The Reincarnations of Veldanava

A Morning In Tempest

Rimuru only went out of town for a few hours, from midnight to the dawn of a new day. He had advised Dino to open the portal directly to the labyrinth in order to not alert any of his subordinates.

There were only Rimuru, Diablo, and Dino. Pico and Garasha couldn't enter this area because they didn't work for Tempest, so they would just go on with their lives as usual. According to Dino, those two would disguise and blend in with humans in order to observe the world, as well as buying any clothes they liked.

"Wait, if they can buy clothes, that means they have money, right? How come you're the only poor one?"

"To be honest with you, they aren't as lazy as me."

"Since you are working for Ramiris now, you'll be paid as well, so you don't have to worry about being poor again."

"If I can choose, I will work under Rimuru-san directly, but that's not feasible at the moment," Dino said with noticeable sadness.

His loyalty belonged to Veldanava, as well as Rimuru who was the Star King Dragon's reincarnation. He wanted nothing more than to submit to Rimuru's reign and support him as his sword on the battlefield.

But he was unable to do that.

Dino belonged to the group which ran the world, the Octagram. Other Demon Lords would never allow him to relinquish his title; they probably didn't want to come up with a name for a group of seven.

Another reason was brought up by Diablo — "Because the Demon Lords are supposed to be equal in status, it will draw too much attention if you resign from the position to serve Rimuru-sama."

His smugness could be annoying at times, yet his message was reasonable — Rimuru didn't want anyone to know about his status as Veldanava's reincarnation, and that might be the best decision.

'Feldway will accuse him of being a false idol, and Guy is too unpredictable. If I have to, I might be able to trade blows with them, but I doubt I will win. Making sure such a clash won't happen in the first place is the most logical.'

In a time like this, Dino felt envious of Diablo. The Primordial Black had been an enigma since ancient times.

The Daemon whose rampage led to the creation of the "Awakening" system — That was Noir the Progenitor or Diablo as he was named by Rimuru.

Because he was born weird, no one really questioned him when he changed his master. Diablo could serve Rimuru without exposing him because none wanted to ask a reason from a man who didn't abide by any demonic code.

He was an exception. Whenever he did something drastic, the phrase "That is Diablo for you" or "He is just weird" was enough to stop anyone from asking further questions. Dino really, really envied that aspect of him.

"Speaking of which, can you list me the name of those who are aware of your secret identity, Rimuru-san? I don't want to accidentally expose you."

"Yeah. That makes sense," Rimuru nodded in agreement. "Hmm. There's a lot more than I thought. Maybe I'm not good with keeping secrets."

As usual, Rimuru had Ciel make a list for him.

"Veldora is the first person I've met after reincarnating, and I told him who I am." He excluded Ciel, who was still Great Sage at the time, of course, since she was meant to be a secret.

"Charys might have known about it from Veldora as well. That little brother of mine just doesn't know how to shut up."

Veldora said he would keep an eye on Charys, and he had done an excellent job so far. And because Charys was mainly Veldora's servant, the worry that the secret would leak to Ramiris was unfound.