Her Secret: Known

Living with the blue oni family was surreal to Rimuru.

It's like she has parents and a big brother again that life at blue oni's house was comfortable.

It was appropriate that she, a blue slime, lives with them since they have blue hair though they have dark skin in place of blue skin.

In Oni Village, the darker the hair color, the darker your skin is. The lighter your hair, the fairer you are...which was weird. Example is the prince and princess. Young master has vivid red hair that he has reddish skin. Princess who has pink hair has rosy-fair skin.

Since she doesn't need food as Slimes subsist off of magicules...and she doesn't have a sense of taste anyway, she doesn't join the family for breakfast and instead plays game OSTs.

After breakfast, blue oni picked her up and carries her in his arms as usual. 'Ne ne, where're we going?'

'Well, I thought we'd take a walk today.' blue oni told her.

'What do you usually do?'

'Well, my job is to patrol for information as this village's security agent.' blue oni explained. 'Information is what keeps us strong. We can prepare ahead of time and the like.'

'Heee...'

'On your way here, have you encountered trouble?'

'My trip was rather safe...I didn't encounter anyone or anything till you guys.' said Rimuru. 'Even then, the ones I saw not far from me ran away.' she sighed.

'Well, Veldora-sama named you, giving you great power.'

"That didn't happen though..." Rimuru sweatdropped at his speculation.

Veldora named her as his equal, not as his subordinate so she didn't get power from him, only a new name etched into her soul binding them as 'siblings'. How she got powerful? By consuming his cave clean AND gaining their strength! She also absorbed all magicules there as her way of Level-Grinding that she was crazy-strong. She decided she'll let them believe otherwise unless Veldora says so.

Nobody would believe the truth about how she got strong anyway as Slimes are the bottom of the food chain in regards to monster respect. Due to how she is, everyone here was fascinated with her because she was unique for having a face, intelligence and power. Otherwise, according to Great Sage, Slimes are considered a refreshing summer snack by every monster, JUST LIKE TOKOROTEN!

'I'm not scary though. I'm strong, so what? Strong doesn't mean bad guy by default.' blue oni notes that when she's tired or dismayed, she goes gooey puddle.

'How old are you anyway?'

'Welp, I'm 90 days old.' as a soul, she was 37. 'Very young.'

'You really are an infant.' blue oni chuckled. 'Oni your age appear as newborns.'

'Well, the cave was my world for so long, until three people came into the cave for investigating why Veldora disappeared.' said Rimuru. 'They opened that big door I couldn't pass through. I could go up as Veldora's room was way below. Up I went, passing by five more doors until I'm out and saw light and a different world...the cave was dark and damp, save for glowing rocks.'

'Glowing...rocks?'

'Teacher called it Magisteel.' Rimuru regurgitated a rather large ore by opening her mouth wide, shocking her companion before he got his wits back to taking it from her so she could close her mouth.

Blue Oni stared in shock at seeing such a large chunk of magisteel. With Magisteel this size, they could have Unique Grade weapons!

'...do you think you can let our blacksmith have it?' he asked shakily. 'We could forge powerful swords out of this!'

'...really? Glowing rocks can become swords? I'll ask teacher later...' blue oni ran across the village to get to a hut that emitted smoke off the chimney.

It was a hut where blacksmiths are. Its a forge within.

'Rimuru, can you give us your magisteel?' blue oni asked her. 'I need to report to chief!'

'OK~' and he ran off.

'...you have magisteel?' one of the smiths asked her incredulously.

'Yeah. I collected those glowing rock things since they look nice.' said Rimuru, opening her mouth wide and by the end of it, there's a pile of large magisteel on the floor.

'Whoaaaa!'

'This is the first time in my life I saw so much magisteel! This is a miracle!'

Rimuru supposed magisteel was a coveted, but rare ingredient hard to come by. Teacher did explain what is was...well, anyone would want it with a dang good reason...

xxx

Blue Oni's report got the chieftain rushing to the forge to see with his own eyes.

The excited smiths were already processing Magisteel by the armfuls and started smelting them.

'It's all real...' he croaked out, wide-eyed. 'Rimuru, are you alright with us having all these?' he asked Rimuru shakily, unable to comprehend they gained so much TREASURE on a child's whims.

'Well, glowing rocks on their own are just fancy displays, but not really useful...unless turned into swords.' said Rimuru. 'I want to see such a thing happen, that my rocks can be useful and actually turn into swords! That's like magic!'

The adults present was utterly bamboozled by her words.

This slime really doesn't know much about the world that she's still exploring while learning from her skill.

She's just three months old for crying out loud, naturally she was ignorant of the world.

'Well, let's leave the forge, it'll be too hot here soon.' said blue oni.

'Don't worry, I got Thermal Fluctuation Resistance! Heat and Cold even of extremes don't bother me even if you dump me in a volcano! Teacher said so!' the whole forge got queasy at her cheerfully-morbid statement.

'Urk...er, let's not go that far...'

xxx

'She really watched just for the sake of knowing huh?' Young Master asked Blue Oni who nodded as they watched the forge from afar. Rimuru was still inside, watching how a sword is made.

'She really has no idea of value of goods...' said Blue Oni, utterly exasperated. 'She's only an infant who's still studying, so she had no idea the toys she fancied are more useful as swords than glowing rocks for admiration. When I told her they can be made into swords, she got interested.' he deadpanned with a weary sigh. 'I'm getting mentally-exhausted just thinking about it.'

'Maa maa, its as you say, she's learning about her world.' young master laughed jovially, patting his back.

By tonight, seven swords are made out of the magisteel Rimuru gave.

'Each of those swords are Unique Grade weapons because we were able to give each blade 60% magisteel thanks to that mountain of treasure Rimuru gave us!' said the chief blacksmith in delight. 'We can give sixty swords to our best warriors after computing everything!'

'That, and by infusing the swords with magicules every day, it'll start evolving and getting stronger and keep that up, it'll evolve in a few years.' Rimuru advised. 'For long-lived monsters like us, that's just a blink of an eye.'

The swords are handed out. Narutally, the red regal-looking ones went to the chief and his son who were the ruler and prince respectively.

The idea of evolving weapons also got the warriors excited. But the Chief was a very fair person.

60 out of 125 got Unique Grade weapons, so he sent Rimuru out with his son and blue oni out on a mission.

'Find more magisteel to be fair to everyone...that's a tall order.' young master grumbled. 'Only in Veldora's Cave will we find those, but Rimuru already gave it all to us!'

'Well, we find a nice mining place first.' said Rimuru. 'To cause iron ores to evolve into Magisteel, I have to infuse them with magicules.'

'To get mining work done, we need to go to Dwargon, a dwarven kingdom built inside a literal mountain so in a way, that country is in eternal nighttime since they don't see the sky there, and has constant access to resources.' young master piped. 'Hang on tight!' and they took to the trees.

'Eek! Let me tie myself around blue oni first!' Rimuru squawked as she used her threads to tie herself to blue oni.

'That's quite convenient...' blue oni mused, as by doing so, she freed his other arm that was holding her as he carried her. 'We'll be there in a week at our pace!'

"Yeah, you're jumping like literal ninjas on trees!" Rimuru thought wryly.

Indeed as they say, a week later, they arrived in Dwargon and they had to line up for clearances first.

'...what're we waiting out here for?' Rimuru croaked out.

'Well, there's a clearance check, always.' said young master. 'Anyone's welcome, except criminals and illegal goods. Anyone carrying those gets imprisoned and put to trial and said goods they carry destroyed.' he explained.

'Heee...'

When their turn came?

'What's your purpose?' the gate guard asked them.

'We're here to do some mining.' young master explained, showing a scroll to the guard. The guard read the letter before putting his stamp on it, before his eyes fell on Rimuru in blue oni's arms.

'But uh, what's that little fella with you?'

'Its my pet. Don't worry, she's tame and housebroken.' said blue oni with a straight face, as Rimuru made cutesy cooing sounds. She was too cute the guards MELTED before her. 'I can't leave her at home since my parents are out.'

'Oh its OK, that can go through!' said the guard who was powerless against cuteness. 'Somebody guide these guys to the mines!'

'Yessir!'

That, was easy.

Dwargon, Rimuru noted, is a city built inside a literally-hollowed out mountain. The structures are all steampunk-esque. How did they deal with pollution as because its DWARVES they're talking about, they forge and all that smoke surely can't be cooped up in here, right?

They must have a way, otherwise this cool place would be a greenhouse and nobody can STAND to live in here. The air remained fresh and this city comfortably cool, like its perpetually air-conditioned.

It amazed her.

And so, at the mines...the two oni were provided pick and wheelbarrow, before guided to the mines.

But...

There was blood.

'Er...'

'...well, an Armorsaurus attacked yesterday...and three miners who were Kaido's buddies got real bad injuries they're in painful retirement.' said the guard, shaking his head in sympathy. 'With injuries like those, I'd rather die than live in agony.' he stated with a shiver. 'Kaido, our boss was so gloomy because nothing short of a Restore Potion can heal such atrocities done to their bodies. His brother Kaijin the blacksmith was just as upset.'

'...they must be really good friends.' young master felt sorry for the dwarves.

'Those three were really unlucky in stuff they try that they can't stay employed for long, but this time 'round, their luck is so bad its not funny, they're like cosmic jokes.' the guard sighed. 'The military sent a company to kill that monster but its too late. The mines are safe now, but since the incident, the usual guys down here are still scared of coming back. So for the time being, these mines are all yours.' and the guard left them.

Once he's gone...

'Yosh, I can begin now.' Rimuru spoke as she began analyzing the cave. 'Here's what we're going to do...I'll search and you guys pick, but before plucking them off the earth, let me infuse the ores with magicules. Magisteel is formed with minerals from the earth mutated by magicules and fusing together to become magisteel. So if you pluck them before the feeding, it won't become magisteel even if I gave it my all.' she said. 'So control your strength, OK?'

'Riiight...let's start!' and Rimuru began scanning with her Great Sage and pointed at locations.

Because Oni are physically strong, they had to be...gentle...with picking.

Once an iron ore was found, Rimuru would flood it with magicules by force to mutate it into the large magisteel ores she once possessed.

'Whoa...so that's how it's done!' the two oni admired the gigantic ore they plucked off the wall. 'To think Magisteel is just iron ore evolved through magicules?!'

'Well, one down, 124 more to go guys!' Rimuru chimed. The motivated pair began mining at places where iron ore is the nearest to the surface for Rimuru to do her job.

Once they amassed the materials they needed, Rimuru suggested they pluck a few more...for sale.

'This way we can get stuff the village doesn't have by trading these extra fellas.' said Rimuru. 'Young master, what does the village lack at present?'

'Well, we need fabric and shoe materials...' said young master. 'We usually trade monster parts with dwarves for money to buy stuff we can't make ourselves.' he said. 'Having new things will be good once in a while for us.'

'But with the chunks we have in our possession, selling one of these alone will result in unwanted attention on us too, so let's be careful.' said blue oni. 'Let's pay Kaijin a visit.' he said. 'He's the best swordsmith in Dwargon and the only guy not scared of us Oni. Well, we're B-Ranked majin to begin with...'

'Maybe having magisteel will cheer him up.' Rimuru mused. 'The blacksmiths back home acted like I just gave them gold when I gave them magisteel.'

'Rimuru, magisteel you have, even one of those, costs a couple million gold already.' said young master helplessly. 'Gold is cheap compared to magisteel!'

'Urk...'

xxx

Kaijin Workshop...

The atmosphere inside is gloomy.

'Excuse us.' said young master. Kaijin the dwarf, was gloomy and drinking beer.

'Ain't doing business today.' he said with a sigh. 'Or rather, not anytime soon. A lot of us will lose our careers.'

'What?! How come?'

'All us craftsmen have a royal order that each of us is to produce 20 military longswords each of us by that jerk Minister Vesta by the weekend or we lose our jobs.' said Kaijin in resignation. 'With what happened to my guys, the other miners got scared of coming back to the mines. But if we don't get anything done, we're really screwed.'

'Material neh...how many swords will this make?' blue oni showed him six large magisteel that got Kaijin choking into his beer.

'With monsters like those?! I can make thirty high-quality longswords!' Kaijin howled, bug-eyed.

'We need to sell them to you anyway because our village needs supplies.' said young master. 'How much will these fetch?'

'I'd say you boys saved my career!' said Kaijin in delight. 'I can definitely pay for these ores!' he went to his safe and pulled out three large bags of money. Each bag was labelled 100TG.

'...100TG?' Rimuru piped up in inquiry. 'Whassat?' a talking slime bamboozled Kaijin.

'TG means thousand gold.' said blue oni. 'MG would be million gold.' he explained.

'Heeee...'

'T-that slime can talk?!' Kaijin squawked out, astonished with Rimuru the talking slime.

'Rimuru's very smart for a baby slime.' blue oni said, petting Rimuru who enjoyed being petted on the head because it felt good, reminding her of the times when she was a human child, her parents would pet her on the head with pride when she does good in school. 'When she was named by a powerful whimsical monster before she came to our town, she became intelligent and got a cute face when normally, slimes are featureless balls of blob. Since she's still a baby, she asks questions a lot.'

"I had to maintain such a facade you know!" Rimuru thought in a pained voice. She had to put on a cutesy childish persona just to be welcomed anywhere. Had she shown she was smart and mature, anyone would be wary of her thus it'll be hard to be welcome anywhere thus unable to settle anywhere!

'She can even sing.'

'Oho? Then can you sing for this sad old man Rimuru?' Kaijin asked Rimuru kindly. 'Times are hard and it'd be harder if I didn't get lucky with you guys.'

'OK!' music began playing...

'Er, where's that coming from?'

'Her body.' said young master. 'She imitates what she sees and hears through magic. She must have heard music somewhere, picked it up and made her own so she can sing along.'

'Oho!'

Tell me her name I want to know
the way she looks, and where you go
I need to see her face, I need to understand
why you and I came to an end?

Tell me again I want to hear
who broke my faith in all these years
who lays with you at night,
when I'm here all alone?
Remembering when I was your own

I let you go,
I let you fly,
why do I keep on asking why?
I let you go
now that I found a way to keep somehow
more than a broken vow

This song is a little...gloomy, they all thought, as they listened to Rimuru sing.

However, Kaijin is suspecting Rimuru's true nature.

There's absolutely NO WAY a slime is capable of singing nor composing music, even if she was a unique monster.

Impossible.

Moreover the music is composed by instruments their world clearly...doesn't have, nor ever will. This music was reason why he began wondering what she truly is.

But he can tell she's dang UNLUCKY.

Tell me the words you never said
show me the tears you never shed
give me the touch that one you promised to be mine
or has it vanished for all time?

I let you go,
I let you fly,
why do I keep on asking why?
I let you go
now that I found a way to keep somehow
more than a broken vow

I close my eyes
and dream of you and I and then I realize
there's more to life than bitterness and lies
I close my eyes

I'd give away my soul to hold you once again
and never let this promise end

I let you go,
I let you fly,
Now that I know asking why?
I let you go
now that I found a way to keep somehow
more than a broken vow

'That's amazing little lady...but, do you have memories of your past life?' Kaijin asked her kindly. His question got the oni double-taking at the question. Why'd he ask such a thing after the village mascot sang one of her songs?

'Past...life?' Rimuru played dumb now.

'Yeah. That music you played. No instrument is capable of making such music here, in this world.' Kaijin told her and that got the oni staring at Rimuru now. 'Moreover, no songs exist either, aside from lullabies mothers make up to sing kids to sleep. I've never heard what's so obviously, a song about broken promises by a lover to his partner who began seeing another woman after breaking up.'

'Nyaaah?' Rimuru played clueless even more.

'I suspect your friend is a Reincarnate.' Kaijin told the oni who had trouble accepting the bomb he just dropped on them.

"HOLY ^#^%# &!" Rimuru was inwardly panicking while putting on a look of wonder on her face. Kaijin figured her out!

'Her memories she has now, are all about songs and music from her former world. She may remember more as time goes by.' Kaijin told the boys.

'She...was born three months ago as a unique slime in Veldora's Cave...she's still a baby slime.' young master croaked out as he and blue oni looked at Rimuru who was clueless. 'She became a unique slime when a powerful being named her on a whim. That being named her Rimuru Tempest that she gained a Unique Skill and intelligence.'

'Your pet is extremely unlucky.' Kaijin shook his head. 'Of all things to reincarnate into it just had to be as a slime.' he tut-tutted. 'That Naming jumpstarted her awakening. Rimuru must love songs in her past life or she's a singer herself, no idea. Keep an eye on her and remembering who she once was, and facing her new reality can get a little...shocking.' he warned them. 'If she remembers who she is and finds herself a slime, she'll be horrified and terrified...and wonder how can she live from now on, especially if she falls in love at some point, but unable to be with one she likes because of what she is. That would be terrible for her.' he said in utter sympathy.

'Oh...'

'We didn't know...well, we thought she was taught...or so she thinks, because that was what she told us and what she believes...' said young master. 'Her memories are probably jogged by that point...and in Jura Forest, our understanding of music is even less, so how could we have known?'

"OK, I'm an object of pity now..." Rimuru thought gloomily. "This Kaijin...then again, some people are aware otherworlders exist." she thought. "Veldora told me about that too. I guess if Jura's monsters are ignorant, countries aren't."

'Look after your friend. She would need support when the time comes.' Kaijin advised the boys.

'R-riiiight...' now the boys got worried for Rimuru. But then again, if she ate a female, love won't be an issue...

'I'll be OK I think.' said Rimuru. 'As long as I'm not alone if that happens, I'll be OK.' she said, regurgitating magicule capsules filled with Full Restore out of her mouth on Kaijin's table. 'Be careful with those, they pop easily. We heard your workers got hurt real bad, so that should fix them.' she said. Kaijin, young master and blue oni can only look at the glowing jelly-balls she made.

'What are those jelly things?' young master asked her, wondering what else Rimuru has inside of her other than a pile of Magisteel. 'They're glowing.'

'I ate all of the hipokute in the cave...and I was told they can be processed into potions, so I did after learning how.' Rimuru piped up. 'They're Full Restores in thin magicule coating to keep them that way, but even an ordinary needle can pop them, so be careful.'

'WHAT?!'

xxx

Shopping trip was awkward, Rimuru thought as after getting money from Kaijin while lugging around their sack of magisteel. Young master carried the magisteel and the money, blue oni carried their shopping. Rimuru wrapped both sacks in her threads so incase of scraping against sharp branches and twigs, the bags won't rip

Buying a ton of fabric, sewing kits, spools of thread and other thingamajigs, they went home carrying a lot of load, and kept their remaining money on for future spending.

'Neeee...this quiet-ness is scary...why're you guys so quiet?' Rimuru piped up, playing up her childishness.

'Well, we're worried I guess.' said young master anxiously. Rimuru's an innocent, inquisitive child now and enjoys playing around, but what if she gets her memories back? Who is she and what kind of person is she? Is she a good person or a bad person?

After getting to know her innocent side...if she turned out to be a bad person, would they have to kick her out or kill her for the sake of the village before she learns how to utilize her powers against them? Glancing at his friend, he was more worried because she lives with his family.

'No use worrying about me since we don't know when I'll get more of me back.' said Rimuru. 'Just do what comes natural I guess.'

'Easier said than done...'

'Muuuu...well, I have no idea either.' said Rimuru. 'All I know is I like songs and this current me is a good slime. But if I become bad if real me is bad, I guess you should do what you should do if the me you know is gone.' she said. 'The me now won't want real me to hurt you guys since you're so nice to this me. Oni Village is my home and I don't want it gone if real me uses our powers for bad things if she doesn't get what she wants.'

Well, this is typical anime plotline. She remembers a character in Code Geass. An amnesiac Britannian who fell in love with a Japanese...but when she got memories back, she was actually a bitch and disgusted she fell in love with a Japanese, later shooting him. He survived, stuff happens, and they later get married though.

She put this trope as an example to her current situation even if she was never a bad person. But let's be realistic OK? So she offered them a compromise.

'...'

Her words however, deeply got them anxious and worried.

They really hope Rimuru's a good person when she gets her memories back. They even wondered if they can kill her when the time comes.