The plains outside Rimuru City, once a vibrant green, now bore the scars of conflict. Broken siege engines lay like discarded toys, and the stench of burnt earth and lingering fear still hung in the air. We had won the first round, sending King Leo's mighty army into a humiliating retreat. But the silence that followed, though welcome, was more unsettling than any battle cry. It felt like the calm before a far greater storm.
I stood on the command tower, the cool evening breeze a stark contrast to the burning intensity of my thoughts. Miles and Asuna were with me, their faces etched with a shared understanding of the precarious peace we now held. "They'll be back," Miles stated, his voice low, mirroring my own conclusion. "But not with the same tactics."
"Indeed," Asuna agreed, his gaze fixed on the distant horizon. "They'll learn. And the King's mages… they won't be as easily repelled."
My mind, the Kakeru part of me, was already dissecting the enemy. King Leo would be enraged, his pride wounded. He wouldn't just send more soldiers; he'd send smarter ones, equipped to counter our perceived 'sorcery.' This meant mages. And it meant covert operations to understand our technology. The true battle, I knew, wouldn't just be fought on the walls; it would be fought in the shadows, a war of wits and secrets.
Far away, in his opulent throne room, King Leo Von Delgado raged. His first defeat at Rimuru City haunted his waking hours and filled his nights with restless fury.
"My Royal Mages have reviewed the reports," he bellowed, slamming a fist onto his ornate armrest. "They speak of an unknown energy, arcane in nature, powering those… those cannons! It's not traditional magic, but something alien, something beyond our comprehension!"
His Head Mage, a wizened old man named Grand Sorcerer Eldrin, bowed low, his face grim. "Your Majesty, our scouts report strange fluctuations in the mana around that region, growing stronger by the month. It's as if the very land is humming with a nascent power. Their defenses are… unprecedented. We believe they may have unearthed an ancient magical artifact, or perhaps… something that should not exist."
"Then find it!" the King roared. "Send in infiltrators! Spies! Discover the source of this power! Our conventional forces are useless against such a defense. We need to understand them. We need to break them from within!"
The King's words resonated with an unnerving clarity. This was exactly what I feared. Not a frontal assault, but a silent, creeping invasion, seeking our very core.
"Stanley," I began, calling him to my study. He listened, poised as ever, as I laid out my concerns. "The King will send mages, and spies. He will try to uncover the source of our strength, the 'energy fluctuations' House Volkov is also so interested in. Our technological advantage will not remain a secret forever."
Stanley nodded, his eyes serious. "My contacts within the noble courts confirm it, Your Majesty. House Volkov's arcane researchers are indeed obsessed with the energy readings from Kutsilyo. They believe it to be a unique confluence of raw mana, possibly linked to ancient magical sites."
"Mana stone," I murmured. "And perhaps something more. We need to be proactive. Kael," I addressed my acting Minister of Shadows, who had materialized so silently I hadn't even noticed his entrance. He was Lindsy's true successor, a master of the unseen. "Your networks are paramount now. Every whisper, every new face in the city, every unusual traveler. I want to know who they are, where they came from, and what they seek. Prioritize agents from Delgado's royal court, and from the networks of House Blackwood, Thorne, and Volkov."
Kael's eyes, usually as still as a shadowed pool, held a grim understanding. "Consider it done, Your Majesty. No shadow will enter Rimuru City unobserved."
I turned to Johnson and Johny. "Our defenses are strong against physical attack. But magic… what can we do against mages, against arcane assaults? We need new innovations. We need to find ways to disrupt mana, to counter magical attacks."
Johnson stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Mana is an energy, Your Majesty. We've learned to harness it. Perhaps we can learn to disrupt it. Johny has been sketching some ideas for mana-dampening fields, using refined mana crystals in reverse… a highly speculative theory, but worth exploring."
"Explore it," I commanded. "Build prototypes. We need a magical shield, a mana deterrent."
While the engineers began their painstaking research, focusing on the theoretical application of mana to create disruptive fields, I tasked Asuna and Feron with retraining our army. "Prepare for a different kind of war," I told them. "Not just holding walls. But dealing with infiltration. With small, elite units. With mages. Teach our soldiers to identify magic users, to break their concentration, to target them first."
Feron, surprisingly, was quick to adapt. His bandit past meant he understood the effectiveness of small-unit tactics, of exploiting weaknesses and striking unseen. Asuna, with his growing skills and leadership, incorporated these new drills into their daily routines. Even Borin, Thorn, and Roric, our battle-hardened generals, learned to identify subtle magical cues.
Meanwhile, Stanley, my Marquis of Foreign Affairs, was working tirelessly. He used the King's defeat as leverage, solidifying our alliances. "Your Majesty," he reported, "the Sunstone Confederacy is proposing a joint research initiative into mana-based defenses, drawing on their magic academies and our engineering. The Northern Wildholds are offering to send us elite scouts, masters of tracking, to help identify infiltrators. The Riverland Commonwealth offers resources and intelligence on trade routes controlled by hostile nobles."
"Accept them all," I said, a rare smile touching my lips. This was the strength of Rimuru. Not just our own ingenuity, but our ability to form powerful alliances. "We need every advantage we can get."
Days turned into weeks. The spies came. Small groups, disguised as merchants, refugees, or even wandering adventurers. But Kael's network, ever vigilant, caught them. Some were apprehended quietly, interrogated, and then, if useful, turned into double agents. Others were simply "disappeared," their fate a silent warning to any who dared to trespass. The King's frustration would only grow.
One evening, as I reviewed a new blueprint from Johnson and Johny – a revolutionary mana-dampening field generator prototype – Kael slipped into my study, his face unusually grim.
"Your Majesty," he whispered, his eyes holding a chilling intensity. "We intercepted a coded message. From a high-ranking spy, deep within House Volkov's arcane research division. They've made a breakthrough. They believe the 'energy fluctuations' here… they aren't just raw mana. They are a signature. A unique resonance. And they believe it's tied to something living. Something within the core of Rimuru City itself."
My blood ran cold. Something living? A unique resonance? My mind flashed back to my own unique ability, Divine Blueprint, the surge of power when I conceived an idea, the flow of mana stone from the earth. And then, a memory, hazy and unsettling, from my earliest moments in this world, a sense of something deep, ancient, and powerful humming beneath Kutsilyo. The words of the God of Earth echoed in my mind: "a truly unique ability." Was my power linked to this land, to this hidden "living" signature? Was I, somehow, the source of the very energy these nobles coveted? The thought sent a shiver down my spine. The war for Rimuru City had just taken a far more personal, and terrifying, turn.