089, Taken Under His Wing

"I heard your family's situation hasn't been looking too good lately?"

In the enormous hall, after Olyric watched Rimuru ponder for a long time, the first thing he did was not state his demands but suddenly express concern about his family's circumstances. A thought immediately flashed through Olyric's mind.

This was bad!

"Rimuru..."

"Don't worry!" Rimuru patted his chest, looking like the sort of good brother who would never screw him over. "Just forget about Lilith. The request I'm making has absolutely nothing to do with this. I'm only concerned about you. No matter what, I was once your captain."

"...Heh." Olyric gave a smile that did not reach his eyes. "Then thank you very much for your concern, Captain."

"Still, these are ultimately internal matters of our family, so there's no need to trouble yourself over them. How about we talk about your business instead?" Olyric lightly waved a hand. "Let's do this. Stop putting pressure on me, and let's be direct."

"No matter what you need us to do, I can agree to it myself. I only represent myself, though. The family is another matter. Is that acceptable?"

Given what he knew of Rimuru, Olyric did not believe he would spout nonsense for no reason. Naturally, he took Rimuru's sudden topic as a threat—or rather, pressure. Applying pressure in advance with an even more excessive demand was one of the most common tricks in negotiation: the door-in-the-face effect.

Yet, after he said that, Rimuru instead let out a soft laugh.

"Hahahaha... Olyric, when did you become so politically sensitive? I remember when we worked together, you weren't stupid, but you definitely weren't as good at this sort of thing as Ye Xiaoqian or Yuki Onna..." Still laughing, Rimuru looked at Olyric and narrowed his eyes. "People do grow