Rimuru's arrival changed things, not for the better at first; his presence only seemed to make matters worse actually. The ogres immediately began talking, saying things like "Enslaving monsters is not a feat that a mere human could accomplish" and "It seems the mastermind has come", among other remarks. They still weren't willing to listen to reason even though they were actually speaking now; in fact, they seemed to become even more aggressive.
It did take a little bit of a rather stressful few minutes, however things did eventually resolve themselves. After Rimuru had fought them and put on a show of power, the pink‑haired one stepped in to tell the others to stop. It was only then that we were finally able to clear things up and put an end to all of the nonsensical fighting and violence.
So yeah, turns out this was all just one big misunderstanding; once the ogres realised they were in the wrong they were quick to back off and finally take a more diplomatic approach to the situation. After that things quickly calmed down, with the leader of the ogres, the red‑haired one, even apologising to Rimuru for his shameful mistake. The redhead had tried to apologise to me as well, but decided against it when he noticed I was clearly trying to keep my distance from him and his companions.
I thought that would be the end of it and that we'd go our separate ways; however, Rimuru ended up inviting them to join the feast that we were planning to have. If I was being completely honest with myself, I would have preferred he hadn't, but in the end I had no real authority to tell him to do otherwise. Not that I was absolutely against the idea, but, well, emotions can be a fickle thing, especially for someone who wasn't exactly used to them.
Anyway, I was a bit of a wreck, to say the least, so I hadn't exactly been interested in talking to anyone on our way back to town. My mind was completely focused on the events of the fight, going over it again and again. How had I fought like that? That was one of the main questions tormenting my mind during that time. Honestly, even now I find myself perplexed; you could maybe wave off my personality change as a result of whatever mysterious circumstances were behind my reincarnation, but this... this was different.
By the time we got back the sun was already beginning to drop behind the horizon. While we had been gone, things hadn't slowed down in town; in fact, the news of us having a festival had spread and everything was already set up by the time we arrived. Fortunately, on our way back the wolf riders had gone to hunt a few of those bulldeer Rigur had mentioned, so it wasn't long before a full‑blown party erupted.
As for myself, well, I wasn't really comfortable in crowds to put it mildly, so I stuck to the edge of things. I was sitting at a round wooden table, several feet from where the flickering light of the campfire gave way to the darkness of the night. Right now my mind was on just one thing: figuring out what the heck had happened during that fight.
(Seriously... what was all of that?) I thought, knees against my chest as I leaned back in my seat.
"Great Sage?" I hummed, speaking to the open air as I looked up at the beautiful night sky. "Do you... can you give me an explanation? How did I do all of that?"
For a moment I got no answer, until finally the familiar voice within my head spoke up. [Answer... unknown.] She sounded almost perplexed at that, well, as perplexed as an emotionless, disembodied voice can sound anyway.
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
[Answer. Attempts to analyse the entity 'Suu's' mind for any potential causes have proven impossible at this moment in time.] the Great Sage explained, pausing for a second before continuing. [The skill 'Great Sage' is unable to access the deeper recesses of the entity 'Suu's' consciousness.]
(Is it because she's not actually my skill or... is something blocking her?) I thought, trying to figure out the cause.
"Do you know what's causing it?" I asked and immediately got an answer, just not one that I was hoping for.
[Unknown.]
I could only sigh and shake my head in disappointment. "I guess that's that..."
(Maybe I could replicate the situation that caused it?) I mused internally before immediately scrapping that idea. (No, I'd rather not put myself in that kind of life‑threatening situation again if at all possible.)
(I guess I'll have to figure out another way.)
Just then I was pulled from my thoughts when someone approached me. "E‑excuse me, Lady Suu?"
"Huh?"
I turned and reconsidered them somewhat; they were a goblina, one I had seen before. She was holding a plate covered in various types of food and a few drinks. It took me a moment to realise where I'd seen her, but I couldn't just sit there staring at her like an idiot, so I spoke up.
"H‑hey...?" I coughed awkwardly. "What do you need?"
"I just saw you over here by yourself and thought I'd bring you something to eat. I didn't know what you liked, so I just grabbed a bit of everything." She explained, placing the plate down on the table.
"Thanks, I guess."
(Wait, is she the one I saw back then...?) I thought as I finally put together who she was and where I'd seen her before.
"A‑are you the one I saw when I first woke up several days ago?" I asked nervously.
"Yes! That's me." She nodded at my words. "I'm Haruna, by the way."
"Suu..." I muttered uncomfortably as a silence settled between us.
I felt bad for what I had done previously; I hadn't meant to, nor did I even understand what I was doing at the time, but I had still done it. "Erm... I should probably apologise for the first time we met; I didn't mean to scare you."
"It's okay, it wasn't your fault." She waved her hands frantically, clearly taken aback by my sudden apology.
(She seems nice... makes me feel bad I scared her so badly...) I thought, looking away for a second in contemplation before glancing back at her.
"Do... do you want to eat with me?" I asked, tilting my head.
"Sure!"
And so we talked for a while. Honestly, it was nice to chat with someone for a bit and I found myself quite enjoying Haruna's company, she was rather kind to put it simply. That, of course, made me feel even worse for scaring her, although she eventually got me to let it go after I apologised a few more times out of habit.
Unfortunately, she eventually said her goodbyes and returned to the party. I thought about joining the fun but, well, I couldn't bring myself to. The idea of walking into that massive crowd was more anxiety‑inducing than my desire to get involved in things, so eventually I sighed and gave up on the idea for now.
(I wonder what I should do now...) I thought to myself
Just then the wind around me seemed to pick up, blowing past me and off to my right. "Was that my skill again?" I mused to myself.
"I'm starting to think it has a mind of its own," I breathed before getting up and following along.
(Maybe it responds to my desires? I mean, it activated on its own before we encountered the ogres and during the fight...) I hummed internally as I looked back on the relevant events.
The first time I had been on alert; my subconscious desire was to keep an eye out for trouble. The second time I was just trying to survive, so my desire was to avoid the attacks from my opponents. And now this, my current desire being to find something to do that doesn't involve me getting surrounded by a bunch of people.
(I'll have to test it later, but that's probably the case if I had to guess...) I thought to myself, only for my attention to return back to reality a second later.
"Wait, just a second." Suddenly the somewhat gruff male voice of Kaijin reached my ears. "You mean to tell me that orcs attacked ogres?"
(Orcs?)
It took me a second to spot the source of the voice, but I eventually narrowed it down. Some distance away were Rigur, Rigurd, and Kaijin, along with three others I recognised. They were, of course, members of the ogre group.
The first one was the leader; he had pinkish skin and a large, muscular frame covered by dark maroon, samurai‑like armour over mostly black and grey clothing. He had bright blood‑red hair with two jet‑black horns emerging from between the strands. His eyes were somewhat orangey in colour, with what appeared to be dark red, tear‑like markings beneath them running down his cheeks
As for the second, well, it was the old man, the one who had cut my wing off. He was sitting cross‑legged behind the redhead, his eyes closed yet clearly still very aware of his surroundings. He had grey hair and two white horns, with a brownish scarf wrapped around his neck. His upper body was mostly covered by a white and black robe, and his lower body by white pants and a brown belt.
The last one was harder to see, since he was standing off in the dark behind a tree with his back to the group. However, from what I could tell it was the blue‑haired guy, the one I had kicked in the head when I was in that strange trance.
(I probably shouldn't intrude...) I thought, immediately planning to turn around and leave.
Unfortunately for me, I didn't get the chance because Rigur had spotted me. "Lady Suu?"
"Hey, why don't you come join us," he said, waving me over, a fact that caused me to mentally curse him.
(But I don't want to…)