Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 7 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Human Girls

“What are you looking at?” I asked the girl crouching by the riverside. Her eyes had been fixed on the object in her hand, but she looked up at me.

“Majima...”

Something about her reminded me of a flower. Her glamorous black hair spilled down to her waist. She wore a school uniform, but her slender proportions were still discernible. On the occasions that she smiled, her somewhat-sharp facial features carried a girly softness to them. Right now, though, she had a sullen and sour look on her face.

“Nothing really,” she said bluntly.

Iino Yuna—the girl known as the Skanda back in the Colony—huffed and averted her gaze. She was being rather unsociable, but that stood to reason. We’d crossed blades, after all.

The reason her uniform was a little worn and dirty was because of our scuffle at the time. Those were the only traces left of the battle, though. All of the wounds she’d suffered that day were fully healed now. Even the arm she’d broken during the fight with the Mad Beast—the monster Takaya Jun had transformed into—was back to normal.

She held a simple telescope in her hand. The magical puppet Rose, one of my servants, had made it.

“I found something nostalgic, so I was just taking a look,” Iino said, putting the telescope back on the ground.

There was a pile of stuff at her feet, ranging from blankets to provisions. All of them were either wet, damaged, covered in mud, or all of the above. It was the luggage we’d been traveling with on our way to Aker. The river had washed it away, leaving it in its current state.

We’d been riding a manamobile that the Alliance Knights had lent us. During our battle with Iino, the vehicle had tumbled down the cliff in a landslide and shattered to pieces. All of our stuff had washed away at the same time.

Now that Iino was back in perfect health, she’d used her prided leg strength to run down the river to look for and retrieve our things. Thanks to her efforts, some of our luggage was now at her feet. The telescope she was looking at was one of the items she’d managed to recover.

“I have a friend who loves this stuff,” Iino said, looking down at the telescope. “There was a time she forced a handmade telescope on me and made me look up at the stars. It’s still in my room...”

Iino smiled nostalgically and stood up before turning my way and continuing.

“Her name is Todo...I mean, Todoroki Miya. Do you know her?”

“Todoroki?”

The sudden mention of her name troubled me somehow. I felt like I’d heard it somewhere before, but I couldn’t remember right away.

“She’s a member of the exploration team, Senpai.”

Another voice answered before I could figure it out. I turned around to see a girl with swaying pigtails—Katou—walking toward us. Her sleeves were rolled up, revealing her slender white arms. Beside her was a woman wearing a mask, her gray hair tied in a braid. It was Rose.

Rose was carrying wet items in her arms. The two of them had been using the river to wash the mud off of everything Iino had retrieved. A little farther away, Gerbera and Kei were noisily enjoying the task as well. An arachne and an elf together was rather bizarre in this world, but the scene was idyllic in my eyes.

Rose lined up the clean items on a sheet by the riverside. Katou used a rag to dry them off, after which Rose began sorting them out.

“The Beast of Darkness Todoroki Miya,” Katou said while continuing her work. “She was famous back in the Colony. I think she was in the same grade as you, Senpai.”

“Oh, right.”

Now I remembered. Even among the elite exploration team, which was made up entirely of cheaters who’d gained nonsensical powers upon arriving in this world, there were those who were known above all others. For example, the Sword of Light Nakajima Kojirou, the Absolute Blade Hibiya Kouji, the Dragon Jinguuji Tomoya, and the girl right here before me, the Skanda Iino Yuna. It felt like ages ago now, but back in the Colony, I’d definitely heard of the Beast of Darkness Todoroki Miya.

“Hm?”

Just as I realized I’d heard that name, something got stuck on my mind.

“Is something the matter, Senpai?” Katou asked curiously.

“I feel like I heard that name somewhat recently,” I said, and after a few seconds, I remembered. “Takaya Jun... Right. He mentioned Todoroki.”

He’d brought up her name when we challenged him to get Lily back. When we were prodding him for information about Heaven’s Voice, the mysterious cheater hiding among the exploration team, Takaya Jun had mentioned Todoroki Miya’s name in a bid to shake Kudou.

Now that I thought of it, Iino, who had been riding on Berta’s back pretending to be Kudou at the time, had also reacted to her name. I’d thought maybe she knew who they were, but I hadn’t had the time to ask. After that, we’d gotten caught in a life-or-death battle, so it had totally slipped my mind. Iino’s reaction made sense if Todoroki Miya was an exploration team member. It didn’t seem like they were just fellow members either.

“Were you close to her?” I asked Iino.

“Yes,” she replied, her eyes drifting over to the telescope on the ground. “That’s why I want to ask you something. You’re in contact with Kudou, right? Why did Takaya bring up Todo...? What is there between her and Kudou? Please, it doesn’t matter what it is, just tell me what you know.”

“I’m not really in contact with Kudou or anything,” I muttered. I knew what she was getting at, but I didn’t have the answers she was looking for. “We were enemies at Fort Tilia, and this time we hardly spoke at all. Sorry, but I don’t know anything about their involvement.”

“I see... Oh well,” she said with a dejected sigh.

“Hey, Iino. Did Todoroki...?”

“She wasn’t in the first expeditionary force. She stayed behind in the Colony.”

Based on her expression, I’d expected that answer.

“We didn’t leave the Colony helpless, just so you know,” she continued. “We left two nicknamed cheaters behind—The Beast of Darkness Todo, and the Absolute Blade Hibiya Kouji. So long as they were there, we figured we’d be ready for anything... That’s how it was supposed to be.”

She added on the last part because she knew what had happened in the end.

“‘Ready for anything’ only concerned monsters, right?” I said with a sigh. “The Colony self-destructed. It wasn’t a monster attack. It fell apart from the inside out.”

In the end, it was the exploration team’s leader, Nakajima Kojirou, who’d maintained our stable life at the Colony. It had been thanks to his charisma and leadership. There had still been discontent and anxiety while he was there, but his presence had checked any negative emotions. That was why everything had come pouring out when he left.

“Do you resent us?” Iino asked, sounding almost frightened.

“I don’t have a great opinion of all of you, but I don’t blame you for it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Blaming you doesn’t change what happened. Besides, I don’t think the exploration team’s decision was wrong back then.”

“What do you mean?”

“We had no future if we continued to stay in the Woodlands like that. However, a long-distance journey was impossible with the entire group. We would’ve had to dispatch an expeditionary force eventually.”

I set aside my emotions and continued in an indifferent manner.

“It’s true that the first expeditionary force’s departure was the trigger that led to the Colony’s destruction, but the ones who actually destroyed it were a portion of the cheaters, not the expeditionary force itself. It’s not fair to criticize you after the fact.”

“How rational of you...”

“I did say I don’t have a great opinion of all of you, though.”

There were some things I couldn’t accept on an emotional level. I couldn’t deny that. Still, it had been four months now. Whether this was only four months or already four months depended on the individual, but at the very least, I’d managed to calm my emotions. My desire to remain uninvolved with the exploration team far outweighed any complaints I had about them.

The worst part was this mysterious Heaven’s Voice who was part of their group. I had no idea how deeply the poison of malice had infected all of them. I prayed that the exploration team could purge the toxin as best they could, but if that failed, I didn’t want to get caught up in whatever would happen.

“You’re returning to the exploration team, right?” I asked.

“That’s the plan. I still feel a little stiff, but I can move around now. I need to pass by Serrata too before I meet back up with everyone.”

“Serrata... You plan on visiting Louis?”

“Mhm. Honestly, I still don’t think Louis was lying,” Iino said, looking down as if to hide the strong glint in her eyes. “His righteous indignation was the real thing...I think. I need to speak with him once more, especially if he’s misunderstood something.”

The friction between Iino and me during this incident had all originated from Louis Bard, the subordinate of the southern Empire’s most influential noble, Margrave Maclaurin. He’d told Iino, “Majima Takahiro is one of the people responsible for the attack on Fort Tilia.” We didn’t know whether Louis had tricked Iino with his silver tongue or whether he had been under the wrong impression himself. Iino thought it was the latter.

“I plan on leaving tomorrow morning,” she said.

“Can’t just sit still for a second, huh?”

“Well, yeah. There’s also this Heaven’s Voice. I want to get back as soon as possible. It’ll take longer because I want to visit Serrata first too. It already took quite some time for my wounds to heal.”

Currently, the only one among my travel companions who could use healing magic was Kei. As an elf, she had the makings of a terrific mage, but she was only ten years old and had a limited repertoire. Magic that just barely verged on grade 2 took time to treat any wounds. It had taken three days to get Iino to a state where she could move around properly. Judging by her impatient personality, she was liable to dash off at any moment.

Despite this, she’d decided to spend the entire day helping us retrieve our belongings. It was a big difference from three days ago when she’d constantly yelled that she couldn’t believe me. What on earth could’ve caused her stance to change so drastically?

“Don’t worry. I’m not planning on dragging you back to the Empire after all this,” she said, putting one hand to her waist and chuckling. “This Heaven’s Voice or whatever they think they are might be part of the exploration team. You said you can’t trust us. I guess that makes sense. Even Takaya ended up like that...”

Iino sighed. This incident had given her a lot to think about now.

“Are you fine with leaving the whole Mizushima Miho thing like this?” I asked, looking at her sorrowful expression.

I figured this was an unnecessary question. There was no point in stirring things up. However, Iino, who’d once been burning with righteous indignation regarding everything that had happened with Mizushima Miho, lightly shook her head.

“The person in question agrees with it, so it’s not my place to say anything,” she said.

Unexpectedly, it looked like she was dropping the point entirely. All the same, I didn’t really understand how she came to such a conclusion.

“The person in question?” I asked.

“Oh... Uhh, it’s nothing. Forget it.”

“It doesn’t sound like nothing...”

“A-Anyway! That’s how it is!” Iino waved her hands about in a fluster and turned on her heel. “Okay then, I’m going to look for more!”

“Ah! Hey! Iino!”

She was already running off by the time I tried to stop her. This was the Skanda. Even if she wasn’t in perfect condition, her figure vanished in the blink of an eye.

“What a weirdo,” I murmured to myself. Just then, I saw Katou staring in the direction Iino had run off to. “Hm? Katou? Something wrong?”

“It’s nothing...” Katou said, shaking her head. “It can’t be...I think.” She giggled, then turned to her friend. “Rose, I’m done.”

“I have finished too,” Rose replied. “I’ll bring over the items Iino just retrieved.”

Rose picked up the dirty items Iino had brought back and carried them over to Gerbera and Kei, who were having fun chatting while splashing water around and washing things.

“It’s fine to have fun, you two,” Rose said to them, “but if you get too excited, it’s possible you might break something. Especially you, Gerbera. You can be quite careless.”

“I know, Rose. Don’t worry. I won’t make such a simple— Oops.”

“H-Huh? Gerbera? What was that? Did something just crack?” Kei asked.

“I just warned you...” Rose grumbled.

“I-I’m sorry!”

It looked like they were having fun. I watched them with a smile as I listened to the footsteps coming my way over the gravel.

“Um... Senpai?”

Katou came within reach, looking up at me with a probing gaze.

“What’s up?”

“Um, about Iino... I thought you hated her.”

“I do. What about it?” I said a little dubiously. “What’s this all of a sudden?”

Katou looked somewhat vexed by my reaction.

“Despite that, um... How do I put it...?”

In the end, she couldn’t think of a polite way to put it and instead decided to give it to me straight.

“Senpai, it looks like you don’t actually hate her.”

I had trouble responding to the sudden accusation and hesitated for a moment.

“Does it look that way to you?” I asked.

“Yes.” Katou nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on mine the entire time.

“I see...”

I forced a smile without meaning to. It wasn’t that she’d said something completely off the mark. It was the opposite. Katou really did have a good eye when it came to people. I scratched my head and looked to where Iino had run off.

“I’m not really lying or anything,” I said.

It was true. I swore to myself that I’d never lose what was precious to me; no matter what, that was one thing I would never allow to happen. Praying was the best my weak self could do. There was so much else I’d had to give up on to protect them. Just maybe, if I had the same strength as Iino, I wouldn’t have had to give up on any of it. I couldn’t see her in a positive light because of that. Still, there was definitely something else aside from my negative opinions of her.

“When I see someone who has everything I’ve had to give up on, I can’t possibly think nothing of it,” I added.

“Senpai...”

“That’s why I hate her,” I said, pausing with a sigh. “It’s also why I want her to keep going. I want her to see things through like that to the end. Somewhere inside me, I truly want that for her.”

Before she’d chased me, Iino had saved several students in the Depths. She’d rescued people she didn’t really know, going as far as jumping into danger. She was sure to keep living like that too. In a sense, I couldn’t live the same way as she did, not now that I’d decided to prioritize protecting what was precious to me no matter what I had to do. That’s why I hated her, yet I couldn’t outright deny the value behind her way of doing things. Katou had sensed this inconsistency within me.

“What about you, Katou? What do you think of her?” I asked.

Katou narrowed her eyes, then said, “I...don’t like her.”

“I see. Well, that makes sense,” I replied with a chuckle. Her straightforward answer was rather like her.

“Senpai...” she muttered, looking up at me with an entranced gaze. Then she lowered her head as if running away from something. “It’s because you’re like that...”

This time, she was being uncharacteristically vague. She didn’t continue her sentence. She stood there with her hands clasped together. Because of our difference in height and the way she hung her head, I couldn’t see much of her face aside from her taut lips, but her ears had gone red.

An unexpectedly strange atmosphere wrapped around us, and we remained standing in front of each other in complete silence. I didn’t feel like she was criticizing me or anything. Katou’s behavior seemed...more like sulking. Maybe it was something a little different from that. I couldn’t really tell.

“What do you—”

“Takahiro, may I have a moment?”

Just as I tried asking for clarification, another voice called out to me. Kei came to a stop and looked up at me, and then at Katou.

“Oh, sorry. Did I maybe get in the way of something?”

“Not at all,” Katou said, suddenly raising her head. Relief colored her slightly blushed cheeks. “We were just chatting. Okay then, I’m going to go help Rose.”

Katou gave me a quick bow then left in a hurry. Kei saw her off, then looked up at me.

“Um, am I really not getting in the way?” she asked.

“Not at all.”

I still wondered what that was about, but chasing Katou and asking her for clarification would just disconcert her. Though I was dissatisfied with the result, I decided to move on.

“So? What did you need?” I asked Kei.

“Oh, right. It’s about the provisions we recovered,” she replied promptly. “We don’t have a lot of food on hand, so the plan is to prioritize cooking what we can retrieve. Are you fine with that?”

“Sounds good. Some of it’s probably spoiled, though. Throw out anything that looks bad.”

“Gerbera said it’d be a waste, so she’ll just eat them.”

“No, throw them out.”

I knew Gerbera’s stomach was tough, but I didn’t want to make a girl eat rotten food when we weren’t even in an emergency situation.

“Very well,” Kei said with a nod. Then she suddenly looked like she’d realized something. “Oh, one more thing. There’s something I’d like to talk to...or I guess, consult you about.”

“What is it?”

Kei looked around. After checking that nobody was listening to us, she looked back up at me. Anxiety highlighted her childish features.

“It’s about Shiran,” she said in a hushed tone.