"Ugh..."
"I really don't know how long I'll have to keep studying these books."
The mere mention of studying gave Kenya a headache.
This guy was a pure jock, through and through.
Academics were really not his strong suit.
"Don't worry, I'll tutor you, Kenya."
Ryota was a genius, a total academic overachiever.
He was the polar opposite of Kenya.
"Yeah, we can hold study sessions. No matter what, we can't fail!"
Gale was steady and kind, the team's peacemaker.
"Seriously, aiming just to pass? That's way too unambitious, isn't it?"
Alice was a bit sassy, the kind of girl every class has... great at fashion, the center of the girls' social circle, a real trendsetter.
As for Chloe...
"We can't let down Damien-nii's expectations!"
"So, let's do our best, Kenya-kun!"
The girl was quite reserved now, but Damien could see she was heading toward becoming a cool, aloof, long-haired beauty.
A Chloe like that would be perfect as class president or student council leader, keeping the team's troublemakers in line.
And so, Damien enrolled Shizu and the five children into the Monster Kingdom Academy.
To avoid conflicts with the other students, Damien designated a separate area for them and built a new academy.
The students there came from lycanthrope, star wovless, oni, and tengu... the most outstanding youths of their races.
Damien intended to train the five children into capable leaders.
To that end, he had them start bonding early.
Moreover, Damien didn't mind if the kids formed their own little clique.
As a vanguard unit exploring other worlds, having a solid team would better serve Damien by gathering intelligence from new realms.
As for loyalty...
Damien was never worried about that.
These were his subordinates, children he'd watched grow up. If he couldn't even manage that, he had no business being the supreme leader of the Monster Kingdom.
"Lord Damien~"
Five days after Damien's return from the Konosubaverse, Treyni appeared before him, reporting: "A large number of humans have appeared at the western edge of the forest."
"A scouting party?"
Damien knew this was Razen bringing those three otherworlders to his doorstep.
"Also..."
Treyni added, "The eastern forest, near the Eurazania, has been invaded as well."
"Hm?"
This caught Damien off guard. "People from the Eurazania?"
"Yes."
Treyni confirmed: "A group of 800, led by the Three Beastketeers under Carrion!"
"The Three Beastketeers?"
Damien recalled that they were Phobio the Black Leopard, Albis the Golden Serpent, and Suphia the White Tiger.
He had some impression of these three.
Especially Albis... not only was she the kind of fiery, mature woman Damien liked, but she was also the administrative talent he urgently needed.
As for Suphia, Damien was curious about the feel of her white tiger form.
"All three came together?"
"Yes."
Treyni said, "It seems Carrion takes the changes in the Jura Great Forest very seriously."
"What should I do, Lord Damien?"
"Let's assess their strength first."
Damien instructed, "Treyni, bring these two groups together."
Razen's group was at the westernmost edge of the Jura Great Forest, while the Three Beastketeers were at the easternmost.
They were separated by over a thousand kilometers.
Yet, with a single sentence, Damien tasked Treyni with arranging them in one place without anyone noticing.
The difficulty of this was beyond ordinary comprehension.
But!
Treyni was no ordinary person.
She was an True Demon Lord, the Celestial Spirit Queen who fully controlled the Jura Great Forest.
Though the groups were numerous, they were at best Demon Lord Seeds and Special A-rank fighters... utterly incapable of resisting her dominion.
"Right here."
Damien casually picked two nearby forests. "Put the humans in the smaller one, and the Lycanthrope in the one teeming with magical beasts."
"Not letting them meet and clash?"
Treyni was surprised, having assumed Damien wanted the two groups to fight directly.
"No, I don't have that in mind."
The enemies weren't strong enough to warrant such tactics... that would be too lame for Damien.
His method to test the Lycanthrope's strength wasn't to pit them against humans but to use the newly spawned magical beasts in the forest.
Damien held no ill will toward the Eurazania's people.
Setting Phobio aside for now, he genuinely appreciated Albis and Suphia.
However, given their loyalty to Carrion, subduing them through force was nearly impossible.
The only way was to take Carrion himself along with them.
That way, if their boss was his, they'd naturally have to work for him.
"Magical beasts, huh?"
Treyni said: "It's been a while since we cleared them out."
"More new hires coming?"
Suddenly, Rimuru's little head poked through the door.
She'd just returned from the Konosubaverse and overheard Damien's plans to recruit new employees.
"Yeah, helpers specially prepared for you."
"What kind of people?"
"Hm..."
Damien thought for a moment. "A snake lady, for one."
"How about it? Wanna go check it out?"
"Absolutely!"
Seeing Rimuru's interest, Damien turned to Treyni. "Go ahead and make the arrangements. When the time's right, Rimuru and I will head over."
"Understood."
"Hey, you're all back?"
Velzard's figure appeared behind Rimuru. "Why didn't you let me know?"
"We saw you were having so much fun, Velzard-nee."
"Fun? Where?"
Velzard grumbled: "The demons in this world nearly drove me up the wall!"
Sure, taming those idiots was kind of amusing.
But the two of them leaving her behind in that world without a word had startled Velzard... she thought something had gone wrong in the Cardinal World.
"Alright, since we're all back, let's relax a bit."
Damien beckoned the two women. "Come on, let's go see what the heroes of the Falmuth are made of."
***
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