Godric’s Party headed straight for the reception desk as soon as they entered the guild. Nellin stepped aside, and Godric took out a pouch and set it on the counter.

“Count these for me.”

“Certainly.”

The receptionist quickly counted the monster body parts in the pouch—the proof of their kills.

“Everything checks out. Thank you all for your hard work exterminating the orcs.”

“Right. More importantly... still no news?”

“I’m sorry. We haven’t heard anything of note yet.”

“I’ll pay what I owe for the flyers, so keep at it, please. That little guy wouldn’t die so easily.”

‘Wouldn’t die so easily?’

“Yes, of course.”

“Let’s go train, boys.”

“Yes, Boss!”

Godric’s Party headed for the guild’s training grounds.

‘Are those the ones?’

Nellin suspected they were the party the receptionist had just mentioned. Their remark about their companion not dying so easily, and the way they went straight to training after finishing a job, fit what she had heard.

“Hey, is that the party you were just talking about?”

“Yes, that’s them.”

“But didn’t you say they lost a companion? Why the flyers, then...?”

“They didn’t actually see their companion die. But apparently, their companion fell off a cliff and was swept away by the current.”

Under those circumstances, one could hardly think anything other than that the companion’s death was all but certain. Still, seeing Godric’s Party refuse to accept it made Nellin feel sorry for them.

“Do you have one of those flyers here?”

She didn’t believe their companion was alive, but she thought she should at least remember the face.

“Yes. Here it is.”

Nellin looked at the flyer the receptionist promptly handed her.

“Huh?”

A question mark hovered over her head.

“Uh, um. Wait, this...”

“Oh, I suppose it’s only natural that you’re surprised.”

After all, the picture on the flyer wasn’t a human face. It was a slime.

“The companion they lost is a slime.”

“A slime?”

“Yes. They attracted quite a bit of attention around here as an adventurer party traveling with a slime.”

Nellin read the distinguishing features listed on the flyer.

Name: Bouncy

Light green slime

Very agile.

Friendly toward people.

Intelligent enough to understand human speech.

Often bounces and quivers when happy.

Can jump very high.

Can also glow on its own.

Please report any sightings to the adventurers’ guild.

Additional reward offered for bringing it in.

‘Could this be... Alexandros II?’

The slime’s characteristics on the flyer were remarkably similar to those of the slime Nellin knew. If it could kill twelve goblins, it was naturally agile, and it was friendly enough toward people to spend a month at the count’s mansion without incident. It was also clever enough to write, and Jessi had told Nellin herself that it bounced or quivered when happy.

‘But what’s this about glowing?’

She could set aside the claim that it jumped high, since she didn’t know what they considered high, but glowing on its own was something she hadn’t expected at all.

‘I’d better hear the details first.’

“All right. Thanks for the flyer.”

Nellin tucked it inside her clothes and went to the training grounds where Godric’s Party was.

Godric’s Party was indeed “training.”

“Fourteen...! Fifteen...!”

Some were doing bodyweight push-ups.

“Hah! Hah!”

Others were running hard around the training grounds.

CLANG! CLAAANG!

They also drew their swords and sparred with one another to improve their skills.

But...

‘This seems... rather amateurish.’

By Nellin’s standards, their training was amateurish. It wasn’t bad or wrong; focusing on developing one’s strengths was a valid training method. Yet to her, their efforts seemed a little unfocused.

‘They’ll improve slowly at that rate.’

Fifty years ago, Nellin had watched her companion Aldor Meyer—the human known as The Impenetrable Shield—train without missing a session, even during their journey to slay the black dragon. That was how she knew that training had stages. Once you reached a certain level of strength, your progress slowed unless you increased the intensity.

The training Godric’s Party was doing fit that example perfectly.

They weren’t deliberately keeping their training easy. They simply didn’t know any better. They had no teacher to explain such things, and until now, they had been content with growing naturally stronger through their mercenary work. On top of that, their impatience to get stronger at any cost after losing the slime was clouding their judgment even further.

“You lot over there. Stop for a moment.”

Rather than keep watching, Nellin called out to Godric’s Party.

“Eighteen...! Huh?”

“What is it?”

“Whew. An elf?”

“What do you want with us?”

Since Nellin and Godric’s Party were the only ones there, Godric naturally assumed she was addressing them and approached her.

“You’re looking for a slime, right? A light green one that likes clinging to people.”

“... Do you know something?!”

“D-do you know where Bouncy is?”

“No, I don’t.”

“What?”

“Hey, hey, don’t look so fierce. The thing is, I’ve seen that slime before, too. I thought that connection was worth saying hello over, you know?”

“You’ve seen it before?”

“Yes. I came across it while hunting deer in the forest. I took it to our village and fed it jerky, too. I’d never seen such an unguarded slime! Well, our old lady made a fuss, so I sent it back into the forest.”

“Boss. B-Bouncy did like eating jerky.”

“Keep quiet a moment, Def.”

Godric spoke to Nellin without letting down his guard.

“What a coincidence. Nice meeting you. We’re going to finish our training, so why don’t you move along?”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

“What?”

“I told you, didn’t I? I came over because I thought we had a connection. You lot...”

Nellin had learned something during her travels: in situations like this, a little provocation made people much easier to draw in.

“It’ll take you ages to get stronger doing that, you know?”

“Ages?”

“I can tell at a glance that you’re just throwing together whatever exercises you know. You could keep that up forever and never get much out of it.”

“Are you saying you know a better way?”

“Of course! Back in the day, I knew someone who was obsessed with training. He loved explaining his workouts, too, so I heard about them until I was sick of it. But all this blah-blah-blah is useless, isn’t it?”

Nellin walked to a corner of the training grounds and picked up a wooden sword from the rack.

“All four of you, come at me together. This big sister will show you whether she’s bluffing.”

Her almost supernatural archery had earned Nellin the epithet The Starlight Archer. But archery was simply her greatest specialty. She knew how to wield a sword as well.

+++

‘Just what is Quivery...?’

In her room, Amelia was lost in thought about the slime. Glowing and producing antidote were astonishing enough, but something even more surprising had happened today. It was no wonder she was thinking this way.

When Amelia woke that morning and found the slime missing, she had panicked. Fortunately, the believer who attended her bath brought it into her room. Hearing that Paulen had handed it over put her at ease for the moment. She didn’t know how it had gotten out, but at least it wasn’t missing.

She had thought that would be the end of the minor incident, but after their meal, Paulen suddenly said something to her.

“Amelia, Quivery is now my muscle buddy!”

“...?”

What on earth was this muscle-bound Paladin talking about? Had he hurt his head, perhaps? Those questions flashed through Amelia’s mind.

“Quivery! Flex!”

Paulen struck a flexing pose, and tentacles popped out from both sides of the slime, mimicking him exactly.

“Uh. Huh? Huuuh?”

Amelia looked back and forth between Paulen and the slime several times at the sight before her.

“W-w-what on earth is this...?!”

“Allow me to explain!”

Paulen briefly explained what had happened early that morning: the touching sight of the slime coming to the training grounds, posing after watching him, and trying to lift a dumbbell, and how they had become muscle buddies who would work out together to grow stronger.

He went on to indulge his fantasies about why the slime wanted muscles, but Amelia let them go in one ear and out the other. She was lost in thought about the identity of this slime that could now even sprout tentacles. Yet no amount of thinking would give her a clear answer.

The slime quivered vigorously.

“Ah.”

The only thing she knew for certain was that its vibrations felt pleasant against her hand.

“Quivery! Do my back, too! I must have been so happy today that I’ve been tensing my muscles!”

“Don’t take your clothes off in my room, Paulen.”

“Hmm. Then I’ll take them off at the training grounds! Let’s head over there together!”

“Why do I have to come, too...?”

“As your guard, I can hardly leave your side, Amelia!”

Was that really something a guard should say? Amelia thought so, but she couldn’t bring herself to argue forcefully.

After they finished the morning’s duties, they moved to the training grounds, where Paulen immediately received a massage from the slime. It quivered vigorously as he lay face down on a blanket spread over the ground for his back massage.

“Ooh! That’s it! Right there! My muscles are loosening up!”

Without so much as glancing at Paulen’s blissful expression, Amelia opened the scriptures she had brought and began to read.

When his massage was finished, Paulen got up and spoke to the slime.

“Thank you, Quivery! As promised, once everything is ready, I’ll help you build muscles. Look forward to it!”

The slime bounced.

‘What is all this muscle-building nonsense? Can a slime even grow muscles?’

Amelia silently objected as she listened to their exchange.

Just then...

“Saintess! There you are! Eek!”

A nun arrived at the training grounds and covered her face with both hands at the sight of Paulen.

“P-Paladin Paulen! Why have you taken your clothes off?!”

“My apologies. I was training. Hahahaha!”

“O-oh, I see.”

Blushing and doing her best not to look at him, the nun addressed Amelia.

“Saintess, would you please come to the clinic?”

“Is someone badly injured?”

Unless Amelia visited on her own, as she had yesterday, the clinic very rarely sent for her directly. They did so only when a patient with extremely serious injuries had been brought in.

“No. It isn’t an injury. A group of poisoned patients has arrived. They were exposed to manticore poison.”

“Manticore poison?!”

The manticore was a monster with a lion’s body, a snake’s tail, and a human face surrounded by a lion’s mane. Anyone poisoned by the gas it spewed from its human mouth suffered hallucinations and extreme itching that drove them to scratch their own body. It was a terrifying poison; in severe cases, victims even died from the wounds they inflicted on themselves by scratching.

“Wait. If it was a manticore, were paladins the ones affected?”

“Yes. Four of the ten paladins sent to slay it were poisoned. Saintess, may we please borrow the power of the slime you keep with you?”

“Quivery’s power?”

The nun nodded.

“Yes. I heard yesterday that the slime has the power to neutralize poison. Please lend us that power again.”