〆 𝖆 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖎𝖘𝖊𝖉 𝖘𝖑𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝖎𝖓 𝖓𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖗𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖉 〆 ᵗᵖⁿ ⁺ ᵗᵗⁱᵍʳᵃᵃˢ

XI. Worth a Shot

"Okay kids! Just follow Ranga! Don't be afraid!" Rimuru urged the children forward through the portal. He knew that as soon as they were through, those transmitters in them would be rendered useless, since he doubted that the demon's radars could extend to another world.

He had sent Souei in first, in order to distract the demons and maybe break up their security a little. If they caught him, they would be so caught up in interrogating him that they might not realise he was only the decoy. That allowed time for the rest of them to start coming in and collect the prisoners. Rimuru knew there was no need to worry about Souei, as he was the one out of all of them that could survive anything.

After they had given him enough time, Rimuru had Milim open a portal to the plantation that was right next door to the one the children originally came from, thanks to the information that Souei had supplied to them. Luckily, there had only been a small contingent of demons watching the grounds, and they were dealt with quickly and quietly. Then they carefully approached the plantation's children. Needless to say, the kids had been shocked and nearly scared out of their wits when they saw them. Thankfully, after a lot of coaxing and urging, he managed to convince them they meant them no harm. It had been hard at first to convince them to go with them, but luckily these kids had apparently never been taught the basic rule of never talk to strangers, and were quick to trust.

Rimuru found that odd, as he remembered one of the first things his parents ever taught him was to never trust or talk to strangers. Then again, considering the kids lived in a place where they never saw any other adults besides their caretaker, and their home was literally a prison, he supposed that lesson was fairly pointless.

The sight of Ranga was both helpful and not. Half the kids were amazed and excited to see a huge wolf, while the other half were scared half to death. Fortunately, after reassuring them by petting Ranga himself, Rimuru was able to convince them he was safe. And after telling them that there were more kids, wolves and other creatures on the other side waiting to play with them, the kids were more than eager to go with them. Rimuru left out the part that they were there to save them, or about the demons and their mom who was planning to feed them to them, as he doubted that would go over well with any of them, and might likely cause a panic.

He had Souka and the rest of Souei's Shadow Squad go on to the house, which they infiltrated quickly, and liberated the rest of the children there. They had to make several visits, as the children there were all practically babies, and they had to carry them out and back to the portal. Rimuru couldn't help but notice how Souka fussed and cooed the babies, as apparently even the feared dragonewt warrior of the Shadow Squad had a soft side when it came to children.

Before arriving here, Rimuru also had Milim send 3 other parties to the other 3 plantations. They were under orders to remain undetected as long as possible, to gather the children wherever they may find them, and offer the choice to their caretakers to come with them. If they accepted then they were to bring them with them to Milim so that she could disable the chip in their hearts, and then reopen the portal for them to escape. And if they didn't accept then they were to incapacitate them straight away so that they couldn't alert their superiors.

As the last child went through, Milim closed the portal and sat down, looking bored. She had hoped she would get to fight more of the demons, but the others had dealt with the group they found, somehow doubting her ability to be discreet, much to her disappointment and irritation.

Rimuru turned around to return to the house, to talk to the mom in charge there. Despite the fact that she was responsible for the deaths of god knows how many children, he also knew she hadn't had any choice in the matter, and technically was a victim herself. They had given Krone a chance, and she had turned into a devoted mom for the children back home, as well as an ally and comrade to them, so he saw no reason not to give the same chance to the other moms here, or at least give them the choice to leave with them or not.