Time passed and Trewy finally got a short tour of Tempest.

But the town was huge, with now almost 100000 inhabitants it would take weeks to explore everything. And that was without the new people coming into town almost daily. No, Trewy changed her mind. No matter how much time she would spend here. With all the different races and histories they bring, even a century wouldn't be enough. And that was only if the town suddenly stopped growing.

Unfortunately, the tour was different than she had planned. They moved just a few streets away. And what she learned was entirely about food. Apparently Veldora was not interested in anything else. At every stall they came to he took something. He even paid for it. Trewy wondered how much money Rimuru gave him. Even though most of the vendors at the stalls insisted on not wanting any money from him, Veldora paid anyway, but Trewy was sure that he got everything at a much lower price than the other customers.

Ramiris lay on Trewy's head the whole time. She still hadn't recovered from her cookies and was sleepy. Even to the food that Veldora stuffed into himself she did not react. The same was true for Trewy. The cupcakes were too much and just the thought of eating more.... Only Veldora had no problem with that. Actually, Trewy would have preferred to go with Nemu on this tour. It was nice to see new places, but with Veldora it was all about food.

"Oh..." Said Veldora and stopped. The sun had almost set. "Rimuru is back."

Before that, she had heard from Veldora that Rimuru was going with Nemu to the newly built slime village. Apparently Veldora and Rimuru are connected and could use telepathy. 

"Whaaaat" Ramiris was suddenly wide awake. "I have to go. I'll see you in the maze. See you in a week!" And then she flew away at an incredible speed. Trewy had no idea what it was all about. Didn't she want to see Rimuru? Somehow she felt she shouldn't mention that Ramiris was here.

And so they went back to the main building of Tempest. It must look even stranger to walk through the city with a dragon than with a red slime, Trewy thought. The looks of the people around them confirmed it.  

It was the second time Trewy entered the big building today. But this time it was different. Even when she had left it was much more busy. Now it was quiet. Nobody was to be seen. Veldora saw that Trewy was a bit surprised and explained.

"Rimuru has introduced something called working hours." Something that was completely unknown to the monsters in the forest. They worked when there was work to be done. "At 4 pm the official work ends and most people leave the building. But some still stay if they have work to do. However, as soon as the sun goes down everyone has to leave the building. Only the residents and some servants are allowed to be here. One day a week, no one is allowed to enter the building."

Trewy nodded, grateful for the explanation. Some people live here and it must be troublesome to see people running through their building all day. So to have peace at least in the evening, Rimuru had decided to kick the rest of the workers out of the building. She thought that was good. And finally she had time to look at the building.

The entrance room looked just as pompous as the great hall in which they had dined before. For such a great nation, it was probably important to have a good reputation. Trewy was particularly impressed by the shiny marble floor, not a speck of dust was to be seen on it, although countless people were walking around here just an hour ago. She had no idea how that worked.

They went to the second floor. Not to Nemu's room this time. Trewy didn't know where exactly, but she followed Veldora until they stopped in front of a large door. Besides the door at the entrance of the hall, it was the largest she had seen so far inside the building.

Without knocking, Veldora opened the door.

Two slimes were sitting on couches. One blue slime and one red slime. Without question, Nemu and Rimuru. They looked at the two intruders. Veldora had a big smile on his face.

Trewy looked at the room. Here, too, everything looked very luxurious. Two large sofas separated by a table, expensive decorations in the wood on the walls and a large desk made of sturdy wood. This had to be Rimuru's office, Trewy thought to herself. What was also noticeable were the missing slime figures in the room. There were no statues or paintings of slimes on the walls. If this is the room where Rimuru works, Trewy understood. It would be strange to see pictures of himself everywhere. Even outside, it must be strange to walk past statues of yourself all the time.

"Welcome back! Have you sorted out your slime business?" Veldora asked aloud.

"Yes." Said Rimuru, nodding.

Trewy looked at Rimuru. She immediately recognized that he was no ordinary slime. She had seen him briefly before leaving Tempest, but they hadn't spoken, so she thought it right to introduce herself.

"Nice to meet you, Master Rimuru." She said after a bow. "I'm Trewy."

"Ohh, please drop the Master and the bows, you are not my subordinate." Actually, the other dryads did the same. And he didn't mind. But for Rimuru, Trewy looked too young for the acting. Trewy nodded, Veldora had said the same thing.

There were three people Trewy would address as master. Obviously, the first was Ramiris. As the queen of the fairies, Trewy was indeed her subordinate and she couldn't help it if Ramiris asked her to. It was in her nature. The second was Veldora, as the protector of the forest he was for the dryads and the inhabitants for centuries, the dryads were loyal to him. The third and last one was Rimuru. He is now the leader of the Jura Forest and has been recognized by Veldora, Ramiris and the dryads.

"Please sit down. Where have you been?" Asked Rimuru. Veldora sat down next to Rimuru on the sofa and Trewy next to Nemu. For some inexplicable reason, Trewy patted Nemu's slime body after she sat down. Why did she just do that ? She was not the only one confused by this, Veldora, Rimuru and Nemu also looked at her confused. Trewy blushed but then ignored it.

"I showed her the city!" Said Veldora then. With a proud look on his face.

"So did you show her the nearest food stalls?" It wasn't really a question. Apparently, this wasn't the first time Veldora had shown someone around town. 

"Of course! After all, it's the best thing about Tempest!" Said Veldora loudly and laughed.

So that's how it is, Trewy thought to herself and nodded to Rimuru.

"Hmm..." Rimuru mused. "Maybe I can find a better guide for you."

"What, there's no better guide than me." Said Veldora, obviously offended. 

"We don't need anyone to guide us through the city." It was Nemu who said it.

Trewy agreed. They were still on an adventure. Even in Tempest and someone to show and explain everything to them, it would be.... boring. That's what she thought. There was so much in the town they wanted to find out for themselves. Actually, they had planned to start today. But it had all taken a little longer than planned. 

"Okay." Rimuru just shrugged it off. It was their decision. Besides, there were few who knew the town well enough to take a tour, he should definitely work on that. Maybe he should work on a tour guide?

"How did it go with the red slimes?" Trewy then asked. She really would have liked to be there. She also really wanted to see the slime village. Nemu was worried it wouldn't be ready yet, but if they were already back here, it must have gone well. Nemu confirmed.

"It went very well! The slime village was already finished and I took them there. It should be safe there, but.... The houses all have a slime shape." Said Nemu, still not sure what to make of it.

Trewy giggled. After what she had seen today, it didn't surprise her. A village for slimes with slime houses? That was a good fit for Tempest. Still...

"Are the slimes okay?" Trewy asked worriedly, the last time she had seen them was in the slime cave. And they were anything but fine there.

"I think so. They're already better and they should recover from this." Explained Nemu. "Besides, they're not going to split. It's interesting, but apparently they lose the ability to divide after they pass a certain point of magicules. And in my dimensional space, they didn't split."

"That's great!" Trewy said excitedly. She knew that red slimes also split and then become blue slimes. But if they stay red slimes now they will have plenty of time. "So you'll just have to eat them and they'll stay red slimes!"

"I don't eat them! I absorb them in my dimensional space and I don't have a stomach!" Nemu said loudly. She was still having fun making fun of his skill.

"Isn't that like eating something?" Veldora asked casually. Trewy nodded and failed to suppress her grin. Even Rimuru had to laugh. He had a similar skill, but no one had ever made fun of that.

"It's not." Said Nemu and puffed, avoiding their glances.

"By the way, what do you have planned next?" Rimuru asked with interest.

"Well, first of all we want to spend some time in Tempest, but the reason we are actually back is.... we want to become stronger. We had a lot of trouble in the forest and couldn't help ourselves. So we decided to go back. Even before we reached the slime cave." Nemu explained.

Rimuru obviously knew about the incident in the demon castle and the rabbit tribe. Nemu even told him about the slime cave. Also not very detailed. And he agreed with them, they will run into trouble again and if they don't get stronger, it might won't end up good. Honestly, so far they were lucky.

"And how will you get stronger?" Rimuru asked with interest.

"We planned to get a spirit. I probably won't get any combat skills and that would be a big help."

"Oh." Rimuru had an idea. "Then you should talk to Ramiris. There's a place in their labyrinth, if there's a place you can get a Spirit it's there. However, I haven't heard from her in a while."

"We already d..." Nemu started to say but got interrupted by Veldora.

"That's a formidable idea! You guys should definitely talk to Ramiris! Unfortunately, she hasn't been to Tempest in a long time, so I guess you'll have to look for her first!" Said Veldora loudly but he couldn't hide his nervousness.

Rimuru looked at him. If Veldora was acting like this, he was hiding something.... 

Nemu understood what was going on. Rimuru should not know that Ramiris was in Tempest, even if he did not know the reasons. Veldora was her friend, so if Rimuru found out, he would be punished too. Obviously, Trewy would never betray Ramiris and Nemu.... He really wanted to have a spirit. So he played along. However, Trewy spoke first.

"I'm sure my sisters know where Ramiris is at the moment! I will ask them later. Thanks for the help, Rimuru! We'll definitely do it that way." She said frantically. Even Nemu joined the conversation.

"That's a great idea! We should definitely ask the Fairy Queen if we want a Spirit!" 

Rimuru sighed. Something was up. But did he really want to know? Probably not. So he didn't ask any more questions.

"Okay. If the dryads know where she is then all is well." He decided to end the topic with that.

Everyone nodded in agreement. Even Nemu. Or... he wobbled, as he always did when he tried to nod. In such situations he often forgot that he still hadn't finished his nod training...

And as always... everyone started laughing. Only Nemu turned away from the small group, ashamed.

The conversation came to an end. However, before they decided to part ways.

"Trewy, I need to talk to you about something else." Said Rimuru.

"Me too." Said Trewy then, to Rimuru's surprise.

"Okay... you first."

"I... want to ask you a favor." Said Trewy, stuttering as he did so.

Rimuru was surprised. Actually, that was exactly what Rimuru wanted to talk to her about too. 

She had done a lot of good for Tempest. As a dryad, it was her job to protect the forest, but she had done much more. Yesterday, Rimuru had spoken with Kumo and she brought very, very valuable silk. Without question, Tempest would benefit from it. 

And also... The Demon Castle Incident. Even though it wasn't his fault, he still felt responsible. And saving the Harpies would ensure a good relationship with Frey. He owed her something. 

However, he didn't know what to give a dryad. So for now he decided to offer Trewy a room in the building. It may have seemed like a small favor, but in fact the building was almost full of important representatives from many countries and the leaders of various races. Plus, of course, the leaders of Tempest and special guests like Veldora.

So about that Trewy actually had a request to him, he was glad.

"A favor?" Rimuru asked with interest.

"Treyni told me that she was at the meeting of the demon kings. And actually dryads can't leave the forest. So I asked her how that was possible and she said you did it. Even though she herself didn't understand how it was possible."

Rimuru now knew what she was going to ask.

"Please, make me a real body!"