Slime Reincarnation

I’m the personal maid assigned to Princess Cassina. As a child, Princess Cassina suffered severe injuries to the left side of her body in an accident. Ever since, she has always worn a mask covering the left half of her face.

Until recently, she always wore gloves, and even in summer she wore long sleeved dresses, never showing bare skin. When bathing or being wiped down with warm water, many maids couldn’t help averting their eyes from the scars, or looking at her with pity, and few maids stayed on as Princess Cassina’s personal attendants for long. But the three of us currently serving her, myself included, had all grown used to Princess Cassina’s scars and were able to attend to her without ever showing any hint of discomfort.

Over the years, even though she rarely left the tower, she gradually began opening up to us. By summer, she’d even come to wear dresses with slightly shorter sleeves, and rather than being ashamed of the painful looking scars peeking out from those sleeves, she’d started showing us genuine smiles.

And then, oh, what happened. From a certain day onward, her smiles simply stopped. Soft crying sounds continued instead, and she stopped leaving her room entirely. She no longer let us help her move to the bath, let alone wipe her body down with warm water, only instructing us to leave a basin of warm water and a cloth. We were terribly worried about her, but then, that day...

BANG!

Princess Cassina’s door burst open with tremendous force. Princess Cassina came bursting out, still in her nightclothes. She seemed about to run off in some direction, but then must have realized she was still dressed for bed.

"Hyaa!"

She let out a startled cry and dashed straight back into her room. We were quite shocked, but seeing how lively her expression had been gave us some relief instead.

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

An order none of us expected. I had never known Princess Cassina to speak with such volume.

"Yes, ma’am!"

The three of us maids answered energetically. Though we prepared her clothes, we weren’t able to help her dress, as she insisted on doing it herself and wouldn’t let us into the room.

Even so, seeing that she’d grown capable of dressing herself was, in its own way, a moving sign of how far Princess Cassina had come. Though naturally she hadn’t managed all the finer details, her hair wasn’t properly arranged, so we were allowed to help with that at least. What struck me was the scarf around her neck, something she’d rarely bothered with before. Even while we fixed her hair, she seemed careful not to let her neck show. It made me a little sad. Just when she’d finally stopped worrying about her scars in front of us...

Once ready, Princess Cassina flew down the stairs at tremendous speed. We hurried after her.

"Princess Cassina! Running in the halls isn’t proper!"

But Princess Cassina, as if not hearing us at all, kept dashing forward at incredible speed. I couldn’t understand at all how someone who’d spent her days shut away in that tower could run so fast.

By the time she reached the door in front of the reception room, she skidded to a sudden stop across the corridor floor. I didn’t understand the reasoning behind any of it, but she seemed to have become remarkably energetic. After that, she made her way around the knight order’s dining hall, the training grounds, and gathered information from whoever she happened to encounter along the way.

After running around quite a bit, Princess Cassina’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. Whatever could be the matter? But then, apparently having gotten some useful information from someone, though I couldn’t say who, she declared with a satisfied grin that she was heading back to her room, and left.

We maids couldn’t quite understand what had come over her, but she must have felt something significant. Seeing Princess Cassina speak with such a lively expression, even with only half her bare face visible past the mask, we all sensed that something had truly changed.

"Mother... Mother..."

I knocked quietly on my mother’s study door and gently opened it.

"Oh, Cassina. How unusual, you coming to see me."

My mother is the kingdom’s queen. Being extremely capable, she assists my father, the king, in his duties.

"There’s something I’d like to discuss..."

I offered this hesitantly.

"You all may step back for a moment. Cassina, come sit here."

She had the maids withdraw.

"So? It’s rare for you to want to discuss something with me, Cassina. I’ll listen to whatever I can."

My mother said this, sounding genuinely pleased.

"There’s someone I wish to marry."

My mother’s eyes widened in surprise.

"That’s rather sudden. Weren’t the only marriage proposals you’ve received the worthless ones from the Lycaorost ducal house?"

"It’s the adventurer father has requested an audience with, four days from now."

"That’s an even more sudden thing to say. You can’t be married off to someone below the rank of earl, you know."

"I don’t believe Lord Yabe would accept a title even if it were offered. I think he’s the kind of person who refuses to be bound by anything."

"Why would you want to marry someone so free spirited, then?"

"On the surface, it’s for the good of the kingdom. A hero who wants nothing to do with titles and wishes only to travel freely has no chain tying him to this country. If I, myself, could serve as that anchor, it would function as deterrence."

"And your true reason?"

"I love him with all my heart. So much that I want to give him everything I have."

My mother let out a sigh.

"I’m not exaggerating. He’s a man who commands miracles. If he ever turned against the kingdom, no one could stop him, could they? That’s why my presence would serve as the anchor."

"Wouldn’t it be safer to eliminate such a dangerous existence first?"

"I believe provoking someone like that would be an absolute mistake. On the other hand, having him as family would make him the most reliable ally imaginable."

"And your true reason, again?"

"It’s hard to put into words, really... but he granted every wish I had."

The queen tilted her head. And then it struck her. She noticed a slight change in Cassina’s appearance.

Looking closely, the outfit that never showed bare skin looked much the same as always, but her left breast now filled it out properly. Originally, when she’d been badly injured in the accident, her left breast had also suffered severe damage, leaving it noticeably less developed compared to her unharmed right side. But now it appeared perfectly balanced. Cassina had never bothered much with her neck before, never wearing a scarf, so a glance would have revealed the scarring there. But now...

No, that couldn’t be. It simply couldn’t be. As sad as it was to think it impossible. But what had Cassina just said?

A man who commands miracles.

What could that possibly mean...

"For the kingdom too, letting that man slip away would be an incalculable loss. Personally, I’d give up everything just to be accepted by him."

The queen stared intently at Cassina’s face.

"Please keep this between us for now, Mother."

Cassina stood from the sofa and shifted her mask slightly aside.

"Cassina, you...!"

The queen leapt up from the sofa and embraced Cassina, tears streaming down her face. Cassina embraced her mother back.

"I want to marry Lord Yabe, who will be coming for the audience in four days. Please lend me your wisdom, Mother."

Cassina looked at her mother with a bright, radiant smile.