20 19th Move | Calm Tea Party
[Silenced Emotion: 50%]
Reality Check.
I am outside of the Citadel, sitting by a table you'd find in an Estate's garden, having a tea party with Demon Lord Milim, who is the only Dragonoid in the world, and [Surgery] and [Genetic Engineering] are screaming at me to dissect her. The specialties desperately want to know her anatomy and her genetic makeup. The other person sitting by the table was Rimuru.
Is this the real life?
I had insisted Rimuru be here because let's be honest, I don't have the best track record for dealing with people of this world. I took a calm sip of the tea in front of me while Shizue's War Chassis was situated less than a meter behind me, standing ever-vigilant. The sound of a person indulging themselves and being the absolute definition of 'gluttony' crammed the area.
Is this just fantasy?
More of Shizue's maid chassis, now on basic programming, were going back and forth between the Citadel kitchen using Doormaker to replace the sweets that Milim is absolutely gorging herself on like a person who hasn't eaten in a week. The kid inhaled donuts by the half dozen. She guzzled up on candy corn like they were water and she was someone dying of thirst. The Dragonoid devoured a three-layer cake like it was nothing!
Caught in a landslide.
I had to divert a not-so-insignificant number of my Molecular Assemblers into creating these pastries and sweets because she ate all my reserves! Then I had to synthetically produce additional sugar because the white powder ran out! I was planning on eating some of that three-layer cake later as a celebration for defeating that blonde monster!
No escape from reality.
Why today of all days do I have to have two inhumanely powerful entities?! I made sure the Republic take the credit for defeating the Orc Lord, not me!
As I fumed internally, externally I was the picture of calmness and serenity. My eyes were gentle, my face was neutral, and every motion and every action I took had no sign of the nervousness and frustration I felt.
[Acting] really is useful.
The Kijins all dropped what they were doing and are now armed to the teeth, currently on standby to teleport in the instant Milim become hostile.
"So..." Rimuru was the first to start after finding no opening for the first half an hour when Milim was inside her own world of pure gluttony.
Right now, Milim was drinking directly from the teapot by using the spout part as a straw while the teacup stood unused to the side of her. My left eye twitched uncontrollably at the action in front of me.
She's like a spoiled kid who never had anyone tell her 'no'. Now, I don't know how parenting worked for the parents of Milim, but couldn't they have at least instilled in her some manners? I know I'm using my modern human perspective here but still... She's a Demon Lord, those fearsome things spoken in awe and fear by those in the West.
She's... her child-like behavior is seriously throwing a grenade into that mental image. My respect for the Ten Great Demon Lords has been drastically reduced.
I couldn't help but sigh a little. A tingle went through my heart once again as I spotted a maid chassis taking away the plate that once held the triple-layered cake I made using [Culinary].
Still, I can probably get something from Milim's childish behaviors, namely, her saliva. I wonder what could I do with the genetic sample of one of the oldest Demon Lords.
I gestured to one of the maids in sign language to place the teapot that Milim had just finished emptying into biological quarantine.
Rimuru, seeing how he got no response, decided to turn to me instead, "I'm sure you've heard, Scientia. Dwargon has recently become our ally, and we've been officially recognized by them. Now Minister Nigerdo recommends we construct a Hyperloop to link our two nations together for closer ties."
At least he knew to not talk about too sensitive information. Though, with how childish Milim acted, I doubt she would know what we're talking about. Then again, [Psychology] pushes for them the possibility that all of this is an act to conceal hidden mental trauma if the odd, pattern-breaking micro-expressions are anything to go by.
"Hmm, good job on that. I personally recommend setting up some policy to encourage our companies to invest in Dwargon with the new free trade status," I replied. "The smarter ones should already realize the power of an untapped consumer market and they'll be eager to set up in Dwargon once the Hyperloop is complete—"
While I talked, I moved to refill my emptied teacup with the new teapot a maid chassis had brought forth. Grabbing a nearby jar with the sugar, I discovered that it was completely empty.
"—Then we can have them employ so much of the local workforce that the corporations become inseparable from their economy—"
Unperturbed by the emptiness, I held the empty sugar jar off to my side. Another maid chassis came forth and cupped her hands underneath the sugar jaw as I release it, taking it away.
"—There's a reason why Alfred Henry Lewis said 'there are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy'. Being inseparable from their economy, we can use the corporations as our tools to influence the internal politics of Dwargon. Although be mindful that King Gazel is known as a 300-year old Hero King, so be careful when politicking around him."
The humanoid slime nodded at my assessment. He's grown more and more reliant on my advice since he's got no experience in how to run a nation, and neither do really anyone else in the old goblin village. Still, I see this as temporary. He will grow and learn by experience, and in case he makes a mistake, I'll act as his safety net.
Then, a look of discomfort reverberated across Rimuru's face, "Is that... truly right though? I mean, us meddling in their internal affairs... that sounds kinda like Imperialism."
Ah, my eyes widen as it dawned on me why he was asking me this. As a Japanese, Rimuru is uncomfortable with the idea of foreign meddling given their history with other nations.
I stared Rimuru right into his eyes. Determined crimson met unsure gold.
"Rimuru. You are in the leading position of a nation that would undoubtedly become a Superpower. A state that is so powerful no significant action can be taken by other nations without consulting our position first. What's more, it isn't 'imperialism'. A general rule of geopolitics is that if you neighbor a Superpower, expect them to meddle in your internal affairs. Just look at a certain freedom-loving, gun-toting state, and its southern canal. Those freedom lovers would allow no one else to truly control it, not even the locals themselves."
I paused and took a sip of tea. The warm minorly bitter liquid helped wet my dry mouth before continuing.
"Our foreign policy should reflect our status as an up-and-coming Superpower. That is, we are trying to carve out our own sphere of influence. I personally would take a page out of the CIA's handbook and stage a few coups against hostile regimes while promoting our ideals on those friendly to us."
Rimuru looked like he bit into a lemon with how thin his lips have become. He opened his mouth to reply but then Milim then finally spoke—
"Mmmff amoffff awowllf."
—or rather, she tried to. The amount of pastries inside her mouth isn't making anything coherent.
Seeing how Milim's had to visibly struggle to engulf all of the sweets in her mouth, I grabbed the teapot and offered it to her. To which she promptly took it and went bottom up.
After several loud gulpings of tea and numerous trails of liquid leaking from her mouth and running down her chin, I couldn't help myself and took a handkerchief from one of the maids and started to lean towards Milim and wipe away the tea dripping down her chin like a parent cleaning their baby after a messy meal.
Obviously, this seemed to annoy Milim, so she pushed my hand away, loudly declaring, "I'm not a kid! So don't treat me like one!"
For a brief moment in time, my eyeballs glanced at the mess she made on her side of the table before returning.
Then, the Demon Lord continued, her annoyed mood evaporating like water on a hot pan, "give my compliments to the chef, this has got to be one of the most delicious sweets I've eaten in a long long time." her thumbs went up.
"Well, thank you for your compliment. So we can talk business now that pleasure is out of the way?"
Then, the kid burped.
[Biology] could not help but be fascinated with that. A being like Milim burping. While seemingly inconsequential, a burp is a release of trapped gas from the stomach through the mouth. This suggests Milim has a digestive tract.
Before I could ponder the implication any further and questions how similar is Milim physiologically to your average baseline humans, the Dragonoid effused.
"Tell me what are you guys talking about!" Placing her chin on a pair of open palms for support. It almost looked like Milim was a curious kid lying on their stomach in front of a teacher who was reading from a picture book.
I used my eyebrows to discretely gesture at Rimuru to talk. With how many friends he's made with the hobgoblins, he seems to be better at this stuff than I am.
"Well..." The slime rubbed the back of his head, his brain probably coming up with a way to explain geopolitics to a 12-year-old, "we were discussing our plans for the future."
"Eh?" Milim seem to pause for a moment before grabbing another sweet biscuit from nearby and playing with it, "why do you need to do that? Thinking about the future is boring! Living in the present is what matters! No personal chef of mine is going to plan ahead further than me!"
I had to double-check if I heard that correctly. And by the fact that Rimuru seem to recoil, he too had to check if his ears were mishearing things.
"I'm sorry what?"
"Oh yeah! That's the reason why I came here! I originally wanted to fight against you since you destroyed those orcs but after tasting all these sweets. I've changed my mind. You," Milim pointed at me, "shall become my personal chef and make all kinds of delicious food for me! And as all my other subordinates, I shall protect you from whatever threat may come your way..."
Milim had a mischievous smile.
"...Perfect Homunculus..."
[Silenced Emotion: 90%]
>Escape Protocol: automatically activated
In less than a second, Shizue touched my shoulder and applied a field of stasis in a bubble around me before taking off and away from where Milim was sitting. At the same time, a Doorway opened up underneath Rimuru's chair and he fell through, leaving the Dragonoid completely alone.
The world became a blur to me with how fast Shizue was flying with her war chassis. Thankfully with the bubble of stasis around me, any dust or other particle that I'll hit was rendered harmless.
I pulled out my phone and started typing in the password required to activate Contingency Plan A-01-23 Designated: 'Wandering Knowledge'. However, a pink glow in my peripheral was all that I had before Shizue suddenly veered off course and crash-landed into the ground.
With the stasis still up, I wasn't harmed at all as I dug into the ground. My clothing had no bits of dirt in them even after I stopped.
"Why did you run away from me?" Her tone was soft, with a hint of betrayal in them.
Milim hovered above the wrecked earth a few meters away from where I lay. Shizue got in front of me and spread her arms out in a protective gesture.
My mind started going a million miles an hour trying to come up with a way to escape. My phone was missing, likely I lost it during the crash landing. I started consulting with more and more of my specialties before [Negotiation] and [Communication] offered me a way out.
"How do you know I'm a Perfect Homunculus?"
My tone was calm neutrality. It didn't belong to someone who had just crashlanded and was talking to what the books say is one of the strongest Demon Lords in existence, comparable to True Dragons.
That was why I tried to activate Wandering Knowledge. I COULD fight against someone like Veldora with my current abilities, but it'll be a pyrrhic victory at best. So instead I'll just grab Rimuru, Shizue, and maybe the Kijins and abandon this planet. Full-on evacuation.
"Oh that's easy, it was due to my Milim Eye," The pink-haired kid casually said in a cheery tone as if she hadn't revealed the most important secret of mine. Pointing to her eyes, she continued, "these eyes disallow deception and can figure out the magicule in whatever being I look at."
The way she simply switches from betrayal and cheerfulness is seriously making [Psychology] think she has bipolar disorder.
"I see, and what will you be doing with that information?"
Confusion flashed across her face at my question, "what do you mean? I already told you I'll protect you since you're my personal chef!"
Really? Legends about the battle against the first Perfect Homunculus pegged Milim as one of the heavyweights— someone who was absolutely critical of its defeat.
"But... I'm a Perfect Homunculus," I emphasized the last two words, "an abomination that all nations in the world would band together to start a crusade to kill them," I pointed out, "why aren't you trying to kill me? You were considered critical in the defeat of the last one."
Milim had this unreadable look on her face before she fell to the floor laughing, clutching her stomach as she does. Such a human behavior from a Dragonoid, [Psychology] noted.
Then, the kid got up while wiping the tears from her eyes, "oh so that's what you were wondering about? That's what caused such a response?"
Hesitantly, "...yes."
"Most of the Demon Lords couldn't care less about a Perfect Homunculus, well perhaps besides Valentine but he's more of an outlier than anything." Milim waved her hands as though trying to blow away my concern, "after the amount of effort it took to kill the last one, any Demon Lords who cared before just won't bother unless the Perfect Homunculus is actively threatening just like the last one."
Milim adopted a thinking look and placed her right index finger on her chin, "well, maybe the human nations would still try and kill you but as long as you stay as my subordinate, none of them would dare to incur my wrath!" She ended it proudly, like a kid trying to assure their friends that everything will be alright.
There was a legend thousands of years ago about the barren lands west of the Holy Ruberian Empire, about how the birth of the first Demon Lord had caused that land to become uninhabitable even to this day. Milim is said to be one of the oldest Demon Lords, predating even written records. Putting the two together and you get a very frightening image of an ancient being of almost immeasurable power whose birth caused an area greater than the size of China to become useless to any humans.
Normally, this would only sound like a crackpot conspiracy theory on the level of a tinfoil hat, but this world isn't like my old one. Many historical legends may actually be real.
What a frightening girl if the story is true: a wolf in sheep's clothing.
An extremely powerful shield, giving me absolute safety in return for my autonomy and any other space aspirations.
That sounds horrible.
I want to claim every star in the night sky. I want to see what lies beyond the edge of the Observable Universe. I want to wage wars in space where hundreds of spaceships explode every second. I want to do first contact with alien civilizations. I want to study ecologies that boggle the mind. I want to see just how extreme of a form life can take. I want to know all the secrets of the universe.
And, as a side effect of all that, I want to spread modernity in this backwater feudal Tolkien-esque society.
What's more, if I truly wanted to be safe, I could've activated Contingency Plan A-01-23 anytime I wanted. But I didn't.
(I ignored the part of my mind that wondered why didn't I do it when it was the logical thing to do)
"I apologize, but I like my independence thank you very much." Milim obviously isn't one to take no for an answer, so [Negotiation] tried to come up with things to offer to placate her, "how about this: since you value my cooking so much, you can get as much of the food I make as you want whenever you knock on my doors (conditions apply)."
Milim had a look that wouldn't look out of place on a child who had just been forced to eat vegetables.
Then, a savage grin appeared on her face. It was a grin that one would have when they slowly take apart a toy.
"Fine, if you want your independence or whatever, then you'll have to prove to me that you can defend yourself so you won't be helpless when I'm not around!"
"..." I recalled the things inside my arsenal. My most expensive project to date probably will work but... it's an incomplete prototype.
"My Lady can defend herself easily." Shizue budded in, seemingly reminding Milim that she exist.
"Yeah well prove it then!"
"My Lady can defend herself with her technology—"
"Prove it then! Prove it! Prove it! Prove it! Prove it!" Milim hovered closer to Shizue and started orbiting the War Chassis while repeating the phrase 'prove it' like an obnoxious kid.
God, she is such a child!
Seeing no other option, I decided to play by her rules, "Shizue, distract her while I get ready."
Shizue nodded before blasting off alongside the Catastrophe-class Demon lord. Not only do I need to get it ready, but I should also cancel Escape Protocol.
Looking around me, it took about half a minute of looking around for me to find my phone. Not a single scratch was on it.
"Door me."
_____________________________________________
Shizue, in her reflective silver combat chassis, gleamed under the daytime sun as she rocketed upward along with the one who had challenged her... Master? Mistress? Shizue isn't sure what she shoulder refer to Lady Scientia as since she's never been in such a role as right now before, even in her seven decades of life she would have never imagined being free from Ifrit's influence.
Anyone who could help her get rid of the fire spirit was either hostile or too apathetic to care.
It made her feel special, after being alone for so long with no one that could truly empathize with her, someone solved her problem.
"So you're an automaton? Those magical machines built by artificers?" Milim narrowed her eyes as if to focus on Shizue, "wait no, you used to be a human but was turned into a lich? And— Woah! no magic? And the time around you is somehow stopped?? How?"
Milim had a tone of amazement akin to how a child would when they saw something that absolutely fascinates them.
The small Demon Lord zoomed around Shizue to drink in her form from every angle, making Shizue somewhat uncomfortable despite the metal body isn't showing anything. "My Lady is currently preparing her armor, so I shall be your first match." that's the right way to say it... right? Reading about how to act and actually doing it are two entirely different things.
"Wait, Scientia made you?" Her eyes lit up with a shine that unsettled Shizue. She's seen many new adventurers with that glint before taking on a well-paid quest too dangerous for them: Greed. "Oh interesting, how very very interesting!"
Milim then laughed, "this day just keeps on getting better and better! Well, the bodyguard of a Perfect Homunculus, let's see how a creation without magic stands up against me, a creation of magic, shall we?"
Shizue had first learned that her Lady, Scientia Tempest, was a Perfect Homunculus a bit after she came online after integrating with the Citadel.
When she had first learned that Scientia was a Perfect Homunculus...
Well, that's when everything clicked into place, the deception, the violence, the paranoia. It all made sense if her Lady is perhaps the most hated race out there.
The first Perfect Homunculus was created 400 years ago when a genius magician from Sarion somehow got the aid of an Otherworlder from the Eastern Empire with a unique skill in homunculus creation.
Normally, this wouldn't have happened at all. The Eastern Empire is a pariah state. It is a black hole, Fortress Orientem, an Empire where no one can go in or out and is enforced with the threat of death.
This project was only allowed to happen when the Emperor called up the favor of Sarion when he reminded the Empress of Sarion, Elmesia El-Ru Sarion, of how the Empire protected Sarion during the last Great Tenma War. A war that her lady really doesn't believe in.
With the blessing of Emperor Rudra himself as well as Empress Elmesia, the magician and Otherworlder both set out to create the most perfect being possible.
Well, they had done exactly that after Rudra had Velgrynd, one of the Four True Dragons, the Scorch Dragon, help them succeed in their endeavor.
Some legends spoke of how the Emperor wished to transfer his soul into the body of this perfect being, possessing it. Others said it was the Emperor trying to create the strongest weapon he can use to conquer the rest of the world.
Whatever the case was, the creation of the most perfect being became a classic tale of hubris. The Emperor created a monster— The Monster, a true beast that only seeks the destruction of all.
An abomination between Human and Monster, a creation that blurs the line that had once firmly separated the material and spiritual.
———Yet it is nonetheless Perfection manifested upon the world by the name of 'Relentless'.
It was named so for it is truly relentless since no matter what methods the Empire tried, the Perfect Homunculus just won't stay dead. Nothing in the world could make sure the Perfect Homunculus stayed dead. It remains relentless in its pursuit of world destruction.
Most legends say that even the True Dragon was no match for the Perfect Homunculus as whatever Velgyrnd could throw at it, the Monster would just keep on walking, bringing disaster and calamity to wherever they reach. Turning fertile grasslands into barren wastelands, turning beautiful mountains into deadly volcanos.
An Error of the World, they called it.
The world was forced to band together to slay the abomination before its influence could reach any further.
They failed. One book about the legend said 'even if the spirit is gone, Relentless still walks'.
It was not known how the Perfect Homunculus was stopped, only that they did. In the aftermath, several nations fell, and the remaining ones placed the creation of a Perfect Homunculus as the greatest taboo a single person can commit.
Thousands upon thousands of stories, tales, legends, myths, and fables were spawned from Relentless' Rampage akin to mold growing upon the rotting carcass of a fruit. There were stories of soldiers who fought in the war against the Perfect Homunculus finding glory, artworks depicting the camaraderie of humans fighting alongside demons like brothers-in-arms, and a tragic song sung by bards of a goblin sacrificing themself against the Monster for the love of a human nurse.
"Now come on! Show me what you got!" Milim said with her arms wide as if she were about to hug someone.
Taking her invitation, Shizue launched herself at the Dragonoid at speeds beyond that of sound. Yet even as she easily pushed past the sound barrier, there was no sonic boom due to her new body taking some laws of physics as suggestions of physics.
Such was Static Matter.
Shizue flew so fast that it surprised even Milim when the ex-adventurer appeared right in front of the Demon Lord, her right arm cocked back right before she threw a punch at the child-like Destroyer.
*Boom*
However, unlike Shizue's time-stopped body, Milim's isn't. She went supersonic from the punch and careened towards the forest ground, and just like a giant stomping on the ground, there was a veritable fountain of dirt and upturned trees.
The devastation she created with a single punch made Shizue look at her fist in awe. While during initial testing, Shizue knew her strength in the War Chassis was incredible, the servant didn't fully connect this power as truly being 'her's' until she had done what most Templar Knights and Adventurers had only dreamed off:
She punched a Demon Lord
She PUNCHED a Demon Lord
She PUNCHED a DEMON LORD and her fist wasn't broken!
Internally, Shizue was gleeful at the thought and accomplishment. Cromwell had worked very hard to instill the idea that Demon Lords were untouchable, that they were superior existence to mere humans. That belief was, needless to say, shattered like glass under Shizue's inviolable fist.
That sense of superiority was dashed when Milim rose up from the column of dust. Pieces of dirt flew off of her but otherwise, the Demon Lord was fine— not a single scratch in sight. Her clothes weren't even wrinkled.
"Wow! So fast too!" She exclaimed, clapping her hands together rapidly as an audience would after a play's completion, "well let's hope your durability is the same! But then again you are a lich so you won't die either way."
With that, the magicule sensor in Shizue's body spiked as Milim flared her aura. The Dragonoid blitzed to Shizue almost too fast for her visual sensors to register before slamming a right hook into Shizue's reflective silver face.
"[Milim Punch]!"
.
.
.
It took a few seconds for Shizue to stabilize and orientated herself midflight. Once the silver woman-lich does, she found herself floating several kilometers above Metropolis. The many tall arcologies that rose from silver earth made it impossible to mistake its skyline for any other city in the world.
While an attack from Shizue had grounded Milim, a single one from the pink-haired Demon Lord had sent her all the way from somewhere near the Citadel to the Capital.
Perhaps Cromwell, that bastard, was right.
Then, in Shizue's vision, she spotted a growing pink dot.
She had no time to ponder what it was before the pink dot transformed into a pink meteor and smashes into the servant. Being so close to Milim, Shizue had a clear view of the maniacal grin on her face as the small Demon Lord pushes the time-stopped robot into the Kusha Mountain range south of Metropolis at speeds that cause the air around Milim to burn.
"Hahaha! How fun! I've never had so much fun in ages!" Milim stopped to gleefully shout. Then, she threw Shizue as a child would when throwing a ball in a game of catch.
The War Chassis was embedded into the sides of a snowy peak in an explosion of rocks and debris. Then, a rumble consumed the mountain as many many tonnes of snow became to slide off the face of the mountain Shizue crashed into, creating a massive avalanche.
Even after taking all this abuse, Shizue's body is still unharmed, but the damage to the pride she built after punching Milim is immense.
The pink-haired Demon Lord then dropped down next to the deep crater formed when Shizue crashed into the mountain, grabbed her by the throat, and started running the silver body around the sides of the mountain.
Like a sculptor shaving off the side of an ice block, titanic landslides began to occur right after Shizue's passing by as hundreds of tons of boulders and gravel fell loose.
*PSSSP*
It was the sound of a soda can opening.
A bright burst of blue light from above had sent Milim blasting off, letting Shizue tumble down the mountainside before taking control and hovering above the sliding rocks, snow, and dirt.
Turning to look at the source, Shizue found a figure clad in a full-covering body suit that was blacker than the night sky. Since the suit wasn't reflecting any light, the figure looked more like a living, walking void. However, what Shizue can see was the long thing held by the figure.
The thing vaguely resembled some of the automatic rifles that belong to the soldiers of her old world right before she was transported.
"Strictly speaking, this is classified as a Grand Unified Theory weapon." The figure held up the rifle, its voice sounded artificial, "The Particle Disruptor shoots out Proton-sized spacetime defect bullets comprising of an outer shell of Weak bosons alongside an inner shell where the Weak and Electromagnetic forces are unified, and a center where the Strong force combines with the other two leaving only gravity untouched."
It was her Lady.
Just as she had finished speaking, all colors were bleached from the world as a flash of light coated everything in white.
The light was quickly followed by a pressure wave that washed over both of them. It was a pressure wave from an explosion that will eventually cause the snow on half of all peaks within the Kusha Mountain Range to fall in a gigantic avalanche not seen since Relentless was around.
Then, in a single swift motion, the rifle was deposited into a Doorway.
"Thank you, Shizue," her perfect voice didn't sound so perfect anymore with the filter in place.
Then, the Perfect Homunculus spread out her arms, "well, Milim, this is my most powerful armor, conventional defense taken to the logical endpoint: the Gravastar Armor, my most expensive project to date. Took me a bit to get in."
A pink meteor came from the direction where Milim had vanished to. It slammed into the figure clad in complete darkness with enough energy to rival the Tunguska event—
Scientia stood completely still to take the hit. The snow and earth around the two went wild as Milim collided with the Gravastar Armor and clouded both forms.
Once everything settled, Shizue was treated to the scene of Milim awkwardly flaring her aura and trying to push Scientia. She was like a child trying to push against the leg of an adult that wasn't playing along.
"You can't move me Milim. This is the endpoint of conventional defense and I was not joking. I'm clad in a chained infant universe shaped into a suit of constantly adjusting armor. The pseudo-event horizon absorbs all energy directed at it, and the last time I checked, included magicules."
Scientia's armored form didn't even budge one bit from that attack. The issue with inertia seemingly didn't even exist.
The Demon Lord started hovering around her Lady, inspecting her armor with a careful eye
"I must admit I am seriously impressed, to have built such a thing without magic... oh it seems we are indeed living in interesting times." Whatever semblance of childishness was gone from Milim is that moment, "I guess the saying that Perfect Homunculus is the Herald of Change is indeed factual."
Relentless did shatter the old world order...
"I should assume you are satisfied your chef can defend themselves then?"
She had a happy smile, her childishness returning in full force as she energetically started flying all over the place, "indeed! And since your kind does not age, my future problem concerning food is pretty much set!"
"So, hypothetically speaking," Scientia probed, "if a nation were to try and attack me, would you come to my defense?"
Shizue's internal database on psychology showed how her Lady moved in such a way as to speak of quiet hopefulness. She still wants that shield...
"Oh yeah definitely! no way am I gonna let my personal chef get attacked!" she said casually as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"...Why thank you..." Scientia seemed almost hesitant, "shall we head back then? As an ally, I should assume Rimuru would love to show you around Metropolis, and see all the splendor that modern technology grants you. Door me." Shizue moved next to her Lady, even if the situation has been resolved her contract states she must remain somewhat close in the event that her Lady does ask for her.
Just as Milim was about to fly away, the little Demon Lord noticed that Shizue and Scientia weren't moving, until a black rectangle formed off to the side of the duo.
"Wait! you can create a portal without magic?!" she quickly came down to the ground to observe the tear in space.
"Of course, Teleportation is too useful not to have."
Shizue turned off her stasis before moving through the portal since according to her Lady, static matter messes with Doormaker too erratically to be considered safe.
As she stood next to the portal, waiting for her Lady to pass through, Shizue couldn't help but replay the last few minutes inside her mind and connect it with her new light.
In truth, she only offered lifelong servitude because she thought that her flesh and blood body didn't have too much time left. Shizue didn't fully believe that Scientia could remove a Greater Spirit intertwined with another human for decades.
She merely wanted to die a human, yet, by her Lady's hands, she lived on.
When Shizue first woke up in her new body and heard about the situation, about how she was integrated into the Citadel, she... was in despair.
The ex-adventurer has seen the slaves of Puppet Nation Jistav, of how cruel their Masters can be, of the number of slaves who were worked to death every day there was staggering. Life was a cheap commodity, especially when their bodies could be sold to Demon Lord Clayman and be turned into flesh puppets.
In her mind, Shizue came to the conclusion that this was her punishment. Her punishment of standing by as Ifrit murdered countless innocents.
And yet this can't count as punishment. While yes, she may not be allowed to change jobs, her pay can be described as 'extraordinary' (and is adjusted to inflation), and since most of the time her Mistress is tinkering, Shizue has a ridiculous amount of free time to do whatever she liked. What's more, after familiarizing herself, Shizue found that she could serve her Lady while simultaneously piloting a separate body to indulge in whatever vices the Citadel can fulfill.
Quite an interesting predicament, Shizue idly noted as her Lady and Milim walked through the Doorway. The servant thinks many people would willingly sign up for such a contract.
Shizue was the last to go. Her body momentarily lost that reactive silver sheen as she entered the Doorway.
We are truly living in interesting times.
_____________________________________________
AN: yes that is a reference to the CYOA.
