Volume 3, Chapter 8 – Capture! The Slime Girl!

The sun soon set, and a chill filled the mountain forest at night. The leaves rustled in the evening wind as the adventurers began to set up camp and rest in the open spaces on either side of the road.

“Set up all the torches! We’ll take turns on watch tonight!”

Under Ainos’s command, the adventurers began to cooperate in an orderly fashion. One group was responsible for starting fires and cooking, while another went to the nearby bushes to clear out any poisonous insects that had awakened from hibernation. Due to the large number of injured in the group, they had barely made any progress all day.

Yisi jumped down from the carriage and surveyed her surroundings.

“Camilla, Mary, I’ll leave the cooking to you two. I’m going to take a walk around the area.”

“Mhm.”

“Okay~”

Although Camilla’s cooking skills were not entirely satisfactory, Yisi hoped that by watching Mary enough, she would gradually improve. Looking at the two of them organizing the cooking utensils, Yisi prayed as much. Camilla’s cooking was already much better than before; at least it no longer made people’s faces turn blue.

Yisi couldn’t help but recall the time when Darc had excitedly run over to taste Camilla’s cooking. According to the wise goblin, Darc had occupied the latrine for the entire night.

“…Jack, am I going to die just like this?”

“Don’t worry. Once we get back to the city, I’ll buy some Winterbloom Grass to save you.”

“Thank you… you’re so reliable.”

Approaching a tent, Yisi pretended to be nonchalant as she eavesdropped on the conversation inside. The reason she said she was going for a walk was to investigate what exactly ‘Calamity Affliction’ was.

Yesterday, the person closest to the slime girl should have been her, yet she hadn’t been infected. Instead, Mary, who had only been near the slime girl for a few seconds, had fallen ill. Although one could attribute this to ‘the Count’s eldest daughter having higher immunity,’ after her previous experience of catching a cold—something extremely rare for a vampire—Yisi found it hard to believe that Mary’s immunity was worse than her own.

Soon, an adventurer walked out of the tent, and his companions immediately gathered around him.

“How is he? Can he last until we get back to Antonio City?”

The stout man who came out had a somber face. He shook his head.

“He won’t last more than two days. And even if we get back to the city, we can’t afford Winterbloom Grass… Right now, one stalk of Winterbloom Grass sells for 2 gold coins in Antonio City, and we’re all novice adventurers from out of town…”

The man’s words made all the adventurers lower their heads in unison. A deathly silence solidified around them.

One stalk of Winterbloom Grass is selling for two gold coins? Yisi raised an eyebrow, wondering just how severe the calamity in Antonio City was.

“Damn it! It’s all that treacherous merchant’s fault! He said we could make a fortune by following the Flame Conquerors. It was a trap!”

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“When we get back, we have to tie him up and feed him to the slimes.”

“That guy has probably already run off. Besides, that man standing behind him always gives me the creeps. Jack, have you seen that guy before?”

“He was wearing a cloak, and appraisal skills didn’t work on him. But when he walked past me, I saw he had black wings on his back. He probably isn’t human.”

Black wings?

Instantly, Yisi thought of the Fallen Angel, Samael. All Fallen Angels shared a common feature: a pair of black, bird-like wings on their backs.

Without hesitation, Yisi stepped out from the side of the tent.

“Can you tell me more? About the person with black wings.” Noticing the adventurers all looking at her with alertness, Yisi took a stalk of Winterbloom Grass from her inventory. “You need this, right? Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll give it to you.”

“Jack…”

Wavering began to spread among the adventurers. After the three of them exchanged glances for a moment, the sturdy man named Jack took a step forward.

Seemingly afraid of being overheard, the sturdy man looked around vigilantly and asked in a low voice.

“Alright, it’s a deal. What do you want to know?”

“Who is this merchant you were talking about?”

“Were you listening to us? No… that treacherous merchant is someone who only recently appeared in Antonio City. He calls himself Morris and specializes in selling Winterbloom Grass.”

So he lures people to dangerous places to hunt slimes, and then sells Winterbloom Grass at a high price to the sick adventurers?

Yisi organized the information in her head as she asked.

“And who is the man behind him? The one with wings you mentioned.”

The sturdy man frowned slightly, as if recalling the scene.

“He was said to be Morris’s friend. I couldn’t tell if his voice was male or female.”

“Tsk.”

Definitely a Fallen Angel.

Yisi clicked her tongue.

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“Morris is in Antonio City, right?”

“Yes, but I don’t know if he’s still there now.”

“The Winterbloom Grass is yours.”

Handing the herb to the adventurers, Yisi turned and walked away.

The sudden appearance of the calamity, the Flame Giant that devoured her Blazing Eyeworm, and the presence of a Fallen Angel.

With these three events occurring together, Yisi felt as if the answers were being connected. It was likely that a Fallen Angel had summoned the Flame Giant and simultaneously spread the calamity. Even the weakest of the Fallen Angels, Samael, possessed magic akin to teleportation. It was entirely plausible that other Fallen Angels could summon a Flame Giant and spread an unknown virus.

Perhaps there is more than one Fallen Angel in the city.

“I hope trouble doesn’t come looking for me.”

Yisi sighed. She wasn’t a hero and had no obligation to vanquish a demon lord and his minions. But if the Fallen Angel who summoned the Flame Giant and the one who spread the virus came after her, she would have no choice but to deal with them. Of course, the prerequisite was to go back and ask Camilla for information about Fallen Angels first. Acting with caution was never a bad idea. If she really couldn’t win, she could always escape with teleportation magic.

However, when Yisi returned to Camilla’s side, she found their behavior to be very strange.

The two of them weren’t cooking. Instead, they were pressing down on a wooden bucket with all four of their hands. At the same time, it was as if some animal was struggling inside the bucket. Even with both Mary and Camilla’s strength, the bucket kept shaking from side to side. If most of the adventurers hadn’t gone out to stand guard, their actions would have definitely become the center of attention.

“Camilla, Mary? What are you two doing?”

“Nee-sa-ma..” With each syllable Camilla spoke, the bucket trembled. “There’s-a-slime-in-here.”

“A slime?”

Yisi walked forward and slapped the top of the bucket. The whole thing instantly fell silent. Although Yisi could feel that the thing inside still wanted to break out, a mere slime was no match for her strength.

As if they had just finished a marathon, Camilla and Mary let out long breaths, took two steps back, and leaned against the carriage, panting.

If it’s just a slime, why didn’t Camilla just deal with it? Before she could ask, Yisi opened her Omniscient Map.

Then, she tilted her head in curiosity.

“Huh?”

There was indeed a slime in the bucket, but it was the slime girl she had met yesterday, named Tiffany.

Yisi discreetly used [Space Lock] on the slime girl in the bucket, then flipped the bucket over, put the lid on, and tossed it into the carriage.

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Before dealing with the slime girl, I should first ask them how they found her.

“Mary, why did she show up here?”

“While we were cooking… She appeared behind me. Thankfully, Miss Camilla noticed in time, so I wasn’t eaten. Then we quickly trapped her in the bucket.”

Mary wiped the sweat from her forehead and said breathlessly, “Since you had given her food, Onee-sama, I thought we should wait for you to come back and deal with her.”

“Mhm, I understand.”

But how did she get past the adventurers’ perimeter and follow us?

First, after confirming that neither Camilla nor Mary had the ‘Calamity Affliction’ status, Yisi told them to go about their business, then she slipped into the carriage.

She had tossed the bucket into the middle of the carriage. Yisi set it upright and carefully examined the balled-up slime girl—due to the [Space Lock], the slime girl couldn’t even change her shape. And to prevent her from escaping after the lock was released, Yisi had placed an invisible magic cage throughout the entire interior of the carriage.

She snapped her fingers.

“[Release].”

Slosh.

With the sound of viscous liquid flowing, the slime girl who had been trapped in the bucket instantly moved. She didn’t choose to fight Yisi, but instead rushed directly towards the carriage door.

Then.

Splat.

She slammed headfirst into the transparent wall. The slime girl turned into a puddle of liquid stuck to the barrier, then slowly reformed.

It seems my preparations were effective.

Yisi sighed.

“Although you are afflicted with the calamity, I mean you no harm. I just want to ask you a few questions. You don’t need to be afraid of me. Also, I’ve placed a barrier around the carriage. You can’t escape from here. No one will hear you even if you scream your lungs out.”

That sounds like something a bandit leader would say.

Forcibly suppressing the strange feeling, Yisi, sitting in the carriage, continued to observe the slime girl’s actions. She was an intelligent creature capable of communication, so as long as she calmed down, a conversation was possible.

The slime girl clearly didn’t believe Yisi’s words. Unable to get out through the door, she chose to escape through the window, but just like before, she slammed into the barrier again and turned into a puddle of liquid. When the slime girl hit the transparent wall, Yisi heard a faint “Uegh” sound, clearly indicating that she was in pain.

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Next, the slime girl struggled several more times, such as turning into a liquid and trying to squeeze through the cracks in the carriage, or staying in a weak spot of the carriage in an attempt to corrode the body. As a result, she achieved nothing but wasting time.

“There’s no need to keep trying. Instead of putting up a futile struggle, why not enjoy—”

I’m getting a little too into this villain role.

Yisi coughed twice. “Why not answer a few of my questions instead?”

Seemingly realizing that she was in a desperate situation, the slime girl stopped struggling. Instead, she timidly shrank into a corner of the carriage far from Yisi and said fearfully, in a voice that sounded like a twelve-year-old’s and lacked any emotional inflection.

“Bad person.”

Hmm…

If she had said that in an adult’s voice, Yisi wouldn’t have felt anything. But in the tone of a little girl, Yisi had a rather strange feeling—if the slime girl also had cute facial features, the feeling of committing a crime would surely be even stronger.

“No, you’re the bad person, aren’t you? I heard from my companion that you tried to swallow her earlier.”

“That was treatment.”

“Treatment?”

Yisi repeated in a questioning tone. Based on their contact yesterday, the slime girl named Tiffany seemed to only be able to speak in short phrases.

“Sickness.”

“Do you mean you were trying to treat Mary’s sickness?”

“Mhm.”

Still in a voice devoid of emotional inflection, the slime girl nodded.

“Is that so…”

That’s too incredible.

Tiffany was the host of the virus, yet she wanted to cure Mary’s sickness by swallowing her.

However, how did Tiffany know that it was Mary who was sick and not me?

A big question mark appeared above Yisi’s head.