Verdant Oakwoods, Klane Road—named as such after a formidable S-rank adventurer by the name of Klane died carving a path through Verdant Oakwoods, single-handedly allowing for the flourishing of several kingdoms separated by Verdant Oakwoods.
A big slime, 5 feet wide, lay sprawling on the roof of a merchant carriage travelling on this path. Currently not having a penny to his name, there was no way Noah could have hitched a ride to the Haldor Kingdom the usual way, which was by paying a fee to a carriage travelling there.
Furthermore, having an unconscious woman on his back would not have made his case very attractive to merchants generally looking to avoid trouble. Thus, Noah decided to get creative (i.e., illegal). Adopting the form of a slime, he picked up Emma by temporarily submerging her within him and exposing only her head, and softly landed on the roof of a carriage from the trees, where he had hid in wait for a few minutes for a passing carriage. His slime form dissipated the impact of the landing, such that the merchants inside did not detect him as he landed on it with Emma's comatose body.
He had spent the last few hours thinking up a plan of action once he arrived in Haldor. Currently, Noah wished to go to the Haldor Kingdom to cure Emma's dormant soul syndrome, the only place it had been cured before. However, this was no small matter to accomplish. Following the Haldor Prince, who was cured of it over 50 years ago, the news of his unprecedented recovery spread like wildfire throughout the continent.
Many influential and powerful people since then had fallen victim to the same thing, and their close family, subordinates, or associates had had the idea of going to Haldor for the cure. Considering that no other case of recovery from dormant soul syndrome had ever been noted since, it was safe to say all of these people had failed in obtaining a cure. And now Noah was going to attempt the same thing.
All Noah really had going for him was his strength. He couldn't really think of anything else that made him different from the natives of this world. Sure, he was summoned from another world, but that wasn't really that much of a difference when one thought about it.
Even his high school knowledge, which one could consider to be his greatest boon and difference from natives of this world, that he had drilled into his brain, was information that was available in this world, even if it was only known by scholars. He wasn't really all that different from the denizens of this world. He couldn't think of anything that would give him an inherent edge over the competition.
Starting to feel the slight mana drain of being a slime, he transformed back into human form. Up until the day he lost to the Demon Lord, he had worn the outfit provided by the Royal Knights, with mithril weaving in the thread, which allowed it to freely expand and contract based on the form he was going to transform into.
Following the eviction from Eldoria, he was no longer permitted to wear that outfit, thus prompting him to go with his own unique design. Noah's current outfit still had the mithril interweave, consisting of a long, high-collar black coat along with a black t-shirt and pants, with black boots as well. The outfit was his last request to the Eldoria palace craftsman and was incredibly functional—the coat in particular. It allowed Noah to maintain his dignity even when he was in non-humanoid forms, when human clothing would not do. How did the outfit being all black help anything? It didnt. He just liked black.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The mithril interweave was also perfect armour for someone like Noah, who was best suited for light armour that could freely expand, contract, and bend at will.
Now in his human form, he slightly recoiled at the burning sun, which didn't feel as pleasant as when he was a slime. As a slime, sitting under the sun warmed him up, but the form did not possess pain receptors to feel uncomfortable about losing body fluid mass to evaporation under the sun. As a result, it felt simply amazing.
Squinting while sitting up as he covered his eyes, he turned his head to look at Emma's comatose body, which he had allowed to marinate in such heat for hours. Feeling slightly bad about it, he scratched the side of his head with a guilty expression, then transformed back into a slime and encased her within him this time while leaving a pocket of air for her to breathe.
He had been told that the inside of his slime form felt like a warm hug by Emma before, which led him to feel slightly better about himself after having left her in the scorching afternoon sun. The mana drain was incredibly slight anyway; he could put up with it.
Now back in his slime form, he extended a slimy tendril below him to check up on the merchants. Good, they hadn't noticed. Withdrawing his tendril, he relaxed on the roof, which outwardly made his slime form sag outwards, and went back to making plans.
Noah did not know all that much about the Haldor Kingdom to make fancy plans in the first place. This did not mean he did not know what he was going to do, however. His current plan was to register as an adventurer. Having used the authority of being a hero that he gained ever since he was done with his first parade, he had never felt the need to register as one.
Now that this authority would fade as the public forgot the failed heroes, being a high-level adventurer would grant him opportunity wherever he went, especially if he were to be an S rank, which placed him on the same level as most barons within the major nations, which translated to count-level authority in most minor kingdoms.
Once he had gathered enough positive attention to his name, he could attempt to have an audience with the King, who right now was the Prince once saved by the Spirit Queen. An S-rank who had captivated the people of a country and was a former hero was surely a title that could warrant a personal audience with the King of a minor country. Once he had an audience, he would attempt to negotiate a contract that ended with meeting the Spirit Queen. Easy as that.
Except it wasn't that easy. It would already have been done by other people if it were that easy. Clearly, some obstacles prevented this plan from working out.
Even if the King wanted to be lucrative about the cure to dormant soul syndrome, such that people from foreign nations would work hard for Haldor in exchange only for the hope of seeing the cure, he still should have allowed a couple people to be cured, to allow more hope for those seeking a cure, which would incite them to work harder. This wasn't as simple as the King trying to profit off of this, then.
As two massive gates finally came into view right as the sun began to set, Noah took on the form of a Siren, a monster skilled in mental illusion magic. With a short Siren song, he made himself and Emma imperceptible to all in a fifty-metre radius, and he strolled on through the gates.
Taking in the sight of the bustling shopping district he found himself in, he took a deep breath and let out a long exhale.
"Haldor Kingdom, I'll make you my bitch. In a good way."