Chapter 38

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William's feet headed towards the kitchen.

In a daze, she thought she was calling out to her mother, but her sister's eyes were firmly fixed on her.

Her sister, who had not received monster combat training, had stayed behind with Georg, reconfirming her talent over the past month.

Observation and creativity. She had bet on her sister's abilities.

No matter how much she studied, no matter how much she trained her body, and no matter how much experience she gained, monsters were always a threat.

Every time a slime-like monster appeared, precious sacrifices were made.

Her sister's keen observation skills, honed from her love of insects, and her creative thinking, unbound by common sense, had come up with various ideas for creating the cards.

Her brother found it amusing and tried each of her ideas. While not all of them worked, about 70% of the ideas showed some kind of results.

In just half a month since starting to create the cards, they had become a guidebook.

So, if her sister said it, it must be possible to defeat them.

Mom (Takako)

Slug (Namukuji)

Osmotic Pressure (Tashintoatsu)

Slime (Suramu)

Salt (Shio)

Takako always sprinkled salt on slugs.

In other words, Emma was suggesting that slimes could be defeated with salt, just like slugs.

... Probably.

Honestly, it was hard to believe that slimes, which had caused so much trouble and suffering, could be defeated with just salt. Physical attacks didn't work, cutting them with a sword made them split and multiply, and using fire caused them to explode. Slimes in this world were invincible. It took at least one person to push a single slime out of the barrier, and sacrifices were made as they became prey.

Could it really be possible to defeat them with just salt?

Salt acid would be more believable. But if Emma said it, he would follow. In the end, he couldn't go against his sister.

He opened the kitchen door.

The hide-and-seek area was within the mansion. Thanks to Jadwiga's strict rules about play, he knew the layout of the mansion well.

Without hesitation, he headed towards the storage room at the back. He descended the stairs to the semi-basement storage room.

"Hmm... What should I look for?"

The hunters' faces were already anxious when he entered the kitchen.

"Salt! Please find salt!"

"Shi-shio?"

"Um... salty salt?"

Their faces became even more anxious. William himself was starting to feel uneasy, but he nodded clearly and began to search.

He thought it would be easy to find, but the storage room was large and filled with items.

As expected of a marquis's storage room. He looked through the shelves of dried goods, oils, and tea leaves one by one.

"Maybe around here?"

One of the hunters called out to William.

A row of colorful paper bags lined up.

... Why aren't they labeled!?

In this world, the color of the bag determined its contents: white for salt, blue for sugar, and so on. This was to make it easier for the common people, who had a low literacy rate, but it had the opposite effect.

Unfortunately, neither William nor the hunters had ever been in the kitchen.

"Let's open them and see!"

William picked up a red bag. It turned out to be flour.

"Wrong..."

A hunter opened a blue bag. It was sugar.

"Sweet..."

William opened a yellow bag. It was strong flour.

"I can't tell the difference from before."

A hunter opened an orange bag. It was starch.

He suppressed his frustration but still couldn't find the salt he was looking for.

After that, they opened baking soda, breadcrumbs, granulated sugar, white pepper, black pepper, and various other items. Finally, they opened a white bag.

"Salty!! This is salt!"

"Wow!!"

"Finally... finally..."

It was the last one... Everyone had a complicated expression.

They were quite tired from having to check each heavy bag.

There's so much white powder... he grumbled while carrying the large bags of salt.

(Sister... this will definitely work, right? It will work, right? It will work, right?)

William sighed at the unexpected effort.

Not knowing can be a sin. He realized this once again.

They carried as much salt as they could and went outside, where a crowd had gathered.

This area should have been evacuated... he thought, but then he heard a voice from the crowd.

"William!!"

His father, Leonardo, and his uncle, Urban, ran over.

"Father!!"

The crowd turned out to be the hunters sent as reinforcements from the palace.

"Is everyone safe? Do you know where the local hazard barrier is? How big is it? What kind of monsters are there?"

He was bombarded with questions.

It was painful to see his father's worried face.

"Three slimes. The hole is about 3 cm in size. Sister Emma used a water gun..."

"Slimes!!!? And three of them!"

"How can slimes appear here!?"

Before he could finish, the hunters were already expressing their shock and changing their expressions.

The palace hunters were skilled and had received training for local hazard barrier incidents. They probably thought it was a manageable situation until they learned the monsters were slimes.

"I'll show you the location!"

On the other hand, his father and uncle fell silent when they learned that Emma had been injured by the water gun.

William pointed in the direction and they immediately ran off.

"Whoa! Father!!"

William was easily picked up along with the bags of salt and carried at full speed.

Urban and the other hunters followed.

"... What about Emma?"

His father spoke while running.

Being attacked by a slime meant being targeted as prey.

Being attacked by a slime meant there was no chance of survival.

Before he could think of what to say, he saw the cats.

"Why are there cats!? How did they get here?? ... Is that? Georg!? He's covered in blood!?"

Urban sped up when he saw Georg.

"That's Sister Emma's blood. The cats have provided first aid and stopped the bleeding."

"Is she... alive?"

His father's grip on William tightened.

They pushed through the cats to reach Emma.

Emma was leaning on Komei, her upper body covered in a purple glow.

"Father!!"

Georg called out, surprised.

"I'm late. What's the situation?"

Leonardo gently stroked Emma's head while asking Georg.

He thought she was sleeping, but Emma opened her eyes when her head was stroked.

Leonardo's expression showed a slight relief.

"Three slimes. The targets are me, Emma, and Prince Edward. Emma is injured in her upper right body from the water gun. The slimes' attacks are being blocked by the cats."

"Meow!"

Kan-chan greeted Leonardo after blowing the slimes away with wind pressure, but neither Leonardo, Urban, nor the palace hunters were in a position to greet them. They were confused about why the prince was a target. The prince, who was being warned off by the cats, was being protected by the Valeri hunters at a safe distance.

"William, what did you bring? How are you going to defeat the slimes?"

Time was precious... Georg asked, looking at the bags William and the Valeri hunters were carrying. Some of the men didn't know that the white paper bags contained salt.

"Defeat the slimes?"

Leonardo and Urban echoed Georg's surprise.

William explained Emma's plan.

"Huh? Salt?"

"Slimes, not slugs, slimes!"

"If that worked, it wouldn't be so difficult!"

The hunters voiced their objections.

"... Let's try it! Emma's plan can't be wrong!"

"Right!"

Leonardo's go-ahead was immediately followed by Urban's response.

The hunters, who had thought such a childish plan wouldn't work, suddenly remembered.

That's right. Our lord is extremely lenient with his daughter. And Urban is obsessed with his niece. Even in such a tense situation, they remain steadfast.

A warm atmosphere even permeated from the hunters.

"But, slimes are quick. They might escape before we can sprinkle this much salt!"

A Valeri hunter pointed out the difficulty of executing the plan.

Unless they were targeted as prey, slimes wouldn't attack unless provoked, but they were agile and wouldn't sit still to be salted.

"Hmm? What is it?"

Emma tugged on Leonardo's clothes.

She was pointing at Violet.

"Can Violet help?"

Emma nodded slightly.

Leonardo placed Violet, who was next to Emma, on his head and smiled.

"Huh? What? Huh? That's a big spider!"

The hunters, who didn't know about Violet, were at a loss for what to say. The lord, who had been pretending not to notice the overly large spider due to the emergency, now had it on his head, looking satisfied. It was a sight that made them question his sanity.

"Let's start with the smallest one."

He said, shouldering a large white paper bag of salt.

"Lord! Wait a minute!!"

Baboom.

Before the hunter could stop him, Leonardo disappeared in an instant.

As soon as they realized he was gone, they heard the sound of salt pouring from a distance.

"Whaaaaat!!"

Baboom.

Before the hunters could finish their shocked exclamations, Leonardo reappeared in front of them.

"Whaaaaat!!"

Again, the hunters exclaimed in shock.

Ignoring their shock, Leonardo disappeared again with a new bag of salt.

Baboom.

Baboom.

In less than 10 seconds, the three slimes were covered in a mound of salt.

The hunters were frozen, their mouths agape.

"Wow, I've never tried this before, but Violet is amazing!"

Leonardo smiled brightly, showing no signs of fatigue.

"You're the fastest, Father!"

"Violet's speed seems to increase with the person's physical abilities."

Georg and William ran to their father.

"Speed... but I feel like all my physical abilities have improved."

The hunters couldn't close their mouths.

"Meow?"

Kan-chan tilted her head.

The slimes had stopped attacking and were writhing on the ground, covered in salt.

"Huh? The slimes are acting strange!"

"This might work!"

The hunters, who had been frozen with their mouths open, turned their heads awkwardly towards the slimes at Georg and William's words.

"Whaaat!?"

Again, they exclaimed in shock. Their mouths remained open.

The slimes were suffering.

It was a sight no one in this world had ever seen.

In a few minutes, the slimes stopped moving and seemed to have melted away in the salt.

"... Did we really defeat them? The slimes?"

"Salt? ... Salt?"

"No, slimes? Huh?"

"R-really?"

The hunters, finally able to speak, rubbed their eyes and foreheads.

Kan-chan went to the pile of salt near one of the slimes and sniffed it.

"Meow?"

She pawed at the pile of salt, and something got caught on her claws.

Georg and Leonardo approached to see what was caught.

"... Saran wrap?"

Leonardo muttered.

"I thought the same thing."

It looked like the thin, transparent Saran wrap from his previous world. The other two slimes were also wrapped in Saran wrap.

Slimes, which should have melted upon contact, did not melt in this state.

They were less sticky than Saran wrap.

The thin, transparent material was hard to believe had been a deadly monster just moments ago.

"Is that it? Just slimes?"

Then, William ran over.

"Sister Emma said that if they absorb water, they might come back to life, so we should roll them up and put them back in the hole now!"

"Huh? What? Scary."

Georg quickly crumpled the slime wrap and stuffed it into the hole.

After rolling up all three and stuffing them in, they covered the hole with salt to prevent them from coming out.

The local hazard barrier, a disaster that could destroy a country, was thus brought to an end.