WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Asakusa
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Monster Livestream Star ◈
Chapter 9: Elf (4)
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“Hand it over! I’ll deal with it!”
“Granny, what’s gotten into you? What did this slime ever do?”
“Can’t you see that it understands speech?”
“So what!”
Nellin could not understand why the elder had suddenly started shouting and trying to get rid of the slime.
The elder watched Nellin keep objecting without understanding, then smacked her forehead.
“Are you a Great Hero and still unaware of this?”
“What does being a Great Hero have to do with this?”
“It has intelligence! A monster with intelligence! Surely you, Lady Nellin, know better than anyone how dangerous intelligent monsters can be!”
There had long been stories of exceptionally powerful monsters possessing intelligence.
In fact, the monsters Nellin had faced that had inflicted great harm on the elves had shown emotions, acting and fighting as though they were thinking things through.
That was why, to the elder, a slime that understood Nellin’s words looked dangerous.
It was still young and not an immediate threat, but if left alone, it could someday become a danger to the elves.
“The calamity you and your companions defeated, the Black Dragon, was said to possess intelligence as well! And now we have a slime with intelligence already! How could this not be dangerous?”
▶Who’s the Black Dragon?
▶Wouldn’t that old fogey know?
[Noblesse Fire]▶Wasn’t that the idiot who went around running a Ningen Massacre Show, then got killed instead?
▶Yeah, I remember too.
[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶Didn’t the Black Dragon die shouting, “I have no regrets in my life!”[1]?
▶What the hell is that? LOL
▶There’s always one nutcase like that every now and then.
▶Some even throw fits claiming they’re Ningen LOL
“No, how is this little one the same as the Black Dragon? This is a slime. What could possibly be dangerous about it?”
[Jiggly Queen]▶You damned elf! How dare you look down on my kin!
“Do you not realize that such carelessness can cause a great disaster later? Even a slime could grow powerful enough to rival a calamity!”
[Jiggly Queen]▶Yes, well said!
Hearing the elder’s words, Nellin hugged the slime tighter.
‘So soft!’
As Nellin squeezed it, the slime trembled with delight at the new sensation.
She had hugged it instinctively, but no matter how she thought about it, this soft, squishy slime did not look threatening. Nellin stared at the slime, then looked at the elder.
“This one?”
Her voice held genuine disbelief.
The viewers burst into laughter.
▶LOL
▶Hard to believe, yeah LOL
▶Same.
[Jiggly Queen]▶How dare you underestimate my kin! Such insolence!
[Threadwork Madam]▶It is hard to imagine cute Malangi getting strong, though~.
[Just Slam Into It]▶Do not worry! If you are good at headbutting, you can become the best!
▶Have you considered the difference between your species?
Holding the slime in one hand, Nellin stroked it with the other.
“Granny, I’m stronger than you, and I’ve got more fighting experience too. From what I can see, this one isn’t a threat to me at all. You’re worrying over nothing. Don’t you trust my instincts?”
The elder found it difficult to argue with that.
She could nag as much as she wanted, but it was not easy to push back when Nellin brought up her combat experience.
The elder worried that arguing further would seem like a protest against Nellin’s dignity as a Great Hero.
“Hah, even if this slime isn’t dangerous! We still can’t keep a monster in the village!”
“It’s not dangerous at all. Can’t I just raise it? Well, if it becomes dangerous, I can deal with it myself...”
“Lady Nellin!”
“Fine, fine. You just want me to take it out of the village, right?”
Nellin decided she could not overcome the elder’s stubbornness any further.
+++
Nellin carried the slime outside the village.
“Ugh, sorry. Once Granny gets like that, she never listens to anyone.”
She considered secretly hiding the slime and raising it, but if the elder found out later, there was no doubt she would cause a huge fuss.
Between the fascinating slime that understood speech and the elder she had lived alongside for so many years, Nellin had no choice but to choose the latter.
Still, she did not feel good about sending the slime out into the wild like this.
Before saying goodbye, Nellin stopped by the butcher’s again and bought more jerky.
Soon, she passed through the village’s main gate and entered the forest.
She set the slime down and placed all the jerky she had bought from the butcher in front of it.
“You liked the jerky, right? Eat lots.”
‘Jerky!’
Delighted at the sight of jerky, the slime absorbed the pieces laid out before it one by one.
No matter how many times it ate it, it never got tired of the flavor, and it trembled happily.
“You’re nothing but cute. Granny really worries too much.”
Nellin placed a hand on the slime’s head as it trembled and stroked it.
She was not certain it would survive if she sent it into the wild.
Even if it had the intelligence to understand speech, it was still a slime, the weakest kind of monster.
But...
“If we’re meant to meet again, let’s meet again. Next time, I’ll give you something even tastier.”
‘Something tastier!’
At the mention of something tastier, the slime bounced in place.
“See? It really does understand what I say.”
Nellin rose from her crouch and spoke to the slime.
“Take care.”
With a light wave, Nellin turned around and headed back to the village.
Having finished all the jerky, the slime watched Nellin’s back as she returned to the village.
‘Elf!’
The slime had heard Nellin’s farewell, but its language skills were still too poor to understand it properly. It went boing! as it tried to follow her.
Just then.
▶[Free Spirit has donated 5 coins.]
▶[Message: Malangi! Don’t follow her!]
Free Spirit had been silent ever since the slime entered the village.
The one known as Kkanjuki donated to stop the slime.
▷Why?
[Free Spirit]▶It is dangerous if you go. Do not go to the elf village!
[Noblesse Fire]▶It was too busy eating jerky to listen.
▶I almost said, “Can’t it just go?”
[Jiggly Queen]▶My kin! You could die if you go back! Is it truly fine if you can no longer see new things?
‘Can’t see new things?’
▷Not seeing things! Hate it!
[Jiggly Queen]▶Yes! You would hate that! So go somewhere else!
Advice meant for it.
The slime felt sad about parting from the elf who had given it tasty food.
But it clearly remembered what Nellin had said.
If they were meant to meet again, they would meet again, and next time she would give it something tastier.
The slime vaguely understood that it would not be unable to see the elf forever.
‘New things!’
Rather than dwell on its sadness, the slime decided to focus on something else.
It would explore this world, which was still full of unknown things.
The slime’s curiosity burned brightly once more.
Boing! Boing!
Perhaps because it had eaten so much jerky, the slime bounced through the forest with even more energy.
+++
‘Nellin... To think the cave Malangi was in was near an elf village.’
A robed skeleton watched the slime’s broadcast as it moved along energetically, going boing! boing!
The place resembled a library, with bookshelves and rows of drawers all around.
But the robed skeleton was the only one there.
This skeleton was the Lich with the username Free Spirit.
Free Spirit was also known as Kkanjuki.
After the slime left the cave, Kkanjuki smiled inwardly while pondering what further advice to offer.
Kkanjuki had never seen an existence like a slime, either before or after becoming a Lich.
Betrayed by humans and nearly killed, Kkanjuki had barely escaped, become a Lich, and encountered the concept of a system for the first time.
Perhaps because of that, Kkanjuki had gradually become interested in watching other monsters’ broadcasts through the system.
Rather than being consumed by rage and taking revenge on humanity, Kkanjuki became more absorbed in studying the broadcasts of various intelligent monsters.
Monsters with intelligence no different from humans, and bizarre broadcasts absurd even by human standards.
There were even broadcasts by countless monsters powerful enough to be called calamities, creatures that could never be seen on the Dersia Continent.
Even the Black Dragon, whom Kkanjuki had encountered while still human, had appeared as part of a Ningen Massacre Show-themed broadcast.
Exploring those broadcasts had calmed Kkanjuki’s desire to personally wipe out every human.
But it had not erased the hatred of humans born from betrayal.
That was why Kkanjuki had spent thirty years without going outside, buried in a secret workshop while exploring monster broadcasts.
And today, through the slime’s broadcast, Kkanjuki saw the face of Nellin, once a companion, for the first time in thirty years.
Surprise, happiness, longing, and an uncomfortable feeling that could not be put into words.
In the end, Kkanjuki could not even type in chat while the slime was in the elf village.
‘You haven’t changed, Nellin...’
Though she was an elf, Nellin had always been easygoing, lightening the mood whenever the party was tense.
After defeating the Black Dragon, she had parted with a smile and a promise that they would meet again someday. Yet they had never met again.
Seeing her again after so long, just as easygoing as she had been thirty years ago but so carefree that she could be careless, Kkanjuki felt as if the corners of a nonexistent mouth were lifting.
Kkanjuki remembered what Nellin had said to the slime.
‘Right. I won’t be able to meet you again anyway...’
Kkanjuki wanted to make sure the promise Nellin had made to meet the slime again came true this time.
+++
Three days after parting ways with the elf village.
The slime bounced all over the place, looking at all kinds of plants and animals and satisfying its curiosity.
Then, while absorbing some green grass, the slime suddenly had a thought.
It wanted to eat something new and tasty.
But no matter where it looked, there was no jerky.
Even if it wanted to drink animal blood like deer blood, the slime did not know how.
‘Something tasty...’
The slime drooped sadly.
Then it spotted purple grass growing from the ground.
‘Something new!’
Seeing grass in a color it had never seen before, the slime assumed it would have a new grassy flavor and absorbed the purple grass.
‘It hurts...!’
The moment it absorbed it, pain surged through its body.
▷It hurts!
[Jiggly Queen]▶My kin! What are you doing?!
[Threadwork Madam]▶Oh my! Malangi! Why does it hurt?
▶It started acting like that after eating that purple weed.
▶Is that not poisonous grass?
▶Can poison even affect a slime? LOL
[Jiggly Queen]▶Poison!? My kin! Quickly, eat different grass! Quickly!
Following the advice, the slime ate the grass it usually ate instead of the purple grass. The pain did not fade until an hour later.
It had digested the poison inside while feeding on nutrients.
▷Purple grass! Hate it!
That was the day the slime developed its first dislike.
But whenever someone showed such feelings, there was always a troll who wanted to tease them.
▶[Anonymous678 has donated 1 coin.]
▶[Message: I bet it won't hurt if you eat it again.]
‘It won’t hurt?’
[Jiggly Queen]▶Do not listen to such nonsense, my kin!
[Threadwork Madam]▶Why are you trying to torment cute Malangi?
[Gothic Luxury Bone]▶Malangi does not kick viewers, so there is no way to stop them.
Messages trying to stop it appeared immediately afterward.
But the slime was already focused on the purple grass that had hurt it.
‘Didn’t taste it!’
The slime thought it had not properly tasted the purple grass because of the pain, so it absorbed it once more.
And then.
▷It hurts!
▶LOLLLLLL
▶It ate it again LOL
The slime once more felt the pain of the poisonous grass.
But it was not the same as before.
[You have acquired the skill: Detoxification.]
‘...? It doesn’t hurt!’
▷It doesn’t hurt!
▶??
▶It does not hurt?
▷Got Detoxification!
▶Did it get a Detoxification skill?
▶It got that from this??
Once the slime realized that eating poisonous grass no longer hurt, it absorbed the purple grass again.
▷Tasty!
Having discovered a new flavor, the slime happily went boing!
Footnotes:
[1] “I have no regrets in my life!”: The Korean echoes Raoh’s famous final line in Fist of the North Star, making the Black Dragon’s death grandiosely melodramatic.
“Ningen” is a Japanese-derived slang term for “human,” used here as monster-streaming jargon.
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