The Taste of Defeat / True Dragon Reunion.
(Honestly, the most random chapter Ideas are coming up to my mind but I am having a blast writing them. Exhibit A being this chap)
(Rimuru Pov)
Since Ciel wouldn't usually spend that much time in a separate body she eventually broke apart the parallel existence and we returned to just simply being one.
She said she wanted to take better care of our daughter before she was born and she could do so better if she didn't have to worry about having a body. But that once she was born she was planning on spending more time in a parallel existence body of her own to be able to spend time with our daughter.
With the little vacation over it was inevitably time to return to Tempest. And of course, it led to an interesting encounter.
"I'm sorry for using my skill on you." Little Michael said while looking down.
"..." Velrynd only looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.
"He… had some time to reflect on what he did," I said with a bit of an awkward expression.
"So… you forgave him?" Velgrynd asked while looking with an even more complicated expression.
"Well… let me explain…" I said.
I explained Michael's situation like Ciel had explained it to me. And since Velgrynd was immune to his mind control after I had copied and changed her skill she just looked at Michael with her complicated expression.
"I'm really sorry Miss Velgrynd Tempest." Michael said while using a different form of mind control, puppy eyes. He shamelessly added the Tempest just to get on her good side.
And judging by her slight change in expression, it worked slightly.
While she still wasn't going to forgive him that easily just because he apologized, she decided to at least not hate his guts. So instead of a kill on sight, she was going to just sort of ignore him for now. Which was more than Michael expected.
"So… who is going to be looking after it?" Velgrynd said while pointing at him.
"Well, for now, the plan is for him to also spend some time learning at school. However, after he gets familiar with Tempest he will be spending some time all over the place. Same as with the rest of the kids. Though I will be looking after him for some time as well."
There were a few knocks and the door, and after getting confirmation to enter, one of Tempest's teachers entered the room before smiling towards Michael.
"Hey there buddy. I got the message that you are new around here. Are you ready for the tour?"
After looking back at me to receive confirmation he nodded his head and left with the teacher.
Which left just me and Velgrynd.
"Tea?" She asked as she gave a final look at the door.
…
"...So then I told her. 'No, you cannot kill Veldora just because he is being annoying.' Which only made Velzard more annoyed. Her methods are quite harsh when it comes to taking care of our brother."
The entire true dragon family had gathered together for some tea and to catch up with each other. And while Velgrynd was telling stories of their past Veldora was just on the corner laying on a couch reading a strange book.
As for why I was here? I could transform into any of them since I had copied them while changing their skills. So I was four times the true dragon they were. Counting my own true dragon transformation I had never bothered using.
"Hey! Don't talk about me as if I am not in the room! And especially don't go around talking bad about me. I froze you once and I can do it again." Velzard said as she stood up annoyed.
"See?" Velgrynd said with a smug grin that twitched for a moment as she glanced at me.
"Is that really necessary? How long has it been? I think your 30 minutes are over, aren't they, Milim? Maybe we can play another round. I have a good feeling about next round."
But Milim just answered by burying her face into my slime body and hugging me even tighter.[1]
"I won my bet. Let me enjoy it."
I was currently in my rarely used slime form being used as a hug pillow by Milim who seemed to be enjoying it a little too much.
The reason for this was Tempest's most dangerous game.
Uno.
For some reason, we always ended up making dangerous bets while playing this simple card game. And while Benimaru was usually the recipient of the doom brought forth by the cards, he had sworn to never play the game again. And well, he wasn't here. We all know he cannot resist trying to win at least once.
Hearing the news about starting a new game Veldora poked his head out of the book he was reading.
"Are we starting a new round? We should change the game for more interesting bets."
Since he had spoken I turned my attention to him only to become shocked.
"Yo, my dude, are you serious right now? Where did you get that book?"
"This? Some librarian lady gave it to me. I am reading it for the plot…" Veldora said while hiding away a book whose title was 'Icha Icha'
"Anyways," Veldora said, deflecting the attention from the book while pulling out a modified game of clue. "It is time to show why they call me the Lord of Investigation."[2]
…
With a scattered mess of random games all over the floor there were only two people in the room that didn't have a delighted expression.
"Veldora, Faust failed us." I said as I was now being used as a gigantic bean bag by Velzard, Milim, and Velgrynd.
"He wouldn't have if we hadn't banned the use of any skills while playing. But dude, what is up with your luck today. You are getting straight-up garbage today. My plan was just to rely on you." Said a basketball-sized talking Veldora plushie that was lying on the ground with a high-pitched voice.
"Maybe Karma is finally catching up to you for making such a big mess everywhere before you met with Rimuru. You brought him to your sinking ship" Velzard said with a sleepy tone.
"Veldora, from now on you are teaming up with Rimuru for every game. This has been the best day ever." Milim said while snacking on honey I had made.
"Heheheh." Velgrynd was just giggling to herself with joy as she continued to squish herself and roll around on top of me.
Veldora could only look at me with pity.
"Brother, abandon me if you must. But you must flee!" Veldora said in his most dramatic voice, ruined by its high pitch tone.
Yet his oscar-winning performance was interrupted by Velzard throwing a pillow on top of him.
…
Once we had fulfilled our part of the bets we were able to return to our regular forms.
And since we had wasted enough time we decided to end the games and bets part. Even with the complaints of the constant winners.
And it all turned into a storytelling time that continued for a long time.
All sorts of stories from everyone's life were told. From the time Velzard asked Velgrynd to build a snowman to the time Veldora "accidentally" destroyed Luminous' home. From the time Milim had to teach Gaia how to hunt to the time Velgrynd almost melted her way through the planet back when she didn't have full control of her ultimate skill.
It was all nice until Velzard decided that she was going to use me to nap even while I was no longer in slime form. Her only words were.
"How is he so damn comfortable?"
[1] Autocorrect wanted it to say "Burning her face into my slime body" lol
[2] I got an idea for a side chapter/slime diary set in an alternate universe.
~A/N~
I want to be lazy but gotta write.
Also, harem is a bit of a pain to write, not gonna lie. But well, you know the saying, I made my bed so now I gotta lie in it.
I had a little bit more originally in the chapter but it felt a little out of place so I will just leave it for the next chapter. Honestly, if the true dragon part felt a little out of place too it's because I had absolutely no plans of writing it.
It's just sort of what my mind got fixated on after I wrote the "Tea?" part. Originally this was supposed to be either a Milim chap or a Velgrynd chap.
And as for the reason the chap had a bit of a more comedy tone? I have been reading a really good "Comedy" story called "The Villainess with a Heroine Harem" and have been laughing with every chapter. So the comedy feelings carried over to when I was writing this chap. I already binged 144 chaps in two days. So go check it out, it's worth the read.