“Whoa!” I shouted, alarmed all the way back to sobriety. “That stuff’s poisonous to humans!”
Unfortunately, I was too late. Fritz already had some in his mouth. And his first reaction:
“Why, this… This is restoring my magical force!”
“Um, do you feel all right? Not sick or anything?”
A weaker being taking in large quantities of magic could have hazardous health effects. This blackspell rice was packed with magicules, which meant it was toxic to those with less-than-robust constitutions. Of course, it could also be a medicine in the right dosage—and like I said, potentially a dietary staple. Nobody in Tempest would have an issue with it, but I still hadn’t tested out what it did to humans. Finding test subjects wasn’t exactly easy.
Fritz’s reaction, however, was unexpected to me. I assumed it’d be harmful to Homo sapiens, but maybe it’s beneficial to you if you have enough magical force?
Understood. The subject Fritz’s magic power–recovery effect has been confirmed. Those with resistance to magicules seem to be able to convert them into energy.
Ah, I see. Maybe eating this now, after exhausting his magic in that huge fight, made it all the more effective.
The other paladins, seeing this, immediately clamored for tastes of their own. Having a few pints in you could be a dangerous thing sometimes; none were afraid of the side effects. So I agreed.
Hinata gave the blackspell rice a funny look, likely reacting the same way I did at first. But without further complaint, she sipped from the bowl of chazuke, consisting of the black rice with some tea poured on top of it. I also offered it in rice-ball form for those who wanted something a little heartier. Both selections were huge hits, and a second round was carried out to the party in very short order. Considering that I busted out my personal stash of white rice for this event, it was funny to see the blackspell rice be the toast of the night instead—but hey, if you aren’t conditioned to be turned off by the color like I was, it must’ve been much more acceptable.
So now I knew what this new breed of rice could do, and between that and all the other food and drink, I thought we were making a pretty good impression. I was starting to see monsters and paladins chatting with each other, taking advantage of the opportunity presented to them. Shion was even engaged in an impromptu arm-wrestling tournament with three of the paladins—dominating them, by the looks of it, but her opponents were all smiles regardless. I liked the trends I saw. Alcohol played no small role in it, perhaps, but if this became the natural flow of things, it wouldn’t be long before we’re all on friendly terms.
Good things to eat, enjoyable days to spend—that was my goal, and I wasn’t afraid to strive for it. If I have any job here, I suppose, it’s to make sure this sight doesn’t go extinct. It gave me new resolve.
Then:
“What are you doing, Rimuru?! Drink up, drink up! Let me fill your cup!”
“Yes, yes! You have the demon lord Luminus accompanying you! Let us enjoy this evening as much as we can!”
“Wh-whoa,” I said, “chill out, Veldora. Also, aren’t you a vampire, Luminus? Why are you eating and getting drunk and—?”
“Silence, you fool! Once you grow powerful enough, even a vampire can gain sustenance enough from regular food. Now hurry up and empty your mug!”
That wasn’t what I was getting at, but she was in no mood to listen. So there I was, two drunken louts on both sides of me, feeling that newfound resolve disappear from my mind.
“Guys! Hey!”
Before I could stop them, they were taking shots from the sake we brewed from the blackspell rice. “Slow it down, you two,” I thought I heard Hinata curtly whispering at them—she had a faint smile, though, so maybe the booze was giving me auditory hallucinations. She was kind of cute, actually, when she smiled—not that I was gonna tell her.
Morning came. God, my head hurt.
Understood. Of course it does. This is the backlash after deliberately weakening your resistances.
Thanks for the feedback, man. Raphael sounded a bit peeved, but I was sure I was imagining it. Nobody’s skills get mad at them.
I shook the mental cobwebs away. Today we had an important meeting to conduct—one that could decide how Tempest and the Holy Empire of Lubelius dealt with each other going forward.
I was now seated in our usual meeting hall, soldiering through my headache.
Honestly speaking, if things had turned out differently, we might’ve been fighting both Lubelius and the Western Nations affiliated with it. The Papacy had given the Temple Knights stationed in Farmus permission to act, and if worse came to worse, the casualties on our side would’ve been eye-popping. If you thought about it like that, we couldn’t afford to be too chill here.
On the other hand, though, I was done punishing Farmus. Not a single one of the Temple Knights who conspired against us was breathing today. We had a duty to govern over there, so I wasn’t exactly an impartial observer…but Hinata had already apologized to me, and the masterminds who schemed against us were already gone. If we could build friendly relations, we were golden. There wasn’t much point asking for reparations—we already had plenty of that from Clayman’s and Farmus’s coffers, and Farmus was physically far enough away from us that annexing it or making it into some kinda colony was too much of a pain. If the other side had admitted fault, money honestly wasn’t as important to me as working to build relations.
In time, Luminus and her people entered the hall.
Tempest was represented here by me, Shion, Rigurd, and Benimaru, along with Rugurd, Regurd, and Rogurd, the government ministers of justice, legislation, and administration, respectively. Veldora was there, too, but safely ignorable. He had some manga to read, and I doubted he’d even bother to pay attention.
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