CH 346

Chapter 346 – Chatting With Lime and the Others

It is the next morning. No, to be precise, it is already noon.

Eh? What did I do last night, you ask? Well, don’t ask me that. I was away from the castle for a while, so there was no way I was free at night. You can guess from the fact that I was stuck on the bed until this time.

Anyway, Sylphy was very sweet and cute last night. However, I wonder if she has too much energy due to too much desk work these days… Yeah, it was hard work.

I took a midday bath, not a morning bath, prepared myself, and had a late lunch. Well, I’m having a late lunch, but since I don’t have time with other people, I have a hamburger from my inventory in my room.

“You didn’t eat lunch?”

“I have a special place in my stomach for hamburgers.”

“I see.”

While I was eating, Grande appeared from somewhere, so I served her a hamburger, too. Well, it was much better than eating alone. Maybe she just got caught up in her appetite, but I’m grateful to her.

“Well, now that I’ve eaten… so I need to get a head start, right? What a pain in the ass.”

“Why don’t you just ignore the manners of the people? You are my companion, you know. In other words, you are like a dragon. Dragons are free to do as they please, oblivious to the rules of the people.”

“That may be true, but as long as I live among the people, I have to follow the rules of the people to a certain extent. Otherwise, I’ll be scolded. For example, by Melty.”

“We should follow the rules of the people. Yes.”

The moment Melty’s name was mentioned, she responded passionately. In the case of Melty, “Meh!” could turn into “Destruction!” Because Melty can break through a thick iron door with her bare hands and tear it open. If you get hit by such a thing, you will probably die, common sense dictates.

“So, what are you going to do?”

“Well, I was thinking of going to the embassy of the Varyag Empire. I’ll give them a heads up.”

I clap my hands.

“Hmm?”

Grande tilted her head at my sudden action, but while she was doing so, Lime appeared from the corner of the room.

“Did you call for me?”

“I called, I called.”

“What’s the matter?”

Lime approached me with a smiling face. Slimes are generally thought of as slow, but Lime and the others are not like that at all. They are usually fast. Probably faster than I can run.

“I’ve got something for Lime and the others.”

“Wow!”

I take out from my inventory the various things I bought for souvenirs and give them to Lime. I took out some food and fruits from the stalls, which I had wrapped, and a book. Lime and the others are not able to wear jewelry, and they have no use for cosmetics, so most of the gifts for them are food and books.

Beth is the only one who prefers oils, so I buy her a variety of local oils, whether vegetable oils or animal fats and give them to her. Poizo would be happy to have some kind of poison, but poison is not something that is sold very often… When I hunt a monster that has poison, I just give her its corpse or a bag of poison. If I give something like that here, a horrifying scene will unfold of Lime taking the corpse of a monster into her body and moving to the basement, so I’m not going to do it.

“Hmm, are you going to the underground?”

“Right. I want to go out, so can you tell the embassy of the Varyag empire to give me a heads up?”

“Okay.”

Lime and the others are hiding in the castle, so if I ask them to pass on a message like this, they will pass it on to the right person. They are very reliable slimes.

Incidentally, the person in charge of guarding the castle differs depending on the day. Today it was Lime who was in charge, but it could be Beth or Poizo, depending on the day.

“Grande, you’re not going?”

“I’ll pass. The underground of this castle is their territory. I should keep out of their territory.”

“I see. I’ll go then. If anyone asks, tell them I’m in the underground.”

“Yes.”

We parted ways with Grande and headed for the underground. Naturally, I am carried by Lime, who has grown bigger, but it is a common sight in this castle, so no one is already surprised. Since when is it like this, you ask? When I am carried like this, people just look at me as if to say, “Again, huh?”

“H-huh? Is that okay?”

“Don’t worry about it. It happens all the time.”

On the way, we were spotted by some beast women in maid uniforms, but Leviera-san brushed it off as a usual thing. Yes, it’s always the same.

And so we descended from several―for some reason there are really several―entrances to the basement to the underground passage and arrived at Lime and the others’ sleeping quarters, which were illuminated by magic light.

“Welcome back. You were busy yesterday.”

“And you have the nerve to treat Poizo and the others with such indifference-nanodesu.”

I don’t treat you that way. I just woke up, had some food, and here I am.”

“You were actually planning to go out to the embassy-nanodesu.”

“I thought about going, but I wanted to see Poizo and the others first, which is why I called Lime.”

If I don’t feel like it, I can just tell the royal guard who is waiting outside my room about it.

And while I was exchanging with Poizo like that, Beth clapped her hands. She’s so dexterous, isn’t she?

“Yes, yes, that’s enough. As it turns out, Kosuke did come to visit us, so I’m not going to sulk.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Nodding happily, Lime literally envelops my body with her whole body. I honestly think this perfect amount of neither cold nor hot nor uncomfortable is awesome.

“Then let’s open the souvenirs while talking about what happened on your business trip.”

“Wow, souvenirs!”

Taking out from my inventory the books I bought on my business trip – story books, magic books, etc., local specialties, food from food stalls, monsters we hunted, etc., telling what kind of store in what city I bought this from. Basically, the girls are only allowed to work in the underground of the castle and on the castle grounds, so they listen with great interest when I tell them about the outside world. Instead, I ask them about what has been going on at the castle over the past month. In this way, I can ask them about the past month in my absence, and they can ask me about the outside world.

While we were talking, it seemed that the advance notice to the embassy was over, so I decided to leave Lime and the others and go to the embassy of the Varyag Empire.

The purpose of the visit was to show them that I had returned and to check on the status of the war between the Empire and the Holy Kingdom. Well, after that, I’d like to see the fox bastard’s face and have a cup of tea.

No, there are plenty of people at the castle if I just want to have a cup of tea, but it’s basically all women… Not to be casual, but that’s the only place where I can talk to other men now. Sir Leonard and Danan are no longer in Merinesburg, and Worg and other people I used to talk to are either in the north or working in management positions in various places around the country.

So I decided to go to the embassy with my escort, Shumel, Bella, Tozume, and the harpies.