A red-haired ogre burned like flame.
He had arrived just a hair ahead of Adelio and his group. Spotting the figures in the distance before the rest of his kin, including his younger sister, he drew a faint curve at the corner of his mouth.
"They're coming."
"Heh heh, thank goodness. It seems we're not the ones who are late."
As soon as he heard that murmur, a white-haired old [Ogre] stroked his beard with a gentle smile.
"Hmm, then the slime Lord Adelio mentioned must be..."
"...that person, I suppose."
The dark-blue-haired and light-pink-haired [Ogre]s, along with the others, gradually gathered at his side. By then, the distant figures had nearly reached them.
"...Brother."
"Yes, I know. Father already decided this, and Lord Adelio personally proposed it. Joining under that person is probably our best choice."
He lightly patted his younger sister on the head, as if answering the question in her eyes about whether this was really all right, then continued.
"Of course, personally, I truly did want to prove that the strength of the [Ogre]s alone was enough for us to survive in this great forest... but after what happened last time, I learned in my bones that thinking that way was arrogance."
The red-haired [Ogre], who had not yet received the name Benimaru, had wrestled with that question until this very moment. Wasn't there some way for the [Ogre]s to survive without serving under someone else?
But after all that thought, he had reached only one answer.
To survive in a place where more than a hundred thousand [Orc]s were on the move, where a majin stood behind them, and where monsters as powerful as the slime protected by Adelio had begun to act, the [Ogre]s too needed someone's protection.
It was the exact same answer his father had reached.
"..."
'That night... if Lord Adelio hadn't stopped that clown... we would have been wiped out long ago.'
Even now, if he closed his eyes, he could still see it: the battle between the majin and the [Hero].
In the novel, he had not known the clown's true strength, so he had suffered deep inner conflict right before deciding to join Rimuru. But now, having witnessed that clown's true power with his own eyes because of Adelio, there was no need for that conflict anymore.
Every time he recalled the might of a warrior on the level of an [Awakened Demon Lord]—something he had seen for the first time in his life—he was forced to realize just how weak he himself had been.
'Becoming as strong as that clown without anyone's help... at least for the current me, that's impossible. So—'
He had come to understand that limit far earlier than he would have originally.
'—if I learn under them, I'll be able to grow much faster.'
Just as the demons and Rimuru had done, he too had created a new branch of fate.
**
"Long time no see... though I guess it hasn't been that long?"
"Indeed. It hasn't even been a few weeks yet, so I wouldn't call it long."
"Yeah, I figured as much... I thought you'd come early, but you still got here even faster than I expected."
Adelio looked openly surprised as he took in the [Ogre]s clad in armor resembling samurai gear.
His expression clearly said, So these are the people Rimuru mentioned earlier. Then, thinking again about how events had diverged from the novel, he gave a bitter smile.
'In this world, Shizue was never going to go berserk because of Ifrit, so I figured things might change a little... but I never expected the whole thing to get skipped.'
Originally, the flow of the novel had been for Shizue and Eryun's group to meet Rimuru as a party of four, then only after stopping the rampage of the [High Spirit] Ifrit inside Shizue's body would they encounter the [Ogre]s. But Shizue had escaped the fate of becoming a majin, become an elemental spell user, and awakened as one with the body of a sage, so it seemed that flow had become tangled.
'The [Ogre]s, too, were originally supposed to search the entire great forest for the clowns and then meet Rimuru by chance. Did my interference make them arrive earlier than before...?'
Well, from Adelio's perspective, it wasn't a bad turn of events.
If, instead of Ifrit, someone like a [Primordial Demons] or an [Aggressors] had gone berserk, he might have fired off an [Arts] attack straight at the dwelling of the [Creator God] above [Damargania] on the spot.
'...Though even then, my [Arts] probably wouldn't have reached that far.'
It would have been little more than venting his anger.
After all, that place was the very core of the [World] created by Veldanava.
"—Lord Rimuru!"
While the [Ogre]s were greeting Adelio, a mountain of muscle who had been quietly watching from the nearby group of [Goblin]s suddenly sprang out and ran toward Rimuru. He was a [Goblin King]... no, more like an even higher-ranking [Goblin Lord], a burly old man.
Thud!Thud!
His name was Rigurdo.
He was Rigru's father, and the king of the [Goblin]s who commanded all the [Goblin]s under Rimuru.
"...Ah, Rigurdo."
"Yes!"
"The people here are my... guests. So—"
"—Of course, we'll treat them with the utmost hospitality! I'll guide them at once!"
Rimuru had been sounding drained ever since Adelio introduced Ria to her earlier, and when she answered in a low voice, Rigurdo apparently took it as a sign that she was tired. He cut her off and spoke even louder.
"Everyoooone! First, I'll show you to the lodgings where you'll be staying, so please follow me!"
His voice was so loud it was almost a scream.
That booming shout, like the roar of some bizarre monster, echoed through the entire [Goblin] village.
'...So loud...'
Even Rimuru, a slime with no brain to speak of, felt her head shake from the noise, and her exhaustion doubled. Still, all she could do was quietly watch as Adelio and the others left, if only to get away from this place for now.
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