6 Surprising Visitors

As they entered the government office, what awaited them was the king, Marx, and multiple large stacks of papers, each about half a meter high. The office itself was spacious, as it had a comfortable sofa, multiple desks and chairs, a few closets, and could comfortably fit about ten people in the room. The fact that it still felt cramped with only the five of them there showed the sheer amount of paperwork that was gathered.

The king truly spared no effort in getting every relevant document of their current situation they could find in order to claw themselves out of this situation.

Rimuru looked like he swallowed a bug when he saw just how much paperwork there was, and Souma, despite preparing himself, still looked shocked at the sheer amount of documents gathered. Nonetheless, the three of them approached Marx and the king, beginning the discussion about how to proceed.

While both Rimuru and Testa pitched in about the state of things and what could be done, the one who really spearheaded the discussion was Souma. Being both a history fanatic and studying macroeconomics in college before he got summoned, he had a plethora of ideas as to how to efficiently cut spending and pay off the Empire, while Rimuru expanded on some of his ideas about how they could improve the food situation through proper crop rotation and farming incentives.

Testa pitched in when the matter shifted to diplomacy and war, and the more the three gave their insights, the more the other two immensely counted their blessings for having summoned the three. Even if none of them had any magical aptitude whatsoever, their ideas were revolutionary enough to keep them in the country no matter the cost. With Testarossa being able to potentially be a mage beyond measure, it was like they had hit the jackpot.

With a few breaks in between, they spent almost seven hours discussing various plans and ways to improve their situation. With the natural sunlight going out, however, the king suggested bringing things to a close. The reason wasn't because there was no more light, as there were lamps powered by magic in the office. The primary reason was they had already gone through about half of the documents, and he simply wanted to rest and recuperate to continue tomorrow.

Before they were released, Rimuru asked for some clothes to be delivered to their room as, even though they could change outfits at will, it would undoubtedly raise suspicions if they did so without having a proper wardrobe.

With Souma being escorted to a different guest room and the other two refusing directions, they began walking back to their room. As they were walking back, Testa began speaking to Rimuru.

"Rimuru-sama, how long are we going to stay in this world?"

"Hmm... I'm not entirely sure. I want to at least see what the deal is with that portal, but I also kind of want to watch over the kid."

She lit up at this. "So does that mean we will be staying for a few years?"

"We'd be away for too long. At most, I just want to see this country back on its feet before checking the demon portal. If it isn't anything special, then we'll just leave. That should only take half a year tops."

Though she was a little deterred at this, she continued to press on. "Can't you time leap to right after we got summoned in our world?"

Rimuru contemplated this, then shook his head. "I'd rather not use such an ability for something this small."

She sighed lightly at this. Wracking her brain, she came up with one final reason, although it was a long shot. "Rimuru-sama, I would implore you to reconsider. I believe that watching over a world which you have little attachment to would be very beneficial. You said you have plans to eventually make Tempest less dependent on you, correct? I believe that lending a guiding hand in this world would greatly help your endeavors back in Tempest."

Rimuru gave her a knowing smirk. "You really want to stay here, don't you? You sure you just don't want to be alone with me for a few years?" He said as he wrapped an arm around her waist.

Having a less pronounced blush due to slowly getting used to his antics, she admitted to this, but still held firm to her belief that lending this world a hand would help him. Before he could respond, someone else surprisingly supported her point of view.

<<Master, I also believe it will benefit you.>>

*Oi, oi? Where's this coming from?*

<<Master, whether you choose to admit it or not, you are undoubtedly a God. Or at the very least have the powers of one. You also understand that Tempest can't rely on you forever. When the time comes to hand over power to the people, will you be able to just sit back and watch as they undoubtedly make mistakes that you could easily correct?>>

*That... I have plenty of time until that happens though.*

<<And it's better to start now.>>

He heaved a sigh at this. What she was saying was objectively correct, but it was still a hard pill to swallow. Hell, he hadn't even reached 55 yet. Most people his age would be worrying about retirement and their kids, not about how to best secure a country's future.

I see where you're coming from, and if, and I mean if I agree, what about the country and my harem? Even though I left a copy of myself to continue running Tempest, they would be stupid not to notice Testa's disappearance.

Ever since Rimuru gathered his harem members, in what is now known as the Wives' Frenzy, he has devoted plenty of time into maintaining multiple bodies. Having parallel existence helped with this, as he could now have five parallel copies of him without having to sacrifice any power difference thanks to Nihility energy producing an infinite amount of magic. The only thing preventing him from creating more is the sheer amount of conscientiousness required, as even with five, his reaction speeds were abysmally slow compared to how they normally are. As such, he could realistically only do with three currently. Even with that, he doesn't share senses with them as that would require far more concentration and stimulus management.

<<Fret not, master. I have already taken care of such matters.>>

Feeling a headache coming on, they approached the room preparing to rest for another long day tomorrow. Instead, what awaited them made Rimuru's hairs stand on end and made Testa look as though she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar. The reason being there were two people who should absolutely under no circumstance be there.

The first was a beautiful woman with pink hair and eyes to match wearing a white and pink kimono. While everyone who looked at her would immediately call her beautiful and label a princess, the trait that attracted the most attention were the horns. If it was just her in the room waiting for him, Rimuru would be nowhere near as shocked as he currently is.

No. The thing that added to his fear exponentially was the appearance of the second woman.

Having both black hair that framed her face and stopped just above the shoulders with black eyes to match, she looked like she could be a Japanese model. Her attire was quite plain with a black shirt and white overcoat with an insignia on the back, along with white military-style pants and black boots. Along with this, her natural face gave her a tomboyish look, however, instead of smiling gently or simply having a neutral face, her lips were curved in a smile that could only be seen as both teasing and sadistic with her eyes adding to that effect.

*TOOK CARE OF SUCH MATTERS, HUH?!?!*

This was the only downside Rimuru could think of when Ciel gained sentience. Her directive shifted from unconditionally following orders to unconditionally looking out for his safety, and that meant taking actions proactively, even if it was against Rimuru's immediate wishes. Both as his loyal manas and head wife, it was her job to juggle his well-being and the harem's well-being.

She judged that if they simply went with Testa's initial suggestion of time leaping, the others would quickly find out due to them acting far more intimate. And nothing to mention of how Chloe would find out very quickly what exactly they did, as she had an affinity for time itself. Seeing that his would cause Rimuru undue strife in the long run, she elected to rip off the band-aid quickly and tell all the executives what was going on, along with bringing both Shuna and Hinata to this world since they were both close to him, but more importantly wouldn't tolerate his bullshit.

"Ah, hello Rimuru-sama. Having fun are we?"

"Wait, wait wait, Shuna! I can explain!"

"Oh? You mean how instead of immediately returning with Testarossa, you wish to philander around? Please, explain."

Rimuru wanted to say that he had no intention of fooling around with other women and also point out that it was her who wanted Testa to become a part of his harem, but he correctly chose to remain silent.

After realizing that Rimuru was smart enough to shut up, they decided that they'd had enough fun and Hinata began to explain more in detail with a disarming smile.

"Relax. Ciel told us what happened." Standing up from the bed, she went towards Rimuru. Instead of punching him in the arm or shoulder, which is what normally happens when she's angry with him, much to his surprise, she wrapped her arms around him.

With her face resting on his shoulder, she voiced in his ear, "When we felt such an immense amount of magic from the Empire, we immediately went to see what happened. When we heard that you were with Testa and she was no longer with you, we thought the worst."

Bringing her face to look at his and the woman beside him, she could see them looking at their feet and clearly reflecting.

"Believe it or not, we actually worry about you. If something like this happens again, please tell us."

The both of them voiced their agreement.

"Right, then," Shuna said, lightening up the mood, "Do you intend to take up Ciel's suggestion and watch over this world for the time being?"

"I... think I will. I'm certainly not going to sit around and do nothing, but I also won't solve their problems for them. I'm hoping I can learn a thing or two about just observing."

"Wonderful! As for you, Testarossa, don't worry about your position in Tempest. We'll take care of that."

Testa looked at Shuna as though she was a savior. "Thank you, Shuna! I promise I will teach our Lord everything I can about being impartial."

Shuna hummed in approval. "Well, I believe I'm done here. Rimuru-sama, if you will send me back, please."

"Yeah, one sec..." Freeing himself from Hinata, he prepared to send them back before realizing one crucial thing that was overlooked. "Wait, just you? Not Hinata?"

"Hmm? Why would I be going back?"

Rimuru could barely believe what he heard. "What do you mean 'why'?! Don't you have plenty of things you need to do back in Ruberious?"

"Everything can be done with the knights. Besides, as for the classes I teach, Shizue, Arnold, and Albert have agreed to substitute in my place. Besides," she added with the teasing smile returning to her face, "Someone's got to watch over you two."

Testa looked a little offended at this before seeing Hinata give her a wink, which then prompted her to look down again, this time for a different reason. Rimuru, however, was completely taken aback.

"I'M NOT VELDORA!!! And I certainly know how to keep my lust in check! In any case, how are we going to explain that someone suddenly came to this world without being summoned? You can't use your current name because that gives away our marriage and you can't use your maiden's name because the other kid who was summoned is also Japanese."

"Well, isn't it convenient that there just happens to be a large influx of refugees from the so-called Demon Lord's domain? I'll just enter as a refugee. As for my name, I'll just give my first name. If the world is around the Middle Ages, not everyone is expected to have a last name. And besides, I don't think some kid will read into me having a Japanese appearance so much to the point that I got summoned as well. Even if he does, I'll just say that my family is here. It's technically not incorrect."

Rimuru sighed at the pragmatism of the woman in front of him.

"Fine, whatever. Do what you want."

As he was preparing to send Shuna back, she spoke up again. "Wait, before you do that. Shuna, we need to have a little talk with Testa real quick. Go out of the room for a bit."

"Wait it's my room! Go have your conversation outside!"

She gave a confident smirk. "And you're okay risking us being seen?"

"... That's dirty. Why do I even need to leave?"

"Girl talk."

<<Indeed>>

*You too, huh?*

Right after Ciel said that an exact carbon copy of Rimuru manifested beside him. Instead of his trademark golden eyes, the copy's irises were red with three white hexagonal-shaped lines circling what would be the pupils if the being had any, which made the figure exude a very calculating feeling. Rimuru felt the number of sighs that escaped his mouth today alone would meet his quota for the month. However, he knew better than to interrupt their "girl talk," so he left the room.

With the four of them left, an awkward atmosphere was budding up. Before it could fully blossom, Ciel quickly dissipated it.

<<Firstly, Testarossa, unless you refuse or something seriously drastic happens to cause him to refuse, you will be part of Master's harem soon.>>

Testa looked gratefully at the head wife and took in every word, unsure of what to say in response. Before she could think of one, Ciel continued. <<That being said, don't sleep with him until Hinata is able to reunite with us.>>

Her expression immediately transitioned into a look of pure shock mixed with a little despair, and it took everything she had to not lash out at her and ask why. Fortunately, she didn't need to.

"Believe me, Testa, it's for your own good. If it was twelve years ago, it probably wouldn't have mattered, but with the way he is now..." Shuna continued from where Hinata trailed off. "He is a beast. To be more accurate, he is like a drug. If you sleep with him now, there has to be at least one person outside of Ciel who you can basically detox with. At least until you get more used to it."

Hinata was slightly cringing at her past behavior when she first slept with him. Since Rimuru had been sleeping with multiple women a night for two years before she joined, he went from being fairly awkward at sex to being almost disturbingly too good. Furthermore, he often overachieves when it comes to satisfying his women and absorbs new information about them like a sponge.

While any one of his women would never change that quality about him, one of the side effects of said quality is that he carries that trait in the bedroom. If it was just good foreplay and sex, while it would certainly be pleasurable, that could be found in many men. Rimuru takes it a step further by using a combination of magic and his body's natural quality to replicate anything to provide an incredibly comfortable and euphoric environment for his women when he sleeps with them. Since he started doing this about a year into his escapades, the women already in his harem had built a sufficient tolerance to the new stimuli.

When Hinata and Shizue joined, he was doing these things routinely, and so didn't realize how much greater of an effect it would have on a virgin. As such, when Hinata went back to Ruberious after spending a few nights with Rimuru, she started to have moderate withdrawal symptoms. It took more willpower than she knew she had to fight off Luminas's advances and the urge to see Rimuru and ask for help, as in her mind, it would drastically change their power dynamic.

Shizue fared far better as she didn't have her pride preventing her from asking for help in dealing with the symptoms, which is how the women found out about it in the first place. With Hinata saying that she was fine, they only had Shizue's symptoms to act as a baseline, but Shizue was also not as affected due to her naturally low sex drive.

Although it was quite clear Testa was very reluctant, she accepted knowing that the three of them had her best interests at heart.

<<Good. I believe in you. It should take no more than a month before Hinata is able to reconvene with us.>>

With those words, Ciel disappeared, and the door opened to a very tired-looking Rimuru coming in with a plethora of clothes. This wouldn't be much of a problem except for the fact that they were all either dresses, blouses, or form-fitting pants and shirts, all of which alluded to women's clothing.

Testa stifled a laugh, while Shuna took on a slightly exasperated look. Hinata was looking at Rimuru like an idiot, before concluding that he must have asked for clothes and forgotten to specify which kinds of clothes. Realizing this, she burst out laughing on the bed.

"Shut up! I'm tired after the long discussion today. I wasn't thinking properly."

"Rimuru, we need to make sure they fit you." Hinata said after gathering herself.

"Hell no. Not now." Rimuru opened a portal back to Tempest. "Here you go, Shuna. I'll make sure to make it up to you with the other me.

"Thank you, Rimuru-sama. I'll take my leave now."

As Shuna left, Rimuru turned to Hinata. "So, when do you plan on officially coming into the country."

"I was going to do so tomorrow morning. Mind if I borrow some of those clothes for the time being?"

Pick and choose what you want. I'm gonna go to bed. I'm exhausted and need to prepare for the discussion tomorrow."

With Rimuru joining Hinata on the bed and the two changing into pajamas, they both gave a quizzical look to Testa who looked like she was debating whether or not to join them.

"What are you waiting for? An invitation?"

That seemed to have caused her to make up her mind, and so she changed into her pajamas and joined them on the bed. "Well then, excuse me."

With both girls on either side of him, they drifted off to sleep.

Waking up the next morning, Rimuru gave a kiss to Hinata who then promptly teleported to a back alley outside of the castle-town and began looking for something similar to an immigration checkpoint.

With her gone, the other two joined up with Souma and resumed their meeting with the king and Marx in the government office. Finishing up reviewing the paperwork and finalizing their plans, the king organized every important government official to the audience chamber and announced loudly, "Hear me, my people."

"I, the thirteenth king of Elfrieden, Albert Elfrieden, declare both summoned heroes Rimuru Tempest and Testarossa royal vassals of the throne. I also abdicate my throne to the summoned hero, Souma Kazuya! Furthermore, I hereby announce the engagement of my daughter, Liscia Elfrieden, to Sir Souma."

The room went silent to the point you could hear a pin drop. The only one who, oddly enough, didn't look surprised was the queen. When everyone's mental faculties started up again, they all begged the now-former king to reconsider, before he promptly told everyone that he no longer held any political power. The person who was named king looked as if he fainted standing up, and the two beside him just had looks of shock. Even in Testa's long life, she had never seen a king so willing to help his people go so far as to give up the throne.

And thus, on the 32nd day of the 4th month in the 1546th year of the Continental Calendar, the throne was ceded to Souma Kazuya.