Within the capital city of Ingraccia, a group of majin and their lord are currently approaching the meeting hall where the western council meeting is scheduled to take place
The entire group is dressed up nice and dapper, much to the despair of their stiff lord who is currently floating via gravity manipulation which is brought into question by Benjamin
"Don't you think it will give off a strange look if you're constantly floating?"
Remaining stiff as a board, Kaijuno rotated his entire body instead of turning his head before replying
"I'm a demon lord, so I'm gonna stick out like a sore thumb regardless, plus I'm doing this to show dominance"
"Dominance?"
"Yep! I'm here as a ruler, not as any other council. Me floating is silently telling the council "I'm so much of a top dog here, your floors aren't even worthy to be stepped on" I have to show confidence!"
The others seem to accept this reasoning, but in reality, I can't move in this god forsaken suit. I'm may be a slime, but this feels so stiff and restricting to wear, it's uncomfortable to wear
We did the cardio on the lengthy stairway and more so through the broad front garden of the meeting hall til we finally reached the front door
It was a slightly taller than average pair of doors that were already open since the surrounding area was fenced off and security was expectedly provided
Only taking a single step into the entrance hall itself, I immediately encountered my dilemma, forced social situations
A handful of middle age folks approached me when they noticed my presence
As if the suit wasn't already bringing me discomfort, now I have a bunch of folks seeking out my attention
They were mainly praising their experience at the festival to which isn't technically all that bad but it's not really much of a concern for me. I can at least remain stoic with these interactions
How ever what was coming up next would definitely ruffle my feathers
"Can't you see your presence is a bother to Kaijuno!"
"Exactly! Lesser nobility such as yourself should know better than to approach our honored guest"
Just as they appeared, the handful of somewhat modest nobles swiftly fled the area only to be quickly replaced by many and far more smugged nobles that were a straight up eyesore for me
In fact my surroundings were getting cluttered with an arrogant crowd of nobles that didn't even refer to me in honorifics despite me being a king and them being nobles
It was blatantly clear that partially because my shorter and child like appearance that they looked down on me figuratively instead of just literally enough that they couldn't even bother to act formal
These bums kept hounding and bombarding me with questions that I didn't have the patience to pay attention to
Ironically it's not like I'm neck deep into my nation's politics so it's not like I would get what they're even trying to get
All of this was annoying the living hell out of me to say the least.
It's infuriating that I can go and punch a demon in the demon realm with no consequences while far more punchable targets like these bastards are off limits
I ended up getting cornered while these pests grown to be more shameless and a pain to deal with, pushing the limits of their passive aggression
I just about reached the limit of my patience and decided I needed to actually do something to get these parasites off my back
Unfortunately, threatening and landing a few jabs would only do more harm than good for Tempest, plus Rimuru reaching the peak of his engagement would be an understatement
I decided to resort to fighting fire with fire and do some passive aggression in my own way
To scare off these big head nobles, I resorted to an unthinkable solution, the idea to give the heebiest of geebiest
So frightening and horrific that even Demon Lord Leon had jolted in fear. That's right, I'm talking about . . .
Ugly Bastard Expressions
Immediately getting up close to the noble in front of me, he immediately jumped back and actually made him and a few nobles behind him fall onto the floor followed by the remaining nobles backing up with uncomfortable expressions
With my view a bit more cleared, I could see Benjamin and Leonardo who looked loke they were about to step in were now in jolted poses, likely frightened by my disgusting expression as well
Having an opening space in between the frozen nobles, I made my escape to reach further into the hallway with the rest of my party following along
There were still a good number of nobles separate from the previous crowd that were insistent for my attention
I just kept using my ugly bastard expressions to scare them off so I can get through
Some fallen back in terror, some screeched in fright, some maybe even tinkled a little from their scare but I made it to the end of the hall
While I kept doing this, I could hear murmurs from Cameilla, Benjamin, and Leonardo behind me
"Please, please never do this again"
"I definitely lost a couple of centuries of my lifetime"
"I think I'm scarred for life"
Maybe I just misheard it, who knows
I was approached by someone right at the end of the meeting hall to which I performed my disgusting expression again which terrified him as expected
Turns out he wasn't another noble trying to get something out fo me but instead he was actually the council's assigned chairman
He was another bald old dude so it was hard for me to tell the difference
After a few moments of shaking, the chairman steadily composed himself and revealed who he was
He then nervously showed me to where I would be sitting at which was actually his chair
Not sure if this was already gonna be the layout or the chairman just decided to give me his seat out of fear
Plus it was a wheel chair so I sure wasn't gonna make any complaints
On my way, I spotted Hinata who glanced at my direction but kept her stoic presence but to my own suprise, I noticed Masayuki and his party standing by against the wall
Masayuki gave me an awkward wave, it looked like this was last minute for him too
It took a hot minute for the entire council yo get into position, in the mean time, I noticed a disgusting smell surrounding the gigantic meeting room
I thought some folks just didn't wash themselves prior to the meeting but I realized that wasn't the case
It smell way worst than that, like something was rotting, even Yagami noticed something wasn't sitting right
(Notice, extreme levels of malice has been detected)
I felt it instinctively too but I brushed it off knowing about the nobles and prince's intentions
(Negative, the source of malice are not that of human)
This made me raise a brow in confusion, not knowing what they meant by this
"What do you mean not that of human?"
(Answer, individuals among the council members are confirmed to not be humans are likely hiding their identities)
"Hold on! Straight up not humans!? Is that why there is a terrible smell?"
(Confirmed, the stench has a relation to the suspected individuals
Analyzing selected individual for identification)
Having this concern on the back on the back of mind, the meeting of the western council has finally started
They made their intentions clear that they were leaning in favor admitting tempest into the Western council given that I was attending today's meeting
Although they wanted a few things in return for our admission
First was to abide by the western council laws, simple and expected
Second, some access to our technology. Hopefully that doesn't include my arcade machines cause that's my gold mine to have
Third was providing military defenses, with how much of a threat the eastern empire is, having a demon lord and many high ranking majins would be very crucial
Again, I'm not expert on politics so I wasn't sure about fair or beneficial the last two points were
They were politicians so they most probably set this up more in their favor
I decided to take the easy route and have Yagami write out counter offers to ensure it would actually benefit us
Given with how many eyes would review it, there was less openings for me to sneak in schemes like I did with Ramiris
It was a few pages of corrections to go over so the chairman requested some time to review it
Ironic since I was put in the spot to accept the original terms or not without room to think it over
Regardless, I and my folks were escorted to one of the connecting lounge rooms while the rest of the council went over what I had Yagami write down
3 and a half hours
Over 3 whole hours just to make up their minds
Not just over 3 hours of dull waiting but a good chunk of time in the later half, noticeable muffles of shouting and yelling coming from the other room
We almost thought a fist fight was actually gonna happen. Benjamin uncomfortably ask
"Is this seriously how interactions with other nations are like Kaijuno-Sama?"
"They're politicians, it's their job to disagree and take way more time than needed to settle on something"
After the intense noises finally died down, the lounge door was opened to let us back in
The atmosphere appeared to be way more tense than when we stepped away from it
The majority of nobles seemed neutral but a good handful were nervously fidgeting and sweating bullets
Masayuki's party looked uncomfortable while trying to avoid eye contact with anybody in the room while Masayuki himself was looking a bit pale
The chairman looked depressed and defeated
Even the normally stoic Hinata had her right palm on her face while tapping the finger of her left hand, showing a clear sense of frustration
I don't recall these details being mentioned in the bits and pieces I knew from the light novels but I was aware why they looked this uncomfortable
I knew they made a list that was so horrifically insulting that even the pacifist Rimuru immediately resorted to breaking a desk out of fury
Very slowly, the chairman approached me. Hesitantly handing me the list of demands while his hand is intensely shaking
I took the list knowing the ballsy demands that I was gonna see and prepared kick the desk like in canon
And as expected, looking down on the list, I was growing more and more frustrated and mad
Building a railroad to Ingraccia and doing all of the construction and paying the costs
Provide high quality weapons and armor to strengthen military preparations
The council will have a say in the administration of the Labyrinth
Tempest will have to pay a significant amount of taxes annually
The tempest representatives for the council has to be restricted to humans only
But there was one more demand on this list
One last condition that I was in disbelief was actually considered let alone intentionally written down and presented to
The disbelief was only brief as it instantly transition to red hot boiling rage. It twitching in enragement
I handed the list to my subordinates for them to see what I was handed
Benjamin had an expression purely of inferno anger
Leonardo looked like he was close to killing everyone in this room
Cameilla held the most disgusted expression I ever seen anyone had
Having them aware of what the council had the gall to attempt I shifted my attention back to the chairman who looked like he was about to collapse in fear
"Hey chairman"
"Y-yes?"
"Take this list, go to the center of the room and read this list out loud"
With zero question nor protest, the chairmantook the list and openly presented the contents
He repeated what was previously stated including the final demand
"And finally, Tempest is to offer citizens of species not under the demo human citizen protection laws to nations that still does slave tra-"
Without even letting him finish, I immediately stood up and thrown the heavy desk through the ceiling, leaving a hole up there and through the confidence of the once smug nobles
Bursting with mad rage I screeched and howled
"YOU'RE SERIOUSLY SCREWING WITH ME!? HOW BLINDED MUST YOU BE TO GO OUT YOUR WAY TO PISS OFF A GOD DAMN DEMON LORD OF ALL PEOPLE!"
A few of the nobles tried say some sort of excuse but I refused to hear them out, instead I took off my mask and let out my Monster King Haki to make it clear how furious I am
A huge gust of pressure pushed through the room and not only flowed through the hole in the ceiling but pushed the shut doors to fly through the hallways
I felt many none existent veins pop furrowed my face and said
"IT TRULY HAS TO BE ME TO REMIND YOU OF WHAT YOU'RE DEALING WITH! NOT ONLY CAN I BUTCHER EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN THIS ROOM BUT I CAN DEMOLISH ALL OF YOUR PATHETIC NATIONS IF I TRULY WISH TO!!!!!
JUST WHO HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!!!!"
(Activating Humility King Mikael)
Cutting off my furious howls, Yagami extinguished my erupting emotion with Mikael. Suddenly I shifted to a more composed tone
"So let's do the mature thing and not humor such atrocious things, you can start by actually referring to me as "your majesty" instead of just using my first name informally, alright?"
The entire room that was intensely uneasy before was just straight up frozen from shock. Nobody had it in themselves to respond
"I'll assume that is a yes"
I quietly sat back on my chair and looked over to my subordinates to see if they're alright. My Monster King Haki was a unique one that wouldn't be harmful to them.
But they held a blank expression on their face. It was hard to tell what the intention of their expression was. Suprise? Disappointment? Neutrality? I had no clue what is going on in their minds
(Holy crap, he can do that ugly face without the mask on!?)
Some folks were barely starting twitch again, I had just noticed the entrance door frame's lack of closed doors
It was apparent that the pair of doors flew through the hall and was laying on the door
It was a bit far but I could easily see with my magic sense a couple of shoes underneath I thought those were the guards for a moment but the footwear was leather instead of metallic so it probably wasn't
Just then, a single person was able to emerge crawl his way out of the massive doors and was frantically shaking in confusion
"W-what is the meaning of this!?"
Just then, a few of the nobles turn towards the direction of who was speaking
They then expressed their suprise, immediately addressing the newcomer as his majesty, as if I wasn't just infuriated by their informality just a few seconds prior
"Yagami, should I know this guy?"
(Answer, based on your knowledge from the light novel, the individual is the prince of Ingraccia, Elrick)
"Prince Elrick? Was he the guy was supposed to suddenly show up in the middle of the meeting? Wasn't there other guys with him?"
(Answer, the rest are still knocked down from the door, Elrick was likely shielded from the majority of the impact)
The chairman had questioned why the prince was present while still quivering, only for the prince to respond with
"Isn't it clear, I have come to subjugate the demon lord for the good of humanity!
Some of the nobles and the chairman were flabbergasted at what the prince had just said and immediately expressed their protest and disapproval given what they just witnessed prior
But another noble named Gaban expressed his support to the prince's scheme much to the horror of the chairman
Soon enough, more and more nobles that were frozen stiff were now backing up Prince Elrick
Seeing the nobles rallying up with him, the prince continued
"Fear not members of the council! With this bracelet of domination, even a demon lord will kneel to my command!"
Reaching into his pocket, the prince took what seem to an orb implanted on a shard that sure didn't look like a bracelet, to which the prince immediately noticed
"I-it's broken!"
Just as is this was revealed, Hinata stepped out her seat and approached the prince in a disapproval tone
"Prince Elrick, despite being the prince of Ingraccia, you were not permitted to be here, if you're gonna continue with this matter, then as a witness for the meeting I'll have to escort you out myself"
Now faced that his scheme was cracking, he tried to make a recovery
"W-wait! Hinata! The bracelet was not the only solution I had! I also came here with the head of Ingraccia's knight corp, Sir Reiner.
With his strength alone, we'll be able to defeat the demon lord and make him kneel before!"
Elrick signaled towards the hall where he expected the head knight to be ready to support him, only to get a good look and see that everybody, including reiner was knocked out cold from getting slammed by the pair of doors
The prince was now silent as he realized both the bracelet and the knight he had in his deck of cards were in the fritz
Hinata let out a sigh that sounded unimpressed
"If you're done with this, I'll be seeing you out now"
Just when Hinata was about to lead the defeated prince back through the hall, she was interupted by first supporter of Elrick's plan, Gaban
"Hold on Lady Hinata, maybe Prince Elrick may have a point. We all have just seen how much of a danger the demon lord can be. Surely having him and his monster nation sticking around the council will only bring tyranny to the western"
Hinata now had a bewildered expression towards Gaban, wondering what he was on about
"What are trying to go with this claim, Gaban?"
"I intended to suggest we simply settle this matter with a vote on whether or not we'll truly accept the demon lord into our council
For all those who are against the addition of Tempest into the Western Council, please arise to show support"
One by one council members began to stand up from their seats, signifying their vote
It was then I had just recalled a crucial detail that was supposed to happen during this meeting
"Hold on Yagami, wasn't I supposed deactivate Mariabelle's mental manipulation of the council members? She was trying control them from behind the scenes so why didn't you analyze and cut the cord on it?"
I was expecting Yagami to say they already did so while I screaming at the op of my non-existent lungs but that wasn't the case
(Answer, it is because none of the nobles were under the effect of mental manipulation)
This flabbergasting response threw off of a loop, it was completely unexpected
"Wait you're serious? How can that be!? I thought this was supposed to be part of Mariabelle's scheme. Why is it in this timeline that the nobles aren't under her influence!?"
Just as Yagami's answer caught me off guard, another shock appeared as well
By the end of the voting, the majority of the council members were sitting up while the minority were still sitting with shocked expressions towards the standing one
This sight brought back confidence into the once nervous prince
"Ha! You see that! I knew the council would come around afterall! There truly was no place for a demon lord in the council"
The prince began to show boat to the shock of the few of us with Gaban reaffirming his association with this matter
"Now that we made it clear that the demon lord won't be accepted, how about instead of subjugating, we'll slay him for the good of humanity"
The remaining council members went pale upon hearing this, while the encouraged prince agreed immediately and went over to the group still under the doors, trying to wake them up
In the back my mind, I was actually freaking out that the voting went against me instead of the other way around. I was internally panic, regretting my outburst earlier for the current consequences show itself now
Now Tempest could really ended up not joining to council and it would be my fault
While I was having this spiral of emotions, the prince continued to try waking up his knights only to interrupted by a shout that could be heard from the end of the hall
This made the smug prince return to his nervous tone upon seeing who it was
"F-father!?"
While being surrounded by his knights, Aegil the King of Ingraccia had arrived to the meeting hall. He looked excessively out of breathe
It was likely he was already on his way but with his explosive my outburst was, he must've heard and rushed here as soon as possible
Seeing Hinata right behind the prince, Aegil asked her what was going to which Hinata recalled the ongoing events which led to the kign giving his son a cold stare for his foolishness
Seeing how chaotic this meeting was getting in his own kingdom he likely intended to clear things up and cut off any disturbances that could bring anymore mayhem starting with Gaban who Hinata said encouraged Prince Elrick's scheme
He made this known as he faced the noble
"I'll be taking you in as well Gaban, I've been hearing of what you have been attempting to pull, you shall be facing the consequences of this"
"Your majesty, surely you're making a mistake, it was clear the demon lord is the obvious problem here"
"Silence! I shall hear no more! My magic inquisitors shall be showing you out"
And suddenly, a bunch of people is gas masks surrounded the noble and grabbed a hold of him, ready to led him out
But Gaban wasn't fazed by this, infact he almost looked annoyed like this was just an inconvenience to him
"I see, well this was intended to happen either way, a least we'll bring the pathetic royal family along in the blood bath"
The king furrowed his brow at what Gaban had just said only to shift to a wid eye expression as one of his magic inquisitors trown into the wall right next to him
The right arm of Gaban that had trown the inquisitor looked like it had inflated it's muscle and the skin looked like it had texture more rough to normal human skin
Beneath his arm were bits and pieces of rotting flesh, almost as if he had shed from his previous form
Gaban then stared directly at me as he said
"But first, I'll begin with the main target of this operation"
Using his freed arm, he grabbed a hold of his face before intensely pulling on. He stretched on it some much that his skin was tearing apart as if it was taffy and it was dropping all over the floor showing it was blackened and dry
His eyes and teeth began popping out as if they were simply accessories of a costume and weren't really his own
Maggots also began popping out of Gaban, showing how decayed his body was
As Gaban was doing this, the nobles that were standing too began to tear apart their skin, spilling rotting flesh and maggots all over the floor of the meeting hall
The remaining magic inquisitors swiftly surrounded the prince and king while the sitting nobles and chairman fled away from what was emerging
Team Light Speed and Hinata already held a stance ready for combat in anticipation of what they were unsure was going on, it was the same for my subordinates
I myself remained sitting as I didn't have it in me to move in the stiff suit that I was wearing
Completely ripping off his shell, the thought to be Gaban held an appearance of a creature I failed to recognize as anything from this world
His head resembled a skull of a dog with multiple eyeballs sprouting out from his eye socket. The body looked similar to that of a tiger but instead of stripes,
they had a long web of warts that looked almost like a spine and ribcage that was also pulsing is if it were veins
Both of the feet were more like human hands that had sharp nails and the back feet were facing the backwards instead of forward
And finally what is supposed to the tail was an inflated rod that covered in multiple mouths
The other nobles also sprouted out different grotesque creatures of varying forms
As this revelation show itself, Yagami had something to say
(Notice, analysis of identification is complete)
"Now it is!? Well what is it? What are they?"
(Answer, the creatures disguised as nobles belong to the race called "cryptids")
Using the big mouth tail, the now revealed cryptid had yelled out
" KAIJUNO TEMPEST! KING OF THE MONSTERS! I, THE BLISSFULLY NAMED PERVENVY, IN HONOR OF THE GREAT MOTHER IVARAGE SHALL MAKE SURE YOU'LL DIE SCREAMING!!!!
Hearing this declaration, instead of intimidation, all I could think of was
"Wow! Bit of an edge lord ain't he?"
I heard what I assume to be a facepalm in my mind, likely sourced from Yagami
As for everyone else, they held composed and stoic expressions it would have been expected they would be more uneasy
Actually even some of the nobles looked almost unimpressed by this sight
It because subconsciously what they were thinking was
"How is this not most horrifying sight I seen today?"
.
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Fairly away from the council meeting hall, on top of a roof top resided the red sea, Glenda who was anticipating to assassinate Prince Elrick
She was getting her pistol and was about to open the spatial portal to cut the distance short
But before she could pull the trigger, she noticed a large shadow surrounded her, before she could get a grasp of the situation, a wooden desk suddenly landed on her, knocking her out of commission
She would later be captured by Leonardo's body double who Kaijuno instructed to search the surrounding area
Glenda's mission to assassinate the prince was already foiled before she could've even make an attempt