Ramiris had suddenly flown into the room shouting that Veldora had gone off to Ruminas’ place.
What the? I questioned internally , and asked for details but……
「H-hey! What in the world is Guy doing here!!」
Ramiris noticed Guy and started making noise.
「Ah? What are you doing here?
As I recall, weren’t you living in the 『Dwelling of the Spirit』 located in the Ulgracia Republic?」
「Fufun! Don’t go thinking I’ll always be an unemployed shut-in, ‘kay?
Even I can get a job, and happen to have one right now!
I’m earning a lot, and can even hire people now!」
「Say what!?」
Guy made a perplexed face at Ramiris’ boasting.
To make the calm and composed Guy get worked up like that, Ramiris, you’re pretty good.
Guy then looked at me, and I lightly explained how Ramiris was now working here.
「So basically, I’m having her help me out in a lot of ways.」
「See! Just like I said right?」
Ramiris proudly made some shadow-boxing poses like woosh woosh! towards guy from behind my head.
Well it’s fine, but please stop using me like a shield.
「Hah! Getting all cheery after getting a simple job.
A loner like you actually hiring people?
I see you’ve learned some good jokes!」
Lead on by Guy’s provocation,
「Why you!!」
Ramiris unleashed her Killer Dropkick on him.
But her fierce attack missed, and she had been easily captured.
A pleasant debacle, but there were more important matters to tend to.
「Wait wait, you can do that later, but about Veldora.
What’s this about him going to Ruminas’ place?」
Recovering a hung-upside-down-and-struggling Ramiris from Guy, I asked.
Ramiris can only concentrate on one thing at a time, so I needed to ask about the important things first.
「Ah right!
Me and Master (Veldora) were looking at different places, but suddenly, he changed the screen, and got really nervous…… and flew out shouting 「I’m worried about Ruminas, so I’ll go help!」
I didn’t see Ruminas on the screen though…… wonder why?」
As expected, Ramiris’ explanation was useless, and the situation remained just as vague.
The only certainty was the fact that Veldora headed towards Ruminas.
Jeez, what a pain, I thought when,
「My? Has the boy run away?
And I finally came over to see him too……」
It was a chilling voice.
Without leaving so much as a speck of her presence, a single woman opened the door.
Snow white skin. Cold, bewitching Blue Diamond eyes.
She was a dazzling beauty.
However, she didn’t feel alive, her beauty was like that of a doll.
「It is a pleasure, Demon Lord Rimuru-sama.
My name is Velzard.
Or, would you be more familiar with ‘Ice Dragon’ Velzard?
I am Veldora’s elder sister.」
She said with a graceful bow.
Veldora’s sister? In other words, this beautiful lady is another ‘True Dragon’!?
Since very recently, Veldora finally managed to fully control his magic leakage, but this person was controlling hers as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
The fact that I couldn’t sense as much as a hint of her presence itself proved her might.
If not told, I would have never guessed she was a ‘True Dragon’.
However, her overflowing spirit (TN: Haki) didn’t leave any room to consider her a weakling.
「Ah, Hello, I’m Rimuru.
Despite this form, I’m an active Demon Lord.」
I also introduced myself, and asked Shuna, who had guided her in, to ready another serving of tea.
Shuna worked with expertise, never losing her composure.
No, not just her, everyone who worked in serving duty did their job with the same diligence no matter who the guest was.
They had become professionals.
「You’re terrible, Guy. Leaving me behind like that.」
「Ah haha. Sorry. I forgot you were sort of bad at flying.」
「I’m not that bad; Aren’t you just too fast?」
「Hmm. Well, no biggie right? You knew where I was headed right?」
「Well, since you were going to call Misery and Hillary anyway, you could’ve just waited for me too.」
「You are right and all. But you had some good exercise after so long, so it’s a win-win.」
「Yes yes, whatever.」
Velzard sighed as if giving up, and gracefully placed herself on a chair.
The smell of trees pleased her nose.
Though there was a soft sofa, the wooden chairs were also quite comfortable.
Surrounded by the forest, it felt as if you were one with mother nature.
After a sip of the tea brought by Shuna,
「Honestly, that Veldora, he didn’t have to run away」
She complained.
I wouldn’t think Veldora ran away, but in retrospect, he never did want to go to the continent of demons.
He made excuses like it was too cold there or something, and I always thought it was strange since cold didn’t affect him.
「Hey Guy, are you perhaps living in the cold northern continent? 」
「Mm? Yeah it’s a frigid place known as the ‘Continent of Eternal Ice’, why?」
「Because I don’t suppress my magic there……
that unbearably cold place has now become an environment completely hostile to life.」
I see.
I’m convinced now.
I’m positive that Veldora can’t handle his sister Velzard.
He happened to notice Velzard through the Surveillance Magic, and made a straight line for elsewhere.
It was not like him, but I had a friend once who felt similarly about his own big sister.
「She’s too evil……」
My friend had complained.
Even a ‘True Dragon’ like Veldora must have the same feelings.
By the way, some others also boasted misfortune with their younger sisters, but I, who only had an elder brother, honestly couldn’t relate.
Both sides had their share of troubles, was my impression.
「Velzard-san, could it be that Veldora isn’t that fond of you?」
I casually asked.
「Oh my? I have been taking care of him so well since he started rampaging as a baby.
I even held him down, and stopped him whenever he was being rowdy.
He was useless and couldn’t even maintain humanoid form, and I even took the trouble of punishing him after too many of his little disasters……」
Velzard recounted episodes from the past, describing the kind things she had done for him.
The reason became clear now.
Judging from the story, against Veldora’s ‘action oriented’ powers, Velzard’s ‘binding oriented’ powers were extremely effective.
In other words, natural enemies.
Yeah, I had to agree to his wanting to run away, even if she wouldn’t do anything.
That ever confident and fearless Veldora having a weakness ―― Or rather, sister. Not exactly blood related though ―― like that was unexpected.
Afterwards, we spent the time listening to Velzard’s stories, and chatting with Guy.
Ramiris happily ate cake, and got along well with Velzard.
Velzard also became fond of the cake.
When the topic of teaching the baking techniques to the maids came up,
「Goodness. Guy can occasionally do good things too I see.
Thank you very much for undertaking our maids’ education.」
She requested cheerfully.
Now, there was no way I could refuse.
If I did, I could end up awakening something even more fearsome than Guy.
Listening to Ramiris bragging to Guy, and correcting her exaggerations, I spent the time quite peacefully.
After a decent amount of conversation, I took the time to ascend Hillary and Misery before forgetting.
Since I had claimed that only Gluttony King Belzébuth could do it, the fact that I took quite a bit more souls than required will be my little secret.
Following Raphael-sensei’s footsteps, I decided to be a bit bold myself.
Giving each of them 90,000 souls at a steady pace soon resulted in evolution.
It was exactly as Wisdom Lord Raphael had said.
And with that, I had another 520,000 souls remaining.
I could now reward the ones who I couldn’t evolve in the ceremony.
I was worried what would happen when Guy came over, but the event concluded well with us on friendly terms.
「Hope I wasn’t a bother.
Now these two can be of a little use too.
Well, you can call me if anything happens.
I’ll help you out a bit, alright?」
「Yeah, thanks. You can call me on you end too. I’ll do what I can.」
We said our goodbyes with promises of cooperation.
Or rather, the Gate was connected and travelling to and fro took zero time.
Just to confirm, I had a quick visit and came back.
Now, it became possible to Teleport to Guy’s domain.
This Skill was only possible for places already visited.
A steady effort like this was necessary in hopes of making our plans to travel the world come into fruition.
Teleportation was not possible for those not strong enough.
But someday, I hoped to set up Transit Gates to move important facilities.
And so, we saw Guy and his bunch off.
It’s an unnecessary detail, but Guy ended up eating 5 pieces of cake.
At this rate, I felt like he was going to visit again very soon.
Next time, I could prepare sweets, I thought amusingly.
Now then, after Guy left, I went to see the three Demon Dukes.
They looked like dried husks of their former selves.
「Our sincerest apologies!」
All three of them bowed profusely, and their injuries seemed to be fine.
I was relieved.
I wanted to grant them the souls to evolve immediately.
Gerudo and Adalman had refused the offer, and I was to wait for the next opportunity in their case.
I wouldn’t want to force a reward on them, if they didn’t think they deserved it.
On that note, the three Demon Dukes already showed very promising results. I was making them wait for my own convenience, so now was a good time.
And it was better that I personally saw to their growth.
With that, their evolutions resulted in them becoming ‘Devil Lords’.
The same result as Misery and Hillary.
It’s a bit troubling, but they had attained the highest rank in the Demon Aristocratic classes.
Their status as Lord proved their new found strength.
Anyway, the three of them successfully ascended to the highest rank of elites.
They understood that overlapping the effects of Skills and Magic could break through multi layered barriers.
These three girls had picked a fight with the strongest known as Guy, and had fortunately survived.
This birthed a desire to at least act as a shield for their Rimuru-sama the next time they faced Guy.
Diablo’s education may have made them gradually stronger, but their defeat in the recent events had lead them to aspire for even greater heights of strength.
Fighting strong opponents, sparked passion in not only a human’s, but even a Demon’s soul.
The effects of their evolution propagated to the Arch Demons, and evolved them to Demon Dukes.
As for their level of nobility,
Duke class: Moss
Marquis grade: Veyron
Earl class: Venom
Viscount class: Agera and Esprit
Baron class: Shien and Zonda
Well, these may seem like complicated titles, but it’s just to show the difference in the classes of Demon Dukes.
Among the rest of the 600 demons, some became Arch Demons which were on par with Knight class, but the rest remained Greater Demons.
They weren’t named, so too much of a power up was not expected.
But as their bodies were that of Culture Capsule Automatons, their strength increased much more than normal.
They’ll probably prove useful one of these days.
At present, they were doing miscellaneous work like security or labour, but since they could teleport, I could have them go collect information from various parts of the world.
Anyway, all of them safely attained greater strength.
Tomorrow, the Imperial Airships would cross Ruminas’ domain.
I had already planned to go support her if need be.
Demons may actually have a good affinity for evolution, since all of them easily completed their Harvest Festivals.
The link with the Culture Capsules were also improved, and from tomorrow, Demons stronger than Greater Demons would be born.
The souls I received(stole) from Guy promoted my forces to much greater heights, so looking at the results only, it was a truly beneficial encounter.
I told the three girls to rest up, and after confirming that they were doing so, I went back to the control room.
The Imperial Aerial Fighter Legion was on schedule, arriving tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.
And as I was thinking about contacting Ruminas about Veldora ――
The scene was displayed clearly in one of the Surveillance Screens.
A Veldora flying at ultra high speeds on a crash course with the Imperial fleet.
It was an overhead image from a high altitude, so I could easily make out his route.
At this rate, he would cause war to break out in less than an hour.
「Seriously, what is he even doing…… that Veldora……」
My lone words echoed in the control room.
−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−−
Veldora was soaring in the open skies at speeds tens of times higher than that of sound.
He was having a lot of fun after returning from the cramped humanoid form to his original Dragon form after so long.
Though, his present feelings aside, the reason he needed to become like this was not fun at all.
He had run away from his elder sister.
His sister, Velzard, could be called his single natural enemy.
Ability-wise, their match up was quite bad for him.
Furthermore, she was born before him, and overpowered him in power, Energy and everything else.
In an honest fight, he wasn’t confident he could win.
It happened many times after Veldora came into the world.
He challenged her, but was beaten instead every time.
Velzard’s ‘Eternal World’ was an impregnable defence that also served to seal all of Veldora’s movements.
Storm, Destruction, Corrosion, Doom.
All of them were nullified against the her absolute bind.
At present, he may have had a chance at beating her, but it was still too soon.
After all, only after learning to restrain his power did he realize that his big sister Velzard was always able to do it perfectly.
The nature of her power, she claimed, was specialized in ‘cessation of all energy for activity’, but she likely possessed an unmatched strength to complement that.
Veldora was cautious because he knew that his sister was not to some smallfry.
「Kuhahahaha! Our battle yet awaits!」
Leaving behind large distances and cool lines, He continued his high speed flight.
His imminent clash with the Imperials, whether it was fate or coincidence, was unclear.
But as if playing a tasteless joke, fate had it that one of those Airships was carrying the ‘Scorch Dragon’ Velgrynd.
After thousands of years, a fierce battle would result from the encounter of these two ‘True Dragons’.
Translator’s Rant:
Hi there ~ gao! Lion Mask reporting. This is more a slice of life chapter than anything. Like action? Well too bad. Though the fun times are soon to end. This arc is looking a bit better than last one where the enemy was just massacred. Well, I hope you enjoy. Some people have been asking what I’ll do after this arc is over. Well the simple and short answer is: No idea! I don’t think ahead too much. So until further notice Lion Mask RPT should be considered dead. Well… I do plan on posting TL;DRs as I read further on so probably not really inactive. I’ll be looking into other things to translate, but that topic concerns the unknown future, and isn’t even a reliable statement. Well, there’s one more chapter in the stock which could be up in soon…or not soon. Well. See you there ~~ Gao!!