Ch 57: The Haulia reappear

"Haaa, haaa, I'm tired. That was great." Sakura said panting. She was all sweaty and lay with her head on Rimuru's chest. Chloe and Ciel were also lying on the bed, but they weren't hugging him.

Chloe was lying on her side with her legs tucked up and Ciel was lying on her stomach. Both were naked and sweaty.

They were like that because they had all just had sex.

"Ehhhhh... I'm glad you liked it." Rimuru said in an embarrassed way. He hugged Sakura and kissed her.

"Haaaa, haaa, haaaa, Rimuru-san. Don't you want to, haaa, hug me?" Chloe asked embarrassed. Rimuru smiled and made a clone to hug her from behind.

"Fufu, I didn't think Chloe would be so sassy in sex." Ciel commented and Chloe let out a confused groan.

Rimuru once asked Ciel what she kept doing when he was having sex with Chloe or/and Sakura and Ciel answered him: I shut down. Apparently this was a state in which Ciel was totally unaware of things happening in the outside world. Why? Apparently Ciel couldn't stand seeing the girls "taking advantage" of Rimuru, but they were over it.

Because of this "disconnect" Ciel didn't know what Rimuru and the girls' nights were like. But now that she was together, Ciel knew. Hence the comment about Chloe.

"Do- what Ciel-san is talking about!? I didn't do anything!" Chloe put her hands to her face trying to hide the fact that she was blushing.

"Ciel's right, Chloe, you were pretty bold. Those things you said, how was it, 'I like having Rimuru-san inside me'?"

Sakura's comment made Chloe shout, "Nooo, don't talk about iiiit!"and hide her face in her pillow. The others smiled at seeing Chloe like that.

She's so cute! thought Rimuru. He wanted to just hug her and never let go.

"Chloe---"

"Rimuru-san, it's not like that! I'm not a pervert!" She interrupted Rimuru and tried to explain herself, but really Rimuru would not label her in such a way.

"I know. Chloe talks those things to me, right?"

"Eh, well, maybe..." Chloe hid her face once again. Rimuru already knew that. She spoke those things because she thought Rimuru would like it.

"Then the pervert should be me. Because I love it when Chloe says these things. And I also love it when you get embarrassed like this. It just makes you cuter." Rimuru said and hugged Chloe by her front.

"No! Rimuru-san is not a pervert----! W-wait, you called me.... cute?" Chloe asked totally red.

"Yes, Chloe is extremely cute."

Chloe upon hearing this put her head on her chest and laughed embarrassedly "Ehehehehehe, Rimuru-san said I'm cute, ehehehehe..." She hugged Rimuru tightly.

"If master wants to praise me too, I'll be happy. " Ciel said as she felt left out. Sakura didn't say anything, but she seemed to want one too.

"Ah, Sakura and Ciel are beautiful too. Just looking at you two... my heart stops."

The two hugged the other Rimurus tightly. Satisfied smiles could be seen on their faces. These words could be considered generic, but the sincerity in Rimuru's voice made them happy.

Rimuru slept cuddled up to his loved ones. Everyone had smiles on their faces.

●●●

"How beautiful." Shizuku spoke as she looked at the afternoon sky.

At the moment Shizuku was on the deck of an airship made by Hajime and Rimuru. This airship was extremely well made, having a kitchen, bathrooms, dining room, several rooms, and even a workshop. This was only possible because Rimuru and Hajime worked together, this was their masterpiece. This airship had two floors and yet it didn't cost much magic power to make it fly.

When Shizuku asked Hajime why he didn't use this before he said, "It's normal for flying vehicles to take a while to appear" and Rimuru agreed saying "It's common sense". Shizuku didn't even know what to say at that moment. From the looks of it the brothers had the same sense of "romance".

"Ah, so you were here."

Shizuku heard a voice and saw Kouki coming down the stairs.

"Kouki, hi. How are the others?"

"Hi, Ryutaro and Suzu are eating, Shia-san is cooking. Lily is in her room, Nagumo is... flirting with Kaori and Yue-san."

"I see, what about Rimuru-kun?"

"Rimuru is sleeping, Sakura-san, Chloe-san and Ciel-san too."

That was what Kouki thought, but in fact Rimuru was not sleeping. He was doing with the girls the same thing he did last night.

Shizuku also thought it was strange that they were sleeping in the afternoon, but she didn't say anything. They talked some more and the main subject was Hajime. But before they could finish their conversation...

"Huh?"

"What?"

Shizuku and Kouki felt the ground shake. They realized that the airship changed its course. This was strange, as Hajime said they would reach their destination without maneuvering. The two went up to the main room, where the others were.

"What happened?"

Shizuku asked as she entered the commode. She saw Hajime, Shia, Yue, Tio, Lily(and some of her guards), Ryutaro, Suzu, Akame, and Rimuru.

"Rimuru-kun? Weren't you, err... sleeping?" Shizuku asked avoiding looking at him.

Eh, why this reaction? Is she blushing? Ah, she knows what I was doing in the room! Should I have been more discreet? Uhhhhhh, how embarrassing... damn, now I'm blushing too.

"Si-yes, I just woke up." Rimuru said and looked away embarrassedly.

Hajime found this exchange of words between them strange, so he decided to answer Shizuku's first question.

"You have imperial soldiers fighting demi-humans down there. That's why we changed course."

Hajime turned on the big screen and showed the view from a camera he had implanted outside the airship. Some imperial soldiers appeared fighting demi-human. These demi-human were either tigers or bears. They were fighting around something that looked like a cage. But most of the soldiers were actually chasing some girls of the rabbit-men race.

"We have to help them. Let's go down." Kouki spoke in a determined manner. However no one answered his words. Shia seemed to notice something.

"Hajime-san, they are..."

"Hm? Yes, I think you're right..."

Hajime zoomed in on two women of the rabbit men race. Kouki seeing this felt like a hero who had to save the bunny girls from the evil soldiers.

"Oi, Nagumo, what are you doing standing around? Aren't you going to do anything to help them!?"

"Wait a little bit, could you shut up for a second? Thanks. Hajime-san, if they're that far out of town they might be out of control again."

Shia simply ignored Kouki. Hajime looked thoughtful and Rimuru then spoke up, "I agree with Shia-san, and since we are the leaders of the Haulia (even if against our will), we should at least find out what's going on."

"Yes, I guess so, but they don't need our help anyway."

"Nagumo, what are you talking about? We have to help those helpless little bunnies."

"Helpless? Those are Haulia."

Kouki was confused, but before he could say anything.

"Ah!" Lily let out a startled yelp. That's because on the big screen it showed several dead imperial soldiers. In addition two of the "bunnies" had knives with blood on their hands, in fact one of them was licking her knife. Seeing that their colleagues were dead, the other soldiers started to attack the girls from the rabbit tribe. Their numerical advantage was overwhelming. However, before the soldiers could reach them, several silhouettes emerged from the trees around the soldiers. These silhouettes turned out to be more of the Haulia.

The Haulia were slaughtering the soldiers while giving shouts and saying things like:

"Yeah! Take that! That's what they get for trying to kidnap us!"

"Come on, show more fighting spirit!"

"Why are you running away? We're in a battle!"

As the soldiers, who had been surrounded and had no hope left were:

"Iiih, monster!"

"Help! Somebody help me!"

"It can't be... Those can't be the rabbit men!"

"Am I hallucinating? Is this a nightmare?"

Yet there was something strange. At the same time that the battle was overwhelming on the Haulia's part, on the part of the other demi-humans who were fighting near a cage, the demi-humans were losing. Several of them were lying on the ground with serious injuries.

But that also changed. From above a tree came out a figure wearing a black cloak. This figure took off his hood and revealed himself to be another Haulia. This Haulia took an extremely shiny crystal from his pocket and raised it high above. He seemed to say something and then the crystal shone even stronger, until it broke. The light emitted by the crystal healed all the injuries of all the demi-hunan who were there.

The imperial soldiers were terrified that demi-humans couldn't use magic, so how did they heal their comrades? They never found out the answer as they would soon die.

More Haulia came out of the trees and this time attacked the soldiers around the large cage. The demi-humans who had healed themselves earlier attacked at the same time. And so the imperial soldiers were defeated with no survivors left.

"" "...." ""

The silence in the room was deafening. Only Hajime, Rimuru, Shia and Yue were unaffected. The others were dumbfounded. Even Akame looked surprised.

They looked at Shia as if to say "weren't you the special one!" And Shia explained.

"Wait guys. I really am the only special one, the strength of my tribe is because of Hajime-san's rigorous training."

"I'd say more like hellish." Rimuru added.

"So it was you again!" The looks on Hajime said that. He just looked away.

"Yes. It is as the leader says. I am one of those rescued in the Northern Mountains, but I can also fight. The reason was the intense training Captain Kam put us through. In addition the legendary spirits that the leader left for us are also helping."

As this conversation was going on everyone had already gotten into the airship and was inside talking.

"Eh? My father is doing some training?"

"Yes, Shia. A large part of our tribe knows how to fight. And the few who don't know are training."

"Wow, impressive..."

Everyone went to the main room to talk, Pal, one of the rabbit men sat down. Hajime and Rimuru did the same.

"Okay, you can talk."

"Yes. First of all, does the boss know about the demon attacks that have been happening?"

"I only know that the Haihiri Kingdom was attacked. So Faea Baelgen was too?"

"Exactly. The demons wanted to get through the sea of trees to get to the Haltina dungeon."

From what Pal explained. The demons were after the Halitna Dungeon, but Faea Baelgen's elders wouldn't allow it, so they went to war. Faea Baelgen thought their victory was guaranteed, because the demons didn't know how to guide themselves in the mist, but they were wrong. The demons had Magical Beasts on their side, and they could guide themselves through the forest. Add this to their ability to use magic, and the demi-humans were lost. The demons were advancing and Faea Baelgen was taking a lot of damage. At this point defeat was the only thing that awaited them.

It was then that one of the elders of Faea Baelgen, Jinrai(the same guy who attacked Hajime) swallowed his pride and went to the Haulia for help. The Haulia had no intention of helping Faea Baelgen, but they decided to help for two reasons.

First, that the demons wanted the Dungeon and since this was a goal of Hajime and Rimuru, they would not let this happen. Second, that the demons were causing a lot of damage to the forest and this angered the spirits that Rimuru had summoned, especially the Druids, who were the guardians of the forest. The only reason the spirits hadn't attacked before is because their priority was the Haulia, that's what Rimuru ordered.

"With us Haulia in the fight, it was already certain Victory, but with the great nature spirits on our side? Ha! The demons didn't stand a chance! We easily slaughtered them all!"

Pal said with a fearless smile. The people in the room were a little startled to hear these words come out of a child.

Pal was excited as he told this part. The power of the spirits was overwhelming. Especially Liz the appointed spirit of light who became a Light lord, Hollow the appointed spirit of darkness who became a Dark Lord, and Flora the appointed druid who became a Forest Lord. These three were the most powerful and could kill thousands of demons without even getting hurt. Obviously the other spirits were also super powerful.

By the way, when the elders of Faea Baelgen learned that legendary nature spirits were on the Haulia's side, they realized: we can't oppose these guys. Not only this, but several people from the town came to the Haulia requesting to see the "nature deities".

The strength of the Haulia also impressed the people of Faea Baegen. This, together with the legendary spirits being with them, caused many to leave Faea Baelgen and join the Haulia Village, a town that was being built near the central tree. They were able to stay there without getting lost as the wind spirit dispensed with the mist when necessary.

"Right now 4 more Haulia tribes have joined us, even some demi-human from other races are coming. We are growing rapidly. But that's not the focus of the story."

He went on to tell about the war. After the demons were defeated, the Empire attacked, they seemed to want more slaves. The reason for this was that the Baharuth Empire had also been attacked by the demons and their capital had suffered a lot of damage. Therefore they were wanting more slaves.

However the Haulia and the spirits did not let this go cheaply. They hated the Empire that had been burning the forest and so they helped to protect Faea Baelgen that was still vulnerable. With the spirits protecting the forest and the Haulia protecting Faea Baelgen, the Empire did not get the slaves it wants so badly. In fact the number if demi-huma caught by the Empire has greatly decreased.

"But unfortunately they still managed to kidnap some of us."

Pal lamented. Apparently the Empire was curious about the powerful rabbit men and ordered the soldiers to stick to capturing the Haulia. Two Haulia tun had been captured, and they were probably interrogated.

"Unfortunately it was Ryve and Sall who were captured. Those two had not yet received training in resisting torture, so they must have said everything. They---"

"Wait! Wait, Pal-kun!" Rimuru interrupted him and turned to Hajime, "Hajime-kun, what did he mean by training against torture?"

Besides Rimuru, Shia also looked at Hajime as if to say, "What have you done to my family!?"

Hajime looked away and crossed his arms. "This isn't the point of the story, right? Let's let him finish." He was great at changing the subject.

Pal then continued. The Empire kept investing in the search for slaves, no matter how many were killed, especially Haulias. It turned out that they managed to capture the elder's granddaughter, Altina. The Empire Soldiers had also managed to capture two girls from the Haulia tribe, Hana and Lana. Since they were already out of the forest when this was discovered, the Haulia could not ask the spirits for help, since one of Rimuru's orders to the spirits was that they stay in the forest. Besides there were too many soldiers, so an attack in the open field would be unwise.

So the Haulia and Faea Baelgen got together and formed a plan. But actually most of it was the Haulia's doing.

The demi-human tiger and bear were going to attack the Empire soldiers who were transporting the prisoners. Then Lana and Hana would flee. The enemy commander, seeing that the battle against the demi-humans was easy, would lead his soldiers after the fugitives. Hana and Lana, who had been warned about the plan, thanks to the help of the wind spirit would....

"Wait, Pal-kun, how did you guys use the wind spirit magic? And by the way, earlier I saw you guys using something that looked a lot like light magic, is that related?"

"Ah, exactly, Rimuru-sama. You see, there is a crystal in the Haltine Forest that everyone previously thought was of no use." Pal withdrew from his pocket a transparent crystal. "But the spirits warned us that this crystal, which they call a 'nature stone' can be charged with their energy and so we use it as a weapon."

"I see.... impressive." Rimuru was impressed and Pal continued to tell the plan.

Hana and Lana would run to a location where there would be a Haulia trap ready. Meanwhile other Haulia would go to help the demi-human tiger and bear.

"And then we found you guys. We are still having a lot of trouble with Empire. I think they tried to capture Princess Altina to use her as a bargaining chip for us Haulia. The Emperor must be quite interested in rabbit men with our strength!"

Pal finished with this statement. Everyone was thoughtful for a while. Hajime then spoke:

"Okay, we will rescue those who were captured. I'll also see what we can do with this Empire issue."

"O- okay!" Pal seemed surprised at Hajime saying he would help. But the one who looked most surprised was Shia.

"Hajime-san? You..."

"You want to help them, right?"

"Ah, I..."

Shia cringed as she heard him. She looked away embarrassedly. That was because Hajime had read her so well.

Hajime stood up and stood in front of Shia. He looked at her deeply and Shia blushed.

"Look, maybe you didn't realize it, but I care about you. If you want something, tell me and I won't hesitate to do my best."

"Hajime-san..."

Shia's eyes sparkled. Hajime said she was "important" and that couldn't have made her happier.

"I want to help my family! It may only be a little, but I want to!" she said what she really wanted.

"See, it was so hard?" Hajime stroked Shia's rabbit ears.

"Moooou, Hajime-san is very mean."

Shia spoke in a scolding tone, but she couldn't hide her happiness. She couldn't stop smiling and her rabbit tail kept twitching.

"I've changed my mind about Nagumo-chi. He's really very direct." Suzu commented.

"Fufu, I think Suzu-chan is right, but I don't think that's a bad thing." Rimuru agreed with her words.

"Punishment is good, but I also want Goushin-sama to treat me like this." Tio said wickedly

After they talked some more, Rimuru changed the airship's course to Faea Baelgen.