“Don’t worry, Ramiris. I have thought about it. And I have come to a conclusion.”

“…A conclusion?”

Ramiris looked at Veldora and waited for his answer. This time she rearmed herself with a strong will. She would not be tricked again.

Veldora nodded solemnly and said:

“I have decided, that even if everything fails, we can just relax and leave it all to Rimuru!!”

“I see!!”

“Don’t listen to him, Lord Ramiris!!”

Beretta screamed, but his voice did not reach them.

Veldora and Ramiris were already smiling as if the problem had been solved.

“Rimuru would be able to solve a problem like this very easily. We only have to wait for him.”

“That’s true! It would be easy for Rimuru!!”

It was nothing.

If they had trouble, they could just leave it to Rimuru. That was what Veldora said.

And Ramiris had agreed.

There was no worry on her face now. And she bit excitedly into her okonomiyaki.

◇◇◇

These two were hopeless–Beretta lamented.

Leaving a mess for Rimuru to clean up was a good way to make him angry.

But neither of them seemed to want to consider that.

Besides, the original plan had been to return to their world before Rimuru got back, and destroy all of the evidence.

But they must have forgotten this because Veldora and Ramiris were laughing as if they had solved everything.

(They really are hopeless. Lord Ramiris is completely involved now, but she doesn’t seem to even realize it…)

Beretta alone realized what situation they were in.

It was quite simple. Veldora had been sulking and wanted to become popular. And he merely dragged Ramiris into his plan.

And now Sharma and the others were dragged in as well. And they were going to declare war on the Empire.

He just did whatever he wanted.

Unfortunately, even if Beretta knew why Veldora was doing this, he could not do anything to stop him.

While he was quite exasperated inside, he was at least able to steel himself for whatever the angry Rimuru might do.

“So, what will you do? Now that it has come to this, we shall help you with all of our power.”

Veldora said.

Come to this? It is all your fault! Beretta thought. But he kept his mouth closed.

He would just watch.

Sharma was calm.

Veldora could not sweep her off her feet with his talk. And so she did not give him an answer immediately.

If it was yesterday, Sharma would never have dreamed of allowing an attack on the Empire’s city.

She would have ignored it as the laughable idea of a madman.

However, after witnessing the powers of Ramiris and Beretta, she began to wonder if they could use them.

Even if they didn’t attack the Empire, she did not want to lose their cooperation.

–Know the heights and then want it–

Those words burned in her chest.

(You make it sound so easy. And yet you don’t know how much we have suffered because of what we wanted—but, maybe it is the same for him? Perhaps he has also experienced a time of such hardships?)

Sharma realized that those words had really moved her.

Still, she had to be careful.

“Attacking the Empire. Such a thing cannot be decided so lightly. We must contact Light of Dawn’s headquarters and discuss what we should do.”

So she avoided an immediate answer.

Still, within her heart, Sharma was thinking of it in an optimistic light.

Rindo was also thinking.

–Making the children walk a path of despair–

No, that could not happen.

It was a reality that he had not wanted to admit, and therefore looked away from.

It was so hard just living, that he didn’t know if he did it while looking forward to anything.

But this man named Veldora had only come here today, and yet the children had already accepted him and played happily.

Rindo felt jealous.

(Indeed… What had I been looking at all of this time? It was just the adults who were in despair. The children were having so much fun–perhaps true happiness was not something given or taken, but something you find on your own. If possible, I would like to talk to someone from the Empire, just once.)

That is what he thought.

Then something might change.

When he looked at the incredibly confident Veldora, he started to feel that he too could do anything.

“I agree with Sharma. However, I am personally very pleased with your offer.”

Rindo said with a smile. For once, he allowed his true emotion to show a little.

Zaza had a similar opinion to Sharma.

The only difference was that he knew how strong Beretta was in combat.

And so he couldn’t help but wonder; what if?

Beretta’s strength could give them a chance.

(However, it couldn’t be so easy, could it? The Empire was huge. This was like stepping on the tiger’s tail. But…)

Zaza had many years of combat experience, and so he knew first-hand just how the powerful the Empire was.

And that was why he couldn’t agree to it so lightly.

But that wasn’t the only reason…

(What if…)

Zaza has seen a new hope in Veldora and the others.

He had lived desperately in this claustrophobic place for so long, and so in his eyes, the carefree way that Veldora and the others acted was almost blinding.

After thinking about it for a while, Zaza came to a conclusion in his heart.

He felt that this situation would be the catalyst.

It would be the first step to changing the relationship between the Empire and the resistance.

However, one wrong step could lead to a disaster.

And so in order to avoid that, Zaza looked at Veldora with determination.

At the man who smiled with so much confidence.

(Heh. What a strange person. He doesn’t fight at all and leaves everything to Beretta, and yet he acts so importantly. But…)

I do not dislike him. Zaza thought.

In any case, things would only get worse if they did nothing.

They had to make a decision somewhere, or they would just run out of luck.

They did not know how long the energy plant in their hideout would continue to run.

“If we are going to do it, I’ll call my friends too. We can contact all the surviving mercenary troops here. If we do it, we have to go in full force.”

Sharma had delayed her decision, but the time would come soon enough.

It was just a matter of acting sooner or later.

In that case, it would be better to make that decision while they had reliable allies.

And so those were the reactions to Veldora’s words.

They were mostly favorable.

Well, except for Beretta…

(…Well, well. It looks like they have all been fooled. Veldora is not thinking about it very hard at all. He just wanted a reason to cook okonomiyaki for the children…)

—Why?

They had only left him for a short while, and it had turned into this.

Beretta could not understand it.

And now it seemed the world was about to be thrown into a great war.

While Beretta was annoyed at how wrong it all was, he also started to consider what he could do to minimize the casualties.