Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 6 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: After the Collapse ~Kei’s POV~

Several clumps of earth about the size of heads came tumbling down the cliffside. Within seconds, the stream of dirt plunged into the river below with a huge splash, letting loose a pillar of water. The river flowed quickly, rumbling all the while. I stood several meters from the edge of the collapsed mountain road and looked down at the white stream. I could feel the blood draining from my face.

“Wh-Where’s Takahiro...? What about the others? What happened?” I looked around restlessly, but I couldn’t spot most of the people I had been traveling with.

When the Skanda Iino Yuna had suddenly appeared before us, obviously hostile, Mana had directed Gerbera to cause a landslide to get rid of Iino. Following that, Mana had acted as bait and launched a surprise attack with a flash runestone. Her plan had succeeded, but the others had also gotten caught in the falling rubble.

“Calm down, Kei,” my big sister Shiran said when she saw how agitated I was. “You mustn’t panic. At such times, you must properly think things through. It’ll be too late if you make the wrong decision.” Her already stern features tightened into an even more severe look.

“Shiran...”

“It seems we were the only ones to escape the landslide safely.”

Unlike me, Shiran maintained her composure even in emergencies. Her left eye, the one uncovered by her eye patch, looked at the one other person with us.

“It seems so,” Gerbera replied with a nod as she climbed up the cliff using her many legs.

Her entire body was dripping wet. She had jumped down into the river the moment she saw everyone get caught in the avalanche of dirt and rocks. Judging by how she was empty handed, she unfortunately hadn’t found anyone.

“Kuu...”

I heard a whimper and looked down. The small blowfox at my feet dangled her puffy tail dejectedly.

“I see you’re okay too, Ayame,” I said to her. That accounted for everyone here. I bent over to pick up the little fox and held her in my arms. “But weren’t you right next to Takahiro when we fell?”

“It seems my lord tossed her aside,” Gerbera said as she squeezed the water out of her drenched hair. “I’m sure he did so to get her away from the collapsing rocks. In fact, right before Katou used the flash runestone, I threw one of my threads at him, but I didn’t catch anything. He moved a step faster than I did, with some plan in mind.”

Gerbera paused there, a slight sense of relief on her face.

“No one was flattened by the rocks. I saw them get washed away by the river. There’s no mistaking it.”

She had apparently jumped into the river to verify this.

“As for my lord’s presence,” Gerbera started, looking off into the distance, “it’s quite far away now. With these rapids, I suppose it’s to be expected.”

“Gerbera, should we not be worrying about Mana instead?” Shiran asked. “A landslide like that shouldn’t be much of a problem for Takahiro now that he can strengthen his body to a certain extent...but Mana has no powers as of yet. I’m worried.”

“Hmm. That’s certainly true. I’ve finished making sure nobody was flattened by the falling rocks, so first we must... Hm? No, wait a minute. Perhaps...” Gerbera suddenly realized something. I wondered what it was as she thought it over for a bit, until she finally nodded. “No. Katou will be all right.”

“Huh?”

“Thinking back on it, there were two people unaffected by the blinding flash at the time.”

How did that prove Mana’s safety? Gerbera didn’t elaborate. She got herself up as she wrung out the hem of her clothes.

“Now that we know this, we cannot remain careless,” she said. “We must quickly rendezvous with my... O-Oh?”

She staggered slightly. She had lost several of her legs in the fight against Iino Yuna. She immediately braced herself with her remaining legs and turned my way.

“I must rendezvous with my lord and the others. I shall leave Ayame behind to guard Kei, so you two wait here.”

“If only I could use high-grade healing magic still,” Shiran said with an anxious look.

With Gerbera’s natural regenerative abilities, she could have regained her lost limbs in no time with Lily’s healing magic or my sister’s prior proficiency.

However, during the battle at Fort Tilia, when my sister turned into a demilich, she lost her ability to use healing magic. I could use healing magic too, but I couldn’t do anything at the level she once could. With my capabilities, which could barely be called grade 2, it would take some time before Gerbera recovered fully.

“Think nothing of it. I cannot deny that my combat strength has degraded due to these injuries, but I can still scatter the monsters in this area. There is no need for concern,” Gerbera stated confidently before jumping away.

Possibly because she was a few legs short, she moved through repeated leaps rather than running. Her white figure vanished into the distance quickly. I hugged Ayame against my chest and shut my eyes tight.

Please... Please let those dear to me be safe. Please see that they’re unharmed.

All I could do was pray for them.