Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 10 - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: A Special Relationship Just Between Us

“Takahiro, may I have a moment?”

“Shiran? Sure. Come in.”

I sat up from bed and faced Shiran as she entered the room. She looked at me with a smile, a special kind of affection behind it.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Just fine. Although, it’s a little awkward that everyone is treating me like a patient,” I replied, smiling bitterly.

“No complaining, My Lord,” Gerbera, who’d been keeping me company at my bedside, said with a sour look. “You’re still in poor condition.”

“I mean...I’m just short a little blood, and my mana was all used up, right?”

“‘Sucked up’ would be more appropriate,” Gerbera corrected.

“Um, sorry for being a bother,” Shiran said bashfully, curling in on herself as the person responsible for sucking my blood.

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for,” Gerbera said, cocking her head. “You were moments from dying of starvation and saw a gourmet meal before your eyes. It’s only natural you’d pounce on it.”

“I-I didn’t really pounce or anything, though...” Shiran replied faintly, shrinking back even more.

She must’ve remembered something. Shiran didn’t have much experience as a girl, so she was very innocent. When she reacted like this, I felt embarrassed too.

“Oh, now that I think of it, you’re right,” Gerbera said, nodding firmly. “I’m impressed. I have no confidence I’d be able to hold back. I’m doing my best to hold back right now as it is.”

“Aren’t you holding back the wrong desire?” I said, my eyes half-closed.

“A-Anyway,” Gerbera said, averting her gaze, “people don’t recover so easily from abusing their body to its limit. You must recuperate, My Lord. Just get some rest for the day.”

“I know...”

“In fact, Katou has strictly instructed me not to take my eyes off you,” Gerbera added. “I’ll get scolded if you start moving around, so please spare me that...”

Gerbera put her hands to her head and started trembling. She was just as scared as always, but the two of them got along unexpectedly well, so I didn’t understand why she was acting like that.

“In any case, what did you come for, Shiran?” Gerbera asked, changing the topic.

“Ah yes. About that, I came to—”

“Oh! I get it!”

Gerbera suddenly came to a realization, like an imaginary light bulb had lit up above her. Incidentally, it was a different matter entirely whether she actually got it.

“I shall excuse myself for a bit!”

With that, Gerbera unfolded her legs and immediately went out into the relatively small hallway—for her, at least—with unexpected dexterity. Seeing her like that reminded me that she was a spider.

“Looks like she misunderstood,” I said. What happened to Katou telling her to keep an eye on me? “Whatever. So? What did you need, Shiran?”

“Right. I came to tell you of the village’s situation. Do you have the time?”

“As you can see, I’ve got all the time in the world. Could you fill me in on the details?”

I pointed Shiran to a chair, then listened as she told me about the state of the village. First, of the severely wounded villagers we’d been sheltering, four had survived. Dennis and two others had been fine to begin with, and there were nine children. Altogether, we’d saved sixteen villagers. That wasn’t enough to maintain an entire village, though. Any monster attack would lead to annihilation.

Normally, it would be time to consider moving to another village immediately, but we were staying here too. We could repulse any normal monsters, so there was no need to evacuate right this moment. The villagers would have to migrate, considering the situation, but we could do so after consulting the neighboring Rapha first.

Currently, Lily was minding the injured, and Lobivia and Ayame were on guard outside the village. Rose and Katou were in charge of repairing the village’s facilities, while Shiran and Kei were discussing the future with the survivors.

“I made the rounds before coming here. It seems all is going well,” Shiran said.

“That’s good. Looks like the Holy Order isn’t coming either, so we can relax for now...”

But something was bothering me a little. Soon after the battle was over, the Holy Gaze’s curse had been lifted from Gerbera. Lobivia said that Travis had gotten away, so it was unexpected of him to remove it.

It was convenient for us, but it left me curious. It was possible Travis had cut it off himself, seeing as there was a limit to how many targets he could cast it on, or maybe there was a limit to how far away he could be. Nothing would come from thinking about it, though. If we were going to worry about the Holy Order, reconciling with them as a whole was more important than concerning ourselves with the nearly annihilated Fourth Company.

All the same, how could we get in contact with the Holy Order’s upper brass? One idea that came to mind was contacting the Akerian royal family. The victims of this incident, the villagers of Kehdo, were citizens of Aker, so the royal family was, in a way, a concerned party. I needed to negotiate with them in order to get aid for the villagers who’d been hurt by Travis’s rampage too. Still, that would take time. Right now, we had to get some rest and help out at the village however we could.

“Um, Takahiro?” Shiran said, interrupting my thoughts.

“What is it?” I asked, but she then averted her eye. “What?”

“Oh. Um... It’s hard to say...”

She was being evasive. I cocked my head, wondering what it was, and she continued little by little.

“During the battle yesterday, I crossed swords with Edgar. He was a difficult enemy, and I had to use all my strength.”

“Yeah. It was a splendid battle.”

“Thank you very much... Oh. No. Um, not that. I mean...”

Shiran furrowed her brow. Her eye darted about the whole time. Her behavior was clearly suspicious, and a bit of shyness hid behind her expression.

“What I’m saying is, I used all my strength... That’s the main point. In other words, I used up a significant amount of mana.”

“So...what?” I had a rough idea of what she was getting at now, and I started to feel embarrassed too. Gerbera’s consideration was unexpectedly right on the mark. “You’re hungry?”

Shiran hesitated for a moment, then said in the quietest of voices, “Yes... B-But it’s not that I’m simply hungry. Th-That would be fine if left as is, but, I mean, it’s not entirely out of the question for Travis to attack again, and since we should maintain our forces, I was thinking it’d be a bad idea to remain mana deficient, so...I was worried about what to do.”

Though her girlish qualities were taking center stage, she maintained her serious, knightly nature.

“Well, I don’t mind if you come to me just because you’re hungry...”

“B-But, Takahiro, you’re not in good health. Given the current situation, wouldn’t it be better for you to stay in top condition?”

“Oh, right. You...have a point there. We don’t know what can happen. That’s true.”

“I doubt you’ve recovered much blood in just one day, so...um, I was thinking of, uh, maybe getting by with another method... That way, even if I can’t get as much mana as with blood, I’ll at least be able to wield my sword...”

Shiran quickly glanced at my lips, then averted her gaze again. That was her limit. She held her hand to her mouth, hiding her own lips, and fell silent. Even so, after that, it was obvious what she was getting at.

An uncomfortable silence fell over the room. If this were Lily, she’d be sweetly coaxing me, but even allowing for the difference in their characters, this was very hard for Shiran given her personality. Still, she was serious to a fault, so she must’ve figured something had to be done. That was why she’d taken action, no matter how embarrassing it was.

My personality was similar to hers, so I understood her well in this regard. Nonetheless, it was because of this similarity that we remained awkwardly silent. Both Lily and Gerbera were really assertive, so this was a first for me. Naturally, Shiran wasn’t Lily or Gerbera, therefore we had to establish our relationship on our own.

Yesterday, I’d responded to Shiran’s feelings as a knight, but I still hadn’t given an answer to her feelings as a girl. That was inadequate. Yesterday wasn’t the time for it, but putting it on hold indefinitely would be insincere. I sat up and moved to the edge of my bed.

“Takahiro...”

I put my hand to her face. Her eye glistened as she turned my way. I stroked her cold and smooth cheek, and her eye narrowed happily as I stared right into its blue depths.

“Please hear me out, Shiran. I—”

We’d disagreed many times up until now.

There were times we hadn’t noticed what the other was thinking.

There were times we misunderstood each other.

This time, there would be none of that.

I clearly conveyed to her the feelings we both shared.