Shuna, the strong-willed woman who always leads everyone, has a secret side she only shows in front of Rimuru. Her usual tough attitude is just a front she created to be useful to him.
One day, Rimuru visits Shuna's room because of a tiny scratch. But when they're alone, Shuna bursts into big tears. "When I'm with you, Rimuru-sama, I just can't keep it together." It's a special confession from her.
She's been holding back her pain, not wanting to show weakness. Rimuru gently holds her, strokes
By Rimuru's Side, You Cry, and Then You Smile - Rock Bottom Midnight ~Flames of Jealousy, and the Tears of Two~
The events of that night had been smoldering in Shuna's chest ever since.
The second floor of the Crimson Pavilion. Standing by the window, she could see the lights of the Central Office in the distance. Rimuru's office. The lamp was still on tonight.
(Rimuru-sama…)
Yesterday, she had pleaded, "Please look only at me." Rimuru had said, "Only you." Those words now stung faintly deep in her heart. Was it really only her? She wanted to confirm it, but she had neither the means nor the courage.
Even lying in bed in her nightclothes, her eyes remained wide awake.
It was well past midnight.
Suddenly, she heard a faint sound from outside. Shuna quietly rose and stepped into the hallway. She walked to a spot where she could see the back entrance of the Central Office from the Crimson Pavilion's window.
That was when it happened.
The back door opened.
"…Very well, the morning deployment will be as discussed."
The man in black murmured in a low voice. It was Souei. His golden, vertically-slitted eyes glinted for an instant in the moonlight. Beside him, an even larger shadow.
"Yeah, understood."
His unruly hair swayed in the wind. It was Benimaru.
The two exchanged a few more words, then vanished into the darkness of the night.
Shuna stood frozen in place.
(Those two… coming from Rimuru-sama's room?)
At this hour, coming from that location, there was no other destination but Rimuru's office. Benimaru was the one who had noticed something wrong with Shuna at the banquet and spoken to her. Souei normally hardly ever showed himself in public. Those two, late at night, in Rimuru's room.
Deep in her chest, a heat began to spread. The horns on her forehead throbbed. Beneath her bangs, her ogre instincts stirred restlessly.
(What did you talk about?)
(Rimuru-sama, what—)
Shuna clenched her fists until her nails dug into her palms, and burst out of the Crimson Pavilion.
She ran across the cobblestones toward the Central Office. The night wind slapped her flushed cheeks, but that was the least of her concerns. She raced up the stairs, to the third floor. Her heart pounded like a frantic alarm. Her breathing was ragged. When she stopped in front of Rimuru's room, she didn't even have the composure to knock lightly.
BANG!
"Rimuru-sama!"
She flung the door open, and Rimuru, who had been sorting documents at his desk, looked up with wide eyes.
"Shuna? What's wrong, at this hour?"
"Did you call Benimaru and Souei to your room tonight?"
Rimuru looked slightly startled, but quickly returned to his usual gentle expression.
"Ah, yeah. I had a bit of business to discuss with them."
He admitted it so casually. That lightness carved deeply into Shuna's heart.
(A bit? Business?)
Without telling me anything? At this late hour?
"What kind of… business?"
Shuna could tell her own voice was trembling. Rimuru lowered his brows in a troubled expression.
"That's… still a confidential matter. But it's nothing you need to worry about."
Nothing you need to worry about.
Those words pierced her, deeply, deeply.
"I am… Rimuru-sama's advisor. Confidential matters are precisely the things you should be consulting me about."
"Ah, you're right. But this time—"
"Am I the only one who doesn't know?"
Rimuru stopped mid-sentence.
"Shuna."
"I want you to look only at me… I told you that just yesterday."
Tears spilled over. She couldn't stop them. The mask of the perfect advisor crumbled away with an audible crack.
"You are the only one who's special. That is the truth."
Rimuru said it with a serious face.
Special.
That word now echoed hollowly.
"Special… you say."
To Benimaru, to Souei, to Shion too—surely he said the same words to them. The moment she thought that, her heart felt like it would burst.
"The word 'special'… how many times does it come out of your mouth, Rimuru-sama?"
She asked the question in a trembling voice. Rimuru was at a loss for words.
That silence was the clearest answer of all.
"…Please excuse me."
Shuna turned her back and fled into the hallway.
"Shuna, wait!"
Rimuru's voice rang out behind her. But she couldn't stop. As she ran, sobs escaped her. Only the sound of her own crying echoed through the cobblestone corridor. Her vision blurred with tears, and her feet tangled.
The moment she turned the corner of the hallway—
THUD!
"Ahh!"
She collided with someone.
Looking up, she saw Shion standing there. Her long purple hair swayed in the dim light of the corridor. Her large, strong-willed reddish-purple eyes were wide with surprise.
"Shuna-san!?"
"…Please move."
"With a face like that, I can't! You're crying because of Rimuru-sama, aren't you!?"
Shion's voice wasn't its usual bright tone—it was dead serious. That grated against Shuna's heart.
"It has nothing to do with you! This doesn't concern you!"
"It does! It concerns me too! You're crying over Rimuru-sama, aren't you!"
Shion pressed closer, not backing down a single step.
"Rimuru-sama… told me I was special. But I don't know if those are just words he says to everyone!"
"You got to hear it, Shuna-san! I've never once received words like that!"
At Shion's shout, something inside Shuna's head snapped.
"I'm telling you I'm suffering because even though I heard them, I can't believe them!!"
Before she knew it, she had grabbed Shion by the collar. Shion, refusing to lose, grabbed Shuna's arm right back. With her monstrous strength, Shion pushed Shuna against the wall, her back grinding into the stone with a crunch.
Shuna's flame-heat magic leaked out unconsciously. The air grew intensely hot, and the temperature in the hallway skyrocketed. The stone wall slowly turned red, and their hair danced in the scorching wind.
"I want him to look only at me! But even when he says 'only you,' I'm not happy at all!"
"I know! It's the same for me! No matter how much I shout that I love him, Rimuru-sama just always smiles!"
Large tears began to spill from Shion's eyes too.
"To Rimuru-sama, I might just be a secretary. But you're different, Shuna-san! That's why I said it was unfair!"
"It's not unfair… I just want to be special to Rimuru-sama too…"
The strength drained from Shuna's arms. Shion's hands also let go. The two of them collapsed onto the cobblestones just like that. Shoulders shaking, they sobbed like children.
"Why is it this painful?"
"Is just loving him not enough?"
There was no answer anywhere.
The cold night air flowed into the corridor. Gradually, Shuna's flame-heat magic subsided. The redness of the stone wall faded, and the temperature dropped. The two of them sat side by side in the hallway and looked at each other's tear-streaked, messy faces.
"…Shuna-san, your face is a mess."
"Shion, you've cried so much your eyes are swollen too."
They exchanged a small laugh. The tears still wouldn't stop, but the fierce anger from moments ago had vanished somewhere.
Eventually, they just sat there in silence, until the light streaming through the hallway window announced the morning.
"What do you think Rimuru-sama was talking about?"
"…I don't know."
The content of Benimaru and Souei's conversation. The substance of what Rimuru had called a "confidential matter."
(I have neither the means nor the courage to confirm it.)
Deep in her chest, last night's doubts still smoldered. The flames hadn't vanished. They had just, for the moment, grown quiet.
"But let's talk again. Whenever you feel like crying over Rimuru-sama."
Shion stood up and offered her hand to Shuna. When she took it, it was unexpectedly warm.
"…Yes."
Shuna gave a small nod and stood up on trembling legs. Her cheeks, dried of tear tracks, were warmed just a little by the morning light.
She had no answers. The true meaning of Rimuru's words, the content of Benimaru and Souei's secret talk—she still understood none of it. But—.
(I'm not alone.)
That thought, just for a moment, seemed to give a tiny bit of warmth to the frozen stone deep in her heart.
Night broke. An ordinary day at the Central Office was about to begin.
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