In the world of Moe King, I became the ruler of ice.

They rubbed their eyes, wondering if they were seeing things!

A slime was riding on the back of this A-rank snow-white giant wolf—it was unbelievable! They felt like the sky was falling.

They stared in horror at the slime, whose gaze kept shifting, scrutinizing each of them.

Finally, its gaze settled on Ai Ling, or more precisely, on the elf that Ai Ling was holding in front of her.

"Huh! This doesn't look like a hostage situation at all!"

Rimuru muttered to himself.

Lan Ya only released a slight amount of his aura, and these humans turned pale and trembled with fear. Their reaction was so utterly unbelievable that they could capture Gransta.

Rimuru was still blinking at Gransta, his eyes seeming to say something.

"Blink if you're being threatened."

Gransta watched as Rimuru blinked at him frantically, speechless for a moment, and couldn't help but roll his eyes.

The four of them also noticed Rimuru's actions and couldn't help but become wary.

"Could this evil monster be eyeing the spirit in my hand?"

Ai Ling said nervously.

"It seems so?"

Another person chimed in.

In this tense atmosphere, these people were still secretly exchanging information.

"We will never hand the sprites over to these evil monsters!"

After shouting those words angrily, Ai Ling hugged Gransta tightly, adopting a posture of resisting to the death.

Her two teammates looked at her like this and both gave wry smiles.

Sister, now is not the time to be reckless! And do you think yelling at us is trying to hasten our deaths?

Right now

The goblins and frost wolves around them looked at each other, their expressions exactly the same as Rimuru's—completely bewildered.

"ha?"

Rimuru couldn't help but voice his doubts, a sense of unease creeping into his mind.

What do you mean we're evil monsters? We look very kind! Besides, we did come here for the spirit in your hand, but how can you call that stealing?

Although human voices are very soft, to their keen hearing, they sound almost like someone speaking loudly right next to their ear.

Rimuru finally understood that Gransta hadn't been threatened at all, and he had gone to all this trouble to rescue her—what a huge loss!

Especially when he saw that Gransta was almost buried in the female mage's chest, he became even more indignant.

[Gransta, you rascal! You're nowhere to be seen when we're working, and now you're hugging a human girl. You're really something!]

Rimuru immediately activated [Telepathy] and roared at Gransta.

Gulansta visibly paused for a moment, then began to explain.

[Haha, Rimuru, it's just that the village is under construction and it's so noisy, so I came outside to sleep. Also, these humans were a complete accident, and I'm really troubled by it now!]

Rimuru was speechless upon hearing this. Troubled? Troubled my ass!

Take a closer look at this masked woman. Does she seem familiar?

Gransta then spoke another sentence, which made Rimuru stop his complaints.

At this moment, Rimuru noticed a tall, slender masked woman standing in front of them, and his thoughts involuntarily drifted into memories.

This...isn't this her?

So what should we do now?

Rimuru was filled with doubt.

【Of course, I'll take them back to the village and give them a good welcome! Oh, and by the way, don't tell them anything about me; I want to lie down a little longer.】

Gulansta's tone was very casual.

Upon hearing Gransta's words, Rimuru's face darkened.

Rimuru thought to himself that Gransta was definitely the laziest and most procrastinating person he had ever met.

During this time, he had almost become a production machine, but Granstad ignored many things.

There's no other way, let's deal with the immediate issues first! Rimuru shook his head helplessly.

"I'm very sorry! I think I could be considered the leader of this group of monsters. May I ask if you three are adventurers sent by the surrounding human empires? Were you specifically dispatched to investigate the situation in our area?"

"Don't worry, although we are monsters, we mean you no harm!"

The trio was quite surprised by the other party's polite and courteous inquiry. The monster hadn't attacked immediately? Not only that, it could even speak like a human?

Wait... a slime can talk?

"To express my apologies and best wishes, I have prepared a sumptuous feast in the village. I would like to invite you all to come and visit. I believe this will be helpful to your work!"

Rimuru extended the invitation without hesitation, even glancing at the masked woman standing in front of him to indicate that she was also among those invited.

"What! You're inviting us to your headquarters... No, no, no, we're afraid..."

Kabaru initially wanted to decisively reject the offer, but when he noticed the group of burly, intimidating goblins and frost wolves in front of him, they were all staring intently at him with sharp eyes.

Kabaru was startled and swallowed back the second half of his sentence that was about to come out. His face turned pale instantly, and he quickly changed his tone.

"Hmm...actually, that's not entirely impossible."

His voice was noticeably softer than before, sounding somewhat weak and even trembling, as if his heart was filled with unease and hesitation.

"That's good! I'll lead the way!"

Rimuru took a deep breath, trying to make his voice sound gentler. Then, without hesitation, he leaped onto Ranga and sped off towards the village.

As the others watched Rimuru's departing figure, a sense of helplessness welled up in their hearts.

They didn't want to follow Rimuru's instructions, but they had no better choice. So, they reluctantly followed behind, walking silently.

The atmosphere was unusually somber throughout the journey; no one spoke, only the sounds of footsteps and breathing mingled together.

Oh no! I've never been to a monster's lair before! There's no escaping this time!

When they got closer, they realized that what they had seen from the outside was only the tip of the iceberg of the village.

The road is flat, the place is clean, but wait, why are there dwarfs here?

As they approached the innermost part, they saw a tall ice sculpture castle. Who lives here and knows how to enjoy life?

Gulansta yawned silently.