70. The Sulking Slime
Ingwang left together with the Village Chief.
Just like that.
He simply disappeared without a hint of hesitation, as though he had absolutely no regrets about leaving.
“…Mallang, I’m going to stretch my body outside for a bit.”
“H-Huh? W-Wait, all of a sudden?”
“What do you mean, all of a sudden? I always do this before hunting. I’ll come back when ahjussi returns, so just wait here.”
“Huh? U-Um… do you really have to go?”
“I’m the kind of person who can’t sleep if I skip even one day of training. Good luck!”
W-What?!
She ran away!
She came up with a perfectly reasonable excuse and ran away, leaving me alone with this awkward person!
…Normally, normally I would have been fine with it.
But today, I wasn’t in a very good mood.
Ingwang, who usually carried me around in his arms and squished me whenever he pleased, had somehow taken me out of his embrace twice today.
And when I thought that it was all because of this woman named Lucy suddenly appearing…
It made me feel really annoyed!
“Ahem! U-Um, excuse me… may I ask you something?”
“What?”
Eek!
That reaction is scary…!
Despite her gentle appearance, she had such a gloomy atmosphere around her. Having her look down at me while speaking like that was terrifying….
“I-It’s about Ingwang!”
“Why are you getting angry?”
“I’m not! I’m not angry?!”
Seriously!
Ingwang was someone who was always thinking about one thing or another, so there had to be some reason why he suddenly took only the Village Chief and disappeared.
But that was one thing!
And this was another!
He had always treated me like I was practically a part of his own body, and now he suddenly started treating me like a stranger.
Wasn’t that too much?
Even I, a monster, thought so!
“What kind of relationship do you have with Ingwang?”
Now that both the Village Chief and Ingwang had gone to the market, this was the perfect chance to ask Lucy some personal questions.
I needed to find out exactly who she was.
Why did Ingwang become so helpless whenever she was around?
And why was he trying to hide her from us?
“Relationship?”
Lucy was sitting in the carriage, fiddling with the wide-brimmed hat she had taken off.
With her gentle-looking face and that hat, she really looked like a witch.
She tilted her head in confusion at my question.
Ugh, those eyes!
Look at those alluring, seductive eyes!
She must have bewitched Ingwang with those eyes!
As expected of a witch!
I could practically feel the experience that came with her age!
“What are you going to do with that information?”
“Is it something you can’t tell me?”
“Is it important?”
…Calling her cold somehow didn’t feel right.
She was so emotionless that even the word cold seemed strange.
If emotions could be described by temperature or color, then her emotions right now were simply…
Transparent.
There wasn’t even a cold temperature to them.
They were just flat.
Yes…
It was almost like looking at a hollow doll.
She was the complete opposite of Ingwang, whose emotions were always overflowing everywhere.
Ah.
Could that be it?
Maybe because Ingwang had so many emotions overflowing from him, she was someone he could pour all of those feelings into.
And for someone like Lucy, who lacked emotions, perhaps Ingwang was the person who filled her emptiness with feelings?
Ooh.
That actually sounded…
Really romantic!
Two people who could never become complete without each other!
Was that what people called a match made in heaven?!
“Yes, it’s important. Ingwang is the person who showed me the light. And since you’re someone he seems uncomfortable dealing with, I need to know who you are!”
“Light….”
When she was with Ingwang, she had at least seemed a little more human.
But now…
She really looked so empty that it almost made me feel sorry for her.
It was probably a good thing Aien wasn’t here right now.
If Aien saw her like this, she would definitely latch onto every word Lucy said and start digging into it.
She would probably try her best to solve whatever problem Lucy had.
Honestly, Aien was sometimes too kind for her own good.
The world I had seen after leaving the sewer and traveling with Ingwang was far too cruel for a gentle and kind child like Aien.
“Do you really think that man shines?”
“Yes. He’s someone who sparkles brightly.”
Well…
Not all the time.
But whenever Ingwang had a clear goal, he shone more brilliantly than anyone around him.
Normally…
Hmm.
Maybe it was more like there was always a faint shadow hanging over him.
And right now, he was probably off doing something shady with the Village Chief behind our backs!
Even the purification water I regularly made for them scared me sometimes.
Who knew what they were using it for?!
Still, judging from the fact that the sewers were becoming cleaner and cleaner, it seemed like they were keeping their promise.
But that didn’t make me feel any less uneasy.
“…I think so too. When I first met him, I thought he was a little… lacking somehow. But when he talked about something he liked, his eyes would sparkle.”
Ah!
Finally!
Emotion!
I finally succeeded in drawing an emotion out of her!
…But why did the trigger have to be Ingwang?!
Seriously, what kind of relationship do these two have?!
I heard that Outsiders had another place where they lived besides this world.
C-Could these two have some kind of deep relationship over there?!
I wanted to ask.
I wanted to ask so badly.
But I just couldn’t get the words out!
If she actually told me they did have that kind of relationship…
Or if she simply answered with another, “What are you going to do with that information?”
I might go insane!
Just like Ingwang!
“Why? Are you interested in him too?”
“Huh?”
…Hmm.
That was complicated.
How exactly did I feel about Ingwang?
Did I feel possessive of him?
Maybe.
Ingwang probably thought of me as his, but perhaps I also thought of Ingwang as mine in my own way.
I mean, think about it!
Right now, Ingwang’s arms were a place reserved only for me—
Ah.
They were also reserved for his son, Modak.
Ugh!
I used to be the only one!
Still, Ingwang had definitely terrified me at first.
I had honestly wondered what kind of monster he was.
The way he charged around smashing absolutely everything without thinking about the consequences…
He looked even more like a monster than I did!
But Ingwang’s true worth didn’t show itself at times like that.
It was when he faced an enemy who seemed impossible to defeat.
When he stood with countless people behind his back.
That was when Ingwang shone the brightest.
To be honest, during the last battle against the Great Demon…
Although the battle ended faster than expected, from my position watching the overall situation from afar, I had truly prepared myself for death.
Both Aien and Ingwang were horribly injured.
Several times, they suffered wounds so terrible that it wouldn’t have been strange for either of them to die at any moment.
Every time that happened, I hated how helpless I was.
I regretted it so much.
If only I had learned defensive magic, maybe I could have protected them.
And yet…
Even while Ingwang himself was in that terrible condition, whenever I accidentally wandered into the Great Demon’s attack range and was about to be hit…
He always threw himself in front of me and saved me.
Not even once did he get angry at me.
Instead, he comforted me and told me to be more careful.
At the very beginning of the battle, he had even told me that if trying to help him was going to get me killed, then I should just support him with my voice instead.
That was how much he cared about me.
“As you can see, I’m a monster.”
“You are.”
“If Ingwang hadn’t helped me, I would’ve been caught and killed by countless other monsters a long time ago.”
That was right.
Ingwang had saved my life again and again.
And when I was killed by the Corrupted One, he became angrier than anyone else.
He had even gone so far as to rip the Corrupted One’s wings off.
Because of him, I was now able to travel through this vast world that I had never been allowed to see before.
I could see all kinds of things in that wide world.
Good things.
Bad things.
Everything I was experiencing right now was possible because of Ingwang.
“Ingwang saved my life. Wouldn’t it be stranger if I wasn’t interested in him?”
“…Yeah. You’re right.”
That was why I also had to do everything I could to keep death far away from Ingwang.
It was the best thing I could do.
And it was something I absolutely had to do.
I owed him a debt that even my death wouldn’t be enough to repay.
So until the day Ingwang himself died and disappeared from this world…
I couldn’t allow myself to die first.
“….”
Streeetch.
Lucy stared at me for a while.
Then, just like Ingwang, she grabbed my body and slowly stretched me out.
Do I really have the kind of body that makes people want to knead me the moment they see me?
Why does everyone have to poke me or pinch me at least once?
“…Me too….”
“Hweeh?”
It sounded like she was about to say something.
But then Aien suddenly poked her head inside.
Lucy immediately pulled her hat down over her face and tightly shut her mouth.
Ugh!
Aien!
It was just getting good!
What are you doing?!
You ruined the whole atmosphere!
If we had continued just a little longer, I might have gotten all kinds of information out of her!
“I’m back! Uh… what? Why is the atmosphere like this?”
Ingwang returned carrying a huge bag packed full of things.
He had left with the Village Chief, but strangely enough, he came back with some elf.
He had started greeting us cheerfully, only to immediately lower his voice after noticing the strange silence.
“Nothing happened. I was just talking with Lucy.”
“Really? Doesn’t seem like it was a very pleasant conversation. Hey! They say people become closer after fighting! And we’re literally going somewhere to fight right now, so won’t everyone be friends by the time it’s over?”
Sometimes…
No.
Quite often, Ingwang said really strange things.
Whenever he said something like that, I could never tell whether he was joking or being serious.
It was very troublesome.
After putting the luggage inside the carriage, Ingwang picked me up like usual.
But instead of sitting inside the carriage, he sat beside the Coachman while holding me.
On another note…
Why did this person insist that everyone call him Coachman?
Was he under some kind of curse?
Even I had a name….
Poor man….
“Now then, Mallang. There’s something very important I need to talk to you about.”
“With me?”
I see!
So that was why he had brought only me over to sit beside the Coachman!
To be honest, I had been wondering whether I should ask him, “Why aren’t you sitting with Lucy? Why are you holding someone like me instead?”
Looks like I had worried for nothing!
“Mallang, I have always carried gratitude toward your existence as vast as the heavens themselves.”
“I know.”
“Our Mallang has gotten a little shameless, hasn’t she? Anyway! What I wanted to ask is!”
“Yes!”
“Could you tell me what you and Lucy talked about?”
“…No.”
Seriously.
So annoying!
“Come on~ Don’t be like that~! Can’t you just tell me the parts that bothered you a little?”
“Why? Why should I?!”
“Ahaha! Because there’s something bothering me. Who knows? Maybe Lucy and I met somewhere once before.”
“Hmph! Then you should remember it, Ingwang!”
“Ahaha… You know I usually walk around with my brain switched off. Cut me some slack.”
“…Haaah… Next time you’re going to do something like this, tell me too! Seriously! You’re always having secret conversations with the Village Chief! Are you dating the Village Chief or something?”
“Hey, hey! Of all the things you could say! I said I’m sorry~ Okay?”
“Hmph….”
His hard palms kneaded and squished my body.
And somehow…
That feeling had become strangely familiar.
I was starting to strongly feel like I was slowly turning into a pet.
Was that just my imagination?
I was getting worried that someday I might accidentally call Ingwang Master.
“Hmm, so basically….”
I told Ingwang about the conversation I had with Lucy.
I tried to keep it simple, but since I wasn’t very good at explaining things, the story came out a little disorganized.
“…Aha… Is that so?”
“Yes. That’s right.”
Sometimes, Ingwang’s eyes became like this.
They looked just like the madness-filled eyes I had seen when I first encountered him in the sewer.
But since those eyes weren’t pointed at me this time, they didn’t feel nearly as frightening as they had back then.
“Thanks… I’ll have to rethink the plan a little.”
“Huh? Are you planning to hunt Lucy?”
A mischievous smile appeared on Ingwang’s face.
It was probably a smile he hadn’t even realized he was making.
Then, in a quiet voice that was almost a whisper, Ingwang said,
“If necessary, I’ll do that too.”
Hmm.
I didn’t know what Lucy had done wrong…
But it seemed like she was going to get burned badly by Ingwang very soon.
