The World's Ego

Celebration Shenanigans

Rimuru POV

The night's celebration commenced in the lobby of the extravagantly decorated parlor house. Important figures were gathered in this one place, and nobles dressed in luxurious clothing walked about in the parlor as I entered with Shion by my side.

"Is that the Demon Lord Rimuru?"

"Wow, I have heard rumors, but seeing her up close is..."

Those were the mutterings around me as I walked past many nobles. It was probably because of this specially tailored dress I had on for tonight. A one-piece off-shoulder white dress with ruffles of a gradient of gold and sky blue acting as off-shoulder sleeves. A white ribbon was tied around my neck with a sky blue flower sewn in the middle and sewn onto the transparent sparkling fabric that extends out to the top part of my dress in a V shape. The white of the bottom dress reaches near my knees and a sparkling transparent fabric is sewn to extend off the hem of the dress up to my knees. On the back of my dress was a long shawl reaching my ankles, and the outer layer of the dress had Tempest's symbol sewn multiple times on the bottom of the gold and sky blue gradient. If someone looks at the inner layer of the shawl, however, it was black but with a tiny bit of magic mixed in, the inside sparkles like the night sky filled with stars. Gold, sky blue, and white silk lined the right side of my chest and protrudes upwards like feathers, almost reaching my face. For the ornaments, Aponia clipped a golden heart-shaped pin with a blue jewel in its center on the silk fabric. Tied on my waist were golden beads and sparkling white and gold cloth hanging on my right waist, supported by the beads, and clipped on them was a pair of gold diamond-shaped pins with the same blue jewels in the center with a white ribbon tied on my side. Aponia tied my hair loosely with a hairband that had a white butterfly sewn with another diamond-shaped pin in the middle and a long sky-blue fabric extending up to my back. On the left side of my head, she also decided to clip Fenghuang Down since it went well with my current outfit. Shuna also handed me a pair of white heels and tied a ribbon to the back of my shins to secure the heels.

Despite all of the work she had to do today, Shuna-chan made such a beautiful dress for me! Aponia even made such beautiful ornaments. I really have to thank them!

While thinking about that, I headed to a tatami room where King Gazel was in. These rooms are mostly to show off to the nobles as curiosities unheard of outside Tempest. I stepped inside after taking off my shoes and sat across from King Gazel to have a chat with him. He checked up on the town's developmental situation and many things caught his eye so we continued chatting pleasantly about them before someone came in.

"Excuse me."

With that greeting, he plops down on the seat facing me with confidence in front of King Gazel. He receives Youm with a grin and pours a glass of wine for him.

"Very wise of you, King Gazel. You did all this for a publicity stunt to show to the nobles outside." I giggled, holding up my wine glass in a toast to his smart mind

He huffed a laugh and we continued our pleasant chat before deciding that it was enough and stood up to leave the room. I talked to some of the nobles who happened to run into me before making my way to the seat of honor. Everyone was now looking at me, some curious and some pale due to fear. I decided to start talking before someone faints from being afraid of me.

"It is my pleasure to welcome everyone today. I am Demon Lord Rimuru Tempest. It would be great if tonight can be free of any serious topics, and please instead direct your attention to our nation's dishes that I hope everyone will enjoy! Long speeches are not my forte, so please excuse me for cutting it short! I wish you all a grand time and let the party begin!"

With my announcement and a toast to everyone, the feast began. Waitresses were assigned to every table and Vesta had strictly educated them to bring dishes with every request. I looked around, happy that everyone was enjoying the various extravagant dishes laid out for everyone, all of them were made by Shuna, Yoshida, Sakura and Kalpas, so there was a huge variety to go around. And that wasn't all... In the middle of the banquet hall where a line divides the Japanese and Western sections, a cart is wheeled in. Grandpa Hakurou was going to make sushi out of a 'spear tuna' I caught recently.