Seeing a little girl suddenly kneeling in front of me, it looked like I had done something bad to her. She is a stealth slime number four hundred and officially has a new nickname, signifying that she’s no ordinary stealth slime with numbers. The responsibility shouldered by this stealth slime named Iona is on par with Aiko and Sirius, as the third stealth slime leader, which I can rely on.

"What are you doing?" I asked Iona, who suddenly knelt in front of me and bowed her head.

"I-I just feel happy after being given such a beautiful name, Supreme Commander," replied Iona, who was still kneeling in front of me.

"Stop your self-degrading actions. I never taught you to kneel before me like this, did I?"

"I-I only did it on reflex because you are a Supreme Commander who is respected by the entire stealth slime herd. Without the Supreme Commander’s help... W-We would have been a weak and helpless herd of stealth slimes without get a chance to evolve."

Um, what is Iona saying?

As far as I can remember, I never did anything to help the stealth slime herd to evolve like this. I just adopted them as a spy unit, working behind the scenes to gather information that the Black Maid unit couldn’t.

I didn’t do anything to deserve the respect of the entire stealth slime herd, and even if I did earn that respect... Sirius would surely obey my orders and not split the stealth slime herd in two separate ways.

"Your words are too sweet to praise me, even though you know... there is a stealth slime that ignores my orders," I replied while taking a deep breath and glancing at Aiko, who was smiling awkwardly beside me.

"R-Regarding that, Sirius has a belief related to her slime instincts and believes that the Supreme Commander will like what she has found inside that underground cave. Because that was an underground cave not built by the forest Elf race," said Iona while still kneeling in front of me and trying to calm me, who looked disappointed in front of her eyes.

"Yup, we’ll see if I like what Sirius find or not," I replied as I approached Iona and pulled her up, gently carrying her.

"S-Supreme Commander?" Iona looked panicked after her little girl’s body was in my arms.

Iona, who looks like a six-year-old girl, looks so cute with her adorable cheeks. I can’t resist to holding her and wanting to pinch her chubby cheeks.

Caress...

Caress...

With the gentle touch of my hands, I tried to play with Iona’s cheeks and felt the softness of her chubby cheeks.

The cheeks of this obedient and docile little girl, somehow, I feel like I can rely on Iona more than I can rely on Aiko or Sirius for something more serious.

"Iona, in human society, your little girl form should appear innocent, and there is no need to imitate the actions of adults. Kneeling in front of me in this little girl form will trigger strange responses from normal people who see it. I will look like a noble woman who bullying a little girl, although such incidents can happen every time, but I don’t like bullying a little girl. Please remember that important thing, Iona," while holding Iona and teaching her how to act like an innocent little girl, my hands continue to pull Iona’s soft cheeks.

"I-I don’t know about that, Supreme Commander. For now on, I-I’ll try to act like a normal little girl!" Iona replied, tugging on the collar of my military uniform to balance her body from falling out of my arms.

"Take it step by step, Iona. There’s no need to rush to mimic a little girl..." I said something like that for a reason, because Iona’s attitude and behavior felt unnatural for a little girl her age.

It could be said that Iona is a little girl who acts too maturely for her age.

That’s a good thing for me...

Because I like Iona’s attitude and behavior, which are much more mature than Aiko’s or Sirius’s.

"I-I understand, Supreme Commander. I’ll try to act like a little girl while using this form. E-Even... I don’t really understand what a little girl does. S-So... P-Please guide me as a good and proper little girl, Supreme Commander!" Iona said, sounding excited and her eyes sparkling. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"You can be yourself when you’re with me. But I prefer a quiet and less troublesome little girl. So use that kind of personality."

"I-I understand, Supreme Commander. I will be a quiet and terrifying little girl like Supreme Commander!"

"T-That’s not what I meant..."

I felt like Iona had misunderstood something, but I didn’t want to bother myself with correcting the misunderstanding.

"This little girl form of yours... is much more efficient in using your magic core. Did you intentionally design your form as a little girl, Iona?" I asked, trying to forget about the previous problem.

"N-No... T-To be honest, my human form is a teenage girl, just like other stealth slime forms. It’s just that I sacrificed the form of a teenage girl after seeing Aiko desperately maintaining her teenage girl form so she could hold the magic staff and stabilize the magic circle formation, which almost broken several times," said Iona, which made me glance at Aiko.

"So, that’s means... Iona gave you her magic energy, Aiko?" I asked Aiko with a shy smile on her face."

"S-Supreme Commander, please don’t blame Aiko for working so hard to maintain the magic circle formation. I-It was my fault for recklessly interfering in the important task Aiko was working on!" Iona suddenly chimed in, defending Aiko.

"I’m not blaming Aiko. In fact, I’m going to give you a reward for helping Aiko. Without the help from you, she would have definitely become a dried stealth slime that would have dirtyed my magic staff with her slime fluid. Ugh!! That would be something disgusting if it really happened..."

Suddenly, I felt goosebumps as I imagined Aiko’s slime fluid sticking to my magic staff.

Also, that made me reflexively glance at my magic staff, which was stuck in the ground.

"Huufftt... I feel relieved because that didn’t really happen," I continued while playing with Iona’s cheeks, which felt soft and chubby.

Caress...

Caress...

"My Supreme Commander, you’re truly disgusted by the fluid produced by a slime, aren’t you?" Iona asked, seemingly intrigued by my answer.

"Yes, I feel disgusted by a slime fluid that smells sharp, leaves dirty stains after drying, and is unpleasant to look at," I answered while holding back the disgust that made my body shiver.

Paatt...

Paattt...

My body, which is shivering from the thought of it happening, suddenly felt the touch of Iona’s tiny hand. Her small hand stroked my hair, trying to calm me down as I was thinking disgusting things.

"I understand the Supreme Commander’s concerns. As much as possible, I will not do something that the Supreme Commander hates... like showing my slime fluids," said Iona while stroking my hair and feeling the touch of her soft hand like an innocent little girl.

As I enjoyed the gentle caress of Iona’s hand and my hand still pulling her cheek, I suddenly realized one important thing that I had almost forgotten.

"Yes, please do that, Iona. U-umm... is there something big I’ve missed besides Sirius’s decision to split the stealth slime herd into two separate ways?" I asked Iona as I stared at my magic circle formation that mapped out the area around the deepest forest.

My hand immediately pointed to the numerous red dots that suddenly spread at a fast running speed.

"Any major event other than Sirius breaking away from the main objective of this military expedition? As far as I can remember and knowing, there isn’t one," Iona replied, closing her eyes and placing her index finger on her cheek.

"Besides, there’s a herd of monsters that built a large nest in the deep forest and could be easily defeated to collect their samples, it didn’t feel like anything major had happened. That made me a little relief and able to focus on watching Aiko’s magic energy that was draining away every second," Iona continued, now looking at Aiko.

"I-It couldn’t be helped, right? That’s was Supreme Commander order," Aiko replied, still smiling awkwardly after what had happened to her.

"The Supreme Commander has high hopes for Aiko, it makes me feel jealous and want to get that high-order like that from Supreme Commander, but I am also self-conscious that my magic core is far inferior to Aiko’s."

"I-Iona... I-If you train more and hunt strong monsters, I’m sure your magic core will grow much stronger and evolve!" Aiko chimed in, looking like she wanted to calm Iona.

Caress...

Caress...

Seeing Iona upset like this, it doesn’t seem to match her appearance, which looks like a cheerful little girl.

"You all evolved into stealth slimes at the same time, right?"

"And you all also mastered the technique of transforming into humans at the same time. If I told you that Aiko and Sirius became like this because I kissed them on the lips, would you believe me, Iona?" I asked a question that would sound strange to Iona.

Since Iona seemed to be sad about something related to her weak magic core, I said something like that to tease her into being more cheerful.

Aiko and Sirius are indeed special stealth slimes with their own unique characteristics.

Besides their large magic cores and the ability to cast high-level magical attacks, they also adapt quickly to their surroundings. Sirius’s actions may seem like ignoring my orders and venturing out into the underground cave without my permission, but it’s a unique adaptation of the curious Sirius.

On the other hand, Aiko and Sirius became a special stealth slimes after performing the Linked Ritual with me. This secret is known only to the two of them as a reward for their hard work.

My words would probably sound like nonsense to Iona, and I braced myself for her disbelieving voice to reply.

"I believe that, Supreme Commander!" Iona replied with a gentle smile.

"H-Huh?" Hearing Iona’s answer was so different from what I expected. Of course, it made me confused about how to respond.

"I believe that Aiko and Sirius are always working hard to get a reward from the Supreme Commander, whether it’s a kiss or a nice pair of sweaty panties!" Iona continued in a loud voice.

"H-Huh? S-Sweaty panties?" Sia suddenly spoke up after hearing Iona’s scream.

"S-Sweaty panties? You mean Onee-sama’s panties?" Alice said, looking confused and tilting her head.

"Lily-nee... what’s the meaning of all this?" Alyssa asked with her flat smile locked on me.

Thanks to Iona’s words, I suddenly received sharp glances from my twin sisters and Sia.

They seemed curious about the sweaty panties Iona was talking about, and that confused me.

"My sweaty panties? Eh? Eeehhh!!" I said, also confused.