There is an old saying.
History is the victor's spoils, a false canvas painted over by later generations.
「Truth wears away in the flow of time, and only the written word left behind rules the world.」
There was the memoir of a tyrant who had once united the continent.
He burned every record left by those he had massacred.
He preserved only the glorious epic of conquest he had written himself.
Time passed, and scholars of later generations praised him as a benevolent ruler.
It was a farce that unfolded after everyone who knew the truth had returned to the earth.
A cruelly ironic fragment of history born from oblivion and distortion.
Then what of the truth of the world I now faced?
The myths and legends everyone believed without question.
What lies and conspiracies were holding their breath behind that veil?
***
I was back in the Lounge.
Warm light from the brazier.
I quietly called the name of the girl who had pulled a blanket over herself and was pretending to sleep.
The small shoulders that had tried to avoid the truth with clumsy acting flinched rigid at my call.
The subtle fragrance of herbs filled the room. Steam curled from a teacup.
Adele and I sat facing each other in silence across a round wooden table.
"You make good tea. I feel a little warmer inside."
I carefully brought my jelly to the rim of the teacup.
Sip.
The hot tea flowed pleasantly into my transparent body.
Blue mana bubbled inside my jelly and digested the tea in an instant.
It was a strange sensation, like dissolving gelatin in boiling water.
Would a Slime's insides cook if it drank hot tea?
That had worried me a little at first.
Fortunately, my core could easily withstand this much heat.
"......I'm glad it suits your taste."
Adele watched in wonder as bubbles burst inside my body.
Then she fidgeted with her teacup and bowed her head deeply.
Her nervousness was obvious.
I did not press her, waiting until she opened her mouth of her own accord.
She too merely watched my reaction and fidgeted with her tiny fingers.
An awkward silence weighed heavily between us. At last, the right moment came.
"Adele, stop hiding it and answer me honestly now."
I quietly set down my teacup. It was time to hear the answers to the questions I had carried until now.
The girl's gaze, which had drifted through the air for a moment, settled upon my transparent body.
The girl hesitated, but I quietly stared at the anxiety pooled in her eyes.
I had no intention of letting this pass. I had to learn the source of the hostility she had shown and the reason behind it.
"I want to hear why you felt hostile toward me when we first met."
"That's because...... I was told Fafnir was an evil Dragon who burned down forests."
Squeeze. Adele's hands slowly curled upon her lap.
"Airi was an evil Dragon......"
I nodded my round jelly. Her answer did not fall outside the bounds of my expectations.
But before that, there was one point I needed to clarify.
Until now, I had remained in the nest without knowing even the most basic common knowledge of this world.
"Adele, you see, I'm a Slime who's spent his whole life rolling around inside the nest. I don't know much about the outside world."
"Yes......?"
"This land where we live. I mean, does the world outside this nest have a name of its own?"
Adele's eyes widened at my abrupt question.
She looked a little flustered, but soon opened her mouth cautiously.
"Eda...... People call this continent Eda."
"Eda."
I quietly contemplated the name. In this world called Eda, it seemed the name Fafnir was regarded as an utterly terrible calamity.
"Can you tell me how Airi, no, Fafnir is portrayed in Eda?"
Adele's lips trembled faintly.
She lowered her voice as far as it would go, as though speaking of a taboo that should never pass her lips.
"A ferocious calamity that tried to destroy the world, a black Dragon who turned everything to ash...... According to legend, every time Fafnir breathed out, mountain ranges collapsed and kingdoms burned."
An exaggerated legend.
The typical product of a reign of terror.
I swallowed a hollow laugh at her words. She collapsed mountain ranges and burned kingdoms?
Exaggeration on this scale was practically an art form. The Airi I knew had been a pacifist who crunched on star candy atop a plush cushion.
"Adele, do I look like the minion of a terrifying Demon King to you?"
"What? N-no! Absolutely not!"
The girl jumped in surprise and waved her hands frantically.
"Lord Yuri is...... just, um. Round and adorable......"
"Good, that's all I needed."
I stretched out my jelly and tapped on the teacup.
"A vicious evil Dragon would never choose round, soft jelly as its representative, would it? Common sense says it would have used a hellhound with three or so horns or a demon as its gatekeeper."
A faint smile spread across Adele's stiff lips at my silly joke.
The rigid atmosphere softened considerably.
It was excellent lubrication, and I used the opening to work my way naturally toward the heart of the matter.
"So that was why you offered a tribute when Airi's nest opened."
"......Yes, that's right."
As the conversation proceeded smoothly.
A sudden question flashed through my mind, and I brought it up.
"But now that I think about it, why did someone dragged into the lair of such a vicious evil Dragon as a sacrifice attack me without warning when we first met in the forest?"
Adele's narrow shoulders flinched at my pointed question. She dropped her gaze to the floor and, after a moment, answered in a voice that barely escaped her throat.
"I thought...... if I was going to be offered as a sacrifice anyway, I was as good as dead. So before I died, I wanted to put up one last struggle......"
The desperate struggle of someone who sensed her death approaching.
I understood that feeling well enough.
But a deep question still remained in my mind.
To appease a calamity that reduced the world to ashes, they had offered a single young girl as a sacrifice.
There was no possibility that tossing over one little girl could soothe the brutal nature of a vicious evil Dragon capable of collapsing mountain ranges.
Moreover, had the nymphs not continued living together in the forest without incident even after the nest opened?
"But if that was the case, haven't the nymphs survived until now by relying on the mercy of that evil Dragon?"
"......"
Adele pressed her lips tightly together, utterly speechless.
Airi had generously forgiven her even after she attacked me, Airi's emissary.
The blind terror planted inside her mind clashed with the truth she had experienced herself, leaving confusion written across her face.
I nudged the teacup slightly forward.
"If Airi had been an evil Dragon, everything around the nest would have been completely devastated. But far from it, this place was remarkably peaceful."
Adele's eyes slowly widened.
"Thanks to the waves of mana flowing from this nest, the nymphs are safe from the threat of higher-level demonic beasts and can live hidden in the forest. In other words, Airi served as a reliable shield for them."
Combining everything I knew so far made the answer clear.
Someone was deliberately spreading vicious rumors about Airi to incite the forest races against her.
I spoke to the girl with conviction.
"More than anyone else, you know that. When you first set foot in this nest, you woke in a soft bed. Airi even had me serve you bread and soup."
The girl's shoulders flinched at my calm observation.
It was an undeniable fact.
Far too tender and warm for mercy shown to a sacrifice offered as tribute.
"I knew...... I knew it too."
Adele's voice trembled faintly.
The false legend that had ruled her entire life clashed with the truth she had experienced in the nest over the past few days.
"The terrifying evil Dragon the village elders spoke of was nowhere to be found. Instead, she kept me close and protected me with kindness."
She gripped the hem of her skirt and lowered her head.
"That's why I was confused. It felt as though the truth I had believed my entire life had been denied wholesale......"
The weight of that truth must have been overwhelming for a young girl.
I stretched out my transparent jelly and lightly patted the back of the girl's trembling hand.
The soft texture of my jelly gently touched her.
"It wasn't your fault. Cowards merely created a terrifying monster to disguise their own cowardice."
We continued exchanging questions and answers for quite some time afterward. Adele explained in detail how she had come to stay in the nymph village.
"The nymphs took me in when I was wandering through the forest and dying."
"I see. So they saved you."
"Yes. They always shared the softest bread and sweet fruit with me. They warmly cared for me even though I was an outsider."
A faint warmth filled the girl's eyes.
"So when the nest opened and terror descended upon the forest, I stepped forward."
"You volunteered to become the sacrifice?"
I tilted my round head. It was a noble act of self-sacrifice to repay a debt of gratitude.
"Yes. The nymphs tried to stop me, but it was the only thing I could do for the people who saved my life."
Pure devotion.
The courage of a child willing to walk into certain death for those who had taken her in.
It was a flawlessly pure soul, utterly unlike the hideous traitors I had seen countless times in the Black Tower.
I made my core vibrate gently.
As questions and answers passed between us, the scattered pieces gradually found their places.
To begin with the conclusion, the nymphs were not the masterminds behind the incident either.
They too were merely pitiful survivors deceived by a vicious legend someone had spread and left trembling in fear.
Unfortunately, Adele's knowledge of the world amounted to no more than what one might find in a children's storybook.
"......Lord Yuri?"
Adele flinched and shrank back at my deep silence. She looked plainly flustered, worried that she might have caused some serious problem.
Oops. Had my thoughts shown too clearly on the surface of my jelly?
"Ahem, ahem, it's nothing."
I hurriedly rolled my core and pretended nothing was wrong. Clearing the awkward air, I organized my next course of action based on the information I had obtained.
It would be difficult to expect any further clues from Adele.
In that case, I had to investigate the source that had planted this warped blind faith in the forest races.
I concluded that I needed to visit the nymph village said to be hidden on the outskirts of the forest and gather information.
There would surely be a clue there that would help me pursue the mastermind.
At last, the stage where my newly acquired Imitation skill would prove its true worth had been decided.
With the framework of my plan in place, I turned my gaze back to the girl.
One last thing remained to be confirmed.
"Adele."
"Yes, Lord Yuri."
"The master of the nest who protected you is gone now. What do you intend to do from here?"
It was not a question demanding anything grand like her loyalty.
Now that Airi was gone.
I was asking honestly whether she would remain in the nest with me or leave in search of her own life.
If she wished to leave the nest and seek freedom.
I intended to gladly escort her safely out of the forest.
Whatever the case, she too was merely a pitiful victim sacrificed to a false legend.
The air in the Lounge settled heavily at my question.
Both hands clutching the hem of the girl's skirt turned white.
After a moment, her tightly pressed lips cautiously opened.
"I......!"