March on Faltra

(3rd POV)

It was sunrise in Estonia. A small village with no name and no real importance that bordered the Jura Great Forest in the north was just beginning to stir. The women used the newly imported pump to collect water for the day.

Previously, they had to draw the water with a pulley system, but some of the merchants who came here from the Kingdom of Tempest had sold them the pump at a cheap price. Now they didn't have as much back-breaking labor so early.

The men walked out of their homes and activated the golems in the storage shed. Another gift by the Tempest Merchants were the agricultural golems who helped farm the land much more efficiently and only had to be supervised, allowing the men to relax all day with their wives.

Both groups ate their breakfast as they sat on their porches and looked over their village. They had made the food the night before bed and kept it warm and fresh with stasis runes engraved onto their dishes. Now they could sit back and enjoy their days in peace.

One of the men was walking around the fields and was checking the exterior fence. Thanks to the vermin bane rune on all the posts, they didn't have to worry about pests eating their fields so long as the fence posts were in good condition.

After giving one of the wooden stakes a slight kick to ensure it was solidly in place, he smiled to himself and began to return back towards the village. Since it was his turn to check the fence today that meant that once it was done he had the day off. Tomorrow he would be the one watching the golems all day and keeping count of the harvested food.

Just then, a shadow crossed the sky, temporarily blocking out the view of the sun for the man. He looked up and squinted before gawking.

Quickly he rubbed his eyes just to make sure that he wasn't seeing things. To his shock, he wasn't. Hundreds of Dragonewts flew overhead followed by what looked to be ships that floated in the air. He heard a howling from the woods. The beast's call was deep and menacing. The older man knew it was from a gigantic creature due to how low its call was.

From just behind the treeline, in the dark forest, suddenly tens, no, hundreds of glowing eyes could be seen. For a moment they seemed unmoving before the glow disappeared and several dozen wolves of carrying colors emerged from the treeline. Each ridden by a monster. Either a hobgoblin, Kijin, Minotaur, or other species.

The Wolves themselves, bigger than the man's house, quickly ran across the grass fields and leaped over the man who ducked down, hoping this was all just a bad dream. After a minute, the stomping sounds vanished and the man opened his eyes and looked around.

He saw a small airship in the center of town, but all the other monsters, both flying and running, had vanished over the hills to the south.

The man gulped and ran towards the town, though as he got closer and closer, he noticed that the people weren't running away like he thought, but instead, they were celebrating.

As he got closer, he heard conversations from his fellow villagers.

"Did you hear, Tempest is finally going to invade and get rid of all the nobles!" A young woman said.

"'Bout Time. I guess that means we don't have to pay the lord's tax this year." Another replied.

"Yes! That Gnome Girl even said they will be building a concrete road to the city! Now we won't have to travel on those uncomfortable dirt paths all the way there." Another young man echoed.

The man from the fields was baffled and before he could react, a young-looking boy with slightly pointed ears came up to him and tugged his shirt.

"Mr, which house is yours?" The young gnome asked.

"Huh?" The villager replied.

"Well, I need to know which one is yours. When we rebuild it with stone and etch in the new runes, magic appliances, and furniture we would need your input on the interior design and color." The gnome said.

The villager was confused and he looked to his small wooden shack. It was shabby and falling apart because it was one of the oldest in the village. When he had grown up, the village didn't have any more space due to its growth and he had to settle in the shack of one of his grandparents after their deaths.

He was unmarried and didn't have enough money for the materials to fix it up, so it was left to decay for a while.

The gnome followed the man's gaze before smiling and nodding. He wrote something on a clipboard for a minute before shouting to his superior. "Boss, that's everyone! We are ready to start construction!"

"Excellent! Nero-sama has provided us with designs for the village and the magic department back home has already prepared the magic ritual. Ask the man if there is any preference for its new location." She shouted back

"You heard the boss. Anywhere you want it specifically?" The gnome asked.

"Uh... yeah, I guess close to the field..." The villager said with a pause.

The gnome boy and his superior smiled and nodded. Just then she ran back inside and started fiddling with some magic circles and input some runes. After a minute, a large magic circle covered the village and all of the houses in the village glowed and disappeared.

For a brief moment, just enough for everyone to see the now barren landscape, there was nothing, though a second later, an entire town was instantly constructed using magic. The buildings looked to be made out of stone and a new material (Stucco) he couldn't quite make out.

Everyone was aghast as the small male gnome began guiding the man to his new home. The interior was sleek and cool. Hardwood floors, shining granite countertops, marble bathrooms, and an oven, stove, and even metal icebox (refrigerator).

His toilet, which was originally a pit in one of the rooms that he had to keep shut because of the smell, was now clean and spotless. Runes lined the baseboards were littered with runes that eliminated nasty smells and gave off a pleasant floral aroma.

His house was four times its previous size and two stories tall with five bedrooms, each with its own walk-in closet and bathroom. The villager thought that it was all too much. Even most lesser lords don't have as many amenities as his house did, even if their homes were bigger.

"W-wait a minute... this place is too amazing! It's way too big for someone like me!" The man said in shock.

"Oh, that is simple space magic. I sometimes forget none of the buildings outside of Tempest have it. Yes, the inside is much larger than the outside and as you live alone with no children, you are only allowed five bedrooms. In the future, after you marry, you can contact us we will expand the interior's size." The gnome said while guiding the slack-jawed man through his new home.

"I'll never be able to keep this place clean..." the man mumbled.

"No need to worry. Cleaning and washing runes have already been placed into the house's foundations. It won't be necessary to clean much at all. The home will automatically repair itself with time too, so there is no need to worry about damage or deterioration." The gnome said with a proud look on his face.

After the tour, the gnome returned to the door. "Take this ring." He said, giving the man a silver ring with a shining blue gemstone on it. "This will serve as your ID and proof of citizenship. It'll also keep you healthy and is used to lock and unlock the door to the home. Tempest welcomes you!" The gnome said with a bow before leaving.

The villager, who hasn't even given his name yet, watched as the gnome walked towards the airship again to continue giving others tours of their new homes. He smiled to himself and felt intense gratitude for the little gnome and his leader who granted him the new home.

(A lot of you may get upset, but I was rewatching the Isekai Smartphone anime and How Not To Summon a Demon Lord and noticed that a lot of buildings in the city look like they had modern stucco-like walls, so I decided it wouldn't be too out of place for semi-modern houses to be common.)

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(Rimuru POV)

I rode in the lead airship as we approached one of the first major cities in Estonia, Faltra. It was a town of adventurers and the first stop on our list to invade. As the only fortress city without a Princess Knight to occupy it, I was slightly disappointed. Unfortunately, I needed to collect Lumachina Weselia before one of the Church's assassin's get to her, so we stopped by.

I noticed the town guard was quickly gathering while Sylvie and Galford were flying up towards my airship. They were escorted by several mages from the Mage's Guild. Strangely Celestine Baudelaire wasn't with them.

[Master that version of Celestine doesn't exist anymore. If you had followed the plot, you would have known that Celestine Lacross would have filled the role as Rem's guide.]

'Ahh... that's a shame.' I thought.

After a moment, Sylvie and Galford arrived on the top deck and cautiously walked over towards me. I could tell they were cautious and Galford was willing to fight as his left hand never left his saber. Sylvie was also allowing magicules to flow through her body rapidly to increase her speed at any moment.

"Why have you come to Faltra, Demon Lord Rimuru Tempest?" Galford asked with a bit of spit in his voice.

"I heard of the Church's coup attempt and thought 'fuck it', you're all so incompetent that "I" have been the one feeding your people for the past seven months and "I" have been the one keeping your economy from collapsing.

I have been a better leader of your country than you lot and you didn't even both sending envoys. Instead, your lords have been reveling in corruption, stealing from my merchants, selling your own people into slavery, and taxing your people so hard they can't even afford to eat.

Now, your church is trying to start a Civil War, within another Civil War, all so that they can gain more power. If I'm a demon lord, what manner of devils are your nobles." I say.

I'm lying of course. Even if everything was peaceful, I still would have invaded.

"You lie! There is no way you can build up such an invasion force so quickly. The coup only happened yesterday!" Sylvie said while pointing her finger at me.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "My dear, I have an active, professional military with the capability to fly on these airships. It only took a day to prepare the army because, unlike you lot, we don't need to draft innocents to fight our battle for us." I retort.

"Then what you want is war?" Galford said as he gripped his saber and charged at me. He used his martial art <Heat Sonic> and attempted to decapitate me but his sword was stopped when an Odachi blocked its way.

Galford blinked in surprise before Shion used her weapon to throw him towards Sylvie, who caught him and skidded back a few meters. She looked over to the mages who were with them only to see them strung up with wire by Souei. Their mouths were also gaged with wire so they couldn't chant to activate magic.

"I recommend surrender," Souei said with his usual serious tone.

"Indeed, Rimuru already has enough rabbit girls in his harem with me!" Shea said as she walked out from behind them. She waved her Warhammer around in the air before slamming the butt into the deck.

Sylvie put down Galford who stood up. Galford as easily Rank A while Sylvie was B+, around Gazef's power. Both were on edge at the time and looked at one another. They wouldn't surrender, as they didn't know what I would do to them. Galford, while not corrupt, wasn't exactly innocent either, so he expected to be culled by the Demon Lord in front of him who seemed to have it out for bad nobles.

Sylvie was apprehensive too. She didn't want to surrender either since, as the guild leader of Faltra, she couldn't be seen surrendering to monsters. She grit her teeth and looked to relax. She walked towards me slowly and stood only a few feet away. Galford was looking at her with a frown as he saw her bending down as if to kneel in surrender.

In the blink of an eye, she maximized her physical ability by silent-casting multiple martial arts and magics to dash at me in the vein hope I would let my guard down and she could rip out my throat. Of course, she wasn't prepared for what happened next.

In the blink of her eye, she saw a bright golden wall approach the side of her head before falling unconscious. Shea had used her Unique Skill [Oracle] and knew what Sylvie was planning and had swung at her head before Sylvia had even started silent casting magic and martial arts.

The adventurer's guild master had fallen, though, in that split-second window when her arms were still outstretched and she was unable to bring her hammer back to her to block, Galford attempted to decapitate Shea, guessing her to be the weakest due to her form while also being the one closest to his location. Unfortunately, he would end up being the headless one.

"<Demon Decapitation>" Shion yelled as she separated his head from his shoulders.

To his credit, Galford didn't fall over, though Shea was crying out in panic. Not because she was scared or hurt, but because his blood was spraying all over the place and since she was so close...

Let's just say I didn't realize how much I needed a red-haired bunny girl in my life until now.

I sighed and shook my head. "I was hoping he would surrender. He seemed like a decent governor as he wasn't overtly corrupt, but still..." I said before turning and looking over the railing at the various town guards being overrun by an angry mob who supported our invasion.

I may or may not have told Shuna to use mind magic on them temporarily, but once the garrison is destroyed it will be dispelled. As I am currently experimenting with the various different ways I can convert people to my cause. Everyone will remember the riot and they will fool themselves into thinking they did it of their own free will. This will be compounded when I introduce higher standards of living and hundreds of new magical devices to make their lives more convenient while openly punishing the nobles and other corrupt people in the town and freeing the slaves.

I am not a good person but that doesn't mean I'll let everyone live in poverty when I can help it. Plus, I need humans to get their st*t together and start making me better video games.

Monsters are actually quite bad at it since they are too obsessed with me. They keep making games like 'Rimuru-Fighter' or 'Rimuru Hearts'. The most popular right now are the Rimuru Dress-Up and Model games. I see Shuna and Shion playing that one the most when I stop by during their time off.

'Rimuru Attorney - Dual Destinies' is my personal favorite though...