An oral tradition of a Native American tribe.
An old chief once left the young warriors with this advice before a campfire.
「When you look upon another, first erase the shadow reflected in your own eyes.」
It was a teaching to cast aside the veil of prejudice and face the other person in full.
What is visible is not everything, and truth is always hidden within the stillness of what lies beneath.
I was now about to experience a new encounter in a new world.
What story awaited me outside the nest that had opened for the first time in hundreds of years?
***
THUMP, THUMP.
My first outing since awakening as a slime.
I had left the nest with an excited heart, but good grief! To think that sharp murderous intent awaited me there instead of a friendly welcome......!
I contemplated the situation before me and organized what had happened moments earlier.
For someone as unfamiliar with the surrounding geography as me, Airi had kindly cast a guidance spell.
A translucent butterfly scattering brilliant golden dust had been flying leisurely before me.
I had bounced along after its elegant path.
The refreshing scent of the forest pleasantly brushed across my soft jelly surface.
'Phytoncides are excellent for maintaining slime skin.'
I continued onward for a while, humming that silly joke.
Before long, the golden butterfly stopped beating its wings and disappeared in a shower of light.
A forest clearing encircled by dense trees.
Warm sunlight gently shattered between the leaves as it fell.
In the center of that peaceful scene.
There was a small, slender girl wearing a pure white ceremonial veil.
The thin fabric fluttered precariously whenever the wind blew. Her bangs fell low, leaving only her tightly closed lower face barely visible.
'Could this possibly be a human sacrifice?'
I made my core tremble faintly and calmly assessed the situation.
A human sacrifice.
Not valuables or jewels.
They had offered a living child as a sacrifice before the nest.
It was a barbaric custom that had not been uncommon among the ancient civilizations of Earth.
And this was another world, where unfathomable disparities in power existed.
This was the last resort chosen by a weaker race to appease the wrath of a Dragon, an apex predator.
It was a cruel story, but understandable when I considered that this was an age in which the strong devoured the weak.
'What should I do with her? Should I take her into the nest?'
For the moment, I bounced my round body one step closer to the girl.
I flexibly rippled my transparent jelly surface and sent out the gentlest kind of wave.
Gently vibrating my core, I politely attempted to speak with her.
"Hello, little lady? I have come as the representative of a Great Being......"
But my friendly greeting did not reach its end.
Sharpened murderous intent erupted from her entire body like a beast of prey targeting its quarry.
Two daggers imbued with blue light slid smoothly from her sleeves.
SWISH—!
The girl kicked off the ground and closed the distance in an instant.
Amazing elasticity burst from her small frame.
Her daggers twisted along strange trajectories and hurtled viciously toward me.
The instant the silver blades touched my round body.
I bent my jelly and let her sword strikes slide through empty air.
Then I spun my body like a top and leisurely retreated.
"Oh, that was a fairly sharp blow. But your thrusting angle is a little sloppy."
"......"
The girl's gaze seemed to waver for a moment at the sight of a slime speaking the human tongue fluently. But she soon steadied her eyes again.
Only her determined gaze pierced sharply toward my core from behind the veil.
She rolled across the ground and lowered her stance before unleashing a keen series of thrusts at my lower half.
SWISH, SWISH—!
Crisp sounds of air being split erupted without pause.
Using my flexible viscosity, I smoothly deflected the attacks as though gliding past them.
It was a succession of graceful evasive movements, like droplets of water flowing down a leaf.
The dagger blades failed to touch my jelly even once.
Her attacks were fairly sharp and skillful.
Compared with other children her age, her talent deserved to be praised as truly exceptional.
But such shallow moves could not work against me, an S-Grade Hunter with supreme talent who had been called the God of War.
If I wished, I could draw up my mana and dispose of her in an instant.
But this child was, after all, the offering Airi awaited.
Carelessly laying a hand on her would be troublesome.
I moderately dispersed the mana I had condensed within my jelly and firmly prepared to absorb the external impacts.
Holding back was a luxury only the strong could enjoy, but I now possessed more than enough strength to do so.
The girl's attacks continued.
She kicked off the ground with her toes and soared into the air.
Her slender body spun like a top and scattered sharp winds in every direction.
'Is this wind magic unique to the nymph tribe?'
Leaves tore away, and dust on the ground whirled violently.
An ordinary low-level demonic beast would have been carved apart and had its core shattered in an instant.
But I could see the trajectories of the wind with perfect clarity.
BOING, BOOOUNCE—!
I rebounded from the floor and made my jelly body swim through the air as though dancing.
I precisely slipped into the tiny blind spots between the incoming blades of wind.
Senses pushed to their limit, movements like those of a seasoned dancer. My blue jelly twisted geometrically.
At the end of that precarious aerial display, the wind blades merely brushed harmlessly past my transparent body.
"You are putting too much force into it. Relax your shoulders and use the recoil from your lower body."
I annoyingly offered advice while turning lightly through the air.
SLICE—!
A dagger that followed behind cut through the afterimage where I had been.
I could see a tendon bulging along the girl's clenched jaw.
All her attacks were being toyed with by a mere slime.
That profound despair was gradually making her movements impatient and clumsy.
'Why is she so desperate?'
I lightly let another sword strike slide past and quietly sank into thought.
A sacrifice offered up in a ritual would ordinarily tremble in fear and flee.
But instead of running away, this child was obsessed with ending my life.
As if she could survive only if I fell.
'Or was she given some absurd order to assassinate the Dragon?'
It was a reckless yet heartrending resistance.
If so, it was a truly pitiful and foolish idea. With skill at this level, she could not properly face even me, let alone Airi.
"Haa, haa......!"
Beads of sweat formed across the panting girl's brow.
It was a sign that her mana was running dry, and her anxiety seeped thickly through the veil.
She bit down hard on her lip and greatly lowered her stance, as though about to make one final gamble.
Heavily condensed wind mana whirled at the tips of the daggers clutched in both hands.
Her unwavering resolve had been honed into them, and the silver blades flew as though melting into the air.
THUMP—!
The girl kicked off the earth and charged at me with fierce momentum.
Like an enraged beast, she spun her entire body and rushed toward my center.
The two blades crossed, and the friction of the wind rang sharp enough to tear my eardrums.
I did not evade.
Instead, I sprang upward like a coil from where my body had lain flat against the ground.
BOOM—!
Just before the blades touched my body, I used my jelly's elasticity to lightly knock aside the flats of the daggers.
The sword strikes lost their direction and futilely sliced through empty air.
"Ah......!"
A short exclamation of dismay escaped the girl's mouth.
Her footing slipped as her balance collapsed.
A defenseless opening lay fully exposed before me.
Her skills were rather fierce and her persistence impressive, but it was time to bring this commotion to an end.
THUMP—!
I kicked off the floor, leaped, and tightly condensed the mana in my core.
I added a gentle spin in midair.
Following a light arc, I landed gracefully behind the girl.
The instant she hurriedly drew back her daggers and tried to turn.
I lightly struck the back of her neck with the soft tip of my jelly, all mana withdrawn.
THUD—.
A dull impact.
The girl's body lost its strength and crumpled to the ground like a feather.
It had been a fairly flashy exchange, yet I had subdued her cleanly without inflicting a single wound.
"Phew, sorry. Still, you should not be hurt."
I puffed my round jelly to its fullest in place and savored my satisfying victory.
I shook my body elastically from side to side in an adorable celebration.
The echoes of battle subsided, and peaceful silence settled over the clearing again.
Only the whisper of leaves in the wind filled the stillness.
'This really is strange, though.'
I approached the girl lying on the ground and tilted my round head.
Her slender hands still gripped the dagger hilts tightly even in unconsciousness.
Such desperate resistance.
It was like the final struggle of a warrior who had given everything up and braced herself for death.
"Sigh, my very first assignment is not an easy one."
I sighed lightly and looked down at the fallen girl.
The daggers clutched tightly in her slender hands.
What unavoidable circumstances could possibly have been hidden behind her actions?
The round cheek visible beneath the veil belonged to nothing more than a slender, youthful girl.
'I cannot stay here like this, at any rate.'
I vibrated my core and reached a firm conclusion. If something unusual occurred, the proper attitude for a manager was to report it to the owner.
Stretching out my jelly, I gently wrapped it around the girl's waist and rolled toward the nest.
I could only hope the ride in this soft slime taxi would not be too uncomfortable.
BOING, BOUNCE!
With the unconscious girl resting atop my head, I lightly retraced the forest path.
Despite the bout of combat, the way back to the nest was remarkably peaceful.
A faint floral fragrance drifted on the passing breeze.
The girl's even breathing atop my head formed a pleasant rhythm.
***
I returned to the nest.
In Airi's chambers, suffused with mysterious blue light, the soft warmth emitted by Supreme-Grade Mana Stones cozily filled the room.
I carefully laid the unconscious girl upon a soft cushion.
"Hmm. You have brought back an intriguing offering."
Airi asked in a languid voice with her chin propped on one hand.
Her gaze glittered with curiosity as she held a fragrant teacup.
"There was a minor incident outside."
I bounced my round body and calmly explained what had happened outside.
I told her about the girl left there alone, the sudden ambush, and how I subdued her without injury.
As Airi listened, her amethyst eyes narrowed with interest.
"Hmm. What a rather audacious child."
"I controlled my strength to ensure she was not hurt."
"Hehe, Yuri, you are so generous of heart...... However."
Airi set down her teacup and smiled languidly.
I quietly blinked my core and waited for her next action.
Her amethyst gaze carefully swept over my transparent body from head to toe.
It was a deep, tender gaze, as though she feared some rare treasure might have been scratched.
"My first concern is whether you were hurt, rather than that child's well-being. If my precious representative had suffered so much as a scratch, I would have burned the entire forest outside to ash this instant."
"......"
A chilling, weighty sincerity lay within her gentle voice. My core trembled involuntarily at her merciless yet warm affection for me.
"Thanks to you, I am perfectly clean, without so much as a speck of dust on me."
My mood lifting, I pretended to smile brightly and reassured her.
Only after confirming I was safe did Airi nod in apparent relief.
Airi rose and approached the girl.
Her white fingertips lightly brushed the edge of the veil as a faint smile crossed her lips.
"To think she dared attack you, my representative. Is that not truly insolent?"
Her low voice gently reverberated through the chamber.
Airi turned her head and quietly looked at me.
"What punishment should I give you for audaciously attacking Yuri?"
I tilted my round head and waited for her next words.
Airi smiled and whispered affectionately.
"Yuri."
"Yes."
"You have worked terribly hard managing the nest alone."
"Not particularly, I have not...... Yes."
I was a rather perceptive slime.
It took less than 1 second for an affirmative answer to spring out.
"Yes, let me see. This should do nicely. Once this child wakes, why not make her your slave? Keep her close and work her as much as you please."
It was gentle, warm consideration directed toward me.
However, the word that flowed from her lovely lips was rather chilling and radical.
The whim of granting an offered sacrifice to a slime.
To a Dragon called a primordial mystery, the circumstances of insignificant mortals did not matter.
Perhaps this was the absolute law of the strong devouring the weak, simple common sense in another world.
The assassin who had sought my neck moments ago was suddenly fated to become my assistant.
The strange reversal of our power dynamic tickled my core.
The thought of gaining an assistant was an exceptionally tempting and sweet proposal.
Clearing and managing the vast nest's debris was harder manual labor than I had expected.
There was nothing wrong with gaining a pleasant nymph assistant to keep me company and help with odd jobs, was there?
That was when it happened.
"Mmm......"
A faint groan escaped between the lips of the girl lying on the cushion.
Her lightly lowered, pale eyelashes began trembling faintly.
She would add a little tension to my daily life in the nest, which had finally begun finding peace.
A new bond was awakening.