It's been a week since they left Fortio. Still currently on the expedition towards the border of Cogitatio, the old man was pulling their luggage.
Sylvie, Poppy, and the adventurer sat inside the carriage that the old man had brought with him.
Today was just like any other day. The moment morning comes, they all head out in order to keep going with the quest. During those times, they decided to add a schedule in order to keep things organized. At least, it was Poppy who did it.
When morning comes, either the adventurer or the old man start pulling the luggage. When afternoon comes or if someone gets tired, the old man and the adventurer switch places. If monsters start attacking them, then the one who's currently pulling should defend the luggage.
The schedule was a pretty simple one.
The one currently pulling the luggage is the old man. The adventurer was just chilling inside the carriage, waiting for his turn.
While he didn't need to do anything, it was still kind of dull every day while doing nothing. He just needed to wait for six hours every time before it was his turn, but with nothing to do, it was getting incredibly boring.
There was really only one thing that could entertain the silence; a conversation or something else. Luckily for the adventurer, today was going to be the latter.
The old man was currently defending their luggage, killing off the bad monsters one by one. Sylvie was just outside, absorbing the dead bodies. It seems like the fight was going to take a while. The adventurer could hear the old man screaming out a battle cry as Sylvie kept eating while cheering him up.
The only people left in the carriage were both Poppy and the adventurer. With nothing else to do, he decided to break the silence.
"About your familiar," he started. "Is she actually a slime?"
"Have you already forgotten about her performance in Fortio last week?"
Poppy was talking about how she just slurped her own strand of hair. He shook his head, because there was no way he could forget something like that.
"No, that's not what I'm talking about."
"Then what is it?"
"It's just that Sylvie is far from any slimes that I've seen in my entire life. Not only that, she's the only slime that can probably talk."
While slimes can change forms based on what they like, it's all mostly just the form that changes. Their colors stay the same, no matter how many times they try to consume something that has color.
There are also some slimes that do change their colors based on what form they try to imitate, but even then, it's either too obvious because of how unnatural it may look or because it's transparent.
There have been no records of slimes talking with a voice because they don't have any vocal cords, but people can hear their thoughts through telepathic means.
Even then, most slimes aren't intelligent enough to form actual words, so it's just a bunch of mess. The only ones who have been known to be good at speaking are the oldest slimes. There's not much to be found around, though.
"I told you, didn't I? I made Sylvie myself," Poppy responded.
"Yeah, you did say that. I guess what I'm trying to ask is how you did it."
"'How I did it,' huh?"
She went silent for a few seconds, collecting her thoughts. During those times, the adventurer could still hear the fighting going on outside of the carriage. There were probably a lot of monsters attacking him, but knowing the old man, he thought he'd be just fine.
"I say that I made her," Poppy started. "But truth be told, she was just a result of a failed experiment."
"A failed experiment? I mean, no matter how you look at it, there's no way she's a failed experiment."
"Oh, I only call it like that because it wasn't a part of the research I was going for. You remember about how I'm trying to find a way to resurrect someone, right?"
"Yeah. It's already been a week but I think I can still remember it. It has to do something about finding your brother, right?"
Resurrecting the dead in order to find her brother; that's the research Poppy's currently pursuing and dedicating her life to.
"Back then, I was testing out alternative methods on replacing other types of body parts and organs of other living beings, as well as humans. I was restricted due to how human experiments are forbidden; I could only replicate most of it. But the problems soon came when I was finding materials for it."
There was mostly nothing that could copy the complicated structure of a body part or an organ. It was expected.
"That's when I decided to experiment with slime."
"How did you decide that?"
"Well, it was mostly just because it was an easy material to gather and because it was one of the most easily malleable materials that I could find in Eldoria. But the most intriguing part of it all was how you can easily manipulate it with magic."
Slimes, as a being, are mostly powered by magic from their core. Thus, this makes their body—slimes, as a material—very abundant with magic. It's not as sufficient as other materials that require magic, but due to how flexible it is, you can manipulate it to make it as complex as a body part or an organ.
The way you can do that is by changing the properties of the certain parts of slime through magic.
"That's when I began experimenting; I created a hollow body made of slime with me being the model, and then filled it up with the necessary organs a human would need. After that, it was like I had created another human being myself. But right as I thought it was complete, a suddenly got hit by a hurdle. Now let me as you as question."
"Go on."
"Aside from the organs, what other things to humans need in order to function properly?"
"Um… A soul?"
"Hm, close enough. It's a mind."
The human body—no, every single living being as a brain for an organ. It's the only thing that can bring consciousness to a living being. However, there's one major drawback when it comes to brains.
If you're religious, you can also think of it as a soul.
"A mind is the only thing I needed in order to actually make the vessel complete. But I couldn't just transfer someone's mind if that mind was nowhere to be found."
In other words, she couldn't just simply take the person's mind—in this case, the soldiers who fell in the battle—if that person is already dead.
It was possible to replicate a brain, but making it function was an entirely different thing. Not a single person would be able to replicate the signals the brains create; the mind it makes and develops.
"Thus, in order to actually make the whole body move, I decided to give it some of my mind."
If a mind was all it was missing, then a mind was all it needed; that was Poppy's mindset back when she was creating Sylvie.
"How did you do that? I don't think you can just transfer someone's consciousness to someone or something else's."
Poppy didn't speak. She didn't give a nod or a sway; she just remained expressionless, not even moving a single inch. The adventurer could see that this wasn't a topic that Poppy wanted to touch.
"Master!"
Sylvie suddenly jumped inside before he could find a chance to apologize.
She immediately clung to Poppy like a child. Poppy didn't try to resist, and instead just pet her head.
"Today's monsters were as delightful as ever!" Sylvie said, burying her face to Poppy's chest. The adventurer saw it as quite adorable, and Poppy just smiled.
"About your question," Poppy said towards the adventurer. "I'd rather not talk about it with Sylvie being here. It brings back painful memories for her."
"Painful memories?"
"Yes."
Poppy didn't want to touch the subject because not only did it bring terrible memories for her, she also didn't want Sylvie to remember the experience that she had back when they were in Eldoria.
It was terrible for Poppy, but it was more terrible for Sylvie. That's why she'd rather stay quiet now that the person they were currently talking about was with them. Poppy was being considerate of her familiar's feelings.
"What're you two talking about?" Sylvie asked, looking up at Poppy like a curious little child who's just discovered a new word.
"No need to worry about it. How was your meal?"
This conversation of them happened four months ago.
In the end, the adventurer never got his answer.
And he thought it would be for the best.