With a clinking sound, the Kijin maid pced the teacup from the tray onto my desk in a graceful motion and walked away with a curt bow.
Although I just called her a maid, her attire, painted in red and white, resembled a typical shrine maiden from my days back in Japan. Needless to say, she was among the staff personally trained by Shuna, Mayuri, if I could recall her name correctly.
Then again, it'd probably seem odd. Shuna had always cared for me personally, even as far back as I could remember, so if you'd yet to catch up with events over the past three centuries, you would likely find this fairly surprising.
Long story short, I had personally put a stop to her maidly duties. Amidst Shion's newfound enthusiasm towards cooking following Luminious's guidance, Diablo's zealous pestering, Shuna's equally competitive obsession, and stly concerning the elegant yet flirtatious advances of Testarossa, it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain my sanity.
Although their devotion was already overbearing, if that were all, I'd have likely tolerated it as I always had. Sadly, one shouldn't expect typical 'common sense' from four million-css individuals bearing ultimate skills, as I made the mistake of having done so, leading to a streak of multiple daily stand-offs that involved their surging auras wrecking the furnishings of my personal office, occasionally me getting caught in a tug of war over who'd serve my commands, sometimes having to decide whom I favored the most and so on and on, all the stuff that I'd rather not deal with if I could help it at all. Certain pairings, such as Testa-Diablo, Shion-Shuna, and Diablo-Shion, were particurly dangerous. So based on Ciel's consultation, I had to decide on each of their roles as my four secretaries.
Shion would serve as my personal Knight/Bodyguard. This was already the case, I just had to hammer it into her brain to keep her from interfering with others' jobs. If not, I could still order her to prepare food to keep her distracted. In any case, she was easy to please as long as she got to train and cook to her heart's content.
Diablo would naturally serve as my butler and handle my errands. This helped reassure him that I was putting him to good use, at least that was what I had learned from Venom's account, not long ago, frankly speaking, a rather incomprehensible thought process, regardless, one I was happy to take advantage of if it kept the devil himself satisfied. Since he never left my side, I made sure to work him to the bones. I even told him to arrange my daily schedule, after all, knowing him, this had the side-benefit of drastically minimizing the time the other secretaries could spend with me, effectively reducing their faceoffs in the first pce as well as their bickering that usually resulted from it, except for the weekends, that was. As of now,
Shuna handled most of my official documents. She'd always been proficient in administrative affairs, so I left her to sort through the pile of papers that came my way, including state affairs and updates from a great many projects Tempest was involved in around the globe, to only allow for the most essential of documents that demanded my urgent attention. However, considering Tempest's gradual decentralization of power, her workload was decreasing by the day, instead allowing her to invest her attention towards several commercial and arcane projects.
As for my daily chores, those were left to the staff Shuna personally trained. They were descendants of the first few Goblins I have personally named. Between the baptism ritual that bestowed upon them my divine protection and Shuna's guidance, it was no surprise that these ogre beauties had evolved into Kijin. Shuna herself had obtained divinity long ago, much to my surprise, following the Great Tenma War.
As for Testarossa, she was currently handling my appointments with foreign dignitaries and important people within my nation. Her smooth tongue, coupled with intimidating elegance, often turned away troublesome people right at the doorstep. However, I'd instructed her to carefully consider any interesting proposals among them and, if necessary, even allow an audience with me. Among my four devil lords she had the most common sense to bear, so naturally this was something I could entrust to her.
She used to serve as Tempest's Military Atache long ago. Having her particurly serve in that position was no longer necessary, considering the era of unprecedented peace Cardinal-World currently enjoyed. This was also due to my insistence on keeping the 12 guardian lords out of our nation's regur operations and having them serve in influential yet backup roles, only ever deploying them in dire situations, a protocol modeled after Dwargon's Pegasus Knights. The same applied to their honor guards, a small elite force under each of their commands. The overall command authority of this elite army y with me and every member surpassed As such her previous assignment was instead filled by a representative chosen by Tempest's electoral Parliament, once every Ten Years, and their employment fell under the judistricion of Tempest's Ministry of Diplomatic Affairs. But I am getting ahead of myself here.
Anyway, following this assignment, the frequency of scuffles breaking out reduced significantly. While this was something I could take care of easily, the relentless romantic pursuit from Chloe, Mai, Milim, and Shion was a different matter entirely.
<
Ciel chimed in. Of course, she was here too.
Give me a break! I sighed.
It's not like I was so dull as not to realize how these women felt towards me. I mean, I am a man too, you know. Chloe was downright gorgeous; her beauty alone would move any man's heartstrings. Still, somehow, it felt inherently wrong to have those feelings for my student. Milim was out of the question. I may be a perverted slime, but I'm far from being a pedophile. Still, after my persistent act of feigning negligence, you'd think their pursuits would halt a little, right?
Nope!
I mean, seriously! Didn't all those romance novels I read suggest men must take the initiative?
Not that I'd know. I was a virgin and didn't even have those parts to begin with in this body.
'Dammit! I should've just proposed to Hinata when I had the chance!', not that it mattered anymore. Even though she'd gotten married quite a while ago. I only realized the feelings I had for her when she got engaged to that fel, Nicos. '
Oh well, there was no use crying over spilled milk!'
Heaving a heavy sigh, I got up from my seat holding the cup of tea, which had already gone cold by now. Gulping the tea down my throat in one go, I walked over to the gss-paneled balcony to distract myself, in turn, revealing the cityscape outside.
The city stretched before me like a circuit board, several high-rises wrapped in blocks of cold blue, white, and golden lights, stood proudly, each crowned with a red light at the top masts, aircraft beacons, pulsing in a rhythmic glow. The streets and overpasses far below wove through the city like glowing arteries, illuminated by the steady flow of autonomous vehicles, their headlights tracing silent paths through the dark. Pedestrians would walk by each other, some returning home after long work, some out on dinner, some for reasons unknown. There was also the Hyperloop Transit that handled the subway traffic at these return hours, through the network of tunnels that stretched underground, unbeknownst.
Beyond the immediate skyline, the cityscape softened into a haze of mild pollution, well within tolerable limits, mind you. Several glowing magic arrays covered the sky, spanning over the entire metropolis, an improvised legion magic barrier based on the one at Leon's Capital El-Dorado, prohibiting unauthorized airspace viotion and even capable of withstanding e one of Carrerra's 'Not at all serious' Nuclear Magic spells while also allowing for the safe passage of any friendly aircraft and the airliners. It was merely an extension of the city's defense mechanism, powered by the perfected Singurity Engine and maintained by the central AI system. Drones skimmed the air occasionally, some delivering goods, others on their routine patrol.
Above it all, amidst the handful number of glittering stars, drifting satellites—some commercial, some governmental, and some whose purpose was best left unknown.
I took a slow breath, my faint reflection on the gss with golden eyes and bluish-white hair, merging with glowing city lights. Even from here, high above the streets, I could feel it—the silent, ceaseless heartbeat of the city, Rimurupolis, formerly known as the Rimuru City, the capital city of Jura Tempest Federation, as well as the rgest city in the entire world, only rivaled in size by the capital of Blumund Kingdom.