[Book 2] That time I got reincarnated as a slime,no, a DRAGON?

CH-76

Rimuru's POV

After taking the mechanoid and the letters with me, I created a portal straight back to my room in Tempest. I kept it open with the help of a little bit of Turn Null. This way, it will be possible to contact my previous world on case something were to happen.

"Ciel, why don't we go on a vacation?" I ask her.
"Oh? That's a sudden idea."
"I guess. But we have to meet Cyrus and Finn anyways. It would be much better to just take a few days off and go enjoy their world."

"Well, I guess that's not a bad idea. While we are there, we can also decide whether to support Finn or straight neutral. Though, I am sure you have already decided." Ciel said as she walked towards the door.

"I'll tell Chloe as well. When are we going?" Ciel said as she was about to leave.
"Tomorrow."

"Alright. I'll go tell her." She said before leaving the room.

"Diablo."
"Hai." Diablo said as he appeared in front of me and bowed.

"I'll be leaving tomorrow. I want you to take it Shinsha and Tempest. Ciel and Chloe will be coming with me, so I'll leave any major decisions to you all. Ask Ramiris if anything pops up. I am not sure if you will be able to contact me in the other world." I tell him.

"Understood."

Right now, the Cardinal World is comparatively peaceful. But a major war is brewing on the horizon. If I don't play my cards right, it could be catastrophic.

The next day....

In the morning, Chloe comes to me with her cheeks puffed up.

"What happened?"
"Hmph." She didn't say anything and just stood there, looking away from me. Does she want me to guess what's wrong?

"Is it because I invited you so suddenly?"

"Hmph. Obviously! You should atleast tell me a few days in advance so I can clear my schedule." Chloe said while pouting.

"Alright. Don't pout anymore. Dear will inform you ahead of time in the future, right?" Ciel said as came behind Chloe and used her fingers to make Chloe smile.

"Fine. I'll forgive you. But only this time." Chloe said as the pout on her face disappeared.

"Thanks. Well then, let's go." I say as I open a portal to Finn's world. I had already obtained the coordinates of their world from Ciel, who in turn had taken it from Rizzete.

Once I opened the portal, it opened up right in the middle of a dark first. There was no light except for the few fireflies flying around. The tra are so dense that it is impossible to say whether it day or night.

There were noises of insects, yet no beasts could be heard. It was an odd and mystical forest to say the least. Chloe was amazed by the allure of the forest.

The first seemed something straight out of a fairy tale. I looked around and there was no signs of intelligent life anywhere.

"What should we do?" Ciel asked.

"Seeing how beautiful and untampered this place is, it might be some sort of sacred place. So I believe it's best to leave this place without anyone seeing us." I reply.

"Chloe. Come on. Let's go." I call out to Chloe and we make our way through the forest. At first there was no clear path, but after some time, we found, what seemed to be a mountain road used by people.

The plants in the way were removed and the grass was trampled. As we followed the route, the trees for even more denser and it seemed as if we were going even deeper into the jungle, until, we suddenly came across a small city.

When I say a city, it was a city. With proper walls and large cemented houses. There was even a large palace in the middle. The gate to the city was closed and the guards numbered atleast a hundred on that single door itself.

These guards were of many different races. Humans, elves, dwarves, beastkin and since other species as well. It would be impossible to infiltrate without being seen of you can't become invisible.

I quickly hide myself and approach the gate, followed by Ciel and Chloe, to get a closer look of the city. Just as I was thinking about climbing up the wall, the gates opened and hundreds of troops came out.

"Quickly look for the intruders in the forest. Don't harm them! Bring them back without hurting them." The man who was in the front screamed in a loud tone as they started cooking out into the forest and dispersed.

Did they already sense us? But I doubt that's the case. If they had sensed us when we were not hiding, they should have known that we are right in front of the city. Are there other intruders?

We took advantage of the soldiers leaving and managed to enter through the gate. There was a thin barrier surrounding the entire city. As soon as we came into the barrier, the atmosphere changed. It was no longer as humid as before she the winds were cool and refreshing.

As we moved through the city, we were greeted with sights of soldiers everywhere. The ratio of common people and soldiers we saw was nearly one to one. Either this is a very important military stronghold, or they are highly on guard regarding something.

As we moved towards centre of city, we came across what seemed to be a market.

"Should we stop hiding ourselves and disguise as someone from this world?" Ciel asked.

"No. It seems like there is a strict condition to enter and exit this city. If that's the case doing so will only cause us to have attention." I reply.

Ciel nods and we continue to make our way towards the palace. As we made our way to the palace, there was a clear distinction between the living spaces of the common people and the palace.

The palace itself had nearly two hundred guards continually taking trips across the outer gate. This is too much protection for a single city. Either this is a capital, which I doubt considering this place is in the middle of an isolated forest, or it was an important centre for defeating Eternal.

As we sneaked into a palace, there was a meeting room and dining room across the hallway, but what surprised me is what the majority of the palace was being used as.

More than half of the palace was being used as a research centre. There were many researchers wearing research coats moving around. In the centre of the large research centre there was a single podium. There was a slit in the podium. One large enough to be made by a sword that was smashed into it.

In front of that, there was a small girl, surrounded by other researchers. The girl, who looked barely ten was looking completely out of place for a research centre.

I continued to look around the room, but for some reason felt that someone was looking at me. I looked around but didn't sense anyone.

"Doesn't that look familiar?" Ciel said as she pointed to a set of armour that was set up in one of the glass chambers. The armor was glowing brightly emitting a golden light. It was the same armor that Finn was wearing the other day.

I searched for Finn in the nearby area. I thought he would be nearby considering that his armour was here but he was nowhere to be seen. Atleast not in this forest.

"Ciel, Chloe, let's leave. I have a feeling that someone's spying on us. Finn is not here either." I say as we quickly left the palace. I opened the portal to a random place approximately a few kilometres away from the forest periphery and we passed through it.

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I hope you like it.