Knight's Fate: Knight and Princess

It was a rainy day when it happened. A lone frostburnt slime was traversing the damp dark tunnels of the mines when it felt the reverberating sound of something falling in the dark pits. Despite not having ways to see in the dark it was capable of emitting low frequency pulses of mana thanks to its dietary habits consisting of frostburnt silver.

"Finally, we're done." A male voice came from above her. "These bodies are heavy…"

Another voice came from above as well.

"Hurry up, we have to go back and grab our pay, I don't want to come back to this place."

The curious slime felt something was different inside the mines. Geocytes would usually eat anything that was related to metal so keeping a fair distance from whatever was on the ground made the slime want to approach whatever was tossed down there in case it could eat for sustenance.

As it got closer, it started to dissolve some kind of fibrous cloth underneath itself, something it had never eaten before. Following its instincts, the slime started to dissolve everything that had been thrown in the lonely mine.

It was then while eating, it felt something different. Unlike the food it ate for sustenance, this one felt like an otherworldly experience on its own. Something akin to a jolt of electricity running through its gelatinous body at first and slowly but surely, it started to feel… different. Unlike before, it felt like it gained something at the cost of something very precious to itself.

It couldn't find words to describe what it was experiencing.

'Wait… words…?'

It kept eating, it kept feasting upon that exquisite gourmet experience that no longer could be described only as sustenance. It was learning things, unearthing memories from within the corpses of those fellow maids that once had served the Crossford household.

'Crossford… young lady Leona…'

It kept going. Its hunger was satiated and yet its curiosity only grew. The more it went through the corpses, the more memories it acquired from them.

The Great War, the Crossford Family, the heir Leona, the situation within Arcadia, how each of them felt about living there… it went through them pretty much like reading a book. A freshly slain book holding a myriad of stories and experiences it never had felt before.

'These memories…' It felt strange. A tingling sensation in its core similar to warmth of the human body. 'What… are these…?'

It couldn't find an answer for these alien feelings swelling within its gelatinous body. The unfamiliar sensation of longing for company within the household walls, the memory of a warm meal shared with others, the mere act of waking up in the morning and greeting the other maids. At first it was overwhelmed by such simple yet passionate emotions, as its core writhed within its cold gelatinous body, but as the sensations persisted, it started to welcome as one might an unfamiliar yet warm embrace.

But if all those tender memories had anything similar was the presence of one singular exceptional maid seen through the eyes of all memories the slime had consumed.

'Adele…'

It became intrigued, why would the same individual be present in the memories of vastly different people? What was it about her that made all these wonderful people be struck in awe?

It searched, it experienced, it witnessed the reason why these people were so adamant in believing this single person was more than they could ever hope to achieve.

'Adele… head maid of the Crossford household, personal servant to the heir Leona Crossford. Oldest and strongest maid. A person that used to be from the nobility in the demon realm yet fled to the human kingdom in order to live in peace…'

If someone like her was able to rise between the chaos of two worlds, perhaps it too could become more than just a creature of instinct.

And so it began. The young slime would traverse the mine's cold corridors while reminiscing about the experience it partook from the individuals it had consumed. A veritable journey of self discovery that would take days and soon, would turn into a week.

'I wonder why I can't see.' The slime thought as it wandered around the mine's central shaft which had a few geocytes moving around looking for loose rocks to consume. 'Each memory is filled with color and sound but all I can do now is have a general feel for where I am.'

It kept dragging its gelatinous body across the cold floor before eventually coming to a stop.

'Is it because I don't have 'eyes'?'

It was strange, this longing for something it never possessed. To see the world and bask in its colors—it was a dream from borrowed memories, yet it felt like its own.

'Every memory I look through the other person's eyes is always the focus of their attention. Maybe if I could recreate it…'

Its core quivered as a clump of flesh started to form from within its gelatinous body, growing and taking the shape of the familiar organ of sight. It knew instinctively how to make the perfect copy of a humanoid eyeball. It was an unnerving process as a lone eyeball swimmed within the slime's translucent flesh. The pulsating nerve tendrils from the newly created organ twitched unnervingly as it anchored itself to the crimson core.

'I can see!' As the eyeball glanced around the dimly lit mine it could see its environment for the first time. However, its vision was vastly different from how it saw the memories. 'Why is everything upside down…?'

The eyeball swirled inside the gelatin before twisting around and it could finally see a semblance of the precious memories it held within its core. The rocky walls glistened faintly under the dim light coming from the entrance above, the scorpion-like geocytes walked along the same walls and the slime could see how each of their steps sent vibrations through the ground around. Although its vision was exciting it couldn't shake off the fact that the pulses of mana were still a far more accurate way to traverse through the darkness of the mines.

Despite being a simple mockery of human anatomy, it was still part of what made it, itself. If anything it was ready to keep experimenting once it experienced this newfound sensation.

'My first memory…'

Its growth was exceptional. In a matter of hours it made progress in leaps and bounds compared to when it had first started. From an eyeball to a complete ear structure that allowed it to hear the eerie quietness followed by faint noises that filled the mine with life.

A nose that could sense the damp metallic smell. A tongue that could feel the taste of the harsh metallic waters that ran deep within its nest concentrated greatly with the warm rich broth it remembered—alongside its nose, it could finally comprehend the exhilarating memory of consuming a warm meal as opposed to the unforgiving environment of its life.

And finally, fingers that awkwardly dragged alongside the rocky floor, their joints were stiff and uncoordinated. They weren't perfect replicas, but it brought the slime closer to what it recalled from the memories.

'I'm still too small to make any different limbs but this will do.'

On that same day, it made its way back to the nest where it had been born. From a time of no memory to now having acquired a myriad of lives' worth of knowledge.

However, once back, it felt different. Its gelatinous brethren no longer saw it as one of its own as the multitude of slimes surrounded the ever curious being made out of human organs.

'They… see me as prey, don't they?' A valuable mix of instinct with logic overcame its senses as it backtracked before assessing its situation. 'I know one of you is the leader. Come, show yourself!'

As if answering its thoughts from the shifting mass of slimes a large form appeared from the group. Its core was about triple the size of its own but that didn't intimidate it—no, far from it.

'I'll overcome this. I must meet the people from these memories and you'll be the stepping stone for that goal.' Once the big slime tried to envelop it, it quickly used the fingers to propulse itself sideways before latching onto the rocky wall. 'I can't hope to beat it in close quarters…'

It looked around with its floating eyeball until it noticed a stalagmite not too far away from it. By shifting its slime appendages along the wall, it effectively used them to swing itself across the mass of its brethren below it before landing right beside the stalagmite. The shifting mass of slimes moved towards it in an attempt to surround it in order for the largest slime to take care of this unknown living organism that had taken the shape of one of them.

With the help of multiple appendages latching onto the rock, the slime broke off the stalagmite and wielded it as a spear like a humanoid would. Its large opponent, obviously unaware of the new weapon, simply charged in with the hopes of consuming the much smaller slime with its sheer mass.

However, just like a hunter can become the hunted, the small slime dished out a pin point accurate strike to the opponent's core. Holding the other end of the makeshift spear made the slime feel the impact against the core as it shattered in multiple pieces inside the reverberating gelatin body. As unceremoniously as its death was, the slime didn't waste any time and started to consume its much bigger brethren in order to grow.

And it did. Within a few minutes of consuming its prey, the slime that was the size of an apple became much bigger, towering over its brethren and gaining a lot more control over its own body.

'This… this is what I needed.'

Within its mind's eye it began to change. The slime appendages slowly gave place to bones, sinew and nerves as each tendril of creation tied itself to the quivering crimson core as each new individual limb folded outwards as they took the proper shape of a humanoid. Of course, it wasn't easy, the fact that it made nerves made sure that each time the muscles or bones had to be reconstructed it would feel pain in the process, a very human yet unnecessary process for a slime.

This searing sharp pain would be accompanied with a sense of progress as each time it created a new limb it would move and test it. That went on for hours and at that point most of the other slimes were simply there, as if accompanying the whole process with baited breath, if they could breathe.

At the end it was left with a complete humanoid body resembling a demi-human woman of brown hair and hazel eyes. As it didn't have the need for genitals or reproductive organs it simply skipped that step while maintaining the rest of the human anatomy intact.

'I should try standing up…'

The moment it attempted to stand up, it fell face first into the rocky floor.

"Gah!"

It let out a grunt of pain as light blue goo started to drip out from its nose.

'I hurt myself.' It thought as it passed its tongue to clean the slime coming off its nose. 'I… I need to get used to this body soon.'

With trembling arms, it got itself out of the ground and at first it started to crawl around the dome room. Scrapping its knees along the uneven rocky floor, hitting its face against the wall or simply falling over when trying to stand up were some of the mishaps that would shape it into the next iteration of the humanoid slime.

Once it could use its limbs, it started to mimic the actions and poses it remembered from the maids. Even down to the maid uniform was a mimicry of the real thing thanks to it being able to shapeshift.

It sat down among its slime brethren as it started to attempt to speak.

"Aa… e… oo…"

Try as it might, it was much harder than it thought. Not only are the vocal cords a difficult organ to control, but the aspect of moving one's mouth while also trying to do the correct sound was extremely difficult.

'I should make use of those memories…'

Upon closing its eyes, it searched around its core for answers. The imagery of bowing down to a young woman named Leona was the first thing that came to its mind.

'Princess Leona. Dinner has been served.'

It took a deep breath and started to train once again.

"P-p… pri… princ… princes- princess. L-Le… Leo… Leon… na…"

Despite using said memory, it was still a struggle to make use of its body. It grabbed a nearby rock and carved it into the rocky wall. Princess Leona dinner has been served. It knew how to write and read but speaking was an entirely different obstacle.

'I will learn how to talk…' A slime approached it and stayed by its side. 'I want to talk to someone…'

As if responding to its sadness, more and more slimes gathered around it as it was enveloped in a comfortable yet chilly embrace. At that time it heard something coming from the tunnels below its nest.

It instinctively stood up as the other slimes scattered across the dome room. Some of them started to climb up to the ceiling in order to ambush potential predators or prey that would dare to come into their home.

Footsteps echoed from the tunnels, the numbers made the slime feel on edge as it recalled the ever first sight of a human disposing of another living being. The unease of danger made the slimes around it react in the same manner as more and more prepared to ambush whatever living thing was coming up those tunnels.

A low humming noise could be heard from all of them as each slime started to pulsate mana in order to find whatever prey or foe approaching.

As light approached from the tunnels, the slime held its breath almost instinctively before eventually letting out a short gasp of surprise as she saw a familiar face.

'Leona?!'