Intruders 2

-'Hey, stay out of this...' Rimuru ordered them, to which they stepped back down.

-'Ha ha, what a bunch of weaklings. taking orders from some slime!' Phobio laughed; Rimuru's patience was straining thin, but he managed to hold it together.

-'Listen, I'm running out of patience here, so you better start talking...' he warned, increasing his aura by bit to emphasize how serious he was. Though Phobio was likely stronger than Benimaru, Rimuru was confident that he could take the idiot on if need be. The display seemed to have worked as Phobio settled down and scowled at him.

-'Tsk, fine..we're here to investigate this city for Demon Lord Carrion, the Beast King, and...'

-'Pfff, Ha, ha, good one!' Milim rudely interrupted from the sofa; Rimuru turn his attention behind to see her laughing

-'Is there something you wanna say, Milim?' he asked with a hint of annoyance; he had hopped she would stay out of this part, but it didn't seem likely. For her part, Milim seemed to have turned on her more 'serious mode', and continued talking as she stood up

-'Yeah, this guy is full of crap. No way Carrion would send such an idiot over here to make contact with you guys.' she calmly explained as she stepped forward, stopping at Rimuru's right side with her arms crossed 'Also, he knows I'm here; he agreed not to interfere with me, so he definitely would not send such an idiot here. He's here on his own. Aren't ya?' she finished with a mocking grin directed at Phobio, who looked like someone had just caught him with his pants down. He was definitely angry, vein throbbing and everything.

-'We were sent to the forest...' he began, sounding as if he was having trouble piecing together his thoughts through his anger. The guy definitely had some issues, Rimuru concluded.

-'But not to my city, is that correct?' Rimuru interrupted him 'Your Lord send you to investigate the Orc Lord battle...over at Lake Shisu, not here, correct? You certainly were not told to invade my city and attack my citizens, were you?' he concluded. If Demon Lord Carrion did indeed wanted to recruit them, sending this guy was the worse possible choice. 'Maybe he did send him, but the meathead completely misinterpreted the orders? Or maybe Milim overestimates this Carrion guy'. Rimuru thought to himself as he looked between the angry Phobio and calm- if smug- Milim. He decided to try and deescalate the atmosphere a little

-'Hey, Milim, thanks for the input but could you please stay out now?' he kindly asked her

-'Ah, sure! I said what I wanted anyway.' she said and casually strolled back to the sofa, bringing her jar of honey out of her storage space as she plopped down.

Once he was sure the Demon Lord was no longer interested, Rimuru turned his attention back to the beastman, considering his words carefully 'Listen...your actions here today could very well spark a conflict between your Lord and our Alliance, depending on how things go. Is the decision to go to war with the entire Jura Forest yours, or your masters?' with the severity of his actions put forth in such a manner, it seemed that Phobio finally realized exactly what he had done; his eyes widened and his anger seemed to subside for a moment and he considered how his master would react. Seeing this, Rimuru decided to end the conversation. 'You should leave, and tell your master that if he wants something from me, he can send a proper envoy and I'll gladly entertain negotiations. But you...are not welcomed here anymore. Leave.' he ordered sternly, to which Phobio's anger seemed to return. The beastman slammed his fist in the table, got up, and began to walk out. He stopped in the door, however, and glanced at Milim who only smiled and made a little mocking wave. Phobio's vein looked ready to explode as he finally stepped out, his lackeys close behind.

'The guy needs to seriously calm down a bit...' thought Rimuru as he watched him leave, then turned to Milim. 'Now then...' 'Hey, Milim, can I ask you a few things about Carrion?' at this, she again had a serious look on her face.

-'Sorry, but I can't tell you anything. We have an agreement, you see.' she rebutted his request, but she did admit they had an agreement, which gave him an idea. He quickly moved over to the sofa and plopped down beside her, leaning in a bit

-'Is it an agreement with just Carrion? Or all the Demon Lords?' she however didn't look like she was gonna budge on the issue, so he decided to play dirty 'Ah damn, so you can't even tell your best friend, huh? Its a shame...' he said with fake- but surprisingly genuine- disappointment. That seemed to move her, as she quickly began to fidget and panic. 'One more push'...' he thought 'Maybe you don't care what happens to your bestie...' that did it; Milim was now genuinely shocked, looking almost ready to cry; though he felt kinda bad about it, for now he needed information

-'NO! I do care, its just...I...' Milim stuttered for a bit more before shouting 'Ah, fine! But, only what relates to you, okay?' she said, not realizing that was more or less what he wanted; of course, information on the other Demon Lords might be valuable, but for now all he needed was to know about her agreement with Carrion and what their intentions were.

-'Of course, of course...' he answered as he sat back and listened to her story; about how Gelmud approached her, Carrion and Clayman- and how she later dragged Frey- into supporting his plan to create the Orc Lord and ascend him into a Demon Lord they could control. Apparently, to do anything major among the Demon Lords, a voting system was in place that required at least three supporters to pass, so having a Demon Lord under one's control certainly seemed to him like a way to cheat the system. Of course, he and his subordinates had completely ruined Gelmud's plan. Afterwards, the four agreed to investigate the battle to see who came out victorious, though Milim claimed she knew the Orc Lord would lose the moment she saw Rimuru in the crystal ball; she lost all interest in the original plan when she glimpsed his fight against Gelmud and was now only interested in goofing around with him, which he certainly preferred over what the other Demon Lords might have planed. He decided to ask what those plans might be

-'Ah, I really shouldn't tell, but whatever...' she answered with a shrug 'Carrion will probably try to recruit you to join him, but he's a pretty level headed guy so he'll be mostly reasonable about it. Frey...' she crossed her arms and looked up in though 'I doubt she's interested, she looked distracted by something else. I don't think you should worry about her. Then there's Clayman...' at this, she scowled and closed her eyes, silent for a few seconds 'Dunno about that guy...he's always scheming something, though...' she trailed off and threw her hands up in surrender 'well, that's all I got!'

-'Really?' he asked disappointed, but this time it didn't look like it was gonna convince her as she just threw herself across the sofa, unusually silent. 'Well, alright, that's enough for now...HEY!' sometimes in the middle of Milim's explanation, he had turned back into his slime form, and now the Demon Lord grabbed him and began using him as an impromptu pillow. Before he could protest further, though, she was already fast asleep. 'Great...' he thought as she began to droll on him a bit. ''Is this revenge on me for guilt tripping her into talking? Nah, probably not...'

Of course, it was exactly that.

He and his subordinates spent the next few hours discussing the information they had gathered from Milim, and whatever Soei could piece together about the Demon Lords, going back and forth on how to react if they were approached again. As night rolled around, the party began to scatter and eventually he was left alone with Milim, still serving as her pillow well into the morning. If asked if he minded, he would say yes. But that would be a lie.

-'Damn that Milim!' Phobio's screem range out in the forest, followed by a loud crack as his fist made an entire tree fall over. 'How humiliating! Lord Carrion would never have fallen so low...'

-'Sir Phobio, please calm down...' one of his companions tried to interject 'with Demon Lord Milim there even Lord Carrion would have trouble...'

-'Shut up! That's not the only problem. That damn slime was right...even without her there, I messed up...this will only cause trouble for our Lord...' he finished dejectedly; his comrades understood exactly where he was coming from. To the lycanthropes of Eurazania, Beast King Carrion was a legend, a warrior who had risen to the rank of Demon Lord hundreds of years prior and who became a symbol of their strength and hope as he led the defense of their home in the Great War. No one among the beastmen did not greatly respect or even revere the king; to be of use to him was the greatest desire among the warriors of the kingdom, and to cause him trouble the greatest dishonor. His comrades looked on with pity as a voice rang out from somewhere deeper in the forest

-'AH, i understand well your frustration. Keeping it under control is quite difficult, isn't it?'

The four beastmen quickly turned to the source of the voice; from among the darkness of the overgrowth, a large shadow emerged and jumped right in front of them. It was a large, fat man in a jester costume, wearing an angry mask.

-'Who are you?!' Phobio demanded as he prepared his claws

-'I am Footman, the angry clown; a member of the Moderate Harlequin Alliance. Pleasure is all mine, beastmen of Eurazania!' the large clown introduced himself with a light bow. From behind him, a much smaller clown- a small girl- emerged wearing a mask with a crying face

-'And I'm Tear, the teardrop clown.' she said as she waved. The four beastmen were slightly stumped, especially Phobio; despite their looks, they had a certain dangerous aura about them. He exchanged glances with his comrades before focusing on the intruders

-'Moderate Harlequin Alliance? Never heard of it...now what do you want?'

-'We're an odd-jobs mercenary group, you see...' the girl started as she moved in front of the group 'and we have a proposition for you...' thinking carefully, Phobio decided that he had allowed his anger to rule him for quite enough that day; these clowns were not worth it pushing it further, so he just turned around and began leaving

-'Not interested. I want nothing from you fishy looking clowns...' however

-'Demon Lord Milim'' at the mention of that name, he stopped and glanced back at the girl 'needs to be thought a lesson, doesn't she?'

-'How do you...'

-'Do you want power?' the angry clown interrupted, getting right in his face

-'Because we can offer you power. The power to defeat even a Demon Lord!' the girl added

Despite the protests of his companions, Phobio decided to hear the two clowns out, listening intently to their explanation about the coming awakening of the great beast known as Charybdis and how the two clowns knew of a way to take it. Deep inside, Phobio though that the whole thing sounded sketchy...but at the same time, he realized that he could just not face his Lord after the trouble his actions would certainly cause. His shame was too great. And he had an opportunity to wipe away some of it.

-'Tell our Lord I formally quit from the Three Beastketeers. Any action I take from now on is on my own. No fault will fall on anyone but me.' he told his companions before walking off into the darkness with the clowns.