Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 4 - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Remaining Mystery

I stood there dumbfounded as I listened to his life leaving his body. I still hadn’t swung my sword. A pitch-black blade had flown out of nowhere and was now sticking out of Juumonji’s back as he laid there facedown. The sword, which looked like it was made out of a shadow, stole Juumonji’s life. The unexpected event brought my thoughts to a complete halt.

“Takahiro!” Shiran yelled as she stepped in front of me.

Countless shadowy swords rained down on us from the front.

“U-Ugh...”

Shiran repelled them one after another, but there were just too many. Even she would be overwhelmed if she continued covering for me. I jumped back on reflex and she followed shortly after. Dozens of swords were sticking out of the floor where we were just standing. Things didn’t end there, though. Even more shadowy blades took chase after us.

“Master!”

“Fall back, My Lord!”

Lily and Gerbera joined us and intercepted the attack. Gerbera spread a net-like web with both her hands, tying up the incoming blades. Lily’s spear repelled the ones that managed to slip through. Our assailant judged any further attacks to be useless, or perhaps there was a limit to how many swords they could unleash. In any case, the onslaught came to a stop.

“Something’s there...”

I suppressed my pounding heart and tried to confirm the situation. Swords still pincushioned the corridor’s ground. Beyond them, I could see a large, human-shaped shadow that comprised only an upper body. I had seen this type of monster before. It was called a doppelganger. This specimen was a little different from what I was familiar with, though.

It was huge. Though it was only an upper body, it was easily three meters tall. Its gut swelled out so much one would think it had swallowed an entire human. It was multiple times larger than any normal doppelganger.

“Master, be careful. Something’s wrong here,” Lily said, her spear at the ready.

Immediately following that, the shadow swords in the ground began to change shape.

“What the...?!”

One after another, they crumbled away, mixing together into several lumps. The shadows eventually took on the form of dozens of doppelgangers. The corridor was packed with monsters in an instant. A horde of them were born from a single enormous specimen. It was my first time seeing such a phenomenon, but I’d heard of a being capable of such behavior before.

“A monster who gives birth to others... A queen?”

Monsters possessed mana. Those who accumulated mana beyond a certain limit could give birth to new monsters. These were called queen monsters. The large doppelganger before us was definitely one such specimen.

Everything had been fine up until this point. It was surprising, but I at least knew what this was. What followed, however, was altogether outside the limits of my imagination.

“Master, that’s really a queen monster, right?” Lily said in a hoarse voice. “So why isn’t it connected to us through the mental path?”

As a visitor from another world, I had the ability to connect to the hearts of monsters who possessed a large quantity of mana. To simplify, I could connect to rare monsters and above. Queens were far beyond rare monsters. And yet the monster before me, the doppelqueen, for lack of a better term, wasn’t connected to me.

Even with Shiran, who was quite the special case, I’d been able to grasp a thin thread-like connection between us. Here, I couldn’t sense a thing. In other words, the monster before me defied the rules I knew of.

“What exactly are you?” I asked, but I didn’t expect a response.

Monsters didn’t possess an ego so long as the mental path wasn’t connected. That was purely how my ability worked. As such, there was no way for this monster to respond. There was no way it was supposed to...

“I never thought Juumonji Tatsuya of all people would be defeated in a head-on collision.”

A response came nonetheless. It was a virile boy’s voice. I gulped upon hearing it. It was Juumonji’s voice. It wasn’t the actual person in question, of course. He was already dead. It was an elaborate imitation of him. The horde of doppelgangers all copied his form at the same time.

They could only duplicate his outer appearance, but the imitation was perfect enough that it was impossible to tell them apart from the original. There was just one major difference. There wasn’t anything resembling an expression on their faces.

For better or worse, none of his humanity showed through—none of the selfishness that tore down an uncountable number of victims, none of the arrogance that ignored the harm he caused, none of the cold attitude that surveyed all those around him. That one missing feature trivialized Juumonji Tatsuya’s existence much more cruelly than merely carving his likeness.

All of them turned to me in unison with their expressionless faces. It was a bizarre scene that felt like it was meant to destabilize my spirit.

“Let us just say that you did splendidly, Second King.”

The Juumonji Tatsuya nearest to me spoke. Its voice was cut and dry, like a machine. There was no emotion to it at all.

“I bore full witness to your power. You did well to tame that fiendish undead monster.”

A different body spoke this time, followed by yet another.

“Gerbera, is it? That big spider lady is awfully scary.”

“The slime’s mimicry is also abnormal.”

“He called her Lily, right?”

“The others too.”

“Ayame and Asarina.”

“They said there was another one outside the fortress.”

“Rose, I think.”

The speaker kept changing one after another, yet they were all Juumonji Tatsuya. They even brought up the names of all of my servants, including Rose, who wasn’t here with us.

“His way is different from our king’s.”

“An ominous power.”

“A large enough threat as he is now.”

“I had been targeting this man’s life—”

“—All this time.”

The last specimen to speak was the only one maintaining its form as a monster, the doppelqueen. She held up the real Juumonji’s body. I didn’t have any time to stop her. She opened her mouth wide and swallowed his corpse.

The enormous shadow wriggled as a jarring damp crunch echoed in the air. It was the sound of chewing. And with a large gulp, her bloated belly grew even larger. With that, Juumonji Tatsuya eternally vanished from this world as nourishment for a monster.

I guess his appearance is still hanging around, though... Dozens of them, at that. 

The Juumonji Tatsuya who’d offered the real corpse to the doppelqueen turned around and patted its stomach.

“Thanks for the meal.”

“It talks...?” Lily finally muttered, giving voice to my own suspicions. “A doppelganger? By its own will?”

A doppelganger could copy the form of its target. However, even if it copied a human, it couldn’t manipulate words. They didn’t possess egos, after all. Yet the specimen before us was speaking with us. In other words, no matter what shape it took, this proved it had a will of its own.

“Could this be the talking monster Sakagami mentioned?” I quietly groaned.

Sakagami had mentioned it after we cornered him. He could give orders to the other monsters by going through a single specimen who had a will. If this was that same monster, it made sense why my ability didn’t work on it.

I was a cheater, but this monster was under the effect of somebody else’s cheat. It wasn’t that the rules had changed; it was that the rules were different. That was why my ability didn’t work. As far as I could tell from Lily and the other girls, they weren’t under the influence of this power either, so my guess was likely correct.

“That makes you Berta, right?”

All of the Juumonji Tatsuyas grinned at once. For an instant, I didn’t even realize they were smiling. Whenever humans smiled, even if it was fake, there was some sort of emotion behind it. But Berta’s smile had none of that. It was as if curved lips had been plastered on skin. I couldn’t feel anything but revulsion from it.

I felt an intense sense of discomfort from her inhuman behavior, precisely because she kind of resembled a human. Just looking at her made me feel sick. I felt like vomiting. It was like watching countless wriggling centipedes. There was no reality to the scene before me. I was starting to get dizzier and dizzier.

“Don’t get sucked in, My Lord.”

A graceful hand sat atop my shoulder.

“Ger...bera...?”

“What an impertinent ruse. It’s a glamor.”

A...glamor? I felt like I only just noticed the haze over my consciousness after she mentioned that. I’d heard during Kei’s lectures that there were in fact monsters who could cast glamors.

Glamors didn’t deal direct damage to one’s physical body, but instead tore apart one’s mind. One could resist it to a certain extent by using mana, but that also meant it was exceptionally easy to fall prey to it when caught off guard. For example, in the case of a certain plant-type monster, the beauty of a flower in full bloom or a rich scent could steal their prey’s consciousness and bewitch them. I’d never heard of doppelgangers possessing this power, though. It was probably an ability inherent to the doppelqueen Berta.

“Pull yourself together, My Lord. If you allow yourself to be sucked in, it will be all that much easier to bewitch you.”

“So that’s the way it works...” I said with a groan.

I now knew this was a calculated move by this monster. In fact, even Lily and Shiran were bewitched by the bizarre scene before them. The only reason Gerbera was able to maintain her composure was because she didn’t have much experience with humans. This sight was dreadful to a human, but to a pure monster like her, it was just a little weird. Furthermore, her stance on the matter also factored into this.

“Do not forget, My Lord. You have us with you. There is nothing to fear. No matter what this is, there is no mistaking it for anything more than an enemy who wishes us ill. Thus, it’s a simple matter. All we must do is crush it, no?”

Gerbera’s logic was to the point. That was why she didn’t waver. But this was an enormous roadblock to the doppelganger trying to bewitch us.

“It seems the only special one is the big one in the back. The others are just soulless terminals. It’ll all be over once we smash it.”

Gerbera’s legs skittered about, causing the Juumonji Tatsuyas to twitch.

“She’s really scary.”

“You’re scary.”

“She’s on a totally different level from me.”

“I’m jealous.”

“I’m envious.”

They seemed resentful.

“Silence,” Gerbera scoffed. “It’s the height of absurdity for pests like you to try and bewitch me. You are naught but scavengers come to feed on weakened prey. Know of your blunder. You should have never crawled out so shamelessly. I shall teach you who is truly the prey here.”

A colossal storm of bloodlust burst from the girl who boasted peerless beauty, choking the corridor. Even with the wounds from her previous battle, the Great White Spider of the Depths was here in force. A mere queen monster was entirely beneath her. The petty shadows of little doppelgangers couldn’t possibly stain her white world. Even I could feel a physical pressure from the torrent of bloodlust, which was more than enough to overwhelm these creatures who didn’t even possess proper emotions.

“U-Ugh...”

The doppelgangers began trembling, their stiff smiles affixed to their faces like masks. Everything they were they borrowed from Juumonji, but their fear was the real thing. That was exactly why I found it suspicious...

Thanks to Gerbera, the glamor on me was gone. Now that there was no haze over my mind, something felt wholly out of place. Unlike my servants, the doppelqueen didn’t seem to possess much emotion, but that only made her fear that much more palpable. To borrow Gerbera’s phrasing, why did she come crawling out shamelessly like this? It was crystal clear things would end up this way.

“Naught but scavengers.”

“Oh, that’s true.”

“I can’t deny it.”

The Juumonji Tatsuyas continued speaking as I looked on in suspicion.

“I can’t win against you.”

“But I don’t need to win.”

“There’s one way of dealing with an opponent who can’t be beaten in a fight.”

“It’s simply a matter of not fighting.”

Gerbera grimaced. “Do you plan on running away? How foolish. Do you believe I’ll allow you to?”

The Juumonji Tatsuyas trembled in fear but continued talking.

“That’s the plan.”

“I’ve fulfilled my goal.”

“Now I just need to escape.”

“I have the capability to do so.”

“As I am capable, I simply have to do it.”

“Not that I care what will happen in the meantime.”

There was one thing they mentioned that I couldn’t possibly overlook.

“Hang on, Gerbera,” I said, holding her back with my hand. I had an exceedingly bad feeling. “You don’t care what happens? What do you know that we don’t?”

The emotionless Juumonjis turned my way in unison.

“I’m glad it got across to you.”

“I thought I would get torn to pieces.”

“It’s quite inconvenient for both of us, after all.”

“Very well, I’ll tell you.”

“To put it simply...”

The Juumonji Tatsuyas maintained their mask-like smiles and all said in unison, “My name isn’t Berta. I’m Anton.”

I instantly understood what this implied, seeing that a wolf howled down the hallway at the same time.

“Crap! They got us!”

“Wh-What’s the matter, My Lord? Also, what was that noise?”

“This one’s just buying time. They’re trying to take Sakagami back!”

“What?!”

If this was Anton, then there was another monster out there named Berta. The Alliance Knights were acting separately from us and restraining the unconscious Sakagami. The doppelqueen, Anton, was drawing our attention while Berta went after them.

The knights were a gathering of elites. Faced with normal monsters, they could hold out until we got there. However, the talking monster Berta was definitely more powerful than a normal specimen. This was extremely bad. They could retake Sakagami Gouta. This possibility had completely slipped my mind, despite its utmost importance. Or perhaps Anton’s actions were calculated to make me forget. The impact of her appearance and the glamor she cast was all to lay the groundwork for this outcome.

After confirming we understood this, Anton slowly slinked back down the corridor in retreat. She was running away now that she’d accomplished her goal, just as she claimed she would. We had the means to stop her, but right now we didn’t have the time to pay her any mind.

“Let’s hurry over to the commander. Shiran, please watch the rear!” I yelled, dashing down the corridor at full speed.

◆ ◆ ◆

The knights had kept their distance from us only so that they wouldn’t get caught in our battle with Juumonji. They weren’t actually all that far away. We were quickly able to rendezvous with them. Several of them lay collapsed in the corridor. Those unharmed were taking care of their comrades who were slumped against the walls or sprawled out on the ground. Among them, I saw the commander and Mikihiko running around busily.

“Takahiro!”

Kei spotted me and ran over. Her blonde hair was a mess and tears pooled her eyes. When I saw the little fox in her arms, all the blood drained from my face.

“Ayame?!” Gerbera shouted from right behind me.

Kei was on the verge of screaming and running away as the arachne closed in on her, but she seemed to understand this wasn’t an enemy, judging by how she was accompanying me. The little girl stood her ground. Gerbera and I took a closer look at Ayame as Kei continued to cast healing magic on her, shoddy as it was.

“Thank goodness, she’s still breathing,” I said with a sigh of relief.

Though she looked so fragile, Ayame wasn’t just a baby fox. She was a monster. Her tiny body was actually quite tough. I called Lily over and had her heal Ayame fully.

“What happened?” I asked Kei.

“We were attacked by a giant two-headed wolf.”

This likely described Berta. I felt bitter at the thought. We had been thoroughly outwitted.

“Ayame...covered for me... I’m sorry,” Kei said in a depressed voice.

“Don’t apologize. Thanks for telling me.” I plopped my hand on her head. There was no point in blaming her. “Leave the rest to me. Kei, you handle healing the injured with Shiran.”

“Huh...? Shiran? Is my sister here?”

Kei’s blue eyes, which much resembled Shiran’s, shot wide open just as the undead knight came running over from her rearguard duty.

“Takahiro. Anton isn’t showing any signs of pursuit.”

“I see.”

Shiran wasn’t liable to let anything pass, and that was why I’d had her keep watch on our rear. Her gaze was still vigilantly fixed to the north as she relayed her report.

“It should be safe for now. However, we should keep watch for—”

“Shiran!” Kei yelled, leaping at her sister and hugging her. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” She went on to cry loudly in Shiran’s arms.

“Kei...” Shiran looked somewhat troubled as she placed her hand on Kei’s head.

This was a reunion with the big sister she had thought was lost forever. It was natural for Kei to be overcome with emotion.

I left Kei to Shiran and took a look around. I couldn’t see Sakagami anywhere, meaning he had already been rescued. It was a blessing in disguise that the monster’s goal was only to retrieve him, so none of the knights died in the process.

Still, I couldn’t help but think... Why now? Sakagami had been moments away from death earlier. The only reason he survived was because of Juumonji’s intrusion. And yet, borrowing the doppelqueen’s words, neither Anton nor Berta reacted when their “king” screamed for help. Were they just far away at the time?

No, that can’t be it... Anton had mentioned Rose’s name. My group was the only one who knew of Rose. We’d only mentioned her once since coming to the fortress, when Gerbera found us while Sakagami was screaming for help. The fact that Anton knew Rose’s name meant that she had been hiding nearby and overheard us. Yet she didn’t answer Sakagami’s call for help.

Well, to be specific, Sakagami had been screaming for Berta to help him, not Anton. Still, that was a really stupid reason not to come and save him. Calling him her king after abandoning him once already—that was a hard truth to swallow. The situation felt at odds with itself. It was like one of my base assumptions was way off the mark.

“Hey, Master?”

“What is it, Lily? Oh, are you done with her treatment?” I turned around to see Ayame sleeping soundly in Lily’s arms. “Looks like she’ll be fine for now, huh?” I gently brushed her little body, then changed gears. “Okay, let’s chase after Sakagami quickly.”

I wasn’t sure whether we could catch up or not, but we couldn’t leave him at large. We had to at least confirm he was no longer in the fortress, otherwise it would be difficult to rescue the survivors.

“Shiran, you stay here. Gerbera, come with me. I’ll need your nose too, Lily.”

“Of course. That’s fine and all, but...” Lily nodded, but she looked pensive.

“Lily?”

“Hmm. Speaking of my nose...” Lily pointed her finger at her own nose, which was capable of mimicking a firefang’s sense of smell.

“What is it?”

“Hmm... I might be mistaken, and it kinda sounds impossible...” Lily was being strangely inarticulate. I found this curious, but I still listened closely. “Anton...had a certain smell to her.”

“A smell? What smell?”

“The exploration team’s Watanabe Yoshiki.” She sounded incredulous at her own words, leaving me even more perplexed. “He got his head cut off and died, didn’t he? So maybe I’m just mistaken, but...”

Lily’s tone was still uncertain. There was no reason for Watanabe’s scent to be coming from Anton. Although, seeing that Lily was going out of her way to mention this, she really did identify such a scent. Meaning...

“Hey, Takahiro,” Mikihiko called me from behind. “Is that true? Doesn’t that mean...he’s alive?”

“No. That’s got to be impossible. We saw him die...”

“Isn’t there one other possibility? Come on. You forget already? Lily just said it earlier, when we were worried about doppelgangers hiding among the soldiers.”

“I did...?” Lily asked with a surprised look, pointing at herself.

Mikihiko nodded. “Yeah. You said we didn’t need to worry about doppelgangers, it was just hard to identify one in a crowd, like the soldiers on the ramparts. So in other words, you wouldn’t be able to tell if Watanabe got switched out for a doppelganger up there, would you?”

“Oh.” Lily gulped.

“Especially considering how Juumonji blew up the place right as we got there. So couldn’t it be possible?”