Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 2 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Passageway to the Heart, the Path of Mana

The following day, I got ready to leave the arachne nest bright and early.

“My Lord. I’ve finished what you asked for.”

Gerbera handed me some clothes before we departed. It was something I previously requested from her. She could weave cloth at a tremendous speed, but finishing it this quickly was out of the question, so around half of the shirt was made using cloth she already had stockpiled.

The top was a simply made white garment with somewhat baggy sleeves, but it was robust enough to wear while walking through the forest. The pants were also white, making the whole outfit somewhat questionable, but I didn’t really have the luxury to be complaining about fashion.

“It suits you, My Lord.”

“...Really?”

Gerbera gave me a look over after I changed and for some reason began fidgeting about as she blushed. I was curious whether this was because she was happy I was wearing something she made or because she realized I now matched her. Or perhaps it was because these clothes were made of her own threads, so in a certain sense... her threads were wrapped all over my body, stimulating her instincts as a spider. I decided not to think about it too much and put on the black chest protector Rose had made me. After attaching my pseudo-Damascus steel sword at my hip, my preparations were complete.

Rose’s armor and Gerbera’s clothes were made completely independent of each other, but in the future, I wanted them to cooperate together to make them. They would of course do it now if I ordered them to, but it was clear that would leave deep-seated roots of resentment between them lasting far into the future. Doing so wouldn’t bring about immediate results anyway, and there was no particular need for us to hurry. This really was something better off done after the air was cleared up between them.

“My Lord,” Gerbera said as she anxiously looked at me.

“What’s up?”

“Um, it’s nothing much. You just looked somewhat pale.”

“I do?” I tried touching my own cheek. The feeling against my fingers was somewhat cold. “...It’s nothing serious. Don’t worry about it.”

It was true I had a lot to think about lately, and I didn’t get much sleep yesterday because of it. However, I didn’t feel unwell, and I wasn’t particularly sleepy. I was still somewhat weary from walking for the last few days, but it was well within my own limits. I didn’t require rest.

“Let’s go.”

Gerbera was still looking at me with concern, but I urged her on as we departed the arachne nest. After actually getting a move on and showing I wasn’t lying, she didn’t bring it up anymore.

We arrived at our destination after about an hour. It was a fairly large lake, and the local wildlife used it as a water source. We continued walking for about another hour and encountered two monsters in the process. One was a bear with a rabbit’s head we called a rough rabbit. The other was something like a one-meter-tall crayfish which split the water’s surface as it leapt out. This one I never heard of back in the Colony, so I just gave it the name big scissors.

I wanted to find these monsters again. We hadn’t encountered them before, so I at least needed to feed them to Lily to enhance her combat abilities. One would be enough for her, but that wasn’t my point.

Lily needed to eat a large portion of a monster’s body for her mimicry to fully manifest. Because of that, we wouldn’t get to eat the meat from the rough rabbit and big scissors. Of course, we didn’t need to eat them. We did have a sufficient stockpile of firefang meat, after all. However, even so, I wanted to eat them. I was already pretty sick of the tough and chewy firefang meat.

I wasn’t a particularly picky eater, but I really was getting tired of eating the same bad food every day. I wanted to eat something other than lizards and rats. The big scissors in particular looked quite tasty. It might have a rather earthy or dull taste, considering it was a crayfish, but I was convinced that wouldn’t be a problem. The quality of our current food stores was just that bad. Having said that, I couldn’t increase the burden Gerbera carried around just to satisfy such petty needs. I would have to wait until the next time we found one to enjoy the big scissors as a meal.

While I took a break, thinking of such things, Gerbera finished “packing” our goods. The rough rabbit was quite large, so the cocoon it was wrapped in was equally huge. Watching her casually drag it along was somewhat humorous.

“Good work out there.”

“You too, My Lord.”

Gerbera held out Rose’s handmade flask toward me. It was filled with water from the nearby lake, which I could drink without having to boil. Water was actually quite heavy, so Gerbera was carrying basically all of it except for what I needed to quench my thirst as we walked.

“Thanks.”

And just as I was about to take the flask from her...

“...Urgh?”

My vision blurred and I saw countless little sparkling lights about me. It was just for an instant. However, the timing was bad. My hand missed the flask Gerbera was holding out.

“Ah.”

My fingers brushed against it and knocked it to the ground. Water began drizzling out. I went to hurriedly pick it up, but about a third of it had already spilled out.

I really did it now...

I was, of course, not talking about the water.

“Is something wrong, My Lord?” Gerbera looked at me with a suspicious gaze. “It’s been on my mind for quite a while now. Your condition seems somewhat strange.”

“...Strange, how?”

“You’ve been making mistakes once in a while that aren’t like you. Are you perhaps hiding something from me?”

Gerbera’s red eyes stared right into mine. Just staring and staring... Her gaze didn’t show any signs of wavering. She seemed completely convinced of herself. I tried thinking of a way to gloss this over, but it was unreasonable to try. I had been spending the last few days almost entirely with her. She was the one who supported my measly human self as we searched the forest. Even if this didn’t happen, she would’ve realized it sooner or later.

“It’s nothing serious...” I started with the necessary preface and then divulged my current situation to her. “It seems my eyes have been acting up lately.”

“Your eyes?”

“Yeah.”

I only became aware of it myself recently. The first occurrence I could remember was about four days ago, when I was talking to Lily in a sleepy daze.

“My vision gets blurry, and at worst, I see some sparkling white lights...”

“Is that not serious?!” Gerbera screamed as she quickly closed in and grabbed my face with both hands.

This was the maximum speed of the white arachne. It was impossible for me to dodge. I was now staring at her beautiful face, which I could only describe as being crafted by the hands of a god, at point-blank range.

“Hmm...”

I could feel her breath as she continued staring at me. My heart spontaneously began pounding, but Gerbera didn’t give off an erotic atmosphere at all. She was so seriously looking into my eyes that it was frightening. There would be no need for doctors if that was all it took to figure out someone’s condition, though.

I wonder if there are doctors in this world...? Or do they maybe not need them since they have magic...?

“It really is just once in a while. It’s nothing serious. Just as I said, my body feels fine.”

I started spinning up excuses as fast as I could when a small crease formed between Gerbera’s brows.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Humans tend to get blurry vision when they get tired. It happens all the time.”

“You said something similar the other day to try and fool me, did you not?”

“...Anyway, give me some space.”

I pushed her back by the bottom half of her face, and the phrase “you reap what you sow” came to mind. It was somewhat of a rough way to treat a lady, but Gerbera was far stronger than any normal lady and didn’t really pay it any mind.

She scoffed as she sank into thought and folded her arms. “But... White lights...? Hmm? Hmmm? Could it be...?” Her white eyebrows, which looked like they were drawn with a thin brush, rose up ever so slightly.

“What?”

“Nothing much. I’m just curious about something.” Gerbera held out her slender hand in front of my eyes. “Let me check quickly. Take a look here, My Lord.”

“Hm?”

“...This manner of thing isn’t really my specialty, though.”

A few seconds after Gerbera squinted her eyes...

I did as she said and looked at the tip of her fingers. “Huh?” I said, dumbfounded.

There were sparkling white lights right at her fingertips. They were the same lights I had seen every now and then for the last few days.

“H-How...?”

“Like I thought,” Gerbera said with a slightly tired expression. She pulled back her hand, and the lights immediately vanished. “I didn’t think it would truly be the case, though,” she continued with a sigh. “My Lord, you’ve become able to sense mana.”

“Mana...? Me?”

“Mm. There’s no mistaking it.” Gerbera nodded with a deadly serious expression.

She wasn’t joking, but it was difficult for me to swallow. “So you say, but I don’t have any aptitude for magic. The cheaters who could use magic back in the Colony clearly told me so.”

“There’s not much I can say about that.” Even as she stated the obvious, Gerbera offered her own thoughts on the matter. “However, if that is in fact true, it certainly is rather strange.” She folded up her legs and took a seat as she cocked her head. “Anyone is capable of using magic so long as they possess mana. And as long as one possesses enough mana, it isn’t all that difficult to see it. The ability to observe it is necessary to be able to use magic... However, the groundings for being able to do so aren’t meant to change.”

“Is that how it works?”

“Mm. The groundings I’m referring to basically sum up to the aggregate amount of mana one is able to possess. For some reason, your capacity for mana has increased, My Lord.”

I wasn’t sure why, but I couldn’t be happy about that. It really wasn’t a disadvantage for me. On the contrary, it was actually quite convenient. However, it felt bad knowing my body was changing yet it was a complete mystery.

“Is it because we defeated monsters? I heard you can obtain mana that way, right? That’s how the exploration team in the Colony grew stronger.”

“That’s certainly one way of doing so, but it isn’t particularly efficient. I mentioned the groundings for mana aren’t supposed to change. Even if you killed 100 or 1000 monsters, it would still be questionable whether your mana would be noticeably elevated. There is of course a difference between you and me in this regard, though.”

“Our capacities are completely different, you mean.”

“Precisely. But, well, even though you accompanied me, you weren’t the one to deal the finishing blows.”

“That’s true.” Meaning the monsters we defeated didn’t have anything to do with it.

“So, maybe there’s a more efficient way, and you’ve been doing it without realizing, but...”

“Yeah...” I scratched my head. “I don’t get it. It’s worth celebrating if I’m able to use magic because of this, though...” I suddenly grimaced upon noticing Gerbera’s complicated expression. “What’s up?” I asked.

“What are you saying, My Lord?”

“Hm?”

“Are you not already using magic?”

She looked exasperated, but unfortunately, I had no idea what she was talking about.

“...What do you mean?”

“You really haven’t noticed? We are connected together by the mental path. That itself is a splendid form of magic.”

“...Really?”

“How do you not know this?”

“Even if you ask me that...”

I scratched my head. The normal students of the home team could possibly learn magic, but only a handful were given the chance to. My knowledge of magic was just a smattering of what they knew in the Colony. I didn’t know what it was actually like, so it was pretty much a given I never thought of the mental path that way.

Although, thinking back on it, the mysterious power which connected us couldn’t really be accomplished by anything other than mana. Meaning I’d been using magic without even knowing it. Put another way, my cheat was a type of magic that was always in operation.

Magic which connected my heart to the hearts of monsters. It seemed kind of fancy when put like that, and didn’t really seem to suit a guy like me...

“...”

Now that I think of it... Why was I given a cheat like this?

A certain doubt suddenly came to mind. The humans who were teleported to this world were given cheats. The reason for this was still a mystery, but if this applied to everyone, it perhaps meant it was some kind of necessity peculiar to this world.

So, was there some kind of necessity which granted me this power? If so, why this ability in particular? This might just sound like complaining, but I wasn’t really. This wasn’t about being able to avoid my fate if I had an easier-to-understand ability that manifested while I was at the Colony. Nor was it about an always operational ability being far too hard to use. Nor was it about its questionable power level as a cheat...

I didn’t mean to whine. This cheat was exactly what allowed me to meet Lily and the other girls, after all. That one point blew away any complaints I had. That’s why I only harbored doubt. Why did it end up like this...?

“...Hm? Wait a moment. The mental path?” Gerbera suddenly said, bringing my consciousness back from my speculations.

I looked over to her and saw that she had completely stopped moving as if she just realized something. The moment I wondered what this was about, Gerbera leapt in and grabbed my face at the exact same speed she did just a few minutes ago.

Again?

Or so I thought, but she looked a little strange this time.

“...”

Gerbera’s red eyes were staring right at me, just as before, but it looked like her focus was somewhere else.

“...So that’s how it is.”

“Hey, Gerbera.” I intentionally deepened my voice in displeasure and called her name. I felt like my voice would crack if I didn’t do so. “Don’t go convincing yourself without saying anything. Explain it to me. Also, give me some space.”

Gerbera really had to learn how attractive she was as a woman sooner than later. She was already displaying feelings for me, leaving my heart in somewhat of a mess. She was my servant, a very special existence to me. On top of that, I let her spoil me while my heart was weakened the other day. It wouldn’t be weird for this to completely throw off my tempo. I couldn’t possibly mess with my relationship with my servants while my stance on it was so unclear. That’s what I decided, so I had to stand fast by my resolve.

“Mm. Pardon me.”

Gerbera obediently obliged. However, her gaze was still fixed deep within my eyes. She didn’t show any signs of noticing my discomfort. It was like she was implicitly telling me now wasn’t the time for that.

“My Lord. Stay calm and listen to me. My mana exists within your body.”

“...Huh?” It was so unexpected I was left completely flabbergasted. “...And what does that mean?”

“I’m unable to say for sure. This is normally impossible.” Gerbera shook her head as her pure white hair swung about. “However, I can at least surmise. The mental path between us is likely the main cause of this.”

“H-Hang on a sec. So, what? You’re saying the mana accumulating within me belongs to you?” I asked in complete confusion.

“Perhaps Lily and Rose’s mana are also mixed in there. Although, it’s such a minute amount I can’t sense it.”

“That can’t possibly be...” I was about to object but noticed I didn’t possess any knowledge to do so. “I guess... I guess that explains the sparkling I’ve been seeing ever since you became my servant.” At the very least, it never happened before that. “But why is it the mana within me only belongs to you?”

“Is that not a simple problem of volume? For example, consider the mana coming through the mental path as a leak, so to speak. If the same ratio is leaking from all of us, then the amount coming from me will be that much larger.”

“That makes sense.”

Meaning if the same phenomenon occurred before Gerbera became my servant, it wasn’t at a level where I could sense it. Thinking back on it, they did say back in the Colony that mana dwelled in the soul. It was difficult for a mere student like me to tell what the soul even was, let alone distinguish it from the heart and mind. However, assuming they were all similar... and if not, assuming they were at least related, then it wouldn’t be all that strange for the power which connected us, the mental path, to pass through said soul. Not that I could state such a thing definitively... That wasn’t the important point here, anyway.

“So, what?” I wet my dry lips with my tongue and spoke in a slightly hoarse voice. “The more servants I assemble, the stronger my mana will get?”

“That’s presumably the case. Or perhaps, even in your current state, we could increase your capacity for mana by streaming our mana through you.”

“If that’s true... Then it doesn’t sound all that bad, huh?”

I didn’t possess much power. This applied in terms of our overall forces, but the far more fatal flaw here was my complete inability to fight for myself. I was far too weak. No matter how many powerful companions I gathered, our weak point would still be taken advantage of. This discovery held the possibility of overcoming that weakness. I trembled in excitement for the first time in quite a long time. The word magic was just that powerful.

“Maybe I’ll ask Lily to start teaching me magic once we get back.”

It was a choice I didn’t have any say in because of my lack of magical talent. Up until now, I was such a lost cause that simply swinging a sword would do me better. But the situation was different now. With some amount of grounding in place, it was surely best to make use of it. More so if continuously acquiring servants meant increasing my capacity for mana.

“It’s a little regrettable I didn’t notice sooner.” Those were my honest feelings on the matter, but it might have been a mistake to say them aloud.

“If you had consulted someone earlier, then you could have acted on it faster, My Lord... Oh, that’s not right...” Gerbera looked somewhat sad upon realizing something. “This is my fault...”

“...”

The reason I didn’t consult anyone about the irregularities happening to my body was because I didn’t want my trips into the forest to be held back. I couldn’t really deny this was because of Gerbera. Having said that, there was no need for her to feel any responsibility for it.

“It’s not really your fault.” I lightly plopped my hand on top of Gerbera’s pure white head as she sat there dejectedly.

“My Lord...”

“I did it because I wanted to. I was just being selfish.”

As a result of multiple factors all mixing together, I ended up concealing many things from my companions. This wasn’t a good thing. However, the situation was sure to change shortly. No. I was going to change it. I had to. I had to resolve all of my own problems as well as those of my servants. There was no other choice. I had a responsibility to do so as their master.

“Hm?” Just then, Gerbera’s expression stiffened up considerably. “My Lord!”

As expected of a top-tier combat specialist, Gerbera changed gears in an instant. I suddenly felt a tingling in the air. I rose to my feet as I followed her gaze. I was accustomed enough to this that I could at least take such action reflexively.

There was a shadow beyond the trees. I thought it was a firefang at first, but the shadow was far too small. Having said that, it was still as big as a medium-sized dog.

“...A fox?”

It had triangular ears and a fluffy tail. It was large for a fox, but compared to a firefang, it looked quite small. The size of a monster had nothing to do with how dangerous it was, though.

I immediately began digging through my knowledge from the Colony. “This is... a blowfox!”

Just as I yelled the name they appended to this monster back in the Colony, the fox began sucking in air and swelled up in size like a balloon. It grew into a sphere about five times its original size and looked at us with blood-crazed eyes. One would assume this was a form of intimidation much like a blowfish, but it wasn’t. This was the blowfox’s means of attack.

“Graaaah!”

It deflated its body and an orange fireball shot out of its mouth as it roared.

“My Lord!”

Gerbera picked me up and leapt away. The fireball missed and slammed into the tree we were standing in front of.

“—?!”

An explosion broke out with a thunderous roar. The trunk of the tree burst and was engulfed in a blaze. The “luggage” Gerbera had promptly cut loose—the spider cocoons with defeated monsters in them—were sent flying away by the shockwave, all the way to the edge of my field of vision. One of those cocoons contained the corpse of a rough rabbit, which was the size of a bear. The explosion must’ve been quite powerful to send it flying that far.

“...That’s quite the ridiculous kitsunebi.”

The blowfox’s flames were accompanied by a physical shockwave. The fire itself wasn’t as hot as a firefang’s, but its power couldn’t be so easily compared like that.

“Be at ease. This is nothing for me,” Gerbera told me reliably, probably sensing the threat I felt from this monster.

She was entirely right. The blowfox needed to wind up for each fireball it spat out, even if it just took two or three seconds. We weren’t poised for battle earlier, so she decided to evade just to be safe, but now she could deal with it before it spat fire again. If the blowfox actually decided to attack, she would’ve undoubtedly done so in an instant.

“Hm?”

But that didn’t happen. After seeing its first attack evaded, the blowfox turned tail and ran. It was a splendid decision, in a sense... But now wasn’t the time to be praising it.

“It’s getting away!”

“I know! Let’s go, My Lord!”

If my memory served me right, blowfoxes were just like firefangs in that they formed packs. It most likely would lead us to more monsters. As such, we started our chase of the blowfox just like we did with the firefang the other day.