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Chapter 84

"……Still, growing bigger is nice."

Ha. Elija stared intently at my grown hands, then lowered his head deeply.

"……Let's keep it a secret for now."

If the elves found out you ate that…….

Heok. A shiver ran down my spine at Elija's words. Eating something so precious without permission is obviously wrong, right? Especially since I'm a slime, not even an elf, and I gobbled it up……

My body trembled brrr. I seemed to have done something terrible. I jumped up and looked at Elija.

"Am, am I in big trouble?"

"It wouldn't be strange if you were treated like a criminal or a thief. They'd definitely detain you and question you for a long time……."

He bowed his head and rubbed his face dryly.

"Normally, I'd have been honest and tried to find a way to compensate somehow."

Elija, who had buried his face in his hands, clutched his hair again. His voice trembled as he made a sad face.

"There's no way to do that. They'll definitely demand your custody and tell you to leave."

Not to mention that the elders were already on edge about a monster that could cross the barrier—they'd jump at any chance to study me.

……Unbelievable. They were only prickly at first, but the elves were so kind.

"But I can't leave you behind, so…… pretending not to know quietly might be the best option."

Elija's voice was heavy with guilt.

But from the moment the word 'study' came up, my mind had gone elsewhere. Frozen like a paused screen with my mouth hanging open, I was lost in a fantasy. Mung-geu-mung-geu, like smoke, images of Zelmir and the elves appeared in the air.

[Hehehe, to think a slime would steal something so precious. As expected, we shouldn't have let a monster into the forest.]

Zelmir laughed, emitting a sinister dark aura.

The twin elves grabbed me, the small slime, and shook me up and down roughly.

[We were nice to you because you were cute, and you repay us by eating that precious treasure? Spit it out! Spit it out now!]

[I'll cut that slime open and retrieve the fruit!]

Ah, Aria. Help me……. I looked up at Aria with tear-filled black eyes, but her gray eyes held no light.

[For a monster.]

The elves squeezed me as if I might burst.

Ah, no! It's already melted and gone!

"Ah, nooo!"

Snapping back to reality, I put my hands on my cheeks in despair.

I absolutely must not let this be discovered. Just imagining it is terrifying.

"I, I'll definitely keep it secret."

"Since the elves might get suspicious, it's best to hide the fact that you've grown too."

Elija made an ah sound and turned his head toward me.

"Can you control it?"

"Hmm. I think so, probably."

Bending down and concentrating quietly, I felt Elija's intense stare and hunched my shoulders.

"What? Do I look strange now that I'm bigger?"

"Ah, no."

Elija answered immediately, with eyes like a startled rabbit. He quickly waved his hands and then subtly touched his ear with a finger.

"Doesn't it feel like your pronunciation has gotten better?"

"Huh?"

Come to think of it…….

Since waking up, I've definitely made fewer pronunciation mistakes than before.

Could it be because I grew?

"Re, really? Can I speak well now?"

"Sometimes your pronunciation still comes out garbled, but it's definitely different……."

Wooat!

As I stretched both arms and cheered, Elija quickly averted his eyes. Ah, the blanket. I busily gathered it and covered myself again.

"I can speak without stumbling now! It feels like my tongue doesn't hurt even if I talk for a long time!"

This is great! So great!

This is the joy of growing. When I beamed, Elija sweated and tried to calm me down.

"Your speech gets garbled again when you're excited. Take it slow. I'm not going anywhere even if you speak slowly."

Finally, Elija let out a pfft laugh and patted my back, wrapped in the blanket. Feeling proud, I spent a while showing off my pronunciation. Elija, who diligently showered me with praise, gradually relaxed his expression. Perhaps he was getting somewhat used to my sudden growth.

"Anyway, you're impossible to handle."

"Being able to say whatever I want is so great!"

When I pouted, Elija fell silent for a moment.

"I suppose. I always thought you spoke well……."

Pausing for a moment, his golden eyes slowly turned to me.

"Echo, there's something I've been slightly curious about for a while."

"……Huh?"

Elija being curious about me. My heart suddenly dropped. I'd never even thought Elija would have questions for me.

"You have…… something you're curious about?"

Why haven't I ever thought about it? Surely, as you spend time together, it's natural to have questions.

……But I'm not human, am I? Slightly tense, I waited for his next words.

"Echo, how did you decide to follow me?"

"What. Obviously."

No. Elija sat quietly, resting his chin on his knee, and smiled.

"Besides what you always say."

Even after I started speaking, there was a time when Elija asked me various questions.

[How did you find me?]

[Were you always a slime living here?]

……Starting with things like that, and eventually.

[……Why did you decide to stay with me?]

Looking into his anxious golden eyes, those conversations always ended like that.

Whenever that happened, I always answered simply and cutely.

[I don't know! I don't remember well now!]

[Just because I like you!]

[Because Elija's eyes are pretty!]

[I don't know anything else!]

Anyway, I couldn't speak long, and even if I did, I wouldn't be understood. I thought it would just make my mouth tired.

Back then, Elija seemed to just think of me as an unusual slime, so he never pressed further.

"At first, I thought you were just a clueless slime, following me like an imprinting baby."

But as we grew closer and you became more fluent, I felt you were something more special. Elija calmly shared what he'd been feeling.

"Because you're so smart……."

It's been about four months since you started speaking—but that's too fast for just that. I knew you weren't an ordinary slime, but you…… you're just like a person.

His words made my fingertips feel frozen. No. Calm down. Control my expression.

His words hit so close to home that I couldn't even tell if I was looking at him with a proper face.

"How did I ever come across such a special slime."

My hand twitched. It seemed we'd reached a point where it was hard to keep insisting I was just a genius slime, especially now that my appearance was changing.

I was happy to have evolved to look more human, but the more I could speak, the harder it was to just brush things off like before. At first, I dreamed of a lazy life in the human world as a companion monster……. But at some point, I've been genuinely interfering in Elija's affairs! Of course, it's all for the sake of mooching off him later! Really!

'……But I'm not the small, cute slime I used to be anymore. Will Elija still keep me around?'

I could hear the sound of my early goal—riding on Elija's back—crumbling.

"Too intelligent for a slime. The way you speak, the way you think. And that such a slime came to me."

Is he, suspicious of me?

Ah, no……. My comfortable future.

My vision blurred. While I was in a daze, Elija slowly continued, then clenched his fist. After gulping, he finally spoke.

"Are you…… not a slime, but something like a fairy?"

"……?"

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