ch17
Just InCommunityForumMoreRegrets and Wishes: One More Chance by jnscrtm Anime » Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken/転生したらスライムだった件 Rated: T, English, Hurt/Comfort & Romance, [Rimuru T., Ciel], Words: 104k+, Favs: 190, Follows: 196, Published: May 20, 2022 Updated: Jun 13, 202221Chapter 17: 15 - Towards a New Land
CHAPTER 15 – TOWARDS A NEW LAND
(Rimuru's Perspective)
As we pass through the [Portal Gate, the hobgoblins and the tempest wolves present in the village's side are astounded. This is perhaps their first time seeing an ability like this.
Some wolves stretch their paws, showing their razor-sharp claws; some hobgoblins, who have apparently been appointed patrol team, are looking at the portal cautiously with whatever weapons they have in their hands. All look ready to attack in tandem at that very moment.
But when Ciel and I come out of the portal, their extreme caution immediately turns into relief as they immediately cheer up after seeing us. They begin surrounding us in a half-circle-like formation.
"""Rimuru-sama, Ciel-sama, welcome back home!""" they exclaim in unison.
Rigurd walks towards us. He stops in front of us then bows with his right palm in front of his chest. "It truly gladdens me to see you coming back safe and sound, Rimuru-sama, Ciel-sama."
"Ah, Rigurd," I say. "Good job for managing the village well while we were away."
"Ha-ha-ha! I feel honoured by your kind words." He looks at the dwarves behind us. "But Rimuru-sama, Ciel-sama, who are these people? Are these perhaps the ones that you were talking about before your departure?"
I take a glance at the dwarves.
They look bewildered as they are observing their surroundings. They must've thought that the village of ours is simply a "village", like, a village of humans since Ciel and I never showed even a bit of our aura in front of them.
When they actually are here, they are instead greeted by monsters. There are so many hobgoblins and wolves all around the village; and the wolves, even people with a little to none adventure experience can immediately tell that they are not your regular direwolves. They have way larger bodies and possess much more menace.
No matter how one looks at it, the wolves are still far stronger than the hobgoblins in both physical and magical power by a huge margin. Yet, what they see here are some hobgoblins riding the wolves and the wolves that don't seem to mind it.
This idea of two different races of monsters living at the same place harmoniously without any visible conflicts might've added their bewilderment.
"Yep, you are right. They are the ones who are going to help us all to build our village." I take a step behind. "Kaijin."
"Hm? Ah, y-yes?" He snaps back to reality as I call his name.
"You may introduce yourself and the other dwarves."
"R-right." He takes a step forward and stands in front of Rigurd. "Ahem. My name is Kaijin. And those are my co-workers: Garm, Dord, Myrd, and the other twelve dwarves behind us: Arn, Yoshiaki, Bard, Arvid, Kaito, Masashi, Brandt, Farrar, Brian, Schmidt, Uri, and Halvar. As Lord Rimuru and Lady Ciel requested, we have come to help you to build and develop this village. Nice to meet you."
(A.N., just to clarify, Kaijin does slightly change his way of speaking around Rimuru and Ciel because of the event that happened in the previous chapter. That is why "Boss" becomes "Lord" and "Miss" becomes "Lady")
Kaijin offers his hand to Rigurd.
"Welcome to our humble village," Rigurd shakes his hand. "My name is Rigurd, the Goblin King, the one whose duty is to manage and govern this village entrusted by the great Rimuru-sama and Ciel-sama. I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Kaijin-dono."
"Rigurd, order some goblinas to treat these dwarves and prepare a place for them to rest." This time, it is Ciel who speaks, not me.
"Your wish is my command, my lady." He bows again at us then immediately leaves the scene.
"You too," I say to the hobgoblins and wolves around us, "get back to what you have been tasked with."
"""Yes, my lord.""" Without wasting a single second, they stand up at the same time and go back to what they were doing before.
"Your village is quite peculiar, is it not, Lord Rimuru?" Kaijin asks me, eyes still looking around the village.
"You mean, about how it is filled with monsters instead of humans?"
"Yeah, I really did not expect something like this. Hobgoblins and black direwolves living in one same place, no one has ever thought that such thing is even possible, you know?"
Not black direwolves, though, but tempest wolves. But oh, well, they do look very similar to black direwolves.
"Ha-ha-ha." I let out a light-hearted laugh. "Right? Rather than mindlessly killing each other just for a short-lived supremacy, living together in harmony and helping each other like this are much better, don't you think?"
"Yeah, you are right. It is much more pleasant seeing folks helping each other than seeing them striking each other down."
Some moments later, some goblinas appear, approaching us. "We have come to inform you that the place to rest has been ready," they say as they bow to us.
"Kaijin and all other dwarves," I call, "we will talk about our plan to develop this village once you have calmed down. Take your time to get a rest first."
"Yes, young lord." The dwarves immediately follow the goblinas who are guiding them to their resting place.
Since it is still afternoon, we decide to just stroll around the village, watching the activities of our folks who have been working hard in accordance to their jobs.
The patrol team has been being busy guarding the village. As one might have expected, the hobgoblins chosen as the members of the patrol team are those who have the highest vigilance and the fastest reaction to imminent dangers. All seven members of the previous village guard team before our battle with the wolves were naturally chosen too as part of this team's members.
Some of them are guarding on the ground, each paired with a tempest wolf, while some others are guarding above the trees on wooden boards. Their eyes seem to be observing everything in front of them thoroughly, as if nothing will escape their sight.
According to Rigur Issei—the leader of patrol team—throughout the total of twelve days or so of our absence, a few magical beasts had tried to attack the village. But thanks to their evolution into hobgoblins and tempest wolves, as he put it, the beasts that had previously been able to get them killed easily were now just like some simple animals for was just a fancy way to say that the beasts had got killed before it even stepped on the village's ground.
Then, there is a food-gathering team that has also collected a pile of food and stored it inside a shack. This team consists of pairs of hobgoblin-direwolf with the best coordination and the most knowledge about edible and non-edible things.
Back in their regular goblin days, they had made a living from fruits, nuts, edible plants, and whatever beasts and animals they can hunt down. With the aid of tempest wolves, they can cover a lot more terrain.
Since the pairs have gained ability to use [Thought Communication] with each other, it allows the riding hobgoblins to guide their wolves more surely. Previously unbeatable foes are now simply a warm-up for them.
Relying on hunting and gathering would leave us in danger if something happens to our environment, so we have to soon start thinking about agriculture too. A steady food is the key to a plentiful life. Since I have known what kind of produce and what sort of grain crops grow well here—from the previous timeline, of course—we can next move to agriculture development as soon as water, clothing, and housing issues have completely been tackled.
This entire mountain of food, as stated by Rigur Nisei as the leader of the team, was previously intended to be eaten together as a celebration of both their evolution and the end of battle. But his father, Rigurd, refused to allow it until we got back home.
However, after several days, we hadn't come back. As such, fearing that some food might start rotting and that the children might begin to starve, Rigurd finally allowed all folks to take the food. But it was notas a celebration, but as just regular meals. "The celebration must be held in Rimuru-sama's and Ciel-sama's presence!" as he quoted his father's words.
The material-gathering team meanwhile has collected some woods. Some are taken from the unused woods after building the fence, some are taken from disassembled shacks, and some more are obtained from cutting trees.
This team consists of those whose physiques are the strongest, especially for carrying huge, heavy materials and doing vigorous physical jobs. But since they still don't have proper, decent tools to do stuff like that, they have only managed to cut two trees down so far.
They also disassembled some shacks that were in any way inhabitable and unusable. They took some nails and few pieces of ropes that were still in good and usable condition then saved the nails inside a small box made from six pieces of wood—five pieces are used to make the box's main part and the last piece is used as a cover.
As for houses-and-tools maintenance team, they have built a few more shacks in place of disassembled shacks since our departure.
One of those shacks is the one we visited earlier, in which the food-gathering team store their results. Another one was specifically built for the material-gathering team, in which the gathered materials are stored and in which building tools are saved. Another one was built for the patrol team, in which they save their weapons and armours of sorts.
The houses-and-tools maintenance team also created two smaller sub-teams. The first sub-team is tasked to maintain all tools—including weapons and armours—so that they can still be usable for a while longer; the second sub-team is tasked to watch over shacks and report immediately whenever they find something wrong and fatal with the shacks.
With a system like this, no teams can work without other teams.
The patrol team gives safety to the whole population, the food-gathering team keeps the folks' stomach filled, and material-gathering team provides materials for building houses. The maintenance team in return builds shacks from the materials provided by material-gathering team, which then in return (again) are used by the material-gathering team to store even more materials, by food-gathering team to store the foodstuffs, and by patrol team to save their weapons.
It is a really clever way of solving a problem, I must say, considering that I and Ciel weren't present when they were facing such problem. Even I am amazed by it.
The new shacks are not decent as one can see. But hey, at least they are usable enough.
At the night, we finally hold a celebration. Not as a celebration of their evolution like what they intended before, but as a celebration of our safe return.
These guys, in this timeline or the previous, don't change at all. They still love celebrations like their own selves did over there. They will always be able to find thousands of reasons to hold celebrations.
All folks, including the dwarves, enjoy their food and drinks. Some are happily chatting with each other. Some dwarves and some hobgoblins are also seen engrossed in a discussion.
Ciel and I are just soberly enjoying the celebration under a tree quite far away from the main crowd. We sit next to each other very closely while our bodies are leaning to the tree. Sometimes, we also take a bit of the foods and take a gulp of the drink served to us.
The food is just simple roasted meats and some fresh fruits, not some kind of haute cuisine. The roasted meats, however, were accompanied with a sauce that was made from juice taken from assorted types of fruit, one of which contains some kind of oil similar to my first world's olive oil. It already tastes very great for a simple dish like this.
Simple and enjoyable. Sometimes, the simplicity itself is what makes it more enjoyable than luxury. Nothing extravagant, nor exaggerated.
Ah, right. How long have I forgotten this feeling? Those times when I was already content with nothing but simply living a peaceful life?
Now, our food has been eaten up and our cups of drink have been empty. We put the plates and the cups near us then lean back on the tree.
We bring our bodies closer to each other until our shoulders meet each other. Ciel rests her body on mine and places her head on my shoulder. This is the first time Ciel makes her move first before me.
Seeing a cute girl doing a cute thing like this at my side, I can't help but smile. I reach the back of her head with my right hand and begin caressing her soft, silky hair. I rest my cheek on her head.
This situation is very similar to what happened that evening under the twilight sky. The only difference perhaps is that what we are looking at now isn't sun in the western horizon, but a sight of a thousand folks blissfully enjoying the celebration with a joyous smile painted on each of their faces.
Will I be able to keep protecting those smiles of theirs until the very end?I wonder to myself.
A peaceful world without project; I know and understand that such a thing is nothing but a naïve wish.
Used in various contexts, the word "naïve" itself has eventually diverged very far in meaning that no one knows what exactly is it to be "naïve".
But what if it is indeed naïve? What if everyone else mocks me for it? Will I stop? No, it ismywish, not someone else's. They can mock me the hell they want for being naïve, but no one has the right to stop me from pursuing my dream but myself.
A cliché scenario? So, what if it is? For me, a cliché scenario that is more favourable situation-wise and gives more chances at success is much better than choosing an "alternative scenario" just to end up ruining the whole thing.
"They all look happy, do they not, Master?" Ciel says, breaking the silence between us.
"Yeah...you are right. It gets me wondering."
"Wondering about what, exactly?"
"About when will we be able to hold a party like this with absolutely nothing to worry about. About when will we no longer have to worry about battles, wars, and similar stupid things. Can I really realize such a dream world?"
"I believe Master can realize it."
"Do you think so?"
"I do, and I know Masterwillrealize it. "
We keep sitting here, watching the folks until all of them, one by one, falls asleep, leaving us in dead silence.
We decide to also take a rest and begin our [Sleep].
⁂
The next day, we meet Rigurd to talk about our upcoming village relocation.
I open the conversation. "Rigurd, we're going to relocate our village to the area near the cave."
"It was regarded as a forbidden zone, sir," he answers. "Unlike the forest, it was a veritable den of powerful monsters."
"There should be no problem. We once lived there. Like, we were wandering around there before we met you, and we got no problems so far. So...it should be fine."
"If that is your wish, we have no problem with it."
"Then order all folks to prepare themselves."
"Yes, sir!"
Afterwards, we pay a visit to the shack where the dwarves are resting in.
"Hey, you guys," I greet. "Have you all settled down?"
"More or less, yes. The party last night was amazing, I gotta say."
"Then let's talk about our plan for development, shall we?"
"Right!"
I start by explaining the current condition of this village.
I express my desire to relocate all of the citizens to the area near the cave and build a town, not just a village. Some of them initially disagree since it was a forbidden area full of powerful monsters. But I reassure them that we will guarantee their safety, so they eventually agreed anyway.
Kaijin as the lead craftsman is naturally appointed as the main supervisor of development. I appoint the three dwarven brothers as the heads of clothing-production front along with other eight of the dwarves working under them. For a time being, they will work on processing animal pelts into hobgoblin clothing.
I then call Myrd and explain to him how architecture worked in the world I first came from. I hand him the blueprints of our future town to ease the surveying work and ask him if he agrees with the design I've come up with.
The blueprints are based on our old nation with some major improvements. Some skyscrapers that are planned to be built around the town centre are efficiently positioned so that the sunlight will still hit the ground below. In the vicinity, I adjust the citizens' residential space so it will spread out in harmony with the forest.
I've planned some systems that we will use in our town as well. One of the systems I've planned on implementing is a waste-management facility. The wolves might not need it that much, but for the dwarves and the hobgoblins, it will be a necessity for sure. We plan to have a pseudo-septic system that can store waste and turn it into fertilizer.
But if we look at it from another perspective, it'll be easy for it to be the source of infectious diseases. Despite having evolved, the hobgoblins are still susceptible to disease. We will want to keep those diseases at bay, so I also go all the way with the hygiene.
Even Myrd, the one renowned as the greatest architect of Dwargon, is utterly impressed by these ideas—even though there was no single word coming out of his mouth as usual. I then appoint him as the head of building operations for our town.
After having Rigurd assign a few people to Myrd's team together with the four remaining dwarves who are specialized in architecture, I send all of them off to survey the area near the cave. I also have Ranga and Fuuga join them too, just in case. If some beasts or monsters swarm and attack them, Ranga and Fuuga alone should to be enough to deal with those monsters.
For now, all necessary teams have been divided.
As the last step, I pay a visit into an area inside [Imaginary Space]. I am already in a vast space. An overgrown lizard—ahem, I mean dragon is there "sitting", engrossed in reading a book with so many piles of other books near him.
"Yo, Veldora," I greet as I walk towards him. "How're you doing?"
"Oh, Rimuru." He immediately closes his book and put it down. "This is the first time to visit me personally like this after such a long time. I feel dumped."
"Yeah, yeah, I am sorry. But you're enjoying those manga from my memories so much, aren't you?"
"Kuahahahaha...indeed. These holy scriptures are so amazing."
"So, what you've got from those holy scriptures?"
"I found so much wisdom inside them. Oh, and some of them give me a very intriguing idea. I've been thinking of creating my own fighting style this human form of mine. Yes, I shall name it 'Veldora-style Killing Arts'." he exclaims with so much confidence in his tone.
Well, not far from what I expected, since the majority of manga he has read are Shonen manga. Those manga undoubtedly have so much action inside them; and the fighting scenes were often glorified and dramatized. It's only natural if they would give him an idea to create his own fighting style, like some otakus in my first world dreamed of.
Though, the only difference between Veldora and the otakus in my first world, it is that here, those "iconic moves" can actually be implemented into real life.
Despite this dragon being sometimes useless, he actually was a master of martial art in the previous timeline. One of our strongest patrons, that one beetle-type insectar, learned his fighting style from Veldora. I deliberately give him so many Shonen manga here, so he can be a martial master too in this timeline.
"Yeah," I continue, "it's a good name. How about you start developing your fighting style? You can use this area of [Imaginary Space] as your training ground. Someday, if at all possible, we will also give you some disciples to teach. What do you think?"
"Me? Having disciples? KUAHAHAHAHA... It sounds great!"
"But you need to be patient," I say, "since you can only get out of here until at least two years or so."
"HAH? WHY?!" A sheer disappointment can be seen on his face.
I swear this dragon really cannot read the situation. I mean, I sometimes—not every time like what I unknowingly did in my previous timeline—let him see what is going on in the outside world through my eyes. He should've understood the consequence if he appears in times like this.
I let out a sigh. "If people know that you are actually with me this whole time, Veldora, we can get into troublesome situation. Not just you and me, but also my citizens and subordinates. Or do you perhaps want me to tell Ciel so that she will give you a regular 'remotely-given reprimand'?"
"NO! PLEASE, NO! PLEASE DON'T TELL CIEL! ANYTHING BUT THAT!"
Huh? Wait, wait, wait a minute! I was just bluffing, and yet why does he seem totally frightened like that?
...
Could it be...Ciel has given him some 'remotely-given reprimands' before without my knowledge?!
What kind of reprimands has she given him that he becomes total scaredy cat like this when I threatened him using Ciel's name?!
Don't tell me it is similar to what his elder sisters did to him? Or even worse?
...
Ah, I think it is better not pursue it further.
"Before I leave," I say, "I will give you something."
"Leaving already?"
"Of course, I am. I still have many things to do out there, you know? I am unlike you unemployed dragon who have nothing to do but reading manga like some shut-in nerds."
"Can't you just please blunt that sharp tongue of yours a little bit? I have nothing to do because I'm being confined in your [Imaginary Space, alright?!"
Ignoring his protest, I just snap my fingers and another pile of manga appears in front of him.
"T-these are—"
"Exactly. Those are the continuation of that manga you are currently reading, complete to the last volume. I give them to you directly so you won't need to dig my memories for a time being."
"Kuahahahaha...you're indeed my sworn friends. Thanks a lot." He immediately goes back to his usual self.
"Then if you would, please excuse me."
I flick myself back into the "real space".
⁂
Several days later, Myrd's team has come back to the village. The surveying work has been done without a hitch.
After making sure everything is in place, I gather all citizens including the dwarves. I save the materials and foodstuffs inside [Imaginary Space, so it won't hinder our journey. I've said that I want them to be able to hold on with their own feet someday, so I don't plan on spoiling them too much by further using [Space-Time Domination] or creating a [Portal Gate].
And here comes our first step towards a new land. Towards a new land where our future nation shall be built upon.
~TO BE CONTINUED~
« First « Prev Ch 17 of 26 Next »
ReviewJump:Chapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 9Chapter 10Chapter 11Chapter 12Chapter 13Chapter 14Chapter 15Chapter 16Chapter 17Chapter 18Chapter 19Chapter 20Chapter 21Chapter 22Chapter 23Chapter 24Chapter 25Chapter 26Share: Email . Facebook . TwitterStory: Follow FavoriteAuthor: Follow FavoriteContrast: Dark . Light
Font: Small . Medium . Large . XLTwitter . Help . Sign Up . Cookies . Privacy . Terms of ServiceWe use cookies. By using our services, you acknowledge that you have read and accept our Cookies & Privacy Policies.Accept