Chapter 33 – Local Barrier Hazard
It was a really small hole.
Emma could find it only because she caught sight of flowing water by chance.
The dripping water doesn’t soak into the ground, and it has the same surface tension as a drop of water. It becomes round and wobbly.
A lump of jelly-like mass that looks a little delicious at a glance is formed.
“What is that?”
The prince points curiously and is shocked to see the tense look on the three siblings.
In an instant, the three siblings take a fighting stance.
“That… is a monster called slime.”
William’s voice is shaking. George’s expression becomes clouded.
“Mo-monster!?”
Regarding this field, William is best at identifying monsters.
If he had said so, I didn’t want to believe it, but it couldn’t have been wrong. George slowly moves and takes the stand of protecting everyone. Then, he takes out the whistle hanging around his neck.
“Rose-sama and the others hurry, run! William, lead them to a safe place, clear out all the people, and find something that can be useful!”
At the three siblings’ tense appearance, the prince seems to finally realize it late.
“That, is that hole is a local barrier hazard?”
‘The timing is too good…’ The prince mutters.
“Yes! Please hurry and run!”
Having said that, George blows the whistle with all his strength.
Piiiiiiiiiii!!
It’s a special whistle to call out hunters. The hunting dogs of the hunters stationed in the territory are taught to notify the occurrence of a local barrier hazard when they heard this sound.
With a blow of the whistle, the hunters will start evacuating the whole area. The pinpointing of the local barrier hazard location mainly depends on the ability of the hunting dogs.
“Emma-chan too, let’s run—”
Rose-sama holds out her hand to Emma… but,
“No, I will stay here. I have to support my older brother.”
I also want to run from here, but I can’t leave my older brother alone in the face of a local barrier hazard. I force a smile and turn Rose down.
‘Let’s run together!’ Rose and the prince want to bring not only Emma but also George along.
We absolutely have no time for this small dispute.
William holds Jadwiga, who’s about to cry, in his arm and urges everyone in a panicked tone that we can’t imagine would come from him.
“We will leave behind Emma nee-sama and George nii-sama! Quick, let’s evacuate quickly! Please follow what we said this time! Hurry!”
The most dangerous thing is to have people without any knowledge of monsters in the hunting ground. Before the fact that they are royal family, the presence of Rose and the others will be threatening everyone’s lives.
“I will be alright! Leave this to us who grew up in the borderland! Hurry! Go as far as you can! Quickly!”
While saying ‘No way!’ or ‘But!’ William takes them away forcibly from here.
Before other hunters come, we must have a grasp of the monster that came out of the local barrier hazard. If the one that came out can move long-distance at high speed, the damage will increase.
Until I couldn’t hear Rose and the others’ voices and am sure that they are already far away, I call out George.
“This, is already the biggest pinch in my life.”
George’s forehead is sweating. He doesn’t have his favorite sword, nor any hunting equipment.
The knowledge of slime in this world and our past life is totally different. The slime in this world is a monster whose danger and rarity level are both MAX, with how to defeat it is not yet known.
“If we cut it with a sword, it will split and multiply. If we use fire, it will explode water vapor. Our attacks are not only futile, but we will also get inflammation from its body fluids’ stong alkali if we touch it directly… Sorry, Emma, I can’t have you run here.”
William, who has the knowledge of monsters, has the highest survival priority for the three siblings. This is like a law made from the old margrave, and knowledge is always the top priority.
‘Why slime of all things…’ George changes his stance to protect Emma. He slowly approaches the slime so his attack won’t hit Emma.
“Nii-sama, the result of your study really applied here.”
The slime that appeared in Palace was dealt with by forcibly pushing it out of the barrier using glass shields by several hunters wearing multilayer protective suits. But this is the Valerie territory, which is too far from the barrier. The slime will also not be still while being pushed. Every time it will become large-scale hunting, with not so few casualties.
With this situation where we don’t even have the glass shield specially used for slimes, we can’t find a way to even protect ourselves.
“It won’t say, ‘I’m not a bad slime, you know,’ huh?”
While wiping his sweat with his sleeve, George tries his best to crack a joke.
“Of course impossible.”
‘Fufufu,’ Emma laughs unknowingly.
“Emma, you brought it, right?”
George abruptly says to the laughing Emma.
“Eh? Did I get caught? I will especially lend it to older brother.”
Saying so, Emma roll up her puffy skirt.
A large, transparent violet spider is clinging firmly to Emma’s slender thigh.
“Uwah, you… in that sort of place…”
George is left speechless.
“Violet, will you lend your power to George nii-sama?”
Emma lifts up the spider to meet its eyes. It’s a really pretty purple. Cute.
Like sensing Emma’s intention, Violet spews out a thread that lands instantly on George’s head.
The moment the slime stop flowing from the local barrier hazard, a water-gun-like attack comes at the nearest George.
“Uh-oh—!”
George easily dodges it with Violet’s boost, but the lawn in the place he just escaped is melting.
Slime is not a monster with a good head on its shoulders (where is the head even?). Until it engulfed its determined target, it won’t attack another prey. At any rate, George becomes the lure to buy time. For Emma’s sake.
The slime, who has determined George as its prey, send out water guns and body blows one after another at high speed. But George, with Violet on his head, endures it skillfully.
During this time, Emma is observing the slime carefully.
・・・
When I was making the monster karuta1 for my older brother, there’s something I was curious about.
Emma’s knowledge about monsters is not as detailed as the brothers, but she received a general education*. However, when I reviewed it again, all monster-related information is only based on the accumulated rule of thumb. And why is so has not been verified.
*T/N: This sentence is Minato’s POV towards the ‘previous’ Emma.
If we were able to verify monsters’ special characteristics one by one, wouldn’t we be able to hunt more effectively, is what I thought.
It is Emma’s traits to thoroughly investigate when she is curious.
The hunters until now have had their hands full with memorizing and defeating, but when Emma learns about monsters through making karuta, there’s another point of view and concept added.
A mere one month, further excluding the time taken for taking care of insects and making Rose’s dresses, with that little time between the intervals, the three siblings had been working hard on monsters’ verification.
It was intended for only the three siblings to toy with in the beginning. Emma made a hypothesis after hearing William’s investigation and explanation, and George tested it on the hunting ground.
After obtaining positive proof to a certain extent, we reported the successful verification results to our father and uncle. We got scolded for not telling them beforehand, but then they started to cooperate with us.
The three siblings’ verification has been spread to Palace’s hunters and in the process of completing new weapons.
Regarding slimes, I also talked about it with William when making the karuta.
The method to deal with it that Emma could think of was ‘How about adjusting its pH?’
If slime’s body fluids is a strong alkaline, I thought that if we put in acidic to the slime to neutralize it, the slime whose substance has changed significantly wouldn’t be able to retain its shape as a slime.
This is only my hypothesis without any actual proof. There’s no way a rare monster like slime would immediately appear. Just as much it won’t appear, the information is limited.
Even so, if William remembers that time’s hypothesis, he will return and bring us some acidic.
It’s good that we have called the hunters, but I guess Valerie territory’s hunters won’t be able to take up the slime to George’s extent.
I feel uneasy to only rely on a hypothesis that has never been once tested.
I carefully observe the real thing. Is there something, some kind of weakness? Is there something that at least can earn enough time for father and uncle in Palace to make it here?
Something, there supposed to be something. I observe the slime intently.
At that, a second slime flowed out from the local barrier hazard.
There’s only Emma to become the second’s target.
“Emma!!! Run!!”
George shouts, but that slime is much smaller than the first one and quickly finishes flowing. It directly shoots a water gun at Emma.
Emma, who has been observing the first slime intently, reacts late.
“Emma—!!!”
.
“!!!!!”
1T/N (Sorry I forgot to add a note on karuta in the s): Karuta is a traditional Japanese card game. There are two stacks of cards: reading cards and playing cards. Someone will read out a poem or proverb written on a reading card, and the players will try to snatch the playing card (laid out on the floor) as fast as they can.
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