Rimuru's POV:
Ah geez,what's the time now? The skies were already dark before I realized it,I see it definitely passed dinner time already. Diablo would be still at Farmus dealing with shitty politics that I myself this life apart from the responsibilities as a ruler,tried to prevent interacting.
Yet he's already back some time ago because of how quickly it obeys our demands and the entire matter resolved on itself,thanks to Veldanava's support alone. Either out of fear,or respect,they didn't do anything stupid,and acted as they should have been.
Good,good. We can have less shit to deal with,consider that after the weapon testing earlier today morning,till now I'm torturing myself with work.
And humans really never change.
But now,I should really be getting up from this chair,away from these paperwork and finding something to eat. Man,having a human body as a slime really gave me back many human privileges i enjoyed in the past,not gonna lie.
Perhaps I should check on Velda? I know that for sure he is either still testing the usefulness of the set of clone trooper armor blueprint,or he had already done with it and was enjoying himself at god knows where.
<Perhaps master tonight want to have some alone?>
'Ah Ciel,you can truly read minds,even my subconscious too,hm?'
'You...can say that,Ciel. That sounds really appealing for an idea.'
<Fufu,I'm your assistant. Of course!>
Well,expressing your ego every once a while in a good manner is completely acceptable,so I'm not against that.
But just don't do it Veldora level,and I by that means overly expressing,very over.
Eitherway,I should just stop thinking and go somewhere else. This office bores me to hell!
"Oh,Rimuru-sama. Going somewhere?"
As soon as I took my first step out of my office and into the hallway,I was greeted by Benimaru who was coincidentally passing by on the way to the exit.
"Yo! Yeah,I am going to find something to eat now,although I suppose it's quite late already being 10 late in the night,but still they shouldn't all be closed just yet."
"I see. Well,wanna tag along? I want some food too,now that you mention it." The horned general suggests it to me,and I find no reason not to accept it.
"Sure! I don't see why not." I said as I joined him and we left the level and down to the next,the last and finally out of the building.
We walked through the streets,gaining less attention than usual due to the time and the fact that many are already back at their homes resting. We continued walking while chatting about various topics as we are trying to find some interesting store that catches our attention enough.
For a while,we see that the ones we are interested in are all but closed,so we tried a different target list.
Bars.
Yep,we shifted from good meals to good nights & drinks.
And it didn't take us long to find one.
"Look Benimaru pal! There's one flashy one there,why don't we pay them a visit? You say?"
I pointed joyfully at a still opening bar with some monsters and people going in and out,to which Benimaru also takes notice.
"Yeah,let's do it!" He agreed and we walked and entered the bar,gaining the eyes of many.
"Hey,start something. The entire bar's tone and noises instantly shutted down as we entered seconds ago."
"What?! Why me,my lord?!" Although we are whispering at this point,I could swear that benimaru still,almost shouted out loudly.
"Just do it."
He gulps before stepping in front one step and awkwardly waves to everyone staring at us.
"Hey,don't mind us..yeah! Don't mind us being here! Me and my lord just wanted some time going here and there,so,please continue with your businesses!"
Still the silence. Not helping,Benimaru.
"Say something else,goddammit!" I whispered to him,which he desperately replied,although still whispering.
"What do you expect me to say?! I'm a general,not a man specializing in super charisma!"
As we were secretly bickering,finally one of the customers started a word.
"A-are you the real deal?! Benimaru, the one from posters,the general of the Tempest military?!"
That's a human one,probably an adventurer,and a female one.
Ooooh,your girl fans Beni!
"Yeah,I am." Benimaru replies.
"Then is that..the Demon lord besides you,Rimuru Tempest?!" She then proceeds to point at me instead of Benimaru,again in visible shock.
"Oh,me? Guess so,hello there!" I casually waves at her,just like what I always do with people that recognise me.
But this time,maybe it's not that much of a good idea I thought it would be!
"That's the demon lord?! I didn't expect him to look exactly like and height as tall as described! So handsome!"
"Benimaru-sama is still as cool as always!~"
Ahem,Benimaru,your girl fans are literally everywhere.
"Can I have a signature please?"
"To think that I would meet the demon lord himself in such a place,the luck of my life is going to run out!"
"Say,are you married?!"
Okay,okay,I heard some really weird and I mean WEIRD questions!
And thanks to how heated the scene has become,we spent 30 minutes just answering the questions and requests,plus calming down the folk to have them going back to their original business at hand.
After all the fuss,we both sighed with relief and sat down near the entrance and ordered some drinks and snacks.
"Rimuru-sama,have you seen Ranga today?" Benimaru suddenly asks while taking a sip from the newly served wine.
"Yeah? I played with him earlier while I'm in my office before I told him to stretch some bones like his fellow pack somewhere in the forest. Probably went on night patrols with other units,nothing to worry about."
"Eh,I'm not worrying anyway,he's strong. Just a bit curious."
I watched him telling me that while taking a bite of the potato chips on the plate,before ordering a plate of salad.
"Salad here? Seriously?"
"What? I didn't eat much today. So I thought something as simple as a bowl of salad would pair well with some wine and chips."
"Well,whatever you say my lord."
"Come on,don't Shuna make you eat vegetables almost,if not everyday?"
Benimaru suddenly shivered in fear after hearing the keywords "Shuna" and "Vegetables' as I mentioned them.
"E-eh,about that,she did force me to eat carrots everyday..." He tried to look away with fear shown in his eyes,my guy really was traumatized by his little sister.
"Is that really that scary?"
"You have no idea about it anyway!"
Hearing that from a stressed Benimaru,I can't help but burst into laughter all while he is getting more and more awkward and kept on telling me to shut the hell up,no way man,not tonight! Tonight,we ain't going down without some fun!
We should explore this bar that seemingly was more spacious than it looks from the outside,having two floors in fact.
"Actually,would you like to explore this bar a little bit? It's actually way bigger inside than it looked like outside."
"Oh,sure."
We both stood up and started to walk around in the bar. We saw some table games,those from a casino,although there's only 2. Not being a big fan of gambling,I paid it no mind although Benimaru did stare at them for a few seconds.
We walked up to the 2nd floor,there we found that there are way more people here rather than downstairs as this is the dance floor. Filled with flashing colors of light from all directions and randoms going on to the stage voluntarily and dancing with the crowd down there while having their drink along with the music being played from the music player device in the middle.
"Huh,quite crowded." Was the first thing coming out of my mouth. To be fair,I was actually quite surprised that many people are still around during this time at night.
But remembering my life as a normal guy in Japan,I remembered those times when my damn boss would host parties at literally midnight and all the way till 4am.
'Maybe it's just me thinking that. No way I'm finding people I know here.' I thought to myself before finishing my glass of wine in my hands. Looking at Benimaru,he's already got another half bottle.
"You like drinking that much?" I asked him,which he shrugged and answered.
"I do like it,but not a huge addict."
"That's better. Too much ain't good for your health."
"But I thought we all have resistance skills at this point?"
"Oh,you're right."
Heck,I remembered too much of my life before any reincarnation that I said the line I always say to my colleagues back in Japan!
'My bad,I guess.'
I thought before looking at the stage where a new duo of dancers got up there replacing the pair that left for downstairs. They are quite enjoying this,aren't they?
"What are you looking at,my lord?"
"Nothing in particular,just those dancers."
"I see. Guess what,want to see who dances better?"
"Ehhh.."
Oi,don't think that I can't dance because I hesitated! I'm actually quite good at it,I dare to say from the sheer amount of damn times I attended those banquets,voluntarily or not,taught me how to dance in many styles and forms if I needed to use them.
"No? I choose not to."
That doesn't mean I took a liking to it!
"With all due respect,Rimuru-sama. Are you scared?" said Benimaru with a goddamn face that is SO TAUNTING!
"No! I will never be scared just to have a dance off,never!" I irritably protested Benimaru's accusations,although acting like this is what he wanted,I must do it either way! This is my pride!
"Tsk,fine! I ain't backing down this time,so you better give me a good enough competition!"
"Hoho,I can finally be the first out of all the executives to see you dance,my lord!"
As we were at the verge of fighting,a familiar voice interrupted both of us from doing anything stupid.
"Rimuru,Benimaru? What the hell are you doing in this place at such a time?"
'Why the hell is she here out of everyone?!' I thought to myself in slight panic,after recognising the source of the voice.
'Oops,he's in a really shitty situation now.'
I swear that I heard Revan muttering through the holocron,although it's too noisy around to hear it clearly.
"Velzard,that's my question? Why the hell are you here out of all places?! Since when?!"
"Oh,I'm just here to spend some time,nothing more."
"Ah,I see. Wait,did you hear our conversation just then?" I asked her uncertainty.
"No,what are you guys talking about?"
"Rimuru-sama agreed to a dance off! Woohoo!" Either if it's a shitty plan or coincidence,Benimaru bumped in and told her the very thing I was trying to hide for this moment.
Shit! She knows about it!
"Rimuru going..on a dance..here?" She slowly said,seemingly still processing with the information she just received freshly.
"What uh,are you thinking? Velzard?" I cautiously asked about her condition,as if she was a computer that was inserted with a USB that contains hundreds of files!
"O-oh! Nothing special really. I'm just really surprised that you are actually going to have a dance,and I mean dancing here,certainly you are doing the more stylish ones?"
"You can say that. This is not one of those glamorous halls of luxury,so no way I'm dancing in here like at those places."
That brings up another problem I have in hand...
What song should I insert in to be played?
<Initiating procedure: Creating new skill to meet the requirements of dancing->
'Ciel,I am not that useless to the point that I can't dance on my own.'
<Are you sure?>
'Yes,now be quiet for a moment!'
<Fufu,roger that.>
Honestly,if she gave more useful advice as she could choose to read my mind or not it would be so much more helpful.
Maybe I should ask Velzard? Yeah,I should definitely do that.
"Hey,Velzard?"
"Hm?" She looks at me while crossing her arms and leaning on a wall.
"Mind choosing a song for me to dance with?"
"I would love to, but how am I supposed to play it? The songs in that machine probably wouldn't suit my interest anyway,and I have no discs on me. In fact,I never ever had any discs! It's you and big brother playing with them all the time."
"Oh,about that,don't worry." Seeing her pouting,I walked up and patted her head gently,trying to make her mood better. "I always have somewhat of a plan in my mind."
She immediately turned her head away,although she didn't resist me. Hah,quite adorable,wasn't she?
Also,why the hell is Benimaru using an indescribable expression staring at me? It was like he was holding off his laughter and he's really trying hard on it.
"So what plan do you have this time?" She finally turned to face me again and asked,I then opened my personal space where I store stuff and pulled out a disc.
"See this?" I waved,which she nodded. "Now,put your hands on it,and concentrate to imagine the entirety of the song,play it inside your mind."
She did as I told,closing her eyes and over a sudden,a dim purple light came out from the disc and slowly,literal ripples could be seen on the disc and after a few seconds,it stopped and things returned to normal.
'Phew,luckily the process wasn't super flashy or else shit might happen..' I thought as Velzard handed the disc to me.
"It's finished?" She said.
"It is indeed finished. I will just input it later,and I certainly hope it wasn't something weird or stupid." I sighed while putting the disc into the pocket of my coat,while grabbing a drink and watching as the dancers finished their turn.
The pair of dancers stepped down from the stage,and not long after,a guy that's probably the host started literally shouting with his microphone.
"And the next and final pair of dancers of tonight would be..!" Oh ho,what a development! Ladies and gentlemen,tonight we have two of our country's greatest figures gracing us with their presence!"
I instinctively looked at Benimaru as he's now wearing a smug smile on his face. Damn brat must've registered while I didn't notice with a paper!
Anyway,that doesn't change the fact that the host is still shouting,only getting more excited.
"First of all is a great,intelligent general that led our troops into battle against outside threats! The king of flames,minister of defense,Benimaru-sama!!!"
................
Hmph,silence? Let me do a countdown.
3...
2...
1...Ka-boom.Right as I had predicted,the crowd was immediately heated up and got even louder than before in excitement and hype.
"Hehe Rimuru-sama,I can't wait to see how the crowd would react to your reveal!" He whispered in my ear before walking on the dance stage with everyone cheering for him.
"Okay folks! Calm down, we haven't finished yet!"
The host loudly proclaimed and everyone quickly quieted down in response. Oh boy,I'm even slightly anxious.
"The second participant,would be our great demon lord,the one who built up everything in this land we are standing above from scratch by himself! Our proud guardian,and protector!"
'Great..here goes nothing.'
"Let us welcome our ruler,Lord Rimuru himself on the stage tonight!" Okay,this part I wouldn't even talk about,because I swear that if I'm just a normal human,I'm certainly deaf now!
Before walking on the stage,I glanced at Velzard as she gave me a teasing smirk and put up a 'Go for it' sign. My god,maybe coming here is a bad idea.
I've been to countless meetings with kings alike,hundreds of banquets,but never have I been as anxious as I am now,although not that anxious.
After I'm up on the stage,and gave the host my signature because he wanted it after Benimaru also gave him one too on his fancy glasses,I walked towards the device which I inserted the disc within.
"So,what's the song? Gonna go for the beat!"
"Shut up Benimaru,wait for the song already!"As I finished my sentence,a familiar music immediately started playing around the hall,one that I actually took a personal liking in.
'Hm,great taste Velzard,I will have to thank her later.'
"Ha! Benimaru,it seems that I got the jackpot tonight." I proudly exclaimed while starting to take my steps and spinning.
"We will see about that,my lord!" He said as he also started to make his move.
""Let tonight be engraved in history!"" Both of us shouted and started to fully immerse ourselves in the music and having our dancing showdown along with the beat. Sometimes I never realize how much I missed this.
But even though I'm completely into the beats,my senses told me that someone down there whispered something that I probably wouldn't want to know about.
"Fufu,don't worry,Rimuru." Whispered Velzard as she stood at the corner,holding a recording orb as she giggled. "Big brother and the others will surely love to watch it sooner or later,tomorrow.."
Boy,I'm literally in the middle of the spotlight while dancing with cheers all over the place,why am I getting some unexplainable chills behind my back?
<Perhaps I know..?>
'Ciel,let me have some fun for now so please be quiet..'