I'm Veldora, So What?

"Eeehhhh!" Eren squealed. "You're not coming back with us!?!"

The elf pretending to be a human girl was in obvious shock that her only girl-friend, whom her party came to rely on for her strength, was choosing not to stay with them much longer.

"Are you sure you want to stay here alone? Even if the Hobgoblins are friendly, there are still other monsters in the forest you know?" Eren pleaded. She knew this was a weak argument, but she was just throwing anything she could think of at the wall in an attempt to get Shizu to change her mind.

Shizu smiled lightly. "Don't worry Eren. I'll have the most powerful slime in the world keeping me company." Shizu replied, patting Rimuru who she was holding under her breasts.

Eren looked down, clearly depressed. Kaval sighed, also slightly disappointed while scratching the back of his head. "I guess if you're sure... There's nothing we can do to convince you, is there?" He asked.

Shizu smiled softly, pained at separating from her friends and adventuring companions like this. She closed her eyes and hardened her resolve before opening them once more with a firm but gentle glance. "No. There is not."

Kaval said nothing more and nodded his head in understanding. Gido sighed as well. "Please stay safe Miss Shizu," he said after slightly bowing his head in a gesture of respect.

"I will. Please make sure to keep the other two out of trouble." Shizu advised.

Gido smirked. "Oh trust me, I will. Someone's got to be the responsible one around here."

"Oy! I'm not going to let that slide! As the Leader, I am responsible!" Kaval shot back.

"Says the one who tried to steal Honey from that Army Wasp nest!" Eren scolded Kaval.

"Don't blame your leader for something like that, and you were the only one who got to eat any of the honey while we were running away!" Kaval fought back.

I rolled my eyes and began to tune the group out. Their bickering, while probably funny in the context of an anime skit, was a bit annoying irl. I began to scan my surroundings, which had become a habit of mine ever since I found out that Noir had been spying on Shizu and us. If a Primordial decided it wanted trouble, then I was the only one who could possibly stop him. Rimuru was strong and Shizu was stronger, but a Primordial was no joke according to my memories. After all, one of them, Rouge, or I guess Guy Crimson, was as strong as I was and he was the object of my affection for my eldest sister, even if it was only one-sided.

It was while I was scanning the background idly that I noticed it. A faint shimmer from one of the trees. Space itself was rippling slightly and the area appeared to be devoid of magicules entirely. While it may be overlooked by other peoples' senses due to a lack of a 'target' for most sensory skills to even pick up upon, the 'lack of a target' in this case was what alerted me.

I narrowed my eyes as I glanced in that direction and despite not being able to physically see them, I could feel their eyes had met my own.

Someone was spying on us.

This wasn't just an ordinary spy either. This person's control over the spatial element and advanced aura-hiding technique indicated that the other party wasn't just some average spy sent by a human kingdom to keep watch on us, but someone of relatively high strength. I double-checked Shizu and noticed Nior was still gazing at her with his magic technique in the sky, so I knew that whoever this person was, it wasn't him either, and judging by his lack of changing action, it was also likely that he hadn't noticed either, though that was understandable, since he would have had to detect her through her stealth while using magic from a dimension away.

Even I couldn't do that as a True Dragon so I doubted he could, or even if he could, that he'd be wasting the absurd amount of energy necessary to check the area with that level of detection magic 24/7.

I looked back to Kaval and his party. Rimuru and Shizu had taken them to the Dwarf brothers to give them the gear that Rimuru had commissioned for them, so it was the perfect time for me to slip away unnoticed. I closed my eyes and quickly replaced my body that was with Rimuru's group with a Clone made of magic. This was a result of my training to gain a HIvemind-like Skill, I could not create near-perfect clones of myself, and by using a spell I created which was basically the substitution jutsu from Naruto, I was able to replace my real body and newly created clone without alerting our peeping tom.

Space shimmered as I appeared behind our little spy. Judging by their lack of movement, they either didn't notice my trick and that I was behind them now, or were prepared for it. Either way, I snapped my fingers and created an illusionary barrier around us to block out interference from the outside world, then used [Space-Time Manipulation] from [Faust] to disable the spy's hiding magic.

"Tsk- how did you do that?" The woman asked as she turned to face me, looking irritated.

The moment I saw her face, I instantly knew who it was. "Luminous Valentine?" I asked, slightly confused. "What are you doing spying on us here?"

Luminous crossed her arms and glared at me. "What do you think?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I get that you're probably still mad about me destroying Nightrose 2000 years ago, and rightly so, but that doesn't explain your peeping tom behavior," I said.

"Peeping- no." Luminous was seemingly taken aback by my choice of words for a moment before she composed herself. "Despite that. I am not actually here for you." Luminous said, the slightest redness on her cheeks probably due to embarrassment at my earlier statement.

I narrowed my eyes. "You are here for Shizu then?" I asked, my posture changing to be a bit more dominant.

Luminous didn't flinch or back down from this. "Relax, I'm not you. I am only here to observe... for a friend." Luminous explained.

I continued to look at Luminous skeptically. "Shizu is under my protection from this point on, so keep that in mind for whatever games you are playing." I warned.

It was time for Luminous to narrow her eyes at me this time. "She is going to die." Luminous explained.

I raised an eyebrow. "Probably if she doesn't let me fix whatever it is that's been tearing her up from the inside lately," I announced.

"Isn't she under your protection?" Luminous asked in an accusatory tone.

"She is. I would have you not underestimate my capabilities, however." I explained.

Luminous scoffed. "Hah! You can't fix things that have already happened in the past. Even for someone like you, once she dies, she'll remain dead."

"Maybe if it was the me of the past, but now..." I let the remaining words go unspoken.

Luminous stared at me for a moment longer. "Regardless, I shall be keeping watch." She stated.

I sighed in exasperation. "Whatever, but if you cause any trouble I'll burn down that Kingdom of yours again, and you'll fall alongside it this time," I stated walking past her.

Luminous grits her teeth. "You're still the same damned lizard after all, huh?" She said, releasing some of her [Demon Lord's Haki] as though to threaten me with it.

"Careful now. Do you really want to do this now?" I asked, matching her Haki with my own [Dragon Spirit Haki]. It was almost laughable the difference between us. While the overall 'size' of our Aura were the same, mine had far superior quality and intensity vastly overshadowed her own. As a matter of fact, the moment I unleashed my own against her, Luminous began to have trouble even standing in my presence.

If not for the illusory barrier also containing spatial elements, this clash of aura alone would have wiped away the village and killed everyone within except for Rimuru, Shizu, and Scylla.

Luminous, seeing as I wouldn't back down, eventually relented and retracted her Haki, so I did the same. She didn't seem as annoyed or angry with me as I thought after our clash as I was expecting.

"You really are different from before, aren't you?" She asked, seemingly surprised.

"I am nothing like who I was before, and while I am sorry for the way I acted in the past, I will not jeopardize my future here over actions of two millennia ago," I stated.

Luminous didn't say anything, simply mulling over the words I'd said and seemingly something else as well. After a few tense moments, Luminous relaxed. "Fine. I will admit it. I was wrong. I am sorry about how I acted. I promise not to compromise this project of yours due to our... rocky past." Luminous admitted.

I nodded and looked away. "I am sorry too. And not just about Nightrose, but about just now. It was childish of me to rise to your provocations." I admitted before turning back to look at her.

I was an adult. I was able to admit when I was wrong, even though I don't regret threatening Luminous, and my threat still stood, sometimes being an adult means apologizing even when you weren't the one in the wrong. Still, didn't mean my pride wasn't at least bruised a bit.

Luminous smiled, the first time I'd seen her do so. It was such a lovely sight too. "Well, I suppose I should apologize for provoking... no, for testing you. I thought that if you rampaged because of such minor disagreements that would mean you hadn't changed and were just pretending, but I see now that you are truly different now from that immature lizard-god you once were." Luminous stated.

"Just had to throw in that 'immature lizard-god' part, didn't you?" I asked dryly.

Luminous smiled. "Of course, but our newly matured and mighty True Dragon of the Storm Veldora would, in his newfound wisdom, would surely overlook such minor slips of the tongue from a poor and helpless Vampire like me." She teased, trying to push my buttons.

I sighed. "You're lucky you're cute... comeon, I'll let you stay the night in the village before-" I stopped looking at Luminous who seemed slightly stunned.

"C-cute..." She muttered.

I smirked smuggly. "What's this? The Demon Lord of Nightmares is behaving like a fair maiden all of a sudden?"

Luminous immediately turned tsun-tsun. "What? I just wasn't expecting you to say something so tender to a lady like me all of a sudden, that's all! I take back what I said, you are still a lizard-brained idiot! Cur! Scoundrel!" She shot back, hiding her embarrassment well behind her haughty attitude and a slew of insults.

"Kyuah ha ha ha!" I laughed loudly as I allowed her to get the embarrassment out of her system.

...

"Why is it that whenever I turn around, you've brought home another woman?" Rimuru asked.

"That only happened twice and one of them was my daughter!" I instantly shot back as Luminous' eyes glared at me from the side.

Shizu covered her mouth and giggled lightly at our interaction.

"Well ok, but this better be the last time, mister!" Rimuru scolded, half-seriously, though his slime form made the whole scene out to be far more comedic than it should have been.

"Pfft!" Shizu was trying her best to avoid bursting into laughter.

Luminous' eyes narrowed. "I'll be keeping a close watch on you, Veldora!"

"Aren't you busy?" I asked back.

"When I'm too busy to watch you directly I'll use my assistant do do so for me!" She said.

"Assistant?" I asked

Luminous reached across the table and pulled Scylla to her side. "Yes! I'll have Scylla report on your every movement!" She declared.

I smirked. "Nice try! But my daughter wouldn't betray me for someone she just me, right Scylla!"

Scylla who was munching on a cookie she had gotten from somewhere, immediately looked to Luminous after I said this and nodded. "He doesn't like people to know this, but he likes blonde women. He was staring at Eren a lot while she was here."

Luminous nodded. "blonde women you say?"

"Oy! That's not true, I like women with white hair! I was only watching Eren because she was an elf pretending to be a human and it weirded me out!" I immediately shot back.

"Yeah! Veldora likes White-haired vampire women! He told me himself!" Rimuru declared, trying to be a bro and back me up.

"...Rimuru..." I said weakly after a moment.

Shizu was doubled over laughing her ass off by now while Luminous had the biggest smug look on her face I'd ever seen in either lifetime. "White-haired Vampire women, huh? I wonder where THAT preference came from?"

I put my head in my hands in embarrassment. "Maybe I should let my sister kill me one more time. At least there is a good chance I'd forget this ever happened." I muttered.

"As if she'd let you forget it" Scylla responded, taking another cookie from Luminous.

"Ahh! To be young and in love~" Rimuru stated, adding fuel to the fire.

"I swear to god I'm going to be turning you into a stress ball one of these days!" I seethed at Rimuru.