Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 8 - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Mist Barrier

I didn’t have much to do while we waited in the forest off the road for news from Draconia. If we were in town, I could kill time loitering around the marketplace, but that wasn’t really an option in the forest. I could train more, but there was a limit to how long I could spend simply swinging a sword about. Actually, in all seriousness, I’d practiced too much already, and my arm felt a little sluggish. The fact that I thought it’d be a good opportunity to take it slow and read a book or something meant that I had more time than I knew what to do with.

“Lobivia, I’m heading back. What about you?”

The little dragon, with nothing in particular to do, had been sitting nearby in a daze while I swung my sword. She seemed to be deep in thought. When I called out to her, she blinked as if waking from a dream. She rose to her feet, then corrected the position of the knapsack on her back.

“I’ll go too...”

“Okay.”

I returned to the campsite with Lobivia. I was planning on borrowing a book from Lily. I’d recently started learning how to read the writing in this world, but unlike Lily, who was unexpectedly passionate about learning and had immediately grasped the language, I only knew a few words. Because of that, I had to keep the dictionary Lily had made for me close at hand.

Incidentally, Rose had successfully replicated a translation runestone recently. It took some time to make one, but the day when we’d all have one for ourselves wasn’t far off now.

“My Lord?” When I got back to the manamobile, Gerbera poked her head out of the vehicle and called me. “May I have a moment?”

For some reason, she was excited, her expression almost childlike. I wondered why that was, but I didn’t have any reason to refuse.

“Lobivia, you go ahead without me.”

“Mm...”

Lobivia nodded and walked off, but her steps were hesitant, as if she didn’t want to leave me. I was a little worried, but then Kei ran up to her, so it looked like Lobivia would be fine. Relieved by the sight, I prioritized Gerbera’s business. She’d already withdrawn into the manamobile.

“So? What is it?” I asked as I flipped up the cloth and entered.

The first thing I saw was Gerbera wearing nothing but a bra, so I spun around on the spot to leave.

“My Lord? Why are you leaving?”

“More importantly, what are you doing...”

Nothing made sense. What I’d seen was too unexpected. Or maybe it wasn’t? Something about it niggled at me, so I recalled the image now burned into my mind. Gerbera was wearing a bra. The girls had talked about bras recently.

“I tried making it to suit your tastes. I’d like your opinion.”

Using the opening I’d created when I sank into thought, Gerbera abruptly grabbed my arm and pulled me back into the manamobile with her unopposable strength. I lost my balance and pitched forward, my face plunging into two womanly bulges covered by underwear. I pulled myself back up in a panic.

Gerbera’s near-naked figure jumped into view. Her usual clothes were draped around her waist, leaving her upper body completely exposed, save for a simple bra covering her breasts. The design itself wasn’t all that cute. It was probably still in an experimental phase. Still, in this case, the contents beneath the underwear were the real problem.

Her figure sprouting from her spider-half was fair, graceful, and beautiful. That was a hard enough blow to my self-restraint as it was, but I was also in love with this girl. The destructive power behind her half-naked form was nothing to laugh at. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. Gerbera had a feminine allure to her that made me vividly aware that I was a man.

“Gerbera, did you forget that I already answered your confession?” I said, pinching my brow.

“Hrm? I haven’t... Oh! Could it be?!” Gerbera exclaimed, her bloodred eyes widening. “Has this garment by some chance made you fall madly in love?!”

“Normally, I’d think you were trying to seduce me here...”

If this were Lily, I’d definitely get the impression that she was in the mood, figure it out as her lover, and act in kind. However, Gerbera was unaware of what she was doing. Despite that, her actions sometimes left her horribly defenseless, so I had a hard time figuring out how to respond. It felt like I’d been left hanging.

“I-I’m ready at any time, just so you know,” Gerbera said.

“But you’ll squish me flat in your embrace, right?”

“Right!”

No matter how endearing I found her, when her legs restlessly skittered about like this, I had no choice but to maintain my sense of reason.

“Grrr... Something must be done about this...” she mumbled.

This greatly vexed Gerbera. I gave her a wry smile, then leaned in.

“I’m looking forward to it,” I said.

Even as I closed the distance between us, Gerbera didn’t put herself on guard. She never did with me. She simply appeared curious. That was why it wasn’t all that hard for me to press my lips against her cheek.

“I’ll see you later then.”

This amount of physical contact was probably fine once in a while. Gerbera froze as she stared at me blankly, so I used that time to exit the manamobile—half to avoid the danger of being squished and half to maintain my sense of reason. I definitely didn’t have the confidence to control myself for a prolonged period of time with my lover in her underwear.

Feeling hot, I sighed and walked off. I’d planned on borrowing a book from Lily, but now I changed my mind. Instead, I decided to immerse myself once more in swinging my sword.

◆ ◆ ◆

“Huh? What’s wrong, Senpai?” Katou asked with a cock of her head when I returned to the campsite. “You look tired.”

“It’s nothing.” I wiped my wet hair and sat down. My body felt heavy, but I’d managed to calm my racing heart. “Practicing magic?”

“Yes. I just happen to be taking a break, though.”

Katou, Kei, and Rose were sitting together. The others were apparently in the manamobile.

“How’s it going?” I asked Katou.

“Not too well.”

Katou picked up the cup of water in front of her. If I remembered right, she was practicing water magic today.

“Did you make that?” I asked.

“That would be nice, but Kei did this as an example,” she answered, sighing. “Water magic sure is tough.”

“Sorry, Mana,” Kei said. “If only I could do something more for you.”

“It’s okay, Kei. It’s not your fault.”

Katou shifted closer to Kei, giving her a hug and a few gentle pats on the back. Katou had a small build, even for a girl, and wasn’t all that much taller than Kei, so they looked much like two dolls lined up side by side. It was cute. Rose was watching them with affection. In truth, Rose, the tallest among them, was the actual doll here. The world was mysterious.

“I would’ve liked to have an aptitude for healing magic,” Katou said, “but honestly, doesn’t dark magic seem to suit my image better?”

“Th-That’s not true!” Kei exclaimed.

“She’s right, Mana,” Rose joined in. “Magic to soothe and heal others truly suits you.”

Katou had been joking, but knowing that Rose was dead serious, she blushed at the sudden compliment.

“That’s true,” I said, smiling on reflex because of her cute reaction. “I also think healing magic suits you, Katou.”

“S-Senpai!” Katou protested. Her eyebrows drooped, and she hung her reddened face. “Jeez... That’s embarrassing.”

“Sorry.”

Katou slowly drank the cup of water in her hands. With that, she managed to regain her composure and then changed the topic.

“Oh, yeah. Lobivia seems to be acting a little weird lately. Did something happen?”

“You noticed?” I asked.

“Well, yeah. She’s been in a daze ever since this morning, so I figured maybe something happened.”

Katou was sharp when it came to these things. Even if she wasn’t, Lobivia was easy to read, so of course Katou would notice.

“Nothing really happened,” I answered. “She’s just, how to put it... She just has something on her mind.”

“What, exactly?”

“I don’t know. However, she’ll refuse to tell me if I ask.”

“She is pretty obstinate.”

Katou really did have a good eye.

“If I attempt to get it out of her, it’ll probably have the opposite effect,” I continued. “I plan on waiting until she tells me about it herself. Or, I guess, until I can get her to trust me enough to tell me.”

“It looks like you already have her trust. Lobivia is really attached to you, Senpai.”

“I wonder about that. It’ll be nice if that’s the case,” I said, shrugging. “Thanks for looking out for her, Katou.”

Katou shook her head. “There’s no need for that. Lobivia is really cute. I just can’t leave her be.”

I really liked this aspect of Katou, almost unexpectedly so.

“Katou, do you maybe like kids?” I asked.

“Huh? Why do you ask all of a sudden?” Katou remained puzzled, but she didn’t deny it. “Yeah, I do.”

This was news to me, but thinking back on things, it made a lot of sense. Right after we arrived at Fort Tilia, Katou had immediately opened up to Kei. Also, when we came back to the campsite, she’d been the first one to come out and greet Lobivia.

“It wasn’t set in stone or anything,” she added, “but I kind of thought it’d be nice to become an elementary school teacher.”

“Hmm. That’s a little surprising, but also just like you.”

“It’s a stable living too.”

“Aah, I can see that.”

“What about you, Senpai? Did you have any dreams for the future?”

“Me? Not really. Go to university, graduate, find a job at some normal office or work for the government. The only thing I really took into consideration was that I wanted to travel a bunch when I became an adult. My parents love traveling, so they took me and my brother on vacations throughout Japan all the time.”

These memories were only from half a year ago, but the sense of nostalgia I got from them made me smile. Back then, I’d never even imagined going on a journey like this in another world.

“I’ve never been abroad, so there were a few places I wanted to go,” I continued. “Like, you know, Sagrada Familia and the like. I wanted to go and see it for myself.”

“That’s in Europe. Spain, I think? Mizushima-senpai said something similar. She mentioned it was going to be finished in a few years, so she wanted to see it while it was still under construction or something. But Senpai, I thought you were bad with English. Would you be okay traveling abroad?”

“Who told you that?”

I grimaced as Katou put her hand to her mouth and giggled. A smile came to me once more. Lately, I’d had quite a few opportunities to talk about our world with Katou like this. I’d decided to live in this world with everyone, but I still had some lingering attachment to mine. I used to try my best not to think about it, and even now, it pained my heart. Despite this, or rather because of this, I often talked about our world with Katou. By doing so, I could relegate any regrets to the corner of my heart.

That was all this amounted to, of course. I couldn’t go to those places anymore; I couldn’t go home anymore. These regrets would remain unresolved for eternity, so all I was doing was settling my own feelings. Still, that was probably enough. I felt salvation just from that. I was very grateful for Katou’s presence.

“Takahiro, may I have a moment?” Thaddeus said, bringing me back from my thoughts. “I’ve gotten word from the settlement.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The leader of the stray dragon pursuit force, the woman named Kath, visited us. She came to inform us that the elder had given us permission to enter the settlement and that she would come by to get us tomorrow.

“That went quicker than I thought,” I said. “I figured it would take longer.”

“It’s an insular settlement, so I’m sure opinions were split,” Thaddeus said, “but if the elder has made her decision, nobody can object.”

“Conversely, that means that not everyone in the settlement approves of our visit.”

We couldn’t really help that. We were outsiders about to enter a hidden settlement, after all.

“To put it another way,” Thaddeus added, “the stray dragon pursuit force was composed of those who sympathized with Lobivia. Despite Kath’s attitude, she is actually very kind...or a little soft, I suppose. She was as considerate as possible given the bounds of her discretion. It’s a different story, though, when it comes to inviting humans into the settlement.”

“You mean some deem it unacceptable to break the rules that protect the settlement just for the stray dragon’s sake?”

“I hope you don’t misunderstand them,” Thaddeus said with a smile that somehow looked lonely. “They just want to protect our home. For the past few centuries, everyday life in the settlement has been stable. Changes in that environment, no matter what they are, invite fear. It might sound pretty pathetic that dragons, with their enormous bodies and outrageous fangs and claws, feel that way, though.”

“I don’t think so. I can understand.”

To them, I was like a foreign invader. I braced myself for what was to come when I entered the settlement.

“These are their opinions,” Thaddeus said, suddenly smiling. “Mine is a little different.”

“Hm? How so?”

Thaddeus looked me straight in the eyes, his gaze gentle, then said, “I believe you may be a symbol of hope, in a sense. Lord Takahiro, you gave Lobivia an ego. To us, that is a major deal. Please do remember that.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The following day, Kath guided us toward Draconia. We weren’t really in a hurry this time, so we didn’t opt to fly there on dragonback. Instead, we rode our manamobile north through Aker. Come nighttime, we gathered around the campfire and listened to Thaddeus.

“I’m sure you already know this, but a branch of the Aralia River serves as the northern border between Aker and Longue County of the Empire. A patch of Dark Woods covers that region. That’s where our settlement is located. I suppose you may have figured that out already.”

“Well, yeah,” I affirmed.

Salvia had told me before that she wanted me to meet someone who knew the past and that they were in the Dark Woods of northern Aker. I’d also heard the name of the lord of that forest before.

“The lord of the Dark Woods is a legendary monster called the Rage of the Earth. Meaning...”

Thaddeus nodded. “Yes. Your guess is correct. “The Rage of the Earth” is the common name humans use for our elder. She does, of course, have a different name of her own.”

“I never heard anything about there being a settlement there. Well, I guess that makes sense. No human will set foot in the Dark Woods, so that makes it a pretty good place to hide.”

Something specific came to mind, and I suddenly scowled.

“I wonder about that,” Lily said, thinking the same thing I was. “At the very least, it’s known that a powerful monster resides there, right? In other words, humans might want to subjugate the Dark Woods. Won’t they dispatch an army there eventually?”

“You have a point, but there are two reasons that that isn’t an urgent problem,” Thaddeus said.

“What do you mean?” Lily asked.

“Basically, it’s impossible to clear any Dark Woods without the help of a savior. Plus, this is Aker, not the Empire.”

“Oh, I get it,” Lily said. “So it’s low on the priority list?”

“Precisely. There are plenty of other Dark Woods left in the southern Empire, and there are even a few in the northern Empire, which is the most stable area in the world. Also, it’s known that the monsters in northern Aker’s Dark Woods don’t inflict much damage. Well, that’s because we cull the monsters in the area, but in any case, that pushes it even further down the priority list. There’s no reason for them to go out of their way to try and deal with it.”

“Is that the reason your settlement was created in northern Aker?” Lily asked, cocking her head.

“Half,” Thaddeus answered with a meaningful smile. “The other half has to do with the second reason the settlement is considered safe. You’ll find that out tomorrow, so look forward to it.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The next day, we finally reached the Dark Woods and immediately understood the meaning behind Thaddeus’s words.

“Mist?” I murmured from the driver’s seat.

“The Dark Woods of northern Aker are famous for being covered in a thick fog all year round,” Shiran said from the seat next to mine. “We’re still on the outskirts, but it appears we’re starting to see a little of it.”

Kei peeked out from the carriage to add, “Visibility is poor here, so you need to be careful not to get lost. The people from our hometown never step foot in this region.”

Shiran and Kei were natives of Aker, but even though their home wasn’t near this area, they still knew about the fog. However, there was something they didn’t know. This was no simple mist.

“What’s going on? I sense mana in this mist,” I said.

“Huh? Really, Takahiro?” Shiran asked.

“Yeah.”

“That’s somewhat strange, My Lord,” Gerbera said, switching places with Kei and peeking out from the back. “I cannot feel any magic at work here. Are you sure you sense mana?”

“I’m pretty sure...”

I lost a bit of confidence when Gerbera put it like that.

“Lord Takahiro is correct,” our guide Kath said, backing my waning confidence. Walking briskly in front of the manamobile by Thaddeus’s side, she looked over her shoulder at us. “This is no common mist. Strictly speaking, it isn’t magic, so it can’t be compared, but if we were to apply some metric to it, it would be equivalent to grade 5 glamor magic.”

“Grade 5?!” I exclaimed.

I was speechless. That was the highest grade of magic in this world. Even among the cheaters of the exploration team, only a few were able to cast any.

“It might be even higher than that,” Kath added. “It’s wrought by the hands of the Lady of the Misty Lodge. We call it the Mist Barrier.”

“Salvia did this? Does that mean...this is a separate dimension created by the Misty Lodge?”

“Your wisdom is just what I’d expect from the Lady’s contractor. It is as you say. This region has been half-transformed into a separate world. The Mist Barrier causes any trespassers to lose their way. It is impossible to get through the mist, no matter who you are. We dragons are the only exceptions.”

Back when we wandered into the Misty Lodge, its magic had even completely captured Gerbera. Yet the glamor used in the Misty Lodge was only an auxiliary effect. Here, it was a defense mechanism that made trespassers lose their way. For that reason, the glamor magic was much more intense. The reason I was able to sense it was definitely because I’d made a contract with the one who’d made the mist.

“But how on earth...?” I muttered. “The Misty Lodge requires a tremendous amount of mana to create its world. It can only be maintained for a few days at most.”

“We touched upon that last night,” Thaddeus said, smiling. “The settlement remains hidden thanks to the Mist Barrier. This is the second reason we need not fear human invasion even though we live in the Dark Woods. Clearing the forest is next to impossible because of the mist, and just as I mentioned yesterday, there are few merits to doing so. Even if they did manage to clear it, it would take a long while with such poor visibility, which would give us sufficient time to escape.”

Thaddeus paused and looked at the thin mist enveloping us.

“This fog is also part of the reason the settlement had to be created here. The Lady gave us a magic tool that maintains the Mist Barrier.”

“A magic tool?”

“Yes. It’s called a Dimensional Cornerstone. It can maintain the world of the Misty Lodge, even if only in a restricted manner.”

“That’s...pretty amazing.”

That was why Kath had said that it wasn’t strictly magic. The Mist Barrier used this magic tool to operate.

“The Dimensional Cornerstone is the treasure of Draconia, and it possesses monumental power. But despite its great strength, it can only be used in an extremely limited set of locations. This is one such location.”

“And that’s why the settlement was created here...”

A magic tool that could only be used in restricted places—I’d heard something similar before. After I thought about it for a few seconds, I remembered the barrier runestones that had protected those huts. They only worked within the Depths. And the Dimensional Cornerstone would only work in the Dark Woods. I found this rather interesting. The Dark Woods and the Depths were both dense with mana. Perhaps that had some kind of influence. Still, as far as I could tell, the Dimensional Cornerstone’s conditions were much stricter.

While I was thinking about that, Kath turned around to face me.

“It is about time for the fog to get thicker,” she said. “Please be careful. The settlement is a few hours away. We’ll be going all the way there today.”

Immediately after she said that, a white haze obstructed our vision. At the same time, the ground turned moist and barren, probably because the mist blocked the sunlight. The trees were also sparsely dispersed.

“Lord Takahiro. It might be a good idea to descend from the vehicle. This area can be—”

“Whoa.”

“It appears I was a little late.”

The manamobile’s wheel sank in the soft soil. Gerbera could lift it back out, but the vehicle wouldn’t be of much use from this point onward. Besides, it wasn’t all that necessary here. Humans rarely entered these lands, and visibility was practically nil, so there was no need to hide Gerbera and Ayame. We accepted Kath’s offer to have someone from the settlement come get the manamobile later, then set off on foot.

“Anyway, can we really reach the settlement when we can barely see in front of us?” I asked.

“It is the other way around, Lord Takahiro,” Kath said. “This mist is exactly what tells us the direction of the settlement. It doesn’t obstruct us from guiding you there. Visibility is simply poor, so please be careful that you do not go astray. We will be entering the Dark Woods shortly. On rare occasions, we may encounter monsters, so please do ready yourselves for the unexpected.”

White dominated our vision as we continued walking, unable to even see who was next to us. We traveled in silence, and after a while, we began seeing trees around us once more. As the density of the trees increased, the area became a proper forest. Goose bumps suddenly ran down my skin. I remembered this sensation.

“Senpai,” Katou called.

“Yeah. It’s the same as the Woodlands.”

Katou felt the same thing. It was the opposite of our experience three months ago when we left the Woodlands. We were definitely in the Dark Woods now. Though sunlight was scarce, the trees grew in droves without a care, fully displaying how abnormal this forest was.

It was already difficult to progress just because of the fog. Combined with the forest terrain and the powerful glamor in place, these lands were like an impregnable fortress.

“The settlement is thoroughly hidden, huh?” I commented.

“Yes. That is exactly why we are able to live stable lives,” Kath replied in a gentle tone I’d yet to hear from her. “This is the small world where we monsters can attain peace. We owe the Lady of the Misty Lodge an unpayable debt.”

We proceeded through the forest, which had been transformed into a world of its own. The next day, we would reach Draconia.