Chương 27: 26th Move | Lightyears
That was relaxing. That was very relaxing.
That undeniable thought made its home inside my mind like an earworm after the afternoon tea with Arcueid that, although took up a large amount of the daylight, was in my opinion well worth it.
That was both relaxing and liberating.
After finishing the afternoon tea and learning more than I really needed about the 'ecchi' genre of Japanese comics (serious Rimuru why the hell are you producing them?), I'm now inside the Citadel's living section's kitchen.
Milim hummed to herself and swung her legs like Big Ben on New Year's Eve. There was an anticipatory smile on the Dragonoid's lips as she waited patiently for her sweets which I'm currently making.
Rimuru also came. In fact, I was originally about to talk with him about Ingrassia before a satellite saw Milim traveling across the Jura Forest towards the Citadel. Then, when Milim reached the Citadel, she knocked on the outer Siberium layer as a human would with a door.
I should really get her something like a transmitter, that way we can avoid the whole 'knocking on an imposing cylinder' thing. It's meant to replicate that feeling of 'foreboding' like you're entering a forbidden temple. Casually knocking on it completely ruins the aesthetics.
Flipping the batter on another size, the pseudo-pancake was cooked to a golden crisp, a beautiful shade that'll cause anyone to salivate at the sight.
[Culinary Arts] really is a massive boon when it comes down to daily life.
Using a spatula, I scooped up the golden pseudo-pancake and placed it on a plate before drizzling some honey to add an extra bit of the sweetness that Milim craves so much.
To be honest, [Culinary Arts] is suggesting I try to synthesize out a sugar syrup that's 500 times sweeter than even the sweetest honey. I didn't go with that since not only do I think that can be classified as a poison, but I think there's a point where something is too sweet even for Milim.
Coming out of the Kitchen, Milim acted like an overeager child who couldn't control themselves and leaped at the food in my hand like a Great White diving at a seal—
"Guh!"
—only to slam her face on the walls as I carefully moved the plate out of the way.
There was an imprint of Milim's face on the wall. Thankfully, it was quickly repaired as the Citadel automatically diverts nanites from elsewhere in the facility to fill in the holes in a way similar to how a dentist would fill in a cavity.
"Now now, sit down Milim or you're not going to get your sweets."
Milim pouted as she pushed herself up from her fallen form. Like a misbehaving child who feels sorry for getting caught instead of the act of stealing, the pink-haired Demon Lord ran back to her seat and fumed silently, glaring at me in what I assume was meant to be threatening.
Please, after acting the way you did, you'd have to do something very extraordinary to make me see you as 'threatening'.
In response to her glare, I deliberately moved very slowly causing a distraught look to dawn on Milim's face as she realizes what was happening while there was a smirk on mine.
"Scientia!" Milim whinged.
"Alright, alright, here ya go," I said and quickly trotted over to where Milim sat and placed the plate in front of her.
The Dragonoid then promptly dived in and devoured the large plates with reckless abandon.
Taking my seat at the head of the table right next to where Rimuru's sitting, very far away from the furthest that the crumbs from the pancakes can fly, I saw how the slime fidgeted around with his hair as he looked around nervously.
"I rarely get summoned by you Scientia, so what's up?"
"There's no need for you to be nervous, I just remembered you wanting more countries to recognize our existence, so I took a good look at the map and realized if we could get the Kingdom of Ingrassia to recognize our nation, that would most likely lead to others doing the same."
A Doorway opened up behind me. From that Doorway, Shizue in her maid chassis walked through, in her hands was a tray containing a tea set for two.
She then placed the tea down on a side cabinet sitting right beside the wall before pouring out the tea into two cups, one for me and another for Rimuru. Her movements were sharp and efficient with no wasted extra movements common in people who are unsure of what to do next. After filling the teacup a centimeter from touching the rim, Shizue carefully brought the teacups over.
The china cups made a 'clinking' sound as they were placed in front of me and Rimuru. Inserting my finger through the space between the cup and the handle, I lifted it up to my mouth and took a sip.
Immediately, my mind was whisked away to a particularly fond memory of my childhood: it was that time when I went to an amusement park, I think it was Disneyland, with my sister.
Returning to the present, I sighed in both sadness and happiness. Such was nostalgia. To be happy that something happened yet be sad that it won't happen again.
I looked down at the brownish mixture of tea and milk, "excellent as always, Shizue. It seems Nostalgia Tea is a success."
It was a momentary splurge of mine to create the Nostalgia Tea. It happened when I was a bit more homesick than usual about my old world.
I had intended for it to be a one-time thing before I tasted and fell in love with the flavor— to be able to remember fond memories of the past through triggering the long-term memory portion of the brain, a wonderous miracle indeed.
Though now that I think about it, I wonder how does memory interact with the soul? Since by technicality, memories of my old life were made and stored in my previous body's brain.
I turned my attention to Rimuru, who shyly stayed quiet the whole time like the first day of a student who had just entered a new school and didn't know anyone there.
"Now, Ingrassia is the cultural capital of the West, like a certain Middle Kingdom for the East or perhaps a more accurate metaphor would be those Stars and Stripes." I made sure to supplement the actual names for pseudonyms that only Rimuru would know, "If we managed to become friends with them— so long as we have a good relationship with them— we'll also get an extra benefit in earning the trust of other human nations. That's extremely profitable because it'll allow our influence to dig into a previously locked-out box."
Rimuru nodded along as I spoke. Next, I gestured to Shizue as she stepped forward, "now, Shizue here worked as an Instructor for one of the city's academies, so I think it's best if she followed you when you do go there. She can act as a liaison of sorts, telling you their customs and among other things."
The slime looked unsure of what I'm proposing, "Uh...alright, but what about my duties—"
"Citrinitas and Rigurd can take over your paperwork for the time you are at Ingrassia. Besides, you have your Ministers and other civil servants to manage the nation while you are meeting with the King of Ingrassia. Moreover, if there's an emergency here in Tempest, you can just teleport back because you have Shizue next to you."
To emphasize just how important this meeting was, I repeated myself, "remember Rimuru, getting Ingrassia on our side is especially crucial since I sincerely doubt there's a single nation in the world that hasn't heard of the death of both the Orc Lord and Charybdis were caused by us. Any doubt would get eliminated with Blumund backing us up."
I pulled up a dashboard displaying the political map of the world. Hovering my left index finger above the western portion of the continent, I continued with an example.
"Put yourself in their shoes for a moment. You heard that a threat— a great threat in the form of the Orc Lord was brewing in the Jura Forest. Knowing that you marshal your forces in preparation for the inevitable battle. Previous experiences with Orc Lord outbreaks mean you would already know there will be terrible losses if a single nation were to take on the threat on their lonesome, so you join up with other members of the Council of the West in a coalition."
The coalition reminded me of the massive imbalance of power during the first Iraq war.
"Then, just as you wait anxiously for the day to come when the Orc Lord is supposed to come, you suddenly learn that it had died. Then you learn that Charybdis had been reawakened. And now the slowly disassembling coalition army that was meant for the Orc Lord was now forced to reassemble once more, this time in even greater numbers since Charybdis is an even greater threat. And then, once again just like last time, you learned that it was dealt with."
My voice then became louder.
"Never before has there ever been a precedence where two such threats were dealt with by an unknown party. And you should know by now precedence is everything in politics both internal and international. We, the Jura Tempest Republic, came in explosively onto the world stage. With our technology against these backwater kingdoms, we represent an unknown element, an Outside Context Problem that I doubt anyone saw coming."
Rimuru cupped his chin as he mentally chewed on my words, "so in short, we're basically an unknown, and the Western nations don't know how to deal with us?"
I snapped my fingers and pointed at the humanoid slime, "indeed. We're the Europeans and they're the Native Americans. But by having a friendly relationship with Ingrassia, a nation closer to the Western states than Dwargon, other nations won't see us as an unknown anymore."
Rimuru appeared to be in deep thought while I waited by taking more of the tea and thinking back fondly to my past.
You know, I never really grieved for perhaps being unable to return. Never truly grieved.
"Alright," Rimuru conceded to my point, "I'll send a message to the King of Ingrassia and ask for a meeting. Although this is just a heads-up, I don't know if you know this but Ririna established the Officer Corps of the Grand Military of the Republic.
I finished the tea before looking at him in confusion.
Then with a single downward swipe of my hand, a holographic display materialized in front of me showing a log of everything that happened the last time I was here.
Using superior smart filters combined with AI algorithms, I thinned the herd of millions of logs until there were little over half a dozen left.
It seems this was a quick development that was approved by Congress in less than a day.
"...I assume there's going to be a ceremony signaling the start of this?"
I don't have a problem with Ririna taking initiative, since in my experience as a part of the top management of a company you get others to work for you instead of you having to do everything on your lonesome. Though I'd wish Ririna would've at least told me of this prior to her actually doing it.
"Yes."
"When is the ceremony?" I pulled up a mental calendar for next month, pretty much filled constantly with forging Milim's weapon.
[Blacksmith] crackling in glee as it gave off vibes that seem more in line with an addict about to get their first dose in a very long time.
"A week from now."
Alrighty, a week from now it is. I'll void some time spent building Milim's weapon to make time for that, "got it, you'll send Ingrassia a message about a visit that will occur... a bit after the ceremony. Do you think that's doable?"
He nodded.
"Very well, in the meantime, I'll ask Ririna for her Officer uniform designs and give her some suggestions."
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Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away.
Within a grand cathedral on top of a mountain, the winds howled and the snow blew, yet nonetheless, none of the cold white powder ever stuck on the roof of the cathedral even when logic dedicates it should've.
The cathedral was a beauty to behold. It was a breathtaking grandeur of a building, with elements of symmetry, columns, arches, and pediments clearly reflected in the architecture. Inside, marbled floors polished so well a person can use them to do makeup, enormous rooms that one can hear the echoes of their voices in, long hallways that seem to tread towards infinity, colored glass illustrating heroes and demons, and creative sculptures depicting the duel between a masked heroine and a beast in the shape of a perfected human in various angles.
There was not a single place or surface in the cathedral that wasn't decorated.
The building wouldn't have looked out of place as the center of worship for a globe-spanning religion. Yet it is placed on top of a forbidden mountain that none of its worshippers can properly enjoy.
In fact, more than devoid of any worshippers, the cathedral sat mostly empty, yet if one brush their finger across the surface of the antic of this cathedral they wouldn't find any dust.
One would expect such a beautiful cathedral to be loud, filled with the noise of congregations and priests talking or preaching a sermon. But it was silent. The place was eerily quiet and devoid of any sound other than those coming from the outside.
At least, that's how it's supposed to be.
"Is it correct? Has it returned?" A young girl with silver hair asked. She lay there on a couch, her legs stretching and filling it completely until they reached the other armrest.
"Yes, it has, my Lady." An old man wearing a luxurious white priest robe replied, his posture suggesting subservience.
Upon hearing that, the girl seemingly froze in fear. Then she pursed her lips as if she refuses to believe that information.
"...It seems that Chronoa is correct: Relentless has returned."
"Are... are you sure, my lady? It could be false! It could—"
The girl raised a hand, and the old man stopped.
"...Yes I am sure. The Great Hero of Time warned me of Relentless' return centuries ago yet I had never believed it myself. However, now with it being confirmed, it seems she is right on both measures. Contact one of our loyal believers nearest to the site of its return, I want to see just how powerful it is before we fully reveal it to the public and rally everyone against the Perfect Homunculus."
"Yes, my lady."
"Meanwhile, prepare our army for war, the Eastern Empire surely knows of Relentless' return if I already knew about it."
The old man left the massive room, while the girl stewed in deep worry about the future.
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The power of exponential growth can never be underestimated.
'The Story of the Chessboard and the Grain of Rice', or simply 'The Wheat and Chessboard Problem' is a classic tale in mathematics and economics that involves exponential growth.
There are many variations of the story, but in general, it goes along the line of the following: a king asks a wise man what he wishes to be rewarded with for accomplishing a great deed. The wise man asks for one grain of rice on the first square of a chessboard, and then double the amount of rice on the next and again on the one after, and so on.
Obviously, 2^63 of the last square results in approximately 9.22 x 10^18 grains of rice alone. The total amount of rice on the board by the end results in a grand total of 18.4 quintillion grains of rice.
Similarly, a Grey Goo scenario describes a global catastrophe involving uncontrolled self-replicating machines that would go out of control and subsequently subsume all of the earth's biosphere under tides of greyness.
The same applies also to Von Neumann Probes. Within less than half a year, my furthest Von Neumann Probe reached a radius of 1.4 billion lightyears and was still growing. By now all 400 billion stars within this galaxy that the planet I call home resided in are completely within my domain. The nearby galaxies are also being quickly subsumed as well.
Whenever a Von Neumann Probe enters a star system, it parks itself next to a large asteroid or a rocky moon and drops a packet of a colony of self-replicating nanites before going to the next closest. It usually takes less than a week for a Von Neumann Probe Factory to fully set up with production facilities, mines, refinery, forges, telescopes, railguns, and a solar energy collector to then churn out more Von Neumann Probes or transport more colonies of nanites to other celestial objects with the star system by shooting them out of the railgun.
This process is repeated until an entire galaxy then becomes a factory that then churns out trillions upon trillions of self-replicating probes every day that'll then infect more and more galaxies.
In fact, the only limiting factor within this exponential growth, or the 'X' in X^Y, is the speed at which those Von Neumann Probes can travel.
With four charges in [Superluminal Travel], I was able to give the Von Neumann Probes a Slingshot Drive type of faster-than-light option.
The Slingshot Drive works off the exact principle of the Subspace Diver. It turns the particles of the Von Neumann Probe into their Supersymmetric counterpart and then returns them back to normal, except now in a different place.
Effectively, the Slingshot Drive is like a jump drive in most science fiction that teleports ('flings') the Von Neumann Probe across a distance of many dozen lightyears per dive, or 'jump'.
Although much slower compared to what I currently have, it's sufficient enough that it's not really worth the time it'll take to change the tens of trillions of Von Neumann Probe currently active. Like, a person who bought iPhone X wouldn't buy an iPhone 11 when the X is perfectly viable.
I'm pretty sure Apple came out with more versions after I died, but that's beyond the preview of my knowledge of my old world.
I stood in a space station orbiting above a massive red planet that dominated the view of the mirrors. Pressing my left hand covered in a black nanosuit against the glass that separates the inside of the station from the outside, I could see a bit of my reflection against the backdrop of space, a reflection of perfection that still causes me to be a bit put off. So instead of focusing on that, I turned my gaze fully onto the planet.
For any normal human it would've been a breathtaking view but having been in space so many times I found the scene entirely boring.
Due to the enormous gravity wells of planets, the Von Neumann Probes usually avoid them unless they're the only concentration of mass left in the star system other than the local star itself.
With a single sideways swipe of my right hand, numerous holographic panels projected from my clothing. It was a dashboard connected to the Intranet displaying all kinds of information.
The Von Neumann Probes are all connected to each other in a massive intranet to avoid two Von Neumann probes entering the same star system. However, even if more than one is entered, it doesn't really matter since both can either choose a different planet or go to the next star system over.
The amount of planets that contain enough magicules capable of being detected is within the quadruple digits, an insanely small percentage if you consider how there are trillions of planets within a single galaxy. What's more, if the world I reincarnated on is an ocean in terms of magicule richness, the richest outer planet that I have found is a single droplet.
Even so, that wasn't the thing that really worries me. Instead, what really keeps me up at night is the lack of civilization
The number of planets that have complex multicellular life is few enough that I can count on one hand. The number that can theoretically support water is in the tens of thousands, again, a ridiculously small percentage even rarer than the magicule planets considering this is the result of a survey of the Local Group, the small cluster of galaxies that my home galaxy is a part of.
Either intelligent life is extremely rare, or this is the work of a Great Filter.
Great Filters were a suggested answer to the Fermi Paradox— the apparent contradiction between the number of stars in the universe and the lack of intelligent alien life.
Imagine if you will, that the development of life is a flight of stairs. The first step of the stairs is for complex molecules to arrange themselves in such a way that it becomes autocatalytic, or self-replicating and the last step is the birth of an interstellar civilization. Living beings must climb the stairs if it is to advance, yet each step is harder to reach than the last.
A Great Filter is a challenge— a barrier of sorts— on that stairway where every species that has encountered it dies.
From observation alone, it seems there is a Great Filter on the first step of life: the creation of stable, self-replicable chemistry patterns that is the basis of life itself. The reasoning for this hypothesis was that there are many planets I've found that are suitable for life, yet almost none have performed Abiogenesis.
I personally believe in the theory of Panspermia, or life originating from asteroids since tests done by some Von Neumann Probes showed a startling number of asteroids possessing organic molecules required for life.
Another potential candidate for a Great Filter is on the step right before intelligence. The only reason I'm not sure is due to how small of a sample size I have.
A small section of my mind then reminded me about the Great Tenma War and that maybe aliens also experience something similar to it.
A frown marred my face as I couldn't help but scoff at that idea. I really do not believe in the Great Tenma Wars. It's like saying that there are ancient super-advanced civilizations back on Earth that have wiped themselves out, or maybe something straight out of Ancient Aliens.
The potential explanations are all highly disturbing.
I cleared my mind of such disturbing thoughts and instead turned my focus onto the planet underneath me. A whispy white outer layer that was a very thin atmosphere covered the red planet.
Scanners indicated this planet was the most magicule rich out of all of those that I explored. Deep within the crust lies scattered nuggets of Scarletite or 'Crimson Steel', a metal of legends that was thought to exist only in myths, not real life.
With a specialized equation I created using [Mathematics], [Magicule], and [Material Science], I determined it'll take a few billion years for the small concentration of magicules to mutate normal metallic substances into Scarletite, compared to the thousands of years in my home world.
Colossal threads of dark metal covered the world's medium planetary orbit in the form of a web, making it seem like it was the captured prey of a truly gigantic spider.
The web was a Planetary Strip Mining Array: a machine designed to harvest planets smaller than Neptune.
Even when my current industrial output puts most fictional civilizations to shame, I'm still going to need more resources for the building of the Matrioshka Brain. I'm going to need more Planetary Strip Mining Arrays and Star Lifters.
This is the scale at which I operate, the level at which a near Type-II civilization operates; where whole planets will need to be used to fuel the fires of my industry.
"You may fire when ready," I said. It was a verbal command for the AI that runs the Array.
The only evidence that something was happening after minutes of seemingly no activity was how cracks large enough to be visible from space appeared on the ground right underneath the webs. Very quickly, those cracks began to glow as magma from the mantle surfaced through the space between those cracks.
Extreme volcanic and seismic activities were happening all over the planet thanks to tidal forces generated from two different invisible gravitational wave currents. The red surface transformed into something that looked more like a representation of Earth during its infancy period 4 billion years ago prior to my death.
The whole planet buckled under the force of a sized-up Gravity Drill and was being pulled apart.
Ghostly white wisps of gases came up from the planet and were sucked into certain sections of the Array.
Micro-black holes.
Embedded within the various threads of the colossal metal web that covers the planet were millions of femtometer-wide micro-black holes all contained using anti-gravity generated with a sophisticated manipulation of space and Dark Energy.
Once the planet is loosened enough by the tidal forces generated through opposing unseen gravitational wave currents, the web will close in on the wounded world as a pack of hyenas would with a wounded water buffalo. Then, a portion of the Dark Energy field will peel back to reveal a window that'll allow the micro-black hole's gravity to take effect and start sucking in mass.
Usually, femtometer-wide black holes aren't sustainable since they'll radiate away their mass faster than they can eat. However, with the anti-gravity funnel in place, the black hole is pretty much being force-fed mass.
Once a certain amount has been taken, the black hole is then switched for a new smaller one that'll then continue the process while the old mini-black hole is then shipped off towards the star where I'll build the Matrioshka Brain.
Looking over to my side, I found about 1.6 billion tons of Carbon Dioxide and other gases had been harvested from the planet and were now being stored inside the numerous black holes.
A smile appeared on my face as I returned to look at the slowly shrinking planet. It's slow for sure, but there's just something so awe-inspiring about seeing a whole world gets destroyed that's almost as effective at removing stress as an afternoon tea with Arcueid.
I've read plenty of science fiction in my past life. Planets there were seen as 'immovable' objects akin to mountains for a medieval kingdom yet here I am, casually strip-mining a planet as if it's a Thursday.
If being with Arcueid is normal happiness, then this feeling I get from watching a planet be torn apart is like obeying a natural instinct, akin to the happiness one feels when they drink water after a long workout or perhaps the happiness a conqueror feels when they enter the annexed capital city of their enemies.
*Beep*
Another new holographic screen suddenly popped into existence next to me.
Sadly, as with all things, it must come to an end, and so too must my observation of the Planetary Strip Mining Array in action.
The screen was displaying a call from Shizue.
Tapping on the controlled light, the screen transformed into a full-sized Shizue in all her maid chassis glory standing about two meters away to the right of me.
"My Lady, please forgive me for the interruption but the ceremony for the Officer Corps is in two hours. I tried to look everywhere in the Citadel but I can't find you, so I made a decision to call you through the number you gave me—"
I held up a hand to stop the worrying, "have no fear, I shall print my uniform."
"Ah, yes, my Lady." She once again bowed before ending the call.
Now, what would be a good ceremonial uniform for the Commander of the Grand Military of the Republic?
A hologram of a human mannequin my size appeared in front of me. The mannequin was dressed in an Officer's uniform since it was a copy of the template I sent over to Ririna concerning how I imagine an Officer Corp's ceremonial uniform should look. Of course, it's purely for ceremonial purposes and looks nothing like their combat uniforms.
With my hands guided by [Clothing], I started designing a uniform that would reflect the ideals of the Jura Tempest Republic's Military.
It took a few minutes, but once everything was done, I pressed the 'actualization' button underneath the holographic mannequin.
The nanosuit that I'm wearing shifts and turned into something appearing like a liquid before reforming and solidifying into my proper ceremonial Military uniform.
The uniform was composed of a white collared shirt with a red tie inside a sleek black coat with golden epaulets that draped equally golden short chains. An enormous black cloak containing 2 sleeves appeared around my back, and one golden circular pin for each side formed on the area between my breast and two shoulders, connected with each other using golden chains. The same golden chain wrapped itself around my left upper arm into the pins on the back. As for my lower half, it was clad in long black pants and a pair of polished boots.
Finally, an officer cap appeared in my ready hands. Slowly, I lowered the cap from above onto my head to finish off on how to truly look like someone who's worthy of respect.
Again, I repeat: this uniform, while looking badass as hell, should be nowhere on a battlefield given how gaudy it looked, but I think it's good enough for ceremonial purposes.
"Door me."
Walking through the pitch black upright-standing rectangle that was a 'Doorway', I appeared in the middle of a massive courtyard flanked by buildings with utilitarian design in mind mixed with elements of neo-modernism. The whole building lacked any visible evidence of separation, making it look like it was carved from a single massive block of construction material.
I looked down at where I'm standing and found myself directly in the middle of an elaborately decorated eagle with its wings spread out in front of a shield surrounded by six words.
It was the symbol of the Tempest Officer Corps, and the six words stand as the six tenants of an ideal Military Officer, the virtues that'll be drilled into every individual that passes through this place, this Officer Academy.
Noticing how there were audible voices in a certain direction, I turned my head towards it to find a crowd gathering beyond the main gate of the Academy. They were about 50 meters away, and with my new physiology, I could see with the naked eye every detail of the lizardmen, orcs, and hobgoblins who were all gathered. I could spot half a dozen journalists with their pencils and paper out. I could spot over a dozen young hobgoblin males who seem to be eager to join. With [Biology] and [Psychology], I could even tell from a single glance which one of the adults was here just to check things out.
"Scientia!"
I whipped my head toward the source and found Rimuru standing beside a podium waving at me.
The podium was above a stage. In front of the stage lay rolls upon rolls of chairs lined up all prepared for their occupants.
Seeing how excited Rimuru was at seeing me again made me instinctively wave back.
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Ririna sat on one of the chairs right beside the podium. Her gaze swept across the area in front of the stage and found a sea of thousands of hobgoblins, orcs, lizardmen, and some humans below, each wearing clothes that would've been impossible to make just 4 months ago.
The Field Marshal then raised her head to look at the towering steel structures in the distance.
Arcologies, Ririna mentally reminded herself, that was the name Commander Scientia had given them.
As the highest ranking military officer beside President Rimuru and Commander Scientia, Ririna could afford one of the higher housing units within those arcologies based on her salary. As such, the purple-haired hobgoblin could enjoy the breathtaking views of what a bird would see.
Ririna tugged the collar of her uniform as discreetly and gently as possible. Discreetly because there were now thousands of pairs of eyes on her given how close she sat to where the podium was, being the one who spearheaded this Officer Corps after all. Gently because the uniform was a gift from the Commander herself, supposedly made from threads of ultra-strong fiber capable of stabilizing an arcology.
Her uniform was dark green instead of the black of the Commanders. Overall, it looked less fancy, which made sense now that Ririna thought about it. She was a Field Marshal, the supreme commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, not the entire Military as a whole.
Ririna could still vividly remember as if it happened yesterday her first few weeks as the Chief of Security for proto-Metropolis when it was still a run-down village instead of the gleaming city it was today.
And now, four months later, Ririna had gone from a normal, albeit poor village girl who had a crush on one of the stronger boys, into being in command of one of the branches of the Jura Tempest Republic's Military. Hardened by the sight of the slaughter of both the Orc Lord and Charybdis, Ririna recognized just how naive she was back then when the biggest concern of her everyday life was only whether or not the now-named Rugurd liked her.
She was in her own tiny world, detached from bigger things like military doctrines and weapons of mass destruction.
When the Commander had placed her in the position of being in command of the entire Army... Ririna was not ashamed to say she was afraid. She was afraid of failing the Commander who had saved her village, even if other ungrateful people who say some nasty things about the Commander behind her back, about how she is a witch that practices fleshcraft— Commander Scientia was still someone who had rescued them in their darkest moments right before the attack by the dire wolves.
The Field Marshal remembered vividly that night when the Commander had taken to the field herself. She was armed with only a knife and the moonlight shining on her petite frame gave it an ethereal look, almost as if the Commander was a ghost.
The Commander had effortlessly, fearlessly, and most of all, elegantly dispatched the leader of the dire wolves with a single move— a single cut.
Ririna wanted to be as strong as the Commander. Even if the Commander is worlds away, even if it's a futile endeavor, Ririna wants to be at least somewhat on equal footing to the one who had given the hobgoblin everything she has right now.
And perhaps then, and only then...
Whenever Ririna had thoughts of quitting because it was too hard or when her subordinates became disobedient, Ririna's mind would often be drawn to what would the Commander do in that situation and act accordingly. It is what got her here.
The hobgoblin then cast a dismissive gaze as President Rimuru started his speech. The speech was about how important it is to be inclusive to all races, and about how the purpose of weapons is to defend ourselves and not to intentionally attack others.
Ririna could not help but silently scoff at that last point.
The Commander would never say such things, instead, she would say that weapons are tools, and it's the users themselves who decide what to use the tools for.
The speech of President Rimuru lasted for another minute. In all perfect honesty, Rirna wasn't too impressed with Rimuru as a President. Instead, she saw him as more of a figurehead and Scientia being the real power.
In truth, Ririna was really confused about the concept of democracy. Like, she's never even heard of an idea as radical as that, yet if the Commander had instilled the protection of Freedom as one of the core tenants of The Officer Corps, then who was she to question the wisdom of a being that had somehow turned what was once a dirt shack village into a shining city the world would envy over if they knew of its existence beyond simple word of mouth?
A better name for the Commander would be Miracle Maker.
Ririna turned her head when she saw that Commander Scientia stood up and walked towards the podium, ready to give her speech.
Ah, she should pay attention to Commander Scientia's speech, shouldn't she? Ririna thought before giving a dirty look at the person sitting next to her. Rubedo wasn't paying attention.
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Rimuru isn't sure what to think of Scientia, the slime thought as he sat down on his seat while the Perfect Homunculus got up and walked to the podium which he had previously used, and began her own speech as the Commander of the Republic's Military.
The two initially bonded due to the fact that they were both reincarnators. Both were alone and only had each other in an entirely alien new world.
"..." Only now did it occur to Rimuru how that sounded like the premise for a romance novel.
Two people lost in a new world that only had each other. That sounded like the premise for a generic romance novel you'd find a dozen of in a library's 'romance' section.
Nevertheless, Rimuru's time with her at that cabin was perhaps the closest he's ever been with Scientia. But after starting their own nation, the two rarely had much time to hang out. Rimuru thought that the state of affairs was a temporary one, but it has only gotten worse since between Presidential duties and the establishment of Rimuru city near the mouth of the Ameld and a new port city on the coast between Sarion and Fulbrosia, the slime's only contact with Scientia is pretty much only whenever the latter had summoned him.
In Rimuru's own experience with Scientia, he notices how there's always this... 'wall' of sorts, a barrier that surrounds Scientia that seems to protect her true self and feelings. This barrier prevents anyone from getting really close to her.
<Scientia's inability to trust people likely originated from past trauma and !)$!@*>
Rimuru tuned out [Great Sage] after that, it's all gibberish when it tried to describe what a Perfect Homunculus actually is besides hearing it from others.
The slime silently lamented his failure as a friend. Every one of his staff and subordinates, he was able to get close to. People like Citrinitas, Rubedo, Rigurd, and Albedo: all of them were able to be at ease in his presence and equally, Rimuru can chat casually with them. Hell, even Shizue is at the very least fond of speaking with him and she's always serving Scientia!
'[Great Sage], how do I get closer to Scientia?' Rimuru asked again for what was probably the hundredth time.
<Unable to answer>
Thought so.
It was the same reply as ever.
"One day..." Rimuru said to himself quietly, "I will break that barrier, and have you admit you are my friend. That instead of keeping me at arm's length, you'll keep me close.
It was a vow. One he fully intended to keep.
_____________________________________________
AN: So I checked out the fan translation of the LNs of Tensura and I gotta say, the three Primordials in Vol 11 are really not what I expected.
An exploration into areas of high sci-fi in a world of high fantasy as well as Scientia's impact on the normal citizen.
Scientia's [Conflict Drive] really starting to get to them.
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