Attendance… plz…)
….
The night was quiet.
Rimuru sat in a daze on the balcony of his room, staring blankly up at the starry sky. His hands were busy mechanically kneading a small, blue slime ball, a piece of himself he'd split off for stress relief.
He had been in a state of shock all afternoon.
He couldn't even remember walking out of the Director's office. Hell, he barely remembered how he got home... oh, wait, no. That part he remembered.
May had been thoughtful enough to pick him up around 5:00 PM.
On the drive back, Rimuru had asked her a rather private question: "What exactly happened when the Director summoned you for your inauguration?"
May had taken over the seat of the Lord three years ago. Before that, she had lived with her father. As a child, she had been close childhood friends with Alice Kuonji and Rimuru.
In the original timeline, May Riddell Archelot should have died in the 80s. But here, she had survived. She inherited the title of the "Coal Witch" and the Magic Crest.
Under the tutelage of the first-generation Archelot, she had ascended to the Lord's seat in just four years.
Faced with this question, May didn't hesitate.
"If you ask me now, the details are a bit fuzzy. I just remember the Director had a surprisingly kind attitude. I was terrified, though! Haha!"
"I suppose it was about balance," May said, taking a sharp turn with practiced ease. "There are very few young people among the Lords. Most Lords don't step down until they die, and since they can convert mana into vitality, they don't lose energy like normal old people."
"Take my teacher, for instance. She held the seat for centuries."
Rimuru nodded slowly.
Centuries.
For a single person to rule for hundreds of years... in Rimuru's mind, that was a terrifying span of stagnation.
"So, the Director wants you to lower the average age of the council?"
"I don't know for sure. But not every Lord can be like Inorai, keeping up with the times and getting excited about modern technology at the age of seventy. I think that was part of the reason."
May paused, tapping the steering wheel.
"There was one other thing he told me explicitly, though."
"He hoped I could de-escalate the century-long conflict between the Archelot and Eulyphis families."
"Uh..." Rimuru looked at her deadpan. "Why do I feel like the conflict between you two has only gotten deeper?"
"Hmph. It's normal for young people to have disagreements with old fossils." May wrinkled her nose, sniffing disdainfully. "Besides, that old man has a vibe that makes it physically impossible to like him."
She glanced sideways at Rimuru. "Anyway, why the sudden curiosity? Did the Director say something to you today?"
"Not really." Rimuru looked out the window to avoid her gaze. "His attitude was nice. It just felt like... maybe he did something unnecessary."
"Unnecessary?"
"Yeah. Like... did he give you a command to help me out, or something?"
"Hah? Pfft, you're overthinking it." May laughed. "Although he did mention you back then, I can confirm he never gave me any specific orders to babysit you."
"I see. Guess I'm just being narcissistic."
Rimuru fell silent. His reflection in the car window showed eyes filled with helplessness.
Really? No orders? Or was it a subconscious suggestion?
"So?" May pressed, sensing his silence. "What did the Director actually say to you? You've been acting weird."
"Nothing much," Rimuru sighed, his voice turning spooky and melodramatic. "We just chatted about my family history, and then... he gave me a quest."
"A quest?"
"Yeah. He told me to go Save the Human Order."
...
[Flashback: Two Hours Ago]
Rimuru sat nervously across from the empty throne, taking a deep breath to suppress the instinctual fear screaming in his blood.
He finally worked up the courage to speak.
"What... can I do for you?"
The shadow on the throne shifted. The Director decided to get straight to the point.
"My child. The day you were born..."
The voice was deep, echoing with gravitas.
Rimuru froze.
Wait. Why does this opening line sound so familiar?
"The very forests..."
...the very forests of Lordaeron whispered my name...?
Rimuru's expression twitched. He almost blurted out the next line of the cinematic.
Fortunately, the Director didn't seem to notice Rimuru's internal meme-ing and continued his slow, methodical storytelling.
"...the entire city of Edinburgh was shaken by your arrival..."
Edinburgh…?!
A flash of memory flickered in Rimuru's mind. Right... the Tempest family estate was in Edinburgh. But I haven't been back there in over a decade.
"You possessed 173 Magic Circuits. And half of them were in a fully active state."
"Wait a minute!" Rimuru froze, interrupting the old man. "Active at birth?"
"Then how am I still alive?!"
It was a fundamental law of Magecraft: Magic requires energy. For a Magus to cast a spell, they must convert their own life force (Od) into magical energy.
The quality of one's Origin and Elemental Affinity determined their potential. Geniuses like Rin or Sakura often triggered supernatural phenomena the moment their circuits were first stimulated, fires starting spontaneously, rooms freezing over.
If these uncontrolled outbursts were detected by the Association or the Church, the child would be marked.
A child who couldn't control their power was a walking disaster. They would either be killed or, if their talent was unique enough, captured and preserved in a jar of formalin as a "Sealing Designation" specimen.
That was why Tokiomi Tohsaka sent Sakura away, to protect her from the Association (or so he told himself).
But Rimuru's case was even more extreme.
If a newborn baby had nearly 90 active circuits, the drain on their undeveloped body would be catastrophic. The circuits would cannibalize the infant's life force in seconds, leading to immediate death.
At best, he should have exploded. At worst, he should have been a dried husk.
"That was indeed the most surprising part," the Director chuckled softly, the sound emanating from beneath the shadowed hood.
"You possessed an immense spiritual capacity and a terrifying degree of self-control. It was so potent that you subconsciously regulated the conversion of magical energy. Not a single accidental spell was cast. You suppressed it all."
"Immense spiritual capacity..."
Rimuru muttered the words, feeling a mix of relief and absurdity.
Case closed. It's confirmed. I was a transmigrator from birth. My adult soul was strong enough to handle the strain and instinctively kept the magic from killing me.
"But self-control alone doesn't change the laws of the Association. No one can guarantee that a baby won't blow up a city block the next time it cries. And you certainly can't teach a newborn how to practice magecraft. So, the Association sent an envoy."
"That envoy was you, wasn't it?" Rimuru blinked, connecting the dots.
"The Tempest family was a prestigious name in the Clock Tower," the Director said, a faint smile audible in his voice. "And given your lineage's connection to Phantasmal Species, they had no choice but to send me to negotiate. The goal was simple: to issue a Sealing Designation on the infant."
"However, the head of the Tempest family at the time refused. He believed you were the future of the clan. He claimed your talent would carry the Tempest name into eternity... unlike them."
"Them?" Rimuru leaned forward. "What happened to them?"
For the first time since waking up in this world, Rimuru felt a genuine, burning urgency.
"Before I answer that," the Director paused. He picked up his cup of cold coffee and took a slow sip.
"I must ask you a question, Rimuru."
The shadows seemed to deepen.
"Have you ever thought about... revenge?"
"I..."
Rimuru hesitated. By now, he was certain. He had been born into this world, and for some reason, perhaps trauma, perhaps a seal, his memories of his past life and his infancy had been suppressed until the assassination attempt woke them up.
That explained how he survived.
Seeing Rimuru's silence, the Director sighed.
"The Mystery of the Surface World is fading. Primates, Humanity, have taken the stage. The Phantasmal Species have withdrawn from the competition, migrating to the Reverse Side of the World..."
….
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