perhaps that was why Clayman
so easily took the bait.
“Heh-heh-heh… Impertinent to the end, I see.
Once I release my—”
He kept up the act as he suddenly took action.
He must’ve figured I was off my guard, because he fired a massive ball of
magical energy from out of nowhere. Must’ve been building it up as we talked.
It was a huge, superpowered blast, one that contained all the energy he had
just awakened into, and it was hurtling straight my way.
Clayman assumed I would dodge it. That or
maybe fire off a blast of my own to neutralize it, although a
spur-of-the-moment spell like that from me wouldn’t be enough. If I jumped
away, it’d explode in midair; if I tried blowing it up, he’d be able to escape
in the resulting gigantic explosion. That, I imagine, were his thoughts.
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