Guard Duty and Scylla

A/N: Sorry for the delay in updates guys but I have been working most Saturdays lately which is the day I typically write. Thankfully, I was able to get this Saturday and Sunday off, so I'll be able to write at least a little, in between catching up with all the anime and shows missed out on, plus I've got the 2-week itch to play Minecraft again, so I'll probably be doing that today too.

.~.~.~.

"{Icicle Lance}" Scylla declared monotonously as she extended one of her tentacles forward and a magic circle appeared.

The next second, a large ice spike erupted from the circle and flew outwards towards the rock in the center of the lake, striking it and exploding into a massive pillar of ice that chilled both the skin of Rigur who was accompanying me today and I.

"Amazing!" Rigur explained, to which I smiled and nodded.

"Yup, Scylla you've done great! You picked up on ice magic instantly." I declared.

Syclla looked at me with her blank, almost expressionless face for a moment and nodded. "Mm. It was easy" she declared.

Rigur laughed awkwardly. "I guess magic probably would come easily to one of Lord Veldora's offspring."

I nodded, looking at my daughter. Scylla was a bit of an oddball. After her evolution, she gained the skill [Universal Shapeshift]. This was probably from me due to the fact I had it and monsters who a person names tend to pick up some of their skills and personality traits, but regardless, it was nice that she wasn't a 20-meter-tall mollusk mixed with a tentacle monster anymore. In her human form, she was absolutely beautiful. Long blonde hair with bright violet eyes and a gorgeous face. But what really brought the whole thing together was her personality.

It appears that the centuries of isolation had caused Scylla to become quite the socially awkward kuudere. She wasn't dumb by any means, but she could sometimes be an airhead, like what was happening right now.

"Father, look-" Scylla said as she began to lightly jog towards me before falling flat on her face as she tripped.

Rigur rushed forward to help her up while I face-palmed. Something no one really thinks about when a monster from anime turns into a beautiful woman is that, in real life, they wouldn't know how to do even the most basic of basic things. For example, Scylla despite having enough magical power to level a large town and enough talent to make accomplished mages scream, had trouble walking on 2 legs.

In the past she was mostly immobile, having to drag herself across the bottom of the lakebed with her tentacles, so leg motion was sometimes hard for her. Additionally, she was used to wrestling fish the size of large cars for food, so she ended up breaking Rigurd's hand when she shook it for the first time in human form.

Thanks to the extraordinary danger of letting Scylla run wild, I've been spending a lot of time with her these past few days. I even had to skip out on a trip to Dwargon that Rimuru had planned to ensure Scylla didn't accidentally kill anyone while I was away.

Thankfully, due to [Faust], I was able to teach her numerous things about life and how to be a 'functioning member' of this goblin society by flashing her mind with my memories and help from [Truth of Creation]. This taught her everything from language to how to walk and use the bathroom all the way to how to manipulate her own magic power and aura.

"Father, it's complete," Scylla said as she walked over to me, opening her hands to show me a small crystal that radiated light across a broad spectrum of colors.

I smiled as I saw that. "Looks like it. Toss it over there." I said, pointing to the poor rock pillar in the center of the small pond we'd been abusing with magic for a while now.

Scylla nodded and threw the stone like a baseball, striking the frozen stone pillar dead center.

BOOM!

A massive explosion of black flame and lighting erupted from the spot it struck, erasing the pillar from existence and blasting away a ton of water. As a matter of fact, a small tsunami rushed towards us and drenched me up to my knees in water. Scylla was also fine but Rigur was knocked over by the minor wave.

"It seems you still have access to my {Storm Magic}" I stated.

Scylla nodded, seeming somewhat proud despite not showing it on her face. "Its father's magic after all. Of course, I can use it too." Scylla declared with a cute nod.

I smirked and stepped towards her, placing my hand on her head and giving her a headpat. Scylla seemed to jump at my touch, not expecting it, but didn't say anything, though a small blush appeared on her ears and cheeks. I decided to give her praise since she was being adorable again.

Even though I was telling Scylla how great she was and ignoring the complaint of Rigur who was now sopping wet, my mind was wondering elsewhere. I was trying to research a new type of Skill that I'd been informed about thanks to [Faust].

Due to my inability to go with Rimuru to the country of Dwargon, I was left on guard duty to watch the village. While this was fine and dandy, I did eventually want to go out into the world and explore as well as make a few things right.

Don't get me wrong, my previous actions as 'Veldora' weren't really my fault, I still had to do something to make up for it. I know all of it happened over 300 years ago, which means that since my last rampage was older than my home country, the United States themselves, but that is only a 'long time ago' for humans and other more mortal races. There are immortal individuals out there that are 100% pissed off at me and would probably mess with this little kingdom-building project Rimuru's got going on just to spite me. I needed to take care of said individuals asap, either by apologizing and making amends if possible or eliminating them if not. It was better to pre-empt the strikes than allow them to happen at some nebulous time in the future, plus my reputation is already trash, so wiping out a few people here and there isn't going to make me look any worse.

To this end, I was attempting to create a new type of Skill. I had recalled that my sister Velgrynd had a powerful cloning Skill called [Parallel Existance], which created a split in her consciousness, i.e. creating independent alter egos of herself, that had equal power and could operate independently of herself. Even if she were to somehow be killed, as long as one of these [Parallel Existences] was still around, she'd survive. It was an OP skill that basically made it impossible to permanently kill or defeat her, however, the main drawback of this Skill was that whole bit about 'independent alter egos'.

I didn't want a repeat of that filler episode of Naruto where my clones eventually turned against me.

I know it happened in a dream sequence during a filler episode, so it's kind of double not-canon, but I'd rather not take the chance. Plus, the alter egos don't share information in real-time with one another, so it's not like a Hivemind, and if one of my clones is surprise attacked and one-shot or sealed, then I wouldn't know about it until I investigated personally.

'I doubt I'll get sealed again, but I need insurance'. I thought to myself.

And so, during these few days, while Rimuru was away, I had been busy attempting to acquire a skill similar to [Parallel Existance] but without the drawbacks. Hopefully some kind of hivemind skill similar to what the Borg (before the Borg queen was a thing) or Tyranids have.

'It would also make it possible to have a harem without neglecting any of the members' I mused. (A/N: This isn't a harem piece, at best it will be a Ménage à trois with Ramiris and Luminous, but for now only Luminous is planned, the MC is only thinking like this because he is still in the mindset of 'typical isekai fantasy story' where the MC gets a harem.)

Scylla suddenly elbowed me out of nowhere. "Oof. what was that for?" I asked, still patting Scylla's head. It didn't really hurt, but it still surprised me.

Scylla looked away. "Thinking about other women is a no." She said, pouting and turning away from me.

'Seriously? How did she even know? Woman's intuition is scary!' I thought incredulously.

(3rd POV)

While Veldora was getting elbowed by his daughter, Rimuru was busy standing trial for the crime of assaulting a noble in Dwargon alongside his newly recruited Blacksmith.

"Kaijin, do you have any interest in returning to work under me?" King Gazel asked his former subordinate and friend.

Kaijin bowed even more deeply, his forehead almost touching the floor as he struggled to keep tears from falling down his face. "Forgive me, Your Majesty..." he paused. "I have already found my master and sworn my oath of loyalty to him. My word is my greatest treasure and I cannot part with it, even if Your Majesty orders it."

"You dare show such insolence!" One of the guards declared, motioning for the others to prepare to execute the heretical dwarf in front of their king.

Gazel waved his hand, calling off his dogs in magic armor as he and Kaijin shared a look. Unbeknownst to everyone in the room save for Gazel, in that moment, Gazel scanned the thoughts of Kaijin and his party.

While he deeply respected Kaijin and had already known what the sentence for this day would have been, he was surprised when he looked over the mind of the slime. From him, he couldn't read anything other than surface thoughts, and one of those thoughts was of what Veldora would do if they went to prison.

The slime, this 'Rimuru', was worried that Veldora would come to collect him and destroy Dwargon if it stood in his way.

Centuries of life had taught Gazel not to lose his cool and to always keep his composure, but upon hearing the Slime talk about the infamous Storm Dragon so casually so soon after his disappearance made even Gzael momentarily baffled. For a moment, he thought that Rimuru might have caught him sneaking a peak at his thoughts and said something to force a 'banishment' sentence, however, he quickly dismissed the idea after a moment realizing that Rimuru was blatantly planning on how to quietly escape their prison if they were thrown in there or how to fight off Gazel if they were to be executed.

He liked that Rimuru knew he didn't stand a chance.

Despite this, the information about Veldora had to be verified. "Slime... Rimuru was it?" Gazel spoke.

Kaijin gritted his teeth and bowed his head, mostly to hide his frustration. He thought he was going to force Rimuru to had over Kaijin in exchange for freedom. Gazel was momentarily taken aback by the deepseated thoughts of betray coming off of his old friend but realized what he was thinking from Kaijin's perspective and wasn't swayed.

"Y-yes sir- er, Your Majesty!" Rimuru answered, slightly awkwardly.

"Is your master Veldora, the Storm Dragon!?!" Gazel asked, unleashing a small amount of his [Hero's Haki].

Rimuru, seemingly unphased by the display, appeared confused. "He's not really my master, more of my friend. I guess you could call him my father since I was born from his magicules though." Rimuru admitted.

Rimuru had thought about lying but decided against it. 'Sorry Veldora! I know you were trying to hide out but I'll be using your name to get out of here!' Rimuru apologized.

Gazel was once more exasperated by Rimuru's thoughts but didn't let the revelation's shock show on his face. The other people in the room were all stunned into silence. Kaijin and the dwarf brothers were even surprised by this with all of them asking themselves some variation 'Are we going to be ok?' which almost made Gazel smile.

Vesta, on the other hand, was trembling in fear, worried that his petty actions may have just brought about not just his own death at the hands of the storm dragon, but maybe even Dwargon's as well. He knew his king, while strong, couldn't stand up to such a monster.

"I see. I will now pass judgment. Kaijin and his companions shall be exiled. This concludes my verdict. Remove yourselves from my sight immediately!" Gazel declared.

'Veldora... why have you returned but decided to stay hidden? What is your plan? Will this slime end up being the new seal that keeps you from rampaging across the world, or will he simply be the compass pointing you towards targets for you to destroy?' gazel almost shuttered.

'This slime... even if he is too timid to claim the title like so many Majin before him, is now a newly uncrowned Demon Lord.'