I am Vertis's parallel existence stationed in the monster nation. For convenience, I'll call myself Number 3. Even with the Jura Tempest Federation maintaining a rough state of alert, the townspeople were as carefree and noisy as ever.
But today felt different sohow.
Boing, boing.
Because slis that looked just like Rimuru—though not actually Rimuru—kept appearing all over the city without end. Sotis they showed up in back alleys, sotis they ca up through drainage channels and erged in toilets. Thanks to their shapeless bodies, they were popping up everywhere like elusive phantoms.
It was the season called sumr, and slis had begun appearing in massive numbers in the forest. Then they started drifting into the Federation.
Was it because the heat was blazing while the trees grew in such dense tangles? Or was so King Sli sowhere splitting apart into smaller slis?
"Could this have sothing to do with Lord Rimuru being away?"
"Who knows... Either way, this doesn't feel like sothing we can dismiss as a simple natural phenonon."
Even so, how were they getting all the way into the center of the city...? Were those people involved sohow?
No, that didn't seem likely.
Unlike Rimuru, these things were extrely weak. If anything, they might even be weaker than the slis from my original world. Getting hit by one didn't even hurt.
So no major counterasures had been taken. They weren't dangerous monsters to begin with, and signs had even been put up around the Jura Tempest Federation telling people to release any slis that wandered into the city back into the wild.
And there was sothing else. Apparently, slis in this world were edible. More than that, they were said to be tasty. The simplest way to enjoy them was to chill them and eat them like pudding or ice cream.
"...Shion. What exactly is that in your hand right now?"
"N-no, it's nothing! I'm just protecting a lost child..."
"Then hurry up and return it to the forest."
A sli had plastered itself right across Shuna's face with a wet smack, so I couldn't actually see her expression, but I was certain she looked furious.
"So it was an inside job..."
"Even so, this number is still abnormal. I think we need to take action."
Weak as these lowest-tier slis were...
This ti, more of them had invaded the city than ever before. The city was on high alert, and there were even opinions that we couldn't allow slis to roam freely inside at all, so we reluctantly began investigating the cause.
That was when we discovered Shion, who had apparently been suffering from a long-term deficiency of Rimuru, carrying a sli around.
When Shuna, Rigurd, and several townspeople barged into Shion's room with , we found it packed full of slis. What was this? Had she mistaken them for Rimuru? No, even she couldn't possibly be that foolish.
In the end, since anything happening in the forest would be best known by Treyni, we asked her for advice—
"I don't know much about slis that lose their way and drift in. Why they enter the city, and why they aren't afraid of powerful monsters... I think we'll need to capture so and investigate. There may be a tendency to treat studying the ecology of those of the sa kind as Lord Rimuru as taboo, but wanting to understand the object of your reverence is no sin. Understanding becos deeper love. Potatoes are a good example. Potatoes suited for frying, potatoes suited for heating, potatoes that don't easily fall apart even when boiled—when you understand their properties in detail and cook them more deliciously, they bring comfort to many hearts. In other words, what I wish to say here today is that I love potatoes!"
"You've gone completely off topic!!"
"Was this not a discussion about slis?"
In the end, we failed to co up with any particularly effective response, so we concluded that for the ti being, we'd simply capture them whenever we saw them. After ending the eting and stepping outside, we found Gabiru starting a street promotion campaign for potions with his subordinates.
"Now then! Co take a look! This is no everyday opportunity! These are on a completely different level from the recovery potions sold elsewhere. In speed, in healing amount, in every respect, these are astonishingly superior goods!! And now, I'll show you just how incredible they are. Ah—you there. Please attack once, with either your bare hands or a weapon."
To demonstrate the potion's excellent performance to everyone, Gabiru had decided to beco the punching bag himself, and asked a nearby female beastman to hit him with all her strength.
'Huh... but that beastman is... Ah, whatever. He survived even after taking one of Milim's punches, so it should be fine...'
Rimuru's potion was an original potion that only Rimuru could make. It was practically a Full Elixir, made with 99% pure hipokte herb, the very ingredient used as the basis for potions. As long as the target was still alive, it could heal any wound, and the weaker potions sold on the market were made by diluting it. Even our nation couldn't imitate that easily. It was one of those outrageous feats only a sli like Rimuru could pull off.
"Then I won't hold back~"
Kaboom!!
With a trendous sonic boom, the cat-eared beastman—no, Spear, one of the Three Beastketeers—sent Gabiru flying into the distance with a single punch. The sound when Gabiru got hit was remarkably refreshing.
Then one of his followers imdiately sprayed him with a recovery potion, restoring him to normal. Helping one another. It was the sort of scene you didn't only see in multiplayer gas. The crafters nodded with a strange sense of familiarity.
That's right. Help each other. Even when you bicker, do it to the extent that no real harm is done.
"S-see?! Even after taking a hit like that, I recover instantly and return to normal!"
"Oh!"
Gabiru was truly staking his life on this demonstration sale.
"Spear. When did you get here?"
She had cut her long hair short into a bob, but from her gait and the aura she gave off, it was unmistakably Spear.
"Just now. As one of the proud Three Beastketeers, I wanted to see whether our delegation was doing its job properly—which was my excuse for coming to play!"
"I ca all this way on purpose so I could eat good food, drink good booze, and fight soone strong!!"
What an honest one.
"And lately that idiot Phobio suddenly started acting all serious, then tead up with Albis and started leaving out, so I stord off! That gelded little brat. He used to cry his eyes out when I tugged his front tail as a kid! And Albis too. She keeps mocking my sumr coat, but she's a woman who's pickled in alcohol all year round—"
"Uh... what's a front tail...? And what's a sumr coat?"
At that mont, Phobio and Grucius appeared from sowhere, along with a beastman who reminded of Sun Wukong, and forcibly shut Spear's mouth.
The speaker's mouth, the speaker's gaze. I still didn't understand any of it, so I moved closer.
And so I nodded as well.
But the sli problem still wasn't fully resolved. When Spear raised a paw-like hand and tried to pop a sli like a soap bubble, the sli's springy body slipped sideways out of the way. Watching Spear dart back and forth trying to catch it looked exactly like a pet owner playing with a cat using a toy.
She really was feline after all...
There were broadly three ways to deal with the slis. The simplest was to eliminate them, but because Rimuru himself was a sli, everyone seed reluctant to choose that option. The second was to release them. That was the most commonly used thod, but before long the released sli would sohow beco two and drift back into the country, repeating the vicious cycle. The third and final option was to capture them.
After capturing so and having Vester research them, he delivered the following report.
"Everyone, please gather around. We have a report on the wild slis that have been drifting into the city."
"Oh my, Vester."
"It seems that so of the slis entering the city are eating tiny bits of trash."
"Good heavens, slis?!"
"Are you saying the slis drifting in were working for the sake of the city?"
"Who can say? Perhaps, in their own way, they wanted to be of help to the city. For Lord Rimuru, who is one of their own kind, and for all of you who love this city and built it."
And so, that sumr, Tempest gained so new companions: cleaning slis. End of report.
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