Cherry & Lime

A couple days after returning to the castle is when we finally met with the king again. Unlike the last time, the queen was there from the start. They both seemed serious, though not grave like last time.

Once the four of us had settled, Shora spoke first, “Hello again, all of you.”

We all replied with our own greetings. Though there wasn’t the tension from last time, sitting with royalty was still awkward and nerve-wracking for us.

“Mirst has told us that everything is ready, and that Incori will finally have a chance to actually live,” she said, though with a sad smile.

“There’s one major problem with that, though,” Ellecor said. “As the law currently stands, all children eligible to inherit the throne must be at least half flame tiefling.

“We mentioned last time that we’re working on changing such laws, but currently, no one would accept a slime child as potential royalty.”

Shora picked up from there, “We also can’t say that she’s an adopted child. As a potential heir, there would need to be documentation and history of where she came from and what she’s like.

“And that’s not something we can fabricate, either. We could provide a false paper trail and pay people to give false testimonies, but there are so many variables that it would fall apart in an instant.”

She sighed. “Simply put, she is absolutely our child, but no one will accept her as such. We’ve even considered saying that she was never able to debut due to medical reasons, but after becoming a slime, she could finally do so.

“The problem there is that people would need to know what she had and why that treatment was necessary. Eventually, it will probably get out that becoming a slime is a treatment for people in her situation, and the social stigma would be immense.”

Ellecor sighed this time. “She won’t have a way to live with us without being heavily judged in every regard, even more than people already do.”

“So you brought us here to help find a solution?” Jade asked.

Her desire to help Incori is overriding her discomfort, apparently.

“We’ve come up with a potential solution. Shora and I had discussed how our daughter might be able to live, should we ever find a solution. And when we heard about you, we discussed what would happen should she become a slime.

“After your arrival, we decided to keep an eye on the four of you. Not as a matter of suspicion, but because… she’ll finally be able to see and interact with the outside world. …But we can’t be the ones to do it.”

“What…? There must be some way, right? Shora, what about making your fake travels be real ones?” Jade asked.

“That won’t work,” she sadly replied. “As it is, my near-constant traveling has become a matter of concern for the court, and even the commoners.

“They fear that I’m too lost in grief, or not mentally sound enough to be here. And while I’d be completely willing to give up my position here for her, this country has only had one ruler for long enough that it’s begun to cause great unrest.

“Any longer, and Ellecor will be required to marry someone else and have a child with whomever that may be. And though our marriage was a political one, it is also a loving one.

“Being so far away and unable to see him again, as well as knowing that he had to marry someone else, would be unbearable for the both of us.”

“Yes,” Ellecor agreed. “We’ve discussed this a great deal, and we’ve come up with a few potential plans, but the most promising one, we think, is that she travels with the four of you until such time as this country is willing to accept her.”

What!?

Before any of us could say anything, Shora continued, “We will work tirelessly so that she can one day come home and not have to hide who she is.

“We can’t keep her in the castle because of the political situations she would have to deal with, and we can’t keep her in the villa, which is like a prison to her. After her transformation, keeping her there would be like telling her she’s free to go while chaining her down.”

“That doesn’t mean we’ll never speak to her,” Ellecor said. “We’ll give a long-range communication device to one of you, as well as to her.

We’ll schedule times when we can talk.

“She’s been stuck in one place for so long, dreaming about seeing the world, and with you, she would finally be able to.”

“Why us?” I asked. “Surely there’s someone you would trust with your daughter more than a group of questers?”

He shook his head. “Not many know about her, and of those that do, they each have lives here that they would refuse to uproot to travel around with a princess.

“Finding someone trustworthy and capable and telling them to travel around with our daughter, should we reveal that fact to them, is virtually impossible.

“Additionally,” he looked at Jade. “The only other slime girl in the world, one with a similar past, would be with her. That counts for a great deal.”

“She’s been asking about you every single day, you know,” Shora said with a chuckle. “We didn’t bring you back to the villa due to the frequent travel it would require, and we also didn’t tell you of this idea of ours because we wanted to judge your character when you were at your most relaxed and unaware of where you are, nor what we were considering.”

Ellecor spoke again. “Now, all four of you will go to the villa tomorrow, and Incori will finally receive something she’s always needed.

“I want you, as a group, to spend time with her. And we also want you to stay for at least a week. If, at the end of that time, none of you would mind traveling with her, nor she with you, then we’ll talk about your future in regarding.

“We also won’t ask that you stop questing, either. But you will have to train her to fight, only take quests she would be capable of participating in, keep us updated, and above all, she would have to want to do it.

“She’d probably be okay with anything if it means seeing the world, but you’ll have to teach her to follow her own wants and needs as well.

“Alternatively, we could simply transfer money to your accounts on a regular basis so that you could travel without working.

“Another reason we’ve decided we would be okay with you taking her is that each of you is combat-capable. If you do decide to travel with her, I will have all of you spend time training with people we’ve chosen, and also make sure all your equipment and supplies are in good condition.”

“So, that’s it,” Shora said. “While we are asking that you spend a week with her, we actually want a decision by the end of the month at the latest.

“If you decide to leave without her, then you will simply be paid for your time here and participation in helping her, and there will be no further contact from then onward.

“If you decide the opposite, then we will also make sure none of you are short on money for as long as she is traveling with you. We would also be deeply indebted to you.”

“What else would you be expecting of us?” I asked. “Would we be expected to teach her specific things, travel to predetermined locations, limit her activity and who she could or couldn’t interact with, those sorts of things?”

“To an extent, yes. Even commoner children are educated beyond the age of 10. We wouldn’t tell you which countries or cities you have to go to, though there are some places I would have you avoid due to the situations there.

“As for limiting her activity, she should be allowed to do the normal things any child would. While out in the world, she would not be allowed to mention that she is a princess, though. People wouldn’t believe her right now, but because we’re expecting more slime people in the future, there might be someone who connects the dots.

“As for questing, there are a fair amount of questers her age, though they are only allowed to quest with an adult present. As she would be with the four of you, that would be fine.

“I’ve also been thinking that because she will also be a slime person, she should pass herself off as Jade’s niece. You would say that she had had to leave home due to a bad situation, so she ended up with you, her aunt. It’s simple, believable and true enough that few people would bother asking further questions.”

We spent a long time after that going over all the details of what traveling with Incori would be like, and were reminded that we could decide after the week spent with her was over.

And if we had any further questions or needed any clarifications after today, we could easily talk with Shora about anything we wanted to know, since she would also be at the villa with us.

When we returned to our room afterward, we discussed whether or not any of us were outright against it. To my surprise, none of us were.

That didn’t mean that we had already made up our minds to bring her with us. Rather, it only meant that we hadn’t already decided that we absolutely won’t.

As the night ended, Jade was so excited about helping Incori that she had difficulty falling asleep. As cute as it was, I needed to get some rest. I clamped my arms around her so she would stop squirming around in the bed so much.