Chapter 211:
Almost There
“What a peculiar sight,” Druid’s mentor remarked. Druid laughed in turn.
Before us were three slimes. When we looked at them in a row, the slime Ciel had shapeshifted into was clearly a little bigger than the other two and its body shape was the same as before—with ears and a tail—so it looked a bit peculiar.
“Have you ever heard of a slime with a similar skin pattern to Ciel’s?” I asked.
He’d mentioned the Ciel-slime had a unique skin pattern, but were there any other slimes like it? The two men paused in thought.
After a while, Druid’s mentor shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’ve compared a lot of slimes to each other, but I’ve never seen a slime with a speckled pattern like that.”
Speckled? But I think Ciel’s skin is more like a leopard’s. “What about other monsters with that skin pattern?”
“Aside from adandaras?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hmm…yeah, I dunno. Then again, it’s not like I know about every single monster out there, so I can’t say for sure they don’t exist.”
“But most people won’t bump into them when they’re out and about,” I suggested.
“Yeah. If ya wanna know about the towns and villages around here, I’m your guy.”
He’s so reliable. “Thank you, sir.”
I looked back at the slimes. Sora was teaching Ciel how to do the vertical stretching exercises. Sora stretched itself as high as it could go, then Ciel copied it. Flame stretched itself in turn…and then flopped over to the side, for some reason.
“Flame is a bit of a klutz, huh?” Druid observed.
I smiled. He was right. Flame’s body was pretty solid now, so it should have been able to jump around at will…but it still moved mostly via tumbling. I’d seen it jump many times, but it seemed to have a hard time aiming its landings properly. Though I’m not sure I’d describe Flame as a klutz…more like a ditz.
“I’ve been wondering about something…” There was a serious look in Druid’s eyes that surprised me a little. “That transparent magic stone…do you think Sora, Flame, and Ciel knew what it was going to do?”
“Huh?”
“Ya think so, too, Druid?” his mentor asked.
They both think that? I gave each man a curious look.
Druid explained his reasoning. “Remember how all three of them were in a really chipper mood?”
He was right. When I’d taken the slimes out of their bag, they’d been so much more chipper than usual that I was a little worried.
“Looking back with everything we know now, maybe they were so excited because they knew what was about to happen.”
Aha…that’s definitely possible.
“And when Ciel shapeshifted, neither Flame nor Sora looked surprised—they were happy,” Druid’s mentor chimed in. “I’m sure they both knew that magic stone was gonna turn their friend into a slime.”
It all made me think back on what had happened. When Ciel had shapeshifted, I was too freaked out to even notice much of what anyone else was doing, but Druid’s mentor had—that’s a veteran for you.
“This is great, innit, Ivy? Now Ciel can come with ya into any village or town. It can even stay in your room with ya.”
The old mentor’s words confused me. “But didn’t you say Ciel couldn’t come into town because of its skin markings?”
“Hm? Oh, sorry, I worded that wrong. Ya can always hide Ciel in your bag and take it with ya into villages or towns without anyone seeing it. And now that it’s a slime, I can’t detect its unique adandara magic, either. You’ve kept Sora and Flame hidden all this time, right?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then ya should have no problem taking Ciel with you into civilization.”
He was right. Why hadn’t I been able to realize such an obvious fact?
“I’m surprised you didn’t think of that yourself, Ivy. Are you tired from worrying about Ciel?” Druid asked with concern, patting my head.
Was I tired? Well, yeah…my heart had been racing nonstop since Ciel swallowed that magic stone…
“Extraordinary things seem to follow ya wherever ya go, Ivy,” Druid’s mentor chuckled.
I frowned at him a little. “That’s not a good thing!”
“Whoa! Sorry, sorry,” he apologized with an expression that was anything but sorry. But I knew he couldn’t help but be himself…and what he’d said was true, too.
“By the way, when’re you guys leaving town?” he asked.
Druid and I looked at each other. That’s right… Now that the matters of the magic stones and our money had been settled, all we needed to do was pack and leave.
“That’s a good question,” Druid said. “Ivy, I guess we’ll be ready to leave once we’ve saved up enough food for the journey, if you’re okay with that?”
Once we’ve saved up enough food… We needed food for ourselves as well as Sora and Flame, so that would take a little while. After all, we’d be in big trouble if we ran out of potions and swords along the way.
“Yes, that sounds good.”
“So, we’ll probably leave in two or three days,” Druid said.
“Okay. Well, I hope I can come send ya off, but there’s no tellin’ what I’ll be up to then. So, in case I can’t see ya, take care, you guys.”
“Thank you very much, sir.”
“You take care of yourself, too, Master.”
“Thanks. Oh, I almost forgot! Which way are ya guys going?”
Which way?
“We’re planning on going to Hatow Village,” Druid explained. “We’ve got a long way to travel ahead of us, so we’re going to spend the winter there.”
“Yeah, that is pretty far from here.”
He was right. It didn’t look very far on the map, but if we relied too much on that information, it might bite us in the butt later. We needed to be careful.
“Remember that ‘interesting intel’ I mentioned a while back?”
“Yes. What is it?”
“Well, there was an incident in Kohl, but they caught everyone. I don’t think Hatow Village will be affected by it.”
That’s good to hear. I don’t know exactly what he did, but at least whatever was wrong has been resolved.
“Thank you very much, sir,” I told him.
“Don’t sweat it. Go see the world and come home a smarter lady.”
“I will, sir.”
“Master…thank you so much for everything,” Druid said, joining me in a bow. And Druid’s mentor patted both our heads in reply.
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
Mrrrow.
“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”
Sora, Ciel, and Flame chimed in. They all body-slammed the old mentor…all except Flame, who was slamming in a completely different direction. The old mentor’s face started to melt into that perverse gaga look…
“Master…stop being gross.”
“Aw, shaddup. You’re pushing it, jackass.”
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