I, the Villainous Prince, Buy the Ruined Villainess with Money

Chapter 68: The Mysterious Slime

Alright, I think it’s safe to say the request is finally done.

I could’ve cleaned everything up spotless, but that’d actually make things tough for the newbies.

It’s better to leave just the right amount of grime so it can still serve as their rite of passage.

“Whoa… all that gunk is gone!”

“It feels like the air’s totally different… even with the water film, there’s hardly any smell now.”

“Hmph, this much is a piece of cake.”

Honestly, magically speaking, I’m totally fine.

Right then, something came out from the back.

It was huge, black, and all bouncy and squishy.

If I match it to what I know, no matter how you look at it, that’s a slime.

“AAAAAHHH!”

“——!”

“Kyaa!?”

“This is…!”

A sound that wasn’t really a sound hit our ears straight on.

When I turned around, Kyle and Yulia were both clutching their ears in pain too.

If I match this to what I know, it’s probably some kind of ultrasonic wave.

It’s not so much loud as it is this piercing ringing in your ears.

“Kyle! What the hell is this thing!?”

“A—a type of slime! But I’ve never seen one this big and black! It probably kept combining over and over! That explains why we didn’t spot a single slime on the way here!”

“I-I’m pretty sure slimes are famous for eating and digesting literally anything… and that’s why they live underground, I heard… but they almost never attack people and aren’t even considered targets for subjugation quests…”

“…Doesn’t look that way to me at all.”

It doesn’t have a face, but somehow, from every angle, it looks pissed.

Right in the center there’s this red gem-like thing, and it’s gleaming sharply.

“I-it’s just a guess, but… maybe the slimes were living off this sewer as their food source. Then one of them eventually gathered everything up and made this its home…”

“I see… so in that case, we’re the jerks who just wiped out both its food and its house. No wonder it’s openly hostile.”

“AAAAAHHH!”

“Damn it, my ears are gonna go nuts.”

I was about to cast a spell when Kyle grabbed my shoulder.

“W-wait! Physical attacks don’t work on slimes! Their weakness is fire magic, and water magic just gets absorbed!”

“Oh? Thanks for the info.”

“People literally say ‘don’t fight slimes, just run!’ They keep splitting from fragments and don’t even have the concept of death!”

Huh… so the slimes in this world are built strong, huh.

In some games they’re treated like trash mobs, but thinking about those abilities, it actually makes more sense for them to be tough.

“The word ‘run’ doesn’t exist in my dictionary. Plus, it doesn’t look like it’s gonna let us go anyway.”

“The second we take one step, it’ll probably charge right at us… I’ll draw its attention, so use that chance to escape.”

“What’re you talking about? I’m the one who’s taking this thing down.”

Behind me, Yulia was crouched down clutching her ears.

Letting my favorite suffer like this is unforgivable.

“No, like I said, water magic won’t—”

“Oh right, I never showed you, did I.”

“AAAAAHHH!”

“Here it comes. Diving straight into death’s jaws, huh— Ice Nova.”

I fired a freezing wind straight at the massive body rushing toward us.

Inside it were ice pillars too, knocking the slime back.

The blizzard didn’t stop the whole time, slowly freezing the slime’s entire body.

Then, the moment the wind died down, the ice shattered into pieces… and the ultrasonic waves finally stopped.

“That should do it.”

“…Ice magic? Wait, someone who can use that is… no way.”

“What’re you spacing out for? Come on, let’s get outta here quick.”

“Wait, let’s take the slime’s core. If we have that, it’ll count as subjugation proof.”

I left that to Kyle and hurried over to Yulia.

She was still holding her ears, clearly in pain.

“You okay? Yulia, grab onto my shoulder.”

“N-no, I couldn’t possibly trouble your hand…”

“Do what I say. (Alvis!? Are you an idiot!? There are way better ways to say that!!)”

“Y-yes… huh? You’re… not that mad?”

Yulia was kinda fidgeting and squirming, but maybe she really didn’t like it?

I was wondering whether to check when Kyle’s voice rang out.

“Hey! Run right now!”

“What the—”

I looked back and there was a whole army of high rats coming straight at us.

It wasn’t even about how strong they were—just pure instinctual terror.

“Ughhh… Yulia! Hold on tight!”

“Hya!?”

“—WOOOOOOHHH!”

The excitement from hugging her close mixed with the fear, and my head turned into total chaos.

I sprinted full speed like that, and before I knew it we were out of the sewers.

Only one thing I can say for sure… that feeling was absolutely amazing.

—

Chapter 69: No Self-Awareness

When we got out of the sewers, the high rats all turned around and headed back inside.

Looks like they really hate sunlight.

Then I suddenly noticed the area near the entrance still stank.

“Still smells, huh.”

“Well, even though we opened the clogged cover, this spot’s still pretty far from there.”

“Yeah, you’re right… Guess I gotta do something about this much at least.”

I shouldn’t completely clean everything and steal their jobs.

But making their work a little easier should be fine.

I started pouring high-pressure cleaning from the sewer entrance and kept it going as long as my mana held out.

“This should make it at least a bit better.”

“Whoa! That’s more than enough! Haha! Never thought I could breathe this freely without holding my nose!”

“Master, that was amazing!”

“R-really…? (Don’t grin like an idiot, me!)”

I quickly turned on my heel toward the stairs so they couldn’t see my face.

The moment I climbed up… I got surrounded by residents.

“Whoa! Is that the guy!?”

“Yeah! After he passed by, the whole building got clean!”

“For real, after that magic just now the area around the sewer is sparkling…”

“Look! Even the sewer water looks like a clear river now!”

What the heck? Why are so many people gathering?

There wasn’t a soul around earlier—where’d they all come from?

Anyway, I can’t get through like this.

“Quiet down—and step aside.”

「………」

I put some force into my stomach and said it, and even though I didn’t straight-up order them, they immediately moved to the sides and knelt.

They shouldn’t even know I’m Alvis, yet here they are.

Well, at least the path opened up, so I started walking.

“Ah, thank you so much!”

“Now it’ll be a little easier to live here!”

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

I genuinely had no clue, so I couldn’t even respond properly.

I pushed through the crowd like that and made it back near the center of the city.

That’s when Kyle finally spoke up.

“…So this is what they mean by the vessel of the overlord, huh.”

“What’re you on about? More importantly, do you know what’s up with all those residents?”

“You really don’t realize it… Those people are probably acquaintances of the ones you healed on the way here.”

“I just walked past them, that’s all.”

“Even so, if that many people get healed all at once it’s obviously not normal. And if they think about what just happened right before, they can guess. Or to put it the other way, they probably gathered to check if it was really true.”

Ohhh, so that’s what it was.

Still, there were way too many of them.

“And maybe while Master wasn’t paying attention, the healing reached inside the buildings too?”

“Huh…? Oh, yeah, that’s probably it. That healing rain spread into the buildings as well… Heh, not bad at all (As expected of my fave!).”

“Hehe, thank you.”

“Now I can finally head back feeling refreshed.”

“…Do you even understand what you just did? The meaning of healing people for free, not asking for any gratitude or favor, and just walking away.”

“Kyle, what’re you rambling about? Let’s go already. I wanna take care of some goblin hunting today too.”

“…Yeah, got it.”

With the mystery solved, I headed toward the imperial capital’s exit in high spirits.

…By the way, this whole sequence of events was originally supposed to be the heroine Saintess’s role.

Purifying the waterways, earning the residents’ gratitude, raising her own value.