Chapter 13

"...I can, maybe look into conquering this kingdom in the future."

I whispered below my breath as I gazed out of the window of my cell. Outside were some of the soldiers training and thanks to the great sage's analysis as well as my own intuition, it didn't take that long to figure out that I can decimate the entire place once I become a demon lord.

The only reason why that dwarf king dude was useful because of politics, I mean I guess if I want to be a successful kingdom I should just get into an alliance with them.

Conquering the world seems like it would be too much of a hassle, maybe that's the reason why the original Rimuru never made an attempt on doing that whatsoever.

But I'm different, even if I don't conquer the dwarf kingdom, I should look towards conquering the entire eastern side.

There was bound to be an all-out war with the eastern empire, instead of waiting for them to attack us it would be best to launch an unsuspecting attack towards them once I can.

Guy wouldn't really like that, I'll assume but if I can get Chloe on my side then I can probably match him with her.

Prideful King Lucifer, the ultimate skill that symbolizes Pride, and it was also Guy's ultimate skill.

It was a totally ridiculous skill that allows Guy to copy any skill he sees, heck he even copied Milim's ultimate skill so I was reluctant to even meet with him, seeing as Relentless would probably evolve to an ultimate skill that'll be active all the time.

Either way, I ended up rambling.

"An alliance would be best, then maybe I can convince the king to help me out on conquering the empire."

It would still be nice to have some friends, judging in the future I'd have more servants than people I can actually call my friends.

Having people worship me is nice but that'll get lonely fast, I at least want a few of them to stand on equal footing with me.

I guess Milim did actually have a reason to cling to the original Rimuru like that.

"All right," he said, "you're free to go. Sorry I kept you in here for so long—I was beholden to keep you overnight, at least. Apologies!"

"Don't be, honestly I'm pretty thankful for it, saved me expenses for a hotel!"

And that was the truth.

Even though I had used illusions to cover up the fight that happened yesterday, the spell was still bound to lose its effect and the blood soaked ground would be seen but hopefully I'll be out of their hair by then.

"Glad you see it that way. Here, let me make it up to you. I can introduce you to a talented blacksmith I know!"

"That would be perfect. Thank you!"

Right on schedule, finally I can look into a hot bath after so long. I missed the feel of warm water cascading down my body, though I think I have the fire resistance skill?

Maybe it was the temperature skill, who knows, my memory is so bad that I had to put my own name on my password to not forget them so I don't expect me to remember these things.

"In exchange for that…"

Mmm? A catch? The only "catches" I ever liked were the ones on porn sites.

"If you have any of those recovery potions left, would you be interested in letting go of them?"

Oh right, Vesta or something should want to look into them. Eh have a go at it.

"Alright, Have five then."

"Okay, um, well, how about five, then?"

"Five! Ah, that'd be wonderful!"

"Sure. Oh, also, I'm pretty sure they'll still work even if you dilute them a little bit, all right? If it's just a regular slash wound, ten parts water to one part potion oughta do the trick."

The captain nodded eagerly, fully convinced. I spat out my five potions, and he responded by giving me a small pouch. Inside I could see a selection of gold coins. "I know it's not much," he explained, "but I hope you'll accept this. I'll give you five gold pieces for each one of these!"

"Fine by me, but..."

"Not enough? I'm doing my best here.."

"Oh not that, it's my first time here skill I'm wondering if you could help me with that too."

Soon, I was out in the fresh air of freedom again…but not before lunch. The captain insisted. It was good, but not that good. What I'm really looking forward to is Shuna's cooking.

Not Shion's, I repeat, not Shion's.

"Yo! You in there?!" shouted the captain—Kaido, as it happened.

As we had conversed, we'd grown friendlier and friendlier with each other. We were on a first-name basis now, and it turned out his older brother was in charge of the shop we were visiting.

It was a cozy place, the kind where you'd expect the owner to be a gruff old man behind the counter.

"Hello!"

"Pardon the intrusion," I said as I followed Kaido in. The moment we entered, we felt several dubious gazes upon us.

"""Ah!!"""

The three miners who had thanked me for saving them yesterday lifted their eyebrows high. They looked right as rain, but their expressions weren't exactly jubilant.

Just as expected, the man behind them was a perfect image of the grizzled, grouchy old civil-works guys I once had to deal with. He was the proprietor, no doubt. Didn't look much like Kaido.

"Whadda you want? You know these guys?"

"Kaijin, this is it! The slime! The one who saved us…"

"Yeah! It sure is! And you're our boss's brother, aren't you, Captain?"

"...…"

"Oh-ho! The slime, you say? We were just talking about you! Thanks for getting these guys out of a bad way yesterday."

Yes, yes. Praise me. You'll be good to do so hehehe

I should probably tell people to stop praising me, once they do then I'll probably get confident and start being narcissistic but I'll just indulge in it for now.

"So," the old guy said, rearing back a bit, "what brings you here today?"