Singularity (Rimuru x Arifureta)

Chapter 12 | Homecoming

"...Rimuru-sama, what are we doing in the sewers?"

"Why did you come? And stop with the honorifics, it's creeping me out."

"Well... I had nothing to do so I thought it best to see what you were doing. Especially after you just put a hole in the middle of the street without warning whatsoever."

"You ignored my second sentence."

We had this kind of conversation, me and Tio, as we walked through the dirty and dark sewers under the streets of Fuhren. In the end, curiosity got the best of me, and I decided to check out the kid.

After a little bit more walking, we arrived at a current of waste, and in it is... well, a kid, as I thought. She was conspicuously struggling for dear life, half-conscious and half alive.

"Is that...!?" Tio gasped in surprise as she hurriedly used wind magic to get the kid out, while I stood by.

"She's a merfolk, after all."

"Is she the reason you went all the way down here?"

"Not her in general but the reason of why she's here."

"I see..."

I healed her wounds, but she was still unconscious, so Tio took her in for the time being while we strolled through the streets once again. We decided to buy her some clothes on the way. Tio did, but I paid for it anyway. But why me? Anyway, I can handle it, so I just let it slip by.

As I was chomping probably the 69th food I had, the merfolk regained consciousness. Tio hurriedly ran over to a place with no crowds, and I followed her.

She picked a little shack near the river outside the town and began to wash her there.

I was waiting in a chair outside when they finally finished.

"So... let's start with your name. Rimuru's mine, by the way. I'm sure you already know the woman in front of you." I said while sitting on the chair.

"...I'm Myu." She replied, her voice still shaking. "I'm supposed to be in a place called Erisen."

"Erisen?"

"It's the merfolk town built on the waves, over on the far side of the desert Even a merchant caravan would spend weeks getting from there to here. How'd you end up down those sewers?" Tio interjected as she gently dried Myu's hair with a towel.

In short, she was supposedly swimming with her mother along the coast, but the next instant, she was nowhere to be found.

She began to look for her when some humans who found her kidnapped her and brought her to a place she'd never been or seen.

After that...

"Rimuru-sam—Rimuru-san, do you think...?"

"Yeah, it's slave trading stuff."

"There were a bunch of other kids my age there, but..." Myu continued. "They all went away... the man said he sold them."

"Slave auctions... if they're selling children, then it must've been a black-market auction at that."

"I was just about to be taken away, too... but I heard a nearby water nearby, so... and then I woke up here..."

"Poor thing... you must've been through a lot." Tio embraced Myu as the kid sobbed uncontrollably.

"I see... then, since she's a merfolk, we can drop her by the peace-keeping bureau." After I said that, the kid, Myu, visibly flinched.

Wasn't as interesting as I imagined. I thought there'd be some big wheels behind the circumstances, but she seemed average. I had views of her being the daughter of some big shot like a pirate king who ruled the seven seas for decades, but I didn't know why I had that kind of expectation in the first place. Expectations lead to disappointments, indeed.