"Anyways, while I was busy battling Hinata, Risa teleported to Tempest, which was being attacked by an advance force under the effects of that nasty Holy Field. Long story short, they killed 76 of ours, so Risa and I-"
"Eh-hem?" Althea cleared her throat at that.
"Mainly Risa, with my input, hatched a plan. She dealt with the culprits responsible for the deaths and used the souls she gathered to evolve her Tamed Monster Brigade into the White Force that purged all of Farmus's corrupt nobles, while she and her administrative team compiled evidence. Then, she used those nobles as a sacrifice to evolve, while I used the Farmus army to evolve myself." I summed up.
"Yes, and my daddy already knows that. That's why you're here, right? Because you found out that I told Rimuru how to become a Demon Lord in the first place."
"Actually, we already knew about it." Risa piped up to defend Elen, but Erald waved her off.
"That may be the case, Lady Risa, but my daughter didn't know that, and the other nations didn't need to know that she had a hand in what happened."
"I agree." I announced, "Here's the thing, while the story that I just told everyone's the truth…"
"We can't tell that to the rest of the world." Luka from New Farminus finished my thought, "It'd terrify the entire West."
"Yeah. Exactly." Gazel and Erald had already gone over this with me. They didn't like the fact that Risa's ascension had been so public, either. "So, here's what we're going to tell the rest of the world."
The story that I spun next went something like this.
Farmus attacked Tempest without even declaring war. In order to buy time, Risa led her Tamed Monster Brigade in a counterattack, and there was a terrible, bloody battle. Finally, Folgen and Razen teamed up together to battle Risa in a one-on-two while I stayed behind in Tempest, readying our own defenses.
Finally, they had her dead-to-rights, when it happened.
The energy and blood released by the battle woke Veldora from his near-dead slumber, and, seeing Risa, who he'd grown close to after watching for ten years, in such a dire strait enraged him. The Tamed Monster Brigade, led by the monsters who'd managed to evolve mid-battle, managed to (mostly) escape, but Veldora's wrath fell squarely upon the Farmus army, annihilating it from existence in order to protect Risa.
After that, with Veldora's blessing, Risa used the energy in the air to name the entire Brigade, creating the White Force, which she then utilized to descend onto Farmus, with the goal of eradicating the corruption within it and ensuring that this tragedy never happened again, and that Farmus's people had a bright future.
Finally, finishing with the story, I turned to Veldora. "Veldora, I wanna be sure. Are you okay with this? Because it places a lot of the blame squarely on your shoulders."
Veldora shrugged, turning the pages of the manga that Althea had somehow replaced Risa with during my story. "I have already made my decision. I fully back you, my sworn friend. If this is what you want, then I won't hesitate to shoulder this burden by your side, Rimuru."
"Thanks, buddy. You're the best."
"Yes, I agree with that story. You said earlier that Risa cooked it up, correct?" Gazel said. I nodded. "While we can't simply brush the deaths under the rug, we can blame the deaths of Farmus's army on the Storm Dragon here, who's already known as a master of destruction, a living catastrophe. We can also paint the White Purge, as they're calling it in Farmus, as the actions of an enraged Risa backed with an army powered by the Dragon's magicules."
"Still… We can't ignore the fact that Risa was the one who led the army on his behalf." Erald interjected his little bit of annoying logic into the whole situation. I bit my lip. He was right.
"No need to worry about that…" Luka sighed.
"What makes you say that?" Fuze asked him.
It was Edgar that clarified what Luka meant for everyone. "In case you're forgetting, every single now-dead former noble had all of their crimes exposed. Enough crimes, in fact, for each and every one of them, along with their subordinates to warrant the death penalty, or something close enough. The few without such made up less than five percent of the old Farmus's government. They're still with us, too."
"What does that have to do with the fact that Risa gave the order to slaughter tens of thousands of people?" Erald reminded him.
Luka rolled his eyes, "Everything. She did it for the good of Farmus."
"New Farminus, now." Flora reminded him.
"Whatever. Before that purge, Farmus was basically a dump, a collection of criminals living off of Dwargon's dregs." Luka continued.
"True." Gazel muttered, mostly to himself.
"But from selling off the junk that those criminals hoarded, New Farminus's treasury is literally full to bursting. Five thousand stellars worth of junk, based on latest predictions. And it's all going right back into the national budget. New Farminus essentially has no crime, a surplus of money, guaranteed protection from external threats, a surplus of jobs, and a solid idea of our future plans. Plus, after the Purge, we abolished the death penalty for the foreseeable future." Luka explained.
He wasn't wrong. Risa's White Force was capable of monitoring like ninety percent of Farmus in real-time, and teleporting anywhere within that. Their weakest link was C-ranked to boot, making them more than strong enough to deal with any random criminal without even needing to cause injury, much less kill.
On top of that, they had more than enough money in the national budget that, if they decided to do so, they could completely stop taking taxes for nearly a decade without a problem, though they weren't going to do that.
Instead, what they were going to do was lower taxes from the exorbitant amounts they'd been at and set them at something a lot more normal, while they set the foundation of the future.