Ever since she began observing the slime and its use of magical devices, Gracie Frail had faced one astonishing day after another.

The very fact that it could use magical devices without magic stones was so extraordinary that she had thought nothing else could surprise her. She had been spectacularly mistaken.

Once the magic stone in the wind-producing device ran out of mana, the slime casually supplied its own mana to keep the device running.

That did not particularly surprise her. Amelia had already told her about it.

Next, Gracie brought over magical devices used for other purposes, removing their magic stones to see whether the slime could use those as well.

To cut to the chase, the slime could use any magical device.

Even among devices powered by magic stones, the amount of mana they absorbed varied according to their purpose. Yet the slime could use all sorts of devices as though that made no difference.

'I'll need more observations and experiments to determine whether it instinctively knows how much mana a device needs, or figures that out itself.'

Either way, she had settled on a subject, and her research subject was cooperative. The more she observed, the higher her hopes rose.

'If this goes well, I could get a performance bonus on top of my funding!'

Of course, those hopeful hours could not last all day.

"Let's leave it there for today."

Those cruel words descended on Gracie just as her passion for research was reaching its peak.

"What?! Already?"

"It's been well over two hours, Miss Gracie."

'But it's only been two hours?'

Gracie could not understand Paulen's words. Wasn't two hours far too short for a research session? That was the question on her mind.

But she could neither argue nor talk back. Right now, she was entirely at their mercy.

She was the one begging for permission to study the slime, and she was also the one assigned to look after the Saintess and the Paladin in the first place.

There was a considerable difference in status between a hero's descendant and a hero's successor to begin with. What if Gracie threw a tantrum here? Not only would her research go out the window, but her social standing could be jeopardized as well.

Still, she could not simply back down.

"I... see. Aha, ahaha! Look at the time already. By the way, what are you two planning to do now? If you'd like to explore the streets some more, I'd be happy to guide you again!"

Even if the slime wasn't actively using magical devices, continuing to observe it might reveal other traits or subjects worth researching. She did not want to take her eyes off it.

To Gracie, the slime was practically a vending machine for research-paper topics!

"No, we intend to head back for today. Quivery needs to train as well."

"Train?"

"Yes. Quivery is also—hup! Biceps!"

Paulen struck a pose as he spoke.

"A slime that appreciates the appeal of muscles!"

'What is he talking about?'

She could not understand him. But even if she didn't understand, Gracie decided this was the time to cling to her chance.

"May I watch, too?"

"Watch?"

"Yes! A slime training? I'm dying to know how it does that!"

That was not a lie. She did want to observe it further for her paper, but she was also curious. A slime building muscles? How?

That was something anyone would naturally wonder about, mage or not!

"Hahaha, of course! You're more than welcome to watch! I'll show you just how hard Quivery works!"

"Quivery, let's stop there and head home. You can play with the magical devices again tomorrow."

'Okay!'

The slime bounced up, set down the magical device at Amelia's words, and climbed onto her hand.

▶Huh? Done playing with magical devices?

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Finally, some content worth watching. Training is where the real fun is!

▶I'm getting sick of training.

[Slam First Ask Later]▶Watching Squishy grow stronger every day isn't fun? Is there something wrong with your eyes?

[Squishy Queen]▶For once, you speak the truth. Indeed, nothing is more worth watching than the growth of my kin!

▶It's not like I'm getting stronger. What's fun about it?

▶Lmao just empathize, will you lol

▶Are you a T?

[Noblesse Fire]▶I see that sometimes. What does T mean?

▶That guy who used to stream human massacres said it all the time when people didn't empathize with him. Yeah.

After accompanying them to the villa where the Saintess, Paulen, and the slime would be staying for a month, Gracie witnessed an astonishing sight.

Upon arriving, Paulen and the slime headed into the garden to train. Naturally, Gracie followed them, and she watched Paulen take the slime's personal dumbbell out of his Inventory.

"Would you like to try lifting it?"

Gracie nodded when Paulen offered with a broad grin. It felt awkward to refuse a Paladin's invitation, and a dumbbell used by a slime didn't look particularly heavy anyway.

"Hnn?!"

But she had been mistaken.

'H-heavy! I can't lift it!'

No matter how hard she tried, it would not budge. Even when she strained until her face turned bright red, she could not lift it at all.

"Gracie, you don't have to force yourself to lift it. Don't overdo it."

"Hah! Hah! W-wait, just how heavy is this thing?"

Paulen answered immediately, and his answer left Gracie aghast.

'Even an ordinary man would struggle to lift that!'

Even a man would have trouble lifting that weight unless he trained regularly. It was the sort of weight that people in physically demanding professions, such as adventurers, lifted during serious training.

'A slime lifts that?'

Having thoroughly enjoyed Gracie's reaction, Paulen told the slime to start exercising as usual. The slime bounced over to the dumbbell, extended a tentacle, and gripped the handle.

What followed made Gracie doubt her eyes again and again. The slime strained through one lift after another.

"Yes! That's it! Well done, Quivery! One more! One more!"

The slime was exercising. And it was doing so with its very own dumbbell.

It wasn't even just something shaped like a dumbbell. The slime was repeatedly lifting the dumbbell Gracie had been utterly unable to budge, working out with its tentacle.

'Tentacle muscles really meant muscles in its tentacles?'

The slime's body was truly shrouded in mystery. How could it lift a dumbbell that heavy when its own weight made it roll off a magical device whenever it climbed on?

But lifting a dumbbell was not the only astonishing sight.

"All right, Quivery! We have someone watching this time, so show her how impressive you are!"

'Okay!'

The slime bounced once, twice, then sprang high into the air.

CLAAANG!

"..."

'What... is a slime?'

It was not some philosophical question. The scene unfolding before her was so shocking that she found herself questioning something that basic.

The slime was sparring with a Paladin, moving at speeds and displaying power she had never imagined possible.

Of course, she could tell that the Paladin was going easy on it. But there was no doubt that its movements were extraordinary.

Slimes were considered the weakest of all monsters. Slow, with poor defenses, they were creatures you almost felt guilty attacking unless they attacked you first.

That was what a slime was.

Yet here was one sparring with a Paladin, displaying enough skill to look capable of casually beating the crap out of a C-rank monster.

At this point, calling it merely an unusual specimen that could use magical devices seemed a stretch.

'Is it a higher-tier specimen? But it looks exactly like an ordinary slime!'

It would have been different if it had a striking color, an unusually large body, or even an odd appearance. But without its tentacles extended, it looked like nothing more than an ordinary slime.

And on top of that, it extended a tentacle.

WHOOOSH!

"Hahaha, you dodged that one nicely too, Quivery!"

It wasn't simply fast and strong. It could even use its tentacles to dodge, leaving Gracie's jaw hanging open.

When Paulen's sword approached it in midair, the slime extended a tentacle, wrapped it around the blade, and swung over it to evade the attack. It was like watching an acrobatic performance.

'You can dodge like that?!'

"... Saintess."

"Yes?"

"Is that slime really... a slime?"

"Gracie, some things in this world only give you a headache if you overthink them."

At those words telling her to give up thinking about it, Gracie almost nodded without realizing it.

'No! A mage can't do that! I have to uncover the unknown, not give up and leave it alone! Besides, if I give up, there goes my paper! There goes my funding!'

+++

Two weeks had passed since Gracie received permission to write a paper about the slime.

For Gracie and Amelia, those two weeks had been very eventful. Incidents and accidents never stopped happening, day after day.

The absence of any trouble during their walk on the first day had been pure coincidence. From the second day onward, at least one accident occurred whenever they went for a walk.

BOOOOM!

"Oh, there's been a magical accident at the Mage Tower."

"Aren't you being a little too calm about that? L-let's hurry!"

There were magical accidents at the Mage Tower, of course, but even on days without one...

"Saintess, please lend us your aid."

The church near the villa would ask for help, and Amelia would treat people with serious injuries at the clinic, just as she had in the Holy City.

Through all these incidents and accidents, Gracie and Amelia came to know each other better.

In Gracie's eyes, Amelia was a true homebody. She preferred staying indoors to going out. Despite being a Saintess, she was surprisingly lacking in confidence.

Yet when she saw someone injured, she moved faster than anyone else, taking action to heal their wounds.

She was surprisingly capable at managing everyday life, loved cute things, and recoiled whenever Paulen went on about muscles.

A Saintess, yet also an ordinary woman.

In Amelia's eyes, Gracie was an unusual woman. Her desire to observe a slime and publish a paper was odd enough, but the way she behaved while observing it was even stranger.

"O-ohhh! Right, so you use it that way too. Heehee, hee, hehehe."

Whether she realized it herself or not, Gracie would let out a creepy laugh as she observed the slime, her eyes snapping wide open as she stared without blinking.

Was it really all right to let her keep observing the slime? Amelia did find herself worrying about that.

But although Gracie behaved oddly during her observations, she was fundamentally kind. While guiding them, she offered extra explanations to make things easy to understand. She enjoyed the meals Amelia served, and agreed that Paulen was creepy when he grinned and went on about muscles every single day.

She also understood how adorable the slime was, so Amelia privately felt as though she had made a friend.

Actually, weren't they simply friends by now?

'If we're friends, it would be g-good to learn more about each other, wouldn't it?'

She would be returning to the Holy City in another two weeks, but Amelia wanted to cherish the connection she had made at the Mage Tower.

Even after she returned, they could still become close enough to exchange letters!

So Amelia addressed Gracie, who was busily observing the slime and writing something down.

"By the way, Gracie, why did you start collecting so many magical devices?"