Chapter 2: A Fateful Meeting
It had been a few weeks since the end of the Orc Lord incident, and Demon Lord Clayman was quite livid. As expected, the orc had been killed and his plans- well, Gelmud's plan, but he was working for Clayman- had been for nothing. However, Clayman was not one to let even a failure go to waste. He had plans, and contingencies. Right now, however, he had an unenviable job: waking up the Destroyer, who had been not so silently napping on his sofa for weeks. Heaving one last sigh, he opened the door to the meeting room where the girl was. He had ordered his servants to stay the hell away from there and so far there didn't seem to be any problem, but by god the scene inside made his blood pressure rise. Aside from all the drool pooling under Milim's head on his expensive sofa, the pillows were ripped and the table lay in two halves. 'Did you do that in your sleep or something?!' he wanted to shout at her, but knew better. Instead, he walked over and began slowly calling her name. Eventually, the girl shot up, slightly startled.
-'What?! What?!' she said as she comically turned her head in all directions, looking for the noise that woke her up. After a few seconds her eyes landed on Clayman 'Ah. Yeah? What time it is...?'
-'About a month later, Milim.' he informed her with a strained smile.
-'Oh...' she yawned and stretched before focusing on Clayman 'How'd the investigation go?'
-'Well, not as good as I had hoped.' Clayman began as he sat down in one of the chairs 'From what my agent found out, the Orc Lord was killed not long after Gelmud by that masked majin. Afterwards, the orcs were freed from his influence. But here's the interesting part...' at this, Milim perked up 'The races of the Jura Forest, at the behest of the dryads, met up the day after and formed a new nation, of sort. An alliance of monsters...'
-'An alliance of monsters? Interesting...' finally, Milim stood up 'And that majin?
Clayman shook his head 'That's about all my agent was able to uncover. Apparently, this new...monster nation has quite an effective defense. When my agent tried to pry further, he was quickly chased away by one of those ogres you saw in Gelmud's memories. The last thing he got was a name: Tempest...'
Milim let the name sink in for a second 'Tempest huh...?' Clayman nodded 'he he he he...' she laughed evilly with a grin 'then, I think its my turn...' Clayman knew this was coming, and there was no more he could really do to stop her. Even so, having her finally leave would be worth it. Before he could say anything though, Milim was already hurrying away and towards the large open window; before she stepped out, however, she turned around and said 'remember, no interfering with one another, yeah?' and was gone in an explosion of aura. Before he could even blink, she was already gone, accelerating beyond hypersonic speed and disappearing beyond the horizon. With another heavy sigh, Clayman went back into his castle to continue his plotting. His time was near, and when it came he would make sure that Milim would pay for treating him the way she did.
It was a sunny day in the Jura Forest, and Rimuru was enjoying the newly found peace and tranquility as he hopped along in his slime form on one of the newly constructed paved roads radiating from the central of the city. It felt like forever since he had any true rest, though not by lack of trying. After the conference that named him Chancellor of Jura, he had to spend a few days naming all 150,000 of the remaining orcs, which left him little more than a puddle. With that done, the orcs had been resettled all across the Forests in various smaller groups and provided with the food that was generously provided by the treeants, the patrons of the dryads. When Rimuru returned to Tempest (or rather Rimuru, the embarrassing new name his subordinates decided unanimously to call the city), two thousands of the high orcs had come with him, providing a massive boom to the city's construction capability. They were currently in the middle of a construction boom, and the city really did began to look like a proper city and not a random collection of buildings. Of course, this came with massive problem to him as he was heaped with more and more responsibilities that he barley had time to himself anymore. Some king he was. Yes, KING.
It happened shortly after returning from lake Shisu, when they were visited by King Gazel of the dwarves; allegedly, the king wanted to see for himself what this new self proclaimed alliance of monsters was and test its leader. Test my slimy bottom, he just wanted to leave the castle and have fun. Rimuru complained in his mind as he was forced to duel the king, but wisely kept to himself. Incidentally, the king was an old apprentice of Hakuro, one of the ogres, a fellow student of the same sword style, and had now began calling him his 'Fellow student'. However, despite the questionable motive to visit, Gazel did made him a massive favor by formally recognizing his new nation and entering an alliance with him; he was shocked to say the least, as he didn't expect to gain proper recognition so fast. Well, one burden off his solders...was what he wanted to say, but no. It was Gazel's damn question on the name of his nation that led to everyone- especially Treyni- throwing the mantle of King on him, despite his protests.
Also, Gazel brought with him a old 'friend': Vesta, the dwarf 'sketchy bureaucrat' that nearly had him thrown in prison. Apparently, after the trial, he was dismissed by the king and had in the meantime a drastic change of heart- or rather, Rimuru though, no longer had the burden of politics in his mind and could focus on his true hobby, which was research. Well, Kaijin himself had forgiven and vouched for him, so he let bygones be bygones and assigned him to the Tempest research division. Speaking of the research division, that was also where he had assigned that Gabiru, the traitorous and now exiled son of the lizardmen chief who similarly was a changed man-reptile. Gabiru and Vesta were now hauled in Veldora's former cave, heavily invested in research. In fact, he was just now returning from the cave to the city after having an in depth evaluation of their work. He would have a little more free time, and decided to enjoy it to its fullest.
Fate, however, had other plans. As he came in sight of the city, his ability, Great Sage, blared a warning in his head
Report: a large aura has been detected heading in this direction. Caution advised its mechanical voice said with an unusual degree of alarm that instantly put Rimuru on edge. Within moments, his magic sense was focused in the direction of the aura and sure enough something was coming this way. Massive would be an understatement; it made the Orc Lord look like an insect, and the speed at which it was moving was completely unbelievable. If Rimuru had to rank it, it would certainly be right up there with freaking Veldora...and judging by its trajectory, it was heading straight for him. Panicking, he decided to lead it away from the city as much as possible; in the process he send a quick urgent message to his subordinates.
His initial assessment was right; as he moved away from Tempest, the aura changed course to intercept him. This was not good. He made it only a few hundred meters before he arrived in a flat plain with only a few trees (one of the places they had chopped down for building materials) before the aura slammed into the ground in a blur light purple. The sheer force of just that impact would have been enough to level most of the city, he though. The force pushed out a massive dust cloud that obscured the intruder before another, much smaller burst of aura from them cleared it away. Rimuru didn't knew what to thing at first at the scene in front of him.
From the crater stepped out...a young girl, in appearance not older than 14. She had pink hair tied in two long tails on either side of her head and blue eyes that sparkled with an unknown quality to them. She was barley wearing anything; her 'clothes' would barley classify as underwear in most reasonable societies, but she didn't seem to care in the slightest. And she was sporting a massive grin as if she won the lottery.
Now Rimuru Tempest- or rather, Satoru Mikami- considered himself an...admirer of the female form and beauty, and though he had a pretty good hold on judging them...the fact that he never had a girlfriend in his life didn't really matter. At all. And this girl, with her ridiculous aura, if one ignored her outfit, certainly had looks going on for her. He imagined that given two or three more years, she would be quite the looker. Even now, he would be lying to himself if he said she wasn't pretty. And even though he himself had no eyes, he found himself instantly drawn to hers; there was just something about them that made him stop in his tracks. 'Who is this girl?' he though to himself. As if reading his mind, the girl hastily stepped outside the crater she made and haughtily began speaking
-'Hello, hello! I am the one and only Dragonoid, Demon Lord Milim Nava! You looked like the strongest hombre in town, so I thought I would drop by and say hi!' she finished as she dramatically posed with her hands on her hips.
'Demon Lord?! Are ya kidding me?! Great Sage!' Rimuru panickingly thought to himself
Confiremd: Individual Milim Nava meets the requirements of a Demon Lord. Notice: lower estimates of her magicule count is approximately 10 times greater that yours. Upper estimates cannot be calculated
'Cannot be calculated? What dose that mean? Oh dear...better think of something to say...'
-'Ah, yes, welcome to Tempest. May I help you, young lady?' he meekly asked the Demon Lord 'Do you want something?'
-'Hm?' she answered back, seemingly genuinely confused 'No. I just said, I's just saying 'hi'.' she finished with a smile. A lingering silence set in as Rimuru considered her response.
'That's it?! Seriously? Not that I'm complaining...' again as if she was reading his mind, the Demon Lord put on a somewhat disappointing face but was quickly replaced with a look of curiosity as she squatted in front of him...and started poking him.
-'Hey, hey, are you really a slime? You're really powerful for even a majin, let alone a slime!' she said between the pocking. Now Rimuru was slightly beginning to panic for real at the realization of what she said; his aura was almost completely oppressed, so how did she figured he was the strongest in the region to come directly at him? He decided to ask bluntly
-'Ah, how did you know I'm strong?' at this, the girl closed one eye and began pointing at the other
-'No point in hiding from me! My Dragon's Eye can tell the truth of anything it sees; it can instantly tell me how strong of weak someone is, what their skills do...' she got back up, striking another pose 'and also, it can instantly tell me a woman's three sizes!' she proclaimed proudly
'Instantly tell a woman's three sizes, eh? Interesting...NO, focus Rimuru, Focus! Ah damn, with such an absurd ability there's no point in even trying to hide.'
-'Ah, that's quite the fearsome ability.' he praised honestly. He had the distinct impression that lying would be of no use, even if she could't use that Dragon Eye to tell if he was (which, he figured, she probably could)
Report: that is a very likely assessment Great sage interjected
-'Wa ha ha ha ha!' she laughed at his words, a laugh which distinctly reminded him of a certain dragon for some reason..'Say, Mr Slime...er...'
-'Its Rimuru. Rimuru Tempest' he helpfully informed her
-'Yes, Rimuru. You were that masked majin who fought and trashed that moron Gelmud, right? I saw it his memories.' she casually said the last part. 'So at least one Demon Lord was watching, eh? Gelmud, you bastard.' Interrupting his thoughts, she continued 'But the form I saw there was a humanoid...can you morph into a human form?' she asked.
'No point in hiding' he though 'Yes, I can' to demonstrate, he quickly morphed into his human form, though he wasn't wearing the mask. At this, the Demon Lord had an unusual reaction: at first, she was slightly taken aback- he could swore he saw her blushing a bit, but dismissed it- before she began pacing around him, even lifting a strand of his silver-blue hair. Then she stopped in front of him with a thoughtful expression
-'Say...' she began stroking her chin 'Are you...is this form supposed to be a boy or a girl? Its hard to tell...'
That particular question really caught him off guard. 'Eh?! Well...how should I even answer that?' Eventually he decided on something 'Well, I'm a slime, so i don't have...you know...a gender. But er...' he stuttered and began rubbing the back of his head 'I supposed for convenience sake, I identify closer to male...more or less...' And, well, it was true; gender or not, he was a guy in his past life. It would be hard to identify as anything else, even now. The answer seemed to satisfy the girl, who beamed another smile
-'Ah, got it, got it!' then she just...stood there, looking at him. The silence was quite awkward, so he decided to break the ice with another question
-'So, did you wanted anything else?'
-'Nope!' she immediately said. Well, she didn't seem to be lying, so he figured now was the time to try and make her go away before she DID want something. However, before he could get a sound out, he felt himself pushed back by a sudden force. Looking down, he saw Ranga, the Tempest Wolf Alpha, as he grabbed him by the shirt and began pulling him away from the Demon Lord at breakneck speed. His mind had little time to even think 'huh?' before he saw a much bigger problem: Shion, his self appointed 'Secretary', swinging her massive sword in a downward arc at the Demon Lord from the side 'NO!' he shouted, but was far too late. The sword made impact and another boom shook the plain. But...
-'Ho, what is this? Wanna play?' Milim asked with a toothy grin that showed off her sharp canines; there was a dangerous glint in her eyes. More importantly, Rimuru noticed, Shion's strike did absolutely nothing whatsoever to her. In fact, she caught the blade with one hand as if it was nothing, the ground below shattered into another crater, and she was holding the sword in place despite Shion trying to pry it back. Now Shion, crazy as she was, was by no means physically weak, but in front of this short girl barley reaching her chest she was nothing.
With a smirk, Milim simply flicked her fingers at the sword, causing Shion to be violently thrown back, all the way into a tree in the nearby forest, which proceed to explode in splinters from the impact. 'No, no, no, no!' Rimuru was now officially more panicked than he had ever been as he tried to get free of Ranga's grip. When he failed, he caught a nearby tree branch with both arms, crossed his legs around the wolf's neck and stopped him in his tracks 'NO! Listen to me!' he shouted as he turned his attention back to Milim. His face paled. Like a true shinobi, Soei jumped from out of nowhere and binded Milim in a thread of steel silk, immobilizing her; she had a look of surprise but was by no means worried. Then he saw Benimaru join the battle shouting at Ranga 'Get Lord Rimuru out of here! We'll deal with her!' and turned his attention to the Demon Lord. Rimuru jumped from the tree branch he was holding but could't say anything before Benimaru unleashed a Hell Flare with Milim straight in the middle. Normally, the young ogre could unleash a dozen or more of these, as he did during the battle against the Orc Lord, but sensing the danger he had poured nearly all of his magicules into a single, devastating spell. The black flames engulfed a large area and created a huge shockwave, and continued to burn for a few more seconds at insane temperatures. However...
-'He he, nice attack.' a voice rang from within the raging inferno, shocking everyone 'Against one of the other Demon Lords, this might be dangerous. But against me...' then, from within the Hell Flare, Milim unleashed her aura. It was not an attack; it was not even a spell; she simply released an ungodly amount of aura which disintegrated the Flare, sending everyone flying as it enlarged the crater. Rimuru himself could barley hold on to dear life onto the tree he was hanging earlier; he could swore the release would be felt all the way in Dwargon. Finally, the wind died down, revealing Soei and Benimaru splayed on the ground some distance away and Milim still standing in the center of the new crater- now the only one- smiling and looking content.
-'Well, who's next?' she asked with a more serious tone than the somewhat childish one she had used previously with him. Now Rimuru knew for sure- this was a Demon Lord, the pinnacle of power in this world. He quickly rushed over to the closest of the ogres, Benimaru, ignoring Ranga's plea to go to safety. Calmly, he knelled down and gave him a potion
-'My lord...for your own safety, you must...' the red haired ogre began, but was quickly shut down by Rimuru
-'We'll discuss your hasty actions later. I'll deal with the rest.' Then he began walking back towards Milim, who was observing him with a smile. 'I don't suppose I can talk you out of more fighting?I can promise these guys will get the proper...scolding, later' he asked dejectedly. He ignored the 'Three Idiots' look of shock at the word 'scolding'
'-Ha? I mean, I didn't come here to fight. Your pals attacked me first...' she retorted. 'But now I can't really back down.'
-'Why not?' he asked, trying very hard to hide his frustration.
-'Well, it'd look really bad for me, ya know?' she began 'Demon Lords are the top dogs in this world; backing down from a weaker opponent would make me look like a chump.' she explained with a small pout. As much as he hated to say it, she wasn't as unreasonable as it would seem. It was survival of the fittest in this world; giving up was just as bad as losing, especially to a purely power based group the Demon Lords seem to be. He still didn't like it, but...
-'Ah, but, I guess I did drop by uninvited. Tell ya what...'Milim began, throwing her arms wide 'I'll give you a freeby!'
-'A...freeby?' he asked confused, more on how that term existed even in this world
-'Yup, a freeby! You can attack me with anything you want, and I'll take it. I won't block, or retaliate or nothing. So, pretty good deal for you, eh?' she finished with a smirked as she leaned in 'Ah, but...if it dose nothing, you'll admit defeat and become my follower. Deal?'
Frankly, Rimuru wasn't too keen of becoming a Demon Lord's follower, but truth be told it was probably the best he was gonna salvage out of this whole mess. He thought hard on how to respond, then came up with a crazy idea...
Warning: subject Milim Nava's defenses far exceed all forms of attacks available; engaging in not advised Great Sage interrupted, but he ignored it. He was gonna stake everything on this gut instinct. He got into an attack position he had learned from Hakuro and said 'Alright, let's go!' and launched himself towards Milim, who was only smirking at him in anticipation.
Warning... Great Sage tried to stop him, but he forcefully shut it down. The he gathered his secret weapon in his right hand and...trusted it right into the Demon Lord's mouth. After a quick moment of making sure he hit the target, he jumped back. Silence enveloped the scene as Milim simply stood there...
-'Wha...what IS this?! It's delicious!' she screamed as she licked her lips
'Heh he, this is just honey...' Rimuru smirked to himself as he watched the girl enjoy the taste 'whether its one world or another, childish opponents are all the same!
... he swore he heard something coming from Great Sage, but ignored it.
-'Oh, you like it?' he said to Milim, drawing her attention as he produced more honey from within his storage space, continuing as she stared in wonder at the golden ball he formed 'if you admit defeat, I'll give this to you. Its the last I have...' at this, the Demon Lord's eyes widened in panic
-'What?!' she screamed dejectedly at him 'Like hell I'll admit defeat from this!'
-'Is that so...guess I'll keep it to myself and eat it all' he began licking some of the honey. Now she was really panicking. Unknown to Rimuru, Milim's head was a whirlwind since first tasting the honey
'What is this?! Its so sweet, I never tasted anything so sweet...it taste like nectar, but how did he made like this? I have to know! I have to get my hands on MORE!' Then she heard him say to admit defeat and the rest 'Admit defeat?! Me? Is this guy serious?! Ah, but I really want more...if he's gonna eat it all, I have to do something...I know!' Thus she came up with a brilliant compromise that would let her keep both her Demon Lord pride and the honey, a true stroke of genius
-'Ah, listen, I can't admit defeat, but how 'bout we call it a draw, yeah?' she laid down her idea to Rimuru, who considered the idea carefully but looked kinda unconvinced 'hehe, I predicted that!' she boasted to herself then continued 'But not just that, I'll also promise not to pick a fight with you or any of your people again. On my honor as a Demon Lord!' she finished dramatically with a hand against her heart.
-Hmm...' Rimuru pondered hard her proposal. Frankly, it was better than what he had hopped. So, he decided to agree 'Alright, it's a deal. But, you have to address me as Sir Rimuru from now on, okay?' at this, she made a face of disgust 'Maybe I'm pushing my luck?
-'What?! YOU should address ME as Miss Milim, pal. I'm a Demon Lord, you known? she said pouting ''Yeah, I'm pushing my luck.'' he decided to leave that be
-'Okay, then you can call me Rimuru and I'll call you Milim, deal?''
-'Hmph, deal! Be grateful! I only let my fellow Demon Lords call me so intimately! she declared. With a sigh, Rimuru toke out a glass jar from his storage space, put the honey in it and handed it over to an exited, starry eyed Milim, who snatched it victoriously and started gorging herself with a look of utter bliss on her face. If we weren't sitting in the middle of a massive crater she made, she would look downright harmless' Rimuru though... 'and honestly kinda cute'... he added sheepishly, keeping it to himself. While Milim was busy, he moved over to where the ogres had assembled, watching the spectacle with a mix of awe and shame. As he approached, they keeled 'Listen, guys...' he began with the most stern tone his voice could allow, which wasn't saying much 'I known you were only thinking of the best, but seriously calm down! This could have ended so badly, its not even funny. In the future, I expect you to be more careful and considerate, yeah?'
-'Yes, Sir Rimuru!' they shouted in unison.
-'Good. Alright, let's go home.' Rimuru moved to hop onto Ranga and leave when he noticed Milim following close behind them. He stopped and looked at her, awkwardly. 'Er...can I help you?' the grin she immediately put on told him everything he needed to know
-'I'm coming with you guys! I wanna see that city I saw when I flew in! Looked really fun.'
-'But..' Rimuru began to speak, then their agreement moments before came to mind. Sure enough, Milim spoke what he was thinking
-'He he, our deal only said I'd not pick a fight with you guys. Didn't say to leave! Wahahahaha!' she roared triumphantly
At this, Rimuru mentally kicked himself. Somehow, he had let her take charge of the negotiations, and she had twisted it in her favor. He really needed to not let his guard down around her, huh? With this, his days as Milim's unofficial- later official- chaperon began.
Author Note
So the last chapter was short and mostly to recap the story. Frankly I wasn't that interested in writing everything from the beginning, especially since nothing would change. Changes will start out small, especially in the first few chapters. This is gonna be a heavy Rimuru x Milim fanfic. I will not be going over every character and their scenes; expect a lot of short recaps. That is all.