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"Drag him out and hand him over to the demons. I'm sure they'll find him to be very useful experimental material."
Two Goblin guards stepped in at Shuna's word, grabbed the envoy by his arms, and began hauling him toward the door.
"Let go of me! I am an envoy of the Kingdom of Falmuth! How dare you treat me this way!"
The fat man thrashed and kicked as he was dragged, shouting his title over and over as though that alone might save him.
The Goblins paid him no mind. They had their orders, and they followed them. He kept struggling regardless.
When it finally sank in that they were serious, the fight went out of him all at once and panic set in.
"Wait, wait! I was wrong, alright?! Please, just let me go!"
"I'll go back and speak well of you to the King, I swear it! I'll make sure he goes easy on you! You need someone like me on your side, don't you?!"
His expression had curdled into something desperate and fawning, practically begging to be used. The disgust in Shuna's eyes deepened.
"Stop."
The Goblins halted. The envoy's face flooded with relief.
He was already scheming in his head. The moment he got back, he would push the King to send an army. He would take this woman back with him and make her pay for every second of this humiliation.
It didn't go the way he imagined.
Shuna reached into her pocket, drew out a pair of white gloves, and pulled them on without hurry. Then she walked up to him.
"Slap!" "Slap!" "Slap!" "Slap!"
She slapped him more than a dozen times before finally lowering her hand. She peeled off the gloves and dropped them into the waste bin without a second glance. Then she turned back to look at the envoy, who had been transformed into something resembling an Orc.
"Not just anything qualifies to be a dog in the Jura-Tempest Federation. Take him away."
"Yes!"
"No! Please, I'll do anything, just don't— a…"
Bang.
The door closed. The Orc envoy's voice faded into nothing.
"Hahaha! Shuna-sama, that was absolutely magnificent! I feel completely refreshed!"
Uzui Tengen turned to Shuna with the most satisfied grin he'd worn all day.
"Hehe, you flatter me." Shuna said with a smile, though her expression quickly turned serious. "But what happened here needs to be reported to Kaito-sama and Rimuru-sama as soon as possible."
"Agreed, completely."
Tengen nodded firmly.
"Tengen, please go to my brother at the military camp and have him arrange for the defenses to be reinforced."
"And I'll head to the New World right now to inform the two lords personally."
Shuna gave him a calm, composed look as she spoke.
"Understood! Leave it to me, Shuna-sama."
"Then I'm counting on you, Tengen."
Shuna gave a slight bow and walked out of the meeting room.
Pirate World · Kaito's Room
"Wahahaha! Kai-chan, look at this cape! Isn't it amazing?!"
Milim spun around proudly, showing off the cape on her back.
"Hmph. Milim, yours doesn't compare. Take a look at mine."
Kaito pointed to the cape behind him with a look of mild contempt as he eyed the large characters reading "Demon Lord" across Milim's back.
"Huh? I haven't even seen what yours says yet, Kai-chan! Let me see!"
Rimuru craned her neck, trying to peer at the back of the cape Kaito had deliberately kept turned away.
"Hmph hmph. Brace yourselves. Allow me to open your eyes."
Kaito slowly turned around, and there, written in gilded gold across the back of his cape, were four large characters.
"Do... ing... No... thing!"
Rimuru read them out one by one, and then her eyes went wide.
"Kai-chan, that's... I want the exact same one!"
She stared at his cape like she had just seen the most perfect thing in the world.
Milim had already abandoned her own cape entirely and was right beside Rimuru, staring at Kaito's back.
"This is... Kai-chan actually... I want it so badly! Kai-chan, make me the same one!"
"Hahaha! It seems my genius has conquered you both. As fellow members of the organization, I suppose I can be generous."
Kaito reached into his sleeve and produced two identical capes, each with the same gilded characters, one written in blue, the other in pink.
"You already had ours made?!"
"Kai-chan, you're the best! Wahahaha!"
Rimuru and Milim threw their new capes on immediately, beaming.
For a moment all three stood there in matching capes. If one happened to overlook what was actually written on them, they might have passed for the uniform of some serious, legitimate organization.
Click.
The door opened and Sakuya stepped in, neat in her maid outfit, looking at the three of them with a composed expression.
"Master. Rimuru-sama. Shuna has arrived from the Source World and says she has something urgent to report."
PS: Kaito and the others had taken to calling their original world the Source World, meaning the Root World.
"Kagaya and the others came with her and are waiting in the living room."
Kaito straightened up. If Shuna had come all this way in person, something had definitely happened.
"Alright. Let's go."
The three of them headed downstairs, capes and all.
"Kaito-sama! Rimuru-sama!"
Everyone in the living room rose and bowed the moment they appeared.
"Please, sit down, all of you. No need for formalities." Rimuru dropped onto the sofa and looked around. "Did something happen back home?"
Kaito settled in beside her as Shuna began to recount what had taken place.
With every word, Kaito's expression grew darker.
He hadn't planned to get involved with the Kingdom of Falmuth at all. But just like in the original story, they had gone and picked a fight with the Jura-Tempest Federation on their own.
Except Kaito was not Rimuru from the original story, the kind of person who would settle for letting a puppet king take the throne and call it done.
"Diablo."
Diablo, standing behind Rimuru, straightened at the sound of his name and gave an elegant bow. "Yes."
"Take the Royal Knights and raze the Kingdom of Falmuth. Leave no member of the royal family or nobility alive. Commoners who are willing to submit, take them in. Those who aren't, don't bother keeping them around."
"I'll have Benimaru lead the First Legion to back you up."
The moment Kaito finished speaking, Diablo's face broke into a wide, brilliant smile.
"As you command. Leave it entirely to me, Diablo."
Kaito gave a single satisfied nod, then turned his gaze toward the wall, his voice dropping low.
"The Kingdom of Falmuth... you really have outdone yourselves."