Kay was worried about Ami. Of course he was, and so was everyone else. It seemed that as soon as he thought that he had found something that he could do to help her, someone else had already done it. He wanted to help too. But he wasn't strong like Cat, he couldn't cook the way that Vita did, and worst of all he was broke. All he had been able to do so far was read to her!

Kay thought that reading to her had still been nice. They had all learned a little bit more about Rockeaters, which was pretty cool! It seemed that they had trouble getting sick. Does that mean that this is the first time that Ami had been sick?

Well, she wasn't quite sick, but what if this was the closest that she had ever been to being sick? What an awful thing to have happen! Not only be poisoned but having this be the first time that she was knocked off of her feet like this. Unthinkable!

What could he do to help? Well, he supposed that he had already told her what he could do to help. He was going to continue on with being an adventurer. Maybe in the lower levels he would stumble upon the way to make an antidote. He didn't want to keep her waiting either. Was there a way to accelerate his schooling?

He knew that people had done it before in the past, but he wasn't sure what he would have to do. Was it something about having high enough stats to be able to jump ahead? Or did he also have to prove that he was able to use the skills that they were currently teaching him in class? How hard could that be?

Kay lay awake thinking all of these things instead of sleeping. He knew that he should be asleep, he had his one-to-one training with Crestin tomorrow. He has enjoyed using his magic until he wasn't able to anymore, until he felt tapped out.

It had been fun practicing with all of the different elements. Somehow, no matter how much Kay pushed himself, he didn't seem to run out of mana. Which was crazy! He has never heard about that before. Maybe he was special?

Kay had always wanted to be special. He heard that his parents had been crazy strong adventurers. He wondered if he would end up being just as strong as they had been. He hoped so. No, he hoped that he would be even stronger so that he wouldn't die down there and leave behind loved ones.

Because he had people that he loved and cared about now, and it seemed as though they actually cared about him in return. Which was crazy. He had always hoped that he would have something like that in his life.

He wondered if they would still like him if they knew that he was not actually a bunny-kin. Ami did, and everyone seemed to like Ami. Maybe her good opinion of him would sway everyone else. He supposed that he would find out in the morning.

Crestin had told him that he wasn't allowed to use any spells before training with him, as he wanted to test Kay on his raw abilities. How fast he could run without any augmentation spills, how high he could jump, how good he can hide, how much magic he could use if he wasn't already maintaining a spell. Kay thought that the Bunny Feet spell hardly counted. Kay was a good student though, and he would do what Crestin asked. And with that final thought, Kay fell asleep.

"Good morning Kay!" said a gentle voice. Who had come to wake him up today? It had usually been Cat up to this point, but Kay supposed that he was taking care of Ami. And that was a better use of Cat's time.

Also, also... Kay didn't like not being able to breathe! It was a horrible way to wake up in the morning. Happy, calm, peaceful sleep and then BAM! Cat on your face, smothering you. What would Cat do if he did smother Kay? Would he even notice? He now believed that Cat would care, but that it wasn’t enough to prevent the smothering.

"Kay?" the voice said again. "I am coming in and turning on the light."

Kay braced himself. Still, no matter how much a person thinks they have braced themselves you are never truly ready for bright light.

"Agh! Ahhh. It burns!" Kay said as he dove back under the blankets. Well, now he was away from the bright lights, but he still had to get up. What a dilemma.

"I apologize that I am about to do this, but Cat and Vita said not to go too easy on you."

The blankets were pulled off of him and he was able to see who was speaking to him. He rubbed his eyes, sat up, and said, "Good morning Emmie, I thought you liked me? Why would you subject me to such cruel torture." With just a little lip quiver included.

Wait, Kay thought. Emmie. Emmie who did not yet know that he wasn’t a bunny.

"What happened to your ears, Kay?" Emmie asked.

He supposed that it was time for him to come clean. "These are my ears." he said solemnly.

"Oh I see. So you have been using a spell every day to look like a bunny-kin? Why?"

“Because bunny-kin are so cute?” Kays says with a shrug.

Emmie just stared back at him blankly.

"I wanted you all to like me. And this is a beast-kin zone. And my bestest best friend is a beast-kin and people seemed to like her and I wanted them to like me too. I have never really had friends before and I did not want the only person that has wanted to be friends with me abandon me. Or be ashamed of me!"

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Do you truly believe that Amaya would leave you?" Emmie asked as she moved to sit next to him. Something about her presence happened to soothe those that were around her.

"No way! Ami is the sweetest, nicest, kindest person that I have ever met. The only person that I have seen her be rude to is Rex. And he deserves it! I always thought that he was an evil jerk-face, but he is my cousin and the only family that I have so I have had to tell myself up to this point that I just had to tolerate him and that maybe he wasn't so awful and that he was just mean to me but NO! He is an awful person.

“No! He is less than a person. He is an evil slime. No! Slimes are too good to be compared to the likes of him. He is a no-good, dirty rotten stinking waste of life, thought and space!" Kay said, getting worked up.

Up to this point, Rex had been the only family that Kay had, so he tried to tell himself good things about Rex, but he just couldn't do it anymore.

"Kay. You have family now, and we don't care what race you are. Also, half-elves are treated just as poorly as us and are always welcome with open arms. You have seen how much we all love Crestin, right?"

"Yeah. I know that you are right. But you thought that I was a bunny and so many people say wow, what a cute bunny and oh my goodness I have never seen a bunny-kin before! It was nice being praised."

"But Kay." Emmie said, placing her hand on his knee. "Wouldn't you rather be praised for who you actually are and not for who you think people want to see you as?"

"I know that I should say yes, and really I do suppose that would be nicer, but honestly just having anyone saying anything nice about me at all was, well, nice." Kay said and wondered if he was being too honest.

"Well then. Listen up Kay. I like the way that you look good in anything, I like the way that you feel comfortable to dress and act however you want and that you are not constrained by societal expectations. Your memory is truly remarkable and I have never met anyone that is able to remember as much as you. The way that you love magic brightens the day of anyone who gets to hear you talk about it, and how you care about your friends makes my heart light. I think that you are a wonderful person. So no more using that spell. Unless it is useful to your being an adventurer. Understood?"

“Can, can I maybe hear that again. And then every morning for the rest of my life?”

“Possibly” Emmi said with a smile.

Kay felt his face getting warm. He didn't know how to feel about someone saying so many good things about him. Cat and Ami had said nice things about him, but not so many nice things in a row.

"Wow." he managed to squeak out.

"Very good. Now get dressed. I have some breakfast packed for you to share with Crestin. I did that so you had a little extra time to sleep in." Emmie said, and then she slid out of the room.

Kay stared at the door for a few minutes after she left, thoughts racing so much that they weren't even words. They were instead just a blur of vague emotions and concepts. He sat for a few moments more before popping up on his feet and grinning. He felt better about himself then he had, well, ever!

He then felt conflicted about feeling good about himself when such bad things were happening with Ami. It sucked and he was mad about it, but he decided that everyone probably knew better than him, well at least a decent chance like 50 percent. If he was perceiving what they want accurately, then they all wanted him to continue to work towards becoming and adventurer. That he could do!

Kay walks over to stand in front of the mirror and check over his appearance. He still looked a bit ruffled, but he was a bit, so there was nothing that he felt he needed to fix about that. He picks up the food that Emmie had thoughtfully put together for him and made his way down the stairs.

"Good morning Kay!" People greet Kay as he comes down the stairs, seeming overly cheerful. Kay bet they were doing that to try to keep everyone's spirits up, what with Ami suffering. He decided that he would not only do his best at working towards becoming an adventurer, but also at his job here at the Paws and Claws.

A few people gave him an odd look at not having bunny ears anymore, but the looks didn't last long and often ended with shrugged shoulders and warm smiles. Kay was relieved to see that it seemed people really didn't care if he was a beast-kin or not. Yay! Though it did make him question their judgement, how strong was the alcohol that Momma Tia sold here, wait did people drink this early in the morning?

As he was about to head out the door he felt something warm and heavy land upon his shoulder.

"I will be accompanying you to the practice field where Crestin is already waiting for you." Cat tells him. "That much should have been obvious without me having to explicitly state it." Cat says, then sighs. "Sorry Kay, I don't mean to harp on you, especially first thing in the morning."

Kay couldn't help but hear exhaustion and perhaps a bit of defeat in his voice, which made him feel oddly sad. Well, maybe it wasn't odd and should have been more of an obvious way of feeling.

"Thanks Cat, escort away!" Kay says brightly, reaching up and petting his passenger. Kay hadn't realized how heavy Cat was. How could Ami walk around with him on her shoulder all the time like it was no big deal.

The walk there was surprisingly quiet. Kay would usually babble a lot to fill the silence, but he didn't feel comfortable doing that at the moment. He figured it was because the topic of conversation would inevitably turn to Ami, and he didn't think that it would be in either of their best interest.

Cat ended up being the one to break the silence. He cleared his voice before speaking to make sure that he had Kay's attention.

"I am doing what I can to bring her some justice. We are tracking down who poisoned her, and how they got the poison. I will take out everyone involved that I am able to. I know that won't help her become an adventurer, and that she will never get back what she lost, but I wanted to at least let you know.”

"Is there any way that I can help?" Kay asks earnestly.

"Just keep working hard." Cat says firmly. "And you can have sympathy for what she is going through, but no pity. Never show her pity."

"Oh, yes Cat."

The silence came back between them and Kay quickened his pace to the training field.

"Good morning Crestin!" Kay greets him, trying to continue to be overly cheerful.

"Good morning," he greeted. "Kay? Where are your ears?" Crestin asked, confused.

"Oh, they were just the side effect of a spell I had been casting. I'm actually a half-elf like you."

"Huh. Interesting spell. Which one?"

"Bunny feet, which is rather odd when you think that it gave me bunny ears and tail, but not feet. I mean yes it does make sense since the spell gives you agility but really people should name their spells correctly."

"Interesting. I haven't heard of that side effect. Guess you learn something new everyday." he says casually. "Now then, are you ready to work harder than you have worked yet?"

"I feel like the correct answer is yes, so I am going with yes. But I'm not just going with it because I feel like I am supposed to. I really am willing and ready to work really hard. I want to kick all the butt! I want to be like pow pow, boom whoosh!"

"Yes, well very good." Crestin says, nodding. He seemed pleased with Kay's response, which was a relief. He was glad that he was able to maintain energy for learning.

"We are going to begin with some running." Crestin said and gave Kay a smile that made him shudder. "Without Ami to help cover you, you are going to have to learn some new tactics. We are still going to focus on spellwork, but we are also going to drill escape tactics, and stealth spell sniping. You never know who you will be in a party with, so the more skills you have to offer the better off you are."

"That's really good advice! Teach me everything that you are able to and I will be the best student you have ever taught. I mean it, you will be saying, Kay I had no idea you were able to learn so well! I am so proud of you, why you are practically like a brother to me. You are going to be the best mage that ever lived!"

"I'm not opposed to saying cheesy things, but you have to earn them. I only like giving praise like that when I mean it, though I can’t say I have ever quite said that. So that means you will have to work harder than any student before you. Now then. Run!"

Kay did his best at running, dodging the weak spells that Crestin flung his way, and shooting out spells when he didn't have the best visibility. He worked as hard as he was able to the entire day until at the end of it he was laying on the ground panting, just a puddle of Kay.

“I’m, I’m not even a Kay anymore. I have melted, I am slime… Sliiiime”