Since I've killed Geld, I've felt… empty. No… that emptiness has been there since I discovered that my friends were dead, I'd just filled it with anger, but now that that's gone…
All I want is to see my kids again.
The hole left in my life by the passing of the ogres ached, but just thinking about those five children seemed to fill that hole, if just a little.
But then I remembered.
Oh… yeah. They're upset with me.
I'd almost forgotten with how much had happened over the last few days. I was going to explain how Shizu-san died to them in the morning, but then I was sent off to deal with the Orc Lord. Then, in the heat of desire for vengeance, I massacred the majority of an army and–
Why do I feel so casual about that? I wondered in horror. I had killed tens of thousands but it felt roughly the same as if I stepped on a June beetle, it was the loss of a beautiful creature, but I wasn't shaken.
The lack of remorse in my heart was disturbing considering what I'd done.
No. I have no reason to doubt myself now. I just did what had to be done. Outside of Geld, it wasn't even personal.
"Wait one moment, Lord Rimuru," Treyni said, following me right after I stepped out.
"Stop calling me that, it's creepy." I scowled, turning around to face her. I'd barely tolerated the title during that fancy Naming thing she all but forced me to do, but now…
With a heavy sigh, I asked, "What is it?"
"A guardian should stay in his domain to guard, should he not?" Treyni asked as she glided in front of me.
This woman and her manipulating tone–I hate it.
"You can call me that if you want, but I really don't need the extra responsibility," I growled irritably as I tried to sidestep her, but she continued to block me. "I have other obligations."
"But what about that which you swore to Lord Veldora? Did you not agree to watch over the forest in his absence?" Sheesh, Treyni was really pushing it here.
This again… I really need to learn how to hide Thought Communications from nosy eavesdroppers like her.
"You said if I named the leaders I could go, so I'm going." I glared at her and tried to step past, but Treyni caught me by the arm.
"You ought to at least stay long enough to make sure there are no more problems." Treyni pushed further, still holding me.
This was all just too much trouble.
"I dunno," I shook my head. "I… I'm sure things will be fine without me for a bit. What could I even do? I'm just a slime, and–"
"Rimuru Tempest," there she goes, with my full name again. What's up with that? "Stay just for a little while, please."
I wasn't sure if it was the request, her domineering tone, or my arm still being held hostage by her hand, but… I caved.
"Fine," I grumbled, shaking off her now-loosened grasp and running my hand through my hair. "I'll stick around a while longer."
Treyni smiled at her victory but I tried not to let it get to me.
I'll just ensure that the survivors can live good lives. No more consuming the forest or starting wars for them.
That was what mattered; preventing something like this from ever happening again. Under Treyni's management, I was sure that the surviving orcs could become something much better than the ravenous mass of mindless soldiers they had been while under the effect of the skill [Starved].
It truly was a nasty skill, one that enabled that whole mess to happen in the first place. Without its influence, I believed the remaining orcs could be reformed. Their new leader, Orta, seemed reasonable enough, at least.
Once I ensured that things were going in the right direction and that no in-fighting or whatever was breaking out, I could return to my students and explain what I needed to explain. My kids'll just have to be patient. When I explain why they had to wait so long, I'm sure they'll understand.
The problem of the orcs all starving was temporarily fixed by Treyni, who apparently had a stock of magic treant fruit of some sort. It should be enough to feed the orcs while they establish themselves around the forest.
I, in the meantime, was was helping plan out spots for them to settle. I'd previously mapped the forest so it wasn't that hard. The sage was a great help with picking the ideal locations for new orc settlements and stuff too, which made my choices even better.
Treyni had to contact some of the small villages of different monster races living all throughout Jura to ensure there wouldn't be any territorial conflicts, but that wasn't too big of a deal. I was worried that negotiations would be difficult, but Treyni assured me that my 'majesty' would be enough to convince them. She must've shown them images of me or something, which is definitely possible with thought communication. I didn't see what was so 'majestic' about someone who looks like a nine-year-old little kid or just a simple blob, but whatever.
Oh, yeah, I should mention that I'd grown a bit from eating the Orc Disaster.
My hair is now a lot longer, stretching down past my upper back; quite the difference from chin-length, and I also look a couple of years older now. A welcome change, outside of the pain it'll be to explain my growth spurt when I get back to the academy. I wasn't looking forward to that.
But back to the whole 'convincing' thing, Treyni turned out to be correct since she'd gotten little to no resistance from all of those she spoke with, apparently. It wasn't like she was booting them out of their homes, but simply giving them some new orcish neighbors. After assuring them that the orcs were no longer a threat and that the Orc Lord had been taken care of by yours truly, any arguments were dropped.
I was sure that the serious clout that the dryads seemed to have around here helped with negotiations, considered just below Veldora in authority, up until now. I didn't know they had such a reputation until I saw how some of the monster leaders were talking to them during that painful meeting that I woke up in.
I bet I'd gain a reputation too since everyone was already calling me 'Guardian' or 'Lord' now and many considered me to be appointed by Veldora himself (even though it was more Treyni's fault than my dragon friend's). He's worshiped as a god by most of the monsters here, so me being 'chosen' by him was a very serious thing to them all. I could only hope they wouldn't go that far with me.
Going along with the title was strictly to keep the peace, even if it made me terribly embarrassed every time I thought about it.
All this 'cleanup' took around three weeks, which was longer than I would've wanted. My students were still waiting for my return and I did feel guilty for taking so long. But, I'd decided it was necessary to stabilize things before I left. I'd still have to do some serious thinking about this whole 'guardian' thing and figure out how I want to split my time between my kids and my new responsibilities, but that could wait until after our reunion.
Some of those responsibilities had been helping the lizardmen clear many of the underground tunnels that had collapsed during the conflict. The network was a lot more extensive before, apparently, and the only part that had been spared was the main grouping of them. All the smaller sections had been completely destroyed.
This involved eating a lot of rocks, and I mean a LOT of rocks. But, my stomach could handle it just fine. If the thing could hold a tsundere dragon, some dirt and stone couldn't possibly be a problem.
The orcs helped with this too (not with eating rocks, but relocating them), which was a little surprising. They offered to do it themselves, nobody had needed to ask them first. Not everything was salvageable, but with the lizardmen's reduced numbers it would be 'sufficient', according to Abiru.
I had grown to like that man. He was a very capable leader, and even if he acted overly respectful to me, he was better than many of the others. All the lizardmen showed a mix of fear and reverence toward me, and the same went for the goblins and direwolves, though both latter races trended more toward the fear aspect.
The orcs, on the other hand, just straight-up feared me. They acted nice to my face, but I could sense this was purely out of sheer terror and not much else. It wasn't a good feeling.
The single monster, outside of Treyni, that didn't seem to fear me at all was Gabiru; the son of Chief Abiru.
He was pretty much an arrogant teenager that acted too big for his britches most of the time, but he wasn't a bad guy. I'd impressed him when I killed one of the orc generals, apparently. He wanted me to be impressed with him back, I think, since he was always spewing stories about duels he'd won and beasts he'd slain when he was 'just a hatchling.'
Although, as annoying as he was, Gabiru made me smile. He was hilariously petulant and full of himself but him treating me like a normal person made me want to allow him to stick around me.
It was a nice distraction.
I dusted my hands off while standing in the same marshy area that had recently been a battlefield.
"There. That should be enough," I said out loud, mostly to myself.
Some extra cleanup had been necessary after the battle, since the lizardmen's territory had been 'corrupted', by Treyni's terminology, by all the death and destructive magicules in the wake of the war with the orcs. My new skill [Gluttony] worked wonders when it came to absorbing all that rogue energy, though, so I used the opportunity to get the hang of the new ability.
Unfortunately, I had an audience.
Some of the lizardmen just couldn't help themselves, I suppose. [Gluttony] was pretty impressive to watch in action. But, it wasn't the skill they seemed to be in awe of, but me.
When I was working, I could feel all their eyes on me and it was incredibly uncomfortable.
And, when I went over to ask them to stop with this stalker nonsense, they all started kowtowing to me. I ended up just walking away after that. Didn't say a single word, just walked away. It was too awkward to do anything more.
I went back to the caverns after that job was done.
I was just looking for something else to do as I walked through the cave-like tunnels. Nobody had noticed me nearby just yet, and I wanted to keep it that way. It would just hinder their work if they did.
But, as I was passing a doorway, I overheard something.
"Do not speak so disrespectfully about our new lord!" A scolding, motherly voice said. She sounded more afraid than angry, though.
"But he killed my–" a smaller voice protested, but was curtly cut off.
"Quiet!" More panicked and more scared, the woman's voice continued harshly, "Lord Rimuru has shown great generosity to our people! Acting ungrateful may cause him to change his mind about our treatment!"
I froze right there, dismayed. I understood why the orcs would be fearful of me, but I didn't think they believed I might go back on my word on a whim, or just because a child wasn't being 'respectful' enough toward me.
I thought I was clear enough about my intentions. I guess I have some explaining to do.
I knocked softly on the cave wall. "Hey," I said, putting on my best friendly, gentle expression, and stepped inside, intent on reassuring them that I wasn't going to change my mind anytime soon. I wouldn't turn on them for anything short of overt betrayal, and definitely not because of a few rude words said behind closed doors.
Shock and horror overcame their expressions the moment they recognized me, and the young orc child, the one that had been arguing, hid behind the orcish woman.
There were more orcs too, mostly women and children. Many of the 'weaker' orcs had gotten very sick after Geld died, the excess magicules leftover from the effects of [Starved] wreaking havoc on their bodies. That, and the malnutrition that was already there.
All of them looked utterly terrified despite my efforts to appear as harmless as possible at that moment.
Some of the other children cowered too, while many of the adults bowed their heads to me, greeting me in the meekest way they could, calling me things like 'Lord' and 'Your Majesty'.
"I had some free time, so I wanted to check and see how you all are doing." I calmly said, but it only seemed to make the lot of them more nervous.
"Thank you for your concern, Lord Rimuru, we are all doing much better." One of the adults said after seemingly mustering up some courage.
"Haha, of course I'm concerned!" I tried to lighten the mood a bit, "there wouldn't be any point in me sparing all of you if you died right afterward."
The orcs just looked even more nervous after that, some of them clearly on guard.
That was probably not the right thing to say, but it had just spilled out of my mouth before I could stop it.
I floundered, trying to recover from my blunder, "Well… I let you live for a reason, so… y'know…" Then I trailed off as I noticed the expressions on the orcs.
The blood had drained out of their faces, and the children had hidden even further behind the adults, shivering with fear, and some breaking out into terrified sobs.
"I'll uh…" I backed slowly out of the room. "Let you be, then. Um, get well soon…"
I was away, delivering rations to one of the newly-established orc settlements. It was coming along nicely.
But, suddenly, I received a message from Chief Abiru.
Rimuru and I had established a telepathic communication net between us and all the Named leaders, mainly for emergencies, and this seemingly fit that purpose.
An attack on the caverns was happening, loud blows ringing out and shaking the complex of tunnels over and over with no discernable source. That, and Rimuru was not responding to Abiru's pleas for assistance.
I could sense his panic across the link between us, so I acted swiftly and moved to Abiru's location.
In person, he was maintaining his calm on the outside, while his people tried to do the same, but weren't as successful. Guards were scrambling around and others were rushing to more stable areas.
"Lady Treyni, thank the gods you are here! Some of the caverns are still unstable and I'm afraid we will have more collapses at this rate!"
"Calm yourself, Chief Abiru, I will take care of the problem."
I had already discovered what was going on and was almost certain I could resolve it.
With a little care, dealing with this particular issue should be easy enough.
Abiru bowed gratefully and thanked me, then I rematerialized myself near the source of the shaking.
A still closed-off tunnel, buried by a previous cave in, leaving a small secluded open space.
The slime was in human form and repeatedly hitting his own head on the rocky wall.
Oh, dear…
"Lord Rimuru," I said gently to grab his attention.
He immediately stopped, to my relief. Our leader hadn't fully lost his senses. I was a trifle worried when he didn't react to my appearance at first.
"Is something the matter?" I asked, still as gentle as possible.
Rimuru started to straighten his long hair, feigning nonchalance, "Nothing." he answered.
He was clearly very upset and embarrassed, despite his efforts. I could see that his face was all red.
"Why were you…?" I couldn't even state it out loud without it possibly worsening the situation.
"Can't you stay out of my business for once!?" Rimuru burst out, "What're you even doing down here anyway? Aren't you supposed to be stabilizing the orc villages?"
"Yes, but I was–"
"This is all your fault, you know! Makin' me stick around a bunch of people that don't even want me within miles of them…"
"I'm sorry for showing up with no notice, but if there is anything I can do to help–"
"You put me up to this, shoved a ton of responsibility onto me, and you won't let me leave Jura without giving me an earfu–"
I reached down and pressed some small fruits into his equally small hands, the motion drawing him out of his rage.
"What's this?" he asked suspiciously.
"A snack. You seemed like you needed a pick-me-up."
Rimuru carefully popped one of the magenta berries into his mouth, and as soon as he bit down, I could see that I'd won.
His face lit up with delight, but to my confusion, it switched to sadness immediately after.
"Lord Rimuru?" I asked as he ate another. As he looked up he must have noticed I had seen his somber expression, because he melted into a puddle of slime. Said puddle quickly returned to his usual rounded state while still holding the berries between two little nubs and turned away in a huff.
His reaction was unexpected, but I had succeeded in calming him down, so all was well.
"Treyni." Rimuru said.
"Yes?" I responded.
"I'm leaving Jura. Today."
"What?" I asked, a little surprised. "Even though we haven't finished–"
"That's just it." He rose up in human form again and rounded on me. "You don't get it." He said, "I have to get back. I've already been gone way, way longer than I promised and… and…" he swallowed. "You just don't get it," he repeated, voice dropping. "I have people depending on me, and I won't let you keep me from them any longer."
I could see how serious he was about this. I wanted him here to protect the new alliance and keep the orcs in line, but… if I refused now, I'd lose him completely.
"Very well," I nodded, "I won't try to stop you again. But, I do hope you will return afterward. You have people depending on you in Jura as well."
Rimuru had already turned away, but he glanced back at me with a hard look in his eyes. "No," he said. "You have people depending on you. I didn't ask for this. But I'll still come back occasionally."
Before I could respond, the shadows opened under his feet and he escaped.
I watched the spot where he had been for a moment, then turned to look at the damage he'd done to the cave wall with a heavy sigh.
There would undoubtedly be more incursions from the Demon Lords from here on. I would simply have to prepare the forest until he got back.
That Treyni lady was infuriating. I didn't care if she was Veldora's security detail or whatever, she had no right to try and make me responsible for a bunch of bumbling idiots who clearly didn't want or need me anyway. I could protect his forest just fine without trying to herd a bunch of gawking morons to do it.
All it would take is checking in for a survey every month or so, removing any threats that pop up, then coming back to my kids. Wouldn't even take me a day now that I could teleport.
The forest was supposedly this wild land of crazy beasts anyway, so I likely wouldn't have to even intervene unless it was on the scale of the orc lord.
I looked down at my hand as I screamed through the sky toward Englesia, taking a peek at the fruit I had saved so I could ask Yoshida what it was.
It was the same fruit from that tart I shared with the kids, and it had finally snapped me out of the shock I'd been in after the ordeal and Treyni pressuring me to stay.
I had stayed far, far longer than I'd initially promised, and I left them at the most horrible time possible. But there was no way I'd let the scars of what had happened prevent Shizu's students from living happy lives.
I had to get back to my kids.