Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 11 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Wolf and the Shadow ~Berta’s POV~

Some time had passed since I parted ways with Majima Takahiro during his journey to the dragon settlement. Just as I’d told him, I was planning on meeting my king, but this required a fair amount of time. My king moved about while hiding his presence from the world, so having been independent of him for some time, it wasn’t easy to get in touch.

If I could transform into a human, I could contact Anton—one of my king’s other subjects, a doppelqueen—through one of her spawns who’d slipped into a town to gather information. Still, no matter how hard I tried, my lower half remained that of a wolf, so I couldn’t enter human settlements. Because of this, my king had prepared a means for me to get in touch with him—he’d left one of his subjects in a region no human could enter.

My king’s ability allowed him to command monsters and freely manipulate them. With exceptions like Anton and I, all monsters under his control could only do what he ordered. When separated from him, they couldn’t make decisions of their own accord. But that didn’t mean he could only use them when they were nearby. Such creative use of power was a human specialty. My king fully grasped his ability, so he could simply give orders beforehand about what to do given a variety of conditions, making it possible to use monsters who were far away from him.

The monster who’d been left in a remote region had been ordered to let our king know if I showed up, though it was up to his discretion whether he would actually meet me. After waiting a few days, the monster returned. Fortunately, it was accompanied by another monster meant to act as a guide. And just like that, I returned to my king’s side for the first time in a while.

◆ ◆ ◆

I was guided to a place far away from Aker. In human terms, it was the territory of a minor noble in the southern Empire. I was a little curious about what my king was up to here.

“Berta.”

I followed the guide through a dense forest, when one of Anton’s spawns appeared in our path. It had the form of the boy who’d died at Fort Tilia, Juumonji Tatsuya. A fair number of monsters surrounded us, likely on watch for any enemies tailing the guide...or rather, me, in case I messed up. I could sense the presence of a large army of monsters loitering farther beyond. It looked like the expansion of my king’s forces was going well. Relieved by that, I responded to her call.

“It has been a while, Anton.”

Anton didn’t respond to my greeting. Instead, she spoke in an exceedingly businesslike manner.

“I’ll guide you to our king. Follow me.”

She turned on her heel without even giving me a glance. I followed her, smiling bitterly to myself.

Anton was a monster with a will, much like me, but like our king’s regular pawns, she had no emotions. No matter what she saw, no matter what she did, she didn’t feel anything, so she faithfully obeyed our king’s orders. Her way of life was ideal for one of our king’s subjects. Honestly, I was envious, knowing that such emotions were exactly my problem.

At any rate, the emotionless Anton only ever did what was needed. I already knew that, but I had greeted her like a human. Perhaps I’d been influenced a little by their conduct. Maybe the same thoughts went through Anton’s mind too.

“How was your time with the Second King?” she asked.

Anton only ever did what was necessary, so maybe she’d judged that this idle chatter was needed. But in that case, what was the intent behind it?

I had a bad premonition. I was a failure among my king’s subjects; I was strong in battle, but I had far too many pointless flaws to offset that advantage. For example, my heart—in other words, my emotions, feelings, and sympathy. My king deemed all such things unnecessary, but no matter how I tried to freeze my heart, no matter how much I served my role, those unnecessary parts remained somewhere within me.

Since I was like this, my only use was to remain by the side of Majima Takahiro, with whom my king was greatly infatuated. My king had deemed that I would provoke the least animosity. Specifically, since Majima Takahiro’s governing principles were completely different from his own, my king had determined that I would fit in better with them. He’d already considered the dangers of my being won over by the other group too. That decision had included the readiness to cut me loose, which Anton would understand.

Maybe she was probing me for the possibility. I didn’t mind being cut loose, but only if I were dying for my king’s sake. I didn’t want to be purged for being a traitor.

“I’ll speak of everything I saw once I am before our king,” I answered.

“I see.” Fortunately, Anton backed down immediately, but she still moved on to another topic. “How is that big white spider doing?”

“What...?” I said, hesitating for a moment, wondering if this was also a necessity. “Pretty much the same as always. If I had to mention anything... Oh, she’s been worrying about how to advance her relationship with her king, now that they’ve become lovers. She seems to be enjoying each and every day.”

I didn’t need to go out of my way to inform our king of this information, so it was surely fine to mention it now.

“I see,” Anton said briefly, immediately going silent.

“Did something happen between you and the white spider?” I asked.

Now that I thought of it, Anton always seemed to have that white spider on her mind. I recalled the somewhat provocative words they’d exchanged the last time they’d met.

I didn’t really expect an answer, but Anton defied my expectations.

“Back when we first bumped into each other at Fort Tilia...” Anton started, but then she held her tongue. “We will soon be before our king.”

We’d arrived at our destination; it was a cave. We stopped our idle chatter and stepped inside. Anton’s spawn, still copying the figure of Juumonji Tatsuya, walked on, its footsteps echoing off the walls.

The cave was bright. A large flaming lizard crawled across the wall, likely there for both illumination and defense. As we got deeper inside, I saw the figures of the monsters our king had given names—the doppelqueen Anton, the nightmare stalker Dora, and the Mad Beast Emil.

Surrounded by these monsters, ones who were far stronger than the hundreds of other monsters he commanded, was the small figure of our king. He was sitting at a desk, one Anton or the like had probably acquired in town. Several stacks of paper sat atop it, and our king was looking over one of them.

Aah, I’m finally back. I was happy to see my king after so long, and barely managed to stop my tail from wagging. I knew he hated such displays of emotion.

“Oh, Berta. You’re back.”

He turned my way. Even though it’d been a while since we’d seen each other, his eyes showed little interest. He had no interest in anyone in this entire world, with one single exception. His servants were nothing but pawns, and everyone else he would one day kill. Nevertheless, the gaze he turned toward me was colder than even that. I felt like my heart would break—an unnecessary feeling as my king’s pawn.

“I’ve returned, my king.”

I brought an end to my useless thoughts and walked before him. He raised his slender face. It looked like he’d gotten skinnier again. My king was thin to begin with. Even after having acquired a superpower in this world, he wasn’t the type to train his body. But within that slender frame, one that was no different from the average human’s, burned a black flame of hatred and despair. It felt like it could burn the entire world, and it constantly scorched him as well.

“Has Senpai gotten stronger?”

The only time he seemed to forget these self-destructive emotions was when he talked about anything related to Majima Takahiro. I liked seeing him like this, even if his eyes weren’t really looking at me when we talked.

“Tell me everything, Berta.”

“Yes.”

◆ ◆ ◆

It took a fair amount of time to relay everything that had happened from the beginning of my duty guarding Majima Takahiro to the point I’d parted with him.

“A hidden settlement of dragons, you say,” my king said, showing particular interest in that last detail. “Now that’s interesting. I’d like to know more.”

“Forgive me. I parted ways with them before they visited the settlement itself.”

“Is that so? Well, never mind then. I’d rather not displease Majima-senpai.”

I thought he would try to concoct some scheme related to Draconia, but he backed down easily.

“Do make sure not to spoil that policy in the future,” he added.

“Understood.”

“Anyway...a clan of dragons. To make contact with such valuable beings, that’s my senpai for you.”

This was my king’s first exchange in a while with the one and only person he saw as his equal, even if it was through a messenger. He smiled in great humor. It wasn’t his usual emotionless smile either. It was as if he were any other normal boy. I hadn’t been able to make the distinction before, but now I could see it clearly. Maybe another change was occurring in me after spending time with Majima Takahiro’s group. If so...

“Hey, Berta. If you do come back here...”

The request he’d entrusted me with came back to mind, so I boldly cut to the chase.

“My king. That is everything regarding my knowledge of Majima Takahiro’s activities. I have one more message to pass on. May I?”

“A message from Majima-senpai? What is it?” my king asked, full of interest.

“Up until now, I have only been dispatched as Majima Takahiro’s guard,” I started with no small amount of tension in my voice. “I have been nothing more than a loaned combatant. However, he has asked me to contact you about making it more than that.”

“He asked you to...?” he said, finding this unexpected.

“This is dangerous, my king,” cut in Dora, who’d been standing behind him. “Berta, do you intend on leaking information about our king to him?”

Her shadowy face twisted as she glared at me. Unlike her emotionless mother Anton, Dora served our king with absolute loyalty while displaying fits of anger like this. As far as possessing emotions, she was the same as me. Be that as it may, all of her emotions came from her loyalty, so much like Anton, she would never object to any of our king’s plans. As such, she was also a perfect subject.

Her anger was reasonable. In fact, I’d raised the same concerns with Majima Takahiro when he’d brought this up. My king had an abnormal number of enemies, and having unnecessary connections to others could lead directly to danger. In a sense, this was an outrageous request, but I wasn’t the one making the decision.

“Stand down, Dora,” our king said.

“B-But...”

“Majima-senpai has no ill intent. You’re overthinking things.”

Despite being surprised, our king showed no anger as Dora had. He actually looked pleased.

“Heh heh. I see. So it’s come to this,” he continued, his shoulders shaking. “Meaning, he still hasn’t given up on me, has he?”

“He hasn’t,” I answered hesitantly.

“Heh heh heh. Very well,” he said with another laugh. “Keeping in touch with him isn’t bad for me either, seeing as how I want to recruit him.”

“You mean...?”

“Yes, I’ll accept his offer,” my king answered, pulling a paper out of the pile on his desk. “But, in that case, it’s hardly fair that I’m getting all this information. Revealing my current location would be a little too much, though. Instead, how about you take him a little gift? Wait a moment.”

He shuffled through the pile of papers while running a pen across a blank sheet. After writing something down, he folded it and placed it inside a leather bag.

“Take this to him,” he ordered.

I stretched a tentacle out from my waist and accepted the leather bag.

“This is information that Anton has gathered on the movements of the other visitors,” he added.

“Information on visitors...”

To my king, who’d witnessed hell on the day the Colony fell, the large majority of visitors were targets of hatred. At the same time, many of them had powers that could rival his, so he was paying close attention to their activities. Perhaps that wasn’t all either...

“It should be about time for Senpai to leave that settlement. Please continue guarding him. If you have something to tell me, then return. I will send messengers every now and then too.”

With that, he returned his focus to his desk. Our talk was over. I lowered my head deeply, then parted ways with him once more.

◆ ◆ ◆

After leaving the cave, I stretched. I’d gotten the result I’d been hoping for, allowing me to relax a little.

“Hm?”

Just then, I heard footsteps behind me and turned around.

“Anton?”

Anton’s spawn, the one assuming the form of Juumonji Tatsuya, came out behind me.

“I was under the impression you would plead to stay by our king’s side,” she said, emotionless as ever, once she got close.

“Did you follow me out just to say that?” I asked, a little exasperated by the remark.

I figured she couldn’t understand the intent behind my behavior and had judged this could be dangerous for our king. If there was something else behind her question, I couldn’t tell. For my part, I preferred that she didn’t harbor any strange suspicions about me.

“Unfortunately, I already made that request,” I admitted honestly. “Before being dispatched, that is. I was soundly refused.”

We were all pawns to our king. I’d already known that he wouldn’t listen no matter how much I implored him. If it were Anton... No, none of his other subjects would even consider such useless thoughts. I was the only failure.

“But maybe that was for the best,” I added. “Because of that, we’ve managed to form a connection between our king and Majima Takahiro, just as before.”

“I can’t understand. Not you, or the Second King,” Anton said, emotionlessly shaking her head. “No matter what happens, our king won’t stop. He just won’t. Do you truly believe that can change after all this time?”

“Do I truly believe...?”

I smiled bitterly. I remembered what I’d told the slime when this topic had come up between us. My king and Majima Takahiro were definitely different. Despite starting from the same circumstances, they walked different paths. Their natures played a part in this, but I couldn’t ignore that the slime had been the one to save Majima Takahiro.

No such being had appeared before my king. As a result, he had walked forth with despair and hatred in his heart. He couldn’t be stopped anymore. My thoughts on this hadn’t changed since talking to the slime. If anything had changed, it’d be my heart.

“You’ve got it wrong, Anton. Lacking in emotions as you are, though, you may not understand.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s no logic behind it. Even if you know it’s no good, you feel compelled to try. That is what emotions are.”

During my time with Majima Takahiro and his servants, I’d come to realize my own desires. If my king continued down his path, he would one day meet ruin while in the throes of despair. I wanted to overturn that fate. I wanted him to at least meet his end with satisfaction, rather than despair. That was my wish...one that I knew would never be granted.

“I know without needing you to tell me, Anton. I will accomplish nothing, gain nothing, and die in disappointment.”

Just as Anton said, there was no meaning to my behavior. I was being reckless, futile, and unproductive. This was what it meant to be a failure. Nevertheless, I couldn’t stop dreaming.

“I see,” Anton said, then cocked her head. “It’s incomprehensible.”

“I’m sure it is.”

Having had no emotions from the very beginning, she simply couldn’t understand.

“But there is something I do know now,” she added.

“What?” I asked hesitantly.

“I’ve been suspicious of this all the while,” Anton started, her face expressionless as a rock. “Why does our king keep you far away from him when you are the strongest among us? Emotions and whatnot shouldn’t play a factor. But now I’m convinced that our king’s decision was correct.”

“Oh, is that right?”

I didn’t need to be told that. My emotions were unnecessary to our king. He didn’t want us to have desires, and so he alienated me. That was all there was to it.

“So what will you do?” I asked, not really refuting her statement. “Will you eliminate me?”

Anton was questioning me like this because she found it dangerous that she couldn’t read my intentions. Depending on the circumstances, this conversation could lead her to a perilous conclusion.

“I have no intention to,” she said, shaking her head. “Your behavior is indeed incomprehensible to me. Nevertheless, I know you will not become a threat to our king. You may do as you like, just as you have.”

Having finished asking what she wanted to ask, Anton turned on her heel.

“Do take care of your health,” she added. “Even if you have resolved yourself to meet your end in vain, I doubt you want to die a meaningless death. The situation among the visitors is fairly unstable... Although, for both our king and the Second King, it is no skin off their noses.”

“What?”

“You may show the Second King the information you were handed. Perhaps he’ll realize something.”

With that, Anton returned to the cave.

“Meaning something happened?” I mumbled to myself, feeling the weight of the leather satchel I’d been handed. “Something related to visitors?”

I suddenly recalled Iino Yuna, the girl I’d had the chance to speak with a little. She’d called me “a pet wagging its tail while its owner abused it.” After that, she’d taught me what a pet was. Mysteriously, that conversation had remained on my mind all this time. She was an extremely troublesome enemy for my king, but I simply couldn’t harbor any animosity toward her.

She was a visitor too. Even if these events had nothing to do with Majima Takahiro, would it involve her? I was curious what this was all about, but I would never open the letter I’d been entrusted with. I couldn’t read in the first place. I shook my heads, eradicating those useless thoughts, and began running.