WORD FROM RAMIRIS

Just as the summit was winding down, and I felt it was time to wrap things up:

Bwaaam!!

The doors flew open as someone stormed in.

“I heard all that! Tempest shall fall to ruin!!”

There was a tiny winged girl—and while it was hard to believe from looks, it was Ramiris of the Labyrinth, one of the world’s ten demon lords.

I wasn’t exactly sure how to take this. Should I open my eyes wide and go “Wha-what was that?!”? I didn’t have much time to react, because Ramiris was flying straight for me, while Beretta was kindly closing the front door behind her. Long-suffering is the way I’d describe that demon’s body language, and I bet I was right. Getting bossed around by Ramiris all day would do that to anyone.

Now Diablo was standing in front of her, dressed to the nines in his butler-y outfit. He had been stationed behind me, quietly listening to the proceedings, but he wasn’t willing to let this interloper barge in. And really, he made capturing Ramiris look as easy as grabbing a dragonfly out of the air.

“H-hey!” she shouted, flailing around. “What’re you doing to me?!” I just love her. She doesn’t act the part of a demon lord one bit, and it’s just adorable.

“Sir Rimuru,” Diablo said, walking back to me, “I have captured an intruder. What should we do with her? She raved about this town falling to ruin, but how should we address this insolence?”

I looked at Ramiris. She was batting her wings helplessly, trying to escape Diablo’s grasp. “Gehhh! I’m using my full magic force, and I still can’t escape him?! This, this can’t be any kind of regular bodyguard! Who are you? What did I ever do to you?!”

She never was very quiet. And no offense, but given the incomparable difference in power, I didn’t think Diablo would lose her anytime soon. And this was a demon lord? See, this is why I sometimes wonder if being a demon lord is anything special at all.

“Do you know this fairy, Sir Rimuru?” Fuze asked. Oh, right, we were in the middle of a summit. Right toward the end, in fact. If she had only come in a couple minutes later… She never was good at taking social cues like that, either.

“Yeah, I do. This is Ramiris, and she might not show it, but I guess she’s a demon lord, too?”

“Hey! What d’you mean, I don’t show it?! I am feared as the strongest out of all ten demon lords, I’ll have you know!”

She flashed me the most arrogant smile possible, still stuck in Diablo’s grasp and oblivious to how nonthreatening she looked. The audience was nonplussed, a few giving comments like “Huh? A demon lord…?” and “Someone like that?”

“…What? Like, whaaaat? Come on, what’s your problem? You’re supposed to act more surprised! I’m kind of a demon lord, guys! Ramiris of the Labyrinth, in the flesh, all right?! Why is everyone acting so uninterested?”

I mean, demon lord or not, you’re kind of caught between two fingers right now. If I had to guess, everyone thinks you must be some kind of poseur, you know? I’m too kind to actually voice this, of course, but…

“…Well, as a demon lord himself, it’s only fair that Sir Rimuru would be acquainted with other demon lords, I suppose…”

“If anything, the Storm Dragon’s resurrection was such a shock, I don’t think anything could surprise me at this point…”

Our audience was nodding at one another. I suppose that makes sense, actually.

Ramiris, on the other hand, was less than satisfied with that.

“Huh? The Storm Dragon? Veldora’s been revived? You guys are being tricked! I beat Veldora into the ground with a single punch! That guy was all roar and no bite. Besides, his era’s over now. If you want someone to fear, you can start being horrified around my presence today!”

She punctuated this with a high, haughty laugh. If anything, she had an even bigger mouth than Veldora. I had Diablo hand her over to me and took her to see him.

“Veldora, you mind entertaining this girl for me? She’s a demon lord, too, more or less, so maybe she’ll wanna be friends with you.”

“Mm? I am busy unraveling a grand riddle at the moment.”

I didn’t have time for his sulking.

“Oh, that manga? The murderer was [REDACTED]. You’re good now, right? Thanks.”

With that bout of mercilessness, I returned to my seat. Veldora looked shocked, eyes wide open. Maybe it wasn’t the nicest thing to do, but we’re in the middle of a summit. I wanted him to think about his actions a little, not let him do whatever he wants.

Besides, the sight of Veldora had already made Ramiris faint on the spot. Two problem children taken care of in one stroke.

So wrapping up, I wanted to go over everything we had to do.

“Benimaru, our next target is Clayman. I want him taken down!”

“Just what I’ve been waiting to hear!” Benimaru gave me a fearless smile, flames dancing eerily in his eyes. The rest of the Tempestians in the audience were similarly elated; I guess they’d all become would-be warriors over time. Didn’t they all just have a huge battle in town a few days ago? Ah well. High morale’s never a bad thing.

“As for the Three Lycanthropeers and the beastmen under them…”

“No need to say it,” Alvis growled. “We are under your command, Sir Rimuru.” Phobio and Sufia seemed just as enthused. I shouldn’t have bothered asking.

“And you think you can beat him with this team, Rimuru?”

“I will. He’s riled me.”

“I see…” Gazel gave me a wry grin. “I will trust you in your word, then.” And in a smaller voice that I figured only I could hear: “Here I thought you were my junior training partner. You’ve grown far too much…”

“But I do not believe you can afford to think lightly of Clayman,” observed a concerned Erald. “He holds sway over a vast army of magic-born, and rumors tell of close connections with the Eastern Empire…”

“That doesn’t matter. War is about quality, not quantity!”

“Heavens, I think I can hear my common sense collapsing as we speak…”

It was, indeed, totally lacking in common sense, but it was enough to quiet him. I could tell he was interested in what I had now. I knew it was crazy, too, but I also knew I was right. The larger army usually wins the battle, but that didn’t apply to this world. The orc lord was a good example of that. As long as you can decapitate the leader, it was always the more adept fighters that dictated the results.

Besides, this time, we didn’t lose out in numbers, either. I had cut it out from the summit for brevity, but Soei had already briefed me on Clayman’s movements. Soei was still pinning down an exact number, but they were moving sluggishly and still stuck inside Milim’s domain. His Replication would be back here soon, though, and I could save my final decision for then.

That strategic meeting could come later, but for now, we needed to make sure we had the script down for conquering Farmus. We’d release the king, then have the Marquis of Muller and Count Hellman pursue his blame, beseeching him to take responsibility for his failure. Depending on how he reacted, Yohm would then spring into action.

“Regarding any actual war with them, that will be our issue to tackle. For now, I want all of you to trust in me and leave Farmus for us to worry about. It shouldn’t be long before I’ll ask you to help us make Yohm into the champion king of a new generation.”

The audience nodded their approval. When it came to human affairs, we’d make a lot fewer mistakes relying on them instead of trying to go it alone. I was looking forward to their support.

“Now, Fuze, I want you to contact Muller and Hellman confidentially.”

“Sure thing,” he replied.

Again, we’d likely work out the details in a later meeting, but we had a plan of action now. First, we’d portray things so it was Yohm and his forces reclaiming the king from us. We’d then have the Marquis of Muller put the king under his protection, providing backup for Yohm the whole way. And about those three POWs, actually:

“By the way, Shion, how are those three dealing with your questioning? Did they give us anything useful?”

I had forgotten about that—it didn’t really matter, in the grand scheme of things—but I had left our prisoners in the care of Shion this whole time.

“Heh-heh-heh… Of course they did, Sir Rimuru!”

Ooh. Somebody sure is confident. I had a bad feeling about that. I turned toward Yohm and Mjurran, who were supposed to be present during all the questioning. They awkwardly turned their eyes away.

“Um,” Yohm began. “Yeah, um, questioning? Interrogation? Either way, they talked a lot, pal.”

“That they did,” agreed Mjurran. “But that was no questioning. It was something surreal. I’m not sure you could even call it interrogation.”

I really don’t want to hear anything else, thanks. Shion overdid it, no doubt about it—but then, I let her. It’d be unreasonable for me to complain about it, and I had no intention to. Even if I wanted to stop her violent rage, I guess I was cooped up in the cave and beyond contact range anyway. In a way, it’s my fault for not being there. Let’s just assume I never noticed.

Sorry, people of Farmus. But then again, you guys struck first. Hopefully, you’ll consider yourselves lucky for surviving at all.

Either way, we had three prisoners in custody, and following Shion’s interro—um, questioning, they seemed fairly willing to talk.

“First off,” Shion began, “Ed, Ednoyol? Ed…”

“…King Edmaris?” whispered Shuna into her ear. Thanks for that. But really, Shion? You couldn’t even come up with the king’s name? I know it’s kind of a weird one, but…

“King Edmaris had apparently made contact with a merchant, one who brought him silken fabrics from our nation and whetted his appetite for conquest. The king also feared that trade would drift over to our nation in the future, which also led to those moves on his part…”

Shion’s rundown continued, the content of which didn’t surprise me much. The only thing it made me wonder about was whether that merchant deliberately spurred Edmaris to action.

“Do we know who this merchant is? Some black-market dealer?”

“I apologize, my lord. That much we do not know.”

She looked so sad about it that I felt the need to hurriedly console her. The question wasn’t that important anyway. Let’s switch subjects to Archbishop Reyhiem.

“That’s fine. What about the Church?”

“Ah yes! He revealed who was pushing him behind the scenes. The name was—”

It’s a long one, Shion. You think you got that one remembered at all?

“…The core of it all was Cardinal Nicolaus Speltus,” Mjurran said after Shion shot her a pleading look. Shion was great at extracting information from people, but anything else? Forget it. She had some kind of mental block keeping her from remembering proper names. Better give her some other assignment next time. Good thing Mjurran was around. I can’t really expect much in the critical-analysis department from Yohm, either, so she no doubt provided some handy backup.

According to her, Nicolaus stated that they planned to take us all down, as a nation clearly against the will of their god. Planned to anyway.

“I see,” Fuze muttered. “So Archbishop Reyhiem wanted all the glory of defeating a godless enemy, so he could earn extra clout with the central authorities?”

Everyone seemed to agree with this.

“Either way, we still have some wiggle room. The Western Holy Church hasn’t made a definitive decision yet. Perhaps there’s a way to negotiate ourselves out of being designated hostile.”

“In that case,” Fuze said, “let me handle that.”

His approach involved taking advantage of the Council’s presence. They would release a statement declaring that the nation of Tempest should be recognized, putting pressure on the Church to act. Appealing to the Council would also place the spotlight further on Tempest as a waypoint along a series of new trade routes. The fact that monsters lived there was an issue, but they were all both kind to strangers and fully capable of speech. If anything, they’d gladly be your friend.

That much, of course, we had already proven. Or really, we’d made it happen through all this astonishing evolution. In so many words, our aim was to earn treatment from the humans similar to what dwarves, elves, and other demi-human races enjoyed. King Gazel would back us up as well, keeping up a lively trade relationship with us and advertising the benefits of Tempest with more energy than ever.

This, I imagined, would likely not be enough to make the Western Holy Church abandon their core tenets. But Dwargon and Blumund already had formal trade relations with Tempest. Not even the Church had the kind of power to annul those agreements. And with us having such deep ties with a small group of human nations like this, other countries were bound to grow curious soon. Plus, we now had the Sorcerous Dynasty of Thalion declaring their allegiance. That put even more pressure on the Church to settle matters.

“Not that this is for me to say,” Fuze added, “but recognizing Tempest is a double-edged sword. We all need to be careful to make sure we don’t accidentally stab ourselves in the process.”

He was right. Blumund was in the tightest spot out of them all. Dwargon and Thalion were essentially beyond the range of Holy Church influence. Both were powerful enough that they could give the united Western Nations a run for their money. Blumund, meanwhile, was a blip, all too susceptible to pressure from outside its borders.

—Except all that was a thing of the past.

“Heh-heh… Fuze, was it? No need to fret. We dwarves can make runs through Tempest to access your markets as well. And with the stronger position that will put your nation in, the Council will find it prudent to tread lightly with you.”

Gazel’s right, I thought. Two nations, Dwargon and Thalion, both with different cultures and technical expertise, were interacting with each other through Tempest. This town was going to grow exponentially, I was sure of it—and then, a new culture would bloom. Culture and technology. The sorcerous science Thalion boasted and the spirit engineering Dwargon cultivated would connect on our doorstep, two different families of tech rolled into one. It could create an industrial revolution straight out of fantasy, and the kingdom of Blumund would have dibs on enjoying it first. Even in terms of pure accounting numbers, the potential profits were enormous.

Meanwhile, the new kingdom of Farmus created by Yohm would be reborn as a breadbasket to the entire region, filling the people’s stomachs and planting the seeds for an entirely new food culture. We’d need to spread the wealth around, to make sure none of us was competing with another member of the alliance in each specialty—but I was planning to attend to that anyway, on the sly. Raphael, Lord of Wisdom, had calculation skills that went beyond what even quantum computing could manage. Calculating global economic effects was no sweat—and at accuracies far greater than even the Earth Simulator supercomputer in Japan could manage. That kind of made me sound like the “man behind the curtain” ruling the world, but I am a demon lord, so at least it’d be in character.

I could understand Fuze’s concern, too. Blumund was so tiny, it might wind up being exploited by its bigger neighbors without any recourse to turn to. That’s why it was so hard for them turn away from the Council, as friendly as that alliance was to smaller nations like theirs. Of course he’s worried.

Maybe, in the short term, it would’ve been better for them to keep dealing with the Council. Pool all their intelligence skills together, and Blumund might’ve even been able to force the Western Holy Church into all-out war against us. If that was the choice they made when they first met us, I might’ve been slain by now. But the Blumundians didn’t opt for that. They trusted me and decided to walk down the same path.

You do the deed, and then you get rewarded for it.

Blumund had already picked me. I didn’t see any reason not to take the hint. Living together in harmony was right at the crux of my ideal, besides.

“Fuze, when you return home, I want you to tell the king that I have a favor to ask.”

“A favor? Not another painful one, I trust?”

“Kinda rude, wouldn’t you say? It’ll take a while to explain, and I’ll probably fail to get the point across to you, so I’ll visit later to go over it in detail with him.”

“Hoh! And I’m the rude one? You make me sound like some kind of dullard!”

“No, no, I didn’t mean it like that. I just mean, you know, do you know much of anything about economics, Fuze?”

“I… All right. I will give word to the king and arrange a time.”

“Great.” I nodded.

Blumund’s role here would be to keep statistics on the amount of trade in all the main manufactured goods of the region. I’d have them examine the products imported and exported from each nation, then make sure that the necessary items were shipped to the necessary place. To put it another way, I would have Blumund become the first large-scale trading company in the world. Get it right, and there’d be nothing “small” about this nation any longer. They’d be a financial superpower, wielding influence beyond comprehension.

Considering Blumund’s geographical location, I wanted them to be a trade hub going forward. But that would wait until everything else wrapped up. I needed to defeat Clayman. Yohm needed to build a new nation; Fuze and Blumund needed to use their information access to check on the movements of the Western Council and Church—until we won, at least.

My main concern was the Church. I didn’t think they’d make any sudden moves, but they still needed to be kept in place. Neither they nor the Holy Empire of Lubelius were willing to recognize our nation. I wanted to postpone any conflict for as long as I could, giving us time to prove our effectiveness and devotion to common harmony. If we had to fight, I’d like to keep it peaceful…but judging by Hinata’s reaction to me, that might be tough.

None of these problems would be wiped up that easily. Everything depended on what we did from here on out.

So about those three prisoners—hmm? There’s King Edmaris, Archbishop Reyhiem, and…who was the other guy? Oh, right! The dude who survived my attack. Were we safe letting him go?

“Shion, we had three POWs, right? The one who survived all the killing? That guy has to be pretty bad news, right?”

“Huh? Oh, um, yes. That terribly frightened man.”

Frightened? Hmm. Maybe he was just some wimp who managed to survive through sheer luck.

“Hoh? The final survivor? If I had to guess, perhaps Folgen, captain of their knights?”

If Gazel knew someone on that force by name, he must’ve been at least a half-decent military officer. So maybe it’d be risky to free him? I turned to Diablo.

“What kind of guy was he like? Pretty strong, right? You think it’d be all right to let him off the hook?”

“No, Sir Rimuru,” he replied, smile still on his face. “He is a minnow, incapable of being a problem at all. By human standards, however, he does seem rather well-versed in magic.”

He’s a magician? Maybe not a knight captain like Folgen, then.

“Do you know the name, Shion?”

“Yes! It’s Ramen, sir!”

Ramen. Hmm. I haven’t had ramen in years, actually. Nothing like a steaming cup of instant noodles during an all-night deadline crunch at work. I miss that. Maybe I’ll try to fashion some later.

“Ramen?” Fuze asked as I basked in fond memories of my past life. “Was there someone named that in Farmus?”

“It does not ring a bell,” replied Erald. “And a magician, you say? I am aware of a magic-born named Razen who should still live there…”

“Razen the champion? Mm, a man who should never be omitted from the story.”

“I know that name,” Phobio chimed in. “It is well-known even within the Beast Kingdom. The guardian of the great land of Farmus and among the most intelligent of magic-born!”

“Yeah, I know him, too. A human who’s mastered magic up to the wizard level and beyond. I’ve always wanted a chance to challenge him!”

“I’m sure we’d win in close-quarter combat, but he is not one to trifle with, no…”

All the Lycanthropeers knew him, which surprised me. There was someone like that still left in Farmus? This Ramen guy didn’t matter to me, but Razen certainly needed some attending to.

“You’re sure the man we have is named Ramen, Shion?”

“Y-yes, er… Probably. But he’s just a young man! One of the people who attacked this town. Certainly not the master magician you all are talking about!”

She sounded a lot more assertive on the second half of that statement than the first. But hang on, didn’t Diablo just describe our prisoner Ramen as a magic-user? Curious, I decided to get the story from a few more witnesses.

What we knew for sure is that our captive was a young man, an otherworlder, who had participated in the attack. Everyone was in agreement on that.

“Diablo, are you making up stories in an attempt to earn Sir Rimuru’s praise?” Shion goaded him.

“Not at all. I would hardly expect to be heaped with adulation for having defeated someone of such low caliber. I simply seek recognition that I have carried out the work provided by the master I serve.”

That’s true. Diablo wanted me to know he was a good servant, but he didn’t say anything about his opponent being tough at all. He was dissing the guy every chance he had. So…

“…Come to think of it,” Hakuro mused, “when Geld and I cornered that otherworlder, a fairly powerful magic wielder interfered. I believe that man was named Razen, actually. He had prepared a type of nuclear magic he was ready to unleash at any moment. So we let the otherworlder go, since this wizard was much more of an imminent threat.”

So it is Razen, not Ramen? Razen, this guy I wanted to keep an eye on, was involved in the battle after all?

Report. Using certain secret rituals in the realm of spiritual magic would allow one to leap between physical bodies.

Oh, right. That.

“D’you think maybe that Razen guy took over the body of the younger dude?”

“Wha?!”

Shion was floored. She never seemed all that sure about our prisoner’s name. I was fairly certain my theory was correct.

“Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh… And I am sure we will discover our ward’s true name shortly.”

Diablo pounded the final nail into Shion’s coffin. It almost drove her to tears.

Our man turned out to be Razen, in the end. Nobody named Ramen out there after all. All right? So enough bullying Shion over this. What do you want from her? She’s Shion. Asking any kind of brainwork out of Shion is a mistake in the first place.

But:

“You dispatched Razen himself that easily?!”

“I cannot believe it. The champion who supported Farmus for centuries…”

“He was one of the rare humans who was equal to me as a wizard. Superior, even…”

All the shocked eyes in the room turned to Diablo. If you think about it, he is kind of a mystery. Why’s he so keen on being my servant? He claimed to be willing to work for free, so I had no real reason to turn him down. The guy describing this amazing wizard as a “minnow” kind of confirms how strong he is. And this was before I named him, too…

And right now, this guy was choosing to lord it over Shion. She gritted her teeth, no doubt frustrated over how she brought this fight to him and lost big. Ah well. Nothing should come of it, as long as Shion doesn’t go and start acting like they’re bitter rivals. Having both a talented secretary and a ditzy one on board is going to lead to a lot of jealousy, I’m sure.

Right! So let’s do this:

“Yohm, I want you to take the three prisoners and do something with them for me. Diablo, I want you to join him.”

Now Diablo was looking panicked at me. I could see Shion sneer back at him, but that order wasn’t for her sake. This was the result of more serious thought. I was just thinking about who I could have help out Yohm’s team, assuming I left Veldora to keep the town safe. Someone who was reasonably intelligent, strong enough to handle anything that came his way, and could move fast if needed.

Soei would’ve been the best choice, but I needed him on the battlefield. Benimaru was my general field commander. Shion was out of the question. Hakuro couldn’t use Shadow or Spatial Motion, so it’d take time for him to travel anywhere. Geld and Gabil would stand out too much in human society.

Meaning Diablo fulfilled all my conditions. He said he’d lend a hand when it came time to take Farmus down, so I doubted he’d have any complaints. He’d have no problem guarding someone as potentially harmful as Razen, either.

“I will leave this to you, Diablo!”

“Ah, I understand, Sir Rimuru!”

He gave me a delighted smile. Something didn’t seem quite right about it to me, but if he said yes, then no complaints. Right now, Diablo was probably third in strength after Veldora and me. No matter what happened, he’d have it handled in a flash.

“This job might take several years, so I hope you’ll be patient with it. Contact me with Thought Communication if anything comes up.”

“Not a problem, sir. I will be happy to handle this mission well before the allotted time.”

He sure had a lot of confidence. This was an entire nation I was asking ’em to take down…but again, that’s another reason I felt safe giving him this assignment. Now, with all the plans settled, we could end this summit between nations—and now I could focus my full attention on all-out war with Clayman without any regrets.

To finish off, I asked if anyone else had something to say.

A hand shot up. It belonged to Erald, who was looking expectantly at me.

“Yes?” I asked.

Erald had been waiting for this. “Our nation and yours are separated from each other by extremely treacherous forests and mountains. If we could connect ourselves directly through that region, that would allow us to cut the travel distance by quite a margin. A highway, in particular, would make the trek far easier…”

He shot me a glance. Ah-ha. I knew what he was getting at. If we were gonna be building a formal relationship with Thalion, of course we’d want a direct link between us. We’d have to do that, of course. Products that used to require long detours to deliver would naturally be more attractive once we had a better road. That was a part of my plan from the start.

Of course, it’d also mean we’d have a lot of civil engineering to do—cutting down trees, building tunnels, paving the roads. The budget would be huge, and maybe they were a superpower, but it wouldn’t be that easy to procure a budget like that. No doubt Erald already had some ballpark figures he composed himself, in hopes of forcing the whole job upon us.

“Erald,” Gazel commented, “you are asking for too much. Not even Rimuru can accept such a massive undertaking so lightly.”

Well, hang on. I’m pretty sure we covered all the work and expenses for the highway to the Dwarven Kingdom, didn’t we?!

“Don’t be ridiculous, Gazel! If it was Sir Rimuru saying that, I would accept it, but not from you of all people!”

Ah. Guess Erald knew, too.

So if I’d already accepted the job from Gazel, would it be wrong to say no to Thalion? In my honest opinion, I had no problem being left to the task. A highway was a small price to pay for their recognition, really. But if I kept taking these low-paying jobs, so to speak, every country we ran into going forward might expect a similar handout. Humans are sly like that, something I was sure reminded of by my experience in Blumund. They had me right where they wanted me.

Let’s get a thing or two straight before we go any further.

“I understand your suggestion, Duke Erald. We would be willing to accept your request for a highway. However…”

“However?” Erald nervously swallowed as he looked at me. Don’t worry, man. I’m not gonna ask for much.

“However, I want you to let us handle the highway’s security and lodging facilities. Of course, we would take payment for this, in the form of a small transport tax on top of operating expenses for those services.”

It would be like running a toll road. We’d set up stops at decently sized regular intervals where people would have to pay fees to advance. That would provide us with permanent funding. We might start in the red, but over the long term, it’d probably lead to profit. Our special interests at work, you could say. On top of all that, we’d keep the highway maintained for them. A bargain, really.

“…I see. Impressive. And only natural to demand that much. However, I would like to have the right to negotiate this transport tax, perhaps once every few years.”

Hohh? Erald’s pretty impressive himself. He immediately saw what I was trying to accomplish. Of course, none of this would happen without both sides coming to an agreement. No point setting that tax too high. I’ll take the offer.

“All right. Let’s go with that!”

“That’s it?!”

Fuze seemed flabbergasted, but I let it slide. In diplomacy, the power to make a decision trumps all else.

“Geld! We got a new job for you!”

“Yes sir! It gladdens me to hear. We have the teamwork to handle every step of the operation, the supply lines to transport the needed materials, and people with skills that knead and control the earth. The work you provide us is our very nourishment, Sir Rimuru, the best military training ground we could ever hope for!”

Huh?! Oh, uh, yeah… That’s the motivation they go with, huh? And here I thought Geld had some common sense. Maybe not so much? It was so surprising, I didn’t know how to react for a moment.

“Um, yeah. Well, in that case, we better get this war finished up so you can get to work.”

“Indeed. Soon you will enjoy the results of our daily training regimen!”

Geld was really up for a fight. I’m sure he’ll be an asset in the one against Clayman.

That was the last of the feedback I received—and thus, after several twists and turns, our summit was finally over.

A wealth of nations came to the bargaining table today, each with their own motivations, duking it out with words in search of a world where man and monster live hand in hand. It might have come out of nowhere, but this so-called Monster-and-Man Summit would later wind up becoming a turning point in history.

I had once again taken a major step toward my ideal.

Siti Dara

Hi. I’m Designer of Blog Magic. I’m CEO/Founder of ThemeXpose. I’m Creative Art Director, Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, Interaction Designer, Industrial Designer, Web Developer, Business Enthusiast, StartUp Enthusiast, Speaker, Writer and Photographer. Inspired to make things looks better.