WE HAVE DISCORDS! JOIN THEM, NOW!
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Aoki's POV
Kokobu finally awoke, looking a great deal dazed. As if the entire world was spinning.
The reason I say that is because as she stood up, she actually did start spinning before falling over again.
It was a pitiful display for my first subordinate, but I hid my disappointment. "Kokobu."
"Princess..." She sat down on the couch again and stared at me carefully. "What did you do exactly?"
"I..." I considered telling the truth or lying. Both could serve my ends in different ways. It was a moment of indecision. "I accidentally put you to sleep when practicing spells."
"Are you sure?... I gained a new skill. It's quite... Unique."
"Interesting." That explained why she had not gained much magical power, it was all funneled into the skill. I was curious what the skill entailed, and I had wanted to figure out how to figure it out... the same way Father could.
I stared intensely and tried to use Magic Sense to pry into her spirit... I was given some resistance but ultimately was rewarded with establishing a small magical gateway into the spirit that I could open from my own.
It allowed me to see the skill was called [Servant], but nothing more.
"Princess... Did you just establish a Spiritual Magic Circuit with me?"
"Maybe?" I wasn't entirely sure, since I'd gotten none of that voice that sounded like Father. The Voice of the World.
"Ah... Perhaps you are unaware. It is a spiritual connection which you can establish things like Telepathy-Net with. Lord Rimuru used to use them quite often." It brought into question why Mother would stop using them, considering Telepathy-Net sounded useful... Whatever it was.
It sounded like Thought Communication, but better.
"Why did Mother stop using them?"
"Only Lord Rimuru would know why." She began to do an odd gesture where she tapped her fingers together, in what I think is called being anxious. "Princess... The feeling I have right now, I haven't experienced it in a long time... But it was similar to when I was named by Lord Rimuru... And after Lord Rimuru evolved into a Demon Lord... I even gained a skill."
I felt that she was too close to figuring this out, but I couldn't do anything about it in the moment.
"Did you attempt to name me, Aoki?"
Saying my name made it sort of difficult to lie again, I even felt my entire body shake almost imperceptibly.
"I see..." The Goblin-kin noticed it though. "I... trust you didn't try to overpower Lord Rimuru's name?"
"No! I'd never try to go against Mother... Not like that. Names are... Special." Anything like that would be terrible... It would take away the power a monster is granted by their name, the part of them the name makes up.
Kokobu nodded, "Good. But, I still think Lord Rimuru should know what you did."
"You tell him. If I tell Mother, I will be punished!"
"If you think that is wise, I will hold my own thoughts." She was speaking differently now, and I noticed. That was annoying, as it changed the way I'd need to convince her of things.
"What should we do? Mother said he would not return all day..."
My Goblinkin smiled softly and decided to finally bring up something I'd remembered, but hadn't thought about. "I have some gifts for you if you'd like to see them."
For just a moment when she said it, I completely forgot to restrain my aura. So the table was sent careening toward the door, however...
Kokobu caught it with her own aura. It told me at least one of the skills she'd gotten from the new skill... I wanted to see more, but at that moment I just wanted my gifts. In particular, I wanted the magic book and the round stones...
I also considered eating one of the 'knives' as Kokobu referred to them, as they had an enchantment I hadn't seen before.
First though, I had to restrain my aura again... Mother had a better way of doing it, but I still hadn't figured it out.
So I invoked [Integrator] once more to consume my aura, or at least as much as I could.
"Please be more careful, Princess."
"Don't ever tell anyone that happened. It won't again." I was quick to come up with a solution, analyzing all my skills to find the perfect one for the job.
Once I was done, I created another chain of thoughts with Parallel Processing. It was a simple existence that would only focus on controlling my aura... It was acceptable for now, but I felt that lesser mind needed to be improved later.
I'd go back to that another time.
The worst part was the added drain of my magicules... I didn't like losing even a small amount every moment. It reduced the amount of time I could be apart from Rimuru from over six hundred years as it was before this extra mind, to just over five hundred.
"As you wish," Kokobu answered, then reached into the pouch strapped to her hip.
She chose to give me the book first.
"I know it may not be as useful to you as it is for other children, but I still think you will enjoy reading this. Or, if you want me to, I could read it to you."
"Why? I can read."
"It's just something that adults do for children. You might like it. But if you are going to read on your own, I believe having hands would make it easier. Lord Rimuru has complained about his natural form not being ideal for grabbing papers and other objects."
"Why not just analyze the contents after absorbing it?"
"Well... This book is the first gift you've received, isn't it? Does that have no value?"
"I would not destroy it in the process."
Kokobu let out a loud breath for some reason. She seemed upset, and with me too. I didn't do anything wrong, so this made no sense. The feeling was painful through our connection. I disliked it.
"Books aren't just for gaining knowledge. The process of reading is supposed to be fun."
"That doesn't make sense."
"It can be a way to spend time with and relate to others. Some books aren't even for learning. They are for... Communicating." Kokobu paused for a moment, "You should ask Lord Rimuru to read you a book when he isn't busy. I'm sure he would be happy to do that with you, Princess."
"I will ask." I was unsure if Mother would see value in such a thing, but if he did, perhaps it was valuable.
"Now," Kokobu stopped as she laid out the next gift, "You cannot use these to harm other people. I'm giving them to you so you can study the enchantment on them. In the past, the anti-magic effect was hard for even Lord Rimuru to learn. It wasn't until right before he became a Demon Lord that he gained and shared an understanding of it with everyone."
It was the set of knives that Kokobu chose to show me now, and I thought they looked 'nice' as they were as shiny as the metals I'd requested for my room.
Kokobu lifted the first knife, seeming to wish to explain it to me... When it felt like just for a moment, everything paused. Then continued.
I didn't understand what it was, but it was a feeling I got only from the Temporal Fluctuation Awareness, as all other feelings had stopped for a moment. "Kokobu. Stop. Did you feel that?"
"Feel what, Princess?"
If she didn't notice it, I'd need to ask Mother about it. "It was just my imagination." I came up with a lie that felt more effective than others.
I pulled the knife Kokobu was holding into my Aoki Space and immediately started working on analyzing it. Kokobu seemed surprised when it left her hand.
"Did you–?"
"I took it."
"Um... next I have these for you. You can grow any sort of plant you want in them. I can take you shopping for seeds later if you want and you can pick the ones you like the best."
"Cups for plants?"
"Uh... yes, but they are called pots."
"They have 26 enchantments."
"Yes, they do. They can supposedly formulate nutrients needed for what is planted in them to grow. I don't think it will do anything until you fill them, though."
I almost absorbed one of them to analyze, but decided that watching the effect work on a plant first would give me a better understanding.
"I have one more thing for you." Kokobu pulled out some small bags and sat them on the floor nearby. I hopped out of my chair and took human shape, then untied one bag to get to the contents of it.
"Stones with magicules..." I opened a second bag. "In different arrangements."
"They are little magical cores used for powering some things. Some have elements too."
I immediately wondered what they tasted like. There were so many different colors here, each little bag having different ones. Different colored things usually tasted different too, and these looked remarkably like candies, which Mother let me try once. Are they the same thing?
I placed one in my mouth, and disappointingly, it did not taste like candy. Candies are sweet, but these stones just tasted like the magicules stored inside them mixed with minerals. I bit down on the stone in my mouth and it shattered. That made the taste stronger. I liked it. I would have to ask Mother if he's tried these before.
"I knew you would want to eat them, that's why I bought you so many. Just don't eat all of them since I want you to use them to learn how to convert magicules between forms, to use them more efficiently."
"How did you know?"
"Lord Rimuru enjoys the taste of them... I still remember when he asked for an entire tray to snack on."
"Mother was hiding the good snacks from me?" I felt a momentary frustration at that. I would make sure to have some whenever Mother asked for them again. "You will bring me good snacks. The ones Mother likes the most."
"Right now?"
"No. When I ask for food."
"Ah, I see. Don't worry, Princess, I will make sure to do that."
Rimuru's POV
I let out a long sigh.
"What just happened, Lord Rimuru?" Benimaru gave me a sidelong glance across the impromptu dinner table. We'd gone to a cheap restaurant since I was using my own funds for the celebrations to come.
They'd annoyingly tried to give me free food, and I had to vehemently refuse.
That is beside the point though. Time was just stopped... No. That's not quite right. Suspend World was invoked. Only a few beings could be aware of it, and I was one of them.
Then, on top of that... There were only two (still living) beings who could invoke Suspend World, the highest tier of time stopping magic, and I was similarly one of them. The other was my sister.
Finally, to kick it all into overkill, Suspend World was invoked for twenty-five minutes. I didn't notice anything suspicious, so I didn't check... But after so long, I definitely needed to contact Velzard.
{{Hey, Velzard... everything alright over in the Frozen Continent right now?}}
{{Nothing to concern yourself with occurred. Did something worry you, baby brother?}}
I thought she was gonna stop calling me 'baby' brother...
{{I thought we agreed that we'd only invoke Suspend World... You know... When we both agree? Or in world-risking emergencies, and I haven't sensed anything on that scale.}}
{{The conversation I had needed to be kept private.}}
{{Private from every soul?}}
{{Yes.}}
I didn't dare try to pry into what she had talked about, just asking would be a huge risk, but at the same time, I was curious about who she was speaking to.
{{Was my older sister having a 'grown-up' conversation with a certain red-haired demon?}}
{{Did you dare to spy on me, Rimuru Tempest?}}
Damn, I hit a huge nerve! Velzard had whipped out my full name and everything, and her tone almost made me want to turn inside out. It was so scary.
{{Nononono, that was just a guess, I swear!}}
It almost felt like she was giggling with how long she paused. {{You need to be more careful with your words then, Little Brother.}}
My face immediately turned a deep shade of red.
{{If it is not rude for me to ask, can I know what you were speaking about with Guy?}}
{{You will find out soon enough yourself. I've never found you the impatient type. Right, Little Brother?}}
There was that tone she always used on Veldora, and I wasn't particularly pleased to have her use it on me too. It would've been a bone-chilling experience if I had bones.
{{Of course... I'd never...}} I felt my soul ready to move on to the next life, and a concerted effort by Ciel happened to forcefully calm me down in that moment.
I decided I needed to end the conversation at that, for my own health. {{Thank you for answering my call, Big Sis... I will explain it to anyone who asks... You can go relax.}}
{{Thank you, Rimuru.}} The thoughts were cut at that moment, just to immediately be replaced by Veldora screaming in my mind. Velgrynd was already contacting me too, so I pulled them into a three-person 'call.'
{{Rimuru! You answer me right now!}} Velgrynd yelled desperately into my mind.
{{What is going on Rimuru!?}} Veldora yelled too, more scared than Velgrynd, but trying to hide that fear.
{{Sorry, Velgrynd, sorry. Veldora too.}}
{{Why did you use Suspend World!?}} Velgrynd's tone was agitated and accusing.
I immediately decided that I needed to lie to her and Veldora for their own safety.
{{I was just testing something. Nothing to worry about, okay?}}
{{Kwahaha, why didn't you just tell me earlier, Rimuru!?}} Veldora seemed more amused than anything now. I could sense him leaving the 'call', probably to flee from Velgrynd, who still felt angry to me.
{{You are certain nothing is wrong? That skill... It's for emergencies, is it not? Did Velzard agree to this?}}
{{Yes, she did. I was talking with her right before I started with you.}}
{{Warn me next time, you had me worried. Rudra too.}}
{{Sorry for that. I won't be doing it again anytime soon, and I'll try to notify you ahead of time when I do.}}
{{I trust you Rimuru, but that was a little too much.}}
I sighed softly, I'd been ignoring Benimaru. {{I promise. I'm really sorry.}}
It did actually hurt a lot to lie in any way to either of them, with the connection we had with the soul corridor, but I'd learned to mask it.
"Sorry about that, Benimaru. Someone stopped time. Nothing to worry about."
"Very well."
Ciel, do you have any idea what Velzard talked about with Guy?
[[Yes.]]
And...?
[[Need I paraphrase your sister? You will find out soon.]]
Come on, Ciel... I–
[[It isn't your place to ask. This is a topic only a woman would understand, as you'd say.]]
You are pure evil.
[[Fufufu.]]
...
Getting home after that was honestly pretty difficult, just cause I needed to avoid any press following my 'public visit' to a fast food restaurant. The moment I walked out of the restaurant, I was swamped by reporters. It'd have been rude to just leave immediately at that point. It held me up for longer than I would've liked. Benimaru somehow slipped away in the midst of it all too, leaving me to face it all on my own. That traitor.
I needed to see Aoki and make sure Kokobu was alright. Even after the scare with Velzard, that was my biggest concern, luckily.
After finally escaping the press mob, I teleported to the hallway right outside of Aoki's room and knocked. Kokobu opened the door, but Aoki shot past her before she could greet me and latched onto my leg.
"I see you missed me..." I couldn't help but smile at my daughter clinging to me, "How was she?" I turned my attention to Kokobu, who was still bowing to me.
"Welcome back, Lord Rimuru..." I didn't like the unusually long pause in her words. "Would you like me to report what happened?"
"Hm." I considered whether or not for a moment I wanted to deal with the topic.
I watched as the Goblinkin in front of me appeared to get worried, standing somewhat quickly and almost tumbling over.
Ultimately I decided that I had good reason to say yes if she seemed so unsettled. "Go ahead, I'm curious enough." I didn't want to make it seem too urgent, otherwise she may not be entirely honest.
"The princess decided to experiment with Naming... she didn't hurt herself doing it, but I know you still need to be informed."
I didn't immediately realize what she meant. "Who did Aoki attempt to name? She didn't wander off, did she?"
"Neither of us has left this room in the time you were away."
"Oh."
I took a closer look at both of them and finally noticed what should've been obvious to me. A connection very similar to one gotten through naming, but not overriding the existing one I shared with Kokobu myself. I didn't even know that co-naming like this was a thing.
I suppose naming monsters collectively is a possibility, like what had given Guy his name, but this case wasn't the same as that.
Aoki's eyes were noticeably averted from mine as I stared down at the little girl wrapped around my right leg.
"You are much too young to be naming monsters, Aoki. I, at least, waited until I was three months old." It sounded dumber after I mentioned that latter detail.
"I am... It is Mother's fault."
"And how is this my fault, exactly?"
"Didn't know better. Mother should've explained."
I had been planning on explaining Naming to Aoki when it came time for Benimaru's children to be Named. I guess, her being my daughter and all, should've made me think she might recklessly do it before then, though.
"Did she ask you before doing it?" I asked Kokobu.
"No, I had no warning, Lord Rimuru."
"Mind if I check your soul for damage?" I needed to ask since analyzing that deeply is a violation of privacy. I didn't normally do it without the subject's permission when they were an ally.
Kokobu nodded mutely, and Ciel and I went to work. The woman stiffened a bit as I pried with my skills, but she didn't seem particularly uncomfortable.
I could see that her magicules were still in the process of sorting themselves out, and had grown a bit since I last saw her. Kokobu would need some rest to help with that. But, overall, things were fine with her.
What was most notable was a new skill; a Unique-level one, called [Servant]. The name of it was... well, honestly embarrassing. The Voice of the World can be a cruel thing sometimes. I mean, that jerk had stapled the word 'Predator' onto me just because I was complaining about dying a virgin, so I had a history with it being quite rude with skill names.
"You seem fine, Kokobu. Go get some rest, being Named can knock you off your feet for a while."
"Yes, but that already happened, so I shouldn't need more rest."
All I had to do was raise an eyebrow at her to immediately shut down that protestation. If she had already passed out from what Aoki did, then she needed rest even more than I first thought.
"If you wish, Your Majesty." Kokobu quickly backtracked.
I internally sighed at the formality but didn't complain about it as the woman bowed again and left, leaving just me and Aoki in the room. She still hadn't let go of my leg even a little.
"I think I'll ask Shuna to give you more lessons, since you don't seem to respect people's boundaries, Aoki. What you did to Kokobu was not okay."
"No."
"It's not an offer, it's an order. I'm sure Shuna would be happy to spend more time with you. Now let go of my leg."
"I improved that Goblinkin, why are you mad?"
"It's rude to do anything like that without asking." I paused and considered what would be the best punishment for a moment, then concluded on something simple. "Tomorrow, after your lessons, you will be working for Ramiris."
"Who?"
"She's a Demon Lord, just like me. One that's in charge of the Labyrinth that you've been training with Hinata in. I think she would appreciate someone giving her a hand."
"I don't want to give her my hand! It's mine!"
I had to stop myself from laughing at her cute little misunderstanding. This was 'serious time' and laughing would ruin that.
"I mean you will help her with her job, just for the day. That's all."
Aoki still protectively held her own hands to her chest regardless.
I just picked the little girl up and sat down on the couch in her room with Aoki on my lap. Watching a movie with Aoki sounded like a nice way to end my day, and I didn't have any more urgent work waiting for me right then. Spending some quality time with my daughter was important; her punishment for what she did to Kokobu could wait until tomorrow.
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