Birth of the Void King Dragon

Chapter 2: Is This a Joke...?

Rimuru Pov

As Ciel and I were making our way towards Veldora's seal, I still had a few questions forming in my mind, so I started with what was bothering me the most. "Hey Velda, what's up with VOTW announcement before our arrival? Ciel said that according to [Akashic Records], it had been programmed into it since it's inception. Do you know something about this?" Questioning my new companion first seemed like the best idea at the moment.

<A-ah..... N-n-nope, don't have the slightest clue as to what you're talking about.> Velda quickly denied my question, but it was rather suspicious that he was stuttering while answering. "Notice, lie detected from individual Manas: Veldanava." Ciel also quickly confirmed my suspicions. <N-n-no no no. I have not idea what you're talking about. It must be your imag->

As he was about to finish his sentence, I felt an incredible amount of bloodlust coming from next to me. "That is MY line, you stupid lizard. Do not even THINK of using it towards Master. Now answer his question!" Ciel vehemently spat out those words at Velda while glaring at him through my soul. I was caught a little off guard by her reaction, but my suspicions had all but been confirmed by Velda's reaction.

I could feel Velda breaking out into a cold sweat at her words. He was definitely hiding something. <W-well, you see...> I stopped in my tracks as he began to explain what he had done. Before giving up his omniscience, he had apparently decided to look far into the future of his creation for his own amusement; only to see multiple, fragmented timelines. As he looked for the source of these fragments, he saw the reason: Chloe. Chloe had repeatedly broken the original timeline into millions of alternative, fragmented timelines due to her time loops.

Veldanava had thought about stopping her, to fix what harm she had caused to his favorite creation. But after observing all of the timelines she had inadvertently created, he saw our meeting before we would jump back to this point. It was then that he came up with the idea to have the VOTW announce my arrival if I were to appear in the past. It would only activate upon the arrival of my unique magicule signature in the past after evolving into a full blown True Dragon. This way I wouldn't trigger it by just my reincarnation or by my previous evolutions.

He says he did this as a gesture of goodwill towards his future daughter's best friend and to make my new life exciting, but I don't believe him for a second. He has the exact same face as Veldora would when he tries to hide something from me. "Master, the individual Veldanava is lying." Ciel's cold voice confirmed my thoughts for me while continuing to glare at him. "Out with it, now."

<Ok! Ok! I did it as a joke!! I saw that if I had the VOTW make that announcement, I would get to see first hand how entertaining your life was gonna become. I saw the fun and excitement that would come from me changing everything like this. And I just couldn't miss out on the chance to join in on the fun! My life is pretty boring you know?? (I also did it as welcome to the family prank.)> Velda explained himself, whispering the last part at level no one could hear.

Ciel of course, did hear this. She decided she would think about this fact later, despite how much the thought made her worry. Her focus was entirely on my next words. "How much will I be able to keep the same this time around? The whole reason I even came back was to give my friends and my people the lives they deserved to live. Will this alter all of that???" I asked him, my voice slightly raising in concern and a touch of anger.

<Do not worry Rimuru. I have seen most of what happens in this timeline, as it had caught my interest heavily when I viewed it. The VOTW announcement was only directed towards the strongest beings, therefore it shouldn't affect anyone in the forest other than my little brother. However, I recommend that you take advantage of the changes that will come and bring all of your soon to be subjects under you earlier than last time.>