Is it wrong for slimes to be in dungeons? (revised)

Chapter 44: Battlefields

He waved me over and before I realized it Ciel agreed to answer both my own and Hermes's questions over a drink.

So we moved to the nearest cafe and that brought us to the scene before us.

Hermes asked this question almost immediately upon sitting down and Ciel deflected with a question of her own.

"Hmm, well it's only fair to do some cursory research on a person of interest."

Ciel silently tilted her head toward Hermes presumably waiting for a proper answer. Hermes let out a breath, "You did defeat a large swath of both the Apollo's and Soma Familia's forces when they were chasing Hestia's Familia. Surely you weren't expecting to go unnoticed after that?" He said, sounding a little disbelieving.

"I made sure no one saw me."

Hermes just shook his head "You can never be certain."

"..." Ciel frowned...that is I presume she frowned. Her mask made it hard to tell. She was forced to relent.

There was a brief pause as everyone regathered their bearings. Somehow despite only watching from the sidelines I felt more winded then both of them.

"In anycase, my question." Hermes seemed to recover first and fired off his initial question once more.

Ciel crossed her arms for a moment, "paying back a favor." she finally said.

Hermes's eyebrows raised at this. "A favor? Did they do something that you felt the need to repay?"

I frowned at this as well. We had never encountered Ciel before, so she had no favor for which to repay us for. That is unless she was truly Rimuru. But then that made even less sense.

How would helping us be repaid for what we did?

Ciel shook her head. "Not to them. To Lady Amaterasu," she clarified.

"Lady Amaterasu, I see," Hermes had a thoughtful expression.

Ciel nodded. "If you want to ask anyone why we helped Hestia's familia she'd be the one, not me." She explained.

"I may just do that," he nodded with a smile. "On another note, I would also like to know: just where did you come from? A level 5 like you appearing from outside of Orario all of a sudden is going to cause waves, yet there doesn't seem to be much information about that."

"L–level 5?" I couldn't help but let loose a small gasp. I hadn't ever learned about either Ciel's nor Sophia's levels before. Now that I thought about it I did recall whispers here and there about shadow fox a level 4 adventurer who appeared and promptly leveled up, but when it came to Ciel I had heard nothing.

So I was taken aback to learn just how powerful Ciel truly was. Again I was reminded of the countless bodies of Apollo and Soma familia that Ciel had left behind when we first encountered one another.

But if what Hermes said was true it was strange. Even if Rimuru and Ciel were one in the same, such a powerful adventurer suddenly appearing was sure to catch a few people's attention.

Ciel didn't answer immediately again, seemingly taking a moment to think of what to say. "Well, I try not to draw too much attention to myself. I dislike it, it's unpleasant," She answered. Hermes' eyes sharpened at that. "And quite honestly...I'm not sure I want to tell you where I'm from, sorry, I do want to maintain just a bit of privacy," she said with a dry laugh after.

The conversation dragged on like this. Hermes asked questions that directly poked at what Ciel seemed to want to remain hidden. Ciel, for her part, seemed to expertly evade the uncomfortable questions, but gave answers to a few.