"We're going to set up some ground rules!" Rimuru declared to the assembled monsters.
"Rules?" The crowd seemed to ask back in confusion.
Rimuru nodded his slimy body. "Basically, it boils down to three things.
1. Do not attack human beings
2. Do not fight amongst yourselves
3. Do not look down on other species.
That's basically it." Rimuru finished.
Before anyone said anything, I stepped forward to clarify. "The rule of 'Do not attack human beings' is meant to be for offence. Do not instigate or provoke an attack; however, if you are attacked, you are allowed to defend yourselves. Use deadly force only if necessary to keep yourselves or your fellow citizens alive." I clarified.
I saw Rimuru nod, having nothing to say more about that. Hopefully, this will prevent Shion's death, but even if it doesn't, at least that stupid rule has been clarified to give her a fighting chance.
'I should visit the Ogres later.' I thought as Rimuru answered a few questions from the crowd.
...
"This is going to fall over," I stated as Rimuru and I looked at a small hut the goblins had put together for us to live in.
I could have created the house myself out of magic, but the newly named Rigurd refused to let me do such menial tasks. Rimuru seemed to be in a similar esteemed boat to myself, as it seemed like a minor ordeal whenever he wasn't being carried around or riding on Ranga's back.
Ranga... Rigurd... maybe because Rimuru was using my own more pure and dense magicules as fuel for the naming, but Ranga was already evolved into a Tempest Star Wolf while the rest of the tribe was Star Wolves. The Goblins were no better. Both male and female alike had evolved to a unique form of Goblin called a Red-Cap. Their appearances had changed, and their hair color was now almost universally red, though some people with white/grey and even a few blondes appeared as well. Some, like Gobta, remained goblin-like, while others now looked closer to World of Warcraft Orcs than Goblins. Additionally, in addition to their dramatic jump in intelligence and physical prowess, their affinity for Magic had grown as well. They were no longer in any way inferior to Ogres any longer and I think Rigurd might even give someone like a still unnamed Benimaru a run for his money, especially after I start teaching them how to use magic.
I was drawn from my thoughts by the collapse of the hut that was built for us. The clattering of bones, sticks, stones, leaves, and cloth, earning it the stare of everyone from the village.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. "If you don't like me doing it, perhaps we should import some craftsmen," I mentioned.
Rigurd nodded his head enthusiastically. "Yes, Lord Veldora! We have often bartered for goods and clothing with the Dwarves; perhaps we can recruit some of them?" He suggested.
"Dwarves!?! Those famous masters of metalworking and handicraft?" Rimuru was looking excitedly at Rigurd as the Redcap continued to explain.
I nodded my head after the explanation finished. "Alright. Rigurd, prepare some supplies for Rimuru and a party to go with him." I explained.
Rimuru looked at me. "Is that ok? Don't you want to come too?" He asked.
I shook my head. "I already have a lot of stuff to do here while you are away. Besides, you are the one with wonderlust in your eyes." I said, teasing him a bit.
Rimuru's form flushed gently. I smirked and then remembered something. I held out my arm and had it take on a more draconic form, then proceeded to peel off a scale and gave it to Rimuru.
"Use this if you need to trade for money. Last I checked, a single one of my scales was worth a little less than a Stellar Gold Coin, that's a hundred gold coins, more or less." I mentioned.
Rimuru nodded and took the scale. "How much would that be in Yen?" he asked, more to himself than me as he inspected the scale in this tendril.
"I think it's like a hundred million yen since it's worth about a million dollars." I stated.
Rimuru's entire body jolted as he heard the number before he carefully swallowed the scale for safekeeping. "I-I'll try to pawn this off then." He stated.
I nodded and walked away, leaving the Redcaps to prepare.
...
Rimuru had left earlier in the day, and a few hours later, a few Goblins wandered into our settlement. It seemed they were confused as to why the Goblins who were here before suddenly 'tamed' the Dire Wolves and evolved into some weird new variant of themselves. I was bored, so I decided to meet with them after the messenger explained the situation to me.
"No way! A powerful Majin under the authority of Lord Veldora named you all!?!" The elderly female goblin stated in disbelief.
Rigurd nodded his head proudly. "Indeed! I was even named as the 'Goblin Lord' of this village by Lord Rimuru!" He declared.
The elderly woman looked defeated. "I should have agreed all those years ago to stay with you and merge our tribes! We could have been given names too!" She lamented.
"Tell you what, if you and your fellow Goblins swear allegiance to Rimuru and I, I won't mind giving you the same deal." I interrupted. "Though you'll have to wait until Rimuru gets back. If I were to name you myself, the magicules would poison and kill you." I explained.
The Goblin Elder Female nodded her head seriously. "Then I shall bring my village here and we shall swear our loyalty to you, Lord Veldora!" She stated as she bowed her head to the ground, prostrating herself. The rest of the party looked confused when they saw me, but at her words 'Lord Veldora', they instantly realized who I was and knelt as well.
I smirked and waved my arm in a regal gesture. "Very well. Return to your village, inform its people about the promise of names and protection here! When Rimuru returns, you all shall receive your names and a place under us." I declared.
"""Yes!!!""" Her party all replied before hurrying off after them.
I turned to Rigurd. "Assign them someone to watch over them. I don't want to lose manpower due to them dying by attacks on the way to and from the village." I commanded.
"Yes, sir!!! Should we also invite the surrounding Goblin Villages as well?" He asked.
"How many Villages are in this forest anyway?" I asked.
"Several hundred, the average population is about the same as ours." He informed me.
I activated [Nyarlothotep] and discovered that the Goblin population in the Jura Forest numbered a little over 200,000. Slightly more than the Orcs, which surprised me. The Orcs were stronger than Goblins on average, but had a similar fertility rate to them, but the famine for the Orcs and the harsh environment of Jura for the Goblins had kept their populations down.
"We don't have the resources to have them ALL live here right now; however, in the coming months, I'd like to have most of them come here, at least for naming purposes, so for now, only invite the surrounding villages," I commanded.
Rigurd nodded and ran off to organize the parties he'd be sending out, leaving me alone for now. The more I thought about it, the more the population of Jura came to my mind. I knew there were Elves, Gozu, Mezu, Ogres, Lizardmen, and many others who were all living within the forest, and I wanted to get most of them on our side and have them immigrate to Tempest sooner rather than later, but we'd need to move to our permanent building site and get our population trained on how to create more proper structures first. That meant dealing with the Orc Lord.
"Treyni, where are the Orcs now?" I asked aloud.
She did not appear, but her voice carried on the wind. They are about three weeks away from the Lizardmen stronghold. A few splinter parties are scattered throughout the forest, foraging for food for the main group." She replied.
"Are any of the natives in danger of the Orcs' attacks?" I asked.
"One sizable group is close to the Ogre Village, but unless something happens, I doubt they will cause any problems." She replied.
I nodded my head. It seemed like Gelmud hadn't ordered the attack in the Ogre village yet. "Keep me informed if it looks like their settlement will be attacked," I stated.
"Which one?" Tryeni asked.
I raised my eyebrow at that. It appeared as though there were more than one settlement of Ogres. With another quick check of my skills, I learned that there were actually about 2200 Ogres in Jura scattered in about a few dozen villages, though the one Benimaru and his companions came from appeared to be the largest and strongest of them. It was likely that the Ogres from those villages were attacked either shortly before or shortly after the attack we saw in canon. It made sense. The Ogre population was way too small to be considered a 'major' player in the forest; otherwise, if they numbered just 300 total, I doubt they'd be willing to send off people like Hiiro to work as mercenaries. The monsters in Jura were no joke, and humans regularly ventured into the forest to cull dangerous monsters. It would only take a few unfortunate losses in a short period of time to force the Ogres into a situation where they fell below a breeding population able to replace their own numbers.
"All of them, for now. I'll intervene if necessary." I stated as Treyni's presence disappeared.
I sighed again. 'I wish real life had a 'skip episode' button. Standing around waiting for things to happen really sours the mood.' I thought as I made my way back to my favorite tree and sat down. I had a magic lesson to teach the Redcaps this afternoon and wanted to take a nap.
My eye twitched.
"You really like stalking me huh?" I asked as Luminous once again appeared.
"I am not stalking you. I am observing you!" She stated as she stood over me.
"Right~ and here I thought you just wanted to fish for more compliments." I teased.
Luminous blushed, but this time, she didn't let it stop her like last time. "Your attempts at flirting won't make me forgive you." She stated.
"So you just like hearing me say them then? I was right, you are cute. Adorable in fact." I stated.
Luminous' eye twitched, and her blush brightened for a few moments before she regained control, putting on a serious face. "What are you planning to do?" She asked.
I knew this was now talking business. "For now, I am taking a 'wait-and-see' approach. I'm probably going to have Rimuru deal with the Orc Lord and then use the labor force from all the new Orc muscle to create a country here." I explained.
"Hoh? And what's to stop me from having my faction destroy this nation of yours? After all, it would only be fair after what you did to mine." She stated.
I smirked. "It may be 'fair', but I'm sure you don't want to lose your favorite toy in doing so." I replied.
Luminous glared at me. "You really have changed." She stated.
"I told you that I did," I replied.
"Why couldn't it have been before you destroyed Nightrose?" She asked, more to herself than to me.
I sighed. "Yeah, that was poor behavior on my part. I apologize." I said, bowing my head.
I didn't really like the fact that I had to take responsibility for the things the old Veldora did; however, the 'old Veldora' was me, my soul was the soul fusion of Veldora and Christian. Old Veldora WAS me, just with a different temperament.
Luminous looked away. "As if it would be that easy to forgive! What am I supposed to do about the ruins you left the city in!?!" She glowered at me.
I raised my head. "What if I restored it to how it was perfectly?" I offered.
Luminous paused. She appeared to be thinking about it before shaking her head. "No, that's impossible. Even for one of your kin." She said, though with less certainty in her voice.
I smirked. "Hmm?" I stood up and activated [Multiple Existance]. It was a variant of my sister's [Parallel Existance] Skill, which allowed me to create multiple bodies each linked to a singular 'soul'. This wasn't something like the Naruto's Shadow Clones, this was closer to being a Hive-Mind of Clones where each Clone was just anothe rpart of my body.
I created this skill on a whim early on in my reincarnation here. I'd had the childish delusion that I'd be some kind of harem protagonist once I broke free and created this Skill when I worried about not having enough time to split between multiple women. The thought process at the time was that using this, it would feel, to the women, that they are in a monogamous relationship due to not needing to split time between other women but then I used some logic and flipped the scenario on its head. If I were dating a woman with that power, I absolutely would NOT let her have multiple husbands just because she could devote a single body to me while she runs along with other men.
That kind of killed my use for this Skill, but now it was very helpful. I could literally be in two places at once, sort of like nerfed omnipresence, so I could go off with Luminous now without leaving the village undefended.
Luminous glanced at my other body for a moment in shock, then turned to the me that was standing. This 'me' would be the one to go with her, while the other me would stay here to watch over things.
"Shall we go then?" I asked, offering Luminous my hand.
She looked at it hesitantly before sighing to herself and taking it. I activated [Space-Time Domination] and we were gone from the Jura Forest and inside the ruins of Nightrose.
I looked around. The place was a ruin, but a well-preserved one. A quick glance at the sky showed that the area was protected by a massive multilayer barrier, obviously meant to stop intruders from entering and looting, as well as keeping the place in pristine condition.
Luminous' eyes hardened as she glared at me again. Seeing a physical reminder of the once beautiful city in ruins for the first time in hundreds of years had rekindled her disdain for me, I think.
I'm pretty sure I could use [Causality Manipulation] to separate her hatred for me from the cause, being the city's destruction, but I decided not to interfere with her mind. After all, this woman was my first choice for a potential wife in this new life; if I could only get her through mind control, that just means I'm not good enough of a man to win her heart through normal means. I buried that thought and began walking to the wall of the nearest Ruin.
With a touch, it was instantly restored to its pristine glory. It took quite a few magicules to do so, but with my regeneration, I could have the whole thing restored in only a week or two while maintaining a stable rate.
Luminous' eyes went wide as she looked over the building and she rushed over to it, touching it with her hands and examining it thoroughly to ensure it wasn't an illusion. She then reared back her foot and kicked the wall with all her might, crashing directly through it and observing that the inside, too, was pristine. Hell, there was even soup on the table in the dining area, which was still steaming.
I smirked. "Hey, I just fixed that." I said as Luminous and I walked into the building, and I sealed up the wall behind her.
"H-how..." She asked, looking at me in shock.
I smirk. "It's my Ultimate Skill," I mentioned.
I used [Causality Manipulation] to manipulate the 'cause' of the structure's ruin, that being my rampage. I made it so that, for this structure at least, my rampage did not happen, then used [Space-Time Domination] to revert the state of the home to what it was moments before its destruction. The whole thing took more magicules than Luminous had in her whole body, but now that I had done it once, repeating the effect wouldn't be quite as taxing, and with my regeneration rate, I'd be back to full in only a few dozen minutes.
Luminous' eyes narrowed. "Ultimate Skill?" She asked. "You have one?"
I'd forgotten she hadn't awakened hers yet, though she seemed to know about them at least.
"Yeah. To be honest, I'm surprised you don't have one already. Do you want me to awaken one for you?" I asked her. "It'll only take a second."
Luminous studied me for a long moment before shaking her head. "No... not for now. Prove to me that you truly can restore all of Night-Rose, and then I shall consider allowing you to awaken it for me as compensation." She stated.
"Compensation?" I asked.
"Interest on the debt you owe me for destroying the city," Luminous said with a glare, though I noticed it didn't have nearly the same intensity nor force of hatred behind it as before.
I sighed. "Yes, yes, interest. Right..." I stated as I walked to the counter and began preparing tea in this poor fellow's home. The place was immaculate and reminded me of a Victorian-style home in terms of style. This was just a random commoner's house, and yet whoever lived here had more amenities than even lesser nobles from Kingdoms like Ingrassia. If regular people in Night-Rose lived like minor nobles, then no wonder Luminous was so pissed at losing this city.
Literally nothing created in the last 2,000 years would have even come close, although Temepst inevitably would.
Luminous sat down as I poured her a cup of tea using this guy's finest china. I waited for her to begin drinking before I smiled smugly.
"Typical Goth girlfriend. It's our first date, and she wants to go to the ruins of some vampire town." I said to myself, but loud enough for Luminous to hear.
*Pffftttt*
She spat up her tea in surprise. The mad blush returned. "This isn't a date!" She shouted as she swung at me with her sword.
I began to laugh as I ran away from her erratic, embarrassed swings while restoring houses and shops as we ran throughout the day.