Slime Girl

- Shari -

Night falls.

Time for me to get started.

I'll infiltrate this place and end the Marquis in his sleep.

A better option might be to abduct him and take him hostage, so the royal party can do whatever they can do with this kind of leverage, but with the security measures in place and all these guards around, I don't see a feasible way to make it happen.

Also, I simply don't have time for this if I want Michael's information regarding locating my parents.

Unfortunately, leaving my quarters in human form is next to impossible.

Our rooms are specifically surveilled, and even if we weren't, there are apparently several checkpoints throughout the whole estate.

There's no way I could get past this.

Neither would I even be able to state a reason why I have to leave my quarters in the middle of the night.

Therefore, after making sure that nobody is peeking through the keyhole, I slip out of my hull.

The hardest part is getting my core out of the mouth, past the teeth, which had to remain at least somewhat intact to stay convincing.

People may not look all that closely into the mouth holes of others, but they'll take notice whether there are any teeth or not.

Yet as I already dissolved everything that could get in the way quite some time ago, it actually proceeds more smoothly than when I initially slipped in.

As I squeeze out of this stolen body, the inner pressure that kept it upright leaves as well, and the skin coat flops on the ground.

That's pretty gross, I must say.

Yet I can't just leave this here openly.

Instead, I pick it up and place the human sheet in the bed, with the blankets on top.

Then, after I've done my deed, I may sneak back here and get in again.

Nobody should be any wiser after the Marquis' death and Liqu, and I may just walk out of here completely unbothered.

To be honest, it feels very liberating to be out of that skin.

Not being confined inside these folds.

Once I'm properly reassembled, I release all my spent mass down the drain.

Then I move to my backpack and take all of my bottles and flasks, which I filled with my liquid.

I probably can consider myself lucky that nobody asked any awkward questions about those.

On the other side, this is a specially separated wing for quarters.

We were even allowed to hold on to our weapons.

And as it makes sense that esteemed guests may have things they want to hold on to, I believe the host is fine with simply keeping them contained in this part, and making sure they don't bring anything problematic with them if they meet him.

This is now my luck, as, aside from this one meal I had, it's now upon those flasks to restore my body mass.

I wasn't even able to take everything of mine into this disguise, so even with those containers, I can't quite restore my usual maximum.

Yet, while this is bothering me on a certain instinctual level, unfortunately, the slime side of instincts, I manage to tell myself that my body has enough to operate on a fully functional level.

The lack is simply not truly impeding.

With this, I can get to my task.

Before I go anywhere, I confront a certain issue.

I have no idea where the Marquis exactly sleeps.

Michael, never having been invited into the estate, couldn't provide an exact location.

Yet I should get close to there, if I can make my way to the audience hall.

After all, those should be connected in a way that the Marquis doesn't have to commute with everyone else.

Also, I doubt that he'd want to walk all that far for his audiences.

Therefore, they can't be too far apart.

Another point might be that, in my experience, nobles rarely ever sleep at ground level.

This gives me at least a very rough estimate of the location I'm looking for.

Yet before anything can come to pass, I need to slip out of this wing.

For this purpose, my body is just suited too well.

I merely need to slide out of the room.

Moving into the hallway would be far too risky.

For this reason, the window would be my best option.

I open it and make sure the thing is back closed once I get away from there, so as not to leave any traces.

Now that I’m clinging to the outside wall, I can slowly move to a floor closest to the audience hall.

The night should provide sufficient cover, and I doubt people are regularly scanning the exterior of this building for slimes, rather than the wall that surrounds it.

In this sense, I think I can take my time to get there.

I crawl over the roof and slowly come close to my destination.

There, I enter through an open window into a hallway on the third floor.

Yes, okay, maybe the window was open after I dissolved a hole into it, but as I'm about to murder someone, I shouldn't be awkward about destruction of property, no matter how expensive or artistic it might seem.

In the hallway, the first thing I do is pop myself against the ceiling.

People tend to look down at their feet rather than gaze upwards so they may see what's above them.

So, from this position, the few patrols I sense shouldn't spot me, even if I am particularly unlucky to find myself in their path.

Therefore, I'm pretty free to move around.

However, this brings me back to my former issue.

I don't know where the Marquis sleeps.

I may try to figure it out, based on the positioning of the guards, but my sense of vibrations isn't all that accurate.

Also, moving right to the guards seems like a poor choice.

Yet then I suddenly get an idea.

I may not be able to tell where the Marquis sleeps, but I can tell where people sleep.

And people who sleep here should know more about the sleeping arrangements of their boss.

With a plan made, I slip into the next cubicle that only houses one single person.

More would be difficult to handle, after all.

As I crawl up the bedpost, into the bedding of the sleeping young servant, I feel slightly in the wrong.

However, I tell myself, I may see this as practice.

Once I'm as ready as I can be, I slide over his body.

The moment his eyes rush open, my slime already covers his mouth.

Furthermore, the rest of my body starts to glue him to his bed.

Once I quell the initial thrashing, I manage to form a rough human face, right over his, intentionally foregoing looking too similar to my usual self.

So I say with slightly altered voice.

"My slime currently covers all your important parts. You know what a slime can do, right? In particular, your throat. Once I remove the cover over your mouth, I want to hear from you where the Marquis sleeps. I don't want to hear screaming, shouting for the guards, or anything that isn't the kind of information I'm looking for. Is that understood?" (Shari)

I see pure dread in the eyes of that man, but the way he looks to the door for an escape doesn't sit right with me.

So I think I need to emphasize my point.

"Zsch"

"Mmph!" (servant)

"That slight rash you should be feeling is the beginning of the dissolving reaction. Nothing too bad yet, but let me tell you, it's one of the most gruesome ways to go you can imagine. Yet, I don't need to eat ya. If you just tell me what I want to know, I'll merely knock you out in a somewhat safe manner. You'll just sleep through this." (Shari)

I'm not that much of a fan of how I essentially have to resort to torture and intimidation to get what I want.

But in my position, I don't actually have the kind of leeway to be lenient.

I need to do this, and hopefully so I get to a quick conclusion.

I remove very carefully the layer over the terrified man's face, prepared to reapply it at a moment's notice, if he raises his voice the slightest bit too high.

"He, he sleeps one floor higher. The room at the end of the hallway. Please, don't kill me! I'm speaking the truth." (servant)

With a sense of matter-of-fact, I answer.

"I believe you." (Shari)

With this, I plunge my slime down his throat, right into his lungs, and with a deft pull, I remove every bit of air he had in there.

As I already saw Liqu do it, this sends his body into a mix of shock and sudden deprivation, which makes him fall unconscious.

Hopefully, he will stay that way until I'm done.

I don't think he gave me the wrong direction.

He knew that if I didn't encounter the guards, I could be right back for him.

In my opinion, people tend to want to live.

Even over something like their employment.

If their duty threatens the very life they get out of the arrangement, there's hardly any reason to insist on following it to the end.

At least, I am like that.

No, this pointer should be somewhat safe to rely on.

And off I go into the hallway again.

My sense for the patrols gets quite put to the test with their increased frequency, as I move closer to my target.

Yet right in front of my destination, a final obstacle awaits me.

Not only is there quite a number of active people around, who I assume are the Marquis' nightguard, the greater issue would be those right in front of his assumed bedchamber.

I decide to circumvent this issue altogether, and move to the closest, unguarded door.

"Zsch"

There, I start dissolving a hole, just big enough for my core to fit into.

Hmm, there's someone sleeping in here.

Yet this isn't my current priority.

Instead, I move to the farthest corner on the upper left of the room.

"Zsch"

By now you figured it out, right?

I'm just gonna dissolve my way through the adjacent rooms until I get to the one I need.

They may guard the doors, but certainly not the wall.

Huh, as I draw closer, in one room there sleeps a boy.

Or maybe young man.

His son?

Well, of no great importance to me.

Sorry, pal, but your dad is a slave-trafficking asshole, and I'm gonna kill him now.

I'm getting closer.

Just one more room.

"Zsch"

Yes, this looks right.

Hah, there he lies!

I may not feel great about killing someone in his sleep, but considering I can only dissolve right now, this may even be considered the most merciful way this may go.

I close in on my target.

Fortunately, slimes are pretty silent killers.

Slowly.

Slowly.

Yes, I've almost got him.

I'm at the bed!

"Donk"

Huh?

What's that?

Glass?

Is this man seriously so paranoid that he sleeps under a dome!?

Okay, in this given situation he's hardly to blame, but still!

Tsk.

whatever.

I just need to dissolve my way through.

"Zsc-"

Huh?

It doesn't work?

Why doesn't it work?

"BRZZZZZZ"

Suddenly, a jolt runs through my whole body.

The sensation comes all too intensely and clearly to me not to know what it is.

Lightning.

The whole ground is brimming with lightning energy.

...

He's awake.

"Hmm, this is definitely a novel experience." (Marquis Leronne Eras)

... Shit.