Side Story 1
Translator : PolterGlast
This is not a story
from three years later, but rather one that took place right after escaping the
city in chapter 34.
---
Lotus and I had left
the city of Volvect. Carried in his arms, we went up and down repeatedly, and
as we did, the sun slowly began to rise through the gaps in the thin clouds.
I hadn't brought much
luggage to begin with, and the time to get ready was short, but Lotus wasn't
particularly bad at preparing for a trip either.
I originally didn't
have much luggage, and the preparation time was short, but Lotus also didn't
seem to be particularly bad at packing for a trip. "This should do
it," he said, placing the rucksack down. Incidentally, since he couldn't
carry it on his back with wings, I was the one holding it.
We sat down by a
waterside we had found to take a breather. His eyes, only the right one the
same red as mine, looked at me.
A mix of apologetic
feelings and a strange wonder about how things had ended up this way swirled
within me, but since he didn't seem to mind, I kept my mouth shut, knowing that
whatever I said wouldn't change anything.
And now.
"Hmm...? This one
is Ichi...? Huh? Nii? Or is it San?"
He was perplexed in
front of the squishy, moving slimes.
The initial
introductions were already over, and Ichi and the others were at a "Araa,
isn't this Lotus~~!" level of excitement, but since they had been hiding
their forms with the Illusion skill all along, it was no wonder Lotus was
confused.
In fact, there were
three slimes at Harapeko-tei. They had been helping with the cleaning... I
explained, and Lotus, with a face that swallowed many emotions, tilted his head
and said, "I see, so that's how it is...?" Apparently, he had been
wondering why the shop had been getting strangely shinier lately, but he
probably never imagined that monsters were secretly lurking.
"Um, let me
explain one more time."
It was a
re-introduction. I pointed my right hand towards Ichi and the others and said,
and they wobbled and made something that looked like hands.
"And this one is
Ichi." Ichi made a sharp movement that looked like a salute. "This is
Nii." It swayed gently from side to side. "This is San." It
shook violently left and right.
"Got it?"
"Not at
all."
His reply was
immediate. Darn, maybe I hadn't explained enough. Um, I furrowed my brow,
thinking hard about how to make it easier to understand.
"Ichi is full of
leadership and reliable when something happens, and Nii is the laid-back and
healing type. And San is the energetic, Latin type, I guess."
"No, what does
'Latin type' mean?"
Lotus immediately
interjected.
Pointing at San, who
was shaking vigorously, I said, "It's like this," and whether he
understood or not, he made a bitter face, swallowing a word he couldn't quite
express, "O-okay..." San kept shaking energetically the whole time.
"...I'll get it,
eventually."
Lotus frowned deeply,
closed his eyes tightly, and thought.
"More
importantly, if there are three slimes, why aren't they multiplying?"
"Multiplying...?"
Time stopped for me
and Ichi and the others. "They're slimes, right? If there are multiple of
them, shouldn't they multiply when they bump into each other?"
"O...o...o...?" Let's try to remember. When I first rode on Ichi and
the others, going through the forest in a queen-like manner, there were already
piles of slimes. Some had purely gathered because they thought it would be nice
to all stick together, while others had doubled every time they bumped into
each other. "O-OHHHHHH!!????" I was perplexed by the word that made me
realize something.
The memory of shouting
"Disperse!" amidst the too many gathered slimes was still fresh.
Could it be that Ichi and the others were slimes that didn't split!? I looked
down at them, trembling with a mixture of imagined terror and relief as I recalled
the room in Harapeko-tei. Because if things went wrong, the room would have
been filled with slimes.
――――We don't multiply if
we hold back, you know
"You were holding
back!?"
A shocking truth.
El probably would have
had a hard time if there were more than three, so we were holding back. We did
our best.
Those were the words
of all three of them. What considerate guys.
"Whoaaa, thank
you! It would have been cute if Ichi and the others multiplied, but I wouldn't
have been able to handle it!"
Now I couldn't imagine
life without them, but if they had multiplied and squirmed all over when the
door was first knocked, I probably would have gone crazy. As I hugged them,
tears welling up at their unknown struggles, they trembled as if trying to say
something.
"Huh? What is it?
But it's a little tough when I ride on you guys and bounce around? You remember
when we all gathered together and carried El around? EHHHH!? Sorry, I rode on
you guys a lot! I'll be careful from now on!!!"
"No way, they
were just trembling. How are you even having a conversation?"
And so, I vowed to try
as much as possible to stop riding on Ichi and the others.
Because holding back
is bad for the body.
***
"It doesn't
exactly mean I'm going to carry you, though."
"Ababababababa."
"Well,
whatever."
Coupled with Lotus's
low-key attitude, the situation behind us was intense. A boar-shaped monster
was chasing us, knocking down trees. Ichi and the others were hopping around at
high speed, and Lotus was running at full speed while carrying me on his back.
Despite that, he wasn't even panting and looked completely calm, making the gap
between us huge.
Every time an angry
"bumooooooo!!!" was slammed down, I trembled,
"Ababababababa!!!!!" "You're shaking up and down too much,"
Lotus' sharp retort flew.
"Lotus,
d-d-d-don't you need to k-k-k-kill it!?"
"Nah, we can
probably outrun it anyway. No need to go out of our way to kill it,
right?"
"Y-you're too
full of confidence...!!!"
This kind of party is
born when there's too much of a difference in ability.
Ichi and the others
jumped over rocks and skillfully bounced off tree trunks as if they were
platforms. They were moving incredibly fast. All I could do was make
"abaaba" sounds on Lotus's back. "Kikyaaaaaaa!!!"
"Hieeeeeee!!!" Perhaps having heard the commotion, a monkey-shaped
monster was now appearing in front of us. It was more like an orangutan, and
for an orangutan, its lower teeth were too sharp and didn't fit in its mouth.
They were gleaming. To put it simply, I felt death was imminent.
"A-a monkey at
the front, a boar at the back...!!!!"
"What are you
talking about?"
I didn't really know
either.
With an indescribable
shriek, "Gyaauuu!" the orangutan (tentative name) headed towards us.
We couldn't move forward or backward. When I thought, "It's over,"
Lotus lightly jumped up and stomped on the monkey's head.
While recalling the
memory of blankly looking back at the monkey and boar colliding with great
force, I was now quietly grilling fish. I watched the crackling sparks. In the
completely dark night, only the campfire's flames flickered. Beyond it, Lotus
was facing Ichi and the others, groaning.
"Aah... you're
San, right? Huh? Wrong? Seriously? Don't fake it like that. That dance was
San's."
Even though he had
said he didn't understand, he seemed to already be able to distinguish the
slimes. He was a quick learner. "I won't mistake them anymore. You're Nii,
right? See, look." Watching them laugh happily, I somehow started to feel
happy too. I remembered what had happened today and chuckled. Whew, that was
quite a commotion. I really shouted a lot, and it was somehow funny.
Ichi and the others
and Lotus looked at me strangely. When I was pelted with stones and pushed off
the cliff, I was all alone and cold. My heart felt somehow chilly. But now, the
warm campfire flames were flickering. The more I thought about it, the funnier
it became.
"El, what's
wrong?"
"No, it's
nothing."
I closed my mouth and
shook my head. It was a feeling that everyone probably wouldn't understand. But
still, it was just so much fun, so I chuckled.
My laughter sank into
the night sky.
-----
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