Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 7 - Chapter 19

Chapter 19: The Visitors in Faraway Lands ~Iino Yuna’s POV~

Three days after I parted with Majima’s group, I stepped foot once more in the city of Serrata in Lorenz County. I came here to see Louis, the one who’d said that Majima Takahiro was one of the monster tamers who’d attacked Fort Tilia—though that turned out to be false information.

I didn’t really want to press him for answers as to why he lied to me or anything like that. I just wanted to see and speak with him. When I recalled the way his fists had trembled in righteous indignation, I still didn’t think that he’d been lying.

If my eyes were rotten and he was actually some kind of swindler... Well, it would be unforgivable, but that would still be the better outcome. If it was the result of a misunderstanding or some kind of miscommunication, or if someone else had tricked him, that would be a real tragedy. If he truly was the type of person I believed he was, he would understand if I talked to him about it. If he wasn’t, I’d simply have to beat him down.

With that in mind, I vigorously knocked on the doors of Fort Serrata. Unfortunately, to jump right to the story’s end, my enthusiasm ended with nowhere to go.

It had been about two weeks since I’d last been here, and Louis was gone now. I wasn’t able to get a meeting with Travis from the Holy Order either, who’d been with Louis when I last saw him. According to Count Lorenz, who greeted me in their stead, the two of them had already left Serrata with the Maclaurin Provincial Army.

The reason Louis had been in Serrata in the first place was to act as Margrave Maclaurin’s proxy and to take in the soldiers who’d survived Fort Tilia’s fall. To do so, he had to communicate with various other places, hence his stay in Fort Serrata, where that was possible to accomplish. During that time, the Second Company of the Imperial Knights—the ones who’d gone with me into the Depths to rescue the Colony’s home team members—had paid him a visit.

The Second Company was based in Fort Tilia to begin with, so Louis had immediately handed over the responsibility of Fort Tilia’s soldiers to them. As a result, Louis and Travis no longer had anything left to do here, so they had taken their leave. That had happened about a week ago.

Count Lorenz didn’t know where they’d gone, but if Louis had returned to his lord’s side, then he was probably in the mining city Nourias, at the center of the Margraviate of Maclaurin. As a digression, the Second Company of the Imperial Knights had also left Serrata for the imperial capital with the home team survivors.

I was left crestfallen by my fool’s errand. However, there was one unexpected stroke of good luck. Count Lorenz informed me that the exploration team had arrived in Serrata two days ago. The group from Fort Ebenus had gone through Viscum, one of the Three Eastern Kingdoms to the north of the fortress, then turned west into Lorenz County. They were apparently staying here for a short while before heading to the imperial capital. Therefore, I immediately requested to be guided to our leader.

◆ ◆ ◆

Our leader, Nakajima Kojirou, greeted me. It had been a while since we’d last seen each other. He smiled cheerfully, and despite his recent long journey, he showed no signs of fatigue.

“It’s good you made it back, Iino. I’m glad you’re safe.”

After I gave him a brief explanation of what had happened, he called the main members of the exploration team together.

“Based on the gravity of the information, we should share it with everyone, right?” he said, giving his reasonable opinion.

I followed our leader to a meeting room in Fort Serrata, and we waited a short while for all the other members to arrive.

“Oh! Long time no see, Yuna-senpai!”

A petite girl boisterously entered the room. Her smile was the definition of vivacious. It felt nostalgic to see it now.

“Long time no see, Aoi. How’ve you been?” I replied.

“A-OK! Looks like you’re doing good too. I haven’t seen you since Ebenus, so I guess it’s been, like, half a month or so?”

This cute girl with big round eyes and a short ponytail was Mitarai Aoi. She was endlessly cheerful and energetic, and contrary to what one would expect, she was one of the exploration team’s upper brass, known as the Stalwart Snow White.

“It’s been a while for us too, huh, Ishida?” I said.

“Yo,” the large schoolboy behind Aoi replied briefly.

“It’s good to see you.”

His name was Ishida Tetsuo. He had a rugged face and a huge body. He had to be around 190 centimeters tall. It looked like he’d grown even taller since I’d last seen him. Boys’ growth spurts really were amazing. He was the very picture of a gentle giant, and another member of the exploration team’s upper brass, known as the Indomitable Will.

Back in the Colony, he and Aoi were a famous pair of first-year cheaters. They had known each other since grade school and were very close. They didn’t seem to be dating or anything, but they definitely had an intimate friendship. Even now, they took seats side by side at the table.

Aoi immediately looked like she was going to start talking to me, but before she could, a chilly voice cut her off.

“You’re late, Mitarai, Ishida.”

It was the exploration team leader’s assistant, Kuriyama Moeko. She looked at the two first-year students through her frameless glasses, her eyes cold.

The two childhood friends had very different reactions.

“Sorry,” Ishida said.

“Mrgh. What could we do? We were supposed to be on break today,” Aoi added. “I got dragged outta bed here. I’m actually super busy with all the preparations, ya know?”

“A day off isn’t an excuse to laze around in bed past noon.”

“Aaah! Aaah! Aaah! I don’t wanna hear any lectures!”

“Aoi...”

Aoi plugged her ears as Ishida chided her. They were the same as always, and so was Kuriyama. I was half-relieved to see this, and half-hoping she wouldn’t turn her focus on me.

As I watched their exchange, another voice joined us.

“Looks like everyone’s here, so shouldn’t we get started already?” said a skinny boy with glasses. He was grinning. “Everyone’s really busy and all. Right, Iino? Don’t you think so too?”

“Yeah...” I replied with a forced smile.

He was also the same as ever. I turned to look at him. His name was Okazaki Takuma. He was a second-year student like me, and held the name the Almighty Vessel. Among all the exploration team members here, he struck up conversation with me the most after Aoi. Well, in his case, it was more that he often conversed with girls. I’d never heard any stories among the girls of him laying a hand on anyone, so I did find him to be a nice person, but I wasn’t that great at dealing with him.

Boys like Watanabe positively disdained him, probably because of some kind of protective instinct for the girls on their teams. Whenever Watanabe had snapped at him, telling him not to act all friendly with me, Okazaki had merely shrugged and sighed. His attitude had likely irritated Watanabe even more, but Okazaki didn’t care at all about stuff like that, so the two of them had never gotten along.

After Okazaki had driven him away, Watanabe had always gone to Juumonji to complain. Juumonji would then tell him, “I get where you’re coming from, but calm down,” even though he also looked fed up with Watanabe’s behavior. He’d throw me sneaking glances for some reason...

Let’s stop there, I told myself. Those memories hurt too much.

“Nakajima, you say something to them too,” Okazaki said to our leader.

“Huh? Me?” he replied, wide eyed. He clearly hadn’t expected to be brought into the conversation. “Even if you ask me... Well, whatever. It’s fine. You can fight and joke around all you want. We’re friends, after all. Right, Moeko?”

“No? I’d rather you urge everyone to maintain a little more order, Captain.”

“I asked the wrong person. Right, Kubota, Shimazu?” our leader said, turning to the last two people to enter the room.

“Don’t drag me into this, Leader.”

“Who knows? Just do as you like.”

The one who’d replied first was Kubota Yousuke, and the one who’d replied after was Shimazu Yui. Both were third-year students like our leader. The long-haired Kubota was known as the Multiplex, and the quiet Shimazu was known as the Fairy Ring.

The Beast of Darkness Todoroki Miya and the Absolute Blade Hibiya Kouji had stayed behind in the Colony. The Sturm und Drang Yuzukisono Rui and the Dragon Jinguuji Tomoya had left the exploration team while I was gone. Those four, and the seven people in this room now, made up the upper brass of the exploration team that had once protected the Colony. Even though there were fewer of us now, some things hadn’t changed.

“Everyone’s so cold to me...” our leader grumbled.

We all laughed. The exploration team didn’t really have a pecking order. We were more of a hodgepodge of parties, so even back in the Colony, it had been pretty common to see our leader play the clown like this. I watched him, feeling nostalgic, as he then turned to me.

“Now then,” he said, “if we spend too much time chatting, Moeko will get angry at us. Iino, could you tell us your story?”

“Yes.”

Thanks to our leader’s silly act, the atmosphere in the room was very pleasant. After I’d confirmed that everyone was in high spirits and looking at me, I began telling them everything that had happened since I’d left Fort Ebenus.

◆ ◆ ◆

After I finished my story, our leader gathered everyone’s attention.

“To summarize, Fort Tilia’s assailant, Kudou Riku, is in hiding. The other suspect, Majima Takahiro, is considered unrelated to the attack based on his own testimony and that of the people from Fort Tilia who are accompanying him. However, Majima refuses to join or cooperate with the exploration team. Also, Takaya Jun has turned into a beast and is missing. His safety and status are currently unknown...”

“There’s not really anything we can do about either of those, at least not right away,” Kuriyama said.

“That’s true, Moeko. That being the case, we should prioritize an issue that we can deal with,” our leader said sullenly. “About Heaven’s Voice... If this is true, we have a major problem.”

“Heaven’s Voice is the cheater who secretly coordinated the attack on Fort Tilia. Does someone like that really exist?” Kubota said with a grimace. “I find it kinda hard to believe.”

“I do too, but we have multiple testimonies of this now. The information is fairly credible,” Kuriyama said.

“But ya know... Do we really got a guy like that in our family?” Kubota reiterated.

“They may not be part of our ‘family’ anymore. Back when we were at Fort Ebenus, a lot of people left our group, remember? This person could have been among them, right?”

“Aah. You’ve got a point there.”

“I mean, that’s highly likely,” Okazaki said, joining the third-years’ conversation.

“Hm? Why do you think so, Okazaki?” our leader asked.

“It’s simple, Nakajima. We cheaters have tremendous combat strength, but that’s only compared to normal people. Just within the exploration team, there are plenty who possess the same amount of power or are even stronger than other cheaters. If you stay in that kind of environment for too long, it’d be over the second you’re found out. There’d be no escape. Oh, it’d be a different story with the Skanda’s fast legs, though.”

Okazaki shot me a fleeting glance, then continued his explanation.

“Unless they are some huge idiot, they would’ve known that information on this Heaven’s Voice would eventually reach the exploration team. If they ran away the moment we heard about it, it’d be like screaming they were the culprit. In that case, there’s no point in hanging around such a dangerous group. It’s safe to assume that Heaven’s Voice ran away from the exploration team before the information reached us.”

“I see. That makes sense,” our leader said with a nod.

Okazaki looked triumphant as he added, “In that case, everyone who split up from us at the time could be in league with Heaven’s Voice. It’s possible they all joined forces so it wouldn’t seem weird that Heaven’s Voice left the exploration team.”

“Hey, Okazaki,” Kubota cut in bitterly. “Watch your mouth. Even if they’ve left us, they’re still our comrades.”

“Yes. I know. I don’t want to suspect them either, but the possibility exists, right? I think we should consider every possibility we can.”

Kubota grimaced. I could sympathize with him in this regard. Okazaki was making sense. There was no evidence to contradict the scenario he posited. It was only logical that we prepare ourselves for every possibility. That said, of the 140 or so members who participated in the first expeditionary force, almost half of them had left us. I couldn’t imagine any of them being traitors, and I didn’t want to believe they were either. They had all once been comrades in arms whom I would have trusted to watch my back.

There were those among them that I’d gotten along with well. Anyone would get angry hearing someone lump them all together and demean them. The only ones who didn’t look hurt by Okazaki’s statement were Kuriyama, who seemed to share his opinion, and our leader, who couldn’t let his emotions show, considering his position.

First off, even though we couldn’t outright deny the possibility, it was very hard to believe that that many people had betrayed us. Realistically speaking, if Heaven’s Voice had reached out to over half of the people who participated in the first expeditionary force, it would be much more likely that information on them would end up leaking to us.

“Thanks, Okazaki. I’ll keep that possibility in mind,” our leader said, taking control of the conversation.

Okazaki let out a small gasp and backed down.

“But Captain, what are we to do?” Kuriyama asked. “Problems are coming up one after another.”

“Aah, yeah, they are. We need to seriously consider how to deal with all this...” our leader replied, putting his hand to his chin, deep in thought.

“One after another? What do you mean?” I asked curiously. “Did something else happen aside from the news I shared?”

“Yeah. That’s actually the reason we’re in Serrata. Not everything is clear yet, but we’ve gathered some information, so I thought I’d use this chance to discuss that too.”

Now that I thought of it, I’d heard the exploration team had arrived in Serrata two days ago. The reason they hadn’t left yet was apparently because there’d been some kind of problem, and they’d been gathering information on it. My story wasn’t the only thing we were gathered here for.

“Iino doesn’t know the details, so let’s start from the beginning,” our leader said. “It seems there’s a fake of us out there.”

“Hwuh?” I let out a strange noise. “Of the exploration team?”

“Of a visitor, to be precise. A fake savior, I suppose... It’s been two and a half months since we reached Fort Ebenus. It’s about time for news to spread among the people of this world that visitors have appeared. This includes the fact that we’ve appeared in unprecedented numbers.”

“It’s also known that we haven’t accepted the invite from the imperial capital and have been in the Woodlands for a long time,” Kuriyama added. “After all, we received nonstop greetings during our stay in Fort Ebenus from nobles who didn’t care about the long journey.”

“Indeed. There was also a royal visit from Viscum, the nation neighboring Fort Ebenus. That was pretty troublesome to deal with.”

“That’s your job, Captain,” Kuriyama stated.

“Well, that’s the gist of it, so people have been watching our movements,” our leader said bluntly, then turned my way. “Of course, it’s also known that those guys scattered from Fort Ebenus two months ago.”

“Does that mean someone is faking being one of them?” I asked.

“From the looks of it, probably. We investigated this for the last couple of days and found out that the fake savior showed up in a group of tightly packed noble territories east of Lorenz County and the Margraviate of Maclaurin. That pretty much settles it.”

“Uhhh...?”

“That’s where a lot of the guys who left the exploration team went to.”

That made sense now. A fake savior had been appearing primarily in a region where the former exploration team members had gone. It was an unpleasant thought, but if it was known that saviors were in the region, it was understandable the fake would go there.

“There are a lot of nobles in that region with relatively small territories. They had contacted us pretty early on. Their territories are close to Fort Ebenus, so they have strong connections there, and information gets around quickly. The fast ones came to greet us at the fortress only a week after we got there. Just counting the nobles, there was Count Huxley, Viscount Bann, Viscount Dickson, Count Coppart, Viscount Hubbard... They greeted a lot of our members personally too.”

“Oh, they talked to me,” Aoi said.

“Me too. You got some too, right, Shimazu?” Kubota chimed in.

“I did...” Shimazu replied.

“Yuna-senpai, you’d already left for Fort Tilia by that time, right?” Aoi asked me.

“That’s right,” I answered with a nod.

“They were, like, super passionate. You’re really pretty and all, so maybe some hot young noble stud would’ve proposed to you on the spot if you’d been there.”

“That sounds a little far fetched...” I said, forcing myself to smile.

“Not really,” Okazaki remarked. “A noble told me that he wanted me as his daughter’s groom. I can’t possibly marry someone I’ve never met before, so I declined.”

“R-Really?”

“Saviors are really special to this world,” our leader said gravely. “Besides, there are many nobles in the southern Empire who are troubled by monster attacks. Unlike the north, where reclamation has been finished for a long time, the south is dotted with Dark Woods where many monsters lay their nests. We refer to them all as nobles as if they’re equals, but not everyone has as much territory and power as Margrave Maclaurin or Count Lorenz.”

Our leader paused there, sighing languidly.

“Normally, saviors head straight for the capital, right? After that, they spend most of their time with the Holy Order, so it’s pretty hard for the southern nobles to keep in contact with them. That’s how it usually is, but we ended up staying a while at Fort Ebenus, a good distance away from the capital. They can’t reclaim any Dark Woods without the strength of a savior, so seeing how they’re suffering damage from monster attacks, we can’t call them selfish for being desperate and approaching us early.”

“So people left the exploration team because these nobles depended on them?” I asked.

“There were those who said they wanted to do as they pleased the moment we got out of the Woodlands. I’m just saying some left for other reasons. In any case, those former members caught wind of the fake savior rumors, and the information has been flowing from there. They’re a little too far from Serrata, so we haven’t figured out more than that yet.”

I nodded. “I understand the situation now. Thank you for the explanation.”

“We need to share what information we have,” our leader said, waving his hand to tell me not to worry about it. “Now then, about what the exploration team will do from here...”

He put his hand to his chin again, pondering deeply.

“I think the first thing we should deal with is Heaven’s Voice,” he concluded. “Unfortunately, I can’t come up with a good way to handle this... Anyone have any ideas?”

Our opponent was a tricky one who’d moved behind the scenes during both Fort Tilia’s attack and Takaya’s rampage. Normally, it would be difficult to come up with some kind of countermeasure. However, the people in this room were cheaters, and we were higher in number than usual. Cheaters usually only showed up in this world one or two at a time. Plus, we were the upper brass of the exploration team, meaning we were very strong.

“Leader,” Okazaki said, raising his hand. “I think we can do something about this Heaven’s Voice.”

Gulps could be heard around the room.

“Really?” our leader asked.

“Yes. At the very least, we can smoke out whether they’re still part of the exploration team,” Okazaki claimed with confidence, then waited for our leader’s go-ahead.

“Tell me more.”

“Yes,” Okazaki said, standing. “According to Iino, Heaven’s Voice is a cheater who can use telepathic magic to converse with someone over a long distance. This is definitely a marvelous ability. Nonetheless, it can’t possibly be wholly unrestricted. No matter what form it takes, this type of ability needs some kind of connection with its target.”

“A connection?” our leader asked.

“You can’t throw a ball to someone when you have no idea where they are, right? It’s the same thing here. If they don’t know where their target is, they can’t send them telepathic messages.”

Okazaki continued like a storyteller recounting a fable.

“In truth, Heaven’s Voice sent messages to Fort Tilia when they’d never been there themselves. They could only do that because they’d already formed a connection with their targets beforehand. To put it another way, the person maintaining these special connections is the suspect behind Heaven’s Voice.”

“Hang on, why do you...? No, never mind. I get it,” our leader said, narrowing his eyes. “Okazaki, can you do the same thing as Heaven’s Voice?”

“I can,” he answered as if it were perfectly obvious. Nobody in the room questioned this. “That’s why I know how it works,” he stated proudly. “Oh, I’m not Heaven’s Voice, obviously.”

“Relax. I don’t think you’re that kind of guy.”

I was in complete agreement. If Okazaki were Heaven’s Voice, he wouldn’t be speaking up here. Even without that conclusion, someone with his personality could never be the suspect.

When they contacted Juumonji and Takaya, Heaven’s Voice had taken advantage of the weaknesses in their hearts. I might have had trouble dealing with him, but Okazaki wasn’t the type of person who could do something so convoluted. Some others in the room shared my opinion of him, whereas Aoi was looking at him tepidly.

“Okazaki, I have a question for you,” our leader said. “Is this connection you mentioned something a third party can identify?”

“Yes. Rather than identify, it’s more like sensing whether a connection exists. I’m pretty sure you can tell through a simple handshake. Well, it’s also possible that the connection was made without asking, so the suspect will be whoever is connected to many others at once.”

“Hang on, Okazaki,” Kubota cut in. “If they just cut all the connections, won’t this be useless?”

“There’s no need to worry about that,” Okazaki answered. “Traces of the connection will remain. They’ll probably disappear after a month or so, but cutting the connection isn’t an immediate solution. Even if they were to escape us by doing that, we’d still render Heaven’s Voice powerless. They’d have to get back in contact with all their targets to fix the connections.”

“Can other people use this method to identify the suspect?” Kuriyama asked.

Okazaki thought it over for a bit, then nodded. “Hmm, so long as they specialize somewhat in magic, they should be able to do it. By specialize, I mean by the standards of a cheater, of course.”

“In that case...” Kuriyama started, turning to our leader. “Shouldn’t you learn how to do this?”

“Me?”

“Oh, I think that’s a great idea. I mean, you get along with everyone,” Aoi said in agreement.

“She’s right. I believe that would be best,” I added.

It was clear that Okazaki had quite a few stormy relationships, so there was no better candidate for this role than our leader.

“Very well. I’ll do it,” our leader said, then grumbled, “My workload keeps piling up, huh?”

“There’s no helping that. Suck it up,” Kuriyama told him coldly. She was the one primarily responsible for his increased workload to begin with. “It’s for the sake of catching this ridiculous idiot who names themself something as stupid as Heaven’s Voice.”

“Stupid...” our leader mumbled with mixed emotions.

The unidentified cheater capable of telepathy was likely using the name Heaven’s Voice as a matter of convenience. Our leader, on the other hand, probably really liked the name. In fact, he’d come up with pretty much all of the nicknames given to exploration team members.

He hadn’t picked his own nickname, but he’d said something along the lines of, “To fight monsters, we need people who can serve as our pillars on the front lines. For that reason, we must give some weight to their names.” Then he’d assigned nicknames to the chief members of the exploration team. They’d actually been fairly effective, but even now, I suspected that at least half the reason our leader had made them was because of his personal tastes.

In any case, we’d come up with a plan to tackle our biggest unresolved issue. There were still other things we needed to decide on, though.

“As for the two remaining issues...” I said. “What should we do about Kudou Riku and the fake savior?”

“After giving it some thought, I think we should visit Margrave Maclaurin,” our leader answered. My expression stiffened. “Something about Majima Takahiro’s account bothers me.”

“Majima’s account?”

“Yes. According to you, the margrave and Majima have never met, right? If the margrave gave you false information despite this fact, then it’s possible he doesn’t have any hostile intent toward Majima himself, but toward visitors as a whole. I’d like to find out what’s going on there. If necessary, we’ll need to deal with it too.”

“I see,” I replied with an understanding nod.

“Well, if the margrave is hostile toward just Majima Takahiro, then I’d like to help Majima if I can.”

“Huh? Why?”

As far as I knew, our leader and Majima didn’t know each other. Majima was a cheater, but he wasn’t a member of the exploration team. On the contrary, he was very wary of us. He wasn’t entirely opposed to us, but considering the high likelihood that Heaven’s Voice was among our ranks, he viewed us as potential enemies. There was no reason for our leader to be worried about someone like that.

“Are you acquainted with him or something?” I asked.

“No, that’s not it. I simply have a one-sided interest in him, nothing more.”

“An interest in Majima...?” I said with an unintentional scowl.

“Yeah. He escaped the Colony and survived in the Woodlands alongside friendly monsters, right? Isn’t that impressive? Given the chance, I definitely want to speak with him... Huh? What’s with that face, Iino?”

“Nothing.”

I averted my gaze. Now I remembered that this was the kind of guy our leader was. He was friendly to people who were worth keeping an eye on, and spared nothing in giving them his support. Be that as it may, he had horrible taste for having an interest in a guy like Majima...

“Yuna-senpai, Yuna-senpai. That’s not the face a girl should be making. You’re, like, super scary,” Aoi said.

Conscious of this, I massaged both my cheeks as our leader continued the discussion.

“Also, I’d like to ask the margrave to help deal with Kudou and the fake savior,” our leader added. “Of course, only if he doesn’t have any strange opinions of us... Still, the margrave is the most prominent noble in the southern Empire. Be it the issue with Kudou or the fake savior, it’d be helpful if we could get him to deal with it.”

“That’s true,” Kuriyama said. “We could pass by the mining city Nourias on the way to the imperial capital. It just about works out right.”

“That’s how it goes,” our leader agreed with a nod, then looked over everyone in the room. “Does anyone else have any opinions regarding this?”

Nobody raised their hands. Nobody was in opposition. In my opinion, this was a good plan for the exploration team. So I thought, but...our leader’s eyes moved over the room, quickly glancing at each member present. When his eyes met mine, he stopped for an instant. The slightest bit of suspicion colored his graceful features, but he swiftly moved on to the next person.

“Okay then,” he said after looking at everyone, “let’s go forward with this plan in mind.”

With that, the exploration team’s next move had been decided.