It was a new day and that meant having to get up and deal with the possible problems that would arrive soon. The alliances Artoria made, which basically all but guaranteed a war as soon as the news started spreading. If the economic reasons weren't enough, then stopping monsters from allying and threatening them was also going to be it. A visit from Gazel was also most likely going to happen. And Clayman was probably fumbling around trying to figure out what to do now that his tiny plan was starting to crumble.
Rimuru was still trying to get his head around how Artoria was able to secure alliances with two demon lords in just a couple of days, but he realized he couldn't do much about it now and just went with it. The one thing he was thankful for was the fact that she still considered his thoughts on this. All these alliances were basically going to happen, but at least he could still have his own thoughts on this.
Artoria in the meantime was sleeping while Rimuru was pondering. Shuna was awake trying to get up, but unfortunately or fortunately for her, she was being hugged too tight to get out of bed. Artoria had made herself perhaps a bit too comfortable.
'Isn't she used to getting up early?', Shuna thought to herself. She has heard stories of what Artoria would do and how she would wake up early almost every day, but it seems right now that wasn't the case.
She realized that if she wanted to get up, she would have to wake up Artoria in the process. Normally, she would just let her rest, but she had some important things to address today, considering that she left Rimuru in the dust without explaining much.
She shook and turned to pry herself off Artoria. She got herself off and when she was about to get off the bed, she felt her hand get grabbed. She looked back and saw Artoria was awake, but still bey sleepy.
"Where are you going?", Artoria asked, her eyes closed, sounding groggy. She would much rather be sleeping, but the feeling of Shuna missing woke her up.
"I'm getting ready for the day. You should get up to. You know you have to have a lot of things to talk about with Rimuru.".
"Do I have to? He can just do it himself, he has a super-intelligent being in his head that could do all the work for him.".
"Stop sounding like a child and just get up.".
Artoria let out a sigh, "Fine, I'll get up.".
'Good. Come on, let's eat something first.".
/\\//\\//\
Well, after a light(large) breakfast with Shuna, it was time for any updates on Rimuru's part. I entered his office and greeted him.
"What's up, Rimuru? Anything happen while I was gone? Anyone named 'Phobio' cause any trouble?". I decided to just ask the big questions to see what kind of actions to take.
"You're here. To answer your question, yes, someone named Phobio did cause some trouble. If wasn't for your warning I think he might have died. He punched Rigurd, but Milim decided to hit back with a 'proportional response'. If you hadn't confirmed an alliance with Carrion, she might have seen that as war or something. Luckily, I was able to stop her. Now he went off who knows where. What about you?".
'Hold on. I need to do something. Souei.". With a blur, Soeui appeared next to me kneeling on the ground.
"What can I do for you, Lady Pendragon?".
"I need you to follow Phobio and track his actions. Don't attack, this is just observation and information gathering. He'll most likely be visited by some powerful enemies. Whatever you do, don't engage. If you feel that you are compromised even if it's slightly, just retreat. Do you understand?'.
"Yes, Lady Pendragon.".
"Good. Now go.". With another blur, he left instantly to fulfill his mission. With this, I can use this as an excuse to attack and possibly kill those clowns. If anyone asks questions, just present them proof of it. Even if Souei doesn't bring back much, I already have the knowledge needed to go against them. I just have to "fake" it.
"Why did you send him to follow that guy?", Rimuru asked.
"You'll know soon. Just call it a feeling. He's going to do something stupid, but it'll give us the opportunity to take a lot of actions without too much questioning and scrutiny from our allies.".
"Alright. So, what were you doing that didn't make you focused on the alliances you dumped on me?".
"Well, first, I was sleeping with Shuna and second, it will take some time to explain a bit of what I learned. I assume you've had your guard up form the people that will investigate our town?".
I asked him, but he seemed to be looking at me king of weirdly. "You okay there, Rimuru?".
"Isn't that a bit too much information?".
"What do you mean? Do you not want to know?".
"I'm talking about you and Shuna and when you said you slept with her. That's personal stuff.".
"But I did sleep with her. She moved in with me. We sleep on the same bed together.".
He just looked at me with a deadpan expression. "You're messing with me aren't you?".
I had a small smile on my face. "I have no idea what you mean by that. What other meaning could it have?".
"Whatever. So what did you learn?".
"Alright, this is going to be a bit long so get comfortable.".
I told Rimuru what I learned, from the giant fish monster that would attack us. To the little group of Clayman, Milim, Frey, and Carrion that worked together to try to take over the forest. Well, not anymore at least, since they've all turned their back on Clayman. I wonder how he's feeling. Well, not my problem.
"So this Demon Lord Clayman guy is the one behind this?", RImuru asked after hearing what I told him. He's kind of right. At least in this specific scenario.
"It goes a tiny bit deeper, but yeah, pretty much. So we'll have to prepare to fight him in war. Oh yeah, speaking of war, we should also get ready to go to war with a human nation or two in the future.". I might as well get this out of the way. I know the attack on this town is almost an essential part of his growth, but I'm not going to let that happen. I need to drill into his head that while wanting to make a monster nation that could live harmoniously with humans, he needs to prepare to face the reality and obstacles that come with it.
"War! What do you mean? I can get my head around Clayman, but the human nations? That will go against what our goal is!".
"Let me explain, Rimuru. We're not invading them. They'll attack us first. First, the Kingdom of Falmuth. They have a trade monopoly because of all the travel between the Western Nations and Dwargon. This monster town we're creating will hinder the money they will receive and will attack to try to stop the threat.".
"Will they really do that? Can't we talk it out or something? It won't have to end up with war.".
"You're in dire need of a review of world history. There have been wars fought for much less. Moving on. The Western Holy Church. Their message is centered around being against monsters and all that stuff to put it simply. Now what will they do when they see a town of monsters gathered and not only that, a nation of monsters? Well, that's grounds for a holy war for them. It will 'threaten humanity' and whatnot. And when there's a common enemy, well, those two are going to team up to wipe us off the map and take any resources we have.".
"But we're allied with Milim. They wouldn't attack us. She's the best deterrent one could have.".
"That's true, but when they're desperate, they'll try anyway. Also, they'll be blinded by greed to actually put much thought into it. We're going to war eventually, Rimuru. You have to toughen yourself a bit. Mentally and physically. I assume Milim has told you about becoming a demon lord yourself?".
"Yeah, she did.". Rimuru was sitting there thinking. He must be taking into account everything I said. Probably running it by Great Sgae to see what it thinks. I don't know how it calculates percentages, but it should tell Rimuru that there's basically a guaranteed chance something like that will happen.
"If I did become a demon lord, what would I need?".
"You're halfway there already. You have a demon lord seed after consuming the Orc Disaster Geld. All you need now is some souls.".
"What kind of souls and how many souls?".
"I'll be blunt. If you want to evolve the fastest, you will need around 10,000 human souls or the equivalent. As long whatever soul you use has a certain level of self-recognition it will count towards the soul energy you need to evolve. That or you can just ask Milim to give you the souls if you're too against harvesting the souls of humans and whatnot. I would highly recommend just doing it. Trust me, you will need the power in the future.".
"I'll think about it. So, if war was going to break out, do you think we would be ready?".
"Absolutely. If needed, I can lead our troops and it will be a massive victory for us. The holy church is the one that will give the most trouble but it's nothing we can't handle.".
Just thinking about who they will be messing with almost makes me feel sorry for them. Almost. The fight would be more unfair than Meta Knight in Super Smash Bros Brawl.
Actually, that might be going a bit too far, but the point stands.
"But that's for the future, Rimuru. Right now, we need to focus on Clayman.". I told him to get him out of his thoughts. While we should pay attention to the future, we shouldn't worry about it. That will only affect us negatively.
"You seem to know a lot, so what do you know about Clayman?".
"He's a big liar. If BS was electricity, then Clayman would be a power station. I wouldn't believe anything his tongue says even if it was notarized.".
Rimuru looked around confused. "What? Does that we should be cautious around him?"
I let out a small chuckle at that. "Individually, he's weak. He's a wannabe puppet master. I can tear him up like wrapping paper on Christmas morning. Don't worry about him.
Rimuru was trying to think of something, but he just gave up. He let out a sigh. "Whatever you say then. I need to think about some things you said.".
"Anyway, Clayman is no problem, it's the connections he has that we have to worry about. We can talk more later, there's someone coming to meet us.". I could sense some pegasus knights making their way here. It was Gazel.