I couldn’t finish my sentence—my tongue had no space to move. Unable to fight back, I simply watched her. With her eyebrows raised, teeth bared, no trace of hesitation, it was clear to me: Leen was well and truly furious.
“Am I misunderstanding something? I told you, didn’t I? That we were dealing with this affair?!”
I did remember—she had said that in order to get Derg’s cooperation for the witch trial.
“And you said in front of Krauna’s gravesite that you didn’t like how it all ended. That if a witch was behind all of this, then you wouldn’t forgive them!” Leen stopped talking. Not because she was trying to calm down, no—she was preparing to continue her tirade by taking in another deep breath. “Of course I feel the same way! I’m the one who met and spoke to Krauna! I’m the one she showed around Leston! I’m the one who couldn’t do anything because it was already too late!”
I couldn’t say anything.
“I’m the one who didn’t see this cowardly, evil, and underhanded method done by a weak witch who couldn’t control her own authority! And I’m the one who couldn’t lift one curse!”
Leen must have exhausted herself from her screaming and shouting, for she loosened her grip before she punched me in the chest. I felt it ripple right through my body.
“Despite that, you’re telling me you can’t forgive a witch to the point that you’d break the law! So why won’t you rely on me? I know more about witches than anyone in this world! Hakura, shouldn’t you be asking me to help you and lend my knowledge?!”
Leen was a short-tempered person. She often flew into rages. We would be having a normal conversation and she’d suddenly get into a huff and kick me. She’d start squealing and complaining if I stole a piece of bread from her plate. She was selfishness personified, illogical to her core.
“I’m the one! Who’s most angry!”
But her anger now? It made complete and utter sense. Dammit all...
“All right.”
I wasn’t sure if my words came out clearly or not, but I knew they needed to be said. I had realized that the thing I thought I needed to do...wasn’t something I alone had been thinking. It made perfect sense in hindsight, but I wondered why I never realized Leen might be thinking the same way as me.
I had never considered relying on someone. No one had ever relied on me for help. I had always thought about myself and had always taken on my own responsibilities. That had been the normal and logical way an adventurer should be. I had always felt that there was no one who would involve themselves in my problems.
“I was wrong,” I went on.
That was why I had never paused to consider what Leen might be thinking. Her job was to maintain the balance between people and monsters. She didn’t just help monsters, no—she helped people too. So when a witch abused her power over monsters to wantonly destroy a village? Well, there was no way someone as proud, selfish, arrogant, and prideful as Leen would let it slide. Of course she would want to see revenge served.
“Do you really think that?” Leen glared at me.
“Well, I can say that asking you for help is a hundred times better than making you mad.”
I wondered if my words would reach her heart.
I saw her cheeks slowly puff out in anger. Crap. Did I say the wrong thing? Just as I was readying myself for a tirade, she let the air out.
“If you understand, then good,” she said. “By the way, Hakura?”
As my gaze finally settled, I noticed Leen’s eyes glance up at me. I saw that deep green color that seemed like it gripped my heart, never to let go—a curse in and of itself.
“Don’t you have something to say to me?” she asked.
“Yeah...”
I wished she would let stuff like this just slide. The fact that she made me promise things out loud was a real pain.
“Leen, I can’t let this witch get away with what she’s done,” I said. She had destroyed Leston, killed Allen, trampled all over Krauna’s dreams, and now she was trying to take Erifell’s life to protect herself. “I can’t let her roam free. Please, lend me your help.”
It was only then that finally Leen smiled and gave a satisfied nod.
“D’aw, fine, if I must!”
Leen gave me a few tough pats on the back as her face positively glowed.
“Seeing as you’re asking!” she went on.
“Yeah. I’ve also steeled my resolve.”
This thought had come to me from the start, but I had crossed it off as a possibility out of consideration of Leen’s position.
“If you’re agreeing to get involved, then I actually have a hidden trick I can use,” I said.
“Excuse me?”
I ignored Leen’s confused expression and started to walk back to Erifell’s house.
○
By taking in air, circling it around my body, and expelling the heat I took in from Miss Erifell, I was able to maintain the room’s humidity levels while also functioning as an ice pack. This was a nursing technique I had learned from looking after the Lingreen women, including my lady. When I thought about my main mission, I concluded that it wasn’t good for me to be away from her side, but the lad was with her right now and the situation didn’t exactly permit me to leave my spot. He was still yet immature, but he had promise.
“Ungh...”
“Hmm...”
Miss Erifell’s groans occasionally permeated the air. Although she was in no state to move her body, her consciousness drifted between sleeping and awake. I was sure that she had little sense of what time it was. Mister Derg made sure that she had sips of water while she slept, but this task was akin to tossing water onto a burning stone. Unless the curse was lifted—in other words, unless the witch was defeated—her condition would not improve. I understood the severity of the situation, but I could do nothing to solve it. A painful reality for a slime.
Miss Erifell’s weak panting filled the air.
Now, then. This was something I had dealt with for a long time, but I was always careful when choosing who to speak to. The fact that a slime could talk was something that often-frightened people, so problems arose unless the person I was speaking to was a broad-minded or fearless sort.
Perhaps in part due to the fact that some slimes were domesticated by people, pragmatic adventurers accepted me quickly, reasoning that it was a waste of time to question the reality before them. However, I still needed to be careful with who I chose to speak to as many people followed the logic that monsters needed to be killed.
On the other hand, the people I tried to make sure never saw me talking were those from the church. More than a few times they’d tried to capture me, reasoning that a talking monster had to be an underling of a witch. They weren’t wrong, so I struggled to give a decent excuse.
That was the heart of my present concern. I was unsure whether I should say anything in front of Mister Derg, who stood before Miss Erifell with a terribly concerned expression.
“I’m so powerless... You worked so hard, yet I cannot bring about justice for you!”