Saga of Slime and Devil (Remake)

Vol 3 | Chapter 1 | Kushia

Placing her hands behind her back, she calmly responded, "My name is Tanya Tempest, I am the Chancellor of the Imperial Tempest Federation. I seek a diplomatic audience with the leader of your people."

The guards looked at each other, one of each of their ears tilting like a confused dog as one turned back, asking, "I thought the Chancellor of the Federation was a Demonic Demon Lord?"

'It seems word of the Federation has spread this far. Worth noting, certainly.'

"You'd be correct. I am both a Demon and a Demon Lord, however, I come here as neither, and I assume this form as I believe it would be best not to draw unneeded attention or panic amongst your people."

The guards seemed to understand. Whether approved or not, a demon walking through their village would cause rumors to spread and potential panic and worry to occur, regardless of whether they knew the identity of the demon. It was probably best for the general population if her status as a Demon was left unshown for now.

The guard, still clearly startled by now standing face to face with a Demon Lord, simply nodded, "Very well then. We will escort you inside."

Allowing them to lead the way, Tanya followed silently behind. Before long they were within the Tengu Village, though Tanya quickly noticed something strange about it.

'It seems to exist within a pocket dimension of sorts. Interesting stuff, really. I wonder if I can replicate it. Its potential implications are fascinating.'

Despite its apparent existence as a pocket dimension, the village was a wide, open, and overall cozy space. Numerous lights of seemingly magical origin came from all over the cave, most hard to spot until you started to go out of your way to look for them. Contrary to Tanya's own Veldoria, this village seemed to be built around the natural structure of the cave rather than bending it to its will.

The residents of the village did take notice of what appeared to be some human walking through. The village rarely had visitors, leaving such a sight to be a rarity, though one that most simply shrugged off and ignored after a few moments of interest. Some random human with little to no aura wasn't going to bring anything crazy, surely.

The walk took a minute, but eventually, Tanya was brought into a nicer structure in the upper regions of the village, a large building with heavy Japanese inspiration stood as the obvious head of the village. It was pretty easy to assume that this was either the residence or workplace of whoever led it.

Once Tanya was brought inside she quickly found herself sitting on her knees at a low-resting table. It was a design he had only seen done by Rimuru in this world, having brought over Japanese culture widely into Tempest. It often clashed with Tanya's more European-style culture that she had gotten used to in her second life, but she certainly didn't mind Rimuru's style either. However this wasn't Tempest, and it was fairly jarring to see it be used by people completely detached from it.

'The Ogres had Katanas and Japanese-style armor when we first met them. Their village isn't terribly far from here compared to most races, it's possible that some Otherworlder came and influenced culture down here. I'll keep my eye out, though. It's possible they could still be alive, Rimuru introduced Japanese culture in just two years after all.'

A young Tengu woman, easily in her teenage years, sat down across from Tanya. Her appearance felt more 'human' than the rest of the Tengu, though had the same animalistic features of ears and a tail. Her hair was pale white with red tinting towards the ends of it and her ears. Her eyes were a blood-red color, staring at Tanya like a wolf stares at its prey.

Tanya sat unphased and stared back. For a few moments, the two remained locked in intense stares, the two analyzing as much as they could from simple gazes. In both cases, however, the other learned more than they knew from this.