That Time I Got Isekai’d Again and Befriended a Slime

At some point that night, I fell asleep.

And…

I had that dream again.

The field of white flowers. The black sky. The pulse of the ground.

The silence.

It's the first time in a while. I'd almost forgotten.

I haven't been in a real fight in a while. Technically, my confrontation with Nin earlier was the closest I've come to a life-or-death battle since Charybdis.

I won, easily even, but if I'd made one false move… well, he ripped up my knee with the barest hint of a touch during our first encounter. I don't want to think about the ending where he doesn't miss.

Still, that dream…

I feel like I've been there before. Why does it feel so familiar?

-=-=-=-

Late Evening

The Maj Inn

Xerxes, Eastern Empire

Murphy's Law.

Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. You know the cliché.

Lesser known is the more-overarching cousin of Murphy's Law, known as Finagle's Law.

The perversity of the universe always tends toward a maximum. In other words, goods things happen, so that the universe may lull you into a false sense of security.

And then everything will go wrong.

Tanya found herself lulled into a false sense of security reminisce of this upon returning to her and Mary's shared inn room.

So naturally, it was as she finally reached something that passingly resembled relaxed and calm that the universe decided to punch her in the gut.

"Can women love other women?"

Tanya, mid sip from her canteen, spit water all over their room's lone desk. The sound it made was frankly disgusting, a wet splat as it sloshed over the hardwood surface.

But that was nowhere near the paramount concern currently on Tanya's mind.

"What-" She coughed violently, liquid trailing from the corners of her mouth, "The fuck?"

"Shit- I'm sorry." Mary pulled a handkerchief from her belt and offered it over.

Tanya waved her off, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand.

"Fine, it's fine. Just," She took a breath, "What could have possibly brought this up?"

Mary hesitated.

Oh boy. Tanya resisted the urge to leave and pretend she'd never asked.

"I was… I think that Eve woman who declared herself my friend was actually flirting with me. But, I don't know. I mean, I never thought about it before. Can women like other women, you know, in that way?"

I… think I might be the worst person for this. Now, Tanya was actively regretting not following her initial urge. For several reasons.

This was an absolutely incredible conversation for Mary to be having with Tanya of all people. After all, Tanya was well known among certain individuals in Tempest as a lover of women. "Lover" being used with the textbook definition of the word, by the way.

So, the irony of this conversation was not lost on her at all.

If the world was fair, the best person for the job would fulfill every role. Unfortunately, I am the one who is here, in this room, at this exact moment in time, as opposed to Shuna, or perhaps Rimuru- no, Rimuru has countless people pining after him and doesn't know it. If anything, Sue's mother should… well, that's obviously out, as is anyone else from our previous world. Shit, I might actually be the best person for this.

And wasn't that just swell.

"And then, I did think about it. It- there was this odd warmth in my chest, and- and I liked it? I just, I don't know." Mary looked away, with a vulnerable expression that Tanya in a million years would not have expected to see from her former enemy, "Am I allowed to like it? Is- is something wrong with me? I've never even-"

I'll be the first to admit that the more emotional side of human existence is not my strong suit. What the hell do I do here? Okay, how about this; just be straightforward. Be blunt. Brutal honesty has never failed me before.

"Shuna and I shared a bed for the past few months."

"I- huh?"

Too blunt maybe? Tanya hid a wince. New plan. Let's go with some basic reassurance. Form a connection… or something.

"What I'm saying is, the things you're feeling are perfectly normal. There's nothing wrong with you."

I genuinely wish I was still fighting Nin right now.

Tanya bore the look of someone distinctly uncomfortable yet resigned to her fate of discussing the apparent gay awakening of one Mary Sue.

"Women can like and love other women." Tanya reached out a hand, awkwardly patting Mary twice on the shoulder before pulling away, "There's nothing weird or unnatural about it. I understand what you're going through, and I assure you that everything will be alright."

There we go, see? There's a connection, and similar circumstances. Someone who can relate to your situation is comforting, yes? So please calm down and stop talking, so we can go about our evening like normal.

"Oh." Mary blinked. "Okay…"

She seemed confused. An understandable reaction, this was a huge revelation she seemed to have stumbled upon, so it made sense that-

"Shuna?"

Yeah, alright. Fuck me, I guess.

"Not just Shuna, but yes. Sex is both a great stress reliever and excellent exercise."

Okay, now I'm the one who needs to stop talking.

Mary flushed to the tips of her ears.

"S-sex?!"

Apparently, she hadn't quite caught the full connotations of 'sharing a bed' until just then.

"You mean, you and Shuna are- are…"

Tanya sighed, fully resigned to her fate and hating every moment of it.

"Having sex, yes that's what I said. I understand you were a sheltered child, but at this point it's a little ridiculous." Tanya's expression, if possible, dropped even more, as another possibility presented itself. "…Please tell me someone gave you the Talk already. I am not giving you the Talk. Do you still believe in storks and baby Cupid's raining arrows?"

"I know what sex is!" Mary said hotly, though it was debatable whether there was more heat in her words or in her face.

"Good, that means this conversation can end."

Tanya ran a hand down her face, suddenly feeling like she'd aged a couple thousand years. Would she have white hair if she looked in a mirror right then? That's how it felt. A quick glance at her side bangs confirmed that it hadn't.

Maybe one day, but not now.

"Bad enough when I had Lotte ask me about it."

"Uh, Lotte?" Mary still resembled a tomato more than a person, so it was a wonder she managed to dredge up the conversation skills necessary for that question.

Tanya couldn't even find it in herself to be amused, so exhausting this conversation had been.

"A member of the 203rd, about your age when we first met. Don't concern yourself."

Tanya turned away, looking at the desk with a grimace. Water from her spit take earlier still covered the wooden surface, little rivulets slowly trickling towards the edges. Internally grateful she hadn't placed her journal there quite yet, she waved a hand, sending a thin layer of her own water magic over the surface and gathering it all in the center.

"Take a moment to compose yourself and get your head right." With a flick of her wrist, the water swirled into a ball and flew to the palm of her hand. "We've got work to do. Bring me the journal you've recorded the runes in whenever you're ready to begin."

A quick flex of her fingers had a ball of blue fire appear in the same space as the liquid, evaporating it almost immediately. With that done, Tanya stepped over to her bed, reaching under the pillow and pulling out a worn leather journal she'd requested from Rimuru just a week after her reincarnation.

It wasn't a diary. Not that she would be ashamed of having a diary or anything. It was more of a record, featuring lists, drawings, and future goals, among other bits and pieces of potentially useful things.

The habit of tentative record-keeping was one she'd gotten into near the end of her tenure in her previous world. The reason for this was simple. Idly, during a lull in the front, Tanya had thought back to her first life. Of her first childhood, and the experiences that had shaped her.

And she found that she couldn't remember the name of her elementary school. At least, not at first, though it had come back to her after a few minutes of dedicated thought.

Tanya was not one for sentimentality. But the thought of forgetting her original life, of forgetting who she was… it was mildly concerning. Thus, journaling. Her ideals, her thoughts, her goals, all of it found a place in her journals.

It was calming. A form of meditation, in a way.

The effects were not the most relevant thing right now.

Tanya recorded what she considered relevant. There was a sketched map of Tempest among the first few pages. A folded map of the main continent right after that. Dwargon had a few pages. The Eastern Empire had a few as well.

Largely thanks to Xerxes.

Tanya flipped to a set of blank pages, sitting at the desk and reaching over to her travel pack lying beside her bed to pull out a few pens of various colors.

Inwardly thanking Rimuru for his ability to create a plethora of modern objects through his rather unique set of Skills, Tanya went to work, quickly adding a few notes to a very rough sketch of Xerxes she'd made in her journal after arriving. Then, she drew a similar sketch on an adjacent page, this time marking the tunnels she'd spent the past few hours before coming back traversing.

-=-

Yeah I drew- I mean, Tanya drew these. Yeah.

-=-

She was just adding the finishing touches to a few more sketches and Xerxes related notes when Mary wandered back over.

"Here." Mary stood at her shoulder, markedly more composed than before. Though there was still the faintest hint of red to her cheeks. "There's a page for each gate."

"Thanks."

Tanya took the notebook, flipping past the first couple pages that were either blank, had scribbled out messes that were no doubt earlier attempts at rune transcription, or featured random and rather unskilled sketches of buildings and something that looked like a dog, if you were to cross your eyes, tilt your head, and squint the slightest bit.

"Mary Sue" was also written on the inside of the cover, multiple times in a variety of styles, ranging from all caps to a poor man's cursive to bubble letters.

Tanya made no mention of this, deciding to be nice for once and spare Mary's likely still bruised self-esteem.

She flipped another page.

Here we go.

"Hm." Tanya pressed the two sides of the notebook flat, stretching the inner spine so that it would stay open without her needing to hold it. "Well, this is concerning."

"What is it?"

Tanya stared at the first page of actual relevance – helpfully labeled at the top with a big, bolded NORTH – with a look of mild annoyance she usually reserved for Gabiru and his ilk, or Mary when she asked a stupid question, or Gobta whenever he acted like himself, or Treyni when she was being particularly… well, you get the picture.

"It's not just runes. If it were just runes, this would be a lot simpler." Tanya sighed. "But no, I can never have nice things, can I? At least I'm not totally in the dark. Have a look at this symbol."

She pointed near the center of the page. Mary leaned in with clear interest.

"What is it?"

"This represents quicksilver. Or the element mercury if we're being literal." She flipped through the other pages, "It's at the west and east gates, and there's multiple of it. And then there's this symbol, Brimstone, or sulfur. This one is at the north and south gates and is also reoccurring."

Tanya slid the notebook up the desk a bit, pulling her own journal over to make a few more notes.

"Gold and silver appear as well, though it's the more stylized version for the latter. That's the sun and moon symbols, by the way, the former at the north and south gates and the latter at the west and east." She flipped between pages, swapping her gaze between her journal and Mary's notebook every couple of seconds. "It is also worth noting that the city of Xerxes itself resembles the less stylized version of the Gold alchemical symbol, though I'm inclined to see this as unrelated."

"…Okay. Why do you know so much about this? Runes, too, now that we're on the subject." Mary resisted the urge to call the other woman weird for this, out of respect to the seriousness of the situation.

"Once upon a time in a previous life, I found myself with plenty of free time and no friends to fill it. I happen to look into chemistry and its history during a few such evenings of freedom."

Well, now Mary felt bad for even thinking about calling Tanya weird.

And wasn't that a thought? Even months into their mutual reincarnation, it was still odd to take a step back and realize she and her former mortal enemy were now allies and friends.

Does it ever drive you crazy, just how quickly the night changes?

Mary tuned back in, just as Tanya continued speaking.

"At a different time, a month or so ago, I visited the Armed Nation of Dwargon to meet with King Gazel and his council in Rimuru's stead, and he has a massive library. If you can believe it, quite a few of those books were over runes."

"Why did Rimuru send you instead of going himself."

"He was being lazy." Tanya's face scrunched up, though not in relation to her last comment, "There are a few alchemy-related symbols I don't recognize. Some of the runes as well. Even taking this into account, it's pretty clear that these four arrays are incomplete, alchemical symbols and all."

She glanced at Mary, "Are you sure you wrote down everything?"

"I know I did." Mary shook her head, frowning, "I triple checked everything when I was at each gate."

The assurance with which she said those words were enough for Tanya to tentatively believe her.

"That's odd then. Some of these could work, poorly, but they're still missing key connecting symbols to be fully functional. The right shape isn't there at any point, either. It's like..."

Tanya blinked.

"Actually, these four arrays would work together pretty well, now that I think about it. In fact, they have the right runes. I'm not as sure about the symbols, but the ones I know are... they're at the correct cardinal points."

No...

"Is the circle that important?"

"Well, it doesn't specifically need to be a circle," Tanya tried to ignore the sinking feeling in her gut, to no avail, "But a runic array requires a defined form to properly conduct whatever purpose it is intended for. The shape adds structure and marks the runes off from the rest of the world. A circle just happens to be a particularly stable configuration. A triangle is often used as well, though it ultimately depends on the type of magic. Thus, the runic circle. Even with non-rune symbols filling in gaps, that would still be the case."

"So, the arrays need a structure? A circle…" Mary put a hand to her chin.

"Isn't Xerxes a circle though?" Her eyes widened as soon as she said it. "Hey, you don't think..."

"I think fucking hate this place. Yes, Xerxes itself is almost certainly the runic circle." Tanya finished, an odd look on her face. "No, it's not just runes. The proper term for this is a ritual circle."

"But for what? The scale is way too big, right? Wouldn't the magic or energy or whatever required be insanely high?"

"It depends. If it these were pure runic arrays, and thus a runic circle, then the magicules required would be astronomical, yes. But it's more than that. There are also alchemical symbols, with various altered kanji and Arabic numerals tying everything together." Tanya's brow furrowed. "Something about the way these all tie together is oddly familiar."