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Chapter 105: Curse of Sanke (1)

"A lot of answering to do?" The old lady slime shrieked back at Shinto's sudden serious tone. "Why would I answer your questions?! It's better that you don't know about it at all, it's confidential!"

"Hmm, confidential?" Shinto tilted his head. "Well... we'll get to that later. For the time being, I just want to know some general stuff," Shinto said as he was quickly interrupted by his party members.

"Hey, master! Why does the slime seem so scared?" Frey blinked at the sight of the shivering slime. "Did you do anything?"

"...no, I didn't do anything," Shinto helplessly sighed as he showed the necklace on his neck to Frey. "In the first place... that slime's scared of this necklace; they wouldn't be this distraught if it weren't for that."

"Huh. So it's all because of that cursed item?" she continued to inquire. "I know you sent the details of the necklace to us, but I don't get it! You seem to be immune to it, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about.... right?"

"Even then, that slime's still scared..." Shinto shook his head helplessly.

"I'm scared because that idiot Rustly suddenly barged into this place, bringing about three humans here, then he proceeded on parading on my stash and took out that cursed item!" The slime cried out. "Why wouldn't I be scared for my life?!"

"Madam Tru... calm down, I've got it under control!" The small slime whimpered.

"You have it under control?! If the king finds out, he'll have you back to the castle!"

"Cough... I hate to parade on your argument; but, I don't want to be left hanging," Shinto let out a cough, quickly getting the attention of the two slimes. Soon after, he proceeded to query. "Just why is this item cursed? The better question would be, who exactly is Sanke?"

"Agh! Rustly! That human wouldn't be questioning such things if you just kept your mouth shut on this stuff!" Madam Tru angrily shouted.

"Their friend was taken forcibly to fulfil the quest! They can't be left in the dark!" Rustly reasoned. "They can help us if they know of the circumstance you know!"

"What if the case like last time happened again? They could be evil for all I care!"

"Yet... that girl was taken in to learn the arts of Etheral..." Rustly said.

"That's an entirely different story!" Madam Ru yelled. "The king can easily handle against one matter such as this, but if you're bringing in more humans; It'll only cause us problems!"

"It won't! Trust me!" Rustly jumped up and down. "They have no ill intentions!"

"I've heard they've already killed some of our kind! You SURE they have no ill intentions?"

"Aren't they the fallen? They only attacked the corrupted Slera that no longer have consciousness!" Rustly clarified. "They didn't go out of their way to attack other Sleras standing idly by, now did they?"

"Um... you two?" Shinto called out to the slimes once again. "The more you talk about this matter... the more you're making me confused."

"Damn it... I forgot that the human can listen in on us..." Madam Ru clicked her tongue.

"Whatever! I'm answering their questions whether you like it or not!" Rustly turned away from Ru as he faced Shinto. "You asked who was Sanke right? He's a no-good human hated by our kind!"

"Sanke, a no-good human..." he nodded his head. "Why is he hated?"

"He cursed this entire underground and made it into his playground!" Rustly angrily explained. "The Farchu Race was all corrupted in a matter of seconds and our kind is slowly going mad..."

"Hmm... the Farchu Race... I assume it's those rats?" he connected his thoughts into one.

"Yes! Those rats!" The slime jiggled. "Seeing as you already met them, you can tell how they've gone into madness, right?"

"...well," he laughed awkwardly. "Not to say I couldn't tell... but without the necessary information, I couldn't see it that way."

Back when they were in the right hallway, Shinto had the idea that the rats were just purely mindless monsters which could've explained their predatorial behaviour. Never would he have guessed that the rat was once civil.

"They were ferocious and unforgiving, right?" Rustly wistfully said. "That's how Sanke did his magic on us! We'll go crazy and attack mindlessly like any other monsters, but we're not like that at all..."

"So these rats were once non-aggressive like the slimes we met here?" Shinto pondered. "I think I get the situation as of right now. Sanke cursed all of you and as time slowly eats away, you all lose consciousness?"

"That's the gist of it..." he sighed. "Which is why the king wanted your friend to learn the arts of Etheral, she's the key to helping us all!"

"So that's how it is," he calmly closed his eyes, collecting his thoughts. "Then, the reason why the king doesn't want us to know?"

"He doesn't trust you, humans!" Madam Ru cried out. "That friend of yours might have been a special case, but the more humans who know of this stuff, it'll cause a huge problem for us!"

"How so?"

"Humans are known to intervene on things that do not concern them," Madam Ru scoffed. "I'm sure that after you know all this stuff, you'll go out of your way to bother us and make our life harder by going after Sanke!"

"Cough... In a way, this entire scenario concerns us," he stated. "Raina is our party member; so it's important that we would want to know about this situation."

"Well, now you know all about it!" The slime said. "I do hope this won't come and bite us back because some guy wanted to go and reveal our circumstance to some humans..."

"Aha... we won't be of a bother to you," he calmly stated. "I just wanted to know of the current situation."

"You say that... but you're words don't sway me."

"Madam Ru! This will all be fine! Even if they do decide to intervene, he's immune to the curse and has proven himself so!" Rustly stated. "They can lend us a hand."

"Something about all this is making me feel upset. Whether it's the curse or it's just this human," she sighed. "But whatever, I couldn't stop them from knowing and I'm too old to bother."

"I assure you, madam! You won't regret being involved!"

"It's not even my choice of wanting to involve," Madam Ru seemed to be shaking her head. "But anyway, I'm sure there's another reason as to why you brought these humans here. Perhaps the original. These humans want a place to stay, right? I've only got one room with four human-sized beds, so take them upstairs and be done with it."

"Right, right!" Rustly happily said as he turned towards the group. "There's a free room upstairs, I'll bring you there now!"

"I see..." Shinto nodded his head as he saw that Rustly was hopping over to the stairs by the side of the room that led up.

"Hey, mind telling us what's going on?" Ethaniel raised his brow in impatience. "When the heck are you going to translate stuff for us?"

"Yeah! All I hear the entire time I was standing here was 'Gloop gloop'!" Frey pouted. "What's up with the situation? How come those rats suddenly came into the topic?"

During the time where Shinto and the slimes were conversing with one another, his group helplessly stood there with confused expressions. They could only pick up on the topic due to Shinto's speech, where he spoke in the generalized language for humans: Arcos.

"...I'll explain things later," Shinto said. "For the time being, I still have one last question for the slime."

"Huh?! You have more?!" The madam cried out.

"Besides us, there's another human here right?" he calmly asked.

"...eh?! How do you know that?!" she jumped back in shock.

"Someone gave the keys to this place, so I can only assume that he is here," Shinto calmly explained. "Might I ask, where we can find him?"

"Don't see that old man! He has been exposed to the curse much worst than any of us!" she shouted out. "Although he is still able to control the madness and preventing it from taking over, you best just leave him alone. Who knows what he'll do to all of you?"

"Huh?" Shinto blinked at the statement. "Yet... from what I can see, he still has the freedom to roam around?"

"He has his own ways of getting out of this place without going through town," she explained. "Ahem, don't press on this further and just head to your quarters! The more you know, the worst you might bring for us."

"...is it that bad?" Shinto raised his brow.

"I do not want to speak of this matter!" The slime turned around. "It's dangerous for you to go there anyway. Although you might be immune to the curse, who says you can't get hurt?"

"..." Shinto stared at the back of the slime listlessly. "And what if we can protect ourselves just fine?"

"Doesn't matter. Stil dangerous!" The slime firmly stated. "I don't care if you're some top tier knight or whatever; This old man is not to be taken lightly off."

"...I see," he nodded his head. "Then, we'll just head to our quarters."

"Good. And don't even bother asking Rustly," she said. "Only I and the king knows of his whereabouts and information regarding this."

At the mention of Rustly, the slime who had already gone up the staircase a long time ago hurriedly walked down. "Hey! Are you coming up or what?!"