Slime Reincarnation

The distance from the Coluna Frontier Count’s residence to the royal castle wasn’t far at all, only about ten minutes by carriage. As a high ranking noble among the aristocracy, Fenberg’s residence was located quite close to the castle. Come to think of it, during one of Logan and the wolf fangs’ morning walks, they’d circled the outer perimeter of the royal castle, and it really was impressively massive.

Since we were riding in the largest and most expensive of the Coluna Frontier Count household’s carriages, everyone fit inside together, Fenberg, myself, Irina, Luciana, Fileontina, Sarina, and Rina.

"I get to meet the king! I get to meet the king!"

Rina was in wonderful spirits.

"More than meeting the king, I find myself far more nervous about tonight, sleeping together with my husband..."

Fileontina said this, cheeks flushed, gaze drifting off somewhere distant. Something about that felt dangerous.

"I get to wear the dress they measured me for the other day~"

Sarina, true to her commoner roots, seemed thrilled at the chance to dress up in something the royal family had prepared. For what it’s worth, I’d been measured too, and had ceremonial attire tailored for the occasion. ...Whether it actually suited me was another matter entirely.

We entered the castle and were guided inside, this time led further in than the reception room I’d been shown to before. The stone corridor gave way to deep red carpeting, and expensive looking vases began appearing along the edges of the hallway.

Honestly, what’s the deal with these vases anyway? Sitting up on pedestals like that, isn’t that just asking for disaster? Surely some maid cleaning up is going to bump one with her backside someday and send it crashing to the floor.

"Fuoo! A big vase! And a big painting over here!"

Rina walked along, looking around at everything.

"Now, now, Rina. You need to watch where you’re going, or it’s dangerous, you know? If you bump into one of those big vases and break it, we’ll get in trouble, so let’s walk properly, okay?"

I said this, taking Rina’s hand.

"Yesh, shir! Mashter!"

Rina answered with a beaming smile.

"Kiiii!"

Irina, tearing up and biting down on a handkerchief while tugging at it like that isn’t going to help. And Fileontina, suddenly stumbling on purpose won’t get me to hold your hand either. Please just walk properly.

"Lord Yabe, could you please come this way to change?"

Suddenly addressed, I was called aside separately from the women.

"Sir Yabe. I need to head to the throne room as a noble myself, so I’ll go on ahead. Please confirm the flow of the audience and proper etiquette once more with the attendant in charge. I’ll see you afterward."

Fenberg said this and left. Honestly, I was starting to feel genuinely nervous. Guess I really am a coward at heart.

"W, well then, Yabe, see you later." "Mashter! Shee you later!" "My husband! I look forward to seeing you looking splendid!" "I’m looking forward to seeing you, Lord Yabe!" "Good luck, Yabe san~"

"See you all in a bit!"

I waved to everyone and followed the maid, walking off alone.

"This way, please. We’ll prepare you in this room."

The room I was shown to had neither chairs nor a table.

"Rather bare, isn’t it."

"We’ll get everything ready, please wait a moment."

The maid said this and left. I was left alone in the empty room.

...Lonely.

Even so, why exactly was I left all alone in a room without even a chair? The reason was...

"Ahh, so you’re the guy they’re calling the hero who saved the kingdom?"

"Huh?"

I turned around, but there was no one there.

"Well, not that you’re worth counting for much, anyway."

Swish!

"Eh?"

My head was taken clean off in an instant. My own head drifted slowly through the air and hit the floor. Red blood sprayed from my neck like a fountain.

"Ha! That’s about all it takes for the genius killer, yours truly, Beltree. Way too easy."

The headless body slowly toppled over.

"If every job were this easy, I’d have no complaints. Dark Knight... remember this. Next time we meet, I’ll kill you for sure..."

Muttering this, killer Beltree left the room.

"..."

(Hmm, an assassination right before the audience, is he really that desperate? Or is the point that assassinating a guest right before an audience could deal real damage to the royal family’s reputation...?)

Muttering to myself, still keeping Presence Sense active, I noticed the maid from earlier returning.

I extended a tentacle toward the entrance and watched her reaction.

Click.

The maid stepped into the room, taking in the gruesome scene, my beheaded body, blood scattered everywhere.

"Heh, looks like he did the job right."

She took a breath, preparing to scream.

"Mmph!"

In that instant, I clamped a tentacle over her mouth, cutting off any sound. Startled, she thrashed, but I wrapped her up tightly, covering her eyes as well. Once she was fully restrained, I picked up my head and recovered the slime cells I’d dyed red to imitate blood spray.

To explain the trick, I’d been monitoring my surroundings with Presence Sense from before I was even led into this room, and since I’d clearly been brought to a suspicious location, I’d anticipated an assassin’s attack and prepared for having my head taken off, keeping red dyed slime cells ready inside my body to mimic blood spatter in advance. Just as expected, they’d come to take my head, and my planned countermeasure had worked out even better than I’d hoped.

I restored my body, then swapped the tentacles binding the maid for rope pulled from Subspace Compression Storage instead.

"Mmph! Mmph!"

This maid clearly knew about the assassination plot. I couldn’t just let her go. I’d hand her over to someone in authority later for some serious interrogation. ...Not that I have that kind of hobby myself, mind you!

"Now then..."

I needed to call someone in to handle this, but who exactly should I contact?

I left the maid there and stepped out into the corridor.

"Yabe, how’s it going?"

"Whoa!?"

I’d made the mistake of switching off Presence Sense once I thought things had settled down. Someone suddenly calling out to me startled me, but there was no one around.

"Hm?"

Looking around, someone dropped down neatly from above.

"You’re... ’Sneaky Natsu’!"

The one who’d dropped down was Natsu, a ninja like girl who’d been reincarnated from the same era of Japan as me.

"Ohh... you remembered me. That’s kind of touching."

"Touching my ass! You swindled two hundred gold coins out of me and then vanished without giving me a lick of information! Give my money back!"

"Mou... Yabe’s stingy."

"I’m not stingy! Work for what you were paid, that’s all I’m asking!"

"That’s why I brought important information."

"Oh yeah? What kind?"

"Yabe, be careful. A skilled assassin is after you."

"Too late! I just got attacked! That information’s worth absolutely nothing now!"

"Mou... if this had been ten minutes earlier, it would’ve been incredibly valuable information... shame."

"So, this skilled assassin, you mean the killer Beltree?"

"Hm, you already know that much... Yabe, well informed?"

"No, he just blabbed the whole thing to himself while he was killing me."

"...Killing you?"

"Ah, well, he thought he did, anyway."

"Hmm, Yabe’s more skilled than he looks...?"

"You didn’t need the ’than he looks’ part."

"Surviving that killer is incredibly difficult... that’s why Yabe’s skilled."

Natsu looked at me with something like admiration. Though I’m pretty sure dressing up as a ninja inside the royal castle is a definite no.

"So then? This killer Beltree, that’s just some reincarnator guy named Suzuki, right?"

"!"

Natsu’s eyes went wide with shock.

"How did you know that..."

(How did I know? Because who else besides some reincarnator named Suzuki would come up with a lame name like Beltree!)

I fumed internally, conveniently forgetting that I’d named my own trading company "Arrowbe."