Chapter 19

Momonga sat in the seat of honor in the central dojo run by Cocytus. As of late, he had spent enough time with Benimaru and Shuna that the guardians started to notice. Especially his own son, who had remarked that his new 'adopted siblings' were getting much more attention than he ever had, thus the situation needed to be fixed posthaste.

Cocytus was the easiest choice to start with, as the guardian of the fifth floor would be the last to complain about being left out and would endure the neglect in silence.

When Momonga offered him to have an activity of his choosing, Cocytus jumped at the opportunity to show off his students and how much they had grown under his careful guidance.

Standing by Momonga's side, he announced the combatants as they dueled in a competition for the title of the best student.

'This all looks so impressive.' Momonga couldn't help but watch with wonder. Save for action movies, he had little idea of how sword fighting actually worked.

Of course, |Omniscience| gave an instinctive knowledge of which combatants were more technical fighters and which ones relied more on their strength and speed. In the end, it was no surprise that even during the first few preliminary matches, Hakurou would end up the victor of the tournament.

He didn't possess the raw strength of some of the strongest kijin, but his technique was unrivaled. Additionally, he seemingly was able to accelerate his movements by some sort of hidden technique.

{ Can you explain how Hakurou is moving so fast? } Momonga asked Cocytus as Hakurou effortlessly struck down another opponent.

{ He is using one of the arts called |Battle Will| to increase his physical capabilities. It allows the use of innate energy that goes beyond magicules to augment one's abilities. This technique can also be used for a precise rearrangement of magicules throughout the body that can fuel movement much more efficiently. Additionally, it helps conceal aura even without the ring of false data and lets him use his power in ways that resemble magic. }

{ I see. Did you teach him this technique? }

{ No, in fact, I learned how to use it from Hakurou. Of course, my much larger magicule pool and the natural talent gifted by Lord Takemikazuchi let me learn this technique within weeks while it took Hakurou almost a century to master. }

{ I see. Would you be able to teach it to other guardians as well? Or maybe even me, Pero, and Buku as well? } Momonga asked. If there was a possibility to make not only the guardians stronger but him as well, there was no way he could pass it by.

{ Training other guardians should be possible, and I have no doubt The Supreme Beings, you included, Lord Momonga, will master it even faster than me. }

'No matter what, they always think we are better than them in everything.' Even after a year in this world, guardians still held that belief.

With no reason to argue, Momonga returned his attention back to the tournament. Only four combatants were left. Each pushed beyond their very limits to show how much they had progressed since Momonga had given them names.

In the end, Hakurou defeated the last opponent and was once again declared the champion. Momonga waved his hand for him to come closer. The old kijin walked up to the chair and kneeled.

"Cocytus told me you had taught him a technique he was not aware of. I would like to reward you." He already knew that Hakurou would try to downplay his efforts and tell him that there was no need to gift him. So before the kijin could protest, Momonga pulled a relic class katana from his inventory and leaned forward, pushing the sheathed blade into his hands.

"My Lord…" Hakuro stopped mid-sentence. This weapon was far beyond what someone of his stature should ever wield but to reject the Ultimate Ruler's gift would be an unforgivable sin. He lowered his head even more and said "Thank you.".

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The next thing Momonga had planned was to visit Demiurge, but with the recent otherworlder summoning incident, Demiurge could not be convinced that any attention given to him by the Supreme Beings wouldn't be a waste of time.

So it gave him some time before the meeting with Pandora was planned. With that, he teleported to the Insectar populated area of the forest. The broods had birthed thousands of new insects that needed to be named. At this point, they numbered way over seven hundred thousand, and that was only the ones that needed to be named.

With insectars coming in all shapes and forms, the smallest ones were not that different from regular bugs with their numbers being so high that not even Apito and Zegion knew how many there were.

Both the queen and the general waited for him in a clearing with rows of ground bugs behind them and flyers filling the sky blocking out the sun.

"Lord Momonga, we are honored to meet you once again. The new members of the broods are prepared." Both said in unison as they kneeled.

"Rise. Good to see you both again. How many are there this time?" Momonga asked, trying to not sound frustrated.

"About fifty-five thousand of the regular ones." Apito said as she stood up with a smile. "There was also an increase of natural spawning. We have a few thousand in new breeds that we have not seen before."

"I see. Did you calculate the optimal population Tempest can safely hold?"

"Not considering any expansion and taking other species and their needs into the equation Tempest can hold about three million named insectars with their support bugs."

'Three million! I will have to name millions!?'

"Is a slowdown of population growth possible? Overpopulation could lead to long-term problems." Momonga asked in hopes of not succumbing to spending half of his time naming countless hordes of insects.

"We can stop reproduction whenever necessary. Once we have reached the numbers you deem fit, we can keep them without any problems, Lord Momonga."

"Then try to keep a slow and steady increase." Momonga said and turned his attention to the naming. The regular wasps and beetles received names similar to their already-named brethren.

The new types were much more interesting. Among the ground types there were mantis and crickets, while among the flyers, dragonflies and mosquitoes could be seen.

Unfortunately, among them were none that seemingly held a potential name. Like was the case with the top six kijin and most recently with Diablo. 'I guess I can just choose one queen and one general of each type at random.'

He started with the Mantis and gave most of them random names save for two individuals who, although not by much, stood out. As with all other named monsters, the titles gave them additional power, placing them just under Apito and Zegion in terms of magicule count.

Same as all other queens and generals, they become much more human-like with very tall and slim bodies, two human-like arms, and two mantis ones. Each had two pairs of small translucent wings and very narrow but otherwise human faces. The females were clearly much larger than the males.

The next were crickets which turned out to be more human-like than mantis' but shared some similar features. Same as mantis', they had four hands, but all of them were humanlike.

The naming of the dragonflies came with an unexpecting surprise. As all other insect species when gaining humanoid features mostly stayed human-sized, it wasn't the case this time. The regular queens and generals grew to about two meters and thirty centimeters tall while the two with titles grew almost three meters tall.

The final ones to tackle were the mosquitos. Momonga was about to give them generic names and titles like everyone else but then a more interesting idea came. In a sense, they were vampiric species so it could be more beneficial for Shalltear to name them.

{ Shalltear, are you busy at the moment? }

{ I am always available for you! Ahm… I mean I'm not busy at the moment, Lord Momonga. }

{ Could you come and assist me with naming? }

A gate opened beside him before he could even finish the message. Shalltear charged through it while simultaneously trying to appear graceful.

She approached Momonga and curtsied. "I am ready to serve, Lord Momonga."

"I want for you to name the mosquito-type insectars and give some queens and generals titles. I think you as a vampire naming them would be of greater benefit." Momonga waved at a swarm of the meter-tall flyers that were last to be named.

Shalltear immediately started to name them, but unlike Momonga, she could not use mass naming, and thus started saying out loud each rather poorly thought-out name.

As with any other insectar, the high-ranked ones gained humanoid forms. Shalltear's influence on them was obvious as they were very pale and their mouths were wider than those of other humanoid insectars. Yet they kept some of the mosquito features as well, like the translucent wings.

Lastly, what was their oddest feature was their long, scorpion-like tails with needle-like spikes at the tips, which according to |Omniscience| were for draining blood.

Since the naming would clearly take many hours, Momonga just told Shalltear that she can finish naming them at her own leisure and all additional mosquitos either born or spawned would be in her service.

The last thing planned for the day was to spend time with Pandora. The father-son quality time was set aside for far too long. 'I wonder what he has in mind?' Pandora had jumped at the opportunity to pick activities.

'I hope he won't go… too far. He did say he planned something simple and what most fathers and sons are doing according to the media, whatever that means.' Momonga, as usual, relied on emotional suppression to ready himself for the experience.

Once the clock struck four pm, he teleported to the castle entrance where Pandora was waiting for him. Instead of his usual uniform, he was dressed in cotton pants and vest with very long rubbery boots.

"Vater! Ich habe ein outfit für dich vorbereitet!" He exclaimed and practically pushed identical clothing into Momonga's arms. 'He is speaking German again… I'll just let it slide today. He can be as eccentric as he wants today.'

'Is this supposed to be something people wear when they go fishing?' He may not have any practical experience in that sort of thing but the media did depict something of the sort, especially in remakes of older family movies.

Once he had changed into the fishing gear, Pandora opened the gate to the lake that was surrounded by the dragonewt houses. 'It's fine! This is nothing weird.' Momonga reminded himself as his subjects looked at him mostly with curiosity.

There was a small port area constructed and something that resembled a yacht anchored there. A group of maids awaits them. Two of them were holding fishing rods, one a whole bucket with worms and another a crate full of beer cans submerged in ice.

"I'm sorry that this is not fully to the standards of the Supreme Beings, but this was the best I could put together." Pandora said apologetically as he practically dragged Momonga towards the yacht.

Once they stepped on the yacht, a dragonewt dressed in a white uniform greeted them with a salute. "Lord Momonga, Lord Pandora. I will be your captain for the evening." He said with a stiff voice.

"Make preparations, captain." Pandora returned the salute and dragged Momonga to the front deck of the yacht.

While Pandora ordered maids to set up everything for his quality time with his father, Momonga was led to a dressing room where maids hastily replaced his dark robes with the clothes Pandora had provided.

Once Momonga returned to the front deck of the yacht, both sat down in leather chairs with a fishing pole holder at the side of each. The maids skewered the worms on the hooks and handed the poles to Pandora and Momonga.

'This should be easy right?' Momonga held the pole with little idea of what to do. He glanced at Pandora and tried to repeat the smooth motion with which his son swung the pole. To his credit, he managed to repeat it and hit the surface of the water with the hook.

Once that was done, the maids opened the beer cans for them.

Momonga held the pole in silence and practically copied each move of Pandora. 'Am I supposed to talk about something?'

Ultimately, he decided to let Pandora take the lead. So both sipped beer in silence and waited for the fish to bite. Soon enough he pulled out the first fish that looked strangely stiff for something that was supposed to be alive.

'Could it be that there is someone under the water attaching fish to the hooks? No, that would be silly…right ?' He dismissed the thought and wrote off that the fish were rather docile to the fact that their population was cultivated for dragonewt consumption and likely didn't have much of a survival instinct.

Pandora looked at his father and nodded at Momonga's accomplishment. 'Just like in instructional material. Father catches the first fish and son looks with admiration. My team executed everything properly.'

In the end, it turned out to be a surprisingly relaxing evening. When the sun finally disappeared under the treeline in the distance, he said goodbye to Pandora and returned to his quarters. All the largest fish he caught was sent to Nazarick's kitchen to make a special meal for him.

As Momonga slowly ate, he promised himself to repeat such relaxing days more often, especially considering that despite him advocating for everyone to have more free time, he himself worked way too much.

Proofreading by alassandro, Visur Nyxan, Sad_Smiles, RottenPizza, Abyssalidiot, and I AM THE STRING CUTTER.

AN: Thank you for reading the story, and if you have caught up to the latest chapter, you can check out my other work or join my discord server (Link is in my profile) where additional chapters are available.