Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 1 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Encounter with a Wolf

I stepped out of the hut while Katou washed herself. Rose stayed behind to help the weakened girl out. I judged it would be easier for Katou to expose her body to Rose, seeing that she didn’t look human. She refused at first, saying she didn’t need any help, but she eventually accepted my proposal.

As a man, I didn’t know whether my judgment was correct. That said nothing of the fact that half the reason I had Rose stay behind was to keep an eye on her. I couldn’t really say this proposal was all for her sake.

The moment I came out of the hut, Lily asked in a hushed voice, “...Master, are you really bringing that girl along?”

“This already?” I replied with a strained smile.

“Don’t laugh. Geez...”

“Sorry.”

Lily pouted and puckered up her pink lips. It truly made her look childish.

“Are you dissatisfied with my decision?”

“I won’t object to anything you decide on, Master.”

“That doesn’t really answer my question.”

She would comply with anything I decided on, but that didn’t mean she agreed with me. The fact that she’d questioned me the moment we were alone together meant she couldn’t stand to wait anymore. I didn’t sense any discontent from that, though I knew the reason was she was apprehensive about me exposing myself to unnecessary danger.

“I’m not going to tell you to sacrifice yourself to protect her. I don’t care if you just guard her when you have the leisure to do so. Just think of protecting yourself as your top priority, then me, then Katou. It’s simple that way, right? You can’t get it wrong.”

“You’ve got number one and two wrong already, though?”

“...Anyway, she’s unable to fend for herself.” I figured that continuing this topic would have us talking on tangents and just moved on. “She’s not a danger to us herself. I’m sure we’ll be slightly inconvenienced by bringing her along, but I think it should be within our acceptable limits.”

“But doesn’t that mean you’re protecting Katou even though it’ll be somewhat of an inconvenience? I mean, you’re even hiding my identity.”

“I don’t care if you get exposed when push comes to shove. There’s not much meaning behind it. It’s just in case.”

Lily seemed more worried than discontented. “You’re going off track, Master. You can’t trick me. Is she that precious to you?”

“...That’s not the case.”

I stroked Lily’s beautiful flaxen hair. Now then, how do I get this across to her?

“I think the reason I want to protect her is because of ‘something’ unclear within me.”

“Something unclear?”

“I took Katou under my care yesterday. Whether it be by necessity, by going with the flow, or whatever, it doesn’t change the fact I took her in. Abandoning a stray cat you picked up is irresponsible. That analogy might be a little cliché, but I have a responsibility here I must fulfill.”

That’s what I believed... Or perhaps, that’s what I ended up believing. Despite knowing that abandoning Katou would be far easier, I never thought of making such a choice. This likely wasn’t out of a sense of morality or ethics. I had already committed the sin of killing three people. So, why did I never consider abandoning her? I couldn’t understand my own heart on this matter. That’s why I could only describe it as “something.”

“Master, you—” Lily tried to say something as she looked up at me with her big eyes, but she couldn’t find the right words and instead smiled in a slightly troubled manner. “You’re so serious, Master.”

“People often tell me I’m boring.” This conversation felt somewhat nostalgic to me.

“That’s not what I mean. You’re not boring, Master,” Lily said as she pressed her head against my arm. “So... Mm. I’m fine with protecting that girl. For your sake.”

“I see...” I replied as I pressed my cheek against her flaxen hair. “Thank you.”

It was strange. Even though I was in the middle of a dangerous forest, the feelings I harbored were none other than happiness. It was just a theory, but that “something” I had lost unwillingly was likely time spent like this.

Such a thought vaguely crossed my mind. And, just then, I suddenly realized something. What I truly wanted to protect by doing the right thing may have been this irreplaceable fragment of happiness.

◆ ◆ ◆

After waiting for Katou to finish cleaning herself off, we left the mountain hut behind.

“Did you forget anything? Just as I said before, we’ll be exploring the forest, but we don’t plan on returning here. Bring anything you need.”

“...Yes.” Katou nodded as she grabbed her handbag.

“Huh? We’re not coming back? Are you abandoning the hut, Master?” Lily asked. She had been clinging to my arm ever since the morning, and she looked up at me with a curious look.

Katou glanced at her with a dark expression, but she didn’t say anything. Lily looked exactly like one of the students who was transported here from Japan, so there was no chance Katou didn’t have suspicions as to why a girl like that was calling another student her master.

So why didn’t she ask anything about it? I tried thinking it over, but I couldn’t find the answer. It was probably fine to ask Katou directly about her reasoning, but they did say not to stir up a hornet’s nest. Plus, if she had a bad reason for doing so, there was no way she would honestly provide an answer either. So there was no meaning in asking her.

It was somehow irritating. I had a mutual understanding with both Lily and Rose through our mental path. But above all else, I trusted them. This didn’t apply to Katou, so her existence was just a point of stress for me.

Having said that, I knew full well that traveling with a human would invite this result. I had no choice but to put up with it.

“Master?”

“Hm? Oh, umm, right.” I put an end to my useless thoughts and looked Lily in the eyes. “This hut had a barrier of sorts around it to keep monsters at bay, but that’s gone now. So, there’s no point in having such a conspicuous-looking base like this.”

It wasn’t just monsters I was being wary about. Humans were also my potential enemies. This hut stood out far too much. Now that Katou decided to go on the move, I had no reason to come back here. However, to guarantee her safety, I had to consider the need to come in contact with other humans.

The best outcome would be to discover a group of humans, confirm from afar whether they were the types to follow the law, and send Katou to them on her own without us having to interact with them. It was fairly unlikely it would go that well, though.

“Alright, let’s get going.”

“Mm!” Lily replied cheerfully.

“...Okay.” In contrast, Katou was a bit of a downer.

Thus, we left the hut behind and headed into the forest. Rose took the lead, while Lily, who was able to attack from afar, took up the rear guard. Katou and I were placed between them under their care.

“Katou. Walking through a forest puts a burden on your body. Tell me if you’re getting tired sooner than later.”

“I’m... alright.”

“Are you tired, Master?”

“Nope. I’m still fine.”

As one would expect, Lily was no longer clinging to my arm. She likely realized through our mental path that I regretted parting with her warmth. It was somewhat selfish of me to believe this connection between us was inconvenient only at times like these.

After walking for a few hours and taking breaks every now and then, we noticed an anomaly.

“...Something’s rotting?”

A powerful, putrid stench filled the air. I reflexively wrinkled my nose.

“What should we do, Master?”

“Hmm...”

I was the leader of our little group. I was a pathetic leader who was unable to protect himself in a satisfactory manner, but I had to at least make the decisions. This was one thing I couldn’t rely on Lily or Rose for.

It was fine and all that we sensed the anomaly, but what were we supposed to do about it? It would be undoubtedly dangerous to get any closer. However, everywhere in this forest was dangerous. There was also a chance that ignoring it here would bite us in the ass later on. We could sense where it was fairly easily, so it was possible to sneakily check it out. One could even say the degree of danger was relatively low.

I thought it over for several seconds and decided it was best to take action. “Let’s go. Katou, is that alright with you?”

“...Yes.”

We headed toward the rotten stench. It gradually pushed aside the thick scent of the forest. Before long, we discovered about five scattered corpses that appeared to be those of other students. I say “about” five because the corpses truly were a mess.

“This is quite extreme.”

Their bodies were nothing more than chunks of meat. We observed the situation from afar for a while before concluding that the threat had left the area. We drew closer.

As I was struggling to figure it out myself, Lily surmised the cause of their deaths. “Just at a glance, it looks like they were eaten and torn apart by a large creature, I guess?”

“Meaning, they were done in by monsters?”

“Probably.”

“We might be able to figure out a bit more if we investigate the area.”

I started walking toward the corpses, but I suddenly came to a stop. Unlike Mizushima Miho, these ones had been dead for quite some time and were already decomposing. Because of that, they were swarming with flies. After having already committed murder, I wasn’t scared of a couple of corpses, but these circumstances were somewhat different.

However, I had to do this. This tragic event was most likely caused by monsters. It could have been a monster I’d never even heard about back in the Colony. It would be too late to regret it if I ended up dying because I didn’t get some sort of hint here. There was worth in searching the area, even if the chance of finding something useful was just one percent.

“Okay. Then let’s take a look... Huh, what’s up, Rose?”

I pulled myself together and was just about to take a step forward when Rose thrust a wooden hand out in front of me. She stepped forth as I stared at her in wonder.

“Are you... saying that you’ll do it?”

An affirmative response came back to me through our mental path.

“H-Hey, Rose...”

In an unusual turn, Rose took action before getting my consent and started inspecting the corpses.

“Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to be on guard duty while I investigate this, Rose? It’ll be easier to report to our master that way.”

Rose rejected Lily’s proposal and held her back. I felt a sense of duty from watching her that told me this was something she had to do herself. Rose gathered all the scattered corpses and quickly began lining up and confirming everything they had on them. The rest of us ended up watching her from a small distance away.

As that went on, my consciousness was completely focused on the corpses. In hindsight, this was a fatal mistake—one I just barely avoided death for.

Lily suddenly screamed in distress. “Master!”

Despite my focus being on something else, my wariness was at least working on a minimal level. My body just barely reacted to her warning.

“Wha—?!”

I turned around and caught sight of something jumping out of the hedges. By that time, Lily was already charging at it.

“I won’t let you!”

She quite literally rammed it. She didn’t have the time to use magic, and she didn’t use the spear in her hands because it wouldn’t be able to reliably stop the assailant’s charge.

“Grawr!”

“Hya?!”

Lily was flung back, but the assailant was driven off course. The fangs aiming for my head snapped shut just 50 centimeters to my side.

The assailant corrected its posture for landing. Using that opening, I just barely managed to hold my large shield at the ready. By the time I realized that the thing that flew out at me was in fact a wolf with grey fur, it leaped at me once more. I held my shield out toward it and braced for impact.

“U-Urgh?!”

In an instant, I lost my balance from the crash and collapsed on the ground face up. This was bad. But just as I began panicking, I heard the sound of the air roaring. The force pushing down on my body was suddenly gone, and I rose to my feet in a hurry.

The wolf landed a short distance away. Rose was now standing off against it. When she saw I was under attack, she had come rushing over.

“You really saved me there, Rose.”

The axe that should’ve been in her hand was no longer there. She had thrown it on the spur of the moment after seeing me in a crisis. That really saved me, but now Rose was only armed with a shield.

“Grrr...”

The growling grey wolf was over two meters tall. If I remembered right, this was what they called a firefang back in the Colony. Its specialty was its namesake...

“Be careful Rose! It’s going to shoot fire!”

Just as I shouted, the wolf’s jaws snapped open.

“Graaawr!”

Flames shot from its mouth in a blaze. Rose charged forth without hesitation and caught the flames with her shield. She managed to obstruct them for a second, but the amorphous stream of fire went around her defenses and began spreading out before my eyes.

“Uh oh... Aaah?!”

The moment the flames were about to swallow me whole, something threw my body.

“Master! Are you alright?!”

“Lily?!”

Lily looked down at me with a strained expression. She had managed to save me from the blaze. After saving me from the surprise attack earlier, she immediately regained her footing and dashed in to save me from the fire.

Following that, she carried both me and Katou, who was further to the back, and ran into the forest. This was a pretty ridiculous scene considering the size of everyone involved, but, as a monster, this was entirely possible for her to accomplish.

“Rose! Keep it at bay just a little longer!” Lily sharply yelled.

Rose planted herself where she was and took on the firefang’s flames. She was blocking the route between it and us. The shield that Rose used was made of wood, but it wasn’t burning due to its magical properties.

After confirming we were no longer in range, she switched from blocking to evading. The firefang’s flames chased her, but she skillfully took her distance. Magical puppets possessed far more defensive power than their wooden exterior suggested. No small amount of fire was pouring over her, but, as far as I could tell, she didn’t appear to be taking much damage. This was a tremendous relief for me.

Lily put us down on the ground. “Master! It’s okay to defeat that thing, right?!” A glyph appeared in her palm.

“Yeah, I don’t mind. I can’t tame that one. Don’t hold anything back and defeat it!”

“Roger that!”

The glyph in Lily’s palm shined with a vivid blue light. As far as I knew, glyphs were essential in the use of magic. The color indicated its attribute, the size indicated its power, and the shape determined its nature.

There were quite a few people who had been obsessed with figuring out all of these details back at the Colony. So, in just one month of living in this world, they had finished cataloging pretty much all combat-use magic. For example, a glyph of about 30 centimeters in diameter fired grade 1 magic. It had about the same power as a small caliber handgun. That was pretty much how they had categorized everything.

The magic Lily used, which took her several seconds to conjure, was grade 2 water magic, similar in power to a large caliber handgun used for hunting. Swords made of water appeared in the air and took flight like soaring falcons.

“Graaaah!”

The swords flew faster than I could follow. The firefang stopped shooting flames and dodged them by twisting its body and jumping in the air. But even so, everything was well within Lily’s predictions.

“Grah?!”

Rose threw her shield and it slammed right into the firefang’s nose. The beast’s posture broke midair. Rose came charging in. She had lost all of her weapons, but she grappled the airborne firefang while it was still unable to brace itself or put its tremendous speed to use.

She grabbed the wolf by the neck and forced it to the ground. The beast howled and screamed. Back in the Colony, firefangs were considered more dangerous than magical puppets, so watching Rose charge in barehanded gave me a momentary cold sweat. However, it seemed it was going to be alright.

The most terrifying thing about firefangs was their tendency to form packs. Fortunately, only one wolf attacked us here. That fact may have been what brought Rose victory in this battle.

Once the wolf was down, Lily finished things off by cutting its throat with wind magic, killing the beast for good.

“...Is it over?”

As I watched it pass away, I finally let out the breath I had been holding this entire time. My heart was pounding with a terrible feeling. Even I could tell my expression was quite stiff.

“That had my blood running cold. Are you okay, Katou?”

“...Yes.” Katou bobbed her head.

She was somewhat pale. I probably wasn’t looking any better.

“I’m sorry for being a hindrance...”

“Don’t be. The same applies to me.”

I made a bitter expression. Back then, we managed to take the initiative in our fight against the magical puppet, but naturally, there was also a possibility we would lose the initiative. I knew the two of us were dead weight, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. It was fortunate that we managed to get through it; that was in every way thanks to Lily and Rose’s devotion.

The fact that we managed to kill a firefang was also a boon for us. With this, it was perhaps possible for Lily to obtain a wolf’s sense of smell through her mimicry. I had high hopes this could improve our ability to detect enemies.

After that, we continued our investigation of the students’ corpses. We were unfortunately unable to learn anything useful. I didn’t expect much to begin with anyway, so that didn’t really matter. It was likely they were all killed by the firefang we just fought against.

Keeping a little more on guard than before, we continued through the forest, but we didn’t encounter any other monsters that day and decided to return to the cave.