It had been a few weeks since Tanya had joined the village. In that time Kaijin and his peers have set to work on improving the town, helping to teach the residents how to make shelter and clothing. Tanya didn’t spend all of her time at the village, often flying off for brief trips to other areas. From what I could tell she was amassing a small fortune by selling off Magic Ore and other rare materials from the forest. Her quick speed in flight proved excellent for selling to a wide range of markets, of which she learned which were more desperate for what. Each region she went to she did so under a different alias, mostly wanting to hide the possibility of anyone deducing that she was able to travel so far so quickly.

 

Despite her master’s frequent trips, Eiga stayed in the village almost at all times, much of that time being spent sparring with Ranga. Since their initial fight, Ranga has learned a few new methods of attack and is now a much more equal rival to Eiga, though for now Eiga maintains her upper hand just from her ability to negate Ranga’s strongest abilities.

 

Despite not taking much part in active development aside from some basic assistance, Tanya almost immediately set about reorganizing and restructuring the entire village’s organization. Within just days a clear hierarchy and chain of command has been established with the de-facto foundation of departments established. As the weeks went on and many of the goblins settled into new jobs, so too were these restructured to accommodate. While I’d personally say I was doing a good job at keeping things organized, Tanya on the other hand seems much more efficient.

 

[Notice: Tanya’s organization is approximately 243% as efficient.]

 

Okay we don’t need to rub it in…

 

Nevertheless it seems Tanya has seen some value in this village, something about vital resources and a strategic location for trade and untapped land or something like that, but frankly it was a lot of rambling I struggled to keep up with.

 

[Notice: Tanya explained that the village sat in a desirable location to establish new, more efficient trade routes among nations, with the vital, untapped land of the Jura Forest being rich in natural resources and developable land, so long as the excess monsters can be properly kept under control.]

 

Yeah, that. It sounds a lot simpler when you explain it, but the way Tanya explained it…

 

[The summary is simplified by approximately 200%]

 

Exactly my point.

 

Regardless, while she does seem intent to make ventures beyond the village, it seems she is willing to reside here primarily, especially since it's somewhere that she doesn’t need to hide the fact that she’s a demon, which came as a shock to Kaijin, though I wouldn’t say he looked exactly surprised.

 

Though I still need to speak with her about Veldora and being an otherworlder. Initially I was hesitant, but after she reveals herself to be a demon, I’ve had no doubts. Or rather, I’ve had no doubts that she was the same demon Veldora told me about, whether or not she’s an otherworlder I’m still unsure of.

 

I currently rested on the top of a hill overseeing the village. It was well enough away from it that our conversation would be private, but close enough that it had a nice view of the village. I had asked Tanya to meet me here so I could discuss her otherworlder status here. The main question was how to bring it up without making the situation strange if she wasn’t actually an otherworlder. In truth I’m partially basing this theory on the fact she somehow didn’t know her own skills when she met Veldora. Either way, as a friend of Veldora’s she deserves to know that I was the one who ate him.

 

After just a few moments Tanya flew down onto the hill. She came in quickly yet landed surprisingly gently as she decelerated rapidly in the last few seconds. After a brief moment of stabilizing herself on the ground she walked towards me and looked down at where I rested. It was a bit strange talking to her from the floor, so I utilized a log I had stored in my stomach to create a platform for me to stand on to be at least somewhat closer to eye-level.

 

Tanya seemed to wait patiently as I did this, however afterwards I decided to not waste anymore time and jumped straight to the point, “Tanya, I wanted to ask, you’re friends with Veldora, Right?”

 

Tanya was startled, and while she didn’t make it obvious that she was, a look at her face showed how shocked she was to see that I knew about Veldora.

 

“How did you-”

 

“You don’t need to worry about it! I’m friends with Veldora as well!” I interrupted, hoping to make sure she didn’t jump to any possibly dangerous conclusions.

 

Tanya still seemed a bit confused, but gradually began to understand the situation, “I see, I take it you’ve eaten him then?”

 

“Eh?! How did you-”

 

“You’re a slime who’s main strength is his ability to eat things and you seem capable of naming numerous monsters without seemingly much strain on yourself or your magicules. When I named Eiga, I had this internal magicule source that was used to name her, I’d imagine Veldora’s magicules allowed you to name all of them without problem in much the same way.”

 

“I suppose when you put it like that… It does seem kind of obvious.”

 

“It doesn’t help that you seemed to appear just after Veldora disappeared, too. I probably would’ve noticed a village of evolved Goblins. I’ve seen some Ogres and Lizardmen, but no Hobgoblins or anything of the sort, so I knew this village was probably newer, or at least the residents had evolved recently.”

 

“Ah, I see… I plan on keeping my connection with Veldora a secret, but he mentioned a demon named Tanya being his friend, so I thought it would only be respectful to inform you about his disappearance.”

 

“My question is why did you eat him? He’s a powerful storm dragon, I doubt he would’ve allowed himself to simply be eaten, and your magicules are nowhere near his so clearly you didn’t fully absorb him.”

 

“Oh no, it's nothing like that! I’m trying to free him!”

 

“You can do that?”

 

“In a few hundred years or so. If I had stayed in that cave to do it, I would’ve gotten bored.”

 

“Understandable. I take it he named you then. I was wondering who would name some random slime they met, though if you were intelligent before that’s a whole other scenario. I don’t recall ever encountering an intelligent slime before, I assumed it was because you evolved from naming.”

 

I shook my head, though it was much more like turning my entire body as I was entirely a head. “No, I was intelligent before. From what I can tell I’m an exception to slimes since I was reincarnated, though I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone. Since we’re both friends of Veldora I thought I could trust you with that secret.”

 

“I see… I suppose I’ll tell you one of my own then, I am also reincarnated. I must ask though, what country are you from? Albion? Legadonia? Ildoa? The Empire?”

 

So she is an otherworlder! But I’ve never heard of any of those countries. Perhaps my aim to meet other Japanese people might be a stretch if there’s people from more worlds than my own sent here. “I’m afraid I’ve never heard of any of those countries. I’m from a country called Japan.”

 

“Japan?! Like Earth?!” Tanya seemed more startled than before. It appears she anticipated me to be from her world, but strangely she seems to know about Earth, too. Has she been reincarnated before? Maybe she’s met other otherworlders who were from that world. 

 

“Yeah! Are you from there as well?” I asked, slouching to the side.

 

“In my first life, yes I was. This is not my first time being reincarnated. I was born in Japan and died before being reincarnated as a little girl in the middle of a World War. What set it apart from Earth was the existence of magic, though it was far from the extent that this world seems to have. From there I died in combat and was reborn here as a demon, though I still seem capable of using some of my old abilities.”

 

“Jeez, that makes my death sound anti-climatic…” I muttered, looking away slightly.

 

“How did you die?” Tanya asked.

 

“I got stabbed.” I replied.

 

Tanya seemed slightly curious, “Like a break in or…?”

 

“No, just in the street.” I answered.

 

“So you got mugged?”

 

“Nope, just stabbed.”

 

Tanya blinked “So someone stabbed you and… Just ran away?”

 

“From what I can tell, yes.”

 

Tanya was now confused, “For what reason?”

 

“None that I know of.”

 

“So some guy just stabbed you for no reason, in the middle of the street, and you just died.”

 

“Correct.”

 

Tanya looked both confused and concerned towards me as I made the slime equivalent of a shrug in her direction, though it looked more like a weird bounce.

 

After a few moments Tanya shook her head and spoke. “Well this has been an interesting conversation, Rimuru, but I believe we should probably handle that situation in the forest.”

 

I looked to where Tanya now pointed with confusion, “Huh? What situation?”

 

“There seems to be a bunch of monsters chasing some people.”

 

[Notice: There appears to be a group of monsters chasing roughly four people]

 

Why didn’t you tell me?!

 

[You were busy and it did not directly impact you]

 

“I see what you’re talking about. You can detect that?”

 

Tanya nodded, “As a mage, you’re trained to always be aware of your surroundings, even in the sky. Your enemy could be above or below you, in front or behind. With Magic Sense and my ability to detect magicules now, I’m able to detect the location of many monsters around me and even when they begin chasing something. Normally I can tell when they’re chasing another monster, but they don’t seem to be chasing beings with much of an aura, implying it's a weak monster or more likely, humans.”

 

“That’s quite a complicated explanation, but I see what you mean, lets go save them!”

 

“Improving our reputation will be vital for establishing trade relationships.”

 

“If that’s how you want to look at it…”

 

Tanya confuses me sometimes…

 

Almost immediately Tanya shot off into the sky. She was likely going to reach the chased group of people first, but I still did my best to catch up, calling over Ranga and charging off into the forest.

---

A large group of giant red ant monsters chased down a party of four humans, all equipped with various types of gear of differing quality. All four of them ran as fast as they could from the oversized beasts, being vastly under equipped to even attempt taking them down.

 

Among them however was an exception, a masked girl donned in a white cloak stopped and turned, pulling out her sword and engulfing it in flames before holding it up and launching a burst of flames towards the closest ants, devouring them into a raging inferno of red, orange, and yellow.

 

As yet another ant launched itself towards her, she leaped forwards, slashing through it before it erupted into a fiery explosion as she dashed to the next. One by one she burnt more of the ants to cinders as the other three, having only just recently met her, watched in shock at her capabilities.

 

In just a few moments, all the ants seemed to be defeated. However as she began to return to the party three more appeared, casting a shadow over the girl as she turned back to face them, ready to defeat them as well before collapsing onto the ground suddenly.

 

Before the ants could seize the opportunity a powerful red beam shot from the sky, completely engulfing the left-most ant inside of it as it created a powerful explosion, completely destroying the ant caught within it. After a split second yet another beam came down, firing upon the right-most ant before finally a massive and bright black lightning strike struck the central ant, destroying it as well before finally leaving the area devoid of any remaining ants.

 

In the chaos, the girl’s mask flew high into the air before slowly falling back down. The girl seemed to finally have recovered from her sudden attack, with the other girl in the party coming to check on her as the rest of the party tried to evaluate what had happened.

 

“What the heck was that?” One asked, holding his dagger as he prepared to attack any other big creature that tried to come after them.

 

“It looked like black lighting.” the other responded, pulling out a sword as well, just as confused as he was.

 

“What about that red beam?” The first one now asked.

 

The second member shook his head, “I have no clue.”

 

“I suppose black lightning is a bit much.” a voice muttered from the cloud of dirt and dust that had formed from the lightning strike.

 

The party turned to face where the voice had come from, only to see a small, blue slime sitting there, the girl’s mask having fallen onto it in the chaos. They all looked confused as they lowered their guard slightly, each muttering “A slime?”

 

The slime held up the mask, inching closer towards them as it spoke, “Yeah, got a problem with slimes?”

 

“Uh no… I just didn’t know slimes could talk…” One of the party members muttered.

 

The slime inched closer with the mask, lifting it up for the girl to take it, “Here miss, this is yours, isn’t it? Sorry about that attack, you weren’t hurt were you?”

 

The girl shook her head and took the mask, “No, I’m alright.”

 

As the party gathered themselves they saw a black-haired girl with black and red eyes descend from the sky, slowly lowering herself onto the ground. In her hands was a strangely-shaped stick of sorts, smoke seemingly emitting from a hole at the end of it.

 

The demon, though not immediately recognizable as one to most, looked over towards Rimuru, “That should be all the monsters. There weren’t any stragglers.”

 

The masked girl froze for a moment at the sight of the demon, shaking her head before she jumped to any unneeded conclusions. The girl had helped save her and that's all that mattered.

---

Rimuru had led the group to their village and assigned Rigurd to grant them temporary housing for the time being while I went out to make sure there were no other monsters running amok near the village. The villagers were strong, and I was confident that even Eiga or Ranga could handle most threats, but it’s best to be safe than sorry. The monsters around the village have usually been mostly calm, or at least those that haven’t have been easy to deal with even by the goblins. Luckily the red ants going crazy seemed to be more the mistakes of those adventurers rather than any sort of trouble in the forest, so I silently returned down to the village where I saw Rimuru bouncing with Rigurd towards where the party had been placed.

 

As I approached Rimuru, he gave a slight wave to me with a blob of slime sticking out from his otherwise almost spherical body before continuing to walk as I joined him. Inside the hut the four could be heard arguing over meat, with Rigurd apparently having given them some since they were hungry. After Rimuru praised him for it, we stepped inside to see the party sloppily eating through all the meat they could with the exception of the masked girl, eating much more neatly and even through her mask.

 

Looking at the mask itself it’s got quite a bit of interesting abilities. It seems able to suppress a large amount of magicules, meaning it could be used to hide one’s aura if necessary. I can do that on my own, but an item like that could be useful, though I’m not a fan of wearing a mask all the time.

 

After a few moments Rigurd spoke up, “Allow me to make introductions. This is our master, the great Rimuru!”

 

The more chaotic three swallowed the food in their mouth before all repeating “Master?”

 

“Got a problem with that?” Rimuru asked.

 

“Uh no…” One of the three muttered.

 

The girl sitting in the back next to the masked one continued, “We knew you were no ordinary slime, but we had no idea…”

 

Rimuru decided he would try to cool down the situation by the strangest means possible, “Nice to meet you! I’m Rimuru the slime! I’m not a bad slime!” Rimuru bounced around in place, tilting himself at the end as I could only stare at him in confusion. I felt like he was referencing something Japanese, but I had no clue what exactly.

 

The masked girl in the back seemed to find it funny, though I’m not sure what the comedic value was. The other three looked back, the girl in the party asking “Shizu?”

 

One of the members of the party bowed where he sat, “We apologize. We did not expect to be saved by a monster, but we do appreciate it.”

 

The girl in the back interjected “Oh, and thanks for the meat!”

 

They seem to appreciate their meats.

 

The other male in the party lowered his head, “Th-Thanks for your help. We didn’t expect to find Goblins building a village here.”

 

“So what brings you all the way out here?”

 

The blonde male in the front spoke first, “I’m Kaval. For what it’s worth, I’m the leader of this party.” He pointed back towards the blonde haired girl behind him, “This is-”

 

“I’m Eren!” the girl interjected.

 

The brown haired man to the side spoke as well, “Hello, I’m Gido. Nice to meet you.”

 

Kaval then pointed to Shizu in the back, “And this is a temporary member who just happened to be going the same way as us.”

 

As I expected. I doubted someone of her skill would intentionally hang around this group of incompetents for longer than necessary. Though that doesn’t explain why that Eren girl is so attached to her.

 

Shizu simply looked up from her food, simply stating her name as “Shizu” before continuing.

 

Kaval continued, “We’re here at the request of the Guildmaster in the Kingdom of Blumund.”

 

Rimuru began to ask him a number of questions, of which Kaval willingly answered all of them. If he was an Imperial Soldier in my last life, he would be removed at best or executed at worst if he was this bad with information. Though to be fair, apart from their personal plans on behalf of the guild in Blumund, it was a lot of information I had already learned through my own travels and information gathering. Rimuru, on the other hand, was not as informed as me, and so I let Kaval do the explaining to Rimuru.

 

As I expected and had figured out, Rimuru’s action to eat Veldora has caused a massive power vacuum to occur within the forest. It seems that the idea of Veldora being completely unable to do anything was not really known. Most seemed to believe that while he was sealed, he was fully capable of retaliation against anyone within the forest. This, the excess of powerful monsters in the forest, and the fact the forest made for a good buffer zone (especially against the Eastern Empire) meant that few nations have bothered to settle in it. Without Veldora, what was believed to be the most dangerous deterrent disappeared. While the monsters are still a problem, without Veldora’s aura, over time they could be cleared.

 

Rimuru seemed to finally be content with the information he obtained, “As you can see we’re in the middle of building a village here, does the guild have any problem with that?”

 

Kaval turned to his party, “I don’t think so, right?”

 

Erin looked upwards in thought, “Yeah. It’s not something they have a say in. What about the country itself?”

 

Gido looked back, “I have no clue myself.”

 

Curious, I interjected, “Does the Kingdom have any intent to settle the forest? For the guild, do they perhaps have any plans to subjugate the monsters within it?”

 

Kaval seemed to think for a moment, “Not that I know of. I’d imagine the Kingdom might be wary of other nations doing it, but I don't think they’d have the force needed to exert themselves here.”

 

Eren spoke up, “The guild has had more missions in and around the forest lately about hunting monsters. Though they hardly go that deep into it, we’re mostly the exception.”

 

Kaval spoke again, “Yeah, most of the quests are about taking down monsters that get too close to the edge and may end up attacking nearby settlements. It’s been happening a lot since Veldora disappeared.”

 

“I see… I appreciate the info. I’ll let Rimuru handle the rest.” I turned and left the room as I contemplated the information.

 

The other nations settling the Jura Forest was something I anticipated to happen eventually, but the fact that Blumund, a relatively smaller nation without the actual funds or military force to subjugate much of the forest is already sending out adventurer scouts has me worried. It’s also possible that this is merely the Guild’s will rather than the nation’s. The Guild almost certainly has the force to keep at least parts of the forest under control. Had it been for the fact I’m not entirely trusting of it, I would’ve considered using my skills to become a high-ranking adventurer, however I’d like to avoid conflict (even easy conflict) when possible.

 

Ultimately I think the possibility the guild did it at the request of the nation is most likely. When I explored the Guilds of the bordering nations, I learned that the Guildmaster of the Blumund Guild is relatively close to the King. It's what ultimately makes the Guild in Blumund so successful compared to nations like Falmuth where it seems certain financial affairs have caused some minor conflicts.

 

After a bit of attending to Eiga I found Rimuru again on the hill with Shizu holding him. It seems they were having a conversation. Curious, I walked up just in time to see Rimuru projecting an illusion of sorts. It was made in a way that only those close enough to it could see it. As I approached it seemed I caught a glimpse of what he was showing before, though I didn’t quite make out the details. From the blur that I saw I have a feeling I didn’t.

 

As it changed it showed a picture of Japan from after World War II and the bombing raids. I recognized it as I had seen the exact image during my first life, not to mention the sty;e of the houses that remained were undeniably Japanese. As I approached from the side I looked towards Rimuru asking, “World War II?”

 

Rimuru nodded, “Ah right, Tanya. Shizu Tanya is also an otherworlder who was reincarnated like me. She seemed to reincarnate not long before I did.”

 

“It’s nice to meet you. I had no idea you were Japanese.” Shizu said.

 

“It's alright. This is my third life, in my second life I was the equivalent of German.”

 

“You were reincarnated as a Demon, correct?” Shizu asked, surprisingly spot on. I wasn’t necessarily hiding my appearance in the village or around the adventurers, but my form wasn’t necessarily enough to cause one to assume it was demonic at first glance.

 

Nodding, I replied, “Yes. How could you tell?”

 

“Oh, I've interacted with Demons before. Your appearance and presence reminded me of one.”

 

I fear I may know who she’s talking about.

 

“What's with the image though, Rimuru?” I asked

 

“Shizu was summoned unlike us. She was summoned during the fire raids on Japan back in World War II.”

 

“I see… That’s the worst part of war. When soldiers fight, they go in expecting to die. They may not have chosen the war, but for many of them, they chose to fight. Even those who didn’t get to choose still understood what they were getting into. Civilians though, they didn’t know, and they didn’t have a choice. It's a bit hypocritical coming from me, but war is the biggest waste of human resources ever devised.”

 

Rimuru seemed to do the slime-equivalent of nodding, “I’m not so sure on the phrasing, but I agree.”

 

Rimuru turned back to the image as it continued to go from one image to another, showing the growth of Japan from its burnt ruins after the war to a bustling east-asian economic powerhouse. Frankly the whole process was a marvel of economic might. To so quickly turn from a militaristic nation hellbent to do nothing but expand to a burnt hellhole into one of the world’s strongest economies (even with a bit of help from an economic superpower) was certainly a marvel.

 

Shizu stared in awe at the images, with me standing a good distance away, understanding that this was much more of Rimuru’s and Shizu’s interaction originally.

 

Eventually an aerial view of Tokyo appeared, Shizu looking in awe, “It’s like the skyscrapers of New York that I saw on a postcard once.”

 

Rimuru explained, “After the war ended, peace came to Japan. The towns and the economy all boomed.”

 

“I see… I’m so glad. I wish I could have shown my mother this.”

 

“I want to make this world one where everyone can live in peace, too.”

 

“That’s wonderful. I hope it really happens.”

 

It's an admirable dream, Rimuru, but it's bound to fail. Though… In this world that seemed to defy all reason… Perhaps it's possible. A world with peace is a world that will only know growth. No more setbacks, no more wasted materials, a world where prosperity and progress is the main focus. It's certainly a dream to have. Regardless of how unrealistic it seems, it's something to strive for. It also means I won’t be thrown into another war, which is an added bonus.

 

Shizu suddenly collapsed again, the illusion disappearing as she dropped Rimuru. Quickly I looked to analyze the situation.

 

I see… So that’s what it is.

 

I wasn’t quite fluent in Elementals, but I was able to detect that she had one inside of her. On one hand, when controlled, it gave her a lot of power, on the other hand, it didn’t seem to like being controlled. I’d try to help, mostly for my own safety, but there’s not much I can do. I can’t fully tell the true extent of the spirit’s power while Shizu is holding it back, so for all I know it could far overpower me. Elementals are strong against Demons. Elementals, Demons, and Angels have a sort of rock-paper-scissors game with each other, and while this does give me a favorable advantage against any ‘angels’ Being X may have if he ever returns, it does mean Elementals are quite strong against me.

 

After a few seconds the Elemental seemed to be calmed, but it seemed each attempt to sooth it left her slightly weaker against it. Given enough time she may be unable to stop it. It would be in our best interests if we don’t prolong her stay here.

 

“Are you okay?” Rimuru asked, concerned.

 

“I think so.” Shizu replied, placing the mask on her face which seemed to help stabilize the elemental further.

 

From behind Kaijin approached, smirking at the sight of Rimuru and Shizu together, “Hey Rimuru, got a minute? I need your thoughts on planning out the next few houses.”

 

Rimuru nodded, “I’ll see you later Shizu. Oh and Kaijin, I’ll meet you there, there’s one last thing I wanted to talk with Tanya about.”

 

I stood behind as Shizu and Kaijin went off to their own areas, Rimuru looking up at me as he spoke, “Tanya I was wondering, how long do you intend to stay here?”

 

“What do you mean?” I responded.

 

“You’ve been quite the help to the village. I mean just look at how much more organized they are now! To tell you the truth, this leadership position has sort of been flung upon me. While I can delegate more roles to them, they don’t seem much experienced either. You on the other hand are quite experienced as it seems. I was hoping that perhaps you and I could work together to grow this village.”

 

I thought for a moment. His proposal made sense, Rimuru was a competent leader, and a decent organizer. It’s clear that in his past life he was most certainly a contributing member of society, but he falls short in some areas, and I’m increasingly worried on how he would function diplomatically. I still have aims and ambitions in other areas, but with my ability to fly, going between them isn’t that difficult.

 

“I will say, this village is in a very valuable position as I’m sure I’ve told you. If we play our cards right, we could build ourselves to not only be a major center of trade, but also the founding homeland of a new modern era.”

 

“That’s… very ambitious, but your use of the word ‘we’ means…?”

 

“Correct, I will stay here and help you. I respect you as competent enough, but everyone has their shortcomings. I’ll have you know I still have plans beyond this forest, so there will come times that I cannot be here, but for the sake of providing a foundation for this world’s modernization, I shall help you forge a nation.”

 

“A nation?! Aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves?”

 

“Perhaps I am, but forming a nation is an inevitable step towards becoming a central trading hub, which itself is essential to spread modernization to this world”

 

“It seems we are in agreement then. Since you are a friend of Veldora, I will offer you our shared name.”

 

“Shared name?”

 

“When he named me, he asked for me to create a ‘family name’ of sorts which he adopted. Don’t worry about magicules or anything, this doesn’t seem to count as proper naming in the same way normal names do.”

 

“If this is what will cement our alliance, then sure.”

 

“If you want to call it that, then sure. From now on you will be Tanya Tempest, the co-leader of this village!”

 

“I will take on the name Tempest, and together, let us create a new modern, peaceful world like the one we have left behind!”