[INDEF. HIATUS] Regrets and Wishes: One More Chance

Chapter 14 - Meeting of Two Kings

UPDATE 2/25: Please read the afterword after finishing this chapter.

~~~

第14章　王である二人の会議

(Rimuru's Perspective)

The lunch has been finished. I, Ciel, and Gazel are now sitting on our respective chairs surrounding a circular table within a room dedicated for an important talk.

(A.N., I'm deeply sorry for this. I really can't get any idea how to write down a lunch scene :P)

"Then, let's get down to our business, shall we?" King Gazel says. "So, I heard that you wanted to recruit some craftsmen. Is that true?"

"Yes, that is true," I answer.

"I also heard that you wanted to recruit the craftsmen to come to your village and teach their crafts to the villagers there. Is that true, too?"

"Yes, it is."

"Would you mind to explain a bit about your village?"

"Deep inside the Great Forest of Jura," I explain, "we are currently building a village of hobgoblins and direwolves. It's still a small, humble village, really. But someday, more people from many different races will come and fill our village, and our small village will eventually grow into a great country of monsters."

"'Country of monsters', you say? It sounds menacing yet strangely fascinating. So, may I take it to mean that you two are actually monsters?"

"You may. We never said a word about it to anyone, but I and Ciel are actually slimes, kind of."

In this new timeline, I assume my humanoid form much more often. So far, I only showed my true form, my slime form, once at that night after the battle against the direwolves. And even then, almost no one but Ciel and a few peeping hobgobs who saw it.

"Slimes?" He nearly chokes on his tea. He quickly puts his cup on the table. "With that kind of power?"

I change form into my slime form and hop onto my seat. "Yep, this is my true form."

"So, you are really slimes." He looks at me observantly. "But I see that your body diameter is way too big for a typical slime."

He quickly spotted anything weird with me being a 'slime', huh? He really is a clever fellow, I admit. He doesn't immediately judge someone just from one aspect, unlike those 'fools' who thought I must've been weak no matter what after knowing that I was a slime.

Using the freedom [Universal Shapeshift] gave me, I made my current slime form to be forty centimetres in diameter so that I can still "sit" on the chair. My true slime form would have a diameter of around seventy to eighty centimetres.

"Well, that is why I add 'kind of' at the end of my sentence. Our 'true' size would have a diameter of seventy to eight centimetres. We are not exactly slimes per se. But, well, it is not something worth pursuing right now." I return to my humanoid form.

"Still...if you go around and tell people that you are some kinds of slimes, will it not make people look down at you?"

He can deduce the possibilities just from a few given conditions. He is still as terrifying as ever.

I let out a sigh. "You are right in that case. I cannot recall just how many times had I been looked down at since then just because I was a slime. Not that I mind them too much, though, since I ignore them most of the time."

"Heh, I expected as much. Ah, sorry for this out-of-context talk and how about we move to our real talk?"

"Right," I say, changing my tone into a more serious one. "So, I hope we can forge a diplomatic relationship with your country. We would like a right for technology exchange between us, especially regarding Kaijin and the three dwarven brothers. With their help, I am certain we will be able to accelerate the development of our country. I understand that we ask too much when we and you have only met this once. But from that, your country will gain benefits, too. For example...."