After hearing Def's words, the leader wondered if he had misheard.

"Who did you say caught them?"

"The slime!"

'So I didn't mishear.'

The leader surveyed his surroundings. Def was talking to him. The wolves' and deer's carcasses lay nearby. Hawein and Sgol were asleep. And finally, there was the slime, bouncing away.

That ruled out the possibility that Hawein and Sgol had gone with Def, at least.

"You're really saying the slime caught them? Tell me what happened."

"Yes!"

Def smiled and nodded, then began his explanation.

"... So I dragged the deer and wolves back here."

"I see."

The leader knew Def wasn't the sort to lie. He wasn't cunning or clever enough for it in the first place. Whenever Sgol put him up to lying, it showed all over his face.

For now, the leader decided to believe Def and accept that the slime had killed the wolves.

'What kind of slime is this thing?'

As if being too agile for Sgol to catch weren't enough, it could kill two wolves in an instant. He had never even heard of such a slime.

"U-um, Chief."

"What?"

Def spoke as his stomach growled.

"Th-the meat will spoil if we don't butcher it soon."

"Right. We ought to butcher it."

The leader decided to put his questions about the slime aside for later.

GRRRR.

Though not to the same extent as Def, the leader hadn't found one rabbit enough to fill him up either.

"Wake Hawein and Sgol. Let's get this butchered so we can eat."

"Yes, Chief!"

With a bright smile, Def woke the sleeping Sgol and Hawein.

"Argh! What the hell, you pig! Why are you waking me up?"

"Yaaawn... What's going on?"

"Both of you, get up and help butcher these."

"Boss? What the—?! Where'd this deer and these wolves come from?"

"Heh heh. Did you and Def get hungry and go hunting in the middle of the night, Chief?"

"I'll explain later. Just hurry up and help."

Following the leader's orders, Hawein and Sgol helped butcher the deer and wolves.

CRACKLE, CRACKLE.

The sound of freshly butchered venison roasting in the dead of night drifted on the breeze. One rabbit hadn't been enough for Sgol or Hawein either, so all the bandits watched the cooking meat with watering mouths.

While the meat cooked, the leader himself explained how they had come by it.

"What? This slime killed the wolves?"

"That's what Def said."

"You believe this idiot, Boss?"

"I-I'm not an idiot..."

"Def may not be very bright, but he isn't a liar. You know that perfectly well."

"But it's just a slime..."

As Sgol eyed the slime suspiciously, Hawein spoke with a laugh.

"Pfft. You're the one who lost to 'just a slime,' Sgol. Wouldn't it be better to admit you lost to a slime that could easily beat wolves too?"

"I didn't lose!"

"Oh! It's cooked!"

For now, the bandits decided to fill their bellies with the roasted meat.

"Here, slime. This is yours."

The slime bounced up and ate the meat Def had roasted separately for it.

'Delicious!'

It was certainly less tasty and nutritious than the food at the mansion, but eating with other people made this meat taste wonderful too.

Once they had eaten their fill, the bandits, still tired from being woken in the middle of the night, fell asleep again.

+++

The next morning.

His face puffy from going to sleep after a late-night meal, the leader was deep in thought.

'What should I do with this slime?'

At first, all he had thought was that a slime that approached people without fear would fetch a fairly good price on the black market. But after they returned to the hideout, one astonishing thing had happened after another.

He had come back from hunting to learn that the slime was too agile for Sgol to catch. Then he had woken up to learn it was strong enough to dispatch two wolves in a flash.

A slime this strong that wasn't wary of people at all. He had never seen or heard of anything like it. It was no ordinary slime.

That had him wondering whether he should simply sell it on the black market. If he put it to some other use instead...

'I think I could make even more money.'

The leader looked at his men. Hawein, Sgol, and Def. They all came from the same country village as him. They called him Boss and had followed him when he left the village.

Having brought them with him, he owed it to them as their boss to at least keep them from going hungry.

Becoming adventurers who primarily hunted monsters might have been dangerous, so he had first chosen mercenary work, taking jobs other than monster extermination. Their mercenary company had just four members.

They had started by hauling cargo. Later, though not on the same scale as adventurers, they gained experience clearing out nearby goblins. After that came jobs escorting merchants or intimidating newly opened shops. They had mainly taken work that posed no great threat to their lives.

Even if they hadn't fought monsters, they had often gotten into fights with people since childhood. Having spent so long together, the four worked in perfect harmony. Most thugs and novice adventurers were no match for them.

But that mercenary company had now become a band of thieves.

'It's all my fault.'

It had all begun with a commission from a noble. Once their mercenary company had built up a modest reputation, a noble called Viscount Pedfil had arrogantly demanded that they take his job.

The pay was good, so the leader immediately asked what the job entailed. The answer was profoundly shocking: kidnapping village women.

When they first heard that, not only the leader but all three of his men wondered if they had misheard.

Viscount Pedfil had an unspeakable pastime. He enjoyed forcing himself on women who had no interest in him. Seeing them suffer made him enjoy it all the more.

Even his reason for entrusting such an unspeakable task to mercenaries was absurd. He couldn't order his own soldiers to do it, because getting caught might tarnish his honor. The filthy thugs in the back alleys weren't trustworthy enough. But a mercenary company trusted by the public after completing various jobs wouldn't come under suspicion even if women were kidnapped.

Moreover, he knew how important honoring contracts was to a mercenary company, so he declared that he would graciously offer them the commission. They should be grateful that he was paying a hefty sum to a mere mercenary company that had lucked into a reputation.

After hearing all of that, the leader snapped and drove his fist into the viscount's face. Their current predicament was the result.

They had somehow escaped the noble's mansion, but wanted notices had been issued for the mercenary company. Unable to take legitimate jobs anymore, they had been left with no choice but to become bandits.

Even then, they couldn't do that properly either. They called themselves bandits, but all they really did was block the road and insistently demand a toll. They couldn't bring themselves to swing their swords at people or actually plunder their belongings.

'We'll hit our limit if we keep up this sorry excuse for banditry. Rather than that, perhaps we should...'

The warrant was only valid in the surrounding areas where the viscount had influence. He had turned to banditry because he thought it would be safer for his men than adventuring.

But trying it for themselves had made him realize that they were utterly unsuited to it.

Just as the leader himself had begun to feel they couldn't carry on this way much longer, they had met the slime: swift, friendly toward humans, and capable of killing at least two wolves in an instant.

'If I can train this slime properly...'

He began to think that, dangerous though it might be, life as adventurers would be better.

To explore that possibility, the leader decided to run a few tests.

+++

First, the leader told his men they were going to hunt goblins today.

"Goblins? Chief, we'd have to walk an hour to hunt goblins. There's hardly any money in it. And aren't we going to rob anyone?"

"Stop complaining and follow me, Sgol. Def, take good care of that slime."

"Yes, Boss!"

After taking his men on the long walk to goblin territory, the leader spotted some goblins and gave Def an order.

"Def, take that slime and try killing those goblins together."

"Yes, Boss!"

"Boss? What kind of nonsense..."

"Quiet."

First, he would check whether the slime truly had the ability to kill wolves.

"Let's go, slime! Let's hunt goblins!"

The slime bounced up.

Having sent Def and the slime out with lingering doubts, the leader got his answer.

"Hiyah!"

While Def swung his sword and dispatched one goblin, the slime bounced again and again.

THWACK! CRACK! WHAM!

With every bounce, the slime took down another goblin.

"What the hell is that?"

"That's one incredible slime."

Not only Sgol but Hawein too stared at the spectacle, blinking.

"Hehe. Slime, you're amazing!"

The slime bounced up. Despite having killed fewer goblins than it, Def praised it with a guileless smile, and it bounced as if delighted.

Seeing promise in that sight, the leader gave further instructions. He had the slime hunt goblins not just with Def, but paired with Sgol and Hawein too. Finally, he himself teamed up with it to dispatch some goblins.

The results of those tests were...

'What the hell? Why does it follow orders so well? And it's incredibly... smart, isn't it?'

So good that they left him astonished.

The slime was strangely cooperative. More than that, it clearly understood human speech.

"Hey! I'm killing two this time, so you kill just one and stay put!"

Since the slime was dispatching most of the goblins they found, Sgol had irritably made that demand at one point. Astonishingly, the slime had quickly killed just one and stayed still.

That wasn't all.

"Hey! What are you doing? Help me!"

While Sgol was dealing with the remaining goblins, more had arrived and given him trouble. The moment he shouted, the slime sprang into action and dispatched them.

Anyone could see that this slime understood human speech.

'It can work. With this, we can definitely do it!'

The leader saw hope in the test results. That evening, he spoke to his men.

"Guys, be honest with me. You don't want to be bandits, do you?"

"Huh? I don't mind if it's what you want to do, Boss."

"Heh. You're only asking us that now, Boss?"

"I-I'm fine with it too, Boss."

"Don't worry about me. None of you like robbing people either, do you?"

"Well, does anyone really want to be a bandit?"

"We wouldn't be doing this if it weren't for that fucking pervert of a noble."

"Ugh... To tell the truth, I felt bad taking money from people passing by..."

Hearing his men's honest answers, the leader made up his mind and spoke.