Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 16 - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: At the End of a Wish

It was practically a miracle that I was still conscious. I thought I’d been pulverized into atoms, but my limbs were still attached. This was the fruit of Lily and Shiran’s desperate last stand. That said, this was our limit.

“Ah... Guh...”

The Rosette Dagger was burning in my breast pocket with a heat I’d never felt before. This magic tool that Rose had gifted me reacted to danger and limited damage done to me, though feebly. The heat I felt from it was like an expression of wanting to protect its master, while also pleading with me to run away. Either way, my body wouldn’t listen to me anymore.

That was when I heard dreadful footsteps approaching me.

“Found you, Majima.”

The one treading across the obliterated soil was none other than Nakajima Kojirou.

“How...?”

I couldn’t believe it. I was sure I’d sent him as far away as possible when I’d expelled him from that world. How had he found us? Besides, my Misty Lodge was supposed to be keeping a watch of our surroundings.

No, maybe... The sudden thought gave me chills. Nakajima Kojirou was a Conduit too. Therefore, it wouldn’t be strange if he had the same perception abilities as the Misty Lodge. He could likely detect things over a much wider range too. That was exactly how he’d found and attacked us.

The boy, wearing a mask of deceptive sweetness, stood some distance away from us. At this range, our attacks wouldn’t reach him. At this range, the Sword of Light would kill us with absolute certainty. That said, he wasn’t one to come to a stop for such petty reasons. He looked so much like a hero that I was sure of this. His radiant figure didn’t harbor any darkness. There was nothing shady about him. Something about him attracted others. He stood at ease as he spoke to me.

“I never thought you’d get away from me like that. What’s more, I can’t make a connection. Ha ha. This is your doing, yeah?”

He had a Dimensional Cornerstone in his hand. He must have snatched one before being expelled from that world. By all rights, everything should’ve been over the moment he took one. Now, I was functioning as a stopper using my power as a Conduit and the will of the first savior. The world wasn’t yet in the hands of the Calamitous King. Just for now...

But so what? This was the worst-case scenario. Once I was gone, there would be nobody left to obstruct him. It was all over. We were done for. The world was done for. It was because I believed this...

“Just as I’d expect of you, Majima.”

That I couldn’t understand this man.

“You really are great. You’re the best.”

There was a hint of excitement in his voice. He was definitely our enemy and he had my life in his hands. And yet, in this last moment, there was clear friendliness in his eyes.

“Honestly, this was a complete failure. I had no intention of fighting you when you didn’t have all your forces gathered. In this instance, I would’ve been fine so long as I could fight Jinguuji—the Dragon—at his full might, after throwing away everything he was to break his limit.”

I just didn’t understand.

“The Dragon was on the right track, but I guess not enough to be satisfying. Well, that’s fine too. It was within my expectations. The horrible part was being exposed by such a worthless coincidence. The defense mechanism going wild, I mean. I would’ve been able to survive on my own, but the moment I thought you were gonna die, I protected you. It’s such a drag that I had to expose my identity like that. What a boring outcome. It’s utterly disappointing.”

I really didn’t understand.

“But you made it through. Man, it’s just as I thought. You’re the real thing.”

“Why...?” I finally managed to interject. “Why do this? With that much power, you should be able to do anything.”

I found it utterly baffling. He always had a surplus of composure, had nothing to worry about, and could solve any problem. He was a leader who could save everything within his sight. This was an ideal I’d once looked up to. No matter how I thought about it, there was no reason for him to put that all to waste except for pure malice. It was precisely because I sensed no such malice that I couldn’t understand him whatsoever.

If I could understand him, maybe it would be possible to do something about this situation. At the very least, we were having a conversation. Now that we were pushed into such a corner, our only choice was to find some hope in this. I swallowed my blood-flavored saliva and cut to the chase.

“Did you want to become God? No. In that case...even without doing anything like this, you could’ve become anything you wanted without any difficulties.”

Nakajima Kojirou simply possessed that much potential. With the unimaginable power he’d obtained by coming to this world, he could’ve conquered the entire world without difficulty as a hero. With the charisma he’d used to control the exploration team and his astounding leadership to prevent those still under his command from causing any problems, it would’ve been entirely possible for him to gradually seize stewardship of this world from the Holy Church. Even if he didn’t resort to such forceful means, he could’ve done things far more covertly. I truly believed that. That was exactly why...

“I mean, isn’t that totally boring?”

His answer far exceeded the bounds of my imagination.

“Boring...?”

Even though he answered my question, I couldn’t understand. I just didn’t get it. Nothing made sense. What the hell was going on? I couldn’t see the man in front of me as anything other than a monster wearing human skin. This was probably not a misunderstanding either.

“Hey, Majima. You just said I can do anything, right? Yeah, I won’t deny it. I can do anything I put my mind to. It’s been like that since I first opened my eyes.”

Thinking back on it, this was the first time I’d heard this from the man himself. Kubota, who knew him well, had once said that Nakajima Kojirou lived in a different world. He’d wondered if everyone had simply gotten caught up in Nakajima Kojirou’s being teleported to this world.

Also, the first savior had called him an anomaly beyond expectations. He was a product of fifty thousand years’ worth of trial and error that wasn’t likely to be replicated in the next fifty thousand years. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve called this an exaggeration. I would’ve called it ridiculous. But I knew better. This was no more than the plain and simple truth.

However, until this point, I didn’t know how the person in question saw this. Thinking back on it now, that had been worth a little more consideration. After all, living in a different world while occupying the same world as us...was no different from being born in the wrong world.

“It’s so boring. It doesn’t feel like living,” he said, the words coming from his mouth chillingly dry. “You know what? There’s one thing I always questioned. To those who know the truth about this place, the world is unstable. You can even say it’s incomplete and faulty. But can you say that the world we came from is any different?”

“What...?”

“Why did we come to this world? Just maybe, it’s because our world is also a failure. Without an organization like the Holy Church to struggle against ruin, we fell out of the failing world and into this one. Isn’t that entirely possible? If so...that world is even more of a failure than this one. Isn’t that why someone like me was born?”

The reason we’d come to this world was still a mystery. It was unlikely we would ever find out. There had been many opinions up to this point. For example, “There’s a summoner in this world,” or, “The world itself called us for salvation.” However, this was my first time hearing, “There’s a problem with the world we came from.”

Maybe that was why. I came across a truly terrifying thought. An extraordinary genius, an omnipotent hero—everyone saw Nakajima Kojirou that way. However, just maybe, the boy in front of me was far beyond such labels.

There was something repulsive within him. It was a bug that had been born within him in our old world. If that was the true nature of the monster named Nakajima Kojirou...

I didn’t know enough to deny it. I didn’t have anything to affirm it either. All I knew was that the monster before my eyes made me believe this was the case.

“That’s why I wanted to live in another world,” he said.

“Another...world?”

“A fantasy. That said, nothing with easy cheats for visitors, you get me? I mean, isn’t that way too boring? Hurdles that are impossible to find in reality, monsters blocking your path, putting in huge effort, gritting your teeth, and finally obtaining something worth having.”

Precisely because he could do anything, he yearned for something he could acquire by truly overcoming a great crisis.

“Aaah, no. I mean, I knew that’s impossible in reality. But I wished for it. I wished, and wished, and wished. And then, a miracle happened. Impossibility became reality. I came to another world.”

To the rest of us, teleporting to another world had been a disaster. As a result, I’d met Lily and the others, but that wasn’t the point here. The teleportation itself had been nothing short of a disaster. However, that wasn’t the case for the man in front of me. It was the opposite. It had been an unexpected stroke of luck. Or maybe, another possibility came to mind...

I was under the impression that our world wasn’t driven by a law where wishes come true as they did in this one, but just as he said, there was no guarantee that wasn’t the case. If so, just maybe, this monster’s wish to go to another world had triggered the mass teleportation. It had all been to make his impossible dream a reality.

“Yes. I came to another world. My adventure was going to begin. That’s what I believed.”

What had he gained as a result? Had his lifelong desire been fulfilled? Had he gained hope? No, not at all. After all, he’d come to a world where the strength of one’s wish granted power.

“Ha ha. Isn’t it laughable? The situation got worse. I ended up becoming a Conduit. Even though I didn’t need this power. So long as I could exert myself to the fullest to overcome hardship, I would’ve been fine with it.”

He was far too extraordinary by nature. Compounded with the enormous wish he’d continuously prayed for, it had ironically made him so omnipotent in this world that anyone and everyone was hopeless before him.

I understood him now, but I couldn’t sympathize. How could I? I was an ordinary person who was incapable of so many things. However, wishing for something from the bottom of one’s heart and having it all go to waste, finding only despair... That was one thing I could sympathize with. That said, such feelings weren’t necessary for the man before me. He was the hero who could overturn any situation no matter how hopeless it was. He lived up to that title—for both good and bad.

“That’s why I turned things around and thought of it like this instead. I can’t do anything about myself. I have no hope. But if there’s no hope, I can just create it. It’s simple.”

“Huh...?”

I went pale. I had a horrible premonition. I didn’t want to hear this, but he was going to tell me anyway.

“They all call me special, but I believe in everyone else. I’m not special. They’ll all reach this stage one day. Even if they show no potential, I won’t abandon that hope. Anyone can do it. I’m cheering them on. Find a goal, think about it seriously, make decisions, and move decisively. By doing so, anyone will reach this point one day. Anyone can do it. I believe it.”

He was saying something nice. He was supposed to be. And yet, it sounded so cruel.

“Naturally, living aimlessly isn’t good enough. To reach the summit, you have to climb the appropriate steps. The more severe it is, the more terrifying it is, the crueler it is, the higher those who overcome such hardships rise. That’s why I did it.”

His smile had nothing but goodwill and expectations of others. That was what made it all the more ominous.

“Those poor seven hundred students who didn’t manifest an ability. If I brought them all down to hell, one was sure to crawl back out and shine, right?”

Here was the mastermind behind everything.

“In truth, you overcame so many hardships. Majima, don’t you remember? I’m your fan. I’ve been watching you all this time. Every last second.”

“Y-You’re...”

My mind blanked out. My heart pounded, sending blood to my brain as my head seethed with anger. The memories of that tragedy came back like a surging wave, forcing up those images of a hell where humans were reduced to being less than human.

“You’re behind the Colony’s destruction!” I roared.

Now I knew. I finally understood. Nakajima Kojirou had always treated us favorably. It’d seemed like he believed in others. That definitely wasn’t a lie. However, his values were so different from mine that it was beyond imagination.

There was one other thing I was forced to understand too. It would be impossible to persuade this man through conversation. He would never let us go simply because he liked us. It was precisely because he liked us that he would oppose us with everything he had. And then, after crushing us, he would lament. He would grieve that he’d simply wanted to bring out his full strength to crush us, not actually crush us.

“I’m glad you understand me.”

I finally had a grasp of the situation. However, I was also forced to understand that things were hopeless. I couldn’t just give up, but what could I do? A voice interrupted my thoughts of despair.

“I guess...that’s it.” Someone stood up, dragging themselves upright. “Thanks, Master... You bought us...enough time.”

“It was worth listening...to that worthless crap.”

Lily and Lobivia were on their feet. They’d somehow managed to start moving again while I was talking. That said, Lily wasn’t able to maintain her form as a girl anymore. Her body was half-slime, clearly indicating that she was no longer able to perform mimicry. There was no way she could fight like that.

Lobivia was better off, having protected me from the rear, but it was a scant difference at this point. Blood dribbled from her head and her eyes weren’t focused. All the others, including me, were incapable of moving or unconscious. Nevertheless, they didn’t give up.

“I’ll...hold him back... Lobivia, you...”

“Yeah...”

Lily dragged her spear behind her, then kicked off the ground, ready to die. Lobivia’s head swayed unsteadily as she lowered herself to grab our fallen companions and run away.

“Wait, Lily! Not yet!”

I tried gathering what little mana I could to create a magic mist as a smoke screen to allow us to get away. I wouldn’t give up to the very end. How could I give up? But even in our tenacity, there was no hope.

Faced with our desperate resistance, Nakajima Kojirou looked ridiculously happy. It was like he was telling us not to lose heart. On one hand, he cheered us on. On the other, he held up the Sword of Light that would surely kill us. Without a hint of guilt, without holding back whatsoever, he smiled at us, telling us to survive.

In the next moment, Lily was sure to be blown away by a torrent of light that would continue on to wipe us all out. All our feelings were to be trampled into the ground. Our determination would be rendered down to nothingness. Our earnest desire would meet its end. That was reality. That was the cruelty of this world.

That was precisely why...the Demon King who’d sworn to destroy this world wasn’t going to sit back and watch.

“I won’t let you.”

I heard a quiet muttering. I would never forget what happened here for the rest of my life.