Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 14 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Teleported as a Pair

“What is this place?” Lily muttered, at a loss.

She’d been passing the time in their room when the sound of something breaking set her into motion. She’d immediately gone to check what it was when the teleportation suddenly gripped her. After that, she found herself in a stone corridor. It was a strange place. The walls and floors were faintly luminescent. There were no windows, and similar corridors branched off as far as the eye could see.

The glow of the walls ensured she had a perfect field of view. Being able to see her surroundings wasn’t enough to identify where she was, though. She’d gone from the tight security of the cathedral to somewhere she’d never been before. The situation was almost as bad as it could possibly be. The one saving grace was that there was someone else with her.

“It seems we’ve been teleported,” Gerbera said, keeping an eye on her surroundings.

She’d been speaking with Lily in their room at the time, and had been transferred to the same spot as her. Put another way, none of their other companions were with them.

“To think such a thing would happen,” Gerbera continued. “The feeling of teleportation was the same as when we traveled with Fairy Ring.”

“You think so too?” Lily said.

“Mm-hm. I resisted the interference of mana, but I ended up being taken away.” Gerbera sighed heavily as if to spit out the anger building up within her. “It activated far too quickly. To think that little girl would do such a thing...”

Her spider legs skittered about in a display of her rage. Nevertheless, she exerted herself to maintain the ability to make calm judgments.

“At any rate, this is very bad,” Gerbera said.

“I know,” Lily agreed, pulling out her favorite black spear from the magic bag at her waist. “It’d be fine if it were only us, but judging by the mental path, everyone was teleported. They really got us.”

All of Majima Takahiro’s servants were connected through the mental path. To a certain extent, it was possible to know where they were relative to one another. Currently, from what they could sense, they weren’t close enough to link back up together right away. That said, they weren’t far enough away for the mental path to be out of range. It was safe to assume that everyone had been teleported to this mysterious place. What’s more, it was hard to believe that the one who’d done this devious act was someone who’d been so friendly with them.

“Are the remnants of Travis’s group borrowing the Fairy Ring’s help? Or maybe it’s the margrave...?” Gerbera ruminated. “In any case, everything until now has gone according to our enemy’s plan. As such, they should be playing their next hand.”

Lily silently looked around the area. She was ready for some kind of attack to be launched against them. Time passed tensely. After a short while, Lily scowled.

“Looks like nobody’s coming...”

Was the enemy trying to lure them into a false sense of security? But from what they could see, there were no threats nearby. The corridor just went on and on with nowhere to hide. Lily lowered the tip of her spear.

“How strange,” Gerbera said, making a sour look. “Why don’t they attack?”

“I don’t know.” Lily shook her head. “But if I had to guess...” She paused and turned to Gerbera. “You said you resisted the teleportation. It might be that.”

“Hm?”

“That was done through mana, so it could be resisted through mana. I resisted too, and I felt the feedback.”

Lily lowered her gaze to her hand. Within lay the strength she’d tempered to protect what was dear to her. She definitely wasn’t powerless.

“Right. I felt like my resistance wasn’t futile either,” Gerbera agreed. “Hm? In that case, did the enemy miscalculate?”

Lily nodded. “Yes. It’s highly likely we threw off our destination.”

The teleportation had been far too fast and powerful. Still, it hadn’t been at a level that they couldn’t resist at all. They’d definitely dealt damage to the fingers that’d rudely grasped them and tried to toss them to another location. By the time the teleportation had started, half the fingers had broken, and in the middle they’d been torn off. They hadn’t been able to prevent the teleportation itself, but things hadn’t gone exactly according to their enemy’s plan.

“I think the fact that we’re not being attacked is proof of that,” Lily added.

With the capability of picking the teleport destination freely, the enemy could’ve thrown them into a lethal trap or somewhere where they’d gathered their forces. It made sense that they hadn’t because of a miscalculation. As such, how much they could move before the enemy dealt with that fact would affect the outcome of this battle.

“Let’s talk on the move,” Lily said. “If nobody’s attacking, we should reunite while we can.”

“Mm. You’re right,” Gerbera agreed immediately. “Although, we can’t go running around recklessly. Which way should we go? Should we head toward our lord?”

“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea. I believe everyone will head his way first.”

“Meaning we’ll all reunite there.”

“Mm-hm. If anyone is nearby, we can also link up with them first, but...”

“According to the mental path, nobody is close. Our only choice is to start with our lord. He’s rather far too... We must hurry.”

The two immediately began moving. Still, this was enemy territory. They had to remain vigilant even while on the move. They went as fast as they could while still being able to deal with any trouble. The corridors forked every now and then, and they proceeded onward. Because of the faint glow, the place seemed somewhat mystical, not that they had any leisure to appreciate the scenery. The main nuisance was the fact that it wasn’t an open space.

“It’s practically a dungeon,” Lily grumbled.

Even if they knew where their destination was, they didn’t know which corridor would lead them there. Their only choice was to go in a general direction. There was a fair distance to cover, so it was going to take them a while to reunite with the others.

“How about it, Lily? Can you tell how the others are doing?” Gerbera asked while still on the move. “All I can tell is a vague direction.”

“I might be able to figure out a bit more. Hang on, let me try.”

There was a difference in how much information each servant was capable of gleaning from the mental path. Their capacity was largely influenced by their affinity with the ability, so the two who lived inside Majima Takahiro’s body, Asarina and Salvia, boasted the highest aptitude; the ability stemmed from him, after all. As his first servant, Lily had a relatively high affinity with the mental path too. Conversely, Gerbera wasn’t particularly good at handling delicate things. Normally, they didn’t pay much attention to this, but when separated as they were now, the difference came to the fore.

Lily focused on the sensation of the mental path. She reeled in the information she could garner from it. She was perceiving everyone’s emotions. That was because the mental path connected the hearts of the servants and their master. It was possible to judge the situation based on easy-to-read emotions.

After focusing on it, even though they were distant and vague, she somehow managed to grasp what was going on. Everyone’s tension and wariness was being conveyed to her along with their concern for each other. On the other hand, she didn’t sense any sort of pain yet.

“Mm. For the time being, I think everyone’s fine. Doesn’t look like anyone’s hurt,” Lily reported.

“That’s good,” Gerbera said, sighing in relief. “Just before teleporting, I heard what sounded like an attack. It had me anxious. Can you perceive anything else?”

“Hang on. If possible, I’ll try to find out who’s with who.”

This was rather difficult. Still, hoping to find out everything she could about her companions, Lily focused hard. By doing so, she somehow managed to get the information she needed. In an instant, her expression stiffened. She couldn’t help but react like that.

“Lily?” Gerbera asked, finding this strange.

A beat later, Lily said, “I figured it out. Rose and Lobivia are probably together.”

“Ooh, that’s good news. It’s better than either of them being alone.”

“It looks like Ayame and Shiran are scattered. I can’t tell through the mental path, but it’s highly likely Berta is with Ayame.”

“They should’ve been together right before teleporting. That’s a bit of a relief.”

Those two had been spending time together in Berta’s room, whereas Rose had been minding Lobivia. It was safe to assume that those who’d been close to each other had gotten teleported together.

“I’m a little worried that Shiran is alone, but when it comes to a short battle, her power surpasses mine,” Gerbera said. “She won’t be defeated so easily. Huh, the situation is better than we thought, isn’t it...?”

After saying it aloud, Gerbera’s expression stiffened. She probably noticed too. It would’ve been strange for her not to.

“Hey, Lily. If you’re right, then our lord...?”

Lily and Gerbera were together. Rose was with Lobivia. Ayame and Shiran were scattered, and Berta was with Ayame. In that case, there was only one answer.

“It looks like nobody is with him except for Asarina and Salvia,” Lily said.

“How can that be...?”

“Strictly speaking, I think Katou is with him too, but...”

Recalling what had been going on right before teleporting, it was highly likely. Although, in this one case, it wasn’t a cause for relief.

“Katou is incapable of fighting, after all,” Gerbera said.

Katou Mana was a reliable companion. However, when it came to battle, she possessed no power whatsoever. Gerbera’s anxiety was understandable. Worrying about it wouldn’t break them out of this situation, though. Lily forced her fretfulness away.

“In any case, this doesn’t change what we have to do,” she said. “We need to get to our master quickly, before any enemies attack.”

The enemy had been stalled because of Lily and Gerbera’s resistance. If they’d set lethal traps where they’d planned to teleport everyone, it would take a significant amount of time to launch an attack on them if they were instead in random locations. With that thought in mind, Lily’s assessment of the situation was correct.

However, there was one thing she didn’t know. She didn’t understand what kind of place this was. Depending on where they were, there could be another opposing force besides the enemy. An enormous figure appeared farther down the corridor.

“It can’t be...”

There was no way Lily would mistake its large, half-liquid body for anything else. A slime had come out to block the path.

“There are monsters here?!”

As Lily and Gerbera closed in, the slime demonstrated its animosity and stretched feelers toward them.