Chapter 417: A Certain Slime’s Perspective (side: ???)

In a room deep beneath the royal castle, a slime soldier – a knight slime – bows deeply towards the throne and reports to me. I kick my feet restlessly as I listen. I still don't seem to be able to get used to this form.

“In the banquet, Dragon Hunter Volk is still rampaging against us knight slimes. The dragon that suddenly appeared was successively pulled away by Thermal-sama.”

The previous report contained information up to the dragon’s attack. If Thermal has lead it away, then he should currently be working with Rogueheil, who left my side a moment ago, to bring it down.

“…But still… A dragon, huh…”

I clutch my legs, muttering to myself as I sit in a balled up. Once I heard that a dragon attacked, there was one thing that it reminded me of.

But I denied it right away. There’s no way he could appear here.

I hate to admit it, but know I’m overthinking it. Even so, I want to get involved myself to make sure.

There's no doubt that the dragon's here on the Saint’s order. But if it’s a dragon brought as her [Spirit Servant], it should be B rank and the highest.

“…And, the Saint?”

“Th-that is… There is still no sign of her…”

The knight slime stutters as he responds. So, she still has yet to move. I tut my tongue. Perhaps frightened, the knight slime trembles.

If all of the Three Knights are deployed, then I'll have to act soon too. That is because the worst possiblity would be if they were all defeated one-by-one while they're separated.

But, as long as I can’t see the movements of the Saint, or the Magic Beast King she has on a leash, I can’t move carelessly. I’ve tried predicting the future with [Laplace Interferance Authority], but the numbers are too unstable.

In the first place, [Laplace Interference Authority] is unsuited for large-scale predictions. When it comes to predictions of things I can’t see directly, the precision drops massively. I thought that would be fine anyway and tried using it, but it was a waste of MP.

Even if the precision was just low, it might still have been useful as a reference, but this time, whenever I use it, the numbers change drastically. Most likely, the Saint is also using Laplace’s predictions of the future. In this conflict between me and the Saint, we’re each using [Laplace Interference Authority] to try and claim the slightest advantage over the other, so the already low-precision predictions of large-scale events are being changed by each other’s observations and are made completely useless as a result.

“God-sama, if you would only tell me about them, I’d kill them right away… Ah, no I understand, I understand. This is a test. It's a test to determine whether I’m worthy to inherit the power of the Six Great Sages, who could use Laplace freely. I understand. It was the same back then, too, wasn’t it, God-sama? I will kill the Saint. I will kill the Magic Beast King. I will also kill the dragon that killed the Hero. That will be enough, won’t it, God-sama?”

As I speak to myself in a low voice, the knight slime watches me fearfully.

“Aah, it’s the usual correspondence with God-sama.”

“I-I see…”

The knight slime replies, unconvinced.

“…In terms of guile, the Saint might be one step above me.”

She came all the way to Alban and thoroughly appealed her presence. It’s impossible that she could be entirely uninvolved in the current situation, in which the invited adventurers have revolted, and a dragon suddenly appeared and started rampaging inside the castle.

However, she still hasn’t been sighted anywhere. I tried sticking some slimes to watch her, but as expected, I never received a report back. It’s probably correct to assume they were all killed.

The original plan was that, once the enemy had begun to move, I would take action myself. Even before the Saint announced her visit, I was aware that she would soon move. When I heard she was visiting the country, I thought everything was proceeding as expected. Since she would most likely act during the party, I would be able to control the timing of her attack and kill her with Rogueheil.

Upon killing the Saint, I would no doubt be exposed as a monster and lose my status as the princess, but compared to the status of a princess, the Saint’s divine skill is far more important. As long as I had that, there would be none in the world who would be able to oppose me.

“…Also,God-sama, you said that the divine skills are indispensable for the process of becoming the ruler of the world, right? And I am to be the vessel for that?”

That is why, even if I had to be a bit forceful, I wanted to go out to meet her myself. But the problem is that the Saint still hasn’t been sighted anywhere. I had thought she might be setting a trap for me somewhere, but there’s still no sign of her. I have no idea where she will attack, or what she’s thinking.

As a result, I've had to hide deep underground, away from the unseen Saint. In addition, due to our lack of forces, I’ve been forced to deploy the Three Knights to deal with the adventurers’ insurrection and the dragon, so I’m now totally separated from them. I can feel her influence at work, but no more.

By not appearing at all, the Saint has tied my hands. I feel impatient. The way things are going is bad. It’s bad, but I still can’t move yet. If I were to fight the Saint and the Magic Beast King at the same time, my prospects of victory would be thin. But even though she should be acting, I can’t see the Saint’s hand at all.

“God-sama, I…”

The door opens, and another knight slime bursts in. He seems rather flustered.

“Demon Lord-sama, it’s terrible! Apparently, Rogueheil-sama has lost!”

It’s the worst development I could have imagined. I clutch my head.

“Did the Saint do it? She’s finally begun to move then.”

“N-no, I only watched from a distance so I don’t know the details, but it looked like it was the dragon that invaded the castle earlier…”

“The dragon…?”

Rogueheil is A- rank. He’s also intelligent. Did Rogueheil really lose to the Saint’s [Spirit Servant] that doesn’t even have a divine skill?

“Has the Saint moved yet…?

“I-I still have not heard anything of the sort… I tried checking with other soldiers, but none had seen the Saint or the Magic Beast King.”

While holding back her strength, she broke through Rogueheil.

“…God-sama, I’m going to retreat this time.”

Below the royal castle, there is a large waterway that connects to an underground river. In times of emergency, the waterway can be used to escape.

As I stand, the surrounding knight slimes come closer.

“Demon Lord-sama, what will you do?”

“…I’m going to run away this time. I’ve been made to dance in the Saint’s hand. I should have been more cautious of her.”

This defeat hurts. I can’t imagine how many of the knight slimes and Three Knights that I carefully assembled will survive. But as long as I'm still alive, recovery is not impossible.

I had wanted to obtain a second divine skill before I evolved, but there’s no helping it. The Saint is not such a soft opponent. By keeping the Magic Beast King on a leash, she's obtained a massive strength.

I will kill the saint. I will kill the Magic Beast King, and I will kill that dragon. But it should be fine if I don’t do it now.

I thought for sure the dragon that invaded had to either be a third [Spirit Servant] that she somehow managed to bind to and hid from the world, or an unknown dragon that she lured to attack the castle. But something is strange.

“…Escape, is it?”

One of the knight slimes says, reluctance apparent in his voice. But I have no intention of taking on multiple A rank opponents. I step down from the chair.

“That reminds me, Thermal-sama mentioned the names Irushia and Miria… Do those mean anything to you, Demon Lord-sama?”

Another knight slime asks. The moment I hear his question, I understand. As my gut had told me, the dragon that invaded really was Irushia.

“Irushia… I see, so he really has come… I see…”

“…Demon Lord-sama? What will you do?”

Is this also the Saint’s trap? With Irushia as the bait, does she plan to prevent me from retreating?

No, that is overthinking it. I want to think that’s the case, but… Even though from the perspective of the wider world, what happened in the forest wasn’t a major incident, but if she investigated me thoroughly, it wouldn’t have been impossible for her to arrive at that village. Is this her trap for her to kill me for certain?

Even if so, I have to go. I have to prove it to God-sama. That the only one suitable for God-sama is me. That the one who will save God-sama is me. I am the only one who will meet God-sama and earn their affection. It definitely won’t be Irushia.

In that battle in the forest, I certainly fell behind him. At the conclusion of the battle, I was briefly abandoned by God-sama. But that was not my destiny. I survived. I was in a situation where even I thought I would die, but I still survived.

That is why I understand now. That was a test given to me by God-sama. And that test is still ongoing.

“I’m changing my plan. I’m going to kill Irushia. I can escape after that.”

It took a bit of work, but I already have the prerequisites for obtaining [Human Realm] and [Hungry Ghost Realm].

In order to live up to God-sama’s expectations, I must prove myself.