Once again, Momonga decided to work in his castle office as it allowed Tempest's leadership to visit him in person more often, not just send reports of their activities.
As a leader, he needed to be more present in the daily ongoings and not just be a mysterious figure who signs off orders from the depths of a mysterious realm.
With his three consorts being on rotation as his secretary for the day, there was never a dull moment in his daily life. As wonderful as his women were, their rather temperamental natures clashed on a daily basis. The whole ordeal had turned into a screaming match as Shaltear felt left out, as until now, only Albedo and Shion had such a duty.
The agreement was made that she would take one day out of five and meanwhile, Cocytus would guard the first floor in her stead, aided by Shalltear's second-in-command, Helle, the first named kerai.
The petite vampire once again entered his office with a teacup in her hands and a smile that showed her fangs. She was dressed in a business jacket with a rather short skirt which she wore during office hours.
"Here is a fresh cup of tea for you, my love. Oh, and aunt Buku wishes to talk with you about the Free Guild." Shalltear said as she put the cup on the table and leaned in to kiss Momonga on his bony cheek.
"Thank you. Can you put her in the nearest available slot?" Momanga responded by giving her cheek a gentle stroke as her lips touched his face.
"Of course, you have nothing planned for the next hour. Should I call her in now?" Shalltear responded, trying to keep her demeanor at least somewhat professional.
"Yes, I'll talk with Buku now." Momonga said, pushing aside the pile of reports he was reviewing.
Shalltear nodded and straightened out, standing by his side. A moment later, Buku entered Momonga's office with an envelope in her hands.
"Hey, Momo, we have a situation. Yuuki plans to arrive and officially open the guild branch himself, leaving his second-in-command Kagali as the branch's temporary Guild Master, stating that she, as an elf, is a perfect choice." Buku dropped the letter on his table.
"So? I don't think he would make an open provocation and risk his own life. I seriously doubt that someone who has run the guild for over a decade would be as careless as trying to start a fight with us while Veldora is roaming free." Momonga replied as he quickly read the letter's contents.
"I know, but I can't figure out his angle. He is up to something." Buku responded with her voice lowering as she paced back and forth.
"Aunt Buku, can't we just kill him and replace that lesser being with a doppelganger?" Shalltear asked innocently.
"We don't know how strong he is. Any attempt at neutralizing him may end up being too public to hide." Buku replied.
"Maybe he just wants to snoop around and find the kids you took. His assumed personality aside, he is the Grandmaster of the Free Guild and likely sees our whole nation as a threat. Besides, it gives us a perfect opportunity to test specters." Momonga said, casually taking a sip of tea.
"I guess you are right. I am overreacting on instinct alone." Buku sighed. "Still, he clearly is leaving spies behind. I think I know who the woman he is leaving as the branch's Guild Master is. I met her in the headquarters and she was hiding her aura just like me."
"Hmm, I will try to poke around when she is alone. My skill should let me observe her soul without her detecting my presence."
"I can sense when you look at my skill. So if she has something on our level she could detect you snooping around."
"That's why I'll send in specters first. If either Yuuki or Kagali detects them then we'll have to be extra careful." Momonga said.
"If they can, then I'm not even talking with any of them without Rubedo standing by my side." Buku said, finally stopping her frantic pacing and sitting down on the chair.
"It seems I will need to finish up the work on the ultimate skills post haste. With my and Albedo's skill needing divine boosts and Pandora's ultimate skill not even constructed yet, I will have to use Nazarick's reactor to fuel it. Also, I should work on uplifting Shion, but as of now I still don't know how to properly empower a soul." Momonga was thinking out loud.
"Momo, I don't know what Nazarick's reactor is but don't overdo it. I am not dealing with you passing out for days again." Buku interrupted him.
"Please don't scare us like that again, my love!" Shalltear cried out, hugging from the side.
"I will be careful. I now have a much better understanding of how to not exceed my limits." Momonga assured them with a strained voice. Shalltear's grip was as bone-crushing as ever.
Just then the next surprise had to fall on Momonga's head. The captain of the border guards, Rigur, contacted him. { Lord Momonga, we have a situation on the southwestern border. An entity, calling herself 'Demon Lord Ramiris' demands entry on the pretense that she is under the protection of Tempest. }
{ Do not engage her! } Momonga hastily responded, he then turned to Buku, "Another Demon Lord arrived at our borders, she told border guards that she is under our protection. I have no idea who…"
"Ramiris!" Buku blurted out.
"You know her?"
"She was the one who helped with the kids." Buku pinched the bridge of her nose. "I sort of offered her our protection after I destroyed her golem."
"Don't you think I should have been informed about it?" Momonga glared at his friend. "You offered a Demon Lord our protection without asking anyone?"
"I just wanted to get her off my back, she wanted to play a stupid game and I destroyed the golem that protected her labyrinth as a trial. When she freaked out I offered to help out if someone threatened her." Buku frantically explained the situation.
"And now she is here demanding said protection! As if dealing with four Demon Lords wasn't enough, you needed to add the fifth one into the mix."
"Don't worry I'll deal with her, big brother Momonga. She is a palm-sized pixie with no power to speak of with a mentality of a seven-year-old. Just bring her here, she can't harm any of us. Besides, Milim told me more than one Demon Lord would be very angry if anyone harmed her." Buku said in her high-pitched voice.
Momonga resisted an urge to groan at her antics and messaged Rigur. { I'll open a gate, send her through. }
{ As you command, Lord Momonga. } The mental image of Rigur saluting flashed in his mind.
Momonga lifted his arm and cast the gate spell. Just as Buku described her, a small pixie flew through carrying the huge picnic basket.
She immediately dropped it on the ground and loudly complained. "Took you long enough! What sort of backward dump is this to make a royal…"
Shalltear's growl made her stop mid-sentence as the vampire took a step in her direction with a snarl. Ramiris frantically looked around and immediately hid behind Buku.
"Ramiris, be polite. You are talking with the Supreme Overlord of Tempest, Momonga." Buku scolded her like a child.
"Sorry, but why was I made to wait for so long? You promised protection." She mumbled, still hiding behind Buku.
"I promised that we would help you if anyone tries to harm you. Was that the case?" Buku asked.
"No… I ran out of food." Ramiris carefully looked up from behind Buku's shoulder at the snarling vampire and the undead who looked back at her with the dark burning flames in his empty eye sockets.
"You ran out of food within a day? There were pastries at least ten times your weight in that basket!"
"It was so tasty that I couldn't stop." Ramiris whined.
"How about you introduce yourself officially and announce the reason for your visit? I'm sure a Demon Lord like you knows basic etiquette." Momonga said, sounding as regal as ever.
"Ahm, yes of course I know!" She flew out and moved her arm sideways in a theatrical manner. "I am Demon Lord Ramiris, the former Fairy Queen. I have come… I have come to grace my allies with my presence."
"I see." Momonga said as he subtly motioned for Shalltear to stop mumbling under her breath about making soup out of the tiny pest.
"I, Momonga Tempest, the Supreme Overlord of the Tempest Hegemony, welcome you to our nation. Please enjoy your stay." He said while letting a tiny bit of his aura of dread seep out.
"I, Shalltear Bloodfallen, the second consort of Lord Momonga, welcome you as well." Shaltear added with a curtsy as she copied Momonga and unleashed a tiny bit of her aura upon the small Demon Lord. 'This pest should know her place. My beloved Lord Momonga knows how to keep manners and show dominance at the same time. This should be enough to let her know that she better behave.'
Shalltear straightened out and put her hands together, digging her nails into her left hand. 'His aura is so exhilarating. It will be torture to wait till the evening.' She did her best to keep her face straight and her breathing calm.
Ramiris paled because of the assault of two different auras but kept her resolve. If she was able to deal with Milim then these two would not break her either.
Putting up a brave smile, she replied with an equally regal tone. "Thank you for the warm welcome. Now if you would be so kind as to take down the defenses for a moment and tell me where I should put my labyrinth entrance?"
"I'm afraid I will have to deny this request." Momonga said. "You are welcomed as a guest but I will not let you make any installations within our lands."
"But I was promised protection and I can't leave my labyrinth doors unguarded." She flipped around to face Buku. "You promised!" She said with a sniff.
'Really? Going into a full child act. I guess in a sense she is a child but… God dammit, why did I promise her that protection? I can't go back on my word now.' Buku raised an eyebrow at her. "Ramiris, you are a guest for a while not living here, do you understand?"
"I will take the labyrinth with me when I leave. I promise!" She buzzed around Buku with a pleading expression.
Buku stared her down for a moment and then let out a long sigh. "Can we use one of the border fortresses to guard the labyrinth entrance?"
"But…" Ramiris tried to protest.
"It's either that or nothing for now." Buku shot her down.
"Fine… it will do. But can you at least let me use Spatial Motion while I'm here?" Ramiris asked.
"I will add you to a friend list so you can use your abilities within Tempest but I will not tolerate any abuse towards my subjects from you." Momonga said to her, ramping up his aura another notch.
"Sure I will be the very picture of good behavior." Ramaris responded with a smile. 'Crap, why is everyone here so strong? I won't be able to keep up for long if they try to bully me like this.' She lamented her hardships.
"Then it's settled. Buku, please assign a few servants to her and find her a place to stay." Momonga said, turning off his aura with Shalltear reluctantly following suit soon after.
Buku led Ramiris to one of the newly finished castle's guest wings and left the fairy in the care of a couple of maids. Of course, she started to boss them around right away, asking for food and pampering.
'Should I let her interact with Veldora? He and Milim cause enough problems as is, adding another child into the mix will just ramp up their shenanigans.' Buku mused as she teleported to Nazarick.
Her newest servants had all received either Shizue's prototype bodies, most of which lacked any programming, the spare golems stashed in treasury, or the newly crafted golem bodies made out of adamask alloy. The crafting department produced a few dozen each day, solving the body problem almost instantly.
With the possibility of acquiring more elementals, surplus bodies surely didn't hurt. Additionally, Diablo had given an extensive report on demons and how they too could use golem bodies to be permanently summoned.
She arrived at the ninth floor where all her new servants waited for her in a small gathering hall. They instantly kneeled seeing their mistress arrive and silently awaited her orders.
Buku looked at them with worry. Each of them was an A to Special A level threat by the guild standards and thus she had to be a little bit careful with naming them all in one go.
"Make a line, I will start naming you. I do not promise that every single one of you will get named today but each of you will receive a name in the end. If anyone is against being named, speak up."
With no one protesting and the strongest elementals being first in the line, Buku took a long breath and started to give names from her native language according to their appearances which reflected their element.
The water elementals had sea-blue hair and eyes. Air elementals had fairy wings while the earth elementals had sturdy frames and most of the adamask was reshaped into plate armor.
In the end, her fears of running low on magicules were proven to be true and she started to run low on energy after the sixtieth elemental received a name.
With Momonga planning the work on skills, she couldn't ask for his energy either. Resolved to continue naming once her energy was restored, Buku teleported to her quarters for a much-needed rest.
Proofreading by Alassandro, Sad_Smiles, RottenPizza, Kazuma, and Visur Nyxan.
AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available or if you are interested in becoming a beta reader.