-"You heard the fuss lately?"
Rimuru stared perplexed at Benimaru who was chatting with Souei, they seemed to want to keep it low profile for a particular reason.
They were sitting in a meeting room a few days after the events of the Orc Disaster and Laplace, things had quieted down mainly but a few celebrations here and there still took place.
Rimuru was intrigued by this conversation taking place infront of him so he asked them straight up.
-"What's going on? Why are you talking so quietly all of a sudden? You're not preparing another surprise party, are you?"
Souei and Benimaru looked at each other and nodded like it was time for something, and then faced Rimuru, Souei taking the lead in talking.
-"Lord Rimuru, my group and I have spotted movement of a single man through the forest, and his direction of movement seems to be headed directly to Tempest, now, normally, that might not be concerning but.."
Souei looked at Benimaru to finish his speech, both of their eyes held worry, like this was a supreme form of bad news, and they didn't want to ruin their lord's day with such news, but they couldn't act autonomously for such an event.
Benimaru continued with hesitancy in his voice.
-"...Lord Rimuru, there has been rumors- no, news, circulating through the western parts of the forest that the dryads picked up on..
The news involve a man that caused a massive uproar in Ingrassia, a kingdom to the west, clashing against the Guildmaster of the Free Guild, the largest mercenary organization in the world by far.
We have had a few workers for them in the past come to this forest, and through limited interaction, we came to know that they are aggressive humans with no mercy for us.
Now, that might make it seem like the man could be on our side, but I differ in that opinion, he could pull the entire Ingrassian army behind him, causing massive conflict...
What should we do about him, Lord Rimuru.."
Benimaru trailed off in his last few sentences, he was lost, even as a general overseeing the army, Benimaru had no way of deciding the proper action of situations like this, he was not experienced in the art of judgement.
Placing a hand on his chin and falling into a short period of deep thought, Rimuru took to asking his skill, [Great Sage].
{Answer..
A high probability of recruitment might be possible for this individual, providing the individual with a place of rest and protection temporarily has a chance of persuading the person at joining later on.
It is imperative to recruit said person, as was the case with Artorias, said individual might wield power higher than Master's.}
[Great Sage], to Rimuru's satisfaction, provided him with a great and detailed enough answer.
Rimuru, also having thought slightly about recruitment while [Great Sage] was talking, decided to act on this thought, having no other information on said person, he'll just have to trust his gut to let this person in.
Just when Rimuru raised his hand to give the word, a large aura could be felt approaching, Souei, out of developed instinct, called for his subordinates and immediately asked them for the situation.
-"What? The person has sped up and is nearing Tempest now?!"
Souei was about to leave by himself to dispatch the person in fear of danger, but Rimuru stopped him.
-"It's fine, Souei, I will go talk to him, besides, that aura is way too strong for you to handle by yourself.
Make sure no one gets hurt."
Benimaru and Souei left to do their jobs, and Rimuru headed out as well, straight to this person's line of movement.
Rimuru, through his developed senses, could see the aura.
It was a majestic white mixed with deep dark at once, the dark was just the outline that was slowly mixing into the white.
As for the size of the aura.. It wasn't small, but it wasn't on the level of Rimuru or Artorias, it was smaller, but, for its size, it was much more commanding and much more concentrated.
It was an immensely condensed stream of Magicules and something else, something that even [Great Sage], the skill Rimuru thought to be capable of calculating anything, did not know.
{It seems that the energy in question is not affiliated with anything registered in the "Database", and therefore cannot be recognized.}
-"Damn.. What a pain..
Let's see who this person is.."
{It is advised to proceed with caution, no killing intent can be sensed, no feeling of emotion can be sensed.}
Rimuru understood what [Great Sage] was trying to get at, this person was hollow, he was giving off a vibe of a dead man walking.
The person stopped, and Rimuru finally saw him through the cloud of an aura he was emanating.
To his surprise, Rimuru found the person to be not that much taller than he was, he was taller than Shion, so in his measurements, about 178 centimeters, give or take.
He was wearing shining silver armor with a unique-looking helmet that had engravings on it, and he had three weapons, a dark scythe, and two swords that Rimuru knew were similar to old-style medieval weaponry.
He didn't focus more on his clothing, rather, he shifted his focus back to the eye gap through the man's helmet, and yet, he couldn't see anything.
It was an absolute darkness, one that can not be broken by light.
The man slowly lowered his scythe that he had raised when Rimuru suddenly appeared, and waited for Rimuru to do something.
In confusion as to what to do in this situation, Rimuru just began the talk awkwardly.
"U-uhm.. Hello...?"
Silence from the other person, and Rimuru's conversational skills fell apart, but he remembered his past self, and picked up immediately.
"Ahem, hello stranger, are you perhaps heading to the city behi-"
The individual just stood over Rimuru, his gaze, though not visible, shook Rimuru's soul, it was giving him all sorts of bad vibes.
Until the person spoke, that is.
-"Are you.. The monster ruler."
It was not a question, it was an order, an order that needed a response.
Rimuru, for all his age in his past life as Satoru, and for all his experience, could not fight back against such talking pressure, and responded to the command.
-"Y-Yes.. I am.."
He slapped himself internally for immediately giving into the pressure, and he tried to recompose himself.
Since the beans had already been spilled, he decided to maintain this level of vagueness as much as possible.
But, all his preparation was for naught, as the individual in front of him shut down his aura completely and turned to his left, and a large cloud of smoke covered the entire area.
Rimuru felt drugged, his senses were getting relaxed, and he felt like he could float if he let get.
The last thing he visibly saw was the person stretching their hand out, and something spawning on the ground in the same direction the hand was aiming towards.
Rimuru's consciousness faded in and out for a few seconds, he couldn't think or do anything, and he could hear far shouts that were inaudible, and his mind about to explode for a reason.
It was like he was on cloud nine.
He was high.
After a few minutes of that life changing experience, Rimuru regained his consciousness.
-"Thank goodness, Lord Rimuru, you gave us a heart attack!"
He was in the exact same place he was just in, just lying on the ground, after realizing he was on the ground he got up and looked around, he was dazed still.
He couldn't comprehend what had just happened, he searched for the man who was just staring into his soul a few minutes ago, only to find him being bombarded by attacks left and right.
-"Guys! Stop! It isn't his fault! Stop!"
But he was late to stop them, Souei, Benimaru and Shion had all been smashed into the ground or trees, their bodies had been bruised and bloodied in such a short amount of time.
The man had set his weaponry back into place and had approached Rimuru once more, everyone else could only watch horrified.
-"Faraam.
I want to join you."
-"Eh?"
Rimuru lost all sense of wording and stared dumbstruck at this person, Faraam.
The person being stared at, Faraam, only waited for an answer, when he waits, he is a statue.
{It is advised that you hurry up your shocked attitude.}
Rimuru snapped back to reality and answered very hurriedly, as [Great Sage] advised.
He hated having a childish attitude, but, the time forced him to have it so.
-"Mhm, alright mister Faraam I'm Rimuru Tempest you can call me Rimuru I'm the leader of this nation called you're in it's called Tempest haha funny coincidence right? I'm pleased to meet you let's go to a suitable place for accommodation please don't mind my subordinates' actions I'll reprimand them later alright let's go."
Rimuru said all of that in the matter of five seconds, and Faraam just followed the panicked Rimuru who was speed walking to whatever hall he could first find.
It didn't take long for him to see the main hall first, the same one he had a war council in before the Orc Disaster event, and he made a bee line for it, Faraam still following behind.
At this point, all his subordinates were following in fear of what was going on, the public that saw this commotion were worried that their Lord Rimuru was running for his life and so they gave up their will to live in fear this person would kill them aswell.
It was a shockwave of terror all over Tempest, a resonant terror.
In fact, the terror was so wide spread throughout Tempest that, when Rimuru entered the halls, they shut the door behind them and locked them.
"No! Open the damn door! He's not going to kill us! Don't worry! It's just an important person!"
This is how one should act to their superior.. Is what blared in Rimuru's mind.
Bumping into Artorias and his six knights on the way, Rimuru calmed down.
-"Who goes there? What's going on, Rimuru?"
Artorias' voiced calmed Rimuru down even further, as Rimuru took everything in..