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?
「Fufun! Don’t go thinking I’ll always be an unemployed shut-in, ‘kay?
I’m earning a lot, and can even hire people now!」
「Say what!?」
Guy made a perplexed face at Ramiris’ boasting.
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.
I see you’ve learned some good jokes!」
Lead on by Guy’s provocation,
「Why you!!」
Ramiris unleashed her Killer Dropkick on him.
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!
I didn’t see Ruminas on the screen though…… wonder why?」
As expected, Ramiris’ explanation was useless, and the situation remained just as vague.
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.
Snow white skin. Cold, bewitching Blue Diamond eyes.
However, she didn’t feel alive, her beauty was like that of a doll.
「It is a pleasure, Demon Lord Rimuru-sama.
Or, would you be more familiar with ‘Ice Dragon’ Velzard?
I am Veldora’s elder sister.」
She said with a graceful bow.
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.
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.
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.」
「I’m not that bad; Aren’t you just too fast?」
「Well, since you were going to call Misery and Hillary anyway, you could’ve just waited for me too.」
「Yes yes, whatever.」
Velzard sighed as if giving up, and gracefully placed herself on a chair.
Though there was a soft sofa, the wooden chairs were also quite comfortable.
After a sip of the tea brought by Shuna,
「Honestly, that Veldora, he didn’t have to run away」
She complained.
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? 」
「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 positive that Veldora can’t handle his sister Velzard.
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.
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.
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.
Judging from the story, against Veldora’s ‘action oriented’ powers, Velzard’s ‘binding oriented’ powers were extremely effective.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Giving each of them 90,000 souls at a steady pace soon resulted in evolution.
And with that, I had another 520,000 souls remaining.
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.
Well, you can call me if anything happens.
「Yeah, thanks. You can call me on you end too. I’ll do what I can.」
We said our goodbyes with promises of cooperation.
Just to confirm, I had a quick visit and came back.
This Skill was only possible for places already visited.
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.
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 wanted to grant them the souls to evolve immediately.
I wouldn’t want to force a reward on them, if they didn’t think they deserved it.
And it was better that I personally saw to their growth.
The same result as Misery and Hillary.
Their status as Lord proved their new found strength.
They understood that overlapping the effects of Skills and Magic could break through multi layered barriers.
This birthed a desire to at least act as a shield for their Rimuru-sama the next time they faced Guy.
Fighting strong opponents, sparked passion in not only a human’s, but even a Demon’s soul.
As for their level of nobility,
Duke class: Moss
Earl class: Venom
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.
They weren’t named, so too much of a power up was not expected.
They’ll probably prove useful one of these days.
Anyway, all of them safely attained greater strength.
I had already planned to go support her if need be.
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.
And as I was thinking about contacting Ruminas about Veldora ――
A Veldora flying at ultra high speeds on a crash course with the Imperial fleet.
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.
Though, his present feelings aside, the reason he needed to become like this was not fun at all.
His sister, Velzard, could be called his single natural enemy.
Furthermore, she was born before him, and overpowered him in power, Energy and everything else.
It happened many times after Veldora came into the world.
Velzard’s ‘Eternal World’ was an impregnable defence that also served to seal all of Veldora’s movements.
All of them were nullified against the her absolute bind.
After all, only after learning to restrain his power did he realize that his big sister Velzard was always able to do it perfectly.
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.
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’.