episode_0015

“Hoo… we’ve come quite deep.”

I wonder if the stretching I did early in the morning helped.

Or perhaps it was thanks to the fat Hero’s slow pace.

Killua walked through the forest path much more easily than yesterday, showing no signs of significant fatigue.

After walking along the forest path for about an hour, we reached the inner part of the Lime Forest, which had been completely devastated by slimes.

“This is quite a sight, unexpectedly.”

The trees, covered in slime, were almost hollow, and blobs of slime were clumped here and there in the river that ran through the center of the forest.

Thanks to that slime, even though it was early morning, the forest was filled with an orange-red glow, as if a sunset was pouring in.

“These water droplets falling from the sky won’t be slime, will they?”

As we entered such a forest, water droplets, whether dew or slime, were falling from high trees riddled with holes from the slime.

“If slime touches your skin, it’ll sting. They instinctively secrete digestive fluid the moment organic matter touches their bodies.”

Killua lightly picked up the sticky slime that had fallen on her shoulder with her fingertips.

Seeing no reaction, it seemed to be a part of the slime that had melted into the morning dew.

Killua observed the unresponsive sticky slime closely, turning it this way and that, then flicked it away with her hand.

“Considering the slime’s color and smell, I think this spot should be fine.”

Just as she said, the surrounding slime seemed to have only digested leaves and stems, retaining a vibrant green color so transparent that its insides were visible.

At Killua’s words that we had arrived at a suitable location, I put down the equipment I was carrying on my back.

Then the Hero also put down the leather backpack he was carrying on his shoulder.

“The slimes here are unusual, so be careful.”

The Hero opened his leather pouch and took out a glass bottle filled with sap and a leather pouch containing beeswax powder that he had stored inside.

“What does that mean?”

I ignored the Hero’s words, thinking it was just a routine warning.

However, Killua couldn’t ignore the words of the Hero, who had cultivated herbs and lived near the Lime Forest, avoiding the threat of slimes. She stopped her actions, looked at him, and demanded a detailed explanation.

“These slimes here… they’ve eaten many humans. So they know well how to incapacitate humans.”

The Hero, whom I had always thought only knew how to make foolish smiling expressions, left us a warning with a rather serious expression.

“No… slimes are single-celled. They wouldn’t even have the ability to evolve, let alone learn, would they?”

I raised an objection to the Hero’s words.

Slimes were, literally, gigantic single-celled organisms made up of a single mass.

They simply ingested anything that touched their bodies, then divided using the nutrients or magic power, multiplying their numbers.

Slimes were creatures that repeated such actions endlessly and without change.

“I’ve heard that demonfolk refine slimes for specific purposes…”

Killua, thinking she couldn’t ignore the Hero’s warning, brought up strange slimes she knew about.

All of them were slimes artificially refined and modified by the hands of demonfolk or mages for special purposes.

Such slimes often secreted fatal toxins for assassination or paralyzing poisons for capture.

However, never once had a naturally evolved, dangerous slime been reported in any case.

“I don’t know the reason. But they are definitely dangerous. That’s why Rai patrols so diligently…”

Along with his answer, the Hero took out a long two-handed logging axe that had been secured to his back with leather straps.

Then, he carefully rubbed the shimmering oil mixed with beeswax powder from the glass bottle onto the axe blade.

As if it wasn’t his first time, his calloused hands, rubbing the oil, were unhesitant and thorough.

“It’s not a warning to be ignored. Let’s be careful too.”

Killua, who took the Hero’s warning seriously, slowly scanned her surroundings with a quite serious expression.

Fortunately, there were no objects nearby that a slime could imitate.

The only thing we needed to be careful about was properly checking whether the slime we intended to collect was actually a slime.

“De… Kala. Mai Luhada.”

“Huh?”

Startled by the Hero’s clear muttering, which sounded as if he was whispering into my ear right beside me, I turned to look at him.

He had stood the logging axe on the ground, pressing his forehead against the blade, and was mumbling in a low voice as if chanting a spell, tightening the bandage wrapped around his left hand once more.

As if resonating with his mumbles, a faint blue light began to gather on the logging axe he held.

“I’m ready.”

Perhaps not noticing my gaze, the Hero, who had finished his quiet ritual, lightly lifted the two-handed logging axe with one hand, slung it over his shoulder, and signaled us.

“Killua-nim. Didn’t you feel something strange?”

To my question, quiet enough not to be heard by the Hero, Killua, who was looking around the forest for slime to collect as if she hadn’t felt anything, replied.

“Oh… no, never mind.”

Was it simply a trick of my eyes?

Given that Killua, a white mage sensitive to magic and spells, said she hadn’t felt anything, I could only conclude it was a trick of my own eyes.

“Shall we start with that one first?”

As if she truly hadn’t felt anything, Killua paid no attention to the Hero at all, pointing to the closest large mass of slime and speaking.

Nodding at her indication, I approached the closest slime with the long pole I had brought.

“Then I’ll poke it.”

After signaling the Hero and Killua.

I carefully poked the large slime with the sharp hook of the pole.

The sharp hook pierced through the slightly hardened outer layer exposed to the air and delved into the interior.

Despite penetrating quite deeply, the slime mass showed no movement whatsoever.

“No reaction. It seems to be slime.”

“Good. Then let’s collect that one.”

The heavy slime hanging from the tree was enough to fill half of the basket I had brought.

I approached the slime carefully, holding the basket and a scraper.

Then, with the sharp edge of the scraper, I slowly sliced across the middle of the slime.

*Squish…*

As it was cut in the middle, the sticky slime mass, split in half, flowed down into the basket with an unpleasant squelching sound.

I had been holding my breath in preparation for the stench that would erupt as soon as the slime burst, but my preparation was in vain; the cut slime only emitted a faint scent of wood and grass.

“Good. The condition is better than I expected.”

Killua nodded, seemingly satisfied with the clean condition of the slime, which had no foul odor.

I scraped all the slime clinging to the tree with the scraper, filled the basket halfway, and returned to Killua’s side.

The Hero and Killua, who had been tense, anticipating a possible surprise appearance of a slime, exhaled a sigh of relief when I returned without incident.

“Killua?”

Returning with the basket on my back, I belatedly realized there was something strange on Killua’s shoulder, where she was waiting for me.

“What’s this?”

What was stuck to her shoulder was a blob of slime.

But what I had thought was just ordinary slime was squirming as if it were a living creature.

“It’s a slime?!”

Startled by the small slime squirming towards her neck, Killua frowned, as if concerned it would sting, and grasped the squirming slime with two fingers.

“Huh…?”

Even though her hand, clearly living organic matter, touched it, the slime did not attempt to digest her fingertips.

Puzzled by the strange lack of sensation, Killua tilted her head as if unable to understand.

“What is this?”

Killua examined the slime in her hand, turning it this way and that, as if curious about its behavior, which was completely different from her common knowledge.

“Throw it away! Throw it away!”

Worried by Killua’s actions of continuously holding and observing the dirty, disgusting slime, I unintentionally shouted.

However, Killua’s spirit of inquiry and curiosity could not be stopped by such a cry.

“It’s strange. Normally, it’s their nature to secrete digestive fluid to dissolve organic matter when touched, isn’t it?”

Killua placed the small slime on her palm.

The slime still didn’t secrete digestive fluid; it merely wriggled towards her wrist, as if trying to move onto her body somehow.

“Furthermore, its wriggling movement has a clear goal.”

When the slime reached her wrist, she tilted her hand slightly, rolling the slime back towards her palm.

The slime piece, having rolled this way and that, squirmed as if righting itself, then precisely aimed towards her wrist and began to move.

“Killua…”

“Alright, alright!”

Disgusted by her appearance, intently observing the insignificant slime, I called her name.

Understanding my meaning, Killua nodded as if to say “I get it,” then shook her hand vigorously, flicking the small slime away over the forest undergrowth.

“Huh?”

After flicking the slime over the forest undergrowth, Killua repeatedly clenched and unclenched her left hand, where the slime had been, as if something felt strange.

“What’s wrong, Killua?”

Concerned by her strange behavior, I asked her in a voice full of worry.

Then, Killua, after shaking her left arm a couple of times, frowned with a serious expression and said,

“The skin where the slime was has no sensation.”

“What?!”

At the shocking words that her sensation was gone, I frantically tried to check her left hand.

But Killua, shaking off my hand that tried to grasp hers, replied as if telling me not to worry.

“It’s okay. The sensation is coming back right away. It seems like a very temporary partial anesthetic ability.”

“Temporary partial anesthetic ability?”

The moment I replied to Killua’s deduction and looked at her face.

I spotted a small slime crawling out from between her hair and falling towards her shoulder.

It was moving towards Killua’s collarbone, trying to crawl into her clothes.

“Ki… Killua!!”

Startled by the sudden appearance of the slime, I pointed with my hand at the slime wriggling near her collarbone, as if in fright.

At my sudden gesture towards her, Killua frowned and glared at me.

“What was that? That swatting motion?”

“N-no… the s-slime!!”

The small slime, which had lightly rolled off her shoulder, was moving along her collarbone.

Despite wriggling quite actively, Killua was completely unaware of the slime’s presence.

Just as her deduction suggested, thanks to its ability to partially anesthetize the skin’s sensation, Killua was completely unaware of the slime moving on her body.

“Whoa-aah!?”

The Hero, who had been scanning the surroundings, turned to us at my shout and also discovered the slime wriggling near Killua’s collarbone, letting out a loud shout as if startled.

The moment Killua shivered in surprise at the Hero’s sudden booming shout that echoed beside her.

The slime wriggling near her collarbone bounced slightly from the recoil of her shivering body and rolled down into her shallow cleavage.

“Damn it!!”

“W-what?!”

At the Hero’s urgent, panicked shout, I immediately reached my hand towards her cleavage.

But Killua, who had noticed something strange about my gaze on her, startled and pulled her body back when I reached out to her.

In the end, my hand failed to catch the slime rolling down into her cleavage and merely swiped uselessly through the air.

“The slime went into your clothes!!”

I belatedly informed her that the small slime had entered her top through a slightly opened gap in her clothes.

Then Killua, with a startled expression, bounced up and down in place, vigorously shaking her top.

“It’s not here?”

But her frantic hopping up and down in surprise lasted only a moment.

When no matter how much she shook her clothes or jumped vigorously, the slime didn’t fall out, she stopped moving and glared at me with eyes full of suspicion.

“I-it’s true! Hero! You saw it too, right?!”

At Killua’s reaction, who thought my remark was just a bad joke, I called out to the Hero, asking him to confirm the truth of my words.

He had definitely seen the slime wriggling near Killua’s collarbone and shouted.

But at my request, the Hero simply shrugged his shoulders with a nonchalant expression, as if nothing had happened.

“Didn’t… didn’t you see it too?”

“Yeah. I saw a really big bird!”

In response to my question, the Hero instead looked at me with eyes that suggested my behavior was strange, then pointed his finger at the sky behind my back.

So the reason he shouted wasn’t because of the slime wriggling on Killua’s collarbone, but simply because he saw a big bird…

The Hero, whom I had thought was the only witness who could confirm my words, was simply a thoughtless idiot.

“……”

In the end, Killua stared at me with her mouth tightly shut and eyes full of absurdity and disbelief.

However, fortunately, perhaps because she had faith and trust in me, she nodded slightly as if to believe my words.

“I didn’t feel anything at all…”

She turned her back so I couldn’t see, undid the leather strap securing her top, and carefully pulled at her clothing to visually check her body through the gap in her clothes.

I could breathe a sigh of relief at her action of trusting me.

It wouldn’t be very difficult for Killua to find the small slime that had entered her shallow cleavage.

“It’s not there. I can’t see it.”

“What? You can’t see it?!”

I had clearly seen a slime about two finger-widths in size crawling into the gap of her collarbone, and the moment she was startled by the Hero’s shout, the slime rolled down into the gap of her clothes.

However, no matter how much she bounced in place or shook her clothes, the slime didn’t come out. Even after she slightly loosened her clothes and Killua herself visually checked, the slime couldn’t be found.

“No way… was that a prank? And at this very moment?”

Unable to find even a trace of the slime, Killua, who had believed my words, frowned and glared at me, as if truly angry.

It meant that she, who had trusted my words, was truly furious with a sense of betrayal.

“I… I’m sorry.”

From the moment she herself opened the gap in her clothes and confirmed with her own eyes yet couldn’t find the slime, the credibility of my words had long since dropped to zero.

No excuse would work, and no proof would be meaningful.

In the end, instead of making useless, meaningless excuses, I could only apologize to her plainly and honestly.

“Hah… you’re not the type to play such a mean prank… it seems you’re a bit tense too.”

At my honest apology, Killua sighed softly and forgave me as if she understood.

Was it really a trick of my eyes, just as Killua said?

“Did it just fall off…?”

In the end, I could only assume that the slime that had rolled into the gap in her clothes couldn’t stick anywhere and simply rolled all the way to the ground.

“Alright. If we just harvest one more chunk of that size, I think we can head back for today.”

In the meantime, Killua, who had been looking around, found and pointed to a mass of slime large enough to fill the remaining half of the basket.

“Alright…”

I decided to forget about the slime that had fallen into the gap in her clothes, picked up the long pole and basket, and walked towards the slime mass she had indicated, to collect it.