Dark Matter Slime (3)
I was watching the two of them roll around and scrap—more precisely, watching the Dark Matter Slime land every hit while Miho only took them—when something occurred to me. I turned to Choi Soohan, standing at my back, and asked.
"Soohan. We're set to head out to a ski resort tomorrow, just the one night. Know any place worth going?"
"How many will be going, sir?"
"Remember the kids who used to work part-time here?"
"You mean your friends from school."
"Yeah. Them, plus Lydia and Franc... Wonder if Hwayeon and Youngeun can make it. Should I bring Noona too?"
Soohan glanced around the living room, then dipped her head slightly and answered.
"Then I will prepare for fifteen."
Fifteen? Me, Franc, Hwayeon, Youngeun, and seven came to eleven. Hmm. Even counting Noona, and Soohan to run errands... Don't tell me she'd folded Miho and Hiarid in as well.
Franc had been fretting as she watched Miho shake her head from side to side, fending off the slime's blows to her own skull. At last she flew over with a troubled face, caught my hand, and tugged.
"Oh, honestly! Seoha, please don't just stand there watching—stop them! She'll be hurt!"
I didn't think either of them would break my order not to throw their strength around carelessly. And to my eyes, all the slime was doing was giving Miho a moderate lesson in the pecking order.
Franc, though, seemed convinced Miho was about to be seriously hurt, and she couldn't settle. Somewhere along the way, it seemed, Franc had grown fond of her too.
"Waaah~!"
Slosh, slosh!
Meanwhile their scuffle was turning into the kind of childish brawl where you just windmill your arms and go eee, eee—a fight with no technique in it at all.
Soohan, as if the order I'd given her took priority even over this racket, stepped into the elevator and went down to carry it out. Hiarid, face entirely indifferent, simply avoided the tumbling pair and went to sit in her designated seat.
"Seoha."
"All right."
At Franc's urging I scratched my head, stopped the rolling pair with my foot, and spoke.
"Both of you, stop."
"Eeeing!"
Slosh~
Only at my word did the slime slide off Miho's body, gather itself in one place, and climb my leg. Miho, freed at last from its hold, plopped down in the middle of the living room and poked at her beaten head with a face on the verge of tears.
I caught the slime as it crawled up my leg and lifted it, and I spoke. Time to teach this one the household ranking properly.
"In this house, rank goes by the order you came in. We don't decide it by Phase Power."
Slosh...?
"Hiarid, what's this one saying?"
Why, indeed. The thing didn't even have a brain—how was it thinking, and how was it expressing it? At any rate, I drew 1 TP from my fingertip and let it fall onto the body of the slime, which was plainly showing its puzzlement.
The moment the small blue droplet touched it, blue light seeped in.
Slo...sh? Slosh! Slosh-slosh!!
Mm. I was watching it corkscrew itself like a cruller, swell up like a balloon, and slosh in a frenzy, when Hiarid began translating of her own accord.
"It's my ability. Phase Power shifts whenever I will it to, so in this house you can't rank anyone by whether their Phase Power is strong or weak. That's what I mean."
Slosh... Slosh-slosh.
Why did the translation come out sounding like a woman's way of talking? An amorphous slime shouldn't have any split between female and male. Strange.
"So the order in this house is this. I'm first. Franc, Hwayeon, and Youngeun are second, and Miho is third. Choi Soohan is fourth. Hiarid and Sophia are fifth, and you, slime, are the youngest."
Slosh.
So I'd added a pet that doubled as armor, had I. The talk was done. I rolled the slime onto the living room carpet the way you'd send a bowling ball down the lane, and it went tumbling across the pile.
At that sight Miho flattened herself on all fours like a fox, swished her six tails, then darted in and snatched the slime up in both hands.
"Didja hear what Master said? I'm higher rank than you, so from now on you call me Lady Miho!"
...Slosh.
"Huh? Why!"
Slosh-slosh!
"Nngh!"
Miho glared at the slime as if it thoroughly annoyed her, seized it in both hands, and yanked hard to either side. In that instant a tentacle shot out of the stretched portion and smacked her square in the forehead.
Smack!
"Ow!"
After that, Miho and the slime kept scrapping without a pause, rolling busily back and forth across the living room floor. There were a few things I wanted to ask the slime, but...
Nothing for it. I'd have to look into it once Hwayeon and Youngeun got back.
An hour later Soohan returned and reported that she had booked out an entire upscale private lodge beside High1 Resort for the two days of the trip.
That was fast. A whole lodge to ourselves meant we wouldn't have to jostle with strangers. Nice.
"Well done."
I praised her and gave her head a light pat, and a pretty flush of color rose across her white cheeks.
For the moment, I sent a message to the group chat.
The messages that had been drifting up one by one suddenly started climbing fast, and at the sight of it I closed the chat.
The mood was roughly we'll get ready and come, so there was no need to read every one.
I sat on the sofa, turned on the TV and the Authenticator's community boards, and was checking how the international situation was moving when Hwayeon and Youngeun came in together. They saw the long, slimy length of the slime rolling around the living room tangled up with Miho, and their expressions grew a little complicated.
"You didn't overload yourself, did you? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. At this rate, with a little more training of my mental strength, I should be able to mentally manipulate one more Highest-Rank Variant."
The one I had left in mind was that snake bastard, the Rogue Imugi. Dominate it with mental manipulation, heap every humiliation on it, and work it to the bone.
I was turning over how I'd have to use the thing to settle the grudge from my first life when Youngeun folded her arms and spoke, looking a little unsettled.
"You know those people you caught for me earlier? I got a little cooperation out of them before I left work, and... it seems word that our Seoha dominated a Dark Matter Slime has already reached the ears of several countries."
"That was fast."
Hwayeon, who had been listening in silence beside her, looked at the unsettled Youngeun and asked with a serious face.
"Does that mean it's become known that Seoha possesses a mental manipulation ability?"
"Not that. The general mood is more like, doesn't Seoha have yet another ability he's been hiding and never reported~? That sort of atmosphere."
"An ability related to monster taming, you mean?"
"It feels like they can't get a handle on that part."
"Then I don't think you need to worry. Seoha has already become an existence that the nations called the great powers of the world could do nothing about, even if they joined forces."
"That's true, but humans are a species that can't even properly believe what they've seen with their own eyes, and think whatever suits them. Leave them be and their nerve will swell right along with their suspicions. Hmm..."
She couldn't seem to let it go. Chin propped on her hand, brow furrowed, and I spoke as I stroked the soft, plump curve of her rear.
"You're in a seat where there's a great deal to think about, so I suppose you have to worry even when you go looking for the worry. That sort of thing can be settled well enough when the time comes, so don't dwell on it. You'll put wrinkles on that pretty face."
"Ehehehe."
Soon enough I'd enter the Phase World and drag that Rogue Imugi out with mental manipulation, and when that day came, they'd have to pull back the ears they'd been cocking this way. Haul around an aberrant that had smashed America's highest-tier raid team, and they'd have to mind their step around us in a very big way.
"Anyway, set the worries aside for later. Starting tomorrow we're going to a ski resort for a night. You're coming, right?"
"A ski resort?"
"A ski resort?!"
At the word that we were going out to play, Hwayeon's and Youngeun's eyes flashed wide, and Miho came running with the slime draped and dangling all over her.
"Master's going out to play? Going to the ski place?"
"Yeah. Planning to go with the kids from school, Lydia included."
"Me too? I get to go too?"
Did this one even know what a ski resort was, asking like that? I looked down at Miho, clutching my pant leg, eyes sparkling, and said,
"Yeah. You, of course, and Hiarid's coming too."
"Waaah~! Ski resort! Ski resort!"
I was watching her bounce and flop around in delight when Youngeun looked at me with a slightly disappointed face.
"So it isn't just us?"
"Mm. If that bothers you, want to go just us?"
Youngeun knit her brows for a moment, then broke into a wide, helpless grin, stuck herself to my side, and spoke.
"No~. It's already promised, we can't break it. Anyway, so my first trip with my darling is a ski resort~ How exciting."
The moment she heard we were going to a ski resort, she seemed to have wiped international affairs clean out of her head. Humming under her breath, she caught Hwayeon and Franc by the arms and swept off into the dressing room to pack clothes and whatever else they'd need. Off went Lady Youngeun.
With Soohan joining in, the lovers finished their preparations in a flash, then stripped my clothes off at lightning speed to wash and led me to the bathroom by both arms.
The soaping was over in an instant. Washed, we sank into a tub mixed with water drawn straight from a hot spring, and Youngeun let out a long sigh and murmured.
"Haaah. I wish the grand mansion in Shinchon-dong would hurry up and be finished. Four of us in here and the tub's cramped."
This wasn't small, though. Eleven and a half feet by eight—more than enough room for four, and then some.
Franc had claimed the place on my right and Youngeun the place on my left, so Hwayeon, late from washing, wore a look of resignation. She rested her head on the far rim, let the strength go out of her body, and floated.
The pose had her legs parted as if she were asking me to look, and thanks to that I got an unobstructed view of all of it—the smooth, straight-cut lines of her abs, the firm plane of her lower belly, and the nicely fleshed folds of her sex, floating like a little island.
Watching her lie there at ease with her eyes closed, mischief started to stir.
I reached out and tickled the sole of her foot, but there was no reaction at all. A wickeder impulse took me. I caught Hwayeon's pretty, cute feet and spread them left and right, and her legs opened, laying her sex bare.
Even that far, she only floated there quietly with her eyes closed, so I moved on to the next step.
I lifted a foot and poked the rear hole of the still-closed-eyed Hwayeon with my big toe... Still no reaction.
Strange. I prodded around her rear hole and the folds of her sex with my toes, a little poke here and there, and only then did her face begin to redden, little by little.
So she'd been floating still and enduring, wanting me to tease her. No wonder there was no reaction.
Franc had been watching my foot-play from the side, face red. Then Youngeun shifted, her expression full of mischief, and Franc rested her head on my shoulder—half a face that said she couldn't be stopped, half a face that was looking forward to it.
Youngeun pushed my leg aside so Hwayeon wouldn't notice, smiled wickedly, and stretched out her own long, firm, deer-like leg. She parted Hwayeon's petals left and right, then began, stealthily, to rub at her entrance.
That—if she gets caught, Hwayeon is not going to let it go.
Emboldened by Hwayeon still lying there with her eyes closed despite what she was doing, Youngeun grew bolder still and slipped her big toe a little way into the opening of Hwayeon's petals.
"......!"
In that instant Hwayeon's eyes flew open. She saw Youngeun's foot toying with her there, shot her eyebrows up, and yanked Youngeun's ankle hard.
"Mmph!"
"Come on. Let's get out and wash."
"Yes."
To escape the bloodbath about to erupt in the tub, I wrapped an arm around Franc's waist and walked out. Behind us, Hwayeon, face furious, locked a rear naked choke on Youngeun.
Careless or otherwise, the hold had caught her dead center, and Youngeun flailed. Splash, splash—the water was loud.
"Kyaa! Urk, wait! Stop! Glug!"
"Madam, I believe you will come to your senses once you have drunk a little hot water through your nose!"
Youngeun sank in the tub, bubbling, blowing streams of air. Hwayeon clamped Youngeun's stomach hard between her thighs and forced the breath out of her. I was watching the two naked beauties thrash and tangle, splashing, when Franc, working a lather into a bath sponge and scrubbing my back, asked,
"Youngeun's pranks go too far. If she were scolded soundly once, do you think that playful streak might settle a little?"
"Doubt it. No matter how much you scold her, that nature of hers—teasing Hwayeon and messing with her—isn't going to change."
"Hot! Eek! Water up my nose! Pwah, I surrender! I surrender!!"
"You surrender over merely this much? You ought to drink half the water in the tub through your nostrils!"
"Eek! S-Seoha, save me...! Mmph! Glug..."
Franc, who had washed every corner of me, handed over the bath sponge, and I was soaping her soft body, feeling it under my hands, when the noisy contest in the tub came to a quick end.
Hwayeon swept her wet hair back and walked out the very image of a victor. Behind her, Youngeun's rear floated like a drowning victim's, gleaming slick under the bathroom lights.
"My nose hurts..."
In a short-sleeved tee and hot pants, a towel wrapped around her head, Youngeun made a tearful face, spoke in a stuffy nasal voice, and glared at Hwayeon.
"Seriously, wasn't that too much? One little prank and you torture me with water hot enough to kill! I thought my nostrils were going to cook!"
"That place of mine exists for Seoha. Putting a filthy toe in there—you may consider yourself fortunate that it ended where it did."
"I can't even joke?! And I'd washed it, it was clean!"
While Hwayeon and Youngeun growled at each other, Hiarid and Miho, washed in another bathroom, came walking out. Soohan followed with an armful of towels, sat Miho down, and began drying her long wet hair and her tails, while Hiarid took a towel and dried the water from her own wings.
Then Soohan picked up the dryer...
"Don't want the buzzy!"
Miho shook her wet tails like a windmill, flap-flap, turning Soohan into a drowned rat, and dashed over to me—only to be caught by Soohan, who had chased her at lightning speed, and dragged right back.
Whiiiiir~.
"Too~ loud~!"
At the sound of the dryer she pressed her fox ears flat and kicked her short little legs. Soohan spoke in a soft voice, the way one soothes a child.
"If you run around while you're wet, an unpleasant smell will come up before long. A nasty smell, like a stray dog caught in the rain. It is a very foul smell, and Master would dislike it as well. Does Miho wish to be disliked by Master?"
"Uuing..."
I watched Soohan, who had coaxed Miho with a deft touch, drying Miho's tails, then picked up the slime rolling around at my feet.
Brrrp?
The Dark Matter Slime caught in my hand quivered the little knob at its tip, then began to sway gently from side to side.
"Hiarid. Come here and translate what the slime is saying."
Franc, seeing me lift the slime, rose into the air, slipped back behind me, wrapped her arms around my neck, and asked,
"What is it you mean to ask?"
"I want to ask what this one went through at Ha Cheolsu's hands."
Slosh?
Hwayeon and Youngeun quit their glaring match, sat at my feet, and looked at the black droplet of a slime resting on my palm.
"Oh, if it can be translated, we'll be able to learn how Ha Cheolsu managed to get out in that state!"
"Hiarid could understand what the slime was saying earlier."
"So that's how it was~."
Before hearing the whole story from the slime jiggling and stretching from side to side, I first made it recognize the words we used. Phase Power, TP, Phase Stones, Aberrants. The ranks of Aberrants, ability users and abilities, and everything concerning the Phase World, the modern world, and Ha Cheolsu.
Then I asked.
"How did you meet Ha Cheolsu? How'd you end up getting mentally manipulated by him?"
Slosh... Slosh-slosh. Slosh. Brrrp.
I could feel the slime shaking in my hand through my palm, and beside me Hiarid quietly began to speak.
Slosh-slosh. Slosh. Skree. Brrrp-brrrp.
Brrrrrp. Slosh. Shake, shake.
The lovers who had been listening to Hiarid's translation gave small nods—so that was it—and spoke.
"So he really was dominating Aberrants with mental manipulation, dragging them around to hunt."
"How else could that worthless wretch have become B-Class in three months?"
"But it approached without attacking... This slime doesn't seem to have an aggressive nature."
"More than that, isn't it that it's specialized for counterattacks, so it can't bring its strength to bear until it's attacked?"
I let the lovers' talk go in one ear and out the other, and asked the slime again.
"So that's when Ha Cheolsu hit you with mental manipulation?"
Brrp. Slosh-slosh. Shlurp. Glorp-glorp.
"Hiarid. You don't have to tack on 'it says.' Just translate."
Ate them, it said—so it had left only Ha Cheolsu? After that, the Dark Matter Slime's story went on at length.