Bandits!
These humans are nothing but bandits!
Liya cursed inwardly, but as a pink Pupu, she had no power to stop the Hero from plundering her King’s Heirloom Vault.
Watching as her last hope of turning the tables was hauled away by the Hero, Liya let go in despair and slipped from the Hero’s hand, landing with a “paji” sound on the ground, squashing into a jelly pancake.
The next second—
Liya’s nonexistent fur stood on end, and her entire Pupu body bounced up in alarm, instinctively leaping backward.
A magic arrow “swoosh” shot into the spot where she’d just been.
Liya scrambled, bouncing and wriggling, and escaped behind the Hero’s leg, wrapping around his ankle and trembling with fear.
“Huh?”
The Elf lowered the bow, looking surprised.
“This Pupu can dodge? So clever.”
Jon picked up the pink Pupu again, kneading and squishing it—sure enough, the texture was excellent, soft, moist, and emitting a faint, pleasant fragrance.
Playing with it was oddly soothing.
He couldn’t put it down.
“Why not spare it and let me keep it?”
“Huh?”
The Elf was baffled.
Miss Swordsman also frowned slightly.
Keeping Pupu as pets was common in the countryside—after all, Pupu were gentle, everywhere, basically harmless, and didn’t need to be fed, just given water.
…But in the city, no noble kept Pupu.
Everyone had exotic plants, magical beasts, or fairy familiars.
For a dignified Hero, a future grand noble, to keep a common Pupu like a poor peasant—wouldn’t that lower his status?
Still, she said nothing—after all, it was just a Pupu.
Not worth arguing with the Hero over.
The Assassination of the Demon King Liya concluded perfectly.
On the way back, there was a pink Pupu added to the Hero’s pouch.
Once an ambitious and mighty Demon King, now reduced to the Hero’s stress-relief pet, Liya naturally could not accept her fate.
In the afternoon, the Hero’s party camped by the Riverbank.
Liya finally saw her chance.
While the Elf was distracted, she quietly tried to escape toward the Forest.
She wriggled with all her might, bouncing desperately.
After a quarter of an hour—
She had only managed to crawl ninety meters, not even out of the Hero’s line of sight.
The Hero didn’t care at all, thinking she was just thirsty and going to the Riverbank for water.
Exhausted, Liya collapsed by the creek, melting into a jelly pancake.
She gazed at the sky, unable to help but question her “demon life”: could someone like her, in this state, really ever reclaim the Demon King’s Throne?
After a while of sadness, and then despair, Liya slowly calmed down and began sorting through the skills she still possessed, to see if she could develop any new tricks.
Pink Pupu form: height 16 cm, lightweight, volume about 4 liters.
Physical attacks were basically negligible.
Skill one: Water Spray…
Forget it, better to erase this from her mind.
Skill two: Devour.
It was essentially wrapping food and using the weak magic in Pupu juice to slowly assimilate it.
But in reality, with a Pupu’s abilities, even hunting insects was difficult—after all, insects weren’t stupid, they could run too.
Skill three: Pupu Fragrance.
Liya’s knowledge of this skill was limited to “hearing about it.”
After much deliberation, Liya decided to test this skill.
After all… what if?
What if it wasn’t actually a mating skill, but a friendly summoning skill?
—Although even if she summoned a bunch of Pupu, it didn’t seem very useful.
[Who cares, use it first! Worst case, just run after!]
Liya decisively obeyed her Pupu instincts.
Her body temperature rose rapidly, and a portion of “juice” deep inside her evaporated, releasing fragrance through her skin and into the air.
As a former spellcaster, Liya keenly sensed that most of her remaining magic had condensed in that juice; once released, her body instantly weakened, becoming lethargic, barely wanting to move.
Before long, rustling sounds echoed from the nearby grass.
“Gugi~ gugi~”
“Gugi~ gugi~”
A chorus of “Pupu calls”—in reality, the sound of mucus being compressed as Pupu moved and bounced—came closer and closer.
Soon, Liya saw dozens of Pupu approaching from all directions: black, yellow, blue, red, purple…
It was truly “left and right Pupu,” “Pupu upon Pupu,” “retreat and advance, all Pupu.”
Liya completely broke down.
No, why are there so many?!
The Pupu gathered around her, but the ridiculous scenario Liya imagined from didn’t happen.
She discovered that before “producing offspring,” Pupu seemed to have a process of “touching and exchanging pheromones.”
Within the pheromones’ faint magic, Liya could sense the dull, simple thoughts of the other Pupu, and even… achieve a certain degree of “communication.”
[Attack that rabbit over there.]
Liya tried issuing a command via pheromones, transmitting her intent and magic through touch to the yellow Pupu beside her.
The yellow Pupu didn’t understand, but respected her will—a jet of water, crackling with electric arcs, burst from its body and shot toward a distant grass-eating rabbit.
The water hit accurately.
The rabbit went stiff, then, before it could even fall, sprang up and fled madly from the “crazy Pupu” horde.
“Even an Electric Pupu’s current can’t kill a rabbit.”
Liya sighed, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration—what about a hundred Electric Pupu?
But commanding large numbers of Pupu by “exchanging pheromones” was clearly impractical.
So Liya considered the [Pupu Fragrance] again.
Nervous, she reawakened the “fragrance instinct” of her pink Pupu form, making a slight adjustment: she also heated the part that stored pheromones.
The next second—
A surge of Pupu Fragrance laced with the [Attack] command spread instantly to every Pupu nearby.
The price was swift exhaustion of Liya’s Pupu magic.
A powerful drowsiness and fatigue overcame her, almost knocking her out.
In the final moment before losing consciousness, she vaguely saw:
Dozens of Pupu fired water jets in unison, combining into a single stream that drenched the approaching Hero’s face, soaking him completely.
[Ha… It really worked… As they say… Heaven never seals all exits…]
Joy, relief, excitement, grievance… countless emotions swelled within Liya’s heart.
As she closed her eyes, she happily recalled her great ambition of “reclaiming the Demon King’s Throne,” and drifted peacefully into sleep.
—
On the other side, Jon wiped water from his face, looking completely dumbfounded.
He truly couldn’t understand—why did these Pupu suddenly attack him?
Weren’t normal Pupu supposed to run away from humans?
He pondered → thought again → still couldn’t figure it out → gave up.
Jon picked up his pink Pupu from the ground.
Innately sensitive to magic, he could instantly tell the pink Pupu had entered hibernation from magic depletion.
At a Pupu’s absorption rate, it might sleep for dozens of days, or even… die.
Should he throw it away?
Jon hesitated for a moment.
He remembered how this Pupu had cleverly dodged the arrow, and its eyes were so much more expressive than ordinary Pupu—he really couldn’t treat it as a “common object” and just discard it.
“If I leave you here, the other Pupu might eat you. That’s too cruel.”
Jon muttered, transferring a tiny bit of magic into the pink Pupu.
But the moment the Hero’s magic entered the Pupu’s body, something unimaginable happened:
The Heroic Power, which should have aided recovery, became a deadly “poison,” violently attacking the Pupu!
Visibly, the pink Pupu began to melt—its once round body collapsing in Jon’s palm, dissolving into a pool of pink, semi-transparent mucus.
The Hero panicked.
His Heroic Power was mild in nature; even transferring it to high-level demons shouldn’t cause such a fierce reaction—this was just a Pupu… how could this be?
The slime slid through his fingers, and before hitting the ground, stretched upward with countless protruding “flesh buds,” rapidly fading—
Like a stubborn soul making a desperate plea.
Jon could even sense a powerful will to live within the slime.
…It wants to live.
…But what should I do? What can I do?
A wave of guilt and regret washed over Jon.
He could only release a Restoration Spell in vain, trying to salvage his mistake.
Unexpectedly, it worked:
The collapsed slime began to flow and churn under the healing magic, struggling to reform.
Again and again it “rose,” reshaping into twisted, bizarre “human forms,” then repeatedly collapsed from the “meltdown” caused by the Heroic Power.
But with each cycle, the reformed shape grew more and more human.
Over half an hour passed; Jon had lost count of how many Restoration Spells he’d cast, and how many times the pink Pupu had reformed.
On the final attempt, the rampaging Heroic Power within the Pupu finally calmed—either thoroughly digested and absorbed by the Pupu, or the Pupu had adapted to the power.
Jon stared in shock at the “Pupu” that had reformed in his palm.
Now, peacefully resting on his hand, its “skin” still slowly melting and flowing, the pink creature was no longer a round Pupu:
It was a slender, petite figure with natural, delicate curves, and long, flowing hair simulated by liquid gel.
Jon saw it clearly—
The countless lines outlined a “jelly little girl,” shrunken to the size of a human arm!
My Pupu… evolved into a monster girl?