The Nightmare Made Manifest

Click, click.

Wearing high heels, Leticia walked across the stone floor, the sound of her footsteps echoing down the corridor.

There was no one else around.

Not even the maid who would normally attend to her was anywhere in sight; for now, she was alone.

The scenery beyond the window was approaching the hour of dusk. If the sun tilted just a little more, at this time of year the curtain of night would fall almost at once.

Having only at this hour finally found a sliver of free time, the queen of this country walked down the corridor with a furrow between her brows.

Her usual pace was different. A touch faster than normal.

That was because she was deep in thought… and troubled.

The Knight Commander had reported the issue to her this morning, and up until this very hour, not only the Knight Order but the Mages' Order as well had been deliberating over countermeasures.

The problem was the monsters that had infiltrated the Royal Capital.

Up through midday yesterday, only one or two people had gone missing… few enough that one could write it off as ruffians sneaking into the Royal Capital, or perhaps some deranged eccentric.

But no.

Last night, more than a dozen residents had vanished in the span of a single night, and half of them were soldiers picked from the Knight Order to patrol the castle town.

It was, by any measure, abnormal.

When even soldiers on alert, knowing a dangerous individual was prowling the night streets, were vanishing, this was no ordinary matter.

Two possibilities came to mind.

Either some dangerous individual was still lurking in the castle town, which would be the optimistic view… or monsters were breeding somewhere beyond Leticia's knowledge.

Leticia recalled the figures of Fiana and Alfira, who had headed to the abandoned mine to subjugate monsters and returned barely able to crawl.

And what those two had said.

A monster that impregnated humans… that impregnated women.

The two had claimed to have dealt with the monsters inside their wombs on the way back to the Royal Capital, but what if they had not actually been able to?

What if something had happened during the night Fiana and the others spent in the infirmary?

In that case, the pieces would in fact fit together.

The disturbance in the Royal Capital had begun after Fiana and Alfira had headed back to the Mithril abandoned mine for another monster subjugation.

There was no evidence.

The number of missing kept rising, but there were no eyewitness accounts.

They didn't even know where the soldiers had last been patrolling. The grim events occurred late at night… in the hours when the residents of the Royal Capital had gone still in sleep, and not only had no one seen anything, no one had even heard a scream.

Or rather, perhaps it should be assumed that everyone who had heard a scream had been attacked themselves.

—A mutated species that impregnated humans, yes, but could a mere slime really do such a thing?

Leticia again asked herself the very question she had been turning over while speaking with the Knight Commander and the others a little earlier.

She had already disclosed the information about the slime.

The Knight Commander's expression had practically demanded to know why she hadn't said so from the start, but when she mentioned that the thing impregnated women to multiply… and that the host bodies were Fiana and Alfira, both of the Knight Order, he had fallen silent.

That was only natural.

If the root of the disturbance stirring up the Royal Capital came down to two women of that very same Knight Order, then the Knight Order's face would be utterly crushed.

As it stood, the head of the Mages' Order and a portion of the nobility had been on the verge of denouncing the Knight Commander over the matter. Had Leticia not stepped in, the meeting would have devolved into fruitless mudslinging.

Though she had not intended it, the fact that Leticia had withheld the existence of the slime had been swept under the rug.

Or perhaps they had simply judged that going after the Knight Commander would be more profitable than going after Leticia, who was deeply loved by the residents of the Royal Capital.

Either way, it had worked out in Leticia's favor.

What had been decided in the meeting was that, from tonight, they would be hunting not criminals but the slime.

The information would not yet be released to the residents of the Royal Capital; first, the Knight Order and the Mages' Order would search jointly.

They were two factions of rather difficult temperament, but when their own safety was at stake, Leticia believed they would refrain from tripping one another up.

Tonight, not just ordinary soldiers but knights well-versed in combat, along with mages, would join the patrol.

Even if caught off guard, they ought not be outdone by a mere slime.

Still, a faint unease lingered… Leticia shook her head lightly to dismiss it.

The slime had captured someone as skilled as Fiana, even granting it had been within the confined space of the abandoned mine. That unseen It struck her as something whose nature was utterly unknown.

Perhaps her instincts had dulled from being away from battle for so long.

Analyzing her own state of mind that way, Leticia traced the edge of the window with a hand clad in a lace-knitted glove.

The window, kept clean and meticulously cared for, did not bear a single mote of dust even at this hour, and showed the world beyond through clear, beautiful glass.

A beautiful town.

The [Hero] had brought it to flourish, and it would only flourish more from here on.

Unable to bear even the thought of a monster's shadow falling over that town, Leticia let out a hot sigh.

If her husband… if the [Hero] had been here, problems like this would be wrapped up in no time at all.

The young man summoned from another world had been strangely quick-witted, at times behaving as though he completely understood how things would turn out.

In this present problem too, where the slimes lurked, how to ambush them so they could be easily exterminated… the [Hero] who would have taught her all of that was no longer in this world.

Leaving behind their daughters Meltia and Maria… and the unfading memories within her chest, he had returned to his original world.

Only sometimes, in moments of doubt like this, did she find herself remembering.

Memories of him.

Memories of simply chasing his back, running on through everything.

People called it loneliness, and Leticia understood that emotion well enough.

Long-lived as the elves were—even if she was only a half-elf born between humans and elves, Leticia still had a great deal of time left ahead of her.

Living with nothing but memories in her heart was, somehow, a little difficult.

But, for now, and from time to time, she could persuade herself that it was all right to recall the past.

Leticia's first love. A love that had borne fruit. And yet, feelings that would never be returned.

… How much time had she spent looking down at the castle town through the corridor window?

The sun had tilted a touch, and the blue sky was beginning to turn the color of madder red.

Whether having sensed someone approaching or simply out of consideration, footsteps echoed down the previously empty corridor.

They were not Leticia's.

Heavy, slow steps; ponderous, one might say.

At that sound, Leticia's awareness, which had sunk into a sea of thought, surfaced. Turning her gaze toward the source, she saw Druid approaching from the far end, surrounded by several attendants.

Wrapped in lavish noble's attire, his plump abdomen impossible to hide, he seemed to have grown a size larger since she'd last seen him, the line between his chin and neck now indistinct.

Despite the short distance from the corridor's end to where Leticia stood, sweat had welled up on his brow, and his breath was slightly ragged.

Upon reaching Leticia, Druid lowered himself reverently and bowed.

"I hope you are in good spirits, Princess Leticia."

"You also… seem to be in good health, Druid-kyou."

Was it really proper to tell such an obese man, even out of courtesy, that he seemed healthy?

Leticia hesitated a moment, but Druid, apparently pleased that the queen had addressed him at all, curled his lips into a strained smile and watched her expression closely.

The men in his entourage took a step back and assumed a posture of rigid attention.

"What brings you to a place like this?"

"I was watching the town."

"The town?"

At Leticia's words, Druid let his own gaze drift to the castle town beyond the window, as though pulled along.

But only for an instant.

Feigning the look of one gazing outside, he turned his eyes upon Leticia, wrapped in a pure-white dress adorned with lavish decorations… and above all, upon the rich bosom that pushed up against the dress's plunging neckline.

Casually, and for only the briefest moment.

Lifted up by the dress and corset, her bosom was made all the more conspicuous, richer than any slender elf had any right to possess.

Leticia herself understood her own charms, and Druid knew she often wore dresses with broadly open necklines.

Smooth skin like silk, peeking through a deep cleavage. Any man would gaze upon that part of her with impure thoughts, and Druid was no exception.

A single instant, taken with the utmost care not to be noticed by Leticia.

Perhaps from the strain of self-restraint, even that small act had drawn fresh sweat from Druid's brow.

"A beautiful town indeed."

"Yes."

Satisfied, Druid was about to give his farewell and depart—when, beyond the window, a figure walking through the castle's inner garden caught his eye.

A girl with beautiful silver hair just like Leticia's.

She was wearing the uniform of this country's magic academy: a navy jacket and a pleated skirt of mostly black fabric with white patterns drawn around the hem.

The look of a school uniform, said to be common in the [Hero]'s world.

Leticia's daughter, Meltia.

It seemed the elder daughter, who had inherited her mother's beauty, had returned from the academy. The fact that her younger sister Maria was not with her likely meant, Druid thought, that Maria was holed up in the academy's library.

"It would seem Meltia-sama has returned."

"Yes."

A convenient pretext, Druid thought.

Even though they lived in the same castle, Leticia, both a doting mother and a queen, did not have many opportunities to speak with her daughters.

Today's only work had been the daytime meeting, and now that she had free time, she would no doubt be going to see her daughter. Having no intention of disrupting that, he stepped back and bent a knee.

"Then, if you'll excuse me."

Confirming that Leticia had observed his bow, Druid started back the way he had come.

There had been nothing in particular drawing him down this corridor. He had merely caught sight of Leticia and drawn near to feast his eyes on her beauty.

Taking his departure as a show of consideration, Leticia smiled wryly and turned on her heel.

Her destination, of course, was her daughter's room.

She had much on her mind, but she wanted to cherish whatever time she could spend talking with her daughter.

Besides, she was curious whether the academy was all right, given the trouble in the castle town.

Beyond just the soldiers' reports, her daughter actually attended the academy, so she ought to ask whether any strange rumors were circulating there.

 

*

 

Rustle.

The lush grasses growing on the ground made a sound.

They had not swayed in any breeze.

Within those grasses, in among the blades that grew up to about a person's ankle, It was there.

A black thing the size of a clenched fist. Too soft to be called a stone, and though described as black, it was not pitch-black; if one strained one's eyes, the underside and the interior of its soft body could be glimpsed.

Faintly transparent, It seemed almost like clouded glass as It pushed through the grass, advancing slowly.

A little earlier, It had sensed mana.

This thing, which had been disguising itself as a stone lying on the ground, was a slime that had flowed out of the sewers the previous night, slipped into the Royal Capital under cover of darkness, and made its way as far as the gardens of the royal castle.

Originally a slime with volume enough to easily swallow a person whole, it had adjusted its own density and compressed itself to the size of a clenched fist.

This too was a mimicry ability used by the Black Ooze, the progenitor of these slimes.

Disguise oneself as a stone, wait for prey to pass, then follow after.

There were many other slimes besides this one that had infiltrated the royal castle.

Over a dozen lurked in the courtyard alone, yet none of them showed any movement.

Knights, soldiers, maids, nobles.

Many beings with mana resided within the royal castle. The slimes would track each one of them and lie in wait for a moment of complete unguardedness.

And not only within the royal castle; if no opening presented itself, they would even follow their prey home.

No matter how seasoned a knight or mage might be, there was nothing to be done if attacked while asleep.

Above all, the slimes had only just infiltrated the night before. Even with the sun tilting, there was still plenty of time before night fell and people went to sleep.

It would be difficult for a normal stalker to tail prey unnoticed for that long a span of time.

Their concentration would break, and the chances of being detected were high.

But slimes had no such thing as concentration. They did not even breathe, and freezing in place like a stone, simply waiting for prey to fall asleep, was not even a hardship for them.

They had no thinking brain.

Following only their instincts, they simply waited for the moment when their prey grew careless.

And now, tracking the prey that had just passed through the courtyard, this slime too began to move.

Slowly, parting the weeds, it set out.

What the slime was pursuing was a girl with beautiful silver hair grown down to her hips. A navy jacket, a white blouse, a black pleated skirt.

The skirt's length was above the knee, and in this world, where uniforms were still not very familiar, it was often a topic of discussion as being a touch too short.

In the [Hero]'s world, that was said to be standard, and while the [Hero] had been around no one had remarked on it, but with the [Hero] gone, it had become a style of dress that the more stiff-headed knights and mages tended to take issue with.

Indeed, it was a short skirt.

Slender, supple legs were on full display, and if the girl bent over, the underwear beneath would be in danger of being seen.

But that, of course, was only if the one looking also bent over.

Or if one happened to be lucky enough to glance up from beneath some stairs, and so on.

It was an accident that could be prevented if a girl simply paid attention to her skirt's length, and as a member of royalty, Meltia was always mindful of such things.

But what about a monster crawling along the ground?

The slime did not care, but from its position, Meltia's adorable backside was in plain view.

A beautiful princess, hidden by her skirt, who drew the attention of the boys at the magic academy.

There were no small number of boys who fantasized about her in her underwear, or about her naked body.

What color was her underwear? What would she look like with all of it stripped away…?

Though Meltia was short compared to other girls her age, the chest of the blouse and navy jacket she wore, wrapped in clothing and supported by underwear though it was, still swayed softly, asserting its presence.

At the chest of her white blouse, the ribbon indicating her grade was red.

However, Meltia's ribbon was slightly skewed.

The cause was the soft swelling that pushed the uniform out so richly.

Breasts that swayed so much one would expect a "ta-yun" sound just from her walking. Breasts so shapely that even through her clothing their beauty was plain to see.

In terms of size, they were nearly equal to her mother Leticia's. They were the kind of breasts that made one look forward to the future, wondering how richly they would grow when the young Meltia reached her mother's age… no, the age her mother had been when traveling with the [Hero].

And Meltia's charms did not stop there.

Her chest's swelling was not the result of being overweight; the lines from her shoulders were delicate, and her waist was shockingly slim.

A slender frame, yet with breasts grown enough to put grown women to shame; such was how the teachers spoke of this attractive girl among themselves.

Her height, the smallness of her body, and the unbalanced swelling of her chest.

A girl with beauty and a figure envied not just by the opposite sex but by her own as well.

She was a girl held in something close to sanctity for being of royal blood—yet from the slime's perspective—though it wasn't certain it had a perspective at all—from the slime's position, the panties on display offered a view that, for a girl supposed to be sanctified, was rather a questionable spectacle.

They were a grown-up sort of underwear, adorned with lavish lace decorations.

Made of white fabric trimmed with black lace, the panties had only a small surface area, and just as with her chest, they were biting slightly into her well-fleshed backside.

The marks of that tight cinching were enough to feel lewd on their own, and made it palpable that the girl was wearing something a bit too mature for her.

Without knowing her underwear was being peeped at by a slime, Meltia, who had dutifully buttoned up her uniform like a model student, headed for her own room.

She didn't dislike the academy uniform, but it was, after all, an outdoor outfit, and it somehow always left her mentally worn out.

Wanting to change quickly into her room clothes, she returned to her room and closed the thick wooden door.

Then, exhaling deeply, she tossed the bag she used for the academy onto the bed and sat down hard enough to avoid landing on it.

The lavish canopied bed was almost too wide for Meltia to sleep in alone, but she had slept in it her whole life and didn't mind anymore.

As she sat down on the bed, the momentum lifted her skirt slightly. Her smooth thighs and the panties hidden beneath were exposed for an instant, then hidden again as gravity pulled the skirt back down.

Letting herself relax just a little, Meltia lay back on the bed, still in her uniform.

The beautiful silver hair she had inherited from her mother spread across the bed. Like a meadow of silver.

"Fwaa… I'm tired…"

Speaking in the relaxed tone she wouldn't have used even in front of her mother, Meltia closed her eyes, telling herself it was just for a moment.

Into Meltia's room, with all the strength drained from her body, a black mucus seeped through the gap of the closed door.

The door was completely shut, but it wasn't sealed tightly enough to block a liquid, so there was nothing to be done about it.

Slipping inside the room, the slime crawled toward the bed where Meltia lay.

"The academy—is fun, but tiring. I want to grow up quickly."

Meltia spoke with her eyes still closed.

That childlike wish to grow up quickly. Her listless voice was somehow sleepy, without a shred of tension.

Lying on the bed, Meltia dangled her outstretched legs lazily, swinging them back and forth.

The sunset streaming in through the window illuminated the room, and its glow gradually slanted lower.

Within that room, a fist-sized slime crawled across the soft carpet.

Meltia didn't notice. Her gaze was fixed on the bed's canopy, her eyes holding so little strength she might fall asleep at any moment.

Perhaps she should just sleep until dinner.

That sort of air hung about her.

The slime arrived at the leg of the bed where Meltia lay.

However, rather than climbing up, it paused briefly and slipped beneath the bed.

The slime completely vanished from Meltia's sight. Its target was to cross under the bed and reach those slender legs that still swung idly in the air.

With her boots and socks removed, those bare feet were exposed, and if it could just make contact, it could neutralize her with paralytic poison.

That was the slime's only objective as it moved.

Little by little, little by little.

Through the gap of the sheet hanging down from the bed, Meltia's white legs occasionally came into view. Slender, supple, yet not lacking in flesh; beautiful legs.

Legs with the firmness of skin only the young possessed, moderately toned from her daily exercise at the academy.

Those legs came down onto the carpet.

"Now then, Mother will scold me if I stay in my uniform."

The sleepiness in her voice fell away, and Meltia rose from the bed.

With a nimble step, she avoided the slime that had been just about to reach her feet and walked toward her full-length mirror.

Several closets where her clothes were stored stood nearby, and she opened one of them.

When the double-doored closet opened, dresses of every color stood lined up inside. She took one and draped it over the chair in front of the mirror. The one she chose was a sky-blue dress.

That translucent blue was Meltia's favorite color.

She undid the buttons of her navy jacket and hung the removed garment over the back of another chair. Next, the blouse.

One by one, slowly, she undid the buttons of the blouse, even whiter than Meltia's own white skin, starting from the collar.

Skin came into view. Unblemished skin, untouched by anyone.

Skin that had not so much as met a man's gaze was gradually exposed.

When she had undone the buttons down to her chest, Meltia's half-nude figure was reflected in the full-length mirror.

Short stature, narrow shoulders. And yet the breasts contained within her underwear carved out a deep cleavage.

It was obvious her underwear didn't fit, and the rich bosom out of proportion with her height seemed about to spill from it at any moment.

The lavish underwear of white fabric with black lace embroidery had been crafted by some renowned underwear artisan.

Mature underwear, too grown-up for Meltia, who, despite being of royal blood, was after all still a child.

She undid all the buttons of the blouse and hung it too over the back of the chair with her uniform jacket.

Next, she unhooked the skirt, bent her knees, and slipped it off her legs.

Pure-white panties in the same design as the underwear that held her breasts came into view.

These too were biting slightly into her rich backside; they didn't fit either. That was because this girl was embarrassed to buy underwear.

After all, Meltia's chest and rear were both large.

Her bounty, larger than anyone else her age, drew strange looks from the shop clerks whenever she went to buy underwear.

The shop clerks were women, of course, and she did sometimes talk about this sort of thing with her friends at the academy.

But invariably, her chest and rear, so disproportionate to her stature, drew envious looks from her female peers, and she would end up being teased.

Embarrassed by that, even knowing the underwear didn't fit, Meltia could not muster the courage to buy new ones.

"Haa…"

Meltia let out a sigh, looking at her own figure reflected in the mirror.

"They've gotten bigger again, haven't they?"

She scooped up her bosom, supported by her underwear, with one hand. Her huge breasts overflowed from the small hand that suited her stature, softly changing shape from that touch alone and deepening her cleavage further.

Looking at her own breasts, soft and lewdly shifting in shape, Meltia sighed yet again.

Her friends rejoiced over her large bosom, but to Meltia, it was hardly something to celebrate.

If they grew any larger, supporting them with her current underwear would become even more difficult, and she would have to buy new ones. There didn't seem to be many women with breasts as large as Meltia's, and at this size, finding underwear was a labor in itself.

Above all, there was the boys' attention.

Hidden though they were beneath her underwear, jacket, and blouse, her huge bosom swayed with the slightest motion and drew the boys' eyes. Just that alone was embarrassing, and on top of it, sweat would quickly pool in her cleavage.

Leaving sweat to pool was unpleasant, and there were not many places where she could wipe it away.

Nor was she of the shameless temperament to bare her chest in public.

The breasts her friends envied were, in many ways, inconvenient.

Meltia let out another sigh, supporting her newly-grown breasts with her own hands.

Even if it was her own room, it was a rather foolish picture: posing for the mirror in nothing but her underwear.

And behind that Meltia.

Watching her own figure reflected in the mirror, she did not notice the slime creeping up from behind her.

The carpet muffled the sound of its crawling, and the full-length mirror only reflected up to her ankles, so the slime crawling across the floor was not reflected.

"What should I do—"

She reached out for the room-wear dress.

That was the moment.

"Hm?"

She had stepped on something. The instant Meltia felt it and looked down—she collapsed to her knees.

"Eh?"

Still in her underwear, she fell on her rear and turned her gaze to her trembling legs.

No strength came into them.

She commanded her legs, shaking like a newborn animal, to move, but they wouldn't budge an inch.

Confused, wondering what she had stepped on, she shifted her gaze and saw a black, mucus-like object crawling across the carpet.

What told her it was mucus was the way its undulating surface caught the sunlight from the window and shone dully.

It took her a moment to understand that this was what she had stepped on.

"Kya—"

Meltia was a girl who hated bugs. And this thing was every bit as revolting as one.

Reflexively, she went to scream, but her mouth was blocked.

From the lump of mucus, no bigger than a clenched fist, a tentacle had extended and sealed her mouth.

"Mmgh!?"

Still in her underwear, Meltia thrashed her body, tossing her silvery-white hair about.

Her legs did not move. With only her upper body flailing, even bound by her underwear, her huge breasts danced up and down, left and right, putting on quite the show.

The shame of it was that there was no man around to enjoy it.

Paying no mind to the obscenely shaking breasts, the slime extended new tentacles toward Meltia.

They coiled around the arms she had braced behind her to support her upper body, then ensnared her unmoving legs.

"Mmggghhh!?"

Unable to bear it, Meltia let out the loudest scream she could from her sealed mouth.

On the soft carpet, in nothing but her underwear, she was restrained in a spread-eagle position.

Then, toward the most secret place of Meltia's body, toward the white panties trimmed with black lace, the slime advanced between her splayed legs.

Looking, she saw that what had just been the size of a fist was growing larger, then larger again… right in front of her, it was swelling to half her own height.

"————!!"

Reflexively, Meltia glared at the soft body and focused her consciousness.

Though she had no real combat experience, Meltia, a mage attending the magic academy, had strongly inherited her mother Leticia's magical talent.

She wove together enough mana to blow away half of her own room in an instant and concentrated.

Restrained on the carpet with her hands and feet spread wide, her gently sloping abdomen was exposed, and a distortion formed above it.

A bullet of compressed air.

Fire would burn not just the room but part of the castle as well, and being practically naked, she instinctively hesitated to use ice magic too.

Considering what magic would have the least impact on herself, she settled on wind.

The bullet was released and blew the black mass of mucus away—but only part of it.

The wind bullet had no real effect on a slime that was nothing but mucus, blowing away only its upper half. The blown-away portion struck the wall, then began crawling along the floor and regenerating, just as before.

Her mouth sealed, Meltia's eyes opened wide in shock.

"Mmgghhh!?"

Perhaps because the slime had temporarily halted its activity from having its upper half blown off, the movement of the tentacles binding Meltia stopped.

She struggled to peel them off, but the slime regenerated faster.

It lifted Meltia from where it had been pinning her to the carpet and pointed her large, underwear-clad rear back toward itself.

Her head was turned to face the mirror, forcing her to perceive, through the glass, what was happening behind her. Stuck in midair on all fours in her ill-fitting underwear, her rear thrust out toward the unknown lump of mucus.

Her cheeks flushed with shame, and the girl, ignorant not just of men but of sex itself, felt a dizziness like vertigo.

Toward that lavishly-grown backside, a new tentacle extended.

Meltia was watching the scene through the mirror—when the door of the room was blown apart.

"Meltia!!"

A sharp voice rang out, and the tentacles binding Meltia were sliced apart.

Hanging from the tentacles, Meltia was pulled down to the carpet by gravity and let out a cry of pain.

The one who had burst into the room was Leticia. Having heard Meltia had returned and meaning to have a brief chat, she had come to visit and felt the surge of mana.

Her beautiful face was dyed with fury as she glared at the mucus monstrosity, trying to kill it with her gaze alone.

A slime had no will to feel fear, but the murderous intent was more than enough to make it hesitate from reflexively extending a tentacle toward Leticia.

In the meantime, Meltia, fallen on the carpet, hurriedly worked her bare hands to peel away the tentacles still wound around her limbs.

More than the revulsion, the situation, being in contact with this unknown mucus, was simply unbearable.

But she could not fully wipe the mucus away, and as she tried and tried, her body began to grow unable to move.

With its hold on her coming undone, the slime had at least managed to secrete paralytic poison in an attempt to neutralize her.

"You bastard!!"

Seeing her beloved daughter's movements grow sluggish, Leticia, in fury, extended her right hand toward the slime.

The slime extended a tentacle to take Meltia hostage, but before that tentacle could reach her, it froze from the tip.

If the opponent was a slime, then freezing it was the most efficient way to neutralize and defeat it.

Frozen and neutralized like this, then later burned to ash outside the Royal Capital, there would be no danger.

Burning with rage as her thoughts may have been, Leticia made that judgment and froze the slime.

Just as Fiana had once done at the abandoned mine, but with mana even more ferocious than Fiana's, the cold air she released froze the slime in an instant.

Resistance through mana was utterly meaningless. Such was the gulf in mana that existed between Leticia and a slime born from Tiana or Freya in the sewers.

But this slime was no ordinary slime.

Releasing the mass it had been compressing, it shattered its frozen surface from within and escaped its icy bonds.

"Wha-!?"

It was Leticia who was startled.

The opponent she thought she had completely frozen had swelled into a massive body large enough to swallow half of Meltia's room.

Fortunately, Meltia had not been caught up in the expansion.

Paralyzed and unable to escape, she had nonetheless collapsed in a spot the slime's main body could not reach.

That single instant.

The instant Leticia had worried about her daughter.

The slime fired more than a dozen tentacles all at once toward her.

"Hu—!!"

Splitting the air, hurtling toward her at a speed an average knight would have trouble tracking with their eyes, the tentacles, before reaching Leticia, froze.

A barrier of cold air enveloped Leticia's surroundings.

And it enveloped Meltia as well. Beyond just herself, she had cast a barrier on another at the same time.

How many mages in this country could even cast a barrier this powerful, let alone two at once?

Still the slime continued to launch tentacles, and as the count exceeded several dozen, approaching a hundred, Leticia's body tilted.

The barrier was centered on Leticia.

But only above ground.

Underground—beneath the royal castle's flagstones, the barrier had not been extended.

Drawing on information only a slime born from Tiana, Leticia's personal maid, would know, the slime wound a tentacle of mucus around Leticia's left leg through the gap between the flagstones.

"Kyaa!?"

Not a voice dyed with fury, but an adorable scream rose up.

And just like that, she was hoisted upside-down.

Her white skirt flipped up, exposing the white garter belt that matched her dress and the stockings hanging from it. On top of that, her lace high-leg panties were laid bare.

Panties embroidered with flowers, clearly a luxury item at a glance.

Supple, taut thighs and calves, and the provocative curves of her inguinal region and pubic mound. The lavish thin cloth that wrapped that secret part.

The thinness of the fabric brought out the shape of her secret mound, and the luster on it accentuated the swell of her secret place.

At the bold exposure of her underwear, Leticia's cheeks flushed, and she glared sharply at the slime.

Of course the slime was not cowed by such a thing, and immediately secreted paralytic poison.

"You-!"

But even with the poison secreted, Leticia froze the tentacle wrapped around her leg and was immediately freed.

She looked and saw there wasn't so much as a stain or speck on her garter stockings.

Just as with the earlier cold-air barrier, she had wrapped her own body in an ultra-thin one.

"With this!"

Next, the slime floated up into the air.

Not a single drop of mucus was left behind as it rose, all of it blown out the window of Meltia's room.

Leticia followed it, leaping out of the window into one corner of the inner garden.

The slime, realizing it could not win in its current state, had already turned its attention away from Leticia and was retreating.

But—.

"Burn."

Before it could escape, its entire body was wrapped in flames.

Having no organ to scream with, the slime writhed and thrashed its whole body, but its form gradually shrank.

In its thrashing, it had set fire to some of the flowering plants growing in the garden, but those too were extinguished the moment the slime burned out.

Watching the proceedings from a distance, nobles, soldiers who had been on standby at key points within the castle, and knights and mages who could move quickly all gathered in the inner garden.

While giving instructions to each and every one of them, Leticia found herself glancing up at the sky.

Night was coming.

The sun was tilting; stars and the moon could be seen in the sky.

—She recalled Fiana's words, that they had subjugated the monster of the abandoned mine.

Far from it.

The monsters they had brought back were everywhere in the Royal Capital… they had even infiltrated the royal castle itself.