‘What the heck happened here?’
Troll couldn’t hide his surprise at the scene unfolding before him.
The lab, which was usually expected to be dusty, now had a polished shine, and it felt sowhat unfamiliar to him.
[Did Squishy do this?]
‘Yup! Cleaned it!’
To the telepathic question, the sli bounced up and down in place.
To get a clearer answer, Troll turned on the broadcast he had turned off before going hunting.
[Squishy, I turned on the stream, co join us]
Of course, so viewers had already entered the mont the broadcast started—before Squishy even arrived.
[Squishy Queen] ▶ Why are you turning off the broadcast! I don’t understand why you stopped just for showing your hunting!
▶ Seems like Troll’s more shy than expected?
[Thread-Lady] ▶ Oh my, the nest looks so clean?
▶ ?
▶ Wait, is this actually for real?
[Squishy] ▶ I cleaned it! Sparkly-sparkly!
▶ Squishy did the cleaning?
▶ The tentacles sure evolved in a strange way.
The viewers were just as surprised to see the clean secret workshop the mont the stream resud.
▷ Squishy, why did you clean?
[Squishy] ▶ When there's a lot of dust, you have to clean! Cleaning is fun!
While replying, the sli bobbed up and down.
[Thread-Lady] ▶ Squishy~ You're so admirable and cute~.
[Squishy Queen] ▶ You scoundrel, Troll! How dare you make my kin clean! You are insolent!
▷ I didn’t make them do it;;;
[Squishy Queen] ▶ Just because you didn’t order it doesn’t an it’s fine! You should’ve kept things tidy so they wouldn’t need to clean in the first place!
▶ Classic rhetorical trap lolllll
It was baffling enough that the sli suddenly cleaned, and even more confusing to be scolded by the Sli Queen for supposedly making it happen.
But setting the confusion aside, Troll took out the animals he had hunted.
‘First, I should feed Squishy.’
▷ Squishy, hang on for a bit. I’ll prepare your food.
[Squishy] ▶ Food!
▶ Wait, are you starting to cook?
▶ .?
[Noblesse Fire] ▶ Troll’s going to cook...............?
▷ What do you people think I am?
Troll began preparing to cook.
Slash-slash-slash!
He summoned wind blades to chop up the wood he brought, creating firewood, at skewers, and support stands.
‘Wooooow!’
The dazzling magic display made the sli’s eyes sparkle.
▶ What was that? How did he cut like that?
[Gothic Luxury Bone] ▶ Hoho, so this is magic?
▶ Wait, Troll could use magic?
Without responding to the chat, Troll continued with the at prep.
He used telekinesis to lift the at, peeled off the skin, sliced open the belly, and removed the organs.
Using warp magic, he threw away the removed organs and began sectioning the at—a sight quite astonishing for monsters.
‘Amazing!’
▶ A floating at-cutting show!
▶ I had no idea Troll had this kind of skill.
▶ What a waste to toss out the organs.
▶ Isn’t it fine not to eat every part?
▶ Are you... looking for a fight?
Though unintended, the cooking scene mixed with magic provided unexpected entertainnt for the viewers.
After dividing the at into parts, Troll skewered it, gathered the firewood, and ignited it.
Fwoooosh!
The magical fire quickly set the wood ablaze and maintained the fla, while Troll secured the support stands and set the at sticks over the fire.
▷ Hold on a bit.
[Squishy] ▶ Okay!
With the crackling sound of burning wood, the at began roasting and smoke rose.
Recalling mories of the past, Troll held the stick and rotated it evenly to cook the at well.
‘This should be done. Try so.’
He sliced a decently cooked portion and, using telekinesis, brought out a rarely used plate and placed the at on it in front of the sli.
The sli imdiately climbed onto the plate and absorbed the at given by Troll.
‘Will he like it?’
Troll watched nervously, wondering if the sli would enjoy the at despite it being unseasoned.
But he overlooked sothing.
The sli, having matured, now had a better understanding of the concept of “taste.”
That said, its regular eating habits hadn’t changed.
Even if it didn’t taste great compared to what it usually ate, as long as it was nutritious, the sli could enjoy the al.
More than anything—
‘Troll made it for !’
Just the fact that soone had cooked for it made the sli genuinely happy.
Even if it was unseasoned, just roasted at—it was an act of kindness from Troll.
Nellin, Jessie, the Godrick party, Alia and Paulen—Squishy had received kindness from many people.
And kindness made the sli happy, joyful, and warm inside.
So there was only one thing the sli could say after eating the at.
[Squishy] ▶ It’s tasty! I want more!
......!
Seeing that adorable behavior in real life, not just through a screen, hit Troll’s long-lost heart hard.
‘I get why everyone accepts Squishy so easily now.’
Because it’s just so cute! And the reactions are too precious!
It may look like a regular sli, but the way it moves with such liveliness made it even cuter.
And since Troll could directly understand its aning through the chat, the sli felt even more precious and adorable.
▷ Hang on, I’ll grill more.
[Noblesse Fire] ▶ Troll, you bastard, you’ve already fallen for Squishy.
[Thread-Lady] ▶ Squishy’s cuteness is a total cheat code~.
▶ He’s totally fallen, hasn’t he~.
▶ What’s so good about that weak sli anyway?
▶ Did everyone go blind or sothing?
[You have been kicked, courtesy of the Iron Core~!]
Chaos banned!
***
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
A carriage was heading from the Magic Tower to the Holy Capital.
Inside sat Alia, Paulen, and Gracie.
Why was Gracie accompanying them on a trip to the Holy Capital?
Because of the Lich.
The sli taken by Troll was the reason.
Publicly, the fact that a Lich had taken a sli wasn’t that big a deal.
What made headlines was not the sli’s abduction—but the appearance of a Lich.
And in the Magic Tower, the very heart of arcane magic, no less!
Questions exploded about the tower’s security, and more importantly, what the Lich’s true objective was.
Even though Alia, Paulen, and Gracie, who were present at the ti, explained the Lich’s stated reason, no one believed them easily.
Because it was a Lich!
A being often described as the tragic end of a once-great mage!
No one could believe that such a terrifying being would appear just to say, “Oh! A curious sli! I’m taking this one!”
Instead, people began theorizing in different directions.
-Was the sli just an excuse?
-Had the Lich appeared to mock modern mages?
-Wasn’t the shaving of the Tower Master’s beard proof of that?
-Or maybe it wasn’t just about mages.
Perhaps the Lich aid to insult the Church too, stealing the pet of the Saintess, a symbolic figure of faith?
But to others, the sli was just a regular sli.
They didn’t think it was special, nor had they ever seen its unique abilities—so the idea that the Lich took it because it was special sounded absurd.
Regardless, the Lich had appeared, and the Magic Tower had to act.
They had to form a strategy to prevent the Lich from ever breaching the Tower again—
—or, if it did reappear, to at least be prepared to fight.
Elder mages of the tower, excluding the Tower Master, held ergency etings and racked their brains trying to devise counterasures.
Normally, the Tower Master, Brooks Vessilja, would have attended too.
But—
“My beard… my beard… a-a-a-aahhh…!”
In shock over his lost beard, Brooks Vessilja was in no state to function.
Younger mages couldn’t understand why he was so devastated over so facial hair.
But elder mages, who like the Tower Master had long grown their beards and were now balding, sympathized deeply and excused his absence.
Alia, after the sli had been taken by the Lich, locked herself in her room for a day in sorrow, feeling helpless for not being able to stop it.
Paulen, though he knew Alia’s safety ca first, still felt pathetic for letting his precious training partner get taken without resistance.
As for Gracie—
‘My thesisssssssss!’
She was in total despair.
The sli being kidnapped?
Yes, it was sad and unfortunate.
But for Gracie, the bigger issue was that she had no way to prove her thesis anymore.
After all, her research paper was tied to her family’s grant.
And Gracie knew—
Without solid proof, her thesis would be dismissed as nonsense.
To validate it, she needed evidence or a witness.
But the sli—the key evidence—was taken by the Lich.
And the Tower Master, who could’ve been the most credible witness, had lost his mind.
Now she had neither the monster to prove her claims nor anyone to verify them.
At this rate, the thesis she worked so hard on would be for nothing.
Write a new paper?
She hadn’t even thought of another topic—that’s why she had started writing about the sli and its use of magical tools in the first place.
Even if she tried to write sothing new, all her focus had already been drained by the sli study.
And there was no guarantee that a new paper would be better received.
So there was only one solution.
‘I have to find that sli—Jiggly!’
The Lich had said—
That once it lost interest, it would release the sli.
No one knew when that would happen.
But this was a Lich.
A terrifying creature known as the cursed fate of mages, yes, but still, objectively, a highly intelligent being.
No matter how unique the sli was, it was hard to believe soone like a Lich would stay curious for long.
‘Once it’s released, I’ll find it quickly. There’s no other sli that’s that special and affectionate toward people!’
Then, who would be the fastest to find it once rumors spread?
The mages of the tower?
No—they were focused entirely on the Lich right now, not on the sli.
‘If only they knew how extraordinary Jiggly really is................’
The mages currently holding etings hadn’t even seen the sli, nor had they read Gracie’s thesis.
They were too busy formulating defenses to bother reading.
If the Tower Master were in his right mind and vouching for her, maybe things would be different.
But even to Gracie’s eyes, it seed like it would take a while for him to recover.
That’s why the only people Gracie could count on now were Alia and Paulen.
‘I have to go with them!’
Gracie burst into the villa where the two were staying and pleaded—
“Saintess! Paladin! Please take with you to the Holy Capital! I want to find Jiggly as soon as possible!”
“Miss Gracie, I didn’t realize you cared for Jiggly that much! Ah! I’m ashad of myself!”
“Gracie…! You’re right. We can’t just wallow in helplessness!”
“Huh?”
And though unintended—
Gracie’s plea beca the fuel that reignited the fire in both Paulen and Alia’s hearts.
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