CHAPTER 4

THE CONQUEROR OF FLAMES

So there we were. Back at the goblin village. It had been only about two weeks, but I was seriously starting to miss it a little. Assuming you wanted to call it a village at all. It was more of an empty space with a fence around it.

While we were gone, a few simple tents had been pitched around the area. There were signs of progress, at least. I spotted a large iron pot situated over the remains of the central campfire. Goblin cuisine used to be all about spit-roasting—but now they’d added simmering to the mix!

This was a truly remarkable development. Where’d they get that thing? Taking a closer look, I realized it was fashioned from the shell of a big turtle. Man, how much did they expand their hunting grounds while I was gone? I was glad they’d kept their home base safe, at least.

The resident hobgoblins spotted our returning party quickly, greeting us with cheers and applause. I had rudely forgotten to bring souvenirs, but given the monster pelts and such I spotted drying here and there—proceeds from their hunting, no doubt—I was sure the dwarves would have everyone kitted up and clothed before long. I’d like the goblins to make that stuff themselves later, but let’s take it one step at a time.

I tried looking around for Rigurd so I could introduce the dwarves to him. I didn’t need to. He ran right up to me. I thought he was just excited to see us, but he had something bothering him instead.

“Welcome back!” he said before I could ask. “I hate to bother you so soon after returning, Sir Rimuru, but we have visitors…”

Visitors? …But I don’t remember having any friends.

I decided to let the dwarves show themselves around. They’d be living here for a while, and I was sure they were curious to see what it was like. I also stowed the tools I’d brought along in an empty tent, figuring the covering would at least offer some protection against the elements.

Leaving our new residents to Rigur, I had the elder guide me to our guests. He took me to one of the larger tents, which had been converted into a sort of meeting room. Who could it be? I guess I’ll find out, I thought as I bounced in.

Once I passed under the flap, I stopped. Inside were a bunch of goblins—the regular kind. Several of them were well dressed, each one accompanied by a handful of servants. Some elders and their guards, maybe? Nobody was armed. Not that I minded that.

Before I could ask what was up, the goblins prostrated themselves on the floor.

“““It is an honor to meet you, O great master!””” they all shouted in unison. “““Please, listen to our most earnest of hopes!”””

Great master? I guess they mean me, but really, that’s going too far. They sure believed it, though. Their eyes couldn’t have been more longing or resolute. There was no telling what they wanted, but I figured I’d hear them out.

“All right. Go ahead.”

“Oh, thank you for your generosity!” one of the elders shouted. “All of us here wish to join your throngs of followers, sir!”

“““Please, grant us your magnanimous kindness!!””” the others said as they remained on the floor, eyes turned to me, before bowing low.

Honestly, I didn’t want to deal with this.

We’re just getting started with the rebuilding process here, guys. I don’t have time to waste on you!

I would’ve loved to simply shoo them off. But we did have a lack of manpower around here. And I could already picture the turf wars these guys would want to spring upon us sooner or later. Maybe it was best to take them in while we still could.

If they stab us in the back after that, we can just kill ’em all.

I wouldn’t take kindly to traitors. Rose-colored glasses would just get in the way when you were leading a pack of monsters. You had to keep a cool head around them. That was part of the reason I was willing to take these goblins in—because I wanted to prove to myself that I meant business.

Once again, I reminded myself, If these guys turn out to be traitors, I will personally kill every one of them. It was amazing how I could think about killing people as if I were wondering where to go for lunch, though. It came as a surprise, but—hell—it beat hemming and hawing over every life decision I made. Kept it simple.

By the way, if these were just the envoys, how many goblins were we talking overall? I sighed. I might have a hell of a lot of names to think up soon.

The guards accompanying the goblin elders had gone back to their respective villages to report the news. So what did they have to say?

To sum up, their story went a bit like this…

It all began with the recent disruptions to the order around the forest. The other villages had de facto abandoned Rigurd’s during the direwolf attack in part because they simply had no combat resources left to assign to the place.

All the intelligent races in this forest—the orcs, the lizardmen, and the ogres, too—were starting to step up and stake their claims on this wood. There had been smaller arguments along those lines before, but there was also a sort of silent agreement that nobody would let it get to armed conflict. With the forest’s one and true overseer out of the picture, however, there were more than a few races out there ready to vent some steam.

Monsters, in general, had a tendency to puff up and engage in regular displays of power. Now every village in the forest was rapidly preparing itself to kick some ass. It was only a matter of time before something got the ball rolling. And goblins, the wimpiest kids on the block, were doomed to let most of these other races lay total waste to them.

This, naturally, alarmed most of the other goblin elders. The moment they got involved in this cross-forest turf war, it’d be over for them. So they held a conference, talked it over for several days, and were all too blockheaded to come up with any decent ideas.

Not that I would have expected them to…

News of the impending direwolf attack came in the midst of this, but their attention was focused elsewhere. Rigurd’s village was left for dead and all but forgotten. Their talks continued, with no miracles in sight.

Just as the villages’ food stocks were starting to run low, they heard word of yet another new forest menace—rumors of massive, dark beasts, piloted by people riding on their backs. They sped through the trees, as if traversing flat plains, and they utterly vanquished the more powerful monsters of the forest. Who were they? The concept made the goblins tremble with fear and surprise.

They were apparently…ex-goblins.

Opinions were split on how to handle this. Some suggested to travel to them immediately and beg for protection. Others found the tale too extraordinary to swallow, concerned that it might be a trap and refusing to believe that the ex-goblins would have no reason to trick them.

Trap or not, though, there was no guarantee this new race would accept them. Especially since they’d abandoned Rigurd’s village. Forgiveness appeared a futile hope for many of the elders. Even goblins were capable of shame, it turned out.

In the end, realizing they had reached the far end of their intellect, the conference ended with a total lack of any concrete conclusion. So the side that sought our protection decided to travel over here.

Now it all made sense. Still, pretty selfish of them, wasn’t it? We’re talking about weak, stupid, helpless goblins, though, so I should have known better. I’d already agreed to take them in, besides.

“Anyone who wants to come over, have at it,” I told the goblin representatives. That was enough to send them back home for now.

That was where my problems began.

As I looked over the teeming crowds of goblins, I thought to myself, This is…kind of too many, isn’t it? Far too many to house within the village’s space.

Why did this have to be my problem, anyway?

Over the past few days, we’d been stuck building axes, using them to chop down trees for wood, and so on. We hadn’t even started on houses yet. There was just too much to work on.

Kaijin was handling wood duties, while the three dwarven brothers worked on processing the animal pelts into hobgoblin clothing. The looks they had been giving the females were less than savory. I figured it was best to set them on that job before anything else.

We were in the midst of this when the goblins showed up. Four tribes, about five hundred of ’em in total. The rest were still in the villages with the elders who opted to stay put.

Well, time for a move. It wouldn’t make much difference work-wise, assuming we did it right now. I checked my mental map of the area. Preferably I’d have liked something with nearby water and some cleared land suitable for farming. As I walked around, I realized that the most ideal location was…the area right nearby the cave I’d popped out of. Hmm.

I decided to ask Rigurd about the state of things over there. “It was regarded as a forbidden zone,” he reported. “Unlike the forest, it was a veritable den of powerful monsters…”

“No problem there, then. I mean, I lived there.”

“Y-you what?!”

“Like, I guess I was born around there, so…it oughta be fine.”

“…You constantly impress me, Sir Rimuru. I am astounded.”

Funny thing for him to say. What’s so astounding about being born in a cave? If he was cool with it, then fine.

I then called for Mildo, youngest of the three brothers, and told him as much as I could about how architecture worked in the world I came from. Surveying and measurement in this world were actually fairly accurate, thanks to magic. That, plus the amateur-hour knowledge I brought to the table, helped us decide to hatch a surveying project for the local area.

The wolves didn’t need it much, but for the goblins and dwarves a waste-management facility would be a necessity. I thought it’d be nice if we could set up a pseudo–septic system that could store waste and turn it into fertilizer. We’d need something to keep infectious diseases at bay, besides. That was another thing I added to Mildo’s list.

Do goblins get sick, though? I wondered. The answer was yes—they were susceptible to disease like anyone else. Pretty wimpy monsters, if you asked me. Though given the kind of filth they lived in before I showed up, no wonder…

They lost a lot of people but made up for it with an abundance of babies. Simple math. Although that wasn’t so much the case with hobgoblins—they gave birth to fewer offspring at a time, which was another reason I assumed their life spans were longer.

Either way, if we lost too many to illness, we wouldn’t be able to keep our numbers up. I had zero knowledge of medicine; anything a potion couldn’t handle was beyond me, and we didn’t have any magic healers.

So while we were in a building frenzy, I decided we might as well go all the way with hygiene. Mildo, for his part, actually had considerable knowledge about waste systems like this. I must not have been the only otherworlder to talk about this with people.

This world, for its part, had something called “spirit engineering,” a unique field of study that led to all sorts of weird discoveries. What it didn’t offer, however, was a way to make fertilizer out of people’s dumps. Mildo was amazed to hear the idea from me.

Regardless, though, after some deliberation, I named him head of building operations for our village and left everything up to him.

Another classic tossing-off of responsibility, if I do say so myself.

After having Rigurd assign a few people to Mildo’s detail, I sent them all off to survey our potential new home. Ranga joined them, just in case. I didn’t think monsters would go swarming out of the cave at them, but you never know. Ranga ought to have been able to handle whatever popped up, so better safe than sorry.

That took care of one issue, but I had something bigger on my plate—naming. Just thinking about it depressed me. I had the sinking feeling that by the time I got halfway through the five hundred or so goblins, I’d just be running through the alphabet. “Abcdef” would be a little hard to pronounce, though.

Still, I had to get started. It took around four days to get through them all, with a quick bit of sleep mode in between, and I really had to hand it to myself—I stuck it out to the end. Not quite as exhausting as last time, but not a process I wanted to repeat anytime soon.

I called the tribal elders over. They knelt down in their stately hobgob way. Rigurd was there, and following in his footsteps were three others I had just named: Rugurd, Regurd, and Rogurd.

Put all the leaders together, and yep! You’ve got all five vowels!

Ranga being the a was a coincidence.

So maybe it wasn’t my best, but it was okay! They’d never know. Don’t forget how much work I put into this.

I’ve always been very good at making that excuse.

That left one unnamed elder, and she was a woman. Something feminine sounding was best, I thought, so I picked Lilina. One advantage of everyone being hobgobs was that I could actually tell ’em apart by gender. Magic Sense could help me do that with the regular gobs, but to the naked eye, it was a challenge.

Could I turn “Lilina” into another name series, maybe? I thought about it but decided not to worry about the future too much. No time for it.

So here we were. A few hundred hobgobs. Maybe it was time we built a class system for them? With these numbers, I couldn’t tell them “Let’s all be pals and get along” and expect them to follow that. There needed to be a clear chain of command, especially given how much monsters valued strength.

“All right,” I declared, “I’m giving all of you ranks!”

Rigurd received a nice upgrade to goblin king; the other four elders became goblin lords. The rest of the goblins in the village immediately bowed to them, which was a spine-tingling sight to see.

“““Y-yes, our lord!!””” the elders parroted. The ensuing cheers were deafening. I had just inadvertently penned a new chapter in goblin history.

Kaijin was kind enough to bring along all the carpentry tools he needed. Garm and Dold were proving to be able commanders on the clothing-production front. We were building a miniature tower of wood lumber in an empty space in the village. Preparations were going along smoothly.

By the time I had evolved all the goblins and made sure I hadn’t missed anyone, Mildo came back to the village. The surveying work was done without a hitch. All systems go. I looked over the different blocks in the village he’d planned out. It was really more of a town than a simple village. A new home for all of us.

After making sure everything was in place, we set off. It was our first step toward a new land. Toward a new nation for us!

The man’s name was Fuze, and he was the guild master at the Free Guild branch in the kingdom of Blumund.

His competence at his post was unquestioned, and even before then, his prowess as an adventurer had brought him all the way to the rank of A-minus.

And as he’d promised the Baron of Veryard, he quickly set off to conduct an investigation of his own. What his assorted intelligence contacts told him, however, was that the Empire was currently making no moves at all. It might stay that way, of course—that was Fuze’s hunch—but there was no room for error.

He continued to have his people watch the Empire. It wasn’t his usual line of work, but for now, at least, he was willing to make an exception.

One day, he received word that another investigation team had made its return to his city. He went to his chambers and sat down very slowly and deliberately on the sofa in the reception room he always used for classified meetings. Across from him sat three people—two men and a woman, all B-ranked adventurers.

This group, he already knew well. There was Gido, a thief who excelled at reconnaissance. Kabal, meanwhile, was a master of defense. Being fighter class, he willingly served as a wall for the rest of his party, and he did his job well. He tended to crack jokes a lot, but he was no slouch. Finally, there was Elen, a sorceress whose skill set was geared toward the more unique types of magic. She had a wide variety of spells at her disposal, but her true skill lay in supernaturally enhanced movement. It was also worth noting that her careful planning always did wonders to boost her party’s chance at survival.

That was the team Fuze had sent to examine the cave Veldora had once been sealed in. His first reaction upon seeing them was slight amazement that they were safe. That cave was more suited for people with B-plus ranks or higher, and if you took its master into account, tracking down an A-minus traveler or two was usually your safest bet. Even if Fuze himself ventured in—not that his guild responsibilities would ever let him these days—it would likely be quite a slog if he took it solo.

Regardless of their ranks, these were the people Fuze had sent to find out what was up with Veldora at the moment. He’d made the decision because of their uncanny knack for staying alive. The ability to avoid battle while gathering intelligence, in this case, was worth far more to him than employing a B-plus powerhouse.

If something had happened to them, though, Fuze would have had to take the heat as guild master. Sending people into areas they were unqualified for by rank was a clear violation of guild regulations. A branch head daring to try that would create controversy if the incident became public knowledge.

But this was the group Fuze had wanted, and nobody was happier to see them back now than him.

“Let’s hear the report,” he said, ever careful not to betray his emotions. No matter how appreciative he was inside, he made it a point not to offer them any reassuring words. The trio was used to this.

“It was awful, man!” Kabal blurted.

“I so need to take a bath…,” Elen agreed.

“Yeah, the hardest part was tryin’ to keep this pair from ripping each other apart, I’d say…,” Gido commented.

Their debriefings almost always started like this. Their eyes, however, were deadly serious. It probably was indeed awful, Fuze thought.

The report began with a description of the monsters they’d found in the cave. After bluffing their way past the tempest serpent that served as the area’s guardian, they’d proceeded past the sealing door. It had been clear early on that Veldora was gone, but they’d spent another week or so exploring the cave, just in case. The end result: definitely no guardian, or leader, to speak of inside.

But one thing had caught their attention the most.

“Here’s the thing, though,” Kabal said. “Once we were done with our examination and went out the door…the tempest serpent was gone.”

“Right, yeah!” Elen exclaimed. “I couldn’t activate Escape inside the door, so I spent all that time figuring out how we’d get away from it… I feel like such an idiot!”

“Yeah,” said Gido. “I brought along an illusion and heat-generating trap, and I didn’t even use ’em. At least it saved us some time, though. Gettin’ past it on the way in was one thing, but gettin’ out woulda been another.”

What was the meaning of this? This tempest serpent had a tentative rating of A-minus. It was absolutely the strongest presence in the cave. Not even Fuze liked his chances much against it. It was the whole reason why he had fretted over this trio’s chances of a successful trip.

Something had definitely happened over there. Fuze could tell that much. And he needed to know what.

“All right, guys. I’ll let you rest for three days or so, but after that, I’ll need you back in the forest again. Not inside the cave this time—you’ll be examining the area around it instead. I want you to leave no stone unturned out there, all right? Be thorough. That is all.”

“‘That’s all,’ he says!”

“Three days? That’s it?! Give us a week, at least!”

“Yeah, yeah… You know he’s not gonna listen to us, guys.”

Fuze didn’t let the protests bother him. He had some new information to stew over. What could be going on in that forest…? He lost himself in thought for a moment…then opened his eyes, only to find three pairs of spiteful eyes staring at him. These guys… He sighed, then yelled at them as he always did.

“Why are you still here? Get out! Now!”

The trio hurriedly excused themselves.

Three days later, Kabal, Elen, and Gido were preparing for their forest trip.

“That was barely any time off…,” Elen moaned.

“You said it, girl,” Gido replied.

“Could you stop complaining for a moment, guys?” Kabal, the more-or-less leader, admonished with a lack of conviction that indicated his agreement. “You’re just depressing me now.”

They had few routes into the forest to choose from. The monsters had been growing incredibly active in recent days, to the point that not even the merchants were willing to send wagons into the forest. Hiring bodyguards was out of the question—they’d lose money on this job if they did. If they wanted to visit the forest, it’d have to be on foot for the time being. They would have had to walk at least a little, since the path to the “Sealed Cave” was too treacherous to navigate in a horse cart.

As a result, preparation would be key. Procuring several weeks’ worth of preserved food was a challenge in itself, but without it, they stood every chance of starving to death before they even reached their destination. Elen’s magic, at least, guaranteed them potable water whenever they needed.

When they were largely done and it was time to head off, a person approached them, speaking in a voice that was somewhere between young and old, male and female.

“Excuse me. If you are headed for the forest, would I be able to join you along the way?”

The mask the figure was wearing prevented any guess at the face behind it. It was an ornate, beautiful mask, but it bore no expression at all. There was something vaguely unsettling about the whole package, but…

“Fine by me.”

“Wh-whoa! I’m the leader here, Elen! What’s your problem?!”

“Ahh, you know her. Once she decides on something, there’s no changin’ her mind.”

“Thank you.”

Those words of gratitude were all the masked figure said before silently following behind them. Thus Kabal and his band found themselves with another companion as they ventured into the forest.

The sound of chopping trees and hammering echoed throughout the forest. Slowly, the new town and its houses were beginning to take shape. In our minds, at least. We were still busy laying out the water and septic system, so for now, it was still just a clearing.

This system took the direction of its flow from the river we were adjacent to. We planned to have a water-processing building eventually, although it was still under construction. That’d be where the river water was purified and distributed to people’s houses.

On the septic end of things, we built a large chamber out of wood that we planned to bury in the ground. The wood’s inside surfaces would be treated to improve their resistance to rotting, then reinforced with cement. That was what we were working on now. We’d lucked out and found some quicklime-type material off a nearby hill.

Meanwhile, another building outside of town would be our waste-processing facility, where we planned to make the fertilizer we wanted.

In addition to this, I was having the crew build a large temporary building, a sort of gymnasium they could sleep in during construction. It was rather slipshod since we had no intention of making it permanent, but it would do the job.

Outlining the assorted neighborhood divisions was going along well. The upper-class houses, including the one I’d stay in, would be built near the cave mouth. We’d have a line of homes meant for the tribal elders, with the other residences spread out around them.

We were doing this before anything else, so it was easy to lay out the town plan without getting things cluttered and mixed up. It was basically built in the shape of a cross, with a wide main street, making it easy for townspeople to work as a group if the need arose. We’d have to be careful not to create long lines of identical roads—that’d make it easy to get lost—but it wasn’t too much of a concern.

The only real disadvantage to this setup was that it could be easy for enemies to move around in case of invasion—but if they actually made it to the center of town, it’d mean a dozen other things would have failed by then.

No point dwelling on that scenario. If we got wrecked, we could always just rebuild.

It was absolutely a good idea to name all the goblins and upgrade them into hobgoblins, though. It did wonders for their intelligence levels, and they were all astonishingly quick studies. Their strength was upgraded, too. The dwarves described regular goblins as straight-on F-ranked monsters, while hobgobs hovered between C and D for the most part. They felt more like people than they did before, to be sure. Depending on their weapons and armor, not to mention their classes and magical arts, there was a lot of room for growth.

On that note, I was seeing substantial variation in the hobgobs’ sizes and strengths. The four goblin lords I’d just named, for one, all seemed more talented in life than the rank and file did. Rigurd the Goblin King, meanwhile…

“Oh, is that where you were, Sir Rimuru? I was searching for you!”

Who was this guy? He was practically a muscle-bound freak of nature at this point, huge in frame and almost the size of an ogre. “Hell, larger, even!” as Kaijin put it. That must’ve been the result of giving him a class in addition to a name, I supposed.

I swear, the biology of these monsters was a total mystery to me. I’d have to try assigning a few more titles to see what happened.

“What is it?”

“I’ve come to report to you, sir. We’ve captured a few suspicious individuals.”

“Suspicious? A bunch of monsters, or?”

“No, sir, humans. We did not engage them, as you ordered.”

“Humans? Why here?”

Whoa! Sweet! Better get on their good sides, fast! If it was those three idiots from the dwarven gate, I’d be happy to chop them up and feed them to our work crews, but…

“They were engaged in battle with a group of giant ants, it seems. Rigur and his security detail rescued them and took them here, but…apparently he suspects they are conducting an investigation of the local area. I thought I would come to you for advice…”

Hmm. Some country’s checking out this place? I already knew from the dwarves that the Forest of Jura was considered neutral territory, unclaimed by any nation. It seemed plausible that this was an expeditionary force, trying to find some new territory to take for its own. This could be trouble, but there was no point fretting over it without hearing them out. I could think about what to do after that.

“All right. Take me to them!” I said as I hopped on Rigurd’s shoulder.

Ranga being out on patrol made transport around our new town a bit of a pain. I could walk easily enough, but when I was by myself, my lack of height was an issue. I always resented the feeling of being looked down upon whenever I met anyone. Having people kneel to greet me just got in the way of actual work. I had a reputation to uphold, besides, and I didn’t want to be under people all the time. Perhaps I worried about it too much, but I always thought it was better to avoid trouble before it started.

That was why I tended to travel around on a lot of shoulders these days.

So aboard Rigurd’s shoulders, I made my way to see these adventurers. Who are they? I wondered before a conversation entered my (figurative) ears.

“Wh-whoa! Hey! I wanted that!”

“That’s just mean, isn’t it? I raised this meat myself!”

“Sir, I regret to inform you that I am not giving up this food!”

“Munch, munch.”

Certainly seemed like some excitement.

“…”

Rigurd replied to my silent question. “M-my apologies, Sir Rimuru. It would seem the ants made off with most of their luggage…and even before then, they had not had a decent meal in some time, so I had some brought to them.”

Hmm. That was kind of the goblin king, to be sure. “Oh, that’s no problem,” I replied. “In fact, good job noticing. Helping out someone in need is a nice thing, you know?”

I felt it was appropriate enough to praise him. He was gradually becoming more and more of a leader, no longer asking me about every little thing that cropped up. A good thing, I thought.

“Ha-ha! I will do my best to improve my rule and be less of a burden upon you, Sir Rimuru!”

But I wish he wouldn’t be so formal with me all the time, I thought as we approached a simple tent. The hobgob guarding it opened the flap for us.

The moment we stepped in, I felt all eyes upon me. Four adventurers sat on the ground, their mouths full of assorted meats and vegetables. Their eyes were wide open as they gawked at me. It was a hilarious sight to see, although they probably didn’t realize it.

Hmm? Have I seen them somewhere before? …Oh, right. They were the adventurers I passed by in the cave, although one of them was new to me. I wondered how any kind of food got through the mask this figure had on.

“Munch, munch…”

They sat there for a moment, chewing. They sure were taking their time.

Fresh roasted meat…mmm. If only I had a sense of taste. Argh… Does anyone have some spare taste buds…?

Whoops, got a little distracted there. I turned my focus to the matter at hand.

Rigurd walked up to a tall seat on one side and placed me upon it. “My guests,” he bellowed as he sat next to me, “I do hope you are comfortable here. Allow me to introduce you to our master, Sir Rimuru!”

I could hear them swallowing down their food. Then, in unison:

“““Huh? A slime?!”””

“Munch, munch.”

All of them reacted with shock.

Well, I’m not sure about the last one, actually. Whatever.

“It is good to meet you. I am Rimuru, a slime. Not a bad slime, you know!”

I heard a sputtering sound from under the mask. With all the food that guy was chewing, the results probably weren’t pretty.

Rude jerk.

Must’ve been a surprise to hear a slime speak. The other three looked equally surprised, but at least they didn’t have their mouths full at the time.

So. Who were these visitors? Good guys, hopefully.

“Well, pardon us, I guess. I just didn’t expect we’d be saved by a monster tribe.”

“Oh! We’re human adventurers, by the way, and this meat is really good! We’ve been running for the past three days, I think, so it’s been hard to eat much of anything… Thank you so much!”

“Yeah, thanks. I sure didn’t expect some hobgoblins to be building a village around here.”

“Urrp… Koff! Glug glug.”

“Well,” I said, “please, feel free to enjoy your meal, all of you. We can talk afterward.”

I sort of wished the hobgobs had called me over after the humans were done stuffing themselves, but they were still lacking in politeness here and there. I’m sure they were surprised, but something told me I’d need to hold a workshop on manners shortly anyway.