Mobile Fortress Lady Cozette ~The Sounds Like the Weakest Job Function, but if You Have a Problem Wi

I went out into the garden with the slime in my arms.

The field behind the mansion is our destination. Medicinal plants and flowers that are not yet in season are planted and grown here.

I have been given permission to make one of them be used by me. There, I drop off Slime, who have been as excited as ever about cookies.

「 Can you tell the difference between weeds and medicinal plants?」

「?」

「 Hmmm……」

What I want them to do is to use Slime to remove weeds. A gardener once injured his back while working to pull weeds. At that time, I learned that pulling weeds and pest control is a necessary part of the daily work in the fields. I was wondering if this work could be replaced by Slimes.

However, the digestive capacity of a Slime is slow. Maybe some Slimes have high digestive power. However, the Slime here is unfortunately not very good at it. It’s been a few hours since I put the cookies in, but not all of them have dissolved yet.

In other words, we cannot expect them to digest weeds quickly one after another by their digestion performance.

「 You can’t eat this.」

「!!」

「 You can eat these.」

「!」

For now, pull out one medicinal herb and one weed each and insert it into the Slime. It seems to have understood properly, and then it continued to put weed inside it. Now the slime looks like a bubble full of weeds.

Fumu.

After all, A Slime is capable of thinking and is quite clever. I don’t know if this is because I’m controlling them or if they have high thinking ability.

「 Can’t you put cookies inside your body at the same time?」

*Puru*puru shivered the slime.

Apparently, it has a preference and likes to digest it slowly if not out of necessity.

「 There is only one kind of medicinal herb in this row. Remove and dispose of the other weeds. Go on.」

「 Puuueeeeeeiiiii!!」

With a squeal, The Slime moves into the field.

　…………。

　……。

Oh well, it is moving slowly, but it seems to be doing its job well. When it finds a weed, it burrows a part of its body into the soil. It pulls out the roots and takes them in.

As for the ones with strong roots, it is possible to pull them out by twisting them and tearing them out from the middle. I guess there seems to be no problems at the moment. After a while, Slime asks me for permission to do something.

「 It’s fine.」

When allowed to do so, the weeds that have been taken in by the body are squeezed together, then started to sizzle and bubble.

Before I knew it, the weeds that was inside it vanished.

On the soil where Slime was, there is still some kind of weed residue.

「……It is really dry 」

It was definitely weed residue and I can’t even feel any moisture from it. Slime, which used to be white, seems to be turning into a lighter shade of green.

「 Did you need permission to do that?」

「*Puei」

It looks like it is necessary.

「……Hmm, maybe it used magic?」

「～♪」

「 I see 」

I guess this is a skill that the Slime has. I don’t know how much magic it drains, but magic recovers naturally, and well, it’s not really a problem.

「 Then use it to process the weeds.」

「 *Puuueeeeiii!!」

The Slime started to move forward once again.

Go for it, Slime!! Do your best, Slime!!

　……。

Ah, it’s getting late already.

◇

「――Okay, let’s do this.」

「 Hai 」

After all, it would be a waste of time to just watch Slime leisurely make its way through the fields, so I’m currently practicing my magic.

Picture the flame, focus, remember the image of fire.

「 That’s right, be sure to feel the magic inside your body.」

Magic is circulating in the body, and is especially dense in the center of the body, which is how it is moved and used as spells.

Picture the flame, focus, remember the image of fire.

The important thing is imagination and memory.

They memorize the magic patterns drawn in books that describe magic, and picture them in the mind to make magic a phenomenon.

When the magic is properly manifested, the magic circle is engraved in the body and can be used at any time. However, there are still difficulties such as habits that could affect  control, and it requires constant training.

I heard that the first step is difficult, and many people have a hard time from that point. All I can do is look at the book, listen to what the instructor says, and repeat. 

Now, I wonder how long it will take me. Well, it seems that I have the aptitude, so I’m not in that much of a hurry.

In the meantime, Slime has been taking care of the weeds. It’s been several hours since I gave the order. The work has been slow, but the amount of weeds that have been removed has been quite large.

Work that would take 10 minutes manually by a human would take 4 hours with a Slime. I guess it’s also a matter of how you look at the difference. If there’s more of them, then they would be useful in aiding field work.

◇

Now that the lecture is over, I returned to the Slime. The original white color is now almost completely green. The cookies are already gone.

This color will return to normal, won’t it?

「 Are you feeling tired?」

「??」

They don’t seem to understand it.

「 Are you in a good mood?　Are you happy?　Are you well?　Oh, yes, you are fine.」

It seems that he is in good physical condition. Apparently, everything is fine even after all that time. Perhaps there is no such concept as fatigue on Slimes.

If so, then they would definitely be quite useful. I see, I see… interesting, isn’t it, Slimes?

There was never a break in the work that the Slime was doing. It seems to require a lot of magic to digest, but by moving on while pulling out the weeds before the next digestion, they are able to work more efficiently.

「 Can the original color be restored?」

「 *Puei, *Pueeeeeiiii」

With a shudder, Slime’s color turns back to white. I can see several dark green spheres forming in the center of its body. After a little while, the dark green material moves outward and comes out as a ball.

「 I wonder what are these? 」

When I hold it, it is very soft and squishy. Upon closer inspection, I could see that the green contents were encased in a transparent shell.

「 What are these?」

「?」

The maker Slime doesn’t seem to know either.

When the Slime processes the weeds, a kind of squeezed residue is thrown away afterwards. If so, is this a nutrient-like substance of the weeds?

Now what do I do with these. If this were digested, then it’s definitely not waste residue. So this must be the product of literally consuming the weeds.

「 So, Slime, were you extracting nutrients from the weed, not digesting them.」

「?」

Perhaps the Slime was trying to process the weeds stored in its body in order to fulfill my vague instructions to deal with the weeds. It could have been spit out as is, but that would be out of the instructions this time. And the digestive power of Slime itself is not enough to accomplish the instructions.

The result is extraction.

「 Slime, you have a lot more potential than I thought. I will have to gather more information.」

「 *Puuueeeeiii!!」

When I picked it up, the Slime shuddered happily.

For the time being, Let’s call this ball 「 Slime Ball 」.

This is a Slime ball that collects nutrients from weeds. In other words, it is a weed slime ball, or weed ball in short. Even though they are weeds, these balls are full of weed nutrients, or to put it bluntly, life force. There may be a way to use them.

Can it be a nutrient for crops? If the color is this dark, it may be possible to use it as a dye too. In the meantime, I asked a maid to bring me a glass jar and put the weed balls in it.

「 It’s beautiful when you hold it up to the light.」

Anyway, it will take a very long time to test these things. Would it be better to give them to the gardener or father and let them do the experiments with it?

I’m not very bright in agriculture. I can only see a future of failure if I try my hand at it.

◇

「 What did you do to the weeds you pulled?」

「 Ah, we usually collect and burn them.」

I went around to the front of the house and talked to the gardener who was tending to the plants.

「 I see. If that’s the case, then like this little one can eat weeds and produce these balls.」

「 Huh, I see. What’s with the balls?」

「 I’m not sure yet. It is probably a weed that has been drained of its nutrients. It could be used for something. By the way, I was thinking of giving it to Slime if it’s only getting burned.」

「 All right, then. I’ll talk to the others. I’m sorry, but regarding that, I’m afraid that you’ll have to speak to the head butler for permissions.」

「 Thank you. Then I’ll go and inform him about it. Oh, I’ll give you some of these. Let me know if you can think of a use for them.」

I passed over some weed balls.

「 Heeeh, hmmm, by the way, can I eat these? 」

「 It’s a weed, right? Can you eat weeds?」

「 Well, it looks kind of tasty.」

I guess he’s tired from the work and hungry.

「 Well, it does look interesting at least. 」

「 If you only give them what they can eat, they’ll make balls of what they eat, right?」

「……I think you might be right. I’ll have to think about it.」

「 I’m looking forward to it. As for this one, well, I could try using it in a small pot for now.」

「 I understand. I’ll try to put all the weed balls together somewhere, so you can use them freely.」

「 Got it, I’ll check ’em out 」