Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 5 - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The White Spider and the Girl Who Continues Marching Forward ~Gerbera’s POV~

“For reference, could you tell me your impressions so far?” Katou asked.

“Let’s see... For the time being, I’ve tried a sword much like the one my lord uses, but fighting while remaining conscious of the direction of the blade is difficult. I can do it, but I feel it would actually weaken me.”

“So a sword is no good.”

“I also tried an ax, but I didn’t really get a feel for it at all. I’m trying a spear now, but I’m not seeing much hope in it. I feel like it would be better to uproot that tree over there and swing it about.”

“You do know there aren’t trees growing everywhere once you leave the forest, right?”

“Can I not just carry one around?”

“I don’t even know where to start with that one...”

We went back to trying to find a weapon for me. Katou walked over to the manamobile with Kei, where all the weapons were stored.

“There’s quite a lot of variety, huh?” Katou commented. “I feel like I’ve seen all of them one way or another in movies and manga.”

“Is that so?” Kei said. “It seems there’s a fair number of weapons from your world that don’t exist here. For example...right. I hear your world has these warriors who have lived in the darkness since antiquity called ‘ninja,’ and they’re armed with ‘shurikens’ and ‘kunai’ and the like. It’s unfortunate, but we don’t have those here.”

“Who told you that...? Oh. I guess I don’t need to ask. I already know.”

“Ummm?”

“I’m sure he was just messing with you, Kei... Oh. Right. That might actually be something we can use.”

“Ninja?”

“No. This has nothing to do with that. Well, I just thought of an idea. Don’t worry about it. Let’s start by looking at what we have.”

The reason Katou had come here instead of watching Rose’s training was because she had predicted I would be having difficulties with my task. She truly had keen insight. Although, she likely never guessed she would encounter those other visitors.

“I don’t know whether your timing was good or bad,” I said.

“I think it was good,” Katou replied from within the manamobile. “Since they were looking down on you the way they were, it was best if someone in the same position as them turned them away.”

I could hear the clatter of hard objects behind Katou’s voice. In contrast to Kei, who had been randomly pulling weapons out of the pile, Katou was rummaging for something specific. Meanwhile, Shiran had already returned to my lord’s side.

“Besides, even if they end up harboring some kind of grudge, it’ll be directed at me, not Majima-senpai.”

“That’s a good thing?”

“It is. Seeing how I can’t fight, there’s not much I can do for him. If I don’t at least do something like this, then I’m not sure why I’m even staying with him.”

I turned to face the vehicle, but unfortunately, I couldn’t see Katou from here. Instead, I saw Kei coming out with more weapons in her arms. I placed the spears and axes and such back on the ground. Kei retrieved these and replaced them with a new lineup for me.

“If I could at least awaken to some power as a visitor, it’d be a different story,” Katou continued.

“A cheat? Now that you mention it, Lily seems to have the same thing on her mind.”

“Oh, so you know about that? Actually, Lily came to me for advice about that yesterday. She was wondering whether she could use such abilities.”

“Does it seem possible?”

“I wonder about that... I put quite a bit of thought into it,” she said in a considerate tone. “Lily is only mimicking Mizushima-senpai; she isn’t actually a visitor. She thinks this is the reason she can’t use a cheat. She can’t do something the real thing could since she’s a fake. It’s natural she’d think that way...”

“It’s natural?”

“Lily has a bit of a complex about this. It looks like she conquered her anxiety of one day vanishing from Majima-senpai’s side, but I guess an inferiority complex doesn’t go away all that easily.”

“Hrm? An...inferiority complex?”

Nothing Katou was saying made any sense. To me, Lily was the strong eldest sister who carefully watched over us. I couldn’t even imagine her being worried about her own problems. Perhaps this was a front she constantly kept up, though. Katou was together with my lord before I became his servant. That was why she’d had the opportunity to see Lily’s more immature side.

“What Lily’s saying does make sense,” Katou added. “It’s true her mimicry is unavoidably weaker compared to the original. What’s more, Mizushima-senpai passed away before her cheat manifested. So even if Lily could reproduce it, there isn’t a cheat there to begin with.”

“That’s certainly true.”

“But there’s also a point of uncertainty here,” Katou continued. The clattering had come to a stop. “Just because Lily’s mimicry causes some degradation, it doesn’t mean ‘she can’t.’ It’s more ‘she can, but it’s incomplete.’ I feel it’s odd that the only thing she can’t mimic is the abilities of visitors. Besides, though Mizushima-senpai didn’t have any sort of cheat, she was a visitor, so she at least had the potential for one.”

“Ummm... So, in short, is this what you mean? Lily’s mimicry should be able to reproduce the ability of a visitor? Hmmm. If so, there must be some other reason she’s unable to manifest some manner of power.”

“I’m only thinking the possibility exists. I mean, I haven’t awakened to any power either, right?”

“Now that you mention it, those boys earlier are in the same situation. So it’s a little hasty to assume that Lily can’t manifest a power because of her mimicry’s limits.”

“That’s what I think. It doesn’t hurt to scrutinize it some more...” Katou’s voice gradually sounded like she was talking to herself. “A visitor’s power is a reflection of that person’s wish. So if there’s no wish welling up from the bottom of their heart, or the feelings behind their wish are too weak, no ability will manifest.”

I was reminded of my lord. There had been a time when he too possessed no power. Lily was the only one who knew of this time, but from what I’d heard, he had been in a terrible state when he first met her.

That was exactly why he had awakened to his abilities. Conversely, if he hadn’t gone through such a thing, there was no way he would have gained his cheat. This gave me mixed feelings. Our lord’s misfortune was, in a sense, connected to our happiness, not that he would want us to think of it in such a way. The misfortunes of the past were misfortunes. The blessings of today were blessings. He was here as he was now, and so was I. That was more than enough.

“The large majority of visitors probably don’t have a wish strong enough to awaken to any power, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case for all of them.”

Katou seemed to be sinking deeper and deeper into her own thoughts. Her tone was sincere, conveying how seriously she’d considered this. That didn’t only apply to this specific case either. Her mind was running at full speed regarding many matters. Something within her urged her to do so.

“Thinking back on it, there are some aspects of cheats I can’t really say I fully understand. Why do we visitors possess such abilities to begin with? No... Perhaps that’s the wrong way to put it...”

“Say, Katou?” I called to her.

“Oh... Yes? What is it?”

Katou suddenly came back to her senses. I didn’t know what I should do. A certain doubt came to mind when I looked at her, but I didn’t know whether it was proper to mention it. I concluded I could since this was Katou. She was much smarter than me. It was nonsensical for me to spin my thoughts uselessly about such things.

Thus, I asked exactly what was on my mind. “Why do you not pounce on my lord and ravish him?”

An enormous clatter and crash came from within the vehicle. It seemed Katou had knocked over the weapons she was carrying in a panic.

“A-Are you okay, Mana?!” Kei yelled from within.

I was quite worried, but Katou soon groaned, “I’m fine...”

I felt relieved and called out to her again. “Be careful when handling weapons, Katou. You can get hurt.”

“You’re one to talk!” Katou yelled, storming out of the manamobile. She was red right down to the base of her slender neck. “Gerbera? What exactly...did you mean just now...?”

“Hmm? Did I say something strange?” I asked curiously. “I would like to pounce on my lord. Are your feelings not the same?”

“You’re being too frank!”

“And you’re too flustered. I’ve thought this for a while now, but when it comes to my lord, are you not a little too easily shaken?”

“Ugh...”

Katou staggered. Behind her, Kei looked out of the vehicle with both hands over her bright red cheeks, muttering something about an adult conversation and hiding herself back inside. I turned back to face Katou once more. Me being calm while Katou was completely thrown off was quite the unusual situation. I was a little moved by this as I cocked my head.

“But as I see the current situation, my lord will not see you in such a way unless you pounce on him yourself.”

“You’re unexpectedly sharp, considering how ignorant you usually are...”

“I don’t believe sharpness has much to do with this, though. I am connected to my lord by our mental path, so I can tell just by looking at him closely. When it comes to passion for my lord, I don’t plan on losing out to any of my sisters.”

As far as I could tell, my lord didn’t see Katou as a potential partner. He wasn’t an unfeeling man by any means. He likely had a vague inkling of her feelings. He showed no signs of arriving at the correct answer, however. Why was that? I recalled the sight of Katou collapsing when she had spoken to those men.

“Well, I suppose it’s only natural. Faced with a weak human who ends up like that just from speaking with men, it’s hard to imagine my lord ravishing you by his own will, even if he wanted to.”

“Sorry, Gerbera. Can you please stop using your own vocabulary like it applies to everyone else?”

“But that’s what it all comes to in the end, isn’t it? That’s why my lord is so far from the answer. It’s precisely because he’s so sincere and honest that he doesn’t consider acting like a beast even to the slightest degree. You could even say it’s almost taboo to him to view you as a member of the opposite sex.” I paused, letting out a sigh. “You should already know this without me mentioning it.”

This girl had soundly defeated me when I was the white arachne. Even now, I was a little scared of her. If it was something I could figure out on my own without help, I believed that she already had a firm grasp on it.

“That’s why I deign to ask. You have the same feelings as me, so are you really fine with this?”

I pushed my question on her once more, and Katou finally let out a big sigh as if resigning herself.

“The same feelings, huh? Let me just tell you now, I don’t really want to pounce on him like you do,” she said in a joking manner before smiling bittersweetly. “But I never thought you’d realize my feelings.”

“Didn’t I say so already? I don’t plan on losing out to any of my sisters when it comes to observing my lord with passion. However, you’ve watched him nearly as much as I have.”

We were looking at the same thing. It would be stranger not to notice her feelings. And, of course, I couldn’t leave her behavior unquestioned after realizing so.

“Why do you not convey this feeling in your heart to him?” I asked. “You once stood fearlessly before me. You couldn’t possibly have cold feet about this.”

“That’s exactly what it is, Gerbera.”

“What?”

Katou gave me a wry smile. It was quite unexpected. I had thought of her as fearless. She could even be described as a sort of monster. However, the girl before me was saying otherwise. Did I misread her? No, that wasn’t quite right either. When I first met her, she had certainly been a terrifying monster. But now she was different. Something had changed.

As I came to that conclusion, Katou smiled pleasantly. “There was, in fact, a time when I was afraid of nothing. I had given up entirely. I lost absolutely everything, possessed absolutely nothing, and thus, I could do anything. That’s why I wasn’t afraid of you when you were our enemy. That’s why I was able to be of use to him.” Katou let out a sigh. “And yet...Rose told me...I couldn’t give up.” Her smile was now anxious yet happy. “Now, I’m afraid of doing anything.”

“It looks to me like you’re doing all manner of things just as you were before, though,” I pointed out.

“Hee hee. You’re right. It’s contradictory, isn’t it?” Katou nodded, then closed her eyes. “But what can I do? Because of Rose, Senpai has told me ‘you really saved me’ and ‘thank you.’ Seeing him happy makes me happy. His trust makes me happy. You get it, right? So I end up thinking I have to keep trying harder.” Her smile faded as she put her hand to her chest as if checking on the emotion that lay within. “The human heart doesn’t really work the way you want it to. Even though I gave up on everything, I now have a reason not to give up at all. That’s why...”

“I see.”

Meaning it was her cowardice that was driving her forward now. I let out a sigh. That was exactly why things would go better if she simply conveyed her feelings. But she couldn’t. It was extremely frightening to her. She feared losing everything she’d finally managed to gain by pushing forward. She doubted each and every step. She needed time to muster her courage before she could tell him.

Regardless, she wasn’t going to stop her continuous march. The puppet she had once led by the hand was now guiding her gradually forward. Her speed was truly vexing to me, but she was still advancing. As such, I really was still afraid of this girl. Both her body and heart were so weak, yet she was so strong. I couldn’t understand how she could be like that. I suddenly smiled. I actually found this aspect of her quite likeable.

“I get it now,” I said. A description of her behavior came to mind, and I gave her a quick nod. “You’re a trainwreck only when it comes to my lord.”

“I’m surprised you know that expression...”

“I heard it from Mikihiko.”

“That guy...” Katou looked exhausted, her expression bitter. “Whatever. It’s because I’m like this that I can be of help to Senpai in some ways... Anyway, how about this?”

“Hm?”

“It rolled out when I toppled everything over. Think you can use this?”

Katou came over and heaved up a heavy-looking weapon to me.

“What is this?”

It wasn’t a sword or an ax. It had a pole about the length of my arm with a large metal ball atop it. There were sturdy looking spikes protruding from the ball, which made it look far more disturbing than a sword.

“That’s a mace,” Kei said as she came running over. “It’s a weapon you use by bashing your opponents with the spiky end. There are many tough monsters that can’t be cut with blades in the vicinity of Viscum, one of the Three Eastern Kingdoms, so they use these weapons a lot over there.”

“Rose has only made bladed weapons so far. I bet you never considered using a bludgeoning weapon, right?” Katou added. “How about it? I personally think it’d be better than uprooting one of those trees as an impromptu club.”

“That’s true. At the very least, it seems I won’t have to worry about which way the blade is facing.”

I nodded as the weapon in my hand half-vanished from my mind.

With this, maybe I can do it...

I stepped back from Katou and Kei.

“Shyaaah!”

I strengthened my grip and swung the mace with all my might. The air turned into a gale and burst around me. I felt feedback in my hand and broke into a smile. This felt good. It felt familiar. Above all else, it was simple. And yet it was amusing how it had more depth than a simple stick.

By using the weight of the head, it easily built up centrifugal force. I could expect a fair amount of destructive power just by swinging it around, so if I mastered its use through martial arts, it would put it on a different level entirely.

“If I had to complain, then I’d say it’s far too light.” This was probably fine for human use, but it was insufficient for me. “I’d like something heavier. Longer too. I suppose we can consult Rose about that.” A pleasant feeling ran through my chest as a smile naturally came to me. “He he he... This has gotten rather amusing.”

“Um, Gerbera?”

“What is it, Katou? I’ve finally gotten in the mood.”

I turned to her in discontent to find that she was frowning at me.

“Is the handle of that mace bent?”

“Uh...”

I let out a dumbfounded groan. I had gotten carried away and had used all of my strength, causing the mace to curve and leaving me in a complete panic.

◆ ◆ ◆

After trying to force the mace back into shape and warping the handle even more, we went over to my lord together to give him a report and apologize. It was quite the experience. Having said that, we did at least have a plan now. All that was left was to discuss it with Rose. Katou had also apparently thought of something and was making a move of her own.

Finding a weapon to use had been quite the ordeal. I couldn’t hold back a long sigh. The fact that I had asked Rose to “just make something sturdy and heavy,” leaving her at a complete loss over what to do, is a story for another time.