Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 2 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Suspicion and Trust

“Sorry for rushing you.”

“...Don’t be.”

The following day, Rose gave me my new equipment. It was the same breastplate, greaves, and large shield I had before. However, these had a different feel to them. Everything was now a hard, blackish material. They weren’t as strong as the pseudo-Damascus steel sword she’d made me, but this was apparently tougher than our old armor. With everyone armed in such a way, we could expect to power up our forces. Rose did a good job, just as she always did.

“Okay then. My preparations are done, so it’s about time I get going.”

I let Rose and Katou know I was getting ready to leave. I then ran my fingers over the surface of the gelatinous monster who was sitting there stock still like an ornament.

“You too, Lily. I’m off.”

She didn’t reply. Lily was holding back her consciousness for the sake of recovery. It was something like sleep to a human, so she couldn’t maintain her mimicry while doing so. She did manage to somehow “wake up” yesterday morning, but seeing her in such poor condition was a little painful. Slimes possessed tenacious vitality, so she was going to make a full recovery in a few days, but it was still best for her to rest until then.

After giving my farewells, I started to take my leave.

“Master.”

But before I left the nest, Rose called out to me. I turned around.

Did I forget something?

“You’re really going?” she asked.

“...This again?”

I knit my brows. Ever since I brought it up, Rose had been against me going into the forest to explore. It had only been three days since our battle with Gerbera; it was perfectly natural for her to be worried. However, it felt like she was taking things too far.

“We talked this over multiple times already. I’m completely recovered. Relax.”

“I understand that, but...” Rose was at a loss for words. “There are other... I mean, right... For example, there’s the problem of safety, isn’t there?”

“Meaning... what? The safety of the arachne nest?”

Safety? Is that why she’s opposed to it? It seems like overthinking to me.

“It’s alright,” I said. “If worse comes to worst, wake Lily up. With the two of you as you are now, I don’t think any monster should be able to steal a march on you.”

Lily was currently in bad condition, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t endure one or two battles. Our forces used to only consist of Lily and Rose anyway. Back when we lived in the cave, Rose was our only guard while Lily was out securing food. Compared to that, Lily and Rose both staying behind was actually safer.

“Besides, monsters apparently don’t come near this nest all that often.”

This was the nest of a high monster. Any monsters which were likely to wander by had been rendered extinct over the long passage of time.

“...Our safety doesn’t matter in the least,” Rose said as she shook her head. “I’m worried about you, Master.”

The way she phrased it made me slightly suspicious. “Hey, Rose. Why are you opposed to me going out into the forest?”

No matter how I looked at it, she was worrying too much. It was strange for her to object in the first place. Even if she had an objection, she was the type to keep it to herself and quietly comply with my decision. Whether that was good or bad, her current behavior was unlike her.

“Rose, are you hiding something?”

“That’s...”

“This is you we’re talking about. You’re keeping your intentions to yourself because you’re opposing my decision, right? There’s no need for such restraint. If there’s something you’re discontent with, then speak your mind. You’re my servant and my precious companion.”

Rose still hesitated even as I urged her on. Nevertheless, I patiently waited for her. Eventually, she dropped to her knee and bowed her head.

“My apologies, Master.”

“...What’s this all of a sudden?”

“I am aware of your feelings toward us servants. I am grateful for them, and I do not wish to put them to waste.”

Rose kept her head down and began expressing her thoughts. I could feel her apologetic feelings and shyness flowing to me through our mental path. But what were these feelings truly about?

Head still lowered, Rose continued. “However, I am unable to trust Gerbera the same way I’m able to trust Lily.”

“...What?” Her confession was unexpected to me.

“Could you please wait for either myself or Lily to be able to move about freely?”

She was basically telling me, “I can’t trust Gerbera, so wait until either Lily or I can come along.”

“...Is that the real reason you’re opposed to me going into the forest?” I felt slightly dizzy. I knew full well how serious Rose was. “You can’t forgive her?”

“...I can’t.”

“I see.”

Aah, dammit. This was careless of me.

Lily had easily accepted me stretching out my hand to Gerbera, so I completely lost sight of this possibility.

“I exist to protect you. I don’t care if my body is reduced to wood chips so long as I can accomplish this.”

That was what Rose once told me. Even though they were both servants, Rose and Lily were different. The role that suited Rose the most was securing my safety. Her nature was that of a guardian. That was her way. It was perfectly reasonable that she couldn’t forgive Gerbera for injuring me. On the contrary, that was something I should handle skillfully as their master.

“My apologies.”

“Don’t keep apologizing. Your feelings on this are somewhat inevitable, I suppose...”

Even if I was told to forgive the students who tormented me on the day the Colony fell, it’d be impossible for me to do so. They had fallen into a panic. It was a desperate situation. They were perfectly virtuous citizens at one point. The situation itself was at fault, not them.

I could process such thoughts, but that was all I could do. I couldn’t truly feel that way myself. They had all died, but I couldn’t feel pity for their deaths. There were parts of the human heart that couldn’t be settled by reason or logic.

Lily had forgiven Gerbera. But that didn’t mean Rose was more narrow-minded than her. Lily prioritized my heart, whereas Rose prioritized my safety. That’s how it manifested like this. This was what made them individuals. I couldn’t ignore that portion of their personalities. At the very least, I didn’t want to bluntly deny them.

Though it might be somewhat harsh to put it this way, Gerbera was completely at fault. She hurt all of us in her rampage as the incarnation of tyranny. This couldn’t be undone. No matter how much she regretted it, the past couldn’t be changed.

I believed in her, of course. I wanted my other servants to trust her too. However, I couldn’t use that as a pretense to force Rose to trust her. That was different from true trust. A bond formed that way was completely different from what I wanted between them.

Gerbera had to rebuild the trust she lost upon our first meeting. I wasn’t too worried about it, though. She could take her time and slowly build trust with the others. That was actually the normal way of building human relationships. Lily was the exception for so easily accepting Gerbera after they were hostile to each other at first.

What Gerbera needed right now was a credible achievement to her name. With that, Rose would eventually recognize her. Fortunately, Rose had a calm personality. It wouldn’t be too hard to get her to acknowledge Gerbera, who was already showing signs of remorse.

Moreover, the current situation was very hard on Rose. She didn’t want to suspect a fellow servant. If that weren’t the case, I wouldn’t feel anything close to shame from her as she confessed to me. Both of them wanted to meet halfway, so they were surely going to be alright. I planned to help them as much as I could as their master too, of course.

Now then... What to do...?

The reason Rose couldn’t trust Gerbera was because of the wounds she had inflicted on me. The quickest path to building up trust was to show Rose that Gerbera was useful to me. In that respect, it was the right choice to have Gerbera act as my guard in the forest. If I could come back with new servants, it would easily prove she achieved something.

Leaving our conversation at that, I left the nest. I found Gerbera waiting for me outside. Her legs were folded and she was gazing at the sky in a daze.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting.”

“...Don’t be. I wasn’t waiting long.”

Gerbera looked down from the sky with a somewhat stiff expression.

“Did something happen?” I asked as I cocked my head.

“H-Hm? What’s this about?” Gerbera stood up in a hurry and turned her back to me. “Come now, we must depart or the sun will set before we get back. We plan to return by dusk, do we not?”

Her behavior was somewhat suspicious, but she had a point. Thus, I set forth from the arachne nest and into the forest.

◆ ◆ ◆

We made our way through the forest and encountered a bug-type monster called a stab beetle. It was about 70 centimeters tall and looked like an enormous rhinoceros beetle. It was covered in a bulky shell, so it had to be one of the sturdiest monsters in the forest. Its enormous lance-shaped horn was extremely hard and didn’t break from normal impact.

Its specialty was diving attacks from the air. It was very simple yet very effective. In the early days of the Colony, one of the cheaters in the exploration team died from their first encounter with a stab beetle.

The beetle noticed us before we found it. By the time we heard buzzing in the air, it was already high up in the sky. This made it clear I couldn’t make it my servant. The stab beetle was hostile to us, and above all else, I couldn’t feel the presence of a mental path between us.

It used its potential energy from flying several meters downward to charge at us. It was a ramming attack which used its sturdy body like a bullet. Even if I tried to dodge it, the living bullet could correct its course. At this rate, that enormous lance would pierce my torso and my upper body would have to bid farewell to my lower body. But I wasn’t worried in the least.

“Leave it to me.”

Gerbera stepped forth and threw a thread into the stab beetle’s path.

The beetle ignored the thread sticking to it like gum and continued diving at me, its original target. However, Gerbera wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Hmph.”

She braced her eight legs and pulled on the thread with her dainty arm. The stab beetle was supposed to be a monster which focused on strength, but it lost its balance and its flight path turned into a crash course. Its splendid horn dug into the ground, shooting up dirt at irregular intervals as Gerbera dragged it to her feet.

“You’re done.”

Just as the beetle was going to crash into her, Gerbera thrust one of her legs out in a fashion which much resembled a spear master in action. She easily pierced the supposedly hard shell of the beetle. Her leg went right through it and continued on into the ground. After twitching for a moment, the stab beetle fell silent.

“It’s over... right?” I asked as I let out the breath I had been holding. I knew of Gerbera’s strength, but battle still left me tense. I couldn’t accustom myself to clashes over life and death.

“Shall we take a short rest, My Lord?” Gerbera proposed, perhaps seeing the mental exhaustion on my face.

“Yeah. There’s no point in pushing myself. Let’s take a break.”

I sat down on the spot and took a sip of water from the wooden flask I brought along. I felt a slight sense of fatigue in my core. I might have been pushing myself more than I expected. It was a good idea to take more frequent breaks.

“My Lord,” Gerbera called out to me as I checked my own condition, “I finished packing.”

“That was fast.”

Gerbera had a cocoon made of spider thread in hand with the stab beetle’s corpse within it. Just as her wording implied, she had packed up the corpse in a way that made it easy to bring back without spilling any of its contents.

As for why we were hauling corpses back with us, they were souvenirs for Lily, who was still resting back at the nest. She possessed the ability to mimic the creatures she devoured. In other words, she could strengthen herself by eating monsters she hadn’t eaten before.

It was a little different from my original objective, but this was also a credible achievement for Gerbera. It’d be a great cause for celebration if we could find a new servant too, but... if I had the time to think that, then it was better to get moving already.

I rose to my feet in high spirits. “Okay. Shall we get going?”

“Wait, stop.” Gerbera called me to a halt. “You’ve only just taken a seat. You should rest a little longer. You don’t have much stamina, after all.”

“...Well, I guess that’s true compared to you, but...” I had mixed feelings at being accused of having a weak constitution, but I was comparing myself to the white arachne, the incarnation of tyranny. In her eyes, I probably looked no more reliable than an infant. “Got it. Let’s stay here a little longer.”

“Mm.”

I crossed my legs and sat back down. Gerbera watched over me with a satisfied nod and then folded her eight legs and took a seat herself.

“...”

She was a good three meters away from me.

“Hey, Gerbera. Aren’t you sitting kind of far away?” That kind of distance wasn’t necessary when we were all alone. It was to the point where I would normally assume she hated me.

She averted her gaze awkwardly. “I-Is that so?”

It was clearly suspicious. I could only suspect that something happened.

“Gerbera?” I called her name, causing her slender shoulders to jolt.

“Wh-What is it? I haven’t...”

“...”

“Uuuh...”

I continued to stare at her. Gerbera hung her head like a wilting flower. She was giving in. It was a good thing she was so honest.

“Did something happen?”

“...Are you fine with this, My Lord?” she timidly asked.

“What about it?”

“I just...” she awkwardly muttered, “I just attacked you the other day. Are you not a little afraid of being alone with me?” Her demeanor made it feel like she could vanish at any moment.

“Gerbera...” And that’s when I suddenly realized what was going on. “Did you hear me speaking with Rose?”

“Wh-What about?!” Her voice was shrill, her red eyes were wandering about, and her legs were skittering restlessly. No matter how you put it, she was far too flustered.

“So, you heard us.”

I let out a small sigh and walked up to her. She averted her gaze from me. Her shoulders trembled, but she didn’t try to run away. She simply hung her head in resignation.

“I see. So, that’s why you’ve been acting strangely.”

Rose objected to me exploring the forest together with Gerbera. Having overheard us, she knew Rose still didn’t trust her. That’s why she decided to keep some distance from me.

There wasn’t much sense in that when we were already walking through the forest together alone... but I couldn’t really tell her that at this point. I knew she was an awkward girl already. If not for that, she wouldn’t have caused such a blunder when she chanced upon us that evening.

The problem here was how hard Gerbera took it. The reason she was so down about it was because she blamed herself. Because of her previous hostility, she felt quite indebted to us.

I thought this over for a bit before speaking. “So, what? Do you plan on hurting us again?”

“Impossible! Perish the thought! I’m truly grateful to all of you!” Gerbera practically snapped back at me, but then she suddenly realized what she was doing. Her slender shoulders drooped. “But Rose has a point. I’ve thought the same thing myself.”

Her despondent behavior contrasted her beauty as if she were a flower that had shut its petals.

“I’m dangerous. I may hurt all of you once more. That’s the truth...”

Her depression over this was quite serious. I scowled to myself. We were a small team. We had to join forces to survive in this world. Her feeling indebted to us could cause friction in the group.

It was the master’s responsibility to look after his servants. I was the one who took her in as our companion, so I had to properly take care of her... That was half true, at least. My main reason was that I couldn’t leave her be when she looked so down. But how was I supposed to cheer her up?

As I ruminated over this, Gerbera continued to hang her head. “All of you accepted me. I want to be of use to repay you. Those are my true feelings on the matter.” She twiddled her fingers together and looked at me with upturned eyes. “H-However, my inborn nature hasn’t changed. Even now, I want to monopolize you. I want to seize you, My Lord... Rather, this feeling in my heart is even stronger than when I first met you.” There was a smoldering yearning behind her red eyes as she snuck glances at me. “I may end up hurting everyone even though they have forgiven and accepted me. That frightens me.”

The white arachne I named Gerbera was a spider. Her instinctive nature was to capture and tie up her prey. It was natural for her to want to do so, and it wasn’t something which could be changed so long as she remained herself. But that didn’t necessarily mean it would reflect in her actions. That’s what I believed.

We were tied by our mental path. No lies or deceit would work between us. So, it was best for me to be honest. In the end, I decided to say exactly what was on my mind.

“Relax, Gerbera. You won’t hurt me... hurt us, ever again.”

“Why do you believe that to be so, My Lord?” Gerbera’s legs skittered restlessly, as if she found my declaration rather unexpected. “What Rose said is correct. I can’t trust myself. So, why do you believe that?”

“Why...? Because I saw you that night.”

After we defeated her that evening, Gerbera should have imagined what her future looked like in solitude. Even if she only did so for a short while, the time she spent thinking of such loneliness surely struck a chord in her heart much more strongly than her entire life put together. I went through the same experience, so I could tell. If she found that to be more painful than anything in the world, then she would be fine.

“You said the thought of hurting us frightened you, right? Then you won’t do anything to betray our trust. I mean, the fact that you fear such a future means you’re seriously taking us into consideration.”

That’s why there was nothing to worry about. She wouldn’t lose to her desires and harm us. She had something far more important to her than that, after all.

“I trust you.”

I stooped down in front of Gerbera and gripped her slender hand. It was fine if she could feel my trust through her hand. It was fine if that could give her strength.

“So trust yourself a little more, okay?”

“My Lord...”

Gerbera gazed at me without making the slightest movement. Or so I thought. She brushed off my hand and emphatically covered her face.

I froze on the spot. “G-Gerbera?”

“Um, My Lord...” she muttered.

She hung her head, both hands on her face and her long hair hanging over her eyes. But there was no meaning in hiding her face. I could see her eyes, which were bright red, and her exposed nape, which was dyed scarlet.

“Gerbera? What’s gotten...?”

“My Lord, I understand. I fully understand that you trust me from the bottom of your heart.” Gerbera held out her hand and stopped me from saying any more. “So please, leave it at that... Any more and I may push you down,” Gerbera quietly confessed.

“Oh.”

That had me convinced. Her legs had been skittering incessantly for some time now. This was apparently her holding it in. It was admirable of her to keep to her word, but there was no point in testing her self-restraint any further. I decided to quietly wait for her to calm down.

Before long, Gerbera called out to me in a flushed voice. “...Sorry. I kept you waiting, My Lord.” There was no gloominess left in her expression anymore. “In any case, I understand that you trust me.”

“It’s not just me. Lily does too.”

“Mm. But that does not apply to Rose, does it?”

“Well, that’s true.”

“What should I do?” She wasn’t saying this out of grief. She was optimistically looking for a means of solving the situation.

“So, you want Rose to trust you?”

“Of course,” she happily answered without a moment’s hesitation.

Seeing her like that, I reflexively began petting her white head. “In that case, you’ll have to put in some effort.”

“Ah...”

Gerbera’s practically transparent cheeks turned red as she smiled back at me.

“If you’d like someone to trust you, then you’ll have to build the reputation to deserve it.”

“...Mm, you’re right,” she said with a bashful nod. “First, we must finish our investigation successfully, correct? Very well, I shall do everything to be of assistance to you, My Lord.”

“Yeah. I’m counting on you.”

There was no frailty left in Gerbera’s expression. It seemed she managed to wipe away her anxieties. A smile naturally came to my face.