'Bread tasty! Lots of people! Lots I don't know!'

For the slime accompanying the inspection, everything it saw and tasted was a source of joy and satisfaction. New foods to taste, humans it had never seen before—and the new senses it could now experience delighted it.

Human food. Dishes made with a variety of ingredients had brought about a greater change in the slime than simply eating deer or rabbits whole. Just as growing on moss had awakened its sight, the slime had now gained the senses of smell and taste.

It could detect smells through its entire body, and rather than merely distinguishing food by its nutrients, it could experience flavor itself. It had acquired these new senses only two days ago. That made everything all the more novel, enjoyable, and delightful.

For a slime brimming with curiosity, discovering something it did not know was exciting and fun. And it felt an affection for the “individual” named Jessi who brought it this joy. The slime had enough intelligence to understand that she had asked the count to take them on an inspection, and was still wandering from place to place, for its sake.

'Jessi! Like!'

Thus, it developed affection for one particular individual, along with a wish for Jessi to feel the same joy it did.

"Hehe, today I'll read you the new book I bought at the bookstore, Alexandros II!"

Back from the inspection, Jessi entered her room with the slime and took out the book she had bought that day. It was simply a children's fairy tale, rather than something based on existing legends or folklore. She had bought it because it had plenty of pictures, which she thought the slime would enjoy.

The slime liked the fairy tales Jessi read to it, and it liked her voice as she read them. Above all, the very fact that she was doing something for its sake warmed its heart.

It wanted Jessi to be happy, just as it was. What could it do to make her happy? The slime pondered the question as it looked at the storybook she was reading to it. Then an idea flashed through its mind.

'...! Shoulder!'

It remembered trembling on Nina's shoulder. Nina had liked it when it trembled there.

Nina had liked it. Nina was human. Jessi was human too.

Concluding that Jessi would also like what Nina had liked, the slime immediately put its plan into action.

With a bounce, the slime leaped off the bed and onto the shoulder of Jessi, who was lying on her stomach reading to it.

"Hmm? Alexandros II? What's wrong?"

It began vibrating vigorously.

"Ah, ah, ah, aaaah~."

The slime's vibrations relaxed the tension in her body with exquisite precision. With its desire to make Jessi happy added to the mix, they were even more effective.

"Th-th-th-this feels g-good~."

Her voice quivered with the vibrations.

The slime stopped vibrating only after it had worked on both shoulders.

"Thank you, Alexandros II! That felt wonderful!"

'Felt good! Jessi felt good!'

The slime bounced on the bed, delighted that Jessi was happy.

+++

A month had passed since the slime began staying with Count Rudendion's household. Following the inspection, it had been judged reasonably safe. Jessi had been granted permission to go out on the condition that an escort accompanied her, and she sometimes took the slime around the territory.

The residents, puzzled and wary at first, began to regard Jessi and the slime as a pair as they saw them more often, watching them with warm smiles. Not only the residents, but also the mansion's servants had come to think far more highly of the slime.

The reason was this.

"Hehe, Alexandros II! Show them what you can do!"

The slime vibrated vigorously.

"Oh, oooh! These vibrations are positively bewitching! To think a slime had such a talent...!"

"Albert! Say strange things about Alexandros II, and you won't get any more massages!"

"S-s-s-sorry, m-m-m-my lady!"

After experiencing the vibrating massage the slime had demonstrated for her sake, Jessi had a thought: she wanted everyone to appreciate its incredible talent!

So she had it massage Nina once, then Finn, then the head chef who prepared their meals. The circle gradually expanded until most of the servants in the mansion had received the slime's vibrating massage.

The reviews were glowing. Feeling muscles knotted by cleaning and other chores loosen in an instant, they could hardly help forming a very favorable impression of the slime. And now the opportunity had come to Albert, the head butler.

Jessi was proud. Her plan to have everyone in the mansion recognize the merits of her beloved Alexandros II was going smoothly. What's more, the slime had recently been getting even better at its vibrating massages.

'Alexandros II is clever, so it's gotten the hang of it!'

Jessi's guess was half right. It had indeed gotten the hang of it. But the reason its precise control over its vibrations had improved was that the slime had acquired a new skill while trembling to give massages.

[You have acquired the skill: Vibration.]

The effect of the Vibration skill was simple: it made its body tremble. Since it could adjust the intensity of the vibrations according to how much energy it used, the skill was far more versatile than ordinary trembling. Naturally, acquiring it improved the slime's vibrating massages.

As its massages steadily improved the slime's reputation within the mansion, there was just one person who remained suspicious and wary.

'Is that slime really safe?'

That person was Count Rufus Rudendion. Over the month he had spent observing the slime, he had noted that it had never posed any serious threat. On the contrary, it obeyed Jessi well, as though it possessed considerable intelligence, and behaved amicably toward humans. Recently, its so-called slime massages had earned it a good reputation among the servants as well. Even the head butler Albert, one of his trusted servants, had praised it.

All the evidence seemed to make the slime's safety virtually certain. The problem, however, was that this supposedly safe slime appeared highly intelligent. As a count, he was privy to all sorts of information. Among it was the knowledge that some monsters were intelligent enough to communicate with people—and that every such monster possessed dangerous power.

But if he tried to take the slime away on the strength of that fact alone, what would his beloved daughter say to him?

"Haa."

Count Rudendion sighed and addressed Albert, who had just come to his study to deliver a regular report.

"Albert, do you think I'm worrying needlessly? That slime has been harmless so far, but I still feel uneasy."

"No, not at all. You are the ruler of this territory, my lord. It is only natural for you to pay attention to anything that causes even the slightest unease. All the more so if it concerns Lady Jessi."

"But don't you also have a favorable opinion of that slime?"

"I merely consider its massages excellent. If you intend to expel it, my lord, I will support your decision."

"Thank you, Albert. Come to think of it, is there any other information about that slime?"

"There are two things."

"Let's hear them."

"First, the slime seems to be an exceptionally curious individual."

"Exceptionally curious, you say. Now that you mention it, Jessi did say the slime wanted to see the outside world."

"Yes. On its first inspection, the slime reacted strongly and was delighted to see the outside world. However, Nina and Finn say that as the outings became more frequent, it still seemed happy, but no longer noticeably so."

"Well, people tire of seeing the same things over and over. I suppose monsters are no different. What's the other thing?"

"..."

"Albert?"

"Well... my lady has been being picky about her food."

"W-what did you say!"

Rufus Rudendion was aghast at this sudden second piece of news.

"My angel! My Jessi is being picky about her food? But that's bad for her health! Why! My angel used to eat anything—why!"

Count Rudendion reacted as violently as if a critically ill patient were refusing medicine. Breaking into a cold sweat at this familiar display of doting foolishness, Albert continued.

"She has been seen several times secretly transferring foods she dislikes, such as bell peppers and carrots, onto the slime's plate."

"How could this happen! You wretched slime! How dare you endanger my darling angel's health!"

"My lord, it has not endangered her. My lady is simply being picky. Please calm down."

"Albert! What if my darling angel ruins her health by being picky about food! She's still at an age when she should be growing rapidly! This could be disastrous!"

She was already well past the age when that sort of nutritional concern was warranted, but Albert did not point it out. Nor did Albert point out that, thanks to the count's special attention to her nutrition since childhood, her body had developed so much that she could be mistaken for an adult despite her age.

Albert knew that when this doting fool went on a rampage, the best course was to quietly let him say everything he wanted, then offer suitable words of reassurance.

+++

Summoned by Count Rudendion, Jessi arrived at his study with the slime and Nina.

"What is it, Father?"

"Jessi, I believe the time has come for you to part with that sli—Alexandros II."

"What!? W-what do you mean, Father? Part with Alexandros II?"

Unable to believe Count Rudendion's words, Jessi took the slime from her head and hugged it.

"I've heard you've been having the slime eat the foods you dislike for you."

"...!"

'I thought nobody knew!'

Jessi knew how much her father hated her being picky about food. That was why she had been giving it away so carefully and secretly. To think someone had been watching!

"I'm sorry, Father! I won't be picky anymore! I won't ask Alexandros II to eat my food for me! So please forgive me!"

"I'm glad to hear you won't be picky anymore. But Jessi, even without that, you must part with the slime."

"Why? Because Alexandros II is a monster? But Alexandros II is so gentle and sweet! It even gives everyone massages!"

Jessi gazed at Count Rudendion with tears in her eyes. The sight of his beloved daughter's eyes nearly made him relent, but he barely held firm and offered the answer he had spent three days agonizing over before summoning her.

"This is for Alexandros II's sake."

"For Alexandros II's sake?"

"Yes. You know very well how curious it is, don't you?"

"Yes."

"This mansion is far too small for it. The reason it wanted to leave the mansion was probably that it originally lived outside. Having lived in the wild, it longs for the outdoors all the more. Jessi, my darling daughter. Keeping it here would actually be bad for it."

"Th-that can't be...!"

The answer Count Rudendion had come up with was simple: go back where you came from!

It was the logic of releasing a wild animal back into the wild.