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myths-of-fantasy · 3 months ago

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Year of the Rabbit - Ch7 Jura Forest Alliance

When a woman dies and becomes a warrior bunny, only shenanigans can ensue. Or, that time Rimaru got a rabbit bodyguard that immediately declared war on a demon lord.

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All things considered, that Gabil had managed to hold his own surprisingly well, Rimuru noted from the sky watching as Gobta jumped in, preventing the lizardman from being killed on the spot. The lizardman was as crafty and clever as he was boastful and stupid. And brave he supposes, he did defend the goblins rather than leaving them to die. Admittedly, he’d kind of assumed the cocky bastard was all talk and no action - especially after he’d gotten defeated by Gobta. Watching this though… was Gobta actually just powerful?

Gabil had dodged the snapping tendrils extending from the orc’s shoulders with strain but he’d done it, despite the strength Rimuru could feel radiating from the general. And still, Gobta had taken him down with one kick to the head.

Does this mean Gobta has talent? he blinked in confusion. Ugh, the idea rattled him. Best not to think about it too hard.

Especially with Ranga evolving to a Tempest Star Wolf and promptly demonstrating his new unique skill.

“[Great Sage] what is this?!” he shrieked, dodging quickly from the path of the series of massive twisters that descended from the sky, crackling with electricity and began frying and ripping the orcs below to shreds.

[Answer: this is the unique skill [Death Storm] of the individual Ranga.]

Death storm is right, holy crap!

Was he able to use that ability too given he’d [Mimicked] the dire wolf and had actually taken the form of the Tempest Star Wolf first? It was something to test - far, far away from his little village.

Where is he, he slime thought furiously, scanning the hoard of orcs. The reason he hadn’t joined in yet (beyond fulfilling his side of the oath taken between himself and the kijin), was that he only intended to fight the orc lord, as he promised Treyni. And yet, for such a powerful and unique monster, he’d yet to catch sight of the threat to their livelihoods.

The number of orcs was shrinking rapidly under the liberal fire and violence exhibited by the kijin, at least simplifying the numbers he had to pick through.

<Rimuru, I found him.>

Hm?

He was interrupted before he could ask with an explosion away from where the kijin were wreaking havoc erupted making him whip around. It only took him a few seconds to be hovering over the place he’d left Ranga and the lizardmen again, bringing him the slight of an odd majin in a long, flowing coat wearing a plague-doctor mask standing with visible frustration just a little ways away front the startled defenders, Black Bunny standing in-between them wild Wildfire raised defensively.

The rabbit lowered the sword with narrowed eyes.

“I was wondering when you’d come out,” Black Bunny said, her tone completely void of emotion. She was pure business mode from what he could tell, watching Wildfire’s blade light up a blazing orange of menace. She adjusted her grip, pointing the glinting tip in the majin’s direction, “Spying from the bushes… that’s no way for a majin to behave, hm?”

The majin stamped his foot like a petulant child, “Who the hell do you think you are?! Ruining my plans?!”

“Your plans,” she scoffed, not lowering her weapon.

“That- That majin… that's Lord Gelmond,” Gabil said, visibly perking up with relief at the sight of the demon who named him. He started to move towards him and Rimuru abruptly felt really bad for him - he was an idiot sure, but being someone's Namer was a great honor. That was going to be a rough betrayal to recover from.

He stumbled to a stop just as quickly as he’d started moving, the flaming blade of Wildfire held out as a physical barrier.

“That demon is not your ally Ser Envoy,” and Rimuru was surprised by how gentle her voice was. She didn't turn her head to look at him, still fixated on her energy just in case he tried a sneak attack but the rabbit was still trying to break it to him gently. “I haven't fully unraveled his plan, but I know enough to be aware he did not grant you your name in good faith. “

“I- wha,” Gabil blinked.

The masked individual turned angrily, waving his hand at the massive hulking figure that Black Bunny had likely been calling him to come address. Towering over all of the other orcs with arms as thick and burly as their heads, a large and ornate helmet with a massive jewel directly in the center of it matching the thick armor covering his upper body.

The Orc Lord.

“A demon lord who would’ve done my bidding was just about to be born an now you’ve ruined everything! I’m not supposed to interfere but the at this rate, he’ll be furious with me!”

A demon lord. That title was being used more and more often lately.

“Ah, so that was your plan then,” Black Bunny deciphered immediately. When he’d sat down and talked to her once, she had explained that she’d been in this world for a full two-years before they’d even caught word that Rimuru existed. [Great Sage] had immediately puzzled out for them that Black Bunny had thus, been reincarnated three years before Rimuru had died. And it was in that time that she had amassed a lot of knowledge about this world (Central, he remembers she’d called it), enough knowledge to successfully fool him and anyone else not looking too hard into thinking she was native. And that thirst for knowledge and determination to understand was benefitting him more and more every day. “Go around granting a few monsters names, then letting your orc lord devour them to gain their strength. I suspect you even named this orc lord to give you even further influence over him - you’re sick.”

“What?!” Gabil said, shocked as his own warriors mumbled their dissent and disbelief as the revelation. He moved around Black Bunny’s sword and tried to walk towards the demon lord again, “But- But Lord Gelmond, it was you who granted me my name - aren’t you here to save-”

He was interrupted by the enraged, petty majin launching a powerful circle of flame towards them.

“Lord Gabil!”

“We’ll protect you!”

“Shit!”

Black Bunny sprung forward. Immediately becoming airborne in the face of the the attack. Wildfire blazed to uproarious life in her paws, a powerful aggressive gale kicking up around her blade.

“[Flame Drill]!” she roared, the tip of her sword piercing the attack and sending up a massive cloud of smoke.

“You little rat! Such a lowly and pathetic monster like yourself daring to stand against me?!” Gelmund raged, giving another immature stomp of his foot as he raised his palm again, this time forming a truly massive ball of malicious energy towards the sky. “I will show you to true power of a greater majin! I will wipe you from this blasted land! [Death-March Dance!]”

<Rimuru- >

He’d gotten so wrapped up in watching the stand-off between the two he’d almost forgotten. He flashed down as quickly as he could, sticking out his hand as he watched the purple lights become a ring of red in the sky, shooting towards the ground with all the menace of blazing storm and activated [Predator]. It only took a minute to devour, he supposed in retrospect it wasn’t all that great.

[Notice: You have acquired the skill Death-March Dance]

Thanks [Great Sage].

“...that was superior?” he said aloud instead, lowering his hand. He put on his most unimpressed expression as he re-absorbed his wings, no longer needing them in this moment. He crossed his arms as Black Bunny sprung up to perch on his shoulder again, like she’d done when they faced off against the ogres. “You can’t kill anyone with that weak sauce move. I was more afraid of Black Bunny using [Firestorm].”

“I-Impossible,” Gelmund said, stepping away.

“That was an accident,” she said, visibly embarrassed. “I didn’t think it would do all that.”

“I was scared for my life,” Gobta laughed.

<For a brief moment, I thought you had gone rouge and intended to kill us all,> Ranga joined in with the teasing.

“It was an accident!” she shrieked again, drawing a paw across her face.

“We know Black Bunny,” Rimuru soothed, patting her head lightly. She would’ve told him if she was actually upset by their remarks, so he figured she was playing along with his idea. It was nice to have someone who caught on so quickly, he mused as he side-eyed Gelmund. “It’s just that your little ‘accident’ was ten-times more intimidating than this supposed ‘greater demon.’”

“You- you stepped in for us?” Gabil said, eyes watery with shock and gratitude.

“You’re not a bad guy, Envoy Gabil,” Black Bunny said kindly. She turned her head to glare at the majin who’d been behind it all apparently, “And no one deserves to be yanked around on puppet-strings like that.”

“Speaking of,” Rimuru hummed as Gelmund launched another attack (this time, directly towards the ground creating a massive wave of smoke) as he tried to escape their wrath. He extended his palm boredly as he watched the fleeing majin, promptly activating [Sticky String] forming a thick, binding cocoon of silk that tied him to the ground. “You didn’t think we’d let you get away that easily did you?”

The majin immediately began trying to struggle free, shouting curses and insults all the while. The moment he was restrained, the kijin seemed to materialize around them, glowering furiously down at the one who had ordered the destruction of their village. “You mentioned a ‘him’ earlier. Who is him? Who is the real mind behind all of this?”

“Save me orc lord!” he practically wailed instead of answering the question, the massive demon staring down at him. “Repay your debt to me, the one who fed you, the one who named you, Geld!”

The beast shifted, raising his head slowly.

It’s responding now, Rimuru thought. He was curious - the orc lord radiated a pretty intense amount of strength, even compared to his own comrades. He was fairly sure that altogether, the kijins could defeat him but it would be a much harder fought battle than anything they’d ever experienced yet. That said… it didn’t seem very bright. In Gelmund’s fits of anger and temper tantrums, he had thrown many insults on the monster’s intelligent and self-awareness - none of which the orc seemingly understood.

[Confirmed: As the Orc Lord continue to gain different powers and abilities, his consciousness has been slowly corroding.]

Ah. Well that was tragic - if that was true, that meant Gelmund had been manipulating him the way he’d been puppeteering everyone else involved. And sadly, they would still have to kill him. He couldn’t just let him continue on with devouring the entire forest and everyone who crossed his path after all.

“...demon lord,” the orc lord voiced finally, his words slow and sluggish as if he was struggling to string them together. “Who…”

“Ugh! It’s you, you stupid tub of lard!” Gelmund snapped. “Come forth and protect your master who gave you a chance!”

Woah.

Rimuru went stiff as an utterly threatening aura seemed to engulf the battlefield, pure rage and killing intent trying to strangle him. It felt like a more powerful version of Ranga’s [Coerison], the lizardmen and goblins surrounded by them dropping frightfully to their knees. He turned his head in disbelief to the furious form of Black Bunny, eyes narrowed and her lips peeled back away from her teeth as her tiny claws sank into the fabric of his clothes.

He jumped again, looking up as the orc lord - or rather, Geld - started shuffling forward with a dangerous sway. Gelmund laughed manically as he moved forth with his raised butcher-knife as a weapon, resting the blade in his hand.

“Oh look, the mountain of lard has decided to move,” he cackled, twisting to look at Rimuru and the rest of them. “Oh you’re in for it now… you’ll regret messing with me! Get them Geld, make them rue the day they dared to interfere with my-”

Rimuru jumped as Geld cut him off with one deft swing of his weapon, the majin’s head sliced clean from his shoulders. It landed on the ground with a wet sound, leaking blood as it rolled.

[It appears that Gelmund life signatures have stopped.]

Yeah, I can see that.

Geld moved forward in complete silence, dropping to his knees and began to loudly crunch and devour the carcass.

“Back up!” Black Bunny yelled at the kijin suddenly. “Back up! Back up! Back up-!”

As her fourth warning left her mouth, a deep menacingly dark purple energy seemed to seep right from Geld’s skin, seeming to wrap around him in a more sinister version of the evolutions he’d seen of his underlings.

[Confirmed: The orc lord Geld’s magicules have drastically increased, evolution to demon lord has commenced.]

The kijin seemed suddenly more willing to take Black Bunny’s warning seriously, quickly behind them as a destructive wind of powerful began whirling furiously around Geld’s body. Just as they cleared his range, the power exploded off of him with his menacing roar of announcement.

Affirmed - Individual Geld is now commencing evolution into demon lord, The Orc Disaster

“Oh that’s not good,” Black Bunny murmured with apprehension, the others present on the field all beginning to inch nervously away from the being and the ominous smoke that was steadily leaking from his body.

[Great Sage] that wasn’t you, was it?”

Affirmed - that was [The Voice of the World].

“Rimuru!” Black Bunny cried out, dragging him back into aware at the same time that [Great Sage] proceeded to ring a warning through his mind.”Watch out for the smoke!”

“Huh?” he blinked as he reflexively leaped up, watching as everyone else thankfully followed Black Bunny’s directive without him having to warn them again. He stared in muted horror as it wafted over the various bodies still strewn untouched on battlefield, eating away at them like some kind of flesh-eating parasite. It only took a few seconds each for the smoke to devour them. “So this is his new ability… applying [Corrosion] to anything it touches…”

“Without a powerful resistance, he will continue to devour you,” Black Bunny agreed seriously, looking up at the looming enemy before them.

“Our king,” said one of the larger orcs beside the orc lord, dropping down to a knee in fealty. “And father. Hail Demon Lord, Geld.”

“Our Lord Geld,” the orcs intoned reverently, each dropping to kneel in turn.

So this… is a demon lord. I can’t believe Gelmund called himself one, the power difference is insane!

“Shion!”

“Right!”

“Huh?” said Rimuru, watching the kijin take off with her sword.

Benimaru placed a hand on his shoulder with a slight incline of his head, “My lord, let us take care of this filthy swine for you.”

“...please lay off on those remarks.”

They each turned their attention to Black Bunny who watched Shion unwaveringly, her paw still gripped tightly around Wildfire’s hilt, “Filthy swine, tub of lard, dirty pig - stop it. Take revenge for your people all you like, but stop belittling them like that.”

“My Lady…” Benimaru trailed off, seeming uncomfortable.

She peered at the red-kijin from the corner of her dark eyes, a frown fixed on her adorable face, “I let it go before because your people had been slaughtered, I can excuse venting your grief.”

She throws her paw out to the still kneeling orcs, “But all you and anyone else has ever done is talk down to them, insult them - for being orcs. Should I have called you all foolish brutes for just being ogres? They aren’t stupid. This display of loyalty… this is beyond a majin taking advantage of their leader. There is something pushing them onwards - and they will keep marching until we find out what it is.”

Rimuru allowed the silence that followed her words as Shion was furiously repelled, her attacks taken up instead by Hakugou making an attempt to completely sheer his head from his shoulders once more. The orc lord revealed a pretty horrifically intense healing ability though, thick lime green chords of energy reaching out and beginning to reseal his head upon his shoulder. At his declaration that he was still starving, one of the orcs immediately and willing knelt before him, offering up his body and life to serve his king.

She’s right, Rimuru thought to himself grimly watching as Ranga stepped up, howling as he released lightning down upon the orc lord in vain, as the being merely shook it off with a determined roar only matched by his followers. These orcs… whatever their reason for wanting to devour the Jura Forest, they all believed in it as deeply and truly as their leader.

“Ranga… rest in my shadow,” Rimuru commanded gently.

<I’m sorry,> the wolf murmured.

“There’s nothing to apologize for,” the slime reassured, turning his attention to the beast before them.

“It’s my turn,” Black Bunny voiced, hopping down to stand beside him.

“Wait-”

“We can do this together,” she told him firmly even as a gentle golden glow illuminated around her fur.

[Great Sage]-

[Acknowledgment - the individual Black Bunny appears to be powered up by a skill acting upon her oath to save the lizardmen.]

So that’s why she glowed but didn’t evolve, he realized watching the tiny rabbit go sprinting towards the behemoth like she was David.

She sprung up electricity crackling across her little body as she raised Wildfire.

“[Thunderbolt]!” she bellowed, impaling the creature’s head with her sword, and a massive column of blue electricity rivaling (or even, beating out) Ranga’s snapped through the air harshly enough that he felt his hair raise from the latent static crackling through the air between them.

The orc lord released a startled cry as it went crashing to the ground as if it had been sucker punched by a giant right in the solar plexus.

“My Lord!” the orcs cried out in despair.

What was…

“That was Black Bunny?” Gobta blurted out, sounding utterly stunned. “But-but-”

“I know…” Rimuru agreed faintly, taking a half-step back as he watched the tiny black figure fall towards the ground. She landed on her paws, doing an additional backflip to expend the inertia of her contact but seemed otherwise unphased.

“...I am so glad Shuna stopped me from making such a big mistake those weeks ago,” Benimaru mumbled to himself, now aware of just how close he’d come to being murdered.

Has she always been this powerful? Rimuru blinked in amazement. How was she hiding her aura so well though? Without a mask like Shizue's… wait a minute, [Plush]! Her unique skill.

<We have a problem,> Black Bunny’s thought communication echoed through his head while he reeled from the revelation of the moment. <He’s got [Flame Resistance] and some form of [Electricity Resistance] I think.>

Rimuru shook his head, pushing aside his disbelief and panic - this wasn’t the time to be so distressed by that. It was time to gt his head in the game.

<I’m coming in.>

Alright [Great Sage], let’s see what you can do!

| | | |

The aftermath of the ‘war’ with the orcs was almost more difficult than the actual battle itself.

It took him a brief moment after everything to well and truly grasp what he’d seen of Geld’s memories… Black Bunny had been right again. There had been more than it seemed to the orc’s march on the Jura Forest. An entire species starving to death, infants dying mere days after birth because their mothers were so hungry they couldn’t produce any milk for them. An entire species, forced to resort to cannibalism, the young eating the old just so they’d have enough to grow stronger, to reach a state of maturity. An entire species on the cusp of being wiped out and yet, not a whisper on the wind of it.

He wanted to really sit down with his head in his hands to think it through, to really consider that the orc people as whole could’ve vanished from the world and no one would’ve known. And many wouldn’t have even cared.

“Filthy swine, tub of lard, dirty pig - stop it. Take revenge for your people all you like, but stop belittling them like that.”

I want to build a land of peace, where everyone can get along. I’ll pay more attention to how everyone talks about some species… I’ll be more attentive.

The dryad, Treyni had appeared on the tail-end of the battle ready to organize the beginnings of the clean up. She called for a meeting of all the species there, requesting each of them choose representatives to attend for the discussion of the meeting. The lizardmen had elected their chieftain and his daughter, Benimaru and the oni he’d brought to the battle were the representatives of the kijin with a few of the miscellaneous goblins gathered by Gabil to stand in as the goblins’ representatives. Black Bunny had joined the meeting too, stating her presence as the voice of the Field Warren that held a vested interest in the Jura Forest alongside a few of the released Killer Rabbits that had begun to find their place within the village as hunters.

Rimuru himself had gotten drafted into being the chairman of the meeting.

From there, he’d been the one forced to start the meeting awkwardly but steadfastly revealing all that he had learned from Geld’s memories that led up to his awful luck in encountering Gelmund and the subsequent slaughter of the ogre village and his eventual attack on the lizardmen.

“I… see…” the lizardman chief trailed off, seeming to the be considering his work. “A horrible famine slowly wiping out their people… and that manipulative Gelmund.”

“If you want to make them pay for what they’ve done, you’ll have to find a way that doesn’t involve money,” Black Bunny pointed out. “Quite frankly, everyone around here has always treated orcs poorly. Even before the famine, they had no money - no one sells to orcs.”

Rimuru winced with the rest of the room, letting her words sink in for others as they had for him.

“Luckily we don’t have to use only monetary compensation,” he took over when everyone seemed suitably chastised even though she wasn’t scolding. He straightened up, narrowing his eyes in an attempt to look unflappable. “When I consumed the orc disaster, I agreed to take on his sins - and all the sins that his people bore in his name. So if you have any complaints, then I will hear them gladly.”

Survival of the Fittest rules this land and all of the monsters within it, regardless of if it was fair or kind to those who were weaker. From the moment any monster decides to fight, they accept that a potential outcome of that encounter is death. All of them. So…

“And if you wish to take your anger, I will be more than okay to fight you.”

As expected, the room remained quiet for a long moment as the demons looked among each other.

“...Our pride as warriors is not more important than our survival,” the lizardman chief decided. “It was Lord Rimuru that won this war and so, we have no objections to your decisions.”

Phew!

Rimuru hadn’t been completely certain that move would work - he’d learned from his experience with the Dire Wolves to be a lot more careful with the phrasing of his words to avoid unintentionally giving them a ‘third choice.’ If the lizardman chief had been a more confrontational person, it would’ve gone much, much worse. He was sure he had the strength to defeat him if he needed to of course, but after everything… sue him for wanting a few days of peace.

“Forgive me Lord Rimuru, but I now have a question,” the lizardman chief continued, pulling his attention back. “If you do not intent to punish the orcs for their sins, do you then intend to welcome the survivors into the Jura Forest?”

“...” although the fighting had greatly decreased the number of orcs they were taking in, 15,000 was still a big number. Small in the scheme of talking about an entire species but for their little forest? He sighed - well, all that was left was a big gambit.

“Why don’t we form an alliance among all the species of the Jura Forest?” he suggested, causing soft murmuring from everyone in the meeting. “If we did that, I would like to spread the orcs out evenly among us.”

“I see,” Black Bunny said, immediately catching on again. “Payment in the form of manual labor. They can fix the places they destroyed and in return, they have food to eat and a place to live.”

“Yep,” Rimuru chirped. “We can leave the technical portion of the building to our various architects but the orcs could supply the manpower needed to make those architects’ plans into reality.”

He wished he could smile in this body, making due with offering a kindly voice to the orcs, “And any of the skills you pick up can be transferred over into building your own village together, rather than apart.”

“I think they could benefit from having perhaps a capital city,” Black Bunny tapped her chin thoughtfully, “I would like a bit of time to perhaps draw up some papers - a general guideline that everyone has to follow about working the orcs. Just because they’re paying back a species-wide debt doesn’t mean they should be treated poorly but otherwise, I - and thus the Field Warren bordering the Jura Forest - have no objections.”

“I’d like to build a country together, where all of us can live in peace and harmony.”

“And- and we could be a part of that?” the lead orc asked tentatively.

“I’ll work you hard, there will be no slacking allowed,” Rimuru said sternly. “But if you do, there is no reason for you to be excluded.”

The orcs all fell to their knees, seemingly overcome with emotion.

“O-of course,” choked out the lead orc. “No objections.”

“No objections,” the lizardman chief voiced as well, dropping to take a knee before him. His people followed suit, bowing their heads to Rimuru. “We would be honored to cooperate in such an ambitious goal.”

Is this another monster custom I don’t know about, Rimuru wondered, promptly tugging on the Heartlink with Black Bunny for answers.

Oh.

He did his best to bow back in his gelatinous form as Shion placed him on the chairman’s bench, joining the rest of the kijin in bowing before him. The only monster who didn’t was Black Bunny, who merely stood up from her position to his right, drawing her arm across her chest and forming a fist with her mitted white paw - not an expression of deference, but certainly a declaration of loyalty all the same.

Good, I wouldn’t know how to handle Black Bunny bowing to me as well.

“Then it is decided,” Treyni - who had remained silent for the entire meeting - voiced finally. “As the manager and protector of this forest, I Treyni now hereby pledge to recognize the authority of one Rimuru Tempest as the new Lord and Master of the Great Jura Forest - and it is under his name that the Great Jura Alliance has been formed.”

Why does it sound so much more serious when she says it?!

“I- um. Please take good care of me I think,” he stammered out.

“Yes sir!” they all cried in agreement and that was how Rimuru took over and became the leader of the Great Jura Forest.

| | | |

From there, they took a break while Black Bunny produced paper from her inventory and began furiously scribbling terms and conditions for the employment of the orcs under the rule of the other species. She had begun teaching him the written language of Central used in their area but most of it was still completely incomprehensible to him - from Kaijin’s reaction though, the attention she had to detail would be enough to make a lawyer proud. Still kind and non-judgemental of his lack of literacy, she’d politely read her terms aloud to him and allowed [Great Sage] to process them. His skill hadn’t heard anything wrong with her terms and so, Rimuru gave her the greenlight to begin sharing the terms with the other representatives.

With the initial paperwork sorted, he moved onto the most daunting task: naming all 15,000 orcs.

You see, under the effects of [Starving One], the orcs had all gained a power boost that was sustaining them despite their severe malnourishment. With the death of the orc disaster, the effects were slowly but steadily wearing off. Although Black Bunny’s efforts to formulate a community farm were slowly starting to bear fruit, there still wasn’t enough to outright feed all 15,000 orcs and all of the usual forest inhabitants without devastating all of her efforts from over-consumption. And although Treyni and the dryads offered to assist with creating rations, the weakest of the bunch would likely die off almost immediately after the effects ended even with steady food (Black Bunny called it ‘refeeding syndrome.’)

The prevent them from dying off one by one while they’re waiting for food to come in, he would have to distribute his magical essence among them. And he didn’t know any other method to do that than naming them.

Initially, he was just going to name them all basic number - ‘Mountain, 633M’ and ‘Field, 635F’ for example because there was just so many but Black Bunny had come for his throat when he proposed the plan. She scribbled up a list of names that she remembered had basic meanings like ‘first born,’ ‘twin’ or just talked about hair-color. She figured he could keep using the landscapes as something similar to clan names, ‘Mountain,’ ‘Westriver’ and ‘Field’ would be differentiating enough but he could just keep cycling through.

Lake Anane (fourth born) even taken to following her around after his initial naming, more than a little awed by the powerful bunny.

Rimuru took a bit of a breath and readied himself to name the last batch of orcs - 2,000 of them. Just as he was beginning to speak, the main orc - the one who had acted as the previous lord Geld’s retainer and watcher spoke up.

“My Lord, we have a request,” he began hesitantly, waiting until he received an approving nod before continuing. “We are the last members of the orc-race’s elites - we are warriors and defenders. I and the rest of us agree that we would like to devote our strength to serve you as we served our Lord Geld.”

<That’s a good offer,> Black Bunny communicated immediately. <We’re still getting trickle-in members from across the forest as our reputation expands. With the addition of the elite corps, we could better defend our territory and expand the city.>

“I accept your offer,” Rimuru voiced aloud in acknowledgement. He adjusted the direction of his names - rather than grant them a landmark if they were going to stay in their town, he hadn’t used any default colors yet. “Alright, let’s wrap this up - Yellow Kenzo. Yellow Kenji. Yellow-”

Two thousand felt lot a lot of people when you alone were responsible for naming each and every one of them, even with Black Bunny helpfully informing him when to tag ‘Jr’ or a minor sound modification to keep things straight. He dredged his way through the names, Black Bunny kindly offering him little bits of fruit from her hyperspace to help him push through before finally coming to the least of the orcs.

The aid, he mused. He was the most recurring face I saw from Geld’s memories - he even seemed to be considered a son to him. The power he radiates… it’s comparable to that of the orc lord.

“I would like you to inherit your former leader’s will,” Rimuru decided aloud. This high orc had kept the rest of his people together and alive while Geld ventured off in search of safe lands, cared for him as his mind degraded in his sacrifice to his people. Though he had defeated Geld and taken command of the orcs, they already had a perfect successor for leadership. “The great orc disaster who always thought of his people, even as he suffered, even as he died. His name was Geld and now, so is yours.”

The newly named Geld dropped to a knee, bowing low, “...I will accept that name with utmost gratitude and I will carry his will with honor.”

Phew! Rimuru thought, even as cries of shock erupted from the named orcs while Black Bunny scooped him up. Glad that’s over. Rest easy now Geld, your people are in good hands.

| | | |

As punishment for the coup he enacted and the unlawful imprisonment of his father and sister, Gabil had been exiled from the lizardman tribe and sent away, followed only by his three most loyal followers. When they were discussing where to go, during his break from naming orcs, Rimuru was surprised to watch Black Bunny approach him. She asked if he was alright and what his plans for the future were - when he admitted that he had none, she had promptly asked if he wouldn’t mind sticking around.

Rimuru had been a little confused but didn’t object to her offer and so, the former envoy had taken the offer eagerly and then offered something he couldn’t possibly refuse.

“...would you mind if I got rid of that pesky reminder?” she asked.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Gabil inquired.

“That name Gelmund gave you,” she explained, making all of the lizardmen jolt with shock. “I can re-name you something else, remove those last ties you have to that manipulative bastard. Oh, and your friends too of course - loyalty like that should be rewarded.”

Huh, that was good information to know - he could overwrite an already named monster's Name to provide them additional power or strength. She had barely finished her sentence when Gabil was eagerly agreeing to her offer.

And so, Gabil became Gabiru.

“Your past still happened after all,” Black Bunny said. “And although you’ll be forging a new path forward, there’s much to be gained from observing your past.”

His friends had been unnamed, so Black Bunny chose a few names that she was more familiar with. In honor of his efforts to defend Gabiru, being the first to jump in front of him when he didn’t know that Black Bunny would step in, willing to sacrifice his life for him, one lizardman was named Alexander. The happiest and most carefree member of Gabiru’s group was subsequently named Acacius while the final, remaining member became Galen. He tuned out a little as he watched her run seemingly magnanimously through the large group of lizardman that had originally accompanied Gabiru - all with those distinct, more western sounding names.

He was less surprised than she was to see the gentle but sharp light of evolution coat the lizardmen, stretching them a bit taller and granting them deeper, richer-scale colors with Gabiru in particular turning a lustrous purple. Gabiru had been incredibly pleased to spread his newly acquired wings and even more delighted that he could blend them back into his back. With their names chosen, Black Bunny led the newly created ‘dragonewts’ to the Sealed Cave and had them begin harvesting the Hipokute grass to replenish their medicinal stores.

“I want to experiment with Hipokute extract for uses other than healing,” she informed the serious faced group. “The Sealed Cave is dark but the wind that cycles through is relatively warm so hopefully though it will be a bit of an adjustment, you can come to see it as another home. That place is Lord Rimuru and I’s training grounds so you’ll be granted plenty of opportunity to grow stronger.”

“Yes ma’am!” Gabiru had declared and marched off.

“Feel free to collect other plants as well!” Black Bunny called after them. “And make yourselves comfortable!”

On the other side of things, Gabiru's sister alongside a handful of lizardmen made clear their intentions to follow Souei after his display of flawless powerful when he rescued them. With the lizardman chief (now called 'Abil') granted a name, he had more than enough power and strength to rule over his people for much longer. Which of course, freed up a few elites to begin pursing their own dreams and ambitions.

Rimuru happily accepted their offer, assigning them beneath Sousei in the stealth and intelligence unit.

In the next three ensuing months, a tentative peace had been established in the town. With the help of the orcs (who evolved into outright high orcs upon being named), the dreams and ideals of Kaijin and the other dwarves unfolded rapidly. The people who had been on the verge of extinction from the famine had taken to their new duties furiously, learning steadily from their dwarven instructors. The newly appointed orc king, Geld even seemed to be overworking himself, often having to have Black Bunny step in and remind him of his contract and how ‘dead workers don’t build houses.’

Rimuru resolved to invite the man to a bar when it was constructed.

Black Bunny set herself back to training, having been granted a set of enchanted footwraps that increased her physical strength and healing factor on her legs. Witnessing her usage of [Lightning Foot] with her new equipment had been a bit terrifying, the tiny bunny successfully using it to kick down a massive tree - by kicking through it, like she was using an axe, not her toes. She was a lot more busy than she used to be though, now managing her sect of dragonewts alongside the loosed killer rabbits that had requested that she open a courier’s post within their rapidly developing town.

She dutifully ran around their city with a paper and a brush, taking inventory of their food stores, the money slowly accumulating from the monsters that elected to hand it over, building a census of everyone around. It made his head spin to see how easily she stepped into the role of a bureaucrat.

“My step-mother hated dealing with finances and the like back on Earth,” she’d explained when he asked, watching her manually bind and label the various sets of information. “I paid taxes, managed the household budget and did my best to wrap my head around investments until I moved out. I even took a few financial literacy and business management classes to help. I feel like I’m a kid again - and this time, you even thank me for my efforts.”

Sometimes, he gets the feeling that she is understating what her childhood had been like but even these little snippets painted a picture that made him uncomfortable asking directly. While that happened, the last of the goblin people had finally begun showing up in waves requesting names and insisting that they work there. It kept him busy while the finishing touches on the land came together.

Plumbing for every single house like back on Earth was just unwieldy and a bit implausible at the moment but he’d worked around it by having a series of public wells being established all around the city. The toilets had to be manually flushed but they worked all the same. He’d felt slightly awkward asking Black Bunny to do even more work, but she’d agreed easily enough to adding the formation of a city-map drawn up to her list of ‘things to do.’

“We were going to need an update map anyway if we’re going to be open to tourists,” she’d remarked casually. “I am going to see about finding a way to duplicate documents though… I don’t want to rewrite all of these documents again and again like before…”

He let that comment slide and moved swiftly on.

If I don’t think about it, it can’t hurt me.

He'd just begun to close his eyes and enjoy the peaceful energy in the air, a [Thought Communication] echoed loudly through his mind.

<Rimuru-sama, there's a severe emergency.>

"Shion," he voiced aloud, drawing attention from the purple themed kijin. "Order Rigurd to begin the process of evacuation."

"Yes!"

He hurried off immediately, knowing the emotions of concern he was giving off would alert Black Bunny to begin tracking him down. He bounced as fast as his little slime body could manage, not wanting to take his human form and draw any additional attention from the army soaring above them. He was intercepted only mid-way to the location Souei projected into his head, Black Bunny wordlessly scooping him up into her paws and began bounding towards the location at his direction.

"There!" Rimuru called out, tilting his body to look up toward the sky. He was startled to see what appeared to be a fleet of winged horses, dressed and armored like they intended to enter directly into war. He wondered if those coverings had magic imbued within them as well.

Several more presences began to appear in the peripheral of his vision as the kijin all rapidly came running over to join him, all prepared to fight the army above. One presence, a non-combatant stood out to him though.

"Kaijin-san, what do you think you're doing?" he demanded. "You should be evacuating with the others!"

"I don't think he needs to Lord Rimuru," Black Bunny remarked, still watching the pegasus as they began descending towards them. "Master Kaijin may be the best dwarf for this conversation."

"Eh?"

"I heard from a general at a bar once about a special military division under direct command of the King," the dwarf said, straightening up almost completely. "The Pegasus Knights."

The muffled thump of cloven hooves landing on grassy meadow patches drew his attention to the foremost pegasus as the imposing aura of Hero King Gazel easily dismounted. Kaijin immediately dropped to a knee, bowing his head with a fist on the ground and Rimuru thinks he felt the harsh and heavy aura of the king lighten in their direction.

"It has been a while my king," Kaijin said.

"It has," responded the king. "You still kneel to me?"

"I do my king," Kajin responded swiftly. "My sentence was lenient and though I serve my Lord Rimuru now, I will not forget your kindness."

That is the loyalty of a true ruler, Rimuru noted. Now that he was wearily, the leader of the Jura Forest Alliance, he would have to keep the dwarf-king’s tactics in mind. Though Kaijin hadn’t done anything wrong in Rimuru’s eyes, the dwarven Lord had been capable of wrangling a way to give Kaijin a light-sentence despite the possible outrage of the other nobles.

"It has been a while since I have seen you as well, slime."

"Oh," said Rimuru, a little surprised. "You remember me?

“I would never be foolish enough to forget such a powerful slime,” the king said. “That is why I am here - I came not as the king of Dwargon, but as an individual.”

Rimuru blinked - as an individual? A sense of wariness crossed him - why would the Hero King come to speak to him on a personal level? His eyes slid over to the kijin, watching them with wary expressions themselves. They were all tense, ready to spring into action at the slightest provocation - that wasn’t good, he’d learned rather quickly that even a perceived insult to himself would send them into a furious rage. It was a good thing Gazel had phrased his remark in the way he did. Well, he supposed this wasn’t a trial so he couldn’t be penalized for speaking for himself instead of letting Black Bunny speak for him.

He wiggled in her arms, doing his best to convey the intent of wanting to be put down and was obligingly, allowed to spring from her arms. He quickly transformed, taking on his human form and touching his feet lightly to the ground. He allowed Shizue’s mask to hang lightly from his head, the strange magic that kept it attached in battle allowing it remain perched delicately in view.

“Then it would be only polite to speak to you in my new form,” he said, extending a hand to the king. “I am the new master of the Great Jura Forest and leader of the Great Jura Forest Alliance.”

One of the soldiers behind him went to grab his sword, only to be stopped by the Hero King accepting his hand and gave him a firm shake. Rimuru did his best not to wince - the combination of thick gauntlets with the Hero King’s large hand made for a slightly painful grip.

“If you have a human form, then words are unneeded,” the larger man noted, his gaze sharpening with something Rimuru couldn’t decipher. “One strike will be enough. You have taken good care of Kaijin and Black Bunny’s continued presence at your side is indicative of your integrity as a person. Draw your sword.”

“Huh?” Rimuru said, taking a slight step back in disbelief. The looming presence of the kijin increased dramatically, bearing down on them with a sense of weight upon their shoulders.

Black Bunny for her part was the only one who didn’t seem shocked or even offended. Much to Rimuru’s surprise, she gave a little giggle and shook her head with amusement, “Swordsmen. Can you at least move this outside of the village? Master Kaijin and the others might react badly if he ruined the buildings again.”

Before Rimuru could fully process what was happening here, the wind and grass stirred at the ground before them. A moment later, Treyni appeared in front of them, a look of slight annoyance clear in her features.

“I will not tolerate any arrogance towards our master of the forest,” she said seriously.

“Treyni-san,” he greeted brightly, ignoring the surprised murmuring of Gazel’s calvary. The dryad offered a kindly smile towards him - no one had seen her since the meeting when the Jura Forest Alliance had been formed. Even the deliveries of food to supplement them had arrived with the assistance of the dryad’s creatures, ferrying them into the village for storage purposes. It was nice to see her again and confirm that she was well.

“Ahahah!” Rimuru jumped in surprise from the surprisingly hearty laughter from Gazel, shaking his head in satisfaction before lowing his gloved hand. “If the manager of the forest says so, then I must apologize for any rudeness I’ve conveyed. However, I’d still like to confirm for myself - draw your sword.”

“If you continue to spout insults-” Treyni began bristling.

“Hey!” Black Bunny interjected sharply, her tone a lot harsher than he was used to. Her dark eyes were narrowed at the manager of the forest as she bounded in between Treyni and Gazel. “He has every right to test Lord Rimuru, who is founding a city right next door to him. It is what any good king would do.”

“Thank you for your word of confidence Black Bunny,” Gazel noted, tilting his head to her lightly.

"You are a good man, Hero-King Gazel and I pride myself on maintaining an honorable stance and avoiding hypocrisy," she levies the kijin and Treyni with a sharp look that made Rimuru feel like she was two seconds from sending them to stand in the corner. "I will not allow my comrades to compromise those morals for something as silly and small as personal pride and ego."

"...I apologize for my own rudeness," Treyni said, the dryad appearing suitably chastised.

"You all need to get better at handling diverse personalities and cultures," The rabbit scolded. "You could've provoked a feeling of genuine distaste from the Hero-King with your behavior that seems to insist that a lack of deference to Rimuru is a form of disrespect."

He wonders if her decision to use his name, rather than the title she called him aloud was intentional on her behalf.

He cleared his throat, relieved for a brief moment that she couldn’t read minds and quickly drew his own sword. Best to take any possible negative energy away from himself and Gazel.

“I accept your offer of a spar,” Rimuru said, relaxing a little bit when the king didn’t deny his declaration that this would be a spar. That… that made him feel a lot better about all of this. Despite how highly the kijin and the goblins thought of him, he wasn’t overconfident. He remembered the presence Gazel had back in Dwargon (some of it even lingered with him now) and he knew, as he was now, he didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of defeating him in a true fight.

But a spar?

A spar he could handle.

“Very well then,” Treyni coughed, drawing the attention back to herself once more. “Then I will serve as the judge.”

Though Gazel didn’t smirk or even grin, Rimuru could practically feel his satisfaction with the situation.

“Begin!”

#projects by ankh #year of the rabbit #tensura fanfic #year of the rabbit chapters #tensura #tensei shitara slime datta ken #tensura oc

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