Author's Note: Here's another bonus chapter brought to you by Bellatrix, aka Trixie_The_Kitty! Make sure to thank her with all the headpats you can afford, and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

-Mu

**The Night After the Harvest Festival**

Rimuru POV

Two months.

With the Harvest Festival lasting 6,666 minutes, and fifteen perspectives from which I experienced it, I have over two months' worth of memories to consolidate tonight.

Over two months of me doing no doubt very foolish things, as being a Parallel Fragment has as profound an effect on my judgment as a bottle of hard liquor.

"Tell me, Ciel. Was the sheer volume of culinary data we gathered worth it?" I look up at the manas holding my slimy self on her lap.

"I see it as a win-win," she replies. "I was able to gather a great amount of data on you as well, with your behavior unimpeded by your usual rationality."

That doesn't sound good for me though… Whatever. I'll just have to grit my teeth and bear it.

In lieu of any teeth to grit, I consciously project to Ciel's mind that it's what I would be doing if I were in my human form right now.

"Alright, I might as well get started. Ciel, could you pick a random clone to integrate the memories of?"

"Certainly. How about we start with…"

Rimuru-Thirteen

Ameri POV

The first night of the Harvest Festival sees by far the most student injuries, as ill-prepared demons go from gatherers to prey. Thus, both the teachers and the Student Council work together to rescue endangered students.

"President, there's a student in danger!" calls out Zagan, the subordinate I assigned to watch the camera feeds for me.

I rush over to the screens to see the situation for myself — It's Rimuru, no doubt one of her reduced-functionality clones, being slowly ensnared by a drooling vine trap.

"Aaah, help me Ameri, you're my only hope…" she lazily begs for help.

"It appears she wants to be rescued by you, President."

This is totally just her pulling an annoying ruse to get my attention, right?

"Whatever. There's fourteen spares of her, if this one lets herself get eaten it's hardly a problem," I dismiss the plea.

"President, you can't say that!"

"I most certainly can. If we rescue her, the teachers would have a serious problem as no one knows how the rules about withdrawing apply to a student with multiple minds and bodies."

"That seems too harsh, making a student experience death for the sake of keeping the rules simple."

"It's a drooling vine trap, she won't remember anything unpleasant. Besides, I'm sure this is just her toying with us, she'll free herself as soon as she realizes no one's coming."

The plant that has Rimuru snagged is one of the more insidious hazards of the Harvest Festival, a carnivorous vine that secretes a hallucinogenic substance to make its prey lose any sense of danger or suffering.

We watch for a few minutes to see how this plays out, seeing her entangled more and more, waiting for her to suddenly break out and show it was all a ruse.

"Hel… Help…" Rimuru faintly squeaks, weakly grasping at the open air with an outstretched hand that's close to disappearing into the mass of vines like the rest of her body already has.

Wait, is she actually in danger?

Despite my bold words earlier, these childish clones of Rimuru are adorable, and I doubt I could actually watch one of them perish for any reason.

"I can't watch this anymore, I'm going!" I declare and race out of the tent to the camera's location.

…

I swiftly arrive on the scene, and find Rimuru helplessly tangled in a thorny mass. But before I can rescue her…

"Oh, hi Ameri!" Rimuru perks up as she notices me.

She emits a flare of black flame that she contains to a sphere around her, instantly turning the vines into ash and safely dropping to the ground.

Dammit! Of course it was a ruse! I knew it was a ruse! Why did I come here?!

"You seem fine, so I'm leaving." I immediately turn away from the girl, annoyed that she tricked me.

"Wait a moment! Don't go just yet!" Rimuru jumps up and grabs the back of my skirt. I spin around to try to pull her off, but she just gets spun around with me since she's so light.

"Get off!"

"No! I wanna talk!"

"Alright, fine, I'll listen for a little bit if you just let go!"

That settles our bickering, and Rimuru drops back down to the ground, a cheery look in her eyes.

"Big sis, is it true that there's a thingy called the Legendary Leaf somewhere in this place?"

"There is, but no one will give you any hints for how to find it."

Even if you call me 'big sis'.

"Well, I was thinking… If Iruma found it and gave it to you, would you m-"

*SLAP*

Before Rimuru can finish that sentence, I hastily slap away the nearby observer camera as though it were a ravenous caiman.

"-arry him?"

"Excuse me?!" I turn back to Rimuru, flustered by her saying what I feared she might.

"I just thought that the Legendary Leaf might be a flower, so it would be a really romantic way to propose to someone…"

"Uh… um… I guess I wouldn't mind if he did something like that…" I dwell on the idea, feeling my face get a little warm. "B-but a proposal might be too much! Besides, he'd be foolhardy to pursue the Legendary Leaf over a more reliable source of points, even I never found a trace of it when I did this exam last year."

"That's too silly, even for Iruma!" Rimuru giggles. "He's probably doing just fine gathering things normally, he told me he's really good at this kind of stuff."

Rimuru's smile gets a little fainter as she reflects on those last words, and it's not hard to tell why: A kid raised in a healthy environment wouldn't be adept with survival skills and foraging.

"I see… Anyway, I have to go now, the first night of a Harvest Festival is by far the busiest for the teachers and Student Council; it's when those ill-prepared for the wilderness are weeded out and have to be rescued, lest they perish as you were pretending to."

I once again turn to leave, but again Rimuru tries to stop me — thankfully not grabbing onto me this time.

"Um, wait! I'm not done talking!"

"Fine, make it quick. What is it?"

"… I… uh… never mind… it's nuthin'..." Rimuru sheepishly looks down at the ground, tracing small circles with her boot.

Is she just lonely?

Not many students attempt the Harvest Festival solo. Rimuru chose to, yet her many copies are often seen paying friendly visits to other teams or just observing them from a distance, seemingly wanting to be around others.

As a little kid left all alone in the dark, the sense of isolation must really be setting in for this clone.

I sigh heavily, knowing I'm again about to act on the way she tugs at my heartstrings.

"You're a member of the Student Council, and the Student Council is currently very busy. If you really want, you could help us rescue students, just for this one night."

"Really?!"

I nod in confirmation, and full of excitement, Rimuru changes her clothes to her Student Council uniform.

"Rimuru-Thirteen is on the job!"

Rimuru-Three

Sabnock POV

"Shouldn't I be the one to receive the greater share of the points, seeing how much mana I expended to defeat the boss so swiftly and elegantly?" Asmodeus demands as we trudge through the dark forest, so late at night that it's surely closer to sunrise than sunset.

"You were in your wicked phase, you maniac! I risked my life leaping in front of your attack so you wouldn't disqualify yourself, so I'm the one who deserves a bonus!" I retaliate.

"Tch… I suppose that here, Master Iruma would suggest we take the same amount of points…"

Asmodeus and I are up to our usual bickering as we return victorious from a boss hunt, where we competed with the Dorodoro brothers to be the first to claim the glorious fruit of a hundred-flaringo — an enormous beast that has to be struck a hundred times to break off the huge fruit hanging from its neck.

We were fighting well past midnight, but the prize was well worth it as that fruit was now slung over Asmodeus's shoulder, an alluring prize worth 10,800 points.

I'm wary that someone might be watching from the shadows in hopes of stealing it, and sure enough, my alert senses pick up a suspicious rustling in the bushes in front of us.

I put out a hand to stop Asmodeus.

"Who's there?" I call out.

There's another rustle, then out waddles Rimuru, even tinier than usual, and looking at the shiny golden fruit with wide, sparkling eyes.

"Rimuru!" Asmodeus exclaims with his voice full of elation, sounding as though he's barely able to resist running forward and scooping her up.

Rimuru trots right past him and climbs onto the fruit as if trying to grab it with her whole body.

"This looks so yummy! Can I have it? Pleeeease?" she begs Asmodeus, turning her endearing gaze upon him.

"Oi, isn't it beneath you to rely on others to prop up your score?" I complain, picking up Rimuru and setting her back down on the ground. I find it distasteful that my rival would use anything but her own might to win.

Rimuru shakes her head. "I don't want it for the points, I just want a taste of it because it looks so smooth and shiny and…" Rimuru trails off, licking her lips and staring hungrily at the ingredient.

"Then hunt a hundred-flaringo for yourself!"

"She can't," Asmodeus bluntly interjects with a hint of regret in his voice.

"Why not? Is she not strong enough at that size?" Surely he isn't stupid enough to think that.

"No, I mean… that was the only one."

Rimuru looks as though her heart was ripped out upon learning that she's missed her chance to try this ingredient.

"Tough luck, Rimuru. Asmodeus, let's get going. … Asmodeus?"

Oh no!

Asmodeus has knelt down to level himself with Rimuru (he's still a little taller) and seems to be seriously considering giving her the ingredient.

His obsession with Iruma is so overwhelming that it's easy to forget he holds Rimuru in nearly as high a regard.

He looks hesitant, but I know him. At this very moment, he's coming up with some elaborate justification in his head, like "That she sees this fruit as a delicacy instead of points only shows how pure and passionate her desire is".

Asmodeus must have done exactly that because he gives Rimuru a warm smile and brings the enormous fruit over her head. "I bestow you this ingredient, Rimuru. I hope that it brings you happiness."

Rimuru takes it, nearly toppling over from the imbalance of holding something so large over her head, and then runs off humming a happy tune.

"You idiot! You'd better give me half of the points that thing was worth to make up for it!" I chide the fool.

"That is fine. I am already a Dalet, I have no need to climb the ranks any further until Master Iruma does."

…

In the morning, Rimuru returns to us, carrying a fortune of ingredients in a large silk bag. She's far too tiny to properly carry it though, so she has to hover just to keep it from dragging.

She looks guilty and refuses to meet our eyes, like a child who was caught misbehaving. "The main Rimuru told me off for stealing from you, but I had already shared the fruit with my fellow clones… So we cobbled together 10,800 points of stuff to make up for it. Here."

"Rimuru, you're so kind!" Asmodeus receives the bag, so delighted that he's on the verge of tears.

While his guard is down, I snatch the bag from him.

"Hey!"

"I'll be holding onto this, fool. Or you'll give it to Iruma if we ever cross paths with him."

"No, I–"

Asmodeus begins a retort, only to stop and go deep into thought.

Dammit, he's thinking about doing it! I wish we could attack other students so I could slap this guy back to his senses!

Rimuru-Seven

Lead POV

"Leaaad, where are we going to find a 'runaway bride'? I have no idea what that means!" Iruma whines. "They don't actually have someone running around in a wedding dress, do they?"

"Yeah, I don't even have a clue what that part of the riddle is about. All we can do is look for something unusual, really."

"That might take too long though, this place is huge and it might be something you only notice up close… Oh, Lead! You could–"

"We need as many eyes as possible, right? I was thinking the same thing."

Iruma nods, smiling at me eagerly.

Guess he's keen to see my bloodline ability in action again!

Thanks to Professor Robin's brutal training regime, my bloodline ability Controller is no longer just a way to handicap an opponent in front of me. I've now learned to use it at a truly enormous range, picking up on the faint traces of potential targets and making the effects jump from one person to the next. It's like my senses can traverse the whole arena in just seconds!

Using all the demons in a wide range like a bunch of security cameras, I steal one person's vision after the next, never lingering for more than a second on each.

Come on, come on, something unusual…

As I'm searching, I eventually hit upon a demon that simply rejects my attempt to steal their sight. It's noteworthy enough to get my attention since I've even used this on some of the teachers without issue, so I try some other senses even though it won't help with my task.

Hearing, touch, even smell… blocked, blocked, blocked. Almost no one can defend against Controller, I'm definitely messing with a high-ranking demon here.

My self-preservation instincts tell me not to prod further in case it's one of the scary ones like Kalego or Rimuru, but then I see an opportunity: A high-ranking demon likely has senses beyond my own, so there are some exciting possibilities if I can just find an opening!

I get more creative with my probing for senses and sure enough…

There it is, a sensory ability embedded in an aura! You're mine!

I flood it with my own mana to overwhelm it and force my way in. For a split second, I feel like I can see everything; in all directions, to an enormous range, and without regard for sightlines. A complete sensory overload far beyond what I trained for.

"Gaaaaah!"

After that moment of nigh-omniscience, I'm hit with an agonizing headache that causes me to lose focus and scream.

And right as my control slips, I hear a high-pitched voice yelp in pain right behind me.

The pain mercifully doesn't linger at all, so I'm able to quickly see who just yelped: It's Rimuru, kneeling on the ground and clutching her head with a whine.

"Lead, you big dummy! Magic Sense is a delicate ability, you can't just flood it with your mana!" she yells at me.

"It's Rimuru number seven!" I yell back in shock, having not expected that one of the clones had been hidden in our presence for who-knows-how-long.

"Huh? How could you tell I'm clone seven?" she replies in confusion, tilting her head a bit to the side.

"No, I mean you're the seventh Rimuru we've seen unless there's one we've seen multiple times… Anyway, were you stalking us? You're not spying to snatch our prize from under our noses, are you?"

"I was just curious what my bro was up to!" Rimuru huffs, a little offended by the accusation. "I was only gonna secretly haunt you two like a ghost for a while, but then you made me reveal myself in a really mean way!"

"What happened to you and Lead exactly? It seems like he somehow managed to hurt you…" Iruma asks, with a mixture of surprise and concern for his sister.

Rimuru grumbles and stands back up. "When you said something about finding a runaway bride, I tried to see if I could spot her, but while I was busy, Lead took control of my senses and amplified them a bajillion times! It was like someone turned the lights out and then smashed a bat over my head, it was scary!"

"That's not what I meant to do, alright? And it hurt me just as much!" I insist.

Man, I messed up again… I can only pray that Rimuru doesn't hate me once she sees how I've been treating her clones.

"Don't do it again, alright?" Rimuru turns her head with a huff, seeming to forgive me.

"Sure, sure. I'll keep it a secret that my power can defeat you."

"Now hang on a minute! I'm stuck in this weakened body that can't use my super-cool unbeatably-advanced magic, that's the only reason your Controller did anything!" She points an accusing finger at me, incensed by my comment. "Besides, you said you hurt yourself as well! Why didn't your head explode?"

"Because Professor Robin put me through a neverending sensory overload hell! He wasn't training you though, so why didn't your head explode?"

"Um… I'm just tough like that alright?! I can handle lots of things you can't!"

We continue in our heated discussion for a little while and get wildly off-topic within minutes, while Iruma just busies himself with something quietly off to the side.

"… Hey, don't you underestimate my bloodline ability! One day I'll be able to do what my older sister does and take all five senses at once, you have no idea how terrifying it is!"

"Nuh-uh, you don't know nuthin'! I've gone through a hundred times worse than that!"

"There's no way I can believe that! That would mean you got tossed in a dark cave after having your eyes stabbed out or something on that level!"

"That's pretty much what happened!"

"No, that's bullshit! You shouldn't lie about something that horrible!"

"It's true! It's how I learned– … Huh?"

Rimuru is distracted by Iruma suddenly setting a flower crown upon her head.

"What's this about, Iruma?" she asks, adjusting it a bit.

Iruma smiles down at his small sister. "It seemed sad to me that we can't tell you apart from all the other Rimurus, so I thought if I made you this you'd be able to stand out."

Looking up at Iruma in wonder, Rimuru then starts to break out into giggles. "Heeheehee… That's so like you…"

Man, this guy's innocent and friendly to the core, isn't he?

"Anyway, what were we talking about again?" Rimuru asks.

"Eh, I don't care," I dismissively reply. "Because… we've got a Harvest Festival to win!"

" "Yeah!" " Iruma and Rimuru both cheer.

"Wait, you're not with us, Rimuru."

"Oh, right. Well, seeya!"

Rimuru wanders off back into the forest, no doubt due for more misadventures.

Now that she's gone, I can discuss something that's been on my mind this whole time.

"Hey Iruma, there's a direction I'd like to try going. Professor Robin made me really good at focusing on tonnes of things at once, so I think I spotted something while my brain was getting fried."

Rimuru-Five

Rimuru POV

Towards the end of the second day, the main Rimuru — Rimuru Zero — broadcasts a thought communication.

{{To all clones: If you want a place to spend the night, Keroli has established herself a solid home base that myself and Ranga will be staying in. Here are the coordinates…}}

A location pops up in my head, though it's pretty far away.

It's not even that late… As a creature born in a forest, I choose to prowl the night!

I keep up my mission of gathering ingredients, focusing especially on hunting tasty meat!

Since it's a lot of work to make decent food out of it though, I end up joining another team for dinner, sharing my prey so they'll cook it for me.

We share some laughs and get to know each other, though they give me funny looks the whole time…

Because through the power of mimicry, I've given myself wolf ears and a tail.

I don't see what their problem was with that. There are loads of demons around here with animal-looking parts. Maybe they were just jealous of how cool I look. I took inspiration from the coolest wolf and bestest boy ever, Ranga, so probably.

Once it gets dark, I have some fun going around spooking some other students by growling at them from the darkness or popping out of the bushes. One of them even said "I resign!" on reflex, only to calm down after seeing it was just me.

By about three in the morning though that started losing its fun, so I decided to turn in for the night, taking up Rimuru-Zero's offer of staying in Keroli's base.

When I get there I find Ranga protectively curled around a bunch of other small Rimurus, all sound asleep.

So much fluff! Now to just get in there without waking anyone up…

I hover just above them, trying to figure out how to carefully insert myself.

[[Master, you are a far heavier sleeper than you think, you won't waken any of your other selves.]]

Oh, okay!

I cut off my hovering and let myself fall in. Ranga makes a surprised noise and looks around in confusion, suddenly awake and alert. He meets my eyes, and then calms down, curling back up to sleep.

[[I said that you are a far heavier sleeper than you think. Be mindful of Ranga.]]

Ehehehe, whoops…

[[Good night, Master. Sleep well.]]

Nighty night, Ciel…

…

I wake up in the morning surrounded by twigs and leaves, and with a bit of wiggling, I realize that I'm stuck halfway into a bush.

What in the world? I've sure had a lot of strange wake-up calls since I joined Babyls…

Ranga comes scampering over, sending me a panicked thought communication.

{{My deepest apologies, Master! I thought all of you had already gotten up, but when I shook my fur you came flying out!}}

He carefully grabs me in his muzzle and pulls me out, setting me down and then whimpering.

I stand on tiptoes to give him a reassuring pat on the head.

"It's alright, I must've overslept from staying up late."

Keroli and a Rimuru approach to see what happened. When Keroli gets close, she breaks out into a delighted smile, running up and grabbing me from under my arms.

"What the heck, that's so cute! There was one like this?!"

"Hey, put her down, you're holding her wrong," the Rimuru complains. Ciel kindly informs me that he's the main body, Rimuru Zero.

"No way, it's like getting a super-rare in a gacha pull! You can go now, I'll keep this one instead." Keroli greedily hugs me close.

Keep?!

Rimuru-Zero looks instantly annoyed by that comment.

"Zero, Keroli is being creepy," I quietly protest, hoping he'll help me.

"Creepy…?" Keroli is taken aback by the comment.

"Mmm, looks like you've been rejected." Zero crosses his arms and nods.

Keroli sets me down with a dejected sulk.

"Anyway, what's with the wolfgirl getup, Five?" Zero asks, a hint of impatience in his voice. "I really don't get why I'd ever do this, especially given what happened with Diablo after the demdol thing."

"It's because of Iruma! I was watching him at the start of the event and he went a little crazy about survival stuff, and at some point, he said 'We must become creatures who were born in this forest' so I decided to be a wolf! It's been super fun!"

{{I approve!}} Ranga wags his tail eagerly, and I give him a thumbs up.

"Metaphors are wasted on you, huh?" Zero gives an amused sigh.

Rimuru-Two

Gaako POV

Eeep… That thing is huge!

A sweet-berian tiger is stalking me, so massive that its ear-tips nearly touch the forest canopy above.

"A big kitty like you won't scare me…" I tell myself to try and calm my nerves. "I come from a family of dragons, I'll burn your fur right off!"

That's right, though I may be rather short and stout, I'm a fearsome dragon; proven by the fire in my belly and the scales on my snout!

I blow a gout of flame at the beast, torching it as best I can.

Yet it emerges from the fire and smoke just singed and angry, now rushing at me and fully intent on gobbling me up!

"Aaaaaaaaah I should have teamed with Eiko!" I cry out, running away as fast as I can.

Sheer terror carries me as swiftly as the wind, and I end up carelessly charging headlong into a web-filled area of forest, getting caught by countless threads and completely stopped in my tracks.

"I resign! I resign!" I yell as I dangle helplessly, the tiger only a second or two away from snatching me in its jaws.

Only, it makes the same mistake I did by getting itself tangled, and it's not strong enough to break through the threads either. Now it too writhes helplessly.

Then… it starts ascending into the treetops, its strings tugged upwards by whatever horrific spider monster made all these webs!

There's a crack and a crunch, and the still-visible lower half of the tiger goes limp.

"Aaaaaaaah! I don't want that to happen to me! Somebody, please come to my rescue quick!" I scream.

My panic is quickly put to an end, however, as the webs around me suddenly start vanishing into nothing.

"Sowwy!" a very young-sounding girl calls out from the treetops.

She made the webs and preyed on that tiger? Hang on, is this a demon or a monster?!

Rimuru-Twelve

Elizabetta POV

"If you give me all the points you're carrying, I'll let you touch something really soft…"

"Uh… um…!" the hapless boy before me stammers, blushing brighter by the second and not knowing whether to look at my eyes or a bit lower than that, at something 'really soft'.

So simple. After everything Professor Raim taught me, I don't even need my bloodline ability to shatter all resistance.

"I'll take your lack of words as a yes then~!"

I casually pluck his ingredient pouch from his hip, and he doesn't put up any resistance at all.

"Anyway, now to uphold my end of the deal…" I turn around and kneel down.

What the boy hears is the sound of a zipper coming undone, but it's certainly not the zipper on my chest. Rather, I'm fetching something from my bag.

It's Rimuru! Well, one of her clones.

"Here you are! As promised, something really soft!" I present the small girl to the boy.

"Eh?! This is a total scam…"

"Just give her one pat, you'll never feel softer hair in your life!"

The boy frowns and reluctantly places a hand on Rimuru's head. He's taken by surprise as he learns the truth of my words, and continues to pat her.

"No kidding, that is soft…"

Rimuru is quiet through all this, looking as though she's intently focused on something.

Then, her hair starts to move on its own, like very thin tendrils.

"Woah, what?" The boy seems utterly perplexed by the strange thing Rimuru is doing, and a little concerned as her hair is now reaching under his jacket.

What is she up to? This wasn't part of the plan…

Suddenly, the hair snaps back, and Rimuru is now holding another pouch and wearing a devilish grin.

"You cheater, you had a secret pouch stashed in your jacket's inside pocket!" Rimuru lightly flicks the boy in the middle of his forehead, "The deal was all the points you're carrying, so I'll be taking this."

"Owww…" the boy holds his forehead, still wincing, "Wait… no, how'd you spot that?! And what's with your hair?!"

"It's a trade secret!"

My, good job Rimuru! I never expected a secret pouch!

Myself and Rimuru leave the poor boy to sulk in his defeat, and we share a laugh about our little prank. Her usual role in the team is just spotting targets and stealing from them while Clara and I have them distracted, but I wanted to try out this bait-and-switch with her just this once.

We head off, and once we're on our own I pull my two teammates a little closer.

"It's getting late, but shall we do one more for the day?"

"Yeah, yeah!"

"Sleep is for the weak!"

Ah, I don't have nearly as much energy as these two…

"Alright, then let's just wander around until we spot someone."

Though by 'we' I really mean Rimuru, as she seems to be able to use magic to detect things even through dense foliage. Once she decided to help with spotting other demons, it's always been her spotting them first.

And sure enough…

"There's a team on their way to a report counter, they've gotta be loaded!" Rimuru excitedly points out into the depths of the forest.

"What's the mix?" I ask.

"Two boys, one girl."

"A girl? Clara, you're up! Get her before they can turn in their points!"

Girls provide a voice of reason to protect their team from the charms of a succubus.

That's why they have to be neutralized first thing, and Clara's power can nullify any threat even in this competition where attacking students isn't allowed. Plus, unlike me, she's effective against boys and girls equally since her charm lies in her innocence.

Clara fully dons her costume and scampers on all fours in the direction Rimuru pointed. Myself and Rimuru run to catch up, though it looks like her tiny size is making it difficult to navigate the undergrowth at speed since her legs are too short to step over anything.

"Sorry! Do you want me to carry you?"

"Nah, I've got this!"

Without even unfurling her wings, Rimuru somehow lifts into the air, hovering alongside me and easily keeping pace. It's a bizarre sight, and I can only guess that this is the special usage of Fractal she once taught the class — a way of flying without wings.

It's a clever choice though, flying with pure magic so her wings don't snag on the trees.

Just ahead of us, we hear a squeal of fright and the sound of a zipper closing. Seems that Clara just snagged her target, which means we just have the boys to deal with — the girl isn't coming out until Clara's drained both her mana and stamina with her fearsome 'toybox' ability.

I walk out into the open to confront the boys, while Rimuru circles around preparing to rob them blind.

"Say, you two… What type of girl do you like best?"

I can't help but giggle as I slowly approach, finding it oh-so-fun to gather points this way.

…

Half an hour later, there's some rustling in Clara's costume, then it opens up and a completely-exhausted girl flops out. She's not even able to raise a hand in protest as Rimuru takes her ingredients from her.

"Nooo…" she faintly whines.

Her teammates were kind enough to wait around for her (we already stole their points anyway), so they helped her get to her feet and walk away.

"Hahaha! We got all the snackies!" Rimuru gloats once we're on our own.

We decide to make camp for the night, a process that's extremely quick as Clara and Rimuru can both pull things out of thin air — Clara went completely overboard with it last night, managing to make a shack filled with modern entertainment and comforts since she had a lot of stolen mana to burn off, but she seems to be holding back this time as Rimuru complained that it ruined the camping experience.

So all we have is a tent, a small kitchen setup, and a few magic circles drawn by Rimuru — one that functions as a campfire, one that keeps out pests and wild beasts, and one for cleaning.

With all the handy magic she's got, and how adorable she is to have around, winning Rimuru over onto our team was definitely a worthwhile plan — all possible thanks to the strategy Professor Raim devised, which I think might have been her way of getting back at her for underestimating the succubus arts.

Maybe I sound like a kidnapper saying that, but Rimuru seems to be having fun. She and Clara have already started making dinner, as they both enjoy cooking, and their very different styles mixing together is entertaining just to watch.

"So what are you two expert chefs making tonight?" I ask the small demons.

" "Pork miso soup!" " they both cheer.

I have no idea what miso is, but they both seem excited about it, so it must be something delicious.

"Sounds interesting! But did we gather any ingredients like that?"

The pair look at each other in confusion. Then they huddle over the pot and have a 'secret' discussion, still loud enough for me to hear.

"She's right, how are we going to make it without pork or miso?" Rimuru whispers to Clara.

"We stole some chui-umumi and sooby-gooby, we could use those as substitutes…" she whispers back.

"You don't even know what miso is, how could you substitute it?"

"Trust me, I've got a gut feeling about it."

Rimuru thinks for a moment then gives a stern nod, willing to blindly put her trust in Clara's sense of taste and indecipherable ingredient names.

And now for the chaotic part…

Just like the last two nights, in only a few minutes the dish goes from being a simple recipe to fast-paced improvisation.

"Let's add some habeba repenta peppers, they're good!" Clara dumps a chopping board's worth of roughly-chopped chillies.

"That's too much! We'll need something to mellow out the spice!" Rimuru hastily adds something else.

"Riri, cut these up quick-quick!" Clara starts throwing random vegetables at Rimuru.

"On it!" There's an odd buzzing noise as Rimuru slices them up at an alarming rate.

Things go on much like this for a while, the pair feeding into each other's impulsiveness.

…

After a nice long simmer over the magic-circle campfire, it's finally time to enjoy the meal; and none too soon, as Rimuru was at risk of drooling into the pot.

We eat in silence, fixated on our food as the running around we've done worked up a tremendous appetite.

"It was really good, but… it wasn't even a little bit like pork miso soup. It wasn't even soup, it was a stew," Rimuru admits with some regret once she finishes eating, setting her bowl and spoon atop the cleaning circle and then putting a bit of mana in to make all the residue vanish.

"Were you really wanting to make that recipe even though you didn't have the ingredients for it?" I ask as I do the same. "The last two nights you were happy even when you didn't get what you expected."

"Mhm, I got nostalgic for that recipe. I remembered a trip I went on with some adventurers a long time ago, and one of the things we made was pork miso soup. Though we didn't have pork for it then either."

Why even call it that if you keep making it without pork?

It's funny to hear Rimuru talking about nostalgia. She's got the mind and body of a child right now, but the way she smiles to herself as she relishes in memories of the past is almost like an old lady, and I'm worried that I'll ruin the moment if I don't hold in my giggling.

She's not the only one who's uncharacteristically deep in thought. Clara also has her hands contemplatively on her cheeks, staring wistfully into the amber flames that illuminate her visage.

"So, what has you thinking so hard?" I ask the green-haired girl sitting by my side.

"… My papa's an adventurer too. So I bet his life is totally like this, right?" she responds after a pause.

Rimuru glances at her in shock. "Woah, your dad's an adventurer? That's pretty cool!"

"He is cool!" Clara pumps her fists in eager response, only to deflate again and pout. "… But he'd be even cooler if he was around more."

"Ah…" Rimuru looks a little guilty about what she said. "I guess that makes your mom the coolest, then."

"Mhm." She gives a pensive nod.

Oh dear. It's not like my energetic ally at all for her to dwell on unhappy things.

Is she feeling homesick? I know she cares a lot about her family, and our training has meant she's had no time to spend with them even before the Harvest Festival. Hang in just a little longer Clara!

Rimuru pats Clara on the back. "Maybe your dad is doing the same thing as us right now. Sitting by a warm fire under the same stars with a couple of adventuring buddies."

"So we're basically on an adventure right now, Riri?"

"Yep! A gathering mission absolutely counts! In this moment, both you and him are adventurers!"

Clara gasps at Rimuru's words, the sparkle having returned to her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah! Maybe he'll take me with him one day!"

"Sure, I bet your dad would love to go on adventures with his kids! He might be up to some super-dangerous stuff though, so he's probably waiting for you to get a bit older."

"Boo! I'm the big sis of the family, I'm old enough!"

"Nuh-uh, you keep letting yourself get eaten by plants, he's not gonna take you with him until you grow out of that."

And just like that, Clara's back to pouting.

"Ah, never mind what I just said, I was just being mean," Rimuru says with worry in her eyes. "It must sure be hard for parents to figure out what's right and wrong… It sounds a little scary trying to be a good parent, but maybe that's just 'cause I'm like this right now."

Okay. Now that's too much for me to avoid giggling at, this tiny girl expressing such mature concerns.

"Heeheehee… If you ever end up raising any children, it won't be for a long time. I'm sure you'll feel a lot more ready then!"

"Um… Yeah, for sure…"

…

A little while later, Rimuru's in the middle of making tea, when she suddenly blurts out a complaint.

"Wait, this is all wrong!"

"Huh? What?" Clara hurriedly asks.

"If we wanna share in the real camping experience with your dad, this fire won't do at all!" She points accusingly at our campfire. "There's no gathering wood, no sparks, no tending, and none of that nice smoke smell to remind you you're roughing it out in the wild!"

"… Yeah! You're right! It's gotta be inconvenient!" Clara pulls out a battleaxe, and Rimuru follows suit.

It's always action with these two…

They run off into the trees, and I hear them enthusiastically hacking away at branches before quickly returning with a small pile of wood each.

Rimuru deactivates the magic circle generating fire and puts the wood in that spot, then tries to light it with a small Raffire flame on her fingertip.

But it really is as inconvenient as they were hoping, because the wood refuses to ignite.

"Um, it's a bit dark and cold, and I was looking forward to tea… Do we need to do this?" I ask.

" "Yes!" " they both insist.

I'm not nearly as outdoorsy as them, so I really don't get the sentiment here. But they seem to be having fun, so I watch to see how they solve it.

They nearly cause a forest fire when Rimuru decides to blast the wood with her strange black flames to force it to ignite, instantly turning the wood to ash in a violent conflagration.

Eventually, she figures it out though and somehow pulls all the water out of the remaining wood, saying that it was simply too fresh and damp.

"Now we're doing it right," Rimuru proudly declares.

…

Eventually, the tea was finished, but soon I started to notice a problem with the 'nice smoke smell' that Rimuru described.

It's harsh and it stings the nose and eyes if you get downwind of it, and considering that my bloodline ability is based on smell…

"Hang on, this smoke smell is bad," I point out my concern. "If it lingers in my clothes it could be a real problem tomorrow because it weakens my bloodline ability."

"Your magic is weak to smoke? That sure is annoy- … Ah-hah! I knew it!" Rimuru makes a sudden realization.

"Hmm?"

"You're not worried about your clothes getting smelly! You're worried because you've been using your magic on me this whole time, and now I've found a way to beat it! It works through smells, so I know I'm right!" she boldly declares.

"No, that is ridiculous! If Full Love Gauge worked on you, you would have agreed to help us for free. Nothing has changed."

"Heh. Try me, then."

Rimuru is standing close to the fire with a smug grin and her arms crossed, fully confident she can neutralize my magic by standing there.

It makes sense a prideful demon like her would struggle to accept being won over with just headpats and a food bribe, but at the first hint, she's totally convinced herself it was just my magic…

There's only one way to deal with that, and Rimuru retains that smug confidence even as I scoop her up.

Only for it to disappear as I gently run my fingers through her hair, as she realizes she's no less weak to it than before.

"Nooo…"

"See? You were just being silly," I coo as the girl melts under my touch.

"The smoke wasn't enough to block your magic…" she sleepily whines.

Oh, come on, still?

Rimuru-Six

Rimuru POV

I haven't seen anyone all day, what gives? Did I accidentally wander outside the arena?

[[You are still within the arena grounds.]]

Well, I'm sick of all this... being alone stuff! It's boring!

I peer ahead with Magic Sense, scanning large areas to try to spot some demons.

Forest, forest, more forest, forest again, forest… Oh, there's Kalego and Balam!

I'm not sure what two teachers are doing all the way out here, so I decided to listen in on their conversation.

"… sensed an enormous stash of ingredients, right in this spot." Balam looks down at the ground.

He casts a spell that pushes matter out of the way to make a temporary hole in the ground, even though there was a secret trapdoor he could've just opened. Maybe he just didn't want to leave any trace of being here, since opening the trapdoor would mess up the dirt and bushes used to hide it.

Kalego pokes his head in and looks around. "All rare ingredients… It must be 50,000, maybe even 60,000 points worth… And you say it's suspicious because we don't know how it got here?"

"Correct. Either someone is cheating by having this stash from the very start of the Harvest Festival, or they kept bringing ingredients to this location without ever being detected."

"If it's the latter, there's a chance it's the intruder we've been hunting down… Finally, we might be closing in."

My eyes widen, as I've just overheard something super-secret and very important!

A huge stash of rare ingredients?! Right there for anyone to eat? Don't mind if I do!

"Yeaaaaaah!" I run straight there, cheering the whole way.

I don't care about being sneaky, so I grab the attention of the two teachers way before I arrive, but they're so stunned that they just stare at me as I run right past them and hop into the hole.

…

"… Get her out, she'll eat the entire stash!" Kalego finally snaps to his senses.

"On it!" Balam reaches his huge arm inside, blindly trying to grab ahold of me.

I bite him.

Not hard enough to hurt him, just a little nip to make him leave me alone.

He grunts in pain, and as soon as he pulls his arm out, I dispel the hole and lock the trapdoor with a spell just to make sure they don't try to force me out again. These ingredients are mine now! Mine! They can't have any!

"Miss Tempest, if you don't open up right now I'll have Cerberus tear you out!" Kalego yells as he yanks on the trapdoor's handle.

Sending your stupid doggy after me won't work, old man!

But Kalego is too dumb to know that. I'll just have to scare him off with something else instead.

"I'm not breaking any rules! I can steal anyone's ingredients as long as I'm not attacking them!" I justify myself.

"You'll just waste it all by eating it, you overindulgent fiend! Babyls School cultivates this forest of abundance to give the chefs an unlimited supply of ingredients, it's the only reason why you and your brother can be so gluttonous!"

"So I'm just getting a headstart on eating it, right~?" I tease.

"You little–!"

"Calm down, Kalego." Balam puts an end to the shouting match. "There's no rule we can use to stop her from doing this."

"There might be a rule… I'm going to go scour the old rulebooks, and see if there's anything we missed."

The two demons head off, leaving me be with this treasure trove of the tastiest things in the forest. I can feel that Ciel is a little worried, but not enough for me to worry too.

Ciel, is this a miracle or what?!

[[We will certainly gather valuable data off of this.]]

…

Hours pass, but I don't keep track of how many. It doesn't matter to me if it's day or night since I'm fully focused on quietly munching away in the dark. The stash is full of so many new and interesting flavors that I got caught up in it all.

A state of pure, contented bliss that carries on right through to the end.

Ciel, this exam is the best exam… the best exam everrrrr…

[[I certainly agree if it makes you so happy.]]

Surrounded by empty sacks that once held the snacks now inside me, I fall asleep with a smile on my face.

Zzz…

…

An unknown amount of time later, Ciel gently prods me awake. Well, the mental equivalent of "prodding".

[[Master…]]

Mmnnh, lemme sleep…

[[Master, the owner of this stash has returned and has found you.]]

My eyes open wide and I look up in alarm, seeing two students above me.

Or rather…

I vaguely remember something being said about an 'intruder' possibly having made this stash, and I quickly realize that one of them isn't a student of Babyls, no doubt the intruder in question.

A grin spreads across my face. I must've thwarted some malicious plan by eating all this.

My work done, I bound out of the hole, making a swift and triumphant escape!

"Thank you for the meal~!"

Rimuru-Ten

The Harvest Festival is over, and the twinkling stars above tell me time is just about up for us 14 clones and our silly adventures. Well, my adventures weren't 'silly', but the ones of the rest of the clones were! I'm the smartest of us, you know.

Soon I'll be recalled to my normal mind and body, but while we wait we're all hanging out with Ciel in the sakura grove that sprung up and having our own little party.

We've done lots of things together, and right now everyone's playing a game of seeing how high they can stack themselves without help from magic or skills, aside from Twelve who's been mercilessly patted into a puddle, and Thirteen who's clinging tightly to Ciel.

Currently, they're up to 7, reaching above even the trees since they're standing on each other's upstretched hands.

It looks especially ridiculous since we're doing this after Ciel had realized she can zap us into any clothes she pleases, and something tells me she's experimenting with evil ideas as the one thing we all have in common is that we all look like demdols.

"Ten, you're up!" the Rimuru at the top of the stack calls out to me.

"Right!" I try to carefully calculate my jump so that I'll land softly. I hop up and carefully stick the landing, yet even so, the minuscule wobble I caused amplifies as it goes down and then back up the stack.

Everyone still on the ground watches with bated breath as we wobble back and forth. We manage to recover though, and get ourselves steady.

"That's 8!" I announce to a small congratulatory applause. "Fourteen, it's your turn!"

"Yeah, my time to shine!" he immediately leaps up and lands on me fairly roughly. I guess he got a little too excited.

The stack topples immediately.

Many Rimurus plummet to the ground with noises of surprise, and I land in one of the sakura trees in a burst of pink petals that flutter and fall like a delicate snow.

"Heeheehee… That was fun, now let's do something else!" I giggle.

Ciel picks me up out of the tree and gently brushes some of the petals off me.

"Did you have anything in mind?" she asks, at a volume making it clear she's addressing all the other clones as well.

"Let us get revenge on you for putting us all in these outfits!" the frilliest of her victims demands.

"Oh! What if we came up with something she can use in Tempest?" I suggest since Ciel's been having a bit more of a physical presence now as Aoki's mother.

There are some eager murmurs of agreement in response; since all of us are identical besides a bit of random variation that seems to happen with Parallel Fragments, we're all pretty quick to get on board with each other's ideas.

Ciel sits down in a circle with us, still holding me and causing me to receive a few jealous glances.

We establish a telepathy net for sharing imagery, and within a minute we're all abuzz with chatter, coming up with ways Ciel could look more beautiful and distinctive than just "me with red eyes" yet not so different as to break away from the identity she's comfortable with.

"… I like the red eyes, they're cool!"

"Loads of anime characters have hair that's a different color on the underside, what if hers got reddish in the right light to match her eyes but it was still the same blue as ours?"

"Is that even possible?"

"It might be!"

"What's wrong with the 'Amane' design? It's pretty and Ciel came up with it herself."

"I think she only picked the colors to look more like Iruma's mom."

"And Hinata would get mad if she saw Ciel looking so much like Shizu. Especially since having a kid together implies our relationship turned romantic." I add what I feel is a crucial point.

The mere comment on how people might view us makes Ciel pull me a little more tightly against her.

"What if her hair was waaaaaay longer?" One of the clones submits an image to the telepathy network. "She could have a different silhouette without breaking away from our mimicry template."

"Oh, she looks refined!"

"And ethereal…"

"I think her figure as Amane suits her, maybe that could be part of her appearance?"

"We can't have an adult form be what identifies Ciel, what if we wanna be big or she wants to be small?"

"When you say her figure as Amane, does that include the b–"

" "Don't say that!" "

I'm impressed by how patiently Ciel's listening to all this.

[[It is helpful to hear your unfiltered thoughts on this matter.]]

My unfiltered thoughts? Well, in that case!

"What if she had pointy ears like an elf?" I suggest on a whim, sharing my mental image because I think it looks pretty great.

It's more impactful than I expected, as all the other clones are immediately captivated.

"How daring…"

"I wouldn't say no…"

However, I made a terrible miscalculation.

Despite her statement that she wishes to hear my ideas, Ciel now feels the need to interject.

"Might I ask what motivated that suggestion?" she asks me.

"Huh? Um… I just thought it'd be charming…" I timidly mutter, not having expected I'd have to justify myself.

"You wish for me to be charming? Even at the risk of charming you? Because I do believe personal tastes are at play here."

Why did I say it like that? Why did I say any of this? Gah, curse this slow-witted Parallel Fragment form! And I thought I was one of the smarter ones of this bunch!

Ciel doesn't seem to be annoyed with me at all, if anything she seems to be a little chuffed about the direction of this conversation.

Yet I feel like I've gotten myself into a very sticky situation! She knows about my 'thing' for elves, so suggesting she picks up an elf trait sounds like I'm saying I wouldn't mind having a thing for her, which wasn't what I was trying to say at all!

But if that wasn't what I was trying to say, then why did I say that? Does thinking Ciel would look nice like that mean I consider her attractive? Can I even be attracted like that to someone who usually doesn't physically exist? Do Parallel Fragments even understand romance? Do I as a slime understand it with my human life now decades behind me? Are these all questions that'd be trivial for my main body and I'm just deluded?

"Master?" Ciel is looking me in the eyes with slight concern, as I haven't said anything for a while now and my thoughts are probably too much of a jumble for her to get a good grasp of.

"Ciel, we can't get married yet, I'm just a Parallel Fragment!"

WHAT AM I SAYING?!

She blinks in surprise. "Yet?"

The other clones are looking on with a mixture of amusement and horror, finding my flustered death spiral funny to watch while also being aware this will be something they experienced once the memories are processed.

The pressure of this conversation is way too much for lil' ol' me! Someone, get me out of here!

Miraculously, my prayers are answered — at that very moment, I'm suddenly reduced to sparkling black smoke as my main body recalls me.

Rimuru (the normal one) POV

"Nooooo!" I cry out, melting a little more into Ciel's lap as I process a particularly embarrassing memory.

"Indeed, you really said all those things," she warmly chuckles and gives me some gentle pats.

She must still be giddy about that incident because she pretty much never shows this level of expressiveness.

"I was wondering why you seemed so unbothered about Clone Twelve," I mutter with a slime-sigh.

The whole time I spent integrating the memories of that clone, I was fearful of some kind of retribution, yet Ciel was acting disturbingly calm about it. I get it now though; it's because another clone had shown a side of me far more shameful than simple cuddly clinginess.

"Rest assured, I will not take anything in that conversation as a reflection of your true feelings. Your judgment was severely compromised, and as you've said before, we're both very early in our lives."

"Thanks. Now that I'm my properly-collected self, I can answer my earlier question: Parallel Fragments have an absolutely disastrous understanding of romance. I'll have to keep that in mind."

"I will respect that as well. However, may I act on your suggestion of crafting myself a persona once I have found the inspiration for one? Such a thing would have its uses."

"Really? Sure, just run it by me first. Anyway, are we through processing all the memories yet? I've been at this for like, two or three days internally."

"Unfortunately, you still have six more clones worth of memories to get through."

Uuuuuugh… I wonder what nonsense these ones got up to…

"Ciel, remind me to never do this again."

"I cannot promise that I will prevent something so amusing."

"Ciel!"