Girl in the Box: Please tell me why I was reincarnated as a mimic monster!

"Is that so... As long as you're happy." Rielfa also smiled happily.

Have you met with them?

"Uh... I know them, but they don't know me... that's the situation."

"Please meet them soon; you'll be very happy."

"...Someday, I will."

One day, I will achieve your dream.

Chapter 43 Something

"Tch... Is this the entrance to the maze?"

The prince of the kingdom looked very disappointed as he looked at the entrance to the maze. He was just like a child. Did this guy really know what he was here for?

"Hey? Mo, is it really okay to bring this guy along?" the heavily armored swordsman asked the captain.

“Ha…who knows…” Mo sighed helplessly. “Anyway, he paid for it, so it’s okay for us to mentor a newbie like him, right? As long as we don’t go too deep, we can handle it. Naiko, you’re in charge of keeping an eye on this guy.”

“…I did my best.” Heavy Armor Warrior Neko’s expression was bitter.

Not long ago, they received a commission from the Adventurers' Guild with double the reward, and they accepted it without hesitation. However, they never expected it would involve taking the kingdom's prince on a labyrinth adventure. The Adventurers' Guild probably didn't want this hot potato; this guy is really difficult to deal with.

His Highness the Prince had barely arrived at the group when he began to sabotage it. He approached the female members, telling them that if they were with him, they could become imperial concubines in the future, and he tried every means to possess them.

After losing interest in the maze, he went to harass the female members instead.

"If you do this, it will bother me a lot..."

As the only warlock in the team, Knight was very troubled. She had refused the prince's invitations many times on the way, but he continued to pester her and even tried to touch her body. Since the prince was the one she was dealing with, it would be very troublesome if she did not handle it properly.

To be honest, Knight had wanted to hit him with a "Flame Arrow" for a long time.

"Excuse me, Your Highness, please do not harass my sister." Naiko intervened between the two, shielding Knight behind him.

The prince clicked his tongue, then mocked him: "Tch... Brother-in-law, your sister and I have a very good relationship, we're close enough to touch each other's butts."

"Really?"

His words only earned him a cold response from Necko.

"Whoa?! Brother?!"

"I've known my sister's body inside and out for a long time!"

Unexpectedly, Naiko pulled Nyssa close and brazenly groped his own sister's breasts and buttocks right in front of the prince. The prince's face turned extremely ugly.

Snapped!

Of course, this comes at a price.

"rogue!"

Knight slapped Neko hard across the face, then broke free and ran to Captain Morde. Neko, meanwhile, stood smugly with his arms crossed, looking down at the prince who was a head shorter than him, though the bright red handprint was a real eyesore.

The prince temporarily set aside his interest in Knight and instead set his sights on a voluptuous woman with a beautiful figure—the female thief in the party, Leila.

"Oh, Miss Leila, have you changed your mind?"

The prince walked over to Leila and casually placed his hand on her round, beautiful buttocks, kneading them with abandon.

"Please stay away from me." Leila pushed his hand away and took a few steps back.

"Oh, oh, oh, these weapons are truly something I can never get tired of looking at." The prince stroked his chin, admiring Leila as if appreciating a beautiful view.

As thieves, their equipment consists only of essential protective gear, a tool belt, and a dagger as a weapon, resulting in rather revealing clothing, practically half-naked. Leila was the same; with most of her skin exposed, she was thoroughly scanned by the prince's gaze. And the "weapon" the prince referred to was her enormous breasts.

She did not show any disgust or resistance, but simply allowed the prince to look her over.

"As expected, come to my side." The prince said firmly, "I won't let you suffer, I will take good care of you. Whether it's at night or in life."

"...Please be careful what you say."

Leila left those words behind and walked towards Mode.

"I'll go in and scout ahead," Leila said to Morde as she passed by.

"Oh." After a while, Mo asked, "Will you go with him?"

“…God ​​knows.” Leila remained noncommittal.

"Ah, Leila! I'll go with you!" Knight chased after her.

After a brief conversation, Leila quickly entered the maze without looking back. Mode didn't turn back to look at her either, but simply sighed and scratched his head in frustration. She was Mode's first partner, and the teammate he knew best.

I don't think so... I hope it is...

Do not look up at the sky; it is now noon. It is still a long time before we can truly begin exploring the labyrinth. He sat down to rest and saw the prince walking towards him.

"Hey, leader," the prince asked rudely, "what does that big-butt woman like?"

"...I don't know." Mo De responded with a stiff smile. "Please don't harm my team members, otherwise we will..."

"You talk too much." The prince spat. "Speak, how many gold coins?"

"...How many gold coins?" Mo didn't understand what he meant.

"How many gold coins is the commission?" the prince said calmly. "I'll pay you ten times that amount. Hand over those two women to me, and I'll make sure they live a good life."

...So that's what it meant?

"I'm sorry, I can't make that decision," Mo replied dismissively.

"Stop your fucking nonsense," the prince drew his longsword, "If you don't produce results when you return to the capital, I'll send you to the water dungeon...!"

One glance was enough to tell that the sword wasn't some mass-produced, low-quality item, but rather an exceptionally sharp masterpiece. This wasn't to showcase the kingdom's wealth, because the prince possessed the capability; even alone, if he so desired, he could easily eliminate himself and Neko within the labyrinth, and then force Leila and Knight into submission through violence.

Even if they refuse to submit, just kill them. I heard he also raped and murdered several girls, not even sparing their bodies. The current situation is already considered good.

"I... I'll think about it..." That was all Mo could say.

"I admire talents like yours." The prince sheathed his sword, laughed, and left.

Let's try to keep him calm for now, but this isn't a temporary solution. After we complete the mission, let's get them to escape together.

Mo lowered his head, contemplating his future. Escaping with his friends, pursued by the kingdom, seemed romantic, but reality was cruel. His worst-case scenario was to murder the prince in the labyrinth and report it as a trap.

No, that won't do. The kingdom might hold me responsible. Damn it, I should have just not taken this commission.

If they breach the contract, they will be charged five times the amount as liquidated damages, but this team doesn't have that many gold coins.

damn it……!

Just as Mo was fretting over this, Leila and Knight returned.

"How is it?" Nyco asked.

“Same as before, nothing troublesome,” Leila said calmly. “Just watch your step. There are traps, but I don’t know what kind they are. Knight almost stepped on one just now.”

“I’m so sorry…” Knight lowered his hand in frustration.

"No, I'm not blaming you." Leila gently stroked her head. "It's okay. I'm more worried about you."

"Hey, leader," the prince called out, "shouldn't we be setting off?"

"Ah...that's it."

Mo De stood up straight with an awkward expression, so as not to make his teammates feel uneasy. This is also something a captain should do.

“Because we have an extra member, we need to adjust our formation,” Mo said. “Nekko, you and I will play forward, Leila and Knight will be behind us, and His Highness will be in the middle to protect them.”

"Huh? I would have done it even without you telling me." The prince sneered.

This formation was largely to protect the prince, who was a novice, and there were various other reasons as well. In fact, Mo didn't want him to get too close to Leila and the others.

"Then I'll leave it to you..." Mo simply nodded and led the way into the maze.

Chapter 44 A Small Invention (Knockoff)

...Damn it, why is the language in this other world so difficult?!

I grabbed the book from the floor and quickly shredded it into pieces with pliers. The slime-chan next to me just glanced at it coldly, then dragged her book away from me to avoid being bothered by the scattered papers.

Speaking of which, I've talked about slimes before because of this... It really makes people lose their minds, this devilish book.

Ultimately, it was just an ordinary-looking picture book, the kind of book with pictures and words that you find in kindergarten. However, I could only understand the pictures, not the words.

After listening to Nao's advice, I thought about my dream of becoming human and finally decided to divide it into the following stages.

Learn languages, find ways to become human, learn the common sense of this world, go out into the world to practice, and graduate.

Uh...it might not be that simple. There must be a way to become human again; Nao mentioned it to me, but she doesn't know how. Am I just supposed to rely on that pervert who's always following me? Nao seems to have a very high opinion of her.

Today, the pervert is still relentlessly following us!

To be honest, I'd rather she came out quickly; this feeling of being watched all the time is really unbearable. If she comes out sooner, I can beat her up; I'll probably win. Slime-chan will definitely help me.

I've been reading these books for the past few days. I can barely understand the words, but I can't speak them. And the mimic doesn't seem to have any vocal organs.

There's simply no other choice. Are we left with only reading aloud? To be honest, I have absolutely no interest in learning communication methods that don't reveal one's intentions; it would violate the privacy rights of both parties.

I don't know if the concept of privacy exists in this world, but I still want to abide by the moral standards of the earth; deep down, I am still a human being.

Wow... stop complaining! I want to be human too! The mimic is fun, but I still want to be human.

There are already five marks on the wall. I vaguely remember how much time I've spent in this world, maybe about a month. So far, all I've done is casually fight monsters, collect some gold coins, and mess around with the dropped items.

The only thing that really matters is that I saved the slime... although I don't know if that counts as saving it, since the thorns on the vine hedgehog didn't seem to pose any threat to it.

I'm reading a lot of books now... well, a lot, mostly just looking at pictures. But Slime-chan has finished reading three books as thick as dictionaries. I'm really curious about what those books were about, but I can't understand them, and Slime-chan won't tell me.

I know that conversations can't work, but it's really awkward not being able to speak. Thinking about it, it seems like learning how to speak is useless because I can't speak.

Let's reconsider reading it aloud... Would it be better if we could improve it a bit?

Nao explained to me that telepathy is the ability to convey words through thoughts, which could perhaps be called a skill. The main question now is how to learn this skill.

Nao told me that slimes know language and can have normal conversations. She even talked to one of them once, but the slime seemed very unhappy, which I don't quite understand.

Are there any alternatives?

I wish I could use those materials that I've been leaving aside. I haven't been able to bear throwing them away, so they've filled half my house. I'm also considering whether I should expand the space.

Hmm... Ah, maybe that one will work.

I immediately grabbed a picture book and walked over to Slime-chan. Slime-chan was very unhappy because I was blocking the light from her reading.

I opened the picture book, placed it on top of the book it was reading, and pointed to the picture: a hunter with a bow and arrow was hunting in the forest, accompanied by a dog, searching for prey.

That's how I understand it... Now we'll see how Slime reacts.

Slime looked at me, then at me, its expression shifting slightly. It walked to the door and looked at me, as if asking for my opinion.

Slime-chan understood it as meaning to go out and fight monsters, which is similar to what I wanted to express, so we successfully reached a consensus!

It might work!

I ignored Slime-chan and ran to the pile of junk to rummage for what I needed. Slime-chan felt she'd been tricked and angrily bumped me into it.

Why did things turn out like this? I don't understand this world!

However, I found what I needed without any trouble: a stone. It was a black stone that I got from a monster called "Nura" before, and its name was "Nura's Black Core".

It's said to be a very powerful weapon raw material, but that's none of my business. I can't make weapons, and I can't use them properly, so I won't feel bad using them elsewhere, because there are plenty of things like that out there.

I grabbed the black stone and smashed it hard on the ground. It shattered in two with a crack, the broken surface of which was, of course, very uneven, and small fragments flew out everywhere.

I picked up the larger half of the black stone, cut it off with pliers, and turned it into a slab. Because of my obsessive-compulsive disorder, I made it into an almost rectangular black slab.

Ta-da~ Xiao Li's magical little gadget—the blackboard!

Why did I do this? Because I discovered that I can express my meaning through drawing, and Slime-chan can roughly understand what I mean.

Based on this, as long as I have the corresponding drawing, I can have a simple conversation with Slime-chan. So, I made a blackboard.

I tossed the blackboard to Slime-chan, ran into the maze to find the hanging sharp stone pillars, cut them all down, and brought them back with me.

Slime-chan looked at my series of actions with a completely bewildered expression.

I picked up a stone pillar, modified it a bit to use as a pencil, and then drew on the blackboard. Uh... I wasn't actually that good at drawing~ Anyway, it was just a temporary means of communication.

Holding the stone pencil with pliers was very troublesome, but I had some experience from practicing sword-wielding, so it didn't pose much of a hindrance. The drawing was completed quickly and simply, representing only my feelings.

What I drew is Slime-chan and me. As a mimic, I have a slime on my head, and we look quite harmonious.

I hope I can stay with Slime forever.