Stepping out of the cave the two of us were met with a large forest.
'Wow! It feels good to be outside again,' Rimuru jumped up and down in excitement.
'And it seems we are met with the beauty of nature upon our exit,' I took a few steps forward feeling the wind brush against my skin.
'It's okay I guess.' Rimuru began leading the way though the forest with me floating right behind him.
As we made our way through the forest we senses a pack of wolves trailing us but they were easily scared away with a simple shout.
The next thing we sensed was a small group of monsters approaching us.
'Nothing like a good crisis to come at you out of nowhere, huh?' Rimuru sighed as we looked at the group.
They were small in size, their equipment plain and crude. Their faces were dirty and devoid of intelligence, but with their swords, their shields, their stone axes, and their bows, they weren't entirely bestial.
It took a mere instant for my gray matter to figure out who they were—goblins, those infamous marauders of many a would-be adventuring party.
'Talk about sticking to the script. No doubt they were here to attack the weakest of would-be heroes.'
'But, really, thirty of them against two of us? Kind of a lot at once, isn't it?'
I listened to Rimuru ramble on about
I didn't feel so much as a whiff of terror. My instincts told me I had absolutely nothing to fear. Their swords had rust on them, and their armor was thin and torn at the edges.
Some of them were dressed in nothing but stained rags. Compared to the hard-scaled lizards and the spiders with
massive serrated blades on their feet we had dealt with before, I couldn't imagine their gear inflicting any damage at all on us.
'If, and that is a big if, things got hairy, you could just go into black-snake mode and Poisonous Breath them all into puddles of goo… or I could crush their bodies.'
'Why was that your first suggestion!'
I shrugged.
As we observed them, the goblins' apparent leader opened his mouth.
"Grah! Strong ones… Have you business here?"
'Come on, "strong ones"? First they're surrounding us with their weapons; then they're rolling out the red carpet… What do you think they want?'
'I haven't gotten the slightest idea, talk to them, they might just tell you.'
I used wind to push him forward while I was still suspended in the air.
'Why me? You're the on with a mouth!'
I ignored his protests and pushed him even further towards the goblins.
'Age before beauty, as they say.'
He reluctantly sighed and began speaking.
"Good to meet you, I guess!? My name is Rimuru! I'm a slime and he's Deva, an Elemental!"
I could feel a massive amount of energy coming from him with each word said. He must not know how much force he is using behind his words.
The goblins murmured among themselves, a few of them already prostrating themselves before us, weapons tossed away. Weird.
"G-garrh! Strong one! We, we see mighty power in you. Please! Quiet the voice of you!"
'Mm? Did I put too much force into it?'
'You think?'
'Maybe making myself understood wasn't such a big deal after all.'
'Plainly, you are frightening them.'
"Sorry, I don't have this fine-tuned too well yet…"
"We, we need no apology from such great form of you!"
Guess that worked.
"So what did you need from us? We don't have any business around here."
Rimuru spoke with an overzealous tone that made me raise an eyebrow to what was going on in his head. Probably something idiotic.
"I see. Village of us is ahead. We felt strong monsters nearby, so we came to patrol."
"Strong monsters? We didn't spot anything like that…?"
I mentally face palmed my self. He can't be hat oblivious, can he? Wait what am I saying, of course he can. I mean he's walking around with his aura on full display and hasn't notice it.
I could tell him but what's the fun in that?
"G-gaah! Grah-gah-gah! Such joking! You cannot trick us, even with form of you!"
'These guys totally have the wrong idea. They think one of their powerful intruders had disguised himself as a slime.'
'Your all hopeless then.'
'Huh?'
'Nothing.'
We spoke to the goblins for a while longer, and before long, we wound up receiving an invitation to their village. They even offered to carry Rimuru which was stupid considering he doesn't need rest.
But I let it happen as they seemed weirdly enthusiastic about it.
Along the way, we got to hear a bit of the local gossip. It turned out the god they worshipped had recently disappeared. Without it, the local monsters had started acting up a lot more than before.
At the same time, more human adventurers—"powerful ones," as they put it—were starting to invade the forest. And so on.
I'd bet that powerful god they were talking about was Veldora-sama. So unknowingly this is all our fault, although it is mostly Rimuru's since he has Veldora-sama in his stomach.
And funnily enough, the more we spoke to each other, the more clearly we began to understand them. It must have been our Magic Sense skills getting more accustomed to however the goblin language was wending its way through the particles in the air.
The village was shockingly dingy. Maybe I shouldn't have expected much from a goblin's den. They guided us to what I supposed was the most structurally sound of the buildings. It had a thatched, pitted roof that was rotting away in areas, the walls bearing nothing but a few pieces of flat wood
nailed to them.
"I am sorry to keep you waiting, honored guests," one of the goblins said as he entered. The leader of the expeditionary force I ran into earlier accompanied him.
"Oh, no need for that," I said. I felt like he was trying to smile but I think he forgot he doesn't have a mouth.
"Don't worry about us. We haven't been waiting for that
long." I assured them giving my own smile to ease them.
Something about smiling at your conversational partner always did wonders to keep negotiations moving your way. Once you were aware of it, it was scary how well it worked.
The teachers at school always faulted at my smile they said it 'brightened their day' or whatever nonsense they would come up with at the moment to get me to talk in class. A foolish effort really.
"I apologise we cannot provide you more hospitality," the goblin said as he brought out something resembling tea for us.
"I am the elder of this village."
Even goblins must have this stuff, I thought about drinking it but I know that was not a good idea. Although it would be rude to leave it so I quickly gulped it down and I was hit with a bitter, arid flavour.
It was good to see the goblins trying to play nice with us, but this stuff isn't exactly good.
Then I decided to get to the point. "So to what do we owe the favor?" I asked. "What made you decide to invite us over to your village?"
This had tobe more than monsters acting buddy-buddy with each other.
The village elder shivered a bit. Then, firming up his resolve, he turned to us.
"You have heard, I trust, that the monsters have been more active around here as of late?"
We had, on the way here.
"Our god has protected the peace in this land for generations, but about a month ago, he hid himself from us. That has allowed the nearby monsters to start meddling with our lands once more. We do not wish to let this continue, so we have fought back…but from a raw-power perspective, we face an uphill climb."
'Hmmm. Was he talking about Veldora? It would match time-wise.'
I mentally sighed, 'Ladies and gentlemen the picture of observation, Rimuru Tempest himself.'
'What's that supposed to mean?'
'Nevermind.'
'You are so annoying. Anyway, if the goblins wanted our help…'
"I understand you well enough, but I'm just a slime, so I'm not exactly sure I can provide the help you need but my friend here can help maybe..."
"Grah-ha-ha! Trust me, no need for modesty! It is no mere slime who can emit the mystical force you do! I cannot imagine why you are taking that form…but you have a name bestowed upon you, yes?"
'Mystical…what? What's that? I don't remember busting anything like that out.'
I waited for him to figure it out himself. After a moment he realized it. There was, in fact, some kind of ominous-looking aura covering his whole body.
'You'd think I would've noticed that in the midst of all the
monster transformation and Body Armor malarkey. Wait! Why didn't you tell me!? I know you knew about this!'
'I have no idea what you're talking about.'
'Well I might as well run with it.'
"Hee-hee-hee… Impressive, elder. You noticed?" That same overzealous tone returned.
"Of course, my friend! Even in the shape that you are, there is certainly no hiding the strength inside you!"
"Ah. Well, if you spotted me, then I guess you guys have a lot of promise!"
'Now I'm diggin' this! Let's just pull the elder's strings for a bit and talk my way out of trouble.'
'You are so obvious, it's painful.'
'Shut up!'
"Ohh… Were we being tested, perhaps? Then I certainly hope we are worthy. Many would be cowed to submission by such a force."
"You're right. Anyone willing to speak to me without being frightened by my mystic powers must be worthy indeed."
Worthy how? I wondered to myself silently.
"Ha-ha! Thank you very much. I will refrain from asking you why you hide your true form…but I do have a request of you. Would you be willing to listen to it?"
'About what I figured. Nobody would go up to fearsome, hideous monsters for no reason at all.'
'Speak for yourself slimy, I'm sublime.'
"It depends on what it is," I said, trying to keep my swagger going. "But go ahead. State your business."
It turned out some newcomer monsters from the lands to the east had been pushing into the area, hoping to seize it for themselves. The area was home to several goblin villages, including this one, and even the small clashes so far
had resulted in a large number of goblin deaths—including some named goblins.
One of these named creatures was the sort-of guardian of this village, and with his death, the value of keeping this village intact had declined dramatically.
The other goblin communities had largely abandoned this land. Their reasoning was that they could coerce the newcomers to attack this village, buying them time to come up with countermeasures of their own. The village elder and the leader of the expedition who greeted me had tried to reason with them but were coldly brushed away.
The frustration was clear in their voices as the two of them explained.
"I see," I replied. "So how many of you live in this village? And how many are battle ready?"
"We have approximately one hundred residents. Counting our women, about sixty of them are ready to fight."
Doesn't sound like much. Pretty smart goblins, though, if they're keeping track that closely.
"All right. And what types and numbers are we talking about with the enemy?"
"They are direwolves, we believe—certainly wolflike in appearance. Under normal circumstances, it would have to be ten of us against one of them for us to have a fighting chance…but they appear to number around a
hundred themselves."
'Huh? What kind of impossible game is this?'
I turned my eyes toward the village elder. He didn't seem to be joking; his eyes were as sincere and dedicated as a goblin's could get.
"So these goblin fighters took them on in such small numbers, even though they knew they couldn't win?"
"…No. This information I told you… Those fighters risked their lives to obtain it."
Oh. Might've been a rude question, there.
Upon further questioning, the named goblin they'd lost turned out to be both the elder's son and the older brother of the scouting party's leader. We spent a moment weighing the options, the elder falling silent as he awaited our decision. It might have been my imagination, but I could have sworn there were tears in his eyes… I was probably just imagining it, though. Tears don't go too well with monsters.
"If we help this village, what do we get in return? Do you even have anything to give?"
"We shall give you our allegiance! Please, grant us your guardianship. If you do, I promise we will swear our loyalty to both of you!"
Honestly, as gifts go, that's not much. I don't really care about that stuff.
Plus, those eyes on the elder. I could tell that he was truly relying on us to say the right thing.
I reflected on my past life. I was never the person to do something that didn't serve my own interests. Everyone knew this and stopped expecting help of they couldn't offer me something worth my time in return.
Maybe in this life I could change that.
"All right. Your request is granted!"
Rimuru nodded sagely. And that's how we became the guardians of a goblin village.