"That's... the [Orc Lord]..."
Shizue calmly stared at the [Orc Lord], who had advanced to the center of the battlefield, close to where the [Lizardmen] were gathered.
While Benimaru and the others drew the [Orc]s' attention, Shizue had successfully used the [Arc Vanishing] Adelio taught her to slip through the armies in secret, bringing Rimuru and the Goblin Riders with her. Resting a hand on her scabbard, she spoke.
"Looks like Benimaru's group has started moving, so we should begin too, Mr. Slime."
"Yeah, got it... but why do you keep calling me 'Mr. Slime'...?"
Rimuru, who had been about to nod obediently, tilted his head in confusion.
"Hmm... who knows? Maybe it's just because, for some reason, calling you Mr. Slime feels natural."
Answering the Rimuru who was mimicking a form that looked just like her own, Shizue drew a faint smile.
"Besides, you call me 'Ms. Shizu' instead of just 'Shizu,' don't you?"
"...Th-that's because... I thought it might be rude otherwise..."
He was using her nickname because she herself had asked him to, but to Rimuru, Shizue was even harder to deal with than Adelio as someone from the same homeland.
She was Japanese like him, yes, but Shizue had personally lived through a wartime era decades earlier than the one Rimuru had known, and even after being transferred to another world, she had lived for two hundred years as a Hero.
"She looks at least a few years younger than I was in my previous life, but in reality she's lived several times longer than I have..."
Unlike the monsters, who had quickly grown close to Shizue because long-lived races were simply normal to them, Rimuru still had Earth's common sense stuck in his head, so it couldn't be helped.
"Hmm."
And Shizue, easily seeing through what he was thinking, gave him a curious smile and moved her lips.
"We haven't known each other that long yet, so I won't force it. I feel like I'll get close to you pretty quickly anyway, Mr. Slime. And—"
Trailing off, Shizue drew the longsword at her waist and turned her head toward the [Orc Lord] in front of them.
"—right now, taking down that [Orc Lord] comes first. Right?"
Fwoosh...!
As white flames began to bloom around Shizue and she moved to release her concealment, Rimuru gave a small smile of his own and answered calmly.
"...Yeah, let's go!"
And just as Shizue, Rimuru, and the Goblin Riders were about to charge—
Boooom!!!
—something fell from the sky, splitting the space between the [Orc Lord] and the [Lizardmen] in two.
"Wh-what... what is that?!"
The [Orc] soldiers filling the path were blasted into the air by the explosion, and Gobta, standing at the front, cried out in shock.
Rumble...!
Now nothing remained between the [Lizardmen], Ria protecting them, and the [Orc Lord] licking his chops from the other side.
"...Ghk..."
Except for the one who had just fallen from the sky—
"You stupid pig...!"
—Gelmud.
*
"......"
The king of the orcs, the [Orc Lord], surrounded by dozens of [Orc General]s like a living set of wings, stared blankly at Gelmud, the one who had just blown away his own underlings right in front of him.
Instinct told him that this was the master who had once given him a name and food on that drought-stricken land where nothing existed.
But Gelmud, consumed by the madness of survival and the fear of death, found the [Orc Lord]'s reaction anything but pleasing.
"You idiot...! Why are you just standing there watching instead of devouring those [Lizardmen] right now?!"
Still not even healed from the wounds Treyni had inflicted on him, Gelmud shouted at the [Orc Lord], who was sending only his troops forward instead of fighting personally.
"How many times have I told you?! You're the one who's supposed to devour every monster in this great forest and become its new master!"
He didn't care whether Ria, Gabiru, or Rimuru's group behind him heard what he was saying or not. He shouted only at the [Orc Lord].
He had made a fatal misjudgment—that once the [Orc Lord] evolved, it would devour every enemy here anyway, so none of it mattered.
"Move already! Go with your own hands and devour every last one of those lizard things! If you do, then you'll—"
"—Did you really think I'd just stand by and watch that?"
Fwoooosh!
"...Gah?!"
White Lotus Flame Thunder.
In an instant, Shizue wrapped herself in magic and closed the distance to Gelmud, then burned his ear with her beloved sword cloaked in flame.
"M-my ear...!! How dare you... what are you supposed to be now?!"
It had only been a probing strike, but Gelmud saw the sharpened flame barely graze past his neck, and he stumbled backward while glaring at Shizue.
"Y-you insignificant little...! D-do you really think you can do this to me and live?!"
His words made it sound like he might charge at Shizue that very moment, but in reality he kept backing toward the [Orc Lord].
He knew it instinctively too.
After naming so many monsters and even taking a blow from a [High Elf], there was no way he could overcome this crisis without relying on the [Orc Lord]'s power.
"......"
However—
"...I told you... I was hungry..."
—even Gelmud's instinctive move turned out to be a miscalculation.
...Thump!
Driven by the instinct of gluttony and by the order to become the master of the great forest as quickly as possible, the [Orc Lord] chose the path he knew to be the fastest—
"......What are you ta—"
Splaash!!
"......"
—the fastest path of all: killing his master and devouring him.
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