"But do not treat me like a clueless, brain-dead princess. Do not insult me with your cheap, patronizing bedtime stories."
"I admit everything you just said is logically flawless. But as you yourself pointed out, I simply do not care about any of it."
Altrouge's voice dropped to a lethal, vibrating hiss.
"So, Rimuru. Or rather, human magus, Rimuru Tempest. If you intend to keep using me as a pawn to achieve your grand ambitions, do not patronize me. Do not lie to my face."
"Give me your true motives. Otherwise…"
"Otherwise?" Rimuru asked, his golden eyes unblinking.
"Otherwise… I will kill you!" A feral, bloody light flashed in the Black Princess's eyes. She bared her fangs, her face twisting into a vicious snarl. "And then… and then I'll…"
"You'll resurrect me?"
Rimuru laughed.
The suffocating tension in the room instantly shattered. Without a shred of hesitation, Rimuru reached out, rising slightly on his toes, and firmly ruffled the top of her hair.
Altrouge froze. Her apocalyptic rage short-circuited entirely.
"You aren't going to kill me, Altrouge," Rimuru sighed softly, withdrawing his hand.
"You're far too sentimental for that."
"What?" she choked out, too stunned by the headpat to even swat his hand away.
"You hold the title of Princess, and you act exactly like one. You aren't a Queen," Rimuru stated matter-of-factly. "You couldn't even bring yourself to finish off the sister you supposedly despise. When Ortenrosse spat in your face, you threw a tantrum instead of declaring total war. You actually listen to the pathetic pleas of your former subordinates."
He ticked the points off on his fingers. "Despite the terrifying, cruel persona you project, your actions constantly leak a subconscious, naïve kindness. Take the Einzbern castle, for example. You didn't warn me about the Church's arrival just to play the savior. You did it because you couldn't stomach watching the rest of your drafted grunts die for nothing."
"I have a sensory range that can blanket all of Germany if I push it. I see far more than you think."
Rimuru tilted his head, his gaze softening.
"Conversely, whenever you act with genuine 'hostility,' it's almost always born from a childlike curiosity. You hunted me across Europe because you wanted to add me to your collection. You tried to bait me into a fight with Merem Solomon just because you wanted a sip of his blood."
"Even right now. You aren't furious because I've been using you this entire time. You're furious because you offered me your genuine sincerity, and you felt like I threw it back in your face by keeping secrets."
Rimuru took a step forward, closing the gap between them.
"But I don't see it that way at all. You forced me into your ranks. In exchange, I claimed the right to weaponize your authority and your faction to achieve my own goals. It's a perfectly fair trade."
"I didn't execute this plan behind your back to deceive you. I did it because it fundamentally benefits you as well. You have absolutely no logical reason to refuse it."
"I assumed you'd figure that out."
"I did figure it out!" Altrouge ground her teeth, her pride stinging. "A script where a ruler's left and right hands are both overly ambitious tyrants, and one of them eventually usurps the throne? It's a cliché! You and Ortenrosse are cut from the exact same cloth!"
"But reality isn't a script, Rimuru! Eventually, brute force dictates the ending!"
"I know. Which is exactly why I've pledged my loyalty to you, Princess."
Rimuru's tone turned deadly serious.
"You wanted my true motives? It's incredibly simple. You said it yourself just a minute ago. Fundamentally, my true identity is the human magus, Rimuru Tempest. Not the White Knight."
"Therefore, my endgame is the survival of humanity."
"There are a dozen pragmatic reasons I could give you for my loyalty, Altrouge. I could say it's because you're terrible at managing a faction, which gives me absolute administrative control. I could say it's because your raw power is the ultimate safety net for my reckless gambles."
"But the primary reason I chose you? It's because you don't inherently despise humanity."
"You don't need to worry about me usurping your throne, and you don't need to stress over your feud with the White Wing Lord. Because Ortenrosse and I are fundamentally incompatible."
Rimuru's eyes narrowed into cold, calculating slits.
"Once the Church and the Association's threats are neutralized, and the Dead Apostle Nation is formally established… Ortenrosse and I will part ways. Violently. It will be a fight to the death."
"I am going to use your hands to annihilate the White Wing Lord. I will consolidate the entire Dead Apostle faction under your banner, and in doing so, I will permanently erase their threat to humanity."
"I am going to save the human race. That is my endgame, Princess."
Rimuru leaned in close, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. "After all, the most efficient way to destroy an enemy isn't to fight a bloody war of attrition. It's a hostile corporate takeover from the inside out. Wouldn't you agree?"
As a former corporate elite, Rimuru understood this truth in his bones: Why burn a rival company to the ground when you can just buy a controlling stake in their shares?
"However. Since you demanded absolute honesty, I'll lay all my cards on the table. Because I want to sign a contract with you."
"A… contract?" Altrouge blinked, the sheer scale of his ambition leaving her momentarily reeling.
"Yes. A contract."
Rimuru pulled back. He looked past her, toward the horizon where the first faint rays of dawn were beginning to break.
"I told you I won't usurp your throne. That's because, eventually… I am going to leave."
"I don't belong to the Dead Apostles. Technically, I don't even belong to humanity. So, when the time comes for me to depart, I want you to agree to this pact."
Rimuru looked directly into her crimson eyes.
"Once I am gone, not only are you forbidden from attacking humanity… you must use everything in your power to protect them."
"…"
Altrouge stared at him, utterly dumbfounded. Then, she let out a sharp, incredulous laugh.
"You are insanely arrogant. Do you seriously think you can take a species explicitly designed to hunt primates… and turn them into humanity's personal bodyguards?"
"If I set my mind to it, I will make it happen, Princess."
"Fascinating…" Altrouge chuckled, crossing her arms. "But peace is a two-way street, Rimuru. What happens if humanity decides to turn around and exterminate us?"
"Well." Rimuru glanced back over his shoulder, flashing a brilliant, confident smile. "That's entirely up to the other me to handle, isn't it?"
Altrouge fell completely silent.
Leave. Did he mean returning to the Reverse Side of the World?
She knew he was a Phantasmal Species. Eventually, the World's corrective forces would make it impossible for him to remain in human society. It was inevitable.
But still…
What a terrifying, utterly deranged ambition. No, 'ambition' was the wrong word. Protecting the entire human race from the shadows? That was a messiah complex. A saint's crusade.
It was utterly laughable, especially considering his ruthless, manipulative, cutthroat methods didn't resemble a saint in the slightest.
Yet… she couldn't look away.
Altrouge shot him an incredibly complex, lingering look. She finally broke the silence, clearing her throat to shift the topic.
"Let's see if you can actually pull it off first. If you manage to hand me Ortenrosse's head on a silver platter, I might just sign that ridiculous contract of yours."
The White Knight dismantles the enemy from the inside. The Blue Professor commands the human world from the outside. Ruling the light and the dark simultaneously. It sounded impossibly cool on paper, but both of them knew the sheer, terrifying difficulty of executing such a flawless dual-checkmate.
[All of this… for a world you don't even belong to.]
It's for the people I care about, Rimuru answered silently.
….
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