“Saintess Amelia, Paladin Paulen, welcome.”

Amelia and Paulen had been summoned by the master of the Mage Tower, who said he wanted to verify that the slime described in Gracie’s paper really existed. Since their slime had become the subject of her paper, they had expected something like this to happen.

“Hello, Tower Master.”

“We heard you wanted to take a look at our Quivery.”

“Indeed. I don’t wish to doubt Gracie’s paper, but its contents make that rather difficult.”

They both understood how he felt. Friendliness toward humans aside, the idea of a slime that used magical devices and even exercised was hard to believe without seeing it firsthand.

“What would you like us to show you?”

“Show me what it can do, one thing at a time.”

At the tower master’s request, Amelia asked the slime to demonstrate its various abilities. First came its use of magical devices, the first topic covered in the paper. It not only produced extra tentacles to operate devices with handles easily, but also stretched its tentacles out to demonstrate using devices without magic stones.

‘It really can do it!’

Simply watching the demonstration left Brooks Besilza stunned. He had already read about it in the paper, but he could not easily discard what he had always accepted as common knowledge.

Next, the slime demonstrated exercising with dumbbells, understanding Amelia’s instructions and jumping in place about three times, and climbing onto her shoulder and head. Faced with proof that a slime—the weakest of all monsters—possessed intelligence, Brooks Besilza forgot his dignity and gaped in astonishment.

▶LMAO, look at that hooman’s jaw drop.

▶A slime being smart as hell is pretty surprising.

[Squishy Queen]▶What is so surprising about a slime being intelligent?! Such insolence!

▶Tiny little slimes being dumb is a fact, though? Triggered?

[Squishy Queen]▶You scoundreeeel! What are you doing, Smartass?! Kick that wretch out at once!

[Free Spirit]▶Kicking someone for that little bit of trolling is a bit much...

▶LMAO, mods have to be fair, hahaha.

▶That troll eraser sure works great~.

[Anonymous12224 has been kicked.]

▶?

▶???

[Free Spirit]▶You gotta be polite when you talk to me. Yep.

▶LMAOOOO.

▶What is this, a dictatorship? LOL.

▶Where’s the fairness? LMAO.

“Is that enough?”

They had shown the tower master most of the slime’s talents, except for reshaping its tentacles to lift people. Gracie had warned them not to show that ability to others carelessly, and she had left Tentacle Transformation out of the paper herself because it was already getting too long.

“Yes. Hmm. Enough... That is enough. Thank you for your time. You may go now. Gracie, you can leave as well.”

A short while after sending the three of them away...

BANG!

Brooks slammed his fist down on his desk.

“Damn it! That ridiculous slime actually exists?!”

He had seen it clearly with his own eyes. Gracie’s paper contained nothing but the truth, without a trace of exaggeration. Such an absurd slime really existed. If the paper were published and its claims proven...

“Grrrgh! My one pleasure in life...”

The Frail family’s continued funding would be guaranteed, and he would no longer get to watch them struggle in poverty. For a man as twisted as Brooks Besilza, that must never be allowed to happen.

‘A way... I have to find a way. Gracie, that stupid, pathetic device-doped mage bitch! A way to stop Ventus Frail’s descendant from publishing her paper! No, a way to keep her from proving it even if she does publish it!’

What mattered most to Brooks Besilza was neither intellectual curiosity nor the advancement of magical research, but his own personal desires. Had someone else written the paper, he would not have cared. But since its author was a descendant of Ventus Frail, he believed he had to stop it by any means necessary.

The surest way to prevent the paper’s claims from being proven was to eliminate the slime. Yet that would be far from easy. This slime was accompanied by none other than the next Saintess and a Paladin. With anyone else, he would have secretly tossed a mercenary a few coins and ordered them to dispose of it, but the people at its side were too powerful.

Still unable to abandon his desire, Brooks Besilza kept racking his brains for a solution. And then...

“Yes! That’s it!”

A memory surfaced in Brooks Besilza’s mind: the most satisfying moment of his life. The moment he had lured Ventus Frail into a trap disguised as a magical accident.

‘I can dispose of that slime and disguise it as a magical accident too! Accidents can’t be helped! They’re an everyday occurrence at the Mage Tower!’

+++

‘Hmm. I have a bad feeling about this.’

Ventus Frail, the lich known as The Mage of a Thousand Spells who served as moderator for the slime’s stream, used the username Free Spirit. Nicknamed Smartass, he was feeling uneasy.

The cause was Brooks Besilza, the culprit who had tried to murder him under the guise of a magical accident.

The expression Brooks Besilza had made after verifying that the slime could truly perform the feats described in the paper bothered Smartass. The other viewers had been focused on the slime, and Gracie, Amelia, and Paulen had turned away and missed it. But Smartass had clearly seen Brooks Besilza’s face on the verge of twisting into a grimace.

They had not met in thirty years, but Brooks had tried to trap him. And although it was only speculation on his part, Brooks’s encouragement of his descendant’s efforts to become a device-doped mage made Smartass deeply suspicious of him.

Brooks Besilza’s rotten personality aside, he had been the man closest to becoming master of the Mage Tower after Ventus Frail. The proof was that Brooks Besilza now held that very position. Twisted though he was, he was a capable mage. That was why Smartass believed that, if Brooks set his mind to some cunning act of treachery, he could lure not only Gracie but even the next Saintess and the Paladin into a trap.

‘Of course, he wouldn’t be stupid enough to harm the next Saintess or the Paladin directly.’

That would be tantamount to declaring war on the Church.

‘Why did his expression twist like that?’

Still uneasy, Smartass sorted through the situation with a head that remained perfectly functional despite being physically empty. Why had Brooks Besilza been displeased? Because Smartass’s descendant was doing well. He recalled what Gracie herself had said about the Frail family’s funding.

‘The Frail family can still receive funding from the Mage Tower. If that paper is published, their funding won’t be cut off for quite some time.’

If Brooks Besilza was still as twisted as before, he would not be able to stomach the sight of Ventus’s own family, the Frails, prospering.

‘He’ll do anything dangerous if it means stopping that.’

Jealousy had driven the man to attempt the audacious act of killing him, even after he had defeated the calamity. That only made him more certain.

To keep the family from receiving funding, Brooks only had to prevent the paper’s claims from being proven. And the first method likely to occur to him was...

‘Squishy.’

Eliminating the slime.

‘... If I sit here and do nothing, Squishy’s life will be in danger.’

It was no longer merely an ominous suspicion. He was certain that, if Brooks Besilza tried anything, it would be an attempt to eliminate the slime.

He would eliminate neither the Saintess nor the Paladin, but the slime they carried around with them. Objectively speaking, it would not escalate into a major incident. His relationship with the next Saintess and the Paladin would sour, but the Church would not actively move against the Mage Tower, nor would Brooks Besilza lose his position as its master. After all, it would only mean one slime was gone.

‘I’ll have to prepare.’

Squishy was special to Smartass. As a viewer, he did not want to lose a streaming channel that brought him such unexpected enjoyment. But through the slime’s broadcasts, he had also seen companions he had thought he would never see again. He had met a descendant of the Frail family who shared his blood, even if she was not his own direct descendant, and heard how his relatives had lived after his death.

Above all...

‘Nellin and Squishy’s promise has to be fulfilled.’

Their promise to meet again. Even if he himself had failed, he wanted Squishy, at least, to keep that promise to his cherished companion.

+++

A few days later, as the date of their departure from the Mage Tower and return to the Holy City drew near, Amelia and Paulen were surprised by the news Gracie brought them.

“The tower master wants to examine Quivery?”

“Yes. It seems this paper came as quite a shock to him too. He said he’d like to examine Quivery personally while he has the chance.”

“I hadn’t expected the tower master to take such an interest.”

“What Quivery accomplished defies common knowledge that much. Honestly, I understand how the tower master feels too. Besides, he said... Um...”

Gracie hesitated briefly before continuing.

“Since Quivery is so talented and intelligent, he said it might be a higher form of slime, and that we should make sure, just in case.”

“Quivery, a higher form...”

“I suppose the possibility isn’t entirely out of the question.”

It looked like an ordinary slime, but it had enough strength to defeat a lesser troll, so Paulen could not simply dismiss the idea.

“But does the tower master have a way to determine that?”

“Yes. He said he could find out more about Quivery while checking whether it’s a higher form. A-and! He said he’d only be examining it, so Quivery wouldn’t be in any danger!”

Gracie dearly wanted them to agree to the examination.

‘It would be practically the tower master’s seal of approval!’

The tower master would not merely acknowledge the findings verbally, but verify them himself? That was as good as having him personally validate her paper. If that happened, securing the funding would be a sure thing.

“Saintess, what would you like to do?” Paulen asked for Amelia’s opinion.

“Hmm...”

To Amelia, it did not seem like a bad proposal.

‘The tower master has no reason to do anything bad to Quivery.’

The tower master she had seen had done everything he could to accommodate them. Would a man like that suddenly mistreat the slime? It was something Amelia, at least, could not even imagine.

‘Besides, this could be a chance to learn more about Quivery.’

The slime was cute, kind, intelligent, and surprisingly strong. That was enough for Amelia, but she was also curious to learn exactly what sort of slime this remarkable creature was.

“Then we’ll have it examined. I’d be happy to learn more about Quivery too.”

“Yes! I’ll go tell the tower master right away!”