Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 1 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Puppet’s Devotion

We managed to get back to the cave before the sun set. Rose and Lily, our combat forces, could see just as well in the dark. Rose didn’t even have eyeballs to begin with. However, that didn’t apply to the two humans.

Without the sun, the dangers of going through a forest which already had poor visibility shot up exponentially. It was troublesome to stop moving out of fear of taking risks, but dangers that could be avoided were better off being avoided entirely.

That’s why we returned to the cave and immediately began preparations for a meal. Today’s dinner would be slightly more luxurious than usual. At any rate, we had managed to obtain the entire carcass of the two-meter-tall wolf. We’d left the process of butchering it and draining its blood to Rose right after it was killed. All that remained was to carve off pieces and cook it.

The smell of cooked meat filled the cave. I unintentionally gulped down my saliva. As for the result...

“Ugh...”

I was completely betrayed. That was my honest opinion. I’d had serious hopes for this, but the meat was as hard as rubber. This wasn’t meant for consumption. I had heard before that carnivore meat wasn’t good, but this felt like it was on an entirely different level. It was to the point where I was beginning to suspect that we failed in preparing it correctly.

Having said that, I had no idea what we could have gotten wrong. I didn’t know anything about draining blood, and of course, I knew nothing about how to make this taste better. I’d left everything about dealing with hunted prey to Lily, who had relied on knowledge in Mizushima Miho’s memories. She had apparently read about it in a book before. And I knew full well that the meat-processing industry in modern Japan was excellent.

In any case, the taste of the meat was more of a disappointment than expected. Nevertheless, being able to acquire so much of it was a big boon. It was the first time I felt truly full in quite a while.

Lily didn’t seem to find the meat unsatisfactory in the least and was merrily shoving her cheeks full of it. Katou didn’t complain about the hard and rubbery meat, but she was eating it as if trying to force it down her throat.

“Excuse me...”

Katou immediately went to sleep after finishing her meal. She was surely exhausted. She laid down inside a small cavity near the entrance of the cave where we’d placed the sheets we took from the hut. I could faintly hear her breathing in her sleep.

I was also quite tired, perhaps because of the stress from today’s battle. It might be better for me to get to sleep early as well. And as that thought crossed my mind, I started walking over to my usual sleeping spot.

“Lily?”

Lily hurriedly let go of my arm and jogged in front of me. As she turned around, the lower half of her body transformed back into a slime and she spread her arms out.

“Go ahead, Master.”

It was just as surreal a scene as always. However, this could be considered an everyday event for me now.

“Come on, Lily. Have you forgotten that Katou is right there?”

“It’s alright. She’s sound asleep.”

Just as Lily said, Katou looked to be sleeping comfortably. It was probably alright. After all, Lily’s identity wasn’t a secret we had to take to the grave. We were only doing so for the sake of caution. It was nothing more than insurance if push came to shove.

However, I knew at this point there wasn’t really a need for that. By spending the day with Katou, I had gotten a fairly good grasp of her current condition. She really didn’t have the willpower to do anything. She simply followed us silently and did as she was told, like a robot only capable of moving its legs. I wouldn’t go as far as saying she was an empty husk, but that wasn’t too far off.

Besides, uhh... What was it again? I feel like there was another reason...

My mind wasn’t working properly. I needed to get some rest. I didn’t know that filling my belly would give me such a sense of satisfaction.

“Well, whatever.”

I stopped objecting and sat down on Lily next to where her human body was sprouting. My body sank into the tender blob of jelly that I had been using as a sofa and bed up until now. It felt like my exhaustion was gradually coming out of my spine, and I unintentionally let out a huge yawn.

“You seem tired.”

“...Yeah,” I replied half-heartedly and leaned against Lily’s dainty body. This one was also soft.

“Master, you’re unexpectedly poor at sleeping, you know? You woke up several times this morning too.”

“Hmm? Is that so?”

“...You’re kind of cute, Master.”

She seemed awfully happy as she hugged me from the side. Incidentally, her blazer was dirtied once more in today’s battle, so she was wearing a jersey over her upper body as nightwear. She had also washed her underwear, so a pleasant squishiness pressed against my upper arm. Any man would enjoy this. It was like my exhaustion was melting away, though that was a pretty poor way to put it. It felt like we were lovers snuggled atop a sofa, and I gave my body over to the gentle flow of time.

“...Hm?”

I was in a daze, thinking I would just go to sleep like this, when Rose’s hands suddenly caught my attention. The wood she was carving looked a little different from any weapon or armor.

“Rose? What’re you making there?”

Just as always, she was fulfilling her duty as the night watch while carving wood near the bonfire. I had entrusted her with the job of creating weapons and armor. Even in today’s battle, if not for the large shield I’d had her make me, I would’ve suffered serious injuries. Or in the worst case, I would’ve died. The role she was entrusted with was plain, but it was important.

Rose seemed reluctant to answer my question. She had a featureless face, making it difficult to read her expression, but she certainly did stop moving and hesitate. However, as my servant, she didn’t have the choice of ignoring my requests. Rose walked over to me and knelt down while respectfully holding out what she was carving.

“Sorry for interrupting your work. So, this is... Hmm?”

After turning it around in my hand and verifying its entire structure, I cocked my head to the side.

“An arm?”

It clearly had the characteristics of a human arm. It was still unrefined, but that was likely because Rose was still in the middle of making it. Why was she making something like this to begin with anyway?

I looked at her curiously, and Rose held out her own arm. The flickering red light from the bonfire illuminated the slight polish of her wooden arm. I glanced at it and froze up completely.

“Th-That’s...!” One of Rose’s fingers was completely carbonized. “Did that happen during the fight with the firefang?!”

My drowsiness was blown away in an instant. “Aah... dammit. I didn’t notice at all.” I was irritated by my own inattentiveness and pinched my brow.

“...Actually, Rose. Were you hiding this from me?”

An awkward feeling passed to me through our mental path. It seemed I was spot on.

“Good grief.”

I expelled the air in my lungs, along with my anger, in one big sigh. I did think she was a helpless fool for doing that, but I couldn’t scold her for it either. She surely kept quiet precisely because she was worried about me. The resentment I felt was mostly directed at my own worthlessness.

I couldn’t vent my anger on her. In the future, I would need to at least caution her about such behavior. However, there was something far more important for me to confirm right now.

“Lily, can you do something about this with your magic?”

“Sorry, Master. Grade 3 magic is my limit.”

“...Oh yeah, recovering lost limbs is a special characteristic of grade 5 healing magic, isn’t it?” My friend who was extremely passionate about cheats was awfully well-informed about magic. As such, I naturally knew a fair amount about it myself.

I haven’t really given it much thought lately, but I wonder if he’s doing okay. Even if we did meet again, I’m sure it’ll be hard for us to just chat like idiots again...

“I see. So that’s why you’re making a prosthetic hand.”

That was understandable. Or so I thought, anyway. But Rose shook her head and passed her denial to me through our mental path.

“What do you mean?”

She took the arm back from me to use it to answer my question. She placed it on the ground and then detached her own damaged arm from the elbow down. After that, she stuck the half-finished arm on in its place. A clunk resounded through the cave as the two parts fit together. And as I watched this happen, the unrefined, half-finished fingers on her hand twitched with movement.

“Wha—?!”

Her movements were somewhat stiff, either because she just replaced them or because she was still in the middle of making this arm, but her fingers were definitely moving. After clenching and opening her hand a few times, Rose switched back to her original arm. Naturally, this one moved smoothly just as it did before.

“So that means you can replace your own parts? Like your arms and legs?”

Rose nodded. This was quite surprising. It was decidedly convenient, but I never thought she would be able to do so. It appeared to be an awfully simple part, so how exactly did it work?

No, that’s not quite right. Maybe it works precisely because it’s simple.

Rose’s body was that of a wooden doll. Such a body shouldn’t have been able to move about. What made it possible was likely the mysterious power which monsters possessed: mana. It didn’t change the fact that both her original arm and the one she was making here were simply carved wood. It wasn’t all that strange that changing one out for the other meant she could move it around just like the old one.

Setting all that aside, I couldn’t just remain shocked by this forever.

“Rose. I have one more order for you to follow. From now on, when you’re not making armaments, make spares for your own limbs... No, prioritize the spares. I’d like you to always have a spare available whenever possible.”

Rose didn’t object to my command. She immediately replied with an affirmation over our mental path. However, at the same time, I also felt her slight misgivings about my order.

“Is it that strange for me to tell you to make yourself spare limbs?”

Rose nodded. It seemed she really didn’t understand. I felt a sigh coming to me. It was somehow heartbreaking that she didn’t really recognize my intentions. I found this sad, and I even felt responsibility for it. Those emotions were passed to Rose, and her agitation came back to me.

“Let me just tell you now. This isn’t just so you can recover right away if you lose a limb in the middle of battle. That’s only a part of it.”

Rose completely froze up. She was losing her grasp on what I was getting at more and more. This was quite troublesome. I wasn’t sure how to get this across to my cute servant who devoted herself so gallantly toward me.

After thinking it over for a while, I realized there was a far simpler way of doing this than trying to find the right words.

“Hey, Rose.”

I took her wooden hand and gently caressed her burnt finger. This was something she had lost for my sake. Even if she could replace it, it didn’t change the value of what she had paid to save me.

“Remember this. I think of you as a beloved companion, no different from Lily.”

The only ones I could trust in this world were Lily and Rose. It was reasonable to assume I was going to gain more servants from here on out, but that didn’t change the value these two girls had to me.

“Take care of your own body as best you can. This isn’t an order. It’s my desire.”

Saying this may have been nothing more than a deception considering I was asking her to fight so that I could survive. But these were my true feelings.

Rose stopped moving completely, as if she had returned to being a regular puppet. Several seconds passed before she came back from her frozen state and knelt before me. She pulled her finger from my hand, and I was left with the unique sensation of the lingering warmth from her wooden limb.

“Raise your head, Rose. It’s fine as long as you understand.”

I had vaguely felt this before, but despite both being my servants, Rose and Lily’s stances toward me were somewhat different. Lily was fairly frank in both her tone and behavior. This was likely because I desired a place for my heart to be able to rest. I truly was healed by her existence. To be precise, Lily likely gained that role when she ate Mizushima Miho’s corpse and acquired the ability to mimic a human.

As for Rose, she was quite different from Lily. Put simply, she was solemn and honest. She was like a warrior who silently fulfilled her duty. Her actions from today were a good example. She had taken the initiative to do the gloomy work of inspecting the students’ corpses, work that anybody would hate doing. If we were to carelessly touch the decomposing corpses, there was a danger that we could be afflicted with some nasty disease. That’s why she had stopped both me and Lily from doing so. As a result, she got stuck playing a villainous role. Thinking back on it, she had even lost a finger to protect us. She was self-sacrificing and loyal. That was Rose’s true nature.

If Lily was the one to heal my heart, then Rose was the one who protected my life from more concrete dangers. It was possible she was responding to my wish for safety within this dangerous world. That was the impression I got from looking at her. I didn’t know whether it was right or not, but either way, I couldn’t forget her devotion even as she hid in the shadows and made no demands for herself. I had to reward such dedication. Or maybe that wasn’t quite the right way to put it... I myself wanted to reward her.

“It’d be nice if we could talk to each other, huh?”

I wanted to hear what she wanted from her own mouth, as well as what she desired of me.

“If that is what you wish, Master, then we shall surely grant it one day,” Lily whispered in my ear while snuggling me from the side in Rose’s stead. “I mean, that’s the reason we servants are here with you.”

“Lily...”

I could feel that Lily was being serious through our mental path. I could always feel it. These girls were here for my sake. So, how could I repay them?

“How nice... I’m jealous...”

Just then, Katou, who looked to be sound asleep, suddenly spoke up.

“You were awake?”

Katou was still wrapped up in her slightly dirty sheets, just as she was before. She had only opened her eyes to look at us without moving.

“...So Lily really is a monster.”

“You heard us?”

“Just a little... in the end. Besides... Lily is looking like that.”

Katou pointed her gaze at Lily’s lower body, which was that of a slime’s. There really was no way of glossing over that.

“Sorry for... suddenly waking up...”

“No, it’s our fault for being noisy. You don’t need to apologize.” Katou wasn’t in the wrong for waking up when I raised my voice upon noticing Rose’s hand. “Besides, the way you phrased it means you had an inkling this was the case, right?”

“...Yes. Um... sorry.”

“I’m telling you that you don’t need to apologize. We’re the ones who kept it from you. For reference though, when did you realize?”

“Umm... When Lily didn’t take even one step back... in front of the firefang.”

“That makes sense. But didn’t you think that she could be a cheater?”

“She calls you... Master, too.”

Well, that would expose us pretty easily.

Katou then looked to the ground awkwardly before looking at us once more. “Besides... She’s using... Mizushima-senpai’s form.”

“Did you know Mizushima Miho?”

“Yes...”

Katou’s gaze returned to the floor for a moment. It was doubtless she was remembering the now deceased Mizushima Miho.

“...Sorry for not telling you. I was... together with Mizushima-senpai... until yesterday.”

“I see.”

“Aren’t you... surprised?” Katou seemed to be a little puzzled by my attitude toward the information she was hiding.

“I considered the possibility already.”

Mizushima Miho and Katou Mana had both been attacked by those schoolboys. We found out about the mountain hut they were using by pulling the information from Mizushima Miho’s memories. Meaning, it was only natural to assume Mizushima Miho had also been in that hut. In that case, it was fairly likely she was acquainted with Katou.

The reason I never confirmed this with Lily was because I wanted to respect Mizushima Miho’s privacy as best I could. I didn’t have the right to unravel all of her personal memories however I liked. I was even indebted to her. As long as it didn’t pose a threat to my life, I had no intention of touching upon her “knowledge,” let alone her “memories.”

“Did you run away from the Colony together with Mizushima Miho?”

“Yes... The reason I managed to survive this long... is because I knew Mizushima-senpai...”

Her voice was as gloomy and subdued as ever, but there was a gentle tone to the way Katou answered me. According to her, on the day of the Colony’s destruction, she ran away with a group of schoolgirls. Mizushima Miho was also in that group. It didn’t really mean anything after coming to this world, but the two of them were in the same club at school.

Unlike me, the girls lucked out after running away. They were sheltered by a cheater from the exploration team who was charged with the Colony’s public safety. However, during a collision with students from the rebel faction, their group was scattered. Katou and Mizushima Miho ended up running all the way to that mountain hut with the one boy from the exploration team.

I didn’t understand the mechanism behind it, but that hut had a mysterious stone which kept monsters at bay. The boy knew of this and guided them over to the hut. Then he left behind provisions and went into the forest on his own. He went to request aid from his comrades in the first expeditionary force who should have been a fair distance away by that time.

They didn’t have to consider being attacked by monsters if they remained within that hut, so he surely thought that the girls would be safe there. He didn’t consider the malice and desire of humanity despite knowing full well that the Colony was destroyed by rebel students. As a result, Mizushima Miho and Katou Mana were attacked by the schoolboys who chanced upon the hut. Even so, it would be a little cruel to blame the boy who decided to leave them behind and chase after the first expeditionary force. Nobody could say that his decision was definitely wrong.

The reason the rebellion in the Colony couldn’t be suppressed to begin with was because the first expeditionary force was composed of the elite of the exploration team. Even though we classified them all as cheaters, there were major differences in their combat potential. For example, my monster tamer ability was on the weaker side of things. Although, such a peculiar ability was also on the rare side.

Most of the cheaters were blessed with powers made for battle, like enhanced physical abilities and mana. However, for the large majority of cheaters, that’s all their cheats amounted to. Those who possessed enhanced physical abilities and mana were called warriors; they made up the main force of the forest exploration and Colony defense groups. Thinking back on it now, it was possible that only those who had such easy-to-understand and manifest cheats were the ones who became self-aware of their own abilities.

The point was that cheaters all possessed tremendous combat strength, but that didn’t mean they were all the same. There really weren’t all that many cheaters who had physical abilities or powers that towered above the rest. Among the 300 exploration team members, there were maybe 10 who did.

The most famous among those was Nakajima Kojirou, the student council president in our world. Nicknamed the Blade of Light, he was a third-year student who led all the students even after coming to this world. Another was a second-year student like me, the Beast of Darkness Todoroki Miya. Other such examples were the Skanda Iino Yuna, the Absolute Blade Hibiya Kouji, and the Dragon Jinguuji Tomoya.

I didn’t know the particulars of any of their abilities, but I had heard they were true cheaters who could take on swarms of monsters all at once without blinking an eye. Looking at it from another perspective, that meant taking on a horde of monsters at once was difficult even for the other cheaters in the exploration team.

“Takaya was... a typical warrior... after all...”

The boy from the exploration team who had brought them to the hut was called Takaya Jun. He decided it would be too dangerous to take them through the forest while also protecting them. It wouldn’t have been impossible, but it was understandable he hesitated to expose them to danger like that.

Having said that, there was no future in confining himself to the hut. Hence, he judged it best to leave the two girls there and chase after the first expeditionary force. The consequences of his actions had been tragic, but there was no way of knowing whether or not he was correct at the time unless he was omniscient.

“Hang on a sec...” After listening to her story, I suddenly noticed something quite troublesome. “Meaning, the first expeditionary force may have returned?”

“Yes... It depends... On Takaya, though...”

“And there’s a possibility they’ll drop by that hut?”

“Yes... Um, Senpai? Is there something... bad about that?”

“It isn’t really bad or anything...”

I was being evasive. It was difficult for me to tell Katou why I felt this way.

I don’t trust humans.

To take it one step further, I couldn’t put my faith in any group of humans. That was the one and only lesson I brought with me out of all that despair and humiliation I suffered on the day the Colony was destroyed. As much as I could, I didn’t want to get involved with any groups of humans. That applied even more to a group where I didn’t possess the strength to oppose even a single member.

The probability of chancing upon other cheaters within this vast forest wasn’t particularly high. However, that near-zero probability skyrocketed into a fairly realistic scenario in the vicinity of that hut.

From that perspective, abandoning the hut was the correct choice. However, that wasn’t the only troublesome matter. If Takaya returned only to find the two girls missing, he was likely to search the area with the people he brought back.

The cave we were using as our resting place wasn’t all that far from the hut. It was quite likely they would find it if they searched the area. In which case, I probably had to move my base somewhere else. This was a problem I had to give serious thought to.

“Um... Senpai?”

“Hm? Oh, sorry. What is it?”

Katou’s voice brought me back to reality after I had lost myself in my own thoughts. She had a serious look on her face as she stared right into my eyes.

“There’s something... I want to ask you...”

“What?”

“That girl... isn’t Mizushima-senpai, right...? What... happened to her...?”

I hesitated to answer for a moment.

“She died.”

The reason I didn’t dodge the question was because Katou’s expression was telling me that she was resolved to hear the truth.

“We dealt with the corpse. You can go ahead and believe that’s the reason why Lily looks like this.”

“I see...” Katou didn’t look surprised. She seemed to have an inkling that this was the case. However, tears dripped from her eyes. “So Mizushima-senpai is...”

She continued to quietly cry over the loss of her close friend. All I could do was wait in silence until her tears came to a stop.

“Sorry... We were still in the middle of talking...”

I shook my head. “It’s fine.”

I didn’t trust humans. I hated them. But I didn’t believe myself to be such a brute that I could criticize a girl for feeling sorrow over the loss of a friend.

“Don’t worry about it. More importantly, we need to decide on what to do from now on.”

“Right...”

“It’ll work out just fine if that Takaya guy comes back with the others from the exploration team. I’m thinking they can take care of you.”

I had gotten my thoughts in order while Katou was crying. I had thought it was quite troublesome earlier, but if I wanted to get someone to take care of Katou, then there was a need for me to come in contact with other humans at least once. People who still had a sense of morals didn’t necessarily need to be members of the exploration team, but there didn’t seem to be any other humans who fit our criteria. This wasn’t an opportunity we could miss.

Just as I thought previously, I would check them out before they found me and verify that they were a group with moral sense. Then I could send Katou their way without having to come in contact with them myself. That was the plan.

“Is that fine with you?”

“Yes... It should be fine... But, um, Majima-senpai?”

“What?”

“What... do you plan on doing?” Katou was now sitting up and cradling her knees while looking at me with upturned eyes. “After leaving me... with them... What will you do?”

I answered immediately. “I won’t stay with the exploration team.”

If Katou wasn’t here, I would surely have chosen to run away from this place immediately. The only reason I even considered getting in contact with the exploration team was so I could leave her with them.

“Why? Even earlier... you looked troubled by this...”

She was awfully fixated on this considering her usually meek behavior. It may have been that she was simply getting back to normal, but it was possible there was another reason for it. In any case, I didn’t really have a need to lie about this. If she wanted to ask, then I just had to answer honestly.

“I simply can’t trust them.”

“You can’t trust... the exploration team?”

I shook my head. I was aware of how petty I was being, but my conclusion was still the same.

“I can’t trust anyone. Not ever since the day the Colony was destroyed.”

“...Oh.”

Katou figured it out from that. She had also experienced that day. She should have also seen the unsightly and foolish parts of humanity there. There was just one difference between us. I was shown nothing but the unsightly portions of humanity until I was sick of it. As a result, I was saved by a monster, by Lily. However, Katou was saved at the Colony. That’s why she had also seen the beautiful parts of humanity as well on that day.

Aah, but...

In a certain sense, Katou had gone through something far more horrible after that.

Maybe I’ll try believing in others once more. Maybe the world isn’t only made up of horrible people.

Katou could say things like that, even after going through such a hellish experience. I couldn’t even begin to fathom it despite suffering through that day at the Colony just like she did.

“You went through... something horrible... on that day too... didn’t you?” Katou sympathized with me. “...Even though you have... the power to tame monsters.”

“I became aware of this power only after the Colony was destroyed. I was saved by Lily here when I was on death’s door. I wouldn’t be here right now if not for her.”

Lily strengthened her grip on my arm and pushed herself against me. I had tried to keep my pain from being expressed through my voice, but I couldn’t hide it from our mental path. I petted her head with gratitude and then returned my gaze over to Katou.

“I was nearly killed by the people who sat right next to me in class. Can you imagine it? The guys I sat right next to every day were kicking me while I was down on the ground and laughing scornfully as they did so. Unfortunately, I’m not optimistic enough to innocently trust others after experiencing that.”

“So... you don’t... trust me, either?” Katou timidly asked.

“That’s an awfully difficult question to answer, isn’t it?” I replied with a bitter smile.

“S-Sorry...” Katou bowed apologetically. “B-But...”

She looked up once more, and her gaze passed over Lily. Then she glanced over at Rose, who was sitting just a short distance away.

“But you’ll be... bringing Lily and Rose with you, right?”

In short, she found it strange I was acting like I trusted Lily and Rose despite saying I couldn’t trust others. Well, I’m sure it looked strange from the outside. Even I felt just the smallest sense of discomfort from that realization.

“They’re my servants. My companions. I trust them.”

Don’t put them on the same level as mere humans.

Not that I could say that to Katou. But that was, in fact, what I really thought.

“Is that... so...? I really am... jealous...” Katou murmured quietly.

I had nothing I could say to her. Katou had gone through something horrible because she didn’t possess the strength to fight back. There was no mistaking that she was jealous of the fact that I had obtained strength.

And as such thoughts passed through my mind, I looked over the dimly-lit corner of the cave where Katou was.

My heart jumped.

Two eyes with an eccentric glow to them were looking right at me. I felt like I had seen them before. And that’s when it suddenly dawned on me. These were identical to the strangely colored eyes this girl exhibited when I first met her in that hut.

“Majima-senpai.”

Katou opened her mouth and I came back to my senses. By that time, the flare of emotion that was shown through her eyes for but an instant had completely vanished. In its stead was her usual languid, hollow, and expressionless look.

“About... Takaya...”

“H-Hmm?”

Why did her eyes look like that? And what was she thinking of at that time? Her attitude was just so different from usual that I had completely lost the timing to ask her about it. Not that it necessarily mattered since it wasn’t clear she would honestly answer me.

Just like I had told Lily before, I didn’t trust Katou despite taking her under my care. That was also the reason I hid Lily’s identity from her. Considering those eyes, it seemed there was still a need for me to stay on guard. And after I came to that conclusion, I decided to listen to what Katou had to say.

“What about that Takaya guy?”

“If we come in contact with the exploration team... it may be a problem... for Takaya to meet you, Majima-senpai.”

“Meaning?”

“Um... Takaya is... Mizushima-senpai’s childhood friend...” Katou stole a glance over at Lily. “What do you think... he would do... if he were to see Lily...?”

“Were they a couple?”

“Oh, they weren’t. That’s not... what I mean... but, um, he did...”

The reason she found it difficult to speak of was because this was a private matter to the person in question. But after she had already said so much, it was pretty simple for me to guess the rest despite not being particularly perceptive about such things.

“I see. Mizushima Miho was a beauty, after all. She had a good personality too. I bet you would need more than two hands to count the number of guys who fell for her. It wouldn’t be all that strange for her childhood friend to be head over heels.”

Meaning Takaya Jun didn’t protect Mizushima Miho and Katou Mana from the chaos in the Colony and bring them all the way to the hut out of a simple sense of duty or kindness. Interpreting it as having an ulterior motive was going a bit too far, though.

“Mizushima Miho was someone Takaya wanted to protect even at the cost of his own life. If he saw Lily borrowing her form, he most likely would attack us in a fit of rage. Is that what you’re trying to say, Katou?”

“Yes...”

So something troublesome came up just as I decided to come in contact with the exploration team. But that didn’t really matter. I had already decided on contacting them. Besides, it wasn’t really all that troublesome.

“Got it. Let’s keep Lily’s case covered up as best we can. She can just dispel her mimicry when we’re around that guy.”

“I think... that’s a good idea...”

“Thank you for warning me about the possible danger.”

“It’s nothing... This is about... all I can do...”

In a sense, I was able to procure this information precisely because I had taken Katou in my care. The danger of coming into contact with Takaya didn’t change whether or not I had done so. If I hadn’t met her last night, I would surely have chosen to use this cave as my base for a while longer. When Takaya returned with the exploration team, there would have been a non-zero chance of him unexpectedly bumping into Lily while she was mimicking Mizushima Miho. It was better to know about the active bomb in one’s hand than to be oblivious to it. That’s what I believed, at the very least.

“I’m grateful for this information. I’m not saying this’ll be my way of thanking you for it, but I’ll be sure to have the exploration team protect you. And if not, I promise to look after you until we safely arrive at a human settlement.”

“...Thank you... very much...”

Katou bowed her head. Her bangs were hiding her expression, but her lips moved ever so slightly.

“But... if you’d really like to thank me...”

“What?”

I couldn’t quite hear her, but Katou shook her head. I caught just the slightest glimpse of that eccentric look in her eyes.

“Never mind... It’s nothing...”