"I just offered a guess."
"After all…"
Yuki chuckled. "I'm also worried that Shizue-sensei might be deceived by bad people."
With just a few words, Yuki had already laid out war plans involving several countries targeting the Jura Great Forest.
His capabilities were indeed astounding.
However, neither of them knew.
Every word they spoke was under the surveillance of a certain will and had been completely relayed to Rin.
"Rin…"
"Yeah, I got it."
Rin listened calmly to Violet's report.
Not just Yuki's movements, but the machinations of every country and major faction targeting the forest were already under Rin's control.
"Sakaguchi Hinata, huh?"
"In the original story, she was the first woman to push Rimuru to the brink of despair."
Hinata was the leader of the Ten Saints of the Holy Empire of Lubelius, and the right-hand of the Demon Lord Luminous.
Her strength was on par with an Awakened Demon Lord without an Ultimate Skill, and she ranked near the top of that class.
So, Yuki's assessment wasn't wrong.
If the Demon Lord born in the forest had been an ordinary True Demon Lord without an Ultimate Skill, then Hinata might have had a chance to kill them.
"What a pity…"
Rin smiled faintly. "Just one Hinata isn't enough to challenge the current Jura Great Forest."
"Violet."
"Here."
"We'll proceed with our original plans."
Rin was quite happy to see Yuki scheming like this. He actually welcomed any forces taking the initiative to attack the Jura Great Forest.
The Kingdom of Falmuth's 20,000 soldiers weren't nearly enough.
Rin wanted more.
"I hope Yuki Kagurazaka can be more competent. Expand the army to 50,000, no, even 100,000 would be fine."
Rin recalled that in the original story, the Kingdom of Falmuth had attacked the Monster Nation twice.
The first time led to Rimuru's awakening.
The king abdicated, and a new king inherited the throne.
But shortly after, that new king, influenced by the domestic nobles, declared war on the Monster Nation again, and it led to the complete destruction of the Kingdom of Falmuth.
Which meant the kingdom's military strength definitely wasn't limited to just 20,000 elite soldiers.
"Those 20,000 soldiers were enough to trigger Rimuru's awakening."
"So if it's 100,000, that should be enough for at least five awakenings to further boost the Monster Nation's overall power."
"And then?"
Violet asked how Rin planned to deal with the Kingdom of Falmuth.
In the original work, after the kingdom was destroyed, Rimuru supported the adventurer Youm to become the new king.
Youm was originally a local thug under a noble count, acting as leader of a border investigation team tasked with entering the Great Jura Forest.
After Rimuru defeated the Orc Lord, to calm tensions with humanity, she publicly credited Youm and his group with the victory, giving him the image of a hero who saved the land from monsters.
It was a strategy to reduce public fear of the Monster Nation.
But Rin would never do such a thing.
What did human opinion matter to him?
He would prefer humanity to unite and launch a full-scale assault, giving his dependents more chances to awaken as True Demon Lords.
Of course, the matter of Youm's investigation team also happened under Rin.
Shortly after Treyni's barrier covered the forest, a noble count from the region nearest the forest rounded up a bunch of idle thugs, troublemakers, even prisoners.
Clearly, this so-called "investigation team" was nothing more than a suicide squad.
The count was using Youm and a group of inexperienced fighters as test subjects to probe the forest's strength.
But unlike in the original work, Youm's team wasn't as lucky.
They never ran into Elyun's team. So naturally, they didn't get introduced to Shizue, and never connected with Rin.
They ran into monsters inside the forest.
By the time Treyni noticed, only ten members of the investigation team were still alive and Youmu wasn't among them.
"Well, he's just a minor character."
Rin didn't like Youm much anyway.
This guy got nothing but support and protection from Rimuru, gaining fame, power, and even love.
But once Clayman manipulated Myulan and attacked the Monster Nation, causing heavy casualties, Youm turned on Benimaru.
All for Myulan. All for "love."
To Rin, that was nothing but ingratitude.
Because of that, Rin had no sympathy for Youm's death.
"Myulan though... I wonder if she'll still come investigate the forest."
"She's already departed."
"She's coming?"
Rin was slightly surprised. After a moment of thought, he said, "Once she enters the forest, have Treyni take action."
"You want her dead?"
"No, just capture her."
Rin didn't hold much hostility toward Myulan.
She was different from Youm.
She hadn't received any favor or kindness from Rimuru or the Monster Nation. Opposing them was a matter of course.
Besides, Myulan had been under Clayman's control.
Her life literally sat in his hands. He could kill her at any time.
In that situation, following orders was perfectly understandable.
"If we break Clayman's hold on her, it'll be easy to win her over."
Myulan hated Clayman, but had no loyalty to him.
Anyone forced into life-threatening missions without choice would never develop true loyalty.
And Myulan was actually very capable in terms of administrative work.
She'd be the perfect person to assist Rimuru with internal affairs.
"As for the Kingdom of Falmuth…"
Rin felt this territory could be handed over to Artoria and the other more human-aligned dependents to govern.
He wasn't going to repeat Rimuru's approach.
Still, Rin didn't want the humans of the Cardinal World to see the Monster Nation as nothing more than terrifying monsters either.
"In the future, that country's land will become the outward-facing territory of the Monster Nation."
"Meanwhile, the Jura Great Forest will serve as our backyard."
That was Rin's preliminary plan.
"Which is why I want Yuki Kagurazaka to be more capable."
Only with a fierce enough war could Rin justifiably eliminate the kingdom's current noble class.
And make enough room for Artoria to flourish.
(To be continued.)
◇◇◇
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 200 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)