TTIGRAAS: Predator

Chapter 50

The threat was seemingly neutralized despite said threat strolling right beside me.

A nagging voice in the back of my head was calling me mad for personally leading a Demon Lord past the formidable gates of my kingdom, but this opportunity was too valuable for me to heed its warning.

I suppose I was also acting on my gut feeling too, that this Demon Lord held no malice toward me. Even when he was hinting at the idea of eating me, there was no sense of intent to kill. Just a dangling warning not to get in his way, a looming potential threat rather than an inevitable one.

And now there was just a silent, calm, almost distant feeling to Demon Lord Rimuru's demeanor as we walked together.

We passed through the gates and the guards manning it, when suddenly, Rimuru stopped.

I looked back at him and found him staring down one of my guard captains, and surprisingly, the captain was staring back at him.

"Long time no see, Kaido!" Rimuru smiled and waved amiably at the man, causing him to jump slightly, startled.

Muttering to himself, Captain Kaido waved back much less enthusiastically, seeming more stunned and confused than anything.

Rimuru left it at that and closed the distance that had formed between us. I waited until we were out of earshot of the guards to question the interaction he just had.

"You know him?"

"We met once or twice," Rimuru answered casually.

"Mind telling me how you entered my city, then?"

"Through the gate...?" He looked almost jovial. "Maybe fancy-man over here prefers secret tunnels or somethin', but I don't know about 'em."

Rimuru knew about the tunnels, I'd bet my royal jewels on it.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache coming on.

This was going to be a long day.

At least I no longer needed to worry about revealing the existence of the secret royal passages, if this observant Demon Lord was already aware of them. So I led him straight to one, the many tunnels whose existence is known to very few. A royal family secret, only known to me and some of my closest advisors, thought their true extent was known only to I.

Rimuru grinned as I opened the passage with a complex combination of rune activations, seemingly pleased with himself.

"I should've known dwarves would dig tunnels like this," he snickered.

I decided to humor him. "Just like slimes will eat anything you give them?"

Rimuru frowned at that. "I won't just eat anything, okay? I have standards. I've even been called a connoisseur."

I laughed loudly. "By whom, a goblin?"

"Nope. A very obnoxious human."

I knew that tone, that expression. It was not dissimilar to the ones I had to hold back from showing when interacting with those that thought much too highly of themselves.

"Hm... Nobles don't have good taste either."

"What would you know? I bet you'd find a good chunk of granite appetizing."

I almost lost my breath at that; this was the best exchange I'd had in years.

"At least I've never eaten any spiders."

"Hey! That was in self defense!" I could sense that was not entirely true, even though I hadn't even attempted to read his surface thoughts. I was certain he would notice if I did.