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

Why have you suddenly become like a villain?!

Chapter 7: A Different Kind of Rielfa

Just as Rielfa had said, we did encounter a few adventurers on the road. Unlike the previous ones, they didn't attack us without saying anything. Rielfa even exchanged pleasantries with them, and they only expressed surprise when they saw me.

"Wow, someone actually tames a mimic monster? That's really rare. Like that~"

I couldn't understand their language, and I couldn't just use telepathy to communicate with them, so I asked Xiao what they were saying. Xiao actually answered me properly, although her drawn-out ending sounds a bit childish, but she has grown up.

My feelings are a little complicated... It seems like I haven't done anything for Xiao as she's grown up...

Since encountering those adventurers, we haven't seen many people. We've only been listening to Rielfa explain things along the way. The information I have is roughly as follows.

I. Our destination: The Kingdom of Alyas, one of the two great powers on this continent, strong and economically developed. A church resides in its capital city, responsible for the hero summoning ritual. So far, eleven heroes have perished in the summoning. The scumbag my slime and I encountered is a prince of this kingdom.

Second, the kingdom, in the name of heroes, intends to vanquish the evil dragon within the labyrinth, namely, Rielfa. Their purpose is unknown. This time, we're not just out to take out the trash; we also need to gather intelligence about this place.

I truly understood how serious what Rielfa had said during our first meeting was.

To some extent, this situation was caused by me. The slime obtained knowledge about Earth from me, developed hydrogen bomb magic, and used hydrogen bomb magic recklessly during the battle with Peller. As a result, it was suspected by humans, and for its own safety, it had no choice but to eliminate the unstable factors around it.

But according to Rielfa, the kingdom was merely using this as an excuse; they seemed to have planned to attack the labyrinth all along. Now it seems the labyrinth is in grave danger. My first instinct was to apologize to her, but she stopped me, saying something quite meaningful.

"What's meant to happen will happen. Don't blame yourself. Who knows, we might need you in the future."

As she spoke, a somewhat lonely smile appeared on her face. I had never seen her smile like that before. Usually, Raelfa gave the impression of being a reliable and energetic older sister, quick and decisive in her actions, but also very caring towards her friends.

Why would someone like this, a Dragon King like this, show such an expression? I still can't understand it.

"Oh! Sister Li! I can see it now! A wall made of piled stones!"

Xiao suddenly shouted excitedly. I looked in the direction she was looking and I could indeed see the shape of the buildings, but they were so small. It felt like we still had a long way to go. How did she know they were stone walls? The buildings were so small they looked like white flies.

"Is that the kingdom's capital?" I asked.

“Yes, that’s it.” Rielfa nodded. “It’ll be there soon. Ah, shall we rest for a bit before continuing?”

"Is it necessary to rest? We haven't gone very far yet..." I wondered.

We haven't really gone very far yet. Although our destination is almost in sight, there's still a long way to go. Is it really a good idea to rest now?

“Take a break. I carried you for a long stretch of the journey.” Rielfa walked to sit under a tree. “You’re not tired, but I’m getting a little tired.”

"...That's true." I looked away.

Indeed, Xiao and I have been hitching a ride with Rielfa the whole time, and we may have flown quite a distance. Since I haven't dared to open my eyes, I'm not quite sure how far we've flown. It's normal for Rielfa to be tired, right?

But will the dragon get tired because of this distance?

I called Xiao back, who was about to run out in one breath, and asked her to come back and rest with me. Because we couldn't see the sun, I couldn't tell the time. After all, there's no sun in this world, only two moons, and stars often hang in the sky.

Well... this kind of sky is so romantic... This is a sight that doesn't exist on Earth. I feel a little bit of how wonderful it is to have come to another world.

Xiao couldn't stand the monotonous time, so she climbed a tree to play. Climbing trees is really attractive to children. She swung on the tree non-stop, and I suddenly wanted to go up and join her, but it seemed impossible.

After all, Mimics aren't very convenient to move around in...

I looked away and glanced at Rielfa. She was resting against a tree trunk, gazing at the double-moon sky, her eyes unfocused, lost in thought. For some reason, she had an elusive quality about her, making me somewhat afraid that she might suddenly disappear.

She noticed me looking at her and asked gently, "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing..."

I didn't know what to say to her, but I felt I had to say something. If I couldn't say anything, I would lose touch with the person in front of me, Relfa.

"I see..." She looked away. "Li, how do you feel about this world?"

"This world...?"

“Yes, this world.” She pointed to the two moons. “You may not know this, but as a follower of the goddess, you are favored by these two moons, which are your goddess, Celestia.”

Huh? Those two moons are goddesses?

I didn't know anything about this... But then again, what does this have to do with me? She's never really been useful, has she? She's probably a fake goddess.

“Goddess, legend says she is the goddess who sustains the existence of this world,” she continued, “without her, there would be no world. However, she cannot govern this world, because if she leaves the place that sustains the world for too long, everything she has will disappear.”

"..."

I have absolutely no idea how to answer this, because personally, I feel more like an outsider looking at this matter. However, I think I understand why I haven't received much help.

Tsk, I don't mean to use the goddess's power to get a cheat code and do whatever I want in another world. I don't like that.

“The goddess’s followers are not without meaning; you must understand that,” Rielfa suddenly told me about my situation. “But I’m not quite sure what that meaning is either. However, whenever the goddess’s followers appear, the world always undergoes some changes. Don’t worry, there will be no danger.”

"No, I'm not worried, it's just..." I hesitated for a moment, then said, "It feels a bit...unrealistic, isn't it? Or rather, it doesn't feel very real..."

I honestly don't feel like I can make any difference to the world. Besides, I'm just a rather special mimic right now. Changing the world is probably impossible...

“Heh…Is that so…” Rielfa gave a meaningful smile. “Well, you’ll find out eventually.”

"ha?"

Laelfa didn't explain. She stood up, dusted herself off, and called out Xiao's name towards the tree.

"Xiao! It's time to go! We need to get going!"

Chapter 8 Walkthrough Begins

"Oh!"

Hearing Leifa's call, Xiao immediately jumped down from the tree. "Hey, that was dangerous! Look at all those leaves you brought down here, really..."

After I helped Xiao remove the leaves from her body, I started to travel with Rielfa. I didn't know if it would be a problem for us to come out like this. Only Nao and Zhou Dong were left in the maze.

On the way, Laelfa didn't bring up the previous topic again, and I couldn't find an opportunity to answer her question, so we left it at that. Soon after, the royal city appeared much larger to us, and we encountered more and more people.

"So many people!" Xiao Gao exclaimed happily as she watched the passing vehicles.

“These are all merchants’ carriages,” Relfa pointed to one of them. “These merchants are foreigners who travel around trading. They sell goods from some places to other places where they don’t have them and make money. That’s what it’s like to be a traveling merchant.”

"Hmm... I think it's more like a vacation..." I timidly offered my opinion.

If it were me, I'd probably travel and do business at the same time, because I want to travel around and see the world. In the future, I'd probably go into business... with Slime and Akatsuki, and if possible, I'd also like to bring Zhou Dong, Laelfa, and Nao.

“But this is where we end up,” Rielfa suddenly said.

"Huh?" I was momentarily stunned. "Why? Weren't we going to the royal city? We could have gone in just a little further, right? Why are we going back?"

“No, I just meant that we should stop here and not go any further.” Relfa shrugged. “I don’t have any human identification, and if I just swagger into the city like this, I’ll probably be monitored or something, especially with this strange thing around me.”

Identification document...?

I vaguely remember the guy saying that the protagonists who are summoned to another world usually don't have any identification in that world, and in such cases, they are usually stopped by guards.

For example, sometimes if you don't wear your school badge, the gatekeeper won't even let you in. This is based on my personal experience, and it's absolutely true.

I see. It's going to be difficult for us to enter the city because we don't have identification. So why did we come here in the first place? Weren't we supposed to be gathering intelligence?

“Li, did you bring any large pieces of fabric or anything?” Rielfa asked. “And that thing called a blackboard.”

"I brought a blackboard, but I need to find some fabric for it."

I always carry a blackboard with me, but I'm not sure if there's any fabric for it. I'm not some kind of convenient backpack that can automatically organize and count things, so that kind of thing doesn't exist. I can probably find something similar though.

"Give me a slate pencil too."

"Um...here you go."

First, I took out the blackboard and slate pencil and handed them to Rielfa. Rielfa took the blackboard and quickly wrote something on it with the slate pencil. It probably wasn't any dangerous magic... Even if it was, she shouldn't have written something like that on it.

Ah... found it! It looks like fabric... Wow, it seems to be a really high-end one. Wait, isn't this a high-end carpet from our Earth?!

Wow?! Did I miss something like this?!

Well... it seems fine... I can just take it out and use it... it should be... no problem!

I threw out the red luxury carpet.

"Is this okay?"

"Hmm..." Rielfa rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought. "It feels... a bit too special? Are there any more ordinary ones?"

"No, um...."

It's too much trouble to find, so can we just make do with this? Okay?

"Well... we'll just have to make do with this..." Rielfa spread out the blanket. "Anyway, it won't make any difference. Akatsuki, take out your weapon. You can tell if someone is malicious now, right? The task of protecting us is now in your hands."

"Um!!"

Xiao immediately pulled out her favorite weapon, the Five-Five, looking ready for battle at any moment, which startled some passersby and even the horses. However, it seemed that Rielfa had no intention of apologizing; she corrected some of Xiao's mistakes and then returned to her work.

Uh... is this really a good idea...? I still don't understand what we're planning to do...

“Come on, Li.” Rielfa sat down in the center of the blanket. “Pour all that ‘garbage’ here, one batch at a time.”

"Eh... okay..."

I'm completely confused. We came out to throw away the trash, and we're doing it in front of someone's house! And to make matters worse, we're wrapping it in cloth? Anyway, let's just follow Rielfa's line of thought for now…

Give up thinking.

I randomly picked some of the 'garbage' that Relfa needed and spat it onto the blanket. Immediately, people around me turned to look at me with all sorts of expressions: astonishment, confusion, greed, and eagerness. I was a little frightened. What was going on?

It had barely been thrown out when someone immediately came over to ask about it.

"Excuse me, miss! Are you really planning to sell this equipment?!" The man's face was filled with disbelief.

“Of course,” Raelfa said matter-of-factly. “Otherwise, what do you think I’d be doing here? Do you think a delicate girl like me could handle such rough things?”

"Gulp...!" The man swallowed hard. "But! Don't you think this price is too low?!"

“No,” Rielfa said casually, “I can’t handle these things at all. Although they are worth the price, I can’t lift the curse. So I can’t charge a handling fee. Ugh, this is really a headache.”

Those people probably didn't notice that there was a hint of mischief in Rielfa's smile.

Alright... let's begin!

I somehow overheard Rielfa's inner whispers. At that moment, she began to unfold her chessboard (battlefield), and although it was not her area of ​​expertise, she was extremely confident in seizing the golden apple of victory.

"Really?!" the man exclaimed. "Please give me this shoulder pad! One gold coin, right?!"

"Yes, this is it, right?" Rielfa smiled and handed him the shoulder pad. "One gold coin. I'll accept it. Thank you for your patronage."

"I...I'm the one who should thank you!"

The other person lowered their head in alarm, took the shoulder pad, and immediately left. It was less of a happy departure with the equipment and more of a panicked run. They seemed like a thief. What was going on?

After the first customer left, the air around us suddenly froze for no apparent reason, catching us off guard.

"Huh~ Nobody wants to buy?" Rielfa revealed an extremely aggressive smile. "Ah, I'll probably stay here for a while~ because I don't have any money to go back. I can only go back by selling these. Please help me out."

"...Please! Please give me this!"

"Ah! I want one too!"

"What's going on?! Aren't you worried about getting scammed?!"

"Ahhh! I have to hurry back and tell the captain!"

Huh?! What on earth is going on?!

Chapter 9 Rhetoric

"Lairfa, what are we doing?!" I was completely confused.

"Stay put, don't move, listen carefully and watch closely. You're attracting too much attention."

"Huh?"

Lelfa didn't look at me; instead, she smiled and greeted the customers, chatting with them. She didn't tell me directly, but whispered it to me—what was going on?

However, I could understand her last sentence. I was too conspicuous. It was obviously inappropriate for a mimic to appear in such a place, but no one was paying attention to me yet. I immediately retracted my hands and feet into my shell and disguised myself as an ordinary box.

Because of my identity, I can't move freely like Xiao, and I can only maintain a disguise. Speaking of which, how come Xiao can stay in one place without moving? What did Leifa say to her?

What did Rifa say in her reading just now? Listen carefully and watch carefully? It shouldn't be a problem to open a crack a little, right... Anyway, there's nothing else to do in this state, so I'll just listen and see... Then I watched for a long time, a long and boring period of time, but now things have changed a bit.

"Please give me this!"

"Okay~ Please pay one gold coin~"

"Wow! This sword! It's so sharp!"

"You have excellent taste, sir. Although this is a cursed sword, it can definitely break through the dragon scales."

"—!? Sorry! I bought it!"