Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 8 - Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The Dragon Sisters ~Katou Mana’s POV~

Around the time the sun started setting, Kath visited the house we were staying in, bringing bags of ingredients.

“Please use these,” she said.

“Thanks. That really helps,” Lily replied, accepting some leather bags from her.

I also came out to the entrance and took one of the bags. There were multiple ingredients inside. In Draconia, aside from the potatoes they grew in fields, they largely lived off the fish in the lake, the underwater plants that grew natively here, and the monsters they could hunt in the Dark Woods.

The bag I’d taken was filled with thick aquatic plants, while Lily had a bag of potato bread, a bag of fish, and a bag of bird drumsticks. The meat was from a large bird monster called a howling pheasant. From what I’d been told, it looked almost exactly like a green pheasant, except for its size. The drumsticks in the bag had already been defeathered and prepared, so I couldn’t tell anything besides that it was a pretty big bird.

“As a matter of fact, green pheasants were used as food for a long time in Japan, weren’t they?” Lily said. “Now they’re Japan’s national bird and treated as such, but one of the reasons they were picked is because their meat was just so tasty.”

“Huh? Was that why...?” I muttered.

“These drumsticks are delicious too. I consider it the best-tasting food we can get in the region,” Kath said.

The three of us chatted in the entranceway. The way Kath so easily treated monsters as simple foodstuffs showed the slight gap in cognition between humans and dragons. It was pretty amusing. In any case, tasty meat was something to look forward to. I was sure Majima-senpai would be delighted.

If I were to ask for luxuries, I would’ve preferred that the people of the settlement do the cooking, seeing as how they were used to the ingredients. But though they seemed to receive us warmly, they also had to consider Lobivia, as well as those like Rex who didn’t have a very good opinion of humans. Therefore, they only gave us ingredients. It was unfortunate, but there was no point in complaining to Kath when she’d explained this to us with an apologetic expression.

As for Kath right now, she was looking around the house restlessly.

“Are you wondering how Lobivia is doing?” I asked.

“That’s not... I mean, yes. How is she?”

She’d tried to pass it off, but she immediately stopped trying to keep up appearances.

“She’s really cheerful,” I answered. “On the surface, at least.”

“Is that so?” Kath said with a sigh as the door opened.

“Hrm? What are you all doing talking out here?” Gerbera said as she came in. “What’s with the long face?”

“Oh, um... What is Lobivia doing?” Kath asked her.

“You’ve seen the toy Rose made for Ayame, right? Lobivia is using it to play with Ayame right now.”

Gerbera walked my way as she answered. Incidentally, this toy she mentioned was basically a dog toy.

“Th-This is my big sister...?”

Now that I thought about it, that conversation felt a little absurd. Well, perhaps it was just a big sister helping her little sister relax. That didn’t really feel like it was the case, though...

“I get it now,” Gerbera said. “Kath, are you worried about Lobivia?” She’d quickly grasped the situation from their short exchange. “There’s no need for concern. You may leave it to our lord.”

She’d declared that with ease. It sounded irresponsible, but she wholeheartedly trusted Majima-senpai. She truly believed that everything would go smoothly if we left it to him. As someone who always spent so much time thinking of everything, I found her behavior endearing.

“Although, if you’re worried, why not join us for dinner?” Gerbera added. “There are enough ingredients here that it won’t matter if one more person joins us.”

“I’ll refrain. I’ve... The elder has prohibited me from doing so.”

“Aah, I see. But wouldn’t it be okay to ignore her?” Gerbera said casually, leaving Kath wide-eyed. “She’s not necessarily always right. Actually, I find her opinions rather questionable myself. Considering the future, I do at least understand her claim that Lobivia should be kept at a distance, but that doesn’t mean Lobivia’s feelings should be made light of right now, does it?”

Gerbera stopped there and let out a snort.

“You can claim that we forced you to stay, if you need an excuse,” she added.

“That...might be true,” Kath said hesitantly, averting her gaze and knitting her brows. “But I’ll still refrain. Lobivia will hate it.”

“Hmm. If you insist, I shan’t force the issue... But give it some thought. Once she leaves, Lobivia will never return here. Well, a connection will still remain through Thaddeus, though.”

Malvina had only forbidden Lobivia from coming back to the settlement. However, Thaddeus spent his time outside the settlement, and if Lobivia needed to, Malvina didn’t mind if Lobivia contacted him.

In her own way, Malvina was also worried about Lobivia. She’d even accommodated Majima-senpai as much as she could. She’d told him that if something happened, he could rely on her, and if it came to it, he could even run away to Draconia. Naturally, if he decided to do that, he would have to sever all ties with human society, but Majima-senpai was simply grateful to have a last-ditch escape option.

Since Malvina had approved it, Lobivia would still have a minimal connection to this place even after she left. Nevertheless, that would still only be possible through Thaddeus’s mediation.

“I don’t know what the future holds,” Gerbera continued, “but you two will not see each other for a while. Wouldn’t it be silly to leave undone what you can do now and then regret it later?”

Her opinion was optimistic, straightforward, and above all else, directly to the point. It was just like her to respond that way.

Nothing would happen if Kath feared being hated. She still hesitated a bit, but in the end, she resolved herself for what was to come and nodded.

“I suppose you have a point,” she said. “In that case, allow me to accompany you.”

“Hee hee. There’s no need to get so worked up,” Lily said, delighted by Kath’s decision. “Lobivia is stubborn, but she’s kind at heart. I’m sure she’ll understand. I’d be happy if you could teach us how to cook these ingredients.”

“Of course. I’ll gladly teach you.”

We then proceeded into the house as we chatted.

“Oh, right. There’s something I need to ask you, Kath,” Gerbera said on our way. “There’s a cave here that Lobivia used to live in, right? I’d like to borrow it for the night. Is it being used for anything?”

“No. That cave was only used to keep Lobivia locked up, so nobody goes there anymore.” Kath surely didn’t have any good memories of that, and a shadow fell over her face. “It was to be destroyed, but with Lord Takahiro’s visit, that matter has been left at large. It’s still there, so you may use it as you like.”

“You have my thanks. There’s just a little something I’d like to do there.”

As we continued talking, we headed over to the hearth. Lobivia frowned when she saw Kath, which saddened the older dragon. We encouraged her to stay strong and began preparing the meal.

◆ ◆ ◆

After dinner, we all spent time in our rooms as we liked. Rose, Lily, Lobivia, Kath, Ayame, and I were together in one room. Majima-senpai was on his own in another. He seemed to be deep in thought during dinner, so he was probably pondering a number of things right now.

Rose’s spare arm clattered about as she tinkered with it. Lily was reading a book that she’d acquired recently. Meanwhile, I sat there watching over the two dragon sisters.

“How was dinner?” Kath asked.

“So-so...” Lobivia murmured.

“Was there anything you liked?”

“Not really.”

“If there was, I planned on bringing more of it tomorrow.”

“Meat. The big bird leg.”

“Oh? I like that too.”

Kath had talked with Lobivia like this about all manner of things even during dinner. At first, Lobivia had acted really crabby, but she wasn’t the type to continuously respond coldly to someone being kind to her, so by the time dinner was over, she at least spoke with Kath—although still somewhat curtly.

“Then I’ll bring some tomorrow,” Kath said. “Oh, but there might not be any drumsticks left.” When Lobivia gave her a sullen look, Kath added, “Don’t be like that. It’ll be fine. I’ll go get some early in the morning.”

“I’m not disappointed or nothing...”

“Oh, Kath, if you’re going out hunting, then can I come along?” Lily asked, looking up from her book.

“I’d be glad to have a helping hand.”

“Great. In that case, in exchange for helping, I’d like to get a whole bird for myself.”

“I don’t mind... Were the portions I brought today insufficient?”

“Oh, no. That’s not what I mean.”

Lily went on to explain her ability as a mimic slime.

During that time, Lobivia began fidgeting. Rose noticed her behavior, and as she continued to work on her spare arm, she said, “If you’d like, why don’t you go with them, Lobivia?”

“Hwuh?!” Lobivia yelped, her face going red. “I-I don’t really—!”

“There’s no need to put on an act, Lobivia,” I said a little loudly, cutting her off as she tried to refuse.

She was probably just acting embarrassed because Rose had correctly guessed what she wanted to do, but this was going to end up with her obstinately refusing and regretting it later. Lobivia was easy to understand, so it wasn’t difficult to help her.

“You want to get a birdy, right? With more people out hunting, won’t the chances be better?”

“Huh? Mana, what’re you...? Hmm? Oh!” Lobivia was a little dubious at first, but then she suddenly cheered up. “R-Right! It’s better to up the odds!”

Having found a reasonable excuse, Lobivia nodded vigorously over and over.

“Okay, so you wanna come with us, Lobivia?” Lily asked, stifling her laughter and throwing the little dragon a lifeline.

“I’ll come,” Lobivia answered immediately.

The look of happiness on her face was so cute. However, her expression suddenly darkened as she realized something.

“Oh... But I guess I gotta say something,” she said dejectedly.

Lobivia was still feeling the effects of what had happened during the day.

“We can just say I’m borrowing Kath’s help to go hunt some monsters,” Lily said to cheer her up.

“But Rex might make a fuss again.”

“That’ll be fine,” Kath assured her. “After being yelled at like that, he’s sure to keep quiet for a while.”

That was enough to convince her. Lobivia replied with a small nod, but her expression remained gloomy.

“Anyway,” Lily said cheerfully, trying to change the topic, “Rex is awfully hard to handle. I got the chills when we met him, and it almost turned into a fight between him and Lobivia.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s not something you need to apologize for, Kath,” Lily said, waving her hand. “He’s just a little too protective of the settlement. Other than his reckless remarks about our master, I don’t hate people like him. There are ways that he’s similar to our master too. Rex is way more stubborn, though.”

“How should I say it? Rex seems...kind of peculiar, doesn’t he?” I said, offering my honest opinion.

Kath’s expression clouded over. “During the incident when we lost our father, the only ones allowed to go with him and negotiate were the men above a certain age. Thaddeus and Rex were the oldest of the men left behind. Before he left, our father told them to protect our family, and then he died.”

“So that’s what happened...” I said.

“After that, Rex swore to himself he would protect the settlement and devoted himself to training. In contrast, Thaddeus chose to leave the settlement.”

“The explorer. The traveler looking for new lands to settle...right?”

Thaddeus had already told us he was the only dragon who could leave the settlement.

“Yes. The Mist Barrier can only be erected in a few restricted regions. It’s the explorer’s job to search for places we can move to in case we have to abandon the settlement. Thaddeus volunteered for the position right away, and after he received one of the Dimensional Cornerstones the Lady of the Misty Lodge had gifted us, he left the settlement.”

“Thaddeus and Rex... They live very different lives.”

“They do, but they started at the same point. I’m sure both of them hold our father’s words close to their hearts. Even after all this time...”

Kath had probably watched over them all the while. The emotions that she didn’t express in her words showed in her profile.

“Hey, Kath?” Lobivia said, looking up at her. Her expression lacked its usual thorniness.

“What is it?”

“What kinda person was dad?”

Lobivia lost her father before she was even born, so she didn’t know what he looked like, let alone anything else. She’d likely never been interested before now, but listening to this story seemed to pique her curiosity.

“Right... He was a sublime dragon with golden scales,” Kath answered, a happy expression on her face. “He was about as big as our mother is now, but he had no carapace. He was magnanimous and kind toward us, but when it came to it, he could be ferocious. He taught us how to hunt, not that he was very good at it himself. He had a tendency to crush his prey flat. Oh, there was this one time he reduced his prey to cinders and got pretty depressed. His body was enormous, so he wasn’t all that dexterous at delicate work.”

Kath wistfully jumped from one story to the next.

“I see,” Lobivia responded. She looked to be in a bit of a daze, probably trying to imagine her father’s figure in her mind.

We all smiled at her. Time spent like this was probably a big deal to the still-young Lobivia. In my opinion, Majima-senpai was right to visit the settlement and have her talk things out.

There’d been some unexpected developments, but we’d managed to get permission for Lobivia to leave the settlement. Also, other than the exceptions like Rex, we’d formed a friendly relationship with the dragons. We’d even heard the story we needed to hear from Malvina.

The turmoil we’d gotten involved in concerning the dragons had settled down exactly as it should’ve. All that was left was to help Lobivia during our stay here, recover from the fatigue of our journey, and spend some time contemplating the information we had now.

“Hey, Kath?” Lily suddenly said. “You’ve only talked about what he was like as a dragon. What was he like as a human?”

Lily was obviously wanting Lobivia to hear more about her father.

“Sorry. I don’t know much of him as a human,” Kath said with a sad look.

“Huh?” Lily uttered, puzzled.

“Our father didn’t take a human form very often. He felt more comfortable as a dragon.”

Lily cocked her head. “Hmm... Is that so...?”

I wondered the same thing. Did that mean it felt more natural to him to be in dragon form? The first thing that came to mind was Takaya. He also had the power to transform, and in the end, he’d turned into a senseless beast. Maybe it was the same with Lobivia’s father.

Naturally, unlike Takaya, who’d stopped seeing reality after he lost Mizushima-senpai and had wished to become a mad beast, Lobivia’s father probably hadn’t lost his mind. Having married an intelligent dragon, he’d become a proud and gentle dragon himself.

Maybe that was one of the reasons he’d been blessed with children with Malvina, who was also not very good at taking a human form. By that time, he was no longer a human who could change into a dragon, but an actual dragon.

Visitors who could transform themselves eventually lost their humanity. It was interesting how that gain also came with loss. The mole that found it could live underground lost its sight. Whales and dolphins dived into the oceans, and unlike other mammals, they no longer had legs to walk across land.

In short, it had to do with capacity. Humans and dragons. Or perhaps, humans and beasts. Maybe the human vessel simply wasn’t large enough to support both ways of life. Thinking of it like that, perhaps the inherent ability to transform always came with inevitable change. I continued exploring this train of thought as I watched the two sisters open up to each other.