In any case, everything is over and done with. The Chaos Dragon died and got revived as Gaia, Milim is happy, Illya is satisfied with her work, and I'm tired as fuck.

I'm not actually tired, but this is what any lazy man says when they just wanna sit down cos they don’t wanna do anything anymore. I used this excuse all the time in my old world.

“Hey son, help me change the lights!”

I'm tired.

“Hello, you need to work today this is the third time you didn’t show up this week.”

Too bad, I'm tired.

“OH MY GOD SOMEONE JUST GOT STABBED CALL AN AMBULANCE!”

Yep, you guessed it, I'm tired.

Stabbing someone saps the energy out of you, after all…

I'm joking.

(A/N: He’s not, send help.)

Rimuru- “Right, let’s go home.”

I open a portal leading out of the Mirror Dimension back to my home in Avalon.

Illya- “Mmm, I'm tired…”

Milim- “Me too…”

The two lolis walk through the portal while stretching and yawning. Unlike me, they seem to be genuinely tired. Illya had to recover a soul that was soaked in malice and hate for thousands upon thousands of years while Milim went through a rollercoaster of emotions.

I follow them through the portal and find Milim flopping onto the couch face-first with her arms stretched in front of her head, still holding Gaia’s egg.

Illya, however…

Illya- “*Sniff**Sniff*… I smell cookies.”

And so she proceeded to march off in the direction of the kitchen where the smell originated from.

… I seem to have forgotten that for Illya, whose mental prowess is among the highest if not THE highest in the entire world, recovering a soul that was soaked in negative emotions for thousands of years is a walk in the park for her…

Mikoto- “E-eh? Illya? You’re back already!? … W-wait! Don’t touch those! Those are for- AAH! Don’t eat them!”

I hear Mikoto’s panicked voice coming from the kitchen and I can immediately tell that she baked some cookies and Illya is requisitioning them for herself.

I'm jealous.

Mikoto comes rushing out of the kitchen clutching something to her chest. She looks back at the kitchen and then sighs in relief.

Rimuru- “Oh hey Mikoto.”

Mikoto- “Rimuru!”

She snaps her head in my direction, seemingly a little startled.

Rimuru- “Hai, Rimuru-desu.”

She quickly hides the thing she was holding to her chest behind her and takes a couple of steps back.

Mikoto- “W-w-what are you doing here?”

She asks me with a small tremble in her voice and an awkward smile. An embarrassed blush sneaks onto her cheeks.

Rimuru- “Oh, you know, just standing…”

I can see Mikoto just die inside from my response.

Rimuru- “So have you finished what you needed to do?”

I remember Mikoto saying she needed to do something with Shuna so she couldn’t join the Chaos Dragon Recovery Expedition.

Mikoto- “Yeah, s-something like that. Aha… ahahaha…”

She nervously laughs while avoiding my eyes.

Hmm… Did I do something? No, she’s not angry nor is she ignoring me… Did she do something then? And she doesn’t want me to find out…

That seems more probable. That still doesn’t seem exactly right though…

Think, Rimuru, think!

If this was an anime, what would this situation be?

I'm pretty sure Mikoto likes me, so if she’s acting like this, then…

Rimuru- “Oh!”

I tap my fist into my palm in a eureka moment.

Rimuru- “You have a gift for me?”

I mean, this situation is basically screaming something like this, so…

Mikoto- “W-w-w-w-HAAA!? No I don’t!”

And since she’s tsundere, that’s practically an upfront admission.

Of course, since she’s a tsundere, I can't keep pushing her lest she just runs away, so I have to put on a small act.

Rimuru- “Oh, is that so…”

I become ‘disheartened’ and look down with a sad expression.

Mikoto- “Eh? U-uh, what I mean is that-“

I hold up my hand to stop her and act all dramatic. I shake my hand while closing my eyes and use my other hand to touch my forehead.

Rimuru- “Aah! It’s ok! I understand! It was just a random thought of mine, pay it no heed.”

I turn around and begin walking away. Through [Universal Sense], I can see Mikoto struggle with something. She opens her mouth before shutting it, looking towards the ground, gritting her teeth, shaking her head and doing that all over again.

Eventually, however, she calls out to me.

Mikoto- “Wait, Rimuru!”

About god damn time, I'm almost out the door and I was walking so fucking slowly too.

She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and opens them again. I turn around and I focus on those strangely alluring tea-coloured eyes.

She holds out one of the arms she was hiding behind her back. In her hand is a small brown paper bag.

The teasing smile I had on my face disappears, replaced with a genuinely curious expression.

The bag is small, as I mentioned before. It’s only the size of a fully outstretched hand and it seems pretty light too. This genuinely makes me interested. What should she be so hung up about?

(A/N: I'm re-reading this paragraph and it kind of makes MC sound like an asshole who can't appreciate a gift. It’s not that, I swear, he’s just genuinely curious.)

Mikoto- “A-a-a lot of things happened. You helped me take care of Accelerator and the Sisters back in my old world, and I came over to this world, so we’re even on that end… but… Not for everything else…”

I tilt my head. What is she talking about?

Mikoto- “You helped me get so much stronger. You taught me about this world, you showed me how to use magicules, you gave me my bracelet, you let me stay with you… I get to discover so many things about this world with you too. You… gave me a new life in this new world. And I… I didn’t do anything in return…”

She lowers her head at the end. On her face is a downcast expression.

Huh… now that I think about it, I did lots of things for her. But still…

Rimuru- “I never expected anything in return.”

I never did. Sure, there was the occasional lap pillow, or Mikoto carrying me around, and a few other things. To me, that makes up for it all.

This is why I called myself a simp.

Mikoto- “I-I know that! I know you only did everything out of your own volition! So… I'm doing this out of my own volition too!”

She storms her way forward and grabs my wrist. She then pulls my hand towards her and drops the bag into my open palm before letting go.

I look up towards a heavily blushing Mikoto before looking back down at the bag in my hand. Slowly, I open it, and…

Inside are a bunch of neatly packed cookies.

I take one out and bite it.

*Crunch!*

Rimuru- “… You made these?”

My eyes widen in surprise.

Mikoto isn’t bad at cooking. Her aptitude for cooking is just average. It’s just that… well… she’s practically never touched an oven in her life. She just doesn’t cook.

It’s not like she hates cooking either, it’s just that there’s so much good food around her that she would rather eat that than make something that she knows is going to be subpar.

Did she learn how to make these with Shuna? Is that why they disappeared together?

Mikoto shyly looks down while touching her two fingers together. She looks up at me and nervously asks with a small expecting smile.

Mikoto- “… H-how is it?”

Now, I can lie here and say that it’s the best cookie in my life, or…

Rimuru- “It’s… average.”

Mikoto looks down again, losing her smile. It seems she wasn’t expecting that answer.

I'm sorry to say, but that’s the truth. Just because your crush made it doesn’t automatically make all food appetizing. That’s just how it is.

But…

Rimuru- “But… it’s delicious.”

Mikoto looks back up at me with a surprised expression. I toss the rest of the cookie into my mouth and smile at her.

Rimuru- “It’s got this spark, you know?”

Mikoto immediately understands what I'm talking about. I've explained it to her before.

I don’t know why, but I can feel these sparks in some things. They always appear whenever someone does something wholeheartedly.

Kurobe’s weapons always have this spark. It causes his weapons to ‘click’ with their user. Shuna’s food also has this spark. Heck, even the targets Soei uses for target practice has this spark. It’s not that he made the targets wholeheartedly, it’s just that he practices hitting them wholeheartedly.

The things I create using [Ahura Mazda] don’t have this spark though, since I never put any effort into making it. The only thing I made that has this spark is Yamato.

Still, these sparks are quite rare. They only reliably appear around people close to me.

And for Mikoto… this is the first spark I've seen from her ASIDE from her electrical sparks.

And that just makes these cookies all the more delicious.

Mikoto- “I-I see…”

Mikoto smiles and fidgets a little. Her face is flushed but she doesn’t notice nor do I care.

However, her tsundere personality reveals itself again as she snaps out of it and crosses her arms in front of her chest as she closes her eyes and turns her head away.

Mikoto- “D-don’t misunderstand! I just don’t like owing people things… so… I guess… I wouldn’t mind making more cookies for you… just every now and then…”

Typical tsundere. But I still love her for it.

Rimuru- “Umu! I'm looking forward to it!”

Meanwhile, Illya is in the kitchen stuffing her face with leftover cookies. Shizu appears from out of nowhere using her bullshit cat powers and joins her.

-----

Name: Rimuru

Race: Origin Slime

Protection: Crest of Space

Title: Highest Tier Spirit, Leader of the Monsters, Onii-chan, King of Avalon, Master of Headpats, Procrastinator King, The Nutcracker

Manas: [Manas: Illyasviel]

Ultimate Skills: [Belzebuth, Lord of Gluttony] [Ahura Mazda, Lord of Creation] [Scathach, Lord of Runes]

Unique Skills: [Spatial Ruler]

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

Extra Skills: [Lord's Ambition] [Thought Communication] [Control Natural Elements] [Control Magic] [Control Gravity]

Resistances: [Cancel Pain] [Resist Melee Attack] [Cancel Natural Elements] [Cancel Ailments] [Resist Spiritual Attack] [Resist Holy/Demonic Attack]

Equipment: Yamato, [Raphael] Skill Orb, Limiter Ring