Rimuru would admit that he was secretly having fun.

Meeting people and making friends had always been something that he enjoyed, even before his reincarnation. But more than just fun- the four humans were interesting as well as entertaining.

Aside from the big guy that had demanded food- none of them seemed terribly bothered that they were surrounded by monsters of all kinds. Some of whom were reformed human eaters once upon a time.

Which was pretty cool.

But it was also interesting to him that they didn't seem to mind the food that they were eating wasn't the typical human fare either. Instead of the usual meats like deer, rabbit, and cow- they were enjoying the bounty from the latest hunt.

Giant monster flesh, vegetables, and some other stuff.

Which was totally wild to him unless they really had been starving to death. After all, he didn't know of many humans who would brave eating certain things. Especially not some monster flesh.

For some reason, it tended to disgust people. It even at times made them sick. So, he had made it a kind of rule to never force a human to eat the stuff if they started to look a bit green.

"So, your name is Ichigo?" He asked the copper haired beauty as he finally brought his crazy thoughts back under control enough to focus.

"Yes." She replied as she reached for her mug to take a drink of her ale.

He'd initially tried to talk her out of drinking the booze at first since she was younger than expected and he hadn't wanted to get her into trouble with her friends. But as it turned out, he had been worried for nothing.

Now that he'd seen her empty four mugs of ale, he wasn't as concerned about getting her into trouble.

He was however a bit concerned about whether or not she was trying to get drunk since the loss of inhibitions that usually went hand and hand with someone being drunk...usually ended in mischief of some kind.

And that was rarely good for anyone.

Still, he allowed it. He merely watched the girl like a frigging hawk, just in case.

Thankfully, she didn't seem all that interested in chugging her mug of ale this time and took a swallow to chase down the food that she'd just swallowed.

"I'm guessing that you and your friends have been traveling for a while?" He asked curiously as he rested one of his cheeks in his palm.

"Yeah."

"Five months!" The red headed guy that had introduced himself to Rimuru as Renji said absently. Causing the slime to make a choking sound as he tried to wrap his mind around the fact that they had been traveling for so long in utter disbelief.

"Five months?"

"Five months." Everyone said in unison this time.

"B-But why for so long? Don't any of you want to go home?" He asked in alarm knowing very well what being on the road for such a long time tended to do to people.

He'd met monsters and human's alike that collapsed from exhaustion, illness, poisoning, injuries. He'd even met some that got lost and nearly died. And others...well, they did die. Some by their own hands. And others because they had been brutally murdered by bandits or wound up being eaten by a giant insect or something.

All in all, in Rimuru's opinion, staying on the road and traveling anywhere was simply something that humans should never, ever do. Especially when all of that stuff could easily be avoided by simply staying home.

"We don't have a home anymore." The dark-haired woman, Rukia chimed in in response to his questions. "So, we've been traveling to find a new home."

"But it's turning out to be more difficult that we thought it would be." The giant, Chad? finally added as he finished off what was left of his food and slowly pushed his empty dish away.

Rimuru nodded his head in understanding, knowing that starting over somewhere new could be really difficult for some more than others. But he couldn't help but wonder just what was making finding a new home so hard for them. Especially since they seemed so nice.

"Can I ask, what is keeping you from finding a new home? I mean, what is making things so difficult for you?"

Next to him, Ichigo shifted herself in her seat and then finally raised her hand a bit. He could tell that she was embarrassed by the flush that spread across her pretty face as she raised her head a bit to look at him cautiously as Rukia said, "The main problem is that people take a lot of unwanted interest in Ichigo. But another problem is that things also tend to escalate to the point where they get really out of hand."

She fell silent for a second. Which allowed one of the others to chime in and say, "People get hurt."

Rimuru cocked his head and tried to figure out what the other woman could have meant by that when Ichigo abruptly banged her head on the table, startling him a little bit as she groaned out. "I hate myself."

"Now, now, I'm sure that it isn't your fault." Rimuru said, wanted to make her feel better since it was never a good thing to hate oneself. That's how depression and suicides happened.

But she wasn't listening to him, so he shifted his attention back to the others and asked, "When you say that things get out of hand and people get hurt...what do you mean exactly?"

The three humans all exchanged a look with each other before Renji suddenly blurted out, "Well, Ichigo's so damned pretty that people have been trying to kidnap her and force her to marry them and stuff. We left once we realized how bad things could get, just to keep her safe."

Rimuru was so taken aback by what he'd just heard that he didn't even bother to question whether it was a lie or not. Instead, he was too busy imagining the poor gal being hog tied and tossed over someone's shoulder kicking and screaming.

It wasn't a very nice image to have in his head. In fact, it was downright disturbing. Especially since he knew and understood exactly what such things typically led too.

Rape wasn't something that he had come across in this world.

But it also didn't mean that he was ignorant of the harm that such actions caused. And then there was the fact that people were willing to try and take her away by force... That information alone bespoke of desperation and recklessness.

The kind that got people killed.

He took several more minutes to think everything over before finally making his choice and saying, "You can all stay here."

Everyone looked at him, including Ichigo, who just barely raised her head up from the table so that she could eye him doubtfully.

"We have some newly made homes that are available. They're near the lord's own home. That way if anything ever happened, he could come and help you out. And since the guy never really rests or sleeps then he should be around anytime day or night."

"Uh... isn't that something that we should take up with the lord, himself?" Chad asked, warily. Not the least bit inclined to believe that a kid could give them the permission that they needed to stay.

He merely smiled as one of the younger goblins that had helped to prepare their food came over to take a moment to chat. "Lord Rimuru! How are you today?"

The slime grinned at the goblin and took a moment to reply to his query, kindly thanking him for his hard work and then waving bye to him once he finally left.

Turning his attention back to the four humans, Rimuru couldn't help but find their shocked expressions a little bit funny. After all, he'd told them who he was when he'd first introduced himself to them. But he'd be nice and introduce himself again just to make sure that they really knew who he was now.

"My name is Rimuru Tempest. And I'm the Chancellor of the Great Jura Alliance and ruler of Monsters. Nice to meet ya, my dudes."

Three of the group nodded their head and gave him a series of small, hello's and how are ya's. Whereas Ichigo didn't seem all that surprised to find out who he was in the least. Maybe because she was the only one that had been paying attention the first time?

No matter.

"If all of you are done eating, I'll escort you to your homes. Okay?"

There was a series of murmurs from everyone, as Ichigo grabbed her discarded bag and took a moment to dig through it and pull out some gold coins. Earning a curious look from Rimuru as he watched her raise her hand and wave one of the goblin's over to give the coins to them and thank them for the food.

It was a little bit of an odd move to make since he normally made sure that everyone outside of the seller's market ate for free. But it was a nice one nevertheless since the goblin's had worked so hard.

The action confirmed his earlier suspicions about the four possibly being summoned. He already knew that Chad was a summon. But he hadn't gotten any further than that to be honest. To learning that Ichigo was too, sent a pang of sympathy through him.

After all, as difficult as it had probably been on Chad to be summoned...it was probably ten times worse on her. Especially given the circumstances that had driven them from their former home.

Making a mental note to make sure to assign someone to act as a part time bodyguard for the girl, he smiled warmly as she rejoined them. "You good?" He asked politely.

"Yeah. I'm good."

"Alright then, let's get you four settled." He said as he started walking, noting that the others didn't move until Ichigo did. Maybe because they didn't quite trust him? He honestly couldn't say.

But he couldn't really blame them for their hesitation either. So, he didn't bother to mention it as he led them through the village. Occasionally they would get greeted by some of his people. And the rest of the time some of the citizen's simply approached them to strike up a conversation or walk with him.

Usually, he didn't mind being so popular. In fact, he tended to thrive on the attention since he'd never been so likeable in his previous life. But in this instance, he almost wanted to shout at everyone to stay back.

He'd noticed that every time someone would approach them, that Ichigo would flinch. Not only that but her friends would discreetly place themselves around her to act as a living protective wall.

It was both an impressive and disheartening thing to witness. So much so that he felt the slow burning of anger stirring within him. And by the time he had managed to lead them to their destination, he very sorely wanted to hunt down whomever had caused the poor girl so much trouble and kick the holy hell out of them.

Preferably with Benimaru and Shinon next to him since they were total savages when they were pissed. And if the two ever saw the way that the girl kept flinching, it would definitely piss them off enough to do someone some serious harm.

"These are the empty homes?" Renji asked him once they stopped walking. It took Rimuru a second or so to ruthlessly squash the anger that he was feeling on the girl's behalf and reply.

"Yeah. As you can see, they're all brand new. Some of them are a bit bigger than others due to the fact that we get a lot of refugee families with kids. The four of you can go ahead and pick the homes that you want. I don't mind waiting while you find your perfect fit." He said kindly.

He was only mildly surprised when Ichigo was the first to step forward and start towards the homes before pausing and calling out, "Chad! This one, come and see this one!"

The giant broke away from the rest of them to go and see what had the girl so excited when Rimuru heard her shout, "I think it has vaulted ceilings! You won't have to duck down just to move around indoors."

He couldn't hear what the big guy said to her once he reached her. But he could only imagine that he was as happy with the vaulted ceiling as she was. After the giant took a few minutes to check out his new home, Rukia and Renji decided to pick out their own.

Rimuru hadn't realized it until then since no one had said anything to him to the contrary, but apparently the couple was married. They picked a nice two-story home with four bedrooms in it.

Obviously, they were planning ahead for the fact that a kid or two may be born eventually.

And while Rimuru had initially believed that Ichigo would be living with the couple or even with Chad- he was wrong. Very wrong considering the small argument that occurred between herself and her friends.

No- she decided to live in her own house. Not that he was complaining any since he understood a person's need for privacy and stuff. But what really startled him was the fact that she chose the small house a bit away from her friend's homes.

Maybe a bit too far away, in his opinion. However, he kept his peace and didn't say anything about her choice. Especially once he realized that the home that she had chosen for herself was literally on the other side of his fenced in yard.

Internally approving the girl's choice in home and location, he chuckled to himself and moved to tell her that they would be neighbors from now on.