Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 14 - Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Harsh Betrayal

“Huh...?”

Who was it who voiced their quiet surprise? Such a severe shock had shaken my heart that, in the moment, I hadn’t even been able to discern the culprit. My thoughts were blank, just a nothingness born of my consciousness rejecting my reality. Before I knew it, there was an unbearable burning sensation in my flank. Only when my face contorted in reaction did I realize this was pain.

“Ugh...”

A sharp blade had pierced my side. I choked on my breath in agony, feeling a cold sweat all over my body. However, in contrast, my consciousness interpreted the reality happening to me as a faraway event. It had simply been so unimaginable. It was enough for me to doubt this was really happening.

“Miki...hiko...?”

My trembling lips muttered the name of my best friend, because Mikihiko was leaning over me. The unnaturally close distance had caught me off guard. I saw his fingers wrapped tightly around the hilt of a knife.

Only after recognizing all that did I finally digest the reality I found myself in. Mikihiko had gone from a friendly greeting to an act of violence, stabbing me in the side with his combat knife. His forward-leaning posture was to push the blade in deep. He looked down at me from above with a frivolous smile.

“Aw, come on, Takahiro. You can’t be dropping your guard like that.”

His half-joking, chiding, and cheerful tone was definitely that of my best friend. However, only his actions differed from what I knew to a cruel degree.

“Mikihiko, why...?”

My voice was hoarse with pain. I’d somehow managed to grab Mikihiko’s knife-wielding hand the moment before he’d stabbed me. This was thanks to the unconscious defensive reactions drilled into my body. Regardless, there was a limit to what I could handle. With each beat of my heart, hot and slippery blood soaked my hand.

“N-Noooo?!”

Seeing my blood right before her eyes, Katou screamed. At the same time, the situation started moving again.

“Dora! Help him!”

“What are you doing, you bastard?!”

Kudou screamed in uncharacteristic dismay, and Dora moved before he finished talking, running toward me with her shadow swords brandished. However, this was apparently all within expectations. Mikihiko dealt with it calmly.

“Whoa there.”

Right before Dora could attack, he moved behind me to use me as a shield. His movements were the same as the skills he’d fostered through training, the ones I’d witnessed not too long ago when we’d acknowledged each other’s efforts.

“Here ya go.”

“Ugh.”

Mikihiko kicked my stomach and Dora caught me. He pulled the knife out at the same time, sending blood gushing into the air. My body rapidly lost strength from the blood loss. I pinned down the wound to stop the bleeding, but my vision was already darkening.

“Dora, get him to safety!”

“Understood!”

Kudou and Dora’s decision to secure my safety was probably correct. However, Mikihiko’s target was someone else from the very beginning.

“Eek?!”

Hearing a girl scream, my hair stood on end.

“Dammit!”

By the time I noticed, it was too late. Not that I could do anything with my body in such a state, anyway. Nevertheless, I raised my head, forcing myself to look through the pain, and saw the worst possible outcome.

“Katou...”

Mikihiko was carrying her unconscious body over his shoulder.

“I’m all alone, and look at these odds. I’m not gonna fight fair and square.”

“Mikihiko...”

He pressed a knife against Katou’s neck. The savagery of our circumstances was thrust before my eyes. It made the stab wound feel like a trifling thing.

“Sorry, but you’re gonna hafta let me get away.”

“Do you think we will?” Kudou retorted quietly, the threat clear in his tone.

“Yeah, I do,” Mikihiko replied, not paying that any mind. “I’m sure you don’t give a lick about her, but Takahiro does. If Takahiro doesn’t want you to, you won’t make a move, right?”

“How insolent...”

Kudou clicked his tongue, yet didn’t do anything. I was relieved that he wasn’t going to attack and put Katou in danger, but the fact remained that we had no way of changing the situation.

“Mikihiko...” I forced myself to stay conscious so that I could speak. “Let Katou go.”

“No way. No can do. The scary one over there will kill me if I do,” he said, pointing at Dora with his eyes and trembling in an exaggerated manner. “That’s the same as asking me to die, yeah? Well, I guess it makes sense to ask me to die at this point.”

“That’s not what I’m saying... Why are you against us, anyway? What happened?”

“Nothing really. I’m just your enemy now. That’s why I won’t hand Katou over.”

He ignored my question without really answering it.

“Ugh...”

I had a ton of questions, but there wasn’t enough blood for my brain to function. As such, my thoughts refused to work properly as my consciousness faded, leaving me with nothing to do except listen to Mikihiko’s words.

“It’s not all that weird, right? Takahiro, you have no way outta this place. It’s useless. It’s over for you. Choosing your side at this point would be stupid, don’tcha think?”

“Mikihiko...”

“Aah, what I’m getting at is, this is a matter of priorities. This is something a recent ally...or an ally of an ally? Well, that’s what he said. I can’t stand the guy, but I think he’s right in this regard.”

“Priorities...?”

“Mm-hm. Priorities. So, I have no other choice.”

He was telling me to give up. I didn’t know what’d happened, but when he said, “I have no other choice,” I figured it out—that would normally be the case. However, before the thought came to mind...

“Mikihiko. Are you...?”

There was something I wanted to ask, but I wasn’t permitted to. Before I could, an abnormality occurred.

“What’s going on...?!”

The ground started oscillating up and down. What looked like a sturdy hallway was shaking violently.

“An earthquake at a time like this...? No, this is...”

“My king! Get closer! I sense mana!”

The unnatural timing spurred Kudou and Dora to readiness. Their reaction was normal, whereas Mikihiko and I were the odd ones out. Mikihiko immediately turned on his heels as I squeezed my words out.

“N-No! This isn’t an attack...!”

“What?”

Just as Dora raised her voice at my comment, Mikihiko reached the wall. There was nothing there—or so I thought. Suddenly, the wall started splitting in two with an ear-grating noise.

“What the?!”

Dora’s astonishment was a matter of course. The structure of this sturdy-looking corridor was changing. In the blink of an eye, a new path now existed. Mikihiko went through it without hesitation, the unconscious Katou still over his shoulder.

“Mikihiko, wait...!”

“H-Hey!”

Stirred by my unbearable uneasiness, I got away from Dora and tried to chase Mikihiko. However, as I took a step forward, my leg was unable to support my weight and I collapsed to my knees. Pain ran up my spine, cutting off all signals my nerves were trying to send to my limbs to keep moving.

“Hey! Do you understand the state of your injury?!” Dora yelled, grabbing me by the shoulder.

“I have to go after him...!” I knew, of course. I was well aware that I was being unreasonable, but I couldn’t just sit here. “He’s still... He’s still in reach...!”

“Y-You’re...” Dora’s eyes wavered. Immediately following that, a blade flickered toward her. “Ugh?!”

It was a sharp spear thrust. However, what’d caught the experienced Dora off guard was the fact that the attack had come from empty space.

“Back off!”

Dora barely managed to react, changing one hand into a sword and repelling the attack as she stared in confusion.

“Wh-What is this...?”

There was a spear in front of her bewildered eyes. It was the same one that’d penetrated Travis’s cranium earlier to deliver the finishing blow. Strangely enough, it was floating in the air as if an invisible person was holding it at the ready. I’d seen a similar sight before.

“Aerial Knight! It’s Mikihiko’s inherent ability!”

He was capable of wielding weapons without touching them, similar to a form of telekinesis. The floating spear moved on its own, delivering a series of thrusts.

“What a pain...!”

Dora repelled every strike with precision. She was in no danger at all. However, she hadn’t overcome Mikihiko’s expectations.

“He’s keeping us at bay...” Kudou muttered, the wings on his back glowing. “Step aside, Dora. I’ll crush it.”

Speaking in a cold voice, he unleashed the magic he’d been holding back because Katou was a hostage. Immediately as Dora jumped aside, a hammer of wind broke the floating spear. Once broken, it looked like his ability didn’t work anymore. The shattered spear fell to the ground. However, by that time, we’d long lost our chance to do anything.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Fuck...”

I stared at the corridor Mikihiko had vanished down and clenched my blood-soaked fist. If we were going to chase him, we had to do it now. If we left it for later, it would take time to catch up to him. With a deep wound like this, even if Dora were to carry me, I wouldn’t be able to endure a prolonged chase. My outstretched hand couldn’t reach her. The moment I came to that realization, my willpower cut out.

“Ugh...”

Unable to even stay up on my knees, I collapsed. The ground was shaking beneath my palm.

“H-Hey, are you all right?”

Even as Dora called out to me, the tremors continued. I heard a deep rumble from afar. Much like before, the corridors were probably transforming. Was it making an escape route for Mikihiko? Or was it for some other reason? Either way, the enemy was definitely plotting something.

“Dora. Give Majima-senpai emergency treatment. I can’t use one of my hands...”

Kudou walked up to me as he gave instructions. His sharp eyes were highlighted by a strong air of wariness as the tremors continued.

“What exactly is going on...?”

“A magic tool...” I answered immediately.

“A magic tool?” Kudou repeated in bewilderment, perhaps having not expected an actual answer. “Considering the mana we detected when it started happening, that would certainly make sense... In that case, is this some kind of facility that’s packed with a ton of magic tools? Was that what that hidden passage was?”

“No,” I said, “this place isn’t packed with magic tools.”

“Senpai...?”

Kudou’s voice conveyed clear confusion. Maybe he was under the impression I wasn’t in my right mind. He looked at me anxiously. It wasn’t strange for him to think so in this situation, but that wasn’t the case.

“I’m fine. I haven’t lost my senses. That’s not it... I know this place’s true identity; the one Salvia discovered for me.”

“This place’s true identity...?”

It was what Salvia had been in the middle of telling us. She’d figured it out by coincidence. Ever since being teleported here, she’d been investigating why her contractor hadn’t been able to deploy the Misty Lodge. She’d succeeded too. It’d taken some time, but she’d found the source of the problem.

As a result, she’d been left utterly confused. After all, the reason our magic hadn’t been able to activate was because of mutual interference. When two similar magics were used in the same space, the magics interfered with each other.

Once she figured this out, she’d modified the magic being channeled through me to alter the part subject to interference, letting the magic work once more. It’d been a demonstration of the skills of the Misty Lodge, who’d wandered this world for an eternity. At the same time, it’d also exposed a certain truth.

The main clue was the facet of the Misty Lodge that’d been interfering with this place. In other words, she’d found out what kind of magic was in continuous use here. At first, Salvia had thought it was some kind of mistake. It couldn’t possibly be true. After all, the interference came from what could be called her very essence.

However, no matter how much she double-checked, the answer remained the same. A certain magic was constantly deployed in this place. One that was the same kind as the Misty Lodge Salvia, whose very existence was magic. Knowing this, I denied Kudou’s statement. In other words, magic tools weren’t planted all over this place...

“This place itself was created using a magic tool. This is some kind of artificial world.”