Matthew was in the back garden of the orphanage. Marsha, one of his many siblings with whom he shared no blood relation, had caught a mouse and taught it tricks.

“Oswald, sit! Lie down!” Marsha said to the very ordinary mouse in her palm.

It simply stared up at her, not listening.

“Good boy. Here’s your reward,” she said, giving it some breadcrumbs.

The mouse immediately stood on its hind legs, took the crumbs with its front paws and began eating hungrily.

“Marsha, this mouse just wants to eat. You definitely haven’t tamed it,” said Matthew in an exasperated tone.

Marsha puffed up her cheeks. “That’s not true! Oswald likes me more than your bat likes you, Matthew-niichan!”

“M-my Nightwing likes me too! He never flies away from me even when I lift it up!”

“He’s still a baby, so he can’t, can he! He’ll definitely fly away once he grows up!”

“That’s not true! He ate food out of my hand earlier today!”

Marsha’s mouse was named Oswald, and Matthew had a young bat named Nightwing.

The reason that Matthew and Marsha were trying to tame animals was because Tamers were currently very popular among the children in the orphanage.

The reason for this popularity was Vandalieu’s visits to the orphanage to make donations, during which he had been accompanied by Fang, Maroru, Urumi and Suruga.

Despite the fact that it was winter and not many animals were around, the children had found small animals that might be good pets and were trying to tame them.

Some, like Marsha, caught mice while others, like Matthew, caught baby bats that had been abandoned in the attic… Once spring came, it was likely that the children would be trying to take the frogs and snakes that came out of hibernation.

This was because the orphanage’s food situation had improved to the point that there was not only enough food for the orphans, but enough to feed the small animals as well.

Vandalieu, the cause of this taming trend, was dealing with it appropriately. He had told the children to show him any animals they had caught. This was so that he could cast the ‘Sterilization,’ ‘Disinfect’ and ‘Bug Killer’ spells to prevent the children from catching any diseases from the mice and bats.

“Hey, don’t fight,” said the nun Seris as she entered the back garden, having noticed their argument.

“But Seris-oneechan, Matthew-niichan’s…!” Marsha whined.

“Marsha told me I haven’t tamed Nightwing!” Matthew complained.

“Marsha, Oswald will be bothered if you talk so loudly,” said Seris. “Matthew, that bat is still just a child, so don’t rush things and raise it patiently until it grows up… and I think you could give it a more normal name,” she added. “Go inside, now. You’ll catch a cold – Huh?”

Right before Seris’s very eyes, a group of masked men leapt nimbly over the walls and dropped into the courtyard.

“Come quietly – Wait, what?” said one of the masked men – the earl’s spies.

Seris, Marsha and Matthew stood completely still, staring at them. The spies froze as they realized that they were the only ones there.

They were supposed to be capturing Aggar and his companions, but where in the world had they gone?

Seris let out a scream. “What are you, kidnappers?! Thieves?!” she shouted at the spies.

The spies came to their senses and realized that they were holding their weapons and the ropes for tying up Aggar and his companions; they looked like kidnappers or thieves themselves.

“P-please don’t harm the children!” Seris begged the spies.

“Fall back! Retreat!” one of the spies shouted.

Marsha let out a terrified scream as well.

“Damn you! Take this!” shouted Matthew, throwing stones at the spies.

Vestra, having heard the screams, came running. “What’s the matter?! What happened?!”

The spies fled the scene with great haste. They succeeded in leaping over the walls once more, but their minds were greatly shaken.

Just where had Aggar and his friends disappeared to?

There was snow in the courtyard. But Aggar and his friends’ footprints weren’t in the snow… Where the hell did they go?! Did they fly away or vanish like mist?! the captain of the spies wondered, bewildered. But… how do we report this blunder to the earl?

Having entered the courtyard of the orphanage through the back door, Aggar and his companions crept behind the boy and the girl, the first two children that they would be kidnapping. They intended to put cloth bags over their heads from behind, cover their mouths through the cloth and carry them out.

But the Elf girl with long, silver hair quietly stood up.

“… You have crossed the line,” she said in a flat tone as she turned around to face the would-be kidnappers.

“It really is an Elf. Since when was there an Elf orphan here… Wait, Elves develop more slowly after they reach the age of ten. Are you one of the nuns?” one of Aggar’s companions asked, confused by the appearance of an Elf girl that had not been a part of their plans.

This orphanage was privately managed, and it was located in the slums. Aggar and his companions were city guards, and it was difficult to say that they were dedicated to their jobs. They were not particularly thorough when patrolling the slums, and there was no way that they would know the races and names of the orphans and nuns at the orphanage.

“Don’t bother talking to her, you fool! Who cares if she’s an orphan or one of the nuns, hurry up and kidnap her!” Aggar shouted quietly, displaying a surprising amount of caution.

His companions began moving forward again.

Since they had already been noticed, they took knives from their pockets, intending to threaten the children to capture them.

“If you scream or make any noise, I’m going to stick this knife in your belly. Hey, stand up already, you brat!” one of Aggar’s companions shouted as he forcefully reached out at the shoulder of the boy, who was still crouching and facing the other way.

But as his fingers touched the boy’s old, patch-covered jacket, they silently slipped right into it.

“Huh…?” he uttered, bewildered.

With a bubbling noise, what the man had thought was a boy of about ten years of age turned into a red-black fluid that began to suck the man in.

The man let out a scream. “W-what the hell is this?! H-help me!”

“I-it’s a Slime, a Mimic Slime that disguised itself as a brat! If we don’t help him quickly, it’s gonna dissolve and eat him!” one of Aggar’s other companions shouted.

The bubbling noise grew louder.

Kühl, the Satan Blood Mimic Slime that had disguised itself as a boy, let out a groan that made no attempt to conceal his discontent.

He had a refined taste; he didn’t want these people’s disgusting meat.

He was not trying to pull the man in to eat him, but to capture him.

“Shit, I should have brought my spear!” Aggar cursed.

The man being pulled in began gurgling as his face went under Kühl’s surface.

“Hurry up and find the core! He’s going to suffocate before he gets eaten!” one of the other men shouted.

All of them were repeatedly trying to stab Kühl with their knives, and this may have worked against an ordinary Rank 2 Slime, but Kühl was a Rank 11 Satan Blood Mimic Slime. Stabs with small knives by Aggar and his companions, who were just ordinary guards in terms of strength, wouldn’t harm him even if they aimed at his core.

“Shit! Oi, you’re the one who tamed this Slime, right?! Make it stop!” Aggar shouted, giving up on freeing his companion and pointing his knife towards the girl instead. “If you don’t –”

“I see. You intend to challenge me… Very well. It is too late to say that you are reckless and foolhardy,” said Gufadgarn, the evil god who resided in a vessel that had the form of an Elf girl, as she directed a cold gaze at Aggar.

“