Slimes Are Indeed the Weakest
Jeong So-hee had been practically confined to her room for days now.
Whenever she tried to go outside, the escort knights blocked her way.
Normally she would wander the palace with the prince or the guards, or summon whichever man she fancied for afternoon tea, but lately every polite “Of course, my lady” was followed by nothing at all.
The guard who used to follow her every whim with adoring eyes had disappeared after the night of the banquet.
It felt as though every man who had once sought her company had suddenly been cut off.
The new guard barely spoke, and his plain appearance stirred nothing in her.
On top of that, the studies she had managed to dodge were now being forced on her again.
After speaking with Alf, it had become impossible to avoid them.
Alf visited her every morning, exchanged only the briefest greetings, and left at once.
There was never time to ask him for anything.
He claimed official duties kept him busy.
It was depressing.
The one small comfort was that the High Priest came to see her every day and stayed for hours.
Today, too, the moment her irritating etiquette lesson ended, the High Priest appeared.
“My lady Saintess, you look even more radiant today.”
The High Priest narrowed his eyes and smiled.
Around him the very air seemed to bloom like flowers.
Without realizing it, Jeong So-hee felt her cheeks grow warm.
She had met him many times already, yet every time she saw him she fell in love all over again.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the High Priest gave a gentle laugh.
“Today I thought I would tell you one of the myths concerning the spirits.”
Even when the High Priest visited, it was never because he liked her; it was always for her studies.
Every day he taught her what spirits were in this world, how the world had been saved by them, illustrating his lessons with myths and real examples.
Honestly, she could not bring herself to believe any of it.
There were no recorded images, and even if the stories from a hundred or several hundred years ago were true, how was she supposed to accept them?
After seeing what passed for a spirit at the banquet, she found it even harder to believe they were anything special.
All that creature had done was smack someone and send them flying, just like Popcorn.
There was nothing mystical about it.
It was merely odd to watch something shaped like a popcorn model move around.
Even that was undercut by how ridiculous its actions were.
Its crying sound was strange, and those tiny ant-like hands and feet looked somehow pathetic.
She had imagined spirits would be holy and beautiful; the reality was a crushing disappointment.
Yet whenever she voiced that thought, the reaction was explosive.
She was told never to insult the spirits, that she would incur divine punishment. Ah, this was why she hated these backward medieval people.
Jeong So-hee let the High Priest’s words drift past her and sighed softly.
At first the luxurious life had dazzled her, but once she grew used to it, everything felt dull and tedious.
A world without the internet was boring beyond belief.
“Um… High Priest, I want to do something as the Saintess now. Couldn’t I at least go out into the streets?”
She had heard this country had markets.
The streets would be full of people and things for sale.
She wanted to go shopping.
Perhaps there were strange or amusing items to be found, and she was thoroughly sick of being shut inside the palace.
“The Saintess is a precious existence for this world. It would be unwise to venture into the streets where danger might await.”
“If I took several escort knights with me…”
At her words the High Priest’s gentle expression grew slightly stern.
“As I have told you before, there are those who would abduct the Saintess. Such people are stronger and more cunning than you might think. A handful of guards would not be enough. If they captured you, you would suffer things too terrible to speak of. Please understand that we only wish to protect you.”
“……”
Jeong So-hee could only nod.
She had tried several times to charm the High Priest, but nothing worked.
She had learned later that charm did not rely solely on bodily fluids.
Prolonged eye contact or extended time spent together could also trigger it.
Using bodily fluids simply made the effect faster and stronger.
She had thought the High Priest would eventually fall under her spell…
Why won’t this man be affected?
She had assumed that since it was NTR, even someone who had devoted his life to God could be stolen, but apparently gods were off-limits.
Jeong So-hee let out a small sigh.
* * *
I never go deeper into the forest.
The snares I set are placed where the woods meet the open ground.
That land might one day become part of my fields, but for now it is thick with grass.
At a glance it is hard to tell whether it is still forest or just ordinary earth.
Yet when compared with the trees standing right beside it, the difference is obvious.
The sun shines equally on everything.
Clearly the same light reaches inside the forest, yet only a single step away the woods are dark and gloomy.
Even the air looks heavy.
Though only a few paces separate us, that place feels like another world.
Clear birdsong drifted out from within the trees.
It sounded almost like an invitation, and I shivered.
The villagers had drilled into me how dangerous the forest was.
The forests of this world were apparently like the Amazon jungle.
Countless adults and children alike had entered and never returned, their bodies never found.
Even without their warnings, the sight of that silent, dark forest filled me with dread.
If boars the size of mountains lived there, who knew what else lurked inside?
Perhaps even slimes like Pudding grew enormous.
The thought alone made my knees weak.
Yet hearing the birdsong still made me want to go in.
It was not as though they were sirens luring sailors, after all.
Pudding, perched on my shoulder with its body puffed up, trembled as if issuing a warning.
“Yeah, you feel it too, don’t you? This forest is dangerous. I feel the same.”
Even a tiny baby slime like Pudding knew the forest was a place to fear.
We would never set foot inside.
After setting a snare at the spot I had chosen earlier, I wandered around looking for places animals might travel and checking for droppings.
Rabbit pellets were not easy to find.
The locations I had marked so far had only been discovered after I actually saw rabbits there and searched thoroughly.
They would not turn up easily.
Occasionally I found something that looked like rabbit droppings, but I could never be sure.
Plenty of other creatures left similar waste.
I was still too inexperienced to notice the small differences.
Trapping was no easy task for a beginner.
Still, I set snares wherever I found likely spots.
Even if it was not a rabbit, some other decent animal might get caught.
The villagers did not hunt rabbits exclusively, either.
They caught squirrels, weasels, and sometimes creatures I did not even recognize, tossing them all into the stew pot.
They had strictly forbidden rats, yet every now and then I saw something that looked suspiciously like a rat go into the pot.
When I recoiled, they laughed and said it was squirrel, but I could never be entirely sure.
At any rate, squirrel was acceptable.
The meat was edible and the pelt could be used as fur.
I also set a few smaller snares in the area where I had seen many squirrels.
While moving about setting traps, I found some vines.
They were the same kind I used to make snares.
Not just any vine would do.
Only certain tough, slender vines or flexible branches were suitable.
After memorizing the location relative to my fields, I cut a few lengths with my axe.
I planned to take them home and use them as cord for drying snares and meat.
On Earth I could have bought rope anytime, but here many people made even simple cord themselves.
Life in this world was anything but easy.
Afterward I headed toward the place where I had seen the pheasant-like bird.
This spot was a little closer to the forest.
“…Kkur… kkur….”
Pudding looked around in every direction, instantly on guard.
It really seemed to be doing this for my sake.
How admirable.
“Thanks, Pudding.”
When I patted it, Pudding drew its puffed-up body back in and rubbed against me.
“That bird was around here somewhere.”
As I approached the spot, I saw bird droppings scattered across the branches.
More than one bird could have left, I thought.
Perhaps several of them lived nearby.
Every time I had seen that bird, it flew toward the forest, so maybe their nests were in the shallower parts of the woods.
If I set snares deeper in, it would be easier to catch them.
I pushed the temptation aside.
This was exactly how small compromises led to disaster.
I had to stick to the rules I had set for myself.
The snares for birds worked on the same basic principle as the rabbit ones.
Since birds perched on branches, plenty of vines and trees grew around the area.
While pushing through waist-high grass and vines in search of the branch with the most droppings, something suddenly burst out of the undergrowth.
Startled, Pudding leapt from my shoulder.
It seemed to be trying to shield me.
Landing on the ground, Pudding flattened itself thin and wide, like dough being rolled out.
Even so, it could not cover my entire body—only up to about my knees.
Shaaa!
The creature that emerged from the bushes bared its teeth and snarled.
It looked like a fox.
“Kkur… kkur….”
Pudding stretched its body and moved closer as if to threaten it, but the fox swiped at Pudding with its front paw.
“Oh no.”
Even as I reached out, the fox swallowed Pudding whole.
“Kku… kku… kkur….”
Pudding let out a sound like a scream, half inside the fox’s mouth, thrashing about.
For all its bold charge, it had been pathetically weak.
“Sorry, but I need that one back.”
I stepped forward quickly and brought my hand down on the fox’s neck from above.
Back when I fought the thieves, I had felt the air itself helping me.
Since then I had been practicing how to use that power bit by bit.
It let me strike with more force than my body alone could manage.
Thanks to it, building the house, carrying stones, and chopping wood had all become far easier.
That was also why I could come this close to the forest alone.
Without that power, I would never have dared enter such overgrown brush by myself, forest or not.
Wild animals were usually too quick to catch bare-handed, but Pudding had the fox pinned.
Half-swallowed, it had still managed to plant its feet on the ground and grab a tree root.
That gave me the opening I needed.
The fox let out a small yelp and collapsed.
It seemed to have died instantly.
I must have put too much strength into the blow; I had been a little flustered myself.
I had felt its neck snap beneath my palm.
“…Kkur… kkur….”
Pudding wriggled out of the fox’s open mouth.
It came over to me and rubbed against my leg.
Its body trembled slightly; it must have been terrified.
“You little thing, I appreciate you trying to protect me, but that fox was just trying to run away. You stopped it. It’s like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut—if you had stayed still, you wouldn’t have gotten eaten either.”
Pudding let out a string of soft kkur sounds, sounding thoroughly indignant.
Still, it really was admirable.
It had tried to protect me.
“Anyway, thank you. You were very brave. If I were a woman, I might have fallen for you.”
But it was far too weak.
Against anything much larger than itself, it stood no chance.
As expected, slimes really are the weakest.
Already forgetting its fear, Pudding stretched out its body and shook itself as if to say it was nothing.
Its mood changed quickly.
“Yeah, good job. Thanks to you we caught a fox.”
I was not entirely sure it was a fox, but the fur was glossy and beautiful.
Today had been a lucky day.
I set snares on branches where the bird might perch and camouflaged them with twigs.
It took quite a while.
When I finished and looked back, Pudding was circling the fox, keeping watch so nothing would take it away.
When I lifted the fox, Pudding hopped onto my shoulder and puffed out its chest proudly—if it had one.
The sight was so cute that I gently stroked it with a finger, and Pudding happily scattered glittering powder.