■ June ╳╳
Recently, the days have been really long and the nights really short. I even heard that if you go farther north, it’s daylight all day. Literally! But in the winter it’s the opposite, and always dark. It’s so strange.
But it’s the season when the days are their longest, and all the humans hold festivals. They dance, they sing, they eat delicious food, and they pray for a good harvest in the fields and lots of bounties in the mountains. All the humans are getting ready for such festivals and they’re really excited about it.
Slimes, meanwhile, live that kind of life every single day. Literally! I wonder if humans think we slimes are eternally festive?
■ June ╳╳
Everybody was looking forward to the festivals, but in the Blue Forest they spotted a Fenrir. Now everybody is worried. When I heard about it, it sounded to me a lot like a purple snow wolf. There aren’t many of them, and they’re a rare magical beast, but I’ve bumped into them a few times.
The humans are all bent out of shape because they don’t know what kind of magical beast it is or what it’s up to. They’re so scared, in fact, that lots of people who were planning to visit Brovito for the festival aren’t coming anymore. That’s why a knight in Brovito Village sent a request asking for adventurers to investigate.
But the purple snow wolves are never very rough or violent, so I don’t think they need to be so terrified. The snow wolf is probably more scared than any of them. That’s why they’ve run away whenever they’ve seen people. Also, the last purple snow wolf I met was really talkative. A bit of a weird one, sure, but still lots of fun.
Speaking of Brovito, my slimekin have been hanging out there a lot recently. They’re all friendly with the locals now, so every day’s a blast. When did that happen?
■ June ╳╳
We took a carriage to Brovito. I talked to the eight-legged horses pulling it, and they told me all the best spots to look out for. They told me that when you cross the first bridge, the pearl berry tree there always has one golden berry, and that past the next village there’s a big white phasmid that always pretends to be a washing line, and that the ravines look like a cute horse when seen through the forest.
And they were right about everything!
I was really surprised when we got to Brovito, because it really is filled with all my slimekin. They were all friendly with the humans and having fun going for walks with them or helping them at work. Some of the villagers had even made slimes their official familiars. I really wanted to talk to everyone and play, but I’m a slime with a job to do.
Let’s talk later, bros!
The knight who requested our help was Caspar, who we met during the snow wolf attack. Everything had finally started to calm down after that, and all of a sudden he had to deal with a new Fenrir problem. He really had his hands full, always supporting the worried villagers, and he wasn’t sleeping much because of it. He was rubbing his eyes a lot as he talked to us.
Shiori and Alec were worried that we might be searching for a long time, but that wasn’t the case—the Fenrir actually came to us. And you know what? It was that really talkative purple snow wolf I met a while back. Shiori and Alec were shocked by the sight of him, but the Fenrir was beyond overjoyed. He was all huffing and puffing with excitement, so I asked if he was okay.
“I think this might be my soulmate! Oh my goodness, of course I’m excited!”
That made so much sense! That’s totally a good reason to be excited. Even Bla was excited, but that was because it loves rare creatures!
The Fenrir became Alec’s familiar, and is now named Violid. It’s the name of a snow violet knight, apparently. Vio was so happy about it. According to the village’s old hunters, Vio is actually just a snow wolf variant, and not a Fenrir after all. But because of the color of his fur and eyes, variants like Vio aren’t liked in snow wolf packs. Vio has lived almost entirely alone his whole life, and he’s been really lonely. I think that’s why he was so happy to chat with the locals and eat with them.
Also, Vio reminds me a whole lot of Bertil for some reason. Same vibes or something.
■ June ╳╳
Fenrir crisis averted! False alarm! Phew! Glad that’s done and dusted.
We were all ready to breathe a sigh of relief, but that’s when something really big happened to the north. It scared all the humans and the magical beasts. Turns out it was a dragon, and all the birds nearby were so scared they came flying south. Shiori and Alec received an emergency call to gather with the other adventurers, so we hurried home as fast as we could.
Zack was waiting at the Guild fully decked out in his armor. The Guild had received a request from Kris, and Zack was set to lead the attack on the dragon. The margrave’s request was calamity level, which is the biggest ever. That’s why Zack was going—he’d slain dragons twice before.
Still, it was the kind of battle that maybe you wouldn’t come back from. So only the most capable went. Shiori, Alec, Clemens, and Nadia for starters. Ludger and Marena decided to go too, as did Nils and Ellen. It really was a collection of Tris’s finest. But even then there was no guarantee that everyone would make it back home.
It was the first time for all of us to be on such a dangerous job.
I’m going to have to really give it my best too.
■ June ╳╳
We departed for the north late that same night. Small magical beast stampedes were already breaking out, but the knights were fighting them back. There weren’t nearly as many losses as everyone had expected, and as it turned out, that was on account of Shiori’s search magic. Using search magic meant the knights could see the flow of possible stampedes and nip them in the bud before anybody got hurt.
But that also meant that some of the knight corps’ commanders wanted to take Shiori for their own units. She turned them down, though. She was really great, and I was really glad.
She’s not just some tool for you guys to use.
I didn’t want Shiori to ever be put in that kind of situation again, so I wanted to give Kris a bit of a “warning,” if you will.
“Not now, please,” he said to me.
But “not now” also means “maybe later.”
■ Early Morning, June ╳╳
After a short rest, we left to take on the dragon.
The Imperials we helped way back at Silveria were fighting alongside us. I remembered carrying them from the tower back to town. The one named Frol thanked me for my help. Back then, they were both so weak they were practically already ghosts, but now they’re healthy.
Still, Frol and Julia were sad and angry because the dragon was an experiment that the Imperials sealed away, and their own countrymen had gone and woken it up. They were really troubled by the fact that their own people were the culprits. Storydia had been really good to the refugees, but then these nasty Imperials went and spat in their faces. That’s why Frol and Julia were so sad and angry.