Free Web NovelChapter 62: Step 62 to Greatness: To Tame Rowdy Children, You Must Talk To Their Parent
The Sentinel tower’s primary function was to alert the residents in case of intrusion. Yet an entire creature was chilling by the pond and the bell didn’t ring once.
As for Freki and Huginn... he found them by the animal pen, sleeping peacefully. They seemed to have been put in a trance together.
Adrian hid behind the house to observe her. The slimes he had put in the pen were hopping around her while the woman cradled one of the green slimes in her arms like a baby.
At that moment, he understood why Freki and Huginn were knocked out next to the pen. They must have seen the slimes leave the pen and tried to stop them. Then that woman must have put them to sleep...
"What is all this..." he mumbled, retrieving the axe from his inventory.
If possible, he wanted to get rid of the unwanted stranger in one swing. However, before he could get close enough, the translucent woman slowly turned her head toward him.
Her face... was beautiful. Unlike the slimes, she had completely adapted to the appearance of a human. But all of that were just facial features and didn’t perform any functions they would for a human.
"Human... I have seen you before," the slime woman’s mouth didn’t move, yet Adrian could hear her loud and clear.
After saying that, she dropped the green slime and picked up another one to pet.
"You are the one who keeps hunting my children..." she continued, not paying any attention to Adrian as if he were no threat to her. "I wish to know why..."
Although she spoke to express her displeasure, Adrian didn’t sense any hostility from her. Then it hit him.
The slimes were not attacking anyone right now. Even the woman was calm and hadn’t hurt anyone. Hence, the tower, which alerted about hostile creatures, hadn’t rung once, even when the woman was enjoying the pond he had made.
"Those slimes... they are your children?" he asked, lowering the axe, but not storing it in his inventory.
The woman nodded, and as she did, Adrian’s entire demeanor changed from a worried defender of his home to a neighbor who was tired of rowdy kids.
"You want to know why?" he scoffed, placing a hand on his hips. "These kids of yours keep eating my food! That’s why I took revenge! I have set up a trap to capture creatures to feed my people, and they keep eating my prey before I even get there!"
The translucent woman’s golden eyes widened slightly, clearly taken aback by Adrian’s sudden shift in tone. She had expected a bit of fear from him.
After all, most creatures of the forest were afraid of her whenever she took their form. She had expected Adrian to be the same, and at first he was, only for it to disappear as soon as he learned the slimed were her babies.
"You are complaining about my children eating?" she asked, baffled about the reason.
"The problem is not eating, it is stealing! Your children stole my food!"
"...My children are still young. They are unruly and curious. They do not yet understand what ownership means," she mumbled, looking away from Adrian’s intense gaze. "Even I wasn’t aware of your customs prior to consuming those fleshkins of yours."
"Fleshkins?" Adrian frowned, not knowing what it meant.
Sensing his confusion, the slime woman pointed at his body and then back in the direction of the pit trap. Even then, it took him a second to learn she was talking about those two humans he had dumped there.
"Wait, so you’re the one who ate them?" he asked.
"Ate is a crude word," the woman replied, crossing her arms in front of her chest. "I prefer to call it assimilation. It is because of that I learned your language and even got this form."
Her words only confused Adrian more. If she had only ’assimilated’ those two, then she would only know English. Yet she was conversing with him in the tribal language without any problems.
"...I ate a few more as well," she said shyly before correcting herself. "I mean, I assimilated more of your fleshkin to understand more about you."
"Wait... where did you find these other fleshkins?" Adrian asked.
The tribeswomen had found footsteps near the settlement and mentioned they were from some other tribe. However, days had passed since then, and there had been no movement from any hostile tribe. freewebnσvel.cѳm
He had been wondering about it, and now it seemed he had his answer. The slime woman must have dealt with them, but why?
I only relaxed around her, thinking the slimes don’t eat humans. But this woman... she’s dangerous.
"Fleshkins invaded my nest. I assimilated them," she said matter-of-factly and even seemed proud of it.
"Oh, so you can kill others when they wrong you, but you come here in the middle of the night to question me when I do the same?" Adrian scoffed, sizing her up. "Your children are young, but that doesn’t give them a free pass to ruin my hard work."
At his words, the woman’s eyes narrowed as she jumped to her feet. Before Adrian knew it, she got into his face, and she did not seem pleased with him. Despite that, the tower still didn’t issue an alert.
There’s no way she isn’t hostile to me now!
"And that gives you the right to slaughter them without hesitation?" she countered. "I watched you and your mates today. I saw the smile on your faces when you killed my children. Was their death truly necessary just because they ate a few scraps?"
Suddenly, as if realizing they were too close, the woman stepped back, picking up another slime to cradle while looking at Adrian.
"I did not come here to argue," she whispered, gentleness returning to her voice. "I had planned to assimilate your tribe, but then my babies spoke well of you and how you’ve treated them."
Adrian was surprised that the slimes actually did that. After all, the only reason he brought them back was to exploit them. He didn’t even want to imagine what would have happened if he had begun testing those slimes the moment he got back to the settlement.
He probably wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. Just by one look, he knew the slime woman wasn’t a creature he could take down with his current strength.
It’s a good thing I didn’t jump the gun... phew.
She gently placed the green slime she had been cradling back onto the ground and extended her hand to him. Adrian stared at her hand and then back at her, not knowing what she was planning to do.
The slime woman sensed his hesitation and told her what she wanted.
"I have seen enough bloodshed between us. Instead of more death, I wish for more life... more children."
Adrian’s brain short-circuited as soon as he heard ’children’. His mind went to the obvious, that she wanted more children, but from him, that’s why she was telling him that.
Wait, is that even possible? I know the blessing said I could impregnate any woman, but do monsters count in it as well? No, why am I even entertaining this thought!?
He was so engrossed in his own thoughts that he didn’t even notice when the slime woman had turned her hand around to point at the pond instead.
