Departures And Arrivals 2

Not long after Milim left Tempest

The massive aura of the protector of the City of the Forgotten Dragon drew near, and everyone in said city could feel it. Their goddess, their reason for being, had returned home after her long period of absence, which were quite common. The main part of the city radiated outwards from a mountain cliff where it met a large lake; the cliff housed the Great Temple, the personal residence built by the Faithful for their object of worship, the Dragon Princess and Demon Lord, Milim Nava.

In a hasty but well rehearsed chaos, the priests in charge of running the city assembled in the front of the large marble stairs leading down into the city from the main temple. Waiting at their head was a large, imposing bald man; this was Middray, the head priests and de facto leader of the Faithful as Milim had little interest in actual governance. He looked over in the distance, sensing their Master coming closer at unimaginable speeds. The massive force descended from the clouds and landed right in front of them, but there was not so much as a speck of dust disturbed.

As she looked around to check her surroundings, her eyes landed on the hundred or so priests assembled, who all immediately dropped down on one knee. She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and simply said 'Rise', and they obeyed.

Middray respectfully approached, head held low 'My Lady, it is good to see you again!' he said in a gruff voice 'We are blessed by you presence!'

-'Yes, yes...sure you are.' she said, turning slightly to look over the city 'Everything alright around here?' she asked mostly to continue the facade. It wasn't like they required her to baby them with every minor thing, though she guessed they would like that.

-'Yes of course, Lady Milim!' the head priest informed 'Your Faithful are in great health and prosperous as always, by your good graces!' she nodded, then turned around to head into the temple.

-'I'm just passing through. I have some things I really need to get done, so let's make this quick...' she was referring to the trays of offerings the priests had assembled from the common citizens, arrayed on a large stone table hosted underneath a statue of her and a throne.

She didn't really care about any of it- not the gross raw food, the gold or the jewels- but they did, so she gritted through the tedium; a thousand years had passed since she had saved a few villages from being eradicated by a hoard of monsters, and in that time they had grown into a small but prosperous city, if dull and stagnant. She watched generation after generation toil to work the land and build up, brick by brick, a city from nothing, and they did it all in her name, because she gave them her protection. Like most things, it was a whim on her part; and like most of those whims, it had long since grown out of her control. Not that she cared about any control. She had merely wiped some small fry monsters, as far as she was concerned it was hardly a reason to build statues of her, but she just could't bring herself to tell them away. She gave her word they would be safe, and she was no liar; they would be under her protection for as long as she lived, which she guessed was probably forever.

Middray quickly moved to lead her to throne 'May I ask, how were you're travels?' he asked

-'Ha, pretty great!' she beamed and stopped to face him 'You won't believe this, but there's this new nation in the Great Forest of Jura. I spent some good time there with their leader!' she explained

'The forest of Jura?' a younger looking man that was trailing behind Middray spoke up 'Isn't it off limits even for Demon Lords?' he asked

-'Hermes!' Middray bellowed 'Nothing is off limits to our Great Milim!'

-'It was.' Milim turned to Hermes, completely ignoring the baldy 'But Veldora vanished from his cave. So, the treaty keeping the Forest closed was abolished.' she explained, drawing shocked gasps from everyone around

-'The Storm Dragon is gone? How?' Middray asked

-'Nobody knows.' Milim said as she shrugged 'Two years ago almost, he just...vanished. No trace. He isn't dead, either, because he would have definitely reformed by now.' she said 'Then the monsters began to go crazy and in the middle of that, Rimuru shows up out of nowhere and builds up an entire city of monsters.' she exclaimed

-'Rimuru? I assume this is the leader you mentioned?' Hermes asked

-'Yup! You will never guess, but...he's a slime!' she laughed at their bewildered expressions

-'A slime, leading a monster nation?' Middray exclaimed

-'A ha ha, not any slime. He's really smart and also powerful.' she turned to look at Middray with a smirk 'He could probably give you a hard fight.'

Middray was by far the strongest of all the Faithful; he would occasionally have mock battles with Milim herself and hold his own reasonably enough. For their Master to say that about someone, anyone, no one there doubted this 'Rimuru' was a special individual indeed.

-'He's my...er, best friend.' she nearly said 'boyfriend' but quickly stopped herself, not wanting to give that secret away yet. Rimuru was insistent they keep it under wraps when she left. 'So I want you all to show him the proper respect!' she added.

-'Yes, of course, Lady Milim!' Middray immediately agreed 'Now, may I present to you our offerings?' he said with starry eyes

Milim took one good look at the large stone table and all the things neatly arrayed on it; as she feared, all the food was raw. She wanted to throw a fit right then and there, but managed to hold herself back, if barley. After experiencing the godly food in Tempest, there was no way she wanted to go back to this...but, reluctantly, with the blank poker face only centuries of practice could allow, she sat down and began munching away. Middray looked on in pride.

Many in the crowd knew better though, especially Hermes, who knew: she hated it. He could hardly blame her; he had visited numerous places in his travels, from Dwargon to Eurazania, and he knew just how she felt. But the fact that she soldiered through really raised his already high opinion of their masters; he doubted he could last as long as she did.

After a few minutes, however, Milim had enough; she really had to get out of there before she snapped. But she needed an excuse 'Ah...' she said as she shot up from the throne 'I really need to get going, so I'll umm, leave this to you!'

-'But...my Lady...' Middray tried to protest

-'No, no, it's fine!' she shot him down 'I have very important things to talk with the other Demon Lords that can't wait.' and quickly began walking away 'the food was, erm, great! Tempest had some great food too, but...ah, never mind. See ya!' and as fast as she could shot out of the temple, leaving Middray with a stunned expression while holding a tray of vegetables. Hermes had to shake his head at the oblivious head priest.

Rimuru arrived in Blumund with the adventurer trio and was quickly struck by just how medieval the capital was; it was an extremely archetypal medieval city with high stone walls for defense against invasions. It was too cliche, but nevertheless it had a bright air about it. From what he had gathered, the capital, Rondo, was the only large city in the small nation, with most feudal lords being little more than glorified villages; most of their defense was through their close association with the Free Guild and, according to Fuse, a healthy dose of information gathering (of which he was in charge of alongside his duties as grand-master of the Guild in Blumund). He intended to meet up with him anyways, but as the stopped in an inn and explained in more details his quest, the trio had told him something interesting, namely that the Grand Master of the Guild, Yuuki Kagurazaka, was once Shizu's student (alongside a woman named Hinata Sakaguchi); he realized the two were the students in his visions.

Both of them sounded japanese, so he assumed they both must be otherworlders like himself. Now he had even more reason to try and meet up with them and talk. He asked the three to take him to Fuze so he could quickly talk things through

-'Oh yeah boss...' Kaval nonchalantly said on their way there 'If you're going to Ingressia, you should register as an adventurer with the guild.'

-'Huh? Why?' he asked confused

Eren quickly dug through her pockets and brought out some kind of ID card 'Adventurers do most of their work outside of towns, right?' she said cheerfully 'A registration with the Guild will prove your identity in any country that recognizes it.' she explained 'You are allowed entry in most cities if you have it.'

He realized then that, as a monster, he didn't really have any identification paper; he had to give it to them for bringing it up before he ended up getting arrested or something for trying to enter a county without it. He decided to take care of that first things first.

At the guild, he stopped by the main receptionist to try and register; naturally, with his small, girl-like stature and wearing the mask left by Shizu (it hid his monster aura, allowing him to pass as a human) he was quickly mistaken for a little girl and accused of cosplaying as Shizu. Thankfully, the backing of the three adventures was enough to convince the receptionist to allow him to take the test for the combat division. His instructor was a one legged veteran named Thegis, and the test was, to Rimuru at least, laughably easy. Even the last test for B- minus ranking was 'just' a lesser demon he quickly dispatched, much to the shock of the gathered crowd. Thus he became a B rank adventure. The real test came when trying to calm down Fuze when he heard about it.

-'If you wanted identification papers, you should have just asked me!' he said in between scolding the adventurer trio, who were sited on the floor in his office 'I could have used my guild master privilege to get you a B- rank with no fuss.' he sighed and rubbed his temples

-'Ah, is that so?' Rimuru said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head

-'Whatever...' Fuze eventually said, sitting down on his office chair 'Just be more careful. If people find out you're a monster...'

They talked for a bit more about Rimuru's plans; hearing about how he was going to see to Shizu's last wishes, Fuze was quick to agree to give him a letter of introduction, which he would need to meet with the Grand Master in Lura. According to Fuze, Yuuki was indeed an otherworlder, but not much else was known about him. Meanwhile, he had quite a bit to say about the other student, Hinata Sakaguchi- she had become something of a champion of mankind, rising up the ladder to the rank of Commander of the Holy Knight Order of the Western Holy Church, the largest religion on the continent and one which was vehemently dedicated to extermination of all monsters in the world. As a monster himself, he was not keen to ever meet her.

In any case, Fuze had other news for him: namely, that the King of Blumund wanted to have a meeting with him. Never one to let an opportunity slide, Rimuru agreed. First he met with a count, Velyard, chief minister of Blumund, to discuss the details of an agreement between the two nations. Next day, he met the king and queen to seal the deal. He felt both could have gone better, especially since he realized he got the short end of the stick with the defensive part of the treaty.

In the end, he managed to get a pretty good deal going for his potions; a quick demonstration on Thegis, limbs regrowing and all, was more than enough to bring everyone onboard. It was almost enough to make up for the treaty he had been bamboozled into...

The rest of the journey to Ingrassia continued on with no issues. A few days later, they came up to the capital...

It was, in a word, massive. A veritable modern city with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, massive walls and even multi-floor buildings that could have easily passed for modern 20th century Earth. It made Tempest look dinky and small by a long mile. Thankfully, as a B- rank adventurer he was easily allowed entry, and the mask did it's job of concealing his identity to the powerful anti-monster barrier surrounding the city.

His first order of busyness was to talk with Yuuki; the headquarters of the Guild was a large building with a dozen floors, with large glass windows and even magical automatic doors. The letter from Fuze allowed him an immediate meeting with Yuuki and he was taken up to his office (the trio had to stay behind). The initial meeting could have gone better. He was still wearing the mask, waiting in the office, when a young-looking man walked in

-'Thank you for waiting...' he said in a boyish voice 'I am the Grand Master of the Guild, Yuuki Kagurazaka. And you are...' his voice faltered as he saw the mask. Then things escalated when Rimuru took it off to talk

-'Hello, I am Rimuru Tempest of...' before he could finish, Yuuki had lunged at him with a fierce kick, which he only barley managed to block

'Whoa, what's up with this guy?!' he though as they exchanged blows. Thankfully, he quickly realized the problem 'Wait! This isn't what it looks like!' he screamed as he jumped away from the Grand Master, who scowled at him

-'Why do you have that mask?' he asked with a threatening voice 'And that face? You have the aura of a monster too..'

-'Please, I know how it looks but I can explain.' he said as he put his arms up 'Please.'

The young looking man scowled and considered the situation. Then, he sighed, and relented 'Very well. I will listen to what you have to say.'