Greito and Selena turned away from the door of Checkpoint. At the same time, a Kijin with pink hair dressed in a white and red kimono bowed to him.
"I will show them around, Ludwig-sama. Please don't worry."
Putting one of his hands in his side, Ludwig laughed. "Thank you again, Shuna."
Shuna pivoted on her heels with grace after giving him another small nod. Then, the three of them walked away towards the centre of Tempest. But rather than returning to the restaurant promptly, Ludwig just stood where he was and looked at the backs of the three, which were becoming smaller and smaller the longer the moment passed.
His mouth was itching to give Selena a reminder. She should ask. She should demand an explanation whenever she didn't know something, and she needed to take notes so she could bring the information home and share it with others.
But he forced himself to swallow those words back and turn towards the door. Being reminded over and over again about the exact same thing was annoying. At one point, those who were told too many times would completely ignore it just because they wanted to make a point, and Ludwig didn't want that to happen now.
Not like Selena would do that; he was sure she wouldn't do so. But still, he and Claire had spent so many words to make her understand and embrace her own position. So he felt like reminding her what to do again here would only make her progress slow down a lot, if not stop entirely.
After entering the restaurant, he gave a pat to Arcanine and the Gastly before he blinked to the kitchen. There, his eyes quickly scanned around to see the progress of the preparation.
In the corner where all sources of evil when running a restaurant normally sat Zhark stood with a knife and a chicken in his hands. On both of his sides, two bowls that were separated by a sink housed a heap of chicken. One bowl was for chickens that hadn't been cleaned and trimmed of their less edible parts, while the other one held those that had gone through the process.
In the meantime, Valerie and Vilera were working on both vegetables and the meat that went into the tempura and the skewers in another corner, while Finka was doing all the heavy stuff like seasoning, making the batter, and preparing the rice.
Without letting out a sound, Ludwig dived into what he had to do. The oxtail soup from yesterday was still good due to his time-stopping ability. And by his estimate, it would last through lunch since a lot of Tempest's denizens wouldn't come because of the festival outside.
That left making more soup for tonight's portion. And judging by what Dwargon's king said before leaving the restaurant last night, he needed to make a lot.
He summoned another pot with a flick before putting it on the rune stove. After pulling the oxtail from his Storage Dimension, he started again. Spice went in, then herbs, then broth, then he let it simmer inside the fast-forwarding space. Once he tasted it and got the same result as before, he went to work on the chicken.
Just as he brought the newly cooked chicken back to the kitchen from the third floor, the restaurant buzzed into him before the door opened.
Claire stepped in from the Ravenhall side with Cless holding her hand. On top of the little girl sat her ever-changing fox. They both dressed in more frilly clothes than usual, though for Claire it was still mainly black.
The three of them walked closer to the bar before Claire opened her mouth. "Are you ready?"
Ludwig put another tray full of the jerk chicken into the Stasis Cabinet before answering. "I just need to change my clothes."
After he answered, he let the void pull him into its embrace before reappearing in reality on the second floor of the restaurant. Now back in his room, his mind quickly cycled through the list of clothes he had inside his Storage Dimension.
A plain t-shirt came to mind first, then it went just as fast. Even if he was just a spectator, a treaty signing was not the occasion for such simple clothes, no matter how he liked them. He considered the turtleneck and the long coat next, which would have been his default for anything requiring a degree of formality, even though it landed him a few stink glances due to how people of Elos never knew such fashion existed.
However, he had walked to Tempest in this season to know what the day would look like. Summer was unforgiving in Tempest, and he had no interest in standing under the open sky feeling like a wrapped sausage while Rimuru made his first step to world domination.
What he landed on was a deep green dress shirt, the kind that sat somewhere between relaxed and put-together depending on how he carried it. He paired it with dark trousers and left the top button undone. No coat. He would not need one in summer.
After giving himself a look in the mirror, Ludwig nodded his head and returned to the first floor. But just as he entered the kitchen, a voice echoed.
"Wow, Boss! A green shirt? That's new!" Valerie blitzed towards him before bending her waist and looking closely at the clothes he wore as if they were a precious gem.
Ludwig let out a chuckle at her action. "How is it, though?"
"It's good, Boss!" She answered loudly as she put forward her thumbs.
"Glad you like it." Ludwig laughed before walking towards Cless and Claire. Once he stood across from them, he poured a lemon tea for himself before opening his mouth again. "You have breakfast already?"
As Ludwig moved the glass to his mouth, he heard the answer from the older of the two. "We have."
Ludwig nodded as the tangy and sweet taste of the lemonade washed his mouth. Then, he turned to his right a little and waved his hand. A moment later, the bubbling sound of the soup inside the pot as well as the savoury smell spread through the kitchen.
"Keep the soup in that state and make sure you scrape the bottom from time to time/" Ludwig ordered before blinking to the other side of the bar.
"Yes, Chef." Finka gave him a short and resolute answer that made him nod. Then, his eyes landed on the Gastly that hovered close to his face.
"You… I want you to behave, okay? No scaring people, no surprising people, and no licking people out of nowhere. If you can't promise me you won't do that, I'll leave you here in your Pokeball."
"G-gas…" The Gastly answered. Its body's round shape became blurry for a second.
"No. I don't want you to try. I want you to promise me." Ludwig shot back.
The Gastly didn't give his answer for a few seconds, but then his eyes went serious as he nodded.
"Good." Ludwig patted the ghost-type Pokemon's head before looking at his Arcanine. "And you. I want you to take care of them, okay?"
The Arcanine roared in answer, and before long, all of them were already on the door. But before they walked to Tempest, Ludwig first put one of his hands on the Gastly while the other one on Arcanine.
As he expected, both of his Pokemon flinched the moment they entered Tempest. The same phenomenon he saw before on Greito and Selene now happened in his Pokemon. With the magicule system now embedded into their body, they had become unique compared to other Pokemon.
However, whether it's good or bad, it still needed to be studied.
The road into Tempest's centre was louder than this morning.
Even from the outer area of the city where Checkpoint sat, Ludwig could already hear the noise building ahead of them. Vendors had pushed their stalls closer to the main paths, and the denizens of Tempest moved with more energy than a regular morning would produce. Some wore their better clothes. Others had decorated the fronts of their shops with banners in colours that had no particular meaning Ludwig could identify, though the intent was clear enough.
Cless walked between him and Claire, her fox shifting its shape on top of her head every few steps as if it could not decide what form suited the occasion. She was looking at everything, her head turning left and right with the focused attention of someone who did not want to miss anything and was worried she already had.
"Kokobu and Latina said they will be near the fountain." She said, without directing it at anyone in particular.
"Alright, we're going there, then." Ludwig answered before they walked closer and closer to the city centre.
Along the way, a few Tempest denizens greeted them. Some even stopped him from walking forward altogether. But rather than striking up idle chatter, they forced some of their wares on Ludwig before looking at him with expectant eyes.
Because of that, the walk that should only take five minutes tops stretched into fifteen minutes walk. And just as they arrived near the fountain, Cless dashed away from them. Even without scanning around, it was clear who she dashed towards.
Looking around, Ludwig finally noticed the change on the plaza. Flags from both Tempest and Dwargon lined the perimeter, and al Dwargon delegation stood to one side of the stage in a formation that suggested they had experienced this kind of thing before.
Just as he did so, he found a patch of shadow worth standing near a building on their right. It was close enough to see clearly but far enough that the crowd thinned out around them. Ludwig tilted his head toward it, and Claire moved without needing to be told, settling beside him with her hands folded in front of her.
As they arrived, her Abra drifted to the shadowed wall and leaned against it with its usual serene and composed aura.
After surrendering his back to the wall, Ludwig looked at the opened packages the vendors had pressed on him and set most of them carefully into his Storage Dimension before opening one. The one left in his hand was some kind of rice cake wrapped in a leaf. A decent sweet snack that left him with little to no advice for the vendor.
He glanced sideways at Claire and offered her one without a word. Her eyes landed on it for a brief second before her hand reached for it. And just like that, the two of them waited for the ceremony to start while occasionally watching Cless, who was playing with Kokobu, Latina, Hedwig, and Gastly while being guarded by Arcanine.
Just before boredom took hold of his mind, a loud drum sound echoed through the plaza. Then everything went silent before a single name was chanted all around him.
"Rimuru-sama!!!!!"
His slime friend waved his hands around as he walked towards the stage. Behind him, a huge man with a neat haircut and beard walked in a regal manner. A complete contrast to the king of Tempest.
Before long, both of them arrived at the stage. Their eyes looked around the crowd for a brief second before Rimuru opened his mouth.
"People of Tempest, today, we make history…" He started.