(Attendances… plz…)
….
"No… I can talk."
Reinhard's expression didn't change at all when Rimuru spoke. There was no shock, no wide-eyed surprise, nothing but that same, unwavering, gentle smile.
"I thought so," he said, as if a talking slime was the most normal thing in the world.
Rimuru wobbled on the patch of moss, his mind racing a mile a minute. Okay, okay, calm down. He knows I can talk telepathically. He knows I can speak out loud. He's not attacking. He's… introducing himself? To me? A monster? A slime? He had run through dozens of terrible scenarios in his head, but not a single one of them involved the super-strong human just casually introducing himself.
But Rimuru still wasn't convinced. This had to be a trick. Maybe this guy wants something from me, he thought, his anxiety spiking. Is he about to blackmail me? Threaten me?
"Hmmm, so… what… what do you want from me?" Rimuru asked, his newly formed voice a little shaky. "I don't have anything valuable, and I'm just a slime." Inside his core, he was chanting like a mantra, Please don't say you want ME. Please don't say you want ME.
While he was waiting for an answer that he was sure would be bad, he quickly turned to his most reliable skill. Great Sage! Can you, like, tell me what skills he has? Anything at all!
[Notice. From the individual in front, the following skills have been detected:
– Sugar and Salt Reasoning
– Mud Walking
– Fish Catching
– Sewing
– Walking Without Tripping
Multiple other normal skills have also been detected.]
Rimuru's mind went completely blank for a second. Sugar and Salt Reasoning? What kind of skill is that? To tell the difference between sugar and salt? Mud Walking? Sewing? Walking Without Tripping? It was the weirdest list of skills he could have possibly imagined. It was like the man in front of him was a little kid, and his mother had given him a set of blessings to make sure he never suffered even the smallest inconvenience. 'Here you go, honey, a skill so you don't fall down and scrape your knees. And here's one so you can catch a fish if you get lost and are hungry.'
[Notice. The individual also possesses the normal skill: Direction Sense, which helps him find his way if he ever gets lost.]
"..."
If his normal skills were this bizarrely domestic, Rimuru was now both terrified and morbidly curious about his Unique Skill or skills. What about his other skills? Can you do that? He already knew the answer. Great Sage was only a Unique Skill itself, and it was struggling.
[Notice. Error… error… error…]
Thought so, Rimuru sighed internally. This all happened in the few seconds it took for Reinhard to reply to his question.
"Huh?" Reinhard said, looking genuinely confused. "I don't want anything from you. I just didn't think it was a good idea for you to talk in front of my friends. You can just guess the surprise for them, and then the rumors of a unique monster slime who can talk… which is kind of unheard of, to be honest. They would have panicked."
That… actually made a lot of sense to Rimuru. "So you separated me from them… to protect me?" he asked, his voice wavering a little.
"And so they wouldn't overreact," Reinhard added with a slight nod. "They're good people, but their mouths are a bit loose, and they can be loud when they get excited or scared."
Rimuru processed this. The man in front of him, Reinhard van Astrea, was being incredibly reasonable. He was clearly more powerful than him, but he wasn't threatening him, scaring him, coercing him, or even trying to capture him. He was just being… kind.
Okay, Satoru Mikami, time to be a functional adult, Rimuru thought to himself, drawing on the memories of his past life. He's being civil. Be civil back.
"I see," he said, his spoken voice returning, a bit more confident this time. "Thank you. My name is Rimuru. I just… woke up in that cave a while ago, you could say." He decided to leave out the "I used to be a human" part for now. That was a conversation for another time. Or never.
"Rimuru, so you have a name too," Reinhard repeated the name with a nod, as if remembering it was important.
"Well, to introduce myself… I'm Reinhard van Astrea. You can just call me… huh, just Reinhard, actually."
"Well, Rimuru, as you can or maybe not tell. I need to go back to my party in that cave. We're on a contract. But I can't exactly bring you with me, for the reasons we just discussed. And I don't feel right just leaving you here alone in a forest full of monsters, either."
Is he being serious? Rimuru thought, completely bewildered. He doesn't feel right leaving me, a monster, alone in a forest with other monsters? He knew he was stronger than he looked; he'd fought plenty of tough monsters in the cave, thanks to the high concentration of Veldora's magicules. But he had no idea if the monsters outside were weaker or stronger. Still, the man's concern was… unexpected.
"You could just… leave me," Rimuru suggested cautiously. "I can take care of myself."
Reinhard looked at the small, wobbly creature on the ground, then back in the direction of the cave. He thought for a moment, his brow furrowed slightly.
"Well, Rimuru," he began, thinking out loud. "I don't really think you'll have a big problem in the forest. You're a monster, and you have a name. That means you're not weak. But still…" He trailed off, the idea of just leaving him not sitting right. "How about this… Actually, no… that's a bad idea." He paused again, then seemed to settle on a decision. "Actually, yeah. I can come around here to see how you are doing. I can't just leave you here all alone."
Rimuru was so surprised he almost bounced. "So… you will come regularly… to check up on me?!" he asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
"Yup!" Reinhard said with a nod, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "It's a dangerous forest. I would have actually taken you with me, but the humans aren't really good with monsters in some kingdoms… and currently, I'm in one of them."
Rimuru processed this. This powerful human was offering to make repeat trips into a dangerous forest, not to capture him, not to study him, but just to see if he was okay. It didn't make any sense.
"Wouldn't it cause you trouble?" Rimuru asked, his suspicion returning. "Going back and forth just to check on a slime monster because he can talk?"
Reinhard let out a soft laugh, a friendly and disarming sound. "It seems I'm coming across as a suspicious individual to you. Hahaha, and I can see why. I would probably think the same thing." He looked at Rimuru, his smile gentle.
"Think of it this way: it's just to satisfy my own mind, and nothing more. I'd worry if I just left you. So, this is for me, not for you."
….
A/N: Next two chapters are already on my discord. And dont say anytging about what and how he said it. i have given all the points in the next chapter.
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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