(Attendances… plz…)
….
Rimuru eyed the masked girl. He wasn't exactly staring, it was impossible to tell with his slime body, but his attention was fixed on her.
Even though her face was covered, he felt a strange sense of familiarity, a nagging feeling that he knew her from somewhere.
It didn't make sense.
Other than Reinhard, and some more in the Dwargon he hadn't met someone like her. Because if he did have he would remember.
Maybe it was just his imagination.
He turned his attention back to the group. "Do you all have somewhere else to go?" he asked. "Rigurd said you were here on a mission. Is something wrong in the forest that adventurers are investigating?"
"We don't know," Ellen said with a shrug.
"What?" Rimuru said, completely confused. How could someone on an investigation not know what they were investigating?
"We don't know what we're investigating," Ellen complained, throwing her hands up in frustration.
"We were just sent into the forest to look for anything 'suspicious.' I mean, how are we supposed to look for something suspicious if we don't even know what we're looking for? I'm telling you, the Guild Master is just harassing us at this point."
Rimuru almost felt sorry for the guy. Bad-mouthing the boss behind his back, huh? This bunch must be a real handful. I feel somewhat sorry for their boss.
"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself," he said, trying to be a good host. "Glad to meet you all. My name is Rimuru. And I'm not a bad slime slurp!!!"
"Huh?!"
"Huh?!"
"Huh?!"
"…"
"Hnh." A chuckle from the Shizue side as she was likely the only one who understood or knew the reference of what Rimuru did.
While the trio were just like confused… and Reinhard just stayed silent.
Rimuru, seeing that Shizue chuckled, thought … just maybe she understood the reference he made from a video game here.
But others didn't, which was expected. He doesn't even know why he did it in the first place. But at least he got a clue from the Shizue side so it was all worth it in the end.
"…And I'm the leader of this little group aka the village you all are in." Rimuru finished.
"Well, you already know me," Reinhard said, stepping forward to make the formal introductions. "This is Kaval, our party leader. This is Ellen, this is Gido. And this person here is a temporary member of our party who recently joined us… Shizue."
Shizue, Rimuru thought, the name echoing in his mind. That's a Japanese name. Could it be? Could she also be from… Japan? It was just a possibility, a wild hope. He didn't want to get his hopes up; his luck wasn't usually that good.
Maybe that was why he was feeling somewhat familiar with her or like he had seen her somewhere.
"Well, I don't know what this 'suspicious thing' you're looking for is," Rimuru said, "but it's getting pretty late. If you guys are fine with it, you're welcome to stay the night here with us."
"Hmm, I think that's a good idea," Reinhard said, like waiting for this question and then grabbing it immediately and then he looked at the others. "What do you think, Ellen?"
"Why not?" she agreed immediately.
Kaval, however, looked a bit uncomfortable. "Huh? Why, though? You do know we were ready to kill you back in the cave, right? I mean, it wasn't our fault! Anyone would have thought the same thing, seeing a dumb slime!"
Rimuru's non-existent eye twitched. Rude jerk. I'm right here.
"Well," Rimuru said, trying to sound magnanimous. "Reinhard saved me that day and didn't kill me. So you could say I owe him one."
Even if that 'him' being saved was not from someone else but from Reinhard himself… it still counted… somewhat.
For the Trio. It wasn't a very comforting thought, staying the night with a monster they had called worthless and dumb just a few weeks ago.
A monster they had been seconds away from killing, simply because it wasn't worth the hassle of ignoring.
For all they knew, it could be the complete opposite of what Reinhard believed, and this was all a trap.
But it was just a deep thought.
Rimuru, for his part, bounced his way out of the hut, a small, wobbly sigh escaping him once he was out of their sight. Man, that was like being in some kind of high-level business meeting, he thought. And with that person being there…
"That person," of course, was Reinhard. If he accidentally offended him, it could be very bad for him and his fledgling village.
That was the real reason he had offered them a place to stay, to appear generous and build some goodwill. Now, he just needed to make sure his own people hadn't messed things up.
He found Rigurd standing guard outside. "Hmm, Rigurd," he began. "Were you the one who found them outside the village?"
"Lord Rimuru," the hobgoblin chief said with a respectful bow. "It was Gobta and the goblin riders who found them. Is there a problem?"
"No, there isn't," Rimuru said. "Tell me, you didn't say anything offensive or rude to them, did you? And Gobta didn't either?"
"No, Lord Rimuru," Rigurd assured him. "We didn't. After finding them sneaking around, I brought them straight here, thinking you would know what to do. Did we do something wrong?"
Rimuru let out another mental sigh of relief. "No, Rigurd, you did the right thing. For now, prepare a place for them to stay and bring them some food. And be careful not to offend them in any way… especially the red-haired one."
"As you say, Lord Rimuru," Rigurd replied, his voice filled with determination. "I will get to it immediately."
"Thanks, Rigurd. I knew I could count on you."
Rigurd practically beamed with pride. "No problem at all, Lord Rimuru! You can always count on me!"
With that sorted out, Rimuru bounced his way back into the hut.
"Hmm, so," he said, his voice now calm and formal again. "I have asked Rigurd to arrange a place for you to stay tonight, and to bring you some food. If you need anything or have any questions, Rigurd can tell you as much as he knows. Or we can just talk it over in the morning."
"Thanks, Rimuru," Reinhard said with a friendly smile. "And if it isn't too much of a problem… I wonder if you have some time to talk? There's something I'd like to discuss with you."
I'm not getting a good feeling about this, Rimuru thought, a sense of dread creeping back in.
But it didn't really matter what he felt, did it?
Reinhard was going to ask anyway. It was better not to push back against someone so ridiculously strong.
Maybe he could even get him on his side as an ally. Anything was better than making him an enemy for now at least when he was weaker.
"Sure," Rimuru replied.
….
A/N: So, How was it?! First of all send power stones if you like this fic and lets hig 2k. And second of all, hmmm i dont really have too much to say for this chapter. Well bye see you all tomorrow.
Next two chapters are already on my discord.
Melatonin, spawn and many more on my discord … thanks for beta reading this fic and not to mention suggestions too.
Hoped you all liked the chapter and all.
And if you want to read ahead you can do it by just joining my discord server.
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