"...Adelio, are you really sure about this?"
[Ingrassia]'s capital, [Ruler].
Riding through the city in a carriage along roads paved even more beautifully than the ones still under construction in [Tempest], Rimuru cautiously spoke as she looked at Adelio, who was seated across from her.
"I appreciate you introducing me to those student otherworlders you said were your disciples, but... do you really have to call that Greater Demon named [Viole] all the way here...?"
After resolving the great calamity known as [Charybdis] with barely any damage, she had been excited for this long-awaited break, and even more excited at the thought of meeting other otherworlders besides Adelio and Shizue. But now, before she had even met them, that excitement had already been thoroughly crushed.
All because of one invitation Adelio had made just a few days ago.
That night, during the festival held after [Charybdis] had been defeated, Milim had suddenly announced to Rimuru that she would be leaving [Tempest] for a while.
"Since Milim looks like she's finally planning to step in directly, we'll have to start moving more actively too."
A week later, Adelio had followed that up with those meaningful words and suggested a trip to [Ingrassia], saying he would introduce Rimuru to the children from another world who were his and Shizue's disciples, but...
Up until then, Rimuru hadn't known.
"As it happens, I've still got two jokers on this side worth trying out."
Adelio was an even more demon-like Greater Demon than she had imagined.
And on top of that, there were still two more demons comparable to him.
"Well, I get what you're worried about, Rimuru, but just watch for now. I can't guarantee it'll be completely safe, but I can say with confidence that it absolutely won't fail."
Maybe that meant he still had at least a shred of conscience left.
Thankfully, he hadn't gone so far as to commit the utter madness of summoning both of those Greater Demons at once, but from Rimuru's point of view, even just one of them was enough to make her stomach shrivel with anxiety.
"......"
"With Adelio, Miss Shizue, and Ria all here, even if the worst happens, this place probably won't turn into a battlefield... but still... I feel way too uneasy..."
[Primordial Demons].
The title, reserved for only seven rulers among demonkind, was still unfamiliar to Rimuru, but through Adelio, who stood at a rank comparable to Ria, one of those seven, she had been forced to understand just how dangerous the beings called [Primordial Demons] really were.
Immortal transcendents who could shatter mountains, split seas, and pierce the heavens with a mere gesture.
That was what the [Primordial Demons] were: beings said to stand on equal footing even with [True Dragon]s and [Demon Lord]s.
"Please let nothing happen..."
Rimuru kept praying inwardly for peace until the carriage finally came to a stop.
*
About twenty minutes later, the place where Adelio's group got out of the carriage was, in a way, one of the most famous locations in all of [Ruler].
"...Woooow..."
"As expected, it's still so clean here."
A symbolic place for adventurers all across the world, and a meaningful site where the organization once called the Mutual Aid Association had been reborn anew by an otherworlder.
It was the [Guild] of [Ingrassia].
"What do you think? Feels pretty different from the [Guild] in [Blumund], doesn't it?"
"...Yeah. It's way more modern than I expected."
Staring blankly at the bulletproof glass windows and massive automatic doors, things she hadn't even seen in technologically advanced [Dwargo], Rimuru temporarily shoved aside her worries about [Viole], which had been weighing on her until moments ago, and stepped into the [Guild] with her golden eyes shining.
Sliiide
The moment she entered, her vision was filled with counters, sofas, quartz flooring, ventilation ducts, and decorative furnishings.
Unlike other [Guild] buildings, which were usually made only of wood or brick, this one had a modern interior that looked like it could have existed somewhere on Earth. Rimuru kept looking around in every direction, completely ignoring the stares following her and Adelio's group.
"...H-hey... behind you..."
"Huh? Why are you so worked up all of a sudd... wha...?!"
"...The [Hero Party]...??"
As Rimuru walked farther inside, several veteran adventurers who had skipped the rotation ceremony and were browsing requests in the [Guild] as usual reacted in their own ways to the sudden appearance of the three people with her, dropping request sheets or blinking in shock.
Normally, they would have headed straight to the Free Academy, so seeing them this unexpectedly, and from such close range, was only natural.
"Rimuru, if you're done looking around, let's head up to the reception room now."
"Ah! Okay, got it."
But the three of them, already used to dealing with crowds hundreds of times larger outside, brushed off those gazes lightly and stepped into a passageway shaped like an elevator, riding a magic circle up to the upper floor.
"......"
And then—
"......"
"...Hey... that wasn't a mirage just now, right...?"
"...Yeah. They were the real thing...!"
"I can't believe we got to see the [Hero Party] here..."
"And there was even a beauty who looked like Lady Izawa Shizue?!"
"Could she be the little sister of the [Ruler of Blazing Flames]...?"
"...Or maybe... [Hero]'s new disciple...??"
"What kind of nonsense are you idiots saying? Isn't it obvious?! No matter how you look at it, she's the [Hero Party]'s new member!"
"...Huh? Where did that come from? No matter how I look at her, she doesn't seem like someone trained in combat."
"Wouldn't it be more believable if she were the [Hero]'s new lover?"
"What kind of nonsense is tha—"
After Adelio's group vanished like a mirage, the atmosphere on the lower floor grew more and more heated over the appearance of a new face.
Completely unaware that this newcomer was actually the rising leader of the monsters in the Jura Great Forest.
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