That Time a Bookworm Got Ascended in Tensura

Ch.36 Milim's Playtime

Rozemyne's pov: 

Back at home, refreshingly. I'd be allowed to go outside now if I was with another member of Sylvester's family, but they never really wanted to go outside. They seemed to still be worried something bad would happen, as if they were in the lower city in Ehrenfest. Tempest had no walls or barriers between it's districts, but there was also no reason for a city to have them in my opinion. You should protect the city as a whole, not just a single part. Though I suppose a powerful being wouldn't  care about either and could just break through both. 

Speaking of which, Milim Nava, one of the oldest demon lords was currently standing in my garden staring directly at me through the window. Why was she here? Hell if I knew, I just didn't want to get in a situation if I didn't listen to her. The fact she could so easily see through the protection circuit was very disturbing to me, and I didn't really know why. 

As I opened the door on to walk outside I heard  her begin speaking, "Waha-haha-haha! You can't trick me with illusions, my [Milim Eye] can see the true nature of anything!" She boisterously annoyed while jumping a little bit and holding a single arm high into the air. 

I sort of just watched for a moment while waiting for a chance to speak. Once I finally found one, I started "Milim-san, what are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to be taking lessons from Frey-san?" 

She immediately ran toward me and covered my mouth to stop me from speaking, then dragged me off of the steps. "Rozemyne-chan would never tell on me, would she?" It was said in probably the coldest tone I'd ever heard, with just about as much murderous intent as you should expect from someone who calls themself a demon lord. 

I immediately shivered in the young girl's grasp and took on an extremely regretful face, "Sorry, sorry, Of course not!" I quickly apologized and assured her while I thought I could feel a cold sweat on my back, even though I knew I was no longer able to sweat. 

She let go of me, dropping me to the ground and stood up with her arms on her hips. This was the first time I had ever really looked over her thoroughly, and I realized just how cute she was. Her platinum pink hair tied back into twin pig tails and her blue eyes were incredibly naturally shiny, and she was wearing a white schoolgirl uniform that I had heard she normally wore while visiting Tempest in the past. She looked incredibly fragile, but factually speaking she was probably the least fragile thing on the planet at the moment. 

I took a moment to take deep deliberate breaths, even if I didn't need to. "Why are you here though? Wait, how did you already know my new name?" I waited for a moment after asking both questions in quick succession and floated off the ground to feel more comfortable in my possible escape routes. 

"Didn't I already say my skill lets me see the true nature of anything? I knew your name changed when I saw you." She seemed to say something oddly logical for her normally boisterous self, like she was trying to teach or demonstrate something to me effectively. Afterward though what I assumed was a mask went back on, and she announced proudly "Ramiris wants to see you, and also I wanna see how strong you are-noda! I wanna see how strong your new family is too, they seem sorta strong for humans. That big sister of yours has that sword, right? She could be a good test for the kids." 

I looked at her a bit dumbfounded for a moment, then asked "Why would you need to know that?" I tilted my head a bit to the side, and kinda gripped my hands together a bit. 

"Simple-noda! I just want to see how strong you are, exactly that!" She began dragging me immediately away from the house while disguising our presence, had she been told to do that by Rimuru? Was I sold out? 

It was not long after that we were flying across the city, and all the way to the plaza. We landed in front of the city hall, and Milim dragged me inside, and all the way to the room Sylvester's family was in. She seemed to just already know the direction, she opened the door by simply thrusting her palm forward and blasting it off it's hinges with nothing but the strength in her arm. 

Who were currently in the room was Sylvester, Florencia, Wilfried, Charlotte, and Melchior. They appeared to simply be spending time together, I assumed for the first time in a while considering how happy they seemed before they started reacting to Milim's antics. Mostly with shocked and surprised faces, Melchior's :o face was very cute. 

Milim unconcealed us shortly after the door had been blasted off, and began talking loudly while tossing me around like a little doll. "Hello! I want to test all your strength, and her strength! I can't wait until the tournament, I wanna see how strong you are now-noda! All of your though, not just the two strong ones." She started looking around frantically after the last sentence, looking for something or someone. 

Wilfried seemed to be the first to start talking, "Let go of imouto-san, who even are you?" Honestly him referring to me that way already was a bit surprising, but he chose the wrong time to try to protect me. Especially to do it in such a rude way. I suppose he was really already prepared to act out this kind of thing in public. 

Milim stared at him for a moment, and just kinda touched Wilfried on the forehead. It left a little red mark and he winced in pain before doubling over. "I am Milim Nava, The Destroyer! Demon lord of the land of the forgotten dragon!" She proudly announced her title while glaring Wilfried down and holding her other hand at her hip. 

As the pain slowly dissipated a cold sweat rose on Wilfried's face while he seemed to get even more uneasy than after I had told him of nuclear canon. He seemed to immediately believe Milim after how easily she had completely disabled him for a few moments. 

Sylvester after hearing this immediately goes to pull Wilfried away from Milim while standing in front of the other two children. He seemed to get uneasy himself, and though he tried to keep his composure. 

Florencia steps next to Sylvester while summoning her Schtappe, seemingly getting a bit of a shiver in her back. I wondered if she had ever met a demon lord other than Rimuru before. She seems to be staring to me with a worried expression. 

I stared back with one that was entirely apologetic, though there was really not much I could do to stop Milim. 

"Waha-hahah-haha! You are good to be scared, but I won't hurt you. I just want to see how strong you are, as I said." She seemed a bit smug in her expression, and tried to revise the situations direness. There really was not much she could do after what she had done, though. 

'Rimuru, did you offload Milim on me? It  has caused a pretty bad situation.' I sent a [Thought Communication] to the slime while looking around in hopes he might already be in the room. 

'Oh, shit. Sorry, I didn't think she'd cause any problems. She just wanted to ask to have you guys spar.' I got a thought back from Rimuru that sounded a little bit irritated before there was a shimmer in the space next to Milim. Then a hand on her shoulder, and a stern question "Milim, I told you not to cause any trouble. Do you still want lunch?" 

Milim shivered softly and looked back to Rimuru with a begging gaze, "NO NO! I still want lunch, sorry sorry! Don't take away my food!" She threw me at Sylvester promptly there after and started begging to Rimuru with puppy dog eyes. 

I had to stop myself mid-air to prevent careening into Sylvester. I then landed in front of him and was promptly pulled over to his side by him. I looked up at him to see he was still a bit worried, and I could understand why. Milim in [Magic Sense] looked like a mass of energy so incredibly dense that it could probably destroy a country by just moving, now that she was no longer concealing herself. At the very least she looked on par with Rimuru, but I was sure Milim had more in reserve. 

 Then, we all watched as the two demon lords bickered like children for several minutes. It completely destroyed the tension that remained in the room. Just two god like beings standing there acting like children. To say the least, Sylvester started feeling right at home. 

Rimuru turned to us all after several minutes, "Sorry about that. I let her off the leash a bit too much, she'll behave more now. Still just go along with her for now, I can promise none of you will be hurt." After saying that he simply disappeared again into space. It really did irk me how effortlessly he treated space itself like a fold-it sheet. 

"Sorry for causing you trouble. I just want to test your strength, you'll be safe in the labyrinth, Ramiris assured us." She was speaking somewhat politely now and standing straight up, it was sort of disturbing to see her behave that way.  

Sylvester seemed somewhat disappointed by the change in her behavior, but Florencia and the children seemed eased by it. She was also hiding her full aura, meaning she just looked like a normal human. Though [Magic Sense] still keyed me into a few differences. 

"Rimuru told me the other one was in the Labyrinth with Adalman, so we can just pick him up along the way." After this we were led as a group across the town. It seemed Milim was walking quite a bit more quickly than Melchior could keep up with, so I helped by letting him float in the air like me. He very much enjoyed the opportunity. 

Where we were led was a massive colosseum, which appeared to be modeled after the one in Rome. It was however much larger and appeared to be a much brighter shade of marble. I suspected it's creation was Rimuru's doing, as it was one of the few buildings I was not asked to assist with. It had a few key changes as well, like more modern amenities and big screens made of magisteel mounted on the four cardinal directions. 

The colosseum itself was not where we were going however, we were led to a large room under the colosseum which was simply hollowed out of the stone like a large rectangle, it had very little detail and really just looked like a plain marble room. Though there was one massive door at one side of the room which appeared to lead to no where according to my senses. 

Milim innocently walked up to the door and forced a lot of magicules into it, causing it to creak open. After it was finished opening a space appeared inside and my senses began to see what was beyond the door. Though the way the area worked unnerved me, and felt incredibly natural at the same time. 

"Where is this place?" I asked as we walked into the door, once I was inside and the door closed I could no longer sense the outside world. The senses of the place we were in felt like a multilayer maze, but it appeared to just be an enclosed space. [Magic Sense] could not even sense anything outside, in  fact it's range had been extended to encompass further than normal due to the structure of the space. 

Milim puffed her cheeks out and looked moody for a moment, "I told you already. This is Ramiris' labyrinth. It is a subspace skill like Rimuru's [Stomach]." She begrudgingly explained while looking annoyed at my cluelessness. 

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--2051 words--

(AN: Ending the chapter here so the next chapter can be longer. I will try to release next chapter early too.)