Slimes Can Dream Too! - Chapter 12

“Bouncy.”

Elkiesel answered her place.

“Not her nickname. The name that the honorable black dragon bestowed.”

“Bouncy.”

“No, I mean…”

“Stop asking me the same thing. Bouncy is Bouncy.” Elkiesel shot back.

The dragons sneaking glances over at the two, suddenly stared at Bouncy. A mean looking lizard man smiled showing off his sharp canines.

“Though it’s a slime, the weakest of all monsters, it is still a dragon’s familiar. How can this slime’s name be Bouncy? Kalgilm is too much. If naming it was too troublesome, he should have at least named it Slime.”

What’s wrong with my name, Bouncy? It’s not a pretty name like Elizabeth Maria or Diana, but he properly took my characteristic into consideration while naming me. The name is a little plain, but it’s irritating for others to look down on my name. It’s my name, what’s that got to do with them?

“Slimes are only good for cleaning so it’s not necessary to bestow a grand name. It’s strange to name a rag Catalina or Andromeda. Do you consider this slime to be in the same level as us? I don’t understand.”

A werewolf with smooth glossy fur said while observing the slime. He was looking down on the slime.

“Kalgilm is a bit strange. If not him, who else would want such a familiar like that thing? Even human magicians don’t have any consideration for them.”

I’m a scrubber slime, but I’m not a rag! It’s okay to say bad things to me, but I won’t forgive them for saying bad things about master! There are not better scrubber slimes than me in this world! I’m amazing!

Suddenly she felt a bit sad.

It’s been 200 years since she was alive, but all that time she remained in this lair and didn’t know anything about the outside world other than NeAffronti. NeAffronti treated her with kindness, so she assumed all others would treat her the same way. Anyway, a slime who doesn’t have legs or arms wouldn’t receive much admiration to begin with.

“Are you asking for a fight?”

Fearsome mana flowed from Elkiesel’s body. She had forgotten about his true strength because he only showed his weak side in front of Kalgilm and the other dragons. Elkiesel was the strongest dark elf of the Oak Forest. He could easily suppress a werewolf with a snort.

The lizard man and werewolf shrunk in fear.

“Isn’t its name Bouncy because it’s a trivial existence?”

“Everything is trivial to the eyes of the dragon. It won’t even bother with such a thing like a name for the real tirival existences.”

Elkiesel hugged her tightly and went a bit further together with Harp. Today Elkiesel appeared very charismatic. Elkiesel stopped at a spot of fresh vegetation and let her down.

“Bouncy, don’t listen to them. Those were words from nobodies.”

“El. El.”

She bounced on top of Elkiesel’s knee and stuck herself against his stomach. Elkiesel used his large hands to gently hug. She rubbed herself against Elkiesel’s hand, and his expression appeared a degree happier. Seeing Elkiesel’s brighter appearance made her feel relaxed and her body flattened a bit.

Elkiesel placed his hand on the ground. Suddenly lots of —gypsophila—- flowers sprung and bloomed instantaneously. He braided the flowers into a crown and placed it on top of Bouncy’s head.

“The other dragons seem to have a lot of complaints toward Kalgilm.”

“It can’t be helped. He has his own territory which he should properly look over, but he has not been doing anything and pushing all his own work onto others for the last 3000 years. They were closing their eyes to his situation for the first thousand years because he was just a hatchling, but it’s been irritating to see him close himself off in his own lair for another 2000 years.”

Harporis sat next to Elkiesel and answered.

“He doesn’t even have such a big territory. He looks over the Adarune Mountain, Yuberune Kingdom for humans, the dwarves’ kingdom, and the fairies’ swamp is all.”

“To a dragon, 200 years is only a short nap, but to humans 200 years is enough for Kingdoms to fall and rise many times over. The Yuberune Kingdom already fell 40 years ago. It’s now called Karuzak Empire.”

“Karuzak Empire? Not a Kingdom?”

“It was the Karuzak Kingdom about 30 or 40 years ago. You should forget all of your memories from 200 years ago. A fearsome magic knight had been born in the Karuzak Empire. This person integrated all the neighboring Kingdoms and made it into an empire. There are rumors that the empire is the wings of the southern part of the continent, but who knows the reality of the situation now.”

“It’s a common sight to see humans fighting amongst themselves.”

“It’s a problem because they are starting to cause problems with the other races. The mages of the Karuzak Empire capture the elves and dwarves from the surrounding land and use them for live experiments. We received an SOS letter from the Garam Dwarves and Master Raikalot and I just visited Karuzak Empire.”

Elkiesel’s brows furrowed.

“Are they planning to go against the guidance of dragons?”

They were speaking of words which Bouncy could not understand, so she bit onto Elkiesel’s shirt and pulled on it.

“Guidance. What?”

“It is a rule that the different races should not interfere or fight against one another. It seems they didn’t read of what happened to the Alkan Empire.”

“Alkan?”

“Long ago, the Alkan Empire borrowed the demon lord’s strength to persecute the various races of the world. The red dragon, Raikalot, breathed fire onto the land and it’s now nothing but ash. The empire fell into ruin fourteen thousand years ago, so it’s not strange for humans to have forgotten about it by now. This world has been created from the dragon’s blood and corpse. The demons and holy creatures are all but a small portion of this world.”

How about me who was originally from Earth and traveled into this world? Am I also just an obsolete and insignificant life? Slimes are monsters so that could be the case.

She looked a bit sad, so Elkiesel fed her a flower.

“El?”

“You’re different. You received a name. There are more than a billion slimes in this world, but you’re the only slime with a name. Bouncy.”

Today Elkiesel was charismatic. Does that mean I’m not just a foreign substance since I’m a slime who remembers my past life. She nibbled on the flower that Elkiesel gave her.

“Elkiesel. I will convey that I like this slime and that its name Bouncy, is very fitting.” Harporis said seriously.

“It is the world’s bias that slimes are the lowest ranked creatures. Although Bouncy received its name from Kalgilm, others will look down on it because it is a slime. I feel they will only treat it with respect when Kalgilm decides to bestow a proper name to it. Don’t you also feel the name Bouncy was made with a light heart and on a whim?”

Elkiesel didn’t answer. This isn’t a name that had been thought of after a long period of thought. Elkiesel’s original name was Elkiesel, so our master bestowed him the name Elkiesel.

“It doesn’t need to be a grand name like Yecaterina. It will also be awkward for a slime to have a name like Napoleon. It just needs to be a name a degree nicer than Bouncy. I suggest you offer a good word to Kalgilm.”

***

Late afternoon when the sun was setting and cast an orange glow to the land.

A round slime sat on the green grassy plain enjoying the sunshine. A dark elf with short neat black hair happily watched the slime

The dark elf looked like an adventurer taking a short break, he was covered in black leather and his pointed ears had a silver ornament. He was a dark elf, but he was different because his skin was very pale white.

Dark elves used dark magic. They were different than other races living in this world because they used light magic. Their light magic caused their hair and skin to become very dark.

There is a unique breed of dark elves who have pale skin. They were the dark elves in the Oak Forest.

Just like the beauty of light and darkness, dark elves had superior natural beauty. Elkiesel lived in the darkest area of the forest where the morning sun couldn’t reach.

He had a mysterious beauty to him with gentle-looking eyes, however behind them hid a fearsome shadow. If the forest itself were to manifest into human form, it would probably turn into Elkiesel.

If a normal human girl were to see Elkiesel, they would be frozen in awe for several minutes in the presence of his beauty. Though to Bouncy, Elkiesel was just a weak and gentle, but tall giant.

‘A name, a name. Conveying this in a good way is not the problem, it’s just that Kalgilm didn’t listen to anyone to begin with. If he listened to others, the lair would not be in this state.’

Elkiesel watched the slime nibbling on a flower. The sun made the slime glisten in a gentle pastel pink light, it looked like a glass marble. Bouncy felt Elkiesel’s gaze and looked up while bouncing up and down like a puppy.

“Pu-ring. Pu-ring.”

Elkiesel patted Bouncy. Bouncy pounced against Elkiesel’s hand and rubbed her hand against him.

“Bouncy, do you like it?”

Bouncy didn’t answer and answered with a bright happy smile. Elkiesel thought her name, Bouncy, was very cute. Whenever he watched her bounce around, he thought there was no other more fitting name.

However, it was true that because of this name, the others viewed her in a very derogatory manner. Even if a dog were to hear that a dragon familiar’s name was Bouncy, it would roll around showing its belly and laugh.

From time to time, Elkiesel would think of different names that Bouncy could have. Such as Eselita which meant ‘starlight’, or Manek which mean ‘clarity.’ Some humans referred to slimes as water fairies, which sounded very pleasant.

He couldn’t override the name that a dragon bestowed upon Bouncy, so he had been calling her Bouncy all this time.

Elkiesel thought of the house that Kalgilm wanted to build, and his brows automatically furrowed.

‘He doesn’t know the first thing about slimes, I don’t understand how he feels he could properly build a slime house. If he really thought about Bouncy in his heart, he would bestow a new name. Everyone keeps laughing at her for her name, Bouncy.’

A dragon’s spiritual contract with a familiar had the strongest bond that could be created in this world. A familiar would receive powers simply by using their own name, so the name bestowed to them was very important.

‘He didn’t do anything for 200 years, and he’s trying to act like a master now.’