"Master, I am back!"
I turned away from the gss panel to face the person standing behind me with a slightly lowered head. It was none other than Diablo, my ever-so-faithful butler. He used to be one of those scary primal demons. In my early days, I had even wondered why somebody so strong would ever follow a lowly slime like myself. It felt funny now that I thought about it. He'd proven time and time again that his immense power was equally matched by loyalty, although he did tend to act weird once every now and then.
"So, what did they say?"
"Testa...ahem! Lady Testarossa said she would need a few hours to prepare. Lady Ultima and Lady Carrera are almost done with their preparations, too. If anything, they're all ecstatic about it, my lord!"
"Good! I'll be counting on you all then!"
"Yes, of course, Master! "
"Also, I've lost count of how many times I've been telling you this..."
I stared intently down at his golden pupils glittering within his bck eyes,
"Talk to me casually when we're in private."
"I would not dare, Master. As happy as it makes me to have you permit me so, I'm afraid it might interfere with my royal service. I need to serve you reliably, both in public and private, after all."
'As if that'd happen!'
I wanted to compin, but I held back. As lonely as it often made me feel, this was proper decorum practiced amidst the nobility in this world. It was just me being selfish. If anything, Gazel had it worse!
"Never mind then. Let's head back into the room first."
As we headed back in, Diablo prepared my chair behind the desk, urged me to sit, and stood about 2 meters away from the desk at the side.
"You should make yourself comfortable!"
After taking my seat, I pointed at one of the two chairs opposite my desk.
"Thank you, master.", thankfully he did not argue back this time.
"Continuing on where we left off, I feel reassured that you pn on accompanying me..."
This was something I absolutely had to make sure.
"Is having those three accompany us really necessary?"
Honestly, I was more worried about being assailed by their constant bickering over any external threat.
"I'd reckon it so, master! If anything, I'd have also requested lord Veldora and Sir Zegion had accompanied us on this journey, but considering the Labyrinth's security...it'll be difficult."
After Ramiris regained her full strength, it had since expanded to 150 floors as well. Considering her energy, it should not be hard for her to maintain it just by herself. Still...
"You know well that is out of the question. "
The Labyrinth might have ceased commercial operations centuries ago. That said, it still served as a military training facility, and more importantly, an important development and testing facility for scientific and magical breakthroughs spanning both civilian and military applications, well, mostly the tter. The byrinth only housed technology that was deemed too risky to release to the public. I needed it protected at all times at all costs.
"Master, then might I suggest Hero Chronoa..."
"Denied!"
"...Understood!" Diablo replied with a concerned expression.
It wasn't as if I didn't get his concerns. After Mai and Yuuki perfected their 'Transfer Magic Array', Veldora and Ramiris kept going on little excursions every now and then. So, I had to finally step in. We'd now formalized several expedition teams that would venture into the new world before us and investigate if we could engage in interdimensional diplomacy. This would be carried out for ten years, and after that, Veldora, Milim, Ramiris, and even I would take turns visiting the new nds. The spell also targeted worlds with signs of sentient life, so all the expedition teams had to do was make the initial contact. This sounded good in theory, however this time, something had gone wrong. Looking back now,
Labyrinth's 40th floor, where the Magic Array was located, was assaulted by hulking automatons cd in blue. It was only brought to my attention afterward.
[Is everybody safe? How are the expedition teams faring?]
[Yes, my lord! Sir Venom personally dispatched them all.]
[My lord! We've lost contact with all the expedition teams.]
[What! All of them? Why did you not inform me sooner then?]
[.]
[The mission was right on track. Then everything suddenly went wrong as the st expedition went in. Communications are mostly static, and we do not have their location.]
[What do you mean by that?]
[We're not too sure about that ourselves. But something or someone might've interfered with the spell.]
[We don't have enough evidence to conclude that yet.]
[Who can even tamper with a spell Lord Rimuru personally created?]
'Oi, I did not create that spell...'
Sigh...back to reality again.
The possibility of somebody interfering with the spell could not be denied. Moreover,
<< Assuming their magic, skills, and powers don't work the same way as ours, if they still managed to interfere with a high-level spell like that, they're extremely powerful!>>
If even Ciel could not retrace their tracks, they must be good.
<
Uhh huh! Sure. She's refusing to give up, as expected of Sensei.
They could very well be a threat. This time, I really had to prepare for the worst. So, I would venture out there personally. To that end, Diablo was preparing my escort. Bck numbers are also kept on standby and would be promptly summoned in if deemed necessary.
"Diablo, what do you make of those automatons?"
"My lord. They were odd, to say the least. Their outer shell perfectly matched the bodily proportions of a human, yet their size was too big to consider them as such. They also did not function electronically; if anything, they resembled golems instead. What was even more odd was how they disappeared as dust after being killed as if they'd never been here at all."
He paused as if to ponder for a moment.
"Also, the weapons they carried resemble our assault rifles. Although I would not necessarily call it a hint. If only we could capture one of them..."
Labyrinth's battle records did not tell us everything after all. Had any of us two been present at the scene, we would have caught one for sure.
"It's a pity, but it's how it is. Don't bother punishing Venom over this, though. They were tough opponents, and they outnumbered him. It's only natural he prioritized the safety of the staff."
I would've liked to get my very own share of research done on them, though. Tempest's own androids functioned on a framework of complex electronic and magical interfaces with usually fusion reactors or perpetual singurity reactors powering them, alongside magicule converters, and their armament varied widely depending on their type of application. Several of them even surpassed the strength of an awakened demon lord, both in energy and raw output. Of course, it wasn't as if they possessed ultimate skills. However, in great numbers, while coordinated by a central AI, personally designed by Ciel based on Manas cores, they were quite formidable. However, they were not in use outside of our four nations. Time after time, I had feared some people would try to reverse-engineer them and to try wage wars. However, if I could get my hands on these new types of automatons, then perhaps I could finally sanction exports of our own androids. It was worth a shot anyway.
Anyhow, I should reward Venom with something for his hard work. Not that bringing it up with Diablo would help.
"We'll be leaving tomorrow. Prepare my staff. I'm heading to bed early tonight."
Yeah, tomorrow was going to be a long day.