New Faces, Old Friends

A/N Happy New Year everybody, hope you all got what you wanted for Christmas I know I did. 4 boxes of T'au Warhammer 40K minis. Anyway onto the Chapter also for the music Christmas Truce - Symphonic Version.

Grim's POV*

The days had been grinding on slowly but surely. Even the basic plan for the wedding had been at least partially assembled as we didn't have a large amount of time to focus on it. Even with the Triumvirate set up and our cabinet under us there was still planets of work to do. I for instance was double checking the amount of trade goods coming in and going out of our city while also overlooking the current crop wields from our farms we have obtained.

I'm sure that my dear was also tied down to work managing the treasury for the many repairs that Millim's stay has entailed as well as the beginnings of the Grand Schrade Archive. At the moment she and her team of named Goblins have been hard at work recording Oral Histories from Goblin, Lizardman and Orc alike to be remembered. Some funds were also sent with a trade caravan to track down works worth Archiving in Dwargon.

But as I broke out of my small day dream in the office that was in the main hall not far from Rimuru's and Flora's offices, I received a thought transmission from Gobta.

(My lords! I'm on my way back with my squad and we're bringing visitors. I'll give a more in depth explanation when we arrive.)

With that I let out a slight sigh as I then got up from my desk and walked to the door. As I opened the door Venus noticed and began to follow as she had appointed herself as my secretary as Gamma had done to my dear.

We soon got down to the meeting room where we would meet with the visitors.

After a few minutes they arrived, i was able to recognize three of them being Gido, Eren, and Kaval. The others however were new to us however. One looked like an older adventure and the other two seemed either uninterested in being there or nervous.

Gobta then began to relay the story of how he and his squad encountered them. Apprently Kaval and his party were in the middle of fighting a Knight Spider when Gobta ran into them as one of the unknowns blade broke, that tends to happen with poor quality or lack of care on a weapon. If this were the MonHun universe he wouldn't make it far with how sharpening your weapon mid fight is a very important thing to do for optimal damage.

After Gobta had finished the story and introduced our guests Rimuru spoke, "O…kay. What do they want with us?"

"No idea!" Gobta replied.

I shook my head at that answer. During my conversations with Gazel though my letters to him i knew what role the Tempest Federation and Dundorma would play in the coming years. While we wished to pursue peace with our neighbors. That possibility shrunk quickly as Falmunth's bottom line as the way around the forest for trade is rapidly closing.

And when a nation's interests are hampered it could be solved diplomatically or as the legendary Otto Von Bismarck put it, 'Through Iron and Blood.'

A war was not out of the question, so I proposed a possible patch to this problem, mandatory service, only for a year at most and even that would be closer to the Nation Guard in the US, short training period then practice every few months. Of course there were limits on the age, no child would serve if we could help it.

Rimuru had opposed the idea at first, it made sense for him to. He was from Japan which had been a non-millitary power for decades since WW2 ended. He also said that having soldiers would impose on our possibilities of peace.

Flora rebutted that one easily with an ancient saying, "If you wish for peace. Prepare for war."

After that and explaining that we would slowly phase it in starting with a volunteer force as a proof of concept before it was more widely implemented in the future in Dundorma and the surrounding villages.

However we still wish for peace, but before my though process could go further the older man coughed in his hand to grab our attention.

"Pardon me. My name is Fuze. I am the Guildmaster of the Kingdom of Blumund. I asked Gobta to lead me to you three becasue making contact is my mission."

At that Flora hummed as a indicator to continue. She was in her newer work clothes it still consisted of a dress but with a mixture of pink and green as an indicator of her evolution and my clothes were also well put together with a red inner shirt with a blue jacket.

Fuze then continued, "Roughly ten months ago I hired them," he said as he pointed a thumb at the trio as the ate some of the new potato chips, "to investigate the state of the forest, and they came back with ther report. First, i must thank you three for memorializing a true hero of the guild. Forgive us from not extending our gratitude earlier."

As he said that we knew he meant Shizu. "We appreciate that Guildmaster Fuze," I said as i looked at him, "However I doubt that is not your only job here?"

"Correct," he said as he nodded, "A few months ago, rumors spread though the Belmund guild about the arrival of an Orc Lord in the area. Our investigation turned up solid evidence that this was true. We were desperately trying to make a plan with no idea of how to proceed when they appeared in our office."

He said as he looked over to Soei and a new monster that we had named not long after the Orcs had been named, but had been relaying the message to father out villages of the formation of the Jura Tempest Federation when Milim first arrived, It was only a few short days after that we encountered her.

She was well built for her job as she had to be due to her species. She bore the name of our creation Skyla, the Nerscylla.

A/N I know I'm not good with names, sue me.

We encountered her during a flight around our city and the current road project. As we were out there we noticed a small spider monster not unlike the bees that we obtained the honey form was fighting for it's life against some Dire wolves that were not part of Ragna's or Zino's pack. We landed and scared off the wolves before turning into our human forms as we knelt down to observe the spider, as the female spider spoke.

"Please, don't kill me." She said in a tear clogged way.

Seeing this I put my hand out to her and spoke, "We have no intention to harm you little spider, can I heal you if you want?"

She took a second to consider her choices before she nodded her small head yes. When she did a glob of green healing potion formed in my hand as I set it down in front of the spider and told her what it was, "It's a healing potion it will get you back up to full."

She looked at it warily before she bit into it with her mandibles and with a green aura she was fully healed. She then looked at us and spoke with a more resolved tone, "Thank you for your kindness. But I have no way to repay you for it. I am sorry."

We exchanged a quick glance at Flora and then turned back to the spider, "Well seeing as those wolves might come back how 'bout you come with us to our town where you can figure something out to do."

The spider then looked around and nodded before hopping on my shoulder as we began to walk to Dundorma. After a few hour walk to the town we arrived and bid farewell to the spider as she lept off my shoulder to explore.

The next day however she reappeared riding on Venus's shoulder asking for an audience with Flora and I as we were inspecting the clearing that we had decided to transform into a training yard. The small spider who was now flanked by both Gamma and Venus. She then spoke of her request that she was sure that we would answer that plea? To give her a name like so many before her so that she may serve us in repayment.

Once more I exchanged a glance with Flora before nodding and we began to name her. How her coloration reminded the two of us of a Nerscylla so we began to name her.

"You who stand before us, you who lurked though the brush for too long. Now you may spin your webs as you wish. Now stand before us a member of our followers. Risen from dirt into pure sky, stand Skylar."

As we finished just as it did with the other two she grew in size and the purple-pink markings on her grew into crystals as she increased in size ten-fold standing the height of a fully grown Knight Spider. As she stopped growing she let out the standard roar of a newly named large monster, at this we along with a distant howl of Zino welcomed the new member.

She then took on a human form after she spun a quick web cocoon that quickly faded away and revealed her in rags that looked like Gypceros skin but i quickly turned away as the others sorted out some actual clothing.

We handed her off to Soei for some training as she "Wished to spin a web of information for us to use." So we let her train and she became one of the best Soei had trained apart from Gabiru's sister.

When we remembered to inform Blumund of the defeat of the Orc Lord after Gazel informed us to tell the Guildmaster of Blumund.

I snapped back to reality as Vesta walked in to speak with me on selling the potion, "Lord Grim, I wanted to discuss with you about the method of selling the healing solution," he then noticed that we had guests in the room with us, "Oh, pardon me! I didn't realize you had company."

"It is right Vesta, we can discuss it later in my office."

"Very well my lord." Vesta said as he turned around and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Fuze then asked if that was actually Vesta and Rimuru, that yes that was Vesta and that we also had Kaijin on our payroll. At this Fuze's brain crashed for a while as we then turned to the other two.

"And what about you folks? Why are you here? Are you part of Blumund's guild too?" Rimuru asked.

The one with the glasses tried to speak before he was interrupted by the other one who was wearing a grey coat with a black shirt under it.

"Wait. First tell me … How is it that a slime can talk?" The confusion was understandable but he then started yelling, "IT JUST DOSEN'T MAKE ANY SENSE! WHY DOSEN'T ANYONE ELSE QUESTION IT?! IT'S A FREAKING SLIME!!WITH ALL THOSE BADASS TYPES LURKING ING THE BACKGROUND, WHY IS THIS PUNY, JIGGLY THING ONE OF THE ONES CALLING ALL THE SHOTS?!"

Shion tried to calm him down and when he yelled at her, she smacked him in the head with her scabbard before he was then healed by Rimuru.

After that scene the one wearing glasses spoke again, "Well, uh we're actually with a survey party for the Kingdom of Falmuth. This is Youm, our captain. I'm Rommel, the chaperone. It was happenstance that we trespassed upon your territory. But we consider it a stroke of luck that we've learned our target, the Orc Lord, is already gone. It was clearly a very dangerous mission. And our lord is greedy, and pushed us to work together with ought giving us adequate equipment for the task."

{Makes sense why the rest of the party are acting they way they are.} I said through the bond.

"I'm surprised you didn't turn tail and run." Rimuru said.

"Well, that is why i was ordered to accompany the party. I can cast binding magic that forces targets to comply with orders. That keeps them in line."

At that I could hear the wood of the table begin to break slightly from Flora's grip. Her family had been on the receiving end of abusive work environments when we were still on earth.

"But, I've already removed the spell." He said as he nervously rubbed the back of his head.

my dear then spoke with clear confusion, "But you were their chaperon Rommel?"

"Yes I was. But now I've decided i would rather follow Youm instead." He said as he then looked happily at Youm who seemed like he'd rather be anywhere but here.

"Why did you stay then?" My dear asked, "They sent you on a dangerous mission with poor equipment. Your employer doesn't sound like he would pay you well with the job done."

Youm then spoke, "You think I don't know that?" He then put his feet up on the table, "It's because if i don;t give him intel on the Orc Lord the townsfolk are gonna be in danger. It'd hurt that old lecturing grandpa, and the nosy lady at the tavern. Not to mention all those annoying kids that follow me around. Don't get me wrong, okay? I'm just saying, it wouldn't sit right with me if they all died. In the other hand, I'd love to see that badger of a count freaking out. From what Rommel tells me," he said as he leaned over the table, "He was embezzling funds that were meant to be invested in national defense."

"In other words, the Orc Lord showed up right when there was no proper defense so they scrambled to put our little group together." Rommel said before he was grabbed by Youm.

"The real question is," Youm says as he drags Rommel over, "Who uses some green kid like this on such a dangerous expedition? They gotta have a more experienced mage or two in the wings. It's obvious that he just wanted answers, no matter how he got them.

we then quickly conversed over though communication with Rimur to discuss, (Rimuru are you thinking what we're thinking?) I asked. He then gave a subtle nod before speaking, "I hear that you helped save Kaval's party. As their friends I thank you."

"Uh, actually. We wern't really that much help at all . The best we could do was deflect the Knight Spider's legs. It was actually that weirdo there who save them." Youm said as he looked at Gobta.

After a bit more thinking with some chatter from our followers I spoke to Fuze, "Guildmaster Fuze?" When he heard his name he snapped out of his vegetative trance and asked what is it.

"Is it public knowledge that the Orc Lord is slain?" Asked my dear as she looked at Fuze.

"Public knowledge? Well when your agents visited us only the four of us were present." Said as he looked over the trio of idiots who had eaten all the chips, "I only told the king of Blumund and a select few ministers the news. There hasn't been a public announcement yet. It might cause confusion if we made the news public without reliable confirmation first."

After he finished Rimuru spoke as he looked at Youm who was handing a bowl of chips to Eren, "I see. That's perfect, then. We've made our decision, Youm."

"Oh yeah? What's that? He asked as he looked at us.

I then spoke, "How do you feel like being a Champion?"