Daisan no Isekai: The Quartet (Isekai Quartet x Tensura)

Demon Lord's Festival: The Battle - Part 1

Eventually the remaining days passed them by and the day of the Festival's opening had arrived. All of them, including Subaru, Rem, Ram and Emilia, had spent the time training in getting to learn more about their abilities and are now suitably used to them. Also, the rest of the group is now in possession of the essential skill <Magic Sense> so none of them will have any issues with communication. On top of that, Ainz had gained the Extra Skill <All of Creation> through learning and a little meddling on Raphael's part and Tanya had gained the Extra Skill <Sage>. The only person who didn't improve was Aqua as she kept making a dumb fuss about refusing to ever learn anything from an undead. She even tried using her purification on Adalmann and Albert, still not understanding that she can no longer actually use it and Kazuma ended up subduing her as usual. Rimuru was quite annoyed when he heard about it later on but he had too little time on his hands to do anything about it. 'Perhaps it'd be better if that idiot doesn't end up learning Holy Magic...' He thinks to himself with a heavy sigh. 'Well then... Let's get this over with and then get to the fun stuff."

The streets are booming with activity today. Open stalls for amazing food, fun games and quality clothing are everywhere every person, Monster, Human and Demi-Human alike appear happy and the day has barely even begun. The group find themselves practically riding a sea of people but thanks to the past few days, only Aqua still gets lost when going around. "Hey guys, I heard that Masayuki guy arrived in town and actually challenged Rimuru to a fight." Subaru had been going around the city taking in the sights at dusk when he overheard some of the monster residents gossiping about it. They certainly weren't all too thrilled at the idea. "Why would he do that though? I mean not even Aqua is that stupid and it's not even like Rimuru's a bad guy, especially for a Demon Lord." Kazuma, just speaking his mind, is still met with a unanimous agreement. "Yes... I suppose he must either be quite powerful indeed or incredibly overconfident... Perhaps even both." Ainz chipped into the conversation from behind his armor, helmet once again concealing his skeletal features. "Well Rimuru ended up accepting, on the condition that he wins the battle tournament." Subaru just had to fill them in and he wants a good excuse to watch the tournament from start to finish. The opening qualifier round is going to be a free-for-all ninety person battle royale. However, that will have to come after the opening ceremony. Someone in the crowd excitedly calls out, "Hey look! Here he is!" Pointing upwards to the city's largest building. The group see Rimuru in his Slime form slide onto its gleaming white balcony, overlooking the city. "He kind of looks like one of those pet animals whose owner likes to dress him up." Kazuma says while desperately trying to hold in a laugh, "And what's with that dumb fake mustache?". The sunlight descends onto its chalk-white walls and drifts downwards towards the central street of the city, its warmth touching the people down below in the chilly morning air. The Tempestian Dragon banner flowing down from the balcony begins to wave with the wind and with the people's attention, Rimuru begins his speech to open the coming festivities.

"Ladies and Gents - uh, Gentlemen. I am the Almighty Demon Lord..." He pauses briefly, "I am the Demon Lord Rimuru, happy to see you here and I thank you all for accepting the invitation to come here to my nation. Now I'm sure that some of you may have reservations on trusting the words of a Demon Lord and that is only natural, but I have no intention of hostility towards humans and I am building this nation so we can get along. However, If anyone attempts to push any unequal treatment or attempts to wage war against us or our people just because we are Monsters... We will have no obligation to show them mercy." This declaration sends a chill down the spines of many people present. Ainz and Tanya, on the other hand, are actually impressed at the duality that it had introduced into this speech, it makes him seem much less like a pushover and they personally know he isn't one. Also, with the disaster-fest that was Falmouth's attempted invasion still fresh in the minds of the people gives his declaration all the much more weight. Tanya raises the point to Ainz as the speech continues in the background, "Though he doesn't seem to be that great a speaker, does he?" to which Ainz replies "No, not at all. The fumbling at its beginning was a stark display of weakness for the art. However, he seems to have found his words after dropping the formal pretenses. It's a skill like any other so he may yet improve over time and who knows how much time he'll have to do so.". Rimuru takes his human form to round up his speech, "But that doesn't mean that you only have the choices of "Join us or face war" and it would gladden me if that comes across as you experience this event. Also, If any of you find that you wish to move here after seeing what we have to offer, we will be more than happy to welcome you with open arms. We are always seeking new staff and there's so many things I want to do! So, without a further ado, let the Tempest Founder's festival begin! I hope you all enjoy it." And with that, the festival began.