Chapter 364:
I Wanna Pet Them!
Deep in the forest, Ashley and Gol looked around for auras and magic energy. Though I couldn’t sense magic energy, I did my part and scanned the area for human and monster auras.
“Okay! We should be safe here; Nobody’s coming.” Gol lowered the bag from his shoulder and took out two slimes. One was a murky green and the other was orange with streaks of white. Both had big eyes and were very cute.
“Um, about my slimes…” I was thinking of introducing Ciel to him, too, but I wasn’t sure how to bring it up.
“Getting cold feet? Well, if you’d rather not show me, I understand.”
“Oh, no, it’s not that. Well, I’ll just let you see them as a first step.”
“What do you mean, as a first step? Whoa! Ohhh…they’re partially transparent? Wow, I’ve never seen slimes like these before.”
When I opened my bag, Sora and Ciel bounded eagerly out and landed at Gol’s feet. I looked in my bag to find Flame and Sol mid-yawn. The sight made me feel a bit tired. Flame jumped out of the bag with a little jiggle, leaving only Sol inside.
“What do you want to do, Sol? Stay in the bag?”
Sol shrank itself into a tiny ball, then jumped out.
“Ack! A black slime? Oh, no, no, Ivy! You shouldn’t show that one to me so easily! What the hell are you thinking?!”
I made Gol mad… I wonder why? I mean, I asked everyone if he was safe, and they said yes. And from the way he’s acting now, I know for sure they weren’t wrong.
“But, Mr. Gol, I asked them all and they said you were safe.”
“But you shouldn’t show such a rare slime to just anybody! Hey, Druid, keep a firmer grip on your daughter!”
Oh, nooo… Now he’s mad at my dad, too. I looked at him, and he smiled awkwardly back at me.
“From the way you’re acting right now, Mr. Gol, I know I wasn’t mistaken to show them to you,” I said, speaking a bit louder than usual to drown out whatever Gol was trying to say.
Gol stopped and looked at me. “I’m flattered… I’m very flattered, but I’m also worried about you.”
Gol had calmed down, and he was indeed smiling proudly… But he did look at me with a hint of concern in his eye.
“Well, don’t worry, I’m fine. Now, about Ciel…”
Wait a minute…if I say “Ciel’s actually an adandara!” will he yell at me again? No, no, he’s calmed down, so he’ll be okay.
“What about Ciel?”
“Ciel is actually not a slime but an adandara… Tee-hee!”
My heart raced as I looked at Gol. His eyebrows drew closer and closer together.
“Aggggh, Ivy, adandaras are giant monsters filled with powerful magic energy… They’re monsters of the highest rank.”
“I know that, sir.”
Everybody knows that, right?
“Okay, then why are you lying to me and saying that’s an adandara?”
I looked down at Ciel in my arms, disguised as a slime.
“Ivy, I don’t think he’ll believe you if Ciel’s just like that,” my dad laughed.
And he had a point: nobody would think Ciel was an adandara, looking the way it did right then. That’s why it had been able to stay with us at the inn.
“Ciel, you can turn back now.”
Mrrrow! With a little trill, Ciel jumped out of my arms and returned to its true form: a giant adandara who possessed powerful magic energy.
“…Huh?! What?! A slime turned into an adandara?”
Oh, good. He’s not mad. I know he’s just worried about my safety, but I’d like to avoid being yelled at.
“Yikes… Thank goodness I made us all sign a contract! Aha, an adandara, eh?”
I didn’t know why he was sighing loudly and bringing up the contract…or why he was looking at me and heaving another big sigh. What’s this? Now my dad’s smiling awkwardly and saying something to Gol. He’s probably explaining how it works. Well, I’ll just let him handle that.
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
I looked over at Sora and noticed that Gol’s slimes were a little freaked out about mine.
“Sora, Flame, Sol, Ciel, I hope you’ll all be good friends.”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”
“Pefu!”
Mrrrow.
Their cheerful replies made me smile. Gol stepped back and crouched down so as not to frighten them. I looked at his slimes, who were sizing up mine. Suddenly, the green slime and I locked eyes with each other.
“Nice to meet you,” I said. I didn’t want to scare it since first impressions were very important. Gee, I wanna touch it. I wanna pet it…
“The green one’s named Ryotta, and the orange one is Nanan.”
Since Gol was kind enough to give me their names, I decided to address them that way. “Ryotta, Nanan, nice to meet you both.”
Can I touch them? No…I really shouldn’t. But I’d love to give them a little pat or two. The slimes stared back at me…then scooted a little closer. Then they were at my feet. I crouched down, and now we were really close. I slowly moved my hand toward them.
“Is it okay if I touch you?” As my hand lingered there, Ryotta slowly nuzzled against it. I got permission! I couldn’t help but grin. I slowly gave Ryotta a couple of pats, so as not to scare it. And Ryotta just looked up at me as I petted it, completely unfazed.
“This can’t be happening.”
“I think when somebody stares at you so longingly, you have no choice but to cave.”
“It’s because Ivy’s special.”
I thought I heard the three men talking, but I was so excited about petting Nanan that I didn’t catch what they were saying.
“You’re so cute. Can we play together today?”
My slimes jiggled in reply, and Ryotta and Nanan did the same. They were just too cute. I was in heaven.
“Incredible… There are no words…”
Gol quietly watched us all from behind, and my dad and Ashley had also come a bit closer. Ciel had shapeshifted into a slime and was body-slamming Sora. I think it had felt left out. I gave Ciel a few pats, and it smiled back up at me.
“Go ahead, Mr. Gol. Please, pet my monsters.”
“Er… I can pet them?”
“I think they’ll be fine with it. They let me do it,” Ashley assured Gol, who looked startled in turn. He carefully reached out to Sora and gave it a gentle pat. Seeing this, Flame bounced high and slammed against Gol.
“Flame wants some pats, too.”
“Whoaaa, this is amazing. I’ve never met slimes like this before.”
After a while, everyone was petting the slimes.
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“You wanna play? Okay, just be sure to stay where we can see you.”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”
“Pefu!”
Mrrrow.
Ryotta and Nanan looked at me and jiggled happily. We all sat on a fallen tree branch a few meters away to watch them play. Next to me was Gol, then Ashley, and then my father. Ciel had returned to adandara form and was rolling the slimes around with its paws. Ryotta and Nanan were a little nervous at first, but soon they were having fun.
“What an amazing sight…” Gol murmured in awe.
Was it really that extraordinary? It was something I saw every day. The only thing that made it special was that there were two extra slimes today.
“I thought it was strange that you were bringing me this deep into the forest…but with monsters as rare as yours, I don’t blame you.”
He had that right. It was especially dangerous for my adandara to be seen.
“So, um, Mr. Gol…may I ask you some questions about slimes?”
“Slimes?” he asked in confusion.
“Yes, sir. Since my slimes are so unusual, I don’t know much about what ordinary ones are like.”
“Oh, now I see. But you know…looking at them now, I’m starting to wonder if I don’t know enough about slimes.”
Gol was watching Ryotta and Flame as they played the body-slamming game.
“But they’re just playing, right?”
“They’re usually much shyer than that. They would never play by body-slamming somebody on the first day they met them…not until now.”
Well, that’s interesting… Ryotta and Nanan were merrily body-slamming my slimes before my very eyes. Is this all my slimes’ doing?
“Also, slimes never let people they just met pet them.”
But they looked so happy to get those pats just now.
“Ryotta and Nanan had a kind tamer, and it took them two…no, more like three years to finally be open to being petted.”
“Then I guess I just have good luck. They let me pet them right away. They sure are cute.”
“Er, that’s not what I was getting at…” Gol gave me a perplexed look, and I responded with a confused expression. Gol smiled sheepishly, then proceeded to explain what ordinary slimes were like. Lastly, he made me promise that if I ever showed my creatures to anyone, I would make them sign a contract first.
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