One ordinary morning in the Kingdom of Tempest, everything goes haywire. Rimuru wakes up in a girl's body. Benimaru is now a girl. Shion is now a guy. Shuna is a guy. And Milim is blasting walls apart screaming that she got shorter. The whole kingdom is in total chaos.
After a frantic investigation, they trace the cause to an ancient magical artifact called the Ura-Gaeshi Pot — a weird relic that went berserk and swapped everyone's gender. The only way to reverse it: recite a four-part counter-
Slime, Curse, and the Chaos of Love - The red-haired beauty and the soaking wet ears
"Eh——"
That was all I could say.
The rooftop from the previous moment. Sunset. The beautiful stranger standing before me when I turned around——I'd only just learned that was Benimar.
My head understood it. The voice, the posture——both were Benimar's.
But my eyes couldn't catch up.
Long crimson hair melting into the sunset. Sharp, narrow eyes, a perfectly straight nose bridge, thin lips. Her already refined features had reached an entirely different dimension through the female transformation. I'd been completely frozen for several seconds.
"……Tempe Storm. Perhaps you could stop looking now."
"Oh, I'm sorry! But——Benimar, you had a face like this?"
"Please don't mention my original face."
Benimar turned away. Her ear, lit by the setting sun, seemed faintly red.
I, too, was acutely aware again of how high my voice had become. Both of us were in an indescribable situation.
"……Well, well. I understand the feeling. But let's prepare for the journey now. Northeast 45 kilometers to Velg Canyon——we need to leave before dark."
"……Yes. You're right."
A short silence.
Benimar picked up the luggage. Including mine, in both hands.
"I'll carry the bags."
"Oh, I can carry mine too——"
"It's my duty as your guard."
Her expression was serious.
I couldn't argue back.
---
The path through the great forest Jura was still maintained, becoming a packed earth road once the grid-patterned stone pavement of the capital Rimulus ended. Tall trees continued on both sides. Morning dew still lingered, and the air was humid. A bird called somewhere.
Thirty minutes after we started walking.
Benimar was positioned one step behind me.
(……Isn't she close?)
Usually her position was about two meters diagonally behind, but today she was clearly half a step back. Despite carrying luggage in both hands, she moved in perfect sync with my stride. When I approached a puddle, Benimar's foot moved first——"Tempe Storm, this way," she guided me. If a branch hung low, she brushed it aside first.
"Benimar, aren't you unusually close today?"
"It's natural for a guard."
An immediate answer. Eyes averted.
I tilted my head slightly.
(……Her eyes are looking away)
The Sage skill activated——or rather, it tried to.
"Current Tempe Storm's body weight is 87.3% of previous measurements. Center of gravity during walking has lowered 7.2 centimeters from usual. This is presumably——"
"Don't give me unnecessary information……"
I muttered without thinking.
"Huh? What was that?"
"Nothing. Just talking to myself."
Since the female transformation, the Sage's analysis has been off somehow. It prioritizes body information over combat data. I sighed internally.
The path narrowed. Rock and roots mixed together, barely wide enough for one person to pass through.
Benimar moved ahead of me, checked the path, then came back.
"Tempe Storm, the footing is unstable. Please take my hand."
I reflexively took the offered hand.
——Both of us stopped at the same time.
Benimar's hand was large and slightly hard. The hand of someone who'd gripped a sword continuously. My hand was much smaller now, fitting between her fingers.
"……Ah"
Benimar's ear turned red. Visibly, even among her crimson hair.
"……Thank you."
When I said it, Benimar said nothing. She simply pulled my hand and guided me over the rocks. Even after we crossed the rocks, her hand didn't let go for a while.
Both of us pretended not to notice.
I looked forward while trying not to be aware of the sensation of the hand holding mine, and failed.
---
The canyon came into view three hours after we departed.
Velg Canyon——45 kilometers northeast of the capital, a deep fissure carved into the rocky terrain of the great forest Jura. Width ranging from 50 to 200 meters, cliff depth up to 200 meters maximum. The sound of a river echoed from the bottom. The wind was strong. It smelled of stone.
"There's a shrine at the midpoint there. We can either traverse the 60-centimeter-wide rock ledge to climb up——"
Something moved from behind a rock.
Huge.
Three meters long. Scales the color of stone. A large jaw. Galdra——a rock-lizard type monster. I'd read about it in the capital's records, how it had the strength to crush anyone who entered its territory. And it wasn't just one.
Three appeared simultaneously.
"Sage——analyze!"
"The Galdra's weak point is the soft scales on its abdomen. However, Tempe Storm's current magical output is 61.4% of normal. Skill stability has decreased, and——"
"Tell me that first!!"
The Galdra charged. I tried to activate magic. The skill moved——but the output was off. Flames erupted two meters to the right of my target. Again. This time too strong——the rock shelf crumbled.
"Sage! Work properly!"
"Current Tempe Storm's body weight center of gravity——"
"I don't need that!!"
The Galdra closed the distance. I dodged. Another came. I turned right. While doing so, one came from the left. Since the female transformation, my center of gravity had shifted, and my usual movements didn't align. My feet stumbled. I put my hand on the ground. This is bad——
BOOM!!
Flames tore through the air.
Benimar was moving.
She raised one arm and unleashed a spiraling pillar of flame at all three Galdra. One was blown out of the canyon. Another fled. The third fell beyond the cliff. When the flames vanished, silence returned to the canyon entrance. Smoke slowly dispersed.
"Tempe Storm, forgive me."
Before she finished speaking, I was hoisted onto her back.
"Eh, um——"
"I'm climbing the rock wall. Hold on."
I didn't have time to respond before Benimar began climbing. Each step was certain and fast. The wind grew stronger. Two hundred meters to the canyon floor. I didn't look.
"……Thank you. You saved me!"
I said it while climbing, turning back slightly. Benimar's face was right there. When I smiled at her——Benimar's feet stopped for a moment.
"What's wrong? Are you tired?"
"……It's nothing. Please focus."
Her voice was slightly strained. Her ears were red.
---
There was a shrine on the midpoint rock shelf.
A small stone building about two meters tall. Ancient characters were carved into the door. Inside was a stone tablet. About ten centimeters thick, thirty centimeters wide. The Sage automatically began analyzing.
"I can read it. This is——the first verse of the incantation."
The Words of Reversal, its first verse. One of four verses of the incantation meant to cancel the effects of the Reversal Jar. I carved the incantation's contents into my mind.
Found one. Three left.
It felt like I'd moved forward, just slightly.
"Good. It was really here."
"Yes. Three verses remaining——"
I flipped the stone tablet over. For some reason, I wanted to check the back too.
Ancient characters were carved there as well.
The Sage analyzed them.
"……One who seeks a vessel has already awakened."
My hands stopped.
"……Benimar, look at this."
Benimar leaned in to look at the tablet. Her expression hardened slightly.
"……We're being called by something. Is that what this means?"
"I don't know. But the fact that this is carved next to the incantation we found……I don't think it's coincidence."
The air in the shrine seemed to grow heavier.
The canyon wind blew outside.
The two of us stared at that single line for a while.
---
Before leaving the canyon, Benimar stopped.
"Tempe Storm."
She pointed at the rock wall. Near the exit. On the stone surface about a meter high, there were marks.
I approached and looked closer——they were scrape marks. Made with tools, intentionally. The shape of the scraped area matched the style of the ancient characters inside the shrine.
"……This was scraped recently. Within the last few days, I'd say."
"They erased ancient characters that were carved here?"
"It's possible."
I looked at the scraped marks again. Cleanly erased. I couldn't tell what had been written. But——someone had examined this place first and erased something.
"This isn't coincidence. Someone came here before us."
My voice naturally lowered.
Benimar surveyed the surroundings. The canyon at dusk held no sign of people. But the air felt different than before.
Someone else was searching for the same thing.
---
We made camp in the forest beyond the canyon, gathered around a campfire in front of the tent.
The night of the great forest was filled with insect sounds. The rustling of leaves in wind. A monster's cry in the distance. The campfire crackled as it burned.
It was the first day of our journey.
I sat with a blanket over my knees, watching the flames. I tried to organize what had happened today, but my mind wouldn't work properly. I think I was tired.
The line on the back of the tablet kept repeating in my head.
"One who seeks a vessel has already awakened."
I still didn't understand what it meant.
Collecting the remaining three verses of the Words of Reversal was still the goal. But——something felt like it was moving.
(I need to hurry)
Thinking that, my eyes grew heavy. The warmth of the campfire and today's exhaustion combined, and before I knew it, I was dozing.
——Suddenly, I sensed a presence.
I opened my eyes slightly.
Benimar was sitting beside me. She held a blanket in her hands. She'd been about to drape it over me when she stopped.
She was looking at me.
The campfire's light illuminated Benimar's profile. Her long red hair swayed, seeming to melt into the flame's color. Her expression——neither her usual blank face nor her stern one, but something softer.
Benimar's gaze remained fixed on my face.
"……Benimar?"
Our eyes met.
"N-no——nothing! Good night!!"
She immediately turned away. She pressed the blanket toward me as if pushing it, then turned her whole body away and went still. Her ears were completely red.
"……That's strange."
I murmured that. I pulled the blanket up to my shoulders.
For some reason, my chest felt unsettled.
The canyon's mystery, the scraped rock wall, the line on the tablet——there was plenty to think about. Yet my mind kept catching on something else. Benimar's face just now. That expression as she looked at me in the firelight.
(What was that?)
Unable to understand what it was, I closed my eyes.
The campfire continued burning. Insect sounds. Wind.
The great forest's night was quiet.
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