An Unexpected Way to Multiply Slimes
“Young Master Kaito, Ariana Ojousama, it’s dangerous, so we’re going to move you back a little.”
Wait, dangerous? More importantly… Marle, isn’t it amazing you’re carrying both me and Ari under your arms at the same time? Aren’t we heavy?
Vice-Captain Hans was glaring at the slimes with his sword drawn. Gordon had his knife ready too.
“Eh?”
The result, about thirty slimes? They were multiplying, spilling out of the box, wobbling all over the place.
“They’re multiplying!”
“Onii~chama, there’s so many!”
Slime proliferation. It didn’t seem like they were causing any harm. And thank goodness the multiplying stopped almost instantly.
What is this? Do slimes multiply when they eat?
“Hey, do slimes multiply when they eat?”
“I don’t think so. If that were the case, there’d be slimes everywhere.”
Yeah, true. What Vice-Captain Hans said made sense.
“Could it be because they drank the Ikarun miso soup?”
“Who knows? We should probably investigate it a bit first.”
“Yeah.”
I totally agreed with Marle. We’ve gotta look into this. Is Ikarun the cause? Or the miso? Or maybe it’s the combination, the Ikarun miso soup itself? Which is it?
“I want to check something, so Gordon, can you bring some Ikarun and miso?”
“Yes, Young Master, I’ll bring them right away!”
“Well, I knew slimes could multiply, but at most they split into two, and that only happens once in a lifetime. I’ve never seen or even heard of them multiplying this much. What on earth is going on?”
Whoa, as expected of Vice-Captain Hans. He really knows his monsters.
“For now, let’s put the new slimes into a separate box. If there are this many, we won’t be able to tell which ones are Sura-chan and Imu-chan.”
“Ari can tell! Sura-chan is this one, and Imu-chan is this one!”
Huh? How can you tell? Looking closely, only those two were dyed gray, probably from the Ikarun ink. Ahh, I see now.
“Ahh, I understand. When slimes eat something, they take on the color of what they ate. After a while, they return to their original transparent color, though.”
Ohh, I see.
“Then can you set Sura-chan and Imu-chan aside and put them back in the original box? And put the other slimes into that big box over there. Oh, and since we’re experimenting, leave two of them in a separate box.”
Everyone in the kitchen helped out with my request.
Using the Ikarun and miso Gordon brought, we ran experiments based on every question I could think of.
The result, we found that feeding slimes Ikarun miso soup causes them to multiply.
Feeding them just Ikarun or just miso did nothing.
We also tried giving it to Sura-chan and Imu-chan, but they didn’t multiply any further. They just wobbled happily like it was delicious.
Oh right, since we’ve got more slimes now, maybe I should try that toilet experiment? I don’t want Ari hearing about gross stuff, and she’s been focused on Sura-chan and Imu-chan this whole time… maybe I should have her head back to her room.
“Ari, don’t you need to go prepare a room for Sura-chan and Imu-chan?”
“Yeah! Gotta get Sura-chan and Imu-chan’s house ready!”
“Understood. I’ll call Maaya.”
At Marle’s instruction, one of the kitchen staff went to call Maaya. Maaya took Ari’s hand, and another maid who came with her carried the box with Sura-chan and Imu-chan, and they left the kitchen.
The slimes that had multiplied from Sura-chan and Imu-chan earlier were divided into pairs for experiments.
The ones fed Ikarun turned white. The ones fed miso turned brown. That’s all. The wobbling, maybe that just means it tastes good?
The ones fed Ikarun miso soup multiplied again. About the same amount as when we fed it to Sura-chan and Imu-chan.
I feel like I’m starting to understand slime ecology now!
What do you think about this chapter?
