She Hears Some Rather Shocking News

"Ack! I think you broke my nose!" Quinn exclaimed, as he covered his bloodied nose. He sat there on the ground, looking up at the irate hero.

Everyone else was shocked. Had Robin snapped? The Hero was usually so kind. Why now did he look like he wanted to murder someone?

Only Christian realized that Robin had no intentions to kill. After all, the hero hadn't drawn his blade on the man. Thus, whatever he did could only be considered venting. Another thing to note down was that Robin's fists indeed packed quite a punch. Christian made the resolution to never anger Robin if he could help it.

Robin brandished her fists at the bard on the floor. "What do you mean, 'How was your stay?'! Where the hell are we!? Explain everything right now before I punch you halfway to Ekkinshire!"

"Hey, hold on! Hold on! I'll talk, really I will!" Quinn immediately answered. Robin crossed her arms.

"I'm listening." She said.

"Right. So, the truth is, if I had to give you a location, then you all are still in the grasslands." Quinn replied, as he straightened his nose.

Robin raised a quizzical eyebrow as she looked at the mountain behind Quinn.

"And how is that even possible?" She asked.

"Think of it. Those magic parasites grew so quickly. Isn't it strange that they haven't become widespread?" Quinn pointed out, then patted his chest.

"That was all a result of my own efforts. Without me quarantining them, they would have destroyed the circle of life surrounding them. Rather, you could say the grasslands is a result of my quarantining them."

Robin paused. "A spatial device?" She asked with a frown. "Is there a spatial device that can hold this much land? Then the sky and the sun....how?"

"Well, you could say it's related..." Quinn chuckled. "Or, rather, it's a spatial skill that correlates with a size reduction skill."

"Wait, did you say 'size reduction'?" Chelsea asked, recalling something. Her eyes began to sparkle.

"Um...yep. That I did." Quinn nodded, trying to fix his broken nose back into place.

"You know something?" Robin asked Chelsea.

"Then, you wouldn't happen to know the King of Slimes, Tarquinn, would you?" Chelsea asked the bard.

"Er...you could say that, I suppose." Quinn replied, rubbing the back of his head, where it had hit the ground.

"Wait, what does size reduction have to do with this Slime King?" Robin asked.

"Not 'Slime King', Robin, it's 'King of Slimes'." Chelsea corrected.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Robin tilted her head, not understanding.

"'Slime King' is the name of an evolutionary branch of slimes." Chelsea explained.

"'King of Slimes' is a title granted to Demon Protectorate Tarquinn. He's the only slime who was able to grow to the size of a mountain in a hundred thousand years. But, I heard that after that, he slowly shrunk back down to the size of a regular slime. Since then, he's been able to control his size to the point where we suspected he had a rare size reduction skill."

"Okay? And what does this Tarquinn have to do with our situation?" Robin asked, not understanding.

"Size reduction skills don't only work on yourself." Jasmine interjected, beginning to understand. "What if, this entire mountain range, here, was shrunk to the size of a hand?"

"Eh?" Robin was surprised. "But, then, shouldn't it have been destroyed, being stepped on by some beast, or overshadowed by giant plants?"

"Normally, yes. But what if Tarquinn was protecting it, as well?" Jasmine pointed out.

"He's a slime. How would he protect things?" Christian asked.

"The same way slimes protect anything!" Chelsea said without thinking, then froze. "No way..."

"And how do they protect things?" Christian asked.

"They protect things....by swallowing them." Chelsea said with difficulty.

"""...Eh!?""" The entire company felt they had misheard.

"She's right, you know." Quinn stood up. "The only method available at the time was to swallow everything and isolate it from its surroundings. That great big plain you were crossing used to bear up these very mountains." Quinn replied.

Robin glanced at Quinn, and her eyebrow twitched as an idea came to her. 'Quinn....Tarquinn....surely not, right?' She paused. 'Should I test it out?'

"What?" Quinn asked, feeling slightly uncomfortable under Robin's stare.

"Not much. Just wondering how you are able to take human form inside of your own stomach is all." Robin said.

"Yup. This was something which troubled me for a long time." Quinn nodded. "I could observe things using a small clone of mine, but it would always be mistaken for a web slime or a king slime. Then one day, I found it: the magic mimic spellbook-wait...." Quinn paused feeling something was not right.

Robin grinned mischievously. "A pleasure to make your aquaintance, Mr. Tarquinn, King of Slimes. Now that I have solved your problem here, would you be so good as to please return us to the grasslands?"

"Eheheh, it seems I was discovered." Quinn sighed, as his form liquefied, and he returned to his slime form. It was smaller than,a king slime, yet larger than a normal slime.

"Nice to meet you all. As you already know, I'm Tarquinn, one of the Demon Protectorates. I'll be returning you to the outer world, presently, but before that, I'd like to have a nice chat with the Hero." Quinn said.

"What's a Demon Protectorate?" Sir Drago asked.

"I'll explain later." Chelsea replied.

Robin eyed Quinn skeptically. "And? What do you want to chat about?"

"Now don't you look at me like that! Ahem! I'm not a bad slime, you know!" And, just like that, the top of the slime was raised into a point, making Quinn look somewhat like a fat raindrop.

"Hmm? Is that so?" Robin said, not really understanding Quinn's gimmicks. But, somehow, that line sounded somewhat familiar.

"Oh you! I was told you were from another world. Haven't you ever played Dragon Quest, before? My one hundred year old joke in the making: ruined!" Quinn wiggled in aggravation.

"A video game? Ah, in that case, no, I haven't." Robin replied. "I'm a book reader, not a videogame player. But, for you to know about videogames...Don't tell me..."

"Yup! I'm a transmigrated person. My previous name was Andrew. Nice to meet you! Actually, it's nice to meet anybody, really, after these hundred years."

"So...Andy, is it?" Robin asked.

"I got used to Quinn, so please call me Quinn, now." Quinn waved a tendril.

"Okay, Quinn? How long have you been here like this? And how did you get here?" Robin asked, thinking. 'For some reason, this Quinn character sounds really familiar...'

"Ah, you really want to know? I'll never forget that day, really." Quinn settled down a bit.

"It was a rather sunny day, really. I was on my way to the store to buy the latest new latest game, 'Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors'. When all of a sudden, a huge truck went barreling through during a red light!"

"You got hit by Truck-san?" Robin asked.

"Of course, not! Even if it was a red light, I always made sure to look both ways before crossing, so luckily, I didn't get hit. But, that's when it happened!"

"You got hit by a car?" Robin asked.

"No."

"Smashed on the head by a falling vase?"

"No."

"Stabbed while protecting a friend from a murderer?"

"No!"

"Struck by Lightning or electricity?"

"No!!"

"Got hit by a derailed metro train?"

"I said NO!!" Quinn frowned.

"Then, how did you die?" Robin asked, running out of the common tropes she usually found in isekai novels.

"If you would just listen, for a bit, then I'll tell you!" Quinn exclaimed.

"Ah, sorry. I'm listening." Robin apologized.

"Ahem! The truck crashed into a fire hydrant, breaking it off the ground. Then the water blew it high up into the air. It got bigger, and bigger...and then it hit me. Death by fire hydrant. When I woke up, I was like this."

"No way, a hydrant!? People can die like that?" Robin exclaimed, surprised.

"Yup. You don't remember seeing it on the news?"Quinn asked

"Wait, so your Humberto Hernandez?" Robin asked, confused.

"What? No! I died by fire hydrant, surely it turned up on the news?" Quinn asked, shocked. "How does a story like that not end up on the news!"

Robin shook her head. "Sorry. I'm not too sure if it was. I only saw that first piece of news when I went out to eat at a pizza joint. My older brother nearly choked when he saw it."

"No way..." Quinn slumped to the ground in shock.