Looking at it from the side, this city is always hectic.
Weirdos, eccentrics, geniuses, and prodigies gather all the time on the border of the world, and would devote themselves to exploring without caring about the current state of the world.
As a result of this, the new materials that show up one after the other give birth to new products, bringing in money, and attracting merchants.
An endless cycle.
The city called Tsige has been protecting the world from the threats of the wasteland and would repeat this cycle.
Truly hectic days.
Since the time it began to be called a country instead, that image not only hasn’t changed, rather, it has strengthened.
But when you are inside of it, you will be able to see there’s also unexpectedly lax parts too.
It is a mysterious thing, but even this place that continues changing has their daily lives, and the adventurers, merchants, craftsmen, laborers, and the citizens at pretty much their own pace.
It may also be because they grow numb to the changes inside though.
For example; this orphanage that I am leaving under the care of Tomoe.
“Sli.”
“Me.”
“Fa.”
“Rm.”
Is what’s written colorfully on the sign that’s screaming handmade.
The place is at the limits of the Weitz Orphanage’s garden.
At this time when the sun is still high up, the children are exercising and working energetically today as well.
It is a truly pleasing sight.
…Mostly.
“Just what in the world is a slime farm…?” (Makoto)
No, even I can tell it is exactly as the name states.
I can feel a great amount of slime presences that should normally not be here after all.
There’s more than 100.
From what I have investigated, they are not the fiendish ones you find in the wasteland, but the relatively safe ones that inhabit a part of the Aion Kingdom.
The ones that serve as the ingredients for the slime dish that Toa taught us recently.
Not only do they tremble as if in a good mood, they don’t bring harm to the children.
Whichever the case, the details are way too much of a mystery.
I don’t get it at all.
Tomoe said something interesting had been made, so to check it out if I wanted a change in pace. And so, here I am after a while, and honestly, I am plain surprised at how unexpected this is.
“Ah, Raidou-san!”
“Raidou-dono, it has been a while. The last time was when we went to the company to give a progress report.”
The ones who noticed me and spoke to me were Toa -the one who came up with the slime farm idea- and the tamer Baretta -who I was acquainted with recently.
I haven’t met the both of them in a while, but…there’s no doubt they are related parties here.
“This is an unusual pairing.” (Makoto)
“Ahaha, our party did get requested to support this guy as well. We are throwing most of the work to Bir-kun and his group though.” (Toa)
“I am teaching them how to tame and train slimes on their request, and it is pretty interesting. The children here learn fast, and maybe the environment matched them, a farm was established in the blink of an eye.” (Baretta)
‘Them’, huh.
The tamers currently view mamonos and demonic beasts as expendables.
Looks like that view of his is being changed little by little.
That ‘them’ just now was without doubt referring to the slimes.
Anyways…environment, huh.
I make a wry smile and look up.
There was a giant tree spreading its branches and leaves widely.
Most of the slimes were passing their time pleasantly at the shade of the tree or on the branches.
When I think back to the fact that this was originally the elf that did inhuman things, how to say it, this guy must be feeling pretty terrible here.
“Those slimes…did you bring them here?” (Makoto)
I try to confirm with Toa just in case.
“…Aah, there’s a variety of circumstances around this. I didn’t expect that the core I tried to get unhurt could stay alive for a while without the gel.” (Toa)
“…Toa?” (Makoto)
“I stored them not as goods to turn into money, but as preserved food, so I didn’t really concentrate much on the core.” (Toa)
“…”
“When we left them randomly at the house, they would come back to life when we were absent.” (Toa)
“Wa?!” (Makoto)
In other words, the slimes would come back to life in the house when only Rinon was present?!
“If this Dio-kun guy hadn’t come by coincidence at that time to greet us, it would have turned into one big mess. Teehee.” (Toa)
Dio, who is originally from Aion, knew about these slimes, and he managed to deal with them calmly.
Thanks to that, it ended up just being a story between friends.
“…Can mess ups be passed on…?” (Makoto)
I ended up thinking about the young man in her competent party that cannot be trusted at all.
“Did he infect someone, or did it relapse? See, we have done pretty big mess ups before, so…this stuff is just…” (Toa)
Even though they may have been weak slimes that even Rinon could defeat without any problem, just imagining that scenario sends chills down my spine.
Toa may have given her a variety of things for self-defense, but it is not like she herself has high combat power.
“She must have been mighty pissed.” (Makoto)
“Of course. I don’t want to remember that. I am grateful to Dio-kun.” (Toa)
She must have remembered it a bit, her face went pale.
“He is a guy that can do it when the time requires it after all!” (Baretta)
Looks like there’s no doubt he and Baretta are acquainted.
I threw that matter to Root, but it looks like they must have been in a decently close relationship.
He is getting happy about Dio being praised as if he was the one being praised.
“Dio…speaking of him, has it been decided what will be done with him?” (Makoto)
I tried asking the two what suddenly crossed my mind.
He must have reached an understanding on what happened to himself, so maybe he returned to Aion?
“It seems he wants to do his best as a member of this country. I heard he went to try and join the army.” (Baretta)
He wasn’t aiming to be an adventurer but a soldier.
Moreover, not in the army of Aion but Tsige.
“He likes the action of protecting. It has been like that since forever. I thought for sure he would become a soldier of the Aion Kingdom, but it unexpectedly ended up being here. That was surprising.” (Baretta)
According to Rembrandt, the army of Tsige will only be used for defense.
Meaning that it is not like they won’t fight, but that they will not be used for invasions.
I am not taking those words at face value, but you could say they are indeed an army for protection.
He did say that he wanted to make it possible for them to deal with disasters and urgent public works, so…if I were to go by that definition, then they would be more like the self-defense force.
“If Dio says he wants to do that, I will simply tag along. This genius tamer will be adding demonic beast squads to the army of Tsige, and they will be invincible…eventually!” (Baretta)
…That sounds like a squad that would definitely be used for invasions though.
Well, it is great to see that the self-proclaimed genius tamer has found an objective.
Maybe him reuniting with Dio served as the trigger for his sudden growth as a tamer?
“Looking forward to it. By the way, these slimes, could it be that you introduced them here as a way to improve the food conditions of the orphanage?” (Makoto)
I ask Toa this one last thing that was bothering me.
Breeding animals as sustenance feels a bit too difficult for children to do even if it is an orphanage.
Of course, even if it is an effective method to teach about life.
“There’s that, but Tomoe-sama said that it would serve as practical experience to obtain methods for earning money themselves.” (Toa)
No experience is better than practical experience.
That does sound like Tomoe.
“I see…so she has already green lighted it. Then…” (Makoto)
“However…” (Toa)
“?”
“Just as I said before, these slimes, when you take their core out cleanly, they come back to life.” (Toa)
“…Ah.” (Makoto)
The picture of trimming a sheep surfaced in my mind for a second.
I see, in other words…
“Right. If properly trained, they can easily obtain food without having to take their lives. Of course, there might be times when they break their cores, but these slimes breed fast so it is easy to increase their numbers…” (Toa)
Toa said it is okay. If things turned out like this from just one slime she left behind, then they really do have quite the breeding capability.
I see. If they make the tree their home, Tomoe only needs to prepare a barrier and there will be no need to fear them escaping.
And so, operations began quickly, so she wanted me to see it.
I understand now.
Also, it certainly relieved some of my stress.
“I see. If things go well, the children that have come of age and have to leave the orphanage can instead have the choice of working at the slime farm that will be expanding. One more job option will appear.” (Makoto)
Taking lives, but teach the meaning of that to them in a mild manner first.
This really covers a wide array of areas.
It is not like there aren’t any points of worry though.
“Ooh, Waka! You have arrived quite early!” (Tomoe)
Speaking of the devil, it is Tomoe.
However, it makes me wonder if she was always this thoughtful towards children.
I feel like there’s a hidden scheme here.
“The most amusing part is that these slimes seem to have taken a liking to this tree. This is a mysterious case where the people connected to us aligned and things have gone well. I ended up with an urge to have Waka check it out too.” (Tomoe)
Tomoe must have thought back to the toxicity of the Dusk Street, she laughed in the same way as me.
It is dark and slimy compared to the smiles of the children.
“Well then, since we are already here, how about hearing the reports of the director and the others, Tomoe?” (Makoto)
“Yeah, let’s take our time.” (Tomoe)
From what I can see, she is also relaxed.
But the contents are hectic.
The childhood friend of Lime was also working here, right?
Hope they are all doing well.