Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 16 - Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Memory of the Beginning

Using the senses of the Misty Lodge, I discovered Hibiya Kouji’s presence. When I relayed this to the pursuit force, the exploration team members were shocked. From their perspective, he was a comrade who’d gone missing during the Colony’s fall, as well as a nicknamed cheater of the upper brass. They’d probably never expected him to be among those they were chasing. That said, it was best to prevent that shock from turning into dismay.

“Well, once we catch him, we’ll hear his story.”

It was none other than their leader, Nakajima, who casually brushed aside the conversation. Seeing how he wasn’t perturbed in the least, the exploration team members regained their composure. Thanks to their leader’s example, even as we encountered guardian giants every now and then, they calmly dealt with the attacks. They were getting used to the presence of constant danger. I didn’t even need to warn them by using the Misty Lodge to watch our surroundings. I could focus entirely on guiding them.

Personally, I’d been worried that Hibiya Kouji would pose a considerable threat, but that fear had proved to be unwarranted: Kudou’s army had defeated him. Also, Jinguuji and Kudou hadn’t ended up joining forces, so that was a relief. Berta had predicted such an outcome, so we hadn’t wasted any unnecessary time coming up with countermeasures. The wolf was brooding, troubled by lingering thoughts of her king.

“I see. That’s what happened between Kudou and Hibiya,” I commented.

“Yes. I doubt my king has forgotten Todoroki Miya’s death.”

It seemed fate had played a major role in the battle between Kudou and Hibiya. I’d been focused on guiding the group through this fabricated world while watching for ambushes and neutralizing traps, so I’d only heard their conversation in fragments. It seemed Todoroki had died during the Colony’s fall and Hibiya had been responsible for it. Berta’s story also supported this.

This information bothered me. After all, the Beast of Darkness Todoroki Miya and the Absolute Blade Hibiya Kouji had stayed behind to protect the Colony during the expedition force’s absence. However, according to Fukatsu Aketora, the boy accompanying Thaddeus of Draconia, the majority of the emergency response force those two had been a part of had been killed in the early stages of the chaos. It had been best to assume some trouble had occurred, but with this new information, it was now clear that Hibiya Kouji had murdered them. What’s more, he’d vanished since then and had reappeared here of all places.

Maybe the Colony hadn’t simply fallen apart. What had really happened that day? It was highly likely Hibiya was the key to getting answers about the last days of the Colony. It wasn’t quite what Nakajima had alluded to, but if we caught him, it could be possible for us to learn the truth.

However, this had to be handled with care. If they knew that two of their upper brass had tried to kill each other during the Colony’s fall, the exploration team members would be shaken to their core. Fortunately, such details had no direct relation to this operation, so there was no need to go out of my way to tell them. I could find the right time to consult Nakajima and leave the decision to him.

“At any rate, thanks for the information,” I told Berta.

“It’s nothing. I’m doing it for my king’s sake, after all,” she said with what appeared to be a smile.

Jinguuji’s group, Kudou’s army, the exploration team, and the church’s forces—each one was driven by different motives, making the situation rather complicated. The exploration team and the church were acting to stop Jinguuji from destroying the Dimensional Cornerstones. Kudou was hostile to Jinguuji, so his interests were aligned with the exploration team in stopping Jinguuji’s apocalyptic quest. However, Kudou’s methods were bound to be drastic. This was especially the case against Hibiya. The exploration team felt camaraderie with Jinguuji and Hibiya on an emotional level, so it was possible they would be hostile toward Kudou.

The complicated mix of interests and sentimentality meant there was no room for guesswork here. We needed to understand the situation so that we could handle anything that happened. That was why Berta had told us her story. However, after listening to her, one point didn’t make sense.

“Hey Berta? Can I ask something?” I said.

“What?”

“How do you...know about Todoroki Miya’s death?”

I wasn’t doubting her or anything. I just found it strange. Berta knew about how Todoroki Miya had died. If her death was the main driving force behind Kudou’s ambitions, I doubted he would’ve told someone he only saw as a pawn about it.

“It’s simple,” Berta replied calmly, perhaps expecting this question. “I was there. So I know. That’s all.”

“You were there...?”

I needed a second to figure that out. Once I did, I gulped. Her admission carried grave implications.

“So, Kudou awakened to being the Demon King because of Todoroki’s death, and you became his servant right then? In other words, you’re Kudou’s first servant?”

It was surprising, but now that I thought about it, it wasn’t impossible. Kudou should’ve awakened to his power after the Colony’s fall, right around the time of Todoroki Miya’s death. If Berta had been his servant at the time, it wouldn’t be strange for her to know about the details between Kudou and Todoroki. Everything was consistent. However, there was one thing that didn’t make sense.

“But Berta... You were the second to be given a name, weren’t you?”

By the phonetic code being used, Berta was the second name. She was the first, but the second. This sounded like a contradiction to me, but not to Berta.

“It isn’t all that complicated,” she said. “My king doesn’t generally give his subordinates names. You know the condition that has to be met before he does, right?”

That was when I figured it out too.

“Having enough power to be given a name...”

“Exactly.”

“So you...”

“Yes. At the time, I had no potential. That was why I wasn’t given a name.”

The way Kudou treated his servants differed completely from the way I treated mine. In Kudou’s case, it was only natural that his first servant wasn’t the first to be given a name. What had made things complicated was that he’d ended up giving her a name later.

“Though I was his first servant, I wasn’t given a name at the time due to my weakness,” Berta continued. “I dedicated myself to gaining enough strength to serve him properly. By then, Anton had already surpassed me and earned our king’s favor. That’s why I was given the name Berta.” Her tone dropped a level. “I couldn’t become Anton... To me, the name Berta is proof of my powerlessness and worthlessness.”

Her words were filled with regret. I could easily infer that this wasn’t simply because she hadn’t been the first to be given a name. This regret definitely had something to do with her clumsy and innocent nature.

“Majima Takahiro,” she said, still running as we talked. “Earlier, you said I became his servant when he awakened as the Demon King and I was his first servant. That’s only half right.”

“Only half?”

“The latter half is correct, but the former isn’t.”

I was confused for a moment. The two sounded like the same thing. Berta’s next words surpassed my imagination.

“I came under my king’s command before he was the Demon King.”

“What?”

“He didn’t gain power when he decided to walk down the path of the Demon King. Having escaped the Colony, he refused to give up. He struggled to survive in the Woodlands. That was when I became his servant.”

I fell silent for a few seconds. I couldn’t process what she was telling me. It was far too different from what I’d heard before.

“Wait. Isn’t that weird?” I said. “That’s inconsistent with what Kudou told me.”

Kudou had told me about his origins during the attack on Fort Tilia. He’d despaired at how weak and hideous humanity was, had wished to destroy the world, and had obtained the power to dominate monsters as the Demon King. It was strange for Berta to have become his servant before then. What was going on?

“It’s because I wasn’t strong enough,” Berta answered lightly. I could sense the same remorse as when she lamented her perceived inadequacy. “Back then, when he struggled through the forest on his own, he sought me. His meeting with Todoroki Miya had apparently changed his life. He was still small and weak, but he clawed tooth and nail to try and change himself. When I sensed him, I felt joy in my heart. His existence was so precious to me. Attracted by that still-unreliable connection, I hurried to his side.”

As she spoke of her memories, her tone suddenly shifted to a bitter one.

“However, I didn’t make it in time. Right before I found him, he encountered other visitors. By the time I ran to his side, they’d already tormented him thoroughly.”

In the corner of my vision, I saw Lily turning to me. She had terrific ears, so she’d likely overheard us. She looked extremely surprised. The same went for me.

Hurt and damaged, begging for salvation—and someone answered.

My first meeting with Lily very closely resembled Berta’s beginnings with Kudou. However, only the results differed—to a cruel degree. Lily had saved me, but Berta hadn’t been able to save Kudou.

“I bared my fangs to try and protect him, but it wasn’t to be. I was quickly struck down in a single blow.”

She’d faced a warrior. Judging by the fact that she hadn’t been given a name, Berta had been nowhere near her current strength, likely not all that different from the average monster. There was no way she could’ve won.

“I was weak, so I couldn’t save him... I turned him into the Demon King.”

A remorse she could never rid herself of—this was a wound Berta had carried from the very beginning. If only those two had met before encountering those visitors, the situation would likely be different. Had she foreseen their approach with her sharp sense of smell, it would’ve been possible to get away before being discovered. By doing so, by avoiding that one encounter, perhaps a better future would have been possible for them.

Thinking of it that way, maybe it was natural that Berta was the only one among Kudou’s servants whose sensibilities resembled ours. After all, before becoming the Demon King, Kudou hadn’t wished for a pawn with which to destroy the world. He’d wished for someone to help him change and walk by his side toward the future. However, that future wasn’t to be. It’d been crushed to pieces and hopelessly twisted.

That was why this bothered Berta so much. She hadn’t been able to become Anton. In other words, if she’d had the strength to be given the name Anton at the time, she could’ve protected what was dear to her. During our journey together, she’d gone out night after night hunting monsters to get stronger. The reason she coveted such strength was likely because of these remorseful memories of being unable to protect Kudou before he became the Demon King.

“Does Kudou know about this?” I asked.

“He didn’t notice. By the time I was able to move again and serve my king for the first time, everything was already over. He was already unconscious from the pain when I ran over to help, after all. He didn’t see me lose, and because Todoroki Miya appeared immediately afterward, creating a Beast of Darkness to fight in battle. Even if he did hear anything, he likely assumed my earlier intrusion to be no more than a part of that.”

“You never told him yourself?”

“What would I get by doing so?” Berta asked self-derisively. “By the time I finally gained power, a proper ego, and a name, he was already walking down the path of the Demon King. It was far too late by then.”

Kudou didn’t require anyone to lean against on his path forward as the Demon King. What could’ve been priceless to him before was now no more than a failure of a pawn. Nevertheless, she’d cared for him, the regret at being unable to do anything and that precious feeling she’d had upon discovering him in her heart all the while.

“That’s how I met my king,” Berta said, returning to her usual tone as if to mark the end of the discussion. “I told you this much, so I might as well add one more thing. At the time, I ate Todoroki Miya’s remains. That was what she wished for on the verge of death.”

“Todoroki did? Why?”

“I wonder. She said she didn’t want to sadden her best friend, so she wanted to hide her death. Maybe she simply didn’t want to leave a corpse behind... But I do wonder. Honestly, I don’t really understand. Why did she save my king? Why did she even want to save him?”

There was no way of finding out now. Todoroki Miya was dead. It was impossible to find out anything more about the girl who’d cursed the world with her dying breaths. This did clarify one thing, though.

“Is that why you look like Todoroki Miya in your true form?” I asked.

“Probably. Not that I ever expected such an outcome myself.”

Her form as a scylla looked so much like Todoroki Miya because she’d been there to witness the girl’s death. That said, much like Berta mentioned, she didn’t have Lily’s ability for mimicry or anything, so such an outcome had to have been unexpected. Perhaps the kudoku poison jar trials had had an influence on the changes happening to her body.

“Thanks for telling me,” I said.

Now that I knew everything, Berta’s circumstances seemed so unfortunate. She’d met misfortune beyond her control and had been set up in a way that she would never be rewarded for it. It was far too cruel. If not for the coincidence of going on a journey with us, who shared her sense of values, that misfortune might have gone unnoticed forever.

“Wait... Hang on,” I muttered, suddenly caught on a certain detail.

Berta had been set up in a way to never be rewarded. However, now she was traveling with us, a party embodying that lost camaraderie and connection. This was a coincidence due to circumstances beyond our control. That was what I believed.

But was that really true? Berta was here by Kudou’s command. She was one of the strongest elements of Kudou’s forces, so if only considering her usefulness in battle, it would’ve been the correct decision to keep her close by. Kudou hadn’t done so because he’d called Berta a failure. But was that really true? Now that I’d heard Berta’s story, I was starting to doubt it.

Todoroki Miya’s death had been a big-enough event to make him the Demon King he was today. It was something he never wanted others to touch upon. And yet, he didn’t keep Berta, who’d inherited her form, close to him. There was far too much risk in that. In truth, Berta had exposed her true form to us. It was precisely because Kudou knew that her sensibilities were close to ours that he’d dispatched her as a guard, knowing we wouldn’t feel antipathy toward her. He should’ve been able to predict that she would become attached over time and eventually reveal her secret. He couldn’t have been that careless. It was enough for me to question whether there had been some kind of hidden intention behind it.

“Majima Takahiro? What’s wrong?”

I looked down at Berta from her back as a certain thought crossed my mind. Maybe—just maybe—had Kudou already realized her circumstances? Naturally, just as Berta said, he likely hadn’t realized on the spot. At the very least, during the attack on Fort Tilia, Kudou had truly been under the impression that his power was meant for no more than being the Demon King.

But Kudou knew about me now. During the attack on Fort Tilia, he must’ve realized that Berta was too honest to participate in any scheming and was therefore different from his other pawns. By combining that knowledge with the fact that she was his first servant, it was entirely possible that he’d reached the truth.

If he knew about the truth behind Berta...then the meaning behind her existence must’ve changed greatly to him. After all, the reason Kudou had tried to change himself before things had reached a decisive point had been none other than Todoroki Miya’s influence.

As a result of trying to change himself thanks to Todoroki Miya, Kudou had gained the power to make allies of monsters before becoming the Demon King. Berta was the one and only servant he’d recruited during that period. Berta’s existence would have been impossible without Todoroki Miya. In a sense, she was a memento of Todoroki Miya.

What did Kudou think about her, then? Would he treat her as a precious companion like she was meant to be in the first place? That was unlikely. What Berta had said earlier could be applied to Kudou too. It was already too late. Kudou had already started down the path of the Demon King. Even if he noticed, he wouldn’t go back to a path that’d been lost to him. He was sure to continue running full speed toward his own end, one filled with despair and agony.

In that case, what was Kudou thinking? What had gone through his mind and what decision had he made to place Berta here? Right as I was about to reach the answer, the exploration team cheered. We’d arrived at the door to the third world.