Anyway, I’ve got to be able to handle my power perfectly.
When Dojin had pulled him into his arms, his power had stopped properly for the very first time. All he’d done was fret himself sick over Dojin’s skin melting too, and pray with everything he had. I did it, but how on earth did I do it? I’ve got no idea?
The slime tilted his head this way and that for a good long while.
“I’m back.”
The moment he stepped inside, the silence of the place rolled over him. Don’t tell me... Dojin’s eyes darkened. He swept the nest with a sharp gaze, and the instant he spotted the slime far off, stretched out on the blanket and snoring away, the edge went out of him and a smile touched his mouth.
What, he was asleep?
His expression soft, he headed over. There the slime lay, round body out in the open, breathing in little purring snores. The middle of him swelled and sank, swelled and sank, in a steady rhythm. Dead to the world, no question about it.
Swsh.
Dojin draped the clean new blanket over the slime. Then he lay down beside him, propped his head on his elbow, and watched him sleep.
He could look for ages and never feel anything like boredom. So he went on watching the slime for a long, long while.
In the dim light, the slime stirred. Dojin turned his head at once. Not far off, the slime was bustling about, folding up the bedding.
“Sleep well?”
“...”
Still no answer to anything he said.
“Leave the bedding, I’ll fold it. Want to eat?”
The slime made a show of looking anywhere else, turning away, playing oblivious, and then he started bouncing off, away from Dojin. Watching that round back go, Dojin spoke low.
“I told you not to go.”
He stopped dead.
The slime flinched at the low tone that had slipped out. Dojin softened his voice again.
“Do it next to me. Whatever it is. You will, won’t you?”
The slime snuck a glance at Dojin’s face, then shuffled hesitantly over to his side. He seemed to waver a moment, then folded himself over, gathered up a pile of twigs, and dumped them all in one spot. And hopped up on top of them.
Ssssss...
As the twigs began to melt, the slime suddenly made a strange little sound, hop!, and braced his whole body. And just like that, the erosion stopped.
“That’s a lot better.”
At the first praise in ages, a faint blush bloomed through the slime’s body. Dojin picked up one of the half-melted twigs and examined it. Definitely better than before. The range had shrunk and the speed was about right.
But it’s still not enough.
He was in the middle of that thought when a cough tore out of him without warning. Hack, hack. The coughing showed no sign of letting up and only got worse. The slime circled him in a flustered panic. A long while later, Dojin lowered the hand he’d clamped over his mouth and, face gone bloodless, pulled his lips into a smile.
“Something went down the wrong way, I guess. ...Keep practicing.”
The slime leaned toward him, worried, but Dojin got up and headed for the pool. Pretending to drink, he rinsed away what had smeared across his palm. Watching the round little jelly throw himself back into practice from a distance, he thought:
The slime needs to get a handle on his power, and fast.
Because...
Dojin cut a glance down at his hand.
Traces of bright red blood were running down the lines of his palm.
Normally the slime caught this sort of thing in a heartbeat, but when he was concentrating on his power every nerve in him seemed to go that way, and his nose stopped working. Thank heaven for small mercies.
Not much time left.
Low on strength no longer covered it. He could feel it on instinct now: the life was draining out of his body.
Once he was gone, the slime would have to protect himself alone. A bare minimum of offensive ability was essential.
He never wanted to see the slime torn up and covered in blood like last time. Granted, last time he’d been the cause himself. The sight of anyone else doing that to the slime, he could stand even less.
...When the last moment comes, I’ll have to make him believe I went outside, one way or another.
Thinking it, Dojin took in the slime’s round back. Having pulled the power off, the slime flashed bright with delight. The light was so pretty that Dojin couldn’t look away.
Before sleep, he talked with the slime for the first time in a while.
“Were you watching me from the very beginning?”
...Moong...
It wasn’t until he met the slime that Dojin found out he was the kind of human who could do this. Normally he didn’t even want to open his mouth, didn’t see the need to exchange a word with anyone. It was a wonder to him too.
“Then you saw all of it. Including me getting done over like a complete idiot.”
...Moo-moong!
The slime shot upright as if to say, what kind of talk is that? At the sight of him shaking his head and hollering something, Dojin laughed low and stroked the round body.
“Idiotic is idiotic. What else am I supposed to call it?”
Koong-koong, kkoo!
The slime stretched his body up tall and made sounds like he was scolding him. Strangely, it was almost as though Dojin could hear his voice. As though he were shouting that those people were the bad ones, that it was those people he should be cursing out. Dojin laughed, the sound rumbling in his throat.
“You’re probably the only thing in this world that’ll take my side.”
The slime cocked his head, and Dojin lay flat down beside him, one arm tucked behind his head, looking up at the ceiling.
“Outside is just another battlefield. The hunter world’s pretty cutthroat too. Plenty of guys out there calculating and weighing every move. In some ways your kind’s better than humans, honestly.”
At least you don’t lie or con anybody.
The slime wobbled from side to side as if he didn’t understand. Truly, more human than a human. Watching him quietly, Dojin suddenly remembered a rumor he’d heard a while back.
“There’s a rumor from overseas that monsters are imitating humans and talking.”
“...!”
The slime’s body spiked up in a point. Looking at that clear blue color, Dojin imagined the slime as a human.
“If you were human...”
The circle froze as if it had condensed in on itself. Somehow he looked nervous.
“I think I’d hate it.”
“...!”
It felt like shock. Was he disappointed? Dojin reached out and touched the sphere.
“I like you the way you are. As a slime.”
“...”
“If you’d been human, I don’t think I could ever have trusted you like this. Humans are pretty complicated creatures, and... sometimes they’re rotten.”
He didn’t trust people.
Open your mouth and out come lies and slander. A world where they’d slice your nose off while you watched them do it.
If a human had saved him, he’d probably still be suspicious of them even now. It was precisely because it was a slime, pure and knowing nothing, that he could hand himself over completely and trust.
“I’m glad it was you who saved me.”
He said it like a line of soliloquy, then looked at the slime again. A flush rose through that round body, yet it still seemed somehow rigid. Complicated feelings ran straight up through the transparent flesh and showed themselves. He couldn’t be certain what the slime was thinking, but just looking at him put Dojin at ease.
Dojin gazed blankly at the slime for a while, fiddling at the base of his throat. A silver chain of dog tags came up hooked on his fingers. It was something the slime had never seen before, and his attention fixed on it, curious. Dojin looked at him and explained.
“If we ever end up apart, I’ll give you this.”
Moong?
“One for you, one for me.”
A faint light came off the slime’s body. Apparently the idea of splitting the same thing between them pleased him.
A dumb slime who can’t even hide what he feels. But that’s exactly why I can lean on him like this.
Dojin quietly rested his forehead against the slime’s body. Then he closed his eyes.
A moment later, he felt the slime pull the blanket over himself too. Silence closed around the two of them soon after.
That night, Dojin’s condition took a turn for the worse.
Maybe his body had lost its grip on regulating temperature, because the chills were brutal. No wind blew in the dungeon, and the temperature never shifted. If anything it seemed to have crept up a little lately, and yet Dojin felt a biting, savage cold.
Mowoong...
The slime came whimpering over with a cup of water. “Thanks,” he said in a small voice, and drained it, but the cold only kept sinking deeper with no sign of letting up. In the end Dojin pushed himself to his feet.
“This isn’t working. Let’s go to the other pool.”
Koo.
The closer they got to the pool, the more a trace of warmth made itself felt. The water temperature there had risen slightly in recent days. He’d thought about it last time too: it really was a strange thing.
Dojin moved his feet slowly, staggering, driven by the single thought of getting his hands and feet into warm water at the very least.
When he reached the pool, a thin steam was rising off it. At the sight, his body felt as though it loosened a little. Dojin stepped closer and stretched out his hand toward the water. But a small movement blocked him.
He turned to look. The slime was clamped tight around his ankle, refusing to budge.
“What’s wrong?”
“...”
The slime gave no answer. The force gripping him only grew stronger. The behavior was odd enough that Dojin crouched down in front of him.
“What is it. Don’t tell me... are you feeling bad somewhere too?”
Boing, boing.
“Then what’s the matter. Did you leave the sheep head behind?”
Kkuung.
Whatever he asked, the only answer he got was no. I can’t take any more of this. It’s too cold. I honestly feel like I’m dying. Leaving the slime behind, clutching wildly at his clothes and his feet as if begging him to turn back, Dojin got up.
“Sorry. I’d like to do what you want, but I can’t right now. I’m really... struggling here.”
He finished speaking and turned around. And came face to face with it. A huge yellow eye with a torn slit of a pupil.
