Story: I'm a Daemon, so what?
Disclaimer: I do not own the original setting.
Chapter 49: Meeting Between Rulers
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- Felix -
"Feel free to do what you wish to him, Luminous. I made it so he'll follow all your orders but his old Ego has returned to the forefront, so he is the same person that killed Roy and Hinata."
It would have been pointless if I had just given Luminous a doll with no real Ego. That was practically a different person.
I gave Luminous one final nod and then I snapped my fingers, teleporting Rimuru and I back to Tempest.
We appeared in the meeting room that we left from, my Barrier still surrounding the room, so no one should have caught onto the fact that we left Tempest entirely.
Rimuru sighed, took a seat at the table, and slouched back. "Man, that was something."
I took the seat in front of him and nodded. "Yup, who knew all of that was happening in the background."
So many things happened in such a short period of time. At first we were just having fun drinking at the VIP bar, and then the attack happened. I dealt with some attackers myself, dealt with the Chaos Dragon, and then found out about Hinata.
Luminous explained everything to us, after which we interrogated Mariabell and Laplace.
It was hard to believe all that happened in a single night.
"Time travel, huh?" I can understand why Rimuru is so astonished even now. Time travel is something that's just that hard to wrap your head around.
Even I can't claim to fully understand it.
"What is your plan to deal with Yuuki?" Asked Rimuru.
"Hmm, once the Festival has fully wrapped up, while Yuuki and Mariabell are traveling back to their various locations, I plan for Mariabell to order Yuuki to come with her to have a discussion. Once they are at the location of my choosing, I'll show up and kill Yuuki."
I could also always wait until Yuuki arrived back at the Free Guild, use Time Stop, and quickly delete him from existence before vanishing, but this was personal. I wanted him to look me in the face, knowing I was killing him. I just didn't want to be an idiot about it and let him get away after all that, so I'd need to prepare.
Rimuru nodded while wincing slightly, ever the softy that he is. "You don't plan to kill Mariabell?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "She could be useful, but I won't go out of my way to protect her either."
"I see. Do you have a way around Anti-Skill?"
I shook my head. "Yeah I do, Yuuki won't cause me any problems, so you don't need to worry about that."
Rimuru nodded. "Do you have a plan on how to avoid any blame being placed on either of us? They likely won't blame you or I immediately due to there being no proof, but they might think it which could be problematic, it will be nearly right after the Founding Festival after all, there are bound to be some suspicions."
I bet Raphael is the one that brought that topic to the forefront of Rimuru's mind, Rimuru usually isn't very politically knowledgeable.
"Eh, I'll just frame it as an unfortunate Monster attack, or perhaps a Daemon attack. Perhaps I'll make it so that one of Mariabell's guards Summons a Daemon due to wanting revenge on Mariabell for some random reason I can make up."
That plan could backfire, some could just say that we sent the Monsters after Yuuki and Mariabell, or that I ordered the Daemon to attack them, both things I am capable of.
But then Luminous also offered to cover for me if I wanted her to. If the Western Holy Church declares something, most Human Kingdoms won't doubt a word of what they are saying.
"I'll have to fine tune the attack a bit, but I'm leaning towards a random Monster attack. It'll likely happen in Western Nations territory, those Humans are confident in their ability to detect any Daemon or Demon Lord that enters their territory, so they might just brush us off all together due to their arrogance."
The Western Nations don't know the true terror True Demon Lords can bring to bear, thinking their measly detection Barriers will alert them to our presence.
Yeah, I think that is what I will do. I'll have Mariabell call Yuuki to travel with her to a discreet location in the Western Nations to talk about something. Yuuki will be wary, he always seems to be, but from what I understand he will still be fairly confident in his ability to escape, so he will still accept Mariabell's request.
It will take some time to get to a good location, probably a few days in fact, travel by carriage is not very fast.
Perhaps I will grab a Dragon from the Caanat Mountains. I can place it under Spiritual Domination and have it stay in the area. I'll make sure to frame the scene so that it looks like the Dragon ate Yuuki's corpse as I plan to finish him off with Beelzebuth, but I can always use random Monsters for that too, it's not like Yuuki was widely recognized to be as strong as he really is.
They likely won't consider the possibility that I or Rimuru could be behind it, as if we were, why would we allow the Dragon or Monsters, whatever I decide to use to stay in the area, allowing whatever Knight Order that reaches the area first to have a way of tracking us down, at least a way of tracking us down in their eyes.
In reality if one of us wanted to hide our involvement, no Knight Order would be capable of tracking us.
Not to mention, Rimuru's so-called "friendship" with Yuuki is well known. Tempest and the Free Guild do have a healthy trading relationship after all, it is through the Free Guild that Tempest trades with the rest of the Western Nations, with the Free Guild sort of acting as a buffer between the Western Nations and Tempest, though that is bound to change after the Festival, many other Kingdoms are aware of what Tempest has to offer now.
Arcueid even informed me that some Nobles and Royals had personally met her in order to secure a future meeting about some of the goods my Kingdom sells.
Rimuru nodded. "I see, well then please do tell me when you plan to do this ambush of yours."
"Yeah, sure. You should speed up your plan to join the Council of the West. After Yuuki is dealt with you may have a harder time trading with the rest of the Western Nations, though that's unlikely with how interested some Kingdoms seem to be in the goods you produce now."
Rimuru nodded. "Yeah, but I still want to be safe. I'm going to either have to ask to join or wait for an invitation."
"Ah, I can probably help you with that. I can have Mariabell send back orders to allow you onto the Council of the West." I offered.
Rimuru nodded. "If you could do that, that would be great!"
"Yeah, I can do that."
"Thanks, Felix!"
"No problem, you owe me though, I'm expecting a five-course meal!"
"Haha, don't worry, I can do at least that much!"
"I'll be waiting then."
Rimuru nodded. "Now that almost everything is taken care of, we just have to wait I guess." Sighed Rimuru.
"Yup, we need to wait until Luminous gathers everything needed for this ritual of hers. She is far too prideful to take either of our help so I didn't even bother offering."
Rimuru nodded. "Right, I was thinking the same thing."
"Yeah, then after she has everything gathered, we can either place a ton of Barriers around wherever we unseal her, or perhaps I can take us to another Dimension."
"You're willing to tell Luminous about that!"
I nodded. "Yeah, I do trust her, I know she won't tell anyone so I think it's fine."
Rimuru shrugged his shoulders. "Alright then, it's your call."
"Hmm, I wish we could have dealt with Kagali, what a wasted opportunity." I sighed.
"Well she's in El Dorado, even if I want to deck Leon in the face, I know that a confrontation with him right now would not help at all." Said Rimuru.
"Yeah, you can't even go to the Free Guild Headquarters to see if she's back, as that may alert Yuuki that something is up. It would be pretty suspicious if you just went to the Free Guild right after all this happened in Tempest, and that too without even alerting him, he would definitely know that something is up. In the end we will probably have to deal with Kagali after dealing with Yuuki, and there is a good chance she will be bunkered up by then. We do know where their bases are thanks to Laplace so she shouldn't be difficult to deal with after Yuuki."
I was in no rush thanks to that, since we knew where their bases were. I could just send one of my subordinates to kidnap her after Yuuki is dealt with.
Of course that is under the assumption that Laplace knew the location of all the bases. If they aren't in any of the bases we know of we can figure something out later, in the end, Kagali isn't my main target.
I shrugged my shoulders. "At the very least, it isn't that big of a deal anyway, Kagali is pretty weak after all." I laughed out.
"You sound super arrogant right now Felix."
"Well, I'm strong enough to be arrogant!"
"Yeah yeah, I wonder what Luminous is going to be doing with Laplace." Rimuru asked, his face twisting slightly as his imagination began to run wild.
"Laplace huh? Well, I'm guessing she will use her newly acquired Ultimate Skill to hurt him a bit."
That was me putting it lightly. Luminous could cause Soul level pain with just her Unique Skill: Lust, with Asmodeus she could do so much more. She could basically rewrite the Soul entirely. It was a scary ability.
Of course, I did not think Luminous would do that to Laplace. We did need him in one piece, after all.
Laplace was relatively strong himself as well and may innately resist Luminous' changes, he did have about 1,000,000 Existence Points after all, higher than even what I had as a Daemon Duke. Well higher than what I had before I consumed Footman, after consuming Footman I gained a fairly large boost in power.
Though I expected no less from a True Hero, and even then I'm fairly certain he was weakened from his transformation into a Deathman, so he should have been even stronger in his prime.
Weakened as he was, his sheer experience made him a fairly bothersome foe to fight, Falsifier and Seer made for a good combination.
He could use Seer to look ahead and see if his Falsifier would work, and if it didn't he would try something else and repeat the process until something stuck.
All of a sudden I remembered something that Rimuru would need to take care of.
"Ah, by the way, I fought a group of Otherworlders, I ended up sparing the ones with the Locking Curse, I froze them with some Magic I had picked up in the past, but they are still alive if you want to free them from their Curse."
Rimuru's eyes widened. "Seriously?! That's great!"
I shrugged my shoulders. "I knew they were being forced to attack me since I could afford to spare them and I didn't have a reason to kill them. I just froze them and placed a Barrier around them to protect them from the fatal effects of my Magic."
"Alright, where exactly are they? I'll have somebody go and pick them up and transfer them to a secure location and then I'll free them of their Curse."
I told Rimuru where they were after which he sent off a quick Thought Communication.
Rimuru and I continued to talk for a few minutes before I decided to check in on everyone.
"Alright, I'm going to go check on the others now." I told Rimuru.
He nodded. "I'll do the same."
I snapped my fingers, removed the barrier around the room, and then teleported out.
- Kagali -
She sighed as she finally left El Dorado through a Warp Portal that she had set up beforehand, she was followed by Tear.
She disliked dealing with Leon Cromwell.
Thankfully she did not have to go into the Guild for the next week, she had taken a leave of absence in order to finish up moving all the important things to the new base Yuuki had her establish.
He thought it prudent to create a new base that Clayman had no idea about in case the Demon Lord Felix managed to gain some information from him. It was highly unlikely or else all of their bases would have been ransacked by now, but Yuuki was not one to be careless. They had no idea if Clayman left the locations of their bases in some paper he left in Jistav after all.
She planned to stay in hiding until Yuuki's return as well as Laplace's return. She knew there was a very low chance of something going wrong, but in case something happened her only protection was Tear.
While Tear was strong, many were stronger, she would have preferred to have Laplace with her, but he had a mission of his own to accomplish, so Kagali did not fault him for his absence.
She sighed as she took a seat on the couch. She could at least rest easy here, no one but her, Tear and Yuuki should know the location of this base, she trusted Tear with her life so she did not need to worry about betrayal from her.
She would have shared the information with Laplace, but Yuuki told her to wait until after the mission.
Kagali knew why as well, Yuuki had considered the possibility that Laplace may be captured. They were playing at the big table now after all, with Awakened Demon Lords one can never be too careful.
She would apologize to Laplace for keeping this secret when she met him next. She knew he would forgive her, but it still made her feel guilty.
Laplace should have finished his mission by now and should contact her soon once he felt he was safe enough, he would normally contact Yuuki as well, but Yuuki was unreachable currently due to being in Tempest.
Yuuki did not want to take any risks about being caught with his pants down as he said in Tempest, so he decided that Kagali would be responsible for coordinating with Laplace.
And so Kagali would wait.
- Felix -
I appeared in the home I had in Tempest.
" "Master!" "
" " My Lord! " "
"Felix-sama!"
All of a sudden I found myself being greeted by everyone.
I noticed Arcueid was here as well as Mariabell, I guess I didn't exactly tell Arcueid where to take Mariabell after showing her off, and she likely didn't want to bother me with a Thought Communication.
I took a look around the room and verified that everybody was okay, once that was done I greeted them. "Hey everyone, sorry for not checking in with you all in person earlier."
"If you were busy, Felix-sama then there is no need to apologize! Besides, it's not like those weaklings could cause us any trouble!"
I'm sure basically no one had a chance against Saeko when she has her bullshit Skill. She is even able to create an Anti-Magic Area but use her Skill so that it doesn't target her, giving her full access to all of her abilities while practically crippling her enemies.
Cook is scary.
I also noticed multiple people nodding their heads to Saeko's proclamation.
"Well, thanks for understanding then."
I continued to talk with everyone for a few hours before deciding to turn in for the night, I don't need sleep, but I sure as hell enjoy it.
I ended up storing Mariabell back in my Infinity Space for safe keeping, she had already played her part for the most part, she just had one more thing I needed her to do.
Tomorrow was probably going to be annoying. I'll join Rimuru in his meeting with Elmesia and Gazel as well as some other allies, of course I don't have to but why not help a friend out when I can?
As I was laying in bed I decided to ask Odin about the influx of Souls I had received throughout the night.
'Notice. The Souls the Master received are from his subordinates. As they collect Souls, those Souls are automatically transferred to the Master.'
Ah, that's right, that was the reason that those who are subordinates can't ascend into True Demon Lords, whenever they get a Soul they immediately lose it.
'The Master has approximately 4,853 Souls stored in Infinity Space.'
'What?! How do I have that many?!'
There sure as hell weren't that many attackers.
'Due to some Souls being far more powerful, Odin was able to approximate how many regular Human Souls there were.'
Ah, I see. Some of them were Enlightened, and so they had stronger Souls, and so each individual Soul of theirs was worth more.
'So Harvest Festivals work based on the total energy collected rather than the number of Souls then?'
'Correct.'
I see, the issue is that you do still need Souls for the Harvest Festival, as Souls contain the needed energy, it's just that you may need less Souls if you claim the Souls of stronger beings.
Theoretically one could have a Harvest Festival using a single Soul. They just need to use an extremely powerful Soul.
Good to know.
Before I fell asleep my thoughts wandered in another direction, to my alternate selves. I truly wonder what lives they had lived. Luminous had said that they were different but also the same, at least according to Chloe, and while Luminous had shared what she knew about my alternates, she didn't know all that much herself.
Chloe and Hinata were fairly tight-lipped about that, not that I could blame them.
I wonder what my other self got up to in the Cardinal World, he was around for years longer than I have been at this point. It would be pretty interesting to hear about my alternate's adventures.
I'd have to ask Hinata to share some stories with me when she is back.
And with that, I decided to sleep.
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I knocked on the door to my newest subordinate's room.
"Come in!"
I opened the door and was met with Sasha who was fixing up her hair with little to no success. It seems she was forever doomed to have messy hair.
"Ah! Lord Felix!"
I nodded to her. "Sasha."
"I apologize for the mess!" Hearing her I took a good look around the room, the bedsheets were messy, the blanket was on the floor, and one pillow was across the room.
Sasha's cheeks were glowing redder and redder the more I looked.
I sighed in exasperation. "It's fine Sasha, that's what maids are for after all." Though Raiden likely wasn't going to be the one to clean this up unless I directly ordered her to.
She was more my personal maid that saw to my personal needs rather than doing general cleaning and such. She trained other maids for that more basic stuff.
Of course I didn't need her all day and so she did have a fairly large amount of free time.
I snapped my fingers and quickly cleaned the room using various Magics, it required next to no effort for me so why not help out?
"Ah! You did not need to do that Lord Felix!"
I waved Sasha off. "It's fine."
For some reason, I heard her whispering about how Arcueid was going to have her Soul.
Weird, I must have misheard.
"I was just coming to check in on you, I assume you've met the rest of my subordinates right?"
Sasha nodded. "Yes, Miss Arcueid introduced me to in her own words everyone who matters and then also gave me a run down of what my role will be."
I nodded. "Good, I'll bring your mansions to my territory after some time, I have some things to sort out here."
Sasha nodded. "Thanks! It's still hard to believe that you can just teleport my mansion."
I shrugged my shoulders. "If you can't believe that then I'm sure you'll grow even more surprised over time."
Sasha rubbed her hands together. "Excellent!"
"Well then, if you need anything today, just talk to Arcueid."
For some reason when I mentioned Arcueid, Sasha seemed to get nervous, weird. But she nodded nonetheless. "Okay, thank you Lord Felix!"
I nodded and left the room.
Rimuru had informed me that the meeting with Gazel, Elmesia, and Youm would be in a couple of hours. It would be just us. Gazel, Elmesia, and Youm will not be bringing any guards or anything like that.
It's probably best that way; the things that will be discussed are best kept secret.
Rimuru had said that he invited Luminous but she rejected, saying she wished to remain in Ruberious, and holding the meeting there likely wouldn't go very well with the others.
My next stop was to the room I allowed Rain to use. I didn't bother knocking this time and just walked in, I wasn't all that surprised to find Rain laying down on the bed lazily.
She immediately noticed my presence and jumped slightly. "Lord Felix! What are you doing here!" Said Rain as she hurriedly fixed her outfit and stood up straight.
It seemed she was going to act like I didn't see her being a complete sloth, something I was fine with.
"I was coming to check in with you. When do you plan to return to the Ice Continent?"
Rain shrugged her shoulders. "In a few hours or so, why?"
"I was just asking. Ah, I wanted to thank you for your help last night." She didn't greet me like the rest of my subordinates last night, I'm not sure what she was up to at that time and I don't really care either.
"Ah, it's no problem, Lord Felix, uhm, but please do visit Lord Guy sometime… please!" Pleaded Rain.
Man, she really hates working huh?
"Alright, I already agreed to that, but I'll visit Guy sometime soon."
Rain gave me a happy smile as she thrust her arm up. "Victory!"
"You are a horrible maid." I sighed out.
Rain looked at me with shock written on her face. "What?! How could you say that?!"
I sighed once again and didn't bother to respond as I left the room.
I heard Rain yell from her room but she did not follow me thankfully.
I really feel bad for Guy, I don't think I could handle dealing with Rain on a daily basis. He really cursed himself by accepting her as a subordinate.
Uselessness aside, she was still strong, a Primordial Daemon Duke was a force to be feared for the majority of the world.
Only the extraordinary could afford to brush her off.
As she was she could likely deal with multiple Saints at once as long as they had no Ultimate Skills.
Now I have two more things to do, to fulfill the promise I made to Rimuru. I went back to my room and Summoned Mariabell from my Infinity Space.
"Mariabell."
She nodded. "Lord Felix."
She was still in her state of absolute obedience, but she kept her general personality as well as intelligence.She wasn't a hopeless doll like I made Laplace, as I had to take extreme measures for Laplace or he may have been able to resist my questioning or even feed me false information.
Sometimes wrong information can be more deadly than no information at all, Mariabell can attest to that with her failed plan for controlling me, a plan that was entirely based around false information.
Mariabell just wasn't capable of resisting me, she was basically the same person as she always was, she still had her desires and her dreams, it's just that I took priority over all of that.
Spiritual Domination is seriously an NTR Bastard Skill.
"Is it possible for you to get an invitation to the Council of the West sent to Tempest?" I didn't bother asking for one to be sent to my territory, I didn't really care to build closer ties to the West after all.
I had already inherited all of Clayman's trading relationships, numerous of them had been with Nations in the West that Arcueid was managing, I was fine with leaving it at that. Not to mention I am expecting more Nations to reach out after trying the alcohol served at the Festival since it was sourced from Azeroth.
If there is one thing that nobles love, it's luxury.
Mariabell nodded in response to my question. "Indeed it is easily doable. Would you like for me to send word to do so now?"
I nodded. "Yes."
Mariabell nodded. "Very well. Would it be possible to meet my guards and my attendant who accompanied me? They have the means of sending a message out."
Indeed, while Mariabell's main guard was the Adventurer Gaiye, she didn't come with just him. She had someone to drive her carriage as well as some extra guards and an attendant to take care of all of her needs.
Apparently Arcueid had Mariabell notify her cohorts that she would be staying with me in order to build a closer alliance. And since these were people in affiliation with the Rosso, they knew far more than most about the inner workings of the Western Nations, and so they saw no reason to be suspicious.
They likely thought that Mariabell had some blackmail over me and was extorting me, something I didn't mind.
And it's not like Mariabell was going to try and escape from my grasp, she might as well be considered my creature, she couldn't even think of such a thing.
I'd feel super put off about doing this to a child, thankfully Mariabell is no child.
"Yes, I'll have someone escort you to your group."
I could trust Raiden to follow my orders and not to stir up trouble, I have a feeling that if I sent Saeko things would not go nearly as smoothly.
Mariabell bowed. "Thank you Lord Felix."
"Raiden, are you busy?"
"Master, no, I am your personal maid. I am always available to fulfill your orders." Responded Raiden.
"Great, then can you escort Mariabell to her group? I need her to do something for me."
"As you wish Master. Do you wish for me to go now?" Asked Raiden
"If possible yes. Mariabell is with me so you can come to me and pick her up."
"Very well."
Moments after Raiden agreed she appeared in front of me and bowed. "Master."
I nodded. "Raiden." I then pointed at Mariabell. "That's the girl I want you to escort."
Raiden looked at Mariabell and nodded.
"Mariabell, follow Raiden's orders, got it?"
"As you wish, Lord Felix." She responded.
"Alright, I'll see you later, Raiden."
Raiden nodded and then disappeared in a burst of Lightning, taking Mariabell along with her. I'd normally be worried about Mariabell surviving traveling with Raiden, but I noticed Raiden placing a Multilayer Barrier on Mariabell just before leaving which will protect Mariabell from the worst of the effects of traveling at such high speeds with a normal squishy Human body.
With that done, I snapped my fingers and teleported to Milim's residence in Tempest.
"Ah, I was not expecting you, Felix." Said Frey.
For the duration of the Festival, all of Milim's subordinates that attended decided to stay in her home, so that was Frey, Middray, and Arc.
I gave a nod to Frey. "Frey. Is Milim here?"
She nodded. "Yes, she is lazing about in her room."
"Of course she is. Anyways, see you later." I waved Frey off as I made my way towards Milim's room.
I didn't bother knocking and just entered her room and was met with the sight of Milim laying on her bed with her feet hung in the air, waving about.
A well-known position that signifies that you have nothing to do.
Milim immediately stood up when I entered. "Ah! Felix!"
"Hey, Milim."
She gave me a pout. "I was waiting for you, you know!"
"Ehe, sorry about that. Things came up."
"Hmph! Fine, but you owe me candy."
I nodded. "Sure, sure, I'll give you some when we return to our territories."
Hearing me, a happy smile came to Milim's face. "Really! Awesome!"
"Have you just been in your room all day, doing nothing?"
Milim nodded. "Yup! After the attack, I didn't want to bug you or Rimuru, so I've just been hanging around."
"That's thoughtful, thanks Milim. But feel free to drop by at my place, I always have time for my bestie after all!" I declared.
Milim's eyes began to shine. "Really! Great!"
"Anyways, I stopped by to give you this." I said as I took out Gaia's egg from my Infinity Space.
Milim's gaze zeroed in on the egg as she carefully took it out of my hand and cradled it to her chest.
"When do you think it will hatch?" She asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. "No clue. It shouldn't be too long, though, you should probably just keep it with you."
Milim nodded. "Thank you, Felix."
"It's no problem Milim."
I hung out with Milim for a little bit before returning to my home.
Now, I had some time to kill until the meeting. I wanted to destress a bit, and I knew just what I wanted to do, or more specifically, who I wanted to do.
I walked forward and appeared in my favorite masochist's room by connecting the two Spaces so that when I walked forward, I walked into the Space that Lalatina's room occupied.
Spatial manipulation can be a ton of fun.
"Master!" Exclaimed Lalatina.
She already had a heavy blush on her face. "A-Are you here to use me~?!"
I smirked at her question. "Indeed, so strip."
She immediately complied, and I took a good look at her voluptuous body.
I truly love my life.
___________________________________________________________________
I slapped Lalatina's panty-clad ass causing her to moan slightly as I rose up off the bed. I killed a good few hours with Lalatina, the meeting should be starting any time now.
"Alright, I'm off Lalatina. Tell the others that I'll be back later." I already told them of the meeting, but having Lalatina let them know I have left doesn't hurt.
"Yes, Master~!"
I snapped my fingers quickly cleaning myself and getting rid of any sort of scent that lingered and then Summoned some clothing from my Infinity Space onto my body.
A white collared shirt with black pants, simple but comfortable while also not super casual.
I teleported myself to the place where the meeting would take place. It was ironically where Rimuru, Luminous, and I spoke yesterday.
Rimuru was already there waiting, as was Elmesia and Gazel. It seemed Youm had not arrived yet.
"Ah, Felix!" Greeted Rimuru.
I nodded to him. "Sup Rimuru." I then turned to Elmesia and Gazel. "Hello, you two."
Gazel greeted me first with a nod. "Lord Felix."
"Haha, no need to call me Lord Felix. You can just call me by my name."
Gazel nodded. "Felix, then."
Elmesia then greeted me. "Hello Felix, I'm not surprised that you don't seem to have any injuries after last night. I heard you took on the Chaos Dragon."
How'd she know that? I looked at Rimuru discreetly. He looked back at me sheepishly, so he spilled the beans on that, then, huh?
"I did with Milim's help, yes."
"I see. On behalf of Sorcerer's Dynasty Sarion, I sincerely thank you. Should you wish to visit Sarion or meet me at any time, you will be given the highest priority." Said Elmesia.
Ah, right, she would be grateful for that huh? Seeing as the Chaos Dragon, in her view, was likely responsible for her father's death, and it basically was. Not to mention it destroyed the original Elven Nation and crippled their numbers.
I'm fairly certain the only reason Elmesia became Empress was to take responsibility for the Elven race and keep them under control, she doesn't seem to be the type that vyes for power. Hell Sylvia might have pushed her to do it seeing what happened to the old Elven King, perhaps she didn't feel like she could trust the next Elven Ruler to properly guide the Elves, in that case who better to rule over the Elves than her daughter?
I noticed that Gazel was looking at Elmesia wide-eyed. Was she offering something special or something?
I looked at Gazel curiously, as if sensing my gaze he elaborated. "Even I have to wait up to 6 months to meet you Empress Elmesia!"
Elmesia looked at Gazel haughtily. "And?" That shut Gazel right up, damn, that's cold.
"I see. Well, thanks for that then."
Elmesia shook her head. "It is no problem, I would not be surprised if even my mother wished to meet you for your achievement. The Chaos Dragon is an enemy the Elves have always been fearful of due to its past deeds. I am sure having it taken care of will bring my mother some closure as well as reducing the fears of the common populace once it is known that the Chaos Dragon was in fact, not dead as it was believed."
"Sylvia, huh? I wouldn't be opposed to a meeting with her. In fact, after this meeting, I'm sure she will want to meet Rimuru and me even more."
Hearing me, Elmesia looked at me curiously. "Oh?"
"We'll talk about it later." I responded.
Elmesia nodded. "Very well."
"Ah, by the way, did you manage to free those Otherworlders I froze Rimuru?"
Rimuru nodded. "Yeah, I actually wanted to talk to you about that, apparently all of them seem to be very thankful to you and wanted to serve you, they even asked me in their own words to try and convince you to grant them the privilege of becoming your subordinates."
Huh, well, I didn't expect that. Honestly, I'm pretty surprised that they'd even want to become my subordinates. They saw my brutality when I dealt with those who were not under the Locking Curse. I literally blew someone up with Infinity, and sent another to outer space, along with a multitude of other things.
I don't really regret any of what I did, they attacked willingly, plus I got to enjoy myself a little bit and experiment with some of my abilities. I don't get many chances to use half of my fun abilities in combat since they won't really work on stronger opponents.
And above all, I am now a Daemon, my nature might as well match that at this point.
I'm not one to cling to my humanity like Rimuru. I practically embraced my Daemonhood and all the advantages it came with. I just make sure not to go overboard.
After all, being non-human doesn't make you bad or evil, even being a Daemon doesn't classify you as evil, Ingvild shows that, and even I don't see myself as evil. Hell, the Angels, the so-called good guys in most myths are well known as the bad guys in this world.
"Felix?" Ah, right, I forgot to answer Rimuru's question.
"Hmm, yeah, I guess that's fine. Can you send them to Arcuied later? I'll have her take care of everything."
I'll never say no to more subordinates as long as they can be trusted and aren't a pain to deal with.
Rimuru nodded. "Yeah, sure."
I'd rather not send my new subordinates to my territory until they are vetted by Arcueid, so I'll have to find some room for them. I can always ask Rimuru for more houses, but I already have a solution to that problem. Extending the Space available within a room is child's play to me so I can just turn a single room into a room that can house as many people as necessary.
Hell, I could make the interior of a tiny broom closet as large as an entire mansion if I wanted to.
Spatial Manipulation is handy like that.
It didn't take long for Youm to arrive. Once he did Shuna quickly served us tea and then left the room.
Once everyone was seated Rimuru spoke first. "First of all, I would like to thank everybody here for their help in dealing with last night's terrorist attack." Said Rimuru as he bowed.
"Ara, there is no need to bow Rimuru, we just did what was expected of us as allies. Normally we ourselves wouldn't be here to assist, but since we were attending as guests, we were able to lend more assistance than normal." Said Elmesia.
Gazel nodded. "Indeed, you have done good work here, Rimuru. It would be a shame to see it all go up in flames due to the greed of the few." Heh, Greed. Gazel has no clue just how accurate what he said was.
Youm chuckled lightly. "Well, I wasn't able to do much like the rest of you, but I hope Razen was still able to lend a hand here and there."
Rimuru nodded. "It is fine, Youm. Razen was more than useful."
With the thanks done, Rimuru took his seat.
"Are you aware of who was behind the attack?" Asked Gazel.
Rimuru nodded. "We are, and we have already dealt with the attackers or will soon deal with them."
Elmesia tilted her head. "Oh? May we know who was responsible for this attack?" She asked.
"I can tell you it was someone from the West. More information will have to wait until everything is dealt with, unfortunately."
Elmesia and Gazel both nodded. "Very well, that is fine. I assume it was that pesky Council of the West." Said Elmesia.
Rimuru kept his excellent poker face and didn't respond, but from the look on Elmesia's face, she knew she hit the mark.
"Did you need some food and supplies, Boss?" Asked Youm.
Rimuru shook his head. "No. Our supplies weren't hit too badly since we already had men stationed there, so we are not in need of much assistance there. But thank you for the offer, Youm. The Orcs should have already gotten to work on repairing the damage caused to Rimuru City." Rimuru said the last part while glaring in my direction.
I did cause a ton of destruction during my battle with those Otherworlders for fun using that Spatial Construct. I remember I destroyed a couple of buildings, but eh, the Orcs can fix it.
Youm nodded. "Very well then."
I decided to take a sip of my tea, I tilted it completely horizontally so I could drink from the straw. Normally the tea would have spilled already due to the way I was holding it, but thanks to Spatial Manipulation it just stayed in place.
I noticed Rimuru, Elmesia, Gazel, and Youm all staring at me.
"Seriously?" Said Rimuru.
"Ara, I was not expecting for one to use an Ultimate power for mere trivialities like that." Said Elmesia.
Ultimate power, huh? She's bringing it up now? It isn't that surprising that she picked up on my use of Ouroboros, she has an Ultimate Skill herself, so she could probably feel the way that Space behaved differently around me.
I directly manipulate the Laws governing the concept of Space, whereas Magic has to manipulate Space manually. I can just basically tell it what to do, and it will do it. I can bend the Laws of Space over my knee and spank it.
"I would not have referred to it as the ultimate power, but that is still incredibly impressive, Felix. Even my Court Mages would struggle to do such a thing with the casual ease you had displayed. While they do not specialize in Spatial Magic, that is still incredible." Said Gazel, who had awe written all over his face.
Seriously, this was enough to impress him? Some lousy ass Court Mages then. Though perhaps my standards are getting too high?
All of a sudden, Gazel's eyes widened. "Ultimate… power? That is how you referred to it as Empress Elmesia. Could it be….?"
Elmesia nodded with a satisfied smile. "Ara, I did not think that you would be aware of such a thing, but it is true, right Felix?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I have an Ultimate Skill." I saw no reason to hide such a fact, just knowing I had it, did nothing, they had no idea about my Skill's exact abilities or anything that could expose a potential weakness.
"An Ultimate Skill?!" Yelled Gazel, while Youm just looked clueless.
"A-Ah, pardon me, but what exactly is an Ultimate Skill?" Asked Youm.
Before Rimuru could answer, I cut him off. "Basically, the Laws of the World were established at the beginning of Creation, certain people have some Authority over these Laws of Creation. This Authority is basically what an Ultimate Skill is. It gives you the power to directly manipulate the Laws of Creation and bend them to your will. No Anti-Magic Area or anything similar can block these effects."
"Uhm, is that not what Magic does?" Asked Youm.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Sorta, while Magic can lightly manipulate the Laws of Creation by interfering with them using Magicules, you just generally won't reach the same level of ability as an Ultimate Skill through sheer Magic alone. You would need to manually understand whatever Law you are trying to manipulate and to manipulate on the level of an Ultimate Skill is practically impossible."
"I see, thank you, Lord Felix." Youm said with a thoughtful look on his face.
"So it's impossible, huh? I recall reading records of my grandfather, the True Ancestor of the Dwarves, that explained a bit about Ultimate Skills. He claimed to have had one." Muttered Gazel.
Huh, well, I didn't know that. The True Ancestor of the Dwarves had an Ultimate Skill, huh? I wonder how Luminous would feel about that.
"I didn't say it was completely impossible, just extremely difficult. I myself know a few Arts and Magics that are capable of being used on the Ultimate level."
Time Stop, Distortion Field, Dimension Fault, Melt Slash, and the various Secret Arts I know would all qualify.
Gazel nodded. "I hope you do not mind me asking, but how does one acquire an Ultimate Skill?"
"When a Unique Skill is taken beyond the limit, it can become an Ultimate Skill, though that is under the condition that one has a powerful enough Soul to house an Ultimate Skill. There is no surefire way to acquire an Ultimate Skill. It all depends on the person."
Gazel nodded. "I see, thank you, Felix."
"It's no problem."
I did enjoy teaching others, which is something I found out when teaching Hinata.
"If I continue to grow in swordsmanship, is it possible to defeat someone with an Ultimate Skill?" Asked Gazel.
"Yeah, it is. It will be incredibly difficult, but in the end, it all depends on willpower. However, it is also theoretically possible to be as effective as an Ultimate Skill as a Spiritual Lifeform as long as you use enough energy. Then there are things that can help you in such a fight, like becoming a Complete Saint, or acquiring God Grade Equipment."
Gazel laughed lightly at my words. "Not many can afford to speak of such Equipment so casually, Felix. My own blade is one passed down in the royal family and is classified as Legend Grade."
"Then perhaps it will evolve at some point then."
Gazel nodded.
I turned to Elmesia, who had brought up the topic. "I'm surprised you brought up Ultimate Skills. I would have thought you'd want to keep it a secret, keep one trump card to yourself." I wasn't going to let Elmesia get out of this unscathed, since she basically told Gazel I had an Ultimate Skill, I'll do the same.
"Even you, Empress Elmesia?!" Yelled Gazel.
"Hmph! My mother, Sylva El Ru, acquired her own Ultimate Skill long ago and informed me about them. After that, I began seeking the Ultimate power and eventually developed my own." Responded Elmesia.
Heh, I wonder how Luminous would feel if she knew that even Sylvia and Elmesia got an Ultimate Skill before her. She'd probably be annoyed.
"I see, and she isn't going to be upset that you shared that knowledge?"
"Ara, while I appreciate you looking out for me Felix, it is unneeded, in alliances like these one should share just as much information as they are receiving." She said.
"Alright, suit yourself."
I'll have to try to get Elmesia to use her Ultimate Skill in front of me at some point.
We all continued to talk about various topics, such as rebuilding Tempest, improving trade relationships, and all the other things that came with kingdom management.
I really should have had Arcueid come instead of me.
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Author's Note:
Hello everyone, this chapter was a bit of a buffer zone due to all the stuff that has happened and all the stuff that will soon happen.
Felix finally gets to relax after one hell of a night.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed, peace.
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