Rise of the Red Dwarf

My name is Main, or at least it's been so for over two years now. I'm an apprentice priestess, though that's largely so that I have access to the magic items I need to manage the mana rampaging in my body. My true hope and intention is to make books, which are prohibitively expensive and currently only owned by the nobility, much less costly and more accessible to all. I've already made great strides towards that end having introduced this world to plant-based paper, which is cheaper to produce than the animal skin parchment paper books have been made with here, and I even made some children books with that paper with the help of my family and friends. Still I have a ways to go before I realize my dream of becoming a librarian or a bookstore owner. In the meantime I had access to the cathedral's rather impressive library of books as a benefit to my position, and I was hopeful that somewhere in that vast man-made paradise on earth was the piece of knowledge that would prove key to bringing my "Devouring" fever to heel for good so I can live my life how I want without the fear that it would be cut short.

Oddly enough it was one of those book-filled excursions that led me here today. You see, I was half-way through a most interesting tome when a messenger came to call on Ferdinand, the cathedral's head priest. He was being called upon to accompany a group of representatives being sent from Ehrenfest to check out whether or not relations can be formed with the Jura Tempest Federation, a rapidly forming kingdom in the previously wild area of the Jura Forest. What caught my attention was that this new yet rapidly growing nation was formed largely by a varied group of human-friendly monsters and was headed by, of all things, a slime! Now I wasn't all that big into games during my previous life in Japan, with the siren call of books being much more stronger to me, but I wasn't wholly unaware of them either thanks to some books that helped to flesh out and expand upon the lore of some of those games. Thanks to that there were a couple of things I felt I knew for certain. One: creatures like orcs and hobgoblins were never on friendly terms with humans. And two: of all creatures in fantasy (which was looking more like the reality of the world I was now living in), slimes were pretty much at the bottom of the totem pole. The fact that this group of creatures, along with dryads and lizardmen, have formed together to create this civilized and peaceful nation and that they acknowledge a slime as their leader certainly had my interest piqued to say the least.

Ferdinand at first was surprised that anything could take me away from my much desired books, then he was rather vocal in his opposition of my request to come along, saying such things like how important this quest was to the kingdom and that he would have his hands full looking out for the party he was accompanying without having to keep an eye out for me as well. However, with some rather careful (and, if I'm being honest, some rather clever) pleading I was able to get him to let me go with him on the condition that I convinced one of my parents to act as my chaperone. My father might have wanted to be the one to come with me, might have even insisted on it if I brought it up with him, but as a captain of the guard at the southern gatehouse I don't feel like he could reasonably abandon his post without severe consequences, so I asked Mom instead and she agreed.

Unfortunately Lutz also found out and insisted on coming with me as well. Part of it was probably his desire to journey to other towns, a desire which initially led him to want to become a travelling merchant. However, I believe that the main motivating factor was the fact that I was going and he wanted to make sure that I didn't get myself into too much trouble. To be honest I get a strong impression that he likes me, as in likes me likes me. Not Mine, whose body I was somehow reincarnated into, but me. I'm not too sure how I feel about that. I mean I think that I like him too, though that may be the childish emotions I've inherited in this body, and it's nice to have someone who appreciates me for who I am instead of who they think I am. The thing about it is that while I'm about seven in this body, about the same age as Lutz, when I died in my original life I was much older and attending college. It's strange to think about now in this young and frail body (which looks younger than its actual age) but I can't help feeling that any kind of relationship other than friendship between Lutz and myself would be entirely inappropriate. I know that I can't live my life getting hung up on such things (assuming that this Devouring fever will let me live long enough to have a life) but I've been unable to shake those feelings just yet. Anyway Lutz wouldn't take no for an answer, and Mom said she would watch over him too, so Ferdinand relented and said Lutz can accompany me too.

So that brings us here. Now I didn't know what to expect from a town that was allegedly entirely built by the monsters that currently populate it, but I wasn't expecting anything like this. If anything this town was even more advanced than the one I currently live in. It's no Japan (nor like many other places in the world I lived in prior to my death) but shortly upon entering I spotted the telltale signs of an aqueduct system, which likely means indoor plumbing (we have to fetch our water from a well!) Also the stitchwork worn even by the Orc was just amazing! Tuuli have loved to come just to see that alone! As amazing as all those thing were, however, the thing that struck me most about this place was how saw no separation of class, no signs of poverty, not even a grandiose palace casting its presence over the town. Just a bunch of different species living and working together like one big happy family. While many countries in my old world might have been more advanced technologically, this place outshone them all socially. The only thing that would make this place perfect would be if it had a library or a bookstore, and I would not be surprised at this point if it did.

As I was walking around drinking in this amazing place I found myself almost wishing that I had been reborn here instead instead of Ehrenfest, except that would have meant that I wouldn't have my family (and I wouldn't trade them for anything.) It was in this peaceful moment that everything went very wrong. One moment everything was quiet and serene, the next the air around me was being shattered by an explosion! Now I've seen a few movies with my mom in my previous life (not many, as I was often disappointed with how many of them adapted my favorite books) and I heard explosions in some of those, but those paled in comparison to experiencing one in real life (even the earthquake I died in didn't vibrate my bones and overload my senses like this.) Once I got over the shock of the initial attack I heard a rumbling sound and looked up, then my heart sank into my stomach as I saw some burning wreckage falling towards us. Fortunately it seems that Ferdinand came prepared as he activated a magical item that created a shield that covered all of us who came with him. Some dust and smoke made it through, which irritated my rather sensitive lungs, but otherwise my family and friends (as well as Ferdinand's group of dignitaries) were unharmed.

Unfortunately the same couldn't be said for those who lived here. As the ringing in my ears quieted I was able to hear various cries of rage and pain, confusion and despair. A short distance away I saw a small hobgoblin family who just moments had been laughing and enjoying the sunny day, but now the children were crying in pain and fear and nursing their wounds. As the one I assumed was their mother tried to calm her children her eyes met mine, and it felt as though her probing gaze was begging me to tell her why this had happened (and I wish I had an answer for her.) We didn't have to wait long to find out, however, as a booming voice was soon heard throughout the town saying, "I warned you. I told you that your town was in my way, that I intend to crush it, but you didn't heed me. You brought this misery upon yourselves." I could not believe this! Some colossal jerk launched this attack, had hurt and possibly killed so many innocents who weren't hurting anyone, all because he felt that this town was "in his way"? Can anyone really blame me for losing it just a little bit?

My name is Rimuru Tempest, but I don't feel like getting into a monologue just now. My nation, the Jura Tempest Federation, is under attack by someone of terrible power. I haven't heard from my Kijin friends since this began, and I don't know if that's because our attacker is disrupting the communication, if they've been knocked unconscious, or if something worse has happened to them. I never wanted to be the leader of all these different creatures, who are now looking up to me to save them, but even so I can't help but to feel their pain as acutely as if it were my own. I don't get it, why is this happening?

Unintelligible, Great Mage said in response to my unspoken query, though her response was frustratingly unhelpful.

What the heck is happening? I asked her in desperation.

Incalculable, Great Mage answered me, just as unhelpfully.

What would have been the right answer? I asked Great Mage again, to which she frustratingly replied, Unanswerable.

Was I wrong to get involved with humans? I said mostly to myself, but then Great mage started to say, Un-... I finally lost my composure and yelled aloud, "And if you say 'I don't know' to me one more time in any way, shape or form I swear that I will find some way to mute you permanently!"

Great Mage was silent for a bit after that outburst, during which time I could swear that I could hear the electric hum of a computer's circuits (though this world doesn't have anything like that, at least not yet) until she finally responded, I will calculate in silence until I can come up with a more definitive answer to this query.

"Yeah, you do that," I grumbled at her as I stopped to get my bearings. It occurred to me as I did so that I might have gotten here sooner If I'd just formed my wings on my back and flown here. Heck, even travelling in my default slime form would have gotten me here faster than running on my stumpy human legs, but I was so shocked by this sudden attack that neither option had occurred to me before now. As I was trying to figure out where the attacks were coming from so that I can confront them as soon as possible I saw something that gave me pause: a young and apparently human girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old, whose hair was as dark a blue as her robes. I say "apparently human because while others were running away from the attacks or looking to take shelter, she was taking slow and deliberate steps towards the source of the commotion. She wasn't crying or screaming like most kids her age would be, either, but instead she was radiating malice so intense it made even me shudder. Then there was her aura: at first I thought I was seeing things, but as I focused I saw that the amount of magicules she was radiating looked to be on par with that of Demon Lord Milim. However, while Milim's aura conveyed a sense of barely controlled explosive power, this girl's was more akin to that of a raging forest fire. Was it possible that she was responsible for the assault upon my people?

As I was thinking this, a young boy with blond hair came running out of nowhere running towards the girl crying out, "Main!" before he was caught up by an older man whose hair was a lighter shade of blue than my own and was wearing robes similar to that of the girl. As the young man struggled to get free, the gentleman restraining him sad to him calmly, "You need to restrain yourself, young man. Main is far too dangerous for you to approach right now."

"I don't care! She's my friend!" the young man practically yelled back, "Let me go! Main!"

"Please, Head Priest, you have to stop her!" pleaded a woman who approached them wearing a rough rust-colored dress and a simple orange handkerchief over her sea-green hair, "Save my daughter, I beg of you!"

The Head Priest, still keeping a firm grip on the lad, turned back to the girl named Main and called out, "Main, you have to snap out of it! Calm yourself and get your mana under control!"

Main stopped walking and turned lo look at the Head Priest as, in a voice that resonated with the power raging within her, she said, "Not this time, Head Priest. The ones behind this terrible attack must pay!"

"But even if you could overcome them, unless you restrain your mana it will destroy you!" the priest tried again, a note of desperation coloring his voice.

"If that's the price I must pay, then so be it," Main responded resolutely, "I've died once before, I'm not afraid to do so again if I can save countless others from the same fate."

Is what he said true? I asked silently. When she didn't respond I called out again, Great Sage?

My apologies, Great Sage finally responded, I had to pause my analysis of your previous query before I could respond to your current one.

Well? I asked, starting to feel impatient again.

My analysis shows that the human Mine's condition is remarkably similar to those Summoned children in Ingrassa, though she appears to be approaching the final stages of her deterioration, Great Sage informed him clinically, The likelihood of her rampaging magicules consuming her in the next hour is 98.6%.

But there's no time to try an summon a superior spirit to try and bond with her, I said in realization, Isn't there anything else that we could do to help her?

With the magisteel clusters we currently possess, it may be possible to create for her a special armor that can siphon off the excess magicules to grant her enhanced strength and defense, Great Sage announced, But the incantations to activate these abilities when needed and deactivate them when her Magicule count gets low would be very complicated, and at her age it's unlikely that Mine...

You said we could make "special armor" for her? I asked Great Sage, interrupting her, You just gave me an idea. Be ready to begin construction with my specifications on my count.

Understood, Great Sage said in acknowledgement as I mentally poured over all the possible details I could think of. Then, as Mine turned to return to her intended task of confronting Jura Tempest's attackers I thought, Now! as I took a running leap towards her, changing into my slime form mid-jump and completely enveloping her.

"What is that!?" Mine's mother asked me in a panic.

"That must be the slime that our reports say serves as the head of this nation of monsters," I told her as the glow within the slime grew too bright to make out what was happening to Mine.

"But what is it doing to her?" she asked in confusion.

"I'm not sure," I admitted, "but it's possible it felt the dangerous levels of mana inside Mine and decided to deal with the potential threat to those under its protection the only way it knows how."

"But can't you make it stop?" Main's young friend asked with tear-filled eyes, "Hit it with a fireball or something?"

I shook my head regrettably as I said, "According to the secret reports I was provided, this slime not only dealt with a majin and an Ord Lord without breaking a sweat, but also the fire spirit Ifrit. Even if I had brought any magic items I could use to attack it's unlikely I could cause it enough harm to take notice."

"But..." the young man started to say as he wiped his tears away with his sleeve, but then Mine's mother said, "Wait, I think that it's stopping."

I looked back in Mine's direction and saw that indeed the glow within the slime was fading as it pulled away from her. Just as I was able to see her clearly, however, Mine's young friend asked, "What is she wearing, though?"

I wasn't sure. It appeared that her priestess apprentice robes had been replaced by some sort of colorful, full-body armor, but how and why I couldn't begin to venture a guess. Then I noticed the glow in the center of her chest and the palms of her hands was rather similar to the grail we had her drain her mana into, and a theory started to form in my mind as I said, "Wait, could that be...?"

I was a little disoriented when I came to, the last thing I remembered clearly was an explosion and a voice saying...something. After that is a big blur, I think that I was angry or something. Now I was in some part of town that I didn't recognize.

"Main!" I heard my mom call out in concern, and I turned my head to see her looking worried as she stood beside the head priest and Lutz. "Main, are you okay?" Mom asked me again.

"I...I think I'm okay," I told Mom, not wanting to mention my blackout and cause her more worry, "Just a little warm, mayb-..." I stopped talking when I went to pat my hips and realized that I couldn't feel them. Instead it seemed as though my hands were stopped just short of touching them with a soft metallic clunk. my attempt to touch my chest met the same results, then I raised my arm to look at it and my eyes went as wide as saucers: covering my entire arm, from fingertips to elbow and beyond was a fully articulated metallic red armor. "Whaahh!" I exclaimed in surprise, and I looked at my other arm and saw that it was much the same as I asked, "Where the heck did this come from!?"

"Hello! Are you feeling better?" a young boy (at least I think that it was a boy) asked as he poked his head into my view and I squeaked in surprise. For a moment I found myself shocked into silence as this young man, whose hair was almost the same shade of blue as the head priest's, took my arm in his hands and examined it from every angle: bending it at the elbow, turning my arm over (where I saw the glowing spot in the middle of my palm), and curling and uncurling my fingers as he said, "Let's see here. Flexibility's good, doesn't appear to be any binding. I don't see any signs of overheating, overload or breakdown. Great Sage, what readings are you getting on your end?"

Vital signs are returning to normal, structural integrity is nominal. I heard a female voice say in response, though I couldn't tell where it was coming from, The rampaging magicules are being brought under control, with the excess being drained off at a steady pace. I estimate that under normal operation they will be brought back to manageable levels within 6 hours.

"Who said that?" I asked, looking around and feeling rather freaked out, "Where are you?"

My apologies, let me introduce myself. the voice said again just before something snapped over my head, surprising me so much that I fell over onto my butt, causing me to yelp even though I barely felt it. For half a heartbeat I was in near-total darkness, the only light coming through some eyeholes before my face, then (with a hum that reminded me of when my mom from my previous life would turn on the TV) I found I was able to see normally again. It wasn't exactly like normal, though, as what I was seeing was overlaid with visual aids and information that I was having a hard time making out what it was for (in spite of some of it being labelled, oddly enough, in Japanese.) It did remind me of some similar visual interfaces I saw in movies I watched with my mom, in particular one that starred Robert Downey Jr. My apologies for startling you, miss Main. The voice popped up to apologize again, a geometric design in the corner of my vision pulsating with the words, I am known as Great Sage, and I am speaking to you from within the armor you're wearing.

"Are you...a computer?" I asked it, holding my hand up to let Mom and Lutz know that I'm alright. Great Sage was silent for a beat, like it was considering my question, then it responded, I am Great Sage. I serve to aid my master Rimuru Tempest. It was on his request that I connected a link for myself within your armor in order to monitor your condition as well as to maintain the various armor's functions powered by your excess magicules, or mana as your people seem to refer to it: adjusting their levels or even turning them off as needed.

"Your master made this armor for me?" I asked Great Sage, but it was the blue-haired youth from earlier who, holding his hand out to help me up, answered my question as he said, "That's right. I'm Rimuru, and I hope you don't mind my opting to throw a little color into it. I wasn't sure what you would like, but I felt that the sheen from armor's bare magisteel was just a little ostentatious."

"Yeah, and adding Hot Rod Red makes it much more discreet," I replied with perhaps a bit more sarcasm than necessary. Of course Mom, Lutz and the Head Priest wouldn't know what I was talking about and thus looked rather confused, but oddly enough Rimuru covered his mouth and suppressed a chuckle. Did he actually get that?

"Are you all right, Main?" Mom asked me in concern, "Is your fever hurting you?"

"I think that I'm okay," I told her, "Just a bit warm, though that may be due to this stuffy armor."

Complaint registered, Great Sage said in response, adjusting climatization venting.

Almost immediately I felt a cool breeze running though the suit. Though I still felt warm at my core, it became much more comfortable. It kinda reminded me of when, in my previous life, my mom and me would lean in towards the air conditioner when the Japan summers got a little too warm. Though the memory made me miss her terribly I did my best to keep that out of my voice as I said, "That's much better. Thanks, Great Sage!"

"Main, who are you talking to?" Lutz asked me, still looking rather concerned.

"Huh?" I said in confusion, it not occurring to me at the time that Great Sage's voice was only directed within the armor and thus only audible to me and, through the link to her/its master, to Rimuru, "You don't hear...?" I trailed off when I heard a faint sound over the crackle of flames and distant explosions. holding my hand of to ask the others to wait, I said, "What is that?"

Isolating and amplifying audio waveform. Great Sage informed me. A heartbeat later I was able to make out a female voice, whose pain, fear and despair pierced my soul as she desperately pleaded, "Help us! Somebody please help us!" As I looked around anxiously for where the voice was coming from I saw the visual overlays change. Before long I saw what appeared to be the thermal silhouettes of a pair of figures across the square (and likely behind the building at its edge), one who was kneeling and the other was laying prone, and if I was reading the information correctly it looked as though the vital signs of one who was laying down was fading.

"Over there!" I called to my mom and the others as Great Sage, apparently anticipating my intentions, plotted the quickest way to get to those I heard, "Somebody is in trouble, come on!" Then, without waiting to see if they were following, I took off running along the path Great Sage highlighted for me. I was at the edge of the courtyard by the time I realized I had gotten there way too fast! It was faster than I recall ever travelling in this life, either on my own or by being carried. Even the horse-drawn carriage we rode on to get to this town didn't go this fast. It's possible that the one Benno and Lutz had used to take me to Freida's the day my Devouring Fever went out of control and was threatening to claim my life for a second time might have went this fast (I don't know as I wasn't conscious), but this was just me running. Even stranger was that I didn't feel the slightest bit winded, but I know that if I tried to run even half this distance before I likely would have passed out and been bedridden for days. Looking back I saw that Mom and Lutz were still back where I left them, entirely flatfooted and looking rather dumbfounded, and while Head Priest Ferdinand and Rimuru were at least trying to follow me it would take them a couple of minutes to catch up.

Before I could put much thought into what strangeness was coming over me, i heard a soft sob down the road I was standing in the intersection of, and I turned to look and saw a young female hobgoblin with tears streaming down her face as she desperately was trying to lift a huge section of wall, under which was an even younger boy orc. Although I didn't know much about the anatomy of orc and the like, the color in his face told me that he wouldn't last too much longer pinned under that wall (and the readings I was seeing in my display seemed to support my assessment), so rather than waiting I ran over to them. I guess that my appearance must have been rather unnerving, as the hobgoblin looked up at me with fear-filled eyes as she tried to shield her orc friend from me, so I held my hands up placatingly as I assured her, "Don't worry, I'm here to help." She still looked rather fearful and uncertain, but when I put my hands under the edge of the wall she seemed to accept that I was being honest with her and grabbed her friend's shoulders.

Now I merely intended to lift the wall high enough for the girl to slide her friend out from under it, and I wasn't even sure if I could do that much. However, to everyone's surprise (including my own) I wound up lifting the entire section off the ground, nearly over my head even! it wasn't a small piece, either, as Luttz, Frieda and myself could have laid side-by-side on it easily and still had room for a couple of Lutz's brothers at his feet. What the flip!? Carefully turning to set it down to the side (or at least I was trying to be gentle, but a piece of it still wound up braking off in my hands and being crumbled to dust), I turned back to the two young friends and asked, "Are you two okay now?" The hobgoblin girl, who had been checking over her orc friend (who looked to he as though he was looking better already), smiled at me as she nodded yes. I smiled back in return, though I doubted that they could see with my faceplate down, and I told them, "I'm glad. Now I don't know what's going on here, but it obviously isn't safe here at the moment. You should go back to your parents and find shelter until this is over."

"We will, thank you!" The girl said to me as she took the orc boy's hand and said, "Come on, Bronson."

The orc boy, who I guessed was named Bronson smiled as he said cheerfully, "Thank you, Mr Red Dwarf!" before he let the girl hobgoblin lead him away. I gotta admit that I was feeling good, in spite of the strangeness of what was happening to me. However, that was hampered a bit by the moniker I was being saddled with. "Red Dwarf"? Obviously the "red" was from the color of this armor, but I was already rather self-conscious about my size without being called a dwarf. However, I found myself hung up on something else as I called after them, saying, " 'Mister'?"

I reached down to dust myself off only to realize that the armor was still spotless. Was it one of its special traits, that it repelled such mundane things as soot at dust, or was that a mere side effect of a more important function? "Thanks for helping them out, Main," I heard from behind me, upon which I turned and saw Rimuru a short distance away smiling at me as he continued, "Those in this town are rather dear to me, and I'd rather not lose any if it can be avoided."

"Don't mention it," I responded with humility, "I'm not the kind of girl who can just sit around and watch others get hurt while I do nothing, and it was thanks to this remarkable armor you made that I was able to help those two."

"So I hope that you don't find this offensive or anything, but you're not exactly from around here, are you?" Rimuru asked me, a probing look in his eyes. Honestly I didn't know much about this guy, and it's not like he knows enough about me to be suspicious or anything, so I told him, "I'm with the party from Ehrenfest. My mom came along as a chaperone, and my friend Lutz jut because..."

"That's not what I mean," Rimuru interrupted, "You're not originally from around here: you're from another world."

Now this was getting spooky! Just who was this Rimuru Tempest, and why would he come to that conclusion? With Ferdinand and my mom now visible in the intersection I didn't want to get in it with him anyways, so I told him, "I don't know what you're talking about. If you're referring to my size that's due to a condition I was born with, noe which requires frequent maintenance for me to survive, but I was born in Ehrenfest where I live with my family. Now I'd like to thank you for helping me, but if you'll excuse me..."

"Do the words 'Tokyo, Japan' mean anything to you?" Rimuru asked as I started to brush past him, causing me to pause and look at him in shock, an interval he took to continue, "You're probably wondering where I know those words from, the truth is I'm originally from there. Before I became Rimuru I was Satoru Mikami, a 37 year old salaryman from Tokyo, Japan, and I lived a rather unremarkable life until the day I was stabbed to death quite out of nowhere. I don't even think that I was the target, he might have been after my junior Tamura or perhaps the girl that he was with, but I threw myself in front of them so I got the pointy part of the blade, after which I quickly died. When I woke up later I found myself in a cave and discovered that I was now a slime."

"Wait! You're a slime?" I asked him in surprise, "Are you the slime, the one responsible for forming this town and pulling these different species together?"

Rimuru smiled, then before my disbelieving eyes his body seemed to melt in on itself until he took the teardrop-shaped form that even a non-gamer like myself recognized as a slime, his translucent blue body shimmering as he said, "Nice to meet you! I'm Rimuru the slime! I'm not a bad slime!"

Like I said: I'm a bookworm, not a gamer. Still, even I am familiar with that highly-memed line from one of the more popular RPGs back in the land of my previous life, and I couldn't help but suppress my own chuckle.

"So that explains it," Ferdinand said softly from behind Rimuru, startling both Rimuru and myself, with Rimuru changing back into his human form to look at him as he continued, "The advanced architecture, the city's infrastructure...you were reincarnated into this world just as Main was."

"You...you know!?" I said in surprise, as I thought that only Lutz knew the truth about me. I looked over his shoulder and saw that Mom and Lutz were still standing at the intersection, hopefully out of earshot

Ferdinand nodded and said solemnly, "Ever since I had you wear that magical artifact on your head. It allowed me to see into your past memories, both of this life and your previous."

"You went poking around in my head!?" I almost screeched, managing to control my volume at the last minute despite how violated I felt.

"Regrettably, I did," Ferdinand admitted, sounding truly remorseful, "It was the only way I could think to protect you. All the advancements you were coming out with and your unnatural desire for books, honestly there were quite a few people who were rather threatened by you, and that's even if you didn't account for how much mana you possess. There were calls to have you put down as a witch or a demon, with some advocating that you be kept alive enough to have the mana extracted from your body. I managed to hold them off by promising to investigate into the matter using any means necessary. After our session I reported to them that you were simply a prodigy, that your achievements and your desire to read were simply the products of your frail condition forcing you into near isolation, stoking your desire to learn more about the world you didn't get to experience in person."

"And what about the other part?" I asked Ferdinand cautiously, "About my previous life?"

"I omitted that from my official report, obviously," Ferdinand told me, "That bit wouldn't exactly help convince them that you weren't possessed, and didn't fell you posed any real danger to anyone regardless of how you got here. I haven't even told your parents, as I felt that wasn't my place."

"So you weren't summoned to this world?" Rimuru asked me in confusion, "You died and were reborn here like me?"

I let out a sigh to relieve my tension, then said in a low voice, "What I told you before was the truth, more or less. I, or rather Main, was born in Ehrenfest. However, I began life as Urano Motosu, a university student in Osaka, Japan. It was my dream to be a librarian, and towards the end of my studies I was even informed that I had got the position provided I graduated and got my degree. Before I could, however, I wound up getting killed in an earthquake, and for some reason I wound u getting drawn into Main's body here just as her mana-induced fever killed her."

"I thought that I was the only one..." Rimuru said softly to himself, then we heard another explosion that was rather close, and he got a look of determination as he said, "I'm glad that your okay now, Main, but I've got to stop this assault on my people. He then turned to go, but I grabbed his shoulder (which was solid for the moment, though I knew that he could change that easily if he wanted to make me let go) as I said, "Wait, I'm going with you!"

"I don't think that's a good idea," Rimuru said adamantly, "You should stay here with your family."

"I can't just stand around and do nothing!" I told him defiantly, "You gave me this armor, so you must know what I can do with it. Please, let me help!"

"Do you even know how to fight?" Rimuru asked me doubtfully. I considered how I wanted to answer that question. I had taken some self-defense lessons with Mom in my previous life, but only had earned up to a yellow belt before my studies took over my free time. Fortunately Great Sage saved me from coming up with an answer as she said, If I might make an observation, the reduction of Miss Main's excess mana had increased by 12% during her rescue of the one trapped under the rubble. If she were to enter a combat situation, that would greatly reduce the time that she would need to get back to manageable levels and allow her to remove the armor sooner. Furthermore I can use my connection to aid Miss Main in combat, even taking over the motor functions and entering Auto-Battle mode if need be, and so long as it's supplied with mana this armor can take whatever abuse it's handed and deal it back in kind.

"And what should happen if Main's magicule levels get too low?" Rimuru reasoned.

If the ability to remain in combat becomes in question, through critical mana levels or any other reason, before our attacker is defeated or routed, then I will of course use the mana remaining to get Miss Main back to the safety of her group. Great Sage informed him, This is the most logical choice to ensure Miss Main's safety and well being. The alternative option is to remove the armor now and hope that she doesn't have another episode while we're dealing with our attacker.

"Just those two, huh?" Rimuru said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Very well, but I'm counting on you to keep her safe."

Acknowledged, Great Sage told him.

"Come again?" Ferdinand said in confusion, and I realized that he could not hear Great Sage's part of the conversation.

"I'll be going with them to help them deal with the one attacking this town," I informed Ferdinand.

"Are you serious?" Ferdinand asked in a reproachful tone.

"I've got to use what I've been given to help these guys," I told him, "This will help to drain my Devouring Fever too, and Great Sage will get me back to you guys should anything start to wrong."

"I don't suppose that I would be able to prevent you from going on your own while you're wearing that armor anyway," Ferdinand said, and thought it sounded more like he was making a statement than asking I shook my head no. Ferdinand then turned to Rimuru and said, "I'll tell her mom that you're helping her to deal with her Devouring Fever, but I'm counting on you to ensure that Main comes to no harm!"

Rimuru nodded yes, then he turned to me with black wings emerging from his back as he asked, "Ready?"

I couldn't keep the smile out of my voice as I answered, "Just try to keep up." Then I took off down the road towards the edge of town, Rimuru Tempest flying alongside.