Day Six of Reincarnation as Rimuru

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What does it feel like to be surrounded by a group of little rascals, all with different appearances but with one common trait: eyes that shine with intense brightness?

Rimuru declares that he is in deep trouble.

Who am I, where am I, and what am I doing?

Why are there so many children?!

Don’t they know that as a lonely youth of the new era, he hates human cubs the most!

Morax, you idiot!

Take these cubs with angelic faces and devilish hearts away already!!

"Wow, it’s really a slime!"

"But he isn't attacking us. As expected of Lord Morax’s friend!"

"But why a slime? Could there be a God of Slimes among slimes?"

The cute, innocent human cubs were unaware of Rimuru’s inner breakdown. All they knew was that this slime was a friend brought back by Lord Morax.

A new friend of the god they follow!!

Their curiosity was overflowing!

"H-hello! My name is Hu Xiaohua. Mr. Slime, I like you a lot and want to be your friend... so, can I give you a hug?!"

The little girl, possessing a pair of beautiful plum-blossom-shaped pupils, squatted in front of Rimuru and flashed him a huge, sun-bright smile.

Absolutely not!

Don’t go soft on a little demon, Rimuru!

Even if she looks cute, it’s a no!

Rimuru had rejected her ten million times in his mind, but in reality, he forced a strained smile and, as if possessed, agreed to the little girl’s request.

"I-I suppose that’s okay..."

Ahhh, why did I say that? Shouldn't I have just been cold, heartless, and refused her point-blank?!

The moment Rimuru nodded in agreement, he began to beat himself up inside.

At this very moment, he could already foresee his future fate.

—A miserable daily life of being treated as a stress ball and a plushie by human cubs.

"Really?!"

Sure enough, once Rimuru agreed, all the human cubs cheered in unison. Hu Xiaohua, who had made the request, happily scooped up the slime, who looked incredibly soft and pleasant to the touch, and began rubbing her face against him.

"Mr. Slime’s body feels so cool! This is so comfy!"

"Hey, hey, Mr. Slime, can we play together later? I know a place where lots of raspberries grow; I’ll share half with you!"

"Mr. Slime—"

The other children were competing for ownership of the slime, but only Hu Xiaohua held onto him firmly.

Taking advantage of a moment when the others loosened their grip, she found an opening and said, "Hey, you have a name, right? I heard Lord Morax call you that. Can I call you Rimuru too?"

Rimuru was so dizzy from being tugged around that he only heard the gist of it, so he nodded groggily.

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Call me whatever, who can out-yell you lot anyway.

Seeing that Rimuru only responded to Hu Xiaohua, the other children instantly grew jealous.

"Then I want to call you by your name too!"

"Me too, me too!"

"Lord Rimuru—"

Help! Stop pulling!

My body is at its limit; if you keep tugging like this, your cute Lord Slime is going to heaven!

Rimuru, being stretched back and forth like dough by these cubs, was weeping in his heart, yet on the surface, he still had to coax these fragile human children with a gentle tone.

He didn’t want to scare Morax’s subjects the moment he arrived in his territory.

"Before answering these questions... could you please let go of me first? It hurts, QAQ."

*Sob, sob*, being a kawaii and understanding slime is truly so difficult.

Morax, where are you? Come save your good friend!

...

The protagonist, whom Rimuru was frantically calling for, was also surrounded by a group of humans—not little rascals, but adults getting down to real business.

"It’s Lord Morax, you have finally returned!"

"Lord Morax, yesterday’s gathering tasks have been successfully completed. Please inspect them!"

"Lord Morax, the mineral deposits near the tribe have been exhausted. Please allow us to expand the scope of our mining operations!"

"Lord Morax..."

After Morax arrived at the tribe with a dazed Rimuru, he had been surrounded by his subjects in charge of vital tasks. With no other choice, he had temporarily handed the slime over to the human cubs he trusted.

While he preached about letting his subjects be self-reliant, Morax—who actually did plenty of work himself—found his path to rescuing the slime blocked.

"Well done. Hmm, since some fruits are difficult to preserve, have the gathering teams reduce their search for such crops. As for mining, we can take a temporary break; at this stage, it is more important to focus on how to process and monetize the minerals..."

Now, after three thousand years of solitude, Morax had become quite proficient in handling the trivial matters he had never encountered before.

If this were in the past, he would have been focused entirely on the work at hand, but now...

Hmm, Rimuru’s voice is getting weaker. Is he really okay?

Should he go over and check on him?

Come to think of it, Rimuru’s attitude toward the cubs is a bit too soft. This won’t do; children naturally love to compete for the attention of those they like. If he yields too much, he’ll get pestered endlessly.

Morax, who should have been focused on his tasks, found himself distracted by the rather intense commotion coming from the slime's direction.

Bringing a friend to the tribe for the first time, the God of Geo found himself openly distracted by his subjects, until a person in charge of the tribe’s food supply ran over in a panic.

"Lord Morax, it’s bad! The God of Vortices, in alliance with the sea beast Baqiu, launched a surprise attack on Guili Plains yesterday evening. The Dust Queen, Guizhong, was hit and seriously injured. The farmlands were flooded, her people suffered heavy casualties, and even our trade caravan that went to exchange for food was injured..."

Jin Ping knelt on one knee, his expression looking ghastly. "And what’s worse, the caravan says they couldn't even exchange for a single bag of grain!"

As soon as these words were spoken, not only did everyone present begin to panic, but even Morax furrowed his brows.

"Osial?"

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He had assumed that under his deterrence, the creature in the sea would remain quiet for a while, but he hadn't expected the God of Vortices to choose to bypass him and strike directly at Guili Plains in the north of Tianheng.

This was a difficult situation.

Mount Tianheng was steep and the land barren, unsuitable for large-scale farming. The people of Tianheng survived mostly by hunting, gathering, and mining, and the majority of their grain was obtained by the trade caravans Morax established, which exchanged mineral resources in the territory of the Dust Queen, Guizhong.

This led to a problem: once they could not exchange for enough grain, they would be forced to increase their efforts in hunting wild beasts in the mountains or gathering enough crops to stave off hunger.

Or, they would have to head out to sea to fish, with an eighty percent probability of dying in the ocean.

The latter was a path most people would not attempt.

Because that was a true, nine-out-of-ten-deaths survival rate.

Unless Morax chose to personally escort the fishing fleet out to sea, the odds were effectively a death sentence.

The situation was dire and immediately sparked a heated discussion among the tribe's leaders. The commotion was so loud that it caught the attention of the slime, who was still lounging nearby.

"Eh? What are you guys talking about? Why are you all making such gloomy faces? Did Morax’s 'free-range' policy finally hit a snag?"

Rimuru, who had struggled to slip away from the children, looked curious and unreservedly teased Morax about his governance style right to his face.

Rimuru’s words made Morax unable to help but press his palm to his forehead.

"Rimuru, have you developed some strange prejudice against me?"

"How is it a prejudice? This is clearly just the truth!"

Rimuru, who had no defense against human cubs, instantly flipped the script. When facing Morax, his banter rarely ever lost.

Morax sighed silently. Not wanting to continue arguing with the slime about his 'free-range' policy, he changed the subject: "We were just discussing the food situation..."

"Hmm, I understand." Rimuru tried to keep a serious face. "So, the problem now is that everyone is about to run out of food?"

"That is correct."

Morax confirmed Rimuru’s summary.

Although it wasn't quite at the point of having absolutely nothing to eat, the loss of this grain meant his people would have a very difficult year ahead.

After stating the cause and effect truthfully, Morax expected the slime to be shocked and then scold him severely, especially since his contract included provisions for supplying the other party with food.

Now that he knew they didn't have enough grain—to the point where his own people might go hungry—it would be normal for Rimuru to be angry.

But to his surprise, Rimuru didn't get angry or jump up and down. Instead, he acted reasonably, extending a cute little tentacle to pat Morax’s calf as he offered a solution.

"Is that all? Didn't you say the Dust God has plenty of food? Since they can't trade due to the disaster, we can go over and provide humanitarian aid~"

If both sides put in the effort, they could rescue more supplies and grain that hadn't been wasted. That way, they would have grain to trade, the other side would recover sooner, and they could even do the other party a favor. Who knows, they might even end up forming an alliance!

It was killing four birds with one stone!

Because the solution was so simple, Rimuru didn't even need to call on Raphael this time; he had come up with the answer all on his own.

Morax: "..."

This was a solution he hadn't thought of.

Rimuru’s idea was incredibly simple and crude. Although it seemed a bit whimsical, when he thought about it carefully, it didn't seem impossible to execute.