Slime Reincarnation

"Your Majesty, please take a look at this."

At the royal castle, one day. Chancellor Reberg von Mittamaier held a certain document in his hands.

"What is it?"

The document the chancellor brought was a map of the capital. Marks were scattered here and there across it. King Warenheid Arel Barbaroi XV peered at the map as he asked.

"Recently there’s been a string of trouble in the capital, thugs and ruffians causing disturbances. Last month, Krelia Spelcio was selected as the first female captain of the capital guard, and minor crimes have been rising sharply ever since."

"Hm, rather transparent harassment... is it?"

"Precisely. Our own investigation suggests it stems from Sandric von Pleasure, third son of the Pleasure ducal house, being passed over for the captaincy. It seems the Duke of Pleasure himself is lending a hand as well, pressuring nobles under his influence to stir up minor crimes."

"How thoroughly petty."

King Warenheid said this simply, with clear contempt.

"Krelia seems to be struggling quite a bit, and I thought some support might be needed, which brings us to this map."

"Hm, is there meaning behind these marks on the map?"

"Yes, it shows which unit of the capital guard is assigned where. In other words, by cross referencing where the thugs caused trouble, we can see which unit was nearby, and confirm whether that unit actually did its job. This map lets us pin an evaluation of incompetence on exactly the people dragging their feet."

"I see, so those trying to stir up crime and push the blame onto the captain end up exposing their own failure to do their jobs through this very map."

"Precisely. A brilliant idea."

"Hm... this Krelia sounds like quite a sharp one."

"However, Your Majesty. While Captain Krelia is certainly capable, it seems the idea for this map actually came from someone else."

"Oh? Who?"

"The man Your Majesty requested an audience with, Sir Yabe. Currently a guest of the Coluna Frontier Count’s household."

"What, Sir Yabe? Tell me, what exactly is this man, in truth?"

King Warenheid asked Chancellor Reberg with evident interest.

"In a word, he defies all categorization. Every report about him sounds too outlandish to be true. And yet, I must say, all of this information appears to be highly accurate."

"I’ve received a rough briefing already. That’s why I summoned him. Let’s go over it again."

"Yes. The most unbelievable feat of all is his achievement in the Dungeon Stampede that occurred in the town of Sorenarini, where he’s said to have defeated roughly ten thousand monsters."

"Hmm, ten thousand does sound like something out of a legend."

"If this information came solely from Zoria, guild master of the Sorenarini town Adventurers’ Guild, I wouldn’t have believed it either. But this has also been corroborated, with some qualifications, by Naise, the town’s deputy governor."

"Naise... the sharp one who served as a court administrator some years back?"

"Yes. He apparently suffered badly in a power struggle within the court and had grown distrustful of people, nearly broken, when the Coluna Frontier Count took him in. Frankly, it was a waste. Had I recognized the situation sooner, we wouldn’t have needed to let such a capable man go off to the countryside."

"Well, that’s water under the bridge. And this Naise has corroborated the information as well?"

"Yes. It seems Sir Yabe has no desire to be bound to any organization, and dislikes having his abilities used by others. Even if offered a noble title, he likely would refuse it."

"Is the extermination of ten thousand monsters actually true?"

"It appears so. On top of that, there’s an event referred to as the Miracle of the Fortress City Felbane, in which he’s said to have healed a great number of dying patients. There’s also the extermination of a mass outbreak of Dark Pythons in Bahana Village using his tamed creatures, and the defeat of an orc army of fifteen hundred in the commercial city of Barrietta. A string of achievements that seem almost miraculous."

"If we’re to properly reward all of this, just how much would we need to prepare?"

King Warenheid gave a wry laugh.

"Explaining these feats in full would leave most people disbelieving them. We’ll simply have to keep the official reward somewhat modest."

"What a troublesome situation. Having to keep the reward modest just to retain a man of such caliber, it’s almost pitiable."

King Warenheid let out a deep sigh.

"We’ve summoned him to the castle in advance to explain the proceedings and have his attire prepared for the audience. I’ll be meeting with Lord Coluna at that time, so Your Majesty..."

"Understood."

The two continued their discussion for a while longer.

At a certain guard station.

Sandric von Pleasure, third son of the Pleasure ducal house, was shouting furiously at his subordinates.

To bring down Krelia Spelcio, who had been chosen as captain over him, he’d hired people to stir up minor crimes and disturbances, hoping to erode public order in the capital and pin the blame squarely on Krelia. At first, it had gone smoothly. But the moment the deployment map for each unit was released, everything changed. The very next day, Sandric and his loyal unit were harshly reprimanded for completely failing to respond to a nearby thug incident. That map made it easy to see who was assigned where and which area they were responsible for, exposing that Sandric’s group hadn’t been doing their job. Which made perfect sense, of course, since Sandric’s people were the ones orchestrating it all.

"Damn it! Things were going so well!"

Sandric fumed. As a countermeasure, he shifted the thugs to cause trouble outside his own assigned area. But then...

"What!? Most of them got caught!?"

Krelia’s group had captured the majority of the thugs. Where they’d always managed to escape before, now most of them were being caught. As Yabe had anticipated, since Sandric’s group had deliberately steered the thugs away from their own area, the trouble ended up falling within Krelia’s countermeasure zone, making it relatively easy to predict in advance, and most of them got caught as a result.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

Sandric slammed his fist on the table in frustration.

"Just you wait... if it’s come to this, I’ll speak to my father..."

A dark flame lit in Sandric’s clouded eyes.

At the tower in the northeast corner of the royal castle. Cassina, second princess of the Kingdom of Barbaroi, was once again gazing up at the sky, tears falling.

It was a feeling she’d never experienced before in her life. That person had granted every one of her wishes. Their date flying together through the night sky was a memory she’d never forget. And he had healed her body through some miraculous technique.

"Lord Yabe..."

He’d been a strange sort of person, in that body of his. In the end, as he left, he’d turned his back to her, but he had shown her a human form. She still hadn’t told anyone that all her scars had been healed that day. The maids who’d always helped her change clothes or wipe down her body hadn’t seen her skin since then, since she’d insisted on doing it herself. She still hadn’t even properly thanked Lord Yabe, and if she told others her wounds had been healed, the people who’d never so much as looked her way before would surely come flooding in. And those like the Lycaorost ducal house, who valued only power, would likely close in even harder. For now, it was probably best to keep the healing a secret.

"Why wouldn’t you take me with you...?"

She kept speaking to the sky, tears falling. It had become a daily ritual for Princess Cassina now.

That was when it happened.

"!?"

She sensed, faintly, Lord Yabe’s magical power somewhere in this castle. When Cassina had been injured on her left side, she’d lost sight in her left eye, but in exchange her ability to sense magic had sharpened. Having spent so long shut away in the tower with time to spare, Cassina had kept up her training in magic sensing. Because of that, she could now visualize the size and color of magic power. She’d been quietly observing the castle with that ability, and now she thought she’d caught a faint trace of Lord Yabe’s magic.

She tried to burst out of the room, but realized she was still in her sleepwear, not dressed to go outside.

"Hyaa!"

Rushing back into the room, she called out to her maids.

"I’m going down into the castle! Please help me get dressed!"

At her frantic instructions, the maids, who never expected her to actually go down into the castle, scrambled to answer with a crisp "Yes!" She hurriedly changed clothes and fixed her hair, finishing her preparations in a rush.

...In the end, Cassina wasn’t able to meet Yabe that day. But she did gain valuable information.

(He’ll be coming to the castle for his audience, four days from now...)

Cassina held an internal debate over how to carry herself during the audience four days later.

(No matter what, I will... Lord Yabe...)

Cassina’s eyes burned with determination.