TTIGRAAS: Predator

Chapter 51

I spent an entire week in my cave without speaking a single word to anyone, but that doesn't make me a shut-in, okay?! Slimes don't even usually talk, so this was perfectly acceptable behavior.

But just because I said nothing didn't mean nothing was said to me. It seemed like every damn day this dryad would be here asking me for something, but really I'm just one slime.

I was beginning to feel like the forest was too much responsibility, and one I didn't want to deal with.

"We need to reinforce our borders, while you being a demon lord has created an air of danger in the forest once more, brave humans have still tried to encroach more than once." Yeah yeah, I got it.

She was saying that my threat to that one guy wasn't enough, I needed more than one rumor to scare the humans off, especially if I wanted them to actually stay away from my house.

"I understand," I finally gave her some sort of answer.

She just stared at me for a long moment after I said that, like she was expecting more from me, but I didn't have anything else to give her. As long as it was just a few rag-tag groups of humans, I planned on just letting nature take care of them. The Jura Forest is a dangerous place, after all. Them getting cocky just because it was under new management now didn't change that fact.

I knew she wouldn't leave if I didn't say something else. "As long as I deal with the powerful ones that'll actually pose a problem, the rest should just sort themselves out."

Treyni didn't seem to like that.

"Lord Rimuru–"

"Didn't I tell you to stop calling me that!?" All that formality when mixed with her nagging just rubbed me the wrong way.

Man, I would love to just make some powerful regional monsters to deal with this stuff for me... I had a feeling I'd be too tempted to eat them if I did though. The stuff in my cave was already tempting and I'd really just been screwing around.

I wasn't making anything to deal with serious threats.

Maybe moderation would help there, I just needed stuff that wasn't too tempting and also could deal with some of the adventurers I'd met if it came to that.

Some of them were pretty strong, some could even hurt me. Like that demon hunter from my first job... What was his name? I really didn't remember anymore, even if he'd been a big help.

He'd helped me find a great meal...

I wondered how I could encourage more demons like that one to attack me? It would make finding food trivial.

Man, I needed a drink...

"Rimuru Tempest," Treyni got my attention again. "Have you been paying attention?"

"Sure, just let me grab a drink first... I wanna be drunk for this."

"I think you've done that enough recently." Treyni was underestimating how much a grown man should drink, or a grown slime, I suppose.

Even if I wasn't sure I was fully grown yet.

[[You are, in fact, not fully grown. Not even close.]]

That doesn't matter. There's no legal drinking age here anyway. And if there was one, I'd change it. Or make myself an exception.

I really hadn't made more than one law, which was, don't disturb the peace of the forest. That was a pretty loose interpretation too.

I wasn't gonna go around stopping monsters from fighting, it's what they do. So long as they don't exterminate each other. Every monster plays a crucial part in this little world of mine.