The Second Dragonoid's Tale

Chapter 11: Calm Before The Storm

Time went on after the arrival of the ogres. During that time I was able to come up to proper speed with the development of the town, including the goblin leaders under Rigurd. Rugurd, Regurd, and Rogurd. Leave it up to Rimuru's naming sense that they sound similar. Heading the production of goods and materials was Ririna, who formerly worked with Erebus in the transportation of goods between the ogre village and the town. With more people in charge of others, Rimuru and I had little to actually manage unless the leaders ran into trouble.

Sadly, there was some. Goblins moving in to live with evolved goblins was one thing, but with the population now reaching five thousand and the addition of the ogres over two hundred, not everyone was happy with how evenly divided the food was. And so, on my own, I gave Erebus and the twilight wolves a new job in dealing with the handful of troublemakers.

"What do we have here?" I appeared from behind a tree in the forest, the twilight wolves had their shadows holding down three ogres, next to them were a few bags of food.

"Lord F/N, we caught these three sneaking into storage and followed them here," One of them reported.

"Damn wolves! This is a misunderstanding!" One of the ogres protested.

"Is that so?" I walked over and kneeled down to grab his head. "Then you get one chance to either explain what it is you're doing, and if I don't believe you, face punishment, or confess and leave quietly." I squeezed his head tighter. "The weak are to follow the strong, right?"

"Please... We're sorry," The troublesome ogres learned quickly.

The next day, they went to Benimaru and requested permission to leave, only stating that they didn't want to burden the people with extra mouths to feed. However, we managed by even as most stayed and were behaved enough to get along with the goblins. We even made great progress with housing. With the experienced craftsmen and farmers of the ogre village helping greatly. That all said, there is one troublesome waste of food that keeps popping up.

During a pleasant day, under the blue sky, Rimuru and I watched the old ogre, Hakurou, beat up some of the smaller evolved goblins like Gobta. It's actually training, since he decided to open his mouth around the old man and didn't think. We wouldn't just let Hakurou start beating up goblins senselessly. Not that he could, under our orders and rules. It's really only the nameless ones that are too arrogant for their own good that cause trouble and they were a rare breed. Rimuru wanted to join in at first, but held back when I said I would only watch.

"Do you think we can take on this Orc Lord?" The slime asked in my arms.

"I believe so, the part I'm unsure of is the masked men," I sighed, "It's not like we couldn't take them on, it's just that I don't know how powerful they really are."

"It would certainly be a bother if they joined in the fight with the Orc Lord when we don't know how strong they are," Rimuru agreed. "There's still no certainty that the first one you encountered with Benimaru has any connection to the orc attack."

As a gust of wind came by, I felt off, "Not much longer now."

"Is something wrong?" Rimuru asked, jumping out of my hold and into human form.

"Nothing," I confirmed, "The restlessness is likely a side effect of the connection with him."

Rimuru nodded, "Right, right. Warn me when you're about to rampage."

"You joke, but I might," I replied, about to step over to join Hakurou and the others when from thin air, Souei appeared beside us. "Is something wrong?"

"I have a report," Souei gave it, "A small group of lizardmen has been discovered. It's odd for them to leave the wetlands and travel here."

I thought about it and looked at Rimuru, "If they're moving, it's most likely in response to the orc's movements."