The day had come. Fuze waited in his office as he awaited the arrival of the aid he needed to investigate the Jura Forest. However, his life, as usual, did not prove to be easy. He looked in front of him.
The mission to investigate the forest would be simple. It was a simple exploration mission where those sent would be tasked with taking note of any changes or oddities found. Simple. To help with that, his contact had made the choice to send him someone with experience within the forest. That much was good.
However, to ensure nothing was hidden from him, he had chosen to summon a party that he knew he could trust to spill all information. Thus, leading to the situation in front of him. There, sitting in front of him sat Kaval's Party. A group of 3 adventurers that he had found to be more malleable and controllable than most. Along with the aid that would be sent, they would go into the forest to investigate. However…
"Eh!?" Yelled out the girl. "You want us to go to the forest!? But we just came back …"
Fuze tuned them out as they immediately began to bitch about the number of missions they were sent in. Waiting for it to end, Fuze sighed as he explained, "I have judged you as the most fitting for this given your array of spells. I will not take no for an answer." The three gave him a look of resignation like the man before them was telling them to do this with a gun to their heads. "I will give you a four day vacation including today. Then, you are to set off with an aid of mine."
Fuze looked at them. "I would recommend you take advantage." The party looked like they had just fallen off a cliff…because they had no less than an hour ago.
The sound of a door opening resounded from behind as Fuze turned to look. "Ah, so I see they are here."
The entire party turned around to look. In walked two people, both female, although they both weren't wearing particularly open clothing. Kaval's party huddled together, asking themselves if this was really worth it not long after getting a good look at them.
One was wearing a white and black adventurer's outfit with a long white cape. Attached to a belt around her waist, an expensive looking longsword was also seen, most likely her weapon of choice. However, none of this drew attention more than what she had in her face. Covering it, the party took note of a round white and black patterned mask, hiding her appearance.
As for the other, outside of piercing blue eyes, it was hard to get any idea of what she looked like as she had completely covered herself in a long brown cloak. No weapons, but a strong presence. They guessed she was likely a mage of some kind. Eren, the girl sitting in the middle, looked at the side of the head. The way the cloak protruded outward. Was she an elf?
Fuze turned and stood up, walking towards the masked girl first. Shaking her hand, he bowed as he said, "I thank you for your aid. I will make sure to get our agreed upon compensation as quickly as I can."
The group looked at the girl. So this was the one that would be sent with them. They watched as Fuze thanked the cloaked girl for her help in reaching the masked girl, before she silently nodded and left. As the door closed, the masked girl walked over to them.
In a polite tone, she said, "Hello, my name is Shizu. I am here to aid in this mission. Please take care of me."
"Bagworm hell, eh? Talk about a creative name."
Mikaeru looked up as Gobta shook violently, trying to escape the impromptu torture Rimuru had made for him. Using [Sticky Thread], Rimuru had tied Gobta to the ceiling. Sealing away his ability to move his limbs or speak thanks to the numerous threads tying them.
The two slimes turned away from the unfortunate hobgoblin as the sound of a door opening was heard. In walked someone Mikaeru recognized. Kaidou.
Walking in, Kaidou sighed, "I more or less understand what is going on from the witness testimonies, but I do still have one question for you." He asked, "What was that wolf that was seen?"
"What? Are you asking about the species?"
"No, not the name. I want to know why such a monster appeared and where it went." His look got serious, "I want to hear everything from you."
Rimuru laughed nervously, "Hehe. Well, it was me. You see, that was just me transformed."
Kaidou seemed doubtful. "It's already rare to see a slime that can talk, but one that can transform." Rimuru and the dwarf entered a short argument about the chances that a slime had all the abilities he claimed to possess, all the while Mikaeru sat back and watched. He knew from the light novel that when it came to talking nonsense, none could beat Rimuru. The talk stretched on for hours as Rimuru somehow turned the conversation from an interrogation into a made up backstory for himself where his and Mikaeru were actually twin sisters that had been cursed to become slimes, adventuring to find a cure for the condition.
Why Rimuru chose to make them girls in this made up backstory, he couldn't tell. They hadn't even taken Shizue's appearance yet. He just watched as Kaidou was completely dragged into this talk of the twin girls' adventures, which Rimuru somehow managed to craft into an expertly self-consistent five year long journey, ending in their current day quest to help a goblin village. It was a marvel to behold the level of bullshit Rimuru could expertly craft off the top of his head.
By the end of it, both had completely forgotten about why they were doing, fully engrossed in the drama that was the twin sisters' slime adventure. This could be its own light novel, Mikaeru thought to himself.
With teary eyes, Kaidou sighed in satisfaction, "All right. That's it for the report. Thank you for…"
The door shot open as a dwarven guard rushed in. "Sir Kaidou! An armorsaurus appeared in the mine! It's already injured several miners at their posts!"
"What!?" Mikaeru felt as something moved into his shadow. It wasn't hard to get the attack to happen. Ranryo had more than a strong enough presence to spook an armorsaurus into stampeding. It would just take time for one to be pushed into an area with active mining, hence why he let Rimuru yap for 4 hours.
It appeared that Ranryo succeeded. "Did you defeat it?" Kaidou asked with a concerned tone.
"Y-yes sir! A suppression force is on its way but a few of our workers were injured pretty badly and the shops are all closed for some reason!" That was also part of Mikaeru's plan. That much was a simple case of having Ranryo knock out all of the shop owners with [Menace] and turning their open signs to closed.
"What!? What about our healers!?" He asked.
"The attack happened too deep in the mines! It would take too long to escort the healers into the zone where the attack happened! All we have is one novice!"
"Damn it all!" Kaidou yelled in frustration.
"Hey! You two! Can you look over here!?"
The two dwarves turned to look at the source of the call. Mikaeru sat there, perched on top of a barrel full of some sort of blue liquid. "You could use this."
Kaidou looked at it. "What is that?"
"It's a healing potion. Real good stuff too. It could probably regrow a limb or two if you use enough of it." He jumped down, "Go ahead. You can use it."
The two dwarves looked between themselves. The lower ranked guard warned Kaidou, "Sir, I do not believe it would be safe to accept this. We have no knowledge of what this is. It could be a trap."
Kaidou thought this through for a moment, looking at Rimuru. The guy he had just had a passionate talk with no more than 2 minutes prior. He sighed, "There are men down. We unfortunately do not have a choice." He ordered the man to take the healing potion.
The slimes watched as the two men left with the potion. "Hopefully this gets us off the hook." Mikaeru commented with Rimuru listening in.
Just like originally, the potion worked and with it, the dwarves thanked the two for their save. It turned out to not be enough to get them out of the cage, though, and so they had to wait one more day for that.
On their way out the next morning, Kaidou asked them, "So, why are a pair of slimes like you visiting Dwargon? It's not often we see slimes here."
Rimuru, having gained trust in the man, decided it was about time to give a full explanation. They were a pair of powerful slimes responsible for a goblin village tasked with finding people to help in development. As Rimuru specified who exactly they needed, Kaidou entered a thoughtful pose. "How about this? To make it up to you two for the save yesterday, I can go ahead and introduce you to a talented blacksmith."
Rimuru jerked in excitement, "Really!?"
Kaidou nodded, however, he added, "In exchange, could you give us some more of your potions? I could compensate with additional coins if you want."
"Didn't you say this was to repay us for yesterday? Why add that little clause at the end?" Mikaeru asked.
He was planning to hand over the potion in the end anyways. Gazel getting his hands on a nearly perfectly pure potion was important for later. However, he didn't want to make himself look like a pushover either. He negotiated 30 gold in exchange for about 50 potions. Not a bad profit for something with no production costs. From there, they finally made their way out of jail.
In the city, Kaijin silently worked on one of his orders as he heard the sound of his door opening. Putting down his hammer, he walked over as a group of 3 walked in. Garm, Dord and Myrd, three brothers that worked with Kaijin made their way inside, looking notably more tired than usual, catching his eye.
Asking them what's wrong, they explained to him the exceptionally odd story of what had happened the day prior. After being attacked by a random armorsaurus attack, a pair of mysterious slimes had appeared, giving the guards some healing potion to help out, saving even those that had sustained bad injuries.
Kaijin listened in with a look of interest. A pair of slimes, eh? He was interested in meeting them.
Little did he know that only a few minutes later his younger brother Kaidou entered with the slimes in tow. Dord was the first to mention, "Oh, well if it isn't the mysterious slimes from yesterday. What brings you here?" Rimuru looked at Dord. They had come in to thank them the day before for the help so he recognized them. He greeted them with a wave.
Kaijin walked over, "So, you two were the ones that saved them, eh? Thanks for helping them out. They're a real big help around here so I'm not sure what I would have done if they kicked the bucket in there."
Garm laughed at the joke. "Anything you need?"
Mikaeru explained the situation. "Hm, I see. So you need some good workers, eh?" He turned to the trio, "You could take these three if you want."
"Eh?" Rimuru asked, "Are you sure about that?"
Garm walked over, "I'd be fine with it if Kaijin gives the okay. We've worked in other countries before."
"I see. I assume you'll still need a few days to get prepared though, right?" Mikaeru asked aloud.
Kaijin laughed, "Well that much was obvious! I can assure you they'll be worth the wait at least."
Rimuru nodded along. "It was that easy!?"
Kaidou smiled from the doorway, "Well, these guys have always been carefree spirits. They're fine working anywhere as long as they're doing their passion."
"Well, that much is true for anyone, little bro!" Kaijin said with a laugh. "So, you accept the offer?"
"We accept." Mikaeru said. It wasn't long after that, that they got to work on the details. They would set off in five days where the trio would move temporarily to the goblin village to help out in construction.
However, that proved to not be the end of their conversation as not long after, the two slimes were hit with a proposal. "Want to join us at the bar?"
Like originally, they were given the offer for a night out. Not seeing a reason to say no, especially after being told there would be girls there, Rimuru happily accepted, followed by Mikaeru going along with it.
Later that night, Rimuru somehow managed to blush in his slime body as he was hugged by a group of elven women. Mikaeru laughed as he was also carried, "Wow wow~. You really like this, don't you Rimuru!?"
Rimuru jolted, "W-well, I guess if you…"
The night went along as normal, with Rimuru enjoying the feeling of an elf's boobs resting on top of his body a bit too much for Mikaeru's taste. And then, as normal, they were approached by someone of interest. The fortune telling dark elf. It started off with her appearing next to the table holding a glass orb. With a smile, she asked, "Hey, honored guests. Would you be interested in playing with me for a while?"
Even with no eyes, Mikaeru could tell Rimuru was focused on something way below the girl's eye level as she seductively said, "I'm really good at playing with this you know?" While fondling the orb. PG-13 lady! She leaned forward, making her breasts shake a frankly supernatural amount. "I'm quite popular."
Rimuru asked, "W-what will you foretell for us?"
The elf holding Rimuru proposed, "How about we foretell our guest's destined ones!?"
This seemed to catch Rimuru's attention. His destined one. For a true romantic such as him, the idea couldn't help but catch his attention. Mikaeru laughed internally at his noticeable excitement. Based on what happened with Shizue in the original story, destined one didn't appear to be purely based around foretelling one's romantic interest but foretelling who would be the one to define one's life the most. For Rimuru, that much was clear. Shizue. Although he didn't put it past Rimuru that had she survived, she would have ended up with him. After all, Rimuru was the only one Shizue had ever encountered that understood her beyond the surface.
Rimuru accepted the offer. Mikaeru watched as Rimuru attempted to temper his expectations, only to immediately jump at the opportunity to look at the orb as soon as the dark elf said, "Ah, it appeared!"
Mikaeru looked on as a girl appeared in the orb. A dark haired woman with burn marks under her left eye. None other than Shizue Izawa. Rimuru's destined one.
Mikaeru looked at Rimuru's reaction. He recognized her. After all, the original story had set it that Rimuru had already seen her in a vision before. As expected, he slowed down as if realizing something.
Kaijin was the first to speak up at the vision, explaining, "Oh, well I'll be. I believe that girl is the Conqueror of Flames."
Rimuru turned to the dwarf, "Is she famous?"
"Yes. They call her the Hero of the Guild. Despite her youthful appearance, she has been active for a few decades at this point. She is likely retired by now."
"A hero." Rimuru muttered softly.
The dark elf turned to Mikaeru. "What about you, honored guest? Would you be interested as well?"
Mikaeru thought about it. It wasn't like he wasn't interested, it was more so, he didn't believe there was someone that matched that description for him. He thought back to his previous life. Connection with other people. He didn't know if he had that ability. He looked up, "Go ahead. Let's see what comes up."
The dark elf smiled as she hovered her hands over the orb and something began to appear within. Everyone locked their eyes on the orb as the image of another woman appeared within. An elf with sky blue eyes and long silver hair. Mikaeru froze solid.
"An elf!?" Rimuru yelled out in shock. He turned to look at his brother. So they were telling him Mikaeru hit a jackpot? However, he froze upon looking at him. "Uh, Mikaeru?"
"I-I…" Mikaeru's voice shook, "No. Not her."