Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 16 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Notice of Danger

“What’s going on?”

Gordon’s deep, hoarse voice shook the room. We were within the imperial palace inside the room that was being lent to the exploration team’s nicknamed cheater, the Fairy Ring Shimazu Yui.

In the middle of using Shimazu’s teleportation to return to the capital and see off the Holy Order’s vice marshal, Gordon Cavill, we witnessed something truly abnormal. We could see the Holy Church’s headquarters, the grand cathedral, through the window. It was an enormous building composed of a large central dome and six spires. Two of those spires were broken, and the remaining four were crumbling apart all over. We’d been forcefully teleported away from the capital two days prior. At the time, the cathedral hadn’t been in this state.

Gordon and his men looked out the window in shock. From their perspective, it was like the sky was falling. The Holy Church protected the world and possessed the greatest martial might and authority there was. The tremendous damage to their headquarters signified far more than what could be seen. It was as if the entire world had been shaken.

Shimazu Yui and the Skanda Iino Yuna, who’d come along as an escort, were frozen by the sight too. The only ones who noticed my gaze as I looked around were Lily and Shiran. We nodded to each other.

“There’s no point standing around,” I said.

Gordon and his knights unfroze at the sound of my voice. Iino and Shimazu also came back to their senses and looked at me. I waited for all of them to regain their faculties, then addressed them.

“Sir Gordon, we’ll be leaving here as planned. I don’t know what happened, but it doesn’t change the fact that the Holy Church is my enemy. We can’t afford to go knocking on their door.”

“I see...”

“What will you do?” I asked.

“We will... We will also act as planned,” Gordon answered, a strong glint in his eyes. As was to be expected, he’d regained his composure quickly. “We’ll return to the church. We must confirm what happened.”

“It’s clearly abnormal. It might be dangerous,” I said.

“I understand that.”

“Very well. I don’t want you to die in vain, though. I’ll give you a long-distance communication runestone, so if it looks like you’re in danger, please contact me.”

This was the magic tool Mikihiko had used to keep in touch with the commander.

“Are you sure?” Gordon asked. “Much like the man aiming to take your life, I, too, am part of the Holy Order.”

“It’s not like I want to crush the Holy Order or anything,” I said, handing him the magic tool. “Rather, it’d be problematic if it got crushed. We both seek to protect the world.”

“Such a pragmatic analysis...” Gordon smiled slightly, then accepted the runestone. “Thank you very much.”

“I’m not saying you need to pay me back, but if you figure anything out, please let me know. I don’t mind if it’s only the things you can share with me.”

“Understood. I’ll be sure to,” Gordon answered, nodding.

“Sorry, Shimazu,” I said, turning my attention to her. “Things have gotten a little weird, but can you stay with me a while as we planned? Depending on how things turn out, we might have to go get Sir Gordon.”

“Mm, okay,” she answered immediately. “I’m curious about the church, but I’m not in perfect condition yet either. I might just be a burden if I went there.”

“Thank you. What’ll you do, Iino?” I asked.

“I’ll... I’ll consult our leader and...” she started hesitantly, but shook her head. “No. Not that. I’ll stay with you. I’ll protect all of you. I promised.”

“Got it.”

Iino sounded somewhat unstable. She must have been wrestling with the fact that she’d fought her former exploration team members in that fabricated world. Or maybe not. Even before that, she’d been acting a little strange.

“You okay?” I asked, concerned.

“How so?” she replied grumpily as she always did.

Well, Iino had had plenty of friends in the exploration team. Shimazu or their leader could probably console her better. It wasn’t my place to butt in.

“Okay, then. Sir Gordon, be careful out there.”

I changed gears and saw Gordon off, then asked Shimazu to get ready to return.

◆ ◆ ◆

Having witnessed something completely unexpected, we quickly teleported out of the capital. We’d hit another unforeseen event too. We’d predicted that the exploration team members would notice us while we waited for Shimazu to gather mana to get us out. At present, if anything was going to pose a threat to us, it would be the authorities of the Holy Church planting some strange ideas into the exploration team’s heads after having lost their shadowy force. We’d meant to contact their leader, Nakajima Kojirou, or pass a verbal message to him so that this wouldn’t happen.

However, in all the time we spent before teleporting out of the capital, they never showed up. It seemed they were all away. Giving it some thought, I realized this wasn’t all that strange.

“Something happened to reduce the grand cathedral to that state,” I said. “The exploration team is full of guys with a strong sense of justice. They probably headed that way.”

“Well, that’s a source of relief, right?” Lily said, shrugging. “If that’s the case, we can feel at ease about Sir Gordon.”

“Yeah.”

After all, the exploration team was made up of about sixty cheaters. They could handle anything that could be solved through violence. And any problems they couldn’t solve were likely impossible for anyone else.

“Just as I told Sir Gordon, the Holy Church is essential for maintaining this world’s stability. No matter what happens at the grand cathedral, the exploration team should be able to deal with it...”

That was supposed to be the case, but for some reason, I felt restless. I had a bad feeling about this.

◆ ◆ ◆

The situation changed a few hours after we left the imperial capital. At the time, we were discussing what to do next. There was no point wasting time in the prairies. Now that we’d failed to contact the exploration team, we decided to return to Aker sooner rather than later.

Having learned the truth of the world, our goal was to gain access to a Dimensional Cornerstone. By changing the World View that made up this world through common cognition, we could make it so that our existence was allowed. Acquiring a Dimensional Cornerstone—a magic tool that maintained and controlled the world itself—was an absolutely necessary step to achieving that.

However, the Dimensional Cornerstones were held by the Holy Church, so they weren’t simple to access. Harrison prioritized the world’s safety above all else, so if he didn’t allow it, it would be impossible to borrow one from them. Trying to take one would mean forcing our way through the church itself. If we did that, this time we would have the entire might of the Holy Order against us. If handled poorly, it was possible the exploration team would become hostile too. That approach was definitely out of the question.

This didn’t leave us at a dead end, however. We had one other trail to follow. The Holy Church had assembled the vast majority of the Dimensional Cornerstones, but there was an exception—Draconia. For a long time, the settlement had been protected by the Mist Barrier, which had been maintained by a Dimensional Cornerstone that the Misty Lodge Salvia had given them. Unfortunately, the settlement had been destroyed by visitors. Ella had gone back to Draconia, but she hadn’t been able to find the Dimensional Cornerstone. Regardless, this didn’t leave us out of options.

Draconia had been in possession of two Dimensional Cornerstones. I’d even seen the other one before. The settlement’s explorer, Thaddeus, had it on his person. The young man, who’d led me to the settlement, was responsible for searching for another location where the Mist Barrier could be deployed. He carried a Dimensional Cornerstone for that purpose. If we could find him, we could get access to it. We would then be able to research how to overwrite the World View.

Also, so long as the Fairy Ring and the Skanda were with us, we were capable of returning to Aker immediately, whereas the Holy Church’s forces couldn’t. The trip normally took over four months. Now that Harrison’s special forces had been annihilated, it would take time for him to recover, giving us more than enough time to conduct our research.

As for finding the all-important Thaddeus, he’d taught us a way of contacting him upon our parting. It took time to reach out to him this way, but we’d already sent a message when Draconia was destroyed a little over a month ago. We hadn’t received a reply yet, but considering how long it’d been, he must’ve received it already.

More than half of Draconia’s residents had stayed behind in Aker’s royal palace. Thaddeus had probably gone to see them by now. If things went well, we’d be able to get a Dimensional Cornerstone upon returning to Aker. That was our plan.

If nothing happened, things probably would’ve gone that way. The situation changed when we got word from Gordon, though.

“What...? Dead?” I repeated in astonishment.

He’d informed us of a major incident in the capital—a crisis to the world that I couldn’t possibly ignore.