Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 13 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Visitor

“Lord Takahiro.”

After Lily, Lobivia, and I joined the soldiers for training, we returned to the section of the royal palace we were staying in. When we got there, someone called out to me.

“Ella!” Lobivia yelled, reacting before I did. “You’re here! Welcome back!”

“Yes, I’m back,” Ella answered, smiling gently.

She was currently dressed for travel. About a week ago, she and a few of her sisters had left the palace to go to the ruins of Draconia to hold a memorial service for their lost family members. After returning, Ella had immediately found us to report that they were back. Next to her was Philip, who was also dressed for travel, and a knight.

“I have returned, Lord Takahiro,” Ella said. “Has anything been inconveniencing you?”

“No, nothing. I’m fine,” I replied. “Welcome back, Ella. Philip, it’s a relief to see you safe too.”

Aker had accepted the dragons of Draconia as my companions, so the royal family were accommodating them in a few ways. One such accommodation was that Philip had accompanied them on their trip back to Draconia.

Philip was the second prince of Aker, so a knight acting as an escort had accompanied him on this trip, along with a spiritualist elf to detect enemies. This had all been prepared so that even if something had happened, they would’ve been able to get out of trouble. Philip himself claimed that he had less responsibility as the second prince, but going this far was more a sign of his kindness than his station.

When he was captured by the Maclaurin Provincial Army a little over a month ago, Philip had escaped during the uproar my Misty Lodge and the dragons’ arrival had caused. It’d apparently been quite perilous, and during the chaos he’d even lost consciousness. Fortunately, when he woke up, he noticed that his restraints had come undone, so he secretly escaped the panicking provincial army. Because of that, Philip was significantly grateful for the dragons, who’d been the trigger for his getaway.

A friendly relationship between the dragons and Aker’s royalty was a good thing for me too. We still couldn’t predict what the future had in store for us, so it was important to solidify the ties between our allies.

“Lord Takahiro, I have something to speak with you about. Do you have the time?” Ella said, cutting to the chase now that our greetings were over.

“I don’t mind. Did something happen?” I asked.

Ella’s expression darkened. Philip’s wasn’t any better. It didn’t look like good news.

“Master, how about we talk inside?” Lily suggested.

With that, we all entered the building together. Philip had prepared this section of the palace in secret. Upon entering, we were greeted by the sight of the children from Kehdo and Rapha playing in the lounge. Among them was a giant white spider. Noticing us, she waved energetically.

“Ooh, My Lord. I see you’re all back.”

Depending on the place, traffic could be rather intense in the royal palace, so those of my servants who looked particularly monstrous, like Gerbera, were a little restricted with regards to where they could go. That said, this entire section of the palace was off-limits to others, so we got by without any inconveniences.

“Gerbera, and you too, Katou, can you come with us?” I asked. Katou was also playing with the children.

“Sure thing, Senpai.”

After I called out to the two of them, we headed toward our room. Lily tactfully went to get Rose and the others too. The only one who wasn’t with us was Ayame, which meant she was with Berta, who was also absent.

During our stay here, the two of them often spent time basking in their favorite sun spot. It wasn’t as if Ayame would understand anything even if she participated in our talks, and Berta was an outsider, so it was fine for them to be absent.

One of the palace’s maids brought us drinks, and once she withdrew, Ella got started.

“First, a report. We safely reached the settlement and managed to find most of our siblings’ remains,” she said, looking at me across the table. “Just as planned, we finished the memorial service right there.”

The memorial service had been held with only those who’d accompanied Ella to the settlement. A dragon’s corpse was large and difficult to move, and given enough time, it would decompose even more, so they’d had no other choice. If things settled down a little, I planned to take Lobivia to visit their graves.

“I see. I’m glad nothing serious happened,” I said.

What I’d been most worried about at first was an encounter with visitors, but no such trouble had occurred, which was a great relief. Ella’s expression tensed, however.

“No, about that... There was one problem,” she said.

“What happened?”

“We couldn’t find the elder’s body.”

“You mean...Malvina’s?” I asked, bewildered by the unexpected news.

Draconia’s elder, the carapace wyrm Malvina, was an enormous dragon who measured over fifty meters tall. She was the mother of all of Draconia’s dragons. I’d heard she’d died in a ferocious battle against the visitors who’d attacked the settlement, so how could her body not be found?

“That means...the visitors took it or something?” I said as the thought came to mind. “For example, it’s possible they wanted to bring it back as a trophy for their triumphant return or something.”

“No, I don’t believe that’s the case,” Philip said. “On our way to Draconia, we gathered information related to the attack on the settlement. As a result, we learned that the ones who set out to subjugate the lord of those Dark Woods were saviors who’d accepted a request from a certain town in Longue County.”

“At first, they weren’t able to make any headway because of the Mist Barrier,” I said, having heard this much from Ella before they departed. “Then, in a turn of bad luck, they met up with the Dragon Jinguuji Tomoya and broke through, right?”

“After that,” Philip continued for me, “the saviors subjugated the dragons, though several of them lost their lives. They then returned to Longue County. Judging that there were no visitors at the settlement anymore, we departed for Draconia.”

“If I remember right,” I began, “the ‘heroic tale’ of the visitors who fought bravely at the cost of some of their comrades is spreading all over from Longue County, so it was easy to gather information... Aah, so that’s what you mean.” After going over it again, I came to a realization. “If they’d brought back Malvina’s remains for a triumphant return, that would’ve been part of the stories.”

“Exactly,” Philip confirmed. “However, no such stories exist among the information we gathered. Also, I’m told Malvina is an extraordinarily large dragon. It would be no simple task to carry her away, even for a savior.”

“That’s also true.”

In addition, the visitors who’d attacked Draconia hadn’t had that kind of time. They’d been somewhat careful, considering the numbers they had gathered to help, but at heart, they weren’t all that different from the visitors made out to be the fake savior in the Empire’s small eastern provinces. They’d always mowed down their enemies with tremendous powers, living a life with no hardships. Their comrades’ deaths were shocking, and it must’ve affected them. It was hard to imagine that they’d paused to consider how to bring back a dead dragon the size of a mountain just for a parade. But in that case, why was Malvina’s body gone?

“Takahiro,” Shiran said to get my attention.

“What is it?” I asked. “You realized something?”

“Yes. Just maybe, Malvina is...” Shiran looked anxiously at Ella and Lobivia, hesitating to finish her sentence.

Ella nodded. “Yes. In all likelihood, I’m thinking the same thing as you.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Ella let out a melancholic sigh, then gathered her thoughts before saying, “It’s possible the elder has become an undead monster.”

A chair clattered to the floor. Lobivia was standing there stiffly. It was obviously a shock to hear that her mother had turned undead.

“That can’t... No, it’s more than possible,” I said, keeping an eye on Lobivia.

The undead were abandoned corpses that had turned into monsters through mana. In regions where mana was particularly dense, like the Woodlands, undead outbreaks were very common. Also, when humans and monsters died, mana was released into the atmosphere, amplifying the threat even more. The battle had occurred in a detached section of the Woodlands, one of the Dark Woods. With dead dragons and visitors gathered there, it could be said that all the conditions had been in place for this to happen.

“According to our investigation of the battle site,” Ella said, “we found traces of mana that can be called the miasma of undead monsters. I believe it’s almost a certainty.”

She’d been there herself, so the credibility of her claim was fairly high.

“Was Malvina’s body the only one that was missing?” I asked, suddenly realizing the possibility.

Earlier, Ella had reported that she’d found most of her siblings’ remains. In other words, she hadn’t found all of them.

“It’s as you suspect,” Ella answered. “We couldn’t locate one of our brothers either. Rex’s body was nowhere to be found.”

“Rex too...”

The gigantic man’s face came to mind. Rex was Lobivia’s brother, and he’d prided himself on his role as the settlement’s guardian. During our stay there, he’d flared up whenever it came to Lobivia—though he’d obstinately continued to call her Patricia. Regardless, I didn’t think badly of the awkward man. He’d been desperate to protect the settlement. In truth, he’d fought bravely against the visitors who’d attacked Draconia, and he’d died in the process.

“It’s likely that, having turned into undead monsters, the two of them will attack humans,” Ella said, controlling her voice well, though it trembled slightly at the very end.

Her beloved family had been cruelly murdered and were now wandering around as undead shells of themselves. I couldn’t even guess what was going through Ella’s mind. That was to say nothing of her youngest sister, who was white as a sheet.

“Lobivia.”

Unable to stand by and watch, I called her over, and she sat down on my lap and let me hug her. She was cold to the touch.

“Takahiro. Sorry, I...”

“It’s fine. Just stay like this for a bit.”

So much had happened in so short a time that even the normally stubborn Lobivia was deeply affected. Just the fact that she wasn’t crying was worthy of praise.

“Hey...Takahiro,” she said, her voice muffled from pressing her head against my chest. “Can it work out like with Shiran?”

Shiran was also an undead monster. Some time ago, after she’d fallen and turned into a ghoul, I’d managed to pick her back up and restore her ego. That said, circumstances differed this time.

“Even back then, I barely made it in time,” I answered, recalling the events of Fort Tilia. “Her soul was moments away from shattering. Unfortunately, too much time has passed.”

Shiran’s case had miraculously satisfied the right conditions for me to bring her back. Sadly, miracles didn’t occur that often.

“Sorry. I can’t grant your wish,” I said.

“It’s fine...” Lobivia said, shaking her head and pressing against me even harder. “That was unreasonable of me. Sorry.”

With that, she stopped talking, and silence fell over the room for a while.

“Forgive me, Takahiro,” Philip eventually said. “Considering my position, I must take into account my people’s safety. If Malvina has turned into an undead monster and attacks a town...”

His voice conveyed a solemn sense of duty.

“I know,” I said, nodding. “Malvina wouldn’t wish for that either.”

“I’m glad you understand.”

“We dragons of Draconia also plan on fulfilling our responsibilities,” Ella added from his side. “Above all else...we must grant the elder her due rest.”

“You’re right. When that time comes, we’ll help too,” I said.

“Thank you very much. However, you have other things you must do, Lord Takahiro. Please have Lobivia help on that front as well.”

Ella lowered her head. She was probably making this request with Lobivia in mind. It would be far too heavy a burden to have the little dragon fight her undead mother when their relationship had been left in such a complicated state. I agreed on that front, so I nodded back.

“Also, about the Dimensional Cornerstone that maintained the Mist Barrier,” Ella continued, “we couldn’t find it either. I don’t know whether it was broken or taken away, but that must be why the Mist Barrier vanished.”

With that one gone, the one remaining Dimensional Cornerstone in the dragons’ possession was the one Thaddeus carried around on his travels. Even with Salvia around, the Mist Barrier couldn’t be reestablished right away.

Just in case, I’d used the contact routes Thaddeus had taught us to inform him of the attack on Draconia, but I still hadn’t gotten a reply. This method couldn’t get a message across right away, and depending on Thaddeus’s current location, it could take even longer, so there wasn’t much I could do to speed things along. That said, recreating the Mist Barrier and shutting themselves in again would be fairly risky at this point, so either way, it was safest for the dragons to live in Aker for now.

“That is all I have to report,” Ella said, letting out a sigh as if a load had been lifted off her shoulders.

“What about you, Takahiro?” Philip asked. “Has anything happened in our absence?”

“Right, there’s one thing we have to talk about,” I answered. Now it was our turn. I took a sip of tea, then cut to the chase. “You might’ve caught wind of this on your way here, but...a message came from the Holy Church.”

“From the church?” Philip said, his expression tensing. “No, we came straight here, so we haven’t had the opportunity to hear of it. What did it say?”

“They’re inviting us to the imperial capital. It says they want to hold talks to call for an armistice between us and the margrave.”

After we’d recovered Rose, the Maclaurin Provincial Army had been annihilated. We’d received this news shortly after Aker’s army granted us and the reclamation villages’ elves protection. We’d been in the middle of discussing how to deal with the provincial army, so we’d doubted our ears when we first heard.

According to what Aker’s army got out of the few survivors, a swarm of tripdrills had attacked them. Nevertheless, this didn’t mean the margrave had given up on subjugating me. In fact, even after the exploration team protested it, the margrave hadn’t withdrawn his stance on the matter.

He’d lost so many soldiers, so I doubted he had many spares to put into action, but we couldn’t be careless. A number of nobles still supported him, so if they all worked together to gather a new army, they could possibly dispatch another force.

Compounding that issue, they’d gathered enough influence to place sanctions on Aker. Stopping the flow of goods was all it took to force a small country like Aker into a difficult position. Aker’s other allies, especially those of the Five Northern Kingdoms, were making moves to support us, so that allowed us to get by, but the situation was dire enough that this would be hard to recover from. At worst, this entire region—or maybe the entire world—would end up in a cold war where everyone was either friend or foe.

The Holy Church’s proposal provided a possibility of averting this outcome. Philip understood this immediately.

“That’s not a bad offer, in my opinion,” he said.

“Yes, I think so too,” I agreed. “We can’t remain at odds with the margrave forever. That is, assuming we can trust the Holy Church.”

Philip’s breath caught in his throat for a moment, but I’d expected this reaction.

“‘Assuming we can trust the Holy Church,’ you say? I never even thought of that,” he said.

“That’s pretty much the case for any resident of this world.”

“But not for you,” Philip said before taking a short breath. “To protect what you hold dear, you must always decide whether you can trust what is before your eyes. We must do the same. The world has become like that. We too need to put more thought into what is worthy of our trust.”

I heard the firm determination in his voice. He didn’t look much like his sister, but in times like this, he really did remind me of the commander of the Alliance Knights who’d fought shoulder to shoulder with us at Fort Tilia. Gaining an ally like him was one of the few fortunes we’d come across in this world.

Just then, someone knocked on the door, and our conversation came to a momentary halt.

“Excuse me,” said one of the soldiers in charge of this section’s security as he entered the room. “Forgive the intrusion. You have a visitor, so I brought her here.”

“A visitor? Takahiro, were you planning to meet someone?” Philip asked.

“No, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t...” I answered, knitting my brow.

Taking into account our future, we’d created plenty of opportunities to meet important Akerian figures, so having a visitor wasn’t all that strange. We’d had no such plans for today, though.

“Senpai.”

Katou called out to me cautiously, and Lily was already on guard and half on her feet. That was when a voice came from the hallway.

“Aah, it’s okay now. I’ll take it from here.”

It was a girl’s voice. The refreshing ring to it was familiar.

“It can’t be...” I murmured.

A slender girl came into the room, her long hair fluttering behind her. Upon seeing her face, my eyes went as wide as saucers.

“Iino?”

“Long time no see,” the Skanda Iino Yuna replied awkwardly.