A few days have gone by since then and things have been normal..ish. As normal as it can get with Milim staying here. She's actually been learning some stuff at a good pace. Her handwriting is a lot better, even if it wasn't too good to begin with. But progress is progress. Of course, she needed to eat a lot of food to keep her motivated.
I had Rimuru help me out with this a bit. I asked him or his Great Sage to make some beginner books about basic management and things to help her manage her nation. It was fun, to be honest. The faces she would make when she was trying hard to understand something and her faces when she had a "eureka" moment when she grasped a concept were fun to see.
It was only how to manage her own territory. I believe it's more important to focus on domestic development, before getting involved with other nations. As for foreign policy, I don't think she needs it. If she wants to declare something about another nation, what can they do? She's Milim, that's all the foreign policy you need.
Of course, Shuna helped me a lot with this. The number of "Milim-related incidents" is a lot lower than what would've been normal., which mostly means a lot less broken doors. Shuna was like a mastermind at controlling Milim and what she did. She was fun to hang around with and play with sometimes. She would even stay in our house when it was time to sleep. Point is, we have built a strong connection with her.
It's truly wonderful. She's learning stuff and all we have to do is feed her some food. We're pulling the wool over her eyes, into being more responsible, as leader at least. I like Milim when she's childish.
/\\//\\//\
'Those chumps. They don't know I'm pulling the wool over their eyes. All I have to do is spend a couple of hours reading and they give me free and delicious food! Especially, the pecan pie that Artoria serves me. It has to be the most delicious thing ever made!'.
Milim was overjoyed at the moment while thinking to herself. She much rather prefers Artoria and Shuna compared to Rimuru. She remembers that Rimuru would try to feed her vegetables saying that she needs to "balance her diet",...whatever that means, but whenever that would happen, Artoria would swoop in and give her something else much more tastier, while eating the vegetables that should have gone to her.
"Keep this a secret from Shuna and Rimuru and I'll give you some more stuff, alright?". That's what Artoria told her while she winked at her during a meeting she was attending. She was very grateful that Artoria would sacrifice herself like that for her. Why did she ask to keep it a secret from Rimuru and Shuna? She doesn't know, but won't tell anyone as long as she gets more stuff.
/\\//\\//\
"Alright, Milim, let's see the document.". I was in a little office or meeting room that had been turned into a little pseudo classroom or learning environment. This was Milim's "final exam", to put it. I had her write up an official document that would ally our nations. If it met my standard, then with Rimuru's or Great Sage's help it would get more polished. After that, we write our own and then we sign, and voila, The Jura-Tempest Federation and the City of the Forgotten Dragon are formally allied nations that will shock the entire world and put multiple eyes on us from many people good and bad.
So yeah, no big deal.
Milim finished and handed me the document she finished writing. I have to commend her effort here, she wrote a couple of pages. This deserves an entire pecan pie if she does well on this.
While I was looking through the document and reading it, I noticed her expectant eyes. She looked nervous, I don't know if it was because she was nervous she wouldn't pass or if it was because she probably wouldn't get food. I'm leaving toward the second option.
After reading the document, I placed it back down in front of her. I looked her in the eyes, my face showing no emotion or any identifier that could give away my answer. Milim was looking more nervous as the seconds that felt like hours passed by. I kind of felt bad.
After a few seconds, I showed a small smile. MIlim saw it and she also happily smiled back, her eyes getting wide.
"Congratulations, Milim, you passed.". Milim started jumping around celebrating and screaming. We high-fived each other and I went to a desk and unwrapped three boxes. They were pecan pie. I gave all three to her as a reward for passing.
"Alright, Milim, enjoy this moment. I'll take this to Rimuru and then we'll have a meeting to discuss this alright?".
She just nodded while absolutely devouring the pies. Good for her.
I went outside and there was a goblina waiting patiently outside. "There might be a mess inside. So just prepare yourself.".
"You don't need to worry, Lady Pendragon, It's my duty.".
"Ok, you have a nice day.".
/\\//\\//\
Rimuru was in an office looking at a bunch of reports. He was just checking through it approving certain things and denying other things. He looked at one report about farming and their food and noticed something weird.
'Great Sage, what exactly am I looking at here?'.
[Answer. This is a report that shows the distribution of food.]
'No. I know that. I mean, what is this part here that says 'personal consumption'?'.
[Answer. That part shows the percentage of food that shows how much someone eats.]
'But isn't that what the other part called 'consumption' is supposed to show? Why does 'personal consumption' have its own section and why is it 7%?'.
[Answer. That is an increase of 2% from last time.]
'This was on other reports?'.
[Answer. The percentage was a negligible amount last time.]
'I don't think 5% is negligible. So who are the people responsible for this?'.
[Answer. It is most likely only one individual. The most likely individual is Artoria. The increase came after Milim started staying here.]
'You're joking, right? How can she alone be responsible for consuming 7% of the food we make?'
Rimuru's thinking was cut short when he heard the door open. He looked up and saw Artoria coming in with a document.
"Good news, Rimuru. We are now allied with the City of the Forgotten Dragon or Milim's Domain. Well, not officially, but we're allied in all but paper. Come on, we're going to have a meeting to make this whole thing official. Milim will be there to".
"So it actually worked? Milim was able to learn about how to manage her territory and stuff?", Rimuru asked her in a skeptical tone. He tried to control Milim, but he didn't have any luck. When it was Artoria or Shuna or both handling Milim they seemed to make it look easy. Whatever they were doing it worked, but whenever he did something it didn't.
"Oh come on, Rimuru, she's a smart kid. She can learn this stuff. Just gotta give her the right motivation. Let's go, we need to make this official, I've already called a some people.".
'Kid? How close is she to her?' Rimuru thought to himself.
"Wait, when did you call everyone.".
"After Milim finished writing up an official document. Your Great Sage will help in cleaning it up.".
"Why not just have Great Sage do it all?".
"She needs to learn to do it herself. We can't always be there to do everything for her. I know she said she'll be staying here, but do you really think she can actually do that? She needs to go back to her domain eventually. For whatever reason she needs to.".
"Alright, I'll be there."
"Good.".
Artoria ended the conversation and started walking away. Rimuru remembered something and just had to ask her a question.
"Wait, Artoria. I was looking at some food reports and saw that 7% was accounted for by 'personal consumption'. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?".
Artoria stopped in her tracks and stood still, her back facing Rimuru. She said nothing for a few seconds. Rimuru was starting to wonder if something was up, but before he could say anything, Artoria spoke up.
"Let's just go to the meeting, Rimuru.", Artoria said while quickly leaving the place without seeming too rushed.
"Hey! You can't just leave without answering me!". Unfortunately, his pleas fell on deaf ears.
/\\//\\//\
The meeting went…well. I think. Many of the people present there were unsure of how to react. The most pressing topic was the attention of other demon lords. Honestly, we only had to worry about one of them.
Guy Crimson. The one that wants to get it on with Leon. At least, that's what I remember him for. He has other pretty important stuff I'm sure, but it's whatever.
I just calmed everyone down about that. In fact, Milim said herself that the demon lords targeting us were nothing worth mentioning. Which raised a whole bunch of more concerns and questions. Main point was that a group of demon lords were aiming for us.
Oh man, this goes so much deeper than just a few demon lords coming at us. This is just one step in a massive web of conspiracies and planning that has been going on for a long time behind the scenes.
Hmm. I wonder what I could possibly do. It's not like I can throw massive wrenches into the plans of everyone involved and destroy years of planning with a couple of moves. Nah, there's no way I would do that...but it would be a real shame if I did.
Hah! Just kidding. Allying with Milim is only a big part of this whole thing. After this, I plan to contact Frey and take away her fear of Charybdis being revived, or at least, not take whatever deal Clayman was going to offer her.
As for Carrion, he's kinda cool. I don't see anything to change there. They'll probably still end up joining Milim and merging their territories, but I don't know. I'll see what happens.
Anyway, Milim…sort of spilled the beans about Clayman, Frey, and Carrion. Some people were mad, like Benimaru. Souei was about ready to leave and start investigating as soon as he heard the news, but I stopped him from doing so.
I just told everyone to relax and that panicking wasn't going to fix anything. We need to approach this rationally and calmly and not let emotion influence us too much. We can worry about other things first. No need to tackle it all at once. It's better if we do it in parts.
Anyway, the meeting went on and it became official on paper that the Jura-Tempest Federation and the City of the Forgotten Dragon were allies. There were a lot of things covered, but the main one was about food and agriculture. Milim really wanted some of the things that made our food delicious. The technology behind that kind of stuff and whatnot. She was almost desperate for it.
All that's left is for Milim to announce it to her nation which she would return for a little bit so she could do it. In fact, she wanted me to go with her. I decided to accept. It won't take too long and I could probably give a few more lessons for her.
With that, the meeting came to an end.
/\\//\\//\
"Do you have a jack?".
"Go fish.".
Milim grumbled as she picked up a card. Yup, we're playing Go Fish. She wanted to even our little score, but she wasn't having any luck.
Since it was my turn, I told her, "Do you have any jacks?".
Milim knew she was busted. She gave me her jack and I placed down my set of jacks clearing all the cards in my hand resulting in me winning the game.
"Looks like I win, MIlim. Better luck next time.".
"No fair!", Milim shouted as she threw her cards in the air and slumped over the table.
"Don't make a mess, Milim. You're going to pick that up. I'll give you some pecan pie if you do.".
She instantly started to pick up all the cards. I don't know if I'm tricking her or if she's tricking me into giving her food. Eh, doesn't matter either way. If she is, we're both getting what we want.
Shuna came in and told me something exciting.
"Artoria, the cathedral has been completed. Geld is asking for you to be present for your announcement and celebration of the completion.".
"Oh, thank you, Shuna. Let's go. Do you want to come with us, MIlim?".
"Yeah! What are you going to tell everyone?", Milim said while she was still cleaning up.
"I'm going to announce that I'm a goddess and start building a faith in the place. Kind of like your Dragon Faithful that worships you.".
"Oh, those guys.".
"It won't be like that, Milim. I don't plan on being super strict or anything like that with this religion stuff. Come on, you'll see what I mean.".