It was the middle of the night when we cautiously cracked open the secret door into the inn. There was no sign of anyone near us, but that might not last long. So we all went to the room to retrieve our gear.
There was a buzz of anxiety and activity in the town despite the lateness; I could sense people frantically running down the streets.
"What the heck's goin' on?!" Russell blubbered as he poked his head out of the inn room's window.
"No time to explain. We need to move. Now!" Blake urged.
"Even though you're not the leader, Blake-"
"Russell, now is not the time for that!"
We quickly grabbed our stuff and snuck down to the carriage with as much stealth as we could manage.
Tossing all our gear in the back without regard for organization, we piled in and Eli, still kinda groggy, guided the upset horse into the streets, where we made a beeline for the town gate.
Screaming, shouting, panic, chaos.
That's what filled the little settlement as we made our escape.
I didn't realize things would get this bad this quickly after consuming that demon. It was clear by the words I could make out from the panicked cultists that they could tell that the demon was long gone and they were searching for the person responsible for their disappearance.
That, and I was sure other people fell into a similar state to those robed fellows that were dying from magicule poisoning.
Once we were out on the dirt road we took to get to the town, we encountered our first real problem.
Eli cast light magic from the driver's seat, just enough to get some visibility and hopefully not attract attention–but a thick fog had settled in and the spell diffused into a halo that I can only imagine made seeing harder for him.
I was able to see fine with [Magic Sense], but a quick switch to human senses proved that it was nearly impossible to see ahead of us with how things were.
"I don't like this," Eli muttered to us, slowing the carriage nearly to a halt. He was looking alert enough now but was squinting his eyes at the road ahead, struggling to see.
"Here," I said, scrambling through the little window at the front of the carriage and flopping into the driver's seat next to Eli. "I can help."
"That's cute, Rimuru." I cringed and frantically covered my hair as Eli patted my head, "but you shouldn't promise help you can't give."
"I can give it, though!" I argued, quickly coming up with an excuse. "I've gotten lost in this area a few times, so I bet I can get us somewhere safe to rest for the night."
"Wait, hold on!" Eli abruptly stopped the already slowed carriage to stare at me. "You've gotten lost this close to Jura?"
"I've gotten lost in Jura!" Gotta keep it honest, haha. Not that I've been very honest with them so far.
Eli shook his head. "You're something else, Rimuru."
"So, you'll let me help?" I pressed.
He sighed, rubbing his brow with his free hand. "I guess there aren't any cliffs or lakes close by you could drive us into…"
"Hey!" I complained, kind of annoyed by his lack of faith in me–especially since I just saved his life earlier tonight! Not that he knew that yet since I hadn't gotten the chance to explain.
"Alright, little guy," Eli said. "I'm going to steer, so you guide the way."
"Fine," I grumbled. I guess I wasn't sure how to guide a horse-drawn carriage anyway. It didn't seem that hard, but whatever.
Over the next few minutes I directed Eli, who steered the carriage through the fog.
"Okay," I said as we trundled along the edge of the road, "turn right here."
Eli pulled the reins to stop, giving me another incredulous look. "Excuse me?"
"Turn right," I answered matter-of-factly.
"We're not going in the forest!" Eli said firmly, already starting to spur the horse on again.
"No!" I grabbed his hand, "I told you, I know a safe spot near here! It's wide and flat, we'll be fine."
"It's not how flat it is that I'm concerned about! You're talking about going into the Jura Forest–in the dead of night!" he got surprisingly stern, which was not his norm.
"What are you so worried about?" I whined.
"Oh, I dunno," Russell, who had been riding half-asleep with Blake in the back, piped up through the window. "The ravenous monsters that roam this forest at night, maybe?"
"Look, there are no dangerous monsters near here–if there were, I wouldn't have survived getting lost here like, three times." That was a bit of a lie, but I really wanted to sell this, and I really could tell the coast was clear right now.
"Let's follow the kid, Eli," Blake's voice filtered out through the opening.
Eli looked a little shocked by Blake vouching for me but took his word seriously.
"...fine." Eli grumbled, "but we better not die."
"Yeah," Russell laughed, "an' if we do, I'm gonna haunt you, an' whisper in your ear every day 'bout how stupid you are!"
"That should be my line, in any case," I heard Eli grumble under his breath as he steered the horse off the path.
I guided him through the trees, pointing out where to turn and where the underbrush was thinnest for the wheels to pass through.
"I don't like this one bit," Eli hissed while keeping a white-knuckled grip on the reins. "It's too spooky out here."
Spooky? I wondered. If anything, I found being back in Jura comforting. Sure, the fog was thick enough to obscure the horse from human eyes, and the dark shapes of the trees were coming out of the gloom as we passed, but…
Oh. If you didn't have [Magic Sense], I guess this would be a little unnerving.
To me, it was like home, but to these three, traversing this forest is no walk in the park, especially in the pitch-blackness of night. "Okay," I held up a hand, "leave the carriage here."
Eli stopped the horse, glancing around. "I don't see a 'safe place' here, Rimuru…" he doubtfully muttered.
"That's 'cause it's further in," I answered as I hopped to the ground. "It's only a five-minute walk."
Ignoring Eli's skeptical grumbling, I came to the side of the carriage and opened the door. "Hey, sleepyheads," I knocked on the wood, "we're walking now."
Russell and Blake woke up quickly enough–used to immediately becoming alert because of their adventuring job, I guess.
"Ugh," Russell groaned as he gathered up the equipment strewn around the cabin, "how did I fall asleep? I've already done tons o' that today…"
"Well, they drugged you back at the inn," I replied.
"They did what now!?" He stared at me, fully awake now.
"What, you didn't figure it out yet?" I asked curiously. "That beer was laced with something."
Why else would you have slept through an entire kidnapping?
"Now wait a moment," he barked. "You drank outta my cup too, so how were you all chipper way before the both of us back there?"
"What d'you mean?" I tilted my head.
"If I was drugged, you should've been too," he answered.
Oh. "I didn't drink as much," I shrugged. "So it wore off for me quicker."
Leaving before they could argue, I returned to Eli, who was setting up the horse. The animal was still acting irritated, which I guess I understood. I wouldn't like being woken up in the middle of the night and made to drive a carriage in a dark, wet fog, barely able to even see my feet while trotting through a creepy forest.
"C'mon, Nipper," Eli was arguing with it, trying to guide the horse to a nearby tree while it stamped and huffed angrily.
"Aw, what's wrong?" I asked, coming up next to them. The horse's big head whipped around, and I reeled back to avoid being bitten. "Hey!" I scolded it.
Eli laughed. "She does that sometimes so stay back a bit. You'd probably lose one of your hands to her if she managed to bite you."
I doubted it, but if I didn't have my [Multilayer Barrier], he'd probably be right. I listened anyway, stepping back to watch him handle the horse.
Come to think of it, I had a skill I'd never tried out yet; [Thought Communication]. Would it work on animals?
[[Answer: an animal with sufficient intelligence will be able to understand the will of the individual Rimuru Tempest when communicated with using the extra skill [Thought Communication].]]
Okay… Wanting to try this out for myself before asking [Great Sage] to assist further, I imagined grabbing hold of the skill in me and projected it toward Nipper, being careful to regulate the intensity. I didn't want a repeat of my yelling at Shizu.
{{Hello, Nipper.}}I said.
It seemed to work; the horse immediately froze, arching her head into the air. Her eyes flashed white as she rotated her ears, trying to find the source of my voice.
"What's wrong, Nipper?" Eli asked, looking concerned as he tried to squint into the dark forest.
{{Here.}} I used a little magic to try and strengthen the connection, making myself a bit more obvious as I gave a small wave. She whinnied and stepped back a bit, and I felt waves of suspicion coming from her end of the connection.
{{No, no.}} Words seemed to get the point across, but they weren't working to calm her. Trying an experiment, I sent calming thoughts her way. What would a horse find calming, anyway? Apples, probably? Being petted?
It seemed to work a bit. She turned her head, using one eye to stare at me. I was lucky horses' eyes were so far apart, or Eli might have picked up on her gazing towards me.
I kept sending friendly thoughts across the [Thought Communication] link, trying to think of things like stables and hay and soft brushes. I think that's the sort of thing horses would like.
To my surprise, she calmed down almost instantly.
"Atta girl," Eli hummed, still oblivious to our interaction. "It was just a false alarm, huh?" He led Nipper toward the nearest tree, but she still kept an eye on me as he tied her up.
Uh… let's see… Just how far could I push this? {{I'm sorry we woke you up,}} I tried, not in words so much as pictures and intentions.
She snorted, and I felt a jab of annoyance pointed at me.
{{Yeah, well,}} I huffed, unwittingly firing some annoyance right back. Her ears turned, and I felt fear coming from her.
She knows I'm stronger than her, I realized. She's worried about making me angry.
That was… a new feeling, at least with creatures I wasn't actively hunting or trying to scare. I'm a nice guy, I thought, a bit wounded. I'm just a harmless, lovable slime!
{{I'm nice!}} I protested across our link. Nipper flinched–I guess I put too much oomph into the message.
"Honestly," Eli sighed, "what's up with you tonight?" He patted her neck reassuringly. "Don't worry, we're gonna be home soon."
Uh… Eli was finishing up, which meant I needed to be ready to lead them to the campsite; but I didn't want to end our conversation on a bad note!
Eli suddenly noticed that I was staring at the horse. "You wanna pet her?" He asked, looking like he thought I was cute or something.
"N-no! I'm good!" I waved my hands, but he didn't buy it.
"Aw, don't worry!" Without a word of warning, Eli suddenly grabbed my waist and lifted me up. "I know she tried to bite you earlier, but if you take it slow, I'm sure she won't do that again."
"Hey!" I flailed, "put me down!"
"Just give her a little stroke first," Eli encouraged, holding me up to Nipper's neck. I could feel the waves of fear coming off her as she stood stone-still. "You'll have to get used to horses if you plan on being an adventurer."
I'm not scared of the horse, you idiot! It's the other way around!
"Uh…" {{Sorry,}} I apologized to Nipper as I ran a hand across her fur, though it didn't seem to do much good.
"See?" Eli put me down out of reach of the horse. "She even stayed nice and still for you!"
"Yeah…" I glanced apologetically at her again, before closing the [Thought Communication] link. "Alright," I quickly masked my hurt feelings as Russell and Blake joined us. "The campsite's just up ahead."
"Why the heck are you so confident?" Russell complained to me as we made our way through the dense fog, now on foot. "Even with Eli's spell, I can barely see in front of me!"
I shrugged, not that they could make out the motion very easily. "I've been this way before," I said. "Don't make a big deal out of it."
After a few minutes, we entered a sheltered grove. I had stayed here with Eren, Kaval, and Gido before. They promised me the area was safe (by Jura standards), and we didn't have problems during the few days we stayed here, so I figured we'd be fine for one night.
So, after setting up camp and selecting a watch (I tried offering to take care of that, but Blake insisted that he do the job), Russell and Eli went right to bed. The drug-induced snooze they had earlier wasn't anything restful, so they were still pretty tired despite it.
I spent the whole night watching the area with [Magic Sense], pretending to sleep like the 'child' my group thought I was. I couldn't have them think I was a fraud, since I told them it was safe. I was convinced it was safe, but you can't be entirely certain of things like that in a place like this.
Worst case scenario, I could slip away and secretly deal with whatever came by.
Blake woke us all up again just as the sun was starting to rise. "Everyone up!" He shouted, "you've slept in!"
Um, excuse me? I didn't consider this sleeping in, not that I slept at all in the first place.
We busied ourselves with making some breakfast, then packed up camp. Russell and Eli made sure to erase all trace we had been here, in case anyone came looking, and we backtracked to the carriage.
"So by the way," Russell piped up. "Care to explain what happened yesterday, in detail? I know we said a little bit last night, but I barely remember it."
Yeah. All the guys were so tired after the excitement last night, Blake and I just ended up giving them the essentials (after reassuring them the demon was dead,) before they conked out.
"Well, what do you want to know?" I asked since Blake was exhausted after staying up all night despite that ordeal.
"I'll start," Blake said, completely ignoring what I'd said. And here I thought I'd earned just a little bit of respect from him last night. "After I came back from checking out the town, I found your room empty and blood stains on the floor."
"You're welcome, by the way," I interjected, a little miffed that he ignored me.
"Wait–blood stains?!" Russell whipped around from where he'd been walking just ahead of me. He immediately grabbed me and started trying to pull up my shirt, inspecting my arms and stuff. "You got injured!? You can't hide stuff like that from us!"
"No, no!" I squirmed out of his grasp, smoothing out my clothes. "I didn't get much of whatever drug they used, so I woke up when they grabbed me, and I stabbed a guy with that knife I got from Blake."
Eli whistled. "I know I said it last night, but you're something else, Rimuru."
"Anyway," Blake continued. "The blood stains led me to the secret door, and I started scoping the place out. Then I found this little brat," I ducked before he could touch my hair (I was getting good at dodging that move,) "insulting a demon to its face!"
Russell gave me an impressed look, while Eli just shook his head. "I repeat my statement," he said.
"So of course I swooped in and helped him; I couldn't just stand by and let him throw his life away."
Nice. Making yourself sound real heroic there. I grumbled a bit internally, but really, he was doing me a favor, hiding the fact I'd killed it by myself. I didn't want to answer more annoying questions about my abilities.
"Well," Russell hummed, "looks like having you along was a good thing after all, eh, Rimmy?"
NO! Not the Rimmy crap again!
"That's not my name!" I shouted, failing to keep an embarrassingly petulant whine out of my voice.
And the touching! "And can you stop doing that!?" I yelled, ducking under Russell's hand this time and running ahead of the group so I could walk out of reach.
"But it's so soft!" Russell protested with a chuckle, and the other guys all laughed at me as they watched me run ahead.
"That doesn't give you the right to treat me like a lap cat!" I retorted, pulling up my hood to hide even though they couldn't reach me now.
These guys are so annoying… I grumbled to myself, sulking for the rest of the trip.
Back in Blumund, we immediately checked in with Fuze.
I let the others do most of the explaining, and they gave him a run-down pretty similar to before, but this time with Russell doing the talking instead of Blake. They all weighed in at one point or another, though, including me.
Fuze just sat there for the most of it, quietly listening; his elbows resting on his desk and a stern expression in his eyes.
Russell sat up and finally said. "I'm still angry that poison got to us, we'd normally be more careful about that kinda thing. I guess it just seemed so normal being in a town like that, though." He sighed softly and grumbled something to himself under his breath.
"It isn't your fault," Fuze spoke honestly and removed his hands from being clasped together. "Considering they were targeting travelers, it is normal you'd not know what to be on guard for. I should have been more thorough in my report. The records did say that the inn was the most common place of disappearance." He grunted in annoyance himself.
To be honest I am starting to think these guys are all just trying to out-serious each other. I thought off into the void while tapping my fingers on the side of my chair. "At least the demon is dealt with, and I doubt those cultists could summon another. They weren't that strong."
Eli nodded and explained. "Summoning takes a lot of magic, I'd suspect that demon summoned itself, kidnapped people in the town, and then formed the cult to maintain itself. I've read it is a pretty common strategy among their kind."
Blake held up his hand to take over the conversation. "It isn't always that simple. What is important isn't that they formed a cult, it is what the cult does. Some demons take much more intelligent approaches to maintaining themselves than others. This cult was on the more ruthless end of what I've seen, but some are much more careful. The Conqueror of Flames once slayed a demon which had convinced an entire duchy that it was the hero, Oros, so it would be able to maintain its body on faith alone."
Wait, Shizu-san did that? She never told me that story… I guess we aren't so different.
"I don't know that much about demons, but that thing had an oppressive force behind it if I've ever seen one. Lookin' back at it, I was feelin' it most of the time we spent there, but brushed it off as part of bein' close to the forest. I hope to never run into one of its type again." It was an odd moment of humility from Russell, before he got up. "We should get going from here though, we have other jobs in the wings. We can't leave 'em unfinished."
Fuze nodded. "I'd like you three to stay for that, you have another assignment lined up in a few months I'd like to give you the details on." He turned to me with a nod to the door. "Rimuru, you can go now; the receptionist has your ID ready. Your previous party is in the Free Guild inn."
I was glad to leave, to be honest. Thanks for not keeping me around for a bunch of irrelevant crap I don't need to hear!
I always hated that about meetings; you always end up spending more time than you need to in them because topics that you have no role in get brought up with other participants. Yet, asking to leave in the middle is considered rude, so you're just trapped there suffering for who-knows-how-long.
"Thanks, Fuze. Oh, and it was nice working with you three." I politely said to the group.
"Take care, kiddo!" Russell chuckled.
"I hope you learned something with us! Bye, Rimuru!" Waved Eli.
Blake just gave me a nod and nothing else.
After saying my goodbyes, I exited the room.
I wonder what kind of food that inn is serving for dinner tonight? It'd be nice to have a meal with my friends before I leave for Englesia…
"Now…onto the subject of your secondary mission. Tell me your thoughts on Rimuru."
I sent Rimuru with these three for more than one reason. I needed a strong team to be able to potentially fend against the monster losing his temper, and the best I could manage to pay would be a B-ranked team. Normally, I would employ those three idiots for this, since they are definitely smarter than they seem most of the time, but the fact that Rimuru had already won them over eliminated them as an option.
I needed frank, honest observations about the slime. About his nature, temperament, and possible strength.
These precautions were necessary if I wanted to give Rimuru an adventurer's license.
So, I tasked these three with a secondary mission of observation.
I told them to annoy Rimuru, to bruise his pride at every opportunity. No normal monster would stand for such treatment, and I wanted to know how Rimuru, an apparent former human, would react.
Eren insisted he was just like any human, but I couldn't be sure of that without proof.
"Well, the kid's got some spunk in 'im. Quite the attitude too, but that prob'ly comes with how talented he is. Rimuru kept surprisin' me over and over with how well he could do things."
"Yeah, he really didn't like that teasing that you told us to do, but outside of yelling and a bit and pouting, nothing else happened."
"He did grab my wrist once; when I tried to take a closer look at that mask of his. Strong for such a little guy, that's for sure. I was surprised!"
"The entire time Rimuru was protective of that mask and that sword he's carrying. They're special to him since they came from the Conqueror of Flames, right?" Eli asked.
"Yes." I replied, "Rimuru was close with her, I was told, and was with her when she died. She gave those items to him as a sort of passing on of her legacy, as far as I understand."
"Damn. That's a heavy thing for a kid to witness; the death of a famous champion he must've looked up to." Russell commented.
Not so much a kid, but it couldn't have been easy for him. It was hard enough for me to hear about it after the fact.
Shizu helped raise me, so I knew her well. Letting her leave to go on her last mission with the implication that she wouldn't come back was a very hard thing for me to swallow.
"So you didn't find anything alarming about his behavior?" I probed.
"He's not scared of blood, like, at all." Eli replied.
"Dove right into the corpse of a Swamp Hopper with no hesitation. And he stabbed a cultist in the arm just so they'd bleed everywhere. Said he wanted to make it so that Blake could follow our kidnappers. Pretty clever idea, but not one I'd expect from someone that young. I'm guessin' he had a rough past." Russell added.
"Blake, you haven't said much. Can you share your thoughts?"
"Not much to say, really. Rimuru is a bit snarky but quite capable. I think he would make a good adventurer if given the right work. That's your job, though, right?"
He's hiding something.
The elusive and cautious one of the group, Blake's opinion was the one I wanted the most. Yet, he's not telling me everything; I can tell.
"Is there anything else you want to share with me?" I asked the group, sweeping my eyes across them.
Silence filled the room.
"Then you're dismissed."
The three men stood up.
"But not you, Blake. Stay a bit longer, please."
Russell and Eli looked a bit confused but left anyway. Blake, on the other hand, smirked a little and sat back down.
"Blake. I need you to be honest."
"I have been honest. Do you think I lied to you, Guildmaster?"
"No. But you held your tongue way more than usual. I want your honest thoughts on Rimuru, Blake. All of them."
"Can I ask you a question first?"
"I suppose."
"Why would you entrust a B-ranked team to supervise a majin that is clearly an over-A-level threat?"
He asked it so bluntly that I was caught off guard. I was suspecting that Blake figured out Rimuru's secret, but this question still was unexpected.
"What?"
"Rimuru is not human and you know it. He took down a Greater Demon by himself and played it off as if it was nothing. There's no way I couldn't figure out something was up with him."
So that's what revealed his identity…at least it wasn't something more foolish.
"Keep in mind, I see no problem with him. Rimuru is agreeable and restrained enough; and, if he wanted he could've killed all three of us. I'm not wrong, am I, Guildmaster?"
"I am not sure…but if he took on a Greater Demon and won, then I can assume so."
"He didn't even have a scratch on him afterward."
Rimuru is even stronger than I suspected…
"The only answer that makes sense here is that Rimuru is a majin that is on the side of humanity, like the famous Razen of Falmuth. You wanted to make sure of that, didn't you?"
"I did. I wanted to confirm it after he won the trust of some others."
"The Conqueror of Flames, perhaps?"
"Yes, her and a few others."
Blake nodded a few times, probably weighing all the details to himself.
"I'll keep quiet. I know how demons and monsters can be, especially the type that try to invade human society for their evil plots, but I don't think that's Rimuru's motivation."
"Thank you."
"Can I ask one more thing?"
"Sure."
"What is Rimuru, exactly? Outside of those odd hair and eye colors, he looks entirely human. He's not an incarnated demon, is he? His personality doesn't fit one."
"No, he's not a demon. But he's a unique monster, so honestly his race is irrelevant."
I think it's best to leave out that he's a slime…it's too exasperating of a detail.
"So a one-of-a-kind monster, then. Good to know. I'm satisfied."
"What are you?"
"Excuse me? I'm trying to eat here, Blake. I know we worked together and all, but I'm a little busy right now."
Here I am, enjoying a meal with my companions just for Blake to walk up and ask such a rude question.
"I want an answer."
"And I don't understand your question."
But before Blake could respond, Kaval stood up and protectively put himself between us.
"Hey, bud, leave Rimuru alone. He's our friend." He sternly faced the other man. I swear he was puffing out his chest a bit to look bigger than he actually is.
"Kaval, I got this. Relax."
"But, Rimuru, he-"
"Why are you asking this, Blake? I know we butted heads a little, but this feels out of nowhere to me."
"Guildmaster Fuze said you were a majin, and I want to know more details than that. Don't try to lie to me." Blake whispered after leaning in closer.
I've been betrayed!
Fuze had gone on and on about how important it was that I hide my inhumanity, just to go and tell this dude the truth!?
Now my companions looked worried, having been able to overhear Blake's hushed intimidation.
"Hey!" Eren jumped to my defense, "he doesn't have to tell you anything he doesn't want to! Why don't you mind your own business!?"
"Eren!" I interrupted, "it's fine. But we're definitely not talking here." Rapidly shoving the last few bites of food in my mouth, I stood up and said to Blake, "want to come to our room and discuss this?"
"Sure," Blake smirked, standing back with a satisfied look. "Lead the way."
The five of us went back up to our room in the inn, closing the door. I flopped onto the bed, relieved to finally be able to get a good night's sleep (I hadn't slept at all since starting the mission.)
"So," I sat up, "questions. Hit me with 'em."
"Heh." Blake grinned, "you had spunk on the mission, but now you're just downright cocky."
"Well, do you wanna ask or not?" I asked, a bit irritated that he was getting a kick out of my normal attitude.
"Sure." Blake sat on the bed next to Kaval, with Eren and Gido on their own beds listening quietly. "You need to tell me the truth about what you are." He pointed at me, "now don't think I don't like you–I told the Guildmaster I do. But you are far too strong for what looks like a six-year-old. You're too unafraid of gore, you're too ruthless, you know too much and you act like it, not to mention the weird hair and eyes. I suspected you from the start, but as we went along you did a horrible job of hiding yourself. I've hunted down much craftier demons and majin–that was my job–and if you don't shape up, someone will find out."
Blake had stopped paying attention to me during his monologue, counting his fingers and everything.
"So, you need to tell me what you are–"
He stopped, dumbfounded, as I had seemingly disappeared. Sitting on the bed in my place was an innocent, squishy, adorable slime!
"Hiya!" I waved two little slime arms. "I'm Rimuru! Rimuru the slime! I'm not a bad slime, slurp!"
"Uh…" Blake looked to my friends for help.
"Yup," Gido confirmed. "That's Rimuru."
"Isn't he cute!?" Eren squealed, reaching over and grabbing me in a tight hug.
"Eren!" I complained, switching to human form and half-heartedly trying to wrestle out of her grasp. I was already kind of embarrassed, I didn't need her cuddling me in front of Blake on top of it.
Oh, and now he was staring at me. As the shock slowly wore off his face, Blake's mouth quirked in a smile. "Your cheeks are red," he snickered. "Are you embarrassed to be a slime?"
"Sure!" I snapped back at him, flushing even more. "Or maybe it's because my friend is trying to do PDA in here!"
Kaval, Eren, and Gido looked confused–Blake probably didn't know what I was talking about either, but the smirk on his face told me that wasn't what he was paying attention to. "No," He smirked, "I saw her cuddling you just like that earlier, and you didn't even flinch. You're embarrassed about being a slime!" He taunted.
"N-no!" It's more complicated than that! I don't wanna explain it to you, man! Finally, Eren let me go, and I jumped onto the bed Blake was sitting on so I could stand above him.
Crossing my arms and looking down at him, I said, "what's it to you anyway?"
"Oh, I dunno," Blake smirked genially, standing up so he was now eye-level with me. "Maybe it's just funny, shorty. Or should I call you Rimmy? You really liked that back in–"
"Ooh! That's such a cute nickname!" Eren said happily.
"NO!" I turned to her, "Eren, please don't call me that!" I put my hands together and begged–if I failed here, I'd never live it down!
"Hehe, alright, alright." I ducked just in time to stop Blake from ruffling my hair. "No more teasing. The mission's over anyway, so, may I say:" he held out a hand, "nice to meet you, Rimuru the Slime."
Oh no, why did I use that cheesy introduction line!? Squirming on the inside, I took his hand and shook, making sure to position my hand so it wasn't surrounded by Blake's. "Nice to meet you, Blake! I hope to see you around!" I beamed, feeling pretty good about myself.
"Gosh," Blake hissed, shaking his hand painfully. "Seriously, you need to tone down your strength if you want to pass as a human."
"Right," I chuckled awkwardly and scratched my head. "Will do."
"Well," Blake said. "I got my answers, so I better get back to the others."
"Wait!" I jumped to the floor so I could follow Blake as he opened the door. He turned to me with a questioning look on his face.
"Please don't tell the other two–no, wait, don't tell anyone!" I asked, a bit desperately.
"Haha!" Blake laughed, "tell them about what? Rimuru the little adventurer and his group of friends?"
"You could've left out the 'little' part," I grumbled.
"Not a chance." Waving as he exited the room, Blake said, "see you around, you four!"