The Incident before the Banquet
The Demon Lords' Banquet (Walpurgis).
The people who participated in the Banquet were the current nine Demon Lords.
And the most prominent figure at the banquet was the one who had just transcended into the realm of Demon Lords.
The participants were listed below:
Demon Race..."Dark Emperor (Lord of Darkness)" Guy Crimson.
Fairy Race (Pixie)..."Labyrinth Fairy" Ramiris.
Dragonoid Race..."Tyrant of Destruction (Destroyer)" Milim Nava.
Giant Race..."Wrath of the Earth (Earthquake)" Dagruel.
Vampire..."Queen of Evil Night (Queen of Nightmares)" Ruminas Valentine.
Fallen Angel Race..."Sleeping Ruler" Dino.
Winged Race (Harpy)..."Sky Queen" Frey.
Undead Race..."Marionette Master" Clayman.
Former Human..."Blond Demon" Leon Cromwell.
The seating order around the round table was decided based on the order in which they become Demon Lords.
There was one vacant seat, and a temporary seat was prepared at the lowest position.
Guided by the maids, each Demon Lord would take their respective seat.
At that silent hall, in the middle of the room that separated from the outside world were three people. They were already seated on their own seat and were waiting for the arrival of the other Demon Lords. Those three were Guy, Leon, and Ruminas.
Then, some noisy people invaded the room penetrating the silence.
「Yahoo~, You guys healthy?」
A fairy flew quickly to her seat while saying those words. It was Ramiris.
「Long time no see!」
A giant greeted everyone and sat down on his seat. It was Dagruel.
「Yo, As usual, you people all seem rather gloomy.」
Calling and teasing the pretty girl with silver hair next to her seat. It was Dino.
Naturally, there was no response. Only an unpleasant glare.
The one who followed after the three Demon Lords was the newcomer. The main actor of the Banquet had arrived.
The first three who were already on their seats, concentrated their glares at Rimuru's arrival.
One person looked interested.
One person looked uninterested.
One person looked with hatred on its eyes.
However, the person under their gaze didn't greet anyone and so he was guided to the temporary seat and sat down on it.
With this, there were three remaining Demon Lords that had yet to arrive.
The mood was oppressive as the Demon Lords waited for all members to be present. Their attendants were waiting at the back.
For some reason, the three people who were standing behind Dino and Dagruel, looked like they had been beaten up badly, but no one mentioned anything about it.
They seemed to want to say something but were completely ignored.
Just before the appointed time for the banquet to begin, three Demon Lords entered simultaneously.
The host of this Banquet was Clayman and, including the two Demon Lords that entered with him, all members were present.
At that moment, in front of the Demon Lords who were waiting for the opening statement of The Walpurgis Banquet, a surprising incident happened.
Clayman raised his fist … and struck Milim!
「Walk quickly, you dim-wit!」
To use such violent words towards Milim was a death sentence.
Seeing this incident, everyone was awestruck.
To the one named "The Tyrant Milim" …
This countered all logical sense. Alas, that idiotic guy, he's done for.
And yet...
Even after committing such a violent act towards Milim, Clayman didn't show any remorse.
Milim wasn't resisting, and without any complaint she just sat there on her seat.
This situation could be considered very strange; the other Demon Lords couldn't believe what had just occurred.
Thus, though foreshadowing ill-omened events to come, The Walpurgis Banquet began.
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
While Dino was sitting on his seat, he was thinking about the monster he had met earlier.
A rather intriguing monster. Also, Dino sensed a comparable strength to his own emanating from him.
He wasn't like the feeble Clayman; he had the True Demon Lord's Ambition.
How … interesting.
Holding the Unique Skill『Sloth』, he was nearly finished with depraving Dagruel.
He was a truly uncontrollable person; who held an overwhelming power, so Dino has been avoiding having serious battles against him.
Just as the skill name suggests, containing the word 'Sloth', the skill power was meant to deprave in nature....
After his son who will succeed his throne, the depraving will be completed.
His sons had enough qualification to become a Demon Lord. After they receive enough experience then they will become one.
Then, Dagruel would retire, and it would become what Dino had planned before.
Unique Skill 『Sloth』 power was to cause the depraved person to become his subordinate and at the same time deprive them from their abilities.
With a powerful yet obedient pawn, he expects to obtain a great magic power.
Well, for Dino, this was just a game for staving off his boredom, but... even so, this magnificent game had been played for almost 300 years.
And yet.
From Veldora's words, he noticed the possibility of an even higher goal.
Aspiration to improve himself has began to bud, yet his opponent was someone that can't be reached by his own power.
That thought really saddens him...
But even so, he felt that it was amusing.
And then, even if Dino himself didn't realize that amusing feeling he had caused a tiny effect on 『Sloth』.
But it was just a tiny influence.
For an ability to reach perfection, it needs a very long time and a gigantic amount of energy, but that tiny influence starts to cause a transformation.
Without getting being perceived by the Possessor (Skill Master) belonging to Dino, the skill was quietly stored deep inside his heart.
After a short duration of time had passed, Clayman entered.
He wasn't someone who caught Dino's interest, but at that time Dino witnessed a surprising scene.
The scene of Clayman striking Milim.
Dino's eyes became wide open upon seeing the occurrence of that unbelievable sight.
Milim, who was clearly in a higher position then Dino, was struck by the weakling Clayman.
As the one who called oldest Demon Lord, she considered to have an abnormal level of skill and seemingly infinite amount of magic power.
The only person who could be considered as her equal was Guy.
That overpowering abnormality of an existence: Milim… was being hit and abused by the weakling Clayman!
Dino experienced an emotion he thought to no longer exist within him; forcing its way out from the deepest recesses of his heart.
This emotion was … Anger. Or possibly even Frustration.
Thus, those emotions become the nourishment to further the evolution of the skill『Sloth』.
And that evolution, before long, accelerated and stimulated the evolution of his mind. (ED:心kokoro,read as: mind, spirit, heart, inner strength)
From this, a certain power was acquired by Dino.
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
While I was being guided to the meeting place, there were some who tried to pick a fight with me due to my frail appearance of a child.
「Do you know that this place is only for the strong? A small fry like you should just go home!」
They shot out round after round of threats; this reminds me of an old styled thug.
To dye their hair blond with face piercings here and there.
They even come as a clichéd set of trio villains.
These punks were here for a person that looked weak and tried to ganging upon them to show off their strength.
Even with their appearance, they were not weak.
Their energy quantity was considerably abundant, maybe it even surpasses that of Benimaru or Shion.
But,
Shion asks me with her eyes, I simply answered it with a light nod.
The next moment, the three people had become laughably pitiful.
They were beaten up badly; there bodies' were completely black and blue.
Without even taking out her cherished Ōdachi, named Hercules' Edge, Shion, with her ridiculous strength, struck the trio.
Even if the opponent has the same amount of energy, it had ended in a one-sided beatdown.
「I'm sorry, was that enough?」
Although she apologized to me, this was far beyond 'enough'.
But, it's good that they allowed us to vent our stress.
Maybe these punks were Dagruel's sons?
They came and approached us when they saw us, maybe it was to 'warn' us.
I don't know reasoning behind it were, but after we had passed the gate, there were multiple paths and we became lost.
And then, we got involved with these three punks.
Because we pass through a Transfer Gate to the Underworld, this unpleasant incident occurred.
「Learn from this experience, Don't ever judge a book by its cover!」
After teaching them some lessons, we left them behind.
About that trio, although I got caught up in the moment to lecture them about various things, but I am glad that it was us.
If it was some other Demon Lords, a very sad thing may happen to them.
Even if they could handle an opponent with similar level of magic power, they weren't able to judge and verify enemy that had overwhelming power and act preemptively.
Shion also had herculean strength that went easily unnoticed.
Even though that trio was defeated like some small fry, but they could actually all be considered to have a power around that of a pseudo-Demon Lord Class.
Eh? So does that make Shion a pseudo-Demon Lord Class?
That's, Err...
Calm down.
But, really, that Shion!? That moron, there was no way that she could ever be a pseudo-Demon Lord.
I convinced myself with that, and continued forward.
In the back, I thought I heard something like『Sensei, no please let me call you Shisho!』, I'll pretend I never heard that.
A colossal door appeared before us.
Beyond it was the meeting place.
When I entered, I was guided to my seat.
I sat down, and begun to survey the surroundings, Dino and Dagruel already sat on their respective seat.
I caught the sight of the now beaten up trio standing behind them. As I expected, they were Dagruel's sons.
Everyone just ignored them.
As expected, this can't be a common thing, after all this was the place where 100 High ranked Devils could easily be killed. There doesn't seem to be anyone who had problem with this turn of events.
In this situation, I can only observe the other Demon Lords.
The farthest was a man with bewitching red hair. If he was a woman, he'd undoubtedly be a beauty.
I understood from a glance, this person was dangerous.
When I tried to analyze him, I only obtained trivial information.
He has the same wavelength of irregular Energy quantity;just like Diablo.
In other words, His Energy level was high, but the data shows that he was a novice that's not able to completely control his demonic aura.
However, my eyes cannot be deceived.
Or possibly, she may have deceived the analysis power of『Wisdom Lord Raphael 』, this information was likely fake.
To make the opponent see false information and misjudge histrue power.This allows someone to grasp victory before a fight by having an opponent underestimate them.
In my terms, it was to conceal power. In other words, it was for making it hard for an opponent to gauge your true power through suppressing your demonic aura.
But this person's idea was to exploit the opponent's information analysis ability.
Someone who's made afraid by this kind of information was not worthy to be considered as an opponent.
Of course, someone who can't perceive this as false information was out of question. But the problem is, even disregarding what was seen and just by deducting his Level, it was at Diablo's level of power.
His true level of power can't be estimated.
This person was obviously someone extraordinary.
No doubt about it, I instinctively felt that this fellow was a Demon Lord named "Guy".
And, on his left was Ramiris.
She sat on the seat of honor, was it because she's a senior?
She seems happy as she was swinging her feet back and forth. Just like a child. It might better to leave her alone.
Next to her was a vacant seat.
Next to it was Dagruel.
This large man (Ossan) has an unbelievably high energy quantity. It seems to be three times that of Diablo
However, what was important was quality, not quantity.
It's about how we can use energy in most efficient manner possible. Even if we had the same class, the expertise we show in using each of our respective abilities can be become a deciding factor.
A little while ago, if I wasn't told to control my anger, I might unable to differentiate between an ally and an enemy.
No, even if it can be controlled easily, I'm still worried.
There were still a lot of mysterious monsters. Even if the road was smooth it doesn't mean I shouldn't afraid of rocks.
So, I mustn't relax my guard
At my opposite, besides Ramiris's neighbor, a beautiful girl with silver hair took her seat.
Her skin gave off transparent feel, while her heterochromatic eyes glistened with a deep crimson and light sky blue.
In every aspect she was a perfect beauty.
Behind her was a man who looked like a butler, he doesn't make any movement just like a statue.
He certainly was an expert butler; with great etiquette.
He might have the same idea as me, as he suppresses his Demonic Aura, his ability level can't be read.
Like this, I was surprised that he was the subordinate.
As for the beautiful girl, she leaked out enormous amount of Demonic Aura.
But, the girl's demonic aura had random change in quality and quantity so it makes any reading pointless.
So this was the Demon Lord Class?
The glares that she sends at my direction were scary. Perhaps, her glare passed by me and sticks towards Veldora behind me.
This girl was unmistakably a vampire. A Demon Lord whose Kingdom turned into ashes.
She was an opponent you most definitely don't want to anger!
The talk about『My Head Hurts』 situation was about this girl?
Some say that it was a blessing to die because of a pretty girl's wrath. But, just as expected, I cannot see any blessings in that.
I only pray that such condition will not happen to me because someone else's mistake.
And the one who tried to had a friendly talk with the girl was Dino.
As expected. A completely KY-person. (ED: KuukiYomenai, lit: Someone who can't read air/mood)
This man was fearless.
But, he had enough power to back his attitude.
He emitted a large amount of energy, but most likely he suppressed most of it.
This one too, by using Jamming, he concealed his true ability.
If I try to analyze him seriously he would surely notice. What a shrewd guy.
And, the one I'm most bothered by, the person who sat next to me at the lowest seat, Leon.
At a glance, he was a beauty. With features that could have been granted by the gods.
If I was my old-self, I would say, Explode! Or so I thought.
Though he was formerly a human, his aura was impressive.
He was fully clad with Demon Lord's dignity.
In fact, his true power cannot be analyzed.
That's interesting. Lord of Wisdom Raphael analysis can be said to have a weak point.
That is, if it also about an ability with equal power.
This guy, there was no mistake. He also has an Ultimate Skill.
And then, at that moment, I noticed.
Guy's deliberately giving off false information. Was that a countermeasure against Ultimate Skill(s)?
In that case, it's very likely that Guy was also a possessor of an Ultimate Skill.
Even for a Demon Lord, they wouldn't necessarily have Ultimate Skill.
To come to possess one was a mixture of that person's nature, luck and coincidence.
But, the Ultimate Skill(s) power levels vary from skill to skill.
For that reason, from now onI should tread carefully.
Then, about me who was a possessor of Ultimate Skill(s), it was already exposed to Guy.
Although I don't have any concise information on my opponent, the opponent already has information about me.
What a blunder.
It already happens, so there was nothing that can be done. There was no use in worrying about what ability had leaked out.
In the future, it was essential to imitate a counter-plan like this, so I should be grateful for this experience.
If I'm still alive after this.
Now, I had understood about Ultimate Skill usage.
Leon seems to be uninterested in me.
However, I have something to say to you.
「Leon, Shizu-san had passed away.
She entrusted me to deliver a punch , free of charge, just for you; so let me hit you.」
I called out to Leon and give him a straight ball. (ED: Japanese idiom, straight to the point)
In response to my words, Leon opened his eyes.
And,
「I refuse.
...But, if it is an invitation to a fight, it's okay for you to come and punch me.
However, I will specify the time. If you think this is a trap, it's okay if you don't come.」
While saying those words coldly, he closed his eyes once again.
And with that, he doesn't seem to have any more interest directed towards me.
His skill of evading the point was rather superb.
「I see. I will accept it, please send a invitation.」
So I replied and stop my voice.
Although he looked annoyed, I saw a small nod from Leon.
I think its okay. With this, I was able to convey what Shizu-san wanted.
Although I may have to postpone this issue for later date the most important problem was Clayman currently.
While waiting for a while, Clayman and the final two Demon Lords came at last.
Then, I witnessed an unfathomable sight.
Clayman hit Milim (・・・). That, Milim…
Inside me, My anger almost exploded.
(You...., don't ever think you can die in ease...)
I proclaim the "Death" of Clayman.
No matter the reason, I will not forgive him.
However, I must not rush.
Because the Banquet has yet to begin.