"...A m-mixed-race...?"
Rimuru trembled in her liquid body as if an electric shock had run through her, flustered by Adelio's continued string of startling revelations.
It was already shocking enough that he was a fellow [reincarnator], but on top of that, he was the fated one revealed by divination, someone from the same hometown as her, and even mixed-race...
Any one of those facts by itself would have been surprising, but all four together made him feel anything but ordinary.
It was almost like he was the kind of person who would appear as the protagonist of a fantasy novel.
"......"
"...Come to think of it, he's also a hero called the [Hero]... so I guess that really is true...?
Staring blankly at Adelio's face, Rimuru felt both a vast sense of distance from him and, at the same time, a strange kind of familiarity.
Though she had not realized it herself yet, she was unconsciously projecting a familiar shadow onto Adelio's face.
Someone deeply engraved in her memory, a person she had seen for a long time back when she worked as a nurse.
And then—
—that unconscious sensation became a tiny spark of "what if" deep inside her the moment Adelio began speaking again.
"I was originally half Korean and half Japanese. A lot happened... and I lived in Japan."
**
"...Half Korean... half Japanese..."
They were words that had nothing to do with this otherworld, and yet they called up familiar memories.
Rimuru, who had worked in a hospital in her previous life, recalled a mixed-race boy who had died lonely at a young age.
Like the person standing before her now, he had been half Korean and half Japanese, and she had been assigned as his personal nurse.
Because of that boy's death, she had seen a child die with her own eyes for the first time, and even now she remembered that moment as vividly as a nightmare.
Being forced to do nothing but watch as a child who had not even reached adulthood died in agony had been the kind of trauma even a veteran would never want to remember.
"......No."
But...
Those memories from back then, that regret from that day—
even if she recalled them now, they were nothing more than moments from the past, with no meaning anymore.
"...Maybe becoming a slime messed with my head... I really must be losing it..."
There was no way that man, regarded as a hero equal to a great nation,
that man divined to be her fated one in this life,
could possibly be that boy from her previous life.
This world was not that small, nor was it the kind of hopeful place that would grant a miracle like that.
"...There are plenty of half Korean, half Japanese people on Earth. There's no way it could be him."
Dismissing it inwardly as nothing more than a delusion born from wanting to escape her trauma, Rimuru muttered to herself that there were more important things right now and forcibly shoved aside the memories rising in her mind.
**
"......"
Whether it was coincidence or inevitability, Adelio had done much the same, erasing the memories that had surfaced in his own mind.
"......"
For the first time in a long, long while, he had spoken of his previous life. But after saying that he had lived in Japan, he immediately closed his mouth again.
He had intended to share enough information to let Rimuru know that he too was a fellow [reincarnator], but he had no desire to tell her much more about his former life.
To him, that life had been the very symbol of misfortune, a sickeningly exhausting existence.
Especially those memories of being trapped in a hospital with his whole body paralyzed... they were as painful to him as Rimuru's trauma was to her.
"...This should be enough to prove I'm a [reincarnator]."
Having shaken off the memories in his head, Adelio looked down at Rimuru again with calm, unaffected eyes.
He had already told Ria, Shizu, and Chronoa about his previous life before, so he was quicker than he looked at sorting through those memories.
......
"Rimuru."
"Huh? O-oh? Wh-what is it...?"
Rimuru, recovering a beat later than Adelio, jolted at the sound of her name, her round body quivering.
Adelio looked at her without making much of it and made her an offer.
He had no idea why she was so tense, but it felt like the perfect moment to press forward.
"As a [reincarnator] reborn as a monster, you want to bring humanity and monsters into harmony, don't you?"
"Y-yeah."
"And that's why you were going to ask for my help, and why you revealed that you're a [reincarnator]. Isn't that right?"
"...That's right."
As she answered Adelio's questions, Rimuru gradually regained her composure. She straightened the brows marked on her body and nodded.
It was an expression that showed none of the conflict from earlier.
At least, on the surface.
"If you truly intend to reconcile humanity and monsters, then I'm willing to help you that much. Of course, you'll have to prove it yourself with your own power."
"......Yeah."
"So, would you like to make a [Contract] with me?"
"...? A [Contract]...?"
"Yes. If you can show me proof that humanity and monsters really can be reconciled, then I'll help you even if I have to use all my status and authority to do it. And even if this [Contract] fails, I'll make sure it doesn't harm you. What do you think?"
Adelio already knew Rimuru would nod at this offer, but he had asked with the intention of cutting her off before she could start asking about his previous life.
Not knowing that he was a demon, and being the kind of person who trusted others easily, there was no way she would refuse this proposal.
"...This [Contract] feels way too favorable to me alone..."
Of course, she was suspicious at first, but—
"...Well, maybe I'll trust him just this once and see where it goes..."
—in the end, she was still Rimuru.
"...All right...! I'll accept that [Contract]."
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