Check out advanced chapters on P@treon: [email protected]/CosmicKaminari
----------
Time flew by, and over the course of that month, Kaito and Benimaru led their troops through teleportation circles, sweeping across the entire world of Black Bullet.
They carried out a thorough cleansing of the world, ultimately rescuing around five million Cursed Children and nearly two hundred thousand kindhearted adults.
Compared to the world's total population of seven hundred and fifty million, those two hundred thousand decent people were a drop in the ocean — proof enough that this world was rotten to its very core.
Black Bullet World · Kaito's Bedroom · Early Morning
"Hehehe! Hahahaha! Jie jiejie jiejie!"
Rimuru couldn't help but stare. Seeing Kaito's increasingly erratic behavior, she asked:
"Kai-chan, are you alright?"
Kaito closed the system interface and turned to her, barely containing his excitement.
"I'm fine! I just thought of something really good!"
"Rimuru, let me tell you, we're about to become the strongest force in the entire world!"
Rimuru tilted her head, puzzled.
"The strongest force? What do you mean?"
"Rimuru, you know what an awakened Demon Lord is, right?"
Kaito calmed himself and looked at her seriously.
"Of course I do! After I defeated the Orc Lord, I got a Demon Lord Seed. They said I was just one step away from becoming an awakened Demon Lord!"
Kaito nodded and continued.
"Then do you know what conditions are needed to actually become one?"
Rimuru fell quiet at that. She knew about awakened Demon Lords, sure, but she'd never really thought about becoming one herself.
Kaito had always been there to cover the heavy lifting when it came to top-tier combat, and unlike in the original story, Rimuru had never been pushed to the edge by Shion's death. So her hunger for power wasn't particularly strong right now.
"Great Sage! Do you know the conditions to become an awakened Demon Lord?"
[Notification: To become an awakened Demon Lord, two conditions must be met.]
[The first condition: you must obtain a Demon Lord Seed.]
[The second condition: the sacrifice of at least ten thousand human souls.]
[Neither condition can be skipped.]
"Ah! Great Sage, you knew this whole time!"
[Notification: Master, you never asked.]
"Uh..."
"Kai-chan, okay, I know the conditions now. I already have the Demon Lord Seed, but ten thousand human souls..."
Kaito looked at Rimuru, who seemed a little troubled, and smiled with the calm confidence of someone who had everything figured out.
"Hm hm hm! If I'm asking, then I already have a solution."
"Ten thousand human souls? That's nothing for me right now."
He said it almost smugly, glancing over at the eight million souls that remained after being thoroughly refined by the Conqueror's Banner.
Then again, out of over seven hundred million souls, only eight million had been fit to use. The gap between the people of that world and the people of Slime World was staggering.
"Really? So I can actually become an awakened Demon Lord!"
Rimuru's eyes lit up. She hadn't been chasing power, but if the opportunity was right there in front of her, why turn it down?
"Of course. Let's head out and get everything sorted, then we'll kick off everyone's big upgrade!"
"Mhm!"
The two of them walked out of the room together. The moment they reached the top of the staircase, they spotted a whole group of people sitting downstairs in the living room, casually drinking tea.
Kaito blinked.
"Hey! What day is it? Why is everyone here?"
Kagaya, who had been calmly sipping from his teacup, set it down as he saw them descending the stairs.
"Isn't it because there's something important we need to discuss with you both!"
"That's right!"
"There really is something."
"And it's something that'll shape everything going forward!"
Benimaru and the others all chimed in.
Kaito and Rimuru settled onto the sofa and exchanged a glance.
"Something that important? I can't think of anything major going on right now."
"Right, right. Haven't all the children already been taken care of?"
Sakuya stepped forward and placed two cups of black tea in front of them before speaking softly.
"It is quite important, and it's something only the two of you can decide."
Hearing even Sakuya call it a major matter, Kaito leaned forward.
"Alright, what exactly is it that brought all of you here?"
"Hehe! Kai-chan, it's about founding a nation!"
Rimuru blinked.
"Founding a nation? Haven't we already established the Jura Forest Alliance?"
Kanae Kocho, sitting nearby, smiled gently.
"That's a different thing entirely. The Jura Forest Alliance is just an agreement between the monsters of the forest. But now..."
Shizu, sitting beside Kanae, picked up where she left off.
"Now the makeup of our people is a lot more complicated. If we count all the children we rescued, the whole town — well, it should really be called a city at this point — has a total population that's already passed five and a half million. And not counting the children, the human population alone has exceeded two hundred thousand."
"That's nearly on par with the monsters living here. We talked it over, and we all feel that we have more than enough to found a proper nation."
Kaito leaned back and stroked his chin thoughtfully. With a population base like that, establishing a nation made a lot of sense.
'The Jura-Tempest Federation, ahead of schedule. Not bad at all.'
"Alright, founding a nation does sound like a good call. But have you all thought through the organizational structure?"
Rigurd, dressed in a sharp black suit that made him look like he'd walked out of a spy film despite his enormous frame, stood up and spoke.
"You needn't worry about that at all!"
"For government affairs, Mr. Kagaya and I will continue handling things at the top. Under us, we'll set up departments for Finance, Construction, Education, Research, and Foreign Affairs."
"I'll temporarily take on the role of Finance Minister concurrently, and Mr. Geld will serve as the Minister of Construction."
"The Education Department will be handed to Shizu. For Research, Mr. Kaijin said he could fill in as Minister for the time being."
"And Foreign Affairs will be handled concurrently by Mr. Kagaya."
Kaito and Rimuru both nodded, genuinely satisfied with what they were hearing.
"That's a solid arrangement. No complaints from me. Rimuru, what do you think?"
"No problems here either!"
What problems could she possibly have? These people had always been the ones keeping things running. As long as she didn't cause trouble, things would be fine.
"It sounds like you all had this figured out before you even walked in. You were just waiting for the two of us to say yes, weren't you!"
"Hahahaha!"
"Well, we were worried you might not agree!"
"Founding a nation touches on so many things, so of course we had to come prepared!"
Everyone in the room said it with a laugh, clearly pleased with themselves.
"Alright! Since it's all planned out, what should we call the nation?"
Kaito asked slowly, looking out at the eager faces in front of him...