Monster no Goshujin-sama - Volume 8 - Chapter 2

Chapter 2: The Dragon’s Journey ~Lily’s POV~

When my master returned from the town of Diospyro, he informed us that our plans had changed and we would be shuffling our groups up. The reason for this was that he’d encountered Fukatsu Aketora and Thaddeus in town. I’d heard about them before from his last visit to Diospyro. Fukatsu was a visitor and a cheater. As for Thaddeus, astonishingly, he was a monster...a dragon, to be specific.

But even more surprising than this was that Thaddeus had told us about a hidden settlement of dragons—Draconia. Our new plan was to help with the search for a stray dragon that had run away from there.

“That’s fine and all, Master,” I said, cocking my head after he told me all of this in the manamobile, “but why did this stray dragon run away from the settlement in the first place? Was it to attack humans?”

I couldn’t help but picture a bleak outcome. The dragon had gone into hiding, and if it had spent all its life living out of sight from humans, dark emotions could have welled up within it. And to refresh itself...

Well, that was my train of thought, but my master quietly shook his head.

“No, that doesn’t seem to be the case. According to Thaddeus, this stray is a bit of a special being. It’s the youngest among the clan and was the only one born without an ego.”

“No ego? Then it’s a normal monster?”

My master nodded. “That’s the gist of it.”

I didn’t miss the little pause before his response. Something was probably bothering him about this, but perhaps because he didn’t have anything to back it up, he didn’t go further into detail.

“Well, even if it doesn’t have a will, they still consider it their brethren. They made sure to keep the dragon inside the settlement so that it didn’t harm any humans and get hunted down, but...”

In other words, it had all started with an accident rather than an incident.

“So, seeing as how they have no way of searching for the stray, we’re going to help them out,” I said. “The dragons of Thaddeus’s clan are all searching for it too, right? Are we going to be linking up with them?”

“Turns out there’s no way to contact them directly. Thaddeus has of course been in contact with the settlement, and the dragons out searching also keep in touch at fixed intervals, so we should be able to get a message to them like that, but it’ll take too long.”

“Now that you mention it, there are only around twenty dragons in this settlement, right? In that case, they can’t freely communicate with each other all that easily. It’d take away from what personnel they have out searching and all.”

Their scant numbers were an overwhelming impediment for them. I pinched my brow at the thought.

“If only this world had cell phones,” I muttered.

“Apparently, they do. There’s a handheld magic tool that can transfer information.”

“Huh? Really?”

“It’s a legendary-class item. The Holy Church is in charge of it, according to Salvia. I’d like to get our hands on it somehow and have Rose make an imitation...” Realizing we’d gone off track, my master reverted back to the original topic at hand. “Anyway, the dragons had just contacted the settlement two days ago, so unfortunately, their next regular communication won’t be for five days. If we wait that long, the suppression force will take the field. That’s why Thaddeus only plans on leaving a message for them.”

“So I guess it really is out of the question to join up with them and work together on the search.”

My master nodded, but his expression remained grim.

“The clan’s basic plan is simply to capture the stray. It has yet to attack any human settlements, after all. We don’t know how long this can go on, though. There are also those who say it’ll be too late if there are any casualties because it’ll bring on human intervention. Those voices are calling to dispose of the stray, saying it’s unavoidable.”

“Hmm. My Lord, is that not overly cautious of them?” Gerbera asked, joining in on the conversation. “No matter the circumstances, killing one of their own is a little...”

“Well, they’ve gone as far as making a hidden settlement. I’m sure they’re beyond cautious by nature.”

“Is that so?”

Gerbera cocked her head. I also found this rather strange. The dragons were extremely wary of humans. As a matter of fact, it felt like they were afraid of humans.

“They’re not going to do it because they want to,” my master said. “It got away from them once already, so there’s that to consider too.”

“A bitter decision then?” Gerbera asked.

“Yeah. We need to do something before it gets too bad,” my master said sincerely. It was as if he considered this his own problem. “There is, of course, the possibility that the dragons find the stray before we do. We need to hurry... At the same time, we have to make sure our preparations are perfect. Therefore, I had Katou and Kei stay in town. Rose will be their guard.”

“Oh, so that’s why you came back with just Shiran,” I said, coming to an understanding.

“That’s right,” my master replied with a nod. “Well, it took some serious effort to convince them. Katou kept insisting that I should take Rose with me.”

“Hmm. But Master? Doesn’t she have a point? I’m pretty sure a stray dragon will be quite strong. Can we capture it on our own?”

Considering how fast we could move, leaving Katou and Kei behind was the right choice. Leaving Rose behind as their guard in a fundamentally safe town was just like my worrywart of a master. Rose was also the best choice for guard given Katou’s condition. However, that meant our combat potential would fall. I was concerned that this would become a problem.

“That’ll be fine. The stray dragon is definitely strong, but we’ll have Thaddeus with us, who is equal to or stronger than it, and Fukatsu is a cheater. What’s more, according to Salvia’s estimation, based on her familiarity with dragons, the stray couldn’t possibly be as strong as you or Gerbera.”

According to the plan, we were mainly helping with the search. The stray’s capture was more or less Thaddeus and Fukatsu’s job. They already had more than enough strength on their own, but if need be, we would help there too. With that many strong combatants at hand, I was satisfied with my master’s assessment.

“Besides, we also have Ayame, Asarina, and Salvia,” he added.

“And you too, Master. I heard about your progress. Seems like you’ll soon be able to get a hit in on Rose during your mock battles.”

“Say that after I get one...” he said with a bitter smile. “In any case, the main problem is finding the stray fast enough.”

“Right. When do we leave?”

“We’re going to meet up with the two of them tomorrow. Once we do, we’ll get moving right away.”

With that, everyone nodded in agreement.

◆ ◆ ◆

The next day, Thaddeus and Fukatsu joined us. Thaddeus was terribly surprised by Gerbera’s existence.

“T-To have such a monster as your ally! Lord Takahiro, you truly are a grand master among spiritualists!”

“Please stop it with that,” I said.

It seemed Thaddeus had a strangely favorable impression of our master. It was giving our master a headache, but it made me see Thaddeus in a good light. It looked like we were going to get along well.

After that, we began moving through the remote wilderness. This lasted for two days. To be precise, we moved out to a spot away from any human traffic, let Gerbera and Ayame off the manamobile, had Shiran leave the manamobile in a nearby village in the name of the Alliance Knights, and then went deep into a forest where nobody would ever tread. Once we confirmed we were entirely out of sight, we changed our mode of transportation.

“Very well. Please step back,” Thaddeus said, smoothly undoing his sash and pulling his arm out of his sleeve while crouching down.

“Gh... Grr... Grrrr... Graaaaah!”

His body swelled up in a single breath. Four sturdy limbs held up his massive body, and membraned wings spread wide with a thud. A tail grew out and smashed into some trees, mowing them down in the process.

“Grrr...”

An ocher-scaled dragon, somewhere around ten meters long, now stood before us. A rugged carapace covered the majority of its enormous body, looking as sturdy as armor. The end of its tail was a ball of spiked bones much like a mace, which was what had destroyed those trees with ease. It looked down at us, its eyeline about twice our height. The gentle manner in its gaze was the only thing left of Thaddeus’s features.

“Rather impressive,” Gerbera said cheerfully, glancing at the fallen trees and looking up at the dragon’s enormous body.

It looked like Gerbera was more attracted to his strength rather than his enormous build. In truth, he exuded an aura of strength that couldn’t even be compared to that of a normal monster. If there were twenty others like him, then Draconia had a tremendous fighting force.

All the same, their opponent was a single stray dragon. Just as my master had said, if the stray was something like this, capturing it wouldn’t be a problem. Gerbera could hold it down on her own, and the same probably applied to the cheater Fukatsu. Nevertheless, it was best not to be careless.

“Grrr...”

Thaddeus growled and lowered his body to the ground. It appeared that he couldn’t speak while in this form. Still, I could tell what he was implying.

“Okay then, let’s get on,” my master said, sounding a little nervous.

Yes, the reason Thaddeus had revealed his true nature was precisely so that he could become our new mode of transportation. We were going to take a trip through the skies on the back of a dragon. I didn’t know whether we could reach the speed of passenger planes in my master’s world, but just being able to avoid obstacles on the ground was a big deal.

There were risks to this approach, however. The cheater Fukatsu probably wouldn’t get shaken off, but it was possible our master might. Thaddeus had told us that we were worrying too much and that he would catch our master if he fell, but Gerbera and I wouldn’t yield, even if we seemed overprotective. It was better to take the utmost precaution.

To that end, we worked a little something out. First, I turned into a slime and clambered up onto Thaddeus’s back. Then my master got on and sat on top of me. I retained the mimicry of my upper body and held on to my master from behind. Ayame sat inside my body just like when we were at Fort Tilia.

We were wondering what to do about Berta’s large body, but she managed to use the tentacles at her waist to affix herself to me. This was probably enough, but we had to be doubly sure. Gerbera climbed atop Thaddeus, attached her threads to several spots on his back, and connected them to herself and our master. With all this, the only thing that would cause us to fall would be Thaddeus crashing to the ground.

Thanks to our precautions, Thaddeus’s back was all sticky and slimy, but there was no helping that. He let out a pitiful whine at the terrible spectacle, and Fukatsu comforted him from atop his head.

In any event, our preparations were complete. Thaddeus roared and flapped his enormous wings, blowing mana-charged wind violently at our surroundings. The updraft lifted his body off the ground, and each flap elevated him farther.

The vertical shaking was great enough that we were liable to bite off our tongues had we not clenched our teeth already. We endured this for a few seconds, feeling like our entire bodies were being dragged down toward the ground, and then rose up into the sky.

“Wow...” I muttered, looking at the scenery spreading out underneath me. At the same time, I heard a stifled gulp. “Huh? Are you bad with heights, Master?”

“Not that bad...” he answered, a little pale. “That’s not the problem. This is kind of frightening, isn’t it?”

Humans were made to fear heights as a natural form of self-preservation. The amount of turbulence we experienced until we stabilized would never happen in any airplane, and there was no guarantee of safety. Riding a roller-coaster couldn’t even compare to the fear my master felt now.

“It’ll be fine,” I said, speaking right into his ear so that the wind wouldn’t snatch my words away. “Even if we crash, I’m pretty sure I can manage somehow with my wind magic and mimicry.”

I hugged him tightly against me, figuring it was fine to indulge in some slight side benefits. Some of the tension left his body, perhaps because my actions put him at ease.

I heard a quiet grunt from Thaddeus. His wings caught the wind, and he began gliding through the air.

Our journey through the sky went on in intervals to allow Thaddeus some rest. After an entire day, we arrived at a forested area in northern Aker. Continuing farther north would take us to the Dark Woods, which served as the national border, but we had no plans to go that far. Once we reached the point where the dragons had failed to catch the stray, we began our pursuit.