Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 16 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Mystery of Death

Some time before, when everyone was released from the fabricated world by Harrison, Kudou Riku was freed with Kaneki Mikihiko and Shimazu Yui.

“My king. According to Ayame, Majima Takahiro is safe.”

“Is that so? That’s good to hear.”

Fortunately, Ayame was capable of sensing Majima Takahiro’s well-being through the mental path, and Berta was able to inform the others of this. They had no reason to stick around here.

“Are you leaving?”

Kudou Riku was about to depart, but came to a stop at Berta’s voice. He turned around and met a certain girl’s sad eyes. It wasn’t really her, of course. Her lower half wasn’t that of a wolf to begin with, and she’d never looked at him like this.

Those eyes were those of someone who wanted to say something. He knew what it was. Being as artless as she was, Berta was incapable of masking what she sought from him.

“Go guard Majima-senpai. It isn’t like all the danger has passed.”

After a moment of silence, the boy gave her an order as her king. He had no hesitation. He wasn’t supposed to.

◆ ◆ ◆

He began moving right away. He only had Dora with him, so he had to go on foot. However, shortly after, Anton’s spawn detected that her king had returned and brought a firefang to him. That said, having completely broken his arm in the battle against the horror that Travis had become, Kudou Riku found it extremely difficult to ride on a mount. If he were riding Berta, she’d be able to use her tentacles to keep him from falling, but he’d left her with Majima Takahiro. In the end, he had to ride the firefang with Dora’s support.

Before long, he reached his destination. It was one of the small forests dotting the prairies. This wasn’t a Dark Woods—a leftover of the Woodlands; it was just a forest. However, the place had been transformed into a wicked haunt that couldn’t be described as a simple forest anymore.

Kudou Riku stepped within, and an enormous monster that looked like a solidified shadow came to greet him alongside a brawny beast clad in a dreadful atmosphere. This was the doppelqueen Anton and the vestige of Takaya Jun, the Mad Beast Emil. There were even more monsters behind them.

If anyone else saw this, their shock would be overwhelming. The swarm of monsters was of many different types, hidden within the shadows of the forest. These were the servants Kudou Riku had brought with him. The Demon King’s army numbered over a thousand, so strong it could even take on the imperial capital, which housed the greatest military force in the world.

However, this was a strange situation. Kudou Riku had left Aker around twenty days ahead of Majima Takahiro. Even accounting for the extra time, Majima Takahiro had traveled using Fairy Ring, so Kudou Riku had had at most a month. Setting aside monsters that could travel quickly, it would be very difficult to bring such a large assortment of monsters with wanton disregard for what they were. If not for a certain special method, that is.

“Well done. Looks like nobody noticed you,” Kudou said.

“Of course. I’ve striven to act in secrecy. Neither Heinrich nor Ida have made a move,” Anton’s spawn, one in the form of Juumonji Tatsuya, reported.

“Very good.” Kudou nodded in satisfaction. “They have tremendous hatred. If handled poorly, they might go on a rampage.”

The forest squirmed in front of his eyes. No. To be precise, something that had flattened the land deep in the forest, hidden from the outside, had started moving. It was a monster large enough to make it seem like the trees themselves were alive.

“AaaAaaah...”

It let out a hair-raising cry like a curse and shook the foliage. What slowly rose from the ground was an enormous dragon’s head. However, its eyes were empty cavities and all signs of life had left its body. This was the mere shadow of the dragon that had fallen to madness and hatred to protect her precious children.

The name given to her by the Demon King as his ninth named pawn was Ida. Her original name was the carapace wyrm Malvina. Her natural aegis had been shattered and her flesh was rotting. She was the elder of Draconia who had been roused by her hatred into an undead monster. She was over fifty meters tall and capable of flight. This was how Kudou Riku had brought over a thousand monsters from Aker to the imperial capital in just about a month.

Next to her was a zombie dragon towering over twenty meters tall despite losing its head. This one was given the name Heinrich. This was the undead monster born from the corpse of Draconia’s guardian, Rex. The mother and son who’d been murdered by visitors were now part of the Demon King’s army, intent on taking revenge on the world.

“Looks like you’ve been obedient,” Kudou said to Ida.

A growl came through her fangs and rotting jowls. Naturally, she possessed no sense of reason as she had in life. Her growl had simply come from the hatred and resentment that fueled her body. Listening to the chilling voice, Kudou Riku’s smile remained unmoving.

“Relax. So long as you follow me, I’ll grant your wish.”

Hearing him, Ida’s growling stopped. At the same time, the Mad Beast Emil started. Those were the same words Kudou Riku had used on him. A dead dragon fueled by hatred, and a beast driven to insanity by his fixation on a single girl—this boy said he would grant their wishes. How serious was he? It was impossible to tell through his fake smile.

“Hurry up and get ready to move out,” the boy ordered, still masking all emotions beneath his smile. “Things might get stormy again.”

If Majima Takahiro’s group heard this, they would probably find it suspicious. What could he be doing to warrant such an ominous prediction? There was even conviction behind his voice.

“My king. Will it be a battle?” Dora asked.

“Yes. A very big one...” Kudou answered, his smile deepening. “One big enough to stake everything I’ve built to date on.”

A lurid smile twisted his features. It gave a glimpse of the dark fire blazing inside him, one that wouldn’t stop until it burned him to ashes in despair. These were the flames of rage that would burn the world.

With a swarm of monsters capable of destroying the imperial capital at his command, the Demon King would soon ride atop the cursed dragon. Taking a look at her brethren, Dora suddenly spoke up.

“My king. Even though it will be such an important battle, you aren’t bringing Berta along? Are you sure?”

“It’s fine to leave that one by Senpai’s side,” he answered without hesitation. “I’m sure of it now. That one is a failure. I can’t possibly bring it along.”

Dora fell silent. However, she looked at her king as if she wanted to say something.

“What is it?” Kudou asked. “If you have something to say, then say it. Do you object to my decision?”

“Of course not!” Dora protested immediately. “How could I ever object to your decisions?!”

There wasn’t a hint of hesitation in her voice. She had fanatical faith in her king. She believed he was absolute. Given this, it was impossible for her to object to anything he said. Even if that weren’t the case, none of the Demon King’s subordinates could defy his will—with one single exception. However, precisely because Dora believed her king was correct, there was a part of her that wanted to know his thought process.

“Please forgive my ignorance,” she said. “There must be a reason for you to keep Berta at a distance that I do not know of. What is that reason? According to you, Berta is a failure. However, as your second servant, she must also possess significant strength. She is far stronger than I am. She continues to get stronger. Berta is your strongest servant.” There was the slightest hint of frustration in her voice at this fact. “If you use her as a sacrificial pawn, she’ll be more than useful enough. She’ll also gladly accept that role. You should understand this too. So why?”

“Leave it at that,” Anton cut in. Dora had been asking out of pure curiosity. Anton, taking on a role of matronly responsibility, bowed to their king in her stead. “Please forgive our insolence.”

“I’m going to get a little rest,” the boy-turned-Demon King said with a sigh. “Anton, make sure the army is ready to attack at a moment’s notice. Use your spawns to gather information in the capital. Also, dispatch some spawns to get any necessary information from Berta.”

“As you will.”

“Dora, explain what happened in that labyrinth to Anton.”

“Understood.”

Leaving behind those commands, Kudou Riku took Emil deeper into the forest. After watching him depart, Anton turned to Dora.

“Very well, let’s hear about the current situation.”

“Right away, mother.”

Dora complied obediently and detailed everything that had happened during her absence.

“I see,” Anton said, nodding after listening to her whole story. “Meaning you accompanied Majima Takahiro for a while.”

“Yes.”

“I see. So that’s why you questioned our king’s reasoning all of a sudden.”

“Huh?”

“Well, if you’re not aware, then that’s fine too,” Anton said indifferently.

“I don’t really get it... Do you know, mother?” Dora asked curiously. “Why does our king go to such lengths to keep Berta at a distance? I want to know.”

She still wasn’t aware that she’d never so much as harbored such doubts before. She didn’t know she was changing. Anton didn’t bother to point this out either. She didn’t possess such useless functionality or emotions and simply rebuked what could be called her child.

“Know your place, Dora. Surmising your king’s intentions deviates from being his subject. We simply have to obey his commands.” Anton paused there for a moment before adding, “Besides, you wouldn’t understand Berta’s matter even if I told you.”

“Very well...” Dora nodded somewhat reluctantly.

However, strangely enough, Anton didn’t stop the conversation there.

“You’re mistaken on one matter.”

“Mistaken? About what?”

“You called Berta our king’s second servant, remember?”

“Yes. I did.”

Dora couldn’t tell what was wrong about that.

“That one isn’t the second,” Anton said.

Dora was dumbfounded. That only stood to reason.

“Even though she’s B?” Dora asked.

Kudou Riku used a phonetic code from his world when naming his servants.

The doppelqueen Anton.

The scylla Berta.

The dirty sludge Caesar.

The nightmare stalker Dora.

The Mad Beast Emil.

The elemental dragonfly Friedrich.

The tripdrill swarm Gustav.

The headless zombie dragon Heinrich.

The servant of a past savior, the corpse of the carapace wyrm Ida.

Each was given a name in alphabetical order from A to I. Naturally, Dora knew nothing about the details of how Kudou Riku had subordinated his first named servants, Anton and Berta. She believed they’d simply come in that order. There was nothing forcing him to name them that way, but there wasn’t much point to messing with the order either.

“You mean the first were out of order?” Dora asked.

“No,” Anton answered, shaking her head. “I was the first to be given a name. That’s why I’m Anton. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean we became his subordinates in that order.”

“Ah...”

Anton nodded upon seeing that Dora was beginning to understand.

“We were only given names after surviving the kudoku poison jar method. Unlike you and Emil, who possessed strength from the very beginning, I was given a name after becoming our king’s servant. In truth, there were countless others dominated by him before me.”

In contrast, in Majima Takahiro’s case, the order he’d given names to his servants was the same as the order he’d acquired them in. Kudou Riku’s servants were different. Almost all of them were normal monsters with nothing special about them. Only those who’d clawed their way to greater heights had been given names. Dora hadn’t realized this because she’d been given a name upon her birth, and all those after her except for Friedrich had followed this pattern too.

“I see. Then I’m mistaken,” Dora said. “Berta was the second to be given a name. Much like you, there were many servants under our king’s command before her.”

Dora sighed in understanding. She frowned a bit because she was ashamed of how ignorant she’d been. She rebuked herself to be more careful so that she could live up to being one of her king’s servants.

That was why she didn’t notice that Anton clicked her tongue at Dora’s sudden understanding. Dora also didn’t notice that this was a hint as to why Kudou Riku kept Berta at a distance.

Anton knew. She knew about their king, and she knew about the pitiful wolf. Berta had expressed her thoughts many times now. For example, she’d spoken to Ayame about it before.

“It’s a memory of failure, back before I had a name. I’m filled with regret every time I recall it. Why couldn’t I be Anton? Why am I Berta? I know regretting it doesn’t mean anything at this point...”

This fact frustrated her greatly. She’d also said something similar to Lily.

“Slime, I heard about it. You saved the one who is falsely similar to my king, didn’t you? If you had chanced upon my king instead, maybe things would’ve been different.

“But you weren’t there during my king’s beginnings. Instead, it was...

“Or maybe...if I weren’t Berta...if I were Anton, then maybe something would’ve changed.”

Once again, there had been regret behind her words. What did it mean to be Anton? What did it mean to not have become Anton?

The monster given the name Anton didn’t speak on this matter any further. She was like a machine, possessing no emotion. She existed only to do what she was meant to. At the very least, that was how she saw herself. Thus, she moved on to what was necessary right now.

“More importantly, I still haven’t heard about one thing,” Anton said. “Our king mentioned that things might get stormy. Why did he say that?”

“Ah, right. Forgive me. I didn’t mention that part,” Dora said, making an awkward look before answering. “That said, I don’t really understand either. It seems our king realized something when he spoke to Kaneki Mikihiko.”

“Meaning?”

“Our king told him that he saw Okazaki Takuma’s corpse.”

Kudou Riku and Majima Takahiro had discovered Okazaki Takuma’s corpse inside the fabricated world. Okazaki Takuma had used his Almighty Vessel to imitate the Fairy Ring’s ability to teleport. He was the perpetrator behind the forced teleportation. However, when he did, the true Fairy Ring, Shimazu Yui, had resisted, causing the teleportation to fail and dealing him a fatal blow.

Weakened by this, Okazaki Takuma had found himself alone in a labyrinth rampant with monsters. It wouldn’t have been strange for him to die in there. That was why, upon encountering the horror that was once Travis right after finding the corpse, Majima Takahiro had naturally assumed that Travis was responsible for the visitor’s death. The course of events had simply led him to believe that.

However, in truth, that had been no more than conjecture. Kudou Riku had seen things differently. As the one who’d inspected Okazaki Takuma’s corpse, there was something only he knew.

“Our king asked Kaneki Mikihiko whether he killed Okazaki Takuma. He then informed me later that Okazaki Takuma had been killed with a sword.”

At the very least, the wound was far too unnatural to have come from Travis. It made more sense if a human had killed Okazaki Takuma rather than a monster. Kaneki Mikihiko had been the prime suspect. After all, he’d done everything in his power to help his best friend and to obstruct Harrison’s forces. That was why Kudou Riku had questioned him.

“So? What was Kaneki Mikihiko’s answer?” Anton asked.

“‘I didn’t kill him,’ or so he said.”

Anton’s spawn, using Juumonji Tatsuya’s form, stood there in contemplation for a short while.

“The only other ones there were the Holy Church forces...but it’s very unlikely they killed Okazaki Takuma. They had no reason to.”

“Yes. I believe that’s the case,” Dora agreed.

“Likewise, it’s unlikely Majima Takahiro’s servants killed him while they were separated. If so, they would’ve been able to link up with Majima Takahiro near Okazaki Takuma’s corpse.”

In that case, one possibility came to mind.

“In short, there’s one answer,” Anton said indifferently. “Someone who isn’t part of the Holy Church or Majima Takahiro’s group was there with their own agenda, and...”

◆ ◆ ◆

This happened immediately at the start of the incident. Right after forcefully teleporting Majima Takahiro’s group from their room, a boy was writhing in pain on the floor inside a fabricated world.

“Gah! Hak! Hrrrgh...!”

He scattered vomit all over the corridor’s floor.

“Gah... Aaah... Th-The hell?! Why me?! D-Dying...! I’m dying...!”

This was the exploration team’s Almighty Vessel, Okazaki Takuma. He’d allied with the Holy Church and was responsible for bringing Majima Takahiro into this labyrinth. Here, he found himself covered in his own vomit and tears, screaming into the nothingness. The recoil from failing the forced teleportation tortured him in both body and soul. The sight of him squirming in agony didn’t show a hint of his usually heroic act. Unable to withstand the never-ending pain, he continued screaming.

Many monsters prowled these halls. It was extremely dangerous for him to spend so much time here wallowing in his pain. However, the agony easily wiped such thoughts from his brain. He didn’t have the willpower to withstand it. Ever since coming to this world, he’d never so much as suffered an injury. He was just that strong, after all. Having pretty much forgotten what pain felt like, this was enough to shatter his mind.

“Why...? Why do I have to go through this...?”

He no longer had the composure to make calm decisions. All he could do was curse the irrational fate that had befallen him.

“How dare you... How dare you... How dare you...”

Even if he deserved this for enacting the forced teleportation, he didn’t possess the capacity to admit it.

“Majima...!”

His thoughts focused entirely on venting his anger on someone else. He didn’t see it this way, though.

“How low do you intend to drag me down...?!”

Memories of his meeting with Majima Takahiro came to mind. Because of Majima Takahiro, he’d been falsely labeled as the culprit behind the attack on Draconia in front of the exploration team—that was how he saw it, at least.

“I was set up. They have no right...no right to look at me like that!”

Inside Okazaki Takuma’s mind, Draconia didn’t even exist. He just kept making excuses upon excuses to justify his actions. Still, he had a reason to believe this.

“People lived there?! Like hell that’s possible! Nobody said anything about that!”

He wasn’t lying. The visitors who’d attacked Draconia could be split into three groups: the visitors who’d received the dragon subjugation request from imperial nobles; Okazaki Takuma, who’d joined them last; and the ones who’d linked up with the first group, Jinguuji Tomoya and his comrades.

The three groups had split up their roles to an extent during the attack. In short, there was an advance group who’d launched a preemptive attack once the Dimensional Cornerstone that maintained the Mist Barrier was neutralized, and the main force who’d followed after them.

If there was any time to question Draconia being more than a den of monsters, it would’ve been in that first stage, before they blew up the settlement with magic and before the residents revealed their true nature as dragons. Okazaki Takuma had been in the main force that followed after, so he hadn’t been involved during that stage.

Seeing Okazaki Takuma wail on and on about not knowing any of this when Ella confronted him, Majima Takahiro’s group had concluded that he hadn’t taken part in the preemptive attack. They were right in this regard. However, they’d missed out on getting one other piece of the truth because Okazaki Takuma had been so immersed in trying to justify his actions.

“It’s all a lie. Majima set me up. I mean, Jinguuji and them didn’t say anything about that crap.”

Jinguuji Tomoya and his comrades had been the ones to launch the initial attack on Draconia. That had been a natural outcome. After all, faced with a barrier that only allowed dragons through, he’d been the only one capable of breaking through because of his ability to transform into a dragon.

However, if someone more prudent were to hear about this, they would’ve felt something was out of place. For example, the one to bring the tremendously powerful Almighty Vessel into this had also been Jinguuji Tomoya.

What’s more, because nobody had brought translation runestones, it’d been impossible for the residents of Draconia to explain themselves. However, as someone who’d been traveling the world on his own, Jinguuji Tomoya had been in possession of a translation runestone. Nevertheless, the assailants hadn’t realized the truth behind Draconia, and the dragons had been incapable of explaining themselves, ultimately leading to the tragedy.

Had that all been a coincidence? Naturally, it was possible Jinguuji Tomoya’s group had attacked the settlement immediately upon arrival and simply hadn’t noticed that Draconia was more than a monster’s den. However, that would also mean they hadn’t grasped the full picture of their targets, launching an attack so thoughtlessly that they hadn’t even considered any of their targets getting away. Was Jinguuji Tomoya really that careless a person? Or was he...?

“It’s all Majima’s fault. It’s not my fault.”

Still, that didn’t change the fact that over half of Draconia’s residents—intelligent beings who were half-human—had all been killed by Okazaki Takuma.

“It’s not my fault. It’s not my... Hrgh... Gaaah!”

With no intention of admitting his sins, he continued lamenting the misfortune that had befallen him, cursing Majima Takahiro’s name the whole time.

Just then, as Okazaki Takuma wiped his mouth, he suddenly turned around. Footsteps were drawing nearer to him.

“You’re...”

He sluggishly focused on the oncoming presence when his eyes shot open. In the next instant, he was cut down and fell dead to the floor.