Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 8 - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Draconia

There was basically no undergrowth in the Dark Woods of northern Aker. Even the afternoons were gloomy because of the fog, so there wasn’t enough sunlight for any vegetation to grow. The only flora prospering in this barren soil was the trees of the Woodlands.

Nonetheless, not even these trees could escape the influence of the sunless environment. Unlike normal trees, these didn’t stretch straight up into the sky. Distorted trunks twisted out of the reddish-brown soil and vanished into the mist above. It looked like some kind of haunted forest, and as we walked on, I found it quite amusing that dragons lived in these woods.

“Hey, Takahiro.”

When we were only a short distance away from Draconia, someone called my name and tugged on my sleeve. I looked down to see Lobivia stuck to my side. It was a little hard to walk like this. Her wings remained extended and would sometimes slap me on the back. Not that I was going to say anything about it. She was obviously nervous.

“There’s something I don’t really get. Can I ask you about it?” she said.

Ever since we joined up with Kath, Lobivia had become taciturn. However, starting this morning, she’d been asking me a lot of questions like this. The closer we got to the settlement, the more anxious she became.

“What is it?” I asked in as gentle a tone as I could manage. “If you don’t understand something, then feel free to ask.”

Lobivia cocked her head curiously, her red hair swaying behind her.

“Takahiro, are you and Lily mates?”

Her unexpectedly frank question silenced me for a moment.

“Yeah. I guess so,” I eventually answered.

I was a little worried about the others listening to us, but seeing as how I’d told her to ask freely, I had no choice but to comply.

“So...is Gerbera also your mate?” Lobivia asked.

“Mm-hmm. That’s right,” Gerbera answered from behind us. “We share a mutual love.”

She puffed out her bountiful chest and clenched her fists. Her lips quivered happily. Her flushed face was really cute. I was a little embarrassed with everyone around, but when I saw Gerbera’s honest expression of affection, happiness swelled up inside me. Was this what they referred to as the weakness of falling in love? My cheeks felt a little hot.

“Hmmm?” Lobivia hummed, tilting her head to the opposite side and looking at Gerbera. “But I’ve never seen you sleeping with Takahiro or nothing?”

“Gwah?!” Gerbera yelped. Lobivia had dealt her a major blow. Gerbera staggered and held her hand to her chest. “Th-There are some challenging circumstances regarding that matter. Mutual love truly is difficult.”

“Difficult how?” Lobivia asked.

“Well, how do I put it... When I get too excited, I feel I’ll, like, squish our lord flat in my embrace?”

“Squish him flat?!”

Shocked, Lobivia spread her wings wide, then clung tight to my leg.

“H-Hey there,” I said, feeling like my legs were going to tangle up.

Lobivia didn’t listen to me. She growled, and even though her gaze was already sharp by nature, she glared daggers at Gerbera.

“Are you gonna crush him?” she asked.

The way her wariness exuded from every pore of her body was much like a thorny cactus.

“I-I’m not! Not at all! That’s why I’ve yet to share a bed with him, right?!”

Gerbera began panicking and making excuses. This scene felt familiar. It reminded me of the time Rose had gotten angry at Gerbera for the same thing. Did Rose and Lobivia actually share an unexpected commonality as thorny flowers?

Someone’s stifled laugh brought me back from my thoughts.

Kath, who was up front guiding us, covered her mouth with an “excuse me.” Her eyes were kind as she watched Lobivia glare at Gerbera and cling to my leg.

Lobivia’s growling subsided, replaced by a groan. She folded her wings.

“It’s fine as long as you don’t crush him. It don’t make no sense, though.”

“Mrgh. I can’t help it. I simply can’t control my strength when I get too aroused. One day, you will experience this too.”

“I wonder about that, Gerbera. I’m pretty sure it only applies to you...” Lily said wryly.

“Lily?!” Gerbera shrieked.

“You sure are pathetic despite being so strong,” Lobivia said, sighing. She sounded astonished. “Why don’t you just tie up all your arms and legs or something?”

“Ugh. You have quite the mouth on you... Hm? Tie up?”

“Hey, it’s fine to have fun and all, but leave it at that,” I said. “We’re in the Dark Woods here. Monsters could show up at any moment.”

I didn’t mind a little idle chatter, but we were getting a bit too relaxed, so I decided to give them a warning. Everyone nodded in agreement, but Lobivia had a pensive look on her face.

“What’s up, Lobivia? Something on your mind?” I asked.

“No... I was just thinking it made sense now.” Lobivia craned her neck to look up at me. Her large, almond-shaped eyes reflected my image. “You’ve got Gerbera and Lily’s mana in you, yeah? Is that ’cause you’re mates?”

“What?”

All of our eyes grew wide with shock.

“Huh? Did I say something weird?” Lobivia asked with a blank look.

“I knew about Gerbera’s mana...but Lily’s too?”

We’d learned a long time ago that Gerbera’s mana flowed into me through the mental path, but this was the first we’d ever heard of Lily’s mana being present too.

Lily, who was holding my arm opposite of Lobivia, and Gerbera, who was walking directly behind us, both moved immediately.

“Hang on a sec, Master. Let me check.”

“I shall as well, My Lord.”

Girls were pressing down on me, their eyes closed, from the side and rear. I could hear Kei mumbling “Awawawa” farther to the back. At a glance, this scene might have appeared rather erotic, but it felt more like they were holding me captive. There was no way I could keep walking like this, so our whole group came to a stop. After a few seconds, Lily and Gerbera backed off.

“It’s true... My mana really is there,” Lily said.

“Mm. I never noticed the change because we were always so close,” Gerbera added.

They were in agreement, meaning Lobivia was right. Now that I thought about it, Lobivia had looked at the three of us curiously when we first met. That was apparently because she’d been surprised by the resemblance of our mana.

“But when did it become like this?” Lily asked with a cock of her head. “Before it was just Gerbera’s mana, right?”

“Well, I have felt like I’ve had more mana lately,” I said.

It had started around the time we encountered the Misty Lodge. I’d grown accustomed to the extra mana, though I had wondered how it came about. I never guessed it was because Lily’s portion of mana in my body had increased.

“As for the timing,” I added, “it would have been around the time you turned Mizushima Miho’s ability as a visitor into partial mimicry?”

Or maybe...

I was about to suggest something else, but I swallowed my words. During the fight with the Mad Beast, even though it’d been just for an instant, I’d successfully reproduced the power of Gerbera’s white tyranny. Perhaps that was related to this too. Thinking back, that had been a major milestone in my growth. It was like I’d ascended to the next stage and deepened my understanding of my abilities. It wouldn’t have been strange if there had been other effects as well.

“I don’t really get it, but are you saying it’s got nothing to do with mating?” Lobivia asked, bringing me back from my thoughts.

“Yeah. The key point is being my servant. Mana flows into me through the mental path.”

“Hmmm.”

Lobivia stayed glued to me and closed her eyes much like Lily and Gerbera had. She then wrinkled her brow and concentrated.

“Oh, it’s true,” she said, her eyes popping open. “It’s just a teensy bit, but I can feel mine too. As for the others, I can’t really sense any.”

“That’s a matter of capacity,” Rose said. “I don’t have anywhere near as much mana as Gerbera or Lily. As such, I cannot contribute to our master’s mana capacity. In a sense, I am the most useless among us.”

“What are you saying?” I protested. “Don’t you make all of my equipment? You’ve contributed more than enough.”

“The same goes for all of our equipment too,” Lily added.

“Even when we went to save Lobivia, the equipment you made was tremendously useful,” I said. “I’m very grateful.”

“Thank you very much,” Rose said, bowing cheerfully. “I shall endeavor to do even better.”

Such serious words suited her.

“Now then, it’ll get dark if we sit around for too long. We should get moving again,” Thaddeus said, urging the group on. “We’re nearly at Draconia.”

◆ ◆ ◆

Thaddeus was right. The white mist that had clung so densely around us suddenly disappeared, vanishing from our sight like a curtain being raised. A tranquil body of water, an enormous lake with a small island at its center, suddenly came into view.

The overwhelming fog that enveloped the entire region was completely absent around the lake. However, the sky was still covered by mist, so it was like a white dome over the area. I spotted several slender pillars of water swirling like vortexes out of the mirrorlike sheen of the water’s surface. At their peaks, the pillars turned into dense mist that drifted up into the white ceiling, supplying it with more fog. There was no way this was a natural phenomenon; it looked like celestial pillars supporting an enormous heavenly dome. I was utterly speechless.

“This lake is the source of the mist,” Thaddeus explained. “The mist eventually turns into water, returns to the land, and comes back to the lake underground.”

While I listened to Thaddeus, I stared at the scene before us. A group of houses made of large stones were clustered together by the lake’s shore. There was nowhere else that resembled a residential area, so that made it Draconia. In other words, the one who knew the past would be there.

“Let’s go on,” Kath said, walking along the lake’s shore.

Now that there was no mist blocking our view, we could see much more clearly, but it was still gloomy because of the fog covering the sky. It was unlikely that this settlement could be found even by flying overhead.

As we walked, I felt something thud against my back. It was Lobivia’s wing. Her expression was dark and stiff, and she was deathly pale. The settlement she never wanted to return to was right before her, so it was only natural that she’d be anxious.

Still, her reaction was far worse than I expected. I couldn’t help but worry about her. At this rate, she wouldn’t be able to hold a proper conversation.

I felt I should probably say something to her, but then Lobivia suddenly met my eyes.

“Hey, Takahiro? Is this gonna be okay?” she asked, expressing her apprehension. “I don’t get it.”

“What don’t you get?” I asked.

“What I wanna do,” she answered, sounding helpless. “You talked about it with Berta when she left, yeah? About what she wanted to do, I mean. That made me realize. That’s probably super important. And then Berta said she woulda regretted it if she didn’t notice. I don’t wanna regret anything.”

Lobivia wasn’t really getting to her point. She wasn’t used to conveying her thoughts to others. She also hadn’t organized her own thoughts yet, and she didn’t have the life experience to understand what she’d felt during my conversation with Berta.

“I don’t wanna live in the settlement, but that’s different from wanting to do something...I think. I still don’t have anything I wanna do. If I can’t leave the settlement, I might never find it. I don’t want that.”

Her awkward confession made me a little happy because she was talking to me about what had been bothering her.

“Lobivia,” I called to her, plopping my hand on her head. Strangely enough, she didn’t swat me off. She simply looked up at me with her chestnut eyes.

“What?” she huffed. She was still acting tough, and she put herself on guard for whatever I was about to say.

“What do you plan on doing if the talks here go well?” I asked as if it were a simple question.

“Huh?”

“Forget about the possibility that you’ll have to stay here. You need to think about what you’ll do if you can go outside, right? Have you thought of anything?”

“Well, um, not really...”

As I expected, Lobivia didn’t have an answer. Just asking for permission to leave had already filled her immature mind to the brim. Her earlier anxieties about not knowing what she wanted made this evident. Her thoughts were fully occupied by the obstruction before her, so there was no room left to figure out her feelings. But, in my opinion, that wouldn’t work. She had to have hopes for the future so that she could persevere. That was why I’d asked her about what lay beyond the obstacle occupying all her thoughts.

“If it’s okay, how about coming with us?” I suggested.

“With you?” she repeated. There was concern and fear in her voice...but also a tinge of hope. “Can I really go with you?”

“Of course,” I answered with a nod. “I was hoping you would be one of our companions if you wanted.”

“It’s like our master says,” Lily joined in, peeking at Lobivia from my other side. “Earlier, you said your mana is in our master’s body, right? That makes you the same as us. I can even be your big sis if you’d like.”

“Ooh, that sounds nice,” Gerbera added cheerfully. “Then you may also adore me as your elder sister.”

A small shadow then jumped on top of Gerbera’s head.

“Kuu!”

“Hrm? What’s wrong, Ayame?” Gerbera asked.

In response, Ayame puffed up her body with pride.

“Oh, right,” Lily said with a clap of her hands. “That also makes Ayame your big sister.”

“Kuu!”

Ayame yipped in confirmation, then leaped into the air. Lobivia caught her tiny body on reflex. Ayame’s cute round eyes stared up into Lobivia’s shocked face.

“Kuu!”

The way Ayame yipped proudly as if to say she could be relied on was almost a little awe-inspiring.

“Th-This is my big sister...”

I burst into laughter at Lobivia’s expression. Everyone else laughed too, including Lobivia herself.

“So? How about it?” I asked after the laughing subsided.

“Oh, uh. Ummm...” Lobivia faltered, and her cheeks flushed. She nodded and replied, “I-I’ll think about it.”

“Sounds good.”

When I saw the shadow of anxiety fade a little from her expression, I removed my hand from her head. I knew now she’d be able to speak her mind during the negotiations.

“Hm?”

Just then, I noticed Kath had been looking back our way. Her eyes were fixed on Lobivia. Her gaze was heartrending, but then her expression suddenly tensed.

“What’s this?!”

She turned around in a flash and looked at the wall of mist surrounding the lake. Thaddeus also looked in the same direction. Immediately following that, a man pushed his way through the white wall.

“Wha—?!”

We all went on guard as a terrifying muscular man blocked our path. He wore similar clothes to Thaddeus and Kath and looked somewhere around two and a half meters tall. Despite his extraordinary height, his width left more of an impression. His face was rectangular, his neck was thick with muscles, and his arms were like logs. Superhuman wasn’t enough to describe it. Seeing as how he was inside the Mist Barrier, he was definitely a dragon.

“Rex,” Thaddeus uttered.

“What are you doing here?” Kath asked.

The man ignored both Thaddeus and Kath and glared at Lobivia. “I won’t permit you to leave the settlement, Patricia.” His deep voice matched his appearance.

Patricia was Lobivia’s name in the settlement. I’d also heard the name Rex before. Thaddeus had told me about the conservative faction within the settlement who were opposed to letting Lobivia leave. Rex was the name of the man who was most fervent about it. I hadn’t expected him to come out right as we got here, though.

“Aah... Uh...”

Lobivia turned ghostly pale, which made sense. Rex obviously had no intention of talking things out, and this was the attitude that Lobivia had feared the most. Lily and I shifted to hide Lobivia behind us, while Gerbera pulled her back a little and Ayame let out a menacing growl, still in the little dragon’s arms. Rex’s expression grew even sterner, but then Thaddeus suddenly cut in between us.

“Come on now. Wait a minute, Rex.”

“What do you want, Thaddeus?”

“What are you doing, showing up so suddenly? Actually, it’s bad manners to hide and eavesdrop on people.”

Thaddeus had chided Rex, but he’d said it somewhat jokingly so as to avoid angering Rex too much. His efforts didn’t seem to pay off, however.

“What’s wrong with me—the one charged with safeguarding this settlement— confronting intruders?”

The brazen Rex had apparently been laying in wait for us behind the fog. The Mist Barrier had the effect of glamor magic, and not even Gerbera had sensed his presence.

“Intruders?” Thaddeus said, then sighed. “I believe I informed you beforehand of Majima Takahiro’s visit.”

“I don’t recall approving it,” Rex spat, glaring at Thaddeus. “What are you even thinking, Thaddeus? And you too, Katherine? Bringing a human to the settlement, of all things.”

“He is contracted to the Lady of the Misty Lodge,” Thaddeus said.

“Even so, he’s human. Like hell he can be trusted just because of a contract,” Rex replied, clenching his rocklike fist. “Humans can’t be trusted.”

He was being stubborn, but at the same time, there was sorrow in his voice.

“We dragons should never leave this settlement,” he continued. “Why can’t you understand that? Have you forgotten what we learned back then?”

“Rex...”

There was pain in Thaddeus’s voice too. Something had happened to them. I didn’t know what that was, seeing as how I’d yet to speak to the one who knew the past, but I could feel the deep sorrow in Rex. Regardless, his grief quickly passed.

“We can’t leave Patricia to some human,” he said scornfully, looking my way. He was clearly being hostile. “Take a good look. That there is a human. What will you do if something happens after you leave Patricia to such a scrawny little thing? What if something happens because that filth knows about our settlement?”

Rex glared down at me, but his eyes didn’t seem to perceive me. He didn’t recognize me as an individual. His words weren’t really directed at anyone; he was just expressing his distrust of humanity, spurred on by his boiling rage.

“Go back to where you came from, human. In deference to the debt we owe you for saving Patricia, I won’t take your life.”

His very presence weighed down on me. Even his impossibly large body seemed like a feather compared to his intimidating aura. This was the pressure of a dragon. Not that I could possibly let him overwhelm me right now.

“We came here to talk. Let us through,” I said, my eyes snapping open with determination. I stared him down.

Rex looked stunned. Perhaps he was surprised that I didn’t fear him. In any case, his reaction only lasted for a single instant.

“There’s no worth in listening to a filthy human’s words.”

Rex took a step forward. Thaddeus and Kath lowered their stances, planning to hold Rex back if it came to it, but the large man ignored them and continued his march. And just then...

“Hang on a sec, Rex,” someone called, their voice young and curt. “The hell did you say just now?”

It was Lobivia. There was no fear in her words. A different emotion dominated her right now.

“Mrgh.”

Rex halted. Lobivia’s tone was so forceful that it had stopped the large man’s stride.

“Did I just fucking hear you call Takahiro filthy?”

Cracks resounded about her as her two little arms transformed into dragon claws. Her eyes were wide open, and her pupils contracted into reptilian slits. Sparks crackled out of her mouth as if the rage burning inside her couldn’t be contained.

“You ignorant shit. I’ll kill you.”

She had completely snapped, forgetting about how scared she’d been just moments ago. Even if she was little, she was still a dragon. Her aura was just as intimidating as Rex’s.

“She’s right. You may have gone a little too far just now,” said a voice joining the fray. It was Rose. Even though she appeared calm, she was seething on the inside. “Our master came here to talk. I cannot possibly ignore this poor treatment of his good intentions. I’ll have you rescind your statement right this instant.”

Pulling an enormous ax out of her apron pocket, Rose stood next to Lobivia, her braided hair swaying behind her.

So long as we were accompanying Lobivia here to keep the dragons from confining her, we needed to put on a show of force so that the dragons didn’t act unjustly. Sincerity was only meaningful if they treated us sincerely to begin with. There was no point if they treated our sincerity as naivete. Hence, we couldn’t let them look down on us.

That was why Rose had drawn her weapon, but despite her logic, she was definitely angry. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have reacted so quickly. Rose was usually calm, but when it came to me, she was easily agitated.

The difference between Lobivia and Rose was that one exploded the moment she snapped, while the other swallowed her anger and made a rational decision before getting angry. Either way, these two flowers were both baring their thorns now.

“P-Please wait a moment!” Thaddeus cried in a panic.

If a fight broke out, it could lead to war between my camp and the settlement. Thaddeus couldn’t possibly allow that to happen. Well, this was nothing more than a show of force. We had no intention of seriously fighting them, and if it came to it, I would just take Lobivia and run away. That would trouble Thaddeus, though.

“Rex! That’s enough!” Things were reaching a breaking point, so Thaddeus finally stared up at Rex’s large frame and shouted, “If you continue to act so rudely toward Takahiro, then I will be your opponent.”

“Have you gone mad, Thaddeus? Do you mean to fight among the clan?” Rex asked, his thick eyebrow rising. He seemed incredulous, but Thaddeus was dead serious.

“It’s better than allowing you to fight Takahiro.”

“You’ve lost your mind spending so much time in the outside world,” Rex groaned. “That’s why I said it was unnecessary to have an explorer.”

“It’s a little vexing that you’re calling me insane over this. I believe Takahiro can grant our isolated lives a future.”

Thaddeus’s tone remained calm, but there was determination in his voice.

“I believe you may be a symbol of hope, in a sense.”

That was what he’d once said to me.

“If you insist on getting in the way any more than this, then I will knock you down a peg,” Thaddeus continued. “We finally managed to make a connection with a man like Takahiro, and I cannot allow it to be lost now.”

“A future for our isolated settlement? What can a filthy human do?!” Rex roared back at him. “What’s wrong with being closed in?! If we’re going to lose something precious to us, then we’re better off this way!”

“But there’s no future like that!”

“You only say that because you live outside the settlement! This is the only place for us!”

As they yelled at each other, their appearances began to shift. Scales began spreading across their skin, and their teeth tapered into fangs. Their human voices turned into deep growls. They were moments away from battle.

“Thaddeus... Rex...”

Unable to find the resolve to stop them, Kath panicked as she watched her fellow dragons. But then her expression completely relaxed. Her eyes were fixed on another woman running our way.

“Ella!”

Kath’s relieved cry weakened the two men’s fighting spirit. Shortly after, the woman reached us. She looked a little older than the other dragons.

“I thought I didn’t see you this morning. So this is where you’ve been, Rex,” she said in a reproachful tone.

“I was just—”

“I’ll hear none of it. Stand down.”

After she subdued Rex with just her presence, the woman turned my way. I couldn’t sense any kind of hostility from her.

“Thank you for making your way here, esteemed contractor of the Misty Lodge,” she said, bowing gracefully.

It seemed she was welcoming us. That made it three against one. Of course, Rex wasn’t going to start rampaging in such a situation, so he went back to yelling.

“Ella! I thought you were opposed to Patricia leaving the settlement!”

“I am opposed. But that is separate from showing respect to the Lady’s contractor.”

It appeared that opinions differed among the dragons. Ella was likely a moderate among the conservatives.

“More importantly, I don’t believe all humans are definitely evil,” she added.

“But...”

“Besides, the elder will be the one to decide. She says she will meet them. I’ll only tell you one more time. Stand down.”

Rex’s face went red. “Have it your way! But I’ll be attending these talks!”

With that, he turned on his heels and stomped off. We watched his enormous body shrink into the distance.

“Please forgive the ruckus, Lord Takahiro,” the woman said, giving me an apologetic smile. “My brethren spoke out of turn. I truly am sorry.”

“It’s fine. It doesn’t really bother me.”

I didn’t feel like Rex had been directing his words at me as an individual. It would be futile to get angry about that.

Humans were entering the hidden settlement of dragons. I’d predicted it would turn out like this, and Rose and Lobivia had gotten angry for me already. There was nothing more for me to say. Besides, Rex only had the settlement, and nothing but the settlement, on his mind.

Rex just wanted to live a peaceful life here, and humans could ruin that. Therefore, humans couldn’t be trusted. I couldn’t deny his feelings, and I did sympathize with him in some ways. To him, I was nothing more than a foreign invader here to disturb the peace. I was sure he wasn’t a bad person, despite his attitude.

“More importantly, I’d like to see the elder,” I said.

“Of course. Kath, lead the way.”

“U-Understood.”

After giving Kath a nod, the woman suddenly turned to Lobivia.

“Also, welcome home, Patty.”

Lobivia jolted. Her burning rage had already been extinguished, so she was acting timidly again. Still, she managed to speak clearly.

“My name’s Lobivia.”

“Oh, now that you mention it, I heard you go by that now.”

The woman looked a little lonely, and her expression was similar to the one Thaddeus and Kath sometimes showed.

“Then let’s start over. Welcome home, Lobivia,” the woman said, masking her loneliness with a smile and addressing Lobivia warmly. “I’m glad to see you safe and sound.”

◆ ◆ ◆

The houses by the lakeshore were simplistic buildings made of stone, but they were very different from what we’d seen in town. To put it simply, they were insanely huge.

“There are those who find it more relaxing to sleep in dragon form,” Kath explained.

“That makes sense. So they’re built to accommodate a dragon’s size,” I said. “Which building is the elder in?”

“She isn’t in any of them.”

“What do you mean?”

“The elder lives over there.”

Kath pointed to the lake and its enormous pillars of water. Or more precisely, she was pointing at the small island at its center. There was a short, rugged mountain atop the island, and from this distance, I could spot something like a shrine built atop it.

“All the way over there?” I muttered.

“Yes. We will cross the water now.”

There was no bridge to the island. Everyone in Draconia could fly, so there was no need for one. We split up into two groups, rode atop Thaddeus and Kath to cross the lake, and landed on the island. At that moment, I realized I’d greatly misunderstood.

Kath led us on foot. After we passed through the shrine, which, unlike the rest of the settlement’s buildings, was sensible in size, we headed for the center of the island. Rex, who’d gone ahead of us, and the one who knew the past awaited us there.

“I thank you for coming,” a mumbling voice greeted us.

Next to Rex, an enormous stone about ten meters wide and five meters tall split open, revealing a huge glaring eyeball. I held my breath. If this enormous stone was the profile of a head, then the mountain I’d seen from a distance was actually the entire body of a gigantic dragon.

“I am the carapace wyrm Malvina, the elder who supervises this settlement.”

This was the dragon that Salvia had asked me to meet—the elder of Thaddeus’s clan. She was an enormous dragon much like a mountain, over fifty meters in size.