Slime Castle

"Slime castle?" With a stern expression on his face, the old man — the mayor

of a small village named Zeryll — told us about the place.

After moving to the capital, we had taken on a lot of quests. Even though I

had quite a lot of money, a life without work wasn't the kind of life I wanted, so

we decided to take a quest or two every few days or so.

That's how we found ourselves at the village. There was a monster situation

that needed investigation, so Elze, Linze, Yae, Yumina, Kohaku, and I all made

our way to this little place north of the capital. We got there in only two days

and asked the mayor for further details.

It wasn't hard to sum up what he told us.

There was an old fortress not so far from the village. Even though it was rundown and ancient, it recently received a new owner — a wizard, to be precise.

He had a strange obsession with monster research, with his focus being

Slimes.

Most of the villagers were freaked out by the weirdo in the castle and never

made any effort to get close to him, but the wizard himself started visiting the

village and buying food or things necessary for research.

However, ten or so years ago, the wizard stopped making his trips entirely.

The villagers began gossiping. Some said he succumbed to an illness, others

spoke that he got eaten by a Slime that left no bones behind, while some even

claimed that he cursed himself and transformed into a Slime.

Uneasy about the presence of such a castle near their village, the people

hired adventurers to investigate it.

But the adventurers that went to the castle would always return ragged, say

that they failed, refused to give any details, and leave quickly as if running away

from something...

"Did they ever say anything notable, though?"

"Mostly things like 'The wizard in that castle is rotten to the core.' They'd

often say something like that with a disgusted tone and just take their leave

after that..." Such messages would leave the villagers even more worried. It got

so bad that some would panic just by seeing the smallest Slime in the forest.

I distinctly recalled the guild's field guide saying that Slimes almost never

attacked humans. Though, there were some dangerous ones, like the

carnivorous Slimes that could melt flesh, Venom Slimes, or Lava Slimes.

All-in-all, there were many kinds of Slimes, and keeping track of them all was

difficult. Many said that the dangerous ones had strong coloring, but that still

wasn't an absolute rule.

"That is why I want a party to go out and investigate the castle again..."

"I see." I threw a glance at the rest of my party and saw them all — including

Yumina — looking really uncomfortable.

Slimes weren't exactly popular among women. That was because of the

nature of the little monsters. Though there were some flesh-melting Slimes,

most Slimes weren't able to melt anything but clothes. And many required a lot

of time and effort to do so.

Among such were those which, instead of liking meat, developed a taste for

clothing.

Green Slimes were particularly infamous for this. They really loved clothing

made from plant fiber and didn't hesitate to melt and feed on any sort of

apparel. It had quite a strange diet, honestly. For example, even though they

ate paper and cloth, they didn't have any taste for processed wood or actual

plants.

When faced with a Green Slime, female adventurers often ended up with

melted clothing, but weapons and armor intact. These were quite the wonderf

— Er, humiliating situations. Of course, men faced the exact same risks...

No adventurer worth his salt would ever leave such troublesome Slimes to act

as they wished.

"Very well! We will accept this task."

"Ugh..." The girls expressed their disapproval with a united groan. I expected

this!

"Do you intend to let these villagers live under the iron fist of fear?! Is that

what we adventurers do?! Nay! I say we do not!"

"But... someone else could do it, too..." Elze pouted as she talked back to me.

Won't take much to wear them down if I put on a little bravado... Raising my

hand, I adopted my most serious look.

"If one of the dangerous Slimes left the castle and attacked the village, we

would regret it our whole lives. Don't you think so?"

"T-Touya-dono... that is true, it is... but..." Yae folded her arms and tilted her

head with a pensive expression. Linze wasn't too perturbed by the situation,

though. Slimes had an extremely strong resistance to slashing, piercing, and

crushing attacks, but had next to no resistance to magic.

So, unlike Elze and Yae, who weren't casters, Linze had a way to fight back.

Still, she wasn't too keen on the idea of going headfirst into a hive of the

creatures.

The other caster in our team, Yumina, wasn't panicking either. However, she

was piercing me with suspicious eyes.

"...Touya, are you thinking of something inappropriate?"

"Wh-What are you saying?! Are you stupid?! I have no such thoughts on my

mind!" I'm being mostly honest, at least! A part of me does have something else

in mind, I'll admit it! But it's also true that we can't just leave the villagers like

this.

Yumina's gaze made a cold sweat drip down my head, but she eventually

sighed and looked down in resignation.

"I suppose we have no choice. It's not something that we can ignore, and

though unlikely, if Touya's nightmare 'Slimes destroy the village' scenario

becomes reality, we would never be able to live this down. It would affect my

father's reputation, too." If something like that actually happened, there might

be people who'd begin spreading slander about a princess who ignored the

pleas of the people and led a village to destruction just to protect her own skin.

Not like anyone around there besides the party knew that she was this

country's princess, though. Then again, if they did somehow found it out, we

wouldn't have any counter-arguments.

And even if the entire world forgave her, she would never forgive herself.

That's the kind of girl Yumina was. Proud and sincere.

"H-Hmm... I suppose we have to do this, we do..."

"Bah... I really don't like this at all, y'know..." With Yumina — the youngest in

the group — being willing to go, Yae and Elze couldn't let themselves bail on us.

They reluctantly nodded, almost teary-eyed. YES! I celebrated internally.

"Did you say something, Touya?"

"I-I SAID NOT A THING!"

"Is that so...?" As Linze glared at me suspiciously, I forced myself to adopt my

default facial expression.

Come to think of it, there might actually be really dangerous Slimes out

there... I have to be on the lookout for Slimes I've never seen before.

...Green Slimes get a pass, though.

The castle was on a hill about half a day's walk away from the village.

Though small, it was just about good enough to function as a living space.

However, with the walls ruined, it had no chance of being a proper fortress or

anything.

We passed through the small gate and entered the courtyard.

To the right, I could see a bergfried-styled tower. It was connected to the

residential building below. That was where people would've lived, while the

tower was just a lookout. Anything below was for dungeons and the like... In

normal castles like this, anyway.

"This place is super creepy..." Elze whispered while restlessly looking around.

Just as she said, it was damp and sodden. Clearly not the best place to live in.

The courtyard, overrun with weeds, had several puddles here and there.

As we observed our surroundings, one of the puddles changed shape and

began moving.

"Whoa!" My surprised voice made the puddle run away into the grass.

"The water moved, it did...!"

"That's no water. It's a Slime." A Water Slime, to be precise. They

camouflaged themselves as water and captured any prey unfortunate enough

to come close. Though dreadful, they were cowardly and never attacked

creatures bigger than themselves. These Slimes always opted to flee, so they

weren't much of a threat to humans.

"S-So there are Slimes here, then..."

"Let's be careful as we go. We don't know what else this place might have." I

listened to Linze and Yumina as I walked on the damp ground and passed

through the entrance arch.

We soon reached a large double door. I gently pushed it slightly open and

created a small gap.

I looked inside to see daylight coming in through a window, lighting up what

seemed to be an entrance hall. There was an old carpet on the floor, and on the

sides, I could see sets of stairs that led to the second floor. It didn't seem like

there were any Slimes there, at least not to my naked eye.

I cautiously walked inside.

"Seems like it's safe. You guys can come insi—" Before I could call them over,

a shockwave rocked through my head and I heard a great sound reverberate

through the hall.

"Damn it, that hurts!" It didn't hurt as much as the sound would make you

expect, but pain is pain. Something fell from above and landed straight on my

head.

The thing that fell on me bounced off and began to spin on the carpet at my

feet.

A metal pot...?

An actual metal pot fell straight on my head just now? WHAT THE HELL IS

THIS?! SOME KIND OF COMEDY ROUTINE?!

"A-Are you okay, Touya?"

"Yeah, I'm fine... It hurt a little bit, though." Linze got worried about me, so I

just waved my hand to signal that I was okay. It hurt, but not all that much.

The people in old comedy skit shows had wigs with metal in them, the metal

pots themselves were relatively soft, and the height was kinda low, so it was

quite safe for them to have stuff dropped on them during the skits.

But modern metal basins were hard and dangerous, so many major

performers warned people about trying to recreate such skits. I remember

reading about it on the internet once. Even in an entirely different world,

painful things were still painful.

I'm pretty sure fantasy worlds don't have any broadcast variety shows, so why

would a metal pot from a popular Japanese skit of all things come down on my

head...?

"Touya! The pot!"

"Huh...?" Yumina pointed at the metal basin, which changed shape into a

lead-colored Slime and scuttled away from the entrance hall.

"That was a Slime, too...?"

"I've never seen or heard about a Slime like this. This may even be a new

species..." If Linze is right about that, did the wizard actually create it? Wait,

what kind of use would a Slime that does that even have?

There are wizards who had Slimes as familiars, so maybe this one works for

him directly... I took out my smartphone, ran a search for "human" and didn't

get any hits for anyone except us. It seemed the guy was no longer in the castle.

I couldn't tell if he had just left or actually died, though.

We went through the door on the right side of the hall, split up and started

examining every room connected to the corridor. Most of them were

completely derelict.

"The only thing left of the books are the covers. I suppose the Slimes ate

them." In one of the rooms — likely the study — Yumina picked up one of the

dusty book covers. Paper was also made out of plant fiber, after all. There

could've been some Green Slimes nearby.

"Th-This book isn't melted." Linze took out one of the books from the remains

of the bookshelf. It looked more like a set of notes than an actual book. It

seemed to be made from parchment and displayed some unintelligible symbols.

I could only assume it was written in Ancient Magic Script.

"Do modern wizards still use Ancient Magic Script?"

"I-I hear they do it when they deal with research and results they wish to

hide..." Likely to prevent their secrets from being stolen, then. After all, these

texts are useless to people that can't read them.

Linze put her hand in her pouch and took out the pair of translation glasses I

had given her a while ago. They were imbued with [Reading], a translation

spell, and specified to enable the reading of Ancient Magic Script.

"This is... The log of his research results. Just as I had thought. It describes the

natures of various Slimes... The Slime from before is here, as well."

"The thing that fell on me? What does it say?"

"Uhm... 'Metal Pot Slime. Takes on the shape of a metal pot and has a

tendency to fall on people. This experiment was a complete failure.' That's all it

says..." Wow, I actually learned nothing from that! What an annoying Slime!

There were many more Slimes in those notes, so Linze continued to read with

great curiosity. Every now and then, her expression turned sour, likely because

of a particularly vile Slime.

"Let's take those notes with us. They could prove useful."

"You're right."

When we finished examining that room and began heading out to the

corridor, we suddenly heard a thud from the other room.

The ones examining that room were Yae and Elze. We hastily ran to see that

nothing bad had happened to them, but they walked out before we could

enter. The two were rubbing their faces. Kohaku peeked out, too, looking

slightly uncomfortable.

"O-Ouch... they caught me off guard, they did..."

"What happened?"

"One of those damn Slimes was camouflaged as the floor... And when we

stepped on it..."

"It trapped us both like an adhesive and made us fall face first... We hit right

onto the floor, we did..." Yae explained the details, rubbing her reddened nose

all the while. Again, eh? The Slimes here have some really annoying attack

patterns.

This is probably why the previous adventurers came back so battered.

"I've found it in the notes. It says 'Birdlime Slime. Can camouflage and has a

high adhesiveness. Cannot be used effectively due to its inflated ego. This

experiment was a complete failure.' Another failure, then..." Was the wizard

failing on purpose or something?!

There didn't seem to be anything else of interest on that side, so we decided

to go back to the hall.

We opened the door to the hall, and when I took a step forward, a frustrating

impact spread throughout my head and revived a recent pain.

"GOD. DAMN IT." I held my head and crouched down. The metal pot on the

floor turned into a Slime and squirmed away from me again.

"Hold still, you little bastard!" At the limit of my patience, I took out my

gunblade — Brunhild — and fired a few shots at the Metal Pot Slime.

Unfortunately, the stupid thing smoothly evaded my bullets and escaped to the

corridor on the other side.

Fast metal Slimes have no business existing out of video games!

"Are you okay, Touya? It sounded pretty bad."

"Ghh... It's... nothing I can't handle." The second hit hurt more, obviously. I

won't let you escape before this day is through, you little bastard.

I stood up while rubbing my head.

Suddenly, at the end of the entrance hall, I saw a Green Slime.

I knew you'd be around here. After I saw those eaten-up book pages, I knew

it'd only be a matter of time.

"There's a Slime over there. Watch out."

"Oh crap, that's a Green Slime, too. It won't kill us, but man, is it bad news..."

Elze expressed her disapproval. Green Slimes only melted clothes, so dying to

them was extremely improbable, but that didn't stop them from being a great

threat to girls.

"Your coat can't be melted, right, Touya?"

"Yep. That's because it's imbued with magic resistance. The clothes under it

would melt, though."

I have to make sure that doesn't happen. I don't want to be seen as some kind

of pervert who only prances around in a coat.

Guess it's time to investigate the second floor.

"Uhm... the Green Slime..." While I was considering a few things internally,

Linze suddenly tugged at my coat.

I looked over to the other side of the hall, where I saw a gathering of many

Green Slimes.

"Whoa there... what the heck?!" One was fine, but several tens of Green

Slimes made me a bit scared.

"Burst forth, Fire! Crimson Eruption: [Explo—]!"

"Linze, wait! Using explosive magic here is dangerous!" I stopped her from

finishing the spell. This is an old fortress, Linze...! The whole place could go

down if you made even one big blast.

Regardless of my reservations, the Green Slimes continued their slow, slimy

crawl toward us.

"Come forth, Fire! Crimson Duet: [Fire Arrow]!" The fiery bolt she released

hit a Green Slime and lit it on fire. However, the other Green Slimes merely

avoided their burning brother and continued their slow march.

Yumina and I assisted with some shots, but normal bullets were ineffective.

Elze and Yae couldn't help if they tried, and though our lives weren't in any

danger, the situation was looking pretty bad.

"Kohaku!"

"Fret not." Kohaku transformed back into his true form and released a

powerful shockwave from his maw. The Green Slimes were blown away, but the

stony wall began to shake wildly. Crap, this is too risky as well...

To top it off, the Slimes seemed relatively unharmed. They regrouped and

closed in on us like a green swamp.

"Hey! They're still coming closer!"

"Let's hide on the second floor for now!" We began running up the stairs to

the side of the entrance hall. For some reason, the Green Slimes didn't try to

come up after us. They just stopped and gently shook like jelly.

"...What is the meaning of this, Linze-dono?"

"Perhaps this fortress is split into many territories?"

"Doesn't matter. We're safe now, and that's all that matters." As we took a

breather on the landing in the middle of the stairs, something was slowly

closing in on us.

The realization hit me way too late. If the first floor was the territory of the

Green Slimes, it was only natural for the stairs to be another Slime's territory,

too.

"Let's just go up for now. We should get as far away from these gross things

as possible and... eek!" As Elze tried to go up the stairs, she fell down on her

behind. As we tried to figure out what was wrong, we noticed that the soft

carpet on the stairs was somewhat damp.

"Hey! What the heck?! It's so slimy!" Elze accidentally touched the carpet and

raised her hands to us. They were covered in a gooey, sticky liquid.

"Ah, it is over there, it is!" Yae pointed to the top of the stairs, where there

was a semi-transparent Slime that looked like kuzumochi, one of those little

chilled jelly desserts.

Its most noticeable characteristic was that it had leaked some fluid over the

stairs. Guess we know why the carpet's so damp.

"Linze, what do the notes say about this one?"

"It says 'Lotion Slime. When in danger, it secretes a liquid similar to lubricant.

Almost entirely harmless. This experiment was a complete failure...'" As she

read it, Linze's tone turned sour... I could totally understand her.

"Kyah!!!"

"Ugh!" Elze tried to get up, slipped, and fell once again. But this time, she

grabbed me by my coat and dragged me down along with her.

"A-Are you okay, Touya, ahh!"

"Hhawah!"

"Oh no!" Yumina tried to run over to me, and fell over, too. Moments later,

Linze and Yae got caught up, as well. Heck, even Kohaku couldn't escape it. We

all gained enough momentum to drop down to the bottom.

"Hyaaaaagh!!" We slid down the stairs, straight into a vile pool of green.

With a resounding splash, we were engulfed by Green Slime.

"Ghah!!"

"Kyah!"

"Auuugh!"

"This isn't happeningggg...!!"

"Noooooo!"

"Grr...!!" The first ones to escape the unpleasant sea of goo were Kohaku and

I.

Kohaku grabbed me by the nape of my neck and took me back to the landing

in the middle of the stairs with a single leap. But we slipped on the lotion again.

"Growlll...?!"

"Ow!" Kohaku let me go, and I fell flat on my back.

"Apologies, Master..."

"I-It's fine. I'm alright." I shook my aching head and I tried to stand up, only to

almost fall once again. I probably looked really miserable as I did it, but I was

able to stand up by supporting myself with the staircase's railing. Damn it. They

slimed me.

"Nooo!! Help me!"

"T-Touya!"

"Don't worry, I'm coming!" Think, Touya! Saying that's fine, but what can you

do?! Wait... if the Green Slimes can't come up the stairs...

"[Gate]!" I opened up a portal just beneath them. All of them — Slimes

included — fell through it, exiting the corresponding portal I'd made in the open

space one meter above the stair landing next to me.

The Slimes, forced onto the landing, backed away like a wave, slithering back

down to the entrance hall.

Aha, so they are territorial creatures.

"Is everyone oka—" I was unable to finish my sentence.

Their clothes weren't in the best condition, to say the least. Seemed like the

Green Slimes had gotten to chew on their fabric a little. Honestly, the girls all

looked pretty unladylike.

I could see several spots of exposed skin here and there, shining bewitchingly

thanks to the lotion on the stairs. The Green Slimes got busy enough to allow

the girls' panties to peek out, too. It wouldn't have been far off to call them

half-naked.

"Kyaaahhh! Don't look!"

"Ghuah?!" Elze punched me in the face with a gauntlet-clad fist. Argh, that

hurts! She used her other arm to cover her chest. As my consciousness faded, I

caught a glimpse of a light-red bra, but what I saw after that was nothing but

stars. Ah, the world is spinning.

Why didn't their underwear melt...? Wait, silk... silk isn't a plant fiber, right? I

think... I'll just leave it at that...

If only they'd bought cheaper garments... it could've melted too— No, no...

don't think that... Even though my heart had secretly yearned for such an event,

I had trouble deciding what to do after it had actually happened.

After I woke up, I faced away from the girls and glared at the Lotion Slime.

"Come forth, Fire! Crimson Duet: [Fire Arrow]!" The fiery bolt hit the gooey

creature dead-on. The Slime burst and released a gas that resembled steam.

All that was left was to climb up to the second floor.

Slowly, making sure not to slip, we clambered up the stairs on all fours. We

made sure to carefully calculate every movement. If we overdid it, we'd slip,

but if we didn't move enough, we'd slip too.

Man, I had no idea [Slip] was such a cruel spell. Now that I'm on the receiving

end, I don't like it one bit.

Calmly, cautiously, step by step, we traveled upward. We were in no rush. The

tension was stronger than it had any right to be.

Soon enough, I began hearing some complaints behind me.

"Ah... I really liked that clothing too..."

"Awh... more than half of my skirt melted away..."

"Th-They wore away at my sarashi, they did! Th-This is terrible, it is!"

"This gross goo made my underwear see-through, I hate this so damn much!!"

"Wha—?!" I was too focused on the words behind me to realize that my

footing was off, and I slipped down. How can I focus on being safe if you're all

talking about stuff like that, huh?! Show a little consideration!

"Uwaaaaaah!!!" The momentum made me slip past the landing (the girls

dodged me) and land straight on the first floor, where the Green Slimes awaited

me. Thus, I paid another visit to the green swamp. Holy shit, my life has actually

turned into a comedy skit. I need to get out of here! I— Oh, wait.

"[Gate]!" Just like before, I easily opened a portal. Except this time it was

straight to the top, Slimes and all. I should've done this from the start...

Once again, the Green Slimes backed away like an ocean wave.

Thankfully — if that word was appropriate — I only ended up with my pants

becoming shorts, and my shirt turning into the kind with an exposed midriff.

I opened a [Gate] on the landing, and another one just a few meters away on

the second floor, letting the girls get up there with no problem. And that's how

we escaped our sticky hell.

The four of them went straight into a nearby room. They're probably gonna

sort out their clothes. I wasn't allowed in, of course. So I stood guard outside.

I could hear sounds of fabric being torn apart. I assumed they were shredding

curtains or something to patch up their clothes. Getting back home and

changing into new clothes wasn't a problem thanks to my [Gate] spell, but I just

figured they didn't want to risk having their other outfits melted too.

While I waited, I killed time by using [Fire Arrow] to snipe some of the Green

Slimes on the bottom floor. Something like [Fire Storm] would've been more

effective, but I felt that using that kind of spell indoors wasn't wise.

The four finally left the room. Just as I had expected, they were covered in

pieces of torn curtains — one for the upper and lower halves on all of them.

They could actually move around, too, so that was a plus.

"...Any Green Slime we see next is getting crushed." The girls nodded in

unison at Elze's proclamation. Well, I could see why they were so eager. A part

of me was slightly disappointed, but I decided to keep that to myself.

And so we began exploring the second floor, only to find more of the same —

a display of strange Slimes.

We found a bizarrely elastic Rubber Slime.

A spiky Needle Slime that didn't let anyone touch it.

A Light Slime that did nothing but glow.

And a slightly electric Shock Slime.

While they weren't too dangerous, they were still monsters that could cause

trouble. There was no telling what kind of mutations they could create if they

merged.

"So, the wizard wanted to create a very specific sort of Slime and made many

failures on the way, right?"

"S-Seems that way, yes. He couldn't know the nature of the Slimes before

they were born, so luck played a big part in it." Linze answered my question

while looking at the research notes.

Slimes were magical creatures. One might even call them artificial, since they

began as a species as a by-product of human magic.

That was exactly why there was no guarantee that they couldn't end up being

dangerous. I had no idea how they multiplied, but I heard that Slimes could

create new types of Slimes by consuming other Slimes.

This castle had the potential of creating dangerous, unknown creatures. For

all we knew, the castle could already be housing Slime types that had evolved

naturally, rather than by the wizard's will.

"I feel like we should just burn them all down, along with the castle itself... a

purge, y'know?"

"I share the sentiment, I do. But is it really okay to do something like that?"

"The fortress is already abandoned, and I doubt my father would mind..." I

could hear some dangerous talk behind me.

Well, with this level of Slime infestation, it wasn't exactly a place we could just

leave alone. Even if we didn't do it, the country's knights or army would band

up and eradicate everything here anyway.

We finished exploring the second floor. All that was left was the third one. We

carefully made our way up. There could've easily been another Slime waiting

with a trap, after all. Safety was the name of the game.

Once we reached the wide corridor of the third floor, we were greeted by a

wall of plaster busts lined up on either side. All of them were in the shape of

naked women. Not only that, but they all seemed to have strangely large

breasts, too.

"What is this...?"

"Hey, why are you asking me?" As I listened to Yumina exhale a cold sigh at all

the nude statues, I couldn't prevent my gaze from falling on to their breasts.

Like all men, I was but a slave to my nature.

Most had pretty large ones, but one had a pair of bazookas so huge it

bordered on enormous.

"Hm...?"

"What is wrong, Touya-dono?"

"Nothing... maybe. I think I saw one of the boobs move..." Everyone looked at

me like I was a lunatic. I could even feel a hint of disgust at my wild imagination

or something.

I'm not kidding! I totally saw those boobs sway!

In an attempt to confirm it, I reached for the voluptuous breast of the statue.

"Touya, that's..." Linze started saying, clearly disappointed in me.

"S-So you like them big..." Elze said, as if a sad fact had dawned on her.

"A-Are you frustrated in that regard, Touya-dono?"

"That's slightly disturbing..." Yumina muttered.

C'mon you guys, that stings. Well, I couldn't deny that I looked like a weirdo

and a pervert to any third party.

I touched the left breast of the statue with my right hand.

It was squishy.

"It's soft?!"

The girls shrieked in disbelief. Whoa, it's seriously squishy... squidgy... heh...

squashy.

What the heck?! This feels amazing! I got caught up in the moment and

fondled the soft boob in my hand. Then the set of breasts fell to the ground.

"Hwah?!" I made a weird noise. Holy crap that scared me! The breasts

suddenly lost their statue-like color and transformed into a skin-colored Slime.

Camouflage, huh...

Without the Slime, the statue's breasts were slightly smaller than those of the

other ones.

"'Bust Slime. It fixes itself to female chests and camouflages itself. Tends to

aim for smaller chests. I'm getting close, but this experiment was still a failure.'"

Linze's voice as she read the description was less "disgusted" and more

"emotionless." That was only natural.

The Bust Slime slowly made its way toward Yumina. Err... what should I do

here...

"...Shred, o Wind. A Thousand Blades Born of the Gale: [Cyclone Edge]." The

windy blades Yumina unleashed tore the Slime into a thousand pieces. Whoa...

"...Growth period."

"Huh?

"I'm still in my growth period."

"O-Oh, right..." Yumina's whisper caught me off guard. Awkward...

Considering her age, it was only natural she'd be... small in that regard, so I

hoped she wouldn't mind it too much.

I checked the other statues, and it seemed like there was only one Bust Slime.

We gathered our wits, walked through the third floor's corridor and entered

the large room at the end.

It was extremely dim inside. The room seemed like the place where the

master of the castle would come just to calm down. Before stepping in, I made

sure to look up. That Metal Pot Slime... isn't here. Good.

The first thing I saw inside the stuffy room was a large couch with a skeleton

on it.

There was a wizard-like robe on the floor as well. The Green Slimes hadn't

come here to eat it, probably because it wasn't their territory. So this is all

that's left of the Slime-researching wizard, eh.

Wait, why did he take off his pants and underwear? Was he getting ready for

a bath or something? "Do you think this is the old wizard, then?"

"Probably." I couldn't help but wonder whether it was a natural death or if he

had succumbed to Slimes.

If it was the latter, this castle might've already created a kind of Slime that

melts humans.

...Not that they didn't exist already. Dungeons and other ruins had some of

those here and there. They were often called "dungeon cleaners" because they

ate just about everything.

On the table next to the couch, there was a logbook. It was almost identical to

the one Linze had found earlier.

Sure enough, it was written in Ancient Magic Script, except for the very last

bit.

"Uhm, let's see... 'It is done. My — no, every man's — dream became reality

this day. My life is one without regrets. With this, I take off my robe and wizard

hat. Ahh, I can see heaven...' What is this talking about...?"

"Touya, look!" Yumina pointed to the corner of the room, where I saw four

squirming, skin-colored Slimes. They were pretty large, too. A single person

could easily fit in them. Are they the Slimes he was experimenting to create?!

"They're transforming, they are!" So, just like the Bust Slime, they can disguise

themselves too? Wait, is this one of those generic scenarios where they all

merge into one large Slime? That didn't seem to be the case, however. The four

Slimes changed shapes independently and slowly took up a humanoid form.

They're Slimes that can mimic humans?! That's seriously bad news! If they can

become people, it'd be extremely easy for them to get their victims to lower

their guards. Who knows what could happen if they left the castle and began to

spread. We have to strike these vile things down here and n— Huh?! WHA—?!

"WHUH?!" "KYAAAAH!!!" The girls screamed in unison, louder than usual,

too. As their screams rang out through the building, my eyes focused on the

Slimes.

From the looks of it, these Slimes had the ability to change into that they

encountered. Specifically, women.

The four Slimes took on the shapes of Yumina, Elze, Linze and Yae. They

mimicked not just their skin, but even their hair and eye colors, as well.

They couldn't talk, obviously, so figuring out which was which was easy.

However, if both sides were silent, it was extremely hard to tell the real from

the fake. Even I didn't think I'd be able to.

... If the fakes weren't completely naked, that is.

"W-What are you looking at, Touya!"

"N-No! Stop!"

"T-Touya-dono! Look away!"

"STOP LOOKING RIGHT NOW!!" Red as tomatoes, the four screamed the same

thing at me in different words. W-Well, I can understand their feelings, but we

have to defeat them and... ah shit, now my own face is turning red! How do I

deal with this?! Okay, okay. They're only Slimes. They aren't the girls. Getting

distracted by them is just wrong. Get it together, Touya... Wait, why the hell

didn't they copy the clothes, anyway?! I glanced at the girls and then gazed at

the Slimes.

N-Naked... N-No, stop grinning! Stop grinning to yourself!

"Go to sleep."

"Augh!!" Yae hit the back of my neck with a knifehand strike. I was knocked

out cold instantly.

So that was the "man's dream" the wizard wrote about. He wanted to be

surrounded by naked ladies responding to his every whim and live the all-smiles

harem life... For that sake alone, he spent years researching Slimes and finally

made his dreams come true...

What a guy...

When I came to, the castle was burning. The raging blazes consumed it all, all

the Slimes likely perished with it.

"It's a purge."

"Purge, yes..."

"A purge, it is."

"A purge." With expressions as devoid of life as porcelain masks, the four

whispered as they watched the castle reduce itself to cinders.

And so ended the ambition of a certain wizard. Well, it wasn't really the end

there. He had already made his desire into reality. He died at true peace with

himself.

His cause of death might've actually been... no, there was no need to say it. I

had to be honorable about it. Even if he was milked completely dry, that was

likely exactly how he wanted to die.

Even though we successfully fulfilled the villagers' request, we were unable to

look at each other's faces for a considerable while.

After all, it always came back to my mind... My face would turn red without

fail.

And every time it happened. I said a little prayer. I sent my earnest thanks to

that magnificent wizard.