Chapter 57: Chapter 56: Slime has its own way

Like a sloth that had grown lazy, I hesitated in front of the things Han Seori had brought. Someone disinterested… no, like an anomaly.

Looking at me like that, Han Seori’s face became somewhat troubled.

Seeing that expression of hers wasn’t very pleasant, but I thought this was unavoidable.

Of course, it was.

What was placed in front of me right now… was, well, an educational book for young children who had just started learning words and letters.

It’s not that I was particularly offended by the children’s study book.

Objectively or subjectively, my transformed body was that of a small girl, after all.

Since I can’t even speak, it seemed natural to try to teach me language through this most basic of textbooks.

But I had to think carefully here.

Of course, it might not be bad to absorb the letters like a sponge and get a good evaluation from Han Seori.

If that happened, I could naturally demand what I wanted, and I might be able to get useful information while communicating with her.

But I felt the losses would be greater than the gains. Wouldn’t it be optimal to just pretend to roughly understand?

When I was put into the labyrinth this time and went to swallow that strange can, I felt it.

If I showed that I could perfectly understand language and freely write letters…

I had a premonition that a very tiring thing would happen. Right now it was just following arrows to touch and swallow…

But it seemed highly likely I would get caught up in more bothersome things.

This was almost a certainty.

Isn’t there a saying like that in the military?

Don’t try to do well. Just go for the middle.

Hide your strength.

Since I solved the labyrinth and the can, haven’t I shown my usefulness enough?

Isn’t this enough that I don’t have to try harder now?

The canned food that grumbled “bothersome” as I swallowed it, maybe that’s why… anyway.

They say, “Be careful what you wish for”. Well, there’s no one to judge me anyway, right?

That’s right. I’ve tried hard enough. I should rest now.

Lying on the bed and watching the opened textbook, I took the colored pencils Han Seori had handed me and scribbled something on the book.

“Hm!?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Hearing Han Seori’s startled voice, I felt my non-existent heart being pricked.

But I scribbled on the textbook as planned.

I briefly wondered what to draw… Hmm, there is no need to worry about the subject matter.

Wouldn’t it be fine to draw Daesik, Sosik, and Alice?

I drew the round Daesik with moderate effort so Han Seori wouldn’t be suspicious, then the shrunken Sosik and the blonde doll Alice.

I even drew Han Seori and Kim Cheonsu in the corner, so she might be disappointed, but shouldn’t she feel good?

After finishing the drawing like that, Han Seori, who was blankly staring, muttered with a serious face.

“Hmm… what did it draw? Ah, this seems to be the first slime… what are the others…?”

What?

She can’t recognize these?

Hm… disappointing… and she calls herself a doctor.

Anyone can see these: Daesik, Sosik, Alice, and finally, Han Seori and Kim Cheonsu!

Why can’t she tell?

At that moment, I was overcome with the urge to write letters, but I held it in firmly. Having realized the harm in letting her know I could communicate, I had to endure it.

Watching Han Seori’s still puzzled face, I focused on the picture I drew.

Hmm.

Is it because I hid my skills too much?

I could draw much better than this if I put my mind to it.

But redrawing it would mean I perfectly understood what Han Seori said.

As if there was no problem, I slightly raised the corners of my jelly mouth and looked at Han Seori.

Then Han Seori, looking at my jelly, smiled ambiguously and patted my head.

Getting praised for nothing special felt quite good, but somehow, it didn’t feel refreshing.

“Hmm… was it too early to start this stage…? Then should I try a different method…”

Muttering like that, Han Seori took the candy wrapper from her pocket, unwrapped it, and put it in my jelly.

Huh?

She’s unwrapping it.

Then what are Daesik and Sosik supposed to eat?

While I was feeling puzzled, Han Seori took out another candy, unwrapped it, and placed it on Sosik’s body that was lying next to me, and also put candy in front of Daesik inside the doll.

Shocked at the sight of the discipline I had painstakingly established crumbling, I approached with a *squish*, and gathered the candy distributed to Daesik and Sosik.

“Oh, my?”

Whether or not Han Seori let out a slightly surprised voice, I did what I had to do.

I couldn’t bear to see the discipline I had worked hard to establish collapse.

I split the candy I had gathered in half and directly distributed it to the two.

Daesik, who had wriggled out at some point, just trembled with joy, but Sosik, who had been sprawled out… ah, you’re the same.

The one who had looked like it found everything in the world bothersome regained his appearance from before transforming in front of food.

Han Seori watched it with a very interested face and started scribbling something.

“Hmm… does it want to take care of them directly…”

Muttering something without looking back, I surreptitiously put the candy into my body while she wasn’t looking at me.

It wasn’t that I particularly wanted more candy. It was to clearly establish the hierarchy.

Anyway.

Han Seori, who had been observing interestingly, muttered that she should find another method, patted my head once more, and left.

It seemed there was unexpectedly no problem with me snatching away the candy and distributing it.

Like that, some time later.

Han Seori came to my room with something again.

This time, not alone but together with the usual man, Kim Cheonsu.

“Hnng.”

I wondered what they brought with them, grunting. It seemed to be quite a large TV.

A wall-mounted one at that.

After grunting for a while, Kim Cheonsu installed it on the wall. Then he fiddled with the wall, and with a *click!* sound, the wall that had nothing opened.

Wait, there was something like that hidden in this room?

As I vacantly watched, Kim Cheonsu pulled out a few cords from there and connected them to the wall-mounted TV.

“Hm, good work.”

“Yes…”

Kim Cheonsu, who stammered at Han Seori’s praise, spoke with a somewhat wronged-sounding voice.

“That time really was just a coincidence… you believe me, right?”

“Hah, I’ve been believing in you from the start, Cheonsu.”

“Re-really?”

“Of course.”

Seeing Kim Cheonsu readily smiling with a stupid face, I thought it seemed quite pitiful.

Apart from that, the wall-mounted TV that suddenly appeared… was an object of great interest, to say the least.

To think a large TV that I didn’t even have at home would appear here.

After Kim Cheonsu left, Han Seori, who was smiling contentedly while looking at me, took out a remote control from her pocket and turned on the TV.

After a brief buzzing sound, a newscaster appeared on the screen.

[Up until recently, Soylent Purple Co., which was responsible for ordinary people’s food, is finally undergoing closure procedures. The opposition demands that they should claim responsibility for failing to protect the dining tables of ordinary people─]

“Ah, not this one.”

Han Seori, who was watching the news, hurriedly changed the channel.

Before long, on the large screen.

Content that children would really watch started playing.

Why isn’t that…

X-suni.

It seemed she thought the textbook wasn’t working and decided to change directions to video.

But no way.

I pretended to be disinterested… no, I really wasn’t interested, so it wasn’t pretending.

I sprawled on the bed and acted uninterested.

Except for Daesik, who had entered Alice sitting politely as if watching TV, it seemed to have worked on him.

Han Seori’s face, looking a bit troubled, felt like a prick to my conscience, but I quite like my current lifestyle.

I hope there won’t be any more work.

Wouldn’t proving my usefulness by solving two cases be enough?

While lazing around and deciding to obtain what I wanted to eat later by roughly drawing it, Sosik also crawled over and vacantly started watching TV.

These days, I heard they show XTube to kids.

Seeing Sosik’s blank face, I could kind of see why they used to call it the idiot box.

If it were me, too, if my child was vacantly staring at the TV, I think I would have called it the idiot box.

More importantly.

She even brought a TV.

I wonder… if she’ll bring a computer? That would be too much to hope for, right…?

While lying on the bed and letting my jelly wobble.

I recalled what the newscaster had said just now.

That Soylent Purple Co. is undergoing closure procedures.

If I hadn’t become like this, I think I, too, would have been quite shocked by that news.

It was a brand famous enough to be called a friend of ordinary people, as the newscaster said, and I, too, was quite indebted to it.

Well, now it has become the worst company in my mind.

Come to think of it.

The fact that news like that is being broadcast… means what happened some time ago has been quietly buried as if it never occurred, right?

With that thought, Han Seori, who was smiling awkwardly while looking at me, started to feel scary.

If she’s a big shot here, she must have been involved somehow in the process of taking care of it, right?

I hope I’m not being too cheeky…

She’s smiling because I’m not crossing the line, right…?

While making my jelly tremble without Han Seori noticing.

“Hm? Okay. I’ll go now.”

Having received a call from someone, Han Seori left the room.

Leaving the remote control on the bed.

After confirming she had left this place, I looked around needlessly and grabbed the remote control.

Leaving it here…

This means I can watch whatever I want, right?

It was time to enjoy some culture after a long time.

I should just change it back before Han Seori comes.