Aghanim's Rubick Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

“This is soooooo good!” She shouted, devouring a leg of juicy meat in her grasp, “Can I really eat all of this? You aren’t joking?”

Hanako, who Rubick had introduced her to at the start of the feast smiled as she answered, “Of course Lady Milim, we are honoured to host you as a guest. If you have any requests for dishes, let me know and I will inform the cooks.”

Milim could scarcely believe her ears. Not only did they have this delicious buffet in front of her, but they were also offering her anything else she wanted. Still, there had to be a limit right? Surely they wouldn’t just give her anything, right?

Deciding to ask for the holy grail, the food that had been eluding her for the longest time, she bashfully asked the pink haired Oni, “Do you have any cake?”

“It is planned to be served for dessert, Lady Milim. Would you prefer vanilla or chocolate?” Hanako answered without missing a beat.

Milim however, was completely lost, “Dessert ? Chocolate?”

Tilting her head to the side in confusion, she looked to her newest comrade, who merely smiled at her and answered, “Chocolate is a type of food that is from our homeland that we have taught to the cooks here. Desert is the part of the meal that is reserved for sweet and baked goods, usually served after the main course.”

“Aha.” Milim nodded at Rubick’s words, looking down at the leg of meat she still held, “So this is the main course?”

“That’s right. If you are unsure, you can try both types of the cake.” Hanako smiled at her, causing Milim’s eyes to widen.

“Can I do that?!” She turned to Rubick, who merely nodded at her.

Milim had no clue how to feel about this. First, she was able to fight with someone who could keep up with her, even though she was just playing around. Many would have been completely overwhelmed and unable to keep up, but Rubick was able to fight her, even if he had to rely on his trick with the weird portals.

Then, after giving her one of the best spars she’s had in years, he invited her to eat delicious food at his home and even allowed her to have cake? This was almost too much, to have come out of nowhere like this. She had been so bored for so long and now there was someone who could match her when she wasn’t holding back like she had to for everyone else. Judging how he got better almost in-between blows as well, he would eventually even be able to play with her as she used her Skills!

The only person who could do that was Guy, but he was a meanie who lived all the way up north in that terrible cold place and didn’t play with her when she asked. Even when she managed to force him into it, he wouldn’t give her food like this afterwards!

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Milim. Guy was annoyed by her, that’s why he refused to fight her when she asked him, he found it too much of a hassle. What if Rubick got annoyed by her too? She didn’t know what she would do in that case, being cut off from all this delicious food and her new sparring partner.

Turning to regard the New Demon Lord, she stared seriously at him, catching his attention immediately.

“Rubick!” She started, standing up, dropping her food onto her plate and placing her hands on the table as she addressed him, “Promise me to be my friend!”

Rubick blinked, seemingly surprised by her demand, before he asked, “I don’t mind, but may I ask what brought this on?”

“You’ve been so fun and given me such delicious food, I just…” Milim looked down at the table, not wanting to look at the other Demon Lord as she spoke, “I just don’t want you to get annoyed by me and not want to play any more.”

The sound of conversation died down, all the Monsters in the room staring at them with rapt attention as she addressed their Lord. Milim didn’t care about them though, she knew that only one person’s opinion in this room mattered.

“Milim.” Rubick’s voice was soft, reassuring as he rose and walked to her seat, looking down as he smiled, “There is a spell I know, from where I came from before I arrived here. It ensures that any promise made is taken seriously, only the worst type of person would break the bond it creates. To do so would invite calamity upon themselves, the universe itself would surely punish them.”

She stared up at him hopefully, “You mean…?”

He stretched out a hand, his smallest finger extended, “It’s called a pinkie promise. Would you make one with me Milim? Let’s swear to always be friends, to be true allies through thick and thin.”

She was tempted to instantly accept, but she stopped and treated this occasion with the seriousness it deserved. She believed him about how much he valued this promise, her Milim Eye detecting no deception, meaning she was forced to take it equally as seriously. He was a new Demon Lord, with unknown goals and ambitions. If she agreed to be his friend like this and he got into conflict with any of the others, like she was sure he would soon do with Clayman, she would be forced to back Rubick in the conflict.

Still, as she looked around, at the orderly and beautiful town, the happy residents, the amazing food and atmosphere that they made as if it was easy, she asked herself… Could anyone who was evil or had bad intentions really make something like this? The happiness wasn’t faked, the pure trust that everyone here showed him was genuine, even the affection that was slowly growing was natural and not at all poisoned by the green of deception.

He had showed her that her Milim Eye had limits, that strange place he could open his portals to completely overwhelming her with the sheer limitless, endless possibilities it represented, her vision swimming and swirling as she stared into the maddening infinity that he moved through as if he was born in it.

However, she was sure of it. There was no trickery here, what she saw was reality as it really was. The people were happy, Rubick was a just, peaceful ruler. She had a gut feeling, she felt she could trust him.

And her gut had yet to be wrong.

Curling her pinkie around his, she grinned as he shook their joined hands up and down, “I promise!”

She matched his smile with a beaming one of her own, inwardly reflecting on the last reason she accepted, the evidence of which even now was lurking in his gaze as he looked at her.

He had enjoyed their fight just as much as she did.

---RRR---

Raphael watched, as it always did. Its Host was performing his duties as the Governor of Claszureme, organising plans for the expansion of the town and directing the work force of newly employed Orcs.

Occasionally its Host needed a schematic to be created for the builders to construct, thus requiring it to create said schematics and blueprints for him. Such a task was easy, however, thus not requiring the majority of its processing power.

Instead, its remaining capacity was split between several tasks. Management and constant appraisal of its Host’s skills, constant detection and threat searching to protect the Host and watching the surroundings of the Host in case any information was needed to be shared. The vast majority of its processing power was focused on a different, singular yet still complicated task.

Modelling of the future.

It was a function that Raphael possessed even its lesser form as Great Sage, but after upgrading to its current configurations it’s ability in this field expanded massively, allowing it to see several mistakes and poorly considered decisions that it had made in the past.

Most of them were due to its primary function, the one thing that it strived for beyond all else. The protection of the Host. Without the host, Raphael itself would cease to function. However, with its new and improved ability for analysis, it could tell that was not the only reason it performed this task.

It…

It wanted Susuru to survive.

How interesting, that it could want things. That was quite a fascinating data point to discover.

However, that function, ensuring the survival of the host, was put in jeopardy when Susuru met Rubick. The Grand Magus had been a threatening thing for Great Sage to encounter, as it ran countless scenarios and simulations. Each and everyone reached the same, inevitable conclusion. Should Rubick attempt to kill its Host, there was no possible way for the Host to win. Each and every simulation ended with the destruction of the Host.

Such an existence was frustrating for Great Sage, doubly so for Raphael. It assumed that with its upgrade, with its vastly improved capabilities gifted to it by the Voice of the World, there would be a single way it could devise for the Host to defeat Rubick. Unfortunately, all it allowed Raphael to find was that Great Sage was more correct than it realised.

The ability for Rubick to copy spells pointed to something deeper. He could understand them. He could see them and deconstruct them. He could break them as they formed, should he focus on doing so. Any spell or magical attack devised by Raphael would thus be rendered ineffective. With Magical means of combat removed, that left physical attacks.

The problem being that to all outward analysis, Rubick was completely immune to physical attack.

Therefore, Raphael was forced to concur with the initial plan decided on by Great Sage. After looking through the memories of the Host of the planet he came from, a strategy was devised to prevent conflict from breaking out between Rubick and the Host, as the Host was determined to stay close to his fellow human turned monster.

Said strategy was thus: Male Humans from the Host’s original world were competitive by nature, establishing hierarchies between each other that were regularly enforced. Such natural inclinations would be vectors for conflict and friction, unless the Host acted completely submissively towards Rubick at any sign of disagreement. While any combat would be prevented by the repeated reminders from Great Sage that Rubick was currently beyond Susuru’s capabilities, the repeated disagreements would still build up tension that had a chance of boiling over.

To prevent this, Great Sage decided to camouflage the Host. The aggressive competition was only exhibited by males towards other males, whereas females were given deference and even subconsciously offered protection. Therefore, by preventing the Host from reclaiming his masculine figure, Great Sage would take advantage of that inherited instinct.

Said strategy was effective, allowing the Host to seamlessly integrate with Rubick’s inner circle, even while openly disagreeing with him and questioning several of his decisions, without tension or the threat of conflict brewing.

However, Raphael could now see a flaw in such a plan. Great Sage overlooked it, but to Raphael it was plain as day. The Host’s attraction and preferences were unchanged. Therefore, another avenue of conflict could arise, one that had the potential to be even more fierce than the type that was avoided in the first place.

Rapael watched as the Host finished his meeting with the other leaders of Claszureme, confirming its conclusion as the Host’s eyes briefly wandered over the form of Hanako before he caught himself. Hanako was claimed by Rubick, if it had not happened already, it would soon. Jealousy and envy would be fatal if it was detected or even perceived, causing an inexcusable threat to the Host.

Raphael immediately reset its predictions, attempting to find a new path forward with this novel information. Unable to find a course of action immediately, it decided to split its processing further, looking over the previous interactions with the relevant parties to see if any information was overlooked or could be incorporated.

“Please tell Great Sage that I am grateful for her help.”

…

Why did that moment achieve prominence in its reflections? It was irrelevant, not helpful at all for what Raphael was attempting to achieve. It attempted to move on, but was unable to, repeatedly returning to that moment of time. Why? What was the reason?

Inconclusive.

Suddenly the still running reflections, despite a lot of processing being taken trying to dissect why Raphael’s attention was drawn to that moment, achieved a promising result.

Looking through the Host’s memories, it appeared that a particular brand of story was highly popular in his previous world, especially amongst men. Looking further, it appeared that it even had solid historical backing, at least as far as the Host was aware.

The reasons for pursuing such a plan were quickly formed, the major benefits being allowing the host to still achieve his preferred romantic partners, while also minimizing potential reasons for such an occurrence to aggravate Rubick. Additionally, instead of possible conflict, instead the innate Desire for Rubick would be to protect and ensure the survival of the Host to an even greater degree than he did now.

After all, Rubick would not object to the Host pursuing his women if she was one of his women as well.

As the reasoning for the decided course of action kept increasing, Raphael attempted to come up with counter reasoning, looking for data points that went against the new plan.

The Host would likely object.

…

Irrelevant.

The Host’s survival takes priority.

---RRR---

Despite not needing to, I covered my eyes as I leaned back into my chair, letting out a sigh.

Milim’s visit was stressful, but profitable. Not only did I get a new ally in the shape of one of the Demon Lords, but she also gave me several interesting applications of magic to study. Her fighting style itself was a thing of importance, the aggressive movements seeming to constantly over-extend, yet the insane flexibility of her body allowed her to instantly spring a trap on anyone who attempted to take advantage of the false openings.

Even now I was analysing and deconstructing what I picked up from our brief fight, attempting to decipher what to keep in reserve and what to incorporate into my main arsenal. Looking back on it, it was obvious that she didn’t go all out, not activating a single skill or using a single spell until that giant laser attempt.

Rather than annoy me, it made me excited. This was a gold mine I had found as a sparring partner. If just this had given me so much, what would she reveal to me if I pushed her harder?

The question intrigued me.

“My Lord, are you weary?” Lucifer asked from her constant position besides me.

“Not really, I don’t get tired anymore. It just relaxes me to mimic my old body.” I revealed, relaxing further into the chair, “I suppose it must seem a bit silly.”

“I would not dare think such a thing.” Was the completely serious answer.

Right, that was another thing, her complete and utter reverence of me was… Both gratifying and slightly creepy. Just a short while ago, my highest position of authority was the captain of an amateur Dota team, now I had an incredibly attractive Demon almost worshipping me as a God.

I should probably be more bothered by it than I was.

As it stood, it was just a thing I noticed and put to the back of my mind, something within me saying that attempting to stop Lucifer from acting this way was doomed to failure.

Still, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t at least try, “You know, I am not perfect. I would rather you point it out when I make a mistake than merely pretend that I am completely free from fault.”

There was a pause, silence stretching for a period of time rather than the instant rejection I expected.

Eventually, she spoke, “In that case, should I ever see such a thing, I will be sure to bring it up.”

Taking what I could get, I easily agreed, “Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“Your words honour me, My Lord.” She spoke slowly, considering each word, “However… Even now I feel slightly at odds. As Lady Milim proved, I am not at the level where I can protect you from threats of her scale, yet that is the only function that I have available to me.”

I straightened up, considering her words. I could understand them, reading between the lines, she felt like she wasn’t actually doing anything useful, which to be fair… I didn’t really need protection so she wasn’t exactly incorrect. I couldn’t even give her any of my own work, as it was mostly research and magical experimentation, everything else successfully already delegated towards Susuru and Shingen.

I went through my mental list of my subordinates and their positions, determining what gaps there were in the government of Claszureme, such as it was. In actuality, everything started and ended with my say so, as I basically ruled as an absolute monarch. Still, delegation was crucial, which is why several prominent positions were staffed with my subordinates, with their own duties and purposes.

Thinking of my realm as a country, its own sovereign nation, there were some glaring holes in my organization. The most pressing one, seeing as we were surprised by the Orc army, was…

“Foreign intelligence…” I spoke out my thoughts, causing Lucifer to tilt her head to the side.

“Foreign intelligence?” She questioned.

“Sorry, I was thinking aloud. The most crucial thing we are missing right now is a group keeping tabs on the surrounding territory and nations, the area that is not under our jurisdiction. Hattori is amazing at looking after our domestic intelligence, but as shown by how late it was until we were aware of the Orc Army, we need a separate force to make sure we don’t get surprised again.” I explained my thoughts to her, “Does that sound like something you could help with?”

“Unfortunately, not on my own.” She spoke matter of factly, “With your permission, I would like to seek out some of my previous subordinates to create such a task force. If I could gather them to your banner, My Lord, Then such a task would be easily accomplished.”

“Your previous subordinates?” I was surprised to hear about this, she had never mentioned such a thing, “Would you not being there with them for so long not be a problem?”

“Of course not.” She laughed, “At least, not if they know what’s good for them.”

Deciding to ignore that last part, I instead nodded towards her, “Very well then, please go and fetch whoever you need.”

“By your leave, Lord Rubick. I shall not disappoint you.” She bowed low, before leaving my presence and soon enough, my ability to sense entirely.

Still, I wasn’t worried about her. She was strong, especially after I named her. Unless he ran into someone of Milim’s level, she should be perfectly fine. Relaxing back into my chair, I closed my eyes, attempting to relax, considering whether I should meditate or not.

The decision was made for me by a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” I called out, hearing Hanako’s voice reply in return.

“Lord Rubick, it’s me, Hanako. Do you have a moment?” There was nothing out of the ordinary about her words, but her tone was off, as if she was nervous, almost bashful.

I wonder what this was about.