CH 89

(T/N: I spent so much time to think about the title’s translation. In Japanese, it’s ‘Meitantei Yuuri to Meitantei Karin-san’, both having the same pronunciation but with different kanjis, with different meaning. 迷探偵 is for Yuuri, meaning the inept detective, while 名探偵 means the great detective, that’s for Karin-san. I tried making them a little similar, hence ‘green’ and ‘great’. If you have other suggestion that’s better, feel free to drop it in the comment section!)

We went to the church in the Abbot town, but unfortunately, Priest Rou was absent. Frank-san who had been looking forward to seeing him again after a long while looked disappointed.

“Priest Rou has been away from this morning.”

“Hee. Where did he go to?”

“He said that he was going to the town mayor’s place.”

“To Bowan’s place, huh?”

And, for some reason, Louise-san also tagged along to the church.

Perhaps she was interested in the new variety of the slime? Since she was someone who was selling information, if something new were to be discovered, perhaps she’d like to have a grasp on what kind of thing it was.

“Boy. Hurry and show us the slime.”

Karin-san rushed up the boy as she was unable to wait.

“If that means I can find my missing family, then…”

“Most likely.”

“Understood. Please wait here for a little bit.”

As we saw the boy running off after saying that, Amanda-san turned around with a concerned look.

“Karin, will it be fine? About the thing you said.”

“What about it?”

“Is it alright for you to declare that the missing family could be found?”

“Hmm? If it’s about the missing children, won’t they be found before long?”

Not only Amanda-san, but all of us were surprised upon hearing Karin-san readily asserting that.

“…Eh. What do you mean?”

Karin-san usually only gave brief explanation in a begrudging manner in response to our questions, but since her mood was good today, she explained it carefully to us.

“Don’t you think that it’s weird for a slime to be able to get within the barrier in the first place?”

“That is right.”

“Then, how did it enter? Most likely, it was from outside the town, and used the fact that the barrier applied to the quarry was only on surface level. The slime entered from outside through the dry well, drinking what little water was left there. Perhaps the remaining water that it drank had been purified by Priest Rou’s Cure magic. In other words… What occurred to it was similar to what happened to my Maximillian Jr.”

Uuuhm. In other words, it was a phenomenon where it became a Familiar by drinking water that had Cure magic applied in it, wasn’t it?

But that explanation still didn’t make sense.

“But if that’s the case, shouldn’t it have become Priest Rou’s Familiar?”

Right. I think so, too.

But why is it reared by the boy instead of Priest Rou, then?

Or rather, with that, wouldn’t it mean anyone could have a Familiar even if they weren’t priest? As expected, it’d be impossible for strong monsters like Noir, but if it was around the same level as slimes or Horn Rabbits, it seemed like they’d be able to be made into Familiars.

“Hmm. But that wasn’t the case, so I wonder what could be the cause of it? The truth really piques my interest.”

“Wait a minute. But if that’s the case—”

Amanda-san was about to voice out her question that was similar to mine, but she closed her mouth again. At the end of her sight was Louise-san.

By the way, Louise-san is someone who sells information, right? If that’s the case, maybe we shouldn’t have told her how to tame a monster into a Familiar.

“Hee. So the cute one who’s sitting on top of Frank’s head was acquired that way, huh? That’s interesting.”

“Kyuu.”

Luan responded, perhaps it was aware that Louise-san was talking about it.

“Which brings us to this little girl over here.”

“Louise. Can you stop your prying over it right there? It’s going to hinder our work.”

“Of course I understand that. Well, I am just curious. But it doesn’t seem like anyone feels like explaining it to me in details, huh?”

Louise-san shrugged her shoulders and seemed to stop her pressing and leave it at that.

Meanwhile, Karin-san was devoted on anticipating for the slime.

“The fact that the slime’s color is grey means that most likely, it has ingested things other than water and the soil. It might have ingested marble, which is Abbot town’s specialty, but… if that is the case, its color should be white instead. With that being said, if we could find out what that might be, it might become our key to finding the missing children.”

“…Wait a bit. It will become our clue?”

In response to Amanda-san’s question, Karin-san turned her gaze to her that seemed to say that she found it unbelievable that Amanda-san still didn’t understand what she was trying to say.

For some reason, this felt like I wasn’t the small detective here. Karin-san ended up taking the role of the detective instead.

“Of course it will. It’s obvious that the children went missing because they found out what that something is.”

EEEEEEEEEH?!

Is that the case?

My eyes blinked so much. When I looked at Ar-niisama, he nodded.

Frank-san was staring at the door where the boy had gone to while scratching his cheek, and Virna-san had her arms crossed as she closed her eyes.

In other words, Detective Karin’s deduction is correct?

And thus, Karin-san’s excellent deduction was interrupted by the boy’s return.

“Oooooooooooh! T-this is…! A scent that I’ve never smelled before! Which means, it is exactly a new type of slime that I’ve always desired, isn’t it?! Finally, at long last… I’ve finally found it! Come here, come here. I see, its appearance is certainly similar to earth slimes, but it’s mixed with grey color. And then this scent is… I feel some stiffness among the coldness. Hmhm. As expected, it’s not marble, its scent is closer to the crystal. But this is—”

As expected of Karin-san. The moment the boy returned, she jumped towards the box that the boy carried in his hands and smelled it.

Then, she examined the slime while saying that it wasn’t this and that.

“Hum hum, I see. This is very interesting. To think that it exists in a place like this.”

“Karin, can you tell what it is?”

“Hmm. The reason why the children went missing is now clear.”

Karin-san’s thick glasses glittered.

Oooooooooh. Amazing. Karin-san, you’re really a great detective!

“Stop putting on airs and tell us already!”

In response to Amanda-san’s words, Karin-san stuck up her flat chest.

“The slime consumed a magical crystal.”

“Eeeeeeh, magical crystal?!”

“This scent can’t be anything other than magical crystal.”

But isn’t that, uhm, precious crystal that can substitute magic stones, that can only be found and extracted from Count Rainier’s territory?

It can be found and extracted from Abbot town, too?

Eh, but what does it have to do with the disappearances of the children?!

I don’t get it~!