Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 13 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Messenger

“Why’re you all the way out here?”

I’d never thought I’d see Iino here, so the first thing to come out of my mouth was that suspicious question.

Hearing the distrust in my voice, Iino gave me a petulant look. “That’s quite the greeting, Majima. Am I not allowed to be here?”

“That’s not what I mean, but...”

If we were close friends, this might be where I rejoiced at our unexpected reunion, but we didn’t really have that kind of relationship. Regardless, maybe I’d been just a little too rude.

“Sorry ’bout that,” I said. “I didn’t mean anything by it. So? Didn’t you go back to the exploration team?”

“I did. That’s why I’m here.”

Iino still looked a little offended. She was being crabby. Well, thinking back on it, she was always like that. In that case, there was no point taking her mood into consideration.

“I don’t get it. How’s that follow?” I asked.

“Master, how about letting her sit down first?” Lily cut in. “There’s no reason she has to stand while talking, and we need to introduce Iino to the others too.”

Iino and I exchanged glances.

“You’ve got a point there. Take a seat,” I said.

“Okay, I will,” Iino said.

“Very well, then please sit here,” Ella said, yielding her place across from me.

“Umm, thank you.”

Ella bowed expressionlessly to Iino, then moved over. As she did, Philip ordered the soldier who’d come with Iino to prepare another cup. He was usually rather candid, but at times like this, he gave off an air of royalty.

Iino took a seat, then blinked curiously.

“Uhh, what’s wrong?” she asked, looking at Lobivia, who was still in my arms.

I looked down at her too. Lobivia seemed strangely expressionless.

“Hey...Takahiro. Who the hell is this?”

Now that I thought of it, Lobivia didn’t know Iino either. She stared at Iino, her eyes slightly widened. Her tail swayed about, and her torn wings stretched out a little. She snuggled closer to me, her fingers somewhat stiff as she gripped my shirt. She’d transformed a little more into a dragon, ready for anything to happen.

I didn’t mind her being on guard, but the atmosphere Lobivia was giving off was a little alarming. If things took a wrong turn, she was liable to leap into action. She was high strung because of recent events, so seeing Iino in such a foul mood had made her even warier than necessary.

This was normal for any of my interactions with Iino, and we were both guilty of being a little rude. It didn’t bother me, but Lobivia’s reaction was understandable if she didn’t know any of this.

“It’s okay, Lobivia,” Katou said just as I grasped the situation and was about to say something. She was really tactful at times like this. “This is Iino Yuna. She’s a visitor from the same world as us. A lot happened before, so her relationship with Senpai is a bit tenuous, and it’s hard to tell whether they get along or not. She’s not an enemy.”

“We don’t get along, so don’t say weird stuff,” Iino retorted.

Lobivia hesitantly looked up at me and asked, “She’s not an enemy?”

“Nope. It’s okay.”

“See? Majima-senpai says so too,” Katou added with a smile, before glancing at Iino. “At the very least, she won’t attack us out of nowhere, right?”

“I won’t...” Iino said, sounding downcast. She did have a prior offense in this regard. Or maybe she was just bad at dealing with Katou.

Seeing Iino like this, Lobivia was now convinced and gave Iino a brisk nod, but she still remained glued to me. That was when the cup Philip had asked for arrived. With everything in place, I continued our conversation.

“So, Iino, you must have some business with us to come all the way out here, right?”

“Yes, I do,” Iino answered honestly, her spirits dampened by the earlier exchange. The next words out of her mouth had quite the impact, though. “I’ve come at the Holy Church’s request.”

“The church?” I repeated.

The atmosphere in the room tensed. We’d just been discussing the church, so our reaction was to be expected.

“Yes. I was asked to convince you,” Iino said, looking deadly serious.

“You were?” I asked incredulously.

“You have a problem with that?”

“Not really. Just checking.”

Iino glared at me and pouted. Honestly, she seemed like the wrong person for the job.

“Could it be...?” Katou suddenly muttered.

“What’s up, Katou?” I asked.

“I always found it strange that the exploration team publicly declared their objections to the margrave’s actions,” she said, folding a finger against her lip. “Iino, did you get the exploration team to do that?”

“What?” I uttered.

“I mean, if that’s how it happened, then it makes sense why she was the one sent here.”

I turned my eyes to Iino, and she smiled slightly.

“You’re half-right,” Iino said. “I did inform the exploration team of your circumstances, but our leader made the decision... I couldn’t do anything on my own.”

Those last words came out in a quiet murmur.

“Iino?” I stared at her curiously. Her smile seemed so unsuitably bitter for her. “Something wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” Iino shook her head. Maybe something had happened, but she wasn’t going to talk about it. “Anyway, you better thank our leader,” she added bluntly, returning to her usual demeanor. “Once he learned what was going on, he immediately decided to act. He’s not the type to abandon any visitor, and apparently he’d had you on his mind for quite a while too.”

“Your leader... By that, you mean Nakajima Kojirou?” I asked, a little bewildered. “Why would he care about me?”

“Who knows? That guy likes people who give it their all, so it’s probably something like that. That’s just how he is. He believes in everyone and keeps looking to the future.”

Iino seemed somehow proud of that. Things hadn’t been perfect, but he had brought together a thousand people in the middle of a catastrophe, when we’d suddenly ended up in another world. At the time, I’d been no more than one among that huge crowd, but the exploration team members who worked with him directly surely all admired him.

“Well, I’m grateful that he protested the margrave’s actions for me,” I said.

“Yup. You better thank him. You should also thank the mystery man who informed me of the danger you were in.”

“What mystery man?”

“I have no idea,” Iino answered, shrugging. “I met him in Bann Viscounty. He told me that the Maclaurin Provincial Army was after you. I figured he was someone you knew.”

“I can’t really comment with so little information. Where’s Bann Viscounty, anyway?”

“It’s a small province in the eastern Empire. I don’t have more information than that. He hid his face. Oh. Now that I think of it, he used a spear.”

“That’s not much to go on...”

“Also, he was kind of a creep.”

So, as fellow people she hated, maybe this guy got along with me.

All jokes aside, none of this rang a bell. Iino seemed to understand this, so she paid it no mind and moved on.

“Anyway, I was related to this whole thing because of that, so I was asked to come here to try and convince you.”

“I’ve got the gist of it,” I said, nodding, then got to my main question. “But who asked you? The church is more than one person, right?”

“An archbishop of the Holy Church, Lord Gerd Kruger, and the Holy Order’s marshal, Sir Harrison Addington. I was called to the imperial capital to meet them.”

“Those are some pretty big names...”

Both held such a high status that everybody in the world knew their names. The church had six archbishops, and Gerd Kruger sat at their head. I’d obviously heard of the Holy Order’s marshal too.

These two were the symbols of the greatest influence and martial might in the world. If they were making moves, it was safe to assume that they were seriously trying to get this situation under control. The problem was how they were planning to do so.

“I heard about Travis,” Iino said. “I think it’s reasonable for you to distrust the Holy Order.”

She was understanding of our plight. She looked mortified, actually. Maybe she was remembering how Travis had tricked her into attacking me. Her lips were pulled tight.

“However, Lord Gerd and Sir Harrison are different,” she continued. “They believe something must be done about all this. That’s why they’re planning to hold a discussion to address it.”

“That sounds good on paper...but I don’t really get it,” I said, grimacing. “Can’t the Holy Church just order Margrave Maclaurin to put an end to this fight? Why are they being so roundabout?”

“They said they could get the margrave to do whatever they asked. However, that isn’t what the Holy Church considers the main problem,” Iino said, shaking her head calmly. “Many people approve of the margrave’s claims. This is no longer just the margave’s problem. What has really complicated things is that, regardless of the exploration team’s...of the saviors’ protests, those people still support the margrave. They believe justice lies with him.”

“Because of Travis, you mean...”

“That’s right. Nobody knows that Travis acted independently. Many believe the margrave’s claim is backed by the Holy Order, or the church as a whole. With the exploration team’s protest, things have developed into a quarrel between saviors and the church. That’s why they want to reach a reconciliation. In short, settling things between you and Margrave Maclaurin will be equivalent to reconciliation between the saviors and the Holy Church.”

Iino answered with unexpected fluidity. She’d likely expected these questions from me and had prepared proper answers beforehand.

“I see,” I said. “Will the margrave go along with it?”

“I told you they can make him do what they say, right?” Iino answered. “The two of them promised that they’d get the margrave to agree to an armistice. All that’s left is to reconcile, even if only for show. That’s more than enough.”

“Ummm, so what you’re saying is...” Lily joined in, “the church will keep the margrave under control, and in return, they want us to go along with their little performance? That’s why they want us in the imperial capital?”

“That’s basically it,” Iino answered. “In this case, these talks are a kind of ceremony, so holding them in the imperial capital will yield the greatest results. That’s why they invited Majima there. In exchange, the church will prepare everything necessary to hold the talks, and will even take responsibility for the armistice. It sounds like a pretty good deal to me, at least.”

“Hmm. That’s a nice way of putting it,” Lily said, “but things got this bad because of the Holy Order’s mismanagement in the first place. It’s as if they’re telling us to help them clean up their own mess.”

Lily sounded as though she was testing Iino. It was important to make a clear distinction as to where any responsibility lay. If these talks were executed poorly, we might end up in their debt and have to go along with disadvantageous conditions. In other words, she was asking what the Holy Church’s stance was on this entire matter.

“The two of them are also aware of this,” Iino said, quickly admitting to what Lily was getting at. Fortunately, the church seemed to have no intention of putting us in their debt and had given Iino detailed information in that regard. “That’s why they want you to inform them if you have any conditions for attending the talks. I do, of course, have to go tell them so that they can consider your conditions, but it seems they’re ready to go along with anything so long as it isn’t too outrageous.”

“Hmm. So that’s their stance?” Lily said, looking my way. Her eyes were asking me what we should do.

Honestly, the church was being more sincere with us than I’d expected. They weren’t acting high-handedly or trying to take advantage of us. It seemed they were trying to restore the damaged trust between us.

From our perspective, much like we’d discussed already, we couldn’t remain at odds with Margrave Maclaurin forever. So long as they could be deemed trustworthy, I wasn’t entirely against going along with this proposal.

“I understand,” I said. “Once our conditions are met, we can head for the imperial capital.”

“I see. That’s good,” Iino said, a ring of relief in her voice. She’d probably been worried about whether I’d accept. “Okay then, about what comes next.”

She took a sip of tea, then pulled out some violet gems from a magic bag. Three of the spheres tumbled onto the table.

“Teleportation runestones?” I asked.

“Oh, you know of them?”

“Travis’s group used them. I don’t know how they work, though.”

“These are a relic from a past savior. They’re a valuable magic tool that the Holy Church keeps in their possession. Each comes as a pair, allowing a person to jump from one to the other. They can only be used once, but the church has judged this to be an emergency and offered these to us.”

They worked pretty much as I’d expected, although I hadn’t known that they were single-use items.

“So? What’re those for?” I asked.

“The day after tomorrow, Shimazu will come here using these.”

“Shimazu... You mean the Fairy Ring Shimazu Yui, the teleportation cheater of the exploration team?”

“Yup. Shimazu’s ability prevents her from going anywhere she hasn’t been herself, so she’s using these runestones to get here. By doing so, we can use her Fairy Ring to go back. That’s actually how I got all the way to Serrata. I ran the rest of the way here, though.”

Normally, that route would take someone over a month, but that didn’t apply to Iino. One of the reasons the Skanda had been chosen for this role was likely her overwhelming speed. What’s more, once her ability’s restrictive conditions were met, the Fairy Ring surpassed the Skanda in terms of travel speed.

“So the Fairy Ring is in Serrata?” I asked. “She’s gonna use a runestone to make the jump all the way here?”

“Nope. That’s too far. There’s a limit to these things. The church gave us five pairs, and I handed them off at specific points as I made my way here. One pair is a spare, so there’re four jump points. If this one here is A, then A’s pair is at the point before this with B, and B’s pair is at the point before that.”

“Four pairs for this? Aren’t these really valuable?”

“That’s how serious the church is about this.”

One could say that was how much they feared the current state of affairs. In truth, the longer this went on, the more unstable the political landscape would become. For example, if some noble independently raised an army, things could get even more chaotic. It was better to resolve this as quickly as possible.

“Shimazu’s ability also has limits, but unlike these runestones, she can take multiple people with her, and she can keep jumping as many times as she likes. Unfortunately, the more people she takes along, and the longer each jump, the more exhausting it is. Still, it’s way faster than traveling normally. If she takes twenty or so people with her, she estimates it’ll take us seven days to reach the imperial capital.”

A normal trip from Aker to the heart of the Empire would take over four months. Shimazu’s ability was absurdly efficient, but that was pretty much normal for cheaters.

“As for our current plan, once Shimazu gets here, she’ll take me back to the imperial capital first to convey your conditions,” Iino continued. “It’s not much of a burden if I’m the only one going along for the ride, so she can do multiple jumps a day to get there quickly. The one-way trip will take about three days. The Holy Church is already calling the margrave to the capital, but it’ll take him about a month to arrive. During that time, the church will comply with your conditions. Once that’s done, I’ll come back to Aker with Shimazu and take you to the imperial capital. On our way there, we’ll also have escorts from the Holy Order. So how about it?”

“I understand how it’ll work out. I don’t have any complaints.”

“That’s good.” With that, Iino stretched her limbs. “For now, that’s all I have to say. If you don’t have any more questions, I need to excuse myself and find an inn for the night.”

“Just one,” I said. “About our conditions, do you mind if we discuss it among ourselves first?”

“Sure. Shimazu doesn’t get here until the day after tomorrow, anyway. Take your time and think it over,” Iino said, relaxing her shoulders now that this part of her job was done.

“About looking for an inn,” Philip said. “Would you prefer to stay in the palace during your visit? I can prepare a room for you.”

“Really? That saves me the trouble of looking. I ran all the way here, so I’m beat.”

Iino didn’t seem to be lying; she truly looked tired. It was rather unusual. She was the type to steel herself and hide such things in front of others. Maybe she was just that exhausted. Her expression was far less determined than usual too.

“In that case, allow me to guide you to your room,” Philip said.

“Thank you very much.”

Philip rose from his seat with Iino in tow.

“Iino,” I said, calling her to a stop before she left. She turned around. “Thanks. You really saved us by going out of your way to tell the exploration team about the danger we were in and coming all the way here.”

“Whatever... I don’t need your thanks,” she said, the usual sharpness back in her eyes. “I just can’t forgive injustice. That’s all.”

“I know. You’re fair to everyone. Even to someone you hate.”

I smiled wryly. Even if it wasn’t me in this position, Iino would’ve exhausted all her strength to try and save them. She hadn’t done it for my sake. That was simply how she was. She possessed everything I’d given up on. That was why I was jealous of her and why she grated on my nerves. That was why I had no choice but to acknowledge her.

“I get it,” I said, “but you still saved us, so I want to thank you.”

After a few seconds of silence, Iino let out a “Hmph.” She hated me, but seeing her back to her normal self was somehow a relief.

With nothing else to say, Iino left the room with Philip.