Slime Reincarnation

...I’d actually said it. Back on Earth, someone who’d never been popular with women, who’d never even had a girlfriend. To think I’d end up saying something like "please give me your daughter’s hand"!

Too embarrassing. I wanted to find a hole and shove myself into it. Wait, no, crawl into it.

"Y, Yabe... do you really, truly mean that about me...?"

Irina was crying. She placed a hand on my shoulder and looked up into my face.

"You’ll really have me...?"

"Yeah, will you stay by my side, always?"

I looked into Irina’s eyes.

"Yabe!"

Overcome with emotion, Irina threw herself at me. She buried her face in my chest, sobbing my name over and over.

"Yabe, Yabe, Yabe, Yabe!!"

I gently wrapped my arms around her and stroked her head.

"What’s wrong, Irina?"

"Because, because, because... the thought of you accepting me feels like a dream... I’ve dreamed about a day like this for so, so long, and now it’s actually real..."

She kept pouring her heart out, face buried in my chest, crying the whole time.

"Ever since we met by that pond, I’ve loved you, Irina, always so full of energy, so bright, with that wonderful smile of yours. Especially back then, when I was so lost about how to go on living in this world, your brightness helped me more than you know. If you’re willing, I’d like you by my side for good."

"Yabe... I’m so happy... so happy..."

Irina kept crying into my chest without lifting her face.

"Well now... this is something else..." "Dear? Any further and it’ll just be rude to watch."

Lord Darren and his wife Angela exchanged a look. Darren wore a somewhat wry smile, while Angela looked almost refreshed by it all.

"Irina. I’m glad for you, to be proposed to by someone you care for so deeply."

"Mother..."

"With that much resolve behind it, there’s nothing more I can say. I’ll need to discuss things properly with Lord Coluna, but it seems Irina’s future will be entrusted to you, Yabe kun."

Lord Darren gave a weary smile.

"I truly am sorry for how sudden this proposal must seem. But I wanted to tell you before tomorrow’s audience at the castle, no matter what..."

"Every noble at the rank of baron or above has been summoned for tomorrow’s audience. The royal family seems to be paying you quite a bit of attention. Just who exactly are you?"

"I like to think I’m nobody in particular, just myself... For now, my goal is just to live a quiet life out in the countryside."

It might have sounded evasive, but it also came from the heart. Lord Darren still couldn’t quite get a handle on who Yabe really was.

"Well, I suppose I’ll get to see you in your finest moment at tomorrow’s audience."

This time, Lord Darren’s smile was entirely without reservation.

That night, beneath a pitch black sky lit only by faint starlight and the moon, Yabe sat on the bed in the room he’d been given, gazing at the moonlight spilling through the window.

He’d finally greeted Irina’s parents. Though the proposal that followed had been more than even he expected.

"Well, guess the groundwork had already been locked in pretty solidly anyway..."

Who am I, really... He still had no answer to Lord Darren’s question. Because he didn’t know himself.

The fact that he was a slime. That slimes weren’t even a recognized thing in this world. That he’d never once encountered another one, not even as a monster. Because of that, he couldn’t bring himself to fully declare what he was, and there was a quiet guilt in letting his feelings reach Irina and the others, building their hopes, without ever confirming whether staying by their side forever was something he could actually promise.

But ever since mastering Metamorphose, with the assumption that living in town would no longer pose a problem, he’d begun to seriously imagine a future life together with them.

Knock knock.

A hesitant knock at the door.

"Yes?"

The door opened quietly, and Irina peeked her head in.

"Yabe, are you still awake?"

"Yeah."

"Can I come in?"

"Sure."

Irina stepped into the room hesitantly, dressed in dress like sleepwear, hugging a pillow. She padded over and sat down beside me on the edge of the bed.

A quiet silence passed between us.

"...Ever since we first met, since you saved my life, you’ve been my prince, Yabe."

Irina began speaking slowly.

"A slime... such a strange form, but somehow it never felt unpleasant. If anything, I could feel your warmth coming through directly, and I wanted to stay by your side forever."

She spoke without looking at me, facing straight ahead.

"At first, I was mostly desperate to escape the Lycaorost ducal house’s relentless marriage proposal, and I said some strange things, rushing you to sleep with me just to create a fait accompli so I wouldn’t have to answer their proposal. But staying by your side all this time, traveling with you, even though there wasn’t much I could do myself, watching you face every hardship and save people along the way, it moved something in me. I kept thinking, what an incredible person. I don’t know what I can offer, but I wanted to support you."

Irina slowly turned to face me.

"Thank you. I’m glad to hear how you feel."

I gave her a warm smile.

"I told your parents too, but ever since that time when I was so uncertain about how to go on living here, you were the one who stayed by my side and gave me strength, Irina. That’s why I fell for you. So being here with you now, truly, makes me happy."

"Yabe..."

Irina gently rested her head against my shoulder.

"Yabe... make me yours..."

The two of them shared the night together.

—-

[A/N: Thanks for reading till now. Please consider leaving a few reviews or comments and let me know if I should imporve anything, I take the feedbacks seriously so I hope no one will be disappointed!]