Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 8 - Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Tragedy of the Past

At Malvina’s offer, we decided to recover from the fatigue of our journey by staying in Draconia for a few days. Since this was a hidden settlement, no travelers ever came by, so there were no facilities to accommodate guests. Instead, they lent us one of the inhabitants’ houses. It was human-sized, and since it belonged to someone who preferred to remain in dragon form, it was left clean and unused.

Lobivia stayed with us. After Lily brought her back, she’d done her best to act unconcerned. She was a strong girl, but there was no way that harsh rejection hadn’t bothered her. Even if there’d been no other choice, it still felt...

I sat down on a bed in one of the house’s rooms. Nobody else was with me. I felt like spending some time alone to get my thoughts in order. The others had sensed this and moved to another room. I thought about the story Malvina had told us—about how a former savior had been murdered.

◆ ◆ ◆

After Malvina met the former savior, she secretly left her original domain to live elsewhere, far away in the middle of nowhere. Their life together was quiet and fulfilling, even if there was nothing flashy about it. In a way, I admired that kind of lifestyle.

But then a human army happened upon the area. Malvina took her children and ran away. She had no other choice. Several of her children were already adults, but some were still infants. Above all else, though, she was pregnant.

Her husband, the former savior, tried to buy time so that they could get away. He attempted to talk things out at first, even taking his fully grown children to negotiate, but it was all in vain.

Nobody came back. The details weren’t clear, but negotiations failed, and following a fierce battle, the human army treated him as an evil dragon and “defeated” him. The Holy Order and the savior of that age killed him.

Shiran and Kei had turned pale when they heard that. Even if Malvina’s husband was no longer active as one, knights had killed a savior. That detail was significantly shocking for Shiran and Kei.

Naturally, the knights in question hadn’t known that he was a former savior. They’d gone there to suppress monsters in the region and, by coincidence, had encountered the former savior. It had been many years since Malvina’s husband had vanished from the human world, so even though the church surely had records of his appearance and abilities, the knights couldn’t have realized that during a sudden encounter.

Given their understandable ignorance, negotiations were doomed to fail. This world didn’t recognize monsters with wills who wished no harm to humans. On the other hand, some monsters could take on human forms, like doppelgangers, so it wouldn’t be surprising if they had showered the former savior with blows before he could even talk.

In the end, the former savior and his children were killed. The savior who killed him survived the encounter, but he’d been severely wounded and had even lost an arm. The Holy Order had also suffered major losses.

According to Shiran, that savior had lost the ability to fight at a young age, and it had led to serious casualties across the world. It was a horrible tragedy caused by coincidence.

After the incident, Malvina decided to sever all contact with humans. She’d lost so much that was dear to her all at once, so even though she had tremendous power, she became overcautious.

“Hey, Salvia?” I said up to the air.

“What is it, my dear?” Salvia responded, manifesting and floating in front of me.

“Malvina decided to disregard her desire for revenge and sever all contact with humans. She created this hidden settlement in the Dark Woods where nobody dared to enter. You helped her do it, right? I heard you gave her a pretty valuable magic tool.”

“The Dimensional Cornerstone, you mean. I got it from an old friend long, long ago. The Holy Church was in charge of it before. There are apparently several of them in the imperial capital. You want to know why I lent it to her, right? There’s no point in carrying it around, even if it is valuable. It was a request from one of my few dear friends, so I decided to use it.”

Salvia spoke as if it was no big deal, but I wondered about that. This magic tool could maintain her mist magic over this area. Wouldn’t that mean that her old friend had given it to her so she could anchor the Misty Lodge itself to the world without having to form a contract with anyone?

Hiding the truth behind a faint smile, Salvia said, “I decided to cover the forest in the Mist Barrier so that such a thing would never happen again.” She sighed before adding, “It looks like Malvina thinks it was the wrong choice, though.”

“So it seems...”

I’d felt the same thing when I listened to Malvina’s story. She’d said that shutting off the settlement was her only way of protecting it. She’d only done so because she’d had no other choice. But once she’d finished her tragic story, she’d gone on to say, “We have no future. All that is left for us is to quietly die in obscurity without anybody knowing it.”

The true meaning behind those words lay in Malvina’s belly when she lost her husband. After the incident, the pregnant Malvina laid an egg—a new life. After they’d lost so much, the egg was a symbol of hope. Sadly, it didn’t hatch for a very long time.

Under the impression that she couldn’t even birth new life, Malvina sank further into despair. Nevertheless, she continued waiting. She kept waiting for a long, long time. And then, a miracle occurred. The egg hatched...or rather, cracked open.

Nobody could’ve predicted that the egg would become a final coating of despair on their lives. Unlike her other children, this one didn’t develop an ego. Yes, that child was Lobivia.

Why wasn’t she born with an ego? What made her different from the other children? In all likelihood, the difference was the absence of the former savior. Much like me, although in a different form, he could speak to a monster’s heart. That must’ve played a major role in molding his children’s egos.

His absence hadn’t had an effect on Malvina and their other children; they’d already established their own egos. However, his presence was an absolute necessity for the newborn.

In short, Malvina and her children couldn’t even build a future while hiding out in the wilderness. All that was left for them was to die in obscurity, just as Malvina had said.

I now understood why Thaddeus had said that I could grant them a future. The fact that I’d granted Lobivia an ego meant that their future, which had been shut off by the former savior’s death, could once more be shaped. In spite of that, Malvina felt differently.

“Majima Takahiro, you might be able to restore our future. Thaddeus would say you should remain in the settlement, but I do not wish for that. We gave up on everything back then, but things might be different for you. Everything is already over for us. You mustn’t restrict your own possibilities for our sake.”

The emotions behind those words were heavy. I’d sensed a certain type of attachment in them. Much like how I saw our futures in Malvina and her children, maybe she also projected what could have been for her in us. Because of that, she feared restricting our future.

“Take care of Lobivia.”

That was the last thing Malvina had said. She wanted at least Lobivia to leave this dead world. Even Rex, whose strength was apparent at a glance, hated humans and let his great fear of them dominate him. In all likelihood, Thaddeus was the only exception. The majority of the dragons of Draconia probably shared Rex’s disposition.

Lobivia, on the other hand, hadn’t experienced the loss of her father and siblings. In a sense, she wasn’t cursed by the past. She could live freely. That was why Malvina had decided to drive Lobivia out so cruelly. She wanted to make sure that she and the others wouldn’t become chains to tie Lobivia down in case she got homesick. The reason she entrusted Lobivia to me was because she saw the possibilities for her in my existence.

“Possibilities, huh?”

It was a loaded word. It didn’t necessarily mean good things. There was always a flip side to the coin. If there were good possibilities, then there were bad ones too.

“Do you perhaps regret learning about Malvina and her family?” Salvia asked, looking sad as she watched me unconsciously sigh.

“No, I don’t,” I replied, shaking my head. “It was worth coming here. It’s not like I hadn’t thought of the future...but hearing about what actually happened and the emotions behind it really was meaningful.”

Hearing the story directly from Malvina gave it weight. In a way, it made me realize that we had no idea what the future had in store for us. We had to account for any and all worst-case scenarios.

Still, we couldn’t be too pessimistic. If we secluded ourselves here, it would seal off our future. Malvina was right. Thinking back on it, it was the same as when I was staying in Fort Tilia and realized I could start trusting people. I had to be careful, but I couldn’t be scared. I had to learn about this world.

I was fully aware that there were risks to this, of course. If it came to it, I couldn’t hesitate. No matter who my enemy was, I needed the resolve to struggle, fight, and strike them down. That was my responsibility as the leader of my group.

“I’m glad I came here and heard her story.”

“I thought you’d say that,” Salvia replied with a smile. She sat next to me, though without putting any weight on the bed, and held out her arms.

“What’s this all of a sudden?”

Her embrace was gentle. We were a spirit and a contractor, so Salvia touched me in a friendly manner all the time, but this was the first time she’d hugged me close like this.

“Thank you, my dear. Thank you for listening to Malvina’s story.”

“You brought me here because you thought it’d be good for me to hear, right? You don’t need to thank me.”

“Yes, but you came to grips with the emotions she harbored when she said the word ‘possibilities,’ right? That makes me happy.”

The tragic incident that had befallen Malvina and the former savior must have greatly affected Salvia too. She smiled at me from the bottom of her heart.

“So, thank you,” she said again.

“I should thank you too. I’m grateful you brought me here.”

That was all I could say. What was I to do from now on? I felt like coming here had made the vague goal I’d had until now become clearer. I had to talk it out with the others. I had to talk with Lobivia.

As I continued to think, my eyelids became heavy. Part of it was the fatigue from my journey, but if pushed to say it, it was mostly the warmth nestled against me. Salvia’s embrace had a different feeling to it than Lily’s or Gerbera’s. I could feel the considerable motherly tenderness and affection in it.

Given how much older she was than me, I didn’t recoil at the thought of being treated like a child. Besides, this motherly embrace felt unexpectedly nice. It gave me a sense of security, as if it was making up for my loss. Before I knew it, I fell asleep. I yielded my entire being to rest until a knock at the door disturbed my slumber.