Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 1 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Working Hand in Hand ~Lily’s POV~

“It can’t be...”

I stood there in a complete daze. I couldn’t come to grips with what had just happened. The events that assailed us one after the other were simply far too hectic. We were suddenly attacked by three firefangs. It was a disadvantageous battle, but we still managed to combine our strengths to stand against them.

However, just then, another monster on a clearly different level suddenly joined the fray. According to Mizushima Miho’s knowledge, the monster which looked like a beastly woman sprouting out of an enormous spider was called an arachne back in the Colony. I had seen this kind of monster quite a few times when I was just a slime wandering the forest.

The one we saw this evening, however, was in an entirely different dimension from the ones I had seen before. It was a beautiful, yet ominous, white spider. Just recalling its appearance and what it had done had my hairs standing on end.

The white arachne began by killing two of the firefangs in an instant. And as we stood there in a daze, she captured my master by pulling him away with her threads. I had distanced myself a fair bit from my master so I could intercept a firefang. As such, Rose acted in my stead. Despite this, the white arachne closed the distance between them in a single breath and sent her flying away all too quickly just by thrusting out a single one of its legs.

Arachnes were capable of peculiar attacks using their threads, but in contrast to that, they weren’t supposed to be good in simple, close-quarters combat. And yet, Rose was defeated with a single attack.

A normal arachne wasn’t all that big a threat. But there was no doubt that the one we fought against here was an exception whose strength we could only tremble before. If the fight had gone on, we would have been annihilated.

The only reason that didn’t happen was simply because the white arachne thought nothing of us. After kicking Rose away, she had accomplished her objective and withdrew from the area... with my master in tow.

I immediately tried to take chase, of course. However, the white arachne had set webs all over the place to block our pursuit. Chasing after an arachne, whose specialty was based on a spider’s habit of lying in wait, was far too reckless an endeavor. It might have been possible to keep hot on her heels if I used magic, but there was a danger my master would get caught in the firing line, so I hesitated to use any.

As I got caught by a web and held in place for a few seconds, the giant white spider completely vanished into the darkness of the forest.

With my master... Master... Master, Master, Master, Master, Master, Master, Master, Master, Masteeeeer!

“...oh.”

I have to get my master back!

“Rose!” I yelled out the name of my little sister. “You’re okay, right?! Answer me! Get up! We have to go after our master!”

She had taken a hit from the arachne, but that wasn’t enough to kill her. That’s what I believed. The loyalty Rose devoted to our master could even exceed the love I offered him. There was no way she would so shamelessly die when our master was snatched away.

“...My deepest apologies, Lily. I suffered an embarrassing defeat.”

Just as expected, Rose came out of the darkness of the forest and answered my call. I was so relieved to see her that I nearly fell over. That’s when I realized how uneasy I was.

The fear of losing my cute little sister who I had absolute trust in. The anxiety of having to fight against that powerful monster all on my own. I could feel tears coming to my eyes, a release from the anguish I was trying to turn a blind eye to.

However, now wasn’t the time to cry.

“I don’t know what to say for myself. I never thought it would take our master away,” Rose said.

“The same goes for me. Hang on, I’ll heal you right away.”

I put my strength back into my relaxed muscles and began casting healing magic on Rose.

“How’s that? Can you fight?”

“Yes. But... It seems this arm won’t be of any use.”

Rose’s left arm, which was holding her shield, had a huge hole in it halfway down her forearm. It was just barely held together by a single piece of wood. Notwithstanding any small cracks and warpage, this far surpassed the capabilities of my healing magic.

Rose’s shield had snapped in two from being struck head-on. The other half was on the ground where she had taken a hit.

“To think I would be reduced to such a state with a single strike... I feel worthless.”

“No, that’s not true at all.”

On the contrary, it was impressive she managed to defend herself on the spur of the moment. Rose’s body would’ve likely been broken into pieces if she didn’t do so. Even so, such praise would do nothing to comfort her when her master was stolen away. I could feel the scorching vexation in her heart through our mental path.

“This wouldn’t have happened if you were the one by our master’s side...”

“No way. It would’ve been the same either way.”

I wasn’t only saying that to console her. You could certainly say I was the stronger one between us. As a mimic slime, I possessed my natural ability of predation and the mimicry of the abilities of those I ate. Up until now, I had eaten a magical puppet, a firefang, a treant, and Mizushima Miho. I was only an inferior copy to any of the originals, but I was capable of using all of their abilities in tandem. Depending on the circumstances, there was a fairly high chance I could defeat Rose if I could bring all of them to bear.

However, I had no chance against that white arachne. I would surely die 100 times in 100 battles. That’s just how large the gap between us was.

“A high monster...”

It was a being completely beyond the classification of a monster. There wasn’t supposed to be all that many monsters who could become such a thing in this forest. There was no way myself, a unique monster not suited to battle, and Rose, a rare specimen of a common monster, could possibly win just by combining forces. However, that didn’t matter.

“We need to take back our master even if it kills us,” I said.

“Of course. I shall save him even at the cost of my life.”

Our feelings were in sync. We had to protect our master even if our bodies were brought to ruin. That was the meaning to our lives as servants... Or, at least, it was supposed to be. That’s precisely why a certain doubt came to mind.

“That white spider... is a servant just like us.”

I thought I was wrong at first, but she was definitely my master’s servant. We servants were connected to our master with a mental path, so we were also capable of understanding each other. I felt the white arachne’s strong desire with that same connection. To put it into words...

“‘This belongs to me...’ I could feel her thinking that through our mental path.”

Just recalling her violent selfishness sent chills down my back. I could only pray the white arachne’s intent in abducting my master wasn’t to harm him.

“I also interpreted her purpose in such a way,” Rose said with a nod. “I don’t know where such avarice came from, but there’s no doubting she abducted our master just to satiate her own desire.”

“Right. That’s unforgivable.”

“But considering how she stole our master away, I do believe the possibility she will kill him right away is fairly low. That simple fact is a bit of a relief.”

“That may be so... But I don’t think she’s going to show our master sufficient consideration.” I heard a creaking deep in my ear. I ended up grinding my molars before I knew it. “You saw it too, didn’t you? Our master was injured pretty badly when she kidnapped him.”

Fortunately, it didn’t look like anything severe enough to threaten his life, but that didn’t change the fact he was badly injured. I could feel my master’s anguish through our mental path at the time. Remembering it made my stomach boil over.

“Please calm down, Lily.”

“I know!”

After reflexively yelling back, I gnashed my teeth once more. My master was surely suffering. Just thinking of that made me want to run toward him right away.

“Anyway, we need to take chase as soon as—”

Carried by that wave of emotion, I began spurring Rose on, but I was interrupted by someone I had completely forgotten about...

“Lily. Rose. It’s fine to chase after Majima-senpai and all, but is he even still alive to begin with?”

“...! What’s that?!” I shot a glare back toward the voice. “He’s obviously still alive! Don’t be stupid!”

A human, just like my master, stood there before me. It was the younger girl he took under his care. Her name was Katou Mana. She was a close friend of the girl I was mimicking, Mizushima Miho.

Rose stepped forth before I said anything else. “Allow me to apologize, Katou.”

It was quite unusual for her to do so considering she didn’t assert herself much, but she likely did because she could sense how on edge I was. My little sister was acting to save me from worsening the situation, so I stepped down. My heart was, of course, far less calm about it. Even considering my master’s death was an unforgivable act for me.

“We must take chase after our master,” Rose said.

“Yes, I understand that. But as I said, do you have any proof he’s still alive? Or are you simply hoping he is?”

“You—!”

Katou repeated her earlier suspicions, and it resuscitated the burning anger within me. Rose, however, showed no signs of being perturbed.

“Of course, I have conviction that our master is still alive. The fact we servants are still conscious is indisputable evidence of his safety.”

“What do you mean?”

Rose answered Katou’s doubts in an indifferent tone. There was no anger or panic in her voice. She had regained her composure, unlike me.

“Back when we were just monsters, we didn’t possess anything you could call a firm will.”

“Back when you were just monsters?”

Rose continued with a calm voice. “Yes. Back before meeting my master, before becoming his servant, my ego was very weak.”

This was a retelling of an experience that she... no, that all servant monsters went through.

“The memories I have of being a normal monster are dull and uninteresting, as if I’m watching footage of a recording. The moment I established my own self, when I became aware of my own life... on that day, at that time, in that place... as I wandered through the forest as if guided by an unknown hand, is the very moment I met my master.”

Rose’s words had a sense of happiness behind them. That’s how vivid the memories of that moment were to her. It was exactly the same for me.

On that day, at that time, in that cave... I met my master.

At first, I thoughtlessly began eating his arm, but I immediately knew that wasn’t right. This wasn’t something for me to eat. Actually, the fact that I wanted to eat him back then was a secret from even my master.

In any case, after meeting him, after being desired by him, I gained an ego. That instant was the first time I saw color. He wished for me, and my very existence was born to this world. In that sense, if one were to put it in human terms, our master was like a mother to us.

We servants found our master dear to us from the very bottom of our hearts. And fortunately for us, our master loved us right back. Hence, you could say our relationship was much like that of a parent and child. Well, that’s only an easy-to-understand way of verbalizing our relationship in human terms. In truth, our master was our master, a maddeningly dear and absolute existence.

I was born to fulfill my master’s wish. That’s why I was sure my ego would quickly vanish if he were to die. The fact it hadn’t yet meant my master was still alive. He was surely waiting for us to save him even now...

“Rose! Enough of this! We need to get going!”

My entire body was spurred on by impatience. It was to the point where I felt like my heart was liable to burn out.

“But Sister.” In complete contrast, having gotten her emotions back under control, Rose diligently pleaded with me for blowing my lid. “What do you plan on doing about Katou?”

“...Oh.”

That problem had completely slipped my mind. I finally realized the reason Katou was interjecting in our conversation. Actually, it was perfectly obvious for her to do so considering her position. Katou had no future if we left her behind here.

“Our master decided to protect Katou.” Rose fiddled with the elbow of her broken arm, pulled it off, and threw it to the ground. “We cannot possibly choose to abandon her by our own discretion, can we?”

She continued to talk to me in a calm tone as she pulled a spare arm out of the firefang leather bag we were carrying all our stuff in.

“B-But... How can we worry about such a thing when our master has been...?”

“That doesn’t mean we can make a hasty decision. Are you listening, Lily? We must act calmly precisely because of the severity of the situation.”

“I-I’m calm!”

“No, you’re not. You have lost yourself, Sister.”

“Ugh...!”

Yeah... she’s right. I’m not calm. How could I possibly be calm? He’s not by my side.

That one fact made me feel like I was going mad. Yet Rose was capable of maintaining her composure, and Katou was also keeping her cool.

“I don’t really mind if you choose to leave me behind, though,” Katou suddenly declared. We both stopped our conversation and looked at her at the same time.

What does she mean?

I faltered. I had thought she interjected because she sensed we would leave her behind to go rescue our master. In truth, leaving her alone in the forest was pretty much a death sentence for her. She should have been desperate so that we wouldn’t abandon her. And yet she claimed she wouldn’t mind being left behind. I truly couldn’t understand her.

“Katou. May I ask for your intentions in making such a claim?”

Unlike me, who was now full of suspicions, Rose threw a direct question right at her.

“There are no intentions behind it. I simply meant what I said. If you would like to leave me behind, then I don’t mind if you go ahead and do so. This is a matter that involves Majima-senpai’s life, after all. Nevertheless...” Katou continued indifferently while maintaining her usual expression, “if possible, I would like you to take me along. I believe I may be able to be of use.”

This was entirely unexpected of her. The reason she wanted to come with us wasn’t out of desperation for her own life. She wanted to come help rescue our master. I was completely unable to hide my suspicions of her.

“And what can you possibly achieve by coming with us?”

“At the very least, you’ll be able to get by without disobeying your master by bringing me along. Moreover, I can at least serve as a human shield... no, even if I can’t be used for that much, you may be able to use me as bait, you know?”

“...”

It was true we would be able to avoid disobeying our master’s order by bringing Katou along with us. He was an honest man, so he wouldn’t choose to abandon her simply because his own life was in danger. Also, it wasn’t hard to imagine my master would receive a terrible shock if she were to die, one which couldn’t even be compared to Kaga’s death. Conversely, she would be a hindrance to us if we brought her along. It wasn’t all that bad an idea to use her as bait in exchange for my master’s life, as she had suggested, but...

“...Out of the question. I can’t allow it.” I clearly rejected the idea.

“So, it’s out of the question. May I ask why?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I can’t trust you. That’s all.”

The pros and cons of bringing her along were based on the assumption that Katou wouldn’t betray us. But she wasn’t a servant like us. She was a human. Humans were the ones who hurt my master. They betrayed him. I could clearly remember how he looked when he collapsed in pain from that.

Unlike us servants, humans were capable of betrayal. At the very least, we could never discount the possibility. This matter involved my master’s life. I had to be doubly sure of everything and be meticulously careful of every threat. Taking an uncertain element like Katou along was unthinkable.

I was against bringing her on our journey to begin with. I simply backed down because my master strongly desired it to be so.

“I can’t bring an untrustworthy human along in such a dire situation. There’s no telling what will happen.”

This was the conclusion I came to.

“Is that so? How unfortunate.”

Katou indifferently accepted my decision without showing much disappointment. This had now left the domain of mere suspicion and distrust. Her calmness was now eerie to me.

“You don’t seem all that dejected.”

“You’re right. That’s because I thought you’d say that, Lily.”

“...What do you mean?” I knit my brows. “You thought I’d say that? Why?”

“I mean, you’ve been wary of me all this time, haven’t you?” Katou answered as she touched her hair hanging over her shoulder. “Lily, you were clinging to Majima-senpai around the clock to guard him from me, right?”

“...”

I was completely taken aback. It was one thing for her to notice the intentions I had even kept hidden from my master, but I couldn’t hide my shock over the fact she brought it up herself. I thought she was nothing more than an empty husk, but both her mind and tongue were working far better than I imagined.

“Well, I’m sure at least half of it was for the side benefits.”

“Shut up.”

Not only that, her senses were sharp. I continued to question her in a tone even I found thorny. “When did you notice? That I was being wary of you, that is.”

“When? From the very beginning. Anyone would notice when you glare at them like that. So, I guess it really is out of the question to bring someone along you’re so wary of, huh?”

Everything Katou said was true. I had no choice but to correct my cognition of her. It was hard to read her because she appeared coldhearted and emotionless, but I was in no way unfamiliar with the subtleties of the emotions of the human known as Katou Mana. You could even say I had a very sharp sense for them. On the other hand, you could also say I was unexpectedly careless despite that.

“I’m really surprised you noticed my intentions,” I said in a stiff tone. “But what are you trying to get at by pointing that out? You’re just fanning my wariness by proving how shrewd you are.”

The sharper and more capable she was, the higher the risk of betrayal. She was more liable to do something we couldn’t predict. She was increasingly more dangerous for us to bring along.

“Your proposal is rejected. Let’s go, Rose.”

My conclusion didn’t change, and I turned back to my little sister.

“B-But, Sister...”

Rose was still hesitating. Her feelings toward our master tended far more toward loyalty than mine. She felt great hesitation in abandoning an order he had once passed to her. I began choosing the words to convince Rose to do so. However, Katou was quicker than me at voicing her opinion.

“Will you really not bring me along?”

“That’s what I’m planning,” I rudely replied without even turning to look at her.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“No matter how much I beg?”

“You’re far too dangerous.”

“I see.” I heard an unnatural sigh behind me. “What a plausible opinion.”

“...”

My brow wrinkled. Katou’s way of phrasing things was grating on my already irritable nerves, regardless of whether she was doing it on purpose or not.

“What are you trying to say?” I asked.

“I’m questioning whether that’s truly a rational decision, is all.”

“Meaning?”

I really couldn’t continue ignoring her rash remarks and finally turned to look at her. And just as our gazes met...

“?!”

Goosebumps appeared on my fake skin. I didn’t know what was happening to my own body. All I did was look at her. Nothing about her had changed. She had a flat tone and a gloomy expression. Nothing about the girl known as Katou Mana had changed from before. As such, there was nothing that should’ve thrown me into a panic by facing her...

...Or not. There was one definitive difference from before.

Her eyes.

Katou’s eyes were different. They were glaring with a fiery blaze of determination. A chill ran down my spine. Thinking back on it, I was being far too careless. Blood had rushed to my brain and I was unable to make a calm decision. That’s why I had misread the girl before me. There was no other way of describing it other than foolish.

I truly didn’t notice at the time, but this was the very moment the girl known as Katou Mana regained her spirit, faced with the emergency before us.

“Isn’t it just because you dislike me, Lily?”

“...Huh?” For some reason, I was unable to say anything back at what could be interpreted as an insult from Katou.

She observed me with her black eyes and cocked her head with sluggish movements. “I can tell. You hate me, right?”

Her words were like a knife stabbing at the softest part of my heart. “Wh-What are you... saying...?”

“I’m telling you I get it.”

My attempt to gloss it over was in vain.

“Lily, you’re a slime, right? A mimic slime, was it? Your ability is to mimic others. You’re using that power to copy Mizushima-senpai. The way you talk, the way you behave, all of it’s exactly like Mizushima-senpai. I was quite close to her. I don’t know much about you, but I knew Mizushima-senpai down to the minute detail. I can easily see that you hate me just from your behavior.”

Don’t be ridiculous. So I wanted to say, but Katou’s voice was filled with conviction. Moreover, my own heart was accepting what she said. How had I not noticed it before?

What a failure. I never should have made her my enemy. She was sensitive to the subtleties of girls and knew the one I was mimicking very well. She normally just stood there doing nothing, but that time was spent analyzing me as a specimen. And I gave her all the time in the world to do so, too. I was far too poorly matched with her. Just by taking Mizushima Miho’s form, Katou’s existence became my natural enemy.

“I-I’m...” In an instant, my burning rage froze over completely. I could’ve easily killed Katou if I felt like it, yet I began to harbor a clear fear toward her.

“I know.” That simple phrase from her proved that the fear dominating my heart was all in the palm of her hand. “Lily, you’re jealous of me, right?”

“Th-That’s not... I-I’m not really... jealous... or anything...”

“That’s a lie. You hate me because you’re jealous of me.”

“S-Stop. I don’t want to hear this.”

This was no good. With such an unpleasant truth thrust before me, I felt like I couldn’t maintain this fake body. I covered my ears and tried to tune her out. However, Katou’s words stabbed me like a knife before I could.

“As for why you’re so jealous... It’s because I’m a human, just like your precious master, right? You’re a monster. Majima-senpai is a human. That’s why you’re endlessly jealous of me.”

Those words dealt the finishing blow. She wasn’t wrong. The emotional part of my mind acknowledged it before the rational part of my mind could form an argument. It was as she said. I was endlessly jealous of the fact that she was a human.

I’m a monster. I’m in the form of a human, but my original body is that of a repulsive beast. I’m simply imitating a human.

I was nothing more than a fake. No matter how much I loved my master, I could never become a human. That’s why I was always worried. “I suppose humans really are best suited for humans.” Such an obvious anxiety always remained in my heart. At the very least, anybody would acknowledge it was obvious.

Right now it was fine. My master hated humans, so a fake like me could remain closer to him than anyone else. It’d become somewhat troublesome to be misunderstood, though. I didn’t need to be the closest to him. I was happy I was, but I didn’t mind yielding that spot to another. That’s because we servants belonged to our master. Our master didn’t belong to us.

I wasn’t going to ask for the luxury of being the closest to him. It was more than enough just to be nearby.

But.

But...

If my master reconciled with humans...

If the deep scars in his heart were to heal...

Wouldn’t he stop keeping a repulsive monster like me by his side?

This wasn’t a groundless fear; I could tell. I was my master’s first servant. The man who was once “a good-natured, serious student” became “my master.” I was there when it happened. That’s how I knew. I was the only one in the world who knew my true master. When he lay there in tatters, when he despaired at being unable to trust anyone else, when he faced inescapable death, he prayed right before my eyes.

“Someone... save me...”

There was a clear and distinct contradiction to his words. A human who despaired at being unable to trust anyone was now wishing for the aid of “someone” right before his death.

It was impossible.

It was illogical.

It was inconsistent.

Yet, after giving it some thought, it wasn’t all that strange. It was fairly common for one’s sense of values to change when floating on the boundary between life and death. The same applied to my master.

However, could he really overturn his sense of values completely in such a short amount of time? Even if it were possible, would there really be nothing left of his old values? Were the 17 years of his life really so trivial? That really would be making light of his entire life up until now. So, to sum it up simply:

After suffering such deep wounds, my master could no longer trust humans.

On the other hand, even now, my master prayed deep down he could trust others.

That was the fatal contradiction the 17-year-old boy Majima Takahiro possessed.

Such a large contradiction caused strife within his heart, warped it, and created an opening. This would eventually cause it to collapse. We servants simply slid into that opening.

I was always anxious precisely because I was aware of this. Would the day come when I was no longer needed? That was a fear I held close to my heart... but one so big it couldn’t be compared to anything else.

That’s why I was unable to deny Katou’s claim. I couldn’t help but be jealous of humans. Jealousy occupied a large portion of my mind, and it could easily wash away my sense of reason. And if that was why I refused to let Katou, a human, accompany us from here... then it truly was an unsightly reason for doing so. If, for argument’s sake, that was true, then I wouldn’t have the qualifications to stay by my master’s side...

Right as I felt I could no longer maintain my human form and was about to crumble away...

“Please leave it at that, Katou. I thought to simply watch over this until Lily’s head cooled off, but do you not think you’re taking this too far?”

An ever so slightly passionate voice cut loose the threads of tension which had been running between us. I raised my downcast eyes and found a wooden back standing before me.

“Rose...”

My reliable little sister stood between Katou and myself. Rose connected her spare arm to replace the damaged one. A dull clank resounded around us, causing the air in the forest to tremble as if threatened by a beast.

“Please stop sidestepping the topic,” Rose said.

“...What do you mean?”

“Don’t dodge the question. Yes, it may be true Lily hates you. But that is an entirely different problem from us taking you along.” Rose’s usually calm voice was tinged with a rare hint of anger. “You’ve tied two of your goals together and unjustly driven my sister into a corner. As a servant, and as a sibling, I cannot possibly stand by and let that be.”

“...”

Katou remained silent and stared at Rose for a moment. After a few seconds, she let out a single sigh.

“Well, I figured you’d see through it.” She awkwardly relaxed her brow.

And just like that, the overwhelming oppression I felt from her vanished completely.

“Sorry, allow me to apologize. I don’t know if you’ll forgive me, though.”

The one before me now was the usual somewhat gloomy Katou.

“If you’re able to read Lily so well, then you should know she isn’t trying to reject you for such selfish reasons.”

“You’re right. It’s just as you say, Rose,” Katou replied with a casual nod. “She is simply distrustful of me. Her carefulness is born of her care for Majima-senpai. Her jealousy is unrelated to the matter of bringing me along. I won’t deny I forced a connection there myself.”

She easily acknowledged she was shrewdly guiding the conversation. I was only capable of watching things develop from the sidelines after being left behind.

Rose turned on the spot to face me. “...So, that’s how it is, Sister.”

“R-Rose. I’m...”

“Please be at ease. You’re not a selfish person. I can guarantee that,” she said in a significantly softened tone.

Hearing her voice charged with intimacy and sympathy, I was finally able to catch up with the situation. However, it was difficult for me to accept her words as they were.

“B-But, Rose...” She was kind. But that wasn’t enough to dispel the fears in my heart. “I really am jealous of her...”

That girl had keenly revealed the portion of myself that I was trying not to see.

“I now know I may be envious...” I could no longer pretend I didn’t. “And if he finds out I possess such repulsive feelings... then our master will hate me.”

He once despaired at the filthiness of humans. After watching him sink into such muddy desperation, I wanted to heal his heart. I decided to do so.

That’s why I had to be purer than anyone else.

I had shut my eyes to my own envy because I couldn’t possibly acknowledge such a thing existed within me. If my master knew about such a filthy part of me, then he might come to hate me.

I was scared of that. It would be more unbearable than anything in the world. Just thinking of him hating me left me endlessly, endlessly scared. I huddled up, trembling in fear. I felt like crying.

“That won’t happen.” Rose denied what I said as if it were perfectly obvious.

I was left staring blankly at my little sister. “Huh?”

Rose’s featureless face was staring right at me, like she was questioning why I would even say such a thing.

“U-Um? Rose...?”

“There is no way our master would come to hate you for such a thing,” she told me as she scooped away the tears in my eyes. “As a puppet, I don’t understand the subtleties of the human heart. It’s difficult for me to say that I understand your sorrow too. However, that’s exactly why I think your anxieties are very human.”

“Very... human...?” After I had shut myself into that wrong impression, Rose’s words were like a revelation to me.

“Our master loves even that part of you. As nothing more than a wooden doll, even I can see that much.”

“That’s true.” Surprisingly, Katou, the one who had driven me into a corner just moments ago, agreed with her.

“Rather than filth, this falls more toward the mundane portion of humanity. I’m sure boys would lose confidence if the person they loved didn’t feel any anxiety or fragment of jealousy. A small amount of jealousy is actually kind of cute, in a sense.”

“...You’re one to talk.” She was the one who’d exposed my feelings to begin with. I glared at her resentfully, and Katou averted her gaze. It was quite unusual for her, like the behavior of a normal girl on an ordinary day.

“Oh, um. I didn’t expect you to feel so down about it. It would’ve been fine for you to simply doubt your decision. I didn’t really think your understanding was lacking at such a fundamental level...”

Katou suddenly paused. An extremely gentle expression abruptly appeared on her gloomy face, as if she found something extremely important to her.

As I stood there preoccupied with Katou’s sudden change in expression, she continued in her usual light tone. “You sure are just as dense about boys as you always were. Well, I guess that’s not all there is to it this time.”

“Shut up.”

Huh?

I found my own reaction somewhat curious. I’d let it slip because she spoke so naturally, but I felt like Katou had said something quite strange. Moreover, how to put it...? Something just now felt really, really nostalgic.

What was it? I couldn’t tell. Even if I tried asking her about it, she had already returned to her usual expressionless self. I continued to stare at her, and she stared right back. In that instant, it felt like we were communicating with our eyes, as if reluctant to part with that small miracle.

“...Now then. With my sister back on her feet, let’s return to the original topic. What shall we do about Katou’s protection, Lily?”

As always, Rose’s cool and collected voice brought me back to reality. I suddenly came back to my senses. I couldn’t forget about this. We were in the middle of an emergency situation right now. Though, the fact that I managed to regain my cool meant I couldn’t claim this had all been wasted time.

Even so, it didn’t change the fact that this was an urgent situation. First, we had to get back to square one. This was naturally my job since I had turned the situation completely chaotic over a prank.

I started by lowering my head to my little sister. “Sorry for losing my cool, Rose. I was overtaken with emotion.”

“Lily...”

“I really caused you trouble. I’m very sorry.”

I had been completely irrational with worry about my master’s safety when he was kidnapped. I really did cause Rose many problems by doing so.

“I don’t mind.” Rose accepted my apology without showing any undue attention to it. “I’m sure our master wouldn’t wish to see you in such a state.”

“Mm. You’re right. I’ll try to be careful.” I would be greatly shaken if anything were to happen to him. This incident taught me that full well.

I couldn’t become like Rose. However, even if shaken, I should’ve been able to act rationally. I should’ve been capable of making efforts so that I could. I admitted that. I was truly inexperienced. And now that I realized this, I had no choice but to grow up.

“So, I’d like to leave all decisions regarding her to you, Rose. Can I?”

“Understood.”

Rose seemed to have predicted I would make such a request and smoothly accepted the task. We were sisters born of our master’s power at almost the same time. We were capable of guessing what the other had to say to a certain extent. It really helped in speeding up conversations like this.

“Is that alright?” Katou asked.

“It’s fine. Rather...” I hesitated and shrugged.

Rose cut in. “The current state of affairs dictates that we have no other choice. You’ve already brought Lily down. The greatest obstacle to fulfilling your objective, my distrustful sister, is no longer confident in her own decisions. Thus, it falls to me to deal with you.”

I was somehow able to come to grips with the jealousy I bore toward Katou. This was all thanks to Rose and... well, I didn’t really want to admit it because she stirred up some trouble, but it was thanks to Katou as well.

But on the other hand, I wasn’t able to wipe away the feeling I would make a selfish decision based on my jealousy. For example, say I chose not to bring Katou along with us. I wouldn’t be confident I did so without jealousy playing a part. I didn’t have enough faith in myself to continue causing problems for Rose by acting on emotions. That’s why I left things to her... Although, this was surely all according to Katou’s plan. Just thinking of that had the seeds of suspicion budding within my doubtful heart.

“I’d rather you not misunderstand me,” Katou replied with a bitter smile, as if she had read my mind. “I didn’t do this because I thought you’d be more naïve, Rose.”

That only stood to reason. The possibility of her getting her way with me was practically zero, but Rose she could at least talk to. Having said that, though it’d seem Rose would be more naïve in this case, reality was an entirely different matter. She wasn’t naïve. She was simply impartial. Unlike me, she wouldn’t make decisions based on her emotions. It’s because of this I was able to entrust her with this decision.

“Then, please go ahead,” I told my reliable little sister.

“Very well. Now then, Katou,” Rose said as she cut right to the chase. “There’s a possibility you’ll be able to come along if you negotiate with me. You were right in your judgment regarding this. In truth, from the very beginning, I planned to bring you along with us. However...” Rose paused for a moment. If she were human, this might have been where she let out a sigh. “Are you not approaching this from the wrong direction? Even if you managed to get Lily to step aside, there’s no gain to it if you make an enemy of me in the process, is there?”

She seemed calm now, but watching Katou drive me into a corner had angered Rose. As a wooden doll, she was fundamentally a rational person, but she wasn’t all that familiar with the delicacies of human emotion.

For example, though she could understand how our master suffered over having killed one of his former classmates, she didn’t properly comprehend why he suffered so deeply. Having said that, it didn’t mean she possessed no emotions of her own. Though she didn’t directly witness our master beaten beyond recovery like I did, Rose had a bad impression of those who had hurt him before. She would feel anger if he were being bullied.

To put it bluntly, Katou might have ruined her chances of negotiating with her. That’s why Rose found fault with her desperation to do so by any means necessary. In a certain sense, Rose was getting angry for Katou’s sake.

Rose’s virtue was her faithfulness. She faced everyone fairly and evenly regardless of whether they were human or servant. The anger she showed was something I was incapable of as someone who thought of humans as enemies. Rose might have grasped the nature of the human known as Katou Mana from an entirely different perspective than I did.

“There should have been a more reasonable way of approaching this. I do believe it was possible for you to do so, was it not?”

“For example, using you as leverage to convince her of the matter, you mean?”

“Yes,” Rose said with a nod. “My sister may not have listened to me because of the blood rushing to her head... No, I suppose it was pretty much guaranteed she wouldn’t listen. Ultimately, she would grow impatient and charge off on her own.”

I wanted to say I wasn’t that bad... but I couldn’t. I had completely lost all sense of reason at the time. If the conversation had gone on for another five minutes, I was very liable to charge off all on my own to my master’s side.

“Lily does look like she wants to dash off even now.”

Katou was of the same opinion. I felt a little daunted that I was so easy to understand.

“I can’t possibly allow Lily to face the white arachne alone. I would take chase after her immediately. Even if that were to happen, things could be resolved if I simply carried you along with me. I don’t distrust you to the level my sister does, and I have no intention of annulling my master’s order.”

“I suppose so,” Katou replied with a nod. “The probability of that happening was fairly high. If my only goal was to come along, then it might have been better for me to choose a more reasonable means of accomplishing it. Still, doing so won’t save Majima-senpai.”

She acknowledged everything Rose said, but she hadn’t chosen that path. In other words, she knew all this from the very beginning yet still acted as she did.

“If my only goal was to come along, then just as you said, I could have simply asked in a more peaceful manner. I didn’t hurt her because I wanted to or anything. However,” Katou continued as she shook her head, “that isn’t enough. There’s no point if we can’t save Majima-senpai. Am I wrong?”

“That’s true, but...”

I could sense bewilderment in Rose’s voice. There was no point if we couldn’t save our master. That was completely true. Katou was entirely correct. But how did that connect to her aggressive attitude from earlier? Rose couldn’t tell, and neither could I. We both stood there in confusion as Katou put her hand to her chest.

“You both know I have no strength in a fight. I’m incapable of saving Majima-senpai.”

Katou Mana was just a human. There was no way she would conveniently awaken to a cheat, so this powerless girl wouldn’t be of any use in saving our master.

“But that also applies to you two, doesn’t it? The white arachne who abducted Majima-senpai is one of those high monsters you talked about before, right? You mustn’t fight it. Just being able to run away depends on luck. A horror that you could never defeat. Isn’t that what you said? So, how are you going to save Majima-senpai from that kind of enemy by charging in from the front without a plan?”

“That’s...”

“It’s fine to be prepared for an honorable death, but if you don’t complete your objective in doing so, it will be nothing more than dying in vain. Right?”

I was unable to refute Katou’s claim. No matter how enthusiastic we were, we couldn’t recover our master without the strength to accomplish it. Such harsh realities existed in this world, where things couldn’t be achieved by feelings alone.

“You two are unable to save Majima-senpai. That makes you the same as me, even though I can’t even fight, doesn’t it?”

If, for example, I had charged off at the white arachne in a rage, we would’ve surely been trampled down without accomplishing anything. As such, we would’ve literally died in vain, without saving our master.

Katou already pointed out our complete powerlessness, yet she still pushed things further. “However, there are differences between you and I. You two are capable of fighting. Even if you have no way of winning, you’re still capable of it. As such, depending on how you approach it, you might be able to save Majima-senpai... But that only applies if you don’t charge in blindly on a suicide attack.”

This was also a painful truth to have pointed out to us. We were in fact trying to challenge the white arachne, who we knew possessed tremendous power far beyond us, without a plan—and directly from the front.

Now that I thought about it calmly, that really was out of the question. It was obvious we should’ve contrived a way to at least save our master. And even if that was impossible, we should’ve put all our effort into making it just a little more possible.

The fact that we didn’t do so... could only be described as a massive oversight on our part. I hadn’t been calm. Blood had gone to my head. I was practically in a panic. And seeing me like that, Katou was at a loss as to what should be done.

Was it better to admonish me so I would regain my cool? No. There was little hope of that succeeding. Rose had already been trying to calm me down. Katou wouldn’t have brought about any major change doing the same. I was just a few minutes from charging off on my own to begin with. She didn’t have the time needed to convince me.

In a sense, we were like the mother from that old tale in a panic over her child falling into a river. She couldn’t even swim, yet she was about to plunge into the raging river. She couldn’t be talked to, let alone convinced. If one didn’t act swiftly, she was liable to jump in at any moment. But jumping in with her would only add to the corpse count. As such, there was no other choice but to strike her in the back of the head.

Perhaps Rose also realized this potential danger. However, she couldn’t think of the option of “striking me in the back of the head.” There was no helping it. She was dense to the delicacies of human-like emotion. She couldn’t understand how I had gotten like that, and she didn’t have any idea how to solve it.

On the other hand, as nothing more than a normal human, Katou didn’t possess the physical strength to strike us. As such, she could only stir me up with her words and crush me by poking at my weakness.

From that perspective, I could both understand and agree with her choice... Although, as the one who had been smashed down by her words, it left me feeling somewhat depressed.

“Nothing will change if I only come along. I thought that if I didn’t manage to get you two to regain your composure, then it would be absolutely impossible to save Majima-senpai. I had to do it. Even if, as a result, the two of you were offended and left me behind, I couldn’t yield on that point.”

From a perfectly rational standpoint, completely disregarding emotion, Katou’s decision maybe wasn’t the best. But was there actually a better way of doing so? In truth, she managed to get me to regain my composure. There may have been another way, but it was too harsh to ask someone to decide on the best approach in such a short time. On the contrary, Katou deserved praise for her wisdom, for reading that far ahead and immediately deciding on the “strike to the head.”

Thanks to her, we were able to recover ourselves enough to give this matter serious thought. The most important thing we had to accomplish here was saving our master. If we were unable to do so, there was no meaning whatsoever in throwing away our lives. A reckless suicide attack was completely out of the question.

It’s exactly as she put it... Huh? But... Isn’t that a little weird?

“Hey, Katou. It’s true from our perspective that being unable to save our master would make it meaningless, but...” Before I knew it, I had completely forgotten I was leaving everything to Rose and cut in on their conversation. “Why are you so worried about our master when you’re just a human?”

She had been speaking this entire time on the premise that there was no point unless we saved our master. I had no objection to this as a servant, but that only applied to us. Katou was a human. And yet, she was speaking along our line of reasoning.

She may have simply worded it that way without meaning to, but she went as far as intentionally aggravating Rose’s impression of her just to stop my rampage. I could declare pretty definitively this wasn’t the case. In other words, she wished to save our master as much as we did. Not only that, she did so without caring what happened to herself.

Thinking back on it now, there were other points which agreed with this. For example, the reason Katou, who had been nothing more than an empty husk, managed to regain her footing during such a crisis could perhaps be explained by this too.

She was worried about our master’s safety after he was abducted by the white arachne. She wanted to save him. However, seeing us about to charge in without a plan, she could see we wouldn’t be able to succeed.

She couldn’t just stand by and watch. If that was what revived her spirit, then the timing with which she did so made sense. However, if that was in fact the case, then that in itself gave birth to another doubt.

My suspicions were well-founded, to me, at least. If my master were here, he would surely have the same thoughts regarding this. But that didn’t seem to be the case for Katou.

“Why am I so worried, you ask?” Katou’s tone was sharp. It was like every word from her mouth was dripping with venom. “Am I not allowed to be worried about Majima-senpai’s safety?”

It was the deadly poison known as anger.

“Urgh...” I faltered at having such a muddy emotion directed at me.

Katou had never shown such clear animosity before. Even when she utterly crushed me earlier, she didn’t flare up in a fit of rage. Her hostility up until now was transparent, so to speak. At most, she was just trying to accomplish her goal... She simply took action to save our master. However, this was different.

“Am I not allowed to if I’m not a servant?”

For just an instant, she pointed her anger toward me at full force. Her rage was silent. She didn’t raise her voice at all. But I could clearly see her deep anguish and sorrow through the trembling in her voice. It was likely I had said something extremely careless which touched on something deep within her heart. As such, she had gotten angry enough to lose herself, despite being a rational person.

“I... I...” I tried opening my mouth multiple times but ended up closing it and biting on my lip.

“...Sorry. I lost my composure,” Katou said as she closed her eyes. The anger in her voice had already vanished completely. In that tiny amount of time, she managed to regain her self-control.

I bowed back to her. “...I should be the one saying sorry. Looks like I said something careless.”

Judging from her state, she was seriously worried about our master. I didn’t understand the reason for her harboring such feelings, but I didn’t have the courage to ask her. I didn’t want to anger Katou by messing around with her to begin with, and I didn’t think myself ill-natured enough to crudely touch on topics others didn’t want to speak of just to satiate my curiosity.

“Do you mind if we get back to the topic on hand?”

As expected, it was Rose who broke the delicate atmosphere we had built around us. She was always calm. There was basically nothing out there that could throw her off unless it involved our master. Katou pulled herself together and lightly lowered her head to Rose.

“I understand that you were trying to cool our heads, Katou. It was a fairly reckless way of doing so, but I understand the validity of your choice.”

“Thank you.”

“I should be the one thanking you. Because of you, we didn’t throw ourselves into a reckless suicide attack. However...”

“Yes, all this has done is bring us to the starting line.”

Rose nodded gravely. “You’re right. There’s no meaning if we can’t think of a proposal to realistically save our master. Unfortunately, I’m unable to think of an effective plan to do so. As for Lily...” Rose threw me a look.

I shook my head. “I can’t think of anything either.”

She then turned back to Katou. “You said you wanted to come along with us to save our master. Can something be done about this pressing situation by bringing you along?”

“No, even I understand this isn’t such a simple problem. I know full well what I’m capable of. Actually, I’m pretty much incapable of doing anything. I’m nothing more than a girl who couldn’t even save the life of her best friend. I know I won’t be able to do anything in this situation.”

Katou paused and looked gloomily over to Rose. “Just to ask, is there any possibility of you two defeating that spider in a head-on confrontation?”

“...Probably not. We would get killed in 100 of 100 fights, or even 1000 of 1000. That’s just how large the gap is between us,” Rose said as she coldly estimated our odds.

“Even if either of you... or both of you plan to die to begin with?”

“I think it would still be impossible. The most we could hope for would be inflicting a wound.”

“...I’m surprised you wanted to charge in given those odds, Lily.”

“B-Blood was rushing to my head...”

Katou looked at me in astonishment, but she immediately changed gears. “So, what if your only goal is to save Majima-senpai?”

“I think that would still be impossible.” Even with the hurdle lowered, Rose still denied the possibility. “The gap between our abilities is just far too large.”

“Is it to the point where you can’t do anything at all?”

“Let’s see... If we were to stake our lives, focus only on recovering our master, and some miracle occurred... We may be able to temporarily steal a march on the arachne. It wouldn’t change the fact that we would all die in the end, though.”

There would be no meaning to that. I was of the same opinion.

“Is that so? Thank you. I have a grasp of the situation... It really is the worst, huh?”

Exactly. The situation we found ourselves in was harsh. It was to the point where just continuing to talk about it deepened our despair. Presently, we had no means of fighting the white arachne and taking back our master.

There was no room for argument; charging in without thinking of anything was the dumbest thing we could do. Although, racking our brains over it didn’t mean we could come up with a good plan either.

“For now, there’s at least one thing I can say,” Katou continued as we all bit down on the bitterness of the situation we found ourselves in. “At this rate, you two won’t be able to save Majima-senpai from that spider just by going there.”

“Yes. It seems so,” Rose replied.

“As such, shouldn’t you borrow all the help you can get? Even if it’s just a cat’s paw. I might be able to be of some use.”

“Our situation cannot deteriorate seeing that we’re already unable to save our master. So you mean taking you along can’t make it any worse and might make things change for the better?”

“Yes. Moreover, there’s something else I can do other than being a human shield or bait.” Katou put her hand to her chest. “I can put together a plan to recover Majima-senpai together with you. We may be able to think up a plan with three minds that two could not. At the very least, I believe we can think of something better than an honorable defeat with pretty much no prospect for success, don’t you?”

Katou was being modest, but seeing how she had utterly crushed me earlier using only her words, it was actually quite reassuring to have her as the brains here.

Of course, whether I could trust her or not was a different matter. I didn’t trust her the same way I trusted Rose, and even now, I felt like I wanted to remove all possible uncertainties. It was true Katou said she wanted to save our master and stopped us from making a reckless suicide attack, but I still doubted the credibility of her statement. I could go on forever about everything I found suspicious about her. I was distrustful by nature, after all.

However, none of that held any meaning right now. It wasn’t a problem of whether or not I could trust her. We were unable to recover our master as things were. And Rose and I were unable to come up with a plan to overturn the situation.

Just as Katou pointed out, we had reached our limit. As such, we had no choice but to bet on something we didn’t consider. We had to rely on her. Before we knew it, the problem was no longer about whether or not we could trust her but whether we would accept her assistance. All that was left was for Rose to make her decision, but...

“You two actually do get it, don’t you?” Katou spoke up so that we were doubly sure of the situation. “You’re both at a stalemate without me. That’s why you’re spending what precious time you have here to make certain what sort of person I am, right? So this isn’t the time to be grumbling about something trivial.”

Katou’s lips curved into the slightest of smiles. “Please allow me to help save Majima-senpai. I’ll definitely prove myself useful.”

She held out the hand she’d been holding to her chest. Rose pointed her featureless face toward it. I clearly understood what was going through my cute little sister’s head. I didn’t even need the mental path. I shared the exact same feelings as her, after all.

“Sister.”

“I know.”

I had no choice but to accept it. The human girl who possessed no power at all had handily defeated two monsters and left us at our wits’ end. However, it was quite the turn of good fortune that we lost here.

◆ ◆ ◆

We spent the next ten minutes having a strategy meeting, and then we gave chase after the arachne. About 20 minutes had passed since my master was abducted. The fact that we managed to draft up a plan in such a short amount of time despite the difficulties we faced was largely due to Katou.

We servants had a mental connection with our master. It wasn’t so trivial a thing that it could be severed by distance. There was no problem in taking chase. We moved through the forest at full speed. As a normal human, Katou was unable to keep up with us, so Rose was carrying her.

It was actually quite dangerous. I could detect enemies by scent using the senses of a firefang, but it wasn’t absolute. We could only move around the pace of a trot because of all the obstacles in the forest, but we were still being fairly negligent of our surroundings. Even worse, Rose’s hands were completely occupied.

Normally, we would avoid this at all costs, but we didn’t have the leisure to complain about it now. We could only pray to the heavens that we didn’t encounter any monsters until reaching our destination. Rather, if we didn’t grasp such good fortune here as if it were perfectly natural, then we wouldn’t have the luck needed to win the reckless fight to come.

At any rate, we were planning on challenging the white arachne. In the end, we couldn’t come up with any sort of convenient plan to defeat her. There was a limit to what amateurs like us could think of no matter how many of us you put together.

And yet, we still dared to challenge her.

It wasn’t like we had zero prospects for victory. We had a plan. It was basically a gamble, but it possibly could succeed.

“Are you prepared to survive no matter what happens?”

That’s what the planner, Katou, had told us. And if it was for our master’s sake, then our answer was obvious.

Thus, we fervently dashed through the dark nighttime forest to take grasp of that tiny thread which connected to victory.