Ichigo had had to fall back on some of her old breathing techniques to help her stay calm as she followed Rimuru through the Tempest to the platform that had been erected in the center of the town for the feast.

Initially when he'd started to tell her what he planned once she had awakened, she had thought that he was joking with her. Because making her his Queen and co-ruler of the country Tempest was simply a ridiculous idea.

After all, what the hell did she know about ruling anything?

Even Kisuke- wise, deranged, weird science driven man that he was- hadn't managed to wrangle or con her into participating in governing their newfound home as the crown princess. And believe her- he had tried. Repeatedly.

He'd threatened her, coaxed, had her arrested, negotiated, set up a sticker system...begged, pleaded, thrown tantrums and other things. But he had failed every time.

She had hoped that Rimuru would fail too. But the more he had explained his reasons...the more sense he had made to her. Honestly, his logic was almost flawless.

Almost, being the operative word.

And before she knew it, no matter what sort of excuses she threw at him; despite how reasonable or sound her arguments were- he had worn her down and backed her into a corner and done one of the things that she'd been trying to avoid from the beginning.

He won the argument with kind words, and logic.

She wondered if he had been a lawyer or a used car salesman in a previous life. Those were the only two reasons that she could think up for how he'd managed to get her to agree in the first place. After all, lawyers argued for a living. And car salesmen were...well, they pushed and wore a person down until some poor schmuck was going home with a new car that they could neither afford nor wanted.

So, here she was.

A poor schmuck with a new, used car. Only this one came with a goddamn crown and all of the wonderful trappings that came with ruling a country. Yay, for her.

Sighing, she wondered if it was too late to back out of the agreement since she still didn't want to be a Queen. But just as she opened her mouth to ask, Rimuru startled her by turning around and grabbing one of her hands and then smiled at her and said softly, "Just breathe, okay."

"Huh?" She said unintelligibly as he dragged her up onto the platform with him before letting her go.

Everyone was there. She knew this because she blinked at the sea of faces looking up at them as some of the people began to chant Rimuru's name and call out to him.

She might have tried to back up and hide herself, but he stopped her just as easily as he silenced everyone shouting and screaming. He did it simultaneously, wrapping one arm around her slender shoulders and pulling her close to his side while using his free hand to put his index finger up to his lips.

The hush that fell over the crowd was unsettling. So much so that Ichigo was fairly certain that he had to be using magic of some kind to quite everyone down. After all, no one could be quite that charismatic. Not even him.

But the moment that everyone was utterly silent, he dropped his hand away from his face and started talking while maneuvering her closer to where some of his most trusted people were and beckoned one or two of them to come up onto the platform and take her off his hands. Effectively trapping her so that she couldn't run off without having to maim someone just to escape.

The jerk. She thought darkly while trying to maintain her calm demeanor lest she have a frigging panic attack right then and there.

Staying calm was beginning to become more difficult for her in front of so many curious eyes. Her breathing wasn't as steady as it had been before. In fact, she was dangerously close to hyperventilating.

And she wouldn't swear to it, but her eyes felt like they were stinging to.

Almost as if she were about to start crying. Which was horrifying, to say the least since she never cried... except for when she got blackout drunk. And thankfully, that didn't happen very often otherwise the world would have already drowned in her tears.

She had been so out of it, that she had missed the fact that Rimuru had already started talking.

Shaking her head to clear it of all her fear and negative thoughts, she focused on the monster lord's back as he went about regaling everyone with the story of her battle against Charybdis and just how easily she had defeated the great beast. Which was followed by a summarized explanation of why no one could ever speak of her abilities or fighting prowess to anyone. Ever.

Earning her a lot more of those curious looks along with some awed ones as everyone in the crowd nodded each of their heads in agreement. They would never tell anyone anything about her lest they upset their lord.

She must have tried to lunge at him at one point or something without realizing it, because one moment she was standing on her own two feet and the next someone hand her caged in their arms and she was kicking her feet and desperately reaching for the lord in front of her like a crazy person.

She knew this from the fact that a lot of the people in the crowd were staring at her oddly, the formerly excited, awed and happy looks on their faces had slid right into WTF expressions as Rimuru kept talking without a single care in the world while she wanted to scream bloody murder just to shut the monster lord up.

However, no matter how much she thrashed, kicked, or elbowed the poor guy holding onto her, he refused to let her go. So finally, after a few minutes of such unseemly and immature behavior she finally went limp and resigned herself to whatever was going to happen. No matter how unpleasant it may be.

"Now that that's out of the way," Rimuru finally said and Ichigo went completely still in the arms of the guy holding on to her. "I have a couple of announcements as well."

Oh no! No, no, no, no, no! Ichigo thought, her panic mounting more and more with every word that Rimuru spoke. She looked around for something, anything that could help her get out of this mess. It took a moment, but she finally spotted Rukia, Chad and Renji- holy shit poor Renji looked as if he'd just been raised from the dead.

What the hell had Rukia done to the poor guy?! It looked like she had beaten the crap out of him? He was covered in bandages, had one of his arms in a sling, was using Chad for a crutch, and both of his eyes were black!

She caught Rukia's eye and saw the smaller woman sign to her, What's going on?

So, she quickly explained everything as best as she could by frantically signing back to her. Rimuru's crazy! He wants me to take up the mantle of a Queen and co-ruler of Tempest. A Queen Rukia! With an actual crown, duties, and people to rule over! Save me, already!

She would have thought that Rukia would react to the news with anger, rage, picking up a chair and hitting someone with it. Something that could get her out of this mess so that she could leave the town and go live as a swamp hag or something. But instead of what she was expecting, she heard/saw Rukia start laughing.

Ichigo glowered while her friend turned and told the others what was going on before then turning back to sign, Sucks to be you.

Her jaw dropped open a little bit in outrage and shock at the unsympathetic response of one of her best friends in the whole world as Rimuru finally finished explaining everything to the people in the crowd and then finally turned with an arm extended to indicate that she should come forward and say something to everyone.

Instead of doing as he bid her, she suddenly burst into tears and quickly stomped the foot of the guy that had just released her and then ran, jumped off of the platform and fled the immediate vicinity.

Leaving Rimuru and everyone else wondering what the hell had just happened.