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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 20: 17 - Meeting the Adventurers

CHAPTER 17 - MEETING THE ADVENTURERS

Following Rigurd, we step into the cafeteria and walk quietly towards the four's table without them noticing at first.

"Ahh...so delicious!" mumbles the blonde-haired young girl among them.

"Right?!" the man with golden brown hair interjects. "I can't believe this is monsters' settlement!"

The dish served to them, by the way, is roasted meat with assorted vegetables. It is just simple roasted meat, really. But with the help of sauce that we've been using for quite a while especially for roasting meats, it tastes so good.

The sauce gives umami flavour and mild sweetness, perfectly covering the potentially fishy and burning smell of the meat. A pseudo-yakiniku sauce might be the closest description I can get inside my head.

Ciel had been teaching the goblinas and a few male hobgoblins who worked in the public kitchen about how to properly cook meat and some vegetables back when our town was still in its early construction period, although the things she taught were just the basics.

Stopping right near the table, Rigurd lets out a cough to gain the group's attention.

They turn their faces and eyes at him. The munch munch sound that they've been making stops along with their chewing. Combined with their stuffed mouth, the expression that they're having right now reminds me of a squirrel whose mouth is filled with acorns.

"Dear guests," Rigurd bellows as he steps a little to the side and directs both of his open hands at us, "I do hope you are comfortable here. Allow me to introduce you to our masters: Rimuru-sama and Ciel-sama!"

I can hear them swallowing their food down. They are looking at us anxiously. Their previously overjoyed face turn into scared, nervous face—except the masked woman whose expression cannot be seen due to her face wholly covered with mask.

"Well, don't mind us too much for now. Please feel free to enjoy your meal first. We can talk afterwards."

I and Ciel take seats at a nearby table and sit on each seat, with us sitting opposite to each other.

"Rigurd," I call, "next time, if you are to call us to meet some guests, wait for them to at least finish what they are doing first."

"I...I am so sorry, my lord." He lowers his head, looking dejected.

C'mon now... I wasn't angry or anything. I was just giving him an advice. Did he somehow interpret it as me calling him a failure? Oh, well, many of our subordinates used to be like that, too, so I can't say I was surprised to see it...again. They most likely thought that whatever was approved by their master was a success and whatever was not was a failure.

"Ah, don't worry too much about it," I reassure. "We can work on manners later."

They, in the end of the day, are still monsters in their very core. The value of "survival of the fittest" has been ingrained very deeply inside their minds and instincts. We can't expect them to immediately understand and implement what were once a completely alien concept to them—manner, etiquette, camaraderie, social welfare, and many more.

They need time to learn. They need time to understand. They need time to practice. They need time to familiarize themselves.

It is exactly what I and Ciel are here for. We have our role and obligations as their masters, just as how they have their own roles and obligations as our subordinates and citizens. Guiding them little by little to learn and understand, and providing the optimal environment where they can implement, practice, and familiarize themselves with what they have learnt so far—those are just a few of what we see as our obligations.

A goblina enters the cafeteria from a door near the rightmost seat of the frontmost line, bringing a tray of food and tea.

Just from one glance, I can immediately tell who she is. She's none other than Haruna, one of the goblinas gifted in cooking and sewing. She is usually chosen as one of those in charge of preparing sauces for roasting or broths for simmering whenever the hobgoblins have a party or celebration.

Haruna comes closer to our table then puts two bowls of food and two cups of teas on it.

We are always served some food like this whenever we visit the cafeteria, even though our first intention is only to pay a visit or to look around. But we know very well that if we try to decline it, she will just keep insisting. So, we'll just go with it and give her a compliment instead.

The only unusual thing is that we just came like less than two minutes ago and our food had been ready, although I guess it was because they had heard something about us going to be called here, most likely from Rigurd, so they could prepare it much earlier.

"Ah, thank you," I say.

"Great job, Haruna," Ciel praises. "You and your friends have worked fast."

"Thank you very much, Ciel-sama," Haruna responds with a smile. "We are merely fulfilling our duty."

"Then, Rimuru-sama, Ciel-sama, I will return to the kitchen," she continues. "So, if you would, please excuse me."

She bows at us, turns away, and walks out of the cafeteria.

I look at the group again. They have continued their meal, although not as excitedly and loudly as they did before, likely because our presence here as this town's leaders. Their faces are still as bright as ever, though.

I guess I will just begin enjoying the food, too. I take my bowl and change my attention to it. After snapping a pair of disposable chopsticks, I pick up a slice of meat with the chopsticks and put it inside my mouth.

Several minutes later, all of us have finished eating. The teas mostly haven't been drunk up, so all of us will still have something to take a sip on for our incoming talk.

"Did you enjoy the food?" Turning my face, I give them a warm smile.

"Yes! The food was very delicious," replies the blonde-haired girl, slightly bowing at us, followed by the others. "Thank you very much for the meal."

"Glad you enjoyed it."

"We apologize," says the golden-haired man while lightly bowing. "We never expected to be treated nicely by monsters. But we do appreciate it."

"We did not expect to find hobgoblins building a town here," the man with red headband adds.

"Oh, don't worry about that." I let out three coughs. "So, let me introduce ourselves. My name is Rimuru Tempest, and this is my partner, Ciel."

Sigh...I have to do this again, don't I? I change into my slime form and jump to Ciel; she catches me then holds me with her both hands.

"Warui suraimu ja nai yo!" Switching into a full-fledged Japanese, I let out my cutest voice possible: We are not bad slimes!

I am sure all of them have [Magic Perception], so I don't have to worry if they don't understand what I'm saying. Or if they don't, at least they must've learnt a bit of other languages. The guild consists of various adventurers from various origins, including otherworlders. These three, in the end of the day, are still seasoned adventurers with much experience, regardless of how they may look like from the outside.

"Pfft—" """SLIME?!"""

The result is just as expected: the masked woman laughs and the rest are shocked.

"Hehehe...sorry about that." I hop from Ciel's hands back to my seat and return into my human form. "We just wanted to show you that we are harmless—as long as you do not incite us, that is."

"Now, would you please introduce yourselves in return?" Ciel finally speaks up after so long.

After recovering from the shock a few moments later, they look at each other and nod.

"Glad to meet you, Rimuru-san, Ciel-san." The golden-brown-haired young man is the first one to speak. "I am Kaval. For what it is worth, I am the more-or-less leader of this party. And this is—"

"Hello! Ellen here!" The blonde-haired girl eagerly introduces herself.

"Gido, sir." The brown-haired, sturdy-looking man introduces himself. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

Kaval points at the masked woman with his open hand. "And this is temporary member who happened to be going the same way as us."

The woman raises her head a little bit. "Shizu."

A name that I haven't heard of again in such a long time...

My destined one, 'Shizu-san'...

"Kaval, Gido, Ellen, and Shizu, am I right? So, what was it that might bring you to us?" I ask.

"Right, about that..."

They begin to tell the story of their journey from the Kingdom of Blumund to the Great Forest of Jura without even trying to hide anything. Maybe it's because of their sheer annoyance of being ordered to come back investigating without a proper rest.

We're listening to their story while occasionally sipping our teas. Briefly, it went like this.

It all started at the day when the Western Holy Church announced Veldora's complete disappearance around twenty days after the first report of disappearance. They were sent by their guildmaster of the Kingdom of Blumund to investigate the Sealed Cave, just to find nothing from it.

After they came back, reporting the situation inside the cave and confirming Veldora's disappearance, the guildmaster, who apparently didn't care about their condition, gave them only three days of rest and sent them again, now to investigate the areas around the forest instead of inside the cave.

"Yeah, that's the thing!" Kaval continues. "We're here looking for 'suspicious' things, but what the hell is 'suspicious' supposed to mean? We're clueless here!"

"Absolutely!" Ellen chimes in. "I wish he could've said, like, 'Look for this or that or the other thing' instead of leaving it so vague!"

"We might be good scouts and all," Gido adds, "but we can't do everything, y'know?"

As they continue telling their story, they badmouth their own guildmaster without a care in the world and throw various insults regarding him, like calling him a dirty woman-hater, an ignorant old geezer, and many more. I honestly start to feel sorry for the guildmaster in question.

Along the way, they came across a large boulder with a "fishy" hole in it. They drew their swords and stabbed it a little bit...only to wake up an entire nest of giant ants. They had spent the next three days constantly on the run, losing all their possessions on the way, before they were finally rescued by a passing patrol team and were brought here.

Exactly the same scenario as before, eh?

To this day, I am still amazed at the fact they were still able to make it alive through all that misfortune. They are definitely one of the parties, if not the party, with the highest survival rate among all.

"But," I say, "is there indeed anything 'suspicious' going on, though? I don't see much of it around here. Err...mainly in the cave, I guess?"

Of course, it's a lie this time. I was the one who started—or restarted—this whole chaos.

Ellen just shakes her head. "There wasn't, as far as we could tell. In fact, we didn't find anything in there. Did you know the story behind that? This huge, evil dragon are supposed to be there, sealed inside it. But we spent two weeks running up and down that cave, and nothing! Two weeks without a bath, and we got practically nothing for it."

Actually, this town is already suspicious in itself if one thinks about it, but I guess they don't care that much.

"Whoa, there!" an unnerved Kaval rebukes. "We can't reveal that much to them!"

"What do you care about?" Gido counters. "She's the one who did it, not me! It doesn't matter to me!"

The men instantly get panicked at Ellen's "accidental" revelation, although I am sure she's actually been waiting to spit that out to vent her piled-up annoyance. I mean, look, she is wearing that I don't care face and doesn't look sorry even in the slightest bit.

"So, what were you looking for in that cave, exactly? From your story before, I am assuming you were sent to see if this 'evil dragon' was still there, no?"

With a sombre face, Kaval lets out a loud sigh. "Well, she's said that much, so I guess there's no point in hiding it. Like she said, a rumour has been going around that the dragon in there has stopped responding."

Heh-heh-heh... For some reason, I really enjoy hearing people, who has no clues of what's going on, talking about some perplexing news whereas I perfectly know what happened—since I am the perpetrator.

Wait a minute...doesn't this make me sound more like a literal "Chaos Creator"?

"We brought along a Reaction Stone, too," Gido adds, "because they said the cave was practically brimming with magicules...but it wasn't like we thought it would be. Yes, the concentration there is a little heavier than typical caves, but nothing outside what's considered as normal. And that is quite abnormal, so at least we've got that report to return home with."

"And do you know what's even more abnormal?" Ellen interjects. "That cave is famous for being packed with strong monsters and all, but we barely met any! It was fortunate, though, because thanks to that, our investigation became much easier."

We continue talking for a way. They have said too much, as Kaval puts it, so they might as well go all the way. The cave should no longer be a location of interest now, so we won't be the centre of attention at least for a time being until we reveal ourselves to the world. No country has any legal right to this land anyway, so no one can force us to get out of here.

"As you can see," I say, "we're in the middle of building our town. Would the guild have some problem with that?"

"It...ought to be fine, right?" Kaval answers.

"Yeah," Ellen agrees. "It's not the guild's problem in the first place. What about local governments, though?"

"Nah, that ain't for me to say," Gido states his opinion.

Occasionally taking glance at Shizu-san, I notice that something wrong starts going on with her, who has just been listening this whole time. She begins to act strange, looking as if she is ready to collapse at any time.

I apply a combination of [Analysis and Appraisal] and [All of Creation] on her to see whatever is going on right now. Magicules around Shizu-san starts to flow into her body and flow of heat also begins to increase exponentially.

Tsk, this pesky flame spirit...

I quietly cast a small, but special Anti-Magic Area encompassing the cafeteria.

The trio begin suspecting that something wrong is happening, as the magicular density inside the cafeteria has suddenly been decreasing into nearly zero in such a short time. They look here and there, wondering what is actually going on.

The main attribute of the Anti-Magic Area I just casted is of course just like your typical Anti-Magic Area, that is to prevent most of magic from being cast, specifically ones newly casted after the barrier is erected. This will prevent summoning magic—specifically the one that requires magic circle—from being casted, making it nigh-impossible for middle-level and high-level spirits to be summoned or to summon themselves using a controlled host.

Magic, heat, and inertia are the three laws of this world in which I possess most affinity. Using my [Law Domination] ability, I can easily apply more attributes to the anti-magic barrier based on those three—although I've only applied two of them for now.

The first one is unidirectional flow of magicules. The barrier will suck up almost all magicules freely flowing in the air within its area and throw those magicules outwards while also preventing outer magicules to flow inwards.

It should be noted that spirit magic can still be casted inside a normal [Anti-Magic Area]. Spirits make use of magicules to convert them into natural energy the spirits are affiliated with, so the first attribute will prevent the spirit within a controlled host to use external energy source for launching its spirit magic.

But as they can still use their host's internal magicules, comes the role of the second additional attribute: prevention of abnormal heat flow. This is used specifically to handle flame-type spirits.

If thermal fluxes of certain areas within the barrier are detected exceeding the limit set or have too abnormal a fluctuation, they will instantly be negated. Even if they manage to use their host's internal magicules for launching spirit magic through some way like using the help of low-level spirits scattered in the air, the flame that they try to create will instantly be "extinguished" before the chain reaction of combustion even begins to happen.

Because spirits convert magicules into natural energy, that is the real thing of whatever their attribute is, every type of spirit has different ways of how to handle them. The most obvious and the first way to come in mind is of course to block them by using their weaknesses. Fire is weak against water, water is weak against wind, wind is weak against space, space is weak against earth, and earth is weak against fire.

Most of the time, though, spirit magic can only be opposed with spirit magic, not with elemental magic, and vice versa. Fire may be weak against water in the pentagon of five natural elements. But if it's water elemental magic against fire spirit magic, it's unlikely that the water elemental magic will be able to extinguish the fire spirit magic.

It is logical, really, because effects of elemental magic are purely magical in nature whilst effects of spirit magic are physical. That being said, magic user who possesses advanced knowledge might be able to bypass this limitation. But we're not talking about it for now.

There are actually more other attributes, but those are the most prominent two. And behold! This is my "Anti-Magic-and-Flame Area".

Still, Shizu-san ends up collapsing from her chair and falls onto the floor.

"""Shizu-san!""" All of us instinctively get up at the same time from their seats and come to check on her.

Ellen takes the mask off Shizu-san's face then places her hand near Shizu-san's nostrils.

"How's she?" Kaval asks, clearly worried.

"She's still breathing. She might just be too tired after all that we've gone through."

"We'd been constantly in run for three days three nights, after all," Kaval says.

"Yeah, I can't help but feel like we've given her too much burden," Gido says.

Ellen and Kaval respond with a nod, silently expressing their agreement.

I touch Shizu-san's forehead and start conducting another [Analysis and Appraisal] to ensure that what's happening right now is the same as my guess. And yep, Ifrit has taken over her consciousness and is still trying to manifest himself.

This one really is a blockhead.

I decide to put [Thought Domination] on him to forcefully halt the takeover and let Shizu-san regain her consciousness little by little.

Ifrit inside her body has completely been separated from her, making him merely a spirit who's residing inside a host's body, not merged anymore. It's most likely thanks to her [Separation] ability from [Degenerate] unique skill.

This, however, means that Shizu-san is no longer a Majin, and has returned into completely human. Because of that, the cells in her body are quickly aging to the age they should always have been. In a few days, I am afraid she will already look like a grandma with white hair and wrinkles throughout her body.

"Her body is deteriorating very quickly right now," I finally state. "Aging, to put it in another word."

"Huh?" Ellen is confused at my words. "But she looks very young. I thought she's at the same age as us?"

"Shizu-san might even be older than seventy years old."

"Please don't joke around, Rimuru-san..."

"Sorry, Ellen, but I'm not joking at all." I am not smiling to show her that I'm dead serious. "Her young look, I'm afraid, is because of Ifrit inside her body."

"Ifrit?" Gido finally chimes in. "Ifrit the flame giant? Don't tell me Shizu-san is—"

"Shizu..." Kaval mutters. "Shizue Izawa..."

"No way..." Gido looks very shocked after realizing what all of this means. "Isn't Shizue Izawa...the Conqueror of Flames?"

"So...this whole time...we've been adventuring with a living legend without us realizing it?"

I form a [Thought Communication] link with someone who's in charge of managing our temporary health facility. "Harue, are you there?"

"I am here, Rimuru-sama." Comes an answer. "Is there anything I could help?"

"Please tell your team to come to cafeteria. We have someone to take care of."

"It shall quickly be done, my lord."

I end the communication.

"In any case, I think we should let her rest for a while." I stand up, followed by Ciel. "We have contacted some people to help taking a good care of her. You don't need to worry too much."

A few minutes later, a small team of goblinas come into the cafeteria led by a goblina with distinct dark grey, long hair—Harue herself. After my short explanation, they quickly pick her up and put her on a sort-of litter that they bring along with them. They bring her out of here right away.

I turn my attention to the trio. "You, too, should stay here tonight and get some good rest."

"""Thank you very much, Rimuru-san, Ciel-san!""" They stand up together and bow at us seventy degrees.

We exit the cafeteria and lead them to a place special for guests to stay in. On the way, I also form another [Thought Communication], this time with the one in charge of maintaining the place, obviously, so the room can be ready when we arrive there.

When we realize, the sky has turned orange. The first wave of crucial events and dramas will eventually come.

~TO BE CONTINUED~

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