Story 6: Chapter 9: Misunderstandings (Patreon)

To Be a Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 9: Misunderstandings

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- Salvatore -

I looked at the rows upon rows of notifications in front of me.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Unique Skill: Sloth.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Ultimate Skill: Astarte, Lord of Creation.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Ultimate Skill: Haniel, Lord of Glory.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Ultimate Skill: Jibriel, Lord of Rigour.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Intrinsic Skill: Small World.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Extra Skill: Spiritual Domination.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Extra Skill: Telepathy.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Unique Skill: Lust.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Extra Skill: Spatial Motion.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Extra Skill: Ultra Sense.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Intrinsic Skill: Blood Raise.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Intrinsic Skill: Charm.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Intrinsic Skill: Paralyze.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Intrinsic Skill: Steel Strength.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Intrinsic Skill: Transform.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Common Skill: Thought Communication.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Unique Skill: Absolute End.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Unique Skill: Infinity Prison.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Unique Skill: Time Traveler.

Process Successful.

The Ultimate Skill Leviathan has been stimulated by the loss and is trying to copy the Unique Skill: Apostle.

Process Successful.

I looked at the list of Skills Leviathan had collected and had to actively control myself from staring.

This skill is really broken.

Apart from this, I had another massive list which I got when I copied Rimuru’s Beelzebuth and got the Food Chain ability to get Skills of my subordinates.

Still, it wasn’t even half of today’s haul.

Three of the Fourteen Original Ultimate Skills and two of the Sin Series Unique Skills, not to mention Ramiris’ Small World Skill which she used to create her Dungeons.

The only problem was me staying there actively controlling the Dungeon which was something I couldn’t do. Maybe Vritra could stay there and provide it with magicules? But we already had a Labyrinth in this country.

I will ask and see if Rimuru wants a Labyrinth in Tempest.

Still, today’s Skill copying had helped me in another thing and that was reducing the time needed for reconstructing the memories of Veldanava.

Originally, a good part of the memories involved the knowledge about creating the fourteen Angelic Skills which Veldanava owned, so the more of these Skills I copied, the less Sol had to reconstruct.

This was also true for Small World which I had just copied from Ramiris as it was a Skill which she had Inherited from Veldanava himself and the Magicule Breeder Reactor which I had copied from Milim which was Veldanava’s original Skill.

Currently, I have only five of the fourteen Angelic Skills. I have to think of a way to copy the rest if I don’t want to be stuck with twelve years of time to reconstruct all his memories.

I tried to recall who else had the Skills off the top of my head, I could remember Leon, Rudra, Velzard, Velgrynd, Granbell, Tatsuya Kondo and the angels probably and all of them were dangerous names to go after.

I doubted any of them would sit with me and play a game or something….actually, maybe Granbell would….perhaps Leon if I were to add Chloe to the mix….

‘Vritra, do you think Velzard would agree to a game with us?’ I asked.

‘That….I don’t know. I don’t know much about her.’

‘Fair point.’

I watched as the rest played monopoly.

The whole atmosphere was peaceful.

Suddenly, I heard Rimuru’s voice in my head. ‘Sal, I met Kagali and she has confirmed the information about Yuuki. We have enough proof to send him to hell and his reputation through mud.’

She went on to tell me about the things she had discovered like his connection with the Underworld, his hand in the illegal slave trade and the summoning of otherworlders, his connection with Clayman and his hand in actually pushing the attack of the Falmuth Kingdom and the misinformation of the Holy Ruberious Empire.

Yuuki Kagurazaka was a complicated character. In fact, he was the only character in this world I wasn’t exactly sure what to think about.

All other characters had more or less similar characters in both the web and light novel as well as the anime.

Yuuki was the only exception.

In the web novel version, he was the main antagonist of the series, a cruel and sadistic bastard who viewed everyone as a pawn.

In the light novel however, he was someone with actually good motives, someone who actually wanted peace in the world and it was just his actions which led to chaos.

The first one had to go but if in the off chance it was the second one, I….wasn’t sure if I wanted to kill him.

It was for this reason that I was keeping an eye on him since the first time I met him.

With every bad action of his, my counter went towards the first option and now with Rimuru’s information about Kagali’s confession, I was more or less sure that this guy was the evil manipulator version.

So, what I was going to do next….won’t be something I would regret.

After the game was over, I asked Aletia to take them all to their rooms as we proceeded to go to the dungeons.

On the gates of the ninety ninth floor, Cleria, Irisviel and Hinata were guarding the gates while Hinata nodded towards Luminous.

The former two bowed towards us and opened the door.

Inside the room, behind the bars was a single black haired figure.

Yuuki Kagurazaka.

He looked at me, that same disarming and condescending smile on his face.

“Oh my, that’s some interesting company you have with you, Salvatore-kun. And here I thought accompanying Demon Lords was supposedly a crime, right Hinata-san? I wonder if that doesn’t apply for working under them? Then again, from what I have heard, Rimuru-san is also a Demon Lord and you two are quite close. So then, how is it that only I am being persecuted?” He asked, with a smile.

“You will hold your tongue, you vile wretch.” Luminous almost growled from beside me. “Your crimes are things you know better than anyone else.”

“Oh and what crime are we talking about here? I am a bit short on memory. Please enlighten me.”

I just summoned the bugs he had planted in me and threw it to him. “This….never exactly took hold.”

To my satisfaction, I saw his eyes widen a bit and he took a quick glance at Hinata.

“Apart from this, Kagali has already confessed all your deeds. By the end of the week, the entire continent will know about everything you have done. Currently my people are searching and dismantling Cerberus. Oh, and Damrada, the Prime Minister of the Eastern Empire….yeah, he’s not saving you here. Neither is Mariabell Rosso. Did I miss someone?” I asked, staring him back into his eyes.

His mouth opened slightly and then his shoulders sagged slightly. “So, what will it be now?”

“I think you already know that.” I answered.

His eyes narrowed.

“Do you have anything to say?” I asked.

“I wish I had killed you the first time I met you….both you and that Rimuru Tempest.”

“I see. Very well then Goodbye Yuuki Kagurazaka.”

I looked at Luminous. “All yours.”

With that said, I left the jail cell and created a barrier around the place.

And boy did Luminous not play around.

She directly used Disintegration….a dozen times.

Apparently the fact that the guy had not only bugged Hinata but also endangered Chloe’s life pissed her off more than I had thought.

I was planning to use Beelzebuth on him but….well, that’s not possible now.

We came out of the room after a while.

“So….what are we going to do about him now?” Hinata asked.

“That….I want to keep his demise a secret for now.” I said after a bit of thought.

Luminous looked at me with a raised eyebrow so I explained the situation with Mariabel.

“She tried to control you?”

I nodded. “They are planning to attack us and try to free Yuuki or kill him in the process. If they succeed, they will blame me for the lack of security and try to defame me. If they lose, they will deny any involvement and try to push me to the position of the head of the Free Guild and then control me to be their puppet instead of Yuuki. Seriously, that woman is too overconfident.”

“Yes. Children can be overconfident.” Luminous said.

“Child?” I asked. “She’s no child. She is a reincarnation, the reincarnation of her own Grandmother, the wife of Granbell Rosso, an old hag in the body of a kid if anything.”

“Her? Seriously?”

I nodded. “Anyways, I plan to let them attack and catch them red handed as well as make an example of them.”

“And what then?”

“Then we spread the news and information discovered by Rimuru and spread the narrative that Yuuki Kagurazaka died a while ago. It was someone else using his body to carry out all those deeds.”

“Ena doesn’t understand why we need to do all that. We could always just come out clean and tell everyone what he was doing.” The girl said, annoyed at the conversation.

We looked at her and Luminous was the one who explained. “Doing this would serve many purposes. First, it will preserve the dignity of the persona Yuuki Kagurazaka had created in front of others as well as the dignity of the Free Guild which he had created. He might have been a scum but the Free Guild is an essential organisation on which many countries depend. Not to mention, they are the main people who fight Guy Crimson’s Daemons on the frontline at all times. If it falls apart, it would create too much chaos in the continent and give our enemies a chance to bank on the chaos and invade. We cannot have that.”

“Second, if Yuuki is implicated directly, some people might even doubt me and Hinata due to our association with him. It’s a long shot but I don’t want to give people any excuse.” I explained.

Lastly, Hinata said. “Thirdly, I doubt people would just take our word for it. Especially if we try to take over the Free Guild after that. Most of them will just assume that Holy Empire Ruberious and Camelot assassinated Yuuki to take over the Free Guild. It would be a taint on our images as well.”

“Ah….so complicated. This is why Ena doesn’t like politics.” The girl shook her head.

I chuckled. “Neither do I, Ena. Neither do I.”

We talked about a few things and decided to keep up the act.

Hinata will be guarding the place where Rin is disguised as Yuuki and is currently being guarded by Masaomi and Shiro to keep up the pretence.

Finally, with everyone satisfied, we went back to our rooms.

Luminous will stay here for a few more days before leaving with Hinata.

Ena on the other hand will stay here with us and cooperate with the team we are making to invent a way back to our home worlds.

Apart from that, we had some diplomatic talks.

Holy Empire Ruberious has an alliance with Camelot and will be recognising Monster Nation Tempest as an official organisation too, joining the alliance between Camelot. Tempest, Dwargo, Sorcerer Nation of Sarion, Kingdom of Bulmund. It will be a trade as well as defence alliance to defend against any attacks from the Eastern Empire.

We are planning to increase the size of this alliance by contacting other countries.

It was decided that Aletia will be the ambassador from Camelot to the Holy Empire of Ruberious as per Luminous’ request.

To be honest, she had requested Chloe but that was not possible.

The lady had just glared at me as if it was my fault that Chloe was just ten years old.

“So, what are you planning to do after this?” Hinata asked.

“I just want this whole drama with Yuuki to be over so that I can concentrate on rebuilding my kingdom.” I sighed. “The people are….scared. Many are struggling. The army is mainly dependent on the Free Guild members. A quarter of the population are members of the Free Guild. I don’t like my people being so reliant on a third party. Especially when I know that the Eastern Empire is eying us covetously all the time.”

The only good thing is that the nation is very rich but even that is not secure as it mainly relied on the tolls from the trade routes which are unavailable now.

I have some capital but I need to come up with some other methods of increasing my income. 

So much work.

“Keep working. I know you will do well.” She reassured in a surprising show of compassion.

I smiled. “Thank you, Hinata.”

Luminous narrowed her eyes at our interaction and coughed. “We will retire for today.”

“Alright. Inform me if you need anything.” I nodded and Aletia led them back.

_________________________________x____________________________________

I reached my room and lay on my bed and Vritra manifested on top of me, straddling my waist.

She was in black lace lingerie unlike her usual black dress.

I raised an eyebrow and she just smirked and grinded herself on me, getting me hard in an instant..

“I think I have waited enough for my turn.” She said as she traced my hard length with her slit.

She was hot.

I don’t know if it was just her or if dragons were hotter than normal but her core was smouldering hot.

“Aye, so I am going to be eaten by a dragon!” I exclaimed mockingly.

“And you are going to enjoy every moment of it.” She smirked before leaning in for a kiss.

I was quite comfortable with this after the last few days of constant physical closeness and accepted her kiss easily.

My hands were on her thighs and slipped slowly towards her ass. She really did have a nice ass.

I blame Rimuru for corrupting me.

“Enjoying yourself?” She pulled herself and whispered in my ears.

“Yup.”

“Let’s make it a bit more pleasurable.” She winked and snapped her finger as a spark of black flames fell on me and burned my clothes without affecting any of the furniture.

She had extremely good control of the power and I had far too much resistance to be injured by such attacks.

“Well, if we are talking about making things more exciting, then….” I held her panties between my fingers and pulled at them, easily tearing them in two right at her slit. Her glistening lips came directly in contact with my length, sending a pleasurable jolt through my body.

“Oho, that’s quite bold of you.” She said with a smirk. “I didn’t think you had it in you. Then again, it is understandable. You are part dragon after all.” She added as she caressed my hair.

I took this opportunity to rip off the hook of her bra, freeing her perky breasts for my eyes. Her pink nubs were already erect with excitement.

Without waiting for another second I latched on her breast while my hand played with the other one.

“Mmhhh~” She moaned as she gripped my hair and pushed me harder into her breast.

Seeing her excitement, I took a playful bite of her nipple making her moan even harder as her hips moved faster, making my shaft wet with her own wetness.

A minute or two later, she was ready so she placed her hands on my shoulder and slightly lifted her waist and looked at me. I positioned myself at her entrance and met her eyes and she descended, slowly enveloping my entire length inside her.

“Mmahhhh yesss.” She moaned seductively as she bottomed and sat down on my lap.

I combed her hair with my fingers before gripping them hard and pulled her in for a kiss.

She responded enthusiastically as she began rocking her hips and riding me.

We started slow but Vritra was even more aggressive than Rimuru and soon enough I had to use Uriel to prevent the whole place from crashing down.

My hands slipped down to her delectable ass, taking a hold of it as I started thrusting from below in earnest.

Sounds of flesh slapping and moaning echoed throughout the room as she danced on my lap.

It suddenly struck me….these movements….they seemed familiar somehow.

“You noticed?” She smirked. “I saw them in your memories. The collection is in the hidden folder on your laptop.”

….

“Good job!” I gave her a thumbs up making her giggle as she jumped in for another kiss, to explore each other's mouth.

I picked her up and stood, while still thrusting from below.

She didn’t stop kissing me either as I carried her towards our bed.

Reaching there, I stopped and she looked at me with narrowed eyes, miffed at me stopping.

“Let’s try something else?”

“Hmm?”

“Get down, put your hands on the bed and bend over.” I ordered.

Her eyes widened as she understood what I was asking and then a lewd smile bloomed on her face as she followed her orders, showing off her ass.

And by Veldanava, she had a perfect ass.

‘I told you.’ Rimuru’s voice sounded in my head and I rolled my eyes. Of course she was watching.

I didn’t get distracted as I positioned myself at her entrance and took a hold of her waist and thrusted my entire length into her at once.

“Hmm ahhhh.” She gripped the bed sheets tightly and raised her ass more.

I relished the feelings of her soft folds caressing my length as my grip on her waist increased. I began pounding her.

She took a minute to adjust to my new speed and reciprocated by pushing her ass towards me, matching all my thrusts.

I took the grip of her hair and pulled her back, capturing her lips while my hips kept up the thrust.

This much was nothing for a True Dragon like her. In fact, True Dragons couldn’t die. Even Conceptual Deaths didn’t stick. They were just that absurdly resilient.

So a bit of rough sex only served to increase the excitement between us and not exactly hurt us.

At one point, her fingers punctured the bed and she tore off the wood with her bare hands.

I will have to remember to enchant all the furniture later.

She lost her grip on the bed and crashed face first onto it but I didn’t stop my pounding.

It was only around fifteen minutes or so later when I felt my climax approaching that I increased my speed and finished inside her with a few more thrusts.

She groaned and tightened around me as her body quivered in pleasure, reaching climax at the same time.

I lay on her back, slowly removed her hair and kissed her neck.

Suddenly she turned at an extremely fast speed and gripped me in a hug, capturing my lips as her legs locked around my waist.

Her hands went down and grabbed my length. I hadn’t gone soft with just one release and she positioned me at her entrance once more and pulled me in with her legs as a sly smile appeared on her lips.

“I hope you are not stopping after just one round, dearest?” She asked.

“Oh, I am not even close.”

“That’s what I would expect from my darlinggggg.” She ended her sentence in a moan as I thrust inside her once more.

Seven more rounds later, the two of us lay on the broken and battered bed. The cushions were all ripped off and feathers flew across the room.

Vritra lay on my chest, breathing peacefully as she closed her eyes, relishing in the afterglow of intercourse.

I was a virgin just a week ago and now I have two lovers. First a Demon Lord and now a True Dragon….life is strange at times.

_________________________________x____________________________________

I woke up the next day to find Rimuru curled up beside me and Vritra on my other side. She had jumped in some time in the night and decided to sleep with us.

It wasn’t anything new. She normally teleported to my room at night to sleep with us. On the other hand, Veldora stayed back at Tempest to protect it in case of any danger.

In the morning, we got ready for our respective jobs and teleported to our destinations.

Our busy days had just begun.

Rimuru had shared the Small World Skill which I had copied from Ramiris and decided to make her own version of the Dungeon in Tempest.

The rest of the day was spent in looking over the matters of the Kingdom.

Many of the top officials and ministers of the kingdom were corrupt bastards.

The Falmuth Kingdom was wealthy although most of it came from providing a safe route to Dwargo, the Dwarven Nation and collecting tolls.

They had become too reliant on this money and could even use heavy handed methods to prevent trade of important items to smaller kingdoms like Blumund. For example, they had prevented the trade of High Quality Potions through their Kingdom and forced everyone to buy second hand potions sold by them at a much higher price.

This had forced smaller kingdoms to either use the more dangerous route through the Jura Forest or produce locally made potions which were of much lower quality.

Again, this was not the only area where they messed up.

Their biggest fuck up was regarding the security of the kingdom.

“Minister of Finance, tell me your reasons for decreasing the funds for the Frontier Protection forces in the Migam Frontier territories?” I looked at the files containing the reports and asked.

“S-s-sir, due to the disappearance of Storm Dragon Veldora the threat of the monsters from Jura Forest had been reduced….”

“Reduced sure but it wasn’t eliminated. Then why did you completely stop funding the territory?” I asked.

Seeing no reply from the man, I had the urge to massage my head.

But this was not the full problem either.

I looked at Earl Migam, the one who ruled over the territory bordering Jura Forest. It was normally his duty to protect the kingdom from the monsters coming from the Forest and even when his funds were cut, he was still getting a major part of the Kingdom’s funds to do this.

Unfortunately, he had become too complacent due to the time of peace. He had even embezzled a lot of the funds of the country for his own spendings and pleasure.

Normally, no monsters above C Rank came out of the Forest and they were easily managed due to the main branch of Free Guild of the country being in the province.

The adventurers hunted the monsters and sold their harvest for money, keeping the territory safe but….that was not a solution.

Adventurers weren’t duty bound to protect the Kingdom. They were just there to earn money.

In case of real trouble, they would be the first ones to leave the place and run.

Sure there was the agreement between the Free Guild and the Kingdom which allowed the Kingdom to use 10% of the total Adventurers in the branch of the country to defend against attacks….but….it had the same problem.

I didn’t want my Kingdom to be reliant on any third party for all its protection but my own armies were almost non-existent after the massacre in Tempest.

My recruitment spree has started refilling our numbers but training them and getting them ready for combat is going to take some time.

Thankfully, the Earl wasn’t completely incompetent. When he realised the danger from the monsters was increasing, he hired the people from the Free Guild by putting up many quests for them.

Not to mention, he was the same guy who supported Youm and even made a new force, the Frontier Protection Forces from the convicts in his territory by offering them a chance at freedom. He didn’t let them go without any security though. The man put them under the Contract Spell and gave the key to one of his trusted Magicians.

Too bad that Youm was charismatic enough to get the loyalty of the magician and became the head of the group.

At least, the guy stood against the decision of attacking Tempest and helped my ascension as the new King.

It was a good thing that Rimuru had full control of the Jura Forest now and the attacks from monsters had become quite less. Not to mention they often helped adventurers in clearing the monsters on the outskirts of the Kingdom so our need for soldiers in those parts had decreased a lot.

Over the next eight hours, I discussed several things regarding the policies of the Kingdom and taxation.

The Kingdom was transitioning towards Agriculture as its main source of income. This was done mainly with the help of the Dryads who had come to the Kingdom to accompany Ramiris.

They were highly adept in Spirit Magic and could boost the growth of plants as well. It was just that they normally didn’t appear in areas with humans because they were considered monsters by some and in many places they were enslaved. Not to mention, their own desire to live close to nature and thus in forests.

I had taken care of this by declaring them a protected species in Camelot. Anyone found hunting or smuggling them will be given a life sentence. To make the environment more comfortable for them, several orchards were ordered to be made in many places for them to live in.

Fruits, especially grapes were to be grown and later wine will be made from them while the Dryads themselves will be hailed as protectors and Land Gods of the place where they will be worshipped and treated with respect.

I had talked with Treyni, the leader of the Dryads about this and she had agreed to give this method a try.

She even sent her own sister Tyra to take over the whole project.

Apart from this, I listed down several modern methods of farming which I could remember for them to use.

While not as useful as magic, they can still be immensely useful when growing products.

‘Sol, can we do something about the variety of seeds?’ I wanted to get HYV of Seeds as they can significantly boost the total produce of the farmers.

‘It is possible to modify the existing seeds as well as create completely new products using the Creation part of my Skill.’

Ah, yes. Sol was made from Astarte by consuming Raphael.

‘Great. I will ask the people to collect every variety of seed they can.’

That’s one less problem.

Next up, I issued an order for a new team to be made of individuals possessing Appraisal Type Skills.

Rimuru has been working on creating the Gift Skill and is now able to Gift Extra Skills.

My plan is to send them for various investigations to the different parts of the Kingdom to discover resources as well as check out the quality of things produced.

We will then allocate resources to harvest resources and improve the quality of the things.

The Kingdom has a small mountain range in the south western part near its border with Ingrassia.

There have been some mines in this area but they are hard to find so I hope to discover those here.

By the time the meeting was over, I was completely exhausted….mentally.

All I wanted to do was take some time to relax but it seems that I was not going to get that today.

I saw Youm rushing towards me and I could see the reason for his rush walking right behind him.

Leon Cromwell….what is he doing here?

The blonde guy directly walked up to me and spoke, giving me my answer. “Where is Chloe?”

Ah….so that’s why.

I wonder how he found out?

“She must be in her class at this time. There is still around fifteen minutes left for her classes to be over. Would you like to come with me?”

The man didn’t say anything and I took it as a yes and walked towards the place where my students stayed.

On our way, he finally asked something which I was expecting. “How did you know?”

I knew what he meant. He was asking me how I knew about Chloe and his relationship.

“I….don’t know. As Vritra had said in that meeting, I have memories of this world and many others, of past….and possible futures. I just know some things.”

“Then why didn’t you….” He was speaking when I interrupted him.

“Bring her to you?” I asked. “Well, there are several reasons. First was for Shizu-sensei but I guess Rimuru has already told you about that.” He didn’t comment but I could see some anger in his eyes. I didn’t mind him and continued. “The second was to punish you for spreading that damned ritual everywhere. Do you have any idea how many people were dragged out of their homes because of your foolishness? How many children were endangered or just died due to being summoned at a young age? Trust me, if you weren’t related to Chloe….I would have killed you. I wonder if you realise that if you had not spread the ritual….she wouldn’t have been summoned from your side when she was young. In a way….you, Leon Cromwell, yourself were responsible for losing her.”

The guy remained stoic but this time there was some shame in his eyes so I decided to kick him when he was down.

“And in doing so, you had put her in danger of dying from an excess of magicules in her body.”

His expression paled a bit at the information and I had enough of talking him down. It’s better to let him stew in his own guilt.

By the time we were done, we reached the classes where the kids studied.

There were six children in the room being taught by Cleria about language and etiquette. Cleria was apparently from one of the noble families in the Underworld and was perfect for this job.

Five of my original students and the last one was Edgar….Falmuth.

Edgar was the son of the previous king, the fool who attacked Tempest and faced the consequences.

The boy was completely different from his fool of a father and uncle.

He was just eleven years old and was extremely responsible and genuinely cared for the citizens of the country.

I’ll be honest, I was planning to groom him as a successor for when I found a way back home but the guy had no interest in the throne. He himself felt responsible for the foolishness of his father and the damage it had caused to the country and now he wanted nothing else than to learn under me to become someone who can be a pillar of support for the country.

Still, I had not removed his title as the prince and let him join the same class as my students. They were all of the same age and got along surprisingly well.

Edgar was actually quite a straight laced kid who was well trained in noble etiquette. This often got him to be teased by the other guys in the group.

I had him make a contract with spirits and to everyone’s surprise, he was able to get the approval of an Elemental Lord of Light which meant he was eligible for the Hero’s egg like Kenya.

Due to this, I put him under Shiro for training to get him on the same level as my other students.

By the time we reached there, the class was already over and to none of my surprise, there were two more people waiting right outside the class.

Luminous stared at Leon and then me with a questioning gaze.

It always surprised me how much she could speak with that glare of hers.

On the other hand, Leon just stared at her without any care.

But before they could say anything else, the students came out and both the demon lords focused their attention to the ones coming out.

Leon walked straight from my side and directly towards Chloe without waiting for anyone but to his surprise, another figure got in front of him, greeting Chloe happily.

“Chloe”

“Chloe.”

A smile came to my lips as I stayed back to watch the drama while preparing to intervene if they got violent.

I just wish I had some popcorn at this time.

‘Right.’ Vritra said from my head.

Leon looked at her with dead eyes but then looked at Chloe and kneeled to face her.

Chloe stared at him, a look of confusion on her face but before she could say anything, he pulled her in a hug.

….

….

….

….

Luminous was like a frozen sculpture.

If looks could kill, Leon would have died. Actually, if she was sure that her attack could have killed him without harming Chloe in his arms, Leon would have died regardless.

When he separated, Luminous almost growled out. “What do you think you are doing, Leon Cromwell?”

Leon just looked at her with his usual stoic face. “Nothing you should concern yourself with.”

“None of my….” Her eyes narrowed as her power sparked around her. “How dare you!”

Leon narrowed his eyes and stood up, facing her as his power rose. “Do you have any problems with that?”

“Obviously I have….how dare you hug my Chl….” Her words were cut off by the one she was least expecting.

Chloe herself came to the front, looking at Leon with a look of realisation. “Leo….is that really you?”

Leon’s power was dispersed almost instantly and he looked back at her, with caring eyes and nodded. “I’m sor….”

His words were cut off as Chloe jumped into him and hugged him too.

Luminous just looked at the scene with a wide open mouth while I smiled at their reunion. She must have seen my smile as she glared at me questioningly.

Seriously girl, what’s with all the glaring?

Why do you automatically assume that everything is my fault?

Still, I had had enough of seeing the girl frustrated and since Chloe already recognised him, I wasn’t going to push him any further so I decided to give the Demon Lord an explanation.

“This is Leon Cromwell, Chloe’s childhood friend. He and Chloe came to this world at the same time and soon after Chloe was summoned….to a different timeline. Since then poor Leon has been trying everything he can to find her. Isn’t it nice to see them reunited after such a long time.” I smiled.

Everyone was taken aback at the story. Even Hinata was astonished and looked at me as if I had grown a second head. Luminous was the one who collected herself the fastest and then she narrowed her eyes again.

‘You knew it!’

Oh, a Thought Communication skill.

I just smiled at her. ‘Yes. And I assume you didn’t.’ I smirked at her becoming even more enraged.

We mutually decided to keep our banter for later and I looked at Leon.

“I guess you guys need some time to catch up. Coincidentally it’s time for lunch and the kids are all hungry. Let’s talk about all this over some food.”

They agreed and we moved to one of the guest rooms for lunch.

__________________________________x___________________________________

Over dinner, we got to listen to some of their background.

Leon was the son of a lord in his world while Chloe’s father was a retainer of his father. They had been close since childhood as there were not many children near him and he has always treated her like his own little sister and has always been extremely overprotective of her.

“I never thought that the Platinum Saber would have such a side to him.” Dino whispered.

“Right. He’s a tsundere personified.” Said Rimuru who had arrived after finding out about Leon’s arrival.

“Hahahaha I always knew Leon-chan was a good boy.” Ramiris said proudly as she flew all around him but the guy was too concentrated on Chloe to bother about him.

From what I knew he was very annoyed by her over-excitable personality.

“Let’s go, Chloe.” Leon finally said as we finished eating our lunch.

“Huh?”

“Let’s go to El Dorado. It’s my kingdom, my home. You will stay with me.”

….

Chloe looked like she was already expecting this and she looked at me.

I smiled at her. “I will support whatever decision you make, Chloe.”

She looked at everyone and then turned back at Leon.

I could feel the tension in the air as everyone watched the two of them, especially Luminous.

The rest of the kids were also watching the two from the side, unsure about what they should say.

“No.” She finally said.

“Huh?” Leon looked confused.

“I want to stay here.”

“What? But why?” He asked, aggressively.

“I want to stay with Teacher.” She looked at me, making the two pissed off demon lords turn towards me.

I just smiled at the girl. “Sure. You can stay here as long as you want.” I patted her head, making their glares even sharper.

“I see. He did something, didn’t he? He must have used his words to trick you….” He gritted through his teeth as his power started surging.

My subordinates got tensed at the hostility and even Hinata was about to pull out her sword.

To my surprise, even Dino’s posture was slightly defensive as if preparing to defend.

“I knew it.” Luminous whispered. The fuck lady. What did you know?

“Oi, who are you calling a fraud!” I exclaimed. “I don’t have a habit of tricking my students.”

Chloe just glared back at him. “No one tricked me. I just want to stay here with everyone. That’s it.” She said with a pout.

“Yes. If Chloe-chan wants to stay here, she will stay here. You cannot take her away.” Kenya got up, facing Leon.

“Hmm, she is a part of our class, our friend. We will not let you take her away.” Alice got up too.

Following her the rest of the students were glaring back at the True Hero turned Demon Lord in his eyes.

The guy looked at them and finally at Chloe and for the first time, the look of frustration was visible on his face.

I decided to help the guy out. If I remember correctly, he summoned Shizue-sensei when she was about to die and in doing so actually saved her life.

Sigh….for just that.

“Leon….please let her stay here. She has friends in this place and can learn with them. I promise I will protect her with my life if I have to. You can always come here and meet her here and we could visit you sometimes. Actually, how about this, I propose an alliance between Camelot and El Dorado and we can have frequent visits even when business is involved. We already have an alliance with several nations including the Sorcerer Nation of Sarion.” I offered.

He looked at me, still pissed and this time Chloe came in front of me and glared at the man. “Leo….don’t be mean to Teacher.” She scolded, making the man turn the other way.

Finally after a few more words, we decided to go to another room to decide further.

At the end of the day, Leon decided to join an alliance with us too.

I think Sylvia was about to invite him but he directly joined us removing the need of a middle man.

El Dorado was on an island in the southwest of the continent and there was a massive volcano on the island which was caused due to a fight between Velgrynd and Veldora. It erupts often and fills the land with its ashes, making the soil unfit for cultivation.

On the plus side, the land was rich in minerals and most of its people were miners.

In fact, the country was so rich that the entire city had buildings whose walls were covered in gold.

Sarion was the only country it traded with, providing them with different metals and minerals for food and other products.

I could imagine several good uses for it in my kingdom as well.

Overall, the meeting which could have turned into a three-way battle between the two Demon Lords and a True Hero turned into a meeting to establish a peaceful alliance instead.

A win in my books if there ever was one.

Leon decided that he would stay here for another week and finalise the agreement before leaving.

We all knew that he was only staying here because of Chloe though.

On another note, he decided to acknowledge the Monster Nation of Tempest as a formal country, giving Rimuru another note of approval. At this point, no one could deny that the Monster Nation of Tempest was a genuine country.

- Sylvia -

She walked to the place assigned by King Salvatore for their meeting.

She recognised the halls. They looked exactly like the Dwelling of Spirits. Surely another creation of the Queen of Spirit, Lady Ramiris.

She had really moved here like the rumours said. Then again, it was understandable. Knowing who the person ruling the country might be.

Even she was taken aback when she had felt that aura after such a long time. She had only gone there because she heard the news of her sister-in-law’s survival and wanted to meet her after a long time.

What she was not expecting was to feel his presence from the King. It was one of the main reasons why she had even considered entertaining his outlandish claims about having memories. If it had been someone else, she would have scoffed at their claim but him….with him in the mix….anything was possible.

Later on, she investigated and found out several things about him.

A Dragonoid who had a True Dragon in his soul, a completely new True Dragon as well as the one who defeated the Chaos Dragon and purified it. Not to mention, Veldora being so well behaved in his presence….she doubted there were many people who could get the Storm Dragon to behave like that.

Then there was the presence of Dino and the other two Angels of the Origin who were hanging on to his words as if gospel, giving more credibility to her thought.

He himself didn’t seem to remember his identity but from the signs she could see, he was regaining his memories gradually.

And yet, his presence seemed to run the world, attracting all kinds of beings of power and influence around him, effortlessly.

Just in case, she investigated his claims and sure enough, all his words came true.

He had helped her solve a huge crime against her people and even provided her hope to reunite with her beloved.

Behind her, Elmensia, Kagali, Sara and Erald walked with Sarion….no, he was Laplace right now, following them due to Kagali’s orders.

It pained her to see her beloved husband in that form.

A Deathman, a twisted form of his former majesty, reduced to a puppet, a clown for someone else.

It was when she looked at the one behind them who was being brought by Milim Nava herself that her eyes narrowed.

Jahil….the one responsible for everything.

They had been able to identify that he was indeed inside the Deathman Footman’s body but they had been incapable of separating them. It was then that Sara suggested that they should seek the help of Lord Vel….King Salvatore.

She agreed.

If there was someone who could do such a thing, it would probably be him.

As they reached the gates, one of the Chosen Hero under him, Masaomi, if she remembered his name correctly, bowed and opened the door behind him, guiding them inside.

Inside the place, there were several people already waiting for them.

At the head of the seat sat the King himself with Demon Lord Rimuru sitting on his right. Dino, Garasha and Pico sat on one side and Luminous, Leon and Gazel sat on the other side. Their subordinates stood behind them.

“Welcome. I am glad that your operation was a success.” He greeted them.

She bowed respectfully towards him. “I sincerely thank you for your assistance, your majesty. I cannot imagine what we would have done without your help in this matter.”

“Now now, no need to be so formal. You were all suffering and I could help so I did. Isn’t that what any decent person should do?” He smiled.

Her eyes softened at his words. “Yes….yes, it certainly is.”

And yet she doubted there were any people who would do so nowadays without any second thoughts.

He then looked at the two Deathmen behind her and then at Kagali and finally at her again. “Do they know?”

She looked at the three and then back at the King and nodded. “Yes. Both Laplace and Footman have decided to voluntarily go through the process. Kagali doesn’t mind either. She just requests the safety of the two and wishes to be present at the scene. I too request you to spare Footman’s life. He had nothing to do with all those crimes.”

He nodded and stood up. “Trust me, I do not enjoy taking lives. I will try my best.”

“Thank you.”

With that he got up and went towards Milil, pulling her into a hug. “Are you alright?” He whispered but it was enough for the ears of everyone to hear.

She nodded, still angry but Sylvia could see that her anger had melted a lot at the question. “Please….help me get him out.”

“Alright.”

He looked towards Footman and then at Demon Lord. “Rimuru, help me out.”

“Oh! What should I do?”

“Just assist me and prevent anything from escaping. I will be concentrating on separating the souls so just keep an eye on the barriers.”

“Sure.” Demon Lord Rimuru got up and walked beside him. They joined hands and then something happened which made her stare in dumbfounded surprise.

Barriers rose around Footman, hundreds of barriers of different kinds.

Ultimate Skill: Uriel, Lord of Vows.

But that was not it. The barriers were further modified with spells

Magic circles rose, hundreds, thousands of magic circles or several different attributes, each with different affects.

Some increased the potency of spells while some prevented any form of escape and some just decreased the power of disembodied souls or trapped them outright.

She had seen this before.

This power….it was something he used with his wife, the Princess of the Nasca Kingdom, Lucia Nasca.

While not many people would recognise it, there was no doubt in Sylvia’s mind that this was the work of the Ultimate Skill: Raphael, Lord of Wisdom. It just couldn’t be anything else.

She took a peak at the three Angels and saw the same looks of disbelief on their faces.

“There, all done.” Rimuru said as she walked beside Milim, hugging the girl from behind and sitting on the ground, to watch Salvatore work.

To Sylvia….it looked like the picture of an ideal family.

__________________________________x_____________________________________________________________________x__________________________________

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Author’s Note:

I am back with another chapter of ‘To be a Hero.’

The plot might seem to have slowed down a bit but I don't want to skip over these parts.

Things are just getting good.

Salvatore got a bunch of OP Skills once again and is putting his kingdom in line.

Yuuki is gone.

Luminous has absolutely no chill.

Vritra got what she wanted.

Leon arrived and Luminous found out that she had more competition for Chloe than she had imagined.

Too bad for them that Chloe just wants to stay with her Teacher.

Finally, some people are connecting dots….even when there are no dots.

Enjoy the new chapter.

Good Day, Peace Out.