The Reincarnations of Veldanava

New Subordinates

Rimuru, standing on a cliff, looked down at the battlefield below. Corpses scattered around the wetland, most of them were slain by Rimuru and Raphael.

From the initial 300,000 troops, Rimuru and Raphael's collective effort took down around 100,000 of them. Meanwhile Benimaru and others took out around 50,000.

Half of the population was gone, but the number of the survivors were still large in comparison to other races. "They are victims of famine. I have nothing but sympathy for them."

Rimuru had seen a lot from Geld's memory. He saw Obic, the Orc Kingdom, become an inhospitable desert overnight; he saw the root of the conflict, and honestly, he couldn't be mad about it.

"Rimuru-sama." Benimaru walked up to him with the others.

At first, Rimuru thought they came to say goodbye. After all, the contract came to its end after the orcs were defeated, they were free to do what they wanted.

They knelt down, and Benimaru continued, "It is true that our contract ends here. We are free to do whatever we desire. Because of that, our desire is to continue serving you. Please accept us as your permanent subordinates."

Rimuru immediately agreed. Now he was more comfortable leaving the village to pursue Milim with them around.

"What are you thinking about, Rimuru-sama?" Shion asked.

"About cleaning up, maybe." This area was still the lizardmen' settlement. Coming to their land and just leaving corpses on the ground wasn't the best of manners.

"Can't you just leave that to others?"

"I can't do that. Most of them were my fault." This was what we called responsibility. 'Even though Raphael killed more than me...'

«To paraphrase your words, it is my victory. For the reward, I want—»

'Hold it! Didn't we agree on the coolest move?'

«Tch!»

Rimuru turned to Benimaru and others. "Which do you think is cooler, the art or the magic?"

They looked Rimuru in the face, blinking as if all of this didn't make sense. Even worse, choosing between those two was harder than anything else. They stood closely when those were deployed, just thinking about those sent chills down their spines.

"That magic was too flashy, but fitting for assassination, so I will vote on the art." That was Souei's answer.

"But it was fast and decisive. Rimuru-sama was so cool when he used it also! So I vote for magic!" Shion said.

Followed by Benimaru, "I really want to be as mastered in fire manipulation as you. I have to train more. I put my vote on the magic."

Then it was Hakurou's comment. "That art was something I have never seen before in my life. For me, it is easy to choose which."

It was a draw. 'Looks like there is no winner.' Raphael was blue after hearing that. She did mention the reward before, but Rimuru didn't say that the winner would be rewarded.

'You did great, Raphael-san. I will consider the reward.' Rewarding her often wasn't a bad idea. He had a lot to thank her.

«Thank you.»

Returning to the previous topic of cleaning up, Rimuru used 'Beelzebuth', eating the corpses and souls into his 'Stomach'. 'Maybe I can summon daemons with these.'

Rimuru had thought about expanding his village's force, and daemons were good candidates. If they became subordinates to someone, there were zero chances of betrayal.