Belial was finally subjugated to our legion.

Her two daughters were synthesized with Slime Dragon Units 1 and 2, becoming beings called Slamia, equivalent to ★★★★.

"From now on I’ll serve with all my heart."

"So please take good care of our father, or rather, our mother."

I bestowed new names upon the two Slamia who now fell under Lime’s command. For ordinary slimes I’d just call them Unit 1 and Unit 2, but since they had become persons with personalities, they needed special names.

"You, synthesized with Unit 1, I’ll call Clian. You, synthesized with Unit 2, I’ll call Nifran."

At the same time, I reorganized the slime unit around Clian and Nifran.

By temporarily taking Belial as a subordinate, I gained the ability to summon her species, naga, through magic stones, and by synthesizing naga with slime dragons, ten Slamia could be created.

"Do you two not hate me?"

I asked again to confirm, with the two who knew everything. It was a cruel question, but I had no choice but to ask.

"In truth, we are beings who could have died long ago without it being strange. Since we’ve been reborn under you, master, we simply trust and follow you."

"So there’s no way we could hate you. On top of letting us live like this, you’ve made it possible for us to be reborn as stronger beings."

"No, that’s not what I meant."

"Mother, please don’t worry about Lady Belial. Depending on how we do, you might bring her back to life too, right?"

"Until then, we’ll live serving Lady Lime as our mother."

The two naga women resolved to follow Lime, the one who had devoured Belial. Lime, with a troubled expression on a face that looked nothing like Belial’s but rather a blend of the witches May and Meri, scratched her cheek.

"Master, my kids keep multiplying."

"It’s fate. They’re drawn to your overwhelming maternal aura."

"So this is fate."

After devouring Belial, Lime had evolved from the three-star Slimahole into the four-star Slabdoll, and she’d developed vocal organs. She no longer needed her gurgling sounds translated to express her thoughts.

[Slabdoll: A form one step further evolved from Slimahole.]

Lime, who had once been just an ordinary slimefolk, had evolved into a Slimahole. And now she had evolved into an entity called Slabdoll.

"Slimahole... Slabdoll... I’m starting to harbor some reasonable suspicions."

I shivered at the naming, which seemed to have evolved from the role of a simple onahole into that of a love doll. Was the newly opened path for Slimahole truly not the path of King Slime or God Slime, but the path of Sex Slime?

"Lime, you’re at full-on love doll level now, you know?"

"I don’t know what that is, but is it a good thing?"

"Of course. Your skin looks completely human now."

I pulled at her springy slime skin and was startled. Her appearance was a half-and-half blend of the witch mother and daughter Lime had devoured, looking similar to Meri, and her body color, which had been purely red during her three-star days, had completely changed.

Just like a human. Just to be sure, I checked the sensation down below, and disappointingly, that part was still slime.

"You’re not becoming an increasingly sexually specialized slime, are you? Lime, does Slabdoll come with any special functions?"

"Yep. Master, I can do this."

Lime reached a hand into her own body. Before long, her enormous breasts shrank and she transformed into a woman with sharp, irritated-looking eyes. The springy slime skin that didn’t change no matter how her body shifted proved she was still Lime.

"Belial?"

"I can transform into the body of those I’ve eaten."

"Good lord."

I rushed over to Lime and spread her legs apart. As if expecting it, Lime raised one leg.

Squelch.

It wasn’t a thrust for pleasure. It was just for confirming the shape. And I got goosebumps.

"It’s identical!"

"It seems to match how she was when I ate her. Right now I can only do my original form and this one."

"Ahh, so this is what they call shape-memory pussy!"

The ability of Lime, evolved into Slabdoll, was exactly what I needed most.

From now on, I wouldn’t have to regret being unable to kill anyone. As long as I had Lime eat them, it was like having an all-you-can-eat buffet I could pull from anytime.

"Lime. Can you also live exactly like the person you ate? Like, do their memories carry over?"

"Impossible. Just the physical form matches."

"What if you eat a fighter? Like, if I have you eat a knight commander, will you get their combat skill too?"

"Only the form."

"I see. Even that’s more than enough."

With a new ability like transformation, all kinds of innovative play would be possible. Not just play, but tactically extraordinary maneuvers too.

"I was already happy just being able to talk to you like this, and now you have an ability like that too. Heh heh, from now on I can just feed you anything that’s neither useful nor worth keeping."

"Slamia too. I could eat them and become identical."

"No, don’t worry. The only slime I’ll happily fuck and let clean my cock is you alone."

"...Gurgle."

Lime deliberately made the sound as she nestled into me. The texture was still springy jelly, but Belial, having been eaten by Lime, was looking up at me with a sweet smile, which was a bit unsettling.

"...Anyway, Lime, thanks to your new ability, one possibility has opened up. Thank you."

"What possibility?"

"A very special possibility. Yes, if we play it right, we might be able to swallow an entire barony whole. Heh heh, Lime."

I scooped Lime up.

"Let’s go see Meri and Line. Tonight."

At the mention of meeting her two daughters, Lime pushed her face up toward mine. I was overwhelmed by the aggressive kiss of Lime, who was human and yet still slime.

Glug, glug.

Lime pushed her viscous fluid into my mouth and licked and sucked at my tongue as if violating it.

She really was earning her four-star evolution.

***

[At that hour, Spica Castle.]

"Are the enemy’s movements still the same?"

"Yes, the enemy is still only defending the castle. At Zabiyaba, what appears to be an outer wall, another wooden palisade, has been added. Breaking through with a cavalry charge would be difficult."

"We’ll have to leave Zabiyaba alone then. Has the organization of the adventurers been completed?"

"Yes. Total: 1,204. Among them is a famous A-rank mercenary..."

"Just give me the average combat power."

"You can think of them as 1,200 B-ranks. With this much force, they could perform admirably on the front against the Demon King’s Army, and they should be able to capture any moderately sized dungeon."

"Any moderately sized dungeon, you say..."

The Knight Commander combined the reports coming in from all directions to pinpoint the location of the enemy dungeon.

"It seems a dungeon has been laid right next to the Elven Forest. That’s why the barony was slow to detect them and got struck first."

"The Elven Forest, sir?"

"Yes. Considering the direction the enemy advanced from when Zabiyaba was captured, along with various other intel, their dungeon is near the Elven Forest."

The Knight Commander marked three spots on the forest map with red dots. Gray, who had ended up attending the meeting, broke out in goosebumps at the position of one of the dots.

That spot was the entrance to Ras Village.

"Commander. So we’ll be assaulting the enemy dungeon directly?"

"That’s right. Waging siege warfare against a cowardly enemy who’s holed up behind walls would be far too exhausting. Even if we retake it, we’d have to immediately turn around and defend it. Who knows what they’ve done to Zabiyaba."

The Knight Commander moved the wooden soldier figurines on the map, plotting the army’s march route. Gray got goosebumps at that route.

"This is...?"

"It doubles as a provocation against the enemy. What do you think? With this, will the enemy holed up so tightly come out?"

"...Since they’re monsters, I don’t know how they’ll react. To begin with, monsters who’ve captured a human city are a first, aren’t they?"

Gray did his best to deflect the Knight Commander’s question. At Gray’s offhand answer, the Knight Commander clicked his tongue and pointed at Ras Vegas, Zabiyaba.

"Look here. We go around through this area like this. So when the orcs watching from the palisade get furious and come rushing out, what should we do?"

"We chase them and immediately begin a siege?"

"No. We only kill the ones hot-tempered enough to come charging out."

The Knight Commander kept his soldier figurines, helmeted with the Goddess Church’s banner, in close formation without spreading them out. The phalanx formed by twelve soldiers looked difficult to break through even as models.

"Dealing with the ones holed up in their dungeon is already a headache. Dealing with ones who’ve burrowed into the castle would be far worse. We kill the enemies who pop out."

"...Understood. I’ll relay that to the priests as well."

If Gray had taken on the role of the Knight Commander’s adjutant, then the priests the Knight Commander had brought along were taking on the role of centurions leading the adventurers. The barony didn’t have enough knights to each lead a unit of roughly 1,200 adventurers.

"Anything else you’d like to direct?"

"Yes. Sir Gray, one moment. Are you off to Avalon again? To meet with Lady Meri?"

Gray flinched. His movement, as he turned to slip away, froze in place. But befitting a scion of a high noble house, he made his excuse with elegant motions while paying his respects to the Knight Commander.

"...The Baron specifically instructed that management of Avalon be handled with special care."

"Yes, I know. I also know what kind of relationship the Baron has with Lady Meri."

"...Are you considering bringing the matter to trial?"

"Love between members of the same sex is taboo as decreed by the Church."

In reality, Meri was using the Baron, but the Baron and the Knight Commander believed it was the other way around.

"But... ease up that expression. Listen to the end. The Baron and Lady Meri aren’t doing what they’re doing because they truly love each other, are they? It’s merely a rehearsal, for the sake of a future beloved husband."

"...Sir?"

"Preserving one’s purity while honing one’s nightly arts for one’s husband. If it’s not love, I think it’s fine. Heh heh."

"...Is it really alright for the Commander of the Holy Knights to say something like that?"

Gray nearly fainted at the Knight Commander’s outrageous logic. But the Knight Commander only grinned and shrugged.

"What’s the harm? If one of them had been born a man, they’d be a perfectly matched couple who’d have already had a child. Heh heh."

"...Please keep it a secret from the others. The fact that the Baron frequents Avalon at night is a secret."

No one knew that the Baron all but lived at Avalon at night. It was an open secret, but at least on the surface, the territory’s citizens viewed favorably the Baron staying at Avalon.

"Hoho, every noble dreams of attracting an outstanding company to their territory. Don’t worry. Who would dare look at the Baron with such suspicious eyes? Watching the Baron travel about with Lady Meri at her side on every inspection, people will think, ’Our Baron is working so hard to bring Lady Meri on as a vassal.’ Heh heh."

"...I hope they think that."

"Don’t be so tense. What was meant as a joke turned into this. The reason I brought up Avalon is that I have a favor to ask of Lady Meri. I’d like you to convey it on my behalf."

"A favor?"

What could a Knight Commander possibly need to ask of Meri?

"Ahem, well, the thing is."

The Knight Commander’s face flushed as she revealed one leg beside the desk. At her ankle was a color all too familiar to Gray. Black.

"That... this stocking, you see. Could I possibly get a few more?"

"...Did it tear?"

The moment Gray said it, he winced. The Knight Commander’s expression hardened for a moment, then she snorted and waved her hand.

"It’s not what you’re thinking, so don’t get any strange ideas. That’s sexual harassment."

"Commander, what are you imagining?"

With a grim face, Gray lifted his pant leg. There, the stockings had a snag, and the calf area was slightly torn.

"Where on earth did you... huh? Commander, now you’re the one harassing me..."

"No! It’s nothing like that!"

The Knight Commander flushed red and shouted.

"I was just testing how durable they were by pulling with my hands and they tore! Sure, that area tore pretty easily! How could I make such a vulgar joke to someone from the Cancer family?!"

"R-right? Haha, my apologies."

"Ahem. It was my mistake, so let’s not dwell on it any longer. It’s embarrassing for both of us."

Once the brief commotion stirred up by lewd demons subsided, the Knight Commander lifted the stocking with a serious voice and spoke.

"They said it’s made by spinning thread from monster fur. Whatever the original purpose, the defensive power is definitely above that of decent leather armor. In that vein..."

The Knight Commander lowered her voice as though sharing a secret.

"What if we made the upper portion as inner armor in the same style? Instead of cutting and sewing pieces together like now, what if we just produced it whole..."

"It exists. Something like that."

"Really?!"

"Yes. I asked about something similar before, and I heard they just hadn’t been able to import it from far away yet."

Gray’s eyes shone as he continued.

"I’d love to bring some in, but because of the dungeon..."

"Then we’ll have to conquer the dungeon as quickly as possible!"

The Knight Commander slammed her palm on the table and stood up.

"Sir Gray! How’s the subjugation force formation?"

"All that remains is organizing the reserves."

"Is that so? Then I understand. You may go."

The Knight Commander sent Gray off. Left alone in the room, the Knight Commander sat back down and buried her face in the desk.

"I want to see the Saintess in stockings and a matching top that clings tight to her too. Heh heh."

The Knight Commander flinched at the direction her finger had unconsciously moved.

"...I can’t tear them again. Ahem."