'What in the world happened here?'

Smartass couldn't hide his surprise at the sight before him. He had always taken the dust coating his laboratory for granted. Seeing it wiped clean, with even a slight sheen to it, felt rather unfamiliar.

[Did you do this, Squishy?]

'Yep! Cleaning!'

In answer to his question sent through Telepathy, the slime bounced up and down in place.

To get a clearer answer, Smartass restarted the stream he had switched off before going hunting.

[Stream's on, Squishy. Come join.]

Of course, some viewers entered before Squishy, as though they had been waiting for the stream to start.

[Squishy Queen]▶Why did you turn off the stream! What is so wrong with showing your hunt? I do not understand!

▶Guess Smartass is shyer than we thought?

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Oh my? Your den is clean now?

▶?

▶Wait, how is this actually real?

[Squishy]▶I cleaned! Squeaky clean!

▶Squishy did the cleaning?

▶Those tentacles have turned into something weird again.

The viewers who joined as soon as the stream started were equally surprised to see the newly cleaned secret workshop.

▷Squishy, why'd you clean?

[Squishy]▶You have to clean when there's lots of dust! Cleaning is fun!

As it answered, the slime bobbed up and down.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Squishy~ You're such a sweet, adorable little thing~.

[Squishy Queen]▶You scoundrel, Smartass! How dare you make my kin clean! Such insolence!

▷I didn't ask it to...;

[Squishy Queen]▶You think that excuses you! You should have kept the place clean so my kin would not have to!

▶Only one acceptable answer, huh? LMAO.

The slime's unexpected cleaning had left him bewildered, as had the Slime Queen's angry accusation that he had made it clean. But his bewilderment soon passed, and Smartass took out the animals he had hunted.

'First, I need to feed Squishy.'

▷Hang on a moment, Squishy. I'll get your meal ready.

[Squishy]▶Food!

▶What's this? Time to start cooking?

[Noblesse Fire]▶A nobody like Smartass can cook...?

▷What exactly do you think I am?

Smartass began by making preparations for cooking.

SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!

He summoned blades of wind and cut up the wood he had brought, making firewood, sticks to skewer the meat on, and supports to hold the sticks.

'Woooow!'

The slime's eyes sparkled at the dazzling display of magic.

▶What? How'd he cut that?

[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶Oh ho, this is magic, isn't it?

▶That bastard Smartass can use magic too?

Ignoring the viewers' questions, Smartass moved on to preparing the meat. He used mana-powered telekinesis to float the carcasses in the air, then skinned them, slit their bellies open, and removed their innards. To the monsters, the sight of him using Warp magic to discard the removed innards outside before dividing the meat into cuts was fascinating.

'Amazing!'

▶An airborne butchering show!

▶Never knew Smartass had a talent like this.

▶Throwing out the innards? Bastard has no taste.

▶Do you really need to eat those too?

▶You... looking for a fight?

Though he hadn't intended it, Smartass's magic-assisted cooking was providing the viewers with unexpected entertainment. After separating the meat into cuts, he skewered them on the sticks, gathered the firewood in one place, and lit it.

WHOOOSH!

The magically kindled fire quickly caught the wood and kept burning. Smartass secured the supports around it, then laid the skewers of meat across them.

▷Just wait a little longer.

[Squishy]▶Okay!

The firewood crackled, and smoke rose from the meat as it roasted over the fire. Recalling old memories, Smartass took hold of the sticks and turned them so the meat would cook evenly.

▶This should be cooked enough. Give it a try.

Smartass sliced off a properly cooked portion, fetched a long-unused plate with telekinesis, and set the meat on it before placing it in front of the slime. The slime immediately climbed onto the plate and absorbed the meat he had given it.

'Will it like it?'

Smartass watched anxiously, wondering whether the slime would enjoy meat that hadn't even been seasoned.

But there was something Smartass had overlooked. As the slime grew, it had gained a better understanding of the concept of “taste.” That didn't mean its usual eating habits had gone anywhere. Even if something tasted worse than its usual meals, the slime could still enjoy it as long as it had enough nutrients.

Above all...

'Smartass made this for me!'

The very fact that someone had cooked for it meant a great deal to the slime, making the act of eating a pleasure. Even if it was merely roasted meat without any seasoning, it was still a gesture of kindness from Smartass.

Nellin, Jessi, Godric's Party, Amelia, Paulen, and many others had shown the slime kindness. Kindness made it happy and filled it with warmth inside. So, after eating the meat, there was only one thing for the slime to say.

[Squishy]▶It's yummy! I want more!

'...!'

Seeing the slime being so sweet right before his eyes, rather than through a screen, dealt a powerful blow to Smartass's heart—a heart he no longer had.

'Now I understand why other people accept Squishy so easily.'

Because it was adorable! And because its reactions were so wonderful! It looked like an ordinary slime on the outside, but those lively movements made its meaning immediately clear, making it seem all the cuter. And since Smartass could understand that meaning directly through chat, he couldn't help finding the slime even sweeter and more adorable.

▷Hang on. I'll roast you some more.

[Noblesse Fire]▶Looks like that bastard Smartass has already fallen victim to Squishy.

[Madam Cat's Cradle]▶Squishy's cuteness is practically cheating, after all~.

▶Has Squishy wormed its way into your heart~?

▶What's so great about that pathetic slime? Are you all fucking blind?

▶[♬I'm the Strongest~♬ has been kicked.]

▶Troll eliminated!

+++

CLOP-CLOP.

A carriage was traveling from the Mage Tower to the Holy City. Inside sat Amelia, Paulen, and Gracie.

Why was Gracie accompanying them in a carriage bound for the Holy City? The reason was the lich—or rather, the slime Smartass had taken away.

Publicly, the fact that the lich had taken a slime hadn't caused much of a stir. The biggest topic wasn't the slime's abduction, but the appearance of a monster called a lich. And in the Mage Tower, the very heart of magic, no less! Naturally, concerns arose over the tower's security, and the question of what the lich wanted sent the entire tower into an uproar.

Even when Amelia, Paulen, and Gracie—the people who had been there—repeated the purpose the lich itself had stated, people didn't readily believe them. Of course they didn't. It was a lich! A creature said to be the final, fallen state of a great mage! It was hard to imagine such a lich appearing for a reason as trivial as, “Oh! What an interesting slime! I'll take it!”

Instead, those who heard the three began speculating in other directions. Wasn't the slime merely an excuse? Hadn't it come to mock the mages of the present day? As proof, hadn't it stolen the beard of the master of the Mage Tower, the tower's highest authority? Or perhaps it had taken the Saintess's pet to mock not only the mages, but also the symbol of the Church, its enemy?

To everyone else, however, the slime was just an ordinary slime. They didn't consider it special and had never seen its tricks in the first place. Naturally, they couldn't believe the explanation that the lich had taken it because it was special.

Whatever the truth, the fact remained that a lich had appeared, and the Mage Tower had to take measures: measures to prevent it from invading the tower again, or to fight it if it did appear. The tower's older mages, excluding its master, held a meeting and racked their brains for countermeasures against the lich. Ordinarily, the master of the Mage Tower, Brooks Besilza, should have attended as well, but...

“My beard, m-my beard... Ah, ah, aaaaaah...!”

Brooks Besilza was too devastated by the loss of his beard to recover his senses. The young mages couldn't understand why he was making such a fuss over a mere missing beard. But the older mages who shared the tower master's circumstances—bearded men with sparse hair on their heads—sympathized with Brooks Besilza and accepted his reason for missing the meeting.

After the lich abducted the slime, Amelia shut herself away in her room for about a day, grieving over her helplessness and inability to do anything. Paulen, too, felt pathetic. Even if Amelia's safety had to be his first priority, he had been able to do nothing but watch his precious workout companion meekly get taken away by the lich.

Meanwhile, Gracie...

'My paaaaaaper!'

...had plunged into the depths of despair. The slime's abduction? Of course it was sad and unfortunate. But what weighed on Gracie most was that she had completely lost the means to substantiate her paper. After all, her family's funding depended on the paper she had to prove.

Gracie knew it herself: without evidence, her paper would be dismissed as utterly preposterous nonsense. To substantiate it, she needed solid evidence or a witness. The slime, her evidence, had been abducted by the lich. The tower master, who would have been the most credible witness in the Mage Tower, had lost his mind. She had neither the monster that could prove her paper nor a person to vouch for it. At this rate, all the effort she had put into writing it would go to waste.

Write a different paper? She had decided to write one after seeing the slime use a magical device precisely because she couldn't think of another topic. Even if she tried to write a new paper now, she had exhausted her concentration writing about the slime and magical devices. And there was no guarantee a new paper would receive a better evaluation than the one she had already written.

Then there was only one option.

'The slime... I have to find Quivery!'

The lich had said it would release the slime once it lost interest. There was no knowing when that would be.

But this was a lich. Though it was called a mage's final fate, objectively speaking, it was a highly intelligent monster. However unusual a slime Quivery might be, she didn't think a monster of the lich's caliber would remain interested for long.

'Once it's released, we'll be able to find it quickly. There can't be another slime so fascinating and friendly toward people!'

Then who would be able to find it fastest when those rumors spread? The mages of the Mage Tower? No. Right now, they were interested only in the lich and attached no importance to the slime.

'If they knew how unusual Quivery was, they'd pay more attention, but...'

The mages holding the meeting now had neither seen the slime in person nor read Gracie's paper. They were busy enough devising countermeasures; how could they spare the time to read a paper? It might be different if the tower master recovered his senses and supported her, but even Gracie could see that he would need a considerable amount of time to return to his right mind. That meant the people she could rely on now were Amelia and Paulen.

'I have to go with them!'

Gracie flung open the door of the villa where the two were staying and made her plea.

“Saintess! Paladin! Please take me with you when you go to the Holy City! I want to find Quivery as soon as possible, too!”

“Miss Gracie, I never imagined you cared so deeply for Quivery! Ah! I feel ashamed of myself!”

“Gracie...! You're right. We can't keep wallowing in despair over how helpless we are!”

“... Huh?”

And though she hadn't intended it, Gracie's request became vital fuel for the fire of Paulen's and Amelia's resolve.