Standing naked in my bedroom with my back pressed against the wall, lacking even a towel to hide behind, I fought to maintain my composure as I took in the sight before me.
Sylvanna stood in the center of the room. Combining the best traits of slime and girl, she actually cut a rather striking figure, with a delicate little nose, soft-looking lips, and bright pink eyes, all carved in perfect detail from the same pink gelatinous slime. Her body mimicked that of a human above the waist, including her currently uncovered tits which displayed a size and perkiness to rival my own. The illusion dropped below the waist however, as what would be legs had instead formed into a single amorphous base. A tentacle, protruding from the base of her body, was currently wrapped tightly around Bailey's snout.
Abigail, standing behind Sylvanna, was mouthing "sorry," but I ignored her. My focus was locked on Bailey, who was lying on the ground, pawing desperately at the tendril that constrained her. Every time her claws cut through the slime it simply reconstructed itself before it could snap, yet Bailey refused to stop seemingly desperate to escape. It took all my willpower not to freeze the tentacle solid and break it off by force. As it was, I could feel my blood begin to boil.
"Wow, Queen Devilla..." Sylvanna smirked. "I guess the rumors were true! You really
are
showing everyone a whole new side of yourself. And it seems we're getting quite a view..."
"Let her
go
," I commanded, ignoring the barb and snarling at the slime while pointing to Bailey.
"The monster?" Sylvanna arched a translucent eyebrow. "That's what we're starting with? No throwing a fit at me for walking into your room? No screaming at your maid for
daring
to let me in, even though she couldn't stop me if she tried?"
"I said to let her
go
, Sylvanna. Last warning."
"Fine, fine," Sylvanna conceded, waving her hand dismissively. "No need to snap, it was just a little security measure. Your stupid monster kept trying to eat me." The tentacle around Bailey's snout receded, disappearing entirely into Sylvanna's body. "Now can we talk?"
"In a moment," I told Sylvanna through gritted teeth, before moving to kneel down next to Bailey. I stroked the wolf's snout, traveling from her nose all the way up to her horn.
"You did good," I whispered, even knowing that she couldn't understand me. I wanted to reach out to her telepathically, but I still hadn't tested whether I could pull that off without ingesting one of her hairs. Experimenting on myself was one thing, but I wouldn't risk anyone else.
Even though Bailey couldn't understand me, she seemed to take comfort in my tone and touch. She stopped whining, and instead licked my hand and wagged her tail.
Once I was certain Bailey was fine, I rose to my feet and turned back to Sylvanna, narrowing my eyes at the slime girl. "That 'monster' you attacked happens to be a demon, and a friend. She was simply trying to protect me from an unwelcome intruder."
"Oooh,
unwelcome
! Do you see how harsh she is with me, Abby?" Sylvanna turned her head to pout at my maid, ignoring my glare. "And she's
such
a bad liar, too. I've memorized the census report for the entire tower, and we don't have a single horned wolf girl in it. I've never even heard of the species!"
"I'm not lying," I snapped before Abigail could respond. "She's a new resident, and a new species. She was born to an
actual
horned wolf, as it happens. I trust you know what that means?"
"That you're a
really
bad liar?" Sylvanna shrugged. "You expect me to believe you just happened to prove the origin of monster girls while you were out on your little vacation?"
"Vacation? I was collecting salt!"
"For three days?" Sylvanna countered, hands perched on her gelatinous hips. "Sounds like a vacation to me. Though, wait..." She mused, placing a hand against her chin, and stroking the tip with her thumb. "Do you still call it a vacation if you weren't working to begin with? I mean, you don't really
do
anything, do you?"
"That's..." Not fair. That was what I wanted to say. But it actually was, wasn't it? I was supposed to be the queen, the ruler of my people, and yet I did so little to actually lead them.
I wasn't alone in that, mind you. One of the few lessons I'd actually taken to heart was how demon queens throughout the ages had delegated the work of ruling. Some said it was a tradition set by Luci herself, who felt that divine beings had no business governing the minutiae of mortal lives. We still wielded absolute authority of course, but we rarely used it.
In my case, I'd given the power of rule to my generals. The exact nature of their duties varied - for example I had Yara on the bottom floors, managing our food supply, just as Mifa and her harpies were theoretically in charge of scouting. Regardless of what else they handled, however, by and large each of the demon generals acted akin to human nobles, running ten floors apiece.
None of that was an issue, at least for the moment. While part of me thought I should try for a constitutional monarchy, I knew better than to uproot our current system while we were still on the verge of extinction. The problem was that no matter how much a queen delegated,
someone
still had to oversee everything. Whether it was warding off corruption, mediating disputes between generals, or simply signing things into law, someone still had to wield the actual power of a queen.
That was where Sylvanna came in. Since there was no distinction between a slime girl's body and brain, Sylvanna was able to turn her entire being towards figuring out complex problems. On top of that, she could split herself into copies and merge again, allowing her to do the job of an entire team by herself. It made her a near ideal administrator for the tower. Absolutely perfect, except for one tiny, little detail.
Sylvanna, the only slime in the tower, absolutely
loathed
work. She was a hedonistic slut by nature, desiring nothing but sex, food, and drink. She indulged constantly. Even as half of her body was devoted to working, and another third to sleeping, the remainder was split in four to ensure she could participate in some form of debauchery at all times. As such, Sylvanna was working, eating, sleeping, fucking, and drinking all at the same time, twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.