Chapter 35.
Walking through the city gate felt like walking to the gallows. But given Galine’s big smile, I was more embarrassed at the thought of calling this all off than scared of the outside world. So.. technically I persevered.
I loved technicalities.
Galine carried the basket, which I appreciated. I still wasn’t used to the shift in balance that came with losing an arm, carrying anything that only made things so much harder.
It was a gorgeous day, and while technically she was leading us somewhere, it was a leisurely stroll. Or as leisurely as a stroll could be when you were walking past fields of farmers hard at work. It made me uncomfortable, the same uncomfortable feeling when waiters cleared the table or cleaning staff cleaned up after you. I wasn’t helping; I was actively relaxing while there was clearly work to be done.
Not that I would have made a remotely good farmer with a single hand. But it still sent tingles of awareness down my spine. The tall lanes of crops really didn’t help either. When I couldn’t see people working and living, I could only imagine raptors.
I was a fucking anxious mess. “So,” I exhaled. “How was work?”
“Oh, same as every day, really,” she replied. “The Tavern Crew is the only party staying at the outpost. The rest are out, so it’s fairly quiet save for the few passers through.”
I nodded, unable to stop myself from scanning the wheat and corn. “I assume mercenaries are the most active in the summer?” I asked.
She nodded. “And the fall before it really starts to get cold. Though most don’t bother with spring since that’s really the most troublesome with all the rain and mud. Though obviously, the winter can be hazardous in its own way.”
“Does it snow here?” I asked, trying to imagine it.
“Mhmm,” she hummed. “Everything gets blanketed in white.”
I shivered at the premise. “What do people do?”
“What do you mean?” She replied.
It was strange, despite her size and obvious speed, I kept up with her easily. She was going slow for me. It was sweet.
“Like the farmers,” I explained. “What do they eat?”
Galine chuckled. “Providions, Pamela. They save food for the winter.”
“Right,” I groaned, feeling foolish. “And people just… sit around for the winter?”
“There's plenty of work to be done that has nothing to do with crops,” she shook her head. “I spent a winter here once with a family. They had so much wool for their sheep, I swear we spent every single day processing it and telling stories to pass the time,” she smiled fondly. “Now I’m starting to believe you really are an outfielder,” she smiled, teasing. “Just what kind of a world did you come from?”
“Well…” I sighed, considering it. “A very, very big one. But where I was from, at least, excluding festivals and holidays, we had moved away from any form of seasonality at all. What we had was heavily industrialized and bureaucratized. A focus on profits lead us to try and make everything as efficient as possible. So… a lot of people ended up doing the same exact thing every day all year round.”
Galine stared at me. “That sounds horrible.”
I shrugged. “Yeah. But given the relative wealth I lived surrounded by, it wasn’t so bad. Well… that wealth did largely come at the direct expense of other countries, and the colonial institutions which extracted their resources. Anyway,” I sighed, “my world was really big and complicated and globalized. And it was pretty good in some ways and pretty bad in others.”
Galine took a moment to take that all in. “What's globalized?”
“Ah,” I hummed. “That just means things operated internationally around the whole planet. Businesses, communication, wars, travel, and so on. You could pick up a device and speak with someone on the other side of the world in… real time.”
“Without magic?” she frowned.
I nodded. “I mean… what's science if not a kind of magic?”
“But no system? No skills, no mana,” she rolled her eyes.
“Right, yeah, none of that,” I smiled.
She blew out a breath. “That sounds… wacky.”
“Yeah,” I chuckled. “Yeah, it was definitely wacky.”
“So how did you end up here?” she asked.
I inhaled, unsure of what to say. Out of all the things I had been asked, this was not one of them. “I died,” I eventually settled on. “I chose to be reincarnated, and this is where I wound up. Or maybe it was just a near-death hallucination,” I added to break the tension. “Thinking back… I don’t know.”
Galine smiled. “I’m sorry to be so nosey.”
“Don’t be,” I reassured. “It's a weight off my chest to talk about this stuff. And… I’ve always liked teaching, even if it's something as mundane as my world’s history.”
She laughed.
We were doubling back partially along the road I had walked to Agocester. Eventually, we turned down a side path, heading East and avoiding the tall grass of my nightmares. We chatted idly, but there was a major topic that still needed to be broached properly. But honesty was hard, and I was scared.
“I uh… I got parasitized by a slime after I got here,” I forced the words out. “But it was a uh… a royal slime,” I grimaced.
Galine nodded slowly, waiting for me to continue. Nervously, I did.
“But it… she didn’t possess me. I have a skill which increases the amount of experience I gain, and she wanted to benefit from it, so she just hitched a ride,” I explained. “And she based her consciousness on mine, so it’s kinda like having an evil twin in my head,” I chuckled, but continued. “Anyway, she… sucked, but I was trying to teach her how to be more human, and I named her Candy because she’s like a kid on a sugar high,” I shook my head. This wasn’t coming out the way I wanted it to.
“THAT'S WHY YOU NAMED ME CANDY!?”
I coughed. “Anyway, she’s a bit evil, but not malicious, just… doesn't really know better. And… So after I got attacked, she offered like a… merger. An equal partnership in return for not getting rid of her,” I grimaced. “The point is… I have a slime bonded to me, part of me, inside me.”
I ran out of words to say, waiting for Galine to respond.
She was frowning, understandably. “Who have I been speaking with?”
“Oh,” I blinked. “Um, Pamela. Candy can’t like… take over or anything. She’s just around and telepathically speaks to me.”
“Ah,” she nodded, seeming to relax a little even if her confusion didn’t fade.
I chewed on my nail. “But… we share the same body. So… she feels what I feel, and she’s always there watching and listening. And she wants things, like for us to build a dungeon, and to be introduced to you,” I swallowed, my mouth far too dry, “and for me to kiss you more because she also likes it.”
That was the real nail in the coffin I had been dreading. There was a whole third party along for this ride that Galine didn’t even know about, and now that that was clear in my head, I regretted having kept it a secret for so long.
Galine just stared at me. “She… the slime wants to… kiss me?”
I nodded, unable to look her in the eye. “She feels what I feel, Galine. So when I enjoy… something, so does she.”
“Oh,” she exhaled. “I don’t… I don’t know how to make sense of any of this.”
“I know,” I nodded. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t want to keep it a secret with…” I just shrugged.
“Thank you for being honest,” she smiled uneasily.
Fuck. I had fucked this all up.
But we kept walking, and if Galine still wanted the picnic, then I certainly wasn’t going to turn around. But now things were silent, now I felt like I might throw up. Now I just felt sad. Everything had been going so well… but I could hardly make sense of my own situation, I didn’t blame Galine for feeling conflicted and confused.
Yet just because I understood didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. Yet what could I possibly say to make this all right? There was endless turmoil when it came to Candy, even without roping Galine into it.
I did my best to smother my emotions. At the very least, we could still have a nice dinner out here. Maybe…