Volume One, Chapter Three: Sent Away?

“Plop—”

The slime leapt gracefully, descending from the spatial vortex to land squarely on Yin Hong’s... face.

Xia Yang’s appraisal eye activated automatically.

[Name: None]

[Species: Slime]

[Satiation Level: Eight-tenths full]

Xia Yang nodded; at least it was well-fed.

“Here comes your main course, aren’t you going to—” Xia Yang said, turning to look at Yatina, but his words abruptly stopped.

There, Yatina hung motionless in the air; the hopeful expression she once wore had long since been replaced by a vacant stare.

Even the drool at the corner of her mouth had crystallized into a string of crystal pendants.

Xia Yang was momentarily stunned. He waved his hand before her face a couple of times and wiped away the drool about to fall from her lips. “Are you still alive?”

“What happened?” Yatina came to, looking around in confusion.

But the moment her gaze fell back on the slime, her eyes darkened again, and she nearly fell to the floor. Luckily, Xia Yang was quick to catch her with one hand.

Yatina slumped in his palm, unwilling to open her eyes, hoping it was all just a hallucination. Why did it have to be a slime of all things?

“How could it be like this~!” Yatina howled toward the sky.

“What exactly is wrong?” Xia Yang asked again. “You don’t like to eat it?”

“Not just that I don’t like it! It’s downright inedible!” Yatina crossed her arms, her lips puffed out like a steamed bun.

“This is a slime. It has extremely low magical energy inside, and the taste is like eating excrement!” She pointed a delicate finger at the juvenile slime below. “And it’s still in its juvenile stage! If I, the Demon Lord, have to eat this, I’d rather eat that piece of bread you gave me!”

Xia Yang: “???“

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“But...” Yatina froze mid-sentence. She lowered her head to touch her slightly shrunken belly and then glanced at the slime that, though unpalatable, could at least provide some magical energy.

Finally, she looked at Xia Yang again, clearly realizing that following this human would probably mean going hungry at times.

While Yatina was caught in this dilemma, Yin Hong, who had been sleeping on the floor, suddenly began to struggle violently!

Both their gazes shifted in unison. Perhaps from long inactivity, the originally spherical slime had flattened into a pancake shape, conveniently blocking Yin Hong’s mouth and nose.

Awakened by suffocation, she sat up abruptly, instinctively pushing away the obstruction from her mouth and nose, gasping heavily.

As Yin Hong’s eyes opened, she saw the tall figure standing with his back to the sunlight.

For a moment, she thought a Buddha had manifested, but upon seeing the face clearly, her previously puzzled expression turned to utter bewilderment.

“Holy crap? Senior? What are you doing here?”

“G-Good... morning...” Xia Yang greeted awkwardly.

When Yin Hong’s gaze dropped and met Yatina’s eyes in Xia Yang’s hand, another exclamation escaped her lips.

Her pupils trembled violently, and she instinctively rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t still dreaming.

But as she applied pressure with her palm, the slime’s soft texture immediately registered.

“Holy crap!”

Three such exclamations rang out in quick succession. Xia Yang knew the feeling well; when he first saw the animate Yatina, his reaction was even more intense than Yin Hong’s.

Xia Yang had expected that helping Yin Hong reconstruct her worldview would be troublesome. Yet after explaining everything he knew and all that had happened that morning, surprisingly, Yin Hong accepted the reality quite easily, showing little shock.

Xia Yang smiled helplessly. Perhaps this was related to the recent surge in fantasy novels... a thought both terrifying upon close and casual consideration.

Yin Hong squeezed the slime in her hands. Thanks to the contract, a basic spiritual connection existed between the human and the familiar.

The slime felt somewhat chilly to the touch. If it were summer, it might serve as a cooling device.

Observing this, Xia Yang glanced down at Yatina, who was still struggling in his other hand.

He extended a finger and tentatively stroked the pair of curved horns atop her head.

The texture was somewhat rough.

At that moment, the little succubus’s brow furrowed deeply, still debating whether to eat the slime, oblivious to Xia Yang’s subtle movements.

Seeing no reaction, Xia Yang’s finger moved down to caress the small wings on her back.

Feeling the unusual sensation behind her, Yatina paused.

As she turned to say something, ready to reprimand her mischievous servant, her body suddenly shuddered violently!

Rigidly turning around, she saw Xia Yang’s two fingers pinching her slender tail.

“What! What are you doing!” Yatina blushed in embarrassment. “Don’t you know the Demon Lord’s tail is off-limits!”

Xia Yang was taken aback. Seeing a rosy blush spreading visibly across her cheeks, he instinctively let go and apologized, “Sorry.”

Yatina didn’t stoop to his level, glaring fiercely before snorting coldly and turning to stand, looking toward Yin Hong and the slime she was now fondly squeezing.

After some thought, she chose to spare the slime for now; there would be time to eat it when truly desperate.

“Let’s go, you dumb human. We’ll find other monsters to hunt,” Yatina said without looking back.

“Senior, are you leaving?” Yin Hong stood up beside them, speaking to Xia Yang but never taking her eyes off Yatina.

Xia Yang did not reply.

Yin Hong was startled and shifted her gaze to him.

He was staring at his right wrist in shock, where an electronic watch was strapped.

“Holy crap, I’m going to be late!”

Startled by the shout, Yin Hong glanced at the clock on the wall.

“7:45!?”

She echoed the alarmed cry, but within moments, she calmed.

Being late was no big deal; after all, she was a college student. Skipping an early class occasionally wouldn’t hurt.

Moreover, now that she had awakened a contract familiar, who could say anything to her?

At worst, she could destroy the school if displeased!

She thought this, but Xia Yang’s adolescent spirit had long since vanished. Compared to such unrealistic fantasies and the seemingly unreliable contract familiar, what mattered most now was the monthly allowance—his true priority!

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong?” Yatina looked at them, utterly confused.

“I have to go to work,” Xia Yang explained.

“What’s work? I want to go too!”

“No! Someone might see you!” Xia Yang immediately refused. “You either stay home and wait for me, or go play somewhere else.”

“No!” Yatina clung tightly to Xia Yang’s finger. “Didn’t you say we’d hunt monsters together!?”

Xia Yang was taken aback. Had he said that? But he couldn’t dwell on it; in fifteen minutes, he’d be fined fifty yuan by the company!

He tried to shake off her grip, but Yatina only grasped tighter.

Resigned, Xia Yang compromised, “Alright, alright. How about this: after work, I’ll go hunting with you, okay?”

“Really?” Yatina was skeptical but finally let go.

Because of the contract, she could sense the genuine anxiety in Xia Yang’s heart and understood that continuing to cling on wouldn’t change anything.

Most importantly, she realized that as the Demon Lord, acting like this was beneath her dignity!

And even if this dumb human was by her side, he was nothing but dead weight! She didn’t care!

Xia Yang breathed a sigh of relief. After bidding farewell to Yin Hong, he prepared to take Yatina back to his apartment.

“Um, senior, do you want me to take care of your contract familiar? I don’t feel like going to school anymore today,” Yin Hong suddenly suggested.

Xia Yang was momentarily stunned but, after brief thought, agreed.

The reason was simple: with Yatina’s temperament, if left alone, she might cause trouble—like breaking into strangers’ homes.

Having Yin Hong watch over her wouldn’t stop everything but would at least allow Xia Yang to be informed immediately if something happened.

“Eh? Eh!!???” Yatina froze in place.

She was just... handed over to someone else?

She wanted to protest, but Xia Yang was nowhere to be seen inside; he had slipped out the balcony while she was still stunned.

Yatina looked up and met Yin Hong’s kindly smiling face.

“Hehe~ A living figurine~ Sister’s going to make you some clothes, okay~”

“...”

Xia Yang quickly changed his clothes and hurried downstairs to the apartment building. He scanned a shared bike with his phone.

Just as he was about to set off, the system in his mind—nearly forgotten—suddenly reawakened.

[Reward successfully granted!]

[Ding! Congratulations, host! You have received: Mana Pill [Expression] x1. Feeding this to your contract familiar will increase its satiation by fifty percent!]

Xia Yang: “???”

He looked up at his seventeenth-floor apartment, then down at the small, dark purple mana pill the size of a marble in his hand, falling silent.

Why give it to me now, just as I’m about to leave? Why not earlier!?