(Kingdom of Englassia)
It's been a few weeks ever since Rimuru became a teacher for Shizu's students. They were a handful at first, but now they were good kids. Though he was their teacher, he was babysitting them more than teaching them. He still hasn't saved them. He wants to take them out under the impression of a field trip, but it's too soon for that right now. He still needs to build up more trust to get permission for that.
Speaking of that. There was Yuuki, Grandmaster of the Free Guild. He tried, he really tried, but when remembering what Atoria told him about Yuuki, he just couldn't shake it off. That stuff about him looking an anime villain, was just a joke, something silly, but he just couldn't get it out of his mind. It was probably the dumbest way to judge if someone was "bad" or "evil", but it somehow worked with him. It was almost too spot on.
Rimuru was walking through the halls of the school where he became a teacher. Things had been going sort of smoothly, but he was wondering what was going back in Tempest.
"Did you hear about demon lord Clayman? We're just getting the information that something happened.", One of the faculty of the school whispered to someone else.
Rimuru stopped as he heard the faculty whispering to someone else. 'Clayman? That's that demon lord guy that has something against us.', Rimuru thought to himself as he kept listening in. He was pretending to be busy with something else as he listened to them.
"I heard he got into a war or some kind of conflict. I'm not sure, but I think these are just rumors for now."
'WHAT! Don't tell me she actually went and did it!', Rimuru shouted in his mind in shock. He knew these weren't just rumors. One thing he caught on to, was the timing of this. They just now got the information and it's been a a few weeks. This could mean stuff has already moved on.
'I-I'll think on this later, I have a class to go teach.'
/\\//\\//\
(A few days later)
Falmuth is probably less prepared than I remember. They think we're still busy handling the aftermath of the fight with Clayman. Apparently, they plan on sending a smaller force thinking they can just waltz in and take advantage for some easy and swift victory along with help from some holy knights to counter the monsters.
They think they can do what we did to Clayman but to us. Unfortunately for them, they're not like us.
All that's left to do is wait. I've told Souei to just keep them on track with their current plan for invasion and to keep sending more information to us. This will end faster than what happened with Clayman. The only problem I could see would be the holy knights and their holy field, but that's really easy to take care of. They need to set up crystals or something to cover an area large enough. Yeah, they won't even be able to set those up. Hold on, I can already see a plan forming. Oh yeah, those holy knights won't even know what hit them. We'll attack them first without them even knowing it. This is going to be the biggest sabotage yet.
"Souei.", I called out and with a blur, he appeared in front if me. This was a clone, not a servant.
"How can I be of service?".
"How good are your infiltration skills? Specifically, are they good enough to sneak some people into Falmuth's army and have them think they're normal?".
"Yes."
A smile made its way onto my face. "Good. Let me give you a quick run down of my plan."
/\\//\\//\
(A few weeks later)
This was too easy. We have their war plans, strategies, personnel, and so much more. Either I overestimated Falmuth's security or Soeui is just that good. I'll go with the latter. He was having a field day over there.
While I was looking over all the information in an office, Souei appeared next to me. "My Lady, Youm and his group have returned. They've brought along another person with them as well."
Ah, it seems she's here. We won't have to worry about her spying anymore. "I'll go meet with them. Also, keep an eye on the new person until I say so. Just to be safe.".
"As you say.", Soeui said as he disappeared with another blur.
I got up and went out to meet Youm and his group. It wasn't hard to find them and it seemed they'd already been here for some time. They were all in the bar I had ordered to be built. I guess it's more of a bar and lounge type of thing, but it hardly makes a difference.
Making my way to the bar, I saw the sign for the name of the place, "Longhorn Lounge.", I may be a bit biased, but I think it's a cool name. Anyway, I entered the place and it was a nice-looking place. It was nothing overly fancy or anything like that. I wanted to be a place where everyone and anyone could enter and feel a part of it without feeling out of place. Just have to make sure to avoid that one floor piece.
I quickly found Youm and his group. They were spread out on many tables, but Youm and Mjurran were sitting together. They were having a good time, so I greeted them. "Hey Youm, it seems you're back and with someone new. Mind if I join y'all?"
Youm was a bit surprised to see me, but he brushed it off quickly. "Lady Pendragon! I don't mind at all. There's actually some stuff I've heard recently."
I sat down at an empty seat at the table. Before I could say anything though, a goblina came up to me with a smile. "Lady Pendragon, welcome! Would you like to see a menu?"
"Thank you, but I don't need it. I already know what I want.", after saying that, the goblina took out a piece of paper and got ready to write down what I wanted. "I want a 32-ounce porterhouse steak, medium-rare. A 32-ounce tomahawk steak, medium-rare. 2 16-ounce sirloin steaks, both medium rare. A rack of ribs. A side of mac and cheese with bacon bits in it. A side of a loaded baked potato and loaded baked sweet potato. For desert, I want peach cobbler, pecan pie, and cornbread. For the drinks, I want sweet tea and a bottle of whiskey. Make sure to bring a cup as well."
The goblina was writing down my order very fast. So fast you would think smoke was being produced. When she finished, she gave me a smile. "I have it written down, Lady Pendragon, I'll make sure to get your food ou as fast as possible!", with that, she left.
I looked back at Youm and Mjurran who were looking at me in pure shock. I wonder why.
"Well, while we wait, tell me about your new companion."
"Uh…um,,y-yeah…I-I met her while we were spreading word about defeating the orc lord. I have to say aren't you worried about gaining any wei-OW!", Youm shouted in pain at the end there. I could see it was Mjurran that did something to him. Either they're that close already or Mjurran took pity on him, fearing how I would react.
"You okay, Youm?"
"I'm fine, nothing is wrong with me.", Youm got his breath back together and moved on to another subject. "By the way, I heard some things while I was traveling. There's been some rumors about you being at war or something with demon lord Clayman.".
I saw Mjurran look closely at me. She probably wanted answers or some kind of closure. I might as well tell him. It's old news anyway.
"Yeah, we did go to war with him. Though calling it a war would be a stretch, but yeah, we did,", when I finished talking to them, the food I ordered arrived. I ignored their surprised faces since there was something more important to focus on right now.
This time it was Mjurran who spoke to me. "I assume Clayman is dead?".
"Yeah, he's dead. I'm the one that killed him. It wasn't much of a fight though. We did find out some interesting things after he died. Including someone he sent on an information-gathering mission. Someone who is a witch", I saw Mjurran flinch a little at what I said. I decided to just come out and say it.
"It's you, Mjurran. I already know, so don't pretend. Don't worry, I wont do anything to you.", I told her as I ate my food. It was super delicious and tasty. Those chefs know what they're doing.
"Does that make you uncomfortable? I've been treated differently for bening a witch. Are you like those people?". Mjurran asked me with clear worry in her voice.
"Nah, I'm not and nobody here will care either. Trust me when I say this, Mjurran, I know a certain thing about a witch. You could even call her a witch queen, but don't worry about that. The person I'm talking about won't show up in any shape or form.", Mjuraan looked much more relieved after that. "But I will place you under observation in the meantime. I know you'll understand."
"Yes, that's fine with me."
"Ok, cool. Now get out of that gloomy mood. You're a free person now, you should be celebrating."
/\\//\\//\
After explaining a few more things to Youm we parted ways. Anyway, we were now prepared for Falmuth. I got some people together and explained the plan. Soeui was the linchpin for this whole operation we would do. He would be the one to signal the start of our counterattack. Our plan was simple but effective. They were literally going to be walking into a death trap.
First, we would let them gain some land with no resistance, making them think that things were going well, and then things go downhill for them very fast. Also, we can say we are defending ourselves from an attack. It'll at least look better that way. Anyway, Soeui has already replaced some of Falmuth's army as well as the holy knights with some of his servants. It's not a lot of them, but they make up for it in strength. What really matters is that they cause chaos and confusion in their ranks.
Second, once they're all scrambling about trying to figure out what's happening, that's when we jump in. And I mean everyone, or mostly everyone. I won't be fighting, but I will be observing. The biggest problem would be Razen, but he's not all that, just send Shion to him and he'll be done for. Well, when I think about it, I could just send Shion out for all our problems. I would say she can't do it alone, but she kinda can. I would call it unfair, but it's a war, so yeah.
Whatever, I just have to keep everyone on alert. With the constant stream of information we get from Souei, we basically have a live view of their movements.
I hope Rimuru is ready for his fight with Hinata. He better win or at the bare minimum be able to escape. And when I mean escape, I don't mean escaping while on the verge of death.
/\\//\\//\
(Kingdom of Englassia)
Rimuru had gotten everything wrapped up with the students. He saved their lives using spirits. Some weird things happened when he took them to the labyrinth. First, there was the spirit with Chloe, which was all kinds of weird. Even Ramiris, the spirit queen, was freaking out about it, saying that is was from the future and was associated with time.
There was also the light spirit that said that Kenya had the potential to be a hero, which made him wonder something. If Artoria was a divine spirit, she should be able to make people heroes, right? He'll have to ask her later, she should know more about that stuff.
Anyway, his time as a teacher was up and he was getting ready to leave. He had given them gifts, even giving away Shizu's mask to Chloe, but he did notice that she was looking at him differently. He couldn't say anything definitive, but he thought it was nothing. Maybe it was his emotions of having to part from them, but he'll make sure to get them to visit his town in the future.
After saying his goodbyes, Rimuru departed on his way home. He was definitely going to talk to Artoria about Clayman. He needed it explained to him from the beginning.
[Warning. You are currently in a holy field. You are being slightly affected, but nothing that should concern you. The alignment field you were in during your training had more of an effect on you.]
Rimuru stopped and looked around. He looked at the sky and saw a transparent barrier around him.
'Master, I don't feel so well.'
'Just get back in my shadow, Ranga. I'll take care of this.'
Ranga sank into Rimuru's shadow, while he kept observing what was happening.
'Raphael, can't you just analyze this barrier and destroy it? I know you don't have the best track record with barriers, but I'm sure you can do something about this one.'
[...The barrier made by Artoria seems to function differently from normal barriers. If you can touch the barrier and use Beelzebub, it will be no problem.]
'You mean the holy field or Artoria's barrier?'
[...The holy field]
Rimuru cleared up some questions about the way Raphael was talking to him. Raphael seemed to be annoyed or something, but he put that question away.
[Warning. Someone is approaching your location.]
Rimuru looked around and saw a figure in white approaching him. She had black hair and a cold, indifferent look on her face. She had a rapier equipped, clearly intent on attacking him right then and there.
"This is the day you'll die slime."
Rimuru didn't waste a moment and took out his sword. He'd prefer trying to talk this out, but it was clear that wasn't going to happen. He'd have to converse while fighting.
'Hold on a second. I'm fighting in a barrier that is supposed to make me weaker and my opponent has a rapier to attack me with.', Rimuru's eyes widened as he started coming to the realization of the situation he was in. 'Did she know about this already? No time to think. If it's anything like the training, I'll just assume that seven-hit thing is for real this time. Raphael, use the training session with Artoria to help with this fight.'
[Understood]
'Oh man, please let this fight be easier than the training.'