Even a Saintess-designate was still a Saintess.

A Saintess’s expedition required more than simply packing her bags. Even though Fresia had made the decision, Amelia still had to formally report to the High Priests and attend an event called the Saintess’s Expedition Ceremony.

And now, with all the ceremonies over, Amelia was setting out on her expedition.

“Uuugh...”

Even after a full day’s sleep, she had yet to recover the energy they had drained from her.

Sitting opposite her in the carriage, Paulen sighed and asked, “Amelia, are you still in a daze?”

“You’re sociable, Paulen. You’ll never understand. Meeting people takes so much out of me.”

“In your case, Amelia, I suspect it’s not that people drain your energy. Your lack of confidence seems to be exhausting you.”

“I don’t want to hear such cruel truths right now!”

Rather than listen to Paulen’s lectures, Amelia wanted to reward herself for surviving the expedition ceremony.

“Quivery, give me a massage, please.”

'Okay!'

BOING!

Amelia lay facedown on the long carriage seat. The slime, which had been sitting opposite her alongside Paulen, leaped onto her lower back in a single bound.

The sight drew another sigh from Paulen.

“Amelia, this is improper behavior. Should a Saintess be sprawling out like that in a carriage?”

“It’s only you, me, and Quivery in here anyway. There’s no danger, and no one I need to worry about impressing, is there?”

“I’m telling you not to do that in such close quarters, especially in front of a man.”

Sometimes Amelia could be remarkably brazen, Paulen thought, and it put him in an awkward position.

“You’re making too much of it, Paulen. Quivery’s a monster, and you have that peculiar taste for nothing but muscles. What could be safer?”

“My interests are not limited to muscles.”

“Upper body or lower body today?”

“I intend to focus on my upper body, primarily my pectorals. To think you would ask me that, Amelia! Have you developed an interest in exercise? If so, besides walking, you could start with some light lower-body—”

Ignoring Paulen’s eager, bright-eyed attempt to recruit a workout partner, Amelia made another request of the slime.

“Quivery, my back, please.”

'Okay!'

The slime began vibrating vigorously.

“Ah, aaaah~!”

Amelia’s delighted cries of relief filled the carriage as the slime gave her its vibration massage.

“Amelia, just to be safe, I must remind you not to let other people hear you making those sounds so freely.”

“I-I-I-I know that much~ Aaaah~.”

Then the carriage stopped for a while, and it was time for lunch.

After eating, Paulen supervised the slime’s exercises and sparred with it—now part of his daily routine—then finished his own workout before the carriage was due to set off again.

“Quivery! I’m counting on you!”

Paulen spread a blanket on the ground and lay down with his upper body completely bare.

BOING!

The slime began vibrating vigorously.

“Oooooh! My muscles! My muscles rejoice after enduring all that strain!”

He let out jubilant cheers as the slime gave him a vibration massage.

“...”

'Who was telling whom to mind their behavior?'

Amelia watched him in disbelief.

+++

In the Slime Queen’s nest on the Demon Continent...

'Is a massage using vibrations really that pleasant?'

Watching the humans delight in the slime’s vibration massages, the Slime Queen suddenly found herself wondering.

As a highest-ranking slime, the Slime Queen possessed most of the skills available to slimes. Those included the slime’s Detoxification, Antidote Production, and Vibration.

The Slime Queen raised one hand and tried using Vibration. Her hand trembled, and she pressed it to her shoulder.

“... It trembles.”

All she felt was a simple shaking sensation. There was nothing pleasant about it.

Naturally, that was to be expected.

The slime had developed its technique by sensing the responses of those who needed massages. All the Slime Queen was doing, however, was producing a steady vibration without adjusting its intensity at all.

What was more, the Slime Queen had a slime body, with no muscles that could grow tense. With no muscles to loosen, all she felt was pure vibration.

“I do not quite understand.”

BOING!

The Slime Queen turned her gaze toward the ordinary slimes that served her. With no orders to follow, they were either eating moss nearby on their own or repeatedly hopping in place for no particular reason.

“... Come here.”

The Slime Queen summoned one of the slimes.

BOING!

It came over immediately, and she reached toward it with her trembling hand. The vibration passed through her hand, and the slime’s body began to quiver.

“Oh.”

Since the shaking came from an outside source rather than the slime itself, ripples formed across its body. It was quite enjoyable to watch.

Finding this more entertaining than expected, the Slime Queen summoned slimes of different colors and sizes to watch what happened.

'I wonder how my fellow slime would react if I did this.'

The Slime Queen imagined the slime’s reaction.

“ I like this!”

It quivered vigorously.

'Heh. Yes. My fellow slime is sure to enjoy my touch.'

In this imagined scenario, it had grown enough to speak sometime in the future.

'Still, my subjects look rather cute trembling like this, too.'

A thought suddenly occurred to the Slime Queen. Rather than keeping such a delightful sight to herself, wouldn’t it be better to show it off?

“It has been a while. Perhaps I shall start a stream.”

The Slime Queen figured nothing much would happen while the slime was traveling to this place called the Mage Tower anyway.

And so, alongside slime tower stacking, a slime vibration show was added to the content of the Slime Queen’s stream.

▶What’s this? Making slimes shake?

▶Lmao, they look so pathetic and cute shaking like that.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Not as cute as Squishy, but they’re adorable in their own way~.

▶Isn’t the Slime Queen going to stream herself shaking her body?

▶[I'd Smash has been kicked.]

▶Dumbass lmao

▶Gotta read the room better lmaooo

+++

'No, surely not the Mage Tower. How did this happen?'

Free Spirit, the lich who had become the moderator of the slime’s stream, sat in his secret workshop.

Smartass was deeply unsettled.

The Mage Tower.

Back when Smartass had been human—when he had been known as Ventus Frail, The Mage of a Thousand Spells—it had been a place of memories.

A place where his journey had begun.

A place of glory.

And a place of betrayal and hatred.

Thirty years ago.

After defeating the calamitous black dragon and returning to the Mage Tower, Ventus Frail had lived a peaceful life devoted solely to magical research.

He would work to create new magic, earn fresh renown, and give the companions who had defeated the calamity with him a wonderful surprise!

With that thought driving his research, twenty years had flown by.

He had devoted himself to his magical research, kindly advising younger mages whenever they came to him for guidance.

He was a hero renowned for defeating the calamity. Yet he pursued magic without arrogance or conceit, and treated even his juniors kindly. Though he had never intended it, this only increased Ventus Frail’s fame.

At the same time, his ever-growing reputation stirred envy and jealousy in others.

And that envy and jealousy finally erupted the moment Ventus became a candidate to be the next master of the Mage Tower.

[“Cough! Brooks, why...!”]

[“With this! With this, I’ll be the next master of the Mage Tower! Not you, strutting around just because you killed a few monsters! Me!”]

The culprit was Brooks, who had started out as a novice mage alongside him.

As Ventus’s research into new magic neared completion, Brooks had brought him some liquor, supposedly to commend his hard work. But it contained a powerful poison.

Brooks aimed his magic at Ventus Frail as he crawled across the floor in agony.

[“You’re going to die here in a magical accident, Ventus. A so-called hero dying in some ridiculous magical accident! Isn’t that hilarious?”]

[“Brook...s!”]

The sight of Brooks—his peer, the man he had considered a friend—looking down at him and sneering filled Ventus Frail with profound betrayal and hatred.

[“Farewell, Ventus Frail! The Frail family’s one and only prodigy! There’s no one else with the talent to bring glory to your family anyway! As the next master of the Mage Tower, I’ll take good care of them for you!”]

There was no desire to atone behind those words.

There was only the sense of superiority he gained from showing mercy to the Frail family, and a petty scheme to make anyone who suspected it had not been an accident believe he could not be the culprit.

Ventus Frail quickly read that intent in Brooks’s expression and words.

He wanted to execute the loathsome traitor looking down at him that very instant, but the poison circulating through his body clouded his mind.

And so Ventus Frail resorted to an uncertain method.

[“Mana Explosion!”]

'Warp!'

KABOOOOM!

At the same instant Brooks unleashed his spell, Ventus cast the teleportation magic he had been researching.

'I really thought I was going to die then.'

The teleportation had succeeded against all odds, bringing Ventus Frail to a workshop he had secretly built.

He had bought himself some time, but believing he could not escape death in the end, he had performed the ritual to become a lich. That was how he had come to be as he was now.

'Sigh. This worries me.'

Smartass could not help worrying.

About the slime’s safety?

No. With a Saintess and a Paladin already accompanying it, there was nothing to worry about there.

What concerned him was his own condition.

The system he had encountered after becoming a lich, and the astonishing discovery that monsters were streaming, had set his mage’s thirst for knowledge fiercely ablaze.

Thanks to that, he had avoided going berserk after becoming a lich and could remain here in his secret workshop.

But what if he saw the detestable Brooks again through the stream?

Would he truly be able to suppress his hatred?

That was what worried Smartass.

He was a lich now.

A lich—the most terrible fallen form an archmage could take.

The last one had appeared hundreds of years ago, but the devastation it had wrought was so great that records of it still remained.

He did not particularly mind the prospect of going berserk, killing Brooks, and slaughtering the humans around him.

Though he would not go so far as to wipe out humanity, Smartass currently felt little aversion to the act of killing humans itself.

But that could bring him into conflict with his old companions.

Since he was undead, Saintess Fresia would certainly intervene. Nellin, The Starlight Archer, might hear the news and come as well.

Smartass did not want to fight the companions with whom he had shared hardships, joys, and memories.

“Whew. I never thought I’d be practicing meditation again.”

To suppress the hatred that might erupt, Smartass resumed the training he had often practiced as a novice mage.

But his efforts to calm his mind came crashing down, utterly in vain, on the very day Amelia, Paulen, and the slime arrived at the Mage Tower.

“Welcome to the Mage Tower, Saintess! And Paladin Paulen! I’m Gracie Frail, a descendant of the illustrious Mage of a Thousand Spells, Ventus Frail! A budding mage who’ll become a great archmage someday! I’ve been assigned to guide you both! It’s a pleasure to meet you!”

That was, until he saw a girl with red twin tails boldly proclaiming herself his descendant, her body laden with magical devices—bracelets, rings, anklets, and necklaces.

'There’s no way a mage juiced up on magical devices like that is my descendaaaaant!!!'

Smartass belonged firmly to the all-natural mage camp.