We appear back in Tempest and walk outside. As we do this a certain annoying little fairy flies around us at incredible speeds. While arriving sooner than originally is good in the long run, giving us more time to set up the Labyrinth, this might get annoying given how I'm the one in charge of her.
She zooms around my head, "So, where will my Labyrinth go!? Is it going to be a big place!? Of course it'll be big right!? Of course only something magnificent would befit a great Demon Lord like me!"
I look behind us. Treyni is happily smiling as she watches this. With the look of a mother that gives her kid way too much freedom she follows her movements with her head, given her eyes are closed. She really is clueless to Ramiris' antics, isn't she?
{Answer- Yes.}
So you aren't immune to my annoyance either aren't you? I look at Rimuru and Beretta. At least those two aren't like that. Rimuru looks at Ramiris with a little worry in his eyes. A little of my aura is beginning to escape as the non-stop questions continue to pile up. Beretta on the other hand is panicking. He knows what the worst case scenario here is. He thoroughly apologizes for Ramiris' behavior.
We eventually make it to the center of the city of Rimuru. This is where the monsters would originally be waiting for Rimuru's return. In the original, through Veldora, Diablo was able to prepare a welcoming party for Rimuru's success. This time, while they are still ready in excitement, it ends up being nowhere near as well prepared. Diablo couldn't get the information needed to do this in this timeline so the welcoming is less organized.
The first to react to our arrival is Rigurd. He runs at us full speed with tears in his eyes. "My lords! Welcome back! I hope everything went well for you!"
Rimuru laughs as he responds, "Ha, yeah, it went great. We had fun." He looks over at me, "Some had a little more fun than others though. Haha!"
I smile evilly, "Aw come on. No need to get hung up over that Rimuru. He got what he deserved." Naive Rimuru. He's a bit too nice and optimistic. Realistically this is the only weakness the people of this world have on him given how power obviously isn't something many can surpass him in. He thinks what I did to Clayman was going too far apparently. I don't see why. He tried to kill us and worse than that, torture Milim.
Rigurd looks at Ramiris who stopped zooming around and sat on Treyni's shoulder as soon as Rigurd ran up to us. He's about to ask when I say, "No need to hesitate. She decided to stay in Tempest for some reason so I accepted. I have a plan for her that will bring Tempest great fortune in the future."
"I-I see." He thinks about my possible ideas in his head as he leads us to where the rest of the monsters are standing, waiting for our reports. Diablo is heard in the background, praising Rimuru and welcoming us. He congratulated us for our safe return as we walk past with the two Archdemons behind him bowing, not even daring to look up at us. That must be Diablo's work with how they're acting.
As I see this I decide to let Ranryo out. I look at him carefully. He doesn't seem too aggressive. Recently Rimuru has said that Ranryo's behavior has gotten worse. Apparently it has something to do with his evolution into a Rogue Tempest Wolf. A Tempest Wolf that defected completely from his old pack. This problem apparently also happened in Rimuru's fight with what could be called Clayman's minions. I say minions but they were really just slaves forced to fight to the death for him.
While I believe in Rimuru, not only can I sense Ranryo's defiant nature but he is also my brother now. Kind of bad to just completely dismiss his warnings and concerns. However, given how he's hiding it from me I know it only happens when I'm not there. Because of this I'll just keep him around more. Evolving during the fight might have made things easier on me in the long run but, I can't really say it's working out too well now. At least his relationship with Ranga is decent. Their leader-subordinate relationship is over, both of them being the same size now, unlike before where Ranryo was a little smaller. But that wasn't where their relationship ended. They were rivals as well. He still respects Ranga a little.
As I think about this I hear a loud yell. It seems that a Hobgoblin must have gone to report to Veldora because he runs out full speed from Rimuru's house a decent distance away and gets to the center of the city before Rimuru can even react. He yells, "Eeeh?! You're already back?! B-but, what about my big hero moment?!" We deadpan. "I-I was supposed to save you at the last second?! Like in the sacred texts! What happened to that?! I thought..."
I walk up to him with a serious expression and cut him off. "I told you not to get your hopes up. We aren't weak. We can fight for ourselves, you know."
"B-but, but, but..." His eyes are filled with disappointment. He drops down. "I was supposed to be the hero."
[Solomon]?
{Notice- Ultimate Skill [Judas] subskill [Apex Predator] has been opened.}
I pull out what I brought for Veldora to shut him up. "Here you go."
I see him wipe off some tears like a child, "What might that be?"
He grabs the food and wine while I cross my arms. "It's some of the food they gave us in the banquet, I knew you would be like this so I decided to bring this to apologize."
He looks at the food with a little drool pulling out of the side of his mouth. He looks away while he wipes it off, "I-I guess I'll accept it. But don't get the wrong idea, you still owe me. You got that?"
I look at him with a deadpan expression, "Uh-hu, yeah, sure. Whatever you say you tsundragon."
"What was that?"
"Ignore what I said."
He moves on and points at Rimuru. "Oh, one more thing! Rimuru!" He runs over to him as he sinks in a little embarrassment. He points at a manga volume he brought with him for some reason, well, actually no, I know exactly why he brought it. "What is this?! Where's the newest volume?! What happens to Pai and Yakumo?! Why did you do this to me?!"
Rimuru tries to explain that it was a joke as Veldora's rage continues. So this is the fabled walking disaster Veldora huh?" I snicker a little. I notice the manga volume Veldora has in his hand. "Interesting, I've seen that manga before in my old world." Like I've continuously theorized, his Earth is just mine without Tensura in it. Because of that I've read a lot of what he's read as well. I produce the next volume and hand it to Veldora. "Here you go."
"Eh?" He looks at what I have in my hand. His angry expression goes away and is replaced with a wide smile. He snatches it from my hand, "Thanks Migeru! You're a real lifesaver!" For what? Giving you a manga.
{Answer- That is most likely subject Veldora's...}
Rhetorical question, [Solomon]. Giving him the manga doesn't save Rimuru though because Veldora immediately goes back to asking Rimuru why he would do something so "cruel." He left him on a cliffhanger apparently. Well, competing from someone who's dealt with that before, I can relate a little.
I turn around and let Rimuru face the wrath of an angry otaku alone. "Alright Ramiris, I know you're excited about your new home but I might be a little busy for a few days. We'll talk about this later, you can stay with Veldora..."
"Eh?!" Rimuru overheard me. Veldora is staying in Rimuru's house until he can live on his own. He couldn't exactly stay in my house. It's full of fragile equipment. One of the perks of being the more intelligent brother. I can say he'll damage my work.
Ramiris looks a little sad. "Why?"
"He's your master right? I think if that's the case then you should probably get to know him a little more right? And here's something you might be interested in..." I get up close to her ear but it's more like her whole body, "Veldora has a really big manga collection in his room."
She jumps up, "I understand! Let's go!"
I turn to Beretta, "I trust you to make sure she doesn't destroy my brother's house okay."
He bows, "I understand." Treyni pouts a little, must be because I only ask Beretta this kind of stuff.
"Great." I laugh a little. To be honest I expect her to break at least one thing. That's why these 2 parts of the property damage trio, the other one is Milim, are going to stay with Rimuru.
I excuse myself and walk away. After a short walk I make it to my lab. Posted outside I see Gobzi. "You all are looking well. Hmm, and Kevin, not bad."
{Analysis complete- Subject Kevin unlocked the Unique Skill [Nonchalant Murderer].}
Must have something to do with what happened back in the fight against the Farmus invasion. He was just standing there, surrounded by dead bodies with a calm expression and no wounds to speak of. He is noticeably stronger than before and seems to have become a Goblin General like Gobzi was before. Gobzi on the other hand is now a Goblin Major. Is he just gonna climb up military ranks or something?
{Answer- No, the next evolution is...}
No spoilers. Gobzi is somehow evolving while staying a Hobgoblin. I asked him about this once and apparently he's reached the point of evolving but is refusing to become an Ogre for some reason so the Voice of the World just found a different goblin related evolution path instead. He's comparable to a weak Kijin in his current maximum state right now with all his skills active. Not gonna lie, his evolution path is pretty crazy. His muscles are swollen to another level looking like they're about to burst, like Rigurd but much crazier with a lower jaw that has two large almost tusk-like canines that come up.
He walks up to me, "Welcome back Lord Migeru. I hope your trip went well."
"Thanks. It did go pretty good."
"I'm glad."
"Thanks, well, see ya later. I've got some stuff to do right now."
"I understand."
"Alright then." I walk inside my lab. There I find Vesta. "Oh, hello Vesta."
He turns around, "Oh, welcome back Lord Migeru."
"Thanks. Um, I've got something to ask and it's pretty important so I'll be in my office for a while. I would like you to tell anyone who comes see me to wait alright?"
He bows, "I understand. I'll see to it that any people looking for you receive your message."
"Great! Thank you Vesta. Oh, what's that?"
He's carrying some lab equipment to a large almost futuristic contraption he made using research I did with [Great Sage] a while back. He turns to me, "Oh, this? It's just a new experiment. I'm looking to surpass the Full Potion and recreate the miraculous potions from before the Great War."
"Oh, those? Cool. I wish you luck."
"I appreciate your best wishes."
He runs over and sets up his experiment as I open the door to my office. I open the drawers storing my plans for the Tenma War and bring out a small stack of papers. The Tenma War is an interesting future event to tackle. It's a whole different beast compared to everything else. Reason being I don't have much information about when it will happen in this timeline.
It won't happen at the same time it did in canon due to my inventions. They will no doubt speed up the imaginary countdown as some of my inventions border on modern levels of advancement. However, I can't predict it 100 percent like the rest of the events. There's not a set number to predict it with so I can only prepare. That's why the Tempest Slime Corps is so useful. Tempest can't really be caught off guard with an army consisting of Demon Seed level soldiers who don't need to sleep protecting it. But of course, you can never be too careful. That's why I'm still making more preparations.
Pulling out two papers I start writing down my plans for two new inventions that will definitely change the course of history. These plans may speed up the Tenma War timer even more but I know they will definitely be well worth it.
With the titling of inventions 132-2 and 193-1 the weapon that would soon be regarded as the deadliest weapon to ever exist and the secret weapon responsible for Tempest's future unchallengeable power so great that it would be forced to take measures that would weaken its power to lower the concerns of every other nation, friendly or not, finally entered their draft stage.