Translated by iseuli
Elkiesel unsheathed the sword that he always carried. The dark knight swung his great sword to chop down the tree which Elkiesel jumped onto. Elkiesel jumped down to the ground with ease and landed with a light step.
“El!”
Bouncy worried while jumping left and right on top of the tree branch.
Elves were generally lightweight and landing from dozens of meters up in the air was as simple as breathing. However, she never witnessed Elkiesel fighting in actual battle so there was no way that she could know.
Bouncy had horrible vision as a slime, and so it was difficult to tell whether Elkiesel was winning or losing the battle. All she could see was random sparks of blinding light, and at other times, the air around the two would suddenly fall into darkness.
“El! Master! Master!”
Bouncy called for her master with all her might.
At the same time inside the lair, a group of angry dragons have mobbed and surrounded Kalgilm. Kalgilm seriously contemplated about going into hibernation once again. However, this was their chance to spill all their complaints that they had kept bottled up for the last 200 years.
“Kalgilm, there is a place called the Alvap Kingdom near your territory which fell to ruins as a result of war against the empire. So, I had to stir up an earthquake to stop the refugees from invading into your territory. I went through so much trouble for your sake, do you know that? Did you feel the ground shake at all during your nap?”
“Hey, aren’t you too much? Yes, your territory is only 162 km away from mine… but, why must I be the one to handle all the fight that breaks out in your own territory.
“It’s fun adventuring in your territory, but it’s frustrating because I’ve been stuck there for more than 200 years. I don’t want to be in your territory a moment longer. I haven’t been able to visit even one of the thirty different kingdoms that newly formed in my own territory.”
Kalgilm had summoned a pair of earplugs on by this time.
‘Why are they all here? I just want to peacefully play with Bouncy.”
If the group of uninvited dragons could read Kalgilm’s mind, they would send him to the afterlife for eternal rest with their dragonbreath without a moment of hesitation.
The dragons of this world were considered the police of this world. Each police must patrol their designated area. If even one dragon couldn’t do their job properly, the others had additional area to patrol than usual.
There was a term for people like Kalgilm in Bouncy’s world.
Free riders.
They are most commonly found during college group projects.
The dragons were the ones to intervene when wars broke out amongst the demon and holy races of the world.
The dragons had a duty to maintain the peace and prevent invasions between all the different demonic and holy races of the world. The dragons adventured to learn the ways of the world so that they could prevent the formation of powerful demon kings and deities while the seeds were still young.
Kalgilm had been a homebody in his lair for the past 3000 years, that meant that the other dragons had to work twice as hard all those 3000 years. There were dragons who planned to go into hibernation once Kalgilm awakened, and others wanted to return to their own adventures.
Whatever their plans, there was one single condition which must be fulfilled before their plans could begin.
Kalgilm must properly start doing his duties.
In Kalgilm’s case, now that he slept for 200 years, he planned to spend his time inside his lair and stroll around outside and roll in the gra.s.s together with Bouncy. It was fine for a slime to continue to play, but they couldn’t endure Kalgilm being a homebody for a moment longer.
“As a dragon, you have the responsibility to fulfill your duty.”
“You can play with your slime any time you want.”
“Sleeping is to recover your strength, it’s not for the sake of wasting time.”
“Kalgilm, if you don’t do anything this time around, we’ll officially stop considering you a dragon and start calling you a gra.s.shopper.”
Just as Kalgilm was about to lose his temper, he heard the voice of his savior, Bouncy.
“MASTER, MASTER!”
He could telepathically hear the urgency in Bouncy’s voice, and so he got up resolutely.
“Something has happened in my territory. We’ll continue talking next time.”
The dragons staggered back when fire dared to burst together with Kalgilm’s temper.
***
The main difference between this current world and her last world, was that fantasy creatures such as Dragons existed. She was also one of the many fantasy creatures- a slime. In her past world, she could only find them in manhwas and games.
In this world, ghosts were a real existence, and categorized as monsters. The dark knight had died with a regretful heart and made a contract with the demonic forces of this world, and was revived as a ghost. The dark knight’s physical body had rotted and disappeared, however, it continued to maliciously haunt the world to relieve its regrets.
Bouncy wondered if she would be able to see actual ghosts from this world. She thought since dragons and dark elves were real, ghosts would also most likely be a real existence. Would they be scary like they had been on Earth, she questioned.
As a slime, she had no heart, she never felt her heart race of fright, nor ever felt she would die of heart attacks. She felt that she would never be scared of a ghost in this life. But her a.s.sumptions couldn’t have been more wrong, because they were very scary!
She remained at the top of the tree, trembling in fear. She couldn’t even properly see the bottom from on top of this tree, where Elkiesel and the dark knight were fighting.
Though this dark knight was a ghost, he was a knight, so she a.s.sumed the dark knight wouldn’t be scary like the ghosts of her past world. However upon closer examination, this dark knight had long snake like hair that seemed to move like snakes, like the ghosts of her past life.
The two battled with eye blinding speed, the only thing she could see is the ghosts long gastly hair moving and flying about. She worried for Elkiesel who had to fight against it.
If Elkiesel were to die, then she would be left alone with her lazy master. Even if Kalgilm didn’t have Elkiesel for his lair guardian, all he would need to do is find another elf, but it was not the case for her. Elkiesel would become selfish from time to time, but overall he was a very good elf.
She was most worried that Kagilm might adopt one of the many minotaurs for his new lair guardian from around the lair vicinity, or maybe he might take up a lizardman who are carnivorous, then she would always see chopped up orc limbs strewn about the lairt.
She wondered if there would ever be another caretaker kinder than Elkiesel who always went out of his way to pick morning dew lilies for her sake.
She only knew how to bounce around so whenever Kalgilm called for her, she did her best to bounce to him as fast as possible.
“Master, master!”
Master!
Her shout echoed back to her. That lazy dragon! He is really unhelpful at these times, she thought. He should appear quickly in these dangerous times. Her movement was greatly limited because she could easily fall from the branch, but as she moved back and forth, she discovered one strange aspect.
The dark knight and Elkiesel’s positions in battle remained the same without chance. In the fencing compet.i.tions she watched in her past life, the two opponents would turn about and end up changing sides as they fervently fought against one another.
The dark knight is a knight. Knights served masters, and protected their masters. Could the red haired young girl be the dark knight’s master?
Elkiesel had also noticed the dark knight’s strange behavior. Gradually, the dark knight’s speed dropped to a rate which she could easily follow even with her horrible eyesight. When Elkiesel attempted to draw nearer to the female, the dark knight would let out a horrible shriek and block Elkiesel.
Bouncy stuck herself to the tree trunk like glue, and slowly crawled down to the ground. When she arrived to the ground again, Elkiesel and the dark knight were still fighting against one another. The two didn’t notice the slime rolling on the ground and she was able to sneak to where the girl laid.
When she neared around 3 meters to the red haired woman’s vicinity, the dark night let out another shriek.
“KAAAAA!”
The dark knight gave up fighting against Elkiesel and turned to attack the slime.
“El, El!”
Frightened, she darted over to Elkiesel’s location. Just as the dark knight swung his giant sword to kill Bouncy, Elkiesel was able to secure her back to safety.
“I told you to stay up on top.” Elkiesel said sternly and threw her onto his shoulder.
“El. Boundary. Boundary.” She proudly told her findings to Elkiesel.
“Did you notice?”
“Pu-Ring. El, know?”
“Yes, I noticed as well.”
Elkiesel observed the dark knight who stood in standby position. The dark knight stood protective of the red haired female and glared at the two with burning red eyes.
It seemed the dark knight would only open to attack if they stepped into a certain range of the red headed girl. The red haired female must have been hold a secret of some sort.
There had to be.
The dark knight remained firmly in place with resolution as it protected the mysterious girl.
A moment ago, Bouncy was too scared to have a proper look at the dark knight’s appearance. Only now did she properly observe the dark knight.
The dark knight didn’t resemble a korean virgin ghost at all. He looked dreadfully gloomy with his messy long hair, but his hair was curly. The place where his eyes should be were hallow and dark, while his face appeared pale like he was covered in white powder.
Half of the dark knights armor was broken, and something smokey constantly fumed out from the inside. The sword he wielded appeared very worn out and resembled an old saw rather than a proper blade due to the chips and damage through the years.
“It seems he has a level of intelligence. How unique.”
Elkiesel returned his sword back into the sheath at his hips.
“El.”
She slowly climbed off of Elkiesel’s shoulder.
A knight who protects his master.
It was so romantic.
She no longer felt fear of the dark knight who stood all alone to protect the girl who appeared like she was sleeping. She bounced her body and stretched her body to make a hole in the middle, and formed herself into a heart shape.
She made her whole body into a solid figure. Another one of a slime’s specialties was their ability to freely form into any shape.
“Love? I wonder.”
Elkiesel crouched a bit and pet Bouncy’s head. She felt happy and returned to her usual circular blob shape.
“I was born from the world tree, family descendant of Adalle, I am Elkiesel. Knight of the Adarune Mountain Kingdom. A familiar of the black dragon, Kalgilm. Bouncy’s friend. I live with honor. All my promises are bound by blood. I shall ask you as a fellow knight, does your sword exist for your master? If you wield your sword to protect your pledge, we shall respect your wishes.”
Elkiesel calmly said to the dark knight.
The dark knight didn’t let out a shriek, instead the metal of its armor clanked. Bouncy couldn’t understand what the knight was trying to say. However, it seems Elkiesel could understand.
“I am the knight of the Empress. I am the sole protector of the Karzan Empire royal highness.”