Slime Girl

- Shari -

"I see, you returned from your mission. Why don't we start right there?" (?)

The man in front of me is of the kind I certainly don't feel comfortable working with.

An appraising gaze that borders judgmental, stern features, and overall a sense of just business, when I look at him.

There's also a general sense of haughtiness, I think I'm picking up on.

The kind where one feels more civilized than others, as a noble would.

Not exactly the best first impression to make with me.

As I remember my body having been the most talkative, I suppose it only makes sense for me to do the talking here.

God knows, even if the guy Liqu took over was the actual boss, hell will I leave the discussion to her.

"Excuse me, but who exactly are you? Who am I talking with?" (Shari)

"We already had the pleasure of meeting. But I suppose remembering my person may be asking too much from someone of your kind. Harose Cervin, is the name." (Harose)

Hah, it feels so good that I can again throw people a look like this that basically says as much as: 'Are you for real?'

Yet the elation just shouldn't show on my stolen face, or they might notice something's off.

"I see, emotions are heated. Do you have anything to say before we get down to business?" (Harose)

"Do I have anything to say? How about saying that I generally disapprove of the worse than poor planning phase?! What exactly were you thinking, sending us against those things?!" (Shari)

While I think sounding upset only makes sense, as I'm sure our adversaries had at least to know to a degree about our abilities before sending this troop against us, I'm actually measuring my every word.

I need to pay careful attention not to speak any inconsistencies.

My advantage is, I believe, that they can't possibly know what we did.

There's no way anyone could anticipate that it's part of our repertoire to overtake someone's complete identity.

However, even if they surely can't have any idea about what actually is going on, they may grow suspicious and draw conclusions once I start saying things that simply don't make sense to them.

They could at least assume we might have changed sides if we appear too weird to them.

Right now, I think appearing like I'm not a fan of having been sent against creatures that are certainly not mere monsters should be fitting.

At least, it seemed like they only knew to expect some pretty strong humanoid monsters.

Not how bad we would've been exactly.

We could've even arrived with our whole troop.

Then they'd have been at a disadvantage from the start.

"I see, you're unhappy. Unfortunate, but ignorable. What would interest me more is why you'd show up here like this. This isn't what we agreed upon." (Harose)

How would I know what you'd agreed on?

Time for a diversion!

"Well, you can hardly demand we'd stick to the rules after things went as catastrophically as they did." (Shari)

At this, his eyes narrow, and he starts looking over our group.

"I don't remember this girl." (Harose)

The greatest weak point might be, interestingly enough, Vela here.

Not Liqu, which is pretty strange.

But what does he know?

And more importantly, what kind of conclusion can he draw from this?

"She's someone we brought in as backup. Any problem with this? Why would you care?" (Shari)

"I care, because it is my job to care. In particular, to find out who went out on the mission I personally initiated. So tell me, where are the rest of you?" (Harose)

I give him another look.

"Where do you think they are?! We definitely weren't told enough about what we were facing! This mission was a disaster!" (Shari)

Now his gaze grows cold, and he audibly frowns.

"So you didn't manage to take your targets down? Is that what you're saying?" (Harose)

"I'm saying it was a massacre! I've got no idea how many of us survived, though they either lack limbs now or are severely traumatized. I'm one of the latter, by the way. I mean, frickin' slime acid?!" (Shari)

I try to seem as natural as I can here.

Not really concerned about the idea that they may actually send someone to investigate.

We spent some days on the way here.

By now, our troop should've caught up at least that far and would be able to deal with a scout troop.

And even if his men manage to return from there, by that time, we would certainly be done here.

Yet I fear this guy is still not quite buying our story.

"So, to let me ascertain this, you failed to kill the creatures?" (Harose)

At his accusatory declaration, the guards become a bit more hostile, lowering their halberds slightly in our direction.

"We put one of them down. The other turned into a frickin killing machine that grew with any further kill until it almost wiped out the whole troop! Present persons not included." (Shari)

"We fought really hard! She did so well killing them all!" (Liqu)

At this, I throw that slime a glare.

"I mean that slime!" (Liqu)

I hold my gaze and make clear, as good as I can through the dead hollows I'm occupying, that I will do the talking here.

Fortunately, this didn't seem to rile anyone up any further.

"He means that this thing was quite the monster. Still, we took one down, which I'd dare say accounts for at least half the reward. I sure hope you won't claim otherwise, because eliminating half the threat was costly enough. Surely no way to reward our sacrifice, right?" (Shari)

"I wouldn't. That is, if your claims are true. However, it's still quite a tale to believe that only you three came back to claim the reward. Or half the reward." (Harose)

"I'm not claiming anything. You can for sure check the battle site at the checkpoint. However, not with me, as that thing might still be there. I brought down a vile abomination, and now I only want to receive enough to get a room for the night, if this won't be asking for too much." (Shari)

"I fear I can't just hand you a reward without proof of your claims. And right now we only have your word. Which, honestly, isn't all that much in your case. Who may say, you could even have switched sides." (Harose)

Damn, hostility.

But I kinda expected this.

One of those 'people can claim a lot' situations.

And I suppose it makes sense to be vigilant so close to a war.

"You see what that girl and I are wearing? These were theirs. Pretty fine chestplate, I need to say." (Shari)

And there's that scrutiny again.

However, this time it's a bit more contemplative.

As if he'd be inclined to believe us.

"This only means you encountered someone with those plates. Which raises more questions. Foremost, why you would put that on? After where it was?" (Harose)

"Did you actually take a look at that armor? I would've been stupid to leave it with them! They slipped out of it, and it seemed slime repellent. I would've been stupid not to take it during the battle to protect myself! Must've cost a fortune with those utility enchantments. Made it easy to wash." (Shari)

Hah!

That put him off.

He's totally getting why that was so, and now asking himself what kind of weirdos we are.

Yet as those thoughts are genuine, he also will have to admit that he's giving credit to our story.

"I suppose your argument is plausible, although still a little odd. An enchanted piece of armor might be a bit too little to present my lord as proof. Yet I may take it, as he's very invested to hear about this." (Harose)

Is he seriously asking us for our clothes?

"Oh, hell no! We fought hard for these! Vela almost died snapping hers from this moving terror, and I'm pretty sure you won't offer us due compensation for this kind of equipment. This stuff is at least twenty gold coins!" (Shari)

A purely made-up number, but it gets the thought across.

"Be reasonable." (Harose)

"No! The clothes stay on!" (Shari)

"You won't defy my lord like this!" (Harose)

Uh-oh.

Now the guards are getting a bit too tense for my taste.

Time for my secret asset!

"If he wants proof, how about this?!" (Shari)

I push my hand into my adventurer's stash and retrieve a certain item, which I directly smash on the table.

"Whack"

"This..." (Harose)

"Yes! That's a slime core of a size you'll never find anywhere else in this world. Cutting off the head of the one we felled as proof was obviously not an option, so I suppose this will have to suffice." (Shari)

This is it, this is what I asked Liqu to prepare.

She's a lot better at arranging things like this.

To me, the mere idea of preparing a slime core is deeply unsettling.

To imagine that I'm creating the base of another slime.

Something related to me.

But apparently, it's mostly a question of preparing the right foundational substances via dissolving.

The rest happens mostly automatically.

Although this solely applies to making standard cores.

Liqu, however, as one may have guessed from her excesses in regards to, well, me, can manipulate this process far more profoundly.

Therefore, she was capable of using all of the mass and energy the dozens of adventurers kindly provided us with in the process of creating this empty fake core.

Basically, it is only a bundle of this core crystal material, without any function or concept.

However, it serves well enough as proof, as I wouldn't know how they'd even begin to suspect anything to be off about it.

We obviously also cracked it, as it wouldn't serve as a believable corpse trophy otherwise.

Still, this man keeps on looking unsure, which riles me up.

"What's wrong? Still doubting us?" (Shari)

I need to be careful not to make too much of a scene.

I even had to gesture Liqu by now several times to hold back.

"No, I don't think so. That news is just unexpected. Please, let me relay this to my lord." (Harose)

He grabs the cracked core and moves towards the door.

"I'll assign the officer to hand out the first part of your reward. Please, remain within town, as you might be summoned for a report." (Harose)

And thus, he's gone.

Guess we are in.