Artorias and Sif waited patiently, as some crowd gathered behind them.
After some time, Souei called him in.
Artorias entered, and he saw an outstanding woman sitting on a chair.
She had hair of blue like the skies, eyes as gold as the lightning of his Lord Gwyn.
The woman stared directly into his soul.
-"Hello... Er.."
-"I am Artorias, Artorias of the Abyss."
-"Artorias, what a wonderful name you have.
I am Rimuru, Rimuru Tempest, the leader of this small town."
One quick glance made it clear as day.
Artorias could easily tell that Rimuru was not acting normally, Rimuru was tensing up to appear like a serious ruler.
"I heard from Souei that you woke up in the Jura Forest?"
'Jura Forest..?'
-"Jura Forest? What is that? Is this a new extension of the Darkroot forest? No.. Maybe it has connections to Oolacile.."
They both just stared at each other, equally confused and weirded out.
Then Rimuru had an epiphany.
-"Oh, I think I can tell what's going on.."
-"Do tell."
-"You are not from this world, you must have.. Died and came to this world."
Artorias put his hand on his sword, gripping it tightly, which lead Souei to immediately prepare to attack.
-"Great Rimuru, that ma-"
Rimuru stood up, and approached Artorias.
-"I am like you, I also died and reincarnated."
Sif began pulling on Artorias' cloth with his mouth, trying to calm him down.
Artorias took a deep breath and let go of his grip.
-"So you mean to tell me that I am not in my former world anymore, and there is no way to return to my Lord."
-"..Yes."
Sif let go of the pulling, and maintained his position beside Artorias' leg.
-"What in damnation happened for me to be pulled into another reality..?!
How does that even happen?
Lord.. Gwyn.."
Sif whimpered, and Artorias lamented.
-"Shall we talk somewhere else? I think I can answer some of your questions at least."
Artorias was lost in thought, but he managed to gather together a
-"..Yes."
-"Join me, come."
Artorias and Sif followed, and Souei disappeared.
"By the way, you can let your wolf buddy hang out with mine."
-"..?"
Then, out of Rimuru's shadow, a wolf as big as Artorias jumped out.
The wolf was very excited, and it shrunk down to Sif's size.
-"This is Ranga, my buddy pet.
Ranga, go have fun."
-"This is.. Sif.
Go have fun."
The two wolves went and started doing whatever wolves do to have fun.
Then, Rimuru and Artorias continued.
It was hard to avoid attention now, as everyone looked at the two.
"""Great Rimuru!"""
Three humanoids with horns came to Rimuru.
Thing is, Artorias was a fair bit taller than all of them.
He was dwarfing Rimuru, and the red hair who came running was shorter than him by a fair bit.
The other was a violet haired woman and another smaller pink haired girl.
The three took on a prepared stance, the pink haired girl stood beside Rimuru, meanwhile the other two stood between Rimuru and Artorias.
-".....What do you think you're doing?" Artorias questioned this sudden outrageous act.
-"Guys, it's fi-"
The red hair slowly drew his sword, and the violet hair pulled her massive sword and smashed it down at Artorias.
"NO STOP! SHIOOON!"
But it was too late.
Well... too late to stop the violet hair, but it wasn't really an issue.
Artorias pulled his sword out with inhuman speed and easily deflected Shion's attack, and her sword was sent flying.
"Shion! What have you done?! Why did you attack him!"
-"U-Uh.. Great Rimuru... I sensed this au-"
Then it just collapsed into an excuse factory by Benimaru and Shion.
Rimuru was just trying to get them to stop talking for a second, but they wouldn't stop coming up with excuses.
Artorias' patience was ticking off.
-"Can you all just stop talking for a second?
I don't care that you tried to attack me, all's well that ends well for now.
We were going to talk more in the room you were taking me to."
-"Y-Yes.. Please forgive my subordinates for.. Attacking you so.."
The two began walking off, and as the other three were beginning to follow..
-"And get some training, you hit like you can barely lift that sword."
Shion's eyebrows twitched.
-"Shuna.. Benimaru.. I think I'm going to kill someone today."
The pink hair, Shuna, and the red hair, Benimaru, both just followed silently.
Shion wandered off to pick her sword from wherever it landed.
Entering a large hall, Artorias saw the gathered beings.
A green haired human with vines coming out from behind her, the same blue hair that suddenly disappeared, apparently he was named Souei, three dwarves, and behind Artorias was Shuna and Benimaru.
Everyone stood up and looked at the four people entering.
Benimaru and Shuna took their seats, while Rimuru sat in the big chair.
The only chair left was the one facing Rimuru's, and Artorias took a seat.
Now, before the meeting began, something needs to be understood.
Rimuru's train of thoughts were all about how strong Artorias is.
Roughly speaking, they were close, but Rimuru could not get an exact estimate.
Artorias was maybe less powerful in just raw power, but it was obvious to Rimuru that Artorias was very much an extremely distinguished individual, with his semi-instantaneous reaction to Shion's attack, his skill with a sword showed, even if it was for just a second.
Artorias didn't seem to have any malicious intent, infact, he just seemed to be sad, and had no motive to attack Rimuru regardless.
-"Okay, now we're all here.." Rimuru spoke, beginning the meeting.
-"Great Rimuru, who is that if I may ask?" The green haired lady asked politely, Artorias stayed silent to see how Rimuru will paint him in front of them.
He also found out through their short walk that Rimuru is a male, and he decided to not be surprised anymore.
-"Treyni, this is Artorias, Artorias, this is Treyni.
Treyni is a Dryad, basically, a caretaker of the Forest of Jura, which we are in right now.
Artorias is an individual from another world, it seems he's an immensely strong fighter with long experience in serving his former lord, er..."
-"Gwyn, Lord Gwyn." Artorias finished Rimuru's sentence.
Everyone else in the room looked quite surprised.
-"I see, so he must have ended up here by chance?" One of the dwarves asked.
-"Yes, Kaijin, he did, one of the Goblin scouts found him right outside the perimeter." Souei answered the dwarf, Kaijin's, question.
The Dryad, Treyni, was relieved for a reason Artorias could not tell.
-"Anyways, Artorias, this is not your world as I told you before..
Did you die? Or did you just appear whilst doing something?"
-"..." Artorias took a moment to recall his lost life, and then he spoke.
"I was on a mission to rescue an abducted person.
That mission happened to be located in an area called "The Abyss", near a city.
I didn't realize how dangerous that mission was, and in that mission, with my friend Sif, I suppose I perished after I got overwhelmed... But that was the last thing I remember, I proceeded to wake up here.
My crushed arm was normal, my armor is as shiny as my glory days.
Sif seems to have missed me like he hasn't seen me for ages, but I don't know if that's just because of our extreme bond or if it's something beyond my comprehension."
After saying all of his part, the mood settled, and one could only sympathize with Artorias' story.
"My life's mission was to serve Lord Gwyn first and foremost, and now...
I do not know what to think, I am lost both in the physical terms and in spiritual terms,
A wandering body."
Rimuru tilted his head a little bit, thinking of something.
-"Well...
I know it's not much compensation, but you can stay here, if you wish so.
This is most likely the only place with any signs of a developed land for a long distance.
You'll get the basics.. It is likely nothing close to your former life.. But food, shelter and extra services are what you'll get."
Artorias responded with words that put a smile on Rimuru's face.
-"I am a knight, luxuries were never meant to be expected to begin with.
I thank you for anything you'll grant me, I accept your offer."
Everyone got excited, and a few cheers were heard.
-"Well then, drinks?" Shuna asked an obviously easy to answer to question.
-"You know the answer already, Shuna!" Rimuru laughed and the room was lively.
Artorias excused himself and stepped out for a little bit, and Benimaru followed him.
-"Hey, uh, sorry for earlier."
-"No worries, I wouldn't take anyone endangering my Lord either, but he is far stronger than me."
-"Great Rimuru is immeasurably stronger than me as well, so that's something we share.
But-"
-"I don't rely on him much, I do not want to be viewed as weak."
Benimaru and Artorias looked at each other as they were thinking the same thing, and they exchanged a light laugh.
"Ah, it seems I mistook you for an inexperienced young fellow.
Seems like you suffered your fair bit."
-"Yes... We were about to discuss our attack plans on an army of Orcs, that army ravaged and destroyed our home village..
I, my sister Shuna, Shion, Souei, and another two, were the only ones left and we had to wander together, until we stumbled across Great Rimuru.
I have never been more grateful for such a chance encounter."
Artorias read Benimaru's expressions, and he seemed genuinely happy to be here, no regrets.
-"He really is great then, eh?"
-"Yes, yes he is, a lord worth serving, Great Rimuru is."
-"...Attacking an army, you said...
I guess I have nothing else to do then, I will join you."
Benimaru looked surprised, but he smiled more.
-"Great! I will tell Great Rimuru about this then!"
-"I will go and observe this town then, I will see you later."
Benimaru entered the room again and Artorias left to see the newly built town.
Once again he found himself lost in thought, but that wasn't long lived as Shion came back to "talk" to him.
-"You!"
'Not her again..' Artorias thought to himself.
-"What?" Artorias tensed his voice turning to face her.
-"You didn't tell me, how can you tell I'm not strong?! What makes you sure?!"
-"It doesn't take a genius to figure out you're relying too much on the weight of the sword."
Shion approached angrily, no one can talk about her not being strong enough without getting a taste of her strength.
But she didn't realize that approaching him was like approaching a wall.
He was tall.
She thought she was intimidating to most of the populous, but he did not care.
Comedic moments like this were the norm for Shion, but she didn't realize some people had too hard of a life to even consider faking emotion.
She stared up, her neck feeling sore, if we were to put it into measurement, he was taller than a door.
Artorias was not effected by her intimidation whatsoever..
Usually, no, always, when she acts intimidating, everyone cowers to play along.
But Artorias had no time for such jokes, he's seen all there is to the horrendous side of life.
"It was not meant to be an insult, and I did not mean to say you're weak.
But maybe your skill is not honed, so put into consideration the need to practice."
Artorias gave his piece, and his piece is heavy, as he himself has experience far more than most people in this world.
Shion decided to take it easy and listen at that moment, the moment she realized he means good.