Reveal the slime.

Your group heads into a dark area between buildings where it's quiet and nobody else is around. Then, you peek over your shoulder. "Hey, Jelly. Can you come out? I want you to meet everyone. Don't be shy."

Everyone watches with interest as a pale purple slime oozes out of your pack, down your body, and onto the ground at your feet. It slowly rises up and forms into a feminine shape. She looks clueless between all of the strangers, though you wouldn't call it shy. It's more that she's curious, and hasn't yet seen anything like an elf, a catfolk, or anything outside of what she'd see in a cave.

Jelly walks up to to Snow and tilts her head. She reaches up and squeezes her ear.

"H-Hey. That tickles," Snow says with a giggle. "Are you Kyle's new friend?"

The slime girl backs away and nods.

"I know she looks naked, but you get used to it," Niki explains. "This is Jelly. We found her in a cavern when we were trapped underground."

"Please tell us the story when we have time," Amara requests.

"Of course I will!"

"But correct me if I am wrong. Purple slimes are normally dangerous, yes? They devour inorganic material, like the one we battled before."

"Y-Yeah. She can do that," you say nervously. "But we taught her to cool it with the clothes-eating."

"Why don't you take her to the academy and see what they say about her?" Snow suggests.

"The thing about that is... Well, we just don't know enough about her. For all we know, they'll see her as a threat and immediately take her from us, either to experiment on or to eliminate."

Jelly grabs your arm.

"Sorry," you say. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"No academy..." she mutters.

"Then I guess you can come with us for now," Niki says. "Hop in!"

Jelly smiles and patters over to the others. Though before she crawls into her pack, she turns to you with a smile. "I will miss you, Kyle."

"I'll miss you too," you say. "All of you be safe. Worst case scenario, come to the academy. I don't know of this Demon King knows what we've been doing or not. Lynx may not report what happened. Kashura may not either. It's possible that we're safe, but we gotta watch our backs. Eventually he might realize we've taken out most of his generals already. That would be bad. We need to find out more information before that happens."

"Don't worry. I'll keep everyone safe." Snow nods with a hand on the hilt of her blade. "I swore to my mistress that I would protect you, and that includes the others too."

"With my new shield, nobody will even get through to the others," Niki says with a grin.

Amara smiles. "And if they do, I will be here as well to support."

"You can count on us." Alice salutes. "Please tell Eva that we are doing well."

To Redbloom Academy then. Our reunion was brief, but I'm glad to see everyone here is well. Now it's time to check on Eva. I just have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Eva is educated, but would I call her smart? I don't know. She's a good mage, though she always finds herself in trouble. Sometimes it's trouble she likes, which could be better, but also worse. I guess not much could go wrong if all she's doing is reading books. Right?

"I'll see you all soon," you say. "Come to the academy if you're done your thing. If we finish first through, we'll come here. That's the plan. Don't get too in over your heads. If things get too crazy, come meet up with us."

I guess it's time for me to go back to school.