A little over a day passed since Mikaeru had found Sumire wandering in the village, and that was all it had taken for her to get sucked in somehow.
Not long after the village leader invited her in, she had decided it was time to retreat for a little bit only to run into interruption after interruption. Eventually she just decided to give up. What came next confused her no less. She was being fed a drumstick by a goblina by the name of Haruna. After introducing her to the village, the slime had chosen to leave her under her care. She had thought about telling the female monster that she could feed herself, but she didn't have the heart to say it after looking into the goblina's eyes. She couldn't do much more than open her mouth as the goblina fed her like a child.
On the other side of the village's main canteen she could see Rito, the only other human in the area, stare at her. She felt so embarrassed.
Mikaeru laughed to himself as he watched the scene nearby. He had set her up with the goblina mostly because he figured a more caring figure in her life would work out well. Angelus wasn't exactly the best dad of all time so a change of pace was good.
Beyond that he would have to keep a mental note of her presence here for when Hinata would appear later. A convenient little detail that had been added to the story was that they were neighbors as kids. It would be ideal to have them meet early into Hinata's first trip to Tempest to lower her guard faster.
Standing up, he set his sights on something far more important. The arrival of Shizue and Rimuru.
He had been keeping track of the two ever since he saw them depart from the ogre territory and thus knew when they would appear. They hadn't been traveling at the speed they were on their way there, but they were by no means walking. As he made his way through the village, he silently took mental notes of the situation. He had ordered the village to hold on full scale renovations at least for the moment.
With massive change on the horizon with the orc war, he figured it was probably best to wait until after the turmoil was over with. Only then could they maximize the quality of the buildings they make.
At the speed he was walking, by the time he made it to the village entrance, he was there in time to see the expeditionary team come back.
He looked at them. "Hm, 8 kijin and an oni."
Upon seeing them, Mikaeru felt a tug from the ground. It was Ranryo. "They're not a threat. Stay until I call you out okay?" He looked at the group. "Ranga trusts them, you know." There were three people riding on top of Ranga. Rimuru in his slime form clung on to his horns while Shizue and Shuna properly sat on top of the giant wolf.
His eyes widened ever so slightly at a few of them. The oni was Hakurou. It seemed like the old man had gotten quite the buff from his stronger grandfather and teacher. As for the others. He recognized Benimaru, Shuna and Shion. No Souei.
He crossed his arms. Was he still in their territory?
Kurobe on the other hand could rationalize quite easily. A blacksmith wouldn't make sense to send out for no reason. It appeared he would have to attract that guy into Tempest later. He strategized in his mind. "Maybe rumors of Kaijin could interest him?"
As they peaked their heads out of the forest, Rimuru was the first to greet him. "Hey, Mikaeru!"
He uncrossed his arms and waved out. "I see you guys are back. You brought back company?"
Stopping right at the entrance, Rimuru quickly got to work. Motioning Benimaru over, he explained. "This is Benimaru. He's the leader of their group."
That much he could guess, but he didn't say it aloud. Benimaru bowed, "I have heard of you from Sir Rimuru. You must be Sir Mikaeru."
"Yup, yup~." Mikaeru bowed back. "Hm…" He looked them over. Special A. The weakest of the group was Special A. Benimaru, Shuna and Shion were pushing the S Class boundary. As for Hakurou…just his magicules gave off S Class readings. He could only guess his true strength when his immense skill was taken into account. He didn't question that he was likely strong enough to push Shizue in her [Flame Transformation] to her limits.
When he finished, he noticed the look in Hakurou's eyes. He had noticed Mikaeru's analysis.
"Not bad." He peaked over playfully, "I assume these guys are your subordinates, yes?"
Benimaru explained, "Yes, although I would prefer to call them my comrades." Starting with the ones in front, he began to run through his group. "This is my sister, Shuna, my old friend Shion, and my teacher, Master Hakurou." Then he kept going. Hanabi, Toshiro, Hoshimi, Kou and Cyrus. Mikaeru raised a brow at the last one. A western name? He wondered if it had some meaning.
Mikaeru nodded along. "I see, I see~." He smiled, "It's a pleasure to ma…" Before he could finish his sentence, he was suddenly interrupted by a yell.
"Lord Rimuru! You've returned!" Yelled Rigurd.
With the giant hobgoblin came a swarm of others as they all ran out. "Figured as much." Upon laying eyes with the higher level monsters, the swarm grew a bit less energetic but still took some time to calm. After a bit of explanation, they eventually managed to reduce the swarm to a manageable number.
Mikaeru kept Rigurd, Rigurt and Rigur there, as well as a few of the more important subordinate hobgoblins. Motioning his finger upwards, Ranryo immediately got the message and jumped out.
Only one more person was needed here. "Ransei, I can see you. Stop with the edgelord shtick and get over here." Off in the distance, Ransei growled. He had sensed his son's presence long before their arrival and had thus positioned himself on a rock face that pointed directly at the entrance.
Fading into his shadow, he reappeared not far away, jumping out of a nearby tent's shadow.
Mikaeru looked at the wolf. Did he get bigger? After initial evolution, the alpha had actually been smaller than Ranga. Now they were the same size. He checked for other abnormalities and immediately locked in on the scar that had remained on his face, going over his now completely blind right eye. It had strangely gotten even bigger than before, now stretching all the way up to his horns.
He remembered that Rigurd had continued transforming slowly as his position grew even though he hadn't trained. Ransei was in his same position yet was actively training. Would he get a unique evolution? That would prove interesting.
He shook off his thoughts. No, it wasn't time.
He motioned to the monsters that were now positioned right to his left. "This is Ranryo, my companion. I am sure you are at least somewhat aware of Ranga's own relationship with Rimuru. As for the other two, they are Rigurd and Ransei, the leaders of the hobgoblins and tempest wolves respectively. Behind them are Rigurd's subordinates and his two sons, Rigurt and Rigur."
Benimaru walked forward and held his hand out. "I see. It is a pleasure to meet you." As Rigurd awkwardly shook it, the kijin said, "We shall be in your care for the remainder of our stay."
Mikaeru turned to Rimuru. "They'll stay, eh?"
Rimuru sighed. "Yup. At least for the moment."
Mikaeru would make sure that stay was far longer than that. He looked behind the slime. Shizue seemed happy as she watched the introductions.
After a bit more small talk, the kijin and oni were finally allowed in. After which, they all relocated to the closest the village had to a meeting room. One of the few buildings Kaijin had managed to upgrade in the short time since his arrival at the village.
As they walked, Mikaeru saw fit to disperse a few people. He ordered the subordinate hobgoblins of Rigurd to start spreading word to the village of the new arrivals leaving just the essentials. Additionally, he also made sure to call over some others. Ordering them to also call over Kaijin, he explained to Rimuru that it was probably best to inform him more directly of the new arrivals. After all, he was the village's only blacksmith for weapons and armor. During this time he watched as Ransei walked off. "Figured." Ransei wasn't one for socializing. Ranryo and Ranga went ahead and entered the shadows as well.
The dwarf ended up running into them halfway through their walk, after which Rimuru introduced him. He seemed oddly familiar with them, although it didn't seem to be some personal connection.
It was only after making it to the building though that the more important talks began. Standing in front of it, Benimaru took note of its size and turned to his party. He would bring in Shuna, Hakurou and Shion while everyone else would guard the outside.
The building was decently sized but it would become crowded if they pushed it too far. Only then did the people walk in. It was an open room with little more than a single large meeting table in the center. A room Mikaeru had arranged for not long after Rimuru left just for situations such as this.
After everyone sat down, it was only then that a conversation topic Mikaeru had seen coming, fully came up for the first time. The Orc Lord. It came up in a rather haphazard way. Benimaru brought it up like any other normal conversation topic.
It was something that caught a few off guard. Kaijin was the one most shocked. "An orc lord?"
Benimaru nodded. "It is part of the reason we have come. A dryad appeared in our town and personally requested my father for aid. He chose to send a group of ten warriors led by me."
"Ten, eh?" Mikaeru said. "So there's one more?"
"Yes, a friend of mine by the name of Souei was sent to the Orc Kingdom of Orbic to investigate."
So he was in Orbic? Mikaeru questioned. He had pretty much uncovered everything he needed from the nation. It was unlikely the kijin would find anything new, but he didn't mention that. Revealing that he already knew of the Orc Lord wasn't ideal.
"I apologize for my ignorance my lords, but could you explain what an Orc Lord is?"
"It's an evolution of the orc race. From what I've read about them, they only come about every few hundred years. Whenever they do, they devastate everything around them because they gather a giant group of orcs and eat everything. It's even said they'll eat their own kind. Think of it more like a natural disaster than a single threat." Said Mikaeru.
Rigurd understood. "Is the location of this Orc Lord known?" Asked Kaijin. The kijin nodded. "From the dryad's last reports, the Orc Lord's army is moving through the Great Ameld Rapids. From their current travel speeds, they suspect it will take them 2 weeks to reach the west side of the river system."
Rigurd seemed to be familiar with that. "I see." He nodded along, "They appear to be moving away from Lord Rimuru's territory. That is reassuring."
Mikaeru pointed out. "Of course that doesn't change the fact that they'll probably continue eating from there and there's no telling when they might return this way. It's not something we can ignore."
Shizue thought carefully about what their current trajectory meant. "The northwest of the Great Ameld Rapids leads to the entrance of Serpent's Cove. It would be too dangerous to get close. That means they will probably exit near the swamplands just south of that. The closest monster clan from there are the lizardmen living near Lake Siss."
"So you think they'll attack there?" Asked Rimuru.
"It is likely." She said matter of factly.
Mikaeru stared at Shizue. [Great Sage]. Is there any information on what Serpent's Cove is?
{Answer- Serpent's Cove is a territory located at an intersection between the Armed Nation of Dwargon, the Eastern Empire and the Great Forest of Jura. It is considered a dead territory too dangerous to enter due to far reaching rumors of the presence of a being of comparable power to True Dragons. It is unknown what that being might be in modern times}
Mikaeru's face hardened at that last part. Shizue seemed to notice. "Is something wrong, Mikaeru?"
"Don't worry about it." He turned to Benimaru. "You mentioned a guy named Souei, right? You sent him off alone to investigate Orbic. Am I right to assume that he's a more covert agent?"
Shuna explained, "I believe that would be correct. He is a shinobi. They are the ones responsible for silent operations in Ogra. Members of that group of warriors are the ones we send most often when we need information on the outside world."
Benimaru agreed. "He is among the best at that."
"I see." It was good to know Souei was still as he remembered. "In that case, I think it would probably be best to send him to the lizardman territory to warn them. If we're going to fight the Orc Lord, it would be best for us to do it before they consume them and get stronger. We have two weeks to prepare at least, based on what those dryads have told you."
Shizue added, "I would guess another 2 days or so based on travel time to the lizardman territory as well, although I am not sure if they could defend."
"So a little over two weeks." Mikaeru confirmed.
He looked at the armor and weapons of the new arrivals. It appeared that Kurobe had a far better time in this timeline than before. [Great Sage] quickly judged most of their equipment as High A Rank or above. Not that a quick look from Kaijin couldn't hurt of course. That did save on material though. The first shipment of aid from Dwargon would arrive in a few days based on his own predictions. He had already sent a few goblin riders to pick it up with a clone.
The rest of the meeting from there devolved mostly into sorting through the plans from there.
Benimaru predicted Souei would reach the village sometime the next day, after which he would be free to travel to the lizardman territory. While that happened, everyone still at the village would prepare for combat. Whether it be through repairing damage to their weaponry through Kaijin or training.
It was during the training portion of the talk that someone tapped Rimuru and Mikaeru's shoulder. Hakurou. Turning to the old man, they listened in on a proposal. A sparring match. One between Rimuru, Mikaeru, Benimaru and Shion. Mikaeru pondered the request. "A measure of strength, right?"
It was by no means a bad idea. It was a good way to get a measure of how everyone was doing in terms of overall combat power. Benimaru and Shion represented the strongest outside of Hakurou. It would be interesting to see how they measured up to the twin slimes. "Hm, interesting, interesting~. Rimuru, I think we should do it."
Rimuru seemed perplexed. "Are you sure?"
"Think about it. We're going to battle in two weeks. Wouldn't it be a good idea to get a feel for what we're working with before we dive in?"
Shizue listened in from nearby. "I think it is a good idea," she said as she approached them.
"You too, huh?" Rimuru sighed. "Alright." He was never someone to resist peer pressure.
"I shall inform the young master of the proposal." Said Hakurou as he walked off.
"It's a good thing I prepared that training ground." Mikaeru commented. It seemed like their next course of action was clear. Slime vs Kijin. Mikaeru chuckled to himself. "Talk about a crazy matchup."