Chapter 147: Friends Each More Mysterious Than the Last
As Catherine explained the concept of a beast companion to Ambrose in meticulous detail, he became deeply uncomfortable. After all, he was used to eternal enslavement.
Taken at face value, a beast companion was an equal partner, with whom he would work on equal footing. It required communication, emotional bonding, mutual understanding, and mutual support.
Undead were nothing like that. Among undead, whoever was stronger was the master. If something did not obey you, you dismantled and rebuilt it.
But with a beast companion, you had to be tolerant. Understanding. Patient. It was almost like being in a romantic relationship, which meant choosing the right partner was critical.
One that was overly high-maintenance would make life sheer misery.
Naturally, the ideal situation was Catherine's own case: she had saved her companion's life, raised it from a young age, and cultivated a bond over time.
By those standards, the living mercury slime was a perfect fit.
And yet, Ambrose and the living mercury were genuinely incompatible. According to Catherine, Ambrose and the slime were already past the stage of emotional cultivation. If they were truly compatible, both sides would have felt it instinctively. There wouldn't even have been a need to ask—the contract would have formed naturally if they followed their hearts.
But Ambrose felt absolutely no response from the living mercury slime as he held it in his arms. That alone proved that they were incompatible.