36 Chapter 36- The Warning

     Rimuru and I brought the Three Beastketeers into a meeting room to discuss their little warning. Sitting down I ask, "So, Beastketeers, as I've said, you have some news regarding Milim, correct? It has to do with the whole attack on the capital stunt she pulled if I'm correct. She attacked a bit ago and destroyed the capital of Eurazania right?"

     Rimuru looks at me with a little confusion but brushes it off. He's lived close to me for the past 2 years, at this point he's used to me knowing more than I reasonably should.

     It's not like he can get information on how I know. Whenever he asks I deflect it or say it's because of my intelligence enhancing skills and drop it. Technically I'm not lying, if it wasn't for [Great Sage] and now [Solomon] I wouldn't remember nearly as much about the story as I do. I used it to refresh my memory early on in this little adventure.

     Albis asks, "How did you know?"

     I shrug, "I have my ways. I actually knew this was gonna happen before it even began."

     Phobio quickly stands up, slamming the table in the process, and asks, "If you knew about this beforehand why didn't you lend us a hand!?"

     I gesture to him to calm down. "Listen, I know this is bad and I know the damage caused but I couldn't help. It wasn't worth it in the end."

     "Are you saying our country and citizens aren't worth your time!?"

     I cross my arms, "As hotheaded as usual aren't you? That's not what I am saying. Listen, it has to do with the big picture. This wasn't just some random attack. The reason I didn't intervene was because it wasn't a good idea to possibly reveal myself to the person behind this. On top of that we were far too weak to intervene and we were dealing with our own issues at the time. It's a little over the top to think that I don't care simply because I didn't intervene."

     I stand up and walk over to the window unfolding my arms and pointing outside. "I don't know if you've realized from the damaged buildings but Tempest isn't exactly in tip top shape either. The celebration was to celebrate our recovery from the near death of Rimuru and I and a mass genocide of our citizens." This shuts him up a bit. "At least yours escaped. We had to find a way to revive them." They look at me confused.

     "Revive!?"

     "Ignore that for now." I use [Apex Predator] to make some papers with details explaining the series of events that have recently taken place. I hand the papers to them and lie about how much I know, saying, "So for now I've got one thing clear. This is the work of Demon Lord Clayman and he's not just targeting you, he's also targeting us."

     I sit back down as I explain, "Everything I've done so far has been planned out including letting Milim destroy Eurazania's capital. This is because I don't want to interfere with her. Believe it or not she most likely has her own plan, she's way smarter than she pretends to be." I point to my own copy of the papers, "Now you might notice there are some blanks. That's because I don't know everything but even with that I do know a lot and judging off her movements destroying Eurazania's capital was part of her plan." I shrug, "Was it the best plan? No, but this is Milim we're talking about. A couple destroyed capitals here and there don't really faze her."

     Albis thinks about what I said and asks, "If this was part of Lady Milim's own secret plan, why is she doing this?"

     "I don't know exactly but it is likely to fool Clayman." I explain to Rimuru, "Remember when I found Milim's prints on the wall of the Dwelling of the Spirits?"

     Rimuru says, "Yeah."

     "Well after that I decided to investigate her whereabouts which got me this information. A while back I caught Frey talking about..."

     "Demon Lord Frey!?"

     "Yes, anyways..."

     Albis asks, "How did you manage to spy on her?"

     I knew this would come up. I pull out one of the Magicule concealment devices and show it to them, "With this." They look at the tiny device. "It's a little invention I made. It perfectly hides your Magicules, see." I put it on me making all Magicule related traces of me disappear. "I made a few of these about 18 months ago. I use them to spy on people."

     They are amazed at my creation but then they ask why I would show them I have something like this in my possession.

     "I trust you three. That's about it. My background check has given me positive results for all of you."

     Suphia asks, "Wait, does that mean you..."

     "Moving on. I used this to learn that Frey and Clayman were working together at least for a while. During that partnership they used a Magic Stone called the Orb of Domination to try and take control of Milim. This definitely didn't work however, the stone isn't strong enough to control her." They ask how I know.

     I explain, "Think about this. I know from information gathering so I won't spell it out but with the three of you there you could testify to this. Before the attack Carrion made everyone in Eurazania evacuate. Question is, why? Milim's attack was supposed to be a secret. So how did he know?"

     They think about this for a little bit.

     "Answer is, Milim told him in some secret way. She's numb to mass murder at this point but that doesn't mean she will kill everyone in the capital of Eurazania for no real reason. She somehow gave him a heads-up before the attack. This caused him to tell everyone to evacuate in preparation for the worst case scenario. In fact, it's a running theory I have that Carrion isn't even dead. It's not that hard to fake someone's death with an attack as spectacular as the one that wiped out a city in one shot being fired. Keeping Carrion alive would actually make more sense than killing him don't you think?" They clearly have hope he isn't dead from what I said but are definitely still not fully convinced.

     "Anyway, with the Milim attack explained for now, let's move on to the bigger picture. Clayman's overall plan. First, the most basic idea. Clayman's ultimate goal is to become a True Demon Lord like Rimuru and I."

     Alarm bells ring in their heads immediately. After this reveal they begin talking amongst themselves about how bad this could be.

     Clapping my hands to catch their attention I continue, "Listen, I've spied on Clayman, just like I have everyone else. Doing this I've got a very good idea of his ultimate goal. He's trying to start a war between monsters and humans. As for why, it's to collect the souls of the human casualties to become a Demon Lord. Tempest is being drawn into this war because of how easy it is to make humans target this country."

     Turning to Rimuru who hasn't really said anything in the conversation, "Remember the attack on Tempest, that's part of it. He was going to use the human casualties in that potential war to become a Demon Lord."

     Albis thinks about this more, "I think I'm starting to understand."

     "Good, but I think we should probably stop here for now." Suphia bluntly asks why. I explain, "Well, due to the scale of this I think it's better to discuss this with all big names Tempest. I only really explained Milim's actions because I wanted to clear things up."

     Rimuru mutters, "And because you wanted to protect her."

     "Quiet Rimuru." I stand up, "What I think we should do for now is wait to discuss this later. Maybe in a few days so that we can ensure everything goes well. On that day we could discuss everything with everyone to ensure absolute agreement. What do you think?"

     Albis respectfully says, "I accept. So, when are you planning to hold this meeting, Lord Migeru?"

     "Three days from now. That seems about right. I've got some stuff to do on my own as well."

     She bows, "Understood. We shall attend."

     I walk out with Rimuru. He asks, "Is that how you know? You're just spying on everyone."

     "Not exactly. I've got more than that Rimuru. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever reveal that to you."

     He pouts, "You're so secretive. You won't even tell your own brother."

     I laugh a little, "Ha, Rimuru, with the way you act it's like you're the younger brother I'm protecting." He gets a little more mad, "But actually, speaking of family, I need to tell you something."

     "Eh?"

     "It's about Veldora, with your increased calculation speed when you took my [Genius] subskills for your own you should be able to release Veldora, right?"

     He goes silent. Then, his eyes widen after what I assume to be a little conversation with [Raphael], "I can!"

     "Fantastic!" With the imminent creation of the slime army, Veldora's revival, and our transformation into Demon Lords, it seems my plans are finally coming together.