The sudden meeting had delayed things.
Myuran the otherworlder was relieved to have finally been able to submit her report.
The Demon Lord Milim becoming best friends with the leader of a monitored town was an act beyond the pale — something utterly outside the realm of expectation.
That a slime was the town's leader was surprising enough, but Milim's behavior defied all comprehension.
An ordinary person like herself could never hope to understand what a Demon Lord was thinking.
Or rather — wasn't that Demon Lord a little, no, quite unhinged? The suspicion lingered, though she kept it to herself.
She reported on the town's condition, its cultural level, and the fact that the Demon Lord appeared to have befriended its leader.
She also reported that the leader was a slime capable of Mimicry, able to take on the appearance of a masked person.
Since Milim had been staying in the town, she'd refrained from reporting for caution's sake. She doubted Milim would violate the secret pact between Demon Lords, but until she understood the Demon Lord's intentions, a cautious approach was necessary.
She hadn't used any magic whatsoever in Milim's presence.
Communication magic, in particular — if used in front of Milim, her identity would be exposed in an instant. That was her judgment.
Perhaps her identity had already been discovered, but Milim had taken no action.
After reporting these events,
It had nothing to do with Myuran.
She had since been promoted to the position of staff sorcerer within the Border Defense Force.
(Fools. Not one of them suspects I'm an otherworlder, do they?)
She regarded them with quiet contempt, yet the novelty of interacting with people she'd rarely spoken to before stirred an unexpected warmth in her heart.
She'd stay like this for a while. If possible, she wanted to enjoy this situation just a little longer.
Without fully realizing it herself, she harbored that wish.
Then, wearing her usual expression of mild indifference, she returned to her work.
Glurusis the otherworlder was a member of the Border Defense Force, advancing through the forest as part of a unit.
For him, a beastman, handling a horse was child's play. It was only natural, then, that he'd quickly distinguished himself within the group.
Even suppressing his true strength, it was impossible for him to fall behind humans.
As a result, he'd been put in charge of one of the three squads as deputy commander. He'd been pushed to take the squad leader position as well, but declined on the grounds that he was a newcomer.
He was already standing out, but his current position gave him enough freedom of movement, so it wasn't much of an issue. At least, that was his thinking.
What interested him now were the Goblin Wolf Soldiers trailing behind his unit.
The Oni tribe riding the rare Star Wolf breed.
They moved in perfect tandem, like a seasoned duo. Their coordination spoke of high-level training.
Among them, the Oni called
Whether it was instinct or talent, he spotted monsters and brought them down almost immediately.
Glurusis was impressed.
He'd intended to recruit only the Oni, but this performance suggested there were other capable fighters as well.
There were about a hundred Goblin Wolf Soldiers in total. They were excellent candidates he wanted to recruit from each squad.
Especially the squad leader Rigul and deputy commander Gobta — these two possessed overwhelming strength.
There were also the Dragonfolk he occasionally spotted. They, too, could become formidable warriors with proper training.
The Boarpeople serving as combat engineers. Individually they weren't much, but in a group, they could be a force.
He'd heard there was a Boar King named Geld leading them, but he hadn't seen him in town.
Apparently the guy was always away on supply runs, but he was probably a powerful individual.
(What the hell, what the hell! This town is seriously messed up!
At this rate, they might have enough military power to fight us!)
In truth, he'd seen the Oni up close, and some of them were on par with him or even stronger.
Even if he was at the bottom of the Beast King's subordinates, this was clearly abnormal.
Well, fine by him! That made it all the more interesting for him.
Strong allies were a welcome outcome. And if he failed and a powerful enemy was born instead, that was equally welcome!
They, the beastfolk, were a race that lived for battle. A powerful enemy was something to be welcomed.
And so, contemplating how to go about the recruitment, he carried on with the Border Defense Force's duties.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Yo-hooo!
The sense of freedom after so long — I was going to savor every bit of it.
While in town, I'd been on edge about one thing or another.
I was a little worried about the two otherworlders I'd left behind.
But
I trusted Benimaru and the others to manage.
I'd kept
The sleepless man, Souei.
He could create duplicates and take turns sleeping. A convenient ability, though I had no room to talk — I didn't even need to sleep.
I'd had the town watched, but there was no sign of a tail being revealed.
They didn't seem to be connected to Milim, though I suspected they knew each other. I couldn't make contact carelessly, so I'd ordered the surveillance be conducted with extreme caution.
Unfortunately, there had been no movement at all.
At this point, continuing to keep watch was pointless. I could use Shadow Movement to return instantly, so I decided to leave town.
There was also the thought that my absence might provoke them into making a move. Milim had left too — if they were going to act, now was the time.
I'd stayed vigilant, but on the first day after leaving, there was no sign of activity.
By the time three days had passed, I came to realize I'd been worrying too much.
They had high abilities. "Leave it to us!" they'd said, so I would.
So here I was, thoroughly enjoying the long-absent sense of freedom.
This route wasn't well-maintained, so we were traveling on foot.
Sometimes we'd reach roads that could accommodate horses, other times we'd follow game trails.
The routes we were taking were questionable enough to make you wonder if we'd actually make it — but our guide was a veteran. I'd trust him.
The guy looked like he was about to cry, but he'd earned my trust. After all, this wasn't his first time making the trip.
Just to check, I joked: "Hey, you're not actually lost, are you?"
To which he replied: "Ha ha ha. As if that could possibly be…!"
His speech had gone weird. Probably fine.
When I quietly pulled up the mental map, it showed we were retracing the path we'd just taken. Must have been my imagination.
"Hey! I'm serious — you ARE lost, aren't you?!"
The three of them exchanged glances: "We're so sorry!!!"
Apparently they'd tried to take a shortcut and gotten turned around. Were these guys really professionals?
Oh well. I led them back along the path until we reached a point they recognized.
There was a stretch along the way covered in Phantom Blooms, which might have been the cause. I didn't mention it to them.
"Why would we get lost in a place like that…"
"I'm having a crisis of confidence…"
"I swear, I'm a total pro when it comes to roads — even more than you two! This is devastating…"
I felt a little sorry for them, so I told them about the Phantom Blooms.
"Oh! Those are a B-rank or higher gathering quest target! They're really hard to find!"
Elen exclaimed excitedly.
Apparently they were used as ingredients for magical items and were quite rare.
Since we were there anyway, we went back and gathered some. About forty plants, so I divided them up — ten each. They might come in handy for crafting something, so I stored them for analysis.
And so, another week passed before we finally reached the edge of the forest.
We'd probably saved time overall, but the days we'd spent lost meant the trip took roughly the same amount of time anyway.
It wasn't a rushed journey for me. If anything, traveling after so long was enjoyable.
Well, a slime body didn't get tired, and I stayed clean the whole time — so maybe that's why I could say that.
Elen had been using what she called Purification Magic, so she taught me.
When I tried it, my version turned out to be more effective, so I cast it on everyone. Thanks to that, the trip was more comfortable than usual.
Starting a fire was easy, and I took the night watch.
"Rimuru! Let's go adventuring together forever!!!"
Elen said this with heartfelt emotion, but I politely declined.
Before meeting everyone again, that might have sounded appealing, but now I was a town leader. Even though I'd delegated governance, I couldn't just abandon it entirely.
Maybe, someday, when I was no longer needed by anyone, it would be worth reconsidering.
But by then, you three probably wouldn't still be alive. The thought crossed my mind unexpectedly.
Had Milim felt this way too? If making precious friends meant watching them die before you, would I choose loneliness instead?
I didn't know.
I simply didn't have enough experience to judge such things.
Brushing off sentimentality, I headed for the city.
Our destination was the small kingdom of Blumund — a minor nation comprising scattered villages, their feudal lords, and a single royal capital.
Guided by three members of the Free Guild's Blumund branch, we set out.
The only major city was the royal capital. The guild branch was located in the castle town.
Once we reached the first village, things moved quickly. A regular stagecoach was in service.
We arrived before noon and ate lunch at a restaurant. From there, the royal capital was apparently just three hours by coach.
True to its reputation as a small kingdom, the transportation connections were excellent.
"So anyway, I swung my great axe — BOOM — right down on it!
And this is the beast I took down!"
"No way! You're incredible, Vid!"
"Vid, that's a pretty strong monster, right? You took it down solo?"
"You bet. To yours truly, a Horned Bear is no match at all!"
I caught this conversation and glanced over.
When I saw what they were calling the "Horned Bear," I nearly spat out my food.
It was just an ordinary bear with a Horned Rabbit's horn embedded in its skull — a dead monster's carcass displayed for show.
Well, bears were animals, not monsters, but the distinction was hard to make.
If you had an appraisal ability like mine, sure, but without one, you couldn't tell.
The definitive way to distinguish them was whether they dropped a Magic Crystal or not. But that would be a harsh standard for ordinary people.
Just because something didn't drop a crystal didn't mean you could go around killing as many as you pleased.
If it emitted a Demon Aura, it was a monster, but even that was hard to detect. In the end, the conclusion was that you simply had to hone your skills.
"Hey — there's some guy bragging about a fake Horned Bear over there. Is that kind of thing actually allowed?"
"Huh? That's fake? How could you tell so easily?"
"Hey! He's right!
It's got a Horned Rabbit's horn stuck on it. A magic user would spot it right away…"
"So they do get caught?"
"Well, sir. That guy's got a different angle, see.
He'd get found out in the royal capital, sure, but in a village like this, he's a hero!
So he spins some story about protecting the village, and gets free room and board out of it."
Ah, so that's how it was.
I understood thanks to
There were all sorts of swindlers in the world. Learned something new.
I'd have left them alone — didn't want to cause trouble — "Hey, hey, wait just a minute! You three are calling this a fake and giving me grief?
You'd better be prepared to face the consequences of making a fool of me!"
Why was it that these types always had such sharp ears? And why did they always have to pick fights unnecessarily…
While I was thinking that, "Hey, isn't that Kabal…?"
"And Elen's there too!"
"And over there — isn't that Gido?"
The voices grew louder, and before I knew it, the three of us were surrounded by the restaurant's patrons.
"W-What… You three are terrible! If you'd come back, you could have at least said something!"
"Who are you again?"
"Oh come on, you beat me up the other day — Vid, remember? The guy Kabal schooled in the royal capital — that's me!"
What were the odds.
Those three were surprisingly well-known.
They weren't exactly acquaintances of the con artist, but he clearly looked up to them.
Being admired by someone like that probably wasn't the most flattering thing.
But the biggest surprise was learning that the three of them were famous adventurers.
Apparently they'd recently risen to prominence as up-and-coming adventurers.
…Could that be because they were selling monster parts from my town to boost their results?
I looked at the three of them, and they hurriedly averted their gazes.
I wouldn't press the matter.
Everyone had things they'd rather keep private. But still — letting it slide for now didn't mean I'd forgotten.
"You understand what's expected, right?"
"We certainly do!!! We will escort you to the royal capital with the utmost care!!!"
Good.
Things like that happened along the way, but the journey was mostly smooth.
We arrived at the royal capital of the small kingdom of Blumund.