episode_0172

Her Limit

“Hmm… didn’t you say it was this way?”

“Yes, Zeke-nim. It should appear if we walk a little further.”

I walked in the direction Aria pointed, but no matter how far I went, there was no sign of the slime, which greatly flustered me. Well… still, Aria wouldn’t lie, so it’s probably best to trust her and keep going, right? Trusting Aria’s words, I continued forward and finally found the slime, collapsed against a tree, gasping for breath in its human form. Wow… it looks just like the blue-haired woman in brown clothes I saw earlier… This really makes me wonder… Is it a human who turned into a slime, or a slime that’s mimicked a human form…?

“Hmm… it seems to be sleeping now, so I should wait a bit…”

“Haah… haah… Damn it… haven’t you cursed humans left yet…? My grudge won’t be satisfied even if I kill you all… you filthy race…!!”

Ugh… it definitely seems to hold an enormous grudge against humans… Seeing the slime curse us even while collapsed, I was sure it harbored ill feelings towards humans. But… the problem is that the slime, of all things… openly cursed me right in front of Aria… In that case, as expected…

“…..”

‘Ah…’

Turning my head to the side with an uneasy feeling, I saw Aria biting her lip tightly to suppress her anger while smiling, and I was troubled to realize that, as expected, she was enraged. Wow… what do I do now? From what I can tell, Aria must be absolutely furious… She already didn’t like that I was trying to figure out the situation of this slime, which was cursing us, and now I’ve even had to hear such an insult…

“You… I’ve been suppressing my anger since earlier… and now you openly insult Zeke-nim in front of me…? It seems you’re desperate to die, aren’t you?”

“…Hah… so that human is your lover, huh…? You’re quite a sight yourself, Saintess in black. To protect such a weak man who can’t do anything without you…”

“….!!! Ngh… Nggghh!!”

W-wait!! Th-those words!! As the slime pointed out my weakness, I was startled and desperately gestured for it to be quiet. But it was already too late. Aria glared at the slime with a genuinely enraged expression, having even lost her smile, and the slime chuckled hollowly as it spoke to Aria, who was glowering at it.

“What are you going to do by glaring like that? Do you think I’d understand your human love…? Do you think *I*… would understand the love… the hearts of you humans like you?!”

“….!!”

As the slime stretched out its hand to Aria, declaring that it would never understand human love, a powerful beam of light shot out from its hand and instantly enveloped Aria. Seeing Aria, who had been right beside me, suddenly engulfed by the slime’s massive beam, I cried out in great shock.

“A-Ariaaa!!!”

“Ha… hahahaha…!! I won’t accept it…!! I won’t accept it!!! To think that *I*… would be subjected to this by despicable humans…!! To think that *I*… would continuously suffer various humiliations because of humans…!! I absolutely won’t accept—huh?”

“….. Oh.”

The moment the slime was raising the output of the beam it unleashed on Aria, pleading something, Aria powerfully swung her arm to the side within the beam, and the slime’s light instantly vanished. The slime turned pale upon seeing Aria, unharmed by its attack, even neutralizing its assault, and I, greatly relieved that Aria was safe, checked her body with concern.

“Aria, you’re safe, right? No injuries?!”

“Ugh…!! C-c-cough… Zeke-nim… I… for now, I’d like to finish what I was seriously doing… C-c-compliments and worries… please save them for a little later…”

Aria, who had been stone-faced just a moment ago, made an embarrassed expression when I checked her body with concern, then, flustered, asked me to save all my compliments and worries for later. Ah… surely not for that…? I, who had figured out why Aria was asking to save the compliments and worries for later, immediately moved away, and Aria immediately became serious again and glared at the slime. Only then did the slime seem to realize that something was terribly wrong, making a terrified expression and trembling, it asked Aria.

“You… what in the world are you?! How… how are you still alive after taking my magic head-on?! Earlier, you kept putting up barriers to block my attacks, didn’t you?!”

“Ah… you mean that? Zeke-nim will surely be curious too, so I’ll explain. Your magic… honestly, its power wouldn’t affect me at all… It was much, *much* weaker than the test subject named Omega I met at the Revalud facility, so there was no need to put up a barrier, you see?”

“Wh-what…? Wh-what do you mean by that? O-Omega? What’s that…?”

Ah… I see…!! The reason Aria kept putting up barriers earlier… was not to protect herself, but to protect me with absolute certainty…!! Hearing Aria’s words, I understood why Aria had bothered to put up barriers just now, and I could also comprehend why Aria was completely unharmed after taking the slime’s attack head-on. However, the slime was still trembling with a completely bewildered expression, and Aria showed a chilling smile to the perplexed slime and slowly began to walk towards it.

“You… you’ve been ignoring Zeke-nim’s goodwill and insulting him this whole time, which made me incredibly annoyed… And if that attack just now had been stronger, Zeke-nim could have been in danger, couldn’t he?”

“B-but… weren’t you trying to protect that man…?!”

“That’s true, but… in any case, from my perspective, you are truly… annoying and exasperating, you know…? Zeke-nim~? Would you perhaps grant me freedom for this moment?”

“When were you ever not free…? Hmm… still, since you must have felt a lot of displeasure… go easy, Aria. Understood?”

“….?! What?! Why would you allow that?!”

When Aria asked for permission to handle things for now, I readily granted it, on the condition that she ‘go easy,’ knowing how much anger Aria had suppressed until now. Hearing that, the slime was startled and tried to argue with me, but Aria grabbed the slime by the neck, slowly raised her staff, and spoke.

“You… it might be a good thing that Zeke-nim’s curiosity runs deep…”

“Wh-what…?”

“I don’t know if you’re a human who turned into a slime, or a slime that turned into a human… but in your form, somewhere between human and slime… will you feel a different kind of pain than humans? Or will you feel the exact same pain as humans?!”

“…. Ugh… Ughhh?!”

There it is… Aria’s sadistic impulse… which only comes out specifically for women… As Aria slowly thrust her staff towards it, the slime finally felt fear from Aria and began to whimper, turning pale, and seeing that, I briefly wondered if I had made a mistake by granting Aria’s request. And at that moment, as Aria slowly passed the staff through its body, the slime flinched and began to scream.

“Ugh… Ughhh!!! Aaaaaahhhh!!!!”

“Oh dear? It doesn’t seem like you’re feeling pain… Are you perhaps afraid of me? Are you scared because I’m trying to ram this staff into your fluid body like this?!”

“Th-this crazy Saintess!!! Of course I’m scared!!! Aaaaaagh!! Please save me!!! It doesn’t hurt, but I’m so scared I can’t stand it!!!”

“Ahahahah…!! Don’t worry, Slime? Your punishment won’t last very long~! However…”

The slime screamed in terror and began to writhe, trying to escape Aria’s grasp somehow. However, perhaps due to overwhelming fear, the slime, caught in Aria’s hand, was unable to utilize its flexible body. Aria then slowly brought her face close to the slime’s, her chilling smile morphing into a stone-faced expression, and spoke to the slime in a frigid voice.

“I’ll make you think that death would be preferable during that short time.”

“Ugh… Ughhh?! Aaaaaagh!!!”

…. I should cover my ears for a while… Seeing Aria genuinely enraged and torturing someone like this after a long time, I covered both ears with my palms and looked away, ignoring the slime. Wow… the scenery is *really* nice… And so, with my ears covered, I chuckled hollowly as I looked at the forest completely destroyed by the slime and Aria’s beam, and the slime’s screams and whimpers continued for about 20 minutes in the forest. After 25 minutes, I saw the slime, trembling uncontrollably and utterly dazed, clearly having been subjected to an immense amount of torture by Aria, and I, greatly bewildered, said to Aria.

“…You ‘went easy,’ right…?”

“Heehee~! Since it didn’t die, I suppose I ‘went easy,’ wouldn’t you agree~!”

“…It’s already dazed, though…? You didn’t perhaps bestow some strange blessing on it, like you did with Melian, did you…?”

“Ugh… Hehehe…”

….. So it was true. The slime being dazed reminded me of Melian, so I asked as a joke… but seeing Aria avoid my gaze and chuckle awkwardly at my question, I realized the slime had received a similar blessing to Melian and was now dazed like this, and I sighed. But it doesn’t seem to have completely lost its mind like Melian did… This slime is amazing in many ways…

“Ugh… Ughhh… Just… just kill me…..”

‘And it even has consciousness…?! Even emotionless Melian couldn’t endure it and eventually lost her mind?! What in the world is this slime… no, this life form?!’

“Is there any need to be so surprised, Zeke-nim? This life form is a slime that physical attacks don’t work well on, you know? Look there. Its faintly visible core is perfectly fine.”

“A core?… Oh? It’s really there? It has a core…?”

At Aria’s words, asking if I didn’t see the faint core in the trembling slime begging for death, I was amazed to truly see a faint red, spherical object where a slime’s… no, a human’s heart would be. The slime’s core. Slimes are originally creatures that are resistant to physical attacks, but due to their simple body structure and weak physical abilities, their cores are easily destroyed, leading them to be classified as low-level monsters. And the slime’s core, which can be called their weakness and true body, should usually be easily visible in a typical slime, but this slime’s core was completely hidden, which I thought was strange… So it was just hidden by its clothes…

“It’s so faint you have to focus to see it… So you knew it had a core from the start?”

“Yes. It was quite visible to me from the beginning. Of course, it’s faint enough that an ordinary person wouldn’t see it well. Even so, just because that slime has a core, it doesn’t confirm whether it’s a true slime or a human who turned into a slime.”

“That’s true for me too… But what on earth did you do to make it so disoriented…?”

“Ugh… Ughhh… Just kill me… Just kill me… you cursed human…”

As the slime kept repeating ‘just kill me,’ still disoriented, I asked Aria with a bewildered expression. Aria, perhaps not wanting to answer, avoided my gaze and only gave an awkward laugh, and I began to regret having granted Aria’s request earlier. If I had known this, I would have told her not just to ‘go easy,’ but to leave it conscious enough to communicate…

“Haaah… anyway, Zeke-nim… are you really going to talk to this slime? You just saw it, didn’t you?! It openly showed hostility towards us…”

“I know, but… earlier, this slime seemed to make a somewhat bitter expression…”

“I saw that too! But that slime truly attacked with the intent to kill you, Zeke-nim?! There’s no way you can reason with a slime like that…”

“Thanks to you, it doesn’t seem to be able to even think about attacking us anymore.”

“…..”

When Aria mentioned how the slime had attacked with killing intent just now, I replied that the slime now showed no intent to attack us at all. Aria then clicked her tongue at my words, truly disappointed, and seeing her reaction, I gave a hollow laugh, realizing that she still didn’t like me doing this. Well, I guess… she hates the slime, so she’s reacting this way…

“Alright… then I should talk to it… Huh?”

“Ughhh… Just kill me… Just ki—Ugh…”

“Oh? It passed out? It seems a bit difficult to ask it anything right now, wouldn’t you say?”

Whatever torture Aria had inflicted, the slime kept begging for death until it finally fainted. Seeing this, I wondered what on earth had happened just now to make the slime groan with fear and then finally pass out. What kind of torture did Aria inflict to make it so terrified…? It feels like… it had a strong stubbornness not to lose, which is why it could endure this much, I think… Indeed, seeing it use such powerful magic earlier just to not lose to humans, it seems to have some pride…

“Whoooa… No choice, then… Shall we rest around here today, Aria?”

“Ngggh… Yes, let’s. It’s been a while since I’ve used so much power, so I feel… a desire to stick close to Zeke-nim and rest, you see? Hehehehe…”

“That was always there… Hmm… Then, shall we first check if there’s a statue of Goddess Camilla around here? That was also one of the reasons we set out again.”

“Understood, Zeke-nim! Let’s go right away!”

Before setting up our tent and resting here, we began searching the surroundings thoroughly for the statue of Goddess Camilla, which was our original objective. Hmm… There’s not even a shadow of a statue around, let alone a statue itself… Come to think of it, the slime said earlier that it had defeated the saintesses who had entered this area, didn’t it? It seems just like how they couldn’t install a statue in Mount Ter due to Yuria’s surprise attack, this place also couldn’t because of that slime…

“Oh. That’s strange. I felt as if Zeke-nim was thinking of another woman. Is it just my imagination, perhaps?”

“I did vaguely think of one… Just how much can you discern with divine power…?”

“…..!! Aaaah!! Zeke-nim, thinking of another woman…!! Absolutely not!!! I’ll stick to you like this and make you think only of me!!!”

“…?! Hey… hey hey hey!!! W-wait!! Aaaahhhhh!!!”

When I revealed that I did vaguely think of another woman, Aria was startled and clung to me, refusing to let go. My face turned red with great embarrassment, and so, a second scream echoed through the forest. And after 10 minutes, I returned to my spot, gasping for breath, and said to Aria.

“Haaah… haaah… You… you really… really have so much strength… Ugh…”

“Ughhh… I’m still not satisfied! Well… but as promised, I’ve regained the right to hug Zeke-nim again tonight… Hehehehehe…”

…… Damn it… why are there so many regrets today… As Aria made a sly smile, thinking of hugging me again tonight, I felt dread, imagining all my energy being drained again tonight. Aria then took out a pot and dishes from her backpack, smiled sweetly, and said to me.

“Then, to make a lunch that will make Zeke-nim healthy… and energetic, I’m going hunting! You can look forward to it, you know? I know very well what kind of monsters live around here~!”

“….. Wait… no way.”

“I’ll be back!!”

As Aria excitedly ran into the forest, saying she knew all about the monsters living around here, I opened my record book and began searching for what lived in this area… Ah, damn it… It’s filled with monsters and mushrooms that have an energy-boosting effect, isn’t it…? Haaah… It seems Aria intends to forcefully inject energy into me and then drain it all out at night… Feeling a rare sense of dread that Aria might do something other than just hugging me tonight, I stood there in despair.