Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 5 - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Tranquil Times in the Suburbs

After we parted ways with the survivors of Fort Tilia, who’d accompanied us all this way, we dropped by a travelers’ rest stop in the suburbs outside Serrata. We were staying in a rented house that the commander had prepared for us through one of the Alliance Knights’ purveyors.

I got some lessons from Shiran, then washed off my sweat and returned to my room. Satisfaction and a pleasant sense of fatigue washed over me. Ever since Shiran began teaching me swordsmanship, I was starting to get a real sense of improvement with a blade. It differed greatly from simply acclimating to the act of battle. Spurred on by Mikihiko’s striking growth, which far surpassed mine in pace, I not only felt fulfilled from training, but genuinely happy.

“My Lord, look. Isn’t this amusing?”

As I wiped off my wet hair with a towel, Gerbera cheerfully came over to me.

“What is it?”

“I got it from Rose,” Gerbera said, holding a black stick about twenty centimeters long in her hand. “Hyup!”

She swung the stick with a playful shout, and a thinner pipe jumped out from the end. The pipe fixed itself in place with friction and remained fully extended. It was an expandable baton.

“Oh, yeah. I heard she made something like this.”

This was one of Katou’s suggestions. She didn’t know much about it herself, so the knowledge of its inner workings came from Mikihiko. Rose was in the middle of a trial-and-error period for many different things. As a part of that, she was actively putting new knowledge and concepts into practice. She was keeping in mind any applications for future use, but for the time being, she made things without considering whether they were useful to us. Most of these ended up becoming toys for Gerbera and Kei. Those two found small gimmicks to be quite the mystery, much like how any item related to magic pulled at my heartstrings.

“Also! Look at this! I even got this little thing!”

Gerbera took out a wooden doll about the size of her palm. It was a 10-centimeter egg with features such as a face, hair, clothes, and hands carved into its surface. It appeared to be a caricature of Lily.

“How cute,” I said.

“Mhm. But that’s not all. Look, it opens up here.”

The doll split in two at the stomach with a pop. The insides of both pieces were hollow, revealing a smaller Lily within.

“A matryoshka doll?”

What’s Mikihiko been teaching Rose...? I found it a little questionable, but seeing Gerbera enjoy herself so much, I decided it was a good thing. Gerbera popped open the smaller Lily and pulled out a small fox doll from within. This one was Ayame.

“He he he. Cute, is it not?”

Judging by her appearance, Gerbera was the same age as me, if not a little older. Normally, I would question how she enjoyed this stuff just as much as Kei, but...

“Be careful not to break it...”

Seeing the childish sparkle in her blood-red eyes made me happy. It was a little different from watching Kei in high spirits, but it was charming all the same. That wasn’t all, though. I felt like I could gaze at this smile forever.

A grin naturally came to my lips as I took a look around the room. Aside from Gerbera, Lily and Shiran were also present. Rose, Katou, and Kei were in the room next door. I heard they had managed to buy some dyes here the other day using the knights as an intermediary. They had told me they were making clothes. I wasn’t informed of the details, though.

I could faintly hear their cheerful voices through the thin walls. It drove home how tranquil this period was. I wondered if this would become an everyday event once we reached the commander’s home of Aker. Just imagining it sent excitement running through my heart. I could picture a happy future for all of us.

◆ ◆ ◆

There were three knights staying with us in this house, including Shiran. The rest of them were split between guarding the other students and being on standby with the army’s soldiers in the encampment.

As for the commander, after she’d helped us get this house, she had taken a few knights with her to Serrata. Mikihiko was also accompanying her. They’d left two days ago. She had to deal with all sorts of procedures and negotiations, such as transferring the soldiers, so at a minimum, I heard it was going to take three days. The plan was to immediately depart for Aker once she was done. Now was the time for us to restore our spirits.

“Aah, rats. Another failure...”

Lily raised her voice just around the time Gerbera left for the next room at Katou’s request. I had been in the middle of talking to Shiran about the contents of today’s training and the guidance she was to provide my servants in the future. Lily, who was sitting on the bed, threw up both her hands and fell backward.

To be more precise, she’d thrown up both her arms. They currently ended with stumps at the wrist. She wasn’t injured. She’d just been trying to maintain her form as a human girl while also mimicking an entirely different creature with just her hands. This second mimicry had come undone. Lately, Lily had been putting all of her efforts into trying to actualize partial mimicry. It wasn’t going her way, though.

Slime bubbled out of her two stumps and took the shape of human hands. Lily remained laying face up, looking at the ceiling with a sullen expression.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” I said, taking a seat on the bed next to her and poking the crease between her eyebrows.

“Owie. Geez... Master?”

“How about taking a break already?”

“Shall I prepare some tea?” Shiran asked as she stood up.

“Oh. In that case, I’ll help out,” Lily said, popping herself back up.

But Shiran shook her head. “You still don’t know how to make it, right? Please take it easy, Lily.”

Shiran left the room, smiling pleasantly. Her footsteps went down the staircase. Now that we were alone, Lily cuddled up against me.

“Hmmm, mmmmrgh... Maybe it’s useless after all.”

Lily often nestled against me, but today, it was more like she was leaning on me. She was completely limp.

“Lily.”

I embraced Lily’s soft body. She didn’t resist at all. She slid her exhausted self down, wriggled about to adjust her position, and placed her head atop my lap.

“Mmmm...”

She sweetly rubbed her cheek against my thigh, much like a cat.

“Hey, Lily,” I said, playing with her bangs.

“Yeah?”

“Are you maybe feeling seriously down about this?”

“Maybe,” she said, rolling faceup. She gave me a weak smile. “I already knew this... Maybe it’s just my limit as a mimic slime...”

The first time she’d brought up partial mimicry was shortly after we left Fort Tilia, before we reached the first reclamation village. That had been twenty days ago, yet success was nowhere in sight.

Lily let out a small sigh. “Even though I need to succeed at this to bring out my monster abilities to their fullest...”

“I get what you’re trying to say...”

If she could accomplish this, she’d be able to use all of her abilities without any drawbacks. For example, no normal monster could fight the Great White Spider of the Depths in a straight fight. In terms of strength, toughness, speed, recovery, and anything and everything related to combat, Gerbera was in the ultimate class. It would be difficult to compete with her in just one of those fields. Even if it were possible, one would be overwhelmed in every other way.

But what if Lily could mimic individual body parts? Then she could use the best parts of every monster. Maybe she could even push Gerbera back... If it was possible, that is.

“Hey, Lily. There’s no point in feeling depressed over it, is there?” I said, touching her cheek. “Humans can jump into the air, but we can’t fly through the skies. We can use our hands to swim through water, but we can’t descend thousands of meters into the depths. There are things we can and can’t do. You’re a monster, but there’s still a limit, right?”

“But humans can fly through the air and dive into the depths.”

Lily sounded like a child making excuses. It brought a wry smile to my face. She always behaved like the big sister among all my servants, so it was strange for her to act so dejected. She was always the one supporting me, so I was happy she was depending on me like this.

“I mean, that’s only by using airplanes and submarines,” I said.

“Mm... That’s true, but you know...”

I stroked her brow to comfort her. Lily shut her eyes. Our time alone quietly flowed on.

After a while, Lily muttered, “But Master?”

“Yeah?”

“Even if they have to rely on machines, it’s still possible to fly in the air and dive into the depths, right?”

For some reason, I felt a chill run down my spine. Maybe it was because I associated the overly calm expression on her face, her eyes shut, with that of a martyred clergyman.

“Lily?”

She slowly opened her eyes, and then...started blinking in surprise.

“Hm? What’s up, Master?”

Lily looked up at me with a curious expression. This was the usual Lily. I lost the words I was about to say and scratched my cheek.

“No... It’s nothing.”

“Weirdo.” Lily giggled, then sat up. “Thanks for pampering me. I kinda feel better now.”

“That so? All right then.”

She was back to her usual self. I was happy to be of service when she was feeling depressed.

“Besides, it’s not decided yet that this is impossible. If it is, I can just think of another way of doing it. Mm. I’ll keep at it a little longer.”

“Don’t exhaust yourself too much, okay?” I warned her as she lightly clenched her fists.

It was good she’d regained her energy, but it would all come to nothing if she just pushed herself too hard again.

After mulling it over, I offered a suggestion. “Oh yeah. How about going out into town for a change of pace?”

“A change of pace?”

“Yeah. It might be a good idea to go out for dinner or something.”

Lily considered it, then gave me a firm nod.

◆ ◆ ◆

We were currently working with the knights. Because of that, they were directly handling all of our meals and necessities. We didn’t really have a choice in this, considering Rose and Gerbera, but I felt like we couldn’t just leave this be.

In a sense, this was the perfect opportunity for Lily and me to go out and experience how people lived in this world. We needed someone who could use a translation runestone to go with us, though. Shiran had to wait for regular contact from the knights in the encampment, so she couldn’t come with us. Hence, we brought Kei along.

Since we were so close to the trade city Serrata, the hustle and bustle of people in this suburb was much livelier than the villages we had passed through before. I could hear chickens squawking in the distance somewhere. The sound of cheerful employees calling for guests outside the tightly lined shops resounded over the noise of congestion.

Over half of the people we saw had swords at their waists. They were typically wearing traveling clothes, but some clearly appeared to be locals. Self-defense was necessary so long as the threat of monsters existed, but the sight of people openly carrying around weapons like it was perfectly normal was something I was a little unaccustomed to as a Japanese citizen.

We continued chatting about such things as Kei turned a friendly smile to me. “Once we reach Aker, I’m sure you’ll be surprised.”

Apparently, it was going to be even more amazing there. I’d heard it had a strong militaristic ethos, so maybe it had something to do with that. As my thoughts drifted over to a country I’d yet to see, I continued walking through the streets and listening to Kei.

While we did so, I felt gazes fall upon us once in a while. Half of them were looking at the elf Kei; the other half were looking at me and Lily. Our facial features as visitors differed from the humans here. Of course we would attract attention. It actually felt like our status as visitors might cause a huge uproar, but fortunately that didn’t happen.

There was a bit of a reason for this. Some people in this world had what they called blessed blood. The name was pretty self-explanatory. We called our inherent powers cheats, but here they called them blessings all throughout their history. Blessed blood was a nickname born from this. In short, they were the descendants of visitors.

This world had seen visitors once a century for ages. Several among them had died in battle without leaving behind any children, but plenty had lived a full life. Naturally, their descendants still lived on. There were Asians among the saviors, so because of that, even as we walked through town like this, we were nothing more than a rare sighting.

At any rate, I tried to ignore the gazes and continued my stroll through town. I saw a good number of metal signboards hanging off the buildings. Lily and I guessed what kind of shops they were based on the signs, and Kei informed us whether we were correct. We got about a third of them right. The signs had illustrations to indicate the type of shop, but we couldn’t identify some of the more radical symbols, and sometimes Kei couldn’t even explain why such signs identified their shops. I made sure not to waste this opportunity and memorized any necessary information.

We ended up getting lunch at a random shop. I used the money the commander had given me as recompense for guard duty to buy some flatbread and salted roast meat. This was also a learning experience. I already knew the different types of currencies and their use, but it took actually spending some to get accustomed to it. It was also important to get a sense for how much money we needed to buy bread.

We carried our food over to a plaza in town. We went off to the outer edges, where we wouldn’t get in the way of traffic, and had our meal. From there, we had a view of Serrata, where the commander was supposed to be now.

The Woodlands invaded Lorenz County from the south, and the Dark Woods blocked it off from the north. To the west lay the granary regions of Longue County. The east bordered the country of Viscum, one of the Three Eastern Kingdoms. The main road between Longue County and Viscum ran through Serrata, and with the Margraviate of Maclaurin close to the north, this was one of the main distribution hubs for goods in the southern Empire. That was why Serrata was referred to as the trade city.

However, the exterior appearance of the city ran counter to its name. Imposing walls furnished with defensive towers ran the entire perimeter of the city. It was a fortified city, so to speak. Serrata’s position was elevated, and it was surrounded by two circular layers of walls. It gave a glimpse of the city’s growth and expansion.

This type of scenery was apparently fairly common in this world. They could use earth magic for construction here. What’s more, due to the threat of monsters, civil engineering was a focus of technological advancement. The defensive walls of reclamation villages were impressive, but they looked meager compared to Serrata’s.

Barring a few exceptions, the major cities of this world were built around such fortresses that had already served their purpose. Considering they needed to always be prepared for a monster attack, it was perfectly natural that cities would take on such a form.

Fort Serrata was currently occupied by the feudal lord of the lands, House Lorenz. Their troops and a portion of the Southern Imperial Army were garrisoned within. The commander chose to visit the nearest city first because Fort Tilia had lost its means of long-distance communication. Fort Serrata was the same kind of fortress as Fort Tilia and had the same equipment available for use.

After finishing my meal, I gazed at the majesty of Fort Serrata and waited for Kei to finish eating.

“Hey, Master?” Lily said all of a sudden. I found this strange. There was a slight hint of tension in her voice. “Isn’t it kinda noisy over that way?”

She looked over to a narrow alleyway that led to this plaza. I couldn’t hear anything, but I didn’t think Lily was just imagining things. Her sensory organs were much sharper than those of a human.

“That’s... No, but why...?”

Her expression was getting grimmer by the second. It was clear that something was happening. I unconsciously checked the shield on my back and the sword at my waist. If there was even the slightest hint of danger, we had to be able to run away at any moment. That was what immediately came to mind, but Lily’s next words made me withdraw such thoughts immediately.

“I think...one of the Alliance Knights is being chased by a large group of people.”

“What?”

“Ch-Chased?! What do you mean?!” Kei yelled, dropping her half-eaten bread in shock.

“I don’t know... What should we do, Master?” Lily asked after shaking her head.

Honestly, this was far too sudden. I had no idea what was going on, but I didn’t have the time to sit here and think about it.

“We can’t just leave him be. Besides, it could be dangerous for us if we ignore the situation.”

We owed a debt to the Alliance Knights. Moreover, I was staying in this town with Rose and Gerbera. If there was some sort of emergency with the Alliance Knights, it could put them in danger.

“Kei, you stay h—”

“I’m going too!” Kei cut me off.

I hesitated for a moment, considering whether I should try and convince her otherwise, but there was nobody nearby to leave her with, so it was better to keep her within reach.

“Okay. Lily, take us there.”

Lily gave me a nod and took the lead as we ran off toward the commotion.