Slime Girl

- Shari -

I'm looking at the figure that is currently partially submerged in Liqu's slime, and gladly wasn't dissolved yet, and am absolutely sure I recognize him.

However, the situation is not casual enough to just talk to him.

Not with Liqu holding him like this.

"No. No! Let me go! Please! Wah!"

Damn, is he whiny.

"Boy, speak clearly. What happened here? Where did you come from?" (Balion)

You know, speaking clearly isn't all that easy if you have to fear being dissolved any moment now.

Yet he's right that we need him to talk, sooner rather than later.

While suppressing any irrelevant emotions or thoughts, I touch Liqu to convey one short order.

• "Liqu, let him down. We need him to talk." (Shari)
• "Oh, okay!" (Liqu)

I'm pretty sure I never saw him like this before, but I know I'm familiar with this teenager.

"Now answer the question, boy! Where do you come from?!" (Vela)

As I remain silent, Vela takes the initiative to press the stated question.

Yet if the villagers fled, would he just tell us that, and potentially rat out the others to unknown soldiers?

"The-there is a camp! I, I will lead you to them! Just, please, no more. Keep it away."

Okay, even I have more of a backbone than this guy.

Old memories resurface from deep within my core.

Memories, I'm surprised they were even transferred.

About little pranks, bordering on harassment, anger, a thorough beating, and a lot of disciplinary aftermath.

"Kivo, is that you?" (Shari)

"Wh-what? That voice!? No, that can't be! She's dead!" (Kivo)

I quickly take off my mask and reform my disturbed face.

"Do I look dead to you? Thoroughly messed up, okay, but alive enough." (Shari)

This is definitely the wrong time to argue whether slimes are alive.

"Uuhhhh..." (Kivo)

...Okay, he just fainted.

"So what do we do now?" (Vela)

"We could wait till he wakes up again." (Zeon)

"Ehm, I know where he came from. I got his composition down." (Liqu)

I hope not taken directly from the source.

Seems like we got a direction.

However, there is a slight issue to deal with.

"Could I ask why we are still here? This is not our mission. We should be heading to Siras and support the preparations to subjugate the city." (Balion)

"I don't care!!!" (Shari)

Okay, that came out stronger than I wanted, but only because I'm so emotionally invested.

Which means, there's no reason not to double down here.

"My parents are gone, and I'm going to find them, got that?! There is no room to negotiate this, as nothing holds equal importance. So either you'll live with me putting this first, or you can just go by yourself, but I certainly won't focus on anything else before this is done!" (Shari)

My gaze is unwavering, which may, to a great extent, be because I don't have real eyes to begin with and control the allocated matter in accordance with my will.

The one thing Balion certainly won't do is pull me with him to the mission.

With the aftermath, I'm gonna deal later on.

If it's in any way as with the count's forces, then according to troop statutes, the second troop leader, Vela in this case, could relieve the first leader from their duties and take over.

However, that clearly won't happen here.

After all, the mission is to get Liqu and me to our destination.

If we don't comply, a change in leadership won't change a thing.

Not to speak of their chances of success if they were to go against us.

I may get an earful later on by the queen for this act of disobedience though.

But that mostly comes down to what I'm more willing to prioritize.

I mean, what are they going to do if I don't strictly follow my duty, threaten my parents?

Thus, we follow the trail that our current captive left behind.

I may as well be able to follow it, but right now, I'm thankful for Liqu taking over, as my mind is preoccupied with heavy thoughts.

I need to make plans and get into the right mindset to think clearly about my best course of action.

First, information.

Whoever we are going to meet will be able to tell us about what happened and likely lead us onwards.

The terrain isn't exactly easy.

To be precise, the way we're going, there isn't even a path, just wilderness and the scent trail.

As I already start to question if we're going to find anything here, I start picking up more scents.

We move closer and subsequently find some kind of camp.

At first, I notice that the telltale traces of humans become more frequent, which prompts me to put on my hood and one of my white masks.

The same goes for Liqu, with her bronzed one.

She complains a bit, but ultimately does as I say.

Not that our attire would draw any fewer looks onto us than our monster forms.

Especially, as we’re in the heat of summer, and it's starting to become rather warm.

Though that's at least one thing that doesn't truly bother me.

At least, now we should be prepared to enter the camp.

It's certainly not much.

A few tents, cloth, and rudimentary shelters made from sticks.

One can clearly see how provisional it is.

Not to forget that there are a bunch of people who quickly turn restless at our approach.

I only need a few moments to confirm that I know them.

Those are the people from my home village.

Yet, while acquainted, I didn't know all of them on a deeper level.

"Soldiers!"

Okay, high-speed-processing on.

I know that the village was destroyed in some way.

I also know that Kivo was pretty much freaking out when we found him, though that could have been solely because of Liqu.

Yet given the shouting, I assume that some military troop attacked them.

Thus, we should try to de-escalate.

Yet someone got this idea a little quicker than I and beats me to it.

"We are here to protect you! We found this boy in the ruins of the village. We are not with those who attacked your village!" (Vela)

Wow, did she already think so far?

Given that I just got the thought, I'm impressed.

"Soldiers?"

"Not with them?"

"But can we trust what they say?"

"Look! There's Kivo!"

"What did they do to him?"

"I knew they're with them!"

"There are only few of them!"

"You think we can take them on?"

Is there anything I can add to prevent a really bad outcome?

"We truly don't wish to harm you. We are here to investigate what happened to the village. Is there anyone we could talk to?!" (Shari)

Maybe this will help.

Now we basically also do what we say.

Show that we are committed to our task and not just telling them a fake story.

"Who, who are you? And what are you doing here?"

I'm still trying to think about the best words to approach this, when Zeon elbows me slightly in my side, though it does no harm, of course.

Can this even be considered rude towards me?

"Now it's your turn, Ms. Knight." (Zeon)

Huh?

Does he mean... Yes, I think he does.

But to be fair, this may exactly be what is required in this situation.

So I open my cloak carefully and reveal my chestplate, with the symbol of the drop on it.

"We are knights of her majesty, Queen Serenia of Rakis! Her royal agents to do the crown's bidding! As such, we investigate events such as these, to maintain the peace in our lands." (Shari)

"Sure, now she says so..." (Balion)

I decide to ignore Balion's comment while waiting for an answer.

The first to speak after my declaration is Tarnas.

A teenager, who states just the question one would expect from a young boy this age.

"K-knights? Real knights?"

"Yes. Certainly. So can anybody tell me what happened?" (Shari)

"You, you should talk with our leader."

Leader?

A path opens and allows us to step towards a slightly larger tent.

From there, someone emerges.

A middle-aged woman who has a tired, but nonetheless busy expression on her face.

Oh damn, this might turn out awkward.

Because the woman in front of me is none other than Ms. Oka.