Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 10 - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: The Fate of the Trampled

Having successfully escaped the village, Travis headed to the rendezvous point they’d decided on beforehand. None of his subordinates who’d infiltrated the village with him were here; all of them had been killed by the dragon. Regardless, Travis had many other subordinates, and the Holy Gaze’s curse had yet to be lifted from the Great White Spider. If he could meet up with the others, they could rally together. So Travis believed...until he was faced with reality, that is.

“What...the...?”

He forgot to maintain his usual elegant act and mumbled in a daze. Before him were about twenty of his subordinates, all of them a tattered mess.

“Wha... Wh-What happened?! Someone! Someone give me a report right now!”

Of the approximately two hundred knights of the Holy Order’s Fourth Company, this was all that had returned from the attack on Shiran’s reclamation village.

The main force that had assaulted the front gate had suffered severe casualties from two volleys of Rose’s trump card, the combat fireworks. After reinforcing their magic defenses and pushing again, they’d suffered a third volley. Rose had held nothing back. They’d taken less damage than the first round, but their defenses had come undone. They could’ve broken through had they kept going, but they’d had no idea how many more times Rose would attack them with a rain of fire. Instead, the main force had been forced to retreat again. In response, Rose had abandoned the line of defense. She’d retreated while sporadically counterattacking to slow her pursuers until, eventually, Gerbera and Lily arrived and routed the main force entirely.

As for the detached force, not a single knight had returned. About ten survivors had gotten away from Gerbera and Lily’s ambush, but unfortunately for them, they’d gone through a trackless path in the forest. Scattered and frantic, they’d had no idea which way they were going. Given the nature of the Woodlands, their safety was highly unlikely. If aid could’ve been sent out, it would’ve been another matter, but the Fourth Company no longer had the capacity to do so—not that their commander was one to consider such measures in the first place.

“F-Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fucking dammit!”

Travis tore at his hair. He didn’t care about his dead subordinates, but the Fourth Company being on the verge of annihilation as a whole was unacceptable. He would lose his position as commander, after all.

Until today, Travis had walked the path to glory. He’d been born with a superpower, and he had an exceptional sense for combat. He was the type to pay no heed to those he knocked down along the way. Because of this, he’d risen to the utmost heights. He’d received the greatest honor in the world by being named the commander of the Fourth Company of the Holy Order, and he’d naturally seen his appointment as a matter of course. It was vexing that there were still a few commanders above him, but he’d decided that he would one day drag them all down from their podiums. However, his path to glory was now blocked off.

“Like hell I’ll let this stand!”

Whose fault was this? Whom could he blame? Travis’s eyes darted around, and then he punched the knight who’d been given command of the main force.

“You! It’s all your fault! What will you do about this?!”

Without giving the man any time to resist, Travis started kicking. The knight screamed, but Travis kept driving his foot in over and over. The other knights didn’t try to stop him. None of them were the type to stick up for someone else, and all of them feared being the next target of Travis’s rage.

“The hell’re you up to?”

That was when Edgar returned.

“Edgar Guivarch... You came back, I see,” Travis said, glaring at Edgar with bloodshot eyes. “You’re late. Why didn’t you come back to us in the village?”

“We encountered Majima Takahiro and Lady Shiran.”

“Did you kill them?”

“Just as you can see, we failed.”

“Where’s Zoltan?”

“Dead,” Edgar answered bluntly, plopping down at the base of a tree.

“I see. And then you came shamelessly crawling back on your own, huh?”

He was one to talk, but nobody was going to point that out. Edgar also said nothing and simply stared at the ground.

Seeing the gashes all over Edgar’s body, Travis sneered. “Look at you after all that boasting. To think you’d fail to kill one woman who was already on the verge of death. Now we know the Battle Ogre’s limits.”

Travis mentally cursed Edgar out, finding him useless. The Battle Ogre’s ability was powerful, but it still had constraints. After using it too much, it couldn’t be activated again for a while. Each and every one of them was useless. He was surrounded by useless idiots.

Travis suppressed the urge to disparage everyone present. It still wasn’t too late. He had to calm down. There was a way to turn this around. He had an idea.

“Edgar Guivarch... I shall give you a chance to restore your honor,” he said, his voice gentle but his eyes like ice.

Edgar still had a use, and Travis could change his demeanor to whatever suited the situation so long as he had a plan.

“At this rate, you won’t be able to calm down, right? Are you sure it’s fine to leave the Battle Ogre’s reputation so tarnished?”

His tone was calm, but in essence, he was fanning the flames. Edgar remained seated, though, which Travis found strange. Edgar had a violent temperament; he wasn’t the type to laugh and accept defeat. In this situation, he would normally be raging, yet here he was, strangely docile.

Had he lost his nerve? If so, that was a bit of a problem. Travis couldn’t let this idiot remain an idiot without at least having him rampage around. Things were going to be pretty bad for him at this rate, so Travis started thinking of what to say next, when suddenly...

“Aah... That’s right. I gotta pay back what’s owed, huh?” Edgar muttered, his voice deep. “I won’t forgive any of them.”

Travis didn’t feel relieved to finally get a response. Rather, he felt a chill from the emotions behind that voice. Edgar wasn’t in low spirits. Not at all. He was seething with rage like never before.

“I fought someone strong. Yeah, that’s it. I got to wield my power like crazy, and I wanted to butcher them. Losing and getting killed would’ve definitely been humiliating, but crawling back alive like this is the greatest humiliation of all.”

His negative emotions came pouring out like mud. Even without taking the form of one, he had a terrifying presence that made it known to all that Edgar Guivarch was a real ogre.

“I’ll absolutely pay them all back.”

“Edgar...”

Travis perceived what was going through Edgar’s head and secretly snickered to himself, but he didn’t let a single whisper of this slip through his lips.

“Yes. You’re right. There’s no way a loss to the Wicked Monster Tamer and the Repulsive Ghoul can be allowed for the great Battle Ogre,” Travis said, walking up to Edgar and holding out his hand. “Let us kill Majima Takahiro together. I shall prepare the stage for you.”

Burning anger—Travis could use such emotion. When applied correctly in an act of reckless desperation, it could manifest normally impossible explosive power. It was risky, but Travis didn’t give a damn.

Burn out your life for my sake. I’ll use you to the last drop of blood. That is your one and only pur—

“Sorry. Not a chance.”

“Huh?”

Travis had started scheming for the future already, so Edgar’s refusal caught him off guard. His thoughts froze for just an instant. Using that opening, the ogre swung his giant blade, tearing through the air.

“Guh?! Gaaaargh?!”

Travis let out an ear-piercing shriek and fell to the ground, rolling about with both hands to his face.

“Aaaaaah?!”

Blood spattered everywhere, but it was far too little to have come from a proper sword wound. At the very least, it wasn’t fatal. Nevertheless, that strike had stolen something that could never be recovered.

“My eyes?! My eeeeeeyes?!”

“I already told you. I’m gonna pay all those fuckers back,” Edgar said, swaying to his feet. “Everything started with you, yeah?”

Edgar’s talent for the blade was truly terrifying. Even if Travis had been negligent and caught off guard, Edgar had stolen the eyes of “Travis of the Holy Gaze.” None of the knights so much as budged at the sudden violence. They remained speechless and stared at the point of Edgar’s wet blade. Edgar remained expressionless except for his eyes, which glittered with a dangerous light. He was like a revenant.

“Gaaaaaah! Have you gone mad?! Edgaaaar?!”

“Shut the fuck up,” Edgar said, kicking Travis in the mouth with disinterest.

“Hgh! G-Gah...”

Travis blacked out, his broken teeth tumbling to the ground.

“Don’t bitch about this being unreasonable,” Edgar said, walking up to the fallen commander. “You were the one trying to force this on someone else.”

“U-Ugh...”

“Relax. I won’t kill you. You still have a use and all. I’ll use you right to your last drop of blood,” Edgar said coldly as he looked down at Travis. “Honestly, I don’t like doing things like this. Still, I’ve seen it plenty of times from the sidelines, thanks to you. I know how it’s done. Riiiight, Travis?”

Travis had kept Edgar in his company because he was a convenient soldier who’d wanted no honor, money, or status. As a result, Edgar knew Travis’s ways very well. Even if he didn’t like this method and didn’t specialize in it, he could imitate it if he put his mind to it.

Edgar had said that he wouldn’t kill him. He’d said he would use him to the last drop of blood, meaning it would be hell. Travis’s face contorted, completely unrelated to the pain he felt.

“A-Aaah... W-Wait!”

“Just go to sleep.”

Edgar kicked Travis’s head like a ball, and he finally went silent. Then he grabbed Travis’s arm and dragged him along the ground. Nobody tried to save their commander. They were all desperate to keep the Battle Ogre’s focus away from them, so even though they all heard him, no one reacted.

“‘Savior,’ my ass,” Edgar muttered. “Dying with that satisfied smirk on your face. Don’t go doing things on your goddamn own.”

He was complaining to nobody in particular. Or perhaps there was something else to it.

“I’m gonna pay what’s owed, Zoltan. For your part too...”

With that, Edgar vanished, dragging Travis deep into the forest.