I blinked. Then I sighed. “Is this really the time for that?”
“Uh, oh, right. Sorry ’bout that.” Elvia smiled, a little embarrassed, and scratched her head. She really didn’t have much of a filter. I guess you could say she wore her heart on her sleeve in a big way.
“I’ll grant, if one of us had to get turned into a girl, better me then Shinichi-san,” I said, glancing at him. “He would probably be falling apart by now.” Then there were the clothes to consider—and the underwear. At least I was ready to go with appropriate attire. “Or maybe he would do like those MCs in manga who get sex-swapped and check himself out in the mirror. Get all hot and bothered over his own naked body.”
“I would not! Never! No way! ...Probably.”
I wasn’t sure about that last bit. Neither was Minori-san, who laughed; even I couldn’t resist a bit of a smile.
At that moment, Myusel came back.
“Um, Shinichi-sama?”
“Yeah? Who was it, Myusel?”
“Um, yes, well... Her Majesty is here.”
“What?!” Shinichi-san did a double take. Minori-san and I were as surprised as he was. It was true, the empress sometimes dodged her official duties long enough to come hang around with us, but she had never shown up so early in the morning. In fact, we usually went to see her before school. Was there some kind of emergency? I was still trying to figure it out when Her Majesty marched in, accompanied by her knight-bodyguards.
“Excuse us for arriving so early and so suddenly,” she said, glancing around at us. “But something most serious has happened, and we wished to ensure you were all immediately informed.”
“Something serious?” I asked on behalf of the group, as Myusel ushered the empress to a spot on the sofa.
“You remember the object you saw yesterday?”
“The coffin thing with the slime in it?”
“Indeed. When we inspected it this morning, the contents were missing.”
“What?!” we exclaimed, and looked at each other. So that mysterious gel that had been in the “coffin” was gone? That meant somebody must have taken it, or else...
“We simply do not understand it,” the empress said with a frown, her confusion evident on her face. Minister Cordobal wasn’t with her this morning; I assumed he was busy investigating what had happened. If the thief had kept the goo somewhere in the castle, it would already be the crime of the century, but if they were out running around somewhere with it, then things would be even more complicated.
“I’m sorry to hear it, but why did you think we needed to know first thing?” I asked. This was clearly a big deal, of course, but surely we didn’t need to be among the first to be told. Heck, she could have just informed us when we showed up to make our report before school.
But Her Majesty replied, “Close inspection revealed damp tracks, as if the gel had crawled out of the container.”
“Crawled out?”
“It could perhaps have simply left a mark when it was removed by some thief, we supposed.”
True enough: some damp tracks weren’t enough to warrant the assumption that the gelatinous stuff was moving around under its own power. But Her Majesty told us that, while there hadn’t been anything to suggest anyone had entered the room where the coffin was being kept, more “tracks” were found in the crack between the door and the floor, as if the gel had slithered through.
“So maybe it really was a Slime?” Shinichi-san ventured.
“It is too early to come to that conclusion,” Her Majesty replied. “But it remains that traces of its movement were discovered. When we followed them, they appeared to lead in the direction of this mansion. There are a few other houses in this area. Provided the thing has not become lost in the woods, we fear it may have come to your residence, Shinichi.”
“Huh...” Shinichi-san nodded. “But we haven’t really seen anything unusual... I don’t think...” He looked around at us. No, we hadn’t seen any mysterious, autonomous gelatinous substances. It could be hiding somewhere, of course—it could probably expand and contract at will, the better to hide under a floor or behind a door. But if it was here, it hadn’t done us any harm yet.
“Very well, then,” Her Majesty said, obviously relieved. Then an edge entered her voice. “That being the case, Shinichi, we will proceed directly to Guld Workshop. You will come with us.”
“What? Why?”
“Because we have no other clues to that thing’s true identity.”
We had already been to the workshop the day before looking for clues, but Her Majesty thought we might have missed something, and wanted to look again. She also planned to talk to dwarves who had actually excavated the coffin.
“Uh, but we haven’t even had breakfast...”
“You will not die for lack of breakfast.” Her Majesty got up off the sofa and took Shinichi-san’s arm too firmly to be ignored. He definitely had a soft spot for the adorable tyrant, because he let himself be dragged out of the living room. Minori-san stood up, too.
“I’ll go, too. And Hikaru-kun, I think you’d better stay home from school today.”
“Yeah, I think that’s a plan.” I didn’t think I would make it through anything like a normal day in this body.
“Hey, y’ think we should’ve mentioned the deal with Hikaru-sama to Her Majesty?” Elvia asked. The empress didn’t seem to have gotten the slightest inkling that I had turned into a girl. Maybe that was a measure of how convincing my daily appearance was. Would it be wrong of me to feel slightly pleased with myself?
“There’s no need to give her more to worry about,” Minori-san said, picking up her suitcase—the one with the 9mm machine gun in it. “Myusel, could you go to school today to fill in for Hikaru-kun?”
“Y-Yes, ma’am. Oh, um, I’ll pack breakfast into bento boxes for you.” She hurried out of the room. She was sweet enough
