An utterly unexpected visit from the Saintess, the Paladin, and the slime.

Gracie was surprised that they had found her home at all, but her mind raced as she pieced together her own explanation.

'Anyone at the Mage Tower could tell them where I live. Does that mean they really intend to use me until they've squeezed me dry?! M-my research time...!'

Her bewilderment quickly turned to horror and despair.

It was like having important assignments piled up, only for younger cousins to arrive out of nowhere and your parents to announce that they would be staying for a while—and that you would be looking after them.

"I'm sorry, Miss Gracie. Quivery suddenly wanted to come here..."

"W-what? The slime?"

'They're shameless enough to use a monster as an excuse to work me to the bone?! I've never heard anyone dodge the issue like this!'

Gracie's head spun. She thought they were using a monster as a pretext to throw their weight around.

"Quivery, why did you suddenly want to come here?"

The Paladin's question as he approached from behind shocked Gracie even more.

Now it felt as though the Paladin had joined the Saintess in this novel form of bullying!

'So this is... the Holy City's Saintess and Paladin? Their abuse of authority is on another level!'

She even wondered whether, while people at the Mage Tower made their demands outright, those from the Holy City shamelessly shifted the responsibility onto someone else.

'Magical devices!'

While Gracie stood aghast, the slime stretched its tentacle farther and touched one of the magical devices she wore on her hand.

It wasn't trying to snatch it away. It was simply touching it to see how it felt.

Amelia was startled by the slime's sudden action.

"Quivery! You mustn't touch other people's things without permission!"

She stepped back, pulling its tentacle away from the device.

'I can't?'

At Amelia's words, the slime withdrew its tentacle and drooped forward dejectedly.

"Oh! Quivery, you just need to ask permission! Don't be so sad."

"Hmm. Could it have come here because it wanted to see magical devices?"

"What? Really?"

"I can't think of any other reason Quivery would want to come here."

'What?'

Gracie, who had mistaken this for a new kind of bullying, watched what had just happened with questions filling her mind.

'Are they saying that slime really came to see me?'

They hadn't stopped after saying it once; they were going on and on about it. Gracie began to question whether they were really mocking her or abusing their authority in some new way.

"Um... Saintess? Sir Paladin? Did you really come because the slime asked you to?"

"Oh. I'm sorry. It's hard to believe, isn't it?"

"We were taking a walk near the Mage Tower when Quivery pointed toward this house. We were surprised, too. We never imagined this would be your home, Miss Gracie."

'Is that true? Really?'

Gracie still wasn't sure what to believe, but she couldn't turn away a Saintess and a Paladin who had come all the way to her home.

The master of the Mage Tower had personally appointed her their guide. If she drove them away for no good reason and word reached him, her funding might suffer. More immediately, her reputation within the tower could plummet the moment she turned them away.

As a mage who boosted herself with magical devices, Gracie wanted to avoid making needless trouble for herself.

"Um, would you please wait a moment? It won't take long at all. The house is a little messy, so I'll just tidy up!"

Gracie immediately shut the door and began cleaning in a frenzy.

"This goes here! That goes there!"

"H-has the laundry really piled up this much?"

"I'll just shove it all away for now...!"

Five minutes later, Gracie opened the door again, drenched in sweat.

"C-come in!"

"Are you sure it's all right?"

"Of course! I have magical devices installed here, too, so it's very comfortable!"

'I stuffed everything that looked dirty into a room, so it'll be fine!'

Amelia, Paulen, and the slime entered Gracie's home.

The slime's eyes shone, while Amelia and Paulen marveled at the sight. The moment they stepped inside, they saw an enormous collection of magical devices. Some decorated the walls, while others were displayed in dedicated drawers and on stands.

Someone unfamiliar with magical devices might have mistaken her for an extravagant collector of accessories. But the apparent bracelets and necklaces contained special gems or compartments for magic stones, allowing Amelia and Paulen to recognize them for what they were.

"You have... so many magical devices."

"An impressive sight."

Their admiration filled Gracie with the urge to show off.

"Ahem! These are magical devices I carefully selected and purchased myself. They perform wonderfully in different combinations."

"You can make use of all of them?"

At Paulen's question, Gracie began speaking rapidly and with great enthusiasm.

"Of course! I'm not like those foolish collectors who just collect things without using them. Even all these devices I'm wearing are the result of finding the optimal combination! Naturally, that's optimal for everyday use. Under different conditions, I combine them with those devices over there in new ways..."

As her visitors found themselves overwhelmed by the most animated Gracie they had ever seen, Smartass—the one who had steered the slime to her house—was reeling from an unexpected shock.

-How much did all that cost?! Why did she buy so many?! And what is she so proud of...!

Since she went around draped in magical devices, he had naturally assumed she would have a few at home, too.

But Gracie's house was practically a miniature museum of magical devices. It far exceeded anything Smartass, a member of the natural-magic camp, had imagined.

He had already finished analyzing the going prices of magical devices while the slime walked through town with Paulen. That made it easy to imagine the staggering total cost of the devices in Gracie's home alone.

-Instead of buying all those devices, she ought to devote those resources to training and making herself stronger!

No matter how enthusiastically Gracie discussed combinations of magical devices, her words sounded like so much sophistry to the already shell-shocked natural-magic mage.

-She should be honing her own abilities instead of thinking up those combinations! Ah! Ah! Aaaaaaagh!

For Smartass, formerly Ventus Frail, the Mage of a Thousand Spells, this was a day of mental anguish unlike any he had experienced in the thirty years since becoming a lich.

The slime, which had no way of knowing Smartass's suffering, began showing keen interest in Gracie's explanation.

'Combinations! Amazing!'

Using magical devices was fun enough already, but combining several could produce even more varied effects?

Having discovered the joy of using magical devices, the slime now eagerly anticipated the fun of putting together builds.

"Oh!"

Gracie, who had become carried away the moment magical devices came up, came back to her senses.

'This isn't the time! I need to find out exactly why they came here!'

"I'm sorry, Saintess, Sir Paladin. I talked too much, didn't I?"

"Oh, no! Your enthusiasm was lovely."

"It certainly explains why you have so many magical devices."

"Ahaha. Th-thank you. So, did you really come here because of the slime?"

"Well... You may not believe it, but let me tell you what happened yesterday. I know it may be hard to believe, but first, Quivery is a very intelligent slime that's friendly toward people."

"Yes."

'Is she bragging about her pet?'

"First, after meeting the tower master yesterday, we went straight back. Then..."

Amelia related the previous day's events from her own perspective.

After they returned, the slime had begun playing with the water-producing magical device. It seemed to be having great fun operating it with its tentacles. Then she had gone to her room to read, and when she came back out, she discovered that it enjoyed using magical devices so much that it was supplying its own mana to operate the device after its magic stone ran out.

"Perhaps that's why it wanted to visit your house, with all its magical devices. Though I don't know how it knew."

"..."

"Miss Gracie?"

"What did I just hear? You're not lying, are you?"

"It's hard to believe, isn't it? But Quivery really can use magical devices on its own. It's incredibly skilled with its tentacles, too. Aren't you, Quivery?"

'Yep!'

The slime extended a tentacle and flexed it into a bulging bicep.

"See? It understands us so well, too—"

"That's not the important part!"

Gracie shouted and sprang to her feet, slamming her hand onto the table.

BANG!

"What?"

"What's gotten into you, Miss Gracie?"

Amelia and Paulen couldn't understand what had shocked Gracie so deeply.

The existence of such an intelligent slime wasn't important? Then what had surprised her?

Their genuinely uncomprehending expressions only made Gracie more incredulous.

'They really don't know? They don't understand this?'

'Yes! You see it, too! You appreciate it all the more because you're a device-boosted mage, Gracie!'

Seeing her expression, the emotionally battered Smartass rejoiced that he was finally getting the reaction he had wanted.

"How can a slime operate a device designed for magic stones without a stone, simply by injecting mana into it?!"

"What? But you can use other magical devices by feeding mana into them..."

"Those are expressly made to work even when you pour mana into them indiscriminately! Their very design is different from devices made to use magic stones!"

"Is that so?"

Amelia and Paulen looked puzzled.

Their expressions showed they couldn't understand how impossible the phenomenon they had described was, and Gracie felt ready to burst with frustration.

'This is so frustrating! Why don't they understand?!'

Smartass had enough experience to accept that some people simply didn't know these things, but Gracie had yet to develop that level of understanding.

'This slime really did that? Really?'

She couldn't believe such an outrageous story on someone else's word alone. She decided to see it with her own eyes.

"Please wait a moment. You said it was a water-producing magical device, correct?"

Gracie immediately took a water-spraying device from a display cabinet, removed the magic stone inside, and brought it over.

"Could you demonstrate with this?"

Gracie wondered whether Amelia or Paulen might try to back out. She couldn't think of any particular reason they would deceive her, but the story was so unbelievable that she couldn't help being suspicious.

Contrary to her expectations, however, Amelia accepted the device at once.

"Yes. Quivery, hold this."

'Yep!'

The slime extended a tentacle to take the device, and Amelia carried it toward the kitchen.

"Saintess? Where are you going?"

"Hm? I need to put Quivery in a pot. We can't have water splashing everywhere."

"O-oh, right. Of course."

Once everyone had moved to the kitchen, Amelia placed the slime in a pot as it held the device overhead.

"Quivery, try using the device like you did yesterday."

'Yep!'

CLICK!

The slime turned on the switch, opened the lid, and pressed its tentacle firmly against the inside.