Ancient Demon Lord Rimuru

10. Gaia

After the nerve wracking conversation, or rather, confrontation with Chloe and Hinata, Rimuru slumped back into his chair. This was more stressful than he thought it would be. To top that off, the others were also expecting an explanation. This was too much stress for Rimuru, but also in a sense exciting. This whole situation, despite being nerve wracking and stressful, was the whole reason he traveled back in time. No paperwork but instead, pure action. Such a situation couldn't, objectively speaking, considered an event fully packed with action, but to Rimuru, who knew how, especially Velzard and Velgrynd, could be, it was exciting and a bit scary. But that only added to the excitement, of course. After he mentally prepared himself, he rose from his chair and made his way upstairs.

'Seems like Milim has awoken, I can sense her on the balcony with the others.'

------------------------------------------------------------

When he arrived at the scene, he was tackled by a small dragon as soon as he was spotted. This dragon was of course Milim's baby dragon. He jumped on Rimuru and cuddled with him. Rimuru, surprised by this unexpected affection, just let it be and patted the dragon's head.

"Seems like you missed me, hm?"

"Kyui Kyui"

"Yes, I missed you too. You did well protecting Milim while she was a sleep. Good job!"

"Kyuuii Kyuii"

"No need to be modest here, little one, you did well."

"Kyuii..."

"I know, but you're going to grow strong enough to protect Milim for sure! Don't let these events affect you that much. I'm sure Milim could train you, once she gets the hang of her own powers, and I also could assist you, if you want to?"

To that, the baby dragon looked at Rimuru, with sparkles in his eyes.

"Kyuiiii!"

"Alright, it's settled then!"

While Rimuru was, in a way, conversing with the baby dragon, everyone present was baffled, except Milim for some reason. They looked at Rimuru, suspiciously, with demanding eyes. Rimuru, realizing this, was curious as why they were shocked this time before realizing what he, kind of, did.

'Oh shit! After so many years hanging out with Milim and Gaia, I got the hang of it and could understand Gaia to some level, but this shouldn't be possible for someone who just met him 3 days ago. How could I forget that?'

In the original timeline, Gaia, after some years, developed his own true dragon core with the help of Rimuru. As he was still a baby, he only let out his signature 'kyui' what Rimuru sorted out as baby sounds. But after he witnessed how Milim  conversed with Gaia casually, he couldn't help but ask how she could understand him. The answer delivered by her left Rimuru baffled again. The reason was simply "Milim ears". Rimuru didn't even question it, after all he witnessed everything from 'Milim eyes' to even 'Milim hairs'. It was easier to accept it than trying to understand it. After many years witnessing the conversations between Milim and Gaia, he could also converse with him. But unlike with Milim, it was more like a mother understanding the noises her baby made. He guessed, and it was mostly correct. Back to present time, nobody knew, or better, should know about all of this. That's why they had questioning looks on their faces.

"Oi Rimuru, don't tell me you understand that dragon..?"

As Rimuru suspected, Guy was the first to speak up. And this time, he demanded answers.

'How can I get out of this? I can't say that I kind of got used to it. Neither can I use the excuse that I'm kind of a true dragon myself. What to do, what to do, what do do...?'