Several days had passed since Fresia began living with Smartass.

While reanalyzing the spell formula that turned a person into a lich, Smartass decided to prepare a new home where Fresia could live comfortably. After all, his secret workshop was literally a cave that received no sunlight! That environment could hardly be healthy for Fresia, who was not yet undead—and was elderly, at that.

Of course, he could not simply build their home anywhere. Fresia might have grown accustomed to sleeping outdoors and endured all manner of hardships on their journey to slay the black dragon, but she was an old woman now. Besides, she had spent over fifty years in the Holy City, enjoying a comfortable, pleasant life befitting her renown as a Saintess.

And he was going to throw together some house in a forest near his secret workshop for her? Treat the woman who loved him like that?

Ridiculous. Absolutely out of the question.

So Smartass took out a map that had been gathering dust in his secret workshop. Spreading it out before Fresia, he asked,

"Choose where you want to live, Fresia!"

With Warp at his disposal, anywhere on the Dersia continent would do. As long as there were few people around, he could provide a home in whatever surroundings Fresia desired.

"Hmm... Then I think I’d like it here."

Fresia chose a spot on the edge of the Dersia continent, a coastal area with rolling hills.

"I’ve always wanted to try living in a house overlooking the vast sea."

Fresia could still vividly remember the first time she had seen the sea during their travels. That endless expanse of blue water. How deeply the sight had moved her when she first laid eyes on it.

"All right! I’ll get started at once! Just give me a few days!"

For the first time in ages, Smartass took out a book on construction from his secret workshop and began reading. He had bought it as a reference back when he was alive and had decided to establish the workshop, wondering whether a cave would be better or whether he should build a structure himself.

Partway through, he had concluded that a cave would involve less work in several respects and set the book aside without finishing it. Now it lay open once more, ready to serve its original purpose.

Construction normally cost a great deal of money. Smartass, however, solved those problems with magic.

Materials for the house? He only had to travel to a forest with good-quality timber and gather them.

Preparing the building materials? He could cut and process them on the spot with magic.

Excavating the ground to give the house a stable foundation? Magic could handle that as well.

Of course, an ordinary mage could never hope to imitate him. If they could, mages would have taken over the entire construction industry. It required control as precise and reserves of mana as immense as Smartass’s.

And so, on a hill near the sea, just as Fresia had wished, a home for the two of them was completed.

"So this is our new home. Thank you, Ventus."

"I couldn’t let you stay in that place for long, after all. Besides, there’s still plenty we need to get."

'Above all, I need to buy a bed.'

While he was building the house on the hill, Fresia had been forced to sleep at a village inn because of Smartass’s vehement insistence. She had said she wanted to remain beside Ventus even when she slept, but he had replied,

"I can’t let you sleep on a cave floor!"

On their first day living together in the workshop, Smartass had been too distracted to think of it. Then, the following morning, Fresia had woken up bundled in blankets and said, ["Good morning, Ventus. Hehe, it’s been a long time since I slept like this."]

The moment he saw that, Smartass realized his mistake and made her sleep at the village inn from then on. Fresia regretted not being able to spend more time beside her beloved Ventus, but she was happy that he cared about her and did as he asked.

'But the question is how to get a bed.'

Money was not an issue. Before they parted, Amelia and Paulen had given Fresia all their money except the bare minimum they needed, so she had more than enough to buy a bed.

The problem was transporting it. Naturally, Fresia could not move it alone, and they could hardly bring an employee from the furniture store along through Warp. The surest approach would be for Smartass to accompany her and either summon a golem or use telekinesis to pose as a person with tremendous strength.

'... I’ll have to find a way to suppress my aura.'

For the first time, Smartass sincerely felt that he needed to stop his aura of death from leaking out.

And the one who offered a solution was none other than Fresia. When Smartass said he would find a way to suppress his aura of death as quickly as possible and get her a bed, she asked,

"Ventus, why don’t we try the method I mentioned?"

Fresia’s proposal was to use holy arts on Smartass. Not by blessing him directly, of course, but by erecting a sort of protective barrier around him.

The aura of death deliberately spread by powerful undead had harmful effects on the human body. The aura lingering in areas where undead frequently appeared had similar effects. Thus, there was a holy art that enveloped a person’s body in an invisible veil to protect them from that harm.

The veil prevented the aura of death from harming people. Fresia intended to try using it to contain the aura flowing from Smartass instead.

And the result?

"I can’t feel it at all."

"To think this holy art could be used like this."

It was a success. Enclosed within the veil, the aura of death flowing from Smartass’s body no longer escaped outside.

"Ventus, does it hurt at all?"

Fresia was more worried that the veil, being made of holy power, might hurt him.

"No, not in the slightest. Fascinating. Does holy power have no effect on the undead unless there’s an intent to attack...?"

New research possibilities aside, they now had a solution to his aura of death, so Smartass immediately went to the village with Fresia to purchase furniture. Using illusion magic, he took on the appearance of a hulking man.

"The bed is heavy. Will you be all right?"

"It’s fine. He’s very strong. Would you carry it, please?"

"Of course."

Smartass raised one hand and lifted the furniture effortlessly with telekinesis.

"Y-you really are strong."

Having secured a bed, Smartass and Fresia left the shop, moved somewhere deserted, and returned home using Warp.

"Good. Now you won’t have to sleep uncomfortably on the floor, Fresia."

"Thank you, Ventus. Now let’s go to another village."

"Hmm? Is there still something we need to buy?"

"No. I want to stroll through a village with you."

"Th-that’s..."

"Now that my holy arts can contain your aura of death, we can do that, can’t we? This time, please make yourself look as much like your own appearance as possible. And... hehe, could you perhaps make me look the way I did when I was young?"

At Fresia’s request for a date the moment they had obtained a bed, Smartass’s heart began to flutter—even though it was long gone.

+++

This was Chilture, a village that, only days earlier, had been in danger of being ravaged by an Orc horde that included Orc Champions. Thanks to the slime and the adventurers, however, the village had weathered that crisis safely.

The greatest contributor to repelling the Orc attack was none other than the slime. Anyone else would have asked what sort of nonsense that was, but at least the people of Chilture would nod and say, “Of course!”

And the slime, now hailed as the village’s hero, was currently...

"Come on, Bouncy."

'Yeah! Sparring!'

BOING!

...playing with Claire by sparring with her.

More precisely, the slime thought it was playing.

"I’ll last longer this time."

Claire, however, thought the slime was helping her train. She knew it was far stronger than she was. After all, it had taken down two Orc Champions single-handedly in one go! Anyone who witnessed that feat and still thought the slime lacked ability was an idiot who had given up thinking.

And Claire was willing to bow her head to anyone if it meant becoming stronger.

"Bouncy, let’s spar."

Claire had made that suggestion the day after the Orc attack ended. It was also the day after the slime completed its evolution.

'Sparring!'

BOING!

Naturally, the slime had been delighted by her proposal. To the slime, sparring was always a fun game that helped it grow stronger.

That was when it happened. As they headed off after agreeing to spar, a message appeared.

[Free Spirit]▶Squishy, make sure you go really easy on her when you spar.

Smartass, who happened to be watching the stream while magically preparing materials for Fresia, offered some advice.

▷Go easy?

[Slam First Ask Later]▶There’s no going easy in sparring! You’ve always gotta give it your all! That’s how you practice!

▶↑Typical guy who never goes easy when playing with kids and ends up upsetting them.

[Slam First Ask Later]▶It’s those kids’ fault for refusing to play with me after getting upset oooonce!!!

▶LMAO that was a random guess and I actually nailed it?

▶↑With guys like this, it definitely didn’t happen just once.

▶So true lol

Smartass ignored the chatter and continued typing.

[Free Spirit]▶You can’t fight her like you fight me or Paulen. Especially no Bounce Tackle.

▷Why?

The slime, which often used Bounce Tackle as its basic attack when sparring, tilted to one side.

[Free Spirit]▶Claire’s weaker than you, Squishy. If you use Bounce Tackle, she’ll die.

▷Oh!

Caught up in its excitement at the prospect of sparring, the slime was reminded by Smartass’s words of the gap between its abilities and Claire’s. Claire was weaker than the slime.

▷She can’t die!

[Free Spirit]▶Yep, so just treat it like you’re playing and take it easy.

▷Got it!

▶LOL can’t let your favorite hooman die~.

▶At Squishy’s current level, most hoomans would go down in one hit.

▶The opponents it’s sparred with so far are the weird ones.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Squishy’s so cute, trying to play gently with a human who can’t keep up~.

▶Is there anything you DON’T find cute?

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶You.

▶Fuck

▶Ahahaha

Thanks to Smartass’s advice, the slime began sparring with Claire while holding back appropriately. But these matches proved more helpful to the slime than expected. Sparring with the weaker Claire was perfect practice for controlling the strength it had gained through evolution.

Through its matches with Paulen, the slime had naturally learned to adjust as exercise increased its strength. Thanks to that, it did not suffer the same mishap as after its first evolution, when it had been unable to properly control its newfound power.

Still, the increase was greater than what it gained through exercise, so even the slime could not control its current strength perfectly. In other words, it needed practice to get used to it.

Thus, when sparring with Claire, the slime used no skills, relying solely on tackles with carefully controlled strength. After several days, the sparring had helped it grow more accustomed to controlling its power when tackling.

Of course...

BOING!

"Ngh!"

Even those tackles were attacks Claire could only barely dodge.

'Bouncy’s holding back. I’ll make it use more of its strength!'

Claire burned with the desire to grow stronger.