Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 11 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Skanda and the Demon King Cross Paths ~Iino Yuna’s POV~

Let’s sum up the situation. I’d been traveling with the Second Company of the Holy Order, chasing rumors of a fake savior, but we hadn’t gotten any results yet. The fake savior’s actions were incomprehensible. Because of that, I suspected the Lord of Darkness, Kudou Riku, as the culprit.

But even if he was the fake savior, why would he do something so roundabout as visiting these villages and announcing himself as a savior? All of the answers were now before me.

Former exploration team members were supposed to be in this village. What then appeared was an abnormal number of monsters. That meant...

“Found you. The root of all evil.”

After cutting down over twenty monsters, I finally came to a stop. A slender young man, surrounded by monsters and standing atop a cliff, turned my way. He had meek features and cold eyes. He was the Demon King who’d lost all hope in humanity. I’d found exactly what I’d expected.

“The Lord of Darkness, Kudou Riku!”

I screamed his name in anger, and he returned a faint smile. A chill ran down my spine. All of his emotions were dead behind that smile.

“And you’re Iino Yuna? It’s been since the Mad Beast incident, hasn’t it?”

Kudou faced me with a cool demeanor. He showed no signs of faltering before the exploration team’s Skanda. Did that mean he had that much confidence in his own power? In truth, there were many monsters in the area. Among them was one who looked like Juumonji too. It was a spawn of the doppelqueen Anton, copying his form. We’d fought on a common front during the battle against Takaya, but this time we were enemies. There were other monsters I’d seen before, and others I hadn’t. Dozens of them were gathered here. All this was enough to crush even a cheater at a warrior’s level.

“But the root of all evil? What a strange thing to say,” Kudou said boastfully. “I’m the Demon King. True, you could say I’m the very essence of evil, but I have no idea why you would say I’m the cause of the misdeeds done here.”

“Quit screwing around!”

Was he really trying to play dumb now? Fine. In that case, I’d expose everything. I suppressed my anger and chose my words carefully.

“Lately, someone who claims to be a savior has been visiting several villages in the vicinity, and those same villages were trampled by monsters. Despite all the destruction, the fake savior in question was never found, no matter how much we searched.”

The Second Company of the Holy Order was proactively on the hunt, yet they hadn’t managed to find a single clue. They were completely empty-handed.

“But isn’t that obvious?” I continued. “Right? There was nothing like that in the first place!”

I pointed my sword at Kudou’s unconcerned smile.

“A former exploration team member was at the village near here. A real savior. I’m sure others were in all the villages annihilated by monsters. You’ve been aiming to kill visitors, just like you did at Fort Tilia. That’s why you had your monsters attack those villages. That’s why news of a fake savior visiting them spread. Isn’t that right?!”

I’d always wondered why Kudou would pretend to be a savior and visit these villages before attacking them, but that wasn’t the case. The truth had been twisted. He hadn’t pretended to be a savior; a real savior had been to those villages. We would never find a fake, because nothing like that had existed to begin with and the real saviors had all been killed.

Thinking back, this was the reason I’d never met any of the former exploration team members who should’ve been in the region.

“Answer me! Kudou Riku!”

“Heh.”

He let out a breath, and his shoulders began shaking as if he couldn’t contain it anymore.

“Pffft. Hah... Ha ha ha ha ha!”

His laughter shook the air. Two bloodied bodies lay at the Demon King’s feet. I knew their faces and names. Those boys had been exploration team members. I couldn’t take it anymore.

“What’s so funny?!”

I kicked off the ground. Countless monsters stood between me and Kudou, but what of it? None of that mattered to me.

“Out of the way!”

I cut, stabbed, kicked, and jumped. I killed all who crossed my path and landed. It was just one more push to reach him. A smile remained plastered on Kudou’s face, maybe because he couldn’t even react yet. That was fine. I was going to teach him a lesson. Just as I thought that, Kudou’s shadow stood up right in front of me.

“Wha—?!”

“I won’t let you!”

A girl who looked like she was made entirely of shadows jumped out. Her arms turned into swords and caught my strike. My sword sank deep, but it didn’t sever the shadowy blades.

“Wretched human! You won’t block my king’s path!”

“Ugh!”

She pushed back. She wasn’t anywhere close to Majima’s servant Gerbera, but she was still pretty strong. It would be difficult to defeat her instantly.

“You help too, Emil!” the girl screamed.

An enormous beast leaped out from the swarm of monsters.

“Graaawr!”

“No way?!”

Its attack was sharp and heavy, and even though I managed to block it, it blew me away a good distance.

“Ugh... You’re kidding...”

I stabbed my sword into the ground to bring myself to a stop. I wasn’t hurt, but this was quite the mental shock.

“Takaya?!”

“Grrr!”

I couldn’t mistake that fiendish figure covered in bristling red fur for anyone else.

“You’re working for Kudou Riku now?!”

After turning into the Mad Beast, Takaya had vanished into the mountains. Since then, his whereabouts had been unknown. I never thought he’d be with Kudou. The last time I’d seen him, he was covered in wounds, but it looked like he’d gotten treatment since then. He was still missing an arm, but he was otherwise in perfect shape.

Now that I understood the situation, I gritted my teeth. Takaya’s Mad Lycanthropy was an inherent ability tailored for battle. He was pretty strong in combat even among all the cheaters. The shadowy girl was here too, making it hard for me to arrest Kudou. Considering all the other monsters he had at hand, the worst was entirely possible.

“But even so, I...”

“Ha ha. That was a good laugh,” Kudou muttered, the remnants of a smile still lingering on his lips.

“What?”

The anger in my chest flared up once more. He was making fun of me again. I glared at him.

“What’s so funny?!”

“It’s just hilarious, isn’t it?” he said brazenly, looking down at me triumphantly. “You seem to be misunderstanding something here. I’ve got nothing to do with these fake savior incidents.”

He spoke indifferently, as if none of this was his concern.

“Huh?”

I was dumbfounded. I hadn’t expected this, and there was a limit to such shameless behavior.

“Nothing to do with...? What nonsense are you spouting?!”

It was a lousy joke. It was practically a miracle that I hadn’t lunged at him in anger.

“Then what are those bodies at your feet?!” I screamed.

“This is this, that is that. Not that you look like you’ll listen to me,” Kudou said, sighing. “Well, I don’t have any obligation to explain things to you, nor is there time to.”

With that, he called a horselike monster to his side.

“You’re running away?!”

“Yes.”

Kudou mounted the horse with unexpected grace. At this rate, he would get away. I stifled my surging impatience and began thinking.

“Huh? Aren’t I one of the humans you’re supposed to be killing? Haah... Not much of a Demon King if you’re just chickening out.”

“You wretch...”

The shadowy girl flared in anger at my provocation, but not even a single ripple altered Kudou’s expression.

“It doesn’t matter what you say. I have no intention of fighting you.”

“Do you think you can get away from me?”

Judging that this approach wouldn’t work, I tried a different angle to shake him up. Takaya being among the enemy forces was unexpected, but there wasn’t that much of a difference between me and all of Kudou’s monsters put together. Actually, pursuing a fleeing foe would allow me to demonstrate my specialty to its fullest.

Kudou was calm as he said, “Oh, I’ll get away, all right. I can say it with certainty. You won’t defeat me. Besides...” Still mounted on horseback, he turned his gaze to the side. “I said there’s no time, right? I wasn’t talking about me.”

“What are you saying?”

I carefully followed Kudou’s gaze, wary of any traps, then froze.

“Th-That’s...”

I could see a village from our vantage atop the cliff. It was a small and simple settlement that could be found anywhere, and right now, a swarm of monsters was charging toward it. There were so many of them. They numbered one, maybe two hundred, or maybe even more. At the very least, a village like that had no chance of survival.

“S-Stop them!” I yelled, turning back to Kudou.

This was the Lord of Darkness’s power. He was doing something outrageous. He’d said he didn’t intend to fight, but that was out of the question. I couldn’t possibly let him get away now. I had to beat him down here and now. I steeled myself and was just about to charge at him, when Kudou opened his mouth.

“Unfortunately, those aren’t my pawns. There’s no point in defeating me.”

“Huh?” I came to a stop after taking only a single step toward him. “What are you saying?”

“Right now, I can subdue around a thousand monsters to my will. This is my power as a Demon King. That’s also my limit, though. Those monsters aren’t under my control, so it’s a waste of time to do anything to me.”

“That can’t—”

“Don’t believe me? Whatever then. Shall we have at it?”

Kudou raised his hand, and all of his servants in the area poised themselves to charge at me as one.

“From my perspective, it might be nice to crush a panicking Skanda who’s incapable of displaying her true strength,” he said, his smile cold and penetrating. “Either way, that village will get annihilated in the meantime.”

“Ugh...”

“Let me tell you one more thing. I’ve got about three hundred of my servants here. You kill me, and they’ll go out of control too. So? What’ll you do?”

It was cruel of him to push that decision on me.

“G-Guhhh...”

I had no choice. Having come to that understanding, I lowered my sword.

“I’m glad you get it,” Kudou said, nodding in satisfaction. “I heard the exploration team’s Skanda was foolhardy and thoughtless, but it looks like I got through to you just fine.”

“And now you’re making fun of me?”

“I’m praising you. You aren’t thoughtless. Everyone makes mistakes.”

Kudou turned his horse around, then suddenly looked back at me one more time as if on a whim.

“You got pretty close to the truth, but there are others who are far more foolish than you think they are—far more foolish than you. That’s all this was.”

“What? What does that...?”

“Well then, if you’ll excuse me.”

He didn’t answer. The time for whimsy was over. Kudou took his servants and calmly left me behind.