"Where did you see her?! Which way did she head?!" the young master frantically asked Rigur. Rigur panicked, looking to Rimuru for help. Rimuru simply looked away, letting Rigur handle the desperate red-haired ogre.

"We met her when we were hunting in the south. I didn't ask her where she was going and we left first, so I don't know which direction she went." If Rigur had known that they were looking for her, he would've insisted more on bringing her back to the village. Maybe the important thing she was looking for was this group of ogres in front of him. He berated himself mentally. How did he not make the connection between the ogre attack and a lone, wandering ogre in the forest?

"I'm going south to look for her," the young master said, letting go of Rigur and turning around to head back to the edge of the village.

"Wait!" Rimuru shouted, stopping the determined red-haired ogre and the other ogres who clearly were ready to head out as well after hearing that their Little Blue had been spotted. "Even if you head out now, you don't know which direction she went. It's dark in the forest so you could walk by her without even knowing. I'll go look with you tomorrow morning, but for tonight just stay and eat."

"We'll just keep calling for her," the young master said stubbornly. Rimuru sighed.

"You mean you're going to call for her and attract all sorts of nocturnal monsters to you? You ogres may be strong, but it's reckless to charge into a dark forest and ask for trouble." The red-haired young master said nothing, but he had to acknowledge that Rimuru was speaking with reason. After a few more moments of thought, he finally turned back to Rimuru and Rigur, letting out a sigh as he nodded.

"You speak reasonably," he said calmly. "I will search tomorrow." After all, the ogres had at least gotten confirmation that their precious Little Blue was alive. That was enough to ease their worries. Little Blue survived the massacre at their village; there was no way she would die to anything less now.

~~~

At the crack of dawn, the blue-haired ogre girl had been woken up from her nightmare to the shaking of the tree. Quickly grabbing her claymore off the branch beside her, she climbed up higher on the tree, hoping that a vertical advantage would be enough for her to safely escape or fight. What she saw made her eyes blaze with rage. A small army of orcs, about 100 or so of those pigs, had followed her from that goblin village she had accidentally led them to. Perhaps they thought this measly army could take care of a single ogre. Half of her rage was from seeing the orcs and the other half was from them underestimating her.

Confident that she could take the army of 100 orcs on, she began her descent from the tree, easily jumping from branch to branch as if she was on flat ground, until she was on a branch that was just a bit higher off the ground than the orcs that were stopped in front of her.

"Trample all!" they declared as they faced the blue-haired ogre. She swung off the branch, drawing her claymore as she faced the pigs with determination. She would bring down all the orcs she came across to avenge her village.

"Come at me if you think you can," she said as she drew in the water around her and readied her sword. Without another second, she launched herself toward the army who braced themselves to fight.

The army pigs would die a slow, painful death today.

~~~

"Rimuru-sama!" Rigurd shouted across the village. The ogres groggily poked their heads out their little hut, watching as Rigurd raced towards Rimuru's tent in a panic. The ogres quickly rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and made to follow the large, muscular goblin. Was it the orcs? Had they made it to this village already?

"Rimuru-sama! We have a major problem!" Rigurd said as he burst into Rimuru's hut frantically. He normally would've waited, but this was a huge, unprecedented problem. At his distressed tone, the slime quickly morphed into his human form, jumping off the bed he had been resting on.

"What's going on?" he asked seriously as Rigurd skid to a stop in the middle of the room.

"Our village has no water!" Rigurd exclaimed quickly. Rimuru blinked in shock. It didn't seem as urgent as Rigurd was making it out to be. The slime sighed, placing a hand on his head. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the ogre group slip in quietly, though they stayed in the background.

"Rigurd, I thought it was the orcs," Rimuru said as he relaxed a bit and turned to the large goblin. "Assign more wolves to help carry water back from the river temporarily until the water supply rises."

"That's the problem, Rimuru-sama!" Rigurd insisted. "We can't collect the water!"

"What do you mean?" Rimuru asked, confused. It wasn't that hard to collect the water was it. "Don't tell me the river ran dry."

"Not dry, the water is going uphill," Rigurd explained. "Not only that, but all the water we try to collect to bring back keep spilling out and then either gets absorbed into the ground or it starts flowing to the east!"

"Uphill water?" Rimuru echoed in surprise. Even in a fantasy world with orcs and ogres, there was at least some sense of physics. Water simply did not flow uphill.

"Rimuru-dono," the red-haired young master of the ogres called as he stepped forward. There was a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "I think it's Little Blue."

"Little Blue?" Rigurd asked. He wasn't there when the young master had explained who she was. Unfortunately, his question was unanswered as the ogres focused more on following this trail to lead them to their precious blue-haired friend and cousin.

"Something must be happening to her or around her. She's drawing a huge amount of power by collecting all the water she can nearby. It must be why the water is suddenly traveling uphill towards the west," the young master explained quickly to Rimuru.

The red haired ogre turned toward his blue haired friend who nodded. There was only once when the had witnessed water moving uphill; it was when they had left Little Blue in her fight against the Orc General. As they fled to the outskirts of the village and hid in the forest, they saw how the water had begun to unnaturally flow towards the very village they fled from, even if it had to go uphill. They couldn't stop to check what was happening, but they were certain it was Little Blue.

"What direction did you say the water was heading in, Rigurd," Rimuru asked quickly. He knew how desperate this situation was and there were too many factors involved to not rush out to check on the situation. The ogres were looking for their fellow survivor. There was a possible incoming orc invasion. The said ogre was apparently stealing all the water from the village. Lastly, that same ogre was facing something that was having her draw upon all the power she could.

~~~

She must've been at least a quarter of the way through the orc army. Her blue kimono was stained red at the edges, though she had been trying her best to keep it free of blood. Each splatter of blood that got on her made her click her tongue in annoyance. She wanted to torture them for as long as she could, but her real enemy had appeared in the back not too long ago.

An orc general.

She slashed through another orc, dodging the splatter of blood as she sent a barrage of watery blades at another charging toward her. The harder she fought to take down all the orcs in front of her, the more powerful she felt. Her skill [Rain Storm] was slowly turning into [Iced Hurricane] as it did back in the village. The wind was slow to pick up in her opinion, and the blades weren't strong enough even though they were getting faster with each second and the ice was spreading from the tip back.

Disgustingly, as she brought down the orcs, the corpses were quickly devoured by another orc and if she took that one down, it was devoured by another. She couldn't fight them fast enough to stop them before they were able to consume their dead comrades. Still, she pushed herself harder, slashing her large claymore left and right while launching the blades nonstop until all that remained was the orc general and her in the middle of a raging hurricane. The trees shook harshly, a few of them being uprooted and flown into the sky. More than once, the trees were thrown towards the large pig, only for him to bat it off with his arm like a twig. Around them, the corpses were sucked up by the harsh winds and thrown haphazardly into the forest before the general could pick them up and eat them.

She would make the orc general regret coming after her.

~~~

"Rimuru-sama!" Ranga called to the slime in human form sitting on him over the raging wind and water that was pelting them. The only one not really affected was Rimuru who absorbed everything easily and felt no pain. The ogres too were struggling to fight against the fierce winds. They had headed east where Rigurd had said the water was heading, but had been met with a growing hurricane. The closer they got to the eye, the harsher the winds were. Yet, from the bodies of the dead orcs that had been tossed out of the strong winds, they were now absolutely certain the blue-haired ogre was at the center.

"What do you suggest we do to get past the hurricane, Rimuru-sama?" Ranga asked as they all braced themselves against a strong gust of wind that blew by. The red-haired young master was using his own body as a shield for his pink-haired sister. Despite originally asking her to stay behind, she had stubbornly insisted that she wanted to come find Little Blue alongside the rest of them.

"Ranga, I need you to use your body to help the rest of them get past the winds. I'm not affected so I'm going ahead to try to see if I can calm her down," Rimuru explained loudly as he hopped off the wolf's back.

"I'm not sure that is a good idea," the red-haired ogre said warily.

"I'll tell her that you're looking for her," Rimuru replied. They didn't have much of a choice right now since the hurricane was so strong that it was taking all that was in them to stay grounded. Without waiting for another reply, Rimuru disappeared into the wind and rain, heading towards the eye of the hurricane. The ogres stared in the direction he had taken off in, a bit worried. If Little Blue was startled, she could attack Rimuru preemptively.

~~~

The blue haired female jumped back quickly, dodging a swing from the orc general as she pulled her sword out of the pig's arm. It earned her a satisfying roar of pain as she got herself out of reach and readied herself for another attack. She could've easily killed the pig already, but she was having too much fun hearing the general's pained squeals.

As she put herself in a position to launch toward the pig, she suddenly jumped to the side, positioning herself so that the orc was to her right while the new presence she had felt was to her left. It was a human with a mask. She narrowed her eyes and her attention darted between the orc general who hadn't yet made a move and the new presence. No. A majin perhaps? She doubted that a normal human adventurer would be wearing a mask like that.

"This is my fight," she growled angrily to the intruder. He appeared unaffected by the hurricane, which only made her more suspicious.

"I'm here to help you," Rimuru said as he raised his hands defensively. Immediately, his attention was drawn to her dual colored eyes and pale skin. Her eyes were entrancing almost and her skin was tinged a light blue that made her look almost deathly pale.

"I don't need your help," she replied harshly with a glare towards Rimuru. "Leave immediately before I make you my enemy as well."

"Your friends are looking for you. The other survivors of the orc attack!" Rimuru called, getting straight to the point. The orc still hadn't moved and he needed to get her to at least calm the hurricane a bit so that the rest could come calm her down the rest of the way.

"The other survivors?" The blue-haired girl raised her blade, making Rimuru take a step back. She was clearly too suspicious of him. "You appear to be a majin, not unlike the one who was at our village before the attack. Knowing my friends, they wouldn't reveal details to someone like yourself."

"Wait, your friends had the same misunderstanding. I promise, they're trying to get through this hurricane of yours right now," Rimuru said. He clearly hadn't learned his lesson the first time with coming across ogres with his mask on.

The blue-haired girl glanced at the orc, who still hadn't moved as if he was assessing the situation and using this time to recover. Clearly, this majin knew something about the attack. As much as she wanted to drag out the pain this pig would face, she needed to end it before he was fully healed. Quickly, she launched a few blades at Rimuru, causing him to jump back a bit to avoid getting hit. Without missing a beat, she sent another barrage after him as she turned and launched herself toward the orc general. In between dodging the watery blades, Rimuru watched in slight awe as she swung her blade gracefully, almost as if she were dancing. As she sliced away at the orc, his squeals of pain could be heard as he desperately tried to protect himself. Dodging a swipe, the girl went in for the kill, sweeping her blade across the orc general's neck. Shortly after, the orc's corpse collapsed, the head rolling away from the body.

"Now," she said as she faced Rimuru, dragging her claymore behind her while summoning a few more watery blades behind her, but not launching them towards the slime. She stopped a fair distance from Rimuru and raised her claymore, her hands gripped around it tightly. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right here, majin."

"I come in peace," Rimuru said with his hands up. Around them, the hurricane was still raging. Rimuru could only hope that the rest of the group hadn't gotten swept away by the strong wind. "The survivors from your village came to mine and took shelter while they searched for you. They explained the situation to me. I'm in charge of a village filled with goblins, direwolves and a few dwarves."

"Are you dreaming?" she asked, staring at Rimuru as if he had gone crazy. "A village of wolves and goblins, as well as dwarves."

"You've met some of them. Rigur and the goblin riders said that you gave them half of the knight spider to bring back to eat." The blue-haired girl lowered her blade ever so slightly as she recognized the names. Of course, that group of goblins that had come riding on the wolves. It was a weird sight to see. Was this majin telling her that there was an entire village of them?

"That red-haired ogre told me about the attack and how the orcs came in the night. I promise you that I wasn't part of it. He said that he had to leave you behind but he would've never stopped searching for you. None of them would've." Rimuru internally cheered as he saw her lower her guard a bit. He was getting to her even though she clearly was enraged and panicked. Her instincts must've been screaming fight or flight right now.

"The young master is with you? The princess and my cousin too?" she asked. Rimuru nodded.

"That's why we're here. We followed all the water since the ogres were sure that it would lead to you. They're trying to get past the hurricane. I came first to tell you because they're having a hard time getting past the wind."

"How can I know to trust you?" she asked, but clearly she was tired and weary of fighting. Her watery blades were still tipped with ice and hovered behind her, but the winds continued to slowly die down.

"That red-haired ogre said that you're like a mandarin fish, a beauty among ogres. Your heterochromia eyes just completes it." Rimuru tried, hoping that slipping in what the young master had said would calm her. Instead, he soon realized he had said something wrong as she glare hardened again and the winds picked up.

"He would never mention my heterochromia to someone else," she said as she raised her blades again.

"Wait, wait! I meant - " She cut Rimuru off as she launched a couple blades at him which he quickly dodged. A growl sounded behind Rimuru, causing them both to tense.

"Wait, Ranga!" Rimuru shouted, hoping to stop the wolf in time. To no avail, the wolf had already launched himself out of the hurricane around them and toward the ogre girl. He had seen her attack Rimuru and wanted to stop her before she could try again.

Surprised, the girl swiped her hand and the wolf was quickly knocked aside with a yelp and a whimper as water poured over him, keeping him under no matter how much he struggled. There was no way anyone would win against her when she was surrounded by as much water as the river and ground had. To get any stronger, she'd have to find an ocean.

"Wait, Little Blue!" She froze as the voice of the young master sounded. Taking her eyes off of the drowning wolf, she saw the familiar red-haired ogre, followed by her cousin and the princess. Behind them, the white-haired instructor and purple haired female stood. Even farther back was the large black-haired ogre.

"Let the wolf go, cousin," the blue-haired male said. "He won't hurt you." Without a complaint, she obeyed, the water returning back to the ground as the storm quickly died off around them. Ranga scrambled up and toward Rimuru, a bit scared of the blue-haired ogre and how strong she was surrounded by water. She made her way to the ogres, her sword dragging behind her limply, hoping that she wasn't going crazy and just imagining them after wishing to find them for hour after hour and day after day. The past week had felt like an eternity. Was this an illusion of the majin?

She reached her cousin first, dropping her sword onto the ground and reaching for his hand to check that he had a physical form. When he grasped her hand in return, she just squeezed it, as if still in shock. There was no reaction from her, only silence as she repeatedly squeezed his hand. Rimuru and Ranga remained off to the side while the rest of the ogres surrounded the blue-haired girl.

"I can't feel anything," she said blankly as she squeezed her cousin's hand. The blue-haired male frowned. Her hand was usually on the colder side, but now that she mentioned it, it felt like dry ice against his skin. He looked to the young master, who reached over and gently pried her hands away from her cousin's and into his own. Since his own temperature ran a bit higher, her hands felt impossibly cold to him. Carefully, he began to transfer his warmer energy, though this time it wasn't to help himself but rather his Little Blue.

Slowly, he felt her hands rise in temperature and her gaze was drawn to their connected hands. After a few more seconds, the red-haired ogre stopped and loosened his grip though he didn't let go.

"Welcome back, Little Blue," he said. He was on the verge of crying, much like everyone else was. Rimuru couldn't help but think to himself that none of them looked all that scary at the moment while celebrating the return of Little Blue to them.

The blue-haired girl seemed to snap out of her daze as she glanced around at all the ogres surrounding her before it finally processed for her that they were all alive and seemingly uninjured. Finally, she met all their gazes and smiled the largest smile she had smiled in the entire week.

"I'm back," she said happily as she pulled them all into a group hug.

~~~

"Rimuru-dono? Ranga-dono?" the blue-haired girl called quietly. She had been chatting with the other ogres and catching up while Rimuru and Ranga led them back to the village. The sky was bright now, the exact opposite of the grey sky caused by the hurricane the girl had created earlier. The wolf and slime turned toward her, pausing just short of the forest line at the edge of the village. She stood there, seemingly shy. Her large claymore was sheathed on her back as she twiddled her fingers.

"I wanted to apologize for attacking you," she said as she bowed her head to the two of them. "The young master told me about what happened and how he came across your village. Thank you for not killing me despite being very powerful yourself."

"I, too, apologize for startling you," Ranga said with a gentle rumble. "You had every right to be suspicious of the situation."

"Ah, I wasn't considerate of your circumstance either," Rimuru quickly brushed off. He was just glad it ended peacefully. "Plus, I seemed to have mentioned a sensitive topic."

"It's alright," the blue-haired girl replied, though she didn't deny that Rimuru had brought up a touchy subject. She carefully masked her pained expression from thinking about her cursed heterochromia with a smile.

"Hey, cod!" the young master called out. Her smile turned into a strained one as she turned around to face her red-haired friend. Rimuru and Ranga could only watch, confused as to why he called her a cod.

"Yes, you damn pigeon?" she asked with a close-eyed smile.

"How do you -" he cut himself off as he narrowed his eyes at her. "Did you just call me a pigeon?"

"Yes, what else would you be, a kiwi?"

"Kiwi is a fruit, you dumb salmon." Around them the ogres all sighed. It had been so quiet without their bickering and name-calling...

"Kiwi is also a bird, cuckoo."

"Excuse me. Did you, a carp, just call me a cuckoo?"

"A carp?!" she echoed. "Princess, hold him down! I'm going to beat some sense into him for calling a girl a carp."

"You don't need to hold me. I won't run. I can take you on," the young master taunted his blue-haired friend. She playfully glared at him before they started a small scuffle, though the red-haired male clearly was letting her win.

"Is this alright?" Rimuru asked confused as he watched the two of them go back and forth with taunts and light jabs.

"This is their friendship of constant name calling," the pink-haired princess replied in amusement. The rest of the ogres agreed while they all just stood by and watched the free entertainment. Eventually, the young-master gave up as the younger girl forced him to give her a piggyback ride until they reached the village. When they arrived, she hopped off, saying something about not wanting to look incompetent to the villagers.

~~~

"So have you decided now?" Rimuru asked the red-haired young master again while resting in his slime form. He had given them the rest of the day to relax and spend with the blue-haired female. He was originally going to ask for their answer the next morning, but the young master had come into his little hut just a few minutes earlier and seemed to have an answer already.

"The Ogres are a warring clan," the young master started. "We aren't against taking the battlefield in service to another. If our master is strong, we are all the more pleased to serve them."

Rimuru nodded as the red-haired ogre hesitated before speaking again.

"Can our contract last only until we take out the Orcs' leader?" he asked.

"You can do whatever you want after that," Rimuru agreed. "You can stay and help us build a nation, or you can go on your way."

The red-haired ogre let out an audible sigh of relief before getting down on one knee in front of Rimuru.

"I would like to accept the offer you presented last night. We will hereby serve under you." The young master bowed his head low at Rimuru.

"Good." Rimuru stared at the red-haired ogre in thought. The young master was the leader and he had to make decisions for the last remaining survivors. To make this decision, he had to accept his own weakness.

"Lift your head." The young master looked up at Rimuru who had used his skill [Mimic] to transform into his human form.

"You're all accepted. Call in the others."

The young master nodded, returning shortly with the other six ogres in tow. Rigurd followed them inside the tent as well, though he remained off to the side. Standing in front of Rimuru, they all lined up side by side in front of the slime. Rimuru gave them all a once over before he nodded and hummed his approval.

"I'll give you names to prove you're my subordinates." All the ogres went wide-eyed.

"All of us?" the young master repeated in disbelief.

"Well, having no name makes things tough, doesn't it?"

"But..." the red ogre trailed off, unsure.

"P-please, wait. Giving a name comes with great risks. And to name such superior monsters-"

"It's fine, really. Don't worry about it. Or do you just not want me to name you?" Rimuru knew monsters found it a great honor to be named. The ogres didn't really know what to say, since he seemed adamant. But the cost of naming all seven of them... especially since they were superior monsters...

"That isn't..." the princess tried to find an argument against Rimuru, but her brother cut in quickly.

"We have no complaints," the young master said quickly after glancing down at the blue-haired girl next to him. She nodded her head in agreement.

"Brother!" The princess' surprised cry was ignored.

"We gratefully accept your names," the young master repeated, overriding his sister's complaints.

"If this is the young master's will, we accept," the white ogre agreed. Rimuru smiled.

"Okay, let's get started." Rimuru hopped off his bed and walked first up to the red ogre.

"You are..."

~~~

The next morning, Rimuru began to awaken. The ogres had all successfully finished evolving into Kijin and, with permission from Rigurd, had been allowed to wait in Rimuru's tent for him to wake up for the past hour. Rigurd also stood by in the tent.

"Shion, it's time to switch places," Rimuru heard in his haze.

"Oh, no, Princess. I will look after Rimuru-sama," another voice replied. "Please get some rest."

"Really, Shion..." Rimuru began to open his eyes, only to stare up directly at Shion's chest.

"Rimuru-sama, good morning!" Two girls said joyfully as soon as they noticed Rimuru was awake. One of them had pink hair and two white horns protruding while the other had purple hair and a single black horn.

"Um... Who are you again?" he asked in confusion.

Wait... My memory's a little fuzzy, but I think I was about to name the Ogres when... Huh?

"Have you awakened, Rimuru-sama?" a male's voice brought Rimuru out of his thoughts. He looked up to the red-haired young master, who now appeared like a young man with red hair and white horns. He had shrunk to about 180cm, but the horns and red hair, as well as the streaks of red going down his cheeks was a give away. The red-haired young master was on one knee, his head bowed in front of Rimuru.

"You're the 'young master' of the Ogres, right?" Rimuru asked in confusion.

"Correct," he answered swiftly. "I have evolved into a Kijin, and I have assumed the name you gave me, Benimaru."

"Oh!" Rimuru gasped. He remembered naming Benimaru, but hadn't recovered memory of anything else.

"Huh..." Rimuru stared at Benimaru, trying to make out the differences between a Kijin and an Ogre since he said he evolved. His body looks... a little smaller? The amount of magicules in him has exploded, though... So this means he evolved from an Ogre to a Kijin, right?

Rimuru looked to the next kijin, who happened to be one of the girls sitting in front of him.

"Rimuru-sama, I am Shuna," the pink haired princess introduced. She reached out her hand to Rimuru and rubbed his cheek. "I'm so glad to see that you've awakened!"

Rimuru next looked up to the busty lady who had been holding him in his lap.

"I am Shion," she introduced happily. The purple haired ogre smiled down at Rimuru over her own chest. "I'm very fond of the name you gave me, Rimuru-sama!"

So this busty beauty is Shion, Rimuru thought to himself. She looks less wild and more intelligent now, though it appears her breast size didn't change much.

Rimuru sweatdropped at his own thoughts before shaking it off and looking to the next ogre who happened to be sitting just a bit behind Benimaru. It was Little Blue.

Her heterochromia and blue hair hadn't been affected in her evolution. Her skin had taken a warmer hue, making it look a peachy pale color. Her horn had shrunk a bit width-wise, making the point look sharper and just a bit more dangerous. She was dressed in the same blue kimono she had been wearing, though it had been washed clean of blood. Despite being buried in the layers of fabric, she clearly had a nice figure. She looked to be about 160-165 centimeters compared to her original 250 centimeters. Her sword rested beside her, but it clearly was as long, if not longer, than she was tall. Truth be told, she was a beauty.

"You have given me the name Katsumi," she said politely with a smile. Rimuru nodded in acknowledgement.

"And the one behind Benimaru and Katsumi... is the old man who cut off my arm," Rimuru said bluntly. The white-haired elder laughed, unoffended.

"Such a mean-spirited remark," he brushed off. "It was I who felt shocked when you instantly regenerated your arm. I was given the name Hakurou." Rimuru nodded and stared for a moment before his attention was drawn to the blue-haired standing off to the side of the room.

"And I think you're..." he trailed off, unable to recall a name. He was Katsumi's cousin if he remembered correctly.

"You have given me the name 'Souei.' I'm glad to see that you have recovered, Rimuru-sama" Souei kept his introduction to the point and bowed at Rimuru.

"T-Thanks." Rimuru said, still in slight shock at the changes. He hadn't known that naming just six of them would deplete all of his magicules.

"Ah, that's right. Where's the seventh one?"

"Oh," Benimaru replied, "he's been spending a lot of time at Kaijin's workshop." As if called, Kurobe came bursting in.

"I heard Rimuru-sama has awakened!" he called out excitedly before he even got in the door.

"Ah, there he is," Rigurd announced.

"Rimuru-sama! I'm so glad you're well!" Kurobe said as he entered the hut. "You recognize me, right? I am Kurobe!"

He looked like an ordinary middle-aged guy! Rimuru thought excitedly. So after Benimaru, a hot guy, Shuna, a cute girl, Shion, a babe, Katsumi, a beauty, Hakurou, a dignified grey, and Souei, another hot guy... He's just a middle-aged guy! What a relief!

"I hope we'll be good friends, Kurobe!" Rimuru offered excitedly. After all, the he who he had been before he was reincarnated hadn't exactly been the most popular, especially if put next to Benimaru and Souei. If they didn't have horns protruding from their foreheads, he was sure they'd be getting a lot of attention.

~~~

"Orc Lord? What's that?" Rimuru, who was perched atop Ranga, asked Benimaru as they stood atop another hill overlooking the village. Katsumi had been with them not too long ago, but she had been distracted by a nearby group of wolves. She had run off shortly after they passed to go brush the wolves and play with them, leaving behind a dejected and lonely Benimaru. Below them, Hakurou was training the goblins, though it seemed more like he was enjoying beating them all up with permission.

"Well, put simply... it's a beast," Benimaru replied, trying to keep his eyes trained on the village in front of them and not towards Katsumi who was off to the side. Rimuru had already once caught him looking at her and Benimaru received a teasing look from the slime himself.

"That's simple, all right," Rimuru responded with a sigh.

"It's said that one is born to the Orcs every few centuries. It's a unique monster. They say he devours even his own allies' fear and terror, which makes him an unnaturally effective leader. The Orcs that attacked our village were unfazed by the deaths of their own, so I thought that may be the case."

"I see..."

"Of course, the possibility of it is quite low."

"Any other ideas why they might have attacked your village?" Rimuru asked lightly, trying not to stir up bad memories while trying to gather information all the same.

"Well..." Benimaru took a second to think. "I'm not sure if there's any connection, but shortly before the attack a majin visited our village... 'I shall name you' is what he said, but he sounded too untrustworthy so I turned him away, and he cursed me as he left."

"A majin, huh? So you think he might have a grudge against you?"

"I had no choice. I want no such gift from an unsuitable master. I wouldn't accept a name from just anyone, after all."

Rimuru blushed at the subtle compliment.

"What was his name again? I think he said... Gela... Geli... Gele... Gelo?" Suddenly, Benimaru cut himself off as he, Ranga and Rimuru turned to face the shadow of the tree. From the darkness emerged Souei.

"The name of that majin was Gelmud," the blue-haired kijin supplied.

"Right, that's it." Benimaru confirmed.

"Gelmud? I think I've heard that name before..." Rimuru mumbled slightly before trailing off in thought.

"I bring a report, Rimuru-sama," Souei said, bringing Rimuru's attention back to the blue-haired scout who was still on one knee. "I were scouting the forest when I witnessed a group of Lizardmen."

"Lizardmen? Not Orcs?" Rimuru asked, surprised.

"Correct," Souei answered. "Because they make the marshlands their home, it seemed unnatural to see them near here, so I had to inform you at once. They seemed to be attempting negotiations with a nearby Goblin village. They may one day come here, as well." Rimuru nodded, deep in thought.

"I'll look into it. Thank you for the report." Souei bowed to Rimuru and turned to leave before his cousin's voice called for him.

"Ah, Souei," she greeted as she made her way up the small hill. Her cousin nodded to her, reaching over slightly to ruffle her hair. She was the youngest of the group and, despite being as stoic as he was, he couldn't help but show some brotherly affection for the blue-haired girl, especially after all that she had been through. She quickly swatted his hand away, readjusting her hair as best she could. Benimaru smirked a bit and made his way over, reaching to the top of her head as she pouted over her height difference compared to the two boys'.

"You're a mess, Miss Minnow," he said as he lightly brushed her hair away from the flower clip he had given her. It was surprisingly clean and unscathed after all she had been through, but it made his heart flutter a bit to know that she had been taking good care of it.

"And you're just mean, Sir Flamingo," she retorted as she attempted to mess with his already messy hair. He raised an eyebrow at her, as if daring her to try. She reached up, aiming for his bright red hair when suddenly he reached out and poked her side. She jerked her arm back at the ticklish sensation, managing to knock her elbow against his shoulder, giving both of them pain as they backed away with Benimaru holding his shoulder and Katsumi holding her elbow. Souei rolled his eyes at the two of them as they burst into laughter while Rimuru and Ranga just watched from the side.

Before and after they found Katsumi, the ogres were like night and day. They just seemed so much happier now that she was safely back with them. And he couldn't help but note the young master's reaction toward the girl and her subconscious reaction back. Perhaps they just needed a small push...

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I'm alive! I'm still getting headaches every so often, but I managed to get this chapter done! Also, just so no one gets confused, I decided to name her Katsumi instead of Chieko. Since the girls were named something related to beauty (according to google), I decided to stick with that and name her Katsumi with the meaning victorious beauty.

If y'all are also reading my OHSHC fanfic, it will take a bit longer compared to this one because I've already written down the scenes in detail for TTIGRAAS. I like to follow the animes so please be patient while I transcribe the scenes for my story <3

As always, let me know what you thought! <3

Stay safe and healthy!
ThePurpleDragon