'It's another beautiful day,' I thought sitting on the couch of my newly established office. It's been over a month since the war at marineford ended and since then a lot of new things have happened, and are continuing to happen.
"Hey, Ciel. What do you say," I said, looking at the beautiful monument out the window, which they all like to call 'The Statue of the Great Overseer,' which in reality is just a statue of me with my slime form on my head, looking at the progressing nation with its graceful eyes. "Since there's still a year and a half before the time skip is over, why not go out on another small adventure?"
<Affirmative, Master,> replied Ciel. <That is a good idea to pass the time although->
"It is finished, Rimuru sama!" a tall, white man wearing a white uniform entered the door. "The Star district's construction is over and it is ready to be settled and bustle as soon as you grace it with your presence."
"Ah, I see. That's good to hear." I got up from my seat and picked up a blue scarf. "Tell them I will be there in a bit."
"Yeah, Rimuru-sama," said the man with a bow. "Do you need me for anything else?" he asked. His eyes darted left and right with anticipation and excitement.
"No, that will be all," I said, comforting the restless soul. "The progress of Star Tempest has been going rather well under your care. I am glad I left you in charge, Akuta-kun."
"You embarrass me, Rimuru sama," he replied. "I would never have been able to do so without Diablo sama's guidance."
Akuta was a gentleman, humble and strong, and his posture always eluded a strong sense of justice that was different from Akainu. A former marine himself, he didn't waste any time changing sides as soon as we showed him the reality of the organization called the world government and its 'benevolent' rulers. As a result, we trusted him with the rumble-rumble fruit, whose previous user was um... Enu...? no. Ener... no... uh-
<His name was Enel.>
Ah, right. Enel. Seeing his devotion and willingness, we also appointed him as the bodyguard and guardian of Atla, the fairy girl and her brother whom we rescued from that Celestial dragon back in the day, along with the many slaves, whose resettlement he also looks after. Looking back now, I can say with confidence that I do not regret that decision. I should say, the guy reminds me of Rigurd in a lot of ways.
"That's all then. You are free to spend the rest of the day however you wish."
"Alright then, before I leave," said Akuta, a worrying frown appeared on his forehead. "I should warn you ahead of time."
"Huh?" What could have happened to get him so concerned? Did we get attacked by the enemy behind my back? But that's impossible. The Star Tempest, which it is called now, used to be an ancient island impossible to find under normal circumstances. Even if one were to find it with a fluke, the sea around it is always unrested with a fierce storm filled with giant sea beasts. The navy will need at least an admiral to even stand a chance at crossing it, and I don't think they can spare one at such a critical time. But then-
"It's about the evening. I suggest you be prepared," he said, stepping out. "The people have been very eager to see you." Leaving me with those words, he walked out of my office.
'The people have been eager to see me? But why has that got him so worried?' I wondered, unable to figure it out.
<Master, it likely means->
'He must have been too overworked to worry about simple things as that,' I concluded. 'I guess I should give the guy a few days off.'
<...>
'Huh? Were you saying something, Ciel?'
<... No. It's just your imagination.>
Right, it must be. Even though it's been a long time since I last did it, I am very used to addressing large crowds of people. Just how hard could it be doing that again?
...
..
.
'DIABLO HAS TURNED THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION INTO CULTISTS!' I exclaimed, collapsing in my bed the next morning. 'At this rate, this nation would be named 'The Star Cult' instead of 'The Star Tempest!'' Even though I am not physically tired, it feels like my mind has been fried after 12 hours of torture. As soon as I arrived on site, the mass of excited people swarmed me like a beehive and started singing a song that killed me on the spot.
<But that was such a good song! It was full of master's praises and achievements and->
'It was just the gibberish Diablo says all the time with some rhyming!' Ugh, I can't even recall one of its lines without dying of cringe. Anyway, that was just the beginning. After that, I had to sit there like a statue and shake hands personally with every. single. person., all the while hearing their version of 'I am blessed to have met such a wonderful person as you and I will forever be grateful to you and... ugh.' I am dead.
<Poor master, here let me sing a little song to console you~>
'NO! Please! Stop! Help!'
<It was a joke... Hehe.>
'It seems you enjoyed my suffering quite a bit.'
<Whatever do you mean~>
'Anyways, I-'
Suddenly, my head felt as if it had been bashed against a rock, only the pain was a lot less.
'What was that?'
Next, my arm felt like it had been bitten by a mosquito. Haven't felt one of those since I was reborn as a slime. But more importantly-
'What in the hell is happening?'
<Master, this is one of the side effects of your devil fruit.>
My devil fruit? I know it is a very special kind of fruit that lets me borrow the powers of my subordinates depending on their loyalty towards me. It also has some other very useful effects but this is the first time I am seeing a negative.
'Ciel, please explain it to me.'
<Mythical zoan paramecia human-human fruit, Model: Demon King Dashanan. This fruit has characteristics of both a zoan as well as a paramecia fruit. Since the Demon Dashanan had 10 heads, the user of this fruit can use up to 10 devil fruit powers at once. The user can register to use anyone's devil fruit power as long as the person has immense loyalty towards him, but it also has a side effect. That is, whenever the person whose power is borrowed ever gets hurt, a tiny portion of that pain is also felt by the user. That's what's causing master to feel pain right now.>
'Is that so? Then, why didn't I feel anything during the marineford war?'
<That's because none of master's subordinates got hurt significantly enough in that war for master to feel pain.>
'I see. In other words- Ah'
Suddenly, it felt like I was standing outside in peak summer with the midday sun shining right above my head.
'This is starting to get annoying.' More importantly, who is it that's facing such an intense battle? Judging by the intense heat I felt the fight must involve fire. Is it Guy fighting against Ace? Did Ace already grow strong enough to give Guy such trouble? Or did our spy team encounter an issue in their mission? Or is it-'
<Master, if you concentrate hard enough you will get the answer.>
'I see, then.'
I closed my eyes. My devil fruit... if it can make me feel the pain of my subordinates then does that mean our souls are somehow linked with each other? Then what I should do is try to focus on my soul and find those links. Let's see... right, I can feel it. The links. Now, going by the weakest one among them... found it.
'Ciel, what's Leon's cell again?' I asked while hurriedly picking up a transponder snail. 'It seems Milim is in trouble.'
Author's note: I am back. And I must say, I didn't expect that many of you to still want to continue this story. Alright then, I am gonna regularly post chapters from now on of this story along with Ancient Gods. I can't fix a schedule yet but I will at least be posting one chapter per week, or more if I am free.
Do share your opinion in the comment section and upvote if you liked this. And don't forget to join my discord if you want to talk to me and fellow writers and readers. Link is in my profile. Thx for reading.