Chapter Volume 4 1: Monster 1
Fonteau, the kingdom of magic.
The country of origin, where a hero was summoned from another world and set off more than ten years ago.
It was also a country where humans, elves, dwarves, and other races gather, where the hero's wife ruled.
The land of the mages, which had flourished thanks to the knowledge of the other world and had prospered more than any other country on the continent, was now in ruins.
Not even a single horse-drawn carriage could pass along the well-organized streets, the colorful flowers that used to grow everywhere had withered, and no one had come and gone in a long time.
It was in the far north of Fonteau.
It was overrun by a single monster born from the now-abandoned Mithril mine.
It was only one.
For humankind who had overcome the threat of the Demon King, it was a monster that was equivalent to a speck of dust.
A slime.
The nightmare was that the slime was a little more special than the other slimes―― a mutated slime that took in a human male, became a male, and then had the uncanny ability to impregnate a female and bear a child.
The nightmare led to the fall of Fontwau, the capture of the queen and most of the women in the country, and devouring all the men.
The number of monsters in the country was probably equal to the total number of monsters that existed when the Demon King still existed.
In Fonteau, slimes were walking around like they own the place, and the threat had spread to other countries.
Grabalt, the Land of Beastmen.
Lishlua, the holy nation that worshipped the goddess.
Both have already been attacked by the slime and have suffered casualties.
And now, new sacrifices were about to take the place of humans, demihumans, and beastmen......
North of Fonteau.
In that region, where the original slime was born, a different race aside from the slimes was gaining power.
Goblins and Orcs, monsters that were driven deep into the forests and caves after the Demon King was defeated by the heroes.
When they learned that the slime had weakened humans' power, they crawled out from the depths of the forests and caves where they had been hiding and began to attack human villages.
At first, they were few in number.
If they left their dwellings, they would be killed.
The monsters, who had been reminded of that over the course of more than a decade, were cowardly and even afraid to go out in the open.
Their instinct with which they had to destroy mankind due to the Demon King had disappeared, and they were just waiting to be destroyed...... It was especially true for the lower-level monsters such as goblins and orcs.
But that too had come to an end.
The country that the hero created was overrun by the slimes, and the number of people in the country decreased.
Knowing that, the goblins came out of their dens and attacked the villages where the tentacles of the slimes had not yet extended, expanding their territory.
However, they only took one or two villages in the countryside.
Their influence was too different from that of the slimes that had taken over almost the entire country of Fonteau.
The people who were hostile to the slime were so weak that they were unaware of its power.
"Gigi."
"Gi? Gigii."
The beings with light green skin were communicating while making a jarring noise.
It was a goblin, one of the lowest-ranking monsters that mankind had once feared.
They were short in height, but their head was large, perhaps half the size of their upper body. Their eyes were large and popping out, and their nose was high.
The only thing they wore was a waistcoat that covered their lower body, and in their hands, they held farming tools such as a plow and a hoe that they must have picked up somewhere.
The village that the goblins had acquired.
It was reasonably large, with eleven houses. There were more than thirty humans and elves living here, but they were now trapped in the back of the village, sometimes as food for the goblins, sometimes as tools to relieve stress...... and sometimes as toys for entertainment.
"Gigii."
"Gii?"
Today was no different than any other day.
They were supposed to torture, kill, and eat the people they caught.
It was supposed to be.
The goblin standing at the entrance to the village, who could be called the gatekeeper, suddenly sensed a presence and turned its face away.
The blue sky and white clouds seemed to go on forever. There were no clouds of dust on the other side of the road, which had become desolate due to the lack of human traffic.
There were no forests or grassy areas around them, just open space. If something were to come towards them, they would know immediately.
That's probably why. The goblins seemed to have sensed some kind of presence, but they quickly looked away and communicated with their companions again, squeaking and whimpering.
It was the usual scene.
The era of monsters was coming again, and the killing of people and monsters would begin again―― but they had no such premonition.
Because to the slime, goblins, and other monsters were nothing more than food.
"Gi."
"Gigii?"
Two goblins appeared from the back of the village. One had a sickle for cutting grass in its hand, and the other had a large ax that a lumberjack would use.
Unable to hold it with one hand, he held it with both hands, dragging it on the ground.
The two goblins standing at the entrance of the village seemed to bow lightly to the goblin with the big ax.
"Gii."
"Gigi, Gii."
The goblin with the large ax squealed, and the two goblins that had been standing ahead of it switched places and went back into the village.
Apparently to change guards.
"Gigii"
"Gii, Gii."
Maybe they were saying that the time they were going to spend on guard was troublesome.
It was a difficult thing to do in a monotonous job because even humans get lazy when there was no one watching.
The goblin with the large ax placed it on the ground and sat down, using it as a chair.
Some time passed after that, a time when the sun slanted down and dyed the village a beautiful sunset color.
Another replacement of goblins emerged from the depths of the village.
Another day came to an end. Just a little while ago, They heard a scream from deep within the village.
It was the scream of a human woman.
The goblins, who have no interest in violating human women, torture, hurt, and kill humans for food, regardless of gender.
Tormenting them was just for entertainment.
Today, it was a woman.
The goblin with the big ax must have enjoyed the spectacle. When the replacement guards arrived, they walked back into the village, their steps were light as though they were human.
......It was hell.
At the very least, it was a living hell for humans.
In the village, there were more than a dozen corpses that had already died and were being hung up and bled out to preserve them.
In addition, in the center of the village, there was a circular camp surrounded by a sturdy wooden fence, probably made by tearing down a house.
Inside, there were two women.
One of them was an odd-looking woman with long chestnut-colored hair who looked to be about thirty years old and had the kind of curvaceous body typical of rural women.
She must be married as there was a ring on her left ring finger.
The other was still young, in her late teens with blue hair.
Her breasts were small, but her waist was rich, and her arms and legs were long and slender.
Both of them were wearing clothes that had been roughly torn off, and the only clothes that remained were still on the sleeves of their arms. The screams they made earlier must be because of the ripping of their clothes.
Aside from their torn clothes they were only dressed in upper and lower underwear and were left inside a circular fence.
They were crying because they knew what was going to happen to them, and all they could do was tremble desperately.
"Gigi."
"Gigii!!"
On the outside of the circular fence, there were dozens of goblins, drooling and screaming in excitement.
That alone was enough to frighten the two women, causing them to shed tears, huddle together, and tremble vigorously.
Naturally.
In the village, such an event was held every few days.
Because of the slime, the human population was dwindling, and it was difficult to replenish it. The number of humans was limited, and if they were killed, they would only decrease.
"Gigi?"
"Giigii!"
A goblin with a large ax asks, and another young goblin with a short nose lets out a strange cry of excitement in agreement.
What was about to take place was the only entertainment the goblins had. The killing of humans.
The inside of the circular fence was stained with flesh and bones of the people they had killed yesterday, and it smelled foul.
But for the goblins, it was the most exquisite aroma of all.
Killing people.
The instincts of the monsters that were engraved in them when they were created by the demon king were stimulated, and they seemed to be unable to contain their excitement.
"Gigiiiii!!"
One goblin appeared after squeezing through the other goblins.
Its face was wrinkled, and its nose was more than a size larger than the other goblins. Its head was adorned with an extravagant crown from who knows where, and in its hand was a mace with several vicious thorns.
While the other goblins wore nothing more than a waistcoat, this goblin was clad in iron armor―― the chief of the goblins, the king of this village.
When the goblin raised its mace, the goblins around let out a strange cry.
Under the sunset sky, two goblins push open the entrance to the fence.
"No, nooo..."
"Please, please, please, please, please."
The chestnut-haired woman just shook with tears, while the blue-haired woman bowed her head and begged for mercy.
They were two contrasting people, but what they do was the same.
The goblin, perhaps excited to see them so frightened, approached the woman with a grin on its face.
――Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, the goblin king took its gaze off the women.
It looked around.
The goblins were excited about the upcoming carnage and were raising their weapons and making strange noises.
It was the usual scene.
Nothing had changed.
That was why it thought that it was just its imagination that made it feel strange.
The goblin king's movements stopped for a moment, but the women's despair could not be wiped out by that.
The trembling of their bodies did not stop, and various bodily fluids overflowed and stained their underwear in despair, thinking that no one would help them.
The goblin king raised its spiked mace, its weapon.
However, it was never swung down.
Fresh blood splashed out, staining the faces of the goblins and the women.
"Giiiiiii!?"
The king screamed.
The goblins who had been making a racket around it stopped their screaming at once and looked at the king who had lost one of its arms, stunned.
Yes.
One of its arms was gone.
With a thud, the arm holding the mace fell to the ground at a distance. The goblin flailed around on the ground, holding its arm, just like a human would.
The king couldn't understand what had just happened.
Immediately, the goblins surrounding the fence let out a scream.
The goblins, who were relaxed by the excitement of the carnage, were taken in by the black ooze, a black slime that crept up on them without making a sound, burned them with magic, struck them with its tentacles, took their weapons, and tore them apart...... they were slaughtered in various ways.
Some of the goblins escaped, but as they tried to get out of the village, they were attacked and killed by slimes that were hiding in those paths.
While watching their brethren being killed by the slime, some goblins tried to escape by using them as bait, but they were also killed by magic, snipping them from afar.
It was earth and wind magic.
The earth was compressed into a ball, and the wind magic was used to propel the attack.
The goblin, who was clad in leather armor, was killed with a precise shot from behind.
The slime struck with tentacles that flexed like whips, and the long, supple, and quick-strike became a blade sharper than a great sword, cutting through the goblins.
The goblins that had been creating hell for the humans were annihilated in the short time it took for the setting sun to disappear between the mountains.
Though the sky was still madder red.
Inside the fence, the two women were terrified.
One moment, the goblin that had tried to kill them was being slaughtered by another monster. It was hard not to be frightened.
If it had been a human, they would have been happy to have been saved, but it was a slime, and the beings that would kill them just changed from goblins to slimes.
That was what they thought.
"Uu, uuu..."
"Please. Please help us. Please, please..."
The odd-looking woman was overwhelmed with despair, but she could not escape.
Her hands were still tied, and more importantly, she was surrounded by slimes.
They were still surrounded by a small wooden fence, which seemed to be the safest place to be.
The other woman was still calling out for help. She couldn't see any change in her surroundings and was already mentally unstable due to fear and despair.
......After a while, the lump of flesh that was once the goblin king was captured by the slime.
The slime that had taken in the goblin carcasses stopped moving to concentrate on digestion, but those that couldn't find food began to nuzzle closer to the women to reproduce, an instinct of the Black Ooze.
"No, no!?"
"Please help me, help me, help me, help me."
The slime's filthy black tentacles cling to their limbs, which were clad only in underwear.
The brown-haired woman with ample limbs was wearing a modest gray full-cup bra and panties of the same color with a large fabric covering her parts.
The blue-haired woman, perhaps she had chosen it to show it to her lover. She was wearing light green, matching top and bottom underwear decorated with pretty white frills.
Screams rose.
Fonteau, the kingdom of magic.
The slime, which had already eaten all the men in the country, was finally attacking even its fellow monsters, enhancing their power―― or rather, their mucus body.