"Mmm~! Everything in [Tempest] is delicious!"
The day after Milim came barging into [Tempest].
After Adelio introduced Milim and Rimuru as best friends and smoothed over the uproar, Milim had quickly grown closer to Rimuru's attendants and was now thoroughly enjoying her break while eating the food Shuna and Gobuichi had prepared.
As for the recruiting pitch she'd planned to make to Clayman, Carrion, and Frey... she had neatly tucked that away in the back of her mind.
"...Come to think of it, where did Rimuru go? I saw her here this morning."
With a bright smile, Milim swallowed an entire piece of toast in one bite, looked around the small Japanese-style mansion Rimuru had chosen as her residence, and asked Adelio, who had been staying by her side ever since yesterday.
They had only known each other for a single day, yet she was already looking for Rimuru first. It seemed she'd taken quite a liking to her.
"Rimuru's at the cave where Veldora was sealed. She said there'd been some progress related to potion production, so she went to check it out."
They were a little inferior in performance to the Full Potion Rimuru had created through [Predator] and Hipokte herbs, but High Potions and Low Potions could be mass-produced through technique alone.
Vester, who had succeeded in refining those potions—something that originally could only be made in Dwargo—had called for Rimuru.
"If you're curious, want to go take a look too?"
"Hm? Is it really okay if I go?"
"Of course. Veldora isn't sealed there anymore, so it's not really dangerous now."
If he really had to name a hazard, the cave did have an unusually dense concentration of magicules and magic power—but considering Milim's overwhelming amount of magicules, that wasn't a problem at all.
"So? What do you want to do?"
At Adelio's repeated question, Milim tilted her head from side to side for a moment, her hair swaying, then sprang to her feet as if she'd made up her mind.
"Good! I want to see that cave too!"
*
After getting permission from Shion and Shuna—whom Rimuru had assigned to keep an eye on her—Milim left the mansion at once with Adelio for the Sealed Cave.
Normally, Milim hated dark, gloomy places like caves more than anything, but the fact that it was where Veldora had once been sealed, along with her curiosity about potions—something she had never once had any use for—drove her onward.
"Hey, Rio, what does this potion stuff even taste like?"
"Hmm... hard to say. It depends on the type, so it's tough to pin it down to just one taste. If I had to pick the most common one, it's basically like plain water."
"Hmm? Then among them..."
As they passed through Rimuruber, chatting idly, Milim suddenly clamped her mouth shut at the explosive magic power she sensed nearby.
And Adelio seemed to notice it too. He narrowed his eyes and turned his gaze.
"Another uninvited guest."
The magic power didn't feel especially vast or threatening, but once he confirmed that it matched one he had sensed several times at Walpurgis, he clicked his tongue in displeasure.
"Milim, you probably felt it too, but it looks like a servant of another [Demon Lord] has come calling. Let's go check for a moment."
"Mm, got it!"
Rustle...
A moment later, Adelio unfurled the great wings on his back, rose into the air with Milim, and looked down at the monsters gathered in the center of the plaza before letting out a sigh inwardly.
"If someone showed up this soon after Milim, there's really only one possibility..."
One of the Three Beastketeers said to be second only to Carrion in strength in Eurazania—Black Leopard Fang, Phobio.
He was the weakest [lycanthropes] among the Three Beastketeers.
"...What exactly does he think he's doing, acting like that when he's supposed to be an envoy?"
Before long, Adelio folded his wings, dove down, and landed in the plaza. There he found Phobio, flanked by his subordinates, putting on a pointless show of arrogance toward Rigurdo.
"This is quite a fine town. It looks like land perfectly suited to be ruled by the Beast King."
Phobio spoke with a savage grin, clearly brimming with confidence in his status as one of Carrion's close aides, then looked at Rigurdo as if demanding agreement.
"...Haha, surely that's a joke—"
But of course, Rigurdo wasn't the sort to be taken in by such transparent swagger.
"—Hmph."
At that, Phobio's brows bent in irritation, and he thrust out his fist, flames wrapping around his hand.
Whooom...!
His face plainly said, "How dare a mere [Goblin] act so insolent."
And then—
"If you're an envoy, why don't you act like one?"
Crack!
In an instant, Adelio leaped in front of Rigurdo and lightly seized Phobio's arm, like grabbing a hissing cat by the scruff.
"...Wh-what? What did you do to my hand—?!"
Phobio seemed a beat late in realizing his arm had been caught. At first he didn't even seem to register that the one holding him was Adelio, but then his eyes flew wide open in shock.
"Th-the [Grand Duke of the Underworld]?! Why are you in a place like this...?"
"Who knows? That doesn't seem like the important part right now."
Letting go of Phobio's arm and shoving him back, Adelio glared at him with a cold expression utterly unlike the one he'd shown Milim just moments earlier.
"Do you really think a mere monster—one who's not even the [Demon Lord] himself, just a low-ranking subordinate among his attendants—can throw punches around here without permission?"
"...What...? Low-ranking...?!"
Fwoosh!!
Among the Three Beastketeers, Phobio was especially hungry for martial strength, and Adelio's provocation sent him right over the edge as flames coiled around his hand once more.
He did wonder why Adelio was here of all places, but that hardly mattered compared to the insult he had just received.
To Phobio, who had always disliked the fact that Adelio—despite being a subordinate of another [Demon Lord] just like him—was acknowledged even by other [Demon Lord]s, it was intolerable.
"You're just a lackey too! Don't talk to me like that! [Leopard Fang Explosive Flame Palm]—"
"—Even among lackeys, there's rank."
Shing!
The moment Phobio used his [Arts], Adelio drew [Black Star of Domination] from his waist and aimed at Phobio's arm with a blade carrying only the faintest trace of magic power.
Kaaang!!
"Ghk—?!"
Thud!
In that fleeting instant, Phobio's [Arts] and even the armor on his arm were completely shattered by a single slash. Then the magic power that followed crushed down on him, and he collapsed to the ground with his eyes rolled back.
"At the very least, I've already been second-in-command since long, long ago."
Phobio had already passed out, so the rest of Adelio's words never reached him—but they seemed to land just fine with the subordinates quietly watching from behind.
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