Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 2 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Small Path in the Forest

The following day, we started retracing the steps of the ghouls. They meandered every now and then, but they largely wandered in a straight line from the northwest. Using her firefang sense of smell, even if inferior to the original, Lily was able to follow the traces of blood and whatnot dripping from the ghouls for several days without issue. Now we needed to think of what to do in case we actually came across people. I talked it over with my servants at night as we sat around the bonfire for dinner.

“If we come in contact with humans, I’m thinking myself, Lily, and also Katou should be the ones to meet them. I’d like everyone else to be on standby.”

Obviously, the ones that would be left behind erupted in protest.

“Wh-What?! Why is that, My Lord?!”

“It’s dangerous, Master. Please allow us to accompany you as well.”

“Even if you tell me that... We don’t have a choice, right? Unlike Lily, you two can’t hide the fact that you’re monsters.”

Much like when we found Kaga, it was my policy to hide my ability when encountering humans. I didn’t know how the people of this world would react to monsters, and it was best to hide the cards I had in hand when faced with those of my world.

However, this naturally restricted who could accompany me. Setting aside Asarina, who couldn’t leave my arm, Lily was about the only one who could. My servants were well aware of my thought process regarding this. Having said that, convincing them was an entirely different matter.

“I shall come with you, My Lord! Like I could possibly loiter in this forest when you may be in danger!” Gerbera’s legs skittered from her excessive agitation. Her spider body loomed over me.

“I mean, there’s no way of hiding that, is there? Or do you have some kind of idea?”

“All I need do is tear off everything from the waist down! I’m no different from a human above my waist!”

“...There’s no way that’s okay. Where can you find humans capable of moving around without a lower body? That’s horror movie material.”

Her idea was lacking at a fundamental level. Even the incarnation of tyranny couldn’t possibly survive after tearing off her lower body.

“B-But...” she groaned, perhaps aware she was being unreasonable.

She was thinking with her emotions right now. She likely understood the circumstances, but with the blood rushing to her head, she was unable to make a calm decision. There was no choice but to take the time to convince her. And the moment I thought so, Ayame yipped from atop Gerbera’s white head.

“Kuu kuu!”

She had been lazily dangling her limbs from Gerbera’s head up until now, but she leaped off with vigor. All gazes gathered upon her, wondering what she was up to. She made a beeline toward Lily after landing. Or perhaps pouncing was the more correct term here. Lily caught her tiny body on the spur of the moment. Ayame flailed her little legs to escape Lily’s grasp and jammed her head into the opening of Lily’s blazer, after which she wriggled her way inside.

“H-Hey, Ayame?” At the current rate, she would slip through and fall to the ground. Lily was apparently thinking the same thing because she held down the bottom of her blazer.

After squirming around in Lily’s shirt for a short while like a little bump, Ayame popped her head out of Lily’s blazer. Her round and cute eyes looked up at Gerbera.

“Are you perhaps saying you will go along in my stead?” Gerbera asked in a perplexed manner, her red eyes wide open in shock.

Ayame responded with a yip. Her eyes were sparkling as if to say to leave it to her. She was apparently being serious.

“...Even if you’re palm-sized, hiding in her clothes is a little unreasonable, isn’t it?”

I ended up joining the conversation. There was in fact an unnatural bulge where Ayame was hiding. Lily’s breasts were large, but it was still impossible for her to hide there. That was my conclusion, but Ayame received supporting fire from an unexpected direction.

“Oh, Master. That might not be the case,” Lily said as she unbuttoned her blazer.

She supported Ayame’s butt with one hand and then used her other hand to skillfully unbutton her shirt as well. The vertical opening revealed her slender neck, her cleavage, her smooth abdomen, and her cute belly—all of which lost its color and turned into a half-transparent liquid.

“If I do this...”

With her chest down to her abdomen now in slime form, Lily handily created a small cavity where she snugly tucked Ayame away.

Oh, I see. You can’t see Ayame below her clothes like that.

Only Lily could pull off this method of transportation as a mimic slime. It was probably a little cramped in there, but this was Ayame’s idea, so she just had to put up with it. She snuggled herself into her new hole and once more turned her cute eyes toward Gerbera. “How’s that?” she implied as she cocked her head, to which Gerbera smiled in a troubled manner. It seemed she’d managed to regain her composure from the little fox’s behavior.

Gerbera stood up, walked over to Ayame, and then stooped over and brushed her head. Ayame pressed her snout against her fingers, asking for more. Just then, a droplet of water fell on her nose. Surprised by this, Ayame let out a little sneeze.

“...It’s raining,” I said as I looked up at the sky.

I could see grey clouds through the trees. This was bad.

◆ ◆ ◆

We were relying on Lily’s sense of smell to trace back the ghouls’ steps. Rain obviously washed away such scents. It was a common occurrence in this forest, but we were a little careless because it hadn’t come down lately.

Although, even if we took such a thing into consideration, we wouldn’t be able to come up with some manner of countermeasure. We finally got some sort of clue regarding the humans in this world. I didn’t really want to lose the trail. We had to go as far as we could today.

We encountered monsters on several occasions, but we repelled them all with ease as we hurried onward. Perhaps indicative of how far we’d gotten from the Colony, we were seeing monsters I’d never heard of more and more. In contrast, we no longer saw firefangs or magical puppets, which were quite common before.

The rain started coming down in earnest around noon. We could no longer follow the ghouls’ tracks. By that time, however, it wasn’t really a problem anymore. Before it could become one, we ended up discovering something quite interesting. A path through the forest with footprints on the ground. Traces of human presence.

◆ ◆ ◆

We followed the path half-covered in grass while keeping a closer watch on our surroundings than before. Within one day, we found broken equipment scattered about that resembled the armor those soldiers reduced to ghouls were wearing, along with trampled bushes and snapped branches. These were the traces of battle.

We couldn’t find any corpses. They were either eaten whole or already retrieved by survivors. If it was the latter, then it was possible they didn’t have the capacity to transport the equipment they had left behind.

In any case, this path was definitely used by humans. It connected to the world of humanity. We finally arrived at a tangible clue. Having said that, we didn’t go down the path with foolish naivety. We walked parallel to it while going through the grass. It was so we could spot humans before they realized we were here. If we found one, we planned to observe them for a while and, depending on the circumstances, even avoid any contact.

And as we proceeded forward, one week passed from our encounter with the ghouls.

◆ ◆ ◆

The scenery before my eyes revealed the forest around me, but it was still dim. It was early in the morning. I wore Rose’s black armor atop a jersey and had my pseudo-Damascus steel sword in hand as I took a deep breath. The cold and damp air of the forest spread through my lungs and washed away what drowsiness remained in my body.

The reason I got up so early—that I had Lily wake me up so early, to be exact—was of course to train myself in the use of mana to strengthen my body. I focused my consciousness on the mana within me. By doing so, I could make out a flow like thick liquid. It was unsightly and pathetic compared to the mana that flowed through Gerbera, despite coming from her to begin with. Her mana was like a raging torrent, whereas mine was like sloshing mud.

Nevertheless, it was clear that the mana flowing through me strengthened my body. For example, my current grip strength could compare to a two-meter-tall bodybuilder. My physical strength and stamina were amplified but still within human limitations. However, strength on its own was meaningless. I had to learn how to use it.

“Haa!”

I took one step forward and swung my sword with one hand. Naturally, I was still strengthening myself with mana. It was quite difficult. My enhancement would come undone if I didn’t concentrate on it at all times, but if I focused too much, my movements would become sluggish... The memory of falling over repeatedly the first few days just trying to do something as simple as running was one I wanted to forget.

My sword ran through the air horizontally at a decent speed. Unfortunately, I had no skill with a sword. I could only swing it around like a club that happened to have an edge. But a dangerous weapon was still just that—dangerous. Swinging it around poorly was hazardous.

“...Hmm. You appear to be in good shape today.”

However, the one in front of me was none other than Gerbera. The white arachne could beat both Lily and Rose hands down. She surely didn’t feel any more of a threat from my sword than she did from a toothpick.

Gerbera twisted her body just slightly, and my sword hit nothing but air. She stuck out one of her legs in retaliation, which I just barely managed to catch with the shield in my left hand. The heel of my shoe dug through the ground as a numb sensation ran through my left arm.

“You’re not watching your legs.”

“Uoooh?!”

She swept my legs out from under me while I was entirely focused on my arm. My back slammed against the ground. I was actually getting quite good at taking a proper falling posture lately. I endured my shortness of breath from the fall and immediately rolled back to my feet. A spider leg came down on the spot I was occupying just moments ago.

That was close...

As that sense of relief washed over me, an impact hit my chest. I let my guard down. Gerbera had eight legs, each of which could move like an independent entity. One of those had struck me in the chest quite forcefully. All the air was suddenly pushed out of my lungs. Pain and suffocation came over me at the same time as my consciousness wavered. It felt like I would collapse backward just from this.

“N-Not yet!”

I stumbled a bit but came to a stop and caught the next merciless attack with my shield. This chain of attacks was likely so leisurely it was yawn-inducing for Gerbera, but it felt like my nerves were burning out just trying to focus on them.

“Ooooh!”

The attacks I lunged at her with never even grazed her, whereas I was slowly losing the feeling in my left arm from blocking hers with my shield. I fell over many times, and she poked at me over and over, sending a dull pain running throughout my entire body. Nevertheless, a moment of laxity would see me struck head-on by one of those legs, knocking me out. Or perhaps one would strike me in the stomach, causing me to vomit everything in there and faint in agony. It’d happened many times over in our training up until now. I requested this of Gerbera myself, saying there was no meaning if the training wasn’t at least this harsh.

“Ugh...”

My fatigue gradually built up. It felt like my legs could give out at any moment. I held my ground through sheer grit, but I couldn’t cope with any further attacks against me. As such, I directed an order to my left hand.

“Massss—ter!”

A vine shot out of the back of my hand as Asarina ran through the air like a whip. Gerbera, who was charging in toward me, stooped down low and easily dodged her attack. Not only that, she twirled on the spot and used one of her legs to sweep at mine.

However, Asarina’s attack bought me a split second. In a manifestation of terrific luck, I just barely managed to jump back and evade Gerbera’s sweep. Oxygen deprivation shook my consciousness as I tightened my sweaty palm around the hilt of my sword before it could slip out.

“Haaa!”

I stepped forth and took a swing. And the moment I did, the sensation of the sword in my hand vanished.

“...Huh?”

She easily flicked away the tip of my sword. I stood there in an absolute daze, leaving a massive opening.

“You lose points for that one, My Lord.”

A light shock struck my back. A spider leg had struck me from behind. It’d happened many, many times now, so I could tell just from the sensation. I completely lost my posture. My forward momentum was enough to topple me over. The ground came toward my face at a tremendous speed.

“Uwaah?!”

Thus, my idiotic scream lightly resounded through the dimly lit morning forest.

◆ ◆ ◆

Pain ran through all my joints as I used my withering arm to turn myself face up. That took what was left of my strength to accomplish. I looked up at the narrow sky through the trees while breathing roughly.

“Are you alright, My Lord?”

A beautiful face with white hair dangling down appeared above me as I lay back. Her expression was filled with worry.

“N-Not a problem... Hak, gah.”

“Start by getting your breathing back in order.”

Gerbera folded in her legs and sat down as she gently stroked my cheek in a loving manner.

“Well done,” Lily said as she walked over to us. “I’ll heal you, so come on over.”

She was wearing her jersey to accompany us for training, and she undid the mimicry of her lower body, picking me up with ease and laying me down on top of the gelatinous bedding.

“There we go. All healed up.”

After casting her magic, Lily checked out my entire body and gave me a satisfied nod. Then she wiped away my sweat using the towel Gerbera brought over. Still having problems breathing, I could only sit there and let her do as she pleased for a while.

“Sorry... for making you do this... every morning...”

“It’s fine.”

I looked up at Lily’s upper body sprouting from her slime half as she giggled. I was currently using her lap as a pillow. However, it was quite a modification from the original concept. The feeling behind my head was properly that of a girl’s thighs, but at the same time, it was accompanied by the cold and sleek sensation of a slime. She wasn’t wearing anything on her lower half because of her transformation. She apparently kept her lower body in slime form while creating the contours of her thighs to her knees. It was a bit naughty, depending on how one viewed it.

“Heehee. You’re moving quite well now, Master.”

“I only remember tumbling about quite pathetically, though.”

“You’ve been falling less lately, haven’t you?”

“...”

“Just kidding. I’m joking. You’re steadily improving. Right, Gerbera?”

“Mm. You’ve been building strength, My Lord. Things have been progressing more smoothly than I’d anticipated.”

Gerbera had been glancing sidelong at our harmonious little exchange while her legs restlessly skittered about, but she followed up after Lily smoothly. It brought a strained smile to my face.

“It’s not very convincing when you dodged everything so easily...”

Even if she told me I’d built up my strength, I didn’t really feel like I did. It was normal for me to sigh here.

“...I’m somehow or other getting the grasp of how to use mana, at least.”

Even as I grumbled, I focused on the mana filling my body and got it moving like a muddy river. Thinking back on it, once I started taking lessons from Gerbera, I was quite excited when I first succeeded in strengthening my body. I felt like a bird flying through the skies. Or perhaps this was what a baby felt like when it first learned to walk.

With this, I’ll be able to fight too.

I knew my emotions were soaring high. I was still just a 17-year-old boy. I admired strength. But the one who brought my excitement smashing down back to earth was, of course, Gerbera. My combat training against her didn’t change at all, even with my body strengthened. No matter how much I swung my sword around, I never grazed her. Asarina never caught her. She was clearly holding back her strikes when she kind of pushed me on the back and forced me to the ground. Thinking back on how I pathetically vomited and fainted from a strike to the stomach... Any sort of excitement I had was sure to cool down.

“...”

“Are you feeling down, Master?”

I reflected on the progress of my training from this morning in a daze as Lily wrapped her hands around my cheeks. The feeling of her cold palms pressing against my still hot face was nice.

“Somewhat. I mean, I did look pretty lame.”

Lily looked me in the eyes and smiled. “So you say, Master, but you look awfully happy.”

“...Well, yeah.”

I felt down about my lack of talent, but I was fully aware my life had been quite fulfilling lately. Even in this world, where the mysterious power of magic existed, an ordinary person like me had no choice but to take things one step at a time. I knew that from the very beginning, so I wasn’t actually all that depressed about it.

Being able to gradually march forward like this was surely a terrific stroke of fortune here in this harsh world. On top of that, I had people watching over me with smiles as I did so. Asking for more would be far too greedy.

“It’s about time for breakfast,” I said as I brushed Lily’s cheek and got up.

She transformed her lower half back into a girl and put on her jersey pants before wiping off the dirt on my body. Although, the spot we picked for training was apparently pretty bad, seeing that my jersey was quite the mess. It was better for me to change before breakfast.

Lately, I had been wearing the clothes Gerbera made for me while we explored the forest. Its sturdiness was well proven when it kept me from suffering any fatal wounds from the blowfox ambush. Gerbera’s weaving speed and other circumstances meant she was only able to make clothes for me and Lily so far, but our plans were to have something for everyone.

So, with our early morning training done, we returned to camp, where we found a whitish puppet and a girl wrapped up in sheets sitting next to each other.

“You’re already up, I see.”

“Good morning, Majima-senpai.”

Katou let go of Rose’s upper arm and greeted me. She had probably been trying to grasp the flow of mana by touching Rose while she worked on creating magic tools. This was training for her to be able to use magic herself, given enough time.

“How’s your progress?” I asked.

“...It’s quite hard. I don’t have any experience with mana, so I don’t really have a feel for what I’m trying to sense,” Katou replied with a frown. It seemed things weren’t going smoothly for her either.

“There’s no helping that. You knew it’d be hard from the beginning, didn’t you?”

“Yes. But it’s a little off-putting that I haven’t made any progress in over a week.”

“It’s pretty much the same for me.”

“...I do believe you can move around quite well now. I’ve been watching from the sidelines, and it looks to me like your movements have been getting better and better.”

Really? No. She’s likely just comforting me.

If not, it was just lip service. The distance between myself and Katou was still a little large. In a sense, she was a friend of a friend, or maybe something more like the friend of a child. Even so, being able to cheat like this was better than before.

“Well, setting me aside... You aren’t familiar with the ins and outs of mana, so it’s pretty tough for you. Let me know if there’s anything I can help with.”

“Thank you very much.”

Having said that, it was pretty clear what we could do for her. It wasn’t just a matter of teaching her magic. There were far more long-term implications. The reason we were trying to contact humans was of course to gather provisions, but the other goal was to find a place we could leave Katou.

We’d already managed to find traces of the humans who lived in this world. If we were to find a human society, then depending on the circumstances, that would be where we’d bid farewell to Katou. I’d already decided to accommodate for Rose’s friend as much as I could. I wanted to do as much as possible to repay the debt I owed her. I could now think like this.

“Master, may I have a moment?” Rose asked, bringing my thoughts to a stop. “I completed the piece of work I was cooperating with Gerbera on last night.”

“Really?!”

“Yes. Please verify it for yourself.”

Rose held out a carefully folded white cloth. I took it and unfolded it, revealing a thin long-sleeved undershirt. Gerbera was responsible for the weaving, but Rose had fit it with slim pieces of armor in various places.

“Looking good. It’s better than I expected.”

“You honor me.”

This was something I had asked them to create as a precaution for contacting human society. It’s because they were prioritizing this that Gerbera couldn’t make clothes for everybody yet, but thanks to that, they were able to finish it before we encountered humans.

I started to put it on to give it a try right away when I suddenly realized something. “...I guess I should wash the sweat and dirt off of me before trying it on.”

“That would be for the best,” Rose said as she cast her gaze over to Lily. “Could you prepare a bath, Sister? I shall prepare the fire in the meantime.”

“Got it. Okay, Gerbera, help Rose out with... Huh, Gerbera? Why are you so restless?”

Lily looked at her curiously. Gerbera appeared to be in a panic as she cast her eyes all over the place.

“I don’t see Ayame.”

“Now that you mention it...”

I took a look around for myself, but I couldn’t spot the cute little fox. Ayame did have a tendency to vanish once in a while due to her energetic behavior. In most cases, she would just be playing somewhere nearby. She had a very strong sense of smell herself, so she never wandered very far away, but Gerbera looked extremely worried regardless.

“I thought she was with Rose this entire time.”

“She hasn’t been. I thought she was with Lily.”

“I haven’t seen her though... huh?”

The nearby bushes began rustling just as Lily spoke. The fox in question vigorously jumped out. The little furball seemed to be looking around in a restless manner.

“Kuu kuu!”

After finding me, Ayame made a beeline right over to me. She bit at my trousers and began tugging.

“What’s up, Ayame?”

She continued to stare up at me with my pants still in her jaws. I could sense her excitement through our mental path.

“...Did you find something?” I asked as my eyes suddenly shot open.

Ayame let go of my trousers. I was apparently on the mark. Her sense of smell was level with or better than Lily’s. She had found something while we were in the middle of training.

“...Everyone, get ready to depart.” I had a premonition, causing my voice to stiffen up. “Pay careful attention to your surroundings. Ayame, guide us to what you found.”

We put off breakfast and departed immediately. We followed Ayame’s big puffy tail with Lily right behind her. They were both very talented in detecting others, so they would be able to detect any anomaly faster than the rest of us.

After several minutes of walking, Ayame came to a stop and Lily made her report in a hushed voice.

“...We found them.”

Her gaze was fixed on the small path we had been following for the past few days. We hid ourselves in the brush and took a peek. And right there, we saw what we hadn’t seen for quite some time: humans.