The change in the slarin, it was the giant size of the slarin.
　Until then, Slarin was roughly 60 to 80 centimeters in diameter, but the Slarin in front of me was, by my reckoning, over 4 meters in diameter, and perhaps even closer to 5 meters.

　This surprised not only my opponents and spectators, but also me, who was supposed to be the master of the game.
　I hurriedly checked Slarin's status...

　Name... slarin'.
　Age...9
　Race... emperor (...) slime.
　Title: Temma's Household

　And so on.
　
　I had heard that slime changes its race name depending on its size, but right before it changed, Slarin should have been a normal (...) slime, the same as usual.
　Even if the race had met the requirements to evolve at some point in time, there's no way it would suddenly become bigger, since it's not a game... but something that shouldn't be happening in reality is happening right in front of me.

　While I'm confused, Slarin is moving as if nothing has happened.
　First, Slarin stretches his growing body to surround his opponents.
　 At this point, the opponents realized the situation and began to take a defensive stance.
　However, that defensive stance seemed to be a bit slow.
　Slarin began to slam a number of tentacles at his opponents.
　I'm not sure if the fact that I'm hitting them from the top of my armor is a factor.

　In the beginning, my opponents also attacked the tentacles and succeeded in cutting off some of them, but even so, it was still insignificant. The tentacles they cut off were crawling toward the body as if they had a mind of their own, and they were captured.
　And before long, it was on the defensive, abandoning its attacks and curling up to defend itself against Slarin's attacks.
　Even so, Slarin's attacks will not stop. Rather, they are gaining momentum as if it were an opportunity.
　Apparently, Slarin is angry at being made a fool of. It's rare for the usually mild-mannered Slarin to be this angry. I don't know which words offended Slarin, but Slarin's attack was very egregious.
　If you were in the mood, you could sink an opponent of that caliber with a single blow, but today Slarin surrounds his opponent so that he cannot escape, and then deliberately launches hundreds and thousands of attacks of reduced power, tormenting him with attacks that do not leave him dead or unconscious.
　If these were real top-notch opponents, it would be possible to escape without any difficulty, but with apparent opponents, such a trick would be impossible, and the will to fight would be lost one by one.

　I'm sure you'll be able to find a great deal more to say about this.
　Slarin sensed the movement and returned to his original size before the ref could call out to me and Shiroumaru.

'Winner, Slarin!'

　The referee unexpectedly shouted the name of my team, not my team's name, but Slarin's.
　By the way, our team name is 'Oration'. When I was thinking about the team name, I happened to see Tanikaze outside, and I remembered that there was a novel in which a horse with such a name played an active role, so I decided to name the team. By the way, the meaning in Spanish is 'prayer'.

　When I saw that Slarin had returned to his original size while coming back to us, I found out what the giant size was all about.

'Slarin. You're building a new dimension bag inside your body and storing (...) your body in the bag.

　Maybe it's the influence of my magical power, or maybe it's because Slarin can use spatial magic, so he makes a dimension bag and hides it inside his own body.
　And this time, he's probably creating a new bag that I don't know about and separating the unused portion of his body into it and storing it.
　The gigantic growth I just witnessed was the result of fusing the body out of the bag. Moreover, since the bag is inside Slarin's body, it must have looked like it had suddenly swelled up a lot because he opened the bag inside his body and took out the body that he had separated and stored inside his body.

　Slarin affirmed my point by shaking his body vertically. Incidentally, Shiroumaru seemed to know and did not seem surprised. By the looks of it, it's possible that Solomon knew too, and it's likely that I was the only one who didn't know.

　We walked back to the tent, with the crowd too surprised to be quiet.
　When we were gone, the crowd finally came to their senses and cheered loudly.


'So Slarin. Since when did you evolve into the Emperor (Emperor)?

　I questioned Slarin in the tent. When I checked the current Slarin's status, I saw that his race was now a normal 'slime', just like before.
　Slarin used his entire body to apologize for not telling me.
　What I found out from Slarin's gesture afterwards was that Slarin became an Emperor when he was (...) conquering Seigen's dungeon by himself (...) and had been sneaking out of the dungeon's lair while I was training and researching, preying (...) on the same slime and going around.
　The reason why he didn't tell me was because I had taken in a slime once before, and he hadn't told me because I was looking at it, and he looked uncomfortable.

''Well, that's fine but how many slimes did you take in on earth?''

　Slarin thought for a moment at my question and shook his body to the side.

'Predatory to the point of not understanding...'

　Slarin affirmed his answer by shaking his body lengthwise. However, it is certain that Slarin's strength has increased as a result of him becoming an emperor.
　Generally speaking, slime is said to evolve from ordinary slime to big slime and king slime.
　An emperor slime is considered to be an evolution over a king.
　A common way to identify a slime is "Slime" if it is up to 60cm in size, "Big Slime" if it is about 1m in length, and "King Slime" if it is over 2m in length. However, it's difficult to judge a slime's size because its body contains a lot of water and its size depends on the situation.

　While we are talking about such things, it looks like all of the first round will be over soon.
　As soon as that happens, our second round will begin.
　Our opponent will be the team of Ted and Wright. This time it's not just Slarin, but me and Shiroumaru will be joining in as well.　

　As we waited, the attendant came to call us.　
　The attendant led us up to the arena, and we were greeted with loud cheers from the crowd.
　Shortly thereafter, Ted and his team came in, but they looked uncomfortable as most of the cheering was directed at us.

　The referees looked at the status of both teams and then declared the game to begin. The two teams' formation was almost side-by-side with my team centered on me, with Slarin on my right and Shiroumaru on my left, both animals about four meters away from me.
　Light and Ted, on the other hand, are about 10 meters away from us, and the two of them are side by side, about 5 meters away from each other, with their mutual dependents. Ted is on my right front and Light is on my left.

　The first to move was Light's Hard Lynxes. The Hard Lynxes are running toward Shiroumaru, and they're checking up on him on both sides.
　In response, Slarin tries to head for cover, but Ted's Thunderbird uses wind magic to keep him from getting closer.
　In the meantime, Light and Ted are coming at me.
　I'm sure you'll be able to find a lot of good reasons for this. Ted is keeping a bow and arrow from behind Wright.
　I took out a practice stick from my bag and launched a thrust at Light.
　Light didn't seem to expect that the weapon I took out was a stick, and he stopped moving with one of my thrusts. I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make the most of this opportunity, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to make the most of it.
　The arrows pierced exactly where I was and where I dodged and dropped back, opening up a lot of distance between me and Light.

　Shiroumaru is almost at the mercy of the two Hard Lynx attacks, but since there is a difference in their original abilities, it would be safe to leave them alone.
　And Slarin's side was surprisingly struggling. Slarin is not emperorized like in the previous game, but even if you subtract that, there are not many ways to attack a flying enemy, and on the contrary, the opponent's magic is hitting Slarin one way or the other. However, it seems that Slarin isn't just getting hit either. Little by little, Slarin is getting closer to Shiroumaru so as not to be noticed by Thunderbird.
　In the first five minutes or so of the match, Slarin has moved a little over a meter away, but Shiroumar seems to have noticed Slarin's intentions, and he's getting closer to Slarin, even while pretending to be at his mercy.

　Light and Ted are so focused on me that they don't seem to be paying attention to the movements of Slarin and the others.
　As the standoff between the two of us and me continues, Slarin and Shiroumaru finally make their move.
　When the distance between the two animals was about four meters, Shiroumar suddenly took a sideways leap and stomped on Slarin. Slarin bounced like a trampoline the moment he was stomped on, and Shiroumar was joined to Ted's Thunderbird.
　Slarin reacted a moment later to Shiroumar's side-stepping by slamming his body into the Hard Lynxes, entangling the Hard Lynxes with his body. As he did so, Slarin pulled himself out of the bag and emperorized himself.

　Ted and Light stopped moving when they saw their own subordinates hit in just a few seconds.
　In the meantime, I packed up on Light, brushed off his legs and rolled him over, and held him by the neck with a stick. I stuck out my left hand against Ted, ready to release my magic at any moment.

''I surrender,''

　They both surrendered at the same time, with Ted dumping his bow and arrow on the floor and holding his hands up. Wright also let go of his weapon from being held down.

　Seeing this, the referee declared us the winners.

''Winner, Team 'Oration'!

　Hearing those words, Slarin and Shiroumar immediately released their subordinates who had been holding them down.
　Slarin returned to his original size when they released him.
　It's a good thing that you're able to have a great deal of fun with it.

　The battle was short, but the spectators seemed to be satisfied with the sight of their subordinates fighting each other, and we received a big round of applause.

''I knew we lost...''
'You can't even beat a single Temma... and that's what happens when you have Slarin and the others...'

　Ted and Wright muttered to themselves as they shook my hand and walked back to the tent.
　I thought about watching the rest of the matches, but the crowd was cheering so much more than I expected that I decided to stay in the tent and stay quiet.
　The fight to decide the final opponent was taking longer than expected, and there were a lot of Shiroumaru in the tent and some strange dancing? There's a slarin'.
　Slarin's moves might be a stretch, but to the casual observer it looks like an MP-sucking dance.

　In the midst of all this, Solomon peeks out of the bag, but I asked him to hold off on going outside, as I plan to have Solomon debut in the first round of the main fight.
　Instead, Namitaro jumped out of the bag.

I'll fight next~" he said. Good for you, Tenma!

　He was too uptight to give permission, and Namitaro was very pleased when I gave him permission.

'Yes! I'll f*ck you.

　Namitaro stands up with just his tail and flaps his pectoral fins.
　He's saying "shush, shush, shush," with his mouth as he moves his pectoral fins, so maybe he's trying to shadowbox.

　About 10 minutes later, an attendant came to our tent.
　Namitaro jumped out of the tent and rushed into the arena without listening to the attendant's words.
　The crowd went silent in surprise as a huge fish jumped out of the tent, but once they realized that Namitaro was my family, they cheered.
　The crowd responded by cheering as Namitaro frolicked in the arena.

　I didn't follow him right away, but instead had a quick chat with an attendant and went up to the arena.
　When he saw us approaching the center of the arena, Namitaro lined up beside us. And.....

Due to an abstention by the opposing team, the winner, Team 'Oration'!

　The voice of the referee echoed in the hall.

'Why~! My success is just beginning~!

　Following the referee's voice, Namitaro's voice echoed in the hall. And most of the people in the audience who heard his voice voiced their surprise.

"'The fish spoke!'

　Humming, people freezing, some of them sitting back in amazement.
　The referee is one of the people who are freezing up. Normally there would be a lot of things to do after the victory declaration, but the ref was the closest to hear Namitaro's voice, and he wasn't too surprised to sit up.

　Namitaro was amused by the audience's reaction and went to the audience to perform.
　Whenever Namitaro came close, people would run away from the area, and Namitaro would be amused and get into the mood.
　But it's not good to keep this up, so...

'Namitaro! House!

　I opened the mouth of my bag and called Namitaro.

'No, Temma, I'm not a dog. I'm not a dog, but...
'Namitaro! House!

You're going to have to...
House!

I'm a dog...
House!

..........
Ha-u-su!

Yes.

　I called out patiently, and Namitaro reluctantly went into his bag.
　The ref finally reactivated when he saw that and gave me a warning.
　After the caution, I was told about the next round and we were dismissed... The caution, by the way, was that if Namitaro had remained in that state of mind, he could have been disqualified for disobeying the referee's instructions in the worst case scenario! ...
　Fortunately, I stopped Namitaro right away, so I only had to be careful... I decided to have a talk with him about it later.

　I left the venue quickly after saying hello to Ted and the others. I didn't have any plans for today.
　So I left the venue at full speed before any trouble arose today.
　When we left the venue after eliminating all signs, sure enough, there was a crowd of people near the doorway.
　It's not a given that they're waiting for us, but I think my decision wasn't wrong, as I was able to confirm some people who seemed to be related to the nobility.

　On our way to the mansion, we passed by several makeshift game venues, all of which seemed to have matches still going on, with the occasional loud cheers.
　I didn't stop by the venue I passed by because I didn't see anyone I know fighting, but there were a lot of people in all the venues, so there must have been a couple of high-profile teams fighting.

　As I arrived at the mansion with that in mind, I immediately set up a ward across the yard and dragged Namitaro out of the house.

''Namitarou you understand, right?''

I'm sorry!　

　When Namitaro heard my voice, he immediately got down on his knees (according to him) and begged me for forgiveness.
　Later, as I was preaching to Namitaro, the gates opened just as I was finishing my sermon.
　The gate of the house is designed to be opened only by designated people, so it was probably the grandfathers.

''Isn't it awful that you're leaving us here!
'I was going to get something to eat to celebrate...'

　It's Grandpa and Aina who are complaining through the gate. Jeanne and Aura are out of breath behind them.

''Bwahahahahahahaha... yo, my side...''
'Hah hah hah hah hah hah........'

　Apparently she had run as fast as she could, Aura was struggling to hold the side of her stomach and Jeanne didn't seem to have time to speak.

'You're sloppy, totally. I can't believe I just ran from the venue and this is it...''

　Aina was barely breathing hard, and even Grandpa didn't look tired.
　Besides, it must be more than 10km from the venue to this mansion...............................Normally, just being able to run would be enough.

'Oh, sis....gonzo gonzo (you're only okay with it because you're a monster)...'

　Aura hasn't learned her lesson even though she says she's been hurt badly before. It's not hard to say that she's grown up enough to say it in as little as possible, but she underestimates Aina's physical abilities too much.
　As expected, Aina heard it, and Aura was taken away, grabbed by the back collar and taken away.

''Ta, help........''

　Aura tried to ask me for help, but Aina bit her gag and she couldn't speak.
　As I saw Aura and the others off, I explained to my grandfather why I left them there.

I didn't know such a thing happened.......................

　Apparently, Grandpa had experienced this before when he was younger and immediately grasped the situation.



　When I spoke to my grandfather while looking at Jeanne, who was still slumped on the ground, breathing uncontrollably, he looked awkward.

'At first I was going to return Jeanne and Aura with the carriage, but Aina said, "It's good for training, so please cast a strengthening spell on them," so I cast a spell and let them run together...' ...I honestly feel bad about that.

　Apparently, she got a little confused by being left behind by me and went straight to Aina's suggestion.

　As it was, while I was relaxing in the garden in a way that allowed Jeanne to rest, the gate became a bit noisy.
　

''Temma~''
I lost~
There's something wrong with that ogre~

　The three girls are talking about the strangeness of the ogre, Gulliver, who was their opponent.

''That ogre made me do it........''

　Primera's shoulders are slumped, too. Chris-san looks unconcerned, but Aina points out that she's quite frustrated.



　After listening to the story, it seems that everyone thought Gulliver was just an ogre and was caught off guard.
　
　The formation of the "Demon Soldiers" was an orthodox one, with Gulliver at the center and two knights on each side, which was not a good match for the three girls.
　The style of "Gunjo's Flower" was that Primera and Chris played the role of the wall and the three girls killed their opponents while toying with them, but Gulliver was able to hold back the two girls, so the three girls had to deal with four knights.
　As a result, they were able to defeat up to two of the opposing knights, but because they were superior in numbers and strength, the three girls were killed first, and it was three to two, and the two wall players were also pushed aside.

'If it had been just an ogre, it would have been a matter of me and Primera and I could have handled it...'

　Chris muttered. It seems that the two of them were planning to provoke Gulliver to send Primera to the three girls when his attack became a chore, but Gulliver's attack didn't become a chore, and on the contrary, he fought a tenacious battle and couldn't go to the three girls for support.
　I've heard further that the sixth member of the "demon army" is the Marquis de Samoens. Chris said that sometimes the Marquis would give orders to Gulliver, and each time his attacks changed, the audience was surprised.

　The three girls were depressed about their loss for a while, but they seemed to think that they had made it to the final of the preliminary round, so they did well, and on the surface things were back to normal.

　When I looked at the contestants in the letter distributed by the tournament headquarters in the evening, I found that "Sword of the Dawn," "Oniheiheihei," and "Seigenteimers A" had passed the preliminary round.
　That means my acquaintances alone make up a quarter of the contestants in the finals.
　I don't know the names of the other teams competing, but there are still teams with proven records, such as the last time's winner and runner-up in the brief introductions, and the runner-up from the two previous rounds, so I'll have to brace myself for a battle.
　I'm confident that my team is the best in terms of strength, but I have to be careful not to lose to them due to a mediocre mistake, because I think they are overwhelmingly outmatched in terms of experience... For now, I'm going to tighten my watch on Namitaro.

　Tomorrow we have the individual finals, so I'm going to focus on getting to the finals first... If I can, I'd prefer to meet the Bandit King in the finals or the first round... but it's no use praying to God... I know, so let's not do that and go to bed early.

　I didn't realize it at the time, but apparently it was the first time a 15-year-old had participated in the individual and team competitions at the same time... This would have been fun to compete in a pair with either Shiroumaru or Slarin and set an unheard of record! ........and when I said that in front of my grandpa and the others, dry laughter was to echo through the mansion.