(Rimuru POV)
With the number of people here, I felt that introductions were needed, but they had to be pretty short. So I had Shuna do it.
From Tempest, we had basically my entire cabinet. By now, it'd actually grown to a rather fair size, what with the addition of Diablo, my new secretary, Althea, the commander of Risa's new White Force, and Gabil, who I'd just made official. I had each of them talk about themselves a bit, then we moved on.
Then, we had Treyni to represent the greater Forest of Jura, which surprised Erald from Thalion, but he was a politician, so he barely let it show on his face at all.
The Beast Kingdom of Eurazania was represented by the three Lycanthropeers.
King Gazel himself was representing the Armed Nation of Dwargon.
Even though he wasn't exactly the reigning monarch or anything, Fuze had intimate connections to the highest echelons of Blummund's government, giving him ample authority to be here and provide some sort of input on behalf of Blummund.
Then, we had the Sorcerous Dynasty of Thalion, represented by their Archduke, Erald. My first impression of him was a sharp, distinguished elf at the head of a country on par with Dwargon, capable of taking on the entire Council of the West at once if necessary. My second impression of him was that he was entirely powerless against his beloved daughter, Elen.
Still, though, Thalion was an X-factor with zero formal ties to Tempest. He seemed to have a pretty good rapport with King Gazel, based on the way they'd both yelled at me about the whole 'Veldora' thing together, though.
And finally, we had the representatives from the new country of New Farminus. That included the king, Edgar, his closest advisor, Luka, and the new, Risa-appointed Church envoy, a girl named Flora, who'd apparently been brought up in a Church-run orphanage. Apparently, Risa'd also partially resurrected the old Farmus's two greatest champions, Folgen and Razen, as dirt golems who were now bound to Farmus soil, so they weren't here, but Yohm and Mjurran were, and Yohm was going to be the leader of Farmus's budding new knight corps eventually, so he at least had a bit of the right to be here with them.
…
Our conflict with Clayman was an internal affair. We could put that off for the time being. Besides, we kinda needed to hold a summit like this pretty soon, anyways. I'd hoped to wait until after we'd dealt with Clayman, but it wasn't like what we needed to talk about was gonna change whether or not Clayman was still on the board.
I started off with a recap of what'd led us here. Everyone in Tempest was fully aware of my origins as an otherworlder, and I didn't really care who knew at this point. I'd be rather surprised if Gazel and Fuze didn't already know by now, anyways.
First, I explained how I'd been reborn and met Risa, dropping her origins along the way. Then how we'd met Veldora, the goblins and the direwolves, begun building the little town.
Then, I went on to explain our meeting with the ogres, which led to the whole Orc Lord thing, though I didn't mention the fact that Geld Senior had evolved into the Orc Disaster. It didn't matter at this point. The important thing was what'd followed. The Orcs settling in Tempest, beginning a major turning point in Tempest's history.
After that, I went on to talk about Milim's visit, the whole 'Tamed Monster Brigade' thing, and the Charybdis incident. For the sake of the others' trust in Tempest, I even explained the truth behind what I'd done with Charybdis afterwards, and how I'd chosen to wait for my Demon Lord evolution before eating it. Though, I'd expected my evolution to take decades, maybe even centuries. Not a few months.
That story went straight into our travels in Englesia, though I did a lot of glossing over everything that'd happened there. Risa went into a bit more detail, especially about her interactions with Yuuki and the bogus quests he'd sent her on as an A-rank adventurer. Apparently, over the last six months, she'd fought twenty Arch-Demons, three Arch-Dragons, and a whole slew of other Hazard or Calamity-class monsters.
Fuze was the one to interject there. "That's impossible! Arch-Demons are country-destroying calamities. If there were really that many of them out there, the entire West would be a pile of smoldering flames by now!"
There were hordes of demons who did tend to appear in the North, Guy Crimson's forces that tended to go around dealing devastation at their own whims, but even among them, Arch-Demons were impressively rare. It was mainly greater demons.
"Yup." Risa simply replied from Veldora's lap, popping the 'P' with nonexistent lips.
"We'll get to that later, Fuzie. But you're right. The chances of running into that many Arch-Demons, even if you're actively looking for them, is pretty much zilch." I assured him.
Skipping over the whole 'Yuuki repeatedly trying to kill Risa' thing, I went on to talk about my own battle with Hinata. Unsurprisingly, Fuze had an opinion on her, too. She was apparently a shining beacon of a perfect Luminist. Always willing to help someone in need.
"Maybe so, but she didn't listen to me at all. No matter how much I explained things, it felt like talking to a brick wall." Even though she was clearly being manipulated, it still pissed me off that she didn't seem to even bother processing a single word I said.
"Well, that's 'cause one of Luminism's core tenants is not bargaining with monsters. We're taught that they're the enemy, no exceptions." Flora from Blummund explained.
"Yes, Hinata has a reputation for being unwavering and pragmatic. She likely considered everything that you could possibly say to be a lie." Erald agreed.
I nodded. Unlike Risa, I'd decided to be in my human form for this summit, since it made some things easier. "Yeah, I noticed. It felt like I was fighting a machine." During our three days in the Sealed Cave, Risa and I had been working overtime running Parallel Thoughts, figuring as much of this out as we could. Most everything they were saying followed her speculations pretty closely, though we hadn't known about the whole 'no bargaining with monsters' thing.
I shrugged, "If she's really the model guardian of law and order that you guys have heard, then everything should work out fine. The Western Holy Church and I should be able to work things out peacefully."
"Hopefully." Risa added for me.
"Hopefully." I parrotted. Risa was right. There was a small chance that I'd end up having to fight Hinata again in the near future. I'd decimate her in such a fight, now, but still, I didn't want that. It all depended on how the dice fell. After all, the one who'd manipulated her was Yuuki, who'd known her for years, and I didn't have any clue how deep his influence ran.