06. Rendezvous in the Silent Night

Synopsis of the previous chapter:

After several things happened, the Slime is now capable of turning into a girl.

Chapter 6.

The night is silent around the cabin.

There is only one small bed in the cabin.

Right now, there is a female student sleeping on it, whose name I do not know.

There is no sign that she’ll wake soon, after fainting from the intense physical and mental trauma.

Thus, I am inside, sleeping on the sofa that Lily’s body had altered to.

By the way, Rose is not inside the cabin because I have asked her to stand guard outside.

It’s a quiet night.

I blankly stare about the cabin as it seemingly sinks into darkness. I’m dazed by recent events, and am not thinking about anything in particular.

After some time had pa.s.sed…

“Can’t sleep?”

A question came from behind.

Based on the feeling of the backrest changing, Lily is moving her body about.

Her slime body is like a gel-filled pad with a rubbery texture.

She converted a hard substance into something soft.

There was no question about it; it’s the limb of a girl.

“...That’s impressive.”

Lily’s slime body is under me, keeping me comfortable from the cold, hard floor, and yet she has embraced my chest and neck with the delicate arms of her girl form.

That is to say, she has morphed only part of her body.

While I think it’s very skillful, I also wonder why she would bother doing this.

With an unfavorable expression on my face, I twist my neck a bit, my cheek touches the cheek of Mizus.h.i.+ma Miho – the human face that Lily imitates.

Her ability to mimic Miho seemed so genuine, even the feel of her soft blonde hair is the same.

Pleasure and excitement raced wildly inside of me.

As well as some bad thoughts.

Her touch is pleasant.

This is the first time this situation has occurred to me, after the past three days filled with loneliness and despair, which was incomparable to the rest of my life.

Even from the body of a Slime, I feel security and comfort. Then, changing to a body of a girl, it’s not something I can endure.

I don’t mean that in an indecent way. I think I’d just like to embrace her.

Maybe, I am cornered now. It all started from then, when I killed those people that evening. However, that was merely the last turning point.

The stability of my civilized life was shaken considerably. It’s necessary in desperate times to forget some things.

In the time of one month, everything has changed, and now I’m trying to take control of my original brat-like att.i.tude…

In a desire to protect some of my way of life, I allowed my reasoning to be swept away.

“Stop it.”

I allowed emotion to take control instead of reason.

Mizus.h.i.+ma Miho’s corpse is now a part of Lily. Lily is able to mimic Miho’s appearance, the appearance of a girl that was raped and killed.

I do not want to defile her body. I will not do so.

“Why?”

The feeling behind my back disappears and my torso drops back.

However, Lily catches me with her resilient and elastic Slime body.

“Master…”

From between my legs I can see the upper body of Miho growing, naked in all her glory. Lily proceeds to move her humanized form and crawls provocatively over my knees, past my hands, and to my chest. In front of my eyes are two large mounds swaying with gravity.

No one can blame me for what I might do since I did not initiate anything…probably. No, that’s wrong, what I’m probably going to do is motivated by instinct. How foolish.

“I want to heal you master. Ne, master”

“I told you, stop it.”

Contrary to the pleasure that my body wants to indulge in, my heart is filled with discomfort and unease.

It also seems to be winning out.

“I am not going to defile that ‘body.’”

Originally, I should not even be looking at her nude form. That’s what I think.

“Stop it.”

I said these last words mixed with my voice of command. Now, Lily will supposedly withdraw with my orders.

At least she was supposed to.

The breath of a disguised monster… of a girl is on my ears, and it excites me.

“My poor master. Do you blame yourself?”

My face is covered in a soft touch. Lily has laid her bountiful chest on my head.

“I, I want to help you Master. I understand that my Master has been damaged. For this child… for me, you were hurt.”

“…Lily?”

Something is odd. As I pondered this, Lily continued.

“I want to dedicate myself to this ‘person’ whom you believe is important. It is this ‘body’s’ humble desire. If it will a.s.sist your important ‘person’ then it will be my joy to help. Master, the most important thing to ‘me’ right now, is you. I mean, because I am your family.”

Lily blushed fiercely as she blurted her words out in a nearly incoherent manner.

This forces my eyes open.

“…Ahh”

Lily looks at me lovingly as she holds me to her chest.

In front of me is Lily. Not Mizus.h.i.+ma Miho. But, her regret, her final desire to be embraced,  it was definitely in Lily, this feeling only known to me through our link created by my ability.

Why.

The emotions of the deceased should not be affecting Lily.

Lily merely took up the memories for record. To affect her, Lily would have to sift through them.

That they are bubbling up is…

…d.a.m.n, so it’s like that.

Nothing to do about it now.

It’s my fault it happened.

Unintentionally, Mizus.h.i.+ma Miho’s final regrets as she died, were pa.s.sed on to Lily. Lily is trying to fulfill them. She is now my family, an important ‘person’ due to my cheat ability.

It appears it’s something like this. Lily is still Lily; however, this desire is that of Mizus.h.i.+ma Miho.

No, it’s something different. After all, the two are now inseparable; they are both part of the existence that is Lily.

“I love you, Master. Please, accept me.”

She proclaims this with a feverish love, like a pa.s.sionate girl.

“…”

I wonder what I should do.

I’m responsible for the end result of Mizus.h.i.+ma Miho. Lily is my family, she is part of my responsibilities as well.

I should embrace her. However, it would be out of a sense of responsibility, rather than anything else.

…It’s different. That isn’t it.

I look back into her eyes.

“Master…”

The girl’s eyelashes tremble in sorrow, anxiously waiting for my reply.

As I look at her, she has taken the form of Miho from the thighs up. Everything below is still in the form of a Slime. Even in this insane situation, her body is beautiful; her feminine limbs excite with ephemeral beauty… she is most definitely female.

I don’t care what anyone else thinks. Regardless of anyone else, this is what I feel to be true.

“…”

Maybe this is the wrong decision. Maybe this is even unethical. Maybe, this whole situation is abnormal because monsters exist.

Even with these considerations, something that needs to be done. Thoughts must be met. Emotions must be unfurled.

I will do what my heart wants to do most of all.

“…I will treasure you.”

I end my vow on her lips as I kiss her, pa.s.sionately, and take it to heart.

　　　＊＊＊

After all that, with her face in front of me, I’m extremely happy.

Of course, Lily was waiting for me to wake up with a gentle smile on her face.

Now, as I look upon her, I no longer recognize her as Mizus.h.i.+ma Miho, but as Lily.

I felt that Miho’s final regrets were fading from Lily, and though it is sad, she is now moving on.

The one in front of me is Lily. That is what I have decided.

“Good morning, Lily.”

There’s no pretending last night didn’t happen, so I embraced and kissed her.

As always, her main body is that of a Slime, which is also my bed, and at the same time, from out of the main body she “grew” a humanoid form. This weird situation is going to be the new norm.

“Good morning, Master.”

“Good morning… also a good morning to you too Rose.”

I greeted her awkwardly, Rose had returned to the hut without me noticing, and was bowed towards me with an expressionless face.

I’m currently naked, embracing a naked Lily. Apparently, while we were kissing earlier, we failed to notice Rose’s presence. She remains in a bowing posture.

…This is super awkward. I feel like a son that has been witnessed sharing a bed with his mother. My own son has now withered; what a shame.

Too bad I didn’t get a chance for morning service.

.

After I wiped my body down with a wet cloth, I dressed and exited the cabin. I left the door open to circulate the air. It’d be embarra.s.sing if people smelled the air that stunk of s.e.x.

After all is said and done, the feeling of Lily snuggling against my chest and arm remains; the soft, smooth feeling of Lily lingers.

Coincidentally, yesterday, she was dressed in a school uniform, and now she has appeared in a jersey. It seems the clothing that the male students that were killed yesterday were wearing has been re-appropriated. While there is some hesitation due to the source of the clothing, after a thorough was.h.i.+ng, there shouldn’t be any problems related to health.

What remains are the unpleasant feelings. Well, after all, we are in dire need of spare clothes, until we can secure a source.

We returned to the cabin after a bit. The girl on the bed still hasn’t awoken.

Well then, I ponder our next actions. I should prepare things for Rose. The furniture in the cabin can be cannibalized for wood in preparation for future equipment.

Our main goal hasn’t changed. While remaining hidden, I need to get stronger. I need to increase the number of monsters in my family, and by doing this, my survivability increases. Moreover, since the majority of my strength comes from the power of my family, subduing monsters should be a high priority.

The problem here though, is that I’ve picked up a girl that needs to be protected.

Thinking about my ability, the taming of monsters, it’s necessary that I be present with the monster for my ability to work. Until now, Rose and Lily have been exploring while I have stayed back. If this continues, I can’t increase my family.

In order to increase my family, I must venture out.

But, there is also a girl here in this cabin. She will need someone to guard her.

My strength lies in Lily and Rose, without them I am weak. If we were to separate, our strength would be weakened. I could leave Rose here and venture out with Lily, but it will be dangerous.

There is also the choice of leaving her to her own fate, but I can’t do this. Her current situation reminds me of my weak past.

I required help once, so to desert her would be too much. If I abandoned her I would be like those guys that abandoned me, and like those despicable boys that attacked her.

I can’t do that, for sure. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself afterwards.

If it comes down to it, I’ll have to split with her in the future, but for now…

“Uun”

The girl is stirring as I thought about our situation.

She is slowly waking, as I watch, she slowly becomes aware.

“You’ve woken up.”

I’m sitting little distance away on a log that has been re-commissioned as a chair.

The young schoolgirl is pet.i.te. She’s most likely younger than me, probably a freshman. Her pigtails that hung to her shoulders makes her seem even younger. Even compared to other girls her age, she seems youthful and pretty.

However, as her brain started to work, she remembers, and her expression darkens. This was, of course, expected.

“Who… someone saved me, was that you?”

She’s calmer than I thought she would be. Considering how scarring the memory should be, I thought she’d awaken screaming and panicking as soon as she saw my face. Her calm question seems somewhat anti-climactic.

After I introduced myself, she introduced herself as “Kato Mana,” and as expected, she is one grade lower than I am.

After the introductions, she lowered her head and bowed to me.

“That… thank you, for helping me.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

In fact, in a sense, I didn’t even mean to help her.

I originally only wanted to avenge Mizus.h.i.+ma Miho by killing the students that raped and killed her, and wasn’t aware that Kato Mana was in this place.

Saying that, I didn’t really help her, she merely survived through what happened. She was lucky―though I hesitate to say such a thing in consideration to her feelings.

“It’s a good thing Kato-san did not die.”

“Yes, thank you.”

She bows to me.

“If you’d like, there is some water here you can use to cleanse your body. I will be stepping outside for a bit.”

“What do you mean, where are you going?”

Kato-san asks me in a worried manner.

“Don’t worry, I have the power to tame monsters. If you take a look at Rose and Lily over there you will see what I mean. In fact…”

To that end, I explained my current circ.u.mstances. That I was going to help her, but I also need to gather strength, and to that end, I needed to go out and explore the forest. I also told her that I would have Rose escort her, for the meanwhile.

I didn’t mention that Lily was a monster though, as she is still in her humanoid form. I wasn’t sure how she would handle that information.

While I am protecting Kato-san, I am not inclined to trust in other people.

I don’t intend to fully lie to her all the time however, since there is the chance that she actually knew Mizus.h.i.+ma Miho when she was alive.

Lily was sticking closely to me, and she also called me “Master.” I thought Kato-san might ask about it, but that is not the case however, and she remains silent.

Something else was bothering her though.

“In other words… I’m just extra baggage.”

“That’s sounds bad, it’s not like that. I want to live in peace, but I also do not want harm to come to you Kato-san. I will, therefore, take you to a safe place, at the minimum.”

For me, this is the most I can do. Even I don’t have much room for error. It’s best that these goals to be presented in advance. There’s no point in rea.s.suring her past that.

However, Kato-san shook her head.

“I’m happy you feel that way, but… there’s something else I’d like to ask of you.”

“Ask?”

“I want you to… take me with you into the forest.”

I stared at Kato-san in surprise.

“Is that, impossible?”

“…”

I stared at her blankly. Glancing at her, I tried to gauge her mental state.

What could she be thinking.

What an unusual request, is what I thought of her abrupt question.

That said, not having the energy to try anything would be worse than this, which is just a bad idea.

…Well, I shouldn’t over-think it.

Also, this offer is convenient for me, since I do not want to split my family up and have Rose separate from me to guard her.

“Please consider it.”

Kato-san bows her head to me.

There’s no reason to refuse her, right?

”I understand, there’s nothing to think about.”

“Thank you very much!”

I end up going along with her whims.

Kato-san lowers her head to me once more, and as she slowly raised her head, she seems to smile, just a bit.