"What are you doing out here all alone?" A young Shizue looked up as a man walked up to her.
He looked…odd. He had short dark brown hair and eyes that glistened as if full of glitter. He was wearing a basic black shirt and deep blue pants, both of which layered with armor on top. He had an open white coat with old, raggedy, torn up fabric around his neck and shoulders only held together by an expensive looking gold clip adorned with a red gemstone.
However, beyond that, she felt something else. Something instinctual. As if the spirit inside her was begging her to do something. To run. She didn't understand why. She just knew it was something she was being urged to do. It was…odd. It was a feeling she had only felt once before when facing another man. One with long blonde hair and a very bored face.
Her orders however kept her in place. She was tasked with the defense of the entrance, and thus, despite the fear, she remained locked in place. The man looked at her for a moment, before softening the look on his face. "Tell me. Are you okay?" He asked her.
The little girl couldn't answer. Instead, she could only look up in silent fear as the man slowly got closer. He stopped for a second before attempting to reach out. The attempt at contact immediately sent a wave of panic through her. No, she'd hurt him! Or…maybe it was the other way around? He'd hurt her? Her mind felt both of these feelings as the hand moved closer.
It was enough to get him to slow down. The man gave her a look of concern before straightening up and silently stepping back. "Recognize her, Chronoa?"
Only after that did Shizue look behind the man. There was another person there. The girl shared the man's color palette as the man, wearing a black and white outfit for the most part, although she didn't share his armored look, choosing one with more fabric and a short cape. She was strong as well. Ifrit was just as wary of her, although she was slightly less scary.
The man gave off the aura of an uncontrollable disaster, relative to the woman's own slow waves. It did still unnerve her, especially with the woman's mask making her look more mysterious, but less so.
It allowed the woman to get even closer to the startled child. They also walked over to Shizue and calmly reached for her. Shizue looked back at the man as he gave her a smile. "We won't hurt you!"
Shizue looked at the woman's hand. "Are you hurt?" The woman asked. Shizue felt as tears appeared in her eyes. These two. They were strong. Stronger than her. Had she finally found them? Kind people. Kind people that were strong enough for her not to hurt them?
"Leon. What have you done this time?" The man muttered low enough to not be heard. Then, he walked over to her, "Your name? Would you mind?"
The girl looked up at the two. "Shizu…"
The man sighed. "Shizu." He could tell. That wasn't her real name by birth. But, even then, he refused to ask further. Instead he moved on, "I see. Well, in that case, this girl here is Chronoa and my name is…"
Back in the present, Mikaeru and Rimuru followed along as Rigurd escorted them to the village center where Kaval's party was talking amongst themselves. Nearby, Shizue stood, watching as they talked about their food rations. Mikaeru took note of her reaction as she flinched, having sensed the power of the slimes.
Mikaeru chose to stay quiet though. Appearing behind them, Rigurd said, "Honored guests," the three finally took note of the new arrivals, "I do hope you have found your stay here comfortable. Allow me to introduce you to our lords. These are Lord Rimuru and Mikaeru!"
They immediately turned their heads to the two lords in question. They were…rounder than expected. "Huh!? Slimes!?" They yelled out in confusion.
"Hello! I am Rimuru! I'm not a bad slime slurp!"
As Shizue chuckled to herself at that reference, Mikaeru stepped up. "You got a problem with that?" Mikaeru asked, knowing it would throw them off. He laughed to himself as they struggled to explain that it wasn't an issue. "It's fine. I know how rare it is to see a strong slime out there. The name's Mikaeru."
Kaval was the first to speak, "Well, pardon us, I guess. I'm just still getting past getting help from a monster tribe." You're traveling with a monster, Mikaeru thought to himself but he didn't mention it.
"We're human adventurers!" Bullshit, Mikaeru thought as Eren tried to emphasize the human part. "Thanks for the help. We've been running around for like 3 days! It's hard to get some rest around here!"
"It's only been…" Gido was cut off by a smack to the back of the head before finishing. The girl angrily scolded him for trying to be accurate.
Right. Mikaeru turned away momentarily. "So, Kaijin, I think it'll probably be best for you to start setting up." He called Rigurd over. "These four are going to be staying here. I need you to give them an open area to get their stuff settled with. They'll definitely need an area to get a forge started at the very least."
"Understood my lord!" He walked over to the dwarves and introduced himself.
"I take it you're the village chief!" Kaijin said with a hearty laugh. "It's rare to see a hobgoblin like you! Nice to meet you! The name's Kaijin!" From behind, the three dwarf brothers quickly introduced themselves.
Rigurd nodded along. Quickly memorizing their names before escorting them away from the village center. "He's adapting quickly." Mikaeru said.
As they walked away, Rimuru told them, "Come with us. I think it would be best if we had a proper talk."
The trio looked at each other before settling on just going along with it. Catching up, Mikaeru asked them, "So, you guys are adventurers, right? I take it you haven't gotten the chance to eat much."
Eren jumped in with a smile, "Oh, no! The villagers took care of that! The food was really good!" You don't say? Mikaeru chose to not bring up the massive trail of saliva flowing out of her mouth. Aren't you royalty?
Rimuru seemed happy at the news. "I see! Glad you liked it! Looks like the food isn't an issue."
That was one of the problems that had to be addressed, given the population wasn't exactly small. Luckily, it wasn't as hard as the shelter issue given the hunting parties weren't lacking either. Just one tempest wolf and hobgoblin pairing had the ability to take down and transport a charger boar without much issue.
"Would it be okay to ask what your mission is?" Mikaeru asked. "It must have been quite the reason for you to move this deep into the forest."
Kaval stopped to think about it. "Well, I don't think it's that secret. We're here to investigate the forest."
Gido added, "That crazy guild master sent us here because of all the monster activity! He said we're supposed to go in and investigate it!"
"Monster activity, eh?" Rimuru silently said to himself. "So it's not just happening with us then."
"Eh?" Eren exclaimed. "What do you mean?"
Mikaeru explained, "Well, this village hasn't always been so peaceful. Before Rimuru and I got here and settled the score, the wolves and hobgoblins you see were fighting to the death. The village would have been wiped out if we hadn't stepped in at the time. I take it that's one example of the monster movement"
"I see. How scary." Eren muttered to herself.
The group got quiet after that as Rimuru escorted everyone to a tent. Once inside, Rimuru got to work on really getting to the bottom of this. He started by saying, "Alright, now that we're comfortable. I think it would be best if we completely get the introductions done with. As you've heard, my name is Rimuru Tempest. I am one of the two leaders of this village. The slime next to me is my brother, Mikaeru Tempest.."
The group of four digested that information before Kaval stepped up, "My name is Kaval. I am the leader of this adventuring party. The two behind me are my traveling companions. Eren and Gido." He paused for a bit before finally motioning towards the final woman of the group. "This, meanwhile, is Shizu. A temporary addition to our party for this mission."
Shizue walked up before bowing, "Hello, my name is Shizu. Charmed." Mikaeru took a look at her. Rimuru couldn't tell she was a woman at first glance originally, which he couldn't help but find odd seeing her. The clothing was loose, but her chest still stuck out, granted she wasn't Shion level. How stupid was Rimuru?
He looked at the sword. It wasn't the one originally depicted. [Great Sage], can you analyze it?
{Notice- High Unique Grade status has been confirmed. The use of extremely pure fire magic stones were used in the construction of the magisteel sword}
High unique grade was the status just below legend grade. By [Great Sage]'s weapon standards, any weapon with that category would be in the process of evolving into a legendary grade weapon. That meant that Shizue wasn't just stronger physically, but even her weapon was stronger. He kept that in mind.
"Kaval, Gido, Eren and Shizu. I see." He asked them, "What brings you to our village?"
Kaval laughed. "Oh, we just wandered in, you see."
Eren sighed, "This idiot here," she pointed at Kaval, "thought it would be a good idea to step on a stoneworm's beak to check if it was alive." As it turned out, it was. And to make it worse, there wasn't just one. They had walked into a hive of the things.
Mikaeru waited for them to finish their story of their retreat before Mikaeru said, "You're really disaster prone." Apparently during their escape they had managed to fall down a cliff, slip into a stream and additionally ran into four monsters including a baby armorsaurus with its territorial mother nearby.
Shizue nodded to herself as she let out a sigh when Mikaeru mentioned that. "Well, all's well that ends well!" Rimuru exclaimed. "You'rs here now so that's all that matters!" He stopped to think, "Are you leaving soon?"
"The three of us will head back after this." He turned to the masked woman, "As for her. She said she was planning to stay around for a while longer."
"Is that so?" Mikaeru asked aloud. "Interesting."
Rimuru nodded, "I see. In that case then take your time. It would be best to be well rested before you go."
The three accepted Rimuru's offer. As it turned out, they were still in the process of getting their stuff sorted out for the trip back. From there, the conversation devolved into mindless chatter for the most part before eventually disbanding. Taking advantage of that off time, Mikaeru got to work on a quick pressing task.
With Kaijin and his group having just arrived, the Shizue event of this world would have to happen at the same time as tbe setting up of the forge. Not ideal. So, instead of having Rimuru face it, Mikaeru decided to get that dealt with himself. Making his way over to the open area Rigurd assigned to them, he looked at what they had already set up. It had only been about 2 hours since they had gotten there, but the dwarves had already managed to get up the basic building.
"You guys have been hard at work, eh?"
"Oh, well if it isn't Lord Mikaeru. I heard you talked with those adventurers." He sighed as he took a break from construction and sat down, "I take it they're here to investigate all the chaos with the monsters, right?"
"Have you talked to them?" Mikaeru asked.
"No, news just gets around. Dwargon's capital isn't as close to the main forest as other nations but we do still border it. I heard that Dwargon is also thinking about taking action if things don't slow down."
Mikaeru understood. "Anyone traveling south from Dwargon is at risk of an attack right now. It's probably not the best for their reputation if they leave things like they are." If things went according to the main story, this little detail would go nowhere. The forest would more or less calm down in a little under a month.
"Is there any reason for the unexpected visit?"
"Oh, that. Can you get the other guys to gather round? I have something to give you guys."
Kaijin seemed a bit surprised but went ahead and called them over. Mikaeru explained, "I don't think you guys will need much help with the actual building, but I figured it would be best to give you guys these." From out of the slime popped a collection of forging equipment, both heavy duty and more refined. Immediately the dwarves gave a shocked look. "Weapons aren't all I can replicate. I went ahead and analyzed your equipment before we left. Figured it would be worth it. Does it live up to your standards?"
Kaijin laughed before saying, "It's more than enough." He took a look at the different equipment. "I didn't think I'd get my hands on this stuff so quickly!"
Satisfied, Mikaeru couldn't help but get a little excited himself. This would only help increase Tempest's growth ever the more. However, he was interrupted by the arrival of three more people.
Kaval's party. "You hired some dwarves?"
"Huh?" Mikaeru turned to look. "Oh, yup, yup~. Best of the best as well. This is Kaijin. Heard of him?"
"K-Kaijin!?" Eren blurted out.
"Hahahaha! So my name's made the rounds!"
"Of course, sir! The legendary blacksmith Kaijin! Anyone who's worth their salt knows that name!"
Mikaeru watched the talk quickly go from casual conversation to one about the story of Kaijin's life. It wasn't long before he decided to excuse himself.
He sighed as he looked around. "Hm." Rimuru and Shizue weren't in the village. Expanding his search area, he quickly pinpointed where they were. "Well, it is about sunset time." They were standing on a nearby hill overlooking the forest. A heart to heart, eh?
He questioned whether or not it was a good idea to go and interrupt their talk. After some deliberation, he decided it was at least worth it to eavesdrop. So, with that thought in mind, he made his way over to them.