What was that supposed to mean? I wanted to press her for details, but— "H-Hey! What's Guy doing here?!"
Ramiris spotted Guy and immediately started making a huge fuss.
"Oh? What about you—why are you here?
Last I checked, you were living in the Spirit Sanctuary of the Urgrascia Republic, weren't you?"
"Heh heh! You still think I'm some shut-in freeloader?
I work too, you know! I make tons of money now, and I've even got people working for me!"
"What did you say?!"
Guy's expression turned bewildered at Ramiris's brazen boasting.
To think Ramiris could throw Guy off his composure—impressive.
Guy glanced my way, so I briefly explained that Ramiris had started working here.
"So that's the situation—she's been helping us out with various things."
"See! I told you so!"
Hiding behind my head, Ramiris threw shadow-boxing poses at Guy with little "whoosh whoosh" sounds, preening with pride.
I didn't really mind, but I wished she'd stop using me as a human shield.
"Ha! You've worked a bit and already you're full of yourself.
The Demon Lord Lonely running a hiring operation?
Now that's a good joke!"
Provoked by Guy's taunts— "What did you say?!!"
Ramiris launched her signature dropkick.
Naturally, she didn't land a single hit and was caught effortlessly.
It was endearing, but now wasn't the time.
"Wait, wait—never mind that. It's Veldora.
What do you mean he headed to Luminas's place?"
I retrieved the upside-down, flailing Ramiris from Guy and posed the question.
With Ramiris being the type who could only think about one thing at a time, I had to ask the important stuff first.
"Oh, right!
Master and I were observing what was going on in various places, when suddenly he switched the view and looked all panicked...
Then he yelled 'I must go save Luminas!' and flew off.
But I wasn't even watching the screen showing Luminas's area... so why did he do that?"
Typical Ramiris—utterly unreliable when it came to grasping the situation.
The only certainty was that Veldora had headed toward Luminas's location.
I was wondering what to do when— "My, my? That boy ran away, did he?
After I came all the way here to see him..."
A voice cold enough to freeze you to the bone echoed through the room.
Without a single trace of presence, a woman opened the door and walked in.
Skin white as snow. Eyes glimmering with an eerie, deep-sea hue.
A stunningly beautiful woman—almost shockingly so.
However, her beauty was doll-like, devoid of any sense of being alive.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Demon Lord Rimuru.
My name is
You may know me as the 'White Ice Dragon' Velzard.
I am Veldora's older sister."
She introduced herself and gave an elegant bow.
Veldora's sister? That meant this beautiful woman was also a
Veldora had only recently mastered the ability to suppress his Demon Aura perfectly, but this woman was doing it completely naturally. The fact that she gave off absolutely zero presence spoke volumes about the height of her control.
If she hadn't told me, I never would have realized she was a True Dragon.
Of course, the sheer dominance radiating from her made it impossible to mistake her for an ordinary being.
"Ah, I'm Rimuru. I suppose I'm a Demon Lord too, in my own way."
After introducing myself, I asked
Shuna handled it without batting an eye—completely composed.
No, it wasn't just Shuna. Every servant carrying out their duties treated the guest no differently from usual, performing their work with practiced calm.
They were true professionals.
"How cruel of you, Guy. Leaving me behind like that."
"Ahaha. My bad. You were never good at flying, were you?"
"It's not that I'm bad at it—it's that you're simply too fast."
"Hmm. Well, no big deal. You knew where I was going, didn't you?"
"Still, if you were going to summon
"Now that you mention it, true. Well, it was nice to get some exercise for once, right?"
"Forget it."
With an exasperated sigh, Velzard elegantly settled into a chair.
She seemed to savor the scent of the wood, looking quite satisfied.
The soft sofas were nice too, but the wooden chairs that seemed to embrace you weren't half bad either.
Surrounded by the forest, it gave one the feeling of being one with nature.
After sipping the tea Shuna brought over, she let out a breath.
"Still... there was no reason for that boy to run away."
I didn't think Veldora would flee, but now that I thought about it, he had been reluctant to go to the continent where demons dwelled.
He'd made excuses about it being cold, but since he didn't actually feel the cold, that had struck me as odd.
"Wait—do you guys live somewhere cold? Like the northern continent?"
"Hm? Yeah, we live in what they call the Frozen Continent—a land of extreme cold.
The temperature is even worse there since I don't suppress my magicules.
It was already frigid, but now it's become virtually uninhabitable for any living creature."
That clinched it.
Veldora must have been afraid of his sister, Velzard.
He'd probably caught sight of her on the surveillance magic and fled in a panic.
It didn't suit him, but having an older sister you couldn't stand—I had a friend just like that.
"That guy's a tyrant..."
He'd muttered that with a knowing look.
Maybe it was a universal thing, even among True Dragons.
For the record, I had nothing to do with the heated competition of mutual suffering between people with younger sisters. I only had a brother. My takeaway was that it was probably the same either way.
"Veldora might be afraid of you, Velzard."
I offered this casually, and she responded: "Oh my? I raised that boy from the moment he was born, running wild as he was.
I'd stop him in his tracks and calm him down, drag him back whenever he was causing havoc.
He couldn't even take human form—the little disaster—and every time he rampaged too far, I'd have to clean up after him..."
She spoke at length about all the "incidents" from the past, clearly under the impression she'd been doing him a tremendous favor.
That was absolutely the cause.
Judging from her account, Velzard's ability was of the "stopping" type—extremely effective against Veldora's "active" type.
In other words, his natural predator.
No wonder he'd run without a second thought, even if she hadn't done anything this time.
I was surprised that Veldora—the most confident, fearless Veldora—had something he was afraid of. Or rather, an older sister. Strictly speaking, they weren't blood-related, but still.
After that, I spent a pleasant while listening to Velzard's stories and chatting with Guy.
Ramiris had gotten her cake and was in high spirits, chatting amicably with Velzard.
Velzard seemed to enjoy the cake as well.
When I mentioned teaching Misery and the others the recipe, she responded with a smile: "Oh my. Guy actually does something thoughtful once in a while, doesn't he?
Please do help with training our maids."
At that point, it was impossible to refuse.
If I did, I'd probably awaken something even more dangerous than Guy.
I listened to Ramiris recount her boasts to Guy, correcting the exaggerated parts, and spent a surprisingly tranquil time.
Since enough time had passed, I decided to promote Misery and Hillary through their Harvest Festival evolution before I forgot.
They'd insisted it could only be done with the Gluttonous King Beelzebuth's ability, so if I quietly gave them a few extra souls without mentioning it, nobody would be the wiser.
I decided to take a page from Wisdom King Raphael's bold approach and carry on with confidence.
It seemed that giving each of them just over 90,000 was enough to trigger their evolution.
As expected of Raphael—the reading was spot on.
This left me with roughly 520,000 souls remaining.
I could now afford to evolve those who hadn't been promoted by this round of rewards.
I'd been worried about what would happen when Guy showed up, but in the end we'd managed to establish friendly relations, so I could call it a success.
"I appreciate everything. Now these three should actually be useful.
Well, if anything comes up, let me know. I'll cooperate within reason."
"Yeah, thanks. Same goes for you—if you need anything, just ask. I'll help however I can."
Guy and I exchanged promises of mutual aid and parted ways.
Well, technically we were connected by a Gate, so coming and went was easy enough.
In fact, I'd gone over there briefly just to make sure.
Now I could teleport directly to Guy's castle as well.
Being able to teleport to any place you'd visited—that was the goal, and it was why I planned to travel to various locations. These incremental efforts were necessary.
Upper-level beings could teleport, but ordinary people couldn't.
Someday I wanted to set up Teleportation Relay Magic Circles between key facilities at the very least.
And so, Guy's visit came to an end.
A trivial detail, but Guy ended up eating five slices of cake.
I'd note that at this rate, he'd probably show up again before long.
Maybe serving Japanese sweets next time would be interesting.
After Guy left, I went to check on Testa and her two companions.
They looked thoroughly wrung out and wilted.
*'We are so sorry!'* All three bowed their heads in unison, but their injuries seemed to be fine.
A relief.
I promptly gave them souls and had them undergo their Harvest Festival evolution.
Geld and Adalman had declined on their own, so they should wait for the next opportunity.
There was no way to justify giving out rewards to those who hadn't contributed anything.
In contrast, Testa and the other two had performed well. I'd only made them wait because of my own schedule, so there was no issue.
Having them under my direct authority also made things convenient.
So I went ahead with their promotion, and they evolved into Devil Kings.
Same as Misery and the others.
In other words, they had become the highest-ranking among those demons who held peerage titles.
Even among Sovereigns, there was apparently a difference depending on the level of peerage.
In any case, all three had successfully completed their evolution to the highest rank.
I'd discovered that if they layered their ability effects onto magic effects like Guy did, they could even pierce multiple barriers.
The three of them were, in a sense, survivors who'd been baptized by the strongest being—Guy herself—and lived to tell the tale.
They were fired up, declaring that the next time they fought Guy, they'd be strong enough to serve as Lady Rimuru's shield.
They would have grown reasonably strong on their own through
Battle with a powerful foe—it seemed to affect not just human spirits, but the souls of demons as well.
Pulled along by their evolution, the Greater Demon Generals also advanced to Demon Dukes.
The peerage hierarchy ended up as: Duke-class:
There were also several at the Greater Demon General level, equivalent to knights, but the remaining 600 or so stayed as Greater Demons.
They didn't have names, and the boost to our fighting force wasn't particularly dramatic.
However, since they'd been incarnated into Cultivated Demon Dolls, they were somewhat stronger than normal.
Given time, some of them would surely prove useful.
For now, as my direct subordinates, they could do whatever they liked—whether maintaining order or training—and since they could teleport, I figured I'd scatter them across the world to gather intelligence.
In any case, things had turned out well.
The Empire's airship fleet should arrive in Luminas's territory by tomorrow.
I intended to have everything prepared so I could send reinforcements at a moment's notice.
The demons adapted remarkably well to the Harvest Festival—it seemed they had a strong resistance to the process.
Incarnation into the Cultivated capsules was progressing smoothly as well, and by tomorrow, magicans with Greater Demon-level or higher abilities should be born.
Thanks to the souls I'd gotten from Guy—or rather, stolen from him—we'd achieved a significant boost in fighting power. Looking at the results, I had to say things had turned out very well.
After telling Testa and the others to rest, I inspected the situation and returned to the command room.
The position of the Empire's airship fleet was on schedule—there shouldn't be any issues until at least tomorrow afternoon.
Just to be safe, I should notify Luminas that Veldora had headed her way. Just as I was thinking that— The scene appeared on one of the large screens displaying surveillance magic.
Veldora, flying at supersonic speeds, was crossing paths on a trajectory that would put him on a direct collision course with the Empire's airship fleet.
The view was from high altitude, making his flight path easy to predict.
At this rate, he'd engage them in less than an hour.
"What are you doing...
That man..."
My words echoed hollowly through the empty command room.
--- Veldora soared through the sky at over a dozen times the speed of sound.
For the first time in ages, he'd shed his cramped humanoid form and reverted to his true dragon shape, feeling absolutely wonderful.
But regardless of his mood, the reason behind this transformation was anything but pleasant.
He was fleeing from his sister.
Velzard—his older sister—was the one being Veldora could truly call his natural predator.
Ability-wise, she was an overwhelmingly unfavorable matchup.
Moreover, she'd been born earlier and surpassed him in every respect—power, magicule quantity, all of it.
Even fighting seriously, defeating her was nearly impossible.
In the few times Veldora had challenged her since his birth, he'd been beaten back every single time.
Velzard's "Frozen World" served as both an impenetrable defense and a weapon to seal Veldora's movements.
Tempest, destruction, erosion, annihilation—all his effects were stripped away before absolute stasis.
Perhaps he could put up a better fight now, but testing it would be premature.
After all, once he'd gained mastery over his own magicule control, he'd realized that Velzard could suppress her magicule emissions with near-perfect precision.
Her ability was specialized in "stopping kinetic energy," which certainly contributed, but it was undeniable proof of her immense capability.
Even as his sister, she was no ordinary being—Veldora remained vigilant.
"Bwahahaha! The time to fight has not yet come!"
Leaving behind a cool parting line far in his wake, Veldora continued his high-speed flight.
Ahead of him, an encounter with the Empire's airship fleet awaited—whether by fate or coincidence, no one could say.
But among those ships, one carried
Two True Dragons would cross paths, and the first battle between True Dragons in millennia was about to erupt.