10. Condom (1)

Slender Jade Hands.

Delicate, soft fingers tilted a small glass bottle with graceful curves.

The transparent liquid inside dripped out slowly, one viscous drop at a time.

-Plop plop

Having just woken up, I asked Jane, who was pouring some suspicious liquid into a familiar-looking flowerpot.

“Mmm… Master? What are you doing?”

“Feeding Mandy.”

“Ah, Mandy…”

Looking again, the flowerpot Jane was holding was identical to the one planted with a mandrake I’d seen in the basement level 3 breeding ground.

And a mandrake’s diet consists of a convict’s semen or a virgin’s female ejaculate.

…Wait, a virgin’s female ejaculate?

“Huh? Wha-?”

“Lily? What’s wrong?”

It hadn’t even been a full day since Jane’s fingers had taken my hymen.

It hurt much more than I expected, and I bled a lot too.

But thanks to the sticky strands of pleasure, I quickly forgot about the pain.

The important point here is that I’m no longer a virgin.

So… what is Jane giving it now?

“What are you feeding Mandy right now…?”

“Female ejaculate.”

“…It’s yours, right?”

I stared quietly into her dark, starless-night-like pupils.

But I couldn’t tell at all what she was thinking.

Instead, Jane tilted her head and asked me:

“Why would I give mine to Mandy?”

“Well, you said it has to be a virgin’s female ejaculate.”

What would happen if you fed something else to a monster that eats bizarre things like convict semen or virgin ejaculate?

Like, say, non-virgin female ejaculate.

The answer became visually apparent almost immediately.

The mandrake’s flower, which had been planted quietly in the pot, began shaking violently.

-Squeee-

With a simple hand gesture, Jane muted Mandy’s scream as it crawled out of the dirt like a zombie.

Having escaped the soil, Mandy rolled around the pot while clutching what appeared to be its neck with root-like hands.

“Gah! I-Is it okay like that?”

“Hmm… maybe?”

“Why does that sound like a question?!”

Though my throat was hoarse from moaning all night, I unconsciously raised my voice.

Regardless, Jane calmly observed Mandy writhing and thrashing about.

Its flailing gradually subsided before finally stopping altogether.

“Ah, it’s dead.”

“Weren’t you fond of it? You even gave it a name.”

“I just thought it was fascinating how the mandrake moved like a person.”

Taking the pot from the unfazed Jane, I checked on the completely motionless Mandy.

Though I recalled how it used to wiggle around and suck on my fingers like a Hoover vacuum, I didn’t particularly miss it.

Still, watching something that was alive just moments ago die from consuming my ejaculate felt a bit strange.

It’s not like it’s a unicorn-why does virginity matter?

“May you be reborn as a creature that eats normal things in your next life.”

“Now that you’ve said your prayers, can we dissect it?”

No sooner had Jane spoken than Mandy’s upper body? suddenly jerked upright.

Its movements resembled a corpse coming back to life.

“Gyaaah!”

Understandably startled, I let out a dumbfounded scream.

Mandy quickly scanned its surroundings, as if assessing the situation.

It locked eyes with me, then-through the root-like wrinkles resembling facial features-

No, the root wrinkles that looked like eyes, nose, and mouth stretched wide as if smiling before suddenly standing up.

-Thud!

A transparent barrier blocked Mandy as it lunged at me.

Plopping back down in frustration, it crossed its arms.

Recognizing a scene I’d seen before, I sighed in relief.

The flower’s color seemed slightly different, but at least it was alive.

“It’s alive.”

Jane’s gaze darkened as she stroked her chin while observing Mandy.

Her eyes, brimming with curiosity, looked like she wanted to dissect it right then and there.

“Wait! Master, time out!”

“Lily, give that to me.”

“Umm, what will happen to Mandy if I do?”

“I’ll make it as painless as possible. Promise.”

Jane extended her pinky finger as she spoke.

Since she had given me the pot, she could’ve just firmly demanded it back, but she didn’t.

I shook my head at her, who was speaking as if I were Mandy’s owner.

“Since it’s alive now, how about we observe it a bit longer?”

“Must we?”

“Are mandrakes that move like people common?”

Jane slowly shook her head.

“Then how about we observe how long it can keep moving like this and whether it can continue this diet?”

“Hmm… fine.”

Relenting easily, Jane handed the glass bottle containing my ejaculate to Mandy, who was fidgeting its fingers as if hungry.

It immediately took the bottle and began licking-no, sucking.

Kinda gross-did I make a mistake saving it?

-Slurp slurp slurp

After watching Mandy eat for a while, Jane called me in a low voice.

“Lily.”

“Yes?”

“Mandy is a monster. Don’t forget that.”

“Uh… okay.”

I didn’t understand her intent, but Jane’s expression was so serious that I nodded.

“By the way, Jane. When did you collect that ejaculate?”

“While Lily was sleeping.”

“Guh…”

“Ah, looks like it’s all gone.”

Mandy inspected the empty bottle before reluctantly licking its lips.

Jane, who had been watching, suddenly approached and stared at me with a suggestive gaze.

“Seems like it’s still hungry.”

“Yeah, looks like it.”

Even to me, Mandy didn’t seem satisfied yet.

Jane sighed softly before speaking again.

“Seems like it’s still hungry.”

“Yeah, looks like-Gah!”

Goosebumps erupted down my spine a beat too late.

A clear sign of impending doom.

But Jane’s warm arms had already wrapped around my waist.

“Lily should be the one feeding Mandy.”

“Uh, um… can’t we do it later?”

“No.”

Her scorching breath tickled my nape before a sharp pain followed.

“Ah…!”

A sultry moan escaped my lips.

Watching Jane giggle made the corners of my mouth curl up.

“S-Slowly… ah…”

“Okay, slow and steady.”

I had a feeling I’d fallen into a trap Jane set.

But I didn’t particularly mind.

In fact, it felt like a fun and enjoyable game, which made me somewhat happy.

If I said I was tired, she’d let me rest. If I asked to be held, she’d embrace me tightly against her soft chest.

If I requested a kiss, she’d plant affectionate pecks while offering gentle skin contact rather than violent pleasure.

Thanks to that, I wasn’t afraid of sex anymore.

“Mmm… *smack*.”

As I met her approaching lips, a trivial concern crossed my mind.

The next-door aunt should be coming by soon…

Well, it’ll work out somehow.

The winds of passion began blowing atop the bed once more.

***

The briefly delayed research resumed.

As if her earlier lack of focus had been a lie, Jane immersed herself in experiments with terrifying intensity.

Was it pent-up frustration?

In any case, the goal of Jane’s experiment was simple.

Mix various substances with the slime’s main body-which I called rubber-to achieve heat resistance sufficient for condom production.

Previous experiments had only aimed for commercially viable materials.

But with the clear goal of creating condoms this time, Jane continued her experiments with enthusiasm.

“The problem is me…”

Until now, I’d been using writing tools commonly found in this world, like quill pens and ink.

But once I started drafting in earnest, all sorts of inconveniences surfaced.

“Quill pens are completely unusable.”

They looked incredibly cool at first glance, but actually using them was infuriating.

They broke easily, smudged constantly, and the ink would spill at the slightest provocation.

Moreover, the ink itself was problematic.

“Once you write something, it’s too hard to erase.”

Ultimately, the solution I chose was to start another project.

“Help me, Jane-mon!”

The kingdom’s foremost genius magician and youngest royal court mage.

Countess Jane Batory promptly crafted a pencil using graphite and clay as I requested.

Since rubber erasers didn’t exist yet, I had to use bread to erase, but it was still waaay more convenient than ink and quills.

“Ugh.”

Seeing something so mundane from my past life in this world gave me mixed feelings.

“Here’s a notebook.”

“Ah, thank you, Master.”

Brushing aside the familiar headache, I took the opportunity to order all the drafting tools I needed.

Jane granted every request without showing any displeasure.

Of course, as the tools increased, so did the number of hickeys on my body.

***

Unlike me, who had begun drafting in earnest, Jane’s brow furrowed deeper.

The continuous failures were to blame.

I recalled that sulfur had been mixed into rubber in my past life, but that too ended in failure.

All we confirmed was that the rubber extracted from slimes was chemically different from rubber tree sap.

“Should we give up…?”

I was the one who suggested it, yet I was the first to grow weary.

But Jane only burned more fiercely.

The fun, pleasurable games that had occurred daily gradually became less frequent.

There were more days when Jane stayed in the lab than came out.

“Tch.”

Feeling slightly petty, I racked my sluggish brain hard.

The sooner we got results, the sooner Jane would pay more attention to me.

Fortunately, beginner’s luck arrived sooner than expected.

“Jane, have you ever tried mixing in a slime’s core?”

“The core?”

Jane, with dark circles under her eyes from four sleepless nights, finally looked up.

“Slimes are bouncy when alive, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Let’s just try it once.”

Driven by baseless confidence that this might work, I urged Jane on.

With a small sigh, she magically crushed a core.

Then, carefully sprinkling the crushed core over the slime’s main body, she began mixing it in.

“”Huh?””

The rubber, which had been melting at the slightest touch, gradually began thickening.

But only briefly.

Soon, the rubber melted back into a sticky mess.

“Another failure, I guess…”

“N-No…”

Unlike my disappointment, Jane’s expression grew deadly serious.

She retrieved an intact slime core and carefully split it in half.

“Only the outer part of the core touches the slime’s body anyway.”

After removing the core’s internal organs and poison sac, Jane finely ground the remaining core and mixed it into the rubber again.

The stirring rod gradually slowed until the mixture became a soft semi-solid.

The rubber now maintained its shape without stretching even when touched, causing Jane’s cheeks to flush red.

“L-Let me try lighting it.”

In an uncharacteristically excited voice, Jane conjured a small flame.

“It only singed slightly.”

“…We did it.”

“Huh?”

“We succeeded…”

And just like that, we accidentally succeeded in creating slime rubber.