Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 15 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Girl’s Lost Property

I stared into the sky, looking up for so long my neck was starting to hurt. There was nothing up there. In the truest sense, there was nothing at all. As such, I was only looking up at the air. I was looking away from the truth. I thought I’d resolved myself, but I needed more mental fortitude to see what was before me. Regardless, I couldn’t stay this way forever.

“Master.”

I looked back down as someone called out to me. I was on the slope leading up to my school. To be more precise, it was the scenery constructed by my memories. Salvia stood in front of me. She was making a grief-stricken expression. It was as if she was going to start crying at any moment.

“Please don’t look so sad,” I said.

“But my dear...” Salvia said, biting her lip.

Down the path she was standing on was black nothingness. The road I’d taken to get to school had long dissipated from existence. That wasn’t all either. There was nothing else beyond the school. It was all gone.

Even the school looked so fleeting. It was as though it was going to shatter at any moment. This was the scenery I had to steel myself to look at. This was the inner world of the human known as Majima Takahiro.

“Sorry,” I said. “You spent so much time slowly fixing it for me.”

“Who cares about that? This is far too...”

“It’s fine. This is what I wanted.”

Salvia looked as though she was going to cry, because she knew better than anyone what this implied. I really was at my limit. If a person’s memories were the foundation that made up their personality, then the foundation of the human known as Majima Takahiro was on the brink of collapsing. It was like a diorama made of sand. It wouldn’t be strange for it to crumble at any moment.

Nevertheless, if this was necessary for everyone’s sake, I wasn’t one to hesitate. I felt guilty that Salvia had to witness this, though. Figuring I should at least talk to her, I took a look around.

“Anyway... I wonder who he is,” I said.

A young man with brown hair stood in the school courtyard. He wasn’t from my memories. He was the enigma I’d encountered in this world the evening I arrived in the imperial capital.

By all rights, he was an impossible intruder; someone I had to be wary of. He was looking my way, no hostility or malice in his eyes. All I could sense from him was a hint of curiosity. He had nothing more to do here. Without saying a word, he suddenly disappeared.

“It’s not like he came to do anything... I don’t get it,” I said, questioning who he was once more.

“My dear, that’s...”

“Salvia?”

She stared at the spot where the young man had been with a dubious expression. She had her hand pressed hard against her heart.

“No... I wonder who he is too,” she said.

“Who knows?” It was natural to find it strange, so I nodded along. “It’s the second time he’s shown up, but I didn’t sense any hostility. He’s not meddling or anything either. Or maybe...”

Maybe he was trying to meddle, but couldn’t. Actually, it somehow or other seemed that way. It didn’t follow any logic. I simply felt like it was the case. Perhaps that was because this world was created by my ability. His appearance had nothing to do with the attack on us. It was fine to ignore him. At the very least, it was fine for now.

“Let’s focus on what’s in front of us first,” I said.

Thus, I awakened from my short rest.

◆ ◆ ◆

I woke up to the ticklish sensation of someone licking my chin.

“Kuu.”

Waving her poofy tail about, Ayame sat atop my chest.

“Ayame? Why are you here?”

I held her in my arms and sat up. Kudou smiled next to me.

“You’re awake,” he said. He appeared to be reading something. He rolled up the papers he’d had in his hands. “I didn’t think the injury was fatal, but you passed out, so I was a little worried.”

“How long have I been out?” I asked.

“Not that long. About twenty minutes. Fortunately, no enemies showed up.”

It turned out not that much time had passed. Regardless, it seemed the situation had changed significantly.

“Berta...and even Shimazu?”

The only ones with me when I passed out had been Kudou and Dora. However, the two-headed wolf Berta was next to Kudou now. What’s more, a little farther away, the Fairy Ring Shimazu Yui was cradling her knees.

“Though it’s hard to claim we did so without issue...” Berta said as I met her eyes. “I’m glad we meet again, Majima Takahiro.”

“It was quite the disaster, huh? For both of us...” Shimazu added.

“What’s going on?” I asked Kudou. “Can you give me a sitrep?”

“Of course,” he answered, then told me about everything that’d passed while I was asleep.

“I see. Berta followed Mikihiko’s scent here... And Shimazu was called to our room by someone, getting her involved in this incident,” I said, voicing the portions that’d caught my attention.

“More importantly, the main problem is that the walls were manipulated to seal us in here,” Kudou said. “It might be possible to escape by breaking down a wall at the right place, but that’ll take time and it’ll catch their attention. We moved from where we were attacked earlier, so they shouldn’t know our exact location. Once they find out, they might attack us right away. What should we do?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I have no intention of running away to begin with.”

“What’re you saying?!” Dora yelled before Kudou could say anything. “Do you understand the situation you’re in?!”

She quickly closed in on me and grabbed me by the collar.

“No matter how much you can strengthen your body with mana, that’s a serious wound!”

She was being rough, but her words were spoken out of concern for my well-being.

“Sh-She’s right,” Shimazu joined in. “You were stabbed, right? I heard it was pretty bad.”

“Exactly. Get some rest,” Dora said.

I expected this from Shimazu, but Dora’s concern was surprising. I was grateful, but their consideration was unnecessary.

“My wound is fine,” I said.

“There’s no way...” Dora started objecting, but stopped upon noticing something. She probably saw that I wasn’t bothered by my injury at all. Her brow furrowed quizzically.

“It mostly healed after a little sleep,” I said.

“There’s no way!” she protested.

“It’s true. I still feel a little stiff, but not enough to stop me from fighting.”

I wasn’t lying. After all, this was what I’d gained by shaving away what remained of myself. My resilience had already far exceeded human boundaries when I overcame the Travis variant of Holy Water during the battle with the Maclaurin Provincial Army. The phenomenon was similar to reproducing Gerbera’s superhuman strength.

In this world, physical laws were accompanied by mana-based phenomena. This obviously applied to magic, but even a monster’s flaming breath or half-liquid body, and even the creation of magic tools, all worked on the fundamental law that a specific mana flow created a corresponding phenomenon. Lily and Gerbera’s regenerative abilities, ones that far surpassed the limits of any living being, were half because of mana.

My servants’ mana coursed within me. Lily and Gerbera’s made up the majority of it. That was why I was capable of using that same mana to demonstrate regeneration beyond the capacity of any human, even if it still couldn’t match the originals.

Unfortunately, the human body couldn’t go as far as reattaching or regrowing a severed limb, but given enough time to stabilize, I could recover from relatively serious wounds. Though I hadn’t recovered completely from the stab wound Mikihiko had inflicted, it was already sealed. It would hurt if I moved too intensely, but it was within my pain tolerance.

That said, if it were only my servants’ mana coursing through me, it wouldn’t have applied itself to my body this quickly. Maybe it would’ve taken years to accomplish the same feat. The secret to my rapid regeneration was Lily.

As a mimic slime, Lily collected the remnants of the souls of all monsters she ate. By imitating their mana flows, she was able to mimic their inherent abilities. What I was doing now, although different in application, was very similar to her mimicry. Her mana flowed through me. Going by that logic, I was mimicking her mimicry.

To put it simply, I had a model to learn from. Once more, the nature of my soul was approaching that of my servants’. As a result, it was possible for me to imitate their regenerative abilities.

Setting aside those with special inherent abilities, even the other cheaters couldn’t exhibit such unnatural regeneration. It wouldn’t be much help in the middle of battle, but it was useful at times like these.

Coming to grips with the fact that I was capable of fighting, Dora backed down, even if doubt still lingered in her gaze. On the other hand, knowing my situation to a certain extent, Berta looked at me with pity in her eyes. I shook my head to tell her that such sympathy was unwarranted.

“I understand your situation and intentions, Senpai,” Kudou said. “I don’t mind lending you a hand. I doubt the enemy will let us go without a fight, anyway.”

After offering his aid, Kudou handed me a small bag that’d been at his side.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“It seems Katou Mana dropped this when she was abducted. You should hang on to it.”

Now that he mentioned it, it looked familiar. This was the magic bag Rose had made for Katou.

“And this too,” Kudou added, handing over the bundle of paper he’d been reading. “It fell out of the bag. Looks like a sort of journal. There are some pretty interesting things written in it.”

With that, he unfurled it and handed it to me. On the papers were walls of clean handwriting.

“There’s still a lot we don’t understand about this power to begin with.

“In this world, strong wishes come true.

“If that’s how it works, there’s no point arguing about it.

“However, even if the law itself has no room for doubt, there’s something about the reality I find myself in that feels out of place.

“To put it briefly, it feels like reality doesn’t match this law.

“In all likelihood, there is significance behind this.

“Something feels weird about this world.”

It looked as though she’d been writing down her thoughts as they came to her. Kudou’s curiosity was piqued by what she’d written about our powers.

“‘If that’s how it works, there’s no point arguing about it,’” he recited. “I hadn’t gone out of my way to perceive things that way, but that is in fact how laws work. Taking that into account and harboring doubts toward reality itself is a rather interesting process.”

“Does this bring anything to mind for you?” I asked.

“It does.” Kudou paused for a beat before continuing. “It’s nothing major...but if such laws exist, then why do they only apply to visitors?”

“Why only visitors?”

For a brief moment, I didn’t understand what he meant. However, now that he mentioned it, he did have a point. I’d been told that was how the world worked, so I’d never really given it much thought. Still, even if that was the law here, the conditions felt far too specific. Not that I knew what that implied, though. We didn’t have the time to think about it either.

“After we get Katou back, please discuss that with her,” I said.

Even as I spoke, my eyes were drawn to the words on the page—to Katou’s thoughts.

“I’m weak.

“If I were a resident of this world, I could sum that up as an inevitability.

“But I’m a visitor.

“By all rights, I should be able to obtain great power.

“Regardless, I remain powerless.”

Katou had apparently been troubled by her inability to fight. She’d shown signs of this after coming to this mysterious labyrinth, but by the looks of things, this had been bothering her for a long time.

I kept reading.

“I’ve questioned this for a while now.

“The powers we visitors possess manifest from a wish deep within our hearts.

“That’s exactly why this is so weird.

“In truth, I’ve known about my wish for a long time.

“And yet, my power remains dormant.

“Why exactly is that?

“Why me?”

Many of her written thoughts came to an end like this without finding an answer. There were also cases where she’d found an answer and had contributed to the group. There were dozens of pages covered in writing here. Behind the major contributions she’d made were many times more pages reflecting her thought exercises of trial and error. This journal was the record of that powerless girl’s paltry yet great efforts.

“Katou...”

My fingers clenched the papers. I had to get her back. Conviction gave steel to my will. With determination renewed in my heart, I started moving. I expected I’d soon have to cross blades with my best friend, but I showed no hesitation.