Moving forward

Three days after the fight with Zagred ended, Grim finally awoke from a long slumber. Due to having drainned his mana so much for the first time in his life alongside the huge amount of stress accumulated within his body, he fell into a coma that had Asta and the rest of the black bulls worried for days.

Luckily for them, when he finally woke up there seemed to be nothing wrong with him physically or mentally. Outside of his usual Grim-like attitude, he seemed perfectly fine. Even the doctor attributed it to him being highly fatigued.

Outside of that though, the entire kingdom was up in arms over the magic knights attacking the people they were sworn to protect. Of course none of them knew that the magic knights were actually being possessed by a race that had been wiped out five hundred years prior and forgotten in the annals of history.

Not that any of this mattered. People would only believe what they could see afterall. And what they saw wasn't pretty.

For the first time in the history of the Clover Kingdom, the popularity of the magic knights had hit an all time low. The citizens were on the brink of riotting. Widespread destruction throughout every corner of the kingdom, unknown number of deaths and hundreds of children made orphans. Right now the kingdom needed someone to blame. Someone to receive the public's anger. Someone to be their scapegoat.

On the other hand, Grim's popularity was soaring like never before. Ignoring the giant glowing tree that everyone recognized as Captain Vangence's magic, news of Grim's exploits in defeating the rogue magic knights and bravely defending the innocent quickly spread throughout the nation. It had reached that his initial fanclub had evolved into something akin to a cult that. One that was dedicated to spreading his name far and while and preaching his glorious deeds to all those capable of understanding.

And so, "The Cult of Grim" was created.

'What the actual fuck!' Grim thought to himself as he read the newspaper.

'Just how much has happened in these past three days?

They're even speculating on the real colour of my hair now...'

Shaking his head, he couldn't help but be amused at the fact that they were calling him a hero. If only they knew how many of those families had been indirectly killed by his actions. Not like it mattered to him though. Those people weren't even an afterthought in his mind. The word guilty was practically foreign to him.

Laughing at the situation he had found himself in, he looked down at the silver haired woman whose head was bobbing up and down between his legs.

"I wonder how many nobles were injured?" He muttered thinking of the many noble ladies he had shared a night with.

'It'd be a shame if some of them died.'

Looking down at Nebra who was still busy working her mouth, Grim closed his eyes and checked his body again. Ever since waking up, he had found it hard to believe the amount of changes that had happened in his body while he was asleep.

'It looks like fatigue wasn't the only reason I slept for three days.'

Compared to how he was prior to the elf invasion, it seemed that his elven state had left a qualitive change in his body. While he had not retained any of the amps from his true form, the [Breath of the Beast] magic he had in his base form seemed to have seeped deep into his bones making it so that even Asta's anti magic abilities would have trouble reaching it.

And according to Nebra's words, several magic knights who had their bodies possessed by elves managed to retain a small amount of the elves mana increasing their power.

Unfortunately that increase wasn't enough to grab the attention of someone like Grim. Compared to that devil who fought on equal footing with both Licht and Lumiere, what could a bunch of random magic knights with a slight boost in mana do?

Just the thought of them trying to fight him made him feel disgusted. Besides, he had more important matters to think of.

'I need to reactivate my elven powers again.'

After conversing with King about this issue, the main soul laughed in his face, gave him the finger, and told him to "figure it the fuck out" by himself before kicking him out.

Apparently even telling Grim how to regain power he already owned would make things boring. It was much more entertaining to watch him bleed and struggle to achieve it by himself. Of course Grim cursed him out with every swear word under the sun. But in front of King's laughing face it didn't seem to mean much.

This left him with one option.

'Looks like I need to talk to my seniors.'

Imagining the look on Rhya and the other elves's faces when he showed up in front of them and asked them to help make him stronger in accordance to Licht's final words caused him to burst out in laughter as he exploded in the unprepared Nebra's mouth and nearly choking her.

'Oh... I forgot she was here.'

---

Having Nebra clean him up, Grim rewarded her by allowing her to play with her kitty while he was away.

If he was being completely honest with himself, she was way to fucking obedient! It was to the point that it made training her incredibly boring. What he thought would be a fiery and proud noble turned out to be nothing more than a paper tiger that would crumble with a simple blow. It was almost like she was made for this.

Fortunately for him, he had still had another slav- maid... Who are we kidding? He had another slave to train.

Recalling Serena (woman he had gotten his Divination magic from) he couldn't help but chuckle at the memory of their first meeting. He knew that she hated and wanted nothing more than to see his body turn into a corpse. To bad the contract between them made her ability to that impossible.

"Nebra." He suddenly called.

"Yes master?" She stood up with a lowered head.

'Yeah, she adapted way to fast.'

"Go to Serena's shop and get me as much wearable mana limiters as possible."