"........."
She had expected it, deep down.
Maybe it was because she had seen all kinds of people while working as a nurse, but reading the atmosphere between people was absurdly easy for her.
Whether it was parent and child, siblings, lovers, or husband and wife.
There was always a certain air between people, something inseparably tied to the nature and depth of their relationship, and Rimuru had simply learned to read that air through experience.
Unlike the black-haired woman named Izawa Shizue, whom he had introduced as his student, the red-eyed beauty with long white hair looked extremely close to the ash-gray-haired man.
'......So they really are... lovers...'
Maybe because she had already braced herself for it, she didn't feel all that sad.
But the shock was still there.
A massive shock, the kind that might have made her lose her composure on the spot if she hadn't seen it coming.
'...I did think that... someone like Adelio... might have a lover...'
She couldn't help it.
She wasn't a complete pure monster, much less a mindless one.
Even if her body had already become that of a slime, her human heart had not "yet" turned into that of a monster.
The emotional side of her humanity couldn't just let Adelio's words slide by.
'......'
[Report. Your emotions have intensified further. I once again recommend using 'magicules.']
'......I don't need it... just leave me alone for now...'
[...Understood.]
Rimuru felt as if she had been rejected without ever confessing, then comforted by a friend afterward.
Which made sense, considering that back when she was human, she had been single from birth and had never even managed a proper romance.
She was good at reading the mood, but terrible at noticing the obvious, and until the day she died, she had never even properly held hands with someone she liked—
'......But I'm the one fate chose...'
—she was hopeless, through and through.
**
"......Doesn't something about the atmosphere feel weird now...?"
While Adelio introduced Shizue and Ria, and the shocked Rimuru let the introductions go in one ear and out the other,
Kabal and Gido, who had been lingering a short distance behind them with hesitant expressions, were desperately holding back the question of whether it was really okay to keep following monsters like this.
In the novel, they had first been helped by Rimuru, so they had grown close to them without much suspicion. But now, because of Adelio's involvement, the situation had changed slightly, and so their wariness had grown stronger.
Of course, it was still a light enough wariness that it wouldn't be hard to dispel.
"...Hey, boss, miss. Shouldn't we try running out of the great forest while we still can—"
"—Of course not... Do you even think that's possible? In front of [Hero Party], of all people? Every one of them is treated by the [Council of the West] as an equal to Her Majesty Ermesia... If we pulled something like that, we'd get kicked out of Magius."
Before they got this far, Adelio had already told them there was nothing to worry about, but since they still didn't know that Rimuru was a [reincarnator], all they could do was act cautiously.
"Besides—"
Kabal, who had flatly rejected Gido's exhausted suggestion, soon turned to look at Eryun.
"—this young lady seems to have fallen for Ms. Shizue already... so there's nothing we can do."
Just as Kabal said, Eryun, who hadn't been able to take her eyes off Shizue during the fight earlier, was still looking at her now with a bright, dazzled smile.
With the royal they were supposed to protect—and their temporary superior, no less—acting like this, the odds that these two low-ranking members of Magius could ignore Eryun's wishes and leave this place were as close to zero as possible.
"So just stay quiet and wait. I'm holding myself back too..."
Kabal let out a sigh, adding that things had seemed like they might finally be going smoothly, but of course nothing ever worked out that easily.
He looked exactly like he had a few hours earlier, before he had started getting friendly with monsters as if all that caution had never existed.
**
Meanwhile,
whether Eryun's group behind them was lost in thought or staying on guard, Adelio paid them no mind as he continued introducing Ria to Rimuru, and then briefly introduced Eryun's group as well.
And in the meantime, the outline of the [Goblin] village and the monsters following Rimuru had come into view ahead of them.
[Goblin]s, [Tempest Wolf]s, and—
"—They're coming."
—the place where the Ogre would soon be living.
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