It had barely been weeks since Haruki had left Stella in Asuka's care, and she had already grown twice in size from how big she initially was. Her growth wasn't only limited to physical changes either, surprisingly she'd already started repeating broken words that'd been uttered around her.
"Ha-ruki!" Jumping on the bed like a toddler, she kept repeating Haruki's name.
"Awwwww! She said master's name!" The maids standing at the corner of the room appeared more excited than Haruki himself.
"This can be a problem," still dressed in the clothes his servants have picked out for him, Haruki picked Stella up in his arms before turning to the group of Stella's personal maids. "If she uses my real name in front of everyone, it can cause us a lot of problems, please don't teach her stuff that might bring trouble."
Given their pure intentions, Haruki didn't want to reprimand them too harshly. But even those few words stung them like a saber. Having expected their master to be delighted by their plan, they'd never expected to be scolded for it instead.
"We're sorry," sulking at their mistake, all three of them hung their heads low in shame.
"So-sowry!" Picking up on the new word, Stella exclaimed right after the maids.
Her voice pulled them out of the gloom and even made Haruki smile.
"I guess that makes up for your mistake, If she's saying sorry, how can I punish any of you?" Haruki said, trying to make them all feel better.
Cheered up by the remark, all of them wore a warm smile. Lifting their long skirts a little, they gently bowed their heads and took their leave. Left alone with Stella, Haruki wanted to spend some time with her before heading off to the neighboring nation. Holding her in his arms, he walked out of the room and began making his way toward the open gardens.
On his way there, he sent a guard to get Fay away from her research and spend some time with her adoptive daughter.
'I hope she was at least visiting her while I was gone.' Almost feeling like a father and mother figure, Haruki began pondering the possibility of actually courting his servants. It made him wonder how it would feel to be married, and the kind of chaos that would ensue if he decided only to marry one. 'They'd eat each other alive if I only have one wife, ahaha.'
Bringing him out of his thoughts, Stella suddenly wrapped her hands around his head. Giggling out loud she kept repeating random words she'd heard from others.
"You're really active today," Haruki said, looking her in the eyes.
Taking a look at her luminous hair and fair features, he was once again forced to question the race of his adoptive daughter. Even though he'd created a human clone to put the soul into, there was no doubt in his mind that the soul of a monster was affecting her viscerally.
'Maybe a slime girl like the slime queen, but then again, wasn't the soul completely flushed of its attributes and memories?' Walking into the open garden, his mind kept racing for an answer, however since there was no way for him to know for sure, he settled on waiting a bit longer for Stella to manifest her true nature.
As if destined by his thoughts, Stella's eyes widened as one of her hands passed through Haruki's body. Trapped in her arm with glue-like texture, Haruki couldn't believe the timing and just burst into a fit of laughter. Triggered by her guardian's laughs, Stella began mimicking him and cackled just like him.
"A slime girl, eh? Ahaha," taking her slimy hand out of his neck, Haruki playfully rubbed their noses together. "I guess, the easiest explanation is often the right one after all?"
Throwing her up high in the sky, he sprouted out his wings and flew up to catch her. Since loved flying so much, he wanted to play with her while flying around before having to leave for another long mission.
'If Rose was here, she'd be mad.' Despite knowing he was playing with fire, he couldn't bring himself to not let his daughter fly around, especially because it made her seem the happiest when doing so.
"Hehehe!" Hearing her laugh, he finally felt at peace for once.
'If only this world wasn't so cruel, I could've just spent the rest of my days like this.' Not long after he started playing with Stella, the guard arrived back with Fay, and she joined the two in the sky with a pair of her own two wings.
"You're lying!" She yelled, not believing Haruki's story that Stella was a slime girl. "The soul had none of its properties left so it should've just acted as a catalyst to hold the conci-"
Betraying her theory, Stella turned her body into clear slime on Haruki's demand. Slack Jawed by the sight, Fay's shoulders fell in defeat. Unable to accept that her theories had been proved wrong, she puffed up her cheeks in annoyance. Taking great joy in watching her like this, the sudden change in Stella's bodily consistency completely slipped his mind.
However, as Fay noticed her daughter slipping down through Haruki's arms, she flew towards her in a rush and used one of her abilities to eliminate the threat of her falling.
"Soul-wings!" The moment her mana surged through Stella's clear skin, a pair of translucent white wings appeared on her back.
"What?" Just realizing what had happened, Haruki squeezed Stella tight so she couldn't slip down further. "Oh god…Rose definitely would've killed me."
"NO, I WILL!" With her daughter secured by the wings that made her float, Fay flew even closer to Haruki to hit him in the head.
Catching her hand, however, he made a pair of shadow hands clasp together to apologize.
"Sorry, it won't happen again, Fay, " he nervously muttered.
"Ag-again!" Hearing her talk, Fay's complaints were washed out of her mind. "Ha-ppne! Fa-Fay!"
"She…said my NAME!" Hopping in the air with excitement, Fay stole Stella off of Haruki's hands. "Say it again! Again!"
"Ag-again!" Stella's response made Haruki instinctively chuckle.
'I need to tell the maids that they should've just taught her about Fay instead of me since Fay's taking this with a lot more enthusiasm than me.'
"By the way, she said my name first, you were second in line," Haruki said, trying to tease Fay further.
"Oh, shut up! And why the hell are you wearing those feminine clothes, Stella will get confused about who's her mother! " Fay retorted, glaring up and down Haruki's clothes which were picked out by his female servants.
"Oh, yeah, I'm going to be a lesbian royalty for a while. Take care of Stella while I'm gone from the kingdom," after a few seconds of awkward silence between the two, they couldn't contain their laughter, and it didn't take long for Stella to join her guardians as well.
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