WE HAVE DISCORDS! JOIN THEM NOW! mu1622
Velgrynd POV
It was simple enough to get into the park after being seen at the entrance, I was always recognized by Rimuru's subordinates. They knew better than to approach me, but it was a nice change of pace from the empire at times, where no one recognized me unless I gave them vague hints.
Aoki was also recognized, and that made perfect sense considering the child was so closely related with Rimuru. I was unsure of her being a public figure, but it didn't matter, as her exact nature would still be difficult for them to parse without Rimuru explaining it.
I doubt he had, but they could still feel the connection with Rimuru, and that was enough for us both to get in for free. I insisted on paying, but they refused my offer.
I attempted to take Aoki to the child section of the park, however she adamantly refused, specifically saying.
"There is nothing there I fear." She seemed to have latched onto my description of what exactly the feeling of thrill is, as an overcoming of one's own fears. I didn't mind it though, as it gave me hope that she would be a perfect sparring partner in the future, unlike Veldora.
Rimuru would sometimes do it, but he had no sense of thrill, avoiding combat whenever he could. I loved him, but he was no fun a lot of the time. Maybe when he gets a bit older, he will grow a taste for battle.
It was a good thing that at least one of my siblings had a child that wasn't unstable, I didn't need to concern myself with her destroying the world when riled up, like Milim. Otherwise I would have quite liked to spar with little Milim from time to time.
So, the first ride we attempted ended up being one of the larger 'roller coasters.'
Aoki fused herself to her seat by partially melting through her clothes, but it seemed the ride attendant didn't notice. The small slime would have likely been too tiny to ride otherwise, so it was for the best. Not that a fall from a roller coaster would hurt her.
The little one ended up holding my hand tightly when getting to the peak of the roller coasters, and tightly closing her eyes when falling. She certainly needed more flying lessons, a fear of heights just wouldn't do for someone who is the child of a true dragon.
Soon after we went on two more rides, and Aoki was still mildly shaken up, when we encountered a human boy that I vaguely recognized from Aoki's naming ceremony.
He seemed to have a ring which connected him to my ba- little brother. I needed to remember he wasn't a baby anymore, he had a child of his own now.
Regardless, the human was happy to speak with the young slime. "Hello Aoki! Good afternoon, what are you doing here?"
Aoki stared at the boy for several solid moments, and didn't speak in turn. The slime's skills were all reacting to the presence of the human, and she seemed to be attempting yet another analysis on him.
Her skills were starting to get very refined for one of her age.
I could see it too, the fiery jealousy bubbling from within her soul and out into her spirit, all directed at the boy. In particular it was directed at the ring the boy had affixed to his right hand. It seemed deeply fused to his spirit, and even partially fused to his soul.
It even had small connections with his skills. Meanwhile, one more thing I could see was that it was connected with my little brother, in some way. That was the source of the jealousy my ward was generating.
It was impressive, and I enjoyed the little slime's fiery emotion, but unfortunately I couldn't encourage it. I knew Rimuru would not be happy if I did, considering the boy's connection to him.
So I simply smiled passively instead. "Aoki, we should be going."
"No." The small slime didn't accept my offer to get away from the object of her fury, instead turning back to the boy. "Hello..."
She seemed to want to force herself to interact with him, even if she was hiding a lot of resentment under the surface.
I suspected something had happened between them recently for it to be this extreme.
The boy shivered a bit, but kept that smile plastered onto his face. It was even a little difficult for me to tell if it was genuine, but it was. "Do you wanna go on some rides with me?"
She nods, before turning away. "I will beat your challenge." She didn't really seem to understand what the boy meant, but that is understandable in such a situation.
It would be interesting to see her gain a skill such as dragon eye later in life, perhaps she'd become more tactful.
Aoki's POV
I wouldn't let Iruma beat me, I would overcome more of my fears than he would in this amusement park challenge. That was my plan, even if he didn't seem all that shaken up about my refusal to lose to him.
I'd killed him physically, so I knew I was stronger than him. That didn't seem to make him fear me though... So, I needed to prove myself to be mentally superior as well. Perhaps then he would finally become my subordinate.
So we went around the park, riding more of these roller coasters and rides, as I analyzed each to understand how they functioned. It may be useful for later, after all.
I couldn't exactly overcome it, only managing to keep my eyes open on the smaller ones. I did loosen my grip on the seat though, and even attempted one without fusing myself to the seat. It was difficult to stay on it for that ride though, so I was barely able to stop myself from hiding in my true form.
The sensation of falling was still just too much.
Iruma, though, had for the most part been fine with these rides, he would sometimes become frightened and exclaim out in shock with a yell. Otherwise though, his reactions were less than mine.
I was losing, and I couldn't let that happen.
So we finally came to the last ride, or at least. What my aunt said would be the last one. She seemed to be frowning more as we went along, instead of smiling like she had been when she arrived.
However she didn't seem to try to get rid of the Demons and Iruma like she had at first.
She accepted their presence now, almost seeming to know what my motivations were as I was carrying them out.
This ride was called 'Ocean Splash.' I was able to read one of the signs using Magic Sense, Analysis, and All Of Creation together. It was translated into thoughts I could understand. An ocean being a large body of water that contained some of the largest creatures on earth.
Meanwhile a splash is having water become airborne and hit something or someone.
I was glad I had learned how to do this, as it would make my reading lessons go by much faster, no longer needing to put so much effort into understanding the meaning of the words and cataloging them away. It took me an entire second for a word before.
I concluded this would be the ride in which I needed to beat Iruma by overcoming my fear completely.
So as the coaster managed to get into a height, I began to breathe like Rimuru did sometimes to calm down. I knew I didn't need to, but Mother was right that it was calming while in a human form. So I managed to prevent myself from gripping the seat tightly or fusing to it, even as we fell.
Meanwhile Iruma actually did yelp.
I was going to celebrate my victory, as we passed into a glass tunnel that went under the pool of water that the ride was built into.
It gave me a momentary distraction, but it was quite shiny. So I decided to analyze it.
The glass was a simple material called 'acrylic,' but the water... It wasn't just water. It was poison! Dangerous poison that would cause a slime to melt if touched!
It was filled with a high amount of salt that would melt me if I touched it... And the only thing to protect me from such a fate was a thin piece of 'acrylic'...
I yelped and began to shake, and breathe deeply to try and calm myself. It wasn't working as I stared above us. Massive creatures swam through the poison like it was not a dangerous substance, and we were meters below the surface.
If it broke I could not escape.
I felt someone grab onto my hand, and it was Iruma seated next to me. "Hey, hey... It's okay. These rides are really safe." He pat my head now that the ride was slowing down and traversing the tunnel slowly.
"See? We aren't going so fast, and that glass is a dozen centimeters thick. It won't break, and none of the salt will touch you." He reached out and dragged his hand gingerly along the glass to show me what he meant.
It really was under very little stress, even with him putting considerable pressure on it after a few moments.
My deep breaths caught up as well, and slowly... I stopped freaking out.
A moment later though... I realized I lost.
I huffed and looked away from the human and his tricks. He beat me in a dirty way... He didn't overcome his fear! He overcame mine. That is cheating.
He still smiled at me and he seemed genuine enough, but I couldn't accept that. Clearly he gave me this challenge knowing he would win.
It couldn't be any other way.
"Sorry if that made you upset, you just looked like you really needed help." The human looked away and back out at the creatures floating in the poison around us.
I kept my physical gaze off of him, but watched him with magic sense. He wasn't celebrating or gloating about his victory... So maybe it was genuine. At least slightly.
I did need the help, but I couldn't say that aloud, it would be humiliating.
So instead, I concluded I would passively accept this, as Iruma has referred to it before, 'friendship.' If he was really so insistent on it.
I still wasn't satisfied with my loss, though.
Velgrynd POV
I was becoming frustrated with my attempts to make the child happy. Aoki was not enjoying herself, and on that ride, the human boy had been the one to help her calm down.
I wasn't even aware it was the salt that was frightening her, as it didn't make sense. She was a demi-spiritual entity, no salt could ever harm her.
I sighed softly into my cheek, keeping it quiet enough for none but a god to hear.
Picking up the child, and placing her on my shoulders, I decided on a change of scenery to something I knew Rimuru always, and I mean always, enjoyed. "Aoki, would you like to go get dinner before we return to Rimuru?"
I didn't care at this point if those majin and the human followed us, it wouldn't matter. They also seemed to know more about the child than I did, so even if it was annoying, their presence was likely for the best.
So, I took Aoki to the premiere restaurant of the park, something not exactly what I'd consider 'fancy' but I would still consider to be one of the better places in Tempest to eat. It was a reservation-based eating experience, but I knew for a fact that a whole room was reserved for Rimuru's highest subordinates and their guests.
So it didn't matter regardless. My presence alone could likely get a group of twenty inside, let alone a measly five.
It was a steak-house, as the humans called it. Serving beef and other meats fileted and cooked with a grill. Some of the more specialty meats were on a restricted menu, but with good reason. Eating something like the 'bull-deer' would likely kill a normal human with the amount of magicules inside the meat.
Even well cooked, it could still be fatal.
Many of the items on the menu required an adventuring license to purchase, at least for humans.
I wasn't totally sure if it would be fatal in all cases though, smaller cuts would likely be safe, but not in the quantities served in the full steak.
It wouldn't matter for anyone in this party, I could see the human had a hefty magicule resistance for his level. Not just a basic resistance, an extra resistance.
Upon walking in and coming face to face with the podium clerk, the goblina manning the podium immediately rang a bell and another hobgoblin came to lead us to a separate room.
"I apologize for my tardiness, Madam Velgrynd." The hobgoblin put a lot into his show of an appearance, and while it was frustrating in terms of wanting to be treated as a normal person, in this situation it was fitting and expected. Not to mention useful.
"Don't worry about it," I paused for just a moment to read the goblin's name engraved into his soul, that was a little more difficult than reading skills. "Gobyuel."
The goblin was shocked for a moment, but quickly composed himself. "Would you like a separate table for you and the child, or a single table for the party?"
"A single table is fine." I didn't want this to take a long time to set up, considering the slime on my shoulders was already impatient.
Gobyuel nodded and turned to another member of his staff, whispering a few orders off to them, before leading us to the largest table in the room and pulling the head seat for me.
Aoki didn't wait for the goblin to take out a seat for her, simply taking one next to me and waiting impatiently for food. It was cute to see this from a younger and less restrained slime.
I give her a soft smile before waiting for the rest of the party to sit, and menus to be passed out.
I was mildly worried the restaurant may not have enough food for Aoki, as I'd seen Rimuru clean this place out before, but I was confident that I would be able to stop the slime from eating before she went that far.
Waiting for everyone to choose their dishes was mildly irritating, because I wanted to speak to the old majin, but I was able to force myself to wait.
Once everyone was finally finished speaking to Gobyuel, and the hobgoblin left us to our own private discussions, I was finally able to speak directly.
"What is your name? I can tell you aren't of this world at least, but you are named." It was difficult to read something that wasn't inscribed properly, so I didn't decide to put in the effort.
"Ah, I am Sullivan. A demon of the Netherworld, but not of your Hell." That explained the similarities the majin possessed toward real demons, but it wasn't enough for me to call him a demon personally.
I nodded regardless and moved on to the subject of Aoki. "How long have you known Rimuru, and his child? I saw you at the naming ceremony, but have not seen you before. So I suspect you knew the child before they were named?"
Sullivan nodded. "Yes. The little one used to be a normal slime that Rimuru had taken a fondness for while staying in my world. I suppose my gushing about my adoptive grandson may have rubbed off on your brother." He gestured to the human sitting next to Aoki, and that explained a particular amount of the context behind the whole situation.
If Rimuru had become jealous of an old majin who adopted a human, it makes sense for him to decide to adopt a child of his own.
However, in this case it is more akin to promotion than adoption. Aoki is more similar to Rimuru than most children are to their parents, almost a perfect copy of a younger Rimuru, in fact.
I could tell though, that Ciel has tampered with many of those skills.
It gave me the suspicion of Aoki herself in truth, being a manas.
Wouldn't be confronting my little brother about such silly theories though, mostly because Ciel's retaliation would be immense if I did.
"Little brother has a fondness of things he finds himself enjoying, so perhaps it did. It is nice to know he has a jealous side, and that he can become so passionate." I chuckled to myself lightly. Perhaps I could use that to finally convince him to spar me.
"Hoho." The old majin joined my chuckle and explained further. "It makes perfect sense, my Iruma is so well behaved and has become a beacon of happiness in my life." He turns over to gaze at his grandson.
I felt a bit weird at him referring to it that way, but I still understood it.
Beginning to get a bit frustrated under the surface, I decided to think more about what exactly Rimuru, or more accurately, what exactly Ciel had planned behind all this.
Does Rimuru wish to retire?
Sullivan didn't seem to notice me becoming distant from the discussion though. "You see, after all these hundreds of years, it is nice to have a child around the house again. Especially knowing they are my own. I hope Rimuru much the same joy in his own experience with Aoki."
I realized something from what he said, but it was frustrating in its own way.
I sort of wanted to know what that was like, but it was another silly thought. A dangerous one that, at best, would get me killed.
So I didn't let myself entertain it.
I never responded to the old majin after that, simply taking Aoki home once she nearly got through a number of dishes. I had to pull her away from the table and carry her out using a barrier, as she tried to go back several times.
It was rather fun to try and keep the child from escaping while also keeping her unharmed. Children really were fun.
Once returning home, Rimuru was quick to put the small slime into sleep mode, and even gave me the opportunity to tuck her in.
After which, I returned to Rudra.
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