A/N: So... Volume 23 just dropped, and I swear to all that is Holy, Fuse reads my fanfics and decides to change the lore to f*ck with me.
Spoilers: Like what do you MEAN Luminous was actually the real Divine Ancestor's personality and then absorbs Twilight to become the True Divine Ancestor again! What do you mean that Shizue is Rimuru's Grandmother!?! The spin-off manga CLEARLY shows that Rimuru and her had some sort of romantic chemistry going on with how mopey Rimuru always is and wishing to have shown her various things in the world. Also, you'd think that Satoru would be like 'Wow, Shizue Izawa, that name's pretty close to my Grandmother's maiden name!' at some point after meeting her, but NO! Nothing! This is exactly like the time in my previous work where I had the Velzard turn into the MC's Manas (my MC had white hair too), and then one book later, Fuse decided to have Velzard have a manas of a white haired male (Twilight)!
Anyway, rant over. Volume 23, obviously, kinda killed my plans for this entire fanfic, and thus my motivation, which is why it's been on hiatus for a while, but I guess I should at least try to salvage this mess by changing a few things up.
.~.~.~.
While my body that I sent off with Luminous continued its work to restore her ruined city to its pristine condition, my Other Body, which remained in Jura, maintained its guard. A few days later and Rimuru returned from Dawrgon with not just the canonical Dwarves in tow, but with dozens of others as well as their families, too.
This, being the first major change in the story, I didn't at least partially see coming, surprised me, though when I asked him about it, it turned out to be my own fault. Apparently, at the Trial, Rimuru's possession of my scale came up, which caused a major uproar. Rimuru's group was outright forgiven, and Vesta was placed under house arrest. Apparently, they saw my relationship with Rimuru and freaked out that if I learned about the farse, I'd destroy their kingdom, so they treated Rimuru very nicely after that, and when Rimuru was set to leave, King Gazel sent him away with all the other Craftsmen who couldn't find jobs in Dwargon, as well as the politically inconvenient and eccentrics amongst their ranks. As it turns out, Kaijin wasn't even close to the only person Vesta, and people like him, had harassed and pushed out of their positions. With nowhere to go and Rimuru's offer of materials, and even some of my scales, Rimuru was able to bring over a lot more Dwarves than in canon.
I did give Rimuru a lecture about using my scales to negotiate, as I told him I would never use his slime for such negotiations without him present. Thankfully, due to the fact that I was a Spiritual Lifeform of the highest order, I could regenerate any part of my body, including my scales, or even my entire body, simply by using magicules, which I had for all practical uses, a nigh-infinite amount of, so I didn't mind too much, though I did have to part ways with around 30 scales and a tooth.
Regardless, Tempest's numbers swelled, with over 70 Dwarves and Hundreds of Goblins, it became quite clear that our current location wasn't going to last, so I asked Treyni to find us a better spot nearby and was given what I can only assume was the canonical spot, not far from the original village. It was a medium-sized plateau near the cave with bedrock not too deep below the soil, which was perfect for building the foundations of structures on. The area was also relatively flat, and tree cover was sparse, so there wouldn't be a need for clearing it.
After setting up camp in what I later dubbed the City of Tempest, Rimuru and I spent the next two days naming all the Goblins and having them evolve into Redcaps. We even re-named many of the other Goblins, giving them last names based on the village they came from, so Gobta was now Gobta Dragonwood.
A name too cool for someone like Gobta, but I digress.
I continued teaching Magic Lessons to the Redcaps and the Dwarves for the next few days while keeping an eye on the Orcs and Ogres. Gelmud had appeared at the main Ogre camp that day, and I had Treyni have one of her sisters keep an eye on him so that we wouldn't lose sight of him again. It seemed like, in only a few days, I would have to intervene with the Ogres to save them.
I told Rimuru of such, and he said to invite them to the city we were building, which I agreed to; however, it was unlikely that they'd want to leave their homes, even with my invitation, so I decided to wait for them to be attacked and save them at the last minute to convince them.
Was it kinda cruel, absolutely, but it was also necessary. The monsters of the Jura Forest were, for lack of a better term, kinda racist towards each other.
I get it, they were bitter rivals for centuries, so just asking nicely for everyone to get along wasn't exactly feasible, even for the more malleable minds of monsters, so in doing this, I would humble the Ogres and make them more willing to accept Rimuru's rule over them. I might be forced to use [Probability Domination], though, to ensure certain people get to the positions they need to be in, like Shion being Rimuru's bodyguard, Shuna being Rimuru's actual secretary, and Souei being the lead spy.
For all of Rimuru's flaws, in canon, his country was still the best place to live in this world, so I want to keep as much of the same personnel in place as possible to replicate it or improve it as much as possible. It was while I was planning and scheming to myself when I noticed Rimuru had gone missing.
...
"What the hell is this!?!" The elf girl pretending to be a human shouted at the top of her lungs as she stood in the town square.
"This is our town," I replied, matter-of-factly.
"Eh- no, I mean, how did you guys build all of this so quickly?" She repeated, a bit embarrassed.
"Magic," I said, wiggling my fingers at her.
They didn't look impressed.
"Well, it's true~" I whined as I gazed over at the woman wearing a mask who was carrying Rimuru.
"Hmm? I leave you alone for an hour, and you run off and come home with a girl!" I teased Rimuru, who was being carried back into the settlement in the masked Shizue's arms.
Rimuru jumped. "No!" He yelled in reply. "It's not like that!"
I smirked. "You literally came back into the village in the arms of a girl. How is it not 'like that'"? I asked.
"Pft~" Shizue chuckled at out skit.
"Umm... Sir, who might you be?" The young male adventurer from the group asked.
"Hmm? Me? I'm Veldora." I absentmindedly spoke.
"""Eeeehhhhhhhh!?!?!?!""" All three of the adventurers who were with Shizue and Rimuru yelped in surprise.
My eyebrow twitched. "So noisy~" I stated as I picked my ear casually.
Rimuru sighed. "I told you he was living here." He stated.
"Y-yeah, but I figured you meant like... 'in spirit' or something, not that he was actually living here!" Eren protested.
"Well, maybe we should get some food at the stall nearby." Rimuru immediately changed topics, pointing to a recently opened meat skewer 'shop'.
"""Meat!!!""" Eren and her party all immediately swapped from worried to excitement at the mention of food. It seems they hadn't eaten in days, so the Redcap working the stall probably looked like an Angel from heaven to them, as Eren, the elf pretending to be a human, and her two human friends, instantly ran into the shop when I explained to them that they would be getting food there, not even waiting for my full explanation.
I chuckled at that and turned to Shizue. "They're kinda funny characters, aren't they?" I said, pointing with my thumb.
Shizue simply smiled and nodded.
"They are a bit odd, but they are good people. It has been a pleasure to travel with them." She replied.
The mask covering her face was enchanted with an anti-magic effect, making it so I couldn't tell the expression she was making behind it with my Sensory Skills, but I could have sworn she was smiling as she walked toward the vendor while still carrying Rimuru.
'She's a bit odd, as she was being watched by someone troublesome.' I thought to myself as I glanced at a certain position in the sky. To normal people, hell, even to those who specialize in sensory skills, they probably wouldn't have noticed it. Still with my refined sensory abilities and Ultimate level existence, I was able to clearly spot the small invisible 'hole' in the sky that followed her and absorbed small amounts of magicules in doing so.
'Noir huh?' I thought as I turned to walk into the 'restaurant' and follow our guests who were eating voraciously already, as though they hadn't eaten in weeks.
Seeing Shizue here made me remember all about Ifrit's possession and Shizue's tragic backstory. I wanted to save Shizue, but justifying it would be difficult. If I saved her and she lived a happy life here in Tempest, then she could never be revived in the past to become Rimuru's Grandmother, which would create a paradox, and while it was probably ok for me to create paradoxes, since it seemed to be something unique in my nature that allowed me to do such things, the consequences could butterfly effect out in ways that I don't want to even think about right now.
My next issue would be Ifrit. I wondered if I should still take the fire giant under my wing as the canonical Veldora did. He'd make a good assistant, powerful, and would be very capable as a combatant; however, with the more Kijin and the other monsters I was going to be bringing in, and with how hard it would be to explain to Rimuru why I let the tormentor and 'killer' of his friend/Grandmother go... yeah, sorry Ifrit, but this time, you are going to reap what you sowed.
...
It had been a few days since Kaval's party arrived, and they had continued to be their goofy adventurer selves while they explored the forest and used our village as cover. I actually got annoyed with Eren's slow spellcasting after a while and forced her to sit in for our magic lessons at one point, which slowed down their progress, but since they had the Goblin Riders to help them out, they were still making better time than if they had done so in the traditional way.
Rimuru and Shizue were hanging out a lot, which was fine. I'm not sure how much time Satoru spent with his Grandmother in the previous world, or if he even recognised that it was her, but I wasn't going to interfere.
It did kind of hurt that he preferred hanging out with her over me, simply because she was Japanese, and also probably a woman, but if I was being honest, I would be a hypocrite if I said I didn't understand. I also preferred hanging out with Luminous because I had a massive crush on her and was trying to win her to my side as my wife.
Maybe this was the 'old Veldora' part of me flaring up, but I kinda wanted it all. "I'm going to end up a narcissist," I muttered to myself as I stood up from my position beneath a tree overlooking the village.
It wouldn't be long now before Ifrit broke free of Shizue's body and caused mischief. Actually, I'm pretty sure it would have happened already if not for my presence. The adventurers had been here a while and were likely to leave soon. That's already factoring in the fact that I slowed them down from canon anyway by giving Eren Magic lessons. I think Ifrit KNOWS I am here and is behaving, because if her were to take Shizue's body now and burn the village in his battle to escape, there would be no way for him to escape me and even if he did, the moment I found out he went to Leon, then Leon suddenly has the 'Worst' True Dragon coming after him with a grudge.
Ifrit was at least a bit intelligent at this stage, so he must be biding his time until the adventurers leave or I do. If Rimuru doesn't eat Shizue, then this story is skuffed, as he'd never get his human form, get [Degenerate], which started him down the path of editing skills, which is what made him and his subordinates so powerful, never meet Chloe, and die to the inevitable invasion of the Eastern Empire.
While I could, as of now, defeat Velgrynd in a one-on-one, I doubt I could beat Damrada, Kondu, Supressed Feldway, AND Velgrynd while protecting Rimuru and Tempest City all at once. I mean, a True Dragon, the Strongest Angel of Origin, and at least 2 True Demon Lord level enemies at the same time? That's a stretch, even for me, especially since Kondu has his bullshit one-shot Judgement Bullet that got the original Veldora in canon. However, I would HAVE to win that fight, unfortunately, if I didn't let Rimuru eat Shizue soon. And that's not even getting into how doomed we'd be in the endgame final war if Rimuru isn't at bare minimum equal to as strong as he was in canon.
I looked up into the sky. "Damn... this world really hates Shizue, huh?" I muttered before shaking my head with a bitter smile. "Oh well. I guess I'd better go. I think the Ogres were going to be attacked tonight anyway, so I might as well get that out of the way."
My other body, the one in Nightrose with Luminous, then turned to her.
"Hey. I need your help on something." I said seriously.
Luminous, who was happily sitting on the edge of a piece of rubble swinging her legs like a cheerful schoolgirl while humming and enjoying the cookies and cream ice cream shake I'd created for her, suddenly looked up from her merry revery. "What? I thought you could do your magic thing on the buildings easier now that you have narrowed it down into the {Root of Origin} Spell." She asked, a mix of curiosity and smugness in her voice.
I rolled my eyes. "Not about that." I sighed. "I need you to get Hinata soon."
Luminous' legs stopped swinging, and her aura changed. She was deadly serious now. "What do you need from Hinata?" She asked. Her voice let me know that if she didn't like what I was going to say, she would attack me. And not like the playful attacks she throws my way because she is a tsundere whenever she gets embarrassed, as in, she would actually try to kill me.
I raised my hand to placate her. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt her or whoo her or anything like that. I just think she would like to say goodbye to her teacher." I stated.
Luminous' eyes widened. "What!?!"
I explained to her that Shizue was dying and would soon leave this world. Which was true. Events were occurring rapidly back with my other body. If possible, skipping the whole 7 Luminaries fiasco between Rimuru and Hinata would be beneficial to everyone.
Luminous stopped her glaring and looked down. Thinking for a moment about what to do. "I could save her with my Skill," Luminous replied.
I shook my head. "I doubt she wants that. She hates this world, and things would get complicated." I explained
Luminous stared at me for a long few moments. "You know something, don't you?" She asked.
I felt a sweat bead form on my forehead. "L-let's just call it a bit of knowledge from the future," I responded.
This wasn't something I was going to hide exactly. I knew Luminous was sharp, and lying to the person you want to make your wife about a topic as sensitive as the death of their best friend's mother figure when they already barely trust you is a good way to lose the already nearly impossible to clear Luminous Route.
Luminous glared at me again for a few moments before closing her eyes and sighing. "Why do I always get the time travellers?" She muttered to herself, but I decided not to pretend I didn't hear that.
Luminous then looked up at me. "So... when is she going to... go?" She asked.
"Tomorrow at the latest," I answered solemnly.
Luminus sighed again heavily and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ok. I'll inform her, but YOU, and I are going to talk after this about future events, capeesh?"
I nodded my head. Luminous stared at me for a few moments more before standing up and vanishing.
I exhaled and slouched my posture for a bit. "All this power and I STILL have to just follow the plot on certain things, huh?... Nah, fuck that! When this is over, I'm going to go ALL in, even if I have to face off against my eldest brother at the end of it!"