Chapter 421:
R O U N D
WE GOT BACK to the captain’s house early enough that he welcomed us with a startled look on his face.
“Why’d you come back so soon?”
“We ran into a problem we need to discuss, so we came back,” Nalgath answered.
The captain sighed. “A problem, eh? You can tell me in my room. Oh, and Ivy, thanks for letting us borrow Sora and Sol! With their permission, we added two more people to the list.”
“Did you, sir?”
“Yes, sorry we didn’t check with you.”
“Oh, it’s okay, I’m glad the slimes could help. Where are they now?” The captain looked a bit troubled by my question, and I gave him a curious look. “Is something wrong, sir?”
The captain scratched his head, leading my father to glare at him.
“Druid, everything’s fine. No problems. It’s just…a little something…”
“Be honest with us—what happened?” My father’s irritated voice echoed down the hallway. The captain smiled sheepishly and led us into a spacious room on the first floor.
“Well, see for yourselves.”
Inside the room, I immediately spotted Sora and Sol playing on the sofa.
“Huh?!”
“Ahh!”
My father and I let out startled yelps when we saw the pair, and Nalgath’s party reacted the same way when they came in behind us. Aha, yes, it was definitely faster to just show us than to try to explain it. But boy…they are epically round.
“Sora, Sol…you sure ate a lot, didn’t you?”
On the sofa were Sora and Sol, now incredibly round.
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Pefu!”
From their energetic voices, it was clear there was nothing wrong with them. I smiled in relief and noticed Flame sound asleep on a sofa a few feet away.
“Sorry about that. They looked the same the whole time, so I figured it would be okay to add two more people—they even said it was fine when I asked. But after they’d finished with the last two people and I went to fetch them, they were like this… Again, I’m sorry. You know, I didn’t realize it, but this is all like lunch to them, isn’t it?” The captain slowly approached the slimes and gently petted their heads.
“Yes, sir. Sorry I didn’t tell you.” I guess I really should have let him know.
“Oh no, I don’t mind. Are they going to be okay, though?”
I followed his gaze toward the very rotund Sora and Sol.
“Looks like they’re gonna roll off the sofa,” my dad remarked.
“Pu! Pu!”
“Peh!”
The two chirped in protest, but they were so round that I was sure they really would roll off.
“Sora, Sol, did you get enough to eat?”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Pefu!”
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Pefu!”
They were energetic and they could still bounce (albeit a bit sluggishly), so there was nothing to worry about.
“It’s okay, sir. Sora and Sol are both doing fine. I think they just overate a little,” I explained.
The captain looked relieved to hear it. Nalgath and his men walked over to pet and poke Sora and Sol—which the slimes gladly took as an invitation to play. It was obvious from the way they were acting that they were in an amazing mood. I understand, kiddos—it feels great to eat a big meal.
“Hi there, I’ve brought you all some tea,” Melisa said as she came in with tea and refreshments. She set them on the desk, seemingly undisturbed by Sora and Sol’s appearance, which meant she probably already knew about the state they were in.
“Okay, now tell me what happened,” the captain said.
Everyone sat down. I took Ciel out of my bag, and it jumped over to the floor beneath Sora and Sol…and froze when it saw the pair. So cute… You’re probably startled to see how different they look, huh?
“I’ll keep it as brief as possible. On the way to the sharmy cave, we noticed some monsters that should have been in the area were missing. We made it to the cave ahead of schedule and began our investigation then. The cave was packed with trash from the dump, so we knew searching through it would be rather tough.”
Indeed, trying to do anything while dealing with that big ocean of trash was quite the task.
“Then, Miss Ivy and Mr. Druid found glyphs of a summoning circle drawn under the trash.”
When Nalgath finished his report, the captain cradled his head in his hands. “A summoning circle? Do you know what the glyphs looked like?”
“The trash was covering most of it, so we couldn’t see the whole thing. We only saw a part of it, sir.”
“Only a part of it… Sorry, but could you draw the glyph for me?” the captain asked.
Nalgath got to work drawing it on a piece of paper. He showed it to my father, who nodded in approval, and then he handed it to the captain.
“Oh, my goodness…”
“I’m not allowed to give you the full story, but that glyph was used on a summoning circle to control a monster. If you touch it, you could lose your memory,” my father explained.
A deep crease formed between the captain’s eyebrows, his eyes narrowing to slits beneath them. It scared me.
“I’ve seen this glyph before, too. Remember how I told you I was involved in an incident with a summoning circle a while ago? Well, that’s when I saw it.”
“Oh dear. How did you deal with it?”
“We drew over the summoning circle…but eight adventurers died because of that.”
Eight adventurers died?!
“We needed magic energy—and lots of it. Eight people sacrificed their lives to get rid of the evil summoning circle. Druid, how did you neutralize the one you found?”
“Our summoning circle was unstable, and Ciel managed to use its powers to neutralize it. But Ivy and I lost parts of our memories because we touched it…and they still haven’t come back.”
“You lost your memories? My summoning circle didn’t do that. Maybe it’s a different spell? But that symbol…”
“What’s the plan?” my father asked.
Anguish washed over the captain’s face. “I’ll ask the adventurers and watchmen to help.”
“But they’re all under the spell right now. Are they even able to help?”
An uncomfortable silence filled the room.
“Could we maybe wait a while?”
“That’s risky… We don’t know what the summoning circle’s command is. But what we do know is… Nalgath?”
Flustered by my father calling him out, Nalgath gave a quick explanation. “Yes! Er, we have animals with magic energy who attack humans. Aside from that, the increasing attacks on the village gate mean that they’re probably being commanded to attack Hataka.”
I didn’t know that the attacks on the gate had increased. Maybe we really don’t have time to wait around after all.
“Also, the gatekeepers are almost too far gone.”
Probably because of the summoning circle’s spell.
After a long pause, the captain said, “I see… Understood.”
I stole a glance at him as he quietly closed his eyes in thought. We didn’t have enough time for anything we needed to do.
Knock, knock.
“I heard Nalgath’s party is back…” The door opened immediately after, and in came Zinal’s party. Their eyes became stern the moment they sensed the gloom in the room. “What happened?”
The captain gave a quick recap to answer Zinal’s question. Garitt sighed loudly in reply. “This is the worst-case scenario…”
“Yeah… Isn’t there a way to solve this?” the captain said. “Only the bare minimum of people we need to solve the problem have been freed from the spell. Even if we use my method to break the summoning circle’s spell, nobody will be strong enough to help us on time.”
Zinal and his men fell deep into thought…but time just ticked away.
“Pefu!”
I turned to look at Sol, who was rolling along the floor. It had probably fallen off the sofa while trying to jump.
“Sol! You okay?” I ran over to Sol and picked it up…and it felt a little heavy. I giggled softly. So you don’t just look bigger, you weigh more, too.
“Pefu, pefu! Pefu, pefu!”
I looked at Sol, who just stared intently back at me. What was it? “Are you trying to say something?”
“Pefu!”
“Ivy, what’s going on?” my father asked.
I carried Sol back to my chair and sat down. Then the slime turned to my father beside me and cried out:
“Pefu, pefu! Pefu, pefu!”
“It’s trying to tell us something.”
What’s it trying to say right now? We were just talking about the summoning circle in the cave and how we can neutralize it. I looked at Sol. Its eyes were sparkling at me, eager with anticipation.
“Sol…do you know how to break the spell?”
I felt the eyes of everyone in the room land on us.
“Pefu!”
So Sol does know a way… How in the world can I help Sol tell us what it is?
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