Rimuru and Iruma's Adventures in the Netherworld

Catching Up

Punctuation Key:

"Spoken dialogue"

'Quoting'

*Action*

Emphasis

Internal thoughts/talking to Ciel

[[Ciel talking]]

{{Thought Communication}}

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Rimuru POV

After meeting with Shuna, I need to meet with her brother now, funnily enough. Souei too, actually; we need to discuss a few things, some light and others heavier. It's been a while since I've gotten to talk with them both, especially Souei who keeps to himself most of the time. But, it's even been a long time since I've had a good sit down and chat with Benimaru too, which is a shame.

Opening the door to the scheduled meeting room, I find just Benimaru inside, but no Souei. This is strange since he's practically never late to meetings, but I guess I am a little early.

Benimaru is facing away from the door too, not even bothering to look in my direction after I opened the door, which is even stranger. Is something wrong? Why is he just staring at the wall?

"Hiya, Benimaru." I greet him cheerfully; a little put off, but not too worried.

Then he turns to me, and I see why he was hiding his face.

A big bushy mustache, plastered on his face; a fake one, of course. I'm sure his two wives wouldn't want him to grow a real one; If I was drinking something, I'd probably spit it out in surprise.

"W-what's that thing on your face?!" I sputter, any decorum I put on in public completely shattered.

Benimaru's wide grin cracks and he breaks out into laughter.

"I don't know what you mean, my Lord!" Benimaru manages to get out, choking on his own laughter at my strong reaction.

Of course, it had to be a mustache; Benimaru knows how much those things bother me. After all the negative experiences I've had with mustachioed men, there's no way I couldn't have some kind of a bias against the things!

"Yes, Lord Rimuru, I see no problem here." A monotone voice comes from behind me and I whip around to see who it is that snuck up on me somehow.

It's Souei, who's also wearing the same fake mustache as Benimaru; partially hiding a small smile that rarely shows up on his face.

Seeing Souei in on the prank just makes me laugh even harder at the ridiculousness of all this.

"I see what's going on now," I giggle. "You should know, that the only way to counter mustachioed men..." I quickly turn around, making a big show of messing with my face as I slip on a fake mustache of my own, "...is to join them!" I whip around proudly displaying my newly acquired facial hair.

Benimaru bursts out laughing immediately, and even Souei can't help but crack a grin. I smile back, man, it's been too long since I've relaxed with them.

Just then, a knock came at the door. We all whip around as the handle turns, seeing our demise but having no power to stop it. Souei immediately vanishes into his shadow, his fake mustache falling to the floor as he disappears.

Souei, get back here you traitor! I fume internally as the door clicks open, and Shuna enters, already wearing a disapproving frown. "I see you both are hard at work," Shuna points out disingenuously.