The stone entrance passed, the air changed. Cold. Damp. And thick. The miasma drifting across the entire Jura Great Forest felt completely different in quality. This was stagnant. The texture of miasma that had been circling in the same place for countless years. Rimuru Tempest proceeded down the stone-paved corridor in slime form. He examined the walls. Carvings. Countless of them. The same pattern as the seal stone was etched densely across the entire wall surface. Large ones, small ones, ancient ones half-faded away. On the ceiling. On the floor. (Who... made something like this...?) The seal stone in his pocket pulsed. Thump. He moved forward. A pale blue light leaked from deeper in the corridor. There was a sensation of being called. That's when cracks appeared in the stone beneath his feet. Crack! Stone fell from the ceiling. Boom! Rimuru reflexively spread his slime body thin to absorb the impact. The stone passed through his body like it was nothing, shattering against the corridor behind him. (This is bad, this is bad, this is bad.) The next stone came. This one was bigger. Rimuru stretched his body thin and pressed himself against the wall. The stone fell past his face with a deafening roar. (This happened in my previous world too... when there was an earthquake in the office building...) Crack crack crack!!! The collapse accelerated. Cracks spread across the entire ceiling. A rain of stones poured down. Rimuru ran. Dodging stones in slime form, slipping through, deflecting, pushing deeper. Whether in his past life or after reincarnation, he kept ending up in situations like this. Even as a demon lord, nothing changed. "This is such a pain...!" His curse, heard by no one, was drowned out by the sound of crumbling stone. The light grew stronger. The space opened up. A circular great hall. At least twenty meters in diameter. In the center stood a stone pillar like a pedestal. From its tip, pale blue light spiraled upward toward the ceiling like a tornado. An outlet. This was the source of it all. Rimuru headed toward the pedestal. Dodging falling stones. One hit his shoulder. Lucky it was a slime body—if this were a human body, bones would have shattered. He stood before the pedestal. He pulled the seal stone from his pocket. It glowed intensely. As he brought it closer to the outlet, the light grew even stronger. Rimuru aimed the stone at the center of the outlet. The moment it made contact—— Something flowed into his mind. Not images. Sensation. The flow of miasma throughout the entire ruin was analyzed all at once through Rimuru's body. The Predator skill, using the seal stone as a bridge, connected to the ruin's miasma system. He understood. He understood everything. This ruin was built by someone for Galmburg and the others. Galmburg were originally creatures that absorbed too much of this forest's miasma. To prevent their instincts from going haywire from being pulled by the miasma, someone had carefully, meticulously built this facility to seal away the excess miasma. The bears had been protected. But time passed. The seal deteriorated. Uncontrolled miasma leaked out bit by bit, beginning to drive the bears' instincts mad. There was no malice. Galmburg had never had malice to begin with. (They were victims too... the bears...) For a moment, Rimuru thought that quietly. After seven days of being tossed around, after Benimaru was wounded and people were driven from their homes, this was the answer. There were no bad guys anywhere. He gripped the seal stone firmly. Looking at the tip of the pedestal, there was a stone depression. A shape that fit the seal stone perfectly. He pushed it in. Click. It locked in place. A moment of silence came. Then the entire ruin trembled. Boom boom boom boom!!! He thought it was over, but the next instant——the pale blue light swirled and changed direction. The miasma that had been leaking out scattered now converged toward the outlet. Gathering. Being organized. Like tangled threads being undone one by one, returning to their original form. The pale blue light turned green. A calm, deep green. The color of the Jura Great Forest. The trembling of the ceiling stopped. The falling stones stopped. It became quiet. Rimuru watched that light for a while. --- Outside, the battle had ended. Or rather——the way it ended was strange. Shion Kamiya stood with both hands covered in honey extended forward, holding back a super-large Galmburg seven meters tall. That Galmburg suddenly stopped moving completely. The pale blue markings on its back disappeared. Whoosh. Quietly, smoothly. The super-large Galmburg looked around. Its large eyes saw Shion. Saw the forest trees. Saw the sky. As if confirming something. Then it opened its mouth wide. It was a yawn. It lumbered down to the ground. Boom!! The earth shook. It didn't move again. It was sleeping. "[surprised]...Huh? It fell asleep?" Shion looked down at the collapsed bear, Hellkizer still shouldered. The bell on her ear chimed softly. In the distance, Benimaru Mikazuchi was collecting flames in his palm. The surrounding Galmburg all had their markings fade and were leisurely walking off into the forest. The bears, now stripped of their ferocity, were remarkably peaceful. They had the look of "what were we even doing for seven days?" "[cold]...So it's over." Benimaru murmured. The bandage on his right shoulder was stained red. But his voice was, somehow, a little softer than usual. A translucent body emerged from the ruin's entrance. Rimuru. He returned to human form while squinting at the outside light. The morning air entered his lungs. He breathed deeply. Completely different from the stagnant air inside the ruin. The smell of a living forest. "[excited]Rimuru-sama!!" Shion came running over. Still covered in honey. "[serious]Wait. Don't touch me." "Oh, right." Shion pulled her hands back. Honey dripped from her fingers. Shuna Onizawa walked over quietly. Her long pale pink hair swayed in the morning breeze. Light caught on her small horns. Her clear aquamarine eyes looked at Rimuru's face as if confirming he was safe. "[gentle]...Thank goodness you're safe." It was a small voice. Not a report or confirmation. Just a relieved voice. Rimuru gave a wry smile. "[serious]Yeah. It's over." That's when footsteps came from beyond the crowd. Pitter-patter-patter. A small goblin child slipped between the adults' legs and came running. The same child who had been crying at the assembly hall before. His large eyes were now wet not with tears but with light. "[excited]Demon Lord! The bears are gone!!" The child threw himself at Rimuru. Rimuru lifted the child up. A solid weight settled in his arms. "[gentle]Yeah. It's safe now. You can go home." The child patted Rimuru's cheek. Squishy. Squishy squishy. "[laughing]You're still squishy~!" Laughter rose from those around them. Adult goblins, soldiers, executives too. Rimuru laughed as well. This time, he could laugh properly. --- They returned to Rimurus in the early afternoon. The great conference room of Volga Hall——a stone space that could hold sixty——had all the faces gathered for the first time in a while. Shuna's notepad, Benimaru's stern face, Shion's dumplings from who-knows-where, everything as usual. Everything as usual, yet something was different. Shuna spread out the apiary restoration plan. "[serious]Seventeen beehives in Volkera's flower garden are safe. The remaining thirteen will require about ten days for repairs. We can resume supplying raw materials to Haruna Hall from the end of the month." "[serious]Regular patrols around the ruin are necessary too. We should establish a system to check its condition monthly." "[serious]There's a possibility of undiscovered ruins from the Mist Border to the deep interior. We should consider additional investigation." The meeting was proceeding smoothly. Shion opened her mouth. "[excited]I mean, if I hadn't lured the biggest one with honey, the whole operation wouldn't have worked, right?" Benimaru quietly raised an eyebrow. "[cold]I cut open the front line so the path was clear. That came first." "[serious]...Are you both quite finished?" Shuna quietly placed her notepad on the table. Her voice was soft, but her expression wouldn't yield. "[serious]Without my barrier tunnel, Rimuru-sama would never have reached the ruin. I trust you understand that." Three gazes clashed. Rimuru watched the exchange between the three while opening a desk drawer. He pulled out a package of dumplings he'd hidden away. He placed it down on the table with a thunk. "[sarcastic]So you're all amazing. Let's celebrate with dumplings." All three reached out simultaneously. Only Shuna paused for a moment. "[serious]...That is not what I was saying." But her hand was already holding a dumpling. "[laughing]Shuna's sneaking one too!" "[cold]...Be quiet." Rimuru laughed and popped a dumpling in his mouth. Red bean paste. This was definitely the best. The air in the conference room slowly loosened. --- When the dumpling package was empty. Rimuru suddenly spoke. "[serious]...I can't get those murals out of my head." Shuna picked up her notepad. "[serious]The murals, you mean. From deep in the ruin." "[serious]Yeah. The seals carved there are from before Tempest was founded. Someone built that place before this nation even existed. Who the hell... I can't figure it out." Benimaru crossed his arms. "[cold]An entity powerful and knowledgeable enough to build a ruin for Galmburg. That's considerable." "[serious]Seriously? That's not good, is it?" The conference room grew a little quieter. Rimuru looked at his own hand. The Predator skill that had absorbed the seal stone was still sensing something. Far away, faintly. Like the stone was sleeping, quiet but still distinctly pulsing. It wasn't over. That was the sensation he had. Then the door opened. A goblin messenger. He was out of breath from running. "[scared]Report! Near the eastern border of Tempest, at the Jade Crossing——the ford of the Melva River——a group carrying the flag of a human nation was spotted! They appear to be an investigation team...!" Silence fell. Shuna quickly wrote something in her notepad. Benimaru's golden eyes sharpened. Shion tapped the hilt of Hellkizer with her palm. Rimuru, while putting the last dumpling in his mouth, thought for a moment. (The forest's abnormality leaked out. Someone's making a move.) "[sarcastic]...Looks like things are about to get interesting again." He said it with a quiet laugh. Shuna already had the next investigation documents ready. She slid them across to Rimuru. "[serious]Documents for the eastern border investigation. Please review them." "[sarcastic]That's too fast... when did you make these?" "[gentle]I tend to over-prepare. Please don't forget." As Rimuru made a bitter face and flipped through the documents, Shuna continued in a small voice. "[whispers]...Rimuru-sama. Before we begin the investigation, I have one request." "[surprised]What is it?" "[gentle]Would you like to develop a new dumpling flavor together? Among the medicinal herbs we found in the ruin, there are some materials that might work for sweets... I thought we could investigate while we work on it." "[surprised]Just the two of us?" Shuna quietly looked forward. "[serious]...It's a practical matter involving material verification, after all." She corrected herself. But the tips of her ears had turned slightly red. Rimuru noticed that redness. He paused for a moment. "[gentle]That sounds good. Let's work on it together." That's all he said. Shuna's hand holding the notepad stopped for just a moment. Benimaru and Shion exchanged a quick glance. They said nothing. Shion was holding back laughter, evident from the faint chime of her bell earrings as they swayed. Outside