Two weeks had passed since Youm and the others arrived.
The highway was progressing smoothly.
Contrary to expectations, the Border Defense Force members were working hard.
In fact, they were getting along well with the Ogres manning the town's defenses.
The monsters in town were following the rules I'd laid out and were surprisingly friendly toward humans.
The defense force members didn't look down on anyone for being a monster, and seemed to interact with them casually.
They were said to have been roughneck rogues in the past, but people really can change when given the chance.
Maybe Youm had some kind of aura that drew people to him.
He certainly seemed to possess genuine leadership ability.
Perhaps it was because both sides had a will to build a cooperative relationship, but the division of labor came together more smoothly than anyone expected.
The goblin wolf warriors handled security and patrols around the town, but they had far more forces than they currently needed.
Because of this, when the Border Defense Force deployed in response to requests from surrounding villages, about ten goblin wolf warriors would tag along as support.
The goblins seemed to welcome this—it was exactly what they'd hoped for.
The defense force, for their part, refused to simply sit back and receive help. They taught the goblins group combat tactics, swordsmanship, and various other personal martial arts.
Among these, the survival techniques and their unique recipes proved especially popular.
The goblins' food options weren't exactly diverse, so this was much appreciated.
And so, a bond of mutual trust was gradually forged between the two groups.
Once that trust had been established, they made something that was less a proposal and more a request.
They wanted us to maintain their equipment. It had apparently been bothering them that our monsters clearly had superior gear.
"In the first place, it's totally unfair that monsters get to wear high-end equipment!"
That was what one of their members said, but it seemed to voice the sentiment of all of them.
I agreed.
We'd brought dwarves in as technical consultants, and they'd already begun producing equipment that exceeded even my expectations.
"Heh heh! Well sure—our dwarven weapons and armor are top-notch!"
"But wait, hold on... why is even Master Garum here in this town? That's the weird part!"
Kabal chimed in with his own puzzlement.
Garum was one of the finest armor craftsmen among the dwarves. Kaijin the blacksmith was skilled in his own right, and now we also had Kurobei, a true master artisan.
The level of weapons and armor in this town was on par with the royal capital.
Moreover,
Without even thinking about it, anyone could see the exceptional quality of this town's equipment.
If we advertised it, plenty of people would want to buy—but we couldn't put it up for sale. The equipment for the Ogre corps was still far from complete, and since they needed so many sets, it was quite the undertaking.
Kurobei did have a copy of the Unique Skill "Researcher," but without also using the Great Sage, it took a long time.
It was faster than handcrafting, but it didn't help much with just one person working alone.
So instead, we had promising young craftsmen working as apprentices, and everything was being produced in the workshop.
Eventually, some of those young apprentices might become proper craftsmen themselves.
Thinking about it that way, I believed this approach was better for the long run than leaving everything to a single artisan.
"Come on, what's the big deal! I'll happily take time to do some maintenance for you!"
Kaijin accepted the request casually.
He probably intended to use the maintenance as part of training for his subordinates—kill two birds with one stone.
He might look like a soft touch, but he was no fool.
"Whoa! You're the best, Kaijin! You're a man of the word!"
"Hey, is that really okay?!"
"Then count me in too!"
The goblins erupted in cheers.
It was reassuring to see them getting along so well.
Thud. Squelch. Crack. Bam!
Accompanying those sounds, the four of us lay battered on the ground.
That would be myself,
"Wahahaha! Useless, useless, useless!"
The one cackling overhead was, naturally, Demon Lord Milim.
We'd all four gone at her together, but it was no contest.
Her fists were fitted with Dragon Knuckles—her standard equipment. She'd even kept them on during meals, and when I'd gotten angry and told her to take them off, she'd pouted at me.
Was I in the wrong? No, I think getting angry there was perfectly justified.
This time, though, I was glad she had them on.
During training, I strictly asked her to wear them. Mealtimes were different.
Every day as part of our afternoon routine, we'd been serving as Milim's sparring partners.
Against someone as absurdly strong as Milim, one-on-one was laughable. So we fought her four-on-one every single time.
Her power was off the charts. Her movement was borderline cheating. Her stamina was bottomless.
Thank goodness she wasn't our enemy.
The only one who could properly exchange blows with her was Hakuro. Unfortunately, none of Hakuro's attacks actually landed, but the fact that he could dodge at all was impressive enough.
The pressure I'd felt during my match with the Dwarven King versus the pressure I'd felt from Milim.
Interestingly, they were completely different in nature. Getting beaten this badly one-sidedly had actually helped me understand that.
If I'd activated the Great Sage's automatic countermeasure during the match with the Dwarven King, I might have won.
But against Milim, it would be meaningless. This wasn't something that could be settled with clever tricks.
Strength took many forms—that was the lesson.
Three rounds every day. Thanks to this, everyone had grown dramatically stronger compared to two weeks ago.
Hakuro had been assigned the role of referee. In truth, his technique was already perfected—there wasn't much room left for him to improve.
It was precisely because we were all still so lacking in technique that we'd been able to grow so much over these two weeks.
"You're all getting pretty good! At this rate, if Rimuru said he wanted to become a Demon Lord, I wouldn't even object!"
Milim said that cheerfully.
I had zero intention of becoming a Demon Lord!
Besides, today the four of us hadn't even lasted twenty minutes. That was pathetic.
Calling myself a Demon Lord under these circumstances would be a joke.
Benimaru, Souei, and Shion resumed their training under Hakuro's instruction.
They were full of energy.
As I watched them train, a thought suddenly crossed my mind.
"Hey, Milim, how come you became a Demon Lord?"
I'd been curious, so I just came out and asked.
"Hmm... why was that, I wonder? Something really irritating happened, and I got fed up and... just kind of became one?"
"Asking me doesn't really help..."
"Yeah. I can't really remember. It was so long ago, I forgot!"
Somehow, Milim looked as if the memory brought up something unpleasant—something she didn't want to recall.
"I see. Well, if you've forgotten, then there's no need to remember."
She had the appearance of a child, but inside she was a bonafide Demon Lord.
From what I'd heard, even the younger Demon Lords had been born around two hundred years ago.
One of them was my enemy,
There were several other Demon Lords said to be on the younger side, but the benchmark was whether or not they'd lived through the great war five hundred years ago.
Milim was apparently one of the veteran Demon Lords.
That meant she had lived for an astonishingly long time.
Maybe she hadn't even had friends. With such an impossibly long lifespan, she would have outlived everyone she grew close to...
"Hey, do you have any family—or, well, anyone who might be worried about you?
You've been staying here the whole time. Don't you need to contact anyone?"
I suddenly felt concerned and asked.
And then— "Oh!!! I forgot about that! You're right... I should go check in for a bit!
It might take a while. But at the latest, I'll come back in two or three years!"
She blurted that out suddenly.
"What? That's awfully abrupt. You mean right now?"
"Mm, yes. Well, it's not like this means we'll never see each other again! I'm heading out!"
Saying that, she switched into a gothic dress in the blink of an eye.
It was some convenient magic called "Wardrobe Change" or something.
I'd been taught it too, but since I could do it naturally, I didn't find it particularly useful.
It was apparently a great spell for anyone with lots of equipment, though you first needed to learn Spatial Magic to store your gear, so the difficulty was surprisingly high.
Once she'd finished changing, Milim turned to me, smiled, and said simply— "Well then, I'm off!"
With that, she took to the sky.
Just like when she'd arrived—without leaving behind so much as a sound or a shockwave, she vanished at speeds beyond the speed of sound.
"Huh? Milim-sama, did she go somewhere?"
Shion asked.
"Mm. She apparently remembered something she had to do. She said she'd be back in two or three years at the latest."
"Two or three years? She sure left casually enough, but that's quite a while."
"But when you're that long-lived, two or three years probably feels like two or three days, right?"
"That's true!"
"Maybe she just went to show off her outfit and Dragon Knuckles to her friends..."
The Ogrekin all nodded at Shion's quiet remark.
That did seem likely.
If she was going around bragging to acquaintances all over the world, two or three years might be just about right.
I could practically picture the scene—whether I was right or not, that was the explanation we all settled on.
Sentimentality didn't suit Milim.
Even so, the moment she was gone, it felt surprisingly lonely. After only about two weeks, she'd really grown on us.
She was a strange Demon Lord.
But I couldn't afford to stay mopey.
With Milim gone, this was actually a chance.
I should go check out the human town while I had the opportunity. I'd scout things out, and if it looked safe, I'd bring Milim along next time.
A proper reconnaissance was essential.
The trio had apparently planned to stay for about two weeks, and they'd been sneaking around collecting monster parts the whole time.
They said these served as proof of subjugation. But was this kind of cheating really okay for them?
Well, it wasn't my problem. In exchange for keeping quiet, I'd have them guide me through town instead.
"So, I'm counting on you for the guided tour."
When I said that, their faces went rigid— "Of course, Boss!"
"Naturally, we'll show you around! Want to see the capital while we're at it?"
"The back alleys are loaded with secrets!"
They took the job on enthusiastically.
I'd leave it to them.
We were set to depart in two days.
When I told
Using the Magic Circle, we headed to Gabiru's location, where I was shown the storage facility for the finished medium-grade Recovery Potions.
"Oh, Rimuru-sama! We've been expecting you!"
"Well, well, Rimuru-dono! This is a truly magnificent environment!"
At the facility, Vester was completely absorbed in his research.
Unlike Kaijin, who had to oversee the overall operation, Vester could focus purely on research.
This place must have been like heaven for him.
"Are you eating properly? And are you actually sleeping?"
I asked, worried.
"Of course, no need to worry! The food here is simple, but once you get used to it, it's quite delicious.
I've been eating every meal properly.
I've been cutting into sleep time a bit, but I had a simple bed set up here.
It's actually nice to push yourself and sleep as little as possible!"
That's not nice at all...
I thought that, but since it was his own choice, I merely told him to take things in moderation.
"Which is more efficient—having Kurobei copy the recipe, or mass-producing here?"
When I asked, he replied: "The mass-production speed here will likely be faster.
We don't have much equipment yet, but once we increase the manpower and facilities, we won't need to rely on Kurobei-dono."
The bottleneck was that growing Hippokute herbs itself took time, so I shouldn't expect miraculous production speeds.
"Then should I allocate about five researchers here?"
"Let me think... At first we'll need time for training, so ten would be ideal.
I'd like to use the people trained here to teach successors later."
The current production speed was one Recovery
I could do it instantly myself, but I wasn't going to. I wanted everything to be possible without me.
I made it a habit to leave these things to everyone except in emergencies.
Each finished Recovery Potion was diluted into twenty medium-grade Recovery Potions using magic "Membrane Creation"—that was Vester's job.
Since it was tough for one person, Gabiru and the others were helping out.
Now that they'd become Dragonewts, they could handle simple magic.
If three of them could replace one Vester, that would triple the output.
One Recovery Potion per hour—meaning twenty medium-grade Recovery Potions. Working eight hours a day, they could stockpile about one hundred and sixty.
I could call that a solid production system.
Once the young ones were trained, Vester could hand off the menial work and focus entirely on research. It made sense.
I approved and told Rigurd to take note.
Currently, Vester was working day and night, and eighty medium-grade Recovery Potions had been stockpiled.
The town needed some reserves, so I pulled five hundred from storage and stowed them in my stomach.
I planned to sell these in town and use the proceeds to buy Magic Stones and other supplies.
I'd need to sit down with Kaijin and decide on a price.
"Then I'll continue to count on you. Vester, don't push yourself too hard!"
"Leave it to me! This Gabiru will work himself to the bone!"
"Then please see to the matter of the ten researchers!"
I was seen off and left the area.
Afterward, I held a meeting with Kaijin to set the minimum price for medium-grade Recovery Potions.
Low-grade Recovery Potions were essentially what passed for standard potions in this world, and they went for three silver coins on the market.
Surprisingly expensive. For most people, a day's earnings could be wiped out just buying potions.
But they could heal injuries up to twenty percent, which was significant even for serious wounds.
The beginner-level Recovery Magic only restored about ten percent at best, and in emergencies, people had no choice but to buy potions.
Medium-grade Recovery Potions had more than double the effectiveness—healing fifty percent since they were high quality. So what price should we set?
"Listen, Boss. Double the price would be too cheap. Fifteen silver coins minimum.
These aren't for beginners to buy. We're targeting B-rank adventurers and above.
It's better to sell them on the pricier side. If we can, let's aim for twenty silver coins."
Kaijin made his case passionately.
He had a point. These potions were extremely convenient, and even if we got flooded with bulk orders at a low price, it would be a problem.
If we didn't make a profit, we couldn't buy Magic Stones, and twenty silver coins was reasonable.
Maybe I'd even put out one or two of my own handcrafted Recovery Potions as a display piece.
I agreed, and the meeting concluded.
Everything was ready.
The next morning, I met up with the trio.
They'd finished their preparations and were waiting for me.
Taking the highway would lead us to the Farmus Kingdom—Youm's homeland—which meant entering a barony.
The baron was said to be a greedy man, so I'd rather avoid that.
Instead, we'd cut through the forest.
Our first destination was the small kingdom of Blumund.
I intended to meet with the Free Guild's Guild Master and discuss our plans going forward.
It had been over a year since I was reincarnated in this world.
I was finally ready to head toward a human town.