Chapter 89 – Different World Mining Town?

“Ah…”

“Good morning, Kosuke.”

“Morning.”

“Good morning-nodesu.”

When I woke up, I was immediately approached by the three slime girls. I think I had another weird dream last night… in which I was picked up by the giant slime girls and groped by them. And they will take turns.

The reason I had this dream was because I was being gazed at by the three slime girls yesterday. There is a theory that sleep is the brain’s way of organizing information while you sleep. I’m sure the gaze and the thought of being eaten came out in my dream.

“But it’s still embarrassing to be taken care of while naked…”

“In that case, we’re always naked.”

“We can’t wear clothes-nodesu.”

“So we’re even?”

“I don’t think it’s a matter of us being even.”

Beth had washed my clothes today. When I received them, they were slightly warm and comfortable to wear. It’s not as fresh-smelling as Poizo’s, but… it’s a kind of thing that subtly shows individuality.

“What do you want to do today?”

“After breakfast, I’d like to find out what Poizo was talking about regarding the iron.”

“All right, then. I’ll show you the way-nodesu.”

“I’m going to get the whetstone. And while I’m at it, I’ll bring you anything else that might be of use.”

“Lime will do her best, too.”

Beth is going to get some supplies, and Lime is going to work hard. What kind of work is that? When I asked her what her work was, she told me that it was patrolling the underground passages, guarding the area where the royalty slept, and sewage treatment. Apparently, she has to stay in this room and concentrate her mind on manipulating the duplicate.

“I can’t imagine what that’s like, but it’s a lot of work.”

“Lots of work?”

“Lime is a hard worker.”

“She’s the hardest worker of the three of us-nodesu.”

“Oh, really?”

I thought she would be the most playful of the three, but she’s not. After breakfast, I started walking through the sewers with Poizo. The slime girls said they didn’t want breakfast today either. I asked them why.

“We’ve had enough.”

“Yes, that’s enough.”

“Eating too much is not good either.”

They said something like that. Apparently, they get their nutrition from the sewage system, so maybe they just need to eat Gizma meat once a day?

But then Beth seems to be acting suspiciously, and I get the feeling that Poizo is grinning at me. Lime? Lime is the hardest to read because she’s always smiling like she’s delighted.

“What’s the matter? Is there something on your mind-nodesu?”

“No, it’s nothing important. How far is it to our destination?”

“Not exactly as far as you think. It takes less than thirty minutes on foot-nodesu.”

“I see. Well then, shall we walk after dinner for some exercise?”

“Yes-nanodesu. I want you to tell me about the outside-nodesu.”

“Good. So where should we start?”

We talked about the things I saw and heard while I was with Sylphy and the others. Poizo gave the impression of being calm, but she seemed to be quite curious. Especially, she showed a strong interest in the story of my original world ― Earth.

“What Kosuke is talking about is interesting-nanodesu. I remember that when you first saw us, Kosuke didn’t seem surprised at all-nodesu. There were no spirits or monsters in your original world, were there? Why is that-nanodesu?”

“Oh, that’s because slime existed as a fictional existence, and there were various works that featured characters who personified such slime.”

“Kyarakuta*? Work? Nanodesu?”

“Hmm! I don’t know how to explain it!”

[T/n:* Character.]

In this world, there are legends, fairytales, and fables. Is there even a concept of storytelling? I asked her if there was such a thing, and she said there was. Then it’s easy to talk about. I tried my best to explain it to her.

“In other words, you were convinced that we were like that because you saw and heard us as fictional beings in a story that didn’t actually exist-nodesu.”

“Yes.”

Poizo accurately read and summarized my poorly defined explanation that lasted over five minutes. I wonder if I would have conveyed the message better if I were a former salesman? It seems I have poor speaking skills.

“But the similarity is just that, a similarity-nodesu. In fact, I think we are completely different-nanodesu.”

“That’s true. There are many different types of slime girls. On the other hand, there were several types of slime girls in the same category, so when I saw Poizo and the others, I might have just thought, ‘Oh, so that’s the type’.”

“That’s a possible story-nodesu.”

There are so many different types of slime girls, you know. Some have no core; some can split, some talk, some don’t, some mimic only formally, some perfectly mimic everything, including clothing.

In the first place, I think they form a grand category of slime girls, or rather, slime types. Yeah. They are basically strong characters who can do anything. In that sense, there was a foundation that could easily accept Lime and the others.

“But then again, normal people are afraid of things that are different from themselves, you know-nanodesu?”

“The first time I saw Lime, I was terrified. There are two types of slime: weak and strong. If she were the belligerent type, I would have had to run for my life in this dark underground passage. However, the first thing I heard from her was ‘it’s delicious’.”

“…That was a good call by Lime-nodesu.”

If it had been Beth or Poizo, they wouldn’t have bitten into Gizma meat cautiously and said, “delicious!” First impressions are crucial, aren’t they?

For example, if the first time I saw Lime and the others had been in the form of people from the Holy Kingdom turned into minced meat, I don’t think I would have been so relaxed about them. I think Lime’s “delicious” was a factor that considerably lowered my level of caution towards the slime girls.

“We’ve arrived-nodesu.”

“Here?”

Poizo led me to a large space. There was the sound of water flowing. I wonder what this space is. It smells a little like a sewer.

“This is one of the sewage tanks in the castle’s underground sewer system-nodesu.”

“The water looks clean for a sewage tank. It does smell a little, though.

“That’s because I was working hard to purify the sewage-nodesu.”

“I see.”

While we were having this conversation, Poizo began to put parts of her body into the sewage tank. The light didn’t reach the tank, so I couldn’t see what was happening to Poizo’s body, but Poizo tilted her head as if she was looking for something.

“What are you doing?”

“As I said before, this is a sewage tank-nodesu. A lot of things fall into this sewer from the castle, and there are quite a few metal objects in it-nodesu.”

“I see.”

“I can dissolve metals if I try, but it’s a bit troublesome-nodesu. Therefore, I store them in the sewage tank as long as they do not affect the flow of sewage-nodesu. Once they have accumulated to a certain extent, I digest them all at once-nanodesu.”

“It’s just like the junkyard, isn’t it?”

“That’s right-nanodesu. In particular, since the occupation of the castle by the people of the Holy Kingdom, the manners of garbage disposal have been bad-nodesu. How did they get such a thing? Sometimes, they throw away things that make you wonder why they’re there-nodesu.”

“Such as?”

“Tax documents, bills of delivery, and other suspicious documents, as well as human and subhuman corpses-nanodesu.”

“Whoa.”

There were all kinds of things that looked bad in various ways that had been thrown. Or rather, don’t just throw such things into the sewer… When I was shivering, Poizo pulled something out of the water.

“What is this?”

“It’s a piece of what used to be metal that had accumulated at the bottom of the sewage tank-nanodesu.”

“Eeh…”

It was a brownish-stone-like, not-so-bright object that was hard to describe. It was molded into a block shape, probably because Poizo had made it that way in the water.

“Can this be the material…?”

“You have to try it-nanodesu.”

“Yeah, let’s try it anyway.”

I put it in my inventory, and it showed up as swamp iron ore. Swamp…? No, this isn’t a swamp, is it? It’s a sewage tank. However, since it’s labeled as iron ore, it must be some kind of iron ore. I don’t know much about it, but… I’ve heard that iron can be found at the bottom of swamps, ponds, and springs.

I’m sure the process is different from this one, though. Can you think of it as something like that…? Well, it’s a case involving a slime girl? It’s nonsense to take out my original world’s common sense and logic to think about it, right?

“What’s the matter-nodesu?”

“A-ah, I’m sorry. I think I can use it, so can you keep collecting it?”

“All right-nodesu. Just leave it to me, okay-nodesu?”

Poizo was humming as she landed one brownish object after another. Is it some kind of seafood to them?

I silently store the indescribable swamp iron ore in my inventory. I wonder if it will smell weird when I melt it down…? I’m worried.

The work itself was finished in about 30 minutes. The amount of iron resources that can be obtained from this swamp iron ore is unknown, though I got quite a lot.

“Is that all?”

“There are three more sewage tanks just like it if you need them-nodesu. But they are farther away than here-nodesu.”

“I see. If there aren’t enough, I’ll consider going there.”

“All right, then. Shall we go back-nodesu?”

“Yes. I’d like to try it.”

“What are you going to build now-nodesu?”

“Well, I’m going to make a workbench and some parts for upgrading to a blacksmithing facility. I also want to make weapons… It seems difficult to get strings for a crossbow, so I think a gun would be better for me.”

“A gun? What is it-nodesu?”

“Ah, it’s a weapon from my world.”

On the way back to the slime girls’ room, I talked to Poizo again about the world I came from. I told her about the weapons when we spoke about the Liberation Army, but I didn’t go into too much detail. Poizo seemed to be interested, so I told her.

Poizo is a good listener, or maybe it’s just that she’s so happy to talk to me.