章 71: Preparations

A/N: Sorry for the long delay. I was taking some time off to relax at the start of the New Year. The final Arc is here and we will be blowing through a lot of stuff very quickly. I'm going to try to have this story be over by February and move on back to my other Story: Heart of the Universe and maybe that One Piece Story I talked about before.

It's a good thing I didn't start posting it, since it went through a complete rewrite which removed Mirko and all the other anime characters I had referenced. It just didn't flow as well with them in it.

Anyway, onto the Story!

.~.~.~.

"Die, Monster! Become my puppet in death!" The commander yelled as he swung his sword down on the defenseless Black Ninehead.

She closed her eyes and turned away and shut off her [Magic Sense], not wanting to witness the strike coming, but it never did. After a few moments, she opened her eyes and looked up. All she saw was the back of a man in a black shirt with golden embroidery. Long white hair blew gently in the breeze as he stood above her.

"Hey now, I'm pretty sure Rudra knows I won't allow attacks on this country, so what's the big idea here?" I asked, releasing a tiny amount of my [Divine Haki].

The battlefield instantly quieted as everyone felt the pressure of my presence and heard my question, amplified through the use of magic. Even Commander Kansas had frozen stiff mid-swing, coming to a halt. The fact he was so close to the epicenter of my Haki and that I was talking directly to him was not lost on him.

"Well? I'm waiting for an explanation." I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

I upped the intensity by a fraction of a percent, but it was still enough to cause some of the weakest combatants to either faint or wet themselves. Even still, this was only about half a percent of my full Haki, as if I'd released it at full intensity, everyone on this battlefield would die and my residual Magicules mixed with the dead bodies would probably create some kind of Awakened Demon Lord level Undead monster similar to how Veldora created Charybdis.

Kansas retreated a few steps, still in disbelief and sweating profusely while shaking. The man gulped before pulling himself together enough to gulp down air and respond. He felt that if he didn't, he'd be killed immediately.

"W-what is the Hero doing here?" He asked.

"This is the country I've lived in for almost 2,000 years. Why? Did you expect your assassination attempt on me to actually work?" I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

Kansas shuttered and took another step back. "It failed? I mean- Of course not! It's just... we thought we'd rid the world of these monsters before they become a danger to the Empire!" He said, trying to cover up the fact he just slipped up and admitted that the Empire was responsible for trying to kill me.

"As far as I am aware, Youma Village is peaceful and abides by the Law of Co-existence. I've even purchased some goods coming from here for my wife, therefore they are considered Demi-humans." I said, continuing to look Kansas dead in the eyes. /1\

"Demi-human!?!" Kansas almost scoffed. "The only Demi-human species are the Dwarves and Elves. Even the beastmen are only fit to be slaves! These Youma must be eliminated as quickly as possible! The law states that all monster nests too close to human civilization and which pose a threat to humanity should be eliminated with all due haste! Would you get in the way of this crusade? We are only following the law after all! Are you really a Hero? All non-humans and Demi-humans should be killed!" Kansas declared, drawing his courage from somewhere and attempting to both guilt-trip me into believing their cause was justified as well as rally his troops if he was forced to actually fight me.

"You are stupid," I said, closing my eyes and sighing, which caused all of Kansas' momentum to come to a screeching halt. "First of all, I WROTE that Law when creating the Guild all that time ago, remember?" I asked, which caused Kansas to take a step back, knowing that the writer would know more about the technicalities of the law than him.

"Second. The Empire isn't a signatory of the Law of Co-existence anyway. Rudra called it a 'joke' if I recall, which means your country can't use it as a justification to invade here." I replied, opening my eyes and staring Kansas down, increasing the intensity of my Haki slightly.

"Third. There are multiple Imperial Knights who aren't humans and the Magic Beast Corp is run by a Beastman, which makes you a hypocrite." I pointed out bluntly, causing most of the imperial soldiers who were listening to our conversation to shrink back in shame at being found out.

"And Finally... my WIFE and CHILDREN don't fall under your definition of 'Demi-Human'," I said, releasing not my Haki, but an insane amount of my Killer intent directly at Kansas. "Did you just say to me that they deserve to be killed?" I asked with rage in my voice.

<<Easy there hubby.>> Velzard chimmed in my head.

'I want to massacre them SO BAD!' I told her.

<<I know, but let's just send them away for now.>> She convinced me.

I raised my hand to Kansas who began quaking in terror. "Begone." I decreed as the entire Imperial Force was teleported away. I actually thought about killing them, but this would send a better message.

I turned around to see the Black Hair/Furred Ninehead staring up at me in awe. I offered her a hand, which she took, and I helped her to her feet. I didn't bother reacting to her too much, immediately turning around and handwaving my hand, using [Abhoth]'s [Reality Manipulation] to shatter the {Anti-Magic Area} Barrier and simultaneously heal all of the injured monsters.

"There is no need to fear anymore!" I declared. "Your Queen, Evelyn of Amrita, and my personal friend has sent me here to protect you from the Eastern Empire." I declared, which received shouts of praise for myself as well as a number of them shouting 'Long Live the Queen' for Evelyn.

I smiled wryly at that and turned back to the Ninehead. "I helped as much as I could, but this whole event is not over. There is much rebuilding to be done and many dead to bury." /2\

"Y-yes..." She responded hesitantly.

...

I spent a few days in Evergreen helping them collect their things and protecting them from wild monsters and scouting parties from the Empire which came by to see if I was still there.

Despite the fact that they were victorious, about a third of the village's population had been killed and there were now hundreds of war orphans who needed to be taken care of. Even the Black Ninehead's husband was killed in the fighting. It reminded me a bit of the village I grew up in after it was attacked, where everyone was reeling from the loss in the labor force, they were depressed and felt unsafe.

They all knew I wasn't going to be there forever and when I left they'd probably be attacked again. That was probably why some of the elders tried to get me to marry the Ninehead village leader to keep me there.

Apparently, polygamy was decently common among monsters, though definitely wasn't the norm.

Despite this argument, I rebuffed their attempts, because I was happily married to Velzard and didn't need other women in my life. I wouldn't even go after Evelyn, who I was decently close and physically attracted to, knowing her for over 2,000 years and knowing that she liked me the entire time. Why would I falter to this one random Ninehead, even if Kitsune were attractive?

Coincidentally, for our sexy times, Velzard transformed herself to have fox ears and tails during this time.

It definitely wasn't because she was jealous that I found the Kitsune look attractive.

Definitely not.

Regardless of the changes in my personal (sex) life, I made sure to send a [Parallel Existance] to Amrita and informed Evelyn of the situation. While she was sympathetic to the need for aid, the recent attack against her in the palace had some odd political consequences and now the nobles were wanting to wage war against the Eastern Empire despite the fact they'd get totally stomped if they did so. They were rapidly arming themselves and calling for aid from the Central and Western Nations, so there were few resources to spare in the immediate future to help them.

Evelyn was strong. Strong enough to be considered in the top 20 strongest in the world, above even the current Rimuru, but she'd lose to the Imperial Knights 1-5, and the rest of her military was drastically weaker than the Imperial Military, so they were mobilizing heavily right now so that they could even stand a chance against them.

The weapons I brought back and the tactics their spies had uncovered were shocking and were made to almost perfectly counter their own, so the country was going through a complete rebuilding process.

Not only that, as after every terrorist attack on any country, regardless of the world, Xenophobia showed its ugly head again. Despite the Law of Co-existence, the people weren't exactly thrilled to have to take care of 'monsters' and even normal beastmen were seeing a slight uptick in discrimination.

I knew this was only a temporary phase, as most bigotry had been pacified by this point and it was only a vocal minority who were causing the issues, but the people of Evergreen couldn't exactly wait the few months it would take for things to calm down, so I decided to send the monsters to Jura as refugees.

I got Evelyn's approval for this, and I was sure that Rimuru would also agree to help out, as he was a big softy and Evelyn was willing to open diplomatic ties with the Jura Tempest Federation if he accepted. Considering his love for elves and his goal for a peaceful world where everyone could be happy, he couldn't say no.

This also worked out for the Warhawks in the military. The land that Evergreen was founded in was a natural fortress. That was why it was originally still settled by monsters, since the country could never push them out of there without significant bloodshed. It was also why the Imperials probably wanted it, as a secure staging area to invade the rest of the country from if need be. Despite knowing that for centuries, it was only now, with their advanced weapons, that the Eastern Empire was able to feasibly take it from the monsters. Even then, there were thousands of casualties on their side and the battle would only be described as a pyrrhic victory.

Well, that is if we lived in a normal world anyway. The benefit of having Kansas, with his weird Unique Skill to command Dead Monsters, controlling the black Ninehead would probably have been worth it, as one strong man in this world is worth an army of weak ones.

...

After seeing the Refugees to Tempest with a Parallel Body of mine, and subsequently being chewed out by Rimuru for dropping more problems on him, I decided to head over to Luminas' place to inform her of the Eastern Empire's shenanigans. I knew Rimuru's country of Tempest would eventually become the Hegemon of the Central Nations, but at the moment, that responsibility fell to Ruberios.

I used the whole 'absurdly famous/powerful individual visiting our country' thing to get an immediate meeting with Louis Valentin about the situation. While I waited, though, I was escorted by the Captain of the Templars Albert, the head of the Crusaders Hinata Sakaguchi, and the Pope Adalman.

Albert and Adalman were very happy to see me after so long, as I sometimes popped in when Velgaia was training them to test their skills and give them pointers. I hadn't seen them both in some centuries, but since they were both Human saints, they rarely aged, looking only to be in their mid-thirties rather than their thousands.

Hinata, on the other hand, was rather odd. "It is an honor and a pleasure to meet you, sir!" she said, genuinely proud to meet THE first Hero of humanity.

I felt the whole thing was slightly awkward, as I'd known Hinata for over a thousand years at this point, but I hadn't known THIS version of her. She was also so eager to learn under me, so I promised to train her afterward with a glint in my eyes. I wasn't going to be a 'disappointing master' anymore! And I know just how to do it!

I'll throw her onto the insectar continent and have her survive there for a while.

She can't defeat the tougher ones with magic, as they are resistant, and swordsmanship is also ineffective due to their exoskeleton being too strong, so she'll have to develop other combat styles and refine her Fighting Spirit Aura and Arts to survive. It's perfect!

I nodded to myself satisfied that my work was as good as done and continued on into the meeting. There, I informed Luis, and Luminous who was acting as his 'maid' in the corner while hiding her presence, about the Eastern Empire's movements and their plot in Amrita. I privately informed Luminous about Rimuru's existence but didn't mention him in the meeting.

Afterward, I took Hinata on a 'month-long training spree' which involved me leaving her in the Insectar homeland unprepared for two weeks while putting a curse on her so she couldn't teleport. In the evenings, after she fought the waves of insectars all day, I gave her tips and tricks while sparing with her to see how her swordsmanship had improved.

I feel like its obvious, but she wasn't as good as Chronoa in terms of swordsmanship but was still in the top 1% of all swordsmen, though with my training she climbed into the top 40 who'd ever lived (or at least who lived since I was born). As a matter of fact, in terms of technical skill, she was above Twilight when I fought him, but she obviously didn't have his magicule count or abilities, so she'd lose to him in a fight.

Despite the fact she was now leaps and bounds above where she was before the training, she seemed to still look at me like I was disappointing for some reason, but I think she was just a sore loser. She'd also look at me like that while I was simping over my wife and pampering her while Hinata was fighting for her life, so I think she was just jealous I had someone while she was maidenless.

After all, I obviously wasn't at fault here.

Definitely not.

.~.~.~.

/1\:

The 'Law of Co-existence is a policy of the Guild which was made to determine human-friendly monsters from hostile monsters. It basically says that monster settlements of human-friendly or peaceful monsters are to be left alone and traded with while hostile monsters are to be destroyed.

The Law was justified in three ways.

First. Having Human-Friendly monsters nearby human settlements, especially frontier settlements near monster-infested land, is useful for protection, as monsters love to fight and would prefer to fight strong monsters than generally weak human civilians. On occasion, they could even be hired as mercenaries, like the Ogres of the Jura Forest were.

Second. These monsters could be traded for materials and heavy labor (such as construction). This gave them an incentive to protect human trade routes nearby which was to enrich themselves.

Third. If the monsters were smart enough to be peaceful with humans, then it was for the best that their territory was preserved, as wiping them out would be costly, as peaceful monsters are more intelligent than beasts and generally more powerful and after wiping them out, new monsters would move into their territory, and it was unlikely they would be friendly. In that case, the Guild or Country just eliminated a non-threat, weakening itself, while also almost definitely ensuring a region without a monster problem would probably develop one in the future.

And that's only IF they succeeded as if the attack on the peaceful monsters failed you'd have a bunch of humanity-hating monsters who were just backstabbed by the country who'd run amok and cause havoc on the country since they'd probably used up most of their firepower to try to eliminate them.

A few True Demon Lords had popped up because of this very situation, though they'd almost always end up dead by the end of it by either Chronoa's blade or Alaster's.

Most countries had a few monster enclaves within them and many countries have histories of them trying to wipe out monster enclaves for one reason or another and failing, which usually led to devastation and the country barely surviving, usually thanks to Guild intervention, though when a weak country which was just ravaged by war is bordered by a larger, stronger country, it wasn't uncommon for the weak country to be annexed and the population wouldn't really resist, since their leaders were the ones who screwed up their country, to begin with.

Nationalism wasn't really a thing outside of the Eastern Empire, so most people didn't care that the person they paid their taxes to changed, so long as they weren't tyrants.

/2\:

Alaster didn't revive the dead monsters or Imperials immediately despite the fact he could because he didn't want people praising him as a god, which would have them wanting to follow him rather than Evelyn. Since he only did some healing and declared himself as being their on behalf of Evelyn, the people would be more grateful to her and wouldn't cause any problems in the future.