Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 12 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Fairy Ring

At noon, two days after Iino’s visit, Lily and I sat face-to-face with Iino in my room. We were waiting for the person who was about to arrive.

“Looks like she’s here,” Iino said, glancing at the magic tool she’d left on the floor.

It was my first time seeing a teleportation runestone activate while nothing else was going on. Everyone in the room watched as it let out a high-pitched shrill and shattered. A black shadow poured out from within, took on a human shape, then washed away like a layer of mud under a shower, revealing beneath a girl who looked a little older than me. She was wearing our school uniform with a blazer, a knife secured at her waist. She looked around the room with a cool expression until her eyes stopped at the table where Iino was sitting.

“What’s this, Yuna? Having tea?” she asked.

“We were waiting for you, Shimazu,” Iino responded.

“I see. Then may I have some too? Teleporting like this is a little different from when I do it, so it feels wrong. I’d like to take a little break, then we can leave after that.”

No sooner than she spoke, she took a seat in an empty spot. Iino smiled and went to pour her some tea.

“So? Would you be Majima Takahiro?” the girl asked, turning my way.

She really went at her own pace. It was a sudden question, but Iino had already explained what kind of person Shimazu was, so it didn’t throw me off.

“That’s right. It’s nice to meet you, Shimazu,” I said.

“Nice to meet you too,” Shimazu Yui, the girl known as the Fairy Ring, replied curtly.

Her attitude didn’t seem to come from any malice, and I couldn’t sense any hostility from her either. On the contrary, she stared at me full of interest.

“In any case... Hmm, so you’re the one,” she murmured.

I was the reason she’d traveled so far out of her way, so it made sense she’d be curious about what kind of guy I was. After staring at me for a few seconds, perhaps satisfied, she shifted her focus to someone else.

“And that would make you Katou Mana.”

“Yes, Shimazu-senpai.”

“And that’s...not Mizushima Miho, is it?”

Only at the end of our introductions did her pace falter a little. The girl she was looking at shook her head, her flaxen hair swaying about.

“No. Right now, I’m Mizushima Miho, Yui-senpai.”

“Huh...?” Shimazu looked bewildered.

“I came out today since you were coming, Yui-senpai,” Mizushima said, smiling at her impishly. “Oh, you know about my situation, right?”

“Mm, well, I do know, but— Oh, thanks,” Shimazu said, accepting the tea from Iino in the middle of talking. “Aah, umm, are you doing okay? Oh, I guess it’s weird to ask that. Sorry.”

“Hee hee. Things have gotten awfully complicated, but I’m doing good.” In contrast to Shimazu, who was confused and carefully picking her words, Mizushima was all smiles. “It’s all thanks to Majima and Lilz.”

“Hmmm...” Shimazu narrowed her eyes.

Lily and Mizushima’s case was delicate. If handled poorly, it could give the exploration team a bad impression. Because of that, Mizushima had taken the initiative to help avert any issues. Shimazu seemed to understand this.

“So that’s how it is. I got it,” she said, shrugging slightly.

“That’s good then,” Mizushima replied, grinning. “I hope you can indirectly tell the others in the exploration team too—that Majima has been sheltering both Katou Mana and Mizushima Miho, I mean.”

“So you want to avoid complications whenever possible, right? That’s fine. I’d also rather not deal with anything troublesome.”

“Thank you very much. I love how quickly you pick up on stuff like this, Yui-senpai.”

Shimazu sighed. A beat later, she finally regained her pace. She closed one eye, and her lips curved slightly.

“Are you in love with Majima? You sure have gotten sexier since I last saw you.”

“Wh-Wha—?”

Mizushima’s cheeks turned red as an apple. On reflex, she turned my way, and our eyes met. She turned even redder and hung her head. Shimazu’s shoulders shook with laughter, and she brought her cup to her lips.

“Anyway, I have so much I want to talk about now that I can see you again, but let’s leave it there for now. That’s not what I’m here for today,” Shimazu said as she and Iino turned my way. “So how about it? The plan is to present your conditions to the Holy Church. Is everything ready?”

Perhaps thanks to Shimazu’s conversation with Mizushima, it felt as though the ice had broken a little. Mizushima herself was bright red and trembling, though. Grateful for her noble sacrifice, I got to the point.

“Yes. I’ve already given Iino a letter,” I said. “It involves you too, Shimazu, so do you want to know the details as well?”

“That sounds good. We just happen to have the time right now, so can you?”

“Understood.” I nodded, then began laying out my conditions. “First, about the people who’ll be accompanying me... I heard from Iino that teleportation by Fairy Ring is limited to around twenty people.”

“It’s tiring, after all. Long-distance teleportation is particularly brutal, so I’d prefer to bring as few people as possible, but I suppose that’s a luxury we can’t afford.”

“Sorry. I’m thinking of bringing all my servants with me. There’ll also be a few people from Aker to serve as negotiators, as well as an escort.”

“I’m the one who mentioned the twenty-person limit, so it’ll be fine as long as it doesn’t go too far over. However...” Shimazu paused, peering at my face, full of interest. “Setting aside the people from Aker, you want to bring all your servants, huh? Is that one of your conditions?”

“Yes. I want the Holy Church to acknowledge us in a very easy-to-understand way. If my servants accompany us to the Empire, it will imply that the church has acknowledged their existence. Besides, for my own safety, their attendance is an absolute must for me to go.”

Incidentally, I’d picked a few of the dragons of Draconia to accompany us too, making them out to be my servants. I wasn’t connected to them through the mental path like I was with Lobivia, but the dragons who’d lost their settlement shared the same lot in life as me now, so it wasn’t a complete lie either.

“Hmm. You really thought this through,” Shimazu said, then turned to Iino. “But is this all right? It’d be easier for the church to do their job if only Majima answered the call.”

“It’s fine,” Iino replied. “The church also said this would likely be the first condition we’d be presented with.”

“Hmph. Meaning they’re resolved for it already,” Shimazu said.

“I’m also going to ask the Holy Church to prepare the inns on our way,” I added. “I heard that even using your Fairy Ring, it’ll take us a week to get there. We can’t afford to bump into unexpected trouble with the locals on our way.”

At worst, if people who knew nothing of the situation were to spot Gerbera or the like, it would cause a big uproar. Therefore, it was necessary to have preparations in place at each of our jump points. We had to remain properly isolated so that we didn’t encounter any outsiders.

“If you’re bringing your servants along, we’ll have to do that,” Shimazu said. “We’ll need to secure the surroundings, set up resting areas, and arrange for lodgings at each spot I teleport us to. Well, I’m sure the Holy Church had planned to handle that much before starting this.”

“I also want them to provide me with the entire travel plan beforehand.”

“So you want to verify everything to that extent? How careful. Well, considering your scuffles with the Holy Order, that’s understandable.”

Shimazu was likely aware of how I’d gone at it with one of the Holy Order’s companies. It was difficult to regain trust that had been lost already, so it was only natural for me to double-check everything. Besides, even without these circumstances, it was a good idea to check whether anything was lacking. Any plan could have a hole in it, and nothing was better than paying attention where attention was needed. To that end, I’d taken other measures too.

“Also, one condition is for Iino to travel with us,” I said.

“Aah, is that so? With Yuna as an escort, it’ll be safe no matter what happens.”

“I plan on doing whatever I can,” Iino said, smiling bitterly.

It was a little unlike her. When I last met her, she would’ve said, “Just leave it to me.” I’d thought this when we reunited the other day, but maybe something had happened since. At any rate, regardless of how she saw herself, having Iino’s assistance was very promising. She had the strongest class of superpower even among the exploration team’s cheaters, and her sense of justice was greater than any other. Despite having been hostile to me once because of a misunderstanding—or maybe exactly because of that—she wasn’t going to suddenly jump to the wrong conclusion and attack me. In that sense, she was very trustworthy.

“Also, before we even begin, I want them to make a public announcement that the Holy Church is acting as a mediator to hold talks between the savior Majima Takahiro and Margrave Maclaurin. By doing so, the church will have no choice but to put all their effort into making these talks a success.”

“Meaning you want to make it so that they can’t back out?” Shimazu asked.

“Basically, yeah. So long as we’re headed to the imperial capital, it’ll be troublesome if they break their promise to keep the margrave in check.”

There was no need to tell Shimazu, but I had another reason for this condition. I was considering the worst outcome we’d hypothesized, where the Holy Church was after my life. Maybe we were being too suspicious of them, but we couldn’t mark it as outright impossible. The church’s goal was to calm the chaos spreading across the world, and in terms of only achieving that goal, summoning me to the Empire and killing me as the “fake savior” would be the quickest way.

That said, now that the exploration team was advocating for us, if the church did such a thing openly, it would create a rift between it and the exploration team. This would be amplified if Iino was accompanying us. Instead of tricking us and “attacking the fake savior,” it would be much more realistic for them to claim that “he was assassinated by someone in our territory.”

However, if the church did that, it would be impossible for them to move their forces on a large scale. With my servants and Iino guarding me, it would be extremely difficult to get to me. What’s more, even if they succeeded and assassinated me, the church would bear the reputation of being unable to protect a visitor they’d personally invited to the capital. This would rouse suspicion of an assassination, and the exploration team would distrust them as well. In the end, it would inevitably create a fatal rift between the two.

So given the circumstances, say we had them announce to the world beforehand that these talks were being held. If something happened to me, the entire world would learn that the Holy Church had acknowledged me as a savior, and despite going out of their way to invite me to the capital, had been unable to protect me. It wasn’t hard to imagine what a severe blow that would be to their authority. If stability was their goal, then doing that would be putting the cart before the horse. At that point, it would be better for them to ensure these negotiations succeeded, rather than carrying out such a risky assassination. Conversely, if they had no intention of assassinating me, then spreading this announcement wouldn’t inconvenience them in any way. It would actually match their intentions.

“According to Iino, these talks are pretty much ceremonial,” I said. “It’s more or less just a performance. Even if I didn’t make this a condition, I think they probably intended to announce it publicly to begin with.”

“Now that you mention it, you certainly have a point. It doesn’t seem like it’ll be a problem,” Shimazu replied.

“Also, we’re asking the Holy Church to provide aid to Aker due to the damage they’ve suffered. I don’t think this will be a problem either. Aker has presented what they consider an appropriate sum.”

“I see. All the conditions you’ve presented feel very safe. I was worried your requests would be far more unreasonable.”

“I’m not gonna do anything like that,” I said, smiling wryly. “Although this all stems from the Holy Church’s failing to keep Travis on a leash, it’ll be problematic for us if these talks don’t take place. We’re only setting conditions for what we need, which is exactly why I have one last condition.”

“One more? What is it?”

“It’s about the man called Ottmar Valhalder.”

Shimazu knitted her brow. “Ottmar...who?”

“Ottmar Valhalder. He’s one of the knights of the Holy Order who attacked me in Aker. I fought against him twice. The first time was when the Fourth Company attacked Kehdo, and the second was during the battle against the Maclaurin Provincial Army. At first, I thought he was part of the Fourth Company, but one of my companions heard from the man himself that this wasn’t the case.”

In the last stages of the battle against the provincial army, when Rose had used up all her strength, Ottmar had told her that he wasn’t part of the Fourth Company. At that point, Rose had been on the verge of death, so he’d had no reason to lie.

“After the battle, Ottmar went missing. Maybe he was annihilated with the army, but it’s not a certainty. We’ve been on guard in case he survived. What we want to know is his identity and objective.”

“His objective?”

“Travis took action because he was a gloryhound, but Ottmar wasn’t part of Travis’s company. In other words, it’s possible Ottmar’s attack was backed by someone else’s intentions.”

“You mean to say, for example, there could be another selfish faction in the Holy Order aside from Travis, or other radicals like Margrave Maclaurin, all working together?” Shimazu asked, grimacing.

“I’m saying it’s possible,” I answered, nodding. “Was Ottmar moving as an individual, or was someone giving him orders? I want the Holy Order to look into this, and if necessary, deal with it. That’s my last condition. The same goes for the remnants of the Fourth Company.”

Fortunately, Ottmar’s ability was easy to identify. It didn’t seem like it’d be difficult to determine his affiliation.

“Regarding this investigation, I plan on asking the vice marshal, Sir Gordon, to carry it out,” Iino said. “I worked with him for a period of time. He can be trusted. Also, I plan on accompanying him to make sure of it with my own eyes.”

“You’re joining the investigation, Yuna? What a hard worker. Aah, or is this because it’s about Majima?” Shimazu said teasingly.

Iino froze on the spot.

“Please don’t say such weird things,” she finally said after a short while, a deep crease forming between her brows. She probably hated those kinds of jokes. “I simply can’t forgive injustice.”

Iino huffed, then for some reason, glared at me. Her behavior was unreasonable, but squabbling every time she did something like this would get us nowhere, so I let it go and addressed Shimazu once more.

“Those are all our conditions. The rest is in your hands.”

“Got it. Leave it to me.”

Shimazu accepted the responsibility, and only then did Iino nod as well without any more retorts. All that was left was to wait and see how the Holy Church would handle it. I couldn’t relax my guard, but it felt like a load had been taken off my shoulders. The same seemed to go for Shimazu. She let out a long sigh and relaxed her posture a little.

“In any case, that’s a relief,” Shimazu said, speaking more frankly. “I was worried about how it would go when we talked this over with the Holy Church.” She paused for a sip of tea, then continued. “We weren’t sure whether you’d listen to the church after one of its orders nearly killed you so unreasonably, and if things went wrong, all our efforts could’ve gone to waste. That’s why it’s a relief to hear all this from you. It makes me want to continue helping with getting this situation under control.”

“True. The exploration team’s help has also been a great benefit.”

“We’re only helping to get things under control at the church’s request. Besides, this is a problem for all visitors as a whole.”

“How so?”

“Mm. Just maybe, the unreasonable treatment you endured could’ve happened to any of us,” Shimazu elaborated, her tone darkening a little. “If things had been just a little different, it could’ve... No, it could even still happen. That’s why we have to firmly oppose this unjust treatment. We need to make sure there isn’t a next time. That’s what I believe, anyway.”

It seemed Shimazu wasn’t taking action only because this was the exploration team’s plan; she had her own opinions on the matter. After this, if the Holy Church agreed to our conditions, we were sure to encounter the exploration team in the imperial capital. This was a valuable chance to hear a member’s opinion.

“Then did the exploration team’s leader also come to that conclusion when he took this on?” I asked.

“Who knows? I wonder about that,” Shimazu said, cocking her head. “He’s smart, so he may have realized something I can’t even imagine. I mean, we know we have nothing to rely on aside from our status as saviors. For that reason, we’ve been building a place for ourselves here slowly and steadily. That said, I don’t know whether he’s acting for the same reasons as I am. He’s the type of person who wants to support people like you. I feel like he’s spurred by motivations that have nothing to do with analyzing what he has to gain and lose.”

Shimazu seemed to have the same opinion of him as Iino. Iino had told me before that Nakajima Kojirou liked people who gave it their all. He was probably good at taking care of others. That was exactly how he’d suppressed the chaos immediately after we arrived in this world, and for one month, managed to maintain the Colony. Even now, he was able to keep dozens of cheaters together.

“Well, setting aside our leader, there are a few others in the exploration team who share my opinion,” Shimazu said.

“Put another way,” Katou cut in, “there are only a few people who do.”

“Well, that’s one way to look at it. As far as I know, about seventy percent are just angry about how unreasonable the margrave’s actions were, and they’re supporting this because it’s our leader’s choice.”

“So what about the remaining thirty percent?”

“The exploration team isn’t of one mind,” Shimazu said, smiling bitterly. Iino also cast her eyes down; she knew the current state of the exploration team too. This was already enough to give me an answer. “Well, there are those who are discontent. They wonder why we have to lodge a complaint against the world’s greatest authority, the Holy Church, for a squabble that has nothing to do with them. Not that they’ve gone as far as openly opposing the decision, though.”

I couldn’t do much about that. Many among the exploration team had a strong sense of justice, and the large majority of them had gained their powers because of their “hero aspirations” to begin with. However, their justice wasn’t like Iino’s. She acted to strike down evil no matter what it cost her. They obeyed their sense of justice and acted like heroes only because they had overwhelming strength. It was a prerequisite for them.

That in itself was proof that they were good people at heart, so it wasn’t something to criticize them over. More than a few people would do whatever they liked, even evil, upon gaining power. Taking that into consideration, using the power they’d gained for a righteous cause was worthy of praise, even if the reason for it was simply due to their aspirations for being a hero.

Nonetheless, so long as those aspirations were what motivated them, when they realized that the power they’d been relying on might not be so useful, it was difficult to say whether they would see justice through to the end like Iino would. Actually, in this case, Iino was the abnormal one. A normal person didn’t have the willpower. Maybe this was exactly what had granted her the superpower of the Skanda, putting her in the ultimate class among the entire exploration team when it came to hand-to-hand fighting.

As I thought of such things, I suddenly realized that Shimazu had been staring at me.

“Is something wrong?” I said.

“Majima, is it true that you have no intention of joining the exploration team?” she asked.

Her sudden question, seemingly ignoring the flow of the conversation, caught me off guard, and I choked on my breath.

“I was under the impression that you’d join us after this,” she continued, looking at me curiously, “but when I tried asking Yuna about it, she said you probably wouldn’t. So which is it?”

She had apparently been surprised by Iino’s answer. Well, from the exploration team’s perspective, it was logical for me to want to join them, but I simply didn’t share their opinion.

“Iino was correct. I do not plan on joining the exploration team.”

“Why? Are you maybe wary of Heaven’s Voice? If so, we’ve already confirmed that they aren’t a part of the exploration team, so I don’t think that’s a good reason for refusing.”

That was, in fact, one of my reasons for refusing, but it wasn’t the only one. At times like this, I couldn’t help but remember the Colony’s collapse. I still held a deeply rooted distrust in my heart toward other visitors.

Nevertheless, I hesitated to say that. This situation was different from when Iino attacked me. Currently, I was cooperating with the exploration team to settle things. I couldn’t possibly say to their face that I didn’t trust them.

“Well, I have no complaints with my current lifestyle. I have friends in Aker too. I don’t have a reason to join you.”

I kept the larger reason for why I didn’t want to join hidden, but my life in Aker was one of my other reasons. Not to mention, half of the members who’d participated in the first expeditionary force had already left the exploration team, so it wasn’t mandatory for visitors to join either.

“Besides, wouldn’t it be difficult to get me into the exploration team?” I added. “I’m pretty sure the people who are opposed to their intervention in this case won’t accept me as their comrade.”

“That’s true. There could be some opposition,” Shimazu agreed, but she didn’t back down. “However, I think those who actively approve are in the majority. That includes me.”

“You do?”

“Yes,” she said, looking at me seriously with her cool eyes. “I said this already, but I think it’d be good if we could work together, and if you become one of us, I think it’ll be even better. For both of us, that is.”

“Why are you so insistent?”

“You have rather low self-esteem, I see,” Shimazu said, her shoulders shaking in amusement. “Having protected the elves to the very end, the entire world has its attention on you. It’s enough to split the populace on whether you did good or evil. You don’t seem self-aware, so let me tell you this now. None of us have accomplished anything of note to the degree you have ever since coming to this world. That’s how highly I regard you. Well, it’s not like I’m the only one who thinks that, though.”

“What Shimazu is saying is true,” Iino added curtly. “There are many in the exploration team who rate you highly.”

“Is that so?” I asked, bewildered by the unexpected information.

That said, if Iino was saying it, it was probably true. That was why Shimazu was inviting me to join the exploration team.

“Majima, I don’t think this is a bad offer,” Shimazu added. “The political world is very unstable now, right? Before this, everyone would’ve been fine even if they were separated from the exploration team. Many members have left us already. But now, I think it’s best if we gather as many of us as we can. By doing so, we’re less likely to get caught up in some strange trouble. Besides, even the members who are opposed to getting involved with this will no longer consider themselves unrelated if you become one of us. Conversely, if things remain as they are and something else happens, I don’t know what they’ll do.”

“You...certainly have a point there.”

“I’m not forcing you to join or anything,” Shimazu said, shrugging. She didn’t want to push her opinion on me; she was simply suggesting that things could work out better this way. “I just want you to remember that the choice is available.”

With that, she rose from her seat. In an instant, the mana inside her body began accumulating.

“Now then, I guess I should get going,” she said.

Her mana capacity was suitable for a nicknamed cheater of the exploration team. She wove the tremendous amount of mana required to activate her inherent ability, Fairy Ring, as she walked up to Iino and placed a hand on her shoulder. After tapping her heels on the ground to a peculiar rhythm, her mana swelled and she turned a smile my way.

“Well, until we meet again.”

With those last words, Shimazu and Iino vanished.