happy Days

'Alright troops, pay attention!' General Rimuru billowed to his assembled soldiers 'Our enemy is down to their last forces! We have the advantage, and so we will press for one final assault! Prepare yourselves!'

Everyone cheered; that is, all the children in his group that were partaking in Operation: Snowball Fight. The first snow had arrived in Tempest, something which he was told would not last very long; the region was generally warm and winter was fairly short. For the most part, monsters and humans around did not see much cold weather, and many winter seasons passed with no snow. Indeed, the former year seemed to have passed so quickly because the winter- his first winter in the new world- was an unusually warm one. He didn't even knew it was winter at the time until after it was nearly over. He was thus feeling pretty lucky that this one had record snowfall. Of course, for a city such as his, snow could be something of an impediment, but he had always liked it.

Currently, he and a number of children in the city were playing in the nearby forest, blanketed by a deep cover of snow, and competing against several other groups led by the various adults who wanted to join in. It had been a fierce fight, with many casualties, but his group managed to pull through and now the enemy teems were down to one; unfortunately, that team was the one led by Milim herself, and so when he told them they had the advantage, he was being a tad bit over dramatic; he was met with blank stares. He coughed, then decided for a different approach

-'Okay, maybe we're actually in deep trouble...BUT, I know we can win if we play our cards right! Here's the plan!' and so began explaining to the troops his brilliant tactics, and while it did managed to raise moral for a bit it quickly went downhill for them. While his plan was fairly sound, it did failed in one very important aspect: namely, it relied on the enemy, especially Milim, playing fair. And, as it turned out, she was not about to do that. As they were leaving the large trench they dug out for cover, they were quickly beset by a hail of snowballs.

-'It'a an ambush!' one of the children shouted, trying to run for cover but was quickly and mercilessly cut down.

-'What?!' Rimuru shouted, barley dodging a few stray balls 'Retreat!' as he directed his troops back to safety, he tried to track the direction form which the enemy was attacking; they were well hidden among the trees, but he managed to locate them. New plan in mind, he ducked back into the trench, ready to direct the counterattack, but was met with a grueling sight: all his troops were down, sprayed across the ground with snowballs in their backs. No one was spared. Panicked, he tried to slowly back away and run for it, but it was too late

-'Going somewhere?' a voice said from behind him. With a sigh, he slowly raised his hands in surrender and turned around to face the enemy. Milim smiled smugly, snowball in hand, as she stood over the bodies of her enemies.

-'I didn't think you'd be up for this kind of infiltration attack...' Rimuru told her with a scowl 'I was sure you were more of the 'full frontal attack' kind of girl...'

-'Wahahahaha! Don't look down on me, Rimuru!' she said as her smile grew wider 'Anything goes in a fight! Mercy has no place on the battlefield! Now...' she prepared to launch her weapon 'I'm feeling generous, so I'll let you decide how to end this: take it like a man, run away, try and fight...it's all the same to me!'

Rimuru looked at her and her weapon, then at all his fallen comrades; grimacing, he made his decision. 'I think...I'l take my chances and fight!' she launched the ball straight at him with incredible speed, but he managed to barley avoid it by changing into his slime form, launching himself into the air with a water jet

-'Hey, no fair!' she shouted as he flew away

-'What was that?' he asked mockingly 'Didn't you say anything goes in a fight? Well, I'm a fast learner!' and so he turned his attention away from the pouting dragonoid and diverted it at her troops, which had arrogantly left their cover and were approaching his trench, thinking they had won. Well, it may be true- he had little hope of defeating Milim, truth be told- but he was going to make it a pyrrhic victory if there ever was one. 'Water Control...' he shouted as he prepared a massive attack aimed at the enemy 'Snowball Rain! Dieeeee!' he launched his assault, a hail of snowballs he had made inside his body with water control. Shooting them like a freaking machine gun, the effect was much like real trench warfare: the enemy was cut down in seconds under the relentless hail of projectiles. It was over in seconds; none were shown any mercy.

Hastily turning back into his human form, he landed some distance away, looking at his handiwork; he smile, ready to meet his own end at the hands of the enemy commander. He thought he was ready for anything, but once again he had underestimated Milim. He sensed her jumping out of the trench and turned to look at her; he quickly took a step back in fear when he saw she had an angry (ish) scowl on her face and was floating high above him, holding a massive snowball in her hands, aiming straight at him. Realizing he had little hope to avoid it, he sighed, smiled and closed his eyes, deciding to meet the end like a man. The forest echoed with a loud thud as the attack engulfed the leader of Tempest.

Sometime later, everyone was gathered together around a bonfire, laughing and arguing; despite the cold, everyone was merry. Of course, Rimuru and Milim had such a high degree of resistance to most things, a little winter cold did not affect them at all. Even so, like everyone else, they wore thick coats and boots to blend in better; Milim's was pink, while Rimuru's was blue.

-'Ha ha ha, we totally won!' one of the kids from Milim's group boasted while laughing at the enemy, who booed him

-'No you didn't!' a girl from Rimuru's group shot back 'You got taken out even before the rest!'

-'Wha...why you!' the kid scowled 'Our leader survived to the end, so it's our win!'

A cheer of 'Yeah!' and 'That's right!' rang out from among his comrades as they continued to bicker; Rimuru shook his head but continued to smile, glad everyone was so lively. He was especially happy to see how Milim was having so much fun; she was smiling ear to ear and cheering along with the rest of her team while occasionally teasing him and his group. The two were holding hands, sitting alongside each other on the same log. The lively discussion continued for a few more minutes until Shuna came along with a few goblinas, each bringing trays of warm tea for everyone to enjoy. After drinking up, the group enjoyed the setting sun, and soon it was time for most of the children to return home. The ones from Milim's group especially wanted to stay a bit longer and enjoy their victory with their fearless leader, but Shuna quickly made them scuttle home with a single glare.

As she made to leave too, Shuna turned to look at the two and asked 'Aren't you going home?', shaking her head when she realized they were almost too preoccupied with each other to hear what she said. Sporting a teasing smile, she repeated her question

The two looked away, embarrassed, while Rimuru spoke up 'Ah, no, we'll stay for just a bit longer...' The ogress smiled warmly and left, leaving them alone. Rimuru gulped, wondering how much longer they were gonna be the subject of teasing for the Ogre Princess...he did't much care to find out.

They stayed silent for a bit longer, looking up into the clear, winter sky as the stars started to become visible. He felt Milim lean her head against his shoulder, smile and place a hand over her to draw her closer. Just because the cold didn't affect her didn't mean he could't pretend to be like a normal couple. Even though, realistically speaking, there was nothing normal about either of them. He though back to the last few days they had spent together

-'Heh...' he absentmindedly laughed, drawing her attention.

-'What?' she asked

-'Ah, nothing much.' he answered back, smiling 'I was just thinking how great you got along with all the kids...'

She looked slightly embarrassed at his words, looking away to hide her blush. He laughed softly at her reaction. Even though they had been together for a bit, she still had that reaction whenever he praised her for something. He tightened his hold on her shoulder a bit more and leaned back a bit, looking up into the sky.

-'Hey, Rimuru?' she asked softly

-'Hm?'

-'I was just wondering...why did you built this city for?' she asked as they made eye contact. He stared for a bit, wondering what brought that question, and pondered just how to answer.

-'Ah, well...at first, just because they asked me to help. I could never say no to someone asking for help...' he said as he scratched his cheek 'They just looked so...down, you know? Especially Rigurd...so I helped them. After that, it wasn't like I could abandon them...' he sighed and smiled as he remembered all the thinks he and his people had went through in the nearly two years since he had been here 'Wow, it's really been that long?' he though to himself in realization. He continued talking to Milim, who was listening intently 'I'd be lying if I said I didn't do it for myself too, though. I just...wanted to live a leisurely, easy life with everyone...'

-'Ah, I see...' Milim said after a few moments of silence. She turned away and looked to be contemplating something 'That sounds...really amazing...' she said in a distant voice filled with some new emotion Rimuru wasn't quite sure where to place. 'I wonder...' she began saying something, but stopped and shook her head as if trying to get whatever she was thinking out.

-'Milim?' he asked in worry, but she looked over and continued to smile

-'No, it's nothing!' she hastily said 'Just some dumb thoughts I had..he he, don't mind me. Anyways!' she said a little too loudly as she got up 'Let's get dinner!'

She began dragging him along by the arm, and he didn't resist. He wondered just what she was thinking, but decided not to pry for now. He was sure that, whatever it was, she would come clean eventually.

Winter in the Jura Forest was indeed short; the two weeks or so of snow was, apparently, quite a long time for the region, but even that eventually came to an end as warmer days came. The snow began to melt and much of the land began to recover it's green hue; it would soon be spring, a perfect time to celebrate new life and new opportunities. Thus, Tempest was preparing for yet another celebration, this one a little more pragmatic.

When the city first started out, they had quite the housing issues; for that reason, most ended up sleeping in common dormitories separated by gender, but as time passed and actual houses for single families became available, the question arose: how to parcel these houses? Rimuru came up with the idea to hold a 'confession day' every month, in which couples would come together and those who decided to start a family- though not marry, as most monsters had no such customs- would be allocated a house depending on how available they were. Over time, as more houses were built and the number of new couples dwindled, Confession Day was moved away from a monthly event to being held every four months only. And as it happens, one such Day was to be held soon. Rimuru was quite exited about it, as the once simple celebration had evolved quite a bit since it's inception and was now a full blow party with music, dance and of course food; the monsters, due to influences from the humans adventurers passing through, even decided to start holding official marriage ceremonies to make everything seem more civilized (of course, most, especially the older ones, didn't really care and simply continued with the old traditions).

The reason Rimuru was exited was simple: he was going to take Milim to a date to the celebration. While they had dinner in his house occasionally, and spent some time together having fun with this or that, he realized they never actually had a proper date yet. That was a huge bummer for him, who, as stated before, was a huge fan of cliches. Confession Day would thus be an excellent opportunity for a date; even if it turned out not all that different from what they usually did, as long as they had fun it would be worth it, he reasoned. Of course, Milim was beyond exited when she heard, running off to Shuna for a new outfit to wear, though he yelled after her not to go to crazy; he himself decided to just wear a simple blue hoodie and white, loose pants.

As the sun set, preparations for the party were finalized, with only a few people around. Rimuru sat near the entrance, watching a group of hobgoblins as they prepared their simple instruments to play music; sadly, he had yet to find anything better than handmade drums, pipes and simple string instruments, and reproducing any from his past life proved too difficult for the simple reason that he had no real idea how more complex instruments worked. Even Great Sage was of little help, as it could only reproduce things it had observed first hand; his poor memories, at best, were not nearly enough, it informed him. Even so, the hobgoblins proved quite adept at making due with what they had, and a number of them even began working on developing stuff by themselves; it would take times, perhaps years of research, but he figured that was probably better than just giving it to them on a silver platter.

As he looked at the group rehearsing, he was distracted by a pair of fast approaching footsteps. He turned around and was once again taken aback, his non-existing heart skipping a beat as he saw Milim coming over in a simple, red summer dress. Her hair was loose and she looked as exited as always with a wide, bright smile. She stopped just short of him and quickly asked 'How's this?' while doing a little twirl. He smiled and took her hand in his

-'You look great. As usual...' he said and began leading her into the temporary open tent that dominated the square. Looking at her, he decided that he could hardly wait any longer and signaled to the hobgoblin to start playing something. With wry smiles on their faces, the musicians began playing a soft tune.

-'It's starting already?' Milim asked as they stopped in the middle of the dance area, looking around a bit confused. He drew her closer and placed one hand behind her back

-'I can't be bothered to wait...' he told her with a smile 'So let's have some fun!' and began leading her along in a slow dance

-'Eh he, I'm not good at this...' Milim confessed a bit embarrassed.

Rimuru continued to lead the impromptu dance, and he quickly realized that she was just mimicking him 'Well, just keep following my steps, okay?' she nodded. They continued to slowly twirl around the dance area; at some point, she buried her face face in his shoulder. He noticed that a small crowd gathered around the entrance of the tent, politely watching in silence. He payed no attention to their grins, continuing to lead the girl as they fooled around the dance floor.

Pretty soon, the celebration was in full swing as dozens of couples began dancing and partying, but for the most part Rimuru and Milim ignored them, lost in each other's company.

After a few hours of dancing and eating and even a few 'marriage' ceremonies (which Milim seemed to find really fun), the party began to die down. Even as everyone but the designated cleaning crew were left, Rimuru and Milim remained, still caught up in their date. Eventually, he decided they really should leave, and began making their way through the city, hand in hand.

Milim woke up with a sudden jolt, the images from the bad dream still fresh; looking around the dark room, she noticed that Rimuru was not around, then remembered they parted ways some time after the celebration ended. Slowly, she threw the covers away, and got out of the bed and moved to the window; she had to stare for a while when she saw her reflection, a small grimace still hanging on her face along with some light sweat. She tried to remember when was the last time anything made her sweat, but could't. The though, however, made her recall some parts of the dream; in which she once again could do nothing but look on in terror as someone else she cared for was killed and all she could do was avenge them, instead of protecting them. With fists balled, she slowly but quietly made her way outside, hoping the cool air would calm her mind a bit.

She wondered around for a while, not having any particular destination in mind, and payed to heed to the curious gaze of the occasional night guard; eventually, she realized she unconsciously made her way over to the large clearing she had first landed and met Rimuru. She looked intently to the spot they had fought; the crater had long since been covered up by some workers, but the patch of missing grass still gave it away. Her mind drifted back to the day she first saw him, in Clayman's crystal globe; the though of the other Demon Lord made hew scowl deeper. She was sure the smallfry was up to something, but for the life of her she just could not figure out what. She had no real proof, of course. Even she realized that just killing the idiot outright with no actual proof would just cause more trouble; if not for her, then it may just cause more grief for Rimuru if the other Demon Lords, especially Guy, found out she did it to keep him safe from whatever Clayman was doing. If she wasn't careful, the others might think he was using her or something and then things would really get out of hand; plus, he had already said he wasn't interested in becoming a Demon Lord or tangle with them (his diplomatic relations with Carrion aside).

Even so, she knew that Clayman was up to something; if not him, then someone else was using him. She would eventually need to do something; she had to. There was no way she would allow that dream to come true. However, she was at a loss, racking her brain on what the best course of action was. She began pacing, losing track if time; before she knew it, it was dawn. As she stared at the raising sun, she sensed a familiar presence coming in from behind. Smiling, she turned to Rimuru

-'You weren't in your room...' he said as he approached. He had a worried look in his eyes 'Is everything alright? The night guards said they saw around the city last night...'

-'It's fine...' she half lied; she disliked it, but disliked seeing Rimuru worried even more, so she swallowed her dislikes as best she could 'I just...had a bad bread...' she muttered while looking away. Rimuru looked at her for a brief moment before suddenly pulling her into a hug, which she quickly returned

-'Do you want to talk about it?' she heard Rimuru ask softly; when she shook her head, he continued 'Are you sure? I'll listen to anything you have to say, you know...'

-'It's okay.' she murmured 'It was just a dumb dream...' she pulled back and smiled 'It's fine now.' He looked a bit unconvinced, but nodded anyway and returned the smile. Putting a hand around her shoulder, he began leading her away from the clearing

-'Well, if you ever change you mind...' he offered. Deep inside, her heart melted at his considerate words. Not saying anything, the two made their way to the dining hall for breakfast; along the way, she had made up her mind. One way or another, she would do her best to keep her Rimuru safe. She would do whatever it took.