"Here ya go! Sorry for the wait!"

The old man, with practiced hands, banged his large iron ladle against the equally iron pot to signal that the dish was complete. He then piled the food high from the pot. Fried rice mixed with vegetables and meat, with soy sauce as the decisive seasoning. A wonderful aroma wafted through the air.

And right in front of us, the fried rice was placed.

"Uwah, looks amazing!"

"It doesn’t just look amazing. It is amazing."

The bear-like old man grinned. I don’t dislike this kind of gruff old man at all.

I immediately scooped some up with a big spoon. It wasn’t one of those fancy Chinese-style spoons, just a regular oversized one. My portion was a massive serving. Even from the side, it looked nearly twice as big as Irina’s normal serving. Nice plating, pops!

I thrust the spoon deep into the literal mountain of fried rice and lifted a huge bite. A fluffy, savory soy sauce scent enveloped me. I couldn’t hold back and shoved it into my mouth right away.

"Ugh—delicious!!!"

A rich aroma spread through my mouth! And it wasn’t just the soy sauce!

...Well, I have zero cooking talent, so I honestly don’t know what else is in it besides soy sauce.

When I glanced beside me, Irina was still spacing out and hadn’t touched her fried rice yet.

"Irina?"

"Fueh!?"

"The fried rice is gonna get cold. Let’s eat it while it’s hot."

"Fwah!? Y-yeah, right. Let’s eat!"

She hurriedly stabbed her spoon in, scooped up a big bite of the steaming rice, and tossed it into her mouth.

"Hot hot hot hot!!!"

Irina cried out after stuffing her mouth full of scorching fried rice.

"Here, drink some water."

She snatched the wooden cup I offered like it was a lifeline and gulped it down noisily.

"Fuwah~... It was really hot..."

"Of course it was. It’s freshly made. You gotta blow on it first."

"I-I see..."

Irina, eyes spinning, finished the water and calmed down. She then blew on her next spoonful and took a careful bite.

"It’s... delicious..."

"It’s great, right!? This fried rice!"

"Yeah, it’s super tasty!"

Irina happily started eating in earnest.

Good, good. Once her stomach settles, Irina herself should calm down too. We thoroughly enjoyed the fried rice to our heart’s content.

"...Hm!?"

It was noisy outside the shop.

I strained my ears.

"Did you see the Saintess? She was flying gracefully through the sky~!"

"Pffft!"

Oh no, I spit out my fried rice.

In times like this, I secretly activate Slime Cleaner so the shop owner doesn’t notice! I thinned the tip of a tentacle like a vacuum nozzle and quickly sucked up the scattered rice grains!

"Hm? What’s wrong, Yabe?"

Irina looked over at me.

"Nah... it’s nothing."

As I was wondering how to cover it up, more voices drifted in.

"It’s not the Saintess, they say she’s actually a Goddess!"

"After all, she healed over a thousand people, right!?"

"She’s nothing like those fake Saintesses in the royal capital."

"Of course you can’t compare them! One’s the real deal and the other’s an imposter."

"Right, right~"

For some reason, the Irina praise session and the bashing of the royal capital’s Saintess showed no signs of stopping.

"Outside, it sounds like they’re praising you as a Saintess or a Goddess, Irina."

"W-why!?"

"I wonder why?"

"If anyone’s going to be praised, it should be Yabe!"

Irina’s energy suddenly shot up for some reason.

"Maybe it’s because I used Victor Bringer, the One Who Brings Victory to shake off pursuers and moved around, so only Irina was visible, and it ended up looking like Irina did all the healing?"

"What!? They’re making such a mistake!? I must correct this immediately and teach them that Yabe is the true god!"

As Irina tried to dash out of the shop, I grabbed her in a full nelson.

"Hey! Who’s a god!? And what do you mean ’teach them’!? If you do that, a bunch of church people will come swarming!"

"I-I guess you’re right..."

While we were busy with that, the women outside moved on to another topic.

"The Saintess jumping from roof to roof! So wonderful~"

"No, she’s not the Saintess, she’s the Goddess!"

"Yeah yeah! Healing that many people at once—she’s definitely a Goddess~"

"Yabe, they’re definitely treating you like a god."

"Right now they’re treating you like a Goddess."

We looked at each other and laughed.

However...

"By the way, the Goddess’s pure white panties were so lovely~"

"Seriously, they were the best~"

"So incredibly beautiful!"

"They were practically sparkling!"

"""The Goddess’s panties are so beautiful~~~~!!!"""

""!!!""

We had been smiling at each other, but Irina’s expression froze solid.

This is bad...

"Y-Y-Yabe..."

Ah, here come Irina’s eyes, looking like a dam about to burst!

"It’s okay! Everyone was saying they were beautiful! The best!"

"M-my panties... everyone s-s-saw them..."

Ah, the dam is breaking!

"Everyone’s praising you because you’re so pretty, Irina. You can be confident about it."

I did my best to encourage her with an enthusiastic expression.

"You think I’m pretty...? Yabe also thinks I’m pretty...?"

"Of course! Irina is the prettiest in the world!"

In this situation, I don’t have the heart to say something tone-deaf like "Not really."

Though as a slime, I don’t actually have a heart to begin with.

"Really...?"

She tilted her head cutely, her round, teary eyes staring straight at me, on the verge of overflowing.

"Really!"

This time I placed both hands on her shoulders and told her firmly.

"Yabe!"

Irina hugged me tightly.

I hope this calms her down for now.

"Yeah... It’s all Yabe’s fault that the townspeople saw my panties... so... you have to take responsibility... yeah."

Huh? Irina seems to have reached her own conclusion, but what did she just say?

"Y-Yabe... you’ll take responsibility... right...?"

Ah, again! Her eyes look like a dam about to burst! Déjà vu!

Also, how exactly am I supposed to take responsibility for someone seeing her panties!?

"Here! Around here! This is where the Goddess was!"

"Information says she came this way!"

"Where is she!? Find her!"

"Geh!"

Crap! How did they find out!?

Oh right, we landed in front of the shop with Irina’s panties fully exposed.

"Bad news! We’re escaping, Irina!"

"Awawa, Y-Yabe, where are we going to exit from?"

Irina looked around in a panic.

The main street in front of the shop was already starting to gather a crowd.

"If you’ve got some circumstances, you can leave through the shop’s back door."

"For real!? Boss, I owe you one!"

I grabbed Irina’s hand and dashed toward the shop’s back exit.

We emerged into a narrow alley behind the shop. I immediately activated Victor Bringer, the One Who Brings Victory again and jumped onto the roof.

"Y-Yabe..."

"Ah."

I can’t keep flashing Irina’s panties around any more than I already have.

What to do...

"Irina, will you entrust your body to me?"

"Fueh!? ...Yeah, I leave it to you."

I expanded the area covered by Victor Bringer. Not just my hands and feet, but now covering everything from the neck down. It was over her clothes, but I imagined full plate armor wrapping around her completely.

Imagination is important. My mental image is the Gold Cloth from Saint Seiya! Might as well make it the same shining gold color too!

"Y-Y-Yabe! Something’s glowing!?"

"That just proves you really are a Goddess."

"Hyowah!?"

Instead of crossing the main street, we moved across the rooftops in positions where the people below couldn’t see us and arrived at the Coluna Frontier Count’s residence!

Logan and the others had already gone ahead. They were sitting neatly in a row in the garden. I was about to call out to Lord Fenberg when...

"Has Lord Yabe still not returned!?"

"Haha! We believe he is moving through the town with Lady Irina."

"Capture them by any means necessary! It’s not enough to simply treat them as guests of the Coluna Frontier Count house! They must belong to our house!"

"We have already prepared salary and all other conditions."

"Make sure the royal capital doesn’t catch wind of this!"

"Haha!"

"Oh..."

We were hiding in the shadow of the building watching, but the situation was heading in the worst possible direction.

"Yabe, what should we do? Will you be employed by the Coluna Frontier Count house?"

"That’s exactly why I told the deputy governor Naise to keep it secret."

"Right..."

"Besides, if we get employed by the Coluna house, what happens to Irina’s family?"

"Y-Yabe..."

Irina’s eyes grew watery with emotion.

Too bad I’m currently in Gold Cloth mode so she can’t see my face.

"Alright, let’s just secretly say goodbye to Luciana and leave town."

"Is that okay?"

"There’s no ’okay’ or ’not okay.’ We’re sneaking up to Luciana’s room window."

"Understood."

We landed on the balcony outside the window.

I peeked in and saw Luciana was asleep. Perfect.

Using a slime tentacle, I slipped it through the gap in the window and quietly unlocked it.

I could probably make it as a phantom thief at this rate.

I gently entered the room. Only Luciana was sleeping there. Great timing.

Suddenly, Luciana’s eyes opened.

"...Irina-chan was actually a Goddess..."

"Fueh!?"

Oh right, I was still in Gold Cloth form!

I quickly deactivated Victor Bringer and separated.

Instantly putting on the robe is becoming one of my special skills.

"Ah! Yabe-san!"

"Shhhhhhhhh!"

"W-what’s wrong?"

"Your father is being a bit forceful trying to keep us here, so we’ve decided to leave for now."

"Eh... You’re leaving? I’ll apologize for my father’s behavior, so at least stay for a meal..."

I took out my special concentrated medicinal herb juice from my sub-space compression storage.

"Here, a present. Drink it little by little."

I handed it to Luciana.

"Thank you..."

Luciana thanked me with a slightly lonely expression.

"We’ll come visit again! Keep our visit a secret, okay!"

With that, I activated Victor Bringer again. Gold Cloth version!

"So... beautiful..."

"Luciana-chan, see you later!"

"Irina-chan, bye-bye! Come visit again!"

We leaped from the balcony. Of course, making sure we weren’t seen!

"Chick Captain! Can you hear me?"

『Standing by, Boss.』

"Which castle gate should we leave from?"

『Please wait! All units, report!』

We waited for a moment.

『No orders to detain Boss or Lady Irina have reached any of the gates yet.』

"Then let’s leave through the west gate we entered from. Tell Logan and the others too. Meet at the west gate!"

『Roger!』

That Chick really is impressive. He still has chicks stationed at a fixed distance from each gate, delivering information at ultra-high speed via telepathy. Though long messages might get garbled like in a game of telephone.

Well, I guess we’ll head back to the spring and build ourselves a proper home.

I thought about it while racing across the rooftops at high speed.