1.05 – Stars

"Wonderful~ This is one of my favorites. It's fermented from ayasu fruit, so there's a teensy bit of mana in it. Nowhere close to a potion or anything—but enough for a bit of an oomph. I'm curious what you'll think of it."

It was a deep purple, and as she sniffed it Maple thought it might actually taste good. Unlike previous alcoholic drinks she had tried. Though, her hunger was making everything taste amazing, so she might reevaluate later.

"Mm, it tingles a little. And tastes good. I can see why you like it."

"Ah~ I knew you'd have good taste."

Maple let out a contented sigh and paused to appreciate the moment. In all its surreal weirdness.

The Slime girl she'd been sleeping with for the past week—and she wasn't even humanoid for most of that—was resting peacefully in her bottle.

The half-spiders turned out to be really nice, rather than scary. She might have starved if they hadn't happened to be here.

Not to downplay Charlotte tying her up while she was asleep, but Maple chocked that up to some kind of compulsion on the Arachnid's part, mixed with her own stupid [Adaptive Pheromones].

Her belly was filling up, and all her other problems melted away when compared to the problem of starvation. There was only one thing missing.

"Emma? Wake up bb. You should eat, it's really good."

Maple gave Emma's bottle a tiny shake. She wasn't sure if the Slime girl liked or needed food, but if it were her, she'd want to be woken up.

Emma plopped out of the bottle, into a lazy pile of goo on the chair. Slowly she made herself humanoid again while stretching and yawning. Maple suspected at least some of that was just for show.

"Hey sleepy head. This is Charlotte. She made dinner for us."

"Ara, what a cute Slime~"

Emma squinted in thought, and then she shook an angry fist at Charlotte as she seemed to remember something.

"My, did I do something wrong?"

"What's gotten into you—oh, are you mad she tied me up? It's fine, she apologized so—"

Emma shook her head, and then made a bunch of gestures that no one at the table understood. She gave up and demanded a pen and paper from Maple, which she had to dig out of her bag.

"What are you so mad about? Here."

How dare you tie up my succulent Maple while I wasn't around to see!

Maple read as the Slime wrote it, and then she facepalmed. Emma handed the notebook over for Charlotte to read, and Rachel spoke up for what felt like the first time this meal.

"...Is that from your world? I don't see any magic in it, and yet it needs no ink pot? Can I see it?"

Emma shrugged and handed it over, uninterested in the plastic pen.

"Oh right, I was going to show you guys some stuff if you wanted. From my world. I mean I should probably keep that secret in general, but since I already kinda told you two..."

Rachel answered without looking up from examining the pen.

"I'm definitely interested. Your paper is different too."

"Well, let's finish eating first. More wine? As for you, you little imp...maybe your 'succulent Maple' would consider another go later tonight. If she's more comfortable now?"

Maple flushed and covered her face with her hand once more. Emma leaned over to Maple, her eyes pleading, practically begging. She went as far as to make her eyes larger while quivering her lip.

"Alright, jeez. We'll see. But that's all, okay? No promises."

Nod, nod, nod.

"Ugh, can the three of you not flirt while we're eating dinner? I thought there was finally someone normal around here, but you're both just as bad as Mother."

Rachel was rolling her eyes, and the redness invading Maple's cheeks creeped down to her neck.

"Oh don't mind her. She's just shy because it's even harder for her to find consenting partners. If only she liked web; plenty of folk are into that~"

"Mother."

Part of Maple wanted to ask what she was into. The rest of her was cringing away from this entire conversation.

Unfortunately for both young women, a certain Slime had no such reservations and it was a simple enough gesture to ask.

"You want to know what my daughter's interests are, little Slime?"

Emma was keenly interested, and showed it by nodding rapidly. Both Rachel and Maple looked somewhat aghast. Slightly less so in Maple's case, who deep down wanted to satisfy her curiosity.

"Mother! Ugh, you're unbelievable."

Charlotte relented. She seemed to enjoy needling others by constantly toeing the line of acceptability. Maple wondered how long Rachel had been putting up with it, and sympathized.

"Sorry, sorry~ I'm just teasing."

Emma looked only slightly disappointed as she went back to her food. She'd loaded up a plate and filled her glass with wine. Which she drank now, not by bringing the glass to her mouth, but by simply dipping a finger in and absorbing it.

Maple watched it disperse inside the Slime girl, like ink in water. She did similarly with the food. Bite sized pieces were absorbed into her hand, and then slowly drifted toward center mass before mysteriously disappearing.

Just where did it all go? Maple watched in idle fascination while still stuffing her own self, and working on her second glass.

"Is it good, Emma? Can you, uh, taste things?"

The Slime's grin said it all, but she nodded and gave a thumbs up.

"That's good. Thank you again for the food, it's all so delicious."

"You're welcome, sweetie. Dinner is the least I'd do for a neighbor. But then, your situation is quite a bit more complicated than that, isn't it? What do you plan on doing after this?"

Maple shrugged and said something about trying to reach a town. Truthfully, she didn't know what she was going to do. And it was painful to think about, so she focused on just trying to enjoy the moment while she could.

"You'll what? Wander about aimlessly trying to find a town you don't even know the name of? Darling, even if we pointed you in the right direction—why, you'd get lost, or eaten by monsters."

Maple nodded glumly. That sounded about right. Thank you ever so much for pointing it out.

"So...Why don't you stay here for a while? My daughter was planning to visit Syberia again soon anyway. I'm sure she wouldn't have any objections to taking you two along when she leaves, would she?"

"I wouldn't want to impose, but..."

But what other choice did she have? And actually, she wasn't even sure if Emma would want to tag along or not. She'd have to ask the Slime about her plans later.

"That'd be fine, I guess. We can push the date up too, there's just a few textiles that need to be finished first."

"Wonderful. I'll set up the guest room for you after dinner. It's far better than those musty rooms we found you in. That is, unless you wanted to just sleep with me~"

Maple could feel her cheeks getting hot again as she squirmed in her seat. She hated that if not for Rachel, the woman's daughter who looked to be about the same age as her, being there and making it weird, she might have just happily agreed to join the older Arachnid.

Did she somehow know that? Was that why she was teasing her so much? Or maybe it was that pheromone Skill? She wasn't trying to activate it—she didn't even know how it worked.

Rachel groaned and rolled her eyes.

"You're really too much sometimes. I'm going outside for a smoke."

"Oh, why don't we join you? Maple deserves some fresh air after being cooped up for so long, don't you dear?"

She nodded hesitantly, not really wanting to force Rachel to do anything.

"Fine."

Maple downed the rest of her wine and helped gather the dishes into the sink. She saw Rachel leave and come back with an apparatus multiple people could smoke from, like a hookah, instead of the pipe she'd grabbed initially. The slight smile on her face betrayed her cold act.

The cave exit turned out to be right by their home, meaning Emma was able to lead Maple through the dark by her hand rather than her riding one of the Arachnids. She'd probably be able to see the light from it during the day.

The area just outside the cave was almost like a little patio. Pavestones had been placed to make a nice little spot to enjoy the outdoors. There was even a wooden bench, and a fire pit in the center.

There was just enough moonlight to make out the silhouettes of these things, and the trees and plants surrounding them.

A cool breeze sent a shiver through Maple.

"It's dark out."

"Yes~ Look up though."

"Oh—wow."

The sky was filled with stars. It was like staring at one of those photos of the night sky, which on Earth would only lead to disappointment if you expected it to actually look like that.

There wasn't any false advertising here. Maple was in awe.

Rachel was setting up her smoking device. It had 4 long hoses running from the glass main body to little wands you could inhale smoke from. She set it up on a little table near the bench so Maple and Emma could sit .

"Rachel picked this little doodad up while in Nebet, didn't you dear?"

"Mhm."

"What's Nebet like?"

Charlotte answered her while Rachel filled the hookah with a bunch of plant matter.

"Hm, it's a Neko city. Ah, Nekos are mostly like Humans, but with cat ears and tails. They're not full Beastkin, they just have some slight features. Nice place. Mostly friendly to other 'Monster' races like us."

"Ah. So catboys and catgirls. Neat."

"Yes, that's one way of putting it."

Maple watched what Rachel was doing. She was slightly nervous about this one. The wine had her a bit tipsy already, and up until now she had never considered smoking any substances. Or doing drugs by any means, really.

The comfortable warm feeling she had right then was the most she'd normally drink, while most of her other college friends all got wasted. Often, she'd just end up the designated driver and not drink at all. Someone had to be responsible.

She had considered herself rather straight-edge, all in all. Her whole life had been ahead of her, so ruining it with drugs just hadn't been part of the plan.

But now? With her whole life gone and ruined? When even her isekai life was ruined from the start with perverse classes? What kind of job was she going to get in the city? Maybe she'd just pick up the [Whore] class while she was at it.

She didn't care anymore. She was just a little nervous about smoking for the first time, was all.

"What's this? Is it safe?"

"Just a mix of herbs. They're not addictive, if that's what you're asking. The hookah is enchanted so that it vaporizes the material put in, rather than burning it. So it hits really smooth and is a lot less carcinogenic, too. The herb blend I've loaded up is a mix of—ah, sorry. I won't bore you with the details, actually. It's safe though, to answer your question."

It was the most Maple had heard the decidedly more timid Arachnid say in one go. This was clearly one of her interests.

"Nah, I'm curious. Continue, please."

"Really? Huh, alright. It's a mix of several things that all synergise together. There's brightwater, which is a mild short-lasting stimulant, and paired with a relaxant like..."

She listed at least 5 different things and Maple couldn't keep track of it all. It was nice seeing her passionate about something though, and she did her best to still sound engaged by time she finished.

"Ah, that's neat."

It was hard, okay?

It was neat, but she just had no idea how to respond in kind to that kind of passionate info dump. 'That's really neat' sounds patronizing. It just wasn't her wheelhouse.

Rachel sighed a little, but the corners of her lips were quirked upward, and she seemed more relaxed as she pushed her glasses up.

"My daughter does love her chemicals."

"Right. Well, it's ready. You can see for yourself what it's like."

Emma bobbed a silent cheer and grabbed a tube with everyone else. Maple, who didn't even know the Slime could breathe, watched with mild amusement.

An earthy, spicy aroma began filling Maple's nose as the other girls were already taking their hits. Maple inhaled from her mouthpiece and a taste like caramelized peach joined the other smells.

She worried she might cough, but it smoothly filled her lungs without any kind of irritation. As she held it there, she felt her body relaxing and a comfy feeling filling her. It was a quite enjoyable, if mild experience.

Emma was somehow sucking the smoke into her gelatinous body and then absorbing it. Maple gave her a head pat, letting her noodle-like hair run through her fingers. The Slime girl leaned into it with approval.

"Well? After my long explanation, what do you think of it?"

"It's nice. And it doesn't smell bad like cigarettes do. Or weed for that matter."

Drugs from another world? Rachel was instantly interested, and Maple told them about it and other things from her world.

The night dragged on and Maple stared up at the vast sea of stars, spotting the miniature moon orbiting the main moon for the first time. She smiled then, and let a thick cloud of vapor obscure it all before being blown away in the wind.