46 A Secret Meeting/First day of the Festival

Granbell had met Chronoa several times and knew of her strength. And one day he overheard a small portion of her story. He only knew a small portion as they had noticed him and proceeded to be more cautious with their conversations. All he knew was that she knew of the future. And there was a threat big enough that even Chronoa couldn't defeat. So he began preparations on his own.

He began to grow the roots of his influence and had built himself a strong hidden army. With members from most of the western nations ready to deploy at a moment's notice. He had also recruited six other humans with great potential who would follow his orders. Together they were called the Clerics of the Seven Luminaries. Four of them were enlightened, humans who had evolved into people who could rival demon lord seeds. And two of them were saints, the final step in human evolution, capable of fighting against even true demon lords and only inferior to true heroes.

He had even broken past his limits and had awoken an ultimate skill. Sariel, lord of hope. A skill that carried similar abilities to Asmodeus, lord of lust. It gave him control over the souls, life, and death. And with this skill, he had grown his strength exponentially. With his companion, Razul, he was sure he could defeat the new demon lord. However, losing to Luminous had taught him a big lesson. To never underestimate your enemy.

He was ready to go all out, absolutely destroy the city in the forest. And to liberate Falmuth.

'Could this be the threat I heard from that one day?' he asked to himself.

For the past couple of days, he had killed a few annoying spies that tried to lurk around his location. Due to their monster heritage, he could assume that they were from Tempest. He now knew he had to be more careful with his moves from now on.

At first, he had prepared people who would be able to fight with the eastern empire, the people he thought would be the threat. Or maybe it would be the angels that descended from the heavens. Ready to destroy the advancements of humanity. But looking at the monster empire grow he knew he had to stop them. Or the whole world would be consumed.

'It appears Luminous has allied himself with him or at least is not willing to attack him. In that case, I should prepare to defend from her after we destroy Tempest. I am no longer the weak person I used to be. So if we fight again, it will be Luminous' death.'

Entering a room in which the other six clerics were he began his conversation with them.

…

(Tempest, Rimuru pov)

The dinner was about to start and the little nuke had jumped into my arms.

"Rimuru! You have to save me! Frey is making me work so much! I don't even have time to come and visit!" Milim yelled while holding onto me. A small shining necklace on her neck.

"I'll try, but as a leader, you really should work harder to take better care of your people. It isn't supposed to be an easy job, you know." I said while patting her head "Why is your necklace shining?" I asked her.

Separating herself and grabbing the necklace I gave her she said. "Oh, this? I don't know. Ever since you gave it to me I have been feeding it magicules since it is made of Magicsteel. I still haven't figured out what it does. Now it shines every time I think about you" Her words were interrupted as she heard the steps walking behind her.

She hid behind my body seconds before Frey walked in.

Frey gave a quick bow before speaking.

"It is good to see you, Demon Lord Rimuru, we thank you for the invitation."

"No problem, feel free to visit Tempest at any time. Just let me know the time and I can prepare accommodations for both of you."

Already inside the room were Lina, Shion, Shuna, Souka, Trya, Elemesia and Erald, Carrion and the Beastketeers, Gazel, Luminous and Hinata, and the representative of Blummund, Fuze.

It was only a relatively small group of people but they all held a lot of power. I didn't really want to bother inviting representatives of other countries and turn this into a political dinner. I would deal with them at a later date.

Gazel had tried to advise me about how my actions might be seen from the outside but I wasn't going to hold back my advancements for a bunch of people who were probably just born into power and had no real strength of their own. If they wanted to create friendly relationships all they had to do was ask, and we would arrange a proper meeting to talk to them.

Diablo was standing behind me with a happy smile. He had finally returned from Falmuth and was happy to be able to serve me directly once again. He had been serving tea to the guests. And now was standing behind my chair, ready to assist with anything at a moment's notice.

Shuna had been the one to prepare most of the food, and judging by their faces while eating they were all having a good time. It was food from all over my last world, letting us enjoy a variety of tastes.

"Miss Shuna, if you ever want to visit Sarion just send me a note. I will make sure you get the best treatment. All you gotta do is make me some food while you are there" Elmesia said before she put some more food in her mouth.

She had been giving Diablo the side-eye after she had recognized his true identity. But had seemingly forgotten after she began to eat.

"Shuna-chan you wouldn't mind if I sent some of my personal chefs to learn how to cook from you would you." Said Luminous.

While she was a vampire, she could still enjoy normal food. And judging by the nod Hinata had subconsciously done, she must have wanted to eat more food like this too.

It was a calm dinner, eventually, board games came out. And some of the most powerful people of the west began an intense gaming session.

…

After the dinner had ended and everyone had left I had a small meeting with Souei.

"Another spy has been killed." Souei said with a trace of anger in his eyes.

"I know, and their soul has been destroyed. I can't bring him back even if I wanted to." I replied with anger in my voice.

"What should we do now?"

"Let's pull back for a moment, we have to figure out a way to spy on him without losing more people. All we are doing at the moment is sending people to their death. He must have awakened a skill related to the soul if he is destroying them so easily."

'But it should have been too soon for that… we have to be more careful from now on' I thought to myself

"If he has a skill like mine then it means he can probably feel the souls of those nearby. Spying is useless unless we can solve that problem." I continued on

"What about Hanzo? He has the best hiding skills out of all of us."

"No, even then he should still be able to detect him. We have to work with the assumption that he has an ultimate skill. It would be too risky to send him." After a short pause, I continued. "Stop directly attempting to spy on him. Go for the ones who we have confirmed to be working for him. Let them know to retreat at the slightest sign of danger. I don't want any more of our people to lose their lives."

"I understand. I will take my leave Sir Rimuru, I will return once I have gathered more information."

...

The next day had begun with fireworks. The festival had finally begun. There was a joyous atmosphere in the air.

There were many sectors of Tempest that were decorated to express the cultures of its citizens. Tempest was a nation whose population had come from all corners of the Jura Forest. And because of that, it had many backgrounds that had come together. It was a way to let all of its residents learn a piece of each other's histories.

There were also plays and concerts that were going on. If you weren't a citizen of Tempest you had to pay a small fee but it was small enough that most average people could afford to do most of the recreational activities.

Some plays were recreations of old movies from my old world. But a lot were new creations of Tempest. They even had a few "Tempest history" plays that recreated some of the events that had happened to Tempest.

Varuut had devoted himself to his music after awakening Apollo, so he had become the director of Tempest's orchestra. And in these past few days, it had become a really popular location for visitors, where they could enjoy the best concert they would ever hear.

Of course, there were other types of music in Tempest. While Varuut had dedicated himself to a more classical style of music, many others had discovered and begun to play in many styles. We even had a couple of stars on the rise.

Along with the concerts and plays, there were many things the people could do.

A magical showcase by the magic association was giving basic lessons to those interested in magic. Teaching them easy spells like cleaning magic or water summoning magic. For citizens of Tempest, if they were interested they could join and learn more about magic from experts like Mjurran.

The church that had been created for those who had learned holy magic was also trying to help people join them. And they were doing extremely well. Most of Tempest's citizens were interested in joining and learning a bit of holy magic. After all, it would help them create a better connection with their Emperor.

Many of the visitors were absolutely shocked witnessing monsters casting holy magic, and some had even requested to join. Some due to magical interest and some because they were truly curious about what was taught, and possibly wished to join.

The art district had earned many students and was giving out public classes as well. For the first time in their lives, many people had the chance to try doing art, and they were taking advantage of the opportunity. Gutmut was giving out free paint animals to those who were practicing the hardest. They would only last for a short time until they ran out of magicules, but since they were extremely weak and only for show, they would last for a few days at most if they didn't take any damage.

Some games were being played in the city center by many of the kids who had been born in Tempest and kids whose parents had come to visit. At first, they were reluctant to let their kids play with monsters but after experiencing how friendly everyone was they had let them.

Showcases of items that had been built in Tempest were also on display. Skateboards were starting to sell out pretty quickly after one of the sellers began to show the kind of tricks you could do in them. Toy swords that would glow whenever you swung them and could be recharged with the use of magicules.

A surprising amount of slime merchandise was sold too, it was a form I didn't use often but it had become the "mascot" of Tempest. Due to its easy design, it was easy to create a high volume of good quality products. And since most citizens knew what it represented they were happy to buy them. Even those who had come from different countries were buying them for their children and themselves since they thought the slime looked cute.

This was only the first day of the festival. With many more activities to come for the following days.