Chapter 33: Chapter 32: End of the Incident

I am pleased to present this bonus chapter, which has been made possible thanks to the wonderful review written by Xyll.

Please enjoy this bonus chapter as a small token of my appreciation for Xyll’s contribution to my translation work.

I thought it was really going to take my life.

If you think about it, it had already taken my “life” in a sense, but it was still… no, it was a situation where my jelly couldn’t help but tremble.

As a person who used to be human, my head was cut off. How many people wouldn’t be surprised by that?

I don’t know if it’s unfortunate or fortunate, but even though my head was cut off, I didn’t die.

If I could make a sound, I might have made silly noises like *gasp*, *cough*, *hack*!

Anyway.

As I gathered my thoughts, I could feel the taste of the “guardian totem” entering my body and melting very slowly.

The taste… wasn’t very good.

It tasted like sucking on raw wood covered in fine dust. No, let me correct that. It tasted even more horrible than that.

It was so bad that I felt sorry for comparing it to the branches I had curiously tasted in my childhood.

I guess I should say I’m fortunate that I didn’t have to try to find a similar taste?

It was a taste from the afterlife that I had never tasted in this world.

While I was wrinkling my jelly with distaste.

The guardian totem, stuck in the wreckage of the vehicle, seemed to be tightly stuck. It wriggled, trying to get out, but couldn’t move.

Seeing the guardian totem bubbling with its face buried in my body, I felt very good.

Ha, serves you right.

I gave my head and took a head, so, at a glance, it might seem like we’re even, but since my head and arms are as good as new, I can say that I got a one-sided benefit.

…I don’t know what would have happened if the small and precious part had been cut off, but for now, I was the winner.

As I was savouring the joy of victory.

*Kwajik*! *Weee-eee-eee*!

I heard a terrifying sound that was hard to hear from all around.

“Kill it! This bastard!”

“Huh!? It’s really getting stuck!”

“It’s splitting! It’s splitting!”

And I also heard the angry voices of some enraged people.

Hearing those angry voices, my jelly trembled. From what I heard, it didn’t seem like they were talking to me, but…

What on earth is happening outside right now?

*Kwajik*! *Crunch*! *Crack, crack, crack*!!

I heard a brutal sound, and the guardian totem’s body began to tilt more and more.

Before long, I heard the sound of thick wood shattering, and the movement of the guardian totem wriggling inside my body ceased.

Even after that, I occasionally heard angry voices and the sound of wood being shattered.

As the movement stopped, the guardian totem’s head began to be digested very quickly. As I melted it, I looked outside through the split gap.

Then I saw people who looked familiar, with very angry faces, cutting the thing that used to be a guardian totem as if they were doing a violence experiment.

Seeing that sight, which even felt hateful, I couldn’t muster the courage to go outside.

I thought that those flames might spread to me as well.

From their perspective, there might not be much difference between me and that guardian totem…?

Suddenly, I wanted to see Han Seori.

Come to think of it, she seemed to be hurt, so I wonder if she’s okay.

As I was watching them turn the guardian totem into kindling. From a bit far away, I heard footsteps that felt urgent.

Without realizing it, I hid deep inside the vehicle.

Meanwhile.

I felt the footsteps that were a bit far away, getting closer and closer. I couldn’t count the exact number, but it seemed to be quite a lot.

Among them, I felt a somewhat different sound lingering near the entrance of the container.

Soon, the door that was crushed and couldn’t be opened slowly opened.

“H-here it is!”

I saw the face of Han Seori, who was holding crutches.

Discovering a person who was favourable to me, my body moved on its own.

As I approached Han Seori without realizing it, The people next to her raised their voices with uneasy looks.

“I-isn’t it dangerous?”

“Shall we shoot it?”

Their gazes seemed to look at me like they looked at the guardian totem outside, so I stopped, trembling my jelly. But seeing me like that, Han Seori instead shouted at those next to her.

“Are you crazy!? Step back!”

When Han Seori shouted, those next to her were startled and distanced themselves from her… no, from me, to be exact.

After making sure the others had moved away, Han Seori sighed and smiled, saying to me.

“It’s okay now… come here.”

I didn’t like the voice that sounded like soothing a child, so my jelly bubbled a little.

But I silently approached Han Seori.

Then, remembering that she had been hurt, I unconsciously touched her leg.

“Ow…”

When I hastily removed my hand at the sound of her voice that sounded slightly pained, I heard Han Seori’s faint laughter.

Soon, my view soared upward.

Han Seori lifted me onto her arm and said with a chuckle.

“The unexplained lightness is helpful at times like this… I’m glad you’re alive.”

After saying that, she tilted my body to make me lean on her.

I didn’t like being treated like a child.

But looking at the faces of the others and Han Seori’s face with my expanded view… I felt strange.

Their gazes, which were surely looking at the same thing, were clearly different.

Han Seori looked as if she had found a lost child, while those with her still looked at me with suspicion-filled faces.

Especially those over there holding axes and chainsaws (realizing that was the source of the sound made my jelly tremble) gave me suspicious looks.

Some stepped on the remains of the guardian totem as if giving a warning.

…It seemed like I shouldn’t leave Han Seori’s side, so I wrapped my arms around her neck, and Han Seori smiled with a delighted face. She seemed to be misunderstanding something, but since it seemed like it would be to my advantage, I just left it.

Seeing that no one objected to her, even in this situation, it seemed like Han Seori’s status was quite impressive.

If I have her favour, at least… I won’t end up like that guardian totem, right?

While I was calculating inwardly, Han Seori spoke, pressing her crutches on the ground and walking.

“Could you gather all the scattered pieces? Without missing a single one.”

“Yes.”

Her voice was very cold, unlike when she spoke to me a little earlier.

…But wait a minute.

She’s telling them to gather the pieces of the guardian totem now? Since that’s the only thing they shattered… it’s probably that.

Is that okay? I swallowed the guardian totem’s face.

As I trembled my jelly in bewilderment, Han Seori, who seemed to be flustered, patted my back with her crutches tucked under her armpits.

When my trembling jelly touched Han Seori’s hand, it shrank and hardened as if shrinking.

As if she had never spoken in a cold voice, Han Seori whispered to me in a gentle voice.

“It’s okay now….”

That’s not what I mean….

…Ah, whatever.

I ate horned wolves, too, so what are they going to say about me eating some wooden thing?

Thus, embraced in the arms of the authority figure.

I returned to the place from which I had emerged. In the middle of the clear traces of the guardian totem’s rampage, unlike a little earlier, the corridor was full of people.

It was questionable where they had popped out from to that extent.

…Their gazes differed only by a degree from those who had shattered the guardian totem, and didn’t feel particularly different.

For no reason, I held Han Seori tighter and swayed.

I suddenly remembered that I had left Daesik behind.

…Will he be okay?

I don’t know. But considering the sights I had seen so far… it didn’t seem very likely.

Thinking that he might have disappeared, I felt regretful for always giving him garbage.

Is this why they say to treat others well while they’re around?

There was no mistake in the old saying that you only realize the preciousness after losing it.

Daesik… you must miss me.

Somehow, I felt solemn.

Han Seori felt pity as she looked at the slime girl trembling in her arms.

How scared must she have been to come into her arms so meekly like this?

Not only did they say they had to shoot in that situation, but they also acted threateningly, wielding axes as if to intimidate her.

She sighed inwardly.

It wasn’t that she didn’t understand their position.

‘They must have gone mad after losing their colleagues.’

Still, shouldn’t they separate public and private matters?

It was thanks to the slime girl that the damage didn’t increase further.

‘Well, there are still more people who don’t know.’

…It will probably get a bit better once people get to know her.

Han Seori, who had moved her steps with the slime girl, arrived at the isolation room where the slime girl had originally been isolated.

“Oh my… this place is broken too.”

Han Seori frowned.

There were mountains of things to do after isolating the slime girl.

‘I wonder if there’s a vacant place right now.’

It seemed like there would be no space for the time being due to the rampage of the guardian totem.

But isolating her with just any anomaly didn’t seem right, as Han Seori knew there would be people who would object to that. So she shook her head, dismissing the idea.

‘Should I just… keep carrying her around like this?’

As Han Seori was wondering while holding the slime girl, she suddenly noticed that the slime girl’s condition was strange.

Wondering why, Han Seori tilted her head and realized that the small slime blob that always accompanied the slime girl was nowhere to be seen.

Inside the broken isolation room, only the toys that had been put in for the slime girl were scattered here and there.

‘…Is she sad about losing a friend?’

You’re no different from people.

Feeling compassion, Han Seori patted the slime girl and noticed the blonde doll that the slime girl always carried with her.

It’s fortunate that at least that remains.

Sighing in relief, Han Seori approached the doll to give it to the slime girl.

At that moment.

*Rustle*.

At the sudden sound, Han Seori stopped in her tracks.

It seemed like something was left inside the isolation room.

If it was a hostile anomaly, it could be dangerous, so Han Seori tensed her body and examined the inside of the isolation room.

Eventually.

She saw the blonde doll slowly pushing itself up from the floor, its small body rising to a standing position.