Through Thick and Thin | Benimaru

Chapter 9: The Gears Spin Out of Control

Treyni flew off the table as everyone gathered to the side. Rimuru, Benimaru, Katsumi, Shion, Shuna, and Souei stood in front of Treyni while everyone else stood behind her. The Kijin had finally relaxed their stances, but the weight of her words still rung through the air.

"Defeat the Orc Lord?" Rimuru asked as he stared at Treyni. "Um... You're asking me?"

"Yes, that's right," Treyni said with a smile fit for a Dryad.

"That's quite a selfish request from someone who just appeared out of nowhere, Treyni the Dryad," Benimaru said stepping in front of Rimuru as he regarded Treyni suspiciously. "Why have you come here? There are races far stronger than goblins."

Treyni maintained her smile, despite Benimaru's hostility.

"Yes, that is true. If the Ogres' homeland had been at full strength, perhaps I would have gone there." The Kijin slightly flinched at the reminder of how their village had been stormed. Katsumi clenched her hands into fists at the seemingly innocent comment that Treyni had just made. Did she have to remind them of how quickly the ogres fell to the orcs?

"Though, even if I had done that," Treyni continued, ignoring the slightly ticked kijin, "I still could not have ignored this individual's existence." She looked down at Rimuru.

"Were our settlement to be attacked by the Orc Lord, the Dryads could not hope to fight them alone. This is why I have come to request assistance from someone strong," Treyni explained.

"The idea that the Orc Lord even existed was still just a theory to us..." Rimuru said, trailing off.

"The Dryads have knowledge of essentially everything that happens in this forest." Treyni casually picked up a potato chip that was sitting out on the table. "The Orc Lord does exist."

Everyone stared at her while she happily munched on the chip after confirming the group's theory. It was good to have confirmation, but they were hoping that it wasn't true. Now there was no doubt; the Orc Lord was commanding an army of 200,000 Orcs through the Great Forest of Jura.

"If a Dryad acknowledges it..." Rigurd trailed off.

"Then it must be true." Kaijin confirmed for Rigurd.

That Orc Lord is dead to me, Katsumi thought murderously. She knew she was just trying to place the blame for the death of her parents somewhere else. She told herself that the Orc Lord was the reason for their death, yet the feeling of her [Haemokinetics] made her second guess herself every second. With each passing day as she felt this power, she knew that she had been the one to kill her parents, even if they had died one tenth of a millisecond before the orc general had swung. She had still killed her parents.

Self-hatred flooded through Katsumi with each passing second of silence that hung in the air, suffocating her and choking her. The presence of the Orc Lord meant that there was somewhere to direct her anger, yet it had crossed her mind that once the orcs were gone, what was she going to do with herself? Should she just die on the battlefield to atone for the death of her parents? No, Benimaru said that he needed her. Plus, she has the rest of the kijin. But if she didn't die, then how would her parents be able to rest in peace? Her head was spinning.

"Give me some time to answer," Rimuru said to Treyni. "I will back up the Kijin, but I don't want to go poking at a hornet's nest for no reason. Let me take stock of the information we have before I answer. Despite how I look, I'm the leader here, after all."

Treyni looked surprised at his well thought out answer. He had considered all of his subjects, Kijin and goblin alike. The Kijin surely wanted to fight to avenge their fallen village. It was a given that they wouldn't sit calmly on the sidelines. On the other hand, the goblins had accepted the Kijin for the moment mostly out of protection rather than vengeance. If Rimuru could, he didn't want the goblins to fight, though it might be inevitable if the Orc Lord came to the village. Despite the fact that he hadn't agreed, Treyni was pleased with Rimuru's answer.