Thank you for Kaiser_Kaier and Skorpion_1 for the power stones! No extra chapter for today, though. Maybe at 50 power stones?
Rimuru ate 2 servings of curry rice and chicken katsu with gusto. His energy got refilled with every spoonful he scoop into his mouth. By the time he finished, he was finally close to his past self. But the gap between his current state and his normal self was something he couldn't help to bridge with his food.
"So, what happened to you?" Ludwig asked. Even though he knew about why Rimuru couldn't visit the restaurant for the past few days, he was still curious about Rimuru's side of the story.
"Don't remind me about that!" Rimuru grumbled. "Just let me tell you this: You should think a thousand times before telling people you are willing to take them as your subordinates."
"You take more subordinates?" Ludwig asked, not because he didn't know but more because he wanted to keep the conversation going.
"Yeah." Rimuru nodded. "I have told you about the war we fought before, right?
"You have." Ludwig said.
"The enemy's army has around 200,000 orcs. I took all the surviving members of the orcs under my wing." Rimuru sighed.
Ludwig chuckled. Seeing his reaction with his own eyes was really fun even though he already knew that he would regret it. Well, more like regretting his action of telling them he would name them. But, he still asked about it as his mischievous side asked him to. "Don't tell me, you named them all?"
"Ughhhhhh..." Rimuru groaned. "Not the proudest moment in my life, I admit. But you know what's worse?"
"What?"
"I named them in a half-ass way."
"Define half-ass." Ludwig said while forcing the laugh from even forming in his throat.
"L-l-lake… 1… F…" Rimuru mumbled.
Ludwig cocked his head to the side, doing it in a big motion deliberately. "That's not a name, though."
As expected, Rimuru exploded after seeing what he did. "What do you want me to do, huh? Naming them, John, Jack, Bill, and Smith? There's 200,000 orcs! Do you think I will not run out of ideas?"
"I mean," Ludwig shrugged. "Let's say you name the first three John, Jack, and Bill. Then you can name the next orc, John Jack, John Bill, Jack Bill, Jack John. I doubt you will run out of names anytime soon using that scheme."
Rimuru's mouth hung open. It's apparent that Rimuru wanted to retort from how his mouth flinched, but in the end no resistance came from him. Leaving the slime be, Ludwig looked at the two rascals who were coddled by Shuna. The cats were flicking their tails at Shuna, meowing and even showing her their stomach. It was clear that they were trying to win Shuna's heart. For what purpose? No one knew. Even though they were not really a cat, Ludwig had come to know that the cat's instinct still dictated most of their action.
At that moment, the restaurant gave him another buzz and the door opened. The one who walked in was a girl with hair redder than even Benimaru's. A smile bloomed on her face, then she quickly walked towards the bar. While she was on her way, Ludwig could see her eyes drifting towards the slime and the Kijins. But rather than aversion, he could see a tint of curiosity sparkling in it.
"Welcome to Checkpoint. It's been a while." Ludwig beamed, showing Kushina the best smile he could. At almost the same time, he could feel Rimuru looking at the woman. He was shocked. He just stared at her as if it's the first time he saw a human.
"It's been a while, Chef." Kushina greeted, hands moving to wipe the clinging sweats that rained down on her forehead.
"You are alone? Where's your husband?" Ludwig asked, striking a small talk with her.
"He's not my husband. Not yet, I hope." Kushina chuckled, a tint of pink appeared on her cheeks.
"Is that so? I apologize." Ludwig acted, but he didn't press further when he realized Kushina was not answering about why she was coming alone.
"There's no need to apologize." Kushina waved his concern away. She then looked at the menu with intrigued eyes. Then as expected, "Give me the ramen from back then, owner."
"Sure thing." Ludwig answered as he put a glass of water in front of Kushina. But as he pried one packet of ramyeon from the box, the restaurant pinged him again. But this time, it was not telling him about the arrival of a returning guest. Rather, it was telling him that there's people with ill intentions lurking in front of the store.
Ludwig's eyes shifted towards the wall, the first thing he saw after the wall warped was buildings that had old japanese architecture. However, rather than torch lightning up the street, he could see a lamp post as well as the lamp that illuminated the street. This mismatch of technological prowess was a telltale that he was looking at the street of Konoha.
His sense tingled as he saw the scenery. Behind the lamppost, on top of the building, blending with the roof, he could sense greater numbers of presence scattered around the store. Moreover, they were all looking at his store. Some even used their Chakra to look inside. Of course they failed. How could a mere Chunin penetrate through the veil created by the system? Even the Hokage himself wouldn't be able to.
Ludwig served the ramyeon to Kushina as soon as he finished cooking it. But before he could return to the kitchen with the dirty dishes from Rimuru and his party, the system pinged him again. When he looked at the wall and saw the scenery of Konoha again, he could see a man with dark hair and brown eyes standing in front of the door. But when he twisted the knob of the door, it didn't budge. Even when the guy used his chakra to reinforce his body, the door still didn't move.
Ludwig scoffed at the man's attempt. Even without the system's help of filtering bad people from entering, someone so weak like the man wouldn't even be able to lift a finger against him. Moreover, with Rimuru and his party sitting inside, Ludwig was sure that even if he didn't do anything, they would take care of the man once they knew the reason he entered the restaurant.
After watching the man's attempt on breaking past the restaurant's defense, Ludwig walked towards the sink before returning to the bar. Kushina was still slurping the ramyeon, her shoulders visibly sagged than before a tint of happiness could be seen in her eyes. In the meantime, the blue glob of slime had already moved his sight from her. But the target of his gaze was him.
But rather than explaining it to him, Ludwig just smirked and shrugged his shoulders. Where's the fun in that? He rather watched Rimuru trying to befriend Kushina. Moreover , explaining it with Kushina still sitting in the room would mean that he would indirectly confess that he knew about their life. Something Ludwig thought of as something he preferred to do once their friendship grew deeper.
Then, the bell chimed as the door opened. But of course, before the one behind the door walked into the restaurant, Ludwig already knew who it was. The black-haired girl stepped closer and closer into the bar with a smile on her face. "Oh, Rimuru! You are well already?"
The blue glob of slime rotated on the seat and looked straight at Claire. "I just told Ludwig I don't want to be reminded. No question until tomorrow, or maybe until the day after tomorrow!"
Claire stopped walking, after nodding towards Benimaru and Shion, she looked back at Rimuru. "Oh come on. How about this, I heard from Shuna that you are currently in the middle of building a city. If you tell me what happened, I will give you some tips on running the city."
The slime moved slightly to the side, maybe a response to Rimuru cocking his head to the side. But since a slime didn't have any body parts, its whole body was the one which moved to the side. "Fine. But you need to help me. Pinky promise?"
"Pinky promise." Claire beamed. At that moment, Benimaru moved from his seat and dragged Shion to his previous seat, opening the seat for Claire. Looking at that, the woman nodded and took a seat. "Thanks, Benimaru, Shion. By the way, Ludwig, the whiskey and today's special menu, please."
However, just as Ludwig opened his mouth to take Claire's order, he suddenly heard a thud. When he looked to the side, he found Kushina frozen, chopsticks nowhere near her hand. "T-the ball talks!"
Ludwig swore he could hear so many heads turning towards Kushina as soon as she said so. But, no sound could be heard after that, as if they had been transported into a vacuum. With a sigh, he walked towards Kushina. "Kushina-san, correct? Ah, can I call you that? I heard your name from the blonde guy."
Kushina moved his gaze towards him, then she nodded stiffly. Probably already expecting that Ludwig would explain something to her.
"The blue glob over there…"
"Hey, who do you call a glob!" Rimuru cut his words at that point.
Ludwig sighed and shook his head. Really, can't he see that Ludwig was trying to calm Kushina down?
"That blue thingy there is Rimuru. He is a slime. A type of monster from the world he came from." Ludwig started, but then, his tone took a mischievous tone. "But don't worry, he doesn't bite.
"Hey!"
Without minding the interruption, Ludwig continued to introduce the rest of Rimuru's party to the red-haired woman. Only when he's done with the denizens of Rimuru City did he introduce the rest. "The black-haired woman is Claire, you've seen her the first time you come here. I don't know the name of those two cats, but they have a master. He is probably already on his way here. Ah, he's a human."
At that point, he saw Claire walking towards Kushina. Well, she's a head administrator of the city where she lived, so Ludwig could rest assured that she would be able to ease Kushina in. Moreover, she also reacted quite strongly when she realized Rimuru was a slime, so she should be able to somewhat symphatized with Kushina.
Ludwig moved away from the bar, letting Claire take care of the rest. Moreover, Rimuru looked eager to know her from the very moment he saw her, so it's better to let them know each other naturally like this.
Standing in front of his cooking station, he dragged a piece of chicken thighs he had deboned and flattened in the afternoon through a bed of flour. Then, he bathed it in yellow sticky liquid before giving the meat another drag in a bed made of breadcrumbs.
After patting it to make sure the coating was sticky enough, he threw the meat into boiling oil, creating bubbles of sizzle. Next, he summoned a plate from the cupboard and put a mound of rice on one side of it. Brown soup filled with chunks of onions, carrots, and potato followed.
The sizzling in the pan grew weaker and weaker, so Ludwig walked towards it. After seeing the coating had turned golden, he scooped it out and put it on the rack. Only after every oil in it had dropped did he move it to the cutting board, cut it into 6 pieces, and drop it on top of the brown soup on top of the plate.
"Claire, your food is ready." Ludwig looked at Claire who sat beside Kushina with her food in hand. "Should I put it there, or should I put it beside Rimuru?"
"Put it here, please. Thanks." Claire answered before going back into the conversation with Kushina and Rimuru.
Ludwig did as he was told, he also didn't forget to serve Claire's favourite menu item, whiskey with the mystical ice. Once he was done, he leaned to the separator between the two sides of the bar, and joined the conversation between the Jinchuriki, City Administrator, and a Slime.