Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 8 - Chapter 10

Chapter 10: A Promise with a Wolf

After leaving Diospyro, we linked back up with Gerbera and Shiran. I gave them the sweets we’d gotten as souvenirs, then confirmed that nothing had changed. All that was left was to wait for contact from the settlement.

Come nighttime, after I finished my daily training, I returned to the campsite with my sparring partner Rose and our instructor Shiran.

“Good work out there... Huh? Rose? Did something happen?” Katou asked curiously from her seat on the ground next to Kei. “You look kind of happy.”

I turned around to look at Rose and met the face of a girl with grayish-silver hair done up in a braid.

Rose’s expressions were fundamentally subtle. She did this intentionally because any large changes in her facial expression would make it obvious that she was a puppet. Honestly, I didn’t think it really mattered when it was just our group like this, but Rose didn’t like the idea of appearing unsightly. She was a girl, so I could understand such things bothering her.

Currently, she was in a relatively neutral state. When she let go of her control entirely, her face would look completely inorganic, so even though she was working hard so that this wouldn’t happen, she wasn’t really making any kind of expression. Still, I could sense that she was in high spirits through the mental path. In other words, Katou’s observation hadn’t been baseless.

“Wow. I’m surprised, Mana,” Kei said with admiration. “How can you tell?”

“The whole atmosphere around her just seems kind of fluffy, I guess,” Katou answered with a smile.

“Fluffy?” Kei repeated.

“Yes. Also, I feel like her footsteps are lighter than usual.”

“Um, sorry. I don’t really see it...”

I didn’t either. Actually, I was pretty sure nobody else could. It seemed that, thanks to their prolonged time together, Katou had acquired a special ability to read Rose’s emotions without even needing the mental path.

“So, Rose? Did something happen?” Katou asked again.

Rose nodded. “Yes. Listen to this, Mana. In the mock battle just now, my master scored a hit on me for the very first time.”

Once she opened her mouth, Rose’s mood became very apparent.

“Hmm. That’s amazing,” Katou said in genuine surprise.

Rose merrily gripped both of Katou’s hands and continued. “It was a sharp blow. He warded my ax off like this, then slashed into my flank.”

“Hey now, Rose. Cut it out,” I said.

Even though it was something I’d done, I couldn’t hold back a bitter smile seeing Rose talking about it so happily.

“Up until today, we’ve had more than two hundred bouts, and every single time, I got done in,” I added. “Even today, I lost ten times. Among all that, I managed just one hit, which was pretty much a complete fluke. I’m still nowhere close to matching you, so when you exaggerate like that, it’s, well...a little awkward.”

In truth, after I scored that hit, I’d gone through a chain of losses. Being so openly praised for that made me self-conscious.

“But, Master, your daily efforts bore fruit to that exact fluke. I believe this is a day worth celebrating,” Rose said in all seriousness.

“Oh, that’s a great idea,” Lily chimed in while watching the pot over the fire. “How about adding an extra portion of meat to dinner?”

“Lily? Are you being serious?” I asked, grimacing.

“You don’t want to? Aren’t you happy about improving?”

“I am...but that’s overdoing it a little.”

“I don’t think so. Hee hee. Besides, we resupplied in Diospyro, so I wanted to use up some of our older meat. The timing is perfect.”

“I’m glad I have such reliable companions...”

“Mrrgh. I would prefer you say I was your lover... Hm? Are you embarrassed?”

I averted my eyes. As I did, I saw Shiran giggling with a friendly smile on her face.

“Oh, right, Shiran,” Kei said. “Sorry for asking just as you get back, but I have a request.”

“What is it?”

“Could you show Mana an example of magic? She’s having problems getting grade 1 water magic to stabilize. Mine is a little too poorly put together to use as an example. I’m thinking it’d be better if you could show her.”

“Is that so?” Shiran said, narrowing her eye for a moment before continuing. “Then Kei, as a test, please show me what you’ve been doing up until now.”

“Y-Yes.”

Kei nodded a little nervously and took Katou’s hand. A blue light shimmered in her palm, and a glyph took shape. Katou squinted, which made her brow wrinkle. She was focusing on the mana flow. This was the simplest way to teach someone magic. By touching a teacher and having them demonstrate the same magic multiple times, one could memorize the mana flow and reproduce it. When it came to simply learning a spell, there was no faster method.

Incidentally, to go a step further and make personal adjustments to magic, one needed to study mysticology, a field that detailed the instinctive parts of magic as theory. Specialists in the field were associated with an educational institution in the Empire that was crammed with nobles.

However, soldiers fighting on the front lines didn’t need that level of knowledge or technique. The grade 1 and grade 2 magic they could learn had limited applications in battle, so instead they focused on learning a single spell with as much destructive force as possible. That was enough for fighting in formation. More elaborate magic constructions were only important to the small percentage of mages who’d mastered multiple grade 2 magics, or the grandmasters who’d reached the level of grade 3 magic.

Spiritualists were an exception. The spirits they contracted with would construct the magic themselves, so a spiritualist could use magic beyond their capabilities.

I’d also asked Lily how it worked for monsters, and she’d told me, “I guess it’s all by instinct?” If she were to ever get involved with mysticology, perhaps she could contribute toward great advancements in the field.

A water bullet flew out of Kei’s glyph and gouged itself into a tree.

Watching this, Shiran calmly offered her assessment, saying, “There are parts of its construction that are still lacking, and there are ways to optimize it better, but it should be fine for the purposes of teaching.”

If the glyph’s construction was too shoddy, magic wouldn’t even activate. In the beginning, a student couldn’t make anything more than an inferior copy of what the teacher had shown them, so if the teacher’s magic was lacking, the student might not be able to activate their own magic. That didn’t seem to be the case here, though.

“The way you assemble your magic in the first place is very clean, Kei,” Shiran added. “For example, it would likely be the same if Lily or I were to use the same magic.”

“Is that so...?” Kei asked.

“See? It’s as I’ve been telling you, Kei. I’m just bad at this,” Katou said with a nod, still holding Kei’s hand. “Senpai only recommended that I try learning water magic to use as a form of self-defense. It isn’t much of a priority compared to healing magic. I’ll just take it at my own pace.”

“Mana...”

“Come on, everyone is back now, so let’s take a break until dinner,” Katou said, giving Kei’s head a good pat.

“Understood,” Kei answered with a nod as she rose to her feet. “Then I’ll go help out with dinner. Lily, is there anything I can do?”

“You’ll help? Thanks. In that case, can you go get the meat?”

“Sure.”

Kei went back to the manamobile and retrieved the salted meat. As she did, Lobivia flipped up the cloth at the back of the vehicle and poked her head out.

“Huh? Is something the matter, Lobivia?” Kei asked, coming to a stop and turning around. Unlike yesterday, Kei was acting normal without any of that strange tension in the air.

“Dinner...?” Lobivia asked.

“It’ll be a bit longer. Can you wait?”

“Got it.” Lobivia sullenly nodded and hid herself back inside the manamobile.

Since we were off the road leading to town, we didn’t know when people would pass by. Therefore Gerbera, Ayame, and Lobivia stayed inside the vehicle. It wasn’t much of a problem for Lobivia, who could go outside so long as she had her knapsack, or Ayame, who spent most of the day napping. Gerbera, on the other hand, could basically only go out in the middle of the night. I wondered whether she’d be unable to bear the gloominess of being inside the vehicle for so long, but fortunately, she seemed to be passionately working away at something, so she wasn’t bored at all.

Berta, who also had to avoid being seen, vanished for a while whenever the sun set. She was somewhere nearby, but I doubted that she would slip up and let someone discover her.

“Okay, let’s add the meat,” Lily said. “Kei, could you stir it for me?”

“Understood.”

Lily cut the salted meat Kei had brought her into thin slices and added it to the pot, using some herbs to adjust the flavor. Kei stirred the contents every now and then to make sure nothing burned to the bottom.

As I watched the two of them work, Katou came up beside me.

“Kei’s such a good girl, isn’t she?” Katou whispered to me. “She helps out all the time.”

“Yeah, she is.”

That wasn’t all. Lately, Kei had been almost solely responsible for Katou’s magic lessons. Plus, it was a form of training for Kei as well. On top of that, she trained in martial arts to become a knight, and she even helped Lobivia whenever she could.

“Kei appears to idolize you, Mana,” Shiran said, coming over and joining our conversation. “It seems that you’ve also been providing her with much advice lately. I must thank you.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I’m just happy that the knowledge I have from my world is of any use.”

“It turns out that while I know the ways of the knight, I am rather ignorant as a woman. It’s really been helpful to have you teach her all manner of things. Please continue to provide her with your guidance from here on out.”

Shiran smiled and lowered her head, then turned on her heel.

“Where are you going, Shiran?” I asked.

“I’ve been feeling rather stiff lately, so I thought I’d follow your example and swing my sword a little. While I’m at it, I’ll take a look around the area. I’ll be back before dinner is over.”

“You’re not going to eat?”

“I’m not. I have already informed Lily of such. Oh, after dinner, I’ll teach you the ways of using a spirit just as usual, so there’s no need to worry.”

After Shiran became an undead monster, she no longer had any need for food or sleep. That was why, once in a while, she didn’t join us for our meals. It was just like her to see the bright side—that this gave her time to do other worthwhile things.

After seeing her off, I turned back to Katou. “Oh yeah, you mentioned knowledge from our world just now, right? What have you been teaching Kei? That stuff Shiran mentioned, I mean.”

“I guess you can call it teaching, but, um...”

It was just a casual question, but for some reason, Katou was hesitant to answer.

“Ummm...” Katou continued muttering.

“About underwear,” Rose answered in her stead. I froze in place. “Especially ones for the breasts. In this world, there is no female-specific underwear like there is in yours, Master. Because of that, we talked about Gerbera’s and my trying to make some. According to Mana, it is better to pick out appropriate underwear to match a girl during her growth period.”

“Um... Kei is in her growth period, so it can’t hurt,” Katou said.

In contrast to Rose’s serious and eloquent answer, Katou was extremely embarrassed. It was awkward for me too.

“What’s more,” Rose continued, “Mana and Lily also wanted underwear. Has my sister not informed you of such?”

“Oh... Now that you mention it, I think she said something like that before? Something about wanting things from the other world...”

I would’ve preferred it if Rose had figured out why I was being awfully vague with my choice of words. Opportunities to talk about these things with Lily only came at very specific times. Incidentally, the women of this world mostly wrapped cloth around their chests. It definitely wasn’t as functional as what we had, nor was it cute... I’ll omit why I even know this.

“There’s the shape of the cup, the choice of using a wire, the thickness of the strap, and even the overall design. It’s all rather amusing,” Rose explained indifferently. “My elder sister said that she didn’t really care about such things, though.”

Rose had the right attitude. This was a normal conversation, so there was nothing to be embarrassed about. That said, even if I could understand the logic behind that, talking about that stuff was still awkward for me.

I averted my eyes to try and escape, when I saw Kei looking our way, completely stunned. She’d probably overheard us.

“Hey, Kei, it’s burning,” I said.

“Oh, right, sorry.”

Using that as an excuse, I stood up and got away from the girls. I was relieved to avoid any more of that awkward conversation. Shortly after, lying in wait for me at the pot, Lily leaned against me.

“About what Rose was saying, I’m not really fussy over it myself, so maybe I’ll pick out something that you prefer, Master.”

I was stunned into even more awkward silence.

“Tell me your preferences later, okay?” she added.

I felt red eyes staring my way from a gap in the cloth covering the manamobile. Lily had at least spoken in a hushed tone so that Kei wouldn’t hear her, but Gerbera had apparently overheard us with her sharp senses. They did say one’s eyes told more than one’s mouth. It didn’t look like I was going to be able to escape this topic for a while. And just then...

“Second King.”

A voice called me from the forest. I knew it was Berta, but I couldn’t see her. She was probably being cautious in the unlikely event that someone passed by.

“I have something to speak with you about,” she said. “Lend me a moment of your time later.”

◆ ◆ ◆

After finishing dinner and reaching a good stopping point in Shiran’s lecture, I walked away from the group to speak with Berta. Wondering what this was about, Lily and I followed the wolf’s tracks.

“So? What did you need?” I asked.

“I will not accompany you beyond this point,” she said, cutting to the chase. “I need not tell you the reason, I assume?”

This was all rather sudden, but I figured out the reason right away. Draconia was a hidden settlement. Only the bare minimum of outsiders could be allowed inside. Even Fukatsu was staying behind. That was to say nothing of Berta being Kudou Riku’s servant. She knew full well the dangers that could be brought about by her position.

“I won’t go to Draconia. That way, I won’t have any way of knowing where it is. Meaning, my king will know nothing of it.”

So long as Berta remained ignorant, Kudou Riku couldn’t ask her to bring him information and do something with it. In a way, this could be considered a small act of defiance against the master she’d sworn absolutely fealty to. Berta was here as our guard; she hadn’t been ordered to gather information.

“Sorry our circumstances are interfering with your orders like that,” I said.

“Are you really fine with believing me so easily?” Berta said with a villainous huff. “Perhaps I plan to follow you in secret.”

“You’re not going to do anything like that after all this time, right?”

I could have said I had my doubts, especially after her cynical observation, but I trusted her character and judged that she couldn’t tell a lie to my face.

Berta huffed again. Maybe this was her way of hiding her embarrassment.

“Well, you can feel at ease however you damn well like,” Berta said. “I can’t do anything to incur your displeasure to begin with. My king forbade me from doing so.”

Berta’s tail casually waved about behind her.

“This is a good opportunity,” she added. “I’ll return to my king’s side for a while. I haven’t heard from him yet, but I plan to see if I can get in touch with him myself.” She paused for a moment, then lowered her voice. “Depending on my king’s will, I might not return here.”

“I see...”

I wasn’t so dense as to overlook what she meant. If Kudou was to start some other incident, depending on how things developed, we would be mutual enemies when next we met. Nonetheless, even if that was the case, it didn’t change the fact that Berta had guarded us up until now.

“We really are indebted to you,” I told her.

“Hmph. There wasn’t much meaning in my being here, though,” she said with another huff.

I gently shook my head. “That’s not true. During the time Lily got hurt and couldn’t move about, you guarded us well,” I said, glancing at Lily to my side. “You were our guard just in case something happened, so even if nothing happened, there was meaning in you being here. Besides, I’ve personally benefited from this too.”

“What do you mean?”

“I now know there’s someone like you serving Kudou.”

Both pairs of Berta’s eyes shot open, as if she’d been caught off guard.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” she said.

“Really?”

Berta averted her eyes, looking at where Ayame was now standing. The little fox had apparently slipped away from the others. Ayame let out a yip and sidled up against her. Berta didn’t reject her. Seeing this, I decided to force the subject.

“Hey, Berta?”

“What?”

“If you do come back here, and as long as it doesn’t inconvenience him...could you tell us what Kudou is up to?”

Berta looked my way. As expected, there was a fierce air about her.

“Are you asking me to be a spy?”

“I’m not. If you’d like, I don’t mind if you tell him about this. I don’t want you to be a spy. I’d like you to serve as a channel between us.”

Berta sank into thought for a moment.

“Do you really understand what you’re saying?” she asked. “That will expose both of you to danger. There’s a possibility that I will leak information on my king to you, while a connection to my king could become a major disadvantage for you.”

“Even so, I can’t leave Kudou be.”

This proposal was feasible precisely because I knew Berta could be trusted now. She had a strong sense of duty. She wasn’t likely to do anything dishonest, neither to the king she’d sworn fealty to, nor to me—regardless of her king’s current command to guard me. Depending on the circumstances, this could put her in a terribly difficult position, but I’d decided to propose this anyway because I was convinced I had to.

“What’s with you people?” she said. “The slime there said something similar.”

“You did?” I asked Lily, looking at her with surprise, and she nodded. “I see.”

In other words, I wasn’t wrong to ask this.

“He won’t stop. He can’t be stopped anymore,” Berta said, a hint of anger in her voice now. “You should know that damn well.”

She’d probably said the same thing to Lily before. Her voice was dry, like a shadow was hanging over it, but there was definitely emotion behind it.

“Yeah. It’s as you say,” I told her with a nod. “He won’t stop. Above all else, he doesn’t wish to stop.”

“Then, in that case—”

“But you want him to, right?”

Berta froze. It was just as I thought. Her words had sounded like she was trying to convince herself to give up.

“What meaning is there to my own desire?” she muttered.

“So you don’t deny that you want this?”

She fell silent. She truly was an awkward wolf. Kudou wasn’t the only one I couldn’t leave be.

“You’re the only one who decides whether there’s any meaning to it,” I said.

“Are you telling me to live true to my desires?”

“You’re also the one to decide that.”

The edges of Berta’s mouth peeled back, revealing her sharp fangs. It looked like she was trying to menace us, but I could immediately tell that she was smiling.

“Heh. Heh heh... What a detestable man. It’s like I’m being cornered by what I’ve been trying to run away from all this time.”

In contrast to her barbed words, Berta seemed to be in a good mood. She actually seemed kind of refreshed.

“No... Now that it’s come to this, it would’ve caught up to me eventually,” Berta continued. “I realized it sooner because of the time I spent with all of you.”

She glanced to the side as if noticing something, but continued speaking without pointing out what it was.

“If I hadn’t realized it now, it’s possible I would have regretted it later. In that case, it is fortunate I was here. Very well. When I get back, I’ll try speaking with my king about it.”

“Thank you, Berta.”

“Hmph...” She huffed one last time and turned on her heels. This time, it was obvious she was hiding her embarrassment.

With that, the enormous two-headed gray wolf vanished beyond the trees, leaving Ayame yipping sadly behind her.

“Come here, Ayame,” I said, scooping the little fox up into my arms. I brushed her head as she pushed her snout against me. “There’s no need to feel lonely. She’ll be back.”

I didn’t know how many weeks it would take, but I was sure we would meet again. Berta had promised us we would.

Lily watched us with a grin until Ayame calmed down, then suddenly turned toward the trees.

“How about coming out already?” she said. “You’re there, right?”

Several seconds later, Lobivia came out from the shadow of a tree. I wasn’t particularly surprised. I’d sensed her presence through the mental path. I hadn’t expected to see Kei with her, however.

“S-Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” Kei said, bowing.

“You just came to stop me, didn’t you?” Lobivia mumbled.

Lobivia had probably come here wondering what we were up to, and Kei had followed her when she noticed Lobivia leaving. This had naturally led to them listening in on our conversation.

“Well, I’m pretty sure Berta already noticed,” Lily said, folding her arms and sighing. “Seeing as she didn’t say anything about it, she didn’t really mind. Still, this isn’t praiseworthy behavior.”

“Sorry...” Lobivia said awkwardly.

She hadn’t done it on purpose, so this was enough. Lily left things at a light warning.

“That wolf...” Lobivia muttered, looking off to where Berta had vanished.

“Hm?” I murmured.

“She looked at me.”

“Is that so?”

“Our eyes met.”

Berta had glanced toward Lobivia’s location earlier. I didn’t know she’d been looking at the dragon, but there was no mistaking it now. In that case, maybe Berta had spoken of this so that Lobivia could hear her. She was good at taking care of others, after all.

Lobivia had definitely felt something by listening to Berta’s confession and seeing her resolve. That was what it meant to possess an ego. By experiencing the many things that the world had to offer, she was sure to grow. I watched over the young dragon attentively as she matured ever so slightly in this moment.