A few days had passed since Carrion and Eurazania had joined Tempest. The last thing to do before the festival started was for the people of the Forest of Jura who had not yet formally joined the Kingdom of Tempest to pledge their allegiance.
Today was that day. A well dressed blonde elf, Lina, walked in and said
"The representatives have arrived. It's time to show them who's their new king. Rigurd, Benimaru, and Shion are waiting for you."
…
I was now sitting on a throne and greeting the representatives. It was surprising to see how many people and villages were hidden all around the forest of Jura. So far I had greeted Minotaurs, Kobolds, Centaurs, Merpeople, Gnomes, Satyrs, Gremlins, Bugbears, Kenku, Rabbitfolk, Wolffolk, etc.
Pretty much any type of animal folk you could think of. Animal folk was weaker versions of beastmen who didn't have a beast transformation skill. They looked like humans but had animal features. Rabbitfolk had bunny ears and tails and had enhanced agility. Wolffolk had sharper teeth and claws and also had with them the ears and tails from wolves, and so on.
They had all come out of hiding from their villages and tribes in fear of being attacked by the new demon lord if they refused to come and visit. And it also gave the strong races from the forest a chance to see if the new demon lord was actually worthy of their servitude.
Whenever a representative arrived near the throne they had to walk through the thick demon lord's aura that covered the room. Monsters understood many things, but the one thing they understood the most, the one thing that was embedded in their instincts from birth, was that the strong were the ones who would rule them.
Once every single one of the representatives of the tribes had sworn the loyalty of their people Rigurd would step in front and shortly list out the benefits they would receive and what was expected of them. They could go into a more in-depth list after the swearing ceremony had been finished. The first thing the representatives received was names, and in the future, the members of the villages would begin to receive names as well.
The naming process had been changed. Since tempest had grown so much it was no longer possible to just name everyone at once. So once a year a day had been set for the adult people of each tribe to come to Tempest for a naming ceremony.
After the naming ceremony finished Benimaru and Shion left to deal with a disturbance that turned out to be the three children of demon lord Dagruel. At first, it appeared that they wanted to take over and become demon lords but after they had been quickly beaten up and subdued they revealed the truth. It seemed that Dagruel had gotten mad at them for continually causing messes back in his country so he had sent them out to train as a punishment. And with me being the new demon lord he thought he could probably dump them on me for the moment with only a note.
"Take care of my kids, I'll pay you back after for any trouble they make and for taking care of them. Make them work hard, this is supposed to be a punishment" Short and straight to the point.
I crushed the paper before looking at the three troublesome giants in front of me.
"Shion, you know how you wanted to practice cooking without using your skill? I think I found some candidates. Talk with Benimaru afterward to figure out what to do with them. We are running on a tight schedule today."
Realizing what I was talking about, they gave me serious looks and began to organize what to do with Dagruel's kids.
Diablo had done a great job in having "Friendly" chats with the people who were in power in Falmuth and it had now officially become a subordinate kingdom to Tempest. At first, the citizens were scared by the news but after seeing their food supplies and quality of life increase drastically they began to welcome the change. Diablo had left everything in Helios' hands now and was getting ready to finally return to Tempest.
The next event now was to make a public declaration.
…
A big crowd had gathered with some reporters in their midst. Most of the crowd was made up of Tempest's Citizens and a lot of the new members of Tempest that had only become citizens this morning after their representatives had visited this morning.
They became silent when they saw me standing on the balcony of the capitol building. I was wearing an outfit carefully made by Shuna for this occasion.
(Image here)
With the magical speakers spread around the city, everyone was able to hear this at the same time.
"Citizens of Tempest, it hasn't been long since we were just a small goblin village. In fact, it has been less than two years since everything started. We have gone through many trials and most of us have seen the growth of our nation. Today would be the day I was planning to let you all know of us officially becoming a kingdom, but that would not be true…
After all, we have grown to be more than a kingdom. We have taken Falmuth, Jistav, and Eurazania under our wing. And so it is not right for us to be called a kingdom. For we are now an Empire."
A loud cheer erupted from the crowd. And after they had settled down I continued.
"It is only thanks to the hard work of each of its citizens that we were able to grow up to the point we are now on. So I want to co commend you all for all the work you have all done. The festival that is coming soon is not only to celebrate my newly acquired status as a demon lord, nor is it only to celebrate the prosperity of our newly formed empire. But it is to celebrate each and every one of the members that are a part of it.
Let us continue to work together to continue to better our Empire. Look at how far we have come in just such a short time, now imagine our future if we continue to progress and prosper as we have.
To Tempest!" I said as I rose my fist to the sky
"TO TEMPEST!"
(Image of the Tempest Empire's territory/ map of the world of tensura)
…
Some hours had passed since the speech and I was now in a meeting room with Souei and a portion of the shadow squad.
"Are the preparations ready?"
"Yes, my lord, the targets of part one of our plan are in their required locations. In a few moments, it will be the perfect time to strike." Answered Souei
"Then as my first order as an emperor, let's start operation Greed. The least chances they get to attempt anything the better."
…
(Free Guild administration office - 3rd person pov)
A young man was sitting in his office with a tired expression. This was Yuuki Kagurazaka. Everything he had been planning had gone awry. Well, not everything, only everything that included a certain slime.
From the plans to create a new puppet demon lord using an orc to the disappearance and presumed death of two of his subordinates, Laplace and Clayman.
Add to that the fact that his senses had been screaming danger at him for the last couple of weeks. He had barely been able to sleep, having to keep his defenses up at all times. Something was telling him that there was a danger he was not aware of.
'Could it be Rimuru? But I don't think he suspects me, I haven't let anything slip in any of our conversations. And every time we have talked he never showed hostility. If anything he should be thankful to me for letting him gain custody of the children. But what did he do to them? Some of them were about ready to kick the bucket but after he left to prepare a building for them they were brimming with life and had even gained strength.'
Yuuki began to look through his plans once again. Hinata's attack had been successful, she had reported having killed him. Yet he still showed up here the next week to pick up the kids. Falmuth's invasion that had been planned by Clayman had terribly failed. And now Falmuth was on the tracks of becoming a subordinate of Rimuru…
Yuuki couldn't help but let out a yawn.
'I think my sleep deprivation is catching up with me… I should probably… go… to..'
At that moment Yuuki fell into a deep sleep on the table. He had his Anti-skill active constantly for the past few weeks yet it didn't help him at the moment. The reason being this wasn't a skill.
A colorless odorless sleeping gas had been created by Vester. Not with the use of magic or skills, but entirely through science. It had been a project that had been in the works for a long time that had only recently been completed.
Operation Greed part 1 was entirely focused on dealing with Yuuki. Only the absolute best at concealment were required for this plan. Hanzo, one of the founding members of the shadow squad, was perfect for the job. He had acquired the Unique skill Ghostly Presence from the harvest festival which allowed him to perfectly hide his presence to the point that you would require either an Ultimate skill with detection capabilities or a Unique skill whose whole purpose was to detect threats to notice him.
It also came with the sub-skill Haunted. Which allowed him to subtly mess with a target's psyche. In this case, activating it to force Yuuki's instincts to feel danger, slowly getting him used to that feeling so he would ignore it when they would be most needed.
At this moment Kagali and the Jesters were about to be intercepted and captured.
Appearing in the middle of the room a blue-haired kijin man wearing royal clothing looked at the sleeping person.
"Checkmate."