Not even a month has passed since the fall of the Orc Lord. Everyone had still been settling down and Jura was still somewhat chaotic. The Orcs are busy resettling in Rimuru's city, as well as assisting in construction. The Kijin, once Ogres, had stuck by Rimuru's side since the beginning of the conflict, and chose to stay forever after.
Of all the monster races, the goblins were affected the least negatively. Instead of a decline in population, they experienced a steady incline. Their small village turned into a small town, and then quickly into a much larger town.
Thanks to the combined efforts of four Dwarven workers and six lonely Kijin, this large town would soon find itself a nameless capital city of a newly formed country. Many races of monster would make themselves a home here, though its majority population would remain goblins and hobgoblins. All of this effort would not go to waste, not if Rimuru has anything to say about it. He had a goal, and that goal was to create a nation where monsters and humans could interact freely and peacefully.
Peace may have been the goal, but certain events would be sure that peace wouldn't come for a long while. Even if they never intended to.
Everyone could feel it. Even the animals that were running wildly through the woods. That strong magical surge that seemed to pop out of nowhere. Though at first it was strong, it soon died down and began to dissipate soon after. All could agree that the only comparable feeling was when Veldora disappeared, all those months ago.
It could be felt throughout every inch of the forest, not a blade of grass untouched. Though the initial surge felt menacing at first, it only became more passive as time went on. All heads turned to the forest, to the dead center of the eruption.
From the tree line a hoard of animals moved toward them, rushing from the surge. Animals frightfully ran through the city streets, making a mess of all the stalls they ran by.
Mothers and fathers grabbed their children by their arms to pull them inside. All made it in alive, but not unscathed. Several civilians had acquired broken and fractured bones, or severe concussions from being knocked to the ground so forcefully.
The heard was still going strong, unwavering. Whatever it was that drove these animals to act so recklessly as to run into a populated city must have frightened them badly. Even the tempest wolves' fur were standing up straight.
It was the first time in a long time she had felt the earth beneath her feet. After all this time trapped in oblivion realms, she could finally see her beloved Tamriel again, even if it did not wish to see her. Deals with Daedra tended to ostracize people from their groups, especially with certain princes being the one they shake hands with.
Maybe some of her companions were still around to this day. She doubted Lydia, J'zargo or Cicero were alive; she had been gone too long. Maybe Brelyna though, or even Ralis are still around. She thought about it for awhile, noting that the only friends she had left were elves and Serana. Sounds about right.
Serana.
That name kept coming into the her mind over and over again. A beautiful woman in her eyes and memory. A woman she should have listened to. She warned her over and over again to not do it, that making a deal with Molag didn't need to happen. That being what she was would make her strong enough. She should have listened. Back then it seemed like a good idea, despite all the torture. Of course it did, she was stupid and never thought of how things play out. Now... she realized how big of a mistake that was.
The sun was out. It shone brightly into her eyes that were barely covered by her hood. She pulled her hood over her face more tightly, blocking the sunlight better.
Despite being just as bright as it was before, it didn't seem to impair her as it once did. She stuck her left out of her cloak sleeve and took off her leather glove immediately after. It was warm, but not scolding. Using her gauntleted hand on her right side, she dragged its sharp fingertips across the back of her left hand. She bled, but not for long as the wound closed back up within a minute.
Strange, she thought. This shouldn't happen in sunlight. While somewhat concerning, she saw it more as a blessing if anything else. It would still be a blessing to remove such a curse, but she doubted Falion was still alive. As far as she knew, centuries had passed in Mundus while she locked herself away.
Maybe Neloth could help her instead, if she could guarantee he was still at Tel Mithryn. That, however, would assume he would want to help her. She helped him, right? It's only kind should he return the favor. She sighed heavily in realization; Neloth would respond with a quick "No". In all likelihood he could be working on another experiment, maybe this time involving tonal magic. Why would she or anyone else expect less of the madman... madelf... mad-whatever. Not to say was insane (sort of), just that he was always caught up in or distracted by his work... that tended to toy with other people's lives.
It would be expensive to turn back, but after gods know how long away in oblivion as a vampire, she would pay any price.
Too much to think on. Too much to ponder. Maybe a nice walk would ease her mind.
Taking her first few steps forward, she felt a strange sensation across her legs. Like a stretch, perhaps. "Refreshing," she thought with an internal, happy sigh. It's not like she was sitting down the entire time though. She walked. So why do these steps feel so good? Think later, walk first.
It was nice walking the forests of... Skyrim... Cyrodiil... Alinor...? No telling what country these trees belonged to, all's she could tell is that it brought back fond feelings, and memories she wish she could go back to. People she wished to see again.
For such a dense forest, it was surprising to see so few animals about. Looking more closely, she could see that there almost no animals at all. There were some insects, a few snakes and maybe a single fox still present. It only added to the odd quiet of the forest.
Were there spriggans waiting to ambush her? They were oddly protective of their forests and animals. Maybe they sent them away to avoid hitting them in any crossfire.
Placing her ungloved and gauntleted hands together and slowly pulling them apart, a bright purple orb showed itself between her palms. She scanned the scenery around her, finding a handful of bright red outlines in the forest. Some were animals that had finally reached the end of the spells range, but others stood in place near tree trunks and atop branches. Seven of them. They were too widely shaped to be spriggans, not to mention the chest area of them all was moving steadily. They were breathing, and spriggans don't breath... maybe. She never studied them, but whenever she came into close quarters with spriggans she never felt a breath on her. She dispelled the orb.
What to do, what to do? Throw down any weapons she had on her? What if they wanted to kill her? What if they were bandits? No telling.
A purple swirling mass appeared to her left. She reached toward it, only to be stopped by a knife being thrown her direction. The mass disappeared and she jerked her arm back to her body. Quickly stepping backwards, she made sure to turn herself invisible. That was the original plan anyway, she just had to rely on a spell instead of a potion.
As a barrier between her and her assailants to assure her escape, she scattered various elemental and miscellaneous runes around the woods. From frost to paralysis, anyone who would come after her would be guaranteed to be maimed or killed. Her security was reassured when she heard the sound of an electric burst and a pained shout.
Escape: covered. Opponents: distracted. Now all's that was left was to figure out where in oblivion she was.
Their target had vanished and one of their own was injured. Not the best start to a capture-kill mission, in fact it was pretty terrible. Whoever that woman was clearly had a plan if she was cornered. She was smart if anything else.
It was their first mission without Souei, and they blew it. They promised to gather information and find out what was responsible, and when they found a person in the middle, it turned into a capture-kill.
At least they had enough information to turn over to Souei: A tall woman cloaked in black with a right arm covered in metal. Her blood-red eyes gave off a sinister feeling, almost demonic at that. Maybe she was a demon or something of similar origin, likely in the higher evolution ranks given the strength of her magic; It completely paralyzed one of their own the moment he stepped on it. Then to add the massive scorch mark from the electrical burn. There were probably more traps placed in the trees, unseen until it's too late.
The squad leader had no doubt in her mind that the demon used a detection spell just before summoning that portal. She swore the demon looked right at her as it scanned the trees. It may not have been a spell she was familiar with, but it was the only logical explanation she had.
Souei was on his way, likely. Not once had they failed in their duties, until now. Anticipating the never seen before wrath of their head, the last thing they expected was the sound of flame in the forest just ahead. The forest where the demon left to.
Only a single burst and a surprised yelp with a feminine sound. Did something happen?
Another burst of flame, a strong one. It reached all the way to the clearing. Just as it reached past the trees, every single trap that had been placed activated. Frost, fire, lightning, and various clouds of green, red, lime and ash erupted from tens of places around the forest. The way was clear now, so they could chase after her. Yet their teammate was still immobilized.
The squad leader stepped forward, turning to her subordinates. "Glenda, you take Nansou back to town and get him a healer. The rest of you are with me."
Just as she finished, a stroke of lightning reached through the trees behind her and all the way through the clearing. It branched out in several different fragments, striking many trees and barely missing the squad leader.
"Hurry!" She shouted.
One-horned, blue haired, and deep tanned skin. Tamriel doesn't have races like this. She remembered that there was elf, man, Khajiit and Argonian (alongside a few other beast-folk that had little notoriety). This looked like some strange cross between a Cyrod and something else.
Had the Akaviri invaded again? It's the only reasonable solution she could think of. The Kamal were often described as demons, and demons had horns. Depending on how long she had been gone it could have been enough time for genetics to fuse down into that.
She could almost laugh at how she had the ability to think about such trivial things while dodging throwing knives and garrote wires. She was even missing her prosthetic arm; the bastard tore it off. So many immediate problems and she's distracted by the man's appearance.
The woman took a quick glance behind him, taking note of his backup. It was amazing how they could get past her runes without- oh right, she was recklessly throwing around magic and destroyed them all on accident.
"Souei!" She heard one of the backup call out. What the hell does that mean? Is it a name? She spoke out again, this time in incomprehensible gibberish.
It was hard enough dealing with one overly agile bandit, now there's more of them. At least these ones look more human –not that it makes it better. What makes this all worse is that she can't speak their language. It wouldn't matter if she could anyway, communication would still be a problem. Missing the majority of her tongue would be to blame for that.
So what does the situation look like now? Surrounded by five people she can't understand or speak to, unable to shout them away and missing an arm. If she tries to preform a spell they'll kill her. If she tries to reach for an offhand weapon they'll kill her. Is surrender still an option? Was it ever an option? One behind her, two covering her flanks and two in front of her. No one's making a move.
Sit. That's all there was to do. Just sit down and face her first, and likely last, defeat in her short time back home. If she can even call this place home.
There it was, that cold iron tip of a dagger. Right up against the nape of her neck. At least she went out fighting... sort of. The dagger was still there, unmoving. The front men were gone, but the two covering her flanks were still present. Oh... she's a hostage. Good luck getting a ransom for someone a local town elder doesn't even know, let alone a vampire.
She could see their leader out of the corner of her eye, holding her metal prosthetic. What was essentially her arm for potentially thousands of years at this point was now going to be a mantlepiece for their boss.
Life's great!
Sanitary was the last word she ever thought she would use to describe a dungeon. Clean walls, clean floors, clean bars even. She even had a proper bed that was also clean.
Still didn't have her arm back though.
Escape would be an option if she knew where her weapons and arm were being held. At least they let her keep her cloak and leg prosthetic.
Not many prisoners other than herself and a few beast-folk were there. Maybe only three more. They closely resembled the Lilmothiit that once roamed Tamriel, though a bit more dog-like. Despite the Lilmothiit being long dead, there were still depictions of them in many books in the College and Synod libraries.
Those beast-men were just in the cell across from her, snickering and spouting foreign words in her direction. Slurs maybe, or perhaps just general taunts.
After a few minutes of experimenting she learned that the bars were highly flame resistant. Frost also had little effect on them. Those bars looked like iron but were as resilient as Ebony when it came to taking elemental damage. Even if she decided to escape she couldn't.
Footsteps. Steps that carried a familiar weight in the sound. Red-hair's. In was only a matter of seconds until he entered her field of vision.
So who was leaving first, her or the Lilmothiit?
He stopped at the midsection between the two cells, and turned her way. How his big ass sword didn't scrape against the walls from how it hung behind his back was surprising. The moment he pulled out the key she couldn't help but feel taunted. It was easy to tell that he didn't intend to mock, but she couldn't help but feel insulted.
The man gestured for her to come his way. It took everything in her power to not put him to sleep and wander off. No getting her stuff back that way. She did as was requested of her and followed him quietly out of the cell.
He spoke aloud, likely to her. She turned her head him, keeping a confused look hidden beneath the hood of her cloak. The humanoid spoke again, giving what was taken from her before spinning to the door. Her prosthetic. Still no weapons.
She grabbed her missing arm. Was now the best time to reattach it? Did it matter? Without her arm she felt helpless, despite being only slightly less capable without it.
Quickly she bent down to lift up her cloak. The man, now red in the face, turned his face away from the sight. Only a short few seconds passed by before she managed to get her garb off completely. Now for the hard part.
Reattaching the prosthetic could be a pain at times with how bulky the arm was. Her grip barely fit around the forearm. She would constantly contort her torso and right shoulder to a way for it to connect.
That chime was always the sound that gave it away. It wasn't a chime she heard often given how much she put herself through weeks without sleep, and when she bathed in the rivers it always be with the arm and leg still attached. It was an excited sound that ran through the prison halls, echoing in a loud ding of a bell. It would always send a weird shiver up her spine.
Stood in front of him was his subordinate Benimaru and the humanoid described in Soka's report. Next to him was Shion on his right and Rigurd to his left.
Rimuru could see her eyes darting around the room. She looked rather unimpressed, like she expected better of them. Maybe back where she was from there were grander buildings? In all fairness this was the best they could do until the assembly building is finished; it's still impressive.
Her unimpressed glances came to a stop when he spoke up. "So, Souka," he said to the horned woman further back to the room, preventing an escape. "You said you found her in a clearing in the forest?"
"Yes," she replied. "At first I thought she may have just been a wanderer, until I saw her use magic."
Rimuru nodded, then went to face Benimaru. "You said she was cooperative the whole time in her detainment? No signs of her trying to escape?"
Benimaru nodded. "No signs of attempted escape as far as I could tell."
"And her arm piece?" Rimuru continued.
"Returned- and I think it may be a prosthetic."
"Prosthetic?" Their leader questioned.
"Y-yes. She put it back on right in front of me, though I tried to turn around as fast as I could and I saw a slight glimpse." Benimaru held back a slight blush that was emphasized by an embarrassed visage.
"Now that it's mentioned," Souei spoke up, putting himself in the conversation "when I grabbed her arm in an attempt to throw her it did just detach."
Rimuru nodded with a curious humm, before going to face the woman. "Excuse me miss," he called out to her. She was still glancing out the window behind him, likely seeing right through him. "Hello?" He called again.
It took Benimaru poking her with his elbow to grab her attention. The man looked displeased, as if he or someone he admired had been disrespected.
"Forewarning, Master Rimuru, she's not the talkative type. It's best to expect short answers or none at all."
Rimuru put a hand up towards his subordinate, acknowledging his advice and silencing him from then on. "So... uh... do you have a name?"
The woman stared at him, confused. She acknowledged him speaking to her, but looked as if she couldn't understand him.
"Do you speak- where are you from?" Rimuru had a slight feeling that his question would also go through her ears, and not at all processed.
Again, no answer.
"Soka, you said you found her in the forest?" He asked, and was answered with a nod. "Do we have any idea where she could have come from? Any kingdom she may have loyalties to? Perhaps she is keeping a vow of silence?"
"We could find out," Shion interrupted, speaking before Soka. Everyone could see the panic in Rimuru's eyes as Shion reached for her sword.
"Shion, calm down!"
The slime reverted his eyes back to the woman in front of him. From where he sat he could see the tip of a dagger barely sticking out from her sleeve. She was ready for a fight, even when surrounded by armed soldiers. When described by Soka and Souei, she submitted when surrounded, so this turn in attitude – ready to fight while surrounded – was somewhat surprising. Unless she was planning to take Shion as a hostage. Was that why she was looking around the room? To plan an escape? Rimuru swore that they disarmed her before putting her in a holding cell, so he couldn't tell where the weapon came from. Perhaps they missed it.
"Benimaru, are you sure she can speak at all?" Rimuru asked the red haired Kijin.
Benimaru tried to answer but stuttered at the attempt. "I- well... I didn't think of that, Lord Rimuru."
Rimuru hummed and nodded at the sudden conclusion, beset on the hypothetical problem. He looked back at the stranger still stood at Benimaru's end of the desk. "Excuse me," he said again, grabbing her attention once more. "Can you speak?" He asked, making strange gestures with his hands and mouth.
Many in the room were staring at Rimuru who made such weird movements. The woman, confused, opened her mouth in some strange understanding of what he was trying to say. She pointed to the inside her mouth which led to Rimuru leaning forward to stare inward at her. Benimaru also looked into her mouth, leaning towards her slightly.
No tongue. Or at least not much left of it, aside from the tiny mangled remnant of what it used to be. It almost looked like it was ripped out by force. Was it done as part of an oath of silence, or was it a humiliation preformed on her?
"It seems she is incapable of speech!" Rimuru announced to those who did not see. "Next issue: can she understand us."
If she was incapable of speech and understood their language, communication would be easy (sort of). If proven to be the opposite... well, the continent didn't have any form of sign language he knew of. It was always a pain to learn another language's alphabet, he learned that back in upper secondary school back in Japan during English class. Still, teaching the continents language to a potential foreigner shouldn't be too hard.
He was correct in assuming she was born speaking a different tongue to the other inhabitants. She was just like him... sort of... not really. While he may have reincarnated, his great sage was able to translate the language of these people for him. She, unfortunately, had no such luxury.
While he would teach her himself, not only is he a not-so-good teacher, but he also has to go off to Ingrassia, where he will be teaching young children. Instead, Shuna took up to the task. If he could trust matters like this in anyone's hands, it would be hers. Better her than Shion. Anyone but Shion.
Shuna pointed to the first word with the woman at her side. She looked at her and explained with a smile and a wave, "this word means 'Hello.'" She turned back to the paper, grabbing the quill pen next to her, dipping it in the ink bottle and handing it to the stranger. "It's written like you see here. You try!"
It was an attempt, I decent one at that. The calligraphy was wobbly and some characters were drawn improperly. Rookie mistakes on her part, with the wobbly writing was easily credited to her bulky prosthetic (she was surprised that it could even hold the quill), and she did alert master Rimuru that a brush was better suited for this.
"Let her get started with something familiar. Then move to the brush." She remembered him saying.
Right. Start slow. So far she was showing decent progress in terms of basics despite only being a day in.
There were times where Shuna would wonder: what kind of ally would she be, if she decided to become one at all?
AN:Heyo! This is apart of a few one off fanfics I've been doing (meaning I'm unsure if I'll even make another chapter). If I do make another chapter, I already know what I'm doing with the story. And again that is a big IF.
Anyway, tell me what you think. Leave a review, give back criticism of any kind.
And if you're irritated with how I kinda combined first and third person POV in most of the story (to an extent), I am too a bit. I don't know why I did it, I just thought it would be fun.
