Treyni- “I would like you to defeat the Orc Lord.”

Treyni is looking all noble and untouchable with her lofty actions yet not annoying, unlike a certain lizardman. Motes of green light float around her doing nothing but adding to her calming aura, but… I just can't get that image of her nibbling on a meat bun out of my head…

Benimaru- “That’s quite a selfish request from someone who just came out of nowhere, Miss Treyni the Dryad.”

Benimaru protectively steps in front of me and begins questioning Treyni.

Benimaru- “Why have you come here? There are races far stronger than goblins.”

Treyni just smiles and I suddenly get the feeling that I shouldn’t miss what’s going to happen next.

Treyni- “That is true. Well, if the ogre's homeland had been at their full strength, I might have gone there.”

Woah! WOAH! Treyni you savage woman! Calm the fuck down! Woah! Families have died there, you know!? The dead were eaten by orcs! Holy shit.

Treyni- “Well, even if that were the case, I could not have ignored the presence of this one here…”

She concludes by looking right at me. If I remember correctly, the dryads have an information network throughout the whole forest. I guess finding out that I'm pretty strong is child’s play for them.

Well, not like they can find how exactly how strong I am though. Why?

Hahahaha!

… I don’t know how strong I am exactly either…

Anyway, moving on.

Treyni joined the meeting at my request as she continued to explain the situation from her point of view. She is now sitting at a seat between Rigurd and Kaijin nibbling on the meat bun she hid in her sleeve.

Treyni- “The Treants cannot move from location to location, they are rooted in a single spot. Us dryads are also only allowed to interact with the outside world in our spiritual bodies as I am doing right now. If our rather secluded community were to be attacked by the Orc Lord itself, I fear we would not be able to put up a satisfactory defence.”

Rimuru- “But even so, if those orcs are still in the forest, you could work together with the other dryads and overwhelm the orcs, can you not?”

I don’t expect the dryads to take on the whole orc army, but they should be able to catch out the Orc Lord and deal with the source directly, especially if it’s still in the forest.

Treyni just gives me a wry smile.

Treyni- “Unfortunately we have also detected a rather high-level Majin in the forest, pulling the strings behind the scenes. That majin should also be an officer for a Demon Lord, so if we focused on the Ord Lord…”

Mikoto- “You could be sideswiped by the majin, huh…”

Oh, Mikoto is easily keeping up, huh.

Anyway, this means they can't show their hand until they take care of the majin, which is why we need to be the ones to make the first move.

But that majin, it should be Gelato or something. I forgot his name.

<<Gelmud.>>

Oh yes, that should be it. The dude got killed so quickly in the series…

And the Demon Lord working behind him should be… Clayman? That’s his name, yeah.

And he’s also working with another secret organisation to supply those orcs with full-fucking-body armour. Their goal is to cause chaos in the west.

And behind THAT secret organisation is Yuuki Kagurazaka, who also happens to be manipulating Clayman…

Jesus Christ, so much secret shit going on. How did the author even keep track of this all? Lemme guess, Dio is manipulating Yuuki?

???- “Wryyyy…”

*Shiver*

Yeah… let’s not poke that nest…

Treyni- “Honoured Rimuru, I would like to ask you once more to defeat the Orc Lord.”

Treyni stands up and asks me again. I close my eyes and think for a moment.

Having both the lizardmen and dryads in my debt would be a good idea too…

Rimuru- “Daga kotowaru!”

Treyni- “Eh? Why?”

Treyni seems extremely confused. Everyone else is also confused too.

Rimuru- “One of the things I like best is saying “No” to those who think they have an absolute advantage!”

Menacing characters appear out of nowhere, my facial features sharpen as the shading around me becomes more pronounced. Right now, I am god…

Mikoto- “If those orcs eat everything they come across, wouldn’t they also eat all the meat buns too?”

*Ahem*

Rimuru- “I'm joking. Let’s talk strategy now…”

Meanwhile, everyone just looks at me with a deadpan expression as I make a ‘teehee pero~’ expression.

(A/N: MC was gonna accept no matter what, I just added this in for no reason lol.)

Rimuru- “Right, I want to ally with the lizardmen and fight in their home grounds, the marshlands. We’ll take all of the orcs out in one fell swoop once the main force and the separate detachment rejoin back together.”

Soei- “I can quickly travel to the marshlands and speak directly to the lizardmen chief if you wish.”

Rimuru- “Then, can I count on you for that?”

Soei- “Understood.”

Soei bows and disappears after that.

I turn back to look at the map when I hear a mutter from next to me.

Mikoto- “Doesn’t it seem like those lizardmen could get hit from behind pretty easily with how they’re spread out?”

…

Mikoto are you a fucking genius? What am I talking about, of course she is.

My map is highly detailed, showing even the general layout of the armies of both the orcs and lizardmen. Mikoto, looking at how the lizardmen placed their troops, comments on a worry she has.

Mikoto- “Sorry, it’s just a random thought that came to mind. I'm kind of new to this stuff, so…

Hakurou- “No, you might have a point.”

Benimaru- “Mmm. Their lines are reduced thin, and although the orcs won't be able to circle around, if someone could get to their backline, they could catch the lizardmen off guard and easily topple the whole thing. But why? The goblins would have no reason to do this.”

He has a point, the lizardmen placed their troops in a way that makes heavy use of the lizardmen’s natural affinity with the marshlands. But this also makes them vulnerable from the rear. The goblins, who are placed there, have neither the intelligence nor the need to betray the lizardmen. But…

Rimuru- “Don’t you think that this Gabil fellow seems to style himself as a leader a bit too much? He might get a little cocky, and…”

Benimaru nods at my answer, seemingly satisfied.

Mikoto looks over at me and I just smile at her. She just smiles back at me, feeling warm that I defended her hypothesis.

Rimuru- ‘You got all that, Soei?’

Soei- ‘Yes, Rimuru-sama. I will talk to the lizardmen about an alliance while warning them about an attack from behind.’

Soei was still listening in on this meeting through me with [Thoguht Communication]. This is so he won't miss out on anything.

Rimuru- ‘Good. Give me an update when you’re done.’

After saying that, I cut the connection.

Treyni is incredibly happy with what she heard during the meeting.

She turns to me with a smile on her face and thanks me for what I'm doing.

Treyni- “Thank you, Sir Rimuru. I'm sure with this, everything should work out fine.”

Shion- “Of course! Rimuru-sama can easily take care of those pesky orcs!”

Shion hugs me from the side and replies to Treyni in my place. I just smile at her antics.

I know Treyni is actually quite worried about everything, despite how she carried herself. With Veldora’s disappearance, she, or rather, the dryads need a new protector of the forest. And right now, I'm in the top spot on the list for candidates.

This should be interesting.

I think such things while Mikoto and Shuna are trying to pry Shion off me.

-----

Name: Rimuru

Race: Origin Slime

Protection: Crest of Space

Title: Highest Tier Spirit, Leader of the Monsters

Ultimate Skills: [Illya, Heaven's Feel] [Raphael, Lord of Wisdom]

Intrinsic Skills: [Infinite Regeneration] [Universal Shapeshift] [Universal Sense] [Multilayer Barrier] [Enhanced Replication] [Universal Thread]

Unique Skills: [Predator] [Creation] [Rune Master]

Extra Skills: [Lord's Ambition] [Thought Communication] [Control Wind] [Spatial Motion] [Dark Flame] [Control Particles]

Tolerances: [Cancel Pain] [Resist Melee Attack] [Cancel Natural Elements] [Cancel Ailments] [Resist Spiritual Attack] [Resist Holy Attack]