That time I got reincarnated as a slime,no, a DRAGON?

CH-22 Merfolk Kingdom

Rimuru's POV

It is about time for me to depart to Hyme. I decided to go along with Testarossa, as she is the military attachè, Shion, as she is my bodyguard, and Moss and Cien. It was decided that the Merfolks would send an envoy to pick us up and guide us to their kingdom. It is underwater so it is going to be troublesome. Even though I don't need to breathe, moving underwater is troublesome. Luckily, Raphael came to the rescue. She really is the best partner anyone could ever wish for. She made my body adapt for water movement.

Once I reached the ocean, I saw an envoy of merfolk. They were just like humans but had some fins coming out the back of their hands. I decided to analyze them and it appears that they can shapeshift. Making friendly relationships with them will really be useful. Having some sort relationship with them will help me to have some control over the oceans.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am the leader of your guard, Amaya. He is Kaito. He will be your guide during your stay in Hyme. I hope you will enjoy your stay in Hyme."

I nod and then we are led to what appears to be a carriage drawn by amphibian monsters. Me and my subordinates along with Kaido and Amaya get in the carriage. Meanwhile the guards remained outside. As soon as they entered water, their feet changed into a tail. Their fins grew a bit but their upper bodies remained the same. We continued to move underwater. Not a single drop of water entered the carriage. I heard from Cien that they had a barrier of sort to prevent water from entering. They had dry land below the ocean. I couldn't believe it but then there are things like Veldora who can destroy countries on a whim, so this does not seem to farfetched.

After about an hour of travel we reach our destination. I am astonished. It really is completely dry. We are thousands of meters below water surface. It appears the dome is semi-circular in shape. In the center of the assumed semi-circle is a magnificent palace. It is made up of blue stone. Raphael told me that it was prismarine. A rare ore usually used for making jewelry. We then proceeded to meet the ruler and went towards the castle.

Just as we entered the castle something bumped into my legs. Both Testarossa and Cien were about to attack it while Moss was about to activate 'Scout Mode' but they stop when I lift my arm. As I look down I see that a small child, maybe 5 years old had bumped into me and fallen to the ground. A maid came running behind her.

"Hikari-ojousama, please stop running. You can hurt yourself."

Seeing me and Amaya by my side, I guess she realized who I was.

"I am extremely sorry." She said but before she could say anything i cut in.
"It's alright. She seems to be quite an energetic one. Must be quite hard for you to take care of her."

"No,no. We enjoy taking care of her. She is the princess of Hyme, after all."

"I see. Then please excuse me. I have a meeting to attend."
"Ah yes. I am sorry to take up your valuable time."
"It's alright." I pick up Hikari and give her to the maid," Listen to what she says and don't cause trouble for her, alright." I say and then tell Amaya to lead the way. We are led to a seperate room and told to wait there.

I sat on the chair while Testa, Moss and Cien stood behind me. After some time a woman came in.

"It is a pleasure to meet you Demon Lord Rimuru. I am Luna, queen of the Merfolk kingdom, Hyme."
"Likewise."
"I was informed that you came here to talk about some important matters."
"It is not that important. I just wanted to see your kingdom and send you an invitation. "
"Invitation? "
"Yes, an invitation. My country is holding a festival in about 2 months. So I came here to invite you, Queen Luna and royal family to Tempest. Of course the festival is open to common people as well."
"A festival. It sounds interesting. I will definitely love to come. But there was no need for you to come here personally was it?"
"No. But my subordinates tribe, the lizardmen had once been from your lineage. So I thought I should come here personally. Also I was interested to see how a kingdom this flourishing could survive without any contact to the surface."
"Well, we haven't made any contact to magic continent. The last time we made contact was with Demon Lord Guy Crimson so that we wouldn't interfere each other and we could live our lives in peace."
"I see. It seems you care a lot about your people."
"Yes. After all who wouldn't care about their own people."
"While I am here, I would also like to discuss about the prospects of a treaty amongst our nations."
"Treaty? I don't think there is anything of value that a demon lord like yourself would be interested in."
"That's not true at all. Prismarine in itself is quite valuable and moreover having an ally like you would be indispensable. "
"Like me?"
"Yes. I don't think I need to explain but I know that the princess didn't collide with me on her own. It took me some time but I am sure she collided with me so that you could gauge my reaction. Also, you are as strong as an awakened demon lord. "
"I didn't think you will see through me this quickly. By the way, how did you know how strong I was?"
"You are releasing quite an aura you know. I quickly analyze her. Though most of her skills were hidden, she was atleast as strong as Leon. But what caught my eye was her race. She was a high mermaid. All the mermaid till now only had mermaid as their race but she was a high mermaid. I wonder what that means.
"Is that so? I never knew." Well she had restrained her aura quite a bit but Raphael is Raphael. After that we continued to decide what the relationship between our country should be. It was decided that in exchange for underwater technology and control over water beasts we would provide them with more information, technology and mainly diversified food options. Protection of mermaids under slavery and giving them citizenship of Tempest also was a part. I left Testarossa for finer details. After all I have little to know idea on diplomacy. Raphael also helped me a lot.

After that I decided to stay there for three more days. During those days I visited the library there and got to know a few interesting things. It appears that this kingdom was made on the ruins of another country which was once was above water. I then decided to look at the ruins that were not yet rebuilt. It mostly consisted of houses and a few big buildings. But one thing caught my eye. Most of the buildings were made of concrete. Concrete isn't something that was widely used thanks to magic. It also used steel, which was not enhanced with magic. All the buildings were made as if magic was unusable. There were no traces of magic being used. I also found a building which caught my eye. It was a round circle as if a giant mirror. It was big enough for about 10 busses from my old world to fit side by side. I went to the base of the odd building and removed the dirt near it using magic. What I saw there surprised me. I had an inkling that this was a portal but the wires I found made me sure of it. The wires even had writings on English on it. This can't be created in this world. It is definitely from my old world. This is a prototype of teleport portal that we had built. Only 2 of these had been ever made and used. They had a big downside that they were unidirectional and could only be used once. It would be teleported as well making it dissapeared. As it was not cost effective, its usage was denied. Later on more effective teleporters were invented. But the fact that it was here meant that one of those two came here.

I looked around it and found out its name. It was 'Hope'. 'Hope' was the first one to be used after which 'Faith' was launched. So it teleported here huh? But that also means that our teleporters could break the dimension walls. If that is so, then I might be able to go back to that world. Not that I really care. But I do want to make sure my sister is alright.

After 3 days of stay, we came back. Testa got busy again to 'welcome' Hinata. Meanwhile I made sure that everything in Tempest was in order for the festival.

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