Black Shadow | Souei

Chapter 7 Conqueror of Flames

The next day, Kumiko returned back to Rimuru, covered in blood. Rimuru tried to make an effort to use a health potion on her, but she refused right away. Rimuru kept insisting until she told him why she didn't need it.

"This blood isn't mine. Its the ants' blood."

Sure enough, after she cleaned up at the river, there was not a single scratch on the Kijin, nor on the armor that Garm had made her. She had single handedly taken out one of the largest giant ant nests in the Forest of Jura. Rimuru only stared at her in shock, really getting an understanding of how strong she was, even without training all of her power. At the moment, Rimuru had tasked her with training her ability [Shadow Travel] to evolve into [Shadow Movement], which was superior in that she would be able to travel into any shadow in any location that she had been to previously. On top of that, she was in charge of training some of the goblins, including Gobta, this skill. Rimuru himself was teaching her how to evolve her skill from [Telepathy] into [Thought Communication] so that she could address multiple people at once. She was a quick learner, thankfully, and managed to successfully evolve her skill.

The three adventurers plus Shizu had been led to tents last night and were currently resting. Of course, the boys and girls were separated into two different tents. As Kumiko was walking past the tent the girls were staying to head back to Rimuru, she felt an overwhelming need to defend the village. She wasn't sure where that feeling came from since there appeared to be no danger at the moment. She stopped in her path and gripped her scythe tightly. Flicking open one of the blades, she scanned the area, looking for the source of the ominous feeling, but nothing stood out to her. After a couple more seconds, it faded and completely disappeared. Kumiko still remained alert, her scythe open until Rigurd saw her and ran over. As he ran over with his usual muscly self, Kumiko closed her blade, but didn't relax her stance.

"Kumiko-dono! Good morning!" Rigurd said, flexing his muscles upon stopping in front of her, as he always did when he got the chance. Kumiko had gotten used to this by now and simply ignored this action.

"Rigurd, I sensed an ominous feeling just now..."

"Huh? I didn't sense anything, Kumiko-dono. You're probably just worked up from fighting those giant ants all night."

Kumiko sighed, and couldn't help but agree. After all, the feeling had left the area completely, leaving not even a trace of it behind.

At that time, from the tent emerged Shizu, who seemed a bit surprised to see the Kijin and the Goblin King outside their tent. Kumiko stared at her for a second, but then quickly bowed her head slightly and started walking away with Rigurd. Rigurd followed without thinking much of it and began chatting with her.

"So, Kumiko-dono, where are you headed?" Rigurd ask, still flexing as he walked. You'd think he would get tired of flexing, but he was still going after months. At this point, Kumiko was sure the entire village was used to it.

"I'm heading to Rimuru-sama to prove to him I wasn't hurt during my fight with the giant ants. I came back early this morning with ant blood covering my body, and Rimuru-sama was worried I had been hurt. Clearly, as you can see, I'm fine," Kumiko explained, her voice in her usual monotone. Despite hearing her talk around the village and to Rimuru a lot more than before, Rigurd still couldn't help but keep wanting to listen to the soft chime of her voice. He couldn't really describe the feeling of hearing her talk, nor could anyone in the village, but it was like hearing calming music with every word she said. Perhaps this was why everyone went silent and listened every time she went to talk. That or the fact that she never talked unless necessary and every word she said was of importance.

They made it back to Rimuru's personal tent, and called out, only to receive silence in return. Poking a head in and seeing an empty tent, Kumiko started heading out again. Leaving Rigurd to wonder where Rimuru had gone. Kumiko wasn't too worried that he had disappeared. After all, she knew he could handle himself better than she could protect him. In addition, he most likely had Ranga by his side, who could protect him as well. She need not worry about Rimuru. So instead, the Kijin headed out to do the usual tasks that Rimuru would assign to her, including but not limited to checking in with the security and hunting units, checking village growth and helping secure the borders of the village.