Book 1: Chapter 5: (4)

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After a few minutes, I returned to the Japanese-style room again.

「I’m sorry, Master. I wanted to prove to you that I could become any gender」

「I-I beg of you, please just choose one」

After Ria fell asleep, I decided to talk to the white slime again.

Of course, I asked it to get rid of that 「thing」and wear the bloomers.

「I understand! I’ll become a female when I’m a female and a male when I’m a male! Also, I become bigger immediately when I eat human food!」

「I-is that so. Do you mean that you’ll become as big as a human?」

「Yes. If I transform I can become as big as a human being. I’ll fulfill any command that you give me, Master! Even dirty stuff!」

「No, that part’s fine. Why will you listen to my commands?」

「Because I’m a white slime.」

「What? Is that what white slimes are like?」

「That’s right」

「Could you please explain to me what that means?」

The white slime started telling me about its species.

It seemed that white slimes used to be species that lived together with human beings.

They transformed into things that the humans that owned them liked, and spent their days loved by humans. That was how white slimes lived.

But some of the people who knew about it started to use the white slimes for misdeeds.

The love-like feelings that white slimes had for their masters, as well as their power to transform into anything was good prey for bad people.

In the end, all the white slimes dove deep down into the hard dungeons where humans couldn’t reach them, transforming into walls and the ground to survive.

It was so that their feelings and powers wouldn’t be misused by the first human beings they saw.

「So that’s what happened.」

「But I really just can’t believe that all humans are bad. That’s why I didn’t listen to my friends when they tried to stop me and I climbed higher and higher up the dungeon.」

「And the first person you met was…」

「Yes! It’s you, Mr. Thor! I’m so happy I got to meet you, Mr. Thor! 」

But sorry. I’m not from the other world. I’m from Japan.

I tried to tell that to the slime, but the white slime, dressed like Ria, looked at me with a sparkle in its eyes.

「Hm? Wait a minute? What about that thing where you can transform into anything if you grow bigger?!」

「Are you talking about dirty things? If I grow bigger I can do that too! I can make internal organs and stuff as well!」

「No, not that—!」

I came up with an idea. It might just be possible that I could make use of the white slime’s transformation powers to do that thing.

「Hey, hey. If that’s so I’ll give you a lot of food. If I do that, can I ask you to do some things for me?」

「Yes! Of course! Even if you don’t give me food, I’ll listen to any command that you give me, Master!」

「No, I’d feel bad about that so let’s do this give-and-take style. For starters, what kind of foods do you like?」

「Any human food tastes good to me. And I heard from the adults that they are all very nutritious.」

I see. It seemed that the white slimes shared information among themselves about humans.

I guess that was only natural. There was no way that one wouldn’t share information among themselves about species that were closely related to themselves.

Especially since they seemed pretty smart.

「Well then, is it alright if I just go with the canned miso mackerel fish I bought for

dungeon exploration, some rice and some instant miso soup? I’ll make a salad for you too」

「I’ve never eaten those things, but I think it should be fine」

「I see. I have rice being kept warm so I can serve up the food right away.」

I placed a small cardboard box in the Japanese-style room. I then put some miso mackerel, rice, miso soup and salad on some small plates and serve it up for the slime.

「Thank you so much!」

The doll-sized Ria slime started to eat with a small fork.

「Mm~ This really is delicious!」

「I see, I see. That’s great. What do you usually eat?」

「I usually eat the moss in the dungeon, or the dead bodies of monsters. Although I don’t get to eat the dead bodies of monsters that much. Since the monsters deep in the dungeon rarely die」

「Then…does it taste good?」

「Yes!」

The white slime gulped the food down happily, but even though it was using a small fork, it was still too big for something the size of a doll, and it was struggling to eat.

「If it’s hard for you to eat like that then it’s alright if you just turn back into a slime as you eat」

「B-but I heard from the adults that masters will become angry if we don’t take the shape that our master likes the most.」

Ah—I see. So that’s how it is.

「I won’t get angry so you can just turn into a white slime」

What’s more, it might be pretty bad if Ria finds us like this, with the white slime looking like Ria.

There probably weren’t a lot of people who felt positively about people who played with a doll version of themselves.

「I understand」

The white slime who had turned back into its slime form sat on the food and started to absorb it.

It was translucent so it was interesting to watch the food enter its body and suddenly disappear when it got absorbed.

「By the way, do you have a name, white slime?」

It’ll probably be pretty inconvenient if it didn’t have a name.

The white slime stopped eating.

「I don’t…」

So it didn’t huh. But I wonder what the matter was. For some reason, it seemed to suddenly become really sad.

「Is it alright if I give you a name?」

「You’re going to give me a name?」

The white slime suddenly cheered up.

「Hm? Well I was just thinking that it’d be more convenient if you had one」

「I’m so happy! I heard that we all received names when we got along with human beings!」

The whtie slime’s body jiggled to express its joy.

「O-oh, is that so. Well then, what shall we name you? Hm—…oh. Since you usually turn into a droplet-like shape, how about Shizuku² as your name?」

The slimes from a certain game³ were essentially drops of water, so I thought that it’d be rather befitting.

「Shizuku…that’s such a cute name…I love it」

The white slime…I mean Shizuku started to jiggle.

「That’s great. Then from now on, I’ll call you Shizuku, alright?」

「Yes!」

「Oh, but that aside, Shizuku, is it just me or have you already gotten bigger?」

「Ah, you’re right.」

Shizuku’s body had visibly gotten bigger.

「So it’s like, when you eat, you grow bigger proportional to the amount that you eat.」

「I-I’m sorry. They didn’t tell me that I would grow bigger so quickly.」

Food from Japan had mysterious effects so it might be possible that it was also especially nutritious for slimes.

「No, it’s alright. It’s better for me if you could grow bigger so」

「Really? If that’s the case, I can still eat a lot more, so I can grow much bigger!」

Even though it was true that both Ria and I already ate, the rice cooker with 5 cups of rice was now completely empty.

And Shizuku’s size increased from that of a softball to that of a basketball.

「Wow—you really have gotten bigger」

「If I’m this big, I can transform into something the size of a human」

According to Shizuku, if we added a lot of bubbles, it could become the same size as a human being.

「Or I could also just take in a lot of water」

「Then let’s go to the bathroom!」

And thus, two people, I mean one person and one slime, had arrived at the bathroom.

「Is the water from the shower alright?」

「Yes! I will transform now!」

W-woahhhhh!

It was able to completely replicate how RIa looked like, down to the size. And the navy blue bloomers made a re-appearance as well.

「My body is a bit heavy but I think I have perfectly transformed into Miss Ria.」

「Your body is heavy?」

「There’s a lot more water in my body compared to before so I shall just adjust that by taking in more air」

I see. So it meant that it would be alright if it just became bigger.

「Can you still eat?」

「Yes! Master’s food is delicious. And I can eat as much as I want as a white slime!」

「Really? Well then I’ll go make more food」

I went to the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator.

Notes:

2. ‘Shizuku’ is the Japanese word for droplet

3. This is likely also in reference to the game ‘Dragon Quest’