Continuing from the end of the last episode, Rimuru and Gazel discuss
Tempest's financial problems, at which point in stead of the OP song we got
the entrance of wise and ancient Elmesia, who was acquainted with Gazel's grandfather
and called him Gazel-bou ("young Gazel").
Elmesia offered to exchange some gold coins from her personal magic purse to help, and gave a lesson to Tempest (and especially Diablo) what greedy schemes humans
could have hatched to undermine the country. After some talks with Rimuru and assessing him, she approved an alliance between Thalion and Tempest, in return of …… getting her included in any interesting stuff Rimuru plans in the future, and an introduction
to Mr. Yoshida 🍰.
As to the tournament,
Gobta fought so bravely with his new skill that even "Lightspeed"
Masayuki decided to concede the fight and let Gobta win.
Milim was impressed and volunteered to train Gobta and Ranga in the dungeons
which Hakuro welcomed.
Goodbye, Gobta. Goodbye, Ranga. I'll never forget how brave you were. -- Rimuru
Masayuki finally got to eat lunch in private with Rimuru, without his doting
party members. Rimuru told him that he was also from Japan and
treated him Japanese cuisine. He was relieved they were not enemies
and told Rimuru of his unique skill. When he learned that Tempest had mangas,
he became an ally completely.
Next episode we'll witness the opening of Tempest's Labyrinth, and
Masayuki will show it off by challenging it.
Is Elmesia (?), the elf monarch, the head of state of the Sorcerous Kingdom? If so, shouldn't it be Queendom? Also, besides the really short fights with Razen and some of the religious zealots, as well a Elmesia's wariness, I still don't have a good idea of Diablo's capabilities nor the reason why he's so interested in Rimuru. I recall Diablo was very interested in the mask Rimuru's body's previous owner used, but I fail to see what that has to do with Rimuru since he wasn't around yet.
Elmesia's title is 天帝 or 皇帝 in Japanese, and both of these are gender-less words.
In any case, the English people probably had the same thought you did and defined Kingdom as being able to be headed by a queen also. The United Kingdom was one example until recently.
There is a reason Rimuru is special besides being from a different world, and is related to the mask, but that is the next story arc for the anime (LN vol 11) I think.