The Banquet of the Demon Lords.
The number of current Demon Lords attending: nine.
And one additional guest who presumptuously claims the title of new Demon Lord—the main subject of this banquet's discussions.
The attendees are as follows: Demon Race:
—"Dark Emperor"
Fairy Race:
—"Labyrinth Fairy"
Dragonewt Race:
—"Tyrant of Destruction"
Giant Race:
—"Wrath of the Earth"
Vampire Race: —"Queen of the Night" Luminous Valentine.
Winged Race:
—"Sky Queen"
Undead Race:
—"Puppet Master"
Former Human—"Blond Devil"
Seating at the round table was determined by the order in which one became a Demon Lord.
One seat remained empty, and at the lowest seat, a provisional place had been set.
Guided by the maids, each Demon Lord took their seat in turn.
The venue was shrouded in a hushed atmosphere, existing in a space separated from the outside world.
Already seated and waiting for the others were Guy, Leon, and Luminous—three in total.
Then, as if to shatter that silent air, others burst noisily into the space.
"Hiya~! How've you been?"
Saying things like that in a carefree tone, a fairy fluttered over to her seat—Ramiris.
"It's been a while, ya know!"
Greeting everyone, a massive man sat down in his seat—Dagruel.
"Yo~! Still moping around as usual, huh?"
Dino called out teasingly to the silver-haired beauty seated next to him.
Naturally, there was no reply. He only received a displeased glare in return.
After these three Demon Lords, the guest of honor—the newcomer in question—entered.
When Rimuru appeared, the three Demon Lords already seated turned their gazes upon him.
One looked on with keen interest.
One looked on with utter disinterest.
One looked on with eyes brimming with hatred.
But no one said a word, and the newcomer was simply guided to his provisional seat.
That left three more Demon Lords.
As the atmosphere grew heavier, the seated Demon Lords waited for the rest to arrive. Behind them, their retainers stood at attention.
For some reason, three of those standing behind Dino and Dagruel looked thoroughly beaten up—but no one said a word.
They were completely ignored, as though to say this was nothing unusual.
Some time passed, and just before the banquet was about to begin, three Demon Lords entered simultaneously.
Clayman—the initiator of this banquet—along with the two Demon Lords who had co-signed the invitation.
At last, all were assembled.
And then, just as the Demon Lords awaited the declaration to begin the Banquet of the Demon Lords, an event occurred that stunned them all.
Clayman had struck Milim!
"Move it already, you useless fool!"
He spat such vulgar words as he— This single act was more than enough to shock everyone who had been waiting.
Milim, the Tyrant of Destruction.
If it were the other way around, this would be the norm. Ah, poor guy. That would be the end of it.
But instead...
Despite committing the outrageous act of hitting Milim, there was no sign of Clayman facing any punishment.
Milim didn't resist, didn't complain—she simply did as she was told and sat in her seat.
This abnormal turn of events confirmed to the Demon Lords that something had happened.
And so, filled with the premonition of upheaval, the Banquet of the Demon Lords was set to begin.
--- Dino settled into his seat and thought about the monster he had encountered earlier.
An interesting monster. He had clearly sensed power equal to his own.
Not a petty creature like Clayman—this one radiated the true ambition of a Demon Lord.
Interesting.
His Unique Skill, Sloth, had been on the verge of corrupting Dagruel.
The man who was overwhelmed by his own immense power and hesitant to fight seriously...
And at his side, with skillful words, Dino had been luring him toward the path of degradation, rotting away his power...
He had been so close to success—getting Dagruel to hand the throne to his sons and complete his downfall.
His sons were more than qualified to be Demon Lords. All they needed was experience, and they would become capable rulers.
Once that happened, Dagruel would retire, and everything would fall into place just as Dino had planned.
The ability of his Unique Skill, Sloth, was to add the corrupted to his subordinates while simultaneously stealing their abilities.
He should have gained powerful, obedient pieces along with an enormous amount of magic.
Well, for Dino, it had been nothing more than a game to stave off boredom—but even so, it had been a grand game spanning three hundred years.
And yet.
A single word from Veldora had opened his eyes to the possibility of reaching even greater heights.
Now that a seed of ambition had sprouted in him, Dagruel was no longer someone whose abilities Dino could reach.
That was extremely unfortunate, but...
Even so, he still found it interesting.
And what Dino himself didn't realize was that this feeling of interest was exerting a small influence on his ability, Sloth.
It was only a tiny influence.
But the magicule quantity that had been accumulated to the point of overflowing—built up over long years since his ability had been perfected—began to undergo change in response to that small influence.
Deep within the heart of its owner, Dino, so quietly that even he could not perceive it.
Before long, Clayman and the others entered.
They weren't particularly interesting to Dino, but he was about to witness a startling sight.
Clayman had struck Milim.
He stared in disbelief.
Milim was, even from Dino's perspective, clearly superior.
Not merely one of the oldest Demon Lords—her abnormal magic power and seemingly inexhaustible supply of magicules...
Her absurd, nonsensical strength rivaled that of Guy himself.
And for the petty Clayman to strike her?!
Dino felt an emotion well up from the deepest recesses of his heart that he had never experienced before.
It was anger. Or perhaps, frustration.
And feeding on that emotion, his ability—Sloth—underwent yet another transformation.
That change would soon accelerate, urging the evolution of his heart, and ultimately grant Dino a certain ability.
--- Having been guided into the venue, Rimuru was accosted the moment he entered.
It seemed his appearance made him look like a weakling.
"This place is only for the strong, you know? Scum like you shouldn't even leave the house!"
He was hit with threats like that—an experience that reminded him of the term "mugging."
Judging by appearances, the trio had dyed their hair blond and covered their faces with piercings.
They were the kind of delinquent trio the word "thugs" was made for.
They had probably been lying in wait here, looking to pick fights with anyone who looked weak, to show off how tough they were.
They didn't look weak, actually.
Their energy levels were considerable—some even exceeded
But still...
Shion glanced at him questioningly, and he gave a slight nod in reply.
In the next instant, the three of them had been reduced to a pitiful state.
Beaten to a pulp.
Without even drawing Gorikimaru, the massive blade she treasured, Shion had subdued all three with her iron fists.
She had beaten down opponents of roughly equal magicule quantity without breaking a sweat.
"I'm sorry. Was that not enough?"
She apologized to him, but "not enough" was an understatement—it was far more than sufficient.
Still, it had served as a good outlet for stress.
These three were probably Dagruel's sons.
He had received a warning that they might attack anyone they spotted.
For some unknown reason, even though they should have passed through the gate at the same time, they had ended up wandering down a different path.
And they had been accosted by these three at the exit.
He'd been told that transfer gates passed through other dimensions, so incidents like this could occur.
"If this teaches you anything, don't judge by appearances!"
With that parting remark, he moved on.
Those three had been running their mouths at him, but it was lucky they'd run into him. Any other Demon Lord, and things wouldn't have ended so nicely.
Still, he had now demonstrated that magic control alone could overwhelm even equally ranked opponents.
Shion, too, had grown significantly stronger without him noticing.
Those three had been beaten down like trash, but in terms of rank, they were quasi-Demon Lord class.
Wait—did that mean Shion was also quasi-Demon Lord class?
Huh? Now that he thought about it...
Stay calm.
After all, this was Shion. There was no way this idiot was quasi-Demon Lord class.
Having convinced himself of that, he continued forward.
Behind him, he caught fragments of "Please, let me call you Teacher! No, Master!" and the like, but he chose to pretend he hadn't heard.
A magnificent door appeared before him.
This must be the venue.
He entered and was guided to a chair.
Once seated, he looked around and spotted Dino and Dagruel already sitting.
Behind them, he caught sight of the three he'd just beaten up standing in a row—they were indeed the sons.
Everyone was ignoring them.
He doubted this was truly a common occurrence, but this was a place where even a hundred high-ranking Otherworlders could die. Perhaps no one thought it was worth questioning.
Taking the opportunity, Rimuru observed the Demon Lords.
At the far end sat a bewitchingly beautiful man(?) with crimson hair—one who could pass for a woman without question. A true beauty.
He knew at a glance. This one was dangerous.
Even with analysis, only mediocre information came back.
Energy levels roughly on par with
In other words, the data indicated someone with a high magicule quantity but incomplete control over their Demon Aura—an immature being.
But Rimuru's eyes couldn't be fooled.
Or rather, he might have been deceived by the analytical power of the Great Sage, because this information was false.
False information planted for the reader to find, creating a false impression of his abilities. The battle had begun before it even started.
In Rimuru's thinking, true strength was something to hide—meaning there was purpose in completely suppressing Demon Aura release to prevent being read.
But this man's approach was to use even the reader's own ability against them.
Anyone who trembled at this planted information wasn't worth dealing with.
Naturally, anyone who couldn't even read the false information was out of the question entirely. The problem was that this man had the skill level to deliberately show this—and yet his true power was on par with Diablo's.
His real strength was completely unpredictable.
This man was clearly in a different league entirely.
Rimuru's instincts told him this was "Guy"—the Demon Lord named Guy.
To Guy's left sat Ramiris.
Being a veteran too, she had been given a seat at the high end.
She dangled her legs cheerfully, looking like she was having fun—like a child. He could leave her be.
The seat to Guy's right was empty.
Next to that sat Dagruel.
This giant also possessed absurd magicule levels—nearly three times that of Diablo.
But what mattered wasn't quantity, but quality.
The ability to use energy effectively. At their level, superiority or inferiority came down to how well one wielded their abilities.
He had just been told something unnecessary about controlling anger—well, it was fine when they were allies, but he certainly didn't want someone like that as an enemy.
Actually, having it controlled that easily would be problematic too.
Monsters were strange beings—there was always the danger that they could learn anything without apparent effort.
He couldn't let his guard down.
Across from him, next to Ramiris, sat a silver-haired beauty.
Skin with a translucent quality, and bewitching golden-silver eyes that emitted an eerie glow of blue and red.
She was the very picture of perfected beauty.
Behind her stood a man who looked like a butler, utterly motionless like a sculpture.
Undoubtedly a master.
He shared Rimuru's philosophy, no doubt—suppressing his Demon Aura and keeping his true strength hidden.
And to think this was a subordinate.
His master, the young beauty, was overflowing with an enormous amount of Demon Aura, practically leaking it everywhere.
But this girl was also randomly altering the quality of her Demon Aura, making her total unreadable.
This was what Demon Lord class meant.
Those eyes glaring at him were terrifying. The gaze probably passed through him and was aimed straight at Veldora behind him.
Without question, this girl was the vampire—the Demon Lord whose kingdom had been reduced to ash.
What kind of grudge had this person managed to hold onto?!
Was this what people called the "my headache is painful" state?
His only consolation: if death at the hands of such a beautiful girl was his fate, perhaps that wasn't the worst way to go? No, that was no consolation at all.
He could only pray that this mess wouldn't end up being his problem to clean up.
The one who had been casually chatting with this girl was Dino.
Impressive, truly. As if he couldn't read the room at all.
This man feared nothing.
But conversely, that meant he had the strength to back it up.
His magicule quantity itself wasn't that high—he must have been suppressing it.
He, too, was carefully using interference to conceal his true power.
Whenever Rimuru tried to analyze him seriously, he got glared at—confirming that Dino was well aware of being probed. Not someone to let your guard down around.
And the one Rimuru was most curious about was the person seated next to him at the lowest seat—Leon.
At a glance, he was handsome. Features blessed by God himself.
In the past, Rimuru might have thought, "Just explode already!"
He was a former human, but his bearing was commanding.
He possessed the gravitas of a Demon Lord.
And his true strength was unanalyzable.
How interesting.
The Wisdom King had declared him unanalyzable.
In other words, he possessed ability of the same caliber.
There was no doubt—this man held some form of Ultimate Skill.
And in that moment, Rimuru realized.
Guy's intention in showing false information. Could it have been...
A countermeasure against Ultimate Skills?
If so, then naturally he would have one too. Guy was also a holder of an Ultimate Skill.
It wasn't a matter of being allowed to have one simply because you were a Demon Lord.
Acquiring one required a combination of the individual's aptitude, luck, and coincidental factors.
But their power was incomparable to that of Unique Skills.
That was precisely why he needed to act with greater caution from now on.
And he should assume that Guy already knew he possessed an Ultimate Skill.
Rimuru couldn't be certain that the other party had one, but the other party was already certain about him.
A major blunder.
What was done was done. They didn't know what kind of skill he had, so it wasn't worth worrying about too much.
He should take this as a lesson learned—that he needed to prepare countermeasures going forward.
That is, if he made it out of here alive.
Anyway, so Leon had an Ultimate Skill—but he didn't seem interested in Rimuru.
Still, there was something Rimuru wanted to tell him.
"Leon. Shizue is dead."
He called out to Leon in a straightforward manner.
"She asked me to deliver one punch to you. Let me have it."
Rimuru's words drew a reaction—Leon opened his eyes.
Then: "I refuse.
...But I'll invite you. Come and punch me then.
The timing will be set by me. If you think it's a trap, don't come."
With that curt response, Leon closed his eyes again, clearly done with the conversation.
What a letdown.
"Fine. I accept. Send me an invitation or something."
Rimuru replied and fell silent.
He could sense Leon giving a slight, annoyed nod.
This was fine for now. He had conveyed Shizue's message.
It might just be pushing the problem down the road, but for now, dealing with Clayman took priority.
After waiting a while, Clayman and the others finally arrived.
And that was when he witnessed a truly shocking sight.
Clayman had struck Milim. That Milim.
Inside him, rage was on the verge of exploding.
(You... don't think you're going to die easily...)
Clayman's death was now certain.
No matter the reason—it was unforgivable.
But he couldn't rush in.
The banquet hadn't even begun yet.