Side Carm Norad
The next day.
“Good morning!” [Ryouma]
The boss arrived at his usual time today.
He doesn’t seem tense to me, but he’s so cheerful it’s concerning.
“Good morning, Boss. Did you go home properly yesterday and get a good night’s rest?” [Carm]
“Huh? Ah, yeah. More or less.” [Ryouma]
He paused for a moment there, didn’t he?
“Boss? Did you rest properly?” [Carm]
“I went back home properly and got some sleep. But the slimes evolved as soon as I came back, so I stayed up late.” [Ryouma]
“Again? Please keep your all-nighters in moderation.” [Carm]
I’m fine. It won’t get in the way of my work, and all these evolutions should end soon. I got a lot of garbage from the villagers of Fatma Territory, so the slimes were able to get a lot of nutrients and evolve.
Ah, by the way, two types evolved last night. Both were sticky slimes who evolved after eating ‘water spiders’. One of them became a spider slime with the skills ‘Build Nest’ and ‘Capture’, so I guess the water spiders really are spiders. I thought they were crabs, but… I guess it’s a trivial matter. The other slime evolved into a ‘Crust Slime’ with the skill ‘Mold Shell’.
Their abilities and appearance aren’t any different from the normal sticky slimes, but…” [Ryouma]
“Ah, by the way, Boss. The laundromat we were talking about before replied.” [Carm]
“—Ah, already? Didn’t we just contact them yesterday? I thought they’d take more time to respond.” [Ryouma]
I feel bad cutting him when he’s so happily talking, but there’s no telling when the conversation will end when the topic is about slimes, so I distracted him by showing him the letter that arrived first thing this morning. I don’t really mind talking to the boss about slimes during break time, but we’re in the middle of opening the store right now. It won’t look good to the rest of the employees if both the boss and the assistant-manager are slacking.
Of course, the boss himself understands that and he’s also generally a diligent person, so that’s not really a problem… Oh?
“Hmm… This letter says I can visit their store anytime. Should I take that at face value and drop by today?” [Ryouma]
“Can I see that letter?” [Carm]
I got the letter from the boss and looked through it… I see.
“It does say that you can visit them, so I think it should be fine to drop by as long as it’s not at a busy time.” [Carm]
“I see. In that case, I’ll drop by around noon after lunch. I want to wear something proper, and I don’t want to intrude on them during their break time.” [Ryouma]
“Alright. In that case, I’ll go get ready too.” [Carm]
While I was saying that, my eyes happened to fall onto the boss’s arms.
“It’s rare to see you wearing something like that. Is that a bracelet?” [Carm]
The boss normally isn’t one to wear accessories. In fact, I’ve never really seen him wearing one.
Depending on one’s customs, a person might wear certain things regardless of age or gender, but I’ve never heard anything of the sort from him.
But today the boss had a metallic rope wrapped around his left arm that’s connected at both ends with a clasp decorated with embellished stones – in other words, a bracelet-like object was wrapped around his left arm.
“You mean this? Fu fu fu, does it look like that to you?” [Ryouma]
“Am I wrong?” [Carm]
“No, I made it look like that, so you’re not wrong, but this is actually a slime. The wire slime that evolved at Fatma Territory could turn itself into a thread-like object by stretching its body. I figured it might be possible to combine it with some stones to make it look like an accessory, so I gave it a shot.” [Ryouma]
“I see…” [Carm]
Is there any point in turning a slime into an accessory?
That simple question popped up in my mind, but I hesitated to voice it out seeing how happy the boss was. In the end, I didn’t say anything, and just looked for a good timing to end our conversation and went back to work.
After lunch and after having readied myself to go with the boss…
“I’ll be counting on you, Yurdum-san.” [Ryouma]
“Leave it to me!” [Yurdum]
Yurdum-san ended up going with us too.
I was internally surprised when I found out that the boss had asked him to escort us himself.
As for why I found that surprising, that’s because the boss normally doesn’t bring any guards with him.
I know now that the boss is an adventurer and is quite powerful himself, but when I first met the boss, he really struck me as a mature child, so when people were starting to get jealous of our store and started to cause disturbances, I repeatedly advised him to have some guards with him.
The boss normally listens to me and my older sister, but…
‘I can protect myself’, ‘I’ll protect my own body’, ‘It’s fine, it’s fine.’
Is what he’d gently tell us while firmly rejecting the notion of having any guards. The one exception was when he went to visit the duke and he needed Fei-san to accompany him out of formality’s sake. That was really the one exception.
Even though the store is armed to the teeth with Fei-san, Leelin-san, Dolce-kun, and Ox-san to prevent anything from happening to the employees, he’s completely unconcerned when it comes to himself. Though perhaps that’s also because a half-baked guard would only hinder him…
“Carm-san, is something the matter? I feel like you’ve been staring at me since awhile ago.” [Ryouma]
It seems I’ve been staring at him unconsciously.
“I was just thinking how strange it was for you to ask for an escort.” [Carm]
“Huh? …Come to think of it, you and Carla-san did advise me many times to have some with me.” [Ryouma]
So he does remember our advice. It looks like he’s also a little embarrassed for not listening to us since he awkwardly averted his eyes when he said that.
“I’m not mad about that, Boss. After all, I understand now just how strong you are. I’m just curious why you suddenly decided to have Yurdum-san accompany you today.” [Carm]
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