Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 1 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Embrace on a Silent Night

The stillness of the night wrapped around the hut. There was only one bed within. That’s where the girl, whose name I still didn’t know, was in a deep slumber that would heal the wounds to her body and heart.

As a result, I was using Lily’s body as a substitute for a sofa, just like I did in the cave. Rose wasn’t in the hut with us. I had her standing guard outside.

It was a silent night.

I stared at the walls in a daze. They looked like they were sinking away into the darkness. I wasn’t thinking of anything. I was just staring blankly. Just how much time had passed since I began doing so?

“Can’t sleep?”

A voice came from behind me. The feeling of Lily’s body, which I had been leaning against, changed. As a slime, her body was something like a gelatinous blob. But that sensation on my back had changed into something with more substance, yet still soft.

“...That’s quite the skill.”

The Lily beneath my butt was still a slime, cutting off the cold and hard sensation of the floor. Yet the dainty arms of a girl wrapped around my neck and placed themselves atop my chest. In other words, only a single portion of Lily’s body had transformed into a girl.

She really was quite skilled to be able to do that, but I also wondered why she was doing something so pointless. With that doubt in my heart, I turned my head around and found Mizushima Miho’s... no, Lily’s face close enough to touch our cheeks together.

Her mimicry was just like the original. I could even feel the softness of her hair. A pleasant feeling shot up my spine. For just one instant, I thought this was bad. Physical contact brought pleasure. I came to fully realize this after wandering around that sea of trees for three full days in the throes of loneliness and despair. Even if my partner was a slime, the sense of relief and comfort of being in contact could bring tears to my eyes.

And with the body of a girl, I couldn’t possibly hold myself back. I didn’t mean that in a perverted sense. I simply wanted to cling to her. It was likely my mind was driven quite deep into a corner. I had just committed my first act of murder. However, that was nothing more than the impetus.

Ever since coming to this world one month ago, every single factor that had changed in my life had forced the mind of this immature and tiny brat far into the abyss. My desire to cling to someone was somewhat like a muddy stream. My sense of reason was nothing more than a small wood chip being washed away by its currents.

“Stop that.”

That’s why it was my emotions that rejected Lily’s embrace rather than my sense of reason. Her body belonged to the dead Mizushima Miho. She was mimicking the body of a girl who chose death over being violated. I couldn’t possibly sully her. That would be unforgivable.

“Why?”

The feeling pressed against my back vanished and I collapsed backwards. I stiffened up, expecting an impact, but Lily’s elastic body caught me.

“Master...”

After falling back, faceup, a girl’s body appeared from between my legs. Lily was crawling over me on all fours. Her bountiful breasts swayed in front of my eyes, pulled down by their weight. Nobody would blame me for being stimulated by this... But they should. I was stupid for being aroused by my desires.

“I want to heal you, Master. Okay? Hey, Master...”

“I told you to stop...”

I felt a great discomfort in my heart, which completely contrasted with the desires of my body to go with the flow. This was even reflected in my brittle tone.

“I have no intention of ‘using’ that body.”

By all rights, just having that naked body in front of me like this shouldn’t have been allowed. That’s what I believed.

“Stop.”

I quietly closed my eyes and clearly showed my refusal. As my servant, Lily should have withdrawn upon receiving my order. She should have. But the aroused voice of a girl... or rather, of a monster mimicking a girl, reached my ears with uneven breaths.

“Are you blaming yourself, Master?”

My entire face was wrapped in a soft sensation. Lily was embracing my head in her chest.

“I want to save you, Master. I want to protect you. So I can tell. I can tell when you’re hurt. I can tell that you hurt yourself for ‘this girl’s’ sake... for ‘my’ sake.”

“...Lily?”

Something was strange. And just as I realized that, Lily continued incoherently in a feverish pitch.

“I want to offer myself to someone dear to me. That was the meager desire this girl naturally held. That ‘I held.’ I want to do it like that ‘this time.’ If that could heal the heart of the person dear to me, then it would truly bring me joy. And the dearest person to the ‘me right here,’ is you, Master. I’m your servant, after all.”

I reflexively opened my eyes.

“...Master.”

I was met with the gaze of a girl lovingly embracing me in her chest. This was Lily. It wasn’t Mizushima Miho. However, I was able to sense the desire that girl possessed within her. I was able to sense the regret of being unable to accomplish that through the mental path we shared.

But why?

The feelings that girl felt as she died shouldn’t have had an effect on Lily. The memories and emotions she took in were nothing more than simple records. Lily should have been selectively sifting through them. And yet, having her feelings manifest so clearly like this meant...

Aah, dammit. That’s what it is...

It was nothing serious. This was my fault. I wasn’t conscious of it myself, but I was surely thinking that I wanted to fulfill Mizushima Miho’s final regrets. And just like that, my will was passed to Lily through our mental path. As my servant, she simply wished to grant that desire. That’s why it manifested here like this.

Lily was still Lily. However, her desire was Mizushima Miho’s. Perhaps that wasn’t quite the right way to put it. The two of them were already one and the same. All that together made up Lily’s existence right now.

“I love you, Master. Please accept me.”

Lily’s voice was feverish with affection and a small amount of womanly passion.

“...”

What was I supposed to do? I had a responsibility toward Mizushima Miho. The same applied to my servant Lily. Did that mean I should embrace her? But wouldn’t it actually be insincere to answer these two girls’ feelings in such a way?

No, that’s not quite right. Look in front of you.

“Master...”

She was anxiously awaiting my reply with a pained expression as her bangs trembled in front of her face. From the thighs down, her beautiful limbs were connected to the slime beneath me, which was also her body and my makeshift bed. The situation was thoroughly absurd... yet she was certainly a girl. It didn’t matter if anyone said otherwise. That’s because I felt this way myself.

“...”

This might be the wrong decision. It might be unforgivable. And before all that, it might be sheer insanity to do so with a monster. But even so, there was something I had to do. There were feelings I had to respond to. And above all else, my heart was telling me to do so.

“...I’ll treat you dearly.”

And so, in a daze, I uttered a vow as I pressed my lips against hers.

◆ ◆ ◆

How happy a thing it was to have a lovely girl’s face before my eyes when I woke up. This was, of course, Lily. She was smiling gently as she waited for me to wake. Looking at her from close up like this, I didn’t even think that this was Mizushima Miho. I could sense she was no longer within Lily through our mental path. It was sad, but it was likely better this way. The one before me was Lily. It was better like this.

“Morning, Lily.”

There was no point in trying to gloss it over anymore. I embraced Lily and gave her a kiss. She had a slime’s body coming out of her just like before, but I didn’t mind at all.

“Morning, Master.”

“Morning, Lily... You too Rose, um... Morning.” I awkwardly greeted Rose, who had returned to the hut at some point in time. Her featureless face was directed toward us as she took a bow.

I was currently naked, and Lily’s human portion was also naked. I only just noticed Rose was there after we embraced and kissed while in such a state of dress. It was fairly awkward.

This must’ve been what it was like when a mother walked in on her son sleeping in bed with a girl. It was a good thing that it brought my soaring emotions back down to the earth, however. It really wouldn’t do me any good to be all fired up like this first thing in the morning.

After wiping down my body with a damp cloth, I put on my uniform and stepped outside. I left the door open to let the air in. The stuffiness that remained in there from all sorts of things felt uncomfortable.

Lily sidled up to me and contently wrapped herself around my arm, pressing her bountiful chest against me. She was wearing the blazer that I washed the previous evening. Any clothing we had would get dirty right away from walking through this dense forest. We couldn’t ask for many luxuries in such a situation, but I wanted to maintain a minimum level of hygiene to avoid getting sick. On that point, it was fortunate we could confiscate jerseys and other such clothing from the schoolboys we “dealt with” yesterday.

We returned to the hut a short while later, but the schoolgirl who was sleeping within had yet to wake up. Now then, what was I to do next? I sat myself down on a log stump that Rose had chopped to use as furniture and thought of my plans for the future.

There was no change to my primary objective. I was planning to stay hidden within this forest, steadily accumulating more servants to improve my combat potential and gaining the strength needed to survive in this world.

So long as my power relied on the strength of my servants, it was a necessity for me to be accompanied by monsters. If I were to believe my own senses, then my monster-taming ability required me to be present to subdue a monster as my servant. I had Lily and Rose search the area around us, but even if that served in securing our safety, it didn’t help me in gathering more servants.

There was a need for me to proactively step out myself to do so. The problem, however, was this schoolgirl sleeping in the hut. So long as she was here, I needed to leave one of my guards with her. The only combat forces I had on hand were Lily and Rose. I was nothing more than a hindrance in battle, so splitting up my forces had a direct correlation to a deterioration in safety. Lily and I were basically walking on a deadly tightrope before Rose became my servant, after all.

I ended up saving this girl by going with the flow of things, but abandoning her here was out of the question. In a sense, this girl was the same as me on that day when the Colony was destroyed. Besides, abandoning her after taking the time to save her was even more cowardly than the boys who attacked her. The moment I did so meant I had fallen even further than they did.

In which case, the only choice was to split up my forces while knowing full well it was foolish to do so.

“Mmm...”

The girl woke up just around the time I arrived at that conclusion. I didn’t want to startle her, so I simply watched over her quietly as she steadily got up from the bed.

“...Where...?”

“You’re awake.”

“You’re... the one... who saved me?”

The girl had a fairly small build. Her features were also childish, meaning she was likely a first-year student. Her hair was tied back in pigtails, which further accented her youthful impression. Her childish features looked cute in comparison to those who were the same age as me.

However, her expression was gloomy, and she had shadows hanging from her eyes which spoiled her girly cuteness. That only stood to reason. I considered the possibility that she would scream in fear upon seeing the face of a man like me, but she was acting calmly. She did seem scared, but her memory was just fine.

After I introduced myself, the girl identified herself as Katou Mana. Just as I expected, she was a first-year student. And with our introductions over, she bobbed her head and muttered in a gloomy voice.

“Um... Thank you... for saving me.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

In truth, I didn’t really recognize that I had saved this girl. All I did was act on the sense of duty I felt toward the deceased Mizushima Miho. I didn’t save Katou; simply, the result of my actions saved her. She just had good luck—not that I could say that aloud taking her feelings into consideration.

“I prepared some water in the washbasin over there. You can use it to wash yourself. I’ll be stepping outside while you do so.”

“...Are you going somewhere?”

“You can probably tell by looking at Rose over there, but I have the power to tame monsters. Actually—”

I told her about my current situation. About how I was thinking of increasing my forces, how I had to personally explore the forest to do so, and how there was no need for her to worry since I would leave Rose behind to guard her while I was gone.

The only thing I left out was the fact that Lily was a monster. This was just in case. I was sheltering Katou, but it didn’t mean I trusted her. Some information was better off being kept a secret in this situation.

I thought she would have some questions as to why Lily was glued to me and calling me Master, but unexpectedly, she didn’t touch on that subject and asked about something else entirely.

“You leaving Rose behind to protect me... means I’m dead weight?”

“It’s a poor way to put it, but that’s how it is. But don’t worry. I plan to at least bring you along to a safe place. I won’t abandon you simply because you’re a hindrance.”

I told her that to get her to relax, but Katou shook her head. “I’m happy for your consideration... but I have a request.”

“A request?”

“Can you... please take me along with you when you go to the forest?”

I stared at Katou in shock.

“...You can’t?”

She looked back at me with the eyes of a dead fish. It was clear she wasn’t in any sort of mental condition to speak for herself. It was just so unnatural that I immediately held such doubts. However, it made sense for one’s thoughts to be in disarray when faced with a situation in which one couldn’t do anything. Besides, her request was actually convenient for me. I wasn’t planning on leaving Rose behind because I wanted to.

“Please.” Katou lowered her head.

I thought it over for a moment then nodded. “Got it. We’ll be walking through the forest. It’s fine for you to come along and all, but don’t push yourself.”

“Thank you very much.”

Katou once more bowed down. As she gradually raised her head, it looked to me like she was smiling ever so slightly.