Published at 29th of April 2019 5:30 pm

Chapter 261: Side chapter - Rimuru’s Elegant Escape Play - 12

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The night of the third day.

I had just enjoyed a long overdue and most satisfying meal, and was now soaking in a luxurious bath.

Marsha has used the magic cards I had given her and combined them to create a simple bathtub. She had also prepared the water and adjusted the heat.

“This really is so useful. The right combination and your imagination are all you need to perform complicated magic.”

“Heeey, where did you get those magic caaards?”

Aina asked as Marsha sighed in awe.

It wasn’t surprising that she would wonder about this.

It was such a convenient magical tool and you would not be able to find them anywhere, no matter how hard you looked. It had the kind of overpowered features that didn’t even exist in ancient Artifacts.

“About that. It was something that Master William received from an old friend. He let me use it as an experiment to test its abilities. He said it would be perfect for helping Satoru.”

“Hmm. I seeee… But, you learned to use them in just one day. Are they reeeeally so easy to use in spite of being so highly effective?”

“Exactly! There is no way that such complicated magic could be controlled by such cards! If I had to guess, there must be a degree of the procedure built-in already, and the Anagram works to activate the magic? But then again, that would be complicated as well…”

Not only Aina, but the other students were also very interested now.

And as was expected for elite students, they had a vague idea of how the cards worked.

It was both correct and yet, incorrect.

The part of achieving different effects through the rearranging of meaning was correct, but merely having the procedure built-in was not enough to be able to activate magic.

Instead of doing that, the words, which were the power itself, were integrated, ensuring that the procedures would not interfere with each other.

To put it simply, the words would rearrange themselves according to the user’s imagination, automatically creating the magic.

That was why it was necessary to select the card with the right meaning.

To be blunt, it was not possible with the current magic technology.

From my perspective, Marsha was a complete amateur, and so seeing how much use she could get out of it helped me understand the level within my troops that I could place it in.

Of course, it was all a state secret.

Well, I was keeping it hidden from everyone, so it was just my secret.

If word of this item got out, people would say, ‘We want it for our army!’ I could see it coming from a mile away.

I didn’t want people to have such high hopes when it wasn’t even finished. Besides, it would be troublesome if my carelessness allowed it to be discovered.

Also, if the decision was all left to me, then it would look like I am favoring some, so I would need a good reason for it.

I thought that I would just randomly pass it on to someone to experiment, but Marsha was not my subordinate and was the perfect specimen.

And in regards to keeping information secret, this island was the optimal test site.

The only thing left was to prevent the students from talking, but I could think of that later.

I wasn’t that serious about hiding it, and at worst, I would just need to hurry up and finish it. Then there would be no need to keep it a secret.

Currently, it was a magic item with no plans to be revealed to the world. But it was interesting seeing the reactions of the students.

Perhaps I should just distribute them around the academy and have it established as a new form of magic.

If I did that, the statuses of magic users would skyrocket, and so it will be necessary to have certain restrictions.

I thought of all of this as I soaked in the bath and listened to them talk.

“Buuuut, did you really receive it today and also understand how it wooorks?”

Marsha chuckled at Aina’s question.

And said,

“To be honest, there was a memo inside of the instruction manual. There were some examples for adjusting heat of hardening earth and gathering water. They were very detailed explanations.”

Marsha said as she scratched her cheek.

“I was quite surprised because it was the magic we needed in our situation.”

She said and then laughed.

“Whaat! So then Master William just told you about it quietly then!”

“That’s true. It would probably take days of research to discover the combinations!”

“Still, to think that he was helping you from the shadows like that. Master William is quite dashing, isn’t he?”

“Huh? But he’s so old…”

The students said.

I felt like their conversation was going a little off course.

And surely William wasn’t that old?

It was me who had prepared the memo. Of course, I had William write it, so it would like it was he who had secretly helped the students.

And of course, I was glad that they took the bait just as I had planned, but I wished that they were a little more grateful to William.

As for the memo, it goes without saying that I had it written because I wanted to take a bath.

It seemed unnatural for such instructions to be in the manual, so I had to think a little.

It all had to be natural. And so the memo was a good way of allowing Marsha to use the magic with ease.

And my efforts were well worth it, because I was able to take a bath after three days.

I did not want to bathe with the girls originally, but regardless of who I bathed with, I could not have my body seen, and so being able to cover myself with a towel was at least an advantage here.

“Still, if we had magic like this from the beginning, it makes our desperate attempt to get water on the first day look rather stupid.”

Marsha said with a laugh.

Whether it was making it rain and gathering it or creating ice and then melting it, preparing water with magic alone was quite difficult.

Of course, it was an inconvenience that nobles, who had magic tools for that very purpose, were unaware of.

Well, we were now able to collect water without such troubles. And so we were able to bathe like this.

As this was training, there were some girls who had brought soap for everyday use.

I borrowed some to wash my hair and felt very refreshed.

That was really a matter of feeling.

My body was now made like any other human, which meant sweat. Of course, if I could no longer stand it, I could just turn those features off.

But right now, I wanted to enjoy this life, and so I left them all on.

And because of it, I felt very good now.

Living like this once in a while was not bad at all.

And so, with Marsha and the others’ voices in the background, I continued to enjoy this long-overdue bath.

◇◇◇

I was able to get out of the bathtub without my identity being exposed.

But then again, I had declared to all that I was male, but it seemed like no one believed me.

People were never cautious of me and just entered my tent like it was nothing.

Was that alright? I wondered. But it was a little late for that.

There was a line of girls outside of the tent who had apparently heard rumors.

The tent was quite large, but could only house about ten people at once.

We had borrowed one of the large tents just for this.

And because of this, it looked like it would be a long time until all of the girls were finished.

And one other thing.

Being able to see the frustrated expression of Julius and the others was a very pleasant surprise.

This bath was made by Marsha, so no one could try and cut the line.

I would not allow such a thing.

It was prepared because I wanted to take a bath, so why should I allow anyone to go first?

That’s ridiculous! I am sure of it.

But this was a good day.

A dinner that was much more delicious than what those damned, snooty children of nobility were eating. And also the best possible bath under these circumstances.

I was able to fulfill these two strong desires of mine.

I was so full of satisfaction as I headed back to my tent.

Just then, my ‘Magic Detection’ felt a strong wave of magic.

It was detecting the presence of a monster that was coming towards this base, while brimming with tense emotion.

Was this emotion-appetite!?

[[I expected that this would happen. As you noticed yourself, the herbs that were mixed in Julius and the others’ food had something in it that stimulates the appetites of monsters. The effect of it is now starting to lure surrounding monsters here. ]]

I hadn’t noticed it actually. And so what?

No, I see… I remember feeling strangely irritated yesterday over being hungry. It must have been because of those herbs.

It had nothing to do with my own lack of patience.

That must be it.

There was no way that an adult like me could be so impatient. Yes, I thought it was very strange.

Wait, there are more pressing matters right now.

-Have the instructors noticed it?

[[It seems like a few of them have. They were specially selected, after all.]]

Hmm, then that’s fine.

I was relieved to see that they weren’t the useless types who would fail to be cautious.

Now then, if Julius and the other were mixing monster-luring herbs into the food…

What was their aim?

If anything, they were eating it, which meant they would be in the biggest danger…

-Could it be that Julius is being tricked into doing it?

[[I think that is highly likely. Julius has more wounds than on the first day. But I believe that this development was also unexpected for the culprit. It is the Poison Tiger, one of the strongest creatures on this island, that leads the pack of monsters. They probably wanted to be rid of Julius and that group in a natural-looking way. But they will only attract attention like this. No, not only that-it may even be hard to survive this if they hide the power that they must have. We may be able to find the culprit by watching this fight.]]

The Poison Tiger which prowled the southern poison jungle was great indeed.

It was not something that could be reasoned with, so you had no choice but to kill it.

But still, getting rid of Julius, huh?

While I wasn’t sure if the intention was to kill, I did not like the method at all.

Considering that it was mixed into the food, there must be a traitor.

This was clearly planned out, likely even before my own survival plan. In other words, I had been used.

That was terribly, unamusing to me.

Ciel already had her eye on a suspect, and she was probably 99% certain of it.

But could these culprits kill the Poison Tiger? It might be best to prepare just in case.

According to my own plans, none of the students were to be exposed to danger.

I would not allow this interference to cause any deaths.

-Do you think that all of the students will make it out safely?

[[It will be difficult if things continue like this.]]

I thought as much.

Well then, I must give them a little helping hand.

I walked away from my tent while drying my hair.

And like that, I pretended like was I taking a walk in order to cool off, and headed for a secluded spot.

Once I was sure that there were no students around me, I activated ‘Detection Block’ magic.

All sound was erased, and I was surrounded in silence.

“You’re here, aren’t you, Moss?”

I said into the darkness.

“Here, my Lord.”

As if in answer to my call, a figure appeared and bowed reverently towards me.

Moss was a Great Demon.

A Grand Duke of the demon world who stood above all of the Demon Lords.

And-while he was the lieutenant of Devil Lord Testarossa, at some point he had become Diablo’s errand runner.

Are you sure about this, Great Demon? I did wonder sometimes, but he had very useful abilities.

It was Testarossa’s fault, anyway.

She allowed Diablo to use her subordinates as he pleased.

But then again, I was also using Moss when it was convenient for me, so I couldn’t say too much…

Even now, he had immediately appeared after I called him, and paid homage to me.

But really, this guy was useful.

He was stronger than even the former Demon King, so even if he was a ‘clone,’ he was still stronger than the monsters on this island.

“I have a task for you.”

“That brings me the utmost pleasure.”

Whenever I ask him to do something, he always accepted it very happily.

Maybe I should buy him dinner sometime.

I think a barbecue would be good. No, I’ll think about that later.

“Hmm. Then let me ask you this, can you protect everyone from the monster that is coming towards us?”

“That will be the easiest thing. My Lord.”

“Good. Then do it. It would be best if there are no deaths. However, I would like for you to hide your presence as much as possible.”

“Haha, I understand. I shall protect them from the shadows then.”

Moss bowed once again and then vanished from my sight.

Now I could relax a little.

I returned to the others as if nothing had happened.

Oh, I forgot to invite him for a meal to show my gratitude.

I could ask Diablo to send him a message, but that seemed like too much trouble, so I should just tell him the next time we meet.

You should always thank people in person. And so I decided to show Moss my appreciation for this occasion.

Now, how will this play out?

I was sure that the worst possible scenario had now been avoided, so I might as well just lay back and watch.

Who was the culprit that had tricked Julius? And what was their aim?

And how capable were the instructors going to be in dealing with this danger? How strong were the students that Julius was leading?

Within this dangerous situation, everything would be revealed.

I would use it all to my advantage. That’s what I thought, as I smiled.

And then-

The first thing that echoed was the ferocious roar of the monster.

It was the signal of the very long night ahead of us.

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